How Rural, Indigenous Mexicans Are Fighting the Pandemic

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In Oaxaca, Mexico, on the outskirts of many small, remote Indigenous communities’ roads coming into the villages are watched by volunteer guards and blocked by improvised barricades of stone, chain and wood. The invader they fear is COVID-19.

According to anthropologists at OSU many of Mexico’s Indigenous population are not only poor but often ignored by state and federal governments when it comes to fighting against COVID-19. Their defense against the disease rests entirely on their community.

The best way they can fight against infection is simply limiting access to their villages.

In this instance the most remote villages have the advantage. Many of the communities just have one road that goes in and out of town. The topiles or guards won’t let outsiders in and residents have stopped going to near-by cities for fear of bringing the virus back.

OSU researchers have been conducting their work in the central valleys of Oaxaca and writing about how they are dealing with the pandemic.

Among 500 some communities that are rural, indigenous or both researchers have found no cases of COVID-19 among their populations.

 

OSU Medical Experts Warn Against a Quick Return to Exercise After COVID-19 Infection

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According to OSU medical experts anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19 should count on resting for 14 days after the diagnosis. Then patients should make a gradual return to exercise over at least four weeks after this period of rest.

They also recommended that COVID patients should consult with their health care provider about what amount of exercise is appropriate and how intense physical activity might affect them individually.

On campus any members or visitors using services offered by Office of Student Life’s Department of Recreational Sports must sign an updated facility release and liability waiver. The waiver acknowledges the risk of using equipment or participation in fitness post-COVID.

Concerns about swift return to intense physical activity apply to all people infected by COVID, even those who were asymptomatic. Even people with mild to no symptoms may find a return to exercise increases or sets off excessive fatigue or shortness of breath.

 

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New Research Finds Interesting Correlations Between Lifelong Weight Gain and Mortality Rates

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According to new research, people who start adulthood with a body mass index (BMI) in the “normal” range and move later in life to being “overweight” but not “obese” to tend live the longest.

Those who stayed in the “normal” BMI range throughout life didn’t live as long as the latter category and those who started adulthood as “obese” and continued to add weight had the highest rate of death.

Researchers stated that the impact of weight gain on mortality is complex and depends on lots of factors like the amount of weight gain and where the subjects BMI started.

The primary message is that you want to start in a “normal” weight range and gain only a modest amount throughout life while avoiding “obesity.”

Results like these were also found in two generations of participants in a Framingham Heart Study, though the participants were mostly white. The review followed the medical histories of residents in one city and that of their children for several decades.

The study revealed troublesome trends for the younger generation who became overweight or obese sooner in life than their parents and are more likely to have an obesity-linked death.

 

Scientists Suggest New Cheap, Simple Covid-19 Screening Process

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Scientists have suggested that using a low-tech, cheap, and simple product to screen for likely positive asymptomatic cases of Covid-19. That product is hard candy, which could be used to detect the loss of taste and smell in patients.

The research team at the Ohio State University got a grant from the National Institute of Health to come up with easy to deploy methods to help identity people potentially infected with Covid-19.

Researchers noted that because fever, cough, chills and body aches appear in many cases they vary wildly are not necessarily an accurate predictor of Covid-19. However, 86% of patients report loss of smell. This makes it a much more accurate predictor, especially in the case of sudden loss of smell.

This is not a matter of simply eating a candy though. Eight flavors of hard candy will be manufactured, all in the same color, to test this methods effectiveness. Subjects will be asked to identify the flavor of the candies by smell and taste, which allows for a more complex assessment as both the nose itself and the back of our throat with the help of the nose helps us taste what we are eating.

Researchers also assert that this is a screening process not many could object to.

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OSU Helps Scientists Discover a New Old Faithful, But In Outer Space

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Many have heard of Yellowstone National Park’s geyser which reliably erupts once every one or two hours, aptly named Old Faithful.

An international group of scientists has now discovered an astronomical “Old Faithful.” Like the earthbound geyser this phenomenon is on a nearly predictable schedule. Old Faithful in space erupts with light about once every 114 days. The researchers are calling it a tidal event that happens when a star gets too close to black hole, the black hole then pulls away a piece of the star, causing the light flare.

The astronomers made the discovery using information coming from NASA and a group of telescopes that Ohio State University scientists operate.

The discovery was presented at the American Astronomical Society annual meeting and will be published the Astrophysical Journal.

 

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