Insect Defend: A Cool New (Nutraceutical) Product!

On the weekend, I attended the Green Living Show here in Toronto. I had an awesome time checking out the vendors, talking to reps, eating the locally prepared grub (mmm vanilla drinking chocolate by ChocoSol), making a few 'green' purchases (a product from Pure Thanks and some amazing blueberry juice), and test driving an electric car, the Nissan Leaf! Fun times for sure.

One company with whom I talked at the expo was Insect Defend. They make this natural and safe alternative to toxic bug sprays: instead of using harmful chemicals to deter bugs, they use vitamins!

Their product is a small, clear patch that adheres to the skin and releases vitamin B1 into the body. You simply stick the patch on your body two hours before you plan on going outside and/or around mosquitos.

How does it work? Well, apparently mosquitos and other pesky bugs hate the scent of vitamin B1! When the vitamin is absorbed into your skin via the patch, the B1 that is now in your skin keeps those bugs away. That's it, that's all: no more bug sprays or nets, just vitamins!

Vitamin B1 to the rescue!

Taking vitamin B1 through the skin is more effective than taking it orally. When you take it orally, the vitamin has to go through the whole digestive tract and is subjected to the first-pass effect of the liver. But if it is absorbed through the skin, it avoids all the degradation that occurs during digestions.

Apparently many people have used and testified to the effectiveness of Insect Defend. Several major clinical trials are also being conducted to test its efficacy. I myself purchased a pack to give them a try; I want to see vitamin B1 in action for myself!

Thanks to a major deal on Dragons' Den, Insect Defend Patches are now available at most major stores, like Loblaws, Superstore, Metro, Walmart, Canadian Tire, and many more. ...if you give them a try, let me know your experience. As a naturopathic medical student who studies vitamins at great length, I am super curious about this new-to-me way of using vitamin B1!

I Dream of Chickens

Chicken Coop Image from Wikipedia

I'm jealous of my friend J who is installing a chicken coop this Summer.

In the future, I definitely want chickens and a coop. I'd take great care of them and would love their company. I suppose you treat them like you would any other pets? Harvesting their eggs would be so much fun too!

The little chicken coop above is absolutely adorable, but I'd need to read more about my county's bylaws regarding chicken housing. Obviously, I have lots of questions before I build my coop: Is the above structure too small? How far from property lines must the chickens be? How much grazing room do they need?

I'd also love to be able to sell my fresh eggs to my patients. Is this even allowed? My parents' neighbor sells eggs on the side of the road... wonder if he ever looked into the legality of it? If I can't sell them, hopefully I can at least give them away!

"You Put the Lime in the Coconut"

It's that time of year: the time when the snowbirds arriving home from a Winter down south (by snowbirds I mean the people, though a flock of Canadian geese has also returned to Toronto). I'd like to image that they bring some tropicalness back with them. So in celebration of the tropics and the rise in temperatures, I made some coconutty Key Lime Pie inspired date balls. These treats were also heavily inspired by the jingle You Put the Lime in the Coconut which has been stuck in my head for weeks now...

3/4 cup pitted dates

1/2 cup cashews

1/2 cup walnuts*

1/2 a lime, juiced

1/2 a lime, zested

1/4 cup shredded or flaked coconut

Plus you'll need about 1/2 cup (?) of extra coconut to roll the completed balls in. *You can simply use more cashews if you don't have walnuts on hand.

Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Process just enough to form a dough. Don't overprocess and turn everything into a paste. You want it a tad chunky. This recipe makes 20 tiny balls (using a lime for comparison, you can see the size of the balls above); feel free to make them larger if you'd like.

Dog Walking

Last week, on my current Thursday clinic shift, we chatted about strategies to get someone who doesn't exercise to start. We brainstormed lots of ideas and took notes for when I am in practice and begin coaching non-exercises. So, exercise motivation has been on my mind lately.

Then, on the weekend, when it was nice, bright, and somewhat warm outside, I noticed lots of dog walkers. This got me thinking: would owning a dog help with exercise motivation?

Throw a dog a bone ...then chase after it with him/her!

If you are a good dog owner, then you take your dog on walks to stretch their legs, frolic and be free, and use the bathroom of course. Having a dog basically forces the human to get outside (unless you have a hired dog walker or a big, fenced-backyard where you can let your dog roam unattended... but let's not think of too many counter points; that'll defeat the point of my argument :P). So yes, owning a dog forces you (if you want to take good care of your dog) to get outside and go on walks on a regular basis.

My conclusion: maybe non-exercisers just need a dog to get them moving! Especially a dog that definitely needs to be walked (i.e. not one of these lower energy dogs, but if you read the attached article, you'll see that even teeny-tiny pups also need a good stretch!).

Monday Highlights.

Image source here.

Today was a brain-bursting kind of day.  Lots of cool info all packed into one (typically) boring Monday! Some highlights:

- How to determine if a seed is still fresh (e.g. cumin seeds, mustard seeds, anise seeds, parsley seeds, etc): chew on one! If it tastes woody and not flavorful, then the seed is old and the medicinal volatile oils have evaporated or degraded.
- Classmate says to professor: "How do you reduce male pattern baldness?" Professor's response: "If I knew the answer to that question, I'd been lounging on an island right now".
- People with kidney stones are often dehydrated and deficient in vitamin B6 and magnesium. Supplement these nutrients or eat foods rich in them.
- Apitherapy (apis = bee) is a technique used by some (not NDs! We just learned about it for fun) to treat rheumatism arthritis. It involves stinging a patient's rheumatic/flared-up joint with a live honey bee!  Apparently the bee sting is enough for the immune system to stop attacking the body's own joint and focus on the bee sting instead.  Repeated stinging yields best results.
- Another reason to supplement vitamin D this Winter: new research reveals that vitamin D is precursor in the tumor fighting pathway of the body.
- When blood sugar levels reach 9-10 mmol/L, the sugar (glucose) spills into the urine, giving urine a sweet smell and taste... yes, taste. Before the invention of urinalysis, doctors used to taste their patient's urine to assess for sweetness and thus diabetes.
- Lastly, I got to play doctor and interview a patient today during Primary Care. In addition to asking a million questions, I also had to chart my findings (aka complete a medical record) and perform relevant physical exams on the patient. It was a great experience and I was proud of my performance (not sure what the prof thought, doesn't matter though, I'll see my evaluation in two weeks).  Anywho, the point of this story: I think I've picked the right profession when I find taking a case to be "fun" :)

The Tale of a Tail.

Image source here.

Did you know that we used to have a tail?  There are at least three pieces of evidence in the human body showing that we used to have tail-wagging days.

1) Bone - the coccyx bone is also known as the tailbone. It sits at the very end of the spinal column, in between the butt cheeks. It is can be broken when people fall "flat on their bum". It is the boney remnant of our former tail.

2) Embryology - embryos develop a tail after about a month of development (called the caudal eminence), but it later regresses except for the coccyx. 

3) Nervous System - the filum terminale it is the last part of the spinal cord. It was the nerve that supplied our tail, yet we still have it in our bodies today.  

P.S. Does baking chocolate chip cookies count as NPLEX prepping? You know, because studying requires snacks!

The Appendix.

The appendix is a sac-like structure lying along our digestive tract (specifically located at the junction between the small and large intestines). Although it's function is debatable and largely unknown, it presumed to have once had a role in our immune system because it is full of lymphoid tissue (which is found in all other immune system-related organs/structures in the body). It is thought that the appendix used to contain bacteria to help humans digest plant matter (remember: we can't eat grass because of their cellulose (beta 1-4 linkages) content). Perhaps the appendix was a more frequently used organ when we were primates, feasting on leaves and such.

Image source here.

Often people have their appendix removed (called an appendectomy) when they are diagnosed with acute appendicitis. This is when the appendix is inflamed and the patient experiences a great deal of abdominal pain.  The pain starts vaguely/diffusely around the belly button, and then moves to a particular point between the belly button and the right hip bone (this halfway point is called McBurney's Point). One of the key questions to ask a patient with hypothesized appendicitis is whether or not the pain moved. Appendicitis is considered a medical emergency because without treatment it can lead to shock if the appendix were to rupture.

Rabies.

- Rabies is caused the rabies virus.
- Animals house the virus. When an infected animal bites a human, they can transmit the virus.
- If you are bit by a potentially infected animal, immediately wash the wound.
- Prophylactically, doctors administer virus antibodies to the wound to help the body fight the initial infection.
- Rabies causes encephalitis (aka brain infection).
- Patients with rabies die from brain damage.
- After the initial bite, rabies symptoms won't occur for six months to a year because the virus has a long route to travel before it can reach the brain.
- The virus has to travel through the skin, then the muscle, then the peripheral nervous system, then the central nervous system, and then finally to the brain.
- Unique rabies symptoms: frothing at the mouth and refusing to drink water.

Aww, how could this cute little critter be a host for such an awful virus?