no words...

just pretty pictures.

*images courtesy of chocolate therapie, country style magazine, trisha brink design, beautiful paper

Vitamin D May Prevent Flu and Asthma

The AJCN just published a new controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of vitamin D supplements on flu and asthma (1). Dr. Hiroyuki Ida's group gave Japanese schoolchildren (10 years average age) 1,200 IU of vitamin D3 or placebo per day from December through March. They found that children taking vitamin D had a significantly lower incidence of influenza A but not influenza B. These are two strains of flu that each accounted for roughly half the flu incidence in this population. Sadly, if you add the total flu incidence for A and B together (which the authors don't do in their tables), vitamin D supplementation didn't reduce total flu incidence significantly.

They also found that in the subset of children not already taking vitamin D supplements, the effect was greater, with unsupplemented children contracting nearly three times as many influenza A infections as children receiving vitamin D. They didn't analyze the influenza B or total influenza incidence in that way, so we don't know if prior supplementation makes a difference there.

The most striking finding of the paper is that the vitamin D group suffered from 6 times fewer asthma attacks than the placebo group. This needs to be repeated but it's consistent with other data and I find it very encouraging.

The paper did have some limitations. They didn't measure vitamin D status so they have no way to know exactly how effective their pill-based supplements were.

Another problem is that they began collecting data immediately after beginning supplementation. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that can take 3 months to reach maximum concentration in the body following supplementation. By the time the children were reaching their maximum serum concentration of vitamin D, the trial was over. It would be nice to see the next trial begin supplementation in the fall and look at flu incidence in the winter.

This paper comes on the heels of another showing that vitamin D is necessary for the activation of an immune cell called the killer T cell (2). These are important for resistance to infections and cancer. Overall, these papers add to the accumulating evidence that vitamin D is important for the proper functioning of the human immune system. However, mice may not be the best model for use in studying vitamin D biology. From the first paper:

The evolution of different mechanisms for the regulation of PLC-γ1 activity in human and mouse T cells parallels the development of divergent VDR-dependent and VDR-independent antimicrobial pathways in human and mouse macrophages31, respectively, and may reflect the fact that mice are nocturnal animals with fur and humans are daytime creatures that synthesize vitamin D in the skin after exposure to ultraviolet light.

In other words, mice don't use vitamin D in the same way as humans because they have a different evolutionary relationship to it.

let's play...

i love this breakfast table combo from martha stewart....it made me want to play designer...so here are my thoughts on how to recreate a cute space on the cheap...let's get started w/ the main components:

(a) ikea docksta table will work perfect- cheap: check

(b) 4 bentwood bistro chairs...you can find these at any antique store/thrift shop/ yard sale (or maybe your parents attic or garage); and to add a twist, let's make sure they are all different styles of bentwood chairs...i would say you can find these bad boys for $25-30 a piece. and it doesn't matter if they have cane or wooden seats b/c we are adding a cushion.

(c) paint for the chairs...benjamin moore prescott green HC-140 (you will need to prime the dark wood first).

(d) stripe fabric...i like the unexpected pop of coral w/ this combo....so i am keeping it. any local fabric store should have a variety of stripes available...

(e) creating the diamond pattern for the fabric: cut the stripe on a diagonal (you will need 4 peices) and then align them together to form a diamond....simply take to a seamstress/ upholsterer/ your mom and create seat cushions

alright, now that we have the main things at a great budget...let's add a killer light...i love the goodman hanging lamp by thomas o'brien w/ the antique brass chain and white shade...circa lighting carries this little diddy. a little bit of a splurge but w/ all the money you saved, so worth it!!

that was fun! let's do it again soon :)

*first image from martha stewart

A False Dichotomy

In the discussion section of the last post, the eternal argument about non-industrial people arose: were their lives (a) "nasty, brutish and short" (Hobbes), or were they (b) "noble savages" (Shaftesbury) living in Eden? The former argument states that they had awful lives, and we should be glad we're living int he 21st century. The latter argument implies that we should emulate them as much as possible. Each side is bursting with anecdotes to support their position.

Any time the discussion reaches this point, it stops providing us anything useful. The argument is a false dichotomy, one in which neither answer is correct. The correct answer is (c): none of the above. Some aspects of hunter-gatherer life are preferable to ours, and some aspects of our lives are preferable to theirs. Understanding that we spent a lot of evolutionary time as hunter-gatherers, as well as a few thousand years in small, tightly knit agricultural communities, may be useful in understanding how to work constructively with our own bodies and minds in the modern world.

So please, let's leave behind the false dichotomy and foster a more nuanced understanding of the lives our ancestors led.

two weeks...

i have officially been on bed rest for two weeks. you learn a lot about yourself when you're stationary.... and while i try (really hard) to have an optimistic outlook on the situation, i would be lying to say it's not incredibly hard. you might find some tears rolling down my face on any given day. mostly b/c i hate having to rely on someone else to do everything for me (and b/c i am pregnant and pregnant people cry a lot). it's hard to give up control of yourself. and while i never knew i was a controlling person, i have realized that i like to have an opinion in most all situations. i cannot thank my husband enough for what he has had to become. i always knew he was amazing but to watch him be a dad, a husband, a housekeeper, a cook, a chauffeur, a grocery shopper, a dog walker, a waiter, a laundry folder, a carpool picker upper, and so much more- amazes me. he does funny things like hide the receipts from me when he gets home from the grocery store, he buys taylor outfits that maybe a little bit more tomboyish then i would prefer, he asks girls in the make up aisle what concealer is (and bless his heart, he comes home w/ some that would look amazing on a really tan person), he goes into freak out mood when i have contractions and makes me call the doctor....but mostly, he makes me so incredibly proud to have him by my side....and he puts a smile on my face everyday (even if i sometimes don't feel like doing it).

*images courtesy of aubrey + lindsay, curls and coffee, girly me