UC Science Today

Everything that humans are used to on Earth changes in space and that’s what astronauts should be prepared for during long space trips.

“You are now in microgravity, which means that you don’t have these loads on not just your skeleton, but your skeletal muscle, your heart, your sense of balance.”

That's imaging scientist Thomas Lang, of the University of California, San Francisco. He explains that astronauts are exposed to a dangerous level of radiation, which increases the risk of cancer and brain damage.

“To some extent in lower Earth orbit we are protected by Earth’s magnetic field, but once we go to, as proposed to these NASA missions, back to the Moon or to deep space habitats in cislunar orbit, there we are going to be exposed to solar, wind, as well as galactic heavy ion- radiation.”

Add to that isolation and the absence of daylight, and space travel might not seem so appealing. But researchers like Lang are working on strategies to make space trips a healthier experience.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have discovered that a specific virus called cytomegalovirus, or CMV, could trigger childhood leukemia - a type of cancer that strikes about 15,000 American children each year.

“We found evidence of this virus at birth and it was found more frequently in children that went on to get leukemia. This virus was found years before diagnosis.”

That’s study leader Adam de Smith, who says CMV could also lead to other diseases.

“Children born with CMV may have developmental defects and particularly hearing los affected with CMV virus. So it is a pretty big public health issue and one thing that may come out of this research is a potential for a vaccine against CMV virus.”

While the development of this vaccine has been a priority for American health officials, the process is complicated. So De Smith says a lot more research needs to be done before a vaccine is available.

Virtual reality may help people with a visual condition called amblyopia, in which there is reduced vision in one eye. Neuroscientist Adrian Chopin of the University of California, Berkeley, says they’re treating patients with this visual defect by having them play 3D computer games that, he says, could restore their eyesight.

“Virtual reality is really developing tremendously right now. We are trying to develop a new game. That is something in between a video game industry and treatment.”

Chopin hopes this new 3D computer game treatment will overwrite the old dogma that adult patients’ amblyopia cannot be cured.

“Now we have all these optometrists and ophthalmologists out there telling the patients very often that there is nothing that can be done for them because they are too old and they needed to be treated when they were children. And we realize it is not true. I mean, it is difficult to change it, but it is not that it is impossible."

Chopin says the virtual reality study is already showing signs of success with some patients’ eyesight significantly improving.

Pregnant women exposed to social stress and environmental chemicals, have a higher risk of prenatal developmental problems and low-birth-weight babies. Study leader Tracey Woodruff, an environmental health scientist at the University of California, San Francisco, says the key here is the combined effect of the risk factors.

“Our study was evaluating the literature to understand what the combined effects were of being exposed to environmental chemicals and stresses that people may experience during life. Stresses that are due to things like living in poor living circumstances, issue that might be due to discrimination like racism, etc. or poverty."

Babies born to mothers exposed to these hardships are at higher risk of developing multiple diseases in childhood and having cardiovascular problems and diabetes in adulthood.

“We have to do a better job of figuring out how do these varies factors that influence somebody’s health work together rather than just studying them separately, because they might be in combination more important.”

Space missions are exciting, but they’re risky for astronauts’ health. The lack of gravity in space may seriously damage their musculoskeletal systems, especially the spine and hip. Thomas Lang, an imaging scientist at the University of California, San Francisco, has recently discovered crucial details about bone loss in space.

“What we did in our study is to look at how this corresponded to architectural changes in the hips. We used a 3-dimentional approach called quantitative computed tomography and in particular in the hip we found the trabecular bone – the spongy bone in the center of the medullary canal in the hip - was lost at about up to 3 percent per month.”

That’s similar to the bone structure that 70 or 80-year old women might lose in a year.

“The driving factor is disuse. Very similar to what happens when somebody has a spinal cord injury and they sit down in a wheel chair.”

One solution is to ensure that astronauts get strenuous workouts in space.

Hi there – I’m Larissa Branin, host of Science Today and it’s that time of the week again where we go over some of the stories covered this past week. First, we learned that by the end of the century climate change will likely cause a decline in wheat and barley yields by up to 33 percent. This statistical model was developed by a team of researchers led by UC Davis. Graduate student Matthew Gammans, who worked on the study, told us it was based on 65 years of weather records and data from wheat and barley yields in France. 

“So we started by looking at the relationship between weather and yields and then using some climate change projections, we forecasted that relationship into the future to see what we can expect to happen to these yields.”

Their work is one of the first flexible statistical models applied to these cereal crops, which means that every potential temperature was included in the analysis. We then chatted with public health professor Kristine Madsen of UC Berkeley about soda consumption in the U.S. falling to a 31-year low last year. Instead, consumers seem to be reaching for lower-calorie produces, including bottled water. Madsen had found similar findings in Berkeley, California after the city passed the nation’s first soda tax back in 2014.

“Even in the comparison cities of Oakland and San Francisco, there was an overall increase of 20 percent in water consumption. But it was 63 percent in Berkeley. So, it looks like people were switching from sugar-sweetened beverages to really what I would say is the healthiest alternative.”

Speaking of healthy alternatives, there’s even more reason to never start smoking. We learned that even if parents quit before conception, their prior smoking habit may still put their child’s health at risk. UC San Francisco researcher Adam de Smith studied dust in homes where children were diagnosed with leukemia and found an increased level of tobacco particles in the carpeting.

“If a family is smoking relatively heavily, they might not even be smoking in the house, they might be smoking outside, but when they come into the home, particles drop onto the carpet. If they have children several years later, we have found that those particles can remain there several years later. So it is possible if a child is playing around on the carpet, he may still be exposed to toxic particles that could perhaps increase the leukemia risk.”

And even frequently vacuuming does not eliminate all the dust. So again – all the more reason to never pick up the habit. Well, that’s all for now. If you want to keep on top of all the latest science and health news coming from the University of California system, you’ll find UC Science Today on iTunes. Please subscribe and thanks for listening.

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https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/soda_consumption

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Parents who used to smoke, but quit before conceiving, may still put their child’s heath at risk. Researchers of the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, San Francisco, have studied dust in homes where children were diagnosed with leukemia and found an increased level of tobacco particles in the carpeting. UCSF Associate Researcher Adam de Smith explains the connection.

“If a family is smoking relatively heavily, they might not even be smoking in the house, they might be smoking outside, but when they come into the home, particles drop onto the carpet. If they have children several years later, we have found that those particles can remain there several years later. So it is possible if a child is playing around on the carpet, he may still be exposed to toxic particles that could perhaps increase the leukemia risk."

Studies show that even if you don’t smoke inside the house and frequently vacuum, only about 10 percent of dust gets removed. So de Smith says, best way to protect your children from tobacco-contaminated dust exposure is to never start smoking.

What’s the best way to treat people suffering from substance abuse? Jennifer Mitchell, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco, has been studying the hormone oxytocin as a possible cure for addictions, due to its ability to reduce stress, anxiety and social discomfort.

“By enabling people to make better social connections and by attenuating the craving for that other substance or act, or giving them a better set of tools with which to embark on this road to recovery, and it is not that it is to say that it is like a panacea: you are going to take a little intranasal oxytocin and everything is going to be perfect, but perhaps it could be one of many tools that people use to get better and get back into a healthy life style.”

Mitchell says oxytocin could be a substitute for those self-medicating with alcohol, opioids or even gambling.

“Whether or not it is related to depression or stress or anxiety or PTSD, the bottom line is they are experiencing the state of despair.”

Mitchell hopes doctors will start offering oxytocin as a therapy.

Soda consumption in the United States fell to a 31-year low last year. This, according to the trade publication, Beverage-Digest. Instead, consumers seem to be reaching for lower-calorie products, including bottled water. This is something public health professor Kristine Madsen found in a University of California, Berkeley study, which was conducted after the City of Berkeley passed the nation’s first soda tax in 2014.

"Even in the comparison cities of Oakland and San Francisco, there was an overall increase of 20 percent in water consumption. But it was 63 percent in Berkeley. So, it looks like people were switching from sugar-sweetened beverages to really what I would say is the healthiest alternative."

Madsen agrees that many consumers are becoming more health conscious. But even trends could have a role in the decline of sugary drinks – like all of the eco-friendly water bottles being carried around these days.

"So, that ‘cool factor’ is really important and could absolutely be an important driver moving people to healthier choices, you now, in beverages and in diets in general."

By the end of the century, climate change will likely cause a decline of wheat and barley yields by 17 to 33 percent. Those were the findings of a new statistical model by the University of California, Davis. Matthew Gammans, a graduate student who worked on the study, says it was based on 65 years of weather records and data from wheat and barley yields in France.

"So we started by looking at the relationship between weather and yields and then using some climate change projections, we forecasted that relationship into the future to see what we can expect to happen to these yields."

Their work is one of the first flexible statistical models applied to wheat and other cereal crops.

"When I say “flexible”, I mean not just kind of the average temperature or the max temperature, but kind of looking at exposure to every temperature bin, so every potential temperature is included in the analysis and it’s the first to apply that to Europe and it’s also the first to use that kind of flexible methodology to look at both fall and winter and summer seasons – so really trying to understand what’s driving these yield changes."