Alert: Food pathogens-Salmolnella

Salmonella were discovered by an American scientist named Salmon, for whom they are named.S. is a genus of rod-shaped, Gram-negative, non-spore-forming, predominantly motile enterobacteria. They are chemoorganotrophs, obtaining their energy from oxidation and reduction reactions using organic sources, and are facultative anaerobes.Two serotypes, Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium are the most common in the United States and account for half of all human infections.If present in food, it does not usually affect the taste, smell, or appearance of the food. The bacteria live in the intestinal tracts of infected animals and humans.


According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), salmonellosis causes an estimated 1.4 million cases of foodborne illness and more than 400 deaths annually in the United States.


Symptoms: diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and fever within 8 to 72 hours. Additional symptoms may be chills, headache, nausea, and vomiting.Symptoms usually disappear within 4 to 7 days. Many people with salmonellosis recover without treatment and may never see a doctor. However, Salmonella infections can be life-threatening especially for infants and young children, pregnant women and their unborn babies, and older adults, who are at a higher risk for foodborne illness, as are people with weakened immune systems (such as those with HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, and transplant patients). A small number of persons who are infected with Salmonella may develop pains in their joints, irritation of the eyes, and painful urination (Reiter's syndrome). 


Salmonellosis: Salmonella is usually transmitted to humans by eating foods contaminated with animal feces.Salmonella present on raw meat and poultry could survive if the product is not cooked to a safe minimum internal temperature, as measured with a food thermometer. Cross-contamination. Reptiles are particularly likely to harborSalmonella. People should always wash their hands immediately after handling a reptile.
Foods: Any raw food of animal origin, such as meat, poultry, milk and dairy products, eggs, seafood, and some fruits and vegetables 9from cross-contamination).
Guidelines: 

• Wash Hands (20 seconds) and Surfaces Often
• Don't Cross-contaminate (use separate cutting boards for produce and meats, wash surfaces that had any raw meat contacts) 
• Cook to Safe Temperatures (Beef, veal, and lamb steaks, roasts, and chops to 145 °F, Beef, veal, and lamb steaks, roasts, and chops to 145 °F, Ground beef, veal and lamb to 160 °F, Egg dishes, casseroles to 160 °F, Fish should reach 145 °F)
• Refrigerate Promptly (Refrigerate or freeze perishables, prepared foods, and leftovers within 2 hours, Freezers should register 0 °F or below and refrigerators 40 °F or below.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service is the public health regulatory Agency in the USDA responsible for the safety of the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry and egg products. As part of this responsibility, FSIS issued the "Pathogen Reduction; Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (PR/HACCP) Systems, Final Rule" in 1996.
FSIS inspectors make sure the establishments are meeting the standards by collecting randomly selected product samples and submitting them to an FSIS laboratory forSalmonella analysis. FSIS requires all plants to reduce bacteria by means of the PR/HACCP system. 

Programs/Organizations
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)
Emerging Infections Program (EPI)
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)
References
CDC
Wikipedia

Alert: Food pathogens

The top five illness-causing pathogens -- Campylobacter, Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, Toxoplasma gondii and norovirus -- cause $12.7 billion in economic losses each year according to the report Issued by the University of Florida Emerging Pathogens Institute. Poultry contaminated with Campylobacter bacteria is the food-pathogen combination that causes the most foodborne illness in the United States, sickening more than 600,000 people a year at a cost of $1.3 billion.The economic cost takes into account lost productivity, medical care and serious complications or chronic disabilities associated with the illness.Salmonella as the leading disease-causing microorganism (costing more than $3 billion a year), and Salmonella-contaminated produce, poultry, eggs and multi-ingredient foods all rank in the top 10 food-pathogen combinations.
Lets study the top 5 pathogens to keep ourselves and our family safe. It is important to be aware of the risk, since the availability of food has reached its pick, but yet the production and safety has become a serious problem that may stop some of from eating out or alert our eating habits.
Campylobacter-is a genus of bacteria that are Gram-negative, spiral, and microaerophilic(requires lower levels of oxygen to survive).The common routes of transmission are fecal-oral, ingestion of contaminated food or water, and the eating of raw meat.It produces an inflammatory, sometimes bloody, diarrhea, periodontitis[8] or dysentery syndrome, mostly including cramps, fever and pain.The sites of tissue injury include the jejunum, the ileum, and the colon.Most strains of C jejuni produce a toxin that hinders the cells from dividing and activating the immune system.This helps the bacteria to evade the immune system and survive for a limited time in the cells.Treatment:Generally there is little treatment apart from rest and keeping up fluid intake; Sometimes antibiotics will be prescribed; Dehydrated children may require intravenous (by vein) fluid treatment in hospital; The illness is contagious and children must be kept at home; Good hygiene is important.

Innovations: Stomach pacemaker

"It works a bit like a cardiac pacemaker, and consists of a stimulator and a sensor surgically implanted onto the stomach",says USA Today. In a few minutes after the meal, it sends electrical pulses into the stomach and the brain tricking both like the person is full. According to the patients that were using the device during the clinical trial, pacemaker helps decraese the amount of meal portion.It works as "like a little guide to help me change my life" says Hetzner, a 20-year-old Munich mailman who had the divice implanted. The divice has been approved by Britain last month, and already 65 patients have received the device from U.S. pacemaker.
As an additional benefit, the sensor tracks when patients eat, drink or exercise, so patients can chart their progress. Intrapace has also created an online network for patients to trade weight loss advice and share experiences.In Britain, the pacemaker costs about 15,000 pounds ($24,040), including the keyhole surgery used to implant it.The device lasts about five years and it will be up to patients how long they want to keep the pacemaker.
Will the device would work long-term, as people might eventually get used to the electrical pulses and keep eating anyway.

Meditation on the Harp by Salvador Dali

Meditate! It will calm you down; it will balance your thoughts and emotions; it will boost your creativity; it will effect your awareness of life, surroundings, YOU. From my personal experience, mediation helps to unify the body, mind and soul. For those, who are skeptical about existence of a soul can narrow the channel down and experience another improvements like enhancing memory and learning processes. According to the study "Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density" published in the journal Psychiatry Research , "Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), one of the most widely used mindfulness training programs, has been reported to produce positive effects on psychological well-being and to ameliorate(улучшать) symptoms of a number of disorders." The reaserchers studied the result of Magnetic Resonanse of brains of 16 healthy participants prior and post the practice of MBSR, and compared the the brain function with a waiting list control group of 17 individuals. The results suggest that participation in MBSR is associated with changes in gray matter concentration in brain regions involved in learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking. Here we are! Slowly tuning back time, repeating the cycle of life. First we try hard to improve all the aspects of our lives using technology and natural resources. Than,stress ,infantile being and unhealthy living break us down,and withdraw the energy. Our sensitive, ill, weak, emotionless bodies are looking for a cure. The cure is hidden with our ancestors. Natural remedies, essential and healthy nutritional choices,spirituality and TIME (which is real when we do not rush to live, accomplish, compete)are the powerful allies. Thus,you can meditate every minute, hour, day. Meditation is concentration, excluding anything what is disturbing. Meditate while working, meditate, while, walking down the street, meditate, while cooking, meditate with your friends, meditate while making love ... it will rise you high and let of personal and social roots.

Simple life change

I could not pass by the article by Reuters talking about how "In China, 620,000 cancer cases, or 27 percent are preventable, the WCRF said, as are about 35 percent, or 340,000, in the United States and 37 percent in Britain. Healthier lifestyles could prevent 61,000 cancers in Brazil and 79,000 in Britain." The author mentions physical activity as another ‘novelty’ to prevent the cancer, diabetes, heart disease etc. What strikes me the most, that in order to get people become physically active, each time we find another disease or disorder that hopefully will scare the community to the point that will suddenly change the lifestyle. It takes years for many people to change the choices they make, and another fact like this one brings fear and self-doubting. We need to stop make people feel defective (even though many of us are). I will not start exercising because of the risk of cancer, but I will mostly start exercise because it makes me feel good, confident, and mobile and teaches me another skill. Exercise should not be a burden and neither should be boring. If you are not type of person to struggle monotonous treadmill running and lifting the weights over and over again, chose the type of sport that will train your agility, strategic thinking, a new philosophical movement, inner strength, rhythm, even expand your musical taste. Use your imagination, discover yourself, but most importantly love yourself and to treat your body well.
Source

Supplementary Nosh. полдник.

Afternoon Snack.
полдник-лёгкая еда между обедом и ужином.перекус