How Your Height Affects Your Health

Your diet, exercise habits and genetics are common factors that impact your health. For most seniors, you may not think much about your height playing into these scenarios. However, researchers are discovering that height effects health in a variety of different ways. Learn what you should look out for as the golden years continue.

Living Longer

Many experiments have been performed for various reasons when it comes to height and longevity. Short rats, for example, tend to live longer than tall rats. Although humans are certainly different from rats, our species mimics the same longevity factor. Shorter people typically live longer than taller people, but researchers don't have a clear reason to explain this relationship. For the most part, short people have had the advantage for hundreds of years. Primitive people with short statures became the elders of a society when taller associates died off at younger ages.

Slow Reaction Times

Height effects health in tall people with slower reaction times than their shorter counterparts. Injuries and accidents often plague tall people, which is often excused by saying the person is clumsy. There seems to be a scientific reason behind these poor reaction times, however. Tall people require longer nerve-signal times between the brain and limbs. Because of long arms and legs, the signals take extra time to move around the body so the person may have more mishaps as a result. If you're a tall person, taking your time with most movements is beneficial to your health.

Organ-Transplant Considerations

If you have an average or slightly taller stature, your chances of receiving an organ transplant are much higher than shorter people. Organs come in various sizes, depending on the donor's size. The majority of organs come from average-size people. Shorter people cannot use these large tissues so they're forced to wait. As you enter your golden years, organ transplants are more of a concern because of declining health or certain ailments. Placing your name on the waiting list is just the start. Your height effects health in a critical way during these situations.

Cancer Chances

Cancer has been linked to genetics, environment and lifestyle choices. It was rarely connected to height until recently. Researchers have seen links between tall people and cancer because of basic math. Tall people have more tissue to support the stature, from long bones to extra muscle mass. Because of the extra tissue, there are higher chances for cancer mutations. Be aware that other factors, including lifestyle, must also play a role. You can't change your height, but you can avoid cancer by leading a healthy lifestyle and visiting the doctor on a regular basis.

Mental Decline

Alzheimer's Disease is an ailment that preys on your mind. Forgetfulness and outright memory loss are part of this diagnosis. Researchers have found, however, that taller people tend to resist Alzheimer's Disease more so than their shorter counterparts. Shorter people are more likely to suffer from this disease, especially if there's a family history involved. Researchers are still trying to determine the link between memory and height so that some answers can be found for ailing patients.

It's important to remember that many factors contribute to your overall health. Control the things in life that are within your reach, such as grabbing fruit for a snack or taking a brisk walk. With a healthy lifestyle, you ward off certain ailments that might otherwise plague your golden years.

Vegan Chocolate Mousse and How to Make It

Veganism is a great way to lose weights, and if you believe books like "The China Study," to potentially extend your lifespan and prevent illness. If you grew up vegan or come from a culture that cooks food that lends itself to vegetarianism (there are great Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian and Indian dishes that fit the bill here), then making the switch to a fully vegan diet may be a simple matter of making a few dietary tweaks or of dropping a few of your recipes off of your list. If you have grown up in a meat and potatoes family, the concept of a vegan diet may seem very restrictive and difficult to maintain. Luckily, it's not as hard as it might appear to be, and the changes you make can be fun.

It can take some work to learn how to cook new food, but it needn't mean that you never get to eat anything fun. Just because you have decided to go vegan doesn't mean that you have to get rid of your most favorite, decadent foods. There are a number of foods that can serve as substitute staples. Tofu makes a great cream substitute, and soy and almond milk can work as milk. Xantham gum can be a binder that works like eggs and jackfruit is a great meat substitute. 

Chocolate Mousse is one recipe that you can easily make with vegan substitutions. This recipe traditionally calls for cream and eggs. Instead, it uses silken tofu and almond milk. Chocolate chips are one item that you won't need to substitute if you go with dark chocolate; in many cases, chocolate chips are already vegan. Read below for one great recipe adapted from Food.com: 

What You Need
12-ounce package of firm or extra firm silken tofu
3/4 cup of almond, coconut, or soy milk
1 cup of vegan chocolate chips 
1 tsp of vanilla extract

Optional enhancements
chili powder
mint leaves 
peppermint oil
coconut oil and shredded coconut

Step 1: Heat milk and chocolate
You can do this on the stovetop or in the microwave, so long as you are stirring constantly as you warm. Either stir over a low stove or microwave for about 2 minutes at a time, stir, and add a bit more time. The exact amount will vary with the time out of the microwave and the power of your oven. You should have a rich chocolatey milk when you are done. Let this cool before proceeding to step 2. 

Step 2: Blend with remaining ingredients
Take all of the ingredients plus the optional enhancements of your choosing and blend them together. Make sure you taste this when you are done. If you still taste tofu, you can add a splash more of an enhancement or more melted chips, but don't add more milk or it won't properly set. 

Step 3: Chill to set
This is the final step in the recipe. Pour the mousse into a bowl (or a set of smaller, individual ramekins for best results) to set. Let it chill in the fridge for 2-3 hours. When it is done, you can garnish with your favorite items: mint leaves, shaved vegan chocolate, sea salt, candied flowers, and cinnamon are all great choices. 

While it takes some work and some reteaching of your culinary skills to learn to cook delicious vegan food, learning some basic retakes on your favorites will go a long way toward having a successful vegan diet. 

How Researchers Used Frog Mucus to Fight the Flu

New research has identified a peptide named urumin found in the mucus on the skin of a specific frog species. This peptide is showing promise as a potential drug treatment for certain strains of flu.

Long ago, it was found that dropping live Russian Brown frogs into milk would prevent the milk from going sour. This long-standing fact led researchers in 2012 to wonder what the exact mechanism was for preserving the milk. 

They discovered that when frogs are stressed, they secrete peptides via their skin and in the mucus that coats them. According to Louise Rollins-Smith, associate professor of pathology, microbiology, and immunology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, "Amphibians, especially certain groups of frogs, produce and store large amounts of antimicrobial peptides in specialized granular glands in the skin." She also said "When the skin is injured or the frog is alarmed, they release large amounts of the peptides to protect the skin."

These peptides have antimicrobial properties. They can kill various bacteria, viruses and even fungi. These findings have led to more recent research into the specific peptides secreted by a small orange frog named hydrophylax bahuvistara found in southern India.

They identified 32 distinct peptides secreted by this little orange frog. To their surprise, they found that four of them can successfully kill certain strains of flu virus. This has been demonstrated under a microscope and in lab mice. The next trials will likely involve ferrets. If that goes well, human testing could come soon after.

This study found that urumin specifically targets H1 flu viruses. The three other peptides were found to be harmful to human red blood cells. Thus, those three peptides are not currently deemed to be good candidates for developing a flu drug. But, so far, urumin has not been found to be harmful to human cells. Thus, the next stage of studies is being tentatively planned.

The effect of urumin on specific H1 flu viruses is fairly dramatic. It makes the individual flu particles simply fall apart. Unlike currently available drugs, the urumin peptide specifically targets the hemagglutinin. One researcher said "It just blows it up. It makes the virus particle fall apart."

One of the challenges still standing between our current understanding and a potential drug treatment is a good delivery method. In lab mice, the urumin peptide was delivered through their noses. They also exposed the mice to the flu viruses via the same pathway. But this may be ineffective as a treatment protocol. Researchers believe they may need to develop something injectable in order to deliver it to the human blood stream.

At the moment, the next step is simply to try to replicate their success with mice in a study using ferrets, which are often used for flu virus research. If the ferret studies are a success, human studies are likely to follow.

Every year, flu epidemics kill between 250,000 and 500,000 people. Developing an effective treatment, even if it only works for a specific subset of flu viruses, could save millions of lives.

There is an exciting new breakthrough holding out hope for future flu treatments. Research involving a small orange frog has led to the identification of a new peptide called urumin that dramatically causes some flu strains to simply fall apart when exposed to it.