Eggs Mollets A l’indienne

Ingredients

5 eggs
4 oz long grain rice (boiled, drained and dried)
2-3 tablespoons French dressing
2 pint thick mayonnaise
salt and pepper
watercress and pimiento (shredded)

Curry Mixture

1 shallot (finely chopped)
1 tablespoon oil
1 dessertspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon paprika pepper
1 teaspoon tomato puree (diluted with 2 cup of water) or 1/2 cup of tomato juice
2 slices of lemon
1 teaspoon apricot jam

Method

1. First prepare the curry mixture: soften the shallot in oil, add curry powder and paprika and after 3-4 seconds the remaining ingredients. Stir well and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Strain and set mixture aside.
2. Softboil or poach the eggs.
3. Moisten the rice with a little French dressing. Arrange down the centre of a serving dish.
4. Add enough of the curry mixture to the mayonnaise to flavour it well. Adjust seasoning and spoon curry mayonnaise over the eggs. Garnish with the pimiento and watercress before serving.

Makes 4 servings.

Source: Cooking with Eggs

‘Sushi Parasites’ have Increased 283-fold in Past 40 years

Michelle Ma wrote . . . . . . . . .

The next time you eat sashimi, nigiri or other forms of raw fish, consider doing a quick check for worms.

A new study led by the University of Washington finds dramatic increases in the abundance of a worm that can be transmitted to humans who eat raw or undercooked seafood. Its 283-fold increase in abundance since the 1970s could have implications for the health of humans and marine mammals, which both can inadvertently eat the worm.

Thousands of papers have looked at the abundance of this parasitic worm, known as Anisakis or “herring worm,” in particular places and at particular times. But this is the first study to combine the results of those papers to investigate how the global abundance of these worms has changed through time. The findings were published March 19 in the journal Global Change Biology.

“This study harnesses the power of many studies together to show a global picture of change over a nearly four-decade period,” said corresponding author Chelsea Wood, an assistant professor in the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. “It’s interesting because it shows how risks to both humans and marine mammals are changing over time. That’s important to know from a public health standpoint, and for understanding what’s going on with marine mammal populations that aren’t thriving.”

Despite their name, herring worms can be found in a variety of marine fish and squid species. When people eat live herring worms, the parasite can invade the intestinal wall and cause symptoms that mimic those of food poisoning, such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. In most cases, the worm dies after a few days and the symptoms disappear. This disease, called anisakiasis or anisakidosis, is rarely diagnosed because most people assume they merely suffered a bad case of food poisoning, Wood explained.

After the worms hatch in the ocean, they first infect small crustaceans, such as bottom-dwelling shrimp or copepods. When small fish eat the infected crustaceans, the worms then transfer to their bodies, and this continues as larger fish eat smaller infected fish.

Humans and marine mammals become infected when they eat a fish that contains worms. The worms can’t reproduce or live for more than a few days in a human’s intestine, but they can persist and reproduce in marine mammals.

Seafood processors and sushi chefs are well-practiced at spotting the worms in fish and picking them out before they reach customers in grocery stores, seafood markets or sushi bars, Wood explained. The worms can be up to 2 centimeters in length, or about the size of a U.S. 5-cent nickel.

“At every stage of seafood processing and sushi preparation, people are good at finding worms and removing them from fish,” Wood said.

Some worms can make it past these screening steps. Still, Wood — who studies a range of marine parasites — said she enjoys eating sushi regularly. For sushi consumers who remain concerned about these worms, she recommends cutting each piece in half and looking for worms before eating it.

For the analysis, the study’s authors searched the published literature archived online for all mentions of Anisakis worms, as well as another parasitic worm called Pseudoterranova, or “cod worm.” They whittled down the studies based on set criteria, ultimately keeping only those studies that presented estimates of the abundance of each worm in fish at a given point in time. While Anisakis worms increased 283-fold over the study period of 1978 to 2015, Pseudoterranova worms did not change in abundance.

Although the health risks of these marine worms are fairly low for humans, scientists think they may be having a big impact on marine mammals such as dolphins, whales and seals. The worms actually reproduce in the intestines of these animals and are released into the ocean via the marine mammals’ feces. While scientists don’t yet know the physiological impacts of these parasites on marine mammals, the parasites can live in the mammals’ bodies for years, which could have detrimental effects, Wood said.

“One of the important implications of this study is that now we know there is this massive, rising health risk to marine mammals,” Wood said. “It’s not often considered that parasites might be the reason that some marine mammal populations are failing to bounce back. I hope this study encourages people to look at intestinal parasites as a potential cap on the population growth of endangered and threatened marine mammals.”

The authors aren’t sure what caused the large increase of Anisakis worms over the past several decades, but climate change, more nutrients from fertilizers and runoff, and an increase in marine mammal populations over the same period could all be potential reasons, they said.

Marine mammals have been protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act since 1972, which has allowed many populations of seals, sea lions, whales and dolphins to grow. Because the worms reproduce inside marine mammals — and their rise occurred over the same time period as the mammals’ increase — this is the most plausible hypothesis, Wood said.

“It’s possible that the recovery of some marine mammal populations has allowed recovery of their Anisakis parasites.” Wood said. “So, the increase in parasitic worms actually could be a good thing, a sign that the ecosystem is doing well. But, ironically, if one marine mammal population increases in response to protection and its Anisakis parasites profit from that increase, it could put other, more vulnearble marine mammal populations at risk of increased infection, and that could make it even more difficult for these endangered populations to recover.”

Source: University of Wshington

How to Handle the Anxiety Caused by Coronavirus News on Social Media

Pandemic. Politics. An upending of life at a level that few Americans have ever experienced. And all of it amplified by social media.

The ever-shifting news has some people constantly checking their phones for updates – and others saying they’re ready to walk away from their feeds entirely.

“It’s really the perfect recipe for anxiety and panic,” said licensed clinical psychologist Debra Kissen of Chicago. And stress, it should be noted, may be a factor in heart disease.

But Kissen, CEO of Light on Anxiety CBT Treatment Center, and others say anxiety can be managed – and social media, used properly, doesn’t have to send you on a mental-health spiral. It also can help you find balance.

Kissen acknowledged the coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented because of the way uncertainty has crept into “every little nook and cranny” of life. People worry: Is your neighbor’s cough going to be the one? Is that touch going to be what does you in? Will I get infected in the supermarket?

Your brain’s response to such uncertainty is the very definition of anxiety, she said.

“Anxiety is all about a future ‘what if?'” Kissen said. “Is something bad going to happen, and what can I do to protect myself?”

In the face of a visible threat, your brain can choose a course of action – say, fight or flight. But amid uncertainty, your brain looks for what it can control, even when nothing helpful can be done. That’s when problems can start.

Some people keep looking for actions to take, following unhealthy impulses that say, “Let me hoard more. Let me read more,” she said, “versus accepting that there are just limits to my control at this point.”

Keith Hampton, a professor in the department of media and information at Michigan State University in East Lansing, said social media amplifies stress by giving us a personal connection to people experiencing bad news directly.

But Hampton, who led a study for the Pew Research Center about this “cost of caring,” said our relationship with social media doesn’t have to be all negative.

“We know, for example, that people who use more social media tend to perceive there’s more social support available to them” from friends and family, online and offline, he said.

And when people experience positive things, he said, they also get a bit of a psychological uplift.

So, part of the solution to managing social media in a time of high anxiety is to make sure you’re sharing not just what alarms you, but whatever good news you experience as well.

Knowing people are safe and improving, “that type of positive information can be contagious,” he said.

Which is part of why he doesn’t recommend turning off social media entirely.

We may need social distancing, the practice of creating physical space between you and another person to prevent spread of the virus. But, he said, “this is not a time for social isolation.

This is a time for seeking and giving social support to those who need it. And social media can be a very powerful tool for checking on friends and family, for providing emotional support to those who are in need to organizing to provide resources to neighbors, to the elderly, to children, to those people who are no longer getting or can’t access the resources that they need.”

But, he and Kissen said, be mindful about how you use it.

Keeping up with high-quality information is vital. “We can’t put our heads in the sand and pretend this is not happening, because that’s not healthy or good,” Kissen said. So, pick a news source, decide, “OK, I’m going to allow myself like 30 minutes a day, or 10 high-quality articles, and check in with them.”

Keeping your worried brain off of autopilot through mindfulness is the key to reducing anxiety in all aspects of life, she said. “It’s not some hokey spiritual voodoo. It’s about enhancing one’s ability to return to the present moment.”

Apps for CBT – cognitive behavioral therapy – can be helpful, she said. So can time-honored tricks such as getting exercise, taking a walk and being active.

“Think of a computer that has 20 windows open and is frozen because there’s too much going on,” she said. That forces a reboot. “What do we do to reboot ourselves? Is it a jumping jack? Is it just standing up and stretching? Is it getting fresh air? What kind of input can we give our body to kind of move on and get unstuck?”

Overall, she said, the goal is to break that endless loop of anxious anticipation.

Your brain may say, “shouldn’t I be doing more? Shouldn’t I be doing more?” Kissen said. “But sometimes there’s just not more to be done.”

Source: American Heart Association

When is Surgery Not Safe for Seniors?

Poor physical function, dementia and depression all raise seniors’ risk of death after a major operation and should be factored into their pre-surgery assessments, researchers say.

In a new study, investigators analyzed data on more than 1,300 U.S. patients, aged 66 and older, who had one of three types of major surgery (abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, coronary artery bypass graft or colectomy) between 1992 and 2014.

Before their surgery, at least 90% of the patients were independent or did not need help with activities of daily living or instrumental activities of daily living, 6% had dementia, 23% had thinking (“cognitive”) impairment without dementia, and 25% had depression.

Activities of daily living include bathing, dressing, eating, using the bathroom, getting in and out of bed, and walking across the room. Instrumental activities of daily living include preparing meals, handling finances, using the phone, shopping and taking medication.

Overall, 17% of the patients died within a year after their surgery, the findings showed.

Rates of death were 29% among those who needed support for at least two activities of daily living versus 13% among those who were independent.

The risk of death rose as the number of risk factors increased: 10% for no factors, 16% for one factor and nearly 28% for two factors, according to the study published March 11 in JAMA Surgery.

These findings show the need for research into how to incorporate these risk factors into pre-surgery assessments of seniors, said study lead author Dr. Victoria Tang. She is an assistant professor of geriatrics and of hospital medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and the affiliated San Francisco VA Health Care System.

“Improving our understanding of functional, cognitive and psychological risk factors in this population, particularly in predicting risk beyond typical medical factors, is essential to providing patient-centered care,” Tang concluded in a university news release.

Source: HealthDay