The dog flu and you

In Wes Anderson’s animated film “Isle of Dogs,” an outbreak of canine influenza rips through the fictional Japanese city of Megasaki. The town’s mayor, fearing the virus will spread to humans, banishes all dogs to Trash Island, a.k.a. Isle of Dogs. The ultra-smart exiled pups, missing the great meals their owners once provided, eventually find a way to help upend the government conspiracies that forced them out of town.

This dystopian film is, of course, a work of fiction. In real life, there’s never been a documented case of animal-to-human transmission of a dog flu virus. (They’re named subtype H3N8 and subtype H3N2; each name identifies its antigen.) But it’s important to know that your pooch is vulnerable to the virus, and somewhere under 10 per cent of infected dogs die of flu-related complications.

Canine influenza is transmitted through droplets that become airborne when a dog breathes, barks or sneezes (cats can catch it from them). Symptoms include cough, runny nose, fever, lethargy, eye discharge and reduced appetite. Your vet’s treatment will include support care to keep your dog hydrated and prevent a secondary bacterial infection.

So make the flu shot an annual healthy habit for your entire family — one kind for people and one for dogs that spend a lot of time around other animals in boarding or daycare facilities, parks or dog runs. The vaccine is administered in two doses, three weeks apart, and like its human counterpart, getting it early (September or October) makes sense, but it’s never too late to help!

Obesity and your brain are not a happy couple

In Japan, most Sumo wrestlers weigh 300-400 pounds. While they’re professionally active, they follow a diet and workout routine that helps keep them surprisingly healthy, considering their girth. But once they stop training, they’re prone to Type 2 diabetes, high LDL cholesterol and cardiovascular disease, and they have a life expectancy that’s 10 years shorter than the general population.

It shouldn’t take a genius to figure out that sooner or later, being chronically obese is going to exact consequences. Belly fat and brains ... if you got one, you’re losing the other!

In a study published in Neurology, researchers found people with the highest body mass index and the highest waistto-hip ratios (fat around the middle), had the lowest volume of brain gray matter. This matter contains most of the brain’s nerve cells, memory transmission centres and synapses. People with a BMI of 30 or above and a waistto-hip ratio above 0.90 for males and above 0.85 for females had an average gray matter brain volume of 786 cubic centimetres. Folks with healthy BMIs and waist-to-hip ratios had an average volume of gray matter of 798 cubic centimetres. Just being overweight, even without a huge belly, is associated with a smaller hippocampal memory-relay centre.

Such grey-matter shrinkage puts you at risk for dementia! So, let this be the year that you’re summa (not Sumo) cum laude about your health!

The optimal amount of fibre to stave off disease

You’ve hit the Mega Millions jackpot of meta-studies. But while Jan. 1 this year saw a winning ticket for $425 million (it hit that sum just about two months after a record-breaking $1.527 billion prize), this meta-study took a bit longer to make its splash.

Published in the journal The Lancet, the mega-paper “Carbohydrate Quality and Human Health” covers 40 years of data. The aim? To let you know the right amount of daily fibre to help stave off cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and Type 2 diabetes.

Researchers found that 25-29 grams of dietary fibre daily produced the best outcomes. Folks consuming that much were 15 to 30 per cent less likely to die prematurely from all causes and had a 16 to 24 per cent lower incidence of heart disease, stroke, colon cancer and Type 2 diabetes. Unfortunately, the average American consumes only 15 grams a day.

How to up your intake? Replace refined grains with 100 per cent whole-grain breads and cereals. Tip: Cook whole-grain pasta, sweet potatoes and other starches in the evening, then eat them for breakfast or lunch the next day. They become resistant starches, acting like fibre in you.

Other ways: The American Academy of Family Physicians suggests that you aim for two cups of fruits and 2 1/2 cups of vegetables and 1/2 cup cooked beans daily. Your goal, they say, is to take in five grams of fibre in every serving of plant-based foods you eat.

The underworld of underwear

Last year, a woman in London made headlines after getting herself out of debt by selling her dirty underwear on the internet for $60,000. Creepy but true. If only her customer base had known that their desires might be satisfied at a local chain store. It turns out far too many retail companies are restocking returned, used undergarments (BTW that’s illegal), and

unsuspecting customers are buying them.

“The Dr. Oz Show” launched an investigation into this retail misstep (watch it at

www.DoctorOz.com). Staffers purchased 11 pairs of underwear from top chain stores and sent the items out to a lab for testing. All but one tested positive for coliform bacteria, which exist in the digestive tracts of humans and are found in their waste. The good news is that most coliform bacteria don’t cause disease, but they do come from the same source as certain potentially pathogenic organisms. Half the samples also contained trace amounts of yeast. All but two samples were soiled with mould, which may indicate that the garments were kept in a damp factory or storage facility.

Fortunately, there haven’t been any reported cases of illness caused by wearing contaminated underwear, but chances are you wouldn’t associate diarrhea or another related GI disease with such a possible cause. So, let’s just assume you should wash all garments before wearing, even those in sealed plastic packaging. For hand-wash-only undergarments, add distilled vinegar to hot water and soak them before using soap. This will disinfect like bleach, without ruining them.

The importance of kids experiencing nature

In the 1950s TV shows “Lassie” and “The Andy Griffith Show” young boys Timmy (Jon Provost) and Opie (Ron Howard) were always running around outside, saving people or going fishing. Whether having fun or encountering danger (Timmy’s in the well!), they were outside a lot. Today, for city and suburban kids to spend time outside things must be planned and supervised. Hours and hours are spent indoors, with eyes on the screen for school, play and socializing. That puts a strain on kids.

According to a recent study from the University of Hong Kong, 16 per cent of preschoolers in Hong Kong, and up to 22 per cent in China, show signs of mental health problems. The numbers are almost identical in the U.S. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five (that’s 20 per cent) of American children ages three through 17 — about 15 million — have a diagnosable mental, emotional or behavioural disorder in any given year. What can be done?

Members of the World Health Organization met in Parma, Italy, in 2010 and came up with the Parma Declaration to help improve children’s physical and mental health. One solution: decrease the current epidemic of nature-deficit and child-nature-disconnectedness. Research has clearly shown that being connected to nature — or not — affects a child’s psychological functioning and well-being.

So, spend time in a park, green space or recreation area with your child every day. You’ll see improvements in mood, attention, sleep quality and schoolwork! Chances are you’ll have fun, too!