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Managing Pain in the Presence of Autoimmune Disease
Published in Sahar Swidan, Matthew Bennett, Advanced Therapeutics in Pain Medicine, 2020
One hormone that is not optimally tested in the blood is cortisol. For many reasons, saliva is better than blood. For one, saliva testing was the first way ever developed to test for cortisol.89 Saliva is a better indicator of intra-cellular levels.90 What goes on inside the cells tends to be more important than what goes on in the serum, or liquid, part of our blood. Finally, the very worst time to check the level of the “stress hormone” cortisol is right after stabbing the person with a sharp object. And a blood draw is stabbing a person with a sharp object. Immediately, this alters cortisol levels. Spitting tends to be a lot less stressful for most people. Plus, cortisol levels need to be checked at 8 AM, noon, 5 PM, and 10 PM.91 Saliva cortisol testing kits are available from several companies (Figure 6.8).
Enteral Feeding
Published in Susan Carmody, Sue Forster, Nursing Older People, 2017
Not being able to eat and drink means that important aspects of quality of life have been denied tube-fed people, but a cup of tea or a glass of wine passed down the tube, along with some of the tea or wine painted on the tongue, can help to break the tedium. Depending on the person’s condition, a little oral diet (in the form of chewing of favourite foods and then spitting them out) might be acceptable. Chewing sugarless gum can also be helpful.
Mosquitoes Do Not Spread HIV
Published in Omar Bagasra, Donald Gene Pace, A Guide to AIDS, 2017
Omar Bagasra, Donald Gene Pace
Could a female mosquito suck blood from an AIDS-infected person, and then spread HIV-1, the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) virus, to its next blood provider? The short answer is no. The longer answer, also no, goes something like this: The amount of mosquito saliva is so small that it has no potential to infect another human. This does not mean that the concern for saliva-borne infection has been unfounded. Such historically lethal mega killers as malaria, yellow and dengue fevers, and now Zika virus, can be spread from person to person through mosquito saliva. Although humans have far more saliva than mosquitoes, and although human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been documented in saliva, it has only been detected in exceptionally low amounts. Human saliva, by itself, has never been the means of HIV transmission. Spitting may be disgusting, but it is not a means of transmitting HIV from the spitter to spitee, nor is it spread through kissing, when a large amount of saliva exchange occurs between mouths who happen to have open mouth sores or bleeding gums [2]. Interestingly, we were the first investigators to show the presence of HIV in oral mucosa [3]. Therefore, it is not that HIV does not infect the CD4+ cells in the mouth, but there are some components in saliva that prevent HIV from infecting the uninfected kissers.
Normal lark, deviant owl: The relationship between chronotype and compliance with COVID-19 mitigation measures
Published in Chronobiology International, 2022
After giving informed consent, participants were asked to provide their demographic information, such as gender and age. Subsequently, they completed a survey assessing their compliance with preventive health guidelines during the pandemic and several unrelated questions about time management and general knowledge test. The central and local governments issued six public health measures that are to be followed to reduce the risk of infection from COVID-19. These precautions include reducing the close physical contact, wearing a face mask in public, practising good respiratory etiquette, watching closely for symptoms, washing hands properly, and banning spitting in public spaces. The six items were answered on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 = Not At All to 5 = Always. The Cronbach’s alpha was 0.81, which indicates that the questionnaire showed acceptable internal consistency.
The influence of disclosure of an autism diagnosis on peer engagement and interactions for a child with autism in summer camps: a case study
Published in Disability and Rehabilitation, 2022
Lu’an Fan, Stephanie Shire, Mélanie Couture, Lonnie Zwaigenbaum, Sandy Thompson-Hodgetts
Both peers and adults (camp leader, volunteer) described how they noticed some of the child’s socially disruptive behaviors at the start of camp, for instance, having difficulty with listening, not understanding personal boundaries, making odd noises, and spitting. They described those behaviors negatively as “weird,” “annoying,” and “gross” before they knew about his diagnosis. These negative views were, however, revised to “fine” and “understandable” following disclosure. As noted by the camp leader, “people know that he isn’t trying to be annoying, they know he doesn’t want to hurt anybody.” Taking the spitting behavior as an example, his peer stated, “the only weird thing was that he spitted”. When asked if she still thought it was gross after they knew about his autism, she replied “No. No. Because sometimes people just can’t [control]…” Learning about his diagnosis appeared to facilitate some campers to change their behavioral attribution and helped them understand some of Bob’s behaviors. Adult perceptions were also changed based on the disclosure protocol. For example, the volunteer, who did not originally know of Bob’s diagnosis of autism, changed his perception of Bob once he learned about his diagnosis, “At the start [of camp] I thought he was just acting a little weird. Sometimes kids get on my nerves, but after I learned [the diagnosis] my outlook on him changed.”
The gonadal response to social stress and its relationship to cortisol
Published in Stress, 2021
Belinda Pletzer, Eefje S. Poppelaars, Johannes Klackl, Eva Jonas
Seven saliva samples of 2 mL each were collected by spitting in a tube at baseline (i.e. 15 minutes before the stress manipulations), as well as every 5 minutes after the stress manipulations. To avoid sample contamination or hormone manipulation unrelated to the experiment, participants were instructed not to eat, drink (except water) or exercise 30 min prior to the experiment, and not to smoke on the same day. All samples were immediately frozen at −20 °C. Prior to analysis, solid particles were removed by centrifugation for 15 min and 10 min respectively at 3,000 rpm. Cortisol levels had already been analyzed for Poppelaars et al. (2019). For the current manuscript, we additionally analyzed free estradiol and testosterone from the same samples, using DeMediTec salivary ELISA kits (DeMediTec Diagnostics, Kiel, Germany). Please note that this analysis step required an additional freeze-thaw cycle. While salivary steroids appear to be stable after repeated freeze-thaw cycles (Durdiaková et al., 2013; Gandara et al., 2007; Keevil et al., 2014), it is possible that hormone degradation led to a slight underestimation of actual sex hormone values. However the treatment of samples was consistent across participants to ensure the comparability of hormone values. In order to increase reliability, all samples were analyzed in duplicate and samples with intra-assay coefficients of variability above 25% were reanalyzed.