Never had the flu? Scientists may know why

From NPR. Hey Shortwaveers, Emily Quang here with my co-host Regina Varver. Hey, I am. Hi, and one of Summer's one of the many awesome host of all things considered.

“Aren't you so excited to take a break from the hardness?”

It's always fine hanging out with y'all.

Oh, we are fun. Excellent. Well, this episode is our bi-weekly science news round-up where we wax poetic about some of the most interesting science stories we found online in the journals and pop culture anywhere cool science could be happening.

Sounds like most often the journals. Yes, just a story. Science is happening around us all the time. But this week, the stories we found are mostly focused on health. See?

That is around us, right? It's true. Have either of you gotten the flu this season. This is my important question for our show. Not gonna wood, not yet.

Me neither. I got a vaccine, so no. Yeah, awesome. Awesome. Well, I'll be curious to see what you think about this first topic

because we are talking about people who have never gotten the flu.

And then we're gonna talk about something that I think one is going to be interested in exercise. I'm a runner, I'm excited for this. Our second story also made change up your routine because it's about why you may need less. Vigorous exercise then you think interesting.

“And then I think we're going to round it all out with the study on the effects of fortifying food, right?”

That is right. Yeah, food, flu, and fitness today on the show. Let's get healthy. You're listening to shortwave. The science podcast from NPR.

This message comes from wise. The app for international people using money around the globe. You can send, spend, and receive an up to 40 currencies with only a few simple taps. Be smart, get wise, download the wise app today or visit wise.com. Teas and sees apply.

Okay, Gene and Wana, I have gathered us all to this fine studio in the depths of NPR to chat about some new interesting health studies. Okay. Wana, which one do you want to talk about first? Okay, I want to start off with this flu story because I am not a person who really gets the flu. I don't think I've actually ever had it before.

What about you guys? That is ridiculous. Crossing my fingers. I'm gonna just jinx myself. Good for you.

The flu heard you. Let me just mix it next week. So it sounds like this story is kind of about people like me who don't get the flu. So scientists seem to have a clue now as to why.

Yeah, so scientists found a lot of this one small protein in the noses and mouss of people who reported never getting flu symptoms.

And that seems likely to protect them from the flu virus. And the study was published in the journal PNAs. How they find the sound? Yeah, scientists found a special group of participants for this study. Health care workers. So 19 people who had a ton of close contact with sick patients, but never once had flu like symptoms themselves.

These folks also had never had a flu vaccine in their lives. And guess who the first study participant was?

“Okay, I am not gonna get this right. Was it the surgeon general?”

Nope. Nope. It was one of the researchers moms. I love that. I know it was still here that C has a super power. Modium for Garcia is a virologist who worked on the study. She's based at the Fissabio Foundation in Spain. And she always wondered why her mom who's this retired nurse managed to never get the flu.

So modium and her team collected mouthwash samples from healthy health care workers in search of a reason. And they found high levels of this protein called dormside in. It seems to block the flu virus before it even gets into cells. But this is not what dormside was known for. Okay, hold up for a second. Scientists already knew that some people had this protein. Yes, dormside in is found in human sweat where a block's bacteria and fungus from infecting our skin.

But what scientists didn't know is that dormside in is an antiviral too. Yeah, so compared to healthy people who have definitely had the flu before to these like flu resits and health care workers. They had a much higher level of dormside in their saliva and nasal passageways. Okay, let me see if I understand this. So the amount of this protein is ramped up in some people even before a person is exposed to the flu. Yeah, scientists don't know exactly why some people have different levels of dormside in.

But mariam says that measuring the amount could help identify people who may be at risk for getting very sick from the flu. And then making sure those folks get a flu vaccine for sure. Scientists also want to explore how to use dormside and as an antiviral and as a preventative treatment. Like in a nasal spray or something. Yeah, nasal spray or even eye drops with dormside in that could protect someone.

The research was also found that dormside in blocked measles. One of the viruses that caused the common cold and multiple strains of the flu, including a strain that's already resistant to current antivirals. Interesting. All right, let's move on to topic two, which is about vigorous exercise. You guys both know that I'm a runner, but sometimes it's more of a jog than a sprint.

Is that okay? Yes, almost only jog. But we want to, if you're getting at least 15 to 20 minutes of this vigorous exercise a week, then yeah, you're doing great.

And they found that people who put in just a few minutes of vigorous exercise a day were less likely to develop serious conditions, such as heart and kidney disease, type 2 diabetes and dementia.

“Okay, so I have questions for you guys. And the first one is this, what actually counts as vigorous exercise?”

Yeah, it's a really good question. Yeah. So do you have a heart rate monitor? I do. I've got a little heart rate monitor. Well, it depends on your age, but generally speaking, the American Heart Association defines vigorous exercise as your body reaching 70 to 85% of your max heart rate. It's different for different ages and health levels. But to the lead researcher of this study, Ming Choi Shen, and he said that even small things could count as vigorous exercise.

Like going up the stairs quickly or carrying heavy groceries or short bursts of cycling or running, which is really a good reminder for people who can't do like a ton of cardio. And this was surprising to the scientists. It was at least a Ming Choi. We are very surprised. We expected the higher intensity activity could be beneficial. But we were struck by how much more important intensity was than total volume.

Because the American Heart Association suggests 75 minutes of vigorous exercise a week and then along comes the study saying maybe you don't need that much. And it's also worth noting that the American Heart Association says that you can alternatively do 150 minutes of moderate exercise. But this study suggests it's best to prioritize the short bursts of intensity during that workout. Interesting. What are people in the sports world though?

I have to say about all of this. Yes, so that's what I thought too. And one expert I talked to wasn't that surprised. In fact, he says that during workouts. If you look at the collective time that people are actually engaged in that high intensity, it's not a lot.

This is Dr. Eli Friedman from Cedar Sinai in Los Angeles. He trains athletes. So he wasn't surprised, but he also wanted a caution that even though vigorous exercise is important. He doesn't want people to be discouraged from doing less intense exercise. Any exercises good. And that this study, it shows pushing yourself a little even for a few seconds can go a long way.

Okay, I'm going to keep that in the back of my head when I go to the gym. Yeah, let's go sprint after this upstairs. I literally sprinted for like 30 seconds after I did this story.

“Okay, and do we all feel ready to move on to the final topic?”

I think it's food fortification. I do not know what that is, please help. Yeah, it is so technical sounding, but fortified foods are pretty common. You've probably had iodized salts and salt shaker. That's fortified with iodine.

There's bread of fortified with folic acid and breakfast cereal fortified with iron. You're thinking of something like weedies? Yes, I am. Yeah, I just ate fortified cereal this morning.

It was like cinnamon checks and basically fortified foods contain carefully calculated boosts of essential vitamins and minerals.

Because billions of people around the world are not getting enough micronutrients. And over time, a micronutrient deficiency has serious health consequences. From susceptibility to disease to impaired growth and development for young children, especially. I'm deduci, I'm Boia is the co-author of a new study in the Lancet Global Health, which measured the impact of large scale food fortification programs in 185 countries. And his team found that based on the best available data, these programs prevent 7 billion nutrient gaps worldwide.

So this is basically evidence that these programs do have a massive impact. And they estimate that even more nutrient gaps could be prevented if food fortification programs had higher compliance. This involves manufacturers consistently fortified staple foods at the levels required by national standards. As an example, a nutrient gap in fullic acid has been linked to neural tube defects in infants.

“And that's why California now requires manufacturers to add fullic acid to corn, mass of flour, which is used to make tortillas.”

Yeah, Alabama will follow suit with a similar law in June. So my big takeaway here is that I definitely need to eat more vegetables in tortillas. But you also need to like, sprint just a baby. Baby amounts for a little bit. I'll sprint out of the studio soon. Okay. Ready, set, go. Okay. No, before you run off, Gina, you want to thank you for hanging out and talking about all things personal home.

You want to do it again soon. Yeah. For more science stories, just like these, follow shortwave on whatever app you're listening to.

It helps you never miss a new episode.

And if you love one as much as we do, check out our work on consider this and pierce afternoon podcast about what the news means for you. It's really good. Go ahead. This episode was produced by George Marie Smith and Berlin McCoy. It was edited by Ashora Nora Rebecca Ramirez and Patrick Jaren Wattenonan.

Tyler Jones checked the facts and Hannah Glovna and Robert Rodriguez were the audio engineers. I'm Emily Quang. And I'm Regina Barbara.

Let's get physical.

“Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't.”

Do you know Gina used to be in a band?

I did not.

Yes, she was in a punk band.

That was not a punk band. You were a grunge band. Okay, I don't. I don't even know that. I was in high school.

“Because I was born, I never saw the 80s.”

I mean, the grunge was in the 90s, but it's cool.