Kite, the new repellant

Kite is being designed to block mosquitoes from detecting and biting humans with a goal of reducing human suffering from malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, and other mosquito-borne diseases. Kite technology is based on breakthrough research at the University of California Riverside (UCR), featured in the scientific journal Nature, demonstrating that scientists could manipulate mosquitoes’ ability to detect CO2 and find human hosts. ieCrowd acquired the technology in 2010.

Mosquito-borne diseases are a major global health issue. Over 3.4 billion people (half the world’s population) live in regions where there is risk of contracting malaria. Over 200 million people get malaria each year and one child dies every minute from the disease. Other serious mosquito-borne diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people include chikungunya and lymphatic filariasis. Because of the potential to reduce deaths and human suffering worldwide ieCrowd and OLI have focused initial commercialization on future mosquito control products. However, any insect that seeks blood as part of its life cycle is capable of, or depends on, the ability to detect CO2. Learn more: www.iecrowd.com/content/kite Watch video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_lvIqnYdjg

Live healthier near trees

Some researchers decided to quantify just how much a tree on a street could improve health. They collected the health records of 31,000 adult residents of Toronto, Canada, which included cardio-metabolic conditions, household income, years of education and their perception of their own health. Researchers combined this data with satellite imagery and public data on half a million trees in Toronto.

The study, published in Scientific Reports, found that planting 10 or more trees in a city block, on average, increased how someone rated their health and decreased cardio-metabolic conditions. These improvements in health were comparable to an “increase in annual income of $10,000, moving to a neighborhood with $10,000 higher median income or being seven years younger,” according to the study.

Read more: www.washingtonpost.com/news/energyenvironment/ wp/2015/07/09/scientists-have-discoveredthat- living-near-trees-is-good-for-your-health/

Prozac in the yogurt aisle

“The gut-brain axis is the collective communication pathway between the gastrointestinal tract and the brain,” explains John Cryan, a professor of anatomy and neuroscience at University College Cork in Ireland. Some of the information travels along the vagus nerve, which extends from our guts to our brains. Cryan says the idea that the two regions are so interconnected should not be a surprise.

“Think of phrases in our everyday language,” Cryan says. We have “gut instincts” and “gut feelings,” he notes. “We refer to butterflies in our tummy if we’re feeling a bit anxious. So we portray a raft of human emotions directly in our gut,” he says. A few years back, Cryan and his colleagues published the findings of a simple experiment. They took a strain of lactobacillus –known as Lactobacillus rhamnosus– that’s one of the most commonly used probiotics.

They fed it to one group of mice every day for a month, and they looked to see if the rodents’ behavior changed. The results, Cryan says, were striking. “What we found was that the animals that were fed the lactobacillus – compared to those that were just fed a regular broth– were a lot less anxious. And they behaved almost as if they were on Valium or Prozac”. Read the full note: www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/ 2015/07/14/422623067/prozac-in-the-yogurt-aislecan- good-bacteria-chill-us-out

Bhastrika Pranayam: Bellows Breath

Pranayama is an ancient practice concerned with breath control. Research has shown that practicing Pranayama can relieve symptoms of asthma and it is beneficial in treating depression and anxiety.

1. Breathe in deeply through your nostrils. First, feel the diaphragm move down, allowing the lungs to expand and forcing the abdomen out; then feel your chest expand with your collar bones rising last.

2. Breath out quickly through your nostrils. Feel the collar bones dropping, chest deflating, and abdomen shrinking as the lungs collapse. This process of exhaling should be much faster than the process of inhaling.

3. Repeat the process. When correctly done, your chest will expand when you breathe in and deflate when you breathe out. Do this for 5 minutes.

4. With practice, speed up your breathing. Beginners should always start slowly to avoid hyperventilating, but over time, it will be possible to achieve a rapid breathing technique.