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Written by: THOM FILE AND MATTHEW MARLAY

Published: 08 February 2021

Younger adults living alone were more likely than older adults living alone to report symptoms of both anxiety and depression in recent weeks, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data.

The Household Pulse Survey provides insight into the mental health and well-being of adults living alone during the Coronavirus pandemic. The survey asks two questions related to symptoms of anxiety, and two questions about symptoms of depression.

Phase 3 of the survey collects data over two-week intervals, and this article relies on publicly available data collected from Oct. 28 through Nov. 9, a time period in which the Census Bureau sent invitations to 1,035,752 households and received a total of 58,729 responses.

Among adults living alone, respondents age 65 and over reported lower rates of anxiety and depression than those in other age groups (Figure 1).

Those between ages 18 and 29 and 30 and 44 reported higher rates of anxiety and depression. The age groups were not statistically different from each other on either measure.

Respondents in the 45-64 age group reported symptoms of both anxiety and depression at rates that fell between those of the youngest and oldest respondents.



Financial stress

Economic disruptions such as a loss of income had an impact on the mental health of those living alone, as did the expectation of losing employment income in the next four weeks (Figure 2).

About half (51%) of individuals living alone who either lost or expected to lose employment income reported anxiety, compared with only about a third (32%) of those who had not experienced or expected the same type of economic disruption.

Similarly, about 44% of those who had experienced or expected lost income reported symptoms of depression, compared with about 26% of those who had not experienced or expected economic disruption.



Does health matter?

Adults living alone who reported excellent overall health had lower rates of both anxiety and depression: Only 23% reported symptoms of anxiety and 16% reported symptoms of depression (Figure 3).

On the other hand, among adults living alone who reported being in poor health, about two thirds reported symptoms of anxiety and depression (around 65% and not statistically different from each other on both measures).

It is important to emphasize that these questions and analysis do not capture causality. In other words, we do not know whether the mental health of those in good overall health was bolstered because of that good health, or whether poor mental health caused people to report lower levels of overall health.

It is likely that both are true: mental health influences overall health and vice versa.



Households with children

Overall, about 36% of all adults reported feeling anxiety in the previous week. Adults living alone and those in households with children were slightly more likely to report feeling anxious (about 38% each) than adults living in households without children (34%).

Meanwhile, about 28% of all households reported feeling depressed over the previous week.

When analyzed by specific household type, about 30% of those living alone and those in households with kids reported symptoms of depression, compared to about 26% of adults in households with other adults but without children (Figure 4).

We examined differences in mental health by racial and ethnic groups for those living alone but the results were generally inconclusive and are therefore not included here.

The Household Pulse Survey asks four questions about mental health over the previous seven days, two relating to symptoms of anxiety and two relating to symptoms of depression.

These questions are collected in partnership with the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). This analysis follows an approach outlined by NCHS, which categorizes individuals based on how frequently they reported feeling anxious or depressed, consistent with diagnoses of generalized anxiety disorder or major depressive disorder.

Household Pulse Survey data include Household Pulse Survey tables, Technical Documentation and Public Use File, or PUF, microdata.

Thom File is a sociologist in the Census Bureau’s Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division. Matthew Marlay is a sociologist and demographer in the Census Bureau’s Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division.

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Written by: Richard Kuhn, Purdue University

Published: 08 February 2021

 

The SARS-CoV-2 virus mutates fast. That’s a concern because these more transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2 are now present in the U.S., U.K. and South Africa and other countries, and many people are wondering whether the current vaccines will protect the recipients from the virus. Furthermore, many question whether we will we be able to keep ahead of future variants of SARS-CoV-2, which will certainly arise.

In my laboratory I study the molecular structure of RNA viruses – like the one that causes COVID-19 – and how they replicate and multiply in the host. As the virus infects more people and the pandemic spreads, SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve. This process of evolution is constant and it allows the virus to sample its environment and select changes that make it grow more efficiently. Thus, it is important to monitor viruses for such new mutations that could make them more deadly, more transmissible or both.

RNA viruses evolve quickly

The genetic material of all viruses is encoded in either DNA or RNA; one interesting feature of RNA viruses is that they change much more rapidly than DNA viruses. Every time they make a copy of their genes they make one or a few mistakes. This is expected to occur many times within the body of an individual who is infected with COVID-19.

One might think that making a mistake in your genetic information is bad – after all, that’s the basis for genetic diseases in humans. For an RNA virus, a single change in its genome may render it “dead.” That’s not too bad if inside an infected human cell you’re making thousands of copies and a few are no longer useful.

However, some genomes may pick up a change that is beneficial for the survival of the virus: Maybe the change allows the virus to evade an antibody – a protein that the immune system produces to catch viruses – or an antiviral drug. Another beneficial change may allow the virus to infect a different type of cell or even a different species of animal. This is likely the pathway that allowed SARS-CoV-2 to move from bats into humans.

Any change that gives the virus’s descendants a competitive growth advantage will be favored – “selected” – and begin to outgrow the original parent virus. SARS-CoV-2 is demonstrating this feature now with new variants arising that have enhanced growth properties. Understanding the nature of these changes in the genome will provide scientists with guidance to develop countermeasures. This is the classic cat-and-mouse scenario.

In an infected patient there are hundreds of millions of individual virus particles. If you were to go in and pick out one virus at a time in this patient, you would find a range of mutations or variants in the mix. It’s a question of which ones have a growth advantage – that is, which ones can evolve because they are better than the original virus. Those are the ones that are going to become successful during the pandemic.

Of the mutations that have been detected, is one of particular concern?

Any single variant or change in the virus is probably not that problematic. A single change in the spike protein – which is the region of the virus that attaches to human cells – is probably not going to be a big threat as the medical community rolls out the vaccines.

The current vaccines induce the immune system to produce antibodies that recognize and target the spike protein on the virus, which is essential for invading human cells. Scientists have observed the accumulation of multiple changes in the spike protein in the South African variant.

These changes allows SARS-CoV-2, for example, to attach more tightly to the ACE2 receptor and enter human cells more efficiently, according to preliminary unpublished studies. Those alterations could enable the virus to infect cells more easily and enhance its transmissibility. With multiple changes in the spike protein, the vaccines may no longer produce a strong immune response against these new variant viruses. That’s a double whammy: a less effective vaccine and a more robust virus.

Right now, the public doesn’t need to be concerned about the current vaccines. The leading vaccine manufacturers are monitoring how well their vaccines control these new variants and are ready to tweak the vaccine design to ensure that they will protect against these emerging variants. Moderna, for example, has stated that it will adjust the second or booster injection to more closely match the sequence of the South African variant. We’ll have to just wait and see, as more people receive vaccinations, whether the transmission rates will drop.

Why is lowering transmission key?

A drop in transmission rates means fewer infections. Less virus replication leads to fewer opportunities for the virus to evolve in humans. With less opportunity to mutate, the evolution of the virus slows and there is a lower risk of new variants.

The medical community needs to make a big push and get as many people vaccinated and thus protected as possible. If not, the virus will continue to grow in large numbers of people and produce new variants.

How the new variants are different

The U.K. variant, known as B.1.1.7., seems to bind more tightly to the protein receptor called ACE2, which is on the surface of human cells.

I don’t think we’ve seen clear evidence that these viruses are more pathogenic, which means more deadly. But they may be transmitted faster or more efficiently. That means that more people will be infected, which translates into more people who will be hospitalized.

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The South African variant, known as 501.V2, has multiple mutations in the gene that encodes the spike protein. These mutations help the virus evade an antibody response.

Antibodies have exquisite precision for their target, and if the target changes shape slightly, as with this variant – which virologists call an escape mutant – the antibody can no longer bind tightly, as it loses its power to protect.

Why do we need to monitor for mutations?

We want to make sure that the diagnostic tests are detecting all of the viruses. If there are mutations in the virus’s genetic material, an antibody or PCR test may not be able to detect it as efficiently or at all.

To be sure that the vaccine is going to be effective, researchers need to know if the virus is evolving and escaping the antibodies that were triggered via the vaccine.

Another reason that monitoring for new variants is important is that people who’ve been infected might be infected again if the virus has mutated and their immune system can’t recognize it and shut it down.

The best way to look for emerging variants in the population is to do random sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 viruses from patient samples across diverse genetic backgrounds and geographical locations.

The more sequencing data researchers collect, the better vaccine developers will be able to respond in advance of major changes in the virus population. Many research centers around the U.S. and the world are ramping up their sequencing capabilities to accomplish this.

Richard Kuhn, Professor of Biological Sciences, Purdue University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Written by: ESTHER OERTEL

Published: 07 February 2021

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – We all learned about the four taste categories in school – sweet, salty, bitter and sour. It turns out there’s a fifth category – umami, which denotes a delightfully rich and savory flavor, one that can’t be categorized within the other four.

When compared to how long the theory of the four basic tastes has been around (Democritus, a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, added the fourth category, bitter), umami is a relative newcomer. It wasn’t until 2002, when researchers discovered receptors on the human tongue specific to it, that it became universally accepted. (Well, almost universally accepted; there are some detractors.)

It can be a bit difficult to pin down umami. Some describe it as full-bodied and meaty, similar to a richly flavored, well reduced broth.

It’s more than just a flavor, however; it’s also a sensation. Umami coats the tongue, gives a sense of mouth fullness, and has a long-lasting, complex and balanced taste.

It is said that umami has three distinct characteristics: the taste spreads across the tongue, it lasts longer than other tastes, and it provides a mouth-watering sensation.

Think seared meat, aged cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, seafood, green tea, walnuts, and fermented things like soy sauce and kimchi. It’s a diverse grouping, isn’t it?

But what is umami exactly?

To answer this question, we have to go back more than 100 years – to Japan in 1908, when a Tokyo University chemist, Kikunae Ikeda, proposed its existence.

It came about through his enjoyment of a bowl of dashi, a classic Japanese stock made from seaweed. As Ikeda sipped his soup, he recognized that what he was tasting was beyond category. He later wrote that he knew that what he was tasting was “common to tomatoes, cheese, and meat, but … not one of the four known tastes.”

He wanted to discover whether the flavor he was experiencing was a biologically determined taste for something he couldn’t quite pin down.

In his lab, Ikeda examined the molecular structure of a key component of the broth, a variety of seaweed known as kombu (or kelp to us). He determined that one substance, an amino acid known as glutamic acid, was responsible for the intense and pleasurable flavor he experienced.

He named the taste umami, derived from umai, the Japanese word for delicious. The Japanese characters for delicious and taste form the word in that language, and umami can best be translated to English as deliciousness or even yumminess.

The more recent taste research mentioned above has since confirmed that the molecular compounds in glutamic acid – glutamates – bind to specific tongue receptors to create some pretty amazing flavor magic.

Though “meaty” is one descriptor of umami, the flavor is found in food sourced from both animals and plants. Any food in which glutamic acid occurs naturally (or after cooking, aging, or fermentation) is considered umami.

When glutamate breaks down, such as when a piece of meat is cooked, cheese is aged, or a tomato is ripened in the sun, it becomes L-glutamate, which creates the taste sensation that is umami. The more concentrated the flavor (think slow-smoked meats, dried tomatoes, caramelization from roasting vegetables, or reduced stocks), the more intense the umami flavor.

While cooking typically brings out umami flavor, some foods, like corn and peas, are packed with umami when fresh.

Humans have long enjoyed the benefits of umami. More than 3,000 years ago, Greeks and Romans boosted the flavor of their food by using a fermented condiment made from anchovies (much like we use ketchup), and soy sauce has long been used to enhance food in Japan.

Auguste Escoffier, the famed French chef of the late 1800s who changed the course of cuisine, perfected the use of umami in the veal stock he created. He was known to say that a savory fifth taste was the secret to his success.

Many researchers now believe that humans developed a taste for umami because it signals the presence of protein, just as a sweet taste alerts us to needed calories and bitter or sour can warn us of possible toxins. Interestingly, human breast milk is high in umami.

The reason we crave things like cheeseburgers with ketchup or pizza with cheese is because of the umami flavor bomb that the combined ingredients create. Layering on other umami-rich foods like caramelized onions, grilled mushrooms or smoked meats like bacon creates even more flavor intensity.

If you’re an advocate of plant-based cooking like me, utilizing umami-rich foods like tomatoes, eggplant, mushrooms, caramelized onions, roasted winter squashes or nuts adds a satisfying “meaty” quality to foods.

And yes, if you recognized a similarity in the name, monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the chemical basis for umami flavor. Once the flavor source was isolated, Professor Ikeda marketed it as a product named Ajinomoto, which means “essence of flavor” in Japanese.

Today’s recipe is an appetizer packed full of umami that comes from mushrooms and shaved parmesan cheese. The use of dried mushrooms is optional; however, I recommend using them to kick up the level of umami flavor.

Mushroom Medley on Garlic Toasts

If you have access to wild mushrooms, use them in this dish. Otherwise, purchase a variety of fresh mushrooms at your local market, such as button, shiitake, cremini and baby portabella.

3 pounds mixed fresh mushrooms, cleaned and stemmed
3 ounces dried mushrooms (optional)
¼ cup olive oil
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
¼ cup vegetable broth or white wine
2 tablespoons brandy
2 tablespoons sweet butter or olive oil
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 sprigs fresh thyme
¼ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
Toasted baguette slices rubbed with fresh garlic
Shaved parmesan cheese, about 1 ¼ ounces

Heat oven to 450 degrees F.

Slice fresh mushrooms ¼ inch thick.

Soak dried mushrooms, if using, in a bowl of hot water until tender, about 10 minutes. Rinse and squeeze to dry.

Heat a 12-inch ovenproof skillet until very hot. Add olive oil and fresh mushrooms. Cook, stirring frequently, over high heat until mushrooms release their liquid, about 10 minutes.

Add the shallots, garlic, and rehydrated mushrooms, if using, and cook until liquid has evaporated.

Add broth or wine, brandy, butter or olive oil, salt, pepper, and the sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme.

Transfer skillet to the oven and roast, stirring twice, for 30 minutes. Stir in chopped parsley.

Serve warm on the garlic toasts and garnish with shaved Parmesan cheese.

Recipe by Esther Oertel.

Esther Oertel is a writer and passionate home cook from a family of chefs. She grew up in a restaurant, where she began creating recipes from a young age. She’s taught culinary classes in a variety of venues in Lake County and previously wrote “The Veggie Girl” column for Lake County News. Most recently she’s taught culinary classes at Sur La Table in Santa Rosa. She lives in Middletown.