The BMJ

• When the cold and dark winter is setting in, some of us envy animals that can hibernate.
• In this case, how to survive a long, cold and dark period without much food and water.
• You will also find descriptions in Inuit Greenlandic stories of a prolonged hibernation-like sleep during the long dark winter months.

Animals and hibernation

• Animals that hibernate usually live longer compared to other species of the same size.
• Recent studies using epigenetic clocks, which map activity within genes over time, suggest that hibernation slows down ageing in marmots and bats.
• So hibernation may hold important clues on how to slow down ageing processes.
• New science based on epigenetic clocks and lessons from hibernating animals could help us to treat patients who have diseases driven by “wear and tear”.
• A 2018 study found that mimicking hibernation conditions for the storage of renal grafts from deceased donors seemed to improve their preservation.

Animals and longevity

• It seems like protection against inflammation, oxidative stress and modifications of proteins that happen with age are mechanism that in general benefit all long-lived animals.
• Genetic studies of rougheye rockfish, which can live for over 200 years, suggest that a food group called flavonoids is related to longevity.
• Lessons from nature and hibernating animals tell us that preserving cells, regulation metabolism and genetic adaptions play key roles in longevity.

Forty winks

• For example, a March 2023 study showed that with good quality sleep, you can add five years to the life of men and two and a half years if you are a woman.
• How elephants can become so old while sleeping so little is still a mystery to scientists.

Peter Stenvinkel receives funding from Astra Zeneca, Fresenius, Baxter, Novo Nordisk, Bayer, Invizius, Vifor for lectures and scientific advisory boards

• The manuscript, titled “Peptidomimetic Antibiotics Disrupt the Lipopolysaccharide Transport Bridge of Drug-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae,” is available online in the international peer-reviewed journal Science Advances at: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adg3683 .
• In the United States, more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur each year, leading to over 35,000 deaths and an estimated USD 4.6 billion in healthcare costs.
• Recent discovery of plasmid-mediated transferable colistin resistance genes have shown the ease with which resistance can spread in bacterial populations.
• No cross-resistance with standard of care antibiotics was observed and the demonstrated Enterobacteriaceae-specificity versus broad-spectrum activity supports continued development for this class of antibiotics for the potential management and treatment of antimicrobial resistant pathogens.

• 1.3 billion people use tobacco, mostly in low- and middle-income countries.
• More than 8 million people die prematurely because of tobacco, at an annual economic loss of at least US$1.4 trillion.
• That’s why it’s worth pointing out a solution that really works, yet not enough Asian nations have acted on it: raising tobacco prices through higher taxes.

The pay-off for higher taxes

• Increasing tobacco taxes costs relatively little, but yields a high impact.
• In our study of six Asia-Pacific countries, we found that for every unit of local currency invested in increasing tobacco taxes, the countries would gain between 20 and 1,057 units in return over 15 years.

Who would benefit most?

• Smoking is responsible for nearly half of the difference in death rates between wealthy and poor people, meaning measures that reduce smoking disproportionately benefit poor people.
• People with low incomes – both men and women – are more likely to use tobacco than their wealthier counterparts.
• Although the reductions in smoking-related deaths from higher taxes are concentrated in men, the financial benefits appear to flow to women.

How the Philippines became an Asia-Pacific leader

• Among its many reforms, the Philippines also instituted a whole-of-public sector code of conduct to prevent tobacco industry interference in its public policymaking.
• Yet despite the Philippines’ example and the clear benefits of significant tobacco tax increases, tobacco tax rates in most low income countries remain low.

Higher taxes, fewer smokers in Australia & NZ

• Over that time the proportion of Australians aged 14 and over who smoke daily has plummeted from 22% to 11%.
• Aotearoa New Zealand has gone even further with its “Smokefree 2025” policy, with a goal that by 2025, fewer than 5% of New Zealanders will be smokers.
• The NZ government increased the tobacco excise tax by inflation plus 10% each year between 2010 and 2020.

Even smokers back higher tax – if it goes to health

Higher taxes on cigarettes are overwhelmingly supported by non-smokers. But a US study has found that when the extra tax revenue is directed to healthcare programs, they are also overwhelmingly supported by smokers: 60% of those surveyed, up from 25% if the extra revenue is unallocated. The tax gap between rich and poorer countries might be partly due to myths such as that increasing tobacco taxes
• The United Nations’ Human Development Index has declined for two consecutive years for the first time since data became available.
• * This article was co-authored with Kazuyuki Uji, Policy Specialist, Health and Inclusive Development, United Nations Development Programme Bangkok Regional Hub.

• The Harlem Shake is on the radio and e-cigarettes are becoming a thing.
• A group of researchers convene to discuss these and other products containing nicotine.
• But one of those “guesstimates” has gone on to become the most cited piece of vaping misinformation globally: e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than tobacco cigarettes.

How the guesstimate took off

• Public Health England used the 95% figure in its 2015 review of e-cigarettes, but failed to mention the caveats of the guesstimate.
• The 2015 editorial also raised concerns about conflicts of interest, noting that some researchers involved in developing the guesstimate had connections to Big Tobacco.
• By 2020, the guesstimate had become a “factoid”: unreliable information repeated so often it becomes accepted as fact.

How it has been used in Australia

• The industry and its allies have been so effective at publicising this unscientific guesstimate, it continues to be used to undermine Australia’s public health policy.
• In submissions made to Australia’s 2020 Senate Inquiry into Tobacco Harm Reduction, industry bodies and allies leaned heavily on the factoid in their arguments for legalising e-cigarettes.

Why does it matter?

• Misinformation researchers refer to this as the continued influence effect: once it takes hold, it’s notoriously difficult to dislodge.
• As a digestible, attention-grabbing stat, it circulates in the media, and is repeated again and again.

What’s the solution?

We must debunk the myth that e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than tobacco cigarettes often and with factual evidence. Here is that evidence:
Public health policies should be informed by impartial evidence, not industry-backed guesses. It’s time to leave the factoid back in 2013 with The Harlem Shake.

Read more:
My teen's vaping. What should I say? 3 expert tips on how to approach 'the talk'