Strait swim for arthritis

At 4:30 am on July 13 at the foot of the Confederation Bridge, Jessie Sheppard smeared herself with SPF 70 and petroleum jelly, for warmth and to help cope with jellyfish stings. Then she began the Northumberland Strait swim. “I was scared to death, mostly of jellyfish, but also a little scared of going near the pylons of that giant bridge, and, eventually, scared of every little piece of kelp that touched my hands. Ew!” She yelled for her crew to bring the boat nearer, to help control her anxiety.

That worked. She continued on, stopping for Gatorade every half hour and chocolate every hour. After she made it under the bridge, a wind whipped up the waves. Never having swum in the Atlantic Ocean before, Jessie adapted her stroke “and found myself taking a breath in the trough of each wave and then basically body surfing through them.... I was having a blast! I was singing Beach Boys tunes in my head, and the jellyfish had nearly disappeared in the rough water.”

Five hours after starting on the New Brunswick side, Jessie reached PEI. She was amazed when she could see the bottom and reach down to touch sand. “I couldn’t believe the adventure was over so quickly! I felt surprisingly strong as I lifted my arms up to signal the end of the swim.”

Jessie, who is working on a graduate degree in health promotion at Dalhousie University, raised $9,000 for the Arthritis Society of Nova Scotia. Currently, 310,000 Atlantic Canadians, young and old, live with arthritis.

There goes the sun

For decades, low levels of vitamin D have been linked to an increased chance of developing multiple sclerosis. The details of that connection are still being worked out, and a researcher at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) recently made a discovery that adds to that understanding.

Since we manufacture vitamin D from solar radiation, people in sun-starved northerly regions may not make enough during the fall and winter. Dr. Jeffery Scott Sloka, a recent graduate of MUN’s faculty of medicine’s department of neurology, has been investigating long-term patterns of ultraviolet radiation in Newfoundland. He and fellow reseachers looked at data from all patients in Newfoundland with multiple sclerosis, including where they had lived, and when. That data set, along with daily patterns of UV, was then analyzed. The team found a significant and strong connection between developing MS and low UV exposure during the first year of life.

Whether early intervention can prevent MS has not yet been tested, and there may turn out to be other factors in the equation. In the meantime, many experts suggest taking 1,000 international units a day, along with a few minutes of sun exposure.

Better food = better marks?

Researchers at Dalhousie University surveyed 5,200 Grade 5 students and their parents to gather data on what children ate, their height and weight. The team also compiled scores from a standarized literacy assessment. Led by faculty of medicine graduate student Michelle Florence, the researchers found that students who ate more fruits and vegetables, and less fat, were significantly less likely to fail the literacy assessment.