Category Archives: Physiology

Physiology

Heat Waves Are Feeling Hotter, And We’re Measuring Them Wrong, Too – ScienceAlert

While we all know things on Earth are generally getting hotter, heat isn't the only factor influencing how hot we actually feel.

Due to changing environmental conditions and quirks of our physiology, heatwaves are feeling up to 10C (18F) hotter than traditional measures imply, new research discovered.

The US National Weather Service (NWS) uses apparent temperature also called the heat index to measure what these environmental conditions feel like to us physiologically.

But the new weather extremes we're facing today have pushed the system's fringes to breaking point. In turn, the physiological responses of sweating and cooling would influence our brain's estimates of the relative temperature.

Physicist Robert Steadman calculated the heat index scale in 1979 by measuring how different temperatures impact the blood flow in our skin under different levels of humidity.

So at an average humidity of around 70 percent, a typical human body in the shade would experience 20C as 20C.

At higher temperatures, the body would increasingly rely on its evaporating sweat to cool down, making it feel hotter than it really was.

A temperature of around 30C, for example, might seem more like 34.5C. At elevated humidities, this disparity only worsens.

The humidity factor is one of the reasons the UK struggled with its recent heatwaves, even though it only reached temperatures other places in the world would consider fairly standard for summer.

The higher the humidity, the harder it is for our bodies to use sweat to cool us down through evaporative cooling. Our bodies also flush our blood through veins closer to our skin's surface to dissipate heat.

A study earlier this year found that we're even worse at tolerating combinations of high heat and humidity than we previously thought, with an upper-temperature limit of just 31C at full humidity.

And unfortunately for us, for every degree Celsius our atmosphere is warming, water vapor also increases by around 7 percent.

The NSW relies on the heat index to issue public warnings on a regular basis, and researchers use it to estimate the physiological impacts of future warming.

Under most circumstances, this measure accurately represents how these environmental conditions affect us. However, the heat index was never designed for the extremes of both heat and humidity we're facing today extremes that are becoming more severe and increasing in frequency.

For example, a relative humidity of 80 percent was only mapped physiologically for temperatures between 15-31C, but temperatures now rise above 32C for weeks at a time in some parts of the US.

Simply extending the calculations by applying the same formula to the more extreme conditions unfortunately does not match what happens physically to our bodies.

"Most of the time, the heat index that the National Weather Service is giving you is just the right value. It's only in these extreme cases where they're getting the wrong number," explains climate physicist David Romps from the University of California, Berkeley.

"When you start to map the heat index back onto physiological states and you realize, oh, these people are being stressed to a condition of very elevated skin blood flow where the body is coming close to running out of tricks for compensating for this kind of heat and humidity. So, we're closer to that edge than we thought we were before."

For the most sweltering days, we're now experiencing this measure is up to 10C off.

So earlier this year, Romps and UC Berkeley physicist Yi-Chuan Lu extended the heat index for all temperatures and all humidity levels by considering our physiology too.

"The original table had a very short range of temperature and humidity and then a blank region where Steadman said the human model failed," says Lu. "Steadman had the right physics. Our aim was to extend it to all temperatures so that we have a more accurate formula."

Steadman's model breaks when 100 percent humidity at the skin's surface prevents us from sweating further. By recognizing that we continue to replace the sweat that drips free as well, the formulae Steadman devised could be pushed into new limits of temperature and humidity.

"I'm no physiologist, but a lot of things happen to the body when it gets really hot," says Romps. "Diverting blood to the skin stresses the system because you're pulling blood that would otherwise be sent to internal organs and sending it to the skin to try to bring up the skin's temperature. The approximate calculation used by the NWS, and widely adopted, inadvertently downplays the health risks of severe heat waves."

In their newest paper, the team applied their updated heat index to the top 100 heat waves between 1984 and 2020. They identified the Midwest as the home to the most physiologically hazardous heat in the US, not the South as previously reported.

The soils of the Midwest were known to be moist during its most severe heatwaves, including a particularly severe one in July 1995 indicative of the high humidity that helped cause 465 deaths.

The old index suggested people would have experienced a 90 percent increase in their skin blood flow, whereas the new index now shows that it was more like a 170 percent increase. And this was for people in the shade.

As heat waves are already the top weather-related cause of death in the US, particularly impacting older adults and those who must work outside, and the conditions are only set to worsen, the heat index is a vital measure to get right.

"A 200F [93C] heat index is an upper bound of what is survivable," says Romps. "But now that we've got this model of human thermoregulation that works out at these conditions, what does it actually mean for the future habitability of the United States and the planet as a whole? There are some frightening things we are looking at."

This research was published in Environmental Research Letters.

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Heat Waves Are Feeling Hotter, And We're Measuring Them Wrong, Too - ScienceAlert

Physiology

UMHB’s Strength and Conditioning Education Program is the First in the Country to Receive Accreditation from CASCE – UMHB.edu

UMHBs Strength and Conditioning Education Program is the First in the Country to Receive Accreditation from CASCE

BELTON, TexasThe University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (UMHB) is honored to announce that its Strength and Conditioning Education Program (SCEP) is the first in the country to receive accreditation from the Council of Accreditation of Strength and Conditioning (CASCE). UMHBs Strength and Conditioning Education Program is a concentration within the exercise physiology major.

According to the official letter from CASCE, this accreditation decision indicates the programs compliance with the CASCE Professional Standards and Guidelines. By achieving initial accreditation, the program has put itself through a rigorous peer review process and demonstrated its commitment to offering a measurable, accountable program, and of the highest quality in preparation for students pursuing careers in strength and conditioning.

At UMHB, the SCEP is offered in a Christian environment led by faculty who teach and mentor with integrity, sensitivity, and a commitment to excellence. The SCEP prepares undergraduate students to serve as leaders who demonstrate excellence in improving human performance, maximizing athlete safety and mastering athletes needs. The program provides an innovative and dynamic curriculum that reflects a scientific basis for understanding, contemporary strength and conditioning practice, exercise testing and technique, program design and program administration.

Its important that as a profession we standardize strength and conditioning education so we can optimize athlete peak performance, but more importantly, ensure athlete safety, explained Dr. Colin Wilborn, UMHBs executive dean for the Mayborn College of Health Sciences and director of the Strength and Conditioning Education Program. We could not be more honored to be recognized as the first program in the country to receive CASCE accreditation. This accreditation opens so many doors for the future of UMHBs exercise physiology graduates.

UMHB is at the forefront of exercise physiology education with its outstanding faculty, facilities and laboratories. Exercise physiology majors have opportunities to assist professors in cutting-edge nutritional, exercise, health and rehabilitation research in UMHBs state-of-the-art laboratories. The universitys exercise physiology major follows the guidelines established by the National Strength and Conditioning Association, the leading membership organization for thousands of elite strength coaches, personal trainers and dedicated researchers and educators worldwide.

To learn more, visit Exercise Physiology | Health degree | UMHB.

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UMHB's Strength and Conditioning Education Program is the First in the Country to Receive Accreditation from CASCE - UMHB.edu

Physiology

Mangosteen Peel as Medicine – CU’s Faculty of Veterinary Science is Successful in Replicating Mangosteen Peel Extract, Treatment for Intestinal…

BANGKOK, Thailand, Aug. 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn University has researched and replicated "Hydroxy-xanthones", the vital extracts rich in antioxidants found in mangosteen peels that kill germs and halt infections in the intestinal mucosa. It hopes to expand to include health products for humans and animals in the future.

Not only is "Mangosteen",the queen of Thai fruits, a delicious and healthy fruit, but its peel is also abundant with beneficial extracts. In days of old, local wisdom deemed mangosteen peel as a good cure for upset stomachs, inflammation on the skin, and cure wounds in animals. Today, there have been efforts to apply mangosteen peel extracts to various medicines and products such as plasters, gels, and surgical masks.

The benefits of mangosteen peel are even greater. Associate Professor Dr. Suthasinee Poonyachoti of the Department of Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn Universityhas recently been successful in developing a substance that replicates the chemical structure of mangosteen peel extract that helps stall leakages in the intestine. Aside from its health benefits, the extract reduces the need for medication for both humans and animals.

Xanthones a natural substance in the mangosteen peel rich with benefits

Research on mangosteen peel enabled Associate Professor Dr. Suthasinee to discover Xanthones, a substance in the Flavanol group that is effective in combatting or halting various types of inflammation with qualities such as anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, anti-allergy, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-malarial and anti-oxidant.

With Xanthones' ability to reduce inflammation and destroy bacteria, a research project in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine, Srinakharinwirot University was launched to develop and extract Xanthones in the form ofHydroxy XanthonesorHDXwith the highest efficacy for the health of humans and animals.

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"Extractions of mangosteen peels have brought about a variety of substances both beneficial and harmful. Moreover, they must go through a rather complicated process and we cannot control the quality of the extracts since it is dependent upon factors such as planting methods, use of fertilizer, climate, care, etc." Associate Professor Dr. Suthasinee enumerated how the research project came about.

"We chose the method of analysis and sought to mimic the chemical structure of Xanthones from mangosteen peels, giving us the desired essential extracts which are easier to apply directly as part of adjuvants in medicines, foods, and other products and to control their efficacy in the best manner possible."

Leaky Gut Syndrome a cause of disease in both humans and animals

The leaky gut syndrome can lead to many diseases especially septicemia that can be hidden in human bodies. This happens when there is an abnormality in the functions of the intestines and the microvilli.

"If you can imagine how the cells in the microvilli work. They line up next to each other and are responsible for screening and controlling toxic substances, and bacteria that enter the bloodstream. When inflammation occurs, the cells cannot line up next to each other and function like a fortress, which makes it possible for toxic or foreign substances to enter the bloodstream. The condition is dangerous and must be treated before it is too late," she explained.

A leaky gut does not always show any symptoms or if it does it could affect other physical ailments such as overtiredness, fatigue, headaches, or other body aches without any clear indication of the causes.

"The cause is not clear but hypothesized to be the result of stress. If the symptom occurs in human beings, they can consult physicians right away. However, if this occurs in animals, it is harder to tell if they are sick."

Developing HDX into health products for humans and animals

This research is at the experimental stage to determine the quality of HDX's performance. It has been used in pig farms first before being experimented on human beings and larger and more diverse types of animals. As Associate Professor Dr. Suthasinee concluded, "In the future, HDX will experiment in adjuvants in a variety of products like medicines and food items to improve the quality of life of both humans and animals."

For the full release and more images, please visit: https://www.chula.ac.th/en/highlight/80450/

Read the full article at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756464621004631

About Chulalongkorn University

Chulalongkorn University sets the standard as a university ofinnovations for society and is listed in the World's Top 100 Universities for Academic Reputation, in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS)World University Rankings 2021.

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Miss Thanita Wangvanichapan at (+66) 2218 3280 or email thanita.w@chula.ac.th

SOURCE Chulalongkorn University

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Mangosteen Peel as Medicine - CU's Faculty of Veterinary Science is Successful in Replicating Mangosteen Peel Extract, Treatment for Intestinal...

Physiology

How long does it take to build muscle? – Livescience.com

Anyone who has ever tried to build their biceps or add bulk to their back will know the process is easier said than done but how long does it take to build muscle?

The answer depends on many variables, from training methods and calorie intake to the macronutrients provided by the foods you eat. Indeed, you can lift the best adjustable dumbbells (opens in new tab) all you want, but if you dont eat enough protein (opens in new tab) and utilize the progressive overload (opens in new tab) principle, then you wont be able to pack on mass.

But even optimizing the muscle-building (or hypertrophy (opens in new tab)) process isnt enough. Age, gender and genetics play their part in deciding how successful your bodybuilding exploits will be.

We spoke to exercise physiologist Bianca Grover to find out how long it takes to build muscle and to get advice on how to do it.

Bianca Grover is a certified exercise physiologist, medical exercise specialist and personal trainer. She holds several certifications and specializations from the American Council on Exercise (ACE), the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the American Heart Association. Her specialities include functional training, strength training and orthapedic considerations.

There's no strict timeframe for how long it takes to build muscle. It all depends on the training regimen followed, nutritional adherence, rest, and so on, Grover says.

But, for a rough figure, she points to a 2018 study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology (opens in new tab) which explores the role of skeletal muscle damage and muscle protein synthesis.

According to this study, muscle growth can be seen after about 10 sessions, but only after about 18 sessions is significant muscle hypertrophy observed, says Grover.

The study says that increases in the size of the muscle in the early phase of resistance training (four or less sessions) is attributed to muscle damage-induced swelling. After 10 sessions, a modest magnitude of muscle hypertrophy ensues, and after around 18 workouts true muscle hypertrophy is observed.

However, 2017 research also published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology (opens in new tab) concluded that significant increases in lean mass could be seen after just seven workout sessions, performed over the course of four weeks.

The study tasked 13 untrained men with performing dumbbell curls and shoulder presses twice per week for four weeks. They would complete 8 to 12 repetitions, working until they could not perform any more, and the weight was increased where appropriate as they progressed from session to session. Subjects also drank 500 milliliters of whole milk during training.

(You can also train different muscle fiber types to improve other elements of performance like endurance and power. To find out more, read our feature: What are the different muscle fiber types? (opens in new tab))

After the graft you put in to grow your hard-earned muscle, the last thing you want to consider is losing it (also known as atrophy). Unfortunately, a lack of muscle use, insufficient nutrient intake, or both can lead to that. Thankfully, though, it will take more than a missed gym session for this to occur.

Rates of atrophy typically vary depending on your current physical condition, says Grover. The more in shape you are, the longer it will take to atrophy, and the slower the rate will be.

However, typically after one week of little to no activity you can start to notice signs of atrophy.

A 2014 study into the impact of disuse on muscle size and strength - published in the Acta Physiologica (opens in new tab) journal found that even short periods of muscle disuse can cause substantial loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength.

This does refer to complete inactivity of the muscle, though, with the 24 study participants subjected to either five or 14 days of on-legged knee immobilization using a full leg cast. After just five days, leg lean mass had decreased.

If you're trying to bulk up, its important to know how to gain muscle (opens in new tab) in general.

When performing resistance training, small tears in the muscles are created by moving them through a range of motions under load, Grover explains. These tears are then repaired and built upon, using amino acids (protein) as building blocks.

In other words, muscle building relies on muscular effort (which is usually achieved through resistance or weight training (opens in new tab)) as well as adequate protein intake. We asked Grover to give some more insight on the best ways to target and grow muscle.

If you are looking to grow a specific muscle or group of muscles, also known as hypertrophy, you need to perform exercises that target them, says Grover.

The best approach is to remove the guesswork from your exercise program. You may think an exercise is focused on a specific muscle or group of muscles, but do you know for sure? Taking the time to do a little research into the exercises you are performing can make a big difference.

Grover gives the example of performing the leg press for glute muscle (opens in new tab) gains.

You may think your leg press routine is targeting your glutes, but the positioning of your feet may be targeting another muscle group altogether. If your feet are too low on the surface of the leg press, youre actually working primarily on your quads. Sliding your feet up will help readjust your focus on the intended muscle.

If you want to target your shoulder muscles, try these best exercises for shoulders (opens in new tab) recommended by Mitch Raynsford, a qualified strength and conditioning coach.

In order to grow muscles, you must put them under the proper amount of load, Grover says.

Or in other words, if the weight youre lifting or the number of repetitions you are completing does not challenge your muscles with the appropriate stimulus, they will not grow as efficiently.

When exercising for hypertrophy, generally you want to increase the weight and reduce the amount of repetitions. When talking about the weight used to exercise, also known as the load, fitness professionals measure it as a percentage of your one-rep max.

For muscle growth, you want to train using 75% of your one-rep max. This is a resistance that should allow you to complete eight to 10 reps at a time. If you cannot complete at least eight, or if the weight feels too light, adjust accordingly.

Training at higher and lower loads can stimulate muscle growth, but it is generally accepted that this load and an eight to 12 rep range is optimal for hypertrophy.

An American College of Sports Medicine (opens in new tab)review states: It is recommended that loads corresponding to one to 12 repetition maximum (RM) be used in periodized fashion with emphasis on the six to 12 RM zone using one to two minute rest periods between sets at a moderate velocity. Higher volume, multiple-set programs are recommended for maximizing hypertrophy.

Nutrition is a critical aspect of recovery and will play a big role in helping you build muscle, says Grover. There are several factors that come into play, including your protein source, protein quantity, carbohydrate intake, supplements and when you take all of these in.

Muscle hypertrophy occurs when muscle protein synthesis exceeds muscle protein breakdown and results in positive net protein balance in cumulative periods, a 2019 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health says.

From the nutrition point of view, protein intake alongside resistance training is a potent stimulus for muscle protein synthesis.

Information published by the American College of Sports Medicine (opens in new tab) adds: People that exercise regularly also need to eat more protein than the recommended daily intake.

To increase muscle mass in combination with physical activity, it is recommended that a person that lifts weights regularly or is training for a running or cycling event eat a range of 1.2 to 1.7grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, or 0.5 to 0.8 grams per pound of body weight.

But other research suggests this figure could be higher. A 2017 study in The Journal of Nutrition (opens in new tab)looking at the protein needs of young male bodybuilders found the estimated average requirement of protein was 1.7g per kilogram of bodyweight, and the upper limit was 2.2g per kilo of bodyweight.

It's possible to get most of the protein you need from regular food sources, but if you need a helping hand you can look through our list of the best protein powders (opens in new tab).

This article is not meant to offer medical advice and readers should consult their doctor or healthcare professional before adopting any diet or exercise regime.

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How long does it take to build muscle? - Livescience.com

Physiology

New NSF-funded institute will probe biology in the absence of water – Carnegie Institution for Science

Palo Alto, CA Water is inextricably linked to our understanding of lifeit makes up most of our planets surface and organisms across the tree of life depend on it to function. Yet the ability to survive extremely dry conditions for long periods is crucial to the life cycles of many speciesincluding in plants, which can reproduce from desiccated pollen grains and grow from dried-out seeds.

There are some desert plants and micro-animals, like tardigrades, which can lose up to 90 percent of their water and resume normal biological function within hours of being rehydrated. We want to know how they do it, said Carnegies Sue Rhee, who was just awarded a $12.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to create a cross-disciplinary institute that will investigate this question.

Understanding the molecular, cellular, and physiological mechanisms by which they accomplish this incredible hardiness could inform strategies for surviving climate change with minimal impact to the food supply and help identify conditions that could support life on other planets.

Called the Water and Life Interface Institute, or WALII (pronounced as wally), this new Carnegie-led initiative involving scientists from nine institutions will examine the interface of water and life among plants, animals, and fungi across four key areas:

Institute scientists will hail from a wide range of fields including molecular biophysics, computer science, genomics, and cellular and evolutionary biology, as well as plant biologists with expertise in seed physiology. Senior scientists, early career researchers, and both graduate and undergraduate students will comprise the team with a goal of producing a new generation of scientific leadership.

In addition to Carnegie, scientists from California State University Channel Islands, University of California Merced, the USDA Agricultural Research Service National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Michigan State University, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Wyoming, and the Baylor College of Medicine are already committed to joining the institute.

WALII will prioritize inclusion of individuals from a diversity of backgrounds, which will bring an array of perspectives to the table and enhance our ability to undertake creative problem solving and tackle big questions from novel angles, Rhee said.

The initiative will also spearhead outreach and education activities to raise awareness of drought, water quality impairments, and climate change. Carnegie and University of Wyoming colleagues have already completed a pilot program teaching San Francisco-area children about tardigrades, which are among the most resilient animals in the world.

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New NSF-funded institute will probe biology in the absence of water - Carnegie Institution for Science

Physiology

Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) as a Predictor of Severity of Sepsis in Patients Admitted to an Intensive Care Unit: A Cross-Sectional Study From North India -…

Background: Sepsis is a common clinical syndrome in critical patients in the medical intensive care unit. Many scoringsystems and biomarkers are introduced to detect unfavorable outcomes in sepsis patients. This study aims to identify pentraxin 3 (PTX3) as a predictor of sepsis in patients who are critically ill and admitted to intensive care units.

Materials and methods: This prospective observational survey purposively included 100 patients with sepsis identified by the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines in the medical intensive care unit at one of the apex care centers in North India. Socio-demographic and clinical profiles were collected using a structured and validated checklist. Simple and multi-linear regression analyses were used to determine PTX3 as a predictor of sepsis.

Results: A total of 100 patients were prospectively observed. Among them, 61% were males, and 39% were females, with a mean age of 50.78 (13.53) years. From nine potential predictors, lactate (95% CI: 1.048-1.890, B: 1.469, p < 0.001), procalcitonin (95% CI: 0.136-0.270, B: 0.203, p < 0.001), andSOFA (Sequential Organ Failure Assessment) scores (95% CI: 0.112-0.450, B: 0.281, p = 0.001) significantly predictthe changes in PTX3 level (R-square: 0.842, adjusted R-square:0.826) in patients.

Conclusions: PTX3was found to correlate with the severity of sepsis as SOFA scoreand other markers like lactate, procalcitonin, and APACHE-II (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II) score.

Sepsis is one of the most common clinical syndromes caused by systemic infection and often leads to a lethal outcome in critically ill patients. The Global Sepsis Alliance recommendation defined sepsis as a condition of life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by the dysregulated host response to infection. It has been a significant cause of intensive care unit admission worldwide.Sepsis results from the complicated interactions between the host immune system and infecting viruses and bacteria [1]. The mortality associated with sepsis is significant around the globe and is more than breast and lung cancer altogether. Furthermore, a lack of specific treatment for sepsis results in higher incidence and many complications, including septic shock, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, and death. Multiorgan dysfunction and septic shock are the most common cause of mortality in patients with sepsis [2].

Further, diagnosing sepsis remains a significant challenge for health professionals considering concurrent organ support, organ dysfunction, treatment before admission, and lack of a "gold standard" diagnostic test. Over the advancement in medical sciences, many scoring systems were introduced as a surrogate for organ dysfunction risk prediction for patients with proven or suspected infection, including SOFA (Sequential Organ Failure Assessment) and APACHE-II (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II), to determine the degree of organ dysfunction and severity of disease in chronically ill patients [3-5]. Likewise, many biomarkers have been proposed for risk prediction in severely ill patients. Procalcitonin (PCT) [6], serum lactate [7], and cytokines are studied in patients with sepsis and shock. The inflammatory process in the body leads cytokines to produce higher PCT from the liver and mononuclear cells and subsequently increases the level in the body [8].

Higher levels of plasma lactate have been considered an essential indicator of hemodynamic stability. Breakthrough work has been conducted on the role of serum lactate on the survival of critically ill patients, reflecting a higher level of lactate decreases survival. Earlier research on hemodynamically stable patients reported a higher lactate level in non-survivors of emergencies. A higher lactate level is common among chronically ill patients and is recommended as a reliable marker of illness severity and death [9,10].

Pentraxin 3(PTX3) isan acute-phase protein that represents the subfamily of long pentraxin [11]. Ithas been found to have a strong association with the severity of infection and inflammation. The inflammatory process initiates the secretion of PTX3 in monocytes, endothelial cells, and dendritic or neutrophils [12].

Numerous studies done to date have noticed that PTX3 has an excellent diagnostic value in sepsis. PTX3 as a biomarker of sepsis, and its diagnostic utility in northern Indian tertiary care setup, would help us evaluate the future scope in patients with sepsis. A crunch of studies, none to the best of our knowledge, in the Indian subcontinent further emphasizes the need to assess the diagnostic utility of PTX3 inpatients with sepsis. Therefore, we decided to conduct a survey to correlate serum PTX3 levels with the severity of sepsis.

This is a cross-sectional studyconducted over 18 months at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh, a tertiary healthcare center in Uttarakhand, India.

The minimum sample size required for the study was estimated by using Fishers transformation formula, which came out to be 95. However, the authors decided to enroll 100 patients consecutively at the in-patient department of general medicine. The patients fulfilling the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines and willing to write consent were included till the sample size was achieved. Patients who were on steroid therapy, diagnosed with immunodeficiency disorders, pregnant, and diagnosed with tuberculosis and acute coronary artery disease were excluded from the study (Figure 1).

Socio-demographic details and baseline investigations were recorded using a structured and validated checklist. SOFA score and APACHE-II scores were calculated. PCT was measured by chemiluminescence on the Advia Centaur instrument (Siemens Healthineers, Erlangen, Germany), and lactate was measured by arterial blood sample using a blood gas analyzer (ABL800, Radiometer, Copenhagen, Denmark). Blood samples were collected into plain and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) vials. All the blood samples were subjected to centrifugation at 2500g for 10 minutes at 4C within 30 minutes of blood sampling.Plasma and serum got separated and aliquoted. The aliquoted samples were collected and stored until analysis at -80C. Pentraxin was analyzed by Sandwich ELISA (ImmunoTag, St. Louis, MO) following the manufacturers instruction after obtaining a satisfactory standard curve.

The Institutional Ethics Committee of All India Institute of Medical Sciences Rishikesh (AIIM/IEC) approved the project (AIIMS/IEC/20/575). Written informed consent was obtained from each participant before enrolling in the study. Participants were ensured to protect privacy and confidentiality at each stage of research.

Data were transferred to a Microsoft Excel sheet (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA) and analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Frequency, percentage, means, and standard deviation(SD) were used to describe the patients characteristics. Categorical variables were represented as proportions. Continuous or discrete variables were reported using means and SD. Spearman correlation coefficient was used to find the correlation between PTX3 and other continuous variables considering the non-normal distribution of the variables. Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the distribution of mean PTX3 levels with genders. Simple andmultivariate regression analyses were done to find out whether PTX3 is a predictor of sepsis level. All test statistics were measured at p < 0.05 level (two-tailed).

A total of 100 participants were included in the study; among them, 61.0% were males and 39% were females. The mean age of the patients was 50.78 (SD = 13.53) years. Of the participants, 63% had one or more comorbidities, 21% had only diabetes mellitus, 21% had only hypertension, and 21% had both hypertension and diabetes mellitus (Appendix A). The mean SOFA score was 8.94 (SD = 2.86), the mean APACHE-II score was 14.48 (SD = 5.05), and the mean PXT3 value was 5.24 (SD = 3.38) ng/ml. Further, the PXT3 level did not show any significant difference with comorbidity status (p = 0.134) (Appendix B). Similarly, results show no significant difference in PXT3 levels among males and females (U = 982, p = 0.142). Serum lactate (r = 0.661, p < 0.001) and PCT (r = 0.663, p < 0.001) reported significant association with SOFA scores (Table 1).

Considering the non-normal distribution of PXT3 among patients, Spearmans rho test was applied to find an association with the SOFA scores. The findings show a significant positive correlation of PXT3 with the fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2), partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PCO2), lactate, PCT, and blood urea. Further, the PXT3 level reported a significant positive relationship with the SOFA score (r = 0.722) and APACHE-II scores (r = 0.393) (Table 2).

Simple linear regression analysis depicted that out of nine potential variables, seven variables, includingFiO2 (p < 001), partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2) (p = 0.004), PCO2 (p = 0.034), PCT(p < 0.001, R-square, 0.657), lactate (R-square, 0.635), SOFA (p < 0.001, R-square 0.610), and APACHE-II(p < 0.001), highly predicted the change in PXT3 (Table 3 and Figure 2).

Multivariate linear regression analysis was used to combine the cumulative effect of significant variables of simple linear regression. Findings reported that lactate (95% CI: 1.048-1.890, B: 1.469, p <0.001), PCT (95% CI: 0.136-0.270, B: 0.203, p < 0.001), and SOFA score (95% CI: 0.112-0.450, B: 0.281, p = 0.001) significantly predictthe change in PXT3 level (R-square: 0.842; adjusted R-square: 0.826)(Table 4).

Sepsis is a major cause of mortalityworldwide, especially in developing countries, including India, considering the lack of protocolized care and crunch of resources [13]. It remains the major cause of mortality among critically ill patients. It has been demonstrated in previous work that early identification and protocol-based treatment of severe sepsis can improve the survival of patients.In recent years, there are many novel biomarkers, including PTX3, C-reactive protein (CRP), PCT, and plasma PTX3, that are identified to early anticipate sepsis and plan treatment [14]. However, none of the single biomarkers is ideal and helpful in identifying critically ill patients with their respective drawbacks.This study analyzed the PTX3 level in critically ill patients with sepsis and its correlation with lactate and PCT and critical illness index, includingSOFA score and APACHE-II score.

The mean age of participants (n = 100) was 50.78 (13.524) years with a predominantly male population. The proportion of participants with either hypertension or diabetes only was equal. The mean arterial blood pressure of the patients was 67.01 (10.518) mmHg. Most patients had lungs as the source of infection, followed by abdominal infection and urinary tract infection. These findings were in line with most of the trials,including those byChatterjee et al., which were done in India where 53% of participants had lungs as the primary source [15]. Other sites included skin, bacteremia, etc., which were less commonly seen in our setting. Of 100 participants, only 68 had positive cultural results. Most of them had gram-negative bacteria in their culture, which included Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, and Klebsiella species.

The relevant laboratory parameters were measured, and the SOFA score and APACHE-II score were calculated. We analyzed the relationship between PTX3 and various laboratory parameters. We observed that blood pH and PaO2have a negative correlation with PTX3, whereas FiO2, PCO2, lactate, PCT, and blood urea had a positive correlation with PTX3.

The primary objective of the study was toanalyze PTX3 levelsand see the correlation with SOFA scores.The study findings reported that lactateand PCT show a significant correlation with PTX3 in the studied cohort. These findings are in accord with several previously published studies that reported a significant relationship of PTX3 with lactate and PCT[16,17].

The Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (Sepsis-3) recommended measuring lactate levels for septic shock [18]. It has been suggested that serum lactate levels canbe used to screen for sepsis among adults with clinical suspicion of sepsis. Several studies were conducted toassess the use of lactate in this context [19,20]. We have also included lactate in our study, inwhich lactate was found to correlate with SOFA score, which is similar to the study done by Liu et al. in 2019 [16]. In ourstudy, we have also found that PTX3 is positively correlated with lactate (p = 0.000). This is in line with a previous prospective study done byHu et al. [14]. However, serum lactate alone is neither sensitive nor specific to rule in or rule out the diagnosis of sepsis on its own. Thetestingof lactate may not be available in resource-limited settings [21]. Hence, it was given as a weak recommendation to use lactate levels in serum as an adjunctive test to detect the probability of sepsis in patients with suspected but not confirmed sepsis.

PCT fulfills the needfor high diagnostic accuracy in detecting sepsis, which is needed to be used as a biomarker, especially in comparison to conventional. PCT alonecannot identify specific pathogens of sepsis, but the level of PCT might be useful to estimate the probability of severe bacterial infection [22].We measured the level of PCT of all the participants, the mean of which was 9.7 (SD: 6.4), and it was found to correlate with the SOFA score.

A prospective study done by Sudhir et al. depicted thatthere was a significant association between PCTand SOFA score [23]. But in a retrospective cohort study done by Yunus et al., there was a weak correlation between PCT and SOFA score [24].In our study, PTX3 has a significant positive correlation with PCT with a p-valueof 0.000 (r = 0.856), which is similar to the previous study[25].

APACHE-II scoreis one of the scoring systems used to determinethe severity of disease and predict the mortality of sepsis patients. Hillet al., in a pilot study, found thatPTX3 levels were increased in patients with sepsis and are related to APACHE-II scores when plotted according to the APACHE-II score quartile [26]. Our study found that PTX3levels are correlating significantly with the APACHE-II score (p = 0.00).

We didmultistep-wise forward linear regression analysis and interestingly we found that the best individual marker to predict PTX3 is PCT with an R-squareof 0.657 andan adjusted R-square of 0.654, with p = 0.00. The predictability increased with PCT and lactate together with an R-square of 0.808 and an adjustedR-square of0.804 significantly (p = 0.00). The predictability of PTX3 is further increased with PCT, lactate, and SOFA scores together significantly with an R-square of 0.830 and an adjusted R-square of 0.825.

The efficacy of PTX3 as a biomarker tool in sepsis has been demonstrated in the work of many studies. In the Albumin Italian Outcome Sepsis (ALBIOS) trial, which is a multi-centric trial done on 1818 patients,it was found thatPTX3levels areelevated in severe sepsisandcorrelate significantlywith prevalent and incident organ failures [27].Similarly, in a prospective study done by Uusitalo-Seppl et al., it was found that measuring PTX3 level at admission highly predicts severe sepsis and case fatality [28]. Lee et al., in a meta-analysis, found that PTX3 significantly predicts the severity of the diseaseand mortality in sepsis [29].

Hamed et al. conducted the Mannheim Sepsis Study, which is a prospective, monocentric study done on 217 intensive care unit patients, included according to the latest Sepsis-3 definitions. This study demonstrated that PTX3 exhibits potential diagnostic value in comparison to CRPand interleukin-6, and PTX3 is correlating with SOFA score [12].

Albeit, PCT is a promising marker of infectionand due to its early rise and short half-life, the studies are heterogeneous and lackconsensus. Lactate is a marker detecting endogenous catecholamine release. Patients who are maintaining their blood pressure due to a vigorous catecholamine response may have deceptively reassuring vital signs and maskthe catecholamine-dependent shock. Elevated lactate identifies these patients having occult shock who are more at risk of adverse outcomes so each of the three biomarkers plays a crucial role in helping the management of sepsis.

Akin to most of the studies, we found that PTX3 correlates with disease severity scores SOFA and APACHE-II. PTX3 is also correlating significantly with PCT and lactate, biomarkers found to be effective in sepsis for ages. We also found that PCT, lactate, andSOFA scores togetherpredicted PTX3 significantly, and the predictability is better than individual components. Among PCT, lactate, and SOFA score, the best predictor of PTX3 is PCT. PTX3, in combination with established other markers, might improve the correlation with sepsis severity and needs to be studied.

Hence, the novel marker PTX3 with its advantages needs to be considered and to be studied in future studies, as sepsis is one of the most common causes of mortality in humankind, which should be emphasized.

Thisis a single-centerstudy, and we have not included the mortality data; hence, an association between PTX3 and mortality cannot be established. In this survey, we measured PTX3 once, which may not be sufficient to conclude, and the authors recommend a longitudinal large-scale study to understand the exact role of PTX3 in sepsis development and other health consequences. A multi-centric randomized controlled trial might recheck the results of the present work. A study with a higher sample size is recommended to improve generalizability over other similar populations.

Currently, the accuracy of various biomarkers in sepsis and septic shock and their correlation with severity has thrown open wide conflicting results with many studies showing different results. PTX3was analyzed and studied according to the latest Sepsis-3 guidelines in our study and was found to correlate with the severity of sepsis as SOFA scoreand other markers like lactate and PCT along with APACHE-II score.Our study did not permit us to rush to the conclusion of whether PTX3 is a better marker compared to other biomarkers in sepsis in use now. It raised the question of whether PTX3 can be used as a tool in sepsis for early detection. To find a definitive answer, larger randomized control trials are needed.

The study correlated PTX3 levels with PCT and lactate, which are age-old markers established in sepsis, unlike other new markers. Second multi-stepwise forward linear regression analysis was done to see better predictors of PTX3, adjunctively demonstrating its correlation with sepsis. Henceforth, novel biomarkers such as PTX3 in combination with lactate, PCT, and SOFA score might be helpful to improve the risk stratification of patientswith sepsis.

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Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) as a Predictor of Severity of Sepsis in Patients Admitted to an Intensive Care Unit: A Cross-Sectional Study From North India -...

Physiology

"Brain thermometer" explains why heat makes us feel sleepy – Earth.com

Neurobiologists at Northwestern University may have just solved the mystery of why heat makes us sleepy. In a new study focused on fruit flies, the researchers identified a brain thermometer that promotes sleep during the hottest hours of the day.

Small poikilotherms such as the fruit fly Drosophila depend on absolute temperature measurements to identify external conditions that are above (hot) or below (cold) their preferred range and to react accordingly. Hot and cold temperatures have a different impact on fly activity and sleep, but the circuits and mechanisms that adjust behavior to specific thermal conditions are not well understood, wrote the researchers.

In 2020, the Northwestern team identified a brain thermometer that is only active in cold weather. The new study describes a similar brain circuit that is activated by hot temperatures.

Changes in temperature have a strong effect on behavior in both humans and animals, and offer animals a cue that is time to adapt to the changing seasons, said Professor Marco Gallio, who led the study.

The effect of temperature on sleep can be quite extreme, with some animals deciding to sleep off an entire season think of a hibernating bear but the specific brain circuits that mediate the interaction between temperature and sleep centers remain largely unmapped.

Professor Gallio explained that fruit flies are a particularly good model to study big questions, such as why we need sleep, because they do not attempt to disrupt instinct in the same way humans do like when we pull all-nighters.

The study is the first to identify absolute heat receptors in the fly head. According to the researchers, these heat receptors respond to temperatures above about 77 degrees Fahrenheit the flys optimal temperature.

Professor Gallio said it makes sense that there are different brain circuits for hot and cold temperatures because they can have quite different effects on physiology and behavior. Next, the team hopes to identify the common targets of the cold and hot circuit in an effort to determine how each can influence sleep.

We identified one neuron that could be a site of integration for the effects of hot and cold temperatures on sleep and activity in Drosophila, said study first author Michael Alpert. This would be the start of interesting follow-up studies.

The team is interested in looking at the long-term effects of temperature on behavior and physiology to understand the impact of global warming, looking at how adaptable species are to change, noted Professor Gallio.

People may choose to take an afternoon nap on a hot day, and in some parts of the world this is a cultural norm, but what do you choose and what is programmed into you? Of course, its not culture in flies, so there actually might be a very strong underlying biological mechanism that is overlooked in humans.

The study is published in the journal Current Biology.

By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

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"Brain thermometer" explains why heat makes us feel sleepy - Earth.com

Physiology

Getty guidelines seek to promote unbiased and inclusive portrayals of female athletes – SportBusiness

Photographic agency Getty Images and iStock, its e-commerce platform for SMBs, SMEs and creatives, have seen a huge explosion of interest in womens sport in the UK following the recent success of the Lionesses [the England Womens football team] at the Womens Euros. Over the last 12 months, visual searches for womens football on iStock have increased by 125 per cent, showing that the conversation around women and girls in sport has begun to accumulate.

To help sports rights-holders and brands navigate this space, Getty Images has created a set of practical guidelines to create unbiased and inclusive visual representations of female athletes. Jacqueline Bourke, Creative Insights Director and Head of EMEA at Getty Images, explains the key things to consider.

What prompted the creation of Gettys Women and Girls in Sport guidelines?

Getty Images has long been a passionate champion of the authentic and inclusive representation of women and girls in sport, and bringing transformative equity forward requires work on a multitude of fronts.

We created the Women and Girls in Sport guidelines with the aim of provoking discussion and practically helping creatives, marketers, art directors and curators, understand how to better select or create visual content that will truly move towards unbiased and inclusive visual storytelling around women and girls in sport. We have heard directly from female athletes that they have felt pressure to limit the range of their emotional expressions to secure and retain brand sponsorships, and we believe media companies, brands and sports rights-holders can change the perceptions of womens sport by rethinking the visuals they use.

How did you analyse consumer sentiment and what have you learned?

We launched our creative insights platform VisualGPS over two years ago on Getty Images and iStock, which is a meaningful expansion of our long-standing visual content expertise. VisualGPS pulls together the 2.6 billion annual photography searches from over 842,000 customers in almost every single country around the world, combined with image testing and custom market research that we conduct with Marketcast to understand consumer sentiment, and drawing on the visual expertise of the wider creative department at Getty Images and iStock. What we are seeing consistently, as we survey a minimum of 7,000 people in 25 countries, is that consumers really want to see sports organisations do more for female sport.

Seventy two per cent of respondents agree that sports organisations and brands can do more to promote womens teams and female stars, which is a six-per-cent increase since 2021. The research also showed that 78 per cent want female athletes to have the same coverage as their male counterparts, and this is across people of all genders and across all regions that we looked at. Our findings show that it has never been more important to close the visibility gap and reimagine a new world for womens sports.

What sort of trends did you observe around the use of imagery during the recent UEFA Womens Euros?

The most popular sports visuals on Getty Images during the Womens Euros were of the Lionesses lifting the trophy and the much talked about iconic moment of Chloe Kelly taking off her top when celebrating her winning goal on the pitch. This growing interest shows that there is a unique opportunity to close the visibility gap with authentic representation and unbiased visual storytelling around women and girls in sports.

And how can photography help to promote unbiased and inclusive portrayals of womens sport?

One of the key findings from our VisualGPS research is that 75 per cent of consumers want to see female athletes depicted in a way that focuses on their skills and their athleticism rather than on their beauty, their glamour or their sex appeal. And again, the percentage of consumers and sports fans who want to see this has increased by three per cent in 2022 versus 2021.

We also felt it was very important to understand how female athletes want to be visually represented. In the UK, we have conducted workshops with female athletes from a wide variety of sports, as well as with the Womens Sport Trust [which aims to raise the visibility and awareness of womens sport]. There is not one look that all women and girls involved in sports, or who are looking to participate in sport, will relate to. We believe it is important to understand how to bring an inclusive lens that speaks to different layers of identities for women and girls to truly relate with authentic visuals in media, brand communication and advertising.

What problems have female athletes encountered in photographic portrayals of them in the past?

The guidelines focus heavily on depicting emotional expression and body empowerment. A strong finding from our research is that 60 per cent of fans want female athletes to express fully who they are and a full range of expression when they are playing their sport, and it was interesting to hear from female athletes on this topic. Some of the examples they shared were around briefs for headshot photos. Female rugby players are permitted to be seen as more aggressive or a lot stronger in visual communication, whereas for some other sports take gymnastics for example there is a different level of expectation in how they can appear.

Can imagery and photography have an impact on sports participation?

I think it is important to think about the role that body positivity can play, ensuring that female athletes of all shapes, sizes, types and abilities are being represented. There is not one clich or stereotype of what a body can look like, and this has a huge impact on encouraging women and younger girls into participating in sport. When we ask consumers and sports fans what visuals they relate most to, it is visuals of real people with relatable body shapes, sizes and abilities involved in a wide variety of sports at a wide variety of skill levels.

In the history of sports science research, female physiology has often been left out. There is a long legacy of equipment and kit, especially at grassroots level, being very much predicated on male physiology. How is female physiology understood when it comes to performance? We see lots of conversations for the first time, especially when it comes to visuals in advertisements, beginning to speak about understanding menstruation, for instance, in sport, both from performance to participation. Understanding how you encourage greater sports participation, especially where there are drop-offs in sports participation after puberty, or equally in women in midlife experiencing perimenopause or menopause, is also really important.

During the Covid pandemic, we wanted to ensure that we were helping to keep the visibility of womens sport to the fore. But at the same time, understanding how we could reach out to women in midlife between the ages of 40 and 55, who are going through either perimenopause or menopause, and how we can help create relatable visuals that will encourage them in sports participation. To that end, we partnered with Women in Sport and created a gallery of content that showed women in midlife from all over the UK, and how they turned their back gardens, garages, and local parks into their own gyms and sports recreation areas to keep themselves active. The creation of the gallery is 100 per cent powered by women, from the ideation, creative direction, photographers and videographers behind the lenses, capturing the stories of these incredible women sharing their lives to the curation of the gallery to ensure that the visual storytelling is very authentic, relatable and ultimately inspires people to action. We have seen huge success and engagement with this gallery and despite it only being shot in the UK, the content is being used by our customers in many countries around the world.

What are the key findings from the Women in Sport guidelines?

The Covid pandemic has shone a light on the power of sports to improve mental health, and a key takeaway is that the emotional benefits are now more important to consumers and sports fans than the physical aspect of sports. Sixty eight per cent of consumers believe that athletes and sports organisations should talk more about mental health and female sports stars, such as Naomi Osaka and Simone Biles, are beginning to lead cultural conversations around mental health. When choosing visuals around women and girls in sports, sports brands and rights-holders should consider thinking about how they are challenging social stigmas within the visuals they create or select. For example, by showing athletes receiving support from female coaching staff or bringing a more inclusive lens to people participating in sports at all levels.

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Getty guidelines seek to promote unbiased and inclusive portrayals of female athletes - SportBusiness

Physiology

Run or walk: What method is best for weight loss and health? – Tallahassee Democrat

Mark Ryan| Guest columnist

A woman in her mid-70s, walking briskly, nearly caught the overweight man as he jogged on the indoor track at Premier Health and Fitness Center in Tallahassee. The man managed to stay ahead and finished 13 laps for the first time. Thirteen laps on the inside lane made a mile.

The fast-walking woman was an inspiration to the man.

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While he only wished the best for the woman and gym colleagues in their pursuit of self-improvement, he admittedly was also pleased to see another fitness member plodding along on the track an observation met with skepticism by the mans usually supportive wife.

MAN: There was a guy on the track today who was even fatter than me.

WIFE: Sure.

MAN: No, really …

WIFE: Sure.

Given the mans extra poundage and potential for old orthopedic issues (ankle sprains, heel spurs, etc.), even with the perfectly level track surface at the climate-controlled fitness center, he wondered if like the speedy older woman he would be better off walking than running.

Which form of exercise was a better fit for him?

If weight loss was the primary goal, running certainly would burn off many more calories per minute than walking.

The mans preference for jogging also coincided with recommendations from the exercise physiology lab at the University of Wyoming. A study at the school, which was published in the Journal of Obesity (yes, this is a real journal), included nine experienced female runners and 10 committed female walkers as participants.

The researchers found the runners had significantly higher blood levels of peptide YY a hormone known to suppress appetite. The walkers blood levels did not reflect increased peptide YY level.

The study suggested running would lead to weight loss faster than walking.

In another study titled Greater Weight Loss From Running than Walking, and published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, researchers, combining survey data from 15,237 walkers and 32,215 runners enrolled in the National Runners and Walkers Health Study, came up with the same conclusion: For persons looking to control their weight, running wins over walking by a large margin.

But walking especially brisk walking has some advantages over running.

In a study published in the Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology journal (American Heart Association journal), both runners and walkers were found to be at less risk of high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol profiles, diabetes, and heart disease than their sedentary peers.

However, with the same energy expenditure, researchers found that walkers reduced their risk of heart disease by 9.3 percent as compared to the runners 4.5 percent reduced risk.

With low-impact walking, there is generally less chance of injury than with running although walking is probably still more risky than the low-impact cardiovascular exercise favored by the mans wife.

A big proponent of swimming, she recommended he should, like her, spend less time on the track and more time in the pool at the fitness center. She encouraged him to do a few laps in the big pool and stop eating so much at night.

The man got defensive when confronted with the latter recommendation.

MAN: Im serious about cutting back on the late-night snacks.

WIFE: Sure.

MAN: No, really …

WIFE: Really??

If he had been a participant in the study at the exercise physiology lab in Wyoming, the researchers would have had to tabulate pizza crusts and chicken-wing bones in addition to drawing blood for peptide YY hormone levels.

Mark Ryan, a registered nurse, and his wife, Anabel Perez, are members of Premier Health and Fitness Center in Tallahassee.

Journal of Obesity: hindawi.com/journals/jobe/

The Atlantic:Study: Walking Can Be as Good as Running The Atlantic

The Guardian:Brisk walk healthier than running scientists

Women's Health:How Many Calories Can I Burn While Walking Versus Running?

Healthy Living:Why is Walking the Most Popular Form of Exercise?

Consumer reports:The Benefits of Running vs. Walking

Never miss a story: Subscribe to the Tallahassee Democrat using the link at the top of the page.

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Run or walk: What method is best for weight loss and health? - Tallahassee Democrat

Physiology

Marvel Fans Realize the One Thing That Makes Zero Sense About Smart Hulk – We Got This Covered

via Marvel Studios/Disney Plus

Mark Ruffalo returns in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, with the just-premiered Disney Plus series bringing back Bruce Banner in his Smart Hulk form. As introduced in Avengers: Endgame, Smart Hulk not a name Bruce chose for himself is the perfection combination of brains and brawn, with Banner retaining his personality but getting the benefits of the Hulks indestructible big green body to go with it.

Thats all well and good, but fans are just starting to realize that one thing makes exactly zero sense about him. Specifically, why the heck does he need glasses? Throughout both Endgame and the pilot episode of She-Hulk, Smart Hulk is shown donning a pair of eyeglasses when he gets to work. But, as originally pointed out by user adamfish1981 on the r/MarvelStudios subreddit, this doesnt fit with everything we know about Hulks physiology.

Banners Hulk form is known to heal pretty much all wounds and infirmities. For example, back in The Avengers, Bruce recalled how he tried to kill himself but Hulk simply spit out the bullet. Obviously, his arm was badly injured thanks to his use of the Infinity Gauntlet in Endgame, but even that was finally healed in She-Hulk thanks to cousin Jennifers super-blood. Therefore Hulk should have perfect eyesight.

So why the glasses? Marvel has made no attempt to explain it yet, so were left to speculate that, actually, maybe Smart Hulk doesnt need them at all but Bruce keeps using them anyway out of habit. In his human form, if he was concentrating on his work, he would don his glasses, so hes simply carried on doing so even if its not strictly necessary.

The real reason, obviously, is because Hulk in a pair of glasses is an easy bit of visual exposition to tell the audience that were watching Smart Hulk not regular Hulk. Still, its not hard to imagine Tatiana Maslanys Jen mocking her cuz for his useless glasses in a future episode. Admit it, Bruce, you just wear them cause you think they make you look clever.

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Marvel Fans Realize the One Thing That Makes Zero Sense About Smart Hulk - We Got This Covered