We’ve seen some incredible displays of creativity during the long weeks of COVID-19 self-isolating. (GNN even produced a fun television pilot.) But nothing quite matches the brilliant strategy of a California animal shelter which is struggling to pay its bills during the lockdown.
Sweet Farm Animal Shelter, a nonprofit sanctuary started by a Silicon Valley tech employee, is using the animals’ daily empty schedules to inject humor into hundreds of business meetings taking place—by necessity, now—over Zoom, Google Hangouts, or other video chat program.
Teleconference organizers can contact Sweet Farm and for less than $100 have one of the farm animals make an appearance during their next video-conference call—sitting in as a rather distracted member of the group.
The initiative is known as Goat 2 Meeting, which is a pun based on another popular teleconference software, GoToMeeting. Not only goats are available, though. You can arrange visits from turkeys, sheep, pigs, and llamas, as well.
For readers who haven’t used Zoom, the caller who is speaking is the one who appears on the screen, so imagine a goat bleat not only interrupting your boss, but replacing his face with a goat’s!
Speaking with Business Insider, Anna Sweet, the brains behind Goat 2 Meeting reported that more than 300 requests for animals have come in since the middle of March when they launched the program. One video conference set up for lawyers sent notices that their kids were invited to the call to take a virtual tour of the farm.
“I think we’re all a little stressed with what’s going on — many of us have been sitting inside,” Sweet told Business Insider. “We’re just hoping to bring some smiles to people’s faces, while bringing them out to the farm at the same time.”
If you are interested in bringing a farm animal onboard for your next teleconference, fill out the request form on the Goat 2 Meeting website.
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After designing a special athletic shoe for healthcare workers that can withstand 12-hour shifts, Nike has donated 30,000 pairs to hospitals across the United States and 2,500 to hospitals in Europe.
The company is also sending more than 100,000 additional apparel items, including compression socks and sportswear kits, as a ‘thank you’ to frontline workers.
Nike described the Air Zoom Pulse, released in November, as the “first shoe designed for the healthcare athlete, an everyday hero.”
The kicks are made of a special material that is easy to wipe down and clean, and designed to be worn for the 12-hour shifts that include five miles of walking with less than an hour of sitting.
Nike’s nonprofit partner, Good360, will distribute the shoes to workers in U.S. veterans hospitals, as well as hard-hit health systems in Chicago, Los Angeles, Memphis and New York City. In Europe, the shoes will go to hospitals in Barcelona, Berlin, London, Milan, Paris and Belgium.
To date, the company says “the Nike Foundation and Nike have committed more than $25 million” to COVID-19 response efforts—with its apparel donations valued at $5.5 million. Additional support has been given to the World Health Organization (WHO) and community support efforts for its employees in Oregon, Memphis, Amsterdam, Belgium, and China.
Nike provided more than 290,000 pieces of personal protective equipment and 250,000 disposable face masks to hospitals across the United States.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted his appreciation, saying “thank you so much for supporting our front line health care heroes.”
In 2015, the company personified its ‘Just do it’ philosophy when it teamed up with a disabled teen to design an easy-entry shoe.
Nike is also offering its Training Club Premium subscription service for free during the pandemic. Download the app here to access body weight workouts, yoga classes, and more.
This is just one of many positive stories and updates that are coming out of the COVID-19 news coverage this week. For more uplifting coverage on the outbreaks, click here.
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A team of scientists in Kenya and the UK are hailing the “enormous potential” of a new strategy to control malaria, after discovering that a microbe completely protects mosquitoes from infection.
“The data we have so far suggest it is 100% blockage,” Dr. Jeremy Herren of the International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology told BBC News. “Quite a surprise… I think people will find that a real big breakthrough.”
Now, they are developing plans to spread the microbe through mosquito populations in infected regions, in an unprecedented effort to eliminate the 400,000 deaths that result from the disease each year.
While studying mosquitoes near the waters of Kenya’s Lake Victoria, the researchers unexpectedly came across a protective fungus called ‘Microsporidia MB,’ which was already in the bodies of the insects.
Now, their goal is to disseminate the microbe in at least 40% of mosquitoes in malaria-infected regions.
Two main methods are being considered: the mass release of spores of the microbe in areas where many mosquitoes live, or implanting the microbe in male mosquitoes (who don’t bite) in the lab, who would then spread it to female mosquitoes, who spread the disease through their bites.
Equally important is the fact that neither of these approaches would kill the mosquitoes, thus preserving the delicate balance between ecosystems and food chains.
Their promising lab research was published in the prestigious scientific journal, Nature, where they wrote “These findings are significant in terms of regional malaria transmission and epidemiology as well as risk-mapping.”
Such a program would be the biggest leap forward in the effort to eradicate malaria since infections had dropped by 40% leading up to 2014 due to mass mosquito net distribution by UNICEF and their partners such as the Global Fund.
– Photo by Dean Calma / IAEA, CC license
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Quote of the Day: “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” – Carl Jung
Photo: by Kairat Murataliev, public domain, cropped, colorized
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Since the COVID-19 outbreaks have disrupted many of the traditional festivities of Ramadan—such as going to mosque and sharing meals with loved ones—one Michigan town has launched a sweet new initiative to celebrate the Islamic holiday from quarantine.
The city of Dearborn—which is known for having the largest Muslim population in the US—has been celebrating the holy month by inviting its residents to decorate their homes for the first ever Ramadan Lighting Contest.
Since the contest launched on April 23rd, more than 65 families have festooned their homes in lanterns, lights, and decorative signs.
City residents can nominate their own home or their neighbor’s household for the contest by filling out the Ramadan Lights Contest nomination form before May 11th. Members of the public can then vote for their favorite households in each of the city’s 10 districts.
The contest winners will be announced prior to Eid al-Fitr—the celebration marking the end of Ramadan—and presented with a gift basket of goodies from a local restaurant.
Filmmaker Razi Jafri, who works for the Center for Arab-American Studies, launched the initiative in partnership with several local Muslim organizations in hopes of cheering Dearborn residents during the novel coronavirus outbreaks.
“This will help raise spirits by providing a positive, pro-social project for the community to get involved with,” Jafri told CNN. “It’s amazing because both Muslims and non-Muslims in the community are getting so excited about it. There’s been so much positive energy that has come out of this already.”
“This project is just the perfect blend of American and Muslim culture,” he added. “American Muslims are such an important part of the fabric of American culture and this is a great expression of that.”
This is just one of many positive stories and updates that are coming out of the COVID-19 news coverage this week. For more uplifting coverage on the outbreaks, click here.
(WATCH the video of the lights in action below)
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A must-have in green building design, solar chimneys can slash energy costs up to 50%—now research reveals they could also help save lives in a building fire.
In a world-first, researchers designed a solar chimney optimized for both energy saving and fire safety, as part of the sustainable features of a new building in Melbourne, Australia.
Modeling shows the specially-designed solar chimney radically increases the amount of time people have to escape the building during a fire—extending the safe evacuation time from about 2 minutes to over 14 minutes.
A solar chimney is a passive solar heating and cooling system that harnesses natural ventilation to regulate the temperature of a building.
With an estimated 19% of the world’s energy resources going to heating, ventilating and cooling buildings, integrating solar chimneys into new builds and retrofitting to existing structures offers great potential for reducing this massive environmental cost.
In the new project, a collaboration between RMIT University and the City of Kingston, researchers designed a solar chimney to maximize its efficiency for both ventilating fresh air and sucking smoke out of a building in case of fire. The study was published this week in the journal Energy and Buildings.
Researcher Dr. Long Shi said solar chimneys have well established environmental credentials, but their potential for improving fire safety had not been explored.
“In an emergency situation where every second counts, giving people more time to escape safely is critical,” Shi said. “Our research demonstrates that solar chimneys offer powerful benefits for both people’s safety and the environment.
“Delivering on two important functions could boosts the already strong cost-effectiveness of this sustainable technology,” he added. “We hope our findings will inspire more investment and development of solar chimneys in Australia, and around the world.”
Kingston Mayor Georgina Oxley said Council was excited to be a part of the groundbreaking project.
“Creating new and innovative ways of reducing energy consumption in our building design is something that is a priority for Council,” Oxley said. “The solar-chimney that has been installed at the new state-of-the-art Mentone Reserve Pavilion not only allows us to harness clean green energy to heat and cool the building, helping Council achieve its environmental goals, but it also has the potential to save lives in the event of a fire. This is a truly remarkable design.”
While calculations around the 6-fold increase in safe evacuation time were specific to the new building, previous research by the team from RMIT’s School of Engineering has confirmed solar chimneys can successfully achieve both functions—ventilation and smoke exhaustion.
Hot air rises: how a solar chimney works
The passive design approach behind solar chimneys operates on the well-known principle that hot air always rises.
Modern solar chimneys usually feature a wall of glass next to a wall that is painted black, to maximize the absorption of solar radiation. Vents at the top and bottom control the airflow in and out of the chimney for heating or cooling.
As the sun warms the chimney, this heats the air inside it. The hot air rises and is then vented out of the top of the chimney, which draws more air in at the bottom, driving ventilation through a building to naturally cool it down.
When it’s cold outside, the chimney can be closed, to direct the absorbed heat back into the building and keep it warm.
It’s an ingeniously simple concept that is relatively cheap to retrofit and adds almost no extra cost to a new build, but can drive energy consumption down.
The solar chimney helps control temperature in case of a fire. Modeling shows temperature at 16 minutes with a solar chimney (top) and at 3 minutes without a solar chimney (bottom). Photo by RMIT University.
Reducing smoke, increasing safety
During a fire, the same principle—hot air rises—enables the solar chimney to suck smoke out of the building.
Less smoke means better visibility, lower temperatures and reduced carbon monoxide—all of which contribute to increasing the amount of time people have to safely evacuate.
To understand exactly how much evacuation time a solar chimney could deliver for a specific building, you need to model for that exact design, Shi said.
“This will differ from building to building, but we know that any extra time is precious and improves fire safety, which could ultimately help to save lives,” he said.
The new research offers a technical guide for optimizing the design and engineering of solar chimneys in real buildings, to expand their application across the two functions.
A California landlord and his wife are being praised for doubling up on their stimulus checks in order to pay off some of the rent for all 13 of their tenants.
Although the Santa Rosa landlord chose to remain anonymous, he told KNTV that after he and his family received their $3,400 federal stimulus check, he felt compelled to pay it forward to his “second family” of tenants.
He then matched the check’s amount for a total of $7,000 so he could use it to shave $500 off this month’s rent for each of his tenants.
Cynthia Whitsitt, who has been renting from the landlord for the last 10 years, says that the compassionate gesture is not unusual for a man who she insists is one of the best property owners she has ever had. Since his donation also helped her to save about one-third of her rental payment, she says she is now happy to finally be able to fix her car.
“It was a great surprise, but I wasn’t really that surprised because that’s the type of guy he is,” Whitsitt told KNTV. “He’s a great guy.”
The landlord says that he was inspired to donate his stimulus check after reading news reports of other individuals and business owners doing similar good deeds across California—and he hopes that his gesture will inspire others to do the same.
This is just one of many positive stories and updates that are coming out of the COVID-19 news coverage this week. For more uplifting coverage on the outbreaks, click here.
(WATCH the news coverage below) – Photo by KNTV
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Orthographic projections of the “Unified Geologic Map of the Moon” showing the geology of the Moon's near side (left) and far side (right) with shaded topography from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA). This geologic map is a synthesis of six Apollo-era regional geologic maps, updated based on data from recent satellite missions. It will serve as a reference for lunar science and future human missions to the Moon. Photo by NASA/GSFC/USGS.
Have you ever wondered what kind of rocks make up those bright and dark splotches on the moon? Well, scientists have just released a new authoritative map to help explain the 4.5-billion-year-old history of our nearest neighbor in space.
For the first time, the entire lunar surface has been completely mapped and uniformly classified by scientists from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in collaboration with NASA and the Lunar Planetary Institute.
The lunar map, called the “Unified Geologic Map of the Moon,” will serve as the definitive blueprint of the moon’s surface geology for future human missions and will be invaluable for the international scientific community, educators and the public-at-large.
The digital map is available online now and shows the moon’s geology in incredible detail (1:5,000,000 scale).
“People have always been fascinated by the moon and when we might return,” said current USGS Director and former NASA astronaut Jim Reilly. “So, it’s wonderful to see USGS create a resource that can help NASA with their planning for future missions.”
To create the new digital map, scientists used information from six Apollo-era regional maps along with updated information from recent satellite missions to the moon. The existing historical maps were redrawn to align them with the modern data sets, thus preserving previous observations and interpretations.
Along with merging new and old data, USGS researchers also developed a unified description of the stratigraphy, or rock layers, of the moon. This resolved issues from previous maps where rock names, descriptions and ages were sometimes inconsistent.
Orthographic projections of the “Unified Geologic Map of the Moon” showing the geology of the Moon’s near side (left) and far side (right) with shaded topography from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA). This geologic map is a synthesis of six Apollo-era regional geologic maps, updated based on data from recent satellite missions. It will serve as a reference for lunar science and future human missions to the Moon. Photo by NASA/GSFC/USGS.
“This map is a culmination of a decades-long project,” said Corey Fortezzo, USGS geologist and lead author. “It provides vital information for new scientific studies by connecting the exploration of specific sites on the moon with the rest of the lunar surface.”
Elevation data for the moon’s equatorial region came from stereo observations collected by the Terrain Camera on the recent SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) mission led by JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Topography for the north and south poles was supplemented with NASA’s Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter data.
A South Carolina couple has been using their musical talents to bring their community together for weekly street concerts—all while respecting social distancing guidelines.
Leah Edwards and her husband Dimitri Pitta are professional opera singers who have been setting up shop at the end of their driveway in Mount Pleasant to perform classical and contemporary opera pieces for their neighbors.
Not only have their performances served as a source of entertainment for the neighborhood, they have also helped to keep the community close together during the novel coronavirus lockdowns.
“We’re practicing, they say they can hear us anyways, so we said why not take it to the driveway and make it a concert,” Edwards told WCBD. “It gets everyone out, checking on each other and get some breath of fresh air and make music.”
Although the news outlet goes on to report that the couple usually performs at the Gaillard Center, they reportedly have no qualms playing for a smaller audience until the outbreaks subside.
This is just one of many positive stories and updates that are coming out of the COVID-19 news coverage this week. For more uplifting coverage on the outbreaks, click here.
(WATCH the news coverage below)
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Quote of the Day: “In Mexico your wishes have a dream power. When you want to see someone, he turns up.” – William S. Burroughs (Wishing you a Mexcellent Cinco de Mayo!)
Photo: by Bernardo Ramonfaur, public domain, cropped
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
It has been five years since the beloved Parks and Recreation television show aired what viewers believed to be its last episode—but this week, the show’s original cast came together for a half-hour reunion episode to raise money for COVID-19 relief.
The episode, which welcomed back Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Adam Scott, Jim O’Heir, Rob Lowe, and even Paul Rudd, explored how the characters have been coping with the current pandemic since the show ended in 2015.
The first $500,000 worth of donations generated by “A Parks and Recreation Special” was matched by the show’s producers, network, and cast members—all of whom respected social distancing guidelines by contributing to the episode from their own homes.
The episode is currently being streamed for free on Youtube, Hulu, and the NBC website.
This is just one of many positive stories and updates that are coming out of the COVID-19 news coverage this week. For more uplifting coverage on the outbreaks, click here.
(WATCH the full episode below)
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The Phoenix is a free, sober gym community that uses health and fitness to help people overcome addiction.
Due to the current shelter-in-place orders, however, its members are unable to continue their normal workout sessions together amidst the trying times of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Even without social distancing rules, the isolation that recovering addicts experience when they choose to pursue a new, sober lifestyle is profound—so in order to surround its members with support during these difficult times, The Phoenix is taking their classes online, continuing to meet in groups virtually.
Not only have the online meetings served as a source of comfort for The Phoenix’s members, they have also started welcoming sober social media users from around the world as well.
This is just one of many positive stories and updates that are coming out of the COVID-19 news coverage this week. For more uplifting coverage on the outbreaks, click here.
For the last 23 years, Japanese artist Makoto Azuma has been making art out of his favorite medium: flowers.
Azuma says he first became captivated by the power of flowers after he started working part-time at a florist’s in order to make some extra money playing in a rock and roll band. After spending some time at the shop, however, he discovered his true passion in blossoms.
Since devoting himself to his floral obsession, he has facilitated dozens of flower-related art projects.
This particular Great Big Story interview from 2017 follows Azuma as he prepares to launch bouquets of flowers into outer space.
By partnering with a team of filmmakers and balloon technicians, Azuma successfully filmed a number of floral arrangements floating more than 18.6 miles (30,000 meters) above ground—and the results are spectacular.
“This project is about launching flowers to space,” Azuma told Great Big Story. “To arrange flowers where they would not exist … By arranging flowers in a space where they cannot exist, I am weaving in a new aspect of beauty, extracting it and guiding it. This is my purpose.”
This week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the emergency use of the antiviral remdesivir as the country’s first drug treatment for COVID-19.
The emergency use approval (EUA) was issued after a government-sponsored study of 1,063 patients found that hospitalized COVID-19 patients treated with the drug recovered an average of 4 days faster than those who were not treated with the drug—a 31% improvement in recovery time.
The treatment, which was developed by Gilead Sciences Inc., may be approved for expanded use provided that additional research can be conducted on the efficacy and safety of the drug.
The EUA allows for remdesivir to be distributed in the U.S. and administered intravenously by health care providers, as appropriate, to treat suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in adults and children hospitalized with severe disease. Severe disease is defined as patients with low blood oxygen levels or needing oxygen therapy or more intensive breathing support such as a mechanical ventilator.
“From day one, the FDA has been committed to expediting the development and availability of potential COVID-19 treatments. Today’s action is an important step in our efforts to collaborate with innovators and researchers to provide sick patients timely access to new therapies where appropriate, while at the same time supporting research to further evaluate whether they are safe and effective,” said FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn.
“There’s tremendous interest among all parties to identify and arm ourselves with medicines to combat COVID-19, and through our Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program, the FDA is working around-the-clock and using every tool at our disposal to speed these efforts,” he added.
Based on evaluation of the emergency use authorization criteria and the scientific evidence available, it was determined that it is reasonable to believe that remdesivir may be effective in treating COVID-19, and that, given there are no adequate, approved, or available alternative treatments, the known and potential benefits to treat this serious or life-threatening virus currently outweigh the known and potential risks of the drug’s use.
“The results from the global, placebo-controlled trial run by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) are positive. They show that patients with COVID-19 who received remdesivir recovered faster than similar patients who received placebo,” said Gilead Chairman and CEO Daniel O’Day in a statement.
“There is still more work to do and remdesivir has not been approved, but all of us at Gilead are humbled by what these promising results might mean for patients. After years of research and hard work on remdesivir, there is relief and gratitude among our teams today that their efforts have been so worthwhile.
“Since January, our teams have been working day and night to determine whether remdesivir might work in patients with COVID-19. These efforts include collaboration with study investigators and governments on the various clinical trials. Today’s news, that remdesivir might play a role in easing the burden of the pandemic, is the outcome we all hoped would be possible.”
This is just one of many positive stories and updates that are coming out of the COVID-19 news coverage this week. For more uplifting coverage on the outbreaks, click here.
Photo by Gilead Sciences Inc.
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The staffers at this California hospital are rejoicing after receiving a $1 million gift from an anonymous donor who asked for the money to be divided amongst the employees.
The donation was made this week to the Dignity Health Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, California. Although the donor opted to remain anonymous, they did include a note with their financial gift saying: “Thank you for standing up (and staying up!) to care for our community. This human kindness is what makes you heroic.”
As per the donor’s wishes, the donation will be distributed amongst each and every one of the hospital staffers who have worked at the facility for at least one year—from the security guards and lab technicians to the janitors and mailroom workers.
Full-time employees will be receiving $800 bonus checks while part-time employees will be receiving $600 bonuses.
Staffers are rejoicing over the gift after spending weeks of tirelessly combatting the novel coronavirus outbreaks.
“There are so many people who keep the hospital running,” nursing supervisor Amy Loudon told The Associated Press. “Nurses and doctors are getting the praise, but we couldn’t do it without the staff who clean the floors, deliver supplies, fix machines, everything. It’s a team, and I’m glad the whole team is getting a thank you.”
This is just one of many positive stories and updates that are coming out of the COVID-19 news coverage this week. For more uplifting coverage on the outbreaks, click here.
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Quote of the Day: “Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.” — Walt Whitman
Photo: by Ingmar H, public domain, cropped
With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quote of the Day page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?
Kevin Procopio missed playing his grandchildren, since the COVID-19 quarantine required that they all stay in isolation—but he came up with a fun way to connect.
One-third of a mile down the road, in Saugus, Massachusetts, the family was experiencing “extreme cabin fever” until they got a telephone call with directions for everyone to go out on their deck.
The three boys, all under 5 years old, were super excited. The oldest child, Oren, ran out and anxiously waited.
In came a drone carrying a box of ‘Munchkins’ Dunkin’ Donut holes, delivered right into Oren’s arms.
Caffe sospeso—an Italian term which means ‘suspended coffee’—is what someone says in a Naples café when they’re feeling generous and want to pay it forward to someone less fortunate.
The tradition has come back into fashion in the last decade, but suspended coffee is an old Napolitano custom that actually arose after World War II, according to Luciano de Crescenzo’s book Caffe Sospeso, perhaps as a result of people wanting a release for their charitable urges.
Now, in their COVID-conscious culture, a more generous version of the tradition is sweeping Italy with ‘suspended shopping’ (la spesa sospesa).
COVID-19 has done more damage in Italy than almost anywhere else, and because of the extreme difficulties, people are going into shops and paying the grocery tabs for strangers who might be out of work.
An estimated one in every two Italians has been out of work—or in ‘lavoro sospeso’, suspended work—since early March, and people are beginning to wonder how they will be able to afford to feed their families.
Shop owner Michela Buccilli in Rome’s Piazza San Giovanni della Malva, says she has been matching the donations of anyone who has something to spare. One customer told NPR news, after she asked to donate a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of oranges to a local aid group, the store owner went ahead and sent a whole crate.
The Power of the Internet
COVID-19 has shuttered two million Italian businesses, and citizens often compare such challenges to the ones posed by World War II.
In 1940s and 50s, a happy-go-lucky person in Naples might make a humanitarian gesture, after picking up a coffee from a street vendor, as if he were “buying a coffee for the world.” Italy was in economic straights after World War II, and it was common for people not to have enough money for a coffee.
Now with the internet on their side, modern-day Italians have more opportunities to support local businesses. One Italian foodie website, Puntarella Rossa, recently launched il calice sospeso “the suspended wine glass,” where readers can buy vouchers worth 1 glass, or 1 bottle of wine from a local bar—redeemable after the lockdown orders are lifted.
“We did it as a way to help these businesses economically,” Livia Belardelli, the site’s wine blogger told NPR. But it also nourishes the communities that support the shops.
Since April 1st, Belardelli says more than 150 readers and patrons have paid for wine-in-waiting at over 30 wine bars.
But wine, coffee, and groceries aren’t the only things being “suspended.” From sustainable clothing brand Re-Bello comes a crowd-funding campaign called One-for-One Mask.
An Italian news network described it as ‘La Mascherina Sospesa’—you guessed it, the suspended mask. A person can buy one washable, antibacterial mask, and the profits go to providing a second mask for a refugee in Cyprus through a European aid organization Refugee Support Europe.
On the inside of every mask lies a simple line bending into a smile alongside an embroidered message “The world will smile with you”. So far, 7700 of the 27,000 Euro needed for the project has been accumulated. You can contribute to it on Indiegogo by buying masks for yourself and a refugee, (1 mask for you, and 1 for a refugee) or 2 for 2, or 5 for 5.
This is just one of many positive stories and updates that are coming out of the COVID-19 news coverage this week. For more uplifting coverage on the outbreaks, click here.
(LISTEN to the NPR segment below)
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A plant extract combination of fruits, leaves, and roots may help to relieve hangover symptoms, reveals an intriguing new study published online this week.
Furthermore, the common wisdom about what causes hangovers may be wrong. The study’s findings indicate that dehydration and the associated loss of electrolytes—electrically charged minerals in the body that help balance water content and acid levels—may not be largely responsible for all the common hangover symptoms.
Various natural remedies have been recommended over the years to ease hangover symptoms, but there was no strong scientific evidence that would advocate for their use.
In a bid to address that, German researchers at the Institute of Molecular Physiology at Johannes Gutenberg-University assessed the potential of specific plant extracts, vitamins and minerals, and antioxidant compounds to ease a range of physical and psychological symptoms associated with drinking alcohol. Their peer-reviewed, double-blind, randomized controlled trial has been published in BMJ Nutrition Prevention & Health.
The plant extracts included Barbados cherry (Acerola), prickly pear, ginkgo biloba, willow and ginger root. The vitamins and minerals included magnesium, potassium, sodium bicarbonate, zinc, riboflavin, thiamin and folic acid.
Some 214 healthy 18-65 year olds were randomly split into three groups and given a 7.5 g flavored, water soluble supplement 45 minutes before, and immediately after they stopped drinking any of beer, white wine, or white wine spritzer.
The first group (69) were given a supplement containing the plant extracts, vitamins and minerals, and additional antioxidant compounds—steviol glycosides and inulin. The second group (76) were given a supplement minus the plant extracts, while the third group (69) were given glucose alone (placebo).
The number and type of drinks consumed was recorded as was how many times they emptied their bladder between 1,700 and 2,100 hours.
Blood and urine samples and blood pressure measurements were taken before and after the start of this four-hour period, after which the participants were sent home to sober up.
Twelve hours later the same samples and blood pressure measurements were taken, and participants filled in a questionnaire about the type and intensity of perceived hangover symptoms, which were ranked on a zero to 10 scale.
The average amount of alcohol consumed was virtually the same in all three groups: 0.62 ml/minute.
Analysis of all the data showed that symptom intensity varied widely among the participants—but compared with the placebo, those taking the full supplement of plant extracts, minerals/vitamins, and antioxidants reported less severe symptoms.
Average headache intensity was 34% less, nausea 42% less, while feelings of indifference fell by an average of 27% and restlessness by 41%. No significant differences or reductions were reported for any of the other symptoms.
The Plants Made the Difference
Polyphenol and flavonoid compounds in each of the five plant extracts have been associated with curbing the physiological impact of alcohol in previously published experimental studies, explain the researchers. But it’s not clear how.
“The underlying mechanisms remain to be unravelled and surely need further investigation,” according to the authors Professor Bernhard Lieb and Patrick Schmitt in Mainz, Germany.
No significant difference in any symptom was reported by those taking the supplement minus the plant extracts, suggesting that plant extracts were largely responsible for the observed changes, say the researchers.
And the absence of any observed impact for vitamins and minerals on their own suggests that alcohol might not affect electrolyte and mineral balance, as is commonly thought, they add.
Their analysis also showed levels of water content in the body weren’t significantly associated with the amount of alcohol drunk. “Our results suggest that alcohol-induced increased fluid excretion does not necessarily lead to a significant dehydration process,” they write.
“It seems to be clear that hangover symptoms are predominantly caused by alcohol and its metabolites,” rather than dehydration or electrolytes, they concluded.
The Lithuanian capital of Vilnius is supporting its vibrant café and restaurant culture through the coronavirus pandemic by designating all public spaces as open air cafés, allowing restaurants to stay open and serve customers while observing physical distancing guidelines.
With just over 1,000 cases and 44 deaths from COVID-19, the Baltic nation is staging a tiered exit from its lockdown by allowing restaurants with outdoor seating, hair salons, and most small retail stores to reopen.
Social distancing is still in full effect, but that’s no problem for the intrepid restauranteurs, baristas, and bar owners in Vilnius’ old town of Senamiestis, because they can place their tables as far apart as they care to do, utilizing the narrow streets and small plazas.
“Plazas, squares, streets… Nearby cafes will be allowed to set up outdoor tables free of charge this season and thus conduct their activities during quarantine,” said Remigijus Šimašius, the mayor of this charming town, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
According to The Guardian, over 160 restaurant, café, and bar owners have signed up for the program that has opened 18 spacious public areas for outdoor seating, promising to add more spaces to the list as the summer progresses and the exit from the lockdown continues.
“It came just in time,” Evalda Šiškauskienė of the Lithuanian Association of Hotels and Restaurants told TheGuardian, who added that it would help “accommodate more visitors and bring life back to the city streets, but without violating security requirements.”
Another ray of good news sunshine in Vilnius came when public health workers were recently rewarded with food and drink vouchers for city restaurants (€400,000 in total) as a gesture of gratitude for their hard work and public service in the face of COVID-19.
This is just one of many positive stories and updates that are coming out of the COVID-19 news coverage this week. For more uplifting coverage on the outbreaks, click here.
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