Why A Neurotoxin Is Closing Crab Season In California

Freshly cooked Dungeness crab sits on a pot of boiling water at Nick's Lighthouse Restaurant in San Francisco, Nov. 5, 2015.

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State officials have closed both recreational and commercial fishing for Dungeness and rock crab on the California coast north of Santa Barbara to the Oregon border, due to a large algae bloom that's making the crab unsafe for consumption.

The bloom, created by an organism called Pseudo-nitzschia, produces a neurotoxin called domoic acid that can build up in marine life. It causes vomiting, diarrhea and cramping in humans — and even death, in severe cases.

California's Dungeness crabs are shipped across the U.S. and internationally, and the $60 million fishery is considered vital to the region's small fishermen. Both the commercial and recreational fishery will open as soon as test samples show the crab is safe.

So how does this toxin get into marine animals, and when might it clear out?

We spoke with Clarissa Anderson, a research scientist at the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, to find out.

Algae blooms off the Pacific Coast aren't new. But why is this one so large and persistent?

This bloom has been unprecedented in its extent and its persistence. It started in May and continued on to September. And while we were expecting such a bloom in the spring and even into the summer, as has happened in years past, we did not really expect to see this continue into September.

The warm temperatures all along the North Pacific and off the West Coast are contributing to the persistence of this bloom and are allowing it to stay in the surface waters. We're now starting to see that subside a little bit as we go into fall.

Why are the waters so warm? Is it El Niño?

Well, it's true that El Niño is on its way. But we're not quite seeing the manifestations of El Niño in California just yet. For the last two years, we have seen these very high temperatures in the waters off the coast, and we're calling that the warm "blob." And that has been interacting with the bloom and sort of creating an unprecedented situation.

How long might these levels of domoic acid last in the ocean?

We know from weekly sampling that domoic acid levels, at least in the surface waters, have been coming down for the last two months. And they're pretty low now.

An algae bloom has closed crab season in California. The bloom, created by an organism called Pseudo-nitzschia,produces a neurotoxin that can build up in marine life. It causes vomiting, diarrhea, and cramping in humans and even death in severe cases.

Christy Juhasz/CDFW/Flickr

The issue with the crabs is that toxin can persist in the sediments. And those crabs are feeding on all kinds of crustaceans and shrimp along the bottom. And so the crabs are bio-accumulating it in their flesh.

So this toxin, while it might not be continuing to be produced by the algae, it certainly is in the sediments and could last there for quite some time.

Could storms or high winds clear out the algae bloom?

If we start to see some big storms from El Niño, we might start to see the water column turn over and some of these toxins flush away.

But as far as sediments go, it might be a little trickier. But I think that some storms would do a lot to clear this up.

So once a crab has this level of domoic acid in its body, how long does it take for it to clear out of the crab so it's safe to eat?

We don't have great data on the clearance rate of domoic acid from crabs. We know that they will clear it out naturally via their kidneys and they will excrete it. But we don't know just how long it will take if they continue to acquire it and feed an environment where there is a lot of domoic acid.

So the question is: Are they going to continue to acquire it, or will they be able to just excrete it over a number of days to weeks? And then we can move on and start harvesting them.

And it's not just crabs that are being affected by the neurotoxin, right? People should avoid eating fresh sardines and anchovies.

This toxin can work its way up the food web, and we've seen unusual mortality events in California sea lions and also whales farther north, in Alaska. Sea lions have been stranding within California as well as in Oregon and Washington throughout the summer and are continuing to strand. 

Will Drinking Green Tea Boost Your Metabolism? Not So Fast

Some believe increased metabolism may be among the benefits of drinking green tea. But there's scant evidence to support that idea.

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It's a tantalizing idea, isn't it, that we could burn stored fat simply by nibbling or sipping on something that tastes good.

Plenty of companies are now capitalizing on the allure of "metabolism boosting" foods and drinks. Among the most-hyped substance is green tea — for its supposed powers as an aid for weight loss and weight maintenance.

You don't have to look hard to find these claims. Dr. Oz has asserted that just one cup of his Tangerine Weight-Orade, which contains green tea, will "boost metabolism 12 percent." Women's Health magazine described "green tea's weight-loss magic" even in ice cream. And dozens of green tea drinks and pills for sale claim to help you burn more fat.

There's a long tradition in East Asia of drinking green tea for health. But as scientists have tried to test the belief that green tea will help you keep off the pounds, they've largely come up short.

Take the work of Rick Hursel of Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. He published a review study that found green tea may slightly increase metabolism.

"We've shown that green tea is able to increase your energy expenditure — so the amount of calories you burn — and also to increase the amount of fat you are burning," Hursel told NPR's Allison Aubrey in 2012.

Other studies have established that green tea contains caffeine and catechins that stimulate the nervous system, which can increase thermogenesis (burning stored energy) and fat oxidation. "The caffeine in green tea could raise your metabolic rate ever so slightly, but it wouldn't have a different effect than coffee," Michael Jensen, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic, tells The Salt.

And could green tea consumption actually lead to lasting changes in people's metabolism or to weight loss?

The weight loss effect in Hursel's study was small — and perhaps only fleeting. And another study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2009 found that green tea extract had no effect on the resting metabolic rate of 12 normal weight men.

A larger meta-analysis of the research on green tea published by the Cochrane Reviewfound that green tea led to only small, statistically insignificant weight loss in overweight or obese adults. The review also noted that regular consumption of green tea didn't help people keep weight off.

All that said, green tea very likely has other healthful properties. Early studies suggest that flavonols in tea play a role in helping to regulate blood pressure.

And as I've reported, regular consumption seems to be associated with longevity, at least according to the Blue Zone Project. As National Geographic explorer Dan Buettner's Blue Zones Beverage Rule goes: "Drink coffee for breakfast, tea in the afternoon, wine at 5 p.m."

As for other metabolism-boosting products, stay tuned. Nestle claims its researchers are developing products that "could emulate the effects of exercise on the body's metabolism" and would help people who are obese and those with chronic metabolic diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes.

But Jensen of the Mayo Clinic is skeptical that we'll ever find a way to magically boost our metabolism. "Unless you've gained or lost a lot of weight, your metabolism stays pretty stable over time," he says.

Five Ways Your Smartphone Can Help Your Health

A doctor friend once told me the best thing I could do for my health was to turn off my cellphone. But that was before smartphone makers began building health and safety features into their phones. Here are five healthful tricks your phone can do.

Medical ID: Apple’s Medical ID turns any iPhone 4s or newer model into a mobile medical alert bracelet. Tap on your phone’s Health app icon (it’s the white square with a red heart) to find it. Setting up your phone’s medical ID allows doctors or emergency workers to tap and hold the Emergency button on your home screen — even when it’s locked — to access medical conditions, allergies, emergency contacts, blood type and other potentially lifesaving information. (Make sure you enable the “show when locked” switch.)

Fitness Tracking: Most smartphones now come equipped with motion sensors that measure steps, distance traveled and even stairs climbed. To find this feature on an iPhone, head back to the Health app. Click on the dashboard and panes open up showing steps, walking and running distance, and flights climbed. It shows your daily, weekly, monthly and yearly totals. No setup is required, but to get the most accurate count, it helps to carry your phone in your hand, jacket, or jeans pocket.

Samsung Galaxy S3 phones and newer come with the option to use a preloaded health app called S Health, which performs a similar tracking of steps and movement as well as calories burned, but you’ll have to take a few minutes to set it up the first time you use it.

Heart Rate Monitors: Samsung’s S Health app also has a place to measure your heart rate. Tap the orange heart with an EKG-like line running through it, then edit your profile with your name, gender, birthday, height, weight and activity level. Tap “save” and it takes you back to an orange screen. Touch “measure” at the bottom of the pane, then place your finger on the infrared sensor next to the camera on the back of the device. When it’s done getting a reading (mine is 80 beats per minute as I stand at my desk and type this), it shows whether you’re within a healthy range for your current status of “resting.” Over time you can use this to measure and track trends as well.

Samsung makes no medical claims as to the accuracy of the device, but when I’ve used it side-by-side with other wrist-worn trackers, such as an Apple Watch, a Fitbit Surge or a Basis Peak, the results are similar. Using the same sensor on the back of the Samsung device, you can also get a rough reading of oxygen saturation, which is especially helpful for athletes or people with asthma. In fact, Samsung’s S Health app is the most feature-rich and wellness-packed of all that I’ve tried. It includes a section for nutrition tracking as well that rivals third-party apps such as Lose It! orMyFitnessPal.

Track Your Family: Some might call it spying, but I like to think of it more as making sure everyone is safely where they should be.Find My iPhone automatically comes on any iPhone model running iOS 9, as long as you enable location services on that device. To do that, snag your teenager’s phone and tap the Settings icon, scroll down to Privacy and turn on Location Services. To find someone, tap your Find My iPhone app (a green radar beacon) on your own device or log in to iCloud to see connected devices on a map with their location. If you don’t share an iCloud account with your kids, you’ll need their passwords in order to see where they are.

Apple phones also come with Family Sharing or Find My Friends features that you can use to keep tabs on your brood as well. (Go to settings and iCloud to find it.) I don’t use these as much because with Family Sharing, a few racy texts between my husband and me showed up on an iPad that the whole family uses (awkward). And with Find My Friends, my daughter has too much control to lock me out when it’s convenient for her.

Voice-Activated 911: When Sam Ray, 18, was trapped beneath the two-ton pickup truck he was working on this past August in Tennessee, the pressure pinning his body activated Siri on the iPhone he had tucked in his back pocket. Mr. Ray yelled for the digital assistant to dial 911. It worked. After being rescued, airlifted, and treated for several broken ribs, a bruised kidney, cuts, a concussion and burns to his left arm, the lifesaving butt-dial made headlines around the world. “I’ve never heard of a story where you can figure out a way to use Siri to call 911 and get yourself rescued,” said Rick Miller, the chief of trauma and surgical care at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, where Mr. Ray was treated.

No matter what smartphone brand you favor, there’s now a way to get most new mobile devices to call 911 for help just by yelling at the device — but you have to set up voice activation first. With iPhone, find it under Settings, General and Siri. Then just say “Hey Siri,” and tell her to dial 911. (For iPhones older than the 6s model, the phone needs to be plugged in.)

Newer Android phones have Google Now voice activation. Saying “O.K. Google,” turns it on so that you can ask your phone to dial 911 or any other emergency contact completely touch-free. The Samsung S6 edge+ has a similar feature called SOS that is not voice-activated, but still pretty cool. After setup, trigger SOS by pressing the Power key three times quickly. It automatically snaps a picture from the front and back camera, records a quick audio clip, and sends a Google Maps link of your exact location to any contact that you’ve programmed it to.

Drink To Your Health: Study Links Daily Coffee Habit To Longevity

People who drank three to five cups of coffee per day had a lower risk of premature death than those who didn't drink, a new study finds.

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If you have a daily coffee habit, here's something to buzz about: A new study finds those cups of joe may help boost longevity.

"In our study, we found people who drank three to five cups of coffee per day had about a 15 percent lower [risk of premature] mortality compared to people who didn't drink coffee," says one of the study authors, nutrition researcher Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health. Decaf drinkers also saw benefits.

The findings, published in the journal Circulation, build on a body of evidence linking a coffee habit to potential health benefits.

As we've reported, previous research has pointed to adecreased risk of stroke. And, there's some evidence that a coffee habit cuts the risk of Type 2 diabetes, too.

Now, of course, it's possible to overdo it with caffeine. Research has shown that consuming more than 400 milligrams of caffeine can interfere with sleep and create feelings of unease. And some of us are even more sensitive. (I feel jittery if I have more than one strong cup!)

One study found that 200 milligrams of caffeine (the equivalent of about two cups of coffee) is an optimal amount to enhance cognitive function and mood among sleep-deprived people. But all of us don't metabolize caffeine the same way.

As we've reported, the caffeine amounts in coffee vary wildly. One analysis, conducted by Bruce Goldberger, found a 16-ounce cup of caffeinated coffee from Starbucks could contain anywhere from 250 milligrams to more than 500 milligrams of caffeine.

"Not everyone reacts to coffee in the same way," says Andrew Maynard, who studies risk assessment at Arizona State University. He summarizes the benefits documented in this study as "small."

He says this study does not prove cause and effect between drinking coffee and living longer. Rather, it points to an association. "There are a lot of unknowns as to what [may explain] the increase in life expectancy," Maynard says.

Got more questions? So did we. Here's our conversation about the findings with study co-author Walter Willett, edited for length and clarity.

So, what do you think might explain this association? In the study, you point to compounds in coffee — such as lignans, quinides and magnesium — that may help reduce insulin resistance and inflammation. Prior studies have pointed to these as well.

We're not sure exactly how coffee is [linked] to all these benefits. The coffee bean itself is loaded with many different nutrients and phytochemicals. And my guess is that they're working together to have some of these benefits.

We [see] similar benefits from caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee. That's important, because it suggests that caffeine is not responsible for [the benefit.]

So this may be welcome news to people who drink decaf?

Yes, because too much [caffeinated] coffee can cause insomnia and loss of sleep, and that's not a good thing!

The reduced risk of death was not seen among the coffee drinkers in your study who were smokers or former smokers. 

Definitely. It's extremely important to disentangle the effects of coffee from the effects of cigarette smoking.

So, what's the take-home here? Is is that coffee can be part of a healthy lifestyle?

I think if people like coffee, it's fine to include it [as part of your daily habit]. So, certainly, [people] should not feel guilty about moderate coffee consumption. It definitely can be part of a healthy lifestyle.

I wouldn't suggest that someone who doesn't like coffee go out and drink it.

Are you a coffee drinker? Are these findings likely to influence your own behaviors?

Well, I really like a good cup of coffee. But if I have more than two cups a day, I really don't sleep as well. So, I've been switching more toward decaf or half decaf/half regular.

In this study, you also analyzed how coffee influenced the risk of specific diseases — or categories of diseases. What did you find?

We went beyond total mortality and looked at specific causes of death. And we found that people who drink moderate amounts of coffee have lower risk of [death] from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, neurologic disease [such as Parkinson's] and suicide.

Your findings come from data from two Nurses' Health studies, which included about 167,000 women. And it also looked at the 40,00 men in theHealth Professionals Follow-up Study.

As you point out, the participants in these studies are about 95 percent white, largely middle-class and well educated. Can you extrapolate to other populations?

Yes, I'm quite sure these findings would apply to other populations. This is a biological relationship. And we basically have a common biology.

6 Ways To Relax And Unwind In Charleston

Charleston, South Carolina is a vacation destination that tourists visit again and again, year after year. So what’s so great about the city?

It’s quaint, it’s relaxing and most importantly, there’s plenty to do (or not do) when you’re there.

So for those of you looking for a new, relaxing vacation destination, or for Charleston residents and students that want to get out and enjoy the city’s relaxing qualities, here are six ways to relax and unwind in Charleston, South Carolina.

1. Gorgeous walks/bike rides

Photo Via: http://www.tylin.com

For some people, a leisurely walk or bike ride can be the perfect relaxant; it’s a great way to clear your head or maybe exercise some stress away.

Well lucky for you, Charleston is home to one of the greatest, most beautiful destinations to do so. The Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge (over the Cooper River) isn’t only a great drive, but it’s got the perfect sight-seeing opportunity for bikers/walkers that are interested in relaxing.

The recommended times to go for your stroll are in the early-morning/late-evening hours (sunrise and sunset, preferably) as there isn’t a better view in town.

2. Go shopping

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Is shopping more of a stress reliever for you?

Go check out the Charleston City Market. There isn’t a better place to get handmade goods, fresh spices, or any other items you can think of.

It’s in a popular part of town, it’s going to satisfy even the biggest shopaholic, and it’s a quick, easy way to relax and unwind after a long day.

You can also hit up the Charleston Farmers Market or, if you’re looking for higher end shopping opportunities, there’s always King Street!

3. Tourist attractions

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Maybe you’re the kind of person that has a knack for history, or just likes to be corralled like a herd of cattle.

Hey, to each their own.

But if this is the way that you relax, you’ve got to check out the Fort Sumter National Monument. Reachable by ferry, this monument marking an important battle (the start of) the Civil War is touching, memorable and, for some people, a relaxing way to spend your day.

So if you’re looking to get out and do something new, this is definitely something I’d recommend.

4. Visit the aquarium

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Located on Charleston Harbor, the South Carolina Aquarium is one of the most relaxing destinations on this list.

You can check out the marine life, catch a few shows (4-D, I might add), or just enjoy a leisurely stroll people watching and enjoying your marine life companions.

This is an idea suited for all ages, students, families and tourists, and I promise you’ll leave relaxed, rejuvenated and ready to take on the rest of your day.

5. Pool deck party

Photo Via: http://930nomo.com

Located in the North Morrison section of Charleston, 930 Nomo is a large and beautiful brick structure located near the Ravenal Bridge and the Ashley River.

So what’s so relaxing about that?

Well, this new structure is home to a pool deck that rivals even the greatest locals in Charleston, so watch out Market Place Pavilion and Blind Tiger!

This pool deck is the perfect destination for your relaxation needs. It will be the host of DJ competitions, rave-esque dance parties and the perfect place for students to hang out and forget about the stresses of college life.

This newly established Nomo neighborhood just got a breath of fresh air, and students attending the College of Charleston are going to love this hot, new destination meant to help them relax and unwind in the company of their peers.

6. Visit the beach

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And finally, if you’re going to be on the Atlantic coast, you’ve got to hit at least one of the beaches.

So if you’re in Charleston, you’ve got to visit Folly Beach.

You’ll have to take a private charter over, but once you’re there, it’s quaint, quiet and unbelievably relaxing.

So go ahead and fish, swim, talk a walk through the sand or lay on the beach and catch some rays. No matter what you decide to do there, you’re on the beach. There isn’t anything in the world that’s more relaxing than that!

There are plenty of relaxing things to do in Charleston, and these are only a few to help get you started.

So go ahead and plan that trip, or that day off from school, and take a look around you – Charleston is one of the most relaxing places in the world. Enjoy!