An article published April, 2019, in Current Nutrition Reports got our attention. It's titled "Prebiotic Intake in Older Adults: Effects on Brain Function and Behavior." The article suggests that current science-based evidence generally supports the ability of prebiotics to increase beneficial gut bacteria concentrations on endocrine, immunologic, and neuronal communication.

Poor air quality remains the largest environmental health risk in the United States. More people die from air pollution than car crashes and murders combined, according to a new study titled,"Inequity in consumption of goods and services adds to racial-ethnic disparities in air pollution exposure." It was published online ahead of the March 19, 2019, print date for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).It, sadly points out that black and Hispanic minorities bear a disproportionate burden of air quality related disease.Environmental epidemiologist Douglas Dockery, ScD, of the Harvard School of Public Health, also told WebMD last year, It's now clear that fine-particle air pollutants pose a risk to health, and the scientific evidence supporting tighter restrictions, on fine-particle pollution levels are now overwhelming. Even though minorities are contributing less to the overall problem of air pollution they are affected by it more."​A study published in the May 2018 issue of Environmental Health used high-resolution mapping of traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) with Google street-view cars and incidence of cardiovascular events within neighborhoods in Oakland, CA. The study conclusions clearly suggest that street-level differences in long-term exposure to TRAP are associated with higher risk of cardiovascular events among the elderly, indicating that within-neighborhood differences in TRAP are important to heart health.

Even though snow is still falling, and old man winter has been a gracious host, we decided to get an early jump on spring allergy season and dry, itchy, gritty eyes, since ongoing climate changes seem to now move us from winter to spring in the blink of an eye.