Learn about how Japanese honey bees protect themselves from murder hornets, how a new link has been discovered between ADHD and hoarding disorder, and how your over the counter pain meds, might actually be making your pain worse!
Learn about how Japanese honey bees protect themselves from murder hornets, how a new link has been discovered between ADHD and hoarding disorder, and how your over the counter pain meds, might actually be making your pain worse!
Honey avoiding murder.
Does having ADHD mean you’re more likely to be a hoarder?
Hold the meds.
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/murdering-murder-hornets-adhd-hoarding-pain-pill-ills
NATE: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery. Time flies when you’re learnin’ super cool stuff. I’m Nate.
CALLI: And I’m Calli. If you’re dropping in for the first time, welcome to Curiosity, where we aim to blow your mind by helping you to grow your mind. If you’re a loyal listener, welcome back!
NATE: Today, you’ll learn about how Japanese honey bees protect themselves from murder hornets, how a new link has been discovered between ADHD and hoarding disorder, and how your over the counter pain meds, might actually be making your pain worse!
CALLI: Without further ado, let’s satisfy some curiosity!
[SFX: Whoosh]
NATE: Calli, you and I make tons of stuff together, so I know just how good a teammate you can be.
CALLI: Nate! That’s really nice.
NATE: It’s true. I think you’d make a great Japanese honeybee.
CALLI: What are you talking about?
NATE: It turns out if you’re a bee and you’re faced with a hornet invader, your best bet is going to be teamwork!
CALLI: Okay, I think I get it.
NATE: Researchers have found that Japanese honey bees team up to overheat and kill hornets that enter their hives. And, thanks to new research, we know just how the bees do it.
CALLI: You’d think hornets and bees would be friends considering how similar some people think they are.
NATE: Turns out no, they’re not friends at all. You may remember Murder Hornets from the news a couple years ago? Well, those are the hornets we’re talking about, and they’re not friends with bees. They eat bees!
CALLI: Oh, wow!
NATE: Yeah! When a hornet finds a honey bee hive, it will mark it with a pheromone and later return with additional hornets to attack the hive.
CALLI: I am not even a bee and the idea of a pack of “Murder Hornets” does not sound good.
#NATE: Oh it isn’t. Even though hives can have thousands of bees… a pack of Murder Hornets can wipe out an entire hive in a matter of hours…They use their strong mandibles to literally decapitate the honey bees, and they’re good at it…They can kill a new bee every fourteen seconds.
CALLI: That’s disturbing. I can barely imagine how bees could fight off such a strong foe.
NATE: Team work bay-beeeeee.
CALLI: I assume that extended “beeeee” was for emphasis and not a pun?
NATE: Can’t it be both, Calli? Anyway, when a murder hornet enters a Japanese honey bee hive, hundreds of bees swarm the hornet and flap their wings, in something scientists call a “bee ball.”
CALLI: You’re telling me they’re dancing their way to safety? I wish us humans could solve conflicts with dance.
NATE: Me too. In the case of the bees, all that vibrating creates a lot of heat.
CALLI: Similar to humans dancing...
NATE: Yep! Only in this case, it raises the temperature in the hive up to 115 degrees, overheating and killing the hornet.
CALLI: Okay, now I’m a little scared of the bee dance. But, maybe mostly because I don’t understand it!
NATE: Well new research is helping scientists understand how the bees are able to survive themselves as the heat kills the hornets. Researchers found the membrane protein rhodopsin in the honey bees.
CALLI: Well what does this protein do? Turn the bees into little Bee Torches? Flame on!
NATE: The rhodopsin doesn’t create the heat, we think it helps the bees regulate the heat. Flapping their wings, the honey bees are tremendously good at maintaining the 115 degree temperature, which is lethal to the hornets, but just below the survival temp for these bees.
CALLI: You’re telling me these bees have an internal thermostat?
NATE: Well, at the moment this is just what the research suggests. It hasn’t been confirmed. Here’s what happens. When the bees smell the invading hornets, they get agitated, and start to move their wings. The amount of rhodopsin in their bodies rapidly increases allowing them to raise and maintain the temperature.
CALLI: So when it comes to fight or flight, even though they have wings, they choose to fight to protect their friends, home, and presumably their queen. Pretty inspiring. I’m so relieved, I was worried when I heard about these “Murder Hornets” coming to America.
NATE: Well…I’ve got some bad news Calli. This defense is only in Japanese honey bees. These are bees that evolved with the threat of Murder Hornets…. Honey bees found in America… most commonly the European honey bee… Never had to deal with this threat, so...
CALLI: No! You’re telling me our cute Cheerio-loving, Seinfeld-voiced honey bees aren’t safe?
NATE: Unlike the Japanese bees, they don’t swarm. Instead, they try to kill the invading hornet by stinging it.
CALLI: Okay, so not totally defenseless!
NATE: Well, Murder Hornets have a thick exoskeleton that the stingers can’t penetrate. So, a single hornet can do serious damage to a bee hive here in The States.
CALLI: Oh no! What can be done to protect them?
NATE: Researchers are trying to capture and protect queen and worker bees, and have started experimenting with traps for Murder Hornets near honey bee hives.
CALLI: Oh! If they can capture a hornet, they wouldn’t be able to mark the hive with that pheromone that alerts other Murder Hornets, right?
NATE: Exactly. So we have some methods of getting involved to protect bees, but researchers hope that understanding rhodopsin in Japanese honey bees will inform future conservation efforts as well. Knowing how they regulate temperature might help us protect bees in other ways.
CALLI: Let’s hope it does!
[SFX: Whoosh]
NATE: So I cleared out my garage this weekend and you know what it made me think of?
CALLI: That now you’ll have so much more space for so many more activities?
NATE: I did definitely think about that, but it also made me think about hoarding.
CALLI: You thought about hoarding while you were doing the exact opposite of hoarding?
NATE: Well, yeah! And so, let’s talk about how there might be a link between hoarding tendencies and ADHD.
CALLI: I’ve actually seen a lot of posts online from people with ADHD talking about their inclination towards keeping things to an unhealthy level. I actually have ADHD myself too, so I understand this, a little.
NATE: Personal stories can definitely show that something’s going on. But a researcher named Sharon Morein wanted to take this supposed link and test it scientifically.
CALLI: You know “test it scientifically” is my favorite phrase. Hit me with numbers!
NATE: Her team put together a questionnaire study with a group of eighty-eight people, all medically diagnosed with ADHD, and found that nineteen percent of them showed clinically significant signs of hoarding.
CALLI: Meaning they could be diagnosed as hoarders as well?
NATE: Kind of. They’re at the very least right on the edge of it. They did show traits strong enough to fit the criteria for medical diagnosis.
CALLI: And now for another favorite ... “how did that compare with the control groups?”
NATE: The hoarding features were only shown in two percent of one ninety person control group. And only three percent in another group of two hundred twenty.
CALLI: That’s a pretty big difference from the ADHD group.
NATE: And beyond that, the study also found that everyone in the ADHD group had more “hoarding tendencies” compared to the other groups.
CALLI: Okay what’s the difference between a hoarding diagnosis and “hoarding tendencies”?
NATE: Basically, hoarding tendencies are Hoarding Lite. Non-clinical. Not serious. In fact, it can be hard to make distinctions between these tendencies and a typical tendency toward messiness.
CALLI: My desk can get pretty messy but I don’t think I have any hoarding tendencies per se...
NATE: That brings up the important point of the hoarding continuum. Medically speaking, hoarding isn’t considered a black and white issue. It’s looked at on a scale of severity. Some people might have a manageable clutter problem. Where some can move into more aggressive hoarding and have it completely disrupt their lives. What the data from the study showed was that people with ADHD were more likely to be on the continuum even if their tendencies weren’t that strong.
CALLI: Okay, so the papers on my desk don’t point to anything necessarily.
NATE: Certainly not without a professional opinion. My unprofessional opinion is that you’re doing fine for now.
CALLI: I’ll keep an eye on it.
NATE: That’s a good idea. It turns out inattention played a big role in the study.
CALLI: I mean inattention and ADHD do go hand in hand.
NATE: In the ADHD group, inattention was the only clear predictor for severity of hoarding tendencies. And we know from previous studies that if inattention is compounded with depression and anxiety, we see hoarding become much more likely.
CALLI: Like a tornado of mental health.
NATE: Especially in people with ADHD, where things like depression and anxiety can be more severe and prolonged.
CALLI: And, can the same be seen in people with a hoarding disorder?
NATE: There’s really a lot of overlap between the two. Both also tend to have issues with the executive functioning parts of their brains. The area dedicated to managing memory, flexible thinking, and the big one - self-control.
CALLI: With all these connections I’m kind of surprised this is just now being studied...
NATE: The links have been well documented in the hoarding research community. It just hasn’t been directly addressed in the field of ADHD study until now. And it’s definitely needed at the moment with how much misinformation is out there on ADHD right now, which has led to a rise in sometimes-inaccurate self-diagnosis.
CALLI: The same could be said about hoarding disorder.
NATE: The hope is that this study not only opens the door for further research, but also can be used practically to help those with ADHD understand their possible tendency towards hoarding disorder so it can be managed from the start.
CALLI: And maybe it’ll help further de-stigmatize hoarding disorder.
NATE: We definitely need to learn more about it. A lot of people currently suffering are met with limited access to care and information. The researchers in the study acknowledged that some of the participants may not even be fully aware they potentially have a problem, or how severe it may be.
CALLI: Both ADHD and hoarding disorder can be pretty serious. Thankfully, good scientists are making progress like this.
[SFX: Whoosh]
NATE: Calli do you ever take ibuprofen when you get a muscle ache?
CALLI: Sure, sometimes after working on a project like my… I’ll take some to reduce a sore back or something.
NATE: Sorry, Calli, but I’m not sure that’s such a good idea! A recent study just linked nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen, often called NSAIDs, with a higher risk of persistent, chronic back pain.
CALLI: How does that work? Ibuprofen makes your pain go away. It seems counterintuitive that it would lead to more pain?
NATE: You’re right, many people who experience that short term acute pain that pops up get better after taking something like ibuprofen. But, one of the biggest misconceptions about NSAIDs is that they cure pain. In reality, these drugs only offer temporary relief until the symptoms go away.
CALLI: So it just blocks the pain for a bit?
NATE: Sure, but in about 15% of people who take these drugs, that acute pain turns into persistent, longer lasting, chronic pain. A team of researchers examined 98 patients who experienced acute back pain for three months. Some of those patients’ symptoms disappeared after three months, but others’ pain stuck around.
CALLI: That’s exactly the opposite of what we want.
NATE: What was interesting is that when researchers looked at patients whose three months of pain eventually went away, they saw a spike in the activity of their inflammatory genes and the associated immune cells called neutrophils. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that are usually some of the first cells that arrive to help the body fight off an infection.
CALLI: So they’re the first responders of the immune system, fighting off pain or infection.
NATE: Exactly. But, interestingly, researchers found a lack of neutrophil cells in subjects who developed chronic pain. It turns out that NSAIDs can deplete Neutrophils, and decrease the body's ability to fight pain and infection.
CALLI: Wait, so ibuprofen might be harming the immune cells that protect us?
NATE: Right. And after witnessing this, the researchers turned their attention over to mice experiencing mild pain, and split the mice into a few groups. One group received various NSAIDs to treat their pain, and the other got treatment that wasn’t anti-inflammatory, like aspirin.
CALLI: Wait, so did they at least get that initial pain lessened?
NATE: Well, a few things happened. First, the mice that received anti-inflammatory treatment showed initial signs of pain relief, but many developed persistent long-term pain. Alternatively the mice that were given pain-relieving drugs like lidocaine or aspirin that don’t impact inflammation got some initial pain relief but importantly didn’t develop chronic pain.
CALLI: Well, did we learn anything about the neutrophils? Those infection fighting white blood cells?
NATE: For that, researchers added another experiment. They gave one group of mice an antibody shot to increase their neutrophils, and gave another group an antibody shot to decrease their neutrophils. The mice who had their neutrophils depleted had a very similar experience to those who had been given NSAIDs, and they developed chronic pain. But none of the mice who had their neutrophils reinforced experienced any chronic pain, even after receiving NSAIDs.
CALLI: Fewer neutrophils, less ability to fight back pain and rebuild the body, right? Is it the same for people?
NATE: Yes! In the final part of the study researchers examined data from people with lower back pain in the UK Biobank, a large-scale medical database. They compared the trajectory of pain in people who received different kinds of pain relief treatment like NSAIDs, acetaminophen, and antidepressants. The people who took NSAIDs were nearly twice as likely to develop chronic pain as those taking any other drug to relieve pain.
CALLI: I wonder how many people out there are taking NSAIDs with no idea of the potential damage they’re doing to themselves.
NATE: If the body’s immune system isn’t strong enough, chronic pain is actually quite common. But if you have a higher percentage of neutrophils during the acute stage of pain, you have a lower risk of chronic back pain later in life.
CALLI: So, ibuprofen will make my back feel better in the short term, but at a cost. So where do I go from here?
NATE: Well, researchers used to believe that chronic pain was the body overreacting to whatever problem was causing the acute pain. But this study shows that chronic pain might come from our inability to send those neutrophils.
CALLI: Well I am going to do all I can to help those cells helping me!
[SFX: Whoosh]
NATE: Let’s recap what we learned today to wrap up.
CALLI: Japanese Honey Bees have a creative way to fight off invading Murder Hornets: they dance. Forming a “bee ball,” vibrating and flapping their wings allows the bees to raise the temperature high enough to kill the hornet. And a newly discovered protein, rhodopsin, helps the bees prevent the temperature from rising above their own fatal levels.
NATE: A recent study shows that people diagnosed with ADHD are much more likely to show potential signs of hoarding disorder as well. While this link has been documented in the hoarding research community, it remains understudied in the ADHD world but further research will hopefully bring more attention to it.
CALLI: Researchers have found that our best effort to relieve acute pain might actually be leading to longer lasting chronic pain. Common anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen might be eliminating our body’s ability to recover and heal when it removes our inflammatory pain.