Learn about how our metabolism changes; waking up on the wrong side of the bed; and painkillers as radiation dosimeters. The metabolism changes much more gradually as we get older than we thought by Grant Currin Metabolism changes with age, just not when you might think. (2021, August 12). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/925132 Pontzer, H., et. al. (2021). Daily energy expenditure through the human life course. Science, 373(6556), 808–812. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abe5017 Mazhukhina, K. (2021). When does metabolism start to drop? It’s much later than you might think, study shows. The Sacramento Bee; The Sacramento Bee. https://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article253549369.html Waking Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed Is Totally Real by Reuben Westmaas originally aired July 23, 2018 https://omny.fm/shows/curiosity-daily/nasa-s-sun-probe-waking-up-on-the-wrong-side-of-th If you're exposed to radiation, pop some painkillers into your pocket by Briana Brownell Remember: A personal dosimeter is waiting in your first aid kit! (2021, August 12). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/925145 Mrozik, A., & Bilski, P. (2021). Popular Medicines as Radiation Sensors. IEEE Sensors Journal, 21(15), 16637–16643. https://doi.org/10.1109/jsen.2021.3082285 Radiation sickness - Symptoms and causes. (2020). Mayo Clinic; https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/radiation-sickness/symptoms-causes/syc-20377058 Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Learn about how our metabolism changes; waking up on the wrong side of the bed; and painkillers as radiation dosimeters.
The metabolism changes much more gradually as we get older than we thought by Grant Currin
Waking Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed Is Totally Real by Reuben Westmaas originally aired July 23, 2018 https://omny.fm/shows/curiosity-daily/nasa-s-sun-probe-waking-up-on-the-wrong-side-of-th
If you're exposed to radiation, pop some painkillers into your pocket by Briana Brownell
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/pills-can-detect-radiation-metabolism-myth-waking-up-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-bed
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about how metabolism changes a lot more slowly with age than we thought; why waking up on the wrong side of the bed is totally real; and why you should put a painkiller in your pocket if you’re exposed to radiation.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
One of the sad truths of getting older is that your metabolism slows down and you just can’t eat like you used to. But is that really true? Not in the way you think, according to surprising new data from an international team of researchers. Your metabolism does slow throughout your life, but the researchers found no change in metabolism between the ages of 20 and 60.
To find this out, the researchers recruited more than 6,600 people from 29 countries across the world. The age range was huge: from one week to 95 years old. The researchers used a technique called the doubly labelled water method to keep track of all the biological energy each participant used during the study. That includes everything from breathing and pumping blood to doing dishes and dancing.
They found that humans go through four distinct stages of metabolism over their lives. In the first year of life, a baby’s metabolism shoots through the roof. It starts off using energy at about the same rate as its mom, adjusting for their difference in body size. By the end of its first year, a baby is burning calories about 50 percent faster than that. That might not seem like a surprise, given that a well-fed baby triples in weight during that period. But the researchers say an infant’s metabolism significantly outpaces its growth. That’s probably because infants are developing in other important ways that scientists haven’t figured out yet.
The second stage lasts from age one into your twenties. Metabolism decreases by about 3 percent per year during that phase. Surprisingly, teenage growth spurts didn’t come with an increased metabolism.
But it’s what happens next that’s really surprising. Between your 20s and your 60s, it’s crickets. The researchers saw no change, on average.That is, except for pregnant women, who burn a lot of additional calories on behalf of their babies.
It’s only in the final phase of life that metabolism begins to slow. Starting around 60, the average person burns about 0.7 percent fewer calories each year. The researchers say that’s because cells start slowing down. In practice, that means a person in their 90s needs about 25 percent fewer calories than they did in middle age.
If that’s true, then why do so many people seem to gain weight in middle age? The researchers say it’s more likely to be changes in lifestyle than changes in cell biology. That should come as good news: we’ve got more control than we thought.
CODY: If you’re prone to “having a bad day,” then we might be able to help. Because there’s research into how the way you START your day can have a lasting impact on everything that happens after you get out of bed. Here’s the story, which we originally ran in 2018, and remastered just for you.
[CODY: Clip 2:06]
If you’re ever near a nuclear power plant meltdown, an industrial accident, or the detonation of a dirty bomb, you and everyone around you could be exposed to dangerous radiation. In this nightmare scenario, how would you be able to tell medical staff how much radiation you’d been exposed to? The simple solution might be sitting in your medicine cabinet right now.
To be clear: radiation exposure is rare, and events like these are unlikely. But emergency response teams still need to prepare in case the worst does happen. To effectively respond to a health emergency like this, teams need to know who has been exposed to radiation and how much radiation they were exposed to.
The problem is, radiation sickness can be invisible at first. You might feel fine in the beginning, only to experience serious symptoms weeks later. To know how much radiation you were exposed to in the moment, you would need what’s called a dosimeter — and most of us don’t have one of those lying around.
Luckily, science has got your back. It turns out, you might already be carrying the perfect radiation sensor with you.
You see, radiation smashes atoms apart and knocks out their electrons. These atomic impacts keep happening for a long time, which means that scientists can measure them. They do that using specific wavelengths of light. When blue light hits a substance that’s been exposed to radiation, the substance emits UV light in a phenomenon called optically stimulated luminescence. The more radiation the substance was exposed to, the more intense that UV light. Scientists can use this technique to create a kind of a radiation measuring stick.
Scientists have suggested many different everyday items that could be used for this, like smartphone components, paper money, credit cards, and clothing.
But the problem is, they need to be destroyed in order to be used as a dosimeter. So you really need something cheap and widely available.
Which is why scientists have suggested a new possibility: what about… medication?
That’s right. Scientists have shown that common pain medications like Advil, Tylenol, or aspirin can be used as dosimeters. Not only are they cheap enough to crush, but they’re standardized medications with a known chemical composition. That means the dosages can be compared directly. They’re also usually sealed in light-protecting packaging.
Hopefully none of us is ever in a situation where this becomes important. But it’s always worthwhile to be prepared, especially with a solution that’s so simple. So keep some pain pills in your pocket, just in case.
Let’s recap the main things we learned today
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ASHLEY: Today’s writers were Grant Currin, Reuben Westmaas, and Briana Brownell.
CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer.
ASHLEY: Our producer and audio editor is Cody Gough.
CODY: [AD LIB SOMETHING FUNNY] Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!