Features

Clinical Pathologist and  Laboratory Medicine Specialist

Women are living under chronic stress. Meeting deadlines, growing debt, driving in rush hour, grocery shopping, preparing family meals, managing family disputes…it is all contributing to burnout. 

When your body is on constant alert, your brain thinks your life is in danger and goes into “fight or flight” response. It stimulates the release of adrenaline and cortisol. These stress hormones provides instant energy for five to ten minutes, allowing you to react swiftly to dangerous situations.

The extra energy is provided by raising your blood sugar and fat levels for fighting and fleeing. If you do not, the fat and glucose swimming around your system get deposited as fat around the middle of your body. And if you eat something sugary or fatty as a consequence of the poststress appetite surge, any weight you gain as a result will be around your waist too. The fat around your middle (apple shape) increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and cancer, more so than fat on your thighs or bottom (pear shape). 

Are you stressed? 

If you complain of the following symptoms, your cortisol levels are likely to be high:

• A tendency to gain fat around your tummy Increased appetite and cravings for sweets, breads, cakes and caffeine 

• Frequent colds and infections

• Teeth grinding

• High cholesterol

• Blood sugar swings

• Digestive problems

• Headaches, muscle aches and pains like shoulder and neck pain (stress hormones will keep certain muscles tense, ready for fight or flight)

• Hair loss

• Irregular periods or no periods

• Difficulty in concentrating or forgetfulness

• Depression

• Increased premenstrual symptoms (PMS)

• Low sex drive

• Waking up in the middle of the night, finding it hard to get back to sleep, or the inability to sleep well

How can you measure fat around your waist?

Take a measuring tape and compare your waist measurement (at the narrowest point) with your hip measurement (at the widest point). Divide your waist figure by your hip figure to get what is known as your waist-hip ratio. If your calculation is greater than 0.8 cm then you are apple shaped and need to take action.

Doing lab tests

Check your cortisol, cholesterol, blood sugar and insulin levels. Chronic stress will cause higher or lower than normal levels of cortisol hormone levels. Your cholesterol, sugar and insulin levels are likely to be high too which is medically called Insulin resistance. This is a pre-diabetic state and should be treated to avoid developing diabetes and further weight gain or health issues.

Seeing nutritionist 

Insulin resistance needs a healthy eating plan, not dieting. Try frequent small meals that include protein, good fats and less sugar and avoid starvation which puts the body in stress mode and further increases fat storage.

Addressing and managing stress 

Now that you know how detrimental stress is to your health, it is time to hit the gym, join a yoga class, or practice meditation. If you have sleeping problems or anxiety attacks, acupuncture helps too. Cut down your caffeine intake. While a caffeine boost may seem to help combat stress at first, it can exacerbate anxiety and other stress-related signs and symptoms in many ways. Caffeine consumption can more than double your blood levels of the stress hormone cortisol! Go for herbal teas instead of black tea or coffee to lower your cortisol levels.

Try herbs and supplements*

• Siberian Ginseng is an adaptogen (a substance that increases resistance to stress) that supports your adrenal glands which produces cortisol

• Vitamin C is crucial for adrenal gland function. The more cortisol is made, the more vitamin C is used. Research has shown that people who have good levels of vitamin C burn 30 per cent more fat when they exercise

• B vitamins and Zinc are important to produce your stress hormones. B vitamins are needed for sugar metabolism (the process of turning the energy from the foods you eat into fuel your body’s cells need to grow and function)

• Chromium and Alpha lipoic acid are very important for losing that apple shape. They are needed for the metabolism of sugar and in helping insulin take glucose into the cells. Without chromium, insulin is less effective at controlling blood sugar levels and glucose levels rise

* Be sure to consult your healthcare professional before taking any herb or supplement

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

Athletes who drink chocolate milk during exercise or after a hard workout may recover just as quickly as they would with sports drinks, a research review suggests. 

What people eat and drink during intense exercise and afterward can impact how well their muscles recover and how rapidly their body replaces fluids and electrolytes lost during the workout, previous research has found. 

Most studies assessing whether drinks with carbohydrates and electrolytes, or with protein, might aid recovery have been too small to draw firm conclusions about which beverages are the best option, the authors of the new review write in European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 

For their analysis, the researchers examined data from 12 small studies that compared how chocolate milk influenced several markers of exercise recovery, compared to a placebo beverage or a sports drink. 

Athletes did exercise tests — mostly running or cycling — and then researchers looked at recovery markers like how long it takes to become exhausted during workouts, athletes’ perceived exertion levels, heart rate and levels of lactic acid and an enzyme known as creatine kinase in the blood — which both rise with intense activity. 

Overall, the study found that chocolate milk lengthened time to exhaustion, and improved perceived exertion, heart rate or levels of lactic acid in the blood at least as much as other beverages. 

“Chocolate milk contains carbohydrates, proteins, fats, flavonoids, electrolytes, and some vitamins which make this drink a good choice for recovery in athletes,” said senior study author Dr Amin Salehi-Abargouei of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd, Iran. 

In some instances, chocolate milk appeared better than alternative drinks, the researchers report. 

Time to exhaustion with chocolate milk drinkers was almost 1 minute longer than with nutrition-free placebo beverages and about six minutes longer than with sports drinks. 

Lactic acid levels, an indication of exertion, were lower for chocolate milk drinkers than for people who consumed placebo drinks, the study also found. 

“The take-home message is that chocolate milk is a low-cost, delicious, and palatable option for recovery and provides either similar or superior effects compared with commercial drinks,” Salehi-Abargouei said by e-mail. 

Even though this analysis pooled data from several smaller studies to get more robust results, it still included less than 150 people. Results from running or cycling exercise tests also might not reflect how chocolate milk would impact recovery from other sports. 

Athletes can also probably boost recovery without chocolate milk, noted Kim Spaccarotella, a biology researcher at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, who was not involved in the study. 

“Any food that provides carbohydrate, protein, fluid and electrolytes and is well-tolerated will help promote recovery,” Spaccarotella said by e-mail. “In addition to chocolate milk, other popular choices are cereal with milk, smoothies, sandwiches or soup. A small meal will even work, if the athlete is feeling hungry.” 

How well chocolate milk works compared to other beverages also depends on the alternatives being considered, said Mike Saunders, director of the Human Performance Laboratory at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. 

“For example, plain water would not be as effective at promoting fuel replenishment [due to lack of carbohydrates], muscle repair [due to lack of protein], or fluid retention/rehydration [due to low electrolyte content] in comparison to chocolate milk [which has all three],” Saunders, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. “Traditional sports drinks have the carbohydrates and electrolytes, but usually no protein.” 

The best choice for a workout recovery drink depends a lot on the individual athlete and the type of workout they do, Saunders said. 

“Someone at the gym who completes a 20-minute jog might be advised to have a glass of water after exercise so they don’t undermine their weight-management goals with unnecessary calories,” Saunders said. “But a distance runner who has completed a hard 24-kilometre run and has a session of high-intensity intervals to do the next morning could obtain meaningful benefits from a recovery beverage like chocolate milk.”

WASHINGTON — Babies who are given solid foods as well as breast milk from the age of three months show signs of sleeping better than infants fed only with milk until they are six months old, a new study carried out in Britain suggests.

While the practice did not provide for totally uninterrupted nights of sleep, the study of 1,303 children in England and Wales between 2009 and 2012 showed that babies given solids earlier than currently recommended did improve their sleep patterns.

The parents of half the children were encouraged to feed their babies solids, such as white fish or wheat, before six months, while the other half were told to stick to breast milk alone until that time.

The results, published on Monday in JAMA Pediatrics, showed that the babies who started earlier on solids slept longer and woke up fewer times in the night.

The effect was slight but notable. The study showed that feeding babies solids brought down the median number of times they woke in the night from 2.01 to 1.74 times per night.

The duration of sleep also differed, with a peak of 16 minutes more sleep per night by the age of six months.

“In a randomised clinical trial, the early introduction of solids into the infant’s diet was associated with longer sleep duration, less frequent waking at night, and a reduction in reported very serious sleep problems,” the report said.

The researchers from King’s College, London, and the University of London admitted it was possible that mothers giving their babies solids may have responded to their questions in a more positive manner, having expected a positive effect, since many parents already believe that the practice encourages better sleep. 

But they said it was unlikely that the bias would have persisted beyond six months.

If you absolutely want to be in when talking technology with your friends in the evening, you have to include Blockchain in the conversation. It is a must. It would be safer to have an idea of what it is and what it does before taking the plunge. It is currently, by any measure, the fastest moving and growing aspect of online IT technology.

Although the concept was introduced a few years ago, in 2008 to be precise, it is still not very clear to all. This, in a way, is like cloud computing was some five or seven years ago; it took a while for the wide public to have a clear image of it.

Even in the professional IT world not everyone is familiar with the Blockchain concept or knows exactly what it is about. After all the mysterious aspect of any IT innovation is always attractive — that is until it becomes common.

There are several definitions of the word on the web, but the first one you usually find is “a digital ledger in which transactions made in Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency are recorded chronologically and publicly”. Understand another way to use the net and to work online — simply put.

Today Blockchain has gone well beyond cryptocurrency handling and processing. By making the information public, and by preventing further change of a transaction once it is recorded, whether in its chronology or its values, Blockchain brings unprecedented transparency and security to a large spectrum of online actions, and certainly is not limited to money, be it digital currencies or otherwise. Perhaps the word “online” is redundant here; for it is virtually the only way to work by now.

Blockchain is simply a new way to record transactions and information on the web. It is a “sub-layer” of the net. Here the keywords and adjectives that qualify and that help to describe Blockchain are DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology), decentralised (one of its essential aspects), secure and tamper-proof, flexible, cost-effective and fast, traceable and transparent.

Various kinds of online applications are now built on Blockchain or use the technology, including general commercial and business ones. 

Swiss-based Procivis, as an example, has Blockchain solutions for a variety of e-government services. Last month the company organised a successful, interesting “Women in Blockchain” event. Highly sensitive applications like electronic voting are on the agenda as well, and may be exported to other countries in the world. Banking and health services are to follow.

Still, to really understand Blockchain is not straightforward.

When it comes to understanding technology nothing beats practical, hands-on experience. Finding a Blockchain-based application, installing it, learning it, experimenting with it, would be the best way to get familiar with the technology. Unfortunately this is not as easy or simple as finding a small and friendly “app” on Google Play or Apple Store! This is a few notches above.

Most of us will have to wait till a large organisation or the government implements a Blockchain application and makes it available for all to use.

It is worth noting that whereas Blockchain is a global net, one has the choice between public and private networks. Moreover, it is only in the last couple of years that Blockchain has been on everybody’s lips. It is therefore to evolve significantly in the near future.

Strangely, and at this point in time, even though Blockchain is not limited to cryptocurrency transactions, Bitcoin is still what people use it for most of the time.

LONDON — Poverty, gender discrimination and digital illiteracy are leaving women behind as the global workforce increasingly uses digital tools and other technologies, experts warned on Tuesday. 

The so-called “digital divide” has traditionally referred to the gap between those who have access to computers and the Internet, and those with limited or no access.

But technology experts say women and girls with poor digital literacy skills will be the hardest hit and will struggle to find jobs as technology advances.

“Digital skills are indispensable for girls and young women to obtain safe employment in the formal labour market,” said Lindsey Nefesh-Clarke, founder of Women’s Worldwide Web, a charity that trains girls in digital literacy.

She said “offline factors” like poverty, gender discrimination and gender stereotypes were preventing girls and women from benefiting from digital technologies.

Globally, the proportion of men using the internet in 2017 was 12 per cent higher than women, says the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency.

There are also 200 million fewer women than men who own a mobile phone, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a March report.

“Women are currently on the wrong side of the digital skills gap. In tech, it’s a man’s world. We have a global problem, we have an urgent problem on our hands,” said Nefesh-Clarke at a gender equality forum run by Chatham House in London on Tuesday.

According to a 2017 study by the Brookings Institution, a US think tank, the use of digital tools has increased in 517 of 545 occupations since 2002 in the United States alone, with a striking uptick in many lower-skilled occupations. 

“The entire economy is shifting, and we need new skills to be able to cope with that new economy,” said Dorothy Gordon, a technology expert and associate fellow with Chatham House.

“So when we look at the jobs that women are in today, what are the skillsets that they will need to acquire to be able to be competitive in that job market as we move forward?” she said.

Even with new jobs emerging through online or mobile platforms, such as rideshare apps Uber or Lyft, domestic services or food couriers, women are still faring worse than men, research shows. 

A US study by the National Bureau of Economic Research in June found the gender pay gap among Uber drivers was 7 per cent. 

“Many of the challenges that come through digital work are, frankly, old wine in new bottles,” said Abigail Hunt, a gender researcher at the British-based Overseas Development Institute, referring to the Uber study.

She said safety concerns, gender bias and discrimination contributed to how much women could earn in the so-called “gig economy”.

“Discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, geographical location, age — it’s the same issues we’ve always seen that are discriminating against women,” Hunt said. 

NEW DELHI — The founders of a technology start-up hope their invention will make attacks on women a “concern of the past” in India, which was recently named the world’s most dangerous country for women in a poll of experts. 

Leaf Wearables, a New Delhi-based company started by five engineers in 2015, invented the SAFER PRO — a tiny computer chip built into a wristband that sends alerts to emergency contacts, even in areas without cellular phone service. 

Once activated, it inconspicuously transmits location details to the network of responders within 90 seconds and records audio.

“We have a dream to see that safety becomes a concern of the past, so people can write about a time when women were unsafe,” said Avinash Bansal, a co-founder. 

“We want this in history books rather than the present.” 

India was considered the most dangerous nation in the world for women by experts in a survey published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in June. 

Crimes against women in India spiked more than 80 per cent between 2007 and 2016, when there were four cases of rape reported every hour, according to government data. 

“Say if there are 100 cases taking place, then we want to be able to solve 90 of them, or try to go as close to the 100 as possible,” Manik Mehta, a co-founder, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Mehta said he and his colleagues were inspired to try to “make a difference” after the fatal gang-rape of a young student aboard a bus in New Delhi in 2012, which triggered national outrage and led to tougher anti-rape laws.

Another of Leaf Wearables’ founders was at the stop where the victim had boarded the bus and realised how unsafe he felt in the area, which is frequented by air hostesses due to its proximity to the airport. 

“He came to us and said ‘I felt unsafe... let’s figure out a way where we can do something ourselves, maybe we can think of a solution that can be implemented globally,’” Mehta said. “And that is how the idea started.”

Prize winner

The idea developed into the computer chip, which won the $1 million Women’s Safety XPRIZE, a global competition for technologies to help protect women and girls from violence, in New York in June.

The company founders said they hope to use the prize as a springboard for the market launch of SAFER PRO — which looks like a fitness band with a red alert button — early next year, after a series of product tests.

“If we say that you are going to be safe because of it, then we have to make sure that the product is, in fact, going to save you,” Mehta said. “So, the testing is very thorough.” 

Leaf Wearables plans to price it at about $35, but may reduce the cost by asking the government to either subsidize the product or lower the tax on it.

Initially, the SAFER PRO will be sold on the e-commerce websites Amazon and Flipkart. The company will then place it in brick-and-mortar stores in India before branching out internationally.

“We initially thought women’s safety was a native problem, but we saw a lot of interest in our product in the States,” said Mehta.

The United States is the only Western nation to figure in the Thomson Reuters Foundation poll’s top 10 list.

“It is not as safe as we think,” said Mehta. “Unfortunately, these kinds of dangers are everywhere.”

GENEVA — US President Donald Trump is by far the most followed world leader on Twitter, with the Pope trailing him by some 4.5 million followers, a study showed Tuesday.

The number of Trump’s followers has “more than doubled since taking office”, the study authors said. 

With more than 52 million followers, the @realDonaldTrump account also counts nearly 10 million more followers than third-place holder, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to the latest “Twiplomacy” study by communications firm Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW).

In terms of interactions with followers — in the form of likes and retweets — Trump’s lead is even more impressive, the study showed. 

Over the past 12 months, the US president has had nearly 264.5 million interactions with his followers — more than five times more than runner-up Modi, and 12 times as many as Pope Francis, in third place.

However, in terms of re-Tweets alone, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman easily dwarfs Trump.

Salman only Tweeted 11 times between May 2017 and May 2018, but each of those Tweets generated an average of 154,294 re-Tweets, compared to just 20,319 re-tweets per Trump Tweet, the study showed.

It also pointed out that the US State Department is the only US governmental department which does not follow the personal account of @realDonaldTrump. 

At the same time however, the State Department does follow the Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani.

55 Tweets a day

Tuesday’s report found that leaders around the world have jumped on the Twitter train, with the governments of only six countries — Laos, Mauritania, Nicaragua, North Korea, Swaziland and Turkmenistan — still lacking an official presence on the platform.

In Europe, British Prime Minister Theresa May was the most followed leader on Twitter over the past year, with the @10DowningStreet account counting nearly 5.6 million followers.

The British royal family came next with 3.6 million, followed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who has nearly tripled his numbers since his election last year to over 3 million Twitter followers.

Her Majesty Queen Rania ranks at the top of the Twittersphere among Arab leaders with nearly 10.7 million followers, ahead of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed with over 9 million followers, and King Salman with nearly 7 million.

And Latin American governments are among the most prolific on twitter. Venezuela’s foreign ministry sends out an average of 55 Tweets each day over the past 12 months, according to the study.

While most world leaders and governments are growing their Twitter followings, there are exceptions.

According to the study, Russian Premier Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian foreign ministry, and the Ukrainian foreign ministry have seen their number of followers decline significantly “after Twitter decided to cut down on fake followers and bot farms”.

BCW’s own review of 951 Twitter accounts showed that 125 of them, or 13 per cent, were currently dormant, 33 inactive and nine protected.

LOS ANGELES — “Ant-Man and the Wasp” squashed the competition at the domestic box office.

The Marvel sequel — starring Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly — opened with $75.8 million from 4,206 North American locations. That start is significantly ahead of the original “Ant-Man,” which debuted with $57 million in 2015.

“Ant-Man and the Wasp” easily topped the weekend, as fellow box office newcomer “The First Purge” scared up $17 million from 3,031 theatres. Meanwhile, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” narrowly stole the No. 2 spot from “Incredibles 2”. The blockbusters earned $28.6 million and $28.4 million respectively this weekend.

Overseas, “Ant-Man and the Wasp” collected $85 million, bringing the worldwide opening to $161 million. Across 20 films, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has brought in $17 billion globally. All 20 films have opened No. 1 at the box office.

Praise seems to be strong for “Ant-Man and the Wasp”, which holds a promising 86 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes. The acclaimed first film came in slightly lower with an 82 per cent Rotten Tomatoes average.

“We are really thrilled about the results,” Cathleen Taff, Disney’s head of domestic distribution, said. “We continue to be amazed by what Kevin Feige and the team do with these films.”

Taff also pointed to Lily as Marvel’s first female title character. “Kevin and his team always try to come up with a great story diversity. I think you see that come to play here,” she said.

With a production budget around $162 million, “Ant-Man and the Wasp” looks like another win for Marvel. The studio has had a string of box office hits in 2018 with “Avengers: Infinity War” racking up over $2 billion and counting, and “Black Panther” passing $1.3 billion globally.

Universal and Blumhouse’s “The First Purge” debuted on Independence Day, getting a head start on the weekend. Its five-day total sits at $31 million. Gerard McMurray directed the $13 million film, which was written and produced by James DeMonaco.

Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution, praised DeMonaco and Blumhouse for the strong opening.

“The new chapter really taps into the zeitgeist. It’s the fourth in a franchise that they happen to keep very relevant,” he said. “We think we’re going to be great counter-programming for the rest of the summer.”

The fourth movie in the series serves as an origin story, starring Y’lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, Luna Lauren Velez, and Marisa Tomei. The most recent iteration was 2016’s “The Purge: Election Year”, which ended its theatrical run with $79 million domestically and $118.5 million worldwide. “The “Purge” movies have pocketed over $360 million globally.

Universal and Amblin Entertainment’s “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” recently charged past $1 billion at the worldwide box office. In three weeks, the dinosaur tentpole has earned $333.3 million in North America.

Now in its fourth frame, Disney-Pixar’s “Incredibles 2” just hit a major milestone of its own. Everyone’s favourite crime-fighting family has crossed the $500 million mark domestically and $700 million worldwide. It is the first animated film to ever surpass $500 million at the North American box office, and the 12th film ever to do so. Internationally, “Incredibles 2” has made $269 million.

Also in the top five is Sony’s “Sicario: Day of the Soldado”. The Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin-led sequel picked up another $7.6 million, taking the domestic tally to $35 million.

At the specialty box office, Roadside Attractions and Miramax’s “Whitney” bowed with $1.3 million from 452 locations. The documentary focusing on the life and career of Whitney Houston holds an A CinemaScore and a Rotten Tomatoes average of 90 per cent.

Also opening in limited release was Annapurna’s “Sorry to Bother You”, which landed the best per screen average of the weekend with $44,881. Boots Riley’s film brought in $717,302 when it opened in 16 theatres. Lakeith Stanfield, Armie Hammer, Tessa Thompson, Steven Yeun, Danny Glover, Terry Crews, David Cross, Patton Oswalt, and Omari Hardwick round out the cast.

Elsewhere, Focus Features’ “Won’t You Be My Neighbours” landed in the top 10 at the domestic box office again, drawing another $2.6 million when it expanded to 893 locations. In five weeks, the documentary on Fred Rogers has amassed an impressive $12.4 million.

Another documentary, Neon’s “Three Identical Strangers” earned $717,008 million from 5 locations, bringing its domestic tally past $1 million.

The 2018 box office, which just hit $6.5 billion, is up 9 per cent from last year, according to ComScore.

The knowledge that getting a flu shot can help prevent flu from spreading in the community may help convince more people to get vaccinated, a US study suggests. 

Even though doctors recommend that nearly everyone, starting at six months of age, get a flu vaccine each year, less than half of Americans follow this advice. Each person who skips their annual flu shot diminishes what is known as “herd immunity”, or the potential for vaccinated residents in a community to help prevent the virus from spreading to the minority of residents who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons. 

“The more people who are vaccinated in a community, the lower the risk that influenza will be able to spread even if the vaccine does not perfectly protect against the disease,” said senior study author Nicole Basta of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. 

“Influenza spreads by creating chains of transmission whereby one infected person infects additional people and those individuals infect others with whom they come in contact,” Basta said by email. 

At least 70 per cent of people need to get an annual flu shot to achieve herd immunity in a community, researchers note in the journal Vaccine. 

For the current study, researchers asked 554 adults at the Minnesota State Fair how often they got their annual flu shot, what proportion of people in their community got vaccinated against influenza each year, and whether they knew about herd immunity. 

Overall, 37 per cent of participants did not know about herd immunity and 76 per cent thought the influenza vaccination rate in their county was higher than it really was. Just 68 per cent of people unfamiliar with herd immunity said they planned to be vaccinated, compared to 79 per cent of participants who were knowledgeable about herd immunity. 

After researchers gave people educational materials about herd immunity, the proportion of people willing to be vaccinated rose. 

With education, 75 per cent of people who initially did not know about herd immunity said they would get vaccinated, as did 80 per cent of people who said they were familiar with herd immunity at the start of the survey. 

While the authors conclude that education on herd immunity might help improve vaccination rates, the study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove this. It is also not clear whether people who expressed willingness to get vaccinated during the study would actually follow through and get their flu shots. 

Increased willingness does not necessarily translate into vaccination, said Maimuna Majumder, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and Harvard Medical School in Boston who was not involved in the study. 

This happens “for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which include access to the vaccines themselves, how far individuals need to travel to receive it, how much the vaccine costs out of pocket once they get there, and so on”, Majumder said by e-mail. 

And even if education helps get people vaccinated one year, it might not have a lasting effect, Majumder added. 

“It’s possible that individuals may need ‘booster’ education campaigns throughout their lives to remind them of the benefits associated with vaccination,” Majumder said. 

Still, the study results suggest that education may be one way to help convince more people to get vaccinated, said Dr Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. 

“The education programme had an important impact, and we should consider adding the role of herd immunity to flu and possibly other vaccination campaigns,” Hotez, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail.