Maid of Muscle

The gym can be an absolute cesspool of germs that can spread viruses and bacteria. With so much skin exposed and constant sweating, every machine or piece of equipment you come into contact with can be another opportunity to spread disease. Unfortunately this is something that those of us that don’t have a home gym have to deal with, but there are ways to reduce the risk of spreading and contracting germs.

Microbiologist, Dr. Phillip Tierno:

You’re not using that one machine exclusively for yourself. You’re leaving that machine, and someone else follows you and your germs that you leave behind. 80% of all infectious disease is transmitted by contact.”

The most common germs found at the gym include: staph aureus, klebsiella, enterobacter and E. coli, which can cause various ailments. All machines can transfer germs, however the ones that have the most frequent turnover, such as dumbells, or exercise bicycles and elliptical machines are more likely to have contractible germs because of how quickly the next person uses it after the last person leaves.

Studies show that in gym, the worst place for contracting germs in locker room and shower floors.

Unfortunately, germs do survive in the shower, on walls, and on the floor. I found it in hordes — unbelievable quantities. We use the word ‘innumerable.’ Innumerable.

Here are some tips to prevent contracting (and spreading) germs at the gym:

1. Wear clothes that cover the parts of your body that will be contacting gym equipment. Tank tops leave the upper back and shoulders exposed to benches and short shorts can leave leg exposed to bicycle seats. The less skin that touches the equipment, the less likely you are to contact these germs.
2. Bring 2 towels with you to the gym. Use one towel only to dry off your own sweat from your body, and a second towel to wipe off gym equipment before and after use. Bringing different colored towels can be helpful in not confusing the two.
3. Do not touch your eyes or mouth while at the gym. Most of these germs that come into contact with your hand, can only be contracted into your body through mucous membranes such as the eyes and mouth. Thoroughly wash your hands before eating or touching your face after using gym equipment.
4. Hang your gym towel over your shoulder, or on parts of the machine that rarely are touched. If you drop your towel on the floor, refrain from using it to dry off your own sweat.
5. When using the gym shower, be sure to bring slippers so that your feet don’t come into direct contact with the shower floor. The shower floor has shown to contain the largest amount of contactable germs in the gym.

A woman who has never shown symptoms of infection with the AIDS virus may hold the secret to defeating the virus, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Infected at least 10 years ago by her husband, the woman is able somehow to naturally control the deadly and incurable virus — even though her husband must take cocktails of strong HIV drugs to control his.

She is a so-called “elite suppressor,” and studies of her immune cells have begun to offer clues to how her body does it, the team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said.
Study Director, Dr. Joel Blankson:

This is the best evidence to date that elite suppressors can have fully pathogenic virus. The feeling was initially that they had defective virus.

But the couple has been monogamous for at least 17 years, Blankson said, and tests show they are infected with the same strain of virus. What is different is the immune system of the wife, who cannot be named for privacy reasons.

That’s a good sign in terms of developing a therapeutic vaccine. Such a vaccine would not prevent infection but might be used to treat patients.

The AIDS virus infects at least 33 million people globally and more than a million in the United States. It has killed 25 million people since it was identified in the early 1980s.

New figures show 56,000 people are infected every year in the United states, mostly gay and bisexual men but also injecting drug users and their sexual partners, both male and female, as well as newborns and recipients of contaminated blood transfusions.

STALLING REPLICATION

Both the man and the woman, who are from Baltimore, were diagnosed 10 years ago, Blankson said. The husband is a former injecting drug user.

Tests showed that immune cells known as CD8 T-cells from the wife stalled HIV replication by as much as 90 percent, while the husband’s T-cells stopped it by only 30 percent, Blankson’s team reported in the Journal of Virology.

Her virus has also mutated in apparent response to this immune attack, becoming weaker, while her husband’s virus has remained strong.

Elite suppression offers clues to vaccine researchers on many fronts: how CD8 killer T-cells can attack HIV and how a stronger immune response can force HIV into a permanent defensive state. We are trying to figure out exactly how the T-cells work in her to inhibit viral replication. We are just trying to see what kind of cytokines they make.

Cytokines are immune system signaling proteins. One thing the researchers have noticed is that while the husband’s T-cells make just one, called gamma interferon, hers made both that one and another called TNF, or tumor necrosis factor.

That cannot be the whole story, though, because AIDS researchers have tried using such immune system proteins in patients and they did not work well.

And her immune cells seem to make the response only when they encounter the virus.

Another clue: the woman may have unusual activity in her human leukocyte antigen system, or HLA, Blankson said. This important component of the immune system helps recognize antigens — protein identifiers — of enemies such as bacteria and viruses.