By Diane Mapes

Back in the day, our grandparents turned to their family doctor with questions about their health. these days, we turn to someone much closer — our computers.

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, eight in ten Internet users look online for health information. But can Googling our symptoms actually provide not just us — but medical researchers — with crucial information about disease and its causes?

Dr. Benjamin Breyer, an assistant professor of urology at the University of California San Francisco, says yes.

“Search engines can help us see the patterns,” says Breyer, lead author of a new study in the journal Urology entitled “Use of Google Insights for Search to Track Seasonal and Geographic Kidney Stone Incidence in the United States.”  “There are all types of phenomena in the environment and compared to search data, we can see if any of these things influence disease.”

In the study, Breyer took kidney stone patient data from hospitals around the country and compared it with people’s Google searches for kidney stone-related terms.

“We looked at the data and lo and behold, the searches mirrored the known regional and temporal data,” he says.

In other words, peoples’ searches for information on kidney stones — which affect 13 percent of men and 7 percent of women in the U.S. — mirrored previous findings that show kidney stones to be more prevalent in the summer and in the so-called “stone belt”:  the Southeast.

“It’s partly related to dehydration,” says Breyer regarding the summer-stone connection. “People are more active in the summer, plus it’s hotter and they’re sweating more. That precipitates the minerals that compose kidney stones.”

As for the “kidney stone belt,” Breyer says this could be temperature-related and/or be linked to the higher levels of obesity found in the region.

“It’s one of those diseases that’s multifactorial,” he says.

But kidney stones aren’t the only disease affected by the seasons, he says.

“Other diseases have temporal incidence,” says Breyer. “Having a heart attack is more common in the winter, probably due to the effects of the cold on vasculature.”

Breyer hopes that in the future, search data will allow researchers to explore new ideas about possible links between illnesses and changes in our surroundings.

“We can potentially collect data that’s input from millions and millions of people in real time all over the country and the world and use that to study disease,” he says.

 as for those concerned about a kidney stone attack in this summer of sizzling hot temperatures (and considering how painful these puppies can be, who wouldn’t be?), Breyer recommends drinking lots of water and avoiding salt — not just from the shaker but from processed foods and high-sodium restaurant meals.

“Staying hydrated and avoiding salt is the main adage for kidney stone prevention,” he says. “People who eat a lot of salt are more prone to forming stones — and to repeat stones.”

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Pjbrooks / PLoSmedicine.org

A condition called ‘Asian flush’ happens to certain people of Asian descent after they have consumed alcohol. the red blush, shown on right, is the result of a deficient gene.

Diane Mapes writes:between the brisk cold and the holiday cheer, many of us get a little red in the face this time of year. But for some people of Asian descent, a New Year’s toast – or even a few beers after work – will trigger a bright red blush known as the “Asian flush,” which can also increase their risk of deadly esophageal cancer.

“when I drink, the skin in my face and even all the way down to my waist will start to turn red,” says Patrick McMahon, a 30-year-old education director from Seattle, who’s half-Japanese. “I think the blood vessels dilate and I get very flushed. It’s often mistaken for a sunburn.”

That response is typical for about a third of people from East Asian descent, says Philip J. Brooks, an investigator with the Division of Metabolism and Health Affects at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

“it happens predominantly in individuals of Japanese, Chinese or Korean descent,” he says. “People who have this will get a facial flush and a headache and will feel nauseous at the time they’re drinking. And it’s not just flushing. They’ll also get an increased heart rate. It’s a pretty unpleasant experience.”

What causes this reaction?

Brooks says it’s basically a genetic inability to properly metabolize alcohol (or ethanol) which, thanks to enzymes in the liver, is normally metabolized first into the toxic chemical acetaldehyde – an animal carcinogen that causes DNA damage and other cancer-promoting effects — and then into the harmless substance acetate. People with the flushing response have a genetic deficiency in the alcohol-metabolizing enzyme ALDH2, which can lead to an accumulation of the toxic substance acetaldehyde.

“Individuals with this particular genetic disposition can’t metabolize it to the acetate,” says Brooks. “so it builds up in their body and causes the vasodilation which causes the flushing response.”

In some people – those with two copies of the deficient gene — the symptoms are so severe they can’t tolerate alcohol at all. Those with only one copy of the gene often learn to live with the heart palpitations and the flushing, though.

And that’s where things get risky.

“People with this ALHD2 deficiency have a really high risk of getting esophageal cancer when they drink alcohol,” says Brooks, who wrote about the link between the Asian flush and esophageal cancer in a 2009 paper in PLoS Medicine, a journal published by the Public Library of Science.  “Anyone who drinks is at risk, but the more you drink, the more your risk goes up. And when you’re ADLH2-deficient, your risk goes up much more dramatically.”

According to studies, a person with a single copy of the deficient gene who drinks just two beers a day is up to 10 times more likely to develop esophageal cancer than a person who’s able to metabolize the alcohol properly.

Unfortunately, while many people of Asian descent are familiar with the flush, Brooks says too few realize it’s not just an inconvenience, but a red flag for one of the deadliest cancers worldwide.

“It’s not just an issue that affects appearance, but an indication that they’re at increased risk of esophageal cancer if they drink heavily,” says Brooks. ”you have to think about the production of acetaldehyde throughout the body.  We want people to discuss this with their doctor and be sure their doctor is aware of the data that’s out there.”

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