North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 105, No. 9, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 22, 2015 Page: 3 of 9
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health NTDAILY.COM | PAGE 3
UNT researchers link insomnia to flu vaccine ineffectiveness
By Jynn Schubert
Staff Writer
@JynnWasHere
A new study by UNT researchers
suggests people who suffer from
insomnia have an increased chance of
getting the flu.
The study, conducted by
psychology professors Dr. Kimberly
Kelly and Dr. Daniel Taylor, was the
first to examine the link between
insomnia and the effectiveness of flu
vaccines in college students.
Two groups of UNT students were
tested, one group of healthy students
with insomnia, and one without.
Four weeks after each group had
been blood tested and received flu
vaccinations, their blood was redrawn
and antibody levels were counted.
“Even pre-vaccine, our kids showed
antibody levels to [viruses] that were
in the vaccine,” Kelly said. “What
we showed was that even before the
vaccine, those pre-levels floating
around, the insomnia [students] were
lower.”
Once the second round of blood
testing was examined, the results
confirmed the theory. Students with
insomnia had significantly lower
antibody counts than their peers who
did not suffer from insomnia
The research was sparked
by Taylor’s interest in sleep
studies and Kelly’s interest in
psychoneuroimmunology, the study
of the effect of the mind on health and
resistance to disease. The pair decided
to use college students because they
are less prone to health issues than
elderly people and wanted to run their
tests on “pure” insomniacs.
Kelly said those at the highest risk
for the flu are very young, old or are
immunocompromised, meaning their
immune systems are weaker than the
average person’s. Given the results of
their studies on healthy, college-age
students, the pair is looking into testing
their theory on different groups.
“Insomnia causes significantly
lower antibody production in those
people who are all healthy,” Kelly
said. “What about if they’re not?
That’s where we want to go with our
next grant.”
According to the Centers for
Disease Control, flu shots reduce odds
of getting the flu by 70 to 90 percent.
Chronic insomnia, which affects 15
percent of adults in the United States,
lowers those chances.
There are other health-related
issues that can affect sleeping that
students should try to avoid and
are actually known to worsen
insomnia, said Lawrence Epstein,
a sleep specialist and instructor at
Harvard Medical School. Things like
cigarettes, alcohol and coffee can all
affect the way a person sleeps.
“Some people drink caffeine in the
afternoon when they feel tired, but it
becomes hard to fall asleep at night,
which perpetuates the problem,”
Epstein wrote in an article on Health,
com. “I recommend avoiding all
caffeine after noon.”
Taylor suggests removing anything
from the bedroom that could distract
from sleep, like TVs and laptops. He
said waking up at the same time every
morning, regardless of how much
sleep someone got the night before,
is a good way to improve sleeping
patterns.
Things like reversing the position
of your head and feet on the bed or
even sleeping on a couch or floor for a
few nights can correct some problems
associated with insomnia.
“While you’re up, do something
that you find relaxing. If watching TV
is relaxing, fine. But if it’s stimulating,
that5 s no good,” Epstein wrote.
“Reading and listening to music are
good options. Doing your taxes or
playing war games on the computer
are not.”
Stress can also have an affect on
the amount of antibodies a person
produces. For those worried about
stress in this upcoming cold and flu
season, UNT’s Health and Wellness
Center offers eight free counseling
SPEAKER
Jose Antonio Vargas kicks off
Distinguished Lecture Series
iy Chelsea Watkins
Staff Writer
@chelloo
Jose Antonio Vargas spoke
Wednesday night about
immigration rights, identity and
race to kick off the Distinguished
Lecture Series.
“If we want to get anywhere,
we have to get uncomfortable
with each other,” Vargas said.
In 2013, Vargas created the film
“Documented” to tell the story of
his journey as an undocumented
immigrant wandering the United
States and the challenges that
have come with it.
Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-
winning journalist and
filmmaker, was sent from the
Philippines to this country at age
12 to live with his grandparents in
California. It wasn’t until he was
16 and applying for his driver’s
license that he discovered he was
undocumented. In 2011, he penned
his status as an undocumented
immigrant for “The New York
Times Magazine.”
After not being taken into
custody after dispelling this
information, Vargas became
curious as to why no one had
come to deport him. He wrote an
article about it and even called
the Department of Homeland
Security himself, but they refused
to give him an answer.
Throughout the lecture,
Vargas heavily used statistics
to give factual insight to the
undocumented population in the
U.S. and dispel the preconceived
notions some people have of
undocumented citizens.
“Facts are missing from the
conversation,” Vargas said.
Vargas challenged political
figures like Marco Rubio, Ted
Cruz and Donald Trump on their
immigration views and criticized
Texas for legally being allowed
to deny birth certificates to
American children born to some
immigrants as of last Friday.
“Why isn’t this a humanitarian
crisis?” Vargas said. “Why is this
acceptable?”
He also recognized that being
an advocate for immigrants’
rights meant that he had to
involve himself in issues that
face other minority groups, such
as women’s rights, LGBT rights
and the Black Lives Matter
movement.
Vargas’s documentary, “White
People,” premiered on MTV in
July and was created to spark
conversation about race in
America.
Vargas asked the audience to
raise their hands if they were U.S.
citizens.
“I sincerely hope you don’t
take it for granted,” he said.
At the end of his session,
questions were pulled from
Twitter, and audience members
were able to ask Vargas questions.
Members of the League of
United Latin American Citizens
came to hear Vargas speak after
becoming familiar with his work
a week prior to the lecture.
Gerardo Zermeno, vice
president of LULAC, said this
was an important issue, and
labels should not be used when it
comes to the immigration issue.
“There needs to be more of an
advocacy,” Zermeno said.
UNT Distinguished Lecture Series speaker Jose Vargas speaks about immigration reform on Wednesday at the Auditorium. Ranjani
Groth | Staff Photographer
sessions a year for personal, career have already looked into how they’ll care workers,” Kelly said. “Primarily
and even couple’s therapy. continue their research. nurses, but whoever we can get:
Though they haven’t yet filed for “We’ve already talked to a local EMTs, physicians, whoever.”
their next grant, Kelly and Taylor hospital, and we want to look at health
Student Health and Wellness Center LVN Judy France administers a flu vaccination to marketing junior Levi Scribner on October
12. Ranjani Groth | Staff Photographer
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Friedman, Nicholas. North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 105, No. 9, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 22, 2015, newspaper, October 22, 2015; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth861315/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.