tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56445174484855154332024-02-18T23:46:49.919-08:00Dopamine Hegemonyfree your mind....,Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger128125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-55192398734155156822020-09-24T17:09:00.004-07:002020-09-24T17:21:34.404-07:00Covid-19 Preys Upon The Elderly And The Obese<p style="text-align: center;">
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<p style="text-align: justify;">
<a
href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09/why-covid-19-more-deadly-people-obesity-even-if-theyre-young"
target="_blank"
>sciencemag |</a
>
This spring, after days of flulike symptoms and fever, a man arrived at the
emergency room at the University of Vermont Medical Center. He was young—in
his late 30s—and adored his wife and small children. And he had been healthy,
logging endless hours running his own small business, except for one thing: He
had severe obesity. Now, he had tested positive for COVID-19 and was
increasingly short of breath.
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
He was admitted directly to the intensive care unit (ICU) and was on a
ventilator within hours. Two weeks later, he died.
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
“He was a young, healthy, hardworking guy,” recalls MaryEllen Antkowiak, a
pulmonary critical care physician who is medical director of the hospital’s
ICU. “His major risk factor for getting this sick was obesity.”
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
Since the pandemic began, dozens of studies have reported that many of the
sickest COVID-19 patients have been people with obesity. In recent weeks, that
link has come into sharper focus as large new population studies have cemented
the association and demonstrated that even people who are merely overweight
are at higher risk. For example, in the first metaanalysis of its kind,
published on 26 August in <i>Obesity Reviews</i>, an international team
of researchers pooled data from scores of peer-reviewed papers capturing
399,000 patients.
<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/obr.13128"
>They found that people</a
>
with obesity who contracted SARS-CoV-2 were 113% more likely than people of
healthy weight to land in the hospital, 74% more likely to be admitted to an
ICU, and 48% more likely to die.
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
A constellation of physiological and social factors drives those grim numbers.
The biology of obesity includes impaired immunity, chronic inflammation, and
blood that’s prone to clot, all of which can worsen COVID-19. And because
obesity is so stigmatized, people with obesity may avoid medical care.
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">
“We didn’t understand early on what a major risk factor obesity was. … It’s
not until more recently that we’ve realized the devastating impact of obesity,
particularly in younger people,” says Anne Dixon, a physician-scientist who
studies obesity and lung disease at the University of Vermont. That “may be
one reason for the devastating impact of COVID-19 in the United States, where
<a
href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity_adult_15_16/obesity_adult_15_16.htm#:~:text=Results%20from%20the%202015%E2%80%932016,and%20another%2031.8%25%20are%20overweight"
>40% of adults are obese</a
>.”
</p>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
People with obesity are more likely than normal-weight people to have other
diseases that are independent risk factors for severe COVID-19, including
heart disease, lung disease, and diabetes. They are also prone to metabolic
syndrome, in which blood sugar levels, fat levels, or both are unhealthy and
blood pressure may be high. A recent study from Tulane University of 287
hospitalized COVID-19 patients found that metabolic syndrome itself
<a href="https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/early/2020/08/18/dc20-1714"
>substantially increased the risks of ICU admission</a
>, ventilation, and death.
</div>
<p></p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-20844639265621237922020-06-07T00:00:00.000-07:002020-06-07T00:00:13.940-07:00Sleep Essential To The Elimination Of Reactive Oxidative Species<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="585" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uM5PtZTosos" width="900"></iframe></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-06-fruit-reveals-link-gut-death.html" target="_blank">medicalexpress |</a> The first signs of insufficient sleep are universally familiar. There's
tiredness and fatigue, difficulty concentrating, perhaps irritability or
even tired giggles. Far fewer people have experienced the effects of
prolonged sleep deprivation, including disorientation, paranoia and
hallucinations. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Total, prolonged <a class="textTag" href="https://medicalxpress.com/tags/sleep+deprivation/" rel="tag">sleep deprivation</a>,
however, can be fatal. While it has been reported in humans only
anecdotally, a widely cited study in rats conducted by Chicago-based
researchers in 1983 showed that a total lack of sleep inevitably leads
to death. Yet, despite decades of study, a central question has remained
unsolved: why do animals die when they don't sleep?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now, Harvard Medical School neuroscientists have identified an
unexpected, causal link between sleep deprivation and premature death.
In a study on sleep-deprived <a class="textTag" href="https://medicalxpress.com/tags/fruit+flies/" rel="tag">fruit flies</a>,
researchers found that death is always preceded by the accumulation of
molecules known as reactive oxidative species (ROS) in the gut.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When fruit flies were given <a class="textTag" href="https://medicalxpress.com/tags/antioxidant+compounds/" rel="tag">antioxidant compounds</a>
that neutralize and clear ROS from the gut, sleep-deprived flies
remained active and had normal lifespans. Additional experiments in mice
confirmed that ROS accumulate in the gut when sleep is insufficient.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The findings, published in <i>Cell</i> on June 4, suggest the
possibility that animals can indeed survive without sleep under certain
circumstances. The results open new avenues of study to understand the
full consequences of insufficient sleep and may someday inform the
design of approaches to counteract its detrimental effects in humans,
the authors said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"We took an unbiased approach and searched throughout the body for
indicators of damage from sleep deprivation. We were surprised to find
it was the gut that plays a key role in causing death," said senior
study author Dragana Rogulja, assistant professor of neurobiology in the
Blavatnik Institute at HMS.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"Even more surprising, we found that premature death could be
prevented. Each morning, we would all gather around to look at the
flies, with disbelief to be honest. What we saw is that every time we
could neutralize ROS in the gut, we could rescue the flies," Rogulja
said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Scientists have long studied sleep, a phenomenon that appears to be
fundamental for life, yet one that in many ways remains mysterious.
Almost every known animal sleeps or exhibits some form of sleeplike
behavior. Without enough of it, serious consequences ensue. In humans,
chronic insufficient sleep is associated with <a class="textTag" href="https://medicalxpress.com/tags/heart+disease/" rel="tag">heart disease</a>, type 2 diabetes, cancer, obesity, depression and many other conditions.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-59203791230818697642020-01-19T09:00:00.002-08:002020-01-19T09:01:08.633-08:00Swear to Gawd I Can Smell the Cancer and Diabetes...,<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="585" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ld0BdqvMFI4" width="900"></iframe> </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-01-obesity-heart-disease-diabetes-communicable.html" target="_blank">medicalexpress |</a> Non-communicable diseases including heart disease, cancer and lung
disease are now the most common causes of death, accounting for 70
percent of deaths worldwide. These diseases are considered
"non-communicable" because they are thought to be caused by a
combination of genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors and can't be
transmitted between people. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="article-banner first-banner" style="text-align: justify;">
<div data-google-query-id="CNKvq7iPkOcCFUeKaQodBOYCKw" id="div-gpt-ad-1450190541376-1">
</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A new research paper in <i>Science</i>
by a team of fellows in CIFAR's Humans and the Microbiome program
throws this long-held belief into question by providing evidence that
many diseases may be transmissible between people through microbes
(including bacteria, fungi, and viruses) that live in and on our bodies.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"If our hypothesis is proven correct, it will rewrite the entire book
on public health" says B. Brett Finlay, CIFAR Fellow and professor of
microbiology at the University of British Columbia, who is lead author
on the paper.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Connecting the dots</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The authors base their hypothesis on connections between three
distinct lines of evidence. First, they demonstrate that people with a
wide range of conditions, from obesity and inflammatory bowel disease to
type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, have altered microbiomes.
Next, they show that altered microbiomes, when taken from diseased
people and put into animal models, cause disease. Finally, they provide
evidence that the microbiome is naturally transmissible, for example:
Spouses who share a house have more similar microbiomes than twins who
live separately.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"When you put those facts together, it points to the idea that many
traditionally non-communicable diseases may be communicable after all,"
says Finlay.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Eran Elinav, an author on the paper, CIFAR fellow, and professor at
the Weizmann Institute of Science, sees the proposed connection between
these points of evidence as an argument for thinking about disease more
broadly. "This may represent new opportunities for interventions in some
of the world's most common and bothersome diseases," he says. "We can
now think about modulating <a class="textTag" href="https://medicalxpress.com/tags/environmental+factors/" rel="tag">environmental factors</a> and the <a class="textTag" href="https://medicalxpress.com/tags/microbiome/" rel="tag">microbiome</a>, not just about targeting the human host."</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-48126538271735829962019-12-25T15:19:00.001-08:002019-12-25T15:19:19.885-08:00Digestible, Even on the Bottom...,<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="585" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KEAdmzY4T3E" width="900"></iframe> </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-crisco-toppled-lard-and-made-americans-believers-in-industrial-food-127158" target="_blank">theconversation |</a> When Crisco launched in 1911, it did things differently. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Like other brands, it was made from cottonseed. But it was also a new
kind of fat – the world’s first solid shortening made entirely from a
once-liquid plant oil. Instead of solidifying cottonseed oil by mixing
it with animal fat like the other brands, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21114068">Crisco used a brand-new process called hydrogenation</a>, which Procter & Gamble, the creator of Crisco, had perfected after years of research and development. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
From the beginning, the company’s marketers talked a lot about the marvels of hydrogenation – what they called “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=KXVAAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA10-PA53&lpg=RA10-PA53&dq=%E2%80%9CThe+Rich+Solid+Cream+of+the+Oil%E2%80%9D+crisco&source=bl&ots=Yo-DTqC7lE&sig=ACfU3U2HP3m8tig4IfcqEgWRlFYcJoKerA&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQv4Cepb3mAhVqoFkKHWr5BH0Q6AEwAXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CThe%20Rich%20Solid%20Cream%20of%20the%20Oil%E2%80%9D%20crisco&f=false">the Crisco process</a>”
– but avoided any mention of cottonseed. There was no law at the time
mandating that food companies list ingredients, although virtually all
food packages provided at least enough information to answer that most
fundamental of all questions: What is it?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In contrast, Crisco marketers offered only evasion and euphemism.
Crisco was made from “100% shortening,” its marketing materials
asserted, and “Crisco is Crisco, and nothing else.” Sometimes they
gestured towards the plant kingdom: Crisco was “strictly vegetable,”
“purely vegetable” or “absolutely all vegetable.” At their most
specific, advertisements said it was made from “vegetable oil,” a
relatively new phrase that Crisco helped to popularize.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But why go to all this trouble to avoid mentioning cottonseed oil if
consumers were already knowingly buying it from other companies? </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The truth was that cottonseed had a mixed reputation, and it was only
getting worse by the time Crisco launched. A handful of unscrupulous
companies were secretly using cheap cottonseed oil <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=cV82AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA162&lpg=PA162&dq=%E2%80%9CTests+for+Olive+Oil%E2%80%9D+good+housekeeping&source=bl&ots=Xav7J-pCfh&sig=ACfU3U03w8BZ1CZcsSRJlTnYZ6zSsxBt1Q&hl=en&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiE2qq7pb3mAhWMr1kKHSBLDCwQ6AEwAHoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CTests%20for%20Olive%20Oil%E2%80%9D%20good%20housekeeping&f=false">to cut costly olive oil</a>,
so some consumers thought of it as an adulterant. Others associated
cottonseed oil with soap or with its emerging industrial uses in dyes,
roofing tar and explosives. Still others read <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011468923">alarming headlines</a> about how cottonseed meal contained a toxic compound, even though cottonseed oil itself contained none of it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Instead of dwelling on its problematic sole ingredient, then,
Crisco’s marketers kept consumer focus trained on brand reliability and
the purity of modern factory food processing. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Crisco flew off the shelves. Unlike lard, Crisco had a neutral taste.
Unlike butter, Crisco could last for years on the shelf. Unlike olive
oil, it had a high smoking temperature for frying. At the same time,
since Crisco was the only solid shortening made entirely from plants, it
was prized by Jewish consumers who followed dietary restrictions
forbidding the mixing of meat and dairy in a single meal.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="585" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U6uE3u6SwHo" width="900"></iframe> </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-30751686994118847602019-12-11T04:55:00.004-08:002019-12-11T04:55:27.912-08:00Blood Now Accounts for 2% of Murica's Exports -- More than Corn or Soya<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="585" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uRYVLj48hYg" width="900"></iframe> </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/harvesting-blood-americas-poor-late-stage-capitalism/263175/" target="_blank">mintpressnews |</a> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><span class="drop-cap">F</span>or
much of the world, donating blood is purely an act of solidarity; a
civic duty that the healthy perform to aid others in need. The idea of
being paid for such an action would be considered bizarre. But in the
United States, it is big business. Indeed, in today’s wretched economy,
where </span><a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/40-of-americans-struggle-to-pay-for-one-basic-need-like-food-housing-or-health-care-2018-08-28" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">around 130 million Americans</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">
admit an inability to pay for basic needs like food, housing or
healthcare, buying and selling blood is of the few booming industries
America has left. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-weight: 400;">The number of collection centers in the United States has more than doubled since 2005 and blood now makes up</span><a href="https://oec.world/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/export/usa/all/show/2017/" target="_blank"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">well over 2 percent</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">
of total U.S. exports by value. To put that in perspective, Americans’
blood is now worth more than all exported corn or soy products that
cover vast areas of the country’s heartland. The U.S. supplies</span><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/03/plasma-donations/555599/" target="_blank"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">fully 70 percent</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">
of the world’s plasma, mainly because most other countries have banned
the practice on ethical and medical grounds. Exports increased</span><a href="https://oec.world/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/export/usa/show/3002/2017/" target="_blank"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">by over 13 percent,</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to $28.6 billion, between 2016 and 2017, and the plasma market is projected to “grow radiantly,”</span><a href="https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/press-release/blood-plasma-derivatives-industry" target="_blank"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">according to one industry report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. The majority</span><a href="https://oec.world/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/export/usa/show/3002/2017/" target="_blank"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">goes to wealthy European countries</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">; Germany, for example, buys 15 percent of all U.S. blood exports. China and Japan are also key customers.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-weight: 400;">It is primarily the plasma– a golden
liquid that transports proteins and red and white blood cells around the
body– that makes it so sought after. Donated blood is crucial in
treating medical conditions such as anemia and cancer and is commonly
required to perform surgeries. Pregnant women also frequently need
transfusions to treat blood loss during childbirth. Like all maturing
industries, a few enormous bloodthirsty companies, such as Grifols and
CSL, have come to dominate the American market.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-86340387185294913112019-12-11T04:38:00.002-08:002019-12-11T04:38:13.243-08:00Go Head On and Eat that "Impossible Meat", I'll Watch....,<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="585" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kNSzZvEkoDE" width="900"></iframe> </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-12-dark-side-plant-based-foodit-money.html" target="_blank">phys.org |</a> If you were to believe newspapers and dietary advice leaflets, you'd
probably think that doctors and nutritionists are the people guiding us
through the thicket of what to believe when it comes to food. But food
trends are <a href="https://www.turnerpublishing.com/books/detail/i-think-therefore-i-eat/">far more political</a> – and economically motivated—than it seems. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
From ancient Rome, where Cura Annonae – the provision of bread to the citizens—was the <a href="http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Frumentariae_Leges.html">central measure</a> of good government, to 18th-century Britain, where the economist Adam Smith identified <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1863/theories-surplus-value/ch03.htm">a link</a> between wages and the price of corn, <a class="textTag" href="https://phys.org/tags/food/" rel="tag">food</a> has been at the centre of the economy. Politicians have long had their eye on <a class="textTag" href="https://phys.org/tags/food+policy/" rel="tag">food policy</a> as a way to shape society.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That's why tariffs and other trade restrictions on imported food and
grain were enforced in Britain between 1815 and 1846. These "corn laws"
enhanced the profits and political power of the landowners, at the cost
of raising food prices and hampering growth in other <a class="textTag" href="https://phys.org/tags/economic+sectors/" rel="tag">economic sectors</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Over in Ireland, the ease of growing the recently imported <a class="textTag" href="https://phys.org/tags/potato+plant/" rel="tag">potato plant</a>
led to most people living off a narrow and repetitive diet of homegrown
potato with a dash of milk. When potato blight arrived, a million
people starved to death, even as the country continued to produce large
amounts of food – <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/brexit/2019/02/how-britain-s-dark-history-ireland-haunts-brexit">for export</a> to England. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Such episodes well illustrate that food policy has often been a fight
between the interests of the rich and the poor. No wonder Marx declared
that food lay at the heart of <a href="https://monthlyreview.org/2016/12/01/marx-as-a-food-theorist/">all political structures</a> and warned of an alliance of industry and capital intent on both controlling and distorting food production.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-10255809624318745402018-03-28T06:29:00.002-07:002018-03-28T06:29:46.740-07:00Bone-in-the-Nose Medicine "Finds" New Organ Underlying Taoist Alchemy/Chi<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="585" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RkCApZ6yfo8" width="900"></iframe> </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-23062-6" target="_blank">Nature |</a> Confocal laser endomicroscopy (pCLE) provides real-time histologic
imaging of human tissues at a depth of 60–70 μm during endoscopy. pCLE
of the extrahepatic bile duct after fluorescein injection demonstrated a
reticular pattern within fluorescein-filled sinuses that had no known
anatomical correlate. Freezing biopsy tissue before fixation preserved
the anatomy of this structure, demonstrating that it is part of the
submucosa and a previously unappreciated fluid-filled interstitial
space, draining to lymph nodes and supported by a complex network of
thick collagen bundles. These bundles are intermittently lined on one
side by fibroblast-like cells that stain with endothelial markers and
vimentin, although there is a highly unusual and extensive unlined
interface between the matrix proteins of the bundles and the surrounding
fluid. We observed similar structures in numerous tissues that are
subject to intermittent or rhythmic compression, including the
submucosae of the entire gastrointestinal tract and urinary bladder, the
dermis, the peri-bronchial and peri-arterial soft tissues, and fascia.
These anatomic structures may be important in cancer metastasis, edema,
fibrosis, and mechanical functioning of many or all tissues and organs.
In sum, we describe the anatomy and histology of a previously
unrecognized, though widespread, macroscopic, fluid-filled space within
and between tissues, a novel expansion and specification of the concept
of the human interstitium.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/new-organ-human-body-interstitium-cancer-skin-scientists-discovery-new-york-a8275851.html" target="_blank">Independent |</a> The team behind the discovery suggest the compartments may act as “shock absorbers” that protect body tissues from damage.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.mountsinai.org/locations/beth-israel" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center</a>
medics Dr David Carr-Locke and Dr Petros Benias came across the
interstitium while investigating a patient’s bile duct, searching for
signs of cancer.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They noticed cavities that did not match any previously
known human anatomy, and approached New York University pathologist Dr
Neil Theise to ask for his expertise.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The researchers realised traditional methods for examining
body tissues had missed the interstitium because the “fixing” method for
assembling medical microscope slides involves draining away fluid –
therefore destroying the organ’s structure. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Instead of their true identity as bodywide, fluid-filled
shock absorbers, the squashed cells had been overlooked and considered a
simple layer of connective tissue.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Having arrived at this conclusion, the scientists realised
this structure was found not only in the bile duct, but surrounding many
crucial internal organs.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“This fixation artefact of collapse has made a fluid-filled
tissue type throughout the body appear solid in biopsy slides for
decades, and our results correct for this to expand the anatomy of most
tissues,” said Dr Theise. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-80543011460609937772018-03-18T09:47:00.004-07:002018-03-18T09:47:42.277-07:00Why Bone-in-the-Nose Medicine Trumps Medical Science Most of the Time...,<div class="graf graf--p graf--hasDropCapModel graf--hasDropCap graf--leading" id="a56d" name="a56d" style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="585" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z070XAGDvOU" width="900"></iframe> </div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf--hasDropCapModel graf--hasDropCap graf--leading" id="a56d" name="a56d">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf--hasDropCapModel graf--hasDropCap graf--leading" id="a56d" name="a56d" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://medium.com/@BlakeGossard/evidence-based-lies-1ec8db16cc8a" target="_blank">medium |</a> <span class="graf-dropCap">A</span>
fundamental tenet of science is that findings must be reproduced. One
experiment does not establish new truths. The results have to be
replicated by others using the methods described by the original
investigators. Replication is key to ensuring that conclusions aren’t
spurious. Nevertheless, science is currently plagued by hordes of <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.nature.com/news/1-500-scientists-lift-the-lid-on-reproducibility-1.19970" href="https://www.nature.com/news/1-500-scientists-lift-the-lid-on-reproducibility-1.19970" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">irreproducible study results</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="graf graf--blockquote graf--startsWithDoubleQuote graf-after--p" id="4a74" name="4a74">
“
More than 70% of researchers have tried and failed to reproduce another
scientist’s experiments, and more than half have failed to reproduce
their own experiments.”</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--blockquote" id="2891" name="2891" style="text-align: justify;">
Certainly,
misidentification of cells is a major contributor to the replication
crisis in basic biological science. However, statistics and publication
bias combine to form another formidable pseudo-scientific edifice that
churns out irreproducible results across scientific genres and misleads
the public.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--blockquote" id="2891" name="2891" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="9afd" name="9afd" style="text-align: justify;">
The infamous
P-value lies at the heart of the matter. Simply put, the P-value is an
arbitrary estimate of the likelihood that results of a given experiment
are due to chance. The cutoff widely accepted across scientific
disciplines is 5%. In other words, as long as the statistics say that
the likelihood a given result is due to chance alone is 5% or less, then
the result is considered “significant.” That might sound good at first
glance, but when examined a little more closely, in conjunction with the
concept of publication bias, the limitations rapidly mount.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="9afd" name="9afd" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="aeb6" name="aeb6" style="text-align: justify;">
The
significance of the 5%, or .05, P-value is utterly arbitrary. A man
named Ronald Fisher made it up back in the 1920s. It’s based on the
rough approximation of how much of a normal (Gaussian) distribution will
fall within two standard deviations of the mean — about 95%. (I’m not
going to get into the problems with the normal distribution in this
post, but I will recommend that anyone interested in this concept read <a class="markup--user markup--p-user" data-action-type="hover" data-action-value="f138bf5466fe" data-action="show-user-card" data-anchor-type="2" data-href="https://medium.com/@nntaleb" data-user-id="f138bf5466fe" href="https://medium.com/@nntaleb" target="_blank">Nassim Nicholas Taleb</a>’s book <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">The Black Swan</em>.)</div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="aeb6" name="aeb6" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="5a1b" name="5a1b" style="text-align: justify;">
A
P-value of .05 implies that one result in 20 will be due to chance. But
how many millions of results are obtained from scientific experiments
each year around the world? An incalculable number. It’s virtually
guaranteed that thousands of results due to chance alone emerge from the
realm of theory and intrude on what we presume to call reality each
year. <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">And those are the results that get published</strong>.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="5a1b" name="5a1b" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="9259" name="9259" style="text-align: justify;">
Scientists
working in academia must, as the saying goes, publish or perish. And
the journals in which those anxious scientists try to publish their
results need to make money, which necessitates reader interaction.
Results that are not “statistically significant” are boring. No reader
wants to pay for a journal full of articles that say “we did this study
using really careful methods, and nothing happened, it didn’t work. End
of story.” If science were fully transparent, and results of <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">all </em>experiments were published, however, this is exactly what the vast majority of papers would say.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="9259" name="9259" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="702e" name="702e" style="text-align: justify;">
The
failure of negative study results to ever see the light of day creates
staggering wastes. It’s likely that many basic experiments have been
repeated over and over again, with uninteresting results, and
subsequently never published. Then, another research group comes along
and does the experiment again (because they didn’t know about the
previous null results) and, by chance alone, finds a positive result. Of
course, that result is interesting and gets published. This basic cycle
is why John Ioannidis’s now-famous 2005 paper was titled “<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1182327/" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1182327/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Why Most Published Research Findings Are False</a>.”</div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--blockquote" id="2891" name="2891" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-17037124225885504282018-01-26T07:48:00.000-08:002018-01-26T07:48:40.136-08:00Alzheimer's Is Type 3 Diabetes...,<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="585" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QnrgPEWW4zc" width="900"></iframe> </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/01/the-startling-link-between-sugar-and-alzheimers/551528/?05q37vedoe6&0pohjrok73fk" target="_blank">theatlantic |</a> In recent years, Alzheimer’s disease has occasionally <a data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'0',r'551528'" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769828/">been referred to</a> as “<a data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'1',r'551528'" href="https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/bittman-is-alzheimers-type-3-diabetes/">type 3” diabetes</a>, though that moniker doesn’t make much sense. After all, though they share a problem with insulin, type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, and type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease caused by diet. Instead of another type of diabetes, it’s increasingly looking like Alzheimer’s is another potential side effect of a sugary, Western-style diet.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<section id="article-section-1">In some cases, the path from sugar to Alzheimer’s leads through type 2 diabetes, but as a new study and others show, that’s not always the case.<br />
<br />
A <a data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'2',r'551528'" href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00125-017-4541-7">longitudinal study,</a> published Thursday in the journal <em>Diabetologia</em>, followed 5,189 people over 10 years and found that people with high blood sugar had a faster rate of cognitive decline than those with normal blood sugar—whether or not their blood-sugar level technically made them diabetic. In other words, the higher the blood sugar, the faster the cognitive decline.<br />
</section><section id="article-section-2">“Dementia is one of the most prevalent psychiatric conditions strongly associated with poor quality of later life,” said the lead author, Wuxiang Xie at Imperial College London, via email. “Currently, dementia is not curable, which makes it very important to study risk factors.”<br />
<br />
Melissa Schilling, a professor at New York University, performed her <a data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'3',r'551528'" href="https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad150980">own review</a> of studies connecting diabetes to Alzheimer’s in 2016. She sought to reconcile two confusing trends. People who have type 2 diabetes are about <a data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'4',r'551528'" href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/19/health/diabetes-doubles-alzheimers/index.html">twice as likely</a> to get Alzheimer’s, and people who have diabetes and are treated with insulin are also more likely to get Alzheimer’s, suggesting elevated insulin plays a role in Alzheimer’s. In fact, many studies have found that elevated insulin, or “hyperinsulinemia,” significantly increases your risk of Alzheimer’s. On the other hand, people with type 1 diabetes, who don’t make insulin at all, are also thought to have a <a data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'5',r'551528'" href="https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/848519">higher risk of Alzheimer’s.</a> How could these both be true?<br />
<br />
Schilling posits this happens because of the insulin-degrading enzyme, a product of insulin that breaks down both insulin and amyloid proteins in the brain—the same proteins that clump up and lead to Alzheimer’s disease. People who don’t have enough insulin, like those whose bodies’ ability to produce insulin has been tapped out by diabetes, aren’t going to make enough of this enzyme to break up those brain clumps. Meanwhile, in people who use insulin to treat their diabetes and end up with a surplus of insulin, most of this enzyme gets used up breaking that insulin down, leaving not enough enzyme to address those amyloid brain clumps.<br />
</section><section id="article-section-3">According to Schilling, this can happen even in people who don’t have diabetes yet—who are in a state known as “prediabetes.” It simply means your blood sugar is higher than normal, and it’s something that affects roughly <a data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'6',r'551528'" href="https://www.news-medical.net/news/20160413/NYU-Stern-innovation-expert-uncovers-new-link-between-diabetes-and-Alzheimers-disease.aspx">86 million Americans</a>.<br />
<br />
Schilling is not primarily a medical researcher; she’s just interested in the topic. But Rosebud Roberts, a professor of epidemiology and neurology at the Mayo Clinic, agreed with her interpretation.</section></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-84193186512568209512017-12-14T09:24:00.004-08:002017-12-14T09:24:38.552-08:00We Told You Facebook Is Evil - Damn Near As Evil As Weed<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" gesture="media" height="585" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PMotykw0SIk" width="900"></iframe> </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/12/12/former-facebook-vp-says-social-media-is-destroying-society-with-dopamine-driven-feedback-loops/" target="_blank">WaPo |</a> Chamath Palihapitiya began working for Facebook in 2007 and left in
2011 as its vice president for user growth. When he started, he said,
there was not much thought given to the long-term negative consequences
of developing such a platform.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I think in the back, deep, deep
recesses of our minds, we kind of knew something bad could happen,” said
Palihapitiya, 41. “But I think the way we defined it was not like
this.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That changed as Facebook’s popularity exploded, he said. To date, the
social network has more than 2 billion monthly users around the world
and continues to grow.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But the ability to connect and share
information so quickly — as well as the instant gratification people
give and receive over their posts — has resulted in some negative
consequences, according to Palihapitiya.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“It
literally is a point now where I think we have created tools that are
ripping apart the social fabric of how society works. That is truly
where we are,” he said. “The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops
that we have created are destroying how society works: no civil
discourse, no cooperation, misinformation, mistruth. And it’s not an
American problem. This is not about Russian ads. This is a global
problem.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Facebook has pushed back on the former executive’s
comments, saying in a statement Tuesday that Palihapitiya has not worked
there for more than six years and that it was “a very different company
back then.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-27296197397716294062017-11-06T01:56:00.002-08:002017-11-06T01:56:36.350-08:00Opioid Crisis: Nobody is Talking About Sugar<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="585" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KiwSTZszAbQ" width="900"></iframe> </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sugar-in-the-diet-may-increase-risks-of-opioid-addiction-85313" target="_blank">theconversation |</a> Could a diet high in refined sugars make children and adults more
susceptible to opioid addiction and overdose? New research, from our
laboratory of behavioral neuroscience at the University of Guelph,
suggests it could. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Approximately <a href="https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates">20,000 people died of fentanyl-related overdoses</a> in the United States last year and in Canada there were <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/09/14/rising-hospitalizations-due-to-opioid-crisis-puts-a-burden-on-canadas-health-system-report.html">at least 2,816 opioid-related deaths</a>. During 2017 so far, <a href="http://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/public-safety-and-emergency-services/death-investigation/statistical/illicit-drug.pdf">over 1,000 people have died</a> of illicit drug overdoses in British Columbia. <a href="http://bc.ctvnews.ca/fentanyl-antidote-should-be-stocked-in-every-high-school-trustee-says-1.3606017">High schools are stocking up on the overdose-reversing drug naloxone</a> and <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-universities-prepare-for-worst-train-staff-to-administer-fentanyl-antidote-1.4294178">universities are training staff to administer the drug</a>. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Nobody is talking about sugar. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And yet there is substantial experimental evidence that <a href="http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v309/n3/full/scientificamerican0913-44.html">refined sugar can promote addictive behaviours</a> by activating the brain’s rewards centres in much the same way as addictive drugs. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3109725/">Opioid abuse is also associated with poor dietary habits</a>,
including preferences for sugar-rich foods, as well as malnutrition.
These connections have led to questions of whether excessive consumption
of refined sugar may affect vulnerability to opioid addiction. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To explore the possible role of a sugar-rich diet in opioid
addiction, we investigated whether unlimited access to high fructose
corn syrup (HFCS) altered rats’ neural and behavioural responses to the
semi-synthetic opioid, oxycodone. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Our findings suggest that a diet high in corn syrup may dampen the
reward associated with oxycodone and may therefore encourage consumption
of higher quantities of the drug. <span style="color: #999999;"><b><a href="http://liminalhose.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Fist tap Dale.</a></b></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-46807912962232492002017-10-24T08:15:00.001-07:002017-10-24T08:15:18.412-07:00Engineering $$Billion Behavioral Addictions<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--figure" id="ace2" name="ace2" style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="585" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_wZk8QxrKDY" width="900"></iframe> </div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--figure" id="ace2" name="ace2" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--figure" id="ace2" name="ace2" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://medium.com/startup-grind/the-billion-dollar-mind-trick-an-intro-to-triggers-1ed8b6db489d" target="_blank">medium |</a> Yin
asked not to be identified by her real name. A young addict in her
mid-twenties, she lives in Palo Alto and, despite her addiction, attends
Stanford University.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--figure" id="ace2" name="ace2" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="5432" name="5432" style="text-align: justify;">
She
has all the composure and polish you’d expect of a student at a
prestigious school, yet she succumbs to her habit throughout the day.
She can’t help it; she’s compulsively hooked.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="5432" name="5432" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="7a24" name="7a24" style="text-align: justify;">
Yin
is an Instagram addict. The photo sharing social network, recently
purchased by Facebook for $1 billion, captured the minds of Yin and 40
million others like her.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="7a24" name="7a24" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="30d2" name="30d2" style="text-align: justify;">
The
acquisition demonstrates the increasing importance–and immense value
created by–habit-forming technologies. Of course, the Instagram purchase
price was driven by a host of factors including a <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/9206312/Twitter-tried-to-buy-Instagram-before-Facebook.html" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/9206312/Twitter-tried-to-buy-Instagram-before-Facebook.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">rumored bidding war</a> for the company.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="30d2" name="30d2" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="fab0" name="fab0" style="text-align: justify;">
But at its core, Instagram is the latest example of an enterprising team, conversant <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/14/technology/instagram-founders-were-helped-by-bay-area-connections.html?pagewanted=all" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/14/technology/instagram-founders-were-helped-by-bay-area-connections.html?pagewanted=all" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">in psychology</a> as much as technology, that unleashed an addictive product on users who made it part of their daily routines.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="fab0" name="fab0" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="62dd" name="62dd" style="text-align: justify;">
Like
all addicts, Yin doesn’t realize she’s hooked. “It’s just fun,” she
says as she captures her latest in a collection of moody snapshots
reminiscent of the late 1970s. “I don’t have a problem or anything.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" id="5816" name="5816" style="text-align: justify;">
I just use it whenever I see something cool. I feel I need to grab it before it’s gone.”</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-59735658116285945812017-10-09T01:04:00.002-07:002017-10-09T01:04:19.980-07:00The Brain's Lymphatic System<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="585" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T9y_5vzJZtk" width="900"></iframe> </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/10/scientists-somehow-just-discovered-a-new-system-of-vessels-in-our-brains/542037/" target="_blank">theatlantic |</a> Reich started his search in 2015, after a major study in <em><a data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'2',r'542037'" href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v523/n7560/full/nature14432.html?foxtrotcallback=true">Nature</a></em>
reported a similar conduit for lymph in mice. The University of
Virginia team wrote at the time, “The discovery of the
central-nervous-system lymphatic system may call for a reassessment of
basic assumptions in neuroimmunology.” The study was regarded as a
potential breakthrough in understanding how neurodegenerative disease is
associated with the immune system.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Around the same time,
researchers discovered fluid in the brains of mice and humans that would
become known as the “glymphatic system.” It was <a data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'3',r'542037'" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4636982/">described</a>
by a team at the University of Rochester in 2015 as not just the
brain’s “waste-clearance system,” but as potentially helping fuel the
brain by transporting glucose, lipids, amino acids, and
neurotransmitters. Although since “the central nervous system completely
lacks conventional lymphatic vessels,” the researchers wrote at the
time, it remained unclear how this fluid communicated with the rest of
the body.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Reich
reasoned that since this fluid exists in human brains, and the conduits
exist in mice, the conduits likely exist in humans, too. After two
years of work and inordinately complex physics calculations, Reich’s
team found the vessels. When Reich started telling colleagues what his
team found, he got two reactions: “No way, it’s not true,” and “Yeah,
we’ve known that.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There are occasional references to the idea of a
lymphatic system in the brain in historic literature. Two centuries
ago, the anatomist Paolo Mascagni made full-body models of the lymphatic
system that included the brain, though this was dismissed as an error. A
historical account in <a data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'4',r'542037'" href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2803%2915114-8/fulltext"><em>The Lancet</em></a>
in 2003 read: “Mascagni was probably so impressed with the lymphatic
system that he saw lymph vessels even where they did not exist—in the
brain.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No one had published definitive evidence of lymph vessels
in any brain until the Virginia mouse study and a concordant Helsinki
one in 2015. “You could say that was the discovery,” Reich said. “Did
Newton discover gravity? I mean—not to equate these two discoveries—but
obviously people knew that things fell before Newton’s apple.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
His team’s discovery, though, not only shows that the vessels exist in people, but just how elaborate the system is.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-36876253218287480852017-10-03T07:57:00.001-07:002017-10-03T07:57:38.527-07:00Las Vegas Mass Shooting's Point of Commonality?<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="585" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lxpQ298MTr8" width="900"></iframe> </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://theduran.com/americas-mass-shooting-problem-drug-problem/" target="_blank">theduran |</a> Until governments such as that of the United States, cracks down on
big pharmaceutical companies, black-market drug dealers and the <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-real-drug-lords-a-brief-history-of-cia-involvement-in-the-drug-trade/10013" rel="noopener" target="_blank">deep state’s involvement in narcotics trafficking</a>, things will only get worse. It is no coincidence that the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/us/25shooters.html?mcubz=0" rel="noopener" target="_blank">number of mass shootings</a> as well as cruel and usual homicides have <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/astounding-increase-in-antidepressant-use-by-americans-201110203624" rel="noopener" target="_blank">increased in-line with the use of psychotropic drugs</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Furthermore, society must work diligently to stigmatise drug use
until such a point where being a drug addict is socially derided to the
same degree as being a member of a known terrorist organisation.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The following is a list compiled by <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2015/06/big-list-of-drug-induced-killers/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">WND news</a>,
detailing the mass shooters and other obviously insane killers, known
to be taking psychotropic drugs prior to or during their killing sprees:</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-41821816066393164372017-09-18T06:29:00.000-07:002017-09-18T06:32:40.448-07:00think i've figured out my nearly complete dislike of cats (and the completely irrational liking by others)<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-10675-6.pdf">Nature |</a> <b><i>Toxoplasma</i> Modulates Signature Pathways of Human Epilepsy, Neurodegeneration & Cancer</b><br />
<br />
[Ed: to view the entire report, install the <a href="http://unpaywall.org/">Unpaywall</a> extension]<br />
<br />
One third of humans are infected lifelong with the brain-dwelling, protozoan parasite, Toxoplasma
gondii. Approximately fifteen million of these have congenital toxoplasmosis. Although
neurobehavioral disease is associated with seropositivity, causality is unproven. To better understand
what this parasite does to human brains, we performed a comprehensive systems analysis of the
infected brain: We identified susceptibility genes for congenital toxoplasmosis in our cohort of infected
humans and found these genes are expressed in human brain. Transcriptomic and quantitative
proteomic analyses of infected human, primary, neuronal stem and monocytic cells revealed effects
on neurodevelopment and plasticity in neural, immune, and endocrine networks. These findings were
supported by identification of protein and miRNA biomarkers in sera of ill children reflecting brain
damage and T. gondii infection. These data were deconvoluted using three systems biology approaches:
“Orbital-deconvolution” elucidated upstream, regulatory pathways interconnecting human
susceptibility genes, biomarkers, proteomes, and transcriptomes. “Cluster-deconvolution” revealed
visual protein-protein interaction clusters involved in processes affecting brain functions and circuitry,
including lipid metabolism, leukocyte migration and olfaction. Finally, “disease-deconvolution”
identified associations between the parasite-brain interactions and epilepsy, movement disorders,
Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer. This “reconstruction-deconvolution” logic provides templates of
progenitor cells’ potentiating effects, and components affecting human brain parasitism and diseases.Dale Asberryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12144102722000937328noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-79622550907395280752017-08-08T08:42:00.001-07:002017-08-08T08:42:29.374-07:00Impossible Burgers<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="179" data-total-count="179" style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="581" id="nyt_video_player" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="https://static01.nyt.com/video/players/offsite/index.html?videoId=100000004861104" title="New York Times Video - Embed Player" width="900"></iframe></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="179" data-total-count="179">
<br /></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="179" data-total-count="179" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/business/impossible-burger-food-meat.html" target="_blank">NYTimes |</a> One
of the chief selling points of the Impossible Burger, a much ballyhooed
plant-based burger patty, is its resemblance to meat, right down to the
taste and beeflike “blood.”</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="179" data-total-count="179" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="304" data-total-count="483" style="text-align: justify;">
Those qualities, from an ingredient produced by a genetically engineered yeast, have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/13/business/veggie-burger-impossible-burger.html?_r=0">made the burger a darling</a>
among high-end restaurants like Momofuku Nishi in New York and
Jardinière in San Francisco, and have attracted more than $250 million
in investment for the company behind it, Impossible Foods.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="304" data-total-count="483" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="181" data-total-count="664" style="text-align: justify;">
Now,
its secret sauce — soy leghemoglobin, a substance found in nature in
the roots of soybean plants that the company makes in its laboratory —
has raised regulatory questions.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="181" data-total-count="664" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="387" data-total-count="1051" style="text-align: justify;">
Impossible Foods wants the <a class="meta-org" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/food_and_drug_administration/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about the U.S. Food And Drug Administration.">Food and Drug Administration</a>
to confirm that the ingredient is safe to eat. But the agency has
expressed concern that it has never been consumed by humans and may be
an allergen, according to <a href="http://webiva-downton.s3.amazonaws.com/877/4f/d/10646/072717_Impossible_Burger_FOIA_documents.pdf">documents obtained under a Freedom of Information request</a> by the <a href="http://www.etcgroup.org/">ETC Group</a> as well as other environmental and consumer organizations and shared with The New York Times.</div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="387" data-total-count="1051" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="309" data-total-count="1360" id="story-continues-1" style="text-align: justify;">
“F.D.A.
believes the arguments presented, individually and collectively, do not
establish the safety of soy leghemoglobin for consumption,” agency
officials wrote in a memo they prepared for a phone conversation with
the company on Aug. 3, 2015, “nor do they point to a general recognition
of safety.”</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-58607347707564751642017-07-11T07:23:00.001-07:002017-07-11T07:23:13.120-07:00Cannabinoids and Inflammation Webinar<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="506" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/erswLm1RB3A" width="900"></iframe> </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/49665/title/The-Burning-Question-About-Inflammation--Are-Cannabinoids-the-Cure-/" target="_blank">thescientist |</a> <strong>FREE Webinar</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>Thursday, September 28, 2017</strong><br />
<strong>2:30 - 4:00 PM EDT</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong> </strong><br />
<a href="https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/1450152/7D1EB6E1ECD5C9CD18454048F7D4C0A2" target="_blank"><strong>Register Now</strong></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Simmering, low-level inflammation throughout the body is responsible
for many disease processes, ranging from osteoarthritis and
cardiovascular disease, to digestive disorders and neurodegeneration.
The bioactive molecules, known as cannabinoids, found in plants of the <em>Cannabis</em>
species, have been shown to possess powerful anti-inflammatory
attributes, and research into their mechanisms of action, efficacy, and
tolerability are underway. To explore the potential for
cannabinoid-based and/or endocannabinoid-targeted therapeutics in the
realm of human disease, and particularly diseases with an inflammatory
component, <em>The Scientist</em> is bringing together a panel of
experts to discuss their research, and to offer insight into the rewards
and challenges of studying a biomedical application for a well-known,
but controlled, substance. Attendees will have the opportunity to
interact with the experts, ask questions, and seek advice on topics
related to their research.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>Topics to be covered:</strong></div>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>
Exogenous and endogenous cannabinoid mechanisms of action in the setting of inflammatory disease</li>
<li>
Targeting the endocannabinoid system for therapeutic effects</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/1450152/7D1EB6E1ECD5C9CD18454048F7D4C0A2" target="_blank"><strong>Register Now</strong></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h3 open="" style="margin: 14px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: brown;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Meet the Speakers:</span></span></h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="imageBlock" style="display: inline-block; float: left; margin: 0px; width: 100px;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Anton Reiner, PhD <br />
Professor, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology<br />
University of Tennessee Health Science Center</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="imageBlock" style="display: inline-block; float: left; margin: 0px; width: 100px;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yannick Marchalant, PhD <br />
Assistant Professor, Departments of Psychology and Neuroscience<br />
Central Michigan University</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-73474567706306538492017-06-13T11:17:00.002-07:002017-06-13T11:17:48.470-07:00Celiac Far More Prevalent<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="506" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1Av-qV_wJws" width="900"></iframe> </div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/49467/title/The-Celiac-Surge/" target="_blank">thescientist |</a> <span class="dropcap">I</span>n 2015, gastroenterologist <a href="http://www.cudoctors.com/Find_A_Doctor/Profile/4920" target="_blank">Edwin Liu</a>
set to work on a clinical and genetic data set that had been growing
for more than 20 years. The data pertained to celiac disease, a lifelong
condition involving bouts of severe gastrointestinal distress and other
symptoms, triggered by ingestion of gluten proteins that are found in
wheat and several other grains. In a two-decade collaboration with
researchers at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Denver, Liu’s
predecessors and colleagues at the University of Colorado kept track of
1,339 babies born in the city who were deemed at risk of developing the
disease due to mutations in celiac-linked genes. The researchers carried
out yearly tests to see whether or not the children developed the
disease, hoping to better define the risk associated with each of the
genetic variants.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Not far into his analyses, however, Liu found something in the data
that undermined a much larger assumption in the celiac field. “Usually,
when we quote numbers for celiac disease, we’re quoting around 1
percent” prevalence in the US population, he says. But using data from
this cohort along with estimated frequencies of each genotype across the
Denver metro area to extrapolate the incidence of celiac disease to the
general population, Liu found that the true prevalence of celiac
disease had to be much greater—more than 3 percent by age 15. “It was a
surprise,” he says. “These numbers are much higher than anything else
quoted in the U.S.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Researchers reading the paper, which was published online earlier this year in <em>Gastroenterology</em>,<a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/49467/title/The-Celiac-Surge/&utm_campaign=NEWSLETTER_TS_The-Scientist-Daily_2016&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=53001046&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--L3tdG6Y8QubG7cPNxXtlaJHRvmXeZDeiobzK9JOrXXBIqzzPgfE7Nh6bF9wYEXYu1a3zX9nDeqnc2lU7S8rGIb26Icw&_hsmi=53001046/#ref" target="_blank"><sup>1</sup></a> were similarly taken aback. “If you look at the rates, it’s frightening,” says <a href="http://www.mayo.edu/research/faculty/murray-joseph-a-m-d/bio-00027582" target="_blank">Joseph Murray</a>,
a celiac researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Of
course, the statistic could be specific to the Denver cohort, he notes,
but it does fit in with similar trends reported both in the U.S. and
around the world.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Celiac symptoms, which include abdominal pain and distension, diarrhea
and flatulence, nausea, and fatigue, are brought on by ingestion of
gluten—a protein complex present in wheat, barley, and rye. Unlike food
allergies, which are often primarily mediated by an overreaction of
adaptive immune responses such as immunoglobulin E antibody production
and mast cell activation, celiac disease engages both innate and
adaptive immune pathways, and produces antibodies that target not only
gluten, but the body’s own proteins. As a result, the disease is
generally considered an autoimmune condition. (See <a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/49506/title/Infographic--Immune-Irritation-in-the-Gut/" target="_blank">illustration</a>.)
Triggered by even tiny amounts of gluten, these immunological attacks
lead to T cell–mediated atrophy of the gut wall, which can be
characterized via a biopsy of the small intestine for celiac diagnosis
(see “<a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/49467/title/The-Celiac-Surge/&utm_campaign=NEWSLETTER_TS_The-Scientist-Daily_2016&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=53001046&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--L3tdG6Y8QubG7cPNxXtlaJHRvmXeZDeiobzK9JOrXXBIqzzPgfE7Nh6bF9wYEXYu1a3zX9nDeqnc2lU7S8rGIb26Icw&_hsmi=53001046/#diagnosis" target="_blank">Diagnosing Celiac Disease</a>”).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As the use of biopsy and other diagnostic methods have improved in
recent decades, celiac disease has become easier to detect. So when the
first reports of increasing numbers of celiac cases in the U.S. came out
in the early 2000s, many researchers attributed the uptick to progress
in disease recognition. But closer scrutiny of the data suggested there
was more going on. “We weren’t just better at finding celiac disease,”
Murray says. “There was a lot more of it to go around.”</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-86668795430011398772017-04-12T11:16:00.000-07:002017-04-12T11:16:27.560-07:00Chronotherapy: Another Compelling Case for Evidence-Based, Data-Driven Medicine<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/49003/title/Circadian-Rhythms-Influence-Treatment-Effects/" target="_blank">thescientist |</a> <span class="dropcap">F</span>or three consecutive winters, starting in
2011, researchers at the University of Birmingham asked healthy men and
women over the age of 65 to come in to clinics across the western
Midlands in the U.K. for a seasonal influenza vaccination at specific
times of day—either between 9 and 11 a.m., or between 3 and 5 p.m. Blood
drawn a month later revealed that participants, who totaled nearly 300
over the three years, had higher levels of anti-flu antibodies if they’d
received their vaccinations in the morning.<sup><a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/49003/title/Circadian-Rhythms-Influence-Treatment-Effects/&utm_campaign=NEWSLETTER_TS_The-Scientist-Daily_2016&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=50495832&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8vxJsUWf4F-iH-1v8chFMslI9lSZVypKPF7XVnRqqNcoIJheGAru8aVjntcIJqz_diWS4wjX_M20L6-g_cau-xN_2GPQ&_hsmi=50495832#ref" target="_blank">1</a></sup> The results suggested that daily rhythms of people’s bodies tweaked the vaccine’s effectiveness. Lead author <a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/sportex/phillips-anna.aspx" target="_blank">Anna Phillips Whittaker</a>
had suspected as much, after observing similar trends in her studies on
behavioral factors such as exercise that affect vaccination responses,
and in the wake of a growing body of literature suggesting that a little
timing can go a long way when it comes to health.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Many hormones and immune signals are produced rhythmically in 24-hour
cycles. Cortisol, for example, which is known to suppress inflammation
and regulate certain T cell–mediated immune responses, peaks early in
the morning and ebbs as the day progresses. Other facets of the immune
system undergo similar cycles that could underlie the differences in
antibody responses Phillips observed among people receiving the flu
vaccine. Much more work is required to nail down the immune mechanisms
responsible for such variation and exploit them appropriately, she says.
But timing flu vaccine delivery would be straightforward to implement.
“It’s such a simple, low-risk intervention that’s free to do, and could
have massive implications for vulnerable populations.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Across diseases, from cancer and cardiac ailments to allergies and
arthritis, epidemiological data and clinical trials are revealing that
timing medications to the body’s internal clock could improve their
effectiveness and reduce side effects. Although this concept, known as
chronotherapy, has existed for at least 60 years, it has received little
attention from physicians. But as biologists continue to unveil the
molecular intricacies of cellular rhythms, they are beginning to realize
just how pervasive the circadian clock’s influence is. In a 2014 study
of gene expression in mice, for example, researchers found periodic
expression in conserved mammalian genes targeted by 56 of the top 100
best-selling drugs in the U.S., including aripiprazole (Abilify, an
antipsychotic), esomeprazole (Nexium, for heartburn), and duloxetine
(Cymbalta, for depression), even though most are not currently
prescribed with suggested dosing times.<a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/49003/title/Circadian-Rhythms-Influence-Treatment-Effects/&utm_campaign=NEWSLETTER_TS_The-Scientist-Daily_2016&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=50495832&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8vxJsUWf4F-iH-1v8chFMslI9lSZVypKPF7XVnRqqNcoIJheGAru8aVjntcIJqz_diWS4wjX_M20L6-g_cau-xN_2GPQ&_hsmi=50495832#ref" target="_blank"><sup>2</sup></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But chronotherapy is gaining clinical traction, says University of
Pennsylvania chronobiologist John Hogenesch, senior author on the 2014
study. “Now we have the groundwork to precisely understand a person’s
clock and leverage that information for better health,” he says.
“Because of the molecular work, we’ve opened new doors here. This [idea]
is not coming from left field anymore.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Even so, researchers and clinicians working on chronotherapy still face
skepticism, and implementing a new drug-delivery protocol or gaining
regulatory approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for
time-of-day indications remains challenging. Thus, while the biomedical
research community is starting to take notice of the body’s internal
rhythms, timed therapies are still the exception to the rule.</div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLgTIct-8W5wbdhyhPS33L6zbkhNRad0VnLYRroLhhBlWPeWKd_Pe_-1AlR2Gr5Lfm7vSZEl5S7zZ3BWoXULloItpkRfFIj9OTntoz2haS1bcY1Xjxf197UvMHgg-51j11EI6qNt17iyVs/s1600/TimingTreatments_640px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLgTIct-8W5wbdhyhPS33L6zbkhNRad0VnLYRroLhhBlWPeWKd_Pe_-1AlR2Gr5Lfm7vSZEl5S7zZ3BWoXULloItpkRfFIj9OTntoz2haS1bcY1Xjxf197UvMHgg-51j11EI6qNt17iyVs/s1600/TimingTreatments_640px.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-42436191128261839492017-03-24T05:06:00.001-07:002017-03-24T05:06:33.028-07:00Molecular Oncology: Accept No Substitutes<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="580" src="//player.ooyala.com/static/v4/stable/4.7.9/skin-plugin/iframe.html?ec=N1bGFhNTE6AUPH9JSXwSWMMDw3T7Fs7V&pbid=ZTIxYmJjZDM2NWYzZDViZGRiOWJjYzc5&pcode=RvbGU6Z74XE_a3bj4QwRGByhq9h2" width="900"></iframe> </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/23/two-thirds-cancers-unavoidable-even-live-healthy-life-study/" target="_blank">Telegraph |</a> <span class="m_first-letter m_first-letter--flagged">T</span>wo thirds of cancers are unavoidable even if you live a healthy life, a study has shown.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Scientists in the US found cancers are caused by random mistakes in the genetic code that occur when cells divide.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The findings challenge the widespread view that cancer mutations are generally inherited or triggered by environmental factors. Instead, the vast majority of cancers are probably down to unlucky
defects in replicating DNA that occur out of the blue, they suggest.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="articleBodyText section">
<div class="article-body-text component ">
<div class="component-content">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="m_first-letter m_first-letter--flagged">L</span>ead scientist Dr Cristian Tomasetti, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/07/cancer-sufferer-riddled-with-26-tumours-is-effectively-cured-by/">from Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in the US,</a> said: "It is well-known that we must avoid environmental factors such as smoking to decrease our risk of getting cancer.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"But it is not as well-known that each time a normal cell divides and
copies its DNA to produce two new cells, it makes multiple mistakes.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"These copying mistakes are a potent source of cancer mutations that
historically have been scientifically undervalued, and this new work
provides the first estimate of the fraction of mutations caused by these
mistakes."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The research, published in the journal Science, indicates that almost
two-thirds of cancer-causing mutations are due to DNA copying errors.</div>
</div>
</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-74125058908194422432017-03-21T06:55:00.001-07:002017-03-21T06:55:13.621-07:00Obesity, Toxic Fat. Diabetes - What If Our Current Understanding Is All Wrong?<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/03/toxic-fat/518976/" target="_blank">theatlantic |</a> Scott was not named for the Scott
Summers of Marvel fame (more commonly known as Cyclops), but this was
the analogous origin story of a scientist. His father’s diagnosis was
Scott’s transformative moment—his spider bite, radiation blast, or, in
the case of Cyclops, <a data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'0',r'518976'" href="http://marvel.com/universe/Cyclops_%28Scott_Summers%29">attack of his family’s spacecraft by the interstellar Shi’ar Empire</a>.
And unlike some children who promise to cure their parents but then go
into finance or real estate, Summers actually went to graduate school
and got a Ph.D. in physiology.</div>
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<section id="article-section-3">When
Scott left the Midwest to work in a lab at the University of
Pennsylvania, he got his first insight toward a hypothesis that he
believes could revolutionize our understanding of human metabolism and
disease—and could help explain why skinny people aren’t necessarily
metabolically healthy, or vice versa.<br />
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“We now know that both lean
and obese individuals are susceptible to diabetes,” Summers, now the
chair of nutrition and integrative physiology at the University of Utah,
explained to me. “We think it’s basically because of their lipid
compositions, and the accumulation of one type in particular—called <em>ceramides</em>—that might be increasing susceptibility of people to diabetes.”<br />
<br />
At
the heart of this idea is the model that says obesity is associated
with diabetes and heart disease because all three are due to an error in
the way the body stores energy. We carry most fat as triglycerides in
adipose (“fat”) cells, which contain tremendous amounts of energy.<br />
<br />
“That’s
a pretty safe way to store it,” Summers explains. At least, it’s not
necessarily unhealthy to have this type of fat. “But some of that stored
fat can actually spill out into another pathway and give rise to
ceramides. We think those tend to be pretty toxic.”<br />
<br />
Ceramides are a
family of waxy lipids that have even been called “toxic fat,” as they
were in the press release for Summers’s latest study in the journal <em><a data-omni-click="r'article',r'link',r'1',r'518976'" href="http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/pdfExtended/S1550-4131%2816%2930533-2">Cell Metabolism</a></em>.
The researcher Bhagirath Chaurasia, who works with Summers, clarified
that “toxic fat” is an accurate, non-sensational term, in that ceramides
are involved in the process of <em>lipotoxicity. </em>That is, they
cause dysfunction in other lipids. Because in addition to storing
triglycerides, adipose cells also help the body sense its nutritional
status by secreting compounds that communicate with other cells. Among
those signals are ceramides, and alterations in this process seem to be
at the root of much metabolic disease.</section></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-74512845216120553502017-02-18T04:08:00.004-08:002017-02-18T04:08:47.672-08:00Broad Wins CRISPR Patent Interference Case<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/48490/title/Broad-Wins-CRISPR-Patent-Interference-Case/" target="_blank">thescientist |</a> <span style="color: #222222;">US
Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)
today (February 15) issued a ruling on a patent dispute regarding CRISPR
gene editing. The judges declared that the work by Jennifer Doudna of
the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues (including
Emmanuelle Charpentier, then at the University of Vienna) does not
directly compete with the work of Feng Zhang at the Broad Institute of
MIT and Harvard, which was granted the </span><a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39745/title/Patent-Covers-CRISPR/" target="_blank">original CRISPR patent</a><span style="color: #222222;"> in April 2014.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">“Broad has persuaded us that the parties claim patentably distinct subject matter,” the court wrote in its </span><a href="https://www.broadinstitute.org/files/news/pdfs/106048DecisiononMotions.pdf" target="_blank">51-page decision</a><span style="color: #222222;"> (which accompanied its </span><a href="https://www.broadinstitute.org/files/news/pdfs/106048OrderJudgment.pdf" target="_blank">two-page order</a><span style="color: #222222;">).
“Broad provided sufficient evidence to show that its claims, which are
all limited to CRISPR-Cas9 systems in a eukaryotic environment, are not
drawn to the same invention as UC’s claims, which are all directed to
CRISPR-Cas9 systems not restricted to any environment.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">“It looks like Broad has the decisive victory in this case,” <a href="http://www.nyls.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/faculty_profiles/jacob-s-sherkow/" target="_blank">Jake Sherkow</a> of New York Law School told <i>The Scientist</i>. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">UC Berkeley said that,</span><span style="color: #333333;">
while it “respects” today’s ruling and is “pleased” that its patent
application can now move forward, the university is considering “all
options for possible next steps in this legal process, including the
possibility of an appeal of the PTAB’s decision,” </span><span style="color: #222222;">a </span><a href="http://news.berkeley.edu/2017/02/15/berkeley-statement-regarding-patent-boards-decision-on-crispr-cas9-gene-editing-technology/" target="_blank">statement</a><span style="color: #333333;">
read. “We continue to maintain that the evidence overwhelmingly
supports our position that the Doudna/Charpentier team was the first
group to invent this technology for use in all settings and all cell
types.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">If UC Berkeley does appeal to </span>the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit,<span style="color: #222222;">
“those cases take roughly a year from soup to nuts,” said Sherkow. In
that circumstance, a decision would likely come from the appellate court
“sometime in February or March of next year.”</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-40543752620798463422017-01-23T09:23:00.001-08:002017-01-23T09:23:54.563-08:00The Role of Bioactive Lipids in Cancer Metastasis<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Tahoma, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 14px 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/48101/title/Lipids-Take-the-Lead-in-Metastasis/" target="_blank">thescientist |</a> Although metastasis is the leading cause of death among people with cancer, for the most part, researchers are stumped about which molecular signals allow malignant cells to leave primary tumors and start new ones. Two studies published in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Nature</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>this month highlight roles in metastasis for an unexpected group of molecules—lipids.</div>
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“For many years, we were studying peptides and proteins,” said<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://browncancercenter.louisville.edu/cancer-research/mariusz-z.-ratajczak-md-phd-dsci-dhc" style="color: #2d86cb; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Mariusz Ratajczak</a>, a cell biologist at the University of Louisville who was not involved in the studies. “Now we are coming to bioactive lipids.”</div>
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In the first<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v541/n7635/full/nature20791.html" style="color: #2d86cb; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">study</a>, published January 5, researchers at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) in Barcelona reported that, in mice, human oral cancer cells that are most likely to migrate from primary tumors are marked by the surface protein, CD36—a scavenger receptor that binds fatty acids. The researchers initially identified the cells by examining genes upregulated in non-cycling tumor cells, finding increased expression of genes involved in lipid metabolism, transport, and storage—all processes downstream of CD36.</div>
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When the researchers knocked down CD36 with short hairpin RNA before the injecting oral cancer cells into mice, they prevented the cells from seeding metastatic tumors in the lymph nodes of 80 percent to 100 percent of the animals without significantly changing the frequencies of primary tumors. “What’s really cool here is that they showed that CD36 wasn’t necessary for self-renewal, but was necessary for dissemination and metastasis,” said<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://my.clevelandclinic.org/staff/14177-justin-lathia" style="color: #2d86cb; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Justin Lathia</a>, a cell and molecular biologist at the Cleveland Clinic who was not involved in the work. This study, he added, demonstrates that metastatic cells don’t have to be cancer stem cells.</div>
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It also suggests that metastatic cells may have their own unique metabolic regulation. The IRB team demonstrated that feeding mice a high-fat diet increased the size and number of metastatic lymph node tumors. This effect was lost when CD36 was knocked down. The researchers generated the same effect when they pretreated the cancer cells in culture with a dietary fatty acid called palmitic acid. Lathia note that while this finding could provide insight into the link between obesity and cancer, “human diets are far more complex than what we have here.”</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-13801443583491717412017-01-19T10:53:00.001-08:002017-01-19T10:53:42.971-08:00Effortless Weightloss For Cancer and Diabetes Fermentation Vessels...,<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget/index.php?journal=oncotarget&page=article&op=view&path%5b%5d=14576" target="_blank">impactjournals |</a> Morbidly obese patients who accomplish substantial weight loss often
display a long-term decline in their resting metabolism, causing even
relatively restrained caloric intake to trigger a relapse to the obese
state. Paradoxically, we observed that morbidly obese mice receiving
chemotherapy for cancer experienced spontaneous weight reduction despite
unabated ingestion of their high fat diet (HFD). This response to
chemotherapy could also be achieved in morbidly obese mice without
cancer. Optimally dosed methotrexate (MTX) or cyclophosphamide (CY)
enabled the mice to completely and safely normalize their body weight
despite continued consumption of obesogenic quantities of HFD. Weight
reduction was not attributable to decreased HFD intake, enhanced energy
expenditure or malabsorption. MTX or CY dosing significantly depleted
both adipose tissue and preadipocyte progenitors. Remarkably, however,
despite continued high fat feeding, a compensatory increase in
hepatocyte lipid storage was not observed, but rather the opposite. Gene
microarray liver analyses demonstrated that HFD mice receiving MTX or
CY experienced significantly inhibited lipogenesis and lipid storage,
whereas <em>Enho</em> (energy homeostasis) gene expression was
significantly upregulated. Further metabolic studies employing a human
hepatocellular line revealed that MTX treatment preserved robust
oxidative phosphorylation, but also promoted mitochondrial uncoupling
with a surge in proton leak. This is the first report that certain
optimally dosed chemotherapeutic agents can induce weight loss in
morbidly obese mice without reduced dietary intake, apparently by
depleting stores of adipocytes and their progenitors, curtailment of
lipogenesis, and inconspicuous disposal of incoming dietary lipid via a
steady state partial uncoupling of mitochondrial oxidative
phosphorylation.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5644517448485515433.post-66964230026293431312016-12-03T05:49:00.001-08:002016-12-03T05:49:48.633-08:00The Collapse of the Body's Ecosystem?<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/47640/title/Gut-Microbes-Linked-to-Neurodegenerative-Disease/" target="_blank">thescientist |</a> Many people with Parkinson’s disease have digestive symptoms like
constipation years before they have neurological symptoms, and
scientists have found differences in the gut microbiome compositions of
patients with Parkinson’s disease and healthy controls. But whether and
how gut microbes contribute to the pathology and symptoms of the disease
has been an open question.</div>
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In a study published today (December 1) in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2016.11.018" target="_blank"><em>Cell</em></a><em>, </em>a team led by <a href="https://sarkis.caltech.edu/lab_members" target="_blank">Timothy Sampson</a> and <a href="https://sarkis.caltech.edu/lab_members" target="_blank">Sarkis Mazmanian</a>
of Caltech demonstrate that gut microbiota promote neuroinflammation
and motor deficits in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease. The
researchers also identify a possible mechanism for the influence of
intestinal microbes and on the development of the disease in mice.</div>
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“It’s a beautiful study,” <a href="http://sonnenburglab.stanford.edu/index.html" target="_blank">Justin Sonnenburg</a> of Stanford University School of Medicine, who did not participate in the work, told <em>The Scientist.</em>
“It’s really a first in establishing that gut microbes can not only
contribute, but appear to play a causal role in neurodegenerative
disease in this mouse model,” he added.</div>
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Sampson, Mazmanian, and colleagues used transgenic mice that
overexpress human α-synuclein, the protein that forms the insoluble
aggregates that are a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. These mice
exhibit deficits in motor function and gut motility.</div>
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Transgenic animals raised germ-free or treated with antibiotics
performed better at motor tasks and maintained fecal output, as compared
to those with typical microbiota, the researchers reported. Mice
without intestinal microbes or those receiving antibiotic treatment also
developed fewer α-synuclein aggregates in their brains than did their
counterparts with intestinal microbes. In other words, in transgenic
mice without intestinal bacteria and in those treated with antibiotics,
both Parkinson’s-like symptoms and brain pathology decreased.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0