February 12, 2010
Touchy Subjects
When I hear "it has long been known" I assume that "it" is not known at all, whatever "it" may be. The subject may be undiscussable, a third rail that kills any who touch it, but it is a subject ringed with myth and superstition. One of those subjects is health care. For many decades health economists have known that the best available evidence shows little or no relation at the margin between med and health. The health economists advising all the major sides have long known this. When the data is this noisy, there will always be exceptional studies, and as Megan says, the left prefers to cite exceptions find more med tied to more health; the right prefers to avoid the issue. These tactics are far from random accidents; neither side wants to contradict the US public, with their religious-level faith in the healing powers of medicine. If we were considering a vast new grocery store or...
January 11, 2010
Brain Boosters
One of the defects often found in published research is that the effort to do controlled experiments excludes relevant variables. For decades, omega-3 fatty acids have been praised for their myriad health benefits. Credited with helping treat or prevent degenerative illnesses such as heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and even Alzheimer's disease, they also play a key role in brain development and cognitive function. . . In humans, omega-3s are essential fatty acids that are necessary for health, but cannot be manufactured from scratch by the body. They are obtained largely from fish and other marine organisms, such as algae and krill. The body uses several types of omega-3s, including two "fish oils": eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). "DHA and EPA sit atop a hierarchy of omega-3s and provide the most clear health benefits," . . . While other oils are used in membranes all over the body, omega-3s are far more specific in their location. They...
January 06, 2010
Phone Home
Give your elderly relatives cell phones and call them often. cell phone exposure, begun in early adulthood, protects the memory of mice otherwise destined to develop Alzheimer's symptoms . . .the electromagnetic waves generated by cell phones actually reversed memory impairment in old Alzheimer's mice. The researchers showed that exposing old Alzheimer's mice to electromagnetic waves generated by cell phones erased brain deposits of the harmful protein beta-amyloid, in addition to preventing the protein's build-up in younger Alzheimer's mice. The sticky brain plaques formed by the abnormal accumulation of beta amyloid are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. Most treatments against Alzheimer's try to target beta-amyloid. Would it be cheaper and better to just strap EM wave generators on old noggins than to burn up cell minutes? The highly-controlled study allowed researchers to isolate the effects of cell phone exposure on memory from other lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise. It involved 96 mice, most of which were genetically...
January 04, 2010
Egg Heads
Diet related fetal brain development. a new research study . . . shows that choline plays a critical role in helping fetal brains develop regions associated with memory. Choline is found in meats, including pork, as well as chicken eggs. "Our study in mice indicates that the diet of a pregnant mother, especially choline in that diet, can change the epigenetic switches that control brain development in the fetus" said Steven Zeisel, the senior scientist involved in the work and a senior member of the FASEB Journal's editorial board. "Understanding more about how diet modifies our genes could be very important for assuring optimal development." . . . "We may never be able to call bacon a health food with a straight face, but the emerging field of epigenetics is already making us rethink those things that we consider healthful and unhealthful," said Gerald Weissmann, MD, Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal. "This is yet another example showing that good...
January 04, 2010
Old Radicals
Guys either get fat and sloppy or waste away as they age. Actually, they all waste away but a layer of goo conceals the wasting for some. There's a theory for why this is so. free radicals, such as reactive oxygen species, damage mitochondria in muscle cells, leading to cell death and muscle atrophy. Now that scientists understand the cause of age-related muscle loss, they can begin to develop new drugs to halt the process. "Age-related muscle atrophy in skeletal muscle is inevitable. However, we know it can be slowed down or delayed," . . . "I don't expect to see baby boomers gracing the pages of body building magazines tomorrow. But this research is important because it identifies molecules responsible for the aging of our muscles: free radicals," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal. "Stop these from acting and we'll all look younger, stronger and fit at any age. It would seem from this that...
December 24, 2009
C Food
I have 3 orange trees and a lemon tree. I can't quite consume as much as they produce, but I try. The birds and bugs get their share, and nothing goes to waste since the cattle will eat whatever no one else wants. They even enjoy the fruits when a bit fermented, and a few bugs are just extra nutrition. They're good and good for you, perhaps more than we suspected. Over the past few years, we have learned that adult cells can be reprogrammed into cells with characteristics similar to embryonic stem cells by turning on a select set of genes. Although the reprogrammed cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), have tremendous potential for regenerative medicine, the conversion is extremely inefficient. "The low efficiency of the reprogramming process has hampered progress with this technology and is indicative of how little we understand it. Further, this process is most challenging in human cells, raising a significant barrier for...
December 16, 2009
Regular Expression
Yeah, yeah - what you eat you are - but how does it work? A recent paper by Craig Thompson and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia uncovers a direct connection between a well-known metabolic enzyme — ATP citrate lyase (ACL) — and changes in gene expression (K. E. Wellen et al. Science 324, 1076–1080; 2009). Through a chain of reactions, ACL influences the functioning of the histones, proteins that package lengths of DNA — and unpackage them for 'reading'. This means that there is a basic — and surprising — relationship between cell glucose levels and gene expression. . . It is likely that we are just at the tip of the iceberg in terms of our understanding of the molecular basis of how metabolic inputs dictate gene-expression changes in mammalian cells. . . Moreover, our knowledge of this metabolic linchpin may provide a therapeutic window for the treatment of certain forms of cancer, almost...
December 16, 2009
Perpetually Startled
More research about the very long chain omega-3 fatty acids. The finding connects low omega-3s to the information-processing problems found in people with schizophrenia; bipolar, obsessive-compulsive, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders; Huntington's disease; and other afflictions of the nervous system. . . The key finding was that two omega-3 fatty acids – docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) – appear to be most useful in the nervous system, maybe by maintaining nerve-cell membranes. "It is an uphill battle now to reverse the message that 'fats are bad,' and to increase omega-3 fats in our diet," said Norman Salem Jr., PhD, who led this study at the Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. . . They legacy of muddle minded advocacy and bureaucratic lack of expertise noted in recent posts is that society is profoundly misinformed. The body cannot make these essential nutrients from scratch. It gets them by metabolizing their...
December 15, 2009
Healthy Joe
More favorable press for coffee and tea. Drinking more coffee (regular or decaffeinated) or tea appears to lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes . . . Despite considerable research attention, the role of specific dietary and lifestyle factors remains uncertain, although obesity and physical inactivity have consistently been reported to raise the risk of diabetes mellitus. A previously published meta-analysis suggested drinking more coffee may be linked with a reduced risk, but the amount of available information has more than doubled since. . . Individuals who drank three to four cups per day had an approximately 25 percent lower risk than those who drank between zero and two cups per day. In addition, in the studies that assessed decaffeinated coffee consumption, those who drank more than three to four cups per day had about a one-third lower risk of diabetes than those who drank none. Those who drank more than three to four cups of tea had...
December 15, 2009
Toxic Socks
Everything I know is wrong. Scientists at VIB and Ghent University in Flanders, Belgium have found an unexpected ally for the treatment of septic shock, the major cause of death in intensive care units. By inducing the release of nitric oxide (NO) gas in mice with septic shock, researchers Anje Cauwels and Peter Brouckaert discovered that the animal's organs showed much less damage, while their chances of survival increased significantly. That's contrary to all expectations, since it is generally assumed that nitric oxide is responsible for the potentially lethal drop in blood pressure in septic shock. . . The nitrite treatment, in sharp contrast with the worsening effect of inhibiting NO-synthesis, significantly attenuates hypothermia, mitochondrial damage, oxidative stress and dysfunction, tissue infarction, and mortality in mice. It is not yet known what mechanisms are at work behind this observation. That will be the subject of further research. I'm still wrong....
December 06, 2009
Balanced Nutrition
Eat less or eat well? Researchers from the newly founded Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne have studied whether health benefit stem from a reduction in specific nutrients or calorie intake in general by manipulating the diet of female fruit flies. The fruit flies were fed a diet of yeast, sugar and water, but with differing amounts of key nutrients, such as vitamins, lipids and amino acids. The scientists were able to show that longevity and fertility are affected by a combination of the type and amount of amino acids; whilst varying the amount of the other nutrients had little or no effect. Furthermore, the researchers found out in previous studies that levels of a particular amino acid - methionine - were crucial to increasing lifespan without decreasing fertility. By carefully manipulating the balance of amino acids, both lifespan and fertility were maximised. For the first time, this indicates that it is possible to extend lifespan...
November 01, 2009
Flame Out
New detail about the benefits of omega-3. the body converts DHA into Resolvin D2 . . . The research also suggests that Resolvin D2 could be the basis for a new treatment for diseases including sepsis, stroke and arthritis. Unlike other anti-inflammatory drugs, this chemical does not seem to suppress the immune system. . . We've also looked in detail at this chemical, determining at least some of the ways it relieves inflammation. It seems to be a very powerful chemical and a small amount can have a large effect. . . Arthritis, and many other diseases, are caused by inflammation. This means that the body's natural defences against infections are mistakenly directed at healthy tissue. Previous research has shown that a crucial step in this process occurs when white blood cells, called leukocytes, stick to the inner lining of the blood vessels, called the endothelium. Researchers studied these blood cells and how they interact with the endothelium in...
October 28, 2009
Almost Omega
There's been some buzz about the granting of US FDA approval for a genetically modified soybean that produces oil containing omega-3 fatty acids. It's a low level omega-3 - stearidonic acid (SDA) - some percentage of which can be converted in the body to the higher level very long chain omega-3 fatty acids that are essential to health - eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). SDA is like ALA (alpha-linolenic acid) that is found in flax seed, considered by some to be a marketing ruse since only a very small percentage of ALA consumed gets converted to useful fatty acids. SDA is a bit more convertible, but like ALA you need to eat a lot of it to actually get health benefits. The conversion rate to the essential fatty acid DHA is so low that some scientists insist that DHA must be consumed directly, and that products claiming to be omega-3 enriched, such as...
October 01, 2009
Omega-3 Deficiency
In case you haven't heard . . . . . . a growing body of scientific literature . . . touts the benefits of omega-3 supplementation. Studies show that these special fatty acids accumulate in the brain and can aid children with learning disabilities, reduce violence in prison populations, and even improve everyday mood. We can only obtain these fats through our diet. They are essential to the development of healthy brains and other metabolically active tissues. Indeed, research from the world's top universities shows that these fats do much more than regulate our brains: They can also lower risk of heart disease, arthritis, and cancer. They even help fight wrinkles and may block fat-cell formation. . . How could omega-3s possibly be this powerful? Scientists believe it's because Americans are suffering from a widespread deficiency. A recent study conducted by Dariush Mozaffarian, M.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health, found that the absence of these fatty acids...
September 26, 2009
Psycho-Nutrition
I found this light and fluffy piece from Psychology Today semi-interesting in its answer to the question Why is organic beef not as good as grass-fed beef? Organic means the animal was not given hormones, antibiotics or man-made pesticides in its feed. The feed, however, is not necessarily grass but corn and soy. . . When cattle are not fed their natural diet--grass, they become inherently less healthy. Corn and soy feed in factory farms cause an unhealthy ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fats: around 20:1 which is unhealthy for the animal as well as for our consumption of their meat. This ratio deems it pro-inflammatory. As we know, inflammation is the precursor to many of our chronic diseases. The saturated fat of the animal is also higher. Grass-fed cattle have a ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 of about 2:1. This is much healthier. Other benefits of grass-fed meat as compared to grain-fed meat: they...
September 03, 2009
Mo' Better Beef
Philip mentioned another benefit for grass fed beef in the comments of the previous post: CLA, Conjugated Linoleic Acid. He cited the Wikipedia entry: Antioxidant and anti-cancer properties have been attributed to CLA, and studies on mice and rats show encouraging results in hindering the growth of tumors in mammary, skin, and colon tissues.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] [22] [23][24][25][26][27] It has been reported that CLA can up-regulate the tumor suppressor gene PTPRG, and may have anti-cancer properties.[28][14] A European team led by the Swiss scientist Lukas Rist has found that mothers consuming mostly organic milk and meat products have about 50 percent higher levels of rumenic acid in their breast milk.[29] Some studies of CLA in human diets show that it may reduce body fat,[30] especially abdominal fat. A maximum reduction in body fat was achieved with a daily dose of 3.4g.[31] However, some experts do not recommend taking CLA supplements. CLA supplements contain high levels of the t10,c12 CLA isomer, which...
September 02, 2009
Goldilocks DHA
I've been digging around in the archives a bit to winkle out some information on the health benefits of grass fed beef so that Brooke (see previous post) would have support for marketing materials. I've been a bit lazy about it since it's old stuff, old ideas and knowledge, and so less interesting to me. Doesn't everybody know that your very best source of healthful fats comes from grass fed ruminants? Doesn't everybody know that such fats are really, really beneficial for brains and hearts and joints and such, especially for the very young who are just growing their brains and bodies, and the very old who need all the TLC they can get to keep the old machinery in working order? This old post from an alternate universe assembled information from a few sources and had some debate with fish advocates, those still laboring under old fashioned anti-meat prejudices and indifferent to the problems in fisheries. In the...
August 13, 2009
Devo Diet
IMV the general foolishness of paternalism is made disgusting by the fact that daddy (or mommy, whatever) is insane. Kessler the man of government recognizes that the old idea of personal responsibility undercuts the case for governmental regulation, which at least in theory is designed to prevent harm being done to one party by another. So Kessler the man of science enlists Kessler the man of pudge to testify to the helplessness a fat person feels. The blame can still be shifted. All those fat Americans may not be victims of screwy metabolisms or genetics, Kessler says, but we can still think of them as helpless victims. And where there's a victim, a victimizer must be found. The primary victimizer is, of course, the American food industry. Kessler believes that the products it offers its customers are irresistible. This is a common view and getting commoner. As our Baby Boomers age, the famous ardor they once felt for sexual...
August 12, 2009
Health Nuts
I find the latest kerfuffle about health care to be as tedious as the climate change monkey business. It's political madness, where every rent seeker and interest group with a wacko agenda gets time on the podium to harangue society and seek converts to their own particular obsessions. Though none seem to have any sensible ideas they sometimes do an interesting job of debunking the bad ideas of other pretenders. "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." —Margaret Thatcher With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both Medicare and Social Security entitlement spending about to ratchet up several notches over the next 15 years as Baby Boomers become eligible for both, we are rapidly running out of other people's money. These deficits are simply not sustainable. They are either going to result in unprecedented new taxes and inflation, or...
July 30, 2009
Phat City
I've been doing a little experiment this year by going to nearby residents and giving them some of my beef. It's a neighborly thing to do, and they in turn give me some of their tomatoes or apricots or whatever - one woman made me a banana nut bread - but I have another motive. They are people who had in the past expressed negative opinions about grass fed beef. They thought it tasted funny, was too lean to be good, too tough to chew, or they don't much like beef anyway - and besides, it has a bad reputation for everything from being a cause of global warming to making you fat and killing your heart. Then I'd go back and interview them about it. I expected that their negative opinions would be moderated a bit since my beef really is good, but the effect was much larger than I expected. First, they want more and will pay...
July 08, 2009
Spin Dizzy
Speaking of health, and health care . . . Paul Krugman misleads, as he often does, in today’s New York Times: “Universal health insurance should be eminently affordable. After all, every other advanced country offers universal coverage, while spending much less on health care than we do. For example, the French health care system covers everyone, offers excellent care and costs barely more than half as much per person as our system.” But the French freeload off American innovation! Can you name any new drugs or medical devices that are invented in France? Nearly all the world’s innovation comes from the relatively profit-driven American system. If we relied on government healthcare, the world would still be getting 1950’s quality care. Also, it is by no means clear that the French get “excellent” care. When you account for "Fatal Injury" rates (mostly car accidents and murder), US life expectancy is higher than in nearly every other industrialized nation, including France....
July 08, 2009
Expert Texpert
One of the themes here is mocking experts. It's not expertise that is mocked, just experts, since so many are puffed up self important charlatans. Nowhere is this clearer than with nutrition, food and health. See this data rich post that evaluates the American dietary experience. I'm going to show how what we've been eating has dramatically changed in the past 100 years. Most nutrition experts tell us to cut back on red meat and dairy -- and to eat white meat or fish if we must -- while increasing our intake of grains and fruits and vegetables. Since we know that obesity, type II diabetes, and the other symptoms that make up Metabolic Syndrome have been shooting up since roughly the 1970s, we can see whether our changing diet has anything to do with it. Did we follow the experts' advice? And if so, did it do us any good? Let's see. Yes, we did as the experts...
July 05, 2009
Wonder Drug
Perk up your brain. Back-to-back studies published online today in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, show caffeine significantly decreased abnormal levels of the protein linked to Alzheimer's disease, both in the brains and in the blood of mice exhibiting symptoms of the disease. Both studies build upon previous research by the Florida ADRC group showing that caffeine in early adulthood prevented the onset of memory problems in mice bred to develop Alzheimer's symptoms in old age. "The new findings provide evidence that caffeine could be a viable 'treatment' for established Alzheimer's disease, and not simply a protective strategy," said lead author Gary Arendash, PhD, a USF neuroscientist with the Florida ADRC. "That's important because caffeine is a safe drug for most people, it easily enters the brain, and it appears to directly affect the disease process." . . "These are some of the most promising Alzheimer's mouse experiments ever done showing that caffeine rapidly reduces beta amyloid protein in...
June 05, 2009
Bacon Butter
Retro food. Lard has clearly won the health debate. Shortening, the synthetic substitute foisted on this country over the last century, has proven to be a much bigger health hazard because it contains trans fats, the bugaboo du jour. Corporate food scientists figured out long ago that you can fool most of the people most of the time, and shortening (and its butter-aping cousin, margarine) had a pretty good ride after Crisco was introduced in 1911 as a substitute for the poor man's fat. But shortening really vanquished lard in the 1950s when researchers first connected animal fat in the diet to coronary heart disease. By the '90s, Americans had been indoctrinated to mainline olive oil, but shortening was still the go-to solid fat over lard or even butter in far too many cookbooks. . . That's all changed. Now you could even argue that lard is good for you. As Jennifer McLagan points out in her celebrated book...
June 04, 2009
Germ Warfare
Another sort of ecostalinist doom mongering is based on evolution. For example, harmful microorganisms - disease germs - evolve to be resistant to antibiotics. The same sort of issue arises with pesticides. A little natural systems knowledge reveals that this isn't a proper doom scenario so much as a simple insight into the eternal struggle of life contending with life. Wee besties evolve new tactics for attacking their prey, and their prey evolve new defenses. Life, and the struggle, goes on. See The Red Queen Hypothesis and any of a variety of meditations on the evolutionary utility of swapping spit for further discussion if required. Humans have their own defenses - their immune system - since they are organisms too and subject to the same threats and opportunities as the lowliest microbe. But humans are particularly clever and have developed some still primitive but rapidly advancing ways to augment evolution, and do so at a faster rate. Borrowing defenses...
June 01, 2009
Hard Economics
This is not compassionate conservatism. Obama’s health care reforms would provide quick and inexpensive treatment to productive people, and would ration and delay treatment to the elderly and to those less likely to be productive workers. In Britain there is even an age limit to certain treatments. Beyond a certain age for that problem: no treatment. Obama’s health care proposals would keep health care available and affordable for productive people who have problems that can be treated at low cost. For people who need more expensive health care, or whose most productive years are behind them, availability will be rationed. Looked at from the standpoint of the economy, this would keep productive people productive and would reduce the burden of unproductive people. My own mother is a case in point. Ten years ago, into her 70s, she came down with melanoma. She had five surgeries plus chemotherapy in a span of four tough years, and remarkably (because melanoma can...
June 01, 2009
Paleo Expression
Another study indicating that the balance of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in diet matter. For the past century, changes in the Western diet have altered the consumption of omega-6 fatty acids (w6, found in meat and vegetable oils) compared with omega-3 fatty acids (w3, found in flax and fish oil). Many studies seem to indicate this shift has brought about an increased risk of inflammation (associated with autoimmunity and allergy), and now using a controlled diet study with human volunteers, researchers may have teased out a biological basis for these reported changes. Anthropological evidence suggests that human ancestors maintained a 2:1 w6/w3 ratio for much of history, but in Western countries today the ratio has spiked to as high as 10:1. Since these omega fatty acids can be converted into inflammatory molecules, this dietary change is believed to also disrupt the proper balance of pro- and anti- inflammatory agents, resulting in increased systemic inflammation and a higher incidence...
April 13, 2009
Home Cooking
Several previous posts cited research claiming that we are as we are due to what our maternal ancestors ate. You are what your grandmothers and mother ate, or didn't eat. In the research report, scientists from the University of Utah show that rat fetuses receiving poor nutrition in the womb become genetically primed to be born into an environment lacking proper nutrition. As a result of this genetic adaptation, the rats were likely to grow to smaller sizes than their normal counterparts. At the same time, they were also at higher risk for a host of health problems throughout their lives, such as diabetes, growth retardation, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and neurodevelopmental delays, among others. Although the study involved rats, the genes and cellular mechanisms involved are the same as those in humans. There have also been quite a lot of studies noting that something of this sort happens with plants too. Drought, nutrient deficiency and even predation induces seeds...
April 11, 2009
Wild Things
Life in the wild can be dangerous. Agricultural scientists have long known that even meticulously managed free-range environments subject farm animals to a spectrum of infection. This study, though, brings us closer to a more concrete idea of why the free-range option can pose a heightened health threat to consumers. Just a little time outdoors increases pigs’ interaction with rats and other wildlife and even with domesticated cats, which can carry transmittable diseases, as well as contact with moist soil, where pathogens find an environment conducive to growth. The natural dangers that motivated farmers to bring animals into tightly controlled settings in the first place haven’t gone away. I've tried to explain this reality to emo activists for years. There are many good reasons to raise animals in more natural conditions, but there are trade-offs. The above article focuses on pigs, but the same is true for chickens with the added threat of predation by everything from dogs to...
April 01, 2009
Cancer Killer
In addition to all of the other claimed health benefits for Docosahexanoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid, it seems to enhance the function of the chemotherapy drug cisplatin. "DHA elicited prominent chemopreventive effects on its own, and appreciably augmented those of cisplatin as well. Furthermore, this study is the first to reveal that DHA can obliterate lethal cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity and renal tissue injury." . . . "While DHA has been tentatively linked with protection against cardiovascular, neurological and neoplastic diseases, there exists a paucity of research information, in particular regarding its interactions with existing chemotherapy drugs". The researchers found that, at the molecular level, DHA acts by reducing leukocytosis (white blood cell accumulation), systemic inflammation, and oxidative stress – all processes that have been linked with tumour growth. It's not usually mentioned in press releases but one of the best, most sustainable sources of DHA is from grass fed ruminant meat and dairy products, especially the dairy products...
April 01, 2009
Fresh Blood
I love olives and olive oil. In Painless I warned: "Do not expect a reasonable discussion. You can have my olives when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers - or teeth. " Olive oil eases your pain a chemical in premium olive oil acts a lot like ibuprofen, the anti-inflammatory drug used to relieve headache and arthritis pain. That may help explain why the vaunted Mediterranean diet is so good for us. In Cough Medicine the slurp method of oil flavor testing was explained. Vigorous slurping aerates the viscous oil and helps release its flavors . . . The sensations of bitterness, astringency and pungency are caused by members of the phenolic family of chemicals. Phenols also have antioxidant properties and so help to protect the oil from going rancid. Whenever you taste an especially peppery oil, it’s an indication that the oil is rich in olive extracts and relatively fresh. It may be that the antioxidant...
March 26, 2009
Xenohormones
One must consider the whole package. Mineral waters in glass bottles were less estrogenic than waters in plastic bottles. Specifically, 33% of all mineral waters bottled in glass compared with 78% of waters in plastic bottles and both waters bottled in composite packaging showed significant hormonal activity. By breeding the New Zealand mud snail in both plastic and glass water bottles, the researchers found more than double the number of embryos in plastic bottles compared with glass bottles. Taken together, these results demonstrate widespread contamination of mineral water with potent man-made estrogens that partly originate from compounds leaching out of the plastic packaging material. The authors conclude: "We must have identified just the tip of the iceberg in that plastic packaging may be a major source of xenohormone* contamination of many other edibles. Our findings provide an insight into the potential exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals due to unexpected sources of contamination." There are a lot of confused endocrine systems...
March 25, 2009
Fat City
A point I've pressed several times now is that sugar is no better than HFCS. Those who obsess about HFCS are missing the point: sugar is high in fructose too. That matters. Two papers in the journal PNAS in 2007 and 2008 showed that glucose and fructose act quite differently in the brain (hypothalamus) - glucose decreasing food intake and fructose increasing food intake. Both of these sugars signal in the brain through the malonyl-CoA signaling pathway and have inverse effects on food intake. Lane commented: "We feel that these findings may have particular relevance to the massive increase in the use of high fructose sweeteners (both high fructose corn syrup and table sugar) in virtually all sweetened foods, most notably soft drinks. The per capita consumption of these sweeteners in the USA is about 145 lbs/year and is probably much higher in teenagers/youth that have a high level of consumption of soft drinks. There is a large literature...
March 25, 2009
Egg Men
The telomere hack. Each time a cell divides, the genetic material at the ends of the chromosomes becomes shorter. The ends of the chromosomes, known as "telomeres", are important for the genetic stability of the cell and they act as a DNA clock that measures the age of the cell. The cell stops dividing and dies when the telomeres become too short. The discovery that the egg cell can extend the telomeres of a fertilising sperm cell is important in the development of stem cell therapy. Stem cell therapy involves replacing the cell nucleus in unfertilised egg with a nucleus from a somatic cell that has come from a patient who needs a stem cell transplantation. As soon as the cell has divided a few times, it is possible to harvest stem cells that are then allowed to mature to the cell type that the recipient needs. "The genetic stability of the transplanted cells has been a serious concern...
March 22, 2009
Farce
In Blinkered View the sordid history of leftist embrace of both communism and fascism was likened to current events. Fascist supporter Heidegger's views of agriculture were cited and placed in current context. Not long after the end of World War II, here is what Heidegger had to say about modern technology: Agriculture is now a mechanized food industry, in essence the same as the manufacture of corpses in the gas chambers and death camps. The same thing as the blockades and reduction of countries to famine, the same thing as the manufacture of hydrogen bombs. This infamous passage, which generated immense criticism upon its eventual publication in the 1980s, immediately came to mind when I read James Hansen’s own (in)famous claim in The Guardian (February 15, 2009) that, The trains carrying coal to power plants are death trains. Coal-fired power plants are factories of death. The disease is endemic. The food industry is on the defensive, hit hard by...
March 03, 2009
Crap Science
Keep them in the dark, feed them manure. A new study in mice sheds light on the insulin resistance that can come from diets loaded with high-fructose corn syrup, a sweetener found in most sodas and many other processed foods. The report in the March issue of Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication, also suggests a way to prevent those ill effects. . . "There has been a remarkable increase in consumption of high-fructose corn syrup," said Gerald Shulman of Yale University School of Medicine. "Fructose is much more readily metabolized to fat in the liver than glucose is and in the process can lead to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease," he continued. NAFLD in turn leads to hepatic insulin resistance and type II diabetes. Metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes have both reached epidemic proportions worldwide with the global adoption of the westernized diet along with increased consumption of fructose, stemming from the wide and increasing use of high-fructose...
February 13, 2009
Push Aways
You've heard the old joke - to lose weight do push aways: grasp the edge of the table firmly and push yourself away. It is becoming ever clearer that the same is true for your computer workstaion. Get off your butt and play in the sun. The sunshine vitamin is looking brighter. This past week, scientists have found vitamin D can do more than form and maintain strong bones. According to new research, it may prevent diabetes, inhibit the growth of breast cancer cells and reduce the risk of children developing multiple sclerosis later in life. In addition, the vitamin has been linked to more muscle power in teen girls. With all these added benefits, looks like it’s time to load up on some D. . . Unfortunately, getting the recommended amount of D is not so easy. “There are not a lot of natural food sources,” says Katherine Zeratsky, a dietician with Mayo Clinic. Fish such as salmon...
February 13, 2009
Food Foo
Very nearly everything you ever read about nutrition and diet is absolute nonsense. This has always been so. I read an article the other day which argued that society had become less hung up about sex but more hung up about food. I found it unconvincing since it seemed not to be aware that food fetishes have always warped segments of humanity, or that sex hang ups are as common as ever. The details change over time, but the hang ups are a constant. Obese people who drink fructose-sweetened beverages with their meals have an increased rise of triglycerides following the meal, according to new research from the Monell Center. . . Although fructose tastes much sweeter than either glucose or sucrose, it typically is not used alone as a sweetener. So, there is some possibility that some people can have some risks if they drink unobtanium - sweet beverages that don't exist outside the laboratory. Ignore the idiots....
February 05, 2009
Stem Winder
From the 10,000 foot perspective adult stem cells have always seemed to be far more interesting than embryonic stem cells since everyone has them. The far future fantasy scenario of being able to grow replacement parts for injured people from the tattered remnants of their bodies seemed to be the most desirable and effective goal. So, I am always happy to see progress. The simple recipe scientists earlier discovered for making adult stem cells behave like embryonic-like stem cells just got even simpler.A new report in the February 6th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, shows for the first time that neural stem cells taken from adult mice can take on the characteristics of embryonic stem cells with the addition of a single transcription factor. Transcription factors are genes that control the activity of other genes. The discovery follows a 2006 report also in the journal Cell that showed that the introduction of four ingredients could...
January 04, 2009
Reality Check
Many open letters of advice to the new American administration have been offered. I find this one to be more interesting than most. America’s First Prohibition, on alcohol, ended in 1933, not because it failed—although it most certainly had. Not because the murder rate in America’s cities doubled during 13 years of the “noble experiment.” Not because the enforcement of a law that attempted to prevent people from doing what they went on doing anyway had corrupted the police, courts, legislatures and businesses of the nation. Not because Prohibition handed a share of the economy to a criminal underworld that grew richer than U.S. Steel without paying a penny in tax. Nor because the federal prison population swelled by more than five hundred per cent to accommodate all those who were caught (a small percentage of the offending total) producing, importing, selling and drinking the devil’s liquid. No, it ended because the Great Crash of 1929, the banking crisis...
December 24, 2008
Feed Your Head
Or, your brain may starve. A new study from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine has found when the brain doesn't get enough sugar glucose -- as might occur when cardiovascular disease restricts blood flow in arteries to the brain -- a process is launched that ultimately produces the sticky clumps of protein that appear to be a cause of Alzheimer's. Robert Vassar, lead author, discovered a key brain protein is altered when the brain has a deficient supply of energy. The altered protein, called elF2alpha, increases the production of an enzyme that, in turn, flips a switch to produce the sticky protein clumps. Vassar worked with human and mice brains in his research. The study is published in the December 26 issue of the journal Neuron. "This finding is significant because it suggests that improving blood flow to the brain might be an effective therapeutic approach to prevent or treat Alzheimer's," said Vassar, a professor of cell and...
December 05, 2008
Green Gifts
More holiday spirit. Dear Ethan, Every year I give the gift of a goat to Africa, on the basis that a goat provides poor Africans with milk, cheese, grass-grazing skills, and company during those long, TV-less nights in the jungle – and it also helps them to continue living sustainable, machine-free lives. Yet now Animal Aid tells us it is wrong to give animals to Africans at Christmas time, because these beasts ‘add to rather than diminish poverty’, and what’s more ‘where impoverished people cannot afford to feed and care for their animals, those animals endure extreme suffering and die’. Aaah! I don’t want my paid-for goat to suffer at the hands of some witless African! Ethan, what should I do? Keep giving the goats – or rein them in? Peaches Ciccone West London Dear Peaches, . . . it is too risky to entrust animals to a continent where the RSPCA has very little clout and where PETA...
December 04, 2008
Gift Ideas
Doing my bit to stimulate the economy. The well-appointed kit contains "stakes, mirrors, a gun with silver bullets, crosses, a Bible, holy water, candles and even garlic, all housed in a American walnut case with a carved cross on top." Just in case it isn't Santa trying to get in your house via the chimney....
December 01, 2008
Egged On
Another epigenetics story. A stunning discovery based on epigenetics (the inheritance of propensities acquired in the womb) reveals that consuming choline—a nutrient found in eggs and other foods—during pregnancy may significantly affect breast cancer outcomes for a mother's offspring. . . . . . the daughters of mothers that had received extra choline during pregnancy had slow growing tumors while daughters of mothers that had no choline during pregnancy had fast growing tumors. . . The researchers also found multiple genetic and molecular changes in the rats' tumors that correlated with survival outcomes. For example, the slow growing tumors in rats had a genetic pattern similar to those seen in breast cancers of women who are considered to have a good prognosis. The fast growing tumors in mice had a pattern of genetic changes similar to those seen in women with a more aggressive disease. The researchers also found evidence that these genetic changes may result from the way...
November 03, 2008
SADly
Blah, blah, blah . . . About 6 percent of the U.S. population suffers from seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, a sometimes-debilitating depression that begins in the fall and continues through winter.. . . The disorder, which is not well understood, is often treated with "light therapy," where a SAD patient spends time each morning before a bank of bright lights in an effort to trick the brain into believing that the days are not so short or dim. A new study indicates that SAD may be linked to a genetic mutation in the eye that makes a SAD patient less sensitive to light. . . The melanopsin gene encodes a light-sensitive protein that is found in a class of photoreceptors in the retina that are not involved with vision, but are linked to many non-visual responses, such as the control of circadian rhythms, the control of hormones, the mediation of alertness and the regulation of sleep. I get...
October 30, 2008
What She Ate
You are. The research indicates that children conceived during the Dutch Hunger Winter in 1944-45, caused by a food embargo on the Netherlands in World War II, experienced persistent detrimental health effects six decades later. The authors found that the children exposed to the famine during the first 10 weeks after conception had less DNA methylation of the imprinted IGF2 gene than their unexposed same-sex siblings. By contrast, children exposed to the famine at the end of pregnancy showed no difference in methylation compared to their unexposed siblings. These findings support the conclusion that very early development is a crucial period in establishing and maintaining epigenetic marks. Epigenetic changes, while not altering the DNA sequence, can alter which genes are expressed. Genes that might otherwise be activated could be silenced by epigenetic changes or vice versa, and this could impact an individual's risk for adverse health outcomes later in life. "We believe that our study provides the first evidence...
October 07, 2008
Satisfaction
More olive love. A fatty acid found in abundance in olive oil and other "healthy" unsaturated fats has yet another benefit: it helps keep the body satisfied to prolong the time between meals. A new study in the October Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press, reveals that once this type of fat, known as oleic acid, reaches the intestine, it is converted into a lipid hormone (oleoylethanolamide, or OEA) that wards off the next round of hunger pangs. The researchers said it may be the first description of an ingredient in food that directly provides the raw materials for a hormone's production. . . Previous studies had shown that feeding stimulates cells in the intestinal lining to produce OEA, which, when administered as a drug, decreases meal frequency by engaging receptors called peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors a (PPARa). Piomelli's team now reports that infusion of fat into the small intestine stimulates the release of OEA, whereas infusion of protein...
September 22, 2008
Comfort Food
I make a pot of brown rice almost every day. I can do it in a coma. But I'm thinking of changing my habitual methods to include a two hour soak in warm water to germinate it prior to cooking since it increases the nutritional value in some interesting ways. This isn't news but it was a bit of a mystery why it was so. A team of researchers has identified the active compounds that contribute to the health benefits of pre-germinated brown rice; the healthy components are a related set of sterol-like molecules known as acylated steryl-beta-glucosides (ASGs). Pre-germinated rice (PR) is an emerging health food whereby brown rice is soaked in warm water prior to cooking; the warm bath induces germination, or sprouting, which stimulates rice enzymes to produce more nutrients. One such nutrient is the important brain chemical GABA (PR is thus often referred to as "GABA rice"), and animal studies have shown that a PR-rich...
September 21, 2008
Fat City
Continuing the we are clueless theme. "Most people think that fat is bad and the more you have the worse it is," said Gökhan Hotamisligil of Harvard School of Public Health. "To a certain extent that may be true, but it's far too simplistic. Rather than being one chemical entity, fats are actually a huge soup of things with hundreds of molecules and many different structures. In the blood, high fatty acids and triglycerides are often considered bad and low levels good, but it's not quite that way. It depends what constitutes this soup rather than how much you have." Hotamisligil, along with study first author Haiming Cao and their colleagues, made their discovery while studying mice that lack two specific fatty acid binding proteins (the lipid chaperones aP2 and mal1) only in their fat tissue. Those proteins bind lipids and control the fat composition of cells. Earlier studies showed that mice lacking one of those proteins become more...
August 21, 2008
Fashion
It is amusing how simple natural processes can be described using fashionable terms in order to pander to various constituencies. "We have shown that it is possible to use the crude glycerol byproduct from the biodiesel industry as a carbon source for microalgae that produce omega-3 fatty acids" . . . After growing the algae in the crude glycerol, researchers can use it as an animal feed. This mimics a process in nature in which fish, the most common source of omega-3 fatty acid for humans, eat the algae and then retain the healthful compounds in their bodies. Humans who consume the fish in turn consume the omega 3s. Fish-derived products such as fish oil are an inexpensive alternative, but the taste has deterred widespread use. Wen has partnered with Steven Craig, senior research scientist at Virginia Cobia Farms, to use crude glycerol-derived algae as a fish feed. "The results so far have been promising," Wen said. "The fish...
August 18, 2008
Cocoa Puff
Interesting news for older chocolate lovers. Cocoa flavanols, the unique compounds found naturally in cocoa, may increase blood flow to the brain, according to new research published in the Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment journal. The researchers suggest that long-term improvements in brain blood flow could impact cognitive behavior, offering future potential for debilitating brain conditions including dementia and stroke. . . the researchers found both short and long-term benefits of cocoa flavanols for brain blood flow, offering future potential for the one in seven older Americans currently living with dementia. When the flow of blood to the brain slows over time, the result may be structural damage and dementia. Scientists speculate that maintaining an increased blood flow to the brain could slow this cognitive decline. . . Contrary to statements often made in the popular media, the collective research demonstrates that the vascular effects of cocoa flavanols are independent of general "antioxidant" effects that cocoa flavanols exhibit in a...
July 24, 2008
Sweet Nothings
I'm no fan of demon maize. It's a subsidized environmental problem made worse by misuse, especially for ethanol and livestock feed. But the HFCS foo has never made sense to me. Though fructose, a monosaccharide, or simple sugar, is naturally found in high levels in fruit, it is also added to many processed foods. Fructose is perhaps best known for its presence in the sweetener called high-fructose corn syrup or HFCS, which is typically 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose, similar to the mix that can be found in fruits. It has become the preferred sweetener for many food manufacturers because it is generally cheaper, sweeter and easier to blend into beverages than table sugar. . . The researchers found that lipogenesis, the process by which sugars are turned into body fat, increased significantly when as little as half the glucose was replaced with fructose. Fructose given at breakfast also changed the way the body handled the food...
July 19, 2008
Delta Blues
The earlier post Death Fish discussed the harmful fat profile of farmed fishes, especially tilapia and catfish, due to their diets of grain. This problem may cure itself. Catfish farmers across the South, unable to cope with the soaring cost of corn and soybean feed, are draining their ponds. “It’s a dead business,” said John Dillard, who pioneered the commercial farming of catfish in the late 1960s. Last year Dillard & Company raised 11 million fish. Next year it will raise none. Some intend to fill their ponds and grow maize and soya since it is more profitable than growing fish that eat maize and soya. People can eat imported fish, Mr. Dillard said, just as they use imported oil. . . The industry’s decline accelerated when producers from Vietnam and China flooded the domestic market, putting a ceiling on prices. . . last summer when the Food and Drug Administration announced broader import controls on Chinese seafood, including...
July 18, 2008
Painless
I love olives. Do not expect a reasonable discussion. You can have my olives when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers - or teeth. We used to grow lots of them around here but the market crashed a few years ago due to cheap imports. Lots of groves were ripped out and replaced with more profitable crops - pistachios for instance. The olive curing and packing operations closed their doors. Olive towns, such as Lindsay, went into free-fall. That has changed a bit in recent years as olive love became more widespread. Now the emphasis is on fancy varieties, high value fruits and oils rather than commodities. The news that olives are sources of "good fat" has increased worldwide demand for the luscious, versatile fruits. Olives have become extremely popular, enjoyed as condiments, appetizers, spreads, and additions to salads and sauces. Their heart-healthy oil has is also enjoying superstar status in kitchens around the world. The olive's...
July 15, 2008
Epimutations
More suggestions that you really are what she ate. "Why is everyone getting heavier and heavier? One hypothesis is that maternal obesity before and during pregnancy affects the establishment of body weight regulatory mechanisms in her baby. Maternal obesity could promote obesity in the next generation." . . . "We think DNA methylation may play an important role in the development of the hypothalamus (the region of the brain that regulates appetite)," said Waterland. "Twenty years ago, it was proposed that just as genetic mutations can cause cancer, so too might aberrant epigenetic marks – so called 'epimutations.' That idea is now largely accepted and the field of cancer epigenetics is very active. I would make the same statement for obesity. We are on the cusp of understanding that," he said. This seems right. The idea that maternal nutrition can have profound effects on progeny is comfortable for those of us involved in animal husbandry, and humans are animals...
July 13, 2008
Death Fish
The medical community, whatever that is, has a terrible track record for giving good dietary advice. They are responsible for the old USDA food pyramid that sought to stuff people full of grains, and so made a lot of fat and unhealthy people. They are also responsible for all the wacko fat ideas that have been promulgated, changed, changed again and are still giving bad advice. their research revealed that farm-raised tilapia, as well as farmed catfish, "have several fatty acid characteristics that would generally be considered by the scientific community as detrimental." Tilapia has higher levels of potentially detrimental long-chain omega-6 fatty acids than 80-percent-lean hamburger, doughnuts and even pork bacon . . . "For individuals who are eating fish as a method to control inflammatory diseases such as heart disease, it is clear from these numbers that tilapia is not a good choice," the article says. "All other nutritional content aside, the inflammatory potential of hamburger and...
July 01, 2008
Melon Men
What could a post with such a title possibly be about? scientists say watermelon has ingredients that deliver Viagra-like effects to the body's blood vessels and may even increase libido. . . Beneficial ingredients in watermelon and other fruits and vegetables are known as phyto-nutrients, naturally occurring compounds that are bioactive, or able to react with the human body to trigger healthy reactions . . . In watermelons, these include lycopene, beta carotene and the rising star among its phyto-nutrients – citrulline – whose beneficial functions are now being unraveled. Among them is the ability to relax blood vessels, much like Viagra does. Scientists know that when watermelon is consumed, citrulline is converted to arginine through certain enzymes. Arginine is an amino acid that works wonders on the heart and circulation system and maintains a good immune system, Patil said. "The citrulline-arginine relationship helps heart health, the immune system and may prove to be very helpful for those who...
June 16, 2008
Siesta
Clocks aren't very interesting for me. My days are ruled by the sun, and vary considerably at this latitude during the year. This is siesta season. I start work very early, in the cool pre-dawn, and get after it until it gets too hot. Then I eat, rest and nap for a few hours along with all other sensible creatures except, it is said, mad dogs and Englishmen. Most mammals sleep for short periods throughout the day. . . Our bodies are programmed for two periods of sleepiness: in the early morning, from 2 to 4 a.m., and in the afternoon, between 1 and 3 p.m. It isn't the heat, or high carb food, that makes us drowsy. That's how we are. Tips for napping. A short afternoon catnap of 20 minutes . . . enhances alertness and concentration, elevates mood, and sharpens motor skills. To boost alertness on waking you can drink a cup of coffee before you...
May 15, 2008
PUFA Minds
I don't have a link for this article, which seems to be a press release for a paper published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. I got the text from a grazing group list, but the sender is usually reliable so I'll paste it. Omega-3 EPA linked to less depression By Stephen Daniells 13-May-2008 - Increased blood levels of the omega-3 fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) may reduce the severity of symptoms of depression, particularly in people taking antidepressants, suggests new research from France. A study of 1390 subjects from Bordeaux in France reports that EPA levels in people with depressive symptoms were on average 0.16 per cent lower than in normal people, according to data published in this month's issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. "This result adds to the growing body of evidence implicating long-chain PUFAs in mental disorders," wrote the researchers from the Equipe Epidemiologie de la Nutrition et des Comportements Alimentaires (INSERM...
April 22, 2008
Human Animals
Just a reminder. Scientists already know that in many animals, more sons are produced when a mother has plentiful resources or is high ranking. The phenomenon has been most extensively studied in invertebrates, but is also seen in horses, cows and some species of deer. The explanation is thought to lie with the evolutionary drive to produce descendants. . . New research by the Universities of Exeter and Oxford provides the first evidence that a child?s sex is associated with the mother's diet. . . the study shows a clear link between higher energy intake around the time of conception and the birth of sons. The findings may help explain the falling birth-rate of boys in industrialised countries, including the UK and US. . . As well as consuming more calories, women who had sons were more likely to have eaten a higher quantity and wider range of nutrients, including potassium, calcium and vitamins C, E and B12. There...
April 01, 2008
Geek Crack
The controversy about the use of performance enhancing drugs by athletes has always seemed like a futile rear-guard action to me: humans have always dosed themselves and likely will always do so in ever more effective ways. Perhaps the resistance will soften soon. Apparently, in order to be considered for funding this year, PIs have to submit a signed affidavit stating that they will refrain from using brain-enhancing drugs, such as Provigil, in the course of their research. Does that not strike y’all as slightly Big Brother-ish? Forgive me for gliding down a slippery slope, but what’s next? Are we only going to be allowed to drink decaf coffee while at lab? Perhaps LASIK will be forbidden so that some researchers don’t have an unfair advantage over others when it comes to microscopy or micro-surgeries? Provigil, from my limited understanding, is pretty spectacular. Quinn Norton said (sorry, haven’t read the literature myself) that soldiers who were given Provigil performed...
March 25, 2008
Bronze Age
Again. The market for antimicrobial doorknobs, hospital fixtures and other products that kill germs on contact may be about to take on a coppery sheen. The Copper Development Association, a trade group for copper companies, said Tuesday that federal regulators had approved its application to market a group of copper alloys, including brass and bronze, as capable of killing bacteria and microbes effectively enough to protect human health. . . Researchers who worked on the concept expect hospitals and other public institutions to be the initial market for the product, based on the approvals gained by the trade group. The tests showed 99.9 percent kill rates within two hours against the leading antibiotic-resistant bacteria now plaguing hospitals, said Harold T. Michels, senior vice president for technology and technical services at the trade group. “This is very, very solid data,” said Mr. Michels, who said that the tests involved more than 3,000 samples and included a requirement to reinfect a...
March 23, 2008
Happy V-Day
I wonder if in future this development will be seen as being of comparable importance to birth control pills? Ten years ago this month the lives of millions of men and women were changed almost overnight by the advent of a little blue pill -- the first oral treatment for impotence . . . developed by accident by scientists at Pfizer Laboratories, was first approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration on March 27, 1998. I'd like to try some. It is said that it makes good wood better, as a sort of off-label use....
March 23, 2008
Aroma Therapy
Is the cure worse than the disease? Epilepsy has been known for thousands of years and has been subjected to various forms of conventional and non-conventional therapies including a non-pharmacological conservative treatment known as aromatherapy, ever since. One commonly practiced form of aromatherapy that persists as an immediate first-aid measure even today in some parts of developing countries in the East is the application of “shoe-smell” during an epileptic attack. The questionable remedial role has intrigued neuro-scientists at least in these parts of the world. This brief paper attempts to provide an insight to the basis of persistence of this practice and to explore a possible scientific logic behind its unscientifically reported remedial effectiveness. The neurophysiology of olfactory stimulation from “shoe-smell” reveals a sound and scientific reasoning for its remedial efficacy in epilepsy; olfactory stimuli in this study have been found to possess significantly effective anti-epileptic influence which could have formed the basis for the use of application of...
March 20, 2008
Just Relax
else, you'll make yourself sick. Stress hormones may not only affect the competence of the immune system. We have found that they also act directly on bacteria to increase both their growth and virulence (ability to cause an infection). In fact, we and others have now shown that for dozens of infectious bacteria the presence of human stress hormones is a signal for the bacteria that they are inside a potential host, and that this host is stressed, its immune defences weakened, and the time is opportune to begin their attack. The stress hormones adrenaline and noradrenaline can turn blood that is normally very hostile to bacteria into a kind of bacterial tomato soup. Addition of these stress hormones to blood or serum will enable 10 bacteria to grow to 100 million cells in less than a day. Don't worry. Be Happy. the news is not all bad, as intriguingly, we have also found that the same drugs that...
December 13, 2007
Mad Dogs
And Englishmen. At least the old fashioned sort. PEOPLE should sit outside in the middle of the day to help stave off potential deadly medical conditions, an Australian researcher says. Current recommendations about when people should be exposed to the sun the most were wrong and did not allow people to get enough vitamin D, according to David Turnbull, a research fellow at the University of Southern Queensland's Centre for Rural and Remote Area Health. Vitamin D, when absorbed through the skin from UV rays, has been found to help prevent various cancers, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. . . . "In the US, between 50,000 and 60,000 people die each year because of issues relating to not getting enough sun exposure," he said. Well, I don't have that problem....
November 26, 2007
Brain Food
Brains are fat. That's not a problem, that's just how they are. So it isn't very surprising that brain health is related to dietary fat. Omega-3 fatty acids protect the brain against Parkinson’s disease, according to a study by Université Laval researchers published in the online edition of the FASEB Journal, the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. This study, supervised by Frederic Calon and Francesca Cicchetti, is the first to demonstrate the protective effect of a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids against Parkinson’s. . . Analyses revealed that omega-3 fatty acids—in particular DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), a specific type of omega-3—had replaced the omega-6 fatty acids already present in the brains of the mice that had been given omega-3 supplementation. “This demonstrates both the importance of diet on the brain’s fatty acid composition and the brain’s natural inclination for omega-3 fatty acids,” observes Calon. Since concentrations of other types of omega-3’s had remained similar...
September 05, 2007
Disease Control
You know that old joke about avoiding hospitals because they have diseases there, as if you go there to get sick rather than get well? Perhaps . . . The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently issued a flier to combat myths about the flu vaccine ... When ... social psychologist Norbert Schwarz had volunteers read the CDC flier, however, he found that ... three days later, they remembered 40 percent of the myths as factual. ... Most troubling was that people ... now felt that the source of their false beliefs was the respected CDC. ... The research, which has been confirmed in a number of peer-reviewed laboratory experiments, have broad implications for public policy. ... The psychological studies highlight ... the potential paradox in trying to fight bad information with good information. ... once an idea has been implanted in people's minds, it can be difficult to dislodge. Denials inherently require repeating the bad information,...
August 19, 2007
Almost Alive
Viruses, it is argued, are not really living things because they don't fit the generally accepted definitions. For example, they depend on hosts to reproduce, and don't respond to environmental changes. But it gets fuzzy since there are bacteria, such as Chlamydia, that can only reproduce within host cells. And there are even simpler particles such as viroids, satellites, and prions that make viruses seem comparatively life-like. How did such things come to exist? One of the interesting theories is retrograde-evolution. They began as more complex organisms and gradually shed unnecessary capabilities over time as they commandeered host systems to perform those chores. It seems that every living thing is prey for some sort of virus. See Adam, Had em, Virotherapy, and Oncolytic Viruses for previous discussions of the longish history of the use of viruses to combat bacterial infections and recent uses to fight cancer. Now it seems that they may be useful to fight Alzheimer's disease. Scientists...
June 17, 2007
Eat a Peach
Most of us grow fruits of some sort around here. It's not only a big time ag county with huge commercial groves, every home has a partially edible landscape. I nearly live off the land this time of year, just snatching the low hanging fruit as I pass through the neighborhood. I eat like a bull but can't pinch an inch. The interesting bit, the thing worth posting about, is that it tastes soooo good. Today I raided Warren and Mary Lee's apricots. They were small and deceptively plain looking, but when you bite one there's a sweet, juicy explosion that stops you in your tracks. If I came to your door with a bucket of these cots and tried to give them to you, you might well decline to take them. They don't look special. I see this all the time. Home fruit growers beg their friends and neighbors to take some before the birds get them all...
June 06, 2007
Self Repair
All the cool SF stories have autodocs that sniff out a severely wounded or recently deceased human, or whatever, and swot up replacement parts from the tattered remains of the carcass. If you have any piece of the original body, then you can manufacture needed components. We may be getting closer. In a surprising advance that sidesteps the ethical debates surrounding stem cell biology, researchers have come much closer to a major goal of regenerative medicine, the conversion of a patient’s cells into specialized tissues that might replace those lost to disease. The advance is an easy-to-use technique for reprogramming a skin cell of a mouse back to the embryonic state. Embryonic cells can be induced in the laboratory to develop into many of the body’s major tissues. If the technique can be adapted to human cells, it would let scientists use a patient’s skin cell to generate new heart, liver or kidney cells that might be transplantable and...
June 05, 2007
Cough Medicine
Extra Virgin Anti-Inflammatories. I was observing the annual Los Angeles international extra virgin olive oil competition, where nearly 400 oils from 15 countries were evaluated by expert judges last month. Through the three days of competition I learned what a wonderful variety of aromas you can discover in olive oils when you sip and slurp. (Vigorous slurping aerates the viscous oil and helps release its flavors.) . . . I also learned a lot about the not-so-delicate side of olive oil: the bitterness, the drying astringency and especially that peppery pungency that hits the back of the throat and provokes a cough. Some oils were so strong that they seemed more medicinal than delicious. But the Italian and Spanish judges consistently rated the most peppery, throat-catching oils at the top, nodding in admiration even as they gasped for breath. The sensations of bitterness, astringency and pungency are caused by members of the phenolic family of chemicals. Phenols also have...
May 20, 2007
Tainted Evidence
Long ago (September 11, 2003), in a far away galaxy (the old Crumbtrail blog), while the great and good were making a mess in Cancun, I argued, as did many others, that the whole idea of developing countries bootstrapping themselves on agricultural trade was a hustle fueled by big players and sloppy statistics. An Economist article said some of those things with more authority. If, as promised, the EU eliminates export subsidies on products “of interest” to poor countries, the price of those products would rise on world markets. This would benefit big agricultural exporters, such as Argentina and Brazil. It is not all good news, however. Arvind Panagariya, an economist at the University of Maryland, points out that 85 out of 148 developing countries are net importers of agricultural goods. Raising the price of those goods on world markets would leave them worse off. Farm-trade reform is at the centre of the Doha round, but Mr Panagariya’s results...
April 01, 2007
Live Long
And prosper. . . by getting hungry and dirty. Getting dirty may lift your mood. Treatment of mice with a ‘friendly’ bacteria, normally found in the soil, altered their behavior in a way similar to that produced by antidepressant drugs, reports research published in the latest issue of Neuroscience. These findings, identified by researchers at the University of Bristol and colleagues at University College London, aid the understanding of why an imbalance in the immune system leaves some individuals vulnerable to mood disorders like depression. Dr Chris Lowry, lead author on the paper from Bristol University, said: "These studies help us understand how the body communicates with the brain and why a healthy immune system is important for maintaining mental health. They also leave us wondering if we shouldn’t all be spending more time playing in the dirt." It's never too late. [R]educing calorie intake later in life can still induce many of the health and longevity benefits of...
March 25, 2007
Health Food
Build strong bodies in unusal ways. Scientists have shown for the first time that food enriched with natural isotopes builds bodily components that are more resistant to the processes of ageing. The concept has been demonstrated in worms and researchers hope that the same concept can help extend human life and reduce the risk of cancer and other diseases of ageing, reports Marina Murphy in Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the SCI. A team led by Mikhail Shchepinov, formerly of Oxford University, fed nematode worms nutrients reinforced with natural isotopes (naturally occurring atomic variations of elements). In initial experiments, worms' life spans were extended by 10%, which, with humans expected to routinely coast close to the centenary, could add a further 10 years to human life. Food enhanced with isotopes is thought to produce bodily constituents and DNA more resistant to detrimental processes, like free radical attack. The isotopes replace atoms in susceptible bonds making these bonds stronger....
February 27, 2007
Light Worship
I'm less energetic in the winter. I seem to go offline a bit, waiting as it were for it to be over. The days are shorter, so that's part of it, but they are also dimmer, and I think that's a bigger part for me. Some talk of Seasonal Affective Disorder, SAD, and propose light therapies. I suspect there's something to it. Just now I was standing under an overhang sheltering from a steady rain. It had been a dim day - cold, overcast and drizzly - and I was too blank for comfort. Then the sun shone through the overcast. Not brightly, but very much brighter than a moment before. It had dropped low enough in the afternoon sky to shine wanly through the overcast, a perfunctory reminder that it would return though it was on its way behind the mountain and then the whole earth for the night. The rain was falling with a slight slant due...
February 19, 2007
Long Toothed
I got a call from old Jim the other day. He's another absentee ranchette owner in my neighborhood that I manage for. He's 91, lives in town now, and can't remember things straight any more. Actually, he seems to remember the long ago past just fine, but loses track of more current things. He may be inventing that past he speaks of so clearly for all I know, but it seems like he's lost the ability to make new memories, as if at some point his head got full and new stuff goes in one ear and overflows out the other. He calls me Jake and no amount of correction sticks. Maybe there was some Jake in his past that I remind him of. His daughter, a grandmother herself, handles his affairs for the most part and sealed the deal with me. Someone in the clan has it straight, so I go with the flow. He wanted me to...
January 22, 2007
Spongy Disease
Few things in the home are more revolting than the old sponge. Part of that problem seems solvable. University of Florida engineering researchers have found that microwaving kitchen sponges and plastic scrubbers -- known to be common carriers of the bacteria and viruses that cause food-borne illnesses – sterilizes them rapidly and effectively. That means that the estimated 90-plus percent of Americans with microwaves in their kitchens have a powerful weapon against E. coli, salmonella and other bugs at the root of increasing incidents of potentially deadly food poisoning and other illnesses. "Basically what we find is that we could knock out most bacteria in two minutes," said Gabriel Bitton, a UF professor of environmental engineering. "People often put their sponges and scrubbers in the dishwasher, but if they really want to decontaminate them and not just clean them, they should use the microwave." . . . The results were unambiguous: Two minutes of microwaving on full power mode...
January 18, 2007
Die, Now
So, why is it that cancer cells thrive and overwhelm victims? DCA attacks a unique feature of cancer cells: the fact that they make their energy throughout the main body of the cell, rather than in distinct organelles called mitochondria. This process, called glycolysis, is inefficient and uses up vast amounts of sugar. Until now it had been assumed that cancer cells used glycolysis because their mitochondria were irreparably damaged. However, Michelakis’s experiments prove this is not the case, because DCA reawakened the mitochondria in cancer cells. The cells then withered and died (Cancer Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.ccr.2006.10.020). Michelakis suggests that the switch to glycolysis as an energy source occurs when cells in the middle of an abnormal but benign lump don’t get enough oxygen for their mitochondria to work properly (see diagram). In order to survive, they switch off their mitochondria and start producing energy through glycolysis. Crucially, though, mitochondria do another job in cells: they activate apoptosis, the...
November 22, 2006
Differently Different
This is another chapter in the continuing saga: Everything I Know is Wrong. New research shows that at least 10 percent of genes in the human population can vary in the number of copies of DNA sequences they contain--a finding that alters current thinking that the DNA of any two humans is 99.9 percent similar in content and identity. This discovery of the extent of genetic variation, by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) international research scholar Stephen W. Scherer, and colleagues, is expected to change the way researchers think about genetic diseases and human evolution. Genes usually occur in two copies, one inherited from each parent. Scherer and colleagues found approximately 2,900 genes--more than 10 percent of the genes in the human genome--with variations in the number of copies of specific DNA segments. These differences in copy number can influence gene activity and ultimately an organism's function. To get a better picture of exactly how important this type of...
October 09, 2006
Bloody Great!
This might revolutionize your first aid kit. When the liquid, composed of protein fragments called peptides, is applied to open wounds, the peptides self-assemble into a nanoscale protective barrier gel that seals the wound and halts bleeding. Once the injury heals, the nontoxic gel is broken down into molecules that cells can use as building blocks for tissue repair. "We have found a way to stop bleeding, in less than 15 seconds, that could revolutionize bleeding control," said Rutledge Ellis-Behnke, research scientist in the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. This study will appear in the online edition of the journal Nanomedicine on Oct. 10 at http://www.nanomedjournal.com/inpress. It marks the first time that nanotechnology has been used to achieve complete hemostasis, the process of halting bleeding from a damaged blood vessel. Doctors currently have few effective methods to stop bleeding without causing other damage. More than 57 million Americans undergo nonelective surgery each year, and as much as...
October 02, 2006
Dicky Tickers
Heart attacks seem increasingly common in western countries. In part it may be simply that the average age of westerners is increasing, and hearts wear out. In part it may be poor diets which weaken those old hearts more. There are good arguments that one should learn to own and operate a heart when young so that it will last longer. Exercise is good and so is attention to diet. This is a highly contentious subject that attracts quacks with diet books and wellness centers, making it difficult, and in the end disgusting, to contemplate. A pox on all their houses. There's a semi-interesting debate about dietary substances, food extracts, being used as medicine. ROME — Every patient in the cardiac care unit at the San Filippo Neri Hospital who survives a heart attack goes home with a prescription for purified fish oil, or omega-3 fatty acids. . . But in the United States, heart attack victims are not...
March 11, 2006
Kissed Blind
"A kiss is not a kiss if it is inflicted instead of offered". . . as is the case with one local species of assassin bug called the Western Conenose, Triatoma protracta. This 3/4-inch, brown-black nocturnal insect, whose wings form a distinctive "X" when folded over the abdomen, also goes by the name of the "kissing bug" or, as it is known in Latin America, "vinchuca." The kissing bug label comes from the insect's ability to steal a blood meal by painlessly piercing the lips, eyelids or ears of a sleeping human victim. The real problem is that during the feeding process, the bug injects its saliva into the victim, which can result in anaphylactic shock to persons sensitive to the bite. In rare cases, an individual might contract Chagas disease, a form of African sleeping sickness, which is caused by a one-celled organism carried by 40 percent of the bugs in some areas of southern California. They are...
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