Even in absurdity, sacrament. Even in hardship, holiness. Even in doubt, faith. Even in chaos, realization. Even in paradox, blessedness
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"Life expands or shrinks in proportion to one's courage." ~Anain Nin
Drug Triggers Body's Mechanism To Reverse Aging Effect On Memory Process A drug made to enhance memory appears to trigger a natural mechanism in the brain that fully reverses age-related memory loss, even after the drug itself has left the body, according to researchers at UC Irvine. Professors Christine Gall and Gary Lynch, along with Associate Researcher Julie Lauterborn, were among a group of scientists who conducted studies on rats with a class of drugs known as ampakines. Ampakines were developed in the early 1990s by UC researchers, including Lynch, to treat age-related memory impairment and may be useful for treating a number of central nervous system disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. In this study, the researchers showed that ampakine drugs continue to reverse the effects of aging on a brain mechanism thought to underlie learning and memory even after they are no longer in the body. They do so by boosting the production of a naturally occurring protein in the brain necessary for long-term memory formation. The study appears in the August issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology. “This is a significant discovery,” said Gall, professor of anatomy and neurobiology. “Our results indicate the exciting possibility that ampakines could be used to treat learning and memory loss associated with normal aging.” The researchers treated two groups of middle-aged rats twice a day for four days with either a solution that contained ampakines or one that did not. They then studied the hippocampus region of the rats’ brains, an area critical for memory and learning. They found that in the ampakine-treated rats, there was a significant increase in the production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein known to play a key role in memory formation. They also found an increase in long-term potentiation (LTP), the process by which the connection between the brain cells is enhanced and memory is encoded. This enhancement is responsible for long-term cognitive function, higher learning and the ability to reason. With age, deficits in LTP emerge, and learning and memory loss occurs. jaybird found this for you @ 20:04 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Achoo: Allergy battle could be won in five years Researchers, working with colleagues at St George’s, University of London, are developing drugs designed to stop allergens from entering the body, so rendering them harmless. Professor David Garrod said the research – recently shortlisted for the Northwest Regional Development Agency’s Bionow Project of the Year – takes a completely new approach to the treatment and prevention of allergies. “The technology is based on our earlier discovery of how allergens, the substances that cause allergy, enter the body through the surface layer of cells that protect the skin and the tubes of the lungs,” he said. “Allergens from pollen or house dust mites are inhaled and then dissolve the binding material between the cells that form these protective linings; they can then enter the body by passing between the cells to cause an allergic response. “The drugs we are developing – called Allergen Delivery Inhibitors (ADIs) – are designed to disable these allergens so they can no longer eat through the protective cell layer and block the allergic reaction before it occurs. “The effect will be like avoiding allergens altogether. Removing carpets and rigorous cleaning of homes are established ways to avoid allergens, but they are only partially effective because their effects do not ‘travel’ with allergy sufferers. jaybird found this for you @ 14:16 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Nanoparticles armed to combat cancer Ultra-small particles loaded with medicine - and aimed with the precision of a rifle - are offering a promising new way to strike at cancer, according to researchers working at MIT and Brigham and Women's Hospital. In a paper to appear the week of April 10 in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team reports a way to custom design nanoparticles so they home in on dangerous cancer cells, then enter the cells to deliver lethal doses of chemotherapy. Normal, healthy cells remain unscathed. The team conducted experiments first on cells growing in laboratory dishes, and then on mice bearing human prostate tumors. The tumors shrank dramatically, and all of the treated mice survived the study; the untreated control animals did not. "A single injection of our nanoparticles completely eradicated the tumors in five of the seven treated animals, and the remaining animals also had significant tumor reduction, compared to the controls..." jaybird found this for you @ 12:03 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Free and Clear? Caution over HIV 'cure' claims Doctors say they want to investigate the case of a British man with HIV who apparently became clear of the virus. Andrew Stimpson, 25, was diagnosed HIV-positive in 2002 but was found to be negative in October 2003 by Chelsea and Westminster Healthcare NHS Trust. Mr Stimpson, from London, said he was "one of the luckiest people alive". The trust said the tests were accurate but had been unable to confirm Scotsman Mr Stimpson's cure because he had declined to undergo further tests. A statement from the trust said: "This is a rare and complex case. When we became aware of Mr Stimpson's HIV negative test results we offered him further tests to help us investigate and find an explanation for the different results. jaybird found this for you @ 16:28 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect between the Advertisements and the Scientific Literature Given the multifactorial nature of depression and anxiety, and the ambiguities inherent in psychiatric diagnosis and treatment, some have questioned whether the mass provision of SSRIs is the result of an over-medicalized society. These sentiments were voiced by Lord Warner, United Kingdom Health Minister, at a recent hearing: “I have some concerns that sometimes we do, as a society, wish to put labels on things which are just part and parcel of the human condition”. He went on to say, “Particularly in the area of depression we did ask the National Institute for Clinical Excellence [an independent health organisation that provides national guidance on treatment and prevention] to look into this particular area and their guideline on depression did advise non-pharmacological treatment for mild depression”. Sentiments such as Lord Warner's, about over-medicalization, are exactly what some pharmaceutical companies have sought to overcome with their advertising campaigns. For example, Pfizer's television advertisement for the antidepressant sertraline (Zoloft) stated that depression is a serious medical condition that may be due to a chemical imbalance, and that “Zoloft works to correct this imbalance”. Other SSRI advertising campaigns have also claimed that depression is linked with an imbalance of the neurotransmitter serotonin, and that SSRIs can correct this imbalance. The pertinent question is: are the claims made in SSRI advertising congruent with the scientific evidence? jaybird found this for you @ 08:23 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Nanotech offers HIV cure? I'mm too dense to get much of this, but it sounds good... In the first-ever study of metal nanoparticles' interaction with HIV-1, silver nanoparticles of sizes 1-10nm attached to HIV-1 and prevented the virus from bonding to host cells... jaybird found this for you @ 19:55 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Sweeping along 14th-century trade routes, an infectious agent left a trail of incomparable devastation throughout Asia and Europe. In China, this plague slashed the population from 125 million to 90 million by the century's end. In Cairo, the Black Death—so called because of the dark, swollen lymph nodes that characterize the disease—claimed 7,000 lives a day at its height. Before it subsided, the plague had wiped out one-third of Europe's population. In most of the world today, the plague has receded to a distant, if gruesome, memory. So, too, at least in developed countries, have smallpox, typhoid fever, cholera, diphtheria, and polio declined. One by one, infectious diseases that once ravaged society and preyed especially on children have been quelled by better sanitation, antibiotics, and vaccinations. While raising barricades against deadly scourges, however, the industrialized world has also shielded people from the microbes and parasites that do no harm. Does it matter? jaybird found this for you @ 12:03 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Yum? You do what you eat We already know obesity can result if we eat too much junk food, but there may be greater consequences of unhealthy diets than extra weight around our middles.... Is it simply coincidence that the increase in aggression, crime and social incivility in Western society has paralleled a spectacular change in our diet? Could there be a link between the two? jaybird found this for you @ 13:00 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
ayurveda rising "Every day, a new medicine," he sighs. "It is so temporary, so changeable. We talk about anti-ageing, anti-this, anti-that. The anti word is so negative. Ageing is a natural process. Each phase of life should be equally celebrated. What we should be talking about is healthy ageing. A doctor should not be just for the sick patient but for healthy people." Put like this, it is hard to disagree that as much may have been lost as gained by modern medical advance. Dubey finds that Western doctors are competent at looking after individual troublesome organs but puzzled by the concept of treating the whole person. Ayurvedic medicine (from ayus, meaning "life" and veda, meaning "science") is all-inclusive. In India, it is part of the national health service, offered in conjunction with conventional medicine in every hospital. It sees the body as a little universe and each person as having a pattern of energy as unique and individual as a thumb print. The physiological energies that control the functions of the body are known as doshas. Each of us has three - fire (pitta), water (kapha) and air (vata) - and it is believed that an imbalance between the three causes disease. Getting the balance right enhances immunity, prevents illness and maintains health. "It's all about wellbeing," says Dubey, "about achieving a balance between ourselves and nature." jaybird found this for you @ 19:56 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
obsession with sickness We live in a world where illnesses are on the increase. The distinguishing feature of the twenty-first century is that health has become a dominant issue, both in our personal lives and in public life. It has become a highly politicised issue, too, and an increasingly important site of government intervention and policymaking. With every year that passes, we seem to spend more and more time and resources thinking about health and sickness.... there is now a presupposition that illness is as normal as health. Earlier theories of medicalisation still considered illness to be the exception; now, being ill is seen as a normal state, possibly even more normal than being healthy. We are all now seen as being potentially ill; that is the default state we live in today. jaybird found this for you @ 12:11 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
ten famous names ignorant on a.i.d.s. Dick Cheney and John Edwards: ...Moderator Gwen Ifill said she wanted to hear about AIDS -- "and not about AIDS in China or Africa," she made clear. "But AIDS right here in this country, where black women between the ages of 25 and 44 are 13 times more likely to die of the disease than their counterparts." At an obvious loss, Cheney mumbled about the global AIDS pandemic before admitting, "I had not heard those numbers, with respect to African-American women." The incidence of HIV infection among African-American women has far exceeded HIV cases among white women for at least a decade. How the vice president missed that is a mystery -- unless he never cared to know in the first place. Edwards fared no better, completely missing an opportunity to skewer the Bush administration for flat-funding the Ryan White CARE Act, ignoring prevention efforts for African-Americans and neglecting the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. Well, at least neither of them sputtered, "AIDS? I thought that was a gay disease!" jaybird found this for you @ 15:36 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Hallucinogenic cure for alcoholism jaybird found this for you @ 16:03 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Traditional curry ingredient helps fight Alzheimer's disease The research team also determined curcumin is more effective in inhibiting formation of the protein fragments than many other drugs being tested as Alzheimer's treatments. jaybird found this for you @ 07:27 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Get tested. Get tested. Get tested. (via boingboing) jaybird found this for you @ 20:40 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
The latest on cure research: AIDS Treatment News ...the world's first treatment newsletter for people with HIV, reports on mainstream and alternative treatment, access to care, Web resources, public policy, and political action. Meanwhile, a ban has been lifted on two generic antiretroviral treatments. jaybird found this for you @ 17:23 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Stories of People Living with AIDS I am a Zambian lady aged 23 years old and am HIV Positive. I live in Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia and currently working as a volunteer in an organization which deals with the control of HIV/AIDS by way of giving care, support and Antiretroviral therapy to people infected with HIV. Having lost both parents at an early age, as well as a sister and two elder brothers due to HIV/AIDS. I have a great love for people and am more than ready to help HIV Positive persons like myself who are struggling to accept this great change in their lives and promote safe sex among young people so that the spread of HIV is put to an end. jaybird found this for you @ 11:17 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Stories of Real People Raising Awareness about HIV/AIDS My Mum works with children who live with HIV and she told me about it. She told me that some people can be horrible to people who have HIV and I get upset about that. I don't think you should be horrible to people who have HIV, they're just like everyone else. jaybird found this for you @ 07:05 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Korean Scientists Succeed in Stem Cell Therapy (via FutureHi and MeFi) A team of Korean researchers claimed Thursday they had performed a miracle by enabling a patient, who could not even stand up for the last 19 years, to walk with stem cell therapy. During a press conference, the scientists said they had last month transplanted multi-potent stem cells from umbilical cord blood to the 37-year-old female patient suffering from a spinal cord injury and she can now walk on her own. jaybird found this for you @ 07:02 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
The Asclepion is devoted to the study of ancient medicine. (via Plep) That's probably all my posting for today, happy Saturday peeps. jaybird found this for you @ 13:30 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Ancient remedy 'shrinks cancer' An Ancient remedy 'shrinks cancer' An ancient native American treatment for cancer has been shown to have a beneficial effect despite scepticism from the medical establishment. Chaparral, an evergreen desert shrub, has long been used by native Americans to treat cancer, colds, wounds, bronchitis, warts, and ringworm. jaybird found this for you @ 07:14 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
OK, so work didn't happen, OK, so work didn't happen, so technically, this is a sick day. In honor of illness... it's Disease Trading Cards! Here's set two! There's diseases for everyone at the CDC 'kids' page! jaybird found this for you @ 14:31 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
in my place is a in my place is a blog about living with HIV. Powerful stuff. [via MeFi] jaybird found this for you @ 16:29 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Massachusetts prepares for gays to Massachusetts prepares for gays to marry: The government in Massachusetts this week showed the first clear signs of getting ready to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples in May, but the threat of a possible court order to block the action still looms. jaybird found this for you @ 17:25 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Study: Obesity an Epidemic in Study: Obesity an Epidemic in U.S. Americans are sitting around and eating themselves to death, with obesity closing in on tobacco as the nation's No. 1 underlying preventable killer. jaybird found this for you @ 12:53 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Mysterious virus may thwart HIV Mysterious virus may thwart HIV Up to six years after their initial HIV-infection, men whose blood contained the second virus - known simply as GB virus C (GBV-C) - were nearly three times less likely to die than HIV-positive men who did not have the secondary infection. jaybird found this for you @ 13:21 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
'It's OK, I'm on the 'It's OK, I'm on the AIDS Pill' Hundreds of healthy people in Africa, Cambodia and two U.S. cities will begin taking doses of a powerful AIDS drug as part of a series of studies into the use of medicine to stop HIV infection before it starts. jaybird found this for you @ 18:09 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
"A gastronomical guinea pig" Man Man eats fast food for thirty days. Man falls apart. "He was an extremely healthy person who got very sick eating this Mc*******'s diet... None of us imagined he could deteriorate this badly - he looked terrible. The liver test was the most shocking thing - it became very, very abnormal." jaybird found this for you @ 10:07 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
What is The Meatrix? What is The Meatrix? jaybird found this for you @ 22:55 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
World Aids Day sets HIV World Aids Day sets HIV drug goal Global health chiefs are to spell out plans to ensure three million people with HIV get the drugs they need by the end of 2005. jaybird found this for you @ 15:16 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
'Microbeam' makes cancer cells 'Microbeam' makes cancer cells commit suicide A futuristic "microbeam" that zaps individual cancer cells with a stream of particles could revolutionise radiotherapy, scientists say. jaybird found this for you @ 15:13 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Today is World AIDS Day Today is World AIDS Day Five people worldwide die of AIDS every minute of every day. HIV has hit every corner of the globe, infecting more than 42 million men, women and children, 5 million of them last year alone. jaybird found this for you @ 06:37 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Stroke gives woman British accent Stroke gives woman British accent An American woman has been left with a British accent after having a stroke. jaybird found this for you @ 09:24 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Guinness good for you The The long-running ad campaign is well-known jaybird found this for you @ 00:08 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Green tea extract may fight Green tea extract may fight HIV Scientists in Japan have found a component of green tea can stop HIV from binding to healthy immune cells, which is how the virus spreads. jaybird found this for you @ 08:58 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
Scientists: Pill helps people unlearn Scientists: Pill helps people unlearn fears The drug, sold by Eli Lilly and Co. under the brand name Seromycin, doesn't dissolve fear. But in rats, it helped them unlearn fears faster, Davis said. Since it was already approved for use in people, he and Barbara O. Rothbaum, director of the school's trauma and anxiety recovery program, tested it on 28 acrophobics, people afraid of heights. jaybird found this for you @ 22:52 in Health, Medicine & Bio-Happiness | | permalink
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