Tag Archives: Health

Viagra users score a double win

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Happy, and can't hear a thing. Photo: Richard Masoner/Flickr CC

Drugs that improve sexual function also make it harder to hear your partner, a study finds:

Findings published May 18 in Archives of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery indicate a potential for long-term hearing loss following use of Viagra, and possibly following use of other phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors (PDE-5i) drugs such as Cialis and Levitra, although results on those drugs are inconclusive.

Stay tuned for more bad news about boomer drugs, which I suspect are trashing our bodies more than the pharmaceutical industry is letting on.

via Study Examines Hearing Loss, Viagra Use.

Foto: Richard Masoner.

Bonus: Dig the UAB researcher’s magnificent beard (below):

UAB Study Examines Hearing Loss, Viagra Use from uabnews on Vimeo.

Synthetic life starts with this cell

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Craig Venter & Co. announced this breakthrough today:

Daniel Gibson and colleagues have put both methods together, to create what they call a “synthetic cell,” although only its genome is synthetic. In this case, the synthetic genome was a copy of an existing genome, though with added DNA sequences that “watermark” the genome to distinguish it from a natural one. In the future, the scientists would like to design more novel genomes that would make bacteria capable of performing specific tasks that could help solve energy, environmental or other problems.

via Science AAAS.

Mobile phones: Safe, or deadly? Depends on who's reporting

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Is it safe? Photo: Susie Parker/Flickr CC

The Daily Mail finds a 30-percent increased risk of cancer in mobile phone users:

“…people who use mobile phones for at least 30 minutes a day for 10 years have a greater risk – perhaps as much as a third higher – of developing brain cancer.”

The Beeb finds none:

“There is no known biological mechanism by which mobiles could cause cancer, but there has been public concern. It is hoped this study will allay some anxieties, as research continues.”

Alas, the data suggest an association (link opens PDF) between prolonged cell phone use and one type of brain cancer.

But that’s hardly sexy, and hard to fit in a headline.

via Ten-year worldwide study links mobile phone use to cancer | Mail Online.

via BBC.

City living really is killing you

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Photo: Eneas de Troya/Flickr CC

Air pollution is driving-up the blood pressure of the average urban dweller, German scientists report:

“‘Both, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, are higher in people who live in more polluted areas, even if we take important factors that also influence blood pressure like age, gender, smoking, weight, etc. into account. Blood pressure increases were stronger in women than in men.’”

via Higher Blood Pressure Found in People Living in Urban Areas.

Gulf oil spill a sucker punch to lazy science reporters

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The takeaway: Too many science journalists lack skepticism, and balls. — MB

Science reporters and bloggers are guilty of overstating the ability of microbes, nanobots and other technologies to prevent and to lap-up oil spills.

As a result, TV and Web viewers are being lulled into thinking there’s a fix for everything, including BP’s latest pooch-screw.

Here is the underlying problem: Rather than treating scientists and technologists as potential liars — as we are trained to do with pols, for example — we science journos typically treat our subjects with reverence.

To the science writer, I say, the next time any company puts a hard hat on you, and gives you the nickel tour of its facilities, wipe that look of astonishment off your face, and remember to ask, “Will this work?” “Is it safe?” “Where’s the documentation?” and “What if…?”

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There’s a stunning slide show, meanwhile, over at Boston.com. Here’s a snip from the text accompanying the images, via PuppetGov:

“While tracking the volume of the continued flow of oil is difficult, an estimated 5,000 barrels of oil possibly much more continues to pour into the gulf every day. While visible damage to shorelines has been minimal to date as the oil has spread slowly, the scene remains, in the words of President Obama, a ‘potentially unprecedented environmental disaster.’”

via The Big Picture: Disaster unfolds slowly in the Gulf of Mexico | PuppetGov.

Pot helps schizophrenics feel better, study finds

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Nurses have found that their patients use pot to combat symptoms. Photo: Doktor Design Love/Flickr CC

While at least two studies have found an association between cannabis use and schizophrenia, none have established that pot causes the symptoms associated with the disease.

Now, in the first study that bothers to ask schizophrenics why they take the drug, patients report using pot to ease some of their tormenting symptoms:

“The findings indicate that cannabis is used as a means of satisfying the schizophrenia-related need for relaxation, sense of self-worth, and distraction. The findings may be useful for nurses working with persons who have schizophrenia, a population that is frequently stigmatized and unheard.”

via Attraction to cannabis among men with schizophreni… [Can J Nurs Res. 2010] – PubMed result.

Tylenol's trust issue: kids' meds made in grimy US plant

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Photo: Woodley Wonderworks/Flickr CC

Now, it’s American manufacturers who appear to be making poor quality meds, in filthy, grimy plants, and shipping them to the rest of the world. — MB

I’ve been railing against Tylenol for a long time, now.

I do not trust this drug.

Each year, tens of thousands of overdoses of acetaminophen, Tylenol’s active ingredient, fill US emergency rooms and hospital beds, and jam the phone lines at poison control centers. And it is the cause of hundreds of cases of acute liver failure in the US each year.

Now, Johnson & Johnson, which makes Tylenol, finds itself plagued by a quality control problem:

“Raw materials used to make over-the-counter infant’s and children’s medications, which are subject to a massive recall, tested positive for bacterial contamination, according to a Food and Drug Administration inspection report released late Tuesday.”

via FDA finds bacterial contamination in children’s medicine ingredients – latimes.com.

Caloric restriction boosts immune response

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Photo: D. Sharon/Flickr CC

Here’s to hoping that resveratrol, which mimics the life-extending benefits of severe caloric restriction, might do the same. — MB

Tufts scientists recently deprived a group of chubby men, for six months, of about one-third of their daily caloric intake.

The result: The subjects’ white blood cells, central to the body’s immune response systems, performed better:

“Scientists funded by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) found that volunteers who followed a low-calorie diet or a very low-calorie diet not only lost weight, but also significantly enhanced their immune response. The study may be the first to demonstrate the interaction between calorie restriction and immune markers among humans.”

The study might also help scientists determine whether resveratrol, which is found in red wine and other foods, mimics the immune regulating effects of caloric restriction — an impractical lifestyle change for millions of Americans.

via Less is More When Restraining Calories Boosts Immunity.