Tag Archives: Medicine

Chromosome Readings, $650 to Know When You’ll Die

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Don’t let your chronological age get you down–let your biological age determine when to have your midlife crisis!

In five to ten years medical researchers believe that a $650 test which measures the length of your telomeres will be available to the public.  What are telomeres?  They are “structures” located at the tips of your chromosomes and by measuring the length of them you can figure out how long you have left to live!

Via: The Independent

When your telomeres get contrasted to the normal length of a telomere found in the human body, scientists are able to deduce whether you are more susceptible to desises, such as heart disease and pulmonary fibrosis, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s and cancer; as well as if your just inherently going to die early.

While this crystal ball process is still in the works, it brings up ethical and personal issues.  Should man ever really know how long he has to live?  Would you change your financial and sexual habits? Would you actually stop smoking? My personal fear: what if my life insurance company gets a hold of the results…

Via: independent.co.uk

 

Health insurer taps voyeuristic vein to encourage behavior changes

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Folks visiting America’s consumerist mausoleum, the Mall of America, are getting a lesson in dieting from a guy in living in a fish bowl for four weeks:

Scott, “The Human Do.ing,” will live at Mall of America from March 18 – April 16 to model daily physical activity and healthy eating and show how community support is a key factor in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. He will encourage others to join him in getting fit and eating right, thereby involving all of Minnesota in his quest and inspiring others to start their own healthy lifestyle journeys.

via PR Newswire.

Cell phones weaken bones, study finds

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Attention, all you hip-holsterin’ cell phone users: Your must-have wireless gadget is chewing away at your bones.

Docs in Argentina have found that the electromagnetic radiation from cell phones reduce bone density in the parts of the body on which they are carried.

And given the ubiquity of the devices, that “could have a substantial effect on the osteoporosis rate in the population,” according to the authors of the report.

From a recent announcement:

Although small, the new study raises the possibility that long-term exposure to electromagnetic radiation from cell phones could adversely affect bone mineralization. Larger follow-up studies will be needed to confirm or disprove this hypothesis, according to Dr Sravi. He suggests that studies may be warranted in women, who have higher rates of osteoporosis; and children, who would have longer expected lifetime exposure to cell phones.

via Newswire.

Human embryos: Now with barcodes

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The news is the bar codes that will be added to embryos (no RFID, here) are “biologically inert”:

The bar codes, which carry unique binary identification numbers, are biologically inert: they do not affect the rate of embryo development and are shed before the embryos implant into the wall of the uterus. The technique aims to simplify individual embryo identification, streamlining in vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer procedures.

via Short Sharp Science: Fertilised eggs get microscopic bar codes.

Chemo nose drops beat blood-brain barrier

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Docs in Japan have found that “nose-brain direct transport” beats injection for delivering a brain cancer-fighting drug:

Nasal chemotherapy with MTX significantly reduced the tumor weight as compared to nontreatment control and IP group. The strategy to utilize the nose−brain direct transport can be applicable to a new therapeutic system not only for brain tumors but also for other central nervous system disorders such as neurodegenerative diseases.

via Transnasal Delivery of Methotrexate to Brain Tumors in Rats: A New Strategy for Brain Tumor Chemotherapy – Molecular Pharmaceutics (ACS Publications).

How ghost writers pushed bad drugs from Wyeth

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Telling lies for Big Pharma pays nicely, according to a new report in a peer-reviewed open access journal.

Wyeth, which makes menopausal hormone therapies, “used ghostwriters to create more than 50 journal articles with a favorable spin on the drugs,” even after the risks of the drugs was mounting, according to the Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute.
More, via the Hastings Center:

Wyeth paid DesignWrite $25,000 each for articles that reported on clinical trials and $20,000 each for 20 review articles on the unproven benefits of hormone therapy, such as that it may help protect against Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

via Bioethics Forum – Ghostwriters in the Hormone Therapy Machine.

Bright lights? Big cancer risk

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Photo: tourist_on_earth/Flickr CC

U. of Haifa scientists have found that LAN, or “light at night,” suppresses the secretion of melatonin in mice, which leads to rises in certain cancers.

This comes as more bad news to people finding themselves forced by Agenda 21-inspired urbanization schemes into dense cities that never sleep, where streetlights and other sources of artificial ambient light crash in through apartment windows.

From U. of Haifa  announcement, today:

Earlier studies in which Prof. Haim has participated at the University of Haifa, have shown that people living in areas that have more night-time illumination are more susceptible to prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women. The researchers’ hypothesis was that LAN harms production of melatonin, a hormone that is released from the pineal gland during the dark part of the 24h cycle and which is linked to the body’s cyclical night-day activity and seasonality. When this hormone is suppressed, the occurrence of cancer rises.

via Connection Between Light at Night LAN and Cancer Revealed.

More potential evidence of Tylenol's toxicity

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Photo: Eric Lewis/Flickr CC

It might be time to throw out your Tylenol. Consider: filthy manufacturing facilities, mounting evidence of disease and overdose risk from the drug, and viable alternatives for pain reduction… MB

Asthma and other diseases are far more likely to occur in kids who get even a single dose of acetaminophen per month, a study finds:

There was a significant association between acetaminophen use and risk of asthma and eczema. For medium users the risk of asthma 43 percent higher than non-users; high users had 2.51 times the risk of non-users. Similarly, the risk of rhinoconjunctivitis allergic nasal congestion was 38 percent higher for medium users and 2.39 times as great for high users compared to non-users. For eczema, the relative risks were 31 percent and 99 percent respectively.

It’s not a causal link, the authors note. But it is a strong association.

via Acetaminophen Use in Adolescents Linked to Doubled Risk of Asthma.

Resveratrol's magic may be in reducing inflammation

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Photo: Joseph Leonardo/Flickr CC

TNF, the protein linked to all sorts of age-related physical ailments, is suppressed by resveratrol –found in red wine and other foods — a study finds:

The study, published online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, finds blood samples from those who took resveratrol showed suppression of the inflammatory protein tumor necrosis factor, which causes insulin resistance and the risk of developing diabetes. Blood samples from those who received the placebo showed no change in the pro-inflammatory markers.

via Resveratrol may suppress inflammation – UPI.com.

Potent evidence for THC as a cancer-killer

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Another week brings fresh evidence that for some THC will prove to be “God’s own medicine”:

Our results show that both Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the most abundant and potent cannabinoid in marijuana, and JWH-133, a non-psychotropic CB2 receptor-selective agonist, reduce tumor growth, tumor number, and the amount/severity of lung metastases in MMTV-neu mice. Histological analyses of the tumors revealed that cannabinoids inhibit cancer cell proliferation, induce cancer cell apoptosis, and impair tumor angiogenesis. Cannabinoid antitumoral action relies, at least partially, on the inhibition of the pro-tumorigenic Akt pathway. We also found that 91% of ErbB2-positive tumors express the non-psychotropic cannabinoid receptor CB2.

via Abstract | Cannabinoids reduce ErbB2-driven breast cancer progression through Akt inhibition.