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What You Eat Can Prevent Arsenic Overload
ScienceDaily (June 29, 2012) — Millions of people worldwide are exposed to arsenic from contaminated water, and we are all exposed to arsenic via the food we eat. New research published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Nutrition Journal has demonstrated that people who ate more dietary vitamin B12 and animal protein had lower levels of arsenic (measured by deposition in toenails). Total dietary fat, animal fat, vegetable fat and saturated fat were also all associated with lower levels of arsenic, while omega 3 fatty acids, such as those found in fish oil, were associated with increased arsenic.—Long term exposure to high levels of arsenic is known to cause skin lesions, cancer and cardiovascular disease, and also affects fetal development. Even low concentrations of arsenic are potentially dangerous. Arsenic is found in some water supplies, but more people are exposed via their diet. Staples such as rice contain arsenic, especially the toxic inorganic forms, while fish, although high in total arsenic, contains organic forms which are thought to be less toxic.[U1]—Inside the body arsenic is methylated to aid excretion in urine but arsenic also has an affinity for keratin and can be deposited in hair and nails as they grow. Consequently levels of arsenic preserved in nails or hair can be used as a biomarker for arsenic exposure over periods of months to years.—Researchers from Dartmouth College and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth looked at the levels of arsenic in toenails of residents of New Hampshire who all use private groundwater wells as their household water source.—Results of the study showed that arsenic in nails was positively associated with both alcohol and omega 3 fatty acids, however, lower levels of arsenic were found for people who ate greater amounts of vegetable and animal fat. Prof Kathy Cottingham, who directed the study, explained, “While there may be a direct interaction between fats and arsenic preventing absorption or binding to keratin in nails, the results may simply reflect dietary preference, with people who eat a diet rich in fats not eating foods high in arsenic, such as rice.”—Joann Gruber, who led the study, noted that, “Humans can be very efficient at removing arsenic from the body. Improved methylation reduces the amount of inorganic arsenic circulating in the body. Surprisingly, we didn’t see a reduction in toenail arsenic with other dietary factors known to be necessary for arsenic methylation such as folic acid. This may be because the population we sampled had adequate amounts of these factors in their diet.”—The authors are currently working on similar studies in children, through the Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Center at Dartmouth.–Story Source-The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BioMed Central. —Journal Reference-Joann F Gruber, Margaret R Karagas, Diane Gilbert-Diamond, Pamela J Bagley, M Scot Zens, Vicki Sayarath, Tracy Punshon, J Steven Morris and Kathryn L Cottingham. Associations between toenail arsenic concentration and dietary factors in a New Hampshire population. Nutrition Journal, 2012; (in press) [link]—
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Caffeine Boosts Power for Elderly Muscles
Caffeine helps muscles to produce more force, new study shows.—ScienceDaily (June 29, 2012) — A new study to be presented at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting on 30th June has shown that caffeine boosts power in older muscles, suggesting the stimulant could aid elderly people to maintain their strength, reducing the incidence of falls and injuries.—For adults in their prime, caffeine helps muscles to produce more force. But as we age, our muscles naturally change and become weaker.–Sports scientists at Coventry University looked for the first time at whether these age-related changes in muscle would alter the effect of caffeine. They found that caffeine continued to enhance muscle performance in two different muscles from mice, although it was less effective in older muscles.—Jason Tallis, the study’s primary author, said: “Despite a reduced effect in the elderly, caffeine may still provide performance-enhancing benefits.”-For adults in their prime, caffeine helps muscles to produce more force. But as we age, our muscles naturally change and become weaker. So, sports scientists at Coventry University looked for the first time at whether these age-related changes in muscle would alter the effect of caffeine.–Caffeine’s effect was smallest for juvenile muscles, suggesting caffeine may not have an enhancing effect in developing muscles.–The decline in muscle strength that occurs as we age contributes to injuries and reduces quality of life. The process is not well understood, but it is clear that preserving muscle tone is key.—Tallis said: “With the importance of maintaining a physically active lifestyle to preserve health and functional capacity, the performance-enhancing benefit of caffeine could prove beneficial in the aging population.”—The researchers isolated muscles from mice ranging in age from juvenile to elderly, then tested their performance before and after caffeine treatment. They looked at two different skeletal muscles, which are the muscles we can control voluntarily. The first was the diaphragm, a core muscle used for respiration; the second was a leg muscle called the extensor digitorum longus (EDL), used for locomotion.—Story Source-The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Society for Experimental Biology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Light Weights Are Just as Good for Building Muscle, Getting Stronger, Researchers Find
Lifting less weight more times is just as effective at building muscle as training with heavy weights, a finding by McMaster researchers that turns conventional wisdom on its head. —ScienceDaily (Apr. 30, 2012) — Lifting less weight more times is just as effective at building muscle as training with heavy weights, a finding by McMaster researchers that turns conventional wisdom on its head.—The key to muscle gain, say the researchers, is working to the point of fatigue.—“We found that loads that were quite heavy and comparatively light were equally effective at inducing muscle growth and promoting strength,” says Cam Mitchell, one of the lead authors of the study and a PhD candidate in the Department of Kinesiology.—The research, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, challenges the widely accepted dogma that training with heavy weights — which can be lifted only six to 12 times before fatigue — is the best avenue to muscle growth.–“Many older adults can have joint problems which would prevent them training with heavy loads,” says Mitchell. “This study shows that they have the option of training with lighter and less intimidating loads and can still receive the benefits.”—For the study, a series of experiments were conducted on healthy, young male volunteers to measure how their leg muscles reacted to different forms of resistance training over a period of 10 weeks.–The researchers first determined the maximum weight each subject could lift one time in a knee extension. Each subject was assigned to a different training program for each leg.–In all, three different programs were used in combinations that required the volunteers to complete sets of as many repetitions as possible with their assigned loads — typically eight to 12 times per set at the heaviest weights and 25-30 times at the lowest weights.—The three programs used in the combinations were:
one set at 80% of the maximum load
three sets at 80% of the maximum
three sets at 30% of the maximum
After 10 weeks of training, three times per week, the heavy and light groups that lifted three sets saw significant gains in muscle volume — as measured by MRI — with no difference among the groups. Still, the group that used heavier weights for three sets developed a bit more strength.—The group that trained for a single set showed approximately half the increase in muscle size seen in both the heavy and light groups.—“The complexity of current resistance training guidelines may deter some people from resistance training and therefore from receiving the associated health benefits,” says Stuart Phillips, a professor in the Department of Kinesiology and supervisor of the study. “Our study provides evidence for a simpler paradigm, where a much broader range of loads including quite light loads can induce muscle growth, provided it is lifted to the point where it is difficult to maintain good form.”–Story Source–The above story is reprinted from materials provided by McMaster University, via Newswise. –Journal Reference—C. J. Mitchell, T. A. Churchward-Venne, D. D. W. West, N. A. Burd, L. Breen, S. K. Baker, S. M. Phillips. Resistance exercise load does not determine training-mediated hypertrophic gains in young men. Journal of Applied Physiology, 2012; DOI: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00307.2012
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Building Muscle Without Heavy Weights
ScienceDaily (Apr. 26, 2012) — Weight training at a lower intensity but with more repetitions may be as effective for building muscle as lifting heavy weights says a new opinion piece in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism.–“The perspective provided in this review highlights that other resistance protocols, beyond the often discussed high-intensity training, can be effective in stimulating a muscle building response that may translate into bigger muscles after resistance training,” says lead author Nicholas Burd. “These findings have important implications from a public health standpoint because skeletal muscle mass is a large contributor to daily energy expenditure and it assists in weight management. Additionally, skeletal muscle mass, because of its overall size, is the primary site of blood sugar disposal and thus will likely play a role in reducing the risk for development of type II diabetes.”—The authors from McMaster University conducted a series of experiments that manipulated various resistance exercise variables (e.g., intensity, volume, and muscle time under tension). They found that high-intensity muscle contractions derived from lifting heavy loads were not the only drivers of exercise-induced muscle development. In resistance-trained young men a lower workout intensity and a higher volume of repetitions of resistance exercise, performed until failure, was equally effective in stimulating muscle proteins as a heavy workout intensity at lower repetition rates. An additional benefit of the low-intensity workout is that the higher repetitions required to achieve fatigue will also be beneficial for sustaining the muscle building response for days.—Story Source—The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Canadian Science Publishing (NRC Research Press), via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Tannic acid inhibited norovirus binding to HBGA receptors, a study of 50 Chinese medicinal herbs.
Bioorg Med Chem. 2012 Feb 15;20(4):1616-23
Authors: Zhang XF, Dai YC, Zhong W, Tan M, Lv ZP, Zhou YC, Jiang X
Abstract
Noroviruses (NoVs) are the leading cause of viral acute gastroenteritis affecting people of all ages worldwide. The disease is difficult to control due to its widespread nature and lack of an antiviral or vaccine. NoV infection relies on the interaction of the viruses with histo-blood group antigens (HBGAs) as host receptors. Here we investigated inhibition effects of Chinese medicinal herbs against NoVs binding to HBGAs for potential antivirals against NoVs. Blocking assays was performed using the NoV protrusion (P) protein as NoV surrogate and saliva as HBGAs. Among 50 clinically effective Chinese medicinal herbs against gastroenteritis diseases, two herbs were found highly effective. Chinese Gall blocked NoV P dimer binding to type A saliva at IC(50)=5.35 μg/ml and to B saliva at IC(50)=21.7 μg/ml. Similarly, Pomegranate blocked binding of NoV P dimer to type A saliva at IC(50)=15.59 μg/ml and B saliva at IC(50)=66.67 μg/ml. Literature data on preliminary biochemistry analysis showed that tannic acid is a common composition in the extracts of the two herbs, so we speculate that it might be the effective compound and further studies using commercially available, highly purified tannic acid confirmed the tannic acid as a strong inhibitor in the binding of NoV P protein to both A and B saliva (IC(50)≈0.1 μM). In addition, we tested different forms of hydrolysable tannins with different alkyl esters, including gallic acid, ethyl gallate, lauryl gallate, octyl gallate and propyl gallate. However, none of these tannins-derivatives revealed detectable inhibiting activities. Our data suggested that tannic acid is a promising candidate antiviral against NoVs.—PMID: 22285570 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]
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Tea, nettle, wood, berries, Chinese galls. Oak wood is very rich in tannic acid. When wine is kept in oak kegs some tannic acid will migrate into the wine. High levels of tannic acid are found in some plant galls. These are formed by plants when they are infected by certain insects. These insects pierce the plant leaves and when the egg hatches out into a larva the plant produces a gall which surrounds the larva.—- Tannic acid has anti-bacterial, anti-enzymatic and astringent properties. Tannic acid has constringing action upon mucous tissues such as tongue and inside of mouth. The ingestion of tannic acid caused constipation and can be used to treat diarrhoea (in the absence of fever or inflammation). The anti-oxidant and anti-mutagenic properties of tannic acid are beneficial.— Externally, tannic acid is used to treat ulcers, toothache and wounds
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[U1]This is another one of those oxymorons—this form of this is dangerious and this form of this is OK —–this is all nonsensical—this is marketing to get people to eat left over and to induce stupidity to convince you that eating shit is ok
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Show of the Month July 6 2012
Newer vitamin D tests often inaccurate, study shows-Faster,
less expensive tests may overestimate vitamin D deficiency
Low Testosterone Appears To Increase Long-Term Risk Of Death
Sleep Loss Dramatically Lowers Testosterone in Healthy Young Men
Declining Testosterone Levels in Men Not Part of Normal Aging
World’s First GM Babies BornWorld’s First GM Babies Born
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Newer vitamin D tests often inaccurate, study shows-Faster, less expensive tests may overestimate vitamin D deficiency
June 25, 2012 —
Two new lab tests to measure blood levels of vitamin D are inaccurate more than 40% of the time, according to a new study.-Researchers say newer tests tend to overestimate the number of people who are deficient in vitamin D, a problem that could cause patients to be anxious about their health and may lead to over-treatment.[U1]-The study, which was presented at ENDO 2012, the annual meeting of the endocrine society in Houston, is adding to concerns felt in many laboratories and hospitals around the country that the results of vitamin D tests, which have become some of the most frequently ordered blood tests in medicine, are widely unreliable.-What’s more, experts say, vitamin D testing is often ordered under circumstances where there’s little solid scientific evidence to support its use.–“It’s a huge problem,” says researcher Earle W. Holmes, PhD, a pathologist at Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine, in Chicago.–Experts who were not involved in the research agree.–“The biggest problem is that they’re not even consistent,” says Ravinder J. Singh, PhD, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Endocrinology Laboratory in Rochester, Minn. “At least if they were consistent, you could say, values are half or double, compared to other tests. You can never have confidence” in the results, he tells WebMD.–The new tests, made by Abbott and Siemens, were approved by the FDA last fall.—They’re part of a wave of faster, less expensive tests designed to help laboratories keep up with a boom in demand for vitamin D testing.–Abbott took issue with the study results, pointing to a company-funded study that showed their vitamin D test delivered results that are accurate and comparable to a widely used reference method.—Siemens also defended their test, saying they are reviewing the validity of the study.
Questions Persist About Vitamin D Testing
It’s not the first time questions have been raised about the accuracy of vitamin D tests, however.–In 2009, Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest medical laboratories in the –At the time, industry analysts called it the largest patient recall of a laboratory test in recent memory. The company offered free retesting.–Vitamin D, the “sunshine vitamin,” plays a well-known and important role in bone health. But in recent years, a raft of research has suggested that low vitamin D may be a factor in a host of other health conditions, including depression, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and autoimmune diseases.–As a result, doctors have increasingly ordered the test to check vitamin D levels in their patients. The number of vitamin D tests has increased six- to 10-fold over the last decade at some hospitals and laboratories. Industry analysts say the vitamin D tests are now one of the most frequently ordered lab tests in medicine.–“The rate of testing has gone up over the last five to 10 years in an almost exponential fashion,” says Naveed Sattar, MD, PhD, a professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, in Scotland. Sattar wrote a recent editorial on vitamin D testing for The Lancet, but he was not involved in the research. Sattar says vitamin D testing has raced ahead of the science, leaving doctors in the dark about how to handle abnormal results. —“Many results are coming back in patients who appear otherwise healthy, but they appear to have low levels. And the physicians don’t know what to do, whether they should supplement or not,” Sattar says.—Sattar says there’s little evidence to suggest that supplementing vitamin D is useful, except perhaps as a treatment for bone loss. The recommended dietary allowances for vitamin D in adults up to 70 years old is 600 International Units (IU) and 800 IU for adults over 70.—While the NIH states a tolerable upper intake level of 4,000 IU, Sattar says that back in the 1950s, when vitamin D was first added to foods, the fortification process wasn’t closely monitored and some infants developed dangerously high blood levels of calcium as a result.–Beyond physical harm, however, Sattar says telling someone they are deficient in vitamin D could cause needless anxiety.—“If it were me, I’d be scratching my head. Am I doing something wrong? Should I go spend more time in the sun? Should I be eating certain foods? So that’s a hazard by itself,” he says.–Someone who looks deficient in D might be prescribed supplements and further testing, increasing costs.”I think this does need to be looked at carefully,” Sattar says.
Study Details—Holmes and his team wanted to see how well the new tests performed compared to an older, more expensive, and more time-consuming reference method. They were hoping the hospital could switch to one of the newer tests to save money and time.–They ran blood samples from 163 patients on all three tests. The Abbott Architect test was outside an acceptable margin of error — meaning that the results were either 25% too high or too low, about 40% of the time. The Siemens Centaur2 test was either too high or too low in 48% of samples. In many cases, the newer tests showed that patients were deficient in vitamin D when the reference test indicated they were not.—The new tests use blood proteins called antibodies that bind to vitamin D. They’re faster because they look for vitamin D in samples of whole blood.–In the older, reference method, vitamin D is separated from the blood and measured. The older test can also measure two different forms of vitamin D: Vitamin D2, which is the form of the vitamin found in fortified foods and in the kind of high-potency supplements that doctors prescribe to treat patients; and Vitamin D3, the form of the vitamin that the body makes naturally after skin is exposed to sunlight. The newer test can’t distinguish between the two different types of D.—Holmes says vitamin D2 seems to confuse the tests.–He says the tests’ inability to accurately measure that form of the vitamin means that doctors can’t tell if their patients are getting any benefit from it or if they’re taking their supplements as directed.–“You can’t tell if you’re making a difference for the patients,” Holmes says.–In absolute numbers, the reference test showed 33 patients out of 163 were deficient in vitamin D, while the Abbott test showed 45 people were vitamin D deficient, and the Siemens test pointed to deficiency in 71 patients.–Current guidelines by the Institute of Medicine state a vitamin D level of at least 20 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) in the blood as adequate for bone health and overall health. However, other experts, including Holmes, feel that a normal level is 30 ng/ml or higher.—Manufacturers Respond–In a statement issued in response to the study, Abbott, the company that makes the Architect test, says the results of the current study depend on the use of a reference test that is “a very hands-on, labor intensive, manual procedure for which there currently is no standard protocol or calibration method. As a result, this leads to variability of results from lab to lab.”–“In current studies … as well as in recent proficiency surveys, the ARCHITECT Vitamin D test showed excellent precision and reproducibility of results from lab to lab,” the statement reads.—Siemens is checking the study’s accuracy: “Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics is committed to delivering high-quality solutions and services to our customers that enable health care professionals to accurately diagnose, treat, and monitor patients. We are closely reviewing the validity of the claims made in this report along with the design of the methods and analysis used to develop them.”—The wholesale price of the newer tests is estimated to cost around $20 to $25, although patients and insurance companies may be charged more. That’s about half the cost of the older reference test, experts said, which wholesaled for about $50 a test.–This study was presented at a medical conference. The findings should be considered preliminary, as they have not yet undergone the “peer review” process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal.–SOURCES: Annual meeting of The Endocrine Society, Houston, June 23-26, 2012.Sattar, N. The Lancet, January 2012.National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements: “Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Vitamin D.”Earle W. Holmes, PhD, professor of pathology and molecular pharmacology, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University, Chicago.Ravinder J. Singh, PhD, director, Endocrinology Laboratory, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.Naveed Sattar, MD, PhD, professor of metabolic medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.
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Low Testosterone Appears To Increase Long-Term Risk Of Death
ScienceDaily (June 17, 2008) — Men may not live as long if they have low testosterone, regardless of their age, according to a new study.–The new study, from Germany, adds to the scientific evidence linking deficiency of this sex hormone with increased death from all causes over time–so-called “all-cause mortality.”—The results should serve as a warning for men with low testosterone to have a healthier lifestyle, including weight control, regular exercise and a healthy diet, said lead author Robin Haring, a PhD student from Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald, Institute for Community Medicine.—“It is very possible that lifestyle determines levels of testosterone,” he said. —In the study, Haring and co-workers looked at death from any cause in nearly 2,000 men aged 20 to 79 years who were living in northeast Germany and who participated in the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP). Follow-up averaged 7 years. At the beginning of the study, 5 percent of these men had low blood testosterone levels, defined as the lower end of the normal range for young adult men. The men with low testosterone were older, more obese, and had a greater prevalence of diabetes and high blood pressure, compared with men who had higher testosterone levels, Haring said.—Men with low testosterone levels had more than 2.5 times greater risk of dying during the next 10 years compared to men with higher testosterone, the study found. This difference was not explained by age, smoking, alcohol intake, level of physical activity, or increased waist circumference (a risk factor for diabetes and heart disease), Haring said.—-In cause-specific death analyses, low testosterone predicted increased risk of death due to cardiovascular disease and cancer but not death of any other single cause.—-DPC Biermann, Bad Nauheim, Germany, provided the testosterone reagent, and Novo Nordisc provided partial funding for this analysis.—Detailed results will be presented at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.—Story Source–The above story is reprinted from materials provided by The Endocrine Society, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Sleep Loss Dramatically Lowers Testosterone in Healthy Young Men
ScienceDaily (May 31, 2011) — Cutting back on sleep drastically reduces a healthy young man’s testosterone levels, according to a study published in the June 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).-Eve Van Cauter, PhD, professor in medicine and director of the study, found that men who slept less than five hours a night for one week in a laboratory had significantly lower levels of testosterone than when they had a full night’s sleep. Low testosterone has a host of negative consequences for young men, and not just in sexual behavior and reproduction. It is critical in building strength and muscle mass, and bone density.-“Low testosterone levels are associated with reduced well being and vigor, which may also occur as a consequence of sleep loss” said Van Cauter.—-At least 15% of the adult working population in the US gets less than 5 hours of sleep a night, and suffers many adverse health effects because of it. This study found that skipping sleep reduces a young man’s testosterone levels by the same amount as aging 10 to 15 years. “As research progresses, low sleep duration and poor sleep quality are increasingly recognized as endocrine disruptors,” Van Cauter said. The ten young men in the study were recruited from around the University of Chicago campus. They passed a rigorous battery of tests to screen for endocrine or psychiatric disorders and sleep problems. They were an average of 24 years old, lean and in good health. For the study, they spent three nights in the laboratory sleeping for up to ten hours, and then eight nights sleeping less than five hours. Their blood was sampled every 15 to 30 minutes for 24 hours during the last day of the ten-hour sleep phase and the last day of the five-hour sleep phase. The effects of sleep loss on testosterone levels were apparent after just one week of short sleep. Five hours of sleep decreased their testosterone levels by 10% to 15%. The young men had the lowest testosterone levels in the afternoons on their sleep restricted days, between 2 pm and 10 pm. The young men also self-reported their mood and vigor levels throughout the study. They reported a decline in their sense of well-being as their blood testosterone levels declined. Their mood and vigor fell more every day as the sleep restriction part of the study progressed. Testosterone levels in men decline by 1% to 2% a year as they age. Testosterone deficiency is associated with low energy, reduced libido, poor concentration, and fatigue. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute funded this study. Additional funding came from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and the National Institutes of Health. Rachel Leproult, PhD, organized and supervised the experiment which took place in the University of Chicago Clinical Research Center.—Story Source-The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Chicago Medical Center, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. –Journal Reference–R. Leproult, E. Van Cauter. Effect of 1 Week of Sleep Restriction on Testosterone Levels in Young Healthy Men. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2011; 305 (21): 2173 DOI: 10.1001/jama.2011.710
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Declining Testosterone Levels in Men Not Part of Normal Aging
ScienceDaily (June 23, 2012) — A new study finds that a drop in testosterone levels over time is more likely to result from a man’s behavioral and health changes than by aging. The study results will be presented June 25 at The Endocrine Society’s 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.—“Declining testosterone levels are not an inevitable part of the aging process, as many people think,” said study co-author Gary Wittert, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Adelaide in Adelaide, Australia. “Testosterone changes are largely explained by smoking behavior and changes in health status, particularly obesity and depression.”–Many older men have low levels of the sex hormone testosterone, but the cause is not known. Few population-based studies have tracked changes in testosterone levels among the same men over time, as their study did, Wittert said.
In this study, supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, the authors analyzed testosterone measurements in more than 1,500 men who had measurements taken at two clinic visits five years apart. All blood testosterone samples underwent testing at the same time for each time point, according to Wittert.—After the researchers excluded from the analysis any men who had abnormal lab values or who were taking medications or had medical conditions known to affect hormones, they included 1,382 men in the data analysis. Men ranged in age from 35 to 80 years, with an average age of 54.—On average, testosterone levels did not decline significantly over five years; rather, they decreased less than 1 percent each year, the authors reported. However, when the investigators analyzed the data by subgroups, they found that certain factors were linked to lower testosterone levels at five years than at the beginning of the study.—“Men who had declines in testosterone were more likely to be those who became obese, had stopped smoking or were depressed at either clinic visit,” Wittert said. “While stopping smoking may be a cause of a slight decrease in testosterone, the benefit of quitting smoking is huge.”—Past research has linked depression and low testosterone. This hormone is important for many bodily functions, including maintaining a healthy body composition, fertility and sex drive. “It is critical that doctors understand that declining testosterone levels are not a natural part of aging and that they are most likely due to health-related behaviors or health status itself,” he said.—Unmarried men in the study had greater testosterone reductions than did married men. Wittert attributed this finding to past research showing that married men tend to be healthier and happier than unmarried men. “Also, regular sexual activity tends to increase testosterone,” he explained.—The study findings were presented by Andre Araujo, PhD, who was a visiting professor at the University of Adelaide and is vice president of epidemiology at New England Research Institutes, Watertown, Mass.–Story Source-The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Endocrine Society, via Newswise.
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World’s First GM Babies Born
http://canadianawareness.org/2012/06/worlds-first-gm-babies-born/
dailymail.co.uk
The world’s first geneticallymodified humans have been created, it was revealed last night.—The disclosure that 30 healthy babies were born after a series of experiments in the United States provoked another furious debate about ethics.—So far, two of the babies have been tested and have been found to contain genes from three ‘parents’.—Fifteen of the children were born in the past three years as a result of one experimental programme at the Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science of St Barnabas in New Jersey.–The babies were born to women who had problems conceiving. Extra genes from a female donor were inserted into their eggs before they were fertilised in an attempt to enable them to conceive.–Genetic fingerprint tests on two one-year- old children confirm that they have inherited DNA from three adults –two women and one man.—The fact that the children have inherited the extra genes and incorporated them into their ‘germline’ means that they will, in turn, be able to pass them on to their own offspring.–Altering the human germline – in effect tinkering with the very make-up of our species – is a technique shunned by the vast majority of the world’s scientists.—Geneticists fear that one day this method could be used to create new races of humans with extra, desired characteristics such as strength or high intelligence.[U2] Writing in the journal Human Reproduction, the researchers, led by fertility pioneer Professor Jacques Cohen, say that this ‘is the first case of human germline genetic modification resulting in normal healthy children’.–Some experts severely criticised the experiments. Lord Winston, of the Hammersmith Hospital in West London, told the BBC yesterday: ‘Regarding the treat-ment of the infertile, there is no evidence that this technique is worth doing . . . I am very surprised that it was even carried out at this stage. It would certainly not be allowed in Britain.’—John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said: ‘One has tremendous sympathy for couples who suffer infertility problems. But this seems to be a further illustration of the fact that the whole process of in vitro fertilisation as a means of conceiving babies leads to babies being regarded as objects on a production line.–‘It is a further and very worrying step down the wrong road for humanity.’ Professor Cohen and his colleagues diagnosed that the women were infertile because they had defects in tiny structures in their egg cells, called mitochondria.–They took eggs from donors and, using a fine needle, sucked some of the internal material – containing ‘healthy’ mitochondria – and injected it into eggs from the women wanting to conceive.-Because mitochondria contain genes, the babies resulting from the treatment have inherited DNA from both women. These genes can now be passed down the germline along the maternal line.–A spokesman for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates ‘assisted reproduction’ technology in Britain, said that it would not license the technique here because it involved altering the germline.
Jacques Cohen is regarded as a brilliant but controversial scientist who has pushed the boundaries of assisted reproduction technologies. He developed a technique which allows infertile men to have their own children, by injecting sperm DNA straight into the egg in the lab. Prior to this, only infertile women were able to conceive using IVF. Last year, Professor Cohen said that his expertise would allow him to clone children –a prospect treated with horror by the mainstream scientific community. ‘It would be an afternoon’s work for one of my students,’ he said, adding that he had been approached by ‘at least three’ individuals wishing to create a cloned child, but had turned down their request
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[U1]Over-treatment??? Hahah more like Kidney stones-heart stones-lung stones—and the stones in the heart and lung could be a permenant reminder of listening to stupid ideas coming from people who do not know anything
[U2]I love this “ one day this method could be used to create a NEW RACE —it’s called transhuman or Super soldier —but we are being political here and this “ One day “ is about 20 years in the past —in other words there Among us
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Show of the Month July 9 2012
Final frontier of climate policy – remake humans
Reverse Engineering Epilepsy’s ‘Miracle’ Diet
Glucose Deprivation Activates Feedback Loop That Kills Cancer Cells
Drinking Coffee with Caffeine may Reduce the risk of Basal Cell Carcinoma
Moderate Coffee Consumption Offers Protection Against Heart Failure
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Final frontier of climate policy – remake humans
IF IT is so hard to change the climate to suit humans, why not alter humans to suit the changing climate, philosophers from Oxford and New York universities are asking.—They suggest humans could be modified to be smaller, dislike eating meat, have fewer children and be more willing to co-operate with social goals.[U1]–Behavioural changes might not be enough to prevent climate change even if they were widely adopted, and international agreements for measures such as emissions trading are proving elusive, say Matthew Liao of New York University and Anders Sandberg and Rebecca Roache of Oxford University.—So human engineering deserves serious consideration in the debate about how to solve climate change, they write in a coming paper for the academic journal Ethics, Policy & Environment.–A person’s ecological footprint is directly correlated to size, because larger people eat more than lighter people, their cars need more fuel to carry them and they wear out shoes, carpets and furniture sooner than lighter people, the authors write. They suggest hormone treatments could be used to suppress child growth, or embryos could be selected for smaller size.–Reducing consumption of red meat could have significant environmental benefits, the paper says, citing estimates that as much as 51 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock farming. They say people who lack the motivation or willpower to give up eating meat could be helped by ”meat patches” on their skin to deliver hormones to stimulate their immune system against common bovine proteins.–”Eating ‘eco-unfriendly’ food would induce unpleasant experiences,” the authors say.[U2]–Better educated women have fewer children, so human engineering to improve cognition could reduce fertility as ”a positive side effect from the point of view of tackling climate change”, the paper argues.–Pharmacological treatments such as the ”love drug” oxytocin could encourage people to act as a group and boost their appreciation of other life forms and nature, [U3]the authors say.–The paper has sparked a storm in the blogosphere. The environmentalist Bill McKibben tweeted that the authors had proposed ”the worst climate-change solutions of all time”. They have also been denounced as Nazis and ecofascists.–The authors are bemused but unrepentant. If people were willing to consider ”really dangerous” geoengineering solutions such as using space mirrors to alter the Earth’s solar reflectivity, human engineering should also be on the table, Dr Liao said.—”At least the human engineering solutions we have described rely on tried and tested technology, whose risks, at least at the individual level, are comparatively low and well known.”[U4]—The authors emphasise they are not advocating human engineering be adopted, only that it be considered. They also envisage it as a voluntary activity possibly supported by incentives such as tax breaks or sponsored healthcare, not something coerced or mandatory.—[U5]Dr Sandberg, of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University, said the paper had inadvertently ”managed to press two hot buttons” – climate change and ”messing with human nature”. He predicted the paper would mutate into a story that scientists were working on re-engineering people to be green and it would be adopted as ”yet another piece of evidence of the Big Conspiracy”.—This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/world/science/final-frontier-of-climate-policy–remake-humans-20120405-1wfo6.html
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Reverse Engineering Epilepsy’s ‘Miracle’ Diet
ScienceDaily (May 23, 2012) — For decades, neurologists have known that a diet high in fat and extremely low in carbohydrates can reduce epileptic seizures that resist drug therapy. But until now, how the diet worked, and why, was a mystery.—Now, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School have proposed an answer, linking resistance to seizures to a protein that modifies cellular metabolism in the brain. The research, to be published in the May 24th issue of the journal Neuron, may lead to the development of new treatments for epilepsy.–The research was led jointly by Nika Danial, HMS assistant professor of cell biology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Gary Yellen,professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. The first author was Alfredo Giménez-Cassina, a research fellow in Danial’s lab.—Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by repeated seizures, an electrical storm in the brain that can manifest as convulsions, loss of motor control, or loss of consciousness. Some cases of epilepsy can be improved by a diet that drastically reduces sugar intake, triggering neurons to switch from their customary fuel of glucose to fat byproducts called ketone bodies. The so-called ketogenic diet, which mimics effects of starvation, was described more than 80 years ago and received renewed interest in the 1990s. Recent studies corroborate that it works, but shed little light on how.–“The connection between metabolism and epilepsy has been such a puzzle,” said Yellen, who was introduced to the ketogenic diet through his wife, Elizabeth Thiele, HMS professor of neurology, who directs the Pediatric Epilepsy Program at MassGeneral Hospital for Children, but was not directly involved in the study. “I’ve met a lot of kids whose lives are completely changed by this diet,” Yellen said. “It’s amazingly effective, and it works for many kids for whom drugs don’t work.”—“We knew we needed to come at this link between metabolism and epilepsy from a new angle,” said Danial, who had previously discovered a surprising double duty for a protein known for its role in apoptosis: The protein, BCL-2-associated Agonist of Cell Death, or BAD, also regulated glucose metabolism.–Giménez-Cassina further discovered that certain modifications in BAD switched metabolism in brain cells from glucose to ketone bodies. “It was then that we realized we had come upon a metabolic switch to do what the ketogenic diet does to the brain without any actual dietary therapy,” said Gimenez-Cassina, who went on to show that these same BAD modifications protect against seizures in experimental models of epilepsy. Still, it wasn’t clear exactly how.—Yellen suspected the solution involved potassium ion channels. While sodium and calcium ion channels tend to excite cells, including neurons, potassium channels tend to suppress cell electrical activity. His lab had previously linked ketone bodies to the activation of ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels in neurons. Yellen had hypothesized that the ketogenic diet workedbecause ketone bodies provide neurons enough fuel for normal function, but when the electrical and energy storm of an epileptic seizure threatens, the activated KATP channels can shut the storm down. But the effects of diets are broad and complex, so it was impossible to say for sure—The effects that Danial’s lab had discovered — BAD’s ability to alter metabolism and seizures — offered a new avenue for studying the therapeutic effects of altered metabolism. Together, the researchers decided to investigate whether Danial’s switch governed Yellen’s pathway, and whether they could reverse engineer the seizure protection of a ketogenic diet.–They could. Working in genetically altered mice, the researchers modified the BAD protein to reduce glucose metabolism and increase ketone body metabolism in the brain. Seizures decreased, but the benefit was erased when they knocked out the KATP channel — strong evidence that a BAD-KATP pathway conferred resistance to epileptic seizures. Further experiments suggested that it was indeed BAD’s role in metabolism, not cell death that mattered. The findings make the BAD protein a promising target for new epilepsy drugs.—“Diet sounds like this wholesome way to treat seizures, but it’s very hard. I mean, diets in general are hard, and this diet is really hard,” said Yellen, whose wife’s Center for Dietary Therapy in Epilepsy hosts a candy-free Halloween party for its many patients on the ketogenic diet. “So finding a pharmacological substitute for this would make lots of people really happy.”—Story Source-The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Harvard Medical School. The original article was written by R. Alan Leo. –Journal Reference–Alfredo Giménez-Cassina, Juan Ramón Martínez-François, Jill K. Fisher, Benjamin Szlyk, Klaudia Polak, Jessica Wiwczar, Geoffrey R. Tanner, Andrew Lutas, Gary Yellen, Nika N. Danial. BAD-Dependent Regulation of Fuel Metabolism and KATP Channel Activity Confers Resistance to Epileptic Seizures. Neuron, 2012; 74 (4): 719 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2012.03.032
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