The pancreas is a large organ that wraps around our gut, and produces the exact amount of insulin our bodies need when we eat - except when we start to develop diabetes, and insulin production slows down. Sydney scientists describe how a fat recycling system within pancreatic 'beta cells' determines the amount of insulin they secrete, and so may provide a target for future diabetes therapies.

A small structure inside the beta cell, known as a 'lysosome', behaves like an intracellular recycling unit. It breaks down unwanted fats and proteins in such a way that they can be re-used.

PhD student Gemma Pearson and Professor Trevor Biden from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research showed that when they prevented lysosomes from breaking down fat, beta cells secreted more insulin. Their study is published in Diabetologia, now online.

While this is a very early stage cell biology story, it nonetheless holds promise, and encourages the scientific community to look at diabetes therapies through a fatty lens.

© Shermali GunawardenaMaterials move smoothly through the brain cells of a fruit fly larvae (left). But when scientists reduced the levels of the protein presenilin and the enzyme GSK-3B present in the nerve, tiny organic bubbles called vesicles began moving in an uncoordinated fashion and became trapped (right).

Study shows how the wrong levels of a protein linked with Alzheimer's disease can lead to dangerous blockages in brain cells.

Scientists have known for some time that a protein called presenilin plays a role in Alzheimer's disease, and a new study reveals one intriguing way this happens.

It has to do with how materials travel up and down brain cells, which are also called neurons.

In an Oct. 8 paper in Human Molecular Genetics, University at Buffalo researchers report that presenilin works with an enzyme called GSK-3ß to control how fast materials - like proteins needed for cell survival - move through the cells.

"If you have too much presenilin or too little, it disrupts the activity of GSK-3ß, and the transport of cargo along neurons becomes uncoordinated," says lead researcher Shermali Gunawardena, PhD, an assistant professor of biological sciences at UB. "This can lead to dangerous blockages."

While it's been known for over a century that iron deposits in the brain play a role in the pathology of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), new imaging research from Western University (London, Canada) helps to answer the question of whether these accumulations are a cause or consequence of the disease. The study led by Ravi Menon, PhD, of the Robarts Research Institute found iron deposits in deep gray matter, suggesting the accumulation occurs very early in the disease course. The researchers also found evidence casting further doubt on the controversial liberation therapy for MS. The research is in early publication online in Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders.


Menon and PhD candidate Matthew Quinn used 3-Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to scan 22 patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS). These are patients who've had a single clinical attack, at least half of whom will go on to be diagnosed with MS. The others may have a different disease. Sixteen age and sex matched controls were also studied.

"We wanted to know if the iron deposits happen early in the process, or whether it's something that accumulates with time as the disease progresses," says Menon, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Functional Magnetic Imaging. "We also studied the veins that drain from the brain and looked for a correlation between the diameter of of these veins and iron accumulation. One of the reasons to do this, of course was the hypothesis proposed by Paolo Zamboni that if you had narrow jugular veins, this would give rise to additional iron and in turn cause MS."

I've seen several pharmaceutical videos about ADHD lately. One started with a cartoon that resembled a "Simpsons" episode. I initially thought it was a gag. It appeared to be a typical presentation about a drug with the usual casual fast-talk about side effects that included death from a stroke. It was so straightforward yet insidious and comical, that it simply had to be a satire. I enjoyed the presentation right up to the end, only to find that it was real. It was an ad that had nothing to do with ADHD. The drug goes under the name of Abilify and was supposed to be given along with an antidepressant when the antidepressant alone wasn't working. The video got me thinking of how I've always wanted to see a satire of this type of drug ad. It would be so refreshing to see a cartoon that would bash the drug for a change.

"Saying no to drugs" also requires saying "yes" to something else. That something else is nutrition, properly employed.

Then came the video itself, "ADHD in the Workplace." It was presented by a doctor, garbed not in the typical stethoscope and white lab coat, but in a casual open-necked shirt, giving the viewer the feeling, "I'm really just one of you, not a pompous M.D." He described the symptoms of ADHD. The message seemed to be that if you are restless and have trouble concentrating, you probably have this common disorder. It didn't mention that these symptoms are normal for most people who are distracted or anxious, and often a consequence of deficits of essential nutrients. Now, the workplace has to adjust to your problem. For relief of restlessness, move around and go to the restroom. This advice almost sounded like the cliché, "hang around the water cooler." To relieve your inability to concentrate, wear earphones. Then the advice, "You may even be eligible for workman's compensation" which could support treatment with taxpayers' money.

Some studies claim to find that junk food is as addictive as drugs, but experts say that what actually determines how addictive something is, and whether an individual becomes addicted, is complex.

In the most recent headline-grabbing research, a study in rats found that a brain region important for pleasure was activated more strongly when the animals were exposed to Oreos compared to cocaine. A 2011 study found that the brains of people with "food addiction" reacted to junk food the same way that the brains of people with drug addictions react to drugs.

But just because junk foods and drugs may activate the same area of the brain does not mean they are addicting, experts say.

Here's what we know about the development of addiction.

America's most trusted science magazine is spreading disinformation on behalf of a failing and desperate industry, in utter disregard of scientific integrity and the overwhelming evidence of hazards to health and the environment .

Deceptively authoritative pronouncements not backed up by evidence, scientific or otherwise

A recent editorial in Scientific American entitled "Labels for GMO Foods are a Bad idea" caught most people by surprise. In beguilingly authoritarian tone and without providing references for any of its confident-sounding assertions, it tells us that labelling GM Foods ^[1] "would only intensify the misconception that so-called Frankenfoods endanger people's health." If anything, the editorial itself is guilty of spreading disinformation regarding GMOs, which is very disappointing for a normally trustworthy and serious science magazine. We feel obliged to expose some of the major misconceptions in the editorial.

The piece begins with the tired old pronouncement used by industry to reassure the public since the early 1990s that humans have been "tinkering" with crop genomes since the beginning of time through the process of conventional breeding, implying that genetic modification is no different. In reality, there is no longer any doubt that genetic modification is distinct from conventional breeding and introduces new risks, as fully acknowledged in the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety for regulating GMOs under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity ^[2], which was adopted by the international community on 29 January 2000 and entered into force on 11 September 2003.

Two Australian researchers have found that CSIRO-developed GMO wheat which was created to silence particular genes within the crop can also silence certain rNA and DNA sequences in the human body, causing fatality as early as age five or six. The researchers are calling the GMO wheat a 'safety' issue, which requires more profundity before the genetically modified crop is planted in more areas of Australia and offered in products in grocery stores.

Professor Jack Heinemann of the University of Canterbury, NZ, and Associate Professor Judy Carman, a biochemist at Flinders University, released their expert scientific opinions on the safety of CSIRO's GM wheat at a press conference in Melbourne. The Safe Food Foundation & Institute has a video of their conference, here.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report showing a 415 percent rise in the rate of fatal painkiller overdoses in women from 1999 to 2010.

Painkiller Deaths on the Rise

To find some of the most potent and potentially lethal drugs in the country, many people need look no further than their own medicine cabinets.

The number of prescription pain reliever-related deaths over 10 years is four times higher than the rate of deaths from cocaine and heroin - combined. In 2010, 60 percent of the 38,329 deaths from a drug overdose in the U.S. were attributed to prescription drugs.

These and other startling figures come from a new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), highlighting a growing epidemic of prescription drug misuse.

The death rate from prescription painkiller overdose - specifically opioid painkillers such as hydrocodone and oxycodone - rose 415 percent among women and 265 percent among men from 1999 to 2010, according to a CDC study released Tuesday.

So many Gardasil and Cervarix injured report a host of skin related disorders that appear chronic and treatment resistant in nature. The diagnoses are often incomplete, sometimes contradictory, and more often than not, and no matter the diagnosis, the treatment involves the standard topical and/or injected corticosteroid to reduce the inflammation. If there is relief, it is temporary. I have to wonder what we are missing?

My untrained hunch, from the pictures sent to me is that many of these conditions involve undiagnosed vasculitis. In some cases, the rashes may also be related to undiagnosed Hashimoto's and other autoimmune conditions that seem to be prevalent. To offer some assistance and encourage folks to press for diagnoses, I am listing possibilities to explore with your physicians.

Acute Uticaria or Hives

We all have had uticaria or hives at one time or another, the red, blistery, itchy, rash that appears after an allergic reaction to something. The rash is generally short-lived, less than six weeks, often recurring and remitting. It can appear with angioedema or swelling and usually responds to antihistamines or anti-inflammatory medications like corticosteroids.

The alarming saga of Andy and Anna Hershberger and their 10 year old daughter Sarah, who is now in complete remission from lymphoblastic lymphoma, an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, has taken yet another dramatic turn.

A heated court battle has been ongoing for months since Andy and Anna decided to forgo a second round of chemotherapy treatments for Sarah at Akron Children's Hospital in Ohio after witnessing her terrible suffering and her continual pleading for the treatments to stop. Andy and Anna opted instead for the guidance of another physician at a wellness center along with the use of natural medicines.

At that point, Akron Children's Hospital sued for medical guardianship of Sarah to force the chemo to continue, guardianship that was granted by an appeals court earlier this month.

Sarah has since been declared to be 100% cancer free and yet the hospital continues to insist that a second round of devastating chemotherapy is required - treatments that Andy and Anna say they were never told were in fact experimental and part of a research study, according to David Michael of the Journal of Natural Food and Health who has interviewed Sarah's father, Grandfather and uncle.