Health & WellnessS


Attention

Autism Linked to Dozens of Genetic Mutations - That Means Mercury Alters DNA Though 'Discovery News' Wouldn't Dare to Admit It


Discovery News
Wed, 09 Jun 2010 06:19 UTC
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© iStockphotoMissing or excess blocks of DNA showed up approximately 20 percent more frequently in the children with autism.
Although some genetic glitches are inherited from parents, many arise for the first time in the person with autism.

A consortium of hundreds of scientists said Wednesday they had uncovered dozens of previously unknown genetic mutations that contribute to autism in children.

Some of these rare DNA glitches are inherited from parents. But many, the researchers discovered, arise for the first time in the person with autism.

"This suggests that tiny genetic errors may occur during formation of the parents' eggs and sperm, and these variations are copied during creation of their child's DNA," said co-author Daniel Geschwind, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

Autism and related brain disorders affect up to 10 out of every 1,000 individuals.

Symptoms are life-long and can vary widely, but often include impaired social skills, repetitive behaviors, difficulty in expressing one's emotions, and an aversion to physical intimacy. There is no known cure.

Comment: Read How To Cure Autism and The Time Bomb Of Mercury Poisoning to educate yourself on the topic.

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Magnify

Discovery of 'Master Switch' Gene Could Help Fight Obesity Diseases

Matthew Heller
Fair Warning
Wed, 18 May 2011 21:07 UTC
British and Swiss researchers who investigated the role of a gene present in fat tissue have made a discovery that eventually might improve the treatment of obesity-related health problems - including diabetes and heart disease, and perhaps obesity itself.

In a study published in the journal Nature Genetics, the researchers identified the gene, KLF14, as a "master switch" that regulates the behavior of other genes found in fat.
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Info

India: Bihar Police Rescue Siblings in Bizarre Depression Case

Shoumojit Banerjee
The Hindu
Wed, 18 May 2011 17:19 UTC
In a bizarre incident, a brother and sister duo, who locked themselves up in their home for several weeks after being struck by a series of family tragedies, were rescued by social workers and the Bihar police here on Monday night in a state of acute depression and severe malnutrition. Babu (32) and his sister Sujata (28), who once worked as a journalist with a local daily, were rescued by an NGO Prayas with the help of the Patna police.
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Magic Hat

Dementia is an emerging epidemic


Australian Associated Press
Wed, 18 May 2011 13:04 UTC
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© Unknown
Almost a million Australians will have dementia by 2050 unless there are significant medical breakthroughs, a conference in Brisbane has been told.

Dementia, along with diabetes, is an emerging epidemic in Australia, the federal Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, told the 14th annual conference of Alzheimer's Australia.

About 270,000 Australians currently live with dementia and another 1500 are diagnosed weekly.

However most Australians' understanding of the condition doesn't extend much beyond Ruth Cracknell's comedy role in the ABC's Mother and Son, Mr Butler said.

"We need to reinforce that dementia is an incredibly serious health condition," Mr Butler said.
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Bulb

The Viral Connection: 'Friendly fire' May Be at the Root of Parkinson-like Diseases


University of Florida
Wed, 18 May 2011 11:04 UTC
Scientists have suspected exposure to viruses and other environmental factors may trigger symptoms associated with Parkinson-like diseases, but why such exposure would actually destroy certain areas of the brain has been mysterious.

New research suggests a pathway located at the base of the brain that is essential for the execution of smooth, coordinated movements may be selectively damaged by the friendly fire of the body's immune response, according to University of Florida and Mayo Clinic Florida scientists writing today in Nature Neuroscience.

"In the movie Awakenings, it was suggested that people who previously suffered from an infection like the flu developed Parkinsonism, probably because of degeneration in a brain pathway known as the nigrostriatal tract. But the links between infection and subsequent Parkinsonism have always been controversial," said Dr. Todd Golde, director of the UF College of Medicine's Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease. "Our data show that when a certain master protein that stimulates the immune system and antiviral response is expressed at high levels, it causes neuronal loss primarily in the nigrostriatal tract, thereby creating vulnerability to Parkinson's and similar movement disorders."
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Health

Is Big Pharma Ignoring a Potential Cancer Cure?

Natalie Wolchover
LiveScience
Tue, 17 May 2011 17:02 UTC
Generic Pills
© Steve Knight (stevekrh19)

On April 12, 1955, the first successful polio vaccine was administered to almost 2 million schoolchildren around the country. Its discoverer, University of Pittsburgh medical researcher Jonas Salk, was interviewed on CBS Radio that evening.

"Who owns the patent on this vaccine?" radio host Edward R. Murrow asked him.

It was a reasonable question, considering that immunity to a deadly disease that afflicted 300,000 Americans annually ought to be worth something.

"Well, the people, I would say," Salk famously replied. "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"

In a world where the cancer drug Avastin - patented by the pharmaceutical company Genentech/Roche - costs patients about $80,000 per year without having been proven to extend lives, Salk's selflessness has made him the hero of many medical researchers today.

One of Salk's admirers is Evangelos Michelakis, a cancer researcher at the University of Alberta who, three years ago, discovered that a common, nontoxic chemical known as DCA, short for dichloroacetate, seems to inhibit the growth of cancerous tumors in mice. The mechanism by which DCA works is remarkably simple: It kills most types of cancer cells by disrupting the way they metabolize sugar, causing them to self-destruct without adversely affecting normal tissues.
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Ambulance

Study Suggests Chronic Tylenol Use May Be Linked to Blood Cancer

Steven Reinberg
Health Day News
Tue, 10 May 2011 17:05 UTC
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© unknown
Those who take acetaminophen - best known as Tylenol - regularly for some time might be putting themselves at an increased risk for developing certain blood cancers, University of Washington researchers report.

The results of earlier studies looking at the association between over-the-counter painkillers or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and blood cancers have been mixed, but this study suggests a risk tied to acetaminophen, the scientists noted.

"We found that high use of acetaminophen, one of the most frequently used medications worldwide, was associated with an almost twofold increased risk of incident hematologic malignancies," said lead researcher Dr. Roland Walter, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of hematology.

The report was published in the May 9 online edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Comment: For additional information about the toxic effects of acetaminophen read the following articles:

FDA holds safety hearing on 50-year-old painkiller

Be Aware of the Most Common Over-the-Counter and Prescribed Killer Drugs

FDA Lowers Amount of Acetaminophen Allowed in Prescription Painkillers

Acetaminophen Can Cause Liver Failure in Infants
It's long been known that acetaminophen can cause liver injuries in both adults and children. According to statistics from the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), from 1998 to 2003, acetaminophen was the leading cause of acute liver failure in the U.S., with 48 percent of acetaminophen-related cases associated with accidental overdose.


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Alarm Clock

Animal Tests Show Anesthetics May Harm Baby Brains

Julia Medew
Sydney Morning Herald
Mon, 16 May 2011 16:46 UTC
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© newstonight.netScientific research has found that the anesthesia which is commonly used can cause harm to the growing delicate baby brains. The babies who receive anesthesia dosages can cause damage to their brain.
Commonly used anesthetics may be causing brain damage in people, especially babies who receive them while their brains are still developing.

Associate Professor Andrew Davidson, an anesthetist at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, said there was mounting evidence in animals that a range of anesthetics used on humans were toxic for the brain and could cause lasting damage, including learning and memory difficulties.

He said recently published studies of five-day-old monkeys showed that when they were given ketamine, an anesthetic commonly used in hospitals, the drug caused some of their brain cells to die. When these monkeys were assessed at two and three years of age, they had significant learning deficits.
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Magic Wand

Link between gut bacteria and behavior: That anxiety may be in your gut, not in your head


McMaster University
Tue, 17 May 2011 16:09 UTC
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© Unknown
For the first time, researchers at McMaster University have conclusive evidence that bacteria residing in the gut influence brain chemistry and behaviour.

The findings are important because several common types of gastrointestinal disease, including irritable bowel syndrome, are frequently associated with anxiety or depression. In addition there has been speculation that some psychiatric disorders, such as late onset autism, may be associated with an abnormal bacterial content in the gut.

"The exciting results provide stimulus for further investigating a microbial component to the causation of behavioural illnesses," said Stephen Collins, professor of medicine and associate dean research, Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. Collins and Premysl Bercik, assistant professor of medicine, undertook the research in the Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute.

The research appears in the online edition of the journal Gastroenterology.

For each person, the gut is home to about 1,000 trillion bacteria with which we live in harmony. These bacteria perform a number of functions vital to health: They harvest energy from the diet, protect against infections and provide nutrition to cells in the gut. Any disruption can result in life-threatening conditions, such as antibiotic-induced colitis from infection with the "superbug" Clostridium difficile.
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Cheeseburger

What we know - and don't know - about the safety of eating GMOs

Tom Philpott
Grist
Mon, 16 May 2011 13:12 UTC
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© GristGMOs ahead: Proceed at your own risk.
Are genetically modified foods safe to eat?

The conventional answer is "yes," and it's not hard to see why. Since their introduction in 1996, genetically modified (GM) or genetically engineered (GE) corn and soy seeds quickly conquered U.S. farm fields. Today, upwards of 70 percent of corn and 90 percent of soy are genetically modified, and these two crops form the basis of the conventional U.S. diet. Nor are they GM technology's only pathway onto our plates. Nearly 80 percent of U.S. cotton is now genetically engineered, and cottonseed oil has emerged as a staple fat for the food industry. (USDA has figures on this.) Canola oil - another crop that has largely succumbed to genetic modification - is yet another common ingredient.

Given their swift path to ubiquity, wouldn't we know by now if GMOs posed some threat? Since no obvious problems have come to the fore, some scientists - and certainly the agri-chemical industry, which dominates GM seed production - have seen fit to declare them safe. Pamela Ronald, professor of plant pathology at the University of California, Davis, recently summed up the conventional view: "After 14 years of cultivation and a cumulative total of two billion acres planted, GE crops have not caused a single instance of harm to human health or the environment."

Let's leave aside Ronald's claim about the environment (which is rendered suspect by the rise of herbicide-resistant "superweeds") and dig into the human-health aspect. What we do know is that GMOs are not acutely toxic to eat. That is, we know that if you dine on a burger made from cows gorged on GM corn and soy, French fries cooked in oil from GM cottonseed, and soda laced with high-fructose syrup from GM corn, you're not likely to keel over in agony. Tens of millions of people do it every day.
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