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Just because a healthcare concept is not new does not mean it should be overlooked as potentially important in improving health and reducing the burden of chronic disease. Today's post is Part Two in a series called "Chronic Illness: What Works," and I base my observations and recommendations on my 30+ years as a nutritional biochemist and healthcare advocate. In Part One of this series I discussed the Four R Program. Today I will focus on a therapy called "Metabolic Detoxification."
Over the past 35 years that I have worked in the health field (as a biochemistry and medical school professor, researcher, lecturer, founder of the Institute for Functional Medicine in 1991 along with my wife Susan, and most recently as President and Chief Science Officer of a global nutritional products company), one of the questions I most often hear is: "If you only had one therapy for improving health what would it be?"
Over the past three decades, I have had the privilege of knowing and learning from some of the most innovative leaders in the medicine and biological sciences. In fact, as I review the researchers and clinicians that I have interviewed over the past 27 years as part of my monthly audio newsletter Functional Medicine Update, I have come to recognize the incredible gift that I have received from knowing these leaders in the field, and how much impact they have had on my thinking about the future of our health care system. I have learned of many breakthrough approaches to the management of various chronic illnesses, so picking "one therapy" seems impossible.
Over the past three decades, I have had the privilege of knowing and learning from some of the most innovative leaders in the medicine and biological sciences. In fact, as I review the researchers and clinicians that I have interviewed over the past 27 years as part of my monthly audio newsletter Functional Medicine Update, I have come to recognize the incredible gift that I have received from knowing these leaders in the field, and how much impact they have had on my thinking about the future of our health care system. I have learned of many breakthrough approaches to the management of various chronic illnesses, so picking "one therapy" seems impossible.
More than 80 per cent of young children are admitted to hospital with swine flu were previously healthy, figures showed today.
An analysis of patients needing inpatient treatment in England also showed that almost half of people aged 16-44 had no previous underlying health conditions before being admitted, official figures suggested.
It comes as the number of new cases diagnosed last week rose to 14,000 as the expected second wave takes hold.
An analysis of patients needing inpatient treatment in England also showed that almost half of people aged 16-44 had no previous underlying health conditions before being admitted, official figures suggested.
It comes as the number of new cases diagnosed last week rose to 14,000 as the expected second wave takes hold.
© AP Photo/Evan AgostiniThis Tuesday, June 9, 2009 picture shows Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at UC Berkeley and author Michael Pollan at a special screening of 'Food Inc' at the Angelika Film Center in New York.
Students across University of Wisconsin-Madison's campus, organic grocers, scientists, and dairy farmers large and small have jumped into the debate on how food is produced and eaten. The discussions started last month when the university began giving Michael Pollan's book, In Defense of Food, free to all incoming freshmen and school officials urged professors to use it in class.
"I have not seen the students this excited about something in years," Irwin Goodman, a horticulture professor who is vice dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences said of the buzz on campus about Pollan's field-to-table philosophies.
Producers cannot alter vaccination schedules to meet the change in health strategy
British Columbia is suspending its annual seasonal flu shot program amidst emerging concerns the vaccination could make people more susceptible to catching H1N1.
The suspension -- which limits the seasonal flu vaccination mostly to the elderly -- puts B.C. in line with many other Canadian provinces, but means most people will not have access to any type of influenza vaccination until at least mid-November.
The decision was announced Monday morning by provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall, who characterized this year's flu season as an "emerging and complex scenario."
British Columbia is suspending its annual seasonal flu shot program amidst emerging concerns the vaccination could make people more susceptible to catching H1N1.
The suspension -- which limits the seasonal flu vaccination mostly to the elderly -- puts B.C. in line with many other Canadian provinces, but means most people will not have access to any type of influenza vaccination until at least mid-November.
The decision was announced Monday morning by provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall, who characterized this year's flu season as an "emerging and complex scenario."
© SPLChildren who cannot wait for something they want may become aggressive.
The Cardiff University study involving 17,500 people is the first into effects of childhood diet on adult violence.
It found 10-year-olds who ate sweets daily were significantly more likely to have a violence conviction by age 34.
Researchers suggested they had not learnt to delay gratification, but other experts said already "difficult" children might be given more sweets.
The researchers looked at data on around 17,500 people and found that 69% of the participants who were violent at the age of 34 had eaten sweets and chocolate nearly every day during childhood, compared to 42% who were non-violent.
Inhibiting the protein Hsp70 rapidly reduces brain levels of tau, a protein associated with Alzheimer's disease when it builds up abnormally inside nerve cells affecting memory, neuroscientists at the University of South Florida found. The study is reported online today in the Journal of Neuroscience.
"Now that we've discovered that targeting the chaperone protein Hsp70 can clear tau, it could be helpful in finding more effective drugs for Alzheimer's disease," said the study's senior author Chad Dickey, PhD, assistant professor of molecular medicine who works out of the Byrd Alzheimer's Institute at USF Health "The therapeutic strategy may also be applicable to other neurodegenerative diseases involving Hsp70, such as Huntington disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and some cancers."
Hsp70 is a one of several "chaperone" proteins that supervises the activity of tau inside nerve cells. The normal function of tau is to support the structure of nerve cells, much like the skeleton provides a scaffold to support the body. Tau is inside nerve cells, while another hallmark protein associated with Alzheimer's, beta amyloid, is outside the neurons.
"Now that we've discovered that targeting the chaperone protein Hsp70 can clear tau, it could be helpful in finding more effective drugs for Alzheimer's disease," said the study's senior author Chad Dickey, PhD, assistant professor of molecular medicine who works out of the Byrd Alzheimer's Institute at USF Health "The therapeutic strategy may also be applicable to other neurodegenerative diseases involving Hsp70, such as Huntington disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and some cancers."
Hsp70 is a one of several "chaperone" proteins that supervises the activity of tau inside nerve cells. The normal function of tau is to support the structure of nerve cells, much like the skeleton provides a scaffold to support the body. Tau is inside nerve cells, while another hallmark protein associated with Alzheimer's, beta amyloid, is outside the neurons.
Pregnant women who take a widely prescribed epilepsy drug give birth to children with lower average IQs, according to a study conducted by researchers from Emory University School of Medicine and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers conducted IQ tests on 258 children between the ages of two and three, all of whose mothers had been prescribed antiseizure medication from one of 25 epilepsy centers in the United States or United Kingdom between October 1999 and February 2004. A total of 53 children in the study had been born to mothers who had taken the best-selling drug valproate, marketed as Convulex, Depakene, Depakine, Epival or Stavzor.
Valproate is the second most popular antiseizure drug used to treat epilepsy. Prior research has linked its use by pregnant women to birth defects and slowed infant development.
Researchers conducted IQ tests on 258 children between the ages of two and three, all of whose mothers had been prescribed antiseizure medication from one of 25 epilepsy centers in the United States or United Kingdom between October 1999 and February 2004. A total of 53 children in the study had been born to mothers who had taken the best-selling drug valproate, marketed as Convulex, Depakene, Depakine, Epival or Stavzor.
Valproate is the second most popular antiseizure drug used to treat epilepsy. Prior research has linked its use by pregnant women to birth defects and slowed infant development.
Using mice as a model to study human breast cancer, researchers have demonstrated that a negative social environment (in this case, isolation) causes increased tumor growth. The work shows - for the first time - that social isolation is associated with altered gene expression in mouse mammary glands, and that these changes are accompanied by larger tumors.
"This interdisciplinary research illustrates that the social environment, and a social animal's response to that environment, can indeed alter the level of gene expression in a wide variety of tissues, not only the brain," said Suzanne D. Conzen, MD, associate professor of medicine at the University of Chicago and senior author of the study, published on September 30, 2009, in Cancer Prevention Research. "This is a novel finding and may begin to explain how the environment affects human susceptibility to other chronic diseases such as central obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, etc."
The research began six years ago when cancer specialist Conzen joined forces with biobehavioral psychologist Martha McClintock, PhD, professor of psychology and founder of the Institute for Mind and Biology at the University of Chicago, who has long been interested in the result of social isolation in aging, to study behavior and cancer in a mouse model.
"This interdisciplinary research illustrates that the social environment, and a social animal's response to that environment, can indeed alter the level of gene expression in a wide variety of tissues, not only the brain," said Suzanne D. Conzen, MD, associate professor of medicine at the University of Chicago and senior author of the study, published on September 30, 2009, in Cancer Prevention Research. "This is a novel finding and may begin to explain how the environment affects human susceptibility to other chronic diseases such as central obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, etc."
The research began six years ago when cancer specialist Conzen joined forces with biobehavioral psychologist Martha McClintock, PhD, professor of psychology and founder of the Institute for Mind and Biology at the University of Chicago, who has long been interested in the result of social isolation in aging, to study behavior and cancer in a mouse model.
Bipolar disorder, or manic-depression, causes severe and unusual shifts in mood and energy, affecting a person's ability to perform everyday tasks. With symptoms often starting in early adulthood, bipolar disorder has been thought of traditionally as a lifelong disorder. Now, University of Missouri researchers have found evidence that nearly half of those diagnosed between the ages of 18 and 25 may outgrow the disorder by the time they reach 30.
"Using two large nationally representative studies, we found that there was a strikingly high peak prevalence of bipolar disorders in emerging adulthood," said David Cicero, doctoral student in the Department of Psychological Sciences in the College of Arts and Science and lead author of the paper. "During the third decade of life, the prevalence of the disorder appears to resolve substantially, suggesting patients become less symptomatic and may have a greater chance of recovery."
By examining the results of two large national surveys, MU researchers found an "age gradient" in the prevalence of bipolar disorder, with part of the population appearing to outgrow the disorder. In the survey results, 5.5 to 6.2 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 24 suffer from bipolar disorder, but only about 3 percent of people older than 29 suffer from bipolar disorder.
"Using two large nationally representative studies, we found that there was a strikingly high peak prevalence of bipolar disorders in emerging adulthood," said David Cicero, doctoral student in the Department of Psychological Sciences in the College of Arts and Science and lead author of the paper. "During the third decade of life, the prevalence of the disorder appears to resolve substantially, suggesting patients become less symptomatic and may have a greater chance of recovery."
By examining the results of two large national surveys, MU researchers found an "age gradient" in the prevalence of bipolar disorder, with part of the population appearing to outgrow the disorder. In the survey results, 5.5 to 6.2 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 24 suffer from bipolar disorder, but only about 3 percent of people older than 29 suffer from bipolar disorder.
