Health & WellnessS


Moon

The importance of melatonin for optimal health

Dr. Joseph Mercola
Mercola.com
Thu, 06 Feb 2020 00:01 UTC
melatonin
Sleeping well is an essential strategy to optimize your health, and at the heart of it is your circadian rhythm. This is also known as your body clock. It's a natural, biological timer present in every one of your cells that helps your body recognize sleepiness and wakefulness over a period of 24 hours.

Your circadian rhythm is largely dictated by your pineal gland, located near the center of your brain, which produces melatonin, a hormone that is crucial for the regulation of your sleep cycle.

If you have had enough exposure to bright light in the daytime, your pineal gland typically starts secreting melatonin around 9 p.m.1 As the amount of melatonin in your brain increases, sleepiness sets in as your body begins to prepare for sleep.

Comment: See also:

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Roses

Richard (Bud) Veech, the unknown scientist behind the ketogenic diet, dies at 84

Travis Christofferson
Medium
Wed, 05 Feb 2020 00:01 UTC
Richard L Veech ketogenic scientist
Richard (Bud) Veech, a biochemist whose research changed our understanding of human metabolism, died, or as he might say, his "great controlling nucleotide coenzymes" reached their final equilibrium on Sunday in his home in Rockville, Maryland. He was 84.

His death was confirmed by his close friends and colleagues.

Dr. Veech spent over 50 years studying the nuances of human metabolism. His work was highly lauded among his colleagues.

"He has redefined our understanding of metabolism," said Dr. Thomas Seyfried of Boston College.

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Microscope 1

Best of the Web: Did Coronavirus outbreak originate in a lab? Novel sequence in 2019-nCoV Virus genome suggests man-made cause

James Lyons-Weiler
jameslyonsweiler.com
Thu, 30 Jan 2020 20:52 UTC
coronavirus
Recombination technology has been in use in molecular virology since the 1980s. The structure of the 2019-NCoV virus genome provides a very strong clue on the likely origin of the virus.

Unlike other related coronaviruses, the 2019-nCoV virus has a unique sequence about 1,378 bp (nucleotide base pairs) long that is not found in related coronaviruses.

Looking at the phylogenetic tree recently published, derived using all the full genome sequence, we see the 2019-nCoV virus does not have clear monophyletic support given the bootstrap value of 75 (Fig 1).

2019-nCoV coronavirus
© jameslyonsweiler.com
Close-up on Bootstrap value of 75 for available 2019-nCoV from Lu et al., 2020 The Lancet article [Full Text]

There is no doubt that there is a novel sequence in 2019-nCoV; we confirmed this via sequence alignment. Here's the DOT plot:

Comment: It's still only a theory, but if it's in the ballpark, then this outbreak could yet be chalked up to madcap vaccine science...

The author posted the following update to his website on February 2nd, 2020:
Dr. Marc Wathelet commented that he was puzzled about my report of a spike protein gene homologous to part of the pShuttle-SN vector, given that spike glycoproteins are found in bat coronavirus. He urged me to analyze the homology (sequence similarity) of the SARS-like spike protein element I reported with other spike proteins, saying that any scientist working on coronaviruses would be surprised if there were not a spike protein.

I replied in comment that I, too, would expect protein sequence level homology due to shared conserved domains, but assured him that I would undertake further genome sequence-level (nucleotide) analysis as the location of the novel sequence relative to the other spike proteins is certainly of interest.

A few recent publications (sent to me by followers/readers) contained further bat coronavirus accession numbers, and SARS accession numbers, so I procured the spike protein coding sequence (CDS) of these from NCBI's nucleotide database and aligned them using Blast, with the sequence from the first 2019-nCoV protein as the anchor. (Oddly, that Genbank entry does not label the S protein CDS as a spike glycoprotein, instead annotating it only as a "structural protein").

The resulting massive alignment confirms a major unique inserted element in 2019-nCoV not found in other bat coronaviruses, nor in SARS in the homologous genomic position:

2019-nCoV coronavirus
© jameslyonsweiler.com
This is why full genome phylogenetic trees cannot tell the full story of recombinant viral evolution.

Blasting the novel sequence region against all non-viral sequences (to pick up vector technology) again results in pShuttle-SN (no surprise) but now this time is also picked up a recombinant coronavirus clone Bat-SRBD spike glycoprotein gene from UNC, USA, (Genbank entry) and other synthetic constructs.

2019-nCoV coronavirus
As I published earlier, before anyone points fingers at the Chinese, note that recombinant viruses have been in play in laboratories all across the world in many nations.

The overlap occurs at the 3′ end of the novel region (search restricted from 21600-22350 bp in the query) 2019-nCoV sequence originally blasted against the other coronavirus CDS. It could arguably merely be that I selected too large a region; I chose the region visually to include the fully potentially inserted sequence including any homologous vector elements at the 5′ or 3′ end.

It is worth pointing out that due to the length of overlap, the sequence strength is considered moderately strong: highly significant E-value, high %identity, but short sequence length. These findings cannot be considered strong validation for obvious reasons: produced by the same analyst, using (part) of the same data. Spike proteins determine receptor binding for entry into cells, and 2019-nCoV appears to, like some bat species SARS coronavirus, target ACE2 receptors.1

For those tracking closely, I confirmed that the novel inserted sequence in the large alignment above is the same as the novel sequence I reported a few days ago. The sequence of interest is here.

inserted-portion

1. Hou et al., 2010. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) proteins of different bat species confer variable susceptibility to SARS-CoV entry Arch Virol 155:1563-1569

2019-nCoV coronavirus
2019-nCoV coronavirus
These results do show, however, that the novel sequence is not likely present in other coronaviruses.

Thus, it still seems prudent that this inserted sequence in 2019-nCoV become the focus on urgent research, and that laboratory sources be included in the search for the origins of 2019-nCoV and potential targets for treatments and expected pathophysiology in patients infected with 2019-nCoV.

I am grateful to Dr. Wathelet for this inquiries and requests for additional clarification.


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Health

'No effective therapeutics': WHO downplays reports of 'breakthrough' in battle against coronavirus


RT
Wed, 05 Feb 2020 17:21 UTC
test tubes
© Global Look Press / Wang Quanchao
The World Health Organization (WHO) has dismissed optimistic reports of a breakthrough in creating a vaccine and drugs that are effective against the Wuhan coronavirus which has gripped China and spread to 25 other nations.

"There are no known effective therapeutics against this 2019-nCoV (virus) and the WHO recommends enrollment into a randomized controlled trial to test efficacy and safety," the international health body's spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic, told journalists, as reported by Reuters.

The declaration made hopes of those who thought a solution for tackling the virus is around the corner, vanish. On Tuesday, Chinese media claimed that researchers at Zhejiang University, not far from Shanghai, allegedly found an effective drug for the virus. Later, the UK's Sky News reported that researchers made a "significant breakthrough" in developing a vaccine.

The news sparked euphoria on social media and even made oil prices rise.The WHO cautioned, however, that the process of developing and testing a drug or vaccine against the new virus could take months or even years and could be plagued with setbacks.

The coronavirus which is thought to have originated in Wuhan, Hubei province has infected more than 24,500 people in 26 countries around the world, mostly in China, and claimed lives of almost 500 people. So far, 911 patients have recovered.
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Pills

Are mandatory antidepressants for children in the pipeline?

Dr. Joseph Mercola
Mercola.com
Tue, 04 Feb 2020 00:01 UTC
childhood depression
New Jersey has seen a coordinated campaign aimed at furthering the reach of Big Pharma and limiting residents' rights to health freedom. In January 2020, a bill to eliminate religious vaccine exemptions narrowly failed to pass the state Legislature.1 A bill that would require mandatory depression screening for public school students was also introduced, but was vetoed by Gov. Phil Murphy.

The bill would have applied to students in seventh through 12th grade. With their parents' consent, the students would have filled out a computerized screening intended to identify signs of depression. Assemblyman Dr. Herb Conaway, D-Burlington, who proposed the bill, said in a news release, "This is a way to make sure that every kid gets screened, so that we can prevent future tragedies."2

The bill raised serious controversy, however, in part because the confidentiality of the screenings was in question, as was the potential for false positives. Diagnosing depression is not exactly an exact science, nor something that's easily quantifiable via a computerized screening.

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Alarm Clock

Children's mental health is affected by sleep duration

Alice Scott
Medical Xpress
Tue, 04 Feb 2020 00:01 UTC
sleep duration brain scans
© University of Warwick
Depression, anxiety, impulsive behavior and poor cognitive performance in children is effected by the amount of sleep they have researchers from the University of Warwick have found.

Sleep states are active processes that support reorganization of brain circuitry. This makes sleep especially important for children, whose brains are developing and reorganizing rapidly.

In the paper "Sleep duration, brain structure, and psychiatric and cognitive problems in children," published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, 11,000 children aged 9-11 from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development dataset had the relationship between sleep duration and brain structure examined by researchers Professor Jianfeng Feng, Professor Edmund Rolls, Dr. Wei Cheng and colleagues from the University of Warwick's Department of Computer Science and Fudan University.

Comment: See also:

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Syringe

Boy, 11, dies of flu virus that attacked his heart despite getting the flu shot that NIH doctors say is a 'mismatch for kids'

Mary Kekatos
Daily Mail
Tue, 14 Jan 2020 23:15 UTC
luca vaccine death
Doctors at Hohn R Oishei Children's Hospital in Buffalo diagnosed Luca (pictured) with septic shock, and his condition continued to worsen.
An 11-year-old New York boy has died after a severe bout of the flu sent him into cardiac arrest.

Luca Calanni, of Hamburg, contracted the virus last week and his mother, Ashley, took him to his pediatrician's office three days in a row for treatment.

On Wednesday, after not seeing any signs of improvement, she took him to John R Oishei Children's Hospital in Buffalo to receive fluids, reported WTKR.

It was there that Luca was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with septic shock.

Comment: The cognitive dissonance here is palpable. Had Luca not received the flu shot, this would be pinned as the cause of his death. Since he did get the flu shot, they try to say it wasn't the right strain. They will use literally any excuse to deny the possibility that the flu shot may actually be the root cause of some of these violent reactions.

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Brain

High and low exercise intensity found to influence brain function differently


IOS Press
Thu, 30 Jan 2020 10:19 UTC
high low exercise mri
After low-intensity exercise, Rs-MRI showed that networks in the brain associated with cognitive control/attention were stimulated, while after high-intensity exercise, networks associated with emotions were more active, and those related to fatigue/motor function, decreased.
A new study shows for the first time that low and high exercise intensities differentially influence brain function. Using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (Rs-fMRI), a noninvasive technique that allows for studies on brain connectivity, researchers discovered that low-intensity exercise triggers brain networks involved in cognition control and attention processing, while high-intensity exercise primarily activates networks involved in affective/emotion processing. The results appear in a special issue of Brain Plasticity devoted to Exercise and Cognition.

"We believe that functional neuroimaging will have a major impact for unraveling body-brain interactions," said lead investigators Angelika Schmitt, MSc, and Henning Boecker, MD, Functional Neuroimaging Group, Department of Radiology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany. "These novel methods allow us to 'look' directly into the brains of a group of athletes, and, maybe even more importantly, understand the dynamic changes in brain structure and function associated with the transition from a sedentary to a healthy lifestyle."

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Life Preserver

From vaccinations to viruses: Vitamin C is a potent antidote

Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service
Wed, 29 Jan 2020 00:00 UTC
vitamina C
The ability of properly-dosed vitamin C before and after a vaccination to block any potential short- and long-term toxic side effects while enhancing the antibody-forming aim of the injection was covered in an earlier OMNS article. [1] The points made in that article, along with their validation in the scientific literature, remain pertinent 8 years later. As emphasized in that article, the purpose of this article is not to praise or condemn the administration of vaccinations. Most who know me know my stance on this issue, coming from what I consider to be a purely scientific perspective. But that is not the purpose of this article.

Even the most ardent of vaccine supporters should be able to admit that vaccinations, however infrequently, sometimes result in an undesired outcome on the health status of the recipient. The "argument" then shifts as to whether the chance of such an outcome is so rare as to be reasonably and permissibly ignored. The pro-vaccine community maintains that population-wide vaccinations confer a high degree of protection against even more morbidity and mortality that would otherwise be inflicted by the diseases or conditions for which the vaccines are being given. However, here I emphasize the need for mitigation of the side effects of vaccination.

To fully appreciate the toxic origins of all disease, it is very important to understand the critical roles played by vitamin C and other major antioxidants in counteracting and minimizing the impact of new toxin exposures and old toxin damage. All toxins, whether originating from an infection, food or water intake, or environmental source, or even as an unintended consequence of a vaccination, inflict their damage on the body by directly or indirectly causing the oxidation of critical biomolecules in the body. When biomolecules are oxidized (depleted of electrons), they lose some or all of their natural chemical roles throughout the body and inside the cells. Essentially, oxidation inactivates the natural physiological role of a biomolecule.

Comment: The Health & Wellness Show: IV Vitamin C: The Miracle Cure You're Not Supposed to Know About

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Brain

Brain study showed African American's had greater pain response than other participants

University of Miami
Medical Xpress
Mon, 03 Feb 2020 21:05 UTC
brain
© CC0 Public Domain
In her Social and Cultural Neuroscience Lab at the University of Miami, assistant professor of Psychology Elizabeth Losin investigates the mechanisms underlying racial and ethnic disparities related to pain and pain treatment. She looks at the role the brain plays using functional MRI (fMRI) and the impact of social and cultural factors, including the doctor-patient relationship and stressful life experiences such as discrimination.

In the study "Neural and sociocultural mediators of ethnic differences in pain," published today in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, Losin, Tor Wager, Diana L. Taylor Distinguished Professor in Neuroscience at Dartmouth College, and colleagues identify possible brain and social factors underlying racial and ethnic disparities in pain. The researchers found that African American participants reported greater pain in response to a controlled pain stimulation than Hispanic or non-Hispanic white participants did. African Americans also exhibited differences in their brain responses to pain, which correlated with their personal histories of experiencing discrimination.

Comment: On a related note, a study on the effects of air pollution found that "The level of distress among black men, for instance, in areas of high pollution, is 34 percent greater than that of white men, and 55 percent greater than that of Latino men."

See also: Newly discovered organ that senses pain may be lurking under your skin

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