Although banned in most other industrialized nations due to the health risks to humans and harm to the animals, Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST) is still injected into dairy cows in the US to increase milk-production.
So why was rBGH approved for use in the US? The approval of rBGH in our country is a story of fired whistleblowers, manipulated research, and a corporate takeover of the US Food and Drug Administration. US dairies responding to the health concerns of consumers by not injecting their herds, now battle with Monsanto for their right to label their milk as rBGH-free. For those familiar with the history of this controversial drug, and Monsanto, this is no surprise. Monsanto's controversial past is plagued with toxic disasters, lawsuits and cover-ups.
A mystery disease has killed dozens of Warao Indians in recent months in a remote area of northeastern Venezuela, according to indigenous leaders and researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, who informed health officials here of the outbreak on Wednesday.
At least 38 people have died, including 16 since the start of June, said Charles Briggs, an anthropologist at Berkeley, and Dr. Clara Mantini-Briggs, a medical researcher there. They are a husband-and-wife team known for their research on a cholera outbreak that killed 500 people in Venezuela in the early 1990s.
Australian scientists are taking a novel approach in treating women with schizophrenia. They have just published the findings of a clinical trial using the female hormone oestrogen.
More than 20 million Americans have diabetes and 54 million people are considered pre-diabetic and at high risk of developing it. Although genes play a role, risk factors include age, obesity, physical inactivity and race. Now, researchers believe they have found a new cause of this life threatening condition ... and it could be found in your own backyard. Now, we explore a place that's considered one of the most contaminated towns on Earth, where diabetes is running rampant.
For decades now, Steve Cooper has made his living off the land, selling the produce he grew in his own garden. That was until he found out the veggies he grew were laden with a deadly chemical manufactured in a factory, just a stones throw from his home in Anniston, Ala., in the same neighborhood where his grandparents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers and cousins all grew up.
No one likes to be excluded from a group: exclusion can decrease mood, reduce self-esteem and feelings of belonging, and even ultimately lead to negative behavior (e.g., the shootings at Virginia Tech). As a result, we often try to fit in with others in both conscious and automatic ways.
Psychologists Jessica L. Lakin of Drew University, Tanya L. Chartrand of Duke University, and Robert M. Arkin of The Ohio State University studied people's tendency to copy automatically the behaviors of others in order to find out how this mimicry can be used as an affiliation strategy.
Chili peppers can do more than just make you feel hot, reports a study in the August 1 Journal of Biological Chemistry; the active chemical in peppers can directly induce thermogenesis, the process by which cells convert energy into heat.
Capsaicin is the chemical in chili peppers that contributes to their spiciness; CPS stimulates a receptor found in sensory neurons, creating the heat sensation and subsequent reactions like redness and sweating.
Now, Yasser Mahmoud has found that capsaicin can create "heat" in a more direct manner by altering the activity of a muscle protein called SERCA. Normally, muscle contraction initiates following the release of a wave of calcium ions from a compartment called the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR); SERCA then actively pumps the calcium back into the SR (using ATP energy), causing muscle relaxation and renewing the cycle.
An outbreak of the mosquito-borne chikungunya fever infected 17 workers in an area of Singapore and a Chinese national in another area, as health officers are trying to contain the virus in the city-state.
There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the dengue-like disease, which causes fever, rash and debilitating joint pain that can persist for months.
Following the latest cluster of three chikungunya cases reported on Aug. 2, the Health Ministry has been carrying out active case detection at and around the site in Kranji Way, a northern industrial area.
Deena Beasley and Bill Berkrot
ReutersTue, 05 Aug 2008 11:00 UTC
LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK - Biogen Idec and Elan have notified regulators of two new cases of a potentially deadly brain disease in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients being treated with Tysabri.
Anne Harding
ReutersMon, 04 Aug 2008 22:37 UTC
An estimated 11.4 million Americans with at least one chronic illness have no health insurance, new research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine shows.
These people are much less likely to have a regular place to get medical care, much less likely to have seen a doctor in the past year, and much more likely to use the emergency room than chronically ill people who are insured, Dr. Andrew P. Wilper and colleagues from Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, found.
"Primary care doctors know that people who don't have access to health care due to health insurance suffer," Wilper, who is now with the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, told Reuters Health. "We wanted to study that issue and bring public attention to it."
Fewer patients are undergoing in-depth treatment as antidepressants and other drugs are more widely used. The shift is attributed partly to insurance reimbursement policies.
Wider use of antidepressants and other prescription medications has reduced the role of psychotherapy, once the defining characteristic of psychiatric care, according to an analysis published today.
The percentage of patients who received psychotherapy fell to 28.9% in 2004-05 from 44.4% in 1996-97, the report in Archives of General Psychiatry said.
Comment: For a more complete picture of the interactions between the female hormone estrogen and the human body, read the following articles:
- Chronic Exposure To Estrogen Impairs Some Cognitive Functions
- Complex Changes in the Brain's Vascular System Occur after Menopause
- Improved Estrogen Reception May Sharpen Fuzzy Memory
- Enzyme may play role in aggressive lung cancer