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wcbstv.com - Researchers Claims AIDS Virus Likely Originated 100 Years...

Oct 1, 2:04pm    (1 review)  health, hiv, medical-research, aids-virus-origination  http://wcbstv.com/national/aids.originat...

Researchers Claims AIDS Virus Likely Originated 100 Years Ago In 1908 From the page: "The AIDS virus has been circulating among people for about 100 years, decades longer than scientists had thought, a new study suggests. Genetic analysis pushes the estimated origin of HIV back to between 1884 and 1924, with a more focused estimate at 1908. Previously, scientists had estimated the origin at around 1930. AIDS wasn't recognized formally until 1981 when it got the attention of public health officials in the United States. The new result is "not a monumental shift, but it means the virus was circulating under our radar even longer than we knew," says Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona, an author of the new work. The results appear in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. Researchers note that the newly calculated dates fall during the rise of cities in Africa, and they suggest urban development may have promoted HIV's initial establishment and early spread. Scientists say HIV descended from a chimpanzee virus that jumped to humans in Africa, probably when people butchered chimps. Many individuals were probably infected that way, but so few other people caught the virus that it failed to get a lasting foothold, researchers say. But the growth of African cities may have changed that by putting lots of people close together and promoting prostitution, Worobey suggested. "Cities are kind of ideal for a virus like HIV," providing more chances for infected people to pass the virus to others, he said. Perhaps a person infected with the AIDS virus in a rural area went to what is now Kinshasa, Congo, "and now you've got the spark arriving in the tinderbox," Worobey said. Key to the new work was the discovery of an HIV sample that had been taken from a woman in Kinshasa in 1960. It was only the second such sample to be found from before 1976; the other was from 1959, also from Kinshasa. Researchers took advantage of the fact that HIV mutates rapidly. So two strains from a common ancestor quickly become less and less alike in their genetic material over time. That allows scientists to "run the clock backward" by calculating how long it would take for various strains to become as different as they are observed to be. That would indicate when they both sprang from their most recent common ancestor. The new work used genetic data from the two old HIV samples plus more than 100 modern samples to create a family tree going back to these samples' last common ancestor. Researchers got various answers under various approaches for when that ancestor virus appeared, but the 1884-to-1924 bracket is probably the most reliable, Worobey said. The new work is "clearly an improvement" over the previous estimate of around 1930, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md. His institute helped pay for the work. Fauci described the advance as "a fine-tuning." Experts say it's no surprise that HIV circulated in humans for about 70 years before being recognized. An infection usually takes years to produce obvious symptoms, a lag that can mask the role of the virus, and it would have infected relatively few Africans early in its spread, they said." .

Academics find that finger of destiny points their way | Science Blog

Sep 23, 4:04am    (1 review)  science, medical-research, fingers, hormones, destiny  http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/node/4423

Academics find that finger of destiny points their way From the page: "Male scientists are good at research because they have the hormone levels of women and long index fingers, a new study says. A survey of academics at the University of Bath has found that male scientists typically have a level of the hormone estrogen as high as their testosterone level. These hormone levels are more usual in women than men, who normally have higher levels of testosterone. The study draws on research that suggests that these unusual hormone levels in many male scientists cause the right side of their brains, which governs spatial and analytic skills, to develop strongly. The study, which as been submitted to the British Journal of Psychology, also found that: # these hormonal levels may make male scientists less likely to have children. # those men with a higher level of estrogen were more likely than average to have relatives with dyslexia, which may in part be caused by hormonal levels. # women social scientists tended to have higher levels of testosterone, making their brains closer to those of males in general. The study drew on work in the last few years which established that the levels of estrogen and testosterone a person has can be seen in the relative length of their index (second) and ring (fourth) fingers. The ratio of the lengths is set before birth and remains the same throughout life. The length of fingers is genetically linked to the sex hormones, and a person with an index finger shorter than the ring finger will have had more testosterone while in the womb, and a person with an index finger longer than the ring finger will have had more estrogen. The difference in the lengths can be small -- as little as two or three per cent -- but important. A survey of the finger lengths of over 100 male and female academics at the University by senior Psychology lecturer Dr Mark Brosnan has found that those men teaching hard science like mathematics and physics tend to have index fingers as long as their ring fingers, a marker for unusually high estrogen levels for males. It also found the reverse: those male academics with longer ring fingers than index fingers -- the usual male pattern -- tended not to be in science but in social science subjects such as psychology and education. A further study also suggests that prenatal hormone exposure, and hence index finger length, can also influence actual achievement levels. In a survey of male and female students on a JAVA programming course at the University, the researchers found a link between finger length ratio and test score. The smaller the difference between index and ring finger - the higher the test score at the end of the year." .

Sex hormone byproduct lowers stress, anxiety in female rats | Science...

Sep 23, 3:54am    (1 review)  research, stress, medical-research, hormones, progesterone  http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/node/6925

Sex hormone byproduct lowers stress, anxiety in female rats From the page: "A steroid hormone released during the metabolism of progesterone, the female sex hormone, reduces the brain's response to stress, according to research in rats by scientists at Emory University School of Medicine, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Atlanta's Center for Behavioral Neuroscience. The scientists found evidence that the progesterone metabolite allopregnanolone reduces the brain's response to corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), a peptide hormone that plays an important role in the stress response in animals. The finding, which was reported in the Nov. 10, 2004 edition of the Journal of Neuroscience, could provide a new drug target for treating anxiety and depression in women. . . . In the first experiment, the scientists compared acoustic startle responses after CRF injection in an estrogen-only group, an estrogen-plus-progesterone group and a control group that did not receive any sex hormones. All the rats lacked ovaries and the ability to produce sex hormones naturally. Acoustic startle response was unaffected in the estrogen-only group and the control group. In the estrogen-plus-progesterone group, however, CRF-enhanced startle was significantly lower than in the other groups. In another set of experiments, the researchers discovered that lactating female rats with naturally high levels of progesterone had markedly lower CRF-enhanced startle responses compared to virgin females with intact ovaries. "Findings from theses initial experiments pointed toward the conclusion that progesterone inhibits the effect of CRF on the acoustic startle response," said Toufexis. To test this hypothesis, the researchers gave only progesterone to female rats lacking ovaries, then compared the acoustic startle response to female rats without ovaries injected with corn oil. The progesterone group displayed significantly lower CRF-enhanced startle responses. When ovariectomized females were tested with allopregnanolone alone it also reduced CRF-enahnced startle. In a final experiment, the scientists compared the effects on females that received progesterone with those that received medroxy-progesterone, an artificial progestin that binds to progesterone receptors but does not metabolize into the progesterone metabolite allopregnanolone. Only natural progesterone reduced CRF-enhanced startle." .

Newsmax.com – Common Plastics Chemical Linked to Heart Problems

Sep 18, 11:21am    (1 review)  health, medical-research, bisphenol-a, bpa, polycarbonate-plastic  http://www.newsmax.com/health/plastics_c...

Common Plastics Chemical Linked to Heart Problems From the page: "BPA is used to make polycarbonate plastic, a clear shatter-resistant material in products ranging from baby bottles to medical devices. BPA can mimic the hormone estrogen in the body. People can consume BPA when it leaches out of the plastic into baby formula, water or food inside a container. Some retailers and manufacturers are moving away from products with BPA. Canadian officials have concluded BPA was harmful. Steven Hentges of the American Chemistry Council, an industry group, said the study's design did not allow for anyone to conclude BPA causes heart disease and diabetes. "On the other hand, though, bisphenol A has been very intensively studied in a very large number of laboratory animal studies. And the weight of evidence from those studies ... continues to support the safe use of products containing bisphenol A," he said in a telephone interview. The British researchers, who acknowledged their findings are not proof that the chemical is causing the harm, analyzed urine samples from a U.S. government health survey of adults ages 18-74 representative of the U.S. population. The 25 percent of people with the highest levels of bisphenol A in their bodies were more than twice as likely to have heart disease, including heart attacks or type 2 diabetes, compared to the 25 percent with the lowest levels. At the FDA panel meeting, several scientists and activists said the FDA ignored animal studies finding health concerns and some called for the chemical to be banned in food containers." .

Lifestyle Changes Boost Enzyme Regulating Cell Aging - washingtonpost....

Sep 17, 3:41pm    (1 review)  aging, health, diet, longevity, medical-research  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Lifestyle Changes Boost Enzyme Regulating Cell Aging - washingtonpost.com From the page: "Major lifestyle changes can help improve levels of an enzyme called telomerase that controls cell aging, say California researchers. Telomerase repairs and lengthens telomeres, which are DNA-protein complexes at the end of chromosomes that directly affect how quickly cells age. As telomeres become shorter and their structural integrity weakens, cells age and die more quickly, according to background information in a University of California, Irvine, new release. Shortening of telomeres is emerging as a marker of disease risk and premature death in many types of cancer, including prostate, lung, breast and colorectal cancers. In this study, Dr. Dean Ornish, a professor of medicine at the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, Calif., and his colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco, asked 30 men diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer to make significant lifestyle changes. The changes included eating a diet with only 10 percent of calories from fat, low in refined sugars, and rich in whole foods, fruit and vegetables. They supplemented their diet with vitamins and fish oil and did moderate aerobic exercise, stress management, relaxation techniques, and breathing exercises." .

The New York Times & Log In

Sep 17, 8:02am    (2 reviews)  health, omega-3, medical-research, fish-oil  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/health...

Feeling Good About Fish Oil From the page: ""Grandma was right: cod liver oil is good for you," said Dr. Edward Hallowell, founder of the Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health in Sudbury, Mass., and an author of several books on A.D.H.D. as well as the director of a small pilot study on fish oil. But though he routinely recommends it, he said, "It takes more than fish oil to cure A.D.H.D." Dr. Lawrence D. Rosen, a pediatrician who practices integrative medicine in Oradell, N.J., said that some families were using fish oil along with nutritional supplements, vitamins and various educational and behavioral interventions, and that their children were able to function well without medication. But, he acknowledged, "These are generally not the kids who have severe behavioral difficulties or incredible hyperactivity." Treatment with fish oil alone is controversial. Dr. Betsy Busch, an A.D.H.D. specialist who wrote a commentary on the topic last year, said that while she has been intrigued by the potential of fatty acid supplementation, it's premature to substitute fish oil for known, effective medications. "There's too much going on for us not to want to pursue this idea, but right now we've got a sort of hodgepodge of information," said Dr. Busch, whose commentary on fatty acid supplementation, "Fishy, Fascinating and Far From Clear," was published last year in The Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. "If fish oil is being prescribed in a way that delays a child's access to treatments we know are effective, I think that's not a good moral decision. If you've got the ability to improve a child's quality of life, I think that's a responsibility you can't turn your back on just because fish oil seems so exciting." STUDIES on fish oil therapy have had mixed results. A clinical trial in Australia, published last year in The Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, found improvements in parents' ratings of their children's hyperactivity and inattention, but no difference in teachers' assessments. Meanwhile, the Oxford-Durham study in Britain, published in the journal Pediatrics in 2005, reported remarkable improvements in reading and spelling among children treated with omega-3 fatty acids. "The therapy improved their inattention, in particular, and seemed to allow them to concentrate and stay on task better," said Paul Montgomery, an author of the Oxford-Durham study. But neither of these studies involved children with a clear A.D.H.D. diagnosis, and an earlier 2001 clinical trial carried out at the Mayo Clinic, involving children formally diagnosed with A.D.H.D., found no decrease in symptoms after four months of therapy. Other unresolved questions have to do with the appropriate doses of fish oil as well as the optimal ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Most health care providers suggest 1,000 milligrams of combined DHA and EPA daily for a child, and up to 2,000 milligrams for an adult, but they say they adjust the amounts depending on weight. Some experts recommend higher doses to get the full therapeutic effect, but there are risks. Fish oil is a blood thinner and can interfere with clotting and cause excessive bleeding, which can be dangerous. Doctors say anyone with a family history of a bleeding disorder should avoid it. Mercury contamination is also a concern, doctors say, and parents should make sure to purchase only purified pharmaceutical-grade fish oil. They emphasize that patients should take fish oil only under the supervision of a health care provider, and that they should remember to inform all their health care providers that they are taking it. Treatment should be stopped several weeks before elective surgery or even a minor procedure like a tooth extraction." .

Brain shrink risk of veggie diet | The Sun |Woman|Health|Health

Sep 15, 4:22am    (3 reviews)  health, medical-research, vegetarian-diet, brain-shrinkage  http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/wom...

Brain shrink risk of veggie diet From the page: TURNING vegetarian could shrink your brain - but Marmite sarnies help protect it. People with low levels of vitamin B12 are SIX times more likely to suffer brain loss, researchers at Oxford University have discovered. Vegans and vegetarians -- such as Heather Mills, Russell Brand and Big Brother's Chanelle Houghton -- are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of the vitamin are meat, particularly liver, milk and fish. Vitamin B12 deficiency can also cause anaemia and inflammation of the nervous system. Yeast extracts such as Marmite are one of the few vegetarian foods which provide good levels of the vitamin. The link was discovered by scientists who used memory tests, physical checks and brain scans to examine 107 people between the ages of 61 and 87. When the volunteers were retested five years later the medics found those with the lowest levels of vitamin B12 were also the most likely to have brain shrinkage. It confirms earlier research showing a link between brain atrophy and low levels of B12. Here Sun Health looks at the science of smart eating. GO EASY ON THE BOOZE Brain scans of more than 1,800 people found that people who downed 14 drinks or more a week had 1.6 per cent more brain shrinkage than teetotallers. Women in their seventies were the most at risk. Beer does less damage than wine according to a study in Alcohol and Alcoholism. Researchers found that the hippocampus - the part of the brain that stores memories -- was 10 per cent smaller in beer drinkers than those who stuck to wine. And don't inhale, cannabis has been shown to have the same brain-rotting effect. EAT LESS Being overweight or obese is linked to brain loss, Swedish researchers discovered. Scans of around 300 women found that those with brain shrink had an average body mass index of 27 And for every one point increase in their BMI the loss rose by 13 to 16 per cent. A BMI 25 to 30 is classed as overweight, above 30 is clinically obese. Calculate your BMI Dr Deborah Gustafson of University Hospital in Göteborg says obesity increases the risk of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, which are both thought to contribute to brain drain. She adds: "Obesity may also increase the secretion of cortisol, which could lead to atrophy." GET FISHY The omega-3 oils found in fish reduce the risk of dementia and other mental disorders says Fernando Gómez-Pinilla of the University of California, Los Angeles. He says they increase flexibility in synapses in the brain - the bits that transmit information - and boost memory and learning." .

Why men are better than women at dealing with pain - Times Online

Sep 11, 8:37am    (2 reviews)  psychology, women, pain, men, medical-research  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_an...

Why men are better than women at dealing with pain Research this week suggests women feel more pain then men, but it's all in their mind From the page: "Brain scans show that when men are in pain the area concerned with analysis and problem-solving is the most active. When women are subjected to the same painful stimulus - usually having their arm stuck in a bucket of iced water - it's the limbic system, the part of the brain concerned with emotional responses, that kicks into overdrive. When men are asked to forget how annoyed they feel about being in pain and to focus more on the unpleasant sensation itself, their level of pain reduces. This doesn't happen in women; it's as if they can't divorce the emotional from the physical aspects of discomfort. Consider these real world examples, two painful conditions with no apparent physical cause - fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome. Both are much more common in women than men and don't get better if treated with standard painkillers. But they often improve if the patient is treated with an antidepressant. Drugs such as ibuprofen and paracetamol are said to be less effective for women, not because they work differently in men but because they have no effect on the psychological aspect of pain. Men don't have it all their own way. A woman is three times more likely to have her recurring headache correctly diagnosed as migraine and treated appropriately. However, migraine is diagnosed by listening carefully to the patient's description of their symptoms. A chimpanzee with a clipboard could get the classic history of a one-sided thumping pain, triggered by stress, tiredness or caffeine, accompanied by nausea and preceded by a bit of visual blurring, from a woman. All it would get from a bloke with the same headache would be, "I'll tell you one thing, Cheetah. It hurts like crazy." Things might improve after some aspirin and a nap in a quiet dark room. For the chimp at least." .

Cannabis linked to earlier psychosis onset on Yahoo! Health

Sep 10, 9:19pm    (2 reviews)  health, mental-illness, medical-research, psychosis, cannabis-marijuana  http://health.yahoo.com/news/reuters/can...

Cannabis linked to earlier psychosis onset on Yahoo! Health From the page: "Researchers from Spain have found a strong and independent link between cannabis use and the onset of psychosis at a younger age. The association, they say, cannot be explained by chance, and is not related to gender or the use of other drugs. It is, however, related to the amount of cannabis used. "The clinical importance of this finding is potentially high," Dr. Ana Gonzalez-Pinto from Santiago Apostol Hospital in Vitoria, and colleagues write in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, given that cannabis use is extremely prevalent among young people." The researchers also report that "estimates of the attributable risk suggest that the use of cannabis accounts for about 10 percent of cases of psychosis." The findings are based on 131 patients ages 15 to 65 years who needed inpatient care for a first psychotic episode during a 2-year period. The subjects were evaluated using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders, and clinical and demographic data were also collected. The results showed a significant gradual reduction in the age at which psychosis began that correlated with an increased dependence on cannabis. Compared with nonusers, age at onset was reduced by 7, 8.5, and 12 years among users, abusers and dependents, respectively, the researchers report. In further analysis, the effect of cannabis on age at onset "was not explained by the use of other drugs or by gender," they also note. The finding was similar in the youngest patients, suggesting that this effect was not due to chance. . These results "point to cannabis as a dangerous drug in young people at risk of developing psychosis," Gonzalez-Pinto and colleagues conclude." .

Fish Oils in Health and Disease, International Health News

Sep 7, 12:08am    (1 review)  health, omega-3, medical-research, fish-oil  http://www.oilofpisces.com/

Welcome to the Premier Omega-3/Fish Oil Site on the Web! FISH OIL NEWS HERE Scientists were first alerted to the many benefits of fish oils in the early 1970s when Danish physicians observed that Greenland Eskimos had an exceptionally low incidence of heart disease and arthritis despite the fact that they consumed a high-fat diet. Intensive research soon discovered that two of the fats (oils) they consumed in large quantities, EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), were actually highly beneficial. More recent research has established that fish oils (EPA and DHA) play a crucial role in the prevention of atherosclerosis, heart attack, depression, and cancer. Clinical trials have shown that fish oil supplementation is effective in the treatment of many disorders including rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, ulcerative colitis, and Raynaud's disease. An extensive medical literature testifies to the fact that fish oils prevent and may help to ameliorate or reverse atherosclerosis, angina, heart attack, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. Fish oils help maintain the elasticity of artery walls, prevent blood clotting, reduce blood pressure, stabilize heart rhythm and help combat inflammation. There is also considerable evidence that fish oil consumption can reduce the risk of breast and prostate cancer and help slow their progression. Daily supplementation with fish oils has been found effective in preventing the development of colon cancer and has also been found to help combat depression. It is clear that consuming a diet rich in oily fish or alternatively, supplementing with fish oils is one of the most important steps one can take to ensure vibrant and lasting health. HOWEVER, pollution of fresh water lakes and even the oceans is now so extensive that a growing number of species should not be consumed regularly as they contain large amounts of mercury and other industrial pollutants. Fresh, wild pacific salmon is still an excellent source of safe fish oil, but if that is not available then a high quality fish oil is the answer to ensuring that daily needs for EPA and DHA are met. Only fresh, highly purified fish oils (molecular distilled, pharmaceutical grade) stabilized with vitamin E should be consumed. Some very recent British research has shown that emulsified fish oils are absorbed at twice the rate of non-emulsified oils. Low quality oils should be avoided as they are unstable and may contain significant amounts of mercury, pesticides, and undesirable oxidation products. .