Kill shot: Pushing diseases to the edge of eradication - health - 16 June 2014. How do you wipe out a disease? (Image: Sven Torfinn/Panos) We obliterated smallpox 35 years ago, so what will it take to wipe other diseases, like polio and HIV, off the face of the planet today? ON 12 October 1977, Ali Maow Maalin, a 23-year-old hospital cook in the city of Merca, Somalia, embarked on a journey that would both change his life and mark a moment in history. He encountered a driver in need of directions, and ended up joining him and his passengers to help guide them to their destination, just 15 minutes away. The passengers were two children. He saw they had rashes and bumps on their face but thought nothing of it. Had he realised the nature of the place he was directing them to, he might have thought twice. Team discovers Achilles' heel in antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Scientists at the University of East Anglia have made a breakthrough in the race to solve antibiotic resistance.
New research published today in the journal Nature reveals an Achilles' heel in the defensive barrier which surrounds drug-resistant bacterial cells. The findings pave the way for a new wave of drugs that kill superbugs by bringing down their defensive walls rather than attacking the bacteria itself. It means that in future, bacteria may not develop drug-resistance at all. The discovery doesn't come a moment too soon. Researchers investigated a class of bacteria called 'Gram-negative bacteria' which is particularly resistant to antibiotics because of its cells' impermeable lipid-based outer membrane. This outer membrane acts as a defensive barrier against attacks from the human immune system and antibiotic drugs. Until now little has been known about exactly how the defensive barrier is built. "This is really important because drug-resistant bacteria is a global health problem. Fasting for three days renews entire immune system, protects cancer patients, ‘remarkable’ new study finds.
Fasting for three days can regenerate the entire immune system, even in the elderly, scientists have found in a breakthrough described as “remarkable.” Dr. Aw: Key to extending human lifespans lies in preventing chronic inflammation, research suggests Why can some people smoke a pack a day and never get lung cancer? Why do 50% of the people who get heart attacks have normal levels of cholesterol? The emerging field of epigenomics is at the heart of the biggest mysteries in medicine.
Last week, I was at a medical conference in New Orleans when I heard a talk by Dr. Dr. Read more… Although fasting diets have been criticized by nutritionists, research suggests that starving the body kick-starts stem cells into producing more white blood cells, which fight off infection. Scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) say the discovery could be particularly beneficial for those suffering from damaged immune systems, such as cancer patients on chemotherapy.
Learn a second language to slow ageing brain's decline - health - 03 June 2014. Feel too old or too stupid to learn a second language? It may be worth persevering. A study that tracked hundreds of Scottish people for decades is the strongest evidence yet that speaking an extra language slows the mental decline that accompanies ageing. The benefits hold regardless of your IQ and even if you learn your second tongue as an adult. Previous studies have shown that people with Alzheimer's disease who are fluent in two languages exhibit symptoms of the condition four or five years later than people who are monolingual, and that people who are bilingual perform better in some cognitive tests.
However, it has been difficult to disentangle the effects of knowing multiple language from other factors. To resolve the issue, Thomas Bak of the University of Edinburgh, UK, and his colleagues turned to the Lothian Birth Cohort study, which has tracked about 1100 people born in 1936 in and around Edinburgh. The study wasn't designed to investigate language effects. Mental workout. I'm cracking the code to regrow human limbs - opinion - 02 June 2014. Lizards and tadpoles can regenerate lost limbs – so why can't we?
Biologist Michael Levin wants to use bioelectricity to do just that You are working on ways to regrow body parts. Can many species naturally regenerate limbs? A number of animals can regrow lost limbs. If a predator catches a lizard by the tail, for example, it will often end up with just the tail as the lizard scurries off. To escape, lizards can shed their tails on purpose, and they also have a remarkable ability to regrow them. Some insects, such as cockroaches, can regenerate their legs, as can salamanders, starfish and lobsters. When something is regenerated, is ... How to be a good mayor of your body's microbe city - health - 19 May 2014. (Image: Tim McDonagh) When Jop de Vrieze met the bacteria that call him home, he set out to learn how to keep them happy and himself healthy THERE they are: my microbes. I feel like someone who's just been introduced to a group of lost relatives.
Staring through a microscope, I see a cluster of Staphylococcusepidermidis bacteria sitting together in a Petri dish. They look like a bunch of grapes. Until yesterday, they were living in my armpit. I had set out on a quest to learn about my microbiome and how it affects my health. There are many trillions of microbial organisms living in and on our bodies, outnumbering our own cells 3 to 1. ... How to be a good mayor of your body's microbe city - health - 19 May 2014. (Image: Tim McDonagh) When Jop de Vrieze met the bacteria that call him home, he set out to learn how to keep them happy and himself healthy THERE they are: my microbes. I feel like someone who's just been introduced to a group of lost relatives. Staring through a microscope, I see a cluster of Staphylococcusepidermidis bacteria sitting together in a Petri dish. They look like a bunch of grapes. Until yesterday, they were living in my armpit. I had set out on a quest to learn about my microbiome and how it affects my health.
There are many trillions of microbial organisms living in and on our bodies, outnumbering our own cells 3 to 1. ... Harvard Scientists May Have Just Unlocked the Secret to Staying Young Forever. The news: This new finding sounds like it's straight out of a vampire movie: Scientists have discovered the secret to maintaining youth and health, and it's receiving fresh, young blood. On Sunday, three separate studies came out with evidence that blood infusions can rejuvenate the human body and reverse effects of aging in the brain, muscles, heart and other organs.
So far, experiments have been only conducted on mice, but researchers strongly believe that a similar therapy will work on humans. "The evidence is strong enough now, in multiple tissues, that it's warranted to try and apply this in humans," said Saul Villeda, a lead author in one of the studies. "There's something about young blood that can literally reverse the impairments you see in the older brain. " Image Credit: Science The UCSF study linked the de-aging effect to a protein called Creb (cyclic AMP response element-binding protein), which is bolstered by young plasma. And that's all good news for humans. Eileen Shim. First stem cell trial for stroke shows lasting benefits - health - 09 May 2014. People who received the world's first stem cell treatment for strokes have shown measurable reductions in disability and handicap a year after the injection into their damaged brains. Some can move limbs and manage everyday tasks that were impossible before they received an injection of neural progenitor stem cells, which were clones of cells originally taken from the cortex of a donated fetus.
Apart from physical rehabilitation, there are few treatments for people left severely disabled by a stroke. Demand for more options is high, with 800,000 new cases each year in the US and 150,000 in the UK. "We're encouraged, and it's a nice progressive piece of news," says Michael Hunt, the chief executive officer of ReNeuron, the company in Guildford, UK, that developed the treatment. "We must be circumspect, but we are seeing what seems to be a general trend towards improvement in a disparate group of patients," he says. Off the plateau More From New Scientist Push-button pleasure (New Scientist) New medical gel grows bone tissue exactly where you need it.
Repairing seriously damaged bones is normally a delicate art; while you want to regrow bones quickly, you also have to carefully manage that growth to produce the right shape. Thankfully, Rice University has created a gel that makes it easier to produce only the bone tissue a patient needs. The material kickstarts bone regeneration using a patient's stem cells, but it also dictates where that growth occurs by forming a scaffold that degrades only when tissue takes its place. Effectively, doctors just have to fill an area with the gel and wait for nature to do the rest. The technique should initially be useful for repairing skull damage, but it's likely to be handy for both less vital operations and cosmetic surgery -- don't be surprised if doctors can eventually give you a facelift by reshaping your cheekbones.
[Image credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University] Comments. Pull arsenic from drinking water and convert to bricks - tech - 28 March 2014. MORE than 100 million people around the world are exposed to dangerous levels of arsenic, which is found naturally in groundwater but has no obvious taste or odour. Its effects build up over time, slowly poisoning the body and leading to serious problems like heart disease, cancer and reproductive issues.
Now a project aims to filter it out of drinking water – and lock it up in the concrete of new buildings. A team at the University of California, Berkeley, is planning a trial to filter 10,000 litres of water every day in rural sites across India. Susan Amrose and her team have designed a container that can hold 600 litres of water pumped in directly from a nearby well. Inside, it is fitted with a series of steel plates. The technology has already been tested at a rural high school in Dhopdhopi, south of Kolkata, and now the team plans to start a year-long trial in which local people manage the filtration themselves. But the system is not just for poorer nations.
More From New Scientist. Revealed: Scientists ‘edit’ DNA to correct adult genes and cure diseases - Science - News. Scientists have used the genome-editing technology to cure adult laboratory mice of an inherited liver disease by correcting a single “letter” of the genetic alphabet which had been mutated in a vital gene involved in liver metabolism. A similar mutation in the same gene causes the equivalent inherited liver disease in humans – and the successful repair of the genetic defect in laboratory mice raises hopes that the first clinical trials on patients could begin within a few years, scientists said.
The success is the latest achievement in the field of genome editing. This has been transformed by the discovery of Crispr, a technology that allows scientists to make almost any DNA changes at precisely defined points on the chromosomes of animals or plants. Crispr – pronounced “crisper” – was initially discovered in 1987 as an immune defence used by bacteria against invading viruses. Correcting genetic code graphic. Deaf people get gene tweak to restore natural hearing - 23 April 2014. People who have lost their hearing will be injected with a harmless virus carrying a gene that should trigger the regrowth of their ears’ sensory receptors IN TWO months' time, a group of profoundly deaf people could be able to hear again, thanks to the world's first gene therapy trial for deafness.
The volunteers, who lost their hearing through damage or disease, will get an injection of a harmless virus containing a gene that should trigger the regrowth of the sensory receptors in the ear. The idea is that the method will return a more natural sense of hearing than other technologies can provide. Hearing aids merely amplify sounds, while cochlear implants transform sound waves into electrical waves that the brain interprets, but they don't pick up all of the natural frequencies. This means people can find it difficult to distinguish many of the nuances in voices and music. There are still many things we don't know about how the ear works. Sticking plasters More From New Scientist. Harsh world makes kids' chromosomes look middle-aged - health - 07 April 2014.
Children growing up in severely disadvantaged circumstances can experience drastic chromosome ageing. By the time they are 9 years old their telomeres – the caps on the ends of chromosomes that shrink each time cells divide – can be as short as those of someone decades older. And a particular combination of genes seems to make children flourish in nurturing environments but suffer in harsh environments. Daniel Notterman from Penn State University in University Park and colleagues found the effect in a group of 40 9-year-old boys, half of whom were from extremely harsh backgrounds and half from privileged ones. Telomeres protect chromosomes from damage, so their shortening over time is thought to be responsible for some of the negative effects of ageing.
Children whose mothers had changed partners more than once by the time they were 9 had telomeres 40 per cent shorter than those whose mothers didn't change relationships. Early intervention More From New Scientist More from the web. Stress Alters Children's Genomes - Scientific American. Pasieka/Science Photo Library Telomeres (shown in red) protect the ends of chromosomes from fraying over time. Growing up in a stressful social environment leaves lasting marks on young chromosomes, a study of African American boys has revealed. Telomeres, repetitive DNA sequences that protect the ends of chromosomes from fraying over time, are shorter in children from poor and unstable homes than in children from more nurturing families.
When researchers examined the DNA of 40 boys from major US cities at age 9, they found that the telomeres of children from harsh home environments were 19% shorter than those of children from advantaged backgrounds. The study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1, brings researchers closer to understanding how social conditions in childhood can influence long-term health, says Elissa Epel, a health psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the research. MicroRNA May Block All Strains of Hepatitis C. Virtual clone: A guinea-pig twin will keep you healthy - health - 18 March 2014. Could Stem Cells Breathe New Life into the Field of Blood Substitution? What You Need to Know about Flame Retardants. Pancreatic cancer's killer trick offers treatment hope - health - 28 February 2014. Guarire miracolosamente o spontaneamente?
Healing by faeces: Rise of the DIY gut-bug swap - health - 28 February 2014. Meat and cheese may be as bad for you as smoking. Healing by faeces: Rise of the DIY gut-bug swap - health - 28 February 2014. Origin of organs: Thank viruses for your skin and bone - life - 27 February 2014. Some breastfeeding benefits questioned by US study - health - 27 February 2014.
Making Babies with 3 Genetic Parents Gets FDA Hearing. Grandma's Experiences Leave Epigenetic Mark on Your Genes. Testicular time bomb: Older dads' mutant sperm - health - 20 February 2014. 'Prostate cancer test has been misused for money' - opinion - 17 February 2014. Mammograms Fail to Reduce Breast Cancer Deaths, Study Finds. Why We Are Not Getting Enough Sleep | MIND Guest Blog. Ishihara 38 Plates CVD Test | Colblindor. Nanomotors move inside cells. The next step: 3D printing the human body. Researchers reverse symptoms of ageing with 1 week of treatment. Will a Nicotine Patch Make You Smarter? [Excerpt] Natural sense of touch restored with bionic hand - tech - 05 February 2014. Rethinking schizophrenia: Taming demons without drugs - health - 06 February 2014. Threatwatch: Mother virus of China's deadly bird flu - health - 31 January 2014.
Sugar on trial: What you really need to know - health - 30 January 2014. Sugar on trial: What you really need to know - health - 30 January 2014. Cancro, acidosi e dieta alcalina | Minerva. How Intermittent Fasting Might Help You Live a Longer and Healthier Life. Sugar on trial: What you really need to know - health - 30 January 2014. Peanut allergy cured in children using immunotherapy - health - 30 January 2014. Psychobiotics: How gut bacteria mess with your mind - opinion - 29 January 2014. The physicist fighting cancer's social network - opinion - 22 January 2014. Psychobiotics: How gut bacteria mess with your mind - opinion - 29 January 2014. Peanut allergy cured in children using immunotherapy - health - 30 January 2014. Stem cell power unleashed after 30 minute dip in acid - health - 29 January 2014.
Giant leaps of evolution make cancer cells deadly - health - 23 January 2014. Science 'wrong' in EU's proposed e-cigarette law - health - 23 January 2014. Defusing dementia: Why is risk of Alzheimer's falling? - health - 09 January 2014. Science 'wrong' in EU's proposed e-cigarette law - health - 23 January 2014. Research linking autism symptoms to gut microbes called 'groundbreaking' Ultrasound killed the surgical star - health - 06 January 2014. Ultrasound killed the surgical star - health - 06 January 2014. Delicate Eye Cells Are Latest to Be 3D-Printed. Turning back time: ageing reversed in mice - health - 19 December 2013. Genetic test screens embryo without disturbing it - health - 20 December 2013. Diet switch sparks gut bug revolution in just 24 hours - health - 11 December 2013. A healthier diet costs $1.50 more per day - health - 06 December 2013. Fear of a smell can be passed down several generations - life - 01 December 2013.
How we evolved to trade longevity for vitality - life - 02 December 2013. Are Alzheimer's and diabetes the same disease? - health - 27 November 2013. Too much, too young: Should schooling start at age 7? - opinion - 18 November 2013. Mind gym: Putting meditation to the test - life - 11 January 2011. 'Bubble kid' success puts gene therapy back on track - health - 30 October 2013. HIV infection figures tumbling around the world - health - 26 September 2013. Healthy living can turn our cells' clock back - health - 17 September 2013. The matrix: the secret to superhealing regeneration - health - 12 September 2013. The matrix: the secret to superhealing regeneration - health - 12 September 2013. Play your way to evolutionary fitness - life - 09 September 2013. Your Thoughts Can Release Abilities beyond Normal Limits. Booster shots: The accidental advantages of vaccines - health - 20 August 2013. 10 Simple Things You Can Do Today That Will Make You Happier, Backed By Science.
First decrease in US childhood obesity - health - 09 August 2013. Ten Simple Things You Can Do to Be Happier, Backed by Science. Ten Simple Things You Can Do to Be Happier, Backed by Science. This 7-Minute, Research-Based Workout Exercises Your Whole Body. Food vs you: How your dinner controls you - health - 06 August 2013.
Fixing broken brains: a new understanding of depression - health - 29 July 2013. Naked mole rats reveal why they are immune to cancer - health - 19 June 2013. Humans are endurance champs – why do we hate exercise? - opinion - 06 June 2013. Scanadu Scout, the first Medical Tricorder. Suicidal behaviour is a disease, psychiatrists argue - health - 17 May 2013. Role of the Nervous System in Deciding How Long We Live. Genes in the brain keep bad time when we are depressed - health - 13 May 2013. Young blood reverses heart decline in old mice - health - 09 May 2013.
Age-defying: Master key of lifespan found in brain - health - 01 May 2013. Exercise - What the Research Says - ImmortalLife.net. China bird flu may be two mutations from a pandemic - health - 10 April 2013. Gene therapy cures leukaemia in eight days - health - 26 March 2013. Internal compass points cells towards injury - health - 06 April 2013. Red meat boosts gut bugs that raise heart disease risk - health - 07 April 2013.
FAO-recommended method demonstrates dairy protein 'superiority' - IDF. Sleep and dreaming: Where do our minds go at night? - life - 05 February 2013. Sleep and dreaming: Slumber at the flick of a switch - 30 January 2013.