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Washington:
A new study conducted by researchers at Tulane University suggests
that diuretics (water pills) are the most effective medication for the
treatment of high blood pressure and prevention of some forms of heart
disease in people with type 2 diabetes. This was revealed by results
from the Antihypertensive and Lipid- Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart
Attack Trial (ALLHAT) led by Paul K. Whelton. The Archives publication
was based on long-term clinical trial experience in 31,512 men and women
who were all 55 years old or older with stage 1 or stage 2 hypertension
and at least one additional risk factor for coronary heart disease.
Participants were assigned to initial treatment with either a calcium
channel blocker (amlodipine), an ACE inhibitor (lisinopril) or a diuretic
(chlorthalidone). The diuretic was more protective against heart failure
in patients with or without diabetes (by about 1/6th compared with the
ACE inhibitor, and by about 1/3rd compared with the calcium channel
blocker). It was also more protective against stroke in people with
or without diabetes and slightly more effective in lowering systolic
blood pressure-the measure of blood pressure when the heart beats-among
those with or without diabetes. "Independent of diabetes status, our
results suggest that diuretics are better than ACE inhibitors and calcium
channel blockers in preventing certain cardiovascular disease complications-especially
heart failure-during initial treatment of high blood pressure. Patients
with diabetes and high blood pressure should not change their antihypertensive
medications without discussing this option with their doctors," Whelton
added. Scientists bring dead dogs to life (Go To Top) London:
Zombies rising from the dead may no longer be the plot of a horror
flick as now, scientists have discovered a way to bring dead dogs back
to life. Using a so-called suspended animation technique, they emptied
the dead animal's veins of blood and filled them with ice-cold saline
solution to preserve the tissues and organs, reports the Daily Mail.
The animals had no heartbeat or brain activity and were classed as being
clinically dead. The saline solution was then replaced with fresh blood
and electric shocks were used to restart the heart. The dogs appeared
unharmed by their suspension and had suffered no brain damage. Scientists
at the Safar Centre in Pittsburgh hope to use the technique on humans
within a year and are in talks with hospitals about trials on trauma
patients. They believe it could save the lives of people who have suffered
massive blood loss, such as battlefield casualties or stabbings victims.
'The results are stunning. They have these dogs with complete cardiac
standstill for three hours and they recover to normality,' said trauma
surgeon Dr Howard Champion. Men should exercise abstinence to increase sperm quality (Go To Top) London:
A new study published in Fertility and Sterility suggests that sperm
from men with low sperm counts reached their peak condition after one
day of abstinence and deteriorated after more than one day without sex.
Researchers analyzed more than 9,000 sperm samples collected from more
than 6,000 men and found the duration of abstinence affected sperm quality
differently in men. They looked at whether sperm quality is affected
by the duration of sexual abstinence necessary to reach maximum sperm
quality. The abstinence duration times necessary for peak sperm quality
were quite different among men with healthy sperm versus men with low
sperm counts or other sperm quality problems. In particular, sperm motility
(percent of sperm movement) peaked after one day of abstinence in men
with infertility problems, but overall sperm quality began to decline
after two days of abstinence. Among men with normal sperm, overall sperm
quality peaked after seven days of abstinence and declined after 10
days. The findings show that men with low sperm counts who are undergoing
infertility treatments should collect sperm samples only after one day
of abstinence. But men with normal sperm who wish to become sperm donors
or freeze their sperm for future use (cyropreservation) should collect
their sperm samples after seven days of abstinence. Eating the right fish dish avoids heart failure (Go To Top) London:
Eating Tuna or other broiled or baked fish rich in Omega-3 fats
reduces the chances of congestive heart- failure among older adults
and proves more beneficial for heart- health, according to a recent
study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The study reveals that it is more important to eat the right fish dish
rather than eating more fish for heart-health benefits, reports Webmd.
According to researcher Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, MPH, FACC, the study
also shows that fried fish, particularly lean (nonfatty or white) fish,
may not provide the same heart-healthy benefits as fatty or oily fish. Stem cells could hold key to fertility (Go To Top) Washington:
A new study conducted by a researcher at the University of Sheffield,
UK suggests that human embryonic stem cells can develop in the laboratory
into the early forms of cells that eventually become eggs or sperm.
Behrouz Aflatoonian said that studies with mice embryonic stem cells
had shown that they were capable of differentiating into PGCs and subsequently
eggs and sperm, so he set out to see if the same applied to human embryonic
stem cells (HESCs). "We derived six embryonic stem cell lines from embryos
donated for research under HFEA regulations by couples undergoing IVF
treatment. In addition, we utilised cell lines from the University of
Wisconsin. The human embryonic stem cells were allowed to develop into
collections of cells called embryoid bodies," he said. "The embryoid
bodies were tested to see which genes were active, or 'expressed', in
them and it was found that within two weeks a very tiny proportion of
cells in the embryoid bodies began to express some of the genes that
are found in human primordial germ cells. Some cells also expressed
proteins only found in maturing sperm. This suggests that HESCs may
have the ability to develop into PGCs and early gametes as has been
shown previously for mouse embryonic stem cells," he added. "Ultimately
it might be possible to produce sperm and eggs for use in assisted conception
treatments. This is a long way off and we would have to prove it was
safe because, for example, the culture process may cause genetic changes.
For some men and women this would be the only route for producing sperm
and eggs. It would not be reproductive cloning as fertilisation would
involve only one set of gametes produced in this way and therefore a
unique embryo would form," he concluded. Exposure to sunlight halves prostate cancer risk Washington:
A new study published in the recent issue of Cancer Research has
found that increased exposure to sunlight may help decrease the risk
of prostate cancer. The study led by Dr. Esther John of the Northern
California Cancer Center, Dr. Sue Ingles of the University of Southern
California and Dr. Gary G. Schwartz of the Comprehensive Cancer Center
of Wake Forest University found that men with high sun exposure had
half the risk of prostate cancer than did men with low sun exposure.
"We believe that sunlight helps to reduce the risk of prostate cancer
because the body manufactures the active form of vitamin D from exposure
to sunlight," Dr. John said, adding that in men with certain gene variants,
risk was reduced even further, to as much as 65 percent. Dr. Schwartz,
who in a previous study had shown that the prostate uses vitamin D to
promote the normal growth of prostate cells, said, "The genes involved
are those that determine the type of vitamin D receptors a person has.
These receptors, which function with vitamin D like a lock and key,
vary in their ability to bind vitamin D and thus to influence cell behavior."
The researchers compared 450 non-Hispanic white patients in the San
Francisco Bay area who had advanced prostate cancer with a matched control
group of 455 men who did not have prostate cancer. They measured sun
exposure by comparing pigmentation of underarm skin, which is usually
not exposed to sunlight, with forehead pigmentation, which is, using
a portable reflectometer. They found that there was no difference in
the underarm measurement between the prostate cancer cases and the control
group. But when the forehead color was compared to the underarm color,
the control group had significantly darker pigmentation than the cancer
patients. "Reduced risk of advanced prostate cancer was associated with
high sun exposure determined by reflectometry and high occupational
outdoor activity," the researchers said. The researchers, however, said
that the sunlight is not the only source of vitamin D, and that men
should not try to reduce their risk of prostate cancer by sunbathing
because that increases the risk of sun-induced skin cancer, especially
melanoma. They said that increasing vitamin D intake from diet and supplements
might be the safest solution to achieve adequate levels of vitamin D. Scientists create brain cells in lab (Go To Top) Washington:
US scientists have developed for the first time brain cells under
laboratory conditions. Scientists from the University of Florida's McKnight
Brain Institute have successfully created a system that duplicates neurogenesis,
or the process of generating new brain cells and that too in a dish,
under laboratory conditions, using mice cells. "It's like an assembly
line to manufacture and increase the number of brain cells. We can basically
take these cells and freeze them until we need them. Then we thaw them,
begin a cell- generating process, and produce a ton of new neurons,"
Bjorn Scheffler, M.D., a neuroscientist with UF's College of Medicine
said. The findings, which appear in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, states that brain cell culture that provides an
opportunity to produce a limitless supply of a person's own brain cells,
can prove a boon for treating Parkinson's disease or epilepsy. "We've
isolated for the first time what appears to be the true candidate stem
cell. There have been other candidates, but in this case we used a special
microscope that allows us to watch living cells over long periods of
time through a method called live-cell microscopy, so we've actually
witnessed the stem cell give rise to new neurons. Possibly a different
method may come up to identify the mother of all stem cells, but we're
confident this is it," he added. Scientists, who had earlier found out
that the brain continues to produce new cells even in adulthood, have
said that earlier experiments to attempt neurogenesis in laboratory
have proved unsuccessful. For their study, scientists used mice cells,
which were treated with chemicals. The entire process was photographed
at intervals of five minutes each for 30 hours and the images compiled
as a movie. The findings revealed that the neurogenesis did not necessarily
require the environmental cues of the host brain to differentiate them
from the cell Scientists have now opined that by watching the cells
perform they can now make judgments and influence the capacity of the
cells to generate specific neurons. "As far as regenerating parts of
the brain that have degenerated, such as in Parkinson's disease, Huntington's
disease and others of that nature, the ability to regenerate the needed
cell type and placing it in the correct spot would have major impact.
In terms of tumors, it's known that stem-like cells have characteristics
much like cancer cells. Knowing what makes these cells tick may help
by furthering our knowledge of the biology of the tumor," said Dr. Eric
Holland, a neurosurgeon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in
New York. Earth's bigger cousin spotted in space! (Go To Top) Washington:
US researchers claim to have discovered a planet similar to Earth
some 15 light years away. According to them, the main differences between
Earth and its bigger cousin are, that it is some 7.5 times more massive
than the Earth and has a radius twice that of the Earth, and that it
revolves around its parent star Gliese 876 in a circular orbit only
two million miles away, or 0.021 astronomical units (AU), as compared
to 93 million miles between the Earth and the Sun. "This is the smallest
extrasolar planet yet detected and the first of a new class of rocky
terrestrial planets. It's like Earth's bigger cousin," team member Paul
Butler of the Carnegie Institution, Washington said. "This planet answers
an ancient question. Over 2,000 years ago, the Greek philosophers Aristotle
and Epicurus argued about whether there were other Earth-like planets.
Now, for the first time, we have evidence for a rocky planet around
a normal star," said team leader Geoffrey Marcy, professor of astronomy
at the University of California, Berkeley. The researchers who presented
their findings at the National Science Foundation, (NSF), Arlington,
and have presented a detailed report to the Astrophysical Journal said
that the finding is significant as are all the other 150 extrasolar
planets, orbiting stars were found to be larger than Uranus, about 15
times the mass of Earth. They however, said that the planet's nearness
to the star meant that the planet had temperatures within the range
of 200-400 degrees Celsius or 400-750 degrees Fahrenheit, temperatures
too hot for life to survive. The planet's orbit, they said, was about
one-tenth the size of Mercury's orbit in our own solar system, adding
that the system also included two other Jupiter-size planets. Researchers
have said that though they have no proof of the planet being rocky,
its low mass however, rules out the possibility of the planet retaining
gas like Jupiter. "In a two-day orbit, it's about 200 degrees Celsius
too hot for liquid water. That tends to lead us to the conclusion that
the most probable composition of this thing is like the inner planets
of this solar system - a nickel/iron rock, a rocky planet, a terrestrial
planet," added Butler. "The planet's mass could easily hold onto an
atmosphere. It would still be considered a rocky planet, probably with
an iron core and a silicon mantle. It could even have a dense steamy
water layer. I think what we are seeing here is something that's intermediate
between a true terrestrial planet like the Earth and a hot version of
the ice giants Uranus and Neptune," said, Jack Lissauer from NASA/Ames
Research Center and an assistant professor of astronomy at UC Santa
Cruz. Curcumin in turmeric may curb breast cancer spread (Go To Top) Washington:
Turmeric powder, which is commonly used in Indian cooking, contains
a chemical called Curcumin, which may help curb breast cancer from spreading,
a new research has revealed. The study by Texas University researchers
involved mice instead of human beings, and therefore, the researchers
are not suggesting people to use curcumin for cancer-related reasons.
"Curcumin could be of tremendous value if it's shown to be effective
in humans, but we're a long way from being able to make any recommendations
yet," WebMd quoted Dr. Bharat Aggarwal as saying. Turmeric, which has
also been a traditional medicine in India for quite a long time, is
now also getting attention from the West. And Curcumin, an antioxidant
that gives turmeric its yellow colour, is on the National Cancer Society's
list of compounds that have shown some evidence of cancer prevention.
During the course of study, the researchers divided the mice into four
treatment groups - curcumin alone, the breast cancer drug Taxol alone,
curcumin and Taxol, and no treatment. After studying them for five weeks,
they found that cancer had spread to the lungs of mice in all groups,
but the curcumin groups fared best. In the curcumin-plus-Taxol less
than 25 percent of the mice had cancer that spread to the lungs, whereas
in curcumin, Taxol and no treatment group it was 50, 70 and 95 percent
respectively. The results were unexpected, so the researchers repeated
the test, and let the cancers grow a little bit bigger before removing
them. After five weeks, half of the mice in the curcumin and curcumin-plus-Taxol
groups had cancer in their lungs. "Curcumin acts against transcription
factors, which are like a master switch. Transcription factors regulate
all the genes needed for tumors to form. When we turn them off, we shut
down some genes that are involved in the growth and invasion of cancer
cells," Aggarwal said. Discovery on abdominal fat in women (Go To Top) Washington:
In a new study researchers at the Oregon Health & Science University
have explored the reasons of the accumulation of central body fat in
middle-aged women and a method for counteracting the obesity problem.
"The obesity epidemic is not only expanding the waistlines of Americans.
It is also being connected to the unhealthy surge in type 2 diabetes
cases, cardiovascular disease and other associated disorders. For women,
a sudden increase in weight often occurs following menopause. This not
only raises obesity- related health concerns. The weight gain also can
be an emotionally difficult occurrence for aging women," said Bethany
Klopfenstein, a fellow in the division of endocrinology of the OHSU
School of Medicine. For the study , scientists observed a group of 46
pre and postmenopausal women. In the postmenopausal group, some of the
women were receiving hormone replacement therapy, others were not. After
analyses researchers determined that the drop in estrogen levels commonly
associated with menopause is linked to an increase in a form of the
hormone cortisol. Another important finding was that postmenopausal
women who were not receiving hormone replacement therapy had higher
cortisol levels than those who were receiving therapy. On an average,
these untreated women(with higher cortisol levels) also witnessed an
increase in abdominal fat when compared with women receiving the therapy.
"These findings also suggest that estrogen replacement therapy protects
women from developing high cortisol levels and increased abdominal fat,"
said Jonathan Purnell, an associate professor of medicine (endocrinology,
diabetes and clinical nutrition) in the OHSU School of Medicine and
a researcher in OHSU's Center for the Study of Weight Regulation and
Associated Disorders. "We believe that by preventing this rise in cortisol,
we can possibly delay or prevent weight issues and the many weight-
associated disorders in some of these women,"Purnell added. To further
confirm the relationship between estrogen replacement and cortisol levels,
researchers treated seven postmenopausal women not already undergoing
hormone replacement therapy with a synthetic form of estrogen. After
one month of therapy, these women, who all previously had heightened
cortisol levels, witnessed decreased cortisol at levels close to that
of premenopausal women. It also suggests that over a time, this group
of women may also witness a decrease in abdominal fat. However, more
long-term studies involving delayed estrogen replacement therapy would
be required to confirm this theory. Buddhist meditation has clues to brain regulation (Go To Top) Washington:
Researchers have uncovered clues to how mental states--and their
underlying neural mechanisms--can impact conscious visual experience.
The skills developed by Tibetan Buddhist monks in their practice of
a certain type of meditation can strongly influence their experience
of a phenomenon, termed "perceptual rivalry," that deals with attention
and consciousness, says the study which appeared in the latest issue
of Current Biology. Perceptual rivalry arises normally when two different
images are presented to each eye. It is manifested as a fluctuation--
typically, over the course of seconds--in the "dominant" image that
is consciously perceived. The neural events underlying perceptual rivalry
are not well understood but are thought to involve brain mechanisms
that regulate attention and conscious wareness, reported Olivia Carter
and Jack Pettigrew of the University of Queensland, Australia, and colleagues
at the University of Queensland and the University of California, Berkeley.
Previous work had suggested that skilled meditation can alter certain
aspects of the brain's neural activity. In this study the researchers
investigated the extent to which certain types of trained meditative
practice can influence the conscious experience of visual perceptual
rivalry. The study,carried out at or near their mountain retreats in
the Himalaya, Zanskar, and Ladakhi Ranges of India, was participated
by seventy six Tibetan Buddhist monks. They possessed meditative training
ranging from 5 to 54 years. Among the group were three "retreatist"
meditators, each with at least 20 years of experience in isolated retreats.
The researchers tested the experience of visual rivalry by monks during
the practice of two types of meditation: a "compassion"- oriented meditation(described
as a contemplation of suffering within the world combined with an emanation
of loving kindness) and one-point meditation (described as the maintained
focus of attention on a single object or thought) a focus that leads
to a stability and clarity of mind. Some major increases in the durations
of perceptual dominance were experienced by monks practicing one-point
meditation. Within this group, three monks, including two of the retreatists,
reported complete visual stability during the entire five-minute meditation
period. Increases in duration of perceptual dominance were also seen
in monks after a period of one-point meditation. In a different test
of perceptual rivalry(prior to any meditation) the duration of stable
perception experienced by monks averaged 4.1 seconds, compared to 2.6
seconds for meditation-naove control subjects. Interestingly, when instructed
to actively maintain the duration, one of the retreatist monks could
maintain a constant visual perception during this test for 723 seconds.
The findings suggest that processes particularly associated with one-point
meditation--perhaps involving intense attentional focus and the ability
to stabilize the mind--contribute to the prolonged rivalry dominance
experienced by the monks. The researchers conclude that individuals,
trained in meditation, can considerably alter the normal fluctuations
in conscious state that are induced by perceptual rivalry. They suggest,
in combination with previous work, the new findings support the idea
that perceptual rivalry can be modulated by high-level, top-down neural
influences. Maturity gene discovered (Go To Top) Washington:
A new study conducted by researchers at University of Utah has found
that a fruit fly gene is crucial for determining when juveniles begin
to mature into adults, and how the transformation initially proceeds.
This could explain how adorable children become surly teenagers in humans.
"We identified a gene that is needed for the animal to progress through
normal juvenile development to maturation. Without this gene, the juvenile
stage is shortened, and it enters adulthood early. The animal then dies
because the gene also is needed for continued maturation," lead researcher
Carl Thummel said. Thummel and colleagues raised fruit flies in vials
containing a gelatinous food made of agar, cornmeal, molasses and yeast.
They disabled the DHR4 gene using two methods: conventional "knockout"
technology and a newer method in which the gene was "silenced." By showing
what happened when the gene was disabled, the researchers determined
the normal gene has two key functions: DHR4 determines when metamorphosis
should begin, when the fly should begin changing from juvenile to adult.
If the gene was crippled, fly larvae started metamorphosis too soon,
and became prepupae that were lighter and shorter than normal. The gene
also is needed for the early stages of metamorphosis to proceed; it
plays a role in turning on and off other genes that control metamorphosis
in response to a steroid hormone named ecdysone, which is emitted by
a gland as the larval stages end. When the gene was disabled, the fly
larvae started metamorphosis but died within 12 hours. In some, their
heads failed to emerge from their bodies. "In insects, the larval period
is exclusively devoted to growth. Insects are pests because, in their
larval form, they consume many times their body weight in food, which
can include our crops. ... When babies are born, they are 7 or 8 pounds.
By the time they are entering puberty, they are about 80 pounds. That's
about a 10-fold increase in weight. Innocent childhood is a period essentially
dedicated to growth, much like insects," Thummel added. The scientists
concluded that the DHR4 gene controls the timing of metamorphosis and
its initial stages by coordinating how hormones respond when a fruit
fly larva has gained enough weight - and stored enough food - to begin
the transformation to adulthood. When the gene was deactivated, larvae
did not know whether or not they had gained enough weight, so they entered
metamorphosis one day early and began adulthood as prepupae that were
40 percent lighter than normal and 60 percent to 90 percent of normal
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