Tag: Medical Research

What Is FMT?

The weekend has finally arrived….a couple of stress free days…..and as usual I try to find subjects that are not widely written about and this time I found a totally gross one……

This is Fecal Microbiota Transplant……yep they will transplant someone’s poop in your body….eeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww!

From the Foundation that supports this treatment…….

Fecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT) is a procedure in which fecal matter, or stool, is collected from a tested donor, mixed with a saline or other solution, strained, and placed in a patient, by colonoscopy, endoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, or enema.

The purpose of fecal transplant is to replace good bacteria that has been killed or suppressed, usually by the use of antibiotics, causing bad bacteria, specifically Clostridium difficile, or C. diff., to over-populate the colon. This infection causes a condition called C. diff. colitis, resulting in often debilitating, sometimes fatal diarrhea

C. diff. is a very serious infection, and the incidence is on the rise throughout the world. The CDC reports that approximately 347,000 people in the U.S. alone were diagnosed with this infection in 2012. Of those, at least 14,000 died. Some estimates place that number in the 30,000 to 50,000 range, if the U.S. used the same cause of death reporting methods as most of the rest of the world.

Fecal transplant has also had promising results with many other digestive or auto-immune diseases, including Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Crohn’s Disease, and Ulcerative Colitis. It has also been used around the world to treat other conditions, although more research in other areas is needed.

It may be a good treatment with results….but I think I would have a hard time with the procedure……I would have to give it a lot of thought before consenting…..

The Quadruple Helix

More sciencey stuff….and I wish I was more versed in this type of science but but fortunately I will stick to politics and economics….stuff I am comfortable with….for now……

(Newser) – Scientists have spotted four-stranded DNA in humans for the first time and say it could provide a key to fighting cancer, the BBC reports. A Cambridge University team revealed the find to Nature Chemistry last year, saying the “quadruple helix” may arise when a cell is unstable or in a dysfunctional state—like one that leads to cancer. “We need to prove that; but if that is the case, targeting them with synthetic molecules could be an interesting way of selectively targeting those cells that have this dysfunction,” said Cambridge chemist Shankar Balasubramanian.

They found that four-stranded DNA occurred most often when a cell is copying its DNA right before dividing. That could link the quadruple helix to cancers, which are often caused by genes that mutate to boost DNA replication. Perhaps synthetic molecules could curb the out-of-control cell proliferation that leads to tumors: “I’m hoping now that the pharmaceutical companies will bring this on to their radar,” said Balasubramanian. Some 60 years ago, two other Cambridge scientists burst into a pub and announced their discovery of the “secret to life”: the DNA double helix.

Hopefully this could be the key to solving the cancer cure problem……but then I ask…..who will control the cure?  My bet is on big Pharma…..and they will be allowed to make up for their R&D…….in other words….lots of cash in profits.

Cyborg–2012

Can the brain be repaired?  For say a stroke victim that has lost use of an arm and a leg….is there a way to repair the damage?

There is lots of research going on and there is a possibility that the brain could be repaired…….according to the Daily Mail/BBC……..

Source:Daily Mail/BBC

Faulty parts of living brains have been replaced by electronic chips, in an astonishing and controversial scientific breakthrough.

It’s a move that has been anticipated many times in science fiction, with creatures such as The Terminator, a ‘cyborg’ hybrid of flesh and machinery.

But now, researchers at Tel Aviv University have successfully created circuits that can replace motor functions – such as blinking – and implanted them into brains.

They hope the technology could in the future help people suffering from brain malfunctions such as Parkinson’s disease – by replacing damaged or malfunctioning tissue with chips that perform the same function.

‘Imagine there’s a small area in the brain that is malfunctioning, and imagine that we understand the architecture of this damaged area,’ said Professor Matti Mintz, a psychobiologist, speaking to the BBC.

‘So we try to replicate this part of the brain with electronics.’

Mintz has already successfully implanted a robotic cerebellum into the skull of a rodent with brain damage, restoring its capacity for movement.

However, anti-vivisection campaigners have described the experiments as ‘grotesque’.

‘Imagine there’s a small area in the brain that is malfunctioning, and imagine that we understand how it works. We try to replicate this part of the brain with electronics,’ said Professor Mintz

The cerebellum is responsible for co-ordinating movement, says Mintz.

When wired to the brain, his ‘robo-cerebellum’ receives, interprets, and transmits sensory information from the brain stem, facilitating communication between the brain and the body.

To test this robotic interface between body and brain, the researchers taught a brain-damaged rat to blink whenever they sounded a particular tone.

The rat could only perform the behavior when its robotic cerebellum was functional.

According to the researcher, the chip is designed to mimic natural neuronal activity.

‘It’s a proof of the concept that we can record information from the brain, analyze it in a way similar to the biological network, and then return it to the brain,’ says Prof. Mintz, who recently presented his research at the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence meeting in Cambridge, UK.

In the future, this robo-cerebellum could lead to electronic implants that replace damaged tissues in the human brain.

Yes, this is good news for people with brain damage…….but……..(wait for it)……..once again I ask what will be done to prevent the technology from being abused?  Who will decide who gets the implant?

If there is a way for it to be abused to turn a profit…..humans will find it……and USE IT!

Puff…Puff…Puff That Cigarette!

My last day of calm and mental recreation……

I admit it…I smoke…I know…I know…it is a disgusting habit and will probably kill me…..but a butt after sex is almost as good as the act itself and a butt with morning coffee is semi-orgasmic….but it is a horrible habit and one that is as difficult to break as a caffeine monkey on your back……

So when ever I am surfing and I find something positive about my disgusting addiction, I just have to stop and read and what I recently found is good news….well as good as any disgusting habit can be……I found this in the Atlantic Wire and written by Rebecca Greenfield…….

Smoking kills, but maybe it heals, too. Nicotine, that addictive drug in cigarettes, protects from Parkinson’s disease, found a study in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Okay, so smoking, per-se doesn’t provide any health benefits, but if you feel guilty about your smoking habit (or even if you don’t), you can tell yourself you’re not ruining every part of your body as you inhale–your brain appreciates it!

Using mice as test subjects, researchers found that nicotine had the potential to rescue dopamine neurons in cultures. Slowly losing these neurons is a hallmark of Parkinson’s, so scientists believe this shows that nicotine can be used to treat Parkinsons by targeting the brain’s nicotine receptors. Smokers: at least you have that going for you.

But you also have something else to cheer about–this isn’t the first positive link found between nicotine and health. Earlier research from the Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research has shown that nicotine enhances learning and memory. Stimulating the brain’s nicotine receptors could also help treat Alzheimers, a study from the University of Maryland discovered. The drug can also reduce depression, found a study in the Journal of Pharmacology. Nicotine stimulates the release of serotonin and dopamine, which are strongly inversely associated with depression. The study also found that smokers may be more prone to depression than non-smokers. “People with depression may be self-medicating by smoking, albeit in a deadly way,” researcher Dr. Joseph McClernon added.

Nicotine could have some positive effect not just on the brain but on the heart. The drug boosts growth of blood vessels, which could lead to developments in diabetes treatment, a Stanford study found.

Okay, I have been trying to feel good about my addiction…….and I think this will about do IT!

A New SUPER Thing

My last day and back to the mental masturbation that is our political system…..

It seems that almost weekly there is a new SUPER hero hitting the screens across the country…..Green Lantern, Capt. America, yada, yada……then there are supermarkets, super bugs, super secrets and so forth……do you remember the VW called the Super Bug?……speaking of bugs…….and then there are those STD’s like syphilis, clap, herpes, aids and many more….but can we call any of them Super?

Well, to be honest…..yes we can!

From an article in the Global Post……

Scientists are warning of a new, untreatable strain of gonorrhea, discovered in a sex trade worker in Japan.

The mutant strain of gonorrhea, a common sexually transmitted disease also known as “the clap,” is resistant to penicillin and other antibiotics, according to research presented at a conference on STDs held in Quebec City, reports Canada’s National Post.

Scientists from the Swedish Reference Laboratory have warned that the new “super” strain of the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhea, dubbed H041, is resistant to cephalosporins, a fourth-generation class of antibiotics. Unemo warned of a “future era of untreatable gonorrhea,” with the STD posing a major threat to public health.Gonorrhea is one of the world’s most common STDs, but if left untreated it can cause serious, life-threatening health complications in both women and men.

Symptoms of gonorrhea include a burning sensation when urinating, and the STD can cause discharge from the genitals, the BBC says. But some 50 percent of women infected with gonorrhea, and 2 to 5 percent of men, have no symptoms.

Holy Crap!  Once again it comes down to the only sex that is practiced without the fear of some sort of infection or such is……phone sex……… and that is the new definition for “oral sex”….it is about as much enjoyment as watching someone eat a great steak….Jesus…they can just suck (no pun intended) the fun out of anything, right?

Medical Experiment? Really?

This is just SICK!

You know back in the late 1940’s a trial has being conducted in the city of Nuremberg in Germany to make the Nazis face to world and pay for their sins against humanity….Does Mengele coming to mind?  How about the Angel of Death?  Still nothing?  Then let me help…..he was the Nazi doctor that performed medical experiments on people in the concentration camps….because they were inferior and that somehow made his experiments okay……he was found guilty in abstentia because he had escape capture by fleeing to South America….

At about the same time as his trial for the sins against humanity were going on…there were other experiments being conducted along the same lines of those of Mengele…..

First there was the Tuskegee experiments….

For forty years between 1932 and 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) conducted an experiment on 399 black men in the late stages of syphilis. These men, for the most part illiterate sharecroppers from one of the poorest counties in Alabama, were never told what disease they were suffering from or of its seriousness. Informed that they were being treated for “bad blood,”1 their doctors had no intention of curing them of syphilis at all. The data for the experiment was to be collected from autopsies of the men, and they were thus deliberately left to degenerate under the ravages of tertiary syphilis—which can include tumors, heart disease, paralysis, blindness, insanity, and death. “As I see it,” one of the doctors involved explained, “we have no further interest in these patients until they die.”

Read more: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762136.html#ixzz11OqoVX3U

And now a new round of experiments have come to light:
Medical historian Susan M. Reverby happened upon the documents four or five years ago while researching the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study and later shared her findings with US government officials.

The unethical research was not publicly disclosed.

The US scientists — who had received the blessings of Guatemalan health authorities — were among the leading lights in the field of sexually transmitted disease research. Flush with optimism in the dawning era of antibiotic treatment, they decided to expose vulnerable subjects to further their understanding of the effectiveness of the new drugs in treating sexually transmitted diseases. From 1946 to 1948, they tested their theories on about 1,500 Guatemalans; most who became infected received treatment, but at least one died.

Let me see if I have this right…….Mengele was a monster and perp of crimes against humanity and yet the US was somehow doing the Lord’s work, is that about it?

There should be NO acceptance of anything along these lines and I do NOT give a sh*t what excuse you try to use…there is NO excuse!  A brutal and inhuman act is just that….NO matter how it is tried to be justified….

“Fart Gas” Linked To Blood Pressure

Sorry guys, but I could not resist this story.  With that said, I knew there was a good reason for this body function.

The gas best known for being used in many stink bombs may also control blood pressure, say US researchers.

Small amounts of hydrogen sulphide – a toxic gas generated by bacteria living in the human gut – are responsible for the foul odour of flatulence.

But it seems the gas is also produced by an enzyme in blood vessels where it relaxes them and lowers blood pressure.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University, in Maryland, found that the gas is produced in the cells lining blood vessels by an enzyme called CSE.

In mice engineered to be deficient in this enzyme, levels of hydrogen sulphide were almost depleted compared with levels in normal mice.

The CSE-deficient mice also had blood pressure measurements about 20% higher than the normal mice, comparable to serious hypertension in humans.

When the engineered mice were given a drug which relaxes normal blood vessels – methacholine – there was no difference, indicating the gas is responsible for the relaxation.

Viagra May Help Women

These types of stories just keep falling into my lap……and for some reason I cannot resist sharing them with my readers.

Recently in the WSJ, this info was published.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Pfizer Inc.’s erectile-dysfunction drug Viagra can reduce adverse sexual effects in women caused by antidepressant use.

Sales of Viagra, which haven’t grown for years, could get a boost if the findings result in a new market being opened for the drug, which first became available a decade ago.

The doctors who conducted the study, from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, estimate antidepressant treatment-associated sexual dysfunction occurs in 30% to 70% of people treated for major depression. The JAMA article said it is “believed no randomized controlled trial has demonstrated an effective treatment for women experiencing sexual dysfunction” from antidepressant drugs.

But researchers found that only 28% of women taking Viagra showed no improvement, as opposed to 73% of women taking a placebo. The study showed no serious adverse effects.

The authors noted women experience major depressive disorder at nearly double the rate of men and also experience greater subsequent sexual dysfunction. They wrote that by treating the treatment-associated problem it can “reduce the current high rates of premature medication discontinuation and improve depression disease management.”