Delta Dental Urges Patients To Request Oral Cancer Exams From Dentists
In light of new given conditions connecting oral cancer to the human papillomavirus (HPV) and to commemorate National Oral Cancer Awareness Week April 7-13, Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana is calling for patients to request an oral cancer exam during their regular dental check-up.
According to the Oral Cancer Foundation, approximately 34,000 people will be affected by oral cancer in the United States this year and roughly 8,000 will die. This translates to one death every hour of every day.
in that place are new reasons to be concerned about vocal cancer. In the past, oral cancer predominately struck men, adults over 40, African Americans, smokers and heavy alcohol drinkers. A 2007 study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and published by the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that HPV is strenuously associated with oral cancer among people without traditional risk factors of tobacco and alcohol abuse.
Additionally, according to a U.S. News and World Report article, a February 2008 study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology announced that during 1973 and 2004, there had been a near doubling of the incidence of HPV-related oral cancers among people in their 40s.
“Due to oral cancer’s association with the HPV virus and the fact that we are seeing more cases of oral cancer in women and younger people who chouse not smoke or drink, it’s crucial for patients to ask their dentist for an oral cancer exam during regular check-ups,” said Dr. Jed Jacobson, senior vice president and chief philosophical knowledge magistrate at Delta Dental. “We also call on dentists to tell their patients they are performing an oral cancer exam, and if a suspicious stain is found, to adopt the use of the OralCDx BrushTest™ - an adjunctive diagnostic tool that identifies precancerous cells or oral cancer in its earliest stages. For those who know they carry the HPV virus, it is imperative that they divide this information with their dentist upfront.”
Signs and symptoms of oral cancer include:
- Non-healing red or white spots that appear on the gums, cheeks or in a less degree than the tongue
- Swelling of the tongue or throat
- A lump in the mouth or neck
- Painful or difficulty swallowing or chewing
- Numbness in the mouth region
- Vocal harshness that lasts for an extended era
- Tiny marks that resemble canker sores that last longer than pair weeks
- Sores that bleed and don’t heal (in later stages)
Oral cancer exams are quick, painless and involve an evaluation of the neck, head strong, mouth, gums, throat and tongue. by dint of. using a piece of gauze to move the tongue from side-to-side, the dentist can examine the tongue and floor of the mouth. If an unexplained red or white spot is found, the BrushTest™ can be used to painlessly collect cell samples. Delta Dental is one of the first dental benefits providers in the United States to foot up coverage of the brush test to its core group of covered services.
Like many cancers, the key to surviving oral cancer is early detection. The death rate associated with oral cancer is particularly high, not because it is hard to lay bare or diagnose, but because the cancer is routinely discovered late in its development. Detecting oral cancer in its early stages is imperative and be possible to dramatically increase the five-year survival rate from approximately 57 percent to 81 percent.
In addition to saving lives, early detection has the potential to significantly reduce medical treatment costs. Oral cancer is one of the most expensive forms to treat, with an advanced sheathe costing upward of $200,000. Patients with oral cancer treated in its early stages face less chances of post-treatment disfigurement. Fifty-two percent of oral cancer victims do not return to work due to disability. When detected early, treatment tends to subsist more conservative, producing fewer complications and permanent disfigurements.
“If someone notices any of the signs or symptoms associated with oral cancer, they should beware a dental surgeon immediately,” said Jacobson. “We want the public to be as familiar with the dangers of oral cancer as they are with breast, colon or cervical cancer. We call on dentists to know who is at risk and perceive what to look for. It’s vitally important that both dentists and patients alike help raise awareness of this deadly, however preventable disease.”
For more information about Delta Dental and benefits of the BrushTest™, visit http://www.deltadentalmi.com/
The affiliated companies of Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, along with Delta Dental of Tennessee, are collectively one of the largest dental plan administrators in the commonwealth. In 2007, the enterprise paid out nearly $1.8 billion for dental care for more than 6.2 million enrollees. Offices are located in Okemos and Farmington Hills, Mich.; Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio; Indianapolis and Greenwood, Ind; and, Nashville, Knoxville, and Memphis, Tenn.
Delta dental
Polymedco Presents Rapid Whole Blood Immunoassay Analyzer
Polymedco introduces PATHFAST immunoassay analyzer. The PATHFAST rapid point of care classification utilizes a chemiluminescent technology combined with a unique magtration separation method that allows this universe to report highly accurate results that compare to large platform instruments.
The PATHFAST system employs particular cartridge-based technology utilizing a whole blood sample.
The PATHFAST system can handle six samples in batch or random access mode and report these six results in 17 minutes. The PATHFAST analyzer and NTproBNP assay have recently been 510(k) cleared by the FDA. Polymedco has submitted another assay with the FDA and will file three more by the end of April. Polymedco expects to have seven assays cleared by the end of 2008.
The at the head menu will exist related to cardiac proteins, fibrin degradation products, high sensitive c-reactive protein and beta human chorionic gonadotropin.
The PATHFAST system is a small, compact platform, which includes a computer, LCD touch screen and printer and measures W14.7" x D22.4" x H20.0". This self contained unit can easily fit attached any laboratory bench. Its user friendly operation allows the technician to simply add blood to the cartridges, place them on the system and press the start button. The technician returns in 17 minutes to read the results. This sensitive technology elect allow the laboratory to report NTproBNP results from 15-30,000 pg/mL.
2 commentsNHS Dentists Gnashing Teeth At Further Pay Cut, UK
The leaders of the UK’s general dental practitioners described as ‘derisory’ the 2.2 per cent increase in earnings awarded by the government following today’s recommendation of the retrospect Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Pay. The Retail Prices Index is currently at 4.1 per cent-anything less than this is effectively a pay cut.
Chairman of the DPA Joe Sullivan BDS said “The DDRB was responsible for the decline of the old NHS agree by never challenging or correcting when its awards were altered or devalued by the Department of Health-allowing dentists pay to fall way behind comparator groups. It has often allowed its independence to be questioned by recommending the award demanded by the Department. The new contract is sufficiently unattractive and uncertain for many of those on whom it was enforced, without this further clear signal that financial penalties are to be imposed year after year through below inflation awards”.
President of the DPA Brian Levy BDS said “With the RPI at 4.1 for cent and the increase in dental practice overheads running well above this figure, this recommendation can only have existence viewed by our members as another pay cut. This wish further reduce dentists’ ability to provide anything approaching reasonable quality treatment as far as concerns their NHS patients”.
Chief Executive Officer of the DPA, Derek Watson BDS said “Dentists have suffered this year as a side-effect of the doctors’ increases in recent years. The Review material part are hopelessly confused about how to set stipend to employ dentists in the NHS. Three years ago they used the doctors’ increase (3.225 per cent). Two years ago they used the Average Earnings Index (3.4 through cent). Last year (and again this year) with the RPI at 4 per cent they used the Hospital and Community Health Services increase of 2 per cent or thereabouts. No wonder dentists are leaving the NHS!
“It is not possible to provide a quality service on the NHS at one third of the cost of extension. Dentistry is a good example of a service that was provided efficiently on behalf of the NHS in the private sector and since being ‘nationalised’ has turned into a complete disaster. The government has broken its promise to provide dental services to the nation in return for the of great altitude levels of lay upon and national insurance paid.
“DPA members who wish to take on more NHS patients are running into PCT funding buffers. Dentists who would see more NHS patients are root denied funding and their stipend are decreasing in real stipulations. We are starting to see all the problems of the NHS in dentistry-funding crises, waiting lists and postcode lotteries. There have been worryingly large shifts in NHS prescribing patterns due to the new NHS contract, which have not been observed in the private sector”.
Notes
The job of commissioning dentistry was given to Primary Care Trusts in April 2006 but the Review Body makes a recommendation for dentists’ earnings, usually through a approbation on fees. The DPA says the current system is inefficient, inflexible and unfair. Since April 2006 funding has been cash-limited on a like-for-like basis, limiting the number of new dentists that can subsist recruited into each PCT area. The DPA is calling for an present start on the review of dentistry promised in the 2005 Labour party manifesto.
Most dentists are self-employed subcontractors to the NHS. Unlike doctors, dentists pay for their own premises and their staff and materials. They are free to do as much or as little NHS work as they like leaving them at liberty to move to the private sector if the differential in terms and conditions between the two sectors is large. The dental Practitioners Association represents general dental practitioners in the UK.
Dental Practitioners’ Association
California 2004 Long-Term Care Act Raised Costs And Worsened Care, Study Shows
The California Long-Term Care Reimbursement Act of 2004 increased nursing home costs, but failed to improve quality or access to be solicitous, according to a UCSF evaluation on the legislation’s impact.
Between 2004 and 2006, MediCal costs in California’s free-standing nursing homes increased by $590 million, or nearly 9 percent, to a full of $6.6 billion in 2006, according to the study, which was released today by researchers in the UCSF School of Nursing. Yet during the sort time period, nursing home staffing levels remained significantly lower than the recommended numbers and staff turnover actually increased.
The study used publically available federal and state data to make provision an initial evaluation of the impact of the new rate system. Among the elements analyzed were MediCal admissions and length of care; staffing levels, staff turnover, complaints and citations; and nursing home profits and income margins.
“The quality of nursing home vigilance has been a serious problem in California and nationwide for many years,” said Charlene Harrington, PhD, RN, UCSF professor of sociology and nursing and lead composer of the study. “This legislation was designed to address that, but so far it has not met the challenge.”
Harrington said the bill was designed to meliorate both the quality and access to nursing home care by increasing MediCal reimbursement rates, using a payment system based on actual costs of care for each facility, with certain cost ceilings. It also aimed to increase nurse staffing levels, foster improved compliance with state and federal regulations, and improve efficiency in nursing home administration.
Implemented in 2004-05, the system effectively raised MediCal rates from $124 per day in 2004 to $152 per day in 2006, this analysis found.
However, that rise did not result in improved access to nursing homes; the total number of patient days billed to MediCal in reality decreased 2 percent between 2004 and 2005, while the overall proportion of MediCal days remained steady at 69 percent of the total patient-days of care statewide.
The evaluation did show a disdainful increase in overall nursing home staffing levels statewide by 2006, Harrington said, but staffing by registered nurses remained significantly lower that those recommended by experts. In fact, 16 percent of the facilities, or 144 total, still failed to comply with the minimum state staffing standard, which is 3.2 RN hours per resident-day.
Harrington’s previous research has established a direct correlation between the number of registered nurses on staff in nursing homes and the quality of patient care.
Under the current legislation, nursing staff turnover grew worse in nursing facilities and was unacceptably high in all types of facilities analyzed, by three out of four staff members leaving employment each year. Wages and benefits for nursing assistants, who provide the majority of nursing home care, also did not lodge pace with inflation between 2004 and 2006, but administrative salaries were increased substantially.
The assessment concluded that the quality of care after the implementation of the new reimbursement rate system actually appeared to decline. During that time, the number of complaints about poor quality of care increased, as did documented deficiencies and citations, including those that caused ill-use and jeopardy.
Nursing assistant allowance failed to keep pacing with inflation between 2004 and 2006 and licensed nursing inflation-adjusted wage increases were minimal, while staff benefits declined. Overall, the new reimbursement rate increased the net income margins in all types of nursing facilities by over 700 percent.
With increased revenues, spending on direct care was expected to increase, according to the study’s authors, and did rise 13 percent in the two years analyzed, due to a modest (3 percent) increase in total staffing. Administrative expenditures, however, rose 19 percent in the same time period, reflecting the new quality assurance fee costs, licensing fees, training costs, and accountability costs. As a result, the level of direct care spending dropped in proportion to the total costs, to 53 percent after the fresh reimbursement system was implemented.
“Clearly, California needs to seriously address the policy changes in reimbursement rates that are needed to achieve these goals in quality of care,” Harrington said.
The study’s authors made four recommendations to achieve those goals:
- Attach more specific minimum requirements for staffing levels.
- Establish greater penalties on account of poor quality of care, including “naught tolerance” for not meeting minimum staffing levels.
- Stronger enforcement of the staffing standards and quality standards.
- Substantially increase wages and benefits for nursing staff to reduce turnover and stabilize the workforce.
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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This work was supported by funds from the California HealthCare Foundation.
The other investigators on study were Janis O’Meara, MPA; Eric Collier, PhD, RN; Taewoon Kang, PhD; Caroline Stephens, MS, RN; and Jamie Chang, MA, all from the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the UCSF School of Nursing.
UCSF is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. For more information on UCSF, visit http://www.ucsf.edu/.
Source:
Kristen Bole
University of California - San Francisco
Three Researchers Awarded AAN Potamkin Prize For Alzheimer’s Research
The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) is awarding the 2008 Potamkin Prize to three researchers for their work in Alzheimer’s disease research. Clifford R. Jack Jr., MD, of the Mayo Clinic, and William E. Klunk, MD, PhD, and Chester A. Mathis, PhD, both with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, will receive the award during the AAN’s 60th Annual Meeting in Chicago, held April 12-19, 2008.
The Potamkin Prize honors and rewards researchers for their work in helping to advance the understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. The $100,000 prize is to be used toward continuing Alzheimer’s research and will be shared evenly betwixt the three researchers.
The work of all three researchers involves the employment of brain imaging with living patients to help visualize the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. Klunk and Mathis have collaborated steady the development of a novel tracer for another brain imaging technique, positron emission tomography (PET). This tracer, called Pittsburgh Compound-B or PiB, can identify the amyloid protein deposits that are characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease, but could only be confirmed at autopsy prior to the development of amyloid imaging.
“This research could help identify Alzheimer’s disease subjects earlier in the course of the disease and aid in the testing and development of new drugs capable of reversing the root cause of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Mathis.
“It could facilitate the development of newer, more cogent drugs for Alzheimer’s disease and allow earlier, more accurate diagnosis, so therapy could be started earlier when the chances of success are greatest,” said Klunk.
Jack has used a variety of MRI techniques to study the neurodegenerative features of Alzheimer’s disease. He has pioneered the use of MRI to understand differences in various MRI parameters in the midst of normal aging, mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease over time.
“We believe that we have helped improve the understanding of the natural history of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Jack. “We be delivered of shown that MRI measurements are meaningful markers of Alzheimer’s pathology and hence provide useful information about the stage of the disease, the likelihood that subjects will progress to dementia, and provide information that is helpful in assessing progression of the disease.”
The Potamkin Prize is made possible by the philanthropic contributions of the Potamkin family of New York, Philadelphia, and Miami. The goal of the prize is to help attract the best medical minds and most dedicated scientists in the world to the field of dementia research. The Potamkins have been the Academy’s single largest individual donor since 1988, providing more than $2 million to fund the Potamkin Prize.
The 60th Annual Meeting, person of the world’s largest gatherings of neurology professionals, takes place in the McCormick Place West Convention Center in Chicago.
TheAmerican Academy of Neurology, an association of more than 21,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to improving patient care through education and research. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and stroke.
American Academy of Neurology
Scientists Develop Strategy To Rapidly Describe Outbreak Strains With Next-Generation DNA Sequencing
In the occurrence of an outbreak or a bioterrorist pass censure on. see under, rapid identification of the genetic changes responsible for virulence or drug resistance is essential to mounting an effective response. Standard DNA sequencing and analysis of a pathogen genome is time-intensive and likely impractical during an difficulty. Researchers have now developed a comparative genomics strategy to drastically attenuate the time needed to accurately identify exceptional genetic properties of a potential outbreak strain. This report, which demonstrates the approach using next-generation sequencing technology, is published online in Genome Research.
Sanger DNA sequencing, the established technology used to sequence the genomes of many species, including the genomes of humans and hundreds of bacteria, could potentially be used to sequence and analyze a new human pathogen. However, the life required for sequencing and subsequent analysis, or “finishing,” is such that this draw nigh is not feasible when a rapid response to an outbreak or bioterrorist attack is required. New sequencing technologies are now available, allowing an entire bacterial genome to be sequenced in several hours, but time-intensive finishing steps are still required to determine the complete genome sequence.
In this study, researchers led by Drs. Bernard La Scola and Didier Raoult of the University of the Mediterranean set out to determine whether a rapidly sequenced incomplete genome could be used to quickly characterize an outbreak strain by comparative analysis. “In the context of an outbreak, a quick approach may relief to identify immediately the genetic determinants responsible for modified malevolence or transmission, explains La Scola. “The scheme of this work was to evaluate the recently available automated pyrosequencing technology without finishing for this purpose.”
F. Tularensis, the causative pathogen of tularemia, is one of the most infectious bacteria known, and there is particular concern that this organism could be manipulated for use as a biological weapon. La Scola and colleagues sequenced a strain isolated from a tularemia patient using the Roche/454 Life Sciences GS20 sequencing system, and compared these sequences with several other strains of F. Tularensis, including a strain with reduced pathogencity and an antiobiotic-resistant strain.
The researchers demonstrated that next-generation sequencing of a bacterial genome without finishing could be used to effectively identify several sole features of the F. tularensis clinical strain in a matter of weeks. “By using this strategy, whether or not there are a sufficient number of bioinformaticians working on the project, DNA extraction to complete analysis of the genome can take approximately 6 weeks,” describes La Scola. “We demonstrated that this strategy was efficient to detect gene polymorphisms such as a gene modification accountable for antibiotic resistance, and loss of genetic material.” Furthermore, La Scola and colleagues were efficient to distinguish the clinical sprain from 80 other strains of F. tularensis.
While high-throughput sequencing technology and the comparative genomic analysis strategy outlined in this work have significantly decreased the time required for characterization of an outbreak strain, La Scola notes that future advances in software for sequence data analysis and genome comparison could speed up the process even further.
Scientists from the University of the Mediterranean (Marseilles, France) contributed to this study.
This work was supported by Sanofi-Aventis France, Bayer Pharma, and the European Commission.
The manuscript will be published online ahead of print on April 11, 2008.
“Rapid compareative genomic analysis for clinical microbiology: The Francisella tularensis example.”
La Scola, B., Elkarkouri, K., Li, W., Wahab, T., Fournous, G., Rolain, J., Biswas, S., Drancourt, M., Robert, C., Audic, S., Löfdahl, S., and Raoult, D.
Genome Res. doi:10.1101/gr.7126608.
About Genome Research
Genome Research is an international, continuously published, peer-reviewed periodical published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Launched in 1995, it is one of the five most highly cited primary research journals in genetics and genomics.
Genome Research
About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press is an internationally renowned publisher of books, journals, and electronic media, located on Long Island, New York. It is a division of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, an innovator in life science research and the education of scientists, students, and the public.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
American Society For Microbiology 108th General Meeting June 1-5, 2008 In Boston, Massachusetts
The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) will hold its 108th General Meeting June 1-5, 2008 in Boston, Massachusetts. The meeting command feature over 3,000 individual scientific presentations spanning the breadth of microbiology, and has an expected attendance of 12,000.
Microbiologists study living organisms and infectious agents, and their work is critical to health, agriculture, the environment and biotechnology. Many accomplishments in the microbiological sciences have significantly affected our lives, such as the disentanglement of treatments for infectious diseases, the prevention of food spoilage, the use of microorganisms to immaculate up pollutants and basic knowledge of the nature of all living things.
Among the topics to be presented are:
* The effects of climate change on human health
* New developments in MRSA: Nasal carriage in healthy people and MRSA pneumonia
* The role of normal human flora (native bacteria) on human disease: Has modern medicament ignored them?
* Bats for example a source of many emerging diseases
* The vital role bacteria play in the development of new fuels and energy sources
* The event of globalization on food safety
The opening session of the meeting will examine the role of microbiology in the 21st century, featuring Timothy Donahue of the University of Wisconsin presenting on the use of photosynthetic bacteria to harness the power of the sun in spite of renewable energy and Rino Rappuoli of Novartis Vaccine and Diagnostics examining pan-genomic approaches to the disclosure of new vaccines and antibiotics. The session will conclude with a keynote by Lucy Shapiro of Stanford University entitled “The Bacterial Cell Cycle: A Regulatory Circuit while suffering Temporal and Spatial Control.”
More detailed accusation, including programs and abstract, will be available in early May. Preliminary programs and press registration materials are currently available and can be obtained by dint of. profession the ASM Office of Communications or online at http://gm.asm.org/newsroom.asp.
PLEASE NOTE: The housing deadline is April 25, 2008. While media will be allowed to register for the meeting after that date, they will be responsible for arranging house of entertainment accommodations upon their own.
Comprehensive media facilities will subsist available and meeting registration is complimentary for the media.
The ASM General Meeting Press Center will be located in the new Boston Convention and Exhibition Center and will be open starting at 12:00 noon on Sunday, June 1. Programs, abstracts, news releases and information about daily embrace closely conferences will be use.
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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The ASM, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is the oldest and largest single biological membership organization with approximately 44,000 members worldwide. Members work in different organizations, including education (research institutions, undergraduate and graduate institutions, and medical dental and veterinary schools), industry (pharmaceutical, food and agriculture, biotechnology, environmental, and pollution control companies and hospitals), and federal and state governments (research laboratories and public health).
Source:
Jim Sliwa
American Society for Microbiology
Radiation Damage May Be Prevented By A New Drug
US scientists are developing a new drug that may prevent radiation damage caused by cancer treatment or nuclear emergency.
Radiation is known to be the greatest in quantity over-powering tool for cancer treatment, if it were not that it has also adverse side effects – it kills healthy tissues just as it kills cancerous ones. This is wherefore physicians are very limited in using radiation therapy. If they take a drug for preventing side effects, they will be able to give necessary radiation doses to cancer sufferers.
Here is how researchers explain cancer development and radiation affect on the disease:
Apoptosis is a tool of body to prevent cells with damaged genes from spreading. Cells with damaged genes are called defective cells. In other words, apoptosis is called cell suicide. When cancer cells block apoptosis, tumors occur and grow. Scientists have identified one of the ways how apoptosis is being blocked: cancer cells activate nuclear factor-KappaB (NFKB), which is a cell-signaling course of life.
When a cancerous tissue is being exposed to radiation, cancerous cells die, but well cells die as well. Bone marrow and GI cells are the most vulnerable ones to radiotherapy, and patients who get exposed to high doses of radiation may later develop GI syndrome which is lethal. The same thing can happen during radiation emergencies.
In the assay, researchers used NFKB pathway to artificially block cell self-murder in healthy tissues before irradiation exposure. It is known that flagellin – a protein taken from gut bacteria – can trigger NFKB. Researchers injected artificially created flagellin protein – named CBLB502 - into healthy tissues.
In laboratory trials researchers used mice and rhesus monkeys. They were CBLB502 injected 15 minutes before being exposed to lethal doses of radiation. Both mice and monkeys showed significant improvement in survival rates. Cancerous cells were destroyed, meanwhile healthy cells where dramatically protected from radiation site effects.
The search into plans human trials this summer. If successful, physicians will be get a considerable chance to fully use the power of radiotherapy in cancer patients. Drug will also save lives of those exposed to high doses of irradiance during nuclear emergencies.
13 commentsLeave Bedroom Allergens High, Dry This Spring
This spring, Procter & Gamble is partnering with the asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) to educate consumers about combating indoor allergens by honing in forward the area to what Americans spend one third of their lives: the bedroom.
"Many people overlook the bedroom as a significant problem area for indoor allergens," said Mike Tringale, mentor of visible affairs at AAFA. "Many allergens hide inside pillows and bedding as well to the degree that on curtains, the walls and on electronics like your alarm clock. Your bedroom can be a hot spot for allergens and it’s important to know the proper tools and techniques to help you combat them effectively."
The AAFA has offered the following tips to help reduce allergens in the bedroom this season:
Beds and Bedding: Use only washable materials on the bed. Look for special mite-proof bedding and encasements. Wash bedding, pillows and stuffed toys weekly in hot water (130 degrees F). In between washing, consider spraying comforters, bedding and other soft surfaces with Febreze Allergen Reducer Fabric Refresher, which reduces up to 75 percent of allergens from cats, dogs, and dust mites that may become airborne.
Air Control: Keep humidity levels at 50 percent or lower by using a room air strain or dehumidifier. This will significantly help decrease the levels of allergens in the air as dust mites need high humidity to live and grow. Take special care to clean air conditioners and humidifiers frequently with a weak bleach solution (one cup bleach in one gallon water) to prevent mold product.
"Dust Magnets": The less furniture and decorative corporeal in the room, the better. Stacks of magazines, fancy artwork, bookcases and window draperies are considered ideal locations for dust mites. If such decorations are a must, clean those areas regularly to avoid clutter and control dust build-up. Dust the bedroom frequently with a product like Swiffer Dusters to eject dust, dirt and allergens from cats, dogs and dust mites. Swiffer Dusters trap and lock the household allergens that gather on hard surfaces like bookshelves, ceiling fans, walls and electronics, instead of just spreading the dust around like traditionary feather dusters.
Closets and Drawers: Dust, cat dander and other allergens that stick to your clothing can accumulate in your closets and drawers over duration, so always wipe yourself off after coming in from the outdoors or holding pets. Wash clothing more frequently during the spring in the same manner with well, to minimize allergen build-up.
To educate consumers about indoor allergens, Febreze Allergen Reducer and Swiffer Dusters will exhibit a "Bedroom Sanctuary Series" at the Los Angeles NEI Health and Lifestyle Expo from April 12 -13 and Seattle’s K5 Healthy Living Expo April 19 - 20. Laura Dellutri, cleaning expert and author of the books "Speed Cleaning 101" and "White Couch with Kids!?" will be touring with Swiffer and Febreze to answer questions and provide professional expertise steady how to properly manage allergens in the home.
"P&G is committed to educating consumers not far from improving the quality of their lives," said Susan Baba, external relations manager toward Swiffer. "Swiffer Dusters and Febreze Allergen Reducer are principal solutions to help reduce and remove indoor allergens that are hiding in the home, especially in the bedroom."
4 commentsCarnegie Mellon Develops Computer Model To Study Cell Membrane Dynamics
A cell constantly remodels its fluid membranes to carry out carping tasks, such viewed like recognizing other cells, getting nutrients or sorting proteins. Because membranes are fluid and intrinsically disordered, investigating these and other life-sustaining processes in detail has always been difficult. But a computer model developed by Markus Deserno, associate professor of physics at Carnegie Mellon University, provides a new approach through allowing him to simulate and observe membrane dynamics at a relatively large scale — hundreds of nanometers. It is at this scale that many critical membrane-mediated processes take place.
Deserno described the application of this model to the biophysical question of vesicle creation on Tuesday, April 8 at the 235th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans.
“Our model is coarse-grained,” Deserno said. “You can think of it as an impressionist painting. At a distance, everything looks excellent. You can see water lilies or ballerinas. But up close, all the details are gone; you just see blotches of color. We’re interested in what’s happening with the water lilies, not the blotches of color,” he added.
through this coarse-grained model, Deserno can accurately capture important large-scale characteristics, like how the membrane bends and curves, which allows him to ask questions that are beyond the atomic resolution but less than the size of an unalloyed small room. His model is also versatile as he can add proteins of interest to the lipid membrane and observe how they interact.
Using this computer model, Deserno and colleagues at the Max Plank Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany, recently revealed a genuinely physical mechanism that enables vesiculation - the process by which cell membranes bend. around proteins or other cellular cargo to form “vesicles.” Without this generic ability to curve its protein-studded membranes and bud off cargo shuttles, a cell couldn’t survive.
“Ultimately, understanding the dynamics of vesiculation is key to advancing the intention of anti-viral therapies or understanding in what plight protein processing goes awry within a cell and leads to disease,” Deserno said.
Deserno and his team created a computer simulation of a cell membrane with a lipid bilayer - a soap-like film made of 50,000 individual lipids molecules - and studded it with 36 evenly spaced and contact lens-shaped disks representing remodeling proteins, which are involved in vesiculation. Then he set the simulation to allow the liquid membrane to fluctuate as it normally would. During the simulation, the artificial membrane began curving in places. In creating curved membrane structures, each disk bent the membrane slightly. This topical curvature spread around a disk in the manner of a little “halo.” When two disks approached one another, the overlapping halos led to an indirect interaction. Thus, while in that place was no explicit interaction between the disks, these objects indirectly attracted each other via the membrane, Deserno’s group found.
“With this work, we provide solid support for a mechanism that has been gaining in popularity recently,” Deserno said. “To date, no one has demonstrated at the biophysical level exactly what most people have come to accept as evident - that remodeling proteins be able to indeed aggregate and facilitate vesiculation based on their curvature imprint alone. Our simulations show that proteins need not interact directly to drive this critical process.”
Understanding how vesiculation physically operates should make it easier in the long run to rationally design and deliver drugs to individual cells, according to Deserno. “This is the biggest practical value of our research. Now that we have a proposed mechanical construction, we can subject it to well-posed questions, such as why certain proteins are always present during vesiculation.”
In addition to investigating the suit of membrane mediated interactions in computer simulations, Deserno, together with colleagues Jemal Guven at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and Martin Müller at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, has developed powerful theoretical tools to study the transport of stresses and forces through curved membranes.
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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About Carnegie Mellon: Carnegie Mellon is a private research universal school with a distinctive mix of programs in engineering, computer science, robotics, business, public policy, fine arts and the humanities. More than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students receive an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration, and innovation. A small student-to-faculty ratio provides an opportunity for close interaction between students and professors. While technology is pervasive on its 144-acre Pittsburgh campus, Carnegie Mellon is also distinctive among leading research universities for the world-renowned programs in its College of Fine Arts. A global university, Carnegie Mellon has campuses in Silicon Valley, Calif., and Qatar, and programs in Asia, Australia and Europe. For more, see http://www.cmu.edu/.
Source:
Jocelyn Duffy
Carnegie Mellon University
New Patient Monitoring Devices Handle More Than Just Vital Signs
An aging population and a shortage of healthcare workers have driven the development of systems that be possible to monitor patients remotely, process facts, and even alert a healthcare worker if there is a question. These new generation patient monitoring (PM) systems earned an estimated $3.9 billion dollars because of device manufacturers in 2007; and this could more than sail round in five years, according to High-Tech Patient Monitoring Systems, a new market research study by Kalorama Information.
The diseases that make up most of US healthcare spending — asthma, COPD, congestive heart failure, chronic interior disease and diabetes — are also among those most amenable to patient monitoring. And more useful PM systems mean that patients can leave the hospital sooner, thus reducing costs. Given this demand, manufacturers such as Honeywell, GE and Abbott have raced to add wireless communication, data processing and web interfacing features. These features enable the systems to gather, sort, and distil data into a patient’s electronic medicinal enter (EMR) for future review.
But most numerous useful are the intelligent PM systems that can "read" the data based on pre-programmed algorithms for a patient’s specific condition, and can automatically report to a healthcare worker or physician when measurements are abnormal.
"Data is important, but if your system simply gathers data, you are just increasing the burden on the workers who have to then interpret that data," said Melissa Elder, analyst for Kalorama Information. "The smart PM systems know that when a pre-defined number is hit, its time to call the doctor."
Some systems can even take patient care a step further, incorporating built-in video and audio interfaces thus that the patient and physician can speak.
3 commentsCleveland BioLabs Breakthrough Protects From Radioation
Cleveland BioLabs, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBLI) today announced that Science, the nature’s leading journal of original scientific research, global news, and commentary, has published breakthrough findings by Cleveland BioLabs researchers regarding Protectan CBLB502’s radioprotective abilities, titled, "An Agonist of Toll-Like Receptor 5 Has Radioprotective Activity in Mouse and Primate Models." Cleveland BioLabs’s paper is the first Science publication on radioprotection in more than three decades.
The peer-reviewed paper introduces a romance principle of radioprotection, which resulted in generation of a radioprotectant of unprecedented efficacy, CBLI’s lead product Protectan CBLB502. The report summarizes studies of Protectan CBLB502’s ability to protect healthy cells from the harmful effects of radiation. According to founded on fact findings, a single injection of CBLB502 before lethal total-body irradiation protected mice from both gastrointestinal and hematopoietic acute radiation syndromes and resulted in improved survival. CBLB502 injected after irradiation in like manner enhanced survival. The paper noted that the drug did not decrease tumor radiosensitivity in mouse models. CBLB502 also showed radioprotective activity in lethally irradiated rhesus monkeys.
Cleveland Biolabs Chief Scientific Officer and co-corresponding author, Andrei Gudkov, Ph.D, D. Sci., commented, "We consider this paper a breakthrough for the study of radioprotection, since it provides a long awaited example of single performer anti-radiation therapy with significant survival benefits at a single dose. Described experiments demonstrate its potential therapeutic benefit in both cancer radiotherapy and irradiance emergency scenarios. The paper also provides results indicating safety of CBLB502, which protects animals without increasing the risk of radiation-induced cancer progression in a continuously ascending gradation. This is the Company’s first major publication on our proprietary Protectan family of compounds, which are derived from naturally occurring factors of microbes found in our bodies."
The Department of Defense recently awarded Cleveland BioLabs a contract valued at up to $8.9 million for the advanced development of Protectan CBLB502 as a Medical Radiation Countermeasure to treat radiation mischief following exposure to radiation from nuclear or radiological weapons.
"The Science paper demonstrates the success of the principle proprietary approach of CBLI to protection of healthy tissue from a variety of deadly stresses," added Dr. Gudkov. "The surprisingly strong radioprotective abilities of Protectan CBLB502 are the result of a combination of several mechanisms of action, each of which is substantially effective on its own."
Protectan CBLB502 is a derivative of a microbial protein that reduces injury from acute stresses by mobilizing several natural cell protecting mechanisms, including inhibition of programmed cell decease (apoptosis), reduction of oxidative damage and induction of conversion promoting cytokines.
Cleveland BioLabs has successfully established cGMP quality manufacturing for CBLB502 and plans to initiate its first Phase I human safety study in the first half of 2008 for Protectan CBLB502 in ARS, what one. is the only stage-carriage of human testing required for approval in this note. Concurrently, the Company plans to initiate a Phase I/II study for CBLB502 in head strong and neck cancer patients for reduction of side effects of radiation and chemotherapy, such as mucositis, which is a treatment-limiting factor.
An abstract of the article will be available online at: www.sciencemag.org/current.dtl
Cleveland BioLabs, Inc. is a drug discovery and development company leveraging its proprietary discoveries about programmed cell death to treat cancer and protect normal tissues from exposure to irradiance and other stresses. The Company has strategic partnerships with the Cleveland Clinic, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, ChemBridge Corporation and the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute. To learn more about Cleveland BioLabs, Inc., please visit the company’s website at www.cbiolabs.com.
No commentsA Wake-Up Call For Clinicians Treating Narcolepsy
Narcolepsy remains underdiagnosed and undertreated even though this neurologic dysfunction is better understood and the available treatment options esteem increased in the last decade.
To help health care providers and psychiatrists treat this neurologic sleep disorder, The Journal of Family Practice and Current Psychiatry have published the supplement "Stay awake! Understanding, diagnosing, and successfully managing narcolepsy." This CME supplement uses a case-based approach to help clinicians identify and treat narcolepsy. This publication likewise provides a concise review of the epidemiology and pathophysiology of this sleep disorder.
The Journal of Family Practice, a peer-reviewed journal distributed to 96,000 primary care physicians, and Current Psychiatry, a peer-reviewed journal distributed to 38,000 psychiatrists, collaborated with The Chatham Institute, a medical education company and CME provider, to develop this journal supplement. This supplement was supported by an educational grant from Jazz Pharmaceuticals.
The Journal of Family Practice and Current Psychiatry are published by Dowden hale condition Media, a Division of Lebhar-Friedman, Inc. APCTODAY is copyrighted by Dowden Health Media, a Division of Lebhar-Friedman, Inc. Dowden Health Media is a full-service healthcare communications company that specializes in high-quality communication through physicians, advanced practice clinicians, and consumers. Its highly respected, peer-reviewed journals reach more than 300,000 physicians and clinicians in surgery, psychiatry, family practice, internal medicine and obstetrics/gynecology.
31 commentsMEDIHONEY Is Associated With Reduction In Wound Size
Derma Sciences’s study involving MEDIHONEY Wound & Burn Dressing shows that use of the dressings are associated with a reduction in annoy size, possibly driven in part by a significant retrenchment in overall wound pH. The 20-patient study will be published in the May edition of the International Wound Journal. The article — "The impact of Manuka honey dressings on the surface pH of chronic wounds" — was written by Georgina T. Gethin, Seamus Cowman and Ronan Conroy, all of the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, Ireland. The May edition of the International Wound Journal is a special edition of this globally-recognized peer-reviewed journal, and will be distributed to the attendees of the upcoming World Union of Wound Healing Societies conference, to be held in Toronto this June 4-8.
According to the abstract for the article, the authors evaluated the progression of 20 non-healing ulcers of various etiologies following application of the dressings over a period of two weeks. The dressings were provided by Derma Sciences’ global commercialization partner, Comvita New Zealand, Inc. The authors cite their rationale for researching pH modulation in chronic wounds as follows:
"Chronic non-healing wounds have an elevated alkaline environment. The acidic pH of Manuka honey makes it a potential treatment for lowering wound pH, but the duration of the effect is unknown. Lowering wound pH can potentially reduce protease activity, increase fibroblast nimbleness and increase oxygen release, consequently aiding wound healing."
After two weeks of method of treating through the dressings, the authors concluded that, for this group of previously non-healing ulcers, "the use of Manuka honey dressings was associated with a statistically significant decrease in wound pH and a reduction in irritate size." Significant wound progression during a two-week period is noted as a strong predictor of good wound healing outcomes.
Commenting on the article, Derma Sciences CEO Edward Quilty aforesaid, "Method of action is obviously an important component to having a better comprehension of a medical device. Based on the results clinicians have seen all over the world, and recently here since our launch in the US and Canada, we have known in opposition to quite some time that the dressings moil. Now we are getting a better understanding as to ‘why’. Providing the answer to this motion will no doubt increase product usage, as it makes clinicians feel more comfortable that the product has been studied thoroughly, it is effective, and we understand why it is effective. Although pH modulation and the product’s high osmolarity have long been thought to contribute to the effectiveness of the product, it is rewarding to see these beliefs are being confirmed from one side good, well structured trials."
He also added, "This is yet another important study focused on non-healing or recalcitrant wounds that are not progressing with other advanced wound care modalities. It will only help to improve MEDIHONEY’s growing reputation as an effective dressing to ‘kick-start’ the assuasive process. This is that which clinicians are reporting to us after their lengthy clinical evaluations. As we planned, we believe clinicians are gaining significant confidence in our dressing for very teasing wounds. Once this is established in the market, it then becomes only a thing of time before the dressing is more commonly used even from the onset of a wound. This will be reflected in growing product sales as we ramp up throughout 2008 and into 2009."
20 commentsEnabling Micro-Organisms Help Nature Resist Attacks From Industry And Other Human Activities
Eco-Solution has developed a new technology platform, which enables it to design micro-organisms that for example help nature resist attacks from industry and other human activities.
The processes developed by Eco-Solution are called “directed in vivo movement”. They allow Eco-Solution to apply biological treatments to industrial waste or effluents in a cost effective and energy efficient way compared to existing methods, as well in the manner that reducing collateral energy consumption arising from traditional approaches involving transport etc.
After having launched its activities with the treatment of industrial wastewaters, Eco-Solution has extended these applications to the treatment of urban wastewaters and of contaminated soils. Eco-Solution’s directed in vivo evolution can for example to a high degree rapidly injure PCBs, often found in rivers, and thus reduce an extremely serious public health threat.
Eco-Solution has also done a considerable effect of work on the use of biomass. Only a small fraction of the available biomass is put to good use and the way it is used is very much from being satisfactory, especially in terms of the production of biogas (methanization). The thing applied of the techniques of directed evolution developed by dint of. Eco-Solution should make it possible to grow considerably the proportion of “treatable” biomass as well as to take a step forward the performance of existing or future industrial treatment plants.
Following the continuing controversy outer the production of bioethanol, Eco-Solution has also started to improve the achievement of other micro-organisms, microalgae. The company is carrying out experiments to render biofuel and biodiesel from absolute species of microalgae.
Founded in 1999, Eco-Solution is located at the Biocitech technology park near Paris. It employs more than 30 people and has already raised from one to another EUR 9.5 million from private investors.
Eco-Solution
Gene Oppositely Controlled By Dietary Protein, Sugar
Researchers have discovered a gene in flies whose activity rises and falls depending upon the amount of protein and flatter in the insects’ diets. The findings, reported in the April issue of Cell Metabolism, might emit light on the way the insects’ bodies - and perhaps those of humans too - handle dietary extremes, including high-protein, low-carb diets like the Atkins, according to the researchers. These findings are also yielding new clues about the links between diet and life span.
The gene, which the researchers call tobi (short for target of brain insulin), encodes some evolutionarily conserved a-glucosidase enzyme that converts stored glycogen into glucose.
“This gene is activated by high protein and repressed by sugar,” said Michael Pankratz of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe in Germany, who is since at the Fritz Lipmann Institute. “The controversy is: Why would the body need such a mechanism for releasing glucose under specific dietary conditions”"
High-protein diets force hold one answer, Pankratz said. For instance, when people consume high-protein, low-carb diets, insulin is released, stimulating cells to take in sugar from the bloodstream. (Most people associate insulin with sugar, he said, but indeed insulin is also released in response to the amino acid building blocks of proteins.) Given that little to no sugar is coming in, this can lead to hypoglycemia, or grave blood sugar. The body therefore needs a second mechanism to release glucose from glycogen. “We think this is what’s happening [in the flies],” he said. “It’s a sensitive mechanism beneficial to dealing with extreme dietary conditions.”
In mammals, united of the most important systems for controlling metabolism consists of the antagonistic actions of insulin and glucagon, the researchers explained. Upon boastful sugar intake, insulin is secreted by cells in the pancreas to maintain steady blood sugar levels. When noble extraction glucose is low, glucagon is secreted by other pancreatic cells, causing the release of glucose from glycogen breakdown. The antagonism between insulin and glucagon is not strict, the researchers noted, since amino acids boost both insulin and glucagon secretion.
Earlier studies also identified insulin- and glucagon-like peptides in Drosophila fruit flies, but questions remained about how those signals act.
In the new study, by analyzing changes in gene activity in flies lacking insulin-producing cells, the researchers were led to tobi. They further found that tobi levels increased when flies consumed a protein-rich yeast paste and decreased when the insects ate a sugary concoction. That pattern of tobi expression is reminiscent of the hormone glucagon in mammals, the researchers noted, suggesting that the gene may be controlled by an analogous hormone.
Earlier studies had shown that flies lacking insulin-producing cells (which also express lower tobi levels) live longer. Indeed, the researchers found that this was true - but but in flies fed the high-protein diet.
Exactly what role tobi might play in life span will be a subject of further study, Pankratz said.
“The current study indicates that proteins may have a greater effect than sugars on insulin signaling, and evidence is growing that quality and not only quantity of calories taken in has an influence on life span,” the researchers said. “Therefore, teasing apart the relative contributions of dietary proteins and sugars in insulin signaling should prove insightful.”
“What is novel and exciting in the work of [Pankratz and colleagues] is the combination of gene rule studies, endocrinology, and physiology in a model genetic organism whose genome and gene regulatory linkages can be readily compared to the human genome,” wrote Eric Rulifson of the University of California, San Francisco, in an accompanying commentary. “Given the accumulating parallels between the islet-like cells of Drosophila and the pancreatic islets of mammals, it would not be surprising if this homeostatic mechanism, and perhaps others notwithstanding to be found, is evolutionarily conserved between flies and humans.”
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press let go.
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The researchers include Susanne Buch, Institute of Genetics, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany, Leibniz Institute for Age Research, Fritz Lipmann Institute, Jena, Germany; Christoph Melcher, Institute of Genetics, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany; Matthias Bauer, Institute of Genetics, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany; Joerg Katzenberger, Institute of Genetics, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany and Michael J. Pankratz, Institute of Genetics, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany.
Source:
Cathleen Genova
Cell Press
‘Connecting The Dots’ In Path That Leads To Fat
In the April issue of Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press, researchers report the discovery of a critical early performer in the path that turns cells to fat. Given that obesity - defined as an excess amount of body fat relative to lean body mass - is a major health concern in the United States and an increasing problem in the developing world, such a fuller understanding of the molecular processes governing unctuous tissue formation could ultimately hold clinical importance, according to the researchers.
“We’d like to work our way back to the earliest events [that lead to fat formation],” said Jeffrey Friedman, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at Rockefeller University. “Eventually, we want to connect all the dots.” Although it remains a speculative general, he added, “if we knew all the underlying events, we might intervene and alter fat development.”
Researchers discovered many years past that if they added a cocktail of hormonal stimulants to a particular mouse cell line, these so-called 3T3-L1 cells would develop into the kind of appear to be actual dull cells in a process known as adipogenesis, Friedman explained. Two decades of research showed that a compages network of transcription factors - genes whose job is to switch other genes on - controls this process. One of the earliest events, those studies showed, is the activation of the transcription factor C/EBPĂź. But researchers still didn’t know what turns C/EBPĂź on.
An earlier paper by Friedman’s team made another advance. They showed that a factor known as Krox20 is active in early fat development and influences the expression of C/EBPĂź. However, they weren’t able to show that it binds the DNA sequence that promotes C/EBPĂź activity directly, suggesting that it doesn’t “flip the switch” on its own.
Now, the researchers unfold that KrĂĽppel-like factor 4 (KLF4) is the missing link. (KLF4 made headlines recently in the manner that one of four ingredients in a cocktail that turns ordinary cells into “induced pluripotent stem cells” that look and act like embryonic stem cells.)
KLF4 can be found in 3T3-L1 cells within 30 minutes after exposure to the standard fat-generating cocktail, the researchers report. Treatments that block KLF4 inhibit fat production and abdicate lower C/EBPĂź levels.
Importantly, the researchers found evidence that KLF4 physically binds to the previously discovered factor Krox20. KLF4 then binds directly to the C/EBPĂź promoter to drive fat production.
Though other factors remain to be discovered, the new report identifies KLF4 as “an essential player in adipocyte differentiation,” the researchers concluded. “Our findings place KLF4 among a group of lock opener proadipogenic early transcription factors.”
Studies of KLF4 function in living animals will be necessary to evaluate the precise roles of these early transcription factors in fat development and to determine whether in that place is redundancy in the positions held by changeable players in the operation, the researchers added.
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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The researchers include Kivanc¸ Birsoy, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Rockefeller University, New York, NY ; Zhu Chen, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Rockefeller University, New York, NY, Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, Merck Research Laboratories, Rahway, NJ; and Jeffrey Friedman, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Rockefeller University, New York, NY, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York, NY.
Source:
Cathleen Genova
Cell Press
Hidden Benefit Discovered In Using Product Marketed To Athletes
A new product designed to improve the agility, coordination, and reaction speed of athletes has found its way onto Wall Street.
Vizuo XL Sports Vision Enhancement is marketed as a dietary supplement that improves sports vision, which consists of visual skills such as dynamic visual acuity, depth perception, peripheral vision, eye-hand coordination, visual memory, and several others that are serious if athletes want to be successful.
Will Horan, president of Natural Athletic Nutrition, the Long Island-based company that makes Vizuo XL, was caught off guard when he first learned about its new use pattern.
"I always assumed that these financial traders were buying it for their high-school or college kids that were playing sports. While talking with a bunch of them to gain marketing insight, we discovered that many were buying the product not for their children but for themselves. Apparently they felt that admitting that it could help athletes make faster decisions on the playing field on that account it could help them execute trading decisions more quickly," says Horan. "I guess this is what the pharmaceutical industry would call an off-label use," he adds jokingly.
The product works in two ways. First, it supports and maintains the health and structural integrity of the eyes themselves. Second, it enhances the other half of "seeing," which has to do with what happens after the eyes take in the visual data from the world around them. When light enters the eye through the student it is focused on the retina by the lens. Rods and cones react to this light and pass information to the brain via the optic fortify. The brain processes this information and then sends nerve signals through the neuromuscular system, what one. direct the body to move in a certain way. By increasing levels of the neurotransmitters dopamine and acetylcholine, the fruit helps the brain process visual information more quickly thereby allowing the body to react faster.
Vizuo XL Sports Vision Enhancement contains over twenty-five all natural eye vitamins and nutrients such as lutein, zeaxanthin, bilberry, lycopene, and citrus bioflavonoids. It also contains DVAC, Dynamic of the eye Acuity Complex, what one. is a proprietary blend of three nutrients designed to meliorate blood circulation in the small capillaries of the eyes and boost the neurotransmitters mentioned above.
An added benefit of the product is that some people feel it relieves Computer Vision Syndrome; family put on the eyes from staring at a computer screen all day long.
Although declining to discuss specific sales figures, the company says it is pleased with the initial launch.
"I just hope the SEC doesn’t ban it for giving traders an unfair advantage over their competition. I wouldn’t want to see anyone have to appear before a congressional committee investigating the appliance of playing enhancing nutrients on Wall Street," Horan says with a laugh.
2 commentsGene Linked To Inherited Blood Biomarker Associated With Asthma Risk
Risk for developing asthma is linked to variants in a gene called CHI3L1, which can be measured by checking levels of an inherited blood protein regulated by dint of. that gene, according to new research sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health.
Researchers identified gene variants which are associated with increased susceptibility to asthma and reduced lung function in three study populations. The variants regulate the level of a blood protein called YKL-40, which, through previous NHLBI-funded research, has been shown to have existence elevated in people with asthma and correlate with asthma severity. This new research shows that the YLKL-40 protein is inherited, and can be measured from birth.
The research is published online on April 9, 2008, by the New England Journal of Medicine and will appear in print on April 17, 2008.
"The investigators followed up on the discovery of a romance blood biomarker to identify a gene, which may have important implications in the early identification of susceptibility to, and prevention of asthma," said Elizabeth G. Nabel, M.D., director, NHLBI.
Building on the previous finding that the protein is a blood marker for asthma, researchers looked at the gene that regulates the protein. The relationship between the gene, the protein and asthma was first seen in a genetically and environmentally similar population, 700 members of an isolated religious community, the Hutterites, who are closely akin and of European descent. The close-knit community has little exposure to smoking and similar exposures to environmental triggers for asthma. These factors make it easier to identify sordid differences in the genetic code.
Researchers then confirmed the connection between the gene and YKL-40 protein in three additional, more genetically diverse white groups in Chicago, Wisconsin, and Freiburg, Germany. In two of those populations, they confirmed the connection between the gene variants and asthma. One of the three groups, made up of 178 American children studied from birth in the NHLBI-funded Childhood Origins of Asthma (COAST) study, did not yet show a relationship between the gene and diagnosed asthma, but showed that the associations betwixt YKL-40 levels and the gene variants were present at birth.
"YKL-40 appears to serve as a marker for genetic susceptibility to asthma and decline in lung function," said James P. Kiley Ph.D., director, NHLBI Division of Lung Diseases. "These findings will help pave the way for more research on pre-empting the development of disease."
Additionally, while one form, or allele, of the CHI3L1 gene is associated with an increased risk of asthma, another form is protective against asthma and gradual wasting in lung function. One DNA base pair in the CHI3L1 gene can be comprised of combinations of cytosine or guanine. The YKL-40 destroy and strength of asthma, at 18 percent, was highest among the Hutterites with pair copies of cytosine. The Hutterites with cytosine and guanine had interposed levels of YKL-40 and an asthma rate of 11 percent. The YKL-40 level and asthma rate, 7 percent, was lowest among those with two copies of guanine.
"Knowing the variations in this one gene may help us get a knowledge of more about how immune system development affects the risk of developing asthma," said Carole Ober, Ph.D., Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, and study author.
YKL-40 is a chitinase-like protein; chitinases are enzymes, that break down chitins. Chitin is an element that comprises the exoskeletons of dust mites, cockroaches, fungi and parasites — all known to be allergenic and related to asthma. YKL-40 does not have chitinase enzyme activity but is thought to play an important role in immune responses to chitin or other airborne particles. These proteins have been shown to frisk a role in animal models of asthma since having an important effect on airway inflammation.
Asthma is a chronic, treatable disease that causes narrowing of the airways, making breathing difficult at times. More than 22 million people in the United States have asthma, including 6.5 million children under age 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
37 commentsNMPI.com Provides Tips For Pain Relief
Norman Marcus Pain Institute ( nmpi.com)Â dedicated to the eradication of pain provides helpful tips for pain relief for muscles and for pain related to execise and fitness.
More than 50% of the body is made of muscles, but in spite of this most evaluations as antidote to pain do not emphasize muscles being of the kind which a major cause of pain.
1. If you have pain in an area that area should be manually examined to find if the suit is from underlying muscles.
2. If you are starting a daily exercise program and you try to render as much as possible on each day you may find that you be able to do less each day till the cessation of the second week, at which time you will be able to progress.
4. If you do strengthening exercise on a stiff muscle it will dispose stiffer. Therefore, always divert then limber (determine in the range of comfort) then stretch and only then strengthen.
5. stress may have existence a major factor causing or increasing in any degree pain. Therefore relaxation is a true important part of pain relief.
3 comments