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Friday, October 17, 2003Mr. Schiavo and his lawyer have convinced the courts that his wife is a vegetable. A vegetable has no emotions, and no thoughts. It can not move spontaneously. It can not smile at its mother. But Mrs. Schiavo can, if the family videos are any indication. The Catholic blogs are all over this, pointing out how little the local bishops have done to help, although the local faithful have been trying to get the word out and save the woman’s life. (Once again, the schism between the common Catholic and the Church hierarchy is thrown into sharp relief.) The popular media have largely ignored the story. Governor Bush just might be able to help, if he has the will and the stomach for launching a criminal investigation. Given the mysterious circumstances of her injury, her husband’s refusal to allow rehabilitave therapy after the injury, and now his eagerness to starve her to death, a criminal investigation certainly seems warranted. You can protest the injustice of it all here. (Moral: Be careful who you choose to be your power of attorney for healthcare. If you choose no one, the job automatically falls to your spouse. If you have a rocky marriage, better name someone else, even if you are young and healthy.) posted by Sydney on 10/17/2003 08:44:00 AM 0 comments
Thursday, October 16, 2003The centre of this poverty-obesity link is a hormonal pathway known as the HPA axis. This is a loop connecting the hypothalamus, a jellybean-size part of the brain that governs appetite, and the pituitary and adrenal glands, which secrete a variety of hormones, including the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol helps the liver convert fat into the lightning bursts of energy the body needs to escape danger, a vital function. But it also signals the body to accumulate mounds of fat in the abdomen, building the 'apple' shape that is so hazardous to health. 'When you have too much cortisol, you have Cushing's disease, which is an illness that causes central fat deposition,' says Dr. Goodman. ...Research shows children raised in low socioeconomic settings produce greater amounts of cortisol, a stress hormone. In a 2001 study, researchers from McGill University measured the hormone levels of 300 children from poor to wealthy families. They found three times as much cortisol in low-income kids compared with rich kids. Social stress probably does give rise to higher cortisol levels, and it could very well be behind not only a tendency to gain weight, also the higher incidence of illness among the poor and otherwise socially stressed. But, the conclusion that the Canadian researchers reach is mind-boggling: Diabetes mellitus, a common complication of obesity, is twice as common among middle-aged Canadians with household incomes less than $30,000 than those living in households with incomes of $60,000 or higher. And rates have increased sharply since the mid-1980s. By 2010, an estimated four million Canadians will have diabetes. Dr. Raphael says the shift to more conservative governments around the world is a big factor. "If you're serious about population health, and if you're serious about heart disease and diabetes, then you don't want to create the kind of policy environments we've been creating in Ontario and in Canada," he says. Is there any record of any government - liberal or conservative - in the history of the world that has managed to eliminate poverty? What's more, is there any system in the history of the world that has been able to eliminate social stress? Not that some haven't tried. What's more, whose to say that living off the dole doesn't produce its own social stresses? HUD housing from the Carter era is among the most depressing architecture you're ever likely to see - low, brick buildings built along institutional lines with as few windows as possible. Not exactly an evironment that would lower cortisol levels. posted by Sydney on 10/16/2003 07:55:00 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, October 15, 2003For the current study, Barzilai and his colleagues examined and took blood samples from 213 Ashkenazi Jewish men and women and 216 of their children. The average age of the parents was 98 and almost half were over 100; the range was 95 to 107. The children had an average age of about 68. These groups were compared to a control group. Ashkenazi Jews, who are of Eastern European descent, are remarkably similar in their genetic makeup. This makes them ideal for studies such as this one which seek to find single genetic mutations. As it turned out, the Ashkenazi elders and their offspring were three times more likely than the control groups to have a DNA alteration in the cholesterol ester transfer protein (CETP) gene, which helps regulate blood levels of, and size of, HDL [good cholesterol -ed.] and LDL [bad cholesterol -ed.] molecules. The mutation resulted in lower levels of CETP in the blood, increased levels of HDL and larger HDL and LDL molecules. So, how much bigger are the cholesterol molecules in question? Not much. Although the abstract, the only portion of the study available online without a subscription, says only that they’re “significantly” larger, a closer look at the study reveals the signficance is only in the statistical sense. The mean size of LDL cholesterol particles in the long-lived first generation of Ashkenazi Jews was 21.5 (+/- 0.5) nanometers for women and 21.3 (+/- 0.8) nanometers for men. The control group’s particle size was 21.0 (+/-0.7) nanometers for women and 20.9 (+/- 0.6) nanometers for men - a signifcant overlap in values. The numbers for HDL cholesterol are only a little better. The long-lived first generation had HDL particles that were 9.55 (+/- 0.5) nanometers in women and 9.39 (+/- 0.5) nanometers in men. The control group’s HDL particles were 9.18 (+/- 0.5) nanometers in women and 8.88 (+/- 0.4) nanometers in men. Nanometer differences in particle size no doubt can be significant on the molecular level, but when the mean values overlap so much between the study and the control groups, you have to question the physiological significance of the findings. Where there does appear to be a significant difference, however, is the size of the particles in those with and without disease, at least among the long-lived segment of Ashkenazi. Those who were healthy had a mean HDL particle size of 9.32 (+/- 0.01) nanometers and an LDL of 21.4 (+/- 0.03) nanometers. Those with cardiovascular disease (heart attack or stroke), however, had a mean HDL of 8.96 (+/- 0.03) nanometers and an LDL of 20.8 (+/- 0.05) nanometers. Whether it’s the size of the particles that makes the difference or an interaction between those particles and some other aspect of the subject’s physiological or genetic make-up isn’t at all clear. Similar studies need to be done on the wider population to see if the same correlation exists across ethnic groups before we all run out and have our cholesterol particles measured by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. One thing for sure, there’s something about those very elderly Ashkenazi that makes them invulnerable to insult: The study participants also seem to be proof of the contention that genes can override the environment. One 103-year-old woman just celebrated 95 years of two-pack-a-day smoking. "We know that we should exercise and diet and not be overweight, but the important thing with those guys was something downstream," Barzilai says. "They could do whatever they wanted." Of 300 elders that Barzilai has interviewed (some after this study was completed), 30 percent were overweight and he can not find a single lifestyle factor that would explain their longevity. The main thing they had in common was parents who had lived a long time. Some people have all the luck, or maybe not. posted by Sydney on 10/15/2003 06:57:00 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, October 14, 2003Eisenberger and her co-authors created a computer game in which test subjects were led to believe they were playing ball with two other players. At some point, the other players seemed to exclude the test subject from the game — making it appear the test subject had been suddenly rejected and blocked from playing with the group. The shock and distress of this rejection registered in the same part of the brain, called the anterior cingulate cortex, that also responds to physical pain, Eisenberger said. “The ACC is the same part of the brain that has been found to be associated with the unpleasantness of physical pain, the part of pain that really bothers us,” Eisenberger said. The anterior cingulate cortex - our unhappiness center. posted by Sydney on 10/14/2003 08:17:00 AM 0 comments
Monday, October 13, 2003....loud noise doesn't always damage the delicate inner ear immediately just by brute force. Rather, in most cases it provokes the inner ear into making harmful oxygen molecules called free radicals. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals, and the ear naturally has such defenses. But with enough noise, the ear's antioxidants are overwhelmed. In that case, damage from the free radicals leads to death of the ear's sound receptors -- hair cells, which convert the mechanical energy of incoming sound waves into nerve messages to the brain. As hair cells die off, hearing erodes permanently. So it makes sense to try to build up the ear's antioxidant defenses as a preventive step, and as a fast treatment after noise exposure. ....NAC not only neutralizes free radicals but also bolsters the ear's own antioxidant defenses. In Kopke's animal work, NAC has reduced hearing loss when given before or right after exposure to loud noise. Translated to humans, the effect could mean the difference between needing a hearing aid or not, Kopke said. posted by Sydney on 10/13/2003 08:33:00 AM 0 comments
Sunday, October 12, 2003Four people are critically ill on Staten Island, suffering from a mysterious infectious disease. New York City health officials issued a medical alert Friday night to doctors and hospitals in the five boroughs and triggered the national alert system through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though it was not clear whether the cases are the result of the same disease or are related in any way, the Health Department asked that all clinicians be vigilant. The symptoms are: *Initially, a flu-like illness with headache, fever, fatigue and muscle aches. *Mental changes, including confusion, memory loss and delirium. Convulsive seizures, in some cases. *Difficulty breathing, leading in some cases to complete respiratory failure. *Red, raised patches on the skin that are symmetrical, that is, a rash on one side of the body mirroring one on the other side. *Elevated white blood cell count. *High protein levels in the cerebrospinal fluid. As the article notes, the symptoms are consistent with some sort of viral infection. It could be a mosquito-borne illness (Staten Island is a swampy place) or it might not. Viral encephalitis cases tend to peak in the late summer or early fall, so a cluster of viral encephalitis cases at this time of year isn't that unusual. And only four cases doesn't make it a public health emergency. Which brings up the question - how many cases should the threshold make? Too low a threshold means too many false alarms, but too high a threshold would mean missing dangerous public health threats (be they sponsored by nature or terrorism) at the early stage when it's easiest to nip them in the bud. Better to be on guard than to be caught sleeping, as long as the media don't seize on every alert and magnify it beyond all reason. posted by Sydney on 10/12/2003 11:16:00 AM 0 comments
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