Thursday, October 06, 2005
Searching Far and Wide
Sometimes, the source of a treatment or cure can come from what seems to be a strange source. That is, to me, one of the really fun bits of science - that you never know where you'll find what - as demonstrated by three very different bits of new research:
In a demonstration of how critical it is to have scientists working in different subject areas working in the same building, an interdisciplinary group of Vanderbilt researchers have found that a number of frog peptides are powerful weapons against HIV. Many of the frogs in question are highly endangered; imagine if clear-cutting or other environmental destruction had destroyed the cure to AIDS!
Chromium picolinate seems to help reduce carb cravings in depressed patients. I'd like to see the actual data before I go buying vats of chromium, but this is potentially an extremely interesting finding not only for depression, but for diabetes and nutrition in general.
Another study claims that beta-glucan from oats, used as a moisturizer, reduces the depth and roughness of facial wrinkles. I tend not to trust any cosmotological research at all, ever, but this is intriguing. I'd love to see the data.
In a demonstration of how critical it is to have scientists working in different subject areas working in the same building, an interdisciplinary group of Vanderbilt researchers have found that a number of frog peptides are powerful weapons against HIV. Many of the frogs in question are highly endangered; imagine if clear-cutting or other environmental destruction had destroyed the cure to AIDS!
Chromium picolinate seems to help reduce carb cravings in depressed patients. I'd like to see the actual data before I go buying vats of chromium, but this is potentially an extremely interesting finding not only for depression, but for diabetes and nutrition in general.
Another study claims that beta-glucan from oats, used as a moisturizer, reduces the depth and roughness of facial wrinkles. I tend not to trust any cosmotological research at all, ever, but this is intriguing. I'd love to see the data.
