Articulatory Loop

The really big news recently is of course the discovery of a new multiple sclerosis gene on chromosome 5. This is pretty cool, not only in terms of hope for MS patients, but also because this gene could be key to other autoimmune processes and diseases.

Secondly and less convincingly, an Oxford team claims to have found the (or at least a) gene for left-handedness. On the upside, this is interesting. On the downside, the gene also appears to increase risk of schizophrenia. This coincidence is odd but not totally shocking - schizophrenia seems to be a problem with how the brain organizes information, and a gene that pretty radically changes all those systems may well make them more likely to screw up.

Labels: brain, geneitcs, genes, health, lateralization, left handedness, MS, neuroscience, schizophrenia

Worried about proving yourself as manly as can be? Well, the bet way to do that may be to have fraternal twins. Danish researchers found that fathers of dizygotic twins had higher-quality sperm than did fathers of single-births. They also found the same to be true of fathers of monozygotic twins, which makes very little sense, so I am not sure I really buy this study. However, it was fun to say.

Canadian researchers have found that mice with an induced MS-like syndrome recover some of their myelin when pregnant, due to prolactin. If this finding can be translated safely into a drug regiment for humans, it could really improve the lives of MS sufferers, who currently have few real treatment options. Plus, why does prolactin have this effect? That's really cool!

Labels: manliness, MS, myelin, neuroscience, pregnancy, prolactin, sperm, twins

But stress is still bad: women who were more stressed out while pregnant have kids who are more likely to develop ADHD, lower IQ, and other developmental/behavioral problems. The effect seems to be modulated by amniotic cortisol, and so it could be possible to block it, even if the moms won't chill.

Lots of good news for what's bad for you today. Mice with a model condition for Multiple Sclerosis showed a significant reduction in symptoms when exposed to carbon monoxide. It's not clear if the researchers tested for side effects here (there must have been a few!), and certainly the method used in mice would be lethal to humans, but it's an interesting step. It seems to work by blocking free radical production, but I wonder why then high doses of, say, vitamin C isn't effective as well. Hmm.

Patients with an rare, deadly form of cancer - acute promyelocytic leukemia - seem to do very well on a combination of radiation and chemo with arsenic trioxide. I wonder if old lace helps?

And finally, a new way to quit smoking: brain damage!!! Neuroscientists found that many patients with damage to the insula spontaneously lose the urge to smoke. The thing is that not all of them do, and it's not clear why. Also, discussion of surgical smoking-cessation techniques is frankly a bit scary: yes, smoking is amazingly bad for you, and yes it's hard to quit, but the risks (not to mention the costs!) of any kind of brain surgery is way too much to even consider, I think.

Labels: ADHD, arsenic, brain damage, cancer, carbon monoxide, cigarettes, development, health, leukemia, mice, MS, pregnancy, smoking, stress

Multiple Sclerosis is a degenerative autoimmune disease, causing severe pain and disability in its victims. Like other autoimmune conditions, its causes are unknown and treatments are scarce. Argentine researchers are reporting the results of a small cohort of MS patients (24), some of whom showed sign of parasitic infection and some of whom did not. The parasite hosts had much less severe MS symptoms and fewer relapses than did non-hosts. Similar to previous findings that intestinal parasites relieved Crohn's, this result is in support of a 'hygiene hypothesis' of autoimmune disorders: relatively unchallenged by our germ-free modern environment, our immune systems have started 'looking' for things to attack. Such as ourselves.

On a different (and mysterious) causal chain, a large sample study has found that men with gum disease are 63% more likely to suffer hard-to-treat pancreatic cancers. One idea is that this could be due to the inflammation of gum disease 'spreading' to other parts of the body, but that seems a bit far-fetched to me, in terms of cancer. The findings are really fascinating, but I can't help but wonder if there's not a confounding factor in the mix.

In to good news: Canadian researchers have found that the old, apparently safe, off-label (read: cheap) drug dichloroacetate (DCA) may be a potent cancer killer. The compound acts by reactivating cancer cells' mitochondria, which are normally shut off in favor of cellular metabolism glycolysis in cancer cells, and which subsequently initiate apoptosis of the unhealthy cells.

Business, union, and retiree leaders in one room, agreeing on something?!?! It seems so. The group met in Washington to send a message to the politicians: the time has come for universal health care. This needs to happen, and it needs to be done right (or it'll be a disaster akin to what we have now, only even harder to fix), and it needs to be done now. Neither side of the aisle in Congress or the White House has been really willing to step up yet, but hopefully this meeting will prompt them to do so.

Finally, everything you didn't want to know about molecular gastronomy cooking-using-funny-tools-and-ingredients. I've never been to any of the places mentioned, but I get the idea, and am pretty much already bored with it. Like avant-garde art, there comes a point when you're just doing to be shocking, or contrary, or because you can.

For some I guess this is part of the fun, but for me I think it ends up detracting from the actual flavor of the food. Butterscotch bacon? Sounds awesome. Edible menus? Once, cool, twice, yawwwnnn. Soup in a pipette? No thanks.

Labels: autoimmune, bladder cancer, food, gum disease, health care, hygiene, molecular gastronomy, MS, parasites, politics, science

Female reptiles don't really need males for much of anything, including reproduction. Recent (possibly) virgin births by komodo dragons represent the first time we've seen parthenogenesis in that species, but it is quite common amongst other reptiles. There's a catch though, ladies: the parthenogenic offspring are all male!

Speaking of strange offspring, researchers in China have found a two-headed reptile fossil. It appears as though the specimen died very young, and so was probably just the product of a birth defect, not a man-eating dragon.

Humans have offspring too, of course, but for us the process is made rather more complicated by (among other things) busybodies who want to dictate 'morality' on us all. Despite all the preaching, it seems that the vast majority of Americans are having premarital sex. Needless to say, the usual suspects are decrying the research, and demanding that more money be spent on 'abstinence education.'

Once human kids are conceived, that's really just the start of their problems - it's increasingly likely that they'll grow up to be fat and suffer from some chronic disease, et cetera. Many factors influence how fat people get, including exercise, diet, and, it seems, the bacteria in their guts. US researchers have found that obese people (and mice) seem to have higher proportions of certain natural gut bacteria, which allow for better absorption of calories from food. This is really a cool concept, and one that, if it turns out to be a major factor, could maybe be pretty easy to treat.

Also, living in the suburbs makes your kids fat. Duh.

The good news? More vitamin D may reduce risk of developing multiple sclerosis - a nasty autoimmune disease which ravishes the nervous system, and high blood alcohol levels may actually help you survive the car crash you caused by driving drunk. Very interesting, but weird.

Labels: abstinence, alcohol, bacteria, fat, genes, genetics, komodo dragons, MS, obesity, parthenogenesis, policy, premarital sex, reptiles, science, sex, sprawl, suburbs, trauma, virgin birth, vitamin D

Following yesterday's monsoon of idiocy, the American Far Right felt that it needed to contribute. So, Jim Rutz wrote a bogglingly inane editorial in which he claims that eating soy-based foods are the cause of homosexuality, and that they make mens' dicks smaller. Aside from committing pretty much every logical fallacy imaginable, he may also be attempting to deprive MS sufferers with an effective treatment: neurologists have found that a soy extract greatly improves mobility in mouse models of MS.

Cornell researchers have discovered that teenagers are swayed by peer pressure, and enjoy instant gratification. Mind-blowing research there, thanks for curing cancer!

Also stupidly, or at least unnecessarily, it seems that the Baiji (Yangtze River dolphin) is extinct. The amazingly strong conservation efforts by the Chinese government in the last decade seem to have been too little, too late. Hopefully one or two remaining Baiji will be found, and can at least have their DNA catalogued. It's the least we can do, for killing them off!

Speaking of China - neuroscientists have found that the brain processes the 'musical' aspects of tonal languages like Mandarin before its semantic content. This helps explain why hearing aides are not so helpful to people who speak such languages, and offers more cool insight into how we deal with language.

Those who like music, outside of language, can download Mozart's entire cataloge for free, as a closer to his 250th birthday celebration in Europe.

Labels: Baiji, China, conservation, dolphins, extinction, language, Mandarin, Motzart, MS, neuroscience, soy, stupidity, teenagers