Friday, April 06, 2007
Better
Well, it's one option. Definitely better off will be the women (and ultimately the men too) of Eritrea, which has just officially banned the practice of female circumcision. Unlike male circumcision, which has generally no ill-effects and may or may not be good for you, female circumcision is just mutilation and torture, plain and simple. So good for you, Eritrea! (P.S. - please send someone to open a restaurant in Atlanta...I miss my Harambe!)
The good news for older folks (and younger too) is that it seems Tai Chi may help improve immunity. The study focused on resistance to varicella (shingles, chickenpox), but it's likely that the effect is not so specific. Granted, they didn't seem to control for the effects of exercise alone, but in that I think Tai Chi is amazing, I say people should do more of it! (Including me)
Also potentially good for all of us is a New Zealand group's proof-of-concept breakthrough in solar power: they've found a way to make solar cells that don't need direct light, and can be pigmented in ways to look good. Awesome!
Cancer patients may get some good news from the bad today; researchers have confirmed how cancer treatments can spur the disease's spread, but also how that process seems to work, and a possibly way to stop it. It seems that primary tumors release TGF-beta, which inhibits secondary tumors' growth until the primary is removed. Treating patients with TGF-beta could, in the future, suppress growth of these (and maybe even of the primary) tumors.
The real bad news today may be for HIV, which means good news for HIV patients, and maybe the rest of us!
A Spanish study tested a new protease inhibitor in advanced HIV patients, and found that it resulted in significant viral load decreases and improved CD4 counts. This is pretty early data, but still super encouraging! Secondly, US researchers used a rabies vector to deliver SIV/HIV proteins to monkeys, resulting in a good immune response to viral challenge. The vaccine doesn't protect from infection, but it did appear to reduce disease development, and could direct future work to find a preventative vaccine.
The good news for older folks (and younger too) is that it seems Tai Chi may help improve immunity. The study focused on resistance to varicella (shingles, chickenpox), but it's likely that the effect is not so specific. Granted, they didn't seem to control for the effects of exercise alone, but in that I think Tai Chi is amazing, I say people should do more of it! (Including me)
Also potentially good for all of us is a New Zealand group's proof-of-concept breakthrough in solar power: they've found a way to make solar cells that don't need direct light, and can be pigmented in ways to look good. Awesome!
Cancer patients may get some good news from the bad today; researchers have confirmed how cancer treatments can spur the disease's spread, but also how that process seems to work, and a possibly way to stop it. It seems that primary tumors release TGF-beta, which inhibits secondary tumors' growth until the primary is removed. Treating patients with TGF-beta could, in the future, suppress growth of these (and maybe even of the primary) tumors.
The real bad news today may be for HIV, which means good news for HIV patients, and maybe the rest of us!
A Spanish study tested a new protease inhibitor in advanced HIV patients, and found that it resulted in significant viral load decreases and improved CD4 counts. This is pretty early data, but still super encouraging! Secondly, US researchers used a rabies vector to deliver SIV/HIV proteins to monkeys, resulting in a good immune response to viral challenge. The vaccine doesn't protect from infection, but it did appear to reduce disease development, and could direct future work to find a preventative vaccine.
Labels: Africa, bladder cancer, circumcision, Eritrea, female genital mutilation, health, HIV, science, shingles, SIV, Tai Chi, TGF-beta, vaccine, varicella
Friday, March 30, 2007
Meet the Toyger...
Seriously, a mini-tiger? YES PLEASE! I'm not even a cat person, but I want one of these guys so bad it hurts. And that's not the only wonderful science brings us today.
Canadian researchers have identified a peptide, which they are calling innate defense regulator peptide (IDR-1), that appears to be able to upregulate the innate immune system without a dangerous inflammatory response, offering hope against antibiotic resistant infections (among other things).
The battle against HIV/AIDS may get some new help now, as the WHO has published its recommendation that heterosexual men in sub-Saharan African be circumcised as a preventive measure. Now, I won't re-hash all the innumerable problems with this approach and its announcement (go here for a good, if shrill, discussion), but if it has any chance of helping, I say go for it. The potential harm is minimal, especially if the media is willing to be a little, teensie bit responsible about it.* In a possibly-more-important discovery, a US-UK team of researchers have found that green tea's famous epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) could help stop HIV, by interfereing with its ability to bind to cells. The work is really preliminary, but also has tons of potential.
And
* OK, so there's a good chance this'll be a disaster.
* * I don't actually buy any of this ADD stuff. 50 or 100 years ago, people who were interested in lots of different things and didn't like to do one thing too long were called "Renaissance Men," which was a compliment. Now we get tossed on Ritalin and told to settle down, which makes no one happier.
Labels: AIDS, antibiotic resistance, brains, circumcision, cute, cute overload, EGCG, green tea, HIV, immune system, toyger
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Fat and Robots
Weight loss is big business. Every time we turn on the TV, or peek into our SPAM folders, we're assailed by a million-and-one advertisements, calling us fat and cajoling us to buy [insert likely placebo here] to change all that. Those TV ads are expensive, and at least a few morons seem to still click on SPAM messages (buying things seen via SPAM should be a capital crime, IMHO), so the money is clearly there.
But what works?!?!? That's the big question. Well, a Stanford study (which may or may not be published, el WaPo doesn't say or cite) of about 300 women followed for a year suggests that Atkins may not have been all wrong. From the article it's really hard to glean what the data actually say, but it seems at least that Atkins didn't have the cataclysmic effects on blood lipids expected, and that it may have been associated with more weight gain than other diets tested. But then again, big money's involved here, so who knows who was futzing with the data.
Speaking of diet and fat, Michigan researchers are trying to validate one of my biggest research pet peeves: that BMI is a terrible measure of obesity. Good work y'all! Also, Pittsburgh researchers have found that increased omega-3 fatty acids in the diet may be linked to increased grey matter, especially in areas related to mood and memory. Interesting!
We've heard all the hoopla about circumcision as a method of slowing HIV spread in Africa (see here for a good, if rather shrill, discussion on how bad the discourse has been on this so far), right? Well, it turns out that the news might not be all good (duh!): men who go back to engaging in sex before their newly-cut-penises are fully healed may be spreading HIV to their female partners at a higher rate. The data are sparse and look pretty shakey, but this is potentially a MAJOR concern, so it's worth investigating ASAP.
Speaking of ethics, South Korea is working on a Code of Ethics for robots, beginning of course with the Three Laws. Their code will expand on Asimov's model, and include rules on how humans should treat robots as well. Hopefully members of the commission have done more than watch I, Robot and Blade Runner before considering all this.
But what works?!?!? That's the big question. Well, a Stanford study (which may or may not be published, el WaPo doesn't say or cite) of about 300 women followed for a year suggests that Atkins may not have been all wrong. From the article it's really hard to glean what the data actually say, but it seems at least that Atkins didn't have the cataclysmic effects on blood lipids expected, and that it may have been associated with more weight gain than other diets tested. But then again, big money's involved here, so who knows who was futzing with the data.
Speaking of diet and fat, Michigan researchers are trying to validate one of my biggest research pet peeves: that BMI is a terrible measure of obesity. Good work y'all! Also, Pittsburgh researchers have found that increased omega-3 fatty acids in the diet may be linked to increased grey matter, especially in areas related to mood and memory. Interesting!
We've heard all the hoopla about circumcision as a method of slowing HIV spread in Africa (see here for a good, if rather shrill, discussion on how bad the discourse has been on this so far), right? Well, it turns out that the news might not be all good (duh!): men who go back to engaging in sex before their newly-cut-penises are fully healed may be spreading HIV to their female partners at a higher rate. The data are sparse and look pretty shakey, but this is potentially a MAJOR concern, so it's worth investigating ASAP.
Speaking of ethics, South Korea is working on a Code of Ethics for robots, beginning of course with the Three Laws. Their code will expand on Asimov's model, and include rules on how humans should treat robots as well. Hopefully members of the commission have done more than watch I, Robot and Blade Runner before considering all this.
Labels: Atkins, brains, circumcision, ethics, fat, HIV, money, movies, obesity, omega-3, penis, robots, sci-fi, SPAM, weight-loss
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Dicks and Assess
A Canadian survey found that 90% of teenage boys admitted to looking at porn, as did 70% of girls. The authors of the study are of course Very Concerned, in that they imagine that viewing 'too much' porn will damage young people's development, et cetera. They don't have any evidence for this fear, but clearly it's the only conclusion Sensible People could make. The report glosses over the much more important finding - that parents aren't discussing sex (specifically: safer sex) with their kids - and instead goes for thinly veiled moralizing about porn.
Speaking of thinking with the little head, remember the study on circumcision against HIV the NIH stopped because the results were so overwhelming? Well, it seems that the results may be even stronger than previously thought - as much as a 65% reduction in risk! The problem, of course, is that the study was not very well designed, selecting control and treatment groups solely by volunteerism, not randomization*.
Moving around to the other side of the anatomy, it seems that perfectionists and high-stress types may be more likely to develop Irritable Bowel Syndrome after bouts of gastroenteritis. Cognitive therapy is prescribed to train sufferers to be less obnoxiously Type-A.
But really speaking of assholes, the Bush administration looks unlikely to grant state governor's requests for extra SCHIP funding this year, to keep those programs going. The programs provide health insurance to children whose families ear too much to get Medicaid, but not enough to afford insurance, and are proven highly effective.
And finally, the good news: the First Circuit has reaffirmed that bloggers aren't liable for commentors' libel**, and it seems that ginko extract may be helpful in treating the mental retardation that comes with Downs Syndrome, by antagonizing GABA.
* This probably isn't as big a deal here, as placebo effects are totally implausible and the men who received treatment may also have been more likely to engage in risky behavior, given expectation of increased protection. All in all, these methodological issues are probably a wash.
** Why doesn't anybody comment here anymore? It was more fun and more interesting when we had some discourse!
Speaking of thinking with the little head, remember the study on circumcision against HIV the NIH stopped because the results were so overwhelming? Well, it seems that the results may be even stronger than previously thought - as much as a 65% reduction in risk! The problem, of course, is that the study was not very well designed, selecting control and treatment groups solely by volunteerism, not randomization*.
Moving around to the other side of the anatomy, it seems that perfectionists and high-stress types may be more likely to develop Irritable Bowel Syndrome after bouts of gastroenteritis. Cognitive therapy is prescribed to train sufferers to be less obnoxiously Type-A.
But really speaking of assholes, the Bush administration looks unlikely to grant state governor's requests for extra SCHIP funding this year, to keep those programs going. The programs provide health insurance to children whose families ear too much to get Medicaid, but not enough to afford insurance, and are proven highly effective.
And finally, the good news: the First Circuit has reaffirmed that bloggers aren't liable for commentors' libel**, and it seems that ginko extract may be helpful in treating the mental retardation that comes with Downs Syndrome, by antagonizing GABA.
* This probably isn't as big a deal here, as placebo effects are totally implausible and the men who received treatment may also have been more likely to engage in risky behavior, given expectation of increased protection. All in all, these methodological issues are probably a wash.
** Why doesn't anybody comment here anymore? It was more fun and more interesting when we had some discourse!
Labels: assholes, circumcision, Downs Syndrome, GABA, HIV, IBS, insurance, internet, law, libel, memory, porn, pron, SCHIP, sex, teenagers
Friday, December 15, 2006
Old and New Solutions
Sometimes the newest and shiniest technology is what you need to solve a problem. Nanobots promise to revolutionize science and (especially) medicine, but powering them has been tricky. Now, Japanese researchers have found a way to get nanosized fiber-optic cables to convert light into small electrical currents - the way some bacteria do - which could be used to power the tiny machines. I wonder about the feasability of doing this on a larger scale - i.e., better solar power?
On the other hand, sometimes an old technology turns out to have previously-unknown utility. We've been hearing for some time that male circumcision might reduce HIV risk, but the NIH announced yesterday, in a fairly dramatic press conference, that they have ended two major trial early due to overwhelming positive results. So there you have it: circumcision dramatically decreases HIV transmission. (Jews and Muslims around the world rejoice that there may have been a reason after all!)
Much of our technology, in science at least, goes towards figuring out How We Got Here. Investigation into the origins of life on Earth may have just gotten a big boost from outer space: organic molecules found on comets look like the kind of stuff that, if it had crashed on Earth a few billion years ago (roughly), may have helped catalyze the first chemical reactions of life. "We are ET."
On the other hand, sometimes an old technology turns out to have previously-unknown utility. We've been hearing for some time that male circumcision might reduce HIV risk, but the NIH announced yesterday, in a fairly dramatic press conference, that they have ended two major trial early due to overwhelming positive results. So there you have it: circumcision dramatically decreases HIV transmission. (Jews and Muslims around the world rejoice that there may have been a reason after all!)
Much of our technology, in science at least, goes towards figuring out How We Got Here. Investigation into the origins of life on Earth may have just gotten a big boost from outer space: organic molecules found on comets look like the kind of stuff that, if it had crashed on Earth a few billion years ago (roughly), may have helped catalyze the first chemical reactions of life. "We are ET."
Labels: aliens, circumcision, comets, HIV health, life, nanotech, solar power, space, technology
