Environmental Medicine News

The News Review:

- Experts chew on pros and cons of bark supplement
- Quality Not Quantity Important For Immune Response To HIV
- The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Health Tribune
- T For Two: Scientists Show How Immune System Chooses Best Way To…
- GOING WITH NATURE / Spring brings freshness home
- Longevity Gene Delays Alzheimer’s And Preserves Faculties

Experts chew on pros and cons of bark supplement
Pittsburgh Post Gazette - Dec 27, 2006
Bauer, a medical doctor and director of the Mayo Clinic Complimentary and Integrative Medicine Program in Rochester, Minn. , said he doesn’t discourage patients from using Pycnogenol even if research is not yet complete. He’s editor-in-chief of the “Mayo Clinic Book of Alternative Medicine,” due for release Jan. The comprehensive guide tells which dietary supplements and therapies are beneficial and which ones aren’t, based on research. Sixty percent of Americans use some form of complementary or alternative medicine and spend up to $47 billion each year on herbs, supplements and therapies, including acupuncture and yoga, a Mayo Clinic news release states. While peer-reviewed re-search on Pycnogenol is compelling, Dr.

Quality Not Quantity Important For Immune Response To HIV
Medical News Today - Dec 27, 2006
However, Professor Goulder and colleagues found that the type of CTC response is crucial and that some types of response may have a negative effect and could actually hinder the immune response. The research, a population-based study involving investigators at the University of Oxford in the UK, Partners AIDS Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in the US and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, investigated the immune responses against HIV in nearly 580 HIV-infected people in KwaZulu-Natal. It is published online today in the journal Nature Medicine. “Some of the CTCs attack so-called ‘Gag’ proteins within the HIV virus, whilst others attack proteins such as the ‘Env’ protein on its surface,” explains Professor Goulder. “In our study group, it seems that the higher the response to the Gag proteins, the more effective the immune system was at fighting infection. However, for reasons that are unclear, the opposite was true for responses to the Env proteins, where a stronger response was associated with a higher viral load - in other words, worse control of HIV. Professor Goulder believes these findings may have implications for the development of a HIV vaccine.

The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Health Tribune
The Tribune - Dec 27, 2006
The quacks of various hues and the mindset of the people that every old woman can advise correct treatment to a sick must become a thing of the past. In the development of the delivery of safe care, emerging technologies need to be developed to improve safety. What can you do? 1. Be an active member of your healthcare team… Be an active member of your healthcare team. Let your doctors know about every medicine you are taking. Let your doctor know about any allergies you have had to medicines. Make sure that you can read the doctor’s prescription.

T For Two: Scientists Show How Immune System Chooses Best Way To…
Science Daily - Science Daily (press release) - Dec 27, 2006
Regulatory T cells prevent an over-active immune system from causing inflammatory damage to the body. This may be one of the key steps in preventing the mother from rejecting the foetus growing inside her. "
The research was carried out at the King’s College London School of Medicine at Guy’s Hospital and was co-lead by Dr Daniel Pennington, a Wellcome Trust VIP awardee and now at Queen Mary, University of London. Collaborating researchers were based at Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa, Lisbon; University College, London; Yale University School of Medicine; Institute for Animal Health; and Imperial College London. Adapted from materials provided by.

GOING WITH NATURE / Spring brings freshness home
San Francisco Chronicle - Dec 27, 2006
Lucas Heldfond and wife Margi realized the latter at the birth of son Oliver and were determined to seek alternatives. They opened Spring on Polk Street in April, offering bedding, natural cleaning products and other ecologically correct goods. Cleaners come from Caldrea, Meyers, Ecover and San Francisco’s own Method. Countertop cleaner ranges from $5 for 28-ounce Method or 16-ounce Meyers to $8. 15 for the Caldrea 16-ounce bottle. If you are headed in the direction of true simplicity in cleaning, there’s white vinegar for $4… Katia Vincent, who was a little skeptical at first, opened Beekind in Sebastopol two years ago, along with her husband, and now offers classes, beekeeping supplies, candles and other items derived from enterprising bees. Products from raw honey to bee venom to the resin called propolis, to beeswax, pollen and bee jelly, are believed to be extremely useful in staying healthy. “It’s the original medicine,” said Priscilla Coe of Sonoma, a frequent customer who practices apitherapy, the use of bee products for healing. She and the Vincents say that bringing bumblebees into a garden restores the native habitat by attracting butterflies, hummingbirds and native bees and really sends a garden into overdrive. Vincent has so many flowers in hers that she has branched into making essential oils that she sells at Beekind, along with beeswax candles made by her husband and various lotions, soaps and bath salts. A popular item is the lotion bar made of beeswax and scented with essential oils (shown at right; $6 to $10, with lavender honey in jar). “You just roll it down your arm and you’ll just go, ‘Ooh,’ ” she said.

Longevity Gene Delays Alzheimer’s And Preserves Faculties
Medical News Today - Dec 27, 2006
38 (13 votes)Article Opinions:. The study is published in the current issue of Neurology and was conducted by researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in the Bronx, New York, and forms part of the Longevity Genes Project. Dr Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and his team looked at 158 people who were aged 95 and over and descended from Ashkenazi Jews who originally came from Eastern Europe. They asked this group, and another group of people of the same age who were not of Ashkenazi descent to complete cognitive tests of mental ability. The scientists found that those who completed the test successfully (by correctly answering 25 of thirty questions) were two to three times more likely to possess the W variant of the CETP gene than those who did not. In a later study the researchers examined a group of 124 people also of Ashkenazi descent, aged between 75 and 85… In a later study the researchers examined a group of 124 people also of Ashkenazi descent, aged between 75 and 85. In this study they found that the ones who did not develop dementia on follow up were five times more likely to have the CETP W gene than those who did not. The researchers chose to look at Ashkenazi people because they came from a small number of ancestors, making it easier to detect the differences in the genetic make up of the individuals due to the more uniform nature of their genetic patterns compared to the public at large. This research comes on top of earlier studies, also by Dr. Barzilai and his team where they first showed that CETP W helps people live longer and also pass this gene onto their descendants. This study suggested that CETP W changes the size of good (HDL) and bad (LDL) cholesterol molecules in the blood - which helps people live longer because the smaller ones get stuck in the blood vessels more easily, leading to clots. The centenarians in that study were three times more likely to have the CETP W variant and also had the larger HDL and LDL cholesterol molecules in their blood.