The News Review:
- Common Allergy Drug Reduces besity And Diabetes In Mice
- At What Height Happiness? A Medical Tale
- Immune system may help fight obesity
- Natural Treatments for Common Ailments
- Blue M&M candy dye may help treat spine injury
Common Allergy Drug Reduces besity And Diabetes In Mice
Science Daily (press release)
In the first study researchers used two common over-the-counter allergy medications to reduce both obesity and type 2 diabetes in mice. The medications called Zaditor and cromolyn stabilize a population of inflammatory immune cells called mast cells. In the second study researchers found that a kind of white blood cell called a regulatory T cell once thought to manage only other white blood cells also acts as a liaison between the metabolic and immune systems—in this case controlling inflammation in fat tissue. Fat tissue from obese and insulin-resistant mice and people is marked by a dramatic absence of this cell type in dramatic contrast to an already reported overabundance in fat tissue of inflammatory immune cells called macrophages.
At What Height Happiness? A Medical Tale
New York Times
Published: July 27 2009 Teenagers with an interest in medicine are generally hustled into menial summer jobs in a hospital or lab to familiarize them with the territory. Here’s a better idea: sit them down with a copy of “Normal at Any Cost. ” When they finish it (as they will: its overtones of both.
Immune system may help fight obesity
Toronto Star
This newly discovered immune defence against weight gain is overwhelmed by chronic overeating but can be "rebooted" by a readily available drug that could offer a less invasive alternative to bariatric or stomach-stapling surgery. In a groundbreaking paper published online yesterday in the journal Nature Medicine the researchers also suggest a reason that obesity can lead to Type 2 diabetes. "This really targets where the problem lies so this is very exciting to us" says Dr. Hans-Michael Dosch the paper’s senior author. The immune system’s critical role in obesity and diabetes and the likelihood it can be reprogrammed to reverse these epidemic conditions came as a shock to the paper’s researchers says Dosch a senior scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children. Researchers at the University of Toronto Mount Sinai Hospital and Stanford University in California also conducted the study.
Related from Alternativemonster: Alternative medicine 101: complementary cancer treatment in the …
Natural Treatments for Common Ailments
CBS News
She looked into Mother Nature’s medicine cabinet on “The Early Show Saturday Edition” noting the surprising healing power of herbal remedies. They could be just what the doctor ordered. PAIN RELIEF Mild headaches: Tiger balm. Chinese ointment contains menthol and can ease pain when rubbed into neck or temples. Arthritis pain: Turmeric fish oil.
Blue M&M candy dye may help treat spine injury
Thaindian.com
It has shown promise for preventing the additional – and serious – secondary damage that immediately follows a traumatic injury to the spine. In the new study researchers found that compound called Brilliant Blue G (BBG) stops the cascade of molecular events that cause secondary damage to the spinal cord in the hours following a spinal cord injury. In the August 2004 cover story of Nature Medicine scientists detailed how ATP the vital energy source that keeps our body’s cells alive quickly pours into the area surrounding a spinal cord injury shortly after it occurs and paradoxically kills off what are otherwise healthy and uninjured cells. This helped understand how secondary injury occurs in spinal cord patients. It also laid out a potential way to stop secondary spinal injury by using oxidized ATP a compound known to block ATP’s effects. The rats with damaged spinal cords who received an injection of oxidized ATP were shown to recover much of their limb function to the point of being able to walk again ambulating effectively if not gracefully. It is previously known that the receptor – called P2X7 – plays a role in regulating the deaths of immune cells such as macrophages.
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