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The best way to have a boil outbreak treated and easy at home ways to get treatment of boils without a doctor visit.
More Women Seek Nonprescription Remedies For Menopause Symptoms
Over-the-counter remedies for menopause symptoms are growing in popularity among some women who fear potential risks from prescription hormone replacement therapy, the New York Times reports. According to the Times, the market for alternative therapies -- such as natural supplements and topical creams -- jumped in 2002 after initial results from the Women"s Health Initiative suggested that HRT could increase risk for heart disease, cancer, stroke and blood clots. Gynecologists estimate that about one-third of menopausal women are treated with conventional prescription hormones, and about one-third are treated with bio-identical hormones -- plant-derived synthetic hormones that mimic the molecular structure of human hormones. The remaining one-third either do not seek therapy for symptoms, are not bothered by symptoms or use over-the-counter therapies. There are more than 500 over-the-counter products available that claim to alleviate menopause symptoms, the Times reports. The treatments include such products as teas, low-dose progesterone creams, black cohosh capsules and phytoestrogens derived from soy and red clover, according to the Times. According to Nutrition Business Journal, the U.S. dietary supplement market associated with menopause increased from $211 million in 1999 to $337 million in 2007.Some studies have raised doubts about the safety and effectiveness of the over-the-counter remedies. Todd Cooperman -- director of consumerLab.com, a private nutrition product-testing lab -- said that his company"s study of more than one dozen products found that five failed to gain the lab"s approval because of problems such as inaccurate labeling or tainted ingredients. The Center for Botanical Dietary Supplements Research this fall is expected to release the results of a study, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, that aims to determine the efficacy of the ingredients associated with menopause symptom relief. Some studies have questioned the efficacy of progesterone creams, which some experts contend can gather in fat cells and disrupt the production and synthesis of other hormones. Other experts maintain that the products are safe if properly used. Theresa Ramsey, director of the Center for Natural Healing in Arizona, said, "I think over all these products are generally safe, but must be taken in the right circumstances and in conjunction with a mindfully healthy approach to life if they are going to be effective at all" (Sweeney, New York Times, 7/2).
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Stanford Bioethicist And Colleagues Call For Federal Regulation Of Genetic Ancestry Testing
Imagine donating a sample of your DNA to help researchers study the genetics of diabetes. The disease is common among your friends and family, and you"re proud of your role in finding out why. Now, imagine that some time later, you learn that your DNA has been used for other studies on topics you never expected - schizophrenia, human migration, inbreeding. Although your name isn"t attached to the sample anymore, scientists are using your DNA to draw conclusions about your community and your ancestors. Some of these studies violate your cultural beliefs.
News of the day
H1N1 Death Toll Doubles Over Last Month; First Vaccine Trial Begins
The worldwide death toll from the H1N1 (swine flu) virus has doubled in the past month, reaching over 700, the WHO announced Tuesday, the AP/Google.com reports. "WHO did not give a breakdown of the deaths Tuesday. But as of last week, the U.S. reported 263 deaths, Canada reported 45 deaths and Britain had 29. According to WHO"s last update on July 6, there were 119 deaths in Mexico," the news service writes. "Yet even Tuesday"s figure of 700 deaths may seriously underestimate the true toll, experts say, because not all swine flu cases are being picked up due to testing limitations" (Jordans, 7/21).
Cardiovascular

Scientists Report Original Of Malaria

Researchers have identified what they believe is the original of malignant malaria: a parasite found in chimpanzees in equatorial Africa. UC Irvine biologist Francisco Ayala and colleagues think the deadly parasite was transmitted to humans from chimpanzees perhaps as recently as 5,000 years ago - and possibly through a single mosquito, genetic analyses indicate. Previously, malaria"s origin had been unclear. This discovery could aid the development of a vaccine for malaria, which sickens about 500 million people and kills about 1.5 million each year. It also furthers understanding of how infectious diseases such as HIV, SARS, and avian and swine flu can be transmitted to humans from animals. "When malaria transferred to humans, it became very severe very quickly," said Ayala, co-author of the study that reports these findings. "The disease in humans has become resistant to many drugs. It"s my hope that our discovery will bring us closer to making a vaccine." The study appears online the week of Aug. 3 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Human malignant malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium falciparum, which is responsible for 85 percent of all infections and nearly all malaria deaths. Chimpanzees were known to carry a closely related parasite called Plasmodium reichenowi, but most scientists assumed the two had existed separately in humans and chimpanzees for the last 5 million years. Scientists in the current study examined several new strains of the parasite found in blood taken from wild and wild-born chimpanzees in Cameroon and Ivory Coast sanctuaries during routine health exams. A gene analysis linked one chimpanzee strain to all worldwide strains of the human malaria parasite. This connection suggests that one mosquito may have transferred malaria to humans. Because there is little genetic variance among strains of the human parasite, scientists believe the transmission occurred in the recent past - maybe 5,000 to 2 million years ago - though an exact time could not be determined. The results support an earlier hypothesis by Dr. Ajit Varki of UC San Diego and colleagues that genetic mutations made humans first resistant to sickness from the chimpanzee parasite, then extremely susceptible to illness from the human form. They also corroborate an earlier finding by Ayala and former UCI graduate student Stephen Rich that malignant malaria started spreading throughout the tropics and world about 5,000 years ago, when agriculture began in Africa. Rich, now a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, also is the lead author of the current PNAS study. In addition to Ayala and Rich, Nathan Wolfe of Stanford University worked on the study, along with collaborators from the Robert Koch Institute and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany; the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative in San Francisco; the Biotechnology Centre in Cameroon; the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and the Ebola Tai Forest Project in the Ivory Coast. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, with additional support from the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and the National Geographic Society Committee for Research & Exploration. Jennifer Fitzenberger University of California - Irvine


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