News 30 juni 2009
Eboek - The Milk Imperative
New discoveries are revealing that dairy
milk may be the biggest cause of illness in the world today. The Milk Imperative breaks
new ground by revealing exactly how dairy milk causes osteoporosis and prostate cancer,
backed up with the latest scientific studies. This book is sending shock waves through the
dairy industry, and whether or not you consume dairy milk The Milk Imperative will change
your life forever. Many non-dairy milk recipes also included. Here are some of the secrets
that milk suppliers don't tell you:
1. Low-fat milk is actually more fattening
than regular whole milk! This is so for several reasons. For example, enzymes in regular
milk get removed in low-fat milk: with no enzymes to 'eat up' the fat, more fat gets
stored as surplus body fat. The Milk Imperative explains exactly why low-fat milk is not
only more fattening, but much worse for health than regular milk.
2. Virtually all the latest research is
saying that dairy milk is the single biggest cause of prostate cancer in men. This is no
exaggeration. Here is an extract from one of the many similar studies quoted in The Milk
Imperative:
" A summary of studies of prostate
cancer shows a repeated association between consumption of dairy products and an elevated
risk of developing prostate cancer. For example, in one study consuming two glasses of
milk per day was associated with a 50% greater risk." Report from the 'Harvard School
Of Public Health Nutrition Roundtable', Section 3: 'Calcium: Too Much of a Good Thing?'
3. Dairy milk is bad for motherhood. Did
you know that dairy milk can harm a baby even before it is born? Milk contains a cocktail
of harmful hormones, allergens, antibiotics, bad fats, rancid cholesterol, toxins, cow
blood, bacteria, viruses, PCB's, dioxins, heavy metals, and more. Some of these harmful
substances get passed into the delicate body of the unborn child, and later cause
ill-health and impaired development as he/she grows up. For the mother, after giving birth
dairy milk creates hormonal changes that prevent her from losing weight and regaining a
slim figure.
We've all heard about lactose intolerance
and milk allergies, but this is just the tip of the iceberg: dairy milk causes more
disease than just about anything else by promoting harmful calcification. As fully
revealed in The Milk Imperative, new discoveries are revealing for the first time that
harmful calcification (and microcalfication) is at the root of most human illness, from
cancer to heart disease. Even more shocking is to discover that the calcium and phosphorus
in dairy milk play a major role in causing harmful calcification.
Price: US$ 17.50
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Cancer researchers link DICER1 gene
mutation to rare childhood cancer
Research published today in Science Express from the journal Science demonstrates the
first definitive link between mutations in the gene DICER1 and cancer. By studying the
patterns of DNA from 11 families with an unusual predisposition to the rare childhood lung
cancer pleuropulmonary blastoma (PPB) investigators found that children with the cancer
carried a mutation in one of their two DICER1 gene copies. DICER1 makes an important
protein that works to suppress other genes through intermediary molecules known as
microRNAs. Scientists have learned that microRNAs can fine-tune the expression of many
other genes, which is particularly important in normal human development. Recent research
has also focused on DICER1 as having a potential role in cancer because the micro-RNA
molecules it produces appear vastly different from normal when found in cancer cells; some
suggest that the pattern of microRNAs in cancers resembles an embryonic stage. "When
we realized that DICER1 was in the segment of chromosome that was shared among children
with PPB we were very excited," said D. Ashley Hill, MD, lead author and chief of
Pathology at Children's National Medical Center. "PPB is a tumor that appears to
arise out of a localized area of abnormal lung development. The implications of a defect
in a master controller gene for normal organ development would be significant." Hill
says not everyone who inherits a mutation develops PPB and children with PPB are typically
normal in every other way. The team theorizes that something else must happen to the
normal copy of DICER1 in lung cells for a tumor to develop. When the research team looked
at PPB tumors to see if there is any DICER1 protein being made from the remaining normal
copy of the gene, they were surprised by the results: "We expected to see that the
tumor cells had no DICER1 protein giving us a nice explanation for why the tumor cells had
gone haywire." But that wasn't the case.
New gene discovery links obesity to
the brain
A variation in a gene that is active in the central nervous system is associated with
increased risk for obesity, according to an international study in which Albert Einstein
College of Medicine of Yeshiva University played a major role. The research adds to
evidence that genes influence appetite and that the brain plays a key role in obesity.
Robert Kaplan, Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology & population health, helped
direct the international study, which involved 34 research institutions and is published
online in PLoS Genetics. Dr. Kaplan and his U.S. and European colleagues found that people
who have inherited the gene variant NRXN3 have a 10-15 percent increased risk of being
obese compared with people who do not have the variant. The researchers examined data from
eight studies involving genes and body weight. These studies included more than 31,000
people of European origin, ages 45 to 76, representing a broad range of dietary habits and
health behaviors. After analyzing more than two million regions of the human genome, the
researchers found that the NRXN3 gene variant ? previously associated with alcohol
dependence, cocaine addiction, and illegal substance abuse ? also predicts the tendency to
become obese. Altogether, researchers found the gene variant in 20 percent of the people
studied. "We've known for a long time that obesity is an inherited trait, but
specific genes linked to it have been difficult to find," says Dr. Kaplan. "A
lot of factors ? the types and quantity of foods you eat, how much you exercise, and how
you metabolize foods, for example ? affect your body shape and size. So we are looking for
genes that may have a small role to play in a complex situation." NRXN3 is the third
obesity-associated gene to be identified. The fact that all three genes are highly active
in encoding brain proteins is significant, says Dr. Kaplan. "Considering how many
factors are involved in obesity, it is interesting that research is increasingly pointing
to the brain as being very important in its development," he said.
Tryptophan deficiency may underlie
quinine side effects
Researchers have found that the anti-malarial drug quinine can block a cell's ability to
take up the essential amino acid tryptophan, a discovery that may explain many of the
adverse side-effects associated with quinine. Once confirmed, these findings would suggest
that dietary tryptophan supplements could be a simple and inexpensive way to improve the
performance of this important drug. Quinine is a very commonly used anti-malarial drug,
yet to this day the principal mode of quinine action against the malaria parasite is still
largely unclear, as is the basis for adverse reactions like nausea, headaches, and blurred
vision. To address these gaps, Simon Avery and colleagues at the University of Nottingham
took advantage of yeast genetics, examining the effects of quinine on a collection of 6000
yeast mutants, each one lacking exactly one of the yeast's 6000 genes. While quite
different from humans, yeast is comparable on a cellular level and yeast is frequently,
and successfully, used as front-line agents in testing chemicals and small molecule drugs.
Their screen revealed that strains unable to make tryptophan were extremely susceptible to
quinine poisoning, which led them to identify a tryptophan transporter as a key quinine
target (yeast that cannot make their own tryptophan have to rely exclusively on external
sources, and thus die if tryptophan transport is blocked). This discovery fits in well
with evidence that quinine reactions are more severe in malnourished individuals. Unlike
yeast, humans cannot make their own tryptophan and thus require dietary tryptophan, which
is abundant in meat but limited in yams, a staple food crop in the tropics where malaria
is prevalent. If quinine severely reduces tryptophan uptake, then it follows that people
with preexisting tryptophan deficiencies would be especially at risk to this drug. The
authors also note that tryptophan is important as a precursor for the brain chemical
serotonin, so the enhanced tryptophan deficiency induced by quinine could explain why many
of quinine's side effects are localized to the head region. They also note that
side-effects could be averted simply by taking dietary tryptophan supplements in
conjunction with quinine treatments, though it is not yet known if tryptophan may affect
quinine action against the malaria parasite.
Study shows 1 in 25 deaths
worldwide attributable to alcohol
Research from Canada's own Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) featured in this
week's edition of the Lancet shows that worldwide, 1 in 25 deaths are directly
attributable to alcohol consumption. This rise since 2000 is mainly due to increases in
the number of women drinking. CAMH's Dr Jürgen Rehm and his colleagues found that
alcohol-attributable disorders are among the most disabling disease categories within the
global burden of disease, especially for men. And in contrast to other traditional risk
factors for disease, the burden attributable to alcohol lies more with younger people than
with the older population. Dr. Rehm still takes an optimistic 'glass half full' response
to this large and increasing alcohol-attributable burden. "Today, we know more than
ever about which strategies can effectively and cost-effectively control alcohol-related
harms," Dr. Rehm said today. "Provided that our public policy makers act on
these practical strategies expeditiously, we could see an enormous impact in reducing
damage." The study showed that Europe had a high proportion of deaths related to
alcohol, with 1 in 10 deaths directly attributable (up to 15% in the former Soviet Union).
Average alcohol consumption in Europe in the adult population is somewhat higher than in
North America: 13 standard drinks per person per week (1 standard drink = 13.6 grams of
pure ethanol and corresponds to a can of beer, one glass or wine and one shot of spirits)
compared to North America's 10 to 11 standard drinks. The recent Canadian consumption rate
is equivalent of almost 9 standard drinks per person per week age 15 plus, and has been
going up, as has high risk drinking. Globally, the average is around 7 standard drinks per
person per week (despite the fact that most of the adult population worldwide actually
abstains from drinking alcohol).
Safer stem cells for therapy
When stem cell researchers in Japan and the United States announced in 2007 that they had
developed long-sought methods to return fully developed adult human cells to an
embryonic-like state, the world of stem cell research was turned upside down. Media
reports and conservative politicians prematurely hailed the discovery as a way to end the
debate over the use of human embryonic stem cells. The discovery seemed to promise a way
to produce endless supplies of stem cells that could be used to understand and treat a
host of degenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes,
heart disease, and ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Gold treatment relieves pain
Many animals and people experience chronic joint pain. In dogs, a common source of joint
pain is hip dysplasia, a developmental defect of the hip joint. Implantation of gold into
the soft tissues around the hip joints of dogs with dysplasia can relieve pain and lessen
stiffness for several years. Joint pain in animals and man may be due to injury, wear or
deformity. Hip dysplasia of dogs is a congenital defect that makes itself known during the
growth phase, leading to varying degrees of pain and loss of function as the dogs age. Dog
owners will as a rule notice that their dogs are reluctant to jump, that they lag behind
on longer walks, or that they are stiff and sore when standing after resting. Some dogs
also become lame after longer walks. Early in the 1970's, an American veterinary surgeon
and acupuncturist described a form of pain relief in dogs that involved implanting small
grains of pure gold into acupuncture points round painful joints in dogs. The theory
behind the treatment was that the gold grains implanted into the acupuncture points would
provide chronic stimulation of the points.
New nanoparticles could
revolutionise therapeutic drug discovery
A revolutionary new protein stabilisation technique has been developed by scientists
funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) which could
lead to 30 per cent more proteins being available as potential targets for drug
development - opening up exciting possibilities in drug discovery. Understanding the
structure of proteins is a vital first step in developing new drugs, but to date, drug
development has been slowed because due to their instability, proteins are difficult to
work with in lab conditions. However, using nanoparticles, scientists from the
Universities of Birmingham and Warwick have found a way to preserve membrane proteins
intact, enabling detailed analysis of their structure and molecular functions. These new
findings, which have just been published online in the Journal of the American Chemical
Society, will give scientists access to previously ignored proteins deemed too unstable to
work with.
Artificial liver for drug tests
If you have hay fever, headaches or a cold, it’s only a short way to the nearest
chemist. The drugs, on the other hand, can take eight to ten years to develop. Until now
animal experiments have been an essential step, yet they continue to raise ethical issues.
“Our artificial organ systems are aimed at offering an alternative to animal
experiments,” says Professor Heike Mertsching of the Fraunhofer Institute for
Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Stuttgart. “Particularly as humans
and animals have different metabolisms. 30 per cent of all side effects come to light in
clinical trials.” The test system, which Professor Mertsching has developed jointly
with Dr. Johanna Schanz, should in future give pharmaceutical companies greater security
and shorten the path to new drugs. Both researchers received the “Human-centered
Technology” prize for their work.“The special feature, in our liver model for
example, is a functioning system of blood vessels,” says Dr. Schanz. “This
creates a natural environment for cells.” Traditional models do not have this, and
the cells become inactive. “We don’t build artificial blood vessels for this,
but use existing ones – from a piece of pig’s intestine.” All of the pig
cells are removed, but the blood vessels are preserved. Human cells are then seeded onto
this structure – hepatocytes, which, as in the body, are responsible for transforming
and breaking down drugs, and endothelial cells, which act as a barrier between blood and
tissue cells.
European researchers look for new
ways to fight multi-drug-resistant bacterial infections
The Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine (IBB) belonging to Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona (UAB) is directing the AntiPathoGN European research project aimed at looking
for new drug targets in pathogenic bacteria resistant to multiple antibiotics. To do so a
consortium was created by six institutions and firms in Spain, three in Germany, one in
France and one in Bulgaria. The project, which will cost approximately 7.7 million euros,
will be carried out during four years. The European Union has subsidised the project with
six million euros. In the past decade bacterial resistance to antibiotics has risen
significantly whereas in some cases the rise has been dramatic such as in hospital areas.
It has reached such a stage that the World Health Organization considers these
multi-drug-resistant microorganisms the cause of emerging infectious diseases. Currently a
large amount of antibiotics available are not apt for the treatment of resistant pathogens
belonging to an important group called gram-negative bacteria. On occasions, the choice
narrows down to one drug such as the "last-resort" antibiotic colistin to treat
infections caused by the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Acinetobacter baumannii. At
the same time, the lack of economic benefits has reduced the amount of research
pharmaceutical companies dedicate to creating new antibiotics.
Evidence that cognitive therapy is
of no value in schizophrenia
Research co-led by an academic at the University of Hertfordshire, concludes that
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is of no value in schizophrenia and has limited effect
on depression. Professor Keith Laws, at the University's School of Psychology, is one of
the lead authors on a paper entitled: Cognitive behavioural therapy for major psychiatric
disorder: does it really work? A meta-analytical review of well-controlled trials, which
has just been published online in the journal Psychological Medicine. The paper reviews
the use of CBT in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression. The results of the
review suggest that not only is CBT ineffective in treating schizophrenia and in
preventing relapse, it is also ineffective in preventing relapses in bipolar disorder. The
review also suggests that CBT has only a weak effect in treating depression, but it has a
greater effect in preventing relapses in this disorder.
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