Health and Medicine – Page 12

Mineral deficiency in nightblindness

Chemical analysis of urine samples and tissues reveals that children who suffer night blindness are commonly deficient in several minerals but also have elevated sodium levels. Almost 14 million children worldwide have some degree of blindness because of a dietary deficiency of vitamin A, but the mineral profile of their tissues and urine samples reveals a marker that could be used to improve nutrition and help aid workers, particularly in the undeveloped world, reduce the risk of blindness.

via Nutritional deficiency and nightblindness.

Fusobacterium nucleatum and bowel cancer

UPDATE, 18th October: News came out after I first published this blog post to suggest that there is more of a link between Fusobacterium nucleatum and bowel cancer than was previously though. Although it’s not yet proven this was hinted at in my original post. The BBC and dozens of others reported on the findings this morning. What’s interesting though is that if bowel cancer does turn out to have a bacterial cause in some, if not all, instances, then all that advice about reducing your risk by “not smoking, cutting down on alcohol, keeping a healthy weight, being active, reducing the amount of red and processed meat in your diet and eating plenty of fibre,” could actually be irrelevant (even if it is such generic advice that it would have other health benefits).

Fusobacterium nucleatum is an oral pathogen commonly found in the lining of the gut. After a beer and curry-laden night this week and the subsequent digestive, or rather indigestive, symptoms, I was wondering whether I should ask my GP about being tested for this microbial critter. I tested negative for H. pylori, the Nobel-winning microbe associated with stomach ulcers, but we hypochondriasis sufferers have got to keep our physicians busy…

After all, a study earlier this year indicated that colonization of the intestinal mucosa by highly invasive strains of F. nucleatum could be a factor in inflammatory bowel disease. As with the presence of inflammatory infection in stomach ulcers and stomach cancer risk one has to wonder whether there might also be an association between this microbe and more sinister bowel problems.

Strauss, J., Kaplan, G., Beck, P., Rioux, K., Panaccione, R., DeVinney, R., Lynch, T., & Allen-Vercoe, E. (2011). Invasive potential of gut mucosa-derived fusobacterium nucleatum positively correlates with IBD status of the host Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, 17 (9), 1971-1978 DOI: 10.1002/ibd.21606

Securely nutritious

Food security. We commonly think of the term as referring to whether someone has access to food and that enough food is available. However, there’s food and then there’s safe and nutritious food. Karyn Havas and Mo Salman of Colorado State University argue that we should also think of food security in terms of nutritional quality and health as well as food that is free from harmful disease agents and adulterants, so that policies, humanitarian efforts and scientific research surrounding food security should focus on ‘wholesome food security’.

It’s a modern tragedy of population growth and the disparity between the haves and the have-nots that at least one billion people lack safe and sufficient food to meet their nutritional needs and are malnourished. They simply do not get enough calories, protein, vitamins or minerals, all of which lowers quality of life and leads to premature death by way of poor immune response, stunted physical and mental growth and development, anaemia, blindness, lethargy, pain, emaciation and any number of diseases. Twenty countries in Africa, Asia, the Western Pacific and the Middle East account for the majority of the chronically malnourished, Havas and Salman write in the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health.

It is money, of course, that is to blame. Money and its socioeconomic cousin, power, and within the context of those two issues are entwined overpopulation, climate change, urbanisation, desertification, water shortages, natural disasters, disease, civil war, and terrorism. Local access to food thus differs dramatically across those twenty nations and between those parts of the world that, on the whole, do not see such vast numbers of malnourished people. ‘It must be stated though, that in every country there is hunger, and this often falls along economic and social lines,’ the team says. ‘The underprivileged — be they individuals or countries — often have less.’

Food security is a multi-dimensional topic, the team says, the greater issues lie in global population growth, industrial-based change such as globalisation, and environmental stewardship that will address sustainability and climate change. But any attempt to somehow address those issues to provide food at the local level for hungry people will fail if the concept of finding ways to feed those people with food that is safe and wholesome, that is balanced in protein, fat, carbohydrate and micro-nutrient content. This will continue to be a problem between the have and the have-nots, but none are exempt from foodborne illness,” Havas told Sciencebase.

Karyn Havas, & Mo Salman (2011). Food security: its components and challenges Int. J. Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health, 4 (1), 4-11

Chocoholism – good or bad for health?

Chocoholism – good or bad for health? – For chocoholics there are many fair warnings regarding cholesterol, fat etc., but many have devised their own justifications and there is a growing number of research studies pointing to supposed health benefits and even endowing cocoa beans, from which chocolate is derived, as being a “superfruit”. Strictly speaking, cocoa beans are the seeds from the fruit of Theobroma cacao rather than the fruit itself. Intriguingly, however, much of the research currently being touted by public relations companies, rather than academic scientists, has the financial support of well-known chocolate manufacturers behind it. To my mind, that does not bode well for impartiality, regardless of the integrity of the independent scientists involved.

I began the original article with the line “My name is David…and I am a chocoholic”, parodying the Alcoholics Anonymous mantra, as I did so it occurred to me that such flippancy regarding addiction is quite dangerous, and given that the news of the death of Amy Winehouse through drink and drugs problems led me to wax lyrical on our addiction to addiction. A blog post on that subject is scheduled for my August Pivot Points column on The Euroscientist here.

UK cancer trends

UK cancer trends – The media has been all over the Cancer Research UK announcements on cancer rates. Specifically, the focus was on middle-aged people and the increases seen between 1979 and 2008.

NHS Choices, as ever, provides some rational words following the media frenzy and cites a few of the stats to which I’ve added percentages of diagnoses for comparison):

The highest rate of new diagnoses is among people aged 75 and over; the rate of new diagnoses in over-75s increased from 1,808 per 100,000 to 2,319 per 100,000. (That’s 1.8% in 1979; 2.3% in 2008).

In people aged 60 to 74, new diagnoses rose from 1075.9 per 100,000 to 1,370 per 100,000. (1.1% in 1979; 1.4% in 2008).

In people aged 40 to 59, new diagnoses rose from 329.1 per 100,000 in 1979 and 388.1 per 100,000 in 2008 (an 18% rise). (0.33% in 1979; 0.39% in 2008)

The lowest rate of new diagnoses is among people under 40; the rate in this age group increased from 29.5 per 100,000 in 1979 and 41.2 per 100,000 in 2008. (0.03% in 1979; 0.04% in 2008).

When looking at the rates of new diagnoses of specific cancers among people aged 40 to 59 years old, CRUK reports that: the rate of new cases of breast cancer in women has increased from 134 per 100,000 women in 1979 to 215 per 100,000 in 2008. The rates of new cases of prostate cancer among men has increased from 8 per 100,000 in 1979 to 51 per 100,000 in 2008. The rates of new cases of lung cancer in men dropped from 93 per 100,000 in 1979 to 35 per 100,000 in 2008. Moreover, despite the increases in diagnoses (actually, partly because of the increases in diagnoses), the number of people surviving cancer [for a reasonable time after diagnosis] has doubled since the 1970s. There were 2152 deaths from cancer per 1,000,000 people in GB in 1979, which fell to 1754 deaths from cancer per 1,000,000 people in 2008. I’m not sure what statistics the tabloids were focusing on with their scaremongering claims about cancer incidence, but they don’t mesh with what CRUK actually said.

NHS Choices points out that the causes of the increases were not directly investigated. However, CRUK say that one factor contributing to these increases is likely to be higher rates of detection due to the NHS breast cancer screening programme and the PSA test for prostate cancer. As opposed to chemicals, radiation, GM crops, sunspots, crop circles, or any other spurious causes. Of course, none of this should detract from the human pain and suffering of cancer, indeed it should be seen as a positive that although incidence is reportedly increasing this seems to be due to better diagnosis and life expectancy has improved because of better treatments because of the efforts of CRUK, other charities and the medical scientists they help support.

Cancer diagnoses in 40-59 age group soar 20% in a generation (guardian.co.uk)
The cancer generation (thesun.co.uk)
PSA Test May Help Check for Breast Cancer (webmd.com)

Brain tumours and mobile phones

UPDATE: 8 July 2011 This update isn’t anything new, but something I should’ve pointed out and that is always ignored/overlookd in popular and sensationalist discussions about the health risks of electromagnetic radiation is that everything beyond the violet end of the spectrum – UV, X-rays, gamma rays – are high-energy and “ionising” forms of radiation. Everything below the red end of the spectrum – infrared, microwaves, radio waves – are much lower in energy and do not ionise molecules or atoms. They can heat things up (infra-red makes molecules vibrate, which heats them up, microwaves make polar molecules spin, the energy of which is transferred to other molecules as vibrations (heat).

The WHO’s verdict is one based on the precautionary principle. They’re scared, but they don’t know what they are scared of other than public and political pressure, they have reclassified mobile phone (cell phone) use as a “possible carcinogen”, but as far as I can see with absolutely no evidence whatsoever and with no new data or explanation as to how the emissions from a mobile phone could possible be carcinogenic. Even if they were heating up your ear, through some odd microwave effect that is not causing the kind of damage to DNA that would lead to tumour growth. A far greater risk is exposure to ionising radiation – UV etc…

Brain tumours and mobile phones – It’s interesting that the WHO has adopted what is essentially a non-scientific stance regarding the safety, or putative lack thereof, of mobile phones when it comes to effects on the human brain, and specifically the development of tumours.

The precautionary principle suggested by is unlikely to have any impact on the vast majority of users, most of whom seem either to have gone hands-free these days or use their phones mainly for smart apps and texting rather than actually having “old-school” verbal conversations with anyone. Moreover, mobile phone use has not been widespread for more than a few years, perhaps fewer than the length of time it takes for putative brain tumours triggered by those nasty electromagnetic waves to appear.

A review reported in NHS Choices and by the BBC and others, suggests there really is no link anyway. However, the review is non-systematic and lacks a lot by way of science, Choices seems to suggest.

According to Choices, the authors of the review suggest that if there is no increase in brain tumour rates in the next few years after almost universal exposure to mobile phones in Western countries, it is unlikely that there is a link between mobile phone usage and brain cancer in adults. The methodological weaknesses of underlying studies and the trend in brain tumour incidence shown here suggest that any risk of brain tumours resulting from mobile phone use is likely to be very small, and possibly even non-existent.

We are constantly bathed in electromagnetic radiation from countless sources, it is very unlikely that we will ever be able to unravel the source of any carcinogenicity in the future either, especially given the advent of countless other wireless technologies.

Cut-price vax for developing world

Drug firms cut vaccine prices in developing world – This is good news: Several major drugs companies have announced big cuts to the amounts they charge for their vaccines in the developing world. GSK, Merck, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi-Aventis have agreed to cut prices through the international vaccine alliance Gavi. I can think of one problem, however, aside from the antivax conspiracy theory nonsens that will arise, and that's the potential for blackmarket profiteering…

Latest spectroscopy and crystallography

Electric microbes – X-ray diffraction has been used to reveal the structure of proteins attached to the surface of the microbe Shewanella oneidensis, a species found in deep-sea anaerobic habitats. These proteins can transfer electrons making this micro-organism potentially rather interesting as an electricity-generating system. The research could allow researchers to tether bacteria directly to electrodes creating efficient microbial fuel cells or bio-batteries powered by human or animal waste. Such an advance could also hasten the development of system based on microbial agents that can clean up oil spills or provide a new approach to remediating radioactive waste.

Uranium and Raman – Scientists at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research in Tamil Nadu have carried out the first study of "pure" uranium using Raman spectroscopy. The fundamental research offers new insights into this radioactive metal and may even have implication for developments in nuclear energy.

Magnetic resonance without magnets – US researchers have demonstrated magnet-free nuclear magnetic resonance, opening up the possibility of low-cost, portable chemical analysis. Writing in the journal Nature Physics, the team says that it is just the beginning for the development of zero-field NMR although the team has already demonstrated that it is possible to get, clear, highly specific spectra.

Aerobics and the elderly – Increased physical activity involving aerobic exercise might slow age-related decline according to a new functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) study funded by the US Department of Veteran's Affairs. The study shows how the brain's motor cortex changes as we get older particularly in those people who become more sedentary as they do so. However, maintaining a physically active lifestyle can preclude the changes that lead to unnecessary decline.

Slipped disc gel – Viable nucleus pulposus (NP) implant materials for repairing damaged intervertebral discs, comprising novel hydrogels, have been developed and studied using the techniques of Fourier-transform infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Anyone who has suffered damage to an intervertebral disc in their spine or has a degenerative of the discs will know only too well how debilitating can be the attendant inflammation and pain caused by such damage and pressure on the sciatic, and other, nerves. Alleviating the pain to an extent is sometimes possible through spinal manipulation, physiotherapy, anti-inflammatory agents or surgery. However, there is a pressing need to develop artificial implants that can remedy the loss of the gelatinous filling to intervertebral discs as an alternative to simply removing damaged or diseased discs and fusing the vertebrae.

Maya blue – UV-Vis spectroscopy and various other techniques have been used to analyse the yellow pigments found in Mayan wall paintings. The compounds present are the indigoids, including isatin and dehydroindigo. The spectra together with SEM/EDX, TEM and voltammetry of microparticles show that this ancient people had the recipe for making indigo itself and converting it to Maya Blue and Maya Yellow in a stepwise reaction sequence.

You are not full of *%$!

You are not full of *%$! – I remember reading probably, 25 years ago, an article in the “health” section of a magazine that claimed we’re all getting ill because of the impacted fecal matter in our colons. 10 kilos of the stuff, clogging us up, making us sick, causing joint pain and dulling the mind…gettting rid of it through detox and/or colonic irrigation will make you well. It’s all nonsense, of course, as any colon surgeon will tell you.

The bottom line is that in medicine, ‘detoxification’ has a specific meaning, and alt-med ‘detox’ believers have appropriated the term for something that has little or nothing to do with its real medical meaning. Alt-med detox has more to do with exorcism and bad humors than real medicine. Squirting warm water up your backside is not going to detoxify your system and will only make you feel better if you enjoy the actual process.

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