See http://wp.vcu.edu/cbuttery
For the first time, researchers have isolated egg-producing stem cells from the ovaries of reproductive age women and shown these cells can produce what appear to be normal egg cells or oocytes. Since the 1950s, reproductive biologists have thought that egg precursor cells stop dividing about halfway through mammalian fetal development, giving a newborn female a finite number of potential eggs. A baby girl, for example, is born with an estimated 1 million oocytes. By puberty, that number has declined to roughly 400,000. During a woman's fertile years, follicles, the structures that host an oocyte and help it to mature, are activated at a rate of about 1000 per menstrual cycle. (Typically, only one mature egg is released into the fallopian tubes each cycle.) And once the oocyte supply runs low, menopause begins. Comment: Many would argue that there are enough people in the world already and that there is no need for more oocytes. While this kind of research is interesting is the kind that should not be supported by public funds.
Again, we see the scams perpetrated by the OTC vitamin companies. Over-the-counter fish oil capsules are usually 300 milligrams of eicosopentanoic acid (EPA) and docosohexanoic acid (DHA) each; the dosage needed to reduce triglycerides is over 3,000 milligrams of EPA and DHA, or greater than 10 capsules. Researchers are using a highly purified form of fish oil made only of EPA.
Personalized medicine continues
to advance as shown in this study of the Y chromosome. Men develop coronary artery disease (CAD)
approximately 10 years earlier than women. A
study published by The Lancet concludes that men
with a particular variant on their Y-chromosome are at a 50% increased risk of
CAD compared with men without it. Furthermore, this increased risk is not mediated by traditional cardiovascular risk
factors such as high blood pressure or cholesterol.
Sugar should be controlled like alcohol and tobacco to protect public health, according to a team of UCSF researchers, who maintain in a new report that sugar is fueling a global obesity pandemic, contributing to 35 million deaths annually worldwide from non-communicable diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Many of the interventions that have reduced alcohol and tobacco consumption can be models for addressing the sugar problem, such as levying special sales taxes, controlling access, and tightening licensing requirements on vending machines and snack bars that sell high sugar products in schools and workplaces. These recommendations show the tendency of some people interest in public health Gotten the seven deadly sins of public health noted in Harvey Fineberg's monograph published this week by the Institute of Medicine which include Sloth, Greed, Ignorance, Complacency, Timidity, Obstinacy & Arrogance. The tendency of some academics to lose touch with reality of what goes on outside the University is typical in things that laws change behaviors, they rarely do. Further, once an item is made into a wall there is a tendency to tamper with it that every possible opportunity making the original intent far worse than anticipated. The recommendations in this research is would move us even farther toward total “Nanny” state.
Perfluorinated compounds, a class of manufacturing chemicals, may be harming the immune system in a way that reduces the effectiveness of standard childhood vaccines according to Environmental epidemiologist Philippe Grandjean of the Harvard School of Public Health and his colleagues who measured PFC levels in 587 children in Denmark, while still in utero and at age 5, when the children came in for their booster shots, and age 7. Comment: There were no control subjects without PFC levels present so further studies should be made using children without PFCs in the blood for controls. If this is confirmed then we must consider how to develop methods to test almost everything inhaled, eaten or applied to skin, which may be impossible. We also need better epidemiology to identify diseases that might be biologically plausible as environmentally dependent.
Drinking three cups each day for six months lowered both diastolic and systolic blood pressure by 2 to 3 mm, according to Jonathan Hodgson, PhD, of the University of Western Australia in Perth, and colleagues. Following a randomized trial that included 95 men and women ages 35 to 75 (mean age 56 for men and 57 for women) who were regular tea drinkers. Comment: It is important to differentiate between statistically and clinically significant results. This was a poor study using a small population who were already tea drinkers and with very small numbers when the subgroup were divided by age and sex, and no history given of length and strength of previous tea drinking.
A new analysis has found that a substantial number of lung and colorectal cancer patients continue to smoke after being diagnosed.
The investigators determined smoking rates around the time of diagnosis and five months after diagnosis in 5,338 lung and colorectal cancer patients. At diagnosis, 39 percent of lung cancer patients and 14 percent of colorectal cancer patients were smoking; five months later, 14 percent of lung cancer patients and 9 percent of colorectal cancer patients were still smoking. A substantial minority of cancer patients continue to smoke after being diagnosed. <strong>Comment:</strong> Adverse behaviors are very difficult to prevent, even when it is clear that they may be an imminent cause of death.
The investigators determined smoking rates around the time of diagnosis and five months after diagnosis in 5,338 lung and colorectal cancer patients. At diagnosis, 39 percent of lung cancer patients and 14 percent of colorectal cancer patients were smoking; five months later, 14 percent of lung cancer patients and 9 percent of colorectal cancer patients were still smoking. A substantial minority of cancer patients continue to smoke after being diagnosed. <strong>Comment:</strong> Adverse behaviors are very difficult to prevent, even when it is clear that they may be an imminent cause of death.
Boston, Mass; because of care advances, more infants and children with previously lethal health problems are surviving. Many, however, are left with lifelong neurologic impairment. The researchers analyzed KID data from 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006, encompassing 25.7 million hospitalizations of children age 0 to 18. Of these, 1.3 million hospitalizations were for children with neurologic conditions, primarily cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Comment: not only does the cost of care go up as neurologically damaged children increase in age but the cost to the educational systems for these children in school is often in the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. More effort needs to go into prevention to reduce cerebral palsy and prevent other neurological damage. Perhaps consideration should be given to the preconceptual counseling as children pass through puberty to understand how pregnancy can be dangerous to them and their offspring, without considering family history and potential genetic injury..
ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2012) — The use of statins in postmenopausal women is associated with increased diabetes risk, according to a study published Online First by the Archives of Internal Medicine. In this study, researchers used WHI data through 2005 and included 153,840 women without diabetes and with a mean (average) age of 63.2 years. While this is a reminder that many useful medications have side effects and that men's health and women's health before this data is a retrospective analysis of cohort has all the limitations associated with such studies and needs confirmation with a prospective blinded study before policy recommendations can be considered.
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