Stem Cells, DNA Methylation and Aids Numbers that don't add up - NewsGrabs 2 December 2007
CategoriesHealth Supreme's NewsGrabs are a selection of alternative health and other underprivileged news. Find what you may have missed in your everyday reading - watch out for these NewsGrabs on weekends.
Here is another week's worth of interesting stories and links collected for you:
Pine bark extract arthritis benefits -Skin Cells Reprogrammed into Stem Cells -
Japanese Consumers Will Not Accept GM Food -
Ten Percent of Food Sold in Copenhagen is Organic -
DNA methylation promotes tumors -
FDA panel to review Tamiflu's effect on brain -
Alzheimer drugs don't delay dementia onset -
5,000 Chantix complaints released -
Study says Males should be given HPV vaccine -
Global Campaign Vows to Fight Corporate Drug Monopoly -
Illegal Anti-Psychotic Drug Marketing -
Did Johnson&Johnson Hide The Risk Of Its Ortho-Evra Patch? -
Pfizer Settlement Talks With Nigeria Go Nowhere -
Book: Cancer Terrorists Unmasked -
Study: CT Scans Raise Cancer Risk -
Book: Surviving America's Depression Epidemic -
Video: The Business of Disease -
HIV/AIDS: NUMBERS THAT DON’T ADD UP -
China reports drop in HIV cases -
Video: Global Warming Tutorial -
Radioactive Ammunition Fired in Middle East May Claim More Lives... -
Top 25 Censored News Stories of 2007 -
Video: The Secret Government -
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Pine bark extract shows arthritis benefits
"To our knowledge, this is the first randomised clinical trial to show the effectiveness of Pycnogenol, a dietary supplement with known antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, in alleviating the clinical symptoms of knee osteoarthritis," wrote the researchers, led by Ronald Ross Watson from the University of Arizona.
Skin Cells Reprogrammed To Behave Like Embryonic Stem Cells
When University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers succeeded in reprogramming skin cells to behave like embryonic stem cells, they also began to redefine the political and ethical dynamics of the stem-cell debate, a leading bioethicist says. R. Alta Charo, a UW-Madison professor of law and bioethics, says the scientific finding could have far-reaching effects on the social dimensions of the ongoing controversy over embryonic stem cell research.“This is a method for creating a stem cell line without ever having to work through, at any stage, an entity that is a viable embryo,” Charo says. “Therefore, you manage to avoid many of those debates with the right-to life community.”
I guess those researchers haven't been paying attention when umbilical cord stem cells were discovered three years ago. Perhaps that message got drowned out by the din of religious objections at the time.
Japanese Consumers Will Not Accept GM Food
Japanese consumers are opposed to genetically modified (GM) food and agriculture, and are actively building alliances to keep their country GM-free. As far back as 1997, nearly 500,000 Japanese signed a petition opposing GM food and demanding proper labeling. By 2002, the petition grew to over 2 million signatures. The majority of the Japanese public also wants GM foods to be labeled as such.With European and Japanese consumers firmly opposed to the covert introduction of genetically modified foods, where will the US supported push for frankenfoods turn next ?
Ten Percent of All Food Sold in Copenhagen is Now Organic
The latest is that the public sectors also have seriously jumped the organic wagon. Within the Copenhagen authorities 45 per cent of al food consumption today is organic but the target is considerably higher. With the environment strategy “Environment Metropolis: Our Vision 2015” the politicians wish that solely organic food is to be served in 90 per cent of the Copenhagen old-age homes and residential homes for children and young persons in 2015.
DNA methylation shown to promote development of colon tumors
The research directly demonstrated that hypermethylation switches off tumor suppressor genes—the "housekeeping" genes that keep cancer cells in check. The study, published December 1 in Genes and Development, found that hypermethylation boosted the number of intestinal tumors by 60-100 percent and significantly increased the average size of microscopic early-stage tumors.While DNA methylation has been correlated with tumor development in numerous studies of human cancers, this is the first in vivo work demonstrating a causal connection in mammals. Better understanding of the process is a promising pathway to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of certain cancers with minimal side effects.
DNA hypermethylation has also been correlated with retrovirus expression as seen in Aids. Cal Crilly found the connecting links and wrote them up here and here.
The Vanishing of the Bees
This is a film in progress. You can see a trailer, get some information on what will be in the film and you can help with a donation if you like.
FDA panel to review Tamiflu's effect on brain
A Food and Drug Administration panel on Tuesday will review reports of abnormal behavior and other brain effects in more than 1,800 children who had taken the flu medicine Tamiflu since its approval in 1999, including 55 in the USA. Twenty-two of the U.S. reports were considered "serious," with symptoms such as convulsions, delirium or delusions, says Terry Hurley, spokesman for drugmaker Roche Laboratories.None of the U.S. cases resulted in death. But in Japan, Hurley says, five deaths have been reported in children under 16 as a result of neurological or psychiatric problems. "Four were fatal falls, and one was encephalitis in a patient with leukemia," he says.
Yet governments all over the world are spending rivers of money for stockpiling this drug, which apart from having serious safety problems is only marginally effective.An interesting (anonymous) comment on the article:
"Tamiflu is another pharmaceutical which was derived from a natural plant compound. In this case the source is the Chinese Star Anise plant from S. China. Gilead Sciences developed Tamiflu from this plant in order to create a product which could be patented and monopolized by the drug's licensee, Hoffman Roche. The original natural anti viral, biotivia's bioflu, from which Tamiflu is derived, is safe and effective but can not be patented since it consists of extracts of naturally occurring plants. Again greed triumphs over reason and safety. The natural compound is still available but ignored since Tamiflu was intoduced."
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