Body of Wealth

At last there comes up some solution for preventing a kid from having a life long addiction of smoking. Some serious research has been done by the scientists at the University of Utah; regarding the characteristic of being a life long smoker. The researchers have taken DNA samples of about 2,827 smokers. They made a vivid study over the changes in the genetic code called single nucleotide polymorphisms. This is something that is very much a part of nicotine addiction and that leads to a life long smoking practice. This research justifies the point that kids who have picked up smoking before 17 years of age are more into this addiction than those who have had it after 17.

We already know that breast milk is the best source of nourishment for the new born baby. Now, there is more good news from the breast-feeding world. A study conducted by Dr. Hazel B. Nichols and colleagues (University of Wisconsin, Madison) shows that women who were breast-fed as infants seemed to run a lower risk (about 17 percent reduction) of developing breast cancer as adults in comparison to those who were not breast-fed.

The study was conducted taking a sample of 2016 women in the age range of 20 to 69 years suffering from breast cancer and 1960 women who did not have the ailment. It was found that women who were breast-fed as infants ran a lower risk of developing breast cancer and amongst the women who were breast-fed, the ones who were fourth or fifth born had fared much better than the first-borns in terms of vulnerability to the malignant tumor.

For the first time, researchers have used stem cell technology to grow huge quantities of red blood cells. This could help eliminate the need for blood donations, as blood types A, B and O have been harnessed. Now there would be no question of a shortage of blood supply in blood banks, as it can be created on demand without any limits. Red blood cells could be used instead of blood and save millions of people. The universal donor blood type O-negative could be mass-produced, which is found in small numbers of Caucasians and a minuscule number of Asians. This could also mean avoiding the transmission of viruses during blood transfusions, so the future looks bright. However, the cells need to be able to survive long enough in the human body to be useful.

Via: DailyMail

Science and technology not only makes and improves one’s style of living but now it would also make you more beautiful and young. No doubt hair are the best and most precious feature of our personality and premature baldness is the biggest curse. But thanks to the newly devised technique, known as ‘follicular cell implantation’ by which one can just relax and regain their lustrous hair. The technique works by cloning the remaining hair in the laboratory to provide a limitless supply of an individual’s hair to replace the loss caused due to burns, cancer treatment or simply the onset of age. This amazing work being carried out by a British team and being backed by a £1.9 million government grant would be available to patients within five years. This would provide the patients with a torture free and less expensive treatment to preserve their seductive looks. The latest results of the Phase II trial, presented at a conference of leading hair replacement surgeons in Rome, revealed that the technique increases hair count in at least two thirds of patients after six months and four out of five if the scalp is stimulated beforehand through gentle abrasions that encourage hair growth.

Avian influenza is a disease caused by the H5N1 virus amongst birds and poultry. It has claimed the life of many birds which had to be culled due to infection. The virus causing this disease in birds on mutation infects human and can prove to be fatal. Figures show that while it has affected only 385 people around the world, 243 have been killed by the deadly virus. According to expert’s warnings a bird flu pandemic is already on the cards but their research shows that there is not enough preparation for combating the same.
Speaking on the issue based on research, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Julie Gerberding said

We are a long way from being fully prepared. We do not have a vaccine that will provide universal protection. We don’t have surveillance in every country. We don’t have control of the virus in animal reservoirs.

Things are definitely looking down for the Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre, Canada, where 326 cancer patients were exposed to wrong dose of radiations for a long span of 3 years! Apparently, the patients afflicted by basal and squamous cell carcinomas were administered radiations as low as 17 percent from the prescribed intensity between November 2004 and November 2007. A permissible variation is somewhere around 5 to 7 percent, in this case 17 percent sounds rather drastic and it’s believed that patients with aggressive melanoma skin cancer were not even close to being cured with such an exposure.

A new clue to the cause of Alzheimer’s disease (brain disorder named for German physician Alois Alzheimer in 1906) seems to have been discovered by a team led by Dr. Ganesh M. Shankar and Dr. Dennis J. Selkoe of Harvard Medical School. Scientists long have been of the opinion that the brains of people inflicted with this memory-robbing form of dementia are jumbled with a plaque (these build up between nerve cells) made up of beta-amyloid and with tau (tangles are twisted fibers of a protein called tau).

Vitamin D which has made its importance felt in our lives by the role it plays in strengthening our bones has now, according to a research, been credited as being the key to longer life. A research conducted has linked low Vitamin D levels with deaths from heart attacks and other diseases, thus making the significance of Vitamin D more evident in our lives. Patients with lowest levels of Vitamin D are found to be two times more likely to die from any cause within eight years than those with highest levels.

The link between low vitamin levels and diseases is strongest in the case of heart related ailments. But this doesn’t mean you put up your glares and go sunbathing or start popping Vitamin D pills. Huge doses of Vitamin D are dangerous and being in the sunshine for too long can cause skin cancer. Besides, daily exposure to sunshine provides enough doses of the vitamin. In some cases like ageing, extreme physical activity and other lifestyle factors can cause Vitamin D levels in the body to decrease.

I don’t usually prefer taking medicines for minor ailments because I fear their side-effects. But things may get better with Roy Curtiss and his fellow researchers of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, who are developing a new type of self-destructible vaccine that leaves none of its spin-off once it slinks into human body. It was a unique experiment as when they made Salmonella bacteria lug a little piece of Streptococcus pneumonia into the bodies of mice, the bacteria broke open and died, though with an antigen. While it has been a success with bacteria, it’s still to be tested on viruses, fungal contagions and parasites. Well, further experiments would tell if it’s safe and doesn’t cause any diseases or problems. Certainly, we need to wait to see when they would offer it for humans.

Source: Reuters

Rember, a new trial drug, is the biggest breakthrough for treating Alzheimer patients with declining memory. The UK scientists hail this achievement as the biggest ever in last 100 years. The drug is still on trial run. Nearly 321 patients with mild and moderate Alzheimer’s were put on Rember for 50 weeks and 80% reported no further decline in cognitive abilities compared to those who were on placebo drugs. Images of brain scan show rember treated the parts of brain directly linked with memory.