Body of Wealth

The possibility of cure of diseases like cancer depends on the extent of the development of the malignant tumors in the body. The earlier the diagnosis of the disease, the brighter is the possibility of cure. Traditional identification of the malignant tumor based on radiological exams diagnoses the disease only after the tumor has appeared. A new discovery by researchers at the University of Florida has found biomarkers to be effective to identify the disease at the molecular stage. Identification of cancer cells at the earliest stage of development could make treatment of the disease easier and cost effective.

The worldwide projects on scanning the human DNA are leading to the conclusion that a large number of diseases are actually linked to the genetic composition of an individual. With the advancement of gene-scanning technique, since 2005, studies have linked as many as 40 common chronic diseases, such as, diabetes, arthritis, cancer, blindness, heart attack, multiple sclerosis, gallstones, etc to nearly 100 DNA variants. New discoveries on genetic variants and their association with diseases are evolving nearly everyday.

The new studies are not benefiting the common person for the time being as there has been no startling therapy that could prevent genetic diseases for the time being. Nonetheless, genome-wide association (GWA) uses genotyping technology to assay hundreds of thousands of single-nucleotide polymorphisms and relate them to clinical conditions. However, the GWA studies have some important limitations that include possibility for false-positive and false-negative results, biases related to selection of study participants and genotyping errors.

Schizophrenia is characterized by impairment in perception or losing touch with reality. This is manifested as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, disorganized speech and thinking. There are various theories of development of schizophrenia that attribute genes, early environment, neurobiology and psychological and social processes as factors responsible for this state of mind.

Although Alzheimer’s disease appears in old age but early signs of possibility of development of dementia in the future might appear in the middle age. According to researchers at Kaiser Permanente, people with large waistlines in the middle age are three times more susceptible to dementia in old age. The study published in the journal Neurology has found that obesity and bulging stomach was the most dangerous combination for developing dementia.

It is a good idea to increase intake of oily fish if you want to protect yourself from a host of diseases. If you are wondering why it is so, well, it is because the fish oil has immense health benefits, like they help to improve inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and to lower cholesterol and blood pressure.

Oil derived from the tissues of the oily fish is rich in the magic ingredient, the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). It is this Omega-3 fats which can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and reduce levels of triglycerides (the bad fat found in the blood that has been linked to heart disease).

But how does one know how much fish to eat? Now, it is very easy, just take a cod test! Cod test – is a simple test devised by one Glasgow GP, Dr Tom Gilhooly, who also runs the Essential Health Clinic, offers tests to find out the nutritional status of patients’ blood. Gilhooly has teamed up with Dr Gordon Bell, a biochemist based at the University of Stirling, to offer patients a new blood test that can accurately measure levels of omega-3 in the blood. So all you need to do now is to go to your GP and ask him to send your blood sample to the Bell’s clinic to get to know your Omega-3 fats requirement. Though, let me warn you- it costs £99! A small price to pay I would say to keep yourself healthy.

So, if want to reap the benefits of Omega-3 fats, then make it a habit to eat at least two portions of oily fish like sardines, herring, mackerel, trout, salmon, pilchards, kippers, fresh tuna and anchovies every week. Though remember, the fish should be grilled, baked, or broiled — not fried – for fried fish appears to lose all of its benefits.

Via: Independent

Enzymes that could miraculously cure wounded soldiers in war zones and even reverse some incurable diseases like advanced cancer have been created by researchers at the UCLA and University of Washington. This research project which has been funded by DARPA, the research wing of the U.S army and led by professor Kendall Houk and biochemist David Baker has finally tasted success after nearly three years of painstaking research. The researchers have used computational techniques to arrange the elements in proteins to make the proteins react in whatever ways the researchers want it to thus making it a super enzyme which has an enormous range of applications.

With increase in life expectancy incidence of memory impairment with advancement in age is rising rapidly. According to a team of researchers at the RAND Corporation and from prominent US Universities, more than a third of people in USA over 70-years face some form of memory loss. This was the first population based study to determine the extent of cognitive impairment with and without dementia. The researchers found that 3.4 million Americans have dementia and another 5.4 million of the elderly Americans above the age 70 have some form of memory loss without dementia. This study is concentrated only among US residents but with no worldwide figure available it could be safely concluded that the global cognitive impairment scenario especially among the elderly should be rather staggering and more so in the developing countries where such incidents remain undiagnosed or under-diagnosed.

Male infertility might not be after all a lifestyle ailment as a number of researches have pointed out. A University of Edinburgh study has suggested that male fertility problems are determined at the foetal stage or in other words, a male child is born with reproductive deficiencies. The difficulty of studying a human model has restricted the fertility study only to animal models to help unravel the details of the relation between the hormone exposure of the foetal in the womb and the future reproductive health.

According to the study the critical “window” that determines the future reproductive health may, in humans, be 8 to 12 weeks into the pregnancy. Male hormones such as testosterones work during the foetal stage to program the reproductive tract. The anogenital measurement or the distance between the base of the penis and the anus could act as an early warning system of future reproductive problems in boys. The shorter the anogenital measurement the greater is the possibility of developing reproductive problems in future.

This study would help in developing early treatments for male infertility, testicular cancer and other common genital disorders.

Image:advanced fertility

Source:bbc

Pressure of a burgeoning human population adversely affecting the biodiversity of our planet and destruction of wildlife and forests is causing the emergence of new viruses that would become potentially fatal for the human population in the near future. Study of the global databases and analysis of patterns of emerging diseases using the latest computer models has pointed at the tropics as the hotbed of future pandemics. Scientists from the Consortium for the Conservation Medicine at Wildlife Trust, New York, the Institute of Zoology, London, Columbia University, New York and the University of Georgia, Athens for the first time have been able to plot, map and predict the next location for the occurrence of a future pandemic.

The ‘Emerging Disease Hotspots’ map based on analysis of 335 incidents of previous disease emergence spots, global patterns in human density, population changes, latitude, rainfall and wildlife biodiversity changes shows the locations of probable proliferation of future major diseases like HIV and SARS. The Hotspots map shows the tropics as the new important location for emergence of zoonotic diseases.

The body’s own immune mechanism causes inflammation of the infected body part that consequently triggers the death of cells in which harmful virus or toxins have infiltrated. Researchers led by David W Ehlert and Brad Cookson at the University of Washington have been able to detect the pathway that leads to the death of a potentially hazardous cell on its way to save the body against harmful infections, the process known as pyroptosis.