It seems now you can eliminate the risk of giving birth to babies with breast cancer genes. The technique, called preimplantation diagnosis (PGD), is used to screen human embryos for breast cancer genes called BRCA-1 and BRCA 2. The screening is conducted on In Vitro fertilized embryos. The embryos without the defective genes are identified and implanted in the womb of the mother. In this way the mother conceives a baby free from the breast cancer causing gene. PGD proved to be a very successful method in eliminating the occurrence of genetically inherited breast cancer from the lineage of a couple from London. They produced 11 embryos. Screening tests were conducted on the embryos by removing a single cell when they were three days old.

In five of the embryos, the breast cancer causing gene (BRCA-1 in this case) was absent. Out of these, two were implanted in the womb of the mother which resulted in a single pregnancy. Now the mother is fourteen weeks pregnant. Incidentally she happens to be carrying Britain’s first baby guaranteed to be free from the hereditary breast cancer gene. Otherwise the conceived baby would have run a greater than 50 per cent chance of developing genetically inherited breast cancer in later life. The 27-year-old British mother was too keen on getting her embryos tested because her 28 year-old husband had tested positive for the gene and his grandmother, mother, sister and cousin had the cancer. It occurred in some of them at the early ages of 27 and 29. A girl child born with the gene runs a 50 % to 85 % chance of developing breast cancer in later life. Since the screening process required IVF (in vitro fertilization) the couple had to adopt this method of fertilization even though they were naturally fertile. They have preserved a couple of healthy embryos for future use.

Women carrying the breast cancer genes ran a higher risk of developing ovarian cancer and male carriers ran a greater risk of developing prostrate cancer.

According to Paul Serhal (medical director of the Assisted Conception Unit at University College London Hospital) PGD gave parents the option of preventing a high risk of transferring breast cancer to their progeny. He also opines that it can be psychologically and emotionally devastating for a young woman to get her breasts removed owing to breast cancer in later life.
Serhel has worked on similar lines with other parents in creating babies free from the genes causing other forms of cancer including the ones causing eye and bowel cancers.
The critics of PGD feel that it is wrong to destroy embryos with the defective genes because female babies having the breast cancer genes run only a chance of developing the disease in adult life. They also feel that breast cancer can be successfully treated in adult life.

But I feel, why take chances when there is a guaranteed method available for eliminating the disease? Moreover, prevention is always better than cure. However, the technology can be developed to include scanning embryos formed by natural fertilization.

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via: TimesOnline

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Via: HuffingtonPost

When we come to athletes, they are well trained people and are naturally in their best physical form. This it self negates the utility of Viagra, which only brings a weak body to normalcy. Whatever benefit that is perceived from ingestion of this drug is purely psychological, something like a lucky charm. And that is why it is not included in the banned drugs for these athletes. It is an established fact that athletes perform well after a sexual act. Should they be prohibited from sex during these events? When there is no proof of the drug causing physiological enhancement of the body function, it need not be a worry.

Source: cbsnews

It is amazing, but it is a fact. Scientists have come up with a wonder drug that can create a kind of confidence in a human and can spread the sense of love and care within his mind and body.
According to Professor Zak, a professor of neuroscience at California’s Claremont Graduate University,

We’ve seen that it makes you care about the other person. It also increases your generosity towards that person. That’s why (the hormone) facilitates social interaction.

Keeping the recent trend of terrorism in view, this is going to be the best gift that science can ever give to humanity.
This is a kind of hormone that is already present in the body of human being. It is called Oxytocin. It is a natural hormone that assists childbirth and helps mothers bond with newborn babies.

Scientists of California’s Claremont Graduate University, Zurich University in Switzerland, University of New South Wales, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and many other Universities of US, Europe and Australia are trying to develop commercial forms of the hormone, including a nasal spray. The purpose is to develop such a drug that can be a miracle to treat a range of personality disorders such as autism, depression and anxiety. As for example in a restaurant, a thin mist of it can be sprayed over customers to put them at ease. It is very helpful and has got no side effects and is not addictive.

In a research done in Atlanta, it was used as a benevolent form of tear gas. The result was magnificent. It has been found that it can reduce any kind of violent feelings among groups of demonstrators, and even go to the extent of preventing extramarital affairs.

What else human being in today’s scenario can ask for than something more than this? There is no doubt that it is going to be an absolute solution for World Peace.

Via This Is London

Many dreams of being a father have been made true by the process of replenishing ‘nurse-maid’ Sertoli cells; by researchers in Australia. The initiatives taken by researchers like Dr. Sarah Meachem, of Prince Henry’s Institute of Medical Research in Victoria and Professor Richard Sharpe, of the Medical Research Council’s human reproductive sciences unit in Edinburgh have discovered that the ‘nurse-maid’ Sertoli cells in the testes are sometimes absent in men; depriving them from being a father.

Added to this discovery; the New Scientist magazine reports, that these cells can be

matured by raising levels of one of the hormones, follicle-stimulating hormone or FSH.

The miracle was done by means of replenishing these cells to nourish sperm in a later life to beget children. As this Cell therapy has declared that it can boost the sperm count, there is no doubt to the fact that it has raised hopes of 1.5 million men. After all, being a father is equally a wonderful feeling as being a mother.

Via - DailyMail

However, for a change this inclusion is actually nutritious and tasty. Fish, especially the oily one is said to be high in the Omega-3 fatty acids that provide the body with the essential antioxidants that slow up the ageing process and boost memory. The sale of Omega-3 capsules has seen a major surge in the recent years which can be attributed to the increased awareness about its role in memory enhancement. But the parents have found a cheaper and more organic alternative to these capsules in the oily fishes which is its main source.

This has resulted in an increased sale of oily fishes like sardines, salmon and anchovy by about 23 percent according to industry body Seafish. Even the sale of the earlier ignored mackerel has gone up by 26 percent. The sale of oily fishes contributed by the health benefits is doubled by the variety of methods it can be cooked in that is promoted by TV chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall. In addition to all these, even the Food Standards Agency has advised people to eat two major portions of fish every week one of which should be of the oily variety.

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Via: mail on sunday

A paraglider fails to control his chute and falls to the ground. The lower bones of his leg came through the knee and thighs. The man should have been screaming with pain or fainted from it. But no! Danny Penman had learnt hypnotism before and he psyched himself to believe that he was in a garden of flowers. He felt no pain after that.

This is a true tale. Hypnotism can be used as anaesthesia! Many doctors in Europe are using it. The benefits are obvious. It is cheap and it has no side effects. Some doctors use a local aesthetic while cutting the skin during surgery and nothing more. The patients are hypnotized during the operation and feel no pain.

But there are the non-believers too. They say only the skin has most of the nerves in the body and the ‘hypnotist’ doctors do use local anaesthetic. They also say that hypnotism only works on people who have the capacity to ‘turn off’. Others say the use of ultra sharp scalpels used in operations are the reason there is so little pain. Considering all these arguments, it seems a long time before hypnotism replaces standard anaesthesia (if ever it does).

Whatever be the truth. Hollywood has used hypnotism as the theme in many films and created blockbusters. Come to think of it, we all are being continuously being hypnotized all the time; by TV and video games. A TV advertisement psyches us into believing the message it is conveying. Many of us do get hypnotized into buying useless products we do not need. Experts are worried of the effect of violent computer games on young impressionable minds.

The need of the hour is that hypnotism as a phenomenon is thoroughly investigated, before some suggestible kid goes berserk after playing Tomb Rider or some such game.

Source: Daily Mail

For many of us, the day begins with a steaming cup of coffee. We get over our sleep hangovers and get geared for the day after tasting that special caffeine ambrosia. But now a research published in the June 25th issue of Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry implies that one can get over the stress caused due to lack of sleep by just smelling coffee!

The experiment was conducted on rats and has not been tried on humans yet. Sleep deprived rats were made to smell coffee and it was found that it activated seventeen different genes in their brains to diminish the stressful effects of sleep deprivation. Moreover, thirteen of these genes formed proteins to protect nerve cells from the damaging effects of stress. According to the scientists, this is the first study conducted on the aroma of coffee.

Do you know what this implies? If it works for humans then you don’t need to necessarily drink coffee. You can get its good effects by just smelling it. Given the harmful effects of caffeine on the kidney, heart and the liver this comes as a boon for the people who would like to have coffee to get over their stress but cannot do so due to the harmful effects.

With this study it certainly looks as though you can have the cake and eat it too!

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Via: Scientific American

An experiment was conducted on mice by tweaking its biochemical signals to increase the ability of its stem cells to restore the youthful vigor. Conducted by the University of California, Berkeley the study was published in the journal Nature. The study stated that adult stem cells play an important role in helping to repair the mature and differentiated cells which constitutes the body’s tissues. It identified two key regulatory pathways that could control the working of the adult stem cells thus, tricking them into making the repair work faster. The experiment revived the muscle tissue in the old mice making it as vigorous as its younger counterparts. This will also solve the ethical question in the use of stem cells derived from embryos as they make use of the individual’s own stem cells. According to one of the researcher Dr Morgan Carlson,

We are one step closer to having a point of intervention where we can rejuvenate the body’s own stem cells so we don’t have to suffer from some of the debilitating diseases associated with ageing.

The research now aims at finding the cell regeneration capacity of the young to adjust it when older, thus, avoiding muscle degeneration in older age.

Via: BBC

Image Credit: Wellcome

According to a new study published by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), the predicted number of people going under the knife would be well over 55 millions by 2015. This amounts to approximately one cosmetic surgery for every five Americans, including children. The most favored surgeries for women are breast augmentations, liposuctions and eyelid enhancements while that for men are liposuctions, eyelid enhancements and nose reshaping. In the non surgical category, however, Botox remains the favorite for both the genders.

This indicates a huge boom in the body enhancement and beauty industry. Pushing the society towards this acquired look are a variety of factors like look based selections for jobs, increased consumer awareness, direct consumer selling and also the technological advancements which have made people fearless to try new methods to correct their appearances. Though the current scenario in the beauty industry seems to be grim, professionals are excited about the expected rise in the procedures. However, people have to be aware of the quacks in the profession, warns Dr. Richard D’Amico, the ASPS president. In his own words,

Our concern is that with predicted growth and interest in the broad spectrum of cosmetic procedures, patients will look to the closest, easiest solution. Potential patients, however, need to know that board-certified plastic surgeons are uniquely qualified with an in-depth medical knowledge of the entire human body. They have the training necessary to accurately assess your individual needs and map health and beauty goals for your entire lifetime.

Via: Livescience

Image credit: Onlinesurgery

This is indeed a good news, as now all the guardian can prevent their teenagers in getting into the whirlpool till 17. Once they are successful, there will be a hope of giving it up easily, if one gets addicted to smoking at a later stage in life. Researches of these types really deserve good appreciation.

Via: MailOnSunday

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.

Generally, as mentioned in the medical journal Epidemiology by Dr. Nichols and colleagues, the age of the mother at childbirth is seen to bear a relationship to the amount of contaminants present in her breast milk and studies have tried to link up the accumulation of the contaminants to the increased risk of breast cancer. But in the case of adult women who were breast-fed, the mother’s age at childbirth did not seem to have any altered impact on the degree of their proneness to breast-cancer. It was also observed that in the case of women who were not breast-fed as infants, the higher the age of the mother at childbirth the lower the risk of their developing breast cancer. However, in the women who were not breast-fed as infants their birth order did bear any relationship with their breast cancer proneness.

On the whole, according to Dr. Nichols, though a link has been established between a women’s vulnerability to breast cancer and her being breast-fed as an infant, there is still a long way to go. The impact of duration of breast feeding and the amount of environmental contaminants present in breast milk on breast-fed women is yet to be studied.

Breast milk differs from formula milk in terms of its nutrient content. Non nutritive factors like hormone factors, immune factors, growth factors and prostaglandins that have an impact on the risk developing breast cancer are found to be different in the case of breast milk and formula milk. Moreover, the feeding habits of breast-fed and formula milk- fed infants differ increasing the risk of breast cancer in the latter case. More importantly, environmental pollutants are also found in larger quantities in formula milk. There is a hypothesis saying that a transmissible agent in breast milk increases the risk of breast cancer but this has not been established yet.

via: Yahoo News

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.

According to Bessam Farjo, a hair-loss specialist and president of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery, who is leading the research says:

We can take a small sample from the back of the head, extract the dermal papilla [DP] cells and then use a patented method of multiplying these basic cells of extracted hairs in the lab,” he said. “Within eight weeks they are capable of generating literally millions of themselves, meaning that only around 100 hairs are needed in order to produce thousands of new hairs.

The procedure being developed by Intercytex, a British company based in Manchester, would require more than 1,000 tiny injections to produce that number of hairs in extensively bald patients but bets on a quick and less invasive cure against the present hair transplant techniques. Many researchers from the US, Italy and Japan have also joined the league of exploring the possibility of cloning hair by including techniques designed to extract stem cells from the base of the hair follicles.

Dr Farjo, who runs the Farjo Medical Centres in London and Manchester says:

For many men and women the consequences of hair loss can be devastating – whether brought on by pattern baldness or as a result of cancer treatment such as radiotherapy. There are some effective nonsurgical treatments that can slow down the process but these involve taking daily pills. For those with more significant hair loss one to two operations per bald area can give a natural looking head of hair of reasonable density. Our team is also experimenting with combining the DP cells with keratinocytes – the cells that produce keratin, the basic building material of hair – so that they could grow actual hairs for transplant, rather than injectable cells. This could further improve surgeons’ control over the amount, direction and appearance of the transplanted hair.

Andrew Messenger, a consultant dermatologist at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield and Marilyn Sherlock, chairman of the Institute of Trichologists and a practising specialist in hair loss in Salisbury, Wiltshire, both have acknowledged this latest technique as a big achievement. However, they would like to see the data. But whatever the technical aspects be, this surely is a blessing in disguise for those wishing to sleep peaceful nights with no more scary balding dreams!

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Via: Timesonline

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.

Humans have no natural immunity to the avian influenza virus and there hasn’t been any discovery of the vaccine that can protect humans against the virus. While the virus manifests itself mostly in birds, cases of the virus mutating to infect humans have been registered and are majorly fatal. The formulation of a vaccine requires research; however, not much of it is possible due to refusal on the part of countries like Indonesia to provide samples of the strains of the virus. This has not only violated the rules stated by the WHO but also restricted research on the deadly disease. The Indonesian government is reluctant however, saying that the samples can be provided only if they are given access to the drugs.

Via: Yahoo news

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