Gene Therapy

There is no doubt about how much Medicine has improved. Back in the day if you had a disease, the odds of recovering were low; you were not supposed to make it. Then doctors worked very hard and knew how to deal/treat diseases, so people lived a bit longer.

Nowadays  if any part of your body hurts, you just pop a pill and the pain is gone or go see a doctor; if an organ is not working how it is suppose to work they can replace it (just sit and wait for a donor). What I'm trying to say is that there are few things that Modern Medicne cannot cure.

 A new treatment aims to corrects errors in a person's  genetic code. Quite impresive, right? But it is not as migical as it seems to be. This will cure a strange condition that some people have to digest fats.

This is the first step to modify human's genetics and will unleash a great discussion. If this goes farther and farther, would you be able use this "human improvement" and make your your blood-line will be better?

Giant Impact Theory Breakthrough

giant impact theory 2.0 (Monserrat Lara & Javiera Brevis)

In this presentation we explain how the constraints that had held back the giant impact theory (hypotheses of the origin of the Moon) were overcome by recent studies, presenting one particular research and the team that conducted it.

HIV and AIDS do no exist!

In the World there are organizations who believe that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is not the cause of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). This view suggests that HIV is inoffensive, therefore it cannot cause AIDS.

Dr. Eleni Papadopulus-Eleopulos, a biophysicist and leader of a group of HIV/AIDS scientists from Perth in Western Australia, has published several scientific articles on this issue. Here are some reasons to support this theory:

- In order a virus to be labeled as one, has to be able to reproduce itself. HIV can't.

- HIV cannot be detected. Coroners know if a person died of AIDS by looking at how the cells are deteriorate. They link that state to AIDS.

- In an interview she refers to a study reported in 1988 by O'Hara and his colleagues from Harvard: "They examined enlarged lymph nodes from both AIDS and non-AIDS patients and found "HIV" particles in 90% of both groups. They had to concede that particles alone do not prove infection with HIV".

Dr. Papadopulus-Eleopulos is not the only one stating her opinion against the existence of HIV.

David Crowe, president of Alberta Reppraising AIDS Society, explains in this video why HIV can't cause multiple diseases, and why currently there is no test to prove the existence of HIV.

You've already seen arguments to support this claim. Did they make you doubt of the existence of HIV and AIDS? Let's suppose this is true, then who created HIV and AIDS, and why?

A “trip” that can change an alcoholic life

According to a Norwegian study Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (most commonly known as LSD) may help people who suffer from alcoholism.

The psychedelic drug was used to treat alcoholics in the 1960’s, and had significant beneficial effects. Sorrowfully, scientist couldn’t go farther in their investigation as the drug was considered illicit.

No matter what, researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology looked back at those studies and conducted six randomized controlled trials studies with 536 participants;  revealing that a single dose of LSD had considerable beneficial effect on alcohol abuse, which last between six and twelve months after taken the hallucinogen. For the group of patients that take LSD, 59 per cent showed reduced levels of alcohol abuse compared with 38 per cent in the other group. The ones who take LSD reported higher levels of abstinence.

How does the psychedelic drug work?

LSD interacts with a specific type of serotonin receptors in the brain (which are part of the frontal lobe, one of the parts of the brain that involve high-level of cognitive function), which may stimulate to new connections and open the mind for new perspectives and possibilities. Psychedelic drugs are not known to be addictive or toxic to the body, but the LSD has striking effects on imagination, perception, and memories and can elicit periods of intense anxiety and confusion. (http://www.quora.com/LSD/How-does-LSD-work)

Concerning the lasting effects o the LSD experience in alcoholics, investigators of the trial noted, “It was rather common for patients to claim significant insights into their probles, to feel that they had been givena new lease on life, and to make a strong resolution to discontinue their drinking.” And investigators of another trial noted, "It was not unusual for patients following their LSD experience to become much more self-accepting, to show greater openness and accessibility, and to adopt a more positive, optimistic view of their capacities to face future problems."

Despite the fact that, it seems to be a very interesting way of quitting alcoholism a farther study need to be done in order to obtain information about the posterior results of consuming this drug.

Which one do you think it is the consequence of using one drug to fight the addiction against another drug?  It is a good idea or the patient will end up being addict of the second one?

Related articles:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9131181/LSD-could-treat-alcoholism-because-trips-make-you-reassess-addiction.html

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/03/09/could-lsd-treat-alcoholism/

Trapped in a Nightmare

I know some old people who claim that they have never had nightmares, they say that they are too optimistic. What if a healthy diet and the use of some pills had more to do with nightmares than an optimistic attitude?

Recent research has shown that sleeping pills, a diet rich in lithium and some other pharmacological agents affecting neurotransmitters are likely to cause or increase nightmares, since they tamper with the neurochemical composition of a healthy brain activity.

On one side an insuficient ammount of lithium in your diet may lead to an increase in the amount of nightmares and even to a mental illnesses which are in fact treated with lithium. This way, it is very important to have the correct amount of grain, pulses, fruits and other food that contain high amount of lithium.

Another important factor to consider is whether you are using any sleeping pills or anti-depressants which are likely to cause sleeping disorders, since they are designed to tamper with your neurotransmitters in order to help you overcome this type of condition and it might happen that your condition is not that bad, but the prescribed d medication causes you terrible nightmares.

Also is important to consider that some medication to treat infectious diseases may cause nightmares to the patient taking them. 

Considering the factors mentioned above I dare to say that highly probable that we have to re-consider what we think to be the causes of a terrible night sleep. First of all people who suffer constantly from nightmares such as post-traumatic stress patients, depressive or bipolar people are under medication that according to recent data may increase their nightmares; thus, their condition may not be as bad as their nightmares tell them.

If you thought nightmares were a children condition and that is not normal to have them as an adult, but you are suffering from nightmares anyways, you should ask yourself if you follow a healthy diet or if you are under any pharmacological agent that could affect your neurotransmitters.

As for people who have never suffered from nightmares, they must be doing something right.

 

Brain declines at the age of 45

by Paola San Martín P. & Andrés Lara P.

On February 2012, British and French researchers published their breakthrough: Brain declines actually at the age of 45, not at 60 as it was believed. Conducted by scientists from the University College London, the results for this study came up through testing different cognitive abilities at different age periods during 10 years. All the abilities tested were analyzed using statistics which resulted in scores. These scores, expressed into percentages for groups separated into different categories, revealed how the brain is getting older before than we thought. 

Although this study applies only for British people, it may be taken as “role model” for studies in other countries with the same purpose—adapted to the characteristics of every country’s population, of course. In fact, this study caused positive reactions on specialists on mental diseases like Alzheimer. However, detractors claimed that the study has not enough evidence to prove it. Are our brains getting old earlier? Can we trust on this study? Could these results be applied for all the people in the world? Check our presentation to know more about it.

Articles on which the presentation is based:

- British Medical Journal

- BBC World News

- The Daily Mail

Women may say good bye to Alzheimer’s.

 
       A new study carried out at University of Baltimore reveled that, women who have been into a hormone replacement therapy within five years of entering menopause, and have been using hormones for ten or more years are 30 per cent less possible to develop Alzheimer’s disease over 11 years, against to women who have never used a hormone replacement therapy or started the treatment later in life.
“This study suggests there may be a critical window of opportunity around menopause during which hormone therapy may protect against Alzheimer's disease”, said study researcher Peter Zandi, associate professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

Doctor Zandi and his team followed 1,768 women, counting 1,105 who had taken hormone replacement therapy. It was a nested case-control study that started in 1995 and finished in 2006. The results shown that 7.2 per cent of the women who had taken the hormone treatment developed Alzheimer’s, whereas 13.4 per cent of the women who had never used the therapy developed the disease.

Nevertheless, there are possible risks among the benefits of a hormone therapy when menopause comes into our lifes, as the use of them may also present side effects: raise the risk of heart disease, stroke, blood clots, and breast cancer. Because of those reasons, some experts advise taking low doses and only for the time needed. 

Taking into account the benefits and the risks of being under a hormone replacement treatment, would you think of taking the pills when menopause and all the undesirable symptoms appear?

In case some of you do not know what menopause is about, this video will make clear any question you may have. 

Related articles: 

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/251961.php

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121024164717.htm