Archive for July, 2007
In the August 1 issue of G&D, Dr. Ronald Evans (Salk Institute) and colleagues report on their discovery that mutations in the mouse gene encoding PPARy adversely affect lactation milk quality, and have serious health consequences for nursing pups.
“By examining PPARγ functions in vivo, our work reveals an unexpected link between diet, inflammation and the quality of mothers milk, ” explained Dr. Evans.
PPARγ (peroxisome proliferator-activator receptor gamma) is a nuclear receptor that is known to regulate metabolism and inflammation in various organisms. In fact, human PPARγ is the main target of the drug class of thiazolidinediones (TZDs), which is used to manage diabetes.
Dr. Evans and colleagues sought to determine the role of PPARγ in the lactating mammary gland. They generated a strain of mice that, as adults, lacked PPARγ only in hematopoietic and endothelial cells. When these PPARγ-deficient animals became mothers, they appeared normal, but the milk they produced most certainly was not.
“We were delighted and surprised by the discovery because it directly explores one of life’s most common events - breast feeding. These findings will enhance the understanding of why milk is healthful and the molecular pathways that create the bodies own quality control pipe line,” says Dr. Evans.
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The researchers noticed that pups of the PPARγ-deficient females — who were, themselves, genetically normal - were displaying a number of abnormalities, most noticeably marked hair loss across their trunks and growth retardation. The scientists determined that these abnormalities were due to their ingestion of “toxic milk” from their PPARγ-deficient mothers: Either fostering by PPARγ-normal mothers or weaning to solid food effectively cured these small and balding pups.
Through a variety of experimental approaches, Dr. Evans and colleagues determined that PPARγ loss results in increased levels of pro-inflammatory lipids being released into the mothers’ milk. Ingestion of this “toxic milk” sets off an inflammatory response in the skin of nursing pups, which ultimately disrupts the hair growth cycle and renders them largely bald. In fact, treatment with the common anti-inflammatory aspirin completely rescues hair loss in these pups.
July 26th, 2007
People give so much attention to beauty and your hair as your crowning glory plays a big part in looking good. It is normal to shed some hair everyday but some people experience excessive hair loss. Hair loss is a bothering problem especially for men. People who have this problem are eager to put a stop to hair loss and start to regrow hair as soon as possible.
Although aging and losing hair is a natural phenomenon, there are people who lose hair earlier in life. Some causes of hair loss are hormonal changes and genetics, illnesses, medications and poor hair hygiene leading to scalp infections. But the most common cause of hair loss is genetics, where you inherit baldness from one or both parents. This means your genes dictate the future of your hair. But there are treatments available to change the future of your hair and can put a stop to hair loss such as:
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Medications. Some people for the desire to put a stop to hair loss use medications for hair loss. There are medications, creams and ointments to slow down hair loss and promote hair regrowth such as minoxidil (rogaine) which you need to rub to your scalp daily and finasteride (propecia), a prescription pills taken orally. There are cautions and limitation in taking hair loss medications; it may cause danger and birth defects to pregnant women. There are also reported side effects like decreased sex drive.
Surgical procedures like hair transplant and scalp reduction surgery are also being practiced to put a stop to hair loss. Surgical procedures are expensive, painful and may leave permanent scars. Careful evaluation is needed and you have to make sure that a certified plastic surgeon and dermatologist will perform the procedure.
Natural hair loss treatment. There is also a natural way to put a stop to hair loss. This is an alternative option for you if you don’t want to take drugs for hair loss and suffer the side effects. Natural hair loss treatment can help you put a stop to hair loss without taking medications and spending a fortune on hair loss treatment surgeries
July 25th, 2007
SURREY - Rezgar Palani had already lost his hair, and he didn’t want to lose his money too.
A provincial court judge ruled this week that the Surrey resident, who spent more than $4,000 on hair treatments, will get his money back, less the $701.70 he used in drops and shampoo.
The judgment, by Judge Nancy Phillips, was dated July 17, but Palani didn’t know about it until The Sun contacted him Friday.
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“I’m just feeling great,” Palani said. “I lost my hair anyway so why would I lose my money?”
John Slamko, who represented the clinic at the hearing, said Friday he had not heard about the ruling.
“[Our treatments] work for the vast majority of people,” Slamko said.
After three months on a prescribed regime with International Laser Clinics — which offered a money-back guarantee when he signed up –he saw no improvements, Palani said.
According to the judgment, although Palani, 25, a Kurdish immigrant, testified he is of “limited financial means,” he paid the clinic $4,309.50 in February 2006 to treat his hair loss.
He attended the clinic weekly from Feb. 4, 2006 to July 15, 2006, using a portable laser as required. The court found he also applied 25 to 30 drops of the $150-per-bottle formula daily.
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When Palani asked for his money back, he was denied. They showed him two photos as proof that the treatment was working, but Palani said there was no way to prove it was his head in the pictures.
Doug Slamko, marketing director for International Laser Clinics, said the technology used by the company “is effective for the vast majority of people.”
Slamko said Palani was beginning to get a response, but stopped treatment after six months instead of the year that’s required.
“In any service business, no matter how successful you are, there’s always going to be a small percentage of people who can’t be satisfied,” said Slamko.
He said the company has thousands of clients in the Lower Mainland.
Judge Nancy Phillips found the photos — black and white photocopies with hand-written notations — were “poor quality and problematic.”
On the other hand, she was impressed Palani’s efforts.
“I was impressed with Palani’s eagerness and desire to remedy his thinning hair,” she said, “and find he was highly motivated to follow the $4,000 treatment he bought from the defendant and that he did so reasonably.”
She concluded that Palani met the requirements for a refund, less the cost of the products he used.
“I heard no evidence that would allow me to conclude anything other than that Palani had done what he could to make himself eligible for the refund,” she said.
Palani said he was happy to learn he would be refunded.
He also got his hair. Palani said he ended up paying $14,000 for implant surgery.
July 21st, 2007
Clearwater, Florida - Dogs scratch and bite, sometimes until their skin is raw. Many pet owners and veterinarians are calling this the worse flea season they’ve seen in years.
Every time your pet steps outdoors, there may be a field of fleas waiting to latch on.
Megan Kempshall, Veterinary Technician:
“Anywhere outside where you have grass or anything organic, they’ll be there.”
Veterinary Technician Megan Kempshall says fleas hide in a pet’s hard-to-reach places.
Kempshall:
“It can seriously affect them. The can get hair loss or get sick if they have serious flea allergies.”
Lexie, a 2-year-old Beagle mix waiting for adoption at the Humane Society in Pinellas, isn’t scratching anymore. She’s protected by a topical skin solution.
Kempshall:
“If you take a dog for a walk that has been on monthly prevention, you don’t have to worry about it.”
If your pet has fleas, animal experts say it’s as important to treat your animal as it is to treat the environment they live in.
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Chet DiPillo with Do It Yourself Pest Control in St Petersburg says more than half his business this season has been for fleas.
Chet DiPillo, Owner Do It Yourself Pest Control:
“I’ve got people with no pets loaded with fleas in the house from the population on their lawn.”
DiPillo says a warm winter, dry spring and summer allows fleas to keep reproducing. One flea can lay 20 eggs a day, 600 in a life time. Dipillo says the solution calls for consistency.
DiPillo:
“You treat, wait a week, treat again, you wait. You treat two, three weeks and can get them. If it’s a bad problem, go four to five weeks.”
Experts say the key is to treat home, yard and animal at the same time to be rid of fleas.
Animal experts say other signs of fleas include “flea dirt”. Pull back your dog’s hair. What looks like dirt may be a flea’s fecal matter. Using a comb, pull the particles onto a white sheet of paper. If it turns reddish brown, it’s fecal matter. The red color comes from the blood the flea sucked out of the animal.
July 17th, 2007
Think hair loss is just a problem for men? Think again. Top national expert, Dr. Alan Bauman, shares seven health risks that can lead to hair loss in women.
Boca Raton, FL (PRWEB) June 25, 2007 — It may come as a newsflash to some, but hair loss isn’t just a problem for men anymore.
“Women’s hair loss is much more common than most people realize,” said Alan J. Bauman, M.D., a leading U.S. hair restoration physician. “Because of this, it’s important for women to educate themselves about certain health and physiological factors, like hormonal changes, that are associated with hair loss and thinning.”
Women have a 35-percent chance of experiencing hair loss by age 50, but the condition can occur anytime after puberty. Doctors have noticed that hair loss in women often coincides with hormonal fluctuations and is more likely to occur in women with a family history of hair loss.
Dr. Bauman is a top U.S. expert on female hair loss who’s treated hundreds of women over the last 10 years. According to Dr. Bauman, the top seven health factors commonly associated with female hair loss are:
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(1) MENOPAUSE - Hair thinning is a common complaint of women undergoing menopause. The condition coincides with a decrease in the production of estrogen and progesterone, the female sex hormones.
(2) POST-PREGNANCY - During pregnancy, a woman’s hair grows faster and feels more luxurious thanks to increases in hormones which keep a higher than normal number follicles in a growth phase. However, after giving birth, the sudden drop in hormones often causes shedding and thinning as the ratio of growing/resting follicles returns to normal.
(3) CRASH DIETING - Unhealthy dieting and/or rapid weight loss may cause hair follicles to go into “shock,” resulting in increased shedding and a loss of volume that may last for months - or, in some cases, indefinitely - even after a healthy diet is resumed.
(4) TRACTION ALOPECIA - Over time, certain hairstyles (e.g. tight braiding) and hair extensions can traumatize follicles and lead to permanent bald spots in the scalp, a condition known as “traction alopecia.”
(5) TRICHOTILLOMANIA - Compulsive hair-pulling, or trichotillomania, can also lead to permanent bald spots in the scalp, eyebrows and eyelashes.
(6) PLASTIC SURGERY - Browlifts and facelifts can alter the appearance of the frontal hairline and may lead to both decreased hair density and scarring in those areas.
(7) STRESS - Severe emotional stress and trauma can also take a toll on the body, often leading to excessive shedding and thinning that can last for weeks.
July 11th, 2007
Baqubah, Iraq — When distinguished visitors come to where the action is, it can be disruptive to the point of wasteful. I’ve heard commanders grumble all over Iraq about the steady streams of VIPs who, while intending to be seen observing operations, instead seize the mechanics with their clumsy footprint. These are called “dog and pony shows.”
Second Chances 07/09
“D +16” 07/06
Bless the Beasts and Children 07/02
Surrender or Die 06/22
Be Not Afraid 06/19
Subsidizing the Enemy 09/14
Yon: Second Chances
Derbyshire: Lost Eden
Tamny: Tax the Rich More, Reduce Inequality?
McCarthy: Living History … with the New York Times
Hemingway: Living Through Live Earth
Marshall: First Freedom
Editors: Setback for the ACLU
Interview: Abraham Cuomo
Freddoso: Economics in Reverse
Charen: Foreign Territory
Barone: Unfriendly and Potentially Dangerous
Yon: “D +16”
Dunphy: Rocky Month
Miller: Assault on Reason
But on D 18, when a most important “visitor” came to Baqubah, not only did he not seem to cause a hiccup, but everyone I talked with was happy to see him. General Petraeus came to Baqubah on July 7, 2007, amid practically zero fuss.
The day wasn’t much different from any other. Mine began with an unrelated mission with the Brigade deputy commander, from which we returned around noon. General Petraeus had lunch with commanders, followed by a couple of interesting briefings that the tag-along press — there for only those few hours — were allowed to attend.
After the briefings, General Petraeus headed downtown to an area where many of the buildings had been made into bombs. Most VIPs will not dare leave base, but the top generals and command sergeant majors in this war all roll downtown taking their chances with getting blown sky-high.
When I wrote the dispatch “Be Not Afraid,” I thought at least dozens of soldiers might be killed when we attacked on June 19, and that hundreds might be wounded. After years of experience, the terrorists had prepared Baqubah to an extent greater than either Fallujah or Ramadi had been. During one of the briefings Saturday, General Petraeus mentioned that Baqubah was probably the most rigged city of the entire war. Another officer at the briefing said there is so much explosives residue in Baqubah that the bomb dogs get confused.
Since the beginning of Arrowhead Ripper — with the loss of one 3-2 SBCT soldier killed in action — troops found more than 130 bombs planted in ambush, about two dozen buildings rigged to explode, and more than half a dozen car bombs. (That’s only the beginning.) Yet street by street, house by house, step by step, the infantry soldiers cleared Baqubah, working under intensely stressful conditions. They cleared block by block, no place to sleep but the ground, no showers to wash away the sweaty grit of war. This combat-experienced brigade outsmarted the enemy. I’d like to say more, but the enemy will get no help from these pages.
Saturday, while riding in a Stryker to where General Petraeus was checking out the ground situation, I met Robert Reid from the Associated Press. Mr. Reid seemed to take interest in the information about the graves I reported recently, taking notes while we drove into Baqubah. Mr. Reid would later e-mail that he has been a journalist for nearly 40 years, having first come to Iraq in 1982.
As the soldiers clear Baqubah of the enemy and its deadly trappings, the people here are coming forward and talking. Some Iraqis worry that the U.S. will leave Baqubah too soon, only to have al Qaeda return and start dealing retribution to “collaborators.” That may explain why so many Iraqis here are offering useful information that helps save American lives and keeps al Qaeda out.
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The fourth update for what I call “The Battle for Baqubah” described a mission to a village about 3.5 miles from the military base where I — and varying numbers of journalists (now down to one photographer) — stay while covering Operation Arrowhead Ripper. No journalists came along when I accompanied American soldiers to the abandoned village whose nearby palm groves offered the overpowering stench of decaying human flesh. I photographed and videotaped Iraqi and American soldiers as they disinterred the remains of adults and children. In one grave, soldiers recovered the heads of decapitated children, some with still partially recognizable remnants of flesh and hair. When I left the village, the digging was still ongoing, but I had seen and heard enough for the update I published the next day.
Thinking that the reporters here or their editors back home might have been scared off the topic of mass graves, I offered my source material. These included map coordinates, names of Iraqi and U.S. Army officials, my photographs and videotape, and even, in the end, permission to take what I’d written and photographed and use that free of charge.
Today, there are indications that the massacre might be much bigger than what I initially reported in “Bless the Beasts and Children.” Shortly after I published “Bless the Beasts and Children,” I asked a local Iraqi official about the village and the graves. The Diyala Provincial councilmen, Abdul Jabar, went on video explaining why he believes that there might be hundreds of people buried in the area, and he said the correct spelling is actually al Ahamir. (Most Iraqis’ names seem to have variant spellings.)
Watch the interview here.
Meanwhile, “Baqubah Update 05-July 2007” seems to have generated a dust storm of doubts. That dispatch focused on the emerging presence of Iraqi government leaders in Baqubah — both behind the scenes and actually working hard, as well as out front maintaining high visibility — stepping up to get their city operating again.
The situation under al Qaeda had degenerated on all levels. Although Diyala is Iraq’s breadbasket, it has been ten months since a food shipment arrived here. Fuel is at a near standstill; the lights are mostly off; and water flow is better measured by drip rate than cubic liters per second.
With dispatches in the works for these topics, the July 5 update was more a chronicle of my observations of the long overdue and very much welcome emergence of Iraqi political leaders from out of hiding. During a meeting, an Iraqi official in the room — who asked to remain anonymous — provided a narrative of how al Qaeda took control of Baqubah and much of Diyala Province. The paragraph that generated controversy follows:
The official reported that on a couple of occasions in Baqubah, al Qaeda invited to lunch families they wanted to convert to their way of thinking. In each instance, the family had a boy, he said, who was about eleven years old. As Lt. David Wallach interpreted the man’s words, I saw Wallach go blank and silent. He stopped interpreting for a moment. I asked Wallach, “What did he say?” Wallach said that at these luncheons, the families were sat down to eat. And then their boy was brought in with his mouth stuffed. The boy had been baked. Al Qaeda served the boy to his family.
Every syllable I wrote about this reported incident was in that paragraph, which offers no opinion about the veracity of his words.
Mr. Abdul Jabar had lived near the al Hamari village. He had more details about what happened there, and he was willing to go on the record with them. The reported incidents, wretching though they were and are, were reported “as is.”
When context is other people’s children
As I write these words just a few miles from the graves I saw, the resulting controversy about whether what the man said was true, or whether his words should have been written if the writer couldn’t verify them, seems precious. There is no imaginary line of credulity that al Qaeda might cross should it go from beheading children to baking them.
No unnamed Iraqi stringer claimed that al Qaeda had taken over Baqubah. Al Qaeda said this through the press. I sit writing these words in Diyala Province just a short drive from where the self-proclaimed leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was killed by a bomb delivered by a U.S. warplane. Al Qaeda: the organization that gleefully bragged about murdering roughly 3,000 people by smashing jets full of civilians into buildings and earth. Al Qaeda in Iraq: who proudly broadcast their penchant for sawing off the heads of living breathing people, and in such a manner as to ensure lots of spurting blood and gurgles of final pain, in some cases with the added flourish of the executioner raising up the severed head and squealing excitedly.
These are the same terrorists I often come face to face with: not on television or in magazines, but on bloodstained streets ablaze with human carnage. I remember the charred corpse of a small Iraqi boy. I remember the wailing Iraqi parents and countless other scenes that I am likely to see again and again. Back in 2005, terrorists here were intentionally attacking children…
July 9th, 2007
TED AX knows he should wear earplugs when he leans into the noisy engine compartment of an MG sports car. He’s been working among clanging metal and whirring power tools in garages for the last 15 years and has already developed tinnitus, a ringing in the ears that is one of the most common symptoms of hearing loss caused by excessive noise.
But between the need to pinpoint troubled engine sounds and listen out for the phone — and with his fingers forever covered in grease — the Denver man’s earplugs go unused.
“I have yet to come up with a real-world scenario where I can have hearing protection and do my job,” says the 42-year-old foreign-car mechanic.
Ax might soon have a more amenable option — a pill he could take before work that would help protect his ears from noise.
Ax is one of an estimated 30 million Americans who are exposed to hazardous levels of noise daily at work or at leisure, be it from the buzz of leaf-blowers and landscape equipment, the jangling of construction tools, the cacophony of a concert or the roar of a motorcycle engine. Until now, hearing protection for such people has consisted of using barrier devices such as earplugs or earmuffs and limiting the time a worker spends exposed to loud noises.
Recently, however, several groups have started testing various chemicals for their safety and effectiveness at preventing noise-induced hearing loss in people. If the tests go well and the drugs are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, they would be the first of their kind.
Noise damages hearing by stressing out the inner-ear cells that convert sound waves into electrical signals that travel to the brain. These hair cells vibrate in response to sound and can be both physically and chemically destroyed by noise.
Most commonly, noise causes levels of toxic chemicals called free radicals inside the hair cell to rise beyond manageable levels, and the cell dies. Once a hair cell dies, the body cannot replace it.
Damage can occur from repeated exposure to noise at or above 85 decibels — the loudness of a busy city street or a vacuum cleaner — or from a short burst of a very intense noise such as gunfire.
If too many hair cells die, the inner ear can no longer detect sounds from certain frequencies — particularly, high-pitched sounds. Eventually, that hearing loss obscures conversation, dropping out sounds such as “ess” and “ch.”
“I compare it sometimes to playing Wheel of Fortune, when the vowels are up and you have to guess the word without the consonant sounds,” says Kathleen Campbell, director of audiology research at Southern Illinois University in Springfield.
So too can come an aggravating tinnitus, in which a person experiences a ringing, hissing or roaring in the ears, even when no external sound is present.
About 10 million Americans suffer from noise-induced hearing loss, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The problem is particularly rampant in the military: In 2006, the Veterans Administration paid $1 billion in compensation to veterans for service-related hearing disabilities, the vast majority of which are noise-related.
“The military is really loud, for long periods of time,” says Cmdr. Ben Balough, chairman of otolaryngology at the Navy Medical Center in San Diego. If you are on a submarine, an aircraft carrier or in Iraq, you cannot escape the noise, Balough adds. Explosions and jet engine noise are so jarring that even wearing hearing protection is not always enough.
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So it’s not surprising that three of the potentially protective chemicals — D-methionine, ebselen and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) — will be tested on military personnel first. All three give a boost to a natural antioxidant, glutathione, that’s found in hair cells and battles chemical stress. All three can be taken orally as pills or dissolved in water. And each has been shown to be relatively safe in preliminary human studies.
Balough and his colleagues tested NAC on 566 Marine Corps recruits during boot camp weapons training in San Diego in 2004, during which they were exposed to about 300 rounds of M-16 rifle fire. Half of the recruits drank NAC three times a day for the 15 days of training, while the other half received a placebo tablet. (All recruits wore foam insert earplugs during training, as is standard.) Researchers measured the recruits’ hearing before and after the noise exposure.
The results, reported April at a San Diego otolaryngology meeting, revealed that about one-third of recruits in the placebo group showed some hearing loss and that the NAC treatment reduced the number of people injured by the noise by about 25%. These results are not bad, but not spectacular, Balough says. More work is needed to determine if the drug really gives a protective benefit.
D-methionine, a naturally occurring chemical that can be found in cheese and yogurt, is also being tested. Campbell estimates that a person would have to eat 5 pounds of cheese to get the correct dose for hearing protection. She has formulated D-methionine into an orange-flavored syrup that can be diluted in a glass of water.
The chemical is currently being tested for its ability to protect cancer patients from hearing loss caused by certain chemotherapy drugs, such as cisplatin (results are still pending). And Campbell is seeking funding to test the compound in military trials for noise-induced hearing loss. In studies using the chinchilla — a desert rodent that has a hearing frequency range similar to humans — D-methionine protected against noise-induced hearing loss almost completely, with animals losing less than 10% of their hair cells compared with the 40% lost by animals that went unprotected.
Seattle-based drug company Sound Pharmaceuticals is developing the third compound, ebselen, a man-made compound. The drug mimics the action of an enzyme in the body that naturally recharges glutathione. Ebselen has been shown to protect against noise-induced hearing loss in rats and guinea pigs and at very low oral doses — something that is critical for developing a daily treatment, says Jonathan Kil, the company’s chief executive
July 2nd, 2007