Breast-Feeding Linked to Lower Incidence of Fever After Immunizations

-At a pediatric vaccination center in Naples, Italy, mothers of infants scheduled for routine vaccinations were told how to measure and record infant temperature on the evening that the immunization was administered and for the next 3 days.
-On the third day after vaccination, mothers were phoned to determine the incidence of fever.
-Of 460 infants recruited, outcome data were available for 450 (98%). Fever was reported in 30 (25%) of exclusively breast-fed infants, in 48 (31%) of partially breast-fed infants, and in 94 (53%) of infants who were not breast-fed at all.

At the center in Naples, Italy, they have begun giving vaccines to breast fed babies to fight off potential sicknesses. But the vaccines now have a slight side affect, the babies might get a little fever. Once again the study results they got from the pediatric center is the 460 infants recruited, outcome data were available for 450 (98%). Fever was reported in 30 (25%) of exclusively breast-fed infants, in 48 (31%) of partially breast-fed infants, and in 94 (53%) of infants who were not breast-fed at all. At the medical center, one of the study authors said, "Breastfeeding seems to be associated with a reduced risk for fever after immunization, but additional, well organized studies are needed," the study authors conclude. "The design of such studies should include more objective research methods, such as measurements taken by health care professionals at the same time of the day or night, and should evaluate the role of mild intercurrent infections by medical monitoring." The vaccines that they were using at the pediatric center might have contained something that the doctors didn't know about, and maybe hat is why this happened.

By: Luarie Barclay
Title: Breast-Feeding Linked to Lower Incidence of Fever After Immunizations
Sources: Journal
Publication date: May 17, 2010
Date Accessed Info: May 20,2010
URL: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/722036

Boy Dies Afetr Controversial Treatment for Autism

-A 5 year old boy with autism goes into a cardiac arrest and dies because of a controversial treatment.
-This was the childs third treatment at Advanced Integrative Medicine Center in Portersville, Pa.
-This treatment can possibly remove vital minerals from the body and possibly have death in the near future.

The boy, Abubakar Nadama, went into cardiac arrest while undergoing chelation therapy. Chelation is used to remove heavy metals from the blood. It's approved for acute lead poisoning. No form of chelation therapy is approved by the FDA for treating autism. The treatment given to Abubakar was intravenous EDTA -- ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid. This situation angers autism expert Leslie Rubin, "I say this emphatically: Chelation is a very risky procedure with no proven benefits for children with autism or related conditions," Rubin tells WebMD. But many parents believe their children's autism is caused by mercury from thimerosal, a vaccine preservative. A recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report explicitly rejects this theory. That report also finds no evidence that chelation helps autism. Says Sallie Bernard, executive director of Safe Minds, "The boy who died was using a form of chelation therapy that is not generally recommended or widely practiced within the autism community trying chelation," Bernard tells WebMD. "It is an unusual circumstance. EDTA is not what most of these parents are doing. It is not what is considered the right form of chelation." This controversy is very crucial and people who are part of the actual procedure of therapy for autism, need to absolutely know if the type of therapy that is being done, is proven to work and have no side effects.

By: Daniel J. DeNoon
Title: Boy Dies Afetr Controversial Treatment for Autism
Sources: SOURCES: The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Aug. 25 and Aug. 26, 2005. Leslie Rubin, MD, Emory and Morehouse universities, Atlanta; president, Institute for the Study of Disadvantage and Disability. Susan Hyman, MD, associate professor of pediatrics, Strong Children's Research Center, University of Rochester, N.Y. Sallie Bernard, executive director, Safe Minds.
Publication Date: August 26, 2005
Date Accessed the Info: May 19,2010
URL: http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20050826/boy-dies-after-controversial-treatment-for-autism

Well-Trained Immune Cells Keep HIV in Check

The human immune system detects foreign cells with the help of cell-surface proteins called human leukocyte antigens (HLAs). Each person's cells carry a particular set of HLA molecules — the person's HLA type — which bind fragments of virus or bacterial protein and 'present' them to T cells, the immune cells that recognize and attack infected cells. But before T cells are ready to perform their killer function, they are in effect trained on fragments of the body's own proteins — self-peptides — in an organ called the thymus. To 'graduate' from the thymus, a T cell must be able to recognize at least one combination of HLA molecule and self-peptide, which provides the template for its subsequent immune response against a foreign peptide bound to that HLA molecule. T cells that bind to self-peptides very strongly, however, are rejected, as they would attack the body's own cells.

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100505/full/news.2010.219.html

Mitotic Actvity Index IDs High-Risk Node-negative Breast Cancer

-The mitotic activity index has been shown to be an independent prognostic factor for recurrence-free survival in breast cancer.
-It is being used in the Netherlands to select which node-negative patients require adjuvant chemotherapy.
-Dr. van der Wall presented the results of an 8-year follow-up of 586 premenopausal node-negative patients from the Multicenter Mammary Carcinoma Project and found suprising results.

The Dutch Society for Medical Oncology on Adjuvant Chemotherapy recommended that adjuvant chemotherapy be given only to high-risk patients, defined as those women who have an MAI equal to or greater than 10 (in an area of 1.6 mm2). Low-risk patients, defined as those with a tumor size of 1 to 3 cm and an MAI less than 10, are not recommended for adjuvant chemotherapy. The study results that Dr. Van der Wall got from the Free University Hospital was that

Study Results

Dr. van der Wall presented the results of an 8-year follow-up of 586 premenopausal node-negative patients from the Multicenter Mammary Carcinoma Project of the Department of Pathology at the Free University Hospital. The project was designed to prospectively evaluate the prognostic value of various features in 3,479 patients with invasive breast cancer.

None of the 586 patients received adjuvant chemotherapy. Eighty-five patients (14.5%) died of metastatic disease during the follow-up. The deaths were not evenly distributed among patients with low and high MAI, however.

Only 19 (6.1%) of 310 patients with a low MAI (less than 10) died of metastatic disease, compared with 66 (28.3%) of 233 patients with a high MAI (10 or more). The survival of patients with low MAI was comparably high in all subgroups, including patients with different tumor diameters and grades and differences in estrogen-receptor and proges-terone-receptor status.


By: Oncology News International
Title: Mitotic Actvity Index IDs High-Risk Node-negative Breast Cancer
Source: Volume 10, Number 3
Publication date: March 1, 2001
Date Accessed: May 18,2010
URL: http://www.cancernetwork.com/display/article/10165/65883

Bacteria Linked to Feces Found in Nearly Half of Fast Food Soda Fountains

-The Hollins University found that fast food joints were now containing fecal reminance.
-Soda fountains in fast food resturants are now at risk for containing bacteria.
-90 beverages were tested from 30 soda fountains and 48% of them had the bacteria.
-The bacteria is called, coliform bacteria.

According to Tom Laskawy, a team of microbiologists from Hollins University found that 48% of sodas tested from the fast food fountains contain coliform bacteria, which is typically fecal in origin. They tested 90 beverages from 30 soda fountains. Coliform bacteria was detected in 48% of the beverages and 20% had a heterotrophic plate count greater than 500 cfu/ml.. More than 11% of the beverages analyzed contained Escherichia coli [E. Coli] and over 17% contained Chryseobacterium meningosepticum. Some of the other bacterias the students at Hollins University found from the beverages included species of Klebsiella, Staphylococcus, Stenotrophomonas, Candida, and Serratia. Most of the identified bacteria showed resistance to one or more of the 11 antibiotics tested. This is a big deal to the whole entire world because millions and millions of people eat and drink at fast food resturants and they could now possibly get sick from doing nothing harmful or dangerous.

Antioxidant Balance Essential to Bird Health, Reproduction

A balanced diet, exercise and reduced stress not only can lead to a longer life, but also better reproduction, according to a new study by a team of researchers, including one from Arizona State University, on barn swallow nutrition and mating habits.

The study shows that swallows who maintained a positive antioxidant balance over the course of their breeding season were those who produced the most young.

The results of the study are presented in the February 25, 2010 issue of PLoS One, a journal of the Public Library of Science, in the article “Positive carotenoid balance correlates with greater reproductive performance in a wild bird.” The study was led by Rebecca Safran, an assistant professor in ecology and evolutionary biology at University of Colorado in collaboration with Kevin McGraw, an associate professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University.
“Our results indicate these top-of-the-line barn swallows are less stressed and have higher functioning immune systems,” added Safran.
In a variety of animals, these carotenoids can have potent free-radical-quenching and immune-boosting activity.

http://asunews.asu.edu/20100225_birdhealth

First Sex Chromosome Gene Involved in Meiosis, Male Infertility Identified

-At the University of Pennsylvania they have discovered an X chromosome gene, which if disrupted, will change males sterile and reduce female fertility.
-The TEX11 gene is located in the X chromosome, and when disrupted it causes azoospermia, mutations in the human TEX11 gene.
-A mutation in the one copy of the TEX11 gene will make disorders such as color blindness and muscular dysthrophy.

I chose this topic for meiosis because I have never heard about anything like this before. At the University of Pennsylvania they have recently discovered something in the X chromosome. This discovery was the TEX11 gene, which is a type of mutation that when activated will cause problems such as azoospermia. it will also cause disorders in the human body such as color blindness and muscular dysthrophy.

New Radiation Treatment for Lung Cancer

March 9, 2009 – Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer for men and women but these statistics may improve considerably, according to doctors at Temple University, who report a new treatment can double the chances of surviving the deadly disease – and without conventional radiation or surgery.
The doctors in Temple’s Radiation Oncology Department have treated only 50 people but say the technique, stereotactic body radiotherapy, or SBRT, not only improves a person’s odds of surviving early stage lung cancer, but may reduce the need for future surgeries.

“This is a big trend in radiation oncology for early stage lung cancer patients who either can’t undergo surgery or refuse it,” says Curtis Miyamoto, M.D., chair and professor of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the School of Medicine.

“With the success of this technique, we’re now questioning whether we’ll even be doing surgeries on these patients in the future.”

Treating lung cancer with conventional radiation is a burdensome process. Patients receive radiation therapy, which kills the cancerous cells and shrinks tumors, five days a week for six to seven weeks. The travel alone can be a hardship for patients not living in the city.

In contrast, SBRT requires only three to eight treatments, not 35. Once malignancy is confirmed through a PET CT scan or biopsy, treatments can begin.

Patients are placed in an immobilizing body frame to reduce movement so that doctors can focus radiation on the tumor while reducing exposure of healthy tissue

Pancreatic Cancer Linked to Sodas?

-"People who drank two or more soft drinks a week had an 87% increased risk of getting pancreatic cancer compared to individuals consuming no soft drinks."
-About 42,000 people in the US were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2009.
-The pancreas lies right behind the stomach which is a great spot for cancer to start because if people are eating and drinking unhealthy products, they go to the pancreas and destroy it.
-The pancreas is made to make hormones like insulin to balance sugar in the blood and produces juices with enzymes.

To help researchers find more sufficient data some poeple went to Singapore to see if soda was a big part of getting cancer in the pancreas. They evaluated 60,000 men and women and they did this study over 14 year span, and at the end they found 140 different cases of pancreatic cancer that might have been assosiated with soda. The researchers split the consumption of luices and sodas into three categories: no servings a week, less than two servings a week, or two or more servings a week. Those who drank two or more a week, the average number was five, and they had the 87% increased risk. But there was no link between the cancer and juices. What the researchers say is, "What we believe is the sugar in the soft drinks is increasing the insulin level in the body, which we think contributes to pancreatic cancer cell growth. That increase in insulin is what may be leading to the development of the cancer." The study of soda and its relationship with pancreatic cancer came out just perfect and now more people in the world will know that drinking too much soda can lead to many unhealthy things.

Bugs Fighting Back in Evolutionary War on Humans

-Humans are evolving so quickly that antibiotics, antiviral drugs and etc. are ineffective.
-Lately humans are in an evolutionary arms race against other organisms to gain resistance to the latest drugs.
-While we are still trying to beat the many viruses with our drugs, the viruses are getting even stronger to be immune from those drugs.
-A scientist named Palumbi says that the world should do a "drug overkill" strategy that would overwhelm the infections of the humans who had recieved the virus.

In the world right now, antibiotics, antiviral drugs, insecticides, and pesticides are becoming very ineffective. This is because as every minute or day(s) go by, the viruses could replicate in very large numbers that would allow them to have a better chance of evolving newer and stronger traits later on. Researchers too believe that humans will never win the arms race against other organisms that also develop resistance to drugs. Another way of saying this is when humans first started to use herbicides to kill weeds, the weed began to gain resistance to the herbicide. Researchers strongly believe that humans have to start picking the weeds from the ground like we used to, or else we will have no chance of killing some weeds for ever.

UC Davis Study Shows Spirulina Boosts Immune System

-Adding Spirulina to cultured immune system cells drastically increases the production of infection fighting cytokines.
-Spirulina is a blue-green algae rich in vitamins that has been used as food supplements for more than 20 years.
-It is harvested from large-scale commercial ponds and it grows naturally in lakes with extremely high pH levels.
-If Spirulina were to be put into obese peoples diet, they would start to lose weight in a few weeks.

Spirulina are blue-green algae rich in antioxidants, vitamins. minerals, and other nutrients. Spirulina is commonly used as food supplements. A number of animal studies have shown Spirulina to be an effective immunomodulator. In cats, Spirulina enhanced the ability of macrophages to engulf bacteria, and in chickens Spirulina increased antibody responses and the activity of natural killer cells. Other researchers say that Spirulina can also have therapeutic effects on obesity.

Making Old Stem Cells Act Young Again

-Howard Hughes Institute researchers have found how to make mice from being old to young again.
-They have found that in old mice, a couple weeks of exposure to the blood of young mice will cause their stem cells to act young.
-They believe that it could be possible to boost the lifespan of stem cells.
-This would lead to an increase in resistance for the body to fight off disease.

At Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have now found how to make old stem cells in a mouse become virtually young again. To get this, they had old mice expose themselves to the blood of young mice and that caused their bone marrow stem cells to feel or act young again. The researchers tried to see if the younger blood could reverse the slowing down of aging blood cells, they began joining the bloodstreams of pairs of mice that were different ages. Each of the mice carried genetic markers so that researchers could differentiate each mouse. Several weeks later the exposure to a younger animals blood somehow pushed the older animal's hematopoietic stem cells back to a more youthful state. I believe that this discovery might someday change the way people live.

Researchers Find New Piece of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Puzzle

-The University of Leeds has found that a protein called glypican-1 plays a key role in the development of BSE.
-This presence of Glypican-1 causes the numbers of abnormal prion proteins to rise.
-When levels of Glypican-1 were reduced in infected cells, the levels of the abnormal prion reduced as well.
-Glypican-1 in this case, acts as a scaffold bringing the forms of both the two forms of the infectious form.
-This discovery has given them the chance to make better treatments for BSE and CJD.

A new treatment route for BSE and its human form CJD could be a step closer based on new results from scientists at the University of Leeds. The team there has found that a protein called Glypican-1 has a big job in the development of BSE. BSE is also known as mad-cow disease, which was a huge problem in England during the late 1980's. It's to be caused by an abnormal form of the prion protein that is present on cells within the nervous system. This experiment has shown that Glypican-1 causes numbers of abnormal prion proteins to rise and when the levels of it were reduced, the levels of the abnormal prion also reduced.

Engineering Bacteria to Turn Carbon Dioxide into Liquid Feul

-UCLA has genetically modified a cyanobacterium to consume carbon dioxide.
-This experiment also produces the liquid fuel isobutanol.
-The reaction that is produced is powered by energy from sunlight.
The experiment can now achieve a long lasting cleaner energy economy.
-It reduces greenhouse gas emmissions and uses solar energy.

I chose this because when I first saw it, it reminded me of global warming and how possibly the Earth is now in danger. These people at UCLA have definitely found a way to achieve greener energy and it has made me think that people really do care about the Earth. Recently they have genetically modified a cynobacterium to consume carbon dioxide and produce the liquid feul isobutanol, this is a great gasoline alternative. This reaction is produced by energy from the sunlight, photosynthesis. First, this method recycles carbon dioxide, reducing grenhouse gas emissions because of the burning of fossil feuls. Secondly, it uses solar energy to convert the carbon dioxide into a liquid feul that can be used in the existing energy of automobiles.

Changing Charges Make for Squid Rainbow

-Loligo squids disguise themselves with shine.
-The charge change shifts shapes of cells and shifts the color of reflected light.
-This process helps attract mates, scares off predators, and gives them camouflage.
-This gives scientists new ways to self-assemble proteins which would be used in thin films and invisibility fabrics.

I chose this story because I have always had a slight interrest in the science of squids and their unique life style.The colors that are produced by the squid are created with pigment cells and reflective proteins. Scientists have also found that the charges of the squid's reflective protein help them attract mates and help gaurd off predators. These Loligo squids can break down the reflectors and then rebuild it on demand. These squis also travel together in the sea, kind of like birds when they are traveling a long way.

Genetically Engineered Crops Lead to Massive Increases in Pesticide

-From 1996 to 2008, there has been a 383 million pound increase in pesticide use
-New "herbicide-tolerant" GMO crops have resulted in new herbicide-resistant weeds.
-Millions of acres of farm land has been plagued by super-weeds.
-The over use of pesticide in GM foods leaves a residue which can lead to neurological effects.

I chose this topic because when someone eats that GM food they could possibly give disorders to their offspring, and that would not be very helpful to the later generations of that family. For the last 10 to 12 years, the use of pesticides has grown immensely and this increase will lead to more environmental destruction. This discovery of GMO crops has resulted in a back fire of weeds that are sprouting like giants. This super weed is destroying the environment, ruining crops, and totally annihilating farmer's businesses.

By: Ethan Huff
Title: Genetically Engineered Crops have Led to Massive Increases in Pesticide Use
Sources: Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use in the United States: The First Thirteen Years - The Cornucopia Institute, Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops - Union of Concerned Scientists, Pesticide Resistant Weeds Could Be Problem - The Epoch Times
Date Accessed Info: March 8,2010
URL: http://www.naturalnews.com/027642_genetically_engineered_crops_pesticides.html