In the remote villages of Ecuador, 100 very small people may hold the key to a huge medical breakthrough.
They all suffer from Laron Syndrome, an incredibly rare genetic disorder that stops them from growing taller than 4 feet but also seems to protect them against cancer and diabetes and maybe even heart disease and Alzheimer’s.
“There’s only one patient that has died of cancer among all of the subjects. And that is fascinating,” said Dr. Jaime Guevara-Aguirre, who has been studying the Laron population for 30 years.
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Dr. Jaime Guevara-Aguirre (rear left) and Dr. Valter Longo (rear right) with some of their Laron Syndrome patients, who are protected from cancer and diabetes. Jake Whitman
Step into any supermarket and you’ll see thousands of labels shouting good-health claims: Whole grains! No trans fats! Essential vitamins and minerals! But figuring out what really is part of a healthy diet is getting harder and harder in these days of information overload. And it shows in the sobering statistics: 68% of Americans are overweight or obese—which is a big reason more of us are developing diseases such as diabetes, and at younger ages.
To fight off disease, fill up on these nutrient-packed foods instead. Feel more energetic and even lose weight.
Adderall and Ritalin, the study drugs of choice in universities around the country, will let you write a physics paper from sundown to sunup. The downside? You might forget to eat, poop and have sex.
First synthesized in the 1940s to treat fatigue, depression and psychosis, Ritalin evolved from a drug to keep people happy into a drug to keep kids focused. In the ’90s, Ritalin production rose 500%. According to one study, in the mid-2000s, an estimated 30% of students had used attention deficit hyperactivity disorder stimulants non-medically.
So what are study drugs really doing to your brain, and why? And do the benefits of popping one before a test outweigh the health risks?
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Adderall and Ritalin will let you write a physics paper from sundown to sunup. There’s a downside.
Had I been in a Thomas Pynchon novel, this scenario would have undoubtedly been the start of a postmodern adventure. But even in Shilla, a Korean barbecue restaurant in the very real surroundings of midtown Manhattan, I was skeptical that the Death Café I RSVPed for wasn’t the stuff of fiction.
I followed another woman up the stairs, which led into a main dining room. About 15 other people were already seated at tables in groups of four, sipping tea and chatting. I ended up at a table with the woman I followed inside, whose name was Kathryn McKinney. Making small talk, we asked each other about what brought us to the cafe. She told me she had lost her brother, unexpectedly, a month earlier and her mother eight years prior to cancer. I was immediately embarrassed by…
Oncologists may have a new way to kill cancer — by bombing the crap out of your insides.
The current procedure goes like this: Oncologists surgically remove as much of a tumor as possible, then follow up that procedure with chemotherapy to get rid of any cancer cells still hanging out in the body. These are what’s called microscopic residual disease, which can still metastasize and kill you. The problem, though, is that trying to eliminate the leftovers doesn’t always work, and cancer can recur.
A paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology details an answer to that problem. Researchers from Rice University in Texas found that they could use nanoparticles sort of like Trojan horses to get inside a growing tumor and make it explode from the inside.
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Using nanoparticles like Trojan horses to get inside a growing tumor and make it explode from the inside.
Marilyn Monroe lives in our cultural imagination as one of the most iconic actresses in Hollywood history. But underneath the famous blonde curls and sex-kitten voice, there’s a complex woman who likely suffered from borderline personality disorder, according to science journalist Claudia Kalb.
Biographers and commentators have long struggled to make sense of Monroe’s contradictory personality. The actress “yearned for love and stability,” and yet often lashed out at those she cared about.
“What is clear is that Monroe suffered from severe mental distress,” she writes in her stirring new book Andy Warhol Was A Hoarder. “Her symptoms included a feeling of emptiness, a split or confused identity, extreme emotional volatility, unstable relationships, and an impulsivity that drove her to drug addiction and suicide — all textbook characteristics of a condition called borderline personality disorder.”
Green tea is rich in polyphenols, including EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), which is the main active ingredient of this drink, but can increase the activity thermogenesis (fat burning process). EGCG also has antioxidant activity as it stimulates the liver enzymes in order to remove any excess toxins. Not to mention that suppresses cancer cells, thus reducing the risk of cancer. It is not by chance that Japan, despite the fact that this is one of the countries with the highest rate of smoking among the countries with the lowest rate of lung cancer in the world.
HOW AND WHEN TO DRINK GREEN TEA DURING THE DAY
Before the meal – when we are hungry, and it is not time for lunch, one of the drugs to calm the hunger and gain a sense of satiety often drink a glass of water before meals. Try to replace the usual glass of water, a cup of green tea; hot or cold tea is a personal choice that does not change the properties of green tea. During meals – drinking green tea during meals can help not only to our body always hydrated but to facilitate the process of digestion. Between meals – a cup of green tea between meals is good when you want to replace high-calorie snacks without which sometimes you can not. It’s quite pleasant to come for lunch or dinner without the unbearable hunger! Green tea also has many other features that help you relax, reduce anxiety, stress and headache. Do not forget, however, that green tea contains theine, a substance that acts on the nervous system and provides effects similar to those of caffeine. And for those who suffer from it, it is best to avoid drinking green tea during the evening unless you want to spend the evening with friends, without the risk of falling asleep.
GREEN TEA AND HEALTH
Green tea has become a very popular drink in the world due to its extremely powerful health benefits. It is almost amazing what green tea can do for your health. Therefore, if you drink three to four cups of green tea a day, be sure you are doing a great service to your health.
The White House is calling for more than a billion dollars in funding to transform opioid treatment in the United States, two top administration officials announced on Tuesday.
Until recently, the heroin treatment industry has been driven by the philosophy of “abstinence,” which insists that any form of medication is merely a crutch for an addict, and he or she ought to instead go cold turkey. The opposing view, now being pushed by the established medical community, views medication-assisted treatment that relies on FDA-approved medicines such as buprenorphine and methadone as an addict’s best chance of recovery.
The administration pledged on Tuesday to put the weight of federal funding behind medication-assisted treatment, or MAT. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and drug czar Michael Botticelli announced an enormous boost in federal funds to combat the spiraling heroin epidemic.
Burwell said the new initiative’s aim is “closing…
Thousands of years ago, modern humans met Neanderthals in Europe at whatever the equivalent of a singles bar was. They started having a bunch of sex, and now we exist. In the throes of creating the future of humanity, Neanderthals gave us two things: their kickass, pterodactyl-fighting immune systems and allergies.
Those are the discoveries of two papers published Thursday from researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the Institut Pasteur and the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris.
We’ve already heard that 1% to 6% of modern Eurasian genomes came from two forms of early man, the Neanderthals and the Denisovans. But the new studies explore how our inherited traits affected genes, specifically Toll-like receptors, which detect and respond to things like bacteria, fungi and parasites.
Two years ago, Mexico implemented a new policy to combat the nation’s obesity epidemic: It started taxing soda.
Despite opposition from food and beverage lobbyists, the Mexican government approved the sales tax in 2013. In 2014, it went into effect: a roughly 20% sales tax on all sugar-sweetened beverages.
The tax successfully reduced people’s soda purchases, according to an observational study published Wednesday in the BMJ. Within a year, people in Mexico were buying 12% fewer sugar-sweetened beverages. That’s not all — within the same period of time, sales of bottled water rose 4%.
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
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James' World 2 