StemCell Therapy

Scientists at the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine (ICBFM) based in Siberia have discovered that stem cells can restore blood flow in veins with clots.

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"Quite a lot of pathologies regarding veins still remain unstudied." Source: Getty Images

To help treat varicose veins, scientists need to accelerate the growth of blood vessels, which would be a crucial development for cardiac medicine. A heart attack is caused by damaged arteries, and an ischemic stroke also often results from vascular damage.

"Quite a lot of pathologies regarding veins still remain unstudied," said Igor Mayborodin, a doctor of medical sciences at the stem cell laboratory at ICBFM. "Weve looked into blood flow restoration in situations when there are blood clots. Now were trying to use stem cells to stimulate the growth of veins and bypass the diseased area."

The discovery by Siberian scientists will make it possible to successfully treat diseases of the veins and resulting complications, for example, varicosis, phlebothrombosis (the formation of a blood clot in the vein that leads to its blockage), and even some types of trophic ulcers and cerebral strokes.

Researchers conducted a number of studies on rats, injecting them with stem cells taken from their relatives. The experiment showed that within a week small vessels had formed in the rodents, and in the third week the replacement of the introduced cells with the rodents' own cells began.

The new blood vessels remained in the body but stem cells that formed walls were gradually replaced by those of the rodents. Thus, scientists showed that stem cells can restore blood flow, bypassing damaged veins. Based on the results, a series of articles will be prepared.

Also, scientists witnessed unexpected side effects. "Some of the stem cells die, and then macrophages are attracted to the site, that is, 'ingester' cells capable of actively engulfing and digesting the remains of dead cells," Mayborodin said. "This is what helps a surgical wound be rid of damaged tissue quicker and heal. This is a good result."

The scientists are continuing their state-funded research, and they have obtained a patent for their work. For the time being, however, they cant check the results in clinical tests because Russian law restricts the use of stem cells on humans.

"Wed like to utilize the obtained data in regards to humans, but this is currently not possible," Mayborodin said. "For now were refining the results of the research on cell therapy and clarifying possible complications. But wed like to test our hypothesis at least on a severe case of varicosis in clinical conditions."

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Siberian scientists say stem cells can treat varicose veins - Russia Beyond the Headlines

Takeda Pharma is positioning itself to take over stem cell production in Europe from its partner TiGenix by 2021 after Swissmedicthe Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Productssaid last weekit has accepted for review the file for an investigational drug to treat patients with Crohns disease.

The compound, which is dubbed Cx601, was granted orphan status by Swissmedic last year and is currently up for review by the European Medicines Agency to treat complex perianal fistulas in Crohns patients. Its highly anticipated Cx601 will get approved by the EU later this year.

The drug is currently being produced by Tigenix at its Madrid facility.

After a transition period for technology transfer, during which TiGenix will manufacture Cx601, Takeda will assume responsibility for manufacturing the compound, Luke Willats, a Takeda spokesman, told Fierce. We are currently exploring how Takeda can best meet this responsibility following a potential European Commission (EC) approval decision for the compound in 2017.

Willats did not say if Cx601 would continue to be produced in Madrid or at one of the Japanese pharmas production facilities located in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland and Russia.

TiGenix currently has U.S. rights to the compound, and has said it is in discussions with the FDA to work toward garnering marketing approval.

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Takeda positioning itself to assume EU stem cell production within 5 years - FiercePharma

Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research - What are Stem Cells? There has been much controversy in the press recently about the pros and cons of stem cell research. What is the controversy all about? "Stem" cells can be contrasted with "differentiated" cells. They offer much hope for medical advancement because of their ability to grow into almost any kind of cell. For instance, neural cells in the brain and spinal cord that have been damaged can be replaced by stem cells. In the treatment of cancer, cells destroyed by radiation or chemotherapy can be replaced with new healthy stem cells that adapt to the affected area, whether it be part of the brain, heart, liver, lungs, or wherever. Dead cells of almost any kind, no matter the type of injury or disease, can be replaced with new healthy cells thanks to the amazing flexibility of stem cells. As a result, billions of dollars are being poured into this new field.

Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research - Where Do They Come From? To understand the pros and cons of stem cell research, one must first understand where stem cells come from. There are three main sources for obtaining stem cells - adult cells, cord cells, and embryonic cells. Adult stem cells can be extracted either from bone marrow or from the peripheral system. Bone marrow is a rich source of stem cells. However, some painful destruction of the bone marrow results from this procedure. Peripheral stem cells can be extracted without damage to bones, but the process takes more time. And with health issues, time is often of the essence. Although difficult to extract, since they are taken from the patient's own body, adult stem cells are superior to both umbilical cord and embryonic stem cells. They are plentiful. There is always an exact DNA match so the body's immune system never rejects them. And as we might expect, results have been both profound and promising.

Stem cells taken from the umbilical cord are a second very rich source of stem cells. Umbilical cells can also offer a perfect match where a family has planned ahead. Cord cells are extracted during pregnancy and stored in cryogenic cell banks as a type of insurance policy for future use on behalf of the newborn. Cord cells can also be used by the mother, the father or others. The more distant the relationship, the more likely it is that the cells will be rejected by the immune system's antibodies. However, there are a number of common cell types just as there are common blood types so matching is always possible especially where there are numerous donors. The donation and storage process is similar to blood banking. Donation of umbilical cells is highly encouraged. Compared to adult cells and embryonic cells, the umbilical cord is by far the richest source of stem cells, and cells can be stored up in advance so they are available when needed. Further, even where there is not an exact DNA match between donor and recipient, scientists have developed methods to increase transferability and reduce risk.

Pros and Cons of Stem Cell Research - Embryonic Cells The pros and cons of stem cell research come to the surface when we examine the third source of stem cells - embryonic cells. Embryonic stem cells are extracted directly from an embryo before the embryo's cells begin to differentiate. At this stage the embryo is referred to as a "blastocyst." There are about 100 cells in a blastocyst, a very large percentage of which are stem cells, which can be kept alive indefinitely, grown in cultures, where the stem cells continue to double in number every 2-3 days. A replicating set of stem cells from a single blastocyst is called a "stem cell line" because the genetic material all comes from the same fertilized human egg that started it. President Bush authorized federal funding for research on the 15 stem cell lines available in August 2001. Other stem cell lines are also available for research but without the coveted assistance of federal funding.

So what is the controversy all about? Those who value human life from the point of conception, oppose embryonic stem cell research because the extraction of stem cells from this type of an embryo requires its destruction. In other words, it requires that a human life be killed. Some believe this to be the same as murder. Against this, embryonic research advocates argue that the tiny blastocyst has no human features. Further, new stem cell lines already exist due to the common practice of in vitro fertilization. Research advocates conclude that many fertilized human cells have already been banked, but are not being made available for research. Advocates of embryonic stem cell research claim new human lives will not be created for the sole purpose of experimentation.

Others argue against such research on medical grounds. Mice treated for Parkinson's with embryonic stem cells have died from brain tumors in as much as 20% of cases.1 Embryonic stem cells stored over time have been shown to create the type of chromosomal anomalies that create cancer cells.2 Looking at it from a more pragmatic standpoint, funds devoted to embryonic stem cell research are funds being taken away from the other two more promising and less controversial types of stem cell research mentioned above.

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by DAVID JENSEN posted 06.27.2017

Californias 12-year-old stem cell research effort is expected to give away tens of millions of dollars in public this week, but its most important matters issues that deal with its survival and future likely will be discussed behind closed doors at a meeting Thursday of its governing board.

On the table is the leadership of the $3 billion organization, which is scheduled to run out of cash in just three years, which amounts to a mere tick of the clock in the world of biomedical research. Beginning next week the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), as the agency is formally known, will be minus its chief executive officer and its longtime counselor, who even predates the organizations actual creation in 2004.

CIRM has a checkered record in recruiting new presidents for a variety of reasons (seehere,hereandhere).

CIRM directors are scheduled to meet Thursday at the San Francisco Marriott hotel in Burlingame, Ca., to confirm the appointment of Maria Millan, CIRMs vice president of therapeutics, as interim president of the agency. She will assume the duties of Randy Mills, who is leaving CIRM next week to head the National Marrow Donor Progam.

Mills, who was paid $573,00 last year, also made it clear to the California Stem Cell Report in May that Millan is the appropriate person to take over the agency on a permanent basis after he leaves.

However, the decision is up to the 29-member board, which has scheduled an executive session Thursday to discuss the interim replacement for Mills. Hejoined the agency only three years ago but has left an impressive mark.

CIRM directors have also scheduled a July 17 meeting of their presidential search subcommittee to deal with the agencys leadership during what could be the last years of its life.

CIRM has a checkered record in recruiting new presidents for a variety of reasons (seehere,hereandhere). Some candidates have rejected offers. Other search efforts have been excessively prolonged.

The agency hopes to add 38 more trials over the next three years. But there are no guarantees that any will be successful.

Finding a new president from outside CIRM poses difficulties that would not have been in place, for example, five years ago. They include the tenuous future of CIRM along with the time needed for a normal executive search, plus the learning curve for a new CEO.

While CIRM is a small enterprise in some ways (less than 50 employees), it is an unusual mix of government, biotech business and academia, unlike any other state agency. The combination has raised hurdles in the past.

The clock is running out fast at the agency. Any alterations in the plan put in place by Mills, Millan and company could slow its efforts to fulfill voter expectations that the agency would actually generate a widely available therapy. CIRM is helping to finance 27 current clinical trials, which are the last stages in research prior to a product reaching the market. The agency hopes to add 38 more trials over the next three years. But there are no guarantees that any will be successful.

Millan can step in and pick up the job relatively seamlessly. Bringing in a CEO from outside could well take six months or more, including relocation. But serving as the head of an organization that could be out of business in three years may not be appealing to many and could prolong recruitment.

Looming in the background is a gossamer plan for another ballot initiative to fund CIRM beyond 2020.

If Millan is bypassed by the board, she may well leave the agency, triggering a cascade of departures as other CIRM employees also look to their own professional futures. An employee drain would hamper the agencys drive to come up with a commercial therapy.

James Harrison, the longtime counsel to the agency, is also leaving at the end of this week, returning to other pursuits at his private practice. Harrison has been a cornerstone of CIRM and has influence well beyond the not-so-simple legal matters involving the agency. He was also one of the authors of the 10,000-word ballot initiative that created the agency in 2004.

Scott Tocher, a longtime veteran of the agency, will replace Harrison. An announcement of the appointment is expected at the Thursday meeting.

Looming in the background is a gossamer plan for another ballot initiative to fund CIRM beyond 2020. Bob Klein, a Palo Alto real estate investment banker who led the campaign that created CIRM, is talking about a $5 billion bond measure on the ballot as early as November of next year. Some political observers have predicted a less-than-warm-reception for such a proposal, given that the agency has yet to measure up to its 2004 campaign promises.

Another, rival proposal is being mentioned that would, in fact, move stem cell funding away from the agency.

One stem cell scientist, Paul Knoepfler of UC Davis, wrote last week about the agencys presidential search.

Commenting on his blog, Knoepfler said that CIRM directors should pick a fantastic person to replace Mills. Knoepfler said the new president should have strong leadership skills, a big picture clinical vision and impeccable stem cell credentials, criteria that one could argue have not been met by most CIRM CEOs.

In the past, debate about presidential candidates centered on whether they should be stem cell stars or a leader who can execute an aggressive program that is already approved and in place. Given the current CIRM challenges, other criteria, such as speed and continuity, are also high.

The journal Nature this year said that the agency is in its last stage. CIRM directors may well have that admonition on their minds as they consider fresh leadership for the program. Sphere: Related Content Eds Note: DavidJensen is a retired newsman who has followed the affairs of the $3 billion California stem cell agency since 2005 via his blog, the California Stem Cell Report, where this story first appeared. He has published more than 4,000 items on California stem cell matters in the past 11 years.

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Stem cell agency faces leadership challenge - Capitol Weekly

(Sentinel Photo By Allen Hamil) With players representing nearly all 31 of Marty Kurths Gehlen teams behind him, Kurth stands at home plate and looks at the trophy presented to him for his achievements including the 500 win milestone surpassed earlier this season.

LE MARS After reaching the 500-win plateau earlier this season against Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn, long-time Gehlen Catholic baseball coach Marty Kurth was honored prior to the Jays game against Akron-Westfield on Friday.

After announcing all the seniors and their parents, Kurth was summoned to home plate to be recognized for his achievements in his 31 years of coaching at the school. As part of the celebration dozens of alumni baseball players returned to the Riverview Complex to honor their former coach as they lined up behind him on the infield.

Im not going to lie, it was pretty cool, Kurth said. I didnt know all of those guys were behind me. When they said turn around and take a look and I saw the group of guys back there and they thought one from almost every year that I coached was back there and then some more, that was pretty special. Then to go around and tell them thank you, it meant a lot. Its hard to put that into words, but it was a pretty cool night.

One of the reasons why he didnt realize the group was behind him was the fact it was meant to be a surprise. Another reason is the fact that Kurth is suffering from diminished eyesight, nearing blindness in both of his eyes.

I lost vision in both eyes, dramatically lost vision in both eyes, Kurth said. I lost one last summer in July, but I didnt really think much of it because a lot of people lose vision in one eye and I thought Id be okay for a while. But then 11 months later, just three and a half weeks ago, I lost most of the vision in my right eye. The world got turned upside down in the matter of a day.

Kurth said it is hard to explain the current state of his vision.

In my left eye, I have vision in the far left quadrant and on my right eye I have the upper quadrant, but when I look straight ahead I dont see so good straight ahead, not much there, Kurth said. Nothings really, really clear. I cant see very far away, but in my own little area I can see to get by.

Family and Baseball

Kurth has tried to stay positive through the situation and says he has relied on two things to help him: family and baseball.

The one thing that has always been a constant has been my family and baseball, and thats where I turn to, Kurth said. These kids have done a great job. My wife is unbelievably supportive. I cant say enough about her.

(Sentinel Photo By Allen Hamil) Above, Marty Kurth stands at home plate with members of his family by his side, just outside of the batters box. Kurth said that he has relied on two things throughout his situation: his family and baseball. His son Ty (far left) has helped as an assistant coach this season, while Marty says his wife Jen (third from left) has been unbelievably supportive.

The crossroads of baseball and family meet in Martys son, Ty. A former player for his dad, Ty has stepped into a role of being an assistant coach for the team. He said he had wanted to coach with his dad before, but the situation changed this season with the further deterioration of Martys eyesight.

Its been tough, but were getting through it, Ty said. Hes still living life like he normally does. Hes still out here at the ballfield every day doing what he does. Its been tough, but were living life like before. Its been great having us both out on the field again. I got my coaching license last summer in hopes we would coach together this summer, but with me getting a job at Total (Motors), I just didnt have the time to do it. I cant thank them enough for letting me hop out of work sometimes to come out here and be with these guys and be with this team.

Also helping coach the team is another former player of Martys in Solomon Freking. Ty Kurth and Freking were classmates and members of the last Gehlen team to reach the state tournament in 2014. That familiarity has helped the team to not skip much of a beat en route to a 16-9 record at the end of June.

Freking has taken over coaching at third base, but is quick to point out that Marty is still the one in charge.

Its really huge for me to be able to really step up and be on the bases where Coach Kurth is usually at, Freking said. It is a bigger role for me, but I still have him in the dugout still telling me in my ear Lets do this or lets do that. I mean it may look like Im calling shots, but hes right there really calling the shots.

Baseball Family

Along with his personal family, Kurth has the support of his baseball family. Whether it has been from his own team or those competing against the Jays, the respect Kurth has in the coaching ranks is second to none.

Freking said Coach Kurth has always been there for him as he grew up playing sports with Ty.

Its huge for me to come back and help out because I felt hes done so much for me, so its the slightest thing that I could do, Freking said. Im just on the baselines to listen to him. He takes it as a big thing, but I think its just the smallest thing that I can do. Hes always been there for me in my downs and definitely my ups so Im glad to be here and help him out.

Akron-Westfield Head Coach Gordy Johnson presented Kurth with a gift at the pregame ceremony and said he has great respect for Marty.

(Sentinel Photo By Allen Hamil) Above, Marty Kurth accepts a gift from Akron-Westfield head baseball coach Gordy Johnson at the pregame ceremony honoring the long-time Jays coach.

Complete respect, Johnson said. Hes a quality coach and a quality man. I strive to be as good a coach as he is. Hes just a really good guy.

Dean Harpenau, co-head coach at Remsen St. Marys, worked with Marty for several years at Gehlen during the teams most successful stretch in the 1990s that included state championships in 1995 and 1999 and a runner-up finish in 1994.

Martys always done a great job at Gehlen, Harpenau said. I really enjoyed coaching with him. He believes in a lot of the same things as former coach Marv Thelen.

Thelen was head coach for both Kurth and Harpenau when they were players at Remsen St. Marys. From 1969 to 1987, Thelen compiled an impressive record of 687-265 for his career at RSM and Harpenau said Kurth fits the mold of his mentor.

Hes a Thelen disciple and he (Kurth) had a lot of great success over at Gehlen, Harpenau said. Winning the 95 and 99 state titles and then runner-up in 94. A lot of good times. I enjoyed my time there. We worked well together and it was a great combination.

According to Gehlen senior Colin Wise, Kurth is a baseball genius.

Ive never met a man that knew more about baseball than him, Wise said. Its really unfortunate what happened to him, but thats what makes our wins even more sweeter. We do it for him. He loves the game of baseball. You know he doesnt want to give it up, he never wants to give up, but unfortunately he has to. This gives us something to play for.

(Sentinel Photo By Allen Hamil) With a tip of the hat to the crowd, Gehlen's Marty Kurth is recognized by current and former players. Kurth reached 500 wins earlier this season, joining an elite group in Iowa high school history.

Playoff push

Kurth said he is focused on the team and this season as the Jays look to return to Principal Park.

To be honest, I havent really focused on much other than this season, Kurth said.

While a chance at state is possible for this team, it wont be easy. West Sioux sits on the opposite bracket in the district while Remsen St. Marys is a strong contender in the opposite district where a substate meeting could be possible.

Gehlen lost to both of those teams as part of their 0-4 stretch to start the season, but has avenged both of those losses with Wise on the mound. The teams first game of the season featured a loss to Akron-Westfield which the team avenged on Friday night, again with Wise taking the win.

This was a good game for us to get ready for that, Kurth said of the 3-1 win over the Westerners. Theyre a quality ball club and were going to see quality ball clubs down the tournament. So, if we can play with this enthusiasm and excitement and get pitching like that, who knows.

Gehlen will open with Trinity Christian on July 11 at West Sioux. From there, the future for the baseball team and that of Coach Kurth is up in the air.

Ive tried not to look ahead, because I dont know whats ahead right now, Kurth said. The good Lord probably has something in mind for me and well figure out what that is, but right now, Coach Solomon and I and my son Ty, weve got a job to do and thats to get the most out of this baseball team and if we can get what we got out of them tonight, were pretty formidable.

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Kurth honored as Gehlen coach faces failing eyesight - Le Mars Daily Sentinel

Acute loss of vision associated with pain may be due to infection (corneal ulcer, endophthalmitis); Inflammations (Iritis, optic neuritis); or acute glaucoma. Corneal Ulcer: An infection of the cornea presenting with pain, redness and cloudiness of the cornea. This may follow contact lens related injury, scratches of the cornea by a fingernail, by a branch in the garden, a foreign body hitting the eye. A corneal ulcer can lead to permanent vision impairment from corneal scarring. Scarring may require treatment by a corneal transplant operation. Infection may spread inside the eye resulting in loss of the eye. Corneal ulcers must, therefore, be seen and treated immediately by an ophthalmologist. You are at risk of developing a corneal ulcer if you suffer an injury to the eye. Treatment for the injury by the Ophthalmologist will prevent corneal infection. Severe infection of the inside of the eye (endophthalmitis) may follow eye surgery or penetrating injury. It causes blindness by damage to the retina and optic nerve (nerve of sight). Infection of the tissues behind the eye (orbital cellulitis) is more common in children. This presents with painful swelling of the eye and redness in a sick looking child with lids that are closed. This is an emergency that requires intensive treatment in hospital with injectable antibiotics. It can cause blindness by affecting the optic nerve behind the eye and also has the risk of spreading to the brain. It is therefore life threatening.

Inflammatory (non-infective) Disease of the Eye: Iritis inflammation of the coloured part of the eye causes pain, redness, blurred vision and glare sensitivity. This condition responds readily to treatment with anti-inflammatory (usually steroid) eye medications. Other medications are used to prevent complications of the inflammation which include glaucoma and cataract. Inflammation of the front of the eye may also be accompanied by inflammation of the back of the eye. This is usually not painful but may lead to impaired vision due to scarring of the retina. Iritis can follow blunt injury to the eye. Iritis is also associated with other (systemic) disease that affect other parts of the body eg. rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and inflammatory disease of the spine. Other inflammatory diseases associated with vision loss and pain affect the optic nerve (optic neuritis) blood vessels of the temple and optic nerve. This needs prompt treatment to prevent blindness. Acute angle closure glaucoma

Chronic glaucoma (the common type) leads to slow loss of vision and is painless. Acute glaucoma causes severe eye pains and headaches, associated with nausea and vomiting. There is redness of the eye and blurred vision. If not treated immediately will lead to loss of sight in the affected eye. It occurs when the drainage angle inside the front of the eye becomes blocked. This interferes with the drainage of fluid out of the eye. This fluid (not tears which is on the outside) builds up within causing the eye pressure to suddenly rise. The result is acute angle closure glaucoma which is an emergency. Acute glaucoma may also occur following eye injury, surgery and the use of certain medications used in treating epilepsy, migraine or for weight loss. Immediate treatment uses i) medications topically to the eyes, orally (by mouth) and intravenously for the acute problem and ii) the use of laser treatment or surgery to prevent recurrence. Any condition of the eye causing pain, redness and blurred vision must be treated as an emergency, by an ophthalmologist. They are sight threatening and in some cases life threatening. Presented as a public service by the Caribbean Eye Institute. Caribeyett@icloud.com

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Treating acute painful loss of vision - Trinidad & Tobago Express

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Doctors once told Walfre Lopez they could not keep his vision from fading away due to a degenerative eye disease. A revolutionary artificial-vision procedure recently done at University of Florida Health has restored sight to the 46-year-old man who has not seen his children and wife for some 20 years.

Early this year, Lopez got what he calls a bionic eye a microelectrode array implanted in the retina, according to UF.

I put the glasses on and I saw her standing in front of me, he said of his 12-year-old daughter. I got very excited. I saw her shape and the outline of her face. It was so special to see her for the first time.

The electrode takes over the function of damaged retinal cells, sending signals to a special pair of glasses that allows Lopez to see shapes and contrasting images. Lopez is the first patient to receive the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System at UF Health.

Syed Gibran Khurshid, M.D., is the first retina surgeon at UF Health to have expertise in this area.

Lopez lost his sight to retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disorder that destroys light-sensitive cells in the back of the eye. It affects about one in 4,000 people worldwide, according to the National Institutes of Healths National Eye Institute.

He has been living in a dark, black cave for almost all of his life, Khurshid said of his patient. Now, hes able to see and navigate around. Its a 180-degree turn in his life.

UF Health News contributed to this story.

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Florida man enjoys 'bionic eye' retinal implant - News965

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A healthy lifestyle is essential to achieving optimal wellbeing and longevity. This infographic, "11 Basic Guidelines for General Health and Longevity," gives you useful tips to help you live a long and healthy life. Use the embed code to share it on your website or visit our infographic page for the high-res version.

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When it comes to health and longevity, there is no quick fix and no fountain of youth that will help you become healthy overnight. Being fit and healthy in order to reach a ripe old age takes effort and attention this is something that I repeatedly tell my readers.

But here's the good news: there are a few simple lifestyle changes you can make to improve not only the quantity, but also the quality of your years. These changes are pretty basic, but can have a profound effect on your overall health once implemented.

One of the most basic health principles (and, sadly, the one people most often ignore) is eating a diet of whole, nutritious foods rather than unhealthy processed foods. Keep in mind that processed and junk foods are loaded with grains, sugar, and unhealthy calories that increase your insulin levels, which not only accelerates the aging process but also increases your risk of obesity and chronic disease.

I also highly advise against consuming genetically engineered (GE) foods. Not only are GE foods less nutritious than organically-grown foods, but they also pose many health risks. In fact, most processed foods today contain GE ingredients regardless of the fact that these GE components have not undergone long-term safety studies.

The best diet I would recommend for optimal health and longevity is one that's focused on whole, unprocessed foods preferably organic vegetables, grass-fed meats, raw dairy, and nuts acquired from healthy, sustainable, local sources. I also recommend consuming a good portion of your food raw, as well as adding naturally fermented foods to meals.

By implementing these basic diet changes, you can make a big leap toward longevity and optimal health.

For more useful tips in healthy eating, I advise you to follow the Mercola Nutrition Plan, which will guide you in choosing the right foods that will suit your unique biological makeup. The Mercola Nutrition Plan addresses your unique biochemical needs based on your specific genetics, allowing you to cure your health problems at the foundational level and giving you a more permanent solution for regaining your health.

Equally important to consuming a healthy diet is being physically active. According to studies, people who are sedentary are found to have a shorter lifespan. In fact, one study shows that reducing the average time you spend sitting down to less than three hours a day may increase your life expectancy by two years, and reducing the time you spend watching TV to less than two hours a day could increase it by 1.4 years.

I understand how difficult it is to avoid sitting down for prolonged periods, as computer work is very predominant today. Even I am guilty of spending a significant portion of my day sitting down. But to make up for it, I make sure that I get enough exercise daily. I also take frequent breaks every hour to stand up at my desk. I highly recommend Foundation Exercises, developed by chiropractor Dr. Eric Goodman, as well as short-burst high-intensity exercises, like Peak Fitness. You can read more about these techniques by subscribing to the Mercola daily newsletter.

Exercise also has some anti-aging effects, as proven by many studies. One study published in the American Journal of Physiology says that exercise triggers mitochondrial biogenesis, a decline of which is common in aging. This means that exercise can reverse significant age-associated declines in mitochondrial mass and, in effect, stop aging in its tracks.

Keep in mind that modifying your diet and exercising are not the only important factors of health and longevity. There are many other things that you need to implement to ensure that you will be optimally healthy.

I have created this infographic, 11 Basic Guidelines for General Health and Longevity, to summarize all the components that need to be addressed if you want to live a long and healthy life. Here, you will learn:

These guidelines form the basic tenets of optimal health. They are tried-and-tested foundational strategies that will not change, no matter what improvements modern science comes up with.

I urge you to follow these tips to significantly decrease your likelihood of disease and premature aging. Use these as the foundation of your overall wellness plan, and you will surely succeed in improving your health.

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11 Basic Guidelines for General Health and Longevity ...

Photo Credit: Free image from Pixaboy

Researchers have found a mutation in the gene for the growth hormone receptor that promotes longevity, increasing mens lifespan by an average of 10 years. This finding emerged from a new study led by Prof. Gil Atzmon of the University of Haifa. We were aware before that variants involved with genetic paths related to the growth hormone are also associated with longevity. Now we have found a specific variant whose presence or absence is directly connected to it, Prof. Atzmon explains.

Prof. Atzmon, head of the Laboratory of Genetics and Epigenetics of Aging and Longevity at the University of Haifa, and other colleagues at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have already found that dysfunction in the biological paths associated with the growth hormone and with insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) contribute to longevity. Until now, however, these paths were tested in the laboratory, and few mechanism responsible for this process had been identified in the human body.

In the present study, published in the journal Science Advances from the Science group, the researchers identified for the first time a genetic variation that modify the growth hormone function and encourages longevity in men. The initial research population (established by Professor Nir Barzilai at Einstein) comprised 102 American male Jews at the age of 100. The results were then compared with three additional populations of people at the age of 100 from around the world.

In all the groups, the deletion of exon 3 from the growth hormone receptor gene was found to be significantly more common among men (and not women) at the age of 100, compared to the control group of 70-year-olds. On average, people born with this variation lived ten years longer than those without it. According to Prof. Atzmon, this variation is certainly not the only reason for longevity, and many of the participants in the study survived beyond the age of 100 without this variation. However, the presence of the variant ensured longevity with virtual certainty.

The examination of the action of the variation showed that it has an unusual impact. In nature, lower strains of the same species usually live longer. For example, ponies live longer than horses, smaller breeds of dogs live longer than larger ones, and the same phenomenon is found among various rodents and insects. In this case, the variation in the receptor allowed the cells to absorb less growth hormone, however, when the hormone absorbed the protein expression was several times higher. The result: people born with the mutation who lived for around ten years more than others were also approximately 3 cm taller than those born without the receptor.

This study nicely wraps up the connection between growth hormone function and longevity. Our goal now is really to understand the mechanism of the variation we found, so that we can implement it and enable longevity while maintaining quality of life, Prof. Atzmon concluded.

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Haifa U Researchers Find Genetic Mutation that Encourages Longevity in Men - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

Researchers have found a mutation in the gene for the growth hormone receptor that promotes longevity, increasing mens lifespan by an average of 10 years.

This finding emerged from a new study led by Prof. Gil Atzmon of the University of Haifa. We were aware before that variants involved with genetic paths related to the growth hormone are also associated with longevity. Now we have found a specific variant whose presence or absence is directly connected to it, Prof. Atzmon explains.

Prof. Atzmon, head of the Laboratory of Genetics and Epigenetics of Aging and Longevity at the University of Haifa, and other colleagues at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have already found that dysfunction in the biological paths associated with the growth hormone and with insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) contribute to longevity. Until now, however, these paths were tested in the laboratory, and few mechanism responsible for this process had been identified in the human body.

In the present study, published in the journal Science Advances from the Science group, the researchers identified for the first time a genetic variation that modify the growth hormone function and encourages longevity in men. The initial research population (established by Professor Nir Barzilai at Einstein) comprised 102 American male Jews at the age of 100. The results were then compared with three additional populations of people at the age of 100 from around the world.

In all the groups, the deletion of exon 3 from the growth hormone receptor gene was found to be significantly more common among men (and not women) at the age of 100, compared to the control group of 70-year-olds. On average, people born with this variation lived ten years longer than those without it. According to Prof. Atzmon, this variation is certainly not the only reason for longevity, and many of the participants in the study survived beyond the age of 100 without this variation. However, the presence of the variant ensured longevity with virtual certainty.

The examination of the action of the variation showed that it has an unusual impact. In nature, lower strains of the same species usually live longer. For example, ponies live longer than horses, smaller breeds of dogs live longer than larger ones, and the same phenomenon is found among various rodents and insects. In this case, the variation in the receptor allowed the cells to absorb less growth hormone, however, when the hormone absorbed the protein expression was several times higher. The result: people born with the mutation who lived for around ten years more than others were also approximately 3 cm taller than those born without the receptor.

This study nicely wraps up the connection between growth hormone function and longevity. Our goal now is really to understand the mechanism of the variation we found, so that we can implement it and enable longevity while maintaining quality of life, Prof. Atzmon concluded.

(YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

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Researchers Find Genetic Mutation That Encourages Longevity In Men - Yeshiva World News

THURSDAY, June 29, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- A high IQ might do more than help you garner good grades: New research suggests it might also lengthen your life.

Scottish researchers analyzed data on nearly 66,000 people who were born in that country in 1936, took an IQ test at age 11, and were followed up to age 79 or death. The investigators discovered that children with high IQs were more likely to live longer than their less intelligent peers.

Specifically, a higher IQ test score in childhood was associated with a 28 percent reduced risk of death from respiratory disease, a 25 percent lower risk of death from heart disease and a 24 percent reduced risk of death from stroke.

But the study didn't prove that high IQ caused this reduced risk, just that an association existed.

A higher IQ in childhood was also significantly associated with a lower risk of death from injury, smoking-related cancers (particularly lung and stomach), digestive disease and dementia. There was no evidence of a link between childhood intelligence and death from cancers not related to smoking.

The findings suggest that lifestyle -- especially smoking -- plays a major role in how intelligence affects the risk of death, according to the University of Edinburgh team. It was led by Ian Deary, a professor of differential psychology.

The findings were published June 28 in the journal BMJ.

In an editorial accompanying the study, Swedish researchers wrote that "childhood IQ is strongly associated with causes of death that are, to a great extent, dependent on already known risk factors."

But according to Daniel Falkstedt, an assistant professor, and Anton Lager, head of the department of public health sciences at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, "It remains to be seen if this is the full story or if IQ signals something deeper, and possibly genetic, in its relation to longevity."

Senior study author Deary agreed, telling The New York Times, "We don't know yet why intelligence from childhood and longevity are related, and we are keeping an open mind. Lifestyles, education, deprivation and genetics may all play a part."

The U.S. National Institute on Aging has more about longevity.

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Could a High IQ Mean a Longer Life? - Sioux City Journal

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Last October, scientists made a splash when they determined that on average, people can only live for about 115 years . That was the magic age at which the human body and brain just petered out; it wasnt designed to chug along much longer than that, they said.

That conclusion, published in the journal Nature , sparked hot debate among longevity researchers. Some felt the results vindicated what they felt to be the case, while others took issue with pinpointing a limitand such a specific one, at that.

Now, in the new issue of Nature , the editors invited scientists who criticized the original authors methods to lay out their arguments for why there isn't necessarily a limit to human aging. In the five resulting critiques, researchers tease apart the original authors methods, noting that they made assumptions that weren't warranted and overreached in their conclusions. (The researchers who concluded that human lifespan maxes out at 115 years stand by their findings, and they responded to each of the current authors criticisms.)

The new papers dont argue that human lifespan is limitless. But they note that its premature to accept that a maximum lifespan for humans exists. Its equally possible, they say, that humans will continue to live longer, and therefore might survive beyond 115 years. It was reasonable that when everybody lived to 50 that the very long lived, for whatever reasongenetics or luckwould make it to 80," says Siegfried Hekimi, professor of genetics at McGill University in Canada and one of the authors of a criticism. "If people live on average to 80 or 90, like they do now, then the very long lived make it to 110 or 120. So if the average lifespan keeps expanding, that would mean the long-lived would live even longer, beyond 115 years."

Overall, trends in longevity have been going up, and average lifespan has inched upward since even the 1990s. Back then, life expectancy in the U.S. was just around 50 years, while babies born today live to about 79 years on average. In any given year, however, if you look at the longest-lived, or the age at which the oldest person died, there may be considerable variation. There may be several years in which the maximum lifespan drops a bit, and other years in which it jumps.

MORE: How Silicon Valley Is Trying to Hack Its Way Into a Longer Life

The maximum lifespan in a population varies so much year to year that if you take the wrong snapshot of dataas Hekimi contends the original authors didit may look like there is a flattening of the age at which the longest lived die. If you throw a die several times every year that represents maximum lifespan, by chance alone you will see a lot of spread," he says. "Sometimes it will be low, sometimes it will be high.

For example, in coming up with the maximum lifespan of 115 years, the original papers researchers divided their population data into two groups: from 1968 to 1994 and 1995 to 2006. They determined that maximum lifespan peaked in the first era and started to plateau in the next. However, that coincides with the years in which Jeanne Calment, the oldest-lived human, was alive. She passed away in 1997 at age 122, so the plateau in maximum lifespan that the original researchers saw could be wholly attributed to her, Hekimi says. He and the other authors argue that the conclusion that human lifespan stops at 115 years was based on misinterpreting the data by seeing a plateau at 115 years where there was none.

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There's No Known Limit To How Long Humans Can Live | Time.com - TIME

Smart children tend to live longer than their less intelligent peers, a new study suggests.

The analysis by Scottish researchers, published by medical journal BMJ, tracked 75,252 men and women born in 1936 who had taken standardized intelligence tests in 1947.

By 2015, researchers confirmed a cause of death for 25,979 of them; 30,464 were still living in Britain.

"In a whole national population year of birth cohort followed over the life course from age 11 to age 79, higher scores on a well validated childhood intelligence test were associated with lower risk of mortality ascribed to coronary heart disease and stroke, cancers related to smoking (particularly lung and stomach), respiratory diseases, digestive diseases, injury, and dementia," the researchers wrote.

According to The New York Times, even after controlling for smoking, the link to lower scores on the intelligence testsdidn't disappear. The study found no association of lower intelligence with cancers unrelated to smoking or with suicide, but there was a strong association with death by accidental injury.

"We dont know yet why intelligence from childhood and longevity are related, and we are keeping an open mind," senior author, Ian Deary of the University of Edinburgh told the Times.

"Lifestyles, education, deprivation and genetics may all play a part."

2017 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

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68-Year Study: Childhood Intelligence and Longevity Related - Newsmax

Rudrapur, Uttrakhand, India (PRWEB) July 02, 2017

Revita Life Sciences, (http://revitalife.co.in) a biotechnology company focused on translational regenerative therapeutic applications, has announced that it is continuing to advance their novel, multi-modality clinical intervention in the state of brain death in humans.

We have proactively continued to advance our multi-modality protocol, as an extended treatment before extubation, in an attempt to reverse the state of brain death said Mr.Pranjal Agrawal, CEO Revita Life Sciences. This treatment approach has yielded some very encouraging initial outcome signs, ranging from minor observations on blood pressure changes with response to painful stimuli, to eye opening and finger movements, with corresponding transient to permanent reversal changes in EEG patterns.

This first exploratory study, entitled Non-randomized, Open-labelled, Interventional, Single Group, and Proof of Concept Study with Multi-modality Approach in Cases of Brain Death Due to Traumatic Brain Injury Having Diffuse Axonal Injury is ongoing at Anupam Hospital, Rudrapur, Uttrakhand. The intervention primarily involves intrathecal administration of minimal manipulated (processed at point of care) autologous stem cells derived from patients fat and bone marrow twice a week.

This study was inappropriately removed from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) database. ICMR has no regulatory oversight on such research in India.

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), Drug Controller General of India, had no objection to the program progressing. Regulatory approval as needed for new drugs, is currently not required when research is conducted on the recently deceased, although IRB and family consent is definitely required. CDSCO, the regulator of such studies, clearly states that no regulatory requirements are needed for any study with minimal manipulated autologous stem cells in brain death subjects.

Death is defined as the termination of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Brain death, the complete and irreversible loss of brain function (including involuntary activity necessary to sustain life) as defined in the 1968 report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School, is the legal definition of human death in most countries around the world. Either directly through trauma, or indirectly through secondary disease indications, brain death is the final pathological state that over 60 million people globally transfer through each year.

We are in process of publishing our initial retrospective results, as well ongoing early results, in a peer reviewed journal. These initial findings will prove invaluable to the future evolution of the program, as well as in progressing the development multi-modality regenerative therapeutics for the full range of the severe disorders of consciousness, including coma, PVS, the minimally conscious state, and a range of other degenerative CNS conditions in humans, said Dr. Himanshu Bansal, Chief Scientific Officer, Revita Life Sciences and Director of Mother Cell.

With the maturation of the tools of medical science in the 21st century, especially cell therapies and regenerative medicines, tissues once considered irretrievable, may finally be able to be revived or rejuvenated. Hence many scientists believe that brain death, as presently defined, may one day be reversed. While the very long term goal is to find a solution for re-infusing life, the short term purpose of these types of studies is much less dramatic, which is to confirm if the current definition of brain irreversibility still holds true. There have been many anecdotal reports of brain death reversal across the world over the past decades in the scientific literature. Studies of this nature serve to verify and establish this very fact in a scientific and controlled manner. It will also one day give a fair chance to individuals, who are declared brain dead, especially after trauma.

About Revita Life Sciences

Revita Life Sciences is a biotechnology company focused on the development of stem cell therapies and regenerative medicine interventions that target areas of significant unmet medical need. Revita is led by Dr. Himanshu Bansal MD, who has spent over two decades developing novel MRI based classifications of spinal cord injuries as well as comprehensive treatment protocols with autologous tissues including bone marrow stem cells, Dural nerve grafts, nasal olfactory tissues, and omental transposition.

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Revita Life Sciences Continues to Advance Multi-Modality Protocol ... - PR Web (press release)

TAMPA (FOX 13) - In 2014, at the age of 41, Barbara Popoli was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer,or IBC.

"The first doctor that saw me actually went pale and he excused himself from the room," she remembered. "It was already inoperable and it had spread to 20 lymph nodes."

It was a shock since Barbara had never heard of IBC. It began with swelling in her breast and arm.

"And the skin started to get pink and the texture of my skin started to change and instead of feeling smooth like a tomato it started to feel rough and dimply like the outside of an orange," she continued.

Even more dismal were her odds of survival.

"I have never met so many people who have passed so quickly. Anywhere from 60 to 80 percent pass away within just a couple of years after having it," she said.

After a year and a half of traditional treatments including chemo, immunotherapy, and radiation, she joined a clinical trial at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. The experimental therapy helps restore immune cells that fight the cancer.

"I think this is a big deal for patients because we've identified that there is a deficit in this cell type so we're actually offering a specific therapy to correct that particular defect," explainedDr. Brian Czerniecki, who is heading up the study at Moffitt.

The defect that may also be present in other breast cancers, including DCIS, lies in T-cells called CD-4'S.

"We identified people who didn't have a complete response to therapy, have a loss of a particular type of immune cell called the CD4 cell, the same cell that the AIDS virus attacks," he said.

To fix the problem, a large catheter inserted in the neck is connected to a blood-filtering machine. A bag collects white blood cells that are then transformed and multiplied into over a hundred million cancer-fighting cells.

Treatments consist of injections of 20 million cells into a lymph node in the groin. So far, results are promising.

"Everyone to date, so far, their immune response has boosted up to where almost to the point where healthy women are walking around," Dr. Czerniecki said.

Side effects are flu-like symptoms, usually lasting about 24 hours. The side effect means the immune system is responding to the therapy.

Barbara hopes it's enough to keep her cancer from coming back.

"There's not a lot of options for us except chemo," she continued. "If we can stop it and let people get back to a healthy life, it's going to be amazing."

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Experimental therapy uses immune system to fight breast cancer - FOX 13 News, Tampa Bay

June 29, 2017 Killer T cells surround a cancer cell. Credit: NIH

Cancer hides in plain sight of the immune system. The body's natural tumor surveillance programs should be able to detect and attack rogue cancer cells when they arise, and yet when cancer thrives, it does so because these defense systems have failed. A team of investigators led by Niroshana Anandasabapathy, MD, PhD, at Brigham and Women's Hospital have uncovered a critical strategy that some cancers may be using to cloak themselves - they find evidence of this genetic program across 30 human cancers of the peripheral tissue, including melanoma skin cancer. Their results are published June 29 in Cell.

"Our study reveals a new immunotherapy target and provides an evolutionary basis for why the immune system may fail to detect cancers arising in tissues," said corresponding author Anandasabapathy, of BWH's Department of Dermatology. "The genetic program we report on helps the immune system balance itself. Parts of this program prevent the immune system from destroying healthy organs or tissues, but might also leave a blind spot for detecting and fighting cancer."

The authors studied immune mononuclear phagocytes - a group of disparate cells that act as the "Pac man" of the immune system. When these cells detect foreign invaders and dying normal tissues, they devour or engulf their components. These cells then present these components on their surface teach T cells to maintain tolerance to healthy tissues, or to fight infections and pathogens. Despite differences in function, all immune mononuclear phagocytes found in the skin- (a peripheral tissue like lung and gut) share a common set of genetic programming, which is further enhanced when they enter the tissue. This program is conserved in fetal and adult development, and across species. And, the research team reports, is co-opted by multiple human cancers of tissue.

The team finds that this program is prompted by an "instructive cue" from interferon gamma - a molecule that plays a critical role in regulating immunity. The authors find IFN-gamma for mononuclear phagocytes in development but that IFN-gamma and tissue immune signatures are much higher in skin cancer than in healthy skin. Having an immune response measured by IFN-gamma and tissue signatures correlated with improved metastatic melanoma survival outcomes, making these signatures potential biomarkers for cancer survival.

The authors reasoned such a program might contain key molecules that help the immune system reduce inflammation, but that might also leave a blind spot to cancer detection. One of the key genes the researchers detected is suppressor of cytokine signaling 2 (SOCS2). When this gene was turned off in a mouse model, the immune system was able to robustly detect and reject cancer in models of melanoma and thymoma (cancer of the thymus). They also observed improved vaccination responses, and heightened auto-inflammation suggesting this gene normally dampens auto-inflammatory responses and contracts protective immunity.

"Our research suggests that these cancers are co-opting tissue-specific immune development to escape detection, but we see that turning off SOCS2 unmasks them," said Anandasabapathy. "This sheds new light on our understanding of how the immune system is programed to see cancers and also points the way toward new therapeutic targets for treating cancers that have these signatures."

Explore further: Researchers identify key mutation that suppresses the immune system in melanoma

More information: Nirschl CJ et al. "IFN-gamma-dependent tissue immune homeostasis is co-opted in the tumor microenvironment" Cell DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.06.016

Journal reference: Cell

Provided by: Brigham and Women's Hospital

University of California, Irvine researchers have identified a specific mutation that allows melanoma tumor cells to remain undetected by the immune system. The finding may lead to the development of better immunotherapies ...

Targeting a molecule called B7-H4which blocks T-cells from destroying tumor cellscould lead to the development of new therapies that boost the immune system's ability to fight cancer, according to a review published ...

(HealthDay) -- Growth of the deadly skin cancer melanoma may be triggered by the immune system turning on itself, according to a new study that also identified the mechanism that causes this to happen.

Internal conflict between cell types explains why the immune system struggles to recognize and attack pancreatic cancer. Curbing this infighting has the potential to make treatment more effective, according to a study led ...

Researchers from Mayo Clinic have quantified the numbers of various types of immune cells associated with the risk of developing breast cancer. The findings are published in a study in Clinical Cancer Research.

A new step in cancer immunotherapy: researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute and University of Oslo/Oslo University Hospital show that even if one's own immune cells cannot recognize and fight their tumors, someone ...

Cancer hides in plain sight of the immune system. The body's natural tumor surveillance programs should be able to detect and attack rogue cancer cells when they arise, and yet when cancer thrives, it does so because these ...

An immune-related protein deployed between neighboring cells in Drosophila plays an essential role in the cell degradation process known as autophagy, according to new research by Eric H. Baehrecke, PhD, at UMass Medical ...

New findings from mouse models reveal that the type of immune response that helps maintain healthy metabolism in fatty tissues, called type 2 immunity, also drives obesity-induced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). ...

Investigators at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and international colleagues have discovered a genetic cause and potential treatment strategy for a rare immune disorder called CHAPLE disease. Children with the condition ...

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital immunologists have discovered how immune cells called T cells become "exhausted"unable to do their jobs of attacking invaders such as cancer cells or viruses. The finding is important ...

An enzyme implicated in autoimmune diseases and viral infections also regulates radiation therapy's ability to trigger an immune response against cancer, Weill Cornell Medicine scientists found in a new study. Their discovery ...

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New insights into why the immune system fails to see cancer - Medical Xpress

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Mavenclad Reduces MS Relapses by Reseting the Immune System - Multiple Sclerosis News Today

Two researchers from the National University of Singapore have developed a sour beer that is infused with a probiotic strain of bacteria, Lactobacillus paracasei L26.

L. paracasei is known to neutralize toxins and viruses, and help regulate the human immune system. It is already incorporated into a variety of dairy products to help improve gut-health.

Chan Mei Zhi Alcine, a student in the Food Science and Technology Program at NUS said she regularly consumes dairy-based probiotic beverages, and wanted to apply similar techniques to brewing a gut-friendly beer flavor.

The health benefits of probiotics are well known. While good bacteria are often present in foods that have been fermented, there are currently no beers in the market that contain probiotics, said Alcine in a university release.

With the help of Associate Professor Liu Shao Quan, the duo spent nine months perfecting their recipe and ensuring they had the optimal amount of live probiotics in the beer.

They isolated the L. paracasei bacterium from human intestines and grew the probiotic, as well as the yeast, in pure cultures.

The team altered some aspects of the conventional brewing and fermentation processes to successfully create the beer with the live probiotic.

The final result was a sour beer with an alcohol content of 3.5 percent. It takes about a month before it is ready to drink.

For this beer, we used a lactic acid bacterium as a probiotic micro-organism. It will utilize sugars present in the wort to produce sour-tasting lactic acid, resulting in a beer with sharp and tart flavors, said Alcine.

But, as she also explained, developing sufficient counts of live probiotics in beer proved to be challenging because the hop acids in beer prevent probiotics from growing and surviving.

Alcine and Shao Quan have filed for a patent to protect the sour beer recipe. The duo believes they hit a sort of sweet spot in the market according to Shao Quan, food and beverage products containing probiotics have increased in recent years, and a similar trend has been seen with a boost in craft and specialty beer flavors. The sour beer they developed could be an attractive option for consumers in both groups.

But further researcher may be needed to test how effective the live probiotics in the beer are for gut and immune health before they can market it as a gut-friendly beer.

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Probiotic Beer Aims to Boost Immune System - Laboratory Equipment

Two new studies suggest that one in five seemingly healthy people hasDNA mutations that puts him or herat increased risk for genetic disease.

BlackJack3D/iStockPhoto

By Ryan CrossJun. 26, 2017 , 6:15 PM

Some doctors dream of diagnosing diseasesor at least predicting disease riskwith a simple DNA scan. But others have said the practice, which could soon be the foundation of preventative medicine, isnt worth the economic or emotional cost. Now, a new pair of studies puts numbers to the debate, and one is the first ever randomized clinical trial evaluating whole genome sequencing in healthy people. Together, they suggest that sequencing the genomes of otherwise healthy adults can for about one in five people turn up risk markers for rare diseases or genetic mutations associated with cancers.

What that means for those people and any health care system considering genome screening remains uncertain, but some watching for these studies welcomed the results nonetheless. It's terrific that we are studying implementation of this new technology rather than ringing our hands and fretting about it without evidence, says Barbara Biesecker, a social and behavioral researcher at the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.

The first genome screening study looked at 100 healthy adults who initially reported their family history to their own primary care physician. Then half were randomly assigned to undergo an additional full genomic workup, which cost about $5000 each and examined some 5 million subtle DNA sequence changes, known as single-nucleotide variants, across 4600 genessuch genome screening goes far beyond that currently recommended by the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG), which suggests informing people of results forjust 59 genes known or strongly expected to cause disease.

Of the 50 participants whose genomes were sequenced, 11 had alterations in at least one letter of DNA suspected to causeusually rarediseases, researchers report today in The Annals of Internal Medicine. But only two exhibited clear symptoms. One was a patient with extreme sensitivity to the sun. Their DNA revealed a skin condition called variegate porphyria. Now that patient knows they will be much less likely to get bad sunburns or rashes if they avoid the sun and certain medications, says Jason Vassy, a primary care clinician-investigator at Veteran Affairs Boston Healthcare System and lead author of the study.

The team also found that every sequenced patient carried at least one recessive mutation linked to a diseasea single copy of a mutant gene that could cause an illness if two copies are present. That knowledge can be used to make reproductive decisionsa partner may get tested to see if they have a matching mutationand prompt family members to test themselves for carrier status. And in what Vassy calls a slightly more controversial result, the team examined participants chances of developing eight polygenic diseases, conditions that are rarely attributed to a single genetic mutation. Here, they compiled the collective effects of multiple genesup to 70 for type II diabetes and 60 for coronary heart diseaseto predict a patients relative risk of developing the disease.

Just 16% of study volunteers who only reported their family history were referred to genetic counselors or got follow-up laboratory tests. In the genome sequencing group, the number was 34%.

Some researchers have expressed concern that such whole genome screening will skyrocket medical costs or cause undue psychological harm. Aside from the initial cost of sequencing (which was covered by the study), patients who underwent the genomic screen paid an average of $350 additional in healthcare costs over the next 6 months, Vassy and colleagues reported. But contrary to fears of emotional trauma, neither the sequencing group nor the control group showed any changes in anxiety or depression 6 months after the study.

Vassy stresses that their study was small and needs follow-up, but it still impressed Christa Martin, a geneticist at Geisinger Health System, in Danville, Pennsylvania, who worked on the ACMGs recommendations for genome sequencing. I almost feel like the authors undersold themselves, she says. Many of their patients are making health behavioral changes, so they are using the information in a positive way.

The study was extremely well designed and very appropriately run, adds Barbara Koenig, a medical anthropologist who directs the University of CaliforniaSan Francisco Bioethics Program. But she still questions the assumption by many physicians, ethicists, and patient advocates that more information is always beneficial. It is just hard to know how all this information is going to be brought together in our pretty dysfunctional healthcare system.

Another paper published last week on the preprint server bioRxiv, which has not yet undergone peer review, yields similar results. Using whole-exome sequencing, which looks only at the protein-coding regions of the genome, Michael Snyder, director of the Stanford Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine in Palo Alto, California, and colleagues found that 12 out of 70 healthy adults, or 17%, unknowingly had one or more DNA mutations that increased the risk for genetic diseases for which there are treatment or preventative options.

Both studies suggest that physicians should look at genes beyond the ACMGs 59 top priorities, Snyder says. He argues that whole-genome sequencing should be automatically incorporated into primary care. You may have some super-worriers, but I would argue that the information is still useful for a physician to have. Vassy, however, says that there isnt yet enough evidence to ask insurance companies to reimburse whole genome sequencing of healthy patients.

We like a quick fix and the gene is an important cultural icon right now, so we probably give it more power than it really has, Koenig says. But these are still really early days for these technologies to be useful in the clinic.

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One in five 'healthy' adults may carry disease-related genetic mutations - Science Magazine

Patients who underwent genetic screenings now fear that documentation of the results in their medical records could lead to problems if a new health law is enacted. Sam Edwards/Caiaimage/Getty Images hide caption

Patients who underwent genetic screenings now fear that documentation of the results in their medical records could lead to problems if a new health law is enacted.

Two years ago, Cheasanee Huette, a 20-year-old college student in Northern California, decided to find out if she was a carrier of the genetic mutation that gave rise to a disease that killed her mother. She took comfort in knowing that whatever the result, she'd be protected by the Affordable Care Act's guarantees of insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Her results came back positive. Like her mother, she's a carrier of one of the mutations known as Lynch syndrome. The term refers to a cluster of mutations that can boost the risk of a wide range of cancers, particularly colon and rectal.

As Republican lawmakers advance proposals to overhaul the ACA's consumer protections, Huette frets that her future health coverage and employment options will be defined by that test.

She even wonders if documentation of the mutation in her medical records and related screenings could rule out individual insurance plans. She's currently covered under her father's policy. "Once I move to my own health care plan, I'm concerned about who is going to be willing to cover me, and how much will that cost," she says.

In recent years, doctors have urged patients to be screened for a variety of diseases and predisposition to illness, confident it would not affect their future insurability. Being predisposed to an illness such as carrying the BRCA gene mutations associated with breast and ovarian cancer does not mean a patient will come down with the illness. But knowing they could be at risk may allow patients to take steps to prevent its development.

Under the current health law, many screening tests for widespread conditions such as prediabetes are covered in full by insurance. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Medical Association have urged primary care doctors to test patients at risk for prediabetes. But doctors, genetic counselors and patient advocacy groups now worry that people will shy away from testing as the ACA's future becomes more uncertain.

Dr. Kenneth Lin, a family physician at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., says if the changes proposed by the GOP become law, "you can bet that I'll be even more reluctant to test patients or record the diagnosis of prediabetes in their charts." He thinks such a notation could mean hundreds of dollars a month more in premiums for individuals in some states under the new bill.

Huette says she's sharing her story publicly since her genetic mutation is already on her medical record.

But elsewhere, there have been "panicked expressions of concern," says Lisa Schlager of the patient advocacy group Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (FORCE). "Somebody who had cancer even saying, 'I don't want my daughter to test now.' Or 'I'm going to be dropped from my insurance because I have the BRCA mutation.' There's a lot of fear."

Those fears, which come in an era of accelerating genetics-driven medicine, rest upon whether a gap that was closed by the ACA will be reopened. That remains unclear.

A law passed in 2008, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, bans health insurance discrimination if someone tests positive for a mutation. But that protection stops once the mutation causes "manifest disease" essentially, a diagnosable health condition.

That means "when you become symptomatic," although it's not clear how severe the symptoms must be to constitute having the disease, says Mark Rothstein, an attorney and bioethicist at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Kentucky, who has written extensively about GINA.

The ACA, passed two years after GINA, closed that gap by barring health insurance discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, Rothstein says.

On paper, the legislation unveiled by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last week wouldn't let insurers set higher rates for people with pre-existing conditions, but it could effectively exclude such patients from coverage by allowing states to offer insurance plans that don't cover certain maladies, health analysts say. Meanwhile, the bill that passed the House last month does have a provision that allows states to waive protections for people with pre-existing conditions, if they have a gap in coverage of 63 days or longer in the prior year.

When members of a Lynch Syndrome social media group were asked for their views on genetic testing amid the current health care debate, about two dozen men and women responded. Nearly all said they were delaying action for themselves or suggesting that family members, particularly children, hold off.

Huette was the only one who agreed to speak for attribution. She says before the ACA was enacted, she witnessed the impact that fears about insurance coverage had on patients. Her mother, a veterinarian, had wanted to run her own practice but instead took a federal government job for the guarantee of health insurance. She died at the age of 57 of pancreatic cancer, one of six malignancies she had been diagnosed with over the years.

Huette says she doesn't regret getting tested. Without the result, Huette points out, how would she have persuaded a doctor to give her a colonoscopy in her 20s?

"Ultimately, my health is more important than my bank account," she says.

Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit health newsroom whose stories appear in news outlets nationwide, is an editorially independent part of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

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Patients Who Tested Positive For Genetic Mutations Fear Bias ... - NPR - NPR