StemCell Therapy

Controversial research and trials aim to reverse clinical brain death and bring people back from irreversible coma.

Philadelphia-based biotech company Bioquark is preparing to run trials in Latin America of a controversial new treatment to restore brain function in people with brain damage.

The procedure consists of several different parts. One of which uses a patients own stem cells to regrow dead brain tissue. The procedure also includes a peptide injection into the spine, laser therapy on the brain, and nerve stimulation.

The first thing we are really looking at is how do we make that new tissue, along the lines of how it is done in nature, Ira Pastor, CEO of Bioquark, told Healthline.

Doctors and staff measure the brain activity and physical signs of the patient to establish whether or not there has been an improvement.

While the research has often been labeled as an attempt to raise the dead, Pastor said that there are actually significant limitations to the scope of what they are trying to accomplish.

We are only focusing on what we refer to as the gray zone that exists between [a] deep coma and so-called irreversible coma, which is the definition of brain death, and transitioning the subject back through that area, said Pastor.

Measure of an individuals state of coma or unconsciousness typically utilizes the Glasgow Coma Scale, an indicator of the severity based on verbal and physiological responses.

Bioquarks aim is essentially to be able to take individuals from a state of irreversible coma to, potentially, one in which they are showing higher brain functioning and physiological response.

He said that the treatment is not intended for individuals with catastrophic injuries, or those with chronic diseases, such as metastatic cancer.

Brain death is a relatively new concept in medicine and law, and still varies largely from one country to the next. Unlike clinical death, as defined by the stopping of certain biological functions such as breathing and heart rate brain death is a state in which an individual may still be physically alive but with little or no cognitive ability.

The concept of brain death is attributed to a 1968 paper from Harvard University that sought to define irreversible coma as a new criterion for death. Since then, legislation such as the Uniform Determination of Death Act, has sought to create a unified framework for how death is diagnosed, including brain death.

The implications of Bioquarks research potentially altering or muddying an already complex definition of death are profound. This study deepens the ambiguity of the validity of the definition of death, Kerry Bowman, PhD, a bioethicist at the University of Toronto, told Healthline.

Read more: Using stem cells to heal broken bones

The procedure has also proved wildly controversial for ethical and medical reasons.

Firstly, the research falls under the classification of living cadaver research, which Pastor describes as, The ability to use a recently deceased individual who is still on life support for medical research purposes.

Pastor argued previously that living cadaver research has been carried out ethically for a variety of reasons in the Unites States. Nonetheless, it remains a sensitive subject.

There are those in the medical community who criticize Bioquark because there simply isnt any medical research to support its work. One meta study published in the journal Neurology in 2010, concluded that from 1995 onward, There are no published reports of recovery of neurologic function after a diagnosis of brain death.

Pastor contests this, citing sporadic cases challenging that conclusion.

Read more: Stem cell therapy offers hop for MS remission

Bowman said the two major concerns surrounding Bioquarks work are family grief and patient consent.

In the first case, he said, the procedure could create a situation where [the family] believes that their brain-dead or close to brain-dead loved one has a chance for survival, and that the medical establishments are blocking them from pursuing that chance.

I think that really could be very difficult in terms of complicating grief.

The second issue, consent, is even more contentious. Who signs off on the procedure if the patient doesnt have the capacity to say Yes or No?

Clearly this is a case where the subject cannot consent, said Pastor. The informed consent documents that we have put together are really family centric.

There is a line of reasons why a family might want to come down this path, but ultimately its their decision.

Others disagree that consent in this situation is as clear as Pastor makes it.

Bowman said that the potential risk of such a procedure is so high that the consent must come directly from the patient.

The ranges of outcomes I see physical impairment and neurological impairment as almost a certainty even if there is success that I just dont think you could have a substituted consent.

Some have suggested that consent could be coerced under the proposition of bringing back a loved one.

Pastor, however, is confident in Bioquarks proceedings.

Of the multitude of different types of bioethical arguments or questions we get, I think were comfortable with that family-centric, informed consent approach, he said.

Whether or not Bioquark ultimately succeeds, their upcoming trials will undoubtedly have a profound impact on the concept of death.

Bowman, while skeptical of Bioquarks research from a medical perspective, is open to challenging the established notion of brain death.

There are places in the world that are much more hesitant about accepting brain death as truly death, he said. We constructed this as a definition of death, but we can also deconstruct a definition that we created ourselves.

As to the claim that Pastor and Bioquark are offering false hope to those that are already vulnerable and suffering, he remains defiant.

Exploratory research programs of this nature are not false hope. They are a glimmer of hope.

Read more: Stem cell research advancing rapidly

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Are Stem Cells the Answer to Bringing People Back from the Dead? - Healthline

Two Hong Kong beauty salon doctors and a technician involved in the death of a woman in 2012 used an unproven and wholly unnecessary cancer therapy learned in mainland China on healthy customers that hospitals in the city would not even deploy for the sick, prosecutors alleged at their trial on Tuesday.

The expensive treatment offered by DR Group which involves blood being taken, processed and reintroduced into a patients body resulted in the death of Chan Yuen-lam, 46, after her blood sample became infected by bacteria, the prosecutors told a jury at the High Court.

The procedure had been learned from a mainland Chinese hospital just months before it was administered to the women, the court heard.

Police raid Hong Kong salon offering bogus medical treatments

Another patient, Wong Ching-bor, was forced to have two legs and four fingers amputated following the treatment, while a third customer, Wong Fung-kwan, recovered but was permanently injured. All three received the treatment on the same day, prosecutor Raymond Leung Wai-man SC said.

Dr Stephen Chow Heung-wing, head of DR Group, Dr Mak Wan-ling, and Chan Kwun-chung each deny one count of manslaughter due to gross negligence.

Summarising the case for the nine jurors six men and three women Leung said unproven and wholly unnecessary medical treatment was provided, arranged and applied by one or more of the defendants, who were motivated by monetary and personal gain.

He said the incident began after the three women paid about HK$59,500 for each infusion and had blood drawn on September 12, 2012, at a DR Group clinic in Causeway Bay.

The samples were then processed by Asia-Pacific Stem Cell Science at Hong Kong Science and Technology Park for a treatment involving cytokine-induced killer cells. Chow owned the laboratory, while Chan Kwun-chung worked there as a technician.

The prosecutor alleged the trio went to Guangzhou Military Commands general hospital on the mainland, which boasted an exaggerated success rate in treating cancer patients. The two-day visit in February 2012, he added, was meant to learn about the procedure.

Leung alleged that a company circular showed that, within days of their return to Hong Kong, it was already announced internally that staff would begin offering the procedure.

Chan Kwun-chung, holder of a biomedical degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, as well as another staff member were each sent back to the hospital to learn about the procedure later that February. This happened, the prosecutor argued, despite the fact that such a procedure was typically performed by a haematologist and required three years of training.

Risky medical treatments in the private market face review

Leung said the two practiced on two staff members in March 2012 and claimed they gave favourable feedback. But he described the process as anecdotal, biased, and unscientific.

It would be naive for [Chow] to think that such testing was effective and a sufficient basis to launch such products, he added.

Leung explained the theory behind the procedure was that it could improve ones immune system. But he added the theory was unproven.

He questioned why the procedure would be marketed, promoted and applied to three healthy women when hospitals in the city had refrained from providing the treatment even to cancer patients.

In Hong Kong we do not provide CIK treatment because we have better alternatives, he said. It should only be done, if at all, in a supervised hospital setting where all the support is there and preparation of the blood cells is supervised by a haematologist.

Weeks later, the blood samples were sent to the clinic, where on October 3 they were reintroduced into the patients bloodstream by Mak.

As a result of the infusion, one died, one ended up having two limbs and four fingers amputated, and one recovered but with permanent injuries to her limbs, Leung said.

He said the three women experienced a range of symptoms including dizziness, shivering, chest discomfort, numb limbs, and septic shock within 24 hours of the infusion, and were admitted to Ruttonjee Hospital and United Christian Hospital.

Lines blurred between beauty services and medical procedures

Chan died on October 10, 2012, after multiple organ failure.

Leung cited blood poisoning as the cause. The blood they were infused with was contaminated with mycobacterium abscessus, he said.

He added that Chows sister, who had cancer, went through the same procedure and ended up suffering from the same kind of bacterial infection.

Infusing blood products is a medical procedure if it isnt done properly it carries legal consequences

Raymond Leung Wai-man SC, prosecutor

The prosecutor said Mak, who administered the infusion, had been acutely aware of the bacterial infection, having previously prescribed antibiotics to the two Wong women shortly after the infusions when each complained of discomfort.

What appeared to be a medical blunder normally warranting a civil claim had ended up in a criminal court because the defendants breach of their duty of care and disregard were so blatantly wrong that they amounted to a crime of the state, Leung told the court.

He urged the jury not to be fooled by phrases and labels that might be adopted during the trial by the defence, such as referring to the women as customers instead of patients.

That does not detract from the fact that infusing blood products is a medical procedure therefore if it isnt done properly it carries legal consequences, he said.

The trial continues before Mrs Justice Judianna Barnes Wai-ling on Wednesday.

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Healthy woman died due to 'unproven and wholly unnecessary' cancer treatment from private clinic, court hears - South China Morning Post

by Stuart Tomlinson, KATU News

In some cases, the images produced give a better view of what's happening inside the eye, than an in-person exam, Dr. Chiang said. (OHSU)

With the help of telemedicine, for monitoring a premature Salem baby's eyes for retinal detachment remotely, a doctor at the Casey Eye Institute hopes to prevent a leading cause of blindness in infants born before term.

Born at just 26 weeks, Nathan Brown spent more than three months in the neonatal intensive care unit at Salem Hospital.

Mackenzie and Jonathan Brown's second child had numerous challenges, and following surgery to correct a heart defect, OHSU doctors discovered Nathan had stage one retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP, a condition responsible for Stevie Wonder's blindness.

Rather than bring Nathan to Portland for exams, Dr. Michael Chiang and the Browns decided to monitor Nathans eyes remotely.

Premature babies are really small and really fragile, Chiang said. Nathan was about two pounds when he was born. And because of that it's tough to examine them. They get sick during the exams, they move around. And so when you get photos you're able to capture -- if it's a good photo, you're able to capture all those things and really look at the pictures carefully and scrutinize them.

Dr. Chiang says combining sensitive cameras with software programs allows parents with premature babies in remote areas of the state to have access to ophthalmologists with the specialized skills needed to monitor the condition. Mackenzie Brown was skeptical at first

At first I was like, 'Maybe we should stay in Portland. But they said, "Give it a try, and if we didn't like it we could always come back, Brown said. I mean it was amazing; it made it so that we could always be home.

Last week, the Browns brought Nathan to Dr. Chiang's office for an in-person exam. Nathans ROP has not progressed and his vision appears normal. Chiang hopes to expand the remote monitoring to other hospitals around the state

According to the National Eye Institute, of 3.9 million babies born each year in the United States, 28,000 are born prematurely, and nearly half of them are at risk for blindness from ROP.

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Telemedicine: Casey Eye Institute doctor remotely examines preemies for blindness - KATU

My casual skim along the handrail becomes a white-knuckle grip as the light slowly disappears behind me. Photograph: Megapress / Stockimo / Alamy Sto/Alamy Stock Photo

Heres a question for sighted readers: could you safely navigate a busy intersection one with cars, motorcycles and trams whooshing past from every direction without the use of your eyes?

Thats one of the questions the immersive exhibition Dialogue in the Dark poses its visitors and based on my rather enthusiastic charge into the path of an oncoming tram as soon as I heard a crossing signal somewhere in my general vicinity its safe to say my answer would be hell no.

That tram, mercifully, exists only in theory: as part of the impressive sound design of Dialogue in the Dark, which allows sighted attendees to experience a stroll around Melbourne accompanied by blind and low-vision guides, in total darkness. Blind, in other words.

Founded in Germany in 1988 by Dr Andreas Heinecke, the Dialogue in the Dark exhibits have toured 40 countries and serve a dual purpose: providing employment opportunities for blind and low-vision people (it has employed up to 10,000 blind guides and facilitators in its 25 years), and allowing sighted people the chance to better appreciate life without vision.

Guide Dogs Australia has brought Dialogue in the Dark to our shores, with the Melbourne experience opening in Docklands Harbour Town this month, where it employs 22 blind and low-vision people and where it hopes it will remain open for at least five years.

After a short introduction that warms up my ability to identify things based on smell (jars of samples, hidden inside tissue paper), sound (tubes filled with sound-making materials) and touch (boxes full of different objects), I am equipped with a cane and sent into the exhibit. My casual skim along the handrail becomes a white-knuckle grip as the light slowly disappears behind me.

One of the parlour games of privilege is to try to imagine what life would be like if, say, you woke up tomorrow and could no longer see. You might close your eyes and think, Hey, no big deal! Ive been in a darkroom at high school! That blustering confidence dissolves immediately upon entering the Dialogue in the Dark exhibition space: this is total, complete darkness.

My guide instructs me to move towards his voice and Im suddenly struck by my relative inability to orient myself based solely on sound: is he right in front of me? Somewhere nearby? A foot to my right? After my first and last experience of ploughing straight into his shoulder, we move off for a stroll around Birrarung Marr.

The particular masterstroke of this Dialogue in the Dark iteration is its grounding in familiar Melbourne spaces. The exhibit is designed in different zones, where tactile and sound design create a remarkably realistic experience; while I know intellectually that Im not actually riding a tram, everything my body experiences suggests otherwise.

The sounds (birds calling, distant traffic, the Yarra river) and feelings (grass, trees and a cool breeze) of Birrarung Marr are a comforting introduction to the experience. Comforting enough, it turns out, that I charge ahead only to find myself confused by the sensation of wobbling, seemingly in mid-air; it takes a moment to realise I am, in fact, on a suspension bridge.

These humbling moments continue throughout the hour-long experience, but Im soon delighted to find my other senses coming to the party. At an approximation of the Victoria Market, I feel a heavy, rough piece of produce and though my mind initially searches for the image of a pineapple since Ive seen one instead I try to remember what a pineapple feels like. Similarly, my instinct upon picking up what feels like a coconut is to say, Theres only one way to find out and shake it near my ear; there it is, the familiar slosh of coconut milk.

My guide explains that this is, of course, a heightened experience designed to encourage our senses to come to the fore; in real life, blind and low-vision people dont tend to go around manhandling the fruit and veg to tell the difference between an ear of corn and a coconut. Online shopping and smartphone apps have revolutionised the shopping experience.

If I quickly become adept at feeling my way through life, the bewildering cacophony of Melbournes central business district reduces my ability to orient myself to wandering meekly in circles and the prospect of a tram ride along the familiar Swanston Street corridor finds me praying for a low-floor tram and accessible stop to alight at. As a cobblestone street sends me tumbling into a wall, I realise Im using my cane as a last resort rather than as an extension of my arm. I can only imagine my expression when faced with what turned out to be an ATM, and the only Braille letter I can recognise is A.

Our journey ends in a typical apartment, where the real dialogue begins.

My guide and I chat about job prospects, the general publics level of empathy towards blind and low-vision issues, and whether Melbournes accessibility features make it, well, accessible (short answer: its OK). Having helped people on and off public transport, I make sure my understanding of how to provide guiding assistance is up to scratch (offer an elbow, dont grab hands, and dont be embarrassed to offer assistance; the worst youll get is a confident No thanks!). Too soon, its time to return to the overwhelming light of day.

The Dialogue in the Dark experience could be a game-changer for those attendees who see being blind as a tragedy, or who arent aware of the employment prospects for blind and low-vision people. The inclusion of entrance and exit surveys suggests the operators expect peoples feelings to change throughout their journey; ideally, they leave with a greater understanding that blindness is no barrier to a rich engagement with life. As the official word goes, a level of vision loss is not a disability, its just different.

But the true genius of Dialogue in the Dark is how it demonstrates that its not necessarily individual disability that makes life difficult for those who are differently abled, but the way our world is actively designed against them at every turn. If Dialogue in the Dark encourages just a handful of young people to enter town planning or study accessible or universal design, it will be a roaring success.

(Oh and while Ive got you, reader: dont pat that Guide Dog!)

Dialogue in the Dark takes place in Docklands, Melbourne. Book your session here

More here:
'A game-changer': The hour of blindness in Melbourne that could open your eyes - The Guardian

For many organizations, embracing the potential of the new digital economy involves migrating services, data, and infrastructure to the cloud. The cloud is a powerfully disruptive technology. It allows businesses to be more agile, responsive, and available than ever before by transforming traditional compute architectures and best practices that have been in place for decades.

Most organizations today have some sort of a cloud strategy. Nearly all of them are adopting a hybrid cloud infrastructure that combines their private cloud with one or more public cloud solutions. As a result, organizations now use an average of 62 cloud applications, with cloud-based Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) apps climbing to their highest value ever. And nearly half of all workloads are now being run in a cloud environment.

Unfortunately, many organizations are now facing a cloud skills gap every bit as serious as the one affecting cybersecurity. The result is that many companies are having a difficult time seamlessly integrating their traditional network with their new cloud environments.

And of course, every time you extend or alter the network you also expand the potential attack surface. Mobile computing, the increase of new applications, and the distribution of data into the cloud means that users, devices, and applications are able to access virtually any information or interact with virtually any user or device, from any location. New cloud-related risks include insider threats, especially from privileged users, compromised accounts, and shadow IT (where data and resources are stored or processed using cloud applications not approved by corporate).

The traditional security models and technologies we have relied on for decades were simply never designed to protect todays elastic and highly virtualized environments. And as we continue to see, cybercriminals are ready and able to exploit every weakness in these new technologies or services. So, while we are in the process of reengineering our businesses (and our society), it is also time to radically rethink security.

To respond to this new threat landscape, many organizations have accelerated the adoption of specialized security, such as virtualized, on-demand data center protection, web-application firewalls, security for mobile devices, secure email gateways, advanced threat protection, and sandboxes. However, dozens of isolated security tools, regardless of how relevant they may seem to be, create their own problem. Overburdened IT teams are poorly equipped to adequately deploy, configure, monitor, and manage dozens of new security tools - especially when there is no good way to correlate the threat intelligence each of these devices produces.

As a result, this deluge of isolated security tools being deployed has actually created a blind spot in the overall security strategy of many organizations. And as we continue to see, a critical lapse invisibility, control, or coordination in any part of the distributed network, especially in the cloud, can spell disaster for a digital business.

To address this challenge, security needs to be redesigned. Todays organizations require an interconnected security framework that can dynamically expand and adapt as organizations extend into the cloud. Security policy and enforcement need to seamlessly follow and protect data, users, and applications as they move back and forth between IoT, traditional networks, and the cloud. And networks need to be able to automatically respond in a coordinated fashion at the speed of an attack.

In order to adequately protect todays distributed business, organizations need to adopt an integrated security strategy that can actively collect, share, and correlate threat information, distribute mitigation instructions across all attack vectors, extend visibility and control across the networked ecosystem, and enable a synchronized attack response. One effective way to do this is to design a security architecture, or fabric-based approach, that enables you to tie your deployed security tools into a single, holistic solution.

As your organization expands its security strategy into the cloud, you should consider the following:

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Preventing Cloud Blindness | CSO Online - CSO Online

One in 12 men and one in 200 women are affected by colour blindness, and The Football Association has published guidance notes on the condition to raise awareness of its impact on football.

The detailed guidance publication complete with visual examples has been produced by The FA in conjunction with Colour Blind Awareness, the leading UK organisation devoted to the issue. It also has the full support of UEFA, who intend disseminating the guidance to all the football governing bodies under its umbrella.

As well as spectators, players, coaches and referees who are colour-blind face everyday problems. Former Charlton Athletic and Ipswich Town midfielder Matt Holland, who is colour blind, said: In one particular match when we were in red and the opponents were in dark green I couldnt tell the colours apart.

I had to really concentrate in that game looking at socks, because they were easier for me to distinguish. There was nothing else I could do.

Norway national team manager Lars Lagerback added: If the play moves very quickly it's easy to end up in a situation where you have a hard time telling if the other player is an opponent or a member of your own team.

The guidance explains the different types of colour blindness, answers common questions and provides suggested positive interventions with those who may be affected.

It gives best-practice visual examples to avoid kit clashes, and includes a series of simulations to show the normally-sighted what colour-blind people are likely to see.

The guidance notes are available to download below.

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Colour Blindness in football - The FA

Volunteer Delegates Gather to Meet with Government Representatives, Advocate on Vision and Eye Health Issues

CHICAGO (PRWEB) June 20, 2017

Prevent Blindness, the nation's oldest volunteer eye health and safety organization, will be holding its eleventh annual "Eyes on Capitol Hill" advocacy day on Tuesday, June 27, 2017, in Washington, D.C. Since 2006, Prevent Blindness and its affiliates have brought citizens from across the country to meet with members of the House and Senate, and their staff, to discuss the importance of vision and eye health programs and research.

In 1908, Prevent Blindness was founded as a public health and advocacy group dedicated to healthy vision. From children's vision issues, to workplace safety, to adult eye disease and more, the Prevent Blindness mission has been to save sight across the age spectrum for more than 100 years.

This year's Eyes on Capitol Hill meetings have been scheduled to specifically ask elected officials to:

On June 28, all Eyes on Capitol Hill delegates will attend the sixth annual Focus on Eye Health National Summit at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

"We are proud to continue to work with members of government, through our Eyes on Capitol Hill event as well as other local and national advocacy efforts, to help protect the gift of sight and continue to bring Americans to quality, affordable eye care," said Hugh R. Parry, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness.

For more information on Eyes on Capitol Hill or Prevent Blindness and its advocacy initiatives, please call (800) 331-2020 or visit http://www.preventblindness.org/content/eyes-capitol-hill.

About Prevent Blindness Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness is the nation's leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. Focused on promoting a continuum of vision care, Prevent Blindness touches the lives of millions of people each year through public and professional education, advocacy, certified vision screenings, community and patient service programs and research. These services are made possible through the generous support of the American public. Together with a network of affiliates, Prevent Blindness is committed to eliminating preventable blindness in America. For more information, or to make a contribution to the sight-saving fund, call 1 (800) 331-2020 or visit us on the Web at preventblindness.org.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/06/prweb14440381.htm

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Prevent Blindness Brings Constituents From Across the Country to ... - Benzinga

During the Great American Total Solar Eclipse on Aug. 21, millions of people will gaze at the sun to see the moon slowly pass in front of it, blocking out the light. But those who aren't careful risk doing some nasty damage to their eyes.

You've probably been told that it isn't safe to stare at the sunand that watching a solar eclipse without proper eye protection can make you go blind. That's because the light from the sun is so intense that it can literally burn your eyeballs even during a solar eclipse, when part of the sun's disk is still visible.

Even the tiniest sliver of a crescent sun peeking out from behind the moon emits enough light to scorch your eyes, Ralph Chou, professor emeritus at the School of Optometry & Vision Science at the University of Waterloo in Canada, told Space.com. "I have seen instances where the patient has eventually shown up with crescents burned into the back of the eye, and you can almost tell exactly when they looked." [How to View a Solar Eclipse Without Damaging Your Eyes ]

This panel shows the various stages of the solar eclipse. The so-called "diamond ring" marks the beginning of totality (third from the left) and the end of totality (third from the right). Imelda Joson and Edwin Aguirre assembled this sequence from individual still frames they took of the March 29, 2006, total solar eclipse near El Salloum in Egypt.

Sunlight damages the eyes by triggering a series of chemical reactions in the retina, the light-sensitive part at the back of the eye. Retinas contain two types of photoreceptors: rods that help you see in the dark and cones that produce color vision.

When intense solar radiation hits the retinas, it can damage and even destroy those cells, in what doctors call a retinal photochemical injury, or solar retinopathy. Whether looking at the sun will cause this type of injury depends on both how long you look without protection and the sun's position in the sky. Overhead, the sun is brighter and more dangerous to look at than when it is close to the horizon during sunrise or sunset.

The left image shows a healthy eye. The middle is the eye of a young adult male who viewed a partial solar eclipse repeatedly without protection and suffered both thermal and photochemical solar retinopathy. Several crescent-shaped scars can be seen over and around the fovea (bright pinkish spot). He is legally blind in this eye. The far-right image shows an eye with several photochemical retinal lesions. The irregular pale "smudge" above and left of the fovea, plus the three smaller pale areas at the arrowheads, are the remnants of the photochemical injuries to that eye. The vision did recover eventually.

"You can think of it in the same way as this: Let's suppose you decide to really pig out for dinner, and afterwards you're not feeling very well," Chou said. "Well, [it's the] same thing with all the light hitting the light-sensitive receptors at the back of the eye. They get so much of this light energy coming in that they really can't handle [it]."

In severe cases, this type of photochemical damage may also come with thermal injuries, or literal burns, that destroy the rods and cones in the retina. This can happen to people who repeatedly look at the sun without any protection, those who stare at the sun for an extended time, or even those who glance through a telescope or binoculars without solar filters.

Not many people look at the sun long enough to be blinded by the light, Chou said, but the risk is certainly exacerbated during a solar eclipse.

Under normal circumstances, it's more difficult to look at the sun long enough to incur damage because of something called an aversion reflex. "We learn early on in life we just shouldn't be looking at something that bright, because it is uncomfortable and we can't see anything," Chou said.

"The problem when it comes to looking at a partially eclipsed sun is that you are trying to see something that you know is going on that's different, and willpower is an amazing thing to override an aversion reflex."

To make matters worse, it's possible to look directly at the sun "with a certain degree of comfort" when the sun is partially covered by the moon, Chou said. Even when the sun is almost completely covered, though, the tiny crescent that remains is still bright enough to burn your retinas.

One thing that makes eclipse blindness particularly dangerous is that a person who looks at the sun long enough to incur damage probably won't notice any of the effects until the next morning, Chou said.

"Let's say you take a look at the sun in the afternoon. The cells get overloaded, and they're actually still able to function for a little while, but overnight while you're asleep the cells start lose their function, and then they even start to die depending on exactly how badly they've been affected," he explained.

People who wake up to discover their vision has become impaired may look in the mirror to find their face is a featureless blur, Chou said, or they may try to read the newspaper only to find that there are no words on the page. While peripheral vision is usually spared, the center of vision is affected the worst. That's the part of the retina responsible for seeing in high resolution and in color.

"Most people, they don't see a black spot," Chou said. "For the most part they have damaged photoreceptors that just aren't capable of doing more than just registering maybe the presence of light but can't really build up enough information for them to be able to see clearly."

Most patients with eclipse blindness are legally blind when they go to see an eye doctor, Chou said. Unfortunately, the prognosis for these patients is nearly impossible to determine.

"You just sort of end up having to wait it out, and that's the really unfortunate part about it," Chou said. "The typical person who's been injured is going to wait six to 12 months before they know what their ultimate status is going to be."

Statistically, about half of those who are diagnosed with eclipse blindness will recover full vision in six months, he said. The other half either partially recover or are stuck with the problem for the rest of their lives.

And when it comes to treatment, there really aren't any options. "Over the years, certainly ophthalmologists have tried various ways, pharmacological and otherwise, to try and reduce the amount of damage and swelling that is thought to be the main cause for the loss of vision," Chou said. "For the most part, those types of treatments don't seem to be effective."

The only thing doctors can do to help these patients is to treat the case as any other case of visual impairment, Chou said, by teaching the individuals how to get around in the world and function without central vision.

The "diamond ring" effect is seen in this view of the March 8, 2016 total solar eclipse, which was captured by the Slooh Community Observatory.

The only time it's safe to look at the sun withouteclipse glassesor other solar filters is during totality, when the moon is completely blocking out the sun's rays and only the corona is visible. If you're planning on watching any kind solar eclipse, whether it's of the total, annular or partial variety, you absolutely must use proper eye protection if you want to spare your eyes. Otherwise, you'll risk long-term or even permanent blindness.

But definitely don't forget to take off your solar eclipse glasses during totality, when the sun is 100 percent covered by the moon. In fact, if you don't remove your solar filters during totality, you won't be able to see anything at all.

While official recommendations by NASA and the American Astronomical society say you shouldn't look directly at the sun when any part of it is showing, experienced eclipse watchers like Chou say it's safe to remove your eclipse glasses during the 2-3 seconds before and after totality to see the so-called diamond ring effect, or "Baily's beads." During this phase of the eclipse, the light of the crescent sun forms points of light on the edge of the disk for just a few seconds.

Anyone who plans to observe the eclipse with a telescope, binoculars or cameras should practice using the equipment before the eclipse, Chou said. Don't wait until the eclipse starts to figure out how to insert and remove the filters from your lenses. For those using eclipse glasses or handheld viewers, make sure to put the filters in front of your eyes before looking up at the sun, not the other way around, Chou said. And children observing a solar eclipse should always be supervised to ensure they're practicing proper eye safety, he said.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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A Solar Eclipse Can Blind You (Read This Before Looking at the Sun!) - Space.com

By Michael Oche, Abuja

The New Initiative for Credible Leadership, a leading research and development based Civil Society Organization in Nigeria has hailed the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) under the leadership of Professor Mrs. Lucy Ogbadu for her innovations in biotechnology and genetic engineering in the country.

NABDA is an organization aimed at promoting, coordinating, and setting research and development priority in biotechnology for Nigeria.

NICreL noted the ongoing economic quandary in Nigeria as a result of fall in oil prices calls for all stakeholders to put on their thinking cap for the country to move away from its over dependency and focus on other sectors, particularly agriculture which was the mainstream of the countrys gross national earnings was booming before the advent crude oil.

Addressing newsmen on the activities of Nigerias research institutions in Abuja, Reverend Steven Onwu, Executive Secretary of the Centre, averred that NABDA within the last two years has continued to work assiduously hard under its mandate to put the nation at par with global realities through its various innovations, scientific breakthroughs in the field of genetics and intellectual acumen to move the country forward.

Onwu noted that Professor Ogbadu is demonstrating to Nigerians through her sterling leadership anchored on accountability, probity and transparency that our journey to the promised land is not a mirage if we put all hands on deck and the country first in all our dealings.

His words, The organization is patriotically driving the change agenda by blazing the trail in this uncommon field and the agency deserves a better funding support to do more.

No country in the world is as naturally endowed as Nigeria in terms of 21st century resources that are scattered across the various locations in the country and would require the needed intellectual drivers to achieve that amount of greatness which is commensurate with our resources.

The NICreL executive, while calling on the Nigerian Government to support the Ogbadu-led NABDA, noted that the agency needed more encouragement to continue to promote biotechnology activities that positively respond to national aspirations on food security, job/wealth creation, affordable healthcare delivery and sustainable environment.

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NICreL Seeks FG's Support For NABDA To Boost Biotechnology ... - Leadership Newspapers

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Eating fish may help reduce the joint pain and swelling of rheumatoid arthritis, a new study has found.

Researchers studied 176 people in a larger health study who had had physical exams and blood tests and filled out food frequency questionnaires that indicated their consumption of various types of non-fried fish.

The study, in Arthritis Care & Research, categorized the participants into groups by fish consumption: less than one serving a month, one a month, one to two a week, and more than two a week. To rate the severity of symptoms they used a disease activity score that assigns a number based on the degree of swelling and pain.

After controlling for race, sex, body mass index, smoking, education, fish oil supplement use, duration of rheumatoid arthritis symptoms and other health and behavioral characteristics, they found the average disease activity score in each group declined as fish intake increased.

The lead author, Dr. Sara K. Tedeschi, an associate physician at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, said that this is an observational study and does not prove cause and effect.

Still, the observed reductions in pain and swelling from the lowest to the highest group in fish intake is clinically significant. The magnitude of the effect, she said, is large about one-third of the expected magnitude of the standard drug treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with methotrexate.

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Fish as Medicine for Rheumatoid Arthritis - New York Times

MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - Millions of Americans suffer from excruciating pain that makes it hard for them to stay active, but a first-of-its-kind implant could bring new hope for people with arthritis.

Some two million Americans suffer from big toe arthritis, which makes it hard for them to do simple things like exercise or for women, wear high heels.

The FDA, however, approved a new implant last year that could help people with the condition get back on their feet.

"Stiffness is the most troublesome symptom. People can't bend over their big toe," Edina orthopedic surgeon Dr Lance Silverman said. "They can't squat down. They can't get into shoes."

Dr Silverman says big toe arthritis is caused when the cartilage in the joint wears out, making the bones rub against one another, limiting the toe's movement and causing excruciating pain.

He's the first orthopedic surgeon in Minneapolis to perform a procedure that takes an implant called Cartiva, which is the size of a gum drop and made out of the same material as contact lenses, and inserts it between the bones to act as a shock absorber.

"It's so exciting because it's simple," Dr. Silverman said. "It's an elegant solution. It reproduces Mother Nature as closely as humans have been able to in this particular area and does so with an excellent track record."

Dr. Silverman says the usual treatment for big toe arthritis is to fuse the bones together, but that means the patient can't bend their toe anymore.

But with the Cartiva implant, the toe retains its full range of motion and patients are back in regular shoes within a couple of weeks, rather than a couple of months with a bone fusion.

"It allows you to do the running, the jogging you want to," Dr. Silverman said. "It allows people to get back to yoga exercises where they can bend their toe joint and don't have to roll out out as much. So there is some success that fusion just can't provide."

The Cartiva synthetic cartilage implant has been available in Europe and Canada for a decade, where doctors have used it to treat arthritic knees and even thumbs.

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New implant offers long-term treatment for arthritis - KMSP-TV

By Andrea Avery By Andrea Avery June 20 at 6:00 AM Andrea Avery is the author of "Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano." She was the winner of the Real Simple "Life Lessons" essay contest, has a PhD from Arizona State University and is an English teacher in Phoenix.

Excerpted from Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano, and republished with permission from Pegasus Books

There was a painfully short before, and then the rest came after. The first 12 years of my life, I lived in another body.

Those 12 years before 1989 get smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror: They were once all Id known, then the better half, now just a blip. Like matter itself, they will never entirely disappear.

In this before, I was going to be a pianist. I was not crazy to think so. By some magic of genetics and environment, the keys rose to meet my fingers and music came. And then, too soon, by some inverted miracle of genetics and environment, rheumatoid arthritis appeared. The keys still rose to meet my fingers, but my curling fingers recoiled. For too long, I tried to be arthritic and a pianist.

For too long, I refused to believe that I could not be both. For decades, with swelling and crumbling hands, I groped at the piano, kneading, fearing that if I lost it, I would lose the only thing I liked about myself. Well into foolish adulthood, music swelled up inside me, infectious, a boil in need of lancing, and I kept one bruised and brutalized hand on the keyboard. With the other hand, I tried to fend off the disease as precocious as my musical talent itself that threatened to become the most notable thing about me.

***

Its a swampy Maryland summer, 1985. Its hot in my room. I cant sleep. I have the window open. I turn my pillow over. I kick the flimsy plaid bedspread to the floor. I flail and flop, and the tips of my hair get stuck in the sweaty creases of my armpits. When you have a house of your own, my dad likes to say, you can run the air-conditioning as much as you damn well please. I am 8. A house of my own is a long way off. Im going to be fever-hot forever. I extend my long, suntanned legs. Reflexively, I deploy the muscles I dont yet know are called quads so that my knees effortlessly hyperextend, so the slick crease behind them presses into my bedsheet. Many years later, in a future I cant imagine on this hot night, I will laboriously perform this same stretch 20 times in a row on the orders of a physical therapist. But tonight, I stretch my legs gloriously straight just once, a flash, and then I curl my feet up to my bottom like a potato bug.

My dad is snoring a low rumble. My mom is snoring in alto counterpoint on her side of the bed.

I get out of bed and walk sideways down the carpeted stairs, stepping as close to the wall as possible to avoid creaking. My brother taught me that. I support myself with one arm against the grass wallpaper. Not very much later, I will find I have to walk up and down all stairways sideways to minimize pain in the balls of my feet and because my knees will freeze, incapable of the fluid perpetual motion of leaving one step as I reach for the next. But tonight, my body is not yet calling the shots. Tonight, my body is incidental.

I turn left and go into the living room. I sit on the piano bench. I put my feet over the brass pedals of the Wurlitzer upright. The pedals are cold, and they fit into the space between my foot and my toe. I open the fallboard. My piano books are stacked on top of the piano. I open a book to find the solo I played at my first competition, at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, in the spring: Flamenco. I won a first-place ribbon.

I put my fingers on the plastic keys. They are not cold. They are the same temperature as my body. I depress a key slowly so it will not make a sound. I will get in trouble if I wake anyone up. But now that I am here, I must play. I cannot stand it.

I push a key again, this time a little harder. I keep my left foot on the una corda, or soft pedal. This is my bargain: I will go back to sleep in my own hot room if I can play for a few minutes. I cannot go back to sleep if I do not hear the piano first.

I make a sound, and then I must hear another. I keep one foot on the soft pedal and another on the damper pedal, because I love the way it sounds when the notes are all mushed together like coins in a piggy bank.

Sotto voce, pianissimo, I promise. I reach up and turn on the piano light, which instantly makes me hotter and stickier.

But the heat makes the muscles in my fingers limber, and the sweat on the pads of my fingers makes them fleet. They move quickly over the tops of the keys, nearly slipping off. I try to stay quiet, but I am playing.

This is home. This is the tonic. Tonic: taken in doses, it restores you to health.

***

I am 14; it has been two years since my diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, four years from that hot night at the piano.

Im home sick, again, from school, but I will not spend the day at the Wurlitzer. I know I am truly, differently sick, because even though I am older, I am not home alone. My dad is downstairs, and Im in the upstairs bathroom, trying to get into my bathing suit. I cant do it. My hands are too weak to hold on and pull.

I want to get into my bathing suit so I can go soak in the hot tub. I want to soak in the hot tub because I want to be surrounded by something hotter than my own skin, because I want to boil off the stiffness and pain that greeted me when I awoke this morning. Water is the kindest atmosphere; in water, less is asked of me. Water buoys my joints. In water, I can almost forget the horrible, heavy fact of lugging a body around. I get the bathing suit up to my belly button. My arms are through the armholes, but the armholes are down by my waist, so my arms are strapped to my side and Im in a straitjacket. Im stuck. I cant get the bathing suit up or down. I will be like this forever.

The girl in the mirror has ragamuffin hair stuck to her face because her face is wet with tears and sweat and fever, and I see her bare shoulders and brand-new, inadequate breasts and her hunched form, and I am disgusted. I think, No one will ever want you.

I dont remember how I got out of the bathing suit, whether it went up or down, or if I ever got into the hot tub that day. In the more than 25 years since I received a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis at 12, this point in my diseases infancy is among my lowest. I am ashamed of it. Not because of my helplessness after all, a kid can get stuck in a bathing suit and it can be a funny story or because of what it reveals about my body or how sick I really was. I am ashamed of what I thought. What I said, even silently, to a helpless, hurting kid, even if that kid was me.

I am ashamed that this moment, this raw note, is not truly discordant, that it suggests a key to which I could easily modulate, a key I was, and am always, in danger of living in.

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I was going to be a concert pianist. And then rheumatoid arthritis appeared. - Washington Post

June 20, 2017

Results were analyzed for early intervention in 1156 patients with pre-RA, at 52 weeks

Early treatment intervention in patients with "pre-rheumatoid arthritis" (pre-RA) significantly lowered the risk of RA occurrence in patients at 52 weeks and beyond. The full findings of the meta-analysis were presented at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR) 2017 in Madrid, Spain.

Pre-RA is defined as undifferentiated arthritisor very early RA, a point where early intervention could be more effective. Study authors searched PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane databases as well as the EULAR and ACR congress abstracts. They identified two congress abstracts and nine randomized controlled trials: eight of which were related to undifferentiated arthritis, and one which was related to very early RA.

Of the total patient sample (n=1,156), the majority were female and the mean symptom duration was 16.2 weeks. Early intervention in these pre-RA patients included methylprednisolone, methotrexate, TNF-blockers, abatacept or rituximab. Findings from the review showed a significant reduction in the risk of RA occurrence at 52 weeks or more "although there was no statistically significant difference in the absence of disease progression as seen on X-ray between those taking active treatments or placebo due to the disease being at such early stage," noted lead author Dr. Stephane Hilliquin, from the Piti Salptrire University Hospital, Paris, France.

The authors concluded that the literature review of the available data supports the rationale for early intervention in these patients. The benefit to risk profile and the feasibility of early treatment of pre-RA in clinical settings still warrant further research.

For more information visit eular.org.

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Early Treatment of 'Pre-RA' Patients May Reduce Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis - Monthly Prescribing Reference (registration)

Some people don't like to eat their vegetables , but for obese people with type 2 diabetes , broccoli could hold the key to slowing, and potentially reversing, the disease, according to a new study.

Scientists used both computational and experimental research to zero in on a network of 50 genes that cause symptoms associated with type 2 diabetes. They also located a compound called sulforaphane which is found naturally in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli , Brussels sprouts and cabbages that could turn down the expression of those genes, according to the findings, published today (June 14) in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

In the study, the scientists gave sulforaphane to obese patients , in the form of a concentrated broccoli sprout extract. They found that it improved the patients' systems' ability to control their glucose levels and reduced their glucose production two symptoms of diabetes that can lead to other health problems, including coronary artery disease , nerve damage and blindness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

"It's very exciting and opens up new possibilities for the treatment of type 2 diabetes ," Anders Rosengren, an assistant professor at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, told Live Science.

Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes, affects more than 300 million people globally. For those with the disease who are obese, the excess fat in the liver makes the body less sensitive to the hormone insulin, which can make it difficult for the organ to help regulate blood sugar levels. Normally, insulin, which is produced by the pancreas , stimulates the liver to pull glucose out of the bloodstream and store it for later use.

People with type 2 diabetes are usually advised to change their diet to help control their blood sugar levels. " Lifestyle changes are at the core of type 2 diabetes treatment but often need to be complemented with drugs," Rosengren said.

Currently the main treatment option is the drug metformin . But not every person who needs it can take it. About 15 percent of type 2 diabetes patients have reduced kidney function and taking metformin can increase their risk for lactic acidosis, an unhealthy build-up of lactic acid, which can cause abdominal discomfort, shallow breathing, muscle pain or cramping, and tiredness.

About 30 percent of patients who take metformin develop nausea, bloating and abdominal pain.

Finding an alternative to metformin was one of the team's objectives. But there was also general frustration in the clinical community that research labs were having a difficult time developing new anti-diabetic compounds , Rosengren said.

One challenge is that researcherslooking to develop new drugs have traditionally studied single genes or individual proteins . But diabetes is much more complicated than that. It involves a large network of genes, so the scientists had to find a new, systematic approach that took a holistic view of the disease.

Study leader Annika Axelsson, a doctoral student at Gothenburg, and her colleagues began by analyzing liver tissue from diabetic mice who were raised on a "Western diet" containing 42 percent fat and 0.15 percent cholesterol. After several tests, the scientists identified 1,720 genes associated with hyperglycemia, a condition in which an excessive amount of glucose circulates in the blood.

After further analysis, the researchers narrowed the 1,720 genes to a network of 50 linked genes that together result in high bloodglucose levels . This network became the so-called disease signature for type 2 diabetes.

Next, the researchers used a database of existing drug compounds and employed a mathematical modeling program to rank those compounds for their potential ability to reverse the disease signature in other words, to turn down those overexpressed genes.

Sulforaphane had the highest ranking. The team ran several experiments to see if it could actually lower glucose levels in living systems. First, they tested the compound in cells growing in lab dishes, and found that it inhibited glucose production. Next, they tested it in rodents, and found that it improved glucose tolerance in animals on a high-fat or high-fructose diet.

Finally, the researchers tested sulforaphane in people. Over the course of 12 weeks, 97 patients with type 2 diabetes took a daily dose of concentrated broccoli sprout extract in powdered form. The dose was about 100 times the amount found naturally in broccoli . For those who were not obese, the sulforaphane did not have any affect.

But for those who were obese, the results were significant, the researchers reported. Typically, for people with type 2 diabetes, glucose levels in the blood stay high, even when they are fasting. But sulforaphane reduced fasting blood glucose in these patients by 10 percent compared to the participants in the study who took a placebo, according to the study. That amount is enough to lower a person's risk of developing health complications. And the compound did not cause gastrointestinal problems that metformin can cause, nor other side effects.

For the next phase of this study, Rosengren said the team would like to investigate the effects of sulforaphane on people with prediabetes to see whether it could improve their glucose control before type 2 diabetes develops.

Originally published on Live Science .

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Broccoli compound could help treat type 2 diabetes - Fox News

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Secondary market arises for diabetes test strips | Pittsburgh Post ... Pittsburgh Post-Gazette High retail costs for the strips and limits on prescription availability have created a gray market — and related concerns. and more »

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Secondary market arises for diabetes test strips | Pittsburgh Post ... - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

CLEVELAND, Ohio Diabetes can be deadly. Each year, more than 70,000 Americans die from complications of the disease. About half of all people with type 2 diabetes dont have their condition under control.

Now, new research shows a well-known procedure for weight loss may be the best bet for patients with uncontrolled diabetes.

This was the old Lisa Shaffer. At her heaviest: almost 300 pounds!

When I was obese, my life was so limited, Shaffer said.

Her health suffered, too. Lisa had type 2 diabetes, and she tried everything to control it.

Shaffer explained, Nothing worked, nope.

But today, Lisa is 120 pounds lighter and her diabetes is gone. The reason; gastric bypass surgery.

Its been incredible. Yeah. It really did give me my life back, Shaffer exclaimed.

Phillip Schauer, MD, Director of the Cleveland Clinic Bariatric and Metabolic Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, led a study that compared bariatric surgery, either gastric bypass or gastric sleeve, to intense medical therapy in people with diabetes. After five years, the gastric bypass patients did the best. Many were in complete remission without drugs or insulin.

Which is pretty remarkable. Thats about as close to a cure that you can get, Dr. Schauer explained.

Twenty-nine percent of gastric bypass and 23 percent of gastric sleeve patients achieved and maintained normal blood sugar levels -compared to just 5 percent of medication-only patients. The surgery groups also lost more weight and reported a better quality of life.

All in all, the patients who had surgery did better and were happier at the five- year mark, Dr. Schauer stated.

Three days after her surgery, Lisa was off all of her meds. Her A1c, a measure of blood sugar control, was 10.5 before the surgery and today, its 5.3. Now shes able to live the life shes always wanted.

Ever since I lost the weight, Ive run three 5ks. Ive done zip lining with the family, which is fantastic. Just no limits anymore, theres no limitations on my life anymore, Shaffer stated.

Doctor Schauer says weight loss is one reason diabetes patients benefit from bariatric surgery. The other is something that happens in the body as a result of the surgery. When the intestines are bypassed, special hormones increase, which helps the pancreas produce insulin more effectively.

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Weight loss procedure may help people with uncontrolled diabetes - WNDU-TV

Gothenburg, Sweden (Scicasts) Researchers have identified an antioxidant - richly occurring in broccoli - as a new antidiabetic substance. A patient study shows significantly lower blood sugar levels in participants who ate broccoli extract with high levels of sulforaphane.

"There are strong indications that this can become a valuable supplement to existing medication," says Anders Rosengren, Docent in Metabolic Physiology at the University of Gothenburg.

The publication in the journal Science Translational Medicine builds on several years' research at Sahlgrenska Academy and Wallenberg Centre for Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Gothenburg, and the Faculty of Medicine at Lund University.

The objective was to find new medications against type-2 diabetes by addressing an important disease mechanism: The liver's elevated glucose production. The classic drug metformin works by doing just that, but often causes gastric side-effects and can also not be taken when kidney function is severely reduced, which affects many with diabetes.

The researchers began by mapping the genetic changes in the liver in diabetes. 50 genes proved to play key roles. These were then matched against different substances in the search for compounds that could affect these particular key genes, and thereby attack the disease on a broad front.

Of 2,800 substances investigated through computer-based mathematical analyses, sulforaphane proved to have the best characteristics for the task. An antioxidant that was previously studied for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory disease, but not for diabetes was thereby identified.

Cell experiments were followed by animal studies on rats and mice with dietary-induced diabetes. The blood sugar of the animals that received sulforaphane dropped by 23 percent in four weeks, and by 24 percent in those given metformin.

"We tested removing sulforaphane from the extract and the effect disappeared. We also looked at the genes from the liver of the animals and saw that the 50 key genes had been changed in the right direction," says Anders Rosengren.

With the knowledge that sulforaphane does not hurt people, which was already documented, a patient study was then done with around hundred patients. Basically all were on metformin treatment, but in the group that took sulforaphane every morning for 12 weeks, the patients with poor glucose control and BMI at 30 or above (well-known factors associated with elevated glucose production) had significantly lower blood sugar levels than the placebo group. In other words, sulforaphane benefited exactly those patients, totally 17 in the study, who have elevated glucose production in the liver.

A daily dose of sulforaphane is extracted from four to five kilograms of broccoli. The plan is to have a functional food preparation out within two years. Development is taking place with farmer owned organization Lantmnnen.

"Sulforaphane targets a central mechanism in type 2 diabetes and has a mild side-effect profile. As functional food, it can reach the patients faster than a medication, and it is also an interesting concept from a diabetes perspective where diet is central," says Anders Rosengren.

Article adapted from a University of Gothenburg news release.

Publication: Sulforaphane reduces hepatic glucose production and improves glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes. Annika S. Axelsson et al. Science Translational Medicine (2017): Click here to view.

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Researchers Identify New Substance Against Diabetes in Broccoli - Scicasts (press release) (blog)

Tyson Graham sits in a small room with a keyboard. His fingers move across the keys with the ease of a professional pianist though Tyson is only 11 years old.

That was beautiful, he says as he finishes writing a piece, a smile forming on his face. He listens to a piece of piano music and plays it back nearly perfectly without ever seeing the music. At the age of 9, he was given a full scholarship to a gifted school of music in Salt Lake City.

The music is in him, said his mother Laura. He has a hard time vocalizing his feelings but he speaks through his music.

Despite playing his beautiful music, Tyson cannot see the keys. He and his brother, Landon aka Dino, are both completely blind from retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP, and have cerebral palsy. They also both love music. As Tyson plays in the keyboard, Landon squeals with delight in the next room as he hears the sounds.

Thats a happy scream, Laura explains. Landon is nonverbal and the family has learned his sounds. Tyson smiles as he hears his brothers joy.

The two are perfectly in sync. When Landon is sad, Tyson will go check on him and make sure he is okay. And when Tyson is having a rough time, Landon will lay with him to cheer him up.

They dont like when the other is upset, I dont think they even understand what fighting is, explained parents Laura and Jared.

Today, Landon is working with the physical therapists at the Now I Can Foundation in Provo. The Grahams came from their home at Hill Air Force Base near Ogden to be at the center, which provides traditional and intensive therapy sessions that last three to four weeks long.

The first time we came, Landon would lay in the bathtub and we could wash him, explained Laura. After that he would stand and hold the rail, it was worth it just for that.

Now, he is working on walking with less assistance. Due to his condition, one of Landons legs is inches shorter than the other. Along with his cerebral palsy and blindness, he lacks the confidence to walk alone. At the center, the physical therapy team works with the children to gain confidence in themselves along with learning new everyday skills. On Tuesday, Landon will graduate from this three-week section.

We have never told them they cant do anything, said Laura. My goal is for them to reach whatever height they can achieve.

Together, the two show talents incredibly beyond their ages, Tyson through music and Landon through engineering things, taking things apart and putting them back together again.

Life for the Graham family has been anything but easy. Jared is a member of the U.S. Air Force and was previously deployed when the boys were younger to serve his country. During his deployment, Laura learned how to handle the boys on her own. I learned to just do it, she said. There are times when I dont want to be a nurse, but I do it with love and joy because that is the option. The boys have a nightly three-hour routine involving g-tubes and medications and medical activities.

They have a warrior spirit to them, explained Jared. Theyve had so much done to them their entire life but they never complain. We have a little bit of heaven in our house.

As therapy continues, Landons walking improves and he walks while only lightly holding someones hand for a while. Laura beams at the progress he is making.

Theyre incredible human beings, said Laura. Theyre not giving up and we arent either.

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A little bit of heaven - Twin boys with blindness share love of music - Daily Herald

The 59-year-old from Wellington had already lost sight in one eye after a work accident years before, but has had to adjust to life with only five per cent vision after his operation at Princess Royal Hospital in October.

The condition, he said, has left him terrified to leave his home town, and he blames the hospital for both the original infection and, he says, for failing to help him in the months since. The hospital has denied responsibility for the infection.

Bosses at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust said that after an investigation they found no errors in his care or treatment, and that they would be happy to talk to Mr Mason about his options.

I used to travel all over the world. I dont feel confident leaving Wellington now, Mr Mason said.

I know the environment here, but I dont know about going somewhere else.

I used to do a lot of travelling, but because of this I cant do that any more. I dont feel confident enough to travel anyway. Ive got to ask people what time the train is coming or where I should go. It makes life so difficult.

It causes me an awful lot of problems. I struggle around the house. I live on my own in Wellington. Because of my eye sight problems, I had a fall and broke my left arm because I missed a step. That was the beginning of this year.

I cant see the cooker dials, but I can just about see the microwave minutes buttons. I cook food that way.

I used to enjoy cooking, but I cant do that now. I seem to be living on ready meals. It has had a major impact on my life.

Mr Mason was admitted to Princess Royal Hospital in October with an abdominal issue, but while there picked up an eye infection, which left him with a swollen eyeball.

He was treated with antibiotics and his eye went back to normal size, but he was left with his now limited vision.

He said: It was just a minor surgery issue, but once I had recovered my eyeball had swollen up. I was given eye drops which cured it for a short time, but now Ive been left in the position Im in now.

The hospital have told me I need a corneal skin graft to smooth out the front of my eye, but nothing seems to be forthcoming from them.

Ive seen a specialist who has told me Im in a queue. Ive complained to the chief executive and got a letter back saying theyd look into it. That was in the beginning of March.Theres a hope this operation will restore my sight, and its a hope Im clinging to. If it fails, that is something Ill cross when it comes to it. Im not someone who looks on the negative side. I just know I need the operation.

Mr Mason said that he wanted the hospital to take responsibility for what happened while he was in their care.

Id like them to give me the operation, but Id also like them to take the responsibility for my condition, he said.

I got the infection while I was their patient. Ive come out of Princess Royal Hospital with a problem and its only gone on from there. Im a fairly positive person, but I went in for an operation and this happened. I wasnt banking on this.

Mark Cheetham, scheduled care group a medical director at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: We are aware of Mr Masons complex medical history.

Were sorry to hear Mr Mason has suffered a deterioration in his eyesight. We have fully investigated Mr Masons concerns and no evidence has been found of any errors in his care or treatment. We would be very happy to meet with Mr Mason if he would like us to discuss this further with him.

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Princess Royal Hospital to blame for blindness, says Telford man ... - shropshirestar.com

Theres consensus that the UKs maritime industry has, over the last few decades, struggled to captivate the public imagination. Whether it be through word of mouth, media attention, or the jobs on offer, other sectors, such as automotive, aerospace and aviation, have climbed the ladder of awareness to such an extent that the term sea blindness has now entered the maritime lexicon.

Out of sight and out of mind, is how Nick Harvey, campaigns manager at the charity Seafarers UK, describes it. We take the view that sea blindness is very much a real issue. The contact we have with people through our campaigning work indicates that young people, in particular, are not receiving information in schools or in their family units.

But, according to a recent poll, people do understand shippings importance to the countrys imports and exports.

Ive lost track of the number of times people have complained to me that the public and our politicians dont understand the importance of shipping to our trading economy, wrote UK Chamber of Shipping communications director Jonathan Roberts in May. I was concerned not only of the enormous time and energy being devoted to solving sea blindness, but that it was also potentially diverting resources away from more pressing matters.

The Chamber, therefore, undertook a poll with ComRes, asking 2,026 members of the British public and 127 MPs which mode of transport was principally responsible for moving international trade. Results show that 87% of MPs and 84% of the public identified shipping.

Is that to be expected, or a surprising finding? I think this idea that people don't understand where our goods come from is a myth, explains Guy Platten, Chamber of Shipping CEO. Platten does, however, qualify his answer, agreeing that to some extent the publics relationship with the maritime industry has changed over the years, adding: What Im finding as I speak to people and journalists is that they suddenly find it interesting. We can sometimes do ourselves down a little bit. I think the profile will continue to rise.

"If you look at the national media, maritime is seldom a headline story."

Theres also the caveat that comes with any poll how accurate is the result and were people simply guessing at the answer? Speaking after the publication of the results, Maritime UK chairman David Dingle said: This opinion poll shows without doubt that shipping is in the minds of the public and our politicians, while an article on the Chambers official website was titled Opinion poll confirms 'sea blindness' is a myth.

Yet such a statement seems premature when coupled with Harveys thoughts and, indeed, the opinion of trade union Nautilus. Theres no doubt, says a Nautilus spokesperson, that sea blindness is a challenge, with a widespread lack of public and political awareness about the vital role of ships and seafarers in our society.

Theres certainly evidence to show some alarming gaps in knowledge about the maritime sector, the spokesperson adds.

Back in 2014, another poll this one commissioned by Seafarers UK as part of the annual Seafarers Awareness Week found that just four in 10 people knew that the majority of food imported into the UK came by sea. Of the 1,000 people surveyed, 27% said air and 20% road.

Harvey adds: Some of the research we have done among children, even those living in coastal towns and port cities, shows they don't have much of an inkling of what's going on right under their noses.

So, why might the maritime sector be losing public awareness? The reasons are complex. Globalisation has somewhat diminished Britains status as the pre-eminent maritime nation. Seafarers can now be employed from almost anywhere in the world, often on lower wages than their British counterparts. Consider also Harveys point that the majority of business takes place out of sight, out of mind.

Young people now have more career options. Education, in particular higher education, is now more readily available, meaning that school leavers are less likely to follow parents or other family members in their choice of job. Moreover, in the UK people look back on the countrys maritime heritage with a great deal of fondness. Is there too much focus on the past and not enough on the here and now?

You have hit the nail on the head, says Harvey. We take the view that 30, 40, 50 years ago, there was a feeling that everyone knew someone who worked at sea.

Platten argues that we have tended to be a bit inward looking at times, while Harvey adds that its also the fact that maritime gets on with its business; it does what it does. In essence, it is away from the media glare. If you look at national news programmes or newspapers, maritime is seldom a headline story, although Platten is eager to point out that the Chamber had over 150 mentions in the mainstream media last year, up from 13 in 2013.

Still, there is concern that unless more is done, recruitment will be damaged. In January, the governments shipping minister, John Hayes, spoke of how the sea and those who work on it and for it are significant for the economy, contributing about 13.5bn and employing over 110,000 people. It is, he added, important to what we are, who we are, as a people. An island race. A maritime nation.

It is conceivable that this status will come under threat if the sector does not sell its story to the next generation. If you look at the merchant sector, says Harvey, seafarers are getting older. If those gaps aren't filled [in the UK], they will be filled by seafarers from other countries.

If the ordinary man or woman in the street doesn't have a feel for the country's dependence on seafarers, then they won't be very sympathetic when charities like ours ask them to help seafarers when they fall on hard times.

Government figures released at the start of year show that in 2016 the estimated number of UK nationals active at sea was 23,060. A total of 1,860 officer cadets were training in the financial year 2015/16, a decrease of 3% on 2014/15. Meanwhile, the number of new entrants under the governments Support for Maritime Training (SMarT) scheme was 750, a drop of 9% compared to 2014/15.

It may seem modest, and predictable, but awareness is the priority. We have to tell the story of seafaring from the beginning, explains Harvey, who, alongside his colleagues at Seafarers UK, is currently preparing for Seafarers Awareness Week, which takes place on 24-30 June, and this year focuses on careers.

Seafarers UK is also running a 'fly the Red Ensign' event for Merchant Navy Day on 3 September. This involves asking local councils we're hopeful that we'll have as many as a 1,000 participating, says Harvey to fly the Red Ensign on civic buildings. The very act of it being flown is quite helpful, because people don't commonly see that flown ashore, Harvey adds.

Platten and the Chamber of Shipping, meanwhile, want the government to double its funding for the SMarT scheme. "At the moment we get about 15m worth of support. Around 800 new cadets start each year, but we'd like to get that to 1,200, then 1,600 over time. I think 15m extra is a bit of a drop in the ocean. They can get an awful lot of bang for their buck.

"We are changing perceptions every day."

We've had parliamentarians back this campaign we believe it is the right thing to do. The government was approached for comment but was unable to respond because of pre-election purdah rules.

Furthermore, the Chamber is working with schools, sending in ambassadors on a weekly basis to outline careers at sea. The governments Maritime Growth Study, released in 2015, also makes numerous recommendations to keep the sector competitive.

And, with Brexit thrusting the economy to the forefront, theres a chance for shipping as the leading facilitator of global trade to embed itself within the collective consciousness.

I think we are upping our game, says Platten. Momentum is starting to build, and we are changing perceptions every day.

Continued here:
Sea blindness: UK maritime in the public eye - Ship Technology