"Atherosclerosis is ubiquitous among modern day humans and, despite difference in ancient and modern lifestyles, we found that it was rather common in ancient Egyptians of high socioeconomic status living as much as three millennia ago," said Gregory Thomas, a cardiology professor at the University of California, Irvine.
David Deri makes the point that only Sephardi children received the x-rays: "I was in class and the men came to take us on a tour. They asked our names. The Ashkenazi children were told to return to their seats. The dark children were put on the bus."
The combination of two vaccines that has previously failed to produce a response on their own has cut the risk of becoming infected with HIV by more than 31 per cent.
Using leftovers from liposuction patients, scientists have turned human fat into stem cells, a new study says. The new method is much more efficient than a previous practice that used skin cells, researchers say. The discovery may also help avoid the controversy spawned by the use of stem cells from human embryos.
The understanding now is that muscle cells convert glucose or glycogen to lactic acid. The lactic acid is taken up and used as a fuel by mitochondria, the energy factories in muscle cells. Mitochondria even have a special transporter protein to move the substance into them, Dr. Brooks found. Intense training makes a difference, he said, because it can make double the mitochondrial mass.
One day, she mentioned her problem to her mother and was surprised at the knowing response. Those squishy little things were tonsil stones, her mother explained, and she sometimes got them too.
Those classified as overweight have 4 percent less brain tissue and their brains appear to have aged prematurely by 8 years. The results, based on brain scans of 94 people in their 70s, represent "severe brain degeneration," said Paul Thompson, senior author of the study and a UCLA professor of neurology.
Not eating for 12-16 hours can help people quickly reset their sleep-wake cycle, according to a study from the Harvard Medical School. This discovery can drastically improve a person's ability to cope with jet lag or adjust to working late shifts.
When the volunteers were retested five years later the medics found those with the lowest levels of vitamin B12 were also the most likely to have brain shrinkage. It confirms earlier research showing a link between brain atrophy and low levels of B12. ... Researchers found that the hippocampus-the part of the brain that stores memories - was 10 percent smaller in beer drinkers than those who stuck to wine.
In the bloodserum and blood cells, M13 virus DNA was found between 2 and 6 hours after feeding. Prior to feeding no such DNA was found in the blood or feces.
Two patients with inoperable prostate cancer have made dramatic recoveries after receiving one dose of an experimental drug that is creating excitement among cancer specialists. The results were so startling that researchers decided to release details of the two cases before the drug trial in which the patients took part was complete. Doctors said their progress had exceeded all expectations. The men were treated at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota in the US, one of the top medical centres in the world. Dr Eugene Kwon, the urologist who was in charge of their treatment, compared the results to the first pilot breaking the sound barrier.
About 60 percent of the toxic water used to extract the natural gastouted in mendacious commercials by the natural gas industry as clean energyis left underground. The rest is stored in huge, open pits that dot the landscapes at drilling sites, before it is loaded into hundreds of large vehicles and trucked to regional filtration facilities. Such drilling has already poisoned wells in western Pennsylvania, Colorado, Alabama, Arkansas, New Mexico, Kansas, Montana, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming. Those whose water becomes contaminated, including people living in towns such as Dimock, Pa., must have water trucked in to provide for their needs. Farm animals that have drunk the toxic mixture that has leeched from gas drilling sites have died. Cattle ranchers in Colorado, where drilling is occurring in close proximity, have reported that their livestock birthrates have gone down and animals are bearing deformed offspring.
In the study, Crestor cut nearly in half the risk of blood clots in people with low cholesterol but high scores on a test for inflammation, which plays a role in many diseases. This same big study last fall showed that Crestor dramatically lowered rates of heart attacks, death and stroke in these people, who are not usually given statins now.
Filtering coffee does not remove a chemical linked to heart disease and stroke, researchers claim. Scientists in the Netherlands said they were surprised that levels of homocysteine did not drop when the coffee was filtered. It had been thought that by filtering coffee and removing chemicals called ditrepenes, responsible for raising cholesterol levels, homocysteine content might be reduced.
The researchers, led by Associate Professor Ana Maria Cuervo, blocked the ageing process in mice livers by stopping the build-up of harmful proteins inside the organ's cells. As people age their cells become less efficient at getting rid of damaged protein resulting in a build-up of toxic material that is especially pronounced in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative disorders. The researchers say the findings suggest that therapies for boosting protein clearance might help stave off some of the declines in function that accompanies old age.
"After six months, resveratrol essentially prevented most of the negative effects of the high calorie diet in mice," said Rafael de Cabo, Ph.D., the study's other co-senior investigator from the National Institute on Aging's Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology, Aging, Metabolism, and Nutrition Unit. "There is a lot of work ahead that will help us better understand resveratrol's roles and the best applications for it."
