Highlight HEALTH

Health Highlights – June 16th, 2007

June 16, 2007 | by Walter Jessen

Health Highlights is a biweekly summary of particularly interesting articles from credible sources of health and medical information that we follow & read. For a complete list of recommeded sources, see our links page.

Which Fork Is for the Grubs? | Mark’s Daily Apple
At Mark’s Daily Apple, Mark is writing a new column called Primal Health, addressing issues of diet, exercise and stress in the context of our DNA blueprints. It looks to be an interesting series.
Kid-friendly Food Not to Blame | Junkfood Science
Sandy over at Junkfood Science writes about childhood obesity and efforts focusing on legislation calling for further restrictions on televsion food advertising.
Could You Live Without Direct-to-Consumer Ads? | Freakonomics Blog
I read somewhere recently that it takes close to $900 million dollars to bring a new drug to market. I have to wonder how much of that money is spent on advertising. I should ask David over at Health Business Blog …
Tear Down These Walls! | Universal Health
N=1 over at Universal Health writes about the absence of nurses’ voices in public dialogue and urges nurses to tear down the walls that separate them and speak about diagnosing and treating responses to health problems.
Fighters Tackle Childhood Diseases | The Health Wisdom Blog
Just as I wrote previously about Neurofibromatosis and The Children’s Tumor Foundation, Pat over at The Health Wisdom Blog writes about FightSMA.org, an organization created to accelerate the search for a treatment and cure for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the number-one inherited cause of infant death. The article includes a number of other websites associated with FightSMA.

Neurofibromatosis and The Children’s Tumor Foundation

June 15, 2007 | by Walter Jessen

The annual Children’s Tumor Foundation NF Conference was held in Park City, Utah earlier this week (June 10 — 12). For three days, research and clinical investigators from around the world met to present their data and discuss the latest findings in neurofibromatosis (NF) research (pronounced noor-oh-fahy-broh-muh-toh-sis). This year the meeting focused on models, mechanisms and therapeutic targets.

The Children’s Tumor Foundation is dedicated to ending NF through research. The Foundation has sponsored research for over 25 years to understand the molecular basis of NF and to establish effective treatments and improve the lives of those living with the disease.

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Tumor Suppressors and Oncogenes

June 6, 2007 | by Walter Jessen

The cell cycle is a series of ordered events that occur in a cell between it’s initial formation and eventual duplication and division into two daughter cells. Cells in the human body normally reproduce up to ~50 times [1], doubling their number with each cell cycle. Stem cells provide a pool of dividing cells to replace those that have died.

Interphase, the period between cell divisions, is where most cells remain for at least 90% of the cell cycle. Interphase consists of three phases: G1 (for gap 1), S phase (for synthesis) and G2 (for gap 2). During G1, the cell undergoes rapid growth and metabolic activity, including production of RNA and synthesis of protein. For the cell to divide and produce an identical copy of itself, its genome must be duplicated. DNA replication occurs in S phase. During G2, cell growth continues and the cell prepares for division. Cell division or mitosis occurs in M phase.

In normal cells, during G1 there are specific genes that control the speed of the cell cycle. These genes, called tumor suppressors and oncogenes, are mutated (meaning damaged) in cancer cells and can result in uncontrolled reproduction. Additionally, unlike normal cells, cancer cells do not stop reproducing after ~50 divisions. Thus, a cancer is an uncontrolled proliferation of cells.

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Health Highlights – June 1st, 2007

June 1, 2007 | by Walter Jessen

Blogger Outed In Court | Universal Health
N=1 over at Universal Health discusses a medical blogger’s malpractice case settlement and the bigger picture of social responsiblity.
Dr. Jim Watson’s Genome Sequenced for 2 Million Dollars | Eye on DNA
Hsien-Hsien Lei at Eye on DNA congratulates Dr. James Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA. He’s the first human to have his genome sequenced.
10 Tips for How to Acquire a Disease | ScienceRoll
Berci over at ScienceRoll gives us 10 tips on how to aquire a disease. A must read!
How To Lower Your Cooling Costs And Go Green This Summer | The Good Human
David at The Good Human offers some suggestions on how to lower cooling costs and go green this summer. Save some money and save the planet!

Quercetin Boosts Immunity and Helps Maintain Mental Performance

May 26, 2007 | by Walter Jessen

In February 2007, researchers at Appalachian State University announced the results of a clinical study on the flavonoid quercetin at the Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine, held in Charlotte, N.C. Their results showed that quercetin may help reduce illness and maintain mental performance in physcially stressed test subjects. I’ve written about the antioxidant quercetin in a previous article as an alternative to dichloroacetate (DCA), a chemotherapeutic agent that was recently shown to selectively inhibit cancer cell growth in lung, breast and brain tumor cells grown in culture and lung tumors grown in immunocompromisted rats.

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