StemCell Therapy

by: Helmut Beierbeck

Fatty liver disease used to be associated with alcoholism, but it is no longer
restricted to heavy drinkers. Our calorie-rich but nutrient-poor diet has led
to an epidemic of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) that tracks our
rising obesity and diabetes rates (1). Autopsies and ultrasound studies have
shown that up to 75% of the obese and 70-85% of type 2 diabetics have fatty
livers. And the low-profile but essential nutrient choline appears to provide
the solution to the problem (1, 2).

What is NAFLD?

NAFLD develops in two stages (1). In the first stage fat accumulates in the
liver. This fat can come from several sources: free fatty acids released into
the blood by fat tissue, lipogenesis in the liver from carbohydrates
(especially fructose from HFCS or table sugar), and dietary fats carried to the
liver by chylomicron remnants. Fatty liver disease is a silent epidemic because
its first stage, fat accumulation, generally doesn't produce overt symptoms. Readmore…

by: Helmut Beierbeck

Fatty liver disease used to be associated with alcoholism, but it is no longer
restricted to heavy drinkers. Our calorie-rich but nutrient-poor diet has led
to an epidemic of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) that tracks our
rising obesity and diabetes rates (1). Autopsies and ultrasound studies have
shown that up to 75% of the obese and 70-85% of type 2 diabetics have fatty
livers. And the low-profile but essential nutrient choline appears to provide
the solution to the problem (1, 2).

What is NAFLD?

NAFLD develops in two stages (1). In the first stage fat accumulates in the
liver. This fat can come from several sources: free fatty acids released into
the blood by fat tissue, lipogenesis in the liver from carbohydrates
(especially fructose from HFCS or table sugar), and dietary fats carried to the
liver by chylomicron remnants. Fatty liver disease is a silent epidemic because
its first stage, fat accumulation, generally doesn't produce overt symptoms. Readmore…

(HealthDay News) --
Heart disease, diabetes and depression can be a lethal triple-play -- boosting
a patient's death risk by 20 percent to 30 percent, new research shows.

"We do not know what this increased risk is due to, but it could either be
that depression influences crucial aspects of self-care behaviors needed to
manage diabetes or that a more severe disease process is reflected in more
depressive symptoms," said lead researcher Anastasia Georgiades, a
research associate in the department of psychiatry and behavioral science at Duke
University in Durham, N.C.

Georgiades was expected to present the findings Friday at the American
Psychosomatic Society annual meeting in Budapest, Hungary.

In their study, the Duke team followed 933 heart patients for more than four
years. During that time, there were 135 deaths among patients with type 2
diabetes and/or depression, the researchers found.

Among patients with moderate-to-severe symptoms of depression who were also
diabetics, the researchers observed a significant 30 percent greater risk of
dying over the four-year period compared with patients with either depression
alone or diabetes alone. Read more…

(HealthDay News) --
Children with bipolar disorder and a similar condition called severe mood
dysregulation spend less time looking at the eyes when trying to identify
facial features, compared to children without the psychiatric disorders,
researchers say.

This new study finding may help explain why children with bipolar disorder and
severe mood dysregulation have difficulty determining other people's emotional
expressions, said the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health investigators.

The researchers tracked the eye movements of children with and without
psychiatric disorders as they viewed faces with different emotional
expressions, such as happy, sad, fearful and angry. In general, the children
spent more time looking at the eyes, the facial feature that conveys the most
information about emotion. Read more…

(HealthDay News) --
Heart disease, diabetes and depression can be a lethal triple-play -- boosting
a patient's death risk by 20 percent to 30 percent, new research shows.

"We do not know what this increased risk is due to, but it could either be
that depression influences crucial aspects of self-care behaviors needed to
manage diabetes or that a more severe disease process is reflected in more
depressive symptoms," said lead researcher Anastasia Georgiades, a
research associate in the department of psychiatry and behavioral science at Duke
University in Durham, N.C.

Georgiades was expected to present the findings Friday at the American
Psychosomatic Society annual meeting in Budapest, Hungary.

In their study, the Duke team followed 933 heart patients for more than four
years. During that time, there were 135 deaths among patients with type 2
diabetes and/or depression, the researchers found.

Among patients with moderate-to-severe symptoms of depression who were also
diabetics, the researchers observed a significant 30 percent greater risk of
dying over the four-year period compared with patients with either depression
alone or diabetes alone. Read more…

(HealthDay News) --
Children with bipolar disorder and a similar condition called severe mood
dysregulation spend less time looking at the eyes when trying to identify
facial features, compared to children without the psychiatric disorders,
researchers say.

This new study finding may help explain why children with bipolar disorder and
severe mood dysregulation have difficulty determining other people's emotional
expressions, said the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health investigators.

The researchers tracked the eye movements of children with and without
psychiatric disorders as they viewed faces with different emotional
expressions, such as happy, sad, fearful and angry. In general, the children
spent more time looking at the eyes, the facial feature that conveys the most
information about emotion. Read more…

(HealthDay News) --
A new method of repairing leaking mitral heart valves appears safe, a small
study shows.

In the new study, researchers tested a reversible implant called the
Percutaneous Transvenous Mitral Annuloplasty (PTMA) system, which is installed
via a catheter.

In the heart, the mitral valve controls the flow of blood from the left atrium
into the left ventricle (from the upper left chamber into the lower left
chamber). A leaking mitral valve causes blood to flow back into the left
atrium. This condition can worsen existing heart failure or cause congestive
heart failure, according to a news release from the American Heart Association.

Currently, mitral valve repair requires opening the chest and putting the patient
on a heart-lung machine. This method increases the risk of heart attack and
stroke during surgery, as well as post-surgery risks such as lung problems,
irregular heartbeat and infection, the news release noted. Read more…

(HealthDay News) --
A new method of repairing leaking mitral heart valves appears safe, a small
study shows.

In the new study, researchers tested a reversible implant called the
Percutaneous Transvenous Mitral Annuloplasty (PTMA) system, which is installed
via a catheter.

In the heart, the mitral valve controls the flow of blood from the left atrium
into the left ventricle (from the upper left chamber into the lower left
chamber). A leaking mitral valve causes blood to flow back into the left
atrium. This condition can worsen existing heart failure or cause congestive
heart failure, according to a news release from the American Heart Association.

Currently, mitral valve repair requires opening the chest and putting the patient
on a heart-lung machine. This method increases the risk of heart attack and
stroke during surgery, as well as post-surgery risks such as lung problems,
irregular heartbeat and infection, the news release noted. Read more…

By J. D. Heyes

Have you ever read something so complex and confusing that it frustrated you to
the point of distraction? Well, a new study has found that cancer trial
literature causes that kind of frustration - and may be misleading to patients
as well.

According to Prof. Mary Dixon-Woods, professor of Medical Sociology at the
University of Leicester Department of Health Sciences in Great Britain, a
number of cancer patients found information leaflets describing cancer trials
too long, too incomprehensible and too intimidating.

"These information sheets are poorly aligned with patients' information
needs and how they really make decisions about whether to join a cancer
trial," said Dixon-Woods, lead author of the research http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/uol-cti032612.php,
which was published in the international journal Sociology of Health and
Illness.

"Some patients did find them very useful, but many others paid them little
attention. They preferred to rely on discussions they had with their doctor to
make up their minds," she said. Read more…

By J. D. Heyes

Have you ever read something so complex and confusing that it frustrated you to
the point of distraction? Well, a new study has found that cancer trial
literature causes that kind of frustration - and may be misleading to patients
as well.

According to Prof. Mary Dixon-Woods, professor of Medical Sociology at the
University of Leicester Department of Health Sciences in Great Britain, a
number of cancer patients found information leaflets describing cancer trials
too long, too incomprehensible and too intimidating.

"These information sheets are poorly aligned with patients' information
needs and how they really make decisions about whether to join a cancer
trial," said Dixon-Woods, lead author of the research http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/uol-cti032612.php,
which was published in the international journal Sociology of Health and
Illness.

"Some patients did find them very useful, but many others paid them little
attention. They preferred to rely on discussions they had with their doctor to
make up their minds," she said. Read more…

(HealthDay News) --
Using a combination of the drugs temsirolimus (Torisel) and Bryostatin appears
to be safe in patients with metastatic kidney cancer, according to early data
from 25 patients in a phase 1 trial.

The researchers said a pathway known as mTOR signaling promotes tumor cell
proliferation and tumor blood vessel development. The temsirolimus-bryostatin
combination blocks two portions of the mTOR signaling pathway, and the early
data suggests the drugs may be active in patients with rare forms of renal cell
cancer that are less likely to respond to other therapies.

"We have certainly seen sustained responses with this combination, which
are encouraging," Dr. Elizabeth Plimack, a medical oncologist and attending
physician at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, said in a news release
from the center.

"Patients with non-clear cell renal cell cancer, including papillary renal
cancer, don't respond as well to tyrosine kinase inhibitors, such as sunitinib [Sutent]
and sorafenib [Nexavar], as patients with clear cell renal cell. So there is an
unmet need for therapy for these patients. We've seen that this combination may
be active to some degree for them," Plimack said.

The findings were to be presented Sunday at the American Society of Clinical
Oncology annual meeting, in Orlando, Fla. Read more…

(HealthDay News) --
Using a combination of the drugs temsirolimus (Torisel) and Bryostatin appears
to be safe in patients with metastatic kidney cancer, according to early data
from 25 patients in a phase 1 trial.

The researchers said a pathway known as mTOR signaling promotes tumor cell
proliferation and tumor blood vessel development. The temsirolimus-bryostatin
combination blocks two portions of the mTOR signaling pathway, and the early
data suggests the drugs may be active in patients with rare forms of renal cell
cancer that are less likely to respond to other therapies.

"We have certainly seen sustained responses with this combination, which
are encouraging," Dr. Elizabeth Plimack, a medical oncologist and attending
physician at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, said in a news release
from the center.

"Patients with non-clear cell renal cell cancer, including papillary renal
cancer, don't respond as well to tyrosine kinase inhibitors, such as sunitinib [Sutent]
and sorafenib [Nexavar], as patients with clear cell renal cell. So there is an
unmet need for therapy for these patients. We've seen that this combination may
be active to some degree for them," Plimack said.

The findings were to be presented Sunday at the American Society of Clinical
Oncology annual meeting, in Orlando, Fla. Read more…

Barry Callebaut is venturing down avenues of research that would allow it to market its Acticoa chocolate on an ant-ageing and longevity platform.

Dark chocolate has been much on the news lately thanks to research on the healthy potential of its high antioxidant content. Barry Callebaut has devised a process with which it says it can preserve more of the natural polyphenols than is possible through conventional methods.

So far chocolate produced using this process, called Acticoa, has been marketed mainly on the basis of its high polyphenol content and health benefits associated with polyphenols. But with positive results from a pre-clinical trial in which rats that suffered oxidative stress and were fed the chocolate were seen to live considerably longer than rats that received a placebo, the company is paving the way to market it to the burgeoning anti-ageing market. Read more...

Barry Callebaut is venturing down avenues of research that would allow it to market its Acticoa chocolate on an ant-ageing and longevity platform.

Dark chocolate has been much on the news lately thanks to research on the healthy potential of its high antioxidant content. Barry Callebaut has devised a process with which it says it can preserve more of the natural polyphenols than is possible through conventional methods.

So far chocolate produced using this process, called Acticoa, has been marketed mainly on the basis of its high polyphenol content and health benefits associated with polyphenols. But with positive results from a pre-clinical trial in which rats that suffered oxidative stress and were fed the chocolate were seen to live considerably longer than rats that received a placebo, the company is paving the way to market it to the burgeoning anti-ageing market. Read more...

by: Raw Michelle

Cannabis is a plant with demonstrable
antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, both aspects that point to
its potential to be used as an anti-cancer drug. Cannabinoids have been
used in tentative studies, demonstrating their ability to greatly
reduce tumours, and cure cancer, in mice.

A controlled substance

The
medical establishment continues to reinvent their justification for the
demonization of marijuana as more and more of the claims made against
cannabis are disproven. The justification currently holding the most
ground is that cannabis is a plant, and cannot be carefully regulated
because of the great chemical variability that is found between
individual plants. Read more...

by: Raw Michelle

Cannabis is a plant with demonstrable
antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, both aspects that point to
its potential to be used as an anti-cancer drug. Cannabinoids have been
used in tentative studies, demonstrating their ability to greatly
reduce tumours, and cure cancer, in mice.

A controlled substance

The
medical establishment continues to reinvent their justification for the
demonization of marijuana as more and more of the claims made against
cannabis are disproven. The justification currently holding the most
ground is that cannabis is a plant, and cannot be carefully regulated
because of the great chemical variability that is found between
individual plants. Read more...