StemCell Therapy

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Gout now affects one in forty people in the UK.

It is caused by an excess of uric acid in the blood and tissues of the body, which if present for long enough, can form into needle-like crystals which can inflame your joints and cause severe pain and swelling.

Most people with gout have high levels of uric acid in their body because it hasnt been efficiently removed by the kidneys and washed out in the urine.

If crystals build up under the skin, and form small white or yellow lumps known as tophi - caused by tophaceous gout - it can be a sign the condition is serious.

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NHS Choices said: Tophi are usually painless, but they can form in awkward places, such as at the ends of your fingers and around your toes.

Sometimes they can make everyday tasks such as preparing food or getting dressed difficult.

They can also can become inflamed and produce a toothpaste-like discharge.

While it can develop anywhere on the body, the condition is most prevalent in the toes, heels, knees, fingers, ears and forearms. It can also appear on the elbows.

Some people start developing them before an attack

Experts warn it usually takes several years after the first gout attack for tophi to develop.

NHS Choices said: Some people start developing them before an attack. Theyre usually a sign of severe gout and a good reason to reduce the levels of uric acid in your body.

Some patients find they have to have the tophi surgically removed.

However, now experts have revealed a new drug could help cure tophaceous gout.

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A new study, published in the journal Wiley, has revealed a drug called lesinurad, used in combination with febuxostat was better at lowering levels of urate than febuxostat alone.

Scientists tested the cocktail on 325 patients with tophaceous gout.

They found that over 12 months, significantly more patients in the group who took both drugs, than one drug alone, achieved target levels of rate.

"Combination treatment of lesinurad and febuxostat represents a new therapeutic option for patients with severe gout who cannot achieve the serum urate treatment target with xanthine oxidase inhibitor monotherapy," said Professor Nicola Dalbeth, lead author of the Arthritis and Rheumatology trial.

Experts said people with gout can reduce symptoms of the condition by making changes to their diet.

This involves reduce the amount of food high in purines, such as beer, organ meats, red meats and seafood, including certain oily fish.

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Gout symptoms - THIS is a sign form of arthritis is severe and needs URGENT treatment - Express.co.uk

A new study has identified for the first time how a common process in cancer might be involved in the development of autoimmunediseases.

Researchers at the University of Helsinki and the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland have found that the accumulation of mutations in mature immune cells could drive rheumatoid arthritis in a similar way to how somatic mutations drive cancer. This phenomenon has been extensively studied in tumors, but this study is the first to investigate it in other diseases.

The results,published today in Nature Communications, revealed 30 mutations in CD8+ cytotoxic T cells of 5out of 25 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, versus a single mutation in one out of 20 healthy patients.The mutations were found in genes linked with the regulation of immunity and cell proliferation, and the clones of those cells with mutations appeared in much larger quantities that T cell clones without the mutations.

Interestingly, all the mutations were found incytotoxic CD8+ T cells, and none in helper CD4+ T cells. Given both cell types have a common origin, it was determined that the mutations appeared in mature cells and were not related to genetic defects in the stem cells that produce new immune cells every day.

Counterintuitively, none of the mutations identified were found in other 82 rheumatoid arthritis patients, indicating that rather than beingdriven by any specific genes, the process would depend on the accumulation of nonspecific mutations.

The prevalence of these types of mutations in hematopoietic cells increases with age,a process that has been extensively linked to an increased risk of cancer, and particularly blood cancer. These results indicate that the same process could also be behind a higher risk of suffering from an autoimmune disease.

For now, there is no certainty on how these mutations affect the regulation of chronic inflammations, says Professor Satu Mustjoki, one of theprojects leaders. They may be, for lack of a better word, genomic scars formed as a result of the activation of the immune defense system. In any case, this research project revealed a new connection on the molecular level between autoimmune diseases and cancer, which brings us one step closer to understanding these diseases.

After this first step, further studies with larger patients cohorts are definitely needed to confirm the results and gain a deeper insight into the mechanisms by which these mutations result in autoimmune disease. As Mustjoki stated, his group is planning to continue investigating the phenomenon in several inflammatory conditions.

Images via nobeastsofierce / Shutterstock;P Savola et al. Nature Communications 8, 15869 (2017)

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Finnish Researchers find Similar Mutation Patterns to Cancer in ... - Labiotech.eu (blog)

A new study at Tel Aviv University shows that stem cell therapy, one of the few treatments available to patients with severe and end-stage heart failure, can actually harm them unless it is done differently.

We concluded that stem cells used in cardiac therapy should be drawn from healthy donors or be better genetically engineered for the patient, said lead researcher Jonathan Leor of the universitys Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Sheba Medical Center.

Doctors use tissue or adult stem cells to replace damaged tissue, which encourages regeneration of blood vessel cells and new heart muscle tissue. But cardiac stem cells from a diseased heart can lead to a toxic interaction via a molecular pathway between the heart and the immune system, the study found.

We found that, contrary to popular belief, tissue stem cells derived from sick hearts do not contribute to heart healing after injury, Leor said. Furthermore, we found that these cells are affected by the inflammatory environment and develop inflammatory properties. The affected stem cells may even exacerbate damage to the already diseased heart muscle.

[Read the fully study here (behind paywall)]

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post:Study says some stem cells dangerous for heart patients

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Stem cell therapy relying on patient's own unhealthy heart may be dangerous - Genetic Literacy Project

Ellen Ciurczak , American Staff Writer 4:26 p.m. CT June 20, 2017

Bellevue optometrist Megan Sumrall Lott administers vision tests to students who have failed the state's third grade reading test. Her association has found 88 percent of those students who failed had a vision problem. Ellen Ciurczak/Hattiesburg American

For the third year, the Mississippi Optometric Association and the Mississippi Vision Foundation will provide no-cost eye exams to third-graders who didn't pass the state reading assessment and do not have insurance.(Photo: Kathy Matheny, Kathy Matheny)

When Hattiesburg optometrist Megan Sumrall Lott and her colleagues heard in May 2015 that nearly 15 percent of Mississippi's third-graders had failed the state's first administration of the reading test, they were concerned. Lott said they suspected the problem wasn't the students' inability to read, but a difficulty with vision.

"We all got on a conference call and said, 'What can we do about this?'" Lott remembered. "(We said), 'Let's offer free eye exams to children with no insurance who have failed the test and give them glasses at no costif they need them.

"Almost every optometrist participated in 2015 and continues to do so."

Once again this year, members of the Mississippi Optometric Association and the Mississippi Vision Foundation, including Lott at her Bellevue Specialty Eye Care practice, are offering the free exams to third-graders who failed the test.

Hattiesburg optometrist Meagan Sumrall Lott(Photo: Special to Hattiesburg American)

It turned out Lott and her colleagues were right about why a lot of students weren't passing the third-grade reading test. Results of previous association and foundation third-grade eye exams revealed 88 percent of the students who failed the testneeded some form of visual intervention.

"Only by partnering with our schools can we begin to see change take place," said association president Mike Wheeden in a news release. "The MOA and its foundation are pleased to be a part of making a difference in the lives of students, and we are committed to identifying those students who have vision problems."

This May, 8percent of third-graders,or more than 3,000 students in the state,did not pass the test. Lott said many of them may have vision problems. She cites a 2008 study done for the Essilor Vision Foundation which discovered many students are struggling because of poor eyesight or other vision difficulties.

"One in four children had vision problems," Lott said. "(The study) looked at 9-15-year-olds. Ninety percent of children who needed glasses did not have them."

Lott said when schools perform vision screenings, typically only distance vision is tested. But most classroom activities, like reading, writing and computer work, require near vision. Therefore, other tests need to be added toscreenings.

"School exams won't identify anything but nearsightedness," Lott said.

The study foundeven when children with vision problems are identified through school examinations, 40 percent to 60 percent do not receive the recommended follow-up eye exams or glasses.

Lott, whose specialty includes children, has a checklist of 19 symptomsthat help patients identify if they have a vision problem. Some of those symptoms include reading issues like words that run together, closing one eye when reading, omitting small words when reading and poor reading comprehension.

Lott said she hopes students who failed the third-grade reading test and do not have insurance will take advantage of the no-cost eye exams.

"I would hope more and more children would come in every year as the word gets out," she said. "I want parents to know, if a child is struggling (with reading), there is help.

"There are people in the community who want to see their child succeed."

To locate a participating optometrist: Parents of eligible third-graders should go towww.msvisionfoundation.org.

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Optometric association: 88 percent of third-graders who fail reading test had vision problem - Hattiesburg American

Shayne Looper More Content Now

There are about 97 million myopic people in the U.S., according to the American Optometric Association. Im one of them. I was fitted for my first pair of corrective lenses in the second grade. Because my vision continued to deteriorate (and because I was always finding new ways to break my glasses), I saw the optometrist often.

I changed to contact lenses in my later teens, but when I started work at the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant in Lorain, Ohio, I was forced to wear safety glasses. With their coke bottle lenses, they were almost too heavy to wear.

The myopia continued to worsen and, when the optometrist added astigmatism correction to my prescription, contact lenses were no longer an option. My vision is bad enough now that without corrective lenses I cant drive, cant read the clock, and cant be certain that I know the person sitting across the table from me.

If I had lived before corrective lenses were available, I would have been in trouble. I would have gone through life Mr. Magoo-like, mistaking people, running into obstacles, and unable to join in favorite activities. It is interesting to think what it would be like to live that way for 60 years, and then to receive corrective lenses. What could be better than the gift of sight?

Christians believe that all people need a kind of vision correction. Myopia of what St. Paul calls the eyes of the heart is pandemic. Now, as he puts it, we see through a glass darkly. Humans have trouble recognizing what is important, they hurt themselves on obstacles they could have avoided, and routinely get lost in the tangles of everyday life.

The gospel writers want people to know that God restores sight, and they convey this important idea through the stories they tell about Jesus, who has come into this world, so that the blind will see... Each gospel tells stories of how Jesus gifted people with sight, rounding out the Old Testaments promise that Gods servant would bring recovery of sight for the blind.

The Gospel of Luke provides a particularly brilliant presentation of Jesus as the sight-giver. The Evangelist juxtaposes two stories, set side-by-side, representing very different kinds of blindness. To make sure we dont miss his point, he employs Greek verbs meaning to see so often a reader would have to be blind to miss them.

The first story features a blind man who sits begging on the side of the road as a noisy procession nears. The man, hearing that Jesus is in the procession, begins shouting, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Bystanders order him to be quiet, but he shouts all the louder.

Hearing him, Jesus stops and asks, What do you want me to do for you? and the blind man answers, Lord, I want to see. Jesus restores his sight, and he immediately becomes a follower of Jesus.

This story is immediately followed by another story about blindness. This time, though, the mans blindness is not physical but spiritual. His commitment to making money has blinded him, and he has injured himself in frequent run-ins with the people around him.

In both stories, the (physically and spiritually) blind men faced obstacles when they came to Jesus for vision correction. The poor beggar was treated as a persona non-grata by the crowd, and ordered to be quiet why would Jesus be interested in him? The rich man suffered similar treatment. People despised him, and refused to make room for him.

Surprisingly, the people who made it difficult for these sight-challenged men to get to Jesus were religious. Those who might be expected to facilitate a meeting with Jesus obstructed it. How often that proves to be the case. The judgmental church-goer, the holier-than-thou Bible-thumper, and the lapsed believer are blurry obstacles on the path to Jesus, and to restored vision.

John Newton famously wrote of that vision: I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see. Im not sure I could go that far. What I can say is, I once was blind but I see better now, and have every reason to expect complete vision restoration in the future.

Shayne Looper is the pastor of Lockwood Community Church in Branch County (Mich.). Read more at shaynelooper.com.

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Shayne Looper: The spiritual myopia pandemic - Sleepy Eye Herald Dispatch

Earlier this month, Google virtual reality head Clay Bavor discussed the companys efforts on a mind-boggling 20 megapixel screen that was currently under development. The screens would be a staggering 17x resolution improvement on displays in current generation VR systems like the Rift and Vive. They would also be totally unusable, because at the frame rates needed for VR, such displays would burn through 50-100 GBs of data per second.

The key for working this out would be utilizing a technology called foveated rendering to track where a users eyes are looking and ensure that only the area at the center of their vision is being rendered at full resolution.

While this will undoubtedly be a technology that enables the future of high-end VR, its still one that relies on expensive displays that arent even widely available yet.

A Finnish startup is positing that theyve come up with a way to bring human-eye level resolution to VR headsets through a technique that will direct a pair of insanely high-resolution displays to the center of your vision. With current technology, the company claims this will enable perceived resolutions north of 70 megapixels.

Varjo,which meansshadow in Finnish,is looking to bring this technology to higher-end business customers by next year at a price of less than $10,000 according to the company.

Why show off this tech now? Largely because the company is currently raising cash stateside and was just awarded a few patents related to these technologies last week.

I had the chance to demo a prototype of the companys technology last week using a modified Oculus Rift headset with Varjos display systems embedded.

I suppose the best testament to the companys technology was that I spent most of the demo questioning whether my eye sight had actually been improved. After being dropped into an apartment scene, I was almost disturbed by my ability to read the spines of books on bookshelves several feet away.

Comparisons in pixel density between Varjos 20/20 display and the Oculus Rift

The technology all relies on a pair of insanely high-resolution Sony MicroOLED displays which pack full HD into screens .7 inches in size diagonally. Through lens magnification these 3,000 pixels per inch displays fill up about a 20-degree field of view which is reflected off of mirrors in the headset while the wider scene is displayed on a more normal resolution display in the background.

Though this bionic display rig I tested simply utilized fixed focus displays at the center of my vision, the company is building systems that actively adjust the mirror to your gaze, ensuring that you are always seeing the most high-res image possible. Getting the latency of these mirror shifts will be a non-trivial challenge for the startup, especially given the limitations of eye tracking at the moment.

Varjo wants to take on companies like Magic Leap, Microsoft and Meta to create mixed reality headsets that build upon its display technology, though this technology isnt really suited for transparent display systems like waveguides so it would still rely on pass-through camera displays to pull of the mixed reality.

The company claims that they have no interest in licensing the patents they have been awarded and is instead looking to create an end-to-end solution, focusing primarily on business customers early-on. The first step will be a development kit of their 20/20 headset which the startup hopes to make available to hundreds of partners starting later this year.

Originally posted here:
This startup wants to build VR headsets with 'human eye-resolution' - TechCrunch

Glaucoma, also known as the silent thief of sight, is a leading cause of preventable blindness. The most common forms of glaucoma primarily affect the middle-aged and the elderly, byt glaucoma does not discriminate and can affect people of all ages.

Glaucoma is an eye disease that causes vision loss by damaging a part of the eye called the optic nerve. This nerve is responsible for sending images from your eyes to your brain. However, when glaucoma damages your optic nerve, those images are distorted and vision becomes impaired and restricted. If not treated, glaucoma can cause permanent blindness.

According to Glaucoma Research Foundation, it is estimated that 3 million Americans have glaucoma but only half of those know they even have it. There are typically no symptoms to alert you to this disease, and sadly once vision is lost, it is irreversible.

The most common form of glaucoma is primary open-angle glaucoma, which is one of the main causes of blindness in the United States. In the early stages of primary open-angle glaucoma, there are no symptoms. Its important for people to know that glaucoma can be detected early even before noticeable vision loss occurs.

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to prevent glaucoma. However, you can slow down the progression of this disease by getting an annual dilated eye exam and receiving treatment if required. In addition to your dilated exam, your ophthalmologist might also perform a series of other painless tests such as eye pressure measurement and a peripheral vision test. These tests, in addition to an examination by your physician, assess any changes in your vision and evaluate the overall health of your eyes. This will help your physician determine if you have an issue like glaucoma and allows them to develop the best course of treatment based on their findings.

If you are diagnosed with glaucoma early enough, glaucoma can often be controlled with eye drops. If you are prescribed medication for your glaucoma, it is important that you take this medication regularly and exactly as prescribed in order to control your eye pressure. If you have allergies to eye drops or the drops fail to lower your eye pressure substantially, a laser procedure or even eye surgery may be recommended.

The laser procedure, known as selective laser trabeculoplasty or SLT, helps to open the drain inside of the eye and can lower the pressure in more than 80 percent of patients.

If required, your doctor may recommend glaucoma surgery to lower your eye pressure. This involves making an incision in the eye to create a new drain for the eye and therefore reduce eye pressure. The type and severity of your glaucoma, as well as the overall health of your eye, will help your ophthalmologist determine the type of surgery that is best for you.

Glaucoma is most common among older people and in African Americans. If you are over 60 years old, you are six times more likely to get glaucoma. Another factor that contributes to the prevalence of glaucoma is having an immediate family with glaucoma (mother, father, sister, brother). This puts you at a much higher risk. Finally, glaucoma may occur immediately after an eye injury or even years later.

Glaucoma is a very serious eye disease that can lead to vision loss and blindness if not carefully monitored. While glaucoma is not curable and vision that has been lost cannot be regained, it is treatable. With the appropriate medication and/or surgery, it is very possible to slow down the disease process and prevent further vision loss. As with any disease, annual comprehensive exams are key to protecting and maintaining healthy vision.

David Hayes, DO, is a glaucoma specialist with Clay Eye Physicians & Surgeons. He is also a member of the Duval County Medical Society.

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Doctors are In: Glaucoma is treatable if detected early - Florida Times-Union

Science is increasingly uncovering new ways toreversediabetes, achronic condition that affects the way the body processes blood sugar, and which has more than doubled in prevalence over the past 20 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Scientists arealso increasingly aware of whos most at risk for the disease: According to a new study looking at the demographics of diabetes in this country, the highest risk can be found among racial and ethnic minorities, people with low incomes or lower educational levels, and people living in rural areas. In one scary finding, the research, which was published in theInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,showedthat across the country, women with diabetes were at a higher risk of foregoing medical care.

Ifyoure among the more than 29 million Americans or8.5percent of the global population withthe disease, you absolutely can live a healthy, happy lifeif you take care of yourself and follow certain diabetes guidelines.

Whether youve just been diagnosed or have been managing the disease your whole life, this handy infographic from Vitality spells out the absolute must-dos for optimum diabetes care. Follow it exactly tominimizediabetes complications and achieveyour best quality oflife. And dont miss these simple tricks for living well with diabetesfrom people who have it.

Courtesy Tips for Living Well from Vitality

Source:Tips for Living Well from Vitality

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This Infographic Is Like the 10 Commandments of Diabetes - Reader's Digest

Posted on June 20, 2017 | 10:43 a.m.

Ocho Pasos program targets nutrition, treatment, exercise, monitoring, stress management

Jenifer Swartzentruber, l, Wendy Bevier, Mary Conneely, Ellen Goodstein of William Sansum Diabetes Center. (William Sansum Diabetes Center)

The William Sansum Diabetes Center'sOcho Pasos a la Buena Salud (Eight Steps to Better Health) was selected to be showcased in a moderated poster discussion at the recent American Diabetes Associations 77th Scientific Sessions in San Diego.

The presentation, led by WSDC diabetes educator Mary Conneely, was part of the ADA tour titled Community Strategies to Improve Care Delivery.

More than 15,000 physicians, scientists and health care professionals from around the world convene annually at the ADAs Scientific Sessions to unveil cutting-edge research, treatment recommendations and advances toward a cure for diabetes.

It was a great experience for me personally and it was just overwhelming with how much information there was at the conference, said Conneely who attended the conference for the first time this year.

During the conference Conneely said she experienced an impressive example of just how far reaching WSDCs Ocho Pasos education is across the globe.

Conneely, who is from Bolivia, met two conference attendees, also from Bolivia. When she told them about the WSDCs presentation they said they'd already downloaded WSDCs Ocho Pasos program, even before they met Conneely that day.

More than anything, it was so amazing to show other people what we are doing at William Sansum Diabetes Center and what works to better the lives of the community, Conneely said.

The moderated poster presentation detailed how Ocho Pasos is a culturally-relevant diabetes education program designed for low-income, monolingual Latino participants with or at risk for type 2 diabetes.

The eight weekly sessions focus on nutrition, treatment, monitoring, exercise and stress management. The results of Ocho Pasos were on display, highlighting the dramatic A1C reduction by taking the class.

It is incredibly empowering, energizing and awe inspiring to be around the nearly 15,000 talented and dedicated physicians, researchers, engineers, educators and others all making incredible progress in the fight against this dreadful disease," said Ellen Goodstein, WSDC executive director.

"To hear the progress being made in so many areas of diabetes research gave me genuine hope for the future. We will beat this disease, she said.

Dr. David Kerr, who attended the event, said, "The ADA showcases the best and the brightest for diabetes research and innovation, and this year the center was especially prominent because of the cutting-edge work we are involved with right now."

Diabetes affects nearly 30 million children and adults in the United States and contributes to the deaths of more than 230,000 Americans each year.

The American Diabetes Association estimates the total cost of diagnosed diabetes in the U.S. is more than $177 billion.

Published studies suggest that when additional costs for gestational diabetes, prediabetes and undiagnosed diabetes are included, the total diabetes-related costs in the U.S. exceeds $322 billion annually.

William Sansum Diabetes Center attendees included: Goodstein, Conneely, Ceara Axelrod, Wendy Bevier, Jenifer Swartzentruber, Kerr, Dr. Jordan Pinsker, Laura Lindsey and Mei Mei Church.

Regina Ruiz for William Sansum Diabetes Center.

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Sansum Diabetes Program Takes Global Stage - Noozhawk

June 20, 2017 Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Heart disease is a leading cause of death worldwide and exacerbated by type 2 diabetes, yet diabetes treatment regimens tend to focus primarily on blood sugar maintenance. This common approach to type 2 diabetes management can leave patients at risk for heart attack and stroke. But results from four recent randomized clinical trials suggest that using medications that offer glucose control while reducing the risk for cardiovascular disease could improve patient outcomes.

"Strong evidence provided by the four recent trials published within the past 1.5 to 2 years in the New England Journal of Medicine has shown that some of the modern available therapeutic agents that control blood glucose also help reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease," said Faramarz Ismail-Beigi, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University and Endocrinologist at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. "Based on this evidence, we propose that we must shift from our previous paradigm with its monocular focus on control of blood glucose and hemoglobin A1c, to one of control of blood glucose plus preventing cardiovascular disease and death from cardiovascular causes." Hemoglobin A1c is a common test used to determine a patient's average blood sugar levels over the previous 2-3 months.

Ismail-Beigi helped conduct three of the four clinical trials, and he and his collaborators recently reviewed trial results in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The trials each tested a blood sugar-lowering medicationpioglitazone, empagliflozin, liraglutide, or semaglutidebut recruited patients with heart disease or stroke. The goal was to determine whether or not the drugs were safe, but in each study, researchers were surprised to find participants with or at risk of type 2 diabetes also experienced cardiovascular improvements.

"For the first time we have seen glucose-lowering medications that can improve cardiovascular outcomes," Ismail-Beigi said. "It is highly possible that newer agents in these classes of medications, used singly or in combination, will prove to be more efficacious in the management of type 2 diabetes and prevention of cardiovascular disease, even in patients at earlier stages of the disease process."

Previous studies focused on tight control of blood sugar have not shown major cardiovascular benefits for diabetes patients. "Strict control of blood glucose levels has shown minor, if any, positive effect on prevention of cardiovascular disease," said Ismail-Beigi. "In fact, a large NIH-funded clinical trial on type 2 diabetes management failed to show that strict control of blood glucose levels had any positive effect on cardiovascular outcomes or mortality, and in fact, may be harmful."

The new trial results could help address a major dilemma for clinicians looking for ways to control heart disease and reduce mortality, while simultaneously managing blood glucose in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Said Ismail-Beigi, "Our review focuses on the need for a paradigm shift on how we should think about management of type 2 diabetes. I believe it will necessitate a rethinking of goals and approaches by guideline committees. We also hope that the FDA might consider approving new medications for management of type 2 diabetes not only based on their safety profile and their efficacy to control blood glucose, but also whether the medication reduces overall mortality and cardiovascular-related mortality."

Explore further: Major study heralds new era in treatment of type 2 diabetes

More information: Faramarz Ismail-Beigi et al, Shifting Paradigms in the Medical Management of Type 2 Diabetes: Reflections on Recent Cardiovascular Outcome Trials, Journal of General Internal Medicine (2017). DOI: 10.1007/s11606-017-4061-7

A drug that lowers blood sugar levels for people with type 2 diabetes has also been revealed to significantly reduce the risk of both cardiovascular and kidney disease.

More work needs to be done to examine the real world effects of the commonly prescribed diabetes drug empagliflozin, new research in the journal Diabetes Therapy finds.

Researchers have shown that the glucose-lowering drug liraglutide safely and effectively decreases the overall risk of heart attack, stroke, or cardiovascular death for people with type 2 diabetes. These patients are at high ...

The health risks and mortality associated with prediabetes seem to increase at the lower cut-off point for blood sugar levels recommended by some guidelines, finds a large study published in The BMJ today.

A new study shows that the drug fenofibrate might reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes who have high levels of triglycerides and low levels of "good" cholesterol, despite being treated ...

Why is heart failure not more rigorously assessed in clinical trials of antidiabetes drugs? In a Personal View, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal, Professor John McMurray of The University of Glasgow ...

Heart disease is a leading cause of death worldwide and exacerbated by type 2 diabetes, yet diabetes treatment regimens tend to focus primarily on blood sugar maintenance. This common approach to type 2 diabetes management ...

A team of researchers from Sweden, the U.S. and Switzerland has found that treating rat liver cells with a compound called sulforaphane, which is found in cruciferous vegetables, reduced production of glucose. In their paper ...

(HealthDay)For many people with diabetes, low blood sugar levels are a serious health risk, but researchers report that a new nasal powder quickly reverses the effects of this dangerous condition.

An inexpensive first-line treatment for type 2 diabetes may also reduce heart disease in those with type 1 diabetes, according to a new global trial led by the University of Glasgow.

In a landmark study, UNC School of Medicine researchers have shown that blood glucose testing does not offer a significant advantage in blood sugar control or quality of life for type 2 diabetes patients who are not treated ...

Low-income Hispanics with Type 2 diabetes who received health-related text messages every day for six months saw improvements in their blood sugar levels that equaled those resulting from some glucose-lowering medications, ...

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Researchers call for paradigm shift in type 2 diabetes treatment - Medical Xpress

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.

View original post here:
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:

See the original post here:
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.

See the rest here:
NICreL Seeks FG's Support For NABDA To Boost Biotechnology ... - Leadership Newspapers

Photo

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.

Read more from the original source:
Fish as Medicine for Rheumatoid Arthritis - New York Times