StemCell Therapy

INTRODUCTION

The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera), a dioecious species in the Arecaceae (formerly Palmae) family has a historical distribution stretching from Mauritania in the west to the Indus Valley in the east (1). A major fruit crop in hot and arid regions of North Africa and the Middle East and one of the earliest domesticated tree crops, archaeobotanical records suggest that the earliest exploitation and consumption of dates is from the Arabian Neolithic some 7000 years before the present (yr B.P.) (1). Evidence of cultivation in Mesopotamia and Upper Arabian Gulf approximately 6700 to 6000 yr B.P. support these centers as the ancient origin of date palm domestication in this region, with a later establishment of oasis agriculture in North Africa (1, 2).

The current date palm germplasm is constituted by two highly differentiated gene pools: an eastern population, consisting of cultivars extending from the Middle East and Arabian Peninsula to northwest India and Pakistan and a western population covering North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa (3, 4). Introgressive hybridization by a wild relative in North African date palms has been proposed as a source of this differentiation (2).

Date palms in the southern Levant (modern-day Israel, Palestine, and Jordan), situated between eastern and western domestication areas, have historically played an important economic role in the region and were also of symbolic and religious significance (5). The Kingdom of Judah (Judea) that arose in the southern part of the historic Land of Israel in the 11th century BCE was particularly renowned for the quality and quantity of its dates. These so-called Judean dates grown in plantations around Jericho and the Dead Sea were recognized by classical writers for their large size, sweet taste, extended storage, and medicinal properties (5). While evidence suggests that Judean date culture continued during the Byzantine and Arab periods (4th to 11th century CE), further waves of conquest proved so destructive that by the 19th century, no traces of these historic plantations remained (5).

In 2008, we reported the germination of a 1900-year-old date seed (6) recovered from the historical site of Masada overlooking the Dead Sea. In the current study, six additional ancient date seeds from archaeological sites in the Judean desert were germinated, bringing to seven the number of ancient genotypes genetically analyzed using molecular markers. In addition, morphometric analysis was used to compare the size and shape of ungerminated ancient date seeds with modern varieties and wild dates.

This study, which confirms the long-term survival of date palm seeds, provides a unique opportunity to rediscover the origins of a historic date palm population that existed in Judea 2000 years ago. The characteristics of the Judean date palm may shed light on aspects of ancient cultivation that contributed to the quality of its fruit and is thus of potential relevance to the agronomic improvement of modern dates.

Of the hundreds of ancient date seeds and other botanical material recovered from excavations carried out in the Judean desert between 1963 and 1991 (7, 8) (fig. S1), 32 well-preserved date seeds from the archaeological sites of Masada, Qumran, Wadi Makukh, and Wadi Kelt were planted in a quarantine site at Kibbutz Ketura (table S1). Of these, six ancient seeds germinated and were further identified by the following monikers: Masada: Adam; Qumran: Jonah, Uriel, Boaz, and Judith; and Wadi Makukh: Hannah (Figs. 1 and 2).

(A) Adam, (B) Jonah, (C) Uriel, (D) Boaz, (E) Judith, (F) Hannah, and (G) HU37A11, an unplanted ancient date seed from Qumran (Cave FQ37) used as a control. Scale bars, 0.5 cm (A, no bar size as unmeasured before planting). Photo credit: Guy Eisner.

Ages in months at time of photograph (A to C) Adam (110 months), Jonah (63 months), and Uriel (54 months). (D to F) Boaz (54 months), Judith (47 months), and Hannah (88 months). Photo credit: Guy Eisner.

On visual inspection, no specific observation linked the ability of these seeds to germinate compared with those that failed to germinate. Before planting, the ancient date seeds had been weighted, and their length was measured, with the exception of those seeds from Masada, (including Adam, the germinated seed), which unfortunately were not measured (table S1). No statistically significant differences were found between germinated and ungerminated seeds in either weight {1.67 0.55 and 1.61 0.29 g, respectively [Students t test (t) = 0.348, degree of freedom (df) = 24, P = 0.731]} or length [27.60 3.7 and 26.8 3.7 mm, respectively (t = 0.455, df = 24, P = 0.653)].

Radiocarbon ages are shown (Fig. 3 and table S2) for ancient date seeds germinated in the current study and also for the date seed (seed 3/Methuselah) germinated in our previous work (6). These ages were obtained from seed shell fragments found clinging to the rootlets of germinated seedlings during their transfer into larger pots (3 to 17 months of age). The values were recalculated to take into account contamination by modern carbon incorporated during seedling growth previously shown to reduce measured radiocarbon age by approximately 250 to 300 years, equivalent to 2 to 3% modern carbon (table S2) (6). On the basis of these calculations, Methuselah germinated in our previous study (6) and Hannah and Adam in the current study are the oldest samples (first to fourth centuries BCE), Uriel and Jonah are the youngest (first to second centuries CE), and Judith and Boaz are intermediate (mid-second century BCE to mid-first century CE) (Fig. 3).

Eighteen ancient date seeds that failed to germinate were recovered from the potting soil and compared with modern seeds derived from 57 current date palms of which 48 are cultivated varieties and 9 are wild individuals (9, 10). Ancient seeds were significantly larger in terms of both length and width (length, 27.62 3.96 mm; width, 10.38 0.71 mm) than both current cultivar (length, 20.60 4.70 mm; width, 8.33 1.02 mm) and wild date palm seeds (length, 16.69 3.39 mm; width, 7.08 0.46 mm) (Fig. 4). Ancient seeds were, on average, 27.69% wider (t = 11.923, df = 18.391, P = 2.157 1010) and 38.37% longer than the combined current samples (wild and cultivated) (t = 7.422, df = 17.952, P = 3.564 107).

Length (millimeters) (left) and width (millimeters) (right) of ancient date seeds that failed to germinate (n = 18), 9 current wild individuals (n = 180), and 48 cultivated P. dactylifera varieties (n = 928). Letters a, b, and c above boxes indicate Tukeys groups derived from HSD.test function and R package agricolae.

When only compared to the cultivars, the ancient date seeds were still larger: 24.55% wider (t = 11.923, df = 18.391, P = 2.157 1010) and 34.06% longer (t = 7.422, df = 17.952, P = 3.564 107). However, the contrast in seed size is even more marked when comparing ancient seeds and current wild date palms: The Judean date palm seeds were, on average, 39.55% wider (t = 19.185, df = 18.471, P = 5.943 1014) and 65.48% longer than current wild samples (t = 11.311, df = 19.574, P = 2.472 1010) (tables S3 and S4).

Analysis of seed shape diversity in current and ancient date seeds using principal components analysis (PCA) (dudi.pca function) performed on seed outlines confirmed visual observation that modern cultivated seeds were more diverse in size than ancient ones but did not differentiate between the two groups [multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), P > 0.05]. Ancient seeds displayed an elongated shape similar to current cultivated samples (fig. S2).

The sex of the six germinated ancient date seedlings in the current study identified using three sex-linked simple sequence repeats (SSR) (11) were as follows: Judith and Hannah are female genotypes and Uriel, Jonah, Boaz, Adam, and Methuselah (seed 3) from the previous study (6) are male genotypes. Through microsatellite genotyping, three levels of genetic inheritance were investigated to highlight geographic origins (Fig. 5, A and B): (i) inheritance transmitted by both parents to progeny, obtained by microsatellite markers showing western and eastern patterns of the ancient seeds genomes (4), as presented in structure analysis and pie charts (Fig. 5A); (ii) inheritance transmitted from mother to progeny through the chloroplast genome, reflecting maternal lineage origin by reporting chloroplastic minisatellite eastern or western alleles (Fig. 5B, arrow) (12); and (iii) inheritance transmitted from father to son through the Y chromosome, reflecting paternal lineage origin by reporting male specific sex-linked eastern or western alleles (Fig. 5B, arrow) (11).

(A) Structure analysis results are shown for modern and ancient western (green) and eastern (orange) genotype contributions. Pie charts highlight eastern (orange) and western (green) ancient seeds nuclear genomes contributions. (B) Ancient seeds maternal and paternal lineages origin. Arrows represent clonally transmitted parental information, with maternal (chloroplastic) and paternal (Y chromosome) from western (green) and eastern (orange) origins.

Structure analysis revealed that distribution of the germinated ancient date seeds was within previously described eastern and western date palm gene pools (Fig. 5A). Methuselah, Hannah, and Adam are the most eastern genotypes, although they also show ancient western contributions requiring numerous generations and highlighting ancient crosses. Boaz and Judith are the most admixed, with almost equal eastern and western contributions reflecting more recent crossings. Jonah and Uriel are the most western genotypes with the most western parental lineages (Fig. 5B).

To shed light on genetic diversity of the ancient dates, basic population genetic parameters were estimated and compared to modern reference collections (tables S5 and S6). The ancient genotypes showed an allelic richness value (Ar) (i.e., the number of alleles) of 3.59, a relatively high diversity for such a small sample size (seven genotypes) compared to values of other countries sampled (table S6). Genetic relationships between the ancient date and current varieties (Fig. 6 and table S7) show Methuselah and Adam close to eastern modern varieties Fardh4 and Khalass, respectively, assigned to current Arabian Gulf varieties; Hannah and Judith related to modern Iraqi varieties Khastawi and Khyara, respectively; and Uriel, Boaz, and Jonah, the most western genotypes, related to modern Moroccan varieties, Mahalbit, Jihel, and Medjool, respectively.

Modern varieties from United Arab Emirates (light orange), Iraq (red), Tunisia (blue), Morocco (light green), Egypt (dark green), and ancient genotypes (purple).

In the current study, six ancient date seeds, in addition to the seedling obtained in our previous study (6), were germinated. All the seeds were approximately 2000 years old and had been previously recovered from archaeological sites in the Judean desert, a rain shadow desert of ca. 1500 km2 located between the maquis-covered Judean Hills and the Dead Sea (fig. S1).

Little is known about the mechanisms determining seed longevity; however, it has been related to the ability to remain in a dry quiescent state (13). In the current study, low precipitation and very low humidity around the Dead Sea could have contributed to the longevity of the ancient date seeds, which may be an adaptation of date palms to extreme desert conditions fostering seed dispersion. Their remarkable durability, however, may also be connected to other extreme environmental conditions in this area; at 415 m below mean sea level, the Dead Sea and its surroundings have the thickest atmosphere on Earth, leading to a unique radiation regime and a complex haze layer associated with the chemical composition of the Dead Sea water (14). However, since no visible evidence in the current study was linked to seed germination and, accordingly, to their long term survival, further investigations are needed to understand the basis of date palm seed longevity.

Among the worlds oldest cultivated fruit trees, P. dactylifera is the emblematic of oasis agriculture and highly symbolic in Muslim, Christian, and Jewish religions (5). Closely connected to the history of human migrations, the first cultivated varieties of P. dactylifera are thought to have originated around Mesopotamia and the Upper Arabian Gulf some 6700 to 6000 yr B.P. (1, 2, 10). In Judea, an ancient geopolitical region that arose during the 11th century BCE in the southern part of the historic Land of Israel, and situated at the cross roads of Africa, Asia, and Europe, the origins of date palm cultivation are unknown. However, from historical records, a thriving Judean date culture was present around Jericho, the Dead Sea, and Jordan Valley from the fifth century BCE onward, benefitting from an optimal oasis agriculture environment of freshwater sources and subtropical climate (5).

Described by classical writers including Theophrastus, Herodotus, Galen, Strabo, Pliny the Elder, and Josephus, these valuable plantations produced dates attributed with various qualities including large size, nutritional and medicinal benefits, sweetness, and a long storage life, enabling them to be exported throughout the Roman Empire (5, 15, 16). Several types of Judean dates are also described in antiquity including the exceptionally large Nicolai variety measuring up to 11 cm (5, 15, 16).

In the current study, ancient seeds were significantly longer and wider than both modern date varieties and wild date palms. Previous research has established that both fruits and seeds are larger in domesticated fruit crops compared with their wild ancestors (17), suggesting that the ancient seeds were of cultivated origin (9, 18), most likely originating from the regions date plantations. Furthermore, an increase in seed size has been linked allometrically to an increase in fruit size (19), corroborating the historical descriptions of the large fruits grown in this region.

Genotypes of the germinated ancient date seedlings cover a large part of present-day date palm distribution area, findings that reflect the variety, richness, and probable influences of the historic Judean date groves. Microsatellite genotyping shows a relatively high diversity, with eastern and western gene pool contributions, allelic richness, and genetic proximity to current varieties cultivated in the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, and North Africa. Although the sample size is small, a predominance of eastern female lineages (six of seven) indicates that eastern female varieties grown from local germplasm were probably clonally propagated from offshoots to maintain desirable fruit qualities. Male lineages, mainly western (four of five), suggest that genetically different or foreign males were used for pollination. This assumption is supported by first century texts, indicating that substantial knowledge existed in ancient Judea 2000 years ago regarding the most suitable males for pollination of female date palms (20).

Our results reinforce the historical narrative that a highly sophisticated domestication culture existed in ancient Judea. Local farmers with an interest in maintaining genetic diversity in their date plantations and anthropogenic pressures leading to selection on fruit dimension and other desirable traits used cross-breeding with foreign (genetically different) males to develop a rich collection of varieties.

These findings suggest that Judean date culture was influenced by a variety of migratory, economic, and cultural exchanges that took place in this area over several millennia.

In Israel, the oldest remains of P. dactylifera are wood specimens 19,000 yr B.P. from Ohalo II site on the Sea of Galilee (21). Recovery of carbonized date seeds from Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age sites (4500 to 2900 BCE) in the Judean desert, Jordan Valley, and Jericho (22, 23) and early Iron Age sites in Israel (12th to 11th century BCE) (24) suggest that human exploitation and consumption of dates occurred at this time. However, it is unclear whether these samples, which are relatively few in number and of very small size (22, 25, 26), are derived from ancient wild populations, as suggested by morphometric studies of modern wild date populations (18) or represent an early stage of the domestication process.

In the current study, although the sample size is too small to claim a trend, on a gradient from east to west genetic contributions, the older the germinated seeds are on radiocarbon dating (Fig. 3), the more eastern is the nuclear genome (Fig. 5, A and B ). In this respect, Methuselah, Adam, and Hannah (first to fourth centuries BCE) have a predominantly eastern nuclear genome and eastern maternal lineage, their relationship to modern varieties from the Arabian Gulf and Iraq suggesting that they belong to the same eastern genetic background.

The P. dactylifera cultivated by the inhabitants of Judea at that time therefore appears to be from the eastern gene pool, possibly growing locally and related to oasis populations, of which relict populations were recently found in Oman (9).

Elite female cultivars may also have been introduced to ancient Israel from these regions, consistent with a pattern of human intervention and possibly active acquisition of date palm varieties. Established trade links are documented with Arabia and the Persian Gulf from at least the 12th century BCE (27). Babylonian date palm cultivation in southern Mesopotamia (most of modern Iraq), originating some 6000 yr B.P. (1, 2), used deportees from ancient Judea following its conquest in the sixth century BCE (28). After the collapse of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, returning exiles may have brought this specialized knowledge and selected cultivars back to Judea; a date variety Taali cultivated in both Judea and Babylon is mentioned in the Talmud (29).

Western genetic admixtures in the germinated seedlings and their proximity to current cultivated date varieties from Morocco also suggest that ancient Judean date palms were the result of germplasm exchanges with this area and of multiple crosses. Introgression of eastern genomes into western ones are common, detected in varieties from Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, and particularly east-west junction areas like Egypt (1, 2, 4, 30). In the latter, eastern contributions from the Persian Gulf, detected in ancient Egypt date seeds from 1400 BCE to 800 CE, reveal a chronological pattern of change in agrobiodiversity and the possible emergence of a western form in the Roman period (10).

Introgression of date palm western genomes into eastern ones, however, is far lower (1, 2, 4, 12), their presence in the current study reflecting west to east exchanges.

The origins of these exchanges are unclear; however, archaeological evidence indicates that North Africa, Near East, and Mediterranean cultures were clearly linked during the Neolithic in the southern Levant (approximately 11,700 to 7300 B.P.) and were associated in Jericho with the earliest origins of food production and fundamental changes in human subsistence strategies (31).

Phoenicia, a maritime trading nation occupying the coastal areas of modern northern Israel, Lebanon, and Syria (1500 to 300 BCE), was also historically associated with cultivation and trade of date palms (32). We can speculate that later west to east germplasm exchanges to this region may have been associated with domesticated varieties originating in Phoenician City States in North African (e.g., Carthage in present-day Tunisia) (32), where oasis agriculture appeared relatively late in the archaeological record (3).

The most western genotypes in the current study (Uriel and Jonah) are also the youngest seeds (mid-first to mid-second CE), coinciding with established trade routes linking this region to North Africa and supporting evidence for date consumption in the latter 2000 years ago (2, 3). This period coincides with Judeas well-documented wars against Rome (66 to 73 CE and 132 to 136 CE) and deportation and displacement of its population (16). The ancient seeds in the current study were found in the Judean desert, historically a place of refuge due to its steep cliffs and inaccessible caves (16, 23). The loss of political autonomy and the final collapse of Judea have been postulated as causing major disruption to labor intensive practices associated with date cultivation (33). Elite cultivars no longer conserved by vegetative propagation (offshoots) were gradually replaced by seedling date palms producing fruits displaying considerable variation within the progeny. Although P. dactylifera can live for more than 100 years (33) and date groves in this region are thought to have persisted for several more centuries, they were already rare by the 11th century and had been entirely replaced by seedling populations or feral, wild trees producing only low-quality fruit (5, 33), by the 19th century.

The current study sheds light on the origins of the Judean date palm, suggesting that its cultivation, benefitting from genetically distinct eastern and western populations, arose from local or introduced eastern varieties, which only later were crossed with western varieties. These findings are consistent with Judeas location between east-west date palm diversification areas, ancient centers of date palm cultivation, and the impact of human dispersal routes at this crossroads of continents.

Given its exceptional storage potentialities, the date palm is a remarkable model for seed longevity research. Investigations on the molecular mechanisms involved in long-term protection in the dried state have important implications on plant adaptation to changing environments and for biodiversity conservation and seed banking. As new information on specific gene-associated traits (e.g., fruit color and texture) (3) is found, we hope to reconstruct the phenotypes of this historic date palm, identify genomic regions associated with selection pressures over recent evolutionary history, and study the properties of dates produced by using ancient male seedlings to pollinate ancient females. In doing so, we will more fully understand the genetics and physiology of the ancient Judean date palm once cultivated in this region.

The objectives of this study and its design were as follows:

1) The origin and selection of ancient date seeds derived from archaeological sites in the Judean desert.

2) The germination of ancient date seeds in a quarantine site following a preparatory process.

3) Radiocarbon dating and recalculation of calendar ages of germinated ancient date seeds based on seed shell fragments and selected controls.

4) Seed morphometric studies: Comparing ungerminated ancient date seeds with seeds from modern date varieties and wild date palms.

5) Microsatellite analysis of seven germinated date seedlings.

(statistical methods are included in the respective sections)

The ancient date seeds in the current study were obtained from botanical material recovered from archaeological excavations and surveys carried out at the following sites in the Judean desert between 1963 and 1991 and stored at room temperature since their discovery (fig. S1).

1) Masada: An ancient fortress/palace complex built by King Herod the Great (37 to 4 BCE) at the southern end of the Dead Sea on the site of an earlier Hasmonean fortification (141 to 37 BCE) (7). The site, built on a plateau approximately 400 m above the Dead Sea, was first excavated by the late Y. Yadin (Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel) from 1963 to 1965 (7). Bioarchaeological material found at this time included large numbers of date seeds buried under rubble close to the remains of an area identified as a food storage site.

2) Qumran: An archaeological site situated at the northern end of the Dead Sea including an ancient settlement dating from the second century BCE destroyed in 68 CE and a number of caves located in the surrounding cliffs and marl terrace associated with the 1947 discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Later excavations and surveys of caves in this area, carried out from 1986 to 1989, by J. Patrich and B. Arubas (The Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel) (8) included the following: Qumran Cave 13: artifacts found included potsherds from period 1b Qumran (until 31 BCE), numerous date stones and dried dates in a pit, and a pottery juglet dated to approximately 67 to 79 CE containing an unknown viscid substance and wrapped in palm fibers (used as a control in radiocarbon analysis in the current study) (see below); and Qumran Cave FQ37: containing a number of date stones and first to second CE century artifacts from the late Second Temple period (60 to 70 CE) and Roman period.

3) Wadi Makukh: A winter water channel in the Judean desert surrounded by high cliffs and containing a number of caves, which were surveyed from 1986 to 1989 (above). Date seeds found in caves 1, 3, 6, and 24 in this area were included in the current study; Cave 1 was found to include a Chalcolithic burial site (fifth millennium B.P.) containing human skeletons as well as Roman period artifacts but with signs of considerable disturbance by grave robbers (8).

4) Wadi Kelt: A winter water channel running from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea containing a number of caves (8). Date seeds from Masada were provided to S.S. by M. Kislev (Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar Ilan University), initially in 2005 (6) and again in 2007 (germinated in the current study), following permission by the late E. Netzer (Department of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem). Date seeds from Qumran, Wadi Makukh, and Wadi Kelt were provided to S.S. by J. Patrich in 2009.

Out of a collection of many hundreds of ancient date seeds, a total of 34 were selected for the current study based on the specimens appearing visually to be intact whole seeds, in good condition, and without holes. They included Masada (8 seeds), Qumran (18 seeds), Wadi Makukh (7 seeds), and Wadi Kelt (1 seed). Ancient date seeds selected above were identified by code numbers and photographed, and measurements of weight and length were made before planting (with the exception of Masada seeds, which unfortunately were not measured) (table S1). One date seed, from the Qumran excavations (HU 37 A11), was selected as a control and left unplanted (table S1).

The remaining 33 seeds were subjected to a preparatory process to increase the likelihood of seed germination using the following established methods to sprout delicate germplasm (34): seeds were initially soaked in water for 24 hours and in gibberellic acid (5.19 mM) (OrthoGrow, USA) for 6 hours to encourage embryonic growth. This was followed by Hormoril T8 solution (5 g/liter) (Asia-Riesel, Israel) for 6 hours to encourage rooting and KF-20 organic fertilizer (10 ml/liter) (VGI, Israel) for 12 hours. All solutions were maintained at 35C.

Following the above procedure, one seed was found to be damaged and not planted. The remaining 32 seeds were separately potted in fresh sterile potting soil, 1 cm below the surface, and placed in a locked quarantine site at the Arava Institute of Environmental Sciences, Kibbutz Ketura, located in the southern Israel. Eight weeks after germination and periodically afterward, KF-20 (10 ml/liter) and iron chelate (10 g/liter) were added to the seedlings. Irrigation used desalinated water, as our previous study on germinating the first ancient date seed (6) indicated that using the regions highly mineralized water produced tip burn (darkening and drying of leaves).

Radiocarbon ages in the current study were obtained for the following bioarchaeological material: (i) fragments of seed shell coat found clinging to the rootlets of six germinated ancient date seeds when these seedlings were transferred into larger pots, (ii) an unplanted ancient date seed from cave 37 Qumran (HU37 A11) (used as a control), and (iii) part of an ancient palm frond surrounding an oil juglet found in Qumran Cave 13 (used as a control). Radiocarbon ages of seed shell fragments from the germinated seedlings were recalculated to take into account modern carbon incorporated during seedling growth (6).

1) Methodology: Nonorganic carbon (carbonates) were removed from all samples with 10% HCl under reduced pressure followed by repeated washes in deionized water until neutral (pH 7). Organic acids formed during the rotting process were removed with 10% NaOH followed by repeated washes (as above). To prevent absorption of atmospheric CO2, all samples were placed again in 10% HCl and then washed in deionized water until neutral. To remove chemicals used in the germination process, a 7-mm-long shell fragment from the germinated date seed weighing 80 mg was cut into six cubes of 8 mm3 and subjected to an additional series of four boil washes. All samples were heated in an evacuated sealed quartz tube with CuO as an oxygen source. The resulting CO2 was mixed with hydrogen in the ratio 2.5:1 and catalytically reduced over cobalt powder at 550C to elemental carbon (graphite). This mixture was pressed into a target and the 14C:12C ratio (for radiocarbon age) measured by accelerator mass spectrometry at the Institute for Particle Physics of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ).

2) Calendar age: Calendar age was obtained using the OxCal 4.3 calibration program based on the latest IntCal 13 calibration curve (35). Calibrated calendar ages can be found with a probability of 68.3% in the 1-range and with a probability of 95.4% in the 2-range (table S2). The probability distribution P of individual ages is given for each sigma range. The 14C activity is reported as pMC (percentage of modern carbon) and corresponds to the ratio of the activity of the sample to the corrected activity of the oxalic acid standard, which has an age of 0 yr B.P.

3) Calculation of correction for pMC: The effect of contamination by modern carbon incorporated during seedling growth previously shown in our first germination of an ancient date seed to reduce measured age by 250 to 300 years (equivalent to 2 to 3% pMC) (6) was calculated using the following three groups based on the source of the ancient seeds in both the current and previous studies:

(i) Masada: Adam (current study), Methuselah (seed 3), and seed 1 [both from previous study (6) in which seed 1 was used as a control].

(ii) Qumran Cave 13: Judith and an ancient palm frond (used as a control)

(iii) Qumran Cave 37: Boaz, Jonah, Uriel, and seed HU37A11 (used as a control)

The germinated ancient seed Hannah from Wadi Makhukh was not assigned to a group due to the absence of a suitable control and considerable disruption to the site.

Using as age-controls the ancient palm frond (Qumran Cave 13), seed HU37A11 (Qumran Cave 37) from the current study and seed 1 (Masada) from the previous study (6), we assumed that a positive pMC difference between the germinated seeds and control sample could be attributed to modern carbon that was absorbed during germination. Ages of the germinated seeds were therefore recalculated (assuming that the measurement error remains unchanged) by adjusting the measured age to the control sample. For Hannah since no control exists, an average deviation (derived from the other samples) was taken into account.

Comparison of ancient date seeds that failed to germinate with modern date seeds. This was performed on the following groups:

1) Modern date seed (P. dactylifera) samples (n = 56): Being either from cultivated varieties (n = 47) or uncultivated and possibly wild individuals (n = 9) (9). Seeds from these sources (total n = 1108) were used as a current referential for seed morphometric analysis. The cultivated modern samples originated from 11 countries spanning date palm distribution from Spain to North Africa to the Middle-East. The candidate wild date palms originated from Oman and have been hypothesized as wild date palms based on seed shape, seed size (18), and genetic studies based on microsatellite and whole-genome resequencing data (9).

2) Ancient date seeds (n = 18): Of 26 ancient date seeds obtained from Qumran, Wadi Makukh, and Wadi Kelt archaeological sites (described above) that had been planted in the quarantine site, 21 failed to germinate and were retrieved from the potting soil. Of these, three were discarded as they had fragmented and were in poor condition. The remaining 18 retrieved ancient date seeds together with modern reference seeds (described above) were rephotographed on dorsal and lateral sides, and measurements of length and width were remade (table S3) [Neither current or previous (6) ancient date seeds from Masada that failed to germinate were used in the morphometric study as these seeds were not retrieved from the potting soil].

The following statistical analyses were performed using R software (36).

1) Size analysis of modern seeds: The length and width of a total of 1108 seeds obtained from 47 current cultivated varieties (928 seeds) and 9 current wild individuals (180 seeds) were measured using ImageJ (37) following the protocol previously established by Gros-Balthazard et al. (18). The thickness was not measured since it is highly correlated with width (18).

2) Comparison of seed size between current and ancient samples: Measurements for current varieties were compared with those measured for the ancient date seeds using boxplots and Students and Tukeys tests (table S4).

3) Analysis of seed shape diversity in current and ancient date seeds: PCA (dudi.pca function) was performed on seed outlines assessed by Fourier coefficients, a morphometric method applied to outline analysis.

DNA preparation. DNA of six ancient date seedlings from the current study and one (Methuselah) from the previous study (6) was analyzed. A set of 19 SSR was used for genotyping as described by Zehdi-Azouzi et al. (4). Gender was determined using date palm sex-linked microsatellite markers (11). Maternal lineages were traced back using the plastid intergenic spacer psbZ-trnf minisatellite (12, 38). Paternal lineages were studied through Y haplotypes using the three sex-linked SSRs (mPdIRDP80, mPdIRDP50, and mPdIRDP52) (11).

Total cellular DNA was extracted from lyophilized leaves using the TissueLyser and the DNeasy Plant Mini Kit (QIAGEN SA, Courtaboeuf, France) according to the manufacturers instructions. After purification, DNA concentrations were determined using a GeneQuant spectrometer (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, France). The quality was checked by agarose minigel electrophoresis. The resulting DNA solutions were stored at 20C.

Amplification and genotyping. Polymerase chain reactions were performed in an Eppendorf (AG, Hamburg, Germany) thermocycler. Reaction was performed in 20 l and contained 10 ng of genomic DNA, 10 reaction buffer, 2 mM MgCl2, 200 M deoxynucleotide triphosphates, 0.5 U polymerase, and 0.4 pmol of the forward primer labeled with a 5M13 tail, 2 pmol of the reverse primer, and 2 pmol of the fluorochrome-marked M13 tail and MilliQ water. A touchdown polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was carried out with following parameters: denaturation for 2 min at 94C, followed by six cycles of 94C for 45 s, 60C for 1 min, and 72C for 1 min; then 30 cycles of 94C for 45 s, 55C for 1 min, and 72C for 1.5 min; then 10 cycles of 94C for 45 min, 53C for 1 min, 72C for 1.5 min; and a final elongation step at 72C for 10 min. PCR products were analyzed using an ABI 3130XL Genetic Analyzer (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA). Allele size scoring was performed with GeneMapper software v3.7 (Applied Biosystems).

Genetic analyses. The ancient genotypes were compared to a reference matrix (90 genotypes) containing genotyping data on current date palm varieties covering the two genetic pools defined by Zehdi-Azouzi et al. (4) and including 35 samples from the eastern pool and 55 samples from the western pool (table S5). The number of alleles per group (NA), the number of alleles with a frequency higher than 5% (NA,P), and the observed (Ho), the expected (He) heterozygosities, and the fixation index values (FIS) were estimated using the GenAlEx 6.5 program (table S6). The allelic richness of each group was also calculated via the divBasic function implemented in the R package diversity (table S6) (39).

The hierarchical classifications were generated using PHYLIP package by calculating Cavalli-Sforza and Edwards distances (40) between ancient genotypes and current varieties (table S7). The obtained distance was used to construct the dendrogram using the neighbor-joining algorithm (41). The tree was drawn using DARwin software (42).

The membership probabilities of the ancient genotypes were identified by using a model-based clustering algorithm implemented in the computer program STRUCTURE v.2.3.4 (43). This algorithm identifies clusters (K) with different allele frequencies and assigns portions of individual genotypes to these clusters. It assumes the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and linkage equilibrium within clusters. The STRUCTURE algorithm was run without previous information on the geographic origin of the accessions using a model with admixture and correlated allele frequencies with 10 independent replicate runs for each K value (K value ranging from 1 to 6). For each run, we used a burn period of 10,000 iterations followed by 1 million iterations. The optimal number of clusters was assigned by using the run with the maximum likelihood validated with an ad hoc quantity based on the second-order rate of change in the log probability of data between different K values (fig. S3).The optimal alignment of the independent iterations was obtained by CLUMPP v.1.1 implemented in the Pophelper software v.1.0.10 (44); Pophelper v.1.0.10 (44) was also used to plot the results for the optimal K.

Acknowledgments: We thank J. Patrich and the late E. Netzer for making available ancient date seeds from Judean desert excavations; R. Krueger (USDA-ARS, USA) for providing some current date palm varieties; and S. Zehdi (Faculty of Sciences, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunisia), A. Lemansour (UAEU, DPDRUD, United Arab Emirates), M. A. Elhoumaizi (Sciences Faculty, Morocco), and C. Newton for allowing the use of genotyping data on current date palm varieties in the reference matrix. M. Collin is acknowledged for the help in the figure preparation and T. Bdolah Abraham for the help in statistics. O. Fragman-Sapir is acknowledged for identification of ancient date seeds and C. Yeres and A. Rifkin for information on Midrashic and Talmudic Jewish source material. Funding: The study was supported by donations to NMRC from The Charles Wolfson Charitable Trust (UK), G. Gartner and the Louise Gartner Philanthropic Fund (USA), and the Morris Family Foundation (UK). Author contributions: S.S. initiated, designed, and coordinated the study, procured ancient date samples, researched historical and archaeological information and integrated it with scientific findings, and wrote the paper. E.C. and N.C. performed genetic analyses on germinated seedlings. E.S. germinated ancient date seeds. M.E. performed radiocarbon analysis. M.G.-B., S.I., and J.-F.T. performed morphometric analysis. F.A. supervised genetic analyses and with E.C., M.G.-B., and M.E. helped write the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. Additional data related to this paper may be requested from the authors.

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Origins and insights into the historic Judean date palm based on genetic analysis of germinated ancient seeds and morphometric studies - Science...

Future is Faster Than You Think (FFTYT)

(Book: The Future Is Faster Than You Think)

When it comes to exponential technologies there are few people in the world more informed than Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, earning degrees in molecular genetics and aerospace engineering from MIT and a Harvard-trained medical doctor who co-founded, XPRIZE, BOLD Capital Partners, and more than two-dozen companies operating at the leading edge of technology & longevity. He also runs Abundance 360 (A360), a tightly-curated, by-application-only community of 360 technology executives where he teaches exponential entrepreneurship and invites the most outstanding leading technology executives to share the latest advances in the fields of AI, computing, energy, transportation, retail, gaming, healthcare, and longevity. The Abundance 360 members & the high profile XPRIZE board that Diamandis has cultivated take an active part in this community, tackle new challenges with XPRIZE, go on trips to the most tightly-controlled labs, centers for disease & aging as well as obtain courtside access to the latest technologies that most arent even aware of yet. Why does Diamandis spend so much time with those in his community? Diamandis is here to inspire, guide and transform the way these executives think in order to get the motivation, energy to create their massively transformative purpose in life and become moonshot thinkers. In fact, I was invited to give a talk at Abundance 360 and present the work to a group of about 360 people who you usually see on the covers of technology magazines. I had a chance to hear about the employee longevity programs at the Beijing Genomics Institute, new approaches to developing blockbuster promotional videos at Riot Games and got KDA Popstars on my playlist (since then they got over 300 million views on Youtube), and even learned a few new things in artificial intelligence.

To make this knowledge available to a broader audience, approximately every five years Diamandis publishes a book. These books quickly make it to the bookshelves of technology luminaries and business leaders and become New York Times bestsellers. And if you liked his two other New York Times bestsellers, Abundance and Bold, you will certainly be wowd by The Future is Faster Than You Think. But for those who hear about these books for the first time, I recommend getting the entire trilogy and starting from Abundance. Every one of these books starts with a very simple but non-obvious realization - the world is substantially better than you think. Every one of us living in developed countries has a higher standard of living and more entertainment options than the Queen of England twenty years ago thanks to technology. The world is more peaceful, more connected, never been more at the ready to take on new challenges, and fix the problems that we complain about today. And it is getting better every year. The global poverty rate is on the decline, alternative and sustainable sources now supply a substantial amount of our energy, there are major advances in oncology as well as medicine, and more and more bright minds are joining the productive longevity revolution.

However, humans have evolved to perceive the negative bias much stronger than the positive happening around us and tend to focus on short-term goals. For millennia, humans needed to quickly react to immediate threats, and our bodies and minds evolved accordingly. The modern media is using this evolutionary trait at large feeding us a constant stream of dramatic current events in the battle for our attention. If there are 100 pieces of news and only 1 of them is negative, the news-driven society that we live in tends to pay most attention to and focus on the negative. And since almost every news agency has access to almost the same information at the exact same millisecond, they compete for the most dramatic interpretation of the negative at hand. Like Abundance and Bold, The Future Is Faster Than You Think explains how to go around this short-term reactionary behavior and focus on the positive.

Similar to Abundance and Bold, The Future Is Faster Than You Think covers a very large number of advances in major areas of our lives that cannot and should not be ignored; however, the central topic of the book is artificial intelligence, which glues all of these sections together. It also covers the limitations and dangers of AI and other technologies but still keeps a positive outlook on the entire field.

Another unique feature of The Future Is Faster Than You Think is the way the information is presented. The presentation of a technology trend or discovery usually starts with some background and problem definition, a brief description of how the technology works, provides one or two examples of the real-world application of this technology and then follows with a thought experiment on how and where this technology can be used in the future. Some of these thought experiments become thought-provoking asking the reader to imagine the convergence of several of these technologies and the implications on the different industries and our daily lives. In other words, this book teaches you to imagine, invent, and disrupt.

In my opinion, whether you work for a cutting-edge AI, automotive, or coal mining company, this is one book every CEO, CIO, CTO, and head of innovation, investor, or entrepreneur needs to read and have on their bookshelf. I am buying a few copies to give out to the employees, friends, and partners.

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The Future Is Faster Than You Think Book Review: How To Learn About Exponential Technologies And Develop A Positive Mindset - Forbes

Gwyneth Paltrows latest entry into the Goop franchise is her new Netflix series, The Goop Lab. The six episodes deal with a range of wellness issues: psychedelics, cold therapy, orgasms, nutrition for longevity, energy healing, and psychics. In the opening credits, Paltrow notes that her goal in traversing this path is the optimization of self like were here one time, one life. Living the examined life is one thing, but crying while undergoing energy healing is quite another.

Wellness is like this odd religion, wherein the affluent compensate for their lack of physical exertion, where we can be deemed good for eating right, where reducing stress and balancing our work/life engenders us with virtue. Following wellness dictates can become overwhelming, such in the case of orthorexia, an obsession with health. Living longer, eating healthier, connecting more with nature and with our bodies, eradicating or reducing the impact of disease through holistic healing all have the kind of associated values that used to come with organized, God-centric religion.

Goop employees were the guinea pigs trying out all the treatments over the six-episode mini-season. People from accounting and IT were on these journeys, too, not just the creatives in the open office plan. These adventures are like the ultimate corporate off-sites.

The first episode follows Goopers to Jamaica for a psilocybin experience. The active ingredient in magic mushrooms, psilocybin can cause hallucinations and changes in how the body feels. Shrooms can be eaten plain, but shroom tea is far more palatable.

My first thought was how awful it would be to embark on a psychedelic trip with my co-workers. But my second was that after hippies spent decades lolling about in the gutter wearing tie-dye and goofy grins, hallucinogenics are going mainstream.

In micro doses or in a full-on therapeutic trip, psychedelics have hit the wellness set. The circumstances and ethos surrounding these wacky drugs are way different than when I was dabbling my own neurons in a psilocybin bath. Now its got a purity. People fly first-class to beautiful locations to be guided by Ph.D.-level shamans who run foundations for the furtherance of psychedelic research.

For those who havent tried shrooms, I can attest to the fact that they take about an hour to kick in and have an earthy flavor. If youre in a group of 10 friends who all want to get as high as you do, watch for elbows as you all storm the dish of mushrooms and try to stuff as many into your mouth as possible.

This was not the Goop experience. Goop staffers had people to hold them while they cried and released their past trauma. We had firecrackers, large canisters of gasoline, and a penchant for flame. Goopers got some healing on their journey, but we probably had more fun.

The deep dive into the inner mind was followed by an episode where Goopers dove into the freezing water of Lake Tahoe in winter. Cold therapy promises healing, and Goop shows testimonials from people who swear by daily cold immersion.

When I was recently on a wellness and mindfulness adventure in Arizona, I met a semi-psychic astrologer who swore by cold showers. Hed gone so far as to shut off the gas in his home so hed be forced into the cold immersion regimen. In contrast, the Goopers, post-swim, sat around a fire, glasses of red wine and bottles of imported beer in their hands, expressing gratitude to the Dutch guy who led the excursion, to the lake maybe, and to fulfillment.

Cold therapy is about taking down the body temperature to activate some of the bodys dormant systems. Thats what so much of the current wellness trends are about: the benefits of denying ourselves comfort to find healing in deprivation. Wellness practitioners are contemporary ascetics. Through suffering, fasting, and flagellation, we find enlightenment, live longer, and master our desires.

A feeling of rectitude accompanies this that once we challenge ourselves, our skin, and our minds, we have achieved something worthwhile. Its like a prayer to the ether, to the world itself. Discovering what the body can do when released from its comfort zone is a big part of the wellness explored in Goop. Such is the case with the episode on womens orgasms.

Paltrow and Goop Chief Content Officer Elise Loehnen spoke with womens orgasm specialist Betty Dodson. While Goop staffers didnt participate in one of Dodsons everyone gets naked workshops in part because, as Loehnen suggests, it would be an HR crisis Loehnen and Paltrow get a detailed account of how these orgasm workshops go down. Basically, everyone gets off.

Its a little disconcerting to hear orgasms and womens pleasure discussed so clinically by 90-year-old Dodson, Paltrow, Loehnen, and CEO of the Betty Dodson Foundation Carlin Ross. The episode was almost like a real-life Our Bodies, Ourselves, although not the new one, the old one my step-mom gave me back in the late 80s. Wellness in this context is knowing how your body works, learning what gives you pleasure, and figuring out how to ask for it without being ashamed.

Women undergo surgery for labiaplasties up by 45 percent over 2015-16 to achieve the perfect vulva appearance, but according to Dodson, lots of women never even hold the mirror up to nature to have a look for themselves. Dodson combats the shame and what Paltrow calls the deep resistance we have to our own genitalia by teaching women to orgasm and to run the f-ck.

One notable moment in this episode occurs when Ross masturbates to orgasm to show how its done. Viewers hear real orgasm sounds, not performative receiving as in porn. Seeing and hearing this in a realistic way, from a woman who is confident and comfortable with her body, is something of a disconnect. Seeing Ross know how to pleasure herself without any weirdness, embarrassment, or shame is a bit revolutionary. Shame is a killer of pleasure, says Dodson.

The episode on energy healing was another stand-out. But in this case, its hard to see how energy massage makes any sense. The practitioners of energy healing work with the energy around your body, whatever that means.

Those who partake in the experience have left in tears, and Paltrow swears by her sessions, as does everyone on Goops staff who tries it. With eyes closed, those on the massage table seem to feel the placement of the energy healers hands and behave as though they are affected by the not-touch. Its frankly a little hard to believe.

I had one random reiki healing session when I was hanging out with a friend who was studying it, and I had an asthma attack. We went onto the balcony in the New York winter, and he ran his hands along the outline of my body, his hands several inches away. The attack stopped, but I dont actually count that as proof of anything.

My wellness experiences are limited to spa retreats gifted to me by exceedingly generous family members. In November, I was at Miraval in Arizona, and I lost count of the number of times I was chastised for communing with my iPhone instead of with the desert air and sky. For the record, I communed with them too, and I have the pictures to prove it.

It was here that I had a full-body, blindfolded, Thai underwater massage that brought me to tears and made me seriously reflect on my control issues. I had an Ayurvedic experience that gave me visions that I was living my life behind glass, and everything beautiful was on the other side. I also met a fellow wellness patron who was friendly and open until finding out I wrote for The Federalist.

In the opening credit sequence, Paltrow says that when she founded Goop in 2008, she thought her calling was something else other than making out with Matt Damon on screen or whatever. Now Goop is a full-fledged lifestyle brand offering health, wellness, self-image overhauls, and merch. The Goop site features articles, clothes, products, beauty and nutrition tips, books, and all kinds of other ways to spend vast sums of money on self-care.

The Goop Lab is very much an advertisement for the lifestyle the brand promotes. While it offers every conceivable kind of object or service to attain the goal of wellness, the one thing is does not provide is meaning. Theres a feeling in the content that morality is inherent in being destressed, living longer, looking younger, and feeling stronger. Good health and wellness, however, are not moral successes. They are flukes of money, time, and genetics.

Paltrows impulse to encourage people to be their best selves is certainly sound, but its missing a component meaning: a reason to do the right thing regardless of whether it will make us feel better. These enhancements and treatments are all about extending pleasure, in one form or another, yet the path to enlightenment rarely comes with affirmations, a feeling of self-satisfaction, or a glass of wine at the end.

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'The Goop Lab' Exploration Of Shrooms And Self Pleasure Is Wild - The Federalist

Anemia also known as iron-poor blood is a condition that develops when either the blood doesn't have enough red blood cells or the concentration of hemoglobin in red blood cells is very low. Hemoglobin is the iron-containing protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. When there are fewer red blood cells than normal or low levels of hemoglobin, the body doesn't get enough oxygen-rich blood for healthy functioning, which is what causes the symptoms of anemia.

Anemia is the most common blood disorder in the United States, affecting nearly 3 million Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The term anemia is a broad one that represents several hundred different conditions some of them mild and treatable, others that are quite serious, said Dr. Nancy Berliner, chief of hematology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. There are three reasons that people are anemic, Berliner said: Either their body can't make enough red blood cells, something is destroying the red blood cells faster than their body can make news ones or blood loss (from menstrual periods, colon polyps or a stomach ulcer, for example) is greater than blood cell production.

There are more than 400 different types of anemia, according to the Pacific Heart, Lung & Blood Institute. Here are a few of the more common and better understood types:

Iron-deficiency anemia: The most common form of anemia is caused by low-iron levels in the body. Humans need iron to make hemoglobin, and most of that iron comes from dietary sources. Iron-deficiency anemia can result from a poor diet or from blood loss through menstruation, surgery or internal bleeding.

Pregnancy also increases the body's need for iron because more blood is needed to supply oxygen to the developing fetus, which may quickly drain the body's available iron stores, leading to a deficit. Problems absorbing iron from food because of Crohn's disease or celiac disease can also result in anemia.

Vitamin deficiency anemia: Besides iron, the body also needs two different B-vitamins folate and B12 to make enough red blood cells. Not consuming enough B12 or folate in the diet or an inability to absorb enough of these vitamins can lead to deficient red blood cell production.

Sickle cell anemia or sickle cell disease (SDC): This inherited disease causes red blood cells to become crescent-shaped rather than round. Abnormally shaped red cells can break apart easily and clog small blood vessels, resulting in a shortage of red blood cells and episodes of pain, according to the Mayo Clinic. People become chronically anemic because the sickle-shaped red cells are not pliable and can't get through blood vessels to deliver oxygen, Berliner said.

SDC occurs most often in people from parts of the world where malaria is or was common, according to the CDC; the sickle cell trait may provide protection against severe forms of malaria. In the U.S., SDC affects an estimated 100,000 Americans.

Thalassemia: Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder that results in lower-than-normal levels of hemoglobin. This type of anemia is caused by genetic mutations in one or more of the genes that control the production of hemoglobin, according to the National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute (NHLBI).

Aplastic anemia: Aplastic anemia is a rare, life-threatening condition that develops when bone marrow stops making enough new blood cells, including red cells, white cells and platelets.

Aplastic anemia may be caused by radiation and chemotherapy treatments, which can damage stem cells in bone marrow that produce blood cells. Some medications, exposure to toxic chemicals like pesticides, viral infections and autoimmune disorders can also affect bone marrow and slow blood cell production.

Hemolytic anemias: This disorder causes red blood cells to be destroyed faster than bone marrow can replace them. Hemolytic anemias may be caused by infections, leaky heart valves, autoimmune disorders or inherited abnormalities in red blood cells, according to the American Society of Hematology.

Anemia of inflammation: Also called anemia of chronic disease, anemia of inflammation commonly occurs in people with chronic conditions that cause inflammation. This includes people with infections, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic kidney disease, HIV/AIDS and certain cancers, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

When a person has a disease or infection that causes inflammation, the immune system responds in a way that changes how the body works, resulting in anemia. For example, inflammation suppresses the availability of iron, so the body may not use and store the mineral normally for healthy red blood cell production, Berliner said. Inflammation may also stop the kidneys from producing a hormone that promotes red blood cell production.

The risk for anemia is higher in people with a poor diet, intestinal disorders, chronic diseases and infections. Women who are menstruating or pregnant are also prone to the disorder.

The risk of anemia increases with age, and about 10% to 12% of people over 65 are anemic, Berliner said. But the condition is not a normal part of aging, so the cause should be investigated when it's diagnosed, she said. Older adults may develop anemia from chronic diseases, such as cancer, or iron-deficiency anemia from abnormal bleeding.

According to NHLBI, the following types of people have an increased risk of developing anemia:

Mild forms of anemia may not cause any symptoms. When signs and symptoms of anemia do occur, they may include the following, according to the NHLBI:

The first test used to diagnose anemia is a complete blood count, which measures different parts and features of the blood: It shows the number and average size of red blood cells, as well as the amount of hemoglobin. A lower-than-normal red blood cell count or low levels of hemoglobin indicate anemia is present.

If more testing is needed to determine the type of anemia, a blood sample can be examined under a microscope to check for abnormalities in the size and shape of the red cells, white cells and platelets.

Related: This man's taste buds disappeared because of a blood condition

The treatment of anemia depends on the specific type of anemia, Berliner said, and anemias caused by nutritional deficiencies respond well to changes in diet. People with iron-deficiency anemia may need to take supplemental iron for several months or longer to replenish blood levels of the mineral. Some people, especially pregnant women, may find it hard to take iron because it causes side effects, such as an upset stomach or constipation, Berliner said.

For vitamin-deficiency anemias, treatment with B12 or folate from supplements (or a B12 shot) and foods, can improve levels of these nutrients in the blood, Berliner said.

Serious problems, such as aplastic anemia, which involves bone marrow failure, may be treated with medications and blood transfusions. Severe forms of thalassemia might need frequent blood transfusions.

Treatment for sickle cell anemia may include pain medications, blood transfusions or a bone marrow transplant.

Additional resources:

This article is for informational purposes only, and is not meant to offer medical advice.

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Anemia: Causes, symptoms and treatment - Livescience.com

Dr Dani Gordon is a double board-certified medical doctor, working with integrative medicine, as well as wellness expert and leading expert in clinical cannabis/cannabinoid medicine after treating 2500+ patients in Canada in a referral complex chronic disease practice where she specialised in neurological disorders, chronic pain and mental health conditions.

She speaks internationally on cannabinoid medicine and in mid-2018 moved to London to train the UKs first cannabis medicine specialist physicians, developing a leading online cannabis medicine physician training programme, helping to set up the UKs first cannabis medicine clinics and become a founding member of the UK Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society (MCCS), delivering the MCCS guidelines to 10 Downing Street.

Gordon is an American Board Specialist in Integrative Medicine, the newest American sub-specialty of mainstream medicine, focussed on the intersection of conventional and natural evidence-based medicine and therapeutics and she has studied herbal medicine and meditation extensively throughout India and south east Asia with traditional teachers, mind-body medicine at Harvard, neurofeedback brain training and EEG brain imaging techniques with leaders in the field in North America.

Here, she speaks to Health Europa Quarterly about her extensive background in cannabis medicine, patient experience, and the representation of women in the rapidly evolving industry.

I am medical doctor and Im trained in both integrative medicine, which is natural evidence-based medicine and a recognised speciality. I am also trained in family medicine in Canada, and I specialise specifically in herbal medicine, cannabinoid medicine as part of my integrative medicine practice.

I have been practising integrative medicine for the last decade in Canada and that is mostly what I do in my clinical practice. Around four years ago, I started experimenting with medical cannabis and I have been running a complex chronic disease clinic with a focus on medical cannabis for the last four years in Canada; at this point I have treated thousands of patients using medical cannabis and CBD.

I have also trained medical students, physicians and allied health care providers on how to use cannabis medicine. I am a writer, and I speak worldwide on cannabis medicine and other natural evidence-based medicine topics and integrative medicine. Last year I relocated back to the UK where Im also a citizen to get involved on this side of the pond.

Since that time, Ive been involved in quite a few major projects here, I advise on some of the high profile child epilepsy cases, and Im the vice chair of the Medical Cannabis Clinicians Society. I advise companies and I have overseen training the first group of UK specialist doctors in cannabis medicine along with overseeing the curriculum for the Academy of Medical Cannabis, which is the main body established to educate physicians and researchers on medical cannabis.

Integrative medicine is a subspecialty which started out in the States. I already had my postdoctoral fellowship and you already need to be a doctor to take the fellowship programme. Its a two-year fellowship which I completed in 2012 in the US, and the reason I decided to do it is because I was practising as a holistic medical doctor in Canada. I was already a conventionally trained medical doctor with the qualifications I had, but I wanted to add to my practice natural things such as herbal medicine, mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques and mind- body techniques for the benefit of my chronic disease patients.

I went to the states and completed this training in 2012, because there was no postdoctoral level training in natural medicine and I really wanted to have the most bona fide qualification. Since 2012, it has now become a fully recognised speciality in medicine in the US. Initially I wasnt interested in integrative medicine when I started my practice in 2009 as a family doctor helping people with chronic disease was my main interest. I realised that just using pharmaceutical drugs alone for complex chronic diseases, were not really cutting the mustard so to speak. It just wasnt really working very well for a lot of my patients with anxiety, stress related disorders, mental health conditions, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic pain and sleeping problems. Pharmaceutical drugs were just not helping enough on their own.

I became interested in cannabis specifically in 2015. At that time, I had been practising with herbal medicines and conventional drugs for almost half a decade. A lot of my patients started to tell me about their experiences with using cannabis therapeutically because I practised herbal medicine as well as the conventional kind.

I was really interested in the things they were doing, for example some of my patients were juicing cannabis in its raw form and saying that it didnt make them feel high. They explained that it was really a health supplement that their parents generation had been using it in West coast Canada where a lot of people grow cannabis on their land. That got me really interested in why they were juicing it and not getting high and what was what was happening with this plant; as a herbalist I became very intrigued.

I also had a few patients who were at the end of their life with terrible cancers and they told me how they were taking homemade cannabis tinctures to help reduce their morphine needs so that they could be more aware and alert. It allowed them to manage their pain, experience better quality of life and spend more time with their families in their final days.

I started to investigate it from there to find out how I could introduce it into my practice, so people wouldnt need to experiment with it alone and in isolation. I sought out additional training in cannabis medicine, and just found a few mentors but back in 2015, there really wasnt that much awareness. I started opening my door to cannabis medicine being included in my practice through the Health Canada legal system and I just started learning hand in hand with my patients. I was reading all the latest research and working with the plant just as I did with all my other herbal medicine practise. I started to see all these incredible changes in my patients so that really spurred me on to continue.

When I first started out in cannabis medicine, I was actually quite sceptical because I had a lot of ingrained training from medical school that cannabis was an addictive drug that it was going to make people lazy, hurt their brains and make them more tired.

What I found was the patients who were in orphan disease categories with conditions such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic anxiety and chronic depression, chronic pain were improving when nothing else we had tried previously was really effective. When I started to study the endocannabinoid system, which is the cannabis system we have in our own bodies It made sense because essentially the cannabis plant regulates our own cannabis system which is involved in processes such as regulating our mood and pain signals.

We [doctors and researchers specialising in cannabis medicine] think that a deficient endocannabinoid system also known as Endocannabinoid Deficiency Syndrome theory may play a role in all of these overlapping symptom clusters that are very, very difficult to treat. Conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, chronic daily headaches, chronic migraine, chronic depression and anxiety all these issues sometimes improve using traditional drugs, but it usually doesnt provide a good solution with few side effects.

What I started to do with cannabis is adding in different forms of cannabis medicines primarily the low THC and high CBD strains of the plant and then selecting different strains of the plant more specifically. I found with my background as a herbalist I was able to really personalise the therapy.

With many of my patients who suffered from chronic mental health conditions, I really wanted to get them practising something called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) which I went to Harvard to study alongside some of the top researchers in the world. I really believe in it; however, it is not a quick fix. Unfortunately, people with chronic pain and chronic mental health conditions are often so poorly that they cant summon the mental effort to keep the practise going long enough for it to start working.

Once I got them onto cannabis, even the low THC cannabis which did not make them feel high, I started to get them to use it before their mindfulness or meditation practise. I found that they started to do more mindfulness and from there they started to exercise more because they werent fatigued. Many patients started to lose weight and become more social; it was kind of a snowball effect that allowed them to do a lot of other things. It allowed them to engage with a lot of non-drug therapies such as CBT that they couldnt engage with before because they were too ill.

I think its been enormously important to the patient experience and I have to say that it has reinvigorated my love of medicine in many ways. It is the kind of medicine that is very well tolerated by most people and helps them with their quality of life so greatly, even though it doesnt cure their condition.

We dont know that cannabis cant cure things and maybe one day we can figure that out, but for now its about quality of life. It has changed my patients lives in ways I could never imagine. Nobody Ive ever prescribed an antidepressant to has ever said to me this has changed my life, but daily and weekly in my practice, I get letters from patients and verbal testimonials that starting them on cannabis has saved their marriage, or completely changed the relationship they have with their children because they can engage with their family life again.

I have seen patients who were so debilitated by very advanced arthritis that they couldnt work or play music anymore and they are able to go back to those things. I had one patient who surprised me with a concert; he hadnt played in 10 years and he was very depressed because his hands were so painful.

I have seen ranchers who live out in the middle of the countryside in Alberta who couldnt get on their horse anymore to round up their cattle and when I did a follow up consultation via a video app, they took me with them on a ranch ride for the first time in five years. It had been five years since theyd been on the horse.

Ive treated young adults with epilepsy who had been told that they would never be independent and that they were going to be in a care home for the rest of their lives, and seen them be able to go to a part time job and get an animal to keep them company these things were not possible before. It changes the whole familys lives not just the person with epilepsy. As far as a single thing I can give someone, although its not a cure it has been the single most powerful tool that I have found so far since going from a Western medicine doctor to a herbal medicine doctor.

One of the things that I get very excited about is changing the perception of cannabis because I think the old perception of cannabis was this kind of stoner culture. On the recreational side of cannabis, which is very different to the medical side. Its not a very wholesome image.

The images that were portrayed of women were often women in bikinis smoking cannabis which are not necessarily positive images of women in general and definitely not the image of cannabis the medicine as I practise it. I feel very lucky to be involved in kind of seeing the transformation of the image of the plant because a hundred years ago, it was a perfectly respectable botanical medicine and its coming full circle back to that.

I feel that women have played a large role in that to be honest, and really introducing a balanced movement into the modern era. It isnt just me, there is Hannahs Deacon, Alfies mother and Charlie Caldwell these are the women who have had kids with epilepsy and have had to fight for access to the treatment. Carly Barton is a good friend of mine and a patient advocate. I have needed and developed a network of women and through social media many of them have become my friends. I think it has been a powerful tool for connecting and empowering women.

One thing that you do find when you enter the business side of the cannabis world is a lot of the people may have come from a traditionally male dominated industry. Often, when I go to give a talk, I will be one of the only women there, but I do feel that is already changing. It is certainly the case that as with many male dominated, corporate professions, women are generally underrepresented which is something needs to be taken seriously; we might potentially have to work harder than men.

Dr Dani GordonIntegrative Medicine Specialistdrdanigordon.com

Please note, this article appeared in issue 11 ofHealth Europa Quarterly, which is available to read now.

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Cannabis and integrative medicine in Canada - Health Europa

Many people find it easier to sleep in a car or a train because of the vibration and noise that helps rock them to sleep. But a more specific approach for using a vibratory and auditory stimulation program helps improve brain function and sleep amount and quality in patients with insomnia, according to a study published in the journal Sleep Disorders.

Using fMRI scans, the study found improvements in the functional connectivity in the brain as well as in measured amount of minutes slept and self-reported sleep quality. The areas of the brain that were affected were a combination of areas that are involved in sleep itself as well as areas that have improved function as the result of having better sleep. Such an approach might be particularly useful for people with insomnia by helping them to improve their amount and quality of sleep. The study was performed by the Department of Integrative Medicine and Nutritional Sciences, as well as the Departments of Neurology and Radiology, at Thomas Jefferson University.

Approaches that use a combination of vibratory and auditory stimulation have the goal of matching the brains natural rhythms and help improve the amount and quality of sleep. Another goal is to help improve the brain areas affected by a lack of sleep. The current study found changes in areas of the brain associated with both auditory and vibratory sensation. In addition, areas such as the thalamus and prefrontal cortex, which are critical for memory and cognition, were also affected. The current study tested this by tracking changes in functional connectivity using resting state fMRI.

This study is essential for understanding how vibratory and auditory stimulation can improve sleep amount and sleep quality in insomnia patients, says senior author on the paper Daniel Monti, MD, chairman of the Department of Integrative Medicine and Nutritional Sciences and Director of the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health at Thomas Jefferson University, in a release. The study shows how the intervention has a direct effect on vibratory and auditory processing areas of the brain, as well as on important cognitive areas that are impaired when people dont get enough sleep,

This study evaluated 30 patients with insomnia symptoms who continued their current treatments and were placed into two groupsthe first group received the auditory and vibratory stimulation for approximately one month; and the second group, the control patients, received only their standard-of-care treatment for insomnia for the same time period. Those patients in the active group were given an auditory stimulation program, lasting approximately 60 minutes that they used each night as they went to sleep. In addition, they came into the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health twice a week to receive a combination of vibratory and auditory stimulation for 24 minutes using a specially designed chair that merges the two stimuli. This combination of the vibration and auditory stimulation during the day, coupled with the auditory stimulation during sleep, is supposed to help the brain enter the sleep state more effectively.

Patients underwent brain scanning using resting state fMRI to measure functional connectivity that evaluates how different parts of the brain interact with each other at the start of the study and after a month. Changes in brain connectivity reveal how the brain rewires itself when people are sleeping better. Some of the changes are related to the effects of the therapy itselfthe impact of vibration on sensory areas of the brain and some are related to the effects of improved sleep. This fMRI scan was used to determine the changes in brain function associated with auditory and vibratory stimulation in patients with insomnia. Patients also were evaluated clinically using several different measures of sleep quality and quality of life.

Compared to controls, the patients receiving the auditory and vibratory stimulation had significant changes in functional connectivity in the sensory and auditory receptive areas of the brainshowing how the stimulation seemed to be having its effect. In addition, areas involved in higher cognitive and executive functions, such as the thalamus and prefrontal cortex, were significantly affectedshowing that improved sleep improves your brains function.

This is an exciting study that shows how vibration and sound stimulation affect the brain and improve sleep in patients with insomnia and could have important implications for better managing patients with sleep problems, says corresponding author and neuro-imaging expert Andrew Newberg, MD, professor and director of research at the Department of Integrative Medicine and Nutritional Sciences. The investigators hope that this research will open up new avenues of treatment for insomnia patients.

There are no conflicts of interest. The study was funded by a gift from the Marcus Foundation.

Link:
Vibroacoustic Therapy Shows Brain and Sleep Quality Benefits in Clinical Trial for Insomnia - Sleep Review

Anyone who has spent time on Twitter lately has likely read about #depressionnaps. People usually take these naps to escape emotions, surrender to depression, and temporarily avoid anything negative in your lifeand while the connotations are serious in theory, Twitter users have quickly escalated depression naps to meme status.

According to Daniel Amen, MD, a psychiatrist and best-selling author, depression is a common problem among women especially. He says that "20% of teen girls meet the clinical criteria for depression and 23% of women [are] taking antidepressant medication." Admittedly, it is tempting to escape our problemsbut is it the right thing to do?

If you have ever taken a depression nap, you are probably familiar with that crushing realization upon waking that your problems are still there. Depression naps can even make the problem worse. Jessica Renz, Psy.D., co-founder and licensed clinical psychologist at MindWell NYC, says that depression naps aren't the answer. They prevent you from actively participating in your life. "These naps feed the cycle of shame, blame, negative self-talk, and inaction that are major symptoms of depression," she says. Plus, they can throw off your sleep/wake cycle and makesleeping harder at night.

Here are seven healthier things you can do instead of heading for the covers when depression strikes.

It's no wonder that many experts recommend pets for seniors and have therapy pets visiting children's hospitals. Pets are healing. Studies have shown that just petting a live animal reduces anxietyany animal. Plus, animals like dogs need walkinghey, anything that will get you out the door and in the fresh air, right? If you're unable to own a pet, volunteering at your local shelter is a good way to get animal time without a long-term commitment.

SNERD Fade Journal ($22)

Grateful people are happier people. Renz suggests that you spend three minutes a day writing down at least three to five things you are grateful for. Of course, if you think of more than five things you're grateful for, don't stop there. The more, the better. Starting off (or ending) your day with gratitude will give you the framework for a better day.

Sunlight has been proven to help with seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Elizabeth Trattner, an acupuncture physician and doctor of integrative medicine, says that sunlight boosts the production of hormones that help depression and creates endorphins that make you feel better.Wearing sunscreen is still a good idea though and will protect your tender skin against sun damage.

Knock Knock This Week Pad ($8)

Tackling a big issue or dilemmamay make you want to head straight for bed, but breaking your task into smaller parts and taking one item at a time makes your goal look and feel more attainable. Plus, if youre feeling unmotivated and depressed about what you have to do, Renz says that rewarding yourself after checking off a task can be a magic bullet in breaking apart the cycle of depression.

Serving another personor even reaching out to a loved one takes the focus off you for a minute. It is easy to get absorbed in our own problems, but helping someone else with theirs can put things in perspective and give you a much-needed break from your own. Renz suggests that you stay focused on the other person in that interaction as much as possible.

Nike React Infinity Run Flyknit Running Shoe ($160)

Since the early 1900s, researchers have been interested in the connection between exercise and depression. Exercise is very effective in treating its symptoms. Researchers have concluded that what matters is how often you exercise, not how hard you exercise. Trattner, an integrative medicine doctor, says that the Chinese have been prescribing exercise for their patients for centuries as a way to move chi and make a patient feel better. She says that even a light walk will help.

If you'resleeping at night but still sleepy during the day, you might have a problem other than depression. Amen suggests that you should be checked for thyroid problems or exposure to toxins such as mold. Additionally, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a serious medical condition that can cause sleepiness, depression, and can even result in death. It's estimated that 22 million Americans have OSA. A physical may help you uncover the cause of your sleepiness and what should be done to treat it.

"The bottom line is that we need to do the opposite of what depression tells us to do. Get out, get moving, and get rewarded," says Renz. It may be funny on Twitter, but frequent depression naps can be a sign that things aren't right in your life. And that's no joke.

Next up: Is It Bad to Sleep on Your Stomach? We Asked a Doctor

This post has been updated by Sarah Yang.

This article originally appeared on The Thirty

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"Depression Naps" Are a ThingBut Here's What You Should Be Doing Instead - Yahoo Lifestyle

The phones screen turns a serene blue, and Calm, the leading mindfulness application, opens. At the very center, without capitalization or punctuation, small and faint, are the words take a deep breath.

That gives way to a menu. What brings you to Calm?

The app offers options to reduce anxiety, develop gratitude, build self esteem, even increase happiness.

The next screen offers a seven-day free trial. Once the trial has ended, the annual rate is $69.99, a small price for happiness.

Somewhere around 2010, according to experts and Google search data, the practice of mindfulness began an upward swing. In less than a decade, it has become the fastest-growing health trend in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mindfulness rules the online app store. The San Francisco-based Calm is valued at $1 billion, and its competitor Headspace at $350 million. (The industry as a whole has been estimated to be worth as much as $4 billion.) Meditation retreats are en vogue. Corporations offer access to mindfulness in the same way they do for gyms. Even the military uses mindfulness breathing techniques to boost soldiers performance.

But as with any Next Big Thing, there are reasons to be cautious. Some say this rush into mindfulness has outpaced the science and stripped it of its cultural context. All of this threatens to turn a tool for well-being, for situating oneself in the current moment, into a tool for standard American commercialism.

Around the same time mindfulness began its upward trajectory, Ronald Purser, a management professor at San Francisco State University, started to feel the familiar weight of doubt. Hed been doing a fair amount of corporate management training and consulting redesigning the workplace to work better, at least in theory, for everybody. I became somewhat disillusioned and disenchanted, he says. Even when we were making progress, trying to redesign work so employees would have more autonomy and decision-making, the management sort of pulled the plug on some of those experiments.

It was around this time, too, that Chade-Meng Tan, a software engineer at Google, gained notoriety for integrating mindfulness into Googles corporate culture through a series of in-house mindfulness seminars. In 2012, Tan turned those courses into a blockbuster book, Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace), and Purser found himself attending Tans very first public offering.

I became very disappointed by what I saw, just in terms of what the program was and how superficial it was, Purser says. I just saw this as part of the interest in behavioral science techniques as a way of yoking the interest or subjectivity of employees to corporate goals.

A year later, Purser published an essay with the Huffington Post. It was titled Beyond McMindfulness. Mindfulness meditation, he wrote, was making its way into schools, corporations, prisons, and government agencies including the U.S. military. Purser, a student of mindfulness for 40 years, wasnt knocking the practice but was wary of its growing reputation as a universal panacea for resolving almost every area of daily concern. Last year, Purser expanded on the essay and published a book titled McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality.

Early on in his book, he writes this: I do not question the value of adapting mindfulness for therapeutic use, nor do I deny that it can help people. What bothers me is how its promoters want things both ways: one minute, mindfulness is science, since thats what sells; the next, it stands for everything in Buddhism, since thats what makes it sound deep.

The issues Purser called out eight years ago have only grown with time. Rhetoric, he says, still outpaces results. The practice becomes increasingly decontextualized, meme-ified and gamified. Mindfulness becomes a cure for more and more our happiness, our anxiety, our pain, even world peace.

Its worth pausing a moment to define or at least try to define mindfulness.

At its very core, its deepest and truest roots, mindfulness is a Buddhist meditation technique. There are hundreds, probably thousands of different meditative techniques. This is only one of them, says Mushim Ikeda, a Buddhist meditation teacher. Traditionally, in the Buddhist scriptures, it is said that what we call mindfulness meditation was one of 40 different techniques that the historical Buddha, the one we call the Buddha, talked about. So it wasnt even his one and only meditation technique according to those scriptures.

She knows those scriptures well. Ikeda, who primarily teaches at the East Bay Meditation Center, describes herself as a socially engaged teacher a social justice activist, author, and diversity and inclusion facilitator.

She describes mindfulness meditation as a secular term in Buddhism, one thats also called insight meditation. This is a sort of awareness, she says, that is different from the awareness that we might call everyday awareness the sort we need to drive a car, or maintain a conversation, or use an ATM. She and others describe mindful awareness as spacious and nonjudgmental. Ikeda says, Its been said mindfulness only sees. It does not judge.

The most common technique involves closing the eyes and focusing on the breath and only the breath, moving other thoughts, and the thoughts that come with those thoughts, away and out.

Mindfulness as a secular, western therapeutic intervention did not begin in Silicon Valley. Rather, youd have to go back to 1979 and a man named Jon Kabat-Zinn and the founding of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Kabat-Zinn has studied the effects of what he dubbed mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR for short), on everything from brain function to skin disease.

Still, its hard to ignore Silicon Valleys latest role in spreading and expanding mindfulness in the pursuit of a different tech culture value, peak performance. There is Search Inside Yourself, the book that coincided with the movements growth spurt. There are Twitter co-founder Jack Dorseys much-publicized meditation retreats. (Black Mirror, the dystopian science fiction show, seemed to parody both him and the now-ubiquitous apps.) Recently, there was the dopamine fast, a pseudo-scientific dopamine reset by way of doing nothing. (One originator said he drew directly from Buddhist Vipassana meditation when he crafted the fast.)

The voices are soothing and smooth soft, but not quite a whisper. The cadence and diction perfect, gently pulling you along. Birds chatter in the background. Waves move gently to meet a beach. Or maybe a brook babbles as it pushes over and under and between river rocks.

Breathing in ... I am calm.

Breathing out ... I am at peace.

A chime rings, a signal that this 90-second meditation to calm anger has ended. Calm offers its congratulations.

The danger in this rapid evolution is that it threatens to turn a very old practice into a fad that overpromises and underdelivers.

Helen Weng has practiced Buddhist meditation for more than two decades. I was reading a lot of books about psychology because I was unhappy because high school is horrible, she says. And her father, who, along with her mother, had immigrated to the United States from Taiwan, could offer her books about Buddhist philosophy. The two came together. The Dalai Lamas teachings offered her an opportunity to cultivate her own well-being. I dont like the word happiness anymore, but you can use mental exercises to become more aware of your feeling states and your thoughts.

Now Weng works as a clinical psychologist with the psychiatry department at UCSF and a neuroscientist with the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and the Neuroscape Center, both at UCSF as well. Her scientific work uses magnetic resonance imaging to measure the amount of oxygen in the blood that flows to the brain as people meditate. Essentially, she can track whether the meditator is actually focused on their breath or if their attention has wandered. And in her clinical work, she offers meditation as one of many possible therapeutic interventions.

Still, she calls the recent spread of mindfulness very freaky.

Im very proud that practices from eastern cultures and religions generate so much interest, she says. At the same time, mindfulness and its results are super hard to study. So much so that I just thought I was a bad scientist for a long time. Whats more, she says, meditation isnt always the right sort of behavioral therapy.

Im very disturbed by these messages that meditation basically cures everything or its good for everyone or theres universally very good positive effects. The effects are really moderate and subtle. Its not any better than any other kind of psychotherapy, she says. Part of it is cultural appropriation where its this magical, mystical thing that then people can say does all these things, and I think were still in the height of that and its going to take some time for things to settle down.

Medical students, she says, inevitably ask her how much time they have to commit to mindfulness to make it work. There are studies that show clear benefits to mindfulness. Weng points to one that indicated 30 minutes a day of compassion meditation for two weeks increased altruistic giving to strangers and brain responses to pictures of people suffering.

But the key here is consistency. What happens if you work out for 30 minutes just once? she asks. It benefits you a little bit. Thats good. But if you just do it once, its not going to have a long-term effect.

After the chime and the congratulations, the waves keep moving in and out, and a quote appears onscreen. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. (A quote sometimes attributed to Albert Einstein, but probably more correctly attributed to Narcotics Anonymous.) And in that moment, Calm reminds you that you really should turn on push notifications, in order to fully experience Calm. Decline and itll ask one more time about its mindfulness reminders.

Are you sure? Its hard to set aside time for yourself in our busy world without a little help.

Farrah Fawcett and Lee Majors are jogging. Theyre tan, of course. Their shorts are short. Her blond hair is fanned out, so are his brown curls. She has a broad, blindingly white smile and a red handkerchief tied around her neck. His jacket is zipped down almost to his navel; his chest is hairy. And right beside them, a headline: Farrah & Lee & Everybodys Doing It: Stars Join The Jogging Craze.

This is the cover of the July 4, 1977, issue of People magazine. Alex Will, the chief strategy officer for Calm, the industry-leading mindfulness meditation app, likes to reference this cover when he talks about mindfulness. (Theres even a copy of the issue at the office.) To understand the future of mindfulness, just look to the past.

Mindfulness is becoming mainstream, Will says. People are starting to understand that taking care of the mind is just as important as taking care of the body. Meditation and mindfulness is one way to do that.

In some respects, Calm isnt doing anything that hasnt already been done. Before smartphones, one could buy a meditation CD, slip it into a home stereo and start counting breaths. The app just makes it more portable and more accessible than ever before. I think one of the reasons Ive been so successful is that it is a very low bar for someone to try and get into, Will says. There are short, two-minute long meditations, narrations to help with sleep, even a beginners guide to mindfulness. Similarly, if you want to go deeper, we have a 30-minute master class where you can learn how to break bad habits.

All of the content, Will says, is vetted by mindfulness instructors, and, now that the app is available in more than 100 countries, the programming is also run by people to make sure translations work. This is very nuanced, he says. Language really matters. The Calm app has also been part of various clinical studies in an attempt to back up the applications rhetoric.

Mindfulness, by the way, has already had its magazine-cover moment. Not quite 37 years after the jogging craze, Time magazine featured the Mindfulness Revolution on its Feb. 3, 2014, issue. A blond, fair-skinned model stands straight, hands at her sides, eyes closed, face slightly upward. And the headline: The science of finding focus in a stressed-out multitasking culture.

Mindfulness began to trend in large part because corporations embraced the practice as a way to help employees relieve stress. This is one of the cruxes of Pursers concerns that mindfulness is just a way to wring more productivity from employees, a sleight of hand that shifts the onus from the company to the worker.

In 2012, the year Chade-Meng Tan published Search Inside Yourself, the idea of offering mindfulness courses to employees still felt novel. The New York Times featured Tan and the course hed developed for Google employees a course that involved meditation, Tibetan brass bowls, stream-of-consciousness journaling and lots of emotional openness. Even then the course was framed as a way to help employees deal with their intense workplace no mention of toning down the intensity.

Eight years later, mindfulness courses are the rule, not the exception. Apple, Nike, HBO and Target have all offered some form of mindfulness training to employees. Aetna, the insurance provider, decided to offer mindfulness and other stress-relief activities (including dog petting) after an internal study found that the most stressed-out employees spent $1,500 more a year on health care. And if a company cant bring a trained expert on board, well, they can always give employees memberships to Calm or Headspace.

The Buddha taught that almost everything comes and goes, says Muslim Ikeda, the East Bay Meditation Center instructor. Its called impermanence or change. And health trends famously come and go. Its a product of our capitalist system.

One year, its a certain kind of berry thats going to cure everything. Another year, its mindfulness meditation thats going to cure everything. Five years from now, heaven only knows, itll be something else. Burnt toast who knows?

Ikeda offers a path forward, a path separate from capitalism, a path that encourages students to cultivate a practice in which they care for themselves so that they may, in turn, care for their communities. Its an approach based in social justice and altruism. And yet, she isnt dogmatic.

Mindfulness, Ikeda says, does not judge.

A person might use mindfulness to lower their blood pressure or achieve peak performance. A corporation might use mindfulness to paper over an inherently unjust and healthy system. All this, she says, is like using a Swiss Army knife for just one thing. Its not what the tool was intended to do, and its not all it can do.

Mindfulness is always mindful awareness of something, Ikeda says. Who knows what a given individual is going to do with it? Or what it will do for them?

An individual might, for instance, become mindfully aware of a broken system.

Ryan Kost is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rkost@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @RyanKost

More here:
The (over) promise of the mindfulness revolution - San Francisco Chronicle

The diagnosis of cancer can turn your life upside down in a matter of minutes.

It is a life-altering experience that can be a cause for a lot of stress on the individual who received the diagnosis, as well as family members and caretakers. There are many things to think about when the diagnosis is made, including whether or not youll need to continue working throughout your treatment.

Holistic therapies can aid in the reduction of stress and ease the side effects of treatment if having to work while going through cancer.

Having cancer does not necessarily mean that you will have to stop working. Most likely you will need time off for appointments, treatments or extra rest. You might decide to work as much as possible or take a leave of absence and return when you feel up to it. Or you might have to continue to work for financial reasons and/or health insurance benefits.

One benefit of working while going through cancer is that going to work can help you feel more normal.

If you decide to continue working, it could take some adjusting. Your body might respond differently to normal activities when you have cancer or are going through treatment. You might feel tired, more stressed, have pain or difficulty thinking or remembering things.

Something to consider during this trying time are the benefits of integrative health. Integrative health is the unity of conventional and holistic medicine. It is a healing-oriented model that considers the whole person body, mind, spirit and lifestyle. It uses all appropriate therapies, both conventional and alternative, and focuses on the needs, values and well-being of the person.

Here are some holistic measures to help reduce stress and side effects of treatment:

Conserve energy. Take short breaks as needed throughout your workday to keep your energy up.

Be mindful of your innermost desires and acclimate optimism into your daily thoughts. Take time for yourself to reflect, soul search and nourish the soul. A positive mental attitude during this trying time can help heal the body and reduce stress.

Consider meditation practices. Meditation clears space in your head. Apps such as Insight Timer and Headspace are great places to start.

Use reminder lists and alarms to remember your meetings or tasks. Write a list of tasks that need to be completed for the day. A daily planner, Post-it Notes or use of a smartphone might be helpful tools. Set alarms to help remind you of the tasks that need to be accomplished.

Be open and honest about your situation. Talk with your manager about any concerns. Share your feelings and concerns with your family members and health care team.

Fuel your body with good nutrition. This will help to provide optimal energy throughout the day. A dietitian with experience in oncology nutrition can help you develop a plan.

Consider using essential oils. Aromatherapy can help ease anxiety, pain and nausea symptoms. A clinical aromatherapist can help guide you on which essential oils would be beneficial.

It is important to know your rights. Side effects of cancer treatment are considered disabilities under the American Disabilities Act. Your employer must provide reasonable accommodations according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology. These can include:

Giving you breaks to take medication, see a doctor or rest.

Having you do a job that fits your new hours or abilities better.

Giving you access to counseling through an employee assistance program.

Please remember, you are not in this alone. We live in a wonderful community where people care and want to help in any way they can. Seek out services offered by the community. There are many support groups and valuable resources available to help you and your loved ones through this healing journey.

Jessica Kennedy, BSN, RN, CHC, CMSRN, Jessica is a nurse at MercyOne Dubuque Medical Center.

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Continuing to work while going through cancer treatment? These tips can help - telegraphherald.com

By Express News Service

KOCHI: Time for integration has come and it is not because allopathic medicines fail in treatment but rather it is the demand of the people and patients worldwide, said Dr Michael Dixon, Chair-College of Medicine and Integrated Health, UK, and Visiting Professor, University of Westminster and University College London, while inaugurating the two-day International Conference on Integrative Oncology 2020 (ICIO 2020) at Le Meridien, here on Saturday. The conference is being organised by the Global Homeopathy Foundation (GHF).

Dr Dixon called upon integration of various medical streams while combating diseases. He pointed out that anti-microbial resistance, over-prescription of opiates (drugs derived from opium) and over-prescription of conventional medicines have compounded the situation. Enormous issues persist back in United Kingdom (UK), National Health Services (NHS) England banned herbal and homoeopathic medicines while Royal College of General Practitioners asked general practitioners not to offer Homoeopathy and National Institute for Clinical Excellence changed guidelines on palliative care and back pain, said Dr Dixon.

However, he said the good news is that at last AYUSH has arrived in UK with College of Medicine and Integrated Health taking the lead and it is also forming an Integrated Medical Alliance apart from organising a yoga conference. Integration of medical systems is of paramount importance in oncology for prevention, treatment, treating side-effects of conventional medicine and preventing recurrence, he said.Those who addressed the inaugural function included Dr Jayesh Sanghavi, vice- chairman GHF, Dr T K Harindranath, president, Indian Homoeopathic Medical Association, Dr Piyush Joshi, secretary general, Homoeopathic Medical Association of India, Dr Eswaradas, chairman, GHF, Dr Issac Mathai, Soukya Holistic Clinic, Dr Velavan, Radiation Oncologist, Erode Cancer Centre, Dr Sandeep Roy, chairman, organising committee ICIO 2020, Dr Madhavan Nambiar IAS (retd), Patron GHF and Dr Sreevals G Menon, Managing Trustee, GHF.

Over a thousand delegates from 30 countries apart from India are attending the event. Around 25 key scientific papers are being presented at the summit. ICIO 2020 is held in association with Central Health & FW Ministry, AYUSH/TCAM Ministry, all AYUSH/TCAM research councils and the governments of Kerala and Maharashtra, and National AYUSH Mission.

PRESENTATIONSDr Vinu Krishnan, member, sub-committee on cancer, Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy, New Delhi, presented a paper on Analysis and observations of stage 3 and 4 lung cancers using homoeopathic interventions while Dr K M Madhu, superintendent, Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala Ayurvedic Hospital and Research Centre, Kochi, presented a paper Integrative oncology-an ayurvedic approach. Dr Bindu John Pulparambil, RMO, Government Homoeo Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, presented a paper on palliative care while Dr Ravi Doctor, associate professor with Virar Homoeopathic Medical College, Mumbai, dealt on clinical assessment of homoeopathy and its role in survival in third and fourth stage cancers. Dr Surendran Veeraiah of Cancer Institute (WIA) presented a paper on psychosocial care in oncology.

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UK expert calls for integration of medicine to combat cancer - The New Indian Express

Even though greens powders are made of nutrient-dense foods, that doesn't mean they're a good idea for everyone. Since greens powders contain vegetables in a condensed form, they're also high in specific vitamins, like vitamin K, that can interfere with blood-clotting medications. If you're on blood thinners or other medications or you have chronic health problems, always check in with your doctor before taking a new supplement, greens powders included.

Even if you don't fall into these categories, it's important to make sure you're getting your greens powders from a trusted source. When it comes to regulation, the supplement industry is a bit of a gray area. Make sure the supplement manufacturer can verify that the greens have been tested for contamination and passed with acceptable levels. It's best to buy from companies whose greens powders have been certified through a third-party testing laboratory, like NSF International. That way, you know you're getting exactly what's listed on the label and nothing else.

And make sure you're sticking to the recommended serving size. More isn't necessarily better since some vitamins can build up in the system and lead to toxicity. A scoop or two per day, along with a healthy, vegetable-rich diet, is all you need.

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Greens Powders Are The Secret To Getting More Veggies: Here's How To Pick One - mindbodygreen.com

SEATTLE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / February 2, 2020 / The crux of Dalas mission is to address rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from a holistic perspective. Traditionally, the US healthcare industry has sought to diagnose and prescribe as necessary. Consequently, it may be a source of global medical innovation but also is burdened with the highest costs globally that achieve mediocre to poor health outcomes.

We have grown to become a nation that is looking for quick fixes, bandaids, or a pill to solve a problem. This complements the healthcare system that addresses highly variable medical conditions with the conventional paradigm of biochemistry and medicine; we treat symptoms, not the underlying problem.

Americas health-care system focuses on curing acute problems but does far too little to support patients with chronic maladies Arthur Kleinman (WSJ article).

At Dala Wellness, founders have thoroughly researched current fixes for RA and developed their own solution via a modular program which includes a supplement, topical solution, and live community board so their members can receive support during their treatment. They are focused on the mind, body, and soul. Fahed Al Essa, founder of Dala Wellness, contributes to this conversation.

How Dala Wellness is challenging the status quo

While many self-focusing treatments leave a myriad of decisions up to the patient, Dala seeks to remove this burden and provide a gentle guide in his/her treatment. While empowering the patient is important, creating a vague, self-guided treatment can lead to decision paralysis and often results in unintended effects and/or no improvement. Dala Wellness is not this type of company. We plan to complement the patients medical journey, not replace it, Essa states.

For example, outside of pharmaceutical interventions, we employ numerous evidence-based complementary therapies that can improve a patients quality of life and ability to manage symptoms, from nutrition support and elimination diets for inflammation to mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy approaches that reframe pain and build resilience. This is in addition to our natural supplements.

Dala Wellness Pioneering an Industry

The short answer is: no, there are no comprehensive treatment programs like Dala that are currently in the market for RA. While the internet postulates the applications of herbal medicine to treat RA, there are no modules that combine natural medicine with mindfulness as specifically to the RA patient subset like Dala does. Dala provides a pathway for patients to combine various facets of integrative medicine to attack RA head-on.

US Expansion for Dala Wellness

The US, as a developed nation, has had notable rates of chronic condition prevalence. This has burdened the system with elevated healthcare costs, epidemics (e.g. opioid crisis in treating chronic pain), and inefficiencies in the healthcare chain. Dala is a pioneer in this realm, seeking to address life with chronic pain. As mentioned by founder Fahed Al Essa, Were supporting the health system in the US rather than adding cost to it. Were hoping to line up efficiencies in care for the patient, which then leads to cost-effectiveness within the system.

The Future of Dala Wellness

Ultimately, the future is providing access to care whatever that means. We want to make our platform affordable and accessible to any RA patient. Wherever that path leads! according to Essa.

The future is exciting. We are excited to help patients, and allow them to get back to doing the things they love doing.

Name: Tyce EscalanteCompany Name: Next Level BrandContact information: Tyce@nextlvlbrand.com

SOURCE: Next Level Brand

View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/574757/In-an-Industry-Shaped-by-Decades-of-Decisions-Dala-Wellness-Seeks-to-Challenge-the-Status-Quo-A-Conversation-With-Founder-Fahed-Al-Essa

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In an Industry Shaped by Decades of Decisions, Dala Wellness Seeks to Challenge the Status Quo: A Conversation With Founder Fahed Al Essa - IT...

LOWELL, Mass. A business incubator working to improve the lives of patients with heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders is expanding its reach to the next generation of pioneering biotech and medical-device entrepreneurs.

Heart, lung and blood diseases account for 41 percent of deaths in the United States and lead to more than $400 billion in health-care expenses and lost income to patients and caregivers, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Innovations supported by CAPCaT are devices and technologies well on their way to going to market. Products already being developed at CAPCaT include a product to help critically ill infants sleep better, an online education program for patients to manage hypertension and a portable device that can evaluate how the users platelets are performing. The center also seeks to support technologies that promote holistic methods of managing diseases, including devices that measure stress levels or promote mindfulness.

CAPCaT is one of four centers across the country in the National Institutes of Health Point-of-Care Technologies Research Network, which was created in 2018 to help revolutionize patient care.

M2D2s support of medical-device startups in Massachusetts has contributed $42 million in direct economic impact with a total positive effect of $75 million, according to the UMass Donahue Institute. Expanding CAPCaT is expected to increase this impact.

CAPCaT is an exciting collaboration between clinicians at UMass Medical School and engineers at UMass Lowell that helps medical-device developers as they move their products toward commercialization, knowing these life-changing inventions will help so many patients and transform the industry, said Prof. Bryan Buchholz, co-director of CAPCaT and chairman of UMass Lowells Biomedical Engineering Department.

Successful applicants will receive seed funding and the support of M2D2s medical, business and legal experts as well as those in the private sector and from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.

Last year, we received 90 expressions of interest from entrepreneurs in 26 states and three countries. We were amazed by the quality of applications we received and cant wait to see what technologies are submitted this year, said Dr. David McManus, CAPCaTs co-director and professor of medicine at UMass Medical School.

About the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center

M2D2 operates laboratories, research and development and other workspace at UMass Lowell and UMass Medical School in Worcester for medical-device and biotech ventures. Since its inception in 2007, M2D2 has assisted more than 100 companies. Each year, the M2D2 $200K Challenge awards seed funding to the best new concepts from early-stage medical device, diagnostic and biotech companies around the globe.

About UMass Lowell

About UMass Medical School

The University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), one of five campuses of the University system, comprises the School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Graduate School of Nursing, a thriving research enterprise and an innovative public service initiative, Commonwealth Medicine. Its mission is to advance the health of the people of the commonwealth through pioneering education, research, public service and health care delivery with its clinical partner, UMass Memorial Health Care. In doing so, it has built a reputation as a world-class research institution and as a leader in primary care education. The Medical School attracts more than $257 million annually in research funding, placing it among the top 50 medical schools in the nation. In 2006, UMMSs Craig C. Mello, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the Blais University Chair in Molecular Medicine, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with colleague Andrew Z. Fire, PhD, of Stanford University, for their discoveries related to RNA interference (RNAi). The 2013 opening of the Albert Sherman Center ushered in a new era of biomedical research and education on campus. Designed to maximize collaboration across fields, the Sherman Center is home to scientists pursuing novel research in emerging scientific fields with the goal of translating new discoveries into innovative therapies for human diseases.

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Startup Incubator Aims to Spur Life-Saving Innovations - UMass Lowell

Jens Ellingsen, 1 Gunnar Johansson, 2 Kjell Larsson, 3 Karin Lisspers, 2 Andrei Malinovschi, 4 Bjrn Stllberg, 2 Marcus Thuresson, 5 Christer Janson 1

1Department of Medical Sciences, Respiratory, Allergy and Sleep Research, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; 2Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; 3Integrative Toxicology, National Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; 4Department of Medical Sciences, Clinical Physiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; 5Statisticon AB, Uppsala, Sweden

Correspondence: Jens EllingsenDepartment of Medical Sciences, Respiratory, Allergy and Sleep Research, Akademiska Sjukhuset, Uppsala SE-751 85, SwedenTel +46 18 611 13 93Fax +46 18 611 02 28Email jens.ellingsen@medsci.uu.se

Background: Life expectancy is significantly shorter for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) than the general population. Concurrent diseases are known to infer an increased mortality risk in those with COPD, but the effects of pharmacological treatments on survival are less established. This study aimed to examine any associations between commonly used drugs, comorbidities and mortality in Swedish real-world primary care COPD patients.Methods: Patients with physician-diagnosed COPD from a large primary care population were observed retrospectively, utilizing primary care records and mandatory Swedish national registers. The time to all-cause death was assessed in a stepwise multiple Cox proportional hazards regression model including demography, socioeconomic factors, exacerbations, comorbidities and medication.Results: During the observation period (1999 2009) 5776 (32.5%) of 17,745 included COPD patients died. Heart failure (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.88, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.74 2.04), stroke (HR: 1.52, 95% CI: 1.40 1.64) and myocardial infarction (HR: 1.40, 95% CI: 1.24 1.58) were associated with an increased risk of death. Use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS; HR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.66 0.94), beta-blockers (HR: 0.86, 95% CI: 0.76 0.97) and acetylsalicylic acid (ASA; HR: 0.87, 95% CI: 0.77 0.98) was dose-dependently associated with a decreased risk of death, whereas use of long-acting muscarinic antagonists (LAMA; HR: 1.33, 95% CI: 1.14 1.55) and N-acetylcysteine (NAC; HR: 1.26, 95% CI: 1.08 1.48) were dose-dependently associated with an increased risk of death in COPD patients.Conclusion: This large, retrospective, observational study of Swedish real-world primary care COPD patients indicates that coexisting heart failure, stroke and myocardial infarction were the strongest predictors of death, underscoring the importance of timely recognition and treatment of comorbidities. A decreased risk of death associated with the use of ICS, beta-blockers and ASA, and an increased risk associated with the use of LAMA and NAC, was also found.

Keywords: observational, LAMA, inhaled corticosteroids, beta-blockers, acetylsalicylic acid, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

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Impact of Comorbidities and Commonly Used Drugs on Mortality in COPD - | COPD - Dove Medical Press

RMA of Connecticut Acupuncturists Dr. Amy Matton, DACM, L.Ac. and Dr. Elaine Malin, DACM, L.Ac. receive Doctorate degrees from Pacific College of Health and Science.

NORWALK, Conn. (PRWEB) February 04, 2020

RMA of Connecticut, a leading fertility practice whose exceptional quality and care helps couples and individuals grow their family, has announced that Dr. Amy Matton, DACM, L.Ac. and Dr. Elaine Malin, DACM, L.Ac., have received Doctorate degrees in acupuncture and Chinese Medicine from Pacific College of Health and Science. The doctoral degree focused on increasing clinical skills, patient-centered care, working integratively with Western medicine, and evidence-based practice. As the demand for patient-centered integrative care in the field of fertility increases, Dr. Matton and Dr. Malin will continue to provide patients with natural evidence-based care.

We want to congratulate and acknowledge Dr. Amy Matton and Dr. Elaine Malin for their achievements and dedication in the field of acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, says Robin Mangieri, CEO of RMA of Connecticut. We combine the best science has to offer through our esteemed fertility doctors along with our expansive integrative fertility and wellness programs to provide our patients with the best care all under one roof.

Acupuncture can increase fertility by lowering stress and anxiety, increasing blood flow to the reproductive organs, and balancing the endocrine system. It can also increase a couples chances of conceiving by helping to keep the normal flow of energy unblocked. RMA of Connecticut was involved in a landmark study indicating pre and post embryo transfer laser acupuncture improves embryo implantation rates by up to 15%.

Dr. Amy Matton, DACM, L.Ac. has been providing traditional and laser acupuncture to women undergoing treatment for infertility at RMA of Connecticut for 15 years. She also serves as the Coordinator for the Integrated Fertility and Wellness Programs (IFW) at RMA of Connecticut. She is a graduate of Pacific College of Health and Science with a doctoral degree in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, a licensed acupuncturist and certified herbalist. Dr. Mattons areas of expertise include womens health and fertility issues, pain management, anxiety, stress, and adjunctive cancer care.

Dr. Elaine M. Malin, DACM, L.Ac. is a licensed acupuncturist and certified herbalist who has worked with RMA of Connecticut patients for seven years. A general practitioner with a broad range of experience, Dr. Malin has specialized training and experience in womens health issues including fertility and pregnancy, as well as in treating anxiety, stress, and their physical manifestations.

RMA of Connecticut is a leader in integrated fertility and wellness with an emphasis on the mind, body, and spirit, which boosts overall health, improves success rates, and enhances the patient experience. To learn more, visit RMACT.com.

About RMA of ConnecticutRMA of Connecticut is a leader in fertility care, specializing in a range of infertility treatments. Our assisted reproductive technologies (ART) include intrauterine insemination (IUI), in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and pre-implantation genetic testing (PGT). RMA of Connecticut is Fairfield Countys largest fertility clinic and egg donation center. Through RMA of Connecticuts Integrated Fertility and Wellness Center, we offer nutrition counseling, individual and couples psychological counseling, acupuncture and yoga, as well as financing and support services for our patients going through infertility treatment.

Our internationally recognized Gay Parents To Be program at RMA of Connecticut specializes in LGBTQ family building. For the last three years, RMA of Connecticut has been recognized as a Leader in Healthcare Equality by the Human Rights Campaign.

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RMA of Connecticut Announces Doctorate Achievements for Dr. Amy Matton and Dr. Elaine Malin in the Area of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine - PR Web

Express News Service

KOCHI: While establishing Soukya Holistic Health Centre in Bengaluru, Dr Issac Mathai had a point to prove; a legitimate integration of medicines will fetch better treatment results. Recognising his methods of treatment, AYUSH Ministry selected it as a model for integrating various systems at government hospitals.Speaking at the International Conference on Integrative Oncology being held here, the doctor demanded the incorporation of alternative medicines at various oncology departments across the country.

Allopathic hospitals should incorporate alternative medicines into their cancer treatment. Though the integration of systems of medicines starts from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), it is not being applied in cancer-specific treatment. Government hospitals with oncology departments should include research wings with experts from alternative medicines along with patient care, he said.

The integration will help patients cut down treatment expenses, he said. When developed countries struggle to cope with the huge expense of modern medicines, India cannot move forward with a single method of treatment. Integration of alternative medicines is the only solution for the issue. While allopathy can take care of surgeries and accidents, homoeopathy, ayurveda and naturopathy can be used for chronic diseases. Therapeutic yoga will be effective in every patient, he said. He also called for better coordination from the state government to integrate the medicine systems.

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Govt hosps should try alternatives - The New Indian Express

Personalized medicine has taken a big step forward with the launch of non-profit n-Lorem Foundation, which will create patient-tailored antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapeutics for people with rare diseases at no cost to the patients. This comes at the same time as custom gene therapies for rare disease patients are being developed, including some combined with CRISPR. As a result, more peopleeven those with ultra-rare diseasescould finally have access to treatments.

The process of developing these treatments is still burdensome and expensive. Only a few patients will benefit at first. But this concept has only been a dream until now, with most of these patients being completely shut out of the typical drug development process. Whats more, the scientists and sponsors pioneering these approaches are hoping to create blueprints for the treatment of ultra-rare diseases in general.

One of the goals is to create a replicable protocol, said Simon Frost, the father of Annabel Frost, a child who suffers from the ultra-rare disease alternating hemiplegia of childhood (AHC). We want to do it for our disease, and then take that process and give it to more patients across many more diseases. Frost, who is CEO of Tiber Capital Group, has been in discussions with multiple labs and investigating several approaches, including ASOs, gene editing, and gene therapy.

The blueprint for the ASO-based approach was a made-to-order treatment for a child with Battens disease, a rare neurodegenerative disorder. In 2018, Timothy Yu, a doctor at Boston Childrens Hospital, sequenced the genome in then six-year-old Mila to diagnose the condition. It turned out Mila had a retrotransposon which had inserted into her CLN7 gene. That aberration was blocking normal protein production by that gene.

Yus team then created a tailor-made ASO, which they called milasen, to mask the mutation in Milas genome, as detailed last year in the New England Journal of Medicine. It took about one year from sequencing to delivery of the therapy. Then, nine months after her treatment began, Milas doctors reported being hopeful about her prognosis, although they noted that she may already have experienced substantial effects from the disease. Hundreds of people, including parents and researchers, have since reached out to Yu to try and have this process replicated. Yus lab is reportedly developing several more personalized oligos, including ones for a rare form of epilepsy and ataxia-telangiectasia, which is a neurological disease.

Addressing the challenges

The demand for more custom ASOs is intense. But there are many issues standing in the way of such therapies.

ASOs are at the point where the investment in the technology has paid off commercially, said Art Krieg, an expert in oligonucleotide therapeutics as well as founder and chief scientific officer of Checkmate Pharmaceuticals. And now Tim Yu has shown the process for making customized ASOs. The questions is whether you can standardize that and could companies find it profitable to develop those therapies. Further, ASOs only block mutations and need to be given for life.

n-Lorem is funded with $1.5 million from Ionis (formerly Isis) Pharmaceuticals, another $1.5 million from Ioniss founder and former CEO Stanley Crooke and his wife Rosanne Crooke (a researcher at Ionis), $1 million from Biogen, and additional funds from other donors. Crooke started Ionis in 1989, as a pioneer in RNA-targeted therapeutics. Today, the company has three drugs on the market and more than 30 in development for a wide range of conditions. Biogen is partnered with Ionis on several of these.

Biogen declined to comment for this article, but sent this statement: Antisense oligonucleotides have been a game changer in the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and we believe they could hold promise in tackling other diseases. So, we are pleased to help support the establishment of n-Lorem Foundation and their mission to provide advanced, experimental RNA-targeted medicines free of charge to patients with ultra-rare diseases.

I knew we could do this and I knew there was a need, said Crooke, who started working on n-Lorem two years ago. But he also realized it was going to be challenging. The patients need a full genomic workup, and you need an investigator who can submit the IND and oversee it, he said. One major development that convinced Crooke the concept was feasible was the 2014 establishment of the Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN), a research study funded by the National Institutes of Health Common Fund. The UDN comprises clinical and research experts from across the U.S. who work to solve medical mysteries. As of 2019, 12 UDN clinical sites were open.

While UDN will be a key source of qualified patients, Crooke says n-Lorem will not be restricted to those. We announced the launch last week, and we already have six proposals for patients to treat. But patients need a confirmed genetic diagnosis and treating physicians. Then they must submit a proposal to treat to n-Lorems Access to Treatment Committee.

Another critical issue is the FDAs response. Crooke said he has already approached regulators and they are supportive. But n-of-1 trials like these raise special issues. In an editorial that accompanied the Yu teams report in NEJM, FDA regulators point out the many challenges to evaluating n-of-1 drugs what are the differences between treating one, ten, or thousands of patients? they asked.

But they also acknowledge that the field is moving ahead rapidly. Academic clinicianinvestigators now have the capacity to rapidly uncover specific mutations and pinpoint the putative mechanisms leading to certain rare disease phenotypes. Various ASOs or other compounds can be produced by third parties, and investigators can evaluate them using in vitro assays or animal models, the regulators wrote. FDA is holding a workshop in March on individualized therapies to try and advance thinking around this topic.

Ioniss long experience with ASOs should help in this regard. There are several generations, or classes, of ASOs that the company has developed over the last 30 years. Many years ago I began putting together integrative safety databases about the different classes of ASOs we have developed, Crooke says. Each class has generally similar properties, but they also have important differences such has ligands that work in different organs. Ionis has published on these databases and the properties they reveal, as well as providing the FDA access to the databases. That doesnt mean, however, that researchers will be able to predict all the effects of any ASO in any patient.

Finally, there is the question of cost, which is a particular boondoggle for rare diseases. We know this is feasible but we want to reduce the costs as far as we can, Crooke says. n-Lorem and Biogen are both already working on processes to further cut costs, But we will need to raise even more money to help more patients, he added. Patients shouldnt have to be on the internet raising funds for this.

While hes aware of the challenges, Crooke said hes feeling optimistic. Ive been overwhelmingly impressed with the commitment and advice weve gotten from physicians, experts on antisense and clinical trials,and others. He also hopes more modalities, besides ASOs will be able to work with n-Lorem and start similar endeavors. Im hopeful a gene therapy company can join us or do the same thing, he noted.

Gene therapy too

While there is nothing equal to n-Lorem yet, other researchers are already pursuing customized gene therapies, even for patients who have mutations that are very rare or that are not correctable with standardized gene therapy.

Monkol Lek, for example, is a geneticist at Yale who has been working on a gene therapy for a single patient with an ultra-rare mutation in a muscular dystrophy gene. There are more than 30 types of muscular dystrophy, and some are caused by mutations that affect different genes or varying sections within those genes. Lek himself has limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (MD). When he was first diagnosed, he remembers hearing over and over again that there were no treatments for his condition.

That was enough to inspire Lek to leave a career in IT while in his 20s and obtain degrees in physiology, bioinformatics, and genetics. Soon after he arrived at Yale in 2018, Lek met Rich Horgan, founder of the non-profit Cure Rare Disease, and whose younger brother Terry has a type of MD. Lek analyzed Terrys genomic data, and found he is missing the dystrophin genes promoter region, which needs to be activated in order for that protein to be made. Terry is also missing part of exon 1, which is also necessary to generate the production of dystrophin.

While they originally considered using ASOs, Rich Horgan and Lek realized that wasnt feasible because rather than needing to turn off a gene, they needed to turn on a gene, or at least its promoter.

One twist in this particular case is that people have two alternative versions, or isoforms, of this promoter and exon 1one set in muscle cells and another in brain cells. With that in mind, Lek is using a modified version of CRISPR called no-cut CRISPR to introduce a transcription activator attached to the Cas9 enzyme to turn on the brain-specific set, and thus make up for the deficit in muscle. He uses an AAV and CRISPR activation construct as well as guide RNA to direct the CRISPR to the right spot in the DNA.

Lek has already tested his putative therapy on Terrys cells and successfully corrected the mutated gene in the lab. Next, the treatment will be tested in mice. However, Lek is also exploring the possibility of an n-of-1 clinical trial in which the therapy would only be tested in Terry or anyone with his specific mutation.

Rich Horgans Cure Rare Disease group is now leading new projects for two boys with different forms of Duchenne MD as well as a patient with the limb girdle form of the disease.

Frost, meanwhile, is still investigating the best options for treating his daughter Annabel. His family has spent $250,000 so far and he expects it will cost another $250,000 to $500,000 to reach proof of concept. Annabels mutation is in ATP1A3, a gene that is associated with at least 12 different rare diseases (See table). However, Annabels specific mutation is very rare. Were not sure yet how many of these other conditions would be treated by the same transgene, but it could be a large proportion, Frost said.

Krieg noted that we are not yet at the point where any for profit company will want to develop n-of-1 therapies. It doesnt cost that much to manufacture DNA, and its a fully automated process, he said. It has taken billions of dollars already to get the technology this far and develop applications for some more common diseases. But the overall cost of lifetime treatment is still prohibitive. Right now, I dont know why any company would want to do this, he added. But there will come a time when there are the right incentives and someone will try it.

For families such as Annabel Frosts, these developments are still encouraging, and give them hope that they can help shape the future of the new field of n-of-1 therapeutics. This also supports the idea that more children should undergo whole genome sequencing as soon after birth as possible. With many rare diseases, the damage is compounded the longer the child is untreated. Further, greater understanding of how the full range of possible mutations in any gene impact health, and how that can be treated, will press the field forward.

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Dawn of the Customized Cure - Clinical OMICs News

World Cancer Day: Processed food, junk food and aerated drinks can increase risk of cancer

World Cancer Day is observed on February 4. Every year, the Union for International Cancer Control organises Cancer Day to raise awareness about cancer, tips for prevention and how to ease suffering for cancer patients. The theme for World Cancer 2020 is "I am and I will". World Cancer Day 2020 theme acknowledges that everyone has the capacity to act in the face of cancer. Cancer is referred to uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body. Cancer develops when the body's normal control mechanism stops working. Old cells are unable to diet and they instead grow out of control, forming new and abnormal cells.

A poor lifestyle with lack of exercise, poor diet and sedentary lifestyle is one of the many reasons why more and more people are getting cancer, believes lifestyle coach Luke Coutinho. Following is a list of cancer-causing foods and drinks that you must avoid:

Research has found that the more alcohol you drink, the higher is your risk of developing cancer. Excessive alcohol intake puts you at risk of liver, breast, oesophageal and colorectal cancer. When the body metabolises alcohol, it produces acetaldehyde, which is a chemical compound that may damage DNA, leading to cancer. This World Cancer Day, pledge to limit your alcohol intake and try to get off it in full entirety. Note that no amount of alcohol (not even two drinks in a day) is healthy for your body.

Reduce your alcohol intake in order to prevent cancerPhoto Credit: iStock

Also read:Is Alcohol Consumption Linked To Heart Disease: Let's Find Out

Processed food is one of the unhealthiest foods you can include in your diet. Processed and packaged food are devoid of any nutrition. They contain high amounts of unhealthy carbs, leading to weight gain and obesity-which is a known risk factor for cancer. Processed meat like sausage, bacon, hot dogs, pepperoni and salami are even more harmful. They are made with chemical preservatives, salting and smoking to increase their shelf life. Studies have found that processed meat can increase risk of colorectal cancer. Celeb nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar says that you should avoid everything that comes in a packet, and this includes everything from soya and kale chips to tomato ketchup, condiments and dips, etc.

Switch to fresh fruits, vegetables, homemade spices and food instead of processed food to reduce your risk of cancer.

Sugary drinks like diet soda and aerated drinks are the ones that cause weight gain and provide you with zero nutrition. These drinks contain artificial sweeteners that have been found to increase risk of cancer. Instead of aerated drinks, have lemon water, coconut water, sugarcane juice or unsweetened fresh fruit juice to reduce your risk of developing cancer.

Avoid aerated drinks to reduce your risk of cancerPhoto Credit: iStock

Also read:Nmami Agarwal Decodes Health Risks Associated With Sugary Drinks: You Will Be Surprised To Know These

No matter how quick and convenient microwave popcorn are, they are doing more harm to your health than you can imagine. Microwave popcorn bag linings contain perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which can be carcinogenic. The better alternative is to get fresh corn and prepare popcorn at home. It might take a few extra minutes but can reduce your risk of developing cancer.

Smoking is a lifestyle habit and is cancerous, as you all know. The top most cause of lung cancer in the world is smoking. Apart from cancer, smoking can cause coughing, breathing problems, asthma and a lot of other ailments that can affect your day-to-day functioning and reduce your lifespan. Take professional help if you are unable to quit smoking. Start with reducing one cigarette at a time. There is no tomorrow for quitting smoking.

Hydrogenated oil are commonly used for preserving processed foods and increasing their shelf life. Hydrogenated oils have the capability to alter structure and flexibility of cell membranes throughout the body, increasing your risk of cancer. Avoid foods with trans fats and saturated fats in order to reduce your cancer risk.

Along with avoiding these foods and drinks, you also need to be physically active and exercise regularly. Regular exercise can reduce your risk of cancer, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, obesity and weight gain. This World Cancer Day, make more and more people aware of these cancerous foods, drinks and lifestyle habits and do your part in making the world cancer-free.

Also read:World Cancer Day: Follow These Expert Guidelines To Reduce The Risk Of Breast Cancer

(Luke Coutinho, Holistic Lifestyle Coach - Integrative Medicine)

(Rujuta Diwekar is a nutritionist based in Mumbai)

Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.

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World Cancer Day 2020: 6 Cancer-Causing Foods And Drinks That You Need To Quit Now - NDTV News

Your thoughts make up your feelings. So, the amount of time you spend on a thought, be it happy or unhappy, is going to affect your feeling and mood. Feeding unhappy thoughts can make you unhappy. Unhappiness causes discomfort, which in the long run leads to diseases.

Staying happy is important to stay stress-free and disease-free

Some of the most common diseases like obesity, diabetes, PCOD and thyroid are related to poor lifestyle. A poor lifestyle is a combination of poor eating habits, lack of exercise, smoking, drinking alcohol regularly and irresponsibly, chronic stress, anxiety and lack of sleep. According to lifestyle coach Luke Coutinho, one thing which is common in people with lifestyle is unhappiness. Unhappiness, he says, is the major cause of most lifestyle-related diseases. It is important to understand that happiness is something which you cannot seek from outside or from someone else and should come from within.

As part of a live session on Facebook, Luke says that unhappiness causes discomfort. Too much of discomfort ultimately leads to development of a disease. "Unhappiness comes from unhappy thoughts. Your thoughts are everything," says Luke.

Do not unnecessarily feed unhappy thoughts as they can make you feel stressed and uncomfortablePhoto Credit: iStock

The idea is to understand that even one happy unhappy or negative thought can make you feel uncomfortable and stressed, and ultimately affect your health negatively.

Also read:Can Stress And Anxiety Cause Hair Loss? Know Types And Ways To Hair Fall

Your thoughts make up your feelings. So, the amount of time you spend on a thought, be it happy or unhappy, is going to affect your feeling and mood.

"You are going to experience both happy and unhappy, jealous or angry, positive or negative thoughts. What matters is how much attention you pay to each of these thoughts," Luke explains.

Happiness exists independently of circumstances and conditions. As mentioned above, it comes from within and is not dependent on anything or anyone. So, a boss' feedback, an increment letter or a perfect life partner are not factors that are going to make you happy.

Happiness cannot have conditions. Conditioning it with a certain amount of money or any other kind of gain is going to make you miserable and prone to diseases.

Do not seek happiness from something or someone else. Happiness comes from withinPhoto Credit: iStock

Also read:5 Worst Inflammation Causing Foods: Avoid Them To Prevent Diseases

Thus, it is important to decide that you need to be happy by thinking of the things that are going well for you at the moment. It is important for both your physical and mental health.

Pay less attention to unhappy thoughts. Stop feeding them as unhappy thoughts lead to unhappy feelings. Do not expect your happiness from someone else. It is your responsibility and once you decide it, there is nothing that can stop you from being happy, stress-free and disease-free.

Also read:5 Lifestyle Habits That Can Help You Live Longer, Be Disease-Free

(Luke Coutinho, Holistic Lifestyle Coach - Integrative Medicine)

Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.

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Want To Be Disease-Free? This One Lifestyle Change Is All You Need! - Doctor NDTV

Kansas State University researchers who helped develop a faster, more efficient way to detect Shiga toxin-producing E. coli in ground beef include Colin Stoy, technician; Lance Noll, senior scientist; Elizabeth Porter, lab manager; Jianfa Bai, professor of molecular research and development; Yin Wang, doctoral student in pathobiology; Junsheng Dong, visiting scholar; Nanyan Lu, bioinformatician; and Cong Zhu, pre-Doctor of Veterinary Medicine student; and Xuming Liu, research assistant professor.Photo courtesy K-State

MANHATTAN, Kan. Faculty members from the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine have developed a faster, more efficient method of detecting Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, or STEC, in ground beef, which often causes recalls of ground beef and vegetables.

The traditional gold standard STEC detection, which requires bacterial isolation and characterization, is not amenable to high-throughput settings and often requires a week to obtain a definitive result, said Jianfa Bai, section head of molecular research and development in the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

The new method developed by Bai and colleagues requires only a day to obtain confirmatory results using a Kansas State University-patented method with the partition-based multichannel digital polymerase chain reaction system.

We believe the new digital polymerase chain reaction detection method developed in this study will be widely used in food safety and inspection services for the rapid detection and confirmation of STEC and other foodborne pathogens, said Jamie Henningson, director of the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

When ingested through foods such as ground beef and vegetables, STEC can cause illnesses with symptoms including abdominal pain and diarrhea. Some illnesses caused by STEC may lead to kidney failure and can be life-threatening.

Some E. coli strains do not produce Shiga toxins and thus do not affect human health as much, said Xuming Liu, research assistant professor. Because cattle feces and ground beef can contain harmless or less pathogenic E. coli along with STEC, the most commonly used polymerase chain reaction cannot identify pathogenic E. coli strains in a complex sample matrix.

The new digital polymerase chain reaction test was developed for research and food safety inspections that require shorter turnaround and high throughput, without sacrificing detection accuracy.

While the current, commonly used testing method is considered to be the gold standard, it is tedious and requires many days to obtain results that adequately differentiate the bacteria, said Gary Anderson, director of the International Animal Health and Food Safety Institute at the K-State Olathe campus.

The study Single cell-based digital PCR detection and association of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli serogroups and major virulence genes, which describes the test design and results, was published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

Funding for this study was provided by the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory with no extramural funding used. The digital polymerase chain reaction technology for co-detection and association of multiple genes is covered by U.S. Patent No. 10,233,505 assigned to the Kansas State University Research Foundation with the principal investigators Bai, Liu and Anderson.

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Veterinary medicine researchers develop new method to improve food safety - Fence Post