StemCell Therapy

In rural Uganda, people who are blind or visually impaired often go to the city to look for work. But jobs are hard to find, and many end up as street beggars.

Instead, Ojok Simon wants them to know about a way they can earn money without leaving home: beekeeping. Simon, 36, became visually impaired after he was severely beaten by rebels who came to his village when he was a child. He has been a beekeeper for 15 years, and in 2013 he co-founded Hive Uganda, an organization that teaches advocates for visually impaired people and teaches them to make a living raising honeybees.

This year, his organization will receive a boost: Simon is one of three winners of the first-ever Holman Prize, which The Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco.

Its like a blind Fulbright, said Will Butler, the organizations communication director, of the award, which gives up to $25,000 apiece to blind and visually impaired people seeking funding for ambitious personal projects.

The prize is named for James Holman, a 19th-century English navy lieutenant who lost his sight at 25. In those days, if a military man became blind, the usual thing was theyd go sit in a convent or church and pray for the souls of dead English soldiers and sailors, said Bryan Bashin, The Lighthouses CEO.

Holman didnt think that sounded like fun. So, at a time with people didnt even think that blind people could get out of the house, he began to travel, and he became the most traveled blind person of the 19th century, eventually crossing through Scotland and France, and across Siberia, Bashin said.

Another winner of this years prize, Penny Melville-Brown of Farnham, U.K., lost her sight while she was a commander in the British Royal Navy. Her project, Baking Blind, will take her around the world to cook with blind and sighted chefs - including stops in China, Australia, Malawi, and Virginia Beach, Virginia, where she hope to link up with some Navy veterans, especially blind ones, to share stories.

Along the way she will videotape her encounters and blog about her journey. Her goal, she said, is to show that blind people and other disabled people have got lots of get up and go and ability, and they are a great resource for the rest of the community, the rest of society, and particularly employers, to use better.

Melville-Brown was thrilled to learn she had won (My thinking is its a cross between the Paralympics and The Apprentice, with a whiff of the Nobel! she wrote to the organizers in an excited email). But she also said the honor comes with a great responsibility. Because I am sort of representing lots of blind people, and especially those who were candidates for the prize. Im sort of doing it on their behalf.

A third winner, Ahmet Ustunel, a San Francisco teacher and avid kayaker, will develop a guidance system to solo kayak 500 miles in different locations around the world, including crossing the Bosphorus Strait from Europe to Asia in his native Turkey.

Two-hundred and two applicants from 27 countries and 35 U.S. states submitted 90-second video pitches for their projects.

We were staggered by the amount of interest and the quality and diversity of the proposals, Bashin said. One of the biggest obstacles is our own perceptions of our capabilities, and part of the Lighthouses mission is to change perceptions of the abilities of the blind in all fields.

Winners will be flown to San Francisco and work with the project manager to refine their ideas. A year later, they will return to report on how they turned out.

In the Gulu district of northern Uganda, Simons organization has already taught 38 people to be beekeepers, using local materials to make beehives and learning how to understand bees behavior.

Ugandans prize the insects for their honey, their wax (used in soap and cosmetics), their propolis, and even their venom, which can be used to boost immunity. But much of the harvesting is done in the wild, which presents a challenge for the visually impaired. Hive Uganda teaches people to use frames and assess the honey harvest by feeling how heavy they are.

Winning the Holman will allow Simon to widen the scope of how many people he can help.

I feel that now Im going to be addressing the larger society to empower East Africa in general, he told the Washington Post. My dream is becoming reality, and that change that I wanted, I started feeling at my fingertips.

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Beekeeper, baker, kayaker don't let blindness stop the vision - Atlanta Journal Constitution

Diabetes patients who are also suffering from obstructive sleep apnoea may be at greater risk of developing a common form of eye disease leading to blindness, researchers found.

The findings showed that the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy was higher in patients with sleep apnoea (42.9 per cent) compared to those without sleep apnoea (24.1 per cent) - that causes snoring and interrupting breathing.

Further, it was also more common in patients with both Type 2 diabetes and sleep apnoea compared to those with only high blood sugar levels alone. Despite improvements in glucose, blood pressure and lipid levels, diabetic retinopathy remains very common, said Abd Tahrani from the University of Birmingham.

Importantly, patients with sleep apnoea and Type 2 diabetes may also be at an increased risk of developing advanced diabetic retinopathy over a period of three years and seven months. These patients may also not be aware of the onset of diabetic retinopathy and the disease could go undiagnosed for years, the researchers said.

For the study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the team involved 230 patients with Type 2 diabetes who were assessed for diabetic retinopathy using specialist retinal imaging, while sleep apnoea was assessed using a home-based multi-channel cardio-respiratory portable device.

At a follow-up appointment, on average 43 months later the patients with sleep apnoea (18.4 per cent) were more likely to develop moderate to severe diabetic retinopathy compared to those without sleep apnoea (6.1 per cent). We can conclude from this study that OSA is an independent predictor for the progression to moderate or severe diabetic retinopathy in patients with Type 2 diabetes, Tahrani said.

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Eye to eye: Diabetes, sleep apnoea combination may lead to blindness - Hindustan Times

Sightings of a toxic plant which has left several children in the UK with third-degree burns this summer have been confirmed in the Somerset area.

Giant Hogweed can cause ulcers and blindness and has been called Britains most dangerous plant by some.

LATEST - Warning from mum about another dangerous plant after son picks up injuries at beauty spot.

The recent hot weather raised fears about the spread of the hazardous plant , as it thrives in warmer temperatures.

Distressing images show what can happen to children if they accidentally come into contact with the dangerous invasive species. Several youngsters were hospitalised in late June around the UK.

WARNING: Some images below graphically show Giant Hogweed injuries.

Areas with lots of countryside, such as our beautiful county, should be particularly aware of the risks.

Giant Hogweed verified in Somerset

Now a new app called Plant Tracker is recording confirmed reports of Giant Hogweed on a map of the UK, allowing those concerned to steer clear of some potentially risky areas.

Worryingly there are several dots on the map showing Giant Hogweed is in Somerset and the surrounding area.

The Giant Hogweed spots in or near Somerset confirmed so far are in:

Mudford (just north of Yeovil ) An area to the south of Wincanton , near the River Cale Farleigh Hungerford (north of Frome , south of Bath) London Road West in Bath Riverside Park in Bristol Down Road, north of Bristol Bristol and Bath Science Park, Bristol Just off the A35, near Wilmington, between Axminster and Honiton

Children taken to hospital

In late June media reports highlighted how children in the UK were especially vulnerable to the dangers of the plant.

Several children were hospitalised with third-degree burns after their skin was exposed to a stem.

Lauren Fuller, 10, from Thornbury, was building a den by a riverbank in Scotland in 2015 when she touched the invasive plant.

The image belows show how her injuries quickly became extremely severe.

WARNING: The below image graphically shows Giant Hogweed injuries and some may find it distressing.

An 11-year-old boy in Renfrewshire, Scotland, was hospitalised after touching the toxic plant in the park. Victims suffer horrific burn-like injuries when they make contact with it.

The boy was left with agonising blisters after he rubbed the plants leaves on a nettle sting, thinking they were dock leaves.

In 2015, four Bolton teenagers were treated in hospital for severe burns after touching giant hogweed.

Within 24-48 hours, rashes, burns and blisters may begin to appear. The toxins affect almost everyone but children are particularly sensitive.

Blisters caused by Giant Hogweed tend to heal very slowly as they can damage DNA, and severe blistering may re-occur for many years.

The blisters can also develop into phytophotodermatitis, a type of skin rash caused as a result of sensitivity to chemicals in certain plants and fruit which flares up in sunlight.

The best advice is simply - do not touch it.

River Trust expert Mike Duddy said: "If you dont know what the plant is, its exceedingly dangerous.

It is, without a shadow of a doubt, the most dangerous plant in Britain."

Government advice on Giant Hogweed says:

Contact with any part of this plant must be avoided as even minute amounts of sap can cause blistering of the skin following exposure to sunlight.

Its best left to the experts but if youre trying to spot the dangerous plant so you can avoid it, this info could help.

The Non-Native Species Secretariat says: When in full height it is difficult to confuse giant hogweed with any other plant. While still growing or stunted, possibly as a result of disturbance, it can be confused with some other native plants. The most likely species with which it might confused is hogweed.

Key differences between hogweed and giant hogweed include the height, width of stem, size of leaf, size of flower head and size of seed.

The map of the Somerset area we used above came from PlantTracker.

Thanks to PlantTracker we can see recorded sightings of the Giant Hogweed but walkers should beware that it's in lots of other places, too. It's probably impossible to report them all.

The PlantTracker project is a collaboration between the Environment Agency, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency & Natural Resources Wales.

The main aim is to locate incidences of a number of high priority invasive plant species.

There is currently a lack of information on exactly how serious the problem presented by invasive plant species really is.

With the public's help PlantTracker hope to build the most complete picture yet and provide the raw data to those that need it most in (almost) real time.

Continued here:
Sightings of 'most dangerous plant' which can cause ulcers and ... - Somerset Live

Went in for eye surgery the other day, which reminded me of an old wheeze of a joke, which I told to people as they prepared the prisoner for execution: A man walked by the insane asylum and heard the inmates shouting, Twenty-one! Twenty-one! They sounded ecstatic and he stopped to have a look. He put his eye to a hole in the fence and they poked him in the eye with a sharp stick and yelled, Twenty-two! Twenty-two!

The sedation guy was busy and didnt laugh but the nurse did. She was an angel and how often do you get to meet one? She grew up on a farm in southwestern Minnesota, is the mother of two teenagers and a professional possessed of warmth and humor. She did the prep, slipped the IV in, ran through a battery of questions, and patted me on the shoulder about 27 times in the course of an hour. A lifelong reader/writer like me blanches at the thought of his eye being sliced while he observes up close. This womans ease and kindness changed everything. Every thing.

Of course the outcome depends on the ophthalmic surgeon, who is also a kind and caring woman, but by then I was sedated, mesmerized by bright lights. The procedure lasted an hour, and when I was back on my feet, a patch over the eye, woozy but ambulatory, I walked out into bright sunlight and into the world of the handicapped. It was not easy to figure out when to cross the street to my hotel. In the hotel hallway, I had to read room numbers up close, hoping nobody would suddenly open a door and find a tall man with an eyepatch peering at their peephole and call the police.

Back in the room, I hung up my jacket, opened my laptop and I couldnt see the keys that would increase font size to where I could read the text. I lay on the bed and contemplated the prospect of life as a man in a blur. I dozed. I turned on the TV. I couldnt watch it, only listen. I clicked around, hoping for a friendly voice, and everyone sounded hyped-up and weird, canned laughter, big carnival barker voices, big woofers and screaming meemies, and then I found a ballgame. Two men, talking nice and slow in level tones, describing actions taking place before their eyes. Players I didnt know playing games I didnt care about, but those were the voices of my uncles discussing cars, gardens, future construction projects, the secret of pouring concrete, and that was reassuring, to know that the country has not come unhinged.

Kindness and blindness, all in one day. Back to basics. I think kindness does not come naturally to men. We bark, we harrumph, but tenderness is a stretch for us. The grief-stricken mother lies in bed, keening, and her women friends take turns stroking her back, while the men sit stiffly in the next room, trying to make conversation.

Its a small thing, kindness, but when youre in the hands of a large institution with a bar code for identification, kindness feels like the key to civilization itself and the fulfillment of the word of the Lord. And the combination of kindness and the high-powered intellectual acuity of modern medical science is a miracle of our time. America is the land of second chances and thats what modern medicine has brought us.

I lay in the hotel room hearing my uncles discuss the price of feed corn and it occurred to me, not once but several times, that I am a fortunate man and thank you, Lord. Medicare A and B and a good group health policy and savings to cover any shortfall. The 23 million people who may lose their health insurance in the next few years if Congress does as the man wishes will face some high barriers between them and any sort of eye surgery. This does not come under the heading of Kindness.

Eighty percent of evangelical Christians who cast ballots last fall voted for the man, who seems as far from Christian virtues (humility, kindness, patience, etc.) as Hulk Hogan is from the Dalai Lama. These are people who pray for guidance. So apparently Jesus got the story wrong. The rich man came to Lazarus who was covered with sores and asked for a tax break and the rich man was rewarded and Lazarus went to hell. Do unto others as you are glad they dont have the means to do unto you.

Garrison Keillor is an author and radio personality.

2017, Garrison Keillor

Distributed by The Washington Post News Service with Bloomberg News.

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Garrison Keillor column: Blindness and kindness, all in one day ... - Richmond.com

In Japan, Fukurokuju () (from Japanese fuku, "happiness"; roku, "wealth"; and ju, "longevity") is one of the Seven Lucky Gods in Japanese mythology. It has been theorized that he is a Japanese assimilation of the Chinese Three Star Gods (Fulushou) embodied in one deity. Most related in appearance to the Chinese star god Shou, he is the God of wisdom and longevity. According to some, before attaining divinity, he was a Chinese hermit of the Song Dynasty and a reincarnation of the Taoist god Xuanwu. It is said that during his human incarnation, he was a sennin; a philosopher who could exist without eating food.

Fukurokuju probably originated from an old Chinese tale about a mythical Chinese Taoist hermit sage renowned for performing miracles in the Northern Song period (9601127). In China, this hermit (also known as Jurjin) was thought to embody the celestial powers of the south polar star. Fukurokuju was not always included in the earliest representations of the Seven in Japan. He was instead replaced by Kichijten (goddess of fortune, beauty, and merit). He is now, however, an established member of the Seven Lucky Gods.

He is sometimes confused with Jurjin, another of the Several Gods of Fortune, who by some accounts is Fukurokuju's grandson and by other accounts inhabits the same body as Fukurokuju.[1] As such, the two are often confused.[2]

Usually portrayed as bald with long whiskers, he is said to be an incarnation of the Southern Polestar. In many depictions, Fukurokuju has an abnormally high forehead. The sacred book tied to his staff either contains the lifespan of every person on earth or a magical scripture. He is accompanied by a crane and a turtle, which are considered to be symbols of longevity. He is also sometimes accompanied by a black deer (ancient legends say a deer turns black if it is over 2000 years old).

He is the only member of the Seven Lucky Gods credited with the ability to revive the dead.

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Fukurokuju - Wikipedia

Estimated reading time: 8 min

Ever feel as if motherhood literally sucked the life out of you? Well, theres some science to back that up. A recent study in the journalPLOS One reported that the more children a woman gave birth to, the faster she aged.

Poke around in the literature and you will find as many articles describing the protective effects of childbearing as those that suggest it is utterly depleting.

Thestudy, which looked at DNA in 100 postmenopausal women, found that those whod experienced more pregnancies and births had increased levels of oxidative damage an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants that is an indication of accelerated cellular aging. The authors declared their findings the first evidence for oxidative stress as a possible cost of reproductive effort in humans.

But wait: Maybe having children revitalizes you, keeps you young. Because the week before that study was published, another had come out in the same journal showing that the more children a woman gave birth to, the more slowly she aged.

Thatstudy, on 94 women with an average age of about 40, found that over the course of 13 years, those who gave birth to more children had longer telomeres, the protective casings at the end of a DNA strand. Like a candle that burns down every time you light it, telomeres get shorter each time a cell divides. The authors suggest that elevated estrogen levels in pregnancy may protect DNA from the damaging effects of oxidative stress.

Individually, such studies make for irresistible headlines, but few news stories acknowledge the persistently contradictory nature of findings in this area. We want the answer to be simple, but it just isnt. Poke around in the literature and you will find as many articles describing the protective effects of childbearing as those that refer to it as utterly depleting.

How could having kids affect health and longevity in such disparate ways? Why cant we definitively say how pregnancy will affect any human body?

I dont think there is a simple answer, says Grazyna Jasienska, head of the Human Reproductive and Evolutionary Ecology group in Poland and a co-author of the study showing accelerated aging in mothers. Its interesting because its complicated.

Nearly 15 years ago, Jasienska established the Mogielica Human Ecology Study Site, which collects data on the inhabitants of five villages in the mountains of southern Poland. Its a rural population in which women still perform a lot of manual labor on small farms. She was attracted to the populations broad fertility rate: from zero to 16 children.

Were comparing women with five kids with women with 12 kids. This makes it possible to really look at the costs of reproduction, Jasienska says.

Life-history theory asserts that since the body has a finite amount of energy to work with, energy put toward reproduction is energy not spent on self-maintenance. Its maternal martyrdom at the cellular level. In most species, increased reproduction is linked to decreased lifespan. This is the theory researchers expect to confirm when studying how childbearing affects longevity in humans, but apparently, it isnt quite that cut and dried.

Although the relationship between womens fertility and their post-reproductive longevity has been extensively studied, the nature of this relationship remains unclear, the authors of yetanotherPLOS Onearticledeclared in December 2015. A meta-analysis of 31 studies on this topic did not show a consistent pattern. The relationship can be negative, positive, or absent.

I was very puzzled, said Pablo Nepomnaschy, about his findings on cellular health among Mayan women in Santa Cruz La Laguna, in the highlands of Guatemala.

Visual by David Samson

Childbearing comes with a vast array of variables: maternal nutrition, disease risk, time between pregnancies, breastfeeding duration, number of pregnancies, even the babys gender. Boys tend to grow faster in utero, to weigh more at birth, and to make higher lactational demands, so having sons may be more energetically expensive for mothers than having daughters, Jasienska explains in The Arc of Life.

And breastfeeding is even more energetically expensive than pregnancy. Women who exclusively breastfeed their babies need to eat an extra 640 calories a day; only 300 additional calories per day are needed during the last two trimesters of pregnancy. Its a factor that tends to be neglected by research into the relationship between fertility and longevity.

The [overall] costs are not the same for someone who eats well compared to someone whose food intake cant cover the excess energy needs of pregnancy and lactation, Jasienska says. [In] well-off women who have many children, we see increases in longevity. For someone in an economically developing country, for example, the costs of reproduction are much more intensely received by the organism.

Childbearing has been shown to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis, Jasienska noted. Conversely, the hormones involved in pregnancy and lactation can reduce the risk of pancreatic and reproductive cancers. So a womans lifestyle habits and baseline risks for these diseases will all play a part in the ultimate effects of childbearing. Did having kids end your drinking and smoking days, or do your children drive you to drink? According to Jasienska, this is why some studies see no effect: because everything evens out.

Moreover, she says, having a child every year is much different from having, say, one child every four years.The question is: is the damage reversible? For women who have children close together, is [the body] only repairing itself a little, but accumulating damage that leads to problems at an older age?

Not all studies account for all of these variables, but that doesnt mean their findings arent valid, just that we should understand the limits of their broader applicability. To study all of what reproduction does and how Im not sure if a perfect study is possible at all, Jasienska says.

Half a world away, in the highlands of Guatemala, Pablo Nepomnaschy found a population to study with similarly wide-ranging fertility rate: between one and 10 children. Nepomnaschy is the director of the Maternal and Child Health Lab at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, and co-author of the study that linked childbearing with longer telomeres. He began collecting data on a group of indigenous Kaqchikel Mayan women in 2000, expecting his findings to support life-history theory. Instead, he found the opposite.

I was very puzzled, says Nepomnaschy, speaking from the field in Guatemala. So I had my team redo the results, but they kept coming out the same way I soon discovered we were not the only ones to find these results, but nobody had a good explanation of why.

He says he then happened upon a study in which researchers in Israel found that both mice and humans exhibited faster tissue rejuvenation after pregnancy. The fetal cells that mingle in the mothers organs and bloodstream, the authors suggested, may act like an injection of youth.

I was blown away by [these results] reproduction is costly, but maybe its associated with biological mechanisms that slow down aging, Nepomnaschy said. On average, women live longer than men. So there may be something built into female DNA, or into the process of reproduction, that helps maternal cells recover from being temporarily neglected.

Perhaps its that theres an optimum number of human offspring. A recentanalysis of 18 cohort studies, seven of which included men,uncovered a J-shaped association between number of children and risk of mortality from all causes: Parents of one to five children had a reduced risk of death compared with those who had either no children or at least six. For both men and women, the greatest reduction was for parents of three to four children. Other large studies cite the magic number as two.

Since youd have to start young and have relatively short periods between pregnancies to give birth to six kids, this assessment is in line with Jasienskas concern about the bodys ability to withstand such demands. Another possibility is that the genes linked to increased fertility are also associated with increased levels of oxidative stress, as well as increased susceptibility to infectious diseases.

Pregnancy is one thing: parenting is another. Do social support systems after birth or lack thereof affect a mothers recuperation? Surely decreased sleep and increased stress play roles here, too.

Pregnancy is one thing: parenting is another. Do social support systems affect a mothers recuperation? Surely decreased sleep and increased stress play roles, too.

Nepomnaschy says that as with childbearing, the biological costs and benefits of childrearing may vary by population and counteract each other. Jasienska explains that on one hand, if parents have limited resources and must share them with many kids, this is not going to be good for their health. On the other hand, children help their parents and also take care of aging parents. Our study showed that women with high fertility have shorter life span, but in men, number of daughters is related to longer life span.

Its likely that no study will ever separate out all of the factors to definitively say how pregnancy and parenting affect the body. Especially not if what were looking for is a simple answer an irresistible headline that purports to be applicable to anyone.

Olivia Campbell, a science journalist and essayist, is a regular contributor atNew YorkMagazine. Her work has also appeared in The WashingtonPost, Scientific American, Quartz, VICE,Pacific Standard,and STAT News.

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The Curious Case of Motherhood and Longevity - Undark Magazine

Updated 16 hours ago

Pastor Bob J. Lecocq said his parents, Bob G. and Rosetta Lecocq, thought that coffee had a divine quality to it.

They used to say that it's always a full cup of God's love, Lecocq said of his parents, who owned Lazarus Tomb Coffee House Ministries, now known as Sheep Inc. in Arnold.

Lecocq's parents may have been right about the special properties of coffee. Two recent studies published by the Annals of Internal Medicine found that there is a link between coffee and increased longevity.

One of the studies funded by the National Cancer Institute found that those who drank at least one cup of coffee a day had a 12 percent lower risk of death from heart disease, certain types of cancer, stroke, diabetes, respiratory disease and kidney disease. The study also found that those who drank three cups a day decreased those risks by 18 percent. These findings were consistent among white people, black people, Latinos and Japanese Americans.

Both studies found that the longevity correlations existed whether the coffee was regular or decaf.

However, the studies don't prove that coffee is the cause of the increased longevity, only that there is a correlation or association between coffee drinkers and longevity.

Residents and cafe owners in the Alle-Kiski Valley and Greensburg areas had plenty to say about their own coffee drinking habits on Tuesday.

Coffee drinking habits

Every morning at 5 a.m., I have a shot in the dark' to get me going, said Lisa Hegedus, owner of Caffe Barista in Greensburg.

A shot in the dark for Hegedus is a two-and-a-half-cup pot of coffee with two shots of espresso and a little bit of cream and sugar. For her, it is what she needs to start her day.

Darnicka Koskey, owner of Koskey's Korner Ice Cream Cafe in Tarentum, said she needs her morning cup strong and with some cream and no sugar.

If I don't get that morning cup, I feel all discombobulated, Koskey said.

Naturally, growing up in a family that owned a coffee house, Lecocq started early around 12 years old.

Lecocq, with the Monroeville Assembly of God, said his father sometimes used to eat coffee soup, a bowl of coffee with bread broken up into it for breakfast, though he didn't make it for customers.

Health benefits

Hegedus, who has been drinking coffee most of her adult life, said she never thought coffee was bad for her health.

Obviously it makes you feel like you have more energy, but I'm 52 years old and I don't feel or look it, Hegedus said.

Jess McGovern, an employee at Sun Dawg Cafe in Greensburg, said she drinks coffee and tea. But she said she understood that tea may be a little more effective for promoting heart health than coffee.

However, not everyone agreed that coffee was as healthy as the studies made it out to be.

David Durcy of Brackenridge said he knows coffee is addictive.

Any time I try to stop, it takes two or three weeks to get it completely out of my system, Durcy said.

Mike Rametta of Allegheny Township said studies often contradict other studies.

It seems like everything that's good for you is also bad for you, Rametta said.

Effects of the studies

Koskey said she might add a cup or two to her day if it could decrease her chance of serious health issues.

Cancer runs in my family. If I can do something to dodge that bullet, I'll do it, Koskey said.

Durcy said he doesn't plan to drink more coffee, but he will smile a lot more when he's drinking his morning pot.

McGovern said she thinks coffee drinkers would stick with the beverage whether or not they believe it is good for them.

Leif Greiss is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-226-4681, lgreiss@tribweb.com or via Twitter @Leif_Greiss.

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Longevity study a shot in the arm for Western Pa. coffee lovers - Tribune-Review

Despite Theresa Mays plea to opposition parties to contribute to policy, there is little sign of co-operation so far. Following the launch of the Taylor Reportonemployment practices, theSNP have said the findings fall shamefully short, while Jeremy Corbyn has called it a huge missed opportunity to tackle insecure employment. As Isabel notes, Taylor could be forgiven for wondering whether he might as well have just written a blog post instead and spent the rest of the time eating crisps.

Still, the Prime Minister doesappear to have listened to other parties on one issue. Following cross-party pressure, No 10 has said an inquiry will be held into the contaminated blood scandal that left at least 2,400 people dead. But given that the government would have been expected to be defeated in a Parliamentary vote on the issue, it still looks as though May is being pushed into making decisions rather than choosing to seek a higher ground.

So far the two issues May has had to concede on (the blood contamination inquiry and NHS-funded abortions for Northern Irish women who travel to England) have showed that she is weakened but they have not undermined her party. They are issues on which the Conservatives have not had to deviate from long-held ideology. This is why the real test of her longevity will be on matters related to Brexit. The Repeal Bill comes to Parliament on Thursday and any government concessions let alone defeats could prove career-ending for May 2.0.

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The real test of Theresa May's longevity will be on Brexit | Coffee ... - Spectator.co.uk (blog)

New Delhi: A high-protein diet often topped the list of nutritionists' diet chart, especially when it comes to building muscle and losing weight.

Weight loss through diet offers a range of health benefits, including reducing your risk of developing high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers. Lowering your risk from these conditions could mean you are making a wise decision, promoting health and longevity.

Generally, these high-protein diets often restrict carbs like cereals, grains, fruits, and possibly vegetables.

Talking about high-protein diets, this extra protein can come from either plants or animals.

Beans and legumes (such as lentils, chickpeas, soybeans), nuts, seeds, and vegetables like spinach, broccoli are plant products/plants high in protein.

Chicken breast, seafood, eggs, cheese, diary and whey protein are animal products high in protein.

While both have health benefits, studies have shed light on which one is a healthy long-term option plant-based proteins or animal-based proteins.

Researchers found that people who consumed high levels of animal proteins were at an increased risk of death from heart disease. They were also found to be overweight, more sedentary.

Also, consuming high amount of proteins from processed and unprocessed red meat has been linked to a higher mortality rate compared to those taking in more of proteins from plant sources.

So now, hope you know how much is required and which one to consume more!

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Animal-based protein vs plant-based protein - Which is better for longevity? - Zee News

There's something truly magical about a cup of coffee. A steaming cup in the morning can help you face the day, a sweating glass of iced coffee will perk you up in the afternoon heat, and a warm mug after dinner helps settle your meal.

Yet people frequently try to limit their coffee consumption for health reasons, fearing negative effects.

Two major studies published July 10 in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, however, should help assuage those fears.

The studies involved more than 700,000 people and found that the more coffee individuals consumed, the less likely they were to die an early death from a number of diseases including cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

And for those who don't want to consume more caffeine, don't worry - decaf seems to offer the same health benefits.

More coffee, lower risk of death

For the larger of the two new studies, researchers analysed data from a nutrition study that tracked more than 520,000 people from 10 European countries for an average of 16.4 years. The more coffee those participants consumed, the lower their risk of death, researchers found.

The top 25 percent of coffee drinkers in the study had three or more cups a day. Among that group, men were 12 percent less likely to die early than comparable people who avoided coffee completely. And women who consumed a lot of coffee were 7 percent less likely to die early.

In addition to lower general risk of early death, researchers found reduced risk of death from diseases of the digestive system and circulatory system. For men, coffee consumption was also associated with a lower risk of suicide.

The second study followed the diet and health habits of 185,855 Americans for just over 16 years and found similar reductions in risk of death - in this case from heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease.

Compared to people who didn't drink coffee at all, people who drank two to three cups per day were 18 percent less likely to die early. People who drank one cup a day were 12 percent less likely to die than those who abstained.

This second study was particularly noteworthy because it focused on American populations of different ethnicities, including black, white, Latino, Japanese, and Hawaiian-Americans. Most previous studies on the effects of coffee on longevity have focused on people of European descent.

Causation versus correlation

These studies are observational, meaning they can't establish cause and effect - no one can say based on this data that drinking more coffee will definitely extend your life. The researchers tried to control for factors like diet, obesity, and smoking status, but it's still possible that people who consume coffee are already healthier in some way they didn't control for.

However, this isn't the first research to indicate that coffee may improve your health. In both studies, authors noted that previous research has found coffee consumption to be associated with improvements in liver function, blood sugar levels, and inflammation.

Since decaf coffee was also associated with improved longevity, it's probably not the caffeine that's responsible for these benefits, even if that's the reason most of us drink coffee.

In an editorial published alongside the studies, a group of researchers speculated that the benefits of coffee may come from other compounds that are extracted when the beverage is prepared, especially antioxidant polyphenols. (Caffeine may still have some benefits, though.)

Even if we don't know whether coffee causes this increased longevity, these new findings suggest that people shouldn't feel guilty about their coffee consumption.

Drinking unlimited amounts of caffeinated coffee could eventually put you at risk, but up until about five cups per day, the researchers say you don't need to worry.

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

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Drinking More Coffee Is Associated With a Longer Life, New Studies Show - ScienceAlert

Mikel Darling

In an age where music documentaries are all the rage, particularly those chronicling the rise of hip-hops most iconic and influential figures, veteran director Allen Hughes latest film project, The Defiant Ones, stands in a class of its own. The documentary, released in four parts, focuses on rap legend Dr. Dre and record executive Jimmy Iovines tenured partnership and the impact their union has had on the music industry as a whole. The Defiant Ones finds Hughes taking one of the greatest, yet most rehashed stories ever told and giving it added context and character by attacking it from a unique vantage point.

While Dr. Dre and Iovines deal to sell their Beats Electronics empire to Apple in 2014, and their musical partnershipwhich dates back to 1992stand as the crux of the documentaries narrative, Hughes delves even deeper, beginning at their respective genesis. Dre, an impoverished kid from Compton, and Iovine, a native of Red Hook, Brooklyn and the product of a working class family. Candid commentary from Dr. Dres mother Verna Griffin, who provides never-before-seen home footage and photos, includes revelations of the abuse she suffered from Dr. Dres biological father and stepfather, and fond memories of her sons earliest forays into music.

Rare nuggets like Alonzo Williams recollection of becoming privy to Dr. Dres prodigious talent and enlisting him as a member of his World Class Wrecking Cru are appreciated, but the insights The Defiant Ones provides while covering the life and times of Jimmy Iovine are pure gold. In addition to highlighting his work as an engineering and production vanguardhe helped jumpstart the careers of Hall of Fame rockers Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith and Stevie NicksThe Defiant Ones dispels the notion of Iovine being a music industry blue blood. His beginnings as a failed musician and a novice engineer are documented, as well as the paranoia and uncertainty that engulfed him while toiling with obscurity during the 1970s.

The life and career of a star like Dr. Dre are typically dissected to the most minute detail in standard music docs, however, figures like Iovine, who control many of the strings being pulled behind the scenes, are usually cloaked with an air of anonymity. The result is an enigma, akin to the man referenced in blaxploitation films of old. The Defiant Ones brings one of the most talked about high ranking executives in rap history and strips him to his bare essentials, giving him an identity beyond that of a stuffy check writer. Hes presented as a true champion of artistic expression and creativity.

In addition to Dr. Dre and Iovine, the players that benefited from or helped facilitate the pairs rise also make appearances throughout The Defiant Ones, providing their own view of the men while detailing how their respective roles held together the fabric of the bigger picture. Rapper The D.O.C. speaks candidly about the events that led to the nearly fatal 1989 car crash that cost him his voice and career as a rap artist, as well as his experience of being the unsung cog in the machine that was Ruthless Records and N.W.A. Then there are executives Doug Morris and Ted Field, who recall the formation of Interscope Records and their own roles in the creation of one of the biggest juggernauts in music history.

The Defiant Ones does a great job in unmasking both Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine and humanizing their guts and glory. One of the more compelling moments is Dr. Dre addressing the infamous 1991 attack on TV host Dee Barnes, which has long served as a dark stain on his otherwise storied career. After years of avoiding the subject all together, Dre owns up to his actions and attacks it head on. He subsequently closes an ill-fated chapter and avoids making The Defiant Ones a one-sided affair, as director Hughes examines both men from all angles, flattering or otherwise.

The first two parts of The Defiant Ones focuses more so on the music, whereas the last two include insight on Dr. Dres comeback with Aftermath Records and his discovery of Eminem. However, the latter parts focus more on his transformation from controversial rapper and record producer into a family man, business mogul and philanthropist. Jimmy Iovine, who is often criticized for capitalizing off the explosion and fetishization of gangster rap, shares his own reservations about the toll the drama and violence surrounding the music took on him and his business partners. He also opens up about his bitter war with Time Warner over his indecision to part ways with Dr. Dre in the wake of the East Coast vs. West Coast war.

Pulling together a cast that includes talents spanning multiple generationsTom Petty, Fab 5 Freddy, Gwen Stefani and Kendrick Lamar, to name a fewand encapsulating more than 45 years worth of history is no easy feat in any capacity, let alone when the subjects are two of the most important figures in entertainment responsible for the career of dozens of other transcendent figures. But Allen Hughes accomplishes this and more with The Defiant Ones, a glimpse into the love, loyalty and longevity of two of the greatest men to ever impact pop culture as we know it.

To experience The Defiant Ones for yourself, the episodes are currently available on HBO GO and HBO NOW.

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Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine's Love for Music, Loyalty and Longevity Explored in 'The Defiant Ones' - XXLMAG.COM

BIEN Chair Louise Haagh spoke basic income at Journey to 100, a longevity-themed conference held last month in Guernsey.

Guernsey, an island with a population of about 63,000, aspires to join the worlds blue zones regions boasting an exceptionally high proportion of centenarians and become the first country with a life expectancy over 100. To begin pursuing this goal, Guernseys Dandelion Foundation and Evolution of Medicine founder James Maskell organized Journey to 100, a world-exclusive conference held on June 30 in St. Peter Port.

In additional to diverse experts in areas such as medicine, nutrition, and sustainable agriculture, the events 20 speakers included BIEN Chair Louise Haagh (University of York), who spoke about basic income as a means to rethink and change the way our institutions are governed. Haagh stressed that basic income is neither a radical restructuring of the current welfare state, nor mere business as usual, but a chance to pause and rethink our systems of social insurance; in contrast to welfare programs that impose strict terms and conditions on recipients, basic income, would allow all people to enjoy independence in the form of selvstaendiggrelse to stand in themselves.

Watch the full conference, including Haaghs talk (beginning around 6 hr 30 min), below:

Kate McFarland has written 447 articles.

Kate has previously made a living as a professional student (current interests: philosophy of language, pragmatics, sociolinguistics), but is retired for the time being. Regarding her present work in the UBI community, you may read more here. If you think that market norms pretty much suck, and you're interested in the hypothesis that UBI could help to support a society in which people work predominantly out of non-financial motivations, please feel free to connect with her (Facebook works well). Same goes if you're interested in UBI out of a general opposition to job/career culture.

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GUERNSEY: BIEN Chair discusses basic income at longevity event - Basic Income News

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Twin study reveals strong genetic influences on how infants visually explore social world

Using eye-tracking technology, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta have found compelling evidence that genetics plays a major role in how children look at the world and whether they have a preference for gazing at peoples eyes and faces or at objects. The discovery adds new detail to understanding the causes of autism spectrum disorder. Studying twins, the researchers found that where babies focus their eyes is under stringent genetic control.

New research has uncovered compelling evidence that genetics plays a major role in how children look at the world and whether they have a preference for gazing at peoples eyes and faces or at objects.

The discovery by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta adds new detail to understanding the causes of autism spectrum disorder. The results show that the moment-to-moment movements of childrens eyes as they seek visual information about their environment are abnormal in autism and under stringent genetic control in all children.

The study is published online July 12 in the journal Nature.

Now that we know that social visual orientation is heavily influenced by genetic factors, we have a new way to trace the direct effects of genetic factors on early social development, and to design interventions to ensure that children at risk for autism acquire the social environmental inputs they need to grow and develop normally, said lead author John N. Constantino, MD, the Blanche F. Ittleson Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Washington University. These new findings demonstrate a specific mechanism by which genes can modify a childs life experience. Two children in the same room, for example, can have completely different social experiences if one carries an inherited tendency to focus on objects while the other looks at faces, and these differences can play out repeatedly as the brain develops early in childhood.

The researchers studied 338 toddlers ages 18 to 24 months using eye-tracking technology, developed at Emory, allowing them to trace young childrens visual orientation to faces, eyes or objects as the children watched videos featuring people talking and interacting.

The children, who were part of the Missouri Family Registry, a database of twins that is maintained at Washington University School of Medicine, included 41 pairs of identical twins such twins share 100 percent of their DNA and 42 sets of fraternal twins who share only about 50 percent of their DNA. In addition, the researchers studied 84 unrelated children and 88 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

Constantino, with fellow investigators Warren R. Jones, PhD, and Ami Klin, PhD, of Emory University School of Medicine, evaluated the eye-tracking data. Each twin was tested independently, at different times, without the other twin present.

How much one identical twin looked at another persons eyes or face was almost perfectly matched by his or her co-twin. But in fraternal twins, eye movements in one twin accounted for less than 10 percent of the variation in the eye movements of his or her co-twin. Identical twins also were more likely to move their eyes at the same moments in time, in the same directions, toward the same locations and the same content, mirroring one anothers behavior to within as little as 17 milliseconds. Taken together, the data indicate a strong influence of genetics on visual behavior.

The moment-to-moment match in the timing and direction of gaze shifts for identical twins was stunning and inferred a very precise level of genetic control, said Constantino, who directs the William Greenleaf Eliot Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Washington University. We have spent years studying the transmission of inherited susceptibility to autism in families, and it now appears that by tracking eye movements in infancy, we can identify a key factor linked to genetic risk for the disorder that is present long before we can make a clinical diagnosis of autism.

The effects persisted as the children grew. When the twins were tested again about a year later, the same effects were found: Identical twins remained almost perfectly matched in where they looked, but fraternal twins became even more different than they were when initially evaluated.

Autism spectrum disorder is a lifelong condition that affects about 1 in 68 children in the United States. It is known to be caused by genetic factors, and earlier work by the Emory University team had shown that babies who look progressively less at peoples eyes, beginning as early as 2-6 months of age, have an elevated risk for autism. Meanwhile, Constantino and others in the group have studied how subtle behaviors and symptoms that characterize autism aggregate in the close relatives of individuals with autism, as a way to identity inherited susceptibilities that run in families and contribute to autism risk.

Studies like this one break new ground in our understanding of autism spectrum disorder: Establishing a direct connection between the behavioral symptoms of autism and underlying genetic factors is a critical step on the path to new treatments, said Lisa Gilotty, PhD, chief of the Research Program on Autism Spectrum Disorders at the National Institute of Mental Health, which provided support for the study in tandem with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Those new treatments could include interventions that motivate very young children to focus their gazes more on faces and less on objects.

Testing infants to see how they are allocating visual attention represents a new opportunity to evaluate the effects of early interventions to specifically target social disengagement, as a way to prevent the most challenging disabilities associated with autism, said senior author Warren R. Jones, PhD, director of autism research at the Marcus Autism Center at Emory. Such interventions might be appropriate for infants showing early signs of risk or those who have been born into families in which autism has affected close relatives. In addition, learning why some infants who tend to not look at eyes and faces develop without social disability is another priority.

The small percentage of healthy children who tended to avoid looking at eyes and faces may provide researchers with insight on how to successfully compensate for those tendencies and therefore inform the development of higher-impact interventions that will produce the best possible outcomes for infants with inherited susceptibility to autism.

In addition to Constantino, the research team at Washington Universityincluded Anne L. Glowinski, MD, a professor of child psychiatry and associate director of child and adolescent psychiatry;Natasha Marrus, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of child psychiatry; and Stefanie F. Kennon-McGill, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate in psychiatry.

As identical twins watched videos, they almost always looked for the same things at the same times and in the same places. Where gazes fell is marked by the plus signs. Fraternal twins didnt match as well as identical twins, indicating that genes control where children look.

Constantino JN, Kennon-McGill S, Weichselbaum C, Marrus N, Haider A, Glowinski AL, Gillespie S, Klaiman C, Klin A, Jones W. Infant viewing of social scenes is under genetic control and is atypical in autism. Nature. Published online July 12, 2017.

This work was supported by grants from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), grant numbers HD068479 and U54 HD087011 (to Constantino and the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center at Washington University) and MH100029 (to Jones and Klin at Emory). Other support was provided by the Missouri Family Register, a joint program of Washington University and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Washington University School of Medicines 2,100 employed and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient-care institutions in the nation, currently ranked seventh in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

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In autism, genes drive early eye gaze abnormalities - Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Killer T cells surround a cancer cell. Credit: NIH

Early phase Northwestern Medicine research has demonstrated a potential new therapeutic strategy for treating deadly glioblastoma brain tumors.

The strategy involves using lipid polymer based nanoparticles to deliver molecules to the tumors, where the molecules shut down key cancer drivers called brain tumor initiating cells (BTICs).

"BTICs are malignant brain tumor populations that underlie the therapy resistance, recurrence and unstoppable invasion commonly encountered by glioblastoma patients after the standard treatment regimen of surgical resection, radiation and chemotherapy," explained the study's first author, Dr. Dou Yu, research assistant professor of neurological surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

The findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Using mouse models of brain tumors implanted with BTICs derived from human patients, the scientists injected nanoparticles containing small interfering RNA (siRNA)short sequences of RNA molecules that reduce the expression of specific cancer promoting proteinsdirectly into the tumor. In the new study, the strategy stopped tumor growth and extended survival when the therapy was administered continuously through an implanted drug infusion pump.

"This major progress, although still at a conceptual stage, underscores a new direction in the pursuit of a cure for one of the most devastating medical conditions known to mankind," said Yu, who collaborated on the research with principal investigator Dr. Maciej Lesniak, Michael J. Marchese Professor of Neurosurgery and chair of neurological surgery.

Glioblastoma is particularly difficult to treat because its genetic makeup varies from patient to patient. This new therapeutic approach would make it possible to deliver siRNAs to target multiple cancer-causing gene products simultaneously in a particular patient's tumor.

In this study, the scientists tested siRNAs that target four transcription factors highly expressed in many glioblastoma tissuesbut not all. The therapy worked against classes of glioblastoma BTICs with high levels of those transcription factors, while other classes of the cancer did not respond.

"This paints a picture for personalized glioblastoma therapy regimens based on tumor profiling," Yu said. "Customized nanomedicine could target the unique genetic signatures in any specific patient and potentially lead to greater therapeutic benefits."

The strategy could also apply to other medical conditions related to the central nervous systemnot just brain tumors.

"Degenerative neurological diseases or even psychiatric conditions could potentially be the therapeutic candidates for this multiplexed delivery platform," Yu said.

Before scientists can translate this proof-of-concept research to humans, they will need to continue refining the nanomedicine platform and evaluating its long-term safety. Still, the findings from this new research provide insight for further investigation.

"Nanomedicine provides a unique opportunity to advance a therapeutic strategy for a disease without a cure. By effectively targeting brain tumor initiating stem cells responsible for cancer recurrence, this approach opens up novel translational approaches to malignant brain cancer," Lesniak summed up.

Explore further: Cold virus, stem cells tested to destroy deadly brain cancer

More information: Dou Yu et al, Multiplexed RNAi therapy against brain tumor-initiating cells via lipopolymeric nanoparticle infusion delays glioblastoma progression, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2017). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1701911114

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Nanomedicine opens door to precision medicine for brain tumors - Phys.Org

At the meeting, the panel of experts did not question the lifesaving potential of the treatment in hopeless cases. But they raised concerns about potentially life-threatening side-effects short term worries about acute reactions like those Emily experienced, and longer-term worries about whether the infused cells could, years later, cause secondary cancers or other problems. So far, no such long-term problems have been detected, but not enough time has passed to rule them out.

Another parent at the meeting, Don McMahon, described his son Connors grueling 12 years with severe and relapsing leukemia, which started when he was 3. Mr. McMahon displayed painful photographs of Connor, bald and intubated during treatment. And he added that chemotherapy had left his son infertile. A year ago, the family was preparing for a bone-marrow transplant when they learned about T-cell treatment. Connor underwent the cell treatment at Duke University, and he has since returned to playing hockey. Compared with standard treatment, which required dozens of spinal taps and painful bone-marrow tests, the T-cell treatment was far easier to tolerate, Mr. McMahon said, and he urged the panel to vote for approval.

The treatment was developed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and licensed to Novartis.

Use will not be widespread at first, because the disease is not common. It affects only 5,000 people a year, about 60 percent of them children and young adults. Most children are cured with standard treatments, but in 15 percent of the cases like Emilys and Connors the disease does not respond, or it relapses.

Analysts predict that these individualized treatments could cost more than $300,000, but a spokesman for Novartis declined to specify a price.

Because the treatment is complex and patients need expert care to manage the side effects, Novartis will initially limit its use to 30 or 35 medical centers where staff will be trained and approved to administer it, the company said.

As to whether the treatment, known as CTL019, will be available in other countries, a Novartis spokeswoman said by email: Should CTL019 receive approval in the U.S., it will be the decision of the centers whether to receive international patients. We are working on bringing CTL019 to other countries around the world. She added that the company would file for approvals in the European Union later this year.

The treatment requires removing millions of a patients T-cells a type of white blood cell and genetically engineering them to kill cancer cells. The technique employs a disabled form of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, to carry new genetic material into the T-cells to reprogram them. The process turbocharges the T-cells to attack B-cells, a normal part of the immune system that turn malignant in leukemia. The T-cells home in on a protein called CD-19 that is found on the surface of most B-cells.

The altered T-cells called chimeric antigen receptor cells are then dripped back into the patients veins, where they multiply and start fighting the cancer.

Dr. Carl H. June, a leader of the University of Pennsylvania team that developed the treatment, calls the turbocharged cells serial killers. A single one can destroy up to 100,000 cancer cells.

In studies, re-engineering cells for treatment sometimes took four months, and some patients were so sick that they died before their cells came back. At the meeting, Novartis said the turnaround time was now down to 22 days. The company also described bar-coding and other procedures used to keep from mixing up samples once the treatment is conducted on a bigger scale.

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FDA Panel Recommends Approval for Gene-Altering Leukemia Treatment - New York Times

Precision medicine is, ironically, an imprecise term.

As it is often used today, the phrase suggests that precision is novel to the practice of medicine, and to many, it means incorporating sophisticated genetic testing into its practice.

The term can even suggest that there are now possibilities of miracle cures that were never possible before.

Sometimes healthcare organizations encourage that attitude through their marketing and advertising, but to a degree, that kind of thinking more represents hype than substance.

And while genetic testing and the information it can provide can help better tailor treatment options for individual patients, especially in cancer care, experts say healthcare executives and clinicians must be careful not to encourage false hope among vulnerable patients and their families.

Yet in a time of rapid evolution of more precise and tailored treatment options, executives and clinicians are charged with divining the difficult calculus between the possible and the practical in their precision medicine organizational structure and service offerings.

In reality, precision has always been the goal of physicians as medicine has evolved over the past couple of hundred years, says Robert Mennel, MD, director of the Baylor Precision Medicine Institute in Dallas.

"In some areas we're there. We have well-accepted tests for certain diseases that, if you're not using them, I would consider to be malpractice in many situations," he says.

However, even top-level academic medicine is still quite far away from being able to look at an individual's whole genome and predict a therapy for every disease.

"But the promise of precision medicine is there, and medicine 10 years from now is going to be quite different than it is now," he says.

One area where genetic testing is ready for prime time is in noninvasive prenatal testing, says Scott A. Beck, administrator of the Center for Individualized Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

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Precision Medicine: Integration May Be Closer Than You Think - HealthLeaders Media

Mouse intestinal organoids that scientists genetically engineered to study colon cancer. Using gene editing technology, the investigators fused together the genes Ptprk and Rspo3 to determine their effect on cancer development. Credit: Cornell University

Genetic mutations caused by rearranged chromosomes drive the development and growth of certain colorectal cancers, according to new research conducted by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

Many of the genetic mutations present in colorectal cancer have been known for decades. But their exact role in cancer's development and progression has not been clear. "We knew that these mutations existed, but not whether they contribute to the disease," said Lukas Dow, an assistant professor of biochemistry in medicine and a member of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine. "So we are interested in whether they are actually driving cancer and whether they can potentially be targets for drugs that treat it."

In a paper published July 11 in Nature Communications, Dow and his colleagues describe how large pieces of chromosomes are deleted or inverted, resulting in new, mutated so-called fusion genes created from parts of two other genes that are responsible for the formation of some colon cancers.

The researchers used the gene editing technology CRISPR, which allows scientists to easily alter any piece of DNA in an organism, to cut the DNA in normal human intestinal cells and create fusion genes. In this way, they engineered the genetic mutations in two genes Rspo2 and Rspo3 known to be associated with colorectal cancer. They then created mice containing these genes to study the genes' effect on colon cancer development.

Though CRISPR has received a lot of attention in the last several years, this is the first time the tool has been used this way. "We created the first CRISPR-based transgenic animal model for inducing large-scale chromosomal rearrangements," Dow said.

These chromosomal rearrangements in the Rspo genes did in fact initiate growth of colon cancer in the mice. The mice containing the engineered genes developed multiple precancerous tumors that are the precursors to colorectal cancer. "This is the first evidence that these specific fusions can drive tumor development," Dow said.

Dow's team went on to treat the mice that developed cancer with an experimental drug, LGK974, which blocks a protein necessary for Rspo fusion genes to cause disease. "The tumors shrank and the mice were fine as long as they continued to take LGK974," Dow said. In addition, the drug only suppressed growth of the cancer cells; it had no obvious negative effect on healthy cells in the mouse intestine.

The study's results hold particular promise for the treatment of colorectal cancer in humans, Dow said. This form of cancer has historically been a difficult disease to treat. Chemotherapy drugs have limited impact against colorectal cancer and developing targeted therapies drugs that target aspects of cancer cells that make them different from healthy cells has proven difficult. "Our results give us confidence that if we can deliver LGK974 effectively to patients with these fusion genes," Dow said, "then we should be able to see some tumor response with these targeted agents."

Explore further: Novel gene editing approach to cancer treatment shows promise in mice

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'Fusion genes' drive formation and growth of colorectal cancer - Medical Xpress

By R. Scott Nolen

Posted July 12, 2017

World Veterinary Association President Ren Carlson addresses the AVMA House of Delegates in 2015. (Photo by R. Scott Nolen)

For the past three years, Dr. Ren Carlson has been president of the World Veterinary Association, the internationally recognized voice of global veterinary medicine. A federation of roughly 90 veterinary organizations representing 500,000 veterinarians on six continents, the WVA focuses on all species and aspects of the veterinary profession.

Yet, despite its credentials, the WVA is arguably one of the least understood veterinary organizations among U.S. veterinarians. Dr. Carlson understands; for 34 years, most of her time and attention were spent in private clinical practice, with the last 15 years devoted to running her own small animal practice in Chetek, Wisconsin.

"Veterinarians are busy with so many other things that it's a real challenge to look beyond their own communities," she said.

Dr. Carlson admittedly knew little about the WVA prior to 2011 when, as AVMA president, she represented the AVMA at the general assembly of the World Veterinary Congress in Cape Town, South Africa. She came away from the meeting excited about the AVMA's potential to influence global veterinary medicine through the WVA. So excited, in fact, that in 2014, Dr. Carlson successfully ran a global campaign as a candidate for the WVA presidency.

"It's amazing," she remarked. "I'm this person from a town of 2,000 people in Wisconsin, and I'm president of an international organization representing fellow veterinarians around the world." Dr. Carlson's three-year term ends in late August when the WVC convenes in Incheon, South Korea. She will carry on as the AVMA director of international affairs for another two years, a position she was first appointed to in 2013.

Headquartered in Brussels, the WVA promotes veterinary medicine globally by working with various international entities, including the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the World Health Organization, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. From 2014-17, the four strategic priorities for WVA have been animal welfare improvement, pharmaceutical stewardship, veterinary education, and zoonotic disease prevention. For example, the WVA Animal Welfare Committee and Advisory Group developed fact sheets for veterinarians and associations on such topics as working equids, transportation of food animals, and owned and unowned free-roaming dogs.

In March 2015, Dr. Carlson appeared before a WHO advisory committee to testify against curbing ketamine abuse by scheduling the anesthetic as a controlled substance under the 1971 U.N. Convention on Psychotropic Substances.

"The WVA is fully aware of the potential public health problems caused by illicit use of ketamine and agrees with the need for narcotic and psychotropic drugs to be controlled and strictly regulated. However, these measures must be science-based and proportional, and should not unnecessarily hamper the use by veterinary surgeons that would risk the health and welfare of the animals under their care," Dr. Carlson told the committee.

"Such international scheduling of ketamine," she concluded, "may lead to ketamine shortages to veterinary and medical clinicians, especially in remote areas."

Another way the WVA supports veterinary medicine is by helping member organizations advocate for the veterinary profession in their country or region. "If veterinarians aren't there, making policy and being vocal, then someone else makes those decisions," Dr. Carlson noted.

The WVA supports and promotes the harmonization of basic core competencies in all veterinary education programs that offer a veterinary degree. Additionally, the WVA has partnered with the World Continuing Education Alliance to offer free and discounted CE to any veterinarian in the world through the Continuing Education Portal on the WVA website. A customized portal for veterinary associations to offer their members is available for a fee.

This May, the WVA and Health for Animals, an international association representing the global animal medicine industry, together launched a website designed to educate the public on the importance of animal health.

The enthusiasm that swept Dr. Carlson into the WVA presidency has not waned, even though it's one of the most demanding jobs she's ever had. In addition to being the public face of the world association, she chairs the WVA Council of 17 members that meets every six weeks via teleconference and in person once a year during the World Veterinary Congress. The council chair, Dr. Carlson explained, has "enormous influence" because that person sets the agenda and manages the meeting.

One of the greatest obstacles facing the WVA, according to Dr. Carlson, is proving its value to grass-roots members. "Quite honestly, I don't think a lot of AVMA's members know or even understand why the AVMA is a member of the WVA," she said.

"It's a difficult sell, but we need to belong because the WVA needs representatives from strong associations like AVMA to lead," Dr. Carlson continued. "The United States is looked to as a leader. Once there's buy-in from us, that brings credibility and visibility, whatever the issue or organization, and other countries want to follow.

"Animal health and welfare are directly related to human health and welfare. A strong general membership across the world allows the WVA to have greater influence and impact to improve animal and public health around the world."

AVMA weighs stepped-up role in global food security (April 15, 2017)

Former AVMA officer elected WVA president (Dec. 1, 2014)

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AVMA's champion for global veterinary medicine - American Veterinary Medical Association

Posted July 12, 2017

Dr. Anthony Pease

Dr. Anthony Pease became chief medical officer for the Western Veterinary Conference on May 15, succeeding Dr. Don Waldron, who held the office for five years.

Since 2008 Dr. Pease has been a faculty member of the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine, where he is currently an associate professor in the Small Animal and Large Animal clinical sciences departments.

"(Dr. Pease's) dedication to lifelong learning will complement WVC's ongoing mission to provide quality continuing education to veterinary professionals," said WVC CEO David Little. "Dr. Pease will lead WVC's educational program, ensuring relevancy and innovation within our curriculum across the Annual Conference, Hands-on Labs at WVC's Oquendo Center, On the Road, and career-building courses as well as new initiatives."

Over the past five years, Dr. Pease has taught ultrasound courses at the Oquendo Center in Las Vegas.

Dr. Pease is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Radiology and served as president of the specialty college in 2014. He has chaired the Clinical Programs Committee for Michigan State's veterinary college since 2013.

"I am thrilled to join the WVC team and lead the veterinary curriculum for its world-renowned clinical facility, the Oquendo Center. This appointment is in lockstep to further educate, challenge, and train global veterinary professionals as I've done throughout my career," said Dr. Pease, a 1999 graduate of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.

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Western names Pease chief medical officer - American Veterinary Medical Association

By Malinda Larkin

Posted July 12, 2017

Many veterinary colleges have long been promoting diversity and inclusion, but now the AVMA Council on Education has codified these practices, approving revisions to six of its 11 Standards of Accreditation during its spring meeting, March 25-28.

The desire to have the concepts of diversity and inclusion better integrated into accreditation standards is nothing new. In fact, it was a prominent point of discussion during the North American Veterinary Medical Education Consortium. This series of three national meetings in 2010 brought together hundreds of stakeholders to discuss core competencies needed by graduates, and to review and explore progress in developing new educational models for delivery of the veterinary curriculum.

One of the core competencies for graduating veterinarians that came from NAVMEC was diversity and multicultural awareness, specifically: "Veterinarians demonstrate an understanding of the manner in which culture and belief systems impact delivery of veterinary medical care while recognizing and appropriately addressing biases in themselves, in others, and in the process of veterinary medical care delivery."

An example of the revisions is Standard 11 (Outcomes Assessment), which now says that institutions must be able to observe, assess, and document that students demonstrate "ethical and professional conduct; communication skills including those that demonstrate an understanding and sensitivity to how clients' diversity and individual circumstance can impact health care."

In Standard 9 (Curriculum), newly adopted wording states that veterinary schools must provide opportunities throughout the curriculum for students to gain and integrate an understanding of the important influences of diversity and inclusion in veterinary medicine. This includes the impact of implicit biases related to an individual's personal circumstances on the delivery of veterinary services.

Veterinary colleges also are now required to cultivate a diverse faculty through their hiring policies and retention practices, consistent with applicable law. These institutions must also demonstrate ongoing efforts to achieve parity in advancement opportunities and compensation, according to changes to Standard 8 (Faculty). Student recruitment and admission practices, too, must be nondiscriminatory, as per changes to Standard 7 (Admissions).

Further, a veterinary college must be able to show a commitment to diversity that extends to the overall academic environment. This is interpreted as the college being an institution "that does not discriminate and seeks to enhance diversity, consistent with applicable law. Diversity may include, but is not limited to, race, religion, ethnicity, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, cultural and socioeconomic background, national origin, and disability."

The COE had received a number of public comments on the proposed changes; most were in support of the revisions. On the basis of the public comments, the council also revisedand ultimately approvedlanguage that clarified the COE's intent and was less prescriptive, according to the council's newsletter.

"The intent of the council is not to require colleges to meet specific numeric goals; rather, to have appropriate policies, processes, and practices in place that, in keeping with the mission of the college, are designed to promote the recruitment and retention of a diverse academic community and to promote, from qualified applicants, the recruitment and admittance of a diverse student body, consistent with applicable law. In addition, the council believes that, within the framework of the law that each college must function, diversity may be utilized as part of a holistic admission process," the COE wrote in the newsletter.

In addition to language incorporating diversity and inclusion in the standards, the council also modified the following language:

The revised COE standards are posted on the AVMA website.

AAVMC continues to move the needle on diversity (May 1,2015)

Certificate programs promote diversity in veterinary medicine (Nov. 1, 2014)

Dialogue about diversity reveals tensions (May 1, 2013)

We're all in this together (May 15, 2011)

Speakers share strategies to increase diversity (Oct. 1, 2010)

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Diversity, inclusion added to accreditation standards - American Veterinary Medical Association