Day: 12/17/2014

Cocoa antioxidant sweetens cognition in elderly .

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Flavanols in very high doses helped people distinguish patterns in a small study

Chocolate bars

High doses of cocoa flavanols may aid performance in certain memory tasks. But these antioxidants are removed during chocolate processing.

Extremely high doses of cocoa flavanols may improve older people’s ability to distinguish one complex pattern from another — or at least so says a study partially funded by the chocolate company Mars Inc., which also sells a cocoa extract high in flavanols. Thirty-seven adults ages 50 to 69 who consumed 900 milligrams of the antioxidants every day for three months experienced increased blood flow in the hippocampus, a brain area associated with learning and memory. The volunteers also were better at remembering and differentiating visual patterns than people who didn’t get extra flavanols.

Alas, the study does not support eating chocolate. Most flavanols are removed during chocolate processing, and the study’s dose was more than 10 times as high as the flavanol levels in most dark chocolates.

Do birth control pills make women gain weight?

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Weight gain, from taking birth control pills, has been proved a myth by multiple studies in the last decade. If on a pill and you notice a slight weight gain it might be a temporary side effect (that will go off in 3-6 months) or you need to consult with your physician about changing it.  Birth control pills are either progestin-only pills or combination pills, which contain estrogen and progestin. The chemical composition of estrogen is said to be constant across most pills and it is the progestin that varies across brands. So a change in pill might solve the issue. Make sure you give any pill at least three months for any side effects to pass.

Estrogen based pills stimulate renin-angiotensin compounds in the kidneys that can lead to fluid retention. So if you want to avoid these issues change to pills with <20 mcg of estrogen content. Oral contraceptive pills are known to elevate insulin levels that cause energy from carbs stored mainly into fat cells. So if you are on a strict diet plan, the pill will prevent the “intended” weight loss.

The only possible women who are at higher risk of weight gain from the pill are ones with an abnormal glucose metabolism. If weight gained >5 % of your body weight, this may indicate that you have either an abnormal glucose metabolism or insulin resistance. Your physician can help with an alternative and put you on a low carb diet.

Can Humans Hibernate? Idea May Not Be So Crazy

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Occasionally, seemingly miraculous cases of humans going in and out of hibernation-like states are reported. In 2006, for example, a 35-year-old man was rescued on a snowy mountainside in Japan 24 days after going missing. He seemed to have survived by entering a state of nearly suspended animation: His organs had shut down, his body temperature had dropped to 71 degrees, and his metabolism had slowed almost to a standstill. Subsequently, the man made a full recovery.
How could this extraordinary event have occurred? Was the Japanese man really hibernating like a bear? And is the ability to enter and wake from a prolonged slumber restricted to a few lucky individuals, or, in the right circumstances, can we all do it?

In recent years, many scientists have come to believe that outlandish survival stories are not mere flukes or media exaggerations, but rather manifestations of a latent ability to hibernate that all humans possess.
Hydrogen sulfide: The sleeping gas
A cell biologist named Mark Roth and his colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle think that a gaseous compound called hydrogen sulfide may be the key to suspended animation.
In a watershed experiment in 2005, the researchers induced hibernation for the first time in lab mice by having them inhale large doses of hydrogen sulfide gas. The chemical bound with cells in place of oxygen, effectively shutting off all metabolic processes in the mice, and significantly reducing their body temperature. Hours later, when scientists replaced the hydrogen sulfide with normal air, the mice came out of hibernation and showed no adverse effects from the ordeal.
“We think this may be a latent ability that all mammals have potentially even humans and we’re just harnessing it and turning it on and off, inducing a state of hibernation on demand,” Roth told LiveScience, a sister site to Life’s Little Mysteries, shortly after the publication of his and his colleagues’ results in the journal Science.
Since then, researchers in the Roth Lab have continued experimenting with the compound. They are studying its effect on C. elegans, a species of roundworm. “Worms have exactly the same response as humans to hydrogen sulfide,” Jason Pitt, a postdoctoral fellow in the Roth Lab, recently told Life’s Little Mysteries. “If you get exposed to hydrogen sulfide, you have what’s called a ‘knockdown.’ You immediately lose consciousness. If you stay there, you’ll die. If you’re removed and taken into fresh air, you recover. These small worms do the same thing.”
Because humans and worms respond similarly to hydrogen sulfide exposure, and because C. elegans is genetically simple, making its reaction to the compound easier to decipher than ours, it is a perfect model organism for studying the chemical’s intriguing effects.
Someday, researchers hope the gas can be used to induce hibernation in humans, which could enable everything from long-distance space travel to suspended animation during trauma recovery. Need to get to Jupiter, but can’t fit enough food on your spaceship? Just hibernate on the way. Need a kidney transplant, but don’t have an organ donor lined up? Just go to sleep and wait for one.
But we’re not at that point yet. “Because we don’t know more about how hydrogen sulfide is working, we haven’t been able to do the same thing in people as we’ve done in other organisms,” Pitt said. “We’re starting to learn more about how this agent does what it does. By studying different related molecules and how they work, we’re starting to tease out what’s going on.”
Even if gas exposure can eventually be used to induce suspended animation in humans, how does that explain fluke cases of humans entering hibernation by themselves?
“Since our lab’s initial work, a lot of people have shown that there is hydrogen sulfide endogenously in our bodies,” Pitt said. “There’s growing evidence that it is this sort of internal regulatory molecule that’s present in all of us. But we don’t yet understand what it’s doing or how it works.”
Though they don’t claim to know everything about it, the scientists do think the compound has been in us since life began, 3.5 billion years ago.
We’re a lot like bacteria
“It makes a lot of sense that humans and other mammals would have a latent ability to enter suspended animation,” Pitt said. “Early in the history of the Earth we had no oxygen. However, you did have these sulfur compounds like hydrogen sulfide.”
“There are organisms out there today in extreme environments that respirate with hydrogen sulfide,” he continued. “Presumably we all came from those environments. Because biology carries its baggage around with it, it would not be surprising if humans had an ability to do some pretty ancient chemical reactions. We’re talking about things that happened 3.5 billion years ago when oxygen first started to appear and when cyanobacteria started changing the Earth’s chemistry.”
Many types of bacteria are able to turn their metabolism on and off as a survival mechanism. According to Pitt, we shouldn’t be much different.
“Our eukaryotic cells are symbiotic organisms, he said. “Our mitochondria evolved from a bacterium. Basically we’re a lot more like bacteria than we like to think.”

Life Under the Microscope: The Year’s Best Biology Close-Ups

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Life is pretty interesting, and at the microscopic scale, it can also be beautiful, strange, intriguing, frightening and gross. The winning photos and videos from this year’s Olympus BioScapes competition span the whole range.

From rat brains to butter daisies to weevils and barnacle appendages, these microscope photos will amaze. First prize this year went to a video of a developing fruit fly embryo (below). Made from 30-second snippets pieced together from the first 24 hours of a fly’s life, this video is a fascinating view of cells multiplying and differentiating as the larva goes from a blob to a recognizable critter that starts to crawl away.

The second video below shows neural activity in a live zebrafish brain. The 100,000 or so neurons light up rapidly and individually, creating a light show that depicts the actual functioning of a vertebrate’s brain. The rest of the winners are still images in the gallery above.

watch the video.URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Nk9uKWOF-vg

Department of Defense is testing a bullet that can CHANGE DIRECTION 

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  • The US Military is developing a bullet which can change direction mid-air
  • The .50-caliber sniper round was successfully tested earlier this summer
  • The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency released the test footage
  • The world record for a confirmed sniper kill is longer than 1.5 miles (2.4km)
  • Darpa hopes the new bullets will allow snipers to take even longer shots
  • A bullet at that range can take almost three seconds to reach its target 

The US military has successfully tested a .50-caliber sniper round that can change direction on its way to its target.

And now the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has released a video of this Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (Exacto) program in action.

The footage shows the bullet changing direction in mid-air in response to a target’s movements.

Once fired, actuators inside the guided bullet receive data from an optical sensor to guide it to the correct location. Small fins are used to change the bullet's trajectory, and the bullet can correct its movements 30 times a second. This grab shows the path, original aim point, and the moving target (green) 

Once fired, actuators inside the guided bullet receive data from an optical sensor to guide it to the correct location. Small fins are used to change the bullet’s trajectory, and the bullet can correct its movements 30 times a second. This grab shows the path, original aim point, and the moving target (green)

According to Darpa: ‘For military snipers, acquiring moving targets in unfavourable conditions, such as high winds and dusty terrain commonly found in Afghanistan, is extremely challenging with current technology.

HOW EXACTO FINDS ITS TARGET

A video from the Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (Exacto) program shows a bullet changing its direction.

DARPA has not released precise details of how its bullet moves in mid-air, but this is one way in which the technology could work.

Each self-guided bullet is four inches (10 cm) long.

A sniper working at extreme range shines a laser onto the target.

An optical sensor on the bullet detects the light from the laser to identify where the target is.

Once fired, actuators inside the bullet receive data from the optical sensor to guide it to the correct location.

Small fins are used to change the bullet’s trajectory, and the bullet can correct its movements 30 times a second.

These changes are in response to movements of the laser, which the sniper uses to continually track and light up the target.

The sniper additionally has to take into account wind, distance and even the curvature of the Earth, before pulling the trigger.

Darpa claims the new system is the first ever guided small caliber bullet.

‘The Exacto .50-caliber round and optical sighting technology expects to greatly extend the day and night time range over current state-of-the-art sniper systems,’ continued the agency.

‘The system combines a manoeuverable bullet and a real-time guidance system to track and deliver the projectile to the target, allowing the bullet to change path during flight to compensate for any unexpected factors that may drive it off course.

‘Technology development in Phase II included the design, integration and demonstration of aero-actuation controls, power sources, optical guidance systems, and sensors.

‘The program’s next phase includes a system-level live-fire test and technology refinement to enhance and improve performance.’

The current world record for the longest certified kill was by Corporal Craig Harrison of the UK Household Cavalry, who killed two Taliban in November 2009 from 1.54 miles (22.4km).

The shot was approximately 3,000ft (914 metres) beyond the stated maximum range of the Accuracy L115A3 sniper rifle, used by Corporal Harrison.

The Taliban were so far away it took each round almost three seconds to reach its target.

Snipers typically work in two-man teams with a spotter assisting the gunman identifying targets as well as providing security.

But environmental details such as wind, rain and even humidity can affect the flight path of a bullet.

This graphic reveals how the Exacto bullet tracks its target and changes directions. The sniper additionally has to take into account wind, distance and even the curvature of the Earth, before pulling the trigger. DARPA has not released precise details of how its bullet moves in mid-air, but this is one way in which the technology could work.

This graphic reveals how the Exacto bullet tracks its target and changes directions. The sniper additionally has to take into account wind, distance and even the curvature of the Earth, before pulling the trigger. DARPA has not released precise details of how its bullet moves in mid-air, but this is one way in which the technology could work.

EXACTO rounds manoeuvre in flight to hit unaimed targets

A sniper begins by shining a laser onto the target. An optical sensor on the 4-inch (10cm) Exacto bullet (illustrated) detects the laser to identify where the target is. As the bullet moves through the air, it responds to changes in the movement of the laser, which the sniper uses to continually track and light up the target

A sniper begins by shining a laser onto the target. An optical sensor on the 4-inch (10cm) Exacto bullet (illustrated) detects the laser to identify where the target is. As the bullet moves through the air, it responds to changes in the movement of the laser, which the sniper uses to continually track and light up the target

Also bullets have to counter gravity and droop down over longer distances.

Under the new system, a sniper will be able to adjust the bullet’s direction mid-flight in case a target moved or the bullet shifted due to a gust of wind.

The newly released video shows two tests filmed earlier this year. In the both tests the round is fired deliberately off target but turns in mid-air.

In the second target, the round it its intended target despite being fired several feet to the left.

Ted Catchel, professor emeritus at the Naval War College said the system is a very interesting development.

He told Stars and Stripes: ‘I don’t know if you push a button and it takes over. I just couldn’t find out enough about the system to know how it works.

‘You still need to train these snipers in the traditional methods. Right now, sniping is a real precise art.’

This screengrab shows the bullet (shown in white) changing from its original path, pictured in red, and moving to face the target, shown in green. The newly released video shows two tests filmed earlier this year. In the both tests the round is fired deliberately off target but turns in mid-air

This screengrab shows the bullet (shown in white) changing from its original path, pictured in red, and moving to face the target, shown in green. The newly released video shows two tests filmed earlier this year. In the both tests the round is fired deliberately off target but turns in mid-air

According to Darpa: 'For military snipers, acquiring moving targets in unfavourable conditions is extremely challenging with current technology. It is critical that snipers be able to engage targets faster, and with better accuracy, since any shot that doesn’t hit a target also risks the safety of troops.' Stock image used

According to Darpa: ‘For military snipers, acquiring moving targets in unfavourable conditions is extremely challenging with current technology. It is critical that snipers be able to engage targets faster, and with better accuracy, since any shot that doesn’t hit a target also risks the safety of troops.’ Stock image used

Many snipers use .50 caliber bullets, similar to the ones pictured, because their weight causes significant damage. Snipers typically work in two-man teams with a spotter assisting the gunman identifying targets as well as providing security. The wind, rain and even humidity can affect the flight path of a bullet

Many snipers use .50 caliber bullets, similar to the ones pictured, because their weight causes significant damage. Snipers typically work in two-man teams with a spotter assisting the gunman identifying targets as well as providing security. The wind, rain and even humidity can affect the flight path of a bullet

 

Mayo Clinic Physicians Say High-definition Scopes Accurately Assess Polyps, Costly Pathological Examinations May Not Be Necessary

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It may not be necessary for experienced gastroenterologists to send polyps they remove from a patient’s colon to a pathologist for examination, according to a large study conducted by physician researchers at the Jacksonville campus of Mayo Clinic.

The benign hyperplastic polyp appears very pale and bland on imaging.

Their 522-patient study, published in the December issue ofGastrointestinal Endoscopy, found that physicians correctly evaluated whether a polyp was precancerous or benign using high-definition optical lenses during a colonoscopy. Their assessment was 96 or 97 percent accurate — depending on which of two generations of scopes was used — compared with a standard pathological evaluation of the polyps.

The Mayo Clinic researchers conclude that the pathological polyp examination now required by national practice guidelines may not be necessary — an advance they say could result in substantial cost savings for the patient and the health care system, as well as more rapid information and recommendations for follow-up for the patient.

“A colonoscopy is a fairly expensive procedure, and a large portion of the cost is the pathological analysis of polyps that are removed to check whether they are precancerous or benign — a check that determines when a patient needs another colonoscopy,” says the study’s senior investigator and gastroenterologist, Michael Wallace, M.D., MPH.

“We discovered that gastroenterologists using high-definition optical scopes can provide excellent care and diagnoses of polyps without the added step of a pathological examination,” Dr. Wallace says.

The adenoma is darker with dilated blood vessels on the surface.

The research team examined use of the Exera II 180 colonoscope and the Exera III 190 colonoscope to assess 927 polyps. Both are high-definition scopes, and the earlier generation (180) is in wide use.

An optical diagnosis, sometimes referred to as a “virtual biopsy” was sufficient, in the hands of the experienced physicians, to determine that benign (hyperplastic) polyps were indeed benign, and that potentially precancerous (adenoma) polyps were the ones at risk for cancer development.

Investigators also found that physicians in the study had an extremely high adenoma detection rate using the scopes — 50 percent for the 180 model and 52 percent for the 190. “A high adenoma detection rate is considered a good measure of a quality colonoscopy. Studies have shown that a rate of 33 percent — meaning that of 100 people who undergo a colonoscopy, adenomas are found in 33 percent — is excellent,” says Dr. Wallace. “Current national benchmarks recommend an adenoma detection rate of at least 20 percent. We found substantially more adenomas.”

“The more adenoma polyps that are detected, the lower the risk is of getting colon cancer. So this study shows that it is possible to use an optical scope to perform a highly accurate colonoscopy and bypass the pathology laboratory, reducing cost,” he says. “Another advantage is that we can tell the patient immediately after the procedure what we found and when the next examination should be done, as opposed to waiting one to two days for a pathology result.”

The Mayo study is now being used by the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy to review current colonoscopy guidelines to assess whether or when pathological examination of polyps is necessary, he says.

The study was funded by Olympus Corporation of America, a manufacturer of endoscopes.

Low-Dose Aspirin for Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Events in Japanese Patients 60 Years or Older With Atherosclerotic Risk Factors A Randomized Clinical Trial

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Importance  Prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases is an important public health priority in Japan due to an aging population.

Objective  To determine whether daily, low-dose aspirin reduces the incidence of cardiovascular events in older Japanese patients with multiple atherosclerotic risk factors.

Design, Setting, and Participants  The Japanese Primary Prevention Project (JPPP) was a multicenter, open-label, randomized, parallel-group trial. Patients (N = 14 464) were aged 60 to 85 years, presenting with hypertension, dyslipidemia, or diabetes mellitus recruited by primary care physicians at 1007 clinics in Japan between March 2005 and June 2007, and were followed up for up to 6.5 years, with last follow-up in May 2012. A multidisciplinary expert panel (blinded to treatment assignments) adjudicated study outcomes.

Interventions  Patients were randomized 1:1 to enteric-coated aspirin 100 mg/d or no aspirin in addition to ongoing medications.

Main Outcomes and Measures  Composite primary outcome was death from cardiovascular causes (myocardial infarction, stroke, and other cardiovascular causes), nonfatal stroke (ischemic or hemorrhagic, including undefined cerebrovascular events), and nonfatal myocardial infarction. Secondary outcomes included individual end points.

Results  The study was terminated early by the data monitoring committee after a median follow-up of 5.02 years (interquartile range, 4.55–5.33) based on likely futility. In both the aspirin and no aspirin groups, 56 fatal events occurred. Patients with an occurrence of nonfatal stroke totaled 114 in the aspirin group and 108 in the no aspirin group; of nonfatal myocardial infarction, 20 in the aspirin group and 38 in the no aspirin group; of undefined cerebrovascular events, 3 in the aspirin group and 5 in the no aspirin group. The 5-year cumulative primary outcome event rate was not significantly different between the groups (2.77% [95% CI, 2.40%-3.20%] for aspirin vs 2.96% [95% CI, 2.58%-3.40%] for no aspirin; hazard ratio [HR], 0.94 [95% CI, 0.77-1.15]; P = .54). Aspirin significantly reduced incidence of nonfatal myocardial infarction (0.30 [95% CI, 0.19-0.47] for aspirin vs 0.58 [95% CI, 0.42-0.81] for no aspirin; HR, 0.53 [95% CI, 0.31-0.91]; P = .02) and transient ischemic attack (0.26 [95% CI, 0.16-0.42] for aspirin vs 0.49 [95% CI, 0.35-0.69] for no aspirin; HR, 0.57 [95% CI, 0.32-0.99]; P = .04), and significantly increased the risk of extracranial hemorrhage requiring transfusion or hospitalization (0.86 [95% CI, 0.67-1.11] for aspirin vs 0.51 [95% CI, 0.37-0.72] for no aspirin; HR, 1.85 [95% CI, 1.22-2.81]; P = .004).

Conclusions and Relevance  Once-daily, low-dose aspirin did not significantly reduce the risk of the composite outcome of cardiovascular death, nonfatal stroke, and nonfatal myocardial infarction among Japanese patients 60 years or older with atherosclerotic risk factors.

The Reason Why Exercise Is Good For You Lies In Your DNA

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Stock Image Indoor Cycling

Everyone knows we’re supposed to work out, because it’s good for our health and overall, general well being. But does anyone know why?

Well…um, no. We’re just over here dying on the treadmill because we’re pretty sure it’s good for us.

Now, you can jump on that stairmaster with purpose: because new research says the answer to this baffling may be in our DNA.

A new study found that exercise changes the shape and functioning in our genes, which is kind of a big deal on the way to improving our health and fitness. While the human genome is pretty complicated, scientists already know that certain genes become active or quieter because of exercise — but what they didn’t know was how those genes know how to respond to exercise.

So scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm decided to investigate. They recruited 23 young and healthy men and women, and had them exercise on a stationary bike, using just one leg, leaving the other dormant (and lazy). That way, each person became their own control group.

The volunteers pedaled, with just one leg, at a moderate pace for 45 minutes, four times per week for three months. I would be concerned that my pants would become disproportionate, but this study group pedaled on. Not only did the volunteers experience physical improvements in their more active leg, they also experienced interesting changes in their muscle cells’ DNA.

By using super savvy genomic analysis, researchers were able to determine that more than 5,000 sites on the genome of muscle cells from the exercised leg now had new methylation patterns — and the unexercised leg went unchanged. Which, in uncomplicated speak, means, well, I have NO idea. But if I’m understanding semi-correctly, it seems that exercise is still good for us.

According to Malene Lindhom, a graduate student at the Karolinska Institute who led the study, the overall findings of the study are confusing.

“Through endurance training — a lifestyle change that is easily available for most people and doesn’t cost much money we can induce changes that affect how we use our genes and, through that, get healthier and more functional muscles that ultimately improve our quality of life.”

 

AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION MAKES IT OFFICIAL: ‘SELFIE’ A MENTAL DISORDER.

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The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has officially confirmed what many people thought all along: taking ‘selfies’ is a mental disorder.

Selfitis

The APA made this classification during its annual board of directors meeting in Chicago. The disorder is called selfitis, and is defined as the obsessive compulsive desire to take photos of one’s self  and post them on social media as a way to make up for the lack of self-esteem and to fill a gap in intimacy.

APA said there are three levels of the disorder:

  • Borderline selfitis : taking photos of one’s self at least three times a day but not posting them on social media
  • Acute selfitis: taking photos of one’s self at least three times a day and posting each of the photos on social media
  • Chronic selfitis: Uncontrollable urge to take photos of one’s self  round the clock and posting the photos on social media more than six times a day

According to the APA, while there is currently no cure for the disorder, temporary treatment is available through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).  The other good news is that CBT is covered under Obamacare.

This is unwelcome news for Makati City in the Philippines, especially for its mayor, Junjun Binay, son of the incumbent vice president.  Makati was recently named selfie capital of the world by Time Magazine. The mayor even organized a ticker tape parade after his city was bestowed the rare honor.

MORE BREAKING NEWS!! Oxford Dictionaries Announce New Words – including ‘selfitis.’

BREAKING NEWS!!  Apple, Samsung, Nokia Set To Eliminate Front-Facing Cameras From Their Smartphones.

Men Who Enjoy Spicy Foods Have Higher Testosterone Levels

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Self-conscious men who yearn to be super macho may need to increase their daily jalapeño intake, that is if a new discovery out of France is to be believed. David Chazan of The Telegraph reports:

“Scientists at the highly-respected University of Grenoble have published a report suggesting that regular consumption of chili peppers may raise levels [testosterone], which is believed to make men more adventurous, enterprising and sexually active.

Laurent Begue, one of the authors of the study, said: ‘These results are in line with a lot of research showing a link between testosterone and financial, sexual and behavioural risk-taking.'”

Pep

Chazan says the report, fittingly titled “Some Like It Hot,” will soon be published in the journal Physiology and Behavior. The scientists tested saliva samples from 114 men who were given the option of adding hot sauce to a plate of mashed potatoes. They found a direct correlation between the amount of sauce added and the testosterone levels of the sauce adder.

Chazan posits that perhaps the study will trigger a rise in the popularity of spicy foods among French males. He notes that curries aren’t nearly as big in France as they are in Great Britan, and that France’s traditional cuisine relies more on delicate flavors and effects. Yet Chazan says the promise of virility could be enough of a reason for the men to alter their diets. Whether there’s truth to this assertion or Chazan is just being silly, I’ll leave for you to decide. If he’s right though, you can be sure that French cooks will be absolutely steaming.