Two new promising treatments for diabetes

Blood vessels grow progressively more rigid with diabetes--often leading to severe consequences including heart disease, stroke, blindness and kidney failure. Now researchers have found that adding nitric oxide gas to the cells restores some flexibility.

Amazing to think that a simple thing like stiffness can wreak such havoc on so many of your body systems when it occurs in your blood vessels. What a blessing this discovery may prove for those who must battle relentlessly to keep ahead of this disease that so often demands drastic lifestyle changes.

Just look at the number of graphical images (803 Internet pagesful!)that show up in a simple search for statistics on the pervasiveness and growing incidence of diabetes. And none too soon, researchers have gotten preliminary approval for the use of insulin delivered by inhaler--a vast improvement over current intrusive and painful injection methods.

$550 million in health care in the Midwest

Not a bad number--and some private companies don't even talk about how much money their financing efforts garner.

"Based on reported financings, Minnesota, Ohio and Missouri are top-ranked in the Midwest, with respective totals of $151 million, $86 million, and $80 million invested. Those states were followed by Michigan ($53 million), Wisconsin ($39 million), Illinois ($39 million), Indiana ($23 million), and Kentucky ($19 million). In addition, Western Pennsylvania attracted $58 million in financing. In Iowa, Kansas, and West Virginia, no health care sector investments were reported."

And now, one of the classic competitor city pairs, Cleveland (the Browns) and Pittsburgh (the Steelers), are actually starting to be referred to as a "tech belt" of sorts. According to BioEnterprise, the nonprofit group dedicated to furthering Ohio as a bioscience center, their 2-hour distance from each other and their solid performance in attracting health care companies qualifies them as a small corridor.

With the unending discoveries and the vast potential of modern scientific endeavors, just as with Silicon Valley and technology, we'll likely see no end in sight for growth in these industries.

Functional MRI May Help Identify Those at Risk for Alzheimer's

A small study has indicated that fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) can detect differences in brain physiology long before people at risk come down with Alzheimer's. The study looked at genetic factors to see who was at risk, and then it used fMRI to identify multiple areas of the brain that differed in people with high-risk factors.

The mere fact of knowing that we can identify prospective sufferers way ahead of time should automatically steer scientists into researching more-preventive approaches--finding, for example, agents that can be used in medications to protect neurological systems. As with all things, when we open one door, the light comes in and we can see many more doors to open.

More young women seek bariatric surgery

You know, I hate it when I lose a whole big long post. Sigh. Ah, well, here's another shot:

Bariatric surgery--especially among young people (especially women)--rose sevenfold from 1996 to 2002. More insurance companies are covering it (so far, if you live through it, it's the most successful intervention available to prevent the multiple problems associated with obesity), and hospitals make a fortune on it ($2 billion in 2002 alone). And then there's the plastic surgery that many want afterwards...

The lines between ethics and income get blurrier with every increase in the number of patients who seek potentially dangerous surgery rather than choose healthier lifestyles--and considering it's mostly women who seek surgical solutions, this option further reinforces our society's already unrealistic demands for female thinness without regard to health consequences.

But good news. An NIH-funded consortium is studying the the causes of and potential treatments for obesity. One study is examining "the impact of restrictive (laparoscopic banding) versus malabsorptive (gastric bypass or biliopancreatic diversion) surgical procedures on hormones presumed to affect appetite may provide insights leading to new, non-surgical obesity treatments that mimic the appetite-suppressive effects of surgery." [emphasis mine]

It'll be great if scientists can find these treatments soon--many diabetes sufferers will be able to experience greater control of their critical blood sugar levels. But I'm also glad that we're taking steps to deal with the fundamental causes of increases in obesity among a larger percentage of Americans (and Canadians, too)--high levels of fat, sugar and corn syrup (glucose syrup) in practically everything we buy in the store--and, oh, yeah...

...not enough exercise. Look at these recommendations for activity from the U.S. government in 2005.

• That 30-minutes-most-days of moderate-intensity physical activity--that's just to reduce the risk of chronic disease.
• To have any effect at all on weight and prevent gradual gain, they say you need 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity activity on most days of the week (oh, and you can't eat too many calories).
• Get ready now. To sustain weight loss in adulthood you've go to do 60 to 90 minutes of daily moderate-intensity physical activity .

Okay, I don't know about you, but I've got to rethink my gym schedule. Let's see, an hour and a half a day to exercise, an hour to shower and do the hair, an hour to reset up... Gosh. Our next goal is going to have to be getting the American workweek down--by several hours at least.

Supreme Court Upholds Physician-Assisted Suicide Law - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today

In a landmark case, the Supreme Court has affirmed that physicians have the right to help terminal patients end their lives. The 1997 Oregon law was under attack from the administration, even though two other courts upheld it. Interestingly, though the AMA's code of ethics says it's unethical, practitioners of palliative medicine are grateful for this ruling because now dying patients who are in pain will no longer be denied the medication they need because doctors are afraid of prosecution.

So the upshot seems to be while the Federal government can pursue drug dealers, it holds no jurisdiction in the legitimate practice of medicine. This decision will allow doctors to offer some small peace and comfort to many who suffer in their last months, and to those who must watch their loved ones die. It was a difficult decision on the part of the Justices (the vote was 6 to 3 in favor); they are to be commended for their courage.

HeartMath gets you in your 'zone' for a better golf game

I've written about relieving stress with HeartMath before. And if you love golf, here's a story about a really exciting way to use their powerful feedback mechanism (called the FreezeFramer).

Link found between two major paths of inflammation

Researchers have identified a link between two different pathways--formerly thought totally unrelated--and also a way to manipulate what they now recognize as a single system. One potential benefit could be medications that can still take advantage of the benefits of COX 2 inhibitors like Vioxx for treating inflammation without danger. The discovery shows that iNOS (inducible nitric oxide synthase) boosts the effects of COX 2--and thus may allow an effective dosage that's low enough to prevent risks of heart attack or stroke. Read all about it at Johns Hopkins Gazette.

The human body and all its systems continue to be a huge mystery--an endless puzzle that scientists are working, and for each piece they find that fits, they discover endless other possibilities. Finding a link like this is likely to lead to a whole passelful of 'em.

Preparing for doomsday

Yep, the U.N. has approved a plan to create a giant frozen warehouse near the North Pole in which all the varieties of seeds from the world's food crops will be stored. The hope is that by preserving these specimens, world famine can be avoided in cases of global destruction caused by disaster, terrorism, weather, or whatever.

The story is written with a sense of humor, despite the fact that the action is taken with doomsday in mind. "The new Fort Knox for the world's crops will start by taking seeds from the network of seed banks run in the Philippines, Mexico, Syria, Nigeria and elsewhere..."

Then they'll continue adding samples from elsewhere until this permanent library of crop varieties is complete. The World Bank will help fund the project. I guess it's good to know that we will be prepared in case of global disaster--though the images it conjures up aren't the kind you want to linger on.

Delivering healing genes

I've been wondering for months now how in the world the doctors were going to deliver all these stem cells we are all so excited about. Well, I don't know if this is going to be relevant, but it sure sounds like it to me.

Stents have traditionally been used mainly to hold open blood vessels that weren't free-flowing enough. Lots of issues arose around that, including narrowing of the stents themselves, and inflammation caused by the coatings.

Now researchers have been able to coat bare metal stents with therapeutic genes that help heal surrounding blood vessels, thus avoiding the inflammation of other types of coatings. Right now, it's being done with Animal Heart Vessels, but the promise for humans is great. Delivering a beneficial biological substance on a metal surface. So this means that if you get a metallic implant (they mention artificial joints and orthopedic pins and rods, pacemaker electrodes, and titanium tooth implants--I wonder about heart valves?) you can get some good stuff delivered, too.

Could they use this approach--say, temporarily insert a metal device that can deliver stem cells to the tissue that needs healing? I don't know if I'm interpreting this right, but it sure would be nice if it turns out that way.

Ancient wisdom long ago prefigured the discoveries of quantum physics.
May 2006 be a peaceful and prosperous time for you--and for all the world.

Image compliments of HeartMath.org