BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) – A new study at the UAB Comprehensive Diabetes Center may prove beneficial for thousands of Alabamians. Researchers have cured diabetes in lab mice using a commonly prescribed blood pressure medication, Verapamil. “We found that we could reverse the disease completely,” said Dr. Anath Shalev, director of the UAB Comprehensive Diabetes Center.
Several studies in the past have cured diabetes in the early phases, but failed during the human clinical trials. “None of the therapies are actually addressing the underlying cause, namely the destruction and loss of insulin-producing Beta cells,” said Dr. Shalev. That’s where Verapamil differs. In the lab mice, Dr. Shalev said those treated with the drug not only showed reversal of the disease, but also showcased increased levels of Beta cells. “So, it’s really curing the underlying cause,” said Dr. Shalev.
Beta cells are killed when higher levels of blood sugar manifest an increased presence of the protein, TXNIP. TXNIP, which is naturally in the body and not harmful at normal levels, slows the insulin production until it ultimately kills the Beta cells. Verapamil lowered the TXNIP levels to the point where Beta cells could potentially have started rejuvenating; however, Dr. Shalev said it’s not clear yet whether more Beta cells were being produced, or rather the environment was improved for them to become more clear in readings.
While other tests have struggled with the transition from animal models to human models, Dr. Shalev said this one could be different because of its target. “TXNIP is extremely well-conserved across species, almost identical in rat, mice, and human,” she said. Most of the other tests focused on the auto-immune system, which is drastically different between humans and mice, according to Dr. Shalev. The human clinical test, which is being labeled, “the repurposing of Verapamil as a beta cell survival therapy in type 1 diabetes,” will begin in early 2015. It will be a double-blind study, with 52 participants. Half will be given placebo and half will be given Verapamil. They will take one tablet orally once daily. The study will last a year. It is being funded by a $2.1 million grant from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Join WIAT 42 News at 5 and 6 for much more on this story.
For more information on the human clinical trials or to enroll, contact UAB’s Kentress Davison at 205-934-4112 or 205-975-9308.
Phlebotomy.Even the word sounds archaic—and that’s nothing compared to the slow, expensive, and inefficient reality of drawing blood and having it tested. As a college sophomore, Elizabeth Holmes envisioned a way to reinvent old-fashioned phlebotomy and, in the process, usher in an era of comprehensive superfast diagnosis and preventive medicine. That was a decade ago. Holmes, now 30, dropped out of Stanford and founded a company called Theranos with her tuition money. Last fall it finally introduced its radical blood-testing service in a Walgreens pharmacy near the company headquarters in Palo Alto, California. (The plan is to roll out testing centers nationwide.) Instead of vials of blood—one for every test needed—Theranos requires only a pinprick and a drop of blood. With that they can perform hundreds of tests, from standard cholesterol checks to sophisticated genetic analyses. The results are faster, more accurate, and far cheaper than conventional methods. The implications are mind-blowing. With inexpensive and easy access to the information running through their veins, people will have an unprecedented window on their own health. And a new generation of diagnostic tests could allow them to head off serious afflictions from cancer to diabetes to heart disease. None of this would work if Theranos hadn’t figured out how to make testing transparent and inexpensive. The company plans to charge less than 50 percent of the standard Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates. And unlike the rest of the testing industry, Theranoslists its priceson its website: blood typing, $2.05; cholesterol, $2.99; iron, $4.45. If all tests in the US were performed at those kinds of prices, the company says, it could save Medicare $98 billion and Medicaid $104 billion over the next decade.
What was your goal in starting a lab-testing company?
We wanted to make actionable health information accessible to people everywhere at the time it matters most. That means two things: being able to detect conditions in time to do something about them and providing access to information that can empower people to improve their lives.
There are a billion tests done every year in the United States, but too many of them are done in the emergency room. If you were able to do some of those tests before a person gets checked into the ER, you’d start to see problems earlier; you’d have time to intervene before a patient needed to go to the hospital. If you remove the biggest barriers to these tests, you’ll see them used in smarter ways.
What was your motivation to launch Theranos at the age of 19? What set you on this road?
I definitely am afraid of needles. It’s the only thing that actually scares me. But I started this company because I wanted to spend my life changing our health care system. When someone you love gets really sick, most of the time when you find out, it’s too late to be able to do something about it. It’s heartbreaking.
You’re not alone in your fear of needles.
Phlebotomy is such a huge inhibitor to people getting tested. Some studies say that a substantive percentage of patients who get a lab requisition do not follow through because they’re scared of needles or they’re afraid of worrying, waiting to hear that something is wrong. We wanted to make this service convenient, to bring it to places close to people’s homes, and to offer rapid results.
Why the focus on rapid results?
We can get results, on average, in less than four hours. And this can be very helpful for doctors and patients, because it means that someone could, for example, go to a Walgreens in the morning to get a routine test for something their doctor is tracking, and the physician can have the results that afternoon when they see the patient. And we’re able to do all the testing using just a single microsample, rather than having to draw a dedicated tube for each type of test.
So if I got a blood test and my doctor saw the results and wanted other tests done, I wouldn’t have to have more blood drawn?
Exactly. And on their lab form, the physician can write, “If a given result is out of range, run this follow-up test.” And it can all be done immediately, using that same sample.
Todd TankersleyBrown Bird Design
Some conventional tests, like pH assays, can be done quickly. Others, like those that require culturing bacteria or viruses, can take days or even weeks. Are there some tests that take Theranos longer? Can everything really be turned around in four hours?
Yes, we had to develop assays or test methodologies that would make it possible to accelerate results. So we do not do things like cultures. In the case of a virus or bacteria, traditionally tested using a culture, we measure the DNA of the pathogen instead so we can report results much faster.
Where do you see this making a big difference?
Fertility testing is a good example. Most people pay for it out of pocket, and it can cost as much as $2,000. These tests provide the data you need to figure out someone’s fertility, and some women can’t afford them. Our new fertility panel is going to cost $35. That means women will be able to afford the tests. They’ll be able to better manage the process and take some of the stress out of trying to conceive.
What are you doing to ensure the accuracy of your testing?
The key is minimizing the variability that traditionally contributes to error in the lab process. Ninety-three percent of error is associated with what’s called pre-analytic processing — generally the part of the process where humans do things.
Such as?
Manually centrifuging a sample or how much time elapses before you test the sample, which brings its decay rate into play.
So how do you avoid these potential errors?
There’s no manual handling of the sample, no one is trying to pipette into a Nanotainer, no one is manually processing it. The blood is collected and put into a box that keeps it cold. The very next thing that happens is lab processing, and that’s done with automated devices at our centralized facility with no manual intervention or operation.
How can improved processes actually save lives?
We’ve created a tool for physicians to look at lab-test data over time and see trends. We don’t usually think about lab data this way today. It’s “Are you in range, or are you out of range?” Instead, we like to think, “Where are you going?” If you showed me a single frame from a movie and asked me to tell you the story, I wouldn’t be able to do it. But with many frames, you can start to see the movie unfold.
How else can you use this technology?
Many, many years of work went into making this possible. We started our business working with pharmaceutical companies. Because we made it possible to get data much faster, they could use our infrastructure to run clinical trials. They were also able to run what’s called an adaptive clinical trial, where based on the data, they could change the dosing for a patient in real time or in a premeditated way, as opposed to waiting a long period and then deciding to change a dose.
In the long run, what impact will your technology have?
The dream is to be able to help contribute to the research that’s going on to identify cancer signatures as they change over time, to help intervene early enough to do something about an illness.
Will people become more used to gathering and examining their own health data?
No one thinks of the lab-testing experience as positive. It should be! One way to create that is to help people engage with the data once their physicians release it. You can’t do that if you don’t really understand why you’re getting certain tests done and when you don’t know what the results mean when you get them back.
It drives me crazy when people talk about the scale as an indicator of health, because your weight doesn’t tell you what’s going on at a biochemical level. What’s really exciting is when you can begin to see changes in your lifestyle appear in your blood data. With some diseases, like type 2 diabetes, if people get alerted early they can take steps to avert getting sick. By testing, you can start to understand your body, understand yourself, change your diet, change your lifestyle, and begin to change your life.
Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation are the best-known methods for treating cancer. At TEDMED, Bill Doyle presents a new approach, called Tumor Treating Fields, which uses electric fields to interrupt cancer cell division. Still in its infancy -- and approved for only certain types of cancer -- the treatment comes with one big benefit: quality of life.
Medical treatments today often involve the use of medications mostly made from various chemicals or chemical extractions from plants. It would be fair to say that modern pharmaceuticals don’t necessarily represent a natural treatment and they are very targeted in how they work. We have all seen the TV ads for pharmaceutical drugs that end with a long, quickly spoken list of side effects that can often be worse than the issue someone is treating to begin with. It is important to note that these aren’t really side effects but are instead the effects of the drug. We often don’t look at it this way, but when you do, you begin to realize the absurdity that goes along with many modern treatments for illness.
The technology this article will discuss takes a very different approach to treating the body. Royal Rife machines have been around for many years and it didn’t take long for them to be cast aside negatively by modern medicine when the results began pouring in.
It was in 1920 that Royal Rife first identified the human cancer virus using the world’s most powerful microscope. After identifying and isolating the virus, he decided to culture it on salted pork. At the time this was a very good method for culturing a virus. He then took the culture and injected it into 400 rats which as you might expect, created cancer in all 400 rats very quickly. The next step for Rife is where things took an interesting turn. He later found a frequency of electromagnetic energy that would cause the cancer virus to diminish completely when entered into the energy field. The great discovery led Rife to create a device that could be tuned to output the frequency that would destruct the cancer. He was then able to treat the cancer within both rats and patients who were within close proximity of the device.
By 1934, the device began getting much more attention. The University of Southern California appointed a Special Medical Research Committee to further look at and study the device and it’s claims. 16 terminal cancer patients from Pasadena County Hospital were brought to Rife’s San Diego Laboratory for treatment. This committee was made up of doctors and pathologists who were assigned to examine the patients if they were still alive in 90 days. The 3 months of treatment went by and the Committee concluded that 14 of the 16 patients had been completely cured of cancer. The remaining 2 patients were exposed to the device for another 4 weeks after a few adjustments were made. Both were cured after the 4 weeks. The amazing results were a surprise to many, as no one knew what to expect out of frequency based medical treatment. On November 20, 1931, Royal Rife was honored with a banquet billed as “The End To All Diseases” at the Pasadena estate of Dr. Milbank Johnson by 44 of the nations most respected medical authorities.
The device began receiving flack in 1939 and almost all distinguished doctors and scientists close to the device began denying that they had ever met Rife and saw results with his device. The complete reversal was due to pressure from drug companies who were being threatened by the device’s potential. Interestingly, on the night of the press conference where Dr. Milbank Johnson was going to reveal the results of Rife’s study in 1934, he was fatally poisoned and his notes and papers were “lost.” Along with that, a failed attempt by drug companies to purchase the device from Rife resulted in his labs being destroyed by arson. If that wasn’t enough, Dr. Nemes who had been duplicating Rife’s work, was mysteriously killed in a fire and his research material was all destroyed as well. Finally, the Burnett Lab, which had been validating all of Rife’s work, was also destroyed in a fire. Sure seems like the pharmaceutical industry may have been involved in this. But what about Rife? By 1971 Royal Rife died by an “accidental” lethal dose of Valium and alcohol at Grossmont hospital.
Rife machines do still exist today and are used in some medical practices but they are not FDA approved and are sometimes still seized by the FDA. They are often sold under the label of ‘veterinary devices.
Her parents were running out of hope. Their teenage daughter, Mary, had been diagnosed with a severe case of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), as well as ADHD. They had dragged her to clinics around the country in an effort to thwart the scary, intrusive thoughts and the repetitive behaviors that Mary felt compelled to perform. Even a litany of psychotropic medications didn’t make much difference. It seemed like nothing could stop the relentless nature of Mary’s disorder.
Their last hope for Mary was Boston-area psychiatrist James Greenblatt. Arriving at his office in Waltham, MA, her parents had only one request: help us help Mary.
Greenblatt started by posing the usual questions about Mary’s background, her childhood, and the onset of her illness. But then he asked a question that no psychiatrist ever had: How was Mary’s gut? Did she suffer digestive upset? Constipation or diarrhea? Acid reflux? Had Mary’s digestion seemed to change at all before or during her illness? Her parents looked at each other. The answer to many of the doctor’s questions was, indeed, “Yes.”
That’s what prompted Greenblatt to take a surprising approach: besides psychotherapy and medication, Greenblatt also prescribed Mary a twice-daily dose of probiotics, the array of helpful bacteria that lives in our gut. The change in Mary was nothing short of miraculous: within six months, her symptoms had greatly diminished. One year after the probiotic prescription, there was no sign that Mary had ever been ill.
Her parents may have been stunned, but to Greenblatt, Mary’s case was an obvious one. An imbalance in the microbes in Mary’s gut was either contributing to, or causing, her mental symptoms. “The gut is really your second brain,” Greenblatt said. “There are more neurons in the GI tract than anywhere else except the brain.”
Greenblatt’s provocative idea — that psychiatric woes can be solved by targeting the digestive system — is increasingly reinforced by cutting-edge science. For decades, researchers have known of the connection between the brain and the gut. Anxiety often causes nausea and diarrhea, and depression can change appetite. The connection may have been established, but scientists thought communication was one way: it traveled from the brain to the gut, and not the other way around.
But now, a new understanding of the trillions of microbes living in our guts reveals that this communication process is more like a multi-lane superhighway than a one-way street. By showing that changing bacteria in the gut can change behavior, this new research might one day transform the way we understand — and treat — a variety of mental health disorders.
FOR DECADES, RESEARCHERS HAVE KNOWN OF THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE BRAIN AND THE GUT
For Greenblatt, this radical treatment protocol has actually been decades in the making. Even during his psychiatric residency at George Washington University, he was perplexed by the way mental disorders were treated. It was as if, he said, the brain was totally separate from the body. More than 20 years of work treating eating disorders emphasized Greenblatt’s hunch: that the connection between body and mind was more important than conventional psychiatry assumed. “Each year, I get more and more impressed at how important the GI tract is for healthy mood and the controlling of behavior,” Greenblatt said. Among eating disorder patients, Greenblatt found that more than half of psychiatric complaints were associated with problems in the gut — and in some patients, he says he has remedied both using solely high-dose probiotics, along with normalizing eating.
Greenblatt’s solution might strike us as simple, but he’s actually targeting a vast, complex, and mysterious realm of the human body: around 90 percent of our cells are actually bacterial, and bacterial genes outnumber human genes by a factor of 99 to 1. But those bacteria, most of which perform helpful functions, weren’t always with us: a baby is essentially sterile until it enters the birth canal, at which point the bacteria start to arrive — and they don’t stop. From a mother’s vaginal microbes to hugs and kisses from relatives, the exposures of newborns and toddlers in their earliest years is critical to the development of a robust microbiome.
GREENBLATT'S ACTUALLY TARGETING A VAST, COMPLEX, AND MYSTERIOUS REALM OF THE HUMAN BODY
In fact, recent research suggests that early microbiome development might play a key role in at least some aspects of one’s adult mental health. One 2011 study out of McMaster University compared the behaviors of normal eight-week-old mice and mice whose guts were stripped of microbes. Bacteria-free mice exhibited higher levels of risk-taking, and neurochemical analysis revealed higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol and altered levels of the brain chemical BDNF, which has been implicated in human anxiety and depression. “This work showed us that anxiety was normal, and that the gut-brain axis was involved in that,” Jane Foster, the study’s lead author, said. “Everybody knew that stress and anxiety could lead to gastrointestinal symptoms, but we looked at it from the bottom up and showed that the gut could communicate with the brain. It was the first demonstration that the gut itself could influence brain development.”
Subsequent research out of McMaster further enforces those findings, by showing that swapping one mouse’s gut bacteria with that of another can significantly alter behavior. Researchers transplanted microbes from one group of mice, which were characterized by timidity, into the guts of mice who tended to take more risks. What they observed was a complete personality shift: timid mice became outgoing, while outgoing mice became timid. “It’s good evidence that the microbiota houses these behaviors,” Foster said.
While researchers have established a compelling link between gut bacteria and mental health, they’re still trying to figure out the extent to which the human microbiome — once it’s populated in early childhood — can be transformed. “The brain seems to be hardwired for anxiety by puberty and early adolescence,” Foster said. If the microbiome is part of that hardwiring, then it would suggest that once we pass a certain threshold, the impact of bacterial tweaks on problems like depression and anxiety might wane.
In one Japanese study, for instance, researchers were only able to change the baseline stress characteristics of germ-free mice until nine weeks of age. After that, no variety of bacterial additions to the mice’s guts could properly regulate stress and anxiety levels. The explanation for this phenomenon might lie in what’s known as “developmental programming” — the idea that various environmental factors, to which we’re exposed early on, greatly determine the structure and function of organs including the gut and the brain.
“There are changes that happen early in life that we can’t reverse,” said John Cryan, a neuroscientist at the University of Cork in Ireland and a main investigator at the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre. “But there are some changes that we can reverse. It tells us that there is a window when microbes are having their main effects and, until this closes, many changes can be reversed.”
Even if our gut bacteria carries the biggest influence when we’re young, experts like Greenblatt and Cryan are still convinced that tweaking these bacteria later in life can yield profound behavioral and psychological changes. In a study led by Cryan, anxious mice dosed with the probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus rhamnosus (JB-1) showed lower levels of anxiety, decreased stress hormones, and even an increase in brain receptors for a neurotransmitter that’s vital in curbing worry, anxiety, and fear.
John Bienenstock, a co-author on that study, compared the probiotics’ effects to benzodiazepines like Valium and Xanax. “The similarity is intriguing. It doesn’t prove they both use the same pathway [in the brain], but it’s a possibility.”
Although plenty of questions remain, the benefits of using probiotics to treat human behavior are becoming increasingly obvious. Yogurts like Dannon’s Activia have been marketed with much success as a panacea for all of our intestinal ills. Other probiotic supplements have claimed to support immune health. Probiotics’ potential to treat human behavior is increasingly apparent, but will manufacturers one day toss an anxiety-fighting blend into their probiotic brews?EXPERTS ARE CONVINCED THAT TWEAKING THESE BACTERIA LATER IN LIFE CAN YIELD PROFOUND BEHAVIORAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CHANGES
It’s a distinct possibility: in one 2013 proof-of-concept study, researchers at UCLA showed that healthy women who consumed a drink with four added probiotic strains twice daily for four weeks showed significantly altered brain functioning on an fMRI brain scan. The women’s brains were scanned while they looked at photos of angry or sad faces, and then asked to match those with other faces showing similar emotions.
Those who had consumed the probiotic drink showed significantly lower brain activity in the neural networks that help drive responses to sensory and emotional behavior. The research is “groundbreaking,” Cryan said, because it’s the first trial to show that probiotics could affect the functioning of the human brain. Still, he notes that the results need to be interpreted with care.
As the research community increasingly lends credence to Greenblatt’s ideas, and public awareness about gut bacteria grows, he’s confident we’ll soon know more about the power of probiotics. “Because of the commercials and the other information that’s out there, patients are beginning to ask,” he said. “They’re much more aware of how important probiotics are.”
Whether all of our mental woes respond to probiotic treatment as dramatically as Greenblatt’s patient Mary remains to be seen. “We have to be very cautious in this field not to be too hyperbolic about what we promise,” Cryan said. Indeed, scientists still aren’t sure exactly which microbial species are part of a healthy microbiome, nor do they know whether certain bacterial strains are absolutely vital to mental functioning, or whether the right balance is what’s key. Furthermore, research still hasn’t parsed which illnesses might be affected by the microbiome and, therefore, treatable using probiotics. “There are beginning to be suggestions that this type of probiotic treatment is worth pursuing,” Bienenstock said. “Whether we can use this to improve people’s lives, well, the door is just beginning to open on this.”
By MICHAEL BLAUSTEIN Last Updated: 10:48 AM, March 27, 2013 Posted: 10:46 AM, March 27, 2013
Researchers might have found the Holy Grail in the war against cancer, a miracle drug that has killed every kind of cancer tumor it has come in contact with.
The drug works by blocking a protein called CD47 that is essentially a "do not eat" signal to the body's immune system, according to Science Magazine.
This protein is produced in healthy blood cells but researchers at Stanford University found that cancer cells produced an inordinate amount of the protein thus tricking the immune system into not destroying the harmful cells.
With this observation in mind, the researchers built an antibody that blocked cancer's CD47 so that the body's immune system attacked the dangerous cells.
So far, researchers have used the antibody in mice with human breast, ovary, colon, bladder, brain, liver and prostate tumors transplanted into them. In each of the cases the antibody forced the mice's immune system to kill the cancer cells.
"We showed that even after the tumor has taken hold, the antibody can either cure the tumor or slow its growth and prevent metastasis," said biologist Irving Weissman of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California.
One side effect of the treatment was that healthy cells were subjected to short-term attacks by the mice's immune system, but the effect was nothing in comparison to the damage done to the cancer cells.
Weissman's group recently received a $20 million dollar grant to move their research from mouse to human safety testing.
Everyone has that one thing they'd like to change about themselves -- quitting the booze, getting in shape, kicking that public masturbation habit -- but they continually put it off, because making major lifestyle changes is hard. Damn it, science, it's the 21st century! Where's the pill that makes all of our human flaws disappear?
Not far away, apparently. At this very moment, they are testing ...
#5. A Pill That Replaces Exercise
Getty
When it comes to the competition between food and exercise, how could exercise ever stand a chance when food is just so goddamn delicious? That's apparently a sentiment many Americans share, because according to the CDC, over one-third of us are fatasses. See, what we need is a pill that just magically makes fat go away, and we're not talking about the bullshit diet pills they have on supplement shelves now (hint: their "appetite suppressant" is just caffeine). Well, it looks like the future is going to be an awesome place for people who hate to sweat.
Getty Say goodbye to your extra chins and hello to ... everything else you're already doing.
Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered a hormone that mimics exercising by increasing the body's ability to burn fat, theoretically allowing you to get in shape even as you watch Firefly marathons while choking down Hungry-Man frozen dinners. (PROTIP: You're supposed to cook them first.) The newly identified hormone, called irisin, causes the body to transform white "bad" fat into brown "good" fat, which generates heat. The result is the same as exercise -- burning calories, improving the processing of insulin ... everything that could bring us every fat guy's greasy wet dream: an exercise pill.
So how did the scientists discover the true potential of irisin? How else? After studying and isolating the hormone, they shot up some roly-poly mice with it. Within 10 days of treatment, the mice had better blood sugar and insulin levels and had lost some weight, with the assumption being that longer exposure would "reduce the damage done by a high-fat diet, protecting mice against diet-induced obesity and diabetes."
Getty For Squeaky, the weight may have gone, but the crippling self-esteem issues remained.
Researchers think that irisin could potentially be used to address a wide range of health problems -- obesity, mental health disorders, neuromuscular diseases like muscular dystrophy -- but come on, we all know what it'll really be used for: getting all the benefits of exercise without doing one iota of the work. After all, isn't that exactly what all of human civilization has been progressing toward for the last thousand years or so?
#4. A Real Hangover (and Possible Alcoholism) Cure
Getty
After thousands of years of headaches, heavy eyelids, and how the hell did the world get so loud?, we might finally have a solution to one of the world's most pressing health issues. That's right -- thanks to the tireless work of scientists who couldn't give less of a shit about that "curing cancer" nonsense, we might soon have a preventive cure for the common hangover. And it'll come in handy-dandy pill form.
Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles have developed a drug called dihydromyricetin, dubbed DHM, which they claim will drastically reduce hangover symptoms. The drug was developed using chemicals derived from the fruit of the oriental raisin tree, which has been used by people in China to prevent hangovers for over 500 years.
Wiki Thanks, China. See if we give you any of our sweet democracy or morbid obesity.
Once again, the scientists first tested the drugs on rats, which were injected with heavy doses of alcohol and later made to run a maze. Rats that were not given DHM behaved pretty much how you'd expect hung-over rats to behave, stumbling into walls or cowering in a corner, presumably begging the scientists to inject them with some coffee and turn down the damn lights. The rats that were given DHM, however, ran the maze as if they hadn't been given any alcohol, behaving as inquisitively as any sober rat.
According to the researchers, the drug's benefits don't end with curing hangovers: DHM was also shown to be effective at preventing rats from getting drunk in the first place. In another phase of the experiment, the scientists laid some rats on their backs and injected them with a shit-ton of alcohol -- the human equivalent of drinking 15 to 20 beers in two hours, or what many of our readers refer to as "a pretty good start." The researchers then grabbed some popcorn and snickered as the rats tried to right themselves.
Getty "Ha! She's going home with him?"
The liquored-up rodents provided the researchers with 70 minutes of weebly-wobbly hilarity, but rats that were given DHM at the same time as the booze were able to get back on their feet in just five. And long term, DHM prevented the rats from developing cravings for alcohol, effectively keeping them from becoming filthy little disease-ridden alcoholics.
Getty "One puke tray per mouse. Trust us, they'll need every ounce of space."
That's all fine and good for the drunken rodent population of the world, but what about us humans? Well, you don't have to wait long. Human trials of DHM are going on in the USA, but if you really need that hangover cure, you can just book that Korean vacation you've been putting off: Drugs made from the oriental raisin tree have already been approved by the Korean Food & Drug Administration and have been sold in the country since 2008.
#3. Finally, a Male Birth Control Pill
Getty
Ever wonder why there's never been a male version of the birth control pill? Well, for starters, it's a problem of magnitude: To stop a woman from getting pregnant, all you have to do is block a single egg each month, whereas a man produces about 1,000 sperm every single time his heart beats. Then there's also the challenge of getting the drug across the blood-testis barrier, a nifty little roadblock that evolution built to protect a man's tadpoles from any nastiness floating around in his bloodstream. So it's long been considered damn nigh impossible, but researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute told impossible to go fuck itself when they set out to discover a compound that just might result in the first effective and hormone-free birth control pill for men.
Getty "Pbbbft, whatever."
Except that's not quite how it happened. As with many scientific discoveries, this compound's sperm-busting capability was found completely by accident. Dubbed JQ1, the compound was originally intended to be used in anti-cancer drugs, but when they started pumping copious amounts of it into mice, the researchers noticed something peculiar: a conspicuous lack of mouse babies. It turned out that JQ1 drastically lowered the amount of sperm the male mice produced, and those they did produce were gimpy -- if you picture a man's sperm as millions of tiny Michael Phelpses swimming for an Olympic gold medal (a much squishier, egg-shaped gold medal), JQ1 is the molecular compound running around kneecapping all of them with a microscopic baseball bat.
But we haven't even gotten to possibly the most important factor for a drug to be considered viable as a birth control method: reversibility. And JQ1 has that in spades -- when taken off of the drug, the mice were once again free to sire countless little mouse children to repopulate their strange, glass-encased worlds.
Getty Well, some of them.
Of course, there's still a long way to go before the compound makes the jump from mice to men, and it remains to be seen whether guys will even go for a complete reversal of the birth control norm that has existed for half a century. If dudes can't be bothered to roll on a condom, who's to say they will remember to take a pill? Or tell the truth about not taking it?
#2. A Pill That Stops You from Buying Stupid Shit on Impulse
Getty
Do you stare at your credit card bill at the end of the month and wonder when you bought all of that useless shit? Are brown boxes decorated with the curved Amazon.com arrow showing up at your door on a daily basis? There's a name for that condition: oniomania, otherwise known as compulsive shopping.
Getty "I definitely won't regret this later."
And as lame as it sounds, it can be just as serious as any other behavioral disorder. It can lead to ruined credit histories, failed marriages, and theft. But what is a sufferer supposed to do about it, you ask? This isn't like some chemical addiction where it sort of makes sense that a drug could curb the impulse. Are you honestly going to take a pill that magically suppresses the urge to shop?
Well, yeah. Have you even been paying attention to this article at all?
Getty "This will give you liquid shits if you so much as even look at a Macy's."
Scientists at the University of Minnesota gave a drug called memantine to people ages 19 to 59 who suffer from shopaholism. Before the trial began, these people spent up to 61 percent of their annual salary on impulse buys -- these were middle-class folks who devoted as much as 38 hours a week looking for bargains in stores. And while a TLC reality show star might call that "Wednesday," your average American's bank account calls it "Oh dear God, let the torture end." After taking the pill for eight weeks, sufferers engaged in less impulse buying and had "fewer impulsive urges, thoughts, and behavior." Overall, the pill reduced the symptoms of the disorder by freaking half.
The whole thing worked so well, it even made the TV news:
So, how does that possibly work? The drug affects glutamate, a chemical in the brain that is believed to contribute to obsessive-compulsive disorder. Many health professionals think that compulsive shopping is a close cousin of OCD, so treating someone's urge to lock and unlock their door 30 times whenever they leave the house is very similar to treating their overwhelming urge to buy out the underwear bin at Walmart.
Well, shit, if they have a pill that can cure our stupid urges, what else can they cure? How about ...
#1. A Drug That Cures Your Racism
Getty
From crazy dictators blaming recessions on the different-colored scapegoat of the day to your asshole uncle constantly screaming about the world being overrun with jive turkeys, racism is an unfortunate and unavoidable part of life. And what's worse, no matter how many Will Smith movies we watch, there might be a certain part of every one of us that unconsciously fears some different color or creed -- unless you take a pill for it. One that's already available.
Getty "And you're sure this will stop my husband from shooting the TV every time The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air comes on?"
Well, OK, so we might not yet be at the point where you can walk up to a doctor and ask him to hook you up with some pills for your grandpa's inexplicable hatred of Scandinavians. But hey, it's not like science isn't trying -- and succeeding. Recently, some researchers at Oxford University found that they could combat racism using an anxiety drug that's already out:propranolol.
In an experiment, the researchers gave either propranolol or a placebo to a bunch of white people, the most stereotypically racist bunch the researchers could think of (which, in a sense, would make the scientists themselves doubly racist). The participants filled out surveys rating their attitudes toward black people using a scale from 0 to 100, 0 meaning that they wanted to personally push a button that would nuke Atlanta, 100 meaning that they'd like to make sweet love to a Nubian deity and populate the world with their ethnically ambiguous love children. They then repeated the surveys with their feelings toward homosexuals, Muslims, Christians, and drug addicts, which are apparently races now.
Photos.com "I'll have you know that we are a proud, noble, balls-tripping people!"
But wait! you might say. People aren't always honest in these types of surveys -- even to themselves. Some people might sincerely believe that they're colorblind and progressive, but might harbor prejudices buried so deep in their subconscious, they'd need a Ouija board to find them. That's why the scientists then gave them a computerized test that involved sorting faces of different ethnic origins along with words with positive and negative connotations. This test assessed the participants' "implicit racism," the racism that you might harbor but be consciously unaware of.
And guess what? The people who were given the propranolol scored significantly lower on tests of implicit racism. That's right -- the drug actually led to people becoming less racist at a subconscious level. Why did the drug work so well? The Brits believe the reason is that propranolol affects the part of the brain involved in fear and emotional responses. Essentially, the drug calms the symptoms of anxiety, and since racism is thought to be fundamentally founded on fear, calming down one's automatic fear response should also calm down the desire to carpet bomb every country that ends in "stan."
Getty Sadly, for Dale, some aspects of his skinhead life would always remain.
For now, battling racism is strictly an off-label use for propranolol due to the ethical implications of improving people's morals via lozenge. But it's nice to know it's there should you ever need to spike the punch at your local Klan rally.
The cancer girl cured by the HIV virus: Seven-year-old makes extraordinary recovery after U.S. doctors re-wire her immune system to destroy leukaemia cells
Emily had been fighting leukaemia for two years and relapsed twice by spring this year
Her parents put her forward for a clinical trial as it was 'the only option left'
'We had 48 hours to make a decision or Emily could have started having organ failure', father said
Therapy, known as CTL019, used disabled form of HIV to reprogramme her immune system to kill cancer cells
In April this year, Emily Whitehead's family had almost given up hope.
The brave six-year-old had been fighting leukaemia for two years. But in February she had relapsed for a second time during intensive chemotherapy treatment.
Doctors had exhausted all the traditional treatments as Emily could not remain in remission for long enough to attempt a bone marrow transplant. So Emily's desperate parents, Kari and Tom, started looking at more radical options.
Fighting fit: Emily (seen left during treatment in April) has now been in remission from cancer for seven months
Big hugs: Emily was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in May 2010
'We made the decision that we needed to go somewhere else,' said Mrs Whitehead.
'We needed to try something new, different and cutting-edge.'
So they turned to the Cancer Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, which is involved in testing a pioneering new therapy.
Doctors suggested they sign Emily up to a clinical trial that would use a disabled form of HIV to carry cancer-fighting genes into her T-cells (disease fighting cells). The hope was that this would reprogramme her immune system to recognise the cancer cells and start killing them.
Several adults had already been enrolled in the study at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and had responded well but as it was so new the treatment wasn't without risks. But time was running out for Emily, who is also known as Emma.
Mr Whitehead said: 'We were told that we were down to 48 hours of making a decision or she could start having organ failure.'
They comforted themselves with the knowledge that even if the treatment didn't work, it would provide doctors with information that could help them save other sick children.
So on April 17, the then six-year-old became the first child to have the therapy known as CTL019. Emily during her therapy - at first she suffered an adverse reaction, which was treated with an arthritis drug Now in remission, Emily enjoys walking her dog who comforted her when she was ill Emily with her proud parents: 'She has never complained' they revealed
All did not go smoothly at first. The family had been warned Emily could experience flu-like symptoms a few days after being infused with her reengineered T-cells.
However, Emily’s symptoms were far more serious than doctors anticipated. She became critically ill and was admitted to intensive care at the children's hospital. On April 24, doctors told her parents she had a one in 1,000 chance of surviving the night, but she pulled through thanks to their expertise.
Trial leader Dr Stephan Grupp and his team realised that the level of a certain protein had become very elevated as a result of the T-cells growing in Emily's body.
This same protein is involved in rheumatoid arthritis, and there is a drug for that disease that turns off production of that particular protein.
The team administered the drug to Emily, with dramatic results: her condition improved faster than anyone could have hoped for. Almost overnight, her breathing improved, her fever dropped and her blood pressure was back to normal.
Mrs Whitehead said Emily inspired them with how she coped.
'She's extremely smart and creative. She's funny - she makes us laugh all the time. She never complains,' she said. Emily is very creative according to her parents, and loves playing with her dog Kira and Tom faced the agonising decision of whether or not to put their daughter forward for a clinical trial Emily during a consultation with Dr Grupp and her parents Tom and Kari Dr Grupp led the clinical trial, which was life-saving for Emily
Her husband added: 'She told us from the beginning that she would continue to fight and do what we asked as long as we were there with her. We've stuck together as a team. She's definitely our hero.'
Several weeks after her T-cell infusion, they were able to conduct a bone marrow test to find out if the therapy had worked.
'Three weeks after receiving the treatment, she was in remission,' said Dr Grupp.
'Emily completely responded to her T-cell therapy. We checked her bone marrow for the possibility of disease again at three months and six months out from her treatment, and she still has no disease whatsoever. The cancer-fighting T-cells are still there in her body.'
He added that they need to see the remission go on for a couple of years before they can think about whether she is cured or not. It is simply too early to say.
But for Kari and Tom, it’s incredible to think how much has changed in just a few months. After spending years in treatment, Emily went home in June and now enjoys going to school, playing football and walking her dog Lucy. She’s living life like any other little girl.
'T-cell therapy was really the only option left for Emily,' said Mr Whitehead.
'But we entered her into the trial really hopeful, and from the very beginning we just really had a good feeling about it. So all along we said, "it just has to work, it has to work for Emily" – and it did.'
The scientists said although the results were very promising, much more research needs to be done to see whether the therapy is a viable, safe and long-term solution for controlling certain cancers in children and adults.
But for one family at least, it has provided a new lease of life.
Ken Campbell, Clinical Information Officer at Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, said the results of the study were encouraging for both children and adults diagnosed with leukaemia.
'Treatments which modify the body’s own immune system to fight leukaemia have shown much promise in recent years,' he said.
'What is significant about [the] therapy is that the severe side-effects associated with this form of treatment seem to be greatly reduced when combined with other drugs.
'This is a small study of just 12 patients. Larger clinical trials are needed to determine how effective this treatment could be and as a result it should be some time before it is available in the UK.'
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia presented their latest findings at the American Society of Hematology’s annual meeting in Atlanta.
They found nine out of 12 patients in the trial, which included Emily and one other child, responded to the treatment. Their goal is to treat another 12 patients over the next year.
VIDEO: How Far We've Come: Emily's Journey... How Far We've Come: Emily's Journey from Savannah Smith on Vimeo.
"How Far We've Come: Emily's Journey" photographed and produced by Savannah Smith, The Pennsylvania State University, Visual Communications, 2013. srs0504@gmail.com | Website | LinkedIn
THE PIONEERING THERAPY THAT REWIRES THE IMMUNE SYSTEM TO FIGHT CANCER
Emily Whitehead was diagnosed with the most common childhood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in May 2010. Unfortunately her case, like 15 per cent of sufferers, was resistant to traditional treatment.
She was put forward for an experimental therapy known as CTL019.
In certain cancers, including the type of ALL that Emily was battling, a subset of cells in the immune system become leukaemia. These are called B cells.
Another set of cells in the immune system, called T-cells, normally recognize and attack invading disease. But in cancers like ALL, the abnormal leukemia cells fly under the radar of the normal T-cells that are meant to kill them.
In the experimental treatment her T-cells were collected from her blood, then reengineered in a lab to recognise and attach to a protein called CD19 that is found only on the surface of B cells.
To do this they used a gutted HIV virus, called a lentivirus, to carry special receptors into the T-cells.
There is no risk of HIV infection from a lentivirus.
Re
admore here: http://www.centredaily.com/2012/12/09/3430285/treat-cancer-a-whole-new-way-emily.html#storylink=cpy
When the reengineered cells were put back they dispersed throughout the body to find and kill cancerous B cells.
Emily had an additional drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis to tackle a side-effect of the therapy and has been in remission for seven months.
Jay Wortman, MD, tells the story of how he got rid of his rampant type 2 diabetes using a simple dietary change. Eight years later he is still free from the disease and needs no medication. Basically he stopped eating the foods that turn to sugar in the gut.
During the last few years several well designed scientific studies has proven that this common sense approach works very well. You can read more about it on Wortman's website DrJayWortman.com or use the detailed guidelines at DietDoctor.com (completely free).
Mathew Scott; Hair and makeup by Raina Antle
Brown Bird Design
Getty
Getty
Getty
Getty
Getty
Getty
Getty
Getty
Getty
Getty
Getty
Getty
Getty
Getty
Photos.com
Getty
Dr. John Apsley has gained fame with his proposition that the lowly baking soda can cure 90 percent of all cancer cases. That’s quite a cont...
