News from the scientific front!
If you thought that ADHD (Attention Deficite Hyperactivity Disorder) in kids is becoming more common you're right. I suffer from it myself and at times........
....sorry, I got sidetracked. Where was I? Oh yea. We didn't hear as much about ADHD fifty or a hundred years ago for a good reason.
There wasn't as much of it!
For every hour a day that children under three watched violent child-oriented entertainment on TV, their risk doubled for attention problems five years later, according to the study released Monday in November's issue of the journal of Pediatrics.
The University of Washington researchers called a show violent if it involved fighting, hitting people, threats or other violence that was central to the plot or a main character.
Shows listed included Power Rangers, Lion King and Scooby Doo.
Even non-violent shows like Rugrats and The Flintstones carried a still substantial —although slightly lower — risk for attention problems, according to the researchers.
On the other hand, educational shows, including Arthur, Barney and Sesame Street had no association with future attention problems.
The researchers said the risks only seemed to occur in children under three, perhaps because that is a particularly crucial period of brain development. Those results echo a different study in October that suggested TV-watching has less impact on older children's behaviour than on toddlers.
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On a different note we have news for all you fubby chuckers out there. Australian scientists have found how to switch hunger on and off using a molecule that targets the brain -- a discovery which could stop weight loss in terminally ill patients or produce weight loss in the morbidly obese.
The molecule, known as MIC-1, is produced by common cancers and targets receptors in the brain that switch off appetite. But Australian researchers found that by using antibodies against MIC-1 they were able to switch appetite back on.
When normal and obese mice were treated with MIC-1 they ate less and lost a lot of weight, suggesting that MIC-1 may also be used to treat severe obesity, said the Sydney researchers in a statement received on Tuesday.
Sam Breit at St Vincent's Centre for Immunology, who originally cloned the MIC-1 gene, said he believed the findings could have a significant impact on a range of appetite-related disorders.
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And finaly a subject with which I am quite familiar since my wife has Lymphoma and takes this drug/spice daily for its medicinal properties.
Scientists in Japan have created two synthetic versions of an ingredient in curry that is noted for its potential to fight cancer.
Some studies have suggested that curcumin, the yellowish component in turmeric that gives curry its flavor, can suppress tumors and that people who eat lots of curry may be less prone to the disease. However, curcumin loses its anti-cancer attributes quickly when ingested.
The scientists wrote in the latest issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics that they had synthesized two variations -- GO-Y030 and GO-Y031 -- which have proved more potent and lasting than natural curcumin.
They tested them in mice with colorectal cancer and found that they worked far better.
Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com and the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com
....sorry, I got sidetracked. Where was I? Oh yea. We didn't hear as much about ADHD fifty or a hundred years ago for a good reason.
There wasn't as much of it!
For every hour a day that children under three watched violent child-oriented entertainment on TV, their risk doubled for attention problems five years later, according to the study released Monday in November's issue of the journal of Pediatrics.
The University of Washington researchers called a show violent if it involved fighting, hitting people, threats or other violence that was central to the plot or a main character.
Shows listed included Power Rangers, Lion King and Scooby Doo.
Even non-violent shows like Rugrats and The Flintstones carried a still substantial —although slightly lower — risk for attention problems, according to the researchers.
On the other hand, educational shows, including Arthur, Barney and Sesame Street had no association with future attention problems.
The researchers said the risks only seemed to occur in children under three, perhaps because that is a particularly crucial period of brain development. Those results echo a different study in October that suggested TV-watching has less impact on older children's behaviour than on toddlers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On a different note we have news for all you fubby chuckers out there. Australian scientists have found how to switch hunger on and off using a molecule that targets the brain -- a discovery which could stop weight loss in terminally ill patients or produce weight loss in the morbidly obese.
The molecule, known as MIC-1, is produced by common cancers and targets receptors in the brain that switch off appetite. But Australian researchers found that by using antibodies against MIC-1 they were able to switch appetite back on.
When normal and obese mice were treated with MIC-1 they ate less and lost a lot of weight, suggesting that MIC-1 may also be used to treat severe obesity, said the Sydney researchers in a statement received on Tuesday.
"This work has given us a better understanding of the part of the brain that regulates appetite," said Herbert Herzog, director of neuroscience research at the Garvan Institute in Sydney.The researchers said it was hoped that in the near future, the MIC-1 findings will prevent a sizeable proportion of advanced cancer patients from "literally wasting away."
"Our bodies send complex chemical signals to our brains, which interpret them and send back responses, in this case eat or don't eat. Our research indicated that MIC-1 is a previously unrecognized molecule sending a don't eat signal to the brain," Herzog said.
Sam Breit at St Vincent's Centre for Immunology, who originally cloned the MIC-1 gene, said he believed the findings could have a significant impact on a range of appetite-related disorders.
"Injecting mice with MIC-1 protein also made them stop eating, suggesting that it may be possible to use this to advantage for treating patients with severe obesity," he said.The MIC-1 findings were published in the latest Nature Medicine magazine and the team of researchers led by St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney hope to develop a human antibody and run clinical trials in the next few years.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And finaly a subject with which I am quite familiar since my wife has Lymphoma and takes this drug/spice daily for its medicinal properties.
Scientists in Japan have created two synthetic versions of an ingredient in curry that is noted for its potential to fight cancer.
Some studies have suggested that curcumin, the yellowish component in turmeric that gives curry its flavor, can suppress tumors and that people who eat lots of curry may be less prone to the disease. However, curcumin loses its anti-cancer attributes quickly when ingested.
The scientists wrote in the latest issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics that they had synthesized two variations -- GO-Y030 and GO-Y031 -- which have proved more potent and lasting than natural curcumin.
They tested them in mice with colorectal cancer and found that they worked far better.
"Our new analogues (synthetic versions) have enhanced growth suppressive abilities against colorectal cancer cell lines, up to 30 times greater than natural curcumin," said Hiroyuki Shibata, associate professor at Tohoku University's Institute of Development, Ageing and Cancer.Like curcumin, the two synthetic versions may be able to fight other cancers, such as gastric cancer and cancer of the breast, pancreas and lung, they added.
"In a mouse model for colorectal cancer, mice fed with five milligrams of GO-Y030 or GO-Y031 fared 42 and 51 percent better, respectively, than did mice in the control group."
Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com and the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com
Labels: adhd, scientific news, weight loss
posted by Allan W Janssen | 9:28 a.m.
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