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WHAT'S NEW IN MEDICINE - Volume 1

› Anti-Depressants: SAM-e
SAM-e : (S-adenosyl-L-methionine) is found in all body cells and participants in dozens of biochemical processes, including the production of hormones, neurotransmitters, cartilage, and detoxifying chemicals ... read more.

› Gene To Protect Against HIV Infection?
Some people carry an altered gene that protects them from being infected by HIV. Themutated gene also may be linked to the goodhealth of long-term non-progressors, one of thestudies showed. As many as one in 100 peoplemay have the genetic alteration that prevents thevirus from infecting cells, said Nathaniel Landau,PhD, of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center. ... read more.

› Should Women Have The Right To Choose Caesarian Birth?
The London Sunday Times (8/14/98) published an article titled 'Doctors call for right to choose Caesarean birth' A recent survey of women obstetricians in London found that 31% ofthem would choose to have a C/S rather than a normal birth, if they had an uncomplicated singleton pregnancy, 80% of those who would prefer the operation said they were frightened of the injuries that they knew they could suffer during a normal delivery ... read more.

› Cancer Research
Researchers too DNA from cancerous cells in patients with lung cancer (including some who had never smoked cigarettes) and measured mutations in the p53 gene, the most frequently mutated gene in human cancer ... read more.

› Finding At Colonoscopy
One of my patients was recently told that the microscopic diagnosis on her colon biopsy revealed melanosis coli. It is a rather common condition and it should not alarm you ... read more.

› Cure For Diabetes Is On The Way
Type 1 diabetes, a disease in which theimmune system attacks the islet cells, the tinyinsulin factories found in the pancreas, robbingthe body of the insulin it needs to turn sugar intoenergy. It requires daily insulin injections and monitoring their food intake to maintain a steadyblood sugar level ... read more.

› Chitosan Instant Fat Blockers
Chitosan (made from shellfish shells) can help you get trim. A study published in the journal of ARM Medicina-Helsinki found subjects who took 1.800 mg chitosan daily while following a low fat diet, lost average of 15 lbs in four weeks; those who didn't lost an average of 5lbs ... read more.

› Forteo: A New Drug For Osteoporosis
It's a synthetic version of parathyroidhormone (PTH), which is secreted by tintglands in the neck. Almost every patient inthe study-which involved 1.637 post-menopasal women and was recentlypublished in the New England Journal ofMedicine - responded to treatment ... read more.

› Gene Mapping
A gene mapping discovery on Cleft Palates. British scientists had identified the gene that causes cleft palate. About 1 in 600 babies are born with cleft palate, in which the two sides of the roof of the mouth do not fuse properly ... read more.

› Gene Test For Cancer
Myriad Genetics has introduced a predictive test for hereditary colon cancer and uterine cancer. The test, Colaris, is used to assess a person's risk of developing colon cancer based on the presence of a mutation in either of two genes ... read more.

› Gene Therapy
Gene therapy restores sight in dogs. Gene therapy, a procedure in which a synthetic virus carries a gene into living tissues, has enabled dogs born blind to see ... read more.

› Genetic Advancements Against The Plague & Anthrax
In the Oct. 4 issue of "Nature", Julian Parkhill and colleagues at the Sanger Centre in Cambridge, England, have decoded the entire genetic blueprint of Yersinia pestis, the bacteriumthat causes plague. The discovery should one day enable researchers to find ways to disable and defend against the plague bacterium, which since the 6th century has caused three pandemics thatkilled 200 million people ... read more.

› Britain's Pre-Eminent Scientist Is Predicting
As panic grows over the threat of biological weapons from terrorists, a new book claims that germ warfare will destroy the human race in 1,000 years. The only way to save ourselves is to colonize other planets. This chilling prophecy comes from Professor Stephen Hawking, the world's most respected cosmologist. As a Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, he not only works with the most advanced theories of physics but is also renowned for his best-seller, A Brief History Of Time, which addressed the inner workings of the universe. Forget nuclear weapons which Man has had for 56 years ... read more.

› Infertility Gene
The gene known as ZNF214 is believedto prevent some men from producing sufficientsperm cells. The gene is located on achromosome region linked to Beckwith Wiedemann Syndrome. BWS is a complex disorderwhich causes boys to be born with undescendedtesticles and suffer from infertility as adults ... read more.

› Misleading Media Information
"Longer breast feeding may help momsavoid cancer" this was the title of the article that appeared in New York Post on Jan 31 / 01. Andy Geller reports the study by Yale University of women in rural China, that women who breast fedt heir babies for 2 years or more cut the risk of breast cancer by 50%. This misleading information should never appear in a respectable American newspaper ... read more.

› Multiple Myeloma
What is multiple myeloma ? A rare, life-threatening cancer of the bone marrow in which malignant plasma cells interfere with the growth of red and white blood cells ... read more.

› No More Menopause?
A research team at Massachusetts General Hospital has found that deactivating a single genein female mice can sustain ovarian function into advanced age ... read more.

› Olive Oil
"Olive Oil slows stomach contraction, so we feel full " says Marshall Goldberg, a university professor. It prompts the release of cholecystokinin, a hormone that signals us to stop eating First for Women 1/01 ... read more.

› Want To Protect Your Memory?
Tumeric is a spice of Indian Food. It seems to protect us from memory loss and eventual mental decline caused by Alzheimer's Disease. According to a study by University of California, tumeric contains the chemical compound curcumin ,which reduces inflammation caused by a build up of the protein beta-amyloid ... read more.

› Sharks & Cancer: Deflating The Myth
New research shows that sharks do get cancer, including cancer of the cartilage. As you probably heard , shark cartilage was widely used as alternative treatment for cancer, based on the idea that sharks do not get cancer ... read more.

› Smallest Baby
A baby who was born 112 days premature, weighing 1 lb 5 1/2 oz, is to benamed in the Guinness Book of World Records asthe lightest baby to have survived. Christopher Williams was born at Whipps Cross Hospital, East London, 16 weeks ago. His mother, Leona, said he was now over 9 lbs ... read more.

› Transplanted Pancreas Cells
The Immune Tolerance Network (ITN), an international consortium of researchers, will soon begin testing a technique for transplanting insulin producing pancreas cells that could allow people with type-1 diabetes to stop their insulin shots. Later this year ITN will spend $5 million to expand research on the technique, known as Edmonton protocol, to other U.S. and Canadian research centers ... read more.