j7uy5 | July 17, 2007
href="http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/tc/Clostridium-Difficile-Colitis-Overview"
rel="tag">Clostridium difficile cases
are on the rise,
according to a
study in Archives of Surgery. It seems
odd to me that this study would come out now, just a few days after I
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2007/07/uk_study_shows_benefit_from_pr.php">posted
about the same topic.
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">I posted about it
because of the finding that the active cultures, that are used in
yogurt, appear to reduce the frequency and severity of
face="…
j7uy5 | July 17, 2007This
qualifies for "quote of the decade" status. Unfortunately it
is in Times Select, but
href="http://choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/07/waiting-for-health-care.html">clever
persons can
href="http://www.technorati.com/posts/tag/Paul+Krugman">figure
out how to find the whole text (some, but not all of the
time).
Actually, the hat tip goes to
href="http://ronbeas2.blogspot.com/2007/07/if-you-say-it-enough.html">Ron,
who found it before I did (which he does most, but not all, of the
time).
Bush said this, as reported by
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Krugman"…
j7uy5 | July 16, 2007Apparently
it is now the role of the Chief Executive to tell
businesspersons how to run their business.
In the context of the pro and con lobbying over the proposed expansion
of the State
Children’s Health Insurance Program, pharmaceutical
companies decided to join the pro side. After all, if more
children are insured, more of them will get prescription medication.
But is is not just the drug companies, it is a broad-spectrum
coalition:
According to the
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/washington/09child.html?ex=1341633600&en=f8f5eba22324ed32&ei=5090&partner=…
j7uy5 | July 16, 2007While
looking for information for my last post, I encountered another
interesting article at PNAS. This one is about a new molecule
that improved survival in mice infected with
href="http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/pubs/fsheet_faq_notice/fs_ahscrapie.html"
rel="tag">scrapie.
Scrapie is one of the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmissible_spongiform_encephalopathy">transmissible
spongiform encephalopathies (TSE).
Transmissible, because the infection can be transmitted from
one creature to another; spongiform, because the brain tissue of an
infected animal looks like a…
j7uy5 | July 15, 2007There is a
letter published online at Nature, ahead of the
print version, that describes a technique of analyzing an entire genome
to find genes that may be associated with disease.
The newly-identified gene, in this case, is linked to Type 1
href="http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec13/ch165/ch165a.html">Diabetes
Mellitus (T1D). That is the type that usually
starts in childhood and always requires treatment with insulin.
The study was done by research teams in Canada and the USA.
The gene they found is on the short arm of chromosome
(16p13). There are two versions of the gene, Hakonarson…
j7uy5 | July 15, 2007We
already knew that
rel="tag">varenicline
could be used to help people stop smoking. Now there is a
report that it can help reduce alcohol consumption, at least for rats.
This was reported in
title="Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences">PNAS
(Varenicline, an α4β2
nicotinic acetylcholine receptor
partial agonist, selectively decreases ethanol consumption and seeking)on
an open-access basis, and echoed in a report in Scientific
American (
href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=ACE9FF1E-E7F2-99DF-31F26EC00AA05F4A&sc=I100322">Need
a Cigarette and a…
j7uy5 | July 15, 2007There
is a compilation of polls taken of Iraqis, and of service members, at
href="http://www.iraqanalysis.org/info/55">Iraqanalysis.org.
They say it is a comprehensive list. They invite anyone who
knows of a poll that they have not included to let them know.
j7uy5 | July 14, 2007Remember
the
href="http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/07/cdc-halts-texas.html">recent
reports about lab workers at a biodefense
laboratory (Texas
A&M) who became infected with "select agents" (
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brucellosis">Brucella
and Coxiella
burnetii)? An editorial in Nature
expands upon this report. The findings are not reassuring.
Indeed, they are frightening. The problems are not
limited to a single lab:
rev="review"
href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v448/n7150/full/448105b.html">Safety
clause
US research on bioweapons has…
j7uy5 | July 14, 2007Knowing
full well that it violated the Constitution of the United
States, the State legislatures in
href="http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/190122">Arizona,
Florida,
href="http://news.aol.com/elections-blog/2006/10/31/bush-lied-they-died-t-shirt-censored/">Louisiana,
Texas,
and
href="http://news.aol.com/elections-blog/2006/10/31/bush-lied-they-died-t-shirt-censored/">Oklahoma
have passed laws that ban the unauthorized use of names or
images of members of the Armed Forces.
This
was prompted by an Arizona businessman who started selling
t-shirts...
(The
t-shirts have…
j7uy5 | July 14, 2007
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">
href="http://www.kcl.ac.uk/phpnews/wmview.php?ArtID=1918">This
press release (HT:
href="http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2007/07/got_moles_they_might_be_good_for_you.html">medGadget)
from King's College tips us off to an article in the journal,
href="http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/">Cancer
Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention.
This is something that news sites picked up on.
Specifically, the authors reported a relationship between the
number of moles a person has, and the length of their
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telomere…
j7uy5 | July 14, 2007A
couple of
href="http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec16/ch221/ch221g.html"
rel="tag">Parkinson's Disease related items came
across the news wires,
briefly. There are lessons in both of them, but both leave me
with unresolved questions.
The first one I noticed was a report based upon a journal article,
rev="review"
href="http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/69/2/187">Risk
factors for somnolence, edema, and hallucinations in early Parkinson
disease. The second was based on a
different article (in the same journal),
href="http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/01.wnl…
j7uy5 | July 13, 2007I'm
not the best one to comment on this, not being a starving grad
student, but I find it a bit disturbing. In Science
today: an article on the unintended consequences of increased NIH
funding.
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">
href="opa.faseb.org/pdf/NIHFundingTrends.pps">
NIH funding was doubled from 1998 to 2003, but then the rate of
increase dropped to zero, and in fact has not kept pace with inflation.
The rapid increase caused problems, and the failure to
continue the increase has caused problems.
href="http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development/…
j7uy5 | July 13, 2007Here
are ScienceBlogs, we have been
href="http://www.scienceblogs.com/sample/fastsearch?order=date&IncludeBlogs=49%2C83%2C3%2C11%2C8%2C55%2C64%2C10%2C87%2C60%2C22%2C80%2C15%2C95%2C78%2C52%2C4%2C48%2C45%2C63%2C14%2C25%2C53%2C50%2C42%2C89%2C5%2C47%2C90%2C71%2C96%2C9%2C62%2C16%2C38%2C67%2C43%2C73%2C81%2C99%2C44%2C79%2C23%2C7%2C41%2C46%2C17%2C61%2C82%2C54%2C74%2C92%2C85%2C93%2C21%2C12%2C65%2C86%2C75%2C72%2C6%2C91%2C51%2C&search=holsinger&x=0&y=0">resoundingly
critical of the
nominee for
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surgeon_General_of_the_United_States"
rel="tag">…
j7uy5 | July 12, 2007
One sure sign of acceptance in the mainstream media occurs when a
publication gets picked up by Google News (as illustrated in the screen capture image, above).
Yesterday, reading the Public Library of Science Medicine journal (
rel="tag" href="http://medicine.plosjournals.org/">PLoS
Medicine), I noticed an article linking infestation
with liver flukes
and the development of cancer of the bile ducts (
href="http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0040201">Liver
Fluke Induces Cholangiocarcinoma).
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-…
j7uy5 | July 12, 2007This
is not really news, I guess, but it is a good reminder.
In fact I've written about
it twice before (
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2006/10/folate_supplementation_america.php">1
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2007/01/reversal_of_progress_on_folate.php">2).
The first post showed evidence that Americans still are not
getting enough folic acid in their diets. The second showed
there actually has been a loss of progress in the effort to make sure
that women of childbearing potential get enough of the nutrient.
This most recent study pertains to Canada…
j7uy5 | July 12, 2007
A study
published in the British
Medical Journal indicates that use of a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probiotic" rel="tag">probiotic
drink can reduce the frequency of antibiotic-associated diarrhea in
general, and of
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clostridium_difficile"
rel="tag">Clostridium difficile
colitis in particular.
Antibiotic-associated colitis is a complication of treatment with
antibiotics. About 15 to 25 percent of such cases are caused
by C. difficile.
C. difficile is particularly nasty. It
produces a toxin, can lead to bowel perforation,
href="http…
j7uy5 | July 11, 2007The
href="http://www.fda.gov/default.htm" rel="tag">FDA
just can't win. When they restrict something or say something
negative, they are being too restrictive or complicit with big pharma.
When they approve something too slowly they are insensitive
to the needs of patients. When they approve something too
quickly they are not protecting the public.
In fact, I've criticized them on all of these counts, all the while
knowing that it very difficult to know when the FDA is being fair and
balanced.
Now, we see headlines about a health claim that the FDA has denied.
It concerns
href…
j7uy5 | July 11, 2007
This afternoon, I had the pleasure of hearing
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Goodman" rel="tag">Amy
Goodman interview
href="http://scienceblogs.com/intersection/about.php">Chris
Mooney about the subject of his new book,
href="http://scienceblogs.com/intersection/2007/07/storm_world_tour_beginsweather.php"
rel="tag">Storm World.
It was a segment from
href="http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/11/1343232&mode=thread&tid=25">Democracy
Now! I won't trouble you with a synopsis,
you can watch/hear/read it yourself:
Listen to
href="http://play.…
j7uy5 | July 10, 2007This
is starting to look like a never-ending saga, and I have written
about it extensively before. But this latest update certainly
deserves some attention.
It comes from an article (
href="http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/ajp;164/7/1029">Suicide
Attempts Among Patients Starting Depression Treatment With Medications
or Psychotherapy) and an editorial (
rev="review"
href="http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/ajp;164/7/989">Antidepressants
and Suicidal Behavior: Cause or Cure?) in the
latest (July 2007)
issue of the
href="http://ajp.psychiatryonline.…
j7uy5 | July 10, 2007(RWOS=Republican War
on Science) In
case you haven't noticed (and why would you?), the USA is without a
Surgeon General. The old one, Dr.
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Carmona" rel="tag">Richard
Carmona, unhired himself for unclear reasons last July, as
href="http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2006/10/the_surgeon_generals_new_gig.php">noted
on Effect Measure. The
candidate for the position, Dr.
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_W._Holsinger" rel="tag">James
Holsinger, has proven to be
href="http://www.individual.com/story.php?story=67035601">…