antioxidant
dr. dolittle | January 16, 2017 Image of goldfish from Wikipedia
Liver failure or congenital defects can lead to a build-up of ammonia in the brain of mammals resulting in life-threatening swelling, convulsions and comas. For goldfish (Carassius auratus), environmental exposure to ammonia causes reversible swelling of the brain. In a new study published in the American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, researchers wanted to explore how the fish were able to accomplish this. They exposed goldfish to high levels of ammonia for 72 hours which, like mammals, caused oxidative stress …
jhalper | January 25, 2011Two recent papers to come out of the Weizmann Institute have possible medical applications -- one in preventing pregnancy, the other in preventing the deadly effects of nerve gas.
The first might give pause to those among us who are "believers" in antioxidants. It seems that those "nasty" molecules they eliminate -- reactive oxygen species -- have a positive role to play, at least when it comes to fertility. In the study, mopping up reactive oxygen species with antioxidants in mouse ovaries blocked ovulation. So while women who are trying to get pregnant might consider knocking off the acai…
oracknows | July 15, 2010As much fun as I had at TAM8, there is one consequence of being out of town and not paying attention to the blog or the Internet as much as I usually do. Well, actually, there are multiple consequences. One is a momentary lapse in insanity. In other words, it's good for the mental health to cut back on the blogging. True, such is the level of my insanity that I didn't just stop altogether for five or six days, as I probably should have, but what can I say? Another consequence is that inevitably one or more things pop up that under normal conditions I'd be going full mental Orac on that…