Search Immortality Topics:

Page 11,356«..1020..11,35511,35611,35711,358..11,37011,380..»


Prograde Unveils Supplement to Slow Cognitive Decline

Posted: September 26, 2012 at 11:11 pm

West Palm Beach, FL (PRWEB) September 26, 2012

Researchers at Prograde Nutrition have seized on a positive new discovery in the field of nutrition research. Prograde, a nutrition supplement company that focuses on scientifically proven results, has been touting a new study that shows that berries, such as strawberries and blueberries, improve brain health and cognitive function.

Berries have long been known to have a number of healthy properties. Because of their high concentration of antioxidants, berries help eliminate free radicals in the body particles that harm tissue, cause inflammation and may contribute to aging. But results published in the 2012 Annals of Neurology show that berries also help slow cognitive decline in older patients.

This was the kind of discovery that should be on the evening news, said Jayson Hunter, research director at Prograde. For many people cognitive decline is the single scariest part of aging. The idea of forgetting where you are, or even not recognizing your own children, is a terrifying prospect. Being able to use natural means to slow that process is crucial knowledge.

The reason berries fight cognitive decline appears to be related to two compounds: flavonoids, which are abundant in berries, and anthocyanins, a class of antioxidants. In a test group of more than 16,000 elderly patients the slowest cognitive decline correlated with a regular intake of strawberries and blueberries.

This is part of why we include berries in Genesis, our greens supplement, Hunter said. Greens have great health benefits on their own, but nothing that extends cognitive health like the power of berries. Ours includes the equivalent of four cups of fresh blueberries in each daily dose. No one else does that.

Prograde Genesis includes strawberries, blueberries, green coffee berries and acai among its ingredients. Genesis is designed to provide a powerhouse-health solution in a single daily supplement.

About Prograde

Prograde Nutrition was founded by fitness experts who wanted to find higher quality supplements for their clients. Prograde emphasizes careful scientific research and testing, and markets its supplements only through qualified medical and health professionals. Information can be found at http://www.getprograde.com/berries-and-cognitive-function.html.

Read more here:
Prograde Unveils Supplement to Slow Cognitive Decline

Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith

Nanotechnology device aims to prevent malaria deaths through rapid diagnosis

Posted: September 26, 2012 at 11:11 pm

ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2012) A pioneering mobile device using cutting-edge nanotechnology to rapidly detect malaria infection and drug resistance could revolutionise how the disease is diagnosed and treated.

Around 800,000 people die from malaria each year after being bitten by mosquitoes infected with malaria parasites. Signs that the parasite is developing resistance to the most powerful anti-malarial drugs in south-east Asia and sub-Saharan Africa mean scientists are working to prevent the drugs becoming ineffective.

The 5.2million (4million) Nanomal project -- launched September 26-- is planning to provide an affordable hand-held diagnostic device to swiftly detect malaria infection and parasites' drug resistance. It will allow healthcare workers in remote rural areas to deliver effective drug treatments to counter resistance more quickly, potentially saving lives.

The device -- the size and shape of a mobile phone -- will use a range of latest proven nanotechnologies to rapidly analyse the parasite DNA from a blood sample. It will then provide a malaria diagnosis and comprehensive screening for drug susceptibility in less than 20 minutes, while the patient waits. With immediately available information about the species of parasite and its potential for drug resistance, a course of treatment personally tailored to counter resistance can be given.

Currently for malaria diagnosis, blood samples are sent to a central referral laboratory for drug resistance analysis, requiring time as well as specialised and expensive tests by skilled scientists. Additionally, confirmation of malaria is often not available where patients present with fever. Very often, drug treatments are prescribed before the diagnosis and drug resistance are confirmed, and may not be effective. Being able to treat effectively and immediately will prevent severe illness and save lives.

The Nanomal consortium is being led by St George's, University of London, which is working with UK handheld diagnostics and DNA sequencing specialist QuantuMDx Group and teams at the University of Tuebingen in Germany and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. It was set up in response to increasing signs that the malaria parasite is mutating to resist the most powerful class of anti-malaria drugs, artemisinins. The European Commission has awarded 4million (3.1million) to the project.

Nanomal lead Professor Sanjeev Krishna, from St George's, said: "Recent research suggests there's a real danger that artemisinins could eventually become obsolete, in the same way as other anti-malarials. New drug treatments take many years to develop, so the quickest and cheapest alternative is to optimise the use of current drugs. The huge advances in technology are now giving us a tremendous opportunity to do that and to avoid people falling seriously ill or dying unnecessarily."

QuantuMDx's CEO Elaine Warburton said: "Placing a full malaria screen with drug resistance status in the palm of a health professional's hand will allow instant prescribing of the most effective anti-malaria medication for that patient. Nanomal's rapid, low-cost test will further support the global health challenge to eradicate malaria."

The handheld device will take a finger prick of blood, extract the malarial DNA and then detect and sequence the specific mutations linked to drug resistance, using a nanowire biosensor. The chip electrically detects the DNA sequences and converts them directly into binary code, the universal language of computers. The binary code can then be readily analysed and even shared, via wireless or mobile networks, with scientists for real-time monitoring of disease patterns.

The device should provide the same quality of result as a referral laboratory, at a fraction of the time and cost. Each device could cost about the price of a smart phone initially, but may be issued for free in developing countries. A single-test cartridge will be around 13 (10) initially, but the aim is to reduce this cost to ensure affordability in resource-limited settings.

See the original post here:
Nanotechnology device aims to prevent malaria deaths through rapid diagnosis

Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith

Med students’ biggest challenges: educational costs, workload

Posted: September 26, 2012 at 11:11 pm

The cost of medical education poses the biggest challenge for medical students, according to a national survey of students released Sept. 13.

Theyre really seeing the bills piling up as the costs for medical school go up year after year, said Erica Sniad Morgenstern, spokeswoman for the health information technology company Epocrates.

The company surveyed 1,015 students in August who use its drug reference tool at more than 160 medical schools nationwide. Medical school costs have been an increasing challenge for students in the seven years the company has been conducting the survey, she said.

The average student debt is $162,000 for allopathic students and $205,674 for osteopathic medicine students, according to the latest data from the Assn. of American Medical Colleges and the American Assn. of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. Eighty-six percent of allopathic medical school graduates and 91% of osteopathic medicine college graduates had educational debt in 2011.

Milla Kviatkovsky, a third-year medical student at Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said she wishes she had taken cost more into consideration when deciding where to go. Depending on the school, tuition and other expenses can range from $20,000 to $60,000 a year, she said.

I think the cost of medical education has become one of the biggest factors, said Kviatkovsky, one of the surveyed students.

The cost of medical education was cited as the top challenge by 45% of surveyed students. The second-biggest challenge cited by 22% of respondents was the sheer volume of information that students must learn.

In a separate question, students were asked about their concerns as future physicians. Fifty-three percent cited being a good physician as among their biggest concerns, 47% mentioned balancing work and personal life, and 30% said they were worried about paying off student loans.

Overall, students ranked their medical school experiences as positive, but many said they would like to have more direct contact with patients and more education about the business side of medicine, Morgenstern said.

The majority of students were satisfied with their training in areas such as bedside manner, patient safety and infection prevention and control. Students indicated that they were less satisfied with other aspects of their education, including billing and coding, practice management and interaction with hospital administration (epocrates.com/who/media/mediaresources/statistics).

Continued here:
Med students’ biggest challenges: educational costs, workload

Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith

Molecular process in fat cells that influences stress and longevity identified

Posted: September 26, 2012 at 11:11 pm

ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2012) As part of their ongoing research investigating the biology of aging, the greatest risk factor for type 2 diabetes and other serious diseases, scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have identified a new factor -- microRNA processing in fat tissue -- which plays a major role in aging and stress resistance. This finding may lead to the development of treatments that increase stress resistance and longevity and improve metabolism.

The findings appear in the Sept. 5 online edition of Cell Metabolism.

Over the past several years, it has become clear that fat cells (adipocytes) are more than just repositories to store fat. Indeed, fat cells secrete a number of substances that actively influence metabolism and systemic inflammation. Previous studies have found that reducing fat mass by caloric restriction (CR) or surgical or genetic means can promote longevity and stress resistance in species from yeast to primates. However, little is known about how CR and fat reduction produce these beneficial effects. This study investigated one type of molecular mediator -- change in microRNAs (miRNAs) and the processing enzymes required to make them- that is influenced by aging and reversed by caloric restriction. miRNAs are involved in the formation of mature RNA.

Based on studies conducted using human cells, mice and C. elegans (a microscopic worm used as a model organism for aging studies), the researchers demonstrated that levels of multiple miRNAs, decrease in fat tissue (adipose) with age in all three species. This is due to a decrease in the critical enzyme required from converted pre-miRNAs to mature miRNAs, Dicer. In the human study, which compared the miRNA levels in preadipocytes (fat cell precusors) of young, middle-aged and older people, people aged 70 and older had the lowest miRNA levels. "The fact that this change occurs in humans, mice and worms points to its significance as a general and important process," says lead author C. Ronald Kahn, MD, Chief Academic Officer at Joslin Diabetes Center and the Mary K. Iacocca Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Caloric restriction, which has been shown to prolong lifespan and improve stress resistance in both mice and worms, prevents this decline of Dicer, and in the case of the mice, restore miRNAs to levels observed in young mice. Conversely, exposure of adipocytes to major stressors associated with aging and metabolic diseases, including toxic agents, Dicer levels decreased. Mice and worms engineered to have decreased Dicer expression in fat showed increased sensitivity to stress, a sign of premature aging. By contrast, worms engineered to "overexpress" Dicer in the intestine (the adipose tissue equivalent in worms) had greater stress resistance and lived longer.

Overall, these studies showed that regulation of miRNA processing in adipose-related tissues plays an important role in longevity and an organism's ability to respond to age-related and environmental stress. "This study points to a completely new mechanism by which fat might affect lifespan and is the first time that anyone has looked at fat and miRNAs as factors in longevity," according to co-author T. Keith Blackwell, MD, PhD, co-head of Joslin's Section on Islet Cell and Regenerative Biology and Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School.

Based on this study, Blackwell suggests that "finding ways to improve miRNA processing to keep miRNA levels up during aging might have a role in protecting against the stresses of everyday life and the development of age- and stress-related disease."

Dr. Kahn and the study investigators are currently working on ways to genetically control Dicer levels in the fat tissues of mice, to create mouse models that are more or less resistant to stress. "We would love to find drugs that would mimic this genetic manipulation to produce a beneficial effect," says Dr. Kahn. "If we can better understand the biology of aging, we might also understand how age impacts diabetes," says Kahn.

Study co-authors include Marcelo A. Mori, Prashant Raghavan, Jeremie Boucher, Stacey Robida-Stubbs, Yazmin Macotela, Steven J. Russell, and T. Keith Blackwell of Joslin; and James L. Kirkland and Thomas Thomou of the Mayo Clinic.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Originally posted here:
Molecular process in fat cells that influences stress and longevity identified

Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith

OC likes QB chemistry, seeks consistency

Posted: September 26, 2012 at 11:11 pm

SOUTH BEND, Ind. Chuck Martin likes the chemistry of his quarterback group through the first-third of the season. Just don't bother asking Notre Dame's offensive coordinator about any big-picture plans.

"I have no idea," Martin, speaking for the first time this season, said Wednesday. "If you've got a crystal ball and you could tell me, that would be awesome. We're all just trying to figure out a way to beat Miami. The plan for the future is to try to figure out what's going to shake down. I believe we've got four good quarterbacks, which obviously one quarterback plays at a time so to me, I don't know.

Martin isn't too worried about Everett Golson losing confidence after being pulled for Tommy Rees in both of the Irish's home games. The fact that head coach Brian Kelly has started Golson over three other talented options is all the validation one needs, Martin said, and the growing pains his No. 1 signal caller has suffered are not uncommon for a redshirt freshman.

"Keep accentuating all the good things he's done, because he's played a lot of snaps, he's done a lot of good things," Martin said of Golson. "We said from Day 1, 'You're not going to be a great quarterback as a freshman. It's very rare [a freshman's] great all the time. You might be great in spurts or great on plays or great for a period of time, or even a whole game you might have a complete great game.' But just to play, there's so many new experiences for him."

The fast-talking Martin said the offense is still searching for consistent execution in all phases, though he's less concerned with establishing a true identity than he is with some of the younger players not showing the same sense of urgency early in games as they have lately.

"The good thing so far is the only time we've really had to throw the ball was the two-minute drive against Purdue and we did it when we had to," Martin said, "and the only two times we've had to run the ball was the fourth quarter of two games against two good opponents and we've grinded the clock pretty good."

Follow this link:
OC likes QB chemistry, seeks consistency

Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith

Stellar Biotechnologies Presented at World Congress of Marine Biotechnology

Posted: September 26, 2012 at 11:11 pm

PORT HUENEME, CA--(Marketwire - Sep 26, 2012) - Stellar Biotechnologies, Inc. ("Stellar") ( TSX VENTURE : KLH ) ( PINKSHEETS : SBOTF ) ( FRANKFURT : RBT ) today announced that Frank Oakes, President and Chief Executive Officer of Stellar, presented at the 2nd Annual World Congress of Marine Biotechnology held September 20 - 23, 2012 in Dalian, China.

"We are the world leader in Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin (KLH)," said Frank Oakes. "KLH is a critical material in immunology that is derived from a sole marine source, so we are intensely aware of the importance of the ocean's fragile resources to pharmaceutical sciences."

The World Congress of Marine Biotechnology brought together international scientists and industry leaders to discuss the global growth and latest developments in marine biotechnology.Mr. Oakes delivered a keynote talk titled "Marine Compounds in Immune Therapy; the Pathway to Commercialization" focusing on the deployment of KLH in immunology, one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical fields.

Frank Oakes is an international expert in the commercialization of marine-derived products, with specialization in sustainable aquaculture systems for biotechnology and seafood industries.Stellar Biotechnologies is championing KLH protection and development with support from the National Cancer Institute, the National Science Foundation, and the national Center for Research Resources.

For more information: Visit Stellar Biotechnologies website and the KLH knowledge base KLH Site.

About Stellar Biotechnologies, Inc. Stellar Biotechnologies, Inc. ( TSX VENTURE : KLH ) ( PINKSHEETS : SBOTF ) ( FRANKFURT : RBT ) is the world leader in sustainable manufacture of Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin (KLH). KLH is an important immune-stimulating protein used in wide-ranging therapeutic and diagnostic markets. Potent, yet proven safe in humans, KLH operates as both a vital component for conjugate vaccines (targeting cancer, autoimmune, and infectious diseases) as well as an antigen for measuring immune status. Stellar Biotechnologies was founded to address the growing demand for renewable, commercial-scale supplies of high-quality, GMP-grade KLH. Stellar has developed leading practices, facilities and proprietary capabilities to address this need. To receive regular updates, enter email at bottom of http://stellarbiotechnologies.com/investors/news_releases/

There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Readers should not place undue reliance on such statements. Except in accordance with applicable securities laws, the Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking statements that are incorporated by reference herein. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the Company's securities set out herein in the United States, or to, or for the benefit or account of, a U.S. Person or person in the United States. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of these releases.

Read more:
Stellar Biotechnologies Presented at World Congress of Marine Biotechnology

Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith


Page 11,356«..1020..11,35511,35611,35711,358..11,37011,380..»