Category: Medicine

Concussion in sports increasingly under scrutiny

5/1/2016

Protect your brain from injury

The latest journal of JAMA Neurology has published some disquieting research findings about concussion and contact sports. Researchers obtained permission to autopsy the brain of a young man, aged 25, who died primarily of a heart infection, but who showed signs of CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy).

They found extensive damage and changes to his brain.

The young man had played American football for 16 years, starting at age six. He played through school years and in his freshman and sophomore years. After a particularly bad concussion suffered while playing, he was forced to give up the game.

During the course of 16 years, he suffered at least 10 concussions.

He had achieved higher than average grades in his first two years at college but was unable to maintain his grades and left college with failing grades. He was unable to maintain employment and chronically unemployed. Depression, anger and drug addiction followed.

He came to the attention of authorities for his abusive behavior to his wife. Eventually he became dependent on her for his care.

Awareness of the danger to athletes is growing. A movie currently making the rounds is Concussion which is based on facts surrounding professional American football players. Society has known for many years that repeated blows to the head damage the brain. We even have a trite saying to describe a person so damaged – punch drunk.

Some professional athletes are bequeathing their brains to researchers so that more can be learned about the trauma. The CDC has page called Heads Up with information for parents and coaches about how to prevent and/or recognize concussion when it happens.

The brain can be injured when the skull is either jerked abruptly or a blow causes the brain to bounce against the inside of the bony case, or to twist inside it. In the past, many head injuries were laughed off because people did not know the seriousness of the injury as sometimes there are no overt signs.

One sign that is always indicative of a concussion is loss of consciousness, even for a moment. It should mean a trip to emergency even if the person claims to be fine.

Related reading by same writer:
NFL players risk permanent brain damage

Sources:
Journal of American Medical Association
CDC Heads Up

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Vitamin C may cure some cancers

15/11/2015

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vitamin C for good health

When Linus Pauling, Nobel Prize for Chemistry, postulated that Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) could be useful in fighting cancer, he was shuffled off to the sidelines of mainstream medicine. I was fortunate to attend a lecture by the two time winner. I didn’t know anything much about chemistry and even less about blood chemistry, but when Dr. Pauling explained things it all made sense.

Of course I forgot most of it upon leaving the lecture hall.

In 1971 Pauling collaborated with a Scottish doctor who was treating some people for cancers. They administered large doses of Vit. C . Some people got better and some did not. Clinical trials failed to show improvement with vitamin C therapy. The therapy was pretty much shelved until recently.

More knowledge and better tools have revived interest in the vitamin therapy. Some tumour cells mutate to produce more ‘gates’ for glucose into their cells. The same ‘gates’ also allow vitamin C into the tumour cells. It reacts with the glucose and makes it unavailable to the cancer cell, starving it to death.

Mouse studies show a promising co-relationship between high intravenous doses of Vit. C and tumour shrinkage of some cancers. As in many early medical announcements, this is early days.

Recent human trials have shown that quality of life may be improved in some cases. Patients with pancreatic and ovarian cancers showed improvement in quality of life and an extension of life for some months. That was not the case in all cancers. With some cancer types, the patient got worse with the vitamin therapy.

Cancer directly affects the patient but also impacts on the world economy. It is the leading cause of death around the world. The loss of productivity by the cutting short of lives is the single largest drain on the global economy. In 2008 it was estimated to cost the world 1.5% of the global GDP. In 2010 the dollar amount spent to deal with and treat cancers was an estimated USD $2.5 trillion.

Recently interest in treating some cancerous tumours with injections of bacteria have been revived and refined. Perhaps Vit. C therapy will be added to the oncologists’ tool kit as well.
Sources:
Science Magazine
National Cancer Institute
American Cancer Society

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ALS may be linked to ancient viral genes

13/10/2015

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DNA model

Scientists working at the US National Institute of Health have made some intriguing discoveries about ALS aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease and officially as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It is a neurodegenerative disease which has no treatment and no cure. All people who develop it will have a shortened life span.

They have found that in people with ALS have viral particles that have become activated. These viral particles have been carried along in the people’s DNA and become activated. Viral particles in human DNA are normal but usually not active. Often they simply sit there doing nothing and are referred to as “junk DNA”.

Dr. Avindra Nath observed that sometimes people with HIV exhibited symptoms akin to ALS but these symptoms could be reversed with the use of antiviral drugs. It inspired him to study the possibility that a class of viruses known as retroviruses may have a role in causing the neuron destroying disease. They devised a study using a mouse model. The mice were genetically engineered to activate the retrovirus carried in their genetic code. They exhibited signs of death of motor neurons, the same neurons that die in humans with ALS.

Then they treated some of the mice with an antiretroviral drug. The mice improved.

It is very early days yet, but Dr. Nath is optimistic and has planned Stage 1 testing.

We may have discovered a precision medicine solution for treating a neurodegenerative disorder," said Dr. Nath. Science Daily

What triggers the start of this deadly disease is still unknown. There are two kinds of ALS – Sporadic and Familial. Familial presents a greater risk of developing the disease through inheritance. Sporadic trigger is unknown, but the ALS Association mentions that military veterans are twice as likely as the rest of the population to develop this neurodegenerative disease.

Viruses are a strange group of infective particles. They are unable to reproduce on their own, but require the hijacking of a host’s DNA to reproduce. They stitch themselves into the genome of a host cell and subdue its defenses in order to produce more viral particles. Often the infected cell dies. Sometimes they stitch themselves into a host’s DNA and ride along for generations before causing a disease.

Sources:
ALS Association
Science Daily
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

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Horse dung may save your life

17/3/2015

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shaggy mane mushroom

Horse poop has long been known as great for gardens, but save your life?

Mushroom growers know that horse manure is ideal for producing those delectable morsels. A mushroom of a different kind – the inky cap(Coprinus comatus) has researchers hot on the trail of a new antibiotic.

The promising new compound is copsin, a protein substance that interferes with cell wall formation. Bacteria have cell walls. Scientists are reproducing the substance via genetically modified yeast. It is a long way from growing yeast in small scale batches to industrial production and clinical trials.

Medical researchers have been sounding the alarm about multi-resistant bacterial infections. Gradually, as an antibiotic comes into widespread use, it loses its ability to kill bacteria. When penicillin was first produced it could wipe out nearly any infection, revolutionizing modern medicine. Other fungal based bacteria killers also came on line to help fight disease. But over time, bacteria have evolved resistance to the compounds.

The situation has not been helped with careless prescribing of antibiotics for people. But 85% of antibiotic use in N. America is used in the agriculture industry. From feeding animals to produce faster weight gain to spraying on fruit crops to keep the spots off, by far the greatest use of antibiotics is in agriculture.

Other names for inky cap: lawyers wig, shaggy mane.

Shaggy mane mushrooms are also nematode killers. They are able to kill and digest small round worms. Organisms in the Fungus Kingdom exhibit characteristics like plants at times, and at other times exhibit animal like characteristics.

Sources:
CBC News
Wikipedia
Journal of Biological Chemistry

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Concussion in sports increasingly under scrutiny

Vitamin C may cure some cancers

ALS may be linked to ancient viral genes

Horse dung may save your life

Barbara McPherson

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