Use the VCs on advice from experts

Current media articles have the use of physicians, scientists and experts from pharmaceutical companies and hedge funds, casting often investigated in an unflattering light. Experts can play a valuable role, but is it a case of caveat emptor - and sometimes for the experts and the Organization, the setting. New products, biotech, medical technology companies trying to promote such as a medical expert perceived objectivity could undermine when financial relationships are clearly not in advance.  Experts, providing information on hedge funds must be careful not to disclose non-public information about publicly traded companies and run into conflict with the insider trading restrictions.

Capitalists rely often personal and business networks to help collect venture investment information to make smart investments in private companies.   Because early-stage venture firm invest in public stocks or independent projects promote work experts with VCs can and VCs work the reputation or objectivity with experts with no risk.

Here is how I and other venture capitalists use external experts:

Personal networks, tend to be by far the most valuable. For example, contact sometimes I one childhood friend, who is now an orthopedic surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic. If think CCV is about investing in a product surgery, I would ask his opinion. Its input is good - and it's free advice from a valuable source.

As other VCs I see for the professional guidance within existing portfolio companies. I am currently a project, relating to a software system for gene sequencing, for example, and I have a chief technical officer at a CCV portfolio company, very knowledgeable in this area is consulted.

Sometimes I pay for advice other VCs to do, and it is often the price value. At one point I saw a diabetes-related startup focusing on glucose intolerance and won a diabetic's expert by Abbott Laboratories, who understand the market, competition and what would be required to make this start successful. Ultimately CCV decided against this investment, partially due to make its input. Advice that helps dissuade from an investment venture capitalists to make every bit as valuable as consulting prods gives it because fail more startups ultimately a successful investment.

When to pay a VC for advice, he too cautious, he selects. In particular, people avoid to have skin in the game because you have published work in the area of interest or maybe even a product is what I am considering funding similar to have invented. Information from these people can be biased and therefore dangerous for a portfolio companies.

John Steuart is Managing Director at Claremont Creek Ventures.

View the original article here

Pesticides, the children in the damage 'world's Salad Bowl'

Locals region Salinas Valley of California call worldwide Salad Bowl. Dole, Naturipe and fresh express all have operations there.

Researchers recruited 600 women underwent a series of tests to measure pesticide levels in their bodies. The women were then followed during pregnancy and her children had their growth, spiritual development, and general health mapped.

According to investigative reporting workshop:

“... [A] t of age 2 children of mothers, the highest level of organophosphate pesticide metabolites in your blood had the worst intellectual development in the group... at age 5, the children gave birth to poor attention span compared to mothers who had lower levels of pesticide metabolites in their urine, had their Mütter were most exposed during pregnancy. "

View the original article here

Counting America Hochtöner--the feathered ones

Every year, volunteers throughout the Americas grab their notepads and binoculars to take an inventory of local birds for the National Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count. Greg Butcher, Audubon's director of bird conservation, talks about this year's tallies and species to look for.

Copyright © 2010 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

IRA FLATOW, host:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow.

It is the most wonderful time of the year, and to that I mean when birders all over America get out their binoculars and their notebooks and their warm clothing to talk up all the birds they see for Audubon's annual Christmas bird count.

And then we always like to check in on the count at this time of the year to see how the purple finches, the red-breasted nuthatches and all their pals are doing.

And we want to hear what you've seen too. Spotted anything good, or maybe you're a little bit mystified by something you saw fluttering through the trees? Maybe we can help you figure it out. Give us a call. Our number is 1-800-989-8255, 1-800-989-TALK. You can always tweet us @scifri, @-S-C-I-F-R-I.

Joining us now is Greg Butcher, director of bird conservation for the National Audubon Society in Washington. Welcome back.

Mr. GREG BUTCHER (National Audubon Society): Thanks a lot. Hi, Ira, how are you doing?

FLATOW: Hey, how the bird watch going?

Mr. BUTCHER: Oh, it's going great. You must have been doing your homework because red-breasted nuthatches and purple finches are the big news in the East this fall.

FLATOW: No kidding?

Mr. BUTCHER: Yeah.

FLATOW: Wow, tell me about that.

Mr. BUTCHER: Well, those are eruptive species. So some winters we don't see any, and some winters we see a bunch. So this is a relatively good year for both those species.

FLATOW: Any guess why that is?

Mr. BUTCHER: Well, these are birds that sometimes they winter in Canada, if there's a good enough food supply for them. But this year there doesn't seem to be enough seats to keep them all happy in Canada, so they come visit us in the states.

FLATOW: Now, the bird count isn't really a complete census, is it?

Mr. BUTCHER: Well, no. If you think of a complete census, like they did - the Bureau of the Census just did for the country, we don't try to count every bird. It's really just a sample of what's out there every year.

CONAN: And it goes on all over the country, correct?

Mr. BUTCHER: Oh, my goodness, we have more than 2,000 places every year where we count birds, all across the U.S., southern Canada, and most of the Western Hemisphere.

FLATOW: Is it too late to get in on this?

Mr. BUTCHER: Oh, not at all. We go till January 5th. So you can actually go on our website. If you Google Christmas bird count and you can find a location near you. We've got a location finder.

FLATOW: And so what kind of results have you gotten so far this year?

Mr. BUTCHER: Well, the results are we've had some record counts. So it's interesting. Even though where I am in Washington, D.C., it's pretty chilly, it's kind of concentrating the birds. So we've seen some record numbers.

CONAN: Wow, and in any part of the country where you're seeing more than others?

Mr. BUTCHER: Well, basically it's good all across the country, and every state kind of has its own special birds this year.

CONAN: Now, you were just down on a count in Ecuador, right? Tell us about that.

Mr. BUTCHER: Oh, I was on a birder's dream. I couldn't believe it.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. BUTCHER: I went to the number one Christmas bird count in the world. So I got to go to Mindo, Ecuador, and I was within inches of the equator, in the Andes Mountains and in the place where they see more birds on Christmas bird counts than any other place.

FLATOW: Wow. Let's go to the phones, to Darcy(ph) in Kansas City. Hi, Darcy.

DARCY (Caller): Hi, I'm in Kansas City, Kansas. How are you doing, Ira?

FLATOW: Fine.

DARCY: I love your program.

FLATOW: Everything's up to date today, right?

DARCY: Something like that.

FLATOW: Yeah.

DARCY: I put out birdfeeders every winter because I like to see little birds come and get what they need to survive over the season. And, oh, I've seen flickers, a tufted-headed titmouse, various(ph) sparrows, male and female downy woodpeckers. But I've also seen a golden flicker. He's come back.

FLATOW: A golden flicker(ph).

DARCY: Yes.

FLATOW: What does it look like besides being golden? Is it a big bird, small bird?

DARCY: Okay, it's a smaller - it's a little bit bigger than a woodpecker. They have a butter-yellow breast, and the back is kind of tannish gray. And the males have a little orange-reddish cap.

FLATOW: Greg, what do you think of her golden slicker(ph)?

Mr. BUTCHER: Oh, it's a great bird. It actually is a type of woodpecker, and they often will feed on the ground. And it's one of the few birds in North America that will eat ants. And they will come in to birdfeeders.

DARCY: I put up (technical difficulties) for my woodpeckers, and I've got a regular seed feeder.

Mr. BUTCHER: Yup, and the flickers will often come to that suet. So it's a great bird you have. The normal name people use for it is Northern flicker, but in the East they have what they call yellow shafts, and in the West they have red shafts. So what they're seeing in Kansas City is one of the eastern kinds of flickers.

FLATOW: Thanks for the call. Let's go to Rachel(ph) in Huntsville, Alabama. Hi, Rachel.

RACHEL (Caller): Hi.

FLATOW: Hi there.

RACHEL: We saw seagulls, a flock of seagulls, in Huntsville, Alabama.

FLATOW: Wow, they're a little far from home.

RACHEL: Yes, they are. I just wanted to know what you made of that.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. BUTCHER: Ornithologists don't tend to call them seagulls because you can see them anywhere in the country. And what you've probably got in Huntsville, Alabama is ring-billed gulls, because those are the species that like the inland areas more than, say, heron gull or a great black-backed gull, which is more likely to stick close to the sea.

FLATOW: All right, there you have it, Rachel.

RACHEL: Okay, thank you so much.

FLATOW: Have a happy, healthy New Year and Merry Christmas.

RACHEL: Thank you.

FLATOW: Greg, have you noticed with the count any species that used to be very common that people are just not finding anymore?

Mr. BUTCHER: Well, unfortunately, there's quite a few of those. And one of the strangest things happened in the East United States, is in the 1980s we had huge flocks of evening grosbeaks, and now there's almost no flocks of evening grosbeaks, and they're a beautiful yellow and black bird and we used to complain about them every year because they'd come in big numbers and eat up all our sunflower seeds, and now we're complaining because they don't come anymore.

FLATOW: Wow, that's too bad. Let's go to Jennifer(ph) in, well, I think we'll go to Jennifer in Lansing, Michigan. Hi, Jennifer.

JENNIFER (Caller): Hi.

FLATOW: Hi there.

JENNIFER: Well, I've participated in our local Christmas count for, ooh, probably close to 30 years now. I do the same section with a friend of mine every year.

This year, we found that the numbers were actually down overall, except for crows. I was there at sun-up when the flock of crows came out of the woods, and there had to be, oh, probably 4,000-plus.

FLATOW: Wow, that's a lot.

JENNIFER: Yeah.

FLATOW: I'm thinking of "The Birds," that movie.

Mr. BUTCHER: Well, especially in Michigan. You know, 20 years ago, they didn't have that many crows in Michigan, but that's one of the species that's been wintering farther north over the last 20, 30 years.

JENNIFER: Yeah, when I was a kid, crows were pretty uncommon.

FLATOW: Thanks for that report, Jennifer.

JENNIFER: You're welcome.

FLATOW: Let's see if we can get one more quick one in from Phil(ph) in Fort Lauderdale. Hi, Phil.

PHIL (Caller): Yes. I was wanting to report a change in behavior in rather large water birds. I live on a lake where I see white herons (unintelligible) and we see them feeding in the waters and canals frequently. But lately I've noticed them moving into urban areas, where hedgerows and shrubs and bushes - and they seem to stalking some of our small, gnolly lizards.

And I've even observed one, you know, catching them. So in an urban area, these large birds seem to be adapting their feeding habits, much like the little cattle egrets, which are a pasture bird, have done the same thing.

FLATOW: Huh, what do you think of that?

Mr. BUTCHER: Well, that is a first for me because I was thinking, as he was telling the story, that it probably was a cattle egret, because we've seen them do that. They're called cattle egrets, of course, because they follow behind cows and kick up whatever insects or lizards or whatever follow the cows.

And so as the listener said, they came into the urban areas first and started taking advantage of whatever food we had in that area. And we know the great blue heron, you know, will eat almost anything too. So I guess it's not too surprising if a great egret might do so as well.

FLATOW: All right, thanks for the call. Greg, I've got a couple of minutes left. You said your number one birding goal is to see male birds of paradise displaying at a breeding. Like, why is that number one for you?

Mr. BUTCHER: Well, I think the male birds of paradise are sort of the pinnacle of evolution. They're big birds. They have gorgeous colors on them. And then they have real strange long tails or wild feathers. And they can create some of the strangest postures you've ever seen.

So I've been able to see them on David Attenborough's nature shows, but I want to see them out in the wild. And they display to the females in a group. And so they make wild calls and these wild displays.

And when I was down in Mindo, I saw these little miniature birds of paradise. They're called - oh, and they're (unintelligible) as well.

FLATOW: And where would you see, if you wanted to go see these birds of paradise, where would the best shot at seeing them be?

Mr. BUTCHER: Well, the birds of paradise are in New Guinea, primarily.

FLATOW: A-ha.

Mr. BUTCHER: And then the little birds I saw in Mindo were manikins, and they're little tiny birds, and they're not related to birds of paradise, but they also do wild displays (unintelligible). So I got a little mini version of it this winter already.

FLATOW: I got a quick tweet from UrsulaV(ph), who says: The best bird this year was a yellow-billed cuckoo. Pittsboro, North Carolina.

Mr. BUTCHER: Now, that is a very unusual bird in the United States. They breed across the East United States, and some out West as well, but they're almost all gone in the wintertime. So it's a very unusual species to be staying put.

FLATOW: Wow. So we can still use our backyard birdseed feeders to watch for birds too, could we not?

Mr. BUTCHER: Oh, it's a great time for feeding birds because the cold and the snow really brings them into the birdfeeders, and just unbelievable surprises can come into feeders.

A lot of people are feeding hummingbirds in the wintertime, and now along the Gulf of Mexico a number of these hummingbirds are wintering where they used to just stop off on migration.

FLATOW: That's one of my great unsolved mysteries, how to get a hummingbird into my birdfeeder. And I've tried for many years, but...

Mr. BUTCHER: Well, keep at it.

FLATOW: I've grown all the plants - that's another story. We haven't got time for that.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. BUTCHER: It'll work.

FLATOW: Thanks, Greg.

Mr. BUTCHER: Good talking to you, Ira.

FLATOW: Good luck to you. Happy New Year, Happy Holiday.

Mr. BUTCHER: Thanks a lot.

FLATOW: Greg Butcher is director of bird conservation for the National Audubon Society in Washington.

Copyright © 2010 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

View the original article here

Scientific American: U.S. pig farms may flu factories

Coming that could next pandemic flu virus from pigs, but are we monitor their health closely enough?

Matthias Rietschel/APN that next pandemic flu virus from pigs could come, but we are tight enough monitoring their health?

Last year's H1N1 pandemic was a wake-up call to many scientists such as unpredictable and dangerous viruses in circulation in the animal world can be if you to humans directly. The outbreak of avian influenza in 2006 was our first idea.

Since then it has lot of talk about monitoring the health of the animals that most potential passed on an influenza virus with pandemic - pigs and birds.

But an article that just released says our pig in Scientific American monitoring is pretty bad. So bad that American pigs farms practical "flu factories," according to author Helen Branswell in global health are reporting to the Harvard University Nieman Fellow.

Why is so relaxed monitoring? The problem, Branswell writes, is that the pork industry reluctant data with human health officials to share. And Branswell says confidential industry pig flu tests results.

An official of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Branswell that so often CDC get a call everyone, if someone swine flu directly from a pig catches. But in General, it is too late for CDC to study. The pigs "often slaughter was gone by the time we were able, find what actually was the exposure," says the official Branswell.

No pure swine flu H1N1, was of course - it had two genes of influenza viruses circulating normally in swine and avian and human influenza genes. But pigs (and birds) remain new pandemic viruses the species most likely to host.

Scientists, especially in Asia, have gotten much better, bird watching, but know far less about viruses that infect a billion that almost domesticated pigs all over the world. And the virus began 12 years ago, people could developing and recombining into new forms, will make much faster than before, withered monitoring a greater priority.

Earlier in this year, the CDC and u.s. Department of agriculture finally have a monitoring system for pigs have discussed for years. But it requires the support of pig producers. And you "have been reluctant to support what many consider to be an offer see by Government to interfere in your Affairs," says Branswell.

Recordings called up the national pork producers Council, industry's take on it. Spokesman Dave Warner recognized that some manufacturers may be unwilling sick pigs reporting because you fear that the Government will put you into quarantine.

NPPC officials say, are proponents of USDA CDC pig control. And say, already to submit many producers of your pigs to the Government to analyze blood samples.

Even if we handle the monitoring in the United States can get sometime soon could be the next just from another country, such as China, H1N1 almost half of the world pigs produced and does even less monitoring.

View the original article here

Soy brain damage

The claim: Men run tofu food risk (literally) shrink your brain! Says who? Now, do one of the leading or, at least, the loudest in natural health community - who will remain nameless. It is hard to find all components of the modern food chain inspired so much debate or exaggeration as soy. Critics claim, all lead by cancer to severe hormonal disorders in both men and women. On the other hand, offers to mark evidence that suggests that soy by promoter show many of the benefits of hormonal replacement therapy without the well-documented risks. Where is the truth? I maintain the best possible answer in the medical literature is found.

There is an enormous amount of data on the health effects of soy nearby. The majority of the scientific evidence is in the form of animal and in vitro experiments. Manageable and suitable to make more this topic, I decided to omit this information. Everything you read in today's column is based solely on human data.

The kernel of this controversy can be attributed to the April 2000 issue of the journal of the American College of nutrition. A report by the National Institute of aging issued examined the link between tofu consumption and brain function and size in a group of 3,734 older men. The finding was that "higher midlife tofu consumption regardless of cognitive impairment indicators and brain atrophy assigned in late life". These results generated concern of outside researchers specific methodological issues in the study noted, that may have influenced the results. This led to follow up comment that demands "prematurely, issue recommendations on the risk of being the tofu eating" and ", the results should be interpreted more carefully". (1,2,3)

Evidence that seemed to support the conclusions of the original study 2000 new developed in 2008. A group of 719 senior men and women were the topics of ' 08-study. Memory tests and food frequency questionnaires were used to evaluate a possible link between cognitive decline and soy products Tempe, tofu). Tofu with poorer cognitive performance was again linked. But Tempe, a fermented soybean food was independently related "with better memory". The researchers point out that both foods contain high levels of isoflavones or Phytoestrogens. Tempe offers but also a meaningful amount of folic acid that may be partly responsible for the known benefits. (4)

The problem I found at the same time studied this problem is that several other inquiries have come to similar conclusions. For example, a publication in October 2010 issue of the journal brain research discovered, Tempe and tofu actually improves memory in a group of seniors with an average age of 67. Older seniors, 80 years old and up, have the same benefits, but you suffer from or identifiable on the basis of soy intake follow. (5)

Three recent studies, assessment of soy supplements containing concentrated levels of isoflavones reported as positive results. One of the latest, presented in the January 2009 issue of age and ageing revealed, that seniors given 100 mg / day of soy isoflavones higher on various cognitive tests than those achieved a 6 month period received a placebo. Another publication of the same year determined that supplementation with 116 mg of soy isoflavones per day for 12 weeks led to "Advanced cognitive processes that activation are displayed based on estrogen". It is important to note that compatible results in studies reported with older and younger men. (6,7,8)

Soy isoflavones may improve the spatial working memory in healthy men

The so-called "soy brain threat" is far from a problem that is resolved in the minds of many food experts,. It is clear to me that a blanket statement about the harmful effects of soy on male brain can confidently be made at this time. It is but certainly reason for pause on regular tofu consumption in men. More research in this area is called for, to be sure. If it indeed is something neurotoxic soy Quark we need what is to identify. It seems not Phytoestrogens contained therein. So where will this leave us? Overall I think soy foods should be eaten sparingly. The fermented varieties (miso, natto, soy yogurt, Tempe) are also probably better options from view of digestion and may. Soy supplements should be used as only if it is a good reason to do so - in selected cases of hot flashes, Prostate disease, etc.. This is not only a more balanced view than most, but it is also what I recommend my own diet and my clients. (9,10,11,12,13)

View the original article here

Hot spiced cereal recipe

If on a gluten-free, low carbohydrate diet that you be innovative, have to if you are hoping to have a richly satisfying and varied diet. I fits the consequences of this kind of plan to eat because my health better than any other diet I've ever tried it before. Science, supporting avoiding gluten, a protein in many grains found and restriction played an important role in my decision to inform carbohydrates. Fortunately have I also created and discovered my chosen many recipes and products that help to make diet a pleasure rather than a burden.

Was especially cool in Southern California last week. A rainy morning I had a longing for something soothing and warm start to the day off right. In the days of old, make some traditional oatmeal topped with banana slices and perhaps a drizzle would have meant pure maple syrup. Of course that's about as far current menu plan away from my as you could imagine - a true CARB Fiesta.

I know that I am not the little Carber out there who yearns for hot cereal every now and then. So, if you're like me in this respect, take heart. It is possible to create healthier ingredients natural alternatives to cream of wheat and oat flakes. Today I will give you just as it can be done a foundation recipe that illustrates. For those who look carbohydrate or gluten restricted diet not one, try this alternative BREW anyway. What is shown below healthfully in virtually any type of diet plan integrates and will almost certainly improve your nutrient dense.

Healthy fellow hot spiced cereals
1 Cup unsweetened almond milk *
1/4 Cup almond flour meal
4 Tbsp flax seed powder
3 Tablespoons unsweetened coconut (destroyed)
a pinch of different seasonings to taste *
1 / 2 Tsp vanilla extract bio
1 Dropwise of liquid stevia *
Pinch NutraSalt

* Product use: Blue Diamond almond breeze - unsweetened vanilla taste (cooled variety) * I used organic allspice, nutmeg, ground cloves, cinnamon and ginger. *** Product use: NuNaturals PURE LIQUID alcohol free stevia

Nutrition content: Calories: 470. Protein: 14 G. FAT: 38 grams. Fiber: 14 grams. "Net" carbohydrates: 8 grams.

Start sauce pot over a low heat setting by the casting of almond milk and vanilla extract in a quart size. Add the dried spices to the liquid. Combine the almond flour, flax meal and coconut flakes in the pot. You stirring constantly for the next 3 minutes or so. Put in Add of Stevia and a pinch of salt to taste. Turn the heat the mixture reaches your desired consistency.

The reason why I think this hot cereals is superior best explains found by appealing to several recent studies in the medical literature. My cereals (almonds, coconut and linseed) is shown scientifically: a) lower multiple risk factors for coronary heart disease founded including apolipoprotein B100, LDL ("bad") cholesterol and cholesterol; b) protect against oxidative damage to cholesterol and heart mitochondria. c) systemic inflammation in the form of C - reactive protein to reduce. Taken together point to documented these effects as a highly protective diet formula for anyone concerned about heart disease and stroke. (1,2,3)

When preparing this recipe, I suggest that you spice it so generously as your taste buds allows. The aromatic components in this Court not only taste flavour enhancers or window dressing. For example, allspice, cloves and nutmeg benefits for the health of chemical prevention activity until there too potent free radical potential scavenging. In practice you can protect very well the body from some of the destructive processes, contributing to health threats, including cancer and cardiovascular diseases. This modest recipe is yet another example of how we eat strategically as preventive medicine can use. (4,5,6)

View the original article here

Best of snacking confusion

Does snacking assist with weight loss or encourage weight gain? At first glance the answer may seem obvious. Many people come to the conclusion that adding a snack or two to your daily schedule surely increases caloric intake and, thereby, contributes to extra pounds. Well, that’s one theory. Another theory is that snacking between meals can help balance blood sugar and stave off overeating in subsequent meals. So which of these competing hypotheses is correct? I’ll give you my two cents on this debate in today’s Healthy Monday tip.

I sometimes feel like a judge presiding over a natural health courtroom. I hear different sides of the same case and I’m left to rule on which argument is the most accurate. In my many years of practice, I’ve determined that the only way to sift through the more prejudicial aspects of health issues is to go directly to the source of the evidence. In my line of work that means reviewing the medical literature myself rather than relying on commentary.

A new US study on snacking was published in the June 16th issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It searched for a link between snack frequency and obesity in an adolescent population. In all, a total of 5,811 boys and girls took part in the evaluation. The results indicate that the kids who snacked most often were less likely classified as overweight or obese. There was also a similar trend with regard to abdominal obesity which is considered a risk factor for blood sugar irregularities such as insulin resistance. (1)

Unfortunately, the issue of snacking and weight gain isn’t quite so straight forward as evidenced by a Spanish trial, also published in June 2010. In this instance, 10,162 university graduates were the test subjects. The researchers tallied snacking habits for an average of 4.6 years using food-frequency questionnaires. The findings here were the exact opposite of the previously mentioned study. The authors discovered a 69% higher risk of developing obesity in “usual snackers”. (2)

The global picture of the proposed snacking/weight link becomes even more inconclusive when two additional studies from Africa and Canada are factored into the equation. The first examined the effects of a “snacking diet” in 1,072 adults living in the small, west African country of Ouagadougou. The findings reveal that there was no relationship between overweight and the participants’ “snacking score”. The second inquiry focused on Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk) children. The conclusion of the authors from the University of Montreal determined that “children at risk of overweight” tended to snack on higher calorie foods and did so more frequently than children with a healthy body mass index. The take home message was that, “Differences detected in snack food intake between normal-weight children and children at risk of overweight could explain in part the relationship between food choices and risk of overweight”. (3,4)

US Snacking Statistics Suggest Disconcerting Nutritional Trends

It’s not unusual to find conflicting studies in cases where diverse patient populations are involved. The good news is that the lack of scientific consensus shouldn’t affect your decision about whether to snack or not. Why? Because researchers have given us clear tools about how we can snack healthfully, *if* we feel the need to snack.

The first concept to keep in mind is that you need to eat consciously. Mindless snacking almost certainly leads to poor food choices and improbable weight control. However, there is a simple, two-step approach to snacking that helps almost anyone to do so constructively: 1) compile a list of healthy snacks and take note of what a typical serving size looks like; 2) keep a daily, food diary and review it on a regular basis. Both of these steps connect your body and your brain. This is an essential process that helps educate you from a nutritional and psychological standpoint. One without the other rarely works in the long term. (5)

When putting together a list of healthy snack items, keep in mind what your ultimate goal should be – nourishment. This doesn’t mean that you can’t opt for delicious options. By all means, do so. But in the process, try selecting candidates that also provide good sources of fiber, healthy fat and protein. A few of my favorite snacks include avocado slices wrapped with prosciutto, celery topped with almond butter and deviled eggs. By choosing foods with this type of macro-nutrient profile you’ll likely find that you can snack without increasing your daily caloric intake. Sound too good to be true? According to several studies, this is possible because healthy snacking tends to reduce your caloric intake in subsequent meals. This is a real world way of “having your cake and eating it too”. (6,7,8)

Update: December 2010 - A recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition evaluated the effects of adding two different types of snacks to a typical weight loss diet. The diet in question called for a menu plan that contained 500 fewer calories than what was needed to maintain the starting weights of the participants. Two groups of obese volunteers were assigned to the diet which included one of two afternoon isocaloric snacks: 1) 53 grams of salted pistachios; 2) 56 grams of salted pretzels. The findings of the 12 week study reveal that both variations of the diet successfully promoted weight loss. But the primary reason for the trial in the first place was to determine whether snacking itself would alter the expected reduction in weight caused by a calorie deficit. It didn’t. However there were a few relevant differences between the groups eating the pistachios and the pretzels. The pistachio group lost more weight and also exhibited a meaningful decline in triglyceride levels in comparison to the pretzel group. This provides the latest evidence supporting the use of higher protein/lower carbohydrate snacks, if you decide to snack at all. (9)

View the original article here

Tomatoes and diabetes

Are you diabetic? I'm not. But I my health care approach, as if I and I think most people should also. By this I do not mean that most popping you drugs that help should begin to manage blood sugar. Far from being removed. Why do that when you can reach most likely healthy glucose control over movement, stress management, and a whole diet? The that's game plan, I to for most of my clients are in favour. However, there is more to diabetic health as easy to support exploitable optimal blood sugar levels. One includes the other pieces of the puzzle oxidative balance in your body to recover. Food or supplementing with foods rich in antioxidants can very well reduce the risk of health hazards that are commonly associated with adult-onset diabetes and beyond.

Tomatoes are a rich source of antioxidant pigments, known as carotenoids. In fact the characteristic red colour is largely brought by a member of the phytochemical family known as lycopene. Several studies spanning decades are notes provide, eat different tomato-based foods significant heart circulation support among men and women with type 2 diabetes can make. This is sensitive to natural interventions the most common variant of disease and the most. (1,2,3)

The current issue of the journal of the neurological of Sciences reported that diabetics with hypertension are 48% rather suffer from age-related cognitive changes than those, are the normotensive. Fortunately shows another publication appears Journal of food sciences and nutrition in the December 2010 edition of the international that so easy can be achieve healthy blood pressure more tomatoes like eating. The latter paper notes that Tomatoes contain nutrients that go the antioxidant Lycopene. You are a good source of beta carotene (provitamin A), folic acid, potassium and vitamin C, E and k. Maybe has that therefore an intervention of the latest 8 week offers a daily dose of 200 grams of raw tomatoes "significant decreases systolic and diastolic blood pressure" resulted in a group of 32 type 2 diabetics. (4,5)

A summary article in the journal current pharmaceutical biotechnology explains that cardiovascular dysfunction is a leading cause of mortality in type 2 diabetics. "Imbalance between the production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS and RNA)" is widely believed to be a contributing factor in the development and progression of this annoying trend. The consumption of cooked tomatoes is a way to the oxidative balance to your favor tip. Researchers from the College of medical sciences and Research Centre in Bhanpur, India have that long-term tomatoes inclusion in diabetics results in higher levels of protective antioxidant enzymes and a lower concentration of lipid peroxidation. (6,7)

Daily tomato juice consumption reduces platelets, aufhäufendes in diabetics 

A further important risk factor for diabetes mellitus is a risk of abnormal blood clotting and subsequent atherothrombotic events. A hostile process according to "plays a crucial role as platelet hyperreactivity" said cardiovascular anomalies. Regularly drink tomato juice may provide a natural and safe means to combat this threat to health. The basis for this statement is a pilot study in the journal of the American Medical Association published. In 250 ml of tomato juice or a placebo over a period received from 3 weeks in middle age men and women with type 2 diabetes. The participants in the tomato juice group end the short process shown a statistically relevant reduction in platelet aggregation. No changes in blood sugar control found in the two study groups. (8,9)

Incorporating tomatoes in your dietary regime is not a panacea for diabetes or any other health condition. Rather, has the key to its value a lot to do, what you offer from a nutritional standpoint. Chief among its attributes is the most tomatoes are relatively low in carbohydrates and rich in fiber and nutrients. They provide some much needed color around the average diet. The most naturally occurring pigments in whole foods protect income effect in the human body. Think purple range of depth Greens in spinach, the intense orange of the Pumpkins or the Kingdom found in wine. The health promoting properties of these foods are partly due to the secondary plant substances that make up the colors make so unique. "Rainbow" style diet is eating a low Glycemic to reduce the risk of diabetes and related Comorbidities one of the most reliable ways. That's the advice I give, and it's the advice I follow me. (10,11,12)

View the original article here

Year in pills

Writing to setback, Martha Rosenberg lists the drugs made the 2010 Hall of shame.  Here are just a few of you:

CAT and Yasmin

Soon after Bayer pill cat started, started 18 years with blood clots, come down gallbladder diseases, heart attacks and even strokes.

Chantix

Cases possible psychosis, reports of suicidal behaviour and actual suicides, ban the Government pilots, air traffic controllers and interstate truck and bus drivers antismoking of taking this drug.

Ambien

Law enforcement officials say this medication sleep increased accidents from people in a black drive out.

Tamoxifen

It is a life-threatening blood clots, stroke case prevented for each case from breast cancer with tamoxifen or endometrial cancer caused by it.

Lipitor and CRESTOR

All Statins can cause muscle breakdown.  CRESTOR is linked to one of the five most dangerous drugs at a congressional hearing, with the side effect of FDA David Graham named.

Gardasil and Cervarix vaccines

Gardasil HPV vaccine doesnt work for all virus strains require a booster and 56 girls death than of September in the United States alone.

Singulair and Accolate, leukotriene receptor antagonists

This leukotriene receptor antagonists saw never safe. And singulair Merck's best-selling drug is suspected, aggression, hostility, irritability, anxiety producing hallucinations and night terrors in children now.

To see the complete list of dangerous drugs, click on the link below.

View the original article here

Best of aromatherapy news

The key to feeling more energetic and peaceful may be right in front of your face. Before you go crazy trying to figure it out – take a deep breath. Part of the solution is just breathing deeply. Now combine that action with essential oils derived from flowers, fruit rinds and leaves and you have a powerful natural remedy known as aromatherapy. My health promoting tip of the day is to inhale your way to a better state of mind.

Over the years, many people have adopted the point of view that “real medicine” needs to be unpleasant in order to be effective. On a cursory level this makes perfect sense. Think of all the bitter pills and horrible tasting cough syrups we’ve all endured at one time or another. Even benign-tasting medications often take on negative connotations because of related side effects. It’s really no wonder why we feel the way we do. Fortunately, this preconception is not always accurate.

Stopping to “smell the roses” isn’t just a commentary about how mankind should slow down long enough to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. It also speaks to the sensory stimulation that floral scents confer. The July 2010 issue of the journal Phytomedicine provides a recent illustration of how aromas can directly impact behavior and mood. A group of Brazilian researchers evaluated the psychological effects of an essential oil component, linalool, in mice. Linalool is a volatile monoterpene that is present in many aromatic plant species including citrus fruits and lavender flowers. The mice that inhaled linalool demonstrated a reduction in aggression, anxiety and an increase in social interaction. A separate experiment from May 2010 similarly found “acute anxiolytic activity” of sweet orange essence in agitated rats. (1,2,3,4)

Scientific studies involving animals can yield valuable data. However, human studies are always preferable. Thankfully, there have been several studies of late that have explored the influence of aromatherapy in human subjects.

A trial involving 340 dental patients revealed that disseminating a lavender odor at dental appointments significantly reduced anxiety levels as assessed by objective measures such as a State Trait Anxiety Indicator and a Modified Dental Anxiety Scale. (5)A hybrid form of lavender known as lavandin inhibited anxiety in 150 adult surgical patients. Researchers from United Hospital in St. Paul, MN stated that “lavandin is a simple, low-risk, cost-effective intervention with the potential to improve preoperative outcomes and increase patient satisfaction”. (6)Younger patients appear to respond equally well to essential oil interventions: a) the use of ginger and lavender oil was recently shown to decrease distress in children with and without developmental disabilities; b) the stress levels of 36 female high school students declined after inhaling bergamot oil – a type of orange oil known for its calming properties. Blood pressure, cortisol (a stress hormone) and pulse rate were statistically lower in the students receiving bergamot aromatherapy as compared to the placebo group. (7,8,9)

One trial even discovered positive effects of aromatherapy in elderly patients living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). A combination of lemon and rosemary oil was provided to the study participants in the morning. An essential oil blend consisting of lavender and orange was administered in the evening. Over the course of 28 days, a crossover study was performed in 28 men and women, 17 of whom were diagnosed with AD. All of the study volunteers benefited from the aromatherapy care, but only the patients with AD found significant improvements in a few specific measures of cognitive performance: the Gottfries, Brane, Steen Scale and the Touch Panel-type Dementia Assessment Scale. No side effects were noted during the aromatherapy portion of the trial. (10)

Aromatherapy May Reduce Anxiety and Blood Pressure

You may have noticed that the majority of studies involving aromatherapy tend to evaluate its potential in promoting a more relaxed state of mind. But what about the energy boost I mentioned in the opening paragraph? It’s important to keep in mind that anything that helps you to feel more relaxed has the potential to provide you with more energy. Anxiety and stress are “energy vampires”. The less reactive you are to the stressors in your life, the more energy you’ll have to live life as you please. I like to think of energy levels as a bank account. If you spend less on feeling anxious and stressed out, you’ll have more energy funds to use for other activities.

That said, if you still require more energy then you might have, consider experimenting with jasmine oil. A current study examined the effects of topically applied jasmine oil in 40 healthy volunteers. Those receiving the jasmine therapy exhibited an increase in breathing rate, blood oxygen saturation and diastolic and systolic blood pressure. The men and women also reported feeling more alert and more vigorous on the emotional front. The authors of the experiment concluded that, “our results demonstrated the stimulating/activating effect of jasmine oil and provides evidence for its use in aromatherapy for the relief of depression and uplifting mood in humans”. (11)

There are a number of ways to administer aromatherapy in your daily life. You can find diffusers and inhalers at many health food stores and online. Some people prefer carrying a small bottle of essential oil in a backpack or purse instead. They simply add a drop or two to a tissue and inhale it whenever they feel the need. But before embarking on a serious trial using essential oils, you should first determine how they affect you as an individual. I think beginners should start by experimenting in a controlled and safe environment such as your home. The last thing you want is to feel too relaxed or too stimulated while driving, at school or at work. Please remember than any substance powerful enough to alter your mind-set needs to be treated respectfully.

Update: December 2010 - The term essential hypertension refers to high blood pressure that has no identifiable cause. A paper published in the October 2010 issue of the Journal of the Korean Academy of Nursing reports that a specific blend of aromatic oils may help to address this prevalent condition. Researchers for the St. Mary’s Hospital in Seoul, Korea enrolled 42 hypertensive participants in an experiment that assessed the effect of aromatherapy on aortic pulse wave activity, blood pressure and heart rate variability. Half of the group was asked to inhale a blend of aromatic oils consisting of a 2:2:1 ratio of lavender (Lavendula augustifolia), lemon (Citrus limonum) and ylang ylang (Cananga odorata) over a 3 week period. The placebo group was administered an “artificial lemon fragrance” as a comparison model. Both groups were asked to inhale the respective formulas twice-daily for two minute increments. The results of the trial indicate that only the aromatherapy oil group demonstrated noticeable differences in blood pressure and “sympathetic nerve system activity”. The findings suggest that this aromatic blend may be useful in instances of long or short-term stress that might otherwise trigger negative physiological reactions. (12)

View the original article here

Some vitamins and their properties

Vitamins are of course in a variety of organic food produce including like meat, fish, fruit and vegetables found.  The human body is unfortunately could not be created or such vitamins from our own production.  We must get the right amount of vitamins by a healthy diet; such a diet plan work, maintain a healthy body and lifestyle.

In the fast paced world that we live, it is not always easy to consume the healthiest meals.  Heavy workloads and various other commitments, how do school it almost impossible, sit down at a substantial meal or to consume even our recommended five servings daily fruit and vegetables.

For this exact reason that many of us check investment in vitamin supplements to improve offer our diets to maintain the body with optimal recording these vitamins to a healthy body.

Without certain vitamins we can be many complaints of due to a deficiency in any one vitamin vulnerable.  Certain vitamins, been found to aid in the prevention and treatment of a range of problems such as food, stress, pollution, disease, alcohol, caffeine, drugs and sugar processed.  All the above mentioned complaints can rob your body of B vitamins.

Another need vitamin is urgent vitamin D, this element fat soluble is extremely important for our health and works, in order both to maintain a healthy complexion and the calcium to preserve levels in the blood.
Vitamin C is an another vitamin which should be consumed regularly whether this from other foods, or alternatively a vitamin supplement.  Such a vitamin can help fight the common cold, aid people with anemia and help with the recovery of sports traumas.

Milk thistle supplements are also ideal if you are looking to do a detox. Its antioxidant properties can help protect against damage to the liver.

Visit the online health shop Holland and Barrett today and find all best vitamins, minerals and supplements online.

View the original article here

How are buy coke and Pepsi from charities

Not long ago, the charity save the children, a group of child health and development projects devoted to, was a strong advocate of soda control.  But that was poured from coke and Pepsi millions of dollars into their coffers.

Save the children rights "corporate donors support us but not press us." Our focus is children not soda tax policy. "

Write to AlterNet, suggests however, Marion Nestle another reason for your change of heart:

"A chance?"  I don't think so.  This is a clear win for companies, baking soda, like Coca Cola's sponsorship of the educational activities which was American Academy of family physicians.  "You can tell these activities do not include bet to give parents not to sodas for your children."

View the original article here

Fact ' Shrooms send Santa and his reindeer flying?

Hallucinogens mushroom amanita muscaria. Harvard biologist Donald Pfister claimed that both the people and the reindeer eat the mushrooms. "Flying reindeer - are you fly, or are your senses say fly because you hallucinate are?" he says.

Children across the country on Christmas Eve are all nestled snug in their beds to hear the classic poem "The Night Before Christmas." There is a parallel tradition on the Harvard campus in this time of year. Students and faculty to collect the history of Santa Claus and hear the psychedelic mushrooms.

I stumbled across this curious blend of biology and Fable during a winter campus visit to Harvard's Farlow reference library and herbarium a few years ago.

Curator and Biology Professor Donald Pfister greeted me in a majestic room, filled with Vitrines, Folio and portraits. There is even a look in the room, the 1.5 million copies of fungi, algae, lichens, mosses and Liverworts a short tour - no time.

As we prepared to leave, we we turned a corner and there, in one case, glass was an odd choice of artifacts: Christmas decorations shaped as red mushrooms with white spots on you, amanita muscaria, by name. A Santa Claus there, dressed in his traditional red robe with white trim.

While I in this screen enigmatic, Pfister turned to a colleague, Anne Pringle, and mentioned that he planned his annual lecture on the connection between amanita muscaria make – which happens to be - a fungal hallucinogens and Santa.

Flying reindeer or 'Flying' reindeer?

He said that back in 1967 an amateur of scholar named R. Gordon Wasson published a book argued that amanita muscaria was used in ancient ceremonies of shamans in the far East. Other scholars, the then in should be noted that in Siberia, both were the shamans - and the reindeer - known that to eat these fungi. Human and animal alike hallucinates.

You can see the Christmas connections Pfister said.

"This idea [is] berserk to go the reindeer because you amanita muscaria food," said Pfister. "Flying reindeer - are you fly, or are your senses say fly because you hallucinate are?"

See the Christmas decorations here, he said.

"We use — the Western world at least - these have [the] amanita muscaria Christmas decorations or other mushrooms."

And finally, he said, check the color schemes.

"So here is a red mushroom with white spots." "And Santa Claus in red with white trim was dressed."

Add click all and what do you get? Pringle the points connected: "People fly." "The mushroom into a happy personalization named Santa."

She said with a laugh, but the connection between psychedelic mushrooms and the Santa story has gradually even in woven popular culture, at least the popular culture of Mycology, mushroom science.

Each year when Christmas close, Pfister collects students in its introductory Botany class and no doubt with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, tells the story of Santa and the psychedelic mushrooms.

Zoom AP

A copy of 1860 Clement Clarke Moore's poem "A visit from St. Nicholas," starting: "'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the House / no creature was stirring, not even a mouse."

AP of a 1860 copy of Clement Clarke Moore's poem "A visit from St. Nicholas," starting: "'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the House / no creature was stirring, not even a mouse."

The real Santa?

Now, some say that certain stories to wondrous are easy to make this magical season in question. Others have no such contrition, like Ronald Hutton, a history professor at the University of Bristol.

"If you look at the evidence of Siberian shamanism, I've done" Hutton said "see that shamans deal spirits by sled travel, not the rule with reindeer, rarely took the mushrooms to retrieve trances, didnt have red and white clothes."

And not even run around gifts distribute.

"The Santa we know and love, was invented by a New York, it's really true" Hutton said. "It was Clarke Moore, the work of Clement in New York City in 1822 who sanctify a medieval suddenly into a flying, reindeer-drive from the Northern spirit transformed Midwinter."

And Moore, brought to life that true love Santa Claus in his poem, "A visit from St. Nicholas," otherwise known as "The Night Before Christmas."

Science

View the original article here

Mammoth search gives insight into the Rockies in ice age

 oom Heather Rousseau/Denver Museum of nature and science

Kirk Johnson, Chief Curator at the Denver Museum of nature and science, inspected bison skull the ice age.

Heather Rousseau/Denver Museum of nature and science Kirk Johnson, Chief Curator at the Denver Museum of nature and science, inspected bison skull the ice age.

A whole series of fossilized mammoths and mastodons and other creatures that ice age was turn at a dizzying rate in Western Colorado.

Researchers believe this is one of the most important finds of such that could be date.

The credit for this find goes Jesse Steele to construction workers, who says he pretty much "grew up on the seat" of a bulldozer.Last month, he worked at a typical urban project extend a reservoir located near Aspen/Snowmass ski resort.

"I was stripping the peat moss and noticed a few of the rib bones in load of dirt come to me", says Steele."And this is where I stopped and got out and looked at."

It was clear that this was something great.

"" It was kind of scary ", says Steele."I think it made me nervous right on the ersten.Die bone looks not like bones."

ZoomCourtesy of the Denver Museum of Nature-& science

A historic photo of a very large Colombian mammoth from Nebraska at the Denver Museum of nature and science.

Courtesy of the Denver Museum of nature and Science A historic photo of a very large Colombian mammoth from Nebraska at the Denver Museum of nature and science.

Steele, says that there was an eerie feeling him so well preserved.But then the excitement to come.

"It is a Colombian mammoth" archaeology says PhD student Brendan Asher, one of the 40 researchers from Denver Museum of nature and science that descended on the site have.

With a savvy move Asher takes a trowel and the surrounding soil removed disk slowly and so painstakingly to expose the mammoth skeleton.

"Off shaving is essentially, what we do millimeter by millimeter, very thin layers [and] levels available, what is below and potentially more bone and hopefully discover evidence - find potentially find human interactions - with this animal," says Asher.

Identification of 22 species

Compared with other findings in North America and Siberia, this site is more complete and detailed because it contains insects, plants and animals.

So far, scientists have two periods at the location identified - a 12,000 to 16,000 years old and other more than 40,000 years old.

ZoomRick Wicker / Denver Museum of nature and science

Carol Lucking, a collections Assistant in the Department of Earth Science at the Denver Museum of nature and science, uses a toothbrush to the jaw an ice age deer found in sediments of the Ziegler earlier this week to clean reservoir.

Rick Wicker / Denver Museum of nature and science Carol Lucking, a collections Assistant in the Department of Earth Science at the Denver Museum of nature and science, a toothbrush, used to the jaw an ice age deer found in sediments of the Ziegler earlier this week carefully clean reservoir.

"" We partial skeletons of many a Mastodon, the two mammoth a couple of bison - including the skull, a magnificent skull a gigantic ice age Bison with a 7-foot Horn span, "says Kirk Johnson, the Chief Curator at the Denver Museum that supervision is the dig.""We have the bones of Jefferson's ground sloths that known the highest ice age deer this animal is gefunden.Und ever in the world we have a complete skeleton."

And the list goes weiter.So far, researchers have identified at least 22 species.

The highest ice age site

Scientists not sure why time says the remains of the period so many animals at the site of one such long endete.Johnson passed the fact this site atop a mountain - rather than at the base - means the bones as time covers less sediment.

"" This is the highest ice age website,"says Johnson."And it will tell us much about what life in the Rocky Mountains during the last ice age war.Es is a window into an ice age ecosystem. we know very little about places like that, so this is really a world-class fossil site."

Researchers have cringe last month, get, are what could set off the ground before the winter in the verbracht.Jetzt move the bones of the dig site to Denver for further analysis.

And with what so far found you expect, back when the soil taut in spring.

Science

View the original article here

As exercise a healthy heart grows

* These statements have been by the food and Drug Administration have been evaluated. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication or have a medical condition, consult your doctor before using this product.Privacy policy | Terms and conditions

To use this article on your site, click here. Can this content in full, with copyright, contact, creation and intact, without specific permission information is copied when used only in an emergency-for-profit format. If you want any other use requires permission in writing from Dr. Mercola.

© Copyright 2010 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All rights reserved.

View the original article here

On the horizon: Liquid fuels made by sunlight

Electricity is turn energy from the Sun solar panels like this in England. But researchers are looking to make the energy of the Sun, liquid fuels for cars and trucks, to capture by the combination of carbon dioxide, water and chemical elements cerium.

Sunlight pours a lot of energy on the surface of the Earth. But is a huge challenge to figure out how to capture, that energy and turn it into fuel makes our cars and trucks.

Fossil fuels is not eternal, so that scientists and engineers are looking for new and efficient ways to capture solar energy for fuel. A promising technique is based on a common material, most people never heard yet: the element cerium.

The ultimate goal is to say, "How can we take solar photons and convert into a liquid fuel for greater efficiency as we know, we do with plants?"

-Eric toone, chemist, Duke University

Cerium "is chemically similar to the rare earth metals, but it turns out, don't we call rare to be", says Sossina Haile, Professor of materials science and chemical engineering at Caltech. It is about as abundant as copper and is quite useful.

Haile has experimented with CER because the right temperature can transform it carbon dioxide and water into high-energy fuels.

But there's a hang-up: "The catch is certainly that the temperatures must be high," she says. Really high - almost 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. Obviously, this process would completely useless if you had to make an energy fuels to use guzzling oven.

A dent on U.S. energy production?

So earlier in this year Haile got together with some colleagues in the Switzerland and figured out how to put that can generate this enormous temperature by concentrating solar power cerium within a device.

And did it – were able to make synthetic fuels from only water and carbon dioxide. As in the journal Science reports, it was not very efficient - got converted to less than 1 percent of solar energy into fuel. But there is hope.

"If we had a perfect reactor" Haile says, "we should easily 10 percent get more efficiently."

And because that don't get used up CER in the response it can be used over and over again.

"We went through the big numbers and said: 'This would all dent on U.S. energy production make?'" And the answer is Yes, "she says."

However, the trick with any technology is to find out whether you can develop it in a convenient and relatively inexpensive way. A few years the Department of energy, the promise, the dangers of technologies that solar energy to use instead to liquid fuels electricity realized how solar panels to do. It established an organization called ARPA-E - the advanced research projects Agency for energy.

Better than plants?

Eric toone, a chemist at Duke University, conducts an ARPA-E program, research ideas to reach the biology, to do Haile with straight chemistry and technology attempts to integrate.

"Is the ultimate goal the same right?" The ultimate goal is to say, "How can we take solar photons and convert into a liquid fuel for greater efficiency as we know, we do with plants?" "Toone says."

Plants are now grown to produce biofuels such as ethanol from corn. Fuel cast but green plants usually far less than 1 percent of the sunlight.

"The name of the game is to say, 'well, better than we do?'" ", he says."

To find out, ARPA-E has pumped research dollars in over a dozen universities and small companies across the country. Most projects have just started and toone says it is clearly too early to start picking winners and losers. But it is full of optimism.

"This is absolutely a solvable problem." Realistic time frame? I suspect we are 10 to 15 years of the actual fuel, you buy at a pump and put in your vehicle can, "he says." "But I think very, very, very strongly that this will happen."

Caltech Professor Haile says not, is that your approach is the best, but it is an example of what might pan out.

"I personally see the challenges that remain are very surmountable", she says.

The point here is how all technologies, someone needs to invest time and money, to find out what is really going to work. Interesting ideas, like you are only the starting point for innovation.

"This is something that interests a company, it would be to take forward," she says.

Energy

View the original article here

When will the moderate drinking a problem?

Jay Ducote Court, a pork shoulder butt injected with honey and Bourbon with its award-winning BlackBerry, Bourbon, and smoked for 12 hours.  Ducote estimates, good food and drink, but says he sometimes exaggerates.

Nicole Colvin Jay Ducote butt injected with honey and Bourbon Court, a pork shoulder with his award-winning BlackBerry, Bourbon, and smoked for 12 hours.  Ducote estimates, good food and drink, but says he sometimes exaggerates.

Ever wonder if you reach for the third glass of wine or order that third parties are cocktail, if perhaps you push it? Now, you're hardly alone, especially during the holiday season, when food and alcohol on most mountains are showered social events.

Jay Ducote is one of those drinkers, the wonders if it is to exaggerate with alcohol. He absolutely enjoying his food and drink, and writes about in his blog, bite and booze. The blog chronicles of his adventures in southern Louisiana, where he lives. He enjoys, mix, eating and drinking in his own homemade recipes. Bourbon often plays an important role.

How much is safe?

Ducote says he's a great guy who tolerate more alcohol than most. If he goes with friends or become a football game watches he have often three to four drinks. But sometimes he wonders if he consumed too much. At this point, he says only a break in the rule and not drink at all for a few days take.

Experts describe Ducote's drinking habits as "gray zone": considered what is more, sure, but less than what is considered risky. Health professionals keep two drinks per day than safe amount of consumption for men and one drink per day as safe for women.

Psychologist will Corbin defines risky drinking as binge drinking more than five beverage for a man and more than four drinks for a woman over a period of two hours.

Corbin says some people probably drink within the range of safe and binge drink without drink in too much trouble. But others may be at higher risk for alcohol abuse, if you receive up to two, three, even four drinks per day.

At the Arizona State University studying Corbin of this gray area drink to try to figure out who is at risk for problems and who is not. He does his research in a bar laboratory. It is a scientific laboratory cover black to simulate a bar disguised environment complete with dark floors, chandeliers, a flat screen TV and rows of bottles behind the bar.

Who is at risk?

Volunteers come to the bar for one night only, fill out a questionnaire and then are served three cocktails, over a period of 30 minutes.

Everyone is the same drink vodka mixed with 7-up, cranberry juice and lime served.

One of the questions that wants to answer Corbin, through observation and this drinkers in question, is whether your expectations about alcohol affect how much you actually drink. For example, for some people just coming into the bar works lab on your behavior, before you have even one thing to drink, Corbin says.

"And people can observe in the real world also" Corbin says. "If you go with a group of friends in a bar before you have completed the first drink are often more social and speak louder Act."

Once their three drinks have used his research volunteers, Corbin asks, how you are feeling. Are you for example strengthened? Do you feel excited or happy? Or do you feel a little depressed, dizzy, drowsy, perhaps even a bit sick?

The family factor

What is find Corbin is that people by alcohol feel stimulated rather drink to keep if given the chance. Other researchers search for known risk factors for alcohol problems, such as family history and a bright personality.

And finally, researchers hope that what "moderate" drinker transformed a complete picture in "Problem" drinker. Harvard epidemiologist Eric RIMM says, for example, if you're a child of a mother or father, alcoholics, is that, then maybe the healthiest amount of alcohol is 0 (zero).

But research conclusively, who is like Jay Ducote in this drink "Grey area", it may be best to simply add your own individual risk factors and make then a reasonable judgment about whether you really want to have third glass of wine or cocktail.

Bless you

View the original article here

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospitals: A time for action

Every few years there are reports of antibiotic resistant microbes that prompt, a number of predictions about "the end of antibiotics."  It happened in the 90s years with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and then again earlier this decade with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.  It happened again to Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae or CRE. As predictably, these bacteria in the course of time more and more antibiotics become resistant.  Almost exactly like foresee was, could you be known as Carbapenems - by a category of powerful antibiotics until now treated.

Today, 35 States have cases of CRE infection of the Centers for disease control and prevention in Atlanta.  And are dangerous.  In a recent study of nearly 100 cases more than one third of patients infected died.  The concern about these bacteria is compounded by the fact that new antibiotics to treat you there isn't any time soon.  Most experts agree that even in the most optimistic scenario there are probably about 10 years before effective new drugs are being developed.  A variety of efforts are discussed these discussions, to accelerate the development of new antibiotics, but often overlooked a critically important issue.  One of the reasons that our current antibiotics losing their effectiveness is because we use you incorrectly.Studies have repeatedly shown that up to 50% of antibiotics are recipes either unnecessary or inappropriate - is a statistic that disappointing reduce this overuse einheitlich.Nicht in both stationary hospitals and outpatient clinics, then our current antibiotics affected it threatens the utility all new antibiotics which come in the future together. 

While we work on new antibiotics for the future, it is much that now needs to be done to both keep the lifetime of antibiotics that we currently have and prepare to ensure the way for extended utility of new antibiotics are being developed.The most immediate need is to reduce the overuse of this Drogen.Verringerung which antibiotic overuse is good for society as a whole, but it is also good for individual patients.  A recent study showed that exposure to a Carbapenem was antibiotic the single biggest risk factor for infection with CRE, increase the risk of 15-fold get. 

This week the CDC and its partners have has "get smart on health" program to complement the existing "get smart: know when antibiotics work" program. This is an extension of the CDC's existing get smart programs targeting outpatient clinics and pediatricians include offices, hospitals and nursing homes. Promotion of appropriate antibiotics use, also fundamentally, it seems can our drugs more wear.

It can be helpful to see how we view resources that benefit from concerted and coordinated conservation efforts antibiotics much.Maintenance requires cooperation and recognition that individual actions on the common good auswirken.Verringerung of the overuse engage means everyone in the effort - for example through the passage of innovative measures that target urge hospitals, other health care facilities and even pharmaceutical companies, promoting stewardship. By aligning incentives for hospitals and health care facilities on infection control and prevention focus, we can reduce the prevalence of resistant infections to jump from healthcare in the community.By motivating pharmaceutical companies about drug resistance can we manage to stop, overselling their drugs promote. consumers must also stop to require antibiotics if you suffer from a viral infection.

We need urgent new antibiotic-.Aber in the meantime we must extend this with a focus on those who only is we already in a sustainable manner and way haben.Nicht utility the drugs we now have on the market, but it is also ensures that approved drugs in the future will remain effective for longer periods.

It's just alarming predictions about the end of antibiotics to machen.Es is harder, but not less possible, final steps companies to ensure that such a day never comes.It is time to act.

Arjun.Srinivasan, m.d., is the Medical Director of the Center for disease control and prevention's "Get smart on health" program and Associate Director for healthcare-associated infection prevention programs for CDC's Division of healthcare quality promotion.

Ramanan Laxminarayan, Ph.d, is the Director of extending the cure, a project which is studying political solutions to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.Extending the cure Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's pioneer portfolio is search part of the ideas transform health, powers, to generate breakthroughs with potential for significant health and social consequences financed.

Suppose farm to call use of antibiotics, which was shown by the Danish experience that the cause of much resistance, then is passed to humans.
The Danish saw heavily restricted farm use of antibiotics and as a result of resistance to antibiotics steep fallen.Sie also have a comprehensive monitoring programme, which tracks farm and human use of antibiotics and resistance.
Strict restriction of farm use of antibiotics would go a long way to maintain the usefulness of current antibiotics.

View the original article here

2010: A good year for Neanderthals (and DNA)

A lens on history: Scientists have given advances in DNA technology to study a new tool with the ancient human origins. "I think, ancient DNA is very powerful," a researcher now says, "because it gives a direct view into the past." Here, a photographer shoots a reconstruction of a Neanderthal Museum in Germany.

This was a good year for Neanderthals. Yes, they go extinct, about 30,000 years ago, but scientists say now their genes live on - in us.

Scientists found a 40,000-year-old fingers belonged in a Siberian cave which is apparently a unknown humanoid creature. And Hunter reveals his blood group and a predisposition to baldness hair from the body of 4,000-year-old.

What made possible these discoveries was DNA which has biological science's window into the past.

Take for example the Neanderthals. They were the closest cousins on our family tree until she died about 30,000 years ago. But were kissing cousins? Share you genes with us? Scientists asked.

This year a team of scientists that Max Planck decodes Institute in Germany combined actually the billions of segments of DNA extracted from Neanderthal bones. It was the culmination of years of research to get from intact, ancient DNA from the bones of people and of their ancestors.

A bit of Neanderthal in us all

And what they found was a worthy of a supermarket tabloid as a scientific journal. The Neanderthal was closer to Europeans and Asians as Africans genetic code. If we had never stuck with you their genes should have been equally different from everyone.

So, what does that for us?

"We appreciate that not Africans from Neanderthal, is about four percent of genetic origin," says David Reich, geneticist at Harvard University and member of the research team.

But isn't obvious, having some Neanderthals in us a handicap.

And DNA reveals not only the similarities but also the genetic differences between Neanderthals and us, especially things that can explain how we adapted and survived better than you.

Ed green from the University of California at Santa Cruz told NPR's Science Friday program, "we use this information now, long ago notice to some important episode of adaptation in our human ancestors that even as we divided by neanderthals."

DNA: 'direct look into the past'

DNA technology has been a telephoto lens look scientists further in the past. Consider the 40,000 year old pinky finger in a Siberian Cave found.

No one could heads or tails make it until this year when some geneticist at the Max Planck Institute, which analyzes its DNA. Its owner was a modern man neither a Neanderthal. However, share a common ancestor with us, probably in Africa. In addition, its DNA shows significant similarities with modern people from Melanesia.

"It was a third population at the same times," says geneticist Empire. "We know not what tools you made." "What we now know is that we learn about you from their DNA."

And if scientists DNA which is newer, it can say even more.

For example, scientists have found this year Hunter DNA in hair from the remains of 4,000-year-old in Greenland. At the University of Copenhagen, biologist Eske Willerslev teased remarkable details.

"We can show that he was genetically adapted to cold temperatures," says Willerslev. "We can also show very high probability that he had a tendency to baldness, he had this blood group, know he had this colour, et cetera."

He had A positive blood type to be precise; thick hair; Brown eyes; and he had of the two types of ear wax to inherit the dry type people.

Scientists called the Inuk Hunter. Willerslev says he'll now use the same technique to some 8,000-year-old mummies from South America.

"I think, ancient DNA is very powerful" Willerslev now says, "because it gives a direct view into the past."

"Further surprises around the corner"

Ancient DNA have their limits. Heat, microbes and water destroy it. So the raw material – bones, teeth and hair - are preserved in very cold climates.

But says geneticist Terry Brown from the University of Manchester, England to explore much of fossilized area allow. He says that received more DNA scientists, human history will become more complex.

"I suspect that it will further surprises around the corner," Brown says. "If it then other bones where we can get DNA, it is possible I, that we might find a major differences previously recognized under our earlier ancestors as we."

And perhaps more information about these things that gave us the human edge.

People

View the original article here

Who cares?

The father of a wireless engineer, who made a good living designing mobile devices, contracted a rare and chronic form of athlete’s foot. Over the course of a few months, the father’s condition worsened and eventually he died. Vowing he would make sure that no-one suffered the way his father had during the last few weeks of his life, the engineer set about developing a wireless athlete’s foot detector.

After obtaining the backing of a venture capitalist, he licensed technology from a university spinout that specialised in bio-sensing and embedded it onto a wireless chipset, which he then packaged into a simple mobile device. The athlete’s foot monitor is now on the market and our wireless engineer is talking to a number of healthcare providers, including the NHS.

There are two important things about this story; first it is complete fiction - and  second; anyone who has been involved in the wireless and mobile industry, will have come across real life examples of personal quests masquerading as business plans.

A paragraph in a press release or a slide in a PowerPoint presentation recalls the traumatic series of events that inspired an engineer to develop a device that will help eradicate the disease that ended the life of a family member. In real life the loved one will have been scythed down by a stroke, heart attack or complications arising from diabetes or COPD.

And in real life the device would not have been a wireless athlete's foot detector but a mobile communications-enabled blood pressure monitor, blood glucose monitor or ECG.  However, in nearly every case the project ends in disappointment as the engineer discovers that even though he was able to convince a venture capitalist to fund his quest, healthcare providers are less enthusiastic.

Analysing what went wrong for these enthusiastic entrepreneurs throws some light on a number of fault lines in the healthcare industry itself. So let's deconstruct the story of the man who developed the wireless athlete’s foot detector.

Fear Is The Key

Let us start with the declaration that the engineer did not want anyone else to suffer the same fate as his father. Healthcare providers will be familiar with this sentiment - the relatives of a person who has met a premature end due to a mistake by a clinician make similar claims as they are standing on the courthouse steps waving the multi-million dollar compensation cheque. The death of their loved one has forced the engineer, and the compensation recipients, to confront their own mortality. Social niceties are wrapped around a basic instinct for survival and they are really thinking of themselves rather than ‘anyone else’. The engineer would, as it is a potential threat to his own survival, like to see the disease that killed his father completely eradicated. The compensation recipients, afraid of appearing motivated by greed, claim they are acting for the good of all patients, when in fact they are being driven by the same basic instincts as our engineer. Rather than helping ‘anyone else’, they are, as an act of revenge, attempting to destroy the healthcare provider.

The basic instinct to eliminate potential threats is a powerful motivator – it enabled the engineer to make a passionate case when presenting his business plan to potential investors.

From Docking Cradle to the Grave

Despite his enthusiasm, and that of his backers, the engineer will find it difficult, if not impossible, to sell his idea to the healthcare provider. His business model and the one employed by providers are incompatible. Healthcare providers are very good at everything that happens between diagnosis and death, but seldom engage with their customers prior to this period and tend to end their involvement if the patient recovers. A majority of ehealth and mhealth devices and services are designed for use as preventative healthcare tools or to manage patients who are recovering after treatment. The healthcare provider is not interested in equipment that increases communication between themselves and people they do not regard as customers. For similar reasons healthcare providers have little faith in mhealth as a tool to drive down costs. If the rather Orwellingon named National Health Service needs to cut costs, as it will do over the next twelve months, it will simply reduce the number of people it treats. This is not something you do by increasing the ease with which an expanding customer base can contact you.

No Health 2.0 Without Society 2.0

With a lack of interest and engagement on the part of the healthcare provider, preventative health and managing existing conditions falls on the patients themselves – or, in many cases, members of their families. Recognising this, Orange Mobile supported a project called Circles of Care, which involved family members using mobile technology to provide social and healthcare related support for each other. Unfortunately Circle of Care was based on a model of the family that ceased to exist during the 1960s and resulted in the absence of any clear line of responsibility for care of the patient.  The need for social engineering as a prerequisite for the deployment of patient and family centric healthcare has been recognised by more recent projects, for example the Mehrgenerationenhäuser (Multi-Generation House) programme in Germany. The growth in market for the next generation of healthcare technology – especially devices and services designed to promote well-being, will be heavily dependent on projects such as the Multi-Generation House and increased input from and support for family carers.

When Healthcare Spending Meets Macro Economic Policy

If you want an indication of a major fault line in the economies of developed countries, spend a few moments studying the protests over student tuition fees in the UK or the rise in the retirement age in France. As in the 1960s, today’s social tension is intergenerational. Fifty years ago baby boomers were aggrieved that, even though they had pockets stuffed with cash, they had little political power. Today they have both wealth and power and are reluctant to part with either. This is unfortunate for today’s younger generation and is creating a situation that is economically unsustainable. Taking money out of the pockets of tomorrow’s consumers and spending on people who are economically inactive will result in stagnation within a decade and social tension even sooner. Healthcare spending lies at the root of this problem as much of the money that is being taken away, or withheld from the younger generation, is being used to provide healthcare and social care for the elderly. 

David Willets, author of the book The Pinch and now a minister in the UK government, suggested that what is missing is a contract between ageing baby boomers and the younger generation. In view of the fact that baby boomers are living longer, part of such a contract would be an agreement to stay economically active for longer. This is where technology that supports preventative healthcare has a key role to play, as staying fit and active is a prerequisite of staying economically active. Keeping elderly people economically active for two or more years would see sufficient wealth transferred between generations to minimise intergenerational conflict and, at the same time, prevent a long term fall in GDP. Technology that is accessible to older people and helps them stay connected with colleagues will also be important to ensuring the elderly remain engaged and productive.

Healthcare providers are not the only organisations that spend heavily on the elderly. Municipal authorities are providing an increasing amount of social support for senior citizens and special transport for people who can no longer drive. Here too family carers are undertaking tasks that would otherwise have to be carried out by the municipal authorities themselves. As well as providing social care, family carers and other members of the community drive senior citizens to hospital appointments, shops or social events. As many of these volunteer drivers are themselves recently retired, these schemes help both the driver and their passengers remain economically active. At a micro economic level, automating these services with smart ‘dial a ride’ technology can help cut costs. Another way of reducing costs for such services is involving partners from the private sector – something else Germany’s Multi-Generation House programme is working towards.

Sometimes Just Keeping People Alive Is Just Not Enough

Perhaps rather than passionately devoting himself to building yet another mobile health monitor device, our entrepreneur should have spent his time developing smarter infrastructure to support all the existing mhealth devices and applications on the market. The next phase of innovation in healthcare will be as much social as it is technical and will see mobile health integrated with a range of other technologies used to help older people remain fit and active for longer. It will also pose some important questions. The first being as people live longer, who will be most interested in their well-being; a cost cutting organisation, that regards them as one of those costs, or commercial organisations that have a vested interest in the elderly remaining fit and healthy as prerequisites to them remaining economically active? And the second, who will be most likely to purchase and use mhealth technology and health 2.0 services; an organisation that only engages with its customers when they become ill or ageing baby boomers and members of their families who have an incentive to ensure they do not become ill in the first place?  These are important questions for engineers and entrepreneurs – especially those with itchy feet.

The author, Peter Kruger, has worked in the healthcare IT industry for ten years. Prior to this he founded the medical imaging company, Digithurst. He is author of the report. “Alpha Moms Become Alpha Daughters.”  and is currently developing a healthcare and social support service called Alpha Daughters. http://www.alphadaughters.com

Details of the Multi Generation House project can be found at :
http://www.mehrgenerationenhaeuser.de

View the original article here