Non-invasive magnet therapy is being trialed by Australian researchers to slow the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

Using a new type of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) called Theta-burst stimulation, researchers from the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (MAPrc) have been able to stimulate nerve cells on the surface of the brain.

Kate Hoy, the MAPrc group leader, said that using Theta-burst stimulation allowed a shorter burst of high frequency stimuli to four regions of the brain in three minutes compared to other treatments which took 40 minutes to target one region of the brain.

Hoy said the treatment targeted the build-up of plaque proteins around brain cells which inhibited the ability of those neurons to communicate.

“How well our brain cells talk to each other is what underlies how we think, our information processing and our memory,” Hoy told News Limited on Wednesday.

“We’re targeting the regions that are affected in this way and trying to increase their ability to talk to each other by strengthening their connections.”

Some 100 people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s aged 50-95 years old will participate in the six-week trial.

Jo Duff, a 78-year-old participant whose cognitive scores improved throughout the trail, said that she and those around her noticed a significant difference in her thinking and ability to remember things.

“I was much clearer in my thinking. I could express myself a lot better,” Duff said.

“Alzheimer’s gives you a foggy feeling in the brain, but that lifted. It felt just like someone tapping my forehead.”

source: Manila Bulletin
http://lifestyle.mb.com.ph/2017/03/15/aussie-scientists-trial-magnet-therapy-to-slow-alzheimers-disease/

A professor with University of California, Berkeley, is on a research team that paints lactate in a more sinister light — as a key driver in the development and spread of cancer.

George Brooks, a renown researcher of the complex, often misunderstood molecule, spent two years working with Inigo San Millan, director of the sports performance department and physiology laboratory at the University of Colorado (CU) Sports Medicine and Performance Center at CU Boulder, on a paper recently published in the journal Carcinogenesis.

For decades, lactate has been studied largely in the context of exercise, painted as a nagging metabolic byproduct that accumulates in the tissues and blood during workouts, stiffening muscles and hindering performance.

As far back as 1923, German Nobel laureate Otto Warburg observed that cancer cells take in exponentially more sugar, or glucose, than normal cells. They inefficiently convert far less of it into energy, rather converting about 70 percent of it to lactate as a byproduct. The phenomenon, the first sign of a normal cell turning cancerous through abnormal cell metabolism, is known as the “Warburg effect.”

With a heightened focus on genetics in recent decades, most researchers moved away from studying cancer metabolism, and the role of lactate became overshadowed, San Millan said.

The new study illuminates the role lactate plays in fueling angiogenesis, or the formation of new blood vessels in tumors; how it interferes with the body’s immune response to cancer; and how it creates an acidic microenvironment, or the space outside the cancer cell, supportive of cancer metastases, or spread.

It also theorizes how three major transcription factors, or proteins, involved in most cancers, namely HIF-1,cMYC, and p53, kick-start and perpetuate lactate deregulation in cancer.

The paper draws parallels between what happens in the muscles of an athlete in training, and what happens in a developing cancer.

“During high-intensity exercise, working muscles display many of the same metabolic characteristics as cancer cells,” San Millan, a former pro cyclist and physiologist to Tour de France cyclists, was quoted as explaining in a news release from CU Boulder. Muscles take up large amounts of glucose, turning it to energy inside the mitochondria and churning out more lactate than the body can immediately clear.

In a healthy person, Brooks’ research has shown the body then recycles that lactate for beneficial use, turning it into a key source of fuel for the brain, muscles, and organs, preventing it from building up. In cancer, the authors of the paper suggest that recycling system breaks down.

While people who exercise regularly are at less risk of cancer, in part due to their body’s ability to clear lactate more efficiently, San Millan noted, a sedentary lifestyle, combined with excess sugar intake may fuel lactate accumulation and kick-start the metabolic misfiring that can lead to cancer.

source: Manila Bulletin
http://lifestyle.mb.com.ph/2017/03/15/study-points-to-lactate-as-key-driver-of-cancer/

Over recent years, the detox has become a form of diet in its own right for allowing people to lose weight with low-calorie regimens. As springtime arrives, and some may have weight-loss programs in mind, here’s a look at five common myths about detox diets and whether they’re true or false.

Detoxing is a natural process

TRUE. In reality, detoxing is a natural process of purification that’s constantly underway in the body. When everything is functioning properly, the infamous toxins are destroyed and excreted by different organs in the body, known as emunctories: the skin, the lungs, the kidneys, the intestines and the liver. Toxins that accumulate in the body (food, air, tobacco, cosmetics, drugs, heavy metals, stress) are eliminated at varying speeds depending on your metabolism. You can help your body detoxify all year long, notably with foods rich in antioxidants like fresh fruit and vegetables that are organic and don’t contain pesticides.

A detox is a diet

FALSE. A drastic diet or a fast one isn’t the same things as detoxing. The word diet has been wrongly associated with the concept of the detox, since the two approaches don’t have the same goal. In fact, the aim of a detox isn’t necessarily to lose weight. However, you should take care to avoid sugar, junk food and barbecued food which hinder the work of the emunctories.

Plant-based supplements can be helpful

TRUE. A course of certain plant-based dietary supplements or herbal teas can be used to support and optimize detox performances in periods of burn-out, stress, or fatigue for example. Artichoke, milk thistle, rosemary, turmeric, fennel, birch, dandelion, black radish, queen-of-the-meadow and fumaria are the most effective. Some plants, like chlorella, spirulina and laminaria japonica help combat heavy metals (mercury, aluminum and lead).

Juices and broths are a good way to detox

FALSE. Although they contain fruit and vegetables, juices, soups and broths have two drawbacks. First, they contain high quantities of sugar and salt, and have less fiber than eating the equivalent fresh fruit or vegetables whole. Second, a liquid-only diet isn’t advisable, as you could end up starving yourself, since the body needs a minimum amount of protein to function. Small quantities of white meat or pulses are recommended to boost the detox process. And don’t rely on a soup + herbal tea + yogurt combination for your evening meal, as this can favor water retention. However, drinking lots of water (1.5 liters per day) is recommended.

Massage can help flush out toxins

TRUE. Massages in the abdominal region—home to three groups of emunctory organs: the liver, the kidneys and the intestines—can help flush out toxins. But lymphatic drainage is even more effective, promoting blood circulation and helping the lymphatic system to drain out waste substances which aren’t filtered out by blood.

source: Philippine Daily Inquirer
http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/257273/five-detox-facts-fictions/

The International Prize for Biology was established in 1985 to commemorate the sixty-year reign of Emperor Showa and his long devotion to biological research. It also pays tribute to the present Emperor, His Majesty, Emperor Akihito, who has labored
for many years to advance the taxonomical study of gobioid fish, while striving continuously to elevate the international stature of the Prize.

Each year, the International Prize for Biology is conferred upon a distinguished researcher in a field selected by the Prize Committee from among all the fields of biology. Based on nominations gathered from around the world, the Prize is awarded
to a biologist judged to have a superlative record of achievements in the subject field. Once every decade, “systematic biology and taxonomy” is selected for the Prize as it is the field in which, like Emperor Showa before him, His Majesty the present Emperor has conducted research over many years.

So as to spread global recognition of the International Prize for Biology as a tribute to excellent achievement while accelerating the advancement of biology, the Prize Committee asks for your sustained cooperation and support.

Deadline: April 21, 2017

By e-mail:   This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
By mail:    Secretary Office, International Prize for Biology Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
                5-3-1 Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-0083, JAPAN

 For more information and to download the nomination form, visit: http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-biol/index.html