パーキンソン、アルツハイマー、ゲーリック病、MSと脳内にある鉄分、亜鉛、スズとの関係について
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A New Target In Fighting Brain Disease: Metals
By SHIRLEY S. WANG
Research into how iron, copper, zinc and other metals work in the brain may help unlock some of the secrets of degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
One of the many theories explaining Alzheimer's disease is that some of the harm is caused by toxic metals accumulating in brain. Now a new study lends more credibility to the toxic metal theory. Shirley Wang has details on Lunch Break.
.Iron and copper appear to accumulate beyond normal levels in the brains of people with these diseases, and a new, Australian study published Sunday shows reducing excess iron in the brain can alleviate Alzheimer's-like symptoms—at least in mice.
A genetic mutation related to regulating iron is linked to ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Zinc, on the other hand, appears to impair memory if its levels get too low or if it gets into a brain region where it doesn't belong, as it can with traumatic brain injury.
Research into the complicated, invisible roles these metals play in brain diseases has lagged behind study of the more-visible proteins that are damaged or clump together in the brains of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's sufferers. But better understanding metals' role in the brain could help shed light on a range of medical conditions and might offer a new route for developing treatments, scientists say.
"The field is coming around to the idea of the cause of Alzheimer's being multifactorial," and disturbed metal regulation could be one of those factors, says Ralph Nixon, chairman of the Alzheimer Association's medical and scientific advisory council and director of the Silberstein Alzheimer's Institute at New York University.
Tiny metal ions—charged particles of the elements—serve several essential functions in the body, including facilitating chemical reactions to generate energy and preserving the structure of proteins. Strict checks and balances in a healthy body keep metal levels within a tight range.
But the biological changes that come with disease and aging—as opposed to poisoning from outside sources like food, supplements or metal pans—can knock levels of these metals out of whack in the brain.
Iron, for instance, is a "double-edged sword" because it interacts with oxygen to help the body generate energy, but also can produce free radicals, highly reactive molecules that can cause cell damage, says James Connor, professor and vice chairman of neurosurgery at Penn State University in Hershey.
If the body has too little iron, such as with anemia, the body doesn't generate enough energy to sustain important functions. But an overabundance of iron accumulated in the brain is toxic. Significantly higher accumulations of metal have been observed in the brains of people with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease than in healthy people of the same age, says Ashley Bush, a professor of pathology at the University of Melbourne.
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The new study, conducted by Dr. Bush and colleagues and published in the journal Nature Medicine, examined the amount of iron in the brains of mice that were bred unable to produce the tau protein, which helps stabilize the structure of neurons. Tau damage is associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
As the mice aged, they suffered symptoms similar to people with both diseases, including impaired short-term memory, and also exhibited an accumulation of iron in their brains. When the researchers gave them a drug removing excess iron, the symptoms reversed. This means normally functioning tau is necessary for removing iron in the brain, Dr. Bush says. The finding bolsters previous research showing that bringing down iron may be a path to new treatments.
"An accumulation of iron in neurons seems to be a final end-stage event in neurodegeneration, whether it be Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, [or] any [condition] related to tau abnormalities," says Dr. Bush, who is also a fellow at the university's Mental Health Research Institute.
Other proteins affected in Alzheimer's also play a role in metal regulation. The amyloid precursor protein is important in helping export iron from the brain, according to work published in the journal Cell in 2010. Presenilin, another protein that aids in metal uptake, is also disturbed in diseased brains, according to a study published in Journal of Biological Chemistry last year.
Similar findings link copper accumulation and brain disease, though not as much research has been conducted as with iron, scientists say.
In addition to iron accrual, lower-than-normal levels of zinc have been found in patients with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, according to work by George Brewer, an emeritus professor at the University of Michigan, and Edward Fitzgerald at the University at Albany-SUNY, published last year in the American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias. Dr. Brewer now is a consultant to Adeona Pharmaceuticals Inc., based in Ann Arbor, Mich., which is developing a zinc-based treatment for Alzheimer's, he says.
Besides Adeona, a handful of other biotechnology companies have also been testing experimental metal-lowering drugs for treatment of Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. But developing such drugs is tricky because it is hard to target metals in specific parts of the brain. Simply lowering or increasing the amount overall in the body may not be beneficial, researchers say.
Metals may play a vital role in other brain conditions.
Stephen Lippard, a chemistry professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and colleagues from Duke University and the University of Toronto, found zinc helps neurons communicate in the hippocampus, a brain region involved in learning and memory. Disturbing this interaction, or ushering zinc into a brain region where it doesn't belong, could affect memory formation and the occurrence of epileptic seizures, says Dr. Lippard, who studies the role of metal ions in biology, neuroscience, and medicine. Their work was published in September in Neuron.
"It's important that the medical community continue to be alerted to the connection between metal ions and neurological disease," says Dr. Lippard.
Dr. Connor and his Penn State team have shown that patients with ALS have a higher rate of mutation in a gene, HFE, that regulates iron absorption. Carriers of the mutation have higher levels of iron in the brain and a fourfold increase in risk of ALS, according to a 2004 study published in the Journal of Neurological Sciences.
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They have also been trying to figure out why the patients with multiple sclerosis lose the protective coating, called myelin, surrounding their axons, the part of the nerve cell that conducts electrical impulses. The cells responsible for making the myelin have elevated iron, making them more vulnerable to damage and death, says Dr. Connor.
Metals, Positive and Negative
Several metals play vital roles in the human body, but diseases can disturb their balance, causing harm.
Iron
Normal function: Involved in oxygen transport; needed to make energy for cells.
In the brain: Excess levels of iron are linked to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Proteins and mutations related to iron delivery or absorption appear to be connected to Lou Gehrig's disease and multiple sclerosis.
Copper
Normal function: Helps transport oxygen, often works in tandem with iron.
In the brain: Wilson disease stops the body from getting rid of copper, which can cause speech problems, tremors and muscle stiffness. Disruption in copper regulation causes Menkes disease, which leads to abnormally low copper levels.
Zinc
Normal function: Helps make DNA and RNA, regulates cell death, and plays a role in short-term memory and learning.
In the brain: Low levels or the presence of the metal in areas of the brain where it isn't normally found are thought to impair memory.
ニューロプラスティシティの神秘と仏教の瞑想
The Brain: How The Brain Rewires Itself
Friday, Jan. 19, 2007 Time Mag
It was a fairly modest experiment, as these things go, with volunteers trooping into the lab at Harvard Medical School to learn and practice a little five-finger piano exercise. Neuroscientist Alvaro Pascual-Leone instructed the members of one group to play as fluidly as they could, trying to keep to the metronome's 60 beats per minute. Every day for five days, the volunteers practiced for two hours. Then they took a test.
At the end of each day's practice session, they sat beneath a coil of wire that sent a brief magnetic pulse into the motor cortex of their brain, located in a strip running from the crown of the head toward each ear. The so-called transcranial-magnetic-stimulation (TMS) test allows scientists to infer the function of neurons just beneath the coil. In the piano players, the TMS mapped how much of the motor cortex controlled the finger movements needed for the piano exercise. What the scientists found was that after a week of practice, the stretch of motor cortex devoted to these finger movements took over surrounding areas like dandelions on a suburban lawn.
The finding was in line with a growing number of discoveries at the time showing that greater use of a particular muscle causes the brain to devote more cortical real estate to it. But Pascual-Leone did not stop there. He extended the experiment by having another group of volunteers merely think about practicing the piano exercise. They played the simple piece of music in their head, holding their hands still while imagining how they would move their fingers. Then they too sat beneath the TMS coil.
When the scientists compared the TMS data on the two groups--those who actually tickled the ivories and those who only imagined doing so--they glimpsed a revolutionary idea about the brain: the ability of mere thought to alter the physical structure and function of our gray matter. For what the TMS revealed was that the region of motor cortex that controls the piano-playing fingers also expanded in the brains of volunteers who imagined playing the music--just as it had in those who actually played it.
"Mental practice resulted in a similar reorganization" of the brain, Pascual-Leone later wrote. If his results hold for other forms of movement (and there is no reason to think they don't), then mentally practicing a golf swing or a forward pass or a swimming turn could lead to mastery with less physical practice. Even more profound, the discovery showed that mental training had the power to change the physical structure of the brain.
OVERTHROWING THE DOGMA
FOR DECADES, THE PREVAILING DOGMA IN neuroscience was that the adult human brain is essentially immutable, hardwired, fixed in form and function, so that by the time we reach adulthood we are pretty much stuck with what we have. Yes, it can create (and lose) synapses, the connections between neurons that encode memories and learning. And it can suffer injury and degeneration. But this view held that if genes and development dictate that one cluster of neurons will process signals from the eye and another cluster will move the fingers of the right hand, then they'll do that and nothing else until the day you die. There was good reason for lavishly illustrated brain books to show the function, size and location of the brain's structures in permanent ink.
The doctrine of the unchanging human brain has had profound ramifications. For one thing, it lowered expectations about the value of rehabilitation for adults who had suffered brain damage from a stroke or about the possibility of fixing the pathological wiring that underlies psychiatric diseases. And it implied that other brain-based fixities, such as the happiness set point that, according to a growing body of research, a person returns to after the deepest tragedy or the greatest joy, are nearly unalterable.
But research in the past few years has overthrown the dogma. In its place has come the realization that the adult brain retains impressive powers of "neuroplasticity"--the ability to change its structure and function in response to experience. These aren't minor tweaks either. Something as basic as the function of the visual or auditory cortex can change as a result of a person's experience of becoming deaf or blind at a young age. Even when the brain suffers a trauma late in life, it can rezone itself like a city in a frenzy of urban renewal. If a stroke knocks out, say, the neighborhood of motor cortex that moves the right arm, a new technique called constraint-induced movement therapy can coax next-door regions to take over the function of the damaged area. The brain can be rewired.
The first discoveries of neuroplasticity came from studies of how changes in the messages the brain receives through the senses can alter its structure and function. When no transmissions arrive from the eyes in someone who has been blind from a young age, for instance, the visual cortex can learn to hear or feel or even support verbal memory. When signals from the skin or muscles bombard the motor cortex or the somatosensory cortex (which processes touch), the brain expands the area that is wired to move, say, the fingers. In this sense, the very structure of our brain--the relative size of different regions, the strength of connections between them, even their functions--reflects the lives we have led. Like sand on a beach, the brain bears the footprints of the decisions we have made, the skills we have learned, the actions we have taken.
AN EXTREME EXAMPLE OF HOW CHANGES IN the input reaching the brain can alter its structure is the silence that falls over the somatosensory cortex after its owner has lost a limb. Soon after a car crash took Victor Quintero's left arm from just above the elbow, he told neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran of the University of California at San Diego that he could still feel the missing arm. Ramachandran decided to investigate. He had Victor sit still with his eyes closed and lightly brushed the teenager's left cheek with a cotton swab.
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Where do you feel that? Ramachandran asked. On his left cheek, Victor answered--and the back of his missing hand. Ramachandran stroked another spot on the cheek. Where do you feel that? On his absent thumb, Victor replied. Ramachandran touched the skin between Victor's nose and mouth. His missing index finger was being brushed, Victor said. A spot just below Victor's left nostril caused the boy to feel a tingling on his left pinkie. And when Victor felt an itch in his phantom hand, scratching his lower face relieved the itch. In people who have lost a limb, Ramachandran concluded, the brain reorganizes: the strip of cortex that processes input from the face takes over the area that originally received input from a now missing hand. That's why touching Victor's face caused brain to "feel" his missing hand.
Similarly, because the regions of cortex that handle sensations from the feet abut those that process sensations from the surface of the genitals, some people who have lost a leg report feeling phantom sensations during sex. Ramachandran's was the first report of a living being knowingly experiencing the results of his brain rewiring.
THINKING ABOUT THINKING
AS SCIENTISTS PROBE the limits of neuroplasticity, they are finding that mind sculpting can occur even without input from the outside world. The brain can change as a result of the thoughts we think, as with Pascual-Leone's virtual piano players. This has important implications for health: something as seemingly insubstantial as a thought can affect the very stuff of the brain, altering neuronal connections in a way that can treat mental illness or, perhaps, lead to a greater capacity for empathy and compassion. It may even dial up the supposedly immovable happiness set point.
In a series of experiments, for instance, Jeffrey Schwartz and colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) can quiet activity in the circuit that underlies obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), just as drugs do. Schwartz had become intrigued with the therapeutic potential of mindfulness meditation, the Buddhist practice of observing one's inner experiences as if they were happening to someone else.
When OCD patients were plagued by an obsessive thought, Schwartz instructed them to think, "My brain is generating another obsessive thought. Don't I know it is just some garbage thrown up by a faulty circuit?" After 10 weeks of mindfulness-based therapy, 12 out of 18 patients improved significantly. Before-and-after brain scans showed that activity in the orbital frontal cortex, the core of the OCD circuit, had fallen dramatically and in exactly the way that drugs effective against OCD affect the brain. Schwartz called it "self-directed neuroplasticity," concluding that "the mind can change the brain."
The same is true when cognitive techniques are used to treat depression. Scientists at the University of Toronto had 14 depressed adults undergo CBT, which teaches patients to view their own thoughts differently--to see a failed date, for instance, not as proof that "I will never be loved" but as a minor thing that didn't work out. Thirteen other patients received paroxetine (the generic form of the antidepressant Paxil). All experienced comparable improvement after treatment. Then the scientists scanned the patients' brains. "Our hypothesis was, if you do well with treatment, your brain will have changed in the same way no matter which treatment you received," said Toronto's Zindel Segal.
But no. Depressed brains responded differently to the two kinds of treatment--and in a very interesting way. CBT muted overactivity in the frontal cortex, the seat of reasoning, logic and higher thought as well as of endless rumination about that disastrous date. Paroxetine, by contrast, raised activity there. On the other hand, CBT raised activity in the hippocampus of the limbic system, the brain's emotion center. Paroxetine lowered activity there. As Toronto's Helen Mayberg explains, "Cognitive therapy targets the cortex, the thinking brain, reshaping how you process information and changing your thinking pattern. It decreases rumination, and trains the brain to adopt different thinking circuits." As with Schwartz's OCD patients, thinking had changed a pattern of activity--in this case, a pattern associated with depression--in the brain.
HAPPINESS AND MEDITATION
COULD THINKING ABOUT THOUGHTS IN A new way affect not only such pathological brain states as OCD and depression but also normal activity? To find out, neuroscientist Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin at Madison turned to Buddhist monks, the Olympic athletes of mental training. Some monks have spent more than 10,000 hours of their lives in meditation. Earlier in Davidson's career, he had found that activity greater in the left prefrontal cortex than in the right correlates with a higher baseline level of contentment. The relative left/right activity came to be seen as a marker for the happiness set point, since people tend to return to this level no matter whether they win the lottery or lose their spouse. If mental training can alter activity characteristic of OCD and depression, might meditation or other forms of mental training, Davidson wondered, produce changes that underlie enduring happiness and other positive emotions? "That's the hypothesis," he says, "that we can think of emotions, moods and states such as compassion as trainable mental skills."
With the help and encouragement of the Dalai Lama, Davidson recruited Buddhist monks to go to Madison and meditate inside his functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) tube while he measured their brain activity during various mental states. For comparison, he used undergraduates who had had no experience with meditation but got a crash course in the basic techniques. During the generation of pure compassion, a standard Buddhist meditation technique, brain regions that keep track of what is self and what is other became quieter, the fMRI showed, as if the subjects--experienced meditators as well as novices--opened their minds and hearts to others.
More interesting were the differences between the so-called adepts and the novices. In the former, there was significantly greater activation in a brain network linked to empathy and maternal love. Connections from the frontal regions, so active during compassion meditation, to the brain's emotional regions seemed to become stronger with more years of meditation practice, as if the brain had forged more robust connections between thinking and feeling.
But perhaps the most striking difference was in an area in the left prefrontal cortex--the site of activity that marks happiness. While the monks were generating feelings of compassion, activity in the left prefrontal swamped activity in the right prefrontal (associated with negative moods) to a degree never before seen from purely mental activity. By contrast, the undergraduate controls showed no such differences between the left and right prefrontal cortex. This suggests, says Davidson, that the positive state is a skill that can be trained.
For the monks as well as the patients with depression or OCD, the conscious act of thinking about their thoughts in a particular way rearranged the brain. The discovery of neuroplasticity, in particular the power of the mind to change the brain, is still too new for scientists, let alone the rest of us, to grasp its full meaning. But even as it offers new therapies for illnesses of the mind, it promises something more fundamental: a new understanding of what it means to be human.
アスピリンの効用
Aspirin, a Wonder Drug? Studies Show It May Prevent Cancer
By Alice Park | March 21, 2012
Many people take a daily aspirin to reduce their risk of heart attack, but now fresh evidence suggests that the over-the-counter pain reliever may be a powerful tool in cancer prevention as well.
In three new studies published in the Lancet, researchers from from the University of Oxford say a daily dose of aspirin can reduce people’s risk of developing a variety of cancers and also lower the chance of their cancer spreading.
The studies looked at patients who were participating in several long-term, randomized trials on the effect of daily low-dose aspirin (75 mg to 300 mg) for the prevention of heart disease. The researchers examined how many of the participants went on to develop cancer. In one study, patients taking aspirin had a nearly 25% lower risk of cancer after five years, compared with those taking a placebo. That translated to a 15% lower risk of dying of cancer during the study period; after five years, the risk of death was 37% lower in patients who remained on aspirin.
In another study, which included five large trials in Britain that followed patients over an average of 6.5 years, aspirin users enjoyed a 36% lower risk of developing metastatic cancer and a 46% reduced risk of being diagnosed with colon, lung or prostate cancer.
A third study, published in Lancet Oncology, looked at findings from observational studies and found that regular use of aspirin reduced the long-term risk of several cancers and prevented the metastasis of tumors.
MORE: Will an Aspirin Prolong Your Life? It Depends
Taken together, the findings are the first to show the benefits of aspirin in lowering cancer risk in short periods of time. Earlier studies had demonstrated reduced risk after about 8, 10 or as long as 20 years.
“These findings add to the case for use of aspirin to prevent cancer, particularly if people are at increased risk,” lead researcher Dr. Peter M. Rothwell, a professor of neurology at the University of Oxford, told Reuters.
The benefits of the low-cost therapy have to be balanced with its risks, however, which include gastrointestinal bleeding. Over time, said Rothwell, the risk of such bleeding appeared to wane, but additional studies need to be done to confirm that the prevention of cancer outweighs any potential complications that might arise from aspirin’s effect on the stomach.
That type of evidence is what some experts are still waiting for. “I think he’s on to something. I just want to be cautious, and I don’t want to exaggerate,” Dr. Otis W. Brawley, chief medical officer and executive vice president of the American Cancer Society, told the New York Times. “I’m not ready to say that everybody ought to take a baby aspirin a day to prevent cancer.”
Still, the idea that an inexpensive and relatively safe medication can prevent a range of cancers is powerful, and the results should launch a deeper look into aspirin’s potential chemoprotective effects. Whether such trials will be undertaken is another matter, considering the expense of clinical trials and the lack of profitability of generic, over-the-counter aspirin.
Alice Park is a writer at TIME. Find her on Twitter at @aliceparkny. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.
喫煙と記憶力低下の因果関係
Social Smoking Is No Better for Your Brain
By Alexandra Sifferlin | @acsifferlin | March 20, 2012
Even social smokers are out of excuses. A recent study finds that it doesn’t matter whether you smoke every day or only on the weekends — at least when it comes to damaging your memory.
For the study, researchers from Northumbria University recruited 84 students. A third of students were “social smokers,” who smoked about 20 cigarettes once or twice a week, usually on weekends. Another third were regular smokers, who smoked 10 to 15 cigarettes daily, and the last group was never smokers.
The participants were given a video-based memory test in which they watched a short clip of a busy shopping area and were asked to remember a series of predetermined actions at specific locations shown during the clip. For example, they were asked to remember to text a friend when passing a certain store or to exchange a jumper they had previously purchased.
(MORE: Can the Quit-Smoking Drug Chantix Help People Kick Alcohol, Cocaine?)
Based on the results, the researchers found that both groups of smokers performed significantly worse on the memory tasks than the non-smokers and there was no performance difference between the two smoking groups.
“Smoking-related memory decline in general has been linked with increases in accelerated cerebral degeneration such as brain shrinkage,” Dr. Tom Heffernan, senior lecturer in psychology at Northumbria University, said in a statement. “This new research suggests that restricting smoking to weekends makes no difference — smoking damages your memory.”
The researchers acknowledge that the sample of students used in the study may not be a representative of smokers in general, but previous research has shown links between smoking and memory loss in other age groups.
(PHOTOS: Cigarette Warnings Around the World)
In February, a study from the University College London found that smoking was associated with faster cognitive decline in middle-aged men. Healthland’s Alice Park reported:
“The [study] found that men who smoked showed faster decline than nonsmoking men over 10 years. The size of the effect associated with smoking was similar to that of 10 years of aging.”
Another danger of occasional smoking, research suggest, is that social smokers are less likely to think about quitting since they don’t consider themselves “real smokers.” They don’t think they have a problem, so they’re not motivated to stop. But passing up even the occasional cigarette has health benefits — not only for your heart and lungs, but as recent research suggests, also for your brain too.
The study was published this month in the journal Open Addiction.
Steven and Chris Episodes / Live Well Network TV
How to Cleanse Right
Tuesday,April 17,2012
A diet cleanse can be incredibly good for your health -- if you do it right, that is. Nutritionist Peggy Kotsopoulos explains how to cleanse right.
What is a cleanse?
A cleanse (or detox) is the process of clearing accumulated toxins and waste from your body. It doesn't have to involve crazy fasts or injesting nothing but lemon and water for days. It's about eliminating key stressors and toxins from your diet for a short period of time and adding certain nutrients and foods to give eliminative organs (e.g. liver, colon, skin, etc.) a little boost.
Which cleanse should I choose?
Eat clean and drink lots of water to help flush toxins from your system. Your diet should consist of clean, whole foods, including organic fruits and veggies, gluten-free grains (e.g. quinoa, brown rice, etc.), healthy fats and lean proteins. Try to consciously eliminate toxins, such as processed/refined foods, synthetic skin care products, sugar, alcohol, caffeine and highly allergenic foods (e.g. wheat/gluten, dairy, soy, corn and peanuts).
How long should I cleanse?
Most cleanses should last between one and three weeks. If you're trying a green-juice fast, you shouldn't go longer than one day.
Cleanse Boosters
A cleanse isn't all about deprivation. In fact, it's just as important to add certain nutrients to your diet cleanse to aid organs in flushing your system of toxins. Nutritionist Peggy Kotsopoulos helps you get the most out of your cleanse with these body boosters.
Chili Peppers for the...Lungs
With every exhalation, the lungs eliminate toxins from the body. However, environmental pollutants can build up in the lung tissue and create a thick coating of mucous, preventing optimal oxygen absorption.
Chilis break down and liquify that mucous, making it easier to flush out toxins. Capsaicin, the active component in chilis, also helps open up the capillaries and remove toxins via the sweat glands. Also try: ginger and/or onion.
Dandelion for the...Liver
One of the liver's primary functions is to remove and break down toxins in the blood. It also helps to process nutrients from the blood.
Dandelion is rich in chlorophyll, which helps to eliminate toxins from the liver. Both the leaves and root have detoxifying properties. Try adding the leaves to a salad or lightly steam them and drizzle with lemon, olive oil and freshly minced garlic. Also try: milk thistle, artichoke leaf, lemon and/or water.
Parsley for the...Kidneys
The kidneys filter waste from the blood to be excreted in the urine. They help keep the blood clean and regulate bodily fluids, blood pressure and pH.
Parsley helps to flush out toxins via the urine and is effective in the treatment and prevention of kidney stones, thanks to its diuretic properties. Also try: ginger, nettle and/or basil.
Flaxseed for the...Colon
The colon obviously carries a heavy load when it comes to toxin removal. Even mild consipation (e.g. one bowel movement per day) can lead to toxins being recycled and reabsorbed into the bloodstream.
Flaxseeds expand in your intestines with water and add bulk to stool to aid in its passage. They are also rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which help to reduce inflammation of the intestinal tract. Also try: hemp and/or green juices.
Sea Salt for the...Skin
The skin is in fact the largest eliminative organ! Its health is essential to your overall well-being.
Sea salt helps to pull toxins from the body. Add 2 to 3 cups of sea salt to a warm bath and soak in it. Or try a foot bath instead. Also try: Epsom salt, peppermint, ginger, burdock root and/or dry-skin brushing.
アジア学生のがり勉型勉強法と近眼との関係
Why Up to 90% of Asian Schoolchildren Are Nearsighted
Researchers say the culprit is academic ambition: spending too much time studying indoors and not enough hours in bright sunlight is ruining kids' eyesight
By Alice Park | @aliceparkny | May 7, 2012 | 10 inShare13
Scientists say an epidemic of myopia, or nearsightedness, is sweeping through Asian children, and is likely due to students’ spending too much time indoors studying and not enough time outside in the sunlight.
It has long been thought that nearsightedness is mostly a hereditary problem, but researchers led by Ian Morgan of Australian National University say the data suggest that environment has a lot more to do with it.
Reporting in the journal Lancet, the authors note that up to 90% of young adults in major East Asian countries, including China, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, are nearsighted. The overall rate of myopia in the U.K., by contrast, is about 20% to 30%.
In Singapore, for example, rates of nearsightedness in three different ethnic groups — Chinese, Indian and Malaysian — have increased since 1996. Because all three groups are equally affected, says Morgan, it’s likely that some common environmental factor is driving the rise.
Studies of East Asian populations that have moved to different parts of the world are also revealing: Chinese young adults in Australia, where exposure to bright sunlight is more likely, show lower rates of myopia than Chinese young adults living in cities in East and Southeast Asia. Similarly, white children living in Sydney show lower rates of nearsightedness than those living in the U.K.
Particularly concerning is that about 10% to 20% of Asian schoolchildren suffer from high myopia, which puts them at higher risk of more serious vision problems, including blindness, in adulthood. Morgan says the culprit is the massive pressure on Asian children to succeed in school, which leads to too many hours hunched over books indoors and not nearly enough exposure to natural sunlight. Indeed, East Asian countries with high myopia rates are those that dominate international rankings of educational performance, the study notes.
Myopia, which causes people to see clearly things that are near but not those that are at a distance, is the result of elongation of the eyeball, which leads to misalignment of light on the retina. Instead of landing on the retina at the back of the eye, incoming light converges at a point in front of the retina, leading to blurry images at a distance. Animal studies show that during early development, if the eye is not allowed to regulate its size to the proper length, then myopia can occur.
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The scientists think that the neurotransmitter dopamine may play a significant role in the structural development of the eyeball. Exposure to light increases the levels of dopamine in the eye, which may prevent elongation of the eyeball.
“We think there is a pretty well-confirmed mechanism,” says Morgan. “We postulate that bright outdoor light would stimulate the release of the retinal transmitter dopamine, which is known to be able to block the axial growth of the eye, which is the structural basis of myopia — the eye simply grows too big.” Animal experiments using mice and monkeys support the theory, the researchers say.
It’s not clear when the window of proper eye development closes in humans, but Morgan says it’s concerning that the high rates of nearsightedness among East Asians is occurring so early, often in elementary school. “What has happened in East Asia is that the study pressure that promotes myopia is already high for early-primary schoolkids, and they spend little time outdoors,” says Morgan. “The worst aspect of this early start is that it gives them longer to become highly myopic, because the eye continues to elongate, and then they are at risk of [more serious vision problems].”
Can the progression to myopia be prevented, or at least stopped? So far, no effective prevention methods or therapies for nearsightedness exist, other than corrective lenses like glasses or contacts. The drug atropine slows down eye growth, but the drops can cause side effects, and they lose their effectiveness over time, says Morgan. “We need more evidence on just about everything that’s been tried,” he says.
The results suggest that parents — especially tiger moms — might want to give their hard-studying children regular breaks: a couple of hours of sunlight a day would probably do it, the authors say.
Park is a writer at TIME. Find her on Twitter at @aliceparkny. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.
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記憶力が優れることの悪い側面。Autismの記述は特に考えさせる。
Does A Better Memory Equal Greater PTSD Risk?
Strong recall may be genetically associated with heightened flashbacks of trauma and pain, according to new research.
By Maia Szalavitz | May 15, 2012
A good memory is typically seen as a powerful advantage, an aid to intelligence and socializing. But when experience is traumatic, this asset may become a serious liability, according to new research on survivors of the Rwandan genocide.
Researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland studied a gene for a protein called PKCA, which is known to be involved in the encoding of emotional memories. In healthy Swiss adults, a variant called rs4790904 was found to be associated with visual memory.
There are three versions of rs4790904: AA, AG and GG. In one experiment including over 700 healthy adults from Switzerland, people with the AA variant had better recall of happy or otherwise emotionally positive and neutral images. A brain imaging experiment including nearly 400 Swiss adults also linked the AA version with improved memory for pictures with either a positive or negative emotional tone.
Researchers then studied the same gene in 347 adult Rwandan refugees who were living at the Nakivale refugee camp in Uganda. All of them had been exposed to the trauma of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which had forced them to flee their homes. Around 800,000 people were slaughtered in 100 days during the genocide, when Hutu militias and gangs attacked the minority Tutsi population and those sympathetic to them.
Thirty-nine percent of the refugees had current symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder marked by a sense of repeatedly re-experiencing the emotional and physical sensations linked to the trauma, often triggered by sensory reminders of the event, like sudden loud noises. People with PTSD typically try to avoid these cues, which can result in isolation and increased distress.
Rwandan refugees with the AA variant were more likely to have PTSD than those with the other versions of the gene — particularly symptoms of re-experiencing the traumatic event, like flashbacks. Avoidance of trauma reminders was also more common in those with the AA version.
According to the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings point to a “genetic link between the predisposition to build strong memory and the risk for PTSD.”
The research also adds to increasing evidence that many “positive” genes also have a downside — and similarly, many “negative” ones have an upside. For example, one gene linked with a tendency for children to share treats with others is also linked to ADHD and later in life, promiscuity and addiction.
The genetics of autism similarly seem to show a mix of increased vulnerabilities and strengths. In fact, the “intense world” theory of autism suggests that the condition may result from having a brain that takes in too much, resulting in difficulty accommodating the overload of sensations, associations and memories. This could result in a sensitive type of higher intelligence, which can simultaneously lead to withdrawal and repetitive behaviors in an attempt to impose order on the overwhelming input.
When we contemplate enhancing memory, it’s important to consider that this will strengthen our recall of disaster and pain, not just success and pleasure. There’s no free lunch, it seems.
Maia Szalavitz is a health writer for TIME.com. Find her on Twitter at @maiasz. You can also continue the discussion on TIME Healthland‘s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIMEHealthland.
Oregon man bitten by stray cat diagnosed with the plague
Updated 1d 16h ago Comments
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Health officials have confirmed that an Oregon man has the plague after he was bitten while trying to take a dead rodent from the mouth of a stray cat.
The unidentified Prineville, Ore., man was in critical condition on Friday. He is suffering from a blood-borne version of the disease that wiped out at least one-third of Europe in the 14th century — that one, the bubonic plague, affects lymph nodes.
There is an average of seven human plague cases in the U.S. each year. A map maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that most cases since the 1970s have been in the West, primarily the southwest.
The plague bacteria cycles through rodent populations without killing them off; in urban areas, it's transmitted back and forth from rats to fleas. There's even a name for it, the "enzootic cycle."
The bacteria thrive in forests, semi-arid areas and grasslands, which plague-carrying rodents from wood rats to rock squirrels call home.
Once a coin flip with death, the plague is now easier to handle for humans in the U.S. The national mortality rate stood at 66 percent before World War II, but advances in antibiotics dropped that rate to its present 16 percent.
Central Oregon health officials don't blame the cat.
"The reality is that, in rural areas, part of the role of cats is to keep the rodent population controlled around our homes and barns" said Karen Yeargain of the Crook County Health Department.
The Prineville man, who is in his 50s, remained in critical condition Friday at a Bend hospital. His illness marks the fifth case of plague in Oregon since 1995.
State public health veterinarian Dr. Emilio DeBess said the man was infected when he was bitten by the stray his family befriended. The cat died and its body is being sent to the CDC for testing.
DeBess has collected blood samples from two dogs and another cat that lives with the man's family. DeBess also collected blood samples from neighbors' pets and from animals in the local shelter to determine whether the area has a plague problem.
More than a dozen people who were in contact with the sick man have been notified and are receiving preventive antibiotics.
Roper Hospital confirms case of flesh eating bacteria
By: Laura Hettiger | WCBD
Published: June 15, 2012
The doctors at Roper Hospital are treating with a patient battling necrotizing fasciitis--the medical term for flesh-eating bacteria.
It is the third confirmed case in the Palmetto state in the last two months. However, Dr. Todd Shuman, who is the main doctor treating the Roper patient, said the disease is not on the rise: the reporting of it is.
"The cause of those cases have been very different," Shuman said exclusively to News 2. "It is still a very rare problem that occurs in the community."
Shuman said it is so rare, only three cases are reported out of every 100,000 people.
"Is it increasing nationally?" Shuman asked. "As far as we can tell, in the United States, it really hasn't increased."
Due to HIPAA--or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act--Shuman could not give too many details about the patient at Roper aside from it being an adult male who was admitted several days ago. The man has already undergone surgery and will continue working with an anesthesiologist to relieve his pain. He will eventually have hyperbaric oxygen therapy which is the use of oxygen at above normal atmospheric pressure.
While Shuman could not elaborate on his patient's condition, he was very adamant about the health of the rest of the hospital.
"It is not contagious," Shuman said. "The spread of this particular infection is like the spread of any other infection. The way to minimize spread is by hand washing."
FDA proposes ban on artery-clogging trans fats in foods
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a proposal to ban trans fats, citing health concerns such as heart disease. Many companies have already phased out trans fats from products, which demonstrates that it is 'by and large feasible to do,' the FDA's deputy commissioner Michael Taylor said.
By Tracy Miller / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Thursday, November 7, 2013, 10:14 AM
Updated: Thursday, November 7, 2013, 3:03 PM
Alexes Garcia makes cinnamon rolls for student's lunch in the kitchen at Kepner Middle School in Denver using apple sauce instead of trans fats. Heart-clogging trans fats have been slowly disappearing from grocery aisles, and the Food and Drug Administration is now finishing the job, saying it will require the food industry to gradually phase out trans fats due to health threats.
Trans fats are going, going — and may soon be gone completely, if a proposed ban by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration takes hold.
The proposal, announced Thursday on the FDA's website, would require the food industry to gradually phase out all trans fats due to mounting health concerns.
A ban could prevent 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths each year according to Centers for Disease Control and prevention estimates, the FDA said. Though many companies have already dropped trans fats from their products, they "remain an area of significant public concern," FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg told the Associated Press.
The FDA has made a preliminary decision that trans fats no longer fall under the "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS, category that includes thousands of food additives that manufacturers can include in their products without FDA review. Once finalized, food manufacturers would have to petition the agency to allow their use, which would likely be unapproved.
Trans fats, also called partially hydrogenated oils, are created when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil to make it solid. They are used to stabilize products on shelves and to enhance the flavor of processed and restaurant foods.
Trans fats occur naturally in small amounts in meat and dairy products. They are also created during the manufacturing process in other edible oils, which is unavoidable and would still be allowed, the FDA said.
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In 2006, the government began requiring that food manufacturers include the amount of trans fats per serving on nutritional labels, prompting many companies to phase them out of products. But they are still widely found in processed foods. Some of the foods affected by the ban include:
* Crackers, cookies and other snack foods
* Packaged baked goods and frozen pies
* Microwave popcorn
* Frozen pizza
* Vegetable shortenings and stick margarines
* Coffee creamers
* Refrigerated dough products (such as biscuits and cinnamon rolls)
* Ready-to-use frostings
Studies have linked partially hydrogenated oils to an increased risk of coronary heart disease — the leading cause of death in the U.S — and higher levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol.
New York was the first city to ban trans fats in 2007, and other cities and states have followed suit. A 2012 study found that the amount of trans fats consumed by New Yorkers dropped considerably after the ban.
Mayor Bloomberg weighed in on the FDA decision Thursday, saying his administration was "greatly encouraged" by the proposed measures.
“Our prohibition on trans fats was one of many bold public health measures that faced fierce initial criticism, only to gain widespread acceptance and support," Bloomberg said. "The groundbreaking public health policies we have adopted here in New York City have become a model for the nation for one reason: They've worked.
"Today, New Yorkers’ life expectancy is far higher than the national average, and we've achieved dramatic reductions in disease, including heart disease. The FDA deserves great credit for taking this step, which will help Americans live longer, healthier lives.”
Trans fat intake among American consumers declined from 4.6 grams per day in 2003 to around one gram per day in 2012, according to the FDA.
The FDA proposal is open for comment for the next two months, after which officials will set a timeline for the phase-out. Different foods may have different timelines to allow manufacturers time to find substitute ingredients.
"We want to do it in a way that doesn't unduly disrupt markets," Michael Taylor, FDA's deputy commissioner for foods, told the AP. The food industry, he said, "has demonstrated that it is by and large feasible to do."
Forget resolutions―use these nerdy lifehacks to make life a little better in a lot of ways
Written by William MacAskill 1/3/2016
It’s New Year’s. You want to set goals, and achieve them. But, realistically, you’re probably not going to. Researchers find that anywhere from 40% to 8% of Americans who set New Year’s resolutions successfully stick to them.
The problem is that people often aim to completely overhaul their lives, setting themselves lofty and unachievable goals: “I’m going to get up at dawn every day, then go to the gym, meditate and eat five portions of fruits and vegetables all before work.” Once one part in this magnificent edifice of intention gets chipped away (you hit the snooze button, for instance), it all comes crashing down and you find yourself eating ice cream for breakfast in bed twenty minutes after you’re meant to be at work.
Instead, I suggest you should think about life tweaks: things you might actually do, and which will make your life a little better in a lot of different ways. With that in mind, here are some fun, nerdy and easy-to-implement hacks to take with you into 2016.
■How to save time at restaurants
The problem: Suppose you’re at a restaurant for dinner with six friends. The bill, including tip, comes to $140. You want to split it equally, which means that everyone should pay $23.33. Everyone has to interrupt the conversation to wrangle the approximate change while stepping lightly around the etiquette of who might be overpaying or underpaying. It’s potentially uncomfortable and a waste of time.
The solution: Randomly pick one person to pay the whole bill. You can do this by having someone turn their back, numbering everyone, and then having the person who turned their back shout out a number. Or, if you’re worried that process won’t be truly random (“John always chooses number three”), you can use a randomization website like pickatrandom.com.
Why it works: Randomly choosing one person cuts down the time spent looking for change and means no one overpays or underpays. And in the long run―if you were to do this over dozens of dinners―everyone is likely to pay the same amount as they would if you split the bill equally every time.
■How to make bad events less bad
The problem: Bad events, like failing an exam or having a potential spouse reject your marriage proposal, make your life seem worse.
In effect, betting against yourself is a way of taking out an emotional insurance policy. The solution: Bet against yourself. If you think there’s a 40% chance that you’ve failed an important exam, then find someone who’ll take the following bet: you’ll pay them $80 if you pass the exam, and they’ll pay you $120 if you fail. In general, if you think something bad might happen, make a bet that it will happen.
Why it works: In effect, betting against yourself is a way of taking out an emotional insurance policy. If you get good news, then you’ll be so happy you won’t mind parting with your money. If you get bad news, then at least you’ve gained a bit of cash, and can treat yourself as compensation.
Warning: Beware incentive effects. If you bet a large amount of money that you’ll fail before you’ve sat the exam, then you might prepare less hard than if you hadn’t made the bet.
■How to stay alert during the day
The problem: You often feel tired during the day.
The solution: Stock your office with really bright lights, mimicking daylight more closely. You could either use any one of many Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) lamp options, or several halogen lamps.
Why it works: There’s only anecdotal evidence behind this one, but it’s easy to try out so there’s little cost to giving it a go and seeing if it works for you. It’s possible that greater exposure to light slows the synthesis of melatonin (which makes you feel sleepy) from serotonin.
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■How to get out of bed
The problem: Bed feels really nice and, if you don’t have an imminent reason to get up, it’s easy to sleep in.
The solution: Set two alarms in the morning: one for the time you want to get up, and one an hour earlier. When you wake up, you suffer from sleep inertia. Luckily there’s a pill for that. Leave an iced coffee, energy drink, or caffeine pill next to your bed. When your first alarm goes off, consume the drink or pill, and go back to sleep. When the second alarm goes off, you’ll find it easy to get out of bed.
Why it works: When you wake up, you suffer from sleep inertia, caused by the build up of adenosine in the brain. Caffeine blocks adenosine receptors, making you more alert.
Warning: You might find that the caffeine takes more or less than an hour to kick in, in which case you should alter the timing of your first alarm.
■How to eat more healthy foods
The problem: Vegetables, while good for you, don’t taste as good as other, less healthy foods. It’s Kid’s Meals 101.
The solution: Buy powdered monosodium glutamate (“MSG”; available from most Asian supermarkets), and sprinkle it onto vegetables after you cook them. It’ll make them taste delicious.
Why it works: Glutamate is the molecule that gives foods the “umami” taste―a meaty, full flavor. It’s in part what makes parmesan cheese, soy sauce, and tomatoes taste delicious, and it’ll make vegetables taste much better.
Sprinkle MSG onto vegetables after you cook them. It’ll make them taste delicious. It’s also completely safe. Sadly, there’s a prevalent myth that it causes headaches or stomach problems. This idea came from an anecdote mentioned in a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine in 1968; however, multiple studies have shown that there is no such effect. The only potential downside of MSG is that it’s a source of sodium, too much of which may be linked to high blood pressure. However, MSG only contains one third of the sodium content of table salt; insofar as you could use MSG as a substitute for table salt, it may even be better for you in terms of sodium consumption.
■How to get smarter
The problem: Your brain doesn’t work as fast as you’d like it to.
The solution: Take 5mg (one teaspoon) of creatine monohydrate―the stuff bodybuilders take to build muscle mass, available at almost every supplements store―every morning.
Why it works: Creatine helps you to create adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which your body uses to transport energy between cells. Your brain is a heavy energy user, accounting for 20% of resting metabolism; increasing your levels of creatine potentially enables your brain to harness the energy it needs when faced with intellectually demanding tasks.
Some studies have demonstrated that people who take small amounts of creatine show significant improvement (pdf) on IQ and other cognitive tests, with the most promising effects occurring for vegetarians, who, unlike meat-eaters, don’t get creatine naturally in their diet. But, as the researchers suggest: “We would… expect to see a beneficial effect of creatine supplementation on brain performance in most omnivores apart from those who consume very high amounts of meat.”
Warning: The number of studies on this is still small, but the potential benefits are very great―IQ is a better predictor of educational, economic and social outcomes than any other known psychological variable―so it’s worth trying. There’s also some evidence that creatine has positive effects on mood for those taking antidepressants.
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The right things to say ― and not say ― to the bereaved
BY Joan E. Markwell
DAILY NEWS CONTRIBUTOR
Friday, July 21, 2017, 2:00 PM
It’s easy to say the wrong thing to a person grieving the loss of a loved one. The best advice: be sensitive, sympathetic and sincere.
It’s easy to say the wrong thing to a person grieving the loss of a loved one. The best advice: be sensitive, sympathetic and sincere. (RichLegg/Getty Images)
"I can't believe you just said that to me!"
Yes, so many times the bereaved walk away with that very thought flashing across their mind. That is because well-meaning people who have every intention of offering words of sympathy to those who are grieving, manage to do just the opposite.
They do so because they simply do not know the right thing to say so the wrong words fly out of their mouths. These same people will slide on by those grieving because they feel uncomfortable in their presence for the same reason.
Oh, but there are plenty of appropriate ways to express support t hat can be so helpful to the bereaved. Because people are creatures of habit, they continue to say and do the same old things they have heard time and again.
There is a need to move past these sayings and even forget the majority of them. If you never utter another grieving cliché again, you would be doing us (the bereaved) a great service.
Phrases such as "you're doing great," "time heals all wounds," "everything happens for a reason," "be glad you have other children," "your child wouldn't want you to feel this way," "you are so strong," "God had a plan," "God will never give you more than you can handle" and on and on and on. There are too many to share.
People utter one of these phrases and walk away feeling better. They have patted us on the shoulder and said something nice for them, not us. They feel better because they have done their job by offering words of condolence, whereas we may feel no comfort at all. We may even think, "I can't believe you just said that to me."
However, there is a solution to this conflicting situation. We, the bereaved, so want you to help us in our grief. In fact, we need your comfort and support. There is a resolution and it is simple. Before approaching, take any of the above statements and turn them into something personal and positive for the grieving.
For example, don't tell us "time heals all wounds," because we can't see a future without our loved one. You could turn this around and say, "I know healing will be a long process for you; I will be here for you."
This justifies our feelings and does not make us feel guilty for not being able to move on; and it's encouraging to hear the supporter is in for the long haul. This also makes your words seem more personal.
Another example: "Be glad you have other children." When people say this, our thought is which child would you want us to give up or would you give up? A better comment would be: "I know your other children will help provide comfort for you as your family tries to work through your loss." Try to keep the family reminded of the love and support by which they are surrounded.
Here's one commonly used: "You're so strong." Ah, the bereaved are great foolers. That's because they wear an invisible mask that requires adjustment every day so that they look strong to the outside world even though on the inside they are crumbling.
