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health 2

health 2

dna choses when to repair after x-rays

“The variation in DNA repair efficiency was totally unexpected. High dose cells repaired 95 per cent of their damage within a day. At doses of 5.0 milligrays, the DNA repaired fell to 80 per cent. But cells exposed to the lowest doses avoided repairs altogether, or delayed it for days.

“Rothkamm [a Hamburg researcher] suggests there may be a threshold level below which damage is ignored. Chemical signals within or between cells could determine when damage has reached such a level that repairs are essential.”

the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2.htm#health010403

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useful item on alcoholism

“Anxiety has long been linked to substance abuse. It is the key psychological factor driving the impulse to drink alcohol and one of the first symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.

“Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have discovered they can control the urge to drink in experimental animals by manipulating the molecular events in the brain that underlie anxiety.”

related material
the ridiculous great american ‘drug war’
USA mad fundamentalist ‘drug war’ extends idiocy into schools

the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2.htm#health200303

20.03.2003

related material

the ridiculous great american ‘drug war’

USA mad fundamentalist ‘drug war’ extends idiocy into schools

sleep deficit drives cognitive deficit

“Those who believe they can function well on six or fewer hours of sleep every night may be accumulating a "sleep debt" that cuts into their normal cognitive abilities, according to research conducted at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. What's more, the research indicates, those people may be too sleep-deprived to know it.”

This is a similar process as seen in drunkeness, as to be expected. Alcohol, being a downer, tends to send you to sleep.

the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2.htm#health150303

an old story that doesn't go away.....increasing antibiotic resistance

“One solution, she believes, is for people to get flu shots. Although the flu is caused by a virus, people with flu often get antibiotic prescriptions just in case the bug turns out to be bacterial. Another low-tech solution is get in the habit of washing your hands. "Increasing hand-washing reduces respiratory infections by an average of 40 per cent. If we did that, we'd have a huge impact of antibiotic use ... and not so much antibiotic resistance.”

And more here:

“The most important way to prevent bacteria from becoming resistant to antibiotics is to limit the use of antibiotics to which strains are likely to become resistant, Lipsitch said. "We know that this is possible," he said. European countries have "vast differences" from the US in their use of antibiotics and in levels of antibiotic resistance, "yet none of these countries is allowing people to suffer major bacterial infections without treatment," Lipsitch said.”

So much human foolishness.

the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2.htm#health110303

inbreeding and costs to health

“AS ROYAL families and pedigree dog-owners can find to their cost, too much inbreeding may result in individuals who are damaged from birth.”

371 sick sealions, taken into care at Marine Mammal Centre in Sausalito, California, were studied, and their sicknesses correlated with the degree of inbreeding.

“[For] bacterial infection, gut-parasite infestation, cancer, poisoning by toxic algae and even “non-specific”—there was a[n inbreeding] connection.”
—
“What has not been much investigated is whether consanguinity has more general consequences for an individual's health over its whole life. But a study on wild sea-lions, just published in Nature, throws some light on this question. And the answer seems to be that it does.”

[Economist print edition, 05.03.03; original report from Nature currently unobtainable]

the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2.htm#health090303

09.03.2003

useful site on vaccinations

“However, the disappearance of many childhood diseases has led some parents to question whether vaccines are still necessary. In addition, a growing number of parents are concerned that vaccines may actually be the cause of diseases such as autism, hyperactivity, diabetes, multiple sclerosis (MS), and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) among others. These concerns have caused some parents to delay or withhold vaccines for their children. Specific information on each of these concerns is found by linking from this page...”

the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2.htm#health050303

mad cow disease kaput estimate revised down....again

“The upper limit of 7000 deaths by 2080 represents the upper 95 per cent confidence limit. The equivalent lower confidence limit was 10 deaths.”

the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2.htm#health270203

two nasty diseases to keep you worrying!

our relations share ebola

“Some 500 of the 800 gorillas registered in the Lorri gorilla sanctuary 25 miles from the Republic of Congo's border with Gabon had died in five months, she said. The haemorrhagic fever has since January also killed 67 villagers in the region, where bush meat forms part of the diet”

a step to understanding 1918 flu?

“Last year three different teams of scientists discovered that the 1997 H5N1 strain contains a gene that gives it unusual abilities to overcome the human immune system. The gene prompts the immune system's innate response to go into overdrive, making huge quantities of chemicals that cause inflammation in organs throughout the body. Concurrently, the same gene blocks another immune system chemical, interferon, the agent most responsible for recovery from flu.

“Flu experts fear that the dreaded 1918 flu virus, which may have killed as many as 40 million people worldwide in 18 months, had a similar gene.”

the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2.htm#health220203

on hiv and advancing vaccine technology

“In a new study in mice, a modified form of an innocuous chimpanzee virus has shown marked potency as a protective vaccine against HIV, itself believed to have crossed into the human population from chimpanzees sometime in the 1930s. ”

And more....

the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2.htm#health040203

environmental industrial contamination levels

“American children carry traces of some common pesticides, industrial chemicals and other contaminants at levels twice as high as in adults, according to the largest study ever of human exposure to environmental chemicals.”

A great deal of detail can be found in this report on human exposure to environment chemicals.

related material
an important new item on radiation risk

the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2.htm#health020203

02.02.2003

related material
an important new item on radiation risk

agent orange positively linked to (cll type) leukemia
CLL or chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

This has been long suspected.

And to think that army trainers (apparently) would swallow cupfuls of the stuff to show the ‘grunts’ that it was safe.

the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2.htm#health280103

posted for public information
substantial analysis of smallpox vaccination
—not for the faint-hearted.

“Smallpox does not spread rapidly under natural conditions. Well-conducted studies of variola major in the Asian subcontinent in the late 1960s showed that each case of smallpox gave rise to about three new cases during the seasonal upswing of the disease and less than one case during the seasonal downswing [...] ”

Less than one means the disease is dying out, over one it is spreading (the same maths as a chain reaction!).

“Careful mathematical modelling of the natural spread of smallpox shows that a reasonable mix of judicious vaccination of close contacts and effective isolation of patients can readily stop outbreaks within two infective generations (about 4 weeks) after recognition of the initial cases.”
—
“Because smallpox is spread through respiratory secretions, isolation and simple properly fitting N95 respirator masks prevent disease propagation. Patients should wear these masks and should be kept in negative-pressure hospital rooms. True small-droplet aerosol spread, although rare, has been documented; a single patient spread smallpox to 17 people in a hospital in Germany.”

the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2.htm#health230103

flu causing greater problems than previously thought

“Despite the advent of a vaccine four decades ago, flu-related deaths in the United States have risen dramatically since the 1970s, and influenza now claims more lives each year than AIDS, researchers say.

“The rising death toll is attributed largely to the nation’s growing number of elderly people, who are especially vulnerable to the flu.”

the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2.htm#health090103

inventing yet another 'psycological' pseudo-disease

“Drug companies will be accused today of sponsoring the creation of a new disease ­ female sexual dysfunction ­ to profit from the supply of drugs to treat it.”

related material
establishment psycho-bunk 2: Ritalin and junk science

the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2.htm#health040103

04.01.2003

related material
establishment psycho-bunk 2: Ritalin and junk science

and still the governments wimp out from facing the tobacco touts
(lead from the auroran sunset)

“Tobacco companies recently lost their fight against the tough new rules, which also mean the terms ‘light’ and ‘mild’ are banned.”

Don’t you believe it. This is yet another victory for the European merchants of death.

The Canadian government is now using pictures of rotting teeth, cancerous lungs, and damaged brains and hearts to make the consequences of smoking more graphic. New regulations require manufacturers to devote 50% of each pack to the graphic pictures. They are doing this because research shows that the pictures are 60 times more likely to get smokers to quit.

I have not the slightest doubt the UK government knows this, but business interests certainly do not want smokers quitting. So, of course, we Brits just have anonymous and unintrusive words on the packs.

By the way, some Canadians are trying to circumvent the legislation by adding innocuous half sleeves to the packets.

Sam Saunders, a mathematician, put the risk like this:
Suppose the cigarettes were perfectly harmless, except that one in every 50,000 packs contained one cigarette filled with dynamite that would blow your head off. (One pack a day, from teens to 60, is approximately 15,000 packs.) It would mean about 5,000 people around the world ‘losing their heads’ every day. Every day, there would be a considerably better chance of having your head blown off than there would be of winning the big prize in the lottery, and yet the mugs keep right on buying the tickets. Do you think they'd still be as keen to smoke, while hoping that they wouldn't be the one to get a head-banger?

Of course, having your head blown off would be a far less painful way to go than many of the ways smoking takes you out, and the risk from smoking is, in fact, considerably greater than the exploding cigarette risk described above.

It is well known in the industry that, if you do not get them hooked before the age of 20, it is highly unlikely that you will get them hooked at all. So, of course, cigarette advertising is aimed at the young—like, for instance, on the sides of racing cars.

Happy smoking, suckers!

More from the article:

“The introduction of the warnings comes as it emerges former Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath curbed attempts to clamp down on smoking in the early 1970s.”

Neat to know how much our politicians care. Bliar’s PR machine took a million pounds from Formula One. Strangely, he then opposed the ban on advertising to children on Formula One cars. Ken Clarke, who yearns to take over the British Tory party, receives large donations and stipends from the tobacco industry. As, of course, did those in the United States who sought to drive Clinton from office.

Know your friends, they are only doing it for the children!

Meanwhile, the children’s grandparents and parents die; so, naturally, the governments do not have to pay the pensions!

related material
cigarettes? yukkkkk
US ‘war’ on drugs
estimates of tobacco deaths revised up by 20%

the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/health2.htm#health030103

24.12.2002

related material

cigarettes? yukkkkk

US ‘war’ on drugs

estimates of tobacco deaths revised up by 20%

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