Drug starves fat cells in obese monkeys - Health - CBC News

Drug starves fat cells in obese monkeys - Health - CBC News:

Jan 3, 2012 11:50 AM ET Read 79 comments79

Fat fighter drug research (photo courtesy Dr. Wadih Arap)6:33

An experimental drug has helped monkeys lose about 11 per cent of their body weight, researchers have found.

The drug starves the blood supply of fat cells.

The approach differs from previous efforts to cure obesity through drugs. Those focused on medications that suppress appetite or increase metabolism. But side-effects have limited their appeal.

Cancer researcher Dr. Wadih Arap of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and his colleagues are investigating obesity because of its link to cancer.

"Obesity is not only a major risk factor for many, many cancers, prostate, breast and ovarian," said Arap. "But it's also a prognostic factor. Obese people do worse, they do worse with chemotherapy and surgery and some radiation therapies."

The researchers are testing a synthetic molecule that works on fat cells. After initial tests worked on mice, Arap found new research subjects: rhesus monkeys with the habits of couch potatoes.

"They choose not to exercise and they choose to overeat, so in the same conditions of the other monkeys they become overweight all on their own," veterinary researcher Dr. Kirsten Barnhart said of the flabby, inactive primates that seem to just sit and stare at their food trays.

In contrast, the other monkeys in the colony show more typical active behaviour, flinging themselves around the cages.The monkeys regained weight when the drug injections stopped, says Dr. Kirsten Barnhart. (Courtesy of Dr. Wadih Arap)

After 28 days with the experimental drug, the obese monkeys lost weight, despite eating the same amount of food as usual and remaining inactive.

The researchers used MRI to gauge abdominal body fat, which is thought to be the most dangerous area for humans to gain weight because it raises the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. The abdominal fat in the treated monkeys was reduced.

Barnhart believes the drug shows promise but isn't a magic bullet for fighting obesity. The drawbacks include:

Daily injections.

Kidney side-effects.

When the injections stopped, the fat came back.

Barnhart would like to see the drug developed into a safer pill form for people. She believes it could be effective as a first step to help lose weight, particularly for the morbidly obese.

The drug, called Adipotide, targets white fat — a particularly unhealthy type of fat that accumulates under the skin and around the abdomen — reducing its effects.

Shrinking fat cells

"These [white] fat cells produce a lot of chemicals, and some of these act very much like toxins to wreak havoc in the body," said Dr. David Lau, an obesity specialist at the University of Calgary. He studies the properties of fat cells and says our knowledge of their influence in the body has changed tremendously.

Fat isn't just a sponge full of energy, said Lau. Fat secretes hormones, communicates with the brain to interfere with metabolism and is an active organ with a life of its own, he said.

At his lab, investigators are taking a different approach to fighting obesity. They're hoping to interfere with the signalling mechanisms in order to shrink fat or prevent it from developing in the first place.

That's because scientists now know that "fat begets more fat," Lau said, meaning fat cells have the potential to keep reproducing in the body.

For now, the researchers all stressed the best cure for obesity remains prevention through a healthy lifestyle.

Arap holds a financial stake in drug-development companies.

This week CBC News reports on the search for cures for aging, Type 1 diabetes, the common cold, obesity and cancer on CBC Radio One, CBC News Network, The National and at cbc.ca/news/health/.

With files from CBC's Kelly Crowe and Pauline Dakin

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SILLY WORLD

Strokes: Activity key in preventing strokes

Activity key in preventing strokes:

Activity key in preventing strokes
New book by specialist details the benefits of a healthy lifestyle in conjunction with right medication

by Irene Seiberling
Postmedia News
Thursday, January 26, 2012

How can you prevent having a stroke? A healthy lifestyle is the key.

After more than four decades treating stroke victims, Saskatchewan neurologist Dr. Felix Veloso decided it would be good medicine to give people the knowledge they need to make good decisions. So he wrote a new book telling people how they can prevent strokes naturally.

"Studies continue to confirm that a healthy lifestyle reduces the risk of stroke by up to 90%," said Veloso, the founding codirector of the Stroke Clinic of Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region.

"Stroke is the leading cause of permanent disability. It is the second leading cause of death worldwide, with more than 85% of deaths from stroke occurring in developing countries," Veloso wrote in the introduction of Stroke Prevention Naturally: Proven Non-Pharmaceutical Stroke Avoidance Strategies (Your Nickel's Worth Publishing, $18.88), a 240-page paperback targeted at readers of all ages in the lifelong quest to prevent strokes.


"In Canada, the direct and indirect cost of stroke is at least $3 billion yearly and climbing," he pointed out.

It took Veloso five years of writing in his "spare" time to produce Stroke Prevention Naturally. At 75, Veloso is still seeing and treating patients.

Over the past 40 years, Veloso said he has watched patients "on all kinds of medications, and suffer all kinds of side effects" who still end up having strokes. He said he's often asked: "Is there anything else, anything naturally we could have done to prevent the stroke?"

"I realized there is a very great need to address that concern," Veloso said. "That's how I came to write the book."

With a chuckle, Veloso described his book as "a medical thriller," explaining that he didn't want to publish a dry medical reference book. "To keep it interesting," he created a composite patient in a real-life situation, who has a three-hour window of opportunity to receive life-saving medication that would prevent permanent disability. The complications, medical challenges and risk factors described are all based on actual cases encountered by Veloso over the years.

"All the recommendations that I make are all backed up by stud-ies," Veloso pointed out.

Stroke Prevention Naturally discusses the risk factors of strokes, symptoms of strokes, and what can be done naturally to prevent strokes.

There are several misconceptions about the risk factors of stroke, Veloso said.

"First of all, there's a common misperception that if you have a strong family history of stroke, you are going to have a stroke. That's not really true."

"You can actually modify your genetic makeup by means of healthy lifestyles," he said. "There is a lot of evidence now that even if you are born with bad genes, you can modify the expression of the genes to pre-vent them from developing the disease. It's just through natural, healthy lifestyles."

"Exercise is very good," Veloso said. "We all know that."

But Veloso said he doesn't believe in the "no pain, no gain" approach to exercise.

"Any exercise that you do (for) any length of time is beneficial, regardless," he emphasized. "You really don't have to do 30 minutes a day, three or four times a week, or anything like that. If you can do that, that's great. But any amount of exercise, for even five to 10 minutes a day is beneficial," he explained. "And that's what I really want to impress (up) on people. Just do it!"

Veloso also emphasized the importance of good oral hygiene.

"Gum disease is probably one of the biggest or highest risk factors for strokes," he said. "Very few people know that."

"It's very easy to take good care of your teeth and gums. And it will prevent strokes," he said.

There's nothing fancy about natural stroke prevention solutions, Veloso said. "It is simple. There are no side effects, and no cost."

"I'm not telling people to stop their medication," Veloso emphasized. "I'm telling people to do this in addition, to get added benefit. It's very important that they don't stop their medications!"

For those who can't tolerate medications at all, Veloso recommends making natural lifestyle changes. But before adopting any changes, patients should consult their family doctor, he insisted.

"The most important thing is to recognize the symptoms of stroke," Veloso said.

These include:

. Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body;

. Sudden confusion or trouble speaking or understanding speech;

. Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes;

. Sudden trouble walking, dizziness or loss of balance or coordination;

. Sudden severe headache with no known cause.

"Call 911 and go to the hospital immediately if you or somebody you know shows any symptoms of stroke," Veloso urged. "Time wasted is brain loss!"

Stroke prevention should start at an early age - in your 20s and 30s, Veloso said. Don't wait until you're in your 60s to make healthy lifestyle changes. By then, the damage is already done, he explained.
© The Daily News (Nanaimo) 2012




CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. 

Wonky World

Colombia drug trade

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A Colombian anti-drug policeman stands guard after burning a cocaine laboratory in Puerto Concordia near Meta province. At least 90 members of the drug police are participating in Operation Republica 73, aimed at destroying labs that belonged to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.



source:
Updated: Fri, 27 Jan 2012

By Antony BennisonWeek in pictures - Jan. 27
Puerto Concordia
John Vizcaino/REUTERSShow Thumbnails9 of 22

Chicken McNuggets

Her Fowl Eating Habits Caused Malnutrition
Chicken McNuggets may taste like heaven, but they have the nutritional benefits of scrap metal. A British girl found this out the hard way after her 15 YEAR addiction to the fried food landed her in the hospital.

Stacey Irvine, a 17 year old girl from Birmingham, was hospitalized after she had breathing problems and passed out at work. Doctors found swollen veins in her tongue and diagnosed her with anemia.
When asked about her diet, the girl replied that she has been living off only Mcdonald's Chicken McNuggets since she was two years old.

"McDonald's chicken nuggets are my favourite. I share 20 with my boyfriend with chips," she said. "But I also like KFC and supermarket brands. My main meal is always chicken nuggets every day."
The girl's mother says she's tried everything to get her to stop eating the mysteriously shaped snacks, but to no avail.

"I'm at my wit's end. I'm praying she can be helped before it's too late," she said. "It breaks my heart to see her eating those damned nuggets. She's been told in no uncertain terms that she'll die if she carries on like this. But she says she can't eat anything else."

Irvine, who admits she has rarely ever eaten a vegetable or fruit, says she is finally beginning to see that her habits are clucking up her arteries.

Still, the girl's bird-brained diet has led to another problem: where to keep all her Happy Meal toys. She currently has four giant bins of them.

The Hypnotic Evil of the Television

I divorced my TV several years ago so I watch everything long after they have been in the theatre and on TV.  The library has DVD's of everything and a person is not forced to watch 6 commercials every twenty minutes as the price entertainment.

I get hypnotized by tv and forget to turn it off and waste hours half watching it.  

I'd rather watch apples frozen in a block of ice for 10 hours than watch 5 minutes of  daytime television.

Illustration Of A Fairy Caught In A Spider'S Web. Vector File Also Available. - 27886729 : Shutterstock

Illustration Of A Fairy Caught In A Spider'S Web. Vector File Also Available. - 27886729 : Shutterstock:

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Quick facts about mad cow disease - Technology & Science - CBC News

Quick facts about mad cow disease - Technology & Science - CBC News:

?

BSE is one of a group of brain and nervous-system diseases affecting various animals, such as chronic wasting disease in elk and deer in North America and scrapie in sheep. It's caused not by bacteria or viruses, but by rogue proteins called prions.

The disease affects the brain and the spinal cord tissues. BSE gets its scientific name from the microscopic holes in the brains of affected animals, giving the tissue a sponge-like appearance. There is no vaccine or treatment for BSE, according to the World Organization for Animal Health.

How is BSE spread?

The only known source of mad cow disease is from animal-based feed contaminated with tissue from a diseased animal. The original source of BSE is believed to have been feed containing tainted meat from sheep with a related disease called scrapie.

The disease gets into the human food supply when an infected cow is slaughtered for meat. Milk from infected cows doesn't spread the disease, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Can it affect humans?

Yes. A prion disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) was first diagnosed in humans in the United Kingdom in 1996 and has been linked to consumption of tissue from animals infected with BSE, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The first person to develop symptoms of what turned out to be vCJD became ill in January 1994, according to the World Health Organization.

Scientific evidence indicates that vCJD is caused by the same agent that causes BSE in cattle, says the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The CDC adds that research indicates that older adults are much less susceptible to vCJD than children and young adults.

Symptoms typically don't start showing up until several years after infection, sometimes taking nearly a decade to appear. Once someone is infected, there is no cure.

Early in the illness, patients usually experience psychiatric symptoms, which most commonly take the form of depression or a schizophrenia-like psychosis, according to WHO. Unusual sensory symptoms, such as "stickiness" of the skin, have been experienced by half of the cases early in the illness. Neurological signs, including unsteadiness, difficulty walking and involuntary movements, develop as the illness progresses and, by the time of death, patients become completely immobile and mute.

What are my chances of getting infected?

Work continues at a meatpacking plant in Toronto on May 22, 2003, despite several countries placing a temporary ban on Canadian beef after a case of mad cow disease was discovered on an Alberta farm.(Mike Cassese/Reuters)

In Canada, brain and spinal cord material are removed from the carcass of animals and do not end up in the food supply. No cases of vCJD have been linked to eating Canadian beef, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and it says "the risk of contracting vCJD in Canada is extremely small."

By October 2010, a total of 222 definite and probable variant CJD cases had been reported worldwide in residents of 12 countries, according to the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance Network.

Canada's first case was identified in 2002 and a second case was identified in March 2011, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. Both were thought to have been contracted abroad.

How do I avoid it?

Cooking doesn't....

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Brazil's Emerging Market: Crack - WSJ.com

Brazil's Emerging Market: Crack - WSJ.com: "BY JOHN LYONS

SÃO PAULO, Brazil—A crack cocaine outbreak reminiscent of the one that devastated U.S. inner cities in the 1980s is starting to take hold in this South American nation, as drug traffickers facing more difficulty selling into the U.S. are pioneering markets elsewhere.

In São Paulo, Brazil's biggest city, what to do about the hundreds of zombielike addicts who by night wander a downtown no man's land known as Cracolândia, or Crackland, has become a key issue for local elections this year. But mayors from Rio de Janeiro to outposts in the Amazon lament that dangerous cracklands are sprouting in their ..."

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Canadian shot dead in Mexico - World - CBC News

Canadian shot dead in Mexico - World - CBC News:

ficials have not provided a motive for his killing.

Source: Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (CBC)

Sinaloa in northwest Mexico is home to the cartel led by Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman, considered the most powerful drug trafficker in the world.

He is listed by Forbes as one of the most influential figures in the world and is believed to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Guzman is now the most wanted man in the world, after the death of Osama bin Laden.

Canadian authorities have warned about violence related to organized crime in Sinaloa state, which sees about 100 killings per month. There has been a significant rise in armed confrontations between organized criminal groups and Mexican authorities in Sinaloa and nearby northwestern states, according to a travel warning from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

This has led to an increase in illegal roadblocks, robberies, kidnappings and carjackings in the larger northern cities in Mexico.

Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs issued a statement about the latest homicide: "Our thoughts and sympathies are with the family and friends of the victim. Our officials in Mazatlan are in contact with local authorities and stand ready to provide consular assistance during this difficult time."

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Nasty Nicotine Crows