Could muesli really boost sex drive? A muesli firm has seen a surge in sales - after its cereal was linked to claims it increased sexual prowess. Young men in Jamaica are buying the Super High Fibre muesli to mix it with milk and Guinness for an energy-boosting recipe. Now Dorset Cereals, based in Prince Charles' model village Poundbury, is gearing up to meet increased demand. The firm only found out about the story after its exporters were asked to explain the soaring sales. Business for the firm has increased by 10% on the island over the past year. Terry Crabb, Dorset Cereals' managing director, said: "We couldn't believe it when we heard the reason behind the sales increase. "Obviously the theory has spread across the island. (C)BBC

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5098 - Posted: 03.07.2004

Doctors prescribing methadone for pain relief may inadvertently be the cause of an alarming rise in deaths related to the drug in the US. Forensic science experts fear that a huge increase in methadone prescriptions is feeding the black market and encouraging abuse. In 2001, the Food and Drug Administration's MedWatch programme recorded 61 methadone-related deaths in the US. That is more than occurred in the whole of the 1990s, and by 2002 the number had doubled to 123. The figures confirm reports from Maine, Florida, Oklahoma, North Carolina, West Virginia and Maryland that methadone-related deaths are rising. Methadone is often used to wean addicts off heroin, and the recent spate of deaths has led to calls for heroin-treatment programmes to be curtailed. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 5097 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JAMES DAO WASHINGTON, — High levels of lead in the city's drinking water, a problem disclosed last month, prompted several members of Congress to say on Friday that three agencies had misled residents and could have begun correcting the problem last year or even earlier. In a sometimes heated hearing on Capitol Hill, lawmakers said the agencies had failed to tell thousands of residents promptly that elevated, in some cases dangerously high, lead levels had been discovered in their houses last year. The agencies seemed disconcertingly uncertain about the problem's causes, scope and solutions, the lawmakers and expert witnesses said. "Mistakes in judgment and procedure were apparently made at every important juncture, as those involved now concede," Eleanor Holmes Norton, the delegate from the District of Columbia to Congress, said. "Any one of those three agencies could have caught the problem much earlier." Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Neurotoxins; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 5096 - Posted: 06.24.2010

CHICAGO () – A study published today describes a promising new primate model for testing a potential Alzheimer's disease vaccine. This may enable scientists to study the vaccine in an animal model of Alzheimer's that is very similar to humans. The goal is to discover the cause of serious side effects that halted an earlier study of the vaccine in people, according to the Alzheimer's Association. "The animal model described in this study expands the way we might evaluate new vaccine products," said William Thies, Ph.D., Alzheimer's Association vice president for medical and scientific affairs. "Vaccination against amyloid is a reasonable strategy for preventing and possibly treating Alzheimer's and this study brings us one step closer. Having more model systems that are closer to humans increases the likelihood that we can avoid the kind of side effects that we saw in the first human trial." "Tremendous progress has been made by the National Institute on Aging, the Alzheimer's Disease Centers, universities, pharmaceutical companies and the Alzheimer's Association in understanding Alzheimer's disease. The Association's goal of delaying the disabling symptoms and eventually preventing Alzheimer's appears to be a feasible objective that the research community can achieve in the next decade," Thies added.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 5095 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By DINITIA SMITH When David Williams, a psychologist at the University of Westminster in London, was deciding how to construct a pain machine, he realized a kitchen scale would do the trick. He attached a guillotinelike device to it, though he hastens to point out that the edge was "really blunt, not as sharp as a razor." It was designed to hit at the fingernail's half moon, where one can inflict pain without doing serious bodily harm. He was trying to figure out what influences the perception of pain. What he discovered was that both men and women were willing to take more pain from a woman than from a man. "A person's perception of pain doesn't necessarily depend on the intensity of the stimulus," Mr. Williams said in a telephone interview from his home in Stevenage, 30 miles north of London. It depends on environmental factors, like who is inflicting it. The 40 people who were tested waited longer to say "stop" when a woman was causing the pain than when a man was. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 5094 - Posted: 03.07.2004

Scientists have come up with a theory for why time flies when you are having fun - and drags when you are bored. Scans have shown that patterns of activity in the brain change depending on how we focus on a task. Concentrating on time passing, as we do when bored, will trigger brain activity which will make it seem as though the clock is ticking more slowly. The research, by the French Laboratory of Neurobiology and Cognition, is published in the magazine Science. In the study, 12 volunteers watched an image while researchers monitored their brain activity using MRI scans. Volunteers were given a variety of tasks. In one they were told to concentrate simply on the duration of an image, in another they were asked to focus on the colour, and in a third they were asked to concentrate on both duration and colour. The results showed that a network of brain regions called the cortico-striatal loop was activated the more subjects paid attention to duration. (C) BBC

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 5093 - Posted: 03.07.2004

Researchers say new species may be oldest ancestor Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer Scientists from Berkeley, Cleveland and Japan may have finally identified the first complete species of hominids, or human ancestors, that emerged almost 6 million years ago, after the evolutionary split that led to today's chimps and humans. Key clues to its existence are six fossil teeth found in the Ethiopian desert that have forced researchers to reclassify a type of hominid previously regarded as a "subspecies," they announced in today's issue of Science. Ardipithecus kadabba is the new species' name. Besides being a separate species, Ardipithecus kadabba also may have been the first big step on the long evolutionary road from the African jungle to modern humans. ©2004 San Francisco Chronicle

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 5092 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Smokers are up to four times more likely to go blind in old age, according to research. A study in the British Medical Journal says cigarettes increase the chances of developing age-related macular degeneration. Cigarette packets already carry severe health warnings about the dangers of smoking. The researchers, from the University of Manchester, say the risk of going blind should be added to the list. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of adult blindness in the UK, affecting about 500,000 people. It results in severe and irreversible loss of central vision, especially in people over the age of 60. Ophthalmic surgeon Simon Kelly and his team claim around 54,000 people in the UK have AMD as a direct result of smoking. Of these, they said 17,800 are completely blind. (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Vision
Link ID: 5091 - Posted: 03.05.2004

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD Another species has been added to the family tree of early human ancestors — and to controversies over how straight or tangled were the branches of that tree. Long before Homo erectus, Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy, more than three million years ago) and several other distant kin, scientists are reporting today, there lived a primitive hominid species in what is now Ethiopia about 5.5 million to 5.8 million years ago. That would make the newly recognizied species one of the earliest known human ancestors, perhaps one of the first to emerge after the chimpanzee and human lineages diverged from a common ancestor some six million to eight million years ago. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 5090 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Gerald DeGroot THE knives are out for Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who linked autism to the MMR vaccine. Over the last few weeks, various reports have indicated serious flaws in his research. News has also emerged that he received (but did not disclose) £55,000 from a legal aid project set up to look for links between the vaccine and the disorder. Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, admitted that his journal would not have published Wakefield’s paper in February 1998 had it known about his conflict of interest. Stated simply, for the last six years parents have been tortured by a myth. With Wakefield discredited, the government now hopes that a line can be drawn under this sorry episode. But I suspect that we have not seen its end. Wakefield will emerge as a martyred hero, a brave and lonely warrior waging battle against the conspiratorial medical profession. The pain he has inflicted on parents of autistic children will continue. In contrast to Wakefield, I intend to declare an interest at the outset. My son Josh is autistic. Like most children, he was given the MMR vaccine at around 18 months. Shortly afterwards, he began exhibiting the first signs of what we now identify as autistic behaviour. The link between these two events is tempting, but, for reasons of sanity, I have resisted it. ©2004 Scotsman.com

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 5089 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A study in the March 6, 2004, issue of The Lancet* confirms the benefits of getting stroke patients to the hospital quickly for rapid thrombolytic treatment. The study provides the results of an extensive analysis of more than 2,700 stroke patients in six controlled clinical trials who were randomized for treatment with thrombolytic t-PA or a placebo. While physicians have known since a breakthrough study in 1995 that early treatment with thrombolytics can improve a stroke patient's chance of a full recovery, only an estimated 2 to 5 percent of all eligible acute stroke patients in the U.S. are being treated with thrombolytics. Stroke patients who were treated within 90 minutes of the onset of their symptoms showed the most improvement. The study suggests that t-PA given up to 4 hours after the onset of symptoms may be of benefit, but the authors caution that as time goes on there is a diminishing effect of treatment, and there is estimated to be almost no benefit when treatment is at 6 hours.

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 5088 - Posted: 03.05.2004

By improving the detection of vitamin B12 in blood, HOLOTC is helping diagnose deficiencies before they become medical emergencies. Vitamin B12 is essential to human life. The body cannot make its own supplies and without an adequate dietary supply from animal sources or enriched cereals, up to 20 million people can suffer anaemia, risk nerve damage and even death. Unfortunately, vitamin B12 deficiency can go undetected for several years, remaining invisible to doctors while the likelihood of irreversible cell damage increases. Under EUREKA project E! 2263 HOLOTC, Norwegian diagnostics company Axis Shield teamed up with Danish academics to find a way to pick up early warning signs of potentially harmful B12 deficits. The project pioneered a unique B12 detection system, which tracks concentrations of holotc (short for holo-transcobalamin), a biologically active complex of the vitamin plus a carrier protein. Although the holotc complex carries only 20% of the body's vitamin B12, the other 80% is not nearly as significant since it is effectively not available for uptake by the cells. Current diagnostic techniques measure the total amount of B12 in the blood. Because these tests do not discriminate between holotc and the inactive vitamin, they can misleadingly return a healthy result for patients with too little active B12. © EUREKA

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 5087 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Lengthy sequences of DNA -- with their component triplet of nucleotides repeated hundreds, even thousands of times -- are known to be abnormal, causing rare but devastating neurological diseases. But how does the DNA get this way? How does it go haywire, multiplying out of control? In the current issue of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Sergei Mirkin, professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, explains the mechanism, providing an important clue to the origin of these diseases. Mirkin and Maria Krasilnikova, a research assistant professor in his lab, studied the sequence of a simple repeat of three nucleotides responsible for Friedreich's ataxia, the most commonly inherited form of ataxias, which causes progressive damage to the nervous system, resulting in symptoms ranging from muscle weakness and speech problems to heart disease.

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Huntingtons
Link ID: 5086 - Posted: 03.05.2004

A team of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has described the cellular mechanism underlying the brain's response to alcohol, which suggests a possible method for treating alcoholism. This work, published in the latest issue of the journal Science, ties together the effect of the brain peptide corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) with alcohol. Both appear to influence neurotransmission in the amygdala, the so-called pleasure center of the brain, by increasing the transmission of one particular neurotransmitter called gamma amino butyric acid (GABA). "There is a strong relationship between drugs of abuse, stress, and the amygdala," says Neuropharmacology Professor George Siggins, who led the research. The research suggests that compounds that block CRF receptors might be a potential new therapeutic for alcoholics, who struggle to stop drinking.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 5085 - Posted: 03.05.2004

Scientists zero in on five chromosome regions ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Scientists at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center, working with colleagues in the U-M School of Public Health, have significantly narrowed the range of chromosomal locations where they expect to find genes associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). In a paper published in the March issue of American Journal of Human Genetics, Kellogg scientist Anand Swaroop, Ph.D., and his team of researchers have confirmed three previously suggested loci (on chromosomes 1, 5, and 9) for potential AMD genes, and have identified two new loci on chromosomes 2 and 22. AMD is a progressive disease that destroys central vision. There is no known cure for the disease, which affects millions of individuals worldwide. While scientists believe there is a strong genetic component, most believe the cause will be found in the interplay of several genes combined with environmental factors, such as smoking and diet.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 5084 - Posted: 03.05.2004

He dissected 30 bodies, kept about 20,000 pages of notes and seldom finished what he started. But nearly 500 years after his death, Leonardo da Vinci can still draw a crowd - not only as an artist, but as a scientist. Tonight, a sellout crowd of more than 400 will gather at the Walters Art Museum to hear Kennedy Krieger Institute researcher Jonathan Pevsner discuss da Vinci's genius, focusing on the Renaissance master's study of the human brain. Scholars have spent careers deciphering da Vinci's sketches of flying ships, his catapults and the prescient knowledge of his celestial observations. But Pevsner may be uniquely qualified to discuss his particular topic: He spends his days researching childhood brain diseases, and his devotion to his hero - "I love Leonardo," he says - seems borderline fanatic. He owns 600 books about da Vinci and has been known to stare at his paintings for hours. © 2004 by The Baltimore Sun.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 5083 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. Mario J. Vassallo is a former semipro football player, a former steroid user and now the lead researcher in a Central Michigan University study of the addictive effects of steroids. "From my own personal experience," he said, "and 36 of the 38 guys I interviewed said the same thing: once you take start taking steroids, within the first three days, it's a different life you're leading. You feel invincible, on top of the world. Within two weeks, you feel your workouts change. You used to do an hour and a half and get tired. You can change to two hours a day and feel ready to go back and do the same thing. And the pump you get, you don't want to lose it." The question he was answering was simple. People associated with the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or Balco, which is at the center of a federal investigation into the distribution of steroids, say that they dealt only in vitamin and mineral supplements. So if prosecutors are right and what Balco really sold was a new designer steroid, tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG, is it possible that its customers could not have known what they were taking? Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 5082 - Posted: 03.04.2004

Trials of a possible new treatment for the human form of BSE have still to begin more than two years after they were promised. The Department of Health ordered a fast-track trial in 2001 after doctors in the United States found a drug used to treat malaria may also fight vCJD. A report in The Times Higher Education Supplement says a "feud" between two groups of scientists has caused delays. The Medical Research Council says progress is being made. Quinacrine was first given to 21-year-old Rachel Forber from Liverpool, who had vCJD. Before receiving the drug, she was bed-ridden and required constant care. She could not recognise members of her family, stand noise or sunlight or feed or dress herself. (C) BBC

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 5081 - Posted: 03.04.2004

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR Ten of the 13 scientists who produced a 1998 study linking a childhood vaccine to several cases of autism retracted their conclusion yesterday. In a statement to be published in the March 6 issue of The Lancet, a British medical journal, the researchers conceded that they did not have enough evidence at the time to tie the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, known as MMR, to the autism cases. The study has been blamed for a sharp drop in the number of British children being vaccinated and for outbreaks of measles. "We wish to make it clear that in this paper no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data were insufficient," the researchers said in the retraction. "However, the possibility of such a link was raised and consequent events have had major implications." Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 5080 - Posted: 03.04.2004

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. The government has begun a criminal investigation into whether documents were falsified in the lone case of mad cow disease found in the United States, the Agriculture Department's inspector general said yesterday. The official, Phyllis K. Fong, told a House appropriations subcommittee that the investigation focused on whether the Holstein dairy cow was a "downer" — a cow too sick or injured to walk — when it was slaughtered on Dec. 9 at Vern's Moses Lake Meats in Washington State. The inquiry was "based on allegations that were reported in the media in early February concerning possible alteration of official records," Ms. Fong said. She declined to identify any targets of the investigation. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 5079 - Posted: 06.24.2010