General
As summer temperatures rise so will people's thirst. Unfortunately, many people will grab a pop or ice tea instead of water. It isn't just cola's empty calories (about 150 per 12-ounce can) you should worry about. Many of these carbonated beverages ? especially non-cola drinks and canned ice tea -- harm enamel, the protective shell around teeth. A pilot study of the effects some of these beverages had on enamel, appearing in the July/August 2004 issue of General Dentistry, the Academy of General Dentistry's (AGD) clinical, peer-reviewed journal, found that over time, exposing dental enamel to carbonated beverages weakens and permanently destroys enamel.
The U.S. General Accounting Office has determined that because of faulty assumptions, conclusions by the U.S. Department of Defense on Gulf War Illness cannot be supported. "DOD's and MOD's conclusions about troops' exposure to CW agents, based on DOD and CIA plume modeling, cannot be adequately supported. The models were not fully developed for analyzing long-range dispersion of CW agents as an environmental hazard. The modeling assumptions as to source term data--quantity and purity of the agent--were inaccurate because they were uncertain, incomplete, and nonvalidated."
U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona today released a new comprehensive report on smoking and health, revealing for the first time that smoking causes diseases in nearly every organ of the body. Published 40 years after the surgeon general's first report on smoking -- which concluded that smoking was a definite cause of three serious diseases -- this newest report finds that cigarette smoking is conclusively linked to diseases such as leukemia, cataracts, pneumonia and cancers of the cervix, kidney, pancreas and stomach.
A study by researchers at the New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens finds that nearly half of neckties worn by medical personnel harbor bacteria that can cause disease. They report their findings today at the 104th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. ''Studies such as this remind us about what we may bring to our patients' bedside. By increasing our awareness and making simple behavioral changes we may be able to provide a better quality of healthcare,'' says Steven Nurkin, one of the researchers on the study.
The discovery of millions of micro-microbes surviving in a 120,000-year-old ice sample taken from 3,000 meters below the surface of the Greenland glacier will be announced by Penn State University scientists on 26 May 2004 at the General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in New Orleans, Louisiana. The discovery is significant because it may help to define the limits for life on Earth as well as elsewhere in the universe, such as on cold planets like Mars.
Gravity Probe B -- a NASA mission to test two predictions of Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity -- is orbiting 400 miles above Earth, and all spacecraft systems are performing well. Its solar arrays are generating power, and all electrical systems are powered on. The spacecraft is communicating well with its supporting satellite relay and ground stations. Launched April 20 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., Gravity Probe B is managed by the Marshall Center.
Patients with Parkinson's disease who thought they had received a transplant of human neurons into their brains--but who really hadn't--reported an improved quality of life one year later. In the April issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, research reported by Dr. Cynthia McRae of the University of Denver's College of Education provides strong evidence for a significant mind-body connection among patients who participated in a double-blind Parkinson's surgical trial. Forty persons from the United States and Canada participated to determine the effectiveness of transplantation of human embryonic dopamine neurons into the brains of persons with advanced Parkinson's disease. Twenty patients received the transplant while 20 more were randomly assigned to a sham surgery condition.
A protein molecule that contributes to the severity of chronic viral hepatitis in humans, and which may also be implicated in SARS, has been identified by a team of scientists from Toronto General and St. Michael's Hospitals. This data is published in the July 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The protein, called Fgl2/fibroleukin prothrombinase, is a newly discovered protein which causes blood to clot in the livers of humans with viral hepatitis. In animal trials, this same protein causes blood to clot in the livers of mice that are exposed to the corona virus.
What society holds up as beautiful in men and women is often unrealistic, and in the modern age of computer-altered images and airbrushing, those ideals seem virtually unattainable for most people. The pressure to be perfect is especially difficult for people diagnosed with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). These people are preoccupied with perceived or imagined flaws. While most people focus to some degree on their appearances, those with BDD are obsessed with their perceived flaws.
A controversial vaccine against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has been shown to stimulate a critical part of the HIV-specific immune response in chronically infected patients. The small study conducted by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) finds that a vaccine made from an inactivated form of the AIDS virus (Remune) induces the proliferation of CD4 cells ? also called T helper cells ? that specifically target HIV. Appearing in the June issue of the journal AIDS, the study is the first clear demonstration of the potential reconstitution of the immune response in chronic HIV infection. However, this pilot study was not designed to tell whether or not the vaccine would have any effect on the eventual course of the disease.
Studies conducted at Pace University have indicated that green tea extracts (GTE) and polyphenol (PP) have an adverse effect on bacteria that cause strep throat, dental caries, and other infections. Additionally, the research suggests that the oral agents such as toothpaste and mouthwash are more effective in fighting pathogenic microbial agents, such as viruses, with the addition of GTE and PP. Researchers present their findings today at the 103rd General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
The best cancer drugs in the world are not much good if they cannot get to tumor cells. That problem has been challenging cancer physicians and researchers for years because the physical structure of many tumors can prevent anticancer agents from reaching their targets. In a study appearing in the June issue of Nature Medicine, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) describe a new technique for assessing the permeability of tumors and a promising new way of improving tumors' accessibility to drugs.
A new anti-herpes agent derived from a common herb effectively treats and prevents the disease in animals. Researchers from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia present their data today at the 103rd General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.
In a study conducted near the Mt. Everest Base Camp in Nepal, a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) resident physician and his colleagues have found that acetaminophen is as effective as ibuprofen in treating high-altitude headache. Because acetaminophen has fewer side effects than medications like ibuprofen, this finding suggests that acetaminophen may be the best choice for those who experience headaches when they travel to altitudes of more than 2,000 meters (about 6,600 feet). The report appears in the Journal of Emergency Medicine.
The successful application of teamwork and technology in Operation Iraqi Freedom marks a turning point in American war fighting, the U.S. military's senior officer said. "What we've done in Iraq has been dramatically different" than how the American military has fought wars since the Civil War, Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Navy League audience at a downtown hotel.
