All About Science

mothernaturenetwork: College student invents gel that halts bleeding Joe Landolina may have invented a cure for bleeding. He claims that his creation, a substance called Veti-Gel, jump-starts the clotting and healing process so quickly that even wounds to internal organs or major arteries are able to close up instantaneously. And Joe has accomplished all this by his third year of college at NYU. “It instantly tells the body, ‘OK, stop the bleeding,’ but also it starts the healing process,” said Landolina. Veti-Gel (also sometimes called Medi-Gel) is a synthetic form of the extracellular matrix, or ECM, the substance that forms a kind of scaffolding in the body that holds cells together and also triggers the clotting process if there is an injury. In tests on rats, Landolina was able to close up a slice into the liver and a puncture of the carotid artery. (He plans to publish the results in about two months.) A bit less gruesome than those tests is a simulation video that Landolina and colleagues at startup Suneris produced. The 26-second clip begins with the team making about a 3-inch slice into a raw pork loin that’s been pumped full of pig’s blood. That blood immediately pours out as if from a spigot. They then squeeze a layer of Veti-Gel over the cut, and the flow stops immediately. “I have seen [Veti-Gel] close any size wound that it is applied to,” said Landolina. “As long as you can cover it, it can close it.” Plants naturally produce a material similar to the human extracellular matrix, but Landolina improves the process by using genetically modified plants to create Veti-Gel. Other wound treatments, such as collagen, come from animals, he said. And some rival treatments require refrigeration. Veti-Gel can be kept in packets or tubes at any temperature from 33 degrees to about 90 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree to 32 degrees Celsius). Landolina has been developing and testing Veti-Gel at Englewood Hospital in New Jersey. Dr. Herbert Dardik, who oversees Landolina’s work at the hospital, told TechNewsDaily by email, “The material has promise… but the work is in its early stages and we need to carry out confirmatory tests. I am optimistic for the future. Veti-Gel could also serve as a treatment for severe burns, Landolina said. “One of my other colleagues … he went to a bonfire. One of his friends fell into the fire and got second-degree burns. He put the gel on, and the next day it was healed,” Landolina said. That scenario recalls a scene from the movie “The Hunger Games,” in which the heroine applies a sci-fi cream to a burn that quickly heals. Landolina knows it well. Veti-Gel does three things in particular, depending on what part of the wound it comes in contact with. It can stimulate the creation of a blood-clotting substance, activate platelet cells to further plug the hole or cover and compress the wound. When any part of the body is wounded, the damaged extracellular matrix helps trigger a cascade of chemical reactions in the blood that ends in fibrin — fibers that join togehter to start blood clots. If Veti-Gel reaches the blood’s platelet cells, it helps signal them to change shape and stick together to further help plug the hole in a blood vessel. And when Veti-Gel comes into contact with the extracellular matrix in the wounded tissue, it binds to it, forming a kind of cover over the area. That eliminates the need to even apply pressure to the wound. “It looks like, feels like, and acts like skin,” said Landolina. If Veti-Gel works as well as claimed, it could rival other products designed to close wounds. The U.S. military typically uses QuikClot, gauze soaked in kaolin, a material that activates platelets to form a clot. But it requires several minutes of applying pressure. Hospitals typically use Floseal, a bovine gelatin containing human thrombin, the enzyme that produces fibrin for clotting. Landolina is currently designing tests to compare Veti-Gel to those rival treatments and is looking for an independent researcher to perform the evaluation. He hopes to have the results this summer. Landolina is also looking to start testing Veti-Gel with veterinarians. “We are eager to see the results,” said Marisa Tricarico, who evaluates medical investments for the NYU Innovation Venture Fund. “He has impressed a lot of people,” she said of Landolina (that includes assessments from medical experts). Landolina has applied for a patent and is beginning the FDA approval process. He also plans to apply for a grant from the Department of Defense, which he hopes will some day be a client. (He plans to market a version for the military called Medi-Gel.) With all the success he’s already had, Landolina may feel it’s time to have a drink and celebrate. But he’ll have to wait a bit longer — he doesn’t turn 21 until next January. ,

mothernaturenetwork:

College student invents gel that halts bleeding

Joe Landolina may have invented a cure for bleeding. He claims that his creation, a substance called Veti-Gel, jump-starts the clotting and healing process so quickly that even wounds to internal organs or major arteries are able to close up instantaneously. And Joe has accomplished all this by his third year of college at NYU.

“It instantly tells the body, ‘OK, stop the bleeding,’ but also it starts the healing process,” said Landolina.

Veti-Gel (also sometimes called Medi-Gel) is a synthetic form of the extracellular matrix, or ECM, the substance that forms a kind of scaffolding in the body that holds cells together and also triggers the clotting process if there is an injury. In tests on rats, Landolina was able to close up a slice into the liver and a puncture of the carotid artery. (He plans to publish the results in about two months.)

A bit less gruesome than those tests is a simulation video that Landolina and colleagues at startup Suneris produced. The 26-second clip begins with the team making about a 3-inch slice into a raw pork loin that’s been pumped full of pig’s blood. That blood immediately pours out as if from a spigot. They then squeeze a layer of Veti-Gel over the cut, and the flow stops immediately. “I have seen [Veti-Gel] close any size wound that it is applied to,” said Landolina. “As long as you can cover it, it can close it.”

Plants naturally produce a material similar to the human extracellular matrix, but Landolina improves the process by using genetically modified plants to create Veti-Gel. Other wound treatments, such as collagen, come from animals, he said. And some rival treatments require refrigeration. Veti-Gel can be kept in packets or tubes at any temperature from 33 degrees to about 90 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree to 32 degrees Celsius).

Landolina has been developing and testing Veti-Gel at Englewood Hospital in New Jersey. Dr. Herbert Dardik, who oversees Landolina’s work at the hospital, told TechNewsDaily by email, “The material has promise… but the work is in its early stages and we need to carry out confirmatory tests. I am optimistic for the future.

Veti-Gel could also serve as a treatment for severe burns, Landolina said. “One of my other colleagues … he went to a bonfire. One of his friends fell into the fire and got second-degree burns. He put the gel on, and the next day it was healed,” Landolina said.

That scenario recalls a scene from the movie “The Hunger Games,” in which the heroine applies a sci-fi cream to a burn that quickly heals. Landolina knows it well.

Veti-Gel does three things in particular, depending on what part of the wound it comes in contact with. It can stimulate the creation of a blood-clotting substance, activate platelet cells to further plug the hole or cover and compress the wound.

When any part of the body is wounded, the damaged extracellular matrix helps trigger a cascade of chemical reactions in the blood that ends in fibrin — fibers that join togehter to start blood clots.

If Veti-Gel reaches the blood’s platelet cells, it helps signal them to change shape and stick together to further help plug the hole in a blood vessel.

And when Veti-Gel comes into contact with the extracellular matrix in the wounded tissue, it binds to it, forming a kind of cover over the area. That eliminates the need to even apply pressure to the wound. “It looks like, feels like, and acts like skin,” said Landolina.

If Veti-Gel works as well as claimed, it could rival other products designed to close wounds. The U.S. military typically uses QuikClot, gauze soaked in kaolin, a material that activates platelets to form a clot. But it requires several minutes of applying pressure. Hospitals typically use Floseal, a bovine gelatin containing human thrombin, the enzyme that produces fibrin for clotting.

Landolina is currently designing tests to compare Veti-Gel to those rival treatments and is looking for an independent researcher to perform the evaluation. He hopes to have the results this summer. Landolina is also looking to start testing Veti-Gel with veterinarians.

“We are eager to see the results,” said Marisa Tricarico, who evaluates medical investments for the NYU Innovation Venture Fund. “He has impressed a lot of people,” she said of Landolina (that includes assessments from medical experts).

Landolina has applied for a patent and is beginning the FDA approval process. He also plans to apply for a grant from the Department of Defense, which he hopes will some day be a client. (He plans to market a version for the military called Medi-Gel.)

With all the success he’s already had, Landolina may feel it’s time to have a drink and celebrate. But he’ll have to wait a bit longer — he doesn’t turn 21 until next January.

,

(via positive-press-daily)

sagansense: Neil deGrasse Tyson: Called By The Universe Potentially the best interview (so far) with Professor Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist, the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, host of PBS’ magazine series NOVA ScienceNOW and on the board of directors of the Planetary Society). This is the best holiday gift I could attempt to share with all of you. Skip liking this & reblog it amongst your tumblr mates & everyone you know. Promote good science. It’s the reason for the “season” - literally. Below are a few excerpts on various topics throughout the interview with Roger Bingham via The Science Network: The Influence/Attachment of the Public on the Pluto “Controversy”Tyson: Well I can’t comment on how their interpretations are. I can tell you that there was a lot of talk about the fact that astronomers should listen to the public about how we might classify our cosmic objects. And I thought that that was not how science proceeds. You don’t go to medical doctors and find them polling the public to find out what they should call their next medicine. Or what their next discover is under the microscope. No other science subjects themselves to public participation in how they are going to classify the frontier of their research. So astrophysicists should be under no obligation to poll the public. I don’t care how deeply affectionate you felt for these objects that we had talked about. Now that’s not arrogance, that’s just simple common sense about what it is to move a frontier and the sensitivities you need on that frontier to classify or not. Now, what I was entertained by is, if scientists can’t agree, it’s kind of fun to get the public to weigh in on it, which is kind of what happened here. Just to see maybe there is someone who has some insights because clearly the scientists are not agreeing so why not look somewhere else to find out who can help out. And I don’t have a problem with that but not as a matter of policy. You do that because it’s a fun diversion, not because, ok, now it’s time to get the public to help us. No other science does that. You wouldn’t want another science to do that. It’s not how it works. So if that’s what’s called arrogance, that’s a misuse of the word arrogance. Arrogance would be we don’t even want to tell you what’s going on. An arrogant scientist is one who distances his or her own research from the tax paying public that enabled the research to happen in the first place. That’s an arrogant scientist. An arrogant scientist is one who doesn’t even take the effort to communicate what’s going on in the frontier with the public. That’s an arrogant scientist. That’s a scientist who sees it as beneath them to communicate with the public. We live in a time now where there’s no room for that. On Richard DawkinsTyson: Wait, by the way, I would distinguish, no one would deny that Dawkins is one of the great communicators of our day. He’s got his books, they are best sellers and all the like, but I’d rather unpack the word communicator and split it into two categories. One of them is, are you effective at what you do? That’s kind of what communication means. It means you have a message and someone receives it. There are two ends to that line segment. That’s different from are you articulate? He’s articulate. That man, Dawkins, he’s got a level of articulation of his deliver that would make any American jealous. It’s why we all wish we had some kind of fraction of the literary education that goes on in the United Kingdom, over here. So he’ll make his point, and he’ll say exactly what he means and he’ll mean exactly what he says and he’ll say it with brilliant juxtaposition of words. Words that we hardly ever hear much over here but are brilliantly put together in a sentence. Yes, he’s articulate. Is the message working? If it’s not working, why not? Because being articulate is not the same thing as communicating. Communicating is understanding the mind of who you are talking to. Much as how great your communication, let people come to it, and paw at it and study it. Are you speaking straight to the soul of the person you are communicating with? And I don’t think he is. Because there are people who are not as articulate as he is who are actually put off by the weight of his expertise of oration. And I’m not trying to say that he should, what am I trying to say? I’m trying to say that if he took more time studying the mind of his listeners and wanted to have an effect on that mind, he would not speak in the ways that he does. Because there’s a sharpness to it, there’s a wit to it. It’s so sharp and so witty that it’s almost aggressive and it can turn people off. It does turn people off. On Restoring Science To Its “Rightful Place”Tyson: The rightful place of science. Rightful, I’d rather not use that word. Because while I have strong opinions on a lot of things, I don’t care whether you share my opinion. I don’t lobby people, I don’t write congress to try to get them to do something that affects other people who are not me. That’s not how I approach life. I approach life as a scientist and as an educator to try to get people thinking straight in the first place. Alright? Not teaching people what to think, but how to think. How to interpret information that comes to you. How to think about what somebody says. How to judge what someone else says. Judge the likelihood of it being correct or not. And that’s how I view my role. So what is the rightful place of science literacy? It’s that as many people in this nation should be as science literate as possible so that they can make informed decisions about the issues that affect the health and well being of this nation and of themselves. One should be science literate for selfish reasons. It inoculates you against people who would take advantage of you for you not being science literate. Who’s to say that the financial collapse of the markets would not have been completely avoided, or certainly mitigated if the borrowers had the power to calculate the affect of a variable interest rate on their monthly payments? If you could do that, then you could make a decision separate from the lender and say nope, I can’t afford this if the interest rate fluctuates to this point, I can’t afford my house. You can make that decision yourself. It’s empowering. On Being Labeled A “Knowledge Pusher” On The Colbert ReportTyson: I don’t think that’s what I am but if you had to sort of paraphrase and make it a quick little two word epithet, sure. Sure, knowledge pusher. But I don’t think that’s exactly what I do. I don’t think I push knowledge. If I were a knowledge pusher I would be like this encyclopedia, giving you things to memorize with every session that we sit together. My goal as a science educator and as a scientist is to empower you to think for yourself, and that’s not the impartation of knowledge. That’s, I think, the sharing of outlook and perspective, and wisdom, so that you’re empowered to make your decision. If you have to reference back to me to make your next decision, then I failed. I could go on. Enjoy this, everyone. Make scientifically literate decisions this holiday :)

sagansense:

Neil deGrasse Tyson: Called By The Universe

Potentially the best interview (so far) with Professor Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist, the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, host of PBS’ magazine series NOVA ScienceNOW and on the board of directors of the Planetary Society).

This is the best holiday gift I could attempt to share with all of you. Skip liking this & reblog it amongst your tumblr mates & everyone you know. Promote good science. It’s the reason for the “season” - literally.

Below are a few excerpts on various topics throughout the interview with Roger Bingham via The Science Network:

The Influence/Attachment of the Public on the Pluto “Controversy”
Tyson: Well I can’t comment on how their interpretations are. I can tell you that there was a lot of talk about the fact that astronomers should listen to the public about how we might classify our cosmic objects. And I thought that that was not how science proceeds. You don’t go to medical doctors and find them polling the public to find out what they should call their next medicine. Or what their next discover is under the microscope. No other science subjects themselves to public participation in how they are going to classify the frontier of their research. So astrophysicists should be under no obligation to poll the public. I don’t care how deeply affectionate you felt for these objects that we had talked about. Now that’s not arrogance, that’s just simple common sense about what it is to move a frontier and the sensitivities you need on that frontier to classify or not. Now, what I was entertained by is, if scientists can’t agree, it’s kind of fun to get the public to weigh in on it, which is kind of what happened here. Just to see maybe there is someone who has some insights because clearly the scientists are not agreeing so why not look somewhere else to find out who can help out. And I don’t have a problem with that but not as a matter of policy. You do that because it’s a fun diversion, not because, ok, now it’s time to get the public to help us. No other science does that. You wouldn’t want another science to do that. It’s not how it works. So if that’s what’s called arrogance, that’s a misuse of the word arrogance. Arrogance would be we don’t even want to tell you what’s going on. An arrogant scientist is one who distances his or her own research from the tax paying public that enabled the research to happen in the first place. That’s an arrogant scientist. An arrogant scientist is one who doesn’t even take the effort to communicate what’s going on in the frontier with the public. That’s an arrogant scientist. That’s a scientist who sees it as beneath them to communicate with the public. We live in a time now where there’s no room for that.

On Richard Dawkins
Tyson: Wait, by the way, I would distinguish, no one would deny that Dawkins is one of the great communicators of our day. He’s got his books, they are best sellers and all the like, but I’d rather unpack the word communicator and split it into two categories. One of them is, are you effective at what you do? That’s kind of what communication means. It means you have a message and someone receives it. There are two ends to that line segment. That’s different from are you articulate? He’s articulate. That man, Dawkins, he’s got a level of articulation of his deliver that would make any American jealous. It’s why we all wish we had some kind of fraction of the literary education that goes on in the United Kingdom, over here. So he’ll make his point, and he’ll say exactly what he means and he’ll mean exactly what he says and he’ll say it with brilliant juxtaposition of words. Words that we hardly ever hear much over here but are brilliantly put together in a sentence. Yes, he’s articulate. Is the message working? If it’s not working, why not? Because being articulate is not the same thing as communicating. Communicating is understanding the mind of who you are talking to. Much as how great your communication, let people come to it, and paw at it and study it. Are you speaking straight to the soul of the person you are communicating with? And I don’t think he is. Because there are people who are not as articulate as he is who are actually put off by the weight of his expertise of oration. And I’m not trying to say that he should, what am I trying to say? I’m trying to say that if he took more time studying the mind of his listeners and wanted to have an effect on that mind, he would not speak in the ways that he does. Because there’s a sharpness to it, there’s a wit to it. It’s so sharp and so witty that it’s almost aggressive and it can turn people off. It does turn people off.

On Restoring Science To Its “Rightful Place”
Tyson: The rightful place of science. Rightful, I’d rather not use that word. Because while I have strong opinions on a lot of things, I don’t care whether you share my opinion. I don’t lobby people, I don’t write congress to try to get them to do something that affects other people who are not me. That’s not how I approach life. I approach life as a scientist and as an educator to try to get people thinking straight in the first place. Alright? Not teaching people what to think, but how to think. How to interpret information that comes to you. How to think about what somebody says. How to judge what someone else says. Judge the likelihood of it being correct or not. And that’s how I view my role. So what is the rightful place of science literacy? It’s that as many people in this nation should be as science literate as possible so that they can make informed decisions about the issues that affect the health and well being of this nation and of themselves. One should be science literate for selfish reasons. It inoculates you against people who would take advantage of you for you not being science literate. Who’s to say that the financial collapse of the markets would not have been completely avoided, or certainly mitigated if the borrowers had the power to calculate the affect of a variable interest rate on their monthly payments? If you could do that, then you could make a decision separate from the lender and say nope, I can’t afford this if the interest rate fluctuates to this point, I can’t afford my house. You can make that decision yourself. It’s empowering.

On Being Labeled A “Knowledge Pusher” On The Colbert Report
Tyson: I don’t think that’s what I am but if you had to sort of paraphrase and make it a quick little two word epithet, sure. Sure, knowledge pusher. But I don’t think that’s exactly what I do. I don’t think I push knowledge. If I were a knowledge pusher I would be like this encyclopedia, giving you things to memorize with every session that we sit together. My goal as a science educator and as a scientist is to empower you to think for yourself, and that’s not the impartation of knowledge. That’s, I think, the sharing of outlook and perspective, and wisdom, so that you’re empowered to make your decision. If you have to reference back to me to make your next decision, then I failed.

I could go on. Enjoy this, everyone. Make scientifically literate decisions this holiday :)

(via child-of-the-universe)

Turning Carbon Dioxide Into Bioplastics: 2 Birds With 1 Stone?

thesustainablelife:

Scientists have been watching Licht’s progress closely. “It’s an interesting approach to using the sun for manufacturing and fuel production,” says Ellen Stechel, manager of concentrated solar technologies at Sandia National Laboratories. “But can it be cost-competitive?” Because of the cell’s simplicity, Licht says, the answer is yes. If he could construct STEP solar arrays dispersed across 4 percent of the Sahara, he would be able to convert 92 billion tons of carbon dioxide into solid carbon each year. At that rate, he could eliminate one-tenth of all the carbon dioxide released since the Industrial Revolution in a single year.

MIT: Putting carbon dioxide to good use

thesustainablelife:

MIT engineer Angela Belcher is now taking a new approach that would not only remove carbon dioxide from the environment, but also turn it into something useful: solid carbonates that could be used for building construction.

“We want to capture carbon dioxide and not put it underground, but turn it into something that will be stable for hundreds of thousands of years,” says Belcher, the W.M. Keck Professor of Energy.

Why Your DNA Isn't Your Destiny

Meet the Epigenome
The answer lies beyond both nature and nurture. Bygren’s data — along with those of many other scientists working separately over the past 20 years — have given birth to a new science called epigenetics. At its most basic, epigenetics is the study of changes in gene activity that do not involve alterations to the genetic code but still get passed down to at least one successive generation. These patterns of gene expression are governed by the cellular material — the epigenome — that sits on top of the genome, just outside it (hence the prefix epi-, which means above). It is these epigenetic “marks” that tell your genes to switch on or off, to speak loudly or whisper. It is through epigenetic marks that environmental factors like diet, stress and prenatal nutrition can make an imprint on genes that is passed from one generation to the next.


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1952313,00.html#ixzz1qo5Vwkuy

Dr. Michio Kaku: “The World in 2030”

truthlovebeauty:

Nova - Magnetic Storm - Earth’s Invisible Shield


Could the Earth lose it’s magnetic field?

Quality doc.

People Aren't Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish, Scientists Say

thegoodnewsiz:

extract:

The democratic process relies on the assumption that citizens (the majority of them, at least) can recognize the best political candidate, or best policy idea, when they see it. But a growing body of research has revealed an unfortunate aspect of the human psyche that would seem to disprove this notion, and imply instead that democratic elections produce mediocre leadership and policies.

The research, led by David Dunning, a psychologist at Cornell University, shows that incompetent people are inherently unable to judge the competence of other people, or the quality of those people’s ideas. For example, if people lack expertise on tax reform, it is very difficult for them to identify the candidates who are actual experts. They simply lack the mental tools needed to make meaningful judgments.

As a result, no amount of information or facts about political candidates can override the inherent inability of many voters to accurately evaluate them. On top of that, “very smart ideas are going to be hard for people to adopt, because most people don’t have the sophistication to recognize how good an idea is,” Dunning told Life’s Little Mysteries.

more

Wheat and Schizophrenia

kadbudugorjeligradovi:

http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1129/940541335_1b4900f254.jpg

By Emily Deans, M.D.

Schizophrenia is an unfortunate disease of the brain. A progressive disorder, it often presents with social withdrawal, paranoia, hearing voices, that sort of thing. After quite a while (sometimes decades) you get a kind of “burnout” effect where the voices and whatnot lessen, but the afflicted is left with all the negative symptoms of social withdrawal, thought blocking, and an inexpressiveness known as “flat affect.” MRI of the brain will show “large ventricles” at this point, meaning cell death (brain damage) has caused the active, lively part of the brain to shrink. You’ll see schizophrenia in any large public park in any major city. If you ask the guy on the bench that everyone is avoiding if he wants something to eat, and he answers with paranoid meaningless word salad, that’s schizophrenia, most likely. He had parents, brothers, sisters, maybe even a college degree. Even if he wanted to stay in a treatment facility or group home, in most places there aren’t enough spots for all the mentally ill, so many end up homeless or in jail. A tough road for someone with an organic brain disease.

Most of the research on schizophrenia is focused on the neurotransmitters dopamine, acetylcholine, and histamine and genetic polymorphisms of transporters and receptors. The usual questions are asked about ineffective brain chemistry. The usual treatment is neuroleptic medication (hopefully decreases excess dopamine in the right place and leaves it well enough alone in other corners of the brain). And I’ve seen medicine do a decent job of clearing up the psychosis symptoms many times. Medicine tends to have pretty serious side effects, though, so a big push in research these days is to identify those folks at high risk for schizophrenia before it happens, hopefully to prevent the illness in the first place through various means. Often those means include more medications - but with Big Pharma funding many studies, those are the solutions that are found.

One intrepid researcher, F. Curtis Dohan, spent a lot of his career chasing an unlikely suspect in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, wheat. His fascinating paper, Genetic Hypothesis of Idiopathic Schizophrenia: It’s Exorphin Connection , can be found in free full text via the link.

Anyway, there’s a funny thing about schizophrenia, turns out that quite a few of the adult schizophrenics on an inpatient psychiatric unit in 1967 happened to have a major history of celiac disease (gluten/wheat intolerance) as children. As in 50-100 times the amount of celiac disease that one would expect by chance. Celiac doctors also noticed their patients were schizophrenic about 10X as often as the general population. That’s a lot! In addition, epidemiological studies of Pacific Islanders and other populations showed a strong, dose-dependent relationship between grain intake and schizophrenia. The gluten-free populations had extremely rare occurrence of schizophrenia - just 2 in 65,000 versus about 1 in 100 as we have in the grain-eating West. When populations Westernized their diets (flour, sugar, and beer), schizophrenia became common. In some clinical trials, gluten made new-onset acutely ill schizophrenics much worse, but only occasional long-term patients responded to gluten restriction. The long-term sufferer has already had a lot of damage - if wheat somehow toxic to the brain, then it would be vital to stop the insult early on in the course of the disease to see improvement.

National Institutes of Health investigators looked for poisonous protein fragments derived from gluten, gliadin (wheat proteins), and casein (a milk protein). They found them - potent opiate (yes, opiate as in morphine. Or heroin) analogs they called “exorphins.” Many of these studies were done in rats, and the results are very creepy if you are fond of bread and milk (or rats). Turns out, you take wheat gluten, add stomach enzymes, and you end up with fragments of proteins that are potent opiates (1 ). The cute thing is these fragments aren’t digested by the small intestine and definitely end up in the body and brain of rats that are fed gluten orally. Inject these same proteins directly into the brains of poor unfortunate rats, and you get rat seizures. Interestingly, people with schizophrenia seem to have a lot of these opioid-like small gluten-derived peptides in their urine. Way more than people without schizophrenia.

Let me review what is perhaps the most important part of the Dohan paper - a gluten-free diet definitely improved some of the new-onset schizophrenics on the inpatient unit. Not all of them. But 2 out of 17 or so. Putting back the wheat made the affected a lot worse. In another study, 115 patients on a locked ward were all given a gluten free milk free diet. They were released into the community on average twice as fast as the similar patients on another, diet as usual ward (p=.009). It is of note that repeat studies didn’t show the same thing, but instead of 17 or 115 patients, these studies had 4 or 8 patients, and these were studies of people who had schizophrenia for many years, where much damage was already done.

Historically, prior to WWII, when grain consumption was super-high and neuroleptics (those medications, as you recall, which affect brain dopamine levels and are used to treat schizophrenia) did not yet exist, there are reports of schizophrenics having marked and unexplained fluctuations in weight and gut symptoms, poor iron absorption just like celiac sufferers, and “post-mortem abnormalities like those subsequently discovered in celiac patients.” Why aren’t these found now? Well, Dohan contended that a side effect of these neuroleptic medications is that they decrease the permeability of the gut. Meaning gluten may not be able to weasel through quite so easily.

Which begs the question, is that the side effect? Or perhaps the principle effect? Who knows? Dohan’s paper was published in 1988 and ended with some ideas about how to study the question further (such as by feeding identical twins of schizophrenics a high gluten diet to see what happens - somehow I don’t think that experimental design would pass an institutional review board nowadays.) Well, nothing much happened research-wise until around 2005, but what has been discovered is interesting. There is no “smoking gun,” but there certainly is a lot of smoke.

In Markers of Gluten Sensitivity and Celiac Disease in Recent-Onset Psychosis and Multi-Episode Schizophrenia  it was found that individuals with recent-onset psychosis and with multi-episode schizophrenia who have increased antibodies to gliadin may share some immunologic features of celiac disease, but their immune response to gliadin differs from that of celiac disease.

In this very clever work done by Samaroo and Dickerson et al, published as Novel immune response to gluten in individuals with schizophrenia , immune responses and celiac disease biomarkers were tested in schizophrenics. It turns out that schizophrenics tended to have a lot of anti-wheat antibodies floating around in their systems, but these antibodies were nearly entirely different from the ones that people with celiac disease have. That means that the usual test for gluten issues, the tests for celiac, wouldn’t come up positive in schizophrenics, even though they have unusual immune reactions to wheat.

In A Case Report of the Resolution of Schizophrenic Symptoms on a Ketogenic Diet , a high fat, low carb, low protein diet (thus very low in wheat) results in the remission of psychotic symptoms in a single case report.

The bottom line? Schizophrenia is a progressive and destructive psychotic mental illness that, at the moment, can sometimes be managed with medications and community therapeutic support, but does not have a cure. It seems that a certain subset of schizophrenics have an unusual immune response to gluten and other various wheat proteins, and in a small number, going wheat-free has been extremely helpful. A gluten-free diet is safe and doesn’t have side effects - I don’t see a good argument against giving it a try for anyone with schizophrenia who is willing to give it a go, at least for three months. The worst thing that happens is you find you are not one of the gluten-sensitive schizophrenics, and you’ve gone without bread and pasta for a little while. The best thing that happens is that your symptoms get better, possibly quite a lot better.

source: psychology today

BBC Horizon’s Super-String Theory

Immortal worms defy aging

Researchers from The University of Nottingham have demonstrated how a species of flatworm overcomes the aging process to be potentially immortal.

The discovery, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is part of a project funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Medical Research Council (MRC) and may shed light on the possibilities of alleviating aging and age-related characteristics in human cells. Planarian worms have amazed scientists with their apparently limitless ability to regenerate. Researchers have been studying their ability to replace aged or damaged tissues and cells in a bid to understand the mechanisms underlying their longevity.

(Source: azspot, via pieceinthepuzzlehumanity-deacti)