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Tissue-based Companion Diagnostics Alliance Formed to Address Quantitative IHC Needs in Europe

Posted on January 9, 2011 by ev1

Flagstaff, AZ (PRWEB) December 22, 2010

Flagship Biosciences LLC, a quantitative pathology company and HistologiX, a GLP accredited CRO today announced a joint partnership to provide histology services and tissue-based companion diagnostics development to European pharmaceutical clients.

Tissue-based diagnostics is a major component in most oncology portfolios for companion diagnostics, and depends on tissue procurement, outstanding immunohistochemistry practices, image analysis, and board-certified pathologist review. The nature of most oncology clinical trials are global, so shipping glass slides and adequately supervising the histology and pathology can be a difficult logistics challenge.

Digital pathology and quantitative IHC offers the ability for the image analysis and pathology review to be conducted remotely, and centralizes all data in a trial into a single location. Flagship Biosciences is teaming with Histologix to offer this service to European pharmaceutical clients. The histology and slide scanning will be conducted by Histologix in the UK. The slides are then uploaded to a Flagship digital pathology secure server, where image analysis provides quantitation and pathology review can be conducted virtually. Geography is then removed as a major logistics challenge, and the pathology analysis becomes both quantitative and can be reviewed by an expert pathologist in a study and effectively communicated to pharmaceutical clients.

"Image analysis and quantitative IHC is a growing opportunity in oncology drug development, from early stage research through clinical trials," said David Fairley, Managing Director of Histologix, and a veteran in the management of tissue-based regulated diagnostic testing. "Our partnership with Flagship Biosciences gives our clients virtual access, a centralized and standardized approach to slide review, and a quantitative scoring approach that assists with pathology reads."

"It is clear than in most companion diagnostics programs, a 510k or PMA will be required for approval," said Dr. Holger Lange, Chief Technology Officer of Flagship Biosciences, and who is based in Germany. "We are working to define a regulatory approach that will meet the needs of both US and European diagnostics approvals process in tissue. Flagship needed an expert partner in tissue handling and IHC methodology in Europe, as image analysis results are dependent on outstanding histology practices."

"The tissue-based companion diagnostics programs that are under development at pharmaceutical companies are far more complex than the currently approved biomarkers for breast cancer," said Dr. David Young, President of Flagship Biosciences, and a well-recognized leader in tissue-based companion diagnostics development. "Histologix brings outstanding talent and experience in tissue procurement, histology and immunohistochemistry procedures, and GLP and regulatory expertise. This competency allows Flagship to build quantitative IHC techniques for European clients on a strong GLP histology foundation."

Flagship Biosciences LLC, with a datacenter in Flagstaff, Arizona and a Boston digital pathology office, is a pathologist-owned company that delivers quantitative pathology to pharmaceutical and medical device clients.

HistologiX Ltd is a rapidly growing GLP accredited Contract Research Organisation (CRO) providing commercial services to the Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology and Academic/Healthcare industries in Histology, Immunohistochemistry (IHC), Human Tissue Procurement, Clinical Trials, Molecular Biology and Advisory Consultancy. The Company was formed in 2005 by individuals with extensive experience in regulatory and non-regulatory diagnostic and clinical histology as well as IHC.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2010/12/prweb4919964.htm

Tonight at Observatory: "A: Head on B: Body: The Real Life Dr. Frankenstein," Tonight, January 7th

Posted on January 9, 2011 by ev1

Tonight at Observatory, snowstorm be damned . Hope to see you there!

A: Head on B: Body: The Real Life Dr. Frankenstein
A screening and lecture with film-maker Jim Fields and Mike Lewi
Date: Friday, January 7th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
In an eventful and successful career spanning 40 years, Dr. Robert White–pioneering neurosurgeon and Professor at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University–did many things. He participated in Nobel Prize-nominated work, published more than 700 scholarly articles, examined Vladimir Lenin’s preserved brain in Cold War Russia, founded Pope John Paul II’s Committee on Bioethics, went to mass daily, and raised 10 children. He also engaged in a series of horrifying and highly controversial experiments reminiscent of a B-Movie mad scientist, experiments which pushed the limits of medical ethics, infuriated the animal rights community, and questioned notions of identity, consciousness, and corporeality as well as mankind’s biblically-condoned dominion over the animal kingdom.
Tonight, join film-maker Jim Fields–best known for his 2003 documentary “End of the Century” about the legendary punk band The Ramones–and Mike Lewi for a screening of Fields’ short documentary about the life and work of this real-life Dr. Frankenstein whose chilling “full body transplants” truly seem the stuff of a B-Movie terror. Fields will introduce the film–which features a series of interviews with Dr. White discussing his controversial experiments–with an illustrated lecture contextualizing the doctor’s work within the history of “mad scientists” past and present, fictional and actual; scientists whose hubris drove them to go rogue by tampering with things perhaps best left alone.
Jim Fields made a few documentaries, one of which, “End of the Century: the Story of the Ramones” is particularly long. He’s currently a video journalist at Time Magazine and Time.com.
Mike Lewi is a filmmaker, event producer, and disc jockey.

You can find out more about this event on the Observatory website by clicking here and can can access the event on Facebook here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.

Image: Drawing by Dr. Harvey Cushing, early 20th Century, found on the Yale Medical Library website.

Snow Cancellation: "A: Head on B: Body: The Real Life Dr. Frankenstein," Tonight, January 7th

Posted on January 9, 2011 by ev1

Sorry folks. The snow won, and tonight's event--described below--is being postponed. Our sincere apologies, and new date to be posted very soon.

A: Head on B: Body: The Real Life Dr. Frankenstein
A screening and lecture with film-maker Jim Fields and Mike Lewi
Date: Friday, January 7th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
In an eventful and successful career spanning 40 years, Dr. Robert White–pioneering neurosurgeon and Professor at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University–did many things. He participated in Nobel Prize-nominated work, published more than 700 scholarly articles, examined Vladimir Lenin’s preserved brain in Cold War Russia, founded Pope John Paul II’s Committee on Bioethics, went to mass daily, and raised 10 children. He also engaged in a series of horrifying and highly controversial experiments reminiscent of a B-Movie mad scientist, experiments which pushed the limits of medical ethics, infuriated the animal rights community, and questioned notions of identity, consciousness, and corporeality as well as mankind’s biblically-condoned dominion over the animal kingdom.
Tonight, join film-maker Jim Fields–best known for his 2003 documentary “End of the Century” about the legendary punk band The Ramones–and Mike Lewi for a screening of Fields’ short documentary about the life and work of this real-life Dr. Frankenstein whose chilling “full body transplants” truly seem the stuff of a B-Movie terror. Fields will introduce the film–which features a series of interviews with Dr. White discussing his controversial experiments–with an illustrated lecture contextualizing the doctor’s work within the history of “mad scientists” past and present, fictional and actual; scientists whose hubris drove them to go rogue by tampering with things perhaps best left alone.
Jim Fields made a few documentaries, one of which, “End of the Century: the Story of the Ramones” is particularly long. He’s currently a video journalist at Time Magazine and Time.com.
Mike Lewi is a filmmaker, event producer, and disc jockey.

Image: Drawing by Dr. Harvey Cushing, early 20th Century, found on the Yale Medical Library website.

holiday, observatory, science, spectacle

Morbid Anatomy Library New Regular Open Hours: Saturdays, 12-6, Beginning This Saturday, January 8

Posted on January 9, 2011 by ev1

The Morbid Anatomy Library--a private research library and collection I make available to the interested public in Brooklyn, New York--is pleased to announce new regular open hours every Saturday from 12-6.

The library and cabinet--pictured above in a series of photos by Shannon Taggart--makes available a collection of curiosities, books, photographs, artworks, ephemera, and artifacts relating to medical museums, anatomical art, collectors and collecting, cabinets of curiosity, the history of medicine, death and society, natural history, arcane media, and curiosity and curiosities broadly considered. The present Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in Residence is Evan Michelson of Obscura Antiques and Oddities and the new television show "Oddities."

If you would like to know more, you can read about the library in Newsweek, Time Out New York, or The Huffington Post and watch videos about it produced by Newsweek, Rocketboom Media, and WPIX's Toni On! New York.

The library is located at 543 Union Street at Nevins in Brooklyn New York. Enter via Proteus Gowanus gallery or by buzzing buzzer 1E. Click here to view map.

To find out more about the Morbid Anatomy Library, click here.

Photos by Shannon Taggart.

The Great Coney Island Spectacularium Exhibition and Website Launch

Posted on January 9, 2011 by ev1

Many people know about the Coney Island of hot dogs, roller coasters, circuses, and side shows; what many do not know is the other Coney Island, the much forgotten Coney Island of strange immersive amusements produced on a scale nearly impossible to imagine today and blurring the boundaries between science and spectacle, current affairs and entertainment, and education and titillation.

Just to give you a sense of what I'm talking about. On an average day in Coney Island from the years 1890 to 1915, a visitor could (and this is just a tiny sampling):

take in a Midget City Theater vaudeville show in Lilliputia, the town populated by 300 midgets and modeled on a half-scale 16th century Nuremberg (top image)
check out a staged tenement fire featuring a cast of 2,000 at the popular attraction Fighting the Flames (2nd image)
marvel at freakishly tiny premature babies kept alive by a novel technology (later adopted by hospitals) and team of nurses at The Infant Incubator (5th image)
relive the Boer War via a reenactment starring 600 genuine Boer War veterans
watch a reenactment of The Galveston Flood, which had killed 6,000 people only two years before the attraction debuted
thrill to San Francisco destroyed by fire, the Titatic destroyed at sea, or Pompeii destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius
descend to the sunken city of Atlantic (3rd image)
encounter a troupe of genuine head-hunting Bontac tribesmen in an authentically replicated village (6th image)
be publicly humiliated at The Insanitarium and Blowhole Theater, where a midget in a clown costume (sic) would herd you with an electric cattle prod (sic again) over jets of air that would blow up your skirts (if you were of the female persuasion) before an audience of laughing park patrons (see video above, about 20 seconds in)
buy candy Frankfurters, Pork Sausages, and Plum Pudding at Bauer Sisters Candy Delicatessen (4th image)

"The Great Coney Island Spectacularium"--my upcoming project as artist-in-residence at the Coney Island Museum--will be a response, commemoration, celebration, and evocative re-staging of fin de siècle Coney Island as the pinnacle of this bizarre world of pre-cinematic immersive spectacular amusement. It will feature a specially constructed immersive cosmorama, a dime-museum inspired installation, and a number of other spectacular surprises.

The exhibition--produced in tandem with Coney Island Museum director Aaron Beebe--will launch on Friday, April 8th, 2011 at the Coney Island Museum. There will be many spectacular events over the course of its year-long residency, and the whole will launch with The Congress of Curious People, a 10-day set of lectures, performances, and panel discussions about curiosity and curiosities, broadly conceived (more on that soon; more on last year's Congress here).

You can visit the website for the exhibition--which features an acitvely updated blog tracing the exhibition research conducted by Aaron and myself, a bibliography, and many more details about the exhibition--at http://www.spectacularium.org. Please sign up for the mailing list (upper right hand corner of the website) to be alerted to events and announcements around the exhibition.

Images top to bottom:

From Jeffrey Stanton's Coney Island History Website
From Jeffrey Stanton's Coney Island History Website
Postcard from The Coney Island Museum
From Coney Island: A Postcard Journey to the City of Fire by Richard Snow
From Pixie's MySpace Blog
"Filipino Baby Coney Isand 1905," from jo simalaya alcampo

Phantasmagoria at the Louvre (!!!): Paris, January-March 2011

Posted on January 9, 2011 by ev1

Parisian museums are getting more and more historically innovative with their programming. First, the amazing looking "Science and Curiosities: exhibition at Versailles (as discussed in this recent post). And now this just in: The Cinémathèque Française will be co-producing a phantasmagoria projection & spectacle in partnership with--and to be performed at--The Louvre!

Phantasmagoria, invented in the wake of--and said to be a response to--The French Revolution, are essentially ghost shows in which images of skeletons, demons, and ghosts (see top image) are projected via a modified magic lantern and, through a series of ingenious special effects, seem to move about, approach and retreat from, the viewer. These forms of spectacle were very popular around the time of the French Revolution and were also performed throughout the 19th Century; with the advent of film, they metamorphosed into the horror movie, a popular form to this day.

The phantasmagoria projection & spectacle at the Louvre will consist of a series of phantasmagoria projections and spectacles between the dates of January 13th until March 28th of 2011; The highlight will be a grand phantasmagoria projection on March 6 where guest Phantasmagores Laure Parchomenko & Laurent Mannoni promise to conjure-up a variety of spirits which haunted the aftermath of the Revolution at 14:30 & 18:00.

More information about this event can be found (in French) here.

Via the Early Visual Media website and mailing list.

"The Keeper of Curiosities" Royal Ontario Museum in the Wall Street Journal

Posted on January 9, 2011 by ev1

A nice appreciation of the cabinet of curiosity approach to contemporary museum curation in today's Wall Street Journal:

At the [Royal Ontario Museum, aka ROM ], objects taken from its separate collections (fine and decorative arts, history, textiles, archaeology, geology, mineralogy, paleontology and zoology) are often mixed and matched in highly interdisciplinary displays to create a narrative not often seen in the more specialized museums that we are used to. For example, English dresses and slippers from the late 18th and early 19th centuries are displayed next to African and Asian clothing of the same era, alongside printing blocks and a wall-text description of berries used to produce dyes, because one of the points being made is how colors and patterns were dyed or printed onto these fabrics. Comparisons are being drawn about widely divergent cultures and industrial practices.
"In so many museums, curators are telling the story of the objects on display—why this is in the collection, why that is an important piece—while we're trying to use the objects in our collections to tell a story about how people go about their lives here and elsewhere around the world, and often about the intersection of the natural and cultural worlds," she said.
Here's another example: A display contains ceramic vases, silver, clocks, weathervanes and furniture from the 18th century, across from painted portraits of men, women and children who lived in Canada back then. None of the individual objects have their own labels, and only some wall text describes life in that time. Who were those people in the portraits? Who painted them? Where were those chairs and vases made? Did those people own that silver? Presumably, the curators know and aren't telling us. At the ROM, the point isn't so much the individual objects as creating a big-picture view of life at a certain time and place. "We encourage visitors to make connections in their own minds," Ms. Carding said...
The ROM is in some ways a throwback. Before people traveled so much or had such wide access to books and photographs (in short, an education), 18th- and 19th-century museums were cabinets of curiosities that provided a world of collected knowledge, a walk-in encyclopedia of objects both natural and man-made, practical and artistic. It is rare to find this type of institution anymore; museums now are more and more specialized...
Like the original cabinets of curiosities, there is a little something for everyone, but not so much as to bore people. Known as the "Stair of Wonders," the landings between floors have their own miniature displays—seashells or insects or battalions of metal toy soldiers—to perk up interest when it may be flagging. There's also a life-size, walk-through diorama of the St. Clair Cave in Jamaica, with its plaster-cast hanging bats, insects and stalagmites (based on ROM scientists' work at the site). "People here talk about their old favorites; so many people just love the bat cave," Ms. Carding said.

You can read the full article--from which the excerpt is drawn--by clicking here.

Image via Ddrees Art.

Upcoming Observatory Screening and Lecture: "A: Head on B: Body: The Real Life Dr. Frankenstein," Friday, January 7th

Posted on January 9, 2011 by ev1

Morbid Anatomy is pleased to announce "A: Head on B: Body: The Real Life Dr. Frankenstein," a lecture and screening exploring the notion of the "mad scientist" in fact and fiction, history and myth. The focal point of the presentation will be the real life mad scientist Dr. Robert White, a professor and pioneering neurosurgeon whose experiments with what he termed "full body transplants" pushed many troubling boundaries.

The event will feature a short documentary film about Dr, White by Jim Fields, director of the “End of the Century: the Story of the Ramones." Fields and Lewi will introduce the film–which features a series of interviews with Dr. White discussing his controversial experiments–with an illustrated lecture contextualizing the doctor’s work within the history of “mad scientists” past and present, fictional and actual; scientists whose hubris drove them to go rogue by tampering with things perhaps best left alone.

Full event description follows; hope very much to see you there!

A: Head on B: Body: The Real Life Dr. Frankenstein
A screening and lecture with film-maker Jim Fields and Mike Lewi
Date: Friday, January 7th
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
In an eventful and successful career spanning 40 years, Dr. Robert White–pioneering neurosurgeon and Professor at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University–did many things. He participated in Nobel Prize-nominated work, published more than 700 scholarly articles, examined Vladimir Lenin’s preserved brain in Cold War Russia, founded Pope John Paul II’s Committee on Bioethics, went to mass daily, and raised 10 children. He also engaged in a series of horrifying and highly controversial experiments reminiscent of a B-Movie mad scientist, experiments which pushed the limits of medical ethics, infuriated the animal rights community, and questioned notions of identity, consciousness, and corporeality as well as mankind’s biblically-condoned dominion over the animal kingdom.
Tonight, join film-maker Jim Fields–best known for his 2003 documentary “End of the Century” about the legendary punk band The Ramones–and Mike Lewi for a screening of Fields’ short documentary about the life and work of this real-life Dr. Frankenstein whose chilling “full body transplants” truly seem the stuff of a B-Movie terror. Fields will introduce the film–which features a series of interviews with Dr. White discussing his controversial experiments–with an illustrated lecture contextualizing the doctor’s work within the history of “mad scientists” past and present, fictional and actual; scientists whose hubris drove them to go rogue by tampering with things perhaps best left alone.
Jim Fields made a few documentaries, one of which, “End of the Century: the Story of the Ramones” is particularly long. He’s currently a video journalist at Time Magazine and Time.com.
Mike Lewi is a filmmaker, event producer, and disc jockey.

Image: Drawing by Dr. Harvey Cushing, early 20th Century, found on the Yale Medical Library website.

Anatomical Wax, Gallery Comparative Anatomy, Circa 1880

Posted on January 9, 2011 by ev1

Cote cliché: 09-575178
Inventory Number: P4460
Fund: Photographs
Title: Anatomical wax
Description: Gallery comparative anatomy, circa 1880
Author: Petit Pierre Lanith (1831-1909)
Photo credit: Contact us in advance for monographs, exhibition panels, commercial editions, advertising and communication. An additional proof be sent to the museum. (C) National Museum of Natural History, Dist. RMN / image MNHN, Central Library
Period: 19th century
Date: 1880
Location: Paris, National Museum of Natural History, Central Library

Click on image to see much larger, more interesting image. Via RMN found via Bits and Bites Tumblr.

Upcoming Morbid Anatomy Presents Event: A Brief Introduction to Haitian Voodoo, Tuesday, January 11

Posted on January 8, 2011 by ev1

Next Tuesday at Observatory! Hope to see you there.

A Brief Introduction to Haitian Voodoo
An illustrated lecture by photographers Stephanie Keith and Shannon Taggart
Date: Tuesday, January 11
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
**Copies of Stephanie Keith’s new book Vodou Brooklyn: Five Ceremonies with Mambo Marie Carmel will also be available for sale and signing
Voodoo is a religion that merges West African traditions and Roman Catholic Christianity. Created by African slaves brought to the Americas in the 16th century, today its various forms are practiced by over 60 million people worldwide. The purpose of Voodoo ceremony for its practitioners is to make direct contact with the metaphysical realm of the universe by allowing human beings to interact with a pantheon of gods and spirits via spiritual possession.
Photographers Stephanie Keith and Shannon Taggart have long been documenting Voodoo ceremonies within the Haitian community of Brooklyn, New York. Tonight, the two photographers will present a general introduction to Voodoo. Over the course of the this illustrated lecture, they will show historical imagery and discuss the myths of Voodoo generated by sensationalist tales, Hollywood movies and popular culture; they will also introduce us to the major Spirits in the pantheon, describing their historical qualities and elucidating their individual personalities and preferences. In addition, they will share samples of their own haunting work documenting this fascinating and largely misunderstood religion.
Stephanie Keith received an Anthropology degree from Stanford University in 1988, and began her photography career after earning a Master’s in photography from New York University in 2003. She has worked for newspapers such as the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, and the NY Daily News. Her interest in religion and pop culture has resulted in two previous projects: “Jesus Rocks” about Christian teen rockers and “Prime Time Ramadan” about the importance of Egyptian Soap Operas for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. For the past four years, she has been documenting immigrant life in New York City focusing on Haitian Vodou ceremonies performed in Brooklyn. Her latest series about Vodou in Brooklyn has been exhibited in at the Brooklyn Historical Society, the Brooklyn Public Library, the Safe-T Gallery in Brooklyn, the Caribbean Cultural Center in Manhattan, published in the Village Voice and developed into an audio slide show for American Public Media’s “Speaking of Faith” program. The Caribbean Studies Press has just published her photos about Vodou as a book, entitled: Vodou Brooklyn: Five Ceremonies with Mambo Marie. For more about Stephanie Keith, visit http://www.stephaniekeith.com.
Shannon Taggart is a freelance photographer based in Brooklyn, New York. She received her BFA in Applied Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her images have appeared in numerous publications including Blind Spot, Tokion, TIME and Newsweek. Her work has been recognized by the Inge Morath Foundation, American Photography, the International Photography Awards, Photo District News and the Alexia Foundation for World Peace, among others. Her photographs have been shown at Photoworks in Brighton, England, The Photographic Resource Center in Boston, Redux Pictures in New York, the Stephen Cohen Gallery in Los Angeles and at FotoFest 2010 in Houston. Her essay Basement Voodoo was recently published as a feature in Yvi Magazine. For more about Shannon Taggart, visit http://www.shannontaggart.com.

Top Image: Stephanie Keith; Bottom Image: Shannon Taggart

Hospitals to begin publicly reporting preventable infections, deaths they cause

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

Millions of preventable infections occur at U.S. hospitals every year, and hundreds of thousands of patients needlessly die or become severely diseased from them. And up until now, hospitals have not been required to disclose this information to the public. But a new government initiative that threatens to pull a portion of Medicare funding if hospitals fail to start reporting this crucial information will have most of them in compliance beginning January 1, 2011, according to a recent report.

Hospital-related infections are the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S., according to government figures. Many patients admitted to hospitals for routine surgeries or other procedures end up contracting infections from dirty equipment or from hospital staff that failed to maintain proper hygiene. Roughly 250,000 serious infections are caused by catheters every year, for instance, and 31,000 of those result in death. Read more...

AyurGold for Healthy Blood

Can you mix fruits and vegetables at one meal?

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

Food combining--best to eat fruits on their own, or as a meal, not combined with other foods

The principle behind food combining is that different food classes require different enzymes, different rates of digestion, and different digestive pHs (http://www.dreddyclinic.com/integrated_med/pH.php) for proper digestion. If the foods of the different food classes are combined incorrectly, the specific requirements for their proper digestion tend to cancel each other.

For example, flesh foods require an acid media for digestion, whereas milk is highly alkaline, so it can neutralize the acid required for digesting the flesh foods. Fruit digestion results in the release of an alkaline secretion, which neutralizes the acid secretions, needed for protein digestion. Because of this, it is not a good idea to eat fruits and proteins at the same meals. Some foods are digested faster than others. If fast-digesting foods like fruits are held up in the digestive system for a longer time than necessary through being combined with foods that digest more slowly, fermentation takes place. For this reason, it is good for digestion to eat fruit and starches, which are digested slowly at different meals. Read more...

Immunice for Immune Support

Smiling helps prevent aging, wrinkles

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

The old adage that it takes more muscle power to frown than to smile may finally be put to rest, at least in terms of how using those muscles affects the aging process. According to Heike Hoefler, a German fitness trainer, actively working facial muscles by smiling helps to reduce wrinkles, lines, and other appearances of aging.

"Active facial gymnastics is super effective," Hoefler is quoted as saying in China Daily. "It can reduce expression lines."

And that is exactly what she helps her class participants achieve. By teaching them how to smile more through the use of various smiling exercises, Hoefler is helping her students to avoid things like "anger lines" between the eyebrows, wrinkles around the mouth, and horizontal forehead lines.

Facial skin is composed of a tapestry of elastic and collagen fibers that bind with water to give it a firm, toned appearance. But as a person ages, these fibers become increasingly less able to bind with water, resulting in sagging skin, wrinkles, and other undesirable appearances. Read more...

Detox and cleanse, Toxins cleanse, Liver detox

Dying cancer patients subjected to expensive, meaningless cancer screening tests

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

Earlier this year, we reported the kind of story that almost seems too far-fetched to be true. According to a study by University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) researchers that was published in the American Journal of Public Health, unneeded, expensive mammograms are regularly pushed on elderly women who are incapacitated and dying from Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia, especially if the patients still have assets of $100,000 or more.

Think the cancer screening industry couldn't get any greedier than that example? Think again. Another study, just out in the October 13 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) concludes a sizeable proportion of terminally ill cancer patients are being subjected to common, expensive (and often painful) cancer screening tests. And these tests provide virtually no benefit whatsoever to those dying of cancer -- although they do hike up medical bills and profits for health care providers. Read more...

Prostate Care

Green and orange vegetable consumption – an indicator of longevity

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

Joel Fuhrman, M.D.
No matter how many different dietary theories there are out there, pretty much everyone agrees that vegetables are “good for you”. But how good they truly are has been debated – there are plenty of observational studies linking vegetable consumption to favorable health outcomes, but other studies have made headlines by casting doubt on how powerful plant foods are for preventing disease. The data from these observational studies is often flawed simply because the majority of people in the Western world don’t eat enough vegetables to have a measurable impact on their risk of chronic disease – only about 25% of Americans eat the recommended three one-cup servings of vegetables each day.[1] Also, total vegetable consumption isn’t necessarily an accurate indicator of the healthfulness of one’s diet, since some vegetables are far more nutrient-dense than others. Read more...

Diet detox , detox patch , kidney detox

Amino acids are latest in growing list of nutrients shown to extend life span

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

Researchers are zeroing in on specific nutrients and natural therapies that not only can prevent and heal disease but promote longevity. For example, as NaturalNews previously reported, a research team from Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc., and LifeGen Technologies found that Cordyceps sinensis (Cs-4), a traditional Chinese mushroom, is a powerful anti-aging food that could lengthen lifespan (http://www.dreddyclinic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=24075). And University at Buffalo endocrinologists recently documented for the first time that resveratrol, a phytochemical found in red grapes, grape juice and red wine, has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties in humans and may promote human longevity, too (http://www.dreddyclinic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=20422). Read more...

Detox centers , spa detox ,detox the body

Medical science discovers remarkable yet simple way to instantly increase your willpower

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

Here's good news that's just in time to help you avoid the temptation of sugary goodies served up at holiday parties. If you feel your willpower weakening as you pass the desserts piled high, just tighten up your muscles -- flex any of them, including your finger or calf muscles. Sound crazy? Not according to new research. Scientists have found that firming muscles literally shores up self-control.

Researchers Iris W. Hung of the National University of Singapore and Aparna A. Labroo of the University of Chicago collaborated on a study that put volunteers through a range of self-control dilemmas revolving around accepting immediate pain for long-term gain. For example, in one study participants held their hands in an ice bucket to demonstrate pain resistance and, in another, the research subjects had to drink a healthy but awful-tasting vinegar drink. Read more...

Detox product, detox foods

Good Attitude Boosts Health As Much As Formal Education

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

(HealthDay News) -- Positive factors such as meaningful relationships with others and a sense of purpose can help reduce the negative health impacts of having less schooling, a new study suggests.

It is known that lack of education is a strong predictor of poor health and a relatively early death, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison pointed out. But their new study, published online Oct. 18 in the journal Health Psychology, found that peace of mind can reduce the risk.

"If you didn't go that far in your education, but you walk around feeling [good], you may not be more likely to suffer ill-health than people with a lot of schooling. Low educational attainment does not guarantee bad health consequences, or poor biological regulation," study co-author and psychology professor Carol Ryff said in a university news release.

Ryff and her colleagues measured levels of the inflammatory protein interleukin-6 (IL-6) in participants in the Survey of Midlife in the United States, a long-term study of age-related differences in physical and mental health. High levels of IL-6 are associated with a number of health problems, such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and some cancers. Read more...

Detox product, detox foods

Student Health Advisory Committe

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

The Student Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) is an organization under ASUA acting as the liaison between Campus Health and the student body. We are currently accepting applications for Spring 2011 and encourage you to apply. This semester, SHAC has had the biggest agenda in its history: pursuing policy initiatives such as a tobacco-free university, beginning a large endeavor with our Pandemic and Epidemic Prevention Team vaccinating the homeless at Hopefest 2010, and partnering up with the Sarver Heart Center to train people in continuous chest compression cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CCC-CPR). We will be hosting our annual Run for Your Life 5k Run/Walk in the spring and working on other projects, many focused on sports nutrition, fitness, sexual health, and wellness. We find ourselves growing fast, and therefore we are looking for four highly motivated individuals to join our team to bring health and wellness to our community. We are looking for different types of people, with a range of skills, including marketing, fundraising, advertising, leadership, or any health related knowledge. The only things required for our applicants are a strong work ethic and an intense passion for health and helping others. If you are interested in applying, the application can be found at http://shac.asua.arizona.edu/SHAC/Application.html. Application materials are due by November 19th at midnight to the SHAC email address (shac@asuaweb.org)

Answer to Case of the Week 59

Posted on December 21, 2010 by ev1

Answer, Part I: Trichinella spp. Although Trichinella spiralis is the most common species to infect humans in the United States, it is generally not possible to speciate based on morphologic features. The exception is Trichinella pseudospiralis whose larvae are not encapsulated compared to T. spiralis, T. nativa, T. nelsoni, T. britovi, and T. murrelli which do have encapsulated larvae. These species are the predominant to infect humans.

Answer, Part II: What is the most common source of infection worldwide? Domestic pigs. What about in the United States? Wild game

According to a publication by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Roy et al.”Trichinellosis Surveillance — United States, 1997–2001.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), trichinellosis has been steadily decreasing in the United States due to tightened regulations on pig farming and pork processing. They state:

Although trichinellosis was associated historically with eating Trichinella-infected pork from domesticated sources, wild game meat was the most common source of infection during 1997–2001. During this 5-year period, 72 cases were reported to CDC. Of these, 31 (43%) cases were associated with eating wild game: 29 with bear meat, one with cougar meat, and one with wild boar meat. In comparison, only 12 (17%) cases were associated with eating commercial pork products, including four cases traced to a foreign source. Nine (13%) cases were associated with eating noncommercial pork from home-raised or direct-from-farm swine where U.S. commercial pork production industry standards and regulations do not apply.

The following is an excellent source of information on trichinellosis with beautiful photos: http://www.trichinella.org/index_synopsis.htm

To make the diagnosis of trichinellosis on tissue section, one needs to recognize the classic appearance of the coiled larvae within tissue (typically skeletal muscle). Here is an image from this case that nicely demonstrates the larva, nurse cell (derived by the host) and stichosome (column of large rectangular cells):

Note that in this case, the larva is located in the skeletal muscle of the tongue, right below the tongue’s epithelium.

It is easiest to appreciate the coiled nature of the larvae by pressing non-fixed infected muscle between 2 slides and examining the tissue under the microscope. Here is an image from a previous case of the week that demonstrates a ‘squash’ prep:

Finally, for those of you non-pathologists who are having a hard time envisioning how a 3-dimensional coiled worm became a series of circles and ovals in tissue section, I’ve created the following diagram. The top image shows a coiled worm that is being cut along its longitudinal axis while making a slide. The bottom image shows how the worm would appear if you are only looking at the part that was cut and put on a slide.

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