Inevitably, year-end lists invite plenty of debate and criticism, and Scientific American 's is no exception. Certainly, we could have included the discovery of new worlds beyond our solar system, including Kepler 22 b, an exoplanet in the "Goldilocks" zone of habitability, as well as the first known Earth-size exoplanets . Or noted the accumulating evidence suggesting that hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to retrieve natural gas is likely to contaminate water supplies. (Final New York State regulations, expected in mid-2012, could determine the future of fracking in the U.S.)
Source:Baby Monkeys with 6 Genomes Are Scientific First
They look like ordinary baby rhesus macaques , but Hex, Roku and Chimero are the world's first chimeric monkeys, each with cells from the genomes of as many as six rhesus monkeys.
Source:Bacteria, the anti-cancer soldier
Everyone knows about cancer. According to the World Health Organization eight million people died of one of the many forms of cancer 2007 and this number is expected to grow to more than 12 million by 2030. However, unlike many other significant diseases, cancer is not confined to a continent or socioeconomic cohort. Also unlike other entrants on the WHO’s top 10 there is no vaccine or wonder drug. This insidious disease requires surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy all of which wreak havoc on the patient during and often long after treatment. But recently novel research looking at using certain bacteria as a therapy is gaining traction that may result in new treatment options that are cheap, easy to produce, noninvasive and if the current research is any indication capable of complete remission in some cases.
Steps toward a Bionic Eye
The human eye is a biological marvel. Charles Darwin considered it one of the biggest challenges to his theory of evolution, famously writing : that “To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.” Of course he did go on to explain how natural selection could account for the eye, but we can see why he wrote these words under the heading of “Organs of Extreme Perfection and Complication.” [More]
Smaller, cheaper, faster: Does Moore's law apply to solar cells?
The sun strikes every square meter of our planet with more than 1,360 watts of power. Half of that energy is absorbed by the atmosphere or reflected back into space. 700 watts of power, on average, reaches Earth’s surface. Summed across the half of the Earth that the sun is shining on, that is 89 petawatts of power. By comparison, all of human civilization uses around 15 terrawatts of power, or one six-thousandth as much. In 14 and a half seconds, the sun provides as much energy to Earth as humanity uses in a day.
The numbers are staggering and surprising. In 88 minutes, the sun provides 470 exajoules of energy, as much energy as humanity consumes in a year. In 112 hours – less than five days – it provides 36 zettajoules of energy – as much energy as is contained in all proven reserves of oil, coal, and natural gas on this planet.
Optogenetics: Controlling the Brain with Light [Extended Version]
Despite the enormous efforts of clinicians and researchers, our limited insight into psychiatric disease (the worldwide-leading cause of years of life lost to death or disability) hinders the search for cures and contributes to stigmatization. Clearly, we need new answers in psychiatry. But as philosopher of science Karl Popper might have said, before we can find the answers, we need the power to ask new questions. In other words, we need new technology. [More]
Clear New Insights into the Genetics of Depression
The psychologist Rollo May once described depression as “the inability to construct a future”. [More]
DNA Drugs Come of Age (preview)
In a head-to-head competition held 10 years ago, scientists at the National Institutes of Health tested two promising new types of vaccine to see which might offer the strongest protection against one of the deadliest viruses on earth, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. One vaccine consisted of DNA rings called plasmids, each carrying a gene for one of five HIV proteins. Its goal was to get the recipient’s own cells to make the viral proteins in the hope they would provoke protective reactions by immune cells. Instead of plasmids, the second vaccine used another virus called an adenovirus as a carrier for a single HIV gene encoding a viral protein. The rationale for this combination was to employ a “safe” virus to catch the attention of immune cells while getting them to direct their responses against the HIV protein.
One of us (Weiner) had already been working on DNA vaccines for eight years and was hoping for a major demonstration of the plasmids’ ability to induce immunity against a dreaded pathogen. Instead the test results dealt a major blow to believers in this first generation of DNA vaccines. The DNA recipients displayed only weak immune responses to the five HIV proteins or no response at all, whereas recipients of the adenovirus-based vaccine had robust reactions. To academic and pharmaceutical company researchers, adenoviruses clearly looked like the stronger candidates to take forward in developing HIV vaccines.
Immune system - National Institutes of Health - Vaccine - HIV - DNA
Parkinsonian Power Failure: Neuron Degeneration May Be Caused by a Cellular Energy System Breakdown
In the past researchers have observed an association between poor mitochondrial function and Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder of the central nervous system that impairs speech and motor functions and affects five million people worldwide. A new meta-analysis suggests that low expression levels of 10 related gene sets responsible for mitochondrial machinery play an important role in this disorder--all previously unlinked to Parkinson's. The study, published online today in Science Translational Medicine , further points to a master switch for these gene sets as a potential target of future therapies. [More]
Biomarker Studies Could Realize Goal of More Effective and Personalized Cancer Medicine
When President Richard Nixon launched the war on cancer in his January 1971 State of the Union, he called for "the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon." Yet nearly 40 years and $100 billion in federally funded cancer research later, it seems the lunar landing was a much less daunting task.
Alzheimer's: Forestalling the Darkness with New Approaches (preview)
In his magical-realist masterpiece One Hundred Years of Solitude , Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez takes the reader to the mythical jungle village of Macondo, where, in one oft-recounted scene, residents suffer from a disease that causes them to lose all memory. The malady erases “the name and notion of things and finally the identity of people.” The symptoms persist until a traveling gypsy turns up with a drink “of a gentle color” that returns them to health.
In a 21st-century parallel to the townspeople of Macondo, a few hundred residents from Medellín, Colombia, and nearby coffee-growing areas may get a chance to assist in the search for something akin to a real-life version of the gypsy’s concoction. Medellín and its environs are home to the world’s largest contingent of individuals with a hereditary form of Alzheimer’s disease. Members of 25 extended families, with 5,000 members, develop early-onset Alzheimer’s, usually before the age of 50, if they harbor an aberrant version of a particular gene.
Alzheimer - Macondo - One Hundred Years of Solitude - Health - Conditions and Diseases
Cancer Therapy Goes Viral: Progress Is Made Tackling Tumors with Viruses
The adapted virus that immunized hundreds of millions of people against smallpox has now been enlisted in the war on cancer. Vaccinia poxvirus joins a herpesvirus and a host of other pathogens on a growing list of engineered viruses entering late-stage human testing against cancer. [More]
Faulty Circuits (preview)
In most areas of medicine, doctors have historically tried to glean something about the underlying cause of a patient’s illness before figuring out a treatment that addresses the source of the problem. When it came to mental or behavioral disorders in the past, however, no physical cause was detectable so the problem was long assumed by doctors to be solely “mental,” and psychological therapies followed suit.
Today scientific approaches based on modern biology, neuroscience and genomics are replacing nearly a century of purely psychological theories, yielding new approaches to the treatment of mental illnesses.
Rare flowers and common herbal supplements get unmasked with plant DNA barcoding
NEW YORK--Will exotic orchids soon be subjected to the same genetic scrutiny as some luxury caviars? That is just one of the coding conundrums that scientists convened at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx to discuss on a cloudy mid-April afternoon. [More]
Menopause Information, About Menopause | The North …
Mood swings, short-term memory loss, and difficulty thinking straight are common complaints from midlife women. However, while many of these symptoms are attributed to menopause, there are other contributing factors to consider as well.
Hormones:During reproductive years, most women become accustomed to their own hormonal rhythm. When this rhythm is disrupted during perimenopause, mood changes may result.
Timing:The timing of menopause may coincide with a multitude of midlife stresses like relationship issues, divorce or widowhood, care of young children, struggles with adolescents, return of grown children to the home, being childless, concerns about aging parents and caregiving responsibilities, as well as career and education issues...
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Dear readers,
Twenty-five years ago, The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) was founded on the principle that women like youdeserve the most scientifically accurate and up-to-date information. We are so proud to have provided the best in womens health research and education to tens of thousands of women. Hopefully, we have helped you.
We have never asked for a donation, but providing this level of support is costly. I hope you will consider helping us in any way you can.Your contribution will allow us to continue theimportant work we do to make the lives of women healthier and better.Adonation of $100 or morewill getyou a free copy of our Menopause Guidebook.
Tara Allmen, MD, FACOG, NCMP President The North American Menopause Society Foundation
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Menopause Information, About Menopause | The North ...
Menopause Types | Your Hormones
The http://www.YourMenopauseType.com website has been merged into http://www.YourHormones.com.
Menopause&Your Menopause TypeMenopause is a time of transition and change in a womans life that results in permanent ending of reproductive fertility and the end of monthly menstrual cycles. This change typically occurs when a woman is in her late 40s to early 50s. By definition, menopause is recognized when a woman hasn't menstruated for 12 months. If a woman misses a few periods, then has a period, then menopause is not considered to have taken place until 12 months after that last period. The hormonal changes that occur with menopause can be different in each woman. In some women estrogen levels drop dramatically, in other women the estrogen drop is not as severe and may actually stay adequate enough to be beneficial for the rest of the womans life. The same can occur with progesterone, it may become quite low, or it may remain adequate enough to be of benefit to the woman even though she will no longer have the higher amounts of progesterone that happen in the second half of the month. Likewise, testosterone levels can become low. In some women the testosterone can actually become elevated. These different possibilities of hormone changes were first presented in my book Discover Your Menopause Type. Before discussing the different types, lets focus on the transition and change. Perimenopause is the time around menopause. It includes the 12 months that have to pass before we can say that menopause has taken place. In addition, it can also include those years leading up to menopause where symptoms related to menopause start to appear. During perimenopause a woman may start to experience hot flashes, night sweats, changes in sleep, mood changes or other symptoms for over a year or even years - before her menses even starts to change. During this time of transition, hormone production and hormone function is very variable. Months of severe symptoms may be followed by months that are symptom free. The menses can become quite irregular, with some cycles becoming shorter and some becoming longer. So during perimenopause a woman who has always had 28 day cycles may start to have shorter cycles and or longer cycles. Perimenopause can last from as little as the 12 months required to make the determination that menopause has actually taken place as long as five years of irregular cycles and fluctuating symptoms. A woman is in perimenopause until she has not menstruated for 12 months. The various possibilities of hormone changes typically become more evident during perimenopause. For instance, some women start to notice the increasing testosterone and will have acne and oily skin appear, while others experience a dramatic drop of testosterone and experience decreased motivation and a loss of libido. The perimenopause is when the uniqueness of hormonal changes becomes manifest. It is the time to start using the protocols based on each Menopause Type.
Postmenopause is 12 months after the last menstrual cycle. So, if it has been 12 months and one day since her last menses, then a woman is, by definition, postmenopause. Menopause is what happened 12 months ago. She can now say, I went through menopause a year ago. A postmenopause woman can still experience hot flashes, night sweats, changes in sleep, mood changes or other symptoms for many years after menopause has occurred. The intensity of symptoms will vary depending upon which hormones changed, and how much those hormones have changed. It is very important that a woman identify which hormone changes have taken place and what her new hormone pattern is. Does she still have enough progesterone, but low estrogen and low testosterone? Different hormone changes are associated with different symptoms and different risks for disease. The hormone patterns that occur will have an effect on a womans health and quality of life for the rest of her life. My book Discover Your Menopause Type was written to promote personalized and individualized care of women. A one-size-fits-all approach to menopause is never a good idea.
Personalized healthcare requires that every one-size-fits-all model be rejected. This is never truer than in menopause. By rejecting a one-size-fits-all model of menopause we are left with a new definition of menopause and a wider range of therapies. Even beyond hormones we realize that each woman has a need, and a right, to determine how she will manage her menopause. Her choices may include diet, other lifestyle choices, nutrition, herbs, etc. By recognizing that each woman has a different hormone needs, as well as different nutritional needs, we redefine menopause and the management of menopause as follows:
"Menopause is a transition that may show up in many different ways.There are actually 12 different Menopause Types.Treat each woman according to her own Menopause Type.Treatment choices must include diet, lifestyle, nutrition,herbs, hormone precursors and natural hormones." by Joseph J. Collins, RN, ND
How much can menopause vary from woman to woman?In menopause we now recognize that some women may have low estradiol, while others continue to always have adequate amounts of estradiol. We also recognize that while some women truly are deficient in progesterone, other women continue to always have adequate amounts of progesterone. We also realize that while some women have testosterone deficiency, and others have adequate amounts of testosterone, there are some women who have excessive testosterone levels. These various patterns are discussed in Discover Your Menopause Type. These patterns can persist into the seventh decade of life and beyond.
In menopause there are a number of possibilities:
Estradiol & progesterone are both adequate. Estradiol is deficient. Progesterone is deficient. Estradiol & progesterone are both deficient.
Add to those four possibilities the fact that:
Testosterone may be normal. Testosterone may be low. Testosterone may be high.
To Discover Your Menopause Type:Take the Menopause Type Questionnairenow (free).
By reviewing the chart below, you can see the twelve Menopause Typesas well as the Hormone Specific Formulations that are best for eachMenopause Type.Click on the chart below to go to the 12 Menopause Type Protocols.
The 12 Menopause Types
The management of menopause first required recognizing what Menopause Type a woman is experiencing. Treatment choices must include diet, lifestyle, nutrition, herbs, hormone precursors and natural hormones. For herbal therapies, specific hormone health formulations can address the primary hormone imbalances of each Menopause Type. Secondary hormone health imbalances such as poor thyroid function, and/or poor insulin/glucose function can be also be addressed by hormone health formulations designed for those dysfunctions.
For more information on natural approaches to menopause and on how to cutomize treatment choices please see: Protocols for each menopause type and the protocols for specific menopause symptoms.
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Menopause Types | Your Hormones
What Is Menopause? Causes, Symptoms, What Happens
What Is Menopause?
Menopause is a normal condition that all women experience as they age. The term "menopause" can describe any of the changes a woman goes through either just before or after she stops menstruating, marking the end of her reproductive period.
A woman is born with a finite number of eggs, which are stored in the ovaries. The ovaries also make the hormones estrogen and progesterone, which control menstruation and ovulation. Menopause happens when the ovaries no longer release an egg every month and menstruation stops.
Menopause is considered a normal part of aging when it happens after the age of 40. But some women can go through menopause early, either as a result of surgery, such as hysterectomy, or damage to the ovaries, such as from chemotherapy. Menopause that happens before 40, regardless of the cause, is called premature menopause.
Natural menopause is not brought on by any type of medical or surgical treatment. The process is gradual and has three stages:
Premature menopause can be the result of genetics, autoimmune disorders, or medical procedures. Other conditions that may cause early menopause include:
See more here:
What Is Menopause? Causes, Symptoms, What Happens
Menopause | National Institute on Aging
Menopause: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia
Treatment may include lifestyle changes or hormone therapy. Treatment depends on many factors such as:
HORMONE THERAPY
Hormone therapy may help if you have severe hot flashes, night sweats, mood issues, or vaginal dryness. Hormone therapy is treatment with estrogen and, sometimes, progesterone.
Talk to your doctor about the benefits and risks of hormone therapy. Your doctor should be aware of your entire medical and family history before prescribing hormone therapy (HT).
Several major studies have questioned the health benefits and risks of hormone therapy, including the risk of developing breast cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots.
Current guidelines support the use of HT for the treatment of hot flashes. Specific recommendations:
To reduce the risks of estrogen therapy, your doctor may recommend:
Women who still have a uterus (that is, have not had surgery to remove it for any reason) should take estrogen combined with progesterone to prevent cancer of the lining of the uterus (endometrial cancer).
ALTERNATIVES TO HORMONE THERAPY
There are other medicines that can help with mood swings, hot flashes, and other symptoms. These include:
DIET AND LIFESTYLE CHANGES
Lifestyle steps you can take to reduce menopause symptoms include:
Diet changes:
Exercise and relaxation techniques:
Other tips:
More here:
Menopause: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia
Menopause: Click for Symptoms and Home Remedies
Menopause Menopause Overview
Menopause, the time when a woman stops having menstrual periods, is not a disease or an illness. It is a transition between two phases of a woman's life.
Many women experience a variety of symptoms as a result of the hormonal changes associated with the transition through menopause. Around the time of menopause, women often lose bone density and their blood cholesterol levels may worsen, increasing their risk of heart disease.
Premature menopause: The average age of U.S. women at the time of menopause is 51 years. The most common age range at which women experience menopause is 48-55 years. If menopause occurs in a woman younger than 40 years, it is considered to be premature. Menopause is considered late if it occurs in a woman older than 55 years. For most women, menopause is a normal occurrence.
Perimenopause: The hormonal changes associated with menopause actually begin prior to the last menstrual period, during a three to five year period called the perimenopause. During this transition, women may begin to experience menopausal symptoms and may lose bone density, even though they are still menstruating.
Surgical menopause: Surgical menopause is menopause induced by the removal of the ovaries. Women who have had surgical menopause often have a sudden and severe onset of the symptoms of menopause.
Menopause occurs due to a complex series of hormonal changes. Associated with the menopause is a decline in the number of functioning eggs within the ovaries. At the time of birth, most females have about 1 to 3 million eggs, which are gradually lost throughout a woman's life. By the time of a girl's first menstrual period, she has an average of about 400,000 eggs. By the time of menopause, a woman may have fewer than 10,000 eggs. A small percentage of these eggs are lost through normal ovulation (the monthly cycle). Most eggs die off through a process called atresia (the degeneration and subsequent resorption of immature ovarian follicles - fluid filled cysts that contain the eggs).
Medically Reviewed by a Doctor on 5/9/2014
Continued here:
Menopause: Click for Symptoms and Home Remedies