Monthly Archives: February 2015

Could a dishwasher raise your child's allergy, asthma risk?

Posted: February 25, 2015 at 12:42 am

By Tara Haelle HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Feb. 23, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- Hand washing dishes instead of using a machine to wash dishes may reduce children's risk of developing allergic conditions, such as asthma or eczema, according to a new study.

These findings are the latest to lend support to the "hygiene hypothesis." This theory suggests that early exposure to many different microbes may keep the immune system working properly. If the immune system is working well, the theory is that it won't mistakenly go after harmless substances as happens in allergies.

"We have only tested an association between dishwashing methods and risk of allergy, but the findings fit well with the hygiene hypothesis. And there are studies showing that hand dishwashing very often is less effective than machine dishwashing in reducing bacterial content," said lead author Dr. Bill Hesselmar, an associate professor of allergy at Queen Silvia Children's Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden.

"We therefore speculate that hand dishwashing is associated with increased microbial exposure, causing immune stimulation and, hence, less allergy," he said.

However, he noted that due to the study's design, they could not definitively show a cause-and-effect relationship between hand-washing dishes and the development of fewer allergic diseases.

The findings were published online Feb. 23 in the journal Pediatrics.

Hesselmar and his colleagues asked the parents of just over 1,000 Swedish children about their history of asthma, eczema and seasonal allergies. The children were 7 or 8 years old. The researchers also asked how the families cleaned their dishes. They also asked how often the families ate fermented foods and foods directly from a farm.

When calculating the effect these factors might have on a child's allergy risk, the researchers made adjustments for a handful of other things believed to lower the risk of allergy disease, such as breast-feeding and owning pets.

About 12 percent of the families hand washed their dishes. The scientists found that children in these families had about half the risk of developing allergic conditions compared to kids in families that used dishwashing machines.

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Gene variant, risk, severity of nerve disorder linked to cancer drug

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Children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who had a certain gene variant experienced a higher incidence and severity of peripheral neuropathy after receiving treatment with the cancer drug vincristine, according to a study in the February 24 issue of JAMA.

Cancer remains the leading cause of death by disease in U.S. children despite major advances in the last 20 years. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common childhood cancer, and as cure rates have surpassed 85 percent, it becomes increasingly important to lessen the toxicities of treatment that adversely affect quality of life and longevity. Vincristine is one of the most widely used and effective anticancer agents for treating leukemias in both adults and children. The dose-limiting toxic effect of vincristine is peripheral neuropathy (damage to the nerves), characterized by neuropathic (nerve) pain and impaired manual dexterity, balance, and altered gait. Currently, there are no reliable means of identifying patients at high risk of vincristineinduced neuropathy nor strategies to reduce this drug toxicity, according to background information in the article.

William E. Evans, Pharm.D., of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, and colleagues performed a genome-wide association study to determine whether there are genetic variants associated with vincristine-induced neuropathy. The study included patients in 1 of 2 prospective clinical trials for childhood ALL that included treatment with 36 to 39 doses of vincristine. Genetic analysis and vincristine-induced peripheral neuropathy were assessed in 321 patients from whom DNA was available: 222 patients (median age, 6.0 years) enrolled in 1994-1998 in a St. Jude Children's Research Hospital cohort; and 99 patients (median age, 11.4 years) enrolled in 2007-2010 in a Children's Oncology Group (COG) cohort.

Grade 2 (moderate) to 4 (life threatening) vincristine-induced neuropathy during therapy occurred in 28.8 percent of patients (64/222) in the St. Jude cohort and in 22.2 percent (22/99) in the COG cohort. The researchers found that an inherited variant in the gene CEP72 was associated with a higher incidence and severity of vincristine-related peripheral neuropathy in children with ALL. Among patients with the gene variant, 28 of 50 (56 percent) developed at least 1 episode of grade 2 to 4 neuropathy, compared with 21 percent (58/271) of other patients.

"If replicated in additional populations, this finding may provide a basis for safer dosing of this widely prescribed anticancer agent," the authors write.

Editorial: Precision Medicine to Improve the Risk and Benefit of Cancer Care

"The study by Diouf et al has many key elements; genome-wide discovery in patients from well-conducted clinical trials, replication in a multicenter cohort, statistical robustness, and laboratory correlative findings that contribute biologic plausibility," writes Howard L. McLeod, Pharm.D., of the Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Fla., in an accompanying editorial.

"However, vincristine remains a component of the most widely accepted treatment regimens for childhood ALL, although there is variation in both dose and intensity. It is not clear that vincristine can be removed from the treatment options for a child with CEP72 variants, although this study suggests that the resulting increase in leukemia cellular sensitivity makes vincristine dose reductions possible without compromising antileukemic effect."

"However, there is value in the association of CEP72 with vincristine-induced peripheral neuropathy (VIPN). The ability to objectively ascribe a degree of heightened VIPN risk will allow for greater transparency in discussions of risk and benefits of therapy with patients and their family members. This also may lead to developmental therapeutic approaches to modulate CEP72 function as either primary prevention or treatment of chronic VIPN. This study also represents an initial robust effort to generate predictors for adverse drug reactions in cancer care."

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Gene variant, risk, severity of nerve disorder linked to cancer drug

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Gene Variant and Risk and Severity of Nerve Disorder Linked to Cancer Drug

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Newswise Children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who had a certain gene variant experienced a higher incidence and severity of peripheral neuropathy after receiving treatment with the cancer drug vincristine, according to a study in the February 24 issue of JAMA.

Cancer remains the leading cause of death by disease in U.S. children despite major advances in the last 20 years. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common childhood cancer, and as cure rates have surpassed 85 percent, it becomes increasingly important to lessen the toxicities of treatment that adversely affect quality of life and longevity. Vincristine is one of the most widely used and effective anticancer agents for treating leukemias in both adults and children. The dose-limiting toxic effect of vincristine is peripheral neuropathy (damage to the nerves), characterized by neuropathic (nerve) pain and impaired manual dexterity, balance, and altered gait. Currently, there are no reliable means of identifying patients at high risk of vincristineinduced neuropathy nor strategies to reduce this drug toxicity, according to background information in the article.

William E. Evans, Pharm.D., of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, and colleagues performed a genome-wide association study to determine whether there are genetic variants associated with vincristine-induced neuropathy. The study included patients in 1 of 2 prospective clinical trials for childhood ALL that included treatment with 36 to 39 doses of vincristine. Genetic analysis and vincristine-induced peripheral neuropathy were assessed in 321 patients from whom DNA was available: 222 patients (median age, 6.0 years) enrolled in 1994-1998 in a St. Jude Children's Research Hospital cohort; and 99 patients (median age, 11.4 years) enrolled in 2007-2010 in a Children's Oncology Group (COG) cohort.

Grade 2 (moderate) to 4 (life threatening) vincristine-induced neuropathy during therapy occurred in 28.8 percent of patients (64/222) in the St. Jude cohort and in 22.2 percent (22/99) in the COG cohort. The researchers found that an inherited variant in the gene CEP72 was associated with a higher incidence and severity of vincristine-related peripheral neuropathy in children with ALL. Among patients with the gene variant, 28 of 50 (56 percent) developed at least 1 episode of grade 2 to 4 neuropathy, compared with 21 percent (58/271) of other patients.

If replicated in additional populations, this finding may provide a basis for safer dosing of this widely prescribed anticancer agent, the authors write. (doi:10.1001/jama.2015.0894; Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com)

Editors Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

Editorial: Precision Medicine to Improve the Risk and Benefit of Cancer Care

The study by Diouf et al has many key elements; genome-wide discovery in patients from well-conducted clinical trials, replication in a multicenter cohort, statistical robustness, and laboratory correlative findings that contribute biologic plausibility, writes Howard L. McLeod, Pharm.D., of the Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Fla., in an accompanying editorial.

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Gene Variant and Risk and Severity of Nerve Disorder Linked to Cancer Drug

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Japanese media self-censorship seen growing during Abes reign

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Worries are growing in Japan about a trend of media self-censorship as journalists and experts say news organizations are toning down criticism of Prime Minister Shinzo Abes government for fear of sparking ire and losing access to sources.

No one is accusing Abes administration of overt meddling in specific news coverage, but media insiders and analysts say the governments message is getting through.

The media did, in recent years, play a much more positive role in making people in power squirm. In the Abe era, they have begun pulling back, said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple Universitys Japan campus.

There is a chilling atmosphere that encourages media organizations to exercise self-restraint.

The conservative Abe, who returned to office in 2012, had fraught media ties during his first term, which ended when he quit in 2007 after a year of scandals and ill-health.

This time, Abe wants to avoid the same mistake, experts say.

His appointee as chairman of NHK, Katsuto Momii, raised doubts about the respected broadcasters independence when he told his first news conference in early 2014: We cannot say left when the government says right.

Late last year, a ruling party aide to Abe wrote to television broadcasters ahead of an election demanding fair coverage. Many journalists took the letter as a signal they should dampen criticism or risk losing access to officials.

There have been cases of media self-restraint in the past, but they usually involved the Imperial family, or, as after the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster, when media adopted a sober tone, said Shinichi Hisadome, a foreign news editor at the Tokyo Shimbun, a feisty metropolitan daily regarded in media circles as less submissive than national media.

I think this is the first time that criticism of the government itself has been so restrained, Hisadome said.

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Ron Paul Liberty Report, Feb. 17. – Video

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Ron Paul Liberty Report, Feb. 17.
President #39;s Day president discussion, Students for Liberty Conference, Reports of death of inflation greatly exaggerated...

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Why conservative Alaska legalized marijuana. Who's next?

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On Tuesday, Alaska became the first red state to legalize the smoking, growing, and owning of small amounts of marijuana, bringing the decriminalization movement to a conservative stronghold.

The frontier state narrowly approved the measure last fall, by 53 percent, joining Colorado and Washington states in legalizing recreational use.

Under the law,adults 21 and older may possess up to anounce of potandgrow as many as six plants. But smoking in public and buying and selling the drug remains illegal, which makes it difficult to (legally) acquire.

"You can still give people marijuana, but you can't buy it or even barter for it," Alaska Public Media's Alexandra Gutierrez reports. "So, it's a pretty legally awkward spot. That probably won't stop people from acquiring it, though."

Alaska is the third state to legalize recreational marijuana after Colorado and Washington. Oregon and Washington, DC, are expected to follow later this year. But Alaska is unique in that it is the first solidly red state to legalize the drug.

Why did a conservative state take a decidedly liberal position on marijuana?

Although it is a Republican stronghold, Alaskans are known for their rugged individualism and libertarianism.

"This is a conservative state, but it's a state with a heavy libertarian streak," Bickford said. "People here generally want to be left alone and really don't think the government is the solution to their problems," Taylor Bickford, a spokesperson for the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Alaska, told Vox News.

And it turns out Alaska has always been on the forefront of pot legalization. It was one of the first states to decriminalize marijuana in 1975, and voters in 1998 legalized the drug for medicinal purposes, according to the site.

This time, an unlikely coalition of libertarians, individualists and small-government minded Republicans helped legalize recreational marijuana last fall.

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London Throws Together a Brazen, Exuberant Fashion Week

Posted: at 12:40 am

Leave it toLondon to lovingly exploit an aesthetic.

The quirkiest fashion capital knows how to push atrendas far as possiblethis is why we have the Britsto thank for the birth of the mini-skirt.

This London Fashion Week wasno different.The current 70s craze came through loud and clear, withpunched-up prints, bright florals and a sense of humornot seen in the comparably toned-downNYC collections. Brits also remixed and remastered the50s and 60s with zeal, and even Gareth Pughs menacing all-black collectionhad New Yorks goth obsession almost beat.

As always, London provided a welcomedose ofjoie de vivre,with none of the apologetic restraint so often seen in the department-store-ready New York collections.

On Saturday morning, Emilia Wickstead showed classic 1950s silhouettes, perfect for a woman who is totally modern but still loves a good Hitchcock reference.There were alsoclean pantsuits and red-carpet-ready ball gowns of which Tippi Hedren would approve.

Simone Rocha jolted crowds to attention on Saturday with blown-up rose prints, carpet-like cloaks and even dresses with fur panels down the middle. The eccentric collectionwas united in its exuberant excess.

Providing a quick break from color, Gareth Pugh threwaveritablegoth jamboree (if goths have jamborees) on Saturday night. Known as New Yorkers are for their love of all things black, Mr. Pugh outdid us. There were black feathers, black cloaks, armor-like black chestplates. One model wore a black ballgown and fur hat, perfect for theSuper Sweet Sixteen of a Visigoth warlords daughter. One model was bare-chested, wearing a billowing black skirt and waving a giant red flag like a victorious bride of Dracula.

On Sunday, Preen played with such British classics as cable knits, tartan and lace-up boots, givingthe effect of a technicolor punk-rock garden party. Models sported middle-parted, fluffycurls, like a bad 70s school portrait made chic. The plaids were perfect for your neighborhood Helena Bonham Carter wannabe.

Punk rocks dowager queen, Vivienne Westwood, incorporated every color of her muted ruffians rainbow for her autumn and winter collection. Matchy stripes and plaids, sculptural cloaks and oversize jackets were on offer.

Next, Mary Katrantzou showed a collection that was more 60s than 70sand thank goodness, because not everyone looks model-esque in thelatter decades long, lean lines.Patterns and textures duked it out on shift dresses, collars were pumped up with fur or hardware, and models wore velvet Mary Janes perfect for chasing down cute boys in bands.

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Global Futurist Jack Uldrich to Discuss Latest Technological Trends with RILA

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Orlando, FLA (PRWEB) February 24, 2015

Yogi Berra once famously said, The future aint what it used to be. And he was right. In fact, according to trend expert and keynote speaker Jack Uldrich, the future "is going to be downright unusual." This begs the obvious question: How do organizations prepare for an uncertain and unpredictable future? The answer, says Uldrich," is that leaders and their organizations must think and act in unorthodox ways."

Uldrich, who delivered a keynote to executives of the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) at the "All Channels. All Challenges. One Conference" last April, will address the group again today, February 24th. He will deliver his keynote: "Business as Unusual: How Future Trends Will Transform the Supply Chain of Tomorrow." (Some of Uldrich's other clients in retail and supply management include the Women's Food Forum, TRUNO, the Food Marketing Institute, GameStop's Executive Summit, Utility Supply Management Association, and Verizon Wireless.)

An expert in change management and future trends, Uldrich will continue his discussion with RILA on how individuals in retail can enhance their awareness of transformational changes that are coming in retail. Highlights will include how retailers can learn to embrace ambiguity;" why finding a reverse mentor could be crucial; and why taking small risks may very well be the safest thing retailers can do to position themselves for success in the years to come.

With this particular keynote, Uldrich's goal is to help his audience at RILA unlearn the barriers currently holding them back and unlock new levels of creativity and innovation. He will conclude his keynote by guiding participants through a series of tangible actions that will unleash their ability to create their own future and, in the process, help them achieve uncommon levels of success.

In his blog post, Unlearn...Just in Case, Uldrich says, "the global supply chain is an impressive feat of modern management. The problem is that in its quest to squeeze out ever greater efficiencies with its 'just-in-time' system of inventory, it has left itself extremely vulnerable to large, rare and unpredictable black swan events."

The future "ain't what it used to be" and Jack Uldrich has his finger on the pulse of what it may be. Parties interested in learning more about Jack, his books, his daily blog or his speaking availability are encouraged to visit his website. Media wishing to know more about either the event or interviewing Jack as a futurist or trend expert can contact Amy Tomczyk at (651) 343.0660.

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FREE SPEECH ZONE s08e05 (1-31-15) – Video

Posted: February 23, 2015 at 10:53 pm


FREE SPEECH ZONE s08e05 (1-31-15)
New feature: "BILL #39;S PHOTOS" I show a sampling of some of my photography from this week #39;s photos. 1) ABBY MARTIN-Manufactured Terror 2) Cops actually ask Goo...

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Behind the Scenes with Mary Katharine Ham and Guy Benson – Video

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Behind the Scenes with Mary Katharine Ham and Guy Benson
Go behind the scenes of Mary Katharine Ham and Guy Benson #39;s cover photo shoot and learn about END OF DISCUSSION. As Guy says, "the most important thing to free speech in general in America...

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