Limiting factors in the environment such as availability of food water and shelter evolutionary relationships like predator/prey ratios or presence of pathogens provide natural balances to populations.
and we re faced with life-threatening infections we often turn to alternative sometimes unproven methods.
We are susceptible to bacterial infection whenever our skin is punctured which happens quite a lot during hospital treatment.
and was in fact worse for diabetic dialysis patients. Getting something like honey to the market as a food product is pretty straightforward
But alternative or oenatural medicines can be put straight to market provided they don t do any harm
A commercial version of oeantibiotic honey Medihoney has actually been evaluated clinically for the treatment of ulcers.
and widely available and while it cannot be used for systemic infections (for pneumonia for instance or bacteremia) it has been used for open wounds.
It can kill many types of bacteria and is thought also to provide a barrier to moisture.
The Lancet paper looked closely at how a naturally-derived honey preparation compares against a clinically-approved antibiotic a drug called Bactroban that s used to kill bacteria found in and around wounds.
The main culprit Staph aureus lives on our skin and can cause infection around catheters used during treatment of dialysis-related infections.
A total of 371 trial participants undergoing dialysis received either standard antibiotic therapy to prevent infection
The study found no significant differences in infection rates or deaths from infection between most people given the antibiotic
or people given honey. But for people with diabetes which is associated often with kidney disease the honey actually increased the risk of infection.
This is important because diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure so any therapy should work with normal and diabetic kidney dialysis patients.
The reasons for the diabetes-kidney failure link are understood not completely but diabetics often have both high blood glucose levels and high blood pressure both
of which can cause kidney damage. There s also a hormone system called the renin-angiotensin system that regulates blood pressure
and fluid balance involving the kidney which is unbalanced in diabetics. While honey therapy was worse than antibiotics for diabetics the authors found the most important factor for preventing infection in all patients was how well the catheter was inserted and fixed.
There was no placebo control possible in the trial (where no treatment is given) as these infections are sometimes fatal.
We can conclude that honey therapy instead of antibiotics at least does no harm for many dialysis patients but also that it s not good for diabetics.
And because diabetes and kidney disease are linked commonly and 9%of the patients treated with either therapy still died the bottom line is still that we need better therapies for bacterial infection whether natural or man-made.
Matthew Cooper receives NHMRC funding for research into new antibiotics and methods to diagnose superbug infections.
This article was published originally at The Conversation. Read the original article. The views expressed are those of the author
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was published originally on Livescience
#Honeybee Collapse May have Complex Cause (Op-Ed) Jeff Nesbit was the director of public affairs for two prominent federal science agencies.
According to a new study the reason for the phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (CCD) may be much more complex and disconcerting than researchers originally realized.
While the researchers were careful not to directly link the complex web of pesticides found in the pollen samples directly to colony collapse disorder the inference is hard to ignore.
and increasing evidence that pesticide blends harm bees the authors wrote there is a pressing need for further research on the mechanisms underlying pesticide-pesticide and pesticide-disease synergistic effects on honey
The agriculture industry aided by pharmaceutical manufacturers could block regulation by subjecting the FDA's science to nearly infinite rounds of scrutiny specifically to achieve paralysis by analysis. Those special interests would have free rein to claim that the science was not certain that the agency had looked not at every study
For decades the tobacco industry kept regulation at bay by claiming that not all facts were in absolutely linking tobacco use to cancer.
However the technique of paralysis by analysis should not get even more help from our elected officials.
because birth defects in the external genitalia are among the most common congenital defects in humans said study researcher Martin Cohn a developmental biologist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of Florida.
This causes the problem and is the disease that must be treated. This is a question of education public outreach
The trees were infested unfortunately with roundworms and insects. President William Howard Taft acting on advice from agriculture officials ordered the trees burned and destroyed.
or cure urinary tract infections researchers say. Cranberry juice has been touted for at least a century as a remedy for urinary tract infections (UTIS.
Yet doctors remain divided over whether the fruit is truly effective in treating UTIS. The largest analysis to date a review of 24 studies including more than 4400 patients published in 2012 in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews suggests that any positive effect is minimal at best.
Millions of Americans mostly women suffer from UTIS each year according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
which contributes to the virulence or severity of infection. The finding has important implications because P. mirabilis is the main bacterium behind UTIS caused by catheters in hospitals.
or infused with cranberry might prevent infection. Indeed a second paper by Tufenkji's group posted online in advance of publication in the journal Colloids
although unlike with a sexually transmitted disease the bacteria are usually already on the woman S1 Â
#How Deadly H7n9 Flu Could Jump from Birds to Mammals Chinese researchers have found new clues to the origins of the deadly H7n9 flu virus
and also found a new flu virus lurking in birds that could potentially infect mammals.
The new research shows that the deadly H7n9 flu virus which emerged in China in March likely originated in migratory birds was passed to domestic ducks
As the researchers studied the H7n9 flu they found a previously unknown virus called H7n7.
In laboratory tests this H7n7 virus infected ferrets which are used often a model for human flu transmission.
Flu viruses are named for their proteins the H in the name comes from hemagglutinin and the N from neuraminidase.
Both the H7n9 virus and the H7h7 virus belong to the H7 family of viruses. 6 Flu Vaccine Myths There are probably other viruses like H7n7 that are circulating in the poultry populations in China said study
researcher Yi Guan of the Joint Influenza Research Centre in Hong kong. China has about 65 percent of the world's domestic ducks
Many flu viruses Guan noted don't cause people any problems. They spread through poultry populations
But H7-type flu viruses persist and oftenâ evolve into new forms. Vincent Racaniello professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia University in New york said this kind of surveillance study is important in finding new viruses and understanding them better.
Guan said the most surprising thing the team found was just how widespread flu viruses are.
Influenza viruses often change as they are transmitted between individuals and species; as H7n9 made its way from migratory to domestic birds it exchanged genes with other types of flu.
That's what gave it the ability infect people the researchers said. A key development for the virus was altering its proteins so it could bind to the cells in the upper respiratory tracts of chickens.
Many varieties of flu live in the birds'intestines but they aren't spread through the air.
and a 2012 study found these measures reduced the spread of influenza. Racaniello emphasized that
while the number of deaths due to H7n9 may make the virus seem particularly worrisome it's important to remember that not all cases of infection are reported.
The people who died might have other health problems he said. Guan said his team plans to study how H7n9 kills
The data collected by using Google street view may be useful in monitoring diseases or invasive organism expansion Rossi told Livescience.
#How to Get Kids to Eat Healthy Without Breaking the Bank Childhood obesity has doubled more than in children in the past 30 years according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.
High fruit and vegetable consumption has been linked to decreased risk of developing diseases including certain cancers heart disease obesity and diabetes.
That spells potential disaster for the region's 58 million largely agrarian people who already suffer from high levels of chronic hunger and malnutrition.
With the financial rewards from illegal logging high and the odds of being caught low it's no surprise that illegal logging has reached epidemic proportions in the Russian Far east
Instead scientists attempting to treat diseases of the cell's powerhouse the mitochondria refined the technique
of which is to grow fresh cells and tissues from patients suffering from various diseases. Scientists are now able to take regular adult cells
and ips stem cells provide promising alternative ways to heal illnesses without raising people s temptations to engage in such attacks he said referring to the destruction of human embryos.
What's more ips cells can't be used to treat diseases of the mitochondria which are tiny organs within cells that convert the molecules in the food we eat into chemical energy the cell can use.
what's in the nucleus. Trying to treat a mitochondrial disease by turning back the clock on an adult cell's genome would do nothing
and the harm that can be brought about by technological choices. They are the students employers want to hire.
and most diseases they could carry are species-specific meaning they likely wouldn't infect other wildlife.
Pedrono's team plans to do thorough veterinary checks to make sure the new tortoises aren't bringing invasive plants or exotic diseases with them to Madagascar.
Conservation controversy Critics of de-extinction say reviving extinct animals would do more harm to conservation efforts than good.
#Incurable Disease Threatens US Citrus Crop Florida's $9 billion orange crop the largest in the world after Brazil's may not survive an incurable disease that threatens to wipe out citrus groves throughout the United states. The disease known as citrus greening
A global blight Though the Sunshine state is now the most critically affected all 32 of Florida's citrus-growing counties have reported the disease the blight has also been found in California Arizona Texas and other states.
Hurricanes canker disease (another bacterial infection of citrus fruits) hard freezes and the vagaries of the international orange market
This is like a really insidious cancer Carey told Livescience. It's a chronic process not a rapid growth.
or depressed before getting their periods classic signs of premenstrual syndrome or PMS may want to pay attention to the amount of iron in their diets according to a new study.
and do you harm? It s a reasonable question but the answer seems to be no.
Even if some sentences did survive your digestive system it is unlikely they would enter your cells or harm you in any way.
or any combination of different DNAS from different species could do us harm. To convince yourself that DNA is contained in food you can do a simple experiment at home.
and there's no health problems at all Sneller said. When Monsanto was considering GM wheat the company consulted with the FDA
since 1995 and there have been no reports of ill health effects. We are the big guinea pig
which some people are allergic. We have to consider things on a case-by-case basis and be vigilant about each new use of genetic engineering Smith said.
and pathogen outbreaks or allow an invasive species to move into an area that was previously inhospitable.
'FDA Sets New Limits People with celiac disease can now trust that foods labeled gluten-free are safe for them to eat the U s. Food
and will assure people with celiac disease that foods labeled'gluten-free'meet a clear standard established
People with the intestinal condition celiac disease have to avoid eating foods that contain gluten proteins that occur naturally in wheat rye and barley.
Eating cakes pasta and bread made with these grains'flours can be life threatening for people with celiac disease.
and minerals and lead to a host of other health problems she said. Celiac disease is a condition in
which the body's defense system reacts to gluten by attacking the lining of the small intestine
The symptoms include pain diarrhea and weight loss. The new gluten limit is the lowest level that can be detected in foods using available tools
This is a tool that has been needed desperately Andrea Levario executive director of the American Celiac disease Alliance said.
if you have celiac disease The new rules are an addition to FDA requirements for other food labeled as free:
The good stuff Polyphenols decrease heart disease risk factors by lowering blood pressure and cholesterol reducing blood clotting
or reduce your chances for metabolic syndrome the name for a group of risk factors (high blood pressure cholesterol and glucose) that together increase the risk for heart disease America's No. 1 killer.
Fresh high-polyphenol olive oil affects the expression of those genes in a positive way reducing your risk for metabolic syndrome and heart disease.
Polyphenols also reduce cancer risk by lowering inflammation and cellular proliferation. They act as antioxidants reducing oxidation
and cell damage which leads to many degenerative diseases. They even reduce microbial activity and infections.
Those biological benefits explain in part why the Mediterranean diet high in olive oil has been linked with superior health.
#Israel Escapes Locust Plague For Now MITZPE RAMON Israel A menacing swarm of locusts that entered southern Israel earlier this week has been largely smitten according to the Israeli government and local reports.
According to the Bible swarms of locusts were the eighth plague sent into ancient Egypt as a punishment for suppressing the Jews said Hendrik Bruins a researcher who studies the archaeology and environmental aspects of desert peoples at Israel's Ben-Gurion
But could the plague be a divine punishment this time around? This we cannot say Bruins told Livescience.
Because there have been so many plagues throughout history not every locust plague can be classified in that way he said laughing.
#It's Time To Worry About the New Chinese Bird flu: Op-Ed Jeff Nesbitâ was the director of public affairs for two prominent federal science agencies
It's time for the world's public health officials to pay very close attention to the new bird flu outbreak in China first detected in March.
To put it bluntly there are now some seriously dangerous developments occurring around the new disease outbreak in China that infectious disease specialists
 the first reported case of the new bird flu strain outside China; the fact that any potential vaccine tests in animals (not humans) may be up to six weeks out;
Bird-flu Update: Possible Cases of Human-to-Human Transmission Investigated The situation remains complex and difficult
When we look at influenza viruses this is an unusually dangerous virus for humans Keiji Fukuda the World health organization's assistant director-general for health security said Wednesday at a briefing.
Chinese officials nd public health officials around the world ad hoped that this potentially virulent and deadly bird flu strain (H7n9) could be contained inside China
days after returning to Taiwan according to Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center nd the fact that Chinese officials are publicly saying that at least some of the existing cases may have involved human-to-human transmission this new bird flu strain could spread nd fast.
New Bird flu Virus: 6 Things You Should Know None of this is good. Right now 18 percent of the cases in China have ended in deaths.
While this is still less deadly than the previous avian flu outbreak in China six years ago he H5n1 bird flu virus eventually killed more than 300 people after spreading from China to other countries in 2006 he death rate for this new Chinese bird flu
epidemic is more than triple the mortality rate of tuberculosis in China today. Despite widespread fears among public health officials that the earlier bird flu strain years ago might become a human-to-human pandemic that didn't occur.
Nearly all reported cases of the earlier bird flu strain while deadly seemed to jump from poultry to humans who were handling them or in contact with them.
For this reason despite dozens of outbreaks it was easier to contain the spread. But if this new bird flu strain does in fact become capable of human-to-human transmission
and it takes awhile for a suitable vaccine to be developed then international public health officials are going to start sweating.
One flu-virology expert John Oxford from Queen Mary University told Reuters this week that the emergence of this completely new strain of bird flu infections in humans was very very unsettling.
This new strain is in fact a mixture of three different types of bird flu variants and seems to have been quietly spreading in chickens without anyone knowing about it he said.
Public health officials in general have been worried about bird flu viruses for years. Research several years ago showed that the virus could be transmitted from an expectant mother to a fetus
New Rules on Mutant Bird flu Research Stir Debate What's more it could reignite fears about the possibility of deadly global pandemics.
A decade ago several well-known virologists and public-health experts warned in published papers that the world was at risk for pandemics that could kill tens of millions of people or even more without adequate infectious disease monitoring and medical research.
The 2006 Chinese bird flu outbreak came on the heels of those global pandemic warnings. The good news is that China is more transparent about disease epidemics now than it was a decade ago
and that the number of reported cases with the new bird-flu strain has jumped not dramatically so far.
And China learned a lot about how to limit the spread of bird flu after the last outbreaks simply by closing down poultry markets that appear to be likely starting points.
But the fact that the new H7n9 strain has moved now outside China nd that Chinese officials are taking a close look at human-to-human transmission possibilities hould send up more than a few red flags.
Just because the previous bird flu outbreak in China didn't spread quickly and prove as deadly as some had feared does not mean that this new outbreak will follow a similar course.
If the suspicions of human-to-human transmission potential is confirmed that alone makes the threat of a pandemic (as opposed to a series of local outbreaks that can be contained with efforts to close down poultry markets or the sale of infected birds) more likely.
In the case of a pandemic a vaccine would need to be developed and distributed quickly.
Drone Wars in America This article first appeared as It's Time To Worry About the New Chinese Bird flu in the column At the Edge by Jeff Nesbitâ on U s. News & World Report.
and a particularly harsh winter along with drought compounded the misery of the colonists. oeour men were destroyed with cruel diseases as swellings fluxes burning fevers
By this time John Smith had been forced to leave due to gunpowder injuries and the colony s new governor Thomas Gates had been shipwrecked on Bermuda along with essential supplies.
Heart disease stroke and high blood pressure killed more than 750000 Americans in 2011 the most recent year for data.
Today one in three Americans 36.9 percent have some form of heart disease and the American Heart Association (AHA) projects that some 116 million of us 40.5 percent will suffer from it by 2030.
The price tag for treatment is enough to give you a heart attack AHA predicts that over the next 20 years the cost of cardiovascular medical care will triple from $273 billion in 2010 to $818 billion in 2030.
The good news is there is a relatively straightforward way Americans can avoid heart-related diseases prevent more than 127000 deaths a year
If everyone got with the program UCS calculates the economic value of the 127000 lives saved from cardiovascular diseases every year at a whopping $11 trillion.
But three of the four AHA-endorsed diets the Mediterranean-style diet the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) Diet
and again to cover the skyrocketing cost of treating diet-related heart disease stroke and hypertension said Jeffrey O'hara an agricultural economist with UCS's Food and Environment Program and the author of the recent report.
Our federal food policy is literally making us sick and driving the economy further into debt.
O'hara's second recommendation focuses on doing a better job delivering that produce at an affordable cost to consumers especially low-income Americans who are hardest hit by cardiovascular and other diet-related diseases.
and the availability of cigarettes and this legislation will help prevent another generation from the ill health
His intention was to selectively introduce traits such as disease resistance and faster reproductive rate into native honeybees.
They could hold the key to solving the problem of bee colony collapse disorder a deadly syndrome that's wiping out native bee populations throughout North america and Europe.
Though the Africanized bees can carry the Varroa mites that have been implicated in colony collapse disorder they have considerable resistance to the mites unlike native honeybees.
I'm sure they'd recognize the harm that's being done. Whether or not a student or teacher is liked well it's clear that the person who gets the most votes
Lactose intolerance is different than milk allergy since the latter is related to the proteins in milk rather than lactose.
This results in abdominal cramps bloating diarrhea flatulence and nausea. The severity of symptoms largely depends on how quickly the lactase available in the digestive system is used up.
However the symptoms for lactose intolerance can overlap with other gastrointestinal problems such as irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn s disease. A hydrogen breath test is an objective noninvasive inexpensive and easy-to-perform test that can be used to confirm initial diagnosis. A properly administered breath test can help patients determine
whether they need to cut back on milk and dairy products according to research published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology  Treatments & Medications Over-the-counter pills or drops that contain lactase can be taken before meals to help alleviate
and they sort of change depending who you're talking to said Steve Elkins a documentary filmmaker whose quest for ruins in the Mosquitia region has spurred the latest round of Ciudad Blanca fever.
After years of participation in public discussions about agriculture I've developed something of an allergy to the catchphrase feed the world.
Likewise the recent Food and agriculture organization of the united nations (FAO) report on world agriculture and malnutrition The State of Food and Agriculture:
FAO would eradicate malnutrition by integrating agriculture into local and regional food systems from inputs
The full global burden of malnutrition would include 26 percent of the world's children
The more easily such embolisms form the more sensitive trees are to drought. Despite being enshrouded in mist all the time the trees
and potentially dryer elevations didn't form embolisms easily and so tended to be more drought-resistant than similar trees in other ecosystems.
#Making Maps In The Brain (ISNS)--Disorientation is often one of the first warnings of Alzheimer's disease.
And because of their location in the brain they are especially susceptible to the ravages of Alzheimer's.
In humans the entorhinal cortex is one of the first areas to degenerate in Alzheimer's disease.
One of Buffalo's research interests is the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases. Studies of brain changes in Alzheimer's disease in humans consistently show localized degeneration in the same parts of the entorhinal cortex where Buffalo found grid cells in monkeys.
May-Britt Moser one of the authors of the original Norwegian study described Buffalo's results as extremely exciting.
World's Cutest Baby Wild Animals The calf also appeared to be experiencing manatee cold-stress syndrome a condition that can lead to death in extreme cases Reinert added.
and Swinnerton yer conjecture a question essentially about advanced calculus but with number theory implications that involves understanding elliptic curves
Scanning Mummies for Heart disease The second sample dated to between 1064 B c . and 948 B c. and consisted of meat from a calf found in the tomb of Isetemkheb D a sister and wife to a high priest in Thebes.
#MERS Virus Found in Camels Camels are carriers of the new Middle east respiratory syndrome (MERS) virus according to a new study.
The researchers used genetic sequencing methods to identify a strain of the MERS virus in camels on a Qatar farm where two people caught the disease.
As estimated 44 million Americans have osteoporosis a bone-thinning disease that is caused by low bone density and raises the risk of fractures especially of the hip spine and wrist.
These individuals are the adult children of the original participants in the Framingham Heart Study a long-running Massachusetts-based study designed to pinpoint the factors linked to the development of heart attack and stroke.
and women for 12 years the researchers found that 43 hip fractures had occurred. Because the number of hip fractures in the group was so small the researchers were unable to draw firm conclusions about dairy consumption
and hip fracture risk from their data and they suggest more research is needed. However the findings did show that a higher intake of cream was associated with lower bone mineral density in the hip but not in the spine.
Foods in this group included ice cream sour cream cream cheese and cream. Â Cream is definitely different from the rest of the dairy products said lead author Shivani Sahni an assistant scientist at the institute.
and compared their effects on bone health and hip fracture risk. The findings appear in the February issue of the journal Archives of Osteoporosis. A food company that makes yogurt sponsored the research.
The researchers also tracked a smaller subset of slightly more than 2700 adults who had filled out the dietary surveys
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