Multiple sclerosis 'blood blockage theory' tested
By Michelle Roberts
Health reporter, BBC News
The answer may lie with blood flow
US scientists are testing a radical new theory that multiple sclerosis (MS) is caused by blockages in the veins that drain the brain.
The University of Buffalo team were intrigued by the work of Italian researcher Dr Paolo Zamboni who claims 90% of MS is caused by narrowed veins.
He says the restricted drainage, visible on scans, injures the brain leading to MS.
He has already widened the blockages in a handful of patients.
The US team want to replicate his earlier work before treating patients.
Experts welcomed the research saying it was important to confirm the basic science before evaluating any therapy.
MS is a long-term inflammatory condition of the central nervous system which affects the transfer of messages from the nervous system to the rest of the body.
This is not something patients can expect as a treatment now. This is experimental work and is being tested
A spokeswoman for the MS Society
The Buffalo team, led by Dr Robert Zivadinov, plan to recruit 1,100 patients with MS and 600 other volunteers as controls who are either healthy or have neurological diseases other than MS.
Using Doppler ultrasound, they will scan the patients to see if they can find any blockages within the veins of the neck and brain.
If they can prove Dr Zamboni's theory of "chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency", they say it will change our understanding of MS.
Rewriting science
Margaret Paroski, who is chief medical officer at Kaleida Health, where the Buffalo researchers are based, said the work could overturn prevailing wisdom that the damage in MS is predominantly the result of abnormal immune responses.
"When I was in medical school, we thought peptic ulcer disease was due to stress. We now know that 80% of cases are due to a bacterial infection.
I found the evidence of narrowing - narrowing of the veins just in MS patients
Dr Zamboni
"Dr Zivadinov's work may lead to a whole different way of thinking about MS."
Dr Zamboni, of the University of Ferrara, believes the blockages are the cause rather than the consequence of MS and that they allow iron from the blood to leak into the brain tissue, where it causes damage.
He has performed procedures similar to angioplasty to unblock the veins and get the blood flowing normally again.
He claims this "liberation procedure" can alleviate many of the symptoms of MS and is due to publish his findings in the Journal of Vascular Surgery.
In an interview with CTV News in Canada he said: "I found the evidence of narrowing - narrowing of the veins just in MS patients.
"I'm fully convinced that this is very, very important for people."
Early days
Kevin Lipp, an MS patient from the US, has been symptom-free since being treated by Dr Zamboni.
He said: "It's only been 10 months. If nothing happens in the next two to three years, we'll know it's working."
The BBC has heard anecdotally of other surgeons in Europe testing out the same treatment.
The MS Society said more research was needed to see if this was an avenue that should be explored further.
"This is not something patients can expect as a treatment now. This is experimental work and is being tested. We need to know more about its safety and effectiveness."
Helen Yates, of the MS Resource Centre, said: "There is no doubt that this area warrants a great deal more study.
"This could represent a completely novel approach to MS research which, if proven to be relevant, could be a "sea change" in the understanding of the mechanisms involved in the condition."
Sunday, November 29, 2009
HEALTH--CELL DISCOVERY CLUES TO BODY CLOCK AND BRATING JET LAG
Cell discovery clues to body clock and beating jet lag
By Dave Lee
Health Check, BBC World Service
The discovery could hold the key to solving body clock mysteries
New discoveries into how the body clock works could provide clues to help combat jet lag, research suggests.
A University of Manchester team studied special cells which they say play an important role in regulating a person's body clock.
The cells had been thought to be inactive during the day - but their research found the opposite is true.
It is hoped the findings may also pave the way to combating sleep disorders triggered by body clock malfunctions.
Professor Hugh Piggins, an expert in neuroscience at the university, said the research will allow a new approach to being able to tune our daily clock.
Two cells
The Manchester research turns on its head the idea that the brain keeps the body clock on track by firing more cells during daylight and very few during the night.
There's a lot of interest in the pharmaceutical industry, obviously, to try to develop chemical treatments to reset your daily clock
Professor Hugh Piggins
"The traditional model said the clock and the brain communicated to the rest of the brain via the number of electrical impulses that the brain cells were producing," Prof Piggins told the BBC World Service's Health Check programme.
"These impulses would travel around the brain, telling it what time of day it is.
"What we've found is in fact that there are at least two types of cells in this part of the brain."
These brain cells behave unlike any other cell seen so far, and contain a key gene - per1 - which allows them to sustain unusually high levels of "excitability".
The cells becoming so "excited" that they seem quiet or even dead; but then later they calm down, recover and become normally active again.
It is this activity which tells the human body when to be awake.
Sleep dysfunction
HEALTH CHECK
Health Check is the weekly health programme broadcast from the BBC World Service
It is broadcast on Monday at 1032GMT and repeated at 1532GMT, 2032GMT and on Tuesday at 0132GMT
It is also available as a podcast
Prof Piggins added: "There's a lot of interest in the pharmaceutical industry, obviously, to try to develop chemical treatments to reset your daily clock to help counteract things like jetlag.
"Or, perhaps more importantly, different kind of sleep disorders for which dysfunctions in this clock are often involved."
This study marks the first time these "quiet" cells have been studied.
"This may mean that elsewhere in the brain there are cells like this that can also survive these very unusual conditions."
By Dave Lee
Health Check, BBC World Service
The discovery could hold the key to solving body clock mysteries
New discoveries into how the body clock works could provide clues to help combat jet lag, research suggests.
A University of Manchester team studied special cells which they say play an important role in regulating a person's body clock.
The cells had been thought to be inactive during the day - but their research found the opposite is true.
It is hoped the findings may also pave the way to combating sleep disorders triggered by body clock malfunctions.
Professor Hugh Piggins, an expert in neuroscience at the university, said the research will allow a new approach to being able to tune our daily clock.
Two cells
The Manchester research turns on its head the idea that the brain keeps the body clock on track by firing more cells during daylight and very few during the night.
There's a lot of interest in the pharmaceutical industry, obviously, to try to develop chemical treatments to reset your daily clock
Professor Hugh Piggins
"The traditional model said the clock and the brain communicated to the rest of the brain via the number of electrical impulses that the brain cells were producing," Prof Piggins told the BBC World Service's Health Check programme.
"These impulses would travel around the brain, telling it what time of day it is.
"What we've found is in fact that there are at least two types of cells in this part of the brain."
These brain cells behave unlike any other cell seen so far, and contain a key gene - per1 - which allows them to sustain unusually high levels of "excitability".
The cells becoming so "excited" that they seem quiet or even dead; but then later they calm down, recover and become normally active again.
It is this activity which tells the human body when to be awake.
Sleep dysfunction
HEALTH CHECK
Health Check is the weekly health programme broadcast from the BBC World Service
It is broadcast on Monday at 1032GMT and repeated at 1532GMT, 2032GMT and on Tuesday at 0132GMT
It is also available as a podcast
Prof Piggins added: "There's a lot of interest in the pharmaceutical industry, obviously, to try to develop chemical treatments to reset your daily clock to help counteract things like jetlag.
"Or, perhaps more importantly, different kind of sleep disorders for which dysfunctions in this clock are often involved."
This study marks the first time these "quiet" cells have been studied.
"This may mean that elsewhere in the brain there are cells like this that can also survive these very unusual conditions."
HEALTH-
HEALTH
Jump in number of global swine flu deaths
The virus was first recorded in Mexico
The global number of swine flu deaths has jumped by more than 1,000 in a week, latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) show.
At least 7,826 people are now known to have died following infection with the H1N1 virus since it first emerged in Mexico in April.
Europe saw an 85% increase in the week, with the total number of deaths rising from at least 350 to at least 650.
However, in most cases the virus continues to produce mild symptoms.
If every mutation is reported out there it would be like reporting changes in the weather
Keiji Fukuda
WHO special adviser on pandemic influenza
An overwhelming majority of patients usually recover, even without medical treatment, within a week.
The biggest rise in deaths was recorded in the Americas, where the death toll rose to 5,360 - a rise of 554 cases in one week.
Health authorities in Norway and France have each recorded two fatalities from a mutated strain of H1N1.
China, Japan, Norway, Ukraine and the US have also recorded cases of people being infected with a mutated strain.
Uncertainty
French health officials confirmed that two patients infected by a mutation that was also recently detected in Norway had died in two different cities in France.
SWINE FLU SYMPTOMS
1. High temperature, tiredness and lowered immunity
2. Headache, runny nose and sneezing
3. Sore throat
4. Shortness of breath
5. Loss of appetite, vomiting and diarrhoea
6. Aching muscles, limb and joint pain
Source: NHS
Fergus on Flu
Q&A: Advice about swine flu
"This mutation could increase the ability of the virus to affect the respiratory tracts and, in particular, the lung tissue," said a statement from the government's Health Surveillance Institute.
The French institute added that, in the case of one of the patients who died, the mutation was accompanied by another mutation known to confer resistance to the main drug being used to treat swine flu, which is sold under the brand name Tamiflu.
It was the first drug-resistant strain found in France among the 1,200 strains experts have analysed here, it said.
Speaking on Thursday, Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's special adviser on pandemic influenza, said that conclusions had still to be drawn about the reported mutations.
"The question is whether these mutations suggest that there is a fundamental change going on in viruses out there - whether there's a turn for the worse in terms of severity," he said.
"The answer right now is that we are not sure."
Dr Fukuda noted that mutations were common in influenza viruses.
"If every mutation is reported out there it would be like reporting changes in the weather," he said.
"What we're trying to do when we see reports of mutations is to identify if these mutations are leading to any kinds of changes in the clinical picture - do they cause more severe or less severe disease?
"Also we're trying to see if these viruses are increasing out there as that would suggest a change in epidemiology."
In his latest survey of swine flu developments, the WHO notes that many countries have stopped counting individual cases of swine flu, particularly of milder illness, and the case count is likely to be significantly lower than the actual number of cases that have occurred.
Jump in number of global swine flu deaths
The virus was first recorded in Mexico
The global number of swine flu deaths has jumped by more than 1,000 in a week, latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) show.
At least 7,826 people are now known to have died following infection with the H1N1 virus since it first emerged in Mexico in April.
Europe saw an 85% increase in the week, with the total number of deaths rising from at least 350 to at least 650.
However, in most cases the virus continues to produce mild symptoms.
If every mutation is reported out there it would be like reporting changes in the weather
Keiji Fukuda
WHO special adviser on pandemic influenza
An overwhelming majority of patients usually recover, even without medical treatment, within a week.
The biggest rise in deaths was recorded in the Americas, where the death toll rose to 5,360 - a rise of 554 cases in one week.
Health authorities in Norway and France have each recorded two fatalities from a mutated strain of H1N1.
China, Japan, Norway, Ukraine and the US have also recorded cases of people being infected with a mutated strain.
Uncertainty
French health officials confirmed that two patients infected by a mutation that was also recently detected in Norway had died in two different cities in France.
SWINE FLU SYMPTOMS
1. High temperature, tiredness and lowered immunity
2. Headache, runny nose and sneezing
3. Sore throat
4. Shortness of breath
5. Loss of appetite, vomiting and diarrhoea
6. Aching muscles, limb and joint pain
Source: NHS
Fergus on Flu
Q&A: Advice about swine flu
"This mutation could increase the ability of the virus to affect the respiratory tracts and, in particular, the lung tissue," said a statement from the government's Health Surveillance Institute.
The French institute added that, in the case of one of the patients who died, the mutation was accompanied by another mutation known to confer resistance to the main drug being used to treat swine flu, which is sold under the brand name Tamiflu.
It was the first drug-resistant strain found in France among the 1,200 strains experts have analysed here, it said.
Speaking on Thursday, Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's special adviser on pandemic influenza, said that conclusions had still to be drawn about the reported mutations.
"The question is whether these mutations suggest that there is a fundamental change going on in viruses out there - whether there's a turn for the worse in terms of severity," he said.
"The answer right now is that we are not sure."
Dr Fukuda noted that mutations were common in influenza viruses.
"If every mutation is reported out there it would be like reporting changes in the weather," he said.
"What we're trying to do when we see reports of mutations is to identify if these mutations are leading to any kinds of changes in the clinical picture - do they cause more severe or less severe disease?
"Also we're trying to see if these viruses are increasing out there as that would suggest a change in epidemiology."
In his latest survey of swine flu developments, the WHO notes that many countries have stopped counting individual cases of swine flu, particularly of milder illness, and the case count is likely to be significantly lower than the actual number of cases that have occurred.
Monday, November 16, 2009
SCHOOLBOY WINS A FREE RECORDING DEAL AT TALENT SEARCH AND NURTURING SHOW _YALA
SCHOOLBOY WINS A FREE RECORDING DEAL AT TALENT SEARCH AND NURTURING SHOW _YALA
A School boy from the Saint Mary’s school in Yala had a luck beginning in his talent as a musician when he won a free recoding deal from the hosts of the talent search and nurturing show,
A School boy from the Saint Mary’s school in Yala had a luck beginning in his talent as a musician when he won a free recoding deal from the hosts of the talent search and nurturing show,
VILLAGES COULD BE CARRYING MORE ORPHANS THAN EXPECTYED
An expert in orphaned children care in Yala town, Mrs Jane Pila, has said that the villages, especially in the area where she serves could be carrying more orphaned children than expected .The expert said this when we visited her in her office at the Yala C.D.C church where she operates from .The church provides for the needy children in the community .It feeds and educates them and sometimes even clothes them.
Such problems of street children or orphaned children, widowed women and homeless aged people were in the past seen as a problem of the cities and urban areas only but recently discoveries stunned the experts when they learned that the situation is almost the same in the villages.
The expert sent a word to those people with the power in our country and institutions, including the Odera Akang’o campus of the Moi University in Yala, to build more facilities to help the increasing numbers of these kinds of people in our country.
Such problems of street children or orphaned children, widowed women and homeless aged people were in the past seen as a problem of the cities and urban areas only but recently discoveries stunned the experts when they learned that the situation is almost the same in the villages.
The expert sent a word to those people with the power in our country and institutions, including the Odera Akang’o campus of the Moi University in Yala, to build more facilities to help the increasing numbers of these kinds of people in our country.
HATRED BETWEEN THE TEACHERS AND THE PUPILS
There was this mother whose son came back home weeping .The mother could not hold herself at the sight of her crying son .The son said that the reason for his weeping was that his teacher had punished him in school for wrongs that he never committed. It wasn’t canning though but it looked like it must have been something more severe to the young boy than canning .So the mother had to do the best that she could for her son to show him her love for him. So, she set out to go and solve it out with the boys head teacher.
From the look of things ,or judging from what the boy said ,it looks like there were some kinds of hatred underground happenings between the young boy ,a boy of fifteen years or less ,and his head teacher .And ,the boy only defense ,his mother had to take action to find out whatever was happening to her son in school .
Believe it or not ,this illiterate mothers have there own ways o solving this things .She went and stormed the headmasters office and demanded to know why the headmasters hated her son .She spoke at the top oh her voice and demanded for justice for her son and demanded for respect from the headmaster as the parent of her son irrespective of whatever was going on in this world or whatever the procedures of solving this kinds of problems were in the school .What the mother wanted was that evil happenings that were being directed towards her son secretly be stooped or action be taken against the teacher who was involved or she be issued with a transfer letter for her to take her son to a different school where he could appreciated better than his former school.
What troubled we their neighbors minds was what really could cause such feelings between a fifteen year old boy and his head teacher .What really could be the cause?Women ,scramble for power at the place of work or what .A fifteen year old boy can not be a threat to a grown up man in any way in life unless ,perhaps if the boy caught him red handed hiding some secrets otherwise there is really nothing big to worry about in this case .The boy can not eve know how to snatch a lady from his head teacher neither can he snatch his position in the school as the head teacher, so ,what really is the cause .Do this things really exist by the way?
Believe it or not but that is what is going on in the slums and soon we will have to betaking the teachers or head teachers to court to answer why they hated our offspring, but what really should be the right response during such cases ,i.e. when kids complain that there was hatred in their teachers or head teachers? We thought that the teachers were like parents to the kids or if not so, up to some extend but this kind of thing is really mind boggling.
From the look of things ,or judging from what the boy said ,it looks like there were some kinds of hatred underground happenings between the young boy ,a boy of fifteen years or less ,and his head teacher .And ,the boy only defense ,his mother had to take action to find out whatever was happening to her son in school .
Believe it or not ,this illiterate mothers have there own ways o solving this things .She went and stormed the headmasters office and demanded to know why the headmasters hated her son .She spoke at the top oh her voice and demanded for justice for her son and demanded for respect from the headmaster as the parent of her son irrespective of whatever was going on in this world or whatever the procedures of solving this kinds of problems were in the school .What the mother wanted was that evil happenings that were being directed towards her son secretly be stooped or action be taken against the teacher who was involved or she be issued with a transfer letter for her to take her son to a different school where he could appreciated better than his former school.
What troubled we their neighbors minds was what really could cause such feelings between a fifteen year old boy and his head teacher .What really could be the cause?Women ,scramble for power at the place of work or what .A fifteen year old boy can not be a threat to a grown up man in any way in life unless ,perhaps if the boy caught him red handed hiding some secrets otherwise there is really nothing big to worry about in this case .The boy can not eve know how to snatch a lady from his head teacher neither can he snatch his position in the school as the head teacher, so ,what really is the cause .Do this things really exist by the way?
Believe it or not but that is what is going on in the slums and soon we will have to betaking the teachers or head teachers to court to answer why they hated our offspring, but what really should be the right response during such cases ,i.e. when kids complain that there was hatred in their teachers or head teachers? We thought that the teachers were like parents to the kids or if not so, up to some extend but this kind of thing is really mind boggling.
LIVING IN A HOUSE HAS BECOME VERY HARD-KERICHO,KENYA
It is very hard to get a house instantly when you need it in our cities nowadays. You have to spend some, say from two days to three weeks before you can get one. This makes it very hard for people who have been thrown out of their homes by their landlords for various reasons that go with the renting of a house or they might have been forced out of their homes by the various unbearable conditions to survive. Most of the times, when such conditions arise, the people are forced to find a very quick solution to avoid camping on the streets with their families and the most ready solution to getting another home fast enough, recently, has been , the commercial agencies and estate management companies in our cities.
Here, you can get a house readily, but going through these agencies and real estate management companies has its own advantages. Almost ninety nine percent of the tenants I have come across have been complaining of harsh and very inhuman treatment by the rent collectors or any other people who go and collect the money on behalf of the landlord. It expected that they are the experts in debt collection yes, but their techniques of dealing with the situations is very inhuman.
Abnormal harshness and excessive force that is exercised by the company’s staff during this times or any other debts collection is very degrading to the tenants who sometimes are very good gentlemen who deserve to be treated with a lot of dignity. They are the experts yes ,but throwing someone out of the house just because there has risen some complications in their salary payment mechanisms isn't very good.
These debts collection companies have abnormally strict rules for living in the estates that they manage. They have a set date at which the rent money has got to be paid. They do not accept to listen to your problems no matter what happens. Be it a funeral, a road accident or illness of any kind or any defects in the working of the systems at your place of work, they just can not give you a chance what they want from you always is their money and they don’t want to know how or where you will get it. So if you are delayed by causes that are beyond your powers say for a week or so, they come and throw you out of the house and leave you with your belongings heaped in the compound and they give you the maximum time that you can use the compound otherwise they will move you to the road side and leave you there. Wherever you will get a house fast enough is none of their business.
Some companies charge the tenants up to one percent of the months rent if you exceed the set date of payment by even one day. If money is not paid in the following two days from the date of payment they then go on charging one percent of a months rent each and every day that passes. The one percent charge is added to the fifty percent of one months rent that is charged for passing the set date for pay the tenants physical the other bills that are in the powers
So if your pay doesn’t arrive within two weeks from the last day of the previous month or the set date for paying rent you will have to pay perhaps three times the amount of money that you pay one month as the house rent. If you go too far, say for whole month, perhaps they will question your property.
These companies are abnormal strict that is impossible for their kind thing to happen in real life. The slightest mistake that you will make and you left in the compound with your belongings or if not so a third or two thirds of the lowest income earner in our country is gone to the debt collectors.
At least, they should develop a better way of handling the tenants than leaving them in the compound stranded. They should give them a chance to fill up for any inconvenience that may come up as a result of the human weakness. Staying in the house for two months or three months is not too bad. And when they are forced to throw them out, then their property should be kept in their offices and not to heap it in the compound.
Living in a house has become quite an experience. You have to make sure that you don’t make a mistake in your salary payment procedures or else, you will be in for the worst.
Here, you can get a house readily, but going through these agencies and real estate management companies has its own advantages. Almost ninety nine percent of the tenants I have come across have been complaining of harsh and very inhuman treatment by the rent collectors or any other people who go and collect the money on behalf of the landlord. It expected that they are the experts in debt collection yes, but their techniques of dealing with the situations is very inhuman.
Abnormal harshness and excessive force that is exercised by the company’s staff during this times or any other debts collection is very degrading to the tenants who sometimes are very good gentlemen who deserve to be treated with a lot of dignity. They are the experts yes ,but throwing someone out of the house just because there has risen some complications in their salary payment mechanisms isn't very good.
These debts collection companies have abnormally strict rules for living in the estates that they manage. They have a set date at which the rent money has got to be paid. They do not accept to listen to your problems no matter what happens. Be it a funeral, a road accident or illness of any kind or any defects in the working of the systems at your place of work, they just can not give you a chance what they want from you always is their money and they don’t want to know how or where you will get it. So if you are delayed by causes that are beyond your powers say for a week or so, they come and throw you out of the house and leave you with your belongings heaped in the compound and they give you the maximum time that you can use the compound otherwise they will move you to the road side and leave you there. Wherever you will get a house fast enough is none of their business.
Some companies charge the tenants up to one percent of the months rent if you exceed the set date of payment by even one day. If money is not paid in the following two days from the date of payment they then go on charging one percent of a months rent each and every day that passes. The one percent charge is added to the fifty percent of one months rent that is charged for passing the set date for pay the tenants physical the other bills that are in the powers
So if your pay doesn’t arrive within two weeks from the last day of the previous month or the set date for paying rent you will have to pay perhaps three times the amount of money that you pay one month as the house rent. If you go too far, say for whole month, perhaps they will question your property.
These companies are abnormal strict that is impossible for their kind thing to happen in real life. The slightest mistake that you will make and you left in the compound with your belongings or if not so a third or two thirds of the lowest income earner in our country is gone to the debt collectors.
At least, they should develop a better way of handling the tenants than leaving them in the compound stranded. They should give them a chance to fill up for any inconvenience that may come up as a result of the human weakness. Staying in the house for two months or three months is not too bad. And when they are forced to throw them out, then their property should be kept in their offices and not to heap it in the compound.
Living in a house has become quite an experience. You have to make sure that you don’t make a mistake in your salary payment procedures or else, you will be in for the worst.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
