Jerusalem hospital shows off vaccine that destroys cancer in 2 shots

Early human test results suggest a vaccine can train cancer patients' bodies to seek out and destroy tumour cells.

The therapy, which targets a molecule found in 90 per cent of cancers, eventually could provide an injection that would allow patients' immune systems to fight off common cancers including breast andprostate cancer.

The first results of trials in people, at the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem, suggest the vaccine can reduce levels of disease. The human work is so preliminary it has yet to be published in a scientific journal.

The scientists behind the vaccine hope to conduct more extensive trials to prove it can be effective against a range of cancers. They believe it could be used to fight small tumours if they are detected early or to help prevent the return and spread of disease in patients who have undergone conventional treatment.

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE HERE.

5 Most Surprising Reasons to Drink Coffee

Feeling jittery about whether to drink coffee? Percolate on this: Coffee's benefits considerably outweigh its negatives, researchers now believe. Although caffeine can cause anxiety and insomnia in some people, the beverage's unique properties -- such as more powerful antioxidants than from any other source in the American diet, including fruits and vegetables -- can do a lot of good. Just be sure to spring for organic coffee, says Beth Reardon, director of nutrition for Duke Integrative Medicine, since coffee beans are among the most heavily sprayed crops (all those chemicals can undo the benefits). READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

How Much Do You Know About Alzheimer’s Disease?

More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease, and that number could climb to 16 million by 2050. Women face a higher risk of developing it than men, and are also more likely to become caregivers. Take this quiz to see how much you know about Alzheimer’s.

Cancer Vaccine Could See Light In 2017

Vaxil BioTherapeutics, a biotechnical company based in Ness Ziona, near Tel Aviv, Israel has produced a ground-breaking therapeutic vaccine for cancer patients which could prevent about 90 percent of cancers from coming back.

Vaxil was founded in 2006 by Dr. Lior Carmon and the vaccine is now in clinical trials at the Hadassah University Medical Centre in Jerusalem. The vaccine could be available as early as 2017 to administer on a regular basis, not only to help treat cancer but in order to keep the disease from recurring.

READ MORE HERE.

New Blood Test Could Detect Cancer

Soroka hospital and Ben Gurion University in Be’er Sheva, Israel, are developing a unique method to detect various types of cancer through a simple blood test.

Researchers say that in a first trial conducted recently, they succeeded in detecting cancer in almost 90 percent of cancer patients tested.

READ MORE HERE.

What are "liver spots?"

Liver spots (also known as "Solar lentigo", "Lentigo senilis", "Old age spot," "Senile freckle" are blemishes on the skin associated with aging and exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun. They range in color from light brown to red or black and are located in areas most often exposed to the sun, particularly the hands, face, shoulders, arms and forehead, and the scalp if bald.

The spots derive their name from the fact that they were once incorrectly believed to be caused by liver problems, they are physiologically unrelated to the liver, save for a similar color. From the age of 40 onward the skin is less able to regenerate from sun exposure, and liver spots are very common in this age group, particularly in those who spend time in the sun.

In the vast majority of cases, liver spots pose no threat and require no treatment, though they occasionally have been known to obscure the detection of skin cancer. However, despite being a benign condition, liver spots are sometimes considered unsightly and some people choose to have them removed. This can be done by electrosurgery, laser treatment, cryotherapy and alternatively, many people claim to have success with simple remedies made with apple cider vinegar.

SOURCE

Alzheimer's disease: 7 things that raise your risk

Think Alzheimer's disease strikes out of the blue? Maybe not. A new study published in The Lancet Neurology shows that healthy living can help prevent Alzheimer's. The study found seven conditions in particular that account for up to half of the 35 million cases of Alzheimer's around the world and in the U.S. What are these behaviors? READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Overeating may double odds of memory loss in elderly

Can stuffing your mouth clog your brain? A new study suggests overeating may double the risk for memory loss, or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), among people age 70 and older.

The study - to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 64th Annual Meeting in April - involved over 1,200 dementia-free people between ages 70 and 89. Of those, 163 people had MCI. Participants filled out a questionnaire about the amount of calories they consumed daily.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is the intermediate stage between the expected cognitive decline of normal aging and the more pronounced decline of dementia, according to the Mayo Clinic. It increases a person's risk for developing later dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, but some people with MCI never get worse.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

New drug quickly reverses Alzheimer's symptoms

U.S. researchers have found that use of a drug in mice appears to quickly reverse the pathological, cognitive and memory deficits caused by the onset of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published online in journal Science on Thursday.

The results point to the significant potential that the medication, bexarotene, has to help the roughly 5.4 million Americans suffering from the progressive brain disease, the researchers said.

Bexarotene has been approved for thetreatment of cancer by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for more than a decade. These experiments explored whether the medication might also be used to help patients with Alzheimer's disease, and the results were more than promising.

Alzheimer's disease arises in large part from the body's inability to clear naturally-occurring amyloid beta from the brain. In 2008 Case Western Reserve University researcher Gary Landreth, professor of neurosciences at School of Medicine, discovered that the main cholesterol carrier in the brain, Apolipoprotein E (ApoE), facilitated the clearance of the amyloid beta proteins.

Landreth and his colleagues chose to explore the effectiveness of bexarotene for increasing ApoE expression. The elevation of brain ApoE levels, in turn, speeds the clearance of amyloid beta from the brain. Bexarotene acts by stimulating retinoid X receptors, which control how much ApoE is produced.

In particular, the researchers were struck by the speed with which bexarotene improved memory deficits and behavior even as it also acted to reverse the pathology of Alzheimer's disease.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Broken heart syndrome

On Valentine's Day, people who have been unlucky in love will be said to suffer from a "broken heart." It turns out that a broken heart is an actual medical condition. Broken heart syndrome occurs during highly stressful or emotional times, such as a painful breakup, the death of a spouse, the loss of a job or extreme anger, said Loyola University Health System cardiologist Dr. Binh An P. Phan.

Broken heart syndrome also is called stress cardiomyopathy.Symptoms are similar to those of a heart attack, including chest pain and difficulty breathing. The good news is that, over time, the symptoms go away. And unlike heart attackpatients, people with broken heart syndrome do not suffer lasting damage to their hearts, Phan said.

"Most people will get better in a few weeks without medical treatment," Phan said.

During an extremely stressful event, the heart can be overwhelmed with a surge of adrenalin and other stress hormones. This can cause a narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the heart. It's similar to what happens during aheart attack, when a blood clot in a coronary artery restricts blood supply to heart muscle. But unlike a heart attack,broken heart syndrome is reversible, Phan said.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE.

FIND MORE WONDERFUL PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES HERE.

SENIOR ALERT: Adding Plavix to Aspirin for Preventing Small Strokes May Increase Death Risk

Study stopped early due to increased bleeding compared to aspirin alone

Feb. 6, 2012 - The anti-blood clot regimen that adds the drug Plavix (clopidogrel) to aspirin treatment is unlikely to prevent recurrent strokes and may increase the risk of bleeding and death in patients with subcortical stroke according to late-breaking research presented Friday at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2012.

Because of these preliminary results, researchers ended the anti-clotting part of the Secondary Prevention of Small Subcortical Strokes Trial (SPS3) in August 2011. The part of the study that examines the effect of high blood pressure treatments will continue.

The SPS3 trial is the first large-scale study of patients with subcortical strokes, which occur when small blood vessels deep in the middle of the brain are blocked, damaging small areas of brain tissue.

This type of stroke affects about 150,000 Americans each year, and is the most common cause of vascular dementia according to Oscar Benavente, M.D., lead author of the study and a professor of neurology at Canada’s University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia. Co-investigator is Robert G. Hart, M.D.

American Heart Association/American Stroke Association guidelines for preventing recurrent strokes recommend anti-clotting medications like aspirin, the customary treatment, or other clot preventives like clopidogrel(Plavix), but not the combination of aspirin plus clopidogrel.

Treatments have not been compared in patients with subcortical strokes specifically.

In the United States, stroke is the No. 4 killer and a leading cause of disability among adults.

READ MORE HERE.

Message to Susan G. Komen Foundation

A very brave lady has something to say...

Free Sample Of TUMS Freshers

Note: Their site is slow to load at the moment

Click here to visit the TUMS facebook page and like them. Then on the “TUMS Freshers” tab, fill out the quick form to request your free sample. Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery.

Israelis make headway in cure for Crohn's

Weizmann Institute scientists manage to trick immune systems of mice into targeting one of body's players in autoimmune process 

In diseases such as Crohn's and rheumatoid arthritis, the immune system mistakenly attacks the body's tissues.

But today, thanks to a group of Weizmann Institute scientists, the immune system is learning that “turnabout is fair play."

The Weizmann Institute of Science, located in Rehovot,Israel, is one of the world’s leading multidisciplinary research institutions.

The scientists at the Weizmann have managed to trick the immune systems of mice into targeting one of the body's players in the autoimmune process, an enzyme known as MMP9.

Prof. Irit Sagi of the Biological Regulation Department, along with her research group, has spent years looking for ways to block members of the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) enzyme family.

But, when these proteins, which expedite wound-healing and offer other benefits, get out of control, they can actually help autoimmune disease and cancer metastasis. Blocking these proteins might lead to effective treatments for a number of diseases.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Younger onset Alzheimer's patients stay active

Keeping busy 'gives you a cognitive advantage,' physician says

Younger onset Alzheimer's is diagnosed in those younger than age 65 and strikes 250,000 Americans a year, according to the Alzheimer's Association. "More people are being diagnosed with younger onset," Kerwin said. "Typically, they're in their 50s, but we see them as young as their 30s and 40s."

The first hurdle is often a proper diagnosis, a process of elimination that can take years as doctors tell patients they are too young to have Alzheimer's. Pati Hoffman, 57, of Carol Stream, had to give up the corporate marketing job she loved after Alzheimer's struck her at age 55, but only after an excruciating period of medical tests and ambiguous findings.

She went to so many doctors and had so many tests that her diagnosis was a relief, she said. "They kept telling me it was just stress," said Hoffman, who is now an adviser for the Greater Illinois Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. "So at least I finally had an answer."

READ MORE HERE.

At Least 12 Infected With New Swine Flu Strain

H3N2v virus confirmed in at least five states

At least 12 people in five states have come down with a new strain of swine flu that isn't covered in this year's flu vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The new strain is not the more common H1N1, that killed more than 17,000 people around the world over a two-year period. The new strain has been identified as H3N2v.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Thousands could be at risk from ‘toxic’ metal hip implants

Published on Sunday 29 January 2012 14:43

AN investigation into the safety of metal hips has been launched by medical regulators.

The move comes after fears that thousands of people are a risk from poisoning.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said most people with the implants are at “low risk developing any serious problems.”

But it added it had taken “prompt action” over the safety concerns.

The action comes as an investigation by the Sunday Telegraph found more than 30,000 British patients have received the “metal-on-metal” (MoM) hip replacements.

They are feared to be more dangerous than previously thought.

Problems occur with such devices when friction between the metal ball and cup causes tiny metal filings to break off and potentially seep into the blood. These fragments can also cause a soft tissue reaction, destroying muscle and bone.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Cell Phones and Cancer Risk

I have a Facebook friend who I really like and I enjoy most of his posts but sometimes, he does indulge some of the wackier alarmist conspiracy theories about numerous topics and one of his latest has been the "Do cell phones cause cancer?" thing. There may very well be elevated risk with cell phone usage - the type of waves emitted by cell phones is the same type of radiation microwave ovens use to cook food. Just think about that one for a moment.

However, whatever valid concerns there may be regarding this or any other issue get buried under alarmist rhetoric and connection to various whackjob websites that probably think there were at least a dozen grassy knolls in Dealy Plaza and George W. Bush himself stood in front of the World Trade Center with the dynamite plunger in hand. Know what I mean?

Whackiness is fun to make fun of but that's about it. It has no socially redeeming values and so anything that gets mired in it loses credibility.

So... do cell phones actually cause cancer?  From what credible resources I've managed to dig up on the internet, I'd say the jury is still out on that one. The fact is, DNA must be changed to cause cancer and the type of radiation that cell phones emit does not change DNA. But the type of radiation that cell phones DO emit does cook your food in your microwave and it does alter how brain cells on the side of your head where you hold your cell phone metabolizes glucose.

In my layman's non-medical mind, any unnatural changes to the body can produce an increased risk of cancer. That just makes sense to me.

So, for me, the jury is out on this one. What do you think?

For more info on this topic from a non-whackjob source, go HERE.

Why I'm Doing This...

It's a little bit hard to just give up and die although I've thought on numerous occasions how being dead might be ever so much more comfortable (for me) and ever so much more convenient for the paltry few souls left on this planet who care what happens to me. If I was dead, they could just stop worrying.

But, dang it all, I happen to like being alive as miserable and scary as it does get at times. And, I cannot forget what Grandma and Mom always taught me - that the blood of pioneers runs through my veins. And pioneers never give up. Robert Treat Paine, are you listening? I'm still here and it's all your fault.

Current scariness: I feel like death. I feel very weak and frail and ill and it's from heart failure and lung failure and sleep apnea and extreme Vitamin D deficiency. Emptying two bags of canned goods from the local food bank exhausted me and here I sit, recovering. Had to do something. So I'm starting this blog.

Oops. I forgot to mention the diabetes. It's reminding me right now so excuse me while I go get something to eat.

Learn a little something about diabetes here and check out if you are experiencing any of the signs.