Tag Archives: Health

Fasting Activates Sirtuin Signaling Proteins (SIRT1), Accelerating Cell Repair

Sirtuins are a family of signaling proteins involved in metabolic regulation. SIRT1 (along with SIRT6 and SIRT7) are proteins are employed in DNA repair.

 

Sirtuins - SIRT1 Activator Nature Reviews Drug Discovery

From Wikipedia:

Sirtuins are a class of proteins that possess either mono-ADP-ribosyltransferase, or deacylase activity, including deacetylase, desuccinylase, demalonylase, demyristoylase and depalmitoylase activity. The name Sir2 comes from the yeast gene ‘silent mating-type information regulation 2‘, the gene responsible for cellular regulation in yeast.

From in vitro studies, sirtuins are implicated in influencing cellular processes like aging, transcription, apoptosis, inflammation and stress resistance, as well as energy efficiency and alertness during low-calorie situations. As of 2018, there was no clinical evidence that sirtuins affect human aging.

Aging

Although preliminary studies with resveratrol, an activator of deacetylases such as SIRT1, led some scientists to speculate that resveratrol may extend lifespan, there was no clinical evidence for such an effect, as of 2018.

In vitro studies shown that calorie restriction regulates the plasma membrane redox system, involved in mitochondrial homeostasis, and the reduction of inflammation through cross-talks between SIRT1 and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), but the role of sirtuins in longevity is still unclear, as calorie restriction in yeast could extend lifespan in the absence of Sir2 or other sirtuins, while the in vivo activation of Sir2 by calorie restriction or resveratrol to extend lifespan has been challenged in multiple organisms.

 

Medicine: “Is It An Art Or Science?” (The Lancet)

From a The Lancet online article:

Effective physicians interrogate their patients’ choice of words as well as their body language; they attend to what they leave out of their stories as well as what they put in. More than 2000 years after Hippocrates, there remains as much poetry in medicine as there is science.

The Lancet LogoWHO’s definition of health is famously “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. One of the oldest medical texts we know of, The Science of Medicine attributed to Hippocrates, sets out the goal of medicine in comparable terms: “the complete removal of the distress of the sick”.

In my working life as a physician, I’ve never found the distinction between arts and sciences a particularly useful one. In the earliest ancient Greek texts, medicine is described as a techne—a word better translated as “know-how”. It conveys elements of science, art, and skill, but also of artisanal craft. The precise functions of medicine may have subtly shifted over the ages, but our need as human beings for doctors remains the same; we go to them because we wish to invoke some change in our lives, either to cure or prevent an illness or influence some unwelcome mental or bodily process. The goal of medicine is, and always has been, the relief of human suffering—the word patient, from the Latin patientem, means sufferer. And the word physician is from the Greek phusis, or nature: to be engaged in clinical work is to engage oneself with the nature of illness, the nature of recovery, the nature of humanity.

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Healthy Diets: “The Science Behind Fasting – Ketosis” (Infographic)

The Science Behind Fasting - Ketosis
Cellular Cleanup Crew Fasting and caloric restriction both can ramp up autophagy, a kind of cellular housekeeping. When cells are in famine mode and don’t have to break down food, they pause their usual tasks and stop dividing. Instead, they work on repairing and recycling damaged components, and cleaning out dead or harmful cell matter. Alison Mackey/Discover

…It seems fasting triggers a dramatic switch in the body’s metabolism, according Discover Magazine logoto a paper Mattson and colleagues published in February in the experimental biology journal FASEB. In humans, fasting for 12 hours or more drops the levels of glycogen, a form of cellular glucose. Like changing to a backup gas tank, the body switches from glucose to fatty acids, a more efficient fuel. The switch generates the production of ketones, which are energy molecules that are made in the liver. “When the fats are mobilized and used to produce ketones, we think that is a key factor in accruing the health benefits,” says Mattson.

Read more at Discover Magazine

Studies: New Protein Therapy Improves Cardiac Function, Scar Formation After Heart Attack

From a New Atlas online article (Jan 1, 2020):

Science Translational Medicine January 1 2020 cover“This is an entirely new approach with no current treatments able to change scar in this way,” says Associate Professor James Chong who led the research. “By improving cardiac function and scar formation following heart attack, treatment with rhPDGF-AB led to an overall increase in survival rate in our study.”

The research centers on a protein therapy called recombinant human platelet-derived growth factor-AB (rhPDGF-AB), which had previously been shown to improve heart function in mice that had suffered a heart attack. In a new study aimed at bringing the treatment closer to human trials, a team set out to discover if it produced similar results in large animals, namely pigs.

The researchers from the Westmead Institute for Medical Research (WIMR) and the University of Sydney found that when pigs that had suffered a heart attack received an infusion of rhPDGF, it did indeed prompt the formation of new blood vessels in the heart and led to a reduction of potentially fatal heart arrhythmia.

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Read article in New Atlas

Aging: “Okinawa’s Secrets To Longevity” (Telegraph)

The Telegraph logoHundreds of miles south of Japan’s main islands, in the East China Sea, is a Jurassic Park of longevity, with a higher percentage of centenarians (people who live to 100 years old) than anywhere else on Earth.

Greg Dickinson visits the Japanese archipelago of Okinawa to discover the secret to long life.

Read the full article at: https://telegraph.co.uk/travel/destin…

Medical Technology: New Artificial Intelligence (AI) Model Predicts Breast Cancer More Accurately

A new Artificial Intelligence (AI) model predicts breast cancer in mammograms more accurately than radiologists, reducing false positives and false negatives, reports a large international study from Google, Northwestern Medicine and two screening centers in the United Kingdom (U.K.).

 

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https://www.nm.org/

Dementia: Cognitive Loss Is Greatest At “Slightest Level Of Hearing Loss”

From a New York Times online article:

Hearing Loss…the researchers demonstrated that the biggest drop in cognitive ability occurs at the slightest level of hearing loss — a decline from zero to the “normal” level of 25 decibels, with smaller cognitive losses occurring when hearing deficits rise from 25 to 50 decibels.

Hearing loss is now known to be the largest modifiable risk factor for developing dementia, exceeding that of smoking, high blood pressure, lack of exercise and social isolation, according to an international analysis published in The Lancet in 2017.

the new findings on cognitive losses linked to subclinical hearing loss, gleaned from among 6,451 people age 50 or older, suggest that any degree of hearing loss can take a toll.

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Healthcare: “10 Drugs And Medical Devices Approved By FDA In Dec. 2019 (BHR)

From a Becker’s Hospital Review (BHR) online release article:

10 drugs and medical devices approved by the FDA since Dec. 6:

  1. Enhertu is Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo’s drug designed to treat HER2-positive breast cancer.
  2. Padcev is Astellas Pharma’s drug designed to target specific cancer cells to treat urothelial cancers.
  3. Control-IQ Technology controller is Tandem Diabetes Care’s insulin device, designed to help diabetes patients tailor their treatments to their individual needs.
  4. Vascepa is Amarin Pharmaceuticals’ drug, a fish oil-derived pill designed to treatVascepa benefits cardiovascular events.
  5. EXALT Model D is Boston Scientific’s device, the first fully disposable duodenoscope, designed to reduce the risk of infections in patients treated with the device.
  6. Vyondys 53 is Sarepta Therapeutics’ drug designed to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which the FDA had previously rejected.
  7. GSP Neonatal Creatine Kinase-MM kit is PerkinElmer’s device, used to detect Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in newborns.
  8. Unidose liquid system is AptarGroup’s device that uses a nasal spray to treat seizures. It is the first and only nasal treatment for patients with epilepsy.
  9. Avsola is Amgen’s drug, a biosimilar of Johnson & Johnson’s Remicade. It is designed to treat rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis.
  10. cobas vivoDx is Roche Molecular Systems’ device, designed to diagnose MRSA hours faster than traditional tests.

Becker's Hosptial Review logo

To read article at Becker’s Hospital Review

Healthcare: U.S. “Total Hip Replacement” Costs Were $32.5K In 2017, Up To 4 Times The Cost In Europe (Chart)

From a Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) release (12/17/19):

iFHP 2017 prices Hip Replacement Costs in USA, UK, New Zealand, Australia, UAE, Switzerland, South Africa and Holland Health Costs Institute December 2019 chart

 

  • Holland had the lowest prices for hip and knee replacements with prices less than 25% of the US price. Prices for hip and knee replacements in the United Arab Emeritus (UAE) were the closest to the US at 71% of the price.

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