Adventure Ausrama Blog

Being tall has its benefits. Seeing over the top of a crowd is one. Reaching the top shelf is another. However, there are problems such as a higher propensity to get cancer. A taller body has more cells. This increases the risk of cancer. Research using existing databases proved this to be true. A seven foot tall basketball player is twice as likely to get cancer as a person five foot tall. Moreover, melanoma risk increases with height. Tall people should get their health checked more frequently. Being tall is determined by genetics, by your mother's diet when carrying you and by intake of good nutrition when growing up. It should be noted that obese people have more cells. The study used height as a proxy for the research. Some illness such as mouth, stomach and cervical cancer are not affected by height. Mainly because they are caused by particular viruses. Higher rates of thyroid cancer and melanoma are a real issue for tall people. It seems that the growth hormone main...

It is estimated that 1.2 million Australians have diabetes. There has been an increase of 300 percent in the last 15 years. Those with lower incomes are twice as likely to contract the disease as higher income earners. More people die of diabetes in  rural areas, particularly Aboriginals. Furthermore, Diabetic women are 27 percent more likely to get cancer, usually kidney, stomach or oral. The rate for men is 19 percent. The reason for this difference is not known. The belief that anti-oxidants extend life has been disproven in animal trials. However, it is planned to treat the ailment by giving supplements of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ). Hopefully, this will raise the level of oxidants thus preventing pre-dabetes. It has been found that a genetic disposition will change gut microbiota before type 1 diabetes expresses itself. Eating the "wrong" food interacts with the unhealthy microbiota and this detrimentally affects the way sugar levels are controlled. Ryzodeg in...

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If your current collection of medications to fight disease no longer works, look to the past. That is what scientists are doing. They are reading through books hundreds of years old on "home" remedies. A medieval book mentions a substance that has shown promise in destroying methicillin resistant "staphylococcus aureus" (MRSA), a damaging infection common in hospitals. The potion was used a thousand years ago in Viking times. Notably, the "cure" was used to treat a simple stye, a common eye complaint in that era. The concoction was found in a book called Bald's Leechbook. Though the title is rather off putting there is a lot of truth in it. Work is gathering apace with the formation of the AncientBiotics Project. This was the first attempt at testing an ancient remedy. The future looks promising based on this positive finding. Apparently, medieval medicine was not all quackery. Though misguided by blood letting many of the po...

It is always a worry when drug manufacturers and pharmacists force themselves on decision-making bodies. Self interest rules both groups. Drug manufacturers want to increase sells and raise prices by " hook or by crook ". Pharmacists want to hold onto their monopoly provided first by a piece of paper provided by a college and secondly by the government paymaster. Pharmacists are like real estate agents - there is one on every street corner. In a competitive market this shouldn't be the case. Skills learned at university in chemistry is never used. Everything today is prepackaged. An unskilled person could do the job. They even want to do the work of doctors extending prescription repeats. The Victorian Pharmaceutical Misuse Summit includes the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. They want to bring in a medication monitoring system to reduce the number of drug overdoses. Being cynical, confiscation would be an ideal tact to increase sales. But aren't over...

Perhaps the drive to ban drugs is misplaced. The war is being lost anyway. Since the 1960s research on psychedelic drugs has been frowned upon. However, recent findings show benefits from imbibing these chemicals which come mainly from mushrooms. Psychedelics alter perception so that an individuals sees strange things that are not there. A side benefit is an improvement in mood. Anxiety and depression tend to disappear. Research in the US and Europe is really taking off. Oddly, although the drugs have been banned they are not addictive. Australia is not following the lead. It is still stuck in the past with talk about psychedelics being hushed up. A further problem is that chemicals derived from mushrooms and cacti are not patentable. There is no big money in it. The harm done by regular intake of psychedelics is near zero. Quite different from the common belief. Many of the elderly suffer from psychological problems. If these can be solved by putting the aged into a be...

How can the state pay for drugs that are shown to be effective against disease but cost far too much? Regularly, someone will be on a current affairs television program and point their finger at the government for not continuing to supply their needed medication. In the long term a government must balance the books. There is simply not enough revenue to provide new expensive drugs. A new treatment for melanoma called Ipilimumab is very effective, but it costs $120,000 for a three month course. It stops the cancer from spreading beyond the skin. Ipilimumab can also be used to treat some types of lung cancer. Should the government subsidize this drug? Like all medications there are side effects that can be severe in some patients. Symptoms include constipation, diarrhea, urination complications, bloating, stomach pain, fever and breathing difficulties. The drug usually extends life by several months. In some cases patients survive for a year. A value judgement is needed to d...

When you go into hospital for an operation you either get a "feel good" pain clinician who believes that no one should be in pain when medications are available, or you get an "ethical" physician who gives pain relief when he/she deems it to be "right". The problem is moral judgement differs from person to person. Another issue is - Can pain be a disease in itself? Some calculate the failure to treat pain in working days lost. The problem is, taking analgesics will reduce some pain from the flu, for example, but you are still too sick to work. Furthermore, taking high levels of analgesics can make for a euphoric state where one does not want to work. Looking at it in terms of days lost is questionable. Specialists are also calling for pain relieving medications to be shipped in large amounts to poorer countries where medical treatment is not widely available. Considering the drug problem in virtually all countries, this may not be a good thing to do. I...

A new cancer drug has been announced by Cancer Therapeutics CRC in Melbourne. CTx-294886 is to be used in conjunction with another medication, Avastin. Furthermore, a new type of scanning has been developed by the same company. It will identify protein homeostasis, a new pathway in cancer treatment. CTx-0294886 stops tumour growth by inhibiting Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor 3 (VEGFR3). This with Avastin reduces angiogenesis, slowing tumor growth in breast cancer. Examination of effects in head, neck and cervical cancers is ongoing. The company has already developed a primary anti-cancer medication, CTx-294945). Both drugs can now be used to prolong life when dancer is detected. Research was done with the assistance of Australian and international institutions. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ htt...

Not all psychopaths are locked up in prison for committing crimes. Many are still out there in the community. Often one comes across a person who seems strange and does not respond to normal social cues. Psychopaths have no empathy with others, so one does nothing and can do nothing until a crime is committed. The "disease" is now thought to be genetic. Psychopaths will soon be able to be identified by a DNA test. It is possible that in the future all criminals will be tested. What to do with them after they are identified will be a major problem for society. Are they to be locked up for a longer time, or will they go to an institution where they will be given medication and psychiatric treatment? It could be some time before medical knowledge reaches the point where the "bad" genes can be silenced or eliminated. Furthermore, having some psychopaths in society may be an evolutionary imperative. Most of these people do not know if another person is angry o...

Fungal infection is the most difficult thing to treat.  Taking medication and applying ointment may seem to solve the problem - for a while.  Unfortunately, the skin may appear to be free of infection but it is still there and will reappear. It is not commonly known that deaths from fungal infection are higher than all the deaths from malaria and tuberculosis.  Treatment for other ailments can involve immunossuppressive medication.  This allows fungal infections to run wild.  You would think there is enough demand and money for pharmaceutical companies to develop better anti-fungal drugs.  However, sufferers do not know how deadly the "disease" can be, so they are not prepared to pay a high price for new treatments.  This is despite the fact that fungal infection can appear in any part of the body. Unfortunately, the World Health Organization shows little interest in the problem.  Doctors also tend to brush aside fungal infections when examinin...

People are taking more prescription drugs. Western countries including Australia make them easy to obtain because they are heavily subsidized. As developing countries move forward they too are inclined to make medications available to everyone. We take it for granted that all medicines will be "out there" ready to buy. Last year in the US 196 common drugs were in short supply. Less than 100 ran short in 2006. Most of the medications were for anaesthetic, cancer or anti-infection use. Recently, shortages became apparent in Australia. Use of alternative drugs is not ideal. Side effects and less effective treatment occur. It seems pharmaceutical manufacturers are only interested in producing products with safe patents that have high profit margins. When patents expire and governments want cheap generic drugs they are becoming harder to obtain. Governments are economically inelastic when it comes to what they will pay. They offer drug companies a fixed amount - tak...

First we have a clean childhood leading to Crohn's disease. Now we have cleanliness causing type 1 diabetes. Both, apparently, are caused by the same thing - the lack of "bugs" in the stomach. In the case of Crohn's disease it is the absence of worms. With diabetes it is too few bacteria. Tests on mice showed that a completely germ free environment when young increased the frequency of mice developing type 1 diabetes. Much fewer mice got diabetes when exposed to bacteria. Future treatment could involve people taking medication containing bacteria. Potential sufferers of diabetes can already be identified by testing their genetic make-up. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Health

As if we aren't taking enough medication, "combination" pills are now being made. Normal healthy people don't need to take "just in case" medication. After all anyone could be knocked down by a car and killed. Furthermore, many medications clash with each other producing dangerous chemicals when mixed. The latest polypill is for heart attacks. It contains statins, aspirin, and two blood pressure drugs. Tests show that the incidence of heart attacks can be reduced by half if the multi-pill is taken regularly due to lower cholesterol and blood pressure. It is also claimed that colon cancer will be less frequent in test subjects, which seems rather odd considering the slim relationship between cholesterol and cancer. If a person is fit and healthy it would probably be wise to leave things as they are because all medications have side effects, and tests done so far are only looking at short term results. Tests were only for 12 weeks. How can one draw such...

Pharmacists should stay out of health treatment and do what they do best - glorified clerks. They have no training in curing disease. Their education is solely based on chemical analysis. They are scientists not physicians. Ask their advice and they tell you what is written on the packet. Now the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia is saying pharmacists are qualified to treat people with mental illness. They may "give" drugs to such patients but they do not prescribe them. Heaven help us if they get involved will-nilly in advising those with mental disorders. Having someone continually talking in your ear about how to take your prescription medicine it not going to help one recover. Doctors need direct contact with a patient to give the greatest assistance. Having a pharmacist in the middle is only going to mess things up. A mental patient is already stressed. Saying pharmacists will reduce medication errors is implying that they have qualifications to oversee physi...

Everything in society is controlled to make it safe, right? Wrong! Herbal medicine can be consumed freely without restriction even if it kills you. Try to buy opiates which can be taken for a lifetime without harm and all sorts of restrictions apply. Drug addicts die of illnesses such as aids and hepatitis. Recent tests were done on an Australian who took Ayervedic medicines. His body had eight times the maximum safe level of lead in it. The mistake he made on a visit to India has ruined his life. Ayervedid herbs are normally contaminated with heavy metals. Whether this part of their "healing" function is not known. Imagine taking lead, arsenic and mercury, daily. In Australia, Indian and Chinese herbs are monitored for dangerous levels of heavy metals. That's where it ends: the efficacy of the "medication" is not tested. You can buy such herbs on the Internet from countries where product quality is not regulated. It is surely time for the herbal medicine mark...

There are some good points about global warming. If you live off leaf vegetables you won't go hungry. Weeds and vegetables such as cabbage and lettuce grow much better with more carbon in the environment. Grass will also be thicker and grow faster, so cattle will fatten-up quicker. The problem is herbicides will no longer be effective in controlling weeds. With the price of fuel going up this means they will have to be removed by hand in the future - a very arduous and expensive process. It is conceivable that more herbicide will be used. This will pollute the environment. Diclofenac a chemical to reduce inflammation in humans and animals was widely used in India for cattle. The native vulture was nearly wiped out by consuming dead cattle carcases. More chemicals use is quite frightening. Similar disasters will probably occur. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia http://www.technorati....

With probably one of the best prescription medicine schemes in the world which is heavily subsidized it is surprising that many people do not take their medications when they should. A third of patients just forget to take them. An odd finding is that 67 per cent do not usually miss a dose but 71 per cent take less than the prescribed amount. New schemes where pharmacists give advice will probably not help because listening now does not affect behavior later. Hospital admissions due to taking more and less than the prescribed medication amount will continue. With the pressures of daily life people seem to have more important concerns than their health. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia http://www.technorati.com/blogs/http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com ~~~~~ Health ~~~~~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Major medical advances are a long time coming. Development of a reliable blood sugar level monitoring method for type 1 diabetes is a case in point. It has been claimed as a revolutionary achievement. It consists of a monitor connected to an insulin pump. With all the money being poured into research this should have been done years ago. Heart surgery hasn't moved much further forward than the first transplant in South Africa decades ago. Stents are still the primary treatment. The number of heart transplant recipients remains very small indeed. Artificial hearts are still not safe enough for general use. Cancer shrinking techniques have been identified but they have not been perfected. DNA treatment is a long way down the track. Much hope had been raise over stem cell research. This has slowed right down. Surgical "tricks' have been done in one-off procedures. Getting them into general hospital systems is not happening though. Drug companies are pushing very expensive med...