Adventure Ausrama Blog

The trade deal between Australia and China is off to a bad start. Australia becomes an open market for quack traditional Chinese medicine. China is already responsible for the demise of African animals because of superstitious beliefs about curative properties of ordinary parts of animal bodies. The trade deal between Australia and China is off to a bad start. Australia becomes an open market for quack traditional Chinese medicine. China is already responsible for the demise of African animals because of superstitious beliefs about curative properties of ordinary parts of animal bodies. Australia has not even policed homeopathy properly. Constituents are diluted into insignificance where they cannot possibly have any effect. They are harmless at best. Homeopaths live well on treatment based on a mythical foundation. Under the agreement between China and Australia Chinese herbalists will be allowed to register and set up shop in Australia without any accreditation.

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

Professor Alpha Yap has received the Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology President's Medal. That is some title. It is also the scientists real name. His research is very important. It involves the way the body "glues" flesh together. Cells in the body must be able to join together to form separate organs. The gluing must be specific. It cannot be general adhesion because everything would join together and not function property. The substance that controls bonding is cadherin. Diseases such as cancer and even inflammation can stop the gluing action in the body. Lack of cadherin occurs with the onset of cancer. Problems of the intestines like ulcerative colitis and chrohn's disease cause caderin dysfunction which breaks down epithelial barriers. Loss of cadherin could be causal or the result of disease. It is hoped e-cadherin levels in the body can be controlled. This may affect chronic disease and become treatment for seri

If you want to be famous or are driven to it, there may be a cost. Though, I am still not sure if it is statistically proven, it seems that being well know shortens life. Obituaries were examined and they showed that celebrities lives were shorter by a few years. People in physically or mentally stressful occupations such as ex-sportsman and performers had the shortest lives. This was followed by academics and those in medicine. The next group was composers, writers and artists. Those in business and politics lived longer. It is surmised that having fame at a young age then losing it later in life is a burden that shortens lives. This is questionable because many famous celebrities remain so even when they officially retire. It could be that the drive for fame remains into old age and this destroys life. This is closely aligned with a risk taking personality. Life could be shorter due to self-destruction. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.b

The way you feel about yourself and the social environment in general can affect the time taken to recover from surgery. Few tests have really proven this to be fact, however. Existing data were re-examined in an attempt to find a correlation. Relationships were indeed found Depression, anger, anxiety, sadness, loneliness and intramarital tension certainly do not help recovery. Strong religious belief and optimism reduced pain improving healing time. Learning relaxation techniques also helped, as did interaction with a psychiatrist. Though the data points to affects on recovery times, strong correlations were not found. This is rather perplexing. Common sense would indicate improved outcomes with positive outlooks. For the present, medical practitioners will have to accept that the way one feels affects healing without relying too heavily on the findings. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/Adven

Doctors do not know how "recreational" drugs work. Police forces worldwide fight drug abuse, but the battle is being lost. Until medications can be developed to stop the euphoric effects almost immediately the battle will rage on. There are possible benefits from some of these drugs. For example, magic mushrooms are being tested for treating mental conditions by psychiatrists. Neural circuits in the brain are altered by the use of the drug. What actually happens though was unknown, until now. It was thought that dormant brain cells were being activated, the ones that are used during sleep. It has been discovered, however, that blood flow to the brain is decreased when psilocybin is used. MRIs showed blood flow reductions to the thalamus and cortical regions. The front and back of the brain are separated when the drug is taken. Primary sensory areas still retained good blood flow, while higher association regions became "starved" of blood. Previous theo

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

The Australian Prime Minister has awarded Professor Ezio Rizzardo and Professor David Solomon a prize for developing completely new molecules. These link together in chains forming polymers. The making of polymers, polemerization, used to be a crude process. Now it can be done more precisely, tailor-made so to speak. The end of a polymer was stopped from growing by coating it with nitroxide. This enabled knowledge to be gained after three links of growth. Importantly, the polymer could be triggered to start growing again. Different chemicals were applied to the growing polymers to see the effects. By applying what was learned, custom-made polymers were created. Over 60 companies want to make the new material. As well as traditional uses such as tyres and car parts, delivering drugs and products that stop evaporation are also planned. Technology is moving at a rapid pace. Even for the specialist it is becoming difficult to keep up with new things. http://www.adventure--aus

The war over genetic manipulation of crops and the human body has not yet been won be either side. Recently Greenpeace destroyed a crop of modified wheat that had been genetically altered to raise fiber content which was intended to reduce bowel cancer. Cross contamination of non-modified crops on farms adjacent to land where GM food is grown was given as the reason for the attack. There are many dangers with gene replacement technology: Possible birth defects Anti-biotic resistance Control of patented GM seeds Vertical control of food chain Changes to soil balance Horizontal gene change to related crops Both sides of Australian politics support gene manipulation. Just why this is the case is a big question. Many Australians are troubled by GM use, though not so much by gene treatment in medicine. Like the nuclear power disaster in Japan, one gene related "accident" may end the optimism. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/

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