Adventure Ausrama Blog

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

The call for British born doctors to return "home" to England because the country is short of GPs will fall on deaf ears. Medical professionals have moved to Australia for higher income, better lifestyle and great weather. If the UK wants to keep its doctors it will have to pay them more and make sure there housing is top class. Central heating is a must-have in England. I used to live there and for 365 days a year my feet were cold despite wearing fur-lined boots. The Australian sun is the driving force for people moving here. The cold country cannot offer this. Career breaks for British doctors invariably turn into permanent relocation to a healthier outdoor lifestyle. The only thing that can make immigrants change their mind is a massive increase in income and the British government is not offering much. Talk is cheap and it will not convince ex-patriots. A recruitment drive must offer something significant. Otherwise it will be a waste of money. Doct

With today's technology why can't an artificial pancreas be put into a patient's body? Well, now it can! Xavier Hames is only four years old. Autoimmune disease has destroyed his pancreas. An artificial one is working very well indeed inside his body. The artificial pancreas is more a computer than a body organ. It monitors low insulin levels, even predicting its future trends, then controls insulin delivery. It is particularly useful as night when external insulin treatment can fail resulting in a coma. Preparations are in train to implant another artificial pancreas in an adult, Jane Reid. This could mean an end to eight jabs a day to test blood levels of insulin and continuous injections to control it.  This could save governments millions of dollars in the long term. ✴  Health by Ty Buchanan  ✴ http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com/atom.xml . . . . . .

Euthanasia should be legal. When you are ill and feel that your life is no longer worth living, you should be given access to drugs that can be self-admininstered. It is of no help to society or anyone for that matter to continue painful existence. Even when doctors know you are dying, in Australia you are not taken home to die. Eighty six per cent of Australians die outside of their home. This is despite 70 per cent of people wanting to die at home. There is high demand for medical facilities. Nonetheless, the critically ill are kept in hospitals and residential care against their wishes. More home care is made available in other Western countries to look after dying people at home. Why is this not done in Australia? At present more die at an old age. This state of affairs could change as the young adopt poor lifestyles and medical treatment becomes more privatised. Making wishes known will not alter the state of affairs, because the key to improving matters lie

"Hey!  This is how you treat dogs."   Funny Animal Photos by Ty Buchanan http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com/atom.xml . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Vista Computer Solutions Blog        Australian Blog ★                          ALL BLOG ARTICLES · ──► ( BLOG HOME PAGE) Share Article

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

New cancer "curing" medications are announced to the public all the time. Unfortunately, what you are not told is when they will be available. It isn't much use if you have to wait ten years - if you have cancer you could be dead before then. It is not so much chemicals that attack dangerous "bugs" that are coming to the fore : modified molecules are increasingly being tested. In prostate cancer testosterone attaches to androgen receptors. Activation in this manner allows cancer growth to take place. A helix-mimicking molecule attaches to the particular docking point thus preventing the ideal cancer condition occurring. In animal and human tests protein supporting cancer growth was not produced when the molecules attached. Moreover, it was not found to be toxic to the body. This research opens up a completely new area of treatment. The future looks bright in the fight against cancer - it we can afford to pay for it. http://www.adventure--australia.blo

"I am not well." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos Vista Computer Solutions Blog ------- Australian Blog ------- ALL BLOG ARTICLES · ──► ( BLOG HOME PAGE)

Despite changes in the supply of motor fuel, i.e., the move toward unleaded petrol, high levels of lead in the blood of children is still an issue. In the northern hemisphere there are seasonal fluctuations in levels of lead. Though the general amount of lead present in the environment has fallen, it remains significantly high in the blood of children. Much of the lead released decades ago is still there. The polluted fine particles are swept up into the air in the warmer months of July, August and September. This is the time when children are outside playing their sports. Money would be better spent on "fixing" the suspended lead rather than reducing content in products we use. Finding a way to "lock-in" the lead particles would end the damage to future generations of people. Once lead reaches a high level in the blood it is extremely difficult to reduce. Damage to the brain and nervous system is permanent. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ htt

Drinking alcohol is not an innocent pastime. We know it damages the liver. However, a link has been found between binge drinking and the onset of type 2 diabetes. How it does this is not fully understood. Rats were put on a "diet" of 3 g/kg of alcohol for only three days. Even when the alcohol had completely left their systems insulin resistance was still occurring. The effect lasted 54 hours after ingestion of alcohol had ceased. Impaired adipose tissue and hepatic functions were believed to be the cause. There was more hypothalamic inflammation affecting insulin signaling. There is hope for a treatment. Inhibiting brain protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) can block the detrimental action  on insulin of binge drinking, http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com/atom.xml http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Society Vista Co

Australians are so obsessed about staying out of the sun to prevent skin cancer that the number of people getting osteoporosis is increasing. This is a sad consequence of a positive behavior change. Osteoporosis would not be a problem if more people took calcium tablets with vitamin D each day. Unfortunately, many would rather spend their money on other things. The disease affects young people as well as the elderly. The Nepean Consensus Statement meeting has been praised for making the disease more widely known. However, money spent on such activities is wasted, considering you can treat yourself without actually being diagnosed with the disease. Developing "fancy" management practises is unnecessary. Giving calcium and vitamin D to the elderly who already suffer with osteoporosis is a waste of time, because once you have the disease it cannot be cured. A person need not adopt a calcium rich diet: calcium and vitamin D in tablet form are easily absorbed by the body. Eve

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 examining patients.  If asked, doctor

Australia has the highest rate of melanoma in the world. People will not listen. Many still regularly tan themselves in the sun or even go to solariums. Any improvement in treating melanoma is sorely needed in this country. Tumors put up defences against drugs that aim to destroy them. Combining drugs can break down these barriers. A new kind of anti-melanoma drug, the BRAF inhibitor, has been developed. It is not a "golden bullet". Life expectancy can be increased from 8 months to 15 months. Better results have been obtained by combining BRAF with another inhibitor called MEK. They slow down the growth of the cancer. Some tumor were shrunk. Though the tests were done on only 24 patients, improvement in treatment is promising. 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 . . . . . . . . . .

Gene therapy for brain injuries and illnesses may be a good thing, but this treatment changes the shape of brain cells. Researchers in Western Australia say there is nothing to worry about because damaged brain cells regenerate or live longer. They say this when there is no proof that in the long term everything will be alright. They say it is wonderful how brains cells function better after nine months of treatment. Apparently, the neurons become round due to new growth-promoting genes that stimulate them. The fact that surrounding genes away from the treatment area also change is in my opinion something to worry about. Obviously, when this occurs it cannot be reversed. Doctors admit that the way neurons deal with information after treatment is never the same again. Furthermore, they suspect that the long-term effects may not be beneficial to the patient. It is a good thing that researchers are looking for a way to stop gene therapy in its tracks if anything goes wrong. htt

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

Kidney transplants could soon be a thing of the past. It will soon be possible to take kidney cells from a patient, reprogram them, then put the rejuvenated cells back in. Sharon Ricardo of Monash University has taken cells from a person's kidney and made them into progenitors that will develop into healthy kidney cells. In China kidney cells have been isolated in urine. These cells are perfectly okay for reprogramming. The process is called induced pluripotency. Transplanting the new healthy cells will also enable further study into the causes of kidney disease. Kidney transplantation is a drain on health resources worldwide. This new treatment will save millions of dollars. Success in treating kidney disease will lead to similar applications for other diseases. This could impact on health treatment in the future, revolutionizing health care. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustral

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