Memory Restoration

"We all have good days and bad days, times when we're foggy or when we're sharp."
"We found that jostling the system when it's in a low-functioning state can jump it to a high-functioning one."
"We find there's even more variability during retrieval than encoding more potential to increase performance." 

"It’s one thing to go back through your data, and find that the stimulation works. It’s another to have the program run on its own and watch it work in real time."

"Now that the technology is out of the box, all sorts of neuro-modulation algorithms could be used in this way."Michael Kahana, psychology professor, University of Pennsylvania

"We have good evidence that things like nicotine and aerobic exercise improve some aspects of attention."
"The stimulation may be activating some of the same systems, only more directly and precisely."
Zach Hambrick, professor of psychology, Michigan State University

"One woman in her sixties got to where she could recall more than one hundred words in correct order."
"That ability didn't transfer to any improvement in general cognition, like the ability to concentrate, to store new information without using the technique, or speed of processing."
David Balota, researcher, Washington University, Missouri

A magnetic resonance image of an epileptic brain. Scientists have tested a brain implant on people with epilepsy that aided memory. Credit Bsip/UIG, via Getty Images

It was revealed in February in the journal Nature Communications that scientists had developed a brain implant whose purpose is to boost memory. Yet another piece of bioscience coupled with advanced technology to aid people suffering from serious memory loss. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson University studied decades of work devoted to the decoding of brain signals with the use of the most advanced techniques of machine learning.

The result was the development of a new implant represented by an array of electrodes embedded deep in the brain to monitor electrical activity -- somewhat like a peacemaker in that it can deliver a stimulating pulse when required and that would be when the brain struggles to store new information. It is felt that this device may provide support to people with extreme thought deficits and in so doing radically improve their lives.

For others, with normal brain function and thought processes, the central discovery advancing the device; that a wandering brain can be boosted to make it more alert -- already has resonance for people have been stimulating their brains and minds on their own, somewhat less formally and invasive in the technical-engineering sense, by using caffeine, nicotine, prescription drugs, and when all else fails, a brisk run in fresh air around green trees, to clear the mind and boost brainpower.

Some individuals have remarkable memories capable of storing data and retrieving it at will. Those who score high in memory tests depend on cues specific to their memory capabilities, thought to be partially inherited -- though psychologists appear to believe that almost anyone is capable of expanding a native ability, using techniques to mentally arrange new names, facts or words linked to a familiar place.

Science Alert

Researchers at Washington University in Missouri conducted a study where fifty older adults were trained to memorize word lists, with the use of location imagery. Building on the capacity to recall lists of facts using either imagery-based training or with the use of a brain implant may appear to those with normal memories to be without value; on the other hand, those suffering from serious deficits may find enormous value in the new brain implant technology.

According to the researchers involved in discussions on commercializing the technology, the device could correct injuries by aiding in listing and recalling critical life-enhancing details. As, for example, whom to contact for aid, how to use the telephone, keeping everyday but vital information foremost in mind. Perhaps the simple expedient of making reminder notes clear and concise and in handy view hadn't occurred as a simpler, more practical nudge in aiding memory...??

On the other hand, scientists looking to the future are perhaps likelier to switch the technology to the efficiency and practicality of memory retrieval, instead of mere memory storage.

Brain activity    SCIEPRO / Getty Images

Inflight Medical Emergencies Best Practice

"Every health-care professional is likely to hear this call at some point when flying, but for most of us, treating patients on a plane is a completely unfamiliar scenario."
"When you're in a moment of crisis, you don't really want to be learning about what you have [available on board a plane] to help you."
"We want more physicians and health-care professionals to read this [Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ)] article and gain some comfort in their ability to approach a medical problem on an aircraft."
Dr. Alun Ackery, emergency physician, St.Michael's Hospital, Toronto

"Each airline's kit [first aid medical kit] is going to look different, and the contents aren't always going to be familiar, which adds another layer of complexity to an already stressful situation."
Dr. David Kodama, emergency medicine president, University of Toronto

"[Physicians are encouraged under the organization's code of ethics to provide] whatever assistance they can to any person with an urgent need for medical care."
"But there's no law or regulation except in Quebec that requires a physician to do this. And it's very different if you're in Canada versus, say, over Russian airspace or sub-Saharan African airspace or American airspace what your liability may or may not be."
"You have to make a judgement whether to participate and then sometimes make life and death decisions in a very less than optimal environment, with or without the necessary equipment."
"And you can't sort of stop to say which airspace are we in?"
Dr. Jeff Blackmer, vice-president of professionalism, Canadian Medical Association

Number one cause of medical emergencies on commercial flights is lightheadedness/loss of consciousness, a new report states.    Photo: Nicolas Russell

World wide, an estimated 2.75 billion passengers fly yearly on commercial airlines. Figures for 2015 confirm that there were about 133 million flyers in Canada, representing a 27 percent increase over passenger flight numbers for 2009. Increasing numbers of passengers explains in part a recognized rising incidence of in-flight medical emergencies, with estimates ranging from one per every 604 flights, to one per 7,700 passengers.

Of in-flight medical emergencies, the top five incident causes are listed as light-headedness/loss of consciousness; respiratory symptoms; nausea or vomiting; cardiac distress; and seizures. Given the number of such incidences and their growing occurrences in lock-step with increased passenger air traffic, it is unclear what a doctor's ethical and legal obligation is to come forward when a call goes out for flight medical aid. Some instances of Canadian doctors facing lawsuits after attempts to give aid to sick passengers on flights have occurred.

The Canadian Medical Protective Association provides legal defence and liability protection to doctors but it stops short of of blanket coverage in such cases; even so such protection as is available is determined on a case-by-case basis. Brought into consideration as another element in a somewhat complex issue is which country's airspace the events occur within.

Dr. Blackmer has had his own experience in responding to appeals for medical assistance for a fellow passenger, and acknowledges that doctors struggle with the issue of their ethical responsibilities weighted against the potential of legal backlash.

The issue of urgent medical situations calling on medical personnel who just happen to share flights with other passengers who become ill has been a vexing one for the profession. Efforts to treat someone suddenly becoming ill in poorly illuminated and cramped aircraft confinement represents a daunting proposition, all the more so when a physician has no prior knowledge what inflight medical equipment will be available to him or her.

Dr. Ackery, along with Dr. Kodama undertook to produce in collaboration with Air Canada and WestJet -- both of which carry comprehensive first aid kits -- a compendium of best-case-scenario reactions, recommendations whose purpose it is to guide doctors in both their decision-making and subsequent actions undertaken to come to the aid of distressed passengers. Their recommendations were published in the latest issue of the CMAJ.

The cramped quarters of an airplane can be a stressful environment for a doctor onboard who responds to a medical emergency   CMAJNews

A standard of best-practise response, and a standardized medical kit to be carried by airlines, containing various medications, saline, blood-pressure cuff, stethoscope and allied basic medical equipment. Bearing in mind also that the airplane interior alters the responses of certain equipment in that diagnostic results become more difficult to assess. When, for example, a patient's normal oxygen saturation is lower at altitude than on the ground. Aircraft sound may also interfere with accurate blood pressure reading; use of the cuff and stethoscope become more complicated.

Add to that the fact when physicians travel they are no different in their behaviour than any other airline passenger; they kick back, relax and think of matters other than  medical response. If a doctor on board a flight indulges in a few alcoholic drinks, has been suddenly jostled awake in the middle of the night, the result may be impaired judgement. Under which influence it is entirely conceivable their emergency reaction could produce more harm than help.

"So you can't have a black-and-white statement that says doctors have an absolute ethical obligation ... It's much more nuanced and complicated than that", explained Dr. Blackmer.

New recommendations intended to help doctors feel more comfortable providing emergency medical aid on flights have been published in the Canadian Medical Journal.  (Todd Korol / REUTERS file photo)

Sources of Atmospheric Pollution

"You can see these really rapid decreases in tailpipe emissions [reflecting automakers' newer tehnologies reducing volatile organic compounds in automobile emissions]."
"It just made sense to start looking at other sources and seeing whether they could be growing in relative importance."
"The use of these products emits VOCs in a magnitude that's comparable to what comes out of the tailpipe of your car. One of the main reasons for this is that in the U.S., as well as in Europe, air quality regulations have been really successful at controlling emissions from motor vehicles."
"In some ways, this is a good news story that, as we control some of the bigger sources in the past, the other sources are emerging in relative importance, such as these consumer products."
Brian McDonald, scientist, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science, University of Colorado, Boulder

"[Gasoline is] stored in an airtight tank, it's burned for energy, and converted mostly to carbon dioxide."
"But these volatile organic compounds [VOCs] that you use in everyday products -- even though it may just be a teaspoon or a squirt or a spray [e.g., paint, perfume, deodorant] -- the majority of those kinds of compounds will ultimately end up in the atmosphere, where they can react and contribute to both harmful ozone formation and small-particle formation."
"But whether it's synthetic or natural, once it gets into the atmosphere it's incredibly reactive."
"One of the things that we're hoping the public takes away from this [study conclusion] is that our energy sources and the consumer products we use every day are continually changing the composition of our atmosphere."
Jessica Gilman, research chemist, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S.

Getty Images

Another study, another revelation, another piece of the puzzle to contend with, but how to resolve such issues when they reflect ordinary, everyday-use products contributing to harmful atmospheric emissions is another thing altogether. A new study published recently in the journal Science, releases data discovered by researchers that further complicates the issue of how our energy consumption and use of consumer products contribute to environmental degradation, but there is scarcely a hint of how we should react to alleviate the problem. Other than: STOP!

That being an unlikely solution to a mounting problem, we can only wonder how it is, why it is, and when the full force of our interference with the natural processes of nature will finally culminate to haunt us beyond recognition. The study finding where researchers discovered that petroleum-based chemicals used in perfumes, paints and a myriad of other consumer products can, in the aggregate, emit as much air pollution in the form of VOCs, as motor vehicles, certainly comes as an unwelcome surprise.

It is these very same VOCs' interaction with other particles circulating in the atmosphere to create the presence of smog (ozone) capable of triggering asthma and permanently scar lungs, alongside the production of yet another type of pollution identified as PM2.5 fine particles linked to heart attacks, strokes and lung cancer, informing us in no uncertain terms that we are in the process, through living and using ordinary consumer products, of killing ourselves. Not a very happy thought, to be sure.

Ordinarily when we think of smog, we automatically associate its production with the operation of vehicles. Since the 1970s, however, regulators have mandated automobile producers to invest in cleaner technologies, a process that succeeded in substantially reducing VOC pollution from trucks and automobiles.  Which has left a rising share of air pollution caused by pesticides and hair products in lock-step with reduced pollution caused by cars.

The invisible pollutants arising from the use of spray deodorants or from body lotions have been under the radar until this study's findings. A measurement of VOCs in Los Angeles indicated concentrations of petroleum-based compounds appearing at levels substantially more elevated than what could be attributed to fossil-fuel sources alone. Ethanol concentrations were, for example, about five times higher than expected, and they appeared to be on the increase.

According to Dr. McDonald and his colleagues the marked difference in how much of pollutants emitted from lotions and paint products ended up in the air was striking. They point out that though far more gasoline is used than the suspect products, the gasoline is kept in a confined area that mitigates against its being dispersed into the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide emissions from household products on the other hand are found not to be smog-forming; even so they are recognized as a major driver of human-caused climate change.

The researchers discovered that forty percent of the chemicals added to consumer products end up dispersed into the air.

A computer model simulating air quality in Los Angeles was constructed with data from the chemical composition of consumer goods and tailpipe emissions included. With this model, researchers were able to identify the fingerprints of the chemical compounds emitted from personal care products and were enabled to estimate how many VOCs from paints and finishes within buildings were released to the outside world.

The conclusion was that about fifty percent of the VOCs in Los Angeles' air quality could be attributed to consumer products.

Those believing that a solution might conceivably rest in turning to "natural" products would have to be advised that the researchers feel this to be no solution at all, since one class of compounds called terpenes included in many cleaning products for its pine or citrus smell can come naturally from oranges, or alternately be synthetically produced. Natural compounds are responsible for the blue haze formed by terpenes emitted from trees in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Appalachia, as an example.

Tens of thousands of chemicals are used in consumer products. Research has yet to identify which chemicals are most likely candidates for the formation of ozone or PM2.5 particles. 

"This research is a useful reminder that discussions of air pollution need to consider all sources of pollutants and that measures targeting cars only address part of the problem."
"Engineering changes to car exhausts have dramatically reduced the amount of pollution produced per mile, meaning that (a) there is now less to be gained from further changes to cars and (b) the public need more information on how their activities, apart from driving, contribute to current pollution levels."
Anthony Frew, professor of respiratory medicine, Brighton & Sussex Medical School, UK

Image caption Los Angeles: For these particular types of compound, motor vehicles are not the only culprit  David Iliff

Illness Clues From the Inside-Out

"We can detect subtle cues related to the skin, eyes and mouth. And we judge people as sick by those cues."
"[While there is some evidence that an unhealthy person emits odours another individual can identify as illness] the face is our primary source of social information for communication."
"People did not really become sick from [research-induced injections] the bacteria."
"The change of skin colour seemed to be the most robust [signal of illness]. We are trying to tap into these first cues."
John Axelsson, Karolinska Institute, Sweden

"[No one had studied whether humans can sense] experimentally induced sickness [by looking at faces]; sickness judgements turn out to be far more reliable [than other visual judgements -- gauging a person's personality from a neutral expression, as example]."
"We will be much better as other cues come into play, helping resolve any ambiguity. A sick person will likely become withdrawn from conversation and would hunch up."
David Perrett, psychologist, researcher, University of St. Andrews, Scotland

Can you spot the sick person? The face on the left shows a sick person and the right shows a healthy person. Audrey Henderson/St Andrews University

Judging from his comments Dr. Perrett, who was not involved in the Swedish research, is clearly intrigued with the findings of this new study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Dr. Axelsson makes a comparison between humans sensing illness in others and the evident capacity of other animal species to do just that with their 'more finely tuned disease radars', specifically those of odour.

Animals can sniff out sickness in other animals. One example, that of a Canadian hospital that undertook the assistance of an English springer spaniel trained to identify through smell bacterial spores that infect patients. There is evidence that dogs can be trained to sniff out the emergent presence of cancer cells. Evidence exists that in an unhealthy state, individuals emit odours which an alert other person can recognize as illness.

The research team that studied the thesis out of which their findings produced the recently published study was comprised of neuroscientists and psychologists in both Germany and Sweden. The team used a molecule found in bacterial membranes to inject eight men and eight women participating in their study with a view to examining their reactions. The injected substance, lipopolysaccharide, is known to elicit strong reactions in its presence from mammals and even insects.

The bodies of the test subjects would not know that the injected bacteria weren't attacking the body, and their immune systems reacted just as they were meant by nature to do, to eject the foreign substance. That reaction resulted in feelings of sickness on the part of the test subjects who were photographed two hours and ten minutes post-injection, coinciding with the time that most study participants stated they felt unwell. All of whom were photographed again, after  having received a placebo injection of saline solution on a different occasion.

The researchers then enlisted the reaction of sixty students recruited from Stockholm-located universities to assess the photographs. The portraits were examined by the students one after the other, with a sick face and a healthy face from the same individual appearing non-consecutively. Five seconds' time was allotted to view and assess each photograph, to identify the individual appearing in the photograph to be either healthy or ill, according to the viewers' perceptions.

On a scale of 0.5 to 1,0.5 representing completely random, the observers managed an average score of 0.62; the accuracy rate was judged to be well above sheer chance in correct observations. In three subject photographs the differences in healthy or ill appeared almost indistinguishable to the students, despite which the balance of 13 others were reliably and accurately judged as sick, (800 correct conclusions of the total 1.215 images presented).

Yet another group of 60 students was tasked to rate pale lips, droopy mouths or other possibly telltale features in the portraits -- resulting in skin colour being the most obvious symptom of an ill individual. Heavy eyelids also rated as an influential cue related to illness. The researchers noted that when observing a familiar face accuracy is heightened since one is familiar with normal colouration of a known individual's complexion.

Dr. Axelsson's considered opinion is that observing disease is a learned behaviour. And, of course, one might expect that those involved in the medical community, observing and diagnosing, would be most skilled at recognizing illness in the outward signs available on a face reflecting lack of wellness. Despite which, Dr. Axelsson plans to take his research one step further; to study whether indeed doctors and other medical professionals are more accurate in rating sick faces than untrained individuals.

Rescuing Woodland Caribou, Abandoning Wolves

"It's a funny feeling [as a retired Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry biologist] to know the ones you're moving [caribou] are going to make it, and the ones you're leaving [wolves] aren't."
Gord Eason, Michipicoten Island

"I was thinking about that [the proximity of variant-tasked helicopters, their crews waiting for action]. It's not the time to miss the shot ... It's important. There's a lot of people watching. There's a lot of money [involved in the enterprise]."
"At some point in my mind, I said, OK, I've done this hundreds of times before ... Just focus on the caribou..."
Serge Couturier, retired biologist

Biologist Serge Couturier fires a net gun at the airport in Wawa, Ont., earlier in February in preparation for the relocation of Michipicoten Island caribou. Supplied

Serge Couturier, with experience in the use of a net invented in New Zealand -- with the appearance of a shotgun but which shoots not lead, but a net that spreads wide to aid in the capture of wild animals, was waiting to do his part in the round-up of what is left of a onc-numerous herd of Michipicoten Island caribou. The large beasts that once roamed the island unmolested after their human-inspired introduction as a colonizing herd, have been hunted out relentlessly.

Not by human agency, but by the happenstance of a small pack of wolves swimming out to this southern Ontario island and finding it a perfect place for a population of wolves. Wolves well-fed by hunting the woodland caribou that had proliferated from the initial ten in the space of three decades to close to 700 of the species. And then that population was devastated by the wolf pack that had accessed the island over an ice bridge in 2014.

These wolves have been so efficient as an organized killing machine that they managed in a period of four years to reduce the caribou population close to its original size. Twenty caribou are now left on the island, matching the number of wolves in number. It was decided that culling the wolves would be more difficult than an operation mounted to rescue the caribou. Of course, removing those 20 caribou would leave the wolves with no prey and the obvious prospect of starvation.

A Woodland Caribou on Michipicoten Island. Trouble began for the Michipicoten caribou in late 2013 or early 2014 when the waters around the island froze over, creating a rarely formed ice bridge to the mainland. Four wolves took advantage of the conditions and trekked 15 kilometres to the island, where they found a thriving herd of nearly 700 caribou.  (Christian Schroeder / file photo)

In the absence of prey the wolves would be destined to die; the remaining 20 caribou would last not very long in any event; the decision to remove the caribou to give them the opportunity to recover their numbers and thrive elsewhere obviously hastens the wolf population's disappearance. And then the island's original state void of any such animal herds would be restored.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry in consultation with the Michipicoten First Nation formulated a rescue evacuation of the caribou in January with the intention of capturing nine of the caribou and to transfer them to the more remote, aptly named, Caribou Island. One helicopter was used to find the caribou, a second to capture one in a net fired from a net gun while a third and larger helicopter was to transfer the caribou to the wolf-free Caribou Island.

"They call them ghosts of the woods. They're so elusive", explained Chayse Penno, a member of the Michipicoten First Nation who had joined the capture team as a critical member whose expertise in untangling nets as a commercial fisherman, would be invaluable. It took some time before the first helicopter crew spotted tracks, then three female caribou.

The helicopter with Couturier and his net gun was radioed, and when the caribou emerged from the forest, Couturier was in the air, on the floor of the helicopter, net gun at the ready. When the caribou began to run, Couturier prompted the pilot to match the caribou speed. "Stay focused on this one -- OK, go over it", he directed, aiming the gun and firing.

"Like when we're shooting ducks: never shoot the ducks, shoot in front of the ducks", explained Couturier. "It was a perfect shot". The first of five successful captures when the gun shot a capsule which exploded into a net, fanning out to cover and capture the animal. The laborious process was repeated to trap and transport four females and one male. Another, second male will join them; the makeup of a new herd on Caribou Island.

"We think we've enabled that population to persevere", commented the ministry's director of science and research, who initially felt the mission might not succeed. Yet holding it to represent "the fiscal responsibility of government".

A caribou is released after being flown to the Slate Islands in Lake Superior. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry

The Complexity of the Argument on Polar Bears

"Polar bear experts who falsely predicted that roughly 17,300 polar bears would be dead by now [given sea ice conditions since 2007] have realized their failure has not only kicked their own credibility to the curb, it has taken with it the reputations of their climate change colleagues."
Susan Crockford, adjunct professor, University of Victoria, polarbearscience.com

"Emaciated, it [starving bear] stumbled across a green Arctic  landscape without a speck of snow or ice in sight ... Media outlets seized on the video as an example of how climate change is killing its poster child. But behind the headlines is an awkward question: have climate change activists chosen the wrong mascot?"
"The polar bear population [with rising temperatures in the Arctic and less ice] should have crashed. It hasn't. If anything, numbers are up compared with ten years ago."
"The species is not at immediate risk of extinction."
British environment writer, Fred Pearce, New Scientist magazine

"There’s no doubt about what’s happening to Arctic sea ice … but their populations aren’t declining as was once expected."
"We’re way past being able to make generalizations … but a whole lot of people have a lot of positions staked on that, and that’s where things get politicized."
"The problem is, we could go along for some time thinking everything’s fine, and then populations fall off a cliff."
Douglas Clark, University of Saskatchewan researcher

"Both scientific data and traditional knowledge prove that nothing threatens our bears [in the Chukotka, Russia region across the Bering Sea from Alaska]."
"During spring counts of dens we often find female bears with three cubs, which proves that the population is in good shape and there is no danger of a decrease in the population."
Yegor Vereshchagin, Russian conservation official, Russian Geographical Society

A polar bear walks on blue ice in the Canadian Arctic

Polar Bears International is holding its 2018 conference on the ongoing environmental threats posed by Global Warming on the international polar bear population. It is also a fund-raising event, a gala to raise funds for the protection of Arctic bears where $15,000 will net a corporate, high-profile table for those willing to sponsor the event and raise funds for this noble environmental battle to save polar bears from the ravages of monumental climate change.

Sponsored by The Globe and Mail, a number of corporations, several Canadian banks it will be a sumptuous occasion of superior food, classy entertainment and good company marking International Polar Bear Day, and drawing applause to Polar Bears International's science-based dedication to sound the alarm for the survival of polar bears. This event is taking place in Yorkville, Toronto, in the Four Seasons Hotel ballroom.

A sister event is simultaneously taking place at  the Toronto Reference Library, Founders' Room, sponsored by the Global Warming Policy Foundation of London, England, where a new report on the state of polar bears is set to be launched. With, alas, no entertainment scheduled, nor food. Those in attendance are there solely for the scientific data set to be released by Dr. Susan Crockford who has published some contraindications for the demise of the polar bear population.

Steven Amstrup, adjunct professor at the University of Wyoming, a leading purveyor of climate change theory that polar bears could be exterminated from the Arctic regions, is the chief scientist at Polar Bears International. In the lead-up to their opposing conferences, Dr. Amstrup launched attacks on Dr. Crockford's science relating to the state of existential health of the Arctic's largest, most ferocious predator, big, white and furry.

Dr. Crockford's recent publication of a critique of Dr. Armstup's casus belli which served as a rallying call for convinced Global Warming enthusiasts has been questioned. The portrayal of the majestic polar bear as an imminently endangered species whose threat to continued existence is identified as human degradation of the environment found a robust response in dedicated believers in human interference in nature.

The paper set to be released by the conference at which Dr. Crockford is the featured speaker will be delivered to an audience of teachers, scientists, students, decision-makers and the general public. The report, titled State of the Polar Bear Report 2017, lays out the argument that global polar-bear numbers have remained stable, or have even increased since 2005, despite a decrease in summer sea ice levels: "Overly pessimistic media responses to recent polar bear issues have made heartbreaking news out of scientifically insignificant events", she concludes.

Andre Forget/QMI Agency

 

 

 

 

"The underlying concept is pretty simple. Bears need sea ice as a platform from which to hunt seals."
"The idea that they are just going to adapt somehow to a largely different ecological environment that they have been evolving into for a few hundred thousand years is simply unrealistic wishful thinking,"
"[Warming is not universal, and is having a unique effect on every region and every polar bear population. But], warming will eventually reach them all unless we are able to slow or stop it in time."
Biologist Ian Stirling, researcher, University of Alberta

Proactive Anti-Oral Health Remedy : Red Wine -- Indulge! ?

"Traditional therapies used for the maintenance of oral health present some limitations, and the search of natural-origin therapies is gaining attention."
Spanish researchers

"Mouthwashes and chewing gums have been proposed as interesting matrices for the application of dietary polyphenols in the management of oral health."
"We tested concentrations in the range normally found in wine - 50 and 10 g/ml."
"Working with cells that model gum tissue we found the two wine polyphenols - caffeic and p-coumaric acids - were generally better than the total wine extracts at cutting back on the bacteria's ability to stick to the cells."
"When combined with Streptococcus dentisani the polyphenols were even better at fending off the pathogenic bacteria."
Dr. Victoria Moreno-Arribas, Spanish National Research Council, Madrid

"It's wonderful, important work. Pretty well every university involved in oral health research is looking at ways to interrupt the process by which plaque adheres and causes dental damage."
"[A test-tube study] is miles from being a product that can be helpful in the real world. But that's how scientific breakthroughs are made."
"The ultimate goal would be to have a rinse or toothpaste or some other dental product that would do both [keep bacteria from adhering to teeth or render it incapable of causing disease]."
"If you remove that sticky layer [conventionally; brushing and flossing at least once daily] nothing else adheres. [Briefly washing red wine alternatively through one's teeth would have little effect] And you still have the alcohol content and other things in wine. I don't think we know what the long-term effects would be."
Dr. Larry Levin, president, Canadian Dental Association

"It's important not to brush your teeth immediately after drinking wine, because the wine is acidic [again, red, white, rosé and even Champagne] and so the enamel can be temporarily softened [wait 30 minutes after your last glass and then brush]."
"We always advise patients to swish around with water in between glasses of wine [to avoid having the acid settle on the teeth]."
Dr. Sivan Finkel, eNews

Chemicals in wine have been found to combat mouth bacteria that potentially causes gum disease   Getty

This week a study produced by a Spanish team of researchers was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The study discovered two polyphenols in red wine to have antioxidant effects appearing to aid in preventing plaque-causing bacteria from forming the sticky films on teeth and gums that we know as plaque, the plague of teeth hygiene maintenance. These natural compounds, according to the researchers, are capable of producing results superior to the conventional methods used in dental hygiene, promoted by the medical-dental community.

How the polyphenols work to reduce the stickiness of accumulated bacteria is unknown as yet. Others in the field caution that the experimental doses appeared much higher in concentration than would normally occur when drinking wine. This is, however, clearly an important step forward in the search for protocols that would aid in combating tooth decay. Cavities and gum disease leading to tooth loss affect 60 to 99 percent of the global population. The bacterial plaque comprised of colonies of bacteria are stubbornly difficult to destroy.

This same Spanish team of researchers earlier grew laboratory cultures of cavity-causing bacteria, then proceeded to immerse the biofilms in various liquids. Red wine turned out the clear winner in destroying the bacteria. Furthermore as the researchers manipulated cells mimicking gum tissue, they discovered two red wine polyphenols in particular; caffeic and p-Coumaric acid to be a vast improvement over total wine extracts in their capacity to disrupt porphyromonas gingivalis and other like bacteria from sticking to gums.

With the addition of 'friendly' bacteria (probiotics) the decay-preventive effects were even more pronounced. The working hypothesis seems to be that metabolites forming when polyphenols are digested in the human mouth may play a vital role. From this important data extracted thus far it is hoped that new treatments may be discovered using these findings as a base. The universal search by scientists for new protocols to keep bacteria from adhering to teeth and gums causing disease has been given a huge boost.

Bottoms up! And rinse afterward. Wait awhile, and brush your teeth....

There are however risks associated with drinking wine due to its acidic content   Getty

 

"Pure", Fresh Water? Caveat Emptor....

"[The goal is to produce water] that is ultra high quality and secure, totally disconnected from all infrastructure."
"Just take a breath of air. Take a deep breath. No matter how wealthy or poor you are, you can take a breath and own that air that you breathe."
"And yet water -- the government brings it to you."
Cody Friesen, founder, CEO Zero Mass Water, California

"You're going to get 99 percent of the bad stuff out. But now you have dead water."
"Real water should expire after a few months.] It stays most fresh within one lunar cycle of delivery."
"If it sits around too long, it'll turn green. People don't even realize that because all their water's dead, so they never see it turn green."
"Tap water? You're drinking toilet water with birth control drugs in them."
"On top of that they're putting in fluoride. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but it's a mind-control drug that has no benefit to our dental health."
Mukhande Singh, founder, Live Water

Live Water

"Without water treatment, there's acute and then chronic risks."
"There's evidence all over the world of this, and the reason we don't have those conditions is because of our very efficient water treatment."
Dr. Donald Hensrud, director, Healthy Living Program, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota

"The natural food industry has been in the dark ages when it comes to water."
"Now there is a renaissance [in the sale of untreated water]."
Seth Pruzansky, CEO, Tourmaline Spring

"It has a vaguely mild sweetness, a nice smooth mouth feel, nothing that overwhelms the flavor profile."
Kevin Freeman, shift manager, Rainbow Grocery cooperative, San Francisco

Catherynne Valente‏Verified account @catvalente

I need you to understand that in this article the Raw Water people are talking about the flavor profile & “mouth feel” of untreated, unfiltered water they found somewhere, for which they charge $36.99 per 2.5 gallons. Spoiler: the mouth feel is giardia, the flavor is dysentery.

8:57 PM - 30 Dec 2017

It's the hugely popular next-to-the-Earth-and-Mother-Nature experience, spurning tap water that has been filtered and treated to remove minute particles of effluent and bacterial content, in the process producing potable liquid safe to drink that modern technology has made possible allowing us to bypass pathogens waiting to pounce and make us ill from their contaminating influences playing havoc with our immune system and bodily defences.

Getting off the water grid complements removing one's lifestyle from all the 'grids' that make modern life secure and comfortable. No end of start-ups have been popping up in the United States promising "raw water" will rejuvenate your taste and your lifestyle, and they will deliver the goods; unfiltered, untreated, unsterilized spring water. Yours to be had for $36.00 each 10 liters, and a mere $14.99 for refills. Rush right over to Live Water.

There's Tourmaline Spring in Maine, Live Water in Oregon, Zero Mass Water in Silicon Valley. With it, you can evade that ubiquitous chemical, fluoride; nor will you be drinking water that has passed through lead pipes. The beneficial minerals that have been filtered out will be yours to imbibe with 'raw' water. Millions of dollars have  gone into funding this fringe phenomenon heading for mainstream culture, thanks to the influence and investment from Berkeley California's Silicon Valley.

You too can have installed a Source system retailing for a mere $4,500 (including installation), that works by drawing moisture from the air to filter it, and produce ten liters of water daily, storing up to 60 liters. Alternately, make your at-home-produced pure water through the use of a reverse osmosis filter. Yet bear in mind, your goal is not to achieve the production of pristine water. You do want to have all the benefits, according to Mukhande Singh, founder of Live Water, of "real water" containing the richness of natural minerals.

On the other hand, Dr. Hensrud points out that E.coli bacteria, viruses, parasites and carcinogenic compounds can all be present in untreated water. As for fluoride, in point of fact science has never identified it with mind-control capabilities, but there is ample scientific evidence through research that it does a bang-up job in aiding dental health. It is, perhaps, mental health that comes top of mind when ruminating over the propensity of people to equate 'natural' with good and 'treated' with threats to health.

Clayoquot Lake, British Columbia   Photo: JSR

Avoiding Post-Surgical Opioid Addiction

"If I could awaken them without any pain whatsoever, I was the slickest guy on the block, and it was a matter of enormous pride."
"It starts with patient expectations, and I think, over the years, patients have come to expect more and more in terms of, 'I don't want any pain after surgery', and it's an unrealistic expectation."
David Alfery, anesthesiologist

"I just wanted my patient not to be in pain, thinking I was doing the right thing for them and certainly not an outlier among my colleagues."
"But now looking back on it, I was putting them at significant risk of developing an addiction to those medications."
"[Now] We will treat the pain, but you should expect that you're going to have some pain. And you should also understand that taking a narcotic [dose so high] that you have no pain, really puts you at risk of becoming addicted to that narcotic."
Mike Schlosser, chief medical officer, HCA division, U.S.A.

"I've had people tell me that the constipation [resulting from opioid use] was way worse than the kidney stone."
"There are lots of other complications from opioids -- nausea, itching, hallucinations, sleepiness. We really need to treat these drugs with respect and give people informed consent. And let people know these are not benign drugs."
Valerie Norton, head, pharmacy and therapeutics council, Scripps Health System, San Diego

"You don't want to portray the fact that you're not going to treat people appropriately."
"We really do have a lot of responsibility and culpability in this burden, and so we have to make sure we do whatever we can to stem this tide and turn the ship in the other direction."
John Young, national medical director of cardiovascular services, LifePoint Health

ER reduces opioid use by more than half with use of dry needles and laughing gas. NPR

On the street I live on, many of the residents in this middle-class suburb of Canada's national capital have had quite serious surgery. There are two people I know rather well, the elder of whom underwent double-bypass heart surgery and mitral valve replacement. At the time of the surgery he was 78, and in very good physical health, other than that at some time, unknown to him, he had suffered a "silent" heart attack that damaged his heart. The other, ten years younger, the year previous had had triple bypass open-heart surgery.

The younger man took longer to recover than the older man. And to this day he uses painkillers each and every day to enable himself to function. The older man, now 81, has fully recovered, and did so fairly speedily. After his open-heart surgery he was given Fentanyl and was later switched to extra strength Tylenol for his return home after hospital discharge. He used Tylenol for a few days then decided he could live with discomfort while healing and set aside painkillers altogether. He soon discovered that the pain was ebbing and eventually faded altogether.

Not everyone is that determined to bypass the potential for addiction to painkillers. North America, with its advanced medical technology and life-saving surgeries has seen a calamitous surge in opioid addiction, not only among recreational drug users who access their drugs illicitly, but among ordinary people who would never otherwise have dreamed they would become addicted to prescription pain killers following surgery and pain avoidance. The numbers of people dying from drug overdoses has overwhelmed communities.

And street trade in Fentanyl and Carfentanil has overwhelmed local health units' capacity to treat drug overdoses. It wasn't long before the finger of blame was pointed directly at doctors at every level prescribing painkillers for their patients, failing to monitor them, and to ensure that dosages fit the circumstances. Medical professionals are now, in the face of mounting concerns over preventable deaths, playing catch-up in assuming responsibility for their earlier laissez-faire attitude over drug prescriptions.

Even dentists have come to realize their part in the all-too-casual prescription of painkillers. Pain treatment, simply put, was institutionalized; patients were informed that yes, they would be undergoing surgery, but not to worry, the pain would be kept under control. Dr. Schlosser, for example, a spinal surgeon working out of an HCA flagship facility in Nashville, practised some of the most painful surgical procedures in medicine, such as correcting back curvature. Starkly aware of the pain his surgery caused, he had been determined to soothe it.

Now, after having studied a vast trove of data, he discovered that orthopaedic and back surgeries' greatest risk is addiction, not infection or other types of complications resulting from surgery. The larges private hospital chain in the U.S. has embarked on a new protocol prior to surgery which includes a type of surgeon-patient conversation he had never imagined having in practising medicine. Informing the patient about to undergo surgery that yes, some level of pain would be controlled, but ultimately it would not be possible to smother it all.

Surgeons must now address the issue of pain resulting from surgeries with their patients pre-surgery. Sparing use of opioids is now the order of the day, and to succeed with this new protocol the hospital must attempt other avenues to finding the most effective combination of non-narcotic medicine while blocking nerves to pain. Post-surgery, it is the job of nursing staff to administer the practicalities of the new protocol.

If a post-surgical patient is observed capable of rousing themselves out of bed and walking and coughing without doubling over, it is an indication they may not require potentially addictive drugs, or high-dosage drugs. All this while being mindful of the need to avoid word-of-mouth warnings from patients who may not feel dreadfully impressed with a hospital where undergoing treatment has greater pain associated with its surgeries.

Cesarean Section's Unforeseen Consequences

"At the moment, breast-feeding is the best and safest way to expose babies born by cesarean to their mother's bacteria."
"Breast milk contains many of the same beneficial bacteria found in a woman's vagina."
"Even small amounts of formula supplementation [can shift the microbiota away from a breast-fed pattern."
Dr. Suchitra Hourigan, pediatric gastoenterologist, director, Inova Translational Medicine Institute, Falls Church, Virginia

"In vaginally-born babies, the bacteria destined for the gut microbiota originate primarily in the maternal birth canal and rectum. Once these bacteria are swallowed by the newborn, they travel through the stomach and colonize the upper and lower intestine, a complicated process that evolves rapidly."
"Infants born by cesarean section—particularly cesareans performed before labor begins—don’t encounter the bacteria of the birth canal and maternal rectum. (If a cesarean is performed during labor the infant may be exposed to these bacteria, but to a lesser degree than in vaginal birth.) Instead, bacteria from the skin and hospital environment quickly populate the bowel. As a result, the bacteria inhabiting the lower intestine following a cesarean birth can differ significantly from those found in the vaginally-born baby."
Dr. Mark Sloan, pediatrician, author of Birth Day: A Pediatrician Explores the Science, the History and the Wonder of Childbirth

Babies born by caesarean section have different gut bacteria to those born conventionally   Lesley Magno/Getty

A Danish study of two million children who were born in the years between 1977 and 2012 concluded that the children born by cesarean delivery were more significantly prone to development of asthma, systemic connective tissue disorders, juvenile arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, immune deficiencies and leukemia. It is well known that babies fed on their mother's breast milk have a certain immunity to some childhood disorders, but this more widespread connection to serious health complications is something else altogether.

There exists now a number of studies that emphatically suggest cesarean deliveries and limited breast-feeding have the potential to completely disturb microorganisms present in a baby's intestines, going some way to explaining the problematical rise of troubling health conditions arising in children and adults; problems inclusive of asthma, allergies, celiac disease, Type 2 diabetes, and obesity. A move to persuade more mothers to set aside plans for cesarean deliveries and to breast feed exclusively for the first six months of a baby's life to ensure the transference of vital bacteria is now underway.

The issue of the bacterial organisms present in an infant's gut is critical for their capacity to perform necessary functions including digesting unused nutrients, producing vitamins, stimulating normal immune development, counteracting the presence of harmful bacterial, along with fostering maturation of the gut. While in utero, babies are exposed to some of these organisms, but it is those encountered during the birth process and the first months of life that have the greatest influence on babies' health futures resulting from their permanent status in the gut.

Vaginally delivered babies acquire the microbes inhabiting their mother's vagina and bowel, while babies surgically delivered before membranes rupture and labor begins, then acquire microbes for the most part from their mother's skin -- as well as from the personnel and environment present in the newborn nursery. In the performance of an emergency cesarean once membranes have ruptured and labor has been initiated, the baby acquires more of the mother's microbes in this scenario, but still vastly less than it would when a vaginal birth takes place.

According to a study that took place in Finland and was published in 2005, these critical differences in the gut microbiota persisted in children until at minimum seven years of age.  In an effort to amend the situation and make up for the differences in gut microbiota resulting from a scheduled surgical birth, women have been encouraged to ensure that medical staff transfer microbes from the mother's vagina to their infants following birth, with some women undertaking that transfer of the microbe exchanges on their own.

The practise, known as vaginal seeding, has earned a huge cautionary note by an expert committee of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; that the practise is premature and quite possibly dangerous. The potential risk of transferring pathogenic organisms from mother to neonate was cited by the committee.

Creative Commons
photo by hemangi28

The evolutionary norm represents a twinning of gut microbiota acquired during normal vaginal birth so that when the microbiota is compositionally unbalanced, or germs such as Clostridium difficile are present, the immune system reacts. This results in a low-grade, long-lasting inflammatory response targeting intruders from birth forward, which can lead to "leakiness" of the intestinal lining, weakening it.

 The normal process of absorbing proteins and carbohydrates from intestinal contents, with the inclusion of incompletely-digested food molecules make their way instead into the infant's bloodstream. It is the resulting inflammation along withe abnormal processing of food that apparently increases the risk of developing asthma and eczema, as well as diabetes and other chronic health conditions, as the infant matures into adulthood.

• Probiotics. Though administering healthful probiotic bacteria to correct an imbalanced microbiota makes intuitive sense, studies to date have been disappointing, with only minor, short-lived changes changes to the gut microbiota. However, research into “good” bacteria and how they become established in the intestine is active and ongoing.
• Direct transfer of maternal secretions. Placing maternal vaginal and rectal material into the newborn’s mouth has been proposed—more or less mimicking natural colonization—but to date there are no published studies to support the practice.
• Fecal transplantation. Direct transfer of fecal material from healthy adults into the gastrointestinal tracts of people suffering from Clostridium difficile infections has shown promise. Could healthy parents serve as “donors” for their babies? Applying such technology to otherwise healthy newborns is highly impractical at present, to say the least. Still, refinements may someday make this a viable option.

Mom and baby share a lot, including their microbial ecosystems. (Halfpoint/iStock)

 

"The whole species is essentially female," Mutant Clones : Procambarus virginalis

"It's extremely impressive. Three of us once caught 150 animals [marbled crayfish] within one hour, just with our hands."
"People would start out with a single animal, and a year later they would have a couple hundred."
"Maybe [as a singular species] they just survive for 100,000 years. That would be a long time for me personally, but in evolution it would just be a blip on the radar."
Frank Lyko, biologist, German Cancer Research Center

"If you have one animal, essentially, three months later, you will have 200 or 300. The whole species is essentially female."
"In 2017, they occupy the area [in Madagascar] the size of Ohio. That's a hundred-fold increase in just a decade."
Wolfgang Stein, neurophysiologist, Illinois State University

"Based on what is known about the reproductive behaviour of the marbled crayfish, we do not recommend Canadians keep these animals as pets."
"Human release of animals is one of the ways invasive species are introduced and become established in new areas."
"Unauthorized release of any aquatic animal into a waterbody from which they did not originate is illegal under the regulations."
Becky Cudmore, regional manager, aquatic invasion species program, Fisheries and Oceans Canada 

The all-female marbled crayfish reproduces by cloning — and while it's a relatively new species, there are already huge populations around the world. (Submitted by Wolfgang Stein)

Crayfish enthusiasts have the option of going along to their favourite pet store to poke about in the aquariums there and pick up a new pet for themselves, a marbled crayfish. In the late 1990s the marbled crayfish attracted the attention of aquarium hobbyists in Germany. Professor Lyko tracked down one individual who bought what the shop owner described to him as a "Texas crayfish", back in 1995. The size of the beast amazed the hobbyist, but nowhere near as much as the enormous batches of eggs it produced.

Hobbyists eventually realized that their female crayfish hadn't come in contact with a male of the species, yet was producing hundreds of eggs at a time. The person whom Dr. Lyko interviewed described his desperate efforts to give away resulting crayfish to friends. They were called marmorkrebs and were available in pet shops throughout Germany. With their popularity, owners realized these crayfish never stopped laying eggs yet had no mates, all their progeny were female and each capable of reproducing.

It was a short distance from acquiring these unique little beasts, observing their reproduction, running out of friends to gift them with, and taking them finally in desperation to local streams, rivers, lakes where they effortlessly and studiously multiplied. And it is these crayfish that Dr. Lyko and his research crew have studied in the past five years, managing to sequence the genomes. The study published recently in the scientific journal Nature, Ecology and Evolution, pointed out that the marble crayfish, now commonly seen around the world, is one of nature's most remarkable species.

A scientific marvel, in the sense that twenty-five years ago they didn't exist. Their amazing proliferation represents one of nature's true anomalies. In that a sole drastic mutation in one lone crayfish produced, in an instant of time, the marbled crayfish as it is known today. The mutation is credited with the capability of the creature to clone itself, and in that quarter-century of existence it has spread through Europe and has entered other continents to spread there as well. Its presence in Madagscar threatens native crayfish; it arrived in 2007 and now numbers in the millions.


"We may never have caught the genome of a species so soon after it became a species", marvelled biologist Zen Faulkes, of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, commenting on the study. Scientists, in 2003, confirmed the marbled crayfish absolutely were producing selfclones. Small portions of DNA were sequenced from the animals and a similarity found to a crayfish species called Procambarus, native to Central and North America. It took another ten years and Dr. Lyko and colleagues determined the entire genome of the marbled crayfish.

The Marmorkrebs thrived wherever they landed; initially taken by hobbyists out of their crowded aquariums to local waterways. The crayfish, it would appear, took themselves out of the lakes and streams they began to populate, and walked themselves over to uninhabited waterways to begin colonizing them as well. Marbled crayfish colonies turned up in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia and Ukraine in Europe, and soon enough in Madagascar and Japan. They are now, as well, in North America.

Scientists hypothesize that two slough crayfish likely mated, one of which had a sex cell mutation. The mutant crayfish sex cell had two copies of each chromosome, where normal sex cells contain only one. The two sex cells managed to fuse and the result was the capacity to produce a female crayfish embryo with three copies of each chromosome rather than the normal two.

What is also notable is that no deformities resulted out of that extra DNA. The new mutant crayfish had no need of normal sexual reproduction since she was able to induce her own eggs to divide into embryos, all of which resulted in females inheriting the identical copies of her three sets of chromosomes and themselves capable of multiplying. The rest is scientific history.

An ad selling the marbled crayfish appeared on Kijiji in the Toronto area. (Kijiji)