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News on Health & Science

Could Stem Cells Make You More Beautiful?

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Stem Cells Could Have Cosmetic Applications, but They’re Likely Far Off.

The prospect is a tantalizing one. To erase wrinkles and fine lines, or to get bigger breasts, without cosmetic surgery. Forget silicone, forget collagen. All you would need is stem-cell therapy.

Realistically speaking, though, such applications remain a pipe dream.

Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time a medical therapy had been bent in the direction of aesthetics. Take a look at Botox   the deadly botulinum toxin initially used to treat spasms is now used to improve the appearance of frown lines.

And while stem-cell applications for the vanity market may have to wait, some researchers have begun to research the possibilities of stem cells in plastic and reconstructive medicine.

“Stem-cell research appears promising for medicine and particularly for plastic surgery,” said Dr. Ronald Friedman, director of the West Plano Plastic Surgery Center and a board-certified plastic surgeon practicing in Plano, Tex.

“Hair follicular stem cells, tooth stem cells and skin stem cells all show therapeutic promise,” said Denis English, editor in chief of the journal Stem Cells and Development and director of cell biology at the Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Fla. “These can restore hair to a bald man, teeth to those in need and skin to scarred patients.”

The use of stem cells to regenerate tissue is believed to hold promise because stem cells can be nudged to develop into specialized cell types. And some researchers have turned an eye toward stem cells for this very purpose.

In October, a University of Pittsburgh team led by Dr. Peter Rubin received a three-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to explore the possibility of using stem cells derived from a patient’s own fat. Rubin, assistant professor of plastic surgery and co-director of the university’s Adipose Stem Cell Center, used those stem cells to create a durable, shaped piece of replacement tissue.

The research may one day allow breast cancer survivors to take advantage of a natural replacement after a mastectomy.

But with these possible applications in reconstruction, could cosmetic applications be far behind?

“Naturally, the public shows more interest in applications like breast augmentation,” said Dr. Peter Constantino, director of the Center for Facial Reconstruction and Restoration at Roosevelt Hospital in New York.

“In our society, there is such a huge demand for these rejuvenation surgeries, despite their significant risks, that the pragmatist in me cannot deny the likelihood that it will not be long before someone offers a two-stage procedure starting with liposuction followed by injection of these autologous stem cells for breast augmentation or into the face to rejuvenate,” said Dr. Daniel Salomon of the department of molecular and experimental medicine at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif.

Real-World Applications Still Far Off
Though initial research into the potential of stem cells in reconstructive surgery is promising, actual applications    particularly those of a purely cosmetic nature    are still distant.

“This is still very far in the future, except for tabloid speculation,” said Dr. Garry Brody, professor emeritus of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles. “By the time it becomes practical    and affordable    I suspect it will be beyond our lifetimes.”

“Stem cells do have the potential to revolutionize things, but it is not “just around the corner,'” said Constantino. “You can’t just inject ‘fat’ stem cells into a breast and just assume that it’s going to make a nice-looking breast. You could just end up with something fairly lumpy and unappealing.”

The cosmetic applications of stem cells are “25 to 30 years away, at the earliest,” said Thoru Pederson of the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Mass.

Yet some studies are already under way.
“We are starting to see clinical trials with stem cells for reconstructive surgery,” Rubin said. “A group from Japan reported on enriching liposuctioned fat with fat-derived stem cells and using the material successfully for breast enlargement.”

Cosmetic Uses of Stem Cells a Low Priority
Most experts agree, however, that many other potentially curative and life-saving applications of stem cells take precedence over cosmetic uses.

“Applications to rejuvenation or enhanced personal appearance are much harder to justify at this point and will be driven more by market forces in affluent countries   not just the U.S. certainly    rather than by science,” Salomon said.

“In my opinion, use of any cells for cosmetic surgery is still problematic,” said Dr. Darwin Prockop, director of the Center for Gene Therapy at Tulane University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. “The trials that can be justified are in patients with terminal diseases in which the potential risks and benefits are carefully evaluated.”

“In all honesty, the more promising (and more quickly realized) aspects of stem cell use in plastic and reconstructive surgery will probably be in producing skin replacement grafts on a large scale,” Constantino said. “This could help many, many burn and chronic wound patients.”

But for now?
“Though there is an enormous amount of promise with stem cells in plastic and reconstructive surgery, the devil is in some pretty important details,” Constantino said.

Source:ABC News.

Categories
Healthy Tips

Don’t Invite Food-Poisoning to Dinner

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Nothing can ruin the Thanksgiving holiday more than a bout of food poisoning. Because the health of everyone eating a meal depends on the actions of the cook, sloppy food preparation can result in a serious medical problem – twenty-five Americans will die today–and another 16,000 will become ill–from something they ate.

While the cause of some food borne illnesses is never found, more than 95% of diagnosable food poisonings can be traced to eating food that contains large numbers of tiny microorganisms called bacteria. Children are probably more susceptible to these agents for a variety of reasons, including lack of immunity and poor hygiene.

Like other living things, bacteria need food (they prefer dairy products, egg products, meat, poultry, fish, and shellfish), warmth, water to grow (a moist environment), and time to multiply (under ideal conditions, one bacterium can duplicate itself 2,097,152 times in seven hours.)

Only 3% of reported cases of food poisonings are caused by manufacturing errors. That means that most food borne illness comes from our own kitchen and restaurants.

Parents can think of food poisoning as a chain of events: there must be bacteria on the food, the microorganisms must have the right conditions to grow (warmth and moisture) and they must have the time to multiply.The Partnership for Food Safety Education has listed four steps to help break this chain of events and prevent food poisoning:

Keep Foods Clean

  1. Discourage anyone with an infectious disease from handling, preparing, or serving food.
  2. Work with clean hands, clean hair, clean fingernails, and wear clean clothing.
  3. Wash hands with soap and water after using the toilet, assisting anyone using the toilet, or changing diapers.
  4. Handle raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs as if they were contaminated. Even if they don’t start out with enough bacteria to make you sick, mishandling them could get you and your family in trouble. Wash hands with soap and water after touching raw meat, poultry, sea foods or eggs, before working with other food.
  5. Avoid using hands to mix foods when clean utensils can be used.
  6. Keep hands away from your mouth, nose, and hair.
  7. Avoid using the same spoon more than once for tasting food while preparing, cooking, or serving.
  8. Thoroughly clean all dishes, utensils, and work surfaces with soap and water after each use
  9. Thinking of becoming a vegetarian to avoid food poisoning? Think again. Food poisoning bacteria are also found in vegetables and fruits. Advice: wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly – even the part you will peel away
  10. Microwave your sponges on high for 30 to 60 seconds. That will keep them clean

Keep Food Separate

  1. Keep raw meat, eggs, poultry, or seafood and their juices away from ready to eat foods.
  2. Never place cooked food on an unwashed plate that previously held raw meat, poultry, eggs, or seafood.
  3. Use a different cutting board for fruits and vegetables.

Cook Food Adequately

  1. Cook all meat and poultry using a meat thermometer to insure proper temperature.
  2. Keep hot foods HOT (above 140 degrees F) and cold foods COLD (below 40 degrees F). Food may become unsafe if held for more than 2-3 hours at 60-125 degrees F, the zone where bacteria grow rapidly.
  3. Cook eggs until both the yolk and white are firm.
  4. Bad news for rare meat lovers: When cooking burgers, the center of patties and meat loaf should not be pink and the juices should run clear.
  5. Cook fish until it is opaque and flakes easily.
  6. Make sure leftovers are steaming hot before serving
  7. Never eat shellfish like oysters, clams, or mussels, unless they’ve been thoroughly cooked.
  8. Stuff raw poultry just before cooking it. Better yet, cook your poultry and stuffing separately.

Chill food Properly

  1. Refrigerate or freeze perishables, prepared food, and leftovers within two hours.
  2. The colder food is kept, the less chance bacteria have to grow. Use a thermometer to make sure your refrigerator is giving you good protection against bacterial growth. The refrigerator should register 40 degrees F or lower.
  3. Do not defrost food or marinate on the counter. Juices drip and bacterial multiply faster at room temperature. Defrost food and marinate in the refrigerator instead (and do not taste your food with the uncooked marinade unless you’ve cooked it). If microwave defrosting, cook food immediately.
  4. Keep uncooked ground meat and poultry in the refrigerator and cook or freeze within one or two days. Use or freeze meat and poultry stored in the refrigerator within three to four days.

It used to be that parents worried whether their dinner was going to taste good. Now they are wondering whether their dinner is going to be safe. Just like the security of everyone in the car depends on the performance of the driver, the health of everyone eating a meal depends on the actions of the parent or grandparent in the kitchen!

source: KidsGrowth.com

Categories
Fruits & Vegetables Herbs & Plants

Mango Fruit is delicious

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Common Names: Mango, Mangot, Manga, Mangou. It is known as the ‘king of fruit’ throughout the world.Mangos are a good staple for your daily diet.
Origin: .Mangos originated in East India, Burma and the Andaman Islands bordering the Bay of Bengal. Around the 5th century B.C., Buddhist monks are believed to have introduced the mango to Malaysia and eastern Asia – legend has it that Buddha found tranquility and repose in a mango grove. Persian traders took the mango into the middle east and Africa, from there the Portuguese brought it to Brazil and the West Indies. Mango cultivars arrived in Florida in the 1830’s .Mangos were introduced to California (Santa Barbara) in 1880.

Description:
Mango trees grow up to 35–40 m (115–131 ft) tall, with a crown radius of 10 m (33 ft). The trees are long-lived, as some specimens still fruit after 300 years[citation needed]. In deep soil, the taproot descends to a depth of 6 m (20 ft), with profuse, wide-spreading feeder roots; the tree also sends down many anchor roots, which penetrate several feet of soil. The leaves are evergreen, alternate, simple, 15–35 cm (5.9–13.8 in) long, and 6–16 cm (2.4–6.3 in) broad; when the leaves are young they are orange-pink, rapidly changing to a dark, glossy red, then dark green as they mature. The flowers are produced in terminal panicles 10–40 cm (3.9–15.7 in) long; each flower is small and white with five petals 5–10 mm (0.20–0.39 in) long, with a mild, sweet odor suggestive of lily of the valley. Over 400 varieties of mangoes are known, many of which ripen in summer, while some give double crop.  The fruit takes three to six months to ripen.

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The ripe fruit varies in size and color. Cultivars are variously yellow, orange, red, or green, and carry a single flat, oblong pit that can be fibrous or hairy on the surface, and which does not separate easily from the pulp. Ripe, unpeeled mangoes give off a distinctive resinous, sweet smell. Inside the pit 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) thick is a thin lining covering a single seed, 4–7 mm (0.16–0.28 in) long. The seed contains the plant embryo. Mangos have recalcitrant seeds; they do not survive freezing and drying

Forms: The mango exists in two races, one from India and the other from the Philippines and Southeast Asia. The Indian race is intolerant of humidity, has flushes of bright red new growth that are subject to mildew, and bears monoembryonic fruit of high color and regular form. The Philippine race tolerates excess moisture, has pale green or red new growth and resists mildew. Its polyembryonic fruit is pale green and elongated kidney-shaped. Philippines types from Mexico have proven to be the hardiest mangos in California.

Adaptation: Mangos basically require a frost-free climate. Flowers and small fruit can be killed if temperatures drop below 40° F, even for a short period. Young trees may be seriously damaged if the temperature drops below 30° F, but mature trees may withstand very short periods of temperatures as low as 25° F. The mango must have warm, dry weather to set fruit. In southern California the best locations are in the foothills, away from immediate marine influence. It is worth a trial in the warmest cove locations in the California Central Valley, but is more speculative in the coastal counties north of Santa Barbara, where only the most cold adapted varieties are likely to succeed. Mangos luxuriate in summer heat and resent cool summer fog. Wet, humid weather favors anthracnose and poor fruit set. Dwarf cultivars are suitable for culture in large containers or in a greenhouse.The Mango tree plays a sacred role in India; it is a symbol of love and some believe that the Mango tree can grant wishes. In the Hindu culture hanging fresh mango leaves outside the front door during Ponggol (Hindu New Year) and Deepavali is considered a blessing to the house.

Mango leaves are used at weddings to ensure the couple bear plenty of children (though it is only the birth of the male child that is celebrated – again by hanging mango leaves outside the house).Hindus may also brush their teeth with mango twigs on holy days (be sure to rinse well and spit if you try this at home – toxic).Many Southeast Asian kings and nobles had their own mango groves; with private cultivars being sources of great pride and social standing, hence began the custom of sending gifts of the choicest mangos.The Tahis like to munch mango buds, with Sanskrit poets believing they lend sweetness to the voice.

Burning of mango wood, leaves and debris is not advised – toxic fumes can cause serious irritation to eyes and lungs. Mango leaves are considered toxic and can kill cattle or other grazing livestock.

The over 1,000 known mango cultivars are derived from two strains of mango seed – monoembryonic (single embryo) and polyembryonic (multiple embryo). Monoembryonic hails from the Indian (original) strain of mango,
polyembryonic from the Indochinese.

Mangos are an excellent source of Vitamins A and C, as well as a good source of Potassium and contain beta carotene. Mangos are high in fiber, but low in calories (approx. 110 per average sized mango), fat (only 1 gram) and sodium.

Mango Nutrient Information*
Serving size: 3 1/2 ounces mango slices
Calories
Protein
Total Carbohydrate
Fat
Cholesterol
Sodium
Potassium
Vitamin A
Vitamin C
66
0.5g
17g
0.27g
0mg
2mg
156mg
3,890IU
27mg

Medicinal Uses:
Mango is considered a very useful remedy and energizer in Ayurveda and used to balance all three humors or doshas (Vata, Kapha or and Pitta), especially Pitta dosha. Its medicinal properties are presented below.

The insoluble fiber, present in mangoes, helps the elimination of waste from the colon and prevents constipation.

The tartaric acid, malic acid, and a trace of citric acid found in the fruit help to maintain the alkali reserve of the body.

A milk-mango shake used in the summers help people gain weight.

Extracts of leaves, bark, stem and unripe mangoes are believed to possess antibacterial properties against some micro-organisms.

Dried mango flowers are used in the treatment of diarrhea, chronic dysentery and some problems of the bladder.

The stone (kernel) of the mango fruit is used widely in Ayurvedic medicines for treatment of different ailments.

Antioxidants and enzymes present in the mango fruits are believed to play an important role in the prevention/protection of cancer (colon, breast, leukemia and prostate) and heart disease. Serum cholesterol is regulated by the high content of fiber, pectin and vitamin C present in the mango.

Some of the flavonoids present in the fruit are believed to strengthen the immune system of human body. Presence of fiber and enzymes makes mangoes favorite for healthy digestion.


Every part of the mango is beneficial and has been utilized in folk remedies in some form or another
. Whether the bark, leaves, skin or pit; all have been concocted into various types of treatments or preventatives down through the centuries. A partial list of the many medicinal properties and purported uses attributed to the mango tree are as follows: anti-viral, anti-parasitic, anti-septic, anti-tussive (cough), anti-asthmatic, expectorant, cardiotonic, contraceptive, aphrodisiac, hypotensive, laxative, stomachic (beneficial to digestion)….

Mango is regarded as a valuable article of diet and one of the effective home remedies for various ailments. The ripe mango has antiscorbutic, diuretic, laxative, invigorating, fattening and astringent properties. It has been found effective in fighting infections. All bacterial infections are due to poor epithelium. Liberal use of mangoes during the season contributes towards the formation of healthy epithelium, preventing infections like cold, rhinitis and sinusitis. Mangoes are rich source of vitamin A. Mango barks is highly beneficial in diphtheria and other throat problems. The leaves of mango tree are an anti-diabetic food that controls the blood sugar levels. Raw mango is a rich source of pectin, oxalic, citric, malic and succinic acids. It also contains vitamin C, B1 and B2 in good amounts.

Home Remedies:
Using Aqueous extract of fresh tender mango leaves in the morning, prepared after soaking overnight and filtering in morning, is believed to be useful in the beginning of diabetes.

Alternately, people also use twice a day (morning & evening) half teaspoonful of powdered leaves after drying them in the shade.

It may also provide relief in the dysentery when taken with water 2-3 times a day.Mango and Jamun (S. cumini) juice taken in equal proportion is considered useful in controlling diabetes.

Ash of mango leaves is applied on burns for relief in pain and healing whereas juice of the roasted ripe mango (on hot sand)provides relief in cough.

Tooth paste, prepared from powdered mango kernal, is believed to strengthen gums.

Boiling 20 g mango bark powder in a liter water till volume reduces merely to 250 g (ml) and using the decoction after mixing 1 g black salt is believed to cure diarrhea.

Juice extracted from fresh flowers and taken after mixing it with curd is reported to be useful in diarrhea. Paste of decorticated kernel is found useful in leucorrhoea, veginitis and also as a contraceptive.

Mangiferin – rich in splenocytes, found in the stem bark of the mango tree has purported potent immunomodulatory characteristics – believed to inhibit tumor growth in early and late stage.

Mango seeds are of great value for treating leucorrhoea. Apply 1 tsp paste of decorticated kernel of mango inside the vagina.

Mango bark is efficacious in the treatment of a sore throat and other throat disorders. Its fluid, which is extracted by grinding, can be applied locally with beneficial results. It can also be used as a throat gargle. This gargle is prepared by mixing 10 ml of the fluid extract with 125 ml of water

Mango seeds are valuable in diarrhoea. The seeds should be collected during the mango season, dried in the shade and powdered, and kept stored for use as a medicine when required. A dose of about one and a half to two grams with or without honey, should be administered twice daily.

Known Hazards:  Dermatitis can result from contact with the resinous latex sap that drips from the stem end when mangos are harvested. The mango fruit skin is not considered edible.
Disclaimer : The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplement, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Extracted from,:http://freshmangos.com/aboutmangos/index.html and http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/mango.html,http://cvsingh.hubpages.com/hub/Medicinal-uses-of-mango-and-associated-benefits,

 

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