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Garlic ‘Remedy for Hypertension’

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Garlic may be useful in addition to medication to treat high blood pressure, a study suggests.
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Australian doctors enrolled 50 patients in a trial to see if garlic supplements could help those whose blood pressure was high, despite medication.

Those given four capsules of garlic extract a day had lower blood pressure than those on placebo, they report in scientific journal Maturitas.

The British Heart Foundation said more research was needed.

Garlic has long been though to be good for the heart.

Garlic supplements have previously been shown to lower cholesterol and reduce high blood pressure in those with untreated hypertension.

In the latest study, researchers from the University of Adelaide, Australia, looked at the effects of four capsules a day of a supplement known as aged garlic for 12 weeks.

They found systolic blood pressure was around 10mmHg lower in the group given garlic compared with those given a placebo.

Researcher Karin Ried said: “Garlic supplements have been associated with a blood pressure lowering effect of clinical significance in patients with untreated hypertension.

“Our trial, however, is the first to assess the effect, tolerability and acceptability of aged garlic extract as an additional treatment to existing antihypertensive medication in patients with treated, but uncontrolled, hypertension.”

Experts say garlic supplements should only be used after seeking medical advice, as garlic can thin the blood or interact with some medicines.

Ellen Mason, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said using garlic for medicinal purposes dates back thousands of years, but it is essential that scientific research proves that garlic can help conditions such as raised blood pressure.

She said: “This study demonstrated a slight blood pressure reduction after using aged garlic supplements but it’s not significant enough or in a large enough group of people to currently recommend it instead of medication.

“It’s a concern that so many people in the UK have poorly controlled blood pressure, with an increased risk of stroke and heart disease as a consequence. So enjoy garlic as part of your diet but don’t stop taking your blood pressure medication.”

You may click to see :
Why garlic is good for the heart

Raw garlic tackles cancer


Source : BBC News

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Vitamin B Found to Halve brain Shrinkage in Old Age

 

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High doses of vitamine B can halve the rate of brain shrinkage in elderly people with memory problems. It may slow their progression toward dementia.

A two-year clinical trial was the largest to date into the effect of B vitamins on “mild cognitive impairment,” a condition which is a major risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

Reuters reports:
“[Researchers] conducted a two-year trial with 168 volunteers with MCI who were given either a vitamin pill containing very high doses of folic acid, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12, or a placebo dummy pill …

[O]n average the brains of those taking the vitamin treatment shrank at a rate of 0.76 percent a year, while those taking the dummy pill had an average brain shrinkage of 1.08 percent.”

Resources:
Reuters September 8, 2010
Los Angeles Times September 9, 2010

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Frog Skin may Help Beat Antibiotic Resistance

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Frog skin may be an important source of new antibiotics to treat superbugs say researchers.
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The foothill yellow-legged frog is one potential source of antibiotics, say researchers
.So far, more than 100 potential bacteria-killing substances have been identified from more than 6,000 species of frog.

The team at the United Arab Emirates University are now trying to tweak the substances to make them less toxic and suitable for use as human medicines.

The work was presented at the American Chemical Society meeting.

Drug resistant bacteria, such as MRSA, are becoming an increasing problem worldwide.

Yet there is a lack of new treatments in the pipeline.

Among the substances found by the researchers are a compound from a rare American species that shows promise for killing MRSA.

Another fights a drug-resistant infection seen in soldiers returning from Iraq.

The idea of using chemicals from the skin of frogs to kill bacteria, viruses and other disease-causing agents is not a new one.

But it is not a straightforward process to use these chemicals in humans because they are either destroyed in the bloodstream or are toxic to human cells.

Tweaks:-

After identifying the key chemicals, the researchers have altered their molecular structure to make them less dangerous to human cells while retaining their bacteria-killing properties

They hope their work means some of the substances could be in clinical trials within five years.

They are also investigating how to help the chemicals resist breakdown by the body before they have a chance to act.

Experiments have shown the changes they have made so far do make the antibiotics last longer in the bloodstream.

Study leader Dr Michael Conlon said: “Frog skin is an excellent potential source of such antibiotic agents.

“They’ve been around 300 million years, so they’ve had plenty of time to learn how to defend themselves against disease-causing microbes in the environment.

“Their own environment includes polluted waterways where strong defences against pathogens are a must.”

The work underscored the importance of preserving frog diversity, he added.

“Some frog species, including those that may contain potentially valuable medicinal substances, are in jeopardy worldwide due to loss of habitat, water pollution, and other problems.”

Source: BBC NEWS

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Synthetic Corneas Prove Successful

The collagen-based implants could be an alternative to cadaver corneas. A preliminary test shows that they restored vision as effectively as the latter and did not require anti-rejection drugs.
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An experimental synthetic cornea implanted in 10 patients may be a potential alternative to cadaver corneas for curing vision loss due to corneal inflammation and scarring, researchers said .

Eye surgeons currently use primarily cadaver corneas for transplants, but that requires the use of anti-rejection drugs and presents a risk of infection. Plastic corneas can also be used, but they present other problems and are generally tried only when tissue transplants have failed.

The new artificial corneas use collagen produced in yeast as a scaffolding that allows cells from the recipient to grow into the graft so that it mimics the original tissue. The two-year preliminary test showed that the biosynthetic corneas restored vision as effectively as cadaver corneas, did not require anti-rejection drugs and allowed normal tears to form.

“This is a huge breakthrough,” said Dr. Francis W. Price Jr., founder and president of the board of the Cornea Research Foundation, who was not involved in the research. “It still has to go through additional studies … but it shows a lot of promise.”

An estimated 5 million people worldwide suffer corneal damage from trachoma, an eye infection caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis, and another 1.5 million to 2 million people develop it as a result of ulceration and trauma. In the United States, about 42,000 cadaver cornea transplants are performed each year and another 10,000 corneas are exported to other countries, according to Marianne O’Connor Price, executive director of the Cornea Research Foundation.

“The U.S. is very fortunate that everybody who needs a transplant here is able to get one, but there is definitely a big shortage around the world,” she said. “Even people here could benefit if there was a synthetic cornea that eliminated the chance of rejection.”

The new study, reported Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, used biosynthetic collagen produced by FibroGen Inc. of San Francisco. A team headed by Dr. May Griffith of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in Canada molded the collagen into an artificial cornea and demonstrated that it worked in animals.

Dr. Per Fagerholm of Linkoping University in Sweden then implanted the corneas in one eye of each of 10 Swedish patients with central corneal scarring. The researchers found that, after two years, no complications developed and, with the use of contact lenses, vision was as good as with cadaver transplants. Contact lenses are normally used with the latter as well.

The study is the first to show that an artificially fabricated cornea “can integrate into the human eye and stimulate regeneration,” Griffith said.

Griffith said her team was now building a clean room to manufacture more of the corneas and that she hoped to begin larger clinical trials after the first of the year with about 20 to 25 patients.
When implanted with contact lenses that they previously couldn’t tolerate, patients saw as well as a similar group of patients who had received standard corneal transplants.

The study is the first to show that an artificially fabricated cornea “can integrate into the human eye and stimulate regeneration,” Griffith said.

Griffith said her team is building a clean room to manufacture more corneas and hopes to begin larger clinical trials with 20 to 25 patients.

Researchers also are working to create stem-cell treatments that could spur corneal growth.

You may click to see this as well and Synthetic cornea offers hope to thousands

Resource :

Los Angeles Times

The Seattle Times

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Acetaminophen, Better Known as Tylenol, Linked to Asthma in New Study

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A major new international study released Friday has found that adolescents who take acetaminophen, better known under the brand name Tylenol, have a higher risk of asthma, allergic nasal conditions and the skin disorder eczema. Those who took the common painkiller as infrequently as once a month had twice the normal risk of developing the disorders. Experts noted, however, that the study does not show that the drug causes the problems. In fact, some said, it is equally likely that the children were taking the drug because they were already suffering from asthma.

Acetaminophen is widely viewed as a very safe drug — one reason why hospitals use it routinely as a painkiller instead of aspirin or ibuprofen. The major problem associated with it is liver damage caused by overdoses. Recently, however, there has been a growing drumbeat about possible dangers from the drug. One study, for example, found that acetaminophen increased the risk of hearing loss in men. And some others have hinted that the drug is linked to asthma in newborns whose mothers used the drug during pregnancy and in young children exposed to it.

The new findings were reported in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine by researchers in the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood. The team, headed by epidemiologist Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute in Wellington, New Zealand, gave written questionnaires to 322,959 13- and 14-year-olds in 50 countries exploring their use of acetaminophen, other drugs, and asthma symptoms. They were also shown a video containing five scenes of clinical asthma and asked whether they had experienced any symptoms similar to those shown. About 73% of the teens said they had used acetaminophen at least once in the previous year and 30% said they had used it monthly.

Taking into account maternal education, smoking, diet and siblings, the team found that those subjects who had used the drug at least once per year were 43% more likely to have asthma, while those who used it at least monthly were 2.5 times as likely to suffer from the condition. The risk of rhinoconjunctivitis (a severe nasal congestion) was 38% higher for those who used it once per year and 2.39 times as high for those who used it at least monthly. The comparable increases in risk for eczema were 31% and 99%, respectively.

Overall, the increased risk of asthma associated with acetaminophen was 41%, the authors found. That could, at least in part, explain why there has been an increase in the prevalence of asthma in the 50 years since the drug was introduced. Given the widespread use of the drug, it could also represent a large public health problem.

But — and it is a very big but — the study shows only an association, not causality. That could only be determined by a randomized clinical trial, which the authors recommend. Furthermore, the study relies on the recall of teenagers. Recall is notoriously inaccurate in adults, and it is probably worse in adolescents, clouding the results. For the time being then, you can probably continue to feel comfortable giving the drug to your children.

In a statement, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, which manufactures Tylenol, said that the drug “has over 50 years of clinical history to support its safety and effectiveness” and that no clinical trial has demonstrated that the drug causes asthma. The drug “is the preferred pain reliever for asthma sufferers,” the company said.

Source :Los Angeles Times. Aug.13th.2010

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