Turmeric-based drug effective on Alzheimer flies

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Curcumin, a substance extracted from turmeric, prolongs life and enhances activity of fruit flies with a nervous disorder similar to Alzheimers. The study conducted at Link?ping University, indicates that it is the initial stages of fibril formation and fragments of the amyloid fibrils that are most toxic to neurons.

Ina Caesar, as the lead author, has published the results of the study in the prestigious journal PLoS One.

For several years curcumin has been studied as a possible drug candidate to combat Alzheimer's disease, which is characterized by the accumulation of sticky amyloid-beta and Tau protein fibres. Link?ping researchers wanted to investigate how the substance affected transgenic fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), which developed evident Alzheimer's symptoms. The fruit fly is increasingly used as a model for neurodegenerative diseases.

Five groups of diseased flies with different genetic manipulations were administered curcumin. They lived up to 75 % longer and maintained their mobility longer than the sick flies that did not receive the substance.

However, the scientists saw no decrease of amyloid in the brain or eyes. Curcumin did not dissolve the amyloid plaque; on the contrary it accelerated the formation of fibres by reducing the amount of their precursor forms, known as oligomers.

?The results confirm our belief that it is the oligomers that are most harmful to the nerve cells, says Professor Per Hammarstrom, who led the study.

?We now see that small molecules in an animal model can influence the amyloid form. To our knowledge the encapsulation of oligomers is a new and exciting treatment strategy.

Several theories have been established about how oligomers can instigate the disease process. According to one hypothesis, they become trapped at synapses, inhibiting nerve impulse signals. Others claim that they cause cell death by puncturing the cell membrane.

Curcumin is extracted from the root of herbaceous plant turmeric and has been used as medicine for thousands of years. More recently, it has been tested against pain, thrombosis and cancer.

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Link?ping University: http://www.liu.se

Thanks to Linkoping University for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117578/Turmeric_based_drug_effective_on_Alzheimer_flies

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The Birthday Party

I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later... a birthday party invitation slipped into her little backpack from a friend at school who would actually feel bad if we refused.

I'll call the friend "Brian." He's a sweet little boy with a contagious grin. He is part Korean (an unbelievable coincidence in our 98% white suburb) -- and he has a HUGE crush on Little Miss. He picks Little Miss to sing the alphabet song with him in school and edges shyly over to us to say goodbye in the end-of-day pick-up hustle.

I've politely refused all the invitations that have come so far -- citing family plans or other excuses. But for Brian, how could I say no?

It had been almost a year since we attended a friend's birthday party... and this was our first party at someplace other than a family home. We showed up at The Little Gym at the appointed time with Brian's gift in hand and were invited to remove our shoes and join the other kids who were already playing in the gym.

It started out pretty well. After participating in Gymboree for a year, Little Miss is familiar with play gym environments. She tried out the equipment and even walked the long balance beam without stepping off.

But then the other guests started to arrive. Swarms of fast-moving older kids (some were as old as 5) threatened Little Miss's precocious balance and she shied away from the equipment. The teachers tossed out balls and hula-hoops and Little Miss started collecting. By the time the teachers collected the balls for clean-up, Little Miss was alternately chewing on her hands, shirt, and anything else she could get in her mouth. Things were going south fast.

Then, to the delight of 99% of the kids, they brought out the air trampoline. For those of you who have not experienced the "air tramp," it's like a bounce house with no sides. I pulled Little Miss aside and explained that when they turned the air tramp on, it was going to sound like a vacuum cleaner. The little hands went to the ears faster than lightning and that was the end of that. Even now, as she looks at the picture with me, the first words out of her mouth were "it too LOUD!"

We spent the rest of the play time in the parents' waiting area... sitting on as many chairs as we possibly could and doing some rather frantic sit-ups.

When Brian's mom announced that it was time for cake, Little Miss perked up a bit... so we decided to give it a shot. She chose a seat at the end of the table and chowed on pretzels (the cake went mostly untouched). Unfortunately, we went from cake right into presents -- and the presents were opened in the main lobby, so there was no way to make an escape. that proved completely overwhelming for Little Miss and she spent the last 15 minutes of the party in my arms, away from the reach of the over-excited throng.

I've been debating whether to invite some of Little Miss's friends to join us for her upcoming birthday, but I think now the decision has been made for me. We're not ready for this... not yet.

Source: http://beyondthedryervent.blogspot.com/2012/02/birthday-party.html

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Cut Health Care Costs in America by Taking Personal Responsibility ...

New Health And Fitness.Org - Health Information You Can Use

I hear people saying all the time that if you don?t vote in the elections you don?t have a right to complain about the decisions made by our government. It is an interesting concept to say the least. Using that same concept, what if I were to say that if you don?t eat right and exercise, you have no right to complain about the high cost of health care? Many of you may believe they are two totally different concepts, but I disagree.

Obesity and being overweight, one of the preventable conditions that nearly two thirds of Americans suffer from is a major contributor to nearly every other major disease or affliction. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), being overweight increases the risk of ?coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon), hypertension (high blood pressure), dyslipidemia, stroke, liver and gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and respiratory problems, osteoarthritis, and gynecological problems.? It has also been linked to depression.

Every single day people in America are dying, in some part, due to their own misplaced priorities. Due to long-term ongoing health issues often related to being overweight or obese, people are leaving their loved ones behind with little or nothing remaining to pass on to friends and family. The high cost of medical care has been known to quickly wipe out a lifetime of savings and retirement income.

Many of those who have exhausted their savings on health care blame health care costs. Even the cost of finding and maintaining health insurance keeps rising, but what can you expect when so many of our people are suffering from one disease or another and it can often be associated with personal negligence.

America?s government believes that forcing every single person in the country to purchase health insurance is the answer, and many citizens agree. Few want to take aim at the true cause of high health care costs and alarming number of disease related deaths in the United States.

In most cases obesity can be prevented with a little daily exercise and by paying a little attention to what you eat each day. It is not that difficult really, and there is nothing new about the concept of living a healthy lifestyle. People just have to be willing to do something about their health other than pop a pill.

People in America will most often use the excuse that they don?t have time to exercise, or it costs too much to eat healthy, but these same people won?t miss their favorite television show or that stop at the fast food joint after work. They will spend thousands of dollars and countless hours to maintain the car in their driveway, their boat, or their their lawn but will consider a few minutes of exercise and a few hundred dollars on fitness gear to be ridiculous.

Isn?t it time to get your priorities straight? It can be as simple as putting down that donut and trading it for an apple. Set aside the soda pop and grab a cool clear bottle of water, and get you butt up off the couch for a few minutes of cardio or strength training exercise. Expensive gym membership contracts are not required. There are very good options available for exercising at home with experienced guidance and little investment.

Jim Ford is an Independent Team Beachbody Coach and offers people alternatives to expensive gym contracts through home fitness programsdesigned and supported by top fitness professionals. He also helps people learn how they can earn money with their own legitimate home business in the fitness industry. Check out one of his Team Beachbodywebsites today!

Source: http://newhealthandfitness.org/2012/02/01/cut-health-care-costs-in-america-by-taking-personal-responsibility-for-your-health-and-implementing-basic-preventive-measures/

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Investing In Emerging Market Multinationals | iStockAnalyst.com

As a student in Tokyo, I played on a talented U.S. Embassy basketball team full of Marine embassy guards.

While we were mowing down every opponent, I noticed that the Japanese referees tried very hard to even things out by calling fouls on us every chance they got.

For example, a blocked shot was always a foul.

This is called home-court advantage.

American multinational executives, trying to grow in emerging markets like India, must feel just like we did, as regulators do everything possible to keep them off balance by favoring domestic companies.

This is just one reason you should invest in emerging market multinational stocks.

I call these stocks "boom chips." The best way to describe a boom chip is to contrast it with, what is in many ways its opposite, a blue-chip stock.

Blue Chippers

Blue-chip companies are large, stable, mature companies with slow but steady sales and profit growth, and dependable dividends.

A good example is Kraft (NYSE: KFT) ? a bundle of blockbuster brands including Jell-O, Maxwell House, Tang, Miracle Whip and Oreos. Kraft has 12 brands, generating $1 billion each year, and Tang is the most recent addition to this exclusive club. With all of these killer brands aimed at emerging growth, Kraft is expected to grow revenue around 4% a year over the next three years. Not bad for a food giant.

But while a stock like Kraft is a great way to protect wealth, you need to think a bit more boldly to put some sizzle into your portfolio and build real wealth.

You do this by following John Train's advice in his book Preserving Capital:

"Be an adventurer; like the American of a century ago, not his clerkish descendant of today.

Source: http://www.istockanalyst.com/finance/story/5643368/investing-in-emerging-market-multinationals

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My Top 10 Romantic Movies | American Mothers S. A. | a mySA.com ...

Movies about love are very popular because everyone has the desire to feel loved. ?However, many movies depict sensuality and not true love. ?Even when they depict love, there is often too much sensuality. ?I?ve compiled a list of my favorite romantic movies. ?The conflict in many of them is built around the obstacles to love rather than the flowering of love over time. ?Two are set in World War II Germany and one of these is rated R because of its depiction of a concentration camp. ?I included While You Were Sleeping instead of Far and Away because it?s less racy but probably Far and Away is more romantic. ?So, this list is intended to be one that does not include movies with graphic depictions of sex instead of romance. ?Love is a classic theme and one that hasn?t fully been explored just as in life the meaning of our most precious relationships continues to elude us.

The Princess Bride

Life Is Beautiful

Somewhere In Time

While You Were Sleeping

The Sound of Music

Gone With the Wind

West Side Story

The Notebook

Pride and Prejudice

Scarlet Pimpernell

President of the San Antonio Chapter of American Mothers, Inc. Devoted wife, Mother of six kids and three cats. Follow American Mothers SA on Facebook. This entry was posted in heart and soul, love. Bookmark the permalink.

Movies about love are very popular because everyone has the desire to feel loved. ?However, many movies depict sensuality and not true love. ?Even when they depict love, there is often too much sensuality. ?I?ve compiled a list of my favorite romantic movies. ?The conflict in many of them is built around the obstacles to [...]

Read More

Source: http://blog.mysanantonio.com/americanmotherssa/2012/02/my-top-10-romantic-movies/

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Dems: Fast & Furious just 1 of 4 misguided probes (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Democrats looking into Operation Fast and Furious say a yearlong investigation has turned up no evidence that the flawed gun smuggling probe was conceived or directed by high-level political appointees at Justice Department headquarters.

The probe, the Democrats say, was just one of four such operations that were part of a misguided five-year-long effort, during both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, in the Phoenix division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives against firearms trafficking along the Southwest border.

"Operation Fast and Furious was the latest in a series of fatally flawed operations run by ATF agents in Phoenix and the Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office," the report from Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee says.

It is expected to differ sharply with the conclusions of Republicans, who will question Attorney General Eric Holder about Operation Fast and Furious at a hearing Thursday before the committee.

Beginning six years ago, according to the Democrats' report, ATF agents in Phoenix devised a strategy to forgo arrests against low-level straw purchasers of guns while attempting to build bigger cases against higher-level traffickers, a risky tactic known as gun-walking.

"The committee has obtained no evidence indicating that the attorney general authorized gun-walking or that he was aware of such allegations before they became public," said the Democrats' report, "Fatally Flawed: Five Years of Gunwalking in Arizona." "None of the 22 witnesses interviewed by the committee claims to have spoken with the attorney general about the specific tactics employed in Operation Fast and Furious prior to the public controversy."

Rather than halting operations after flaws became evident, the ATF's Phoenix division "launched several similarly reckless operations over the course of several years, also with tragic results," the report said. "Each investigation involved various incarnations of the same activity: Agents were contemporaneously aware of illegal firearms purchases, they did not typically interdict weapons or arrest straw purchasers, and firearms ended up in the hands of criminals on both sides of the border."

Operation Fast and Furious came to light following the December 2010 slaying of U.S. border agent Brian Terry near Nogales, Ariz. Two guns connected to suspects in the Fast and Furious investigation were found at the Terry murder scene.

Operation Fast and Furious was the fourth such ATF gun-walking probe, according to the Democrats' report, which was based on documents collected by the committee.

The first gun-walking probe, said the report, was Operation Wide Receiver, in which ATF agents, for over a year starting in 2006, watched traffickers buying guns from a gun dealer and driving them across the border into Mexico. According to a memo by William Newell, who was in charge of the Phoenix division at the time, one of the suspects told the gun dealer that the "firearms are going to his boss in Tijuana, Mexico, where some are given out as gifts." ATF officials believed they had sufficient evidence to arrest and charge the suspects, but as one agent said at the time, "we want it all," according to an email between two ATF supervisors in Arizona.

A year after Wide Receiver began, ATF initiated attempts to coordinate with Mexican officials. Numerous attempts at cross-border interdiction failed, according to the Democrats' report, with ATF agents expressing concern over the operation.

In a 2007 case, ATF agents targeted Fidel Hernandez and several alleged co-conspirators who purchased over 200 firearms and were believed to be transporting them into Mexico.

William Hoover, then ATF's assistant director of field operations, temporarily halted operations after being informed of several attempts at coordinating with Mexican law enforcement authorities.

The defendants were brought to trial in 2009, but acquitted after prosecutors were unable to obtain the cooperation of the Mexican law enforcement officials who had recovered firearms purchased by Hernandez.

In a 2008 case, ATF agents in Phoenix focused for a year on a network of illicit gun buyers who were purchasing weapons from the same gun dealer who had cooperated in Operation Wide Receiver.

Members of the network, led by Alejandro Medrano, were eventually sentenced to multiyear prison terms for trafficking more than 100 firearms to a Mexican drug cartel.

In Operation Fast and Furious, ATF agents in Phoenix late in 2009 identified a network of more than 20 straw purchasers believed to be trafficking military-grade assault weapons to Mexican drug cartels. Agents tried to build a case with wiretaps. They made no arrests and made few intercepts of weapons.

ATF Deputy Director William Hoover became concerned about the number of firearms involved in the case and ordered a strategy for the investigation to be brought to an end. Newell in Phoenix expressed frustration with ATF headquarters in Washington and "the operation continued to grow and expand rather than wind down over the months to follow," the Democrats' report said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/democrats/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_go_co/us_fast_and_furious

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Mexico police rescue 7-year-old locked in school (AP)

MONTERREY, Mexico ? Municipal police say a 7-year-old was locked inside a classroom by his teacher as punishment for supposed misbehavior and left alone for six hours until he was rescued by officers around midnight.

The boy was found under the teacher's desk, covering himself with one of her sweaters for warmth.

Police say the boy's family started looking for him Monday after he didn't return home from school on time. One of the boy's friends said he had been punished by the teacher, so police were eventually called to the school and found the boy.

Education officials say the mother has filed a criminal complaint, and the case is under investigation.

The mother tells MVS Radio that the teacher had abused her son at least once before, by taping him to the legs of a desk.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120201/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_child_locked_in_school

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