Eat Your Broccoli: Another Mechanism Discovered by Which Sulforaphane Prevents Cancer
By (ScienceDaily)
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Researchers in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University have discovered yet another reason why the "sulforaphane"compound in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables is so good for you -- it provides not just one, but two ways to prevent cancer through the complex mechanism of epigenetics.
Epigenetics, an increasing focus of research around the world, refers not just to our genetic code, but also to the way that diet, toxins and other forces can change which genes get activated, or "expressed." This can play a powerful role in everything from cancer to heart disease and other health issues.
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"It appears that DNA methylation and HDAC inhibition, both of which can be influenced by sulforaphane, work in concert with each other to maintain proper cell function," said Emily Ho, an associate professor in the Linus Pauling Institute and the OSU College of Public Health and Human Sciences. "They sort of work as partners and talk to each other."
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This research, which was published in the journal Clinical Epigenetics, primarily studied the effect on prostate cancer cells. But the same processes are probably relevant to many other cancers as well, researchers said, including colon and breast cancer.
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The secret (and amazing) world of public health laboratories
By Kim Krisberg
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After slapping a visitor's badge to my jacket, we start the tour. We're barely a few steps down the first hall when Kubin, who directs the Texas Department of State Health Services' Laboratory Services Section, points to a stack of boxes the lab recently received. Inside are dead animals waiting to be tested for rabies -- "but just the heads," Kubin says. Last year, the lab received about 8,000 specimens for rabies testing, mostly skunks and bats. The lab's diagnostic work helps public health workers in the field decide where to drop millions of rabies vaccine bait packets so they'll have the biggest impact on preventing the spread of wild rabies strains, Kubin explains. Texas health officials recently announced that public health efforts had effectively eliminated canine and fox strains of rabies in the state.
From rabies to babies, I follow Kubin to what she says everyone calls the "punching room." And you can hear why before you get to the door. It sounds like the constant punching of holes being made in paper and that's exactly what it is. The room is filled with staff punching three-millimeter holes in specially made testing paper that has a blood sample from a newborn's heel on it. And considering more than 1,000 babies are born in Texas every day and their blood samples have to be processed as quickly as possible to catch disorders that must be diagnosed and treated quickly to prevent serious problems that's a whole lot of hole punching. In fact, Texas public health laboratorians screen 400,000 newborns for 28 disorders every year. And they do it twice. That's 800,000 specimens a year, making the Texas public health lab the largest newborn screening lab in the world, Kubin says. (Public health newborn screening programs test for conditions such as phenylketonuria, congenital hypothyroidism and galactosemia -- disorders that if not detected early in a newborn's life and promptly treated can lead to severe health complications, developmental disorders and even death.)
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Public health labs are critical pieces of the nation's emergency preparedness and response system and after years of investment, training and capacity building, Texas is now home to 10 Laboratory Response Network (LRN) labs capable of responding to a range of emergencies, including chemical and biological terrorism, Kubin says. Such preparedness work means that despite Texas' geographical proportions, "there's a (LRN) lab within three hours of every community in the state," she tells me.
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You Might Be Infertile Because Your Grandparents Were Mucking Around in Harmful Chemicals
By Kristen Philipkoski
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New research shows that if your grandmother or even your great-grandmother came in contact with some very common environmental chemicals, you could be suffering the consequences today in the form of male infertility, ovarian disease and the early or late onset of puberty.
It's freaky when you think about it. It means that generations ago, for example, a pregnant woman was exposed to, say, DEET, the most common insect repellant in the whole world. Her baby grew up to have his own children and passed along mutations that occurred during mom's exposure. Those children went on to also pass along those changes when they had their own kids, and there's no telling how many future generations might be affected.
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Skinner and his colleagues have published several other studies looking at a chemical called vinclozolin, a common fungicide used on crops. They found it impaired fertility, and that the effect was carried down through generations. Now, the scientists are adding BPA, phthalates, pesticides, DEET, permethrin, dioxin, jet fuel, hydrocarbons, and JP8 to the list of chemicals with a similar effect.
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Britain to offer HIV treatment to foreign nationals under its health care system
By Talia Ralph
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Britain is amending its health care bill to offer free HIV treatment to foreign nationals, BBC News reported.
Supporters of the move to extend HIV care say it will reduce the risk of Britons being infected and cut the costs of more expensive treatment later, BBC reported. Foreign students, workers, asylum seekers, and victims of human trafficking are among those who are expected to benefit from the bill, the UK Press Association reported.
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Treatment of other sexually transmitted infections, as well as tuberculosis and malaria, has been free for everyone, regardless of official National Health Service (NHS) regulations. With this amendment, HIV treatment would be provided in the same way, as long as the person seeking treatment has been in the UK for at least six months, National AIDS Manual (NAM) reported.
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Medicine as a Weapon in Syria and Beyond
By Susanna Smith
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The editorial references a recent Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) report, which provides 15 testimonials, five from doctors and ten from patients inside Syria. The testimonies offer a complicated picture of how health facilities are being used as battlegrounds. National security forces are a constant presence at medical facilities to track, detain, and further injure or execute opponents. Medical personnel are being targeted, arrested, and tortured for caring for the wounded. And some health professionals who support President Bashar al-Assad’s regime are reportedly further injuring wounded protesters and rebels who seek care.
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“Hospitals have been used as detention and torture facilities. Ambulances have come under fire, and many of the injured and sick have been turned away from public hospitals in several cities. Wounded detainees have been subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment in military hospitals. Evidence gathered indicates that doctors and medical workers have been pursued, arrested, and tortured by the security forces. Increasingly, most of the wounded avoid going to public hospitals for fear of being arrested or tortured.”
We cannot see Syria as an isolated case. Earlier this month, I wrote a post about MSF’s decision to stop treating patients at detention centers in Libya rather than abetting the continuing torture of these patients. The Lancet has also reported on military forces occupying public hospitals in Bahrain, and the detention and trials of Bahraini nurses and doctors. In Egypt, the violence against health facilities appears to be less systematic but media sources have reported attacks on field hospitals and threats against doctors.
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