Saturday, 12 May 2012

Garlic Power 

Make it your principal supplement. Photo: Special Arrangement.
Make it your principal supplement. Photo: Special Arrangement.
Garlic's medicinal properties are well known; so go ahead and add it to your diet.
For centuries garlic has been used as a medicinal and culinary substance in India, China, Greece and other countries. It has been used as a salve for everything from headaches to colds to infections and healing wounds. To some, however, the strong flavour of garlic is not very appealing; in fact repelling. Therefore, although garlic is a widely available spice, it is not very popular in some households.
Garlic does not make significant nutritional contribution to the diet because the quantities added to recipes are small. But even these nano amounts make a big difference to one's health.
The biological benefits and the distinct odour of garlic are attributed to the many sulphur containing compounds; one of which is Alliin. This compound is converted to Allicin when garlic is crushed. Allicin is, perhaps, the principal bioactive compound present even in processed garlic.
Limited evidence supports an association between garlic consumption and a reduced risk of colon, prostate, oesophageal, larynx, oral, ovary and other cancers. This is due to diallylsulde, a potent bioactive component. Besides, the plant can also accumulate selenium, a trace element known to possess anti-cancer properties, from the soil.
Curtailing cardiac diseases
One inexpensive way of curtailing cardiovascular diseases is to use generous amounts of garlic in cooking. Garlic consumption inhibits the progression of cardiovascular diseases. It can bring about small reductions in blood pressure. Some studies have shown it to modestly lower cholesterol levels, which is also a protection against cardiac diseases. Animal experiments have associated garlic ingestion with reduction in triglyceride and LDL cholesterol, both of which contribute to atherosclerosis and heart diseases. Garlic, like aspirin, can reduce the tendency of blood to coagulate and form clots. Many human studies on garlic have shown it has the ability to dissolve blood clots. Pharmaceutical supplements are often used by patients with cardiac and vascular diseases.
Garlic can reduce homocysteine levels in blood. This toxic compound damages the cells that line the blood vessels, induces blood clots, loss of cognition and causes death of nerve cells. People with dementia and Alzheimer's disease have elevated blood homocysteine levels. Damage to nerve cells in Alzheimer's disease is also due to elevated oxidative stress induced by free radicals. By scavenging free radicals, garlic offers protection from neuronal death, dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Garlic is also called ‘Russian penicillin'. Fresh — but not stored or cooked garlic — is an antimicrobial agent against a variety of micro-organisms, including H. Pylori, implicated in gastric cancers. Topical application of garlic is effective in treating ringworm. Many studies have shown that garlic has antifungal and antiviral effects.
Adverse effects
Are there any adverse effects associated with taking garlic? In some, it can cause mild stomach discomfort, especially when taken on an empty stomach. Add garlic to meals or sprinkle it on pasta, soups or even sambhar and chutneys. Swallow a clove of crushed garlic with water. The common side effect is “Garlicky Breath”.
Since garlic is also a blood thinner, people who take aspirin should be careful when including garlic regularly in their diets. Also discontinue garlic at least a week before any surgery.
How much? One clove of medium-sized garlic daily provides health boosting effects. Numerous over-the-counter supplements are available as are enteric-coated tablets. Those who don't like the strong flavour can try deodorised capsules. It is indeed the cornerstone of good health.
Did you know?
Garlic can inhibit changes in the DNA and scavenge free radicals; both are implicated in cancers. It can also limit the transition of a normal cell into a cancerous cell, inhibit the growth of cancer cells, and even destroy the cancer cells.
Garlic can reduce plaque formation in blood vessels and help lower blood sugar levels.
Because of its antioxidant properties, regular intake of garlic can reduce the incidence of many age-related disorders such as cataracts, arthritis, and rejuvenate skin and promote blood circulation.
Garlic also promotes liver health and protects the liver from many environmental toxins and drugs such as the commonly used analgesic agent, paracetamol (Crocin, Tylenol).

Did those bacteria really dine on lethal arsenic?

Felisa Wolfe-Simon processing mud from Mono Lake to inoculate media to grow microbes on arsenic. File photo
Felisa Wolfe-Simon processing mud from Mono Lake to inoculate media to grow microbes on arsenic. File photo
A scientist uses ‘open science' to find an answer
It was research that appeared set to turn the biological world on its head. A paper published online by the journal Science in December 2010 described a strain of bacteria that not only thrived in high levels of arsenic but appeared to incorporate it in its biomolecules, including DNA, displacing phosphorus that all other known forms of life utilise.
The U.S. space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which had funded the research, loudly trumpeted the discovery. "The definition of life has just expanded," exulted a senior agency official in a press release.
But the paper by Felisa Wolfe-Simon and others failed to convince their peers in the scientific community. Instead, what followed was an outcry from scientists about flaws in the research. There was good reason, they said, to doubt that the bacterium was using arsenic in its DNA.
Science, according to its Editor-in-Chief, Bruce Alberts, received “a wide range of correspondence that raised specific concerns” about the paper's research methods and interpretation of results. In May 2011, the journal took the unusual step of publishing online eight technical comments that raised a number of issues.
But the question remained – shouldn't someone else try to replicate the experiment using methods that avoided the pitfalls of the earlier work? It was not an alluring prospect, considering that the most likely outcome would be to merely corroborate the flaws that had already been pointed out.
Rosemary Redfield, a microbiologist at University of British Columbia in Canada, decided to take on the task. In a post on her blog ‘RRResearch', which received a good deal of attention, she had criticised the Science paper as “lots of flim-flam, but very little reliable information.”
“I've been saying that researchers shouldn't invest the time and resources needed to test Wolfe-Simon et al's claims because of the vanishingly small probability that they are correct,” she remarked in a blog post in May last year.  “But I'm having second thoughts because the most important claims can, I think, be very easily tested.”
Having got the bacterial strain from the original group of researchers, Dr. Redfield set about planning and carrying out experiments in a remarkably different fashion. The experiments she wanted to do, the problems that cropped up and the results she got were all written up on her blog. “One of the thing that had always been unusual about my blog was that I was writing openly about the experiments that I was doing before they were published,” she said on a recent episode of the podcast ‘This Week in Microbiology'. It was important that the process of science be made much more open. It was also a useful way to clarify her thinking.
By January this year, Dr. Redfield and her collaborators at Princeton University in the U.S. had finished the lab work and prepared a paper. The paper was submitted to Science. But she also did something that is common enough in physics but rare in biology. The full manuscript was posted on arXiv.org, the preprint server that is freely accessible.
“The advantage of arXiv is that the physicists all use it,” she remarked on the podcast. So Science would have had to deal with physicists posting papers there before or after they submitted them for publication. Indeed, the editor atScience handling their paper said that the journal had no problem with the manuscript being put on arXiv.
Science later responded with a provisional acceptance and comments from three reviewers. The manuscript was revised in the light of those comments and sent back to the journal.
But Dr. Redfield has also posted the full reviewers' comments on a web site and the revised manuscript was made available on arXiv.
Asked on the podcast whether the reviewers' comments could be released publicly, she responded, “I don't see why not.” There was nothing to indicate that those comments were to be kept in confidence. As for their finding, the manuscript declares that there was no sign that the bacterium was able to grow by using arsenic or that the element had been incorporated in its DNA. “On April 13, we submitted the revised version [of the manuscript to Science], and we're waiting with fingers crossed for final acceptance,” said Dr. Redfield on her blog.

Sunday, 6 May 2012


Cause of male baldness found

The proof: The enzyme level in the scalp of balding men rises nearly three times.
Photo: K.R. Deepak

Prostaglandin D2, and its derivative inhibit hair growth
Scientists have finally identified the culprits that are responsible for causing baldness in men. They are prostaglandin D2, also known as PGD2 and its derivative (15-dPGJ2). Incidentally, PGD2 and its derivative were found to show the same effect in mice as well.
The results are published today (March 22) in Science Translational Medicine.
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found that the PGD2 inhibits hair growth. In fact, its level “increases immediately preceding the regression phase,” they write. Its level in the scalp of balding men increases nearly three times compared to those who are not bald. “The absolute level of PGD2 was 16.3 ng/g tissue in balding scalp and 1.5 ng/g tissue in haired scalp,” the paper notes.
The scientists tested their hypothesis using explanted human hair follicles in culture for a week. They used different amounts of both PGD2 and its derivative to check their effects.
At low levels (5 micromolar) of the medium, PGD2 and its derivative “significantly inhibited hair growth.” The hair became shorter when 10 micromolar of PGD2 was used. But at the same concentration, the derivative “completely inhibited all hair growth.”
Different prostaglandins have been known to regulate and increase hair growth. In fact one such prostaglandin has been approved by the FDA to enhance hair growth in human eyelashes. And another is supposed to protect mice from radiation-induced hair loss.
But this study has shown that both in mouse and human skin a balance between the two prostaglandins — PGE2 and PGD2 — is required. There may be other causes for baldness, they note.
The study provides the first ray of hope to people who show early signs of balding. The authors suggest that the level of PGE2 should be increased while inhibiting PGD2 signalling. “Our findings also suggest that supplemental PGE2 could be therapeutic,” they write. They also note that increasing its level in the bald scalp can go as far as overcoming the inhibitory effect of PGD2. The act of inhibiting PGD2 level “may prevent miniaturization and provide benefit to those in the process of balding.”
But they have almost dashed the hopes of people who are already bald. “It is unclear whether men who are already bald will regrow hair,” they write.
This article is corrected for a factual error. Prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) was wrongly mentioned as a protein.

Universal cancer vaccine developed


Scientists claim to have developed a universal cancer vaccine that can train patients’ own bodies to seek out and destroy tumour cells.
A team from Tel Aviv University and drug company Vaxil Biotheraputics say the therapy targets a molecule found in 90 per cent of all cancers, and could soon pave the way for a universal injection that allows patients’ immune systems to fight off common cancers including breast and prostate cancer.
Preliminary results from early clinical trials have shown that the vaccine can trigger an immune response in patients and reduce levels of disease, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
Now, the scientists hope to conduct larger trials in patients to prove it can be effective against a range of different cancers.
In fact, they believe it could be used to combat small tumours if they are detected early enough or to prevent the return of the disease in patients, who have undergone other forms of treatment such as surgery.
Cancer cells usually evade patient’s immune systems because they are not recognised as being a threat. While the immune system usually attacks foreign cells such as bacteria, tumours are formed of patient’s own cells that malfunctioned.
The scientists have, however, found that a molecule called MUC1, found in high amounts on the surface of cancer cells, can be used to help immune system detect tumours.
The vaccine uses a small section of the molecule to prime the immune system so that it can identify and destroy cancer cells, say the scientists.

Bt Brinjal poses a risk to health, environment: Greenpeace report

Spread of the Bt gene could make the brinjal a problematic weed'
An independent enquiry has revealed that the cultivation of genetically engineered (GE, also called genetically modified, or GM) Bt brinjal poses risks to the environment and possibly to human health. The occurrence of wild, weedy and also cultivated relatives presents a likelihood that the GE Bt gene will spread to these relatives but, so far, this has largely been overlooked in the risk assessments for GE Bt brinjal, it says.
Genetically engineered Bt brinjal and the implications for plant biodiversity – revisitedan independent study commissioned by Greenpeace International, finds that brinjal relatives do occur in the regions where cultivation of GE Btbrinjal is proposed, and that GE Bt brinjal may mate with these relatives to spread the GE Bt gene. Spread of the GE Bt gene would have considerable ecological implications, as well as implications for future crop contamination and farmers' rights.
Importantly, the spread of the GE Bt gene could result in the brinjal becoming an aggressive and problematic weed, the Greenpeace report suggests, while impressing upon the governments the need to employ the precautionary principle and not permit any authorisation of the outdoor cultivation of GE Btbrinjal, including field trials
The cultivation of GE Bt brinjal is proposed in some countries across Asia, including India, where there is currently a moratorium on commercialisation, and the Philippines, where field trials are going on. “There are many concerns with GE brinjal, which has been engineered to be resistant to certain insect pests using Bt genes from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. These concerns include food safety and possible effects on organisms other than the pest insect (non-target organisms), such as beneficial insects and butterflies.”
One of the least known aspects of the GE Bt brinjal is its ability to cross with wild relatives or cultivated varieties. This is because there are no recent reviews in the scientific literature concerning species related to brinjal, and where they grow across Asia. This information is vital when addressing concerns regarding cultivation of GE Bt brinjal, because insect-resistance gives a selective advantage to the plant, increasing its ability to survive and reproduce. If the GE Bt brinjal cross-pollinates wild, weedy or cultivated relatives, the result is a hybrid offspring, which may grow more aggressively and thus become a problem weed, the report says.

Friday, 4 May 2012


What are the chemicals we eat every day?

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Even the most experienced cook can not fully appreciate the quality of the product in the eyes. In some cases, odor and color play only a function of the beautiful packaging, behind which hides a set of dubious ingredients. The researchers tested a few products to find out where and under what kind of potential danger may be lurking.
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Butane
Universal Gas is suitable not only for the lighters. The food industry considers butane as artificial antioxidant. Chemical element is added to chicken nuggets to keep fresh. The dish, which in appearance looks like just cooked, it can be podzapravleno butane.
Most often found in ready-made processed foods with long shelf life, such as frozen foods, crackers, chips and fast food.
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Estrogen
Elevated levels of estrogen indicates a questionable origin of the product. Most often, a hormone given to cows milk and meat. Estrogen causes rapid development and growth, which increases milk production and the amount of meat products. And while the question "Is it bad" experts answer is negative, to use such products as food physicians strongly recommend.
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Powder Spinach

The composition of some green pastry, or at least a hint of it is only indirectly related to the vegetable crops. As a component simulating green, dehydrated, and is used here does not have the nutritional value of spinach. The use of such products as useful as it is dust.
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Propylene glycol or antifreeze
The substance is traditionally used in the automotive and cosmetic industries. The reagent does not freeze panes, and also provides water-holding and soothing effect. Because the adverse symptoms were not recorded, the substance was used as a food additive to create these same properties in food.
Potentially hazardous food: confectionery, alcoholic and non-alcoholic carbonated beverages, energy, frozen fruits and poultry.
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Vanillin

Since natural vanilla is expensive, and the world needs is a few thousand tons per year, was invented a method for synthesizing the substance of the more accessible parts. Most vanillin is produced from lignin - a byproduct of pulp and paper industry.
Used as a flavor in yogurt, baked goods, beverages and confectionery.

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The substance of the glands of the beaver


Aromatic substance extracted from the glands of the beaver. Initially, a mixture designed for medical purposes. Over time, it began to be used in the perfume industry as a natural perfume fixative and odor. In terms of the substance of the food industry can play a raspberry flavoring. It is believed that these days the jet is added only in expensive spirits in practice, beaver gland found in the jelly, ice cream, candy and flavored drinks.
The fact of what constitutes a product, usually written on the package, but for the modern buyer is nothing more than a formality. Going for food, should not be limited to entertaining reading matter on the shelf-life, especially if the product is wrapped in colorful packaging, or sold at a low price is tempting.



Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Pollution and Mutation!!!