TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

[Stanley]

I seem to remember that an earlier scare over antibiotics triggered the same interest and I have an idea Horizon did a programme on it.

[rossylass]

I remember reading that antibiotics given routinely to cattle to promote growth and reduce infections in "factory farmed" herds, were largely responsible for the rise in antibiotic resistant bacteria in humans. I followed a link to "The Guardian" website & found an article from December 29th 2011, which raises concern about the use of antibiotics in livestock in the States & its consequences (tried to put the link in, but failed). Quite rightly, everyone jumps up and down when there is the threat of a mutated flu virus, but potentially there may be an even more serious threat rumbling away. It seems to me that it is not merely the over prescription of antibiotics by GP's, although that must contribute to the concerns.

[Tizer]

The most telling thing Rossy is that some of the antibiotics sold by pharma companies and used by vets to treat farm animals and pets are also used to treat humans. I can't imagine a worse situation for encouraging resistance and yet is has been allowed to continue for decades. Also, I can remember being taught how antibiotic resistance occurred and its causes when I was studying biochemistry in about 1970.

[Sue]

Development of antibiotic resistance is a complex issue, and made worse by a number of factors. Resistance development is a good example of natural selection in bacteria, and spreads quickly as generations of bacteria occur in only a matter of hours. It is so important to finish a course of antibiotics as the most susceptible are killed first, then you start to feel better. If you stop then you now have a lovely population of more resistant Bactria to increase in number. That is only part of the story.

I have always thought phage therapy was the way forward.

[Stanley]

I can remember when a single dose of Tetracycline was the miracle cure for scour in calves. Vets used to give a 'shotgun injection' of mixed antibiotics when all else failed. Perhaps the prospect of a lucrative new cure will tempt the pharma companies to invest in R&D?
Have you seen this? (LINK). A Roman Catholic cardinal who believes that paedophilia is an illness and can be cured. Not much chance of reforming the church if views like this are espoused by those in charge.

[Stanley]

Some good news from those terrible frauds, the scientists, this morning. A major break through in the production of an artificial, vaccine for Foot and Mouth at Oxford. Not immediately of use to us in the UK because we are F&M free but very good news for countries where the disease is endemic because it is a very robust product, doesn't rely on refrigeration and so is easy to transport and use in hot climates. There are other benefits as well because it can be distinguished from natural F&M in cattle and is cheaper to make because no live viruses are used making manufacture much safer, easier and cheaper.
News as well of major advances in the treatment of prostate cancer.

[PanBiker]

Breast, and bowel cancers as well Stanley, 49 identifiable new markers discovered in the human genome that can give early warning or a possible pre-disposition to the various forms of the disease. Quite a leap forward for future targeted preventable treatment.

[Tizer]

Sometimes a very simple and cheap idea can make the biggest contribution. Tests have been developed for various diseases in humans and other animals, and for pollutants in the environment, but those which require controlled heating work OK in the lab but haven't been much use in Indian villages for instance. Recently a chemist involved with such tests came up with a simple solution - he put a measured amount of quicklime (calcium oxide) in the kit. The user adds water which converts the quicklime to slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) with release of heat...which is calculated to be just the right amount to give the required temperature for the test. Quicklime has been used before for heating things like cans of food but this present use is an application suited to modern needs. (You might remember chemistry lessons where the sadistic teacher put a little quicklime on your hand and added a drop of water - you don't forget about exothermic reactions after that!)

[Stanley]

Ah, but what proof is there that the reaction was painful..... Or is this just a subjective opinion which has no value?

[Stanley]

See this LINK about the measles hotspot in Swansea. We take immunisation for granted these days and so suffer the consequences. We have forgotten how serious measles is.

[Sue]

Well said Stanley

[Tizer]

It's a terrible shame for the children who weren't immunised, due to Andrew Wakefield (now plying his ideas in the USA) helped by the good old British newspapers and the politicians who were willing to let a rogue get away with his false claims in the face of all the contradictory evidence from the 99% of scientists. A bit like climate change really.

[PanBiker]

I personally think the bloke should have been jailed for his actions. Measles can be a killer and outbreaks of the disease since his fraudulent claims have indeed led to the deaths of children. After he was struck off the medical register he published a book about it all and continues to profit from the lie. As Tiz says he is still preaching the rubbish in the USA.

[Stanley]

In my youth people used to have German Measles parties for girls so they could get the antibody against it. What was the consequence of German Measles in pregnancy?

[PanBiker]

Possible blindness or deafness among some of the effects for the child. When Sally was first pregnant with Carla, Doc Robertson discovered from her notes that she had never had German Measles. He had experience of damaged children as result of this in the past. Sally could not have the live vaccine once pregnant so he ordered up the serum so she would be protected. Sally says it took nearly 5 minutes to get the serum in her behind as it was the constituency of syrup, it was sore sitting down for a while as well. After Carla was born and when he was sure she was not expecting again, he called her in to the surgery and gave her the normal vaccine as a booster, better safe than sorry.

[Sue]

My girls couldn't have the whooping cough vaccine as there was a family history of reaction to it, but when they caught the illness they were so ill . They couldn't have the measles vaccine either for a similar reason Then they changed the way the vaccine was made and we made an appointment to have the vaccine . They started with measles on the same day so the vaccine was not given. They were both very poorly indeed and it brought the whooping type cough back. We had to avoid the vaccine as was but the new one would have been fine and there would have been no question about them having it. My healthy children lost so much weight and were so ill!

[Tizer]

Like so many things it's all a balance of risk and there will always be some children who will show a bad reaction to a vaccine, but the number of those will be a lot less than the number who would be seriously ill or die from the disease. It's hard to get this across to the population, and even more difficult to get people to understand the importance of protecting the population as opposed to protecting the individual. We've got to get above a certain percentage of the population immunised in order for vaccination to be effective. In the present situation we'll probably see a few children badly affected by the vaccine and then somebody will pop out of the woodwork to say "Told you so, it's not safe to vaccinate young children".

[PanBiker]

A medical officer was commenting on the situation on the radio this afternoon. He said we need 95% immunization, at this level the diseases are considered to be incapable of reaching outbreak levels. Measles was heading towards the eradication level before the discredited MMR scare screwed it up for 20 years.

[hartley353]

Mass influx of migrants into this country, has caused outbreaks of diseases that were at the point of eradication.

[Tizer]

...and a mass outflux of British holidaymakers to exotic destinations from which they travel home by jumbo jet thus allowing insufficient time for diseases to show symptoms before they re-enter the UK.

[hartley353]

Yes that is a problem.

[Tizer]

Walking can lower risk of heart-related conditions as much as running (April 04, 2013)

Study Highlights: Walking can lower risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes as much as running. The more people walked or ran each week, the more their health benefits increased.

EMBARGOED UNTIL 3 p.m. CT/4 p.m. ET, Thursday, April 4, 2013
DALLAS, April 4, 2013 — Walking briskly can lower your risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes as much as running can, according to surprising findings reported in the American Heart Association journal `Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology'.

Researchers analyzed 33,060 runners in the National Runners’ Health Study and 15,045 walkers in the National Walkers’ Health Study. They found that the same energy used for moderate intensity walking and vigorous intensity running resulted in similar reductions in risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and possibly coronary heart disease over the study’s six years.

“Walking and running provide an ideal test of the health benefits of moderate-intensity walking and vigorous-intensity running because they involve the same muscle groups and the same activities performed at different intensities,” said Paul T. Williams, Ph.D., the study’s principal author and staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Life Science Division in Berkeley, California.
Further details at this web site: http://newsroom.heart.org/news/walking- ... eview=1ef4

[PanBiker]

Why the embargo on this information? I have been aware of the benefits of walking as opposed to running long before this report was made. Walking gives the same cardio vascular workout as running without the impact pressure that running or jogging produces. I think the calorie burn of effects last longer after a distance walk than they do after running also.

[Tizer]

I agree with you 100% Ian, I feel sorry for the people who run down our lane, sweating, panting, contorted faces, giving themselves agony when they could be walking and enjoying their time in the countryside.

[Stanley]

How true, both of you. I see one demented runner frequently early in the mornings and often reflect that if I looked as poorly as him I would consider a different form of exercise. Another thing about walking is that for the same calorie burn, because when walking the body has time to do it, fat is burned off rather than blood sugar. There was a Horizon programme on this about a year ago.