Author: Alerts CC

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently awarded the Moffitt Cancer Center (MCC) in Tampa, Florida a $3.6 million grant in order to evaluate the effects of electronic cigarettes, commonly known as “e-cigarettes” or “e-cigs” for short, during the next five years.

Outbreak News Today reports that the MCC will study the effects of e-cigs, considering their rise in popularity over the past decade. Millions of Americans claim to use e-cigs, which “vaporize” a nicotine-laden liquid rather than burn regular tobacco. In 2013, the e-cig industry was valued at a whopping $1.7 billion.

Conventional wisdom deems e-cigs safer than regular cigarettes, although there is scant scientific evidence to say that for certain. Many e-cig users claim to use them in order to quit or curtail their smoking habits. However, little research indicates that e-cigs can combat cigarette addiction in any noticeable way.

The objective of the NIH grant is for researchers at MCC to study how e-cigs are used over long periods of time. Specifically, the researchers want to find out if they can actual help users quit smoking regular cigarettes. The first year of the study will involve interviewing e-cig users and collecting information about their experiences: when they use it, how often they smoke, why they took it up, and their general perceptions of e-cigs. The study group will include tobacco smokers as well (some of whom may smoke e-cigs on top of tobacco cigarettes).

Dr. Thomas Brandon, PhD, the director of the Tobacco Research and Intervention Program at MCC, said that “public health researchers are really playing catch-up with the explosion of e-cigarettes onto the marketplace.”

“Millions of smokers are using e-cigarettes to try to quit smoking, yet because there is a lack of data, we are not able to advise them whether that is an effective smoking cessation strategy,” he continued. “This study should provide some answers that will be very useful to smokers as they consider ways to quit.”

Sunscreen, cosmetics and frying pans are all items that we use on an everyday basis.

But could they secretly be reducing fertility among men?

That’s what Niels Jorgensen, a Danish researcher, recently asserted after studying more than 70 years’ worth of male fertility data.

These products all have one thing in common: high levels of phthalates, chemicals found in everything from car dashboards to shower curtains. Thanks to the stunning amount of chemicals to which we are exposed on a daily basis, just one in four men has good-quality sperm ideal for reproducing, Jorgensen said at the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology’s conference in Lisbon last month.

These phthalates “can be breathed in, consumed or absorbed through the skin of pregnant women, inhibiting testosterone production in male fetuses, leading to sons with low sperm counts,” Jorgensen said.

It’s not surprising, then, that the average couple between the ages of 29 to 33 with normally-functioning reproductive systems will ultimately only have a 20-25% chance of successfully conceiving. Although infertility is typically thought to be a female problem, Jorgensen’s findings show that the man can be just as likely to have fertility troubles as his partner.

And when more women are waiting until their 30s and 40s to have children — by which time their own fertility is waning — having a partner with a low sperm count can exacerbate the problem.

However, according to those in the cosmetics industry, it’s never advisable for one to skip out on sunscreen for the sake of improving one’s chances at conception. Dr. Chris Flower, an official from the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Perfumery Association, called Jorgensen’s advice regarding sunscreen “outrageous,” the New Zealand Herald reported.

“We know the risks of sun damage, and to suggest that not using sun protection products is a good idea is a terrible thing to do,” he said. “To frighten pregnant women about non-existent dangers of cosmetics is equally irresponsible.”

Dogs typically only need to go the vet once a year, but if they chow down on 62 hair bands, four rubber bands, eight pairs of underwear, and a bandage, as Tiki the Labrador did, they’ll have to go back a few times.

Sara Weiss, Tiki’s owner, told Pittsburgh TV station WTAE that she knew her lab had a taste for non-food items. She’d apparently swallowed a NERF dart before, but the toy had passed through her digestive system just fine.

When the dog wasn’t feeling well, Weiss took her to the vet, who prescribed her medicine. When the medicine didn’t help Tiki’s condition, they X-rayed her, and found a mass in her stomach.

Dr. Hisham Ibrahim, known as “Doctor I,” of Good Shepherd Veterinary Hospital then performed a two-hour surgery at the end of June, WTAE reported.

“‘Doctor I’ started pulling handfuls of different items out,” Emily Cottle, the head technician at Good Shepherd Veterinary Hospital, told WTAE. “It was quite an experience to see.”

“I found this hair band attached to another hair band to another one to another one and to other things again,” said Ibrahim.

This sort of thing isn’t totally unheard of. Last year, a Great Dane made national headlines when it ate 43 and a half socks. The clinic that removed the Great Dane’s footwear blockage submitted his X-rays to the annual “They Ate WHAT?” contest, and won the $500 third prize. The Great Dane lost to a frog who’d eaten 30 rocks from the bottom of its cage, and a German shorthaired pointer who swallowed a metal shish kabob skewer.

In fact, Ibrahim also removed 15 pacifiers from the stomach of another dog prior to Tiki’s “really amazing” case.

Fortunately, Tiki recovered, despite her appetite for all things elastic.

“It was just amazing, and it’s not easy,” said Ibrahim. “But, thank God, we were able to pull through, and Tiki has recovered very well.”

For the first time in nearly a century, the travertine walls of the Duluth City Hall building in Minnesota will be properly cleaned and restored to their former glory.

The Duluth News Tribune reports that the City of Duluth architect Tari Rayala is leading a major restoration project in cleaning the building’s walls. Since the city hall opened in 1928, the walls, once vibrant and pristine white, have slowly decayed after decades of indoor smoking, indoor heating, and skin oils from people touching the walls. The walls now look worn, dingy, and jaundiced.

The travertine cleaning work began last month after the Duluth City Council approved of $107,000 in funding in April. The cleaning is expected to wrap up by the end of the month.

The contractor responsible for the project, Premium Plant Services, works at night using an innovative technique invented by Sponge Jet, a company based in New Hampshire. Representative from both companies were in Duluth last week observing the work.

“I’m very pleased,” said Ted Valoria, Sponge Jet’s Vice President for North America.

The process involves delivering aluminum oxide particles wrapped in small dry sponges to the travertine walls via an air hose that projects air at 40 pounds per square inch.

“In historical preservation, it’s called ‘micro-abrasion,'” Valoria said, who pointed out that since the technique was invented 27 years ago it has been used in more than 100 countries, in buildings as illustrious as the White House and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

“The workmanship is truly professional,” she continued, complimenting the project crew. “They’ve got an appreciation for the finesse that’s required.”

The city hall is part of a prominent city district that houses the Federal Building and the St. Louis County Courthouse. Rayala hopes that the restoration work on City Hall will motivate the other buildings to follow suit.

“Once they see what we’ve done,” Rayala said, “they’ll be copying us.”

With a demand in the United States at about 0.85 million tons every year, travertine is one of the most popular natural stone building materials in the country.

Sweepstakes scams destroyed the life of Terry Liddell’s father. For the past three years, the man’s life has been unbearable. Not only has he lost all of his savings, but the stress of such a situation nearly destroyed his relationship with Terry.

“It’s about losing my father to a bunch of scammers,” Liddell said. “Somebody that I love and care about [being] taken advantage of like that, and mentally destroyed over money. They just took him to the cleaners every way they could.”

The terrible saga began when Oscar Liddell received a mailer telling him he’d won $3 million and a new BMW. Sometimes, sweepstakes ask that participants submit a photo, video or essay about the brand, products or services to increase the number of people interacting with the brand, thereby deepening the connection. This sweepstakes, though, said he had to pay fees and insurance to receive his grand prize. The thing is, legitimate sweepstakes never ask for money.

Liddell bought in. Then, he bought in again. And again. Over and over he continued to send money, hoping for the payout.

At the time, Liddell lived alone, and the widower’s son lived a distance away. The con artists starting mining his information, and right off the bat, found that he was lonely and vulnerable. They asked for a little bit of his family background, and within a week, they began calling up to six times a day and sending bags of mail, hoping to wring him out for literally all he was worth.

No one could get through to Liddell. His son tried to convince him that he was being conned, and when that didn’t work, his pastor, the sheriffs, and his accountant all tried, and failed.

Ultimately, the scammers took more than $100,000 from Liddell, and even isolated him from the outside world.

“They were then able to call his telephone carrier and change the passwords to his account, and they blocked all calls that were NOT coming from them, so he couldn’t contact his family,” U.S. Postal Inspector R. Ronald Mayhew Jr. said.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, any indication that a participant has to do anything with money is a sign of a scam, be it in the form of a money wire, or the deposit of a check sent by the scammers. Another indicator that a sweepstakes is really a scam is a lack of entry. People can’t win sweepstakes if they don’t enter. If a con artist claims a person has won a contest that they didn’t enter, it’s a scam.

“If anyone gets anything out of this interview, convince your elderly NOT to fall for the contest,” said Terry Liddell. “There is no prize. It’s a scam. They just want your money.”

According to a new study, the prescription of antipsychotic drugs among adolescents is on the rise, but the diagnosis of mental disorders is not. In other words, more adolescents are taking antipsychotic drugs without having been diagnosed with a mental disorder warranting such medication.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, analyzed trends between 2006 and 2010 using data from thousands of prescriptions. It found that the percentage of teens using medications increased over time, with the highest rates of usage being amongst teens ages 13 to 18. In 2006, about 1.1% of the group used drugs, while 1.19% used them in 2010.

The study also found that about 60% of those between the ages of one and six, 56.7% of those between the ages of seven and 12, 62% of those between the ages of 13 and 18, and 67.1% of those between ages 19 and 24, who were all taking the drugs, had no inpatient nor outpatient claim indicating a mental disorder diagnosis.

“There’s a general consensus that great caution should be exercised with antipsychotic drugs,” said lead author Mark Olfson. “This raises concerns about whether the right caution is taken.”

The reason medical professionals aren’t using the right amount of caution before prescribing antipsychotic drugs could possibly be because rates of mental disorders are quite high amongst children. According to federal statistics, one in five children either currently has, or has had, a seriously debilitating mental disorder.

However, researchers feel that in cases where there are diagnosed mental disorders, the antipsychotic drugs are being used to treat unapproved conditions, such as depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which doctors are known to prescribe antipsychotics for.

Olfson said that doctors do this because the drugs provide “fast relief” for behaviors in children that are often tough to manage. When in tough spots, both doctors and parents are willing to use the drugs in ways that haven’t been approved.

“There’s been concern that these medications have been overused, particularly in young children,” said Olfson. “Guidelines and clinical wisdom suggest that you really should be using a high degree of caution and only using them when other treatments have failed, as a last resort.”

Researchers from the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience have just developed a new method for analyzing proteins found in animal venom, and the results have been shocking: while a small drop of venom from a predatory cone snail could easily kill a person within minutes, the toxins within the venom hold proteins, called peptides, which could provide the foundations for drugs that would treat a variety of medical conditions.

The snail in question is one of 700 cone snails in Australia and is called the Conus episcopatus, Tech Times reports. This mollusk uses its venom to “immobilize its prey, which includes other snails, fish, and worms” and the venom itself contains “an extraordinary cocktail of compounds with medicinal properties.”

One researcher stated that scientists have long been aware of the powerful chemicals contained in the venom of cone snails, but up until this new analysis method was implemented, Business Insider states that it has been impossible to see the peptide molecules so closely.

The Conus episcopatus uses its venom to anesthetize its victims before killing them, so it isn’t surprising that the peptides inside the venom are expected to be used in drugs to treat pain and cancer.

But the Conus episcopatus isn’t the only cone snail with healing powers…

Live Mint recently reported that two scientists in another research group discovered a possible cure for insomnia in the venom of the Conus araneaosus. This cone snail is found on the coastline of southeast India and Sri Lanka, and the predatory snail uses its venom to sedate its prey before killing it.

After researchers isolated and purified a handful of peptides, these chemicals were injected into mice. Within minutes of the injection, one peptide called “ar3J” put the mice to sleep for about two hours; a double dosage resulted in a five-hour nap.

By treating the serious problem of sleep deprivation, which results from sleep disorders like insomnia and sleep apnea, a variety of other medical problems will likely decrease. Sleep apnea sufferers, for example, are three times as likely to develop heart disease if they’re unable to find an effective treatment.

It could be a while before any snail venom peptides are used in drugs for humans, but it definitely seems like Mother Nature has plenty of good surprises up her sleeve.

Unmarried women are now influencing the U.S. fertility rate more than ever before since we started keeping track of it.

According to a July 10 Wall Street Journal report, the national fertility rate is actually on the rise for the first time in seven years. However, it’s mostly married women who are having babies these days — and these women are occupying a shrinking share of the population of potential mothers.

The fertility data for 2014, released last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), thus shows a widening discrepancy between married and unmarried women in America. While married women continue to have children year after year, unmarried women are having fewer — or none at all.

This matters because unmarried women, who now make up the majority of women of childbearing age, are what the U.S. will rely on to drive its sagging fertility rate. While most women of this age were married two decades ago, 58% of this age group today aren’t. The average woman will have her first child after she reaches 25 years of age, although women are usually at their peak fertility between 20 and 24 years of age.

“It’s really what the unmarried segment is doing that is going to drive the overall rate,” said Sally Curtin, a demographer and health statistician for the CDC.

In good news, however, the CDC found that the teen birthrate fell to a historic low in 2014. According to the Washington Times, the rate of teen pregnancy in the U.S. has dropped an incredible 61% since 1991. There are now approximately 24.2 births per 1,000 teens.

“This is spectacular news — proof again that teens can, and often do, make good decisions,” said Sarah S. Brown, chief executive of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

So no, teenagers do not make up a significant portion of unmarried women who give birth. However, with the U.S. fertility rate stubbornly remaining below the optimal rate for population stability, it will increasingly be unmarried women who will determine what happens to the number of babies born across the country.

Considered a wise man and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin promoted the value of sleep when he famously wrote, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man health, wealthy, and wise.” Unfortunately, people simply aren’t getting enough sleep these days, as insomnia and a whole host of other sleep disorders continue to plague society.

The scary part? Things keep getting worse.

A recent article published in the New Yorker revealed startling information about how and why both children and adults are sleeping less and less. This phenomenon has been documented for over 100 years.

Over the last 50 years, sleep duration on work nights has continued to drop, falling from eight-and-a-half hours to slightly under seven, according to Charles Czeisler, chief of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. While 31% of people sleep less than six hours a night, 69% report insufficient sleep. Lisa Matricciani, a sleep researcher at the University of South Australia, reviewed sleep data from children from 1905 to 2008 and found that children have lost roughly a minute of sleep each year.

So what happens when people don’t get enough sleep? The consequences can be fatal.

According to Harvard neurologist and sleep medicine physician Josna Adusumilli, those who sleep six hours a night — the average amount of time Americans sleep — for twelve consecutive days cognitively and physically perform the same way as someone who has been awake for 24 hours straight.

The same effect can been seen by those who sleep four hours each night for six consecutive days. When person goes without sleep for 24 hours, their performance is nearly indistinguishable from someone with a blood alcohol content of 0.1%. Simply put, “normal” amounts of sleep deprivation can make you perform as if you were drunk — and not in a fun way.

Slightly more than 30% of Americans sleep six or less hours a night, meaning at least one-third of the population is unknowingly suffering from serious sleep deprivation. Without sleep, the human body literally begins to fall apart. Sleep deprivation has been linked to a whole slew of physical and mental disorders, including anxiety, depression, weight gain, memory loss, increased risk of cancer, and a buildup of proteins in the brain that is commonly associated with Alzheimer’s.

For example, those who suffer from untreated cases of sleep apnea — a sleep disorder that causes breathing to repeatedly stop — face a risk of stroke that is four times higher than those who receive treatment or aren’t afflicted.

Studies are now trying to discover whether there is a link between consumption of avocado and soybean oil and reduced arthritis pain. About 51.2 million Americans say that they have been diagnosed with arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, gout of fibromyalgia. If a study could find a way to reduce the pain these patients are experiencing, it could be a saving grace for many.

The hypothesis is that a supplement made from avocado and soybean oil could drastically reduce pain from arthritis with no side effects. However, these studies have had mixed results. Many short term studies found that a French avocado-soy-oil combination can reduce pain for three to six months. However, longer term studies show that it was no better.

Osteoarthritis, one form of many under the umbrella term arthritis, is characterized by the breakdown of cartilage. That cartilage is supposed to cushion the body’s joints so that they move slowly. But once that breakdown happens, the harsh movement of joints against each other causes pain. The medications that are currently prescribed to treat osteoarthritis can result in other health issues, including ulcers, heart attacks, and strokes.

Dr. Theodosakis, one of the studies’ authors who is also a clinical associate professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson, says that eating avocados or soybeans does not have the same effect, as the supplements concentrate the beneficial parts, making them more powerful. The supplement has not been tested in a clinical trial.

Doctors say it isn’t harmful or a bad idea to try a supplement to see if it helps an individual, but there just is not enough evidence across a wide-range, long-term study to say that the supplements in this scenario will reduce pain. There are currently no other drugs that specifically target arthritis with no side effects, and many doctors say that their research will continue in order to hopefully find a new method.