Beet Root reduces blood pressure

A study has found that a single glass of beet root juice a day may help in reducing the increased blood pressure. This study was done by researchers at Barts and London.
It was seen that after one hour of drinking the juice, the blood pressure started reducing, and went down by an average of 10 mmHg.
Beet root juice contains nitrate and nitrates are known to dilate blood vessels by producing Nitric Oxide, a natural vasodilator. But humans themselves donot have the capability of converting nitrate into nitrite, this is done by bacteria present on tongue or in saliva, this saliva containing nitrite is swallowed and nitrite is converted to Nitric Oxide in the acidic environment of the stomach.
Though it may be cumbersome to make beetroot juice and consume it daily, and the BP reduction may also be transient only, it may be beneficial for those people who are having only a mild hypertension.
This may also have some adjuvant effect (potentiating) to already taken medications.

Finally the proverb "An apple a day keeps a doctor away" may be in for some modification

Source: http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/HYPERTENSIONAHA.107.103523v1?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Ahluwalia&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

"Luke Arm" Prosthesis Readies for Clinical Trials

Dean Kamen's “Luke arm”—a prosthesis named for the remarkably lifelike prosthetic worn by Luke Skywalker in Star Wars—came to the end of its two-year funding last month. Its fate now rests in the hands of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which funded the project. If DARPA gives the project the green light—and some greenbacks—the state-of-the-art bionic arm will go into clinical trials. If all goes well, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gives its approval, returning veterans could be wearing the new artificial limb by next year.

The Luke arm grew out of DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics program, which was created in 2005 to fund the development of two arms. The first initiative, the four-year, US $30.4 million Revolutionizing Prosthetics contract, to be completed in 2009, led by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., seeks a fully functioning, neurally controlled prosthetic arm using technology that is still experimental. The latter, awarded to Deka Research and Development Corp., Kamen’s New Hampshire–based medical products company (perhaps best known for the Segway), is a two-year $18.1 million 2007 effort to give amputees an advanced prosthesis that could be available immediately “for people who want to literally strap it on and go.” Kamen’s team designed the Deka arm to be controlled with noninvasive measures, using an interface a bit like a joystick.

On the second floor of the mill complex that houses Deka, a 650-square-meter space is dedicated to realizing the Luke arm. Right past the entrance is a life-sized Terminator figure missing its left arm; in its place is the same kind of harness that patients wear when testing the Deka arm. It’s there for inspiration. The Terminator is in line for its new arm behind volunteers like Chuck Hildreth, who come to Deka to help the engineers prepare for clinical trials.

Hildreth, 44, lost both arms 26 years ago, when he was electrocuted while painting a power substation. His badly burned right arm was so damaged that doctors even had to remove the shoulder blade. They saved part of Hildreth’s less-damaged left arm, amputating about halfway between the shoulder and the elbow.

Since then Hildreth has been wearing—or more accurately, not wearing—a traditional prosthesis. As Kamen discovered when he talked to patients in rehabilitation clinics and at VA hospitals, after the initial shock of amputation wears off, usually within a year or two, patients stop wearing their prostheses. Even extreme levels of amputation don’t much curb this tendency. Wearing the burdensome prosthetic is simply not justified by the small amount of assistance it provides, says Hildreth. “It gets sweaty and slippery,” he says. He’s gotten so used to living without arms that he changes the blades in his lawn mower with his feet.

When DARPA director Tony Tether and Revolutionizing Prosthetics program manager Colonel Geoffrey Ling approached him in 2005, Kamen says he thought they were crazy—“in the good kind of way,” he says. There was no financial incentive to create a next-generation prosthetic arm. The research and development costs were enormous. Unless funded by DARPA, no private company would take such a risk for such a comparatively small market (in the Americas, about 6000 people require arm prostheses each year). Kamen spent a few weeks traveling around the country interviewing patients, doctors, and researchers to get an idea of the current technology—and soon saw the deficit in available arm prosthetics. He was swayed by the discrepancy between the current state of leg prostheses and that of arm prostheses. “Prosthetic legs are in the 21st century,” he says. “With prosthetic arms, we’re in the Flintstones.”

So he set out to reinvent the prosthesis that has been pretty much the same since the U.S. Civil War. Until now, a state-of-the-art prosthetic arm has meant having up to three powered joints. However, since this type of arm is frustrating to control and doesn’t provide that much functionality, most users still opt for the hook-and-cable device which has been around for over a century. In either case, these prosthetics only have three degrees of freedom—a user can move the elbow, the wrist, and open and close some variant of a hook.

Sourced from: http://spectrum.ieee.org/feb08/5957

Pathways prove new role of BRCA 1 in Breast Cancer

A breast cancer gene's newly discovered role in repairing damaged DNA may help explain why women who inherit a mutated copy of the gene are at increased risk for developing both breast and ovarian cancer. The discovery also could lead to more effective therapies for women with and without mutated copies of the BRCA1 gene, according to a study led by Duke University Medical Center researchers.
"Since it was discovered in 1994, BRCA1 and its role in preventing and causing cancer has been intensely studied, and our research represents an important piece of the puzzle," said Craig Bennett, Ph.D., a researcher in Duke's Department of Surgery and lead investigator on this study. "This study has identified an important mechanism by which BRCA1 comes into play when DNA -- the basis for all cell function -- is damaged. We have shown that this theory holds up not just in scientific models but in human breast cancer cells as well."
The researchers first looked at yeast to demonstrate that a molecular pathway that is particularly susceptible to BRCA1 influence is also crucial to normal cell function. "The BRCA1 pathway we discovered is directly involved with the critical process of transcription, in which RNA acts as a messenger between DNA and the making of proteins," Bennett said. DNA damage is a normal result of exposure to environmental agents, such as carcinogens, and the response to this damage can be influenced by other normal human processes such as aging and hormonal changes, Bennett said. It's what happens to RNA transcription after damage occurs in DNA that is BRCA1-dependent. "We found that BRCA1 acts together with transcription to detect DNA damage and to signal the cell to repair itself," Bennett said. "When BRCA1 does not function correctly, as when it is mutated, DNA damage remains un-repaired and cancer can occur."
The researchers applied their findings in yeast to human breast cancer cells, with the same results. "The fact that we were able to duplicate our results in human breast cancer cells is hugely important," said Bennett. "Yeast is a wonderful model organism that has been used to make significant discoveries in many areas of science and medicine, including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, but the ability to replicate results in human cells is key."
Bennett said the discovery will lay the groundwork for further investigation of the role of BRCA1 and possibly lead to new therapeutic strategies targeting the genes or protein products within this pathway. Women who have inherited a BRCA1 mutation have up to an 80 percent risk of developing breast cancer in their lifetime, and they are also at risk for developing the disease at much younger ages than women without the mutation, according to the American Cancer Society. Their risk for developing ovarian cancer is about 40 to 50 percent, compared to just over one percent for the general population. The mutation is most often found in women with Eastern European Jewish origin, but can be found in women of any race. "Someday we hope that this research will lead to the development of more effective ways to treat both the women who have inherited a mutated copy of the BRCA1 gene and those who have not," Bennett said.

IRAQ WAR FALLOUT ON SOLDIER'S HEALTH

The Iraq war, also known as second gulf war or Operation Iraqi freedom, started on March 20, 2003 with the United States-led invasion of Iraq by a multinational coalition composed of U.S. and U.K. troops supported by smaller contingents from Australia, Poland, and other nations.
In a January 10, 2007 televised address to the American public, Bush proposed 21,500 more troops for Iraq.On January 23, 2007 in the 2007 State of the Union Address, Bush announced "deploying reinforcements of more than 20,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Iraq." But the intensity of bombings has increased.
Pressures on U.S. troops were compounded by the continuing withdrawal of British forces from the Basra Governorate

More than 1.5 million U.S. military personnel have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan since the start of military operations in 2001. An important medical concern of the Iraq war is the potential long-term effect of mild traumatic brain injury, or concussion, particularly from blast explosions.

In a study oublished in New England Journal of Medicine,out of 2525 soldiers, 124 (4.9%) reported injuries with loss of consciousness, 260 (10.3%) reported injuries with altered mental status, and 435 (17.2%) reported other injuries during deployment. Of those reporting loss of consciousness, 43.9% met criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as compared with 27.3% of those reporting altered mental status, 16.2% with other injuries, and 9.1% with no injury. Soldiers with mild traumatic brain injury, primarily those who had loss of consciousness, were significantly more likely to report poor general health, missed workdays, medical visits, and a high number of somatic and postconcussive symptoms than were soldiers with other injuries.

A large number of symptoms associated with PTSD are indistinguishable from other disorders affecting soldiers returning from Iraq war.
The study suggests that greater care is needed in soldiers returning home, as concussion injuries acquired due to bomb explosions or other mechanisms on the battle ground may lead to PTSD and better intervention studies are needed to properly address this issue

SOURCE Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in U.S. Soldiers Returning from Iraq, NEJM,  Volume 358:453-463 January 31, 2008, Number 5