IRRITABLE BOWEL

FECAL MATTERS

FLATULENCE.

Pretty funny!

And cramping pain, diarrhea, constipation, general misery.

I’m KILLIN’ you, right?  Hard to say what causes such symptoms in so many but let’s call it irritable bowel syndrome so we can have a medical billing code, OK?

Maybe 20% of grownups “live with it” (IBS) because – what’re ya gonna do? Just the way it is. It’s common and it’s not well understood. Gastroenterologists  call it a functional disorder. Know it when you see it.

Its REAL! It’s REAL! You’re NOT (that) crazy!

Dr. Michael Schemann leads a team at Technische Universitaet Muenchen (Munich) which has been trying to figure out what’s up with this hard-to-define disorder. They’ve described some  interesting work . In the case of IBS, the mucus membrane’s just a bit inflamed and, at the same time, the nervous system of the gut is very jacked up. Probably wouldn’t make much difference somewhere else in the body but the intestines are much more sensitive than you would think for an organ that spends so much time in close contact with – well you know.

When the lining of the intestine gets irritated, it releases a “cocktail” of chemicals like protease,  seretonin, and histamine.  And this chemical fog  may be the real reason for the symptoms of IBS.

This is supposed to come as a relief to IBS sufferers who might feel on the defensive cause maybe they’re making it all up. But IBS is real enough. MISTERScienceAintSoBad can tell ya and he ain’t no crank!

By the way, did you notice that histamines are part of the “cocktail”? Histamines. As in immune response? Isn’t that what ANTI-histamines for allergies are all about? What would happen if IBS sufferers took antihistaimes?

Well their noses would stop dripping. That’s for sure. But Dr. Robert Wascher (mensdailynews.com) describes a double blind study for IBS where an antihistamine is taken for 8 weeks.

WHAT a surprise! The subjects did lots better.

What to make of all this?

It’s all good. It’s medical science doin’ its thing.

ScienceAintSoBadRating = 9 . Not definitive. But it moves things onto more solid ground and exposes a possible mechanism for a widespread and annoying illness.

Nice.

Credits for the image: Just me.

No More Colorblind Monkeys

Ophthalmology: Colorblindness

MONOCHROME WORLD

You always wondered, didn’t you? What’s it like to be colorblind? That word – blind. Very dark and murky. But, if you’re colorblind, it’s colors you can’t see. It’s not like yer gonna wump into a wall or anything.

So is it such a bad thing?

The answer’s kinda yes and kinda no.

Some people are only a LITTLE color blind. They see a lot of colors. But not all of them. And some people (with monochromasy) are flat out colorless – like a “black and white” movie. Just black, white, and a bunch of grays.

Minochromasy isn’t common. But if you’ve got it, I wouldn’t plan a career around painting or photography or even police work (“Watch  for a guy wearing a blue cardigan”). And try not to take stuff like “Those SOCKS! What’re you, colorblind?” to heart.

Whether it’s a disability or just a disadvantage, it is one a those imperfections that makes life richer (one might even say, more colorful) if, sometimes, a little tougher.

A CURE

So. Guess what Jay Neitz (University of Washingon) just cured?

You’re GOOD!

That’s right. Fixed it right up. In monkeys. (Which, at least in your case, isn’t SO far removed.) And he seems optimistic that homo sapiens isn’t too far down this path as well as other vision disorders.

Good one, Dr Neitz.

ScienceAintSoBadRating = 9

]]> http://scienceaintsobad.com/archives/3732/feed 0 http://scienceaintsobad.com/archives/3589 http://scienceaintsobad.com/archives/3589#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:34:51 +0000 MISTER Science Ain't So Bad http://scienceaintsobad.com/?p=3589

She's got a MIGRAINE, you nitwit!

I had a rental car with a broken radio. You couldn’t lower the volume or turn it off and it only got one station which had Rush Limbaugh, ranting and raving. What could be worse? – BizWhiz59

MIGRAINES

My wife says migraine headaches are worse than a date with MISTER ScienceAintSoBad . But she’s probably exaggerating.  A musician who gets migraines almost weekly says they’re “The worst thing that can happen to you that doesn’t kill you permanently”.

WHAT THEY ARE

About 30 million Americans get migraines ; they (the headaches) usually don’t hit till the teens or later.

The “classic” migraine’s a funny guy. You get visual or auditory “auras”. You’re thinking “wow! I bet there’s a spiritual relevation coming.” and, POW!, the top of your head blows off.

Mean!

The “common” migraines don’t have explicit auras although you might feel kinda “weird” or sluggish before the pain, itself, hits. The head pain varies but it can get pretty bad. It’s normally one-sided and, in case you’re not miserable enough with just pain,  there’s often nausea/vomiting too.

Far as is known, migraines are probably kicked off by some signal in the brain stem which causes arteries  (including those in the dura which encase the brain) to contract and then dilate abnormally while local levels of dopamine and serotonin (neurotransmitters) go off script too.  This is all sustained by a runaway condition in the temporal artery (a blood vessel near the temple).

WHAT THEY’RE NOT

Other kinds of headaches.

But it can be kinda hard to tell the difference. The Headache Center (Springfield, MO) says that 97% of people who thought they had sinus headaches had migraines.

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

WHAT YOU CAN DO

I think, somewhere in here, I’m supposed to tell you to check with your Doc first and (seriously) you should because a bad headache may be a manifestation of a tumor or an intra-cranial bleed or God-Knows-What. It’s hard ENOUGH to get readers, in the first place, I don’t wanna lose one over a missed doctor visit.

However, as a matter of general information, you might like to know the best way to minimize the discomfort and to move on with your life:

1. Take the pain meds your Doc prescribed.

2.  ice packs, cold water, etc to your head/face.

3. Don’t be a hero. Don’t read. Don’t do anything. Lie down in a dark room. Meditate, listen to music, think about ScienceAintSoBad.. restful stuff.

An article on Health Square has more detail and  goes on to describe common triggers and ways to, maybe, dodge some headaches. Worth reading if you’re cursed with this syndrome.

THE NEW STUFF

From a scientific standpoint, there’s still plenty of work to be done here. I won’t bog you down, overly, with long, long shots.

Some of the newest stuff that’s currently on the market: zolmitriptan, Amerge, and a nasal spray version of  Migranol .  (Ask your Doc).

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: Uses a dynamic electromagnetic field to knock down the “cortical spreading” waves at the onset of the headaches. It seemed to work about 50% of the time. It’s still very much an experiment.

Wanna go under the knife? If you do, surgical removal of certain trigger sites seems surprisingly good and may even be a surgical “cure” for many.  This is from a joint study led by Bahaman Guyuron, Chairman of Plastic Surgery at Case Medical Center.

Archives of Dermatology offers a small study with  a particularly tough form of the headache which got decent results using botulinum toxin injections. MISTER ScienceAintSoBad wishes there were more data.

A fair sized study done in Philadelphia with a “snorter” (an inhaled drug) called Levadex sounds interesting. According to the (only slightly puffy) description, patients had “significant” relief from symptoms. This was just the study that proves “safety”. Good one to keep an eye on though. Levadex.

Naturally, there are homeopathic “cures” for migraine. Make what you will of my quotation marks.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -

(If you want the above cartoon on a t-shirt go here. )

Take Your D

Shoot! No Tenure.

THE DARK SIDE

Amy Bishop (Assistant Professor Of Biology at the University of Alabama) figured out that  her colleagues weren’t gonna give her tenure.

So she shot them.

TOO assertive, we think. They say she also  shot and killed her brother in 1986, was a suspect in a bombing, may have assaulted someone in a restaurant and, supposedly, had a long history of hinkey behavior.

WHAT KIND OF SCIENTIST WAS SHE?

You, the readers of Science Ain’t So Bad, aren’t the SORT to be titillated by violence.

Or sex, for that matter.

If you’re here, you’re here to read about science and technology and, I’m sure your questions about Dr. Bishop are more about her scientific work.

Proud OF you!

Well, as a published author, Bishop isn’t prolific. R Douglas Fields (Psychology Today) took a look and says the list is short.

Her newest stuff is about nitric oxide, a compound that has multiple and important uses in human (and nonhuman) biology. Her research leads her to a radical view of the causes of MS –  a view which is still considered pretty “iffy”. Shooting her colleagues, obviously, might not add weight to her arguments, although, strictly speaking, scientific ideas should be evaluated on their own merits.

Still..

An article in the Boston Herald says Bishop included her minor kids on at least one of her papers.

MISTER ScienceAintSoBad thinks that’s nice. If she hadn’t done such awful things and if her contributions were solid, the “kids on the research paper” thing wouldn’t get counted as a foul here.

The article by Fields also describes a system for maintaining neurons in cell culture – an “automated Petri Dish” – for which Bishop had obtained a patent. If the device was getting lost in the noise of all the other patents, that should change now. (No such thing as bad news? Do I believe this?). But Fields sounds dubious about the prospects for the invention.

STUDENT REVIEWS

As far as Bishop’s teaching is concerned, her student reviews didn’t seem bad. Look for yourself.

Nobody’s  heartless enough to give a ScienceAintsoBadRating on this one.  Instead, we offer our sincere condolences to those who have suffered, including Bishop’s own family and we mourn the almost certain loss of her  potential contributions to the scientific world and to the community at large.

]]> http://scienceaintsobad.com/archives/3099/feed 0 http://scienceaintsobad.com/archives/2962 http://scienceaintsobad.com/archives/2962#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:41:15 +0000 MISTER Science Ain't So Bad http://scienceaintsobad.com/?p=2962

NO SONG LIKE AN OLD SONG

Did I mention that it may help reduce heart disease and diabetes in elders?

Don’t let this study from Loyola fool you though. The science isn’t indisputable.

Just hard to resist.

Take your D.

- MISTER ScienceAintSoBad

NOT TOO PROUD TO SHARE

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR: Bananas

You figured bonobos were tightwads.

Sorry.

This study in Current Biology describes bonobos with GREAT food, taking a key and unlocking a door to share it with a buddy.

Would YOU do that? MISTER Science Ain’t So Bad sure ain’t givin’ away HIS bananas.

Don’t even ask.

ScienceAintSoBadRating = 6

Probably a good study but the earth didn’t shake.

TASTES LIKE CHICKEN

Nutrition: Reptile Menus

SOME of you are not regular snake eaters.

For the rest of you, a study in The International Journal of Food Microbiology says that you only risk trichinosis, pentastomiasis, gnathostomiasis or sparganosis by eating crocodiles, turtles, lizards or snakes.

Well.

Did I mention there’s also a chance of Salmonella, Shigella, Escherichia coli, Yersinia enterolitica, Campylobacter, Clostridium or Staphylococcus aureus?

I know you like fresh, but freezing’s safer. It tends to kill the very small stuff that shouldn’t be there anyway.

ScienceAintSoBadRating = 5. (This study is still preliminary. And, besides. You eat snakes, you deserve what you get.)

Take THAT!

Nutrition: The Everything Pill!

A SCIENCE KINDA MIRACLE

For the elderly, it helps sharpen memory and reduces falls.

It’s effective against  chron’s disease and cancer and PMS and gum disease.

It  helps with insomnia and prevents  skeletal defects.

And, by the way, it also works against stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, depression, pain, ,  cardiac disease and can defend against multiple sclerosis.

Let’s see. What else?

Oh.  You know about telomeres, the little twisty ties at the end of chromosomes which keep them from falling apart? This thing I’m describing protects the twisty ties and  slows down the aging process. Pretty good, huh?

I’ll skip the rest of the benefits (there  are more). You get my point.

Just got a telegram from a reader who  says: “You’re full of CRAP! And, even if such a thing DID exist, I couldn’t afford it and the side effects would  melt me”.

Dear Reader

Just hold yer water there, Dear Reader.

Let’s start with price.

You can buy it over-the-counter for less than 2 cents a pill and it’s FDA approved.

As far as side effects are concerned, none I can find unless you stuff so many down your gullet that you choke. Or overdose. And I’m not even sure you CAN overdose. There’s some controversy as to whether there  is a toxic level. If there is, it takes a systematic effort over a long time to build it up in your body fat.  In other words, you really gotta try.

Enough with the long run up. I guess you’ll be surprised to learn that “it”  is vitamin D, the “sunshine vitamin.”

The Clues

MISTER ScienceAintSoBad tries to stay on top of relevant news.

Keeps him busy.

While skimming through the blizzard of buzz about science and technology, I  began to  notice studies about vitamin D which were related to all KINDS of things like stroke, chron’s, multiple sclerosis, and on and on, and on..

This is a LITTLE blog.  A one- guy-when-he-has-a-chance-to-write blog.  I can’t comment on everything so I look for things that’re the most useful or relevant or interesting or amusing.

Nobody wants to hear about vitamins and minerals. I’m not yer mother.

But the articles and studies kept coming  until, FINALLY, I started to get the picture. This isn’t just a pill. This is a PILL!

Wow!

The “crept up on us” factor

“D” was “discovered” in 1905 ( William Fletcher). Before that, remedies for rickets and scurvy (deficiency diseases) were recognized, consisting of  certain foods that we now know were D – rich.

By the modern era, sailors were smart enough to avoid scurvy by keeping a few oranges around (after there was a way to keep them cool). Course the issue became kinda moot when steam engines made  ocean crossings shorter.

We were conquering D deficiency.

Then we got REALLY smart.

We discovered that the sun can cause skin cancer and we started wearing big hats. And sun block. And watching flat screen TV’s.

Inside.

And now, one in seven teens is deficient in vitamin D (even by traditional measures).  And it’s starting to sound like much of the population needs a D tune up (in part because of the recognition that the prior minimum daily dose was insufficient for all its possible uses).

How much?

Many of the benefits of D that are discussed here are pretty new and the entire question of how much is enough is under review. Walter Willett’s a smart guy as well as the chairman of the Harvard School of Public Health’s Department Of Nutrition. He says 1000 IU might be about right.

An extra orange or a tangerine in the morning couldn’t do you any harm either.

- – - – - – — –  A PostScript – - – - – - – -

An article by Tara Parker-Pope in the New York Times this morning, observing the claimed wide ranging benefits for vitamin D, throws (possible) scientific cold water at it. Where are the randomized clinical trials? These are mere correlations. Correlations aren’t NECESSARILY cause and effect. Maybe staying healthy RAISES levels of vitamin D.

Science can be SUCH  a BUMMER!

Take your D.

The image is mine
(not a self portrait) .


By the way,
I don’t steal images
from others.
I wouldn’t be able to handle the guilt.

Psychology: Guilt.

Hold onto your wig because this is a real toupee blaster. According to an article in the Spanish Journal of Psychology, men feel less guilt than women.

An article like this illustrates beautifully the power of the scientific approach.

You observe the male species, burdened as it is with feelings of over sensitivity, huddled in corners with arms tightly clasped and murmuring about the possible emotional injuries we may have caused, through a passing slight, to another, and you would, necessarily, conclude that it is the oppositely endowed gender – the x chromosomal female version of us – that is a stranger to feelings of guilt.

But it is the work of scientists to tease out the facts from the seemingly obvious. MISTER ScienceAintSoBad can’t BEGIN to express his awe at this work.

ScienceAintSoBadRating = YGBKM (You Gotta Be Kiddin’ Me!)