Health

The prevalences of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and the metablic syndrome are rising rapidly both in Europe and worldwide. There is evidence that this is due to the population taking less exercise and becoming more sedentary, coupled with the increased consumption of high fat, low fibre foods (fast food or convenience food). The EXGENESIS consortium aims to provide insights into the reasons why poor diet and lack of exercise contribute to increasing levels of obesity and diabetes.

Dr. Philip R. Greipp, MD, Mayo Clinic, discusses his article entitled “Idiopathic Systemic Capillary Leak Syndrome (Clarkson’s Disease): the Mayo Clinic Experience” (available at: http://tinyurl.com/24gyvd7), published Online First at Mayo Clinic Proceedings. This retrospective study describes clinical features, natural history, and outcome in a cohort of 25 consecutive patients with systemic capillary leak syndrome.

ASPIRE is an international women's health initiative aims to save thousands of lives by implementing a scalable and affordable integrated cervical cancer screening program in Eastern Africa using self-collection for the human papillomavirus (HPV). The ASPIRE program is community-driven and will undertake education and information campaigns to increase knowledge and capacity among healthcare providers. For more information visit www.aspireafrica.ca

The video describes my invention of Engineered cells which can act as a live vaccine. These cells are programmed to intelligently detect a particular gut pathogen and then specifically and completely kill it without affecting the normal gut microbial flora. This automated approach thus prevents from horrible side effects of current antibiotics and growing resistance against them.

Fox Morning News welcomes Pediatrician Doctor Bob Sears to discuss natural remedies. Renowned pediatrician Dr. Bob Sears has had excellent results with his patients using Bionorica's Sinupret for Kids.

All pathogens must acquire and assimilate nutrients from their hosts in order to grow and multiply -- our tissues are literally their food -- yet surprisingly little is known about this fundamental aspect of the pathogenic lifestyle. Accumulating evidence suggests that M. tuberculosis might utilize fatty acids as its principal carbon and energy source during infection. The fourth part of this lecture describes work in our laboratory that is focused on identifying the metabolic pathways that...

The principal obstacle to successful treatment of tuberculosis is the lengthy duration of current regimens, which require administration of multiple drugs for 6-9 months. The requirement for prolonged therapy is attributed to sub-populations of bacillary "persisters" that are refractory to antimicrobials. The persisters are not drug-resistant in the conventional (heritable) sense and it is a mystery why they are spared whilst their genetically identical siblings are killed. The third part of...

Tuberculosis remains one of the most important causes of human disease and death despite the introduction of vaccination in 1921 and chemotherapy in 1952. Although these interventions are inexpensive and widely available their impact is limited. The effectiveness of vaccination is unclear; in clinical trials, the protection conferred by vaccination has been variable and generally poor. Although chemotherapy can be highly effective, multiple drugs must be administered for 6-9 months to provide...

Microbial-mammalian metabolic cooperation is defined as the human ‘metabonome’. Transgenomic co-metabolic interactions within the metabonome greatly increase system complexity and this presents a significant challenge for elucidating the mechanisms by which the intestinal micro biome influences the host phenotype. By measuring and mathematically modelling changes in the levels of products of metabolism found in mammalian biological fluids and tissues, metabonomics offers fresh insight...

Elizabeth A. Grice of National Institutes of Health discusses "Diversity Profile of the Human Skin Microbiome in Health and Disease"