Consuming sweets and chewing gum with sugar substitutes may help the weight-conscious slash calories, but excessive use of the sweetener sorbitol can cause extreme weight loss and other problems, according to a new report. In this week’s BMJ, Juergen Bauditz, MD, of the University of Berlin, and colleagues describe two patients with a sorbitol habit who had dramatic, unexplained weight loss until their excessive use of the sweetener was discovered. (Do you include items with sorbitol in your diet? What foods and how often? Tell us about it on WebMD’s Type 2 Diabetes Support Group board.) Sugar-Free Sweeteners and Side Effects: Case Histories One patient, a 21-year-old woman, had unexplained diarrhea and abdominal pain for eight months. She reported an unintended weight loss of 24 pounds, weighing in at about 90 pounds. After she was asked about diet, she said she chewed sugar-free gum with sorbitol daily, taking in about 18 to 20 grams a day. One stick typically has 1.25 grams. Once she eliminated sorbitol from her diet, the gastrointestinal problems stopped and she gained back more than 15 pounds. The second patient, a 46-year-old man, had been hospitalized because of diarrhea and […]
A large-scale test on the effectiveness of switchgrass to make ethanol gave the native grass high marks on energy production and greenhouse gases. Switchgrass is a favorite of politicians and cellulosic ethanol advocates who say that the grass, which can grow to nine feet, is a better feedstock than corn–the source of most ethanol made today. A study published on Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) found that switchgrass contains five times more energy than it takes to grow it, which makes it significantly more cost-effective than corn. The average greenhouse gas emissions from cellulosic ethanol derived from switchgrass were found to be 94 percent lower than gasoline. By contrast, corn ethanol generates slightly less greenhouse gases in its production than gasoline, according to studies. Other advantages of switchgrass are that it can grow in a range of climates and it does not require as much water as other processes. It also does not pose the same risk of raising food prices as corn ethanol. The PNAS study, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, attempted to have a more comprehensive look at growing switchgrass for ethanol than previous studies. […]
SAN FRANCISCO — For the first time, scientists have proof in human subjects that a derivative of an ingredient in red wine combats some symptoms of aging. Sirtris Pharmaceuticals announced the results here on Monday at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference. Resveratol, naturally found in red wine, stimulates a gene known as SIRT1, which has been linked with extended lifespans in rodents. The new study is the first time similar effects have been replicated in humans. ‘We believe that this is the first time that a drug candidate has shown efficacy in a disease of aging by targeting the genes that control aging,’ said Christoph Westphal, CEO of Sirtris. Sirtris was co-founded by David Sinclair, a Harvard Medical School researcher, who discovered SIRT1’s role in regulating lifespan. His early work was in yeast, and he later showed that stimulating SIRT1 through a calorie-restricted diet helped animals live longer. Then, Sinclair found resveratol, which stimulates the same gene with results similar to calorie-restriction but without the diet. Resveratrol’s effects in mice touched off a storm of excitement among people, including Sinclair, who began taking the drug in its over-the-counter form hoping to extend their lifespans. Sirtris’ proprietary formulation […]
Doctors are to be told to stop prescribing antibiotics for coughs, colds and sore throats because over-use of the drugs is fuelling the spread of killer hospital superbugs. Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, says it is time to end the unnecessary use of penicillin and other commonly-prescribed pills, which cost the NHS £1.7 billion a year. Using antibiotics too liberally has led to bugs such as MRSA becoming resistant to treatment with the drugs. Most colds, coughs and flu are caused by viruses, which cannot be treated with antibiotics anyway, Mr Johnson points out. Announcing a £270 million campaign against superbugs, to be launched next month, he says it is vital that doctors adopt ‘less of a knee-jerk reaction to prescribing’. The campaign, called Clean, Safe Care, will also include an extra £45 million for hospitals to spend on infection control nurses or antibiotic specialist pharmacists. All patients going into hospital will be screened for MRSA by 2009. Staff have already been told they must be ‘bare below the elbows’ to help prevent the spread of infection between patients and all hospitals should undergo a ‘deep clean’ by March this year, although experts have dismissed […]
BEIJING — A cloned pig whose genes were altered to make it glow fluorescent green has passed on the trait to its young, a development that could lead to the future breeding of pigs for human transplant organs, a Chinese university reported. The glowing piglets’ birth proves transgenic pigs are fertile and able to pass on their engineered traits to their offspring, according to Liu Zhonghua, a professor overseeing the breeding program at Northeast Agricultural University. ‘Continued development of this technology can be applied to … the production of special pigs for the production of human organs for transplant,’ Liu said in a news release posted Tuesday on the university’s Web site. Calls to the university seeking comment Wednesday were not answered. The piglets’ mother was one of three pigs born with the trait in December 2006 after pig embryos were injected with fluorescent green protein. Two of the 11 piglets glow fluorescent green from their snout, trotters, and tongue under ultraviolet light, the university said. Robin Lovell-Badge, a genetics expert at Britain’s National Institute for Medical Research, said the technology ‘to genetically manipulate pigs in this way would be very valuable.’ Lovell-Badge had […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
