Mar. 9, 2006 - Massive beehive
A man in Florida has discovered a massive beehive underneath his front lawn. The underground hive covers an area of 50 feet long by 10 feet wide. Luckily, the bees don't seem to be aggressive!
Jan. 19, 2006 - Sound Sleepers May Have Genes to Thank
Sound Sleepers May Have Genes to Thank
By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Swiss researchers have identified a gene variation that might explain why some of us are sound sleepers, and some are not.
"Animal studies suggested that sleep intensity is under genetic control, yet the physiological mechanisms remain unknown," explained study author Hans-Peter Landolt, an associate professor at the University of Zurich. His report appears in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Landolt and his colleagues focused on the adenosine neurotransmitter system in the brain, and isolated the gene that regulates adenosine. Adenosine is a compound believed to act on specific receptors that induce sleep. Compounds known as antagonists that block the receptors, such as caffeine, increase alertness.
"These effects of caffeine supported a role for adenosine and adenosine receptors in sleep regulation," Landolt said. "The present study provides the first direct evidence in humans that the adenosinergic system indeed modulates sleep...."
High adenosine levels are believed to make people sleepy. "This relationship is assumed, based on animal experiments," Landolt said. "It was shown in cat and rat studies that the concentration of adenosine increased locally in the basal forebrain with increasing duration of wakefulness. Whether it holds true in humans is not known."
In all, Landolt's team evaluated 32 people, finding that those with the gene variant associated with reduced metabolism of the adenosine -- meaning they have higher levels of it -- slept more deeply than those who did not have the variant.
The study, Landolt said, indicated that adenosine plays a direct role in people's sleep quality. These genetic differences, he said, contribute to the variability in brain electrical activity during sleep and wakefulness.
While there is no immediate relevance for consumers, Landolt said, the research suggests the adenosinergic system may be an important target for drugs that would improve sleep disturbances.
Dr. Flavia Consens, associate director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the University of Michigan, praised the paper. For the first time, she said, the researchers have isolated a gene involved in the individual variability in human sleep. Now that this has been accomplished, she said, "potentially there is always a role for a drug or intervention."
Jan. 19, 2006 - Kidney Stones
One in every 20 people develop a kidney stone at some point in their life. A kidney stone is a hard mineral and crystalline material formed within the kidney or urinary tract. Kidney stones are a common cause of blood in the urine and pain in the abdomen, flank, or groin. Kidney stones are sometimes called renal calculi.
Kidney stones form when there is a decrease in urine volume or an excess of stone-forming substances in the urine. The most common type of kidney stone contains calcium in combination with either oxalate or phosphate. Other chemical compounds that can form stones in the urinary tract include uric acid and the amino acid cystine.
- Gout results in an increased amount of uric acid in the urine and can lead to the formation of uric acid stones.
- Hypercalciuria (high calcium in the urine), another inherited condition, causes stones in more than half of cases. In this condition, too much calcium is absorbed from food and excreted into the urine, where it may form calcium phosphate or calcium oxalate stones.
- Other conditions associated with an increased risk of kidney stones include hyperparathyroidism, kidney diseases such as renal tubular acidosis, and some inherited metabolic conditions including cystinuria and hyperoxaluria.
- People with inflammatory bowel disease or who have had an intestinal bypass or ostomy surgery are also more likely to develop kidney stones.
- Some medications also raise the risk of kidney stones. These medications include some diuretics, calcium-containing antacids, and the protease inhibitor Crixivan (indinavir), a drug used to treat HIV infection.
Jan. 19, 2006 - Cat Allergens May Also Have 9 Lives
Cat Allergens May Also Have 9 Lives
By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Nov. 29 (HealthDay News) -- A cat and its dander can trouble people with asthma long after the animal has left the room, a new study shows.
Cat allergens, in fact, can hamper the lung function of those who have asthma and are allergi c to cats for up to 22 hours after exposure, said Jared W. Allen, a postdoctoral researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.
That's because "cat allergens can be smaller particles than normal allergens, such as pollen or flowers, and reach deeper into the airway of the lungs," Allen explained.
He presented his findings Tuesday at the Radiological Society of North America annual meeting, in Chicago.
Asthma, a chronic lung disease, affects more than 17 million Americans, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. It is marked by an inflammation of the airways that makes it difficult for air to move in and out of the lungs. Asthmatics often experience cough, shortness or breath and difficulty breathing during an attack.
Allen said he started the study after noticing that asthmatics often complain of symptoms even days after exposure to triggers such as cats or cat hair that spur an asthma attack. Conventional lung-function tests may come up normal, he said, so his team decided to do more sophisticated testing that can measure the amount of air trapped deep in the lung.
"The amount of air trapped in the lung correlates with airway reactivity -- how sensitive your airways are," he said. "The more air is trapped, the more symptoms you will have."
His team performed a test called high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT), using it to examine the functioning of the small airways deep in the lungs to detect the extent of impairment caused by exposure to the allergen.
Allen's team first induced an asthma attack in 10 persons with asthma and known allergies to cats, then took an HRCT. The next day, they exposed these individuals to cats, then took another scan six hours later. They took yet another scan 22 hours after that cat exposure, during another induced asthma attack.
Even after the outward symptoms such as difficulty breathing abated, all 10 persons continued to experience a decrease in lung function, the testing showed.
"Our conclusions are [that] there is a significant response in the small airways of the lung that can persist up to 22 hours," Allen said. "And not only may there be increased air trapping, but the patient's airways could be hypersensitive to additional challenges."
So, if exposure to cat allergens has left an allergic person with symptoms, and then he or she is exposed again, they may be even more sensitive the second time around, Allen said. If that second exposure occurs within 22 hours, he said, that could make the second attack worse than the first.
The findings may help explain why some persons with allergies and asthma seem to still have symptoms when traditional tests come out normal, said Dr. David Mendelson, an associate professor of radiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center, in New York City.
"To me, the provocative thing is he used these newer techniques, and he has a result that says [that] you can see a positive result on this [for airway problems] when you have no other objective evidence of a patient's complaint," Mendelson said.
Dec. 24, 2005 - When We Were At Grandma's House
When my family and I were at my Grandmas house on this past weekend we had fun. My sisters and I helped cook, QuickWitted and I helped make jelly thumbprints, Jewishmutha and Pepperysleuth helped make creplocks and picklebelly helped make stuffed mushrooms. We all had great fun. Before we left Grandma and Grandpa gave all of presents.
