All posts by medical

Neuroscience

New neuroscience research helps explain our growing attraction to spiritual retreats – The Durango Herald

As she walked along a New York City street on an October night seven years ago, Katie Kozlowski was so upset that her boyfriend had stood her up that she didnt even notice the taxicab before it hit her head-on and threw her across the road.

She was able, amazingly, to pick herself up from the gravel, deeply startled but completely unharmed. The accident prompted Kozlowski to reflect on her life. After suffering through a string of abusive relationships and bouts of heavy drinking and depression, she knew something had to change.

I wanted to go somewhere so I could figure out how to stop having all of these negative experiences, she said. Not long after, she packed her bags and boarded a plane to gather with more than 200 people on a weeklong spiritual retreat in the heart of Ireland.

While there, Kozlowski learned to meditate and listen to herself, experiencing moments of awe and transcendence. She loved the feeling of deep calm and inner peace the group meditations gave her.

It brings awareness to what goes on inside of your subconscious mind, she said. She has since attended the retreat three more times. Every single time that I would leave, I would have a better understanding and more acceptance of myself, she said.

As Americans report feeling more stressed and interest in mindfulness meditation, adult coloring and other calming techniques grows, more people are turning to spiritual retreats as a way to unplug and reset. In the last few years, revenue for wellness tourism, which includes meditation and other spiritual retreats, increased by 14 percent, from $494.1 billion in 2013 to $563.2 billion in 2015, a growth rate more than twice as fast as overall tourism expenditures, according to the Global Wellness Institute. Christian retreats are also reporting renewed interest.

In a recent study published in the journal Religion, Brain & Behavior, scientists from The Marcus Institute of Integrative Health at Thomas Jefferson University have discovered that there are actual changes that take place in the brains of retreat participants.

The findings, although preliminary, suggest that engaging in a spiritual retreat can have a short-term impact on the brains feel good dopamine and serotonin function two of the neurotransmitters associated with positive emotions. Researchers studied the effects of attending a weeklong retreat involving silent contemplation and prayer based on the Jesuit teachings of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. They scanned the brains of 14 Christians who participated in the study, ranging in ages from 24 to 76, before and after the retreat.

The study subjects showed marked improvements in their perceived physical health, tension and fatigue, as well as reporting feelings of self-transcendence. Though more research is needed, the co-authors highlighted the strong emotional responses that have long been associated with secular and religious retreats such as reduced stress, spiritual transformation experiences and the capacity to produce life-changing results.

Not everyone is able to access or afford to attend a spiritual retreat, but a growing body of research has found that a daily practice of mindfulness meditation at home can also help reduce anxiety and bolster good health.

Psychologist Anjhula Mya Singh Bais experienced the benefits of meditating during a 10-day Buddhist retreat last year. My body started regulating itself. ... I could feel the stress and cortisol melt away.

Before to her trip, Bais had been struggling with several personal relationships and was unsure of how to move forward. By the end, she said she felt more in control of her thoughts. After the retreat, one becomes simultaneously calm and exhilarated, she said. I was in a better position of not only enhancing my own life but (also) serving others.

Some people who attend retreats return hungry to share what theyve learned. Kozlowski is now a mindfulness teacher in Connecticut after her retreat experiences following the accident.

A lifelong nail biter who hid her habit by applying fake nails while secretly chewing her own, she knew something profound had taken place when, after her second time at the retreat, she realized she had stopped nail-biting. More importantly, she noticed that the fears and negative beliefs she had about herself began to dissolve. I used to be what people call very prickly, meaning I didnt take criticism very well.

Now, seven years after that fateful night with the taxi, Kozlowski said her life has been transformed. I no longer have relationships with men who are verbally abusive I dont go out drinking in bars until Im in a stupor, she said. All of those sort of behaviors, I would never do that now, because I actually like myself.

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New neuroscience research helps explain our growing attraction to spiritual retreats - The Durango Herald

Genetics

Genetics Research Companies Enter JLABS – Investing News Network (press release) (registration) (blog)

The three genetic research companies joining JLABS include Ranomics and ZOETICS Pharmaceuticals.

In the life science field, often large companies with substantial capital and a recognizable name brandmaintaining a line of productswill host smaller startups in order to seek innovation from fresh new voices.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), through their Inspiration Labs, announced their location in Toronto will now host over 40 new companies. Among those, there are two that are working on some form of genetic research development.

The no-strings attached model has been very important to our success in attracting so many quality companies, as it allows entrepreneurs the freedom to operate and do what is best for their company, Melinda Richter, head of the JLABS, said in the statement. We are hopeful that providing JLABS to the life sciences ecosystem in Toronto will support continued economic growth and development in the region.

In a space where these companies may not have the opportunity to fully investigate their genetic research from other investors or on their own, entering the JLABS opens the doors for quality space to continue their work.

As previously detailed to Investing News Network by Meghan Alonso, CEO of Imua Services and expert on start up medical device companies, siad this type of initiation is very common for titans of the industry.

What [Johnson & Johnson have] done to feed this system of innovation and make it easy at to grab anything that they want to theyve built infrastructure [in several cities in the US] where they have an incubator, and they have space available for these small start-up companies to have their office, and they share lab space, she said, referring to the process start ups may go through in general.

With that in mind, heres a look at those genetic research companies.

This company is working on creating, testing and accessing genetic changes as quickly and cost-effectively as possible.

Their work at JLABS will include creating a database of genetic variants as a way to help clinicians better diagnose hereditary cancers related to specific genes. One of the most intriguing aspects of current gene therapy research is the possibility of modifying cancerous cells in the body to kill the cancer itself.

Ranomics is able to provide substantial evidence on the variations of the genes they get to test and can provide information on ones that havent been researched or used in a clinical setting.

Last year the company raised 1.6 million from an undisclosed investor for their platform.

As reported by BetaKit, the founder of Ranomics Cathy Tie said the biggest problem facing the testing process of hereditary diseases is the inconclusiveness in it, over 60 percent of them dont have a real resolution.

This is due to newly identified genetic variants in the patient that have no clinical or medical precedence, leading to mis-or-non-diagnosis and compromising patient care, Tie told the online publication.

According to JLABS, ZOETIC is developing an antigen-specific immune tolerance induction technology, which will target unwanted immune responses that come from therapeutic biologics, autoimmune diseases and AAV mediated gene therapy. Thanks to their tech, the company may be able to improve the success rate of gene therapy.

ZOETICS gene therapy division is trying to expand the current limitations of gene therapy. The companyclaims patients present an immune response to the vector transporting the gene therapy itself, which prevents the delivery of the normal genes to the cell.

In 2016, the company announced it holds the exclusive rights to the proprietary phospholipid nanoparticles from Dr. Sathy Balu-Iyer, professor of pharmaceuticals sciences for theUniversity at Buffalo.

This discovery was tested in a 2015 study and showed promising results according to ZOETIC, which will seek to commercialize the product with biopharmaceutical companies currently marketing products in the hemophilia community.

This announcement and the possibility of a breakthrough development in the genetic research area from one of these companies shows the commitment to this type of research, despite the hype period for this work having shown low returns.

Dont forget to follow us @INN_LifeScience for real-time news updates.

Securities Disclosure: I, Bryan Mc Govern, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

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Genetics Research Companies Enter JLABS - Investing News Network (press release) (registration) (blog)

Genetics

PLOS Genetics Research Prize 2017: The story behind last year’s winning research – PLoS Blogs (blog)

In 2016, the PLOS Genetics Research Prize was awarded to Naranjo, Smith et al., for their work on a complex trait adaptation. Hunter Fraser, the corresponding author of the winning article and Associate Professor at Stanford University, tells us about the challenges he faced bringing the research to fruition and what winning the prize meant to him.

I was thrilled beyond words to start my job as an Assistant Professor in 2009. The previous two years had been toughI had been fired from a postdoc position and then laid off from an industry job just 18 months laterso I was eager to turn things around. I was bursting with ideas for how to study the evolution of gene expression, but was missing just one ingredient: data.

During my ill-fated postdoc, I had devised an approach to use allele-specific gene expression data to identify lineage-specific selection on gene expression (see our papers Introduction for details). I wanted to use high-throughput sequencing of cDNA from inter-species hybrids for this, since sequence reads overlapping with heterozygous genetic variants (of which there are many in hybrids) could be used to measure the mRNA level of each allele. However, my advisor did not believe this would work, as this was before any publications of high-throughput cDNA sequencing (now known as RNA-seq). Without his support, I was unable to collect the data I so desperately wanted, and moved on to an industry position soon after that.

Fast forward to 2009: After being laid off in a corporate restructuring, I was chomping at the bit to start my faculty position. Things went slowly at firstI was busy buying equipment, writing grants, meeting new colleagues, and searching for my first lab hire, so those allele-specific expression (ASE) data I needed were still just a tantalizing mirage. However, I was overjoyed when I came across a paper (Tirosh et al., Science 2009) that generated exactly the type of ASE data that I wanted, from a hybrid between two species of budding yeast.

I immediately downloaded the papers supplemental information, and in a moment rivaling any Christmas morning, I eagerly opened the file. There I found over 17,000 glorious data points: ASE ratios for 4400 genes in four conditions. I sorted the genes by their ratios and copied them into an online functional enrichment calculator, which returned just one enriched annotation: toxin response. Remarkably, these gene annotations were all derived from a single paper that measured the transcriptional response to citrinin, a naturally occurring toxin produced by several species of fungi. And the enrichment was incredibly strong: 40-fold greater than expected among the 1% of genes with the strongest ASE biased towards one of the parental species (Saccharomyces paradoxus). This was clear evidence that natural selection had been acting on the expression levels of these citrinin-responsive genesquite an exciting discovery, particularly since in 2009 polygenic gene expression adaptation was just a theoretical possibility, with no known empirical examples.

I had no idea that this discoverywhich took all of six minutes to makewould take us the next six years to characterize. It was an exceptional undergraduate, Santiago Naranjo, who spearheaded the project during his three years in the lab. Santiago made a number of key observations, including characterizing the fitness of different strains in the presence of citrinin and performing precise allelic replacements (with laborious pre-CRISPR technology) to test the effects of specific transcriptional regulatory regions on the expression of our top candidate genes. After Santiago graduated, the torch was passed to an inventive graduate student, Justin Smith, who performed critical experiments measuring the fitness effects of Santiagos promoter-swaps, as well as the effects of up-regulating our candidate genes. Along the way, several others made essential contributions as wella true team effort. Altogether, their work implicated three specific genes involved in this complex adaptation (including a gene we named CIS1, ostensibly standing for CItrinin Sensitive, but which in fact was just an excuse to name a gene after my favorite scientific word), while also demonstrating an approach for investigating polygenic gene expression evolution more generally.

We were incredibly honored to be awarded the PLOS Genetics Research Prize for this work. It was especially inspiring to receive the award for this project, since out of all the work to come from my lab, this one was perhaps our hardest-won victoryat several points along the way it was not even clear if we could get the project to a publishable conclusion. But now we are more excited than ever about applying this framework to other inter-species hybrids from across the tree of lifeincluding fruit flies, archaea, mice, cichlids, and zonkeys, my personal favorite model system to study the evolution of zebra stripes!

If there is a 2016 PLOS Genetics article that you think deserves this years Research Prize, please take a look at the Prize Page and see the Prize Rules for more information and nominate here.

Nominations close on Friday, June 16, 2017 at 11.59 PM Eastern Time.

Competing Interests statement: Hunter Fraser is the corresponding author of PLOS Genetics Research Prize 2016s winning article. The article is discussed in this blog.

Featured Image credit: May 2015 Issue Image. Post-transcriptional Regulation of Hair Cycling by miR-22. Image Credit:Yuan and colleagues

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PLOS Genetics Research Prize 2017: The story behind last year's winning research - PLoS Blogs (blog)

Biochemistry

Fat Metabolism in Live Fish: Real-Time Lipid Biochemistry Observed – Technology Networks

This is a live image of the liver of a translucent, larval zebrafish. It was taken using confocal microscopy, which allows for clear images of the internal organs of a whole live animal. Quinlivan fed a fluorescently tagged fatty acid to a larval zebrafish and then photographed its liver at 400x magnification. The round dots of varying sizes are lipid droplets, which contain a kind of fat called triglyceride. These triglycerides were constructed using the fluorescent fat consumed by the larval zebrafish. Fluorescence also shows up in the gallbladder (GB) and developing kidney (K). Credit: Vanessa Quinlivan

Studying how our bodies metabolize lipids such as fatty acids, triglycerides, and cholesterol can teach us about cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other health problems, as well as reveal basic cellular functions. But the process of studying what happens to lipids after being consumed has been both technologically difficult and expensive to accomplish until now.

New work from Carnegies Steven Farber and his graduate student Vanessa Quinlivan debuts a method using fluorescent tagging to visualize and help measure lipids in real time as they are metabolized by living fish. Their work is published by the Journal of Lipid Research.

Lipids play a vital role in cellular function, because they form the membranes that surround each cell and many of the structures inside of it, Quinlivan said. They are also part of the crucial makeup of hormones such as estrogen and testosterone, which transmit messages between cells.

Unlike proteins, the recipes for different lipid-containing molecules are not precisely encoded by DNA sequences. A cell may receive a genetic signal to build a lipid for a certain cellular purpose, but the exact type may not be indicated with a high degree of specificity.

Instead, lipid molecules are built from an array of building blocks whose combinations can change depending on the type of food we eat. However, lipid compositions vary between cells and cellular structures within the same organism, so diet isnt the only factor determining which lipids are manufactured.

Understanding the balancing act in what makes up our bodies lipidsbetween availability based on what were eating and genetic guidanceis very important to cell biologists, Farber explained. There is growing evidence that these differences can affect wide arrays of cellular processes.

For example, omega-3 fatty acids, which are lipid building blocks found in foods like salmon and walnuts, are known to be especially good for heart and liver health. There is evidence that when people eat omega-3 fatty acids, the cellular membranes into which they are incorporated are less likely to overreact to signals from the immune system than membranes comprised of other kinds of lipids. This has an anti-inflammatory effect that could prevent heart or liver disease.

Farber and Quinlivans method allowed them to delve into these kinds of connections. They were able to tag different kinds of lipids, feed them to live zebrafish, and then watch what the fish did with them.

If we fed the fish a specific type of fat, our technique allowed us to determine into what molecules these lipids were reassembled after they were broken down in the small intestine and in which organs and cells these molecules ended up, Farber explained.

The tags they used were fluorescent. So Farber and Quinlivan and their team were actually able to see the fats that they fed their zebrafish glowing under the microscope as they were broken down and reassembled into new molecules in different organs. Further experiments allowed them to learn into what types of molecules the broken down fat components were incorporated.

Being able to do microscopy and biochemistry in the same experiment made it easier to understand the biological meaning of our results, Quinlivan said. We hope our method will allow us to make further breakthroughs in lipid biochemistry going forward.

The other members of the team were Carnegies Meredith Wilson, and Josef Ruzicka of Thermo Fisher Scientific.

This article has been republished frommaterialsprovided by Carnegie Institution for Science. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

Reference Farber, et al An HPLC-CAD/fluorescence lipidomics platform using fluorescent fatty acids as metabolic tracers, Journal of Lipid Research (2017), DOI: 10.1194/jlr.D072918

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Fat Metabolism in Live Fish: Real-Time Lipid Biochemistry Observed - Technology Networks

Biochemistry

Biochemistry Doctoral Student Receives PEO Scholarship for Women – UKNow (press release)

UK is the UniversityforKentucky. At UK, we are educating more students, treating more patients with complex illnesses and conducting more research and service than at any time in our 150-year history. To read more about the UK story and how you can support continued investment in your university and the Commonwealth, go to:uky.edu/uk4ky. #uk4ky #seeblue

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Biochemistry Doctoral Student Receives PEO Scholarship for Women - UKNow (press release)

Anatomy

Food Fortification: Mandatory for human anatomy – The Nation (blog)

A 2011 report of The National Nutrition Survey revealed that women and children were not getting micronutrients including iron, folic acid, vitamin A and D in their daily diet. Fifty one per cent of pregnant women suffer from anaemia, 37% from iron deficiency, 46% are deficient in vitamin A, and 69% in vitamin D. The problem repeats itself in children under five, with 62% suffering from anaemia and 54% from vitamin A deficiency. Consequently, the deficiency of these micronutrients seriously affects childrens health, growth, mental development and learning abilities.

For children, micronutrient deficiencies increase the risk of death due to infectious disease, limit their ability to fight disease and contribute to impaired cognitive and physical development. Providing a child with nutritious food from birth has an important impact on their physical, mental and cognitive development. It is important that all growing children take recommended daily amounts of vitamins and minerals, sufficient to maintain good health, improve better learning abilities and mental development.

In a current scenario, the daily consumed food items are not purred and enriched with micronutrients, especially, open edible oil/ghee, wheat flour often loss the essential micronutrients during the processing, similar is the case with the broiler chickens eggs, chicken and beef meat. Common citizens cannot afford a balanced diet.

It is high time to address micronutrient malnutrition through food based approaches which are easily accessible to all. Food fortification is the safest and most cost-effective means of improving micronutrient malnutrition.

What is Food Fortification?

Food Fortification is adding vitamins and minerals to staple food to prevent micronutrient deficiencies in the body. Fortified foods provide a preventive rather than a therapeutic benefit.

Why Fortified Food?

We cannot get essential micronutrients from our body. The only source is external balanced and nutritious diet. Fortified food reduces micronutrient deficiencies among pregnant, lactating women, women of reproductive age, children and general population.

Many neighbouring countries have adopted wheat flour fortification as a strategy to tackle micronutrient malnutrition and developed fortification standards, mandatory legislation and regulations.

Micronutrients requirements for children

Research findings revealed, as children grow, they need an adequate amount of micronutrient. It is essential that children are provided with the fortified wheat flour and edible oil/ghee made meal for their healthy development.

Iron, folic acid, zinc, Vitamin A and Vitamin D deficiency affect the cognitive development of children which ultimately impacts on their ability to better perform at school. This is a principal factor behind Pakistans low educational performance and poor economic progress. Deficiencies in iron, folic acid, zinc and Vitamin B12 have also been associated with increased vulnerability to infectious diseases. It is essential, therefore, that children consume fortified food in order to ensure adequate intake of essential micronutrients including vitamins and minerals. Adequate nutrients supplied through fortified wheat flour and edible oil/ghee made meal should ideally form part of a balanced diet.

Benefits of fortified food

1. Reduce maternal, newborn and child mortality rates

2. Improve children's mental and physical growth and development.

3. Increase childrens IQ level

4. Reduce anaemia and iron deficiency in women and children

5. Fortified wheat flour and edible oil/ghee, being enriched with vitamins and minerals, provides stamina and the energy.

What needs to be done

1) Setting up fortifications legal and regulatory regimes: It is important formulating harmonized fortification standards, according to international standards and populations dietary requirements. Mandatory legislation on food fortification is important for setting up the legal framework around fortification.

2) Ownership and acceptability from wheat flour and edible oil/ghee milling industry is highly important. The business community can potentially contribute to improving the nutritional status of populations in Pakistan.

3) Public Private Partnership between government relevant departments and wheat flour and edible oil/ghee milling industry is required to jointly contribute to improving the nutritional status of populations

4) Waiving of sales and custom tax on the procurement of fortification equipment. Government of Pakistan has exempted tax on the procurement of premix/fortificant added into the staple food fortification.

Public awareness and demand generation

Recognizing the micronutrient malnutrition challenges in Pakistan, communication, marking is vital to increasing consumers awareness about the benefits of fortified food and generating demands.

Food fortification is new in Pakistan and it is the first time that Pakistan is going to fortify wheat flour and edible oil/ghee unless consumers are aware about the fortified food and demand is generated then production and supply of fortified food may be affected.

Therefore, it is important that wheat flour and edible oil/ghee milling industry to contributeI in mass public awareness through marketing communication and media campaign activities. The most effective means of increasing consumers awareness is point of sale marketing where dealers, wholesalers, retailers and traders associations can effectively contribute.

Sustainability

Sustainability of fortified wheat flour and edible oil/ghee can only be ensured if harmonized fortification standards are in linewith the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authoritys standards as well as mandatory law, rules and regulations and regulatory environment are placed.The acceptability and ownership from wheat flour and edible oil/ghee milling industry is the core element of producing fortified food in Pakistan.

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Food Fortification: Mandatory for human anatomy - The Nation (blog)

Neuroscience

Neuroscience Says These Special Brain Cells Are Why Cutting … – Inc.com

Everybody knows that weight-related productivity and health issues are big concerns for modern companies, but losing weight is hard. Like, count-the-needles-on-a-pine-tree hard. And there's a good reason for that. Your body has a built-in mechanism that deliberately tries to keep your weight steady, so if you drop how many calories you consume, your body slows down how fast it burns through fuel to conserve energy and keep you safe. Researchers have figured out exactly how control of this internal caloric "thermostat" works in the brain, accordingto a new study of mice published in the open access journal eLife.

Researchers implanted mice with probes so they easily could measure the rodents' body temperature and, therefore, get a measurement of how much energy the mice were using when exposed to different amounts of food. Then they put the mice in special chambers specifically designed to measure energy expenditure through factors like oxygen consumption.

Thus set up to look at the energy and food the mice used, researchers homed in on a region of the brain called the hypothalamus, which controls metabolic and autonomic nervous system activities, among other roles. Within the hypothalamus are agouti-related neuropeptide (AGRP) neurons. The researchers were able to manipulate these cells to turn on or off.

The results of the manipulations suggest that, when AGRP cells are active, we get hungry and want to chow down. But if you don't eat, the cells limit how many calories you burn through, preserving energy to protect you. When you finally eat again, the action of the AGRP neurons gets interrupted, and you start cruising through more calories. Researchers were able to identify the precise mechanism by which AGRP cells determine available energy and make calorie-burn adjustments.

Dr. Luke Burke, lead author on the AGRP cell study, says he is hopeful that the new research will help professionals design new weight loss and overeating therapies. But until those options hit the market, if you want to shed pounds over the long haul, don't just massively cut back on what's on your plate. Instead, as Burke recommends, moderately cut back on your calories and add in some exercise. As Harvard Health Publications explains, regular exercise actually helps elevate the amount of energy you burn even at rest. Subsequently, it counterbalances the AGRP-cell-based metabolic slowdown you get from reducing calories alone. You'll probably find that the ability to eat a little more through your weight loss plan is much more enjoyable, and as a bonus, exercising can give you a serious mood boost. Talk to your doctor to determine the right daily calorie goal and exercise types for you.

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Neuroscience Says These Special Brain Cells Are Why Cutting ... - Inc.com

Neuroscience

Can We Use Neuroscience To Save The Planet? – WBUR

wbur Recycled plastic bottles sit on a conveyor belt to be processed at the Repreve Bottle Processing Center in North Carolina. (Chuck Burton/AP)

Many of us have good intentions when it comes to helping the environment from recycling to buying hybrid cars-- but that doesn't mean we always follow through.

But what if we could use neuroscience to make it easier? In other words: Can we use what we know about the human brain to make environmentally-friendly options the most appealing ones?

Shira Springer, sports and society reporter for WBUR. She tweets @shiraspringer.

This segment aired on May 22, 2017.

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Can We Use Neuroscience To Save The Planet? - WBUR

Neuroscience

Are Cats Responsible for "Cat Ladies"? – Scientific American

We all know that person. Her Instagram is covered with more pictures of feline friends than human companions. Not an insignificant number of these pictures feature mini cat-sized lattes with the caption Fluffy simply adores her morning coffee. And let us not forget that the archetype ofcrazy cat manmay be just as prevalent. When you look at these pictures, you probably wonder: is he like this because of the cat? Or does he have the cat because he is like this?

It turns out that cats have a mischievous and somewhat dark reputation in neuroscience. There is research to suggest that a cats proximity to other mammals can cause them to behave strangely. This feline power has been attributed to a protozoan that lives in their stool, called Toxoplasma gondii (or Toxo for short). In one classic story, researchers showed that Toxo can travel into a rats brain and cause the rat to no longer avoid areas where cats live. The rats, in fact, become attracted to the smell of cat urine. Previously repulsed by the smell, these brain-infected rodents run joyously through urine-laden environments. They walk right through the cats trap, until their young rodent lives come to an end under a forceful paw.

These same protozoans can affect the brains of humans. Immuno-compromised patients, like those with AIDS, can contract the infection from a litter box and develop dangerous brain abscesses. We treat these patients with powerful antibiotics and frequently recommend that they give away their cats. Pregnant women are also advised not to handle cat litter, as a fetus does not yet have the immune system needed to fight Toxo. Fetuses exposed to the protozoan can suffer from seizures, cognitive problems, and blindness. But what about your immunocompetent and decidedly non-pregnant Instagram friend; is she under the influence of this cats protozoan minion?

Neuroscientists have shown that Toxo may have more subtle effects than brain abscesses and blindness. The bug contains an enzyme that creates dopamine, a neurotransmitter. Humans given dopamine pills are at an increased risk of impulsive and risky behavior. Excess dopamine activity is also involved in schizophrenia. Immunologists point out that the known genetic risk factors for schizophrenia include many immune-related genes that could affect the way one's body reacts to Toxo. Theoretically, a strange Toxo-induced immune response in the brain could cause psychosis. Even more alarming was asummaryof thirty-eight studies, published in 2012, that found that individuals with schizophrenia were three times more likely than those without schizophrenia to have antibodies in their blood to the Toxoplasma protozoan, meaning their bodies developed an immune response to Toxo at some point. Measuring antibodies to Toxo, however, is several steps removed from cat ownership. The clues are intriguing, but are cats really to blame for psychotic behavior?

New researchin the journalPsychological Medicinesuggests that your cat friends are just fine. Scientists from University College in London examined 6,705 adolescents and 4,676 young adults to see if early exposure to household felines contributed to the risk of developing psychotic episodes. In the largest and best-controlled study to date, the researchers showed that those exposed to cats were at no increased risk of psychosis after controlling for a number of other variables (including ethnicity, social class, and dog ownership to control for exposure to animal stool).As lead author Francesca Solmi put it, previous studies reporting links between cat ownership and psychosis simply failed to adequately control for other possible explanations. Cat ownership doesnt seem to truly increase ones risk of psychosis.

Sois a cat sipping a latte on Instagram bizarre? Certainly. But its not Fluffy's fault. He didnt ask for any of this (most cats are lactose intolerant), and its time to clear his name.

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Are Cats Responsible for "Cat Ladies"? - Scientific American

Immunology

Dr. Sirajuddin to offer allergy, immunology services at SBAMH – Butler County Times Gazette

Dr. Iram Sirajuddin will bring a new specialty to Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital. She is an Allergist and Immunologist, who will see patients in the SBA Clinic Augusta beginning Monday, June 5.

Dr. Sirajuddin got interested in medicine at a young age. Her father is a doctor (anesthesiologist) and she enjoyed hearing him discuss his cases with the family. She also had a cousin with a blood disorder and would sometimes accompany her to doctors appointments. She was inspired by the caring relationship between the doctor and her cousin.

Thats what drew me to medicine, Dr. Sirajuddin said.

Dr. Sirajuddin attended medical school at the 6-year program at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. She trained at St. Louis Childrens Hospital with Washington University. Her residency was in Pediatrics.

I have always loved working with children, she said. Their energy and curiosity about things is something I admire.

She rotated through different specialties during her training, and developed an interest in Allergy/Immunology.

I feel when I do my job correctly, it can help people lead their best possible lives, Dr. Sirajuddin said. Its a field where you can say you really have made a difference.

She is trained to see adults and children with seasonal and food allergies, asthma, eczema and immunodeficiencies.

She moved to Wichita in 2010 and worked for the KU Medical Center from 2010 to 2012. She took an extended maternity leave, then returned to work doing Telemedicine in 2015.

She said the Telemedicine company she worked for was focused on rural Kansas and providing services to people who didnt have easy access to the medical care they needed.

While Dr. Sirajuddin enjoyed this, she said she missed the face-to- face contact with patients.

I love seeing patients face to face and building that relationship with them in person, she said.

That made her start thinking about getting back into an office setting.

While she worked at KU, she had come to SBAMH to introduce herself to the pediatricians because she was only seeing pediatric patients at the time.

She said when she recently started looking at job opportunities, she recalled how those doctors were good to work with and seemed happy where they worked.

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Dr. Sirajuddin to offer allergy, immunology services at SBAMH - Butler County Times Gazette