Biodiversity Loss May Increase Infectious Diseases in Humans
Joe Roman
The extinction of plant and animal species can be likened to emptying a museum of its collection, or dumping a cabinet full of potential medicines into the trash, or replacing every local cuisine with McDonald’s burgers.
But the decline of species and their habitats may not just make the world boring. New research now suggests it may also put you at greater risk for catching some nasty disease.
“Habitat destruction and biodiversity loss,”—driven by the replacement of local species by exotic ones, deforestation, global transportation, encroaching cities, and other environmental changes—“can increase the incidence and distribution of infectious diseases in humans,” write University of Vermont biologist Joe Roman, EPA scientist Montira Pongsiri, and seven co-authors in BioScience.
Their study, “Biodiversity Loss Affects Global Disease Ecology,” will appear in the December issue of the journal, available on-line on December 7, 2009.
Diseases Go Global
“Lots of new diseases are emerging, and diseases that were once local are now global,” says Roman, a wildlife expert and fellow at UVM’s Gund Institute for Ecological Economics. “Diseases like West Nile Virus have spread around the world very quickly.”
This is not the first time humans have faced a raft of new diseases. About 10,000 years ago, humans invented farming. This move from hunting to agriculture brought permanent settlements, domestication of animals, and changes in diet. It also brought new infectious diseases, in what scientists call an “epidemiologic transition.” (more…)
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Cutting Greenhouse Pollutants Could Directly Save Millions of Lives Worldwide
Today, new studies published in the Lancet show that strategies to reduce greenhouse gases also benefit human health. The Lancet series highlights case studies on four climate change topics — household energy, transportation, electricity generation, and agricultural food production. Researchers say that cost savings realized from improving health will offset the cost of addressing climate change and, therefore, should be considered as part of all policy discussions related to climate change. Key researchers and public health officials gathered in the Unites States and Britain gathered together via satellite simulcast to unveil new research.
The studies were commissioned to help inform discussions at the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen in December 2009. Funding for The Lancet Health and Climate Change series was provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health, and British partners including the Academy of Medical Sciences, the British Department of Health, the Economic and Social Research Council, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the National Institute for Health Research, the Royal College of Physicians, and the Wellcome Trust. (more…)
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New Evidence That Dark Chocolate Helps Ease Emotional Stress
Scientists report that dark chocolate may help ease emotional stress. (Wikimedia Commons)
The “chocolate cure” for emotional stress is getting new support from a clinical trial published online in ACS’ Journal of Proteome Research: Gut Microbiota, and Stress-Related Metabolism in Free-Living Subjects. It found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed. Everyone’s favorite treat also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances.
Sunil Kochhar and colleagues note growing scientific evidence that antioxidants and other beneficial substances in dark chocolate may reduce risk factors for heart disease and other physical conditions. Studies also suggest that chocolate may ease emotional stress. Until now, however, there was little evidence from research in humans on exactly how chocolate might have those stress-busting effects.
In the study, scientists identified reductions in stress hormones and other stress-related biochemical changes in volunteers who rated themselves as highly stressed and ate dark chocolate for two weeks. “The study provides strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 grams [1.4 ounces] during a period of 2 weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of healthy human volunteers,” the scientists say.
“Metabolic Effects of Dark Chocolate Consumption on Energy, Gut Microbiota, and Stress-Related Metabolism in Free-Living Subjects” - http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/pr900607v
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Consumer Electronics Can Help Improve Patient Health
Electronic tools and technology applications for consumers can help improve health care processes, such as adherence to medication and clinical outcomes like smoking cessation, according to a report by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The analysis of consumer health informatics, conducted by the Bloomberg School’s Evidence-based Practice Center for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), was based on an examination of 146 published research studies of patient-focused electronic tools. It is among the first to explore the potential value of consumer health informatics.
Consumer health informatics applications are defined as any electronic tool, technology or electronic application designed to interact directly with consumers, with or without the presence of a health care professional, and that provides or uses individualized (personal) information to help a patient better manage his or her health or health care. Personalized informatics tools can include applications such as online health calculators, interactive computer programs to aid decision making, SMS text and email messages, which can be applied to a variety of clinical conditions, including cancer, smoking, diabetes mellitus, and physical activity. (more…)
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Do Cellular Phones Lead to Bone Weakening?
Wearing a cell phone on your belt may lead to decreased bone density in an area of the pelvis that is commonly used for bone grafts, according to a study in the September issue of The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, under the editorship of Mutaz B. Habal, MD, FRCSC. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading provider of information and business intelligence for students, professionals, and institutions in medicine, nursing, allied health, pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry.
With long-term exposure, electromagnetic fields from cell phones could weaken the bone, potentially affecting the outcomes of surgical procedures using bone grafts, according to the new study by Dr. Tolga Atay and colleagues of Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey. (more…)
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Scientists Awaiting the Mutation of H1N1
John Tudor, Ph.D., a microbiologist at Saint Joseph’s University.
Infectious disease experts are awaiting an infinitesimal event of momentous importance: the mutation of the novel H1N1 influenza virus. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization are constantly monitoring the virus as it spreads,” says John Tudor, Ph.D., a microbiologist at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, “but there is no way to predict where, when or if mutation will occur.”
Scientists do know how the virus can mutate. “The mutation, or antigenic shift, would occur in a cell when it is infected with two different strains of the H1N1 virus,” says Tudor. “When this happens, a reassortment of genetic information may end up in a single virus particle, making a new strain, which may be more or less virulent than the original.”
Though known as “swine” flu, Tudor notes this may be a misnomer. “Analysis of the genome indicates it contains genetic fragments from Asian and European pigs as well as birds and humans of unknown source. Since the origin of the genetic elements came from four sources, it’s called a quadruple reassortment virus.” (more…)
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U.S. Needs Nearly $200 Million More on Climate-Related Health Research
Kristie Ebi testifying before the US Senate on climate change and public health, April 10, 2008.
A recent commentary suggests that the U.S. should spend roughly $197 million more than it currently does to research the impact of climate change on public health.
The analysis found that the U.S. spends about $3 million in federal funds on research related to the health impacts of climate change, says Marie S. O’Neill, one of the commentary co-authors. This isn’t nearly enough to adequately address the public health issues related to global warming, the group concluded.
The commentary’s lead author was Kristie Ebi, a University of Michigan-trained epidemiologist and expert on climate change and public health, who is an adjunct professor of Environmental Health Sciences. The article was inspired by another study, mandated by Congress, that assesses the importance of global climate change on health, also led by Ebi. During their research and in preparing testimony for Congressional hearings on the topic, the team realized that the U.S. is woefully underfunding climate change health-related research. (more…)
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Nanoparticles May Have Negative Effects on the Environment and Human Health
Mark Wiesner from Duke University. (Duke University Photography)
The same properties of nanoparticles that make them so appealing to manufacturers may also have negative effects on the environment and human health.
However, little is known which particles may be harmful. Part of the problem is determining exactly what a nanoparticle is.
A new analysis by an international team of researchers from the Center for the Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology (CEINT), based at Duke University, argues for a new look at the way nanoparticles are selected when studying the potential impacts on human health and the environment. They have found that while many small particles are considered to be “nano,” these materials often do not meet full definition of having special properties that make them different from conventional materials. (more…)
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Nonagenarian Researcher Petitions FDA to Ban Trans Fats
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign emeritus veterinary biosciences professor Fred Kummerow, who is 94, has spent nearly six decades studying lipid biochemistry, and has petitioned the FDA for a ban on trans fats in food. (Photo by L. Brian Stauffer, U. of I. News Bureau)
“I request to ban trans fats from the American diet.”
Thus begins a 3,000-word petition to the Food and Drug Administration, the work of a man on a dogged, decades-old crusade to eradicate trans fats from food.
Fred Kummerow, a 94-year-old University of Illinois veterinary biosciences professor emeritus who still conducts research on the health effects of trans fats in the diet, filed the petition with the FDA last month. The petition is now posted on the FDA Web site, and public comments are invited. (See below for information on viewing the petition and making a comment.)
“Everybody should read my petition because it will scare the hell out of them,” Kummerow said. (more…)
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Researchers Develop Tool to Rank Death Rates
Have you ever wondered what the chances are that you may die in the next year? Would it be from illness or an accident? Is it something you can control? Or is it completely out of your hands?
A new Web site, www.DeathRiskRankings.com, developed by researchers and students at Carnegie Mellon University, allows users to query publicly available data from the United States and Europe, and compare mortality risks by gender, age, cause of death and geographic region. The Web site not only gives the risk of dying within the next year, but it also ranks the probable causes and allows for quick side-by-side comparison between groups.
Suppose you wanted to know who is more likely to die next year from breast cancer, a 54-year-old Pennsylvania woman or her counterpart in the United Kingdom.
“This is the only place to look,” said Paul Fischbeck, site developer and professor of social and decision sciences and engineering and public policy (EPP) at Carnegie Mellon. “It turns out that the British woman has a 33 percent higher risk of breast cancer death. But for lung/throat cancer, the results are almost reversed, and the Pennsylvania woman has a 29 percent higher risk.” (more…)
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Easter Island Compound Might Significantly Extend Human Lifespans
These Easter Island monoliths have endured for centuries. New research suggests that a compound first discovered in soil of the remote South Pacific island might help humans stand the test of time, too. (Image copyright Happy Alex, 2009. Used under license from shutterstock.com)
The giant monoliths of Easter Island are worn, but they have endured for centuries. New research suggests that a compound first discovered in the soil of the South Pacific island might help us stand the test of time, too.
Wednesday, July 8, in the journal Nature, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and two collaborating centers reported that the Easter Island compound – called “rapamycin” after the island’s Polynesian name, Rapa Nui – extended the expected lifespan of middle-aged mice by 28 percent to 38 percent. In human terms, this would be greater than the predicted increase in extra years of life if cancer and heart disease were both cured and prevented.
The rapamycin was given to the mice at an age equivalent to 60 years old in humans.
The studies are part of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) Interventions Testing Program, which seeks compounds that might help people remain active and disease-free throughout their lives. The other two centers involved are the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. (more…)
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Clean Fuels Could Reduce Deaths from Ship Smokestacks by 40,000 Annually
Clean fuels with lower sulfur levels could reduce deaths from ship smokestack emissions by 40,000 annually, scientists say. (Wikipedia Commons)
Rising levels of smokestack emissions from oceangoing ships will cause an estimated 87,000 deaths worldwide each year by 2012 — almost one-third higher than previously believed, according to the second major study on that topic. The study says that government action to reduce sulfur emissions from shipping fuel (the source of air pollution linked to an increased risk of illness and death) could reduce that toll. The study is in the current issue of ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly publication.
James Winebrake and colleagues note that most oceangoing ships burn fuels with a high sulfur content that averages 2.4 percent. Their smokestacks emit sulfur-containing particles linked to increased risks of lung and heart disease. A 2007 study by the researchers estimated that about 60,000 people died prematurely around the world due to shipping-related emissions in 2002. The new study estimates that the toll could rise to 87,000 by 2012, assuming that the global shipping industry rebounds from the current economic slump and no new regulation occurs. (more…)
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Fast Pandemic Detection Tool Ready to Fight Swine Flu
These artists' representations show how a High-Throughput Laboratory Network (HTLN) might look when fully developed at a site. The aboratory provides a way to rapidly identify and verify strains of pathogens hundreds of times fater than methods currently available, giving public-health officials options for potentially mitigating or containing an emerging pandemic.(Credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory)
In a joint effort by national laboratory-, university- and private-sector institutions, researchers are developing new tools for rapidly characterizing biological pathogens that could give rise to potentially deadly pandemics such as Influenza A (H1N1).
The first tool, an automated genotyping system, is a joint effort between Los Alamos National Laboratory, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Public Health, and Agilent Technologies. This system will be utilized in the Global Bio Lab at UCLA and will use high-throughput technology for automated global-public-health surveillance. (more…)
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The Coming of Biofuels: Study Shows Reducing Gasoline Emissions Will Benefit Human Health
Experts project an increasing use of biofuels over the next 20 years. EBI researchers Arpad Horvath (left), Agnes Lobscheid and Thomas McKone are studying how a switch from gasoline to biofuels could impact human health. (Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt, Berkeley Lab Public Affairs)
President Barack Obama and Energy Secretary Steve Chu are consistent in their message that when it comes to transportation fuels, carbon-neutral biofuels as an alternative to gasoline are coming. While the focus of a shift from gasoline to biofuels has been on global warming, such a shift could also impact human health. A grant from the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) has produced a novel and comprehensive “Life Cycle Impact Assessment” to measure the benefits on human health that might result from a switch to biofuels. Although there are a number of uncertainties that must be addressed for a more accurate picture, these early results show that a biofuel eliminating even 10-percent of current gasoline pollutant emissions would have a substantial impact on human health in this country, especially in urban areas. (more…)
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Future Pandemics: Protein from Algae Shows Promise for Stopping SARS
Shanghai SARS Alert.
A protein from algae may have what it takes to stop Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) infections, according to new research. A recent study has found that mice treated with the protein, Griffithsin (GRFT), had a 100 percent survival rate after exposure to the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), as compared to a 30 percent survival for untreated mice.
The research will be presented at the American Thoracic Society’s 105th International Conference in San Diego on Wednesday, May 20.
Despite its dramatic entrance into the domain of worldwide public health threats in 2002, little headway has been made therapeutically toward preventing or treating SARS after infection. But GRFT, a lectin protein derived from algae, offers a new possible hope. GRFT is thought to exert its anti-viral effects by altering the shape of the sugar molecules that line the virus’ envelope, allowing it to attach to and invade human cells, where it takes over the cells’ reproductive machinery to replicate itself. Without that crucial ability, the virus is unable to cause disease. (more…)
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Homeland Security Funding “Spit” Research
A girl sneezes. (Credit: Stowe School District)
Mark Nicas has given some of his best years to spittle. He builds models – the mathematical kind – of how someone else’s slobber ends up on you. The size of the particles, whether they come out in a dry cough or a wet sneeze, their evaporation rate, air speed – these are all complications, reasons why people like Nicas can spend careers piling up academic papers, all the while building up a healthy respect for pathogens.
Nicas, whose day job is at the University of California-Berkeley is one of a team of scientists affiliated with the Center for Advancing Microbial Risk Assessment (CAMRA), funded jointly by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (more…)
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Researchers Progress Toward AIDS Vaccine
Rutgers professors Eddy and Gail Ferstandig Arnold found that animals made antibodies that can stop a very diverse set of HIV isolates or varieties. (Photo Nick Romanenko)
Rutgers AIDS researchers Gail Ferstandig Arnold and Eddy Arnold may have turned a corner in their search for a HIV vaccine. In a paper just published in the Journal of Virology, the husband and wife duo and their colleagues report on their research progress.
With the support of the National Institutes of Health, the Arnolds and their team have been able to take a piece of HIV that is involved with helping the virus enter cells, put it on the surface of a common cold virus, and then immunize animals with it. They found that the animals made antibodies that can stop a very diverse set of HIV isolates or varieties. (more…)
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Simple Filter Could Deliver Clean, Safe Drinking Water to Millions
Dr. James Amburgey works with student Alice Wang on the rapid sand filter prototype. (UNC Charlotte)
As an efficient, inexpensive, low-tech way to treat water, Dr. James Amburgey’s research could bring clean, safe drinking water to potentially millions upon millions of people.
Simplicity is the primary objective of the rapid sand filter system Amburgey is developing. “The idea is to make it as simple as possible,” he said. “All that is needed is some PVC pipe, sand and inexpensive treatment chemicals. The only way to practically deploy a system to the people of less developed countries is for it to be inexpensive and simple.”
Amburgey, an assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, specializes in drinking and recreational water treatment. He has done work in the past with slow sand filters, but his latest research with rapid sand filters is demonstrating the ability to clean water much more effectively and 30 to 50 times faster. (more…)
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Plasma Field Used to Keep Food Bacteria Free
Kevin Keener’s in-bag ozonation method creates ozone in packaged foods by using high-voltage coils to charge the gas inside sealed food packages, effectively killing any bacteria inside them. (Purdue Agricultural Communication photo/Tom Campbell)
by Brian Wallheimer
A Purdue University researcher has found a way to eliminate bacteria in packaged foods such as spinach and tomatoes, a process that could eliminate worries concerning some food-borne illnesses.
Kevin Keener designed a device consisting of a set of high-voltage coils attached to a small transformer that generates a room-temperature plasma field inside a package, ionizing the gases inside. The process kills harmful bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella, which have caused major public health concerns.
Keener’s process is outlined in an article released online early in LWT - Food Science and Technology, a journal for the Swiss Society of Food and Technology and the International Union of Food Science and Technology. (more…)
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Stem Cell Breakthrough
Dr. Andras Nagy has discovered a new method of generating stem cells that does not require embryos as starting points.
In a study to be released on March 1, 2009, Mount Sinai Hospital’s Dr. Andras Nagy discovered a new method of creating stem cells that could lead to possible cures for devastating diseases including spinal cord injury, macular degeneration, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. The study, to be published by Nature online, accelerates stem cell technology and provides a road map for new clinical approaches to regenerative medicine.
“We hope that these stem cells will form the basis for treatment for many diseases and conditions that are currently considered incurable,” said Dr. Nagy, Senior Investigator at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital, Investigator at the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, and Canada Research Chair in Stem Cells and Regeneration. “This new method of generating stem cells does not require embryos as starting points and could be used to generate cells from many adult tissues such as a patient’s own skin cells.” (more…)
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Robots May Soon Teach Autistic Children
Wired participant plays the nerf basketball game.(Courtesy Vanderbilt University/John Russell.)
The day that robot playmates help children with autism learn the social skills that they naturally lack has come a step closer with the development of a system that allows a robot to monitor a child’s emotional state.
“There is a lot of research going on around the world today trying to use robots to treat children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It has shown that the children are attracted to robots, raising the promise that appropriately designed robots could play an important role in their treatment,” says Nilanjan Sarkar, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt University. “However, the efforts so far have been quite limited because they haven’t had a way to monitor the emotional state of the children, which would allow the robot to respond automatically to their reactions.”
If these limitations can be overcome, the use of robots to treat children with ASD could have a significant social and financial impact. One baby in every 150 born today in the United States is diagnosed with ASD, making it more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined. Currently, treatment of these children involves a combination of behavioral, educational, physical, occupational and speech therapies, sometimes accompanied by medication for co-occurring conditions such as anxiety, irritability, bi-polar and other disorders. The average cost of caring for one person with autism for life is $3.2 million. In total, autism currently costs the U.S. more than $90 billion per year, and that cost is projected to double by 2017 due to the growing population of those affected. (more…)
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Tungsten - Surprising New Health and Environmental Concerns
At three small-arms ranges at Camp Edwards, in Massachusetts, researchers found tungsten pollution in soil (generally < 1 mg W/kg soil).(Photo by Airman 1st Class Julius Delos Reyes)
Surprising new scientific research is raising concerns about the potential health and environmental hazards of tungsten — a metal used in products ranging from bullets to light bulbs to jewelry — that scientists once thought was environmentally-benign, according to an article scheduled for the Jan. 19 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS’ weekly newsmagazine.
In the article, C&EN Associate Editor Rachel Petkewich notes that scientists have long held that tungsten is relatively insoluble in water and nontoxic. As a result, the U.S. military developed in the mid-1990s so-called “green bullets” that contain tungsten as a more environmentally-friendly alternative to lead-based ammunition. But studies now show that tungsten, which is also used in welding, metal cutting, and other applications, is not as chemically inert as previously thought. Some forms of tungsten can move readily though soil and groundwater under certain environmental conditions. Both the U.S. Department of Defense and the Environmental Protection Agency now classify the element as an “emerging contaminant” of concern. (more…)
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