By STEPHANIE SAUL THE waiting room at the office of Dr. Stanley Title on West 57th Street in Manhattan is full of women, all of them seeking a cure for fat. It is a man's job in life to make money, but "a woman has to look good," said Dr. Title, explaining why the women flock to his office, where the walls are decorated with framed articles from newspapers and magazines that quote him as a leading weight-loss expert. In The Daily Star, the British tabloid, he warned that Mel Gibson's diet of raw beef could contain parasites. He told The Courier-Mail of Brisbane, Australia, in 1998 that a super-thin Courteney Cox appeared to have taken her dieting too far. Yet, for all the sane advice Dr. Title dispenses to others, he was censured last year by the State of New York for ordering too many tests and treatments for his own patients. Dr. Title, 69, who calls the sanction the only blemish on a 45-year career, is one of an estimated 2,500 doctors practicing medical weight loss in the United States. As obesity becomes an increasingly intractable national problem and more people seek medical solutions, diet doctors represent a growing segment of the country's $46 billion diet market, according to Marketdata Enterprises, a market research firm in Tampa, Fla. Virtually ignored by medical schools and residency programs, medical weight loss has no specific entry requirements and no recognized certification board. But the field, which recently gained a delegate seat at American Medical Association meetings, does seem to have more than its share of complaints leveled at doctors who sell products to their patients, whether special food, liquid diets, unproven therapies or potentially dangerous and habit-forming weight-loss drugs. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 7935 - Posted: 09.22.2005

Playing catch is a simple pleasure for Lisa Van Vleck and her two sons. But a rare genetic brain disorder called vanishing white matter disease (VWM) kept her oldest son, Nathan, on the sidelines. "He loved watching people play sports," says Lisa Van Vleck from Pittsford, NY. But now Nathan is a key player in helping researchers understand this debilitating disease. His brain cells have shown, for the first time, that the type of cells they expected to be defective are actually normal, while others, surprisingly, are not. A very happy, social kid, Nathan's slow speech development by age two gave the first signs to both his parents and his pediatrician that something was wrong. "At first his gait was a little awkward, but he could walk — we thought he was normal," Van Vleck says. "But all the tests came back normal and everyone was just baffled. We went on for years like that." Tragically, in spite of some gains along the way, Nathan's decline was steady, confining him to a walker and then a wheelchair to get around. "It was very hard to watch," his mother recalls. "He realized it himself, he would say, 'Why can't I walk? I used to be able to walk.' And we didn't have any answers for him." After a nearly lifelong fight with this incredibly rare inherited disease, Nathan died at age 12. The family allowed doctors to immediately sample his brain cells. "We'd do anything to help so some other child wouldn't have to suffer," says Van Vleck. © ScienCentral, 2000-2005.

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Glia
Link ID: 7934 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Andreas von Bubnoff Researchers have found an earthly cause for a phenomenon that Peruvian locals call 'devil's gardens' in the Amazonian rainforest. These gardens consist of just one type of tree (Duroia hirsuta). This is such an eerie and unusual sight in the otherwise diverse Amazon that locals presumed there to be a supernatural cause. But US researchers say it's ants, not the devil, that make this tree bloom. The ants (Myrmelachista schumanni) live inside the trees' hollow stems, safe from predators and the environment. They kill all plants other than their host plant by injecting formic acid into the leaves. In this way, they help their host plant, and their own colony, to spread. Such gardens can hold more than 300 trees and millions of ants, and can be hundreds of years old. "It's amazing that the ants exert so much control over their environment," says Deborah Gordon of Stanford University, California. "They create a single species stand of plants in one of the most diverse places on the planet." Some previous studies have suggested that ants or the trees themselves were killing the surrounding plants, but no one could explain how. Now Megan Frederickson of Stanford University and her colleagues, including Gordon, report in Nature1 that the ants do it through injecting a natural poison. ©2005 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 7933 - Posted: 06.24.2010

In mice, that had been genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer's disease, scientists were able to reverse the rodents' memory loss by reducing the amount of an enzyme that is crucial for the development of Alzheimer's disease. "What we are showing is a proof of principle that stopping the synthesis of a protein that is necessary for the formation of the telltale plaques reverses the progression of the disease, and more importantly, the cognitive function of these mice, which had already been impaired, has now recovered," says Inder Verma, professor in the Laboratory for Genetics at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The findings, which are the result of a close collaboration between researchers at the Salk Institute and scientists at the University of California in San Diego, are reported in an advance on-line publication of Nature Neuroscience. In the past, gene therapy has been mainly used to deliver normal genes into cells to compensate for defective versions of the gene causing disease. In their study, the researchers used gene therapy to silence a normally functioning gene. Exploiting a mechanism called RNA interference, they were able to turn down the gene that helps produce the characteristic amyloid plaques that are one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 7932 - Posted: 09.21.2005

By CORNELIA DEAN ITHACA, N.Y. - Lenore Durkee, a retired biology professor, was volunteering as a docent at the Museum of the Earth here when she was confronted by a group of seven or eight people, creationists eager to challenge the museum exhibitions on evolution. They peppered Dr. Durkee with questions about everything from techniques for dating fossils to the second law of thermodynamics, their queries coming so thick and fast that she found it hard to reply. After about 45 minutes, "I told them I needed to take a break," she recalled. "My mouth was dry." That encounter and others like it provided the impetus for a training session here in August. Dr. Durkee and scores of other volunteers and staff members from the museum and elsewhere crowded into a meeting room to hear advice from the museum director, Warren D. Allmon, on ways to deal with visitors who reject settled precepts of science on religious grounds. Similar efforts are under way or planned around the country as science museums and other institutions struggle to contend with challenges to the theory of evolution that they say are growing common and sometimes aggressive. One company, called B.C. Tours "because we are biblically correct," even offers escorted visits to the Denver Museum of Science and Nature. Participants hear creationists' explanations for the exhibitions. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 7931 - Posted: 09.21.2005

By Lauran Neergaard, The Associated Press WASHINGTON — Injections of human stem cells seem to directly repair some of the damage caused by spinal cord injury, according to research that helped partially paralyzed mice walk again. The experiment, reported Monday, isn't the first to show that stem cells offer tantalizing hope for spinal cord injury — other scientists have helped mice recover, too. But the new work went an extra step, suggesting the connections that the stem cells form to help bridge the damaged spinal cord are key to recovery. Surprisingly, they didn't just form new nerve cells. They also formed cells that create the biological insulation that nerve fibers need to communicate. A number of neurological diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, involve loss of that insulation, called myelin. "The actual cells that we transplanted, the human cells, are the ones that are making myelin," explained lead researcher Aileen Anderson of the University of California, Irvine. "We're extremely excited about these cells." The research is reported in Monday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Stem cells are building blocks that turn into different types of tissue. Embryonic stem cells in particular have made headlines recently, as scientists attempt to harness them to regenerate damaged organs or other body parts. They're essentially a blank slate, able to turn into any tissue given the right biochemical instructions. © Copyright 2005 USA TODAY

Keyword: Regeneration; Stem Cells
Link ID: 7930 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A team of scientists has solved a key mystery of visual perception. Why do pictures look the same when viewed from different angles? When you look at a picture, there is only one viewing position--the picture's center of projection--that yields a correct image at your eye. For example, there's but one place in the movie theater where the film creates the same image at your eye as the original scene. Viewing from other places causes distortion of the image at your eye. Why, then, don't moviegoers rush to the correct position? Indeed, do they even know where that position is? Martin S. Banks, Professor of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of California at Berkeley, Dhanraj Vishwanath, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Rochester Institute of Technology, and Ahna Girshick, a Ph.D. student at UC Berkeley, have developed a new scientific model of the processes underlying the phenomena. Their results will be presented in the upcoming edition of Nature Neuroscience. "If the brain processed pictures in the same way it did real objects, you should actually see things in the picture change and distort for every different location you view it from," Banks says. "The human visual system automatically corrects such distortions, but researchers have not been able to pinpoint how this correction occurs."

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 7929 - Posted: 09.21.2005

By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News — Babies start crying in the womb as early as 28 weeks, according to video-recorded ultrasound images. Jeannine Gingras at the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C., and colleagues made the discovery after playing tones of about 100 Hz and 95 decibels through a speaker placed on the stomach of a pregnant woman. The response, recorded with an ultrasound scan, showed the fetus startling and turning the head as the sound stimulation was played. Then the fetus showed all the characteristics of crying: an open mouth, increasing head tilts, a quivering chin and several irregular breaths before exhaling and settling with a turn of the head, mouthing and swallowing. The video documentation "supports the concept that the fetus is capable of the complex motor behaviors that accompany the crying state," Gringas and colleagues wrote in the current issue of the Archives of Disease in Childhood: Fetal and Neonatal Edition. The discovery came by chance: the ultrasounds and noise stimulation were performed as part of a study into the effects of maternal smoking and cocaine use during pregnancy. © 2005 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 7928 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Michael Hopkin Ever think your spouse is turning you grey before your time? Well things are very different for a beetle being studied by Swedish evolutionary biologists. They have found that some male bean weevils can slow down the ageing process in their mates simply by having sex with them. Female weevils (Acanthoscelides obtectus) live longer when mated with males that have been bred to reproduce later in life, report researchers at Uppsala University. By supplying a cocktail of age-defying chemicals with their sperm, the males stop their mates dying off before they have had the chance to produce a large family. "The males are promoting their own selfish interests by being the good guys in this case," explains Göran Arnqvist, a member of the study team. "It benefits males if their mates live longer." It's a surprising finding, because reproduction is generally thought to accelerate the ageing process. Castrated male mice, for example, live longer without the body-ravaging side effects of testosterone. Ensuring that your genetic legacy is preserved in future generations can be a costly, tiring business. In general, ageing is not thought to be subject to strong evolutionary forces, because old age sets in after offspring have already been produced and genes already passed on. Genes that leave you weak and frail at 70 are unlikely to be weeded out if you have kids at 30. ©2005 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 7927 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A microscope the size of a matchbox is allowing US biologists to peer inside the brains of live animals. Weighing a mere 3.9 grams, the microscope has been used to image blood vessels lying 1 millimetre below the surface of the brains of anaesthetised mice, with a resolution of 1 micrometre (one-thousandth of a mm). The researchers believe they may one day be able to view brain cells in the same way. In future the tiny microscope could be strapped to the head of a conscious, moving animal and beam back a movie of the neurons while the animal engages in a variety of activities, say its creators, led by Mark Schnitzer of Stanford University, US. “It’s a microscope that fits in the palm of your hand,” says co-creator Ben Flusberg. It could also be a quick, easy way to image diseased or tumour-laden brains, which currently require an MRI scan or large machinery, he says. Or it could pave the way for a mobile, pocket-sized diagnostic tool. But it is not clear whether the device would ever be used in humans because of its invasive nature. “It’s an ingenious device, but whether it’s transferable from mouse to man is not mentioned,” says Britton Chance, a biophysicist at the University of Pennsylvania, US, who focuses on non-invasive imaging. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 7926 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Sandra G. Boodman, Washington Post Staff Writer As president and chief executive officer of the Society for Women's Health Research, Phyllis Greenberger knows all about the studies showing that women who take hormones after menopause have a greater risk of breast cancer, stroke, heart attack, incontinence and dementia. She is aware that federal health officials recommend that the drugs be taken at the lowest dose for the shortest time possible to treat severe symptoms of menopause such as hot flashes. But Greenberger has no plans to stop taking the hormones she started at age 50 more than a decade ago, although she has reduced the dose. In her case, she said, she doesn't think the advice is relevant. And she believes the risks of the estrogen-progestin combination have been exaggerated. "I feel better, I have no side effects and in my case I see no downside," she said, noting that estrogen protects against osteoporosis and colon cancer. "Obviously if I thought it was dangerous, I wouldn't be taking it," Greenberger said. Greenberger's experience is emblematic of a medical landscape that has shifted dramatically since July 2002, when federal researchers made a stunning announcement: Because of the risks to women taking hormones, they were halting a key arm of the mammoth study known as the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) three years early and advising women taking the drugs to consult their doctors. © Copyright 1996-2005 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 7925 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Lynn Crawford Cook, Special to The Washington Post If you could follow gynecologist Jessica Berger-Weiss around in her Silver Spring office for a day, you might be surprised by what you hear. Four to five times a day, every day, women in their thirties, forties and fifties emotionally tell Berger-Weiss about a problem they think is uniquely theirs: "Doctor, I just don't have any interest in sex." Women in midlife are inundated with emotional and physical reasons why they can't experience a fulfilling sex life. Who hasn't heard the jokes about couples saying so long to sex once they have children? Add in typical midlife events such as stress, illness, depression, medications, relationship problems and plain old boredom, and it's no wonder some middle-aged women have little interest in intimate relations. "Though loss of sex drive is unfortunate, it is common -- almost universal," said Andrew Goldstein, co-director of the Sexual Wellness Center in Annapolis. "Libido is very important for a relationship," said Goldstein. "If a woman has no desire, the responsibility [for initiating sex] always falls to her partner. Of course, partners become very unhappy. They take it personally. They feel rejected." Although many factors contribute to low sexual desire in women, Goldstein said that for some there is an underlying biological mechanism at work. Goldstein is an investigator in a study of Intrinsa, a Procter & Gamble (P&G) testosterone patch that the company hopes will provide a medical solution for women's diminished desire. He and many of his colleagues believe that testosterone can restore sex drive in some women. © Copyright 1996-2005 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 7924 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JANE E. BRODY It seems to happen at least once a year. A young football player collapses on the field in preseason practice and dies of heatstroke. Often it's the first practice session of the season, on a hot, humid summer day, when most players are not in the best physical condition. This year, there were at least two heat-related victims - Chris Stewart, 17, a 6-foot-1, 290-pound offensive lineman at Douglass High in Oklahoma City, and Aaron O'Neal, 19, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound linebacker at the University of Missouri. Another young athlete, Carson Coulter, 17, senior defensive end at Permian High in Odessa, Tex., was luckier. After collapsing on the field in early August, he was given CPR, hospitalized and survived to play another day. Similar cases have occurred elsewhere in the country. The National Collegiate Athletic Association has rules to help prevent these heartbreaking situations, and high school coaches and trainers are supposed to be taught how to keep athletes well hydrated and recognize a player who is experiencing serious heat stress. Still, every year, young athletes die on the field, mostly under circumstances that should never have happened. Since 1995, more than 24 heatstroke deaths have occurred among high school football players; 4 have hit since 2003 alone. Nearly all occurred in preseason practice when the risk of severe dehydration and heat illness is high for anyone using a large amount of energy. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 7923 - Posted: 09.20.2005

By DENISE BRODEY As a teenager, Nickona Knuckles regularly binged on food and then vomited to keep her weight down. Ms. Knuckles, who is African-American, recalled that at the time she had no idea of the devastating health effects of bulimia, nor did she care. She was one of nine black students in a high school of 3,000 and was struggling simply to be accepted. "When it came to body image, my perception of beauty was based on my white peers and images of white celebrities in the media," Ms. Knuckles, now 34, said in an interview at her home in Phoenix. "I didn't want to be white but it was very difficult to be comfortable with who I was." Her parents, concerned about her eating problem, took her to an outpatient treatment program in Mesa, Ariz. But, Ms. Knuckles said, the program did not help her. "The place was filled with white people and, to be honest, there was nobody who looked like me or could relate to me," she said. Eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia conjure images of affluent white teenage girls. And most studies of these disorders have focused on white patients. In recent years, however, more blacks and other minorities have been seeking help from eating disorder clinics. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 7922 - Posted: 09.20.2005

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR Fatigue, irritability, lack of concentration and loss of interest in enjoyable activities are common symptoms of depression. But they are also symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea, and a new study suggests that physicians may confuse the two. The findings, published in the September issue of the journal Chest, reports that many patients with depression symptoms improved markedly when treated with continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP (pronounced SEE-pap) therapy, the standard treatment for sleep apnea. This finding does not necessarily apply to all patients with depression, said Dr. Daniel J. Schwartz, the lead author on the study and director of the Sleep Center at University Community Hospital in Tampa, Fla. And, Dr. Schwartz said, not everyone who has depression symptoms should automatically be evaluated for a sleep disorder. "But they perhaps should speak with their physicians about symptoms which might be suggestive of obstructive sleep apnea," he said. The disorder, often referred to as O.S.A., occurs when the tongue or throat muscles relax too much during sleep and block the airway. This can happen more than 50 times an hour during sleep, causing snoring and pauses in breathing that last as long as 60 seconds. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sleep; Depression
Link ID: 7921 - Posted: 09.20.2005

By NATALIE ANGIER Incensed by what it sees as a virtual pandemic of verbal vulgarity issuing from the diverse likes of Howard Stern, Bono of U2 and Robert Novak, the United States Senate is poised to consider a bill that would sharply increase the penalty for obscenity on the air. By raising the fines that would be levied against offending broadcasters some fifteenfold, to a fee of about $500,000 per crudity broadcast, and by threatening to revoke the licenses of repeat polluters, the Senate seeks to return to the public square the gentler tenor of yesteryear, when seldom were heard any scurrilous words, and famous guys were not foul mouthed all day. Yet researchers who study the evolution of language and the psychology of swearing say that they have no idea what mystic model of linguistic gentility the critics might have in mind. Cursing, they say, is a human universal. Every language, dialect or patois ever studied, living or dead, spoken by millions or by a small tribe, turns out to have its share of forbidden speech, some variant on comedian George Carlin's famous list of the seven dirty words that are not supposed to be uttered on radio or television. Young children will memorize the illicit inventory long before they can grasp its sense, said John McWhorter, a scholar of linguistics at the Manhattan Institute and the author of "The Power of Babel," and literary giants have always constructed their art on its spine. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 7920 - Posted: 09.20.2005

By BENEDICT CAREY A landmark government-financed study that compared drugs used to treat schizophrenia has confirmed what many psychiatrists long suspected: newer drugs that are highly promoted and widely prescribed offer few - if any - benefits over older medicines that sell for a fraction of the cost. The study, which looked at four new-generation drugs, called atypical antipsychotics, and one older drug, found that all five blunted the symptoms of schizophrenia, a disabling disorder that affects three million Americans. But almost three-quarters of the patients who participated stopped taking the drugs they were on because of discomfort or specific side effects. One of the newer drugs, Zyprexa, from Eli Lilly, helped more patients control symptoms for significantly longer than the other drugs. But Zyprexa also had a higher risk of serious side effects - like weight gain - that increase the risk of diabetes. The study, released yesterday and to be published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, was widely anticipated because it is by far the largest, most rigorous head-to-head trial of the newer antipsychotics conducted without significant drug industry financing. The new drugs account for $10 billion in annual sales and 90 percent of the national market for antipsychotics. The findings may not significantly alter the prescribing patterns of doctors in private practice, who often do not have to worry about cost, psychiatrists said. But they are likely to have an enormous effect on state Medicaid programs, many short on funds in part because of the high cost of schizophrenia drugs. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 7919 - Posted: 09.20.2005

By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - They are powerful predators that constrict their prey but female African pythons also have a maternal side unheard of among egg-laying snakes: they spend time with their young after they hatch. The discovery underscores how little we know about the world of snakes and suggests their ways may be far more elaborate than scientists previously thought. "I had reports from farmers that they had seen baby snakes and their mothers out together and I thought, this is crazy," said Graham Alexander, a biologist at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. But in 2003 he did intensive observations on two female southern African pythons -- commonly known as rock pythons -- and to his astonishment, they spent up to two weeks with their offspring after hatching. Such behavior has been observed in some snake species that give live birth but never in egg-layers. In the reptile kingdom, crocodiles and some lizards are the only other species known to offer parental care. The rock pythons are not exactly the most caring of mothers, though the time they spend with their offspring seems to confer some benefit to them. Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 7918 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A large study funded by NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) provides, for the first time, detailed information comparing the effectiveness and side effects of five medications – both new and older medications – that are currently used to treat people with schizophrenia. Overall, the medications were comparably effective but were associated with high rates of discontinuation due to intolerable side effects or failure to adequately control symptoms. One new medication, olanzapine, was slightly better than the other drugs but also was associated with significant weight-gain and metabolic changes. Surprisingly, the older, less expensive medication used in the study generally performed as well as the newer medications. The study, which included more than 1,400 people, supplies important new information that will help doctors and patients choose the most appropriate medication according to the patients' individual needs. The study results are published in the September 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. "The study has vital public health implications because it provides doctors and patients with much-needed information comparing medication treatment options," said NIMH Director Thomas R. Insel, M.D. "It is the largest, longest, and most comprehensive independent trial ever done to examine existing therapies for this disease." Schizophrenia, which affects 3.2 million Americans, is a chronic, recurrent mental illness, characterized by hallucinations, delusions, and disordered thinking. The medications used to treat the disorder are called antipsychotics. Previous studies have demonstrated that taking antipsychotic medication is far more effective than taking no medicine, and that taking it consistently is essential to the long-term treatment of this severe, disabling disorder. Although the medications alone are not sufficient to cure the disease, they are necessary to manage it.

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 7917 - Posted: 06.24.2010

One of Nature's great phenomena is how tiny songbirds can make their way over thousands of miles each fall to their winter feeding grounds. Scientists have known for years that they travel by night to avoid predators, navigating by the stars and the Earth's invisible magnetic field. Yet how these birds "see" the Earth's magnetic field — a protective field that shields Earth from radiation, and is the basis for the magnetic north and south poles, but which people can't sense at all — has remained a mystery. Now researchers based in the United States and Europe have found a brain region in night-migrating songbirds that they think can "process" information from the Earth's magnetic field and turn it into an internal compass they can see. The brain region is called "Cluster N" — "N" for night-vision because the researchers believe the birds' ability to sense the Earth's magnetic field and transform it into a navigation tool is dependent on their ability to see at night. Jarvis collaborated with animal navigation researcher Henrik Mouritsen from the University of Oldenburg, in Germany, to compare the brains of two distantly related types of migrating songbirds, the Garden Warbler and the European Robin, to two types of non-migrating song birds, Canaries and Zebra Finches. "This area is only active in the night-migratory birds at night… and it's never active in the non-migratory birds, not during the day, nor during the night," says Mouritsen who published the finding with Jarvis in the journal Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences. © ScienCentral, 2000-2005.

Keyword: Animal Migration; Vision
Link ID: 7916 - Posted: 06.24.2010