Increased FGF21 May Spur Greater Liver Regeneration
Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) has been the focus of some interest in the research community in recent years. Raised levels of FGF21 have been shown to notably increase mean life span in mice, most likely primarily by interfering in mechanisms related to growth hormone. After more than a decade of earnest research into the mechanisms of aging and longevity in mammals, the longest lived mice are still those in which growth hormone or its receptor are disrupted, a comparatively early discovery in the field. There are numerous ways to influence these biochemical pathways, and altering levels of FGF21 is one of them.
So...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 31, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Herbs get the push: no statutory regulation for western herbalists or Traditional Chinese Medicine
It makes a nice change to be able to compliment an official government report.
Ever since the House of Lords report in 2000, the governments have been vacillating about what should be done about herbalists. At the moment both western herbalists and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are essentially unregulated. Many (but not all) herbalists have been pushing for statutory regulation, which they see it as government endorsement. It would give them a status like the General Medical Council.
Chinese medicine as taught at Middlesex University
A new report has ruled out this possibility, for very good reasons...
Source: DC's goodscience - March 30, 2015 Category: Science Authors: David Colquhoun Tags: Academia Chinese medicine Harry Cayton Health Professions Council herbal medicine herbalism Michael Driscoll Middlesex university Pittilo Prince Charles Professional Standards Authority University of Westminster alternative medicin Source Type: blogs
The ABCs of your post-grain experience
Wheat/grain elimination is an exceptionally powerful tool for restoring health, reducing inflammation, returning metabolic distortions such as high blood sugar and blood pressure back to normal, and for losing weight. But many of the adverse health effects of years of grain consumption do not fully reverse with their elimination. Specific efforts may therefore need to be undertaken to accelerate your return to full health. Taking these extra steps stacks the odds heavily in your favor that you will enjoy full recovery from abnormal health conditions.
Among the strategies to consider are:
Cultivate and nourish healthy bowel...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - March 28, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Lifestyle bowel flora fish oil iodine probiotics resistant starch Thyroid vitamin D Weight Loss Source Type: blogs
Enterococcus faecalis
is a gram positive, catalase negative bacteria that is an increasing worry for clinicians as a cause of hospital-acquired infections.
It is a normally occurring bacteria in the intestines, bile ducts, and genitourinary system. However, when there is local overgrowth due to other flora being suppressed (especially by cephalosporins) it causes clinically important urinary and biliary tract infections.
Interestingly, Enterococcus faecalis has an outer capsule that prevents it from being degraded by bile salts.
Of particular worry is the ability of Enterococcus faecalis to enter the bloodstrean and colonize heart valves in su...
Source: Inside Surgery - March 15, 2015 Category: Surgery Authors: Editor Tags: Infectious Disease cephalosporins enterococcus UTI vancomycin resistant Source Type: blogs
Stomach Pain: It Continues – Part II
Part I can be found by clicking here: Stomach Pain: It Starts – Part I.
*****
We sat quietly waiting in the waiting room. Again, we found ourselves in an odd position of being on the patient end of things. Allison, my wife, is a registered nurse. At the time she was working as an RN on a cardiac unit and I was at the end of my second year of Internal Medicine residency. Also, before this GI appointment, Allison had made a 2nd visit to the LLUMC ED. On that second visit they had decided to admit her to the Family Medicine service since her primary doctor was from the Family Medicine service. They did what they could but ...
Source: JeffreyMD.com - February 23, 2015 Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Dr. Jeff Tags: My Life abdominal pain EGD esophagogastroduodenoscopy gastroenterology HIDA scan stomach pain thewife Source Type: blogs
Research and Reviews in the Fastlane 064
This study showed a poor specificity (48%) for two tools in identifying stroke patients in the field speaking to the need for better tools and/or better training. A low specificity means lots of patients without disease may be treated.Recommended by: Anand SwaminathanEmergency Medicine, Neurology Hamaekers AE, Henderson JJ. Equipment and strategies for emergency tracheal access in the adult patient. Anaesthesia. 2011 Dec;66 Suppl 2:65-80. PMID: 22074081How to access the cricothyroid membrane….or not! – a great review of the literature for different ways of gaining emergency airway access via the cricothyroid...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - December 31, 2014 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Anand Swaminathan Tags: Cardiology Education Emergency Medicine Gastroenterology Intensive Care Neurology Ophthalmology Pediatrics Pre-hospital / Retrieval Resuscitation critical care Press Ganey R&R in the FASTLANE recommendations Review Source Type: blogs
This was my week:
On Monday, my Sonicare toothbrush bit the dust. I'd been limping it along for months, and it finally coded and couldn't be revived.Today, I had a decision to make: I had money in the budget either for a new Sonicare or a bottle of Laphroiag.I chose Scotch. Oral care, I am not up in you right now.And this is why:On Tuesday, I was minding my own business when I saw a coworker hurpling cheerfully down the hall with what looked like a liter suction container full of bile. I shook my head and blinked twice, and damned if it wasn't a liter suction container full of bile.Now, normally when one is faced with a quart or more of str...
Source: Head Nurse - November 13, 2014 Category: Nurses Authors: Jo Source Type: blogs
Gallbladder Update
It's been a while since I did an update but it's been really busy here. I can't tell you how much I appreciated all of your comments after our hospitalization in July. We left the hospital with a bilary drain bag to drain the bile from his gallbladder. As you may recall, Matt was admitted to the hospital last July for breathing issues and it was found that he had a gallbladder infection. (Source: Dream Mom)
Source: Dream Mom - September 24, 2014 Category: Other Conditions Authors: Dream Mom Source Type: blogs
Gastroparesis Awareness Month: A Day In The Life
This is my second post for Gastroparesis Awareness Month. Read my first post, Tube Love, here. My first post was a love poem to my feeding tube. :-) My second one is a little more serious and a lot longer. I apologize for the length. I have trouble reading lengthy posts myself. But sometimes I’m incapable of summarizing myself, so I have to write posts that are too long for even me to read. I hope you’ll at least be able to skim through the important parts. I’ve tried to break up the text with lots of photos, to see if that helps any.
A DAY IN THE LIFE
My day starts when my morning careg...
Source: Ballastexistenz - August 23, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Mel Baggs Tags: Adrenal insufficiency Aspiration pneumonia Bronchiectasis Education Feeding tube Food Gastroparesis Life Skills Medical Medical stuff Personal history Treatment adult tubie adult tubies awareness awareness months bipap ce Source Type: blogs
Tube Love
Drawing of a gastrojejunostomy feeding tube, GJ tube for short.
Tube Love
Its name in medical-ese is a gastrojejunostomy tube
Or a GJ tube for short
I just call it The Tube
Through nothing more than some tubes
And a syringe
And a feeding pump
I give myself water
I give myself food
I give myself meds
I give myself life
Bypassing my paralyzed stomach
I drain out the life-destroying bile
That would otherwise suffocate me
In pneumonia after pneumonia
Until I eventually got unlucky and died
There are no words for the feeling
Of giving myself a big syringe of cold water
On a hot day
And feeling every inch of it go
Cold
Into my i...
Source: Ballastexistenz - August 20, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Mel Baggs Tags: Cognitive disability Death Developmental disability Disability Pride Ethics Food Functioning labels Happiness LFA Stereotypes Life Skills Love Medical Medical stuff Mental Age Personal history Physical disability Poems Po Source Type: blogs
Wheat: the silent killer
I’ll hear this comment with some frequency:
“Go wheat-free for 4 weeks. If you feel no better, you can go back to it.”
While consumption of modern wheat can indeed yield health conditions with overt symptoms, such as joint pain, skin rashes, and pain and explosive diarrhea from irritable bowel syndrome, many of its effects are silent and do not result in any perceived symptoms.
The changes that underlie autoimmunity, for instance, that lead to multiple sclerosis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune hepatitis, autoimmune pancreatitis, pancreatic beta cell destruction leading t...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - August 15, 2014 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Lifestyle autoimmunity blood sugar cancer gluten Inflammation Source Type: blogs
Nutritional Lipidology
I depart momentarily from the primary focus of the Wheat Belly Blog and discuss something that I have been following in practice for more than 10 years. I call it Nutritional Lipidology, the study of the effects of nutrition on lipids, lipoproteins, and metabolic parameters, the stuff underlying many diseases, especially cardiovascular diseases. It is indeed relevant to the Wheat Belly conversation, as wheat elimination and, even better, grain elimination, yields dramatic effects on lipids, lipoproteins, and the factors that drive cardiovascular risk. In fact, I have found these simple strategies so powerful that most peop...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - August 4, 2014 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Lifestyle cholesterol HDL lipoproteins small LDL particles statin triglycerides Source Type: blogs
