Welcome Gary! I am really looking forward to this discussion. I am going to do some advertising in a few other places so people know you are here! Welcome. E Komo Mai and Aloha!

Thank you for having me Marci, and I look forward to getting this topic up and running. Might be under construction for a fer days as I'm at work right now, but we will get there. Gary

What do you recommend for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome other than turning off my computer and resting ???

Seriously, I am eager for you to set the topic in motion. Please don't use this topic to ask him how to cure your ills. I think that is NOT what he had in mind. Gary, You honor us with your precious time and presence! Again, E Komo Mai (Welcome!)

Gary wherefore art thou? I messed up and posted something for Neil in your topic. I guess I blew out the dust, at least. What did you have in mind for this topic? Perhaps I can get it rolling if only I knew!

OK, here's a thought to get us going .... What is health? In our western concept we usually consider health in purpely physical terms and feel affronted when we get sick and want a quick fix. Many cultures have a much broader view than that and I think that's one reason why people in our cultures are seeking knowledge from them. I think more research needs to be done on plants and other 'natural' remedies that are known in other societies. We need to respect and learn form that knowledge.

We need to look in the rainforests and native lore too. Especially, before we destroy them all so we can have more hambugers from McDonalds to clog our arteries! Maggie, I am still trying to get online when you are. Yahoo is not cooperating!

I hear you ... try MSN messenger then ....

Get Better Soon, Maggie! *HUGS* Medicine men threaten court action over traditional cures African medicine men are taking European scientists to court to stop them "stealing" their traditional cures. Healers from Zimbabwe have teamed up with others in Ghana, Nigeria and Rwanda to protect 10,000 native treatments including toad secretions. They are demanding a share in any of the profits made by the drug companies now planning to exploit them. The move comes after Lausanne University announced its plan to market the snake tree bean bark lotion as a cure for athletes foot. According to the Daily Record one healer, Wimbiru Mhofu, said: "I was born using this and the Europeans stole it." The Swiss university has now frozen talks with the healers while they look at the patent. Last updated: 10:50 Friday 8th June 2001 http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_320564.html?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery

testing.

I have much to post here thanks to Don and his folk studies. Lots of herbs out there used by pioneer settlers in the US which are still valuable. More to come soon!

Brain's 'cheat detector' is revealed 22:00 12 August 02 Part of the human brain is dedicated to detecting cheats, say evolutionary psychologists, after a study with a brain-damaged man. "We think it develops in all normal individuals, and that it develops in part because our brains were selected to develop this competence," says John Tooby at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Tooby and his colleagues studied a man who suffered accidental damage to the limbic system, a brain region involved in processing emotional and social information. RM, as he is referred to, performed as well as other people on one set of reasoning problems, did much worse on problems specifically designed to test reasoning about social exchanges. At its simplest, social exchange runs along the lines of "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours". Previous work has shown that people, and some animals, are extremely good at keeping a check of who owes who within a group - and at spotting and punishing cheaters. Researchers had proposed that general reasoning abilities could account for this. But RM's deficit suggests that detecting social cheaters depends on specialised neural circuitry, the team says. Their conclusion is "robust," says Nigel Nicholson, an evolutionary psychologist and director of the Centre for Organisational Research the London Business School. "It's essential we have trusting relationships with people in communities where we are highly interdependent for survival and reproduction. Cheat detection is very important," he adds. Source: NewScientist.com news service John

yup-that makes sense since the limbic system is responsible for our survival. interesting!

OH NEAT!!! John, you are a wizard of the first order. Thanks for finding something for this languishing topic.

Personalised 'brain music' helps sleep Having trouble sleeping? Maybe a little music will help you sleep. But what Canadian researchers are proposing is not a blast of your favourite pop singer, or a relaxing piece of classical music, but individually tailored "brain music". The therapy has been developed to help insomniacs. A team at the University of Toronto has created music, which matches a person's brain waves. When that particular piece of music is played, people's anxiety levels seem to fall, and they are able to relax and sleep. To create the music, researchers study the specific rhythmic and tonal patterns which create a meditative condition in an individual. They then use a special computer programme developed by the researchers, who include music therapists, then selects unique "healing" music which creates those same brain wave patterns when the person is trying to sleep. The researchers say that the brain music appears to reduce some of the psychosomatic symptoms like anxiety - but, unlike some drug treatments for insomnia, it does not have the potential to cause the patient to become dependent on the therapy. Music therapy The team recently carried out a study, which found brain music reduced anxiety and improved sleep in people who had suffered from insomnia for at least two years. Ten listened to individually tailored brain music. Eight more listened to music which had not been specially designed for them. Both groups experienced less anxiety after listening to the music over a four-week period, But the effect was more pronounced in the group which listened to the personalised music. The findings were presented to the Associated Professional Sleep Societies' meeting in Seattle, Washington. Leonard Kayumov, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, said: "Brain music therapy, because of its more favourable side-effect profile, may represent a possible alternative for therapeutic management of insomnia and anxiety. "From ancient times through to the present, philosophers, historians and scientists have written and spoken of music as therapeutic agent." Source: BBC NEWS Saturday, 17 August, 2002, 06:43 GMT

Perhaps THIS is what I need !!! Either that or a much less "exciting" life. Thanks, John. This is very interesting. I find running around outdoors does it for me. I sleep much better after a lively fossil hunt. See Geo 7 for most recent additions to my collection.

Caffeine clue to fighting cancer Chocolate, cola and coffee could form the basis of new anti-cancer drugs, scientists believe. Researchers in the UK have found that caffeine and theophylline may be effective in fighting cancer tumours. Both compounds are found in a range of foods and drinks, including coffee, tea, chocolate and cola. According to scientists at University College London, the compounds target an enzyme which helps play a role in the survival and movement of cells. The scientists genetically engineered insect cells to produce this enzyme, which is called p110 delta. In laboratory tests, they found that caffeine and theophylline both blocked a key biochemical process crucial to the functioning of the enzyme. New treatments Professor Peter Shepherd said the findings could pave the way for new treatments for cancer. But he warned that research is in its early stages and that the study did not mean people should consume more caffeine in an effort to protect against cancer. "We are not saying that drinking lots of coffee will cure cancer but what we have found is a new and novel compound of caffeine," he told the BBC. "We are saying there are potential good points inside the molecular structure of caffeine that can be taken advantage of but unfortunately for us at the moment the side effects of caffeine mean we couldn't use the caffeine itself as a drug itself as it stands at the moment." He added: "We are hoping to take this forward now and hopefully in five to seven years it could lead to a new class of drugs." The study is published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Source: BBC NEWS

ASPIRIN A pill with a long history No other drug has demonstrated so many useful properties as aspirin has. It soothes pain and inflammations of all kinds, it helps with rheumatism and migraine headaches and hinders heart attacks. Now, recent scientific research is showing that the "drug for all ills" is beneficent even in the battle against cancer. Even by the 5th century BC, Hippocrates, the father of Medicine, had been prescribing a concoction of willow bark to patients as an antipyretic and analgesic. Within its matter, unbeknownst to the great Hellenic doctor, the active agent was acetylsalicylic acid, the main constituent of today's aspirin. In 1859, the German chemist Hermann Kolbe discovered the antiseptic properties of salicylic acid which he succeeded in synthesizing from phenol. The flavor of the compound, however, was especially repugnant. The main event in the birth of aspirin took place several years later when the laboratories of the Bayer chemical company succeeded in synthesizing acetylsalicylic acid from molecules of acetic acid. The preparation "had a tolerable flavor and did not hurt the stomach" as noted by the company's senior pharmacist. Two years later, the patent for aspirin was granted by Kaizer's patent office. The global consumption of acetylsalicylic acid today reaches 40 thousand tons per annum. This is either in pure form or in conjuction with other analgesics, vitamin C, hypnotics or caffeine. The world's largest producer still remains Bayer whose annual revenues from sales of the drug is in excess of half a billion dollars. Many important properties of aspirin, however, have only been identified and tested as recently as twenty years ago. To begin with, the drug functions as an analgesic and antipyretic because it contains arachidonic acid within its structure which blocks the body chemicals which cause pain or fever. As a basic constituent of cell membranes, arachidonic acid keeps the cells flexible. Without it, our body would be rigid as wax. When a cell suffers from inflammation, the arachidonic acid is converted to prostaglandins which in turn irritate the nearby nerve endings thus causing pain. They also help raise the thermostat of the organism at the center of the brain thus causing systemic fever. Aspirin prevents the conversion of arachidonic acid to prostaglandins. For their discovery of this biochemical mechanism, John Vane, together with sun Bergstrem and Bengt Samuelson, got the Nobel Price in 1982. Aspirin's other well known application is against migraine headaches. In this case, however, the scientists are less able to explain the precise mechanism. The only sure thing for the moment is empirical: aspirin is effective where other drugs have failed except for morphine which still remains the most powerful analgesic available. Many people suffering from migraines take one or more aspirins and yet "the hammering in their heads does not stop". This is due to the fact that the active ingredients of aspirin which should normally be absorbed by the small intestine remain unused in the stomach. If aspirin is ingested in bubbling pills, then the active ingredients reach the small intestine directly. For even more drastic results, an injection of acetylsalicylic acid is the most effective form of administration. Those, however, who take aspirin on a regular basis because of migraine headaches must be extra careful since they run the danger of becoming addicts. People withdrawing from aspirin may experience tachycardia, dizziness or feeling unwell, while the headaches reappear in more intense form. This makes for a vicious circle since the patient is obliged to increase the dosage continuously. Another exceptional effect of the miraculous drug is that it prevents blood thrombosis. Even though for many years doctors had been cautious about this particular property, more than 200 scientific studies based on data from more than 100 thousand patients over several decades, have led to the firm conclusion that aspirin indeed prevents the formation of blood clots in the blood stream which may obstruct or block arteries and lead to heart attacks, one of the main causes of death in our century. The most recent news about aspirin have to do with its role in the fight against cancer. The American Cancer Society has monitored the effects of acetylsalicylic acid on more than 600 thousand volunteers suffering from cancer over a period of 6 years. Those who took the drug for more than 16 months have demonstrated a 40% decrease in the rate of death from malignant tumors of the small intestine. In fact, the scientists do not yet know much about the probable connection between the ingestion of aspirin and the prevention of cancer of the small intestine. This is to be expected, since the actual causes of the lethal disease remain unknown. What can be said, as stated by senior researcher Dr. Michael Toone, is that "aspirin seems to make a stand" against the illness. So then, if the experience of medicine all over the world seems to demonstrate that the ingestion of aspirin provides protection from pain and simple fevers to migraines, heart attacks and some cancers (in the latter case by probably strengthening the body's defenses), couldn't we assume that it may be advisable for us to ingest our daily dose of the drug for our general protection against the enemies of our civilization, such as bad nutrition, lack of movement and exercise, or smoking? "For God's sake, no! When somebody takes a drug for prevention ---i.e. without being sick--- this means that he believes there is a natural defect in his organism which would be equilibrated by the ingestion of the drug. Biology does not know of any such case", says Wolfgang Diesmann, cardiologist and professor at the Berlin University Clinic. His colleague, Charles Heneken of Harvard, who has been studying the effects of aspirin for the last five years insists that "while waiting until we can succeed in having detailed knowledge of the defensive mechanisms activated by aspririn in cases of cardiovascular diseases, heart attacks, cancer of the small intestine, the breast and the lung, as well in cases of migraine, the first drug I would take if I had a heart attack would be a simple aspirin pill". Text by: Michael O.R. Koher and Peter Mayer Source: GEORAMA Magazine John

John, thanks for the article on aspirin. I didn't know of its many applications. I just know a few things about aspirin. One is that white willow bark was used by the Egyptians. Another is that aspirin is chemically very similar to LSD. Lastly, the name "aspirin" was not originally a generic term, but rather a specific brand name exclusive to the Bayer Company. The loss to Bayer for using "Aspirin" exclusively was one of the conditions imposed on Germany at the conclusion of WWI by the Treaty of Versailles.

A drug like aspirin is said to have been used in ancient Greece. More than two-thousand-four-hundred years ago, Hippocrates told his patients to ease pain by chewing the outer covering of the willow tree. The covering, called bark, contains the chemical salicylic acid. Much MUCH more... http://www.manythings.org/reading/020129sn_t.htm Fascinating insight, John and Cheryl. Many thanks. My dad planted Spirea bushes around my childhood home and told me the got aspirin from them. I was never told how, though. I had to find that out for myself.

Hi Cheryl and Marcia I am trying to write useful things for all of us. I hope that I can help people in its everyday life. Marcia teaches us on it. I believe that Marcia�s creation �Geo� is on the top for this reason. I am doing about the same with my way. Who care for what was ancient Greece or the ancient Egypt today? I hate history because is an untouchable past but I respect it because history is repeating itself even if with a new face each time. Have you found the way Marcia? John

I have only learned from what I have been taught - either by others or by myself building on the foundation of whatI learned previously by listening and reading. I have no secret to learning. We each have the things which interest us. My interests just seem to be broader than most. History can teach us much and help avoid making the same mistakes. Much of our folk medicine comes to us as history.

How the brain forgets (Memory tends to worsen with age) Scientists have found a molecule that may be to blame for loss of memory as we get older. It raises the tempting prospect of new therapies to restore memory. The brain has a limited capacity and like many other organs in the body seems to have to be balanced Professor Isabelle Mansuy The enzyme helps the brain delete unwanted information. But a team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich believe it may become too active as we get older. The researchers carried out tests on mice that showed those animals with low levels of the enzyme, called protein phosphatase-1 (PP1), were less likely to forget what they had learned. It appears that PP1 actively suppresses memories in mice, both during and after a learning exercise. And as the mice get older, the level of PP1 increases. When the scientists blocked the action of PP1 the mice recovered their full learning and memory abilities. Natural filter Researcher Professor Isabelle Mansuy told the BBC: "The brain has a limited capacity and like many other organs in the body seems to have to be balanced. "So there are positive processes which help us remember things and store information, and there are negative processes which help us to sort existing information. "It is a kind of filter to avoid saturation of the brain. Except it is not selective, so there is a lot of information that we would like to keep that we end up forgetting." Professor Mansuy said it was possible that the finding could be used to develop new therapies to help elderly people recover some of their ability to remember things. However, she said such therapies were a long way off. The research is published in the journal Nature. Source: BBC NEWS Thursday, 29 August, 2002, 10:48 GMT John

What I have discovered at my "advanced" age is that using your memory is the best way to keep it. Each time you remember things, they become easier to recall. You MUST keep your mind active and creative!

Flu hits ten times as many By JUDY SKATSSOON (http://worldscientist.com/) 03Sep02 TEN times as many people were struck down by the flu during the peak of winter this year as at the same time last year, national figures reveal. The National Influenza Surveillance Report 2002 recorded 798 laboratory-confirmed cases of flu in July compared to 81 in the same month last year. A total of 1342 cases of influenza were recorded between May and July compared to 116 for the same period in 2001. The statistics, from the Communicable Diseases Network Australia show 2002 was a bumper year for the flu with a total of 1904 cases reported for the year to August 13. The figures to date compare to 1285 for the entire 12 months last year � when laboratory-confirmed influenza became part of the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. Queensland was the most flu-ridden state with 661 cases to date. The World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Influenza deputy director Alan Hampson said that the statistics did not come as a surprise. But he said, while they reflected trends, they were likely to represent only the tip of the iceberg as laboratory results were based largely on only those people who were ill enough to make it into hospital, such as the very young and the very old. "What we see in terms of hospital-based diagnoses is very much the tip of the iceberg with influenza," Mr Hampson said. "The majority of people just go home and go to bed and sleep it off." The higher rate of flu in 2002 � rather than representing an epidemic � was more likely a return to normal levels of flu after 2001, which Mr Hampson described as a mild year. "Last year was a bit of a fizzer as years go," Mr Hampson said. "So we're getting back to more of a normal year rather than a severe epidemic year, although in some areas there's been more activity." He said the discrepancy between 2001 and 2002 could be because of more virulent strains of flu circulating or because of lower levels of immunity in the community � which was common after a mild year. Source: The Daily Telegraph John

Fascinating, John! I am certain they will be culturing strains of this flu for a long time to figure out why it was so virulent. I think they are still dealing with the killer flu that attacked world wide about the time of WW 1. They are still wondering why healthy male young adults were the targets when usually they are not. We still have much to learn!

Beer May Boost 'Good' Cholesterol in Older Women NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Moderate beer consumption appears to raise levels of "good" cholesterol in healthy older women and may decrease their risk of heart disease, according to the results of a small study. HDL (or "good") cholesterol levels rose by an average of nearly 12% by the end of the 3-week study, in which men consumed four glasses of beer with dinner and women consumed three glasses. Previous research has shown that increasing HDL by just 2% can lower the risk of heart disease. The protein component of HDL that is associated with its heart-healthy effects, as well as activity levels of an enzyme that provides a measure of protection against coronary artery disease, also increased during the drinking phase of the study, the researchers report in the September issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. The findings support those of several studies showing a relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and decreased risk of heart disease in men. To investigate the relationship in older women, the researchers enrolled nine women aged 49 to 62 and 10 men aged 45 to 64. The investigators measured levels of HDL and apolipoprotein A-1, the protein portion of HDL that carries cholesterol in the blood. Activity levels of paraoxonase (PON) were also recorded during the drinking and non-drinking phases of the study. The volunteers' overall diet did not change at any time. In addition to higher levels of HDL cholesterol, levels of apolipoprotein A-1 rose by nearly 9% by the end of the drinking phase. PON activity also increased by about 4% after 2 weeks, compared with levels during the non-drinking phase of the study. "Increased serum HDL cholesterol level and PON activity may be a mechanism of action not only in healthy middle-aged men, but also in postmenopausal women, underlying the reduced coronary heart disease risk in moderate drinkers," according to Dr. Henk F.J. Hendriks from TNO Nutrition and Food Research in the Netherlands and colleagues. However, larger studies will need to confirm the findings, the researchers conclude. SOURCE: Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 2002;26:1430-1435. I found it in: Reuters Health

Engineers model blood flow A computer simulation that shows how branches and bends in blood vessels disturb smooth-flowing blood and contribute to heart disease has been built by researchers at the University of California, Davis. Eventually, it could be possible to use such models to predict the risk of some types of heart disease. Source: EurekAlert

Beer? In older women? Did they mention the calories involved? I think that is not likely, but what an excuse to drink beer for those so inclined! I am strictly a water drinker. Has that become old fashioned?!

nope, i drink lots of water too!

Of course you drink water` You're my twin! *;)

Radiation-proof fabric developed The fabric might help in the event of radiation leaks A US company has developed the world's first lightweight radiation-proof fabric, which provides as much protection as a lead vest. The potential applications of the fabric, called Demron, range from protective suits to radiation-proof tents and linings for aircraft, the magazine New Scientist reports. Instead of using heavy metals such as lead to block radiation and X-rays, the new fabric is non-toxic, lead-free and sandwiched between two layers of woven fabric. Traditional protective clothing only protects against alpha radiation but the new fabric, developed by the Florida-based company Radiation Shield Technologies, also blocks beta and gamma rays. Source and complete document: BBC NEWS, Science/Nature

This would be a great breakthrough, but don't order a family wardrobe of it right away. I suspect it will be expensive and not wonderful to wear. I am delighted that they have, though. It beats lead.

MEDICINE FOR WOMEN-THE FATHER OF MEDICINE LEFT A TRACE IT WILL NOT FAIL. (Agricultural, Environmental & Health News Category) November 2002: 147 plants (oregano, fennel, cumin, laurel, aniseed, saffron and licorice among others) used Hippocrates, the so-called 'Father of Medicine' in order to heal the women diseases. The healing power of many plants, which are still widely used for healing purposes, is described in detail in Hippocrates writing 'On the Feminine'. 'On the Feminine' is also the name of a new book, which was recently published by the 'Panhellenic Company of the Medicine History' with the occasion of a relevant conference in Salonica. In this publication many researchers such as doctors, pharmacists, historians and scholars present their works about the obstetrics and gynecology from the antiquity since our days. As Mr. Mandalenakis, professor of the Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Aristotle University of Salonica stressed, Hippocrates and the ancient Greeks in general are still impress us with their knowledge. As the researcher Mr. Klidaras points in his work, Hippocrates used the aforementioned 147 herbs in many ways (in order to prepare drugs as vaginal suppositories, in order to prepare ointments, in order to create decoctions, etc.) and confronted serious problems such as vulvitis and metrorrhagia among others. Hippocrates touched upon the Obstetrics and Gynecology. He studied in depth the woman nature and he described perfectly the feminine anatomy making a clear distinction between the men and the women nature. Indeed, he always blamed to those doctors who treated men and women with the same way and methodology. By plumbing the benefits coming from the use of medicines and the dangers arising from its side effects, Hippocrates warned the doctors of his time about the use of any drug and always condemned the excessive use of drugs. From Greekproducts.com Classic Newsletter#32, December 2002

GREEK ORGANIC PRODUCTS AND DIO HAVE BEEN ACCREDITED IN THE US AND CANADIAN MARKET. (Greek Products News Category) November 2002: The gates of the American and Canadian markets are now open for the Greek organic products following the accreditation in the US and Canada of DIO, a Greek organization responsible for the certification of the organic Greek products. The accreditation of DIO took place 21st October 2002 in the US and 14th November 2002 in Canada. With DIO's accreditation the two countries welcomed the organic Greek products and that means that the perspectives for the exports of these products to the aforementioned markets are very promising. It is worth to point out that for the time being, only 3 similar European organizations have been accredited in Canada and only 8 in the US. After the accreditation of DIO it is expected that the demand for organic Greek products and especially for traditional products such as olive oil, olives, wine and cheese will increase dramatically. http://greekproducts.com