UK company designs injectable bone

A company in the UK, named RegenTec, has developed a new “injectable bone” that can quickly seal bone fractures and aid in quick healing. They inject the white “proprietary” substance into the break site, and the body’s temperature causes the substance to solidify into a “living bone”-like material.

Injectable Bone isn’t the only bone glue out there. Others exist, although they have some problems. In some cases they harden in a solid mass or raise body temperature at the injection site enough to damage nearby tissue.

Injectable Bone could actually encourage bone growth, when bone-producing cells and growth-encouraging drugs are mixed in with the powder mixture. The cells fill up the holes with natural bone as the Injectable Bone degrades into lactic acid, a compound produced naturally by the body.

Full story from Discovery News

Delicious genetically altered corn disturbs mouse immune systems

The amount of GM corn that the mice ingested was almost their entire diet for 30-90 days, but it is still an important reminder that gene modification in living things is a tricky road. More attention needs to be given to sustainibility before we jump straight to remaking corn.

The researchers said that the study’s findings underscore the importance of considering the gut and peripheral immune response to GM crop ingestion as well as the age of the consumer when evaluating GM crop safety.

A press release issued by the Institute of Science in Society stated, “It is clear that genetic modification is inherently hazardous, as it invariably results in unpredictable and uncontrollable changes in the genome and the epigenome (pattern of gene expression) that impact on safety.”

Original Story | via extinguish

Cannabis Could Prevent Memory Loss and Alzheimer's

More news  on the medical cannabis front: recent studies have shown cannabis to prevent Alzheimer’s and prevent improve memory retention in small doses.

When given a compound similar to THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, rat brains displayed reduced levels of inflammation associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The drug also stimulated the production of proteins associated with memory formation and brain cell growth.
…
Marchalant and fellow OSU psychologist Gary Wenk previously showed that marijuana can improve memory formation in rats. The latest research, presented at this week’s Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, provides a detailed look at THC’s effect on the brain.

via Technoccult | Wired story | The Daily Mail

American College of Physicians push for rescheduling of Cannabis

Purple Kush from jimmyjoints

A large and respected association of physicians is calling on the federal government to ease its strict ban on marijuana as medicine and hasten research into the drug’s therapeutic uses. [...]In a 13-page position paper approved by the college’s governing board of regents and posted Thursday on the group’s website, the group calls on the government to drop marijuana from Schedule I, a classification it shares with illegal drugs such as heroin and LSD that are considered to have no medicinal value and a high likelihood of abuse. Link

The ACP is the largest medical-specialty organization with over 124,000 members. It’s very good to see an organization like this supporting the rescheduling of cannabis. The closer we get to accepting the truth of the matter – that cannabis is not harmful. The only harm imposed by smoking ‘reefer’ is the harm that the government causes by prohibiting US citizens from deciding what to ingest.

Even federal judge Francis Young ruled:

…Marijuana’s therapeutic ratio, like its LD-50, is impossible to quantify because it is so high.

In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For example, eating ten raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death.

Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.

White House Rejects Cannabis Research and Promotes More Propaganda

The White House Drug Policy blog just released an article about recent medical research from the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand (MRINZ). The institute has just concluded a study where they found that one joint a day apparently causes more cancer than a pack of cigarettes a day.

The lung cancer study was conducted on 79 patients in New Zealand. The risk of the disease rose 8% for each year of smoking one joint a day, and 7% for each year of smoking a packet of cigarettes a day.

Researchers at the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand admitted it was a small study, but said nonetheless “it shows clearly that long-term cannabis smoking increases lung cancer risk”. (emphasis added)

The funny thing about it is that this is a direct contradiction to a larger, more through study conducted a few years ago.Dr. Donald Tashkin of UCLA and his research team concluded:

The new findings “were against our expectations,” said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.

“We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,” he said. “What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.”

And this is coming from the largest case-control study ever done, involving over 2,000 people. Not only that, but in the original study, the difference in risk was 1%! Another thing I found very interesting was where the MRINZ gets its money from. Well, a quick check of their Project Grants page gives away some very interesting names.

AstraZeneca – major pharmacuetical company and makers of controversial drug, Seroquel
GlaxoSmithKline – major pharmacuetical company, makers of the very dangerous Paxil, and well-known industry bullies
Novartis – huge pharmacuetical company, makers of Ritalin and Trileptal, and previous owners of Gerber (?)

Yeah – so now this whole deal makes sense.

(via Drug WarRant)

Update: Found some more interesting details on this study. Turns out that it was even less important than I thought. The amount of people that they list in the MRINZ study is 79. But that was the entire group.

Cannabis smoking was not associated with a significantly increased risk of lung cancer [except for] those with the highest tertile of use.

The tertile group? 14 people and 4 controls. That’s insane – that’s not a study, that’s a flawed inference.

The Origin of AIDS

Interesting documentary examining a key question – what is the origin of this deadly virus? Their conclusion is a very interesting one that needs to be examined.

The Origin of AIDS: Part 1

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

The $20,000 Medical Marijuana Challenge

The Marijuana Policy Project, the largest marijuana policy reform group in the US, has just doubled the amount of money that they will donate to a presidential campaign for proving that medical marijuana is bunk. The MPP will donate $10,000 (the maximum amount allowable) to a presidential candidate and another $10,000 to a campaign of their choice if any of them can show that medical marijuana is not a viable form of medication.

Methinks this will be a tough one since Federal Judge Francis Young ruled “that the substance marijuana is one of the greatest therapeutic substances on the planet”. Its okay – the candidates won’t even try. They know what they’re saying is bollux, and we know what they’re saying is bollux. This is what happens when you own too much stock in Big Pharmaceuticals.

Cancer and Alzheimers Breakthroughs

I just saw this article today about a compound that reversed the effects of Alzheimers within minutes:

“It is unprecedented that we can see cognitive and behavioral improvement in a patient with established dementia within minutes of therapeutic intervention,” said Griffin. “It is imperative that the medical and scientific communities immediately undertake to further investigate and characterize the physiologic mechanisms involved. This gives all of us in Alzheimer’s research a tremendous new clue about new avenues of research, which is so exciting and so needed in the field of Alzheimer’s. Even though this report predominantly discusses a single patient, it is of significant scientific interest because of the potential insight it may give into the processes involved in the brain dysfunction of Alzheimer’s.”

While the article discusses one patient, many other patients with mild to severe Alzheimer’s received the treatment and all have shown sustained and marked improvement. Link

At the same time, strides are being taken in the fight to cure cancer.

A Brazilian berry popular in health food contains antioxidants that destroyed cultured human cancer cells in a recent University of Florida study, one of the first to investigate the fruit’s purported benefits.

Published today in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, the study showed extracts from acai (ah-SAH’-ee) berries triggered a self-destruct response in up to 86 percent of leukemia cells tested, said Stephen Talcott, an assistant professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

“Acai berries are already considered one of the richest fruit sources of antioxidants,” Talcott said. “This study was an important step toward learning what people may gain from using beverages, dietary supplements or other products made with the berries.” Link

Very interesting developments. It’s odd to see 2 such improvements in medicine in one day. I can’t see what this leads to. I’ll be following these stories close to see where they end up.

U.S. worst in preventable death ranking

 I’ve noticed that many Americans consider us a ‘civilized’ country. Although civilized we may be, we apparently don’t compare to other countries when it comes to preventable deaths. Researches tracked deaths that could have been prevented by available and timely health care and found that the USA was the worst out of the 19 countries studied.

France, Japan and Australia rated best and the United States worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialized nations, researchers said on Tuesday.

If the U.S. health care system performed as well as those of those top three countries, there would be 101,000 fewer deaths in the United States per year, according to researchers writing in the journal Health Affairs.

Link , via SOTT