Having problems with message search?
This is the Happy Holidays edition of DrRehertsAlerts.
May all of the subscribers of DrRehertsAlerts have a happy (no seasonal depression) and safe (no drinking and driving) holiday season.
Best wishes in the New Year from Sue, Arlesia, April, Jocelyn and Dr. Rehert.
We'll start off with a story that I'm sure will get everybody thinking . . . and nope, this is not science fiction!
Mice created with human brain cells
By Paul Elias, Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - Add another creation to the strange scientific menagerie where animal species are being mixed together in ever more exotic combinations.
Scientists announced Monday that they had created mice with small amounts of human brain cells in an effort to make realistic models of neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Led by Fred Gage of the Salk Institute, researchers created the mice by injecting about 100,000 human embryonic stem cells per mouse into the brains of 14-day-old rodent embryos.
Those mice were each born with about 0.1% of human cells in each of their heads, a trace amount that doesn't remotely come close to "humanizing" the rodents. Still, the work adds to the growing ethical concerns of mixing human and animal cells when it comes to stem cell and cloning research. After all, mice are 97.5% genetically identical to humans.
"The worry is if you humanize them too much you cross certain boundaries," said David Magnus, director of the Stanford Medical Center for Biomedical Ethics. "But I don't think this research comes even close to that." Researchers are nevertheless beginning to bump up against what bioethicists call the "yuck factor."
Click Here For The Complete Story=>
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/genetics/2005-12-12-mice-human-brains_x.htm?csp=34
If you ever heard that having an abortion causes depression, here's some new research . . .
Abortion cuts risk of later blues
Clara Pirani, Medical reporter
October 29, 2005
October 29, 2005
Proceeding with an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy is more likely to cause depression than having an abortion, a controversial new study has found. Researchers questioned 1247 women who aborted or delivered an unwanted first pregnancy between 1970 and 1992.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal, found that going ahead with an unwanted pregnancy was more likely to lead to depression.
"We conclude that, under present conditions of legal access to abortion, there is no credible evidence that choosing to terminate an unwanted first pregnancy puts women at higher risk of subsequent depression than does choosing to deliver an unwanted first pregnancy," said Nancy Russo and Sarah Schmiege from Arizona State University's department of psychology.
Click Here For The Complete Story=>
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/114/111286Here's an interesting study that might give us all clues to successful dieting. "When it comes to food, out of sight is out of mind."
Candy jar psychology
October 21, 2005
VANCOUVER -- Scientists studying candy-jar psychology have confirmed what most of us know instinctively: Out of sight is out of mind.
Secretaries who were given Hershey kisses for Secretary's Week ate more of them when the jars were clear or on their desks than when the chocolates were in opaque containers or placed a short distance away.
Wansink and his colleagues gave 40 university secretaries 30 chocolate kisses in either a clear or an opaque candy jar placed on their desks or about six feet away. The dish was refilled each night, and researchers counted how many candies were eaten over the next four weeks.
Secretaries ate an average of 7.7 kisses each day when the candies were in clear containers on their desks; 4.6 when in opaque jars on the desk; 5.6 when in clear jars six feet away; and 3.1 when in opaque jars six feet away.
"Here's the golden lining: If we move food away from us, even six feet, we eat less and we overestimate how much we have eaten," the researchers concluded.
Click Here For The Complete Story=>
http://torontosun.com/Lifestyle/2005/10/21/1272116-sun.htmlAnd finally, one of the more recent stories on hormones. More and more people are again beginning to grasp that the benefits of hormone therapy far outweigh the risks in the appropriate population.
Conflicting research debates cardiac benefits of estrogen therapy
By Shari Roan
Los Angeles Times
November 7, 2005
Los Angeles Times
November 7, 2005
Richard White toiled in his laboratory at the Medical College of Georgia for eight years trying to understand how estrogen helped prevent heart attacks and stroke. His studies looked promising; estrogen seemed to prime the female cardiovascular system to prevent clotting and relax blood vessels.
So when the massive Women's Health Initiative results were released three years ago -- finding that estrogen therapy in older postmenopausal women seemed to cause more heart attacks and strokes -- White was dumbfounded.
"It just didn't make any sense," says the pharmacologist. "But you can't doubt it; the information was right there. So we started to try to figure out why this same hormone could produce two different effects."
He went back to the drawing board, and so have a lot of other researchers.
A growing number of doctors are trying to reconcile the Women's Health Initiative's negative findings with other research suggesting estrogen therapy can't be that bad.
These doctors say hormone replacement therapy may still be a valuable option for some younger women. They also say the recommendations emerging from the Women's Health Initiative -- that hormone therapy should be used only in a low dose for the shortest time possible by women who need it the most -- may be needlessly restrictive.
"We used to think hormone replacement therapy should be taken by everyone," says Dr. Hugh S. Taylor, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine. "Now the pendulum has swung too far the other way."
A growing number of doctors now say the WHI study provides an incomplete picture because the average age of the participants was 63. If hormones are taken around the time of menopause -- age 51 on average -- they might protect women from heart attacks, stroke, and possibly even dementia, these experts say.
Click Here For The Complete Story=>
http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/health_and_fitness/article/0,1426,MCA_522_4217331,00.htmlThe above is not meant to be medical advice. Please read the attached Disclaimer, Etc.
If you know anyone you think would like to receive "DrRehertsAlerts," CLICK HERE to send me their email address and I'll add them to the list.
Best wishes, Dr. Rehert
Offline 
Send Email