Follow the three R's of centenarians: resolution, resourcefulness and resilience. Change your attitude and lifestyle because according to a Swedish study only 20 to 30 percent of your longevity is genetically determined.
Source: Home Care Blog
A University of Maryland study, published in Nature Magazine, has shown that bombarding taste receptors in the lungs of mice with bitter-tasting compounds opened their airways and eased breathing. These taste receptors can be found on the smooth muscle of the lungs and have a different composition from the well-known taste buds in your mouth. The most notable difference is the fact that the taste receptors in the lung do not send signals to the brain however still respond to exposure to bitter compounds. Being on the smooth muscle lining, this discovery could be a breakthrough in asthma medication and treatment which is focused on opening the contracted muscle lining. Lead researcher, Dr. Stephen Liggett believes that an inhaler based on bitter substances such as quinine or saccharine could "replace or enhance" current treatment "more profoundly than any known drug that we have." However, simply eating bitter foods does not yield the same results not prevent people from asthma attacks.
Dr. Yassine Amrani from the University of Leicester was pleased by the study and believes the next step is to reproduce the effect in humans and prevent any unwanted side effects such as inflammation.
The concept of having bitter taste receptors in the smooth muscle of the airways is a new one, and activating this receptor could offer a new way to relax them. -- Dr. Yassine Amrani, University of LeicesterAsthma UK was quick to announce that new drugs based on this research would not hit the market for many years however is very excited by the prospects of the asthma treatments. Leanne Metcalf, the director of research at Asthma UK felt that research into new treatments was "vital" as the millions of current asthmatics still have trouble controlling their symptoms using existing drugs.
The effectiveness of bitter substances at overcoming the airway narrowing that causes asthma symptoms has so far only been tested in mice, however this somewhat surprising approach does make sense in terms of what we already know about the cell signalling processes involved in asthma... with further in-depth research, this approach could potentially pave the way for a new range of asthma treatments based on bitter substances which could either supplement or replace existing asthma treatments but if this were possible, it would be a long way into the future. -- Leanne Metcalf, director of research at Asthma UKSource: BBC Health
October 5, 2010
OTTAWA -- Today Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff detailed his national home care strategy which he calls the "next frontier" of policy after his "number one priority" a national child-care program. Ignatieff argues that the Conservative government is not looking out for the priorities of everyday Canadians. In contrast, Ignatieff is attempting to portray the Liberal party as being in touch with Canadian voters.
"[The] government is spending $1.3-billion on a G8-G20 summit, $16-billion on planes without a competitive bid, triples the publicity budget of the government and is about to give big corporations a $6-billion tax break...When is the government going to pay some attention to the growing needs of Canadian families for home care assistance? When is it going to get its priorities right?”" -- Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff in Question PeriodIn the October 4 Question Period Ignatieff invoked a story about a woman from Montreal that he met who was caring for her two ailing parents at home with little support from the government. Ignatieff roughly estimated that there were three million women in similar situations in Montreal alone.
Eat "good" cholesterol also known as HDL cholesterol. A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology analyzed 24 studies of 145,000 people and found that those with higher levels of HDL cholesterol had significantly lower rates of incidence for cancer. One theory is that HDL cholesterol possesses anti-inflammatory preperties that tame tumors.
Source: Men's Health, October 2010
"In the future, invasive surgery will be viewed as barbaric. Advances in genetics mean we now understand heart disease on a higher plane. That will translate to better preventative treatments." -- John Elefteriades, M.D., Chief of Cardiac Surgery at the Yale School of Medicine.
