Breakthroughs Today

Despite, or perhaps because of, science mankind is now starting to gets left behind by microorganisms in this continuing war for survival. Recently the microscopic creatures apparently start to get the upper hand. Something that humans must be alarmed about.  THIS week’s article is some kind of a heads up for our Breakthroughs readers. Certain diseases lately have been reported to be getting untreatable as the scourge of antibiotic drug resistance hits hospitals abroad. In her report early this year in the Scientific American, Christine Gorman noted that health investigators “started seeing cases of infection that did not easily respond to treatment with a group of drugs called cephalosporins.” Cephalosporins are the current last line of defense against gonorrheal infection. The Feb. 9 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reported that US doctors believed that gonorrheal infection, that the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhea cause, may soon become untreatable. And

I have seen a person with low potassium level makes him impossible to stand up and move around. And I don't want to watch another human being get a heart attack for excessive potassium in his blood. Balance is always a wisdom many of us don't want to hear about. ONE of the recommended nutrients for stroke prevention that need to be increased in diet is potassium. It is an electrolyte that is very important in the human body. Potassium helps regulate the balance between acid and base chemicals in the body fluids, necessary for the building of muscles (thus, for normal body growth, and in relation to stroke, it is essential for the normal electrical activity of the heart. And being a factor in electrolyte balance inside the body, its level in blood is very critical. Having too much (hyperkalemia) or too little (hypokalemia) potassium can have very serious consequences to your health. The good thing is, so many foods around us contain potassium. These are... [ R

One of the most dangerous super-bug today is Pseudomonas aeruginosa. And like any superbug available antibiotics today fails to work against its new strains. Knowing these bacteria allows you to be more careful in environments or places where these troublemakers about, and statistically infects people. [Photo: multidrug -resistant strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa ] THE bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) normally resides in soil, water, skin flora, and man-made environments. It can be found regularly on the surfaces of plants, and occasionally, of animals. It is one of the most vigorous, fast-swimming bacteria seen in hay infusions and pond water samples. It is a stranger to the internal parts of the human body, though. Characteristically PA needs minimal nutrition. It is even often observed growing in distilled water. It grows optimally at room temperature. And it has predilection to grow in moist environments, thriving on biofilms. Still it is opportunistic. It expl

Working at low energy levels make for grueling hours at work. More of the remaining energy are used in keeping the eyes open than on doing the work an employee is paid to do. A wise approach to diet and use of work-time can make wonders in keeping that energy level, and consequently one's productivity, on high marks. IT IS rare for an office worker not to find himself or herself fighting the call to sleep while in the middle of a heap of paperwork. This usually occurs in the early afternoon when the morning meal has been exhausted, and the body still has to digest its lunch. In fact, too much lunch can draw much of a person’s blood circulation in the stomach, leaving only enough for the brain to function with less. That makes thinking a bit laborious, and hounded by sleep. Scientific studies however make some progress in helping you overcome these calls to slumber. A study conducted in the Louisiana State University (published in Computers and Industrial Engineer