Breakthroughs Today

  (Source: Penzit, 2015) UNITED KINGDOM As of 29 December 2021, the UK Health Security Agency reported the current status of its Omicron cases under emergency care. The lowest emergency admission rate is among those who received one dose of vaccine up to 21 days before specimen date: 0.1%. However, the overall rate for vaccinated individuals was very high at 72.5%. The unvaccinated emergency admission rate was 25.3%. (Source: SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern and Variants under Investigation in England , 31 December 2021, page 8)

  Because of the unverified safety of all Covid-19 vaccines available today, there is a need to balance the great optimism in most reports with the stark facts of reported adverse effects and current levels of acceptance among citizens in different countries. By definition, vaccination protects the person from targeted viruses by initiating immune response using non-virulent materials from the target virus. Consequently, if infection occurs, the person should have already developed antibodies and immune elements that destroy the invading viruses.  That is the expectation on any vaccine. A vaccine that does not protect against the target virus is not an effective vaccine. A vaccine that does not reliably protect is not a reliable vaccine. (All information in this article may not be updated quickly. However, at the time of writing, these facts can be verified in news reports from reliable sources.) ENGLAND Christian Yates (University of Bath) reported in Scitech Daily that withi...

“WHEN you can stop you don’t want to, and when you want to stop, you can’t,” described Luke Davies in Candy on how addiction feels like. It may be surprising, or even unbelievable, but the overall addiction potential for cannabis has been found less than for caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, cocaine or heroin. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), considers cannabis use disorder (CUD) as a condition requiring treatment. As of 2012, no medication has proven effective for treating CUD. The US Food and Drug Administration approved no medication for it. Unlike opiate or alcohol dependence, it has far fewer treatment options. The review of novel medications for CUD, the Balter, Cooper and Haney Review published in Current Addiction Reports (June 2014), noted treatments that had been confirmed ineffective... [ READ MORE ] This article appears on Sun. Star Cebu newspaper on 15 July 2014.

It always pays to read more about food if you are concerned with your own health and well-being. Science and technology have brought us so much we have no means of learning them all. Despite that, the risk of ignorance can be costly in fact even to your life. The mysterious "un-sub" (unknown substance) we cover this week is one of these. OUR mysterious substance (sub) in drinks, particularly soft drinks, has no “satiety impact” despite its “being” a carbohydrate, as mentioned in a previous outing in Breakthroughs. That makes us suspect that this substance is not a natural carbohydrate because carbohydrates by nature fill you up.   The substance is not new to me. I often encountered it in labels but never suspected there is something more to it. The name is as innocent as any other simple sugar I encountered during my med-tech days. When I stumbled upon it in studies I reviewed lately, the study results surprised me. In (food) labels, the substance is cal...

There are health conditions that can be horrible and unnerving as well as helplessly incurable at this time. And Tourette Syndrome is one of them. STARTING May 15, the world will be celebrating Tourette Syndrome Awareness Month. Breakthroughs supports this move with a special discussion of this inherited neuropsychiatric disorder.  Tourette usually starts to manifest in childhood (mostly between ages five and seven) with its characteristic multiple physical tics and at least one vocal tic.  Tics, according to the Leckman study published in Advanced Neurology (2006), are sudden, repetitive, non-rhythmic movements (e.g. throat clearing, eye blinking, and shoulder shrug) and utterances (e.g. involuntary shouting) that involve discrete muscles.  Although considered before as rare, studies through the years noted a prevalence of 0.4 percent to 3.8 percent usually among children ageing five to 18. Most patients experience peak symptoms before their mid-t...

In addition to its popular use as a mildly acidic juice, passion fruit has been found useful in providing both soluble and insoluble fibers to the body, a proven diet that brings down bad cholesterol from the body and consequently protects the person from circulatory diseases later on.  AT TIMES passion is a fruit of love. Although the same is true the other way around.  What I love about passion fruit (Passiflora edulis) though is the sweet citrus taste that is milder compared to regular orange or calamansi. Eating it, however, is another story.  I tried extracting the juice directly in my mouth the way I usually eat poncan oranges, pulp and all except for the seeds.  Yet passion fruit can be unwieldy that way. I ended up feeling less satisfied in relation to the effort I put in getting the juice into my mouth. Thus I decided to proceed the usual way: place sufficient amount of scraped juice-filled seed-sacs into a glass of water, add a small am...

The statistics are unmistakably clear. One out of two adult person you meet along the way has suffered from the itchy affliction, a 2012 study published at the International Journal of Cosmetic Science  found so.  A POPULAR Visayan song may have lyrics like this when it comes to flakes: “Dili tanang hup-ak kan-on; dili tanang kan-on hup-ak” (literally translated as “not all flakes you eat; not all you eat are flakes). Some carbohydrate-laden finger foods are flakes, like the traditional banana or cassava flakes (or chips) we know from childhood. Some so-called “junk foods” have also hit the store shelves as flakes, such as corn flakes. There are certain flakes though that you will not dream of eating, so gross to some even to imagine touching their lips. These flakes are often the itchy ones we call “dandruff.” Dandruff flakes or scales are actually dead skin cells that the scalp sheds off regularly and they stay cohesive with each other. Shedding is a normal da...

Through years of research, I came to appreciate the infinite complexity of the human body, its systems, and the varied interactions it performs with substances in nature even those the support its health and survival, including food supplements. And not understanding such interaction can be dangerous to your health. ELEMENTAL copper abounds in nature. Our regular diet may provide 5 mg per day, of which only 20-50 percent gets absorbed into the body, according to the Halfdanarson study in 2008 (published in the European Journal of Haematology).  Dietary copper can be found in whole grain cereals, legumes, oysters, organ meats (particularly liver), cherries, dark chocolate, fruits, green leafy vegetables, nuts, poultry, prunes, and soybeans. This abundance, and its low daily requirement level (copper is only a trace element), make acquired copper deficiency very rare indeed.  Copper is an essential cofactor in many enzymatic reactions vital to the normal function ...

There is much in advertising today that consumers must be wary about. Advertising can be seriously deceptive. And certain advertising outfits will not care on the truth of the message if the pay-off is great. Smoking cessation products today can be as dangerous as advertised. These ads can have believable messages... but with a dangerous twist. “THERE is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact,” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in his short fiction, The Boscombe Valley Mystery .  Apparently, only one of four emerging tobacco products now available in the American market had reached the Philippines. That product is popular as the “e-cigarette.”  An E-cigarette is actually an electronic nicotine delivery system (Ends), a category of products that deliver a vapor of nicotine and flavoring on inhalation. Flavors include a variety of tobacco, fruit and food (e.g. chocolate) flavors. Companies market it as a smoking cessation device and an alternative to cessation. ...

Smoking is one habit that is very hard to break. In fact, it is more than a habit; it is an addiction. And all addictions do not lead to something healthy. Here are some updates on the advances in science and technology at helping smokers stop smoking. THE World No Tobacco Day was held on May 31. The Philippine National No-Smoking Month ended on June 30. However, in the implementation side of Republic Act 9211, otherwise known as the Tobacco Act of 2003, falls on the month of July and has a very special place to remember.  It was on July 1 that the warnings on cigarette packages were placed. It must be located on the bottom portion of one front panel of every tobacco product package, as we see it today. It was also when all cinema and outdoor advertisings were banned as well as all forms of tobacco advertising in mass media. It was also on a July 1 when sponsorship events and activities of tobacco companies were banned.  On the research side, two long-standing ...

There's a "balloon" in us that may exist without us knowing it does. And the outcome can be deadly. ACTRESS Kim Chiu’s mother was laid to rest on June 29 at age 50. Her death though brought to the public’s attention the deadly handiwork of aneurysm.  Aneurism is a localized, blood-filled bulge (balloon-like) in the wall of a blood vessel that usually carries oxygenated blood, called an artery.  What makes it deadly is its location. It commonly occurs in arteries at... [ READ MORE ] This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 10 July 2013.

IT WAS not very long ago—in 1967—that Hungarian scientist Endre Mester invented the first working laser. And its use in medical therapy was born of an accidental observation with mice subjects: The back of shaven mice unexpectedly grew hair after laser was directed on it. And such invigoration of hair (growth) proved much faster than when no laser had been applied.  Today, the use of low-intensity laser treatment (Lilt) found application in the short treatment of pain caused by rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, tendinopathy and chronic joint disorders. Dentist T. Ebrahimi of the Dental Research Center and his colleagues at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences (Iran) wanted to find out how far Lilt can effect healing in the human bones on the basis that it can supply direct stimulative light energy to body cells, stimulating their molecules and atoms.  One advantage is that it cannot cause rapid and significant increase in tissue temperature, making burning ...

WE USED to think that high uric acid levels in the bloodstream pinpointed only towards inflammatory conditions particularly of the joints (gout). Recent development in clinical research uncovered a very clear effect of hyperuricemia in developing Type-2 diabetes mellitus. A team of 12 Chinese researchers, mostly from the Department of Nephrology at the Union Hospital in Wuhan, China, conducted a meta-analysis of existing literature in the association between blood uric acid and Type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is an adult-onset diabetes resulting primarily from the development of insulin resistance or relative insulin-deficiency which results to persistently increased level of sugar (glucose) in the bloodstream. The body can still manufacture insulin but resistance to it has developed so that the body still cannot breakdown free glucose. Overall all, it makes up around 90 percent of cases of diabetes. Long-term complications include... [ READ MORE ] This article appears in...

One thing to be surprised with passion fruit is how supportive it is towards the heart.  MARK DANIELEWSKI wrote in House of Leaves: “Passion has little to do with euphoria and everything to do with patience. It is not about feeling good. It is about endurance… It does not mean to flow with exuberance. It means to suffer.”  June is a favorite month for weddings. It must be a carryover of the ancient belief about Juno, the goddess of marriage and household, from which the name of the month was taken. Thus marrying during the month has been considered good luck. It is a month of passion, so to say.  To Christians, however, passion connotes more endurance than euphoria, much like what Danielewski wrote. Those who have lived long enough can say without uncertainty that issues of the heart is no walk at the park. It can be as serious as medical conditions like hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Recent years, however, uncovered how passion fruit can be good for t...

Sometimes even in nature danger has strange bedfellows. Who will ever suspect that licorice, a useful sugar replacement can be as dangerous as two sticks of cigarettes just because of one or two common active ingredients. THE Greeks called it sweet (glukus) root (rhiza). Taxonomists named it Glycyrrhiza glabra (“sweet root” that is “smooth”). Yet we know it as “liquorice,” or simply “licorice.” Its active principle, glycyrrhizin, is 30 to 50 times sweeter than table sugar.  Thus it is a popular sweetener in candies. In fact, in Great Britain and the United States, licorice candies do exist. Chinese cuisine uses licorice as a culinary spice, often employed to flavor broths and foods simmered in soy sauce. Licorice also flavors soft drinks.  But don’t think of it as some kind of low-calorie sweetener, or sugar replacement because it contains around 100 calories per ounce.  What many of us may not have known is that tobacco products contain 90 percent l...

BUREAU OF PLANT Industry-approved bio-enhanced eggplant, Bt Talong . The eggplant contains genetically engineered bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis , a oil bacteria inserted into the plant to produce insecticidal properties. While largely uncertain yet on harmful effects it can bring to human consumer, the University of the Philippine-Los Banos had been field testing it already in Pangasinan, Laguna and Camarines Sur. It is one of those 62 so-called genetically modified organisms  (GMO) that the Bureau of Plant Indutry had been approving since 2002.[ READ REPORT ]

Here's something you need to be aware of to avoid getting frequent bouts of dyspepsia.  WHEN you repeat or hear repeatedly a difficult word often enough you get to know it by heart. That’s the case with the word dyspepsia. The Greek root dys means “painful” (remember, "painful menstruation" in dysmenorrhea); while pepsia or pepsis means “to digest.” Together, and literally, dyspepsia means “painful digestion.” We know its simple equivalent better: indigestion (in Cebuano, we say “wa kahilisi”).  Clinically, dyspepsia is that vague feeling of discomfort (of heat, burning or pain; or of fullness that is bothersome) in the upper belly or abdomen during or right after eating.  There are many triggers to dyspepsia. And if you often get this condition, you must avoid getting exposed to the following risks... [ READ MORE ] This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 22 May 2013, and reprinted on 28 May 2013.

I GUESS the most painful experience a person can have upon waking up is to have muscle cramps.  The condition consists of a sudden but involuntary contraction of a muscle or part of it that is painful as well as self-extinguishing (or self-limiting), with a palpable knotting of the muscle accompanying it.  But the condition is normal. There is nothing serious enough to worry about other than the excruciating pain as it progresses and the usual difficulty at walking for a day or two after the event. Healthy individuals experience it. It can occur at night (benign nocturnal cramp) or in the morning just before waking up. It can also happen during strenuous activities, usually during physical exercise Long periods of exercise or physical labor, particularly in hot weather, may cause muscle cramps.  Muscle cramps, however, can appear in disease conditions, such as... [ READ MORE ] This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 15 May 2013.

Sometimes we get so excited with vitamineral pills we forget that our body too is capable of synthesizing these vitamins. Guess which vitamin or mineral is that? TO PARAPHRASE a Yiddish proverb: “Even a dog without teeth attacks a bone.” It seems nature has something against the bone eventually, hasn’t it? The United States Institute of Medicine set the daily recommended intake of calcium for people aging 19 to 50 years at 1,000 milligrams (one gram). Studies in the past agreed that at the age of 30 bones in the body start depleting itself, and in order for the person to make up for these loss enough dose of dietary calcium must be taken in. The question is: Do we take calcium alone? Or, should we take it with vitamin D? Professor of orthopedics at the University Of Rochester Medical Center in New York J. Edward Puzas MD, according to Gina Shaw of WebMD, believed that consuming vitamin D with calcium “doesn’t hurt you, but it’s not particularly beneficial, either.” The medi...

Did God document in the Passion flower the Passion of His own Son as a witness to the redemption of mankind? We may never know. But God did create the flower to aid among us who are suffering from some specific diseases.   SCIENTISTS named it Passiflora, a genus of flower vines that contains 400 species; mostly vines, some shrubs and a few herbs. And some of these species have known medicinal properties.  The history in the naming of Passiflora is part of the Christian missionary history.  Spanish Catholic missionaries discovered the passion flower in South America between the 15th and 16th centuries. The missionary priests found its physical structures uniquely consistent with certain facts in the Passion of Christ, especially his crucifixion.  Its three stigmas represent the three nails in Jesus’ hands and feet. Its flower threads resemble the crown of thorns. The vine’s anthers look much like the five wounds. The 10 petals and sepals represent the...