Breakthroughs Today

A lot of advancements in diagnostic technology have visited our century. These new means of diagnoses have brought hope particularly to poor communities where neglected tropical diseases run amok, ignored both by the health authorities tasked by the people to protect them and the profit-oriented pharmaceuticals whose manufacturing capabilities generation of effective drugs against these disease are highly dependent. Neurocystercosis is merely one of these many neglected diseases.   WHAT happened to Cebu City Traffic Operations Management chief Sylvan “Jack” Jakosalem can be one of those few things in our lives that is a choice away, and the impact changes its direction completely.   Neurocystercosis (NCC), an infection of the central nervous system (CNS), which arises from unwittingly ingesting uncooked food that is contaminated with the larvae of tapeworm Taenia solium, can cause irreparable damage to the CNS part involved. The CNS is composed of the brain, spinal cord, and

ON JANUARY 2006, France became sole user of BCG vaccine Statens Serum Institut (SSI) for tuberculosis vaccination. Not long after, rapid increase in cases of adverse reactions (ADRs) came up; such as abscesses (in 73 percent of patients treated), around 30 percent had local reactions (lymphadenopathy of above one cm in size), while 20 patients developed suppurative lymphadenopathy.   Christelle Chol, leader of those who followed the patients for two years, found that the ADRs became consistent a year after their appearance or detection. They published their findings at the Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety (Dec 5).   BCG vaccine—or Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (named after its discoverers)—contains weakened but alive strain of Mycobacterium bovis (a strain found in pigs). Because the bacteria can still stimulate reaction from a person’s immune system (without causing disease), it prepares the body to combat and destroy tuberculosis bacteria upon exposure. Studies in 1994 to 1

  We have come to know very well the drug Phenylpropanolamine as it is a popular medication that doctors give for decongested noses. But it has a history that most people do not know, a history that supposedly have been improved but never known publicly.   SCIENTIFIC studies in 1988, 1999 and 2000 agreed that there is a risk for hemorrhagic stroke among women who used phenylpropanolamine (PPA).   The 1999 study came from the Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut). And the one in 2000 was conducted by a team that WN Kernan led and published in the December 2000 issue of the North England Journal of Medicine, a publication of the Massachusetts Medical Society. The 1988 study was a psychiatric review of 37 cases published in North America and Europe since 1960. In this study that the Lake-Masson-Quirk team published in Pharmacopsychiatry (July 1988), it was noted that ingestion of phenylpropanolamine had resulted in diagnosed cases of acute mania, paranoid schizophrenia and

FILIPINO MOLECULAR biology student Jann Adriel Sy (24) of the University of the Philippines-Diliman noticed the inadequacy in the standard dose policy currently employed by doctors in ensuring a normal metabolic response in a person in the metabolism of medications due to differences in genetic structure, such as the mutation in the protein-coding section of enzymes critical to drug metabolism.   The study has positive implications in bringing down cases of adverse effects from drugs. A person with slow metabolism for paracetamol, for example, can suffer toxic side effects, or even death, from the unmetabolized portions of a 500-mg dose.   The study was performed at the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at UP Diliman. It won for Sy the 2013 BPI-DOST Best Project of the Year Award.   Source: Donna Pazzibugan: "Research on personalized medicine dosages based on genetics proclaimed best thesis," Philippine Daily Inquirer 28 January 2013 [

Anticipation had been cited as capable of increasing appetite. But even with anticipation no appetite may increase when the third type of fiber called resistant starch is added into your meal. Although we have left out the benefits of resistant starch in our previous article because of spatial constraints, this week will disclose what so far medical researchers has found out.     “IF YOU cannot bite, do not show your teeth,” Jennifer Roberson advised in her Highlander book, Scotland the Brave (1996). Biting is one thing; throwing off the bad that comes with the biting is another.   We covered the resistant starch in a previous article but have to leave off on its health benefits.   First, the Anderson study in 2010 found out that resistant starch can specifically protect against colorectal cancer. It has also been found to reduce the intestinal crypt length so that after an average of 29 months of intake developing cancer cells in the gastrointestinal tract, even those

It is a third type, not a third gender or a third kind in the Spielberg movie tradition. There is a third type of fiber that even a lot of health buffs are not familiar with. WHAT most of us know about dietary fiber is that there are two types: the soluble and the insoluble. Soluble fibers dissolve in water to form a gel-like material, which help lower blood cholesterol and glucose levels.   Insoluble fibers, conversely, do not dissolve in water, making these effective in promoting healthy bowel movement by increasing stool bulking. Being so, these help resolve problems with constipation and irregular bowel movement.   But there’s a third type of dietary fiber that most of us do not know about. These are called... [ READ MORE ]   This article appeared in Sun-Star Cebu newspaper on January 16, 2013.

There is a special bond between a mother and the child that the world of today tends to minimize in a mistaken notion that independence is threatened by the a child's devotion to his mother. Far from the truth. In fact, devotion to our mother enriches our appreciation of true independence--an independence ground by the stability of a mother's love. This week's Breakthroughs article will reveal how much of the mother reaches the being of her child.   CHRISTMAS is not merely about the birth of God’s only Son, but also the emergence of a Mother. We can say that the new year is also all about birth and everything starting anew. This is a relevant thought because even in this age of test tube babies and surrogate parenthood, a child will not see the light without a mother. So wherever the son is, the mother must be there also. In the same manner, whatever the mother has the son will get also.   That’s the essence of the scientific breakthrough we will be on this week.