Breakthroughs Today

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 10 ordinary Apostl

There is one good way ensure that eating sweet orange will not cause stomach hyperacidity. And there is one reason more...   ONLY recently did I learn that my mother had been wondering why each time she saw me eating sweet oranges, I ate the whole segment—juice and all—instead of extracting just the juice alone and throwing away the pulp with the peel.   The reason why I do that is a fruit of observation (pun intended). I noticed that the flesh is somewhat alkaline in the presence of its bitter taste, compared to the acidic (sharp) taste of the juice. While of better composition than synthetic juice, fresh raw juice can still stimulate unwanted reactions in the stomach of those who are sensitive to it. And for many years I have avoided eating sweet oranges for that reason. Of course that’s before I noticed the alkaline character of the orange flesh.   Recently I read three studies from early 2000s (2004, 2005 and 2007) revealing that there is more to eating citrus flesh

ONE of the few important sideshows in the final days of the Lord before His Passion was the death of Judas Iscariot. He was a man who had chosen life when he followed the Master and later chose a tragic way of escaping the demands of his conscience.   Science, including health science, however, has no definition of the term “conscience.” Psychoanalysis equates it with the superego, the evaluator of the ego (segment of personality that reality dominates) against an ideal standard.   Mental health sciences do have an equivalent of the phrase: “disturbed conscience.”   And that is guilt, a remorseful awareness of having done something wrong, or violated a moral standard. Psychoanalysis describes it as a feeling of tension between the ego and the superego. A healthy dose of guilt is good. It... [ READ MORE ] This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 17 April 2013.