evanmorris.com
From the monthly archives: June 2008
I could be in worse shape than I am if I didn’t guzzle the stuff pretty much 24/7:
Coffee could halt multiple sclerosis – Telegraph
Drinking several cups of coffee a day could halt the development of multiple sclerosis, the results of a new study suggest.
Researchers hope that the finding may prove to be relevant for other autoimmune diseases, in which the body uses the weapons of its immune system against itself, such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
“This is an exciting and unexpected finding, and I think it could be important for the study of MS and other diseases,” said Prof Linda Thompson of Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, who reports the find in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In the study, done in collaboration with Dr Jeffrey Mills and Dr Margaret Bynoe of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, along with colleagues in Finland’s University of Turku, researchers followed the progress of mice that normally developed an MS-like condition as a result of being injected with a vaccine that provoked an immune attack that damages nerves..
The scientists discovered that when the rodents consumed the equivalent of six to eight cups of coffee a day, they did not develop the condition. The finding could lead to new ways to prevent and treat MS, said Prof Thompson.
[more at link]
At the very least, this should stimulate the market for miniature Starbucks and teeny-tiny laptops.
Exotic illnesses afflict American poor – Los Angeles Times
Despite plummeting mortality rates for most infectious diseases over the last century, a group of largely overlooked bacterial, viral and parasitic infections is still plaguing the nation’s poor, according to a report released this week.Many of the diseases are typically associated with tropical developing countries but are surprisingly common in poor regions of the United States, according to the analysis, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
On its list of 24 “neglected infections of poverty” are schistosomiasis, a parasitic infection common in Africa; brucellosis, a bacterial infection from unsanitary dairy products; and dengue fever, a viral infection common in tropical Asia and South America.
Many of the diseases have become significant public health problems in the United States. In the Los Angeles area, a pork tapeworm infection called cysticercosis which spreads in crowded, unsanitary conditions, accounts for 10% of seizures resulting in emergency room visits, according to the report. Worm cysts in the brain cause the seizures and can lead to permanent epilepsy.
The 24 diseases afflict at least 300,000 Americans, and possibly millions, according to study author Dr. Peter Hotez, chairman of George Washington University’s department of microbiology, immunology and tropical disease.
“These are right now below everybody’s radar,” Hotez said.
Some of the diseases have been brought from overseas, the report says, but most have long existed in this country. The diseases are largely concentrated in poverty-stricken regions, including Appalachia, inner cities, the Mississippi Delta and the border with Mexico.
Often the result of poor sanitation or inadequate healthcare, they can hinder child development and worker productivity, exacerbating poverty, the study says.
Yet many of the diseases have received little attention, Hotez said. For example, nearly every hospital screens infants for the genetic disease phenylketonuria, but only two states require screening for toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection passed from mother to child at birth. Both diseases cause mental retardation. Toxoplasmosis affects 10 times as many newborns as phenylketonuria does, but toxoplasmosis is mostly limited to inner cities and poor Southern areas.
[more at link]
Why Do They Hate Me? – Uncle Orson Reviews Everything
I’m getting used to this, though. As soon as I really like something, the powers-that-be invariably get rid of it.
That’s why 3M stopped making “Scrunge,” the only really good dish-scrubbing sponge, so it’s now almost impossible to find — because my family is so devoted to it that we can’t use anything else to handwash dishes. When we run out of our current hoard, I supposed we’ll have to resort to scrubbing our dishes the way the pioneers did — with handfuls of sand.
So that’s it, then. That’s what happened to my beloved Scrunges, for which I have been scouring every supermarket and big box store within 50 miles for months.
Why does WordPress think “withing” is a perfectly cromulent spelling? Never mind.
Anyway, I’m talking about the soft, pliable yellow dishwashing Scrunges with the green scrubber, not the fugly thick “utility” sponge scrubbers produced by O Cedar, which apparently snapped up the “Scrunge” brand name. I have been washing dishes with the good Scrunges for 20 years and I want them back. I had hoarded a half-dozen or so a few years ago when they began to be hard to find (I guess they had, in fact, been discontinued at that point), but they’re all gone now and I’m stuck with some flimsy no-name crap sponge that won’t last the week.
It occurs to me that a hunger strike may be in order. It would, at least, cut down on the number of dishes to wash.
today’s moodcat
