Nanotechnology causes brain damage (Houston Chronicle)
Daily Archives: 27 Sep 04
Merck Obtains Rights to Drug That Tells the Body It’s Full
“Merck & Company has obtained rights to license an experimental drug to treat obesity that has generated scientific interest because it is based on a hormone used by the body to signal that it has eaten enough…
The drug is now in the earliest stages of clinical trials, meaning that, if found to be effective, it would probably take several years to become available to consumers.
The spray incorporates… a hormone made by the small intestine that is sent to the brain to signal satiety. There is some evidence that obese people make less of this hormone than leaner people, suggesting that their brains might be receiving only a weak signal to stop eating.” (New York Times)
I realize that the burgeoning science of obesity and weight reduction is a complicated and active field, and I do not presume to understand the intricacies of the regulatory mechanisms governing appetite and body weight, which become more complex the deeper we dig. However, if this is all that this hormone, and this drug, do, I am dubious about the role they will play in significant weight loss. Signalling satiety to the brain all you want is not going to stop most people from overeating, which is more influenced by cultural mores and psychological habits. When the average MacDonald’s customer super-sizes their order every time they patronize the place, is it because their body isn’t telling them it is full or because they are ignoring the signals that they are already receiving? People eat for comfort or pleasure far beyond the satiety point.
Any Undecided Voters Left in Florida? Above the Waterline?
Here is a connection that ought to be made. As newsgawkers throughout the country watch the only issue that has recently displaced campaign derring-do from the lead spot — Florida devastated by four successive violent hurricanes — I am surprised Kerry is not making more of an issue of the association between global warming and hurricanes.
“The strongest hurricanes in the present climate may be upstaged by even more intense hurricanes over the next century as the earth’s climate is warmed by increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Most hurricanes do not reach their maximum potential intensity before weakening over land or cooler ocean regions. However, those storms that do approach their upper-limit intensity are expected to be slightly stronger — and have more rainfall — in the warmer climate due to the higher sea surface temperatures.” (NOAA )
Let us not forget what an utter disaster the Bush misadministration has been for protection of the environment. While issues like his torpedoing of the prospects for the Kyoto Accords are abstruse to the average voter, they understand roofs being ripped off of their neighbors’ homes.
We’re Being Scared to Death
“I wonder whether the politicians who are using fear to get themselves elected would stop if they knew the harm they may be doing to people’s health. Real physical harm. Making people sick. Perhaps even killing them. Not intentionally, of course, or knowingly. But this kind of ‘be afraid’ message does more than encourage people to think that you are the candidate who will make them safe. It creates stress and may be at least as much of a threat to public health as terrorism itself.” — David Ropeik, director of risk communication at Harvard University’s Center for Risk Analysis (LA Times op-ed)
Still Seeking a Fair Florida Vote
“After the debacle in Florida four years ago, former president Gerald Ford and I were asked to lead a blue-ribbon commission to recommend changes in the American electoral process. After months of concerted effort by a dedicated and bipartisan group of experts, we presented unanimous recommendations to the president and Congress. The government responded with the Help America Vote Act of October 2002. Unfortunately, however, many of the act’s key provisions have not been implemented because of inadequate funding or political disputes.
The disturbing fact is that a repetition of the problems of 2000 now seems likely, even as many other nations are conducting elections that are internationally certified to be transparent, honest and fair.” — Jimmy Carter (Washington Post op-ed)
Warning: nicotine seriously improves health
“Nicotine is known to switch on receptors on the surface of cells in certain parts of the brain, causing these neurones to release the neuro-transmitter dopamine, a chemical that is associated with feelings of pleasure. This effect leads to a person’s addiction.
More than 50 per cent of people suffering from clinical depression smoke, while the figure rises to 95 per cent for schizophrenics. But smoking among the general public has dropped to about 25 per cent. ‘The assumption is that people with psychiatric conditions are self-medicating,’ said McGehee. ‘They are smoking because the nicotine in particularly helpful in alleviating their condition.'” (Guardian.UK)
