Lifeboat Foundation

I Believe it is the Sun-damaged parts of the body that cause the so-termed hives of Niacin. I knew this without seeing data on such I when taking my Niacin {even very small doses as I take averaging about 75 mg every other day} causes a disturbance in my eyes.

In a first-of-its-kind clinical report, retina specialists at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (NYEE) have shown that severe vision loss from a self-prescribed high dose of over-the-counter niacin is linked to injury of a specific cell type in a patient’s eye. The experts report that discontinuing the vitamin led to reversal of the condition and have published their findings in the fall issue of Journal of VitreoRetinal Diseases.

Niacin, also known as vitamin B3, is used for lowering hyperlipidemia or cholesterol and comes in prescription and over-the-counter forms; it can produce a rare toxic reaction called niacin-induced cystoid maculopathy, a form of retinal swelling.

Continue reading “Severe Vision Loss From Niacin (Vitamin B3) Can Be Reversed” »

• Article
• Open Access
• Published: 31 October 2019

Photo shows how the new nanomaterial can be used to treat liver cancer in mice. Experimental results prove that the material is efficient and safe in fighting tumors.(Photo provided to Xinhua)

Chinese scientists have invented a nanomaterial which has been proved effective in fighting liver tumors, providing new hope for cancer patients.

NANJING, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) — Chinese scientists have developed a nanometer material that can be used for liver cancer treatment, according to the Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences Wednesday.

Technology could nearly double writing speed for “locked-in” individuals.

Researchers from Russian corporation Neurobotics and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology have found a way to visualize a person’s brain activity as actual images mimicking what they observe in real time. This will enable new post-stroke rehabilitation devices controlled by brain signals. The team published its research as a preprint on bioRxiv and posted a video online showing their “mind-reading” system at work.

To develop devices controlled by the brain and methods for cognitive disorder treatment and post-stroke rehabilitation, neurobiologists need to understand how the brain encodes information. A key aspect of this is studying the brain activity of people perceiving visual information, for example, while watching a video.

Continue reading “Neural network reconstructs human thoughts from brain waves in real time” »

Read more

Humans’ guts are a dangerous place.

Bacteria living in people’s intestines pump out toxins to deter microbial intruders. But each person’s gut comes with its own set of toxins—an individualized “passcode” microbes must solve to survive, scientists report October 30, 2019, in the journal Nature.

The findings suggest that there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach to probiotics or live biotherapeutics, the microbial supplements that promote the growth of healthy bacteria, says study coauthor Joseph Mougous, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator at the University of Washington (UW). His team’s work is an early step toward figuring out how scientists might instead tailor beneficial microbes to different people.

At the University of Copenhagen, researchers have discovered how some types of proteins stabilize damaged DNA and thereby preserve DNA function and integrity. This new finding also explains why people with inborn or acquired defects in certain proteins cannot keep their DNA stable and develop diseases such as cancer.

Every day, the body’s cells divide millions of times, and the maintenance of their identity requires that a mother cell passes complete genetic information to daughter cells without mistakes.

This is not a small task because our DNA is constantly under attack, both from the environment but also from the cell’s own metabolic activities. As a result, DNA strands can be broken at least once during each cell division cycle and this frequency can increase by certain lifestyles, such as smoking, or in individuals who are born with defects in DNA repair.

Higher serum levels of elaidic acid, an objective biomarker for industrial trans fat, are associated with an increased risk for developing all-cause dementia and Alzheimer disease, according to a study published online Oct. 23 in Neurology.

Takanori Honda, Ph.D., from Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, and colleagues examined the prospective correlation between serum elaidic acid (trans 18:1 n-9) levels and incident dementia in 1,628 Japanese community residents aged 60 years and older without dementia. Participants underwent screening examination in 2002 to 2003 and were followed prospectively to November 2012.

The researchers found that 377 participants developed some type of dementia during follow-up. After adjustment for traditional risk factors, significant correlations were seen for higher serum elaidic acid levels with greater risk for developing all-cause dementia and Alzheimer disease. After adjustment for dietary factors, including total energy intake and intakes of saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, these associations remained significant. There was no significant correlation noted for serum elaidic acid levels and vascular dementia.