Treating cancer, one of the most dreaded human diseases, has just taken a very huge step forward as a team of scientists from the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California in Los Angeles completed the first genomic sequencing of a brain cancer cell.

The said findings can greatly help scientists in identifying new molecular targets to be able to manufacture more effective and less dangerous drugs. This can also lead to more personalized treatments for cancer since genomic sequencing is different for individual patients.

The monitoring of brain cancer recurrence is also boosted by this big finding. Genomic sequencing will be able to correctly determine whether cancer cells, in the brain or anywhere, have been completely destroyed or not. This can help doctors better diagnose their patients and avoid overtreatment, especially with anti-cancer drugs that can become harmful and cause long term problems when taken too often.

The research was done by sequencing a glioblastoma cell line named U87, which has been and still is being studied by various laboratories around the world. The underlying principle for using this certain cell line by the UCLA team is mainly because whatever result they may find will benefit not only their research, but also other researches being conducted in other laboratories. The sequencing of U87 can help other researchers in their studies and allow them to reinterpret their own conclusions or even better, move into new research directions with it.

“This is very exciting because we, as scientists, can now move forward with revealing complete cancer genomes,” says Dr. Stan Nelson, the study’s senior author and professor of human genetics at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Gene Expression Shared Resource.

PLoS Genetics, at its online journal, wrote that the study was done using the latest and most advanced technologies. The brain cell sequencing was finished in less than a month and believed to have cost around $35,000.

Nelson further added that cancer cells are bottom line genetic and have acquired mutations that have made it very hard for doctors to solve, even in this advanced age and technology. Since cancer cells can be a subject that is too complicated to study, this genomic sequencing of a brain cancer cell is a very huge advancement in the fight to destroy cancer.

The most common vaginal infection that inflicts women of childbearing age in the United States is Bacterial Vaginosis (BV). The infection occurs when there is a disorder in the normal balance of bacteria in the vagina resulting in an overgrowth of a certain bacteria. Having BV increases a woman’s risk for certain complications such as preterm delivery.

The good news however is that there is a growing interest in understanding how to prevent the infection from spreading. Because Vitamin D influences several aspects of the immune system, it may play a role in BV under the presumption that the infection is far more common in black women than in white women, the reason being that black women tend to have a considerably lower vitamin D status than white women.

Bodnar and coworkers at the University of Pittsburgh and the Magee-Women’s Research Institute studied 469 pregnant women in order to assess whether poor vitamin D status plays a role in the predisposition of BV to women. The outcome of their investigation came out in the June 2009 issue of the Journal of Nutrition.

The study investigated the connection between vitamin D status and BV in 260 black women and in 209 white women less than 16 weeks pregnant. Samples of their blood were taken and markers of vitamin D status were analyzed in their serum. The women went through pelvic examinations and afterwards Gram-stained vaginal smears were assessed to diagnose BV.

The collected data indicates that out of the total number of women enrolled, 41% had BV and out of that percentage, 93% had shown an insufficiency in vitamin D. The occurrence of BV reduced as the concentration of vitamin D in their serums increased. In conclusion, these findings show that there is an association between vitamin D insufficiency and BV in the first trimester of a woman’s gestation.

Via the airwaves and the Internet, more and more American children are being exposed to junk food commercials.

According to a study published by the American Journal of Public Health in November, many of the most popular websites for children carried unhealthy food ads. Correspondingly, the nonprofit Children Now released a report Dec. 14 showing the ubiquity of junk foods alongside many children’s television shows.

In the former, researcher Dr. Lori Dorfman found that advertisements for candies, sodas, fast food, and sugary cereals dominated most children’s websites. From July to August 2007, Dorfman and peers traced the most junk food ads to no less than 28 sites.

These sites advertised 49 products declared by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) as “foods to avoid.” Merely five ads in these sites promoted products favored by the said agency, e.g. milk and fruit juice.

As for the Children Now report, researcher Dale Kunkel also had ruinous statistics.

His report, which was financed by the California Endowment, tracked 139 broadcast and cable TV shows for children between February and April 2009. He eventually found that around 68.5% of the 534 ads that ran with the shows pitched sugary cereals, fast food and sweet snacks—foods branded as “whoa” by the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Whoa” refers to commodities that should only be consumed on occasion. “Go” refers to the opposite, yet Kunkel’s report showed that less than a percent advertised them. Furthermore, 31% of the ads belonged to “slow” foods, or those that should be eaten several times weekly.

Kunkel’s report comes a day before the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention met to propose new standards for the marketing of children’s food. The agencies generally pushed for restrictions of ads for products rich in sugar, sodium, and saturated fat. Their proposals are due to be delivered to Congress in 2010, following a period for public comment.

A new workout called Airopes seems to be gaining some popularity.

Here is a post from Vogue.com about the new exercise that involves a rope with a call on the end in each hand that is whirled above one’s head.

It sounds intriguing. From the article:

Named after the equipment—weighted rubber balls attached to jump-rope handles connected by a short cord—the class allows for a higher-resistance workout minus the whip and coordination issues that often come with jumping rope the old-school way. The sequence includes lots of jumps, lunges, planks, kicks, and squats – all of which participants do while continuing to twirl the ropes, so your body never stops moving.

So far it looks like you can get access to the classes only if you live in New York’s Manhattan and get into Smart Workout, 124 East Fortieth St., Suite 603, NYC, 10016; 212-661-1660.

Television personality Leeza Gibbons announced recently that she would be partnering with Santa Barbara Medical Innovations to benefit the programs offered by the Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation.

Santa Barbara Medical Innovations exclusively distributes the Erchonia’s ZERONA® non-surgical body slimming laser in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The company will serve as a sponsor for Gibbons’ second annual Dare2Care Gala 2010 to spotlight how Hollywood’s biggest stars make a difference. The event will be held on March 7 at Hollywood’s W Hotel will honor the biggest names in TV, music, sports and film to raise awareness and funding for programs that are tailored for the everyday heroes who are family caregivers.

“After losing my mom and my grandmom to Alzheimer’s disease I know the potential of what disease and caregiving can do to families,” said Gibbons. “That’s why I created the Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation and our signature programs called Leeza’s Place.”

“I am always inspired by transformation, and ERCHONIA and SBMI are innovators in offering the tools and technologies for people to change the way they look and the way they feel about themselves,” Leeza continued. “This is an ideal partnership for me because it offers so many opportunities to connect with people about the things that matter most; taking charge of our health, our fitness and our self-esteem. I love telling the stories of life changing results that produce better health and happiness.”

“Our alliance with Leeza Gibbons reflects S.B.M.I.’s mission to provide much more than innovative health and beauty treatments,” said Chip Conk, chief executive officer of Santa Barbara Medical Innovations . “Leeza’s message and example of personal empowerment is complimented by her commitment to bettering people’s lives and we look forward to working closely with her. We are extremely pleased to support the efforts of the Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation in assisting caregivers of those who are suffering from Alzheimer’s and other diseases.”

Myalli.com is a community site set up by drug company GlaxoSmithKline for people who are using alli, a diet drug that GSK has taken great pains in grouping with a healthy lifestyle plan. GSK has emphasized that using alli alone is not enough for successful weight loss; the dieter must also use alli in conjunction with a sensible diet and regular exercise program.

In this spirit, myalli.com recently published a series of tips by Dr. Anne Fletcher, author of Thin for Life. Dr. Fletcher studied 160 people who have successfully kept their weight off after dieting. She developed ten tips to keep weight off permanently.

1. Believe in your success. Keeping faith in yourself is paramount.
2. Be accountable. Take the responsibility of keeping your weight off.
3. Make it your own. Make sure the diet you choose fits into your lifestyle. Don’t buy into fad diets.
4. Eating is essential. You shouldn’t starve yourself. Listen to your body and eat in moderation
5. Be proactive. If you find yourself gaining weight, do something about it. Increase your exercise, keep a food journal, cut back on sugary foods, or any number of things to get back on track
6. Be positive. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Give yourself encouragement with statements such as “I’m in control. I can get back on track” rather than “I’ve blown it.”
7. Keep moving. Regular physical activity is essential. Find something you enjoy doing and mix up your routine to avoid getting bored.
8. When life hands you a lemon, don’t make a pie. Don’t comfort yourself with food during stressful times. Instead of reaching for food when you’re down, talk to friends, write in a journal, or engage in fun activity to help your state of mind.
9. Do something good for yourself. You should reward yourself when you lose weight, but without food. Go out with friends, take a bubble bath, buy a fun gift for yourself.
10. Don’t go solo. Find someone to support you during your diet, such as a close family member or friend. These people will help you through the bad times.

With the alli diet plan, you’re not alone. You can find other inspiring stories of weight loss at myall.com, which has an extensive network of experts, fellow alli dieters, and great articles about how to lose weight. Another crucial part of the alli weight loss diet plan is the alli cookbook, which is chock full of recipes designed around the alli diet plan.

Zerona, a laser technology created by Santa Barbara Medical Innovations, has turned the world of liposuction upside down.

With the Zerona lasers, no incision is needed for the liposuction. The doctor points the laser at the skin on both sides of the body. The Zerona laser than creates a tiny poor in the fat cell’s membrane. This pore allows the contents of the fat cells to seep out of the cell and into the the space between the cells.

The body later gets rid of the fat cells along with the body’s other waste products.

A session with a Zerona laser generally takes 40 minutes (20 minutes for the front of the body and 20 for the back). Santa Barabra Medical Innovations recommends at least six treatments spread in a two week period.

Zerona does not cause any pain or side effects, and patients can go back to their normal lives after each session. The Zerona laser can be directed at the belly, hips, thighs, back, chin, neck and arms.

Dr. Gregory Nikolaidis, a dermatologist in Texa, says patients on average lose three to five pounds after the six sessions Key to the weight loss, Dr. Nikolaidis adds, is that the patient must maintain a healthy lifestyle and diet. Zerona can help melt away fat, but it’s up to the patient to keep it off.

Last year, doctors performed more than 341,000 liposuctions were performed in the U.S. With the zerona laser proving to be effective and far less painful than traditional methods, liposuction will never be the same.

In the United States, many people are getting up-to-date with their electronic devices and are cleaning their homes to make room for the more advanced TV sets and such. However, for the Environmental Protection Agency and activists who are concerned about soil, water and air pollution, careless ditching of old appliance is seen as something that must be hindered, if not stopped entirely.

EPA has made efforts to reduce pollution caused by careless waste management of electronic devices, such as TV sets and PC monitors, to name a few. Also called electronic waste, old appliance such as TVs contribute largely to pollution if not properly disposed of. EPA estimates that there about almost 100 million unused old TV sets sitting idly in millions of American households.

The call to surrender old TV sets to electronic waste recycling events has been quite effective, with many people coming out and lining to hand their decrepit electronic garbage to the EPA.

An old TV can be reduced to usable parts, as there are substantial amounts of cadmium, chromium, barium, and traces of gold and even mercury in the lamps of some flat screens.

For people who still own old types of television sets, EPA suggests that the best way to keep them is to use them. EPA is only after the unused ones to ensure that they are properly discarded and reduced to parts that are harmless to the environment.

TVs that are equipped with cathode-ray tubes, also known as the non-flat screen TVs, must not be disposed in landfills. There are already state-regulated laws that focus on TV disposal. According to Barbara Kyle of the San Francisco-based Electronics TakeBack Coalition, six states have already declared that improper disposal of TV sets is illegal. Five other states are slated to follow in 2010.

In a recycling event held in El Cerrito, California, TV sets were turned over for the recycling process.

The first step is dismantling the plastic case by removing the screws. Sometimes, a few medium taps with hammer is needed to loosen the really old ones. The cords are then taken out and put into a waiting bin. These are stripped of their copper. The fun part, according to the dismantlers, is the breaking of the vacuum seal on the cathode ray tube. Breaking this device is important since an intact cathode ray tube can “go off like a bomb” if it is accidentally dropped.

Using a hammer and an awl, methodical strikes are then made in the hole left in the tube when the air was sucked out of the tube when it was made. This helps fill in the vacuum safely.

Once the tube is broken, five to seven pounds worth of reusable lead can be collected from the funnel of the tube. However, the lead can only be extracted from recycling plants. Along with the funnel, the screens are also sent to the plants where they are melted down for reuse in new cathode-ray tubes.

In contrast, the old school method of dismantling a TV set is toxic not only to the environment but for the dismantlers as well. Recycling plants in Asia, according to the Basel Convention, follow hazardous processes that potentially poison the workers.

Additional Information:

Take Back Coalition’s The Problem with Electronics.

California Department of Toxic Substances Control’s analysis of e-waste.

This USAToday article warns to be very careful when you recycle e-waste.

As with any new medication, a lot of false rumors are flying around about GlaxoSmithKline’s weight loss pill alli. Some people have claimed that alli is responsible for their upset stomach, diarrhea, or excessive gas. Once these negative stories go around, people might think that everyone will get these symptoms if they try alli.

But here are the facts:

• If you don’t follow the alli plan closely, you may experience the mentioned side effects. Alli is not a miracle drug that will magically make your weight loss disappear. You must follow alli’s sensible, healthy diet plan to enjoy its full benefits.
• If you eat continue to eat foods high in fat, alli cannot be as effective as it can be.
• If you do eat a sensible diet based on alli’s recommendations, alli can and will help you lose weight quickly, and keep it off.

How does alli work?

Alli decreases the absorption of fat from the food you eat. Within your stomach and intestines, enzymes called lipases break down fat into smaller parts, which your digestive tract then absorbs in turn. What alli does is binds itself to lipases and limits their activity. The result is a decrease in fat absorption. Alli does not have any effect on carbohydrates or protein.

Benefits of alli

If the user follows a sensible and healthy diet, alli can give remarkable results. On average, Alli stops the absorption of 25% of the fat in the diet. Alli can help people lose 50% more weight than if they only dieted. Of course, the weight loss depends on many factors, including your diet, exercise habits, and personal body chemistry, but the FDA says users can expect modest weight loss, which would be about 1 to 2 pounds a week.

Another important thing to remember is that if you skip a meal, you should also skip the dose of alli. Also, if you do miss a dose, DO NOT take a double dose. As stated before, alli must be accompanied by a sensible, low-fat meal. The FDA recommends that fat should account for no more than 30% of your diet.

If the user follows the directions carefully, and consults with their doctor, alli is a safe and effective way to keep off those pounds. Alli is more than just a pill to make you lose weight; it’s a comprehensive program to transform your lifestyle by helping you embrace healthy habits. What alli does, in effect, is make the healthy lifestyle easier by speeding up the effects of a good, sensible, and nutritious diet.

Sample press releases for alli:

• alli™ – the OTC weight loss product – on shelves nationwide in the US later this week.
• GSK receives positive opinion for new non-prescription weight loss treatment alli to help in the fight against obesity across Europe.
• GSK addresses concerns about alli and its effects on the liver.