Pharmacology

Richard P. Phipps, Ph.D., professor of Environmental Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology, and of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center cautions that during flu vaccination season many common pain killers – Advil, Tylenol, aspirin – at the time of injection may blunt the effect of the shot and have a negative effect on the immune system. A study by researchers in the Czech Republic reported similar findings in the Oct. 17, 2009, edition of The Lancet. They found that giving acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, to infants weakens the immune response to vaccines…

With all of the concern/hype/hysteria over vaccines for H1N1 influenza, a team of Alabama researchers say they may have found a way to protect lungs from all strains of the flu—antioxidants. In an article appearing in the FASEB Journal they say that antioxidants might hold the key in preventing the flu virus from wreaking havoc on our lungs.  The researchers showed that the flu virus damages our lungs through its "M2 protein," which attacks the cells that line the inner surfaces of our lungs (epithelial cells). Specifically, the M2 protein disrupts lung epithelial cells' ability to…

Antidepressants are ineffective in fully 50% of the people who take them.   It is clearly early 20th century medicine, where you keep trying things and hope something happens while pharmaceutical companies who impress doctors the most make the most money. With so much research and money spent on depression studies, how is it possible that it is only as effective as doing nothing at all?   1)  The cause of depression has been oversimplified.  A study from the laboratory of  depression researcher Eva Redei presented at the Neuroscience 2009 conference in Chicago this…

Can diet make you less likely to develop depression?   A new report from the University of Navarra published in Archives of General Psychiatry. says people who follow 'Mediterranean dietary pattern' heavier in nuts and fish appear less likely to develop depression. There is lower prevalence of diagnosed depression in Mediterranean countries than northern European ones, for example, though that could also be a cultural issue - a hundred years ago there was almost no diagnoses in the US because doctors did not diagnose it.Their explanation is, it's the food - some research has…

Herbal medicines are more common in Asian countries to treat pre-diabetes (impaired glucose tolerance or IGT), the precursor of diabetes but is there any hard scientific evidence to confidently recommend their use? No.  That doesn't mean they aren't a viable treatment but, or that they haven't worked in some people, just like the confounding placebo effect, but more research would be needed to establish whether Chinese herbal medicines can reduce the likelihood of developing diabetes the way advocates claim. Pre-diabetes is recognized by higher than normal blood sugar levels and people…

Estimates can be funny things because usually they're brought up by people with agendas rather than people interested in objective analysis.  Some estimates in competitive sports put athletic doping usage at 95%, for example, which sounds ridiculously high unless your slippery slope meter works overtime. What about academia?   The non-medical use of methylphenidate and amphetamine is as high as 25% on some US college campuses, particularly in colleges with more competitive admission criteria, says Vince Cakic of the Department of Psychology at the University of Sydney.  And the…

In an article reviewed by Faculty of 1000: Biology and Medicine, Faculty Members Robert Ruff, Brian Olshansky and Luis Ruilope say the blood-thinner dabigatran is shown to protect against stroke, blood clotting and major bleeding as effectively as warfarin, but with fewer side effects. The original paper, "Dabigatran versus warfarin in patients with atrial fibrillation", by Neal Devaraj and Stuart Connolly et al. in the New England Journal of Medicine, said warfarin (also commonly used in rat poison) has several drawbacks; finding the correct dosage requires careful and laborious monitoring…

A biopharma is hoping to add to the deluge of drugs by the end of this year, but in virgin territory for the pharma industry. A new orphan indication? A disease that has previously been ignored? Nope - for that horrific debilitating disease that strikes fear in the heart of every traveler - jet lag. What? Yes, jet lag. This is classic disease mongering. Disease mongering is "a pejorative erm for the practice of widening the diagnostic boundaries of illnesses, and promoting public awareness of such, in order to expand the markets for those who sell and deliver treatments." Wiki sums up the two…

Antioxidants are a big buzzword these days - everyone claims to have them and that impresses buyers but most don't really know what that means. Health conscious people know that taking antioxidants to reduce the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) - ions or very small molecules that include free radicals - in blood can prevent the DNA damage done by free radicals, which are the result of oxidative stress.  What fewer people know is that excessive use of antioxidants depletes their immune systems. Research at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has  found that in…

Tribals of Jaipur district worship all the God and Goddesses of Hindu religion along with number of local deities. These deities are associated with a number of plant species. During the present survey 16 plant species have been recorded to be scared and auspicious, important one being of genus Ficus and Acacia. Ocimum sanctum and Aegle marmelos being sacred. Similar informations about herbal medicinal plants were provided by number of workers from various parts of country (Kirtikar and Basu, 1935; Nadkarni, 1954; Chopra et al., 1958; Sharma, 1982, Mishra and Kumar, 2001; Kumar and Roy, 2006…