Public Health

Ayurvedic medicines are basically derived from the Vedic literature and plants of family Fabaceae have special importance in the Ayurvedic medicines.The family Fabaceae popularly known as legumes, is the third largest order of seed-plants containing about 600 genera with 12,000 species. They are usually arranged in three well defined sub families and they are Papilionaceae, Caesalpiniaceae and Mimosaceae.           Some of the important medicinal plantsof sub family Papilionaceae include Abrus precatorius Linn., Alhagi camelorum Linn.,Alhagi…

Japan has one of the world’s best Institute of Natural Medicine  headed by Professor Dr  Komatsu in Toyama and her team of dedicated workers at University of Toyama.    It houses natural medicine covering various systems of Traditional Medicine practiced  in the world. Drug companies are in regular contact with research Institutes in developing traditional medicines to commercial level.   Someone asked me what is the need to give natural medicine when the chemical substances can be isolated  from plant sources and made into tablets. Chemistry has  …

A new compound has been shown to reduce Body Mass Index (BMI) and abdominal circumference in obese rhesus monkeys, and imaging revealed a substantial decrease in body fat. In contrast to current ‘drugs’ for obesity that control appetite or absorption of dietary fat, this experimental drug binds to a protein on fat-supporting blood vessels and, once there, triggers cell death.     Rhesus monkey (or Macaca mulatta) (Source: Wikimedia Commons, user Einar Fredriksen)     The same compound (named Adipotide, formula: CKGGRAKDC-GG-D(KLAKLAK)2) was tested in mice earlier, where…

If you are of a certain age, perhaps your parents told you to eat slowly. They may have said something about better digestion but if you were one of many poor people it also had to do with feeling fuller on less food.  Common wisdom was your brain did not keep up with your stomach so if you slowed down, your brain had time to realize the stomach was full. In general experience, that seems to hold up. You rarely see obese people who eat really slow.(1) Two new studies by researchers at the University of Rhode Island bear this out and found that men eat significantly faster than women,…

Get your 'false equivalence' disclaimers ready, uber-progressive metropolitan San Francisco is once again leading America in anti-science beliefs.  Unlike something silly and annoying, like acceptance of evolution, progressive anti-science kills people. The Waldorf School of the Peninsula in Los Altos, California, at a cool $24,000 per year for high school students, is delightfully kooky in its mission statement and its desire to frame education through social justice issues.  Hey, I don't care about that, people with money can send their kids to anything they want, be it religious…

Can music lead to better CPR? Yes and no.  Any mnemonic hook that helps rescue personnel deliver a good number of chest compressions to heart attack victims is likely good but one song, "Disco Science" by Mirwais, does well yet can only achieve half the CPR goal. If you are a fan of Guy Ritchie's film "Snatch" you have heard "Disco Science" but may not know that it has 100 beats per minute, around the optimal range for CPR. However, it does not help at all in  improving the depth of compression, which may mean it's time to give up on trying to find the best musical gimmick to aid in…

Apparently people are eating their pet's food, and they're getting salmonella poisoning in return. Or at least, that's the impression provided by the news coverage. The FDA started a "year-long nationwide effort to test pet food for salmonella contamination, but the key concern is not the health of dogs and cats - it's of their owners." FDA investigators began in October taking samples of dry pet food, pet treats and diet supplements from distributors, wholesalers and retailers like PetSmart, PetCo, WalMart, Costco, Sam's Club and Target, articles noted.  The FDA is "particularly…

At the Michael Jackson trial yesterday, the following exchange took place between the lead prosecutor and the Star defense witness, anesthesiologst Dr. Paul (Walter) White. Prosecutor: Dr. Shafer, when Dr. Murray noted that Mr. Jackson was no longer breathing, why didn't he call 911? Dr. White: My name is actually Dr. White. Perhaps I should be wearing a nametag. In any case, the house didn't have a landline. Prosecutor: But Dr. Murray had a cell phone in his hand. Dr. White: I speculate that he was waiting for the Verizon guy to appear and show him how to use it. Judge clears the courtroom…

Ethnobotany is a distinct branch of natural science dealingwith various aspects such as anthropology, archaeology, botany, ecology,economics, medicine, religious, cultural and several other disciplines.Ethnobotany is usually defined as anthropological approach to botany. There areseveral methods of ethnobotanical research and those relevant to medicinalplants are archaeological search in literature, herbaria and the field studies.This term was coined by J.W. Harshberger in 1895 to indicate plants used by theaboriginals. It deals with the study and evaluation of plant-human relations inall…

A daily supplement to reduce diabetes?   Maybe. Researchers writing in Cell Metabolism show they have have restored normal blood sugar metabolism in diabetic mice using, nicotinamide mononucleotide(NMN), a compound the body makes naturally and which plays a vital role in how cells use energy. All cells in the body make NMN in a chain of reactions leading to production of NAD, a vital molecule that harvests energy from nutrients and puts it into a form cells can use. Among other things, NAD activates a protein called SIRT1 that has been shown to promote healthy metabolism throughout the…