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Post by Admin on Mar 15, 2021 10:58:46 GMT
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Post by Admin on Mar 30, 2021 10:12:40 GMT
The Archive of Healing, a Trove of Medicinal Folklore, Is Now OnlineHundreds of thousands of entries describe cures, rituals, and healing methods spanning two centuries, with a focus on protecting Indigenous knowledge. hyperallergic.com/632470/ucla-archive-of-healing-medicinal-folklore-online/The digital archive features hundreds of thousands of entries describing cures, rituals, and healing methods spanning two centuries, with a focus on protecting Indigenous knowledge from for-profit exploitation. The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)’s Archive of Healing, one of the most comprehensive databases of medicinal folklore in the world, is now accessible online. The interactive, searchable website boasts hundreds of thousands of entries describing cures, rituals, and healing methods spanning more than 200 years and seven continents. The site covers a diversity of health topics, ranging from the common cold to midwifery and abortion. It also focuses on the preservation of Indigenous traditions and customs related to wellness. The project started five decades ago, when former UCLA professors Wayland Hand and Michael Owen Jones led teams of students to document medicinal practices described in university archives, published sources, anthropologists’ fieldnotes, and their own family folklore. In 1996, the school received a grant to digitize the research — encompassing more than a million handwritten four-by-six note cards — and transform it into a searchable database then known as the “Archive of Traditional Medicine.” But somehow, the massive trove remained a little-known resource until 2012, when a librarian at UCLA came across the database and alerted Dr. David Delgado Shorter, Professor of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at UCLA. Shorter, who had just published a book based on fieldwork with the Yoeme communities in northwest Mexico and launched a digital tool to help Indigenous people preserve their languages, was “blown away” by the archive. “It was just sitting there probably for years without people knowing about it,” Shorter said in an interview. “There are 700,000 to 800,000 data points on healing from all over the world.” “In some ways it’s fantastic that no one knew about it, because in this day and age, someone could have created a mining program and simply just pulled all the material from the database,” he added. When Shorter became the director of the project, it was rechristened as the “Archive of Healing, Ritual, and Transformation.” His team safeguarded the data in a secure server. One of Shorter’s priorities is protecting Indigenous knowledge from exploitation by for-profit entities, such as pharmaceutical companies. For that reason, some entries in the archive do not mention specific plant names or recipes unless that information is already widely known. As dangerous health-related disinformation surged during the coronavirus pandemic, many have become wary of alternative medicine. The archive’s initial compilers were folklorists, not medical doctors, and the website includes a disclaimer that the entries do not constitute medical advice. Over the course of nine years, Shorter and his students removed about 200,000 entries from the initial one million, and users can flag entries they deem inappropriate. But not all traditional homeopathic practices are scams, says Shorter — turmeric, for instance, goes back about 5,000 years as a proven anti-inflammatory. Perhaps most importantly, these spices, plants, and other healing methods can deepen our understanding of how different cultures view the body, wellness, and community. “The whole goal here is to democratize what we think of as healing and knowledge about healing, and take it across cultures in a way that’s respectful and gives attention to intellectual property rights,” said Shorter. To access the Archive of Healing, users can create a free account on the project’s website. Eventually, the platform will accept new data submissions, allowing users to exchange information and share recommendations.
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Post by Admin on Apr 17, 2021 21:44:00 GMT
Miranda Spencer interviews Julia Rucklidge, Ph.D., professor of clinical psychology at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, where she leads the Mental Health and Nutrition Research Group and serves on the Executive Committee for the International Society of Nutritional Psychiatry Research. They discuss the emerging field of Nutritional Psychiatry, which looks at the relationship between nutrition and brain health. The micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) found in natural, whole foods are essential for regulating brain functions including thinking, feeling, and sleep. They also help moderate our energy levels and DNA expression. Nutrition and Mental Health: An Interview with Julia Rucklidge, Ph.D. www.madinamerica.com/2021/04/nutrition-mental-health-interview-julia-rucklidge-phd/
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Post by Admin on May 4, 2021 16:47:55 GMT
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Post by Admin on Oct 3, 2021 7:38:18 GMT
Magnesium in psychoses (schizophrenia and bipolar disorders) Mihai Nechifor. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507255/Abstract Schizophrenia and bipolar disorders are two of the most severe CNS conditions. Changes in plasma and intracellular magnesium concentration, as well as in other bivalent cations, have been found in both psychoses. Our data, as well as that of other authors, has shown that schizophrenic, paranoid patients admitted in the acute state and without previous treatment, have significantly decreased intracellular magnesium levels compared to healthy subjects. Therapy with haloperidol (a typical antipsychotic) or with risperidone (an atypical antipsychotic) both significantly raised the intracellular magnesium concentration without causing significant changes in plasma magnesium concentration. The increase in intracellular magnesium concentration was positively correlated with the improvement in clinical symptomatology. We consider that magnesium acts foremost by reducing glutamate release and by its action upon NMDA receptors, and results in an augmentation in the activity of the GABAergic systems. Unlike the hypothesis that only implicates zinc deficits in the pathogeny of schizophrenia, we consider that both intracellular magnesium and extracellular zinc deficits are equally involved in schizophrenia pathogeny. In patients with untreated bipolar disorder, our data showed a significant decrease in intracellular magnesium concentration and plasma zinc concentration during the manic episode. Therapy with mood modulators (carbamazepine and valproic acid) increased total intracellular magnesium and plasma zinc concentrations without having a significant effect on total plasma magnesium concentration. Other data showed that lithium also increases intracellular magnesium concentration. The fact that mood modulators with different mechanisms of action have in common the increase of intracellular magnesium concentration is an argument to consider this augmentation as an important element of their mechanism of action. Boosting amino acid derivative may be a treatment for schizophrenia www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190626124940.htmDate: June 26, 2019 Source: RIKEN Summary: Many psychiatric drugs act on the receptors or transporters of certain neurotransmitters in the brain. However, there is a great need for alternatives, and research is looking at other targets along the brain's metabolic pathways. Lack of glycine betaine contributes to brain pathology in schizophrenia, and new research shows that betaine supplementation can counteract psychiatric symptoms in mice.
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Post by Admin on Oct 11, 2021 17:44:54 GMT
Himalayan fungus compound refined to offer 40 times the anti-cancer potency newatlas.com/medical/himalayan-fungus-compound-potent-cancer-treatment/By using a compound derived from a Himalayan fungus and used for centuries in Chinese medicine as a jumping off point, scientists have developed a new chemotherapy drug with powerful anti-cancer effects. Doing so involved chemically altering the compound to better infiltrate cancerous cells, which proved to boost its potency by up to 40 times. The research carried out by University of Oxford scientists in collaboration with biopharmaceutical company Nucana began with a compound called Cordycepin. This naturally-occurring nucleoside analogue has been used to treat inflammatory disease and cancer for hundreds of years, but runs into several barriers that severely limit its effectiveness when deployed to tackle tumors. This is largely because as Cordycepin enters the bloodstream, it is rapidly broken down by an enzyme called ADA. What is left then needs to be carried into cancer cells by a nucleoside transporter, and then converted into an anti-cancer metabolite called 3’-dATP. This is a lot of hoops for the humble, naturally-occurring Cordycepin to jump through and means only meager amounts wind up making it into the tumor. Nucana looked to harness the anti-cancer potential of Cordycepin and better equip it to navigate these considerable roadblocks, through what it calls ProTide technology. This is designed specifically to address the shortcomings of nucleoside analogues. It works by attaching small chemical groups to the compound that make it more resistant to breakdown in the bloodstream, and also enables them to enter cancer cells without the help of nucleoside transporters. The upshot is far greater levels of anti-cancer metabolites are generated and activated inside tumor cells. This enhanced form of Cordycepin is dubbed NUC-7738, and the novel chemotherapy drug was assessed through in vitro studies, demonstrating that it overcomes the resistance mechanisms that inhibit its parent compound. Tumor samples obtained from ongoing Phase I clinical trials were then used to probe its effectiveness in humans, with these experiments validating the earlier findings. Altogether, the authors conclude NUC-7738 to have as much as 40 times the potency of the naturally-occurring Cordycepin, and has limited toxic side effects. The scientists are now continuing to assess its performance in the Phase 1 clinical trial on patients with advanced solid tumors, and are planning to follow that up with Phase 2 trials to further evaluate its clinical potential. The research was published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research. Source: University of Oxford
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Post by Admin on Oct 28, 2021 15:23:18 GMT
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Post by Admin on Oct 28, 2021 15:47:12 GMT
GABA System in Schizophrenia and Mood Disorders: A Mini Review on Third-Generation Imaging Studies www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2016.00061/fullThird-generation neuroimaging research has been enriched by advances in magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) measuring the concentration of important neurotrasmitters, such as the inhibitory amino acid GABA. Here, we performed a systematic mini-review on brain MRS studies measuring GABA concentration in patients affected by schizophrenia (SZ), bipolar disorder (BD), and major depressive disorder (MDD). We wondered whether multimodal investigations could overcome intrinsic technical limits of MRS giving a broader view of mental disorders pathogenesis. In SZ, unimodal studies gave mixed results, as increased, decreased, or unaltered GABA levels were reported depending on region, disease phase, and treatment. Conversely, multimodal results showed reduced level of glutamate, but not of GABA, in patients mirrored by in vitro biochemical findings revealing hippocampal reduction in glutamate signaling in SZ, and no deficits in GABA synthesis. Moreover, a mouse model confirmed the unique pathological characteristic of glutamate function in SZ. Unimodal studies in BD revealed again, inconsistent results, while no multimodal investigations including MRS on GABA exist. In MDD, unimodal studies could not differentiate patients from controls nor characterize high-risk subjects and remitted patients. However, a multimodal study combining functional magnetic resonance imaging and MRS revealed that cingulate cortex activity is related to glutamate, N-acetylaspartate levels and anhedonia in patients, and to GABA concentration in healthy subjects, improving the distinction between MDD and physiology. Overall, our results show that unimodal studies do not indicate GABA as a biomarker for the psychiatric disorders considered. Conversely, multimodal studies can widen the understanding of the link between psychopathology, genetics, neuroanatomy, and functional–biochemical brain activity in mental disorders. Although scarce, multimodal approaches seem promising for moving from GABA MRS unimodal-descriptive to causal level, and for integrating GABA results into a more comprehensive interpretation of mental disorder pathophysiology. Introduction An imbalance between excitation and inhibition in brain neuronal transmission has been hypothesized as one of the molecular mechanisms responsible for psychiatric disorders (1–5). In this context, multimodal studies coupling the continuous technical progresses in neuroimaging to methods for measuring neurotramsitter concentrations may represent a turning point for in vivo evidence of postmortem (6–8) and animal model (9–12) results. Moreover, the chance to link psychopathology, genetics, neuroanatomy, and functional–biochemical brain activity may take psychiatric research to the causal understanding of patients’ illness. The support given by newly developed improvements in well known technologies, such as proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) (13–15), has been fundamental to encourage in vivo research on gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in brain physiology and pathology (16–18). GABA is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system. Theories on its dysfunction in schizophrenia (SZ) assume that alterations in the neural circuitry involving GABA have a role in the mechanisms of the disorder and associated cognitive deficits (19–21). The role of GABA dysfunction in different psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder (BD), or major depressive disorder (MDD) is also established (3, 22, 23). Magnetic resonance spectroscopy is the election technique to non-invasively measure in vivo GABA concentration in selected brain regions (18, 24). However, direct interpretation of MRS results is limited by intrinsic features of the technique. In particular, acquisition of GABA signal is restricted to large (e.g., 3×3×3 cm3) single voxels, since multi-voxel spectroscopy usually measures metabolites with longer T2 relaxation, such as N-acetylaspartate (NAA), choline (Cho), and creatine (Cr). This results in a broad between-studies heterogeneity in the anatomical region investigated. Moreover, MRS can only detect total concentration of neurochemicals and cannot distinguish between separate functional pools, thus impeding conclusions on neurotransmitters availability. In this context, multimodal approaches, combining MRS with other complementary techniques, would lead to a solid and comprehensive interpretation of neurochemical underpinnings of brain pathologies. As a case in point, multimodal MRS and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) would help in depicting the neurochemical and functional pathological mechanisms responsible for complex disorders. The support from electrobiological measurements such as electroencephalography (EEG) or magnetoencephalography (MEG), measuring the oscillatory activity in brain neuronal ensembles, could be fundamental in interpreting results on GABA concentration since the latter has been shown to be positively correlated with stimulus specific neuronal oscillations (25–27). Similarly, findings from in vitro tissue biochemistry, animal models, and genetics could provide data at higher spatial resolution and further mechanistic insights into the interpretation of GABA concentration (28). On the basis of these considerations, we reviewed research articles focusing on GABA as measured by MRS in SZ and mood disorders (i.e., BD and MDD). In particular, we analyzed whether studies combining different approaches could overcome the technical limits intrinsic to MRS and give a broader view of the mechanisms involved into mental disorders. Methods To investigate recent MRS studies evaluating GABA level in the brain, we performed a systematic literature search on PubMed, PsycNET (including PsycINFO, PsycBOOKS, PsycCRITIQUES, PsycARTICLES, and PsycEXTRA databases), and Scopus database till November 2015 using the keywords “GABA” AND “spectroscopy” AND any of the following terms: “schizophrenia,” “bipolar disorder,” “major depressive disorder.” The reference list of identified articles and review papers was also hand searched to obtain additional articles. Inclusion criteria for studies selection were (1) English language, (2) articles published in peer-reviewed journals after 2000, (3) original research article (comments, letters to editors and review articles were excluded), (4a) inclusion of patients diagnosed with the specific neuropsychiatric disorder of interest according to ICD or DSM criteria or (4b) inclusion of high risk (HR) subjects, (5) inclusion of at least 10 patients, (6) comparison between patients and healthy controls (HC), (7) performance of MRS using a magnetic field of at least 3 T (to have a good signal-to-noise ratio and to resolve GABA peak from those of other more concentrated molecular compounds, e.g., NAA or Cr). In the search for SZ studies, 72 papers were initially identified. Among them, 11 were not original researches (9 reviews, 1 comment, and 1 letter), 2 studies did not consider HC and 9 did not include SZ patients, 22 papers did not include humans (e.g., studies on animal models and in vitro measurements), 9 studies measured the unresolved glutamate + glutamine (Glx) with GABA contamination peak as a proxy of GABA concentration, 1 study included less than 10 patients and 6 studies were published before 2000. At the end of the selection process, 12 studies on SZ fulfilled the inclusion criteria. In the search for BD studies, 21 papers were screened, but we excluded 7 reviews, 3 studies not performing in vivo MRS on humans, 1 on healthy men only, 1 not measuring GABA, 3 studies considering Glx, and 1 including less than10 patients. Only five studies survived the selection process for BD. At last, 53 studies were initially identified for MDD, but only 11 studies were eligible for the review, and 42 were excluded (6 studies without a control group, 5 not focusing on MDD patients, 6 not using in vivo MRS on humans, 11 reviews, 1 comment, 5 measuring Glx, 4 considering less than 10 patients, 3 not in English, and 1 published before 2000). Results Schizophrenia GABA MRS results in SZ are very scattered, since GABA concentration was found reduced, increased, or unaltered in patients (see Table 1). Such heterogeneity is mostly due to the different methodological approaches used, as studies vary in terms of patients’ clinical characteristics, brain region under investigation, and aims of the studies. Indeed, while most authors evaluated the diagnosis effect on GABA concentration, others considered the effect of age, of antipsychotics, and the role of GABA in different illness phases.
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Post by Admin on Nov 13, 2021 0:09:19 GMT
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Post by Admin on Nov 13, 2021 0:10:35 GMT
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Post by Admin on Nov 17, 2021 21:02:33 GMT
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Post by Admin on Nov 27, 2021 16:27:01 GMT
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Post by Admin on Dec 18, 2021 14:06:19 GMT
J Ayurveda Integr Med. 2014 Oct-Dec; 5(4): 251–259. doi: 10.4103/0975-9476.146554 PMCID: PMC4296439 PMID: 25624701 Tulsi - Ocimum sanctum: A herb for all reasons Marc Maurice Cohen www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC4296439/Abstract The predominant cause of global morbidity and mortality is lifestyle-related chronic diseases, many of which can be addressed through Ayurveda with its focus on healthy lifestyle practices and regular consumption of adaptogenic herbs. Of all the herbs used within Ayurveda, tulsi (Ocimum sanctum Linn) is preeminent, and scientific research is now confirming its beneficial effects. There is mounting evidence that tulsi can address physical, chemical, metabolic and psychological stress through a unique combination of pharmacological actions. Tulsi has been found to protect organs and tissues against chemical stress from industrial pollutants and heavy metals, and physical stress from prolonged physical exertion, ischemia, physical restraint and exposure to cold and excessive noise. Tulsi has also been shown to counter metabolic stress through normalization of blood glucose, blood pressure and lipid levels, and psychological stress through positive effects on memory and cognitive function and through its anxiolytic and anti-depressant properties. Tulsi's broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, which includes activity against a range of human and animal pathogens, suggests it can be used as a hand sanitizer, mouthwash and water purifier as well as in animal rearing, wound healing, the preservation of food stuffs and herbal raw materials and traveler's health. Cultivation of tulsi plants has both spiritual and practical significance that connects the grower to the creative powers of nature, and organic cultivation offers solutions for food security, rural poverty, hunger, environmental degradation and climate change. The use of tulsi in daily rituals is a testament to Ayurvedic wisdom and provides an example of ancient knowledge offering solutions to modern problems.
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Post by Admin on Jan 21, 2022 7:56:30 GMT
Plant power: How nature can help combat viral infections researchfeatures.com/plant-power-nature-help-combat-viral-infections/Plants have been used as medicines by humans for thousands of years, yet we have only uncovered a tiny part of their potential. Dr Bruno Frank of CogniVerde GmbH in Germany, is exploring the use of plant-derived substances against viral infections such as SARS-CoV-2. Laboratory studies have shown that green tea and some plant juices, particularly chokeberry juice, can reduce the viral infectivity of several respiratory viruses. This highlights the need for further clinical trials to explore their potential to reduce virus transmission. The importance of oral hygiene in infectious diseases is often overlooked. It has been suggested that inflammation and open wounds in the mouth (mouth ulcers, sores, gum disease) may increase susceptibility to viral infections by allowing the virus to multiply and move directly into the bloodstream, bypassing the oral mucosa barrier (Lloyd-Jones et al, 2021). The involvement of the oral cavity in SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19 disease) is less well understood. New research found that the oral cavity is not only an important site for SARS-CoV-2 infection, but the primary place of virus multiplication before affecting other organs, such as the lungs, the vascular system, and nerves.
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Post by Admin on Jan 23, 2022 15:34:20 GMT
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