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(Risk of cancer related to age and gender graph)

Extracts of the fungus Phellinus linteus that in the wild grows on mulberry trees and that is widely used in Japan, Korea and China for medicinal purposes may help fight cancer by slowing the growth of tumors and starving them of blood.

Extracts of this fungus have been used for centuries in Eastern Ancient medicine where it’s thought to have the power to rejuvenate and extend life.

Recent studies have indicated that the mushroom has the ability of holding back the growth of skin, lung and prostate cancer cells. Researchers also believe that this mushroom increases the amount of prostate cancer cells killed by the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin.

Scientists working with breast cancer at Indianapolis’ Methodist Research Institute found evidence that this mushroom blocks the activity of an enzyme called AKT which control signals that lead to cancer cells growth and the development of new blood vessels around them; blood vessels that are vital for the cancer cell survival.

Dr. Daniel Silva, lead researcher of the study published on the 15 April of 2008 issue of the British Journal of Cancer said: “The anti-cancer properties of this type of mushroom have been recently investigated by scientists using various types of cancer cells.

“We saw a number of positive results from our investigation on aggressive human breast cancer cells, including a lower rate of uncontrolled growth of new cancer cells, suppression of their aggressive behaviour and the formation of fewer blood vessels that feed cancer cells essential nutrients.”

“We’re not yet able to apply this knowledge to modern medicine, but we’re excited that we can begin to explain how this ancient medicine works by acting on specific molecules.

“We hope our study will encourage more researchers to explore the use of medicinal mushrooms for the treatment of cancer.”

However, Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK which owns the British Journal of Cancer gave a note of caution saying: “Although natural products have been used to develop many important drugs, there is no guarantee that they are all safe or will be effective in the clinic,” she said.

“The results from this study are interesting, but it’s certainly too early to advise people to stock up on mushrooms. Further research will be needed before we will know if mushroom extracts can be used to treat cancer patients.”

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Living on an era where obesity starts being a serious problem at developed countries I think that we should start using alternative and healthier food with an open mind so that we don’t fit in the overweight category.
In this video you’ll find an alternative receipt to the unhealthy chips. Hope you enjoy.

Now whenever you feel like eating chips you can turn to this alternative receipt and enjoy a good and healthy cucumber snack.
Besides making exercise and having an equilibrated alimentation you can also have a medical bracelet in addiction. I’m sure that if you try some of these advices probably you’ll find some improvements in your lifestyle.

You should be very cautious when it comes to which or how much drugs you should take. To increase your awareness to the problem I posted this video that supports a stricter drug safety legislation since some drugs are overprescribed making them non beneficial in many cases.

If you think you got any kind of drug related problem, may it be with legal or illegal drugs, don’t expect the problem to solve on its own but get in touch with drug treatment centers so that you get some specialized support to sort out your drug related problems.

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A study has been published at Oxford Journals with the objective of determining the changes on the neural activities that are associated with risk taking decisions when aging.

Different areas of the brain when taking risk decisions are activated between young adults and older adults and also older adults display a significantly higher rate of selecting safe responses when compared with younger adults. Obviously younger adults make more risky responses than safe responses.

According to studies both older adults and young adults take more time to make safe responses than a risky ones.

Besides using different parts of the brain when making risk decisions older adults also show stronger neural activities than young adults.

To reach these results researchers monitored the subjects with an fMRI scanner.

The results of the study revealed that younger and older adults relied on different brain mechanisms when taking risk decisions what reflects on older adults selecting fewer risky responses.

In conclusion the results of this study suggest that possible neuropsychological reasons and mechanisms underlie the change in impulsive and risky behaviors during the course of natural ageing.

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A new research suggests that rare gene mutations can increase the risk of schizophrenia.

Studies show that schizophrenics share some of the same kind of rare gene variations.

These kinds of genes modifications normally tend to gather around important genes that influence the brain development like the ones that control neuronal growth and migration.

The study reported at online science concludes that there is more than one kind of schizophrenia and that treatments should be specific to each case since each case of schizophrenia might belong to a different group of genetic variation.

Researchers say that “since nothing else has worked so far to give us a ‘breakthrough,’ it is past time to look for other strategies.” And that “if this approach is replicated, it could profoundly alter the focus of genetics research” on a variety of complex mental illnesses.”.

If researchers are successful in the future, probably we will have more effective drugs in the treatment of schizophrenia.

The global environment group (greenpeace) after a study said the rapidly warming Shout Asia should in the future   displace around 125 million people because of the rising seas and water shortages. This climate change should also trigger erratic monsoons and break down agricultural productions in the vast and densely populated Gangetic delta. Because South Asia is a poor area of the planet the risk of diseases that will endanger the populations affected will increase greatly.

Unfortunately in top of all India is one of the most polluting countries in the world and we don’t see authorities taking stronger action against polluters which in the end will only contribute for a worst case scenario.

Researchers say that the recurrent floods that Bangladesh has been experiencing are already the effects of the rising temperatures.

Predictions say that around 2050 there will be one billion people displaced worldwide by climate change.

Photo: REUTERS/Jayanta Shaw/Files

Flood-affected villagers run to collect food packages and relief materials dropped by the Indian Air Force in Shivijinagar village, India, in this August 10, 2007.

Researchers at Sweden say that people that suffer from arthritis can reduce the risk of cardiac problems by going vegan.

Heart attacks and strokes are the main cause of death between arthritis sufferers because this disease results in inflammation of the blood vessels.

The results of that study say that if you eat less animal products and less gluten you can have a longer and healthier life.

If you suffer from arthritis now you know what kind of action to take but don’t forget to be careful when going vegan, because a vegan diet reduces the amount of some important nutrients.

The brain.oxfordjournals.org has published that music listening enhances recovery after a stroke.

This research is based in fifty four patients that completed the study out of sixty. The patients were separated into three groups, the control group, the music group and the language group.The language group is the group that instead of music listens to audio books.

The results show that:” recovery in the domains of verbal memory and focused attention improved significantly more in the music group than in the language and control groups. The music group also experienced less depressed and confused mood than the control group”.

This means that music increases the recovery rate and that from now on all patients, victims of a stroke, should be in a music environment for better recovery.

British and Australian researchers say that you can inherit happiness.

Researchers found that genes control half of the personality traits that make people happy.

The study was based on 1.000 pairs of identical and non-identical twins. The researchers asked the volunteers a series of questions about their personality. By cross checking all the twins’ answers and knowing that some shared the same genes and others didn’t, scientists managed to identify the genes that result in certain personality traits that predispose people to happiness.

Traits that predispose people to happiness can be an outgoing personality, being calm and reliable, hardworking and conscientious, say researchers at the University of Edinburgh.

So now you know that if your parents are happy persons probably you’ll get some of those genes to help you out.

A team of scientists say their found the reason why the flu virus attacks more in the winter.

The results have been published in the last edition of the magazine “Nature Chemical Biology”

According to the scientists the virus has a gelly cover made out of fat that becomes rigid when exposed to temperatures lower than 15.6 degrees Celsius. When this cover is rigid the virus stays protected inside, allowing it to transfer from body to body. When the temperatures are higher than 15.6 degrees Celsius the cover becomes more like gelly, allowing the virus to propagate to other cells. This data was obtained through magnetic resonance imaging were the scientists could see at which temperatures does the cover reacts to.

This is the answer to why the flu attacks more in the winter.

 Already there are people against this theory, like John Oxford, specialist in virology at Queen Mary College School of Medicine. He says that the flue affects the same in places like Vietnam or Indonesia, were the temperatures are much higher. So the conclusion about the behavior of the cover might not be the final answer.

The facts are that each year the flue kills 250 to 500 thousands person in the winter, says the World Health Organization.