Two Studies That Please Me

Just because I like their results, I’m telling you of a couple of research conclusions. In my flair for honesty, I admit that next week or next month or next decade, another series of experiments may prove these current conclusions wrong. Go figure.

A Daily Cup of Coffee May Halt Alzheimers

By Rebecca Smith

Last Updated: 1:45am BST 03/04/2008

Drinking one cup of coffee a day could protect against Alzheimer’s disease, according to research.

These results please me because: 1. I like coffee 2. I don’t want to come down with Alzheimers.

No benefit in drinking eight glasses of water a day, scientists say

By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor

Last Updated: 2:02am BST 03/04/2008

The idea that drinking eight glasses of water a day is good for your health has been dismissed as a myth.

This pleases me because I find it hard to drink eight glasses of water every day, and sometimes people say I should drink more water, and now I can retort, “Not according to
Dr Dan Negoianu and Dr Stanley Goldfarb, of the Renal, Electrolyte and Hypertension Division at the University of Pennsylvania.”

I’m taking a break now. Time for my first cup of coffee, and, watch me, I’m not drinking water. 🙂

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My devotional blog is here.

Promise of a Cure for Alzheimers

In previous columns I have written about my sister-in-law’s caring for her husband with Alzheimers, and of others’ experiences with the dreaded condition here and here.

From what I have observed and read, from the pathetic stories I have been told, from the deep hurt so easily seen in the eyes of my friends and family who relate their sorrowful experiences, I have come to believe the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s to be one of the most ghastly known to man. It literally takes away a person…yet the person continues to breathe…truly a living frightful death.

Announced yesterday from the publishers Biomed Central in the Journal of Neuroinflamation is a study in which the symptoms of Alzheimer’s seems to be quickly reversed. Admittedly, the study is quite small, but it extends hope to the millions around the world who suffer from this devastating malady, and to their families who helplessly watch their loved ones deteriorate into hopeless confusion.

A drug used for arthritis can reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer’s “in minutes”.

It appears to tackle one of the main features of the disease – inflammation in the brain.

The drug, called Enbrel, is injected into the spine where it blocks a chemical responsible for damaging the brain and other organs.

A pilot study carried out by U.S. researchers found one patient had his symptoms reversed “in minutes”.

Other patients have shown some improvements in symptoms such as forgetfulness and confusion after weekly injections over six months.

The study of 15 patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer’s has just been published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation by online publishers Biomed Central.

The entire article is here.

I pray these results are not a fluke, but that in years to come, the word Alzheimers will be as the word polio is today–merely an ugly memory from the crumbling pages of history.

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My devotional blog is here

Awake During Brain Surgery

Since antiquity, has been conjecture concerning the mysteries of the human brain. Is the soul there? What causes insanity? What exactly are headaches? What is a Migraine? Why is it that we feel no pain when our brains are probed? What triggers memory? How about epilepsy, Alzheimers, strokes…?

Today comes this fascinating report from Sydney, Australia of a gentleman having brain surgery while fully conscious.

SYDNEY (AFP) – An Australian man was conscious and spoke to his medical team during life-saving brain surgery in what doctors are claiming as a world-first procedure with cutting-edge technology.

John James said it was a strange experience to hear the doctors and nurses talking to each other as he lay on the operating table with a 1.5-centimetre (half-an-inch) hole in his head.

But he said he was confident throughout the April surgery to remove an aneurysm from his brain, which threatened to burst and kill him.

“The nurses looking after me, they were talking to me,” the retired bus driver told a press conference in Canberra. “I could only see bits because I couldn’t move my head at all.”

more of the article here.

Throughout my life, I’ve had a tendency toward headache, as had my father. It was when I was pregnant with my first child that I first experienced a migraine headache. On one side of my head only, I began seeing designs and sort of flashing lights. That lasted for a few minutes, then dissapated, and I was left with a violent headache. I had heard the term Migraine, but had never heard one described. My symptoms alarmed me, my first thought being of a brain tumor, but when I reported the occurrence to my obstetrician, he said I had just described a Classic Migraine. I had them intermittently for years, but I believe mine were hormone related, for I always had more of them when I was pregnant. I now haven’t had one in many years, and don’t often have headaches of any kind.

Do you have a history of headaches? Have them often? Do you believe them to be stress related? Hormonal?

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My devotional blog is here.