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News From the Petri Dish

I subscribe to Eureka Alert Breaking News – and although a lot of their press releases are on small studies of questionable relevance, I do think that some of the basic science research is provocative.  Let’s see if I can pique your interest with the best of this week’s Petri dish news:

1.  Tylenol may inhibit bone growth?  A small study conducted at the University of Granada suggested that bone forming cells (called osteoblasts) were inhibited by a Tylenol bath.  As far as pain killers are concerned, we’ve known for a while that non steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs) may indeed inhibit bone growth. But since Tylenol is not an NSAID, we were hoping that it would not adversely affect bone healing.  Could this mean that Tylenol is not so great for bone surgery pain after all? That’s a stretch… but an interesting question.

2.  Can you clean blood with a laser?  Boy it sure would be nice to be able to kill all the potential viruses in blood used for transfusions.  Apparently there’s a new pulsed laser technique that shows some promise in fracturing viruses with laser vibrations.  So far, the laser was successful in reducing bacterial viruses by 1000x.  Next up?  Let’s see what the technique can do to Hepatitis C and HIV viruses.

3.  Skinny people might have a “skinny gene.” Scientists have been studying a gene called Adipose (Adp) for over 50 years now.  It was first discovered in fat fruit flies (I kid you not).  Apparently if the Adp gene doesn’t work well, the flies become fat and “have difficulty getting around.”  Worms, mice, and humans seem to have the same gene.  Further analysis might unlock the secret to the genetics of thinness.  Or maybe we should just eat less and exercise more?This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.

Crohn’s Disease: Update From Dr. Susie Kane

Dr. Susie (Sunanda) Kane is a Crohn’s Disease expert who just moved from the University of Chicago to join a team of researchers and clinicians at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.  Susie was kind enough to answer some questions about Crohn’s recently.  We used the phone interview to create a short article at Revolution Health, but I think that listening to the entire conversation could be of benefit to those who desire deep and broad information about the disease.

In fact, a dear blogger friend of mine has a daughter with severe, fistulizing Crohn’s disease.  She has been in the hospital for 2 months, unable to eat.  It is my sincere hope that interviews like this one will go a long way to frame the discussion of the multiple treatment options for those struggling with this challenging disease.

We asked Dr. Kane what the common misconceptions are about Crohn’s disease, then she described the 3 types of Crohn’s disease, how they’re diagnosed and treated, and the latest cutting edge research that make a substantial improvement in the lives of those living with the disease.  The interview is about 30 minutes in total.  Enjoy!This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.

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