The widely-used illicit drug cannabis hampers sexual health, or at least the following article suggests so. Dr. Rany Shamloul, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology recently found that cannabis usage leads to sexual dysfunction among men. The research findings can probably alter the currently believed impact of cannabis use on sexual health.

The investigation was conducted on animals and in vitro studies that seemingly associated cannabis use with sexual dysfunction. According to the commonly held belief, cannabis affects certain receptors in the brain, but these receptors also exist in the penis. Since cannabis use allegedly have an antagonizing effect on receptors in the penis, ability to achieve and maintain an erection may be extremely difficult.

The drug is apparently utilized by young, sexually active people who are unaware of its hazardous effects on sexual health and performance. As Nathaniel Branden quotes, 'The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance,' making people aware about the negative outcomes of cannabis usage appears beneficial. The research seems to have important implications in the health-space.

The research will appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Men and women with high triglyceride levels are at an increased risk of ischemic stroke, which typically occurs when blood flow to the brain is blocked by a build-up of fatty deposits within blood vessels, a new Danish study contends.
Click here to find out more!

In fact, this stroke risk seems to be more pronounced for triglyceride fats than it is for cholesterol, even though cholesterol is currently the prime focus of current guidelines. These findings, the researchers said, suggest that triglyceride levels should be incorporated into stroke-prevention guidelines.

"There might be an association between elevated triglyceride levels and increased stroke risk," said Dr. Tara Narula, a cardiologist with Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "All the guidelines really just focus on total cholesterol and LDL [low-density lipoprotein] cholesterol, and not on non-fasting triglycerides."

The link between high cholesterol and stroke has never actually been proven, yet giving people the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins seems to lower their stroke risk. But statins also lower triglyceride levels, suggesting that this might be the mechanism at play.

High triglyceride levels may indicate the presence of fat particles similar to "bad" low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, which can also contribute to the build-up of plaque in arterial walls.

"Triglycerides are associated with atherosclerosis; however, triglycerides in themselves are not causal in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis," explained Dr. Marianne Benn, senior author of the study, which appears in the Feb. 21 online issue of the Annals of Neurology. "They are a marker of high levels of atherogenic lipoprotein remnants [very low density lipoproteins and intermediate density lipoproteins]."

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States, according to the American Stroke Association, and 87 percent of all cases are attributed to ischemic stroke, according to background information from the researchers.

In the Danish study, Benn and her colleagues looked at almost 14,000 men and women, all white, in Copenhagen, who had had baseline triglyceride and cholesterol levels taken between 1976 and 1978 and who were then followed for up to 33 years. During that time, 837 women and 837 men had an ischemic stroke.

For both men and women, higher non-fasting triglyceride levels were linked with an increased risk of stroke, even after adjusting for age, gender, smoking, alcohol use, lipid-lowering therapy, hormone therapy (in women) and other factors.

Women with triglyceride levels of 443 mg/dL had nearly quadruple the risk of suffering a stroke, compared to women whose levels were less than 89 mg/dL. Those with levels between 89 and 177 mg/dL had a 20 percent increased risk.

Mens' increased risk ranged from 20 percent to 2.3-times higher, with the risk increasing as triglyceride levels went up.

Increased cholesterol was not linked to an increased risk of stroke in women, though it was in men whose cholesterol was 348 mg/dL or higher.

The American Heart Association characterizes "normal" triglyceride levels as lower than 150 mg/dL.

Based on the findings of this latest study, "desirable levels of triglycerides are below 180 to 200 mg/dL," said Benn, who is with Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark.

"Patients should attempt to reach this goal through lifestyle changes [weight loss, reduction of intake of saturated fatty acids, cholesterol, and alcohol, more exercise, and cessation of smoking]," she said.

If that doesn't work, the provider should move to medication, he added. "If triglyceride levels are still above 200 mg/dL after three months," she said, "the patient should be treated with lipid-lowering medication [statin, fibrates, and niacin]."

A new study has found that asthma may have a surprising link with the composition of the species of bacteria that inhabit bronchial airways. This finding could help the researchers in discovering a new treatment or even potential cures for the common inflammatory disease.

The new detection methods used in this study has helped the researchers in finding that the diversity of microbes inside the respiratory tract is more vast than previously suspected. This diversity creates complex and inter-connected microbial neighborhood that appears to be associated with asthma.

MD, Homer Boushey, a UCSF Professor of medicine in the division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and co-author of the study says that most of the people believes that asthma was caused by inhalation of allergens but this study shows that it may be more complicated than that and asthma may involve colonization of the airways by multiple bacteria.

It was a three-year project in which samples from the airway linings of 65 adults with mild to moderate asthma were collected in addition to the samples of 10 healthy adults. Using a tool, scientists have found that bronchial airway samples from asthmatic patients contained far more bacteria than samples from healthy patients.

A new breakthrough discovery has inched closer towards creating a cancer [abnormal cells that divide without control, which can invade nearby tissues or spread through the bloodstream and lymphatic system to other parts of the body. ] -destroying antibody that may help scientists in eradicating the indestructible cancer cells from body.

Indian and Oz researchers have recently identified a 'RNA aptamer' antibody that acts as an anti-cancer [abnormal cells that divide without control, which can invade nearby tissues or spread through the bloodstream and lymphatic system to other parts of the body. ] missile.

A team of researchers headed by Wei Duan from the Deakin Medical School's Nanomedicine Program along with scientists from Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and Barwon Health's Andrew Love Cancer Centre and Chem Genex Pharmaceuticals in Australia initiated the study that claims having discovered a 'cancer bomb'.

"We have created the world's first RNA aptamer, a chemical antibody that acts like a guided missile to seek out and bind only to cancer stem cells. It has the potential to deliver drugs directly to the stem cells and also to be used to develop a more effective cancer imaging system," said Wei Duan, director of the Deakin Medical School.

According to him, the antibody has helped reveal major information on cancer detection and treatment.

"What we have created is the 'guided missile' part of the 'smart bomb'. The aptamer acts like a guided missile, targeting the tumour and binding to the root of the cancer," said Duan.

Benefit of the RNA aptamer
The minuscule size of the aptamer allows it to detect the location of the cancer cells right at the onset and now researchers are focusing on affixing a radioactive compound on it, to help detect cancer before its starts growing.

This would also help in detecting the exact location of the infection caused by cancer, predicting the extent of cure and better follow-up.

"The aim now is to combine the aptamer with the 'bomb' (a microscopic fat particle) that can carry anti-cancer drugs or diagnostic imaging agents directly to the cancer stem cells, creating the ultimate medical smart bomb," said Wei.

Detecting the exact location of the cancer could lead to better and economic treatment against many cancer types.

Non-effective cancer treatments mar medical world
Despite achieving unbound advancements in the technology and medical field, scientists have failed to combat the menace called cancer till now.

Also, cancer deaths have remained a cause of constant worry due to failure in detecting the cancer at an early stage and due to late treatment.

"Current cancer treatments destroy the cells that form the bulk of the tumor, but are largely ineffective against the root of the cancer, the cancer stem cells. This suggests that in order to provide a cure for cancer we must accurately detect and eliminate the cancer stem cells," concluded the lead author.

The study has been detailed in the Feb. edition of the journal 'Cancer Science.'

A research, reported in Nature by scientists in the US, has come to the conclusion that the time we get up or the time we go to sleep is determined by a gene.

Studying the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, Northwestern University scientists in Evanston, Ill., state that the findings can be applied to other organisms, including humans. When the gene, named 'twenty four', is missing, the PER protein in the neurons of the brain, regulating the circadian rhythm, is impacted; and, when there is very little of this protein, the sleep-wake cycles get disturbed.

Dr. Ravi Allada who led the study remarked, "The flies without the twenty-four gene did not become much more active before dawn. The equivalent in humans would be someone who has trouble getting out of bed in the morning."