WHAT’S GOOD FOR YOU

By Pam Eastlick

Welcome to The Deep science and technology column where we cover topics from the deep sea to deep space and beyond.

Although I know we did medicine last week, the medical file still has an obesity problem, but here’s the good news. We’re only going to do good news stories and I promise next week to delve into space or global warming or archeology or animals or anything else besides what ails us! So off we go on our first adventure.

TWIRL THAT MOUSTACHE!

In a recent study using rats, scientists made an astounding discovery. The most common type of stroke can be completely prevented in rats by stimulating a single whisker, according to a study by California researchers.

Strokes are the No. 3 cause of death in the U.S., after heart disease and cancer. About 795,000 Americans suffer them annually, according to the American Heart Association, and more than 137,000 die as a result.

So should we be tickling our own whiskers? And what about women, who are less likely to have facial hair? While it’s too soon to tell if the findings will translate to humans, researchers say it’s possible, and that whiskers are not required. Humans have sensitive body parts wired to the same area of the brain as the fine-tuned whiskers of rats. The fingers, lips and the face in general could all have a similar effect.

A stroke usually happens when a main artery bringing oxygen and nutrients to the brain either ruptures or is blocked by a clot, causing partial brain death. The key to preventing strokes in rats whose main cerebral artery has been obstructed, UCI researchers found, is to stimulate the blood-starved brain area.

The team discovered that mechanically stroking just one whisker for four minutes within the first two hours of the blockage caused the blood to quickly flow to other arteries — like cars exiting a gridlocked freeway to find detours. But unlike freeway off-ramps, which can quickly clog, the alternate arteries expanded beyond their normal size, opening wide to allow critical blood flow to the brain. The technique was 100 percent effective in preventing strokes in rats with arterial obstruction.

Scientists have struggled for years to find ways of preventing strokes or minimizing their effects, which include slurred speech, paralysis and brain damage. People believed to be suffering a stroke are currently told to lie still and stay calm in a quiet environment. The Irvine researchers say that a good massage, listening to a song or otherwise stimulating the right nerve endings might work better.

They caution that the rodent findings might not be relevant to humans. But with such clear evidence that strokes in rats were prevented, they want to try controlled human studies. That’s tricky though, since you can’t predict when someone will have a stroke.

The UCI team would like to find physicians or emergency medical technicians willing to try the technique on patients with early stroke symptoms.

Signs of stroke include:

• Sudden numbness or weakness in face or limbs, especially on one side.
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding.
• Sudden difficulty seeing or walking.
• Dizziness or loss of balance or coordination.
• Sudden, severe headache with no known cause.

If you or someone you know experiences one or more of these symptoms, call 911. The first two hours are critical. And while you’re waiting for the ambulance, try massaging the victim’s fingers or gently rubbing their face. You certainly won’t hurt them, and you just might make a big difference in their recovery!

Now that’s my kind of treatment! If it works, you will have done a great thing and if it doesn’t work you have done no harm. So, let’s move on to our next feel-good article. I’ll bet that the majority of the people who read this could stand to lose a few pounds. I know I could. So, are you ready for the next weight loss miracle? Trust me; you won’t see this one touted on TV!

WEIGHT LOSS MIRACLE!!!

Here it is! An appetite-control agent that requires no prescription, has no common side effects, and costs almost nothing!!! Scientists report results of a new clinical trial confirming that just two 8-ounce glasses of the stuff, taken before meals, enables people to shed pounds. The weight-loss elixir is (wait for it!) dihydrogen monoxide! That’s right ladies and gentlemen, it’s . . . . . water.

Brenda Davy, the senior author of the study reported that the team had discovered in earlier studies that middle aged and older people who drank two cups of water right before eating a meal ate between 75 and 90 fewer calories during that meal. In the recent study, they found that over the course of 12 weeks, dieters who drank water before meals, three times per day, lost about 5 pounds more than dieters who did not increase their water intake.

Davy pointed out that folklore and everyday experience long have suggested that water can help promote weight loss. But there’ve been surprisingly few scientific studies on the topic. (Probably because water isn’t produced by drug companies!) Previous studies hinted that drinking water before meals reduces caloric intake. But this is the first "gold-standard" evidence from a randomized, controlled clinical trial that compares weight loss among dieters who drink water before meals with those who do not.

The study included 48 adults aged 55-75 years, divided into two groups. One group drank 2 cups of water prior to their meals and the other did not. All of the subjects ate a low-calorie diet during the study. Over the course of 12 weeks, water drinkers lost about 15.5 pounds, while the non-water drinkers lost about 11 pounds.

Davy said water may be effective simply because it fills up the stomach with a substance that has zero calories. People feel fuller as a result, and eat less calorie-containing food during the meal. Increased water consumption may also help people lose weight if they drink it in place of sweetened calorie-containing beverages.

Diet soda and other beverages with artificial sweeteners may also help people reduce their calorie intake and lose weight. But the team advised against using beverages sweetened with sugar and high-fructose corn syrup because they’re so high in calories. A 12-ounce can of regular soda pop, for instance, contains about 10 teaspoons of sugar. Dr. Davy says “People should drink more water and less sugary, high-calorie drinks. It’s a simple way to facilitate weight management”

Drinking more water before meals can help promote weight loss, new research suggests. (Credit: iStockphoto/Lise Gagne)

And now, are you ready for the ultimate feel-good medical story???

THE HEART-SHAPED BOX

Middle-aged and elderly Swedish women who regularly ate a small amount of chocolate had lower heart failure risk. The nine-year study, conducted among 31,823 middle-aged and elderly Swedish women, looked at the relationship of the amount of high-quality chocolate the women ate, compared to their risk for heart failure. The chocolate consumed by the women was the equivalent of a high quality dark chocolate with a high cocoa content somewhat like dark chocolate by American standards.

In this study, researchers found:

• Women who ate an average of one to two servings of the high-quality chocolate per week had a 32 percent lower risk of developing heart failure.
• Those who had one to three servings per month had a 26 percent lower risk.
• Those who consumed at least one serving daily or more didn’t appear to benefit from a protective effect against heart failure.

The lack of a protective effect among women eating chocolate every day is probably because of the additional calories gained from eating chocolate instead of lower calorie foods.

Chocolate is, of course, pretty calorie-dense food and if you eat too much you raise your risk for weight gain. But the researchers say that if you’re going to have a treat, dark chocolate is probably a good choice, as long as it’s in moderation.

The benefits seem to correlate with a high content of cocoa in the chocolate and that’s bad news for Americans. Although 90 percent of all chocolate eaten across Sweden during the study period was milk chocolate, it contained about 30 percent cocoa solids. U.S. standards only require 15 percent cocoa solids to qualify as dark chocolate. So, by comparison, American chocolate may have fewer heart benefits and more calories and fat per equivalent amounts of cocoa content compared to the chocolate eaten by the Swedish women in the study.

And, of course, in the words of Linda Van Horn, immediate past chair of the American Heart Association Nutrition. "This is not an ‘eat all you want’ take-home message, rather it’s that eating a little dark chocolate can be healthful, as long as other adverse behaviors do not occur, such as weight gain or excessive intake of non-nutrient dense ‘empty’ calories."

A new study has found that middle-aged and elderly Swedish women who regularly ate a small amount of chocolate had lower risks of heart failure risks. (Credit: iStockphoto)

So, of course, we’re not going to go home and empty out the chocolate box, are we? But I think you’ll agree that any article that says that chocolate is good for you was worth the time to read.

CHOCOLATE AND THE BRAIN

By Pam Eastlick

Welcome to The Deep science and technology column where we cover topics from the deep sea to deep space and beyond.

Since I am typing this on a holiday, this column will be a little different. First of all, it’s going to be shorter than it usually is because that means I don’t have to take enormous chunks of my holiday to write it, AND it is only going to feature good news, mostly about something that makes my life worthwhile. What is this magic elixir that makes us all smile??? CHOCOLATE!

Many of you older readers (and many of you that aren’t so old) wrestle with high blood pressure. I take medicine for it and many of you do too. Our high junk food diets and sedentary lifestyles make high blood pressure almost a given. I’m one of the lucky ones. I take a very low dosage pill and my blood pressure is always exactly where it should be. Now researchers have discovered something that makes ME smile.

A NEW MEDICINE?

Australian researchers have made a wonderful discovery. They combined the results of 15 different studies that looked at the effects of flavanols on blood pressure. Flavanols dilate the blood vessels.

And where do we find flavanols? Dark chocolate. For people with hypertension (high blood pressure), eating dark chocolate can significantly reduce blood pressure.

Dr Karin Ried worked with a team of researchers from the University of Adelaide, Australia, to conduct the analysis. She said, "Flavanols have been shown to increase the formation of endothelial nitric oxide, which promotes vasodilation and consequently may lower blood pressure. There have, however, been conflicting results as to the real-life effects of eating chocolate. We’ve found that consumption can significantly, albeit modestly, reduce blood pressure for people with high blood pressure but not for people with normal blood pressure."

The pressure reduction seen in the combined results for people with hypertension, 5mm Hg systolic, may be clinically relevant; it’s comparable to the known effects of a daily regimen of 30 minutes of physical activity (4-9mm Hg) and could theoretically reduce the risk of a cardiovascular event by about 20% over five years.

The researchers are cautious, however, "The practicability of chocolate or cocoa drinks as long-term treatment is questionable," said Dr Ried.

Well honey, it may be questionable for you, but I choose to personally believe that the reason I don’t have high blood pressure is because I eat five or six pieces of bite-sized dark chocolate candy every day. Eating those mini Dove bars is also a whole lot more fun that taking the morning pills!

And speaking of ‘a whole lot more fun’ there’s more new research about our favorite brown food.

I FEEL BETTER NOW

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that women and men eat more chocolate as depressive symptoms increase, suggesting an association between mood and chocolate.

Results of this paper, co-authored by Beatrice Golomb, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at UCSD School of Medicine, appears in the April 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

"Our study confirms long-held suspicions that eating chocolate is something that people do when they are feeling down," said Dr. Golomb. "Because it was a cross sectional study, meaning a slice in time, it did not tell us whether the chocolate decreased or intensified the depression."

Golomb and her colleagues examined the relationship of chocolate consumption to mood in an adult study sample of about 1,000 subjects who weren’t on antidepressant medications and didn’t have any known cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Participants were asked how many servings of chocolate they ate in a week, and were screened using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) to measure mood.

The researchers found that both men and women who had higher depression scores consumed almost 12 servings of chocolate per month, those with lesser depression scores ate about eight servings of chocolate per month, and those with no depression had five servings per month. No differentiation was made between dark and milk chocolate; a medium serving of chocolate was one ounce, which is slightly less than an average chocolate candy bar.

"The findings did not appear to be explained by a general increase in caffeine, fat, carbohydrate or energy intake, suggesting that our findings are specific to chocolate," said Golomb. There was also no difference in the consumption of other antioxidant-rich foods, such as fish, coffee, fruits and vegetables between those with depression and those without. Golomb added that future studies will be required to determine the basis of this association, as well as the role of chocolate in depression, as cause or cure.

Hmmm. Do you suppose the fact that I didn’t slip into major depression after some recent negative events in my life could be attributed to my chocolate intake? Long live dark chocolate!!!

A new study finds that women and men eat more chocolate as depressive symptoms increase, suggesting an association between mood and chocolate. (Credit: iStockphoto/Gustavo Andrade)

Yes indeed, I love my chocolate but something I don’t love is the idiot box. I don’t own a functional television which makes me very unusual indeed. I get my once a week TV fix by watching old Star Trek episodes with friends and I confess that I don’t miss TV at all. So, what do I do with my evenings? Well, I read, and I do crossword puzzles, logic problems and other word puzzles. And now new research says that that may be better for me than chocolate!

A PUZZLING RESULT

If you don’t have a college degree, you’re at greater risk of developing memory problems or even Alzheimer’s. Education plays a key role in lifelong memory performance and risk for dementia, and it’s well documented that those with a college degree possess a cognitive advantage over their less educated counterparts in middle and old age

Now, a large national study from Brandeis University published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry shows that those with less schooling can significantly compensate for less education by frequently engaging in mental exercises such as word games, puzzles, reading, and lectures.

"The lifelong benefits of higher education for memory in later life are quite impressive, but we do not clearly understand how and why these effects last so long," said lead author Margie Lachman, a psychologist. She suggested that higher education may spur lifelong interest in cognitive endeavors, while those with less education may not engage as frequently in mental exercises that help keep the memory agile.

But higher education apparently isn’t the the only route to maintain your memory and your brain function. The study found that intellectual activities undertaken regularly made a difference. Lachman said that people without a college education who did things like reading, writing, attending lectures, and doing word games or puzzles once a week or more had memory scores similar to people with more education.

The study, called Midlife in the United States, assessed 3,343 men and women between the ages of 32 and 84 with a mean age of 56 years. Almost 40 percent of the participants had at least a 4-year college degree. The researchers evaluated how the participants performed in two areas, verbal memory and in the brain processes involved in planning, abstract thinking and cognitive flexibility. Participants were given a battery of tests, including tests of verbal fluency, word recall, and backward counting.

As expected those with higher education said they engaged in cognitive activities more often and also did better on the memory tests, but some with less education also did well, explained Lachman.

She said "Although we can not rule out the possibility that those who have better memories are the ones who take on more activities, the evidence is consistent with cognitive plasticity, and suggests some degree of personal control over cognitive functioning in adulthood by adopting an intellectually active lifestyle."

So . . . what does this mean for you? Turn the TV off, pick up a book and read it. Buy yourself a puzzle book the next time you go to the grocery store. Attend one of the lectures at UOG. Heck, come to a Planetarium show. They’re this week, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 6:30 and 7:00 p.m.

The 6:30 p.m. show is Autumn Skies where you learn all about Guam’s autumn skies! At 7:00 p.m., we’re either going to have the show Learning the Sky which takes you on a tour of Guam’s skies throughout the year or if it isn’t overcast we’ll have Quality Time with the Star Lady where I answer your questions until it gets dark enough to go out and look at the real sky and find three planets.

The Planetarium is located on the second floor of the Science Building of the main campus of the University of Guam and best of all Planetarium shows are always FREE!!

So turn the TV off, and crank up those cognitive skills this week. Your brain will thank you for it!

GOOD NEWS MEDICINE

By Pam Eastlick

Welcome to The Deep science and technology column where we cover topics from the deep sea to deep space and beyond.

Greetings! It’s time to dip into the weird and wonderful world of what ails us and I’ve decided that today we all need a boost so all the stories are good news. No ugly oil spills, no ‘the next new thing that will kill me’, just good news. So here goes.

RESTORING SIGHT

A world that I don’t even want to try to imagine is the world of the blind. I love to read and although I also love to listen to audio books, blindness would remove a huge part of my enjoyment of life. And there’s very good news in this area. Scientists are reporting progress toward a test that could revolutionize the diagnosis of glaucoma, the second leading cause of vision loss and blindness worldwide, by detecting the disease years earlier then the typical diagnoses today.

Glaucoma is the name given to a group of eye disorders that damage the optic nerve, which carries visual information from the eye to the brain. It usually occurs when fluid pressure inside the eye slowly increases over time and damages the optic nerve. Glaucoma affects about 70 million people worldwide, including about 2 million in the United States. It’s called the ‘vision stealer’ because it damages with no obvious warning symptoms that would send patients to a doctor. There is no cure, and glaucoma causes irreversible loss of vision.

Doctors now use two main techniques to detect the disease. One test measures eye pressure by gently touching a special instrument to the outer surface of the eye. In the other, an eye specialist uses an instrument called an ophthalmoscope to look directly through the pupil of the eye at the optic nerve. The nerve’s color and appearance can indicate the presence of damage from glaucoma.

Unfortunately, all too often, these tests detect glaucoma after the disease has already damaged the optic nerve. Years may pass between the first biological change associated with glaucoma inside the eye and diagnosis. Eye doctors need to be able to diagnose glaucoma earlier, before permanent damage has occurred, so that patients can begin taking medication to control it.

The researchers in the current study used Raman spectroscopy, which chemists use to focus a beam of infrared laser light, invisible to the human eye, into a test sample to get information about the sample’s composition. The scientists used a Raman spectrometer to shine laser light through the pupil of the eye. Nerve cells inside the eye scatter the light, producing a rainbow-like "spectrum" or pattern revealing the chemical composition of the cells. The spectrum can be used to identify biochemical changes in retinal cells that announce the presence of glaucoma.

The research team has used animal subjects so far, and they look forward to clinical trials in humans. If everything goes well and no problems are detected, the technique could be ready to be used in your eye doctor’s office within five years. The test will probably take about 30 minutes, longer than existing glaucoma tests, but will benefit patients with a more accurate diagnosis of the disease.

A person with advanced glaucoma could have this view of the world, a risk that might be reduced by a new early diagnostic test for the common eye disease. (Credit: National Institutes of Health)

Early detection of glaucoma is certainly a good news story, but there are other ones out there. One of them involves a drug I take myself.

NEW USES FOR AN OLD DRUG

I am very proud of my doctors because several years ago they put me on a drug that many of you are familiar with. They put me on metformin, which is also called Glucophage. Metformin is the generic name for the drug, but its trademarked name actually tells you what it does. Glucophage means ‘sugar eater’ and metformin is a marvelous drug that literally ‘eats’ the sugar out of your bloodstream before it can trigger type 2 diabetes.

Metformin is given to diabetics, but it’s also routinely prescribed for non-diabetics like me who are at risk of developing the disease. When my fasting blood sugar went above 110, I was put on metformin. I’ve been on it for several years now and my fasting blood sugar is always right around 100.

As if diabetes prevention (and treatment) weren’t enough for this drug, new research shows that metformin may soon play a role in lung cancer prevention. Emerging research suggests metformin may inhibit tumor growth as well.

In the current study, conducted by researchers from the National Cancer Institute, mice were treated with metformin for 13 weeks following exposure to a nicotine-derived nitrosamine (NNK), which is the most prevalent carcinogen in tobacco and a known promoter of tumor development in the lungs.

The metformin was administered by mouth (hopefully they didn’t give the poor mice metformin pills the size of the ones that I take!) and it reduced the number of lung tumors developed by the mice by 40 percent to 50 percent. The researchers said that the levels of metformin used to do this would also be tolerated by humans.

The scientists discovered that the metformin inhibited the growth of a chemical called rapamycin which is know to promote lung tumor growth. They also discovered that if the metformin was delivered by injection, it reduced the number of tumors by 72 percent.

Although I’m not a smoker, I lived with one for many years. It’s nice to know that a drug I already take may be keeping me safe in other ways as well!

And now a story about a disease that is prevalent in our part of the world.

TAMPING THE FEVER

Dengue fever is also called ‘bonebreak fever’, not because it breaks your bones but because the disease makes you feel as though every bone in your body has been broken. Dengue fever is possibly the disease being suffered by whoever said, “For the first three days I was afraid I would die and for the next three days, I was afraid I wouldn’t”.

Scientists at the Imperial College in London have recently discovered the virus that cause dengue fever may be pirating some of our own immune system defenses to infect more cells. They hope their new findings can help with the design of a new vaccine against dengue. The study also shines light on the observation that people who contract dengue fever more than once usually experience more severe and dangerous symptoms the second time around.

Dengue fever is transmitted by mosquitoes and is prevalent in sub-tropical and tropical regions including South East Asia, South America and the islands of the Pacific. Symptoms include high fever, severe aching in the joints and vomiting. The dengue virus can also cause hemorrhagic fever, which can be fatal.

The researchers in the current study have identified a set of antibodies that are produced by the human immune system to fight off the dengue virus. Their research has also shown that these antibodies not only do a really lousy job of fighting off the virus, they may actually help the virus infect more cells.

The study suggests that when a person who has already been infected with one strain of dengue virus encounters a different strain, the antibodies awakened during the first infection spring into action again. However, rather than protecting the body from the second infection, the antibodies help the virus establish itself. The presence of these antibodies probably explains why a second infection of dengue with a different strain of the virus can be worse than the first infection.

Although we haven’t had an outbreak of dengue on Guam in many years, we still have the mosquito that carries it here as well as the mosquito that carries malaria. Which explains why I walk all around my property every month or so and upend anything that’s holding rainwater. This doesn’t necessarily endear me to the other people that live there, but it does mean that there are fewer mosquitoes around my house. It’s not a bad policy for everyone in the Marianas islands!

And now we come to my favorite story about one of my all time favorite things!

STROKE MEDICINE?

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that a compound in dark chocolate may protect the brain after a stroke by increasing cellular signals already known to shield nerve cells from damage.

Ninety minutes after feeding mice a single modest dose of epicatechin, a compound found naturally in dark chocolate, the scientists induced an ischemic stroke by essentially cutting off the blood supply to the animals’ brains. They found that the animals that had eaten the epicatechin suffered significantly less brain damage than the ones that had not been given the compound.

While most stroke treatments given to humans must be administered within a two- to three-hour time window to be effective, epicatechin limited further damage at least three and half hours after a stroke. If it was given six hours after a stroke, however, there was no protections.

The amount of dark chocolate you’d have to eat to benefit from its protective effects remains unclear, since the researchers didn’t use people in their clinical trials. They warn that you shouldn’t take this research as a license to go out and consume large amounts of chocolate, which is high in calories and fat.

Scientists have also been intrigued by the potential health benefits of epicatechin by studying the Kuna Indians, a remote population living on islands off the coast of Panama. The Kuna Indians have a low incidence of cardiovascular disease. Scientists who studied them found nothing striking in their genetic makeup. Then they realized that when they moved away from Kuna, they were no longer protected from heart problems. Researchers soon discovered the reason was likely environmental: The residents of Kuna regularly drank a very bitter cocoa drink, with a consistency like molasses, instead of coffee or soda. The drink was high in the compound epicatechin.

The researchers warn that the epicatechin found in dark chocolate is extremely sensitive to changes in heat and light and that most commercial processes of making chocolate destroy it. Only few chocolates have the active ingredient and the label ‘dark chocolate’ is no guarantee that the chocolate contains epicatechin.

Quite frankly, I don’t care. I LOVE dark chocolate and I’m going to keep right on eating it! if there’s the tiniest chance it’s actually good for me so much the better!

A compound in dark chocolate may protect the brain after a stroke by increasing cellular signals already known to shield nerve cells from damage, new research shows. (Credit: iStockphoto/Lasse Kristensen)

Cruise on over to the Deep Website at www.thedeepradioshow.com to learn more about eye diseases, drug research and chocoholics! Enjoy!

GLOBAL WARMING AND COFFINS?

By Pam Eastlick

Welcome to The Deep science and technology column where we cover topics from the deep sea to deep space and beyond.

Greetings everyone! Well, I have a couple of follow-up stories for subjects that I featured over the last couple of weeks and then we’ll make a little trip to Rome. Our first follow-up is on global warming One of the things about global warming that I always figured was that I’d be pushing up daisies long before it became a serious enough problem to seriously affect my lifestyle. Now, I’m not so sure.

HOT ENOUGH FOR YOU?

According to NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) last month was the hottest April since record keeping began in 1880. The average land and sea temperature was 58.1 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s 1.37 degrees F above the 20th century average of 56.7 degrees F.

Not only was April the hottest April ever recorded, so were the first four months of 2010. The average temperature for January-April 2010 was 56.0 degrees which is 1.24 degrees F above the 20th century average.

Areas that were significantly warmer than average included Canada, Alaska, the eastern United States, Australia, South Asia, northern Africa and northern Russia. Cooler-than-normal places included Mongolia, Argentina, far eastern Russia, the western contiguous United States and most of China.

Climate experts said the El Nino warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean weakened in April and that Arctic sea ice was below normal for the 11th consecutive April, covering an average of 5.7 million square miles. On the plus side (and there aren’t many in this report) Antarctic sea ice extent in April was near average, just 0.3 percent below the 1979-2000 average. On the minus side, the North American snow cover for the month was the smallest on record for April.

So, ladies and gentlemen, no matter who or what we decide to blame for causing it, there is NO question that global warming is HERE! So, prepare for more power outages and buy lots of hand fans. And don’t go buying any beachfront property!

Now that I have your attention, remember last week’s articles on the dangers of drug-resistant tuberculosis? Well, it isn’t just TB!

THE CLAP THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

I suspect that many Chamorus and Filipinos don’t have any idea why haoles get that funny look on their faces when an emcee gets up and says “Wasn’t that wonderful, folks? Now let’s all give them the clap!”. Because for us, ‘clap’ doesn’t mean applause. It’s street slang for a very nasty sexually transmitted disease, gonorrhea. And there’s some pretty bad news about some new strains of “the clap”. Like TB, gonorrhea is about to achieve superbug status.

Researchers from England have proposed the very real possibility that strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae resistant to all current treatment options could emerge in the near future. They write that some strains of the bacteria that cause the disease are showing decreased sensitivity to the current antibiotics used to treat them — ceftriaxone and cefixime.

Gonorrhea is the second most common bacterial sexually-transmitted infection and if left untreated can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility in women. Current treatment consists of a single dose of antibiotic given in the clinic when prescribed, by mouth for cefixime and by injection for ceftriaxone.

Gonorrhea is already resistant to penicillin and a number of other antibiotics as well. Ceftriaxone and cefixime are still effective but there are signs that resistance particularly to cefixime is emerging and if gonorrhea becomes resistant to them, there are very limited numbers of effective antibiotics left in the arsenal.

The researchers warn that if the problem isn’t addressed and people don’t take their antibiotics as directed that gonorrhea could emerge as a very nasty infection. And that’s nothing to clap about!

And now that we’ve had our horror stories for the week, let’s turn to something a little more benign. Let’s head off for ancient Rome for some surprising modern-day news.

WHERE DID HE COME FROM?

Researchers excavating an ancient Roman cemetery recently made a surprising discovery when they extracted ancient DNA from one of the skeletons buried at the site. They discovered two very interesting things. The bones were 2,000-years old and they weren’t Roman. The gentleman they belonged to was from a country far, far away. He was from Eastern Asia.

According to Tracy Prowse, assistant professor of Anthropology, and the lead author on the study, the evidence indicates that the subject was not born in the area around Vagnari the site of the cemetery. Based on her work in the region, she thinks the East Asian man, who lived sometime between the first to second centuries AD — the early Roman Empire — was a slave or worker on the site. His surviving grave goods consist of a single pot (which archaeologists used to date the burial). What’s more, his burial was disturbed in antiquity and someone was buried on top of him.

Prowse’s team can’t say how recently he, or his ancestors, left East Asia: he could have made the journey alone, or his East Asian genes might have come from a distant maternal ancestor. But the evidence indicates that he was definitely not born in Italy and likely came here from elsewhere in the Roman Empire.

During this era, Vagnari was an Imperial estate owned by the emperor in Rome and controlled by a local administrator. Workers were employed in industrial activities on the site, including iron smelting and tile production. These tiles were used for roofing buildings on the site and were also used as grave covers for the people buried in the cemetery. Fragmentary tiles found in and around Vagnari are marked "Gratus Caesaris," which translates as "slave of the emperor."

Although this man was probably a slave, his DNA tells us that he was born far beyond the borders of the Roman empire at that time. It also probably tells us that people of that time were wanderers just like they are today. And now, another interesting cemetery discovery from ancient Rome.

The grave of a mystery man. (Credit: Image courtesy of McMaster University)

AND DO WE WANT TO LET HIM OUT?

If the previous story leaves us with a mystery about where the man came from, there is more grave news from Rome. In the ruins of a city that was once Rome’s neighbor, archaeologists have found a 1,000-pound lead coffin.

Who or what is inside is still a mystery, said Nicola Terrenato, the University of Michigan professor of classical studies who leads the project — the largest American dig in Italy in the past 50 years. The sarcophagus will soon be transported to the American Academy in Rome, where engineers will use heating techniques and tiny cameras in an effort to gain insights about the contents without breaking the coffin itself.

"We’re very excited about this find," Terrenato said. "Romans as a rule weren’t buried in coffins to begin with and when they did use coffins, they were mostly wooden. There are only a handful of other examples from Italy of lead coffins from this age — the second, third or fourth century A.D. We know of virtually no others in this region."

And this coffin is especially unusual because of its size. It’s made from a sheet of lead that’s an inch thick and folded onto itself an inch thick. A thousand pounds of lead represented an enormous amount of wealth in ancient Roman times and the researchers are mystified as to why so much of it would be used in a burial.

Human remains encased in lead coffins tend to be well preserved, if difficult to get to but the researchers want to avoid breaking into the coffin because the amount of force necessary to break through the lead would likely damage the contents. Instead, they will first use thermography and endoscopy.

Thermography involves heating the coffin a few degrees and monitoring the resulting thermal response. Bones and any artifacts buried with them would have different thermal responses. Endoscopy involves inserting a miniature l camera through a small hole bored into the coffin. But how well that works depends on how much dirt has found its way into the container over the centuries. The researchers could also do an MRI scan, but that would require hauling the half-ton casket to a hospital.

Was the deceased a soldier? A gladiator? A bishop? All are possibilities, some more remote than others. The researchers will do their best to examine the bones and any "grave goods" or Christian symbols inside the container in an effort to make a determination.

The site of Gabii, situated on undeveloped land 11 miles east of Rome in modern-day Lazio, was a major city that pre-dates Rome but seems to have waned as the Roman Empire grew. Studying Gabii gives

researchers a glimpse into pre-Roman life and offers clues to how early Italian cities formed. It also allows them easier access to more substantial archaeological layers or strata. In the city of Rome, layers of civilization were built on top of each other, and archaeologists are not able or allowed to disturb them. The researchers hope to find many things at Gabii, not just a mysterious coffin

The lead coffin archaeologists found in the abandoned ancient city of Gabii, Italy could contain a gladiator or bishop. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Michigan)

WHAT AILS US

By Pam Eastlick

Welcome to The Deep science and technology column where we cover topics from the deep sea to deep space and beyond.

Well, my office is about to be taken over by the bulging medical files, so it’s off we go into a little excursion into what ails us. There’s good news and there’s bad news and today we’re considering some diseases that ail us specifically here in the Marianas. And of course, the disease that’s on the upswing with all that good food all over the world is diabetes.

GETTING AT THE ROOT

Scientists have known for quite some time that babies with low birth weights have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes as adults. This is usually attributed to malnutrition of the mother during pregnancy, but German scientists have done some data analysis and discovered that genetic background may also play a major role. They analyzed the data of 729 children whose mothers had type 1 diabetes and who thus had a higher diabetes risk.

The scientists investigated the genetic background of fetuses for alterations in individual DNA bases. They focused on three gene regions that are known to be involved in diabetes caused by reduced insulin secretion and looked at them in relation to birth weight. They discovered that two of the regions had a significant association with low birth weights in the infants. This implies that there may be a genetic cause for both low birth weights and the development of diabetes later in life.

With their findings, the German researchers have come a step closer to understanding the underlying genetic mechanisms of diabetes diseases. Their next investigation will be to see if the gene regions examined in the study also have an effect on body weight later in life. Since their study has run continuously since 1989, this data already exists and simply needs to be analyzed.

So, it appears that genetic factors can cause both low birth weights and diabetes later in life. But where are the diabetics? Well, we know that there are many in the Marianas, and that diabetes is becoming more prevalent in the mainland US, but that’s not where most diabetics are and their location may surprise you.

WHERE THE PROBLEM LIES

A large population-based study of diabetes conducted by investigators from Tulane University and their Chinese colleagues has concluded that the disease has reached epidemic proportions in the adult population of China. The study estimates that 92.4 million adults age 20 or older (9.7 percent of the population) have diabetes and 148.2 million adults (15.5 percent) have prediabetes, a key risk factor for the development of overt diabetes and cardiovascular disease. (This compares with 7.8 percent of the United States population).

The study builds on several recent large studies in China that have documented a rapid increase in diabetes in the population. The current study administered an oral glucose tolerance test to 46,239 adults aged 20 or older from 14 provinces and municipalities throughout China in order to identify cases of previously undiagnosed diabetes. Subjects of the study who had been previously diagnosed with diabetes were identified through questioning by the study’s data collectors.

Following recent rapid economic development in China, cardiovascular disease has become the leading cause of death in the county. Diabetes is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and the prevalence of diabetes in China, as this study indicates, is high and increasing. Diabetes increases the risk of cardiovascular complications and premature death, and results in a massive economic burden for society.

The researchers noted a higher prevalence of diabetes among urban residents in China than among rural ones, a result consistent with observations that have been made in developing countries throughout the world. "Urbanization is associated with changes in lifestyle that lead to physical inactivity, an unhealthful diet and obesity, all of which have been implicated as contributing factors in the development of diabetes," says Dr. Jiang He, a professor at Tulane University and the senior author of the study.

With its very large population, China may bear a higher diabetes-related burden than any other country. Especially alarming is the finding that the majority of cases of diabetes (60.7 percent) are undiagnosed and untreated. The researchers conclude that diabetes and its consequences have become a major public health crisis in China, and recommend that the country quickly develop and institute national strategies for preventing, detecting and treating diabetes in the general population.

So, how do the Marianas stack up in the race no one wants to win? According to the most recent data, our population is right up there with China’s at between 9 and 10 percent diabetic.

How do you keep from being diabetic? Exercise more and eat less! All your life!! And stop drinking the sugared soft drinks. It couldn’t hurt! And here’s something else that couldn’t hurt.

AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION

So you want more advice on how to avoid diabetes and even heart disease? Start taking your vitamin D. According to a team of English researchers, middle aged and elderly people with high levels of vitamin D could reduce their chances of developing heart disease or diabetes by 43%.

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is naturally present in some foods and is also produced when ultraviolet rays from sunlight strike the skin and trigger vitamin D synthesis. Fish like salmon, tuna and mackerel are good sources of vitamin D, and it is also available as a dietary supplement.

Researchers looked at 28 studies with almost 100,000 participants. The people were from a variety of ethnic groups and the studies included both men and women. Half of the studies were conducted in the United States, eight were European, two studies were from Iran, three from Australasia and one from India.

The researchers discovered a significant association between high levels of vitamin D and a decreased risk of developing cardiovascular disease (33% reduction), type 2 diabetes (55% reduction) and metabolic syndrome (51% reduction).

So keep eating that fish and taking time for a little sunshine in your busy day. Your body will love you for it!

And now we turn our attention to another real problem here in the Marianas. It’s a real killer and it’s on the upswing everywhere. It’s tuberculosis.

FIGHTING THE BAD ONES

Tuberculosis is a nasty disease that can take many forms in the body. The bad news is that a bad disease takes bad drugs to kill it and they must be taken every single day over a long period of time. The real problem is that once people start to feel better, they stop taking their drugs early. Unfortunately, they haven’t killed the killer; they’ve done something infinitely worse. They’ve made it drug-resistant.

According to the World Health Organization in some areas of the world, one in four people with tuberculosis (TB) becomes ill with a form of the disease that can no longer be treated with standard drugs regimens. That’s right, folks, there’s TB out there that’s resistant to every drug on the planet.

Not only that. TB has another little trick up its sleeve. TB can affect you two ways. When people are infected with TB they can become sick immediately. But in many cases, the TB hides in your body and becomes inactive or latent. Unfortunately, NONE of the antibiotics used to fight TB are effective against latent TB. They only work when the disease becomes active. This is a major problem as ten percent of the people who have latent TB will develop the active disease at some point and become both sick and contagious.

A team of researchers from Australia has discovered a protein that’s essential for TB to survive and they’ve had some success in developing a drug that will inhibit that protein. They are currently doing studies to see just how effective the drug is against latent TB. If the project succeeds, it will be the first new treatment for TB since 1962.

This is exciting news given that TB kills almost 2 million people each year. One third of the world’s population, or two billion people, are infected with TB. Every second of every day another person is infected.

And like diabetes, this one is at our doorstep too. It has reared its ugly head in my very own family. But at least here, there’s no problem with people not taking their drugs. Public Health requires that you take your drugs in front of a nurse. Every single day. Diabetes and tuberculosis. Just two of the things that are poised to get you. Live healthy and you’ll live longer!