Monthly Archives: December 2011

Health, Social Progress

Keith Aoki’s Seed Wars

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Seed Wars: Controversies and Cases on Plant Genetic Resources and Intellectual Property
by Keith Aoki
Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2008 [order]

This book is essential to an understanding of the commodification of plant germplasm from Mendel to Monsanto (actually, the historical breadth extends from pre-history to 2007), and a look forward toward possible solutions.

A few quotes:

“Plant genetic diversity has been an invaluable resource to humans in preserving and developing a reliable food supply, and farmers could openly access germplasm for thousands of years in local and decentralized fashion. Today, that has all changed.”

“…plant genetic diversity is being lost as industrialized agriculture replaces traditional crop strains with increasingly uniform varieties.”

“Genetic engineering in terms of commercial crops necessarily entails decreased genetic diversity, which is detrimental. The uniformity of genetically modified seeds makes them less resistant to disease. Because plants bred from similar strands are all vulnerable to the same pests and diseases, a single instance of disease can spread rapidly, practically unchecked, amongst the entire crop. By contrast, traditional genetically diverse landraces developed their own natural defenses against disease.”

“Do we control our institutions and inventions or do they, like Frankenstein’s monster, control us?”

Aoki died in April 2011 at age 55 – http://www.thepublicdomain.org/2011/04/27/rip-keith-aoki/. Read his book now.

Health, Social Progress

Global Magnitude of Mesothelioma

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Park EK, Takahashi K, Hoshuyama T, et al.
Global magnitude of reported and unreported mesothelioma.
Environ Health Perspect. 2011 Apr;119(4):514-8.
PubMed PMID: 21463977

Investigators at University of Occupational and Environmental Health (Japan), University of Birmingham (UK), and National Taiwan University estimated the global magnitude of mesothelioma, accounting for reported and unreported cases.

Noting that malignant mesothelioma – a rare form of cancer caused specifically by exposure to asbestos – is a major public health concern because it “is difficult to diagnose, has extremely poor prognosis, and is on the increase, and that “epidemics of mesothelioma have been reported nationally and regionally,” the authors point out that current epidemiological data are “biased toward developed countries and regions with the resources to diagnose asbestos-related diseases and with known historical use of asbestos” and that “mesothelioma is grossly underreported in many developing countries, including some with known extensive use of asbestos.”

From the conclusion:

“We estimated the 15-year cumulative frequency of mesothelioma during 1994–2008 in the 56 countries reporting mesothelioma to be 174,300. Using cumulative asbestos use to predict cumulative mesothelioma frequency at national levels, we predicted the 15-year cumulative frequency of mesothelioma during 1994–2008 in the 33 countries that do not report mesothelioma to be 38,900. Thus, globally, for every four to five reported cases of mesothelioma, one case has been overlooked. These estimates support the need for countermeasures at national, regional, and international levels.”

The authors observe that the world has “nearly doubled cumulative use of asbestos from 65 million metric tons up until 1970, to 124 million metric tons since then,” and that in particular, Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Japan, the United States, Brazil, Germany, India, and Thailand “should anticipate the need to deal with a very high burden of mesothelioma in the immediate decades ahead.”

They urge that “developed countries share experience and technology to enable developing countries to promote accurate diagnosis, reporting, and management of [asbestos-related diseases]” and that “political will is essential to ensure that asbestos use ceases globally.”

Free full text is available via PubMed.

The information on my blog is not intended as a substitute for medical professional help or advice but is to be used only as an aid in understanding current medical knowledge. A physician should always be consulted for any health problem or medical condition.

Health

Meta-Analysis: Coffee Consumption and Cancer Risk

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Yu X, Bao Z, Zou J, Dong J.
Coffee consumption and risk of cancers: a meta-analysis of cohort studies.
BMC Cancer. 2011 Mar 15;11:96.
PubMed PMID: 21406107

Investigators at Fudan University, Shanghai, undertook a meta-analysis of 59 studies of relative risk of various cancers among coffee drinkers. Cohorts included in the meta-analysis were from Europe (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, France, Finland, and Netherlands), North America (Canada and the United States), and Asia (Japan and Singapore).

Noting that coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world, and that roasted coffee is a complex mixture of more than a thousand chemicals, the authors limited their meta-analysis to studies of coffee instead of all sources of caffeine.

From the conclusion:

“All in all, our meta-analysis including 40 prospective cohort studies confirmed that coffee drinking have no harmful effect. Instead, coffee consumption is inversely associated with the risk of bladder, breast, buccal cavity and pharynx, colorectum, endometrium, esophagus, hepatocellular, leukemia, pancreas, and prostate cancers.”

Full free text is available via PubMed.

The information on my blog is not intended as a substitute for medical professional help or advice but is to be used only as an aid in understanding current medical knowledge. A physician should always be consulted for any health problem or medical condition.

Health

A Primer on Ayurvedic Pharmaceutics

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Savrikar SS, Ravishankar B.
Bhaishajya Kalpanaa – the Ayurvedic pharmaceutics – an overview.
Afr J Tradit Complement Altern Med. 2010 Apr 3;7(3):174-84. Review.
PubMed PMID: 21461144

The authors, from Gujarat Ayurved University, present an overview of Bhaishajya Kalpanaa, the sub-discipline of Ayurvedic medicine devoted to drug formulations. They cover the historical background, basic principles, methods of preparation, and major influences on the activity of the compounds.

Drawing from the Ayurvedic Formulary of India (current version available online via the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India), the authors detail 21 drug formulations, 16 are mainly plant-based and the rest mineral- and metal-based.

Free full text is available via PubMed. Clinical trials related to Ayurvedic medicine can be found at ClinicalTrials.gov.

The information on my blog is not intended as a substitute for medical professional help or advice but is to be used only as an aid in understanding current medical knowledge. A physician should always be consulted for any health problem or medical condition.

Health

A Review of Curcumin in Head and Neck Cancer

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Wilken R, Veena MS, Wang MB, Srivatsan ES.
Curcumin: A review of anti-cancer properties and therapeutic activity in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Mol Cancer. 2011 Feb 7;10:12. Review.
PubMed PMID: 21299897.

The authors, from the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, present an overview of data on therapeutic activity of curcumin (diferuloylmethane, derived from Curcuma longa), commonly known as turmeric, in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, the sixth most common cancer worldwide.

From the abstract:

Curcumin has been used extensively in Ayurvedic medicine for centuries, as it is nontoxic and has a variety of therapeutic properties including anti-oxidant, analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antiseptic activity. More recently curcumin has been found to possess anti-cancer activities via its effect on a variety of biological pathways involved in mutagenesis, oncogene expression, cell cycle regulation, apoptosis, tumorigenesis and metastasis.

After an overview of head and neck cancer and the current therapeutic options, the authors describe curcumin in detail and the current preclinical and clinical data on its anti-cancer effects. the conclude that “curcumin is both nontoxic as well as diversified in its inhibitory effects on a multitude of pathways involved in carcinogenesis and tumor formation.”

Free full text is available via PubMed. A list of open clinical trials of curcumin in cancer can be found at ClinicalTrials.gov.

The information on my blog is not intended as a substitute for medical professional help or advice but is to be used only as an aid in understanding current medical knowledge. A physician should always be consulted for any health problem or medical condition.