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A.
A Link Found Between Vitamin C and Gallbladder Disease
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A recent study has found
women with a vitamin C deficiency may have a greater
risk of gallbladder disease. Joel Simon, a professor
of medicine and epidemiology at the University of
California, San Francisco, says their research builds
upon some animal studies, which found vitamin C
regulates the breakdown of cholesterol in the gallbladder.
Simon: Cholesterol gallstones are the kind
of gallstones that most people get, and so the thought
occurred to me that it might be interesting to look
and see whether vitamin C status might be a risk
factor for gallstone formation in humans.
Narrator: Their study of more than 13 thousand
people appear to support such a hypothesis - at
least in women. The study also found women who used
vitamin C supplements had a lower prevalence of
gallbladder disease.
Simon: The best advice is to increase a consumption
of fresh fruits and vegetables, which contain vitamin
C and other important nutrients. And that if individuals
are interested in taking a dietary supplement as
an insurance policy, that very modest doses of vitamin
C are probably more than adequate and I'm talking
about supplements in the range of 250 to 500 milligrams.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
B.
A Possible Alternative to Morphine
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Because of its addictive qualities,
an alternative painkiller to morphine has long been
sought to ease severe pain. With this in mind, Dr.
Jon Levine of the University of California, San Francisco
has been working with a class of drugs called kappa-opioids,
which have been around for several decades but were
never considered very effective analgesics.
Levine: And what we found in the initial studies
with several of these drugs was that they were very
good analgesics in women and they were not very good
analgesics in men.
Narrator: In fact, low doses of a kappa-opiate
actually caused an increased sense of pain in men.
But when Levine recently administered an additional
drug that normally blocks the effects of opioids,
both men and women in his study experienced prolonged
pain relief.
Levine:
What needs to be done now is to go beyond this kind
of proof of concept. Can this be used chronically?
What pain syndromes can it be used in? How broadly
might this actually be applicable? And these are certainly
things that we're currently actively involved in trying
to understand.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Immunotherapy and Cancer Treatment
Narrator: This is Science Today. In cancer
research, doctors and scientists have been looking
more at immune-based therapies which stimulate a patient's
own immune system. Dr. Stanley Leong of the University
of California, San Francisco, says what needs to be
developed now are markers to determine if a patient
will respond well to immunotherapy.
Leong: So that with these markers, we can actually
screen right in the beginning and divide the patients
into groups in that way, we would be able to find
out that certain patients can be treated right away
with immunotherapy.
Narrator: Leong says this is important for
those patients who may not do well with chemotherapy.
Leong: One of the potential problems with having
being treated by chemotherapy first, prior to immunotherapy
is that chemotherapy itself, is immuno-suppressive,
so it's a two edged sword. If the chemotherapy works,
that's worth it, on the other hand, if it doesn't
work then the side effects are significant enough
- including immunosuppression.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Understanding the Molecular Pathway of Pain
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Over the years, lots of
progress has been made in understanding the molecular
basis behind the senses of sight, taste and smell.
But not much has been known about the molecular pathway
of pain. In fact, Dr. David Julius, a professor of
cellular and molecular pharmacology at the University
of California, San Francisco, says in some ways, pain
has been an underrepresented sensory function.
Julius: A lot of times we don't really think
about pain as a sensory modality. It allows us to
experience things like touch, pressure, temperature
and we've known much less about how cells sense those
types of stimuli.
Narrator: Julius has recently demonstrated
how a nerve protein called the capsaicin receptor
is activated by pain from heat and also tissue injury.
Capsaicin, which is the active ingredient in hot chili
peppers, has long been used in folk medicine to treat
pain.
Julius: In this way, we're sort of following
this tradition of using tools that have been passed
down for generations in terms of chemical tools and
natural products and trying to use those as stepping
stones to understand what those molecules do in the
body.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
The Powers of Touch in Infant Development
Narrator:
This is Science Today. New research has found maternal
touch can greatly enhance the cognitive development
of low birth weight babies, who are otherwise healthy.
Sandra Weiss, who led the University of California,
San Francisco study, says the long-term goal is to
adopt nursing interventions with families utilizing
touch.
Weiss:
We have found that when parents use more stimulating
kinds of touch - stronger intensity touch and also
touching of parts of the body that have lots of nerve
endings and nerve pathways, that their babies have
better gross motor development and also their language
development as well as visual organization.
Narrator: Simply caressing infants played a
major role in development as well.
Weiss: We found that that's positively related
to things like the degree to which they feel securely
attached to their parent. Also, it contributes to
many fewer behavioral problems at the age of two,
so it's a real predictor of more sort mentally well
adjusted kids when they provide more nurturing touch.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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