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A.
A New Discovery May Lead to Better Long Term Pain
Relief
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Morphine is one of the most
effective treatments for chronic pain. But long-term
users tend to develop a tolerance for the drug,
forcing doctors to prescribe higher doses. Now,
scientists at the University of California, San
Francisco have made a discovery that could lead
to better long-term pain relief. Researcher Jennifer
Whistler compares morphine tolerance to a light
bulb that's always on.
Whistler:
And as a consequence of that the cells put on dark
glasses. The drug is still there, it should be effective,
it's still effective at the receptor but the cells
don't feel it anymore because they've put their dark
glasses on. So what we wanted to do is prevent the
cells from putting on their dark glasses.
Narrator:
Whistler gave test subjects a tiny dose of another
opiate to keep their cells from developing a tolerance
for morphine. In higher doses, opiates like methadone
are too addictive to be used for pain relief.
Whistler:
What we're hoping is that we can use them at a very
low dose where they'll have no effect on their own.
But if we use them at a very low dose in combination
with morphine, we can enhance the efficacy of morphine
because we'll prevent the development of tolerance.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
The Scientific Interest in Tsunamis
Narrator:
This is Science Today. There's a lot of scientific
interest in tsunamis, the tidal waves that are usually
created by earthquakes. The National Science Foundation
has recently awarded a grant supporting a computer
model that will simulate the effects of these underwater
landslides and to prevent the devastation that often
results from the massive waves. And at the University
of California, Santa Cruz, Casey Moore has been studying
large-scale subduction line faults in the Pacific
Ocean. These produce the largest earthquakes in the
world.
Moore:
This is just drilling, investigating an area where
the fault begins at its seaward edge and its deeper
part is where it produces the large earthquakes. And
then the ultimate goal is to, of course, to drill
into that earthquake-producing zone and understand
how it operates.
Narrator: Moore was involved in an ocean
drilling program which took core samples from the
bottom of the ocean.
Moore:
It's
the same kind of technology that the oil industry
uses to precisely target their bore holes to extract
the maximum oil out of reservoirs. We're looking at
fluids flowing along fault zones.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
A Nationwide Effort to Improve School PE Programs
Narrator:
This is Science Today. National surveys have found
that at least one in eight children are overweight
due to a high fat diet and lack of exercise. Since
these statistics also go hand-in-hand with an alarming
rise in childhood diabetes, there's a nationwide effort
to improve physical education programs in schools.
Joanne Ikeda, a nutrition education expert at the
University of California, Berkeley, says the goal
is to introduce quality PE programs.
Ikeda:
Quality physical education focuses on improving coordination,
strength, endurance - and does it in a way that's
fun for a child.
Narrator:
Ikeda says often times, quality PE programs can be
too competitive - causing children to either drop
out or lose self-esteem.
Ikeda:
I think we've got to take some of the competition
away. At young ages, children don't want to necessarily
compete or if they do, when they start losing, then
their eagerness diminishes at the same time.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
A Deadly Poison Put to Good Medical Use
Narrator:
This is Science Today. The bacteria that produces
the poison that accumulates in improperly canned foods
and causes deadly food poisoning known as botulism,
has found a favorable spot in medical science. Dr.
Richard Glogau, a dermatologist at the University
of California, San Francisco, says when greatly diluted
and purified, this deadly bacteria is an amazingly
useful drug called Botox.
Glogau:
It's turned out to be fabulously effective for
a great variety of medical conditions, many of which
heretofore have had no effective therapy at all. So
it's definitely a molecule for the new Millennium.
Narrator:
Botox was first used in dermatology to treat wrinkles
in the upper face by paralyzing the muscles that cause
lines to form.
Glogau:
That's how it made it's primary entrance into the
specialty and from there, it's turned out to be useful
for other things like uncontrolled sweating and treatment
of headache, chronic nerve pains of certain types
like shingles. And we're just beginning to find out
some of the other things it can do.
Narrator:
Botox will soon receive FDA approval for cosmetic
use. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
Lung Cancer and Mentholated Cigarettes: Is there a
Link?
Narrator:
This is Science Today. African American smokers develop
lung cancer more often than smokers of other races
and are far more likely to smoke mentholated cigarettes.
Dr. Neal Benowitz, of the University of California,
San Francisco, is trying to find out whether there
is a connection between the two. Benowitz found that
Asian Americans metabolize nicotine more slowly than
Caucasians, which helps explain their lower cancer
rates. But the opposite does not hold true for African
Americans.
Benowitz:
African Americans did not have a different metabolism.
They were not faster. So for African Americans, it
did not explain why they take in more nicotine per
cigarette. Why they do is not clear. We are interested
in whether it's because there is a greater use of
mentholated cigarettes among African Americans.
Narrator:
Seventy-five percent of African American smokers smoke
mentholated cigarettes. Only ten percent of Caucasian
smokers do.
Benowitz:
If we find that mentholated cigarette smoking is associated
with a greater intake of smoke per cigarette, we can
advise people not to smoke mentholated cigarettes.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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