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A.
Chinese Medicine Enhances Treatment of Hepatitis
B Patients
Narrator:
This is Science Today. New research has found that
Chinese herbal medicine, combined with standard
therapy, can enhance the treatment outcomes for
patients with chronic Hepatitis B. Michael McCulloch,
who led the University of California, Berkeley study,
says current therapy for chronic hepatitis B is
a drug called interferon alfa.
McCulloch:
What we found was the patients using herbal medicine
plus interferon had a better outcome than people
using interferon alone. So the herbs were basically
able to enhance the effectiveness of interferon
in treating chronic infection.
Narrator:
Overall, the study found that Chinese medicine combined
with interferon was twice as effective as interferon
alone in reducing hepatitis B viral load to undetectable
levels. McCulloch hopes this study promotes broader
awareness of eastern medicine's potential to improve
the effectiveness of conventional care.
McCulloch:
The best role for Chinese medicine is really in
combination with conventional care as an adjunctive
or complimentary treatment. The obligation is really
on both sides, on the conventional western end and
the Chinese practitioner's end to really take efforts
to work together.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
The Facts about Type 1 Diabetes
Narrator:
This is Science Today. In terms of its cost to society,
diabetes ranks fourth among diseases. Dr. Jeffrey
Bluestone of the Diabetes Center at the University
of California, San Francisco, says Type 2 diabetes,
which is associated with obesity, is the most common
but Type 1, also known as Juvenile diabetes, is on
the rise.
Bluestone: This is a disease
of the immune system, where your T-cells, which are
normally designed to recognize bacteria, viruses,
instead are attacking your own body - in this case,
the insulin-producing cells in the body.
Narrator: About one million people are
affected by Type 1 diabetes - mostly kids between
the ages of five and 20. Bluestone says researchers
are not quite sure why it's on the rise.
Bluestone:
But it's very clear that auto-immune diseases in general
and diabetes in particular seems to be growing in
First World countries like our own - not in Third
World countries interestingly. It's growing to really
quite significant proportions and I think a lot of
work still needs to be done to figure out what are
the precipitating events that cause that.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
How Socio-Economic Status Affects the Diagnosis of
ADHD
Narrator:
This is Science Today. There have been reports that
doctors are overdiagnosing Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder, or ADHD. But researchers studying the disorder
say overdiagnosis affects mostly upper and middle
class children. Dr. Stephen Hinshaw, a psychology
professor at the University of California, Berkeley,
says children of lower socio-economic status are actually
underdiagnosed.
Hinshaw:
There's some reason to think that there might be slightly
more ADHD among lower SES families. One of the paradoxes
is that the current controversy about overdiagnosis,
overtreating these kids, is really a white middle
class, upper middle class suburban phenomenon.
Narrator:
Hinshaw
says the media should address this discrepancy in
order to promote better care in less privileged communities.
Hinshaw:
There's a disconnect between access to treatments
between suburban well-to-do families, who may be in
some ways pushing for this diagnosis, and between
more of the children who might truly deserve the diagnosis
who aren't getting the access to treatment.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Researchers Work to Improve the Agricultural System
Narrator:
This is Science Today. When the rice genome was sequenced
earlier this year, it provided researchers with more
insight into how genes function in crop plants and
a how to develop hardier, more productive varieties
through traditional breeding or genetic engineering.
Pamela Ronald, a molecular biologist at the University
of California, Davis says the agricultural system
can always be improved.
Ronald:
We need to think about better ways to control pathogens,
we need to grow more crops on less land and we want
to do this in a sustainable manner. So I think biotechnology
is just one tool out of many tools that can contribute
to that.
Narrator:
In 1995, Ronald isolated the first disease-resistance
gene in rice.
Ronald:
The resistance gene we work on primarily in my
lab is very similar to a receptor that's involved
in many different cancers. So if we can make these
directed changes, perhaps we can make some big steps
in improving agriculture.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
The Role of Female Choice in Animal Mate Selection
Narrator:
This is Science Today. It was Charles Darwin who first
wrote about female choice in animal mate selection,
but biologist Marlene Zuk of the University of California,
Riverside, says Darwin's idea of female choice did
not sit well with his contemporaries and the idea
of female choice dropped away for a long time.
Zuk:
It wasn't until I think pretty much the 1960s that
people started going back to this. The whole point
is, how many genes are you going to leave? You're
going to leave genes in the form of offspring - what's
going to make that happen?
Narrator:
For females of an animal species, that all depends
on how many offspring can be physically produced and
in many cases, reared.
Zuk:
But for the males, what they're limited by is the
number of females they can attract to mate with them.
And so because of that, you would expect males to
in general, compete for access to females because
the more they can get females, the more genes of theirs
are going to be left in the next generation.
Narrator:
Zuk is currently studying the importance of disease
resistance in animal evolution. For Science Today,
Larissa Branin.
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