A few days ago I asked why not become religious, if it will give you a better life, even if the evidence for religious beliefs is weak? Commenters eagerly declared their love of truth. Today I’ll ask: if you give up the benefits of religion, because you love far truth, why not also give up stories, to gain even more far truth? Alas, I expect that few who claim to give up religion because they love truth will also give up stories for the same reason. Why?

One obvious explanation: many of you live in subcultures where being religious is low status, but loving stories is high status.

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From the ever so popular Paleo Diets, to Miley Cyrus who recently tweeted how going gluten free was her secret to weight loss success. 

The Views Elisabeth Hasselbeck has also touted the benefits (through a couple books) of eliminating gluten from her diet.

The list can go on from fitness pros to celebrities, diet docs to soccer moms.  In fact, its so popular we saw a “Gluten Free” stand when we went to the KY Derby the other day!  Yes, amidst the horses, bourbon, mint juleps and a sea full of hats a gluten free stand inside Churchill Downs.

So what is gluten anyhow? Why does it get such a bad wrap? An

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Your baby’s lungs continue to mature and improve their function this week. In addition, the cells begin to produce a substance called “surfactant” that will help the air bags deploy to the outside world.

At 24th week of pregnancy, the skin is still thin and transparent, but this is slowly changing, due to more layers of fat being provided between the skin cells. The amount of amniotic fluid surrounding the baby begins to increase in volume after this week. The Read more info…

Previous research has linked longer commutes with obesity. But this new research is believed to be “the first study to show that long commutes can take away from eercise time,” eplained lead investigator Christine M. Hoehner of Washington University in St. Read more info…

UC Davis Health System researchers are a step closer to launching human clinical trials involving the use of an innovative stem cell therapy to fight the virus that causes AIDS

In a paper published in the May issue of the Journal of Virology, the UC Davis HIV team demonstrated both the safety and efficacy of transplanting anti-HIV stem cells into mice that represent models of infected patients The technique, which involves replacing the immune system with stem cells engineered with a triple combination of HIV-resistant genes, proved capable of replicating a normally functioning human immune system by protecting and expanding HIV-resistant immune cells The cells thrived and self-renewed even when challenged with an HIV viral load

We envision this as a potential functional cure for patients infected with HIV, giving them the ability to maintain a normal immune system through genetic resistance, said lead author Joseph Anderson, an assistant adjunct professor of internal medicine and a stem cell researcher at the UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures Ideally, it would be a one-time treatment through which stem cells express HIV-resistant genes, which in turn generate an entire HIV-resistant immune system

To establish immunity in mice whose immune systems paralleled those of patients with HIV, Anderson and his team genetically modified human blood stem cells, which are responsible for producing the various types of immune cells in the body

Building on work that members of the team have pursued over the last decade, they developed several anti-HIV genes that were inserted into blood stem cells using standard gene-therapy techniques and viral vectors viruses that efficiently insert the genes they carry into host cells The resulting combination vector contained:

a human/rhesus macaque TRIM5 isoform, which disrupts HIV from uncoating in the cytoplasm a CCR5 short hairpin RNA shRNA, which prevents certain strains of HIV from attaching to target cells a TAR decoy, which stops HIV genes from being expressed inside of the cell by soaking up a critical protein needed for HIV gene expression These engineered blood stem cells, which could be differentiated into normal and functional human immune cells, were introduced into the mice The goal was to validate whether this experimental treatment would result in an immune system that remained functional, even in the face of an HIV infection, and would halt or slow the progression toward AIDS

The results were successful on all counts

After we challenged transplanted mice with live HIV, we demonstrated that the cells with HIV-resistant genes were protected from infection and survived in the face of a viral challenge, maintaining normal human CD4 levels, said Anderson CD4+ T-cells are a type of specialized immune cell that HIV attacks and uses to make more copies of HIV

We actually saw an expansion of resistant cells after the viral challenge, because other cells which were not resistant were being killed off, and only the resistant cells remained, which took over the immune system and maintained normal CD4 levels, added Anderson

The data provided from the study confirm the safety and efficacy of this combination anti-HIV lentiviral vector in a hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy setting for HIV and validated its potential application in future human clinical trials The team has submitted a grant application for human clinical trials and is currently seeking regulatory approval, which is necessary to move on to clinical trials

This research represents an important step in our fight against HIV/AIDS, said Richard Pollard, chief of infectious diseases at UC Davis and one of the studys co-authors Clinical trials could give us the critical information we need to determine whether our approach truly represents a functional cure for a terrible disease that has affected millions and millions of people

The study was supported by UC Davis Health System start-up funds from the Deans office for the Stem Cell Program and by the James B Pendleton Charitable Trust This work was also supported in part by the Gin and Imy Mar stem cell research fund

Other authors were Rachel X Chen, Jon E Walker, Jeannine McGee, Catherine Nacey, Richard B Pollard, Mehrdad Abedi, Gerhard Bauer, and Jan A Nolta, all affiliated with the UC Davis Institute of Regenerative Cures

We are going to donate everything we grow to a pizza place, said Max Schibel, a second grade EXPO Elementary student.

EXPO Elementary had a lot of unused green space that staff turned into a garden two years ago. And although volunteers knew kids dont always eat their vegetables, pizza rarely fails.

Meredith Leary Johnson, a parent/volunteer at the school, said she wanted to show kids the edible nature of a garden.

EXPO Elementary also reached out to a new neighborhood restaurant, Palumbos Pizzeria.

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When youre a tween girl, there are few delights greater than a successful sleepover. And to make it a success, it has to be fun. If your daughter wants to have a sleepover party with some of her favorite gal pals, helping her plan it out can make all the difference in the world. An ill-planned evening with a house full of girls can be just as much a nightmare for you as it is for her.

To ensure the best sleepover for your young lady and her friends, you have to be prepared. Heres how:

Make the guest list. Help your daughter choose a few girls that she enjoys spending time with and that will mesh well with each other.

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“It’s good for me I wasn’t caught, but it’s lucky for them too,” said Wu, 35, who feared that family planning officials were going to drag her to the hospital for a forced abortion. “I was going to fight to the death if they found me.”

With her escape, Wu joined an increasingly defiant community of parents in China who have risked their jobs, savings and physical safety to have a forbidden second child.

Though many women are aware that bone health is an important health topic, many breast cancer patients are unaware of the connection between bone health and cancer. Board-certified oncologist Wayne Keiser, MD, offers important information for cancer patients.

How can breast cancer affect women’s bones?

Breast cancer and bone health are closely connected, and the issue is twofold. There is a natural balance between bone loss and regrowth, which normally maintains healthy bones.

First, many women receive hormonal therapy as a treatment for breast cancer. A side effect of this treatment is potential bone loss, which can weaken bones and place women at risk of fracture. C

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While many critics claim its tied to diabetes and high blood pressure, others believe its no different than “regular” sugar.”  Or, should I say as equally bad as sugar.  Admittedly, our conclusion at the end of the previous HFCS blog was that at the end of the day, any type of added sugar wasnt good.  So not “supporting” HFCS by any means, per se, but not thinking its the devil.  What we didnt like is that its created in a laband we continue to suggest local honey as a “better” form of sugar or sweetener (though, again, none are great). 

From what weve seen and read,  HFCS didnt seem to be any “worse” than table sugar all are equally bad for you.  But the debate continues to rage on about HFCS vs. table

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However, the federal agency stressed the announcement is not a final safety determination and it continues to support research eamining the safety of BPA.

In 2008, the council submitted a petition asking the FDA to regulate the use of BPA in human food and food packaging. The FDA had been silent since the petition was filed more than 41 months ago. Read more info…

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Temporary anti-retroviral therapy during the first stage of HIV infection can delay the time to long-term treatment, researchers reported

In a randomized trial, early treatment reduced the so-called viral set point and also delayed the need to re-start therapy after a planned interruption, according to Marlous Grijsen, MD, of the University of Amsterdam, and colleagues

The findings suggest that 24 weeks of treatment started during primary HIV infection has a clear clinical benefit, Grijsen and colleagues reported online in PLoS Medicine

The issue of how to manage HIV patients during primary infection has been controversial and the evidence of benefit for early treatment conflicting, the researchers noted

However, this study – the Primo-SHM trial, conducted in 13 centers on the Netherlandsadds to the evidence that early treatment is beneficial, they said Indeed, other investigators, looking at the same issue, reported a similar finding in 2011

In the Dutch study, patients were recruited between May 1, 2003 and March, 31, 2010 and randomly assigned to no immediate treatment, or combined anti-retroviral therapy for 24 or 60 weeks

Patients in the treatment arms would stop after the defined period and re-start therapy when clinically indicated Patients in the no-treatment arm remained off therapy until clinically indicated

Temporary anti-retroviral therapy during the first stage of HIV infection can delay the time to long-term treatment

Explain that the implication is that 24 weeks of combined anti-retroviral therapy is enough to yield a lower viral setpoint and delay the time for continuous treatment

The study was designed to evaluate the effect of the various approaches on the viral set point, defined as the viral load 36 weeks after randomization in the no-treatment arm and 36 weeks after treatment interruption in the other arms

It was also intended to look at the total time that patients were off therapy before full-time continuous treatment was started

Those who needed therapy when they enrolled, based on either clinical symptoms or the count of CD4-positive T cells, were randomly assigned to one of the treatment arms, but were not included in analysis of the primary endpoints Instead, they were part of a secondary analysis aimed at seeing whether 24 or 60 weeks of therapy was the better option

All told, the researchers had data from 168 patients, including 115 who were part of the main analysis and 53 who were part of the secondary analysis

They found that of the 115 patients randomized over the three study arms, the average viral set point was 48 log10 copies of HIV RNA per milliliter of plasma, compared with 4 and 43 log10 copies/ml in the 24- and 60-week treatment arms The difference between treatment and no-treatment arms was significant at P<0001

The median total time off therapy in the no-treatment arm was 07 years versus 3 years in the 24-week arm and 18 years in the 60-week arm

A log rank test comparing all three arms was significant at P<0001

In Cox regression analyses, adjusted for various possible confounders, there was no significant difference in median time off therapy between the two treatment arms

The implication is that 24 weeks of combined anti-retroviral therapy is enough to yield a lower viral set point and delay the time for continuous treatment, the researchers stated

Grijsen and colleagues concluded that extended follow up is needed to evaluate the long-term benefits of such early treatment However, they argued, “starting antiretroviral therapy when the patient is ready to do so seems the most reasonable advice” for patients with primary HIV infection

The study was investigator-driven and had no external sponsor or specific source of funding The journal said the authors had declared no competing interests

On Thursday, staff and patients will dress up as superheroes to honor real life superheroes.

Every day, the staff and patients at the University of MN Amplatz Childrens Hospital go the extra mile to treat, heal and cope with life-threatening diseases.

Today, they will celebrate their journeys and hard work with My Superhero Day.

It first started as a day to celebrate superheroes, said Amy Verburg, child family life specialist.

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