A stress vaccine in the works?
July 29, 2010
The upcoming issue of Wired magazine has a good piece written about stress and a vaccine made to counteract it.
Researcher Sapolsky studied baboons in Africa for many years and noticed that social hierarchy determines the level of stress one experiences. For instance, the male baboons at the low end of the totem pole were skinner and “skittish” and died off earlier. The had a harder time procuring food and even female companionship. Even toddler baboons from the lower end of the totem pole were prevented from interacting with their age group of a higher social status. Sapolsky capitulates that this also exists in the human world. A large study was done with British civil servants – and surely enough – the janitors – not the high level workers – died off earlier from cardiovascular disease and the like.
In his lab, Sapolsky and colleagues have rewired the herpes virus (deleted the dangerous attributes) because it can cross the blood brain barrier efficiently; to dull the stress response by secreting neuroprotective substances such as estrogen and stimulate anti-oxidant secretion. All in all; this was done on mice, taking it to our level is still quite in the distant horizon. But promising indeed.
“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”
July 19, 2010
This is a book by Rebecca Skloot about the cells of Henrietta Lacks – called HeLa cells. It tells about the years of genetic research done on her cells – polio vaccine, STDs, cancers, cloning, chemotherapy etc. Her cells have lived on in biomedical research since her death in the 1951 from cervical cancer.
I have just started reading this book and wanted to publicize it for those who have an interest in biomedical ethics and research. It turns out that Henrietta Lacks’ cells were harvested without her or her family’s consent. In addition to all of the research done on her cells, more research was done on her family members for various reasons as well.
I will keep posting as I go along.
Volunteering
July 14, 2010
At this time of year with more daylight hours we are able to pack more into 24 hours. At the top of my list is volunteering. Summers past I have taught in the inner city. This year I am trying to find an avenue to help high school students who are new immigrants. This idea has been with me for sometime; then this past Sunday I opened up the New York Times and saw a piece about Student Sponsorship Partners. It is an organization that does precisely that!
Being a new immigrant and a high school student is no easy feat. I immigrated to New York at age 14 as a high school sophomore. The teen angst, fitting in with new trends, finding new friends AND succeeding in class took some effort as far as I can remember.
I hope to bring my experience to this organization or some other one; so that I can help make it easier on another immigrant student.
President Obama nominates Dr. Donald Berwick as the Administrator of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services
July 7, 2010
Dr. Berwick was nominated back in April and appointed during recess of the Senate by President Obama.
Dr. Berwick graduated from Harvard Medical School and also has a Masters Degree in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government.
He practiced Pediatrics in Massachusetts. He has co-founded IHI – Institute for Healthcare Improvement. His publications are well over a hundred in number.
His philosophy of redistribution of wealth/health comes across loud and clear in his quote -“You could have protected the wealthy and the well, instead of recognizing that sick people tend to be poorer and that poor people tend to be sicker and that any health care funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized and humane must, MUST redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate. Excellent health care is, by definition, redistributional.” (Heartland Institute – Healthcare News – May 12, 2010)
Taking the Physician Assistant Recertification Exam
July 7, 2010
I’m a year away from taking the recert exam. Last time around I crammed over a two week period and passed.
This time around, I am considering a more staged approach. Buying the review books and doing a module per month is my strategy. I want to invest fully into the review so that I can bring more to my daily practice as a Physician Assistant even though I practice in a surgical subspecialty.
I feel as though having an online network of people in the same time frame for studying might be motivational. That being said, I have to purchase the new editions of the review books first.
Amelia PA Blog 