science-and-tech

Solar eclipses and two complete Lunar eclipses

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 14:45:34 +0100

FOUR PARTIAL LUNAR ECLIPSES AND TWO TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSES FOR 2011 YEAR

In the coming 2011 New Year, four partial Solar eclipses and two complete Lunar eclipses would occur in the space. On 4 January, 1 June, 1 July, 25 November 2011 partial Lunar eclipses would occur and on 15 June and 10 December complete Lunar eclipses would occur in the space.

Can resveratarol and quercetin really lengthen your life span?

Sun, 26 Dec 2010 22:12:48 +0100

Can extract from berries lengthen your life span?

Sacramento consumers might like to know how phytochemicals in fruit such as polyphenols work in the human body to stop inflammation. How limited are researchers' knowledge of what's helpful and what's subtoxic when it comes to taking polyphenols? In the latest study of the health effects of polyphenols, there were concerns with the work on cell uptake of quercetin and resveratrol.

In the Sacramento area, U.C. Davis did a study on resveratrol. But just three days ago a new study on the health effects of resveratrol and quercetin has been published at another university. According to a December 23, 2010 news article from the Boston University Medical Center, "Study on effects of resveratrol and quercetin on inflammation and insulin resistance," this latest study on the effects of resveratrol and quercetin on inflammation and insulin resistance opened up the question of how phytochemicals work in the human body to stop inflammation.

The researchers looked at resveratrol and quercetin from a clinical point of view, to study the role of phytochemicals acting as antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents.

Two years ago, in the Sacramento-Davis area, one of the results of a UC Davis study on resveratrol, a polyphenol, was a reduced incidence of diabetes in the mice studied. In humans, high calorie diets usually mean increased glucose and increased insulin levels that may lead to diabetes or frequent high-glucose (sugar) spikes.

Primary adipocytes were incubated with the polyphenols, but it is not clear whether or not the concentrations used were subtoxic. So as research continues, would you keep taking your resveratrol and quercetin supplements? Or would you try to get as polyphenols from fruits?

Can resveratrol and quercetin from foods be extremely important in inflammation-associated chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer? Quercetin and resveratrol may indeed play an important role in this regard, according to the latest study. These phytochemicals from plants need to be investigated further to establish the clinical importance of natural dietary compounds in the prevention of chronic degenerative conditions.

A study was carried out to examine the extent to which quercetin and trans-resveratrol (RSV) prevented inflammation or insulin resistance in primary cultures of human adipocytes treated with tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a)—an inflammatory cytokine elevated in the plasma and adipose tissue of obese, diabetic individuals.

Cultures of human adipocytes were pretreated with quercetin and trans-RSV followed by treatment with TNF-a. Subsequently, gene and protein markers of inflammation and insulin resistance were measured.

The authors report that quercetin, and to a lesser extent trans-RSV, attenuated the TNF-a-induced expression of inflammatory genes such as interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1b, IL-8, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and the secretion of IL-6, IL-8, and MCP-1.

Forum members were concerned about certain aspects of the study, especially the extrapolation of in vitro results to in vivo situations. The in vitro conditions the authors describe are minimally representative of an in vivo condition.

In vivo, after consumption of quercetin or resveratrol, these compounds undergo extensive metabolism, leading to glucuronidated, sulphated or methylated compounds. In a previous study, quercetin 3-glucoside was transformed to 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, acetate and butyrate in cells from human gut; only 3'-methylquercetin has been detected in human plasma, present at a concentration of 0.1 to 0.2 µM after 3 h. The authors of the current paper are using concentrations up to 60 µM, concentrations which have not been found in vivo.

In the lastest study on resveratrol and quercetin, most researcher's current knowledge is limited about local concentration of the molecules scientists are studying in subcellular compartments, their interaction with alternative targets, and eventually their transformation into products that could be more or less active on a given specific pathway.

Let's define what redox means. The word refers to oxidation-reduction. It's basically a reversible chemical reaction in which one reaction is an oxidation and the reverse is a reduction. Researchers talk about how an imbalance in the body, in the tissues, for example, leads to poor health. And as they study resveratrol and quercetin's health effects, the scientists look at a different redox status that may come from eating foods containing resveratrol and quercetin, that may help to balance any imbalance in the human body.

In the study, scientists noted that the real difficult and important issue is the identification of a reasonable convergence -- if not agreement -- between data originating from extremely distant approaches. In this case, the notion that metabolic diseases are related to a homeostatic imbalance in adipose tissue, linked to a different redox status, linked to activation of specific pathways, and that different redox sensitive polyphenols do have a protective effect, encompasses the evidence produced by extremely distant approaches.

If you look at the December 23, 2010 news article, you can note that contributions to that critique by the International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research were provided by the following members: David Vauzour, PhD, Dept. of Food and Nutritional Sciences The University of Reading, UK. But what's happening in the Sacramento area regarding the study of resveratrol?

In the Sacramento-Davis regional area, UC Davis studies resveratrol. Biotivia provided high quality resveratrol to researchers in the Sacramento/Davis area at the University of California, Davis, Albert Einstein Medical School, the Canadian Health Ministry and many other researchers, either at no charge or at a large discount for their human trials, according to the diet.blog.com forum posting under the article, "Fountain of Youth or Waste of Money."

Where is the data on human patients? See the January 8, 2008 Reuters ( Biotivia news) resveratrol news article, "Resveratrol-Like Drug Works in Humans--Sirtris." Also see the UC Davis article, "Resveratrol improves health and survival of mice on a high-calorie diet."

One of the results of the UC Davis study was a reduce incidence of diabetes in the mice studied. In humans, high calorie diets usually mean increased glucose and increased insulin levels that may lead to diabetes.

That article and blog forum also gives some reasons why human trials aren't progressing fast enough on the effects of resveratrol on aging. There will be a human study conducted by the National Institute on Aging - but the results won't be available for a couple of years, according to that article. Will the complex human body produce the same results as test tube studies? Also see, Nutrition Action Healthletter, March, 2009.

If you're familiar with your adrenal gland, you'll realize that it's also sometimes called the stress gland. The biochemical experiments are still being done with resveratrol to answer some of the questions about how safe is it and what's a dose that's safe and still works.

Scientists know that if you take more than 300 mg of resveratrol, it inhibits an enzyme in the liver. The May, 2010 issue of Dr. Sherry Rogers' Total Wellness newsletter has a "resveratrol warning" on page 8, basically, there are still unanswered research questions.

Only scientists don't know as yet what purpose that liver enzyme has that the resveratrol is turning off. Some people take high doses of resveratrol without knowing what it's doing and how effective it is at various doses. Even at lower doses, resveratrol can turn off the adrenal or 'stress' gland and use up nutrients that your body uses to detoxify itself.

The word 'detox' has become a buzz word that some doctors tell patients to be aware of so when they hear the word, their knee-jerk reaction is to think 'quack.' But what detox actually means is when your body gets rid of toxic substances such as mercury and lead by itself.

That it is cleanses itself, using the vitamin C and other nutrients already in your body from food. Think in terms of how your body cleansed itself before the days of vitamin and mineral supplements. That's what the word 'detox' actually means--a cleansing process your body uses.

Regarding resveratrol, check out the study, "Phytoestrogen resveratrol suppresses steroidogenesis by rat adrenocortical cells by inhibiting cytochrome P450 c21-hydroxylase." The authors are Supornsilchai V, Svechnikov K, Seidlova-Wuttke D,Wuttke W, Söder O, published in Hormone Research in Pediatrics, 64:280-86, 2005. (Pediatric Endocrinology Unit, Q 2:08, Department of Woman and Child Health, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.)

The Swedish study looked at the effects of resveratrol on rats. But rats are used in scientific studies to see how a substance reacts also with humans, since the genes are not as far apart as you'd believe.

The main point of the resveratrol study that you should be aware of is that resveratrol is a phytoestrogen. As a phytoestrogen, it's going to act like a phytoestrogen in your body. The phytoestrogen resveratrol is found in grapes, mulberries and peanuts, all of which are consumed regularly by humans.

Resveratrol is also used in chemotherapy against cancer and aging and as a cardioprotectant. The aim of the present study had focused on characterizing the effects of resveratrol on rat adrenal steroidogenesis and to study the underlying mechanism.

If you're curious about how the scientists tested the resveratrol, they began by isolating the adrenocortical cells from the adrenal glands of normal male rats (in vitro) and from male rats administered resveratrol in their diet for 12 weeks (ex vivo).

No changes in cell viability or morphology were caused by exposure to resveratrol in both ex vivo and in vitro experiments. So basically, the study concluded that resveratrol suppresses corticosterone production by primary rat adrenocortical cell cultures in vitro and ex vivo by inhibiting cytochrome P450 c21-hydroxylase.

The big picture for us humans is that we have to consider, do we want our corticosterone production suppressed? And do we want our cytochrome inhibited?

If these natural functions are inhibited, what happens to the rest of our body--our cells, organs, and blood? Is it good or bad to have something in our body's normal function suppressed or inhibited? Now the question remains, does the rat experiment transfer over to humans?

Will the same situation happen in people? What happens when and if the adrenal or stress gland might be turned off? How can we know it will happen in humans because it happened in rats? Are the genes pretty much the same at that basic level? And what type of detox nutrients will the resveratrol use up?

Those are the types of questions you have to ask when you're told to take resveratrol to increase your life span. You want the big picture--more facts. And how much should you take? If only 20 mg is effective, why are people being sold bottles of 250 mg of resveratrol when scientists know at 300 mg one of your liver enzymes is inhibited? Think about it.

As yourself, with all the various brands of resveratrol, how do you find out which sources are best? Is resveratrol surrounded by too much marketing? Where is the health information on side effects made available to the average consumer?

Is resveratrol on a marketing bandwagon ever since one company had been features on the television news program, 60 Minutes two years ago? Where can you find the information in plain language about what resveratrol can do in what doses?

On the other hand, check out the 2006 study reported in the Harvard Medical School newsletter article of how resveratrol extended the life span of obese mice, "Small Molecule Increases Lifespan and 'Healthspan' of Obese Mice."The resveratrol mimicked caloric restriction. The article reported, "After six months, resveratrol essentially prevented most of the negative effects of the high calorie diet in mice."

You also could check out the site of the National Institute on Aging's Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology, Aging, Metabolism, and Nutrition Unit. Basically, when it comes to resveratrol, continue research is required so that the public as well as scientists can better understand resveratrol's roles and the best applications for it.

UC Davis studies the health benefits associated with a variety of berries, fruits, vegetables, and specific plant foods. Latest scientific studies on how nutrition influences longevity genes currently focuses on a plant extract related to resveratrol called pterostilbene, pronounced terro-STILL-bean. Basically, pterostilbene is extracted from blueberries, grapes, and also the bark of a tree that grows in India called the Kino.

UC Davis also studied how resveratrol mimicks caloric restriction. You also could check out the site of the National Institute on Aging's Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology, Aging, Metabolism, and Nutrition Unit. Basically, when it comes to resveratrol, continue research is required so that the public as well as scientists can better understand resveratrol's roles and the best applications for it. Also see, UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute.

How scientists in various universities discovered this plant extract, resveratrol is by examining Ayurvedic medicine, the folkloric medical treatments used in India based on plant extracts. The purpose of looking at these plant extracts is that when tested on animals such as mice, the blueberry and grape extracts used in laboratories appears to make the mice live longer by switching on their longevity gene tags in such a way that it imitates caloric restriction. Most veterinarians know that by restricting calories, but not essential nutrients/nutrition, animals live longer when they eat better while eating less.

If you look at pterostilbene and resveratrol, you'll notice that both compounds have similar structures. They have similar, but not exactly the same functions. But when you combine pterostilbene with resveratrol, the both together work exceptionally well to simulate certain beneficial conditions produced by caloric restriction. Remember that caloric restriction is not fasting or starving. The person or animal gets the essential nutrition with fewer calories.

What scientists found was that pterostilbene and resveratrol taken together or combined in one supplement translate into more benefits that by taking resveratrol by itself. You can check out all the scientific studies listed at the end of the latest article in the Special Winter Edition of Life Extension Magazine (2009), "The 'Other' Resveratrol: A Novel Method to Simulate the Genetic Effects of Caloric Restriction," by Tiesha D. Johnson, RN, BSN.

According to that article, "resveratrol activates genes close the the beginning of the molecular cascade precipitated by caloric restriction." This starts as an 'upstream' action. What happens next is that the activated genes using the pterostilbene then continue to activate numerous disease-preventing genes in a 'downstream' process from the sites connected with resveratrol's upstream action. So as resveratrol works in an upstream action, pterostilbene works the genes in a downstream action.

Pterostilbene amplifies and complements resveratrol's ablity to help turn off those 'epigenetic' gene tags that switch off the cancer and diabetes causing gene tags and switch on the longevity gene tags that support healthy blood fats (lipids).

It's all happening during the normal cycle of gene expression. Basically, the pterostilbene, made from blueberry and/or grape extracts, mimics the beneficial effects of calorie restriction at the molecular level. The idea, scientists report, is that caloric restriction is supposed to suppress cancer development, according to studies.

Does calorie reduction/restriction change your gene expression all over the metabolic process? What the plant extracts do is increase activity of fat-sensing complexes that lower blood fats and sugar levels. Basically, scientists are using plant extracts from fruits for chemoprevention. Is it the antioxidants in resveratrol or the anti-inflammatory actions in pterostilbene?

If you look at both resveratrol and pterostilbene, both are called stillbenes. They've been used for hundreds of years in India as folkoric cures for illness in Ayurvedic medicine that is now being studied by Western scientists to see how these plant extracts change gene expression.

The extracts are being tested to see which are good for helping to prevent cancer, lower cholesterol, enhance insulin sensitivity, or increase life span of humans and/or animals. These plant extracts mimic caloric restriction at your molecular level.

The way these plant extracts work is by mimicking caloric restriction. Resveratrol and pterostilbene both act at different locations in the body to control gene expression. They complement each other. Can they increase the quantity of life or the quality of life?

Basically, if you eat a cup of blueberries, you get 20mcg of pterostilbene. Yes, even at that level, the blueberries provide some benefits. But how much more pterostilbene do you need? What is a safe level?

A dose of 3 mg daily of pterostilbene in a supplement provides the equivalent of 140 cups of blueberries daily. No one eats like that. So should you take a supplement with pterostilbene or resveratrol combined with pterostilbene? How much is science and how much is marketing?

You only need a small dose of pterostilbene. So in various supplements, it is being added to resveratrol and other supplements. You will probably want to read more about the studies. For further information, you can see the March, 2008 article at BMC Medical Genemics, 20;1:7. See, "Identification of molecular pathways affected by pterostilbene, a natural dimethylether analog of resveratrol."

The conclusion of the 2008 UC Davis study, reported that, "Using transcript profiling, we have identified the cellular pathways targeted by pterostilbene, an analog of resveratrol. The observed response in lipid metabolism genes is consistent with its known hypolipidemic properties, and the induction of mitochondrial genes is consistent with its demonstrated role in apoptosis in human cancer cell lines. Furthermore, our data show that pterostilbene has a significant effect on methionine metabolism, a previously unreported effect for this compound."

That 2008 study, "Identification of molecular pathways affected by pterostilbene, a natural dimethylether analog of resveratrol." also reported the following: "Pterostilbene is a naturally-occurring phytoalexin identified in several plant species. It belongs to a group of phenolic compounds known as stilbenes, and is found in the heartwood of sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus) [1] and P. marsupium [2].

For further information on the healthful benefits of blueberries, see my other Examiner articles, "Does an alkaline diet with added blueberries increase your bone density?" and regarding resveratrol, see, "How to find reliable information on resveratrol." Regarding resveratrol, check out the study, "Phytoestrogen resveratrol suppresses steroidogenesis by rat adrenocortical cells by inhibiting cytochrome P450 c21-hydroxylase." The authors are Supornsilchai V, Svechnikov K, Seidlova-Wuttke D,Wuttke W, Söder O, published in Hormone Research in Pediatrics, 64:280-86, 2005. (Pediatric Endocrinology Unit, Q 2:08, Department of Woman and Child Health, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.)

The big picture for us humans is that we have to consider, do we want our corticosterone production suppressed? And do we want our cytochrome inhibited?

On the other hand, check out on of the 'older' studies from 2006. That study reported in the Harvard Medical School newsletter article of how resveratrol extended the life span of obese mice, "Small Molecule Increases Lifespan and 'Healthspan' of Obese Mice."

Read free Kindle books from Amazon!

Sun, 26 Dec 2010 21:56:47 +0100

Read free Kindle books from Amazon!

The most amazing thing about Amazon is its spectacular collection of books. The list of free Kindle books on Amazon is increasing at an alarming pace and the readers are just loving it. The free Kindle books can be read by Kindle users but are also accessible to the readers who don’t possess the Kindle device. The free Kindle books can be accessed by consumers by installing the Kindle software on their computers.

The free Kindle books can be read on your iPhone very easily and even can be read if you possess the classy iPod Touch. The Amazon website is working hard on developing a Mac application for free Kindle books but that is still underway and you have the option of viewing the large variety of free Kindle books on your Apple gadgets until the Mac version is released. You should browse the free Kindle books and see if any of your old favorites are on the list.

Top 10 Lunar Eclipse Facts

Sun, 26 Dec 2010 21:55:30 +0100

Top 10 Lunar Eclipse Facts - One day Lunar eclipse won't happen again

According to Robert Roy Britt from Space.com, lunar eclipse is unpredictable. Why? For the ancients, a lunar eclipse was a haunting event. Some believed a dragon of the sky was eating the moon, flooding it with blood before consuming it entirely. Of course it always came back, and that fueled more speculation.

While the Lunar eclipse 2010 wows the world last night, nonetheless here are 10 fascinating facts about lunar eclipses for you to impress friends, family and coworkers. The most shocking is one day the Lunar eclipse phenomena will not happen again?

10. Earth Gets in the Way

The cause of lunar eclipses is simple: Earth gets in the way. The Moon is a shiny beacon because it reflects sunlight. The Moon makes no light of its own. Earth always casts a shadow into space, and every now and then everything aligns just right so that the shadow falls on the Moon. Lunar eclipses can only occur at Full Moon, that time each month when the Moon is directly opposite the Earth in relation to the Sun. It's like you, representing the Earth, standing in front of a bright light and casting a shadow on a child

9. Why lunar eclipses don't occur every month

Since lunar eclipses occur always at Full Moon, it makes sense to ask why each Full Moon does not generate one. Eclipses are relatively rare because the plane in which the Moon orbits around Earth is tilted 5 degrees compared to the plane of Earth's travels around the Sun, a plane that astronomers call the ecliptic. To visualize, think of commingling Hula Hoops—one big and one small—floating on the surface of a pool, and push the inner one down so that half of it is below the surface and half above. When the Moon gets into the ecliptic --right at the surface of the pool—during its full phase, then a lunar eclipse occurs. (The word "ecliptic" stems from the word "eclipse.") [Graphic] The geometry of any eclipse—the relative positions of the Sun, Earth and Moon—is eventually repeated during a set of complex cycles that each last just more than 18 years. This Saros cycle, as the whole thing is called, is behind the bunching of eclipses, too. Astronomers have figured it out and can predict eclipse timing and circumstances far into future.

8. Lunar eclipses are frequent, relatively speaking

Though you might not have logged many lunar eclipses in your life, they are common compared to solar eclipses, at least in one sense. Solar eclipses are fairly numerous, generally two to five per year, but the area on the ground covered by totality is only a few tens of miles (kilometers) wide, so it's rare to be in the path of a total solar eclipse. In any given location on Earth, a total solar eclipse happens only once every 360 years. Lunar eclipses are less frequent, but total lunar eclipses are visible everywhere that it is nighttime as the event takes place—essentially half the globe. Any given location can experience up to three lunar eclipses per year, as last happened in 1982. Some years there are none, as in both 2005 and 2006.

7. Lunar eclipses visible from the Moon, too

When Earth experiences a total lunar eclipse, things get interesting on the Moon, too. If you were there, on the side facing Earth, the home planet would block out the Sun. The Sun's light would not completely disappear, however. Earth would be ringed by light scattered through its atmosphere. SPACE.com's Night Sky Columnist, Joe Rao, puts it this way, "The Sun would be hidden behind a dark Earth outlined by a brilliant red ring consisting of all the world's sunrises and sunsets." This affects our view from Earth, too. The light refracted by all these sunrises and sunsets can fall on the Moon, giving it a red glow instead of it completely disappearing. Each eclipse is different, however, and some yield little of this reddening effect.

6. A bite out of the Moon

For ancient people, eclipses were odd and inexplicable, even terrifying. Some cultures saw lunar eclipses as signs of celestial wrath that portended famine or disease. The Chinese word for eclipse is chih, which means "to eat." One can imagine that the bloody cast of the Moon in some eclipses only added to the fear of what was going on. Even into the 19th Century, the Chinese navy fired cannons to scare off the dragon they imagined was eating the Moon.

5. Myths persist today

Myths die hard. In Japan, some people still cover wells to avoid being poisoned by the disease of the Moon during an eclipse. Native residents of Arctic regions are known to turn over their utensils to avoid contamination. In other cultures, people yell at the Moon during an eclipse, or they bang pots or even shoot into the air.

4. Stonehenge may have predicted eclipses

The mysterious arrangement of boulders in England has long been associated with celestial meaning. But scientists have struggled to figure out what the meaning was for the folks who erected the rocks about 3,500 years ago. One purpose may have been to predict lunar eclipses. In the year 2000, a researcher who had been studying Stonehenge for two decades stumbled upon the observation that if a person placed stone markers at strategic locations atop 19 columns in the array, a known 47-month cycle of lunar eclipses would become apparent.

3. Eclipses changed history

When the Moon disappeared in 413 BC, Athenians saw it as a bad omen and delayed their planned retreat from the Sicilian city of Syracuse, where they had fought for two years in the Peloponnesian War. The Syracusans used the delay as an opportunity to break the siege, contributing—some believe—to the fall of Greek civilization.Christopher Columbus actually used an eclipse knowingly to perhaps alter history. Stranded in Jamaica in 1503, on his fourth voyage, Columbus and his crew were wearing out their welcome with the natives, who were feeding them. Columbus knew a lunar eclipse was coming, so he "predicted" the Moon's disappearance. The natives begged him to bring it back and, of course, he did, in due time.

2. Eclipse time limits

Columbus knew that lunar eclipses don't go on forever. Astronomers say none can last more than 3 hours and 40 minutes. Totality—when the Moon is completely immersed in shadow—cannot run more than 1 hour and 40 minutes. The period of totality for the Oct. 27, 2004 eclipse was 1 hour and 22 minutes, for example. An eclipse on Nov. 8, 2003 had a period of totality just 25 minutes long. Why the difference? Earth's shadow is cone-shaped. Envision a slice of it, a two-dimensional circle through which the Moon can pass. Longer stretches of totality mean the Moon is traversing the center of the circle. Shorter total eclipses occur when the Moon's path is nearer the top or the bottom of the shadow.

1. One day total eclipses won't occur

The Moon is currently moving away from Earth by about 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) inches every year (destined, alas to disintegrate). We happen to stand on this planet at a time when the Moon's apparent size in the sky is exactly the same as that of the Sun. The Moon's actual diameter is much smaller than the Sun, but it is much closer to us. Eventually, however, a total lunar eclipse won't be geometrically possible, just as it as not possible in the distant past when the Moon was nearer to us.

New species discovered in Indonesian seas (With Photos)

Sun, 26 Dec 2010 21:55:35 +0100

New species discovered in Indonesian seas (With Photos)

Dear readers, I have attached some exclusive pictures of new plant and animal species, recently discovered in Indonesian seas. The pictures were taken by using a robotic vehicle having high-definition cameras. Scientists predicted that 40 new species have been found by using the cutting-edge technology. More than 100 hours of video and 100,000 photographs have been captured.