Osteoporosis and Bone Density Testing

In class this last week we have been learning about bone and the different components of bone as well as the different diseases that occur in the bones and skeletal system especially as we age. One of these diseases are Osteoporosis. As we have learned Osteoporosis is when there is a low bone mass as well as a deterioration of the bone tissue, causing holes in the bone. These problems lead to things like being more fragile and the ability to fracture more and easier. The article that I read was very interesting because it described how it was not necessary for women who at the age of 65 test normal for bone mass to receive a bone density test with large spaces of time in between such as 15 years. This is because most women whose bones test in the normal range are having bone loss much more slowly. Another interesting fact from this article is that the drug Fosamax and others like it were being used to prevent broken bones and fractures in people with osteoporosis, but it has been found that these medications can not prevent the disease itself, so the use of the medication by women with osteoporosis forever is no longer wanted.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B01E1D61230F93AA25752C0A9649D8B63

Research Paused on Bird Flu

In the Article, Scientists to Pause Research on Deadly Strain of Bird Flu there are many things that relate to the topic that we have been learning about in class in the last week. This article related to the topic of Viruses and how easily and quick it is for them to spread. This article was very interesting because it talked about how doing work on the deadly flu virus had been stopped because of the fear of how contagious it might be and how easily it might spread, easily becoming a pandemic. At this point in time even though this strain of the flu is only seen in birds, spreading and killing the birds the fear of virus coming in contact with a human is what is causing the research to currently be paused. At an upcoming international meeting involving the World Health Organization a decision will be made on what to do next with this research, whether it is able to start up again and continue or has to be stopped completely.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/science/scientists-to-pause-research-on-deadly-strain-of-bird-flu.html?scp=2&sq=dna%20viruses&st=cse

Approval of new Drug by the FDA for Skin Cancer

Hey Everyone! This week we learned about the different layers of skin and how we can get skin cancer so when I found this article about a new drug that the FDA had approved for advanced skin cancer I was interested. This article from the New York Times described the drug called Erivedge that is made by the Genentech drug company and was approved for patients with skin cancer of at least the basal cell which as we learned is the lowest layer of the epidermis. The positive thing about this form of skin cancer as we learned in class is that it is very easy to have removed most of the time and will very rarely spread to different parts of the body. In some cases the tumors can not simply be treated in the way of removal and small doses of radiation, so this new drug would come in handy in this situation. There was a clinical study performed were 96 patients were involved, 30 percent of the patients experienced a partial tumor shrinkage while on the new drug, while 43 percent of those in the trial study had a complete shrinkage of the tumors or a partial shrinkage of the tumors. After reviewing the results of the study, it looks as if the new FDA approved drug works well with this form of skin cancer.

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/30/f-d-a-approves-drug-for-an-advanced-skin-cancer/?scp=2&sq=skin%20cancer%20&st=cse

How Exercise helps the body

The article I read this week was Exercise as Housecleaning for the Body. I found this article in the New York Times and thought that it was very interesting and relevant to what we have learned about in the last week or so of class. This is because it discussed a study that was performed using mice to show how a high sugar diet and lack of exercise can cause diseases, such as diabetes because of the lack of the ability for the cells to clean themselves out and undergo autophagy, and break down the proteins in the cells and create energy. Without being able to undergo this process the cells will die or malfunction and not be able to work correctly. An increase in autophagy was prompted by exercise and is important in receiving the gains that exercise is supposed to give. The study also shows how important it is to maintain an active lifestyle to keep healthy and to keep the processes of that cells have to undergo such as autophagy in normal functioning order.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/exercise-as-housecleaning-for-the-body/?scp=1&sq=cell%20aging%20&st=cse