Monthly Archives: October 2014

haruka s, Uncategorized

Brain repair `may be boosted by curry spice` my reaction

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Summary

It is already known that curry is capable of promote healthy.

Furthermore, a German study shows turmeric accelerate the growth of neuron which is thought to be a part of the brain’s repair kit. Turmeric is expected to become drugs for Alzheimer’s and other diseases, but it is ongoing study so it isn’t clear whether it works for humans.

The German institute is studying aromatic-turmerone. Rats injected with this compound is used for and sufficient parts of their brains which are related to neuron growth seem to be activated. A scientist says that the compound may accelerate the increase of brain cells.

In another study, it is proved that neural stem cells can transform to any type of brain cell. Scientists suggest that the effect can be used to repair wounds and disease.

They say it is possible that human enjoy the benefits of this study in the future.

 

Reaction

I’ll talk about Japanese achievements in the study of turmeric and problems on scientific technology in japan.

This article is related to japan deeply. In fact, Musashino university originally specified the effective of turmeric. Prof Abe focused on the fact that there are less patients of Alzheimer’s disease in India. He supposes that the cause was their eating habit. He made a inquiry of spicy including curry.

Finally, he confirmed the ability of prevent turmeric to prevent brain damage.

I think Japan can be proud of this discovery.

However, I also think that this study has a problem. The problem is the little budget on scientific researches in Japan. In this article, Germany studied the effects of aromatic- turmeron, but if the Japanese government invest more studies, Japanese scientists may be more successful.

This is why I think people need to be more interested in scientific research and understand the role played by science and technology.

keita

Humanity’s global battle with mosquitoes

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Summary

We cannot escape disease carried by mosquitoes all over the world.  There are a lot of epidemic of disease. For example, chikugunya and malaria and so on. Although we want to wipe them out because of preventing the disease from spreading, removing mosquitoes could have a disastrous effect on an ecosystem – problem of detritus in the water and useful job of pollination. There are some methods of controling mosquito numbers. In this situation, according to Prof Hilary Ranson,  we need to use an evidence base to then target the breeding sites with things we know will work.

Opinion

Although the most important thing is to reduce the high toll of mosquito-borne disease, protecting an ecosystem is important thing, too. So  we should try to make a vaccine. TV news said that the government did not make a vaccine because the number of victim was still few. The government started to make a vaccine after epidemic of the disease caused by mosquitoes.  It means that the government focus on benefit more than redusing the victims. This is not a natural disaster but a man-made disaster.

kazuya

My reaction about the Instagram for doctors

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Summary

An app which enables doctors to share patient’s pictures is to be made publish in Europe by the end of the year. Actually more than 150000 doctors have uploaded it but there is a question whether patient’s privacy is concealed. On the assumption that patients’ face are automatically hidden, so far, doctors can use it legally because identifying the doctor does’t mean to identify the patient. But if there were rare cases like only seven cases in USA , the patients could have been identified so it is difficult problem.

Opinion

I think this app has more advantage than defects and there are two reasons for this.
First, this app can make medical science more development. Anybody can download the app for free, and only verified healthcare professionals can upload photos or comment. So the possibility that these photo would be abused is low and in countries where there is poor medical science such as developing countries will be able to enjoy the value of the app.
Second, patients’ privacy can save. It is true that in rare cases patients would be identified, but it is dangerous, just shouldn’t upload such photos. And there is a consent between a doctor and a patient, so take a legally step.
For these reasons, I think this app is very useful.

rika

My reaction-About the effect of drinking coffee

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Today’s my topic was about the effect of drinking coffee. According to the previous research, the famous ingredient of coffee, caffeine has known as a cognitive enhancer. That is, drinking coffee helps us strengthen our brains’ ability of recognizing. Now, new studies show that subjects who took the caffeine were better at the faculty of memory. They can identify pictures that were similar, compared with subjects who didn’t ingest caffeine. There’s also argument about the best amount of caffeine to maximize our brain’s performance. According to one view, using the 200mg dose of caffeine was better than 100mg doses of caffeine. Thus they conclude that at least 200mg is needed to observe the enhancing effect of caffeine on consolidation of memory. Then, the more amount of caffeine you take, the better it is for your minds and bodies? Of course, “No”. Coffee also has negative points. For example, coffee can cause a stomach ulcer and have an attack of anemia for some people. The same thing can be mentioned about alcohol. Like since old time, sake has been said to be the best of all medicines, drinking a proper quantity of alcohol has good effects on our health. On the other hand, there are many patients suffered from alcoholism, cirrhosis, and other serious diseases caused by drinking. Therefore I claim that everything (including coffee) has both good and bad effect naturally, so to keep taking care of our health, we should be moderate all times.

taichi

Reaction to “Ebola outbreak” article

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Ebola outbreak: Five infected every hour in Sierra Leone

[summary]

Last week 765 new cases of Ebola were found in Sierra Leone, while there are only 327 beds in the country.

So far 3,338 people died of Ebola and 7,178 people have been confirmed to suffer from that in the world. Especially Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guniea are suffering the most.

In Sierra Leone the number of cases dubles every few weeks.

But the number above is just only a small part. Because untold numbers of children are dying anonymously at a home or in the streets.

If urgent action were not taken, 10 people could be infected every hour.

[my opinion]

I heard the news that Ebola was raging in the West African countries before summer for the first time, and even after summer ended Ebola is still schoking the world.

There are not established treatment for Ebola. So as the best solution to the disease, I think, we must not get Ebola.

But in the current situation in West Africa, the number of cases is rasing day by day. I think the fact that there are not enough medical supply such as provision of beds in isolation wards makes the terrifying situation. If “untold number of children are dying anonymously at home or in the streets”, others can easily get that highly infectious virus from them.

Now Ebola is striding even outside West Africa. Whole countries should take actions not to spread it any more such as offering money to build isolation wards in West African where do not have enough bugdets.

kenji

My reaction “Peanut allergies”

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Summery of this article

This article shows that roasted worse than raw nuts. According to an Oxford University study, roasted peanuts are more likely to trigger an allergic reaction than raw peanuts. Scientists say it is likely to be the high temperatures used to roast nuts that are responsible for the chemical changes that, it may prime the body’s immune system, in turn, sparking the allergic reactions. Some can be mild, causing rashes for example, but others can be extremely dangerous, leading to swelling of the mouth and breathing difficulties. In addition, researchers believe the finding may explain the lower allergy rates in East Asian people who eats raw nuts much more than roasted ones.

My opinion about this article

I have never heard this finding. I don’t have any allergic reaction, but many friends around me have it. Nowadays, we can see the information of allergic foods on menus or displays at restraunts and supermarket. This information is very good helping for people who have allergic reaction. Moreover, recent scientist’s reseach discovered many findings that are related to allergic foods. The finding which is discribed in this article is one of them. However, many people are distressed by allergies even now. I think the society should still make more efforts about allergic foods.

haruka t

First US Ebola case Thomas Duncan ‘critical’ -My Reaction

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Summary
The first patient suffered from Ebola in US is being treated at hospital. He is native Liberia. He is in critical condition. Ebola is contagious, spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of someone who has the virus. Therefore there is the only way to stop spreading is to separate people from the patient. There have been about 7,500 infected people in the world so far. In West Africa, some Muslim festival were postponed and many public places is empty. Meanwhile, a French nurse who got the virus has recovered by the experimental treatment that give her the pill made by Japanese company. It is for influenza originally.

Opinion
I think the basic facilities in hospital are stretched in Africa despite many patients are there. Plenty of isolation units and protection for doctors and nurses are needed to stop spreading Ebola but there are only usual beds and drip infusions. In French a patient were recovered thanks for highly special medical treatment. However the number of intensive care units are limited. Japan take measures to cope with Ebola, shoreline operations, but I don’t think it is enough to defend. The government need prudent measures and plenty of facilities and should prepare for the epidemic in not only in Africa but also in developed countries.

kosuke

THE FOOD THAT CAN CUT YEARS OFF YOUR LIFE – MY REACTION –

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The recent research says that eating a lot of processed meat brings about shortened lifespan. Researchers show that lifespans of people who ate red meat about three hundred grams per day were shorter by two years than those of people who never ate red meat. Though eating processed meat is connected with the risk of death, eating a moderate amount of nonprocessed meat has little effect on shorter lifespan. Red meat contains lots of zinc and protein, so it does us good. In processing meat, however, they put some compounds that could spoil our health. We should reduce the amount of which we eat processed meat.

I think that we cannot be too afraid of eating red meat. We can get nutrients we can’t produce by ourselves. It is ingredients in processed meat that do us harm. Though we had better cut down on processed meat, we can eat nonprocessed meat as usual. There is plenty of stuff harmful to our health in fast food. The companies put it so much to preserve food so that they can hold down expenses. They always seek their profits. Consumers will suffer more and more damage in the future. It may be a good idea to impose taxes on ingredients which are bad for our health. I’d like to eat home-made meat instead of fast food from now on. I put my trust much more in my mother than in fast-food restaurants.

mao

About Height differences could be caused by DNA

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Scientists found 400 regions in people’s genomes –their individual DNA libraries-that could contribute to an individual’s height. It may be great discovery.

We could solve the problems that how to cure an illness when people contract an illness.

For example, cancer is serious problems all over the world. Especially, in Japan, It is said that the probability of having cancer is 50%. It may also shed more light on cancer, where cell growth is out of control. I feel it is important thing. I have looked my mother suffered terrible pain from cancer for a long time. Unfortunately, she passed away this year. So, I strongly hope that this discovery prove to be very useful to cure cancer as soon as possible.

On the other hand, this discovery will cause another problem. Now, we understand with the DNA whether it is deformed baby or not. If pregnant women notice possibility of having deformed baby, some people may have an abortion. In this case, I consider to infringe human rights.

Therefore, this discovery is serious and difficult for us. However, there is no doubt that we can develop our life much more by this fact in the future.

atsuko

Problem about surrogate mother

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When people talk on the cases of surrogate mothers,I always care about one point. That is the fact they lose the point of view from children’s stance. It is no wander they do. Because they can’t know the feelings of children until they will be born. But imagine the case you are the child who was born of surrogate mother. Moreover in the case we try to assume the sperm was from a third party. You can have a question about what is different from the case and acceptance of an adopted child. Even if the sperm is from the couple, dependence on surrogate mother means the child is raised by her blood. Furthermore in these cases surrogate mothers may assert her parental rights. There is also danger that operations fall through. Here can’t you think desiring children who are related to him by blood is parents’ egoism? I think relationships between parents and children are decided by not blood relatives but time which they passed together. Children understand the persons who love them and raised them are true parents. So you don’t need to take risks of lawsuits or medical errors. It is wrong we think human can change easily the world created by God. Human knows a very few part of nature. With such a little knowledge we shouldn’t think we can do everything by the power of science.