12.04.2018 Views

29-03-2018

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

HEALTH<br />

tHUrSDAY, MArcH <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2018</strong><br />

5<br />

Getting familiar with human<br />

body’s new organ<br />

SArAH GibbenS<br />

Lurking just under your skin<br />

might be a new organ only now<br />

identified for the first time, say<br />

a team of scientists. In a new<br />

study published in the journal<br />

Scientific Reports, researchers<br />

from New York University's<br />

School of Medicine say they<br />

have found a new organ they're<br />

calling the "interstitium."<br />

It's nearly everywhere-just<br />

below the skin's surface, surrounding<br />

arteries and veins,<br />

casing the fibrous tissue<br />

between muscles, and lining our<br />

digestive tracts, lungs, and urinary<br />

systems. It looks like a<br />

mesh. The interstitium is a layer<br />

of fluid-filled compartments<br />

strung together in a web of collagen<br />

and a flexible protein<br />

called elastin. Previously, scientists<br />

thought the layer was simply<br />

dense connective tissue.<br />

The organ has seemingly been<br />

hidden in plain sight, and scientists<br />

say they missed it because<br />

of the way tissue is studied.<br />

Before being placed under a<br />

microscope, samples are thinly<br />

sliced and treated with chemicals<br />

that allow researchers to<br />

identify key components more<br />

easily. While the process is<br />

helpful for more easily spotting<br />

details, it drains fluid from the<br />

sample.<br />

Devoid of their fluid, the compartments<br />

collapse, like a building<br />

with the floors suddenly<br />

knocked out, leaving the whole<br />

structure to flatten like a pancake.<br />

To find these pockets of<br />

interstitial fluid, medical<br />

researchers looked at living tissue<br />

instead of sampling dead<br />

tissue samples. They did this by<br />

using a probing technique called<br />

confocal laser endomicroscopy.<br />

The method entails using a tiny<br />

camera probe that takes a<br />

microscopic look around a<br />

human body. Tissue is lit by the<br />

endoscope's lasers and the fluorescent<br />

patterns it then reflects<br />

are analyzed by sensors.<br />

Scientists first noticed the<br />

compartments when looking at<br />

a bile duct. They saw what they<br />

thought might be tears in dense<br />

tissue. The images were taken to<br />

Neil Theise, a professor at<br />

NYU's School of Medicine and<br />

author on the paper.<br />

"You're talking about the<br />

remaining extracellular fluid<br />

that's unaccounted for," Theise<br />

says. About 70 percent of the<br />

human body is made of water,<br />

and about two thirds of that is<br />

found in cells. The remaining<br />

third, says Theise, is only partially<br />

known.<br />

In addition to accounting for<br />

bodily fluid, the compartments<br />

may help explain essential functions.<br />

"It's like a shock<br />

absorber," says Theise. "Not a<br />

the interstitium, scientists found, is under our skin and<br />

between our organs.<br />

Photo: neil theise<br />

hard, stiff material." Among<br />

Theise's theories for the purpose<br />

of the interstitium is that<br />

it's a source of lymph, a fluid<br />

that moves through the body's<br />

lymphatic system and supports<br />

immunity. He says that knowing<br />

how diseases spread<br />

through this part of the body<br />

could help researchers better<br />

understand how cancer spreads.<br />

"Can we detect disease earlier<br />

by sampling fluid from the<br />

space? Can we figure out mechanisms<br />

to stop spread?" He<br />

asks. Jennifer Munson is a biomedical<br />

engineer at Virginia<br />

Tech who has looked at fluid in<br />

the body. She was not involved<br />

with the study but says its findings<br />

are promising. "I think<br />

what the paper shows is the<br />

benefit of having new ways to<br />

image and look at tissues. Previous<br />

methods dehydrate the tissues,<br />

and you lose so much<br />

structural information," Munson<br />

notes.<br />

She says she's fairly convinced<br />

these structures exist<br />

but wants to see more<br />

research before speculating on<br />

what they do, and whether its<br />

accurate to call them a new<br />

organ. "I'm really excited<br />

about the find but, as with all<br />

scientists, I approach everything<br />

with a little skepticism,"<br />

she adds.<br />

Theise says he's aware of<br />

some of the skepticism surrounding<br />

his findings, but it's<br />

territory he's not shy about<br />

wading into. In 2005, he wrote<br />

an essay in Nature challenging<br />

the importance of "cell theory"-a<br />

concept that holds cells<br />

as the basic structure of all<br />

organisms, and in 2001, he<br />

published a paper finding that<br />

adult stem cells could be made<br />

to act similarly to embryonic<br />

cells. "There's always going to<br />

be stuff we haven't seen before<br />

that we don't know," he adds.<br />

"I'm awestruck that nature is<br />

more complicated than we<br />

allow ourselves to think."<br />

Male pattern baldness is common for any man at the age of fifty.<br />

Photo: Andreas Koerner<br />

natural cures for male baldness<br />

HeAltH DeSK<br />

Male pattern baldness is a common dilemma<br />

for any man at the age of fifty. But even males<br />

on the younger side can suffer from it due to<br />

a lot of different reasons: it can be stress, it<br />

can be hereditary, and it can be poor hair<br />

care habits. No matter what the cause is,<br />

there is a cure for it. So let's look at cures that<br />

are effective, affordable, and not so popular.<br />

Coconuts can give several benefits not only<br />

for your hair, but also for your overall health.<br />

If you suffer from male pattern baldness, you<br />

can use this to promote hair growth, while<br />

also conditioning it to become stronger.<br />

Thanks to its essential nutrients such as<br />

protein, potassium and iron, it provides<br />

quick results once applied to hair. It won't<br />

instantly let your scalp grow more hair, mind<br />

you. But it will instantly put it in the right<br />

condition to grow more eventually. Plus it<br />

leaves the hair you do have looking smooth<br />

and shiny.<br />

If you want to know how to reap the full<br />

benefits of coconut milk, we have you covered:<br />

Grab a coconut, grate it, and then add<br />

it to a pan of water. Let it simmer for around<br />

five minutes before straining it. Squeeze the<br />

milk out, and you now have your very own<br />

coconut milk! You can then apply it thoroughly<br />

to your scalp, and onto the rest of<br />

your hair. Wear a shower cap and leave it on<br />

for about 20 minutes. Afterwards, make sure<br />

to rinse it off completely, so that your hair<br />

won't feel sticky. Once it is removed, you can<br />

shampoo your hair for maximum effect.<br />

Some people add fenugreek seeds to the<br />

coconut milk before using it. Another alternative<br />

would be black pepper - just mix it in<br />

thoroughly.<br />

You can also target a specific area with the<br />

coconut milk, applying it directly to the spot<br />

where you notice thinning or balding.<br />

Up next on our list of the best natural hair<br />

cures for male pattern baldness, we have<br />

onion juice. As you may already know,<br />

onions are rich sources of sulfur. This helps<br />

in promoting hair growth while simultaneously<br />

controlling hair fall. Did you know that<br />

using its juice on your scalp can go a long way<br />

in combating male pattern baldness - unless<br />

you are allergic to it, of course.<br />

As with any other advice you can take from<br />

the internet, be sure to consult with a physician<br />

before fully committing to this one. It<br />

sure has a lot of benefits, but every person is<br />

different. Now the reason onion juice is so<br />

effective is not just because of its sulfur content<br />

- it also helps improve your blood circulation.<br />

This stimulates the growth of hair follicles<br />

while also reducing inflammation.<br />

Add in the fact that it has antibacterial<br />

properties, and you've got a truly spectacular<br />

solution to male pattern baldness.<br />

christin lipinski was infected with Streptococcus bacteria.<br />

Photo: Dr Kari lounatmaa<br />

Skin spray heals US<br />

woman’s flesh-eating<br />

bacteria wounds<br />

why dreams are vital to<br />

emotional health<br />

Dr. AnDrew weil<br />

Does insomnia cause depression?<br />

Does depression cause insomnia?<br />

Chronic insomnia is strongly associated<br />

with mood disorders, but which<br />

way does the causality run?<br />

I think it's likely that cause-andeffect<br />

can go in either direction, but<br />

surprisingly, there is little experimental<br />

research on the connection<br />

between sleep and emotions. What<br />

there is mostly tracks the effects of<br />

enforced sleep deprivation. A typical<br />

experiment restricts the amount of<br />

sleep subjects are allowed to get over<br />

days or weeks, then measures the<br />

resulting cognitive and emotional<br />

effects. Such research shows that sleep<br />

restriction tends to make people less<br />

optimistic and less sociable. One study<br />

at the University of Pennsylvania<br />

found that subjects limited to four to<br />

five hours of sleep per night for one<br />

week reported feeling more stressed,<br />

angry and sad. Their moods improved<br />

dramatically when they resumed normal<br />

sleep.<br />

sleep. While sleep is clearly vital to<br />

emotional well-being, what is it, exactly,<br />

about sleep that is so necessary? As<br />

it turns out, mood disorders are<br />

strongly linked to abnormal patterns<br />

of dreaming. Rosalind Cartwright,<br />

Ph.D., a leading sleep and dream<br />

researcher at Chicago's Rush Medical<br />

Center and author of The Twenty-four<br />

Hour Mind: The Role of Sleep and<br />

Dreaming in Our Emotional Lives, has<br />

shown that individuals who dream<br />

and remember their dreams heal<br />

more quickly from depressive moods<br />

associated with divorce. Rubin<br />

Naiman, Ph.D., a sleep and dream<br />

expert on the clinical faculty of the<br />

Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine,<br />

believes that "dream loss" rather<br />

than sleep loss per se, is "the most critical<br />

overlooked socio-cultural force" in<br />

the development of depression.<br />

This is important information<br />

because many medications used to<br />

help people sleep also suppress<br />

dreaming. These drugs have<br />

become some of the most widely<br />

used in our society. Many antide-<br />

quently impossible to thoroughly<br />

deconstruct by a community of<br />

researchers. But dreaming matters.<br />

If you dislike or even fear dreaming<br />

because the emotional content<br />

of your dreams tends to be negative,<br />

keep in mind that "bad<br />

dreams" may serve a vital function.<br />

Consider Dr. Naiman's view that<br />

dreaming is "a kind of psychological<br />

yoga," that contributes to emotional<br />

wellness. He says that<br />

dreams "in the first part of the<br />

night appear to process and diffuse<br />

residual negative emotion from the<br />

waking day; dreams later in the<br />

night then integrate this material<br />

into one's sense of self."<br />

The bottom line: There is good<br />

reason to believe you must get sufficient<br />

sleep, and embrace rather<br />

than suppress your dreams, if you<br />

want to experience better moods. If<br />

you have difficulty sleeping or are<br />

not getting enough sleep or sleep of<br />

good quality, you need to learn the<br />

basics of sleep hygiene, make<br />

appropriate changes, and possibly<br />

Alice Klein<br />

An experimental skin spray has<br />

given a US woman back her skin<br />

after drug-resistant bacteria<br />

devoured most of the flesh on her<br />

left side. In January, Christin Lipinski,<br />

37, developed flu-like symptoms<br />

and pain under her armpit.<br />

Doctors at Maricopa Integrated<br />

Health System - a hospital in<br />

Phoenix, Arizona - found she was<br />

infected with a vicious, flesh-eating<br />

strain of Streptococcus bacteria.<br />

"When we took her to the operating<br />

room we realised it was worse<br />

than we thought," says her treating<br />

doctor Kevin Foster. The bacteria<br />

had spread from her armpit down<br />

most of her left torso and arm. To<br />

prevent further spread, Foster's<br />

team cut away the infected tissue.<br />

"It was so deep we basically went<br />

down to muscle," he says. Normally,<br />

large skin wounds are patched<br />

up using skin grafts from another<br />

part of the body. But because Lipinski<br />

had already lost a third of her<br />

skin, she couldn't afford to lose<br />

any more. Running out of options,<br />

Foster decided to appeal to the<br />

FDA for compassionate use of an<br />

experimental skin spray called<br />

ReCell. The spray is currently<br />

being trialled as a treatment for<br />

severe burn wounds. To make the<br />

spray, doctors take a small patch of<br />

skin from another part of the<br />

patient's body. A special enzyme is<br />

used to break the tissue into individual<br />

skin cells, which are then<br />

sprayed in a fine mist over the<br />

wound.<br />

Once they settle, the individual<br />

skin cells divide and spread until<br />

they join up to cover the wound.<br />

"Normally, a wound heals from the<br />

edges, which takes time, but this<br />

allows it to heal everywhere at<br />

once," says Michael Perry at Avita<br />

Medical, the biotech company<br />

developing the treatment.<br />

Foster's team began treating Lipinski<br />

with ReCell on 23 February<br />

after getting FDA approval. They<br />

used it in combination with a<br />

meshed autograft - a piece of skin<br />

they took from her thigh and<br />

pierced with small holes to make it<br />

stretch over a larger area. When<br />

they took the dressings off a week<br />

later, they were shocked to find the<br />

wound had already 95 per cent<br />

healed. The skin is still a bit red<br />

and bumpy, but Foster believes it<br />

will settle down over the next few<br />

weeks. The results are far better<br />

than would be expected for a<br />

meshed autograft alone, says Foster.<br />

"We think the skin spray made<br />

a real difference," he says.<br />

It's still unclear how the otherwise<br />

healthy mum of three contracted<br />

the infection. "It was probably just<br />

bad luck," says Foster. There's evidence<br />

that some people's genes<br />

make them more vulnerable to<br />

attack by Streptococcus bacteria,<br />

but we don't know for sure.<br />

About 600 to 1200 people in the<br />

US are affected by flesh-eating disease<br />

- also known as necrotising<br />

fasciitis - each year, and a quarter<br />

do not survive. Lipinski is expected<br />

to be discharged from hospital in<br />

the next couple of weeks.<br />

Dreams play a key role in boosting creative thought and mental health.<br />

It's difficult to run experiments in<br />

the other direction - that is, to make<br />

people stressed, angry and sad for<br />

days or weeks and note the effect on<br />

their sleeping ability - but virtually<br />

every human being can vouch that<br />

emotional upset can severely impact<br />

pressant drugs suppress dreaming<br />

as well. I think mainstream<br />

research tends to discount the value<br />

of dreaming because the experience<br />

is utterly subjective. Dreaming<br />

is a phenomenon of purely individual<br />

consciousness, and conse-<br />

Photo: Patryk Hardziej<br />

consult a sleep expert. You might<br />

also keep a dream journal at your<br />

bedside, which will help you develop<br />

the habit of recalling your<br />

dreams upon waking, which in turn<br />

can help you to embrace and value<br />

dreaming.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!