A Florida college official said Tuesday that women make less money than men because genetically they might lack the skills to negotiate for better pay.

Edward Morton ofthe State University System of Florida made the comments during a board meeting in which members talked about closing the wage gap between male and femalegraduates of the states public university system.Morton, chair of the boards Strategic Planning Committee and a financial adviser from Naples, Fla., said,according to Politico:

Something that were doing in Naples some of our high school students, were actually talking about incorporating negotiating and negotiating skill into curriculum so that the women are given maybe some of it is genetic, I dont know, Im not smart enough to know the difference but I do know that negotiating skills can be something that can be honed, and they can improve. Perhaps we can address than in all of our various curriculums through the introduction of negotiating skill, and maybe that would have a bearing on these things.

Morton apologized for his comment in an email sent to fellow board members shortly after the meeting.

I chose my words poorly. My belief is that women and men should be valued equally in the workplace, he said, adding that the universitys goal is to teach all students how to better negotiate their salaries.

[Utah Republican argues against equal pay for women: Its bad for families and society]

Gov. Rick Scott, who appointed Morton to the board, was among those who quickly criticized Morton for hiscomments. Lauren Schenone, a spokeswoman for Scott, said in a statement that as a father of two daughters, the governorabsolutely does not agree with Mortonscomments.

Gwen Graham, whos seeking the Democratic nomination for governor,tweeted Tuesday night:When I sat at the negotiation table, nothing about my gender or genetics held me back. THIS is why we need more women in state government.

Morton did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

Politico reported that during the meeting board members were reviewing areport on gender wage gaps among students who graduated from the university system in 2015.The report, which looked at what students did after graduation and how much theyre earning, found that female graduates from various fieldshave an annual median salary of $37,000, which is $5,500 less than the median salary of male graduates. African American graduates make even less, with an annual median wage of $35,600.

[Here are the facts behind that 79 cent pay gap factoid]

Femalegraduates make less than men even though they account fornearly 60 percent of the graduating class, according to the report.Blacks, Hispanics and whites make up 12 percent, 25 percent and 52 percent of the graduating class, respectively.

During the meeting, Morton said that the wage gap will in some way be self-correcting because the university system has more female graduates than men, according to Politico.

The report also found significant discrepancies in pay among men and women who graduated with the same degrees.The median salaries of women with degrees in biological sciences, business and marketing, communication and journalism, security and protective services, social sciences, and visual and performing arts are from$1,200to $4,400 lower than those of men with similar credentials.The gap among agriculture, liberal arts and physical sciences graduates is even greater from $6,400to $9,400.

Yet the report also found that women with degrees in education, engineering, health professions and psychology make from$500 to$3,100 more than their male counterparts annually.

A history of the long fight for gender wage equality. (Daron Taylor/The Washington Post)

Florida is among more than a dozen states with equal pay laws that haveloopholes that allow employers to continue to pay women less, according to the American Association of University Women.Two states, Alabama and Mississippi, have no equal paylaws. And only a handful California, Illinois, Minnesota, Vermont, Massachusetts and Maryland have strong equal pay laws.

Nationally, womens annual earnings are about 80 percent of what men make, according to a recent report by the association.

The report attributes the wage gap partly to differences in career choices and to the fact that parenting more often puts womens professional lives at a disadvantage than it does mens. Twenty-three percent of mothers left the workforce 10 years after graduation, while 17 percent worked part-time, according to the association. Those numbers among fathers were 1 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

Despite factors such as life choices and parenting, women facepay gaps at every education level and in nearly every line of work, the report said.

READ MORE:

In the federal government, how likely is it that a woman will make more than a man?

The poor just dont want health care: Republican congressman faces backlash over comments

Nobody dies because they dont have access to health care, GOP lawmaker says. He got booed.

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A Florida higher-ed official said women's genetics may be keeping ... - Washington Post

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In time, men may have a new way to prevent pregnancy, thanks to the innovative thinking of a Cornell geneticist.

Paula Cohen, professor of genetics in the College of Veterinary Medicine, has won a $100,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a radical approach to contraception an area that has remained static for many years.

Thats whats truly innovative here: We are targeting a stage in the reproductive cycle thats poorly understood, Cohen said.

An expert in the genetics of fertility, Cohen was one of 28 researchers, chosen from 1,600 applicants from around the world, awarded a Grand Challenges Explorations grant, funded by the Gates Foundation. The grant supports innovative thinkers worldwide to explore ideas that can break the mold in how we solve persistent global health and development challenges. Successful projects have the opportunity to receive a follow-on grant of up to $1 million.

Cohens project will look at meiosis, a poorly understood stage of development in which a sperm cells DNA is halved. When the sperm fertilizes an egg which also contains only one half of its chromosomes the resulting embryo is restored to the full number of chromosomes.

Ive always thought that if we can stop those cells from actually getting into meiosis, youd have a really good contraceptive, Cohen said.

There are several reasons why this stage of sperm cell development is a better target for contraception than others, she said.

Traditionally, contraceptives have tried to block the sperm from getting to the egg, with barriers like condoms and spermicide. Thats shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, Cohen said. If a single swimmer gets out, it still has the potential to fertilize an egg, and you cant always prevent that from happening.

Hormonal approaches, like birth control pills, have their own drawbacks. Cohen believes they are not always good for women. And the development of a male birth control pill has always been scorned by men who fear that their libido and/or male sexual characteristics will be diminished.

And contraceptives that target the sperm cell in the testis at a late stage of development might result in mutant sperm and thus birth defects.

Her new approach, centering on the sperm cells entry into meiosis, before it even leaves the testis, offers several benefits.

For example, should one sperm sneak its way through to meiosis, the surveillance machinery present during meiosis would get rid of that solitary cell; in other words, the meiotic process itself would check for escapers. And unlike later stages of sperm cell development, the cells entry into meiosis is accessible to blood-borne factors such as drugs.

The problem is, we know very little about meiosis, because its a very hard stage to target biologically or molecularly, she said. Only recently have we started to gather the tools to be able to look at it. One tool Cohen will use is called CRISPR/Cas9, a genome editing technology that allows genes to be modified permanently and very rapidly.

She has three goals. First, shell try to prove she can get the sperm cells to go into meiosis in culture. Second, shell monitor the cells entry, by engineering what are known as reporter mice, whose cells turn green or red depending on whether or not they have entered meiosis. Third, and as proof-of-principle, shell try to manipulate two genes that are known to affect a cells entry into meiosis.

One gene is required for sperm stem cell maintenance in the testes; if it is deleted, cells rapidly progress into meiosis. The second gene is required for the sperm cell to enter meiosis; it if is blocked, the cells stop developing. So weve got a gene that should accelerate their entry into meiosis and one that should slow it down, Cohen said.

If she can manipulate those genes, that opens the door to the possibility of finding others. There could be hundreds of genes that control this process, she said. We just need to find them and begin to ask whether they are potential contraceptive targets.

This is not the type of science that would qualify for funding through traditional agencies like the National Institutes of Health, Cohen said.

Its very out there, its very risky, and thats what the Gates Foundation is going for, she said. They want you to come up with ideas that are truly revolutionary.

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Cohen wins Gates grant for her new take on male contraception - Cornell Chronicle

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Each Tuesday, Doctor Rob Riley joins us on NewsCenter 16 at Noon to answer viewers' medical questions. Here are the questions he addressed on June 20.

Why do I get an earache when I sleep? It goes away once I'm up."

Dr. Riley: Several possibilities here. Some ear infections hurt more at night, perhaps due to fluid shifts that occur with lying flat. Sometimes dental problems can do this. If you're a mouth breather, drying out the throat at night can cause irritation to the bottom of the Eustachian tubes which we can perceive as ear pain. And it can be as simple as sleep position. If you're putting pressure on a nerve that goes to the ear as you sleep, that will get better when you get up and the pressure is relieved. In any event, if this problem persists, it's definitely worth a visit to your physician who can examine your ear canals, look at the middle ear spaces, look at your inside of your mouth and throat and see if there's something there that requires treatment.

"I know as we age we get a bit shorter. I've shrunk three inches and now my belly is getting bigger. I tell people that as I got shorter, my innards had to go somewhere. Is this explanation anywhere near the truth?"

Dr. Riley: Well, maybe. It's true that we all tend to lose a little height as we get older. The little shock absorbers between the bones of our spine tend to get a little flatter over time and it adds up. Losing three inches is a lot, though, and suggests some of the height loss may be due to compression of the bones themselves. So it may be a good idea for our viewer to be checked for osteoporosis as we have some treatments for that that may reduce the risk of bone fractures later in life. In terms of tummies pooching out, I suppose a shorter spinal column might contribute some, but it's more likely to be due to increased belly fat that's pretty common as we age.

Why does the inside of my body feel cold but my skin is burning hot?"

Dr. Riley: We don't know the age of our viewer, but temperature regulation issues are common as part of menopause. Classically, we think of women getting hot flashes, but temperature problems in general can accompany menopause. This time of year, a bad sunburn can cause people to get the chills. Another concern that comes to mind is thyroid disease. Thyroid hormone affects lots of body functions, including temperature regulation. Low levels of thyroid hormone can cause the person to feel cold when everyone else in the room is comfortable. This condition is much more common in women than in men and is diagnosed with a simple blood test. It's treated by giving people additional thyroid hormone that they can take in pill form. That often takes care of the problem.

Dr. Riley joins us from Memorial Family Medicine.

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Ask the Doctor: Earaches, getting shorter with age, temperature regulation - WNDU-TV

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The "abortion pill" (actually two separate medications) can be taken up to 10 weeks after pregnancy, according to the FDA.

Roe v. Wade may have legalized abortion in America 45 years ago, but the fight it ignited is far from over. While abortion is still legal, many states have since passed laws that restrict access to abortion to varying degreesmaking it more expensive, difficult or even illegal in specific circumstancesto terminate a pregnancy. Todayabortion clinics are disappearing at a record pace,andMedicaid payouts to Planned Parenthood are in jeopardy.

As a result, many women do not have access to a safe clinical abortion.

The fact that a clinic exists in her state doesnt help a woman who lives far away from that clinic and has no way to get there, says Susan Yanow, a reproductive health consultant for the international nonprofit Women Help Women(WHW). Seven statesKentucky, North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Mississippi, Wyoming and West Virginiacurrently haveonly one abortion provider, and Kentuckymay soon bethe only state with none.

Now some women are once again taking the procedure outside the doctor's office, outside the law, and into their own hands. While the days of the infamous wire coat hanger aren't quiteover, many women are turning to asafer method made possible by modern medicine: the abortion pill.

For those with access to a clinic, the abortion pill has become anincreasingly popular wayto legally terminate an early pregnancy. The Food and Drug Administration mandatesthat medication can only be prescribed by a healthcare provider "who meets certain qualifications";19 statesalso require that a physician be there physically to supervise the procedure.

Anti-abortion activists argue against the safety of using this method outsidea doctor's office, and have even argued that states should require stricter medical supervision for abortion medication. These drugs are dangerous. They are deadly. If they are mishandled, they result in serious injury, Kristi Hamrick, spokeswoman for the antiabortion groupAmericans United for Life, recently told The Washington Post.(Hamrick is not a physician.)

Butwomen who can't get the medication legally can and dobuy it illegally, either online or in Mexico. In fact, thisis fast becoming the primary option for womenwho lack others: In 2015, more than 700,000 Google users in the U.S. typed in queries about self-induced abortions, includingbuy abortion pills online and free abortion pills,according to theNew York Times. In May 2016,Glamourmagazine chronicled the stories of women seeking these pills inThe Rise of the DIY Abortion.

Thats why, in April, WHW launched its first website to assist American women undergoing medical abortions on their own. The new Trump administration and anti-abortion legislatures in many states are moving swiftly to push abortion out of reach, said Kinga Jelinska, the groups executive director, ina statementannouncing the move. The new website, Abortionpillinfo.com, provides women with confidential, one-on-one counseling on how to safely use theirabortion medicationregardless of where they may have obtained it.

It isn'tclear just how many women are seeking abortion medication outside of a clinic. To protect its clients, WHW does not disclose how many inquiries its trained counselors receive. But in the past several years,manywomenhave been charged for buying or taking it illegally, with several facing felony charges andjail time. As use of the abortion pill spreads outside the doctors office and into murky legal waters, we asked: How does this procedure work? And how safe is it?

...

While it's used by many abortion clinics, the name abortion pill is a bit misleading. Medical clinics actually administer two different types of medication: one mifepristone pill(which goes by the brand name Mifeprex), and four misoprostol tablets.

How does it work? The first dosea 200 mg mifepristone pillbegins the process by blocking the bodys progesterone, a hormone that is needed to continue a pregnancy in its early stages. Whenever a woman has a period, part of what stimulates that period is the withdrawal of progesterone, saysDr. Lauren Thaxton, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Albuquerque, New Mexico who has been performing abortions for six years

By blocking this hormone, the first pill helps break down the uterine lining that a woman normally sheds during her period, so that the embryo can detach from the uterine wall. After that happens (generally one to two days after taking the first mifepristone pill),a woman dissolves four 200 mcg misoprostol tablets in her mouth. This second medication, which is also used to induce labor, helps expel the detached embryo.

Misoprostol is in a class of medications called prostaglandins, saysobstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Daniel Grossman, who isthe director of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health and co-author of a recent paper exploring the possibility of moving early abortion medication over the counter. One of the effects of prostaglandins [is] that they cause whats called cervical ripeningmeaning causing the cervix to soften, open up, and become thinner. And it also causes the uterus to contract.

Misoprostol was first developed in the U.S. in 1973 to treat peptic ulcers,which it did by preventing harsh gastric secretions. But it had known,major side-effectson a pregnant uterus. In the 1980s, French researchers developed mifepristone,also known as RU-486, a pill that could be taken in sequence with misoprostol to induce an abortion. France legalized this regimen in 1988, andChina,Great Britain and Swedensoon followed suit.

In the U.S., reproductive rights activists hoped the FDA would adopt the method in the '90s, but anti-abortion activists helped delay its approval until 2000. When the U.S. first legalized abortion medication, it was available up to seven weeks after pregnancy. Women receiving it had to visit a clinic three timesonce to take the mifepristone, a second time to take the misoprostol, and a third time for a follow-up.

In 2016, the FDAextended the pregnancy period to 10 weeks and reduced the number of required visits to two, meaning that women could now take the misoprostol at home (though some states have restricted that as well). Today there are even clinicsthat aim tode-stigmatize the processby offering a "spa-like experience,"like a Maryland Carafem health center that offers hot tea and robes to women seeking medical abortions.

One to two weeks after taking the medication, the woman returns to the clinic to make sure the pregnancy has passed. When taken between nine and 10 weeks into a pregnancy, mifepristone and misoprostol are 93 percent effective at inducing an abortion, according to Planned Parenthood. The earlier they are taken, the more effective they are.

In 2014, almost half of U.S. hospital and clinical abortions performed before nine weeks were medication abortions, according to estimates from the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization for reproductive rights. But if WHWs new counseling services, Google queries and the increase in articles on DIY abortionsare any indication, many moremedical abortions may be happening outside the clinic.

...

...

Cara Harshman, a freelance writer and marketer in San Francisco, had her (legal) medication abortion in January. In an interview, she said that her symptoms of cramps, bleedingand nausea lasted for about five days after taking the misoprostol. By the time she had her follow-up appointment, she was stable and feeling healthy. She wrote about her experience on the Facebook group Pantsuit Nationin an essay she thenre-published on Medium and Shout Your Abortion.

The only health issue that came up during Harshmans abortion was a blood test showing she was Rh negative, a rare blood type, meaning she had to receive a shot of the medication RhoGAM after taking the misoprostol. According to Thaxton, most women are Rh positive. But if a woman is Rh neg, pregnant and having bleeding, she needs to receive RhoGAM to prevent alloimmunization in future pregnancies, which is a condition wherein the mother develops an immune response to fetal red blood cells, Thaxton wrote in an email.

Overall [a medicationabortion]is extremely safe, says Thaxton, who is also a member ofPhysicians for Reproductive Health.Common symptoms include nausea, cramping and heavy bleeding, similar to what women experience during a miscarriage. Thaxton generally tells her patients that if they soak through four maxi pads in two hours, that's too much bleeding, and they should consult their physician. Theres a rare risk of [too much] bleedingsometimes bleeding requiring a blood transfusionand that can be related to the risk that the pregnancy has incompletely passed, she says.

To prevent this, abortion providers will counsel women about whether they have a history of bleeding disorders before prescribing this method. Theres also a small risk of infections like endometritis(inflammation of the uterine lining)or the contraction of the bacterium Clostridium Sordellii, both of which can also occur after childbirth. However, Thaxton said that the instances of infections after medication abortions are extremely, extremely rare.

Women are always screened for health conditions that might make a surgical abortion a safer option than the abortion pill, Thaxton wrote in an email. But for the vast majority of women, the abortion pill is a safe, private, effective way to have an abortion."

...

Both mifepristone and misoprostol are available to purchaseonline without a prescription, even though doing so isillegal under federal law (laws regarding inducing an abortion vary by state). Many women who have to resort to this method use only misoprostol, because itis easier to get on its ownand is available over (or under) the counterin many Latin American countries.

Texas women have been getting misoprostol at Mexican pharmacies for years, The New York Timesreported in 2013; whileabortion in Mexico is legally restricted, the medication is sold over the counter for ulcers.

Research has found that a larger amount of misoprostol is needed to induce an abortion on its own, and its usually less effective than the combined method. During the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, a woman who takes three 800 mcg doses of misoprostol orally at least three hours apart has an 85 percent chance of having a complete abortion, according toa 2007 study in theInternational Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics.

Yet somestudies suggest that inducing an abortion using misoprostol alone is no less safe than the combined method. The World Health Organizationrecommends misoprostolas a safe alternative when mifepristone isn't available, andGrossman says he would use the misoprostol-only method if he didn't have access to mifepristone as well.

Over-the-counter abortion medication may sound pretty far-fetched in a country like the U.S., where even standard birth control requires a prescription in almost every state. Yet the fact that women are already managing their medication abortions on their own has led some to wonder: Could the abortion pill(s) ever be sold over-the-counter, asGrossman's study explored?

In a recent Guardian op-ed, he writesthat limited research suggests women who take abortion medication on their own are doing so safely, adding that there is no question that use of these medications has contributed to a reduction in abortion-related mortality worldwide. Abortion medication, he argues, could one day meet the FDAs requirements for over-the-counter drugs. In fact, the research group Gynuity Health Projects is already conducting an FDA-approved research project calledTelAbortion to test the safety of women using mail-order medication and online consultation to perform their abortions at home.

Of course, future research willbe needed to test these hypotheses. But even if the pill's at-home safety is confirmed,if history tells us anything, it's that efforts to make abortion more accessible will be fought every step of the way.

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The Science Behind the Abortion Pill - Smithsonian

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When the Kind Clinic began offering free or low-cost hormone therapy for transgender people in March, word spread quickly here. Within days, the service was booked up until the end of June. Now the next available appointment is in December.

For the patients flocking to the clinic north of downtown the first of its kind in central Texas its a chance to begin a transition many thought they could not afford. But for the doctors, the rush is a chance to start addressing another major health problem facing the transgender community: the staggering rates of HIV.

By offering hormone therapy, the clinic aims to earn the trust of a population that often feels alienated by mainstream medicine and persuade those at high risk of exposure to the virus to start on a drug regimen that can prevent infection.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a regimen marketed as Truvada for use as a pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV in 2012, but it is not widely prescribed.

Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times

Dr. Cynthia Brinson, medical director at the Kind Clinic, consults with a transgender patient, Peter Haley.

Dr. Cynthia Brinson, medical director at the Kind Clinic, consults with a transgender patient, Peter Haley. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Is that just available to anyone? Peter Haley, a 27-year-old transgender patient, asked a Kind Clinic doctor when she told him about Truvada.

The doctor, Cynthia Brinson, explained that the clinic would first want to provide counseling about the medicine and do a series of tests to rule out a preexisting HIV infection and other potential complications. But if everything checked out, she said, the clinic would provide a prescription and help filling it at little or no cost.

Haley had come to the clinic because he was no longer covered by his mothers insurance and couldn't afford the $100-a-month prescription for testosterone injections or routine visits to the doctor.

Recently married, he didnt think he was in any immediate danger from HIV. But he left the clinic with a stack of leaflets about pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP.

I have a lot of friends who probably should know about it, he told the doctor.

A 2013 review of the limited research estimated that as many as 22% of transgender women in the U.S. were living with the AIDS-causing virus a rate 27 times higher than for the general population of reproductive age (15 to 49). More than half of African American transgender women could be infected, according to one study. The risk to transgender men is believed to be lower, although there is even less data about them.

The population is so vulnerable because the stigmatized place that transgender people occupy in society translates into extremely high rates of poverty, substance abuse, mental health difficulties, homelessness and incarceration all of which increase the odds of having sex without condoms or sharing needles, the two most common ways that HIV is spread in the U.S.

Finding a job can be especially difficult for some transgender women, so they may turn to sex work, which puts them in even greater danger. Many clients dont want to use condoms, they say, and assaults are common.

Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times

Kelly Kline, one of the Kind Clinic's first transgender patients, takes a pill once a day to protect herself from HIV.

Kelly Kline, one of the Kind Clinic's first transgender patients, takes a pill once a day to protect herself from HIV. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Many of those living with HIV refuse to get tested or treated because of bad experiences at mainstream medical facilities.

A survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality in 2015 found that 23% of the nearly 28,000 respondents hadnt seen a doctor when they needed one in the last year, because they were afraid of being mistreated. A third couldnt afford to see one.

Of those who had consulted a healthcare provider, a third reported being refused treatment, verbally harassed, assaulted or subjected to some other mistreatment.

You go to the doctor to seek help, but they act like theyre disgusted by you sometimes, said Kelly Kline, 42, one of the Kind Clinics first transgender patients.

She recalled the New Years Eve that she came down with pneumonia and had to go to the emergency room.

Everyone was so nice, until they asked for my ID, she said. Then the receptionist, in front of everybody, asked, So, youre a man?!

The doctor did a double take when he saw her and checked her chart.

Im so sorry, she recalled him saying. They told me there was supposed to be a man on my table.

Kline, a community activist who hosts a popular drag show at an Austin nightclub, said she has lost count of the number of friends who have died of AIDS-related complications so many people. Some refuse to get tested because they cant face the possibility of an HIV diagnosis. But others are afraid of how they will be received.

Because transgender people feel so unwelcome at many medical facilities, opportunities for preventing the spread of HIV the best hope for containing the virus short of a cure or a vaccine are being missed.

The Austin clinic began in 2015 with the aim of making Truvada more easily available to those at high risk of contracting the virus. That includes anyone who is in a relationship with an HIV-positive person, gay and bisexual men who do not regularly use condoms with partners whose HIV status they dont know, and anyone who sometimes shares equipment to inject drugs or hormones.

Taken daily, the medicine has been shown to reduce the risk of infection by more than 90%.

Though public health officials in Texas and across the nation have made it a component of their strategies against the virus, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that many primary care doctors and nurses remain unaware of it.

The medicine has also faced opposition from some doctors and AIDS activists who argue that offering people another way to block HIV transmission would undermine long-standing efforts to promote the use of condoms, a method that is also effective against other sexually transmitted infections. The CDC issued guidelines in 2013 stipulating that PrEP should be used with condoms.

Some doctors in Texas which sees 4,000 new infections each year also object to the medicine on moral grounds, arguing it encourages promiscuity and intravenous drug use.

Brinson, who in addition to being the clinics medical director provides care at the county jail, recalled having to break the news to an inmate that he was HIV-positive. The man was stunned because he had tested negative just three months prior.

Well, did they offer you PrEP? she asked him. No, he had never heard of the regimen.

Just having people continually come in to be tested but not offering them a prevention seemed ludicrous, she said.

Most of the people who work at the clinic are volunteers, and the care is free, thanks to a combination of public and private funding. The clinic can also help patients cover the prescription costs for Truvada, which run over $1,600 a month without insurance.

By the end of last year, the clinic was providing the medicine to 800 patients, most of them gay or bisexual men, who account for the majority of new HIV infections in the U.S.

But the doctors worried about how few transgender people were coming in. So they reached out to community representatives, who pointed out that for many transgender people, HIV is a secondary concern to obtaining the hormones they need to transition. The observation was borne out by recent studies that recommend combining HIV and gender care services for these patients.

And so the clinic began offering hormone therapy.

Our strategy is around getting to zero [new infections], and you cant do that without addressing the needs of the transgender community in a way that makes sense to them, said Joe McAdams, the Kind Clinics executive director.

At first, the clinic offered gender care appointments one evening each week. To meet the growing demand, it recently added weekend hours and is planning to move to larger premises in August.

More than a quarter of the transgender patients decide to try Truvada, said McAdams, who has been living with HIV himself for 30 years.

One of them is Kline. She now takes a blue pill every morning with her allergy medicine.

She loves coming to the clinic. On her first visit, she was offered a questionnaire that asked about her gender identity, the sex she was assigned at birth and what pronouns she prefers.

Other doctors have never, ever asked about it, she said.

alexandra.zavis@latimes.com

Twitter: @alexzavis

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How doctors in Texas are trying to protect transgender patients from a persistent threat: HIV - Los Angeles Times

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Brooke Baxa Photo: Human Rights Campaign, via YouTube.

The Human Rights Campaign has released a video highlighting the important role that Planned Parenthood plays in providing culturally competent health care to the LGBTQ community.

The video, which was launched Friday, is in response to a provision in the Senate version of a Republican-led health care reform effort that would prohibit Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid dollars. Because Senate Republicans plan on using reconciliation to pass the bill, the defunding of Planned Parenthood would only last one fiscal year, as opposed to a permanent ban. But the damage likely forcing several Planned Parenthood clinics to close would be done by the time the prohibition expired.

Brooke Baxa, a 22-year old non-binary transgender healthcare advocate, is featured in the video explaining how they were able to get medical treatment through Planned Parenthoods clinic in Denver, Colo. Baxa says they first met other transgender people living authentically through a Planned Parenthood youth conference, which aided them in coming out as transgender and non-binary.

In the fall of 2015, after seeking medical care from Planned Parenthood, Baxa began taking hormones, including testosterone, to help with their transition. Baxa also discovered that Planned Parenthood was well-versed in providing culturally competent health care to LGBTQ patients.

I grew up in rural Nebraska, and there isnt a lot of access to inclusive health care here, especially in regard to being LGBT. Theres not a lot of resources for us here, Baxa says. What I discovered from moving to Colorado and being a low-income person who needed healthcare, I was able to go to Planned Parenthood and receive care.

Because of provisions the Affordable Care Act allowing youth to stay on their parents plan until age 26, Baxa is still able to receive insurance coverage, which covers their hormone treatments. But Baxa remains passionate about ensuring that other LGBTQ people who are less fortunate are able to access medically necessary care.

For some, covering hormones and hormone replacement therapy is seen as a luxury. But for the vast majority of transgender patients, being on hormones and receiving that care is lifesaving, Baxa says. You shouldnt have to go bankrupt just to get the medication you need to be who you are.

The Human Rights Campaign and Planned Parenthood will be holding events on social media highlighting the symbiotic relationship between Planned Parenthood and the LGBTQ community, and encourage people to protest the defunding of Planned Parenthood. The organizations will also be alerting people to the dangers posed to the LGBTQ community and others by the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and the protections it provides in terms of access to coverage for medically necessary treatment.

David Stacy, HRCs director of government affairs, notes that the Affordable Care Act took significant steps to connect LGBTQ people, particularly those who are low-income, with health insurance coverage through the expansion of state Medicaid programs. Provisions in the ACA that prohibited discrimination against transgender people and barred insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions also helped significant numbers of LGBTQ people obtain access to health care reducing the disparities in coverage between the LGBTQ community and the broader public.

The rollback of the Medicaid expansion and the cuts to Medicaid that are in both the House and Senate bill would be absolutely devastating to people living with HIV, says Stacy, detailing the numerous ways that a repeal of the ACA would effect the LGBTQ community. The same goes for transgender people who are poorer than average because of discrimination and challenges in employment. So transgender peoples health continues to be a challenge, but the ACA has helped increase insurance coverage for those folks, and thats really critical.

Baxa says the transgender community is particularly concerned about the reduction of services that could result if Planned Parenthood loses out on Medicaid dollars, which could impact whether clinics offer hormone replacement therapy or other treatments, not to mention preventative care and family planning services that would also be endangered by such cuts.

With respect to the possibility of repealing the ACA, Baxa says getting treatments covered by insurance is always a concern, particularly for the trans community.

Even by todays standards, where we think that most of these treatments are covered by insurance, Ive seen, in the last few months, people trying to get gender-confirming surgeries and being denied coverage when they have the same insurance that someone was approved for less than a year ago, says Baxa.

As I look to the future and what my medical future looks like, it is always a concern that our coverage or our care in general is on the chopping block.

See HRCs video featuring Brooke Baxa below:

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HRC releases video highlighting importance of Planned Parenthood for LGBTQ community - Metro Weekly

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Raleigh, N.C. Everyone knows how stress can affect their mood and often their food choices, but can long-term stress actually make people gain weight?

Recent research from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging shows it's possible that constant stress can add to your waist line. The gain is due to a potential link between people's bodies and the stress hormone cortisol.

"People who had higher BMIs had higher levels of cortisol, and people who had higher waist circumference, kind of carrying their weight in the middle, also had that higher level of cortisol," said the Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Leslie Heinberg.

Researchers compared the stress levels and body weight of more than 2,500 men and women over the age of 54.

They examined locks of hair for cortisol over a 2-month period.

Cortisol is the hormone secreted by the adrenal glands, and it tends to ramp up during times of stress.

Cortisol levels can vary greatly throughout the course of a day, but excessive levels over time can wreak havoc on the body.

It may get in the way of healthy habits, such as getting a good night's rest, exercise and eating a healthy diet.

Heinberg says it's a reminder not to put our health on the back burner when we're stressed out.

"Things like exercise, meditation, mindfulness exercises, relaxation," also help reduce stress - as well as controlling your weight, Heinberg said.

Heinberg says the research is not conclusive about whether the stress of study participants was a result of being overweight or if being overweight was a result of stress. She believes it may be a combination of the two.

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Hormone caused by stress could lead to weight gain, study says - WRAL.com

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Bathroom signs are temporary, but hormones are forever.

That seems to be the implication of a new paper called Growing Pains: Problems with Puberty Suppression in Treating Gender Dysphoria, published in the journal The New Atlantis this week.

Paul Hruz of the Washington University Medical School and Lawrence Mayer and Paul McHugh of Johns Hopkins Medical School looked at the recent use of hormones to treat children who feel that they should be members of the opposite sex and concluded that this experimental treatment, which is becoming commonplace in medicine, could have serious long-term effects on children.

According to an analysis by UCLA last year, about 1.4 million people in the United States identify as transgender, a growing number of whom are children. And theres no doubt the number of children diagnosed with gender dysphoria described by clinicians as incongruence between ones experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender has been on the rise.

A gender identity clinic for children in the United Kingdom, for instance, received 94 referrals in 2009-10 and 1,986 referrals in 2016-17 a 2,000 percent increase. Referrals for children under the age of 6 went from six to 32 in the same time period.

According to the authors, the reasons for the rise arent clear. It could be that increased awareness has led more parents to have their children treated. Or it could be that gender affirming treatments may drive some children to persist in identifying as transgender when they might otherwise have, as they grow older, found their gender to be aligned with their sex.

In fact, as the authors note, the vast majority of children with gender dysphoria grow out of it. But for parents whose children are experiencing symptoms right now, things can be very difficult for them and for the kids, who are more prone to depression and suicidal thoughts.

Well-meaning parents who want to alleviate this burden as their children approach puberty (and their bodies seem to comport even less with their gender identity) have been increasingly trying hormone suppression. This will not only mean, though, that sex organs wont develop in boys and girls in the usual way. Puberty, as the authors note, affects all parts of the body. It changes the development of the brain, muscle mass, bone growth and a variety of other systems.

While parents might see hormones as a way of allowing their children to postpone decisions about actual sex-reassignment surgery the removal of testicles, the creation of breasts, etc. the truth is that this therapy may have real and long-term effects on childrens physical and psychological development. Whether blocking puberty is the best way to treat gender dysphoria remains far from settled, Hruz, Mayer and McHugh write, and it should be considered ... a drastic and experimental measure.

Proponents of such treatments like to tout the fact that theyre reversible, but once the process of puberty is disrupted or stopped because of a medical intervention, its not at all clear that if the treatment is stopped, things will proceed as they would have otherwise, according to the report: There are virtually no published reports, even case studies, of adolescents withdrawing from puberty-suppressing drugs and then resuming the normal pubertal development typical for their sex.

And the fact that few withdraw from this treatment may simply indicate that these treatments increase the likelihood that the patients cross-gender identification will persist.

Indeed, the use of these drugs to treat gender dysphoria is entirely off label, meaning parents who would never feed their children food that wasnt tested by the FDA or give them toys that werent approved by the Consumer Product Safety Commission are signing their kids up to receive drugs that are purely experimental at this stage.

Children cant consent to this. How can parents agree to this on their behalf?

As a society, we can continue to debate policies for locker rooms and restrooms. We can talk about the extent to which religious institutions should be forced to hire transgender employees. If we make a mistake on those, it can be fixed. But when it comes to ensuring that children are able to be healthy and happy, adopting radical and experimental medical treatments will be awfully hard to undo.

Naomi Schaefer Riley is a senior fellow at the Independent Womens Forum.

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Hormone therapy is a horrible risk for kids - New York Post

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Long typecast as the strong silent type, bones are speaking up.

In addition to providing structural support, the skeleton is a versatile conversationalist. Bones make hormones that chat with other organs and tissues, including the brain, kidneys and pancreas, experiments in mice have shown.

The bone, which was considered a dead organ, has really become a gland almost, says Beate Lanske, a bone and mineral researcher at Harvard School of Dental Medicine. Theres so much going on between bone and brain and all the other organs, it has become one of the most prominent tissues being studied at the moment.

At least four bone hormones moonlight as couriers, recent studies show, and there could be more. Scientists have only just begun to decipher what this messaging means for health. But cataloging and investigating the hormones should offer a more nuanced understanding of how the body regulates sugar, energy and fat, among other things.

Of the hormones on the list of bones messengers osteocalcin, sclerostin, fibroblast growth factor 23 and lipocalin2 the last is the latest to attract attention. Lipocalin 2, which bones unleash to stem bacterial infections, also works in the brain to control appetite, physiologist Stavroula Kousteni of Columbia University Medical Center and colleagues reported in the March 16 Nature.

Story continues below diagram

After mice eat, their bone-forming cells absorb nutrients and release a hormone called lipocalin 2 (LCN2) into the blood. LCN2 travels to the brain, where it gloms on to appetite-regulating nerve cells, which tell the brain to stop eating, a recent study suggests.

Researchers previously thought that fat cells were mostly responsible for making lipocalin 2, or LCN2. But in mice, bones produce up to 10 times as much of the hormone as fat cells do, Kousteni and colleagues showed. And after a meal, mices bones pumped out enough LCN2 to boost blood levels three times as high as premeal levels. Its a new role for bone as an endocrine organ, Kousteni says.

Clifford Rosen, a bone endocrinologist at the Center for Molecular Medicine in Scarborough, Maine, is excited by this new bone-brain connection. It makes sense physiologically that there are bidirectional interactions between bone and other tissues, Rosen says. You have to have things to regulate the fuel sources that are necessary for bone formation.

Bones constantly reinvent themselves through energy-intensive remodeling. Cells known as osteoblasts make new bone; other cells, osteoclasts, destroy old bone. With such turnover, the skeleton must have some fine-tuning mechanism that allows the whole body to be in sync with whats happening at the skeletal level, Rosen says. Osteoblasts and osteoclasts send hormones to do their bidding.

Scientists began homing in on bones molecular messengers a decade ago (SN: 8/11/07, p. 83). Geneticist Gerard Karsenty of Columbia University Medical Center found that osteocalcin made by osteoblasts helps regulate blood sugar. Osteocalcin circulates through the blood, collecting calcium and other minerals that bones need. When the hormone reaches the pancreas, it signals insulin-making cells to ramp up production, mouse experiments showed. Osteocalcin also signals fat cells to release a hormone that increases the bodys sensitivity to insulin, the bodys blood sugar moderator, Karsenty and colleagues reported in Cell in 2007. If it works the same way in people, Karsenty says, osteocalcin could be developed as a potential diabetes or obesity treatment.

Story continues below table

Bones produce hormones that go to work in other organs. Some of those functions are known, but researchers are finding new ways these hormones may work.

Blood sugar and insulin metabolism

Memory and mood

Testosterone production

Pancreas and fat tissue

Brain

Testicles

Their data is fairly convincing, says Sundeep Khosla, a bone biologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. But the data in humans has been less than conclusive. In observational studies of people, its hard to say that osteocalcin directly influences blood sugar metabolism when there are so many factors involved.

More recent mouse data indicate that osteocalcin may play a role in energy metabolism. After an injection of the hormone, old mice could run as far as younger mice. Old mice that didnt receive an osteocalcin boost ran about half as far, Karsenty and colleagues reported last year in Cell Metabolism. As the hormone increases endurance, it helps muscles absorb more nutrients. In return, muscles talk back to bones, telling them to churn out more osteocalcin.

There are hints that this feedback loop works in humans, too. Womens blood levels of osteocalcin increased during exercise, the team reported.

Mounting evidence from the Karsenty lab suggests that osteocalcin also could have more far-flung effects. It stimulates cells in testicles to pump out testosterone crucial for reproduction and bone density and may also improve mood and memory, studies in mice have shown. Bones might even use the hormone to talk to a fetuss brain before birth. Osteocalcin from the bones of pregnant mice can penetrate the placenta and help shape fetal brain development, Karsenty and colleagues reported in 2013 in Cell. What benefit bones get from influencing developing brains remains unclear.

Another emerging bone messenger is sclerostin. Its day job is to keep bone growth in check by telling bone-forming osteoblasts to slow down or stop. But bones may dispatch the hormone to manage an important fuel source fat. In mice, the hormone helps convert white (or bad) fat into more useful energy-burning beige fat, molecular biologist Keertik Fulzele of Boston University and colleagues reported in the February Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

Osteocalcin, sclerostin and LCN2 offer tantalizing clues about bones communication skills. Another hormone, fibroblast growth factor 23, or FGF-23, may have more immediate medical applications.

Bones use FGF-23 to tell the kidneys to shunt extra phosphate that cant be absorbed. In people with kidney failure, cancer or some genetic diseases, including an inherited form of rickets called X-linked hypophosphatemia, FGF-23 levels soar, causing phosphate levels to plummet. Bones starved of this mineral become weak and prone to deformities.

In the case of X-linked hypophosphatemia, or XLH, a missing or broken gene in bones causes the hormone deluge. Apprehending the molecular accomplice may be easier than fixing the gene.

In March, researchers, in collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Ultragenyx, completed the first part of a Phase III clinical trial in adults with XLH the final test of a drug before federal approval. The scientists tested an antibody that latches on to extra FGF-23 before it can reach the kidneys. Structurally similar to the kidney proteins where FGF-23 docks, the antibody is like a decoy in the blood, says Lanske, who is not involved in the trial. Once connected, the duo is broken down by the body.

Traditionally, treating XLH patients has been like trying to fill a bathtub without a plug. The kidney is peeing out the phosphorus, and were pouring it in the mouth as fast as we can so bones mineralize, says Suzanne Jan De Beur, a lead investigator of the clinical trial and director of endocrinology at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Success is variable, and debilitating side effects often arise from long-term treatment, she says. The antibody therapy should help restore the bodys ability to absorb phosphate.

Unpublished initial results indicate that the antibody works. Of 68 people taking the drug in the trial, over 90 percent had blood phosphate levels reach and stay in the normal range after 24 weeks of treatment, Ultragenyx announced in April. People taking the antibody also reported less pain and stiffness than those not on the drug.

Osteocalcin, sclerostin and LCN2 might also be involved in treating diseases someday, if results in animals apply to people.

In the study recently published in Nature, Koustenis team found that boosting LCN2 levels in mice missing the LCN2 gene tamed their voracious feeding habits. Even in mice with working LCN2 genes, infusions of the hormone reduced food intake, improved blood sugar levels and increased insulin sensitivity.

Researchers traced the hormones path from the skeleton to the hypothalamus a brain structure that maintains blood sugar levels and body temperature and regulates other processes. Injecting LCN2 into mices brains suppressed appetite and decreased weight gain. Once the hormone crosses the blood-brain barrier and reaches the hypothalamus, it attaches to the surface of nerve cells that regulate appetite, the team proposed.

Mice with defective LCN2 docking stations on their brain cells, however, overate and gained weight just like mice that couldnt make the hormone in the first place. Injections of LCN2 didnt curb eating or weight gain.

(Two mouse studies by another research group published in 2010, however, found that LCN2 had no effect on appetite. Kousteni and colleagues say that inconsistency could have resulted from a difference in the types of mice that the two groups used. Additional experiments by Koustenis lab still found a link between LCN2 and appetite.)

In a small group of people with type 2 diabetes, those who weighed more had less LCN2 in their blood, the researchers found. And a few people whose brains had defective LCN2 docking stations had higher blood levels of the hormone.

If the hormone suppresses appetite in people, it could be a great obesity drug, Rosen says. Its still too early, though, to make any definitive proclamations about LCN2 and the other hormones side hustles, let alone medical implications. Theres just all sorts of things that we are uncovering that weve ignored, Rosen says. But one thing is clear, he says: The era of bone as a silent bystander is over.

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Young Leo Messi joined his hometown club, Newell's Old Boysor "Nuls," as people in Argentina call itwhen he was just six years old. He'd been waiting almost all his life for the day. The club was his birthright. His uncles and aunts had given him a red-and-black Newell's jersey for his first birthday. Both his older brothers had played youth-team football for the club. He even had gone to the club's stadium in Rosario to see Diego Maradona's Nuls debut in October 1993.

In his first game for Newell's, a 6-0 victory, Messi scored four goals, according to the Association of Rosario Football. He was setting a tone. He became the totem for arguably Argentina's most famous under-age team, "La Maquina del '87," or "The Machine of '87," named after the year a crop of the club's players were born. They were invincible. In what's called "baby football" in Argentinaa seven-a-side game children play until they're 11La Maquina del '87 went unbeaten for three years.

When the club graduated to the 11-a-side format at age 11, with more space to play with on the bigger pitches, it was more of the same. They swept all before them. They won every tournament they entered, plundering fields across Argentina and competitions as far away as Peru, on the other side of the continent. In 2000, Newell's won their championship by at least 20 points, according to Franco Falleroni, one of the team's strikers. "In five or six seasons, we only lost about three times," says another teammate, Gonzalo Mazzia.

Sometimes Newell's own goalkeeper was so bored during the beatings his outfield teammates were administering, he would sit on his backside in the box. They bullied teams so badlyracking up 10, 12 and 15 goals a gamethat some opponents put a 6-0 limit on the scoreline. The game would have to stop once six goals had gone in. It was the only way to stem the bleeding.

Messi was insatiable. I ask Adrian Coriawho coached Messi in 10th grade, the final year he played for Newell's before leaving to join Barcelona at age 13if it is true that Messi scored more than 500 goals for Newell's during those years as a kid.

Coria puffs out his lips. "At least."

Messi was grumpy when he didn't score in a game, like a gambler being wrenched from the rails. "He used to go crazy when he couldn't score a goal," remembers Falleroni. "He was a very ambitious guy. Even if he wonif the team won 7-0but he didn't score a goal, he got angry. Or if he didn't get passed the ball, he got angry. You could see it in his face. That's his temperament, his personality. He always wanted the ball."

Falleroni lives in Chabas. It's the town he grew up in, which is a two-hour bus ride from Rosario. As a star child footballer, it was a difficult beatchugging in and out to Rosario for training and matches with Newell's, week in, week out. Messi and Falleroni became fast friends. Messi used to come out and stay with him. They'd fool around on the PlayStation. On the quiet dirt roads of Chabas, Falleroni's father taught the 11-year-old Messihow to drive, too. "My dad had a Peugeot 306," Falleroni says. "We had to give Leo a large pillow to sit on because he couldn't reach the steering wheel."

There weren't many cars careering around the streets of Messi's barrio in the south zone of Rosario when he was growing up. It's a hardscrabble neighbourhood, although it's not a shantytown like, say, Villa Fiorito, where Maradona sprung from in Buenos Aires. Maradona grew up in the 1960s in a shack with no running water or electricity; he used to scavenge for pesos as a kid by selling scrap and the foil wrapping from cigarette papers, among other enterprises.

Messi wanted for nothing. He got a good schooling.

Many in Argentina will tell you that Messi will forever live in the shadow of Maradona unless he delivers a World Cup. Some Argentines prefer the roguery of Maradona, too. He has what is known locally as "viveza," an ability to get by on his wits.

"The 'viveza' have a certain cunning that is learned in the streets," says Ramiro Martin, author of Messi: Un Genio en la Escuela del Futbol. "Being 'vivo' in Argentina means being cunning, even knowing how to cheat to achieve your goals. It is called 'viveza criolla,' something that I, as an Argentinian, am not proud of, but it is historical."

The houses along the streets of Messi's childhood neighbourhood are low-slung, one and two storeys high, with some tarpaulin roofing in places and walls that are thirsting for paint. There's lots of idlingpeople sitting outside their front doors on plastic chairs, the odd beggar hanging around the traffic lights hustling for some change and scores of dogs ambling about and barking.

On the street corners, utility poles and spare walls are daubed roughly in the colours of either Newell's or its great city rival, Rosario Central, as part of the land wars that divide Rosario. There are murals of Messi to remind people of their most famous son, but they have to be sought outone on the wall at the back of his old primary school and another that materialised before the 2014 World Cup finals close to Grandoli Football Club, where Messi played a couple of seasons of formal football before joining Newell's.

Messi's family house, which was built by Messi's father and grandfather with their own hands, is still standing. It was never sold. His mother and sister only moved out in 2010, per Sebastian Fest and Alexandre Julliard's book Misterio Messi: Los Secretos del Mejor Jugador del Mundo. His grandparents' house is around the corner and halfway up the street from his parents' old home.

A woman in her 30s answers the door when I knock but won't speak. The next-door neighbour, Lucia, is full of chat, though, when prodded about the young Messi. "He was a quiet child. Muy tranquilo," she says. "My only problem with him was that he used to interrupt my siestaall the time kicking a football against my wall."

After a couple of seasons playing with Newell's, the club facilitated a meeting for Messi with an endocrinologist, Dr. Diego Schwarzstein, to address a growth hormone issue. His teammates used to call him "pulga," the flea. He didn't like the nickname, says Sergio Maradona, one of his former teammates.

The doctor got a call that they were sending him "the best player that we have." Messi was nine years old when he first visited Schwarzstein's clinic. It was January 31, 1997, the day of the doctor's birthday.

Messi was one of about every 20,000 in the population who suffer from growth hormone deficiency. He was only a little over 4'0" tall when he joined Newell's and 15-20 centimetres below his target height. His problem was treatable. His body was otherwise normal.

One of Messi's old coaches at Newell's, Quique Dominguez, is quoted in a Messi biography by Guillem Balague as saying that Messi "hardly had a ribcage, it was caved in, looking at his chest was scary." Schwarzstein clarifies, however, that Messi's physique was fine other than the height issue. The dimensions of his body were in "harmony," says Schwarzstein.

Every day, Messi self-administered a growth hormone with a small syringe. It was a painless procedure, less intrusive than a mosquito bite. "I have seen him, here in my parents' place, how he injected himself in his legs. It was a very thin needle, this long," says Falleroni, pointing at the length of his fingernail. "He would come to the house with his medicine, put the pack in the freezer, take it out, inject it by himself into his thigh."

Schwarzstein and Messi built up a close relationship during more than four years of treatment, which was concluded in Barcelona by a different medical team. They connected through football more than anything else; Schwarzstein is an avid football fan and a member of Newell's football club. Messi left him his old Newell's jersey, which he signed, when he moved to Barcelona in early 2001.

Regarding Messi's personality, Schwarzstein makes a distinction. "He was a very nice child. He wasn't shywhen you broke the ice, when you started talking with him, usually football was the initial topic he talked a lot aboutbut he was introverted. One thing is that you prefer to keep some things for yourself. Another thing is if you have anxiety to express yourself, the feeling: 'I'm afraid, I won't say the right thing.' Another thing is to be introvertedif you prefer to keep things for yourself.

"Leo is not shy. He's introverted. He's reserved."

Messi's old teammates at Newell's all testify that he is an open and outgoing guy once he's amongst his circle of friends. Sergio Maradona played at Newell's in the "Generation of '88" team in the same position as Messiin the hole behind the two strikers, as a No. 10, or the "enganche," as it's referred to in Argentine football argot. "In this era, everybody talked about the two of us. It was Messi or meMaradona in '88 or Messi in '87," he says. They both also saw Schwarzstein for growth issues.

Maradona got to know Messi well over those years, and in 1999 he travelled to Buenos Aires with La Maquina del '87 for a tournament. "He was humble," he says. "The idea that he was shy, timidthis is a lie. When he is with his mates, he's great fun. He's guarded with the press or people who don't know him. With his family or his friends, he's very amusing. I remember him as a funny guy, entertaining, extroverted but also a very respectful person, modest, unassuming. He never had problems with anyone."

Messi and Maradona played in that tournament together in the last week of July 1999. They travelled the four hours to Buenos Aires by bus and were billeted with families by the host club, Defensores de Villa Ramallo. Newell's blitzed each team that came before them, winning their pool games, 10-0, 3-0, 7-0 and both the semifinal and final by 5-0 scorelines, with Messi and Maradona both scoring in the semifinal and final. Messi finished the competition with 15 goals to his credit.

Maradona is one of the "sliding door" characters in Messi's tale. What could have been? They both had great talent. Maradona did less with his. Life has been a caper for him. "My problem was discipline," he says. The Spanish club Villarreal came for him when he was 11 years old, but his father nixed the move. He was too young.

Once he was old enough to become a professional, he started bouncing around the leagues in South America as a mercenary, fathering children along the way. He has four kidsone in Mexico, two in Bolivia and one in Argentina. "In that I am like Maradona," he says, laughing.

Maradona had to leave Mexico in a hurry. He ended up playing with a semiprofessional team owned by drug trafficker, as part of a 12-team Mexican league. The team owners used to bet on their teams. When Maradona's team travelled to Ciudad Juarez to play matches, they never stayed overnight. "You could hear shooting every night," he says. He got his team owner's daughter pregnant; she had a girl, who is seven years old. "I had to come back to Argentina because they wanted to kill me," Maradona says. One of his old coaches and his family were murdered, says Maradona, because his team lost a final.

Gustavo "Billy" Rodas was the star of Newell's "Generation of '86" team. He made his first-team debut at 16 years of age. He's another player who is held up as an example of a guy who coulda been a contender, but whose career never took off, owing to social problems.

Sergio Almiron, who was a World Cup winner with Argentina in 1986, worked as a technical director of Newell's youth academy at the time Messi and Rodas played "baby" football. He points to the crucial role Messi's parents played in his development.

"Leo was given all that was necessary for a boy to grow. Billy didn't have that. He never made it. At 14 to 15 years old, because his parents were very poor, he was given a hotel room at the Riviera for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Later, he was given an apartment to live in, with his mother, so she could contain him. But she couldn't control him. For him, it was more important to play with his neighbourhood friends. He had a lot of problems. He left the club. I brought him back again. He disappeared again. He would start training again. Then he'd be gone again.

"Both parents were there for Messi. They supported him. They wanted what was best for their son. They sacrificed everything for him, and the result is the Messi we have today. Billy Rodas didn't have that restraint that Leo had. Here in Argentina, you have good friends and bad friends, drugs, alcohol. Often, it is your family that can keep you on the straight and narrow."

In July, Maradona will pack his bags again. He's due to play for a team in Bolivia next season. He won't miss the close attention of Argentine defenders. They are the worst of their breed in the South American leagues, he says.

"There is a lot of conflict with football in Argentina. It's very aggressive. It's hard. There's a lot of fouling. Football in Mexico, for example, is more fluid, more tactical, faster. Defenders in Argentina will do anything to upset you. They'll spit on you. They'll stick a finger up your arse. They'll prick you with a needle. Can you believe it? They are terrible.

"This is football in Argentina."

Maradona says Messi never shied away from tough defenders: "Even though the ball was bigger than him, he was never afraid. He never cried. He played better when they kicked him. He was always brave. He wanted to play with the ball, to dribble, to go forward."

Messi always got the worst shoeing during games against Central. They were Newell's toughest rivals. During one derby match, he did five "sombreros" on his markercheekily flicking the ball over his head five times. Watching on from the terraces, the defender's father was apoplectic. "Kill him! Kill him!" he screamed.

Falleroni remembers a guy in his town who kept hassling him. He was sick of all the talk about this phenomenon that was supposed to be like Diego Maradona. "He used to say, 'Who is this Messi? You talk so much about him. Bring him here!' So we organised a small match to play. In one manoeuvre, Messi nutmegged him twice. Can you imagine? In the same playtwo nutmegs! The boy stopped talking then."

Coria says one of the things that distinguished Messi was his explosiveness.

"My football idol is Maradona. He played the same as Leo. Leo was very explosive. He could burst from zero to 100 very quickly. It's like starting an engine. Diego had this, but sideways, not with that ability to get a guy off his back with just one move. Leo had a lot of power. He worked very hard on improving this power, working on his physique. Generally players either have very good technique and ball control, but they aren't fast. Leo was fast and he had brilliant skill, both things together. This made him different."

The Maquina del '87 players picked the team's captain. Usually it was Messi, sometimes Lucas Scaglia, whose first cousin is Antonella Roccuzzo, the mother of Messi's two sons. Roccuzzo and Messi will marry in Rosario on June 30, a week after Messi's 30th birthday. They have known each other since they were five years old.

"Leo has always liked Antonella, since forever," Falleroni says, "although she didn't pay him much attention when they were little. We knew he was in love with Antonella. I remember one day, we went to Lucas' house in Funes. We went there for a weekend. Antonella was there too. Every time Messi saw her, he blushed!"

When Messi wasn't thinking about Antonella, he was mulling over football. It obsessed him. He was always meticulous in preparing for training and games. Even when he was five years old and playing with Grandoli, he had his routine. He used to clean his boots before a match with a brush and cloth, and bandage his anklesan Argentine practice to safeguard against piranha defendersbefore kick-off, as per Balague's Messi.

"He thought like a professional. He had this conviction, this passion," says Bruno Milanesio, who played as a defender on his Newell's team. "He is crazy about football. He has been since he was very young. He thought all the time about the ball, how to dribble other players, how to solve a situation. Every day, he trained to be better. He always wanted more, more, more. He put football before everything."

It wasn't a done deal that Messi would make it, however. "When he played, as a child, he showed a lot of potential," Almiron says. "He might score seven goals in a match sometimes, but no one could ever imagine that he was going to become the best player in the world. He was still so young. There are football players from seven to 14 years old who you think might be a great football player. But at 17, 18, they don't kick on football-wise. It was impossible to know that Messi at eight or 10 or 12 years old was going to be the Messi he is today. You can't tell at that age."

Messi's father, Jorge, who has played a pivotal role in his development, chaperoning him through his teenage years in Barcelona and into adulthood as his manager, had a quiet confidence his son would make it, but he never trumpeted it.

"All the fathers believe they have a Diego Maradona, but it doesn't always work out," says Ruben Horacio Gaggioli, the agent involved in bringing Messi to Barcelona. "In the case of Jorge Messi, he never said his son was going to be the best player in the world or a great player. He was sure he had a very special son with some issueshe was very small. There were doubts about his physique, but football-wise, he never had doubts about his son. He was always sure the project would be OK."

Messi was only one of a handful of Argentine players that Europe's clubs were circling at the time he was burning it up with Newell's. There was more noise being made in Rosario, for example, about Leandro Depetris, who was a year younger. AC Milan bought him in the summer of 2000, when he was 12 years old.

"Depetris at 11 was more famous than Messi," Falleroni says. "Nobody knew Messi. Only we knew about Messi. Even the president, Eduardo Jose Lopez, of Newell's didn't know about Messi at the time.

"I remember Depetris played in a tournament in Cordoba [Argentina] against Newell's in the final. He played against Messi. Depetris' team won. After the game, all the microphones, all the journalists surrounded Depetris. Nobody went near Messi. Coria couldn't believe it. For us, Messi was a far better player than Depetris, much, much better, but nobody knew about Messi."

Barcelona knew. In February 2000, a videotape landed on the lap of Jose Maria Minguella, Barcelona's most famous agent, which began a two-year saga that ultimately led to Messi becoming a Barca player. As part of the trial process in Catalonia, Messi flew with his father to Barcelona for a two-week trial in September 2000. Nobody at Newell's knew he had gone. The rumour going around was that he had hepatitis.

"A month passed without seeing Messi," Falleroni says. "We were training and there was no sign of Messi. You can imagine usthe entire panel asking, 'What's up with Messi?' Because we had a close relationship with his family, my dad would phone his house. His mother, Celia, would answer. My dad asked her, 'What's up with Leo? He is not coming to practice.' She said he couldn't come because he was ill. Another week would pass. They kept saying he hadn't recovered. All lies! He disappeared.

"After a month, he came back, looking a little bit more developed, you know? It was strange. We were asking him, 'Leo, are you OK?' And he said, 'Yes, I'm better.' Sometime afterwards, we were training, and his mother came and said, 'Let's go, Leo. We have to go.' 'No,' he said, 'I want to stay a little longer with the guys, with my friends.' But his mother grabbed him by the arm and took him away. He never showed up again.

"A week later, we found out that he was in Barcelona. They did everything behind our backs. He was obliged not to say anything. Barcelona told him, 'Don't tell anyone.' "

For Milanesio, it wasn't a surprise that a 13-year-old boy managed to keep such a huge secretalmost every boy's dreamfrom his closest friends. "Already by that age, Messi was thinking like a professional," he says. Messi was also, of course, mindful, guarded by nature.

The big surprise, says Maradona, was not that Messi ended up playing at a superclub like Barcelona, but that he made the grade so fast.

He made his debut at 16 years of age against Porto in November 2003, and he hasn't stopped surprising football fans since.

All quotes and information obtained firsthand unless otherwise indicated.

Follow Richard on Twitter: @Richard_Fitz

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The Machine of '87: Messi's Boyhood Teammates Recall Early Signs of Greatness - Bleacher Report

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Zion Market Research, the market research group announced the analysis report titledMale Hypogonadism Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecasts 20162024

Global Male Hypogonadism Market: Overview

Male hypogonadism is a medical condition, wherein the testes fail to generate enough testosterone which leads to incomplete development or delayed puberty. The condition is related to the development of breast tissues, impaired development of muscle mass, lack of deepening of the voice, and impaired body hair growth.

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Global Male Hypogonadism Market: Segmentation

The male hypogonadism market is globally segmented into therapy, drug delivery, and type. On the basis of therapy, the market is segregated into testosterone replacement therapy and gonadotropin-releasing hormones therapy. The gonadotropin-releasing hormones therapy is further sub-divided into luteinizing hormone (LH), human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). Based on the drug delivery, the market is categorized into injectables, topical gels, transdermal patches, and others. Depending on the type, the market is divided into Kallmann syndrome, Klinefelters syndrome, pituitary disorders, and others.

Global Male Hypogonadism Market: Growth Factors

The key factor that is driving the male hypogonadism market includes increasing cases of testosterone deficiency among men, increasing awareness among people about hypogonadism treatment owing to awareness drives that are organized by several governments across the world, and increasing infertility rates. The high risk of hypogonadism among the aged population with obesity and diabetes and escalating cases of chronic disorders among the geriatrics are further boosting the markets growth. On the other hand, factors such as high side effects of testosterone products challenge the growth of the market. The market players are focusing on research and development activities to introduce newer products with less or negligible side effects and better results. Technological advancements are anticipated to extend new opportunities to the markets growth.

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Global Male Hypogonadism Market: Regional Analysis

The male hypogonadism market can be segmented into regions such as North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. North America dominates the market owing to the increase in the number of individuals that are suffering from the primary and secondary conditions of hypogonadism, and the rising awareness among the people about treatment. Other factors that contribute to this growth are the presence of unconventional health care infrastructure and growing popularity of the technologically advanced products which will offer new opportunities to the top market players in this market. The region is strongly followed by Europe. Asia-Pacific region is expected to offer productive opportunities to this market owing to the modernization of the healthcare infrastructure in the developing economies of India and China and the growing awareness about the treatment for the condition. In Asia Pacific, there is a rise in the number of people that suffer from hypogonadism and infertility rates coupled with the rise in the geriatric population base having obesity and diabetes are triggering the growth of the market.

Global Male Hypogonadism Market: Competitive Players

Some of the key market players that are involved in the male hypogonadism market include Astrazeneca Plc., Merck & Co. Inc., Laboratories Genevrier, Allergan Plc., Endo International Plc., Ferring, AbbVie Inc., Eli Lilly and Company Ltd., Finox Biotech, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Bayer AG, and IBSA Institut Biochimque.

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Global Male Hypogonadism Marketby Geographical Analysis:North America( U.S.), Europe( UK,France,Germany), Asia-Pacific(China,Japan,India), Latin America( Brazil), Middle East and Africa

Our value reports provide full, in-depth analysis of the parent market including most significant changes in market dynamics; the report also presents the detailed overview on segmentation of this market. We managed to present as many important pieces of information in essential form thanks to our report You will learn more about former, on-going, and projected market analysis in terms of volume and value, assessment of niche industry developments and Market share analysis. We have not forgotten to present key strategies for major players, emerging segments and regional markets and last but not least, testimonials to companies in order to fortify their foothold in the market.

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Male Hypogonadism Market predicts rise in demand by 2016-2024 - People Today 24

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A new study at Tel Aviv University shows that stem cell therapy, one of the few treatments available to patients with severe and end-stage heart failure, can actually harm them unless it is done differently.

We concluded that stem cells used in cardiac therapy should be drawn from healthy donors or be better genetically engineered for the patient, said lead researcher Jonathan Leor of the universitys Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Sheba Medical Center.

Doctors use tissue or adult stem cells to replace damaged tissue, which encourages regeneration of blood vessel cells and new heart muscle tissue. But cardiac stem cells from a diseased heart can lead to a toxic interaction via a molecular pathway between the heart and the immune system, the study found.

We found that, contrary to popular belief, tissue stem cells derived from sick hearts do not contribute to heart healing after injury, Leor said. Furthermore, we found that these cells are affected by the inflammatory environment and develop inflammatory properties. The affected stem cells may even exacerbate damage to the already diseased heart muscle.

[Read the fully study here (behind paywall)]

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post:Study says some stem cells dangerous for heart patients

See the article here:
Stem cell therapy relying on patient's own unhealthy heart may be dangerous - Genetic Literacy Project

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

AsianScientist (Jun. 22, 2017) - Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) have engineered a three-dimensional heart tissue from human stem cells to test the safety and efficacy of new drugs on the heart. Their research has been published in Biofabrication.

Cardiotoxicity, which can lead to heart failure and even death, is a major cause of drug withdrawal from the market. So it is important to test as early as possible whether a newly developed drug is safe for human use. However, cardiotoxicity is difficult to predict in the early stages of drug development, said Professor Jackie Y. Ying, Executive Director at IBN.

A big part of the problem is the use of animals or animal-derived cells in preclinical cardiotoxicity studies due to the limited availability of human heart muscle cells. Substantial genetic and cardiac differences exist between animals and humans. There have been a large number of cases whereby the tests failed to detect cardiovascular toxicity when moving from animal studies to human clinical trials.

Existing screening methods based on 2D cardiac structure cannot accurately predict drug toxicity, while the currently available 3D structures for screening are difficult to fabricate in the quantities needed for commercial application.

To solve this problem, the IBN research team fabricated their 3D heart tissue from cellular self-assembly of heart muscle cells grown from human induced pluripotent stem cells. They also developed a fluorescence labelling technology to monitor changes in beating rate using a real-time video recording system.

The new heart tissue exhibited more cardiac-specific genes, stronger contraction and higher beating rate compared to cells in a 2D structure.

Using the 3D heart tissue, we were able to correctly predict cardiotoxic effects based on changes in the beating rate, even when these were not detected by conventional tests. The method is simple and suitable for large-scale assessment of drug side effects. It could also be used to design personalized therapy using a patients own cells, said lead researcher Dr. Andrew Wan, who is Team Leader and Principal Research Scientist at IBN.

The researchers have filed a patent on their human heart tissue model, and hope to work with clinicians and pharmaceutical companies to bring this technology to market.

The article can be found at: Lu et al. (2017) Engineering a Functional Three-Dimensional Human Cardiac Tissue Model for Drug Toxicity Screening.

Source: A*STAR; Photo: Shutterstock. Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.

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Testing For Cardiotoxicity In 3D - Asian Scientist Magazine

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - June 22, 2017) - VistaGen Therapeutics Inc.(NASDAQ: VTGN), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing new generation medicines for depression and other central nervous system (CNS) disorders, announced today a peer-reviewed publication in the Scandinavian Journal of Pain of two Phase 1 clinical studies of the effects of AV-101 (4-Cl-KYN), the Company's CNS prodrug candidate, as a potential non-opioid treatment for neuropathic pain. Safety data from both the single and multi-dose Phase 1 studies indicated that oral AV-101 was extremely safe and well tolerated, with no meaningful difference in adverse events (AEs) at any dose between AV-101 and placebo. Recently published statistically-significant positive results in four well-established preclinical models of pain associated with tissue inflammation and nerve injury, together with the excellent clinical safety profile, pharmacokinetic (PK) characteristics and consistent reductions in three pain measures (allodynia, mechanical and heat hyperalgesia) demonstrated by these studies, support future Phase 2 clinical studies of AV-101 as a potential new non-opioid treatment alternative for neuropathic pain.

The publication, titled "Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo Controlled, Dose-Escalation Study: Investigation of the Safety, Pharmacokinetics, and Antihyperalgesic Activity of L-4 chlorokynurenine in Healthy Volunteers," by lead author, Mark Wallace, MD, and co-authors, Alexander White, MD, Kathy A Grako, PhD, Randal Lane, Allen (Jo) Cato, PhD and H. Ralph Snodgrass, PhD, was recently published in the Scandinavian Journal of Pain (DOI: 10.1016/j.sjpain.2017.05.004) and is available online at http://www.scandinavianjournalpain.com/article/S1877-8860(17)30128-3/fulltext.

"The excellent safety data and consistent reductions in allodynia pain and mechanical and heat hyperalgesia during the two Phase 1 clinical studies of AV-101 support our belief in its potential to treat neuropathic pain without the negative side-effects experienced with most of the drugs used today to treat pain. Additional clinical trials of AV-101 in neuropathic pain are warranted," reported Mark Wallace, MD, Distinguished Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology at the University of California, San Diego.

"The positive results published in these studies further support our belief that AV-101 has the potential to reduce pain effectively and safely, without causing burdensome side effects like gabapentin and many other neuropathic pain treatments, such as opiates, on the market today. The opioid epidemic, which stems in part from prescribing opiate analgesics for outpatient procedures, makes it imperative that we find new analgesics devoid of abuse potential. Importantly, AV-101 does not bind to opioid receptors, and yet may still have efficacy in neuropathic pain," stated Mark A. Smith, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer, VistaGen Therapeutics. "Additionally, a key observation from these Phase 1 studies in normal volunteers was spontaneous reports of 'feelings of well-being' in subjects exposed to AV-101, especially those in the highest dose group of 1440 mg, while none of the subjects on placebo reported any such feelings. Importantly, these feelings were NOT characterized as feeling intoxicated or psychotic as has been often reported by subjects taking ketamine for major depressive disorder. We are optimistic about AV-101's potential as a new treatment alternative for major depressive disorder, without ketamine-like side effects, and for neuropathic pain, without gabapentin-like side effects or opioid abuse potential."

Study Summary and Key Findings:

Two Phase 1 Clinical Studies -

About AV-101AV-101 (4-CI-KYN) is an oral CNS prodrug candidate in Phase 2 development in the U.S., initially as a new generation treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD). AV-101 also has broad potential utility in several other CNS indications where modulation of NMDA receptors, activation of AMPA pathways and/or key active metabolites of AV-101 may achieve therapeutic benefit, including neuropathic pain and epilepsy, as well as addressing symptoms associated with neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease.

AV-101 is currently being evaluated in a Phase 2 monotherapy study in MDD, a study being fully funded by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and conducted by Dr. Carlos Zarate Jr., Chief, Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders and Chief of Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch at the NIMH, as Principal Investigator.

VistaGen is preparing to advance AV-101 into a 180-patient, U.S. multi-center, Phase 2 adjunctive treatment study in MDD patients with an inadequate response to standard FDA-approved antidepressants, with Dr. Maurizio Fava of Harvard University as Principal Investigator.

About VistaGenVistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VTGN), is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing new generation medicines for depression and other central nervous system (CNS) disorders. VistaGen's lead CNS product candidate, AV-101, is in Phase 2 development, initially as a new generation oral antidepressant drug candidate for major depressive disorder (MDD). AV-101's mechanism of action is fundamentally differentiated from all FDA-approved antidepressants and atypical antipsychotics used adjunctively to treat MDD, with potential to drive a paradigm shift towards a new generation of safer and faster-acting antidepressants. AV-101 is currently being evaluated by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in a Phase 2 monotherapy study in MDD being fully funded by the NIMH and conducted by Dr. Carlos Zarate Jr., Chief, Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders and Chief of Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch at the NIMH. VistaGen is preparing to launch a 180-patient Phase 2 study of AV-101 as an adjunctive treatment for MDD patients with inadequate response to standard, FDA-approved antidepressants. Dr. Maurizio Fava of Harvard University will be the Principal Investigator of the Company's Phase 2 adjunctive treatment study. AV-101 may also have the potential to treat multiple CNS disorders and neurodegenerative diseases in addition to MDD, including chronic neuropathic pain, epilepsy, Huntington's disease, and L-Dopa-induced dyskinesias associated with Parkinson's disease and, other disorders where modulation of NMDA receptors, activation of AMPA pathways and/or key active metabolites of AV-101 may achieve therapeutic benefit.

VistaStem Therapeutics is VistaGen's wholly owned subsidiary focused on applying human pluripotent stem cell technology, internally and with collaborators, to discover, rescue, develop and commercialize proprietary new chemical entities (NCEs), including small molecule NCEs with regenerative potential, for CNS and other diseases, and cellular therapies involving stem cell-derived blood, cartilage, heart and liver cells. In December 2016, VistaGen exclusively sublicensed to BlueRock Therapeutics LP, a next generation regenerative medicine company established by Bayer AG and Versant Ventures, rights to certain proprietary technologies relating to the production of cardiac stem cells for the treatment of heart disease.

For more information, please visit http://www.vistagen.com and connect with VistaGen on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Forward-Looking StatementsThe statements in this press release that are not historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Those risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks related to the successful launch, continuation and results of the NIMH's Phase 2 (monotherapy) and/or the Company's planned Phase 2 (adjunctive therapy) clinical studies of AV-101 in MDD, and other CNS diseases and disorders, including neuropathic pain and L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia associated with Parkinson's disease, protection of its intellectual property, and the availability of substantial additional capital to support its operations, including the Phase 2 clinical development activities described above. These and other risks and uncertainties are identified and described in more detail in VistaGen's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These filings are available on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. VistaGen undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

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VistaGen Announces Peer-Reviewed Publication in the Scandinavian Journal of Pain Highlighting Orally-Available AV ... - Markets Insider

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Matthew Medinas doctors diagnosed him with a rare blood disease a few months ago and told him he would probably die without a bone marrow transplant.

With that prognosis came another: The 40-year-old Los Angeles police officer had a less than 50% chance of finding a donor because he is not white.

Most successful matches for bone marrow transplants involve a donor and patient of the same ethnicity. But the majority of the 25 million registered donors nationwide are white, and Medina is Filipino. So far, no match has been found.

Youre basically looking for a genetic twin, said Athena Mari Asklipiadis, who runs Mixed Marrow, an L.A.-based organization that is trying to increase diversity in the bone marrow donor registry. Its not like we have more of a chance we would get a disease, or that were harder to match, its just that theres not representation in the national registry.

Its a familiar problem for any nonwhite person who has needed a bone marrow transplant.

A white American of European descent has a 75% chance of finding a perfect match in the national donor registry, compared with a 40% chance for Filipinos. Few Filipinos in the U.S. have signed up as potential donors, and there is no registry in the Philippines.

Researchers are experimenting with ways to perform bone marrow transplants on people who cant find matches. But while those treatments are being perfected, thousands of people are diagnosed every year with leukemia, lymphomas and other blood diseases whose only hope for a cure is a marrow transplant. And for them, it can come down to ethnicity.

Medinas wife, Angelee, has watched dozens of people at sign-up events across Southern California, particularly in the Filipino community, volunteer to donate bone marrow with the hope of curing her husband. Were very thankful for that, she said. Were hoping something comes up.

For now, Medina is being kept alive with transfusions.

All you want is for that loved one to have a chance, said Officer Dante Pagulayan, Medinas partner at the LAPD and a childhood friend. Thats what were praying for.

Medina went to the doctor in March because he had a rash. His blood work revealed something far more dangerous.

Medina was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a disease in which the bone marrow stops working. Bone marrow is spongy material inside bones that produces the essential components of blood white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets.

Between 600 and 900 Americans are diagnosed with aplastic anemia each year, according to the Aplastic Anemia and MDS International Foundation. The disease can be caused by exposure to toxic chemicals or a virus, but most cases, including Medinas, are unexplained.

One day he wakes up and the doctor tells him he has this. It could happen to anyone, said Pagulayan, who went to high school and Cal State Long Beach with Medina and now works alongside him in the gang unit in the LAPDs Harbor Division.

Blood transfusions can sustain Medina for now, but the only possible cure for aplastic anemia is a transplant, said Dr. Len Farol, a bone marrow transplant specialist at City of Hope National Medical Center and one of Medinas physicians.

Medina is quarantined at his home in Bellflower, where he lives with his wife and two young daughters. But he needs a transplant soon because his immune system is so weakened from his disease that exposure to a common virus could kill him, Farol said.

Doctors checked to see if Medinas sister could be a match, but she wasnt siblings provide a match only about 25% of the time. They started combing through the registry, but trying to find a donor there can be like finding a needle in a haystack, Farol said.

Doctors look to see if the patient and potential donor share eight cell markers called human leukocyte antigens, or HLA. All eight have to match, but thats rare because there are thousands of possibilities for each marker, experts say.

There could be billions of combinations, said Stephen Spellman, director of immunobiology and observational research for the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research. Within any group, finding a match for HLA is difficult.

Spellman said that people whose ancestors are from the same place tend to have the same markers because they evolved over time in response to different pathogens and diseases that were present in their environment.

According to a 2014 report in the New England Journal of Medicine, a person of white European descent has the highest chance of finding a perfect match eight out of eight HLA markers in the national registry of any ethnic group.

What's your chance of finding a perfect match? If you're...

Source: HLA Match Likelihoods for Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Grafts in the U.S. Registry, New England Journal of Medicine, 2014

Pagulayan, who is also Filipino, said neither he nor Medina knew ethnicity would affect his chances of being cured. Finding out that less than 1% of people in the registry were Filipino was very disheartening, he said.

There are international registries, but the vast majority of people worldwide whove signed up to donate bone marrow are from the U.S and Europe.

Plus, nonwhite populations in general tend to have more genetic diversity. African Americans, for example, have highly diverse genetics because of mixing with other groups since arriving in the United States, experts say. Filipinos are also very diverse because of the countrys long history of colonization.

Still, experts say that everyone who wants to help Medina should sign up for the registry, regardless of ethnicity.

Matches often break down along ethnic lines, but not always. Sometimes markers in one population also appear in another, or people dont know their lineage.

Maya Chamberlin, who is half Indian and half white, had two bone marrow transplants after she was diagnosed with a rare blood disease called HLH in 2009 when she was 4.

Mayas first donor was half Japanese and half Latino, and her second was half Japanese and half Filipino.

So you never know how this works until you get on the registry, said her mother, Mina Chamberlin, who lived in Torrance when Maya was diagnosed but has since relocated to Cincinnati to be closer to physicians who specialize in her daughters disease. You just never know.

Angelee Medina canceled her familys vacation to Mexico scheduled for this summer. Shed been commuting to a job as a graphic designer 20 miles from home when Matt was diagnosed, but found a closer place to work so she could take care of the kids and be near her husband.

It was very, very overwhelming in the beginning, she said. With all the support were getting from everyone around us, it feels hopeful.

More than 1,000 people have signed up to donate bone marrow over the past few months through dozens of drives for Medina, said Chris Chen, a recruitment coordinator for Little Tokyo-based nonprofit A3M, which focuses on getting more Asians to sign up for the Be the Match registry to donate bone marrow.

Potential donors submit cell samples by having the inside of their cheek swabbed. The cells are then analyzed to determine their HLA markers.

About 70% of transplants employ a process called peripheral blood stem cell donation, which is similar to a blood donation but can take several hours. In the other 30% of cases, donors are admitted to the hospital and anesthetized so doctors can remove marrow from their pelvic bone with a needle.

Ayumi Nagata, recruitment manager for A3M, knows that asking people to volunteer for a medical procedure they dont need themselves can be a hard sell. But she tries to impress upon them how they could be the cure for someones cancer or other disease and save their life.

How often do we have that kind of opportunity? Nagata said.

The Medinas 8-year-old daughter, Cassiah, made a sticker thats distributed at donor drives that says, Keep calm and help our daddy fight! When Angelee picked up Cassiah from day care recently, she found out that her daughter had been asking the other kids parents: Did you get swabbed? Have you gotten swabbed yet?

Doctors are testing ways to perform transplants on patients who cant find a bone marrow match. Some are using umbilical cord blood, donated by mothers whove just given birth, which scientists say has a lower chance of rejection even if its not a complete match.

Haploidentical transplants, in which the donor and patient share only half of the eight markers, have also been successful in clinical trials, Spellman said.

Medinas doctors think his best shot is still a perfect match for a bone marrow transplant, his wife said.

Thats just what were waiting for, she said. I remind him one day soon, hopefully everything will be better.

What to know about joining the bone marrow registry

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An LAPD officer needs a bone marrow transplant. His ethnicity limits his chances of getting one - Los Angeles Times

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Bellicum Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: BLCM) was at its volatile best all this week. After a 14-percent gain Monday, the stock pulled back slightly Tuesday and retreated by less than 2 percent Wednesday.

It rallied over 10 percent Thursday, only to slip by about 7 percent Friday amid the Bellicum's presentation at the European Hematology Association conference, in Spain.

Bellicum Pharma is into the business of developing cellular immunotherapies for various forms of cancer, including both hematological and solid tumors, as well as orphan inherited blood disorder.

Following Bellicum's update at the EHA meeting, Cantor Fitzgerald said the company announced additional data from its ongoing phase 1/2 study with BPX-501 in patients receiving blood stem cell transplant due to malignant and non-malignant blood diseases. The data provided in the update was from 98 patients at 180-days of follow up or greater, as opposed to the 81 number reported previously in the abstract.

Giving the key takeaways, analysts Elemer Piros and Justin Kim said:

GvHD occurs after the transplant of a bone marrow or stem cell belonging to another individual, as the transplanted cells treat the recipient's body as foreign and attack it.

Detailing the data, Cantor Fitzgerald said BPX-501 treatment led to a 5-percent rate of transplant-related mortality, with a 3-percent non-relapse mortality and 15-percent disease relapse rate among malignant disease patients. The performance of the patients, according to the firm, was well above historical matched unrelated donor, or MUD, publications. The results of the study showed 6878 percent 1-year overall survival.

Source: Bellicum Pharma

The firm reminded that the E.U. primary endpoint of the study would assess event-free survival composite of death, GvHD and infection at six months compared with approximately 40 matched MUD patients.

"We expect the observation MUD study, which is in the process of being initiated, to provide relevant context for BPX-501," the firm said.

The firm estimates that an additional $100 million in capital is required to reach commercialization, which it thinks could be sourced from potential licensing fees or from issuing new equity.

A such, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated its Overweight rating on the shares of Bellicum and the $35 price target it has for its shares.

At time of writing, Bellicum shares were down a steep 7.33 percent at $12.95.

Related Links:

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2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Despite A Volatile Trading Week, Bellicum's EHA Presentation Merits A Second Look - Benzinga

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Richard Sennott - Star Tribune file During a family portrait in 2000, Molly Nash gives her 4-week-old brother Adam a kiss. Molly Nash received some umbilical blood from her brother, saving her from a fatal genetic disease.

Adam Nash was dubbed Little Frankenstein by the New York Post in 2000 because he was conceived via in vitro fertilization specifically so doctors at the University of Minnesota could collect stem cells from his umbilical cord blood to save his sister, Molly.

Today, back home in Colorado, Adam has a drivers license and helps disabled children ski. His sister once weeks from death due to a condition called Fanconi anemia is debating whether to focus on oceanography or graphic design in college. And IVF to produce an ideal child for a siblings stem cell transplant is common, albeit with lingering ethics concerns.

A squirrelly trio of teens is vindication for Adams mother, Lisa Nash, who felt the weight of the ethical questions when the Us Dr. John Wagner suggested IVF in 1995.

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'Little Frankenstein' is now a happy teenager - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

Photo of Jonathan Pitre and his mother, Tina Boileau, taken in Minnesota. Tina Boileau / -

Doctors in a Minnesota hospital continue to search for answers to a mysterious infection that has left Jonathan Pitre feverish, nauseated and short of breath.

Pitre, 17, of Russell, has been in the University of Minnesota Masonic Childrens Hospital for the past two weeks, suffering from an array of complications more two months after his stem cell transplant. Doctors are also trying to adjust his medications to better deal with his increased pain levels.

Hes having a tough run, said his mother, Tina Boileau, and I really dont know when it will get better.

The teenager suffers from a severe form of epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a painful and progressive skin disease that has left deep, open wounds on his body.

Last week, Pitres face and neck became swollen in response to what doctors believed was some kind of viral infection. That swelling has been brought under control, but a battery of tests has yet to reveal the source of the infection, which continues to cause problems.

Pitres breathing is laboured and hes running a high-grade fever of about 104 F (40 C); he has also developed bleeding and painful sores in his mouth.

We still have no idea what were dealing with, said Boileau. Its frustrating because Im at the point where it would be nice to see that all that Jonathan has gone through has been worth it.

Doctors are monitoring Pitre for graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD), but all of his tests have so far been inconclusive.Anyone who receives stem cells from another person is at risk of developing GVHD, a condition in which the donors white blood cells turn on the patients own tissues and attack them as foreign. It can range from mild to life-threatening.

About one-third of the almost 50 EB patients who have had a stem cell transplant at the Masonic Childrens Hospital have experienced the condition.

Pitre checked back into hospital earlier this month just three days after being released following a stem cell transplant that had successfully taken root in his bone marrow. Bone marrow stem cells produce most of the bodys blood cells, and are responsible for arming its immune system.

Pitre has been in Minnesota since mid-February to undergo the transplant, his second. The first ended in disappointment on Thanksgiving Day last year.

Tests show Pitres latest transplant remains fully engrafted, and there are signs that it has started to improve the condition of his skin.

See the article here:
Jonathan Pitre still ailing as doctors search for answers - Ottawa Citizen

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June 23, 2017

Imagine being able to take cells from your skin, transform them into other types of cells, such as lung, brain, heart or muscle cells, and use those to cure your ailments, from diabetes to heart disease or macular degeneration. To realise this, however, challenges still remain, Professor Janet Rossant, a pioneer in the field, says.

All across the world, scientists have begun clinical trials to try and do just that, by making use of the incredible power and versatility of stem cells, which are special cells that can make endless copies of themselves and transform into every other type of cell.

While human embryos contain embryonic stem cells, which help them to develop, the use of those cells has been controversial. The scientists are using induced pluripotent stem cells instead, which are other cells that have been reprogrammed to behave like stem cells.

"There are still significant challenges that we need to overcome, but in the long run we might even be able to create organs from stem cells taken from patients. That would enable rejection-free transplants," said Professor Janet Rossant, a pioneer in the field.

The mouse that changed everything

A speaker at the recent Commonwealth Science Conference 2017 held in Singapore and organised by Britain's Royal Society and Singapore's National Research Foundation, Prof Rossant gave an overview of stem cells' origins, history, uses and potential.

Now a senior scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children (also known as Sick Kids) in Toronto, Canada, after a decade as its chief of research, she was the first scientist to demonstrate the full power of stem cells in mice.

In the early 1990s, scientists believed that stem cells could only become certain types of cells and carry out limited functions. Based on her own research and that of others, however, Prof Rossant believed that they were capable of far more.

Working with other scientists, she created an entire mouse out of stem cells in 1992, upending the conventional wisdom. "We went on to create many baby mice that were completely normal, and completely derived from stem cells grown in a petri dish," she said.

"That was an amazing experiment, and it was instrumental in making people believe that human embryonic stem cells could have the full potential to make every cell type in the body," she added.

When scientists learned how to remove stem cells from human embryos in 1998, however, controversy ensued. Many lobbied against the cells' use in medical research and treatment due to the moral implications of destroying even unwanted embryos to gain the cells.

In Canada, Prof Rossant chaired the working group of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research on Stem Cell Research, establishing guidelines for the field. These guidelines helped to keep the field alive in Canada, and were influential well beyond the country's borders.

In 2006, Japanese researchers succeeded in taking skin cells from adult mice and reprogramming them to behave like embryonic stem cells. These revolutionary, induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells allowed scientists to sidestep the ongoing controversy.

The challenges in the way

While stem cells have been used for medical treatment in some cases bone marrow transplants, for example, are a form of stem cell therapy there are several challenges that need to be overcome before they can be used more widely to treat diseases and injuries.

"We need to get better at turning stem cells into the fully mature cells that you need for therapy. That's going to take more work. Another issue is that of scale-up. If you're going to treat a patient, you need to be able to grow millions of cells," said Prof Rossant.

She added: "Safety is another concern. One of the most exciting things about pluripotent stem cells is that they can divide indefinitely in the culture dish. But that's also one of the most scary things about them, because that's also how cancer works.

"Furthermore, because we need to genetically manipulate cells to get IPS cells, it's very hard to know whether we've got completely normal cells at the end of the day. These are all issues that need to be resolved."

She noted that some scientists are working on making "failsafe" IPS cells, which have a built-in self-destruct option if they become dangerous. "Bringing stem cells into regenerative medicine is going to require interdisciplinary, international collaboration," she said.

In the meantime, stem cells have been a boon to medical research, as scientists can use them to create an endless supply of different cells to study diseases and injuries, and test drugs. "That's the biggest use of IPS cells right now," Prof Rossant said.

Sick kids and how to help them

At SickKids, which is Canada's largest paediatric research hospital, she has been using stem cells to study cystic fibrosis, a frequently fatal genetic disorder that causes mucus to build up and clog some organs such as the lungs. It affects primarily children and young adults.

SickKids discovered the CFTR gene that, when mutated, causes the disease. It was also the first to produce mature lung cells, from stem cells, that can be used to study the disease and test drugs against it.

Even better, Prof Rossant and her team were able to turn skin cells from cystic fibrosis patients into IPS cells and then into lung cells with the genetic mutation specific to each of them. This is critical to personalising treatment for each patient.

"Drugs for cystic fibrosis are extraordinarily expensive, and patients can have the same mutation and yet respond differently to the same drug," Prof Rossant explained. "With our work, we can make sure that each patient gets the right drug at the right time."

In 1998, Prof Rossant also discovered a new type of stem cell in mice, now called the trophoblast stem cell. These surround an embryo and attach it to the uterine wall, eventually becoming the placenta. She is using such cells to study placenta defects and pregnancy problems.

By using IPS cells to create heart cells and other cells, pharmaceutical companies can also test their new drugs' effectiveness and uncover potential side effects, as well as develop personalised medicines.

"There are still huge amounts of opportunities in pluripotent stem cells," said Prof Rossant, who has won numerous awards for her research, including the Companion of the Order of Canada and the 2016 Friesen International Prize in Health Research.

She is also president and scientific director of the Toronto-based Gairdner Foundation, which recognises outstanding biomedical research worldwide, and a professor at the University of Toronto's molecular genetics, obstetrics and gynaecology departments.

"Meetings like the Commonwealth Science Conference are a fantastic opportunity for scientists to come together, learn about each other's work and establish new relationships, which will help to push science forward, including in stem cell research," she said.

She noted: "The world of science is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary, so this kind of meeting of minds across nations, cultures and scientific fields is really the way of the future."

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Stem cells: the future of medicine - Medical Xpress

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