Foods for healthy hair

Hair loss can be down to hormonal changes, a medical condition, stress or nutritional deficiencies. Experts recommend foods with antioxidant flavonoids to strengthen hair follicles, iron-rich foods to boost red blood cells, and protein and silica-abundant foods to promote hair growth. Hair loss and thinning may be distressing, simple dietary changes could be all it takes to prevent fall outs, according to Neal's Yards Remedies' team of naturopaths, herbalists and nutritional therapists.

Mango-it provides the mineral silica, which is a component of connective tissue that helps to strengthen hair and promote its growth. Having two slices of mango as a snack can strengthen hair tissue and promote growth. Sprinkling a tablespoon of flaxseeds over meals nourishes hair and prevents it from becoming weak or brittle.

Foods derived from soy, such as edamame beans and tempeh, are thought to inhibit the formation of a hormone known as dihydrotestosterone (DHT). An imbalance of DHT Collage contribute to hair loss.
Eggsis full of protein, eggs help to boost collagen production. Collagen surrounds hair strands, but breaks down as people age, leaving them vulnerable to breaking. Iron ensures healthy red blood cell production, while L-lysine facilitates iron absorption. A deficiency in both can impact hair loss.

Figs are a great source of iron, which is essential for healthy hair growth and shiny locks. Other good sources include dried fruits and berries. Flaxseeds - high in omega-3, these help nourish hair, which prevents it from drying out and becoming weak. Pumpkin seed-protein-rich seeds provide zinc, which supports cellular reproduction and enhances immunity, leading to hair growth.

Berries-high in collagen-boosting vitamin C, berries aid iron absorption. Vitamin C boosts scalp circulation, while its antioxidant action protects follicles from free-radical damage. Creamy avocados supply vitamin E, which increases oxygen uptake and improves circulation to the scalp to promote healthy hair growth. Leafy greens like greens such as Swiss chard, watercress, spinach and cabbage, promote the production of keratin, which is a hair protein that strengthens follicles.
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E-cigarettes flavours are toxic

Sugar and spice are not healthy when it comes to vaping or inhalation. Exposure to e-cigarette flavoring chemicals and liquids can cause significant inflammation to monocytes, a type of white blood cell and many flavoring compounds are also toxic, with cinnamon, vanilla and buttery flavors among the worst. That's the finding of new research published in open-access journal
Frontiers in Physiology, which also found that mixing e-cigarette flavors has a much worse effect than exposure to just one.

The use of e-cigarettes has exploded in the past decade as traditional cigarette consumption has declined. Vaping exposes the lungs to flavoring chemicals when the e-liquids are heated and inhaled. Since the flavoring chemicals are considered safe to eat, e-cigarettes are often considered and advertised as a healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes.

This new study, led by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Centre in the United States, wanted to test the assumption that vaping nicotine-free flavored e-liquids is safer than smoking conventional cigarettes. Previous studies show that flavors used in e-cigarettes cause inflammatory and oxidative stress responses in lung cells.

Users of e-cigarettes also show increased levels oxidative stress markers in the blood compared to non-smokers. The new study extends this to assess the effects of commonly used flavoring chemicals, as well as e-liquids without nicotine, directly on immune cells-a type of white blood cell called monocytes.

Exposure to the e-cigarette flavoring chemicals and e-liquids led to higher production of two well-established biomarkers for inflammation and tissue damage mediated by oxidative stress. Furthermore, many of the flavoring chemicals caused significant cell death with some flavors being more toxic than others.
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Aging impairs immune response to flu

Aging impairs the immune system's response to the flu virus in multiple ways, weakening resistance in older adults, researchers examined the innate immune response to the flu virus. They collected blood samples from healthy young adults and older adults.

They isolated monocytes, a type of white blood cell, from the samples and stimulated the monocytes with either flu virus or a mimic of the virus. The immune response in cells from older adults was severely impaired in critical ways, the researchers found.

To fight the flu virus, the body needs to activate potent antiviral proteins called interferons. But in older adults, this response is weakened by age-related damage to a molecule, TRAF3, that signals immune cells to make interferon. Without that signal, and another involving antiviral genes, resistance to flu falls short.
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Blood phosphate levels and heart attacks

Low phosphate in the blood is linked to the risk of heart attack and coronary artery disease, researchers have discovered that insufficient levels of phosphate in the blood may pose a particular danger to cardiovascular health.

The study, using data from the RCGP Research and Surveillance Centre, examined phosphate levels of more than 100,000 patients, over five and nine-year intervals, and the impact on their cardiac health.

The researchers found that those with low levels (below 0.75 mmol/L) of the mineral in their blood were at a similar risk of developing coronary problems as those with elevated levels (above 1.5 mmol/L).

Instances of both conditions were high among those with low and excessive levels of phosphate in the blood, however cardiac events in those with mid-range (1-1.25 mmol/L) levels were significantly less.

Phosphate is an important mineral in the body and helps to regulate blood biochemistry, which can impact on the working of the heart. It plays a crucial role in enabling red blood cells to deliver oxygen to the body's tissues, and can be found in protein rich foods such as meat, poultry and fish.
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Smoking may cause inflammatory bowel disease

Exposing mice to cigarette smoke results in colitis, an inflammation of the colon resembling Crohn's disease, and identify a specific white blood cell and inflammatory protein responsible for this effect. Previous research shows that smoking significantly increases the risk of Crohn's disease, an inflammatory bowel disease. However the mechanism by which cigarette smoke affects the gastrointestinal system was not known.

One possibility is that inflammation in the lungs caused by smoking could have a knock-on effect in the intestine.
a connection between the lung and the large intestine has long been emphasized. Crohn's disease may occur in people with airway diseases, suggesting that inflammation in the lungs is linked with inflammation in the gut.

Researchers exposed mice to smoke from twenty cigarettes a day, six days a week, for a few weeks. The researchers then examined the presence of inflammation in the mice's lungs and colons. Mice exposed to cigarette smoke showed significant inflammation in their lungs. Interestingly, they also suffered from a type of colitis resembling Crohn's disease.

The researchers found increased levels of mucus and inflammation in the colon, and blood in the feces of the smoke-exposed mice. They also found increased levels of CD4+ T cells, a type of white blood cell, which were releasing a pro- inflammatory protein called interferon-gamma. Cigarette smoking activates specific white blood cells in the lung, which might move to the colon, triggering bowel inflammation.
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Blood cancer gene could prevents heart failure

Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death across the globe. Most of these deaths are caused by a heart attack-myocardial infarction where the blood flow to the heart is acutely blocked causing irreversible damage to the heart muscle.

People may survive a heart attack, but the damage that has occurred to the heart muscle can develop to heart failure – a debilitating condition in which the heart cannot pump blood around the body.

The gene Runx1 increases in damaged heart muscle after a heart attack. Mice with a limited capacity to increase Runx1 gene activation were protected against the adverse changes that lead to heart failure.

The Runx1 gene has been extensively studied in the context of its role in leukaemia and normal blood cell development, however until now its role in the heart was unknown.
Now researchers believe that the increased expression of the Runx1 gene, which happens after a heart attack, contributes to adverse changes in the shape and pumping action of the heart.
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Besponsa for treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Food and Drug Administration approved Besponsa for the treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia. ALL.

B-cell precursor ALL is a rapidly progressing type of cancer in which the bone marrow makes too many B-cell lymphocytes, an immature type of white blood cell.

Besponsa is a targeted therapy that is thought to work by binding to B-cell ALL cancer cells that express the CD22 antigen, blocking the growth of cancerous cells.

Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding should not take Besponsa because it may cause harm to a developing fetus or a newborn baby.

Side effects of Besponsa include low levels of platelets, low levels of certain white blood cells, infection, low levels of red blood cells, fatigue, severe bleeding, fever, nausea, headache, low levels of white blood cells with fever, liver damage, abdominal pain, high levels of bilirubin in the blood,
decrease in blood cell and platelet production, infusion-related reactions and problems with the heart’s electrical pulses.
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Vitamin C can stop the spread of blood cancer

Faulty stem cells in bone marrow often multiply, increasing the growth of fatal tumours. The diseases can lead to anaemia and bleeding as abnormal stem cells multiply in the bone marrow and interfere with blood cell production.

Vitamin C can kill and prevents the spread of the tumours. Vitamin C found in high levels in kale, oranges and peppers could prevents blood cancer but it is impossible to get the required amount through fruits and vegetables in high quantities.

High quantities of vitamin C required for killing the tumours can be given by injecting cancer patients intravenously, the patients can get up to 500 times the amount they would get through eating fruit and vegetables.

Vitamin C prevents the breakdown of glucose, the mitochondria - the strength of the cancer cells are unable to gain vital energy it needs to grow with vitamin C injection.

Researchers discovered that vitamin C suppressed the growth of leukaemia cancer stem cells from human patients implanted into the mice. Combining vitamin C with a cancer drug is more effective in cancer treatment.
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New drug for sickle cell disease

Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder in which the red blood cells are abnormally shaped. This restricts the flow in blood vessels and limits oxygen delivery to the body’s tissues, causing to severe pain and organ damage.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Endari (L- glutamine oral powder) for patients five years and above  with sickle cell disease to reduce severe complications associated with the blood disorder.

The average life expectancy for sickle cell patients is 40 to 60 years. Common side effects of Endari are constipation, nausea, headache, abdominal pain, cough and pain in the extremities
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Human brain is one of the HIV reservoirs

Scientists have created a model that can monitor the movement and development of an HIV infection in the brain. HIV virus can move to brain of infected macrophage 14 days after infection.

Antiretroviral drugs cannot get into the brain easily, brain is one of the reservoirs of HIV virus. Scientists have confirmed that HIV can survive in another less-explored type of white blood cell.

It can also persist exclusively in macrophages, large white blood cells found in the liver, lung, bone marrow and brain. This is the reason why Antiretroviral drugs can suppress the virus but not being able to kill it.

There were some evidence of brain damage from early HIV infection. The
virus can still affect the brain even if there is undetectable levels of HIV in the blood.

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Human red blood cell receptor prevents malaria

Researchers have discovered that protection from the most severe form of malaria is linked with natural variation in human red blood cell genes.

A study from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and their collaborators has identified a genetic rearrangement of red blood cell glycophorin receptors that confers a 40 percent reduced risk from malaria.

The most widespread malarial parasite in Africa is Plasmodium falciparum.
Plasmodium parasites infect human red blood cells and gain entry through receptors on the cell surface.

Researchers investigated the glycophorin area of the genome in more detail than before using new whole-genome sequence data from 765 volunteers in the Gambia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Tanzania.

Using this new information they then undertook a study across the Gambia, Kenya, and Malawi that included 5310 individuals from the normal population and 4579 people who were hospitalised from severe malaria.

They discovered that people who have a particular rearrangement of the glycophorin genes had a 40 percent reduced risk of severe malaria. This  shows that that people with complex rearrangement of GYPA and GYPB genes, forming a hybrid glycophori may not develop severe complications malaria.

The hybrid GYPB-A gene is found in a particular rare blood group - part of the MNS blood group system - where it is known as Dantu. The study found that the GYPB-A Dantu hybrid was present in some people from East Africa, in Kenya, Tanzania, and Malawi, but that it was not present in volunteers from West African populations.

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