Being altruistic can increase your pain threshold

Acts that involve putting the interests of others before our own, for instance, volunteering, are known to have a positive impact on stress, depression and cognitive impairment. Moreover, it may even lead to an increased lifespan, reports CNN Health. The benefits of altruism don’t just end here, because as revealed by a 2017 study, acts of kindness led to reduced levels of pain in volunteers, who already suffered from chronic pain issues.

New researches on this phenomenon attribute the pain-reducing effect of altruism to its ability to deactivate the regions of the brain that respond to a painful stimulus. A series of studies published this Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences analyzed the effects of altruism on 287 people under different situations.

The first one revealed that the participants who volunteered to donate blood to earthquake victims had a reduced sensation of pain as against the ones who underwent a routine blood test. In this experiment, the blood donors showed better outcomes in spite of being pricked by a larger needle.

Another study observed the effects of discomfort caused by cold on participants who volunteered to revise handbooks for children of migrant workers. It turned out that the people who volunteered in the selfless act suffered less pain as compared to those who didn’t.

The next study asked cancer patients suffering from chronic pain to cook and clean either for themselves or for others. The participants reported a significant reduction in pain when they were working for others. The pain-reducing effects fell by 62 per cent of the participants who only worked for themselves.

The study that put forth the most compelling evidence tested the pain response of participants who were asked to consider donating money for orphans. Electric shocks were administered on the hands of the subjects while they were placed inside an MRI machine. The pain centres of the volunteers who donated money reacted less intensely as compared to the ones who didn’t give any donations. Moreover, the subjects who believed that their contribution would be more helpful towards the cause were less responsive to the painful electric shocks. So, an inverse relation was seen between the perceived usefulness of the altruistic act and the degree of perceived pain.

Previous research has established a link between kindness and the activation of the brain’s reward centres. Thus, reduction in pain when combined with a rush of happiness can synergistically improve our health and help us live longer.

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“This Part of Your Baby Remains in Your Body For up to 38 Years,” says experts

There’s a reason why kids are always more attached to their mums than to their dads.

It’s because their cells never really entirely leave their mums’ bodies; some stay back and work several medical wonders, an obstetric phenomenon known as fetomaternal microchimerism. 

The word microchimerism was derived from the idea that a mother is sort of a smaller version of the mythical chimera in this case. It’s one of the most magical things about motherhood.

These cells don’t just stay there and float about; they heal the mums, protect them, and elongate their life spans.

This phenomenon was first discovered by a 19^th Century German scientist. His work was taken up centuries later by researchers and findings are still being made on a lot of issues concerning this phenomenon.

The Blood is the Flaming Chariot
During the course of the nine months gestation period, fetal cells exit the uterus through the placenta and pass into the mother’s blood. The cells are further transported to several organs in her body; her heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas, and even her skin layers.

According to the findings of a top bio-science researcher, these fetal cells don’t just stay there and occupy space. They are stem cells with unusual markings on their surfaces and can differentiate into any type of cell, dependent on the tissue they migrate to. If they wind up in the liver or heart, they develop liver or heart cells.

Fetomaternal Cells are Healing Cells
Fetal cells are magical, but that shouldn’t be a surprise because babies are genuinely magical. These cells are thought to have the natural ability to stall the abnormal growth of breast cells, giving the mother a lower risk of suffering from breast cancer.

Fetal cells are also believed to give mothers low chances of developing neurodegenerative diseases in their old age, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and vascular dementia. Not all women are lucky enough to have sufficient fetal cells left in their bodies after childbirth.

The body naturally starts to clear and shrink these cells to death after parturition. Some of them are highly resistant to the natural process and survive even after a vast majority have been destroyed, protecting the mothers.

They also hasten up the healing process of the pregnancy scars, tissue stretches and in severe cases, internal bleeding. Fetal cells rush to the surface of cuts gotten from C-section and help to quicken the healing process. Babies are tiny angels.

An unfortunate downside: The fetal cells may possibly debilitate Mummy’s immune system.

In spite of the angelic nature of babies, there are still unconfirmed chances that their remnant fetal cells can affect the immune system of the mother. It’s reasoned to be as a result of adverse chemical reactions between the different chromosomes in the mother’s organs and the fetal chromosomes.
Research also indicates that women tend to suffer from autoimmune diseases at a higher rate than men, and it is thought that these remnant cells could possibly be playing a role.  Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system is tricked into fighting the body itself. In this case, the foreign fetal tissue may be triggering a response. Types of autoimmune diseases include Graves’ disease, systemic lupus erythematous and Addison’s disease.

Biologists insist that research must still go on because there’s still so much to discover and investigate about the migration of fetal cells.

This phenomenon shows that parturition can never be one-hundred percent complete; some parts of the baby will always remain in the mother. How much more solid can a bond get?

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This natural sugar supplement could help fight cancer

Mannose-- a nutritional supplement -- found naturally in fruits such as cranberries can aid in slowing the growth of tumours and improve cancer treatment, a study has shown.

The findings showed that mannose enhanced the effects of chemotherapy in mice with multiple types of cancer including leukaemia, osteosarcoma, ovarian and bowel cancer. It slowed tumor growth, reduced the size of tumours and even helped increase the lifespan of some mice.

Tumours use more glucose than normal, healthy tissues. However, it is very hard to control the amount of glucose in your body through diet alone. Researchers found that mannose can interfere with glucose to reduce how much sugar cancer cells can use.

"Tumours need a lot of glucose to grow, so limiting the amount they can use should slow cancer progression. The problem is that normal tissues need glucose as well, so we can't completely remove it from the body. 

"In our study, we found a dosage of mannose that could block enough glucose to slow tumour growth in mice, but not so much that normal tissues were affected," said the lead author of the study.
 
"This is early research, but it is hoped that finding this perfect balance means that, in the future, mannose could be given to cancer patients to enhance chemotherapy without damaging their overall health," he added.

For the study, the team first examined how mice with pancreatic, lung or skin cancer responded when mannose was added to their drinking water and given as an oral treatment. They found that adding the supplement significantly slowed the growth of tumours and did not cause any obvious side effects.

To test how mannose could also affect cancer treatment, mice were treated with cisplatin and doxorubicin -- two of the most widely used chemotherapy drugs. 

Some cells responded well to the treatment while others did not. It was also found that the presence of an enzyme that breaks down mannose in cells was a good indicator of how effective treatment was.



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Common anti-diabetic drug may slow ageing

Metformin, the world's most widely used anti-diabetic drug, may slow ageing and increase lifespan, a new study suggests.

Researchers at the University of Leuven, Belgium decoded the mechanism behind metformin's age-slowing effects: the drug causes an increase in the number of toxic oxygen molecules released in the cell and this, surprisingly, increases cell robustness and longevity in the long term.

Mitochondria - the energy factories in cells – generate tiny electric currents to provide the body's cells with energy. Highly reactive oxygen molecules are produced as a by-product of this process.
While these molecules are harmful because they can damage proteins and DNA and disrupt normal cell functioning, a small dose can actually do the cell good, researchers said.

"As long as the amount of harmful oxygen molecules released in the cell remains small, it has a positive long-term effect on the cell. Cells use the reactive oxygen particles to their advantage before they can do any damage," said doctoral researcher Wouter De Haes.

"Metformin causes a slight increase in the number of harmful oxygen molecules. We found that this makes cells stronger and extends their healthy lifespan," said De Haes.

It was long thought that harmful reactive oxygen molecules were the very cause of ageing.
The food and cosmetics industries are quick to emphasise the 'anti-ageing' qualities of products containing antioxidants, such as skin creams, fruit and vegetable juices, red wine and dark chocolate, researchers said.

But while antioxidants do in fact neutralise harmful reactive oxygen molecules in the cell, they actually negate metformin's anti-ageing effects because the drug relies entirely on these molecules to work.

The researchers studied metformin's mechanism in the tiny roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, an ideal species for studying ageing because it has a lifespan of only three weeks.

"As they age, the worms get smaller, wrinkle up and become less mobile. But worms treated with metformin show very limited size loss and no wrinkling. They not only age slower, but they also stay healthier longer," said De Haes.

"While we should be careful not to over-extrapolate our findings to humans, the study is promising as a foundation for future research," De Haes said.

Other studies in humans have shown that metformin suppresses some cancers and heart disease. Metformin may even be an effective drug for counteracting the general effects of ageing, said researchers.

The research was published in the journal PNAS.

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Trials for ‘safer’ cancer therapy a success in India

Phase II clinical trials of Dendritic Cell Therapy (DCT), often referred to as the fourth flank against cancer after chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery, have successfully been completed across six sites in India. The drug controller’s approval has now been sought to make the therapy available to patients with malignant solid tumours. It is likely to cost anywhere between Rs 5-7 lakh.

The trial results published in the journal Cytotherapy showed that DCT is safe. In 51 patients with refractory cancer (with a life expectancy of three months or less) a median overall survival of 397 days was recorded. But researchers said the trials were conducted on patients with an advanced stage of the disease, and that ideally therapy should be started earlier.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved DCT for some forms of solid cancer. It is also being used in China, Korea, Singapore and some countries of the European Union.

DCT involves harvesting blood cells (monocytes) in the laboratory, into dendritic cells, making them more potent with the introduction of cytokines, interleukins and growth factors. These are then reintroduced into the body in the form of a vaccine-like injection. Dendritic cells function as antigen presenting cells. In a normal person the cell is not present in sufficient quantities to trigger a potent immune response. Unlike conventional anti-cancer therapy, DCT does not involve any side-effects.

Discoveries leading to this therapy had won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2011. Ralph Steiman (who got half of the award) had identified dendritic cells in 1973 and pioneered the therapy later to treat his own pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Ashok Vaid, senior Consultant, Medanta Medicity (a trial site) said, “Immunotherapy offers new hope for patients suffering from late stages of cancer.The clinical trial proves it improves the patients life span and makes a qualitative difference to the kind of life a patient leads”.

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Eating less may increase life expectancy

A new study has found that eating less or consuming low-nutrients diet can extend your lifespan and keep your safe against diseases of old age such as cancer. 

Margo Adler, Evolutionary biologist at University of New South Wale (UNSW), Australia, said that restriction in diet can play an important role in increasing rates of cellular recycling and repair mechanisms in the body. 

The researcher claims that this theory can be used to understand the ability behind animals reproduction even when they face shortage of food. 

The animals used the nutrients which are stored in the cells can be recycled and reused.

 "This is the most intriguing aspect, from a human health stand point," Adler said. 

"Although extended lifespan may simply be a side effect of dietary restriction, a better understanding of these cellular recycling mechanisms that drive the effect may hold the promise of longer, healthier lives for humans," she said.

 The study added that it could allow drug makers to develop drugs that mimic this effect.

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