sábado, 30 de abril de 2016

BioEdge: Transhumanism. Child euthanasia debate in Netherlands

Although it has been called the world’s most dangerous idea, transhumanism probably provokes more ridicule than fear. Uploading one’s brain onto the internet or talk of thousand-year life spans seems to defy common sense.

Nonetheless, my theory is that transhumanism is the logical outcome of a lot of contemporary bioethical theory. So developments in transhumanism are worth paying attention to.

The biggest story at the moment is the quixotic campaign of the head of the Transhumanist Party, Zoltan Istvan, for president of the United States. He is a philosophy and religious studies graduate of Columbia University and has worked as a journalist for the National Geographic Channel.

Mr Istvan has been running a blog on the Huffington Post for a while about his campaign which aims to make the platform of his party more plausible. In the latest post he defines transhumanism as “the radical field of science that aims to turn humans into, for lack of a better word, gods”. So while transhumanism is resolutely atheistic, it has religious aspirations.

And unlike Richard Dawkins and other militant atheists, Istvan argues that our responsibility is to transcend evolution. He writes: “the human body is a mediocre vessel for our actual possibilities in this material universe. Our biology severely limits us. As a species we are far from finished and therefore unacceptable… Biology is for beasts, not future transhumanists.”

It’s a curious development. While many prominent scientific thinkers want to abolish God and treat man as one beast amongst many, transhumanists want to abolish evolution and recreate God (or gods).

Michael Cook
Editor
BioEdge

This week in BioEdge

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Let them choose for themselves

Indigenous Canadians fear impending euthanasia law

by Michael Cook | Apr 30, 2016

Suicide crisis in remote towns highlights need for caution

A pro-life case for altering the genome

by Michael Cook | Apr 30, 2016

There are risks, but it could save lives

Kuwait to establish national DNA record

by Xavier Symons | Apr 30, 2016

In a world first, the State of Kuwait will require all citizens and visitors to provide DNA samples to government authorities.

Sale of complementary medicines unethical: Australian doctors

by Xavier Symons | Apr 30, 2016

Criticism is mounting in Australia about the sale of low-evidence complementary medicines in pharmacies.

Artificial concerns?

by Xavier Symons | Apr 30, 2016

This week Nature published a strident editorial defending 'legitimate concerns' about contemporary AI research.

BioEdge

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Hearing Aids May Help Keep Seniors' Minds Sharp: MedlinePlus

Hearing Aids May Help Keep Seniors' Minds Sharp: MedlinePlus

MedlinePlus Trusted Health Information for You

Hearing Aids May Help Keep Seniors' Minds Sharp

Ability to stay engaged in conversation could help ward off dementia, study suggests

By Robert Preidt

Thursday, April 28, 2016

WEDNESDAY, April 27, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- A hearing aid may do more than help you hear better: New research suggests that the devices might also help prevent mental decline in elderly people with hearing loss.

"We know that hearing aids can keep older adults with hearing loss more socially engaged by providing an important bridge to the outside world," Dr. Anil Lalwani, a professor of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, said in a center news release.

"In this study, we wanted to determine if they could also slow the effects of aging on cognitive function," he added.

The study included 100 adults, aged 80 to 99, with hearing loss. The 34 who regularly used a hearing aid had much better scores on tests of mental function than those who didn't use a hearing aid.

The researchers also found that mental function was directly linked to hearing ability in those who didn't use a hearing aid.

The study was published online April 25 in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

"Our study suggests that using a hearing aid may offer a simple, yet important, way to prevent or slow the development of dementia by keeping adults with hearing loss engaged in conversation and communication," Lalwani said.

More than half of people older than 75 have hearing loss. But, fewer than 15 percent of those with hearing loss use a hearing aid, the researchers said.

Previous research has shown that hearing-impaired elderly people are at increased risk for fall- and accident-related death, social isolation and dementia, compared to those without hearing loss.

Previous studies have also found that hearing aid use can improve hearing loss-related social, functional and emotional problems, the researchers said.

SOURCE: Columbia University Medical Center, news release, April 25, 2016

HealthDay

News stories are provided by HealthDay and do not reflect the views of MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or federal policy.

More Health News on:: Dementia; Healthy Aging

Gotta Minute? Get a Good Workout: MedlinePlus

Gotta Minute? Get a Good Workout: MedlinePlus

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Gotta Minute? Get a Good Workout

Study found 60 seconds of intense exercise as effective as 45 minutes of moderate exertion

By Robert Preidt

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

WEDNESDAY, April 27, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Couch potatoes, there are no more excuses.

New research from Canada contends that just one minute of high-intensity exercise can boost your health as much as 45 minutes of a moderate workout. That means you can't claim that you don't have enough time to get in shape.

"Most people cite 'lack of time' as the main reason for not being active," said study author Martin Gibala, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. "Our study shows that an interval-based [intense] approach can be more efficient -- you can get health and fitness benefits comparable to the traditional approach, in less time."

The study included 27 inactive men who were randomly assigned to do either intense or moderate workouts three times a week for 12 weeks, or to a control group that did not exercise.

The intense exercise was so-called sprint interval training, which involved three 20-second "all out" sprints on exercise bikes. It also included a two-minute warmup, a three-minute cool-down, and two minutes of easy cycling for recovery between the intense sprints. Total time: 10 minutes per workout.

The men in the moderate workout group did 45 minutes of continuous cycling at a moderate pace, plus the same warmup and cool-down as those in the sprint interval group.

After 12 weeks, both exercise groups had similar measures of heart/lung fitness and insulin sensitivity, a measure of how the body regulates blood sugar.

Interval-based training "is a very time-efficient workout strategy. Brief bursts of intense exercise are remarkably effective," Gibala said in a university news release.

"The basic principles apply to many forms of exercise. Climbing a few flights of stairs on your lunch hour can provide a quick and effective workout. The health benefits are significant," he added.

The study findings were published online April 27 in the journal PLoS One

SOURCE: McMaster University, news release, April 27, 2016

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More Health News on:: Exercise and Physical Fitness

Psoriasis Tied to Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes: MedlinePlus

Psoriasis Tied to Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes: MedlinePlus

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Psoriasis Tied to Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes

A genetic link is one theory for the possible association, researchers say

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

WEDNESDAY, April 27, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- The chronic skin disease psoriasis may be linked to excess weight and type 2 diabetes, results of a new study suggest.

Danish researchers found that people with type 2 diabetes had more than 50 percent greater odds of having psoriasis compared to people without diabetes.

The study also found that the rate of psoriasis went up with increasing weight. For example, obese people with a body mass index (BMI) over 35 had almost double the odds of psoriasis than normal weight people did. BMI is a body fat measurement based on height and weight. A BMI of 30 or over is considered obese.

Exactly how these conditions might be connected isn't clear, but the study authors suggested that genetics, smoking, drinking alcohol, or inflammation might play a role.

"Psoriasis is a complex disorder," said lead researcher Dr. Ann Sophie Lonnberg, of the University of Copenhagen. "The genetic background for the disease and its many comorbidities [co-existing conditions] have not yet been fully uncovered," she said.

This study can't prove that psoriasis causes type 2 diabetes or obesity or vice versa, Lonnberg added. However, the study suggests the association between psoriasis and obesity could partly be tied to a common genetic cause, she explained.

"The reason psoriasis and obesity are associated is not only due to a common lifestyle, but they are also associated due to common genes," Lonnberg said. "It is important to treat psoriasis and obesity and diabetes, since they are risk factors for heart disease and could have serious effects on overall health."

For the study, Lonnberg and her colleagues collected data on nearly 34,000 twins, aged 20 to 71. Just over 4 percent had psoriasis, slightly more than 1 percent had type 2 diabetes and over 6 percent were obese, the findings showed.

Among the nearly 460 individuals with type 2 diabetes, about 8 percent also had psoriasis. Among people without type 2 diabetes, just 4 percent had psoriasis, the investigators found.

People with psoriasis tended to weigh more than those without the skin condition, the researchers said. The risk for obesity was also greater among those with psoriasis -- 11 percent of people with psoriasis were obese, but only 8 percent of non-obese study participants had psoriasis, the findings showed.

The researchers also looked at 720 twin pairs in which one twin had psoriasis and the other didn't. The twins with psoriasis weighed more than the twins without psoriasis, and were also more likely to be obese, the study found. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes, however, was the same in twins with and without psoriasis, according to the report.

The study was published in the April 27 online edition of the journal JAMA Dermatology.

"Psoriasis is not just a disease of the skin -- patients and health care professionals need to be aware of systemic health issues associated with psoriasis," said Dr. Joel Gelfand. He's an associate professor of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia, and author of an accompanying journal editorial.

Other studies have suggested that people with psoriasis are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes even if they don't have major risk factors for the blood sugar disease, and that this risk increases with the severity of the psoriasis, Gelfand said.

"Some of this risk may be due to shared genetics between psoriasis and diabetes. It is also thought that chronic inflammation in psoriasis may predispose patients to diabetes," Gelfand explained.

He suggested that people with psoriasis -- particularly those aged 40 to 70 with more extensive skin disease -- should receive medical screenings for diabetes.

"Patients with psoriasis who are overweight or obese may lower their risk of diabetes while making the skin disease less active if they are able to achieve and maintain a more healthy body weight," Gelfand said.

Another doctor thinks genetics may help explain what she has seen in her own practice.

"I have seen that psoriasis is linked with diabetes, which suggests that a genetic link may help explain why it's a lot harder to control diabetes in patients with psoriasis," said Dr. Doris Day. She is a dermatologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

"We are understanding more about psoriasis and coming up with better treatments for it," she said. "If you have psoriasis, you need to see a dermatologist, a cardiologist and an endocrinologist to make sure you have other conditions under control," Day advised.

SOURCES: Ann Sophie Lonnberg, M.D., University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Joel Gelfand, M.D., associate professor, dermatology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia; Doris Day, M.D., dermatologist, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; April 27, 2016, JAMA Dermatology, online

HealthDay

More Health News on:: Diabetes Type 2; Obesity; Psoriasis

Sleep Doesn't Come Easy to Those With Brain Injuries: MedlinePlus

Sleep Doesn't Come Easy to Those With Brain Injuries: MedlinePlus

MedlinePlus Trusted Health Information for You

Sleep Doesn't Come Easy to Those With Brain Injuries

And that may affect daytime performance at work or school, research suggests

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

WEDNESDAY, April 27, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Many people who suffer a traumatic brain injury struggle with sleep problems they may not be aware of, Swiss researchers report.

These patients also can suffer daytime sleepiness for as long as 18 months after their injury, the small study found.

And these sleep problems may adversely affect daytime performance at work or school, the researchers said.

"Sleep-wake disorders are highly prevalent after traumatic brain injury of any severity but are difficult to diagnose because many affected patients are unaware of their disorder," said lead researcher Dr. Lukas Imbach.

It's not known why sleep problems in traumatic brain injury patients are underestimated, he said.

Every year in the United States, 1.7 million people suffer a traumatic brain injury, and evidence suggests that number is rising worldwide, the researchers said.

Sleep problems are known to be related to mood changes and depression, and also to learning and memory difficulties, said Imbach, who's with the department of neurology at University Hospital Zurich.

"A link between these neuropsychiatric problems and sleep disturbances after traumatic brain injury is absolutely possible, although our study did not test this hypothesis," he noted.

This study provides evidence that sleep-wake disturbances after traumatic brain injury persist over a long period of time, Imbach said, but they are neglected by the majority of affected patients.

"Therefore, we believe that our observations are important for any clinicians and neurologists involved in the management of [brain] trauma patients," he said.

The report was published April 27 in the journal Neurology.

For the study, Imbach and his colleagues followed 31 people for 18 months who had experienced a first traumatic brain injury. Their injuries ranged from mild to severe. The researchers compared these patients with 42 healthy people.

Imbach's team found that 67 percent of the brain-injured patients suffered from excessive daytime sleepiness, compared with 19 percent of healthy people. In addition, when asked about sleepiness during the day, people with a brain injury said they didn't feel any sleepier than those without a brain injury.

People with mild traumatic brain injury were as likely to have sleep problems as people with severe brain injury, Imbach said. No other medical conditions accounted for these sleep problems, he said.

The researchers also found that brain-injured patients needed an average of eight hours of sleep a night, compared with healthy people, who needed an average of seven hours of sleep each night.

Dr. Brian Edlow is a member of the neurocritical care staff at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. "Doctors who take care of patients with post-traumatic sleep disorders often rely on patients to report their own symptoms when deciding whether to perform a formal diagnostic sleep study," said Edlow, who co-authored an accompanying journal editorial.

"However, if patients are not recognizing their own sleep disorders or their own daytime sleepiness, we as clinicians need to rethink our approach to the assessment and diagnosis of post-traumatic sleep disorders," he said.

Earlier studies have suggested that as many as 50 percent of patients with traumatic brain injury experience sleep disturbances or daytime sleepiness. And, since many of these patients may not recognize their own symptoms, the fundamental question is whether all patients with traumatic brain injury should be tested for sleep problems, Edlow said.

Additional studies are needed to establish the link between sleep-wake disturbances and impaired daytime performance at work or school, which is the most important indicator of how these disturbances are affecting a patient's quality of life, Edlow said.

SOURCES: Lukas Imbach, M.D., department of neurology, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland; Brian Edlow, M.D., neurocritical care staff, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; April 27, 2016,Neurology

HealthDay