No low price for pretty?
How far would you go to get rid of wrinkles-especially if you’re a scientist with a lab full of chemicals? A recent report investigated four cases of botulism, a rare and potentially fatal paralytic disease, that were caused by an unlicensed cosmetic treatment of Botox in 2004. The bacterium that causes botulism, Clostridium botulinum, produces a toxin that is the active ingredient in Botox, called botulinum toxin. A Florida doctor, jailed in January 2006, injected himself and three patients with highly concentrated preparations of botulinum toxin that resulted in blood toxin levels up to 40 times the estimated human lethal dose. The victims all exhibited symptoms of life-threatening, naturally occurring botulism, and were the first cases to ever get sick with botulism from injecting themselves with botulinum toxin. Unlike licensed Botox treatments, the botulinum preparation in these cases had been licensed for laboratory use, not clinical injections. If distributed evenly, the amount of toxin in a single vial of laboratory botulinum preparation can kill approximately 14,286 adults.
Source: Journal of the American Medical Association
-Mayce Al-Sukhni
Don’t freak over sweets
Patients with diabetes should be vigilant when it comes to signs of a panic attack, according to a recent study. Panic episodes can mimic the signs of low blood sugar, and this may cause the body to adjust its blood sugar levels to compensate, possibly leading to high blood sugar levels. Researchers also found that panic attacks are linked to poor health outcomes for diabetic patients, in general. The episodes might interfer with patients’ ability to follow treatment regimens that require them to care for themselves. The situation is further complicated by the fact that panic disorders and depression are frequently found in the same patient, highlighting the importance of treating the diabetic patient’s other conditions.
Source: General Hospital Psychiatry
-M.A.
Cool shades, Earth
If global warming turns the earth into a land of perpetual summer in the next two decades, we now have a plan. A specialist of modern optics at the University of Arizona has designed a way to shade the earth from the sun by launching trillions of tiny spacecraft into an orbit aligned with the sun, forming a cylindrical cloud around the earth. Though transparent, the “shades” will diffuse the sunlight reaching the earth by two per cent, approximately the amount required to balance out the effects of global warming.
Source: University of Arizona news service
-Sandy Huen
