Thursday, June 5, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
The Half Ton Dad
At a massive 73-stone, Kenneth Brumley must lose weight, or die. His daily intake of 30,000 calories is the same as a regular-sized man eats in two weeks.
For four years he's been confined to a bed which buckled under his weight and powerless to move his gigantic legs. Only deliveries of fast food from his partner Serena break the monotony of the day. Because of this weakness for junk food, Kenneth is among two million Americans who are over 40-stone, and classed as super morbidly obese. Kenneth, 40, from Texas, says: "I got into this shape over the last seven years. "They've been the worst of my life.
"It is like I'm a prisoner to myself.
"I just sit here, watch TV and eat.
"That's all I do, every day."
The volume of food Kenneth consumes is truly shocking. He says: "I'd wake up and get chilli cheese fries for breakfast.
"It's basically fast food 24 hours a day, seven days a week
"That and a case of super-strength lager. "At my heaviest I ate three or four cheeseburgers at a time, maybe a half gallon of orange juice or apple juice. "Two litre bottles of soda would last about 30 minutes. "If I feel like Chinese, McDonalds or Mexican, that's what I get." "I don't know if it's an addiction. But once that weight gets on you, it's hard getting it off '
Amazingly, Kenneth, a dad-of-four, used to be a sports fanatic. But his weight problem started at 19, when he temporarily moved to California from Texas. He says: "I was constantly playing basketball, baseball, football. "I ate a lot when I was a child, a whole lot. "But I burnt all that off with the activities I was doing.
"In California the lifestyle wasn't good. "When I got there I didn't know anybody and all the sports I was doing stopped.
"So many times I went to buy new pants and would have to return two weeks later for a bigger size. "I was just picking up the weight unbelievably quickly. "The weight stopped me enjoying life with my kids. I've missed most of their young lives '
Unsurprisingly, Kenneth's had little success with fad diets. But gastric bypass surgery, to reduce the size of his stomach, could be the answer. He says: "I've tried low calorie, low carbs and the Greek food diet.
"I did what exercise I could from my bed, but you lose 20 to 30 pounds, and that's it. "Then you gain it back twice more.
"I'd like to have a gastric bypass because I think that would be a big help and would change my life. "There is no way I'm going to improve like this." After being accepted as a gastric bypass patient at the prestigious Renaissance Hospital in Houston, a fire crew had to hammer down a wall in Kenneth's house to get him out.
As their biggest ever patient, before he could undergo surgery he had 15-stone of fatty tumours cut away from his body. Meanwhile his diet was reduced from 30,000 calories a day to just 1,200. Despite the horrendous effort required to shrink his size, Kenneth remains determined to succeed. He says: "It might take a few months but I'm going to be back on my feet.
"It's been a long time since I had fresh air. "I'm looking forward to being outside.
"The weight also stopped me enjoying life with my kids. "I've missed most of their young lives, so now they're young ladies.
"It won't be long before they're getting married. "I want to be sure I'm walking with them proudly down the aisle."
Must watch my own weight:(
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Male painters and decorators at risk of infertility
A joint study carried out by researchers from Britain and Canada has found that exposure to certain chemicals found in paint can make men infertile.
The researchers from University of Alberta, in Canada and the Universities of Manchester and Sheffield and have linked fertility problems in men to their exposure to certain paint chemicals.
The study of 2,118 men undertaking treatment at 14 fertility clinics in the UK found that 874 were working with organic solvents, particularly glycol ethers.
They say this translates to men working with glycol solvents having a 250 percent chance of losing the ability to produce "healthy" sperms.
In the joint research project, the men were questioned about their lifestyles and occupations in order to establish possible causes of sperm motility problems.
The research revealed that painters, decorators, and those who are regularly exposed on glycol ethers, chemicals commonly used as solvents for water-based paint are two-and-a-half times more prone to fertility problems.
Glycol ether solvents are widely used in many products, including popular water-based emulsions.
A man's ability to father a baby is affected by sperm motility, the amount of movement seen in individual sperm, which serves as a part of measuring male fertility.
The researchers say glycol ether exposure was related to low motile sperm count in men attending fertility clinics and are a hazard for male fertility but other chemicals found in paint had no impact on fertility.
The researchers from University of Alberta, in Canada and the Universities of Manchester and Sheffield and have linked fertility problems in men to their exposure to certain paint chemicals.
The study of 2,118 men undertaking treatment at 14 fertility clinics in the UK found that 874 were working with organic solvents, particularly glycol ethers.
They say this translates to men working with glycol solvents having a 250 percent chance of losing the ability to produce "healthy" sperms.
In the joint research project, the men were questioned about their lifestyles and occupations in order to establish possible causes of sperm motility problems.
The research revealed that painters, decorators, and those who are regularly exposed on glycol ethers, chemicals commonly used as solvents for water-based paint are two-and-a-half times more prone to fertility problems.
Glycol ether solvents are widely used in many products, including popular water-based emulsions.
A man's ability to father a baby is affected by sperm motility, the amount of movement seen in individual sperm, which serves as a part of measuring male fertility.
The researchers say glycol ether exposure was related to low motile sperm count in men attending fertility clinics and are a hazard for male fertility but other chemicals found in paint had no impact on fertility.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Oocyte-Specific Gene Mutations Cause Premature Ovarian Failure
Mutations in a gene called FIGLA cause premature ovarian failure in at least a percentage of women who suffer from the disorder, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Shandong University in China in a report that appears online in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
"We hope to use the information from this study and others that identify genes associated with this problem to find biomarkers in blood that can help us determine a woman's risk of early infertility," said Dr. Aleksandar Rajkovic, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at BCM and senior author of the paper. Premature ovarian failure, which means that the ovaries lose function before age 40, not only causes infertility but also bone and heart problems, he said.
"It affects 1 percent of women," he said. "While most people associate it with infertility, women with premature ovarian failure face an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and premature death. Ovarian reserves are important for women's health."
In looking for genes that cause the disorder, Rajkovic and his colleagues here and in China concentrated on those that are most likely to function in the ovary. A gene mutation does not totally halt gene activity, but Rajkovic believes it can accelerate the loss of eggs (or germ cells). When all the eggs are lost, the ovaries stop producing estrogen, leading to menopause symptoms. In this study, Rajkovic and his collaborators screened 100 Chinese women with premature ovarian failure for mutations in FIGLA and found three different kinds of mutations in the FIGLA genes of four.
FIGLA is one of four transcription factors found to control the differentiation of egg cells early in development. Transcription factors govern the activity of genes, turning them off and on and modulating the extent to which they are active.
The other genes involved include NOBOX, GDF9 and BMP 15, said Rajkovic. Mutations in these can lead to premature ovarian failure as well, he said.
"We hope to define majority of the genes that are part of the cellular pathways involved in ovarian failure," said Rajkovic. "Ideally in the future we will offer a test to women to look at all the genes involved in premature ovarian failure."
He anticipates that a gene chip would be helpful in such diagnosis, which can help in counseling women or their children about the risk of early ovarian failure.
"We hope to use the information from this study and others that identify genes associated with this problem to find biomarkers in blood that can help us determine a woman's risk of early infertility," said Dr. Aleksandar Rajkovic, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at BCM and senior author of the paper. Premature ovarian failure, which means that the ovaries lose function before age 40, not only causes infertility but also bone and heart problems, he said.
"It affects 1 percent of women," he said. "While most people associate it with infertility, women with premature ovarian failure face an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and premature death. Ovarian reserves are important for women's health."
In looking for genes that cause the disorder, Rajkovic and his colleagues here and in China concentrated on those that are most likely to function in the ovary. A gene mutation does not totally halt gene activity, but Rajkovic believes it can accelerate the loss of eggs (or germ cells). When all the eggs are lost, the ovaries stop producing estrogen, leading to menopause symptoms. In this study, Rajkovic and his collaborators screened 100 Chinese women with premature ovarian failure for mutations in FIGLA and found three different kinds of mutations in the FIGLA genes of four.
FIGLA is one of four transcription factors found to control the differentiation of egg cells early in development. Transcription factors govern the activity of genes, turning them off and on and modulating the extent to which they are active.
The other genes involved include NOBOX, GDF9 and BMP 15, said Rajkovic. Mutations in these can lead to premature ovarian failure as well, he said.
"We hope to define majority of the genes that are part of the cellular pathways involved in ovarian failure," said Rajkovic. "Ideally in the future we will offer a test to women to look at all the genes involved in premature ovarian failure."
He anticipates that a gene chip would be helpful in such diagnosis, which can help in counseling women or their children about the risk of early ovarian failure.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
IVF test could spot 'dud' embryos
A Big goal in IVF research is a test that reliably sorts dud embryos from those likely to develop into babies. Now differences in gene expression that seem to predict which embryos will go to term are bringing this a step closer.
Doctors usually decide which embryos to transfer to the uterus based purely on their appearance. Yet as only about 30 per cent of them fully develop, women often undergo multiple treatments or have several embryos implanted at once, which carries risks to both the mother and her embryos.
To try to improve the selection process, Gayle Jones at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues removed cells from the early embryos of 48 women undergoing IVF in Greece, 25 of whom went on to have babies. By comparing the babies' DNA and the genetic material in the early embryonic cells, the researchers identified 7317 sets of genetic instructions expressed by the viable embryos but not by those that failed to go to term (Human Reproduction, DOI: 10.1093/humanrep/den123).
They now hope to whittle down the list to about 10 genes that strongly predict which embryos will become babies. A test could be ready for use by doctors in two years, they say.
Doctors usually decide which embryos to transfer to the uterus based purely on their appearance. Yet as only about 30 per cent of them fully develop, women often undergo multiple treatments or have several embryos implanted at once, which carries risks to both the mother and her embryos.
To try to improve the selection process, Gayle Jones at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues removed cells from the early embryos of 48 women undergoing IVF in Greece, 25 of whom went on to have babies. By comparing the babies' DNA and the genetic material in the early embryonic cells, the researchers identified 7317 sets of genetic instructions expressed by the viable embryos but not by those that failed to go to term (Human Reproduction, DOI: 10.1093/humanrep/den123).
They now hope to whittle down the list to about 10 genes that strongly predict which embryos will become babies. A test could be ready for use by doctors in two years, they say.
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