Could a fat jab ease chronic knee pain?

By PAT HAGAN

Tiny globules of fat that are injected into painful joints could be a radical new treatment for osteoarthritis.
Thousands of the fat particles - each one no bigger than a speck of dust - are injected to protect the cartilage inside the joint from further damage.

Cartilage is the spongy material in the hips, knees, spine, wrists and shoulders that acts as the body's shock absorber, stopping the bones rubbing together.

'Holy grail': Chronic knee pain could be eased by injecting tiny globules of fat into the joint
But injury, illness or wear and tear can cause the cartilage to start breaking down. As bones come into contact, the friction makes the joints swollen and painful.

Around eight million Britons suffer from osteoarthritis. Many rely on anti-inflammatory painkillers though these carry the risk of damage to the stomach if used long term.
Every year, thousands of patients end up having joint replacement surgery.
The scientists who have developed the fat jab hope it will prevent the need for this surgery, or at least postpone it for several years.

The fat molecules, which are manufactured in a laboratory, are soft enough to help cushion the impact from everyday activities, but strong enough not to be destroyed under the strain of a working joint.
The treatment was developed in Israel by scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Technion Institute of Technology.

In tests, the scientists injected the fat particles into hip joints.
The results, published in the arthritis journal Wear, showed the fat jabs reduced the rate of cartilage destruction by 40 per cent compared with 10 per cent with an existing therapy, hyaluronic acid.
(Hyaluronic acid is sometimes injected into damaged joints to help keep cartilage lubricated and spongy.)

The fat jabs are a form of nanotechnology - a technique using moleculesso small they can't be seen with the naked eye, yet which are capable of delivering powerful medicines or treatments deep inside the body. This stops healthy tissue being exposed to the potential side-effects.

The size of the molecules also means they can't be detected by the body's defence systems so they won't be cleared away.
The molecules developed for the new arthritis treatment are no more than one millionth of a millimetre in diameter and are engineered to pass into the cells within the joint, something previously not possible.

Professor Philip Conaghan, from the Arthritis Research Campaign, said a treatment that stopped cartilage breakdown was the 'holy grail' for osteoarthritis researchers.
But he said there was no guarantee this would actually reduce pain.
'One of the complexities is that we're not sure whether the pain comes from the bone underlying the cartilage or inflammation in the tissue lining the joints.
'So we should be careful about thinking that a treatment that reduces cartilage loss will necessarily improve pain. But we all hope it will.'

Heart Surgeon Admits Huge Mistake!

by Dwight Lundell MD 02/03/2009
We physicians with all our training, knowledge and authority often acquire a rather large ego that tends to make it difficult to admit we are wrong. So, here it is. I freely admit to being wrong. As a heart surgeon with 25 years experience, having performed over 5,000 open-heart surgeries, today is my day to right the wrong with medical and scientific fact.

I trained for many years with other prominent physicians labeled “opinion makers.” Bombarded with scientific literature, continually attending education seminars, we opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact of elevated blood cholesterol.

The only accepted therapy was prescribing medications to lower cholesterol and a diet that severely restricted fat intake. The latter of course we insisted would lower cholesterol and heart disease. Deviations from these recommendations were considered heresy and could quite possibly result in malpractice.

It Is Not Working!

These recommendations are no longer scientifically or morally defensible. The discovery a few years ago that inflammation in the artery wall is the real cause of heart disease is slowly leading to a paradigm shift in how heart disease and other chronic ailments will be treated.

The long-established dietary recommendations have created epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the consequences of which dwarf any historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and dire economic consequences.

Despite the fact that 25% of the population takes expensive statin medications and despite the fact we have reduced the fat content of our diets, more Americans will die this year of heart disease than ever before.

Statistics from the American Heart Association show that 75 million Americans currently suffer from heart disease, 20 million have diabetes and 57 million have pre-diabetes. These disorders are affecting younger and younger people in greater numbers every year.

Simply stated, without inflammation being present in the body, there is no way that cholesterol would accumulate in the wall of the blood vessel and cause heart disease and strokes. Without inflammation, cholesterol would move freely throughout the body as nature intended. It is inflammation that causes cholesterol to become trapped.

Inflammation is not complicated — it is quite simply your body’s natural defense to a foreign invader such as a bacteria, toxin or virus. The cycle of inflammation is perfect in how it protects your body from these bacterial and viral invaders. However, if we chronically expose the body to injury by toxins or foods the human body was never designed to process, a condition occurs called chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is just as harmful as acute inflammation is beneficial.

What thoughtful person would willfully expose himself repeatedly to foods or other substances that are known to cause injury to the body? Well, smokers perhaps, but at least they made that choice willfully.

The rest of us have simply followed the recommended mainstream diet that is low in fat and high in polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates, not knowing we were causing repeated injury to our blood vessels. This repeated injury creates chronic inflammation leading to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity. Let me repeat that. The injury and inflammation in our blood vessels is caused by the low fat diet that has been recommended for years by mainstream medicine.

What are the biggest culprits of chronic inflammation? Quite simply, they are the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flour and all the products made from them) and the excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods.

Coffee 'may reverse Alzheimer's'

A possible treatment for dementia?
Drinking five cups of coffee a day could reverse memory problems seen in Alzheimer's disease, US scientists say.
The Florida research, carried out on mice, also suggested caffeine hampered the production of the protein plaques which are the hallmark of the disease.
Previous research has also suggested a protective effect from caffeine.
But British experts said the Journal of Alzheimer's disease study did not mean that dementia patients should start using caffeine supplements.

The results are particularly exciting in that a reversal of pre-existing memory impairment is more difficult to achieve
Dr Gary Arendash
University of South Florida
The 55 mice used in the University of South Florida study had been bred to develop symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.
First the researchers used behavioural tests to confirm the mice were exhibiting signs of memory impairment when they were aged 18 to 19 months, the equivalent to humans being about 70.
Then they gave half the mice caffeine in their drinking water. The rest were given plain water.
The mice were given the equivalent of five 8 oz (227 grams) cups of coffee a day - about 500 milligrams of caffeine.
The researchers say this is the same as is found in two cups of "specialty" coffees such as lattes or cappuccinos from coffee shops, 14 cups of tea, or 20 soft drinks.
When the mice were tested again after two months, those who were given the caffeine performed much better on tests measuring their memory and thinking skills and performed as well as mice of the same age without dementia.
Those drinking plain water continued to do poorly on the tests.
In addition, the brains of the mice given caffeine showed nearly a 50% reduction in levels of the beta amyloid protein, which forms destructive clumps in the brains of dementia patients.
Further tests suggested caffeine affects the production of both the enzymes needed to produce beta amyloid.
The researchers also suggest that caffeine suppresses inflammatory changes in the brain that lead to an overabundance of the protein.
Earlier research by the same team had shown younger mice, who had also been bred to develop Alzheimer's but who were given caffeine in their early adulthood, were protected against the onset of memory problems.
'Safe drug'
Dr Gary Arendash, who led the latest study, told the BBC: "The results are particularly exciting in that a reversal of pre-existing memory impairment is more difficult to achieve.
"They provide evidence that caffeine could be a viable 'treatment' for established Alzheimer's disease and not simply a protective strategy.
"That's important because caffeine is a safe drug for most people, it easily enters the brain, and it appears to directly affect the disease process."
The team now hope to begin human trials of caffeine to see if the mouse findings are replicated in people.
They do not know if a lower amount of caffeine would be as effective, but said most people could safely consume the 500 milligrams per day.
However they said people with high blood pressure, and pregnant women, should limit their daily caffeine intake.
Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said: "In this study on mice with symptoms of Alzheimer's, researchers found that caffeine boosted their memory. We need to do more research to find out whether this effect will be seen in people.
"It is too early to say whether drinking coffee or taking caffeine supplements will help people with Alzheimer's.
Neil Hunt, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, said previous research into caffeine had suggested it could delay Alzheimer's disease and even protect against vascular dementia.
"This research in mice suggests that coffee may actually reverse some element of memory impairment.
"However much more research is needed to determine whether drinking coffee has the same impact in people.
"It is too soon to say whether a cup of coffee is anything more than a pleasant pick me up."