News Revisited

Staffan Lindeberg at the Department of Medicine, Lund University, Sweden has performed the first controlled study of a Paleolithic diet in humans and it appears to improve blood glucose reaction to carbohydrates in Type 2 Diabetes patients reports ScienceDaily.

A Paleolithic diet is what humans ate prior to the development of agriculture, primarily fruit, vegetables, nuts, lean meat and fish.  Half of the patients in this study were asked to eat lean meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, root vegetables and nuts, and to avoid grains, dairy foods and salt for three months.  The other half had a “Mediterranean-like prudent diet” with whole-grain cereals, low-fat dairy products, fruit, vegetables and refined fats generally considered healthy.  While the Mediterranean diet did not have much of an effect (-7%) the Paleolithic diet had a large effect (-26%) after twelve weeks and at the end of the study all of the Paleolithic diet patients had normal blood glucose.

Perhaps.  Ido Bachelet and his research colleague, Ariel Munitz, have an interesting technique in mind reports EurekAlert.  The mast cells that produce the histamine and other pro-inflamation compounds have a receptor protein called CD300a.  Unfortunately, so do many other types of immune system cells so it can’t be used as a drug target.  They have instead created an antibody segment that targets both CD300a and a mast cell specific marker.

Tests in mice have confirmed that the antibody can eliminate four types of allergic diseases and severe, chronic asthma.

Ido is a doctoral candidate at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem School of Pharmacy and a first cousin of the president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet.

The full moon this weekend will be the lowest in the sky for 2007.  That means it will take full advantage of the Moon Illusion and appear to be surprisingly large.  Nice for a romantic backdrop visually, but don’t expect it to appear as such in a photo.  This is an illusion and cameras don’t see it.

Check out the moon while it is low in the sky right after moonrise.  The U.S. Naval Observatory has a quick calculator that shows moonrise times at your location.