.جهان در سال ۲۰۱۱ شاهد پیشرفت های زیادی در زمینه علوم پزشکی بود که در این مقاله ده مورد از مهمترین کشفیات پزشکی را می خوانید

:توليد سلولهای پايه انسان از طريق شبيه سازی

. اين روش هنوز به مرحله شبيه سازی انسان نرسيده ولی دانشمندان می گويند که در صورت ادامه تحقيقات شايد راه طولانی تا آن مرحله باقی نمانده باشد

در ماه اکتبر سال گذشته، پژوهشگران «بنياد تحقيقات سلول های پايه» در نيويورک اعلام کردند که با استفاده از يک فن آوری جديد و ترکيب کردن

 DNA

  يک انسان بالغ با مواد ژنتيک موجود در تخمک، توانسته اند سلولهای پايه را شبيه سازی کنند. اين سلول های پايه در آينده ممکن است برای درمان بيماری هايی نظير پارکينسون يا ترميم نخاع به کار برده شوند

:توليد اولين واکسن مالاريا

 سالانه ميليون ها کودک به خصوص در قاره آفريقا و آسيای جنوبی، به بيماری مالاريا مبتلا می شوند. اما با وجود بيش از يک قرن تحقيقات در اين زمينه تاکنون واکسن موثری برای پيشگيری و يا مقابله با   اين بيماری کشف نشده بود

سال گذشته برای اولين بار واکسن جديدی که به طور آزمايشی در مورد کودکان ساکن کشورهای آفريقای سياه مورد استفاده قرار گرفت با موفقيت روبرو شده و خطر ابتلا به اين بيماری را به نصف کاهش داد. اين واکسن توسط «برنامه مقابله با مالاريا» و «بنياد خيريه بيل گيتس» تهيه شده است

با وجودی که نتايج استفاده آزمايشی از اين واکسن اميدوارکننده بوده مسئولان بهداشت جهانی بايد تصميم بگيرند که آيا درجه تاثير گذاری آن به حدی هست که آن را در سطح جهان تجويز کنند يا نه. ميزان تاثير گذاری واکسن های متداول برای ساير بيماری های ميکروبی و عفونی بين ۷۰ تا ۹۰ درصد است

:روش درمان اچ آی وی در پيشگيری از ابتلا به ايدز

تحقيقات سال گذشته نشان داد که برخی از داروهای مورد استفاده برای درمان بيماران مبتلا به اچ آی وی می تواند فعاليت اين ويروس را در بدن مبتلايان کاهش داده و بهبود سلامت اين بيماران باعث خواهد شد که احتمال انتقال اين ويروس به ديگران کاهش يابد

همچنين دو تحقيقات جداگانه نشان داد که افرادی که با مبتلايان به بيماری ايدز رابطه جنسی دارند در صورت استفاده از داروهای موثر در درمان اچ آی وی، خطر ابتلا به اين بيماری را کاهش می دهند. مجموعه اين پيشرفت ها نشان می دهد که استفاده از داروهای موثر در درمان اچ آی وی روش بسيار خوبی برای مقابله با بيماری ايدز است

:ترکيب متنوع و کامل، بهترين رژيم غذايی

 موسسات دولتی ناظر بر توليد مواد غذايی و بهداشت آمريکا هر پنج سال يک بار جديدترين يافته های خود را در مورد رژيم غذايی مناسب منتشر می کنند

در گزارش سال ۲۰۱۱ تاکيد شده است که مردم ضمن کاهش مصرف شکر، نمک و چربی های افزوده به مواد غذايی، بايد رژيم غذايی خود را با افزودن سبزیجات، ميوه و انواع نشاسته های مفيد متعادل کنند. علاوه بر اين ۱۵۰ دقيقه فعاليت جسمی مناسب در طول هفته يکی ديگر از شروط برای رعايت سلامت عمومی است

پيام اصلی و محور تبليغاتی موسسات مسئول بهداشت عمومی در آمريکا جايگزين کردن هرم مواد غذايی سنتی که اساسا شامل مواد گوشتی و لبنيات بود با ترکيب جديد و مکملی است که نيمی از حجم آن را سبزيجات و ميوه تشکيل می دهد

:کشت اجزاء بدن در آزمايشگاه

در ماه مارس سال گذشته دانشمندان علوم پزشکی توانستند با موفقيت بخشی از لوله های مثانه را به صورت مصنوعی در آزمايشگاه توليد کنند

در اين روش ساختار اوليه اين لوله توسط سلول های توليد شده در آزمايشگاه ساخته شده و سپس سلول هايی از مثانه بيمار به آن افزوده شد. اين اندام با موفقيت در بدن فرد بيمار جاسازی شد و آزمايش های بعدی نشان داد که به خوبی تخليه ادرار را انجام می دهد

در حال حاضر توليد يک چنين اجزايی از اندام های بدن انسان بسيار پرهزينه است ولی گام بسيار مهم و اميدوار کننده ای در مسير کشت و توليد اجزاء بدن برای جايگزين کردن اندامهای ناسالم و از کار افتاده در بدن بيماران است

:ارتباط بين باکتری و سرطان روده

در ماه اکتبر تحقيقات جديدی نشان داد که برخی از باکتری های بسيار کمياب در دستگاه گوارش انسان، در محيط سلول های سرطانی روده به سرعت رشد کرده و احتمالا در تشديد اين بيماری نقش دارند

در مقايسه بافت های روده مبتلا به سرطان با بافت های روده سالم دانشمندان متوجه شدند که حضور و فعاليت اين نوع باکتری که «فوسوباکتريا» نام دارد بسيار بيشتر است. البته تحقيقات قبلی نيز نشان داده است که ميکروب ها می توانند دليل بروز التهاب شديد و باعث از بين رفتن بافت های داخلی روده باشند که خطر ابتلا به سرطان در اين اندام را افزايش می دهد

:راه حل موثر و قطعی برای کاهش وزن

تنها نکته ای که در عالم کاهش وزن قطعی است فقدان يک راه حل موثر و جادويی برای حل اين معضل است. اما در تحقيقاتی که سال پيش در مورد دارويی به نام “کوئگزا

(Quexa)

.تکميل شد

. پژوهشگران اعلام کردند که افراد مبتلا به چاقی مفرط با استفاده از اين دارو طی يک سال ده درصد از وزن خود را کاهش داده اند

اين دارو ترکيبی از دو داروی موجود است که به طور همزمان از يک طرف اشتهای افراد را کاهش داده و از طرف ديگر با فعال کردن بخش مربوطه در مغز به سوخت و ساز بدن و مصرف بهتر کالری کمک می کند. درميان افرادی که از اين داروهای جديد استفاده کرده اند ميزان فشار خون، قند و چربی موجود در خون و خطر ابتلا به بيماری های قلبی نيز کاهش يافته است

:سگ هايی که می توانند سرطان ريه را بو بکشند

. تحقيقات جديد نشان می دهد که برخی از سگ ها که حس شامه بسيار قوی تری دارند می توانند وجود سرطان ريه را در بازدم افراد مبتلا به اين بيماری تشخيص دهند

دانشوران آلمانی پس از ۹ ماه آموزش توانستند سگ ها را طوری تربيت کنند که بوی سلول های سرطانی در ريه را تشخيص دهند. در پايان دوره آموزش اين سگ ها توانستند ۷۱ درصد از سلول های سرطانی و ۹۳ درصد از سلول های سالم را از طريق بو کردن به درستی تشخيص دهند

هنوز دقيقا مشخص نيست که اين سگ ها با تشخيص بوی چه ماده ای موارد سرطانی و غير سرطانی را از يکديگر تفکيک می کنند و متاسفانه راهی برای دريافت اين نکته از زبان خود سگ ها وجود ندارد

:بزاق دهان بهترين وسيله تشخيص عمر

 تاکنون هيچ راهی ، حتی آزمايش

DNA

نمی توانست سن دقيق افراد را به هنگام مرگ مشخص کند
اما اکنون با کمک روش جديدی برای تجزيه بزاق دهان که توسط متخصصان علوم پزشکی در دانشگاه کاليفرنيا کشف شده است، می توان عمر دقيق افرادی را که می ميرند تشخيص داد. مبنای تجزيه و آزمايش بزاق دهان عوامل محيطی و شيوه زندگی افراد مثل رژيم غذايی، فشارهای عصبی و حتی تاثير آلودگی هاست که روی ترکيب

 DNA

  افراد تاثيری نمی گذارد. ولی ژن های موجود در بدن انسان را می تواند فعال و يا غير فعال کند

به گفته پژوهشگران، اين تغييرات به صورت لايه هايی روی يکديگر انباشته شده و به مرور به تاريخچه و تقويمی از گذر زمان در مورد هر فرد بدل می شوند

:ابزار پيشگويی خطر مرگ

 پژوهشگران دانشگاه «اوپسالا» در سوئد در ماه اوت سال گذشته اعلام کردند که يک آزمايش خون ساده می تواند نشان دهد که هر فردی تا چه حد در معرض خطر ابتلا به سرطان و يا بيماری های کشنده قلبی است

در يک تحقيقات ۱۲ ساله که طی آن بيش از دو هزار نفر مورد آزمايش قرار گرفتند پژوهشگران دريافتند که افراد دارای درصد بالاتری از آنزيم «کاتپسين اس» با خطر مرگ بيشتری بر اثر ابتلا به سرطان و يا بيماری های قلبی روبرو هستند

حجم اين آنزيم که نقش آن کمک به تجزيه برخی از انواع پروتئين ها است در افراد مبتلا به نارسايی های قلبی و يا کسانی که غدد سرطانی دارند بيشتر از ديگران است. اين آنزيم در عين حال در لايه های چربی انباشته شده در بدن افراد چاق به وفور ذخيره می شود که البته جای تعجب ندارد چون اضافه وزن زياد يکی از عوامل اصلی ابتلا به بيماری های قلبی است

منبع: رادیو فردا

Scientists at the Johnson Space Center have shown that the effectiveness of drugs declines more rapidly in space.



Drugs were tested by being sent into space for varying lengths of time

Continuous doses of radiation onboard spacecraft may be to blame, according to the study published in the AAPS Journal.

The authors said longer missions have increased the need for drugs in space.

On Earth, medication is typically designed to be stored for a couple of years from the manufacture date. They normally need to be kept in precise conditions, such as away from direct sunlight or in a cool, dry space.

The research team investigated whether the unique environment of space – including radiation, excessive vibrations, microgravity, a carbon dioxide rich environment and variations in humidity and temperature – affected drugs’ effectiveness.

Space trip

Four boxes of drugs, containing 35 different medications, were flown to the International Space Station.

Four identical boxes were kept in controlled conditions at the Johnson Space Center.

The boxes came back to Earth after varying lengths of time in space. One was there for just 13 days, whereas another spent 28 months on the space station.

The study concluded: “A number of formulations tested had a lower potency after storage in space with consistently higher numbers of formulations failing United States Pharmacopeia potency requirement after each storage period interval in space than on Earth.

“This reduction in potency of flight samples occurred sooner than the labelled expiration date for many formulations suggesting that storage conditions unique to the spacecraft environment may influence stability of pharmaceuticals in space”.

Dr Colin Cable, science information adviser at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said: “On Earth, medicines are tested to assess the effects of, for example, temperature, moisture, oxygen and light, and are packaged and stored to ensure they remain stable and effective over their shelf life.

“Repackaging of medicines into containers that do not give the medicines the protection required to moisture, oxygen and light can have a detrimental effect on their stability.”

He added that radiation was known to affect medicines, depending on the dose used.

“One potential benefit of keeping medicines in a Space Station is that the medicines will be exposed to a carbon dioxide-rich environment, this may help minimise the degradation of those medicines prone to oxidation, such as adrenaline, vitamin C and vitamin A.”

By James Gallagher Health reporter, BBC News

They showed the benefits of painkillers could be boosted or completely wiped out by manipulating expectations.

The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, also identifies the regions of the brain which are affected.

Negative thoughts rendered painkillers ineffective

Experts said this could have important consequences for patient care and for testing new drugs.

Heat was applied to the legs of 22 patients, who were asked to report the level of pain on a scale of one to 100. They were also attached to an intravenous drip so drugs could be administered secretly.

The initial average pain rating was 66. Patients were then given a potent painkiller, remifentanil, without their knowledge and the pain score went down to 55.

They were then told they were being given a painkiller and the score went down to 39.

Then, without changing the dose, the patients were then told the painkiller had been withdrawn and to expect pain, and the score went up to 64.

So even though the patients were being given remifentanil, they were reporting the same level of pain as when they were getting no drugs at all.

Professor Irene Tracey, from Oxford University, told the BBC: “It’s phenomenal, it’s really cool. It’s one of the best analgesics we have and the brain’s influence can either vastly increase its effect, or completely remove it.”

The study was conducted on healthy people who were subjected to pain for a short period of time. She said people with chronic conditions who had unsuccessfully tried many drugs for many years would have built up a much greater negative experience, which could impact on their future healthcare.

Professor Tracey said: “Doctors need more time for consultation and to investigate the cognitive side of illness, the focus is on physiology not the mind, which can be a real roadblock to treatment.”

Brain scans during the experiment also showed which regions of the brain were affected.

The expectation of positive treatment was associated with activity in the cingulo-frontal and subcortical brain areas while the negative expectation led to increased activity in the hippocampus and the medial frontal cortex.

Researchers also say the study raises concerns about clinical trials used to determine the effectiveness of drugs.

George Lewith, professor of health research at the University of Southampton, said: “It’s another piece of evidence that we get what we expect in life.

“It completely blows cold randomised clinical trials, which don’t take into account expectation.”

By James Gallagher

Health reporter, BBC News

Once grafts took weeks, but now the skin gun does the work in under two hours and the burns heal within days. It has successfully treated over a dozen patients so far.

Doctor Jörg Gerlach, of the University of Pittsburgh’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, has discovered a method which regenerates healthy skin stem cells from the victim and sprays it on the burned skin.

“General anesthesia is pharmacological coma, not sleep,” said Dr. Nicholas Schiff of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, who worked on the study with Dr. Emery Brown of Massachusetts General Hospital and Dr. Ralph Lydic of the University of Michigan.

Their findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, represent a three-year exploration of the similarities and differences of sleep, anesthesia and coma.

They said while doctors and patients commonly describe general anesthesia as going to sleep, there are significant differences between the states, with only a bit of overlap between the deepest states of sleep and the very lightest phases of anesthesia.

While sleeping usually involves moving through a series of phases, in general anesthesia, patients are typically taken to a specific phase or state and kept there during the surgery. This phase most closely resembles a coma.

“The brain is becoming very, very quiet. The activity of the neurons is being dampened dramatically,” Schiff said in a telephone interview. “That is also true in coma.”

Schiff, an expert in coma recovery, said while no two brain injuries are alike, studying the way people come out of anesthesia could be used as a model for predicting the stages of emerging from a coma.

“Although recovery from anesthesia is much faster, there are hints that some of the circuit mechanisms have some overlap,” he said.

That could lead to monitoring tools and diagnostics to assess what stage of recovery a person with a coma is in, and it could be used to develop new strategies to help doctors bring patients back to consciousness.

Knowing more about the brain circuit mechanisms may also help researchers develop drugs to tweak specific brain circuits, Schiff said.

And the study should lend new insight into understanding general anesthesia, Brown, an expert in general anesthesia, said in a statement.

“Anesthesiologists know how to safely maintain their patients in the states of general anesthesia, but most are not familiar with the neural circuit mechanisms that allow them to carry out their life-sustaining work,” he said.

www.newsdaily.com

Woman Who Had All Major Organs Removed Becomes Doctor
Although she’s had nearly every major organ in her body transplanted, including her liver, kidney, heart and lungs, over the span of 12 years, U.K. resident Allison John still managed to fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor after 14 years in medical school. Needless to say, she’s happy to be entering the hospital as a healer rather than an ill patient, according to this report.

Grocery Customer Gives Kidney to Favorite Cashier
Most people just give supermarket cashiers money or a smile with the swipe of their credit card. But longtime customer Dan Coyne provided his favorite cashier at Jewel Osco Supermarket in Evanston, Ill., Myra de la Vega, with the gift of life by donating one of his kidneys. Once very sick and undergoing dialysis, de la Vega, a single mother of two, is now feeling much better after the successful March operation.

“Kangaroo Cuddle” Brought Baby Back to Life
After giving birth prematurely to twins at 27 weeks, Australian mom Kate Ogg didn’t give up when hospital officials declared that one twin was dead after unsuccessfully trying to resuscitate the infant for 20 minutes. Ogg placed the baby boy on her chest anyway, a skin-to-skin position known as the kangaroo cuddle, staying that way for two hours. The baby ultimately gasped and opened his eyes.

Doctors Save Life of Girl, 14, Replacing Her Esophagus With Stomach
When 14-year-old Brianna Ranzino was given just six months to live after being diagnosed with a rare trachea tumor, which was considered inoperable by several hospitals, doctors at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital took a chance. They removed the tumor and patched her damaged esophagus and trachea with tissue from her own stomach. According to this report, replacing esophagus with a patient’s own stomach has never been done before.

Afghan Teen Without Nose Has Surgery in California
Bibi Aisha, an 18-year-old Afghani teen who says her nose was cut off as punishment for running away from her violent husband, arrives in Southern California, where a local foundation arranged for her to get reconstructive surgery.

Man Who Tried to Cut Off Own Arm Saved His Own Life
Who can forget the courage and resourcefulness of Jonathan Metz, the 31-year-old from West Hartford, Conn., who used nearby tools to partially amputate his own arm after getting it caught in his basement furnace while trying to fix it? According to this report, Metz’s self-amputation saved his life by blocking the spread of toxins from his decaying limb. His surgeons say he is recovering.

Mom Finds Cure For Daughter After Doctors Fail
You can take control of your family’s health with the power of the Internet, as this story attests. When doctors couldn’t determine what was wrong with California teen Hayley Lairmore, who spent nine months vomiting and doubled over in pain, her mom, Christine, took to the Internet for hours to find answers. Her determination eventually led to Hayley’s diagnosis: POTS, a rare syndrome that affects the autonomic nervous system.

Baby Born From 20-Year-Old Frozen Embryo
The use-by date on frozen fertilized egg just got longer. According to a report about the published case study in the journal Fertility and Sterility, a 42-year-old woman gave birth to a baby in May. It’s the first successful live birth from an embryo frozen 20 years ago. The case study sheds new light on the shelf life of frozen embryos and offers child-bearing hope to young cancer patients who would like to preserve their fertility far into the future even though treatment will make them infertile.

All 33 Chilean Miners Survive Ordeal
After being trapped underground for more than two months, all 33 men were brought to safety. Of course, their trial is not completely over, as they now may undergo a variety of health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder, respiratory problems and depression, all potential consequences of their lack of nourishment, sun exposure, dehydration, lengthy exposure to mine dust and loss of muscle mass. But you can’t help feel good about the fact that every one of the miners survived the collapsed mine, including the men with preexisting health conditions, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.

First U.S. Embryonic Stem Cell Treatments Begin on Spinal Injury Patient
Despite all the controversy surrounding embryonic stem cells, research has begun that may ultimately help spinal injury patients. Geron Corp., a Menlo Park, Calif., biotech company is testing an embryonic stem-cell treatment on a patient with spinal-cord injuries. The drug, known as GRNOPC1 that contains embryonic stem cells, will be injected into the patient’s spine to hopefully reverse paralysis. It’s the first time such a drug will be tested in a human. Embryonic stem cells are considered the most versatile type of stem cells because they can morph into any type of cell. Geron doesn’t use federal funding to conduct its research, so it’s free of restrictions. The company plans to enroll eight to 10 patients in the study nationwide.

www.aolhealth.com

The principal advantages incorporated into the devices will lead to an overall increase in compliance from patients, which in turn, will lead to better data collection.  In addition, the process of borrowing computational power from the computer should also lead to improved results of any test or measurement taken with the device.

The first tool is designed to measure blood pressure outside of the medical environment, and to provide that information for use by the individual, clinical evaluation companies (CROs), healthcare providers and healthcare payers.  It consists of an innovative mouse device which includes a blood pressure monitor and an application software package that resides on a PC where the blood pressure readings are displayed.  The software application for the MDMouse system will display the blood pressure readings to the user and it will also provide a means to maintain records and allow the user to access past readings at any time.  In addition, the software will allow the user to direct his/her records to a third party, such as a physician or insurance company, or in the event of use for clinical studies, the data can go directly to the study sponsor.  Other features of the system include the ability to set alarms reminding the user to take their blood pressure or medications and set appointments with the doctor.

The MDMouse system is easy to use and readily available to the patient.  In today’s world, patients are in front of their computer regularly and will have the mouse in their hands where it is convenient to take a blood pressure reading without leaving their chair.  And, there is significantly greater accuracy in machine-to-machine communication, as used by the MDMouse system, than relying on patients to write down their readings and then consolidate them on a monthly basis.  The blood pressure readings go directly from the MDMouse system sensor to the computer for recording on the hard drive – there is no human interaction required and none allowed.  This information can be easily inserted into an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system.  Once EHR systems are fully implemented in the U.S., it will be imperative that the all blood pressure monitors do what the MDMouse system already accomplishes…automatically move the data collected remotely into those EHR systems.

Inside a standard-sized computer mouse is a blood pressure finger cuff that is placed over the index finger to allow blood pressure measurement.  Additional components include a pneumatic pump to inflate and deflate the cuff and a pressure sensor to identify the pulse during cuff deflation, thus allowing for measurement of blood pressure by a standard method (the “oscillometric” method).  These components, and the electrical power source and processing capabilities of the computer to which the MDMouse hardware is attached, comprise a highly accurate “sphygmomanometer”.  The PC, using the installed MDMouse software, along with the MDMouse device, will perform the calculations necessary to turn the digital data obtained by the sensor into useful information for display on the PC.

By: CalHealth

]]> http://www.tehrandoctors.net/w/what-is-the-mdmouse-system/feed/ 0 http://www.tehrandoctors.net/w/arsenic-loving-bacteria-may-help-in-hunt-for-alien-life/ http://www.tehrandoctors.net/w/arsenic-loving-bacteria-may-help-in-hunt-for-alien-life/#comments Sat, 04 Dec 2010 14:41:38 +0000 tehdoc http://www.tehrandoctors.net/w/?p=850 The first organism able to substitute one of the six chemical elements crucial to life has been found.

The bacterium, found in a California lake, uses the usually poisonous element arsenic in place of phosphorus.

The bacteria slowly incorporated arsenic into their innermost workings

The find, described in Science, gives weight to the long-standing idea that life on other planets may have a radically different chemical makeup.

It also has implications for the way life arose on Earth – and how many times it may have done so.

The “extremophile” bacteria were found in a briny lake in eastern California in the US.

While bacteria have been found in inhospitable environments and can consume what other life finds poisonous, this bacterial strain has actually taken arsenic on board in its cellular machinery.

Until now, the idea has been that life on Earth must be composed of at least the six elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus – no example had ever been found that violates this golden rule of biochemistry.

The bacteria were found as part of a hunt for life forms radically different from those we know.

“At the moment we have no idea if life is just a freak, bizarre accident which is confined to Earth or whether it is a natural part of a fundamentally biofriendly universe in which life pops up wherever there are Earth-like conditions,” explained Paul Davies, the Arizona State University and Nasa Astrobiology Institute researcher who co-authored the research.

“Although it is fashionable to support the latter view, we have zero evidence in favour of it,” he told BBC News.

“If that is the case then life should’ve started many times on Earth – so perhaps there’s a ‘shadow biosphere’ all around us and we’ve overlooked it because it doesn’t look terribly remarkable.”

As unexpected

Proof of that idea could come in the form of organisms on Earth that break the “golden rules” of biochemistry – in effect, finding life that evolved separately from our own lineage.

Study lead author Felisa Wolfe-Simon and her colleagues Professor Davies and Ariel Anbar of Arizona State University initially suggested in a paper an alternative scheme to life as we know it.

Their idea was that there might be life in which the normally poisonous element arsenic (in particular as chemical groups known as arsenates) could work in place of phosphorus and phosphates.

Putting it to the test, the three authors teamed up with a number of collaborators and began to study the bacteria that live in Mono Lake in California, home to arsenic-rich waters.

The researchers began to grow the bacteria in a laboratory on a diet of increasing levels of arsenic, finding to their surprise that the microbes eventually fully took up the element, even incorporating it into the phosphate groups that cling to the bacteria’s DNA.

Notably, the research found that the bacteria thrived best in a phosphorus environment.

That probably means that the bacteria, while a striking first for science, are not a sign of a “second genesis” of life on Earth, adapted specifically to work best with arsenic in place of phosphorus.

Read more

By Jason Palmer

Science and technology reporter, BBC News

A British Journal of Cancer study found men whose index finger was longer than their ring finger were significantly less likely to develop the disease.

Researchers made the discovery after comparing the hands of 1,500 prostate cancer patients with 3,000 healthy men.

The length of the fingers is fixed before birth and is thought to relate to sex hormone levels in the womb.

Being exposed to less testosterone before birth results in a longer index finger and may protect against prostate cancer later in life, say researchers at the University of Warwick and the Institute of Cancer Research.

One of the report authors, Professor Ros Eeles, said more studies would be needed, but if these confirmed the findings it could be used a simple test for prostate cancer risk.

She said: “This exciting finding means that finger pattern could potentially be used to select at-risk men for ongoing screening, perhaps in combination with other factors such as family history or genetic testing.”

The study was funded by the charities Prostate Action and Cancer Research UK.

Emma Halls, chief executive of Prostate Action, said: “This research brings us another step closer to helping determine risk factors for prostate cancer, which is possibly the biggest issue in current thinking about preventing and treating the disease.

“However, we are still a long way from reducing the number of men who die of prostate cancer every year and need more research and education in all areas to achieve this.”

Dr Helen Rippon, head of research at The prostate Cancer Charity, said the research added to growing evidence that the balance of hormones we are exposed to before birth influences our health for the rest of our lives.

But she said men with shorter index fingers should not be “unduly worried”.

“They share this trait with more than half of all men and it does not mean they will definitely develop prostate cancer in later life.”

By Fergus Walsh

Medical correspondent, BBC News