Bernie writes in his book, “When a doctor reports amazing improvements in a patient’s condition, he or she almost never mentions that person’s beliefs and lifestyle, but when I inquire, I find the patient always has made some drastic change toward a more loving and accepting outlook. The patient seldom tells an unreceptive doctor about this, however.”

When the person’s mind changed, the state of their health changed. Hence, the importance of the mind- body connection.

However, just covering up the surface with positive thinking isn’t necessarily going to help. It’s like cleaning out a house. The dirt and filth has to be removed and the stale air replaced with fresh air. There has to be a fundamental change for real healing to take place. Surface level, ‘positive thinking’ isn’t going to effect this kind of change, just like lightly dusting our homes won’t get the real dirt out.

So what are the dirty and stale things in our minds? Well, they could be things like grudges, prejudices, anger, resentment and hate. One spiritual principle from religion talks about “loving your enemy”. That can’t be done without giving up hate. By giving up something bad, we can make room for something good to come in and may, as a result, see a corresponding change in our bodies.

The problem here is that many of these bad things are buried and hidden and we won’t necessarily see them or recognize them in ourselves. We can be certain that they are there though, it is a virtually inevitable consequence of living in a world that is so focused on selfishness and less concerned with “loving” others.

So in order to find these bad things and eliminate them requires introspection, it requires looking at oneself hard and long. However, there is still a problem. When we are searching within our minds, we have to have a standard to do the comparison with. Otherwise, how will we find anything? How will it stand out?

Let’s look to one of the greatest thinkers of the Western world, Socrates. What did Socrates do with is life? Didn’t he teach others about virtue? Interesting, isn’t it? One of the most influential people in western thinking emphasized virtue to his students. Socrates talked about things like absolute goodness, beauty and truth.

If someone as great, as well loved and respected as Socrates thought these things were important, perhaps therein lies the key to the mind-body connection. To live a truly healthy and worthwhile life, maybe virtuous thoughts like truth and goodness are what our minds should embrace rather than the negative things modern life finds us clinging too.

Remember what Bernie said, “I find the patient always has made some drastic change toward a more loving and accepting outlook.” When we embrace truth and goodness, the beauty of life and this vast universe that we live in becomes evident. That is when we can heal our bodies. Real healing happens in the mind.

This article is for information purposes only, it is not meant to diagnose, prevent or treat any illness or health issue. If you have or think you have a health condition, please visit your primary-care physician immediately.

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Gago-Dominguez, a researcher, explained that small amounts of arylamines are absorbed through the skin during the use of hair dye. Don’t dye your hair without having as much of your skin covered as possible. One needs to be careful while applying black hair dye, as it is difficult to remove from any surface including skin and fabric. Lawsone dye infuses skin, hair, and porous surfaces but does not permanently or chemically alter them. Para-phenylenediamine, a key ingredient of many hair dyes, is known to trigger allergic skin rashes in some people. When you use hair dye, you absorb small amounts of chemicals called arylamines through your skin. It “dyes your skin more than your hair,” one well known researcher said.

What is PPD in Hair Dye?

Paraphenylenediamine PPD is a chemical substance that is widely used as a permanent hair dye. PPD hair dyes usually come packaged as 2 bottles, one containing the PPD dye preparation and the other containing the developer or oxidizer. The use of PPD as a hair dye is popular because it is a permanent dye that gives a natural look.

Why is it that many hand painting using Henna herbal dye develop skin rashes? After all, Henna dye used for hand painting is 100 herbal and does not contain PPD!

That’s because almost all henna-tattoo artists are mixing in black hair dye that contains paraphenylenediamine – ‘PPD’ for short. This mixing of chemical makes the hand dye more permanent, as the palm sweats a lot, the tattoo artist is ensuring that the ink remains for a longer period of time. If you develop skin rash after using a dark dye, you’ll be allergic to all dark hair dyes – anything that contains the PPD compound.

Currently there are no permanent oxidation type hair dyes that can be safely used by PPD allergic individuals. If you have an allergy to PPD and have your hair dyed, you should avoid the use of all oxidation type hair dyes. PPD is an occupational allergen among hairdressers; there is limited cross-reactivity with azo clothing dyes and back rubber. Those who are allergic to PPD hair dyes must avoid all synthetic chemical hair dyes.

Manic Panic hair dye works best on hair pre-lightened to a very light blonde. The idea being that it would look like she was a blonde who occasionally dyed her hair black. Apparently, the darker shades of hair dye contain significantly more chemicals than the blonde shades. The first step is to use the cheap blonde dye to bleach your hair. After an hour, rinse the blonde dye out of your hair.

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How High is the Risk for Cancer?

Not all workers exposed to asbestos will develop diseases related to their exposure. The risk of developing asbestos-related diseases varies with the type of industry in which the exposure occurred and with the extent of the exposure. Asbestos that is bonded into finished products such as walls and tiles poses no risk to health as long as it is not damaged or disturbed in such a way as to release fibers into the air. When asbestos fibers are set free and inhaled, however, exposed individuals are at risk of developing an asbestos-related disease.

How does smoking affect risk?

Many studies have shown that the combination of smoking and asbestos exposure is particularly hazardous. Smokers who are also exposed to asbestos have a greatly increased risk of lung cancer. However, smoking combined with asbestos exposure does not appear to increase the risk of mesothelioma.

Asbestos diseases are said to follow the trail of exposure. That means that wherever people have received asbestos exposure, regardless of their trade, age, sex or race, they are at risk of cancer and other diseases.

Unfortunately, the effects of asbestos on the human body were known to be deadly for years by the companies who employed the greatest generation and made hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars off of their backs. But instead of taking simple steps to alleviate the problem and save the lives of thousands of their workers, they choose to do nothing and continue to make a healthy profit with a deadly product.

A life-threatening illness is terribly emotional. It has a broad impact and affects many people – family, friends and co-workers.

Many employers even went so far as to hide the truth from their workers and their families. And because the normal latency period for Mesothelioma is 20 to 30 years, many got away with this for years.

We urge you to find out more about Asbestos, and know your legal rights today!

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As the mix of hormones in your blood changes during your premenopausal years, you may notice the effects on your gastrointestinal tract both directly – estrogen is a gastrointestinal stimulant and varying levels may swing you from loose stools to dry ones – and indirectly, as the hormonal load places ever heavier demands on the liver.

Hormones have a strong effect on the motility of the intestinal tract. When your levels of estrogen and progesterone change as they do throughout menopause, during pregnancy, and before menstruation and birth, your bowel patterns change, too.

Your liver is, among other things, a recycling center. It breaks down hormones circulating in the blood when they are no longer needed and makes their “parts” available for the production of more hormones. During the menopausal years some hormones such as LH and FSH are produced in such enormous quantities that your liver may struggle to keep up with its recycling work, and have little energy left over for digestive duties. Help yourself with these Wise Woman Ways.

Step 2 Engage the Energy

Bless your food out loud before you eat; say grace; thank the plants and animals who nourish you; breathe in and feel grateful.

My mother’s favorite way of preventing digestive distress and ensuring regularity is to eat at regular times and go to the toilet at regular times. You’d be surprised how effective this is.

First thing in the morning, get yourself a cup of hot water or herbal tea and bring it back to bed. Sip it slowly, and gnaw gently on your bottom lip. Then lie on your back and bring your knees up, feet flat on the bed; place your palms on your belly and breathe deeply. Gently begin to rub your belly in spirals up on the right, across the middle, and down on the left. Soon you will feel the movement gathering momentum. Sit up slowly and head for the toilet.

Step 3 Nourish & Tonify

Yellow dock root vinegar or tincture is a wonderful ally for menopausal women with digestive distress. Daily doses of 1 teaspoon5 ml vinegar or 5-10 drops of tincture eliminate constipation, indigestion, and gas. Yellow dock is especially recommended for the woman whose menopausal menses are getting heavier.

Dandelion is everyone’s favorite ally for a happy digestive system and a strong liver. It relieves indigestion, constipation, gas, even gallstone pain. How to use it? Have a glass of dandelion blossom wine. Eat the omega-3-rich leaves in salads. Enjoy the phytoestrogenic roots as a vinegar or tincture a dose is 1-2 teaspoons5-10 ml vinegar or 10-20 drops tincture taken with meals or as a coffee substitute.

Any rhythmical exercise, especially walking, relieves digestive gas and improves intestinal peristalsis the movement of feces. Oriental wisdom says the liver loves movement.

Motherwort, fenugreek, vitex, or black cohosh tinctures, taken daily, strengthen digestion and ease menopausal digestive woes. Or try a cup of garden sage tea.

If constipation occurs due to a lessening of the moistening, lubricating cells in the colon, slippery foods such as slippery elm bark powder, oats, seaweed, flax seed, and seeds from wild Plantago or cultivated psyllium are wonderful allies. Adding a teaspoon5 ml of any, or better yet, all of them to a cup250 ml of rolled oats and cooking until thick in 3 cups750 ml of water is a delicious way to prepare this remedy.

My favorite remedy to relieve digestive and gas pain is plain yogurt. Sometimes even a tiny mouthful will bring instant relief. Acidophilus capsules work, too. I use both when dealing with chronic constipation or severe diarrhea.

Step 4 StimulateSedate

White flour products slow the digestive tract; so does too much grain-fed meat. Whole grain products, well-cooked beans, wild meats, and cooked greens speed it up.

Add more liquids and soft foods to your diet – applesauce, yogurt, nourishing soups, herbal infusions – to help relieve constipation. Chew your food slowly and savor it. Drink lavishly between meals.

Menopausal women will want to avoid the use of bran as a laxative, as it interferes with calcium absorption. Instead try prunes, prune juice, rhubarb with maple syrup, or figs.

Ginger tea with honey is a warming, easing drink when your tummy is upset. Ahhh. Try the fresh root grated and steeped in boiling water, or put a tablespoon of the powdered stuff from your spice cupboard in a cup of hot water and enjoy.

Crushed hemp seed Cannabis sativa tea – rich in essential fatty acids – is a specific against menopausal constipation.

Herbal laxatives such as aloes, cascara sagrada, rhubarb root, and senna are addictive and destructive to normal peristalsis. Except in rare cases such as relief of constipation for a ninety-year-old woman confined to a bed, I do not advise their use.

Step 5a Use Supplements

Constipation and digestive distress are common side effects from taking iron supplements. A spoonful of molasses with 10-25 drops of yellow dock root tincture in a glass of warm water is a better way to increase iron, and improve elimination.

Step 6 Break & Enter

Enemas and colonics are last-resort techniques. They do not promote health and may strip the guts of important flora. Regular use of enemas is highly habit-forming. For the sake of your health, avoid them.

If you liked this article Susun S. Weed, you will want
New Menopausal Years The Wise Woman Way available from

Susun Weed
PO Box 64
Woodstock, NY 12498
Fax 1-845-246-8081

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Why the Elderly Must Take Antioxidants
Many researchers claim that elderly people, especially those who have reduced their food intake, frequent aspirin users, heavy drinkers, smokers, and people with impaired immune systems may benefit from taking antioxidant supplements daily. In terms of heart disease and stroke, it is possible that higher levels of antioxidants slow or prevent the development of arterial blockages, a complicated process involving the oxidation of cholesterol. Moreover, antioxidants may deter the collection of plaque on arterial walls.

Exercise and Free Radicals
Exercise in untrained individuals overwhelms defenses resulting in increased free radical damage. Thus, the “weekend warrior” who is predominantly sedentary during the week but engages in vigorous bouts of exercise during the weekend may be doing more harm than good. To this end there are many factors which may determine whether exercise induced free radical damage occurs, including degree of conditioning of the person, intensity of exercise, and diet.

Because Free Radicals have one or more unpaired electrons, free radicals are highly unstable. They scavenge your body to grab or donate electrons, thereby damaging cells, proteins, and DNA genetic material. The same oxidative process also causes oils to become rancid, peeled apples to turn brown, and iron to rust.

Sources of Antioxidants!
Consuming more antioxidants helps provide the body with tools to neutralize harmful free radicals. It’s estimated that there are more than 4,000 compounds in foods that act as antioxidants. The most studied include vitamins C and E, betacarotene and the mineral selenium.

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It is known that breathing asbestos can increase the risk of cancer in people. There are two types of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos lung cancer and mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a cancer of the thin lining surrounding the lung pleural membrane or abdominal cavity the peritoneum. Cancer from asbestos does not develop immediately, but shows up after a number of years. Studies of workers also suggest that breathing asbestos can increase chances of getting cancer in other parts of the body stomach, intestines, esophagus, pancreas, and kidneys, but this is less certain. Early identification and treatment of any cancer can increase an individual’s quality of life and survival.

People working in industries that make or use asbestos products or who are involved in asbestos mining may be exposed to high levels of asbestos. People living near these industries may also be exposed to high levels of asbestos in air.

Asbestos fibers may be released into the air by the disturbance of asbestos-containing material during product use, demolition work, building or home maintenance, repair, and remodeling. In general, exposure may occur only when the asbestos-containing material is disturbed in some way to release particles and fibers into the air.

Symptoms

Asbestos mainly affects the lungs and the membrane that surrounds the lungs. Breathing high levels of asbestos fibers for a long time may result in scar-like tissue in the lungs and in the pleural membrane lining that surrounds the lung. This disease is called asbestosis and is usually found in workers exposed to asbestos, but not in the general public. People with asbestosis have difficulty breathing, often a cough, and in severe cases heart enlargement. Asbestosis is a serious disease and can eventually lead to disability and death.

Breathing lower levels of asbestos may result in changes called plaques in the pleural membranes. Pleural plaques can occur in workers and sometimes in people living in areas with high environmental levels of asbestos. Effects on breathing from pleural plaques alone are not usually serious, but higher exposure can lead to a thickening of the pleural membrane that may restrict breathing.

Low levels of asbestos fibers can be measured in urine, feces, mucus, or lung washings of the general public. Higher than average levels of asbestos fibers in tissue can confirm exposure but not determine whether you will experience any health effects.

A thorough history, physical exam, and diagnostic tests are needed to evaluate asbestos-related disease. Chest x-rays are the best screening tool to identify lung changes resulting from asbestos exposure. Lung function tests and CAT scans also assist in the diagnosis of asbestos-related disease.

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GENERAL DIET ADVICES

A diet with the aim of preventing cancer is generally the same as a diet to prevent heart disease and other diseases. Here are the general diet advices

- Avoid or reduce the amount of food that are industrially processed, artificially made or heavily fried.

- Eat fish at least every second day. Also eat seafood and fouls.

- Do not eat very much red meat.

- Eat 5 fruits or vegetables each day. Each piece should be of the size of an apple or carrot. They should be raw or carefully boiled so that the nutrients are not washed out.

- Eat full corn bread, full corn cereals, peas, beans and potatoes.

- Eat just a moderate amount of fat.

. Ideally most fat you eat, should be of the type mono-unsaturated. You also need some poly-unsaturated fat of the types omega-3, and omega 6, but not too much of omega-6. The consumption of saturated fat should be moderate.

- In order to achieve right fat balance, much of the fat supply should come from a blending of sources like olive, olive oil, canola oil, nuts, nut oil, sunflower, sunflower oil, fish and fish oil.

- Use only a moderate amount of soy oil and corn oil in the diet. Only using such oil types will give you too muchmuch poly-unsaturated fat of the omega-6-type.

- Use just a very moderate amount of fat sources like butter, coconut oil and palm oil. A high consumption of these fat sources gives you too much saturated fat.

- Avoid altogether fat that has been chemically altered, giving so-called trans-fat. This type of fat is often found in margarine, cookies, snacks, fast food and other pre-made food.

- Consume just a very moderate amount of sugar, refined flour or refined cereals.

- Consume just a moderate consumption of tranquilizers and stimulants like alcohol and caffeine.

- Use just a moderate amount of salt in the food. However, in warm weather and by hard physical work, you will need more salt.

SPECIFIC FOODS AND DRINKS TO USE

Generally plants, fruits and spices with a strong colour or a strong taste have cancer preventing effects because of the contents of bioflavonoid and other anti-oxidants.

Broccoli, cabbage, mustard, kale, and cauliflower are vegetables with proven strong cancer preventing effects, probably due to the content of indole-3-carbinole.

Onion and garlic are also thought to help prevent cancer.

Whole grain and bread made of whole grain will help prevent colon cancer because of the fibre content and possibly also because of the vitamins and minerals contained.

Red peppers give a protecting effect against prostate cancer.

Eating fish, and especially fat fish, some times each week also have a protecting effect against prostate cancer.

Evidence points to the conclusion that green tea can help prevent cancer. However studies so far undertaken do not sort out all other variables that may give the same result.

Some studies have indicated that drinking coffee reduces the incidence of cancer, but others studies have thrown doubt upon these results.

SUPPLEMENTS OF VITAMINS AND OTHER SUBSTANCES

Her are listed the most important cancer preventing effects suggested by results from recent projects. However, research is going on, and these results are not yet complete or absolutely certain.

These substances give general cancer prevention effects Sulforaphanes found in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables.

Colo-rectal cancer These substances help protect against colo-rectal cancer Vitamin B-6 pyridoxine, Folic acid folate in combination with other B-vitamins, Selenium, Indol-3-carbinol from cruciferous vegetables, Genistein from soy, and possibly also vitamin D. Alfa-tocoferol a kind of Vitamin E may help, but project results are not conclusive jet.

Gastric cancer Substances that may help prevent gastric cancer, and even help cure changes that can evolve into gastric cancer are Vitamin C, Beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, Alfa-tocoferol a kind of Vitamin E, Indol-3-carbinol from cruciferous vegetables, Genistein from soy.

Breast Cancer The incidence of breast cancer can be lowered by Folic acid folate, Vitamin B-6 pyridoxine, Selenium, and possibly vitamin D.

Prostate Cancer These substances may help protect against Prostate cancer Selenium and Alfa-tocoferol a kind of Vitamin E. A long study is under way, but the results from the study are not conclusive yet.

Bladder cancer The chance of getting bladder cancer is possibly lowered by alfa-tocoferol a kind of Vitamin E.

Lung cancer Substances that gives protection against Lung Cancer are Isoflavones from soy. Indol-3-carbinol from broccoli and other crusiferous vegetables, Genistein from soy and possibly Vitamin D.

Results from research projects suggest that supplements added to the diet to prevent cancer should contain many working substances derived from natural sources, and that it is not wise to use heavy doses of just one substance.

NUTRIENTS THAT MAY HAVE THE OPPOSITE EFFECT

Beta-carotene and vitamin A supplements may increase the chance for heavy smokers of getting lung cancer and other cancers caused by smoking, according to results from epidemiologic studies.

However, these vitamins in the food doe not increase this risk. It is not clear what effect beta-carotene have on lung cancer in combination with other supplements or by non-smokers. The results from these studies are also controversial.

Vitamin E supplements seem to protect against Cancer, but heavy vitamin E amounts may in fact increase the chance of getting heart problems and stroke.

REFERENCES

You can read more about food supplements and cancer prevention at these sites

The Cancer Project

National Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

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Dr. Rajan George Chimigen therapeutic vaccine is used to produce immune responses in a host against infections which are difficult to produce immune responses, by targeting the vaccine to dendritic cells. The Chimigen platform can be extended to develop therapies for difficult-to-treat chronic infectious diseases.

Interviewer Does that mean the Chimigen platform can be used to treat any infectious disease?

Dr. Rajan George Yes, except in cases where the immune system is non-functional, as in the case of HIV.The Chimigen platform can be used to produce either a therapeutic vaccine or a prophylactic vaccine. This depends on the disease target and the antigen plugged into the platform. Some antigens have a use in treating infection, while others have a use in preventing an infection. Either one would be targeted to the dendritic cells. The therapeutic vaccine generates a cytotoxic T cell response. A prophylactic vaccine would generate a B cell response and antibody production.
Interviewer From the way youve described the Chimigen vaccine, it appears potentially useful for many applications beyond Hepatitis B and C. How broad are the applications?

Dr. Rajan George We should be able to use this platform for cancer therapy, depending upon the cancer antigen we use. We can plug in a specific cancer antigen into this platform, and the vaccine targeted to dendritic cells. The dendritic cells would process and present the right antigen, then generating immune responses T &B cell against the cancer. We are also evaluating some bioterrorist viruses, the biological weapons terrorists would use. We just started a project to look at one of those viruses to see if we can come up with the prophylactic vaccines to prevent diseases that would be caused by organism that could be used in bioterrorism.

Interviewer Would the Chimigen vaccine be effective as a prophylactic against avian flu, H5N1?

Dr. Rajan George It could work for bird flu if we just plugged in the bird flu antigen into the platform. Then we can use it as a prophylactic. It generates antibody to generate B-Cell response. You can produce a prophylactic vaccine using this platform. The Chimigen platform is quite adaptable.

Interviewer How high is your confidence level in producing a prophylactic vaccine for the avian flu virus?

Dr. Rajan George My thinking is that it is quite high. I think very highly of having a vaccine like that. But, the ultimate proof has to come from humans. Our HepaVaxx B clinical trial will give us a lot of information on how the technology really works. Until then, our optimism is based on laboratory results.

Interviewer Can you describe what comprises the Chimigen platform?

Dr. Rajan George The platform has two components. The first one is from the infectious agent. The second component is from a murine monoclonal antibody. Part one is fused with a fragment of part two by recombinant technology to produce a new entity, the Chimigen vaccine. We are recombining one thing with another. We have a virus which has certain antigens. We take one of those, and we produce a recombinant molecule with the fragment we have taken from a murine monoclonal antibody. Chimigen is the term we came up with to include the meaning of the full phrase, chimeric antigen. Chimeric means it comes from two different sources. We put them together and create a new molecule. One is from the virus. The other one is from the mouse, the monoclonal antibody. Now we have by recombinant methods produced a protein which is a chimeric protein. Thats the Chimigen vaccine.

Interviewer How do you produce such a flexible vaccine, one that appears capable of treating nearly any infection?

Dr. Rajan George To produce a Chimigen vaccine to treat nearly any infection, we start with an antigen protein from the infectious agent. We fuse it with a fragment called Fc of a mouse monoclonal antibody. This is done using recombinant methods. We end up with a new protein. This protein is made in a cell culture of commercially available insect cells. The protein is produced by the insect cells. From the culture, we purify this particular protein that we made. The insect cell system is just a tool. By virtue of its production in insect cells, the protein attains special properties which are useful in generating better immune responses. Producing this protein in insect cells gives it some very peculiar properties, which are different from our own mammalian proteins. Once we have it coming out of the cell, we purify it and make it really pure. Now we have a protein with the virus antigen murine monoclonal antibody with modified properties. This is a totally new entity.

Interviewer What do you mean when you say, useful in generating better immune responses?

Dr. Rajan George When a person has a chronic virus infection, his or her body ignores the virus and associated proteins. The body treats the virus as part of itself. The body does not recognize this virus as something foreign to it. Therefore the immune system does not attack the virus. But, by combining the virus antigen with a foreign protein such as the murine antibody fragment, the whole chimeric protein now is recognized by the bodys immune system as foreign, different from something of its own. In essence, this is a re-education of the immune system to switch its recognition of the virus from self to foreign.

Interviewer From where did the scientific model come, and does it have similarities to another ViRexx Medical product, OvaRex MAb?

Dr. Rajan George This scientific model arose from discussions among the three lead scientists of the company, Dr. Tony Noujaim, Dr. Lorne Tyrrell, both founders of the company and myself. I am a biochemist by training and the collective thoughts of all of us went into the design of the Chimigen platform. One major similarity between Chimigen and OvaRex is that both involve a murine monoclonal antibody. Another similarity is that both target dendritic cells. The Chimigen model came from thoughts about targeting dendritic cells, but without the use of antibodies. OvaRex is a murine monoclonal antibody against the cancer antigen CA-125. The Chimigen vaccine has a fragment of a murine monoclonal antibody. OvaRex needs the CA-125 antigen in a cancer patient to bind to. The bound complex goes to the dendritic cells. The Chimigen vaccine does not need to look for the antigen in a patient because it already has the relevant antigen built in it.

Interviewer It sounds as though the Chimigen vaccine acts in a similar way to OvaRex in dealing with a hostile threat to the bodys health. How do they differ?

Dr. Rajan George There are similarities and there are differences. OvaRex binds to the antigen CA-125. Then, the CA-125Ovarex complex binds to the dendritic cells. The complex is internalized and processed. The peptides generated from the antigen are presented to the T cells, and the chain of events in the immune system gets stimulated. The activated cytotoxic T cells eliminate the cancer cells which contain the CA125 antigen. In the case of the Chimigen vaccine, the vaccine itself contains the antigen. It goes through the dendritic cell pathway and triggers the CTL response to clear the virus-infected cells. The system also produces antibodies to viral antigens, which bind virus and viral antigens and accelerate their removal. Because of the presence of the murine monoclonal antibody fragment, which is foreign to humans, along with the antigen from the virus, the bodys immune system treats this as a new threat and takes action. That is the immune response.

Interviewer How would this work in treating Hepatitis B?

Dr. Rajan George Developing a treatment for Hepatitis B chronic infection, for someone who already has the infection, would involve re-educating the immune system to react differently than it previously has. The infected person already has this virus and the derived antigens. If you put some more of the same antigens into the person, the persons immune system is not going to know the difference His body is going to say, Well, whats the difference? I already have it. I am not going to do anything with it. The body will ignore it. Thats what is called tolerance. With the Chimigen therapeutic vaccine, we have changed the bodys immune response to the virus.

Interviewer How then have you changed the bodys response to the infection?

Dr. Rajan George In a Hepatitis B chronic infection, lets say I have the infection. My system is tolerating the virus. Its ignoring the presence of the virus. While that is happening, the virus may be causing disease in with my liver. With time, its going to get my liver into trouble and my immune system has not responded adequately to remove the threat. We inject the protein the one we just produced, which we call the Chimigen Therapeutic Vaccine into the HBV chronic carrier, a person who has a chronic hepatitis B virus infection. What happens is when our protein is administered, the dendritic cells are going to look for anything new which enters the body. Those cells are the immune systems first-line surveillance. The dendritic cells are going to see this new foreign protein, and they are going to think that this is different from what was previously inside. Their recognition of the molecule has changed from what it was before. Before the virus protein was recognized as a self protein. Now it is being recognized as a foreign protein. In chronic hepatitis B virus infection, the dendritic cells saw the virus as part of the self of the host, the vaccine changes the recognition of the virus protein as foreign to the host. Because the viral antigen is linked to the fragment of the mouse monoclonal antibody the direct the chimigen to dendritic cells it will enter the dendritic cell and be processed and stimulate an immune response.

Interviewer And after the vaccine injection, what does the body see?

Dr. Rajan George The bodys immune system see a new foreign antigen composed of a portion of the mouse monoclonal antibody linked to the viral antigen. Its a foreign antigen. The new chimigen stimulates an immune response to the antigen as well as the viral antigen. This is very important because the virus antigen was previously being ignored. Now, its being recognized as foreign through linked recognition of the mouse antigen as being foreign.

Interviewer How do the dendritic cells react after they recognize this foreign threat?

Dr. Rajan George The dendritic cells are the sentries of the immune system. They guard what comes in. When they recognize a foreign situation, what does the immune system do? It treats the whole molecule, the whole protein including the virus antigen, as foreign. The dendritic cells chop up this protein into small pieces called peptides. These peptides also are called epitopes. There are T cell epitopes which are smaller, and B cell epitopes which are longer. These small peptides bind to MHC I and activate Cytotoxic T lymphocytes CTLs. The dendritic cells have a system where they put the T-cell epitope on another protein, MHC Class I, and bring it to the surface of the dendritic cell. They are presented as a complex on the surface of the dendritic cell to attract the T-cells. The T-cells come and see this, then get activated. Now, the activation is also specific to the virus protein. There are different varieties of T-cells, but the cytotoxic T-Cells are the most important in eliminating infections that already exist. The activated cytotoxic T-cells are the ones who do the attacking. They are the ones who start killing the virus infected cells.

Interviewer And what about the B Cells?

Dr. Rajan George That is the other side to this story. The dendritic cells can present another kind of peptide epitope. There is a second class of peptides, which are also produced when the protein is chopped up. The dendritic cells stimulate the B-Cells, B-Lymphocytes. And B-lymphocytes produce antibodies. The longer peptides bind to MHC II and activate B lymphocytes B cells. B cells produce antibodies against the peptides. The antibodies are specific to the antigens we put in the Chimigen Therapeutic Vaccine. Antibodies bind to viral proteins that are on the surface of and block the ability of the virus to bind to a target cell to cause an infection and prevent the infection. This is the basis of a prophylactic vaccine. The antigen can bind to the invading virus and form a complex that the body eliminates. The B-Cells produce antibodies against the virus antigen, which we have put in the Chimigen vaccine. What do these antibodies do? The antibodies are specific to the antigen and bind to the viruses because they have the antigen. The system removes the virus by binding with the antibody. Also, the system removes infected cells using cytotoxic T-lymphocytes. Both of these actions are achieved by the Chimigen vaccine.

Interviewer Arent there a lot of antibodies being investigated as therapeutics?

Dr. Rajan George There are a lot of antibodies being investigated as therapeutics. OvaRex is the prime example. Avastin and Herceptin are two others, both of which are doing very well in the market. Another is Remicade, which is used to treat diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. There are antibodies that are in various stages of clinical development, many are humanized antibodies where you want to avoid an immune response to the antibody. Our chimigen technology is new as we are trying to increase the immune response on a virus or a cancer through linked recognition. It is not found anywhere outside of our laboratories. This approach has not been tried before for chronic HBV or HCV infections.

Interviewer Why would your vaccine work where others have tried and failed?

Dr. Rajan George The reason is because of the novelty of the technology. We are re-educating the bodys own immune system to do the work by using the Chimigen technology. When you inject a xenotypic antibody , that is a non-human antibody that is linked to a specific antigen. The body recognizes the whole molecule as foreign and produces immune responses with both T- and B-Cell immunity. We believe that this enhanced immune response will be helpful in controlling the viral infection in the case of viral chimigens.

Interviewer Much of the research has been within the laboratory. How much of this is hypothetical?

Dr. Rajan George Our experiences so far have been mostly with isolated systems, meaning experimental systems outside of the body. For example, ViRexxs Chimigen vaccine for treating chronic hepatitis B infection is what we call HepaVaxx B. This is waiting to go into Phase I clinical trials. We have done a lot of ex vivo experiments in the lab to evaluate the immune responses it can produce. We showed what we had predicted in theory has been true. We have also done some animal experiments, where the vaccine showed similar effects, again, as predicted. For HepaVaxx B, the animal results are also showing great progress and promise. We believe the Phase I studies will show safety and maybe some immunological data. The advanced clinical trials, Phase II and III, will tell us exactly what happens in humans efficacy with a chronic infection of Hepatitis B. I believe the Chimigen vaccine platform can make a difference in the area of immunotherapy of infectious diseases and cancer. For HCV, there is neither a therapeutic vaccine nor a prophylactic vaccine available in the market right now. Current available therapies are not very efficient, are expensive and have severe side effects. We do need more effective vaccines, both prophylactic and therapeutic, to prevent new hepatitis C virus infections and to eliminate existing infections. It is not an easy challenge but hepatitis C is an important target.

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To avoid potential exposure, only trained and state certified employees may remove, drill, bore, or in any way disturb asbestos containing construction material. Covering involves placing a protective wrap over or around the material that contains the asbestos to prevent the release of fibers. Until you receive the results, treat the material as if it contains asbestos. Usually it is best to leave asbestos material that is in good condition alone. Before asbestos removal, insist that the contractor apply a wetting agent to the asbestos material with a fine-mist hand sprayer.

Health

Depending on its condition, asbestos in your home may be hazardous to your health. Many of the largest manufacturers and distributors of asbestos products knew of the health risks caused by asbestos in the 1930s and 40s.

Breathing asbestos fibers poses the greatest health risk. A person must generally be exposed to asbestos for a long period of time 10 or more years before health effects occur. Some experts claim if managed properly the asbestos will not pose a health risk. Victims allege the companies knew of the health risks of asbestos long before they took it off the market.

The only way to truly remove the threat of asbestos exposure and its dangerous health effects is to remove all asbestos from the premises. But unfortunately, when microscopic asbestos fibers are inhaled, these minerals can become a health hazard. While beliefs about the hazard of asbestos are polarized, researchers do concur that there is a health risk.

Contact with asbestos has been found to present a much greater health hazard than previously thought, and should never be used in schools.

Exposure
There is no safe level of exposure, so contact with any amount of asbestos can be harmful. By not disturbing the vermiculite, you are reducing your chances for exposure to asbestos. Other people believe there is no safe level of asbestos exposure level and that any schools containing it should undergo a removal plan. High, short-term exposure to asbestos fibres can occur during do-it-yourself work. Potential asbestos exposure can also occur at schools, homes and public buildings if asbestos products have fallen into disrepair or become damaged.

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Large epidemiological studies show no elevated health risk for women using hair dyes. Now, an equally important part of the study is those women who were not at increased risk despite using the hair dye. It state that women who used permanent hair dye once a month had a 25 higher rate of bladder cancer.

Women who dye their hair might be different from the average woman in many ways. Those women have turned to at home hair dye kits. I heard of women going bald from over-dyeing their hair, or braiding it. The study of 1,300 women claims that those who started dyeing their hair before 1980 were one-third more likely to develop NHL. The researchers did not find any larger risk of cancer in women who started using hair dye later than 1980. The exception was women who used black hair dye for more than 20 years. Another study found that women who dyed their hair one to four times a year had a greater risk to develop ovarian cancer. Women who smoke and use permanent hair dyes have an even higher risk of cancer.

More studies might look at the risk of cancer from exposure to hair dye at work, which the researchers excluded from this analysis. For hematopoietic cancers, studies found a slightly increased risk of cancer in people who had used hair dye. For bladder cancer and breast cancer, the results indicate that there was no effect of hair dye use on cancer risk.

Risk of salivary cancer increased three times in hair dye users and risk of brain and ovarian cancer almost doubled. Personal use of hair dyes and risk of cancer a meta-analysis. The researchers found no strong evidence of a link between personal hair dye use and an increase in cancer risk. But researchers have not been able to find a clear link between using hair dye and cancer risk, including the risk of breast cancer. Take-home message. This study supports previous research that found no link between hair dye use and increased risk for breast cancer.

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