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Researchers at Tel Aviv University have proven that not only do men feel like they are about to have a stroke when they keep fighting with their wife, but they really ARE likely to have a stroke…

The good news, men, is that your 64% higher risk of stroke in an unhappy marriage (compared to those in a happy marriage) is about the same as if you were single…without the stress of having to go cruising in sleazy bars…

Stop Fighting with Your Wife...You're Going to Have a Stroke!

Unhappily married men at greater risk of fatal stroke: Study

Guys start working on your marriage as a new study has claimed that men in an unhappy union are at a 64 per cent higher risk of a fatal stroke.

Reprinted from Indianexpress.com

In a first study of its kind to assess the quality of a marriage and its association with stroke risk, researchers at the Tel Aviv University found a correlation between happiness in marriage and the likelihood that a man will die from stroke.

The team led by Prof Uri Goldbourt said that a happy marriage help to prevent fatal strokes in men, EurekAlert reported.

The research was based on the analysis of the data collected from 10,000 men, all of them civil servants, beginning in 1965.

In the retrospective study, men were surveyed about their happiness levels and marital status; 34 years later, a follow-up study determined how many of the men died from stroke.

According to the study, single men were found to have a 64 per cent higher risk of a fatal stroke than married men.

More fruits of Israeli/Jewish brainpower…Exciting research out of Hadassah University Medical Center, located in Israel’s capital city, Jerusalem. A new technology that allows the production of very large numbers of human embryonic stem cells for use in industry and research. Prior to this Israeli breakthrough, the cells could only be produced in tiny numbers. Now, massive amounts of cells can be made available for repairing human tissues and organs…and who knows what else?

Israeli Stem Cell Research

Israeli advance in stem cell tech

Hadassah breakthrough to produce large number of human embryonic stem cells

Reprinted from Jpost.com JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH AND JPOST.COM STAF

A new technology developed at Hadassah University Medical Center has made it possible to produce large amounts of human embryonic stem cells for industry and research by growing them in suspension.

Until now, hESCs – which have the potential of ripening into any other type of body cells for repair of tissues and organs – have been created in small numbers.

Called a “breakthrough” in hESC technology, the research was just published in the prestigious science journal Nature Biotechnology. The article, titled “Derivation, propagation and controlled differentiation of human embryonic stem cells in suspension,” was written by Dr. Debora Steiner as part of her post-doctoral work under the direction of Prof. Benjamin Reubinoff, both of Hadassah’s Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Center, with participation by other Hadassah colleagues.

HESC research has been stymied by the fact that it has, until now, been difficult to make large amounts of them. Conventionally, they have been cultured as colonies consisting of one cell layer attached to a flat “bed” of chemicals or nutrients. The involved a great deal of work, and the number of hESCs produced was limited.

It was thought that propagation of hESCs in a suspension (a mixture in which fine particles are suspended in a fluid where they are supported by buoyancy) was impossible because under these conditions, the cells would stop multiplying and instead undergo uncontrolled ripening into various types of cells.

But the Hadassah researchers developed unique conditions that made it possible for the cells to multiply significantly in suspension without differentiating into specific cell types. By changing the conditions of the culture, they showed that they could control the ripening of hESC clusters in suspension into neural spheres. Thus instead of being grown on beds in one layer, the stem cells could be cultivated in large vats with precise, computerized monitoring of growth conditions.

So here we have the obvious paradox…It would seem that you need to be a little on the slow side, I-Q-ishly speaking, to even start smoking today, given all we know about how harmful smoking is to your health. So the slightly duller blades amongst start smoking for whatever reason, and, as a result of their habit…they get even dumber…
It MUST be a conspiracy engaged in by all the tobacco companies…Surely, George Bush was also involved, somehow…
BTW…More great scientific research out of Tel Aviv University right here, in Israel (where, unfortunately, we DO have more than our share of tobacco hounds)…

Smoking Makes You Dumb(er)

Smokers have lower IQs

A cigarette dangling lazily from the mouth was once the telltale sign of an intellectual, but new evidence suggests it may have signalled quite the opposite

Reprinted from Telegraph.co.uk Nick Collins

Smokers have lower IQs than those who abstain, with intelligence decreasing the more one smokes, researchers have found.

A study of 18 to 21-year-old men revealed that the IQs of smokers averaged 94 – seven points lower than non-smokers on 101.

IQ scores in a healthy population of young men fall between 84 and 116, but those who smoked more than a pack of cigarettes a day averaged just 90 between them.

Researchers in Israel took data from more than 20,000 healthy men before, during and after they spent time in the Israeli military.

About 28 per cent of their sample smoked one or more cigarettes a day, three per cent considered themselves ex-smokers, and 68 per cent said they never smoked.

Professor Mark Weiser, of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Psychiatry, said: “In the health profession, we’ve generally thought that smokers are most likely the kind of people to have grown up in difficult neighbourhoods, or who’ve been given less education at good schools.

“But because our study included subjects with diverse socio-economic backgrounds, we’ve been able to rule out socio-economics as a major factor.”

The study also measured effects in twin brothers – and in the case where one twin smoked, the non-smoking twin registered a higher IQ on average.

Prof Weiser said: “People on the lower end of the average IQ tend to display poorer overall decision-making skills when it comes to their health.

“People with lower IQs are not only prone to addictions such as smoking. These same people are more likely to have obesity, nutrition and narcotics issues.

“Our study may help parents and health professionals help at-risk young people make better choices.”

The study was reported in a recent version of the journal Addiction.

Israeli science continues to contribute good to mankind. Our brilliant scientists, this time, at Tel Aviv University, add quality to the life of millions worldwide on a daily basis through their ground-breaking medical research.
Just think what the results would be if Israel did not have to expend such a huge portion of her resources defending the country against terror and constant hostile existential threats from the Arab “neighbors” in the region…
Dream on…

Prototype Bionic Eye

Bionic Eyes Are Around the Corner


They are being developed at TEl Aviv University

Reprinted from Softpedia.com

A group of experts from the Tel Aviv University (TAU), led by Professor Yael Hanein from the university’s School of Electrical Engineering, announced major progress in developing bionic eyes. The group has been investigating ways of merging man and machine for many years, and they say that the foundational research needed to make this a reality has been completed. The end goal of the work is to produce electrodes that can be merged with retinal nerves, and therefore restore at least partial sight to the blind, e! Science News reports. This could mean that the long-heralded future of bionics may finally be upon us.

The investigators say that the role of the electrodes will not be to act as relays between the eye and the visual nerves, but rather to stimulate the growth of natural retinal cells. The work has thus far proven extremely promising in tests conducted on animals, and the TAU team is hopeful that its approach will one day set the foundation for producing retinal implants that could be readily grafted in people. “We’re working to interface man-made technology with neurons. It can be helpful in in vitro and in in vivo applications, and provides an understanding of how neurons work so we can build better devices and drugs,” the team leader explains.

Even if the technology itself is still many years away from practical, wide-scale applications, the new device can still be used, for example, by drug manufacturers, in testing new products. Treating delicate nerve tissues is notoriously difficult, and this instrument could be of significant assistance in this area, the group believes. Details of their approach to creating a fully-functional bionic eye appear in the latest issue of the respected scientific journal Nanotechnology. The basis for the device was laid using carbon nanotubes as a scaffold, on which electrical currents force nerve cells to grow.

“We are attempting to answer very basic questions in science. Neurons migrate and assemble themselves, and using approaches we’ve developed, we are now able to ‘listen’ to the way the neurons fire and communicate with one another using electrical impulses. Listening to neurons ‘talking’ allows us to answer the most basic questions of how groups of nerves work together. If we can investigate functional neuronal networks in the lab, we can study what can’t be seen or heard in the complete brain, where there are too many signals in one place,” says professor Hanein.

“Neurons like to form good links with our special nanotechnology, and we’re now investigating applications for retinal implants. Our retinal implant attempts to replace activity in places of the damaged cells, and in the case of retinal diseases, the damaged photoreceptors,” the expert concludes.

This is Israel’s version of a “power couple”…a pair of top-notch researchers at Israel’s Technion Scientific Institute.
Their findings seem to bear out my oft-repeated phrase, uttered while running through the trails of Israel, “That which does not kill you will make you stronger”.
Seems that if you seniors periodically stop breathing often enough in your sleep, known as “sleep apnea”, you will either:
a. Suddenly drop dead of a heart attack…bad for your spouse, or
b. Grow extra blood vessels (“collateral circulation”) to increase blood flow to your fragile heart muscle, which should make you live longer…better for your spouse…
Sweet dreams…

Israel Technion's Lavie research Couple

Israeli couple finds sleep apnea may extend life


Periodic breathing cessation during slumber can lengthen seniors’ lives.

Reprinted from JPost.com Judy Siegel

Sleep apnea syndrome – in which sufferers stop breathing momentarily many times during the night – has for many years been regarded as a major risk factor for clogging of the coronary arteries and other heart diseases. But now, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology President Prof. Peretz Lavie – a psychologist and one of the country’s leading sleep medicine experts – and his wife and fellow researcher cell biologist, Dr. Lena Lavie, have found that in elderly people, moderate apnea may in fact extend their lives rather than shorten it.

The Lavies’ research, based on the study of 611 individuals with a mean age of 70 and a follow-up period of about five years, has just been published in the Journal of Sleep Research of the European Sleep Research Society. The reasoning has been confirmed separately by German researchers at Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, who published their findings in the journal Chest of the American College of Chest Physicians.

Prof. Lavie has published more than 340 scientific articles and eight books in the field of sleep research, including The Enchanted World of Sleep, which is suited for the layman and translated to 15 languages. Lena, a senior researcher in the Technion, has collaborated with him on sleep research focusing on understanding the cellular and biochemical impacts of the breathing cessations.

Many sleep apnea patients go to bed at night connected to a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device, which is not very comfortable but pushes through a mask pressurized air – insufficient during breathing cessation – under pressure into their lungs. This does not cure sleep apnea but can reduce the complications.

Intermittent hypoxia – the lack of adequate oxygen – initiates a cascade of events involving oxidative stress and inflammatory processes leading to atherosclerosis. But surprisingly, the new research found that in contrast to young and middle-age patients, who showed significantly higher mortality than their counterparts in the general population, elderly patients with mild or moderate apnea showed significantly lower mortality than in the general population.

The researchers suggest that the hearts of elderly sleep apnea patients get blood from a larger number of arteries – called collaterals – that develop by angiogenesis due to the lack of oxygen supply, than the hearts of patients without sleep apnea. This additional blood supply protects them if they suffer a heart attack, the Lavies write.

The Haifa researchers based their hypothesis on previous results from the Haifa group demonstrating that sleep apnea patients have in their blood high levels of a protein called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). This protein is responsible for the growth of new blood vessels, and its production is triggered by a drop in blood oxygen levels.

The Technion team also showed that there are very large individual differences in the effect of hypoxia on the production of this protein. The research group found that individuals who could produce a large amount of protein when exposed to hypoxia had more blood vessels around their hearts in comparison with individuals who could not produce the protein.

Dr. Stephan Steiner and his colleagues from the cardiology department in Heinrich Heine University reported data that provided strong support to the Lavies’ hypothesis. Steiner and his colleagues compared the number and size of the heart collaterals measured by catheterization in patients with and without sleep apnea and reported that patients with sleep apnea had significantly more collaterals than patients without sleep apnea, even though there were no differences between the groups in age, weight, heart condition or use of medication.

The German research in Chest was accompanied in the same issue by an editorial that was written by the Lavies. “If confirmed, these findings may have important clinical implications regarding treatment of the syndrome. Moreover,” they continued, “such findings – if combined with individual gene analysis – may provide new treatment strategies for cardiovascular protection.”

Once again, the “Yiddishe Kopf”, Jewish “smarts” prevails. The Scientists at Hebrew University are using the “make love, not war” philosophy to reduce pesticide toxicity to the environment.
The UN will probably be setting up an investigative commission against Israel…War crimes? Cruelty to bugs?

Scientists Use Sex-Crazed Bugs as Alternative to Toxic Pesticides


As an alternative to toxic pesticides, scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have created “super-sexed” sterilized male leafhoppers to knock bug boots with females in the wild.

Reprinted from Inhabitat.com

In today’s “gross news” category, some female insects might be getting lucky. As an alternative to toxic pesticides, scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have created “super-sexed” sterilized male leafhoppers to knock bug boots with females in the wild. Yes, that means that the female bugs will miss out on the joys of motherhood, but if the research proves successful, we may be able to eliminate a lot of the harmful and very ungreen chemicals that we currently use to keep food crops pest free.

The sterile insect technique that Professor Boaz Yuval of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment and his team are working on is not exactly new. Basically, the method is to rear millions of specimens of a pest species, separate the sexes, sterilize the males and release them into the wild. If all goes as planned, the sterile lab-raised males will copulate with females who will then be unable to lay fertile eggs.

So what makes the “super sexed” males so, well, sexy and irresistible to the females? Yuval and his team are using a high-protein, bacteria enhanced “stud” breakfast to feed to the males before they’re released. The formula should significantly improve their sexual performance.

Is all this talk about bug sex grossing you out yet? We admit that it’s not the most appropriate topic of convo (especially if you’re eating lunch), but it’s pretty cool to think that this could be a new way to keep all those yucky pesticides off of our food. Plus, the idea that the insects will be having some fun instead of being gassed to death by poisons is pretty cool.

How’s this for some progressive public health measures?
As a former dentist, I can tell you that this effort will not be wasted here, in Israel. When I was young in America, I witnessed the explosion in knowledge of proper oral hygiene and the importance of regular preventive dental care, encouraged mainly by the toothpaste manufacturers. We have not yet had this in Israel. The awareness among young and old is not nearly what it should be, hence, big-time dental problems for many.
This program, if effectively administered, should be a giant step in the right direction…healthier, happier smiles in Israel…

Kids, brush up on your dental hygiene


Every schoolchild will be given a toothbrush, toothpaste and instructions on using them properly, when a national dental-care campaign is launched after Passover, the Health Ministry says. The program will later be expanded to junior high schools and include more methods for improving oral hygiene

Reprinted from Haaretz.com Dan Even

In addition, a Health Ministry committee and education officials have recently drafted a plan for kindergarten children and pupils from first to third grades. This program would teach them how to brush their teeth properly.

The Health Ministry has begun hiring dentists and dental hygienists in the run-up to the nationwide launching of the preventive dental care plan.

“The plan will create an egalitarian, uniform basis in preventive dental care among schoolchildren, as well as raise the need for dental treatments and visits to dentists,” wrote Dr. Lena Natapov of the Health Ministry’s division for dental health. She was writing in an essay published this month in DENTAL, the Israeli dentists’ periodical.

The Health Ministry decided on a preventive dental plan following studies showing that children who receive at school a toothbrush, toothpaste and instructions on how to brush their teeth are more likely to do so at home.

For example, the European Journal of Oral Sciences published an article by Finnish scientists in August about fifth- and sixth-grade pupils whose dental hygiene improved after they received dental products and instructions on brushing teeth at school.

So far only around 30 percent of the country’s schoolchildren in a small number of local authorities have received dental service. The Health Ministry promised a year ago to expand the service to all Israel’s schoolchildren. The Finance Ministry promised to triple its budget and allocate NIS 30 million for this purpose. In addition, each child will be charged NIS 30 a year for the service.

A study in 70 kindergartens that operated the dental care plan in 2007 shows that every child suffers from an average of 3.31 damaged baby teeth. Since local authorities with financial woes have not provided the dental service, it is assumed that the actual number of children suffering from dental problems is considerably higher.

Following the failure of previous programs urging children to limit their eating of candy, the authorities have decided to base their efforts on the children’s curriculum.

For example, first-grade pupils who are learning to read will take a course combining reading and instruction on brushing teeth. Third graders learning numerology will be instructed on dental care using this method.

The Health Ministry plans to expand the plan to junior high schools and include additional material promoting dental hygiene such as reducing cell phone use, which could harm the salivary glands.

The ministry already announced in July 2008 that it wants to reduce children’s exposure to cell phones. This plan will be launched in five cities after Passover.

Meanwhile, Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman is advancing another dental care plan for schoolchildren.

“The ministry is preparing a national tender for purchasing toothbrushes and toothpaste to ensure the same quality of products for all the children,” a ministry spokesman said. “Expanding dental care services to all Israel’s children will begin with initial preventive services, distribution of brushes and toothpaste, and periodical examinations. Including dental care in the state-subsidized medical services will ensure dental treatment to children who need it.”