Machine Makes Prescription Drugs 'On Demand'

Machine Makes Prescription Drugs 'On Demand'

Technological advance produced thousands of doses a day; could be used on battlefields, during epidemics, scientists say.

 

Scientists have created a compact machine that can churn out thousands of doses of prescription medication in a day -- putting the capabilities of a drug-manufacturing plant into a device the size of a kitchen refrigerator.

Experts said the advance could eventually allow on-the-spot drug production in special circumstances -- on the battlefield, during epidemics, after natural disasters, or in cases where a drug is needed for a rare medical condition, for instance.
The research, detailed in the April 1 issue of Science, took a new approach to producing prescription drugs -- which, right now, is often an inefficient, time-consuming process.
Chemical engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used so-called "flow technology" to develop a compact machine that can automatically turn raw materials into a finished pharmaceutical-grade medication.

For now, the system is limited to making liquid versions of four common prescription drugs: the antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac); diphenhydramine hydrochloride, an antihistamine that includes brand-names like Benadryl; the sedative diazepam (Valium); and lidocaine, a widely used local anesthetic.
But the researchers say that drug list can be expanded.
"We're also working on producing tablets, which are more complicated to manufacture than liquid drug formulations," said Klavs Jensen, a professor of chemical engineering at MIT who worked on the study.
Other technologies -- such as 3D "bioprinters" -- could help make that happen, according to Jensen.
Many drug companies are already looking into alternative processing methods -- ones that are "continuous" and can be done at one location, Jensen said.
The traditional way of drug-making is similar to cooking, according to Rainer Martin, a senior scientist with drug company Hoffmann-La Roche, in Basel, Switzerland.
Martin, who wrote an editorial published with the study, explained the process this way: Drugs are made in "batches," and the ingredients -- broad groups of chemicals known as reagents, catalysts and solvents -- are gradually added into a vat, stirred and heated. Then, the brew is analyzed to see if the chemical reactions are complete.

The problem, Jensen said, is that batch manufacturing has "little flexibility to respond to surges in demand" -- such as epidemics. Plus, he added, there can be "severe disruptions" in the drug supply if one plant has to shut down.

The compact system his team developed is continuous, Jensen explained. Chemical reactions take place as chemicals flow through small tubes, instead of sitting in large vats.
The result, according to Martin, is that complex and "laborious" drug-making steps are all done in "fully automated fashion."
Martin said he could envision the compact system being used in a number of scenarios: During a disease outbreak in a refugee camp or remote area, for example, or by individual hospitals that need large amounts of a particular drug on a regular basis.
Matthew Osterhaus, immediate past president of the American Pharmacists Association, agreed that the technology might prove useful in special circumstances.

As an example, he pointed to "orphan drugs" -- medications used to treat rare diseases. "Let's say there's a condition that's treated at five medical centers in the U.S.," Osterhaus said. "It's possible those hospitals would be able to use this."
When it comes to everyday health care, though, it's difficult to see how an appliance-sized drug machine could fit in, according to Osterhaus. As a pharmacist, he said, he has access to about 6,000 drugs right now.
"So it's a stretch to see how this could change my practice," Osterhaus said.
Jensen agreed that the technology could be used in specialized cases, like humanitarian crises and orphan-drug production -- since "small-volume" batch processing is usually not cost-effective for large plants.
And then there's the potential for battlefield use. Jensen said "national defense needs" are what spurred the quest for such a compact system: The research was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, which is aiming to fortify medical care available on the front lines.

But Jensen said he also envisions larger health systems, like a hospital network or a health plan, being able to manufacture their own drugs.
Martin went deeper into visionary territory -- seeing a future where people can use smartphone apps and a microwave-sized device to cook up an antibiotic for their feverish toddler (in consultation with a doctor).
But that, he stressed, won't be happening any time soon.


For now, there are more pressing issues, according to Martin. One is how the raw materials for making the drugs would be delivered: "Would it be, for example, in the way of cartridges, similar to ink for inkjet printers?" he said.
And at the other end of the process, Martin said, there would have to be ways to safely dispose of waste products.

 WebMD

Smoking During Pregnancy Seems to Alter Fetal DNA

Smoking During Pregnancy Seems to Alter Fetal DNA

Discovery could help explain link between expectant moms' tobacco use and kids' health problems

When a pregnant woman smokes, the fetus' DNA is altered in ways also seen in adult smokers, researchers say.

The researchers were also able to pinpoint new development-related genes that were affected by a mother-to-be's smoking.

The findings may help improve understanding about the connection between smoking during pregnancy and children's health problems, the study authors said.

For the study, researchers collected blood samples from newborns, mainly from the umbilical cord. Compared to babies of nonsmokers, those born to regular smokers had over 6,000 spots where DNA was chemically modified.

About half of those locations could be linked to specific genes, including those involved in lung and nervous system development, birth defects such as cleft lip and palate, and smoking-related cancers.

The investigators also found that many of these DNA changes were still present in older children whose mothers had smoked during pregnancy.

The study was published March 31 in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

Smaller studies have found links between smoking during pregnancy and chemical changes in fetal DNA, the authors of the new study noted. But this large study, which included over 6,000 mothers and their children, improved the researchers' ability to detect patterns.

"I find it kind of amazing when we see these epigenetic signals in newborns, from in utero exposure, lighting up the same genes as an adult's own cigarette smoking. There's a lot of overlap," study co-senior author Stephanie London said in a journal news release. She is an epidemiologist and physician at the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

"This is a blood-borne exposure to smoking -- the fetus isn't breathing it, but many of the same things are going to be passing through the placenta," London explained.

WebMD

Male Birth Control

Male Birth Control: More Options Soon?

There’s an old joke among contraceptive researchers: "Twenty years ago, the male contraceptive pill was just 10 years away.''

Despite many attempts over the years at developing a contraceptive for men, condoms -- or permanent vasectomy -- remain the only choices. But that may be changing, as researchers are studying a number of options for male birth control. Although none will be on the market right away, one or two might be available by 2018, some experts think.

What's Taking So Long?

Making a male contraceptive is challenging, experts agree. 

Men's anatomy is complicated. Women ovulate once a month, but guy's sperm production is constant. "Men produce 1,000 sperm [or more] a second," says Mara Roth, MD, an endocrinologist and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, who researches male birth control.

And preventing the sperm from meeting an egg isn't easy. But "you don't need zero [sperm] to be effective,'' Roth says of male contraceptives. They only need to reduce a man’s sperm count low enough to prevent pregnancy.

Another challenge: They need to be reversible, just like women’s.

Side effects are another concern. Researchers in 2011 halted a test of hormonal contraceptive shots for men when side effects, including depression and other mood changes and increased libido, were higher than expected.

Funding is another obstacle. That’s true for many drugs.

What's in the Pipeline?

The methods being studied include options that use hormones and others that don't. They include:

Nestorone and testosterone gel: This treatment combines the hormone nestorone (a kind of progestin) with testosterone in a gel that men rub on their arms. "It suppresses the sperm output to very low," says Christina Wang, MD, professor of medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and the L.A. Biomedical Research Institute.

In a 6-month test on men, the combination suppressed sperm enough to prevent pregnancy in nearly 90% of them. That’s comparable to the pill for women, which is 91% effective at preventing pregnancy, according to the CDC.

The side effects are short term and few for the men, Wang says, ''because it is applied to the skin." Some men said they had acne or weight gain.

Wang is hopeful that final tests to confirm its effectiveness and check for side effects will begin by the end of 2016. She had no information on what it might cost.

Men using this gel will need to take precautions not to expose women and children to it. That can trigger early puberty in children, and excess body hair and acne in women, Wang says.

Vasalgel: This is a type of gel that doesn't use hormones and is made to last for many years. It "is injected into the vas deferens, the tube the sperm swim through, and basically blocks or filters them out," says Elaine Lissner, executive director of the Parsemus Foundation, a nonprofit organization behind Vasalgel. The technique will involve a 5-minute outpatient procedure, she says, similar to the time it takes to do a vasectomy.

To restore fertility, researchers use a baking soda solution to flush the gel out, Lissner says. While the procedure was successfully reversed in some animal studies, Lissner says researchers are ''having a harder time in large animals."

She hopes to get approval to start testing it on men by the end of 2016.

The technique was inspired by a similar contraceptive, RISUG (Reversible Inhibition of Sperm Under Guidance), which is undergoing testing in India. Some men there have used it for more than 20 years, she says. Whether RISUG can be reversed has not been formally studied in men.

Lissner predicts the costs for Vasalgel should be less than the costs of other long-acting birth control methods for women, such as IUDs, which can be up to $900.

H2-Gamendazole: This compound taken by mouth “prevents mature sperm from being produced," says Joseph Tash, PhD, professor of molecular and integrative physiology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City. The premature sperm are then reabsorbed into the body.

In tests on animals, ''we can get not only 100% infertility, but full recovery of fertility," Tash says. Even though the research looks promising, it needs to be tested on men to show it can be reversed, he says.

Retinoic Acid Pill: This compound works by preventing retinoic acid, a form of vitamin A, from doing its job in the process of sperm production, says Gunda Georg, PhD, professor and head of medicinal chemistry at the University of Minnesota. She presented the results of the latest research on the compound at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego recently.

With this compound, sperm production ''is halted in the middle," says Jill Kyzer, a graduate student at the university also involved in the research.

It has only been tested in the lab and needs to be tested in animals and in people.

EP007: This compound, a non-hormone birth control pill for men, stops sperm from swimming, says Michael O'Rand, PhD, president of Eppin Pharma Inc., the developer. The research is early, he says, and he can't predict when it might become a viable option.

Would Men Be on Board?

Once the male pill or other effective contraceptive gets to market, would guys actually use it?

Lissner of Vasalgel says she has 31,000 on the waiting list to participate in a trial for the method.

"That's an easy yes," says Aaron Hamlin, MPH, executive director of the Male Contraception Initiative, an organization devoted to the development of non-hormonal contraception. He cites interest from men who've contacted his web site. "We’ve had a number of supporters reach out indicating how beneficial a male contraceptive would be for them and their partner."

 WebMD

Heart Attacks Striking Younger, Fatter Americans

Heart Attacks Striking Younger, Fatter Americans

Doctors, patients need to work together to prevent cardiac disease, experts say

Heart attack victims in the United States are becoming younger and fatter, a new study reveals.

The average age of people suffering the deadliest heart attacks fell from 64 years old to 60 years old over the past two decades, Cleveland Clinic researchers report. And obesity is now implicated in 40 percent of severe heart attacks.

Heart attack sufferers are also more likely to smoke and have high blood pressure, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) than patients of 20 years ago, the researchers found.

This new profile is raising alarms.

"Lifestyle changes to reduce weight, eat right, exercise and quit smoking are critical for prevention of heart attack," said senior researcher Dr. Samir Kapadia, a professor of medicine and section head of interventional cardiology.

Working toward these heart-healthy improvements is a job for doctors at routine checkups as well as patients, he said.

For the study, researchers analyzed heart disease risk factors among more than 3,900 patients treated for ST-elevation heart attacks (STEMI). This type of heart attack -- which happens when a main heart artery is completely blocked by plaque -- carries a high risk of disability and death, the researchers said.

Kapadia and his colleagues found that from 1995 to 2014, the average age of STEMI patients dropped from 64 to 60, and the prevalence of obesity increased from 31 percent to 40 percent.

Also, the proportion of heart attack patients with diabetes rose from 24 percent to 31 percent. High blood pressure was reported in nearly four out of five cases, up from 55 percent. And COPD, usually the result of smoking, increased from 5 percent to 12 percent.

The new findings are consistent with other recent data on heart attack patients, said Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"Substantially increased efforts are needed to improve heart health to further reduce the rates of cardiovascular events and premature cardiovascular deaths," he said.

The study authors were surprised to find smoking had increased from 28 percent to 46 percent of heart attack patients -- even though smoking rates in the United States as a whole have declined over the past 20 years, the researchers said.

And, the proportion of patients with three or more risk factors increased from 65 percent to 85 percent, they found.

"Primary care physicians and cardiologists have to work harder to provide education and specific programs to help reduce risk factors in the community to reduce the burden of heart attack," Kapadia said.

Doctors can coach patients and provide practical plans for a heart-healthy lifestyle, he said. And patients need to stick to their efforts, he added.

"Patients should take responsibility and place health as the highest priority to change their lifestyle in order to prevent heart attacks," Kapadia said.

The study results are scheduled for presentation April 4 at the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting, in Chicago.

Research presented at meetings is usually considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

WebMD

Daytime Sleepiness, Long Naps Tied to Heart Risks

Daytime Sleepiness, Long Naps Tied to Heart Risks

People who nap more than 1 hour a day also more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, researchers say

While getting enough sleep is key to health, a new study suggests that long daytime naps may not be doing your heart any favors.

The researchers found that long naps and excessive daytime sleepiness were associated with an increased risk for a combination of health problems that are collectively known as metabolic syndrome. And that can boost the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Metabolic syndrome includes conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar and excess fat around the waist.

The investigators analyzed the findings of 21 studies that included a total of more than 307,000 people. The research showed that people who napped for less than 40 minutes were not at increased risk for metabolic syndrome. In fact, those who napped less than 30 minutes had a slight decrease in risk.

But there was a sharp rise in risk among those who napped for more than 40 minutes, the study authors said. For example, napping for more than 90 minutes appeared to increase the risk of metabolic syndrome by as much as 50 percent, as did excessive daytime sleepiness.

The review also found that napping for more than an hour or being overly tired during the day were both linked with a 50 percent higher risk for type 2 diabetes.

However, the study only found an association between these factors, and did not prove that excessive sleepiness and long naps actually cause metabolic syndrome or diabetes.

The findings are to be presented April 3 at an American College of Cardiology (ACC) meeting in Chicago. Research presented at meetings is typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

"Taking naps is widely prevalent around the world," study author Dr. Tomohide Yamada, a diabetologist at the University of Tokyo, said in an ACC news release. "So, clarifying the relationship between naps and metabolic disease might offer a new strategy of treatment, especially as metabolic disease has been increasing steadily all over the world," he added.

About one-third of American adults do not get enough sleep, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The National Sleep Foundation recommends naps of 20 to 30 minutes to boost alertness.

"Sleep is an important component of our healthy lifestyle, as well as diet and exercise," Yamada said. "Short naps might have a beneficial effect on our health, but we don't yet know the strength of that effect or the mechanism by which it works.

-"WebMD

Kidney Transplant From Incompatible Living Donor

Kidney Transplant From Incompatible Living Donor

 In what experts call a possible "paradigm shift," a new study shows kidney disease patients may live far longer if they receive a transplant from an incompatible living donor rather than wait for a good match. The findings could offer another choice for kidney patients who might otherwise die waiting for a compatible deceased donor.
Specifically, experts said the results offer hope to "highly sensitized" transplant candidates.

That refers to patients who have a large number of immune system antibodies ready to attack a donor organ. It's common among people who've had a prior kidney transplant, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Patients who have had multiple blood transfusions while on dialysis, or who have been pregnant several times, can also become sensitized.
Finding a compatible donor for sensitized patients is "nearly impossible," said study lead researcher Dr. Dorry Segev, an associate professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore.
An alternative is to transplant a kidney from an incompatible donor, with the help of special "desensitization" therapies that reduce the risk of an immune system attack on the donor organ.
Johns Hopkins pioneered the approach 15 years ago, and other transplant centers have followed suit.

Only now, though, is the long-term benefit becoming clear. Using data from 22 U.S. hospitals, Segev's team found that more than three-quarters of patients who received a kidney from an incompatible living donor were still alive eight years later.
"This is potentially a paradigm shift," said Dr. Michael Flessner, a program director in the division of kidney, urologic and hematologic diseases at the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, which funded the study.
Flessner expects incompatible living-donor transplants will become standard practice.
Such donations are not a panacea: There is a higher risk of rejection than with transplants from compatible living donors, said Dr. Harold Helderman, a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in Nashville.
And because patients receive especially powerful immune-system suppressing drugs, they can be at increased risk for infections, he noted.

"But these results show that at the end of the day, these patients have a longer lifespan," Helderman said. "So, you accept that there are risks."

For the study, Segev's team followed just over 1,000 sensitized patients who received a kidney from an incompatible donor at one of 22 transplant centers in the United States. They compared the patients' survival with that of two "control" groups: slightly over 5,000 patients on the transplant waiting list who eventually received a kidney; and roughly the same number of wait-list patients who had to remain on dialysis.
After eight years, more than 76 percent of the incompatible-donor patients were still alive. That compared with 44 percent of dialysis patients and 63 percent of those who ultimately received a deceased-donor organ.
The findings were published March 10 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
An incompatible transplant is no easy process. To be desensitized, patients need a procedure called plasmapheresis, which clears the blood of antibodies that could attack the donor organ. Afterward, they receive immune-suppressing drugs aimed at preventing an antibody re-emergence.
Plasmapheresis has to be repeated several times before the transplant -- and often afterward as well, Flessner noted.
The desensitization process also adds about $20,000 to $30,000 to the cost of getting a transplant, according to the University of Wisconsin's transplant center, one of the U.S. programs that performs the procedure.

But it's still far cheaper than dialysis in the long run, Segev said in a news release from Johns Hopkins.
Right now, just over 100,000 Americans are on the waiting list for a donor kidney, according to the National Kidney Foundation. Segev and his team estimate that 32,000 of them are sensitized.
When those patients have a willing, but incompatible, living donor, Segev said, it may be in their "best interests" to have the transplant rather than wait.

Flessner agreed. "This holds out the hope of more family members being able to give this great gift," he said. "And it really is the gift of life."

- WedMD

Lack of Stem Cells: Key to Repeat Miscarriages?

Lack of Stem Cells: Key to Repeat Miscarriages?

A lack of stem cells in the lining of the uterus may cause recurrent miscarriages, a new study suggests.

"We have discovered that the lining of the womb in the recurrent miscarriage patients we studied is already defective before pregnancy," said research team leader Jan Brosens, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Warwick in England.

Brosens said the researchers will use the findings to begin seeking solutions to the problem.

"I can envisage that we will be able to correct these defects before the patient tries to achieve another pregnancy. In fact, this may be the only way to really prevent miscarriages in these cases," Brosens said in a university news release.

Between 15 percent and 25 percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage. And one in 100 women trying to have children suffers recurrent miscarriages, defined as the loss of three or more consecutive pregnancies, the researchers noted.

Stem cells, meanwhile, have the potential to develop into many different cell types in the body, scientists say.

For the current study, the research team analyzed uterine lining samples from 183 women. They found that those who miscarried repeatedly had a lack of stem cells in the tissue.

The researchers noted that the lining has to renew itself after each menstrual cycle, miscarriage and birth. This shortage likely accelerates aging of the uterine lining, increasing the risk of miscarriage, they said.

"Cultured cells from women who had had three or more consecutive miscarriages showed that aging cells in the lining of the womb don't have the ability to prepare adequately for pregnancy," Brosens said.

The study was published March 7 in the journal Stem Cells.

"The real challenge now is to develop strategies to increase the function of stem cells in the womb lining," study co-author Siobhan Quenby, a professor of obstetrics, said in the news release.

"We will start piloting new interventions to improve the lining of the womb in the spring of 2016," she said.

The researchers' focus will be twofold, Quenby said. First, they want to develop new tests of the uterine lining, or endometrium, to improve the screening of women at risk of repeat miscarriages.

"Second, there are a number of drugs and other interventions, such as endometrial 'scratch,' a procedure used to help embryos implant more successfully, that have the potential to increase the stem cell populations in the womb lining," Quenby said.

- WebMD

Dr. Nimako writes: Why bleaching can fast-track your death

Dr. Nimako writes: Why bleaching can fast-track your death

Exogenous ochronosis. You may never have heard of it, but I am certain you have seen it. This is the darkening seen around the eyes and over the joints of someone who has been using skin lightening (aka bleaching) creams for a long period.

There is a bleaching epidemic sweeping across Africa. It is estimated by the World Health Organization that 77% of Nigerian women, 59% of Togolese women, 35% of South African women and 25% of Malian women use bleaching products on a regular basis. In Ghana, the figure stands around 30%.

This craze has come from a popular believe that light skinned women are more beautiful, more successful, more fashionable and have a higher chance of finding a husband than dark skinned counterparts. The source of this believe is still a mystery to many, but some researchers believe it is steeped in Africa’s colonial history, where white skin was considered better than black.

Interestingly, women are not the only ones who bleach. Men bleach too. Even children are being bleached by their parents, and this is abhorrent to say the least.

Skin-lightening in itself is not medically prohibited; there are medical conditions in which this process is employed. Vitiligo, in which some skin cells fail to produce the dark pigment melanin, is a case in point. To even out the skin tone in a bad case of vitiligo, the unaffected skin is lightened with prescription products.

The problem with bleaching is the use of over the counter products that contain agents that are harmful in high concentrations or ones that are toxic to the body even in small quantities. Unfortunately, these are the common and affordable ones.

Bleaching diminishes the activity of or totally destroys the cells in the skin that produce melanin, the pigment that protects us from harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. The effects of some bleaching agents go beyond melanin: they affect other organs, with severe complications.

The commonest agent in bleaching creams is hydroquinone. In concentrations of 2% or less, it is reportedly safe for short-term use. However, a lot of the creams on our market contain more than 4% (because that is the concentration that gives the desired effect quickly) – even when they have declared 2% on the packaging – and most people use it for many years at a stretch.

The manufacturers of such creams may attempt to deceive by giving it an alternative name like 1, 4-Benzenediol, Quinol, p-Diphenol, Hydrochinone, p-Hydroxylphenol, Hydroquinol and Tequinol. Don’t be fooled. They all mean the same thing.

Prolonged use of hydroquinone destroys the melanin-producing cells in the skin and makes the skin more susceptible to the harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Sunburns and skin irritation become more common and over a prolonged period of use exogenous ochronosis occurs.

The risk for skin cancer is also increased significantly when hydroquinone-containing creams are used for long periods. These creams are also thought to be triggers for other cancers, like cancers of the blood (leukaemia), kidneys and liver.

Another bleaching agent is mercury. Though banned in most countries, including Ghana, this element is still found in some bleaching creams smuggled into the country. It is known to cause neurological defects and kidney damage, not only to the user, but also to close contacts.

Some bleaching products also contain steroids such as cortisone and clobetasol, whose long term use can have disastrous health consequences.

Here is a catalogue of some of the possible complications from using these steroid-containing creams:

• Thin, Easily bruised skin
• Disfiguring stretch marks
• Increased risk of hypertension
• Increased blood sugar, with increased risk of diabetes
• Gum bleeding
• Increased risk of glaucoma
• Cataracts
• Weight gain
• Insufficiency of the adrenal glands when the bleaching cream is abruptly stopped, which results in a crisis comprising dangerously low blood pressure, low blood sugar and low body temperature (hypothermia).

There are many other bleaching agents in common use, some of which are claimed to be safe. Such claims are still in contention.

Evolution has taught us that we continuously adapt to fit into our environment. You need not be a genius to realize that we need our melanin to protect us from the scorching African sun. Some people though will always defy reason: even the litany of harmful side effects I have outlined above cannot deter them from using these harmful bleaching products.

But the Food and Drug Authority (FDA) seems to have a solution of sorts: it intends to ban the use of hydroquinone in cosmetic products from August this year. I hope they stick to their word. Then at least, these products will be out of sight and, hopefully, out of mind. It does not mean bleaching will be a thing of the past, but at least it will be less dangerous and less common.

I await a time when we will all be comfortable in our skin, be it black, brown or white.

You may have your reasons for bleaching (or toning, or highlighting- whatever you decide to call it) but bear in mind that it has adverse consequences. I cannot pretend to be an expert in cosmetology and prescribe what is beautiful or how to achieve it. I am, however, well aware of the medical complications of your quest to be lighter than dark, and for that I can confidently say that black is beautiful.

–

By: K.T. Nimako (MB ChB)

Follow on Twitter: @KTNimako

Send an e-mail: kojotwumnimako@gmail.com

Don't sleep with your phone!

The New York Police Department has cautioned people against sleeping with cell phones under their pillows with an alarming tweet showing bedspreads that have been set on fire.

Officers tweeted four pictures of pillows that have had holes burned in them after the cell phone underneath overheated and set light to them.

Fire chiefs have previously warned that sandwiching a charging phone between a pillow and a mattress can cause batteries to overheat and possibly catch fire or explode.

David Berardesca, fire chief from Hamden, Connecticut, told NBC: 'The cell phone was left on the bed. These devices need areas to be ventilated.

'It is recommended that you leave these type of devices on a hard surface so the heat can dissipate. The batteries heat up, they could melt – in some cases, explode – and cause a fire.'

He was speaking after a 15-year-old's bed burst into flames after a charging cell phone caught fire, leading to his home being evacuated at around 4am.

Meanwhile Ariel Tolfree, 13, from Texas, also escaped major burns after her bed set on fire because of a Samsung S4 phone she left charging underneath her pillow.

Tolfree's father, Thomas, said the phone was charging by her bed back in 2014 but likely slipped under the pillow before overheating.

He told Fox 4: 'The whole phone melted. The plastic, the glass. You can't even really tell that it was a phone.'
The image of Tolfree's bedspread was among the four pictures tweeted by the NYPD, with a spokesman saying the tweet wasn't related to a specific incident, but was a general safety warning.
At least two of the images appeared to come from the UK, with one being posted by father Dwayne Blanchard, from Leicester, in November last year.

Blanchard explained being woken up by his smoke alarm before discovering that son Brandon's bed was on fire after he left a cell phone under his pillow.

In another incident, 25-year-old Holly Hewett, from Kent, awoke to find her Samsung phone had begun sizzling while she slept.

After picking up the device it began sparking, and while taking it out of her bedroom the battery swelled up and melted through the plastic casing on the back, the Kent Messenger reports.
Source:Daily Mail

Hair Styling Can Cause Hair Loss for Black Women

Hair Styling Can Cause Hair Loss for Black Women

Survey finds the problem is undiagnosed, and may also have a genetic root

Hair styling practices may be causing black women to experience hair loss, which is a major problem that often goes undiagnosed, a new survey finds.

While genetics may play a key role in hair loss among black women, styling practices such as braiding, weaves and chemical relaxing may also increase their risk of hair loss, said dermatologist Dr. Yolanda Lenzy, a clinical associate professor at the University of Connecticut in Farmington.

She joined with the Black Women's Health Study at Boston University's Slone Epidemiology Center to survey nearly 5,600 black women about their experiences with hair loss.

Almost 48 percent said they had suffered hair loss on the crown or top of the scalp.

"When hair loss is caused by styling practices, the problem is usually chronic use. Women who use these styling practices tend to use them repeatedly, and long-term repeated use can result in hair loss," said Lenzy.

Even though hair loss is common among black women, more than 81 percent of respondents said they had never consulted a doctor about it.

The leading cause of hair loss in black women is a condition called central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia (CCCA). This condition causes inflammation and destruction of hair follicles that results in scarring and permanent hair loss, researchers said.

About 41 percent of survey respondents had levels of hair loss consistent with CCCA. But, fewer than 9 percent said they had been diagnosed with the condition.

Along with self-monitoring, women can ask their hair stylists to alert them to signs of hair loss, Lenzy suggested.

There are a number of treatment options for hair loss in women, she added, including avoiding tight hair styles that put pressure on hair follicles and limiting use of chemical relaxers.

The findings were to be presented Monday at the American Academy of Dermatology's annual meeting, in Washington, D.C. Findings presented at meetings are generally viewed as preliminary until they've been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

WebMD.com