Cure for Radiation Sickness Found?
ynetnews.com
ynetnews.com
On another note, is there any reason why they had to exlicitly state that the scientists were of Jewish descent? The only possibility that comes to mind for making this explicit is that this is the reason they got Israeli investment?
It reminds me of a quip by Albert Einstein: "If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say I am a German and Germany will declare I am a Jew."
I'm sure that if 'a cure for cancer' is found (and I'm not going to hold my breath on that one, cancer seems to be 'systemic') that every country in the world will want their part (or more) of the credits.
And the scientist seems to be from Russia http://people.forbes.com/profile/andrei-gudkov/20320
:)
They are not saying an Israeli-American but a Jewish-American. The emphasis is not on nationality but on ethnicity.
However, I won't pretend to understand the cultural sensitivites involved (I'm Australian).
It holds its nuclear arsenal in conditions guaranteed to instill fear in governments around the world, and if indeed the Israeli state holds the key to diminishing the threat of radiation sickness as a result of the use of these weapons, then the threat level just increased.
Isreal: Hmmm. Well, you may attempt to do so (as you have in the past), but we will decapitate your government and prevent you from waging war on us.
Middle-East: !! Nuclear Blackmail !!
Palestine: Our children are dying in the streets, we live in a ghetto of Israeli design, we will fight you with whatever we have.
Israel: We have nukes. We will use them on innocents at our own whim.
If you take large amounts (>2000 IU or more) of vitamin E your skin won't sunburn as badly and possibly not at all depending on how much you take. The more vitamin E, the less the sunburn. There's no practical maximum dosage.
Instead your skin will feel warm but won't hurt. It won't turn so red and in particular it won't blister and peel. You _will_ tan. Rather than die off quickly with massive inflammation, the skin loses cells slowly so that in about a week there will be a slight graininess to the skin.
It does help, although not as much, to take large doses of vitamin E _after_ a sunburn. I'd recommend at least 10,000 IU for an adult sunburn.
Here's a link (low dose = 400 IU): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11873518?dopt=Abstract
Quotes from the linked article: "vitamin E at a dose of 400 IU/kg acts as a good radioprotectant against lethal doses of cobalt-60 radiation."
"Vitamin E was more efficacious when given subcutaneously than when given orally." Which is why I recommend very high oral dosages.
In contrast there is no LD50 level defined for vitamin E IIRC. There are anecdotal descriptions of unpleasant side-effects (e.g., diarrhea) but these are vague and may be the result of consuming a large amount of oil at one time (vitamin E is usually taken in oil solution), without ramping up the daily dosage slowly. To the best of my knowledge no one has ever died or suffered permanent ill effects from taking vitamin E.
Vitamin D is also fat-soluble but much less toxic than vitamin A. You may have had your doctor recently test your blood for vitamin D levels. If you test low (and most do) you may be given a prescription of vitamin D of 50,000 units twice a week for 10 weeks or so. As recently as two years ago many doctors would have become alarmed should you tell them you took a vitamin D dose higher than 400 units/day. Obviously something has changed: vitamin D has proven to be much less toxic and far more efficacious than rumour and folklore medicine has said it was:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-07-13-vitamin-d-tes...
The revised recommendations for vitamin D were slow in coming. I had for years seen rickets in otherwise well-nourished children resulting from parents slathering sunscreen on their offspring before every outing. Nieces and nephews were affected by the overzealous recommendations of the American Academy of Dermatology. After all this time vitamin D proves to be a keystone ingredient to preventing cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, indeed most diseases.
My point is that, just because a vitamin is "fat-soluble" doesn't mean that megadoses will hurt you. Most of the lore associated with the term is from vitamin A's history.
If you get a serious sunburn or burn take a big dose of vitamin E. It will help and, unlike CBLC102, it is cheap and readily available _today_.
If you fear nuclear terrorism then my recommendation is to buy a bottle of vitamin E and put it on your kitchen shelf. Next time a nuclear bomb goes off in your neighborhood take a mouthful and run like hell.
I know there have been several discussions floating around about dirty bombs and nukes that could be used in terrorist attacks, and it has seemed to me that what most people are afraid of is not the bomb itself, but the fallout. This could be a huge relief for those fears.
I, um, don't think you want to do that.
/scratches head, sure I'm missing something
Apoptosis (suicide) of a cell before it gets more/all of these (assuming they're irreperable, which is the first resort, of course) is a fantastic safety mechanism. Override it at your peril.
Your point about overriding apoptosis is a good one, however in cases when the patient will die of radiation poisoning, cancer becomes of secondary importance.
However, the researchers found no sign of this happening in the laboratory tests on mice.
It doesn't stop cancer, it stops cell death from radiation, which incidentally may allow higher doses of radiation therapy.
Of course, given that the purpose of radiation therapy is to cause cell death from radiation, it might be self-defeating. (Then again, if it protects normal cells better than cancer cells, it might be useful).