Tb Or Not Tb
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MEDICINE MAN ■■■■■■
While surgery scars can be a good opportunity to make up a story about getting bitten by a shark in Mexico, or how you had to play tough guy in a street-corner knife fight, doctors are looking to leave your body blemish-free when you exit the O.R. The latest? At Legacy Health System in Oregon and Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, gallbladders are coming out through the mouth. Here’s how it works. – KIMBERLY WEISENSEE
»»» WATCH THE VIDEO AND LEARN MORE Watch the video at SCIQmagazine.com AT SCIQMAGAZINE.COM
8
January 2009
FAT BUSTERS
TB or Not TB Searching for the root of this infamous disease
I
t’s a much gloomier version of the old chicken and egg conundrum. Did tuberculosis originate as bacteria in livestock and jump over to humans, or did it originate in humans and jump to livestock through domestication? That question has baffled many of the leading experts. But thanks to a team of Israeli and U.K. researchers, we are closer to answering that question. A new study released in the peer-reviewed research journal PLoS ONE says that strains of TB have been detected in two 9,000-year-old skeletons found in the Eastern Mediterranean. Lesions found on the bones led researchers to believe the ancient people had suffered from TB; a DNA test confirmed that assumption. This discovery puts the known existence of human TB back more than 3,000 years beyond what scientists had previously believed. While it isn’t undeniable proof the disease began in humans, it’s some of the strongest evidence bolstering the claim that human TB evolved before bovine TB.
» ANCIENT HISTORY TB has killed countless people throughout history, is an ongoing problem and a total bummer. Chinese texts from as far back as 2700 B.C. suggest evidence of the disease, which ravaged much of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Finally, in the 1950s, physician John Crofton produced an effective treatment for TB, and it seemed to be a disease in decline. But as HIV/AIDS rates soared in
the 1980s, and drug-resistant strains of TB emerged, it became obvious the disease was far from being eradicated. In 1993 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared tuberculosis a global emergency, and launched a “Stop TB Strategy” campaign in 2006. Current WHO stats say one-third of the world’s population has TB, but only five to ten percent of those who are not HIV-positive actually become infectious. The WHO also claims that every second, a new person contracts the highly contagious disease, which attacks and deteriorates the lungs as a bacterial infection. TB is primarily spread through coughing, sneezing or talking. LITERARY TRADITION »TheAgraveyard cough was especially trendy with the literary crowd. Just a few wordsmiths who succumbed to this great scourge include D.H. Lawrence, George Orwell, John Keats and Stephen Crane. It is alleged that one night in 1820, Keats coughed up a speck of blood, and after a candlelit investigation said, “I know the colour of that blood; it is arterial blood. I cannot be deceived in that colour. That drop of blood is my death warrant. I must die.” It sounds dramatic – and who else but an English poet would proclaim his death after having spotted only a single speck of blood – but his diagnosis was spot on. About a year after making his macabre prediction, on February 23, 1821, Keats died while in Rome. – CHRIS SWEENEY
BY GABRIELLE TOMPKINS
B
efore the days of Atkins, the peanut butter diet and Jared Fogle hocking veggie subs, there were these mealtime regimens that prove desperation is always in style.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF SHUTTERSTOCK IMAGES LLC; PHOTO COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES: 200508227-001/SMC IMAGES/THE IMAGE BANK/GETTY IMAGES
1. A four-channel tube is lowered into the stomach. One channel holds a camera and three hold long, skinny tools. Another camera goes in through the belly button. 2. The stomach is cleaned out and power-washed with antibiotics. 3. A hole is cut in the stomach wall; a balloon is inserted to open the hole. 4. The balloon is deflated and pulled out, and the tube moves into the abdominal cavity. 5. The gallbladder is lifted, pulled into the stomach and the hole is stitched up. 6. The gallbladder is pulled up the esophagus and out of the mouth.
FREAKY
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SHUTTERSTOCK IMAGES LLC AND GETTY IMAGES: BC3880-001/ DAVID BURDER/STONE/GETTY IMAGES
Say “AHHH”
Under a microscope TB doesn’t look so bad.
» EXCESSIVE CHEWING
» TAPEWORMS
» GRAHAM’S DIET
“Nature will castigate those who don’t masticate,” said health-food enthusiast Horace Fletcher in the early 1900s. Fletcher argued that food should be chewed 30 to 70 times before being swallowed. Nicknamed “The Great Masticator,” Fletcher believed that prolonged chewing prohibited overeating, led to improved dental health and conserved money. He also recommended that liquids be thoroughly rolled about the mouth until properly mixed in with saliva. Fletcher took his theory on the lecture circuit and became a millionaire, with celebrities of the day like Upton Sinclair, William James and John D. Rockefeller giving his diet a go. However, James reportedly quit after three months, claiming that the diet nearly killed him. Chewing, apparently, is dangerous.
Popular in the 1920s, this bizarre diet promised frumpy women endless eating by dropping a ravenous tapeworm inside their bellies to help polish off the grub they gorged. However, the major problem with this diet was that the tapeworm would attach itself to the intestinal wall and ingest not just the food, but the vitamins and nutrients needed for good health. Despite the oddity and downright gross-out factor of this weightloss strategy, opera singer Maria Callas was accused of swallowing a tapeworm after her drastic 80-pound weight loss in the 1950s, and even supermodel Claudia Schiffer has battled rumors in the press about the pesky tapeworm. Although not of supermodel status, some jockeys in the 1930s were said to use tapeworms to keep their 100-pound frames in check, as chronicled in Laura Hillenbrand’s best-selling book Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
When toasted marshmallows and melted chocolate combine between two crackers, all thoughts of health are replaced with memories of summer-camp portages and panty raids. But the Graham cracker was actually invented by a devout and disturbed man who condemned refined flour for its lack of nutrition. His answer was using whole wheat flour to create the high-fiber Graham bread we now know as the unofficial cracker of camping. The rest of Graham’s diet, developed in 1829 to save the world from “venereal excess,” allowed consumption of primarily fresh fruits and vegetables, whole wheat and high fiber, and excluded meat and spices. Fresh milk, cheese and eggs in moderation, and only a cautious use of butter were also permitted. A self-proclaimed “physiological reformer,” Graham believed that his diet would prevent people from masturbating, which he thought led to insanity and blindness. His followers, or Grahamites, spread the craziness by opening Graham Boarding Houses, where reformers could find suitable food and likeminded believers.
An electron micrograph of a tapeworm.
SciQmagazine dot com
9
While surgery scars can be a good opportunity to make up a story about getting bitten by a shark in Mexico, or how you had to play tough guy in a street-corner knife fight, doctors are looking to leave your body blemish-free when you exit the O.R. The latest? At Legacy Health System in Oregon and Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, gallbladders are coming out through the mouth. Here’s how it works. – KIMBERLY WEISENSEE
»»» WATCH THE VIDEO AND LEARN MORE Watch the video at SCIQmagazine.com AT SCIQMAGAZINE.COM
8
January 2009
FAT BUSTERS
TB or Not TB Searching for the root of this infamous disease
I
t’s a much gloomier version of the old chicken and egg conundrum. Did tuberculosis originate as bacteria in livestock and jump over to humans, or did it originate in humans and jump to livestock through domestication? That question has baffled many of the leading experts. But thanks to a team of Israeli and U.K. researchers, we are closer to answering that question. A new study released in the peer-reviewed research journal PLoS ONE says that strains of TB have been detected in two 9,000-year-old skeletons found in the Eastern Mediterranean. Lesions found on the bones led researchers to believe the ancient people had suffered from TB; a DNA test confirmed that assumption. This discovery puts the known existence of human TB back more than 3,000 years beyond what scientists had previously believed. While it isn’t undeniable proof the disease began in humans, it’s some of the strongest evidence bolstering the claim that human TB evolved before bovine TB.
» ANCIENT HISTORY TB has killed countless people throughout history, is an ongoing problem and a total bummer. Chinese texts from as far back as 2700 B.C. suggest evidence of the disease, which ravaged much of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Finally, in the 1950s, physician John Crofton produced an effective treatment for TB, and it seemed to be a disease in decline. But as HIV/AIDS rates soared in
the 1980s, and drug-resistant strains of TB emerged, it became obvious the disease was far from being eradicated. In 1993 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared tuberculosis a global emergency, and launched a “Stop TB Strategy” campaign in 2006. Current WHO stats say one-third of the world’s population has TB, but only five to ten percent of those who are not HIV-positive actually become infectious. The WHO also claims that every second, a new person contracts the highly contagious disease, which attacks and deteriorates the lungs as a bacterial infection. TB is primarily spread through coughing, sneezing or talking. LITERARY TRADITION »TheAgraveyard cough was especially trendy with the literary crowd. Just a few wordsmiths who succumbed to this great scourge include D.H. Lawrence, George Orwell, John Keats and Stephen Crane. It is alleged that one night in 1820, Keats coughed up a speck of blood, and after a candlelit investigation said, “I know the colour of that blood; it is arterial blood. I cannot be deceived in that colour. That drop of blood is my death warrant. I must die.” It sounds dramatic – and who else but an English poet would proclaim his death after having spotted only a single speck of blood – but his diagnosis was spot on. About a year after making his macabre prediction, on February 23, 1821, Keats died while in Rome. – CHRIS SWEENEY
BY GABRIELLE TOMPKINS
B
efore the days of Atkins, the peanut butter diet and Jared Fogle hocking veggie subs, there were these mealtime regimens that prove desperation is always in style.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF SHUTTERSTOCK IMAGES LLC; PHOTO COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES: 200508227-001/SMC IMAGES/THE IMAGE BANK/GETTY IMAGES
1. A four-channel tube is lowered into the stomach. One channel holds a camera and three hold long, skinny tools. Another camera goes in through the belly button. 2. The stomach is cleaned out and power-washed with antibiotics. 3. A hole is cut in the stomach wall; a balloon is inserted to open the hole. 4. The balloon is deflated and pulled out, and the tube moves into the abdominal cavity. 5. The gallbladder is lifted, pulled into the stomach and the hole is stitched up. 6. The gallbladder is pulled up the esophagus and out of the mouth.
FREAKY
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SHUTTERSTOCK IMAGES LLC AND GETTY IMAGES: BC3880-001/ DAVID BURDER/STONE/GETTY IMAGES
Say “AHHH”
Under a microscope TB doesn’t look so bad.
» EXCESSIVE CHEWING
» TAPEWORMS
» GRAHAM’S DIET
“Nature will castigate those who don’t masticate,” said health-food enthusiast Horace Fletcher in the early 1900s. Fletcher argued that food should be chewed 30 to 70 times before being swallowed. Nicknamed “The Great Masticator,” Fletcher believed that prolonged chewing prohibited overeating, led to improved dental health and conserved money. He also recommended that liquids be thoroughly rolled about the mouth until properly mixed in with saliva. Fletcher took his theory on the lecture circuit and became a millionaire, with celebrities of the day like Upton Sinclair, William James and John D. Rockefeller giving his diet a go. However, James reportedly quit after three months, claiming that the diet nearly killed him. Chewing, apparently, is dangerous.
Popular in the 1920s, this bizarre diet promised frumpy women endless eating by dropping a ravenous tapeworm inside their bellies to help polish off the grub they gorged. However, the major problem with this diet was that the tapeworm would attach itself to the intestinal wall and ingest not just the food, but the vitamins and nutrients needed for good health. Despite the oddity and downright gross-out factor of this weightloss strategy, opera singer Maria Callas was accused of swallowing a tapeworm after her drastic 80-pound weight loss in the 1950s, and even supermodel Claudia Schiffer has battled rumors in the press about the pesky tapeworm. Although not of supermodel status, some jockeys in the 1930s were said to use tapeworms to keep their 100-pound frames in check, as chronicled in Laura Hillenbrand’s best-selling book Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
When toasted marshmallows and melted chocolate combine between two crackers, all thoughts of health are replaced with memories of summer-camp portages and panty raids. But the Graham cracker was actually invented by a devout and disturbed man who condemned refined flour for its lack of nutrition. His answer was using whole wheat flour to create the high-fiber Graham bread we now know as the unofficial cracker of camping. The rest of Graham’s diet, developed in 1829 to save the world from “venereal excess,” allowed consumption of primarily fresh fruits and vegetables, whole wheat and high fiber, and excluded meat and spices. Fresh milk, cheese and eggs in moderation, and only a cautious use of butter were also permitted. A self-proclaimed “physiological reformer,” Graham believed that his diet would prevent people from masturbating, which he thought led to insanity and blindness. His followers, or Grahamites, spread the craziness by opening Graham Boarding Houses, where reformers could find suitable food and likeminded believers.
An electron micrograph of a tapeworm.
SciQmagazine dot com
9
