Scientists Say They have Made Blood From Skin

Canadian scientists say, they have discovered how to make blood from human skin.  The achievement means that patients may be able to use their own skin as a resource of blood for surgery, cancer therapy, or treatment of blood disorders such as anemia, said the researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
They simulated this discovery several times over two years using skin from young and old people. The study was published Nov. 7 in the journal Nature. Clinical trials using skin-derived blood could begin by 2012.
The translation from skin to blood is direct. This means it does not need the middle step of changing skin stem cells into pluripotent stem cells that can be turned into blood cells, explained Mick Bhatia, scientific director of McMaster's Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute.
"We have exposed this works using human skin. We know how it works and consider we can even improve on the process," he said in a university news release. "We will now go on to work on developing other types of human cell types from skin, as we already have encouraging evidence."

Many Americans Don't Even Know They are Fat

Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll finds 30 % of those overweight think they're normal size. Many Americans have distorted perceptions when it comes to their weight, often believing they are thinner than they really are, even when the scales are shouting otherwise, a new poll finds.As part of the Harris Interactive/Health Day survey, respondents were asked to offer their height and weight, from which pollsters calculated their body-mass index (BMI), a ratio of mass to height. Respondents were then asked which category of weight they thinking they fell into.
Thirty percent of those in the "overweight" class supposed they were actually normal size, while 70 percent of those classified as obese felt they were simply overweight. Among the heaviest group, the morbidly obese, almost 60 percent pegged themselves as fat, while another 39 percent considered themselves just overweight.
These results may help to explain why overweight and obesity rates in the United States persist to go up, experts say."Whereas there are some people who have body images in line with their real BMI, for many people they are not, and this may be where part of the problem lies," said Regina Corso, vice president of Harris Poll Solutions. "If they do not differentiate the problem or don't recognize the severity of the problem, they are less likely to do something about it."
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 34 percent of adults aged 20 and older are obese, and 34 percent are overweight. Among children, 18 percent of teens aged 12 to 19 are obese, 20 percent of children aged 6 to 11 are obese, as are 10 percent of kids aged 2 to 5.
"We're seeing the couch potato stigma [syndrome]," Corso said. "Three out of five Americans overall are saying they don't exercise as much as they should." As for weight-loss interventions, the respondents deemed surgery the most effective method, followed by prescription drugs, then drugs and diet-food supplements obtained over-the-counter.
"The American public knows this but it's hard and it's something that they're not quite ready to do," Corso added. "This wake-up call still isn't ringing as loudly as it could." The poll included 2,418 adults (aged 18 and over) who were surveyed online between Aug. 17 and 19.

Antibiotics Now suggested Before C-Sections

Pregnant women about to feel a cesarean delivery should be given antibiotics right before the procedure to help prevent infections, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists now Advise.
Infection is the most common problem of cesarean deliverance and occurs in 10 percent to 40 percent of women who have the procedure, compared with 1 percent to 3 percent of women who deliver vaginally, according to the college.
Typically, antibiotics were only given after a cesarean delivery because it was believed that if they were given prior to birth, they would make their way into the baby's blood and hold up with newborn lab tests or lead to antibiotic-resistant infections in the newborn.
"Based on the hottest data, prophylactic antibiotics given to pregnant women facing a cesarean significantly reduce maternal infection and do not come out to harm newborns," Dr. William H. Barth, Jr., chair of the ACOG's Committee on Obstetric Practice, said in a college news release.
"We're recommending that all women who undergo cesarean get a preventive course of antibiotics previous to the surgery starts. Ideally, this should happen within 60 minutes of surgery”.
Women who require an emergency cesarean should be given antibiotics as soon as probable, according to the new recommendation.
Still, the proposal would not apply to pregnant women who are already taking antibiotics for another condition, Barth noted.