Page 38 Daily Mail, Tuesday, July 30, 2019
By PAT HAGAN
Eat healthy fish
to beat diabetes
Eating fish may lower your risk of
developing type 2 diabetes — as long as the
fish is not polluted.
about 400 people took part in a ten-year study
which looked at their fish consumption and
then at exposure to environmental pollutants
such as DDt and dioxins — which have been
linked to type 2 — and the risk of developing
the condition over the study period.
initially, the results appeared to show that
fish consumption had no impact. But when
the researchers from Chalmers University of
technology, in Sweden, tested for pollutants
in blood samples from the participants and
screened out their impact, they found that
consumption of fish coincided with a 25 per
cent lower risk of type 2.A
gLUE gUn could banish
the need for stitches after
major surgery and cut the
risk of wound infection.
the hand-held device squirts
hot glue on to wounds, which bonds
tissue firmly together before gradually
dissolving over several weeks once the
wound has healed.
For centuries, doctors relied on stitches
— or sutures — to close wounds, using a
needle and sterile thread, usually made
from materials such as silk or nylon.
the technique is used whether some-
body is being treated for a minor injury,
such as a cut that is unlikely to close on
its own, or undergoing more invasive
procedures such as open heart surgery.
More recently, the use of small
metal staples has become common,
particularly in major surgery such as hip
or knee replacements. the big advantage
is they are much quicker to put in place
than sutures.
But both techniques carry some degree
Farmers found to be at
lower risk of dementia
a DrUg widely used to
treat symptoms of an
enlarged prostate may also
be effective as a male
contraceptive pill.
taken three hours before
intercourse, silodosin was
found to be 100 per cent
effective in preventing
sperm appearing in semen,
according to research
published in the World
Journal of Urology, basedon 63 men who took the
drug over several weeks.
none of the men’s partners
became pregnant during
that time.
Precisely how it works is
not known, but lack of
sperm is one of the drug’s
main side-effects when it is
used for prostate problems,
report researchers at the
institute of Medical
Sciences in Sirsi, india.■ Singing could
improve asthma,
suggests research at
the University of
Salford. in a study,
children aged seven
to 12 with asthma
coughed less and
needed an inhaler
less frequently after
weekly, hour-long
choir sessions.
Singing has a
similar impact to
breathing exercises,
plus a positive effect
on self-esteem, said
the researchers.Prostate pill could be
a male contraceptive
A STUDY has found that
farmers are less likely to
develop Alzheimer’s than
other workers.
Male farmers were found
to have a 66 per cent lower
risk of the disease than
white-collar workers, and
female farmers a 45 per
cent lower risk than
homemakers, in research
involving around 4,000
people aged 55 and over.
The researchers, from
the Universidad de
Zaragoza in Spain, point
out that farmers tend to
retire later, and previous
studies have shown that
people who are employed
in later life have a lower
risk of dementia.How we’ve changed over
time. This week: our muscles
have become weaker
OVER the past six
million years, the
strength of
human muscle
has decreased.
But this isn’t due
to our sedentary
lifestyles — it is
thought to be due
to the energy
needs of our brain.
This theory emerged
when scientists
tested the comparative muscle
strength of chimps and humans
for a study published in PLoS
Biology. They found the chimps
were far stronger.
What they think has weakened
human muscle is our metabo-
lism, and scientists now believe
that to evolve our bigger brain
— which accounts for 20 per
cent of our energy needs — our
muscles had to use less energy
and so became weaker.
Modern lifestyles have less
impact. When scientists gave
macaque monkeys little
exercise, high stress and a
poor diet for two months, it
reduced their muscle strength
by just 3 per cent.IF YOU’RE on a low-carb diet, resist
the urge to ‘cheat’. In a study by the
University of British Columbia
Okanagan, in Canada, nine healthy
men on a low-carb diet for seven days
were given a sugary drink — and tests
showed the sudden spike in glucose
damaged their blood vessel walls.
THe perfect workout for your
body type. This week: Do you
have long arms and mobile
ankles? Try swimming
MOST of us have arms that,
stretched out sideways,
measure the same as our
height. Top swimmers, though,
have an arm measurement
longer than they are tall.
U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps,
for example, is 1.95m (6ft 4in)
tall but his outstretched arms
measure 2m (6ft 5½in).
‘The longer the arms, the
faster you can propel
yourself through the
water,’ explains Chris
Pinner, a personal
trainer from Inner-
fit. ‘Phelps has
large feet and
double-jointed
ankles, too,
which also aids propulsion.’
To check ankle flexibility, sit
on the floor, legs outstretched,
and drop your feet — the
straighter the line between the
shin and your toes, the more
flexible your ankles and, in
theory, the faster you’ll swim.PERSONAL
TRAINER
TINY
TWEAKS
CHANGING
TRAITS
of risk, most notably the danger
of wound infection, as staples and
stitches both penetrate the
wound itself, allowing bacteria
that is naturally on the skin to
get inside.
Staples also need removing once
the wound has healed, as do many
types of stitch — which carries an
extra risk of infection and means
more hospital trips for patients.
the glue gun could overcome
these problems.
Medical glue has been around
since the Seventies. it was first
developed for military purposes,
to help soldiers in the field patch
up wounded comrades quickly
until they could get proper
medical attention. Just like
superglue, it bonds in seconds.
But one of the main chemicals
used in medical adhesive,
cyanoacrylate, can be toxic to
human tissue, often causing pain
and inflammation around the
area where it is used.
it also tends to harden too
much, reducing the elasticity of
the skin or tissue and increasing
the likelihood of visible scarring.
Other medical glues are made
from water-based gels. these are
less toxic, but do not bond with
the same strength.
as a result, use of both types of
medical glue is restricted to
superficial skin wounds where
minimal bonding is needed.
now scientists at the technion-
israel institute of technology in
Haifa, israel, have developed a
new type of glue that bonds tissue
as effectively as stitches, but hasnone of the toxicity of existing
medical glues.
it contains a modified form of
biodegradable polyester called
polycaprolactone, which is
already being investigated for use
in medical implants and drug
coatings, as it gradually breaks
down inside the body over a
period of weeks or months.
the team developed the glue insolid stick form,
like those used
in craft work, so
it is easy to
store and use
(many existing
glues are liquid).
Once the stick is
placed into the gun (in
trials they used an ordinary shop-
bought glue gun) it is heated to
around 45c — hot enough to turn
it into a thick liquid, but not so
hot that it burns healthy tissue.
as it makes contact with human
tissue, it cools to body tempera-
ture — around 37c — and bonds
to surrounding tissue, rapidly
turning into a semi-solid sub-
stance strong enough to close
wounds, but stretchy enough to
allow for normal movement. the
entire process, from application
to bonding, takes just seconds.
During laboratory tests, the hot
glue was found to produce a bond
almost as strong as existing
medical glues, but with none of
the toxic effects, according to
results reported in the journal
advanced Functional Materials.
Within two weeks, experiments
showed, the glue had dissolved
into tiny particles that are
absorbed by the body and flushed
out as waste, leaving the skin
virtually scar-free.
the team is now fine-tuning the
glue to improve its adhesive
powers further before carrying
out clinical trials on humans in
the next couple of years.TRY THIS...
ALTRUIST sunscreen was created by Dr Andrew Birnie,
a consultant dermatologist on a mission to create a
‘high-quality sunscreen at the lowest possible price’.
Available in SPF30 and SPF50, it offers broad spectrum
UVA and UVB protection. From £7.50, amazon.co.uk■ INJECTING ozone gas into
wounds could speed up the
healing process, according to
researchers in Brazil. They
tested the therapy on rats and
found it reduced inflammation
and stimulated growth ofhealthy new tissue, reported
the journal Growth Factors.
Although an air pollutant, ozone
is thought to have powerful
healing properties; other studies
suggest injecting it into the back
eases the pain of slipped discs.Hot glue gun to
replace
stitches in
major ops
instead of hundreds or thousands of
pounds, so all the research funds focus
on the expensive new drugs.’
Dr Bannister adds: ‘To do a study to
allow you to recommend them for can-
cer treatment costs money. If all you are
going to do is increase sales of a cheap
drug, no one is motivated to do that.
‘Cancer Research UK is trialling aspirin
albeit extremely slowly, but that’s all.’
Aspirin is believed to slow progression
of the disease by inhibiting a gene that
promotes cell proliferation.
When Good Health contacted Cancer
Research UK — whose accounts show it
receives hundreds of millions of pounds
from pharmaceutical companies — Emma
Greenwood, director of policy and public
affairs, rejected the suggestion that it is
influenced by the sales agenda of drugmanufacturers. ‘The charity fiercely
guards its independence,’ she says.
‘Now we understand much more about
what drives cancer, there are increasing
opportunities to re-purpose existing
drugs and search for new treatments.’
This includes researching metformin
for prostate cancer.
Lisa McGrath is not convinced. ‘I used to
have a monthly direct debit for Cancer
Research but now I think it only promotes
treatments big pharma promotes.
‘My oncologist is very supportive. He
sees I’m doing a lot of things he wasn’t
aware of. I know I’m in a bad situation,
but it’s better than doing nothing.’
The National Institute for Health and
Care Excellence (NICE) confirmed: ‘We’ve
only appraised metformin for type 2 dia-
betes and we do not have any pending
reviews for [it] as a cancer treatment.’FROM PREVIOUS PAGE