FACEBOOK.COM/WDDTYAUNZ ISSUE 01 | AUG/SEP 2019 | WDDTY 25
UPFRONTINSTITUTES
FACE
$1 BILLION
LAWSUIT
FOR WARTIME
EXPERIMENT
Johns Hopkins University, the drug
giant Bristol-Myers Squibb and
the Rockefeller Foundation face a
$1 billion lawsuit for their part in a
US government experiment that
infected hundreds of Guatemalans
with syphilis in the 1940s.
The experiment was set up to
test the newly developed drug
penicillin as a therapy against
sexually transmitted diseases.
It remained a secret until 2010,
when an academic discovered the
research. Since then, the three
institutions have been fighting
legal action by claiming that the
protection of foreign corporations
from lawsuits in the US for alleged
human rights abuses should be
extended to them.
But in a recent ruling, a federal
judge has decided that the same
protection does not cover US
corporations and has allowed the
$1 billion lawsuit to proceed. It has
been filed by the 444 victims or
their surviving relatives.
The complaint cites that
several Johns Hopkins and
Rockefeller Foundation doctors
were involved in the experiment,
along with four executives from
Bristol Laboratories and the
Squibb Institute, which later
amalgamated to become Bristol-
Myers Squibb.
Johns Hopkins University has
apologized for its involvement
in the experiment, but the
Rockefeller Foundation—a non-
profit group that gives grants for
humanitarian causes around the
world—denies any wrongdoing.
The drug company has refused to
comment.
Reuters, January 4, 2019The nuts that
supercharge
your
nutritional
levels
Hazelnuts can supercharge your
nutritional status—especially when
you’re 55 or older.
The nuts help raise levels of
magnesium and alpha-tocopherol,
or vitamin E—two nutrients that
help protect against a range of
age-related health problems such
as Alzheimer’s disease.
Eating a handful of the nuts
every day for four months raises
levels of both nutrients, sayresearchers from
Oregon State University,
who monitored 32 older adults
aged 55 and over for four months.
As well as raising levels of the
two nutrients, the hazelnuts also
lowered levels of glucose (blood
sugar), and LDL lipoproteins, often
described as the ‘bad’ cholesterol.
Many people in the US are
deficient in both nutrients, partly
because they “don’t like takingmultivitamins, but hazelnuts
represent a multivitamin in natural
form,” said Maret Traber, one of
the researchers.
Hazelnuts are also a source of
healthy fats, copper and B6.
J Nutr, 2018; 148: 1924–30B sharp: the vitamins that
help you focus
B vitamins play a key role in mental wellbeing. They can improve focus and attention—
and it may be because they reduce levels of homocysteine, an amino acid that’s also
linked to the development of heart disease.
They are especially beneficial for people suffering from schizophrenia, say
researchers from Orygen, the National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health
in Australia.
The researchers gave 100 young people suffering from schizophrenia three
B vitamins—B12, B6 and B9 (folic acid)—or a placebo for three months.
Those given the vitamins had better levels of focus and attention, and their
homocysteine levels had dropped. Those whose homocysteine levels were very
high before the study responded the best, the researchers said.
Biol Psychiatry, Jan 9, 2019. pii: S0006-3223(19)30001-0