MAKING OLD LUNGS LOOK YOUNG AGAIN WITH IBUPROFEN

New research shows that the lungs become more inflammatory with age and that ibuprofen can lower that inflammation

In fact, immune cells from old mouse lungs fought tuberculosis bacteria as effectively as cells from young mice after lung inflammation was reduced by ibuprofen. The ibuprofen had no effect on the immune response to TB in young mice.

This was a rare look at inflammation in the aging lung environment by Ohio State University scientists who study the immune response to TB. The researchers already knew that old mice had a harder time clearing TB from the lungs than young mice, but had not investigated the role of lung inflammation in that response.

"Very few researchers have linked inflammation to infectious disease in old age, even though TB in particular will drive that inflammation even further," said Joanne Turner, associate professor of microbial infection and immunity at Ohio State and senior author of the study.

"The inflammation-associated changes that we saw in the lung were a small finding, but an important finding because the implications are great," Turner said. "We should be able to modify the environment in the lung. If we can reverse the inflammatory environment in a very straightforward way, that is a positive."

The research is published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology.

Most previous research establishing inflammation's links to aging and disease has tested blood for elevated proteins that signal an inflammatory environment. These researchers found the same proteins in the lungs of old mice. Research has already established that the inevitable inflammation that comes with aging is linked to such conditions as Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Though this line of work might someday support the use of ibuprofen as an adjunct therapy for elderly people with TB, Turner emphasized that she and colleagues are not recommending use of the drug for the purposes of lowering inflammation.

"You can actually reduce your inflammation as you age by being lean, eating well and exercising. And we know that in the elderly, people who are fitter live longer," she said. "Inflammation is associated with sickness and frailty."

Though the research was conducted in mice, Turner co-led a previous study indicating that both mouse and human lungs develop the same profile of pro-inflammatory proteins and fatty molecules with age, creating an environment that impairs the immune response to infection.

More than 9 million people worldwide are estimated to have active TB infections, and about 1.4 million people die of tuberculosis each year. "The elderly are most likely to die of TB. They get sicker. They're not the biggest population that gets infected with TB, but they can develop the worst cases," said Turner, also an associate director of Ohio State's Center for Microbial Interface Biology (CMIB).

In this new study, the researchers compared lung cells from old and young mice and found that in the old mice, genes that make three classic pro-inflammatory proteins, called cytokines, were more active in the lungs of old mice. The cytokines are interleukin-1 (IL-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a). In addition, immune system cells called macrophages in the lungs from old mice were in an advanced state of readiness to fight an infection -- a status that signals inflammation. Macrophages in young mouse lungs were in a normal, resting state.

In test tubes, the scientists exposed mouse lung macrophages to TB bacteria. The macrophages from old mouse lungs were quicker to absorb the bacteria than were immune cells from young mice, but that initial robust immune response from the cells of old mice could not be sustained.

"A primed macrophage in an old mouse has lots of receptors on its surface that can bind to TB, taking it up and trying to kill it. But what it lacks is the ability to increase the response further," Turner said. "A resting macrophage in a young mouse takes up TB and then can be activated to do something even more effective at killing the bacteria."

Though some elements of the elderly response to TB remain a mystery, this finding suggested that the inflammation in the lungs of elderly mice had the direct effect of reducing the long-term effectiveness of their immune response to TB infection, Turner said.

Old mice in the study were 18 months old -- equivalent to about 65 in human years -- and young mice were 3 months old, a similar age to human young adults.

The researchers gave old and young mice ibuprofen in their food for two weeks and then examined their lung cells. After this diet modification, several pro-inflammatory cytokines in the lungs of old mice had been reduced to levels identical to those in the lungs of young mice, and the macrophages in old mouse lungs were no longer in a primed state.

"There's a trend toward reduced inflammation. Essentially, ibuprofen made the lungs of old mice look young. Putting young mice on ibuprofen had no effect because they had no lung inflammation, which implies the ibuprofen reduced the inflammation and changed the immune response in the old mice," Turner said.

"It might be that ibuprofen works on specific pathways to lower inflammation, and that might help with control of TB."

Turner and colleagues have extended the work to test whether ibuprofen affects the elderly mouse immune response to TB infection.

Practical methods and Making connections

I'm not a practical herbalist. Or am I? What's impractical about using our own body's responses to a plant as vital information. It's no more or less practical than a fox using it's eyes or nose to hunt a rabbit, really.

I am thinking today that most of what I feel, write, and do as an herbalist may not translate well to others. So I come here today to out myself on they way I do things. I may not be lavish with my words because the two sides of my brain may get into a cat fight somewhere along the way. Bear with me.

Most of what I do involves a lot of questioning and listening.

When I get 'sick':

First I locate it in my body. Is it in my head, knee, nose, etc. This question can be seen as locating the bodily system/organ it pertains to. I make sure to identify what type of human form it is effecting; mucous membranes, bones, skin, waters, liver, muscle, kidney, etc. This could further be deduced into an element (earth air fire water) or dosha (vata pitta kapha) depending on what system you are most inclined to use.

I ask: what sensation is it? This question could be viewed as getting to the energetics of the problem. Is it hot, cold, stuck, growing, shrinking, vibrating, piercing, dull... etc. The sensation will infer clues about what action the ailment is taking.

This might be telling information if there are analogues to the person's emotional or personal experience. For example, a UTI might imply that the person is very pissed off. I liken Lyme to a giving up of one's power. Something chronic like back pain might imply one's inability to feel supported.

I ask: What am I craving? Sweet? Salty? Liquids? Rest? These are so important. Sweet may be interpreted as a need for sustenance, whole grains and B vitamins, a more stable lifestyle, or more rootedness. Salty may mean you need minerals like kelp and nettles provide. Creativity may need feeding and fertility (of body or mind) may also need attention. Sharp liquids and vinegars may indicate a need for liver, gall bladder and digestive attention among the many other benefits of sour and bitter tastes. Lethargy or frustration and anger may be at play here.

Aromatic, spicy and highly flavourful lends to remedying emotions and self esteem as well as skin and digestion.

I am getting carried away with the ins and outs. Really there are many books begging to be written and read on the topic. What I really want to demonstrate is how I go about attaining information and just a hint of how I deduce things.

My intuition kicks into high gear. Having a pretty strong bond with a handbag full of multi-useful herbs helps, since I can quickly locate the vibration of the plant and match it with the person - often myself or my family but sometimes a friend who is inquiring. The next question I ask is: what plant will strengthen this person? What plant nourishes the afflicted systems? What plants will provide utmost nourishment to this person?

Sometimes I will get clear answers. Sometimes, not. When the not occurs, I go through my garden, or somewhere outside, and ask. Usually I will come across something that just calls me. I may or may not know that plant.

If I know the plant - I can decide how to use it. I may have something at home dry or prepared that I can use. If not, I see if I can harvest it from that spot and of course do so with reverence and a gift.

If I do not know that plant - I sit with it. This is one of the hardest for people because they simply cannot turn off time or their busy brains long enough to do so.

Once past those two blocks, just sit. Introduce yourself. Introduce your purpose or question if you like. Offer a compliment. Breathe. Breathing is one of the most intimate acts you can do with a plant. It is a tangible, real exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide and carries real benefits. The plants may elicit images. Don't take them for granted. The plant may show you rubbing your skin, or smashing it up and putting it on your feet covered with socks, or sleeping with the root in your pocket, or chewing one single leaf. It may tell you to stop saying yes or to spend more time reading. The plant may ask you to call your father or to let yourself cry. Plants don't edit themselves for our benefit. They speak truth.

Plants do not have the same limits or self-conscious habits that people do. Just listen. Then, barring you have come across a deadly plant, do it. Receive healing - you're asking for it!

If you want to take the more cautious route - write everything down in a journal so you can come back to it when you're ready to take action. Then go reference the plant in at least four places.

When you gather information from references:

Gather the scientific name, traditional uses and doses, parts of plant used, and for how long it is consumed or used topically. What are the energetics of the plant? Is it stimulating, sedating, nourishing, or drying? How is the plant prepared? This is so important. You cannot expect a tincture to do what an infusion does. You cannot expect a salve to supply what a kelp and burdock stew will. You also need to know what time of the year to harvest and how to do it ethically. You may enjoy finding out correspondences such as planetary powers, or which Goddess the plant is affiliated with.

If you are sitting with what you know to be a prolific plant and relatively safe, you have a lot of room to play and experiment. Take good notes.

Some plants I consider to be such good friends I can call on them to help me with nearly anything and they will. I have spent a lot of time with these plants, years, getting to know them, harvesting them, growing them, finding them in the wild and offering soil enriching gifts, and singing and praying to these magnificent spirits. I talk and listen, ask questions and give praise. I take the time to cultivate a safe and vibrant relationship.

If I am in a place where I cannot hear myself or am too sick or impatient to do any of the above?

MAKE SOUP. TAKE A BATH.

Then do it.

Sometimes an herb will come to me in dreamtime. It may be a faraway plant only available in spirit form. That is good. Let it come to you and help while you sleep. I often have dreams where Jasmine flowers line the background or Usnea drips from the forest as I walk.

Thank it for showing up for you.

Don't take herbs in capsules. I only invite capsule takers to use Milk Thistle in that way and that's it. I would still encourage that Milk Thistle be ground and eaten on food. Capsules are a big waste of time, energy, and a risk on your health.

Muscle test. This technique (I learned from my amazing Mom) is invaluable. Try it. Think I am a quack if you like, but I for one enjoy being in touch with and response-able for my own health and healing. I am not going to try and explain it here as there are more comprehensive explanations out there to be had. I will list a few links as a spring board.

http://www.earthtym.net/ref-muscle-test.htm

http://www.geocities.com/sunmoonessences/muscle.html

http://www.ladybarbara.net/html/self-testing.html

To summarize:

1. Where is it in my body?

2. What sensations does it create?

3. What emotions or personal issues mirror this ailment?

4. What am I craving?

5. Journey to and with a plant including breathing. Take good notes.

6. Research and reference.

7. Make soup, take a bath, sleep on it.

8. Muscle test and make potions.

Happy Healing

- I invite questions to further discuss these ideas. This is roughly how I go about coming to conclusions in regards to treating and caring for myself and I realize it is not entirely cohesive - but indeed that is my internal process. It moves around erratically until answers that feel right jump out at me. How do you do it? How are our journeys different or alike? What vital pieces am I missing? ..........................

MAKING SURE ANTIBIOTICS AS THEY SHOULD

Researchers at ETH Zurich are decoding the structure of the large ribosomal subunit of the mitochondria at an atomic level, thereby providing insight into the molecular architecture of this ribosome with implications for a better understanding of the mode of action of antibiotics.

A team of ETH Zurich researchers led by professors Nenad Ban and Ruedi Aebersold have studied the highly complex molecular structure of mitoribosomes, which are the ribosomes of mitochondria. Ribosomes are found in the cells of all living organisms. However, higher organisms (eukaryotes), which include fungi, plants, animals and humans, contain much more complex ribosomes than bacteria. In eukaryotes, ribosomes can also be divided into two types: those in the cytosol -- which comprises the majority of the cell -- and those found in the mitochondria or "power plants" of cells. Mitochondria are only found in eukaryotes.

Ribosomes serve as translation devices for the genetic code and produce proteins based on the information stored in DNA. Every ribosome consists of two subunits. The smaller subunit uses transfer ribonucleic acids (transfer RNA or tRNA) to decode the genetic code it receives in the form of messenger RNA, while the larger subunit joins the amino acids delivered by the transfer RNA together like a string of pearls.

Even higher resolution, even more details

Mitochondrial ribosomes are especially difficult to study because they are found only in small amounts and are difficult to isolate. At the beginning of the year, ETH researchers had shed light on the molecular structure of the large subunit of the mitoribosome in mammalian cells to a resolution of 4.9 Å (less than 0.5 nm). However, this resolution was not adequate to reliably build a complete atomic model of this previously unknown structure. The team lead by ETH Professor Nenad Ban has now succeeded in this task and was able to map the entire structure at a resolution of 3.4 Å (0.34 nm). The researchers recently published their findings in the scientific journal Nature.

The scientists used high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy at the Electron Microscopy Center of ETH Zurich (ScopeM) and state-of-the-art mass spectrometry methods in their experiments. Thanks to recent technical advances in cryo-electron microscopy and the development of direct electron detection cameras that can correct for specimen motion during the exposure, it only recently became possible to capture images of biomolecules at a resolution of less than four angstroms.

Improving the effect of antibiotics

In particular, the new images show the details of the peptidyl transferase centre (PTC), which is where the amino acid building blocks are combined. The proteins synthesised in this way then pass through a tunnel, where they finally exit the large subunit of the ribosome.

"This process is medically relevant," said Basil Greber, lead author of the study and postdoctoral researcher in Nenad Ban's group. The reason is that this tunnel is a target for certain antibiotics. The antibiotic becomes lodged in the tunnel and prevents the proteins that have just been synthesized from leaving the tunnel. However, antibiotics should only inhibit protein synthesis in the ribosomes of bacteria.

"For an antibiotic to be used in humans, it must not attack human ribosomes," explains Greber. Antibiotics must inhibit protein synthesis only in bacterial ribosomes. The problem is that mitochondrial ribosomes resemble those of bacteria, which is why certain antibiotics also interfere with mitoribosomes. "This can lead to serious side effects." The ETH researchers' findings will make it possible in the future to design antibiotics that inhibit only bacterial and not mitochondrial ribosomes. This is one basic requirement for using them in clinical applications.

A surprising discovery

The ETH researchers also made an unexpected discovery. They found that mitoribosomes use transfer RNA in two fundamentally different ways. Firstly, the tRNA is used to select the right amino acid for peptide synthesis in the PTC. Secondly, one tRNA is a fixed part of the structure, unlike in all other ribosomes. Although it has been known for quite some time that mitochondrial ribosomes integrated new proteins into their structure over the course of their development, this is the first time that the use of an entirely new RNA molecule was observed. "This demonstrates the great evolutionary plasticity of mitoribosomes," underscored Greber.

The ETH team is now faced with a major, still unresolved task in its research: determining the structure of the smaller subunit of the mitochondrial ribosome. The fact that it is more flexible than the large subunit renders this undertaking an even greater challenge.

Making Personal Choices About Nerve Damage Treatment

Today's post from livinginalimitedworld.com (see link below) is the personal story of someone living with PRMS (Progressive-relapsing Multiple Sclerosis) but it is also the story of someone making their own choices when it comes to symptoms, severity of symptoms, doctors and the medications they prescribe. There are wise lessons for all of us living with neuropathy here and although the article doesn't talk about neuropathy as such (MS is also a serious neurological illness), it suggests a way of approaching the way our disease is treated and how much we need to take some of the control for ourselves. Well worth a read.

Body science
Posted on May 15, 2016 

I seem to have the twitches today. Not the normal ones that I live with, this is more like a shudder that is travelling through my entire body, but only, in the parts of me that are actually moving. If any part of me is motionless, then I don’t feel a thing. Should I move my hand and say my foot at the same time, the shudder is there identically in both. It’s not only bizarre but it is also mildly upsetting. I know that I have felt it before, exactly when or what caused it then or now, I don’t have the slightest idea. It’s one of those things like so many others, appears, disturbers me for a while and vanishes. Admittedly, it doesn’t cause me any pain, it doesn’t do me any harm, but the same can be said for much of what happens in my body and possibly yours. Yet all of us go on daily, living with these things that no one really cares about because they aren’t going to kill us. Tell your doctor, and they might give you some kind of medicine that might possibly help, but they probably aren’t any more sure about it than we are, plus, they don’t have to live with their side effects.

I learned a long time ago that I had to gauge for myself, just how important it is for me to be rid of this or that symptom. To begin with, I was more than happy to take whatever drug they threw at me. I have and still do have amazing trust in my doctors, but I learned not to have the same trust in their medications. The problem I now know has a huge amount to do with my condition. I didn’t know it then, but I do now, that PRMS is notorious for not responding to any of the range of MS medications. When I was first diagnosed, according to the internet, PRMS didn’t exist. I even questioned my consultant as to why no one had heard of it. Apparently, it was rare, that rare, that the world wasn’t interested and that included the pharmaceutical industry. There are no drugs that are out there, not even the ones designed for MS patients that will ever help me with any of it other than the pain. Both of us, were in a world of discovery as my body was only going to respond if it suited it, not because it worked for others. In the first five years, I was changing drug after drug searching for the ones that would work the best. Then I called a halt to it. I worked out a hit and miss list, I ditched all the meds that didn’t work for me, regardless what my doctors said, and I kept the ones that I could live with. That was my first rule, “It had to work for me”.

That decision was closely followed by the one that said, “Can I live with this symptom, or do I need help”. It is so easy to run to our doctors every time that something happens that is different. Just because it is something that the average person would find terrifying, doesn’t mean it is something to be terrified by. My test mark is to say, “Is this symptom impairing my life”. This tremor or probably more accurately, this quiver, doesn’t stop me doing anything. It slows me down, but it doesn’t actually stop me doing things, therefore, I don’t need a doctor, and I don’t need medication for it. In fact, the only time I really turn to my doctor is when I am in pain. If it hadn’t been for the pain my intercostal muscles and diaphragm were causing me, I wouldn’t have been diagnosed with COPD when I was. Not being able to breathe was something I had grown used to, not being able to breathe and being in pain, was something I didn’t like at all.

The medications that I do take, I don’t know if they work for anyone else, or have even been tested on animals, but they have been tested on me. My small selection that I am on now, may not be the standard for MS, but they work for me and that is what matters. People ask me all the time if I have been on this drug or that one. Partly, because of my bad memory, I’m not always able to say, but I always question, why they are asking me, and are not testing them on themselves. Yes, I have a rare condition that is known not to respond as others do, but I honestly believe whatever our condition, the only way to find out if it’s going to help us, isn’t to read about it, or talk to others about it, it is quite simply to try it, and to remember, you can come off it again as easily as you started it. Our doctors can only advise us and suggest what they think will help. Unless they happen to share your condition, they won’t have tried it personally, and don’t even assume they have prescribed it to anyone else either, remember, all forms of MS are reasonable rare. After many years of practice, when my GP read my diagnosis, he told me I was the first person ever on his books to have the condition. Most of the time, our doctors are offering us a drug they know nothing about, other than what they have read. If it doesn’t work for you, well they always seem to have another one to offer, if you truly believe you really need it.

All of us have different body chemistries and every drug will work slightly differently for almost all of us. Hence those stupid lists of “possible side effects”, so many people miss that word “possible” and assume they will get them all. To date, I have only been aware of a handful of drugs that have ever caused me any issues, and they were really not worth mentioning.

https://livinginalimitedworld.com/2016/05/15/body-science/