Mucus

Cystic fibrosis affects the lungs and other organs, primarily by making the mucus that lines the lungs viscous, clogging small airways and leading to infections. (courtesy of Cystic Fibrosis Foundation) Researchers exploring the effects of a long-standing treatment for cystic fibrosis have discovered a potential new target for drugs to treat the disease, which has no cure and typically cuts decades off the lives of patients. The research, a collaboration between the University of Saskatchewan in Canada and UC Berkeley, is based on a unique method developed by the Canadian researchers to measure fluid secretion in the lungs. Cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease, is characterized by thick, viscous mucus that clogs the airways and causes bacteria to accumulate, leading to frequent infections that damage the airways. It is caused by a defective ion channel in cells throughout the body, which prevents cells lining the airways from secreting enough fluid to thin the mucus. “For over 20 y...

If you’ve over-indulged of late, then the idea of detox may well appeal – flushing out the Christmas and New Year excesses, and negotiating the start of the year afresh. There are plenty of products that offer help, from detox massages and smoothies to herbal teas and starvation diets. You can find promises of glowing skin, weight loss and a healthier you that can help you shrug off the sluggishness of mid-winter. Rinsing your system of impurities sounds like a good way to start the year, but is there any evidence that it works?   The word detox is used in two very different ways. The first refers to the medical detoxification programmes that help people with a serious alcohol or drug problems to get clean.   The other is the kind of home detox marketed to us with promises to rid our bodies of “toxins”.  Modern life does, of course, bring us into contact with plenty of synthetic chemicals and natural substances, some of which can be toxic, but how much evidence is ther...

Cleveland Browns wide receiver Jarvis Landry joined 'The Jim Rome Show' during Super Bowl media week. Landry was accompanied by Nick Miller , an ambassador of the CF [Cystic Fibrosis] Foundation. It was not an ordinary media appearance for the wide receiver, however. He had an ulterior motive and it would warm the hearts of everyone in the vicinity. Check it out: [embedded content] Landry has a special story with his support of cystic fibrosis. Through a video from NFL Films , Landry detailsed his relationship with his high school sweetheart, Mya Zimmer. Zimmer suffered from Cystic Fibrosis and passed away at the age of 24 years. Landry has since partnered with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and created Jarvis' Jam to raise awareness. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) explains the disease as follows: "Cystic fibrosis is a progressive, genetic disease that causes persistent lung infections and limits the ability to breathe over time. In people with CF, a def...

Lung cancer is one of the most common types of cancer to be diagnosed in the UK, according to the NHS. It’s also one of the most serious, as there are usually no symptoms in its early stages. That means it’s usually only diagnosed after the cancer has spread through the lungs or into other parts of the body. But, you could reveal your risk of lung cancer symptoms by checking the colour of your sputum, it’s been revealed. Coughing up rust-coloured sputum - a mix of saliva and mucus - could be a warning sign of lung cancer. You could also be at risk of the condition if you cough up blood, or red-tinged sputum. If you notice any abnormal changes to the colour of your spit, you should speak to a doctor. “Most lung cancers do not cause any symptoms until they have spread, but some people with early lung cancer do have symptoms,” said the American Cancer Society. “If you go to your doctor when you first notice symptoms, your cancer might be diagnosed at an earlier stage, when trea...

Millions across the US are suffering a blast of potentially life-threatening cold weather. The extreme Arctic blast is caused by a spinning pool of cold air known as the polar vortex. A state of emergency has been declared in the Midwestern states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois. In Chicago, temperatures have fallen to -30C (-22F). We spoke to local reporter Natalie Moore from WBEZ radio about what life is like in such cold temperatures. (Image: Commuters battle sub zero temperatures in Chicago. Credit: Getty Images) https://bbc.in/2MGhmzW

As temperatures are expected to get below freezing on Wednesday night, Tift Regional Health System wants to make sure everyone is staying warm. Photo: Kailey McCarthy As temperatures are expected to get below freezing Wednesday night, the Tift Regional Health System wants to make sure everyone is staying warm. Chief Transformation Officer M.D. Cameron Nixon says when temperatures dip, you have to be extremely cautious, especially if you have asthma. According to Nixon, the cold weather can cause an asthma attack. The cold air triggers mucus production and can make it harder to keep the airway open. Nixon recommends asthma patients take their medication, limit their time outdoors and wear multiple layers of clothing. He adds staying weather-aware and dressing appropriately is key. "We're not accustomed to this colder weather, so we need to take it serious and be prepared because typically, what I hear from most of our patients, is that we don't have winter w...

While we usually think of a cow’s gut simply as the organ system responsible for digestion and absorption of nutrients, it also plays other critical roles. Essentially a long tube from the mouth to rectum, open to the outside world, the digestive tract is the most substantial interface between the cow’s external environment and her body. The gut is home to the great majority of bacteria found in or on the cow’s body, and, significantly, functions as the largest immune organ of the body. When the gut functions properly then, the cow benefits from much more than optimal nutrient digestion and absorption. The gut also provides an appropriate barrier against harmful insults (toxins and pathogenic germs) from the external environment. In a healthy gut, the bacterial population is stable, favoring beneficial commensal bacteria at the expense of pathogens. In terms of the immune system, the gut must mount a response that’s neither under-responsive nor over-responsive to potential pathogens. ...

Park City • Anton Yelchin died in a freak accident at age 27, but a new documentary seeks to put the focus back on the actor’s extraordinary life. “Love, Antosha,” which is seeking theatrical distribution, premiered Monday at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City to tears and applause. His parents, Viktor Yelchin and Irina Korina, the driving force behind the documentary, were there as well. The film is a heartfelt and unusually revealing tribute to the creative force of nature that was Yelchin. It is told through home videos, archival footage, personal letters and interviews by those who knew him, from his “Star Trek” companions Chris Pine, John Cho and J.J. Abrams, to Jennifer Lawrence, Martin Landau and Kristen Stewart, who said that he “kind of, like, broke my heart” at 14. It’s a complex portrait of an artist who liked to take provocative photographs at sex clubs in the Valley and was also, unbeknownst even to most of his closest friends, managing cystic fibrosis. A...

Evolution is a rich and dynamic process. Species respond to pressures in a variety of ways, most of which reduce to finding food, avoiding becoming someone else's food and attracting a mate. To solve that last one the animal kingdom is replete with fantastic, bizarre and mesmerizing adaptions. The bioluminescent courtship displays of ostracods may encapsulate all three. Ostracods are peculiar animals. No larger than a sesame seed, these crustaceans have a clam-like shell and often lack gills. Like many sea creatures, a number of ostracods take advantage of bioluminescence to avoid predation and to attract mates. It is this latter use that attracted the attention of UC Santa Barbara doctoral student Nicholai Hensley in his search to better understand the interplay between biochemistry and evolutionary change. To create their entrancing light displays, cypridinid ostracods expel a bit of mucus injected with an enzyme and a reactant, and then swim away from the glowing orb to repe...

Dear Dr. Roach: I’m asking this question for my sister. Is it safe to use a nasal rinse solution when one has a sinus infection with green phlegm? She also sufferers from a deviated septum, dysfunctional Eustachian tubes and vestibular disorder with vertigo and tinnitus. K.C.H. article continues below Trending Stories Sinus infections are common. Most are caused by viruses. Although antibiotics have long been prescribed for these infections, most people do not need them; symptoms will get better without antibiotics. Only people with symptoms lasting longer than 10-14 days or who worsen after initially getting better should consider taking antibiotics. Green-coloured mucus does not predict bacterial infection, contrary to popular belief. Nasal irrigation is a good way to relieve symptoms, and it is safe for most people. It can help loosen the mucus so it can drain more easily, and irrigation relieves inflammation by literally washing away pro-inflammatory substances. P...

Dr. Uday Navaneethan, the Director of IBD Center at AdventHealth Center for Interventional Endoscopy, joined Good Day Orlando on Monday morning at 8 a.m. He answered your questions on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) below. To learn more about AdventHealth, click here .  ANSWERED QUESTIONS:  Q: How would I know if I have inflammatory bowel disease? A: You may have symptoms of blood in the stools, persistent diarrhea, weight loss, mucus in the stool. If you have any of these symptoms, you need to have it checked out with an IBD specialist/ gastroenterologist.  Q: Is there a difference between IBS and IBD? A: Yes, IBS is a condition in which the intestines are not inflamed, but have symptoms of diarrhea. With IBD, there is inflammation seen in the intestines and the intestines are swollen and inflamed. The treatment approaches are completely different.  Q: Is IBD curable or once you have it, you’re stuck with it forever? A: T...

Trudi Pratt, Positively Healthy Published 5:30 a.m. PT Jan. 27, 2019 The end of winter is the perfect time to start strengthening your immune system to ward off our up and coming allergy season. Since the smoke of last year's fire season I've noticed that many of my patients are still a bit run down with compromised immunity and they've had a rough cold and flu season. If you find yourself in that category then consider building your allergy immunity now while we still have rain. Many seasonal allergies are really just inappropriate reactions by your body to a normal stimuli. To put it another way, it's like your body's alert system tells you that there's a life-threatening emergency at play and all systems start to warn you of the possibility of doom and gloom. Actually, the intruder is really just  something normal like "dust" blowing around and the reaction by the body is a very serious overreaction. Symptoms of coughing, sneezing, swell...

A new study of mussels shows the bivalves can spit out most microplastic fibers they come in contact with, and if placed in plastic-free water they're eventually able to excrete most of the plastics they ingest.  The research, conducted by scientists at the Shaw Institute and the Bigelow Laboratory of Ocean Sciences, both of which are in Maine, spells possible good news for the numerous oysters along South Carolina's coast where an increasing backlash against marine plastic pollution has led to a spate of single-use plastic bans.  However, more research will be needed to determine how fast oysters might be able to expel the plastic fibers, said Paty Matrai, a senior scientist at the Bigelow Lab who worked on the study.  "We know that the oysters are capable of doing it. We don't know how fast they do it, and that's a very important difference," Matrai said. "Once you have a rate, you can model that."  The study found that mussels only ingest abo...

Older patients with a diagnosis of chronic sinusitis -- a disease of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses that often persists over many years -- have a unique inflammatory signature that may render them less responsive to steroid treatment, according to a new study published by Vanderbilt researchers. The study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology examined tissue and mucus specimens of 147 patients between the ages of 18 to 78 who required sinus surgery for their chronic sinusitis. With an initial goal of identifying subgroups of patients based on their inflammatory signature -- the different cytokines and inflammatory proteins found in tissue or mucus -- Vanderbilt investigators recognized that one of the identified subgroups was enriched in patients over age 60. Intrigued by the findings, the team compared all patients according to age by examining their histopathology, tissue specimens taken during surgery, and the immune markers and inflammatory protei...