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July 19, 2011

Are Books a Thing of the Past?

Filed under: Uncategorized — Nancy @ 11:30 am -0700

Kindle 3 photo © 2010 Zhao ! | more info (via: Wylio)Sales of printed books are down 9 percent this year, supplanted in part by digital versions on Kindles, Nooks, and even iPhone apps. But the real threat to long-form, hard-copy reading — that is, paper books — is inside our heads, according to Johann Hari, a columnist for the Independent in London.“The mental space [books] occupied is being eroded by the thousand Weapons of Mass Distraction that surround us all,” Hari told me last week. “It’s hard to admit, but we all sense it: it is becoming almost physically harder to read books.”[Okay, I admit I didn’t actually talk with Hari. The quote is from his newspaper column. But pop over to Twitter, and you can see how, in effect, he gave me permission to paraquote him at #interviewbyhari.]Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah, long-form reading. Hari quotes David Ulin, author of The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time, who wrote that he “became aware, in an apartment full of books, that I could no longer find within myself the quiet necessary to read.” Ulin wrote that he would sit down with a book, and find his mind wandering, enticing him to check his email, or Twitter, or Facebook. “What I’m struggling with,” he writes, “is the encroachment of the buzz, the sense that there’s something out there that merits my attention.”

from: http://blog.sojo.net/2011/07/19/are-books-a-thing-of-the-past/

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KFC Style Chicken (Slimming World)

Filed under: Health Care — Nancy @ 11:29 am -0700

In this video, I am making KFC Style Chicken: which has become one of my favourites. If you are following Slimming World: add 6 syns if not using the bread as a healthy extra. You will need: 4 x Chicken Breast 1 x Jar Chicken Bovril 1 tsp Garlic Puree 2 tsp Black Pepper 2 [...]

from: http://www.sayyestoweightloss.com/slimming/kfc-style-chicken-slimming-world/

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AAIC: Cognitive Impact From Lilly’s Semagacestat Didn’t Reverse

Filed under: Health Care — Nancy @ 11:05 am -0700

The worsening of cognitive symptoms in patients taking a now-shelved Eli Lilly experimental Alzheimers compound wasn’t reversed even seven months after the end of treatment, according to new data presented today at the Alzheimers Association International Conference in Paris. The data raise questions about the efficacy and safety of the many others in the same class of drug that are still being developed.

Semagacestat aimed to slow or reverse the progression of Alzheimers disease by inhibiting an enzyme called gamma secretase, which is important to building a sticky substance called amyloid that can clump in the brain. Amyloid is thought to be one of the major contributors to Alzheimers disease.

Bristol-Myers Squibb and other companies also have gamma secretase inhibitors in development. Some phase II data is expected tomorrow from Bristol.

Lillys gamma secretase inhibitor was the furthest along in development when the company announced last year that some analyses of its late-stage clinical trial data indicated that patients in the experimental treatment group fared worse on cognitive symptoms than those taking a placebo. Patients taking the compound also seemed have an increased rate of skin cancer.

Based on that information, Lilly halted the trial and scrapped the compound.

The new data are from follow-up of those clinical-trial patients 32 weeks after they received the last dose of drug last August. In a packed, cavernous conference room at AAIC, Eric Siemers, Lillys senior medical director for Alzheimer’s disease, showed analyses indicating that the experimental groups cognitive problems didn’t reverse after the drug was stopped — though they didn’t continue to decline at a faster-than-usual rate, either. After seven months, the participants symptoms hadn’t returned to baseline or recovered to match the placebo group.

The plateau in cognitive decline suggests that the drug may affect proteins that benefit or are necessary to the brain’s functioning, though more research is needed, Siemers tells the Health Blog.

As for what this means for other gamma secretase inhibitors, it’s hard to say, he says. For instance, some others in development are focused on more selectively acting on the target, while others are looking to modulate the enzyme’s effect rather than block it entirely, he says. But because of these data, “the hurdle’s been raised” for the future development of the compounds, says Siemers.

Image: Associated Press