Highlight HEALTH

The best way to stay healthy and avoid getting sick is to wash your hands. Some of the most recent scientific evidence comes from a study of hospital-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA or “staph”) is a bacteria that can enter the body through breaks in the skin and cause severe infections and even death, especially in people who are already sick. MRSA represents a major control problem in hospitals as it has developed a resistance to all penicillins, including methicillin and other narrow-spectrum beta-lactamase-resistant penicillin antibiotics [1]. Researchers concluded at the end of the study that hospitals could greatly limit the spread of MRSA through the use of increased barrier protection (gloves) by workers and more frequent hand washing [2].

Soap, antimicrobial soap and alcohol-based hand antiseptic
Essentially everything we call dirt is either oily or is stuck to us with oil. What makes soap unique is the ability to remove oil. Soap is a surfactant (or surface active agent, meaning a wetting agent that lowers the surface tension of a liquid) used in conjunction with water for washing and cleaning. Many soaps are a mixture of sodium or potassium salts of fatty acids, derived from oils or fats by reacting them with sodium or potassium hydroxide. A soap molecule has a hydrophilic (meaning attracted to water) carboxylate “head” and long hydrophobic (meaning repelled by water) hydrocarbon “tail”. In water, soap molecules arrange themselves into tiny clusters called micelles. The hydrophilic head of each soap molecule faces outwards, forming the outer surface of the micelle. The hydrophobic tails group together on the inside. This micelle structure allows soap to adhere to substances that are otherwise insoluble in water (oil), trapping them in the hydrophobic center. The hydrophilic head of each soap molecule on the outer surface of the micelle attaches easily to polar molecules (meaning that one end of the molecule is more positively charged while the other is more negatively charged) such as water, allowing it to be flushed away with other water molecules. Additionally, soap molecules disrupt the surface tension of water by crowding around the water’s surface. The reduction in surface tension allows water to spread and wet surfaces. For this reason, surfactants are often said to “make water wetter”.

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Dichloroacetate has been in the headlines recently, reported to be a cheap, effective cancer cure. The article was published in both print and on the website NewScientist.com, and ran with the headline “Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers”, implying incorrectly that it can kill tumor cells in humans.

Researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, recently reported that they found a cheap and easy drug to produce that is able to cause tumor regression in lung, breast and brain tumor cells grown in culture and lung tumors grown in immunocompromised rats. The drug, Dichloroacetate (DCA), targets mitochondria (meaning an organelle in the cell that produces energy) and induces apoptosis (meaning cell death), decreases proliferation and selectively inhibits cancer cell growth. It did not have any effects on normal, non-cancerous tissue. The findings were published in the January edition of the journal Cancer Cell.

Cancer cells don’t use mitochondria for energy, instead using glycolysis (meaning the initial process of most of carbohydrate metabolism), which is less effective and more wasteful. Researchers have long believed this occurred because mitochondria in cancer cells were damaged. However, this new data suggests that the mitochondria in cancer cells are dormant and DCA reactivates them.

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The sinuses are hollow spaces located inside the bones in the skull to either side of the nose, behind and in between the eyes, in the forehead and at the back of the nasal cavity. The sinuses are lined with a moist, thin layer of tissue called a mucous membrane, which not only humidifies the air as you breathe it in, but also produces mucus to trap irritants such as dust, pollen and bacteria. The sinuses are lined with microscopic hairs called cilia. The function of cilia is to move mucus to flush the sinuses and nasal passageways of trapped irritants.

Sinus congestion is the blockage of one or more of the nasal passageways as a result of inflammation and swelling of the sinus tissues, secretion of mucus or a deviated septum (meaning obstruction of the nasal passage by the membranous ridge of cartilage in the nose that separates the nasal cavity into the two nostrils). Sinus congestion leads to impaired flow of mucus out of the sinuses. The build up of mucus in the sinuses causes increased pressure. Also, bacteria can become trapped and infect the mucous membrane, a condition termed sinusitis.

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