Link Between Ultra Short Telomeres And Osteoarthritis
Telomeres, the very ends of chromosomes, become shorter as we age. When a cell divides it first duplicates its DNA and, because the DNA replication machinery fails to get all the way to the end, with each successive cell division a little bit more is missed. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Arthritis Research & Therapy shows that cells from osteoarthritic knees have abnormally shortened telomeres and that the percentage of cells with ultra short telomeres increases the closer to the damaged region within the joint.
Do Herbal Meds Help Osteoarthritis? Probably Not
A comprehensive review of herbal medicine products in the latest issue of the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB) shows that there is little conclusive evidence to justify the widespread use of herbal medicines to relieve the symptoms of the painful joint condition osteoarthritis. The products involved contain devil's claw and recently, the UK drug regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), has approved several of these products under the Traditional Herbal Registrations scheme.
32 Million Americans Have Autoantibodies That Target Their Own Tissues
More than 32 million people in the United States have autoantibodies, which are proteins made by the immune system that target the body's tissues and define a condition known as autoimmunity, a study shows. The first nationally representative sample looking at the prevalence of the most common type of autoantibody, known as antinuclear antibodies (ANA), found that the frequency of ANA is highest among women, older individuals, and African-Americans. The study was conducted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health.