Methadone can be dangerous for some patients but is heroin a good idea for heroin addicts?

Maintenance treatment with heroin is appropriate for heroin misusers under certain circumstances, argue Jürgen Rehm from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto and Benedikt Fischer from the University of Victoria, British Columbia.

They point to trials in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany, which found heroin assisted maintenance treatment feasible and effective for those resistant to treatment.

In this week’s BMJ, doctors warn of excess sorbitol intake, a widely used sweetener in “sugar-free” products such as chewing gum and sweets.

Sorbitol has laxative properties and is poorly absorbed by the small intestine.

Their advice follows the cases of two patients with chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain and severe weight loss. Although extensive investigations were carried out, final diagnosis was only established after detailed analysis of eating habits.

New research challenges the generally accepted belief that substantial ice sheets could not have existed on Earth during past super-warm climate events.

The study by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego provides strong evidence that a glacial ice cap, about half the size of the modern day glacial ice sheet, existed 91 million years ago during a period of intense global warming.

Posted in Science, “Isotopic Evidence for Glaciation During the Cretaceous Supergreenhouse” examines geochemical and sea level data retrieved from marine microfossils deposited on the ocean floor 91 million years ago during the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum.

When nerve damage occurs, there are a few treatment options; microsurgery to sew two ends of the nerve together, using a nerve from another part of the body to replace a damaged section, or placing an empty tube between the cut ends so that nerve fibers can grow through it and back into the muscle.

Grafting a nerve from another part of the body is usually the most effective option, but it creates another injury site and isn’t possible in all patients. The tubes, known as nerve guidance conduits, cannot be used in gaps longer than three or four centimeters. In addition, nerve regeneration with this method is not always successful.

For the first time astronomers are able to see indirect evidence of dark matter and how this invisible force impacts on the crowded and violent lives of galaxies. University of British Columbia researcher Catherine Heymans has produced the highest resolution map of dark matter ever captured before.

Scientists believe that dark matter is the invisible web that houses galaxies. And as the universe evolves, the gravitational pull of this unseen matter causes galaxies to collide and swirl into superclusters.

Heymans and the University of Nottingham’s Meghan Gray led an international team to test this theory that dark matter determines the location of galaxies.

Deferoxamine (DF), originally used to treat iron poisoning, can significantly boost the body’s own ability to heal and re-grow injured bones, according to researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

The researchers injected deferoxamine into injured mouse bones. They found DF triggered the growth of new blood vessels, which in turn kicked off bone re-growth and healing.

In the study, bone density surrounding the injury more than doubled to 2.6 cubic millimeters in treated bones compared to 1.2 cubic millimeters in untreated bones, the researchers said.