Posted on March 30, 2008 02:18:09 PM
Premarital relationships are viewed differently among different cultures. Western countries have more of a liberal and tolerant approach whereas Islamic countries clearly look down upon any form of premarital associations. Growing exposure to media and a gradual change in attitudes have made dating, affairs and to a certain extent even premarital sex acceptable in developing countries as well.
Some may live in an environment where parental disapproval or pressure from society is not much of a hurdle, but others who do face this problem are constantly watching their backs and conducting premarital affairs on the sly. Some of these young people even find the whole experience of hiding relationships challenging and exciting .Lies are told, meetings arranged in far out places, classes are missed and the thoughts of getting caught are brushed under the carpet as overwhelming needs of adolescence take over.
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Posted on March 13, 2008 05:40:31 AM
Seven years ago, when Denise Faustman found that she had a cure for type-1 diabetes in mice, she was denied the opportunity to start clinical trials on humans by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Nor did she receive any support from pharma companies.
In 2003, Faustman successfully treated more mice with type-1, but her application was rejected again by the JDRF. However they did finance three rivals to test her theories. In March of 2006, these tests proved Faustman to be right; about 1/3 of the mice were cured.
Juvenile or type-1 diabetes is marked by the lack of insulin production by the pancreas, often due to immune cells erroneously destroying the beta cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. Without insulin breaking down ingested sugar, glucose mounts up in blood, so diabetics have to take injections to replace the insulin that the body is not generating, and keep on blood sugar levels. Diabetes can lead to many other problems like cardiac arrests, strokes, kidney failure and nerve damage that results in amputation.
Faustman produced her remarkable results by giving the animals Bacillus Calmette-Guerin or BCG. Used for over four decades as an anti-TB vaccine, Faustman found that BCG wipes out immune cells named killer T-cells. This prevents the immune system from consuming beta cells, and the latter restored themselves enough to create insulin to cure diabetes in the mice.
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