#they know some diseases are congenital but don’t know about DNA

[chialattea]

Nami WIP + some chibi doodles heheeee

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Writing Advice #?: Do NOT over-explain your sci fi nonsense.

The whole recent discussion about The Rules of Morphing got me thinking about how one of Animorphs’ great strengths is that is explains morphing juuuuust enough.  We can follow its internal logic, but it doesn’t get so detailed that we run into the nitty-gritty of all the ways humans cannot turn into dolphins.  We know that your base form “passes through a singularity... into z-space” (#45) and that the DNA of another animal “in your cells” comes to replace your base form (#49).  And that’s about all the detail we get.

I think sometimes writers think more is more when it comes to explaining your fake science, because it’s tempting to go “look at all this research I did!”  But you can have sci-fi mechanics informed by real science without ever explaining the real science.  For example, flip to the back of some editions of Jurassic Park and you get a Works Cited with dozens of scientific papers Crichton used while writing it.  HOWEVER, the actual science is introduced in-text as “bird-like blood cells contain DNA, and you can get traces of blood that mosquitoes ate, and if these are Cretaceous-era mosquitoes preserved in amber, then [mumble mumble] dinosaur clones!”  Of course, that [mumble mumble] contains like 40 different reasons you can’t get enough DNA from degraded traces of blood to make an entire genome, but there’s just enough logic in the explanation to make it feel scientific.

By contrast, Starship Troopers spends entire walls of text explaining the mechanics of the characters’ armor.  It’s mildly interesting, but it slows down the plot and doesn’t come up later.  If it’s going to be a crucial plot device that the Jurassic Park dinos have DNA transcription errors spliced with frog genes, then include that explanation.  If it’s just a cool fact you read in Stephen Hawking’s essays that will never be plot fuel, leave it in your notes.

You also risk doing more than boring your audience; you risk breaking their suspended disbelief.  For example, the Twilight series has more sci-fi-esque vampires, which mostly works most of the time.  EXCEPT in Breaking Dawn there’s a scene where Carlisle tells Jacob that he’s trying to figure out how to abort the vampire-human hybrid that’s growing inside Bella because it’s eating her from the inside out.  That’s fine — I love reproductive horror – but then Carlisle goes on to say that humans have 46 chromosomes, vampires have 50, werewolves have 48, and the monster-fetus has 48.  And the whole sci-fi reality breaks.

With a B- in high school Biology, I know that humans with 47 or 48 chromosomes exist, and that 48 chromosomes doesn’t mean “werewolf” it means “human with some congenital disabilities.”  I also know that there are diseases that can fuck with epigenetics, but that altering the chromosomal structure of every cell in a person’s body is both nonsensical and unable to produce the changes (diamond skin, venom, immortality) ascribed to the vampire pathogen.  I stop enjoying the scene, I stop suspending my disbelief in vampirism-as-pathogen, and I have a little voice screeching “but that doesn’t work!” for the rest of the book.

Ya know what would be a better explanation?  Carlisle saying “vampires are different on a cellular level from humans. Werewolves are similar to humans, but still different. I think this fetus is physiologically vampire-like, and that’s why it’s currently ripping through Bella like she’s a wet paper sack.”  How are vampires cellularly different from humans?  [mumble mumble mosquitoes in amber]  All you need to know is that they are, and that that’s why Carlisle is so scared of this thing.

Angel the Series has a similar plot: vampire-human hybrid fetus starts eating its host mother from the inside out, when it shouldn’t even exist.  And during that whole sequence the characters don’t know where the fetus came from and never figure it out.  No explanation at all is BETTER than an overly-detailed one that breaks the series’ reality.  (Not to pretend Angel is perfect, given that unlike Twilight it’s quite misogynistic in its relative prioritization of mother and fetus, but “nobody can figure out how the hybrid happened” is still great plot fuel for the rest of said hybrid’s life.)

Anyway, just like it’s nigh-impossible to write a character who is smarter than you, it’s nigh-impossible to invent an impossible wheel that doesn’t already exist.  So don’t get too into the mechanics of your sci-fi type of wheel, just say “it runs on singularities.”  Tell us just barely enough that we’ll know what it means if one of those wheels slips an axis 100 pages from now.

[skzloona]

White Entitlement and Doctor Who: AKA Why I Like The Timeless Child

TW: Discussion of real life racially motivated medical abuse, general racism. This may hurt sensitive white feelings.

At the end of series 12 of the British sci-fi show Doctor Who, Jodie Whittaker's Doctor discovers that she has a secret past she was unaware of. Erased from her mind by her own people, the Gallifreyans. In a series of flashbacks we see a young Doctor. She's a little Black girl, standing alone below a portal that presumably leads to whatever Universe she called home. She's lost and alone. We don't know if she was abandoned by her family or simply separated from them by an unfortunate accident. She's then found by Tecteun, an adult white woman who was one of the earliest inhabitants of Gallifrey, the very planet the Doctor believed to be their own. She adopts the child Doctor and becomes a sort of mother to her. This seems, at first, like the act of a selfless person. She's taking in a child she doesn't know, who would most likely die without her. A happy ending.

But that's not where the story ends. As the Doctor plays outside with another child on Gallifrey she falls from a cliff. Instead of this being fatal she regenerates, just as the Doctor and other Timelords have been known to do throughout the history of the show. Her body is remade into a young Asian boy. Tecteun sees this and her first thought is to solve this mystery. We see The Doctor, now a little boy, sitting in a chair in a lab as his mother does tests on him. We're shown a montage of various regenerations of the Doctor, many of them children of color. It wasn't until after the episode ended that I thought back and wondered "how did this child end up in so many lethal situations while Tecteun remains alive and well?" which suggests that this might not be a series of accidents but purposeful results of the experiments being done on the Doctor by their own mother figure. What seemed to be a miracle before has turned into a nightmare that evoked in me the memories of similar events in real world history. 

Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who, in the 1950s, was being treated for her cervical cancer. Some of the cells of her tumor were biopsied by Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. These cells went on to create the HeLa cell line, the oldest and most impactful immortalized cell line in history. Without getting into too much medical jargon, the effect this had on the medical field was immeasurable. The problem? Lacks never gave her consent to have these cells taken, nor was she even informed that it happened. She was also never compensated for it despite the cells being used shortly after to craft the Polio Vaccine. Henrietta died in 1951, never knowing about these cells or what they did for world medicine. Her family wasn't even made aware until 25 years later. Henrietta's story is not unique. Countless black and brown people in history and in the present have been subject to experiments by medical science. Most of them without consent and without compensation. 

In 1932 the United States Public Health Service conducted a medical study called the Tuskegee Study. They told 600 African American men in poverty that they would be receiving free health care from the federal government. 399 of these men had latent syphilis. They were told this study would last 6 months. In reality it was 40 years. These men believed they would be cared for by medical professionals. Instead they were left uniformed of the disease they had (they were merely told they had "bad blood"). None of them were treated with penicillin, despite it becoming the common treatment for syphilis by 1947. By the time the study ended in 1972, 128 men had died of syphilis or related complications, 40 of their wives had been infected with the illness, and 19 babies were born with congenital syphilis. 

These stories were at the front of my mind during the course of this episode. After finally unlocking the secret to the Doctor's regeneration, Tecteun uses it as the foundation for all of Gallifreyan society, giving them all the power to regenerate. The ability to evade death. This power is what leads to Gallifrey being the most powerful and formidable race in the Universe. And what becomes of the Doctor? Their memory is erased. The Doctor's very DNA is used to build a dominant society, without their consent, without their knowledge, and without gaining anything in return. The Doctor becomes who we know them as; an outcast and a misfit. Someone who doesn't fit in with everyone else they know and doesn't know why. Everything about this story connected with me. It connected with my family, with my ancestors, and with the knowledge I have of what other people of color have gone through.

It wasn't surprising to me that some others wouldn't enjoy this plot change. After all, a large subset of the fan base already dropped the show simply because Jodie Whittaker, a white woman, was cast as the 13th Doctor. They thought it was too "PC" and "pandering" even then. I had already decided to pay those people no mind. What was surprising was that many of my supposedly "woke" friends also hated this finale. I saw countless tumblr posts, tweets, and messages declaring that the Doctor was officially "not relatable" anymore. They felt personally hurt that the Doctor was no longer what they saw as a normal person. They called it a "chosen one" story or even a "Mary Sue" (a character with so many things that are special about them that real people can no longer relate their experience to them). This entire concept was frustrating to me. Here I was, feeling connected to this character as a person of color for the first time in its entire 50 year run and other people were treating this as universally and inherently bad. They were calling the Doctor's history of abuse and memory loss,  things that happen to children in real life, "special". Many were saying it should be left ambiguous, that it should never have been stated that these mostly nonwhite people were actually their beloved character. Effectively saying that people should be able to decide whether or not the Doctor has ever been black. 

In no way am I saying everyone must enjoy or love this plot twist. Afterall, it's a big change. But to me, it screams White Entitlement to throw a blanket over the whole thing and say nobody could have enjoyed it. Nobody could find this new plot relatable simply because they couldn't. What they fail to realize is that not everybody will relate to every story and sometimes that's the whole point. This story was clearly created to be something more people of color could relate to than white viewers. To put them front and center for the first time in a show that is half a century long. It's okay if you don't personally connect to one major plot line of a character after all those years of them being made precisely for you. It feels reminiscent of the one spoiled, rich kid who's birthday you went to as a child who cried because instead of getting all 30 cookies in the box, they had to give one to each of the 10 other kids and had a mere 20 left to call their own. I assure you you'll have more Who stories to relate to next time around. It was just our turn, after waiting for so long without one. Perhaps it's time to share your cookies with the other kids who never got to taste them before. You don't have to love the idea of sharing them, but it might not be very kind to complain loudly about how much you wish you had gotten them all. Like the Doctor said, remember to always be kind. 

[themorrow]

morrowwww ive wanted to watch gattaca for SO LONG all i know about it is that it's related to cloning or like... dna in some sort of way (when i first learned about nucleotides and stuff my teacher showed us a clip from it) so can you talk about it so i get a better feel for what it's about? i think it'd be more fun to ask you than to consult the wikipedia page :]

YEAH for sure!! the basic premise of the movie is that everyone is segregated into a class of either valid or invalid based on their genetic profile, the valids are genetically engineered to be 'perfect' specimens, free of genetic predisposition to disease and any 'unfavorable' traits, while invalids are the underclass of people who were naturally conceived. the main character, vincent freeman, is an invalid. at birth, he's diagnosed with an unspecified congenital heart disorder (among several other conditions) and is given around 30 years to live. he wants to pursue a career as an astronaut but because of his genetic inferiority, he can't, so he teams up with jerome morrow, a valid and former athlete who was paralyzed after being hit by a car, and the two of them essentially switch places. vincent assumes jerome's identity and uses his dna to pass as him to get into gattaca (which is like. their universe's equivalent of nasa) and everything goes smoothly until the mission director is murdered one week before vincent is set to go on an expedition to titan and his own dna is found at the scene. i don't wanna spoil much else so that's pretty much it! :] i have to warn you though, there's. a Lot of ableism and an on-screen suicide (it's not very graphic but still worth mentioning) but otherwise it's such a good movie and if you're interested, it's definitely worth checking out!

[gayphoenixforce]

Uhh i wrote a short fic about Gabby and Laura Kinney and being disabled and what powers mean etc. Basically, Gabby loses her healing factor but her inability to feel pain is a real condition people struggle with. The snikt sisters are awesome and there’s loads of cameos

“Gabby, are you bleeding?”

It was early morning in the Kinney apartment. Gabby’s eyes peeked open, groggy from sleep.

“What d’you mean m’bleedin…” she mumbled, slowly beginning to wake up. Laura’s face was now clear in Gabby’s vision, and so too was the concern. Gabby’s big sister didn’t get scared - she was the freaking Wolverine - so the concern traveled quickly to Gabby. Now very awake, she began to scan herself for the blood source. Not feeling pain meant sometimes not knowing about an injury right away, but handy healing powers made it more of a nuisance than a reason to be afraid.

It was her left hand. The skin around the fingernail on her ring finger had been picked off, probably in her sleep. It was bleeding just enough to have smeared onto both of her hands, but thankfully not the pillow. It wasn’t something that should have made Laura concerned.

Then it dawned on her. Gabby realized that the amount of blood was not consistent with how much should have come out before her healing factor clotted, and eventually erased, the wound. In fact, the finger was still trickling a bit of blood. Something was wrong - Gabby’s healing factor had vanished in the night.

Dr. Hank McCoy spun around on his stool to face the Kinney sisters in his lab. Reading from a printout he said, “It appears that Miss Gabby has had her X-gene turned off. It’s still present in the DNA, but the gene itself is dormant now. She’s just a normal pre-teen girl.”

Gabby protested, “But I didn’t feel it! I can’t not be a mutant any more, I still don’t feel pain! Tell him Laura, I’m still an X-Man.”

Dr. McCoy sighed, taking off his glasses. “Gabby, Laura, you must understand. Gabby’s mutation was identical to yours and Logan’s Laura. She had an advanced healing factor and some heightened senses. The inability to feel pain is a condition entirely human.

“It is a syndrome called CIPA, which stands for ‘Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis’. It is very rare, but it results in the carrier being incapable of feeling pain. While that may be a superpower to a clone of Wolverines, it is actually very dangerous for humans. You see, Gabby’s healing factor was what was allowing her to lead a normal life. Superhero training gave her the strict regimen that fulfilled the non-violent aspects of the condition.”

Laura interrupted, “What does that mean? Gabby just needs to be extra careful about fights now, like a regular person, right?”

“Unfortunately,” Hank continued, “it’s not so simple. People with CIPA don’t just not feel the pain of a stubbed toe or a broken wrist. They also don’t feel hunger pangs or the urge to use the bathroom. This can cause severe malnutrition and dehydration as well as embarrassing accidents. Not to mention their difficulties with temperature regulation. They can’t tell if they are too hot or too cold, so they can be more susceptible to heat stroke or hypothermia.”

Gabby had completely shut down as Hank spoke. Laura did her best to provide some comfort with a hand on her shoulder, but it seemed brooding was also a family trait. Dr. McCoy gave the sisters some materials about the condition, as well a watch with built in timers for food and bathroom breaks. And because it was X-Men tech, it could also alert Gabby if her temperature was too high or low. Laura could tell Gabby was devastated by the diagnosis. Hank had no clue why her X-gene had turned off, or if there was a way to turn it back on. While they adjusted to the news, Laura was able to convince Gabby to take a break from being Wolverine and Honey Badger. Jean understood (because of course a telepath with motherly tendencies does) and told them to take all the time they needed.

It had been a week since Gabby had lost her powers. They were adjusting to the new schedule Gabby had to keep, from the watch’s chiming reminders to regular injury checks to make sure Gabby hadn’t hurt herself without noticing. Laura was doing her best to keep things normal for her little sister, but there was nothing normal about this. Worse, Laura could tell Gabby could see the worry on her face. She’d gone from coolest big sister ever to worrying mother hen in a week! Something had to be done. Laura may have been keeping her sister safe from physical danger, but Gabby’s hurt was on the inside, and she had never seen the girl so down. Claiming it was an emergency mission, Laura left the apartment to hatch a plan to cheer Gabby up.

All of the X-Men were sad to hear the news about Gabby. She was a ray of sunshine with claws. So when Laura came to the mansion with a mission to brighten her spirits, everyone was all in. Kurt suggested that Jean could do a telepathic version of a Danger Room session with Gabby, so she could still have a thrill without risk of getting hurt. Laura thought that might just make her even worse when the session ended.

Remy thought that a planned heist would lift anyone’s spirits, and he would have convinced Laura if the responsible adults (aka everyone but Remy and Jubilee) hadn’t stepped in to remind them that robbery was still definitely a crime. Forge suggested she take up a hobby like Lego or robotics (and even offered to teach her some basics). Storm offered to take Gabby flying. At one point, Rogue thought she might be able to temporarily give Gabby her powers by taking Laura’s and giving them to Gabby, but that felt cruel. Eventually, Laura had to leave to get back to Gabby, and she was still 0 for 10 on ideas to cheer up her little sister.

--

Stopping in a bakery in Hell’s Kitchen, Laura heard some crashes in an alleyway across the street. Dropping off her fresh pastries and her civilian clothes, Laura dashed to the source of the noise. A mugger had a young woman pinned to a wall. With a snikt, Wolverine let her presence known. But before the mugger could even look at her, an arrow smacked him in the head, knocking him to the ground. The woman ran away, grateful for once for New York’s endless supply of masked heroes.

Hopping down from his fire escape perch, the mystery hero revealed himself. “Woah! Wolverine? You handle muggers now? I mean I know Hell’s Kitchen already has Daredevil for the big name villains, but I figured the little guys were still fair game…” Hawkeye, aka Clint Barton, rambled as he retrieved his arrow from the mugger’s unconscious noggin.

Laura took off her mask, “I’m not a regular here. I was buying pastries for my little sister. Heard the noise from the scuffle. Sorry to uh, cramp your style, or whatever.”

Clint laughed, “Haha, wow! Wolverine shops at Daredevil’s Food Cake? And also doesn’t know how to use slang despite being a young person.”

“I was raised in a murder lab,” she replied with a roll of her eyes, “And the pastries are for my sister. They’re her favorite and I’ve got to cheer her up somehow.”

Clint recognized the concern in Laura’s voice and stopped his chuckling. Emotions weren’t exactly his strong suit, but he was always ok at least at being a friend. So he asked, “Why’s she need cheering up? Isn’t she a tween hero? Badger or something, right? Small-verine? What can bring a kid like that down?”

“Losing her powers, for one,” Laura said. She explained the situation to Hawkeye. He was a surprisingly good listener, at least, he looked like he was being a good listener. When she finished explaining, Clint scratched his head.

“Well, life-altering disabilities can definitely have that effect. Being deaf makes it hard sometimes. I’ll know I missed something important someone said. Movies are nearly impossible to watch, and closed captions are usually pretty awful. It can feel like the world is leaving you out. Like life’s a lunch table, and you can’t sit there,” he said, not really looking at Laura, but getting lost in his own memory somewhat. “She just needs time to adjust. And maybe some people who know what she’s going through? Even rare diseases have Facebook groups now, so it would probably be pretty easy to find some people for her to talk with.”

“What about you?” Laura asked, “Could you come talk to her? I know it isn’t the same thing, but I think you could help her more than me or any of the other X-Men right now.”

Clint was shocked. Him? Being helpful in a non-arrow related situation? But then he remembered what it was like, meeting other disabled people for the first time. Seeing them as a thriving community, a table he could sit at. How could he refuse?

--

Clint’s visit was a smashing success, and not just because he managed to knock over a lamp when retelling a story about disability rights activists. Gabby had some of her usual confidence back, and she was excited to meet other people living like her. Hawkeye had even promised to get her and Laura in touch with other disabled heroes, like Daredevil, Cypher, and Bucky Barnes.

Gabby wasn’t going to be exactly the same as she was before her powers went away, but no one really stays the same forever. Together, with her sister’s help, Gabby was able to find a new place for herself, not as Honey Badger, but as Gabby Kinney. She got involved with a children’s disability rights group, and was a hero, just not the kind she’d been before.

[mtushar123]

Cancer-causing foods that you should quit eating right now!

Today, there is so very noise surrounding possible causes of cancer that it is hard to describe what to stay away from. But, the good news is that especially for food, there are not that many types linked to cancer. While obesity or extra weight raises the problems related to cancer, food, in general, lesser carcinogenic as compared to radiation, smoking, or viruses, however, you may think that you are doing the right thing for your health by eating low-calorie popcorn or drinking diet sodas. But, you don’t know you’re eating some of the really bad foods that are responsible for causing cancer!

Here are a few of the biggest carcinogen culprits and cancer-causing foods that you should try to avoid at all costs!

Canned tomatoes

You may have heard that the nutrient Lycopene in tomatoes decreases the risk of cancer. But, that benefit is not present when the lining of canned tomatoes consists of chemicals that are known to disrupt hormonal activity in the body. Due to the acidic nature of tomatoes, the chemical BPA leaches from the lining into the tomatoes. This BPA is a toxic chemical that is responsible for different cancers, reproductive problems, and heart disease. So, the best piece of advice from the Best oncologist in Aurangabad is to stew the tomatoes yourself or go with a glass jar to make a nice red sauce yourself.

Processed white flavour

You may already know that processed white flavour is not good for your health. But you probably are not familiar with the fact that the white flour is chemically-bleached with chlorine gas that kills all of its healthy nutrients. And when inhaled chlorine gas can prove deadly. So, do you still want it in your dinner? Due to the presence of a high glycemic rate in white flavour

, problems like high blood sugar and insulin levels occur, which can directly cause diabetes. As the cancerous tumors feed on sugar in the bloodstream, it is good to avoid refined grains such as processed white flour. It will help you starve deadly tumours. Most importantly, you can also lose a lot of weight by cutting out anything white, especially the big culprit, the white flour.

Microwave popcorn

From actual contents to the chemically-lined bags, microwave popcorn has become a hot topic of lung cancer debates around the world. According to researchers at UCLA, this chemical lining is a part of a class of compounds (PFOA) that are linked to infertility in humans. The chemicals can cause liver, testicular and pancreatic cancers. And microwaving causes these chemicals to vaporize, and migrate into your popcorn. So, if you can’t give up your favorite snack, switch to the old-fashioned way – it doesn’t release toxic fumes, tastes better, and is a healthier choice for you.

Processed meat

To add color, flavor, and extend the shelf life of meats, hot dogs, sausage, bacon, and lunch meats are often preserved and processed with chemicals like sodium nitrate or sodium nitrite. As per the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO), the levels of nitrates and nitrites in foods are a reason of major concern, and more research is needed to evaluate the risk of dietary exposure.

GMOs (genetically modified organisms)/Glyphosate

As GMOs do not undergo any testing by the FDA, they have made their way into the majority of our foods. The GMO foods are engineered to withstand heavy doses of a pesticide called glyphosate or are modified to contain a toxin that kills bugs. Several independent testing also shows that GMOs cause rapid tumor growth and is hence known as one of the worst cancer-causing foods. Currently, in the U.S., GMOs are not disclosed on food labels. Moreover, Glyphosate, the most common pesticide sprayed on GM crops is linked to birth defects, non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, intestinal discomfort, among other things. Thus, the only way to stay away from GMOs and pesticides is to choose certified organic foods.

Hydrogenated oils

Unlike olive oil, soy, or canola oil, hydrogenated oils or vegetable oils are not naturally extracted. They are chemically removed. However, they are commonly used in many foods to preserve and extend their shelf life. But, yet they are a cancer-causing agent, and their consumption may lead to heart disease, congenital disabilities, and many other fatalities. So, instead of cooking with hydrogenated oils, check your labels for healthy oils such as olive, soy, and canola.

Alcohol

When our body consumes alcohol, it produces a chemical compound known as acetaldehyde. And this harmful chemical compound may damage DNA, consequently leading to cancer. Research states that the more you drink alcohol, the higher is your risk for developing certain kinds of cancer like esophageal, head, neck, liver, colorectal, and breast cancers. However, we are not advising you to quit alcohol completely, but if you choose to indulge, limit your alcohol consumption to only two serving per day if you’re a man, or no more than one serving per day if you are a woman.

Farmed salmon

Farmed salmon is one of the leading causes of high-risk cancer and thus falls in the category of cancer-causing foods. Farmed salmon does not only lack vitamin D, but it is often infused or contaminated with carcinogenic chemicals, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), pesticides, antibiotics, and flame retardants. And these all are determined as major sources of cancer.

Refined sugars

The high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and other refined sugars are the biggest cancer-causing food. Refined sugars and foods made with refined sugars are the source of major insulin spikes that further feed the growth of cancer cells. However, fructose-rich sweeteners are particularly considered more offensive, as cancer cells can easily and quickly metabolize them to proliferate. And since most of the popular food items like cakes, pies, cookies, sodas, juices, sauces, cookies, cereals, and many other processed food items are loaded with HFCS and other refined sugars, it’s of no surprise why cancer rates are on the rise these days.

Now that you know about the most common cancer-causing foods, you should eliminate them from your life. This will not only lower your risk of cancer, but you’re going to feel better from the inside out as well.

For more information on cancer-causing foods or cancer treatment, you can even consult a cancer specialist in Aurangabad For further assistance, you can also have words with our expert to know more.

[thelegendofclarke]

And We Marry Our Cousins

Hey everyone! This is a general description and break down of the Consanguinity Table as requested by @thatgirlnevershutsup on this salty post of mine about the difference between incest vs. consanguinity. 

A couple **Notes & Disclaimers** before I get started:

I am not attempting to argue against or in favor of either incest or consanguinity, nor am I particularly interested in having those arguments (aka any nasty messages about me being an ~apologist~ or whatever are getting cursed, deleted, and blocked idgaf).

When I use the words “incest” and “consanguinity,” I am using the strictly legal and scientific/biological definitions. I am aware there are other applications of the words in other fields, but those are the ones I am using here. 

When I use the generalizations “legally” or “the law” I am talking about American law (i.e. the law that applies in the U.S.) unless otherwise specified. Also, American law is predominately what is discussed until near the end of the post. 

I am going to do my best to keep this as objective and purely informational as I can. However, anyone who has followed me for more than 5 minutes knows that I have a lot of Thoughts and Feelings, so there is a good chance that won’t happen. 

While this is focused on discussing consanguineous relationships, incest will be mentioned! So if you don’t want to read about it, don’t read this post. 

Cool? Cool. Good talk, lets do this!

Consanguinity

Consanguinity is defined as “a blood relationship or the relation of people who descend from the same ancestor.” There are 2 general types of consanguinity:

Lineal consanguinity: the relation in a direct line—such as between parent, child, and grandparent. It may be determined either upward (as in the case of son, father, grandfather) or downward (as in son, grandson, great-grandson.)

Collateral consanguinity: a more remote relationship describing people who are related by a common ancestor but do not descend from each other—such as cousins who have the same grandparents.

Consanguinity is measured in degrees (also called degrees of kinship) which are determined by the Consanguinity Table:

Here is the break down of the “cousin” terminology used in the Table for anyone who needs it or is interested (x):

FIRST COUSINS: Non-siblings that share grandparents

SECOND COUSINS: Non-siblings that share great-grandparents

THIRD COUSINS: Non-siblings that share great-great-grandparents

FIRST COUSINS ONCE REMOVED: Two people for whom the first cousin relationship is one generation removed

FIRST COUSINS TWICE REMOVED: Two people for whom the second cousin relationship is two generations removed

Degrees of Consanguinity

When someone says “Degree of Consanguinity” (I am going to call them DOCs from now on because I don’t want to keep tying that out), they can mean one of two things:

the relative DOCs found on the Consanguinity Table

the exact DOC between 2 individuals measured by the Knot System

The relative DOCs of each relationship are the small numbers on the upper left hand corner of every box on the Consanguinity Table. 

The very exact numerical notation that defines consanguinity is called the Knot System. The Knot System can scientifically calculate any blood relationship between two individuals down the exact decimal point, independent of the relationship’s complexity and generation depth. It is hella complicated and uses a really specific mathematic formula, and relationship coefficients, and inbreeding coefficients, and biological markers, and the genealogical Sequential System, and lots of big words to calculate something called a KinCode. Then from the KinCode element, the Knot System derives all these ~properties~ like the KinCode’s gender (even numbers are called male, odds are called female), and the type of relationship between different KinCode elements (for e.g pure male for two even KinCodes and pure female for two odd KinCodes ), and the distance in number of generations between KinCodes. And THEN all the KinCodes of the related individuals are placed into a Kin group, which is THEN sorted numerically into something called a Kin register sequence. It gives me a migraine and I don’t even pretend to understand like 98% of it. 

So honestly, for what is discussed here, we really only need to talk about the relative DOCs found on the Table. The only important thing about the Knot System is this: The LOWER the relative DOC is between two people, the HIGHER their exact DOC is. 

The Table & Relative DOCs

The process for numbering the consanguinity table is basically this:

1) Start with the individual to whose relationships are being calculated, usually referred to as the “proband” or “origin”. That is the box labeled “Person” on the table. 

2) Add that person’s upward lineal (beginning with "Parents”) and downward lineal (beginning with "Children”) blood relationships and then label them numerically beginning with #1. 

3) For each upward lineal relationship (beginning with “Parents”) included, then complete that individual’s downward lineal relationship line, but with two notable differences:

Continue to label the kinship degrees numerically, but instead of starting with #1, continue on from whatever number that row begins with. 

Add the downward lineal relationships in the same order as with the proband (children, grand children, great-grand children, ect.), but label them according to their relationship with the proband, not with their relationship to who ever is at the top of the row. (For e.g. the parent’s children are the proband’s “Brothers and Sisters”, the parent’s grand children are the proband’s “Nieces and Nephews”, the parent’s great-grandchildren are the proband’s “Grand Nieces and Nephews”, and ect. ect. I’m sure you get the picture.)

Consanguinity vs. Incest

Basically, DOCs are pretty much like degrees of separation; the lower the DOC, the the closer you are to the person in question. As a working definition, unions contracted between persons biologically related as second cousins or closer are categorized as consanguineous.

Incest is a type of consanguineous relationship. It refers to relationships between people whose relative DOCs are so low (and exact DOCs are so high) that they have been determined to be prohibited by law. This is based on the average amount of DNA shared between relatives (x). The lower the relative DOC, the more DNA the individuals have in common: 

Incest is universally defined as those relationships that fall within the second DOC on the Consanguinity Table. These individuals are the proband’s: parents, grandparents, siblings (including half siblings), children, and grand children. There is not a high enough degree of biological separation between them and they share too much DNA.

Where it gets confusing...

Where it gets confusing is the law. The law makes everything confusing, trust me I’m a lawyer. 

For whatever reason, the laws in some states/jurisdictions prohibit consanguineous marital and sexual relationships that are not incestuous and/or lump them in with their incest laws, therefore (mis)labeling them as “incest” . The most commonly prohibited, non incest relationships are:

relationships between an uncle and a niece or between an aunt and a nephew (usually called “avunculate relationships”)

relationships between first cousins

The reasons for why these types of sexual and marital consanguineous relationships are prohibited by law in some American states vary. But honestly, i am comfortable making the general statement that most of the laws were passed based on genetic concerns such as the potential increased risks for things like birth defects, congenital defects, fetal abnormalities, and hereditary diseases. There is a lot of debate over whether there are valid justifications for the prohibitive laws or whether the scientific research they are based on is valid and blah blah blah. 

Avunculate Relationships 

Avunculate relationships are the ones most typically prohibited in the U.S. The laws in most states have been interpreted to presume that an avunculate marriage is illegal and therefore void. There have been some exceptions made in states such as NY and RI, where avunculate marriage was allowed under specific circumstances. The laws regarding sexual avunculate relationships are equally ambiguous. 

In other countries and societies however, avunculate marriage is legal and even common. Avunculate marriage is currently permitted by law without restriction in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, France, Finland, Malaysia, The Netherlands, and Russia.

(First) Cousin Marriage 

The laws governing cousin marriage are far more divided. In fact, today its almost a 50-50 split with first cousin marriage being held as legal in 26 states (including the District of Columbia). Here is the break down:

First cousins may not marry in AR, DE, IA, ID, KS, KY, LA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SD, TX, WA and WV

First cousins may marry without restriction in AL, AK, CA, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GE, HI, MD, MA, NJ, NM, NY, NC, RI, SC, TN, VT, and VA. 

First cousins may marry with some restrictions in AZ, IL, IN, ME, UT, WI and NC. The restrictions are usually based, either directly or indirectly, on reproductive concerns. (For e.g., AZ- allowed only if at least one is unable to reproduce; IL- allowed only if both are over 50 or one is infertile; ME- allowed with proof of completion of counseling on genetic risks from a certified Genetic Counsellor)

The U.S. is basically one of the only countries with modern first cousin marriage restrictions. Virtually no European country completely prohibits marriage between first cousins. It is also legal throughout Canada and Mexico to marry your cousin. In many cultures (particularly in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa) preferred marriages are between relatives such as first cousins. In fact, in some parts of the world, 20% to 60% of all marriages are between close biological relatives. Additionally, not a single verse in the Torah, Bible or Quran — books revered by over three billion followers world wide of the three Abrahamic religions — prohibits cousin marriage, which were common in Jewish, Christian and Islamic history.

Ok I know I promised to try not too get too ~opiniony~ here, but I guess my main point is this...

Incest and Consanguinity are not synonymous and should not be treated as such. 

Like I talked about above, the U.S. takes a very different approach than basically the entire rest of the world in terms of prohibiting certain types of non-incestuous, consanguineous relationships. And also, in a lot of states in the U.S. non-incestuous, consanguineous relationships are completely and totally legal and currently practiced. 

All human cultures have norms that exclude certain close relatives from those considered suitable or permissible sexual or marriage partners. However, different norms exist among cultures as to which blood relations are permissible as sexual partners and which are not. But still, even though laws and norms vary internationally between countries and cultures, the word “incest” is still universally known and considered as bad. 

It’s ignorant, and honestly kind of a dick move, to arbitrarily throw around terms like “incest” that have very real, very serious, and often times very insulting and offensive negative connotations attached. 

So just like, don’t be an asshole, ya know? 

[ezatluba]

Researchers found that feline internet celebrity Lil Bub owes her unique appearance to a rare genetic disease known in humans as osteopetrosis.

This celebrity cat has broken the internet. Now, we have its genome

By Michael Price

Feb. 26, 2019

Cats may rule the internet, but few felines have achieved the online fame of Lil Bub. Discovered as a feral kitten outside Bloomington, Indiana, in 2011, she had a series of congenital abnormalities: extra toes, shorter-than-usual limbs, and a tongue that perpetually hangs out of her mouth. For owner Mike Bridavsky—and Lil Bub’s millions of internet fans—these peculiarities just made her more lovable.

For years, Lil Bub has been a spokescat for animal shelters, helping her furry brethren find homes of their own. Now, she’s helping scientists, too. This week—thanks to a crowdfunding effort that raised more than $8000 on Experiment.com—geneticists led by Darío Lupiáñez of the Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, Daniel Ibrahim of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, and Orsolya Symmons of the University of Pennsylvania—have sequenced Lil Bub’s whole genome.

The researchers discovered two telltale genetic abnormalities, they report on the preprint server bioRxiv. Lil Bub owes her extra toes to a somewhat common genetic variation in a stretch of DNA that acts as an “on-off switch” for the Sonic hedgehog gene, also responsible for Ernest Hemingway’s famously polydactyl cats, whose six-toed progeny still roam his former home in Key West, Florida. The other key gene was more surprising: a variation of TNFRSF11A, a gene known from mice and humans to be associated with a rare condition called osteopetrosis, which causes unusually dense bones and short stature.

The preprint has already drawn amused attention from some scientists, with one tweeting, “Very jealous this wasn’t my Ph.D. project” and another writing, “Comparative Genomics of Internet Cats is a Keystone Conference I look forward to attending.”

Science discussed the findings with Symmons and co-author Leslie Lyons, an expert on cat genetics at the University of Missouri in Columbia and founder of the 99 Lives Cat Genome Sequencing Initiative. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Orsolya Symmons

Q: Whose idea was this project?

O.S.: Darío and Daniel, the other two lead authors, were watching a documentary with Lil Bub, and they were like, “This is incredibly interesting. What might cause Bub to look like that? Do we know the genetics behind it?” So they had the scientific idea, but we knew it might be difficult to finance. Because I had a background in blogging, and because Bub is so popular, we thought we could try crowdfunding.

L.L.: For good or for bad, celebrities attract attention, whether it’s human celebrities or animal celebrities. We’ve tried to get other celebrity cats to jump on board before, but Lil Bub was the bravest of them all.

Q: How did you get Lil Bub’s owners involved?

O.S.: Daniel and Dario reached out to Mike, the owner of Bub, and he’s incredibly open and super excited about everything Bub-related. He’s not a scientist, so throughout the whole process we were keeping in touch and breaking everything down for him about what we were finding and why it was interesting.

Q: Were you surprised by the findings?

L.L.: At first, you’re thinking Lil Bub’s polydactyly and her limb shortness are all part of the same syndrome. Then you start to tease it apart and you realize, no, she has Sonic hedgehog mutations that have nothing to do with the [osteopetrosis] issue that’s going on. It was like, “Wow, that’s kind of weird, the cat has two different rare mutations.”

Leslie Lyons

Q: Why is this discovery important?

O.S.: Nobody had ever described this type of genetic osteopetrosis in cats, but there are very similar mutations in the same gene in mice and in humans that also cause osteopetrosis.

L.L.: Humans have this disease, too, and knowing more about how this mutation functions might help lead to a tailored therapy with precision medicine that affects the gene.

It also shows why animal genetics is important. In human genetics, there’s a still a huge number of variants of unknown significance, which basically means you don’t know if they’re benign or not. That’s one of the things our project is trying to do. If you look at the genetic information in cats and dogs, that might tell you a particular mutation is found all the time in cats and they’re perfectly fine, so it probably is a benign mutation.

Q: What’s next for your work?

O.S.: When you mention you have a crowdfunded celebrity cat project, people don’t necessarily take the science seriously, but it is a serious scientific project. It would be great to get it published. That’s partially why we put it out on bioRxiv, to get some peer feedback in case we missed anything really obvious.

Also, because we’ve put it out in the public domain, we’re hoping that anyone who’s interested in it can do what they want and see where they can take this. We’ve seen a lot of tweets so far from teachers who say they plan to use this in their classrooms. We’re kind of hoping this takes on a life of its own.

L.L.: I hope this shows the importance of funding cat research. Here’s something that was hard to get funded—that they had to go beg the crowd to get funding for—and it comes up with a very important biological consequence. In the end, it’s not a gimmick. It’s how we’ve had to struggle in the cat world to do good science.

[mercurious-minds-blog]

5 Self-Care Remedies That Will Help Cure Your Chronic Lower Back Pain [Videos Included]

By definition, chronic pain is any pain that lasts for longer than 12 weeks. About 80% of adults experience low back pain at some point, and of those, about 20% develop chronic back pain. There are numerous causes for this which can be either physical or emotional in nature, or some combination of both. Many ways to treat low back pain exists, but the cost of treatment and the naturalness of medications is a growing concern among many people today.

What Causes Lower Back Pain?

Physical Causes

The vast majority of low back pain is mechanical in nature. That is, the overall degeneration of the spine associated with normal wear and tear that occurs in the joints, discs, and bones. Most would credit this to “getting old”, but the blame should actually be placed upon improper self-care. The various stresses of today’s work, home, and natural environments leave little room for proper rest and recuperation. Some examples of mechanical low back issues are: Sprains and strains Sprains are caused by overstretching or tearing ligaments, and strains are tears in tendon or muscle. Both can occur from twisting or lifting something improperly, lifting something too heavy, or overstretching. Such movements may also trigger spasms in back muscles, which can also be painful.Intervertebral disc degeneration is one of the most common mechanical causes of low back pain, and it occurs when the usually rubbery discs lose integrity. In a healthy back, intervertebral discs provide height and allow bending, flexion, and torsion of the lower back. As the discs deteriorate, they lose their cushioning ability.Herniated or ruptured discs can occur when the intervertebral discs become compressed and bulge outward (herniation) or rupture, causing low back pain.Radiculopathy is a condition caused by compression, inflammation and/or injury to a spinal nerve root. Pressure on the nerve root results in pain, numbness, or a tingling sensation that travels or radiates to other areas of the body that are served by that nerve. Radiculopathy may occur when spinal stenosis or a herniated or ruptured disc compresses the nerve root.Sciatica is a form of radiculopathy caused by compression of the sciatic nerve, the large nerve that travels through the buttocks and extends down the back of the leg. This compression causes shock-like or burning low back pain combined with pain through the buttocks and down one leg, occasionally reaching the foot. In the most extreme cases, when the nerve is pinched between the disc and the adjacent bone, the symptoms may involve not only pain, but numbness and muscle weakness in the leg because of interrupted nerve signaling. The condition may also be caused by a tumor or cyst that presses on the sciatic nerve or its roots.Spondylolisthesis is a condition in which a vertebra of the lower spine slips out of place, pinching the nerves exiting the spinal column.A traumatic injury, such as from playing sports, car accidents, or a fall can injure tendons, ligaments or muscle resulting in low back pain. Traumatic injury may also cause the spine to become overly compressed, which in turn can cause an intervertebral disc to rupture or herniate, exerting pressure on any of the nerves rooted to the spinal cord. When spinal nerves become compressed and irritated, back pain and sciatica may result.Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the spinal column that puts pressure on the spinal cord and nerves that can cause pain or numbness with walking and over time leads to leg weakness and sensory loss.Skeletal irregularities include scoliosis, a curvature of the spine that does not usually cause pain until middle age; lordosis, an abnormally accentuated arch in the lower back; and other congenital anomalies of the spine. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "mercuriousmin-20"; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "search"; amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; amzn_assoc_region = "US"; amzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = "back pain"; amzn_assoc_default_category = "All"; amzn_assoc_design = "in_content"; amzn_assoc_linkid = "3bd9fa4c176c22ca8f7d49f3e10c2018"; Other lower back pain causes that aren’t mechanical are more rare, but can be contributed to conditions such as: Infections are not a common cause of back pain. However, infections can cause pain when they involve the vertebrae, a condition called osteomyelitis; the intervertebral discs, called discitis; or the sacroiliac joints connecting the lower spine to the pelvis, called sacroiliitis.Tumors are a relatively rare cause of back pain. Occasionally, tumors begin in the back, but more often they appear in the back as a result of cancer that has spread from elsewhere in the body.Cauda equina syndrome is a serious but rare complication of a ruptured disc. It occurs when disc material is pushed into the spinal canal and compresses the bundle of lumbar and sacral nerve roots, causing loss of bladder and bowel control. Permanent neurological damage may result if this syndrome is left untreated.Abdominal aortic aneurysms occur when the large blood vessel that supplies blood to the abdomen, pelvis, and legs becomes abnormally enlarged. Back pain can be a sign that the aneurysm is becoming larger and that the risk of rupture should be assessed.Kidney stones can cause sharp pain in the lower back, usually on one side.Inflammatory diseases of the joints such as arthritis, including osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis as well as spondylitis, an inflammation of the vertebrae, can also cause low back pain. Spondylitis is also called spondyloarthritis or spondyloarthropathy.Osteoporosis is a metabolic bone disease marked by a progressive decrease in bone density and strength, which can lead to painful fractures of the vertebrae.Endometriosis is the buildup of uterine tissue in places outside the uterus.Fibromyalgia, a chronic pain syndrome involving widespread muscle pain and fatigue.

Emotional Causes

To think of your mind and body as separate entities is a fallacy. Emotions are not the sole product of your brain but are expressed, experienced, and stored in your body as well. There’s an easy way to understand this. Just think, when you’re sad or depressed, your body may express this feeling by slouching in your chair or humping over while you’re walking. Spending the better part of your time in such bad posture can and will inevitably lead to chronic back pain. That was a minor example, so let me give you a more (not so) extreme one. Scoliosis is a major cause of back pain today. Most research claims that scoliosis is an idiopathic disease - that is, “relating to or denoting any disease or condition which arises spontaneously or for which the cause is unknown.” But other research links some cases to genetic predisposition, meaning it’s passed down through DNA. But how does such a disease work its way into DNA in the first place? Let me point out that scientist have PROVEN that thoughts and emotions have the power to change DNA. And even personality types can be passed from parent to offspring. You could very well be dealing with emotional imprints left in your DNA by your great-grandparents that has been multiplied throughout the generations. Suddenly, a “spontaneous” condition like scoliosis appears. We all have painful memories - failure, disappointments, suffering, loss - hidden away in our MindBodies that fester and create wounds that never heal. It’s important to pay attention to what’s going on in your body. Your body IS your subconscious mind. It will convey to you what you aren’t consciously aware of. Emotional pain in the back may be defined as where we store our unconscious emotions and excess tensions associated with anger, resentment, feeling unsupported and trying to be perfect, as well as money issues and indefinable fears that we are not prepared to handle and don’t want to acknowledge. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "mercuriousmin-20"; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "search"; amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; amzn_assoc_region = "US"; amzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = "the mindfulness solution to pain"; amzn_assoc_default_category = "All"; amzn_assoc_linkid = "3a8cf8cc02a45df69d9f580a37431e8d"; amzn_assoc_design = "in_content";

Self Care Remedies for Chronic Low Back Pain

First of all, let me say that some lower back issues, depending on the severity, should be checked out by a doctor. But with that being said, the majority of health professionals will not cure your ailment, but will only supply you with a “crutch.” At some point you’ll need to move away from using said crutch to be able to completely restore yourself. For instance, did you know that even your eyes have muscles and can be trained to see more clearly? Wearing glasses is kind of like walking around on crutches for the rest of your life after breaking a leg. You would never do that right? At some point the crutch, or coping mechanism, needs to be put down. 1. Movement. Activities such as stretching, yoga, and exercise are particularly important for maintaining and building muscle strength and flexibility. Sedentary lifestyles can lead to ossification, which is the process by which cartilage and muscle tissue transform into bone from lack of movement. https://youtu.be/20zybMbnVoU 2. Self-Massage. Getting massage offers countless benefits for healing pain, but sometimes it can be difficult finding a good therapist or affording the time and money costs. Self-massage is a perfect substitute. One very useful technique is to take two tennis balls and put them in a sock. Lie on the floor and place the tennis balls along the sides of your spine above your hips, and slowly roll back and forth. Experiment with rolling the balls along your glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, and stomach, as lower back problems can stem from any of these places. Doing this will also allow you to cover acupressure points associated with lower back pain. A lesser known, but prominent cause of lower back pain is the psoas (so-as) muscle. It is a major muscle involved in allowing your torso to bend forward and your legs to raise up. If it’s pulled too tight your back muscles may be constantly straining and fighting against gravity in order to keep your body straight. https://youtu.be/6CYAXocIk_U 3. Sleeping Posture. Sleeping in pretty much any position other than on your back can cause spinal problems, but it can be uncomfortable getting used to. Sleeping On Your Back. When you sleep on your back, your spine is much more supported, which can cut down on soreness in the neck and back. Keeping your arms by your sides reduces strain on the shoulders as well. This position has been known to lead to snoring, but at least you won’t be in as much pain. Sleeping With Pillow Under Your Knees. Sleeping on your back with your hands by your sides is already great for your spine’s health. However, if you continue to have soreness in your lower back, you can sleep with a small pillow under your knees. This helps your body to maintain a healthy curve in the lower back. If need be, you can also use a rolled-up towel under the small of your back for even more support. Sleeping With A Pillow Between Your Knees. Placing a thick pillow between your knees can keep your torso from uncomfortably twisting when you are sleeping on your left side. Just draw your legs up slightly with the pillow between your legs to take strain off of your lower back. Be sure not to extend your arms out, though, or you will put strain on your shoulders and arms. Sleeping On Your Stomach. Sleeping on your stomach is not ideal for your neck because it can cause strain. However, if you aren’t experiencing neck pain but are experiencing lower back pain, try placing a towel or small pillow under your stomach and groin. This will help you to maintain proper lower back alignment, which will reduce your lower back pain in the long run. If this position causes you to feel any upper back strain, you can try sleeping without a pillow under your head. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "mercuriousmin-20"; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; amzn_assoc_region = "US"; amzn_assoc_design = "in_content"; amzn_assoc_linkid = "6049172f34430753f347e6977caecf44"; amzn_assoc_asins = "B00D5J7SL2,B01IWM6056,B01C6GK03M,B0049Q0P9M"; 4. Herbs. Herbs and supplements will probably not cure or prevent low back pain by themselves. But in combination with a high nutrition diet, exercise, and plenty of rest they can and will often increase your chances of curing lower back pain or offer long term relief. Aloe Vera. Aloe vera is commonly used when someone is trying to alleviate arthritis-related back pain. This herb comes in liquid form and you drink it as you would any type of juice. You can find this already prepared at a health food store. Just make sure to never drink aloe straight from the plant because this can cause gastrointestinal problems and high blood sugar. Boswellia. This herb has strong anti-inflammatory properties and it helps to block a substance called leukotrienes. Leukotrienes can attack the joint, including those in the spine, resulting in pain and reduced range of motion. Most people use this orally however, there are also creams available that you can apply directly to the affected area. Cat’s Claw. This anti-inflammatory herb helps to reduce swelling, which in turn, helps to reduce any pain. Back problems like spinal arthritis, sacroiliac joint inflammation and herniated discs often respond well to this herb since the root cause of the pain in these instances is intense inflammation. This is an herb that you will take orally, either with a pill or capsule, or you can make a tea. Due to the power of this herb, it is critical that you dose it exactly or else there is the risk of over stimulating the immune system. Eucalyptus. Eucalyptus can help to alleviate back pain similar to how ice does. It has a cooling sensation and eucalyptus leaf contains a substance called tannins. This substance is able to reduce pain by alleviating inflammation and the associated swelling. One of the best ways to use this herb is to apply it to the painful area and then follow up with heat to simultaneously dull pain and relax the muscles. Ginger. Ginger is most popular for its ability to calm nausea and promote a better appetite in those with digestive problems. However, one of the oldest uses for this herb is helping to alleviate pain by calming inflammation. It contains compounds that have the ability to calm inflammation nearly as effectively as over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications. Like most anti-inflammatory herbs, this works best when the back pain is related to inflammation, such as with muscle injuries and spinal arthritis. Turmeric. This is one of the most popular options when it comes to herbal remedies for back pain. Studies show that people get the most benefit from this herb when they take it orally. This means making a tea or taking it in pill or capsule form are the best options. White Willow Bark. This herbal remedy goes back to the days of Hippocrates when it comes to treating pain associated with inflammation. During that time, patients chewed on the bark to reap the benefits. Today, you can take it in tablet form or make a tea and drink it. It is important to dose this herb exactly because overdose can be dangerous and actually increase inflammation levels, worsening your pain and causing other potentially serious health issues. Valerian Root. Many people take valerian root for insomnia and anxiety because it is a very relaxing herb. The relaxing properties extend to the muscles and help to reduce nerve sensitivity. This makes this herb ideal for those who are experiencing muscle-related pain, such as muscle spasms, muscle tightness and muscle injuries, such as strains and sprains. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "mercuriousmin-20"; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; amzn_assoc_region = "US"; amzn_assoc_title = "My Amazon Picks"; amzn_assoc_asins = "B0078TX3CI,B00LGIKHC6,B001E10CEI,B07BKSZNL4,B079NM1H8D,B071YHWRNS,B0019LWTL2,B000293XLM"; amzn_assoc_linkid = "585d64e60bd77ac5b75215f783f1b2a0"; 5. Meditation and Mindfulness-Based Remedies. In 1979, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D, founded an effective program called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) that has helped thousands of people with concerns such as stress, sleep problems, anxiety, high blood pressure, and chronic pain. Kabat-Zinn wrote in the introduction of The Mindfulness Solution to Pain, “From the perspective of mindfulness, nothing needs fixing. Nothing needs to be forced to stop, or change, or go away… In MBSR, we emphasize that awareness and thinking are very different capacities. Both, of course, are extremely potent and valuable, but from the perspective of mindfulness, it is awareness that is healing, rather than mere thinking… Also, it is only awareness itself that can balance out all of our various inflammations of thought and the emotional agitations and distortions that accompany the frequent storms that blow through the mind, especially in the face of a chronic pain condition.” 3 Part, 10-minute (or longer) Meditation for Releasing Lower Back Pain Body Scan.A body scan involves bringing awareness to each body part, particularly the areas where you feel pain. You’re bringing attention to what your mind wants to move away from and instead of immediately reacting to your pain, the body scan teaches your mind to listen and experience what’s actually going on there. Breathing.When pain arises, the mind may react automatically with thoughts such as “this hurts”, “I don’t like this”, or “this isn’t working.” Though you can’t stop these first few negative thoughts, you can calm your mind by opening and focusing your breath. Breath slowly and deeply into the areas of pain you are feeling and repeat to yourself “In” and “Out” as you inhale and exhale. As you exhale, focus on releasing the pain and relaxing your muscles in that area. Then whenever you are ready, move on to releasing the next area of pain. Binaural Beats. Binaural beats stabilize and rejuvenate the body and mind so that with more frequent practice, it becomes easier to reach the deep meditative state quicker. Read the full article

[ruminativerabbi]

Playing God

It’s funny how some events in the course of human history become universally understood as watershed moments and the individuals connected with them become correspondingly famous. The invention of the moveable type by Johannes Gutenberg in the middle of the fifteenth century is a good example: he’s famous, his invention is famous, and the shift from handwritten to printed books is widely understood as a true threshold in the development of world culture. You could say the same thing about James Watt’s perfection of the steam engine in 1781 or Alan Turing’s invention of the world’s first working computer, the so-called Turing Machine, in 1936. All famous men, all the well-known dates of famous events.

But other events fall away, just as do also the people connected with them. The real inventor of the moveable-type printing press, Han dynasty inventor Bi Sheng, is known to almost nobody today. Isaac Newcombe, the inventor of the steam engine that Watt was able dramatically to improve has long since been forgotten by all but historians of science. Charles Babbage, the British polymath whose 1822 “difference engine” was the forerunner of the computer, remains an obscure figure to most. My point in mentioning these three names is not to suggest that the people mentioned in the first paragraph don’t deserve their fame, which they all surely do. Rather, my point is to show how difficult it is to see these events when they are actually happening and to recognize them as momentous. Indeed, despite the fact that all three of the mostly-forgotten persons mentioned here—Bi Sheng, Isaac Newcombe, and Charles Babbage—managed materially to alter the course of human history through their work, all were eclipsed later on by the perfectors of their efforts not because the latter schemed to deny their predecessors their due but because, when the world finally got around to noticing that it was standing at a threshold moment, the people in the first paragraph were standing in the right place at the right time and not the people in the second.

Nor is it easy to notice when society has crossed a developmental line back across which it will never be able to step. And, indeed, all sorts of things that felt momentous in their day were proven later on not quite to be the breakthrough they seemed at the moment to be. I remember buying my first music CD and thinking that music would never be the same again. But that was then…and now the introduction of the music CD in 1982—for the record, a Philips recording of Claudio Arrau playing some Chopin waltzes—feels like a bridge between cassette tapes and the kind of audio files that seem to exist without physical space and which simply fly on command through the ether into the machines devised to play them.

And now I get to the real subject of this week’s letter: the joint announcement the other day by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine that they formally approve of the effort to modify human embryos by altering the genetic code in which are embedded the traits the people those embryos will eventually become will be able to pass along to future generations. It’s hard to know what to do with such an announcement. Is this one of those pivotal moments in world history that will be remembered as a real turning point in the development of human society, as a real break with the past? Or is it just a breakthrough moment in terms of human attitudes towards a specific kind of scientific research…but not a true threshold moment in the history of humankind? That is the question I’d like to explore this week.

The academies only noted their approval with respect to certain specific kinds of research, the kinds designed to enable the deletion of genes that cause “serious diseases and disabilities.” And even that is only to be considered acceptable when there exists no reasonable alternative to eradicating the disease by altering the genetic code of those who bear it into the world.

It feels unlikely, however, that the kind of discipline necessary to keep faith with those two strictures will be maintained for long. For one thing, the terms in play—the “reasonable” in “no reasonable alternatives” or the “serious” in “serious diseases or disabilities”— are open to a very wide range of definitions. Yet, even with that caveat, there surely are diseases that all would qualify as “serious” threats to health and disabilities that no one would think twice about referencing as “serious” disadvantages to the people obliged by circumstance to deal with them. It’s hard, for example, to imagine the argument against doing whatever it takes to eradicate Huntington’s chorea, a terrible affliction that leads through horrific disability to eventual death. And if there are unfortunates who carry the genetic code for that specific disease, but from whose gametes could be created an embryo that could specifically be altered not to bear that code and therefore not to have to fear the disease and its awful consequences or to risk handing it down to future generations—it’s hard to come up with a cogent argument against helping such people rid themselves and their descendants of a horrific genetic curse.

And yet there are those who look with disfavor on this kind of research, fearing that the moral and ethical brakes they deem requisite for looking positively on this kind of research will simply not be applied by all and, indeed, the whole specter of “designer babies” is something that really should give us all pause for thought.

Due to the development of something called CRISPR-Cas9, the concept is not as far-fetched as it once was. The first part stands for Clustered Regularly Interspersed Short Palindromic Repeats. The second part, Cas-9, is CRISPR Associated Protein 9, an enzyme that somehow has the ability to act as a kind of molecular scissors capable of “cutting” a strand of DNA at a specific point in the genome so that it can be deleted or adjusted.  Come again? I’ve been reading websites all week looking for a simple explanation. No luck on that front! Still, to read the best (and, yes, the simplest) explanations I could find online, click here and here. Really, you need a background in molecular biology even to begin to get how this works, but the ethical issues do not inhere in the science and it should be more than enough for laypeople like ourselves to understand that CRISPR-Cas9 is a genome-editing tool that works well enough for scientists seriously to be on the verge of learning how to alter the genetic code of the pre-born.

From a certain vantage point, you could argue that the ethical concerns that so worry so many are being overstated. After all, we all do what we can to help our children succeed in life! We specifically do not teach our kids just to accept their weaknesses and inherent shortcomings, and to leave it at that. Instead, we do what we can to help them succeed and consider it irrelevant if their eventually performance only comes after long hours of training, practice, rehearsal, study, exercise, etc.  So why exactly shouldn’t, say, tone-deaf parents ask a scientist to alter their genetic code to include the gene for musical excellence for future generations to enjoy? Yes, of course, that sounds a bit frivolous. But the arguments against sound just a bit puritanical (and I mean that in a negative sense): if a child overcomes a natural, genetically-based disability through hard work, perseverance, and dogged tenacity and dedication, we consider it praiseworthy. But, and here we wander onto ethically thinner ice, if the means of overcoming some specific innate, inborn obstacle comes from without—from a friendly genetic engineer altering the child’s potential skill set to delete the specific traits that will hold him or her from succeeding in that very same arena—then we consider that to be unfair and morally suspect. It feels that way even to me! But more difficult, and by far, is saying exactly how those two means of assisting a child excel differ ethically.

Yes, one avenue will be available to the wealthy before it trickles down to the middle class, let alone those who live in poverty. But in a society in which the same could be said of a thousand other things—SAT prep courses, the kind of personal training that leads to athletic excellence, private music or art lessons, summers spent in camps devoted to the cultivation of the specific skills necessary to succeed, travel to distant lands to learn languages or some skill available in that specific place—it feels odd suddenly to climb up onto a high horse with respect to this specific means of helping children succeed. Don’t we specifically not care that the wealthy can provide more for their children than the poor? We certainly behave that way in most other contexts! And to tell the child of well-off parents that he or she can’t be helped to overcome some congenital inability to succeed because of his parents’ wealth also seems a bit perverse. Isn’t helping some children better than helping none?

And yet I also see the other side of the coin…and clearly. There surely is something unsettling about the notion of altering the genetic code that yields the diversity that now characterizes human society. But to oppose scientific research that could eventually assist people in ridding society of gene-based diseases and defects seems impossible to justify morally. So perhaps the real question before us is not whether the report of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine is right or wrong to support the latter while strenuously arguing against using this kind of technology to improve the lot of future generations other than by ridding them of terrible diseases or defects, but something incredibly more difficult to decide: if it were to be so that this particularly genie, once out of the bottle, will be impossible to force back inside…then would the notion of ridding the world of Huntington’s or Tay-Sachs disease or beta thalassemia be worth the risk of scientists, both at home and abroad, crossing the line to create people who are better than they might otherwise be in other ways as well?

To condemn the possibility of altering the genetic make-up of embryos as “playing God” requires having a clear sense in mind of what that thought even means. Every significant medical break-through has altered the world God made in a profound way that could reasonably be qualified as unnatural. Yet none of us regrets the eradication of smallpox or would dream of arguing that Edward Jenner was “playing God” in 1798 when he developed the world’s first effective vaccine for any disease at all. But wasn’t he doing just that?

It seems to me that we are crossing a huge threshold with the report of this last week endorsing the kind of research into the alteration of the genome that we both eagerly await and reasonably fear. Is it worth going forward and merely hoping for the best? Should we shove this particular genie back in the bottle and throw it into the sea?  If you want a clear answer, ask a potential parent who carries the Huntington’s chorea gene!

[reidcikg437-blog]

15 Undeniable Reasons to Love kosgeb destekleri 2020

While great strides are made in this field of biology, a lot of individuals can only relate to what DNA is all about. Well, sequencing is a process whereby the base nucleotides of the organism's DNA are individually singled out. In simpler terms, it's a process through which one can learn the full DNA sequence of a body. Inside this, experts seek to identify only specific regions of concern. There are various approaches to sequencing, with the most common being the production of this genome map in the BAC procedure, and splicing together the numerous minute fragments of their genome to get one clear picture from the shotgun sequencing method.

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Sequencing was created soon after scientists found and understood DNA and RNA and their functions within the body. Sequencing aids in the comprehension of the genome. It was first successfully running on the DNA and afterwards adapted on RNA. Technologies and gear have therefore been developed, and that can extract DNA from tissues in body components such as blood, skin and hair, amongst others.

Since the debut of gene sequencing scientists has managed to make excellent strides in the discovery of particular genes which are responsible for distinct genetic aspects like brown hair and congenital heart. Scientists can now be able to point at the specific nucleotides responsible for certain genetic variants across several people. In this, they could also have the ability to point out the particular factors which affect trait variations.

Gene sequencing has been beneficial to health researchers that are now better placed to identify genetic abnormalities. The present view is that in the not distant future sequencing will likely be helpful in the creation of treatments to address specific conditions in both humans and animals. Presently, sequencing is used to examine samples from persons who are worried about passing down hereditary diseases to their children and in assessing for genetic ailments in fetuses. With sequencing, medical scientists think they can be able to put a genetic clock which will aid in identifying when specific traits initially surfaced.

Gene sequencing is also helpful for law agencies where criminologists are now better placed to provide more accurate findings within their investigations. Sequencing helps sleuths use common markers to compare human samples in crime scenes against known DNA, and which can help them determine if a particular person was present or not at a crime scene.

The vast majority of genes are going to be correlated with a higher risk of something, state heart disease or dementia. But that is all it is a hazard. You might pursue a great deal of pricey follow-up testing or choose medications with adverse effects only not to develop the illness in any respect. Not to mention right now, most physicians aren't trained extensively in genetics and also don't understand just what to do with risk scores. "All of the evidence points in the way that your genome will show substantial value for your lifetime health." Topical surveys conducted by Green and others suggest that doctors will be eager to order up entire genome sequencing, even for healthy individuals, the moment the cost comes down. And if that flooding of DNA begins to roll up, they will need to become knowledgeable in the ABCs of GATC. Patients may, too.

Are you not happy with the present state of your skin? Despite a lot of care we always miss something and face the consequences later on. Pigmentation, dark circles, scars, etc. makes us feel less satisfied.

From moisturizing to scrubbing we put our efforts to make our skin look better but you really can't keep the natural radiance intact with just all this. How much attention do you pay on the ingredients of the product? The answer is only a few. If any fine day you get to read it you will find many harmful chemicals in it. Now you will say organic products are not affordable. But there are some brands which you can afford and rely on.

Coming on the organic products we can use pure rose water, Lavender water, sandalwood water, etc. Want to know in detail about them? Scroll down-

Natural Rose Water- Our skin is a barrier to UV radiation, dust, pollution, etc. We need to keep it hydrated all the time. But we apply a layer of chemical-ridden moisturizers. Try applying rose water daily. Natural Rose water is made from petals of roses. It helps in skin rejuvenation. It repairs skin to keep the natural radiance intact. If you have pigmentation, dark circles, or any other problem, use rose water made through the process of steam distillation.

Pure rose water is made from a collection of rose petals. It is also used in various rituals and occasions. Steam distilled rose water always gives an effective result. It is a method of pure extraction. If you find any product with this process kosgeb destekleri 2020 of extraction, you can go for it blindly.

Natural Lavender water- Lavender water is made through fresh lavender petals. It not only cleans the skin well but also removes makeup. If you are looking for a product to fight aging signs, lavender water is the best choice.

The effect of pollution on our skin is already there and when you apply chemical-filled products, the condition turns worse.

The benefit is not limited to this only. Natural Lavender water balance skin tone. People with sensitive skin can also use lavender water.

Sandalwood floral water- Sandalwood has been used since ancient times in our country. It has been used in religious practices also. Sandalwood water made through the steam distillation process is apt to use on any skin type.

It refreshes skin and gives a soothing effect. It is a mood uplifter and is also used for the treatment of depression.

Some people feel irritation on the skin as the level of pollution is high. Using sandalwood floral water the daily will help in the reduction of irritation of the skin.

The use of these face mists is not restricted. You can use these face mist in your face pack. You can also use it in your face pack, face mask, etc. Read the ingredients carefully before buying the product. Generally, these face mists can be used on any skin type but if you must try it on a certain portion of your skin.

[azworkingdogs]

Featured Dog Breed: Weimaraner

Weimaraners are a devoted dog breed who want to be with people all of the time, which can be unnerving. But if you enjoy always having a dog by your side — and can spare plenty of time for hiking, jogging, or hunting — the Weimaraner can be an ideal canine sidekick.

Today, we’ll take a look at the Weimaraner dog breed, including its temperament, health, history, appearance, and grooming!

Weimaraner Temperament

Weimaraners can be friendly, happy, fearless, intelligent, curious and playful. They are very good with children and can be extremely attached to their family. They require a lot of attention, and they become deeply attached to their owners and will want to follow you everywhere. They make great watch dogs and are very protective of their families. 

Weimaraners have an incredible level of energy, and they need to run everyday. They enjoy almost all activities, including jogging with you, running alongside your bike, hiking with you, swimming, agility, and retrieving. It is said that no one has reported something a Weimaraner couldn’t do. 

On the flip side, these dogs cannot be ignored. If ignored, they can bark excessively, soil the house, or just plain destroy your house in minutes! They have been known to chew, chase cats, and steal food off the kitchen counter. They need to be well socialized to counter these tendencies. 

Owning a Weimaraner is a full-time job, but one that pays off in dividends if they are well treated and well trained.

His personality can range from in-charge to laidback. Males tend to be sweet, while females have more spunk. Puppies with more prey drive and independence do well in the field, while those who are easygoing and upbeat are best suited for companion homes. If you’re hoping to show, opt for puppies with outgoing and confident attitudes. 

And, if you pick up a puppy and he doesn’t settle down in your arms quickly, it’s a clue that he’s going to be highly energetic — the same is true if he bosses the other puppies — so think long and hard about whether he’s the right kind of dog for you. For most of us, the best choice is the nice, middle-of-the-road puppy who is neither too bossy nor too shy.

Fortunately, Weims are sensitive, smart, and aim to please, which gives you a head start with training, especially if you start early. A young Weimaraner will test you to see how much he can get away with, so try to get him into puppy kindergarten class by the time he is 10 to 12 weeks old, and socialize, socialize, socialize. 

However, be aware that many puppy training classes require certain vaccines (like kennel cough) to be up to date, and many veterinarians recommend limited exposure to other dogs and public places until puppy vaccines (including rabies, distemper and parvovirus) have been completed. In lieu of formal training, you can begin training your puppy at home and socializing him among family and friends until puppy vaccines are completed.

As lovable as he is, the Weimaraner can be high-maintenance. He needs lots of social interaction and reassurance to establish that confident, devoted Weimaraner attitude. He’ll also introduce you to two fundamental laws of nature: A Weim at rest is bored and a bored Weimaraner is destructive. So plan to keep him busy or he’ll put his own plan into action — like noshing on rugs and walls — and you probably won’t like it.

Weimaraners enjoy running, hunting, going for walks, boating, swimming — essentially anything, as long as it involves being with you. (Tip: These dogs live to chase any object that moves, including runners, bikers, kids, and other animals, so confine him to a safely fenced yard and always walk him on leash.) 

When it comes to dog sports, they love agility, tracking, and hunt tests. In fact, be prepared for gifts of dead things: frogs, birds, the nice cat that’s been hanging around the yard. Your Weim doesn’t know that she’s your neighbor’s cat; he’s primed to hunt furry things and that’s what he does. And never reject his gifts or punish him, which could severely damage your relationship.

A Weimaraner loves you and wants to please you, but he’s also an independent thinker who likes to have his own way. He’ll be pushy and challenging — and not just during adolescence. In the case of the Weimaraner, the “teen” years can start at six months and continue until the dog is about two years old. 

Training a Weim calls for sensitivity, firmness with a light touch, and a superb sense of humor. It takes a very smart person to stay one step ahead of a Weimaraner, and even then, there’s still plenty of room to be outwitted by one of these dogs. 

Weimaraner Appearance

German Weimaraners usually weigh between 55 to 85 pounds and stand approximately 23 to 27 inches tall. They are a large dog with a trim, athletic and muscular build. They have a short coat that comes in various shades of gray. Their nickname is “The Grey Ghost.”

Generally speaking, the Weimaraner is a large dog with an athletic build and good muscle tone. The coloring of the Weimaraner ranges from mousy gray to silvery gray. His coat is sleek, smooth, and close fitting, and he sports an alert and eager expression. The weight of the Weimaraner is around 55-70 pounds for females, and 75-90 pounds for males. The height of these dogs is around 23-25 inches for females, and around 25-27 inches for males.

Weimaraner Grooming

Although the Weimaraner requires a pretty much no-fuss approach to grooming, he will need to be brushed on a regular basis in order to keep his coat sleek and in good condition. With regular brushing shedding is kept to a minimum with the Weim, which means that he may prove suitable for some allergy sufferers.

The Weimaraner’s short coat is easy to maintain: Brush it with a rubber curry brush at least once a week. The brush removes dead hair that would otherwise end up on your floor, furniture, and clothing. Weimaraners shed, so the more you brush, the less hair you’ll have flying around. And bathe your Weimaraner only when he’s dirty, which shouldn’t be very often. 

The Weimaraner is a hunting dog, so good foot condition is important. Keep his toenails trimmed short. Last but not least, brush his teeth with a vet-approved pet toothpaste for good overall health and fresh breath.

Weimaraner Health Problems and Life Expectancy

All dogs have the potential to develop genetic health problems, so it’s important to choose your breeder wisely. Weimaraner breeders should know about several conditions, including hip dysplasia, hypothyroidism, tricuspid dysplasia (a congenital heart disease), and eye problems like corneal dystrophy and entropion.

A small percentage of Weimaraner puppies can develop an autoimmune reaction following vaccination. It usually manifests as a condition called hypertrophic osteodystrophy, a painful condition that can affect the bones. 

To help prevent such reactions, breeders recommend giving each vaccination separately, rather than all on the same day. The Weimaraner Club of America (WCA) does not recommend giving vaccines for coronavirus, leptospirosis, Bordetella, and Lyme disease, unless the diseases are prevalent in your locale. Ask your veterinarian if your dog should be vaccinated against any of these diseases.

Weimaraners can also have elevated levels of uric acid in their urine, predisposing them to form painful bladder and kidney stones, which may require surgery. This condition, known as hyperuricosuria, is inherited. A DNA test for the condition is available from the University of California at Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory.

Not all of these conditions are detectable in a growing puppy, and it can be hard to predict whether an animal will be free of these maladies, which is why you must find a reputable breeder who is committed to breeding the healthiest animals possible.  They should be able to produce independent certification that the parents of the dog (and grandparents, etc.) have been screened for these defects and deemed healthy for breeding. That’s where health registries come in.

The Weimaraner Club of America participates in the Canine Health Information Center (CHIC), a health database. Breeders must agree to have all test results, positive or negative, published in the database, which can be accessed by anyone who wants to check the health of a puppy’s parents.

Before Weimaraners can be issued a CHIC number, breeders must submit hip and thyroid evaluations from the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) and eye test results from the Canine Eye Registration Foundation (CERF). PennHip certification of hips is also accepted. Another optional test that’s recommended: a DNA screening for hyperuricosuria from the University of California at Davis Veterinary Genetics Lab. To be safe, many breeders also test hearts and elbows. 

Weimaraner History

The Weimaraner dates back to the early 19th century where they were developed in Weimar, Germany. The noblemen who bred them loved to hunt and wanted a dog with courage, intelligence, stamina, speed, and good scenting ability. 

The breeds they used to create the Weimaraner include the Bloodhound, the English Pointer, the German Shorthaired Pointer, the blue Great Dane, and the silver-gray Huehnerhund, or chicken dog. They were originally bred as big-game hunters for bear, deer, and wolves, but they eventually hunted birds, rabbits, and foxes. 

They were and are excellent pointers and all-around hunters. Weimaraners made their way to America in the early 1900’s, and then after World War II many American servicemen brought Weimaraners home with them where they quickly grew in popularity. Weimaraners were recognized by the American Kennel Club in 1942. 

Finding A Weimaraner Breeder

Selecting a respected breeder is a great way to find the right puppy. Reputable breeders will welcome questions about temperament and health clearances, as well as explain the history of the breed and what kind of puppy makes for a good pet. Don’t be shy about describing exactly what you’re looking for in a dog — breeders interact with their puppies daily and can make accurate recommendations once they know something about your lifestyle and personality.

To start your search, check out the website of the Weimaraner Club of America (WCA), which offers resources for finding a good breeder. Select a breeder that has agreed to abide by the club’s code of ethics, specifying that members not place weim puppies prior to 12 weeks of age, prohibits the sale of puppies through pet stores, and calls for the breeder to obtain recommended health clearances before breeding.

Lots of breeders have websites, so how can you tell who’s good and who’s not? Red flags to look out for: multiple litters on the premises, puppies always being available, having your choice of any puppy, and being offered the option to pay online with a credit card. 

Breeders who sell puppies at a lower price “without papers” are unethical and should be reported to the American Kennel Club. You should also bear in mind that buying a puppy from a website that offers to ship the dog immediately can be a risky venture — it leaves you no recourse if what you get isn’t exactly what you expected.

Whether you’re planning to get your new best friend from a breeder, a pet store, or another source, don’t forget that old adage “let the buyer beware”. Disreputable breeders and facilities that deal with puppy mills can be hard to distinguish from reliable operations. 

There’s no 100% guaranteed way to make sure you’ll never purchase a sick puppy, but researching the breed (so you know what to expect), checking out the facility (to identify unhealthy conditions or sick animals), and asking the right questions can reduce the chances of heading into a disastrous situation. 

And don’t forget to ask your veterinarian, who can often refer you to a reputable breeder, breed rescue organization, or other reliable source for healthy puppies.

The cost of a Weim puppy varies depending on the breeder’s locale, the sex of the puppy, the titles that the puppy’s parents have, and whether the puppy is best suited for the show ring or a pet home. Puppies should be temperament tested, vetted, dewormed, and socialized to give them a healthy, confident start in life. 

While most Weimaraners have good dispositions, a breeder who has American Temperament Test Society (TT) certification on her dogs is preferable. If you put as much effort into researching your puppy as you would when buying a new car, it will save you money in the long run.

Before you decide to buy a puppy, consider whether an adult Weimaraner may better suit your lifestyle. Puppies are loads of fun, but they require a good deal of time and effort before they grow up to be the dog of your dreams. An adult may already have some training, and he’ll probably be less active, destructive, and demanding than a puppy. 

With an adult, you know more about what you’re getting in terms of personality and health and you can find adults through breeders or shelters. If you are interested in acquiring an older dog through breeders, ask them about purchasing a retired show dog or if they know of an adult dog who needs a new home. If you want to adopt a dog, read the advice below on how to do that.

Adopting a Weimaraner

There are many great options available if you want to adopt a dog from an animal shelter or breed rescue organization. Here is how to get started.

Use the Web

Sites like Petfinder.com and Adopt-a-Pet.com can have you searching for a Weimaraner in your area in no time flat. The site allows you to be very specific in your requests (housetraining status, for example) or very general (all the Weimaraners available on Petfinder across the country). AnimalShelter.org can help you find animal rescue groups in your area. Also some local newspapers have “pets looking for homes” sections you can review.

Social media is another great way to find a dog. Post on your Facebook page that you are looking for a specific breed so that your entire community can be your eyes and ears.

Reach Out to Local Experts

Start talking with all the pet pros in your area about your desire for a Weimaraner. That includes vets, dog walkers, and groomers. When someone has to make the tough decision to give up a dog, that person will often ask her own trusted network for recommendations.

Talk to Breed Rescue

Most people who love Weimaraners love all Weimaraners. That’s why breed clubs have rescue organizations devoted to taking care of homeless dogs. The Weimaraner Club of America’s rescue network can help you find a dog that may be the perfect companion for your family. You can also search online for other Weimaraner rescues in your area.

The great thing about breed rescue groups is that they tend to be very upfront about any health conditions the dogs may have and are a valuable resource for advice. They also often offer fostering opportunities so, with training, you could bring a Weimaraner home with you to see what the experience is like.

Key Questions to Ask

You now know the things to discuss with a breeder, but there are also questions you should discuss with shelter or rescue group staff or volunteers before you bring home a dog. These include:

–          What is his energy level?

–          How is he around other animals?

–          How does he respond to shelter workers, visitors, and children?

–          What is his personality like?

–          What is his age?

–          Is he housetrained?

–          Has he ever bitten or hurt anyone that they know of?

–          Are there any known health issues?

Wherever you acquire your Weimaraner, make sure you have a good contract with the seller, shelter or rescue group that spells out responsibilities on both sides. Petfinder offers an Adopters Bill of Rights that helps you understand what you can consider normal and appropriate when you get a dog from a shelter. In states with “puppy lemon laws,” be sure you and the person you get the dog from both understand your rights.

Puppy or adult, take your Weimaraner to your veterinarian soon after adoption. Your veterinarian will be able to spot problems, and will work with you to set up a preventive regimen that will help you avoid many health issues.

  ==============

Learn more about the Weimaraner Vorstehhund.

Weimaraner Temperament

The Weimaraner is a very strong minder, independent, and energetic dog, with bags so stamina. These large dogs have boundless energy, and need to be in a household that is active, as well as with people that have plenty of time and devotion to dedicate to a pet. Thee dogs do not like to be confined or neglected, and this can lead to boredom, frustration, and destructive behavior. These dogs need early socialization, consistent training, and a confident, assertive owner with some experience of dog ownership and training. The Weimaraner will delight in taking part in a range of outdoors activities with his owner, and is the ideal companion for those that enjoy outdoor recreation. Although the Weimaraner can be very strong willed, which can make training a challenge, he is also highly intelligent and responsive with the right trainer. Some Weimaraners can be difficult to housebreak.

The Weimaraner tends to get along okay with children, but his large size may mean that he inadvertently knocks down a small child. He can be bossy with other dogs, and smaller animals may be viewed as prey, including cats. When it comes to strangers the Weimaraner is cautious and wary. He does make an effective watchdog and will raise the alarm if something appears to be amiss. Although the Weimaraner can seem like a handful, these large dogs make excellent companions and pets for owners with the time, energy, and training ability to handle them effectively.

Weimaraner Appearance

The Weimaraner is a large dog with an athletic build and good muscle tone. Known as the ‘Silver Ghost’, the coloring of the Weimaraner ranges from mousy gray to silvery gray. His coat is sleek, smooth, and close fitting, and he sports an alert and eager expression. The weight of the Weimaraner is around 55-70 pounds for females, and 75-90 pounds for males. The height of these dogs is around 23-25 inches for females, and around 25-27 inches for males.

Weimaraner Grooming

Although the Weimaraner requires a pretty much no-fuss approach to grooming, he will need to be brushed on a regular basis in order to keep his coat sleek and in good condition. With regular brushing shedding is kept to a minimum with the Weimaraner, which means that he may prove suitable for some allergy sufferers.

Weimaraner Health Problems and Life Expectancy

The life expectancy of the Weimaraner is around 10-12 years. There are a number of health problems to look out for with this breed, and this includes entropion, heart problems, spinal problems, digestive issues, bleeding disorders, PRA, HD, elbow dysplasia, HOD, PRA, torsion, bloat, cancer, skin problems, and thyroid problems. The parents of the Weimaraner puppy should have OFA and CERF certificates.

Weimaraner History

The history of the Weimaraner dates back over a century, and he originates from Germany. Bred to hunt bear, wild boar, and deer, this breed started to become popular in the USA, Canada, and England after the Second World War. The breed was registered with the AKC in 1943.

http://www.justdogbreeds.com/weimaraner.html

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[paullassiterca]

The Government Is Keeping Your Child's DNA

In the U.S., virtually all newborn babies have their heels pricked when they’re between 24 and 48 hours old, typically before they leave the hospital. The purpose is to collect drops of blood to test for certain genetic, metabolic and congenital disorders, including phenylketonuria (PKU), cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease and others.

This newborn genetic screening started in the 1960s with screening for PKU and is now required in all 50 states, although each state runs its own program. Today, all states test for at least 29 disorders, with some testing for more than 60, but some health care providers may still refer to it as the “PKU test.” The conditions included are those that can be effectively treated when caught early, preventing death or disability.

Not only is this the only test babies receive that’s performed by the state department of health, but it’s also mandatory, except in some cases of religious exemption. Every year, nearly 4 million U.S. babies receive newborn screening, and more than 5,000 are identified as having one of the screenable conditions.1

Parents, in the hazy first hours after having a child, may or may not remember their baby receiving the heel prick — and won’t hear much else about it, unless their baby is diagnosed with one of the conditions. Yet, in some states, the blood drops taken from the child are not simply disposed of after the test.

Instead, they’re sent to storage facilities that, in some cases, keep them indefinitely, raising serious concerns about privacy, patients’ rights and the right of informed consent.

California Runs a Biobank Housing Every Newborn’s Blood

California is among a handful of states that store newborn blood spots indefinitely. When CBS station KPIX asked six new moms about the test, and subsequent storage of the leftover blood spots, they were shocked.

State law requires that parents be informed of their right to have the samples destroyed, but the information is hidden on Page 13 of a 14-page genetic screening pamphlet given to women along with a stack of other papers in the hours after giving birth — hardly a time when most parents will commit to sorting through folders of paperwork.

The pamphlet is supposed to be given to women once before their due date and again in the hospital before the heel prick, but there is no one tracking whether this actually occurs, and many parents say they received the information only after the test was performed, if at all.

In a larger poll of California parents, three-quarters similarly were unaware that the state stored leftover blood spots indefinitely, and two-thirds weren’t even sure if they received the newborn screening information. California has been storing blood spots since 1983 and has collected more than 9.5 million samples since 2000, according to CBS.2

According to state law, parents don’t need to opt-in to having their baby’s blood spot stored because blood specimens collected in a hospital or medical facility are not your property but become that of the state.3 According to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS):4

“After the newborn screening tests are done, a small amount of dried blood remains on the filter paper card. Many labs keep and store these ‘residual samples’ because of their continued value to the family, laboratories’ quality control and assurance monitoring, and public health.

Each state’s policies around residual blood spot storage and use are different — some store the blood samples only for a few weeks and then destroy them, while others store the spots indefinitely.”

What Are the Blood Samples Used For?

The simplest explanation is that dried blood spots can be used if retesting is required or if the parents need further testing of the baby, but there are far more uses than this. California’s newborn screening program uses residual blood spots for quality control, such as ensuring tests are accurate, as well as to develop new tests to add to the panel. They’re also used for additional research:5

“California law requires the NBS [Newborn Screening Branch] program to use or provide newborn screening specimens for department-approved studies of diseases in women and children, such as research related to identifying and preventing disease. This could be to study birth defects, chronic disease, exposure to toxins or infections.”

However, it’s not only government researchers who have access to the samples. According to CBS, California’s biobank has sold 16,000 blood spots since 2013, totaling about $700,000. Private researchers can obtain the blood spots for $20 to $40 each, and though they must meet certain criteria for their request to be granted, it’s possible that the samples could fall into the wrong hands.

When asked whether it was possible for blood spots to be requested for a certain purpose but used for another, Fred Lorey, the former director of the California Genetic Disease Screening Program, told CBS, “I want to say no … But I’m not ready to say no because I know how humans can be sometimes.”6

Law Enforcement May Also Access the Blood Samples

Aside from researchers, blood spots have been used by coroners to identify bodies as well as by parents looking for paternity testing. Law enforcement can also gain access to blood spots if they have a court order, and in this case the blood spots are identified.

“[Consumer Watchdog’s Jamie] Court points to the recent case of the Golden State Killer. Investigators used public ancestry sites to identify a murder suspect using decades-old unidentified DNA from a crime scene,” CBS reported.7

While California states that their screening program does not store information about babies’ DNA or store a “DNA profile” or DNA database, there’s debate over whether blood spots can truly stay anonymous. In California, the blood spots are given only a number and are stored in a separate building from the identifying information, which is removed from the server and microfiched after a few years.

Yet, according to Court, “There is no such thing as de-identified DNA … The very nature of DNA is that it identifies you and your genetic code specifically.”8 The Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF) even went so far as to question whether newborn genetic screening could be the new eugenics, noting, “the eugenic programs of the 20th century may now have transformed themselves into 21st century State and Federal 'public health genetics’ programs.”9

They suggest that informed written parent consent is needed to protect citizens, including newborns, and recommend the following protective strategies:

• Allow parents to choose the conditions for which their child is tested

• Destruct current state newborn DNA repositories

• Require informed written consent before newborn blood is taken for:

◦ Newborn genetic screening

◦ Government storage of test results and newborn DNA

◦ Research using newborn DNA and newborn genetic test results

“Finally,” CCHF states, “State legislatures should privatize newborn genetic screening programs to protect citizens from State genetic registries, State ownership of citizen DNA, government research projects, and intrusive government interference in private family and medical decisions.”10

Families Sue Government for Using Stored Blood Spots Without Permission

If you’re thinking that storing babies’ blood spots without parents’ consent sounds like an overreach of government or legal authority, you’re not the only one. In 2008, five families sued the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and Texas A&M University for just that. The state had changed its policy regarding newborn screening samples in 2002 from destroying them to giving them to researchers.

The suit alleged that this violated the parents’ rights under the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. The case was settled and DSHS was required to publically list where the blood spots had been used for research.

In addition to giving them to pharmaceutical companies, the samples were provided to the U.S. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, prompting another lawsuit that DSHS acted with deception in distributing the samples.11

Although the case was ultimately dismissed, Texas destroyed millions of stored blood spots and now requires parents to opt-in to the storage program while disclosing whether they’re planning to distribute the sample and to whom. Newsweek reported that while most people are supportive of allowing states to keep blood spots and store them, provided they give permission and receive explanations, it deserves a second thought:12

“Currently, there are private commercial data banks, including those run by health care companies; biobanks under the auspices of the NIH, academic and private research institutions; and the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, routinely used for law enforcement purposes.

[Jeremy Gruber, president of the Council for Responsible Genetics] says as genetic biobanks ‘become more widespread and the uses for DNA become more common … we’re going to start to see more and more bleed-over of these databases.’”

CCHF also highlighted a case in Michigan in which parents sued the state for storing and using their child’s blood without their consent. A judge dismissed the case, claiming the actions did not cause “harm,” but CCHF disagreed, pointing out the following instances of harm that result from the storage of newborn DNA:13

“The government essentially owns the DNA of every newborn through the newborn screening program. With this court case, the government has now claimed ownership and the judge has agreed.

Legislators can come up with new things to do with Baby DNA, such as genetic sequencing and law enforcement.

Not only has privacy been dismissed, but the ability to tell the government it cannot take DNA, blood or genetic property has also been dismissed. 

Patients don’t realize the harm if they are unaware DNA has been stored and could be used against them or for activities to which they are opposed.

Through DNA storage and research, another party can gain knowledge of the elements and biomarkers in the child’s DNA and, therefore, have information on the subject, which the subject does not know.

Once the storage is discovered, parents may experience fear of what the government and researchers have already done, and what they might do in the future. This too is harm.”

Can You Protect Your Baby’s Privacy?

If you like the idea of having your newborn screened for genetic diseases but don’t want your child’s blood spot stored, you may be able to opt out. First, contact your state health department and find out what the storage policies are for blood spots taken for newborn screening.

CCHF maintains data on how long state governments keep the samples as well as opt-out forms for Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, South Carolina, Texas and Washington.14 California also allows parents to request that their baby’s blood spots be destroyed, via this form.

While it’s clear that large databases of newborn blood samples provide unprecedented research opportunities, there’s also the potential for such samples to be used in unforeseen ways that threaten privacy. At the very least, parents have the right to informed consent not only about genetic testing for their child but also how their related blood samples are used in the future.

from Articles http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/01/22/baby-pku-test.aspx source https://niapurenaturecom.tumblr.com/post/182210853981

[jerrytackettca]

The Government Is Keeping Your Child's DNA

In the U.S., virtually all newborn babies have their heels pricked when they're between 24 and 48 hours old, typically before they leave the hospital. The purpose is to collect drops of blood to test for certain genetic, metabolic and congenital disorders, including phenylketonuria (PKU), cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease and others.

This newborn genetic screening started in the 1960s with screening for PKU and is now required in all 50 states, although each state runs its own program. Today, all states test for at least 29 disorders, with some testing for more than 60, but some health care providers may still refer to it as the "PKU test." The conditions included are those that can be effectively treated when caught early, preventing death or disability.

Not only is this the only test babies receive that's performed by the state department of health, but it's also mandatory, except in some cases of religious exemption. Every year, nearly 4 million U.S. babies receive newborn screening, and more than 5,000 are identified as having one of the screenable conditions.1

Parents, in the hazy first hours after having a child, may or may not remember their baby receiving the heel prick — and won't hear much else about it, unless their baby is diagnosed with one of the conditions. Yet, in some states, the blood drops taken from the child are not simply disposed of after the test.

Instead, they're sent to storage facilities that, in some cases, keep them indefinitely, raising serious concerns about privacy, patients' rights and the right of informed consent.

California Runs a Biobank Housing Every Newborn's Blood

California is among a handful of states that store newborn blood spots indefinitely. When CBS station KPIX asked six new moms about the test, and subsequent storage of the leftover blood spots, they were shocked.

State law requires that parents be informed of their right to have the samples destroyed, but the information is hidden on Page 13 of a 14-page genetic screening pamphlet given to women along with a stack of other papers in the hours after giving birth — hardly a time when most parents will commit to sorting through folders of paperwork.

The pamphlet is supposed to be given to women once before their due date and again in the hospital before the heel prick, but there is no one tracking whether this actually occurs, and many parents say they received the information only after the test was performed, if at all.

In a larger poll of California parents, three-quarters similarly were unaware that the state stored leftover blood spots indefinitely, and two-thirds weren't even sure if they received the newborn screening information. California has been storing blood spots since 1983 and has collected more than 9.5 million samples since 2000, according to CBS.2

According to state law, parents don't need to opt-in to having their baby's blood spot stored because blood specimens collected in a hospital or medical facility are not your property but become that of the state.3 According to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS):4

"After the newborn screening tests are done, a small amount of dried blood remains on the filter paper card. Many labs keep and store these 'residual samples' because of their continued value to the family, laboratories' quality control and assurance monitoring, and public health.

Each state’s policies around residual blood spot storage and use are different — some store the blood samples only for a few weeks and then destroy them, while others store the spots indefinitely."

What Are the Blood Samples Used For?

The simplest explanation is that dried blood spots can be used if retesting is required or if the parents need further testing of the baby, but there are far more uses than this. California's newborn screening program uses residual blood spots for quality control, such as ensuring tests are accurate, as well as to develop new tests to add to the panel. They're also used for additional research:5

"California law requires the NBS [Newborn Screening Branch] program to use or provide newborn screening specimens for department-approved studies of diseases in women and children, such as research related to identifying and preventing disease. This could be to study birth defects, chronic disease, exposure to toxins or infections."

However, it’s not only government researchers who have access to the samples. According to CBS, California’s biobank has sold 16,000 blood spots since 2013, totaling about $700,000. Private researchers can obtain the blood spots for $20 to $40 each, and though they must meet certain criteria for their request to be granted, it’s possible that the samples could fall into the wrong hands.

When asked whether it was possible for blood spots to be requested for a certain purpose but used for another, Fred Lorey, the former director of the California Genetic Disease Screening Program, told CBS, "I want to say no … But I'm not ready to say no because I know how humans can be sometimes."6

Law Enforcement May Also Access the Blood Samples

Aside from researchers, blood spots have been used by coroners to identify bodies as well as by parents looking for paternity testing. Law enforcement can also gain access to blood spots if they have a court order, and in this case the blood spots are identified.

"[Consumer Watchdog's Jamie] Court points to the recent case of the Golden State Killer. Investigators used public ancestry sites to identify a murder suspect using decades-old unidentified DNA from a crime scene," CBS reported.7

While California states that their screening program does not store information about babies' DNA or store a "DNA profile" or DNA database, there's debate over whether blood spots can truly stay anonymous. In California, the blood spots are given only a number and are stored in a separate building from the identifying information, which is removed from the server and microfiched after a few years.

Yet, according to Court, "There is no such thing as de-identified DNA … The very nature of DNA is that it identifies you and your genetic code specifically."8 The Citizens' Council for Health Freedom (CCHF) even went so far as to question whether newborn genetic screening could be the new eugenics, noting, "the eugenic programs of the 20th century may now have transformed themselves into 21st century State and Federal 'public health genetics' programs."9

They suggest that informed written parent consent is needed to protect citizens, including newborns, and recommend the following protective strategies:

• Allow parents to choose the conditions for which their child is tested

• Destruct current state newborn DNA repositories

• Require informed written consent before newborn blood is taken for:

◦ Newborn genetic screening

◦ Government storage of test results and newborn DNA

◦ Research using newborn DNA and newborn genetic test results

"Finally," CCHF states, "State legislatures should privatize newborn genetic screening programs to protect citizens from State genetic registries, State ownership of citizen DNA, government research projects, and intrusive government interference in private family and medical decisions."10

Families Sue Government for Using Stored Blood Spots Without Permission

If you're thinking that storing babies' blood spots without parents' consent sounds like an overreach of government or legal authority, you're not the only one. In 2008, five families sued the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and Texas A&M University for just that. The state had changed its policy regarding newborn screening samples in 2002 from destroying them to giving them to researchers.

The suit alleged that this violated the parents' rights under the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. The case was settled and DSHS was required to publically list where the blood spots had been used for research.

In addition to giving them to pharmaceutical companies, the samples were provided to the U.S. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, prompting another lawsuit that DSHS acted with deception in distributing the samples.11

Although the case was ultimately dismissed, Texas destroyed millions of stored blood spots and now requires parents to opt-in to the storage program while disclosing whether they're planning to distribute the sample and to whom. Newsweek reported that while most people are supportive of allowing states to keep blood spots and store them, provided they give permission and receive explanations, it deserves a second thought:12

"Currently, there are private commercial data banks, including those run by health care companies; biobanks under the auspices of the NIH, academic and private research institutions; and the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, routinely used for law enforcement purposes.

[Jeremy Gruber, president of the Council for Responsible Genetics] says as genetic biobanks ‘become more widespread and the uses for DNA become more common … we’re going to start to see more and more bleed-over of these databases.'"

CCHF also highlighted a case in Michigan in which parents sued the state for storing and using their child's blood without their consent. A judge dismissed the case, claiming the actions did not cause "harm," but CCHF disagreed, pointing out the following instances of harm that result from the storage of newborn DNA:13

"The government essentially owns the DNA of every newborn through the newborn screening program. With this court case, the government has now claimed ownership and the judge has agreed.

Legislators can come up with new things to do with Baby DNA, such as genetic sequencing and law enforcement.

Not only has privacy been dismissed, but the ability to tell the government it cannot take DNA, blood or genetic property has also been dismissed. 

Patients don't realize the harm if they are unaware DNA has been stored and could be used against them or for activities to which they are opposed.

Through DNA storage and research, another party can gain knowledge of the elements and biomarkers in the child's DNA and, therefore, have information on the subject, which the subject does not know.

Once the storage is discovered, parents may experience fear of what the government and researchers have already done, and what they might do in the future. This too is harm."

Can You Protect Your Baby's Privacy?

If you like the idea of having your newborn screened for genetic diseases but don't want your child's blood spot stored, you may be able to opt out. First, contact your state health department and find out what the storage policies are for blood spots taken for newborn screening.

CCHF maintains data on how long state governments keep the samples as well as opt-out forms for Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, South Carolina, Texas and Washington.14 California also allows parents to request that their baby's blood spots be destroyed, via this form.

While it's clear that large databases of newborn blood samples provide unprecedented research opportunities, there's also the potential for such samples to be used in unforeseen ways that threaten privacy. At the very least, parents have the right to informed consent not only about genetic testing for their child but also how their related blood samples are used in the future.

from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/01/22/baby-pku-test.aspx

source http://niapurenaturecom.weebly.com/blog/the-government-is-keeping-your-childs-dna

[jakehglover]

The Government Is Keeping Your Child's DNA

In the U.S., virtually all newborn babies have their heels pricked when they're between 24 and 48 hours old, typically before they leave the hospital. The purpose is to collect drops of blood to test for certain genetic, metabolic and congenital disorders, including phenylketonuria (PKU), cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease and others.

This newborn genetic screening started in the 1960s with screening for PKU and is now required in all 50 states, although each state runs its own program. Today, all states test for at least 29 disorders, with some testing for more than 60, but some health care providers may still refer to it as the "PKU test." The conditions included are those that can be effectively treated when caught early, preventing death or disability.

Not only is this the only test babies receive that's performed by the state department of health, but it's also mandatory, except in some cases of religious exemption. Every year, nearly 4 million U.S. babies receive newborn screening, and more than 5,000 are identified as having one of the screenable conditions.1

Parents, in the hazy first hours after having a child, may or may not remember their baby receiving the heel prick — and won't hear much else about it, unless their baby is diagnosed with one of the conditions. Yet, in some states, the blood drops taken from the child are not simply disposed of after the test.

Instead, they're sent to storage facilities that, in some cases, keep them indefinitely, raising serious concerns about privacy, patients' rights and the right of informed consent.

California Runs a Biobank Housing Every Newborn's Blood

California is among a handful of states that store newborn blood spots indefinitely. When CBS station KPIX asked six new moms about the test, and subsequent storage of the leftover blood spots, they were shocked.

State law requires that parents be informed of their right to have the samples destroyed, but the information is hidden on Page 13 of a 14-page genetic screening pamphlet given to women along with a stack of other papers in the hours after giving birth — hardly a time when most parents will commit to sorting through folders of paperwork.

The pamphlet is supposed to be given to women once before their due date and again in the hospital before the heel prick, but there is no one tracking whether this actually occurs, and many parents say they received the information only after the test was performed, if at all.

In a larger poll of California parents, three-quarters similarly were unaware that the state stored leftover blood spots indefinitely, and two-thirds weren't even sure if they received the newborn screening information. California has been storing blood spots since 1983 and has collected more than 9.5 million samples since 2000, according to CBS.2

According to state law, parents don't need to opt-in to having their baby's blood spot stored because blood specimens collected in a hospital or medical facility are not your property but become that of the state.3 According to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS):4

"After the newborn screening tests are done, a small amount of dried blood remains on the filter paper card. Many labs keep and store these 'residual samples' because of their continued value to the family, laboratories' quality control and assurance monitoring, and public health.

Each state’s policies around residual blood spot storage and use are different — some store the blood samples only for a few weeks and then destroy them, while others store the spots indefinitely."

What Are the Blood Samples Used For?

The simplest explanation is that dried blood spots can be used if retesting is required or if the parents need further testing of the baby, but there are far more uses than this. California's newborn screening program uses residual blood spots for quality control, such as ensuring tests are accurate, as well as to develop new tests to add to the panel. They're also used for additional research:5

"California law requires the NBS [Newborn Screening Branch] program to use or provide newborn screening specimens for department-approved studies of diseases in women and children, such as research related to identifying and preventing disease. This could be to study birth defects, chronic disease, exposure to toxins or infections."

However, it’s not only government researchers who have access to the samples. According to CBS, California’s biobank has sold 16,000 blood spots since 2013, totaling about $700,000. Private researchers can obtain the blood spots for $20 to $40 each, and though they must meet certain criteria for their request to be granted, it’s possible that the samples could fall into the wrong hands.

When asked whether it was possible for blood spots to be requested for a certain purpose but used for another, Fred Lorey, the former director of the California Genetic Disease Screening Program, told CBS, "I want to say no … But I'm not ready to say no because I know how humans can be sometimes."6

Law Enforcement May Also Access the Blood Samples

Aside from researchers, blood spots have been used by coroners to identify bodies as well as by parents looking for paternity testing. Law enforcement can also gain access to blood spots if they have a court order, and in this case the blood spots are identified.

"[Consumer Watchdog's Jamie] Court points to the recent case of the Golden State Killer. Investigators used public ancestry sites to identify a murder suspect using decades-old unidentified DNA from a crime scene," CBS reported.7

While California states that their screening program does not store information about babies' DNA or store a "DNA profile" or DNA database, there's debate over whether blood spots can truly stay anonymous. In California, the blood spots are given only a number and are stored in a separate building from the identifying information, which is removed from the server and microfiched after a few years.

Yet, according to Court, "There is no such thing as de-identified DNA … The very nature of DNA is that it identifies you and your genetic code specifically."8 The Citizens' Council for Health Freedom (CCHF) even went so far as to question whether newborn genetic screening could be the new eugenics, noting, "the eugenic programs of the 20th century may now have transformed themselves into 21st century State and Federal 'public health genetics' programs."9

They suggest that informed written parent consent is needed to protect citizens, including newborns, and recommend the following protective strategies:

• Allow parents to choose the conditions for which their child is tested

• Destruct current state newborn DNA repositories

• Require informed written consent before newborn blood is taken for:

◦ Newborn genetic screening

◦ Government storage of test results and newborn DNA

◦ Research using newborn DNA and newborn genetic test results

"Finally," CCHF states, "State legislatures should privatize newborn genetic screening programs to protect citizens from State genetic registries, State ownership of citizen DNA, government research projects, and intrusive government interference in private family and medical decisions."10

Families Sue Government for Using Stored Blood Spots Without Permission

If you're thinking that storing babies' blood spots without parents' consent sounds like an overreach of government or legal authority, you're not the only one. In 2008, five families sued the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and Texas A&M University for just that. The state had changed its policy regarding newborn screening samples in 2002 from destroying them to giving them to researchers.

The suit alleged that this violated the parents' rights under the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. The case was settled and DSHS was required to publically list where the blood spots had been used for research.

In addition to giving them to pharmaceutical companies, the samples were provided to the U.S. Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, prompting another lawsuit that DSHS acted with deception in distributing the samples.11

Although the case was ultimately dismissed, Texas destroyed millions of stored blood spots and now requires parents to opt-in to the storage program while disclosing whether they're planning to distribute the sample and to whom. Newsweek reported that while most people are supportive of allowing states to keep blood spots and store them, provided they give permission and receive explanations, it deserves a second thought:12

"Currently, there are private commercial data banks, including those run by health care companies; biobanks under the auspices of the NIH, academic and private research institutions; and the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, routinely used for law enforcement purposes.

[Jeremy Gruber, president of the Council for Responsible Genetics] says as genetic biobanks ‘become more widespread and the uses for DNA become more common … we’re going to start to see more and more bleed-over of these databases.'"

CCHF also highlighted a case in Michigan in which parents sued the state for storing and using their child's blood without their consent. A judge dismissed the case, claiming the actions did not cause "harm," but CCHF disagreed, pointing out the following instances of harm that result from the storage of newborn DNA:13

"The government essentially owns the DNA of every newborn through the newborn screening program. With this court case, the government has now claimed ownership and the judge has agreed.

Legislators can come up with new things to do with Baby DNA, such as genetic sequencing and law enforcement.

Not only has privacy been dismissed, but the ability to tell the government it cannot take DNA, blood or genetic property has also been dismissed. 

Patients don't realize the harm if they are unaware DNA has been stored and could be used against them or for activities to which they are opposed.

Through DNA storage and research, another party can gain knowledge of the elements and biomarkers in the child's DNA and, therefore, have information on the subject, which the subject does not know.

Once the storage is discovered, parents may experience fear of what the government and researchers have already done, and what they might do in the future. This too is harm."

Can You Protect Your Baby's Privacy?

If you like the idea of having your newborn screened for genetic diseases but don't want your child's blood spot stored, you may be able to opt out. First, contact your state health department and find out what the storage policies are for blood spots taken for newborn screening.

CCHF maintains data on how long state governments keep the samples as well as opt-out forms for Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, South Carolina, Texas and Washington.14 California also allows parents to request that their baby's blood spots be destroyed, via this form.

While it's clear that large databases of newborn blood samples provide unprecedented research opportunities, there's also the potential for such samples to be used in unforeseen ways that threaten privacy. At the very least, parents have the right to informed consent not only about genetic testing for their child but also how their related blood samples are used in the future.

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/01/22/baby-pku-test.aspx

[guthealthglasgow]

Vitamins and minerals you can take during pregnancy

1. Prenatal Vitamins

Prenatal vitamins are multivitamins that are specially formulated to meet the increased demand for micronutrients during pregnancy.

They are intended to be taken before conception and during pregnancy and lactation.

Observational studies have shown that supplementing with prenatal vitamins reduces the risk of preterm birth and preeclampsia. Preeclampsia is a potentially dangerous complication characterized by high blood pressure and possibly protein in the urine (12, 13).

While prenatal vitamins are not meant to replace a healthy diet, they may help prevent nutritional gaps by providing extra micronutrients that are in high demand during pregnancy.

Since prenatal vitamins contain the vitamins and minerals that pregnant women need, taking additional vitamin or mineral supplements may not be necessary unless suggested by your doctor.

Prenatal vitamins are often prescribed by doctors and also available over-the-counter.

2. Folate

Folate is a B vitamin that plays an integral role in DNA synthesis, red blood cell production and fetal growth and development (14).

Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate found in many supplements. It gets converted into the active form of folate, L-methylfolate, in the body.

It is recommended that pregnant women take 600 ug of folate or folic acid per day in order to reduce the risk of neural tube defects and congenital abnormalities like cleft palate and heart defects (15).

In a review of five randomized studies including 6,105 women, supplementing with folic acid daily was associated with a reduced risk of neural tube defects. No negative side effects were noted (16).

Although adequate folate can be obtained through diet, many women don’t eat enough folate-rich foods, making supplementation necessary (17).

Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that all women of childbearing age consume at least 400 mg of folate or folic acid per day.

This is because many pregnancies are unplanned, and birth defects from a folate deficiency can occur very early in pregnancy, even before most women know they are pregnant.

It may be wise for pregnant women, especially those with an MTHFR genetic mutation, to choose a supplement that contains L-methylfolate to ensure maximum uptake (18).

3. Iron

The need for iron increases significantly during pregnancy, as maternal blood volume increases by nearly 50% (19).

Iron is critical for oxygen transport and healthy growth and development of the fetus and placenta.

The prevalence of iron deficiency in pregnant women in the US is around 18%, and 5% of these women are anemic (20).

Anemia during pregnancy has been associated with preterm delivery, maternal depression and infant anemia (21, 22).

The recommended intake of 27 mg iron per day can be met through most prenatal vitamins. However, pregnant women with iron deficiency or anemia need higher doses of iron, managed by their doctor.

Pregnant women that are not iron deficient should not take more than the recommended intake of iron to avoid adverse side effects. These may include constipation, vomiting and abnormally high hemoglobin levels (23).

4. Vitamin D

This fat-soluble vitamin is important for immune function, bone health and cell division.

Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy has been linked to an increased risk of cesarean section, preeclampsia, preterm birth and gestational diabetes (24).

The current recommended intake of vitamin D during pregnancy is 600 IU per day. However, some experts suggest that vitamin D needs during pregnancy are much higher (25).

All pregnant women should speak with their doctor regarding screening for vitamin D deficiency and proper supplementation.

5. Magnesium

Magnesium is a mineral involved in hundreds of chemical reactions in your body. It plays critical roles in immune, muscle and nerve function (26).

Deficiency in this mineral during pregnancy may increase the risk of chronic hypertension and premature labor (27).

Some studies suggest that supplementing with magnesium may reduce the risk of complications like fetal growth restriction and preterm birth (28).

6. Ginger

Ginger root is commonly used as a spice and herbal supplement.

In supplement form, it’s most commonly used to treat nausea caused by motion sickness, pregnancy or chemotherapy.

A review of four studies suggested that ginger is both safe and effective for treating pregnancy-induced nausea and vomiting (29).

Nausea and vomiting are common during pregnancy, with up to 80% of women experiencing this in the first trimester of pregnancy (30).

Though ginger may help reduce this unpleasant pregnancy complication, more research is needed to identify the maximum safe dosage.

7. Fish Oil

Fish oil contains DHA and EPA, two essential fatty acids that are important for fetal brain development.

Supplementing with DHA and EPA in pregnancy might boost infant brain development and decrease maternal depression, though research on this topic is inconclusive.

Although observational studies have shown improved cognitive function in the children of women who supplemented with fish oil during pregnancy, several controlled studies have failed to show a consistent benefit.

For example, one study involving 2,399 women found no difference in the cognitive function of infants whose mothers had supplemented with fish oil capsules containing 800 mg of DHA per day during pregnancy, compared to infants whose mothers did not (31).

This study also found that supplementing with fish oil had no effect on maternal depression.

However, the study found that supplementing with fish oil protected against preterm delivery, and some evidence suggests that fish oil may benefit fetal eye development (32).

Maternal DHA levels are important for proper fetal development and supplementing is considered safe. The jury is still out on whether taking fish oil during pregnancy is necessary.

To get DHA and EPA through diet, pregnant women are encouraged to consume two to three servings of low-mercury fish like salmon, sardines or pollock per week.

8. Probiotics

With an increasing interest in gut health, many moms-to-be turn to probiotics.

Probiotics are living microorganisms that are thought to benefit digestive health.

Many studies have shown that probiotics are safe to take during pregnancy, and no harmful side effects have been identified, aside from an extremely low risk of probiotic-induced infection (33).

Additionally, several studies have shown that supplementing with probiotics may reduce the risk of gestational diabetes, postpartum depression and infant eczema and dermatitis (34, 35, 36, 37).

Research on probiotic use in pregnancy is ongoing, and more about the role of probiotics in maternal and fetal health is sure to be discovered.

SUMMARY   Supplements like folate, iron and prenatal vitamins are considered safe for pregnant women. It is important to always discuss any supplement, whether it is a vitamin, mineral or herb, with your doctor.