I had a flu shot about five minutes ago and it was amazing. I didn’t even feel the touch of the needle. Sitting in my office afterwards, I had a flashback to a hot day in basic training in Texas many years ago. We had been walking in the 100-degree heat for about 20 minutes and finally approached the infirmary, where we were to get a series of inoculations. Sitting under a tree, bent over, was a man from another unit whom many of us knew.

“Whoa, are you O.K.?” I asked him. “What are they giving us today, that nasty plague shot?”

He looked up at me and smiled a little. “I don’t know, when I got one look at that needle, I fainted,” he said....

Growing up I loved two things: baseball and science fiction. Well, maybe three: Don’t let me leave out chocolate. For some reason I never dreamed about playing in the major leagues, but I did picture myself on another planet, usually Mars. A couple of my friends told me they could see me in outer space.

I read dozens and dozens of Sci-Fi novels and everything I could find about the U.S. space exploration program. I even once worked with an astronaut in the Air National Guard. But, no, I never had delusions about joining up with NASA. I have always been a writer and not very comfortable in the lab. Still, I have always hoped that we would find life beyond planet Earth and I continue to enjoy Sci-Fi films, in particular, and here I am working for the world’s largest scientific society. ...

My wife has been kidding me about my memory for as long as I can remember. This could go back more than 17 years, but I can’t be sure. The good news is that I have never had a photographic memory. Not even close. She, on the other hand, remembers things. She always has, always will.

So it is with a great deal of trepidation that I call to everyone’s attention a certain study that we featured at the recent ACS National Meeting & Exposition in Boston. I actually considered not telling my wife about it, but that’s not fair. Before I share the results, though, you need to know this: She eats large quantities of blueberries and strawberries every morning. In fact, she consumes more of these fruits in one breakfast sitting than I consume in six months. This may change for me… Now to the study:

Scientists have reported the first evidence that eating blueberries, strawberries, and acai berries may help the aging brain stay healthy in a crucial but previously unrecognized way. Their study, presented at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, concluded that berries, and possibly walnuts, activate the brain’s natural “housekeeper” mechanism, which cleans up and recycles toxic proteins linked to age-related memory loss and other mental decline.

Shibu Poulose, Ph.D., who presented the report, said previous research suggested that one factor involved in aging is a steady decline in the body’s ability to protect itself against inflammation and oxidative damage. This leaves people vulnerable to degenerative brain diseases, heart disease, cancer, and other age-related disorders.

“The good news is that natural compounds called polyphenolics found in fruits, vegetables and nuts have an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect that may protect against age-associated decline,” said Poulose, who is with the U. S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston. Poulose did the research with James Joseph, Ph.D., who died June 1. Joseph, who headed the laboratory, pioneered research on the role of antioxidants in fruits and nuts in preventing age-related cognitive decline.

Their past studies, for instance, showed that old laboratory rats fed for two months on diets containing 2 percent high-antioxidant strawberry, blueberry, or blackberry extract showed a reversal of age-related deficits in nerve function and behavior that involves learning and remembering.

To read more, go to berries and the brain.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

I have very strong feelings about Jell-O®. I have had them since I was a child.  I like virtually all of the flavors but one: green. I find artificial green flavor in just about any food or candy is, well, too artificial. To me, it just doesn’t come close to emulating the taste of lime. Yellow, red or orange Jell-O®, on the other hand, is flavorful.

There is one exception. And I have to go back to my college days to find it. My girlfriend’s mother used to make one heck of a Jell-O® mold and she actually used the green flavor. As I remember it, she added shredded carrots, green olives with pimentos in them, walnuts and sour cream to that green Jell-O®. Somehow the combination worked for me and I always had seconds and even thirds. ...

Please hurry! Please hurry! Time is running out. In about two weeks I will once again become a human pincushion and I would love to avoid the needle. You are my only hope, you scientists at the University of Minnesota. Without you, on June 2 I will settle into the dentist’s chair and get my full dose of topical anesthesia –– right in the cheek and gums when I have my first tooth pulled to make way for a dental implant.

How can these scientists help me? They have just announced a breakthrough: An anesthesia inhaler that could one day replace that needle.

I know it’s impossible that the device could miraculously make it into the health care delivery system, in the next two weeks, but you can’t blame me for dreaming…

Scientists are reporting evidence that a common local anesthetic, when administered to the nose as nose drops or a nasal spray, travels through the main nerve in the face and collects in high concentrations in the teeth, jaw, and structures of the mouth.

The discovery could lead to a new generation of intranasal drugs for noninvasive treatment for dental pain, migraine, and other conditions, the scientists suggest in American Chemical Society’s bi-monthly journal Molecular Pharmaceutics. The article is scheduled for the journal’s May-June issue.

William H. Frey II, Ph.D., and colleagues note that drugs administered to the nose travel along nerves and go directly to the brain. One of those nerves is the trigeminal nerve, which brings feelings to the face, nose and mouth. Until now, however, scientists never checked to see whether intranasal drugs passing along that nerve might reach the teeth, gums and other areas of the face and mouth to reduce pain sensations in the face and mouth.   

Neil Johnson, working in the labs of Frey and Leah R. Hanson, Ph.D., at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., found that lidocaine or Xylocaine, sprayed into the noses of laboratory rats, quickly traveled down the trigeminal nerve and collected in their teeth, jaws, and mouths at levels 20 times higher than in the blood or brain. The approach could provide a more effective and targeted method for treating dental pain/anxiety, trigeminal neuralgia (severe facial pain), migraine, and other conditions, the scientists say.

To read more about this innovation, go to painless.     

Image courtesy of iStock