Health-Old Age Is Not For Taking It Easy. Elderly Must Exercise To Keep Health Costs Down, Say Experts

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/10/17/old-age-not-taking-easy-elderly-must-exercise-keep-health-costs/

Drug Therapy 'Restores Breathing' After Spinal Injury

A drug-based therapy appears to restore breathing in rats paralyzed from the neck down by a spinal injury, according to scientists. 

They hope their "exciting but early" findings could ultimately help free patients from ventilators.

The pioneering work, in Cell Reports, suggests the brain may not be needed for respiration if a nerve pathway in the spine can be awakened.

More studies are now needed to better understand and exploit this system.

'No brain' breathing

Normally, messages to and from the brain control breathing.
If the spinal cord is damaged high up in the neck, these messages can't get through and a person will need mechanical assistance or a ventilator to breathe.

 Experts have been looking at ways to repair spinal cord damage to reconnect with the brain, but the latest therapeutic approach, being explored at Case Western Reserve University, is entirely different.
Dr Jerry Silver and colleagues believe they have found an alternative nerve pathway for breathing in the spinal cord itself.

The researchers used a drug and a light therapy known as optogenetics to dial up this spinal system.
It appeared to control the body's main muscle of respiration - the diaphragm, a dome-shaped sheet of muscle that sits underneath the lungs, separating the chest from the abdomen.

The live adult rats that they studied had severed spinal cords, meaning the brain could not be the source of the diaphragm movement or breathing that the researchers saw after they administered the therapy.
They believe the treatment works by stopping other nerve signals that would normally silence the spinal system that they found.

Dr Silver said: "This is a primitive response that has been kept in the spinal cord for emergencies, like gasping and screaming in response to danger."
Although the researchers say the movements they saw resembled breathing, it's not clear yet if it would be enough to sustain life. They plan more animal studies to check.

Dr Silver said: "Ultimately, the goal of this research would be to free people with these neck injuries from having to use mechanical ventilators.

"Infections and other complications from mechanical ventilators are a leading cause of death after spinal cord injuries."Dr Thomas Becker, an expert in neuroregeneration at Edinburgh Medical School, said: "This is an important discovery on the fundamental working of the spinal cord. "Understanding the spinal network is the first step toward future therapies."This knowledge could be used for future therapies to restore breathing in patients who lost nerve connections from the brain as a consequence of spinal cord injury."- (BBC)

FROM YESTERYEAR SINHALA CINEMA: A SONG FROM "GAHANU LAMAI" FILM (1978)

THE MAIN CAST OF THE FILM- WASANTHI CHATHURANI ,AJITH JINADASA,JO ABEYWIKARAMA

THIS SONG WAS SUNG BY NEELA WIKRAMASINGHE

Foreign-The Battle Over An Iconic Australian Boot

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-41464142

Bonds Commission Completed It's Sittings

The special Presidential Commission investigating the

controversial Central Bank bond scam had completed it's sittings regarding gatheting evidence on Bond scam  it has been announced yesterday (17).

Yesterday the Commission had  questioned the private secretary of the chief suspect of Bond Scam Arjun Aloysius who is the director of perpetual treasuries, steve samuel and during the questioning he told that  he had no idea on the persons describe through RK and AM although short messages recovered through his mobile phone contains those names.He also told have no idea on them.

The private secretary of Arjun Aloysius due to be summoned earlier, however as he was hospitalized due to a chest pain occurred soon after receiving the notice to appear before Bond Commission ,it got delayed.

Meanwhile Bonds  Commission had requested the Prime Minister's office to submit prime minister Ranil Wikramasinghe's evidence  on the Bond Scam to the Cimmission as he has been named as one of the witnesses of the scam.

Navy Arrested Eight Indian Fishermen Entered Sri Lankan Waters Illegally

Sri Lanka Navy have arrested eight Indian fisherment

who have entered Sri Lankan waters illegally in the sea area near Delft Island (Northern Province).

Navy officers have brought the group of Indian Fishermen who arrived in from Tamil Nadu to the Navy base in Mannar it has been reported.

Two Persons Arrested With A Large Stock Of Kerala Cannabis While Transporting Them

Police Narcotic Bureau officials have arrested two

persons while transporting 137 kilos and 228 grammes of Kerala Cannabis by a van at Wattala area.

The suspects have been identified as residents of Thaleimannar and Colombo.

The estimated value of the stock of Kerala Cannabis is more than Rs.20 million.