A total of 70 patients, also known as the Visconti cohort of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, all began treatment between 35 days and 10 weeks of being infected – the baby girl was put on treatment within 30 hours of being born.

The participants were put on antiretroviral drugs for 3 years, at which point they all stopped. Medication can keep the virus under control, but typically, when the drugs are stopped the virus bounces back.

However, this hasn’t happened for 14 of the patients some of whom are still showing no signs of the virus reemerging 10 years later.

14 Patients Cured of HIV

It’s thought that the early administration of treatment is key in curing the virus, which in both cases is still present, and presumably transmissible, but manageable by the body.

Dr Asier Saez-Cirion, from the Institute Pasteur in Paris, noted that it only appeared to work for an estimated 5-15 percent of patients:

“Most individuals who follow the same treatment will not control the infection, but there are a few of them who will…

“They still have HIV, it is not eradication of HIV, it is a kind of remission of the infection.”

The experts aren’t sure if the effects will be permanent, or if it will only last a certain amount of time.
Another factor is that early diagnosis is rather uncommon, some patients maybe infected for years before finding out. However should a manageable cure become commercial, it could help raise awareness to the point where everyone has regular check ups.

Either way it’s certainly another monumental milestone in the battle against HIV.

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I’ve always put this down to the minty fresh flavor of toothpaste, but it’s actually down to a substance known as sodium laureth sulfate (or sodium lauryl ether sulfate, or sodium lauryl sulfate).

This is responsible for creating the foam when brushing with toothpaste, and it’s also the main reason that causes things to taste bad- sodium laureth sulfate can be found in many mints and candies, which is why they have the same affect.

Why Toothpastes Makes Food and Drink Taste Bad

Weblog Mental_Floss explains:

Both SLES and SLS mess with our taste buds in two ways. One, they suppress the receptors on our taste buds that perceive sweetness, inhibiting our ability to pick up the sweet notes of food and drink. And, as if that wasn’t enough, they break up the phospholipids on our tongue. These fatty molecules inhibit our receptors for bitterness and keep bitter tastes from overwhelming us, but when they’re broken down by the surfactants in toothpaste, bitter tastes get enhanced.

In short, SLES and SLS enhance bitter tastes and inhibit sweet ones; making many food and drinks taste different.

While not completely agreed upon, there are several other theories out there too, this is currently the most widely accepted explanation.

So how do you avoid having to consume bad tasting food and drink after you’ve brushed?

Well, many dental professional say that brushing the teeth after breakfast is not as effective as brushing before, which means you’re left with the choice of buying a toothpaste that doesn’t contain SLS.

Of course it might be a little harder to find, but if you’re always pushed for time in the morning and find yourself eating immediately after brushing everyday, using an SLS-free toothpaste can make all the difference when it comes to your breakfast.

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Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a psychiatric disorder that can sometimes occur after experiencing, or witnessing, a life-threatening event.

Researchers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center interviewed over 1,100 breast cancer patients over the age of 20 and found that 23 percent of them developed PTSD symptoms during the first two to three months of diagnosis.

The results also showed that younger women were more likely than older women to have PTSD symptoms, and that Asian and black women had more than a 50 percent higher risk than white women. The study did, however, show the symptoms declined over the following three months.

1 In 4 Breast Cancer Patients Develop PTSD

Lead author Dr. Alfred Neugut, a professor of cancer research and a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and Mailman School of Public Health, said in a Columbia University Medical Center news release:

“This study is one of the first to evaluate the course of PTSD after a diagnosis of breast cancer.”

Neugut, who is also an oncologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia, added:

“The ultimate outcome of this research is to find ways to improve the quality of patients’ lives.

“If we can identify potential risk factors for PTSD, when women are diagnosed with breast cancer, we could provide early prevention and intervention to minimize PTSD symptoms. This approach might also have an indirect impact on the observed racial disparity in breast cancer survival.”

The researchers think the study findings may also apply to patients with other types of cancer. They noted that PTSD symptoms have been reported in many patients diagnosed with prostate cancer and lymphoma.
The findings were released online Feb. 28, and will be published in the upcoming print issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

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Many people consider undergoing cosmetic surgery to rejuvenate facial features, however most opt for a single procedure such as rhinoplasty (nose job), genioplasty (chin surgery), or a facelift.

The new study, conducted by Dr. Dario Bertossi, an associate professor in the department of surgery at the University of Verona and his colleagues, shows that rhinoplasty combine with genioplasty may be the best option when it comes to satisfying and long lasting results.

This is because an aesthetically pleasing face is fundamentally determined by the proportions of the chin and nose, and it’s also the reason why some people who undergo a rhinoplasty may not get the results they expect. Bertossi said:

“We can for sure improve facial profile with stable results with rhinoplasty alone, but the association with genioplasty is fundamental and necessary to achieve the best aesthetic result,”

Rhinoplasty and Genioplasty Best for Perfect Profile

Bertossi’s team analyzed 90 people who underwent simultaneous nose and chins reshaping between January 2002 and January 2004. After three years, the researchers found that 45.6 percent of those who had chin reductions showed no changes in their new chin, and that 52 percent of those who had chin extensions, also showed a “stable” profile – no more than a millimeter of change, the researchers noted.

Overall, the study showed that this combination surgery resulted in minimal change, or instability, in the shape of the patient’s chin, and was often the better solution for people with small chins (microgenia).

Other experts agree. Dr. Jeffrey Salomon, an assistant clinical professor of plastic surgery at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn, not involved with the study, said that doing both procedures at one time made sense since it not only reduces costs but also recovery time.

Salomon did note that these surgeries do carry risks. Nose surgery is often more problematic than chin surgery, “It is decidedly harder to get good rhinoplasty results compared with genioplasty,” Salomon explained. Also, all nose jobs under go some subtle changes over the first 12 to 24 months.

Chin reshaping is a little trickier, however most surgeons can get great results when simple performing chin implants. Chin reshaping is more invasive and more costly compared with chin implants, and the recovery is longer, which raises the risk of complication.

Nevertheless, with modern medicine techniques complications are rare. And as the study shows, most people who undergo chin and nose surgery are happy with the results, for years down the line.
The study was published online March 14 in JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery.

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The spoof video shows jokes about how guys would use the platform – by accessing information online and using it to impress the girl. While comical and light-hearted, the video raise serious issues about how the system could be abused.

When put together with facial recognition software Google Glass could potentially become an identity mapping platform on which everyone, everywhere is begin recorded, should the number of wearers increase to match those using smartphones that is.

The Google Glasses contain a battery, a tiny computer running, a camera, wireless link, and a small heads up display that allows users to view the Internet, access videos, pictures, emails, and communicate in real time, using either voice or finger commands.

Speaking at a recent TED conference in Los Angles how about we use mobile technology, Brin said:

“Is this the way you’re meant to interact with other people? It’s kind of emasculating. Is this what you’re meant to do with your body?”

He hopes that the glasses will lead to a more efficient and natural way of interacting with others online.

Just a week after Brin’s comments, The Telegraph UK, published an article on a study that found girls aged between 7 and 15 are more likely to own a smartphone than boys, and that girls were also 45 percent more likely to use their phones everyday.

Whether this reflects masculinity or simply interest in mobile technology is questionable as the same study, conducted my Mintel, also found that girls were more likely to own MP3 players and laptops, whereas more boys owned desktop computers – gaming reasons spring to mind here.

Emasculating or not, consistently burying your head in a smartphone display is something that seems to have taken over most major cities. Perhaps as awkward as they may seem, the Google Glasses could indeed give us a new way to communicate without having to take our eyes away from the world, and those around us. But at the same time, it could also be taking away what little freedom we seem to have left.

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For something rather niche, and a little chiq geek, a ridiculous price tag wouldn’t be a complete shock, however Revlon have chosen to keep it rather cheap and cheerful at just 10 dollars.

As you’d expect from a quality company, and the price, the tweezers themselves are durable and lightweight. They also feature ‘perfectly aligned slanted tips for high precision tweezing’, and ‘perfect tension for superior control’.

Revlon Spot Light Tweezers

Although a light might not teach the worst make up artist perfect the best looking eyebrows, they will certainly come in handy in dimly lit areas.

The topic of grooming eyebrows does bring to mind a rather funny joke:

“That’s right ladies, God gave you eyebrows. So you go shave them off and draw them back on with a lump of coal.” [Frankie Boyle]

A quick disclaimer! If you do chose to search this particular Scottish comedian I just quoted, watch with caution he’s known for rather offensive comedy.

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The infant had tested positive on five separate occasions, but after the treatment and a year without antiretroviral medications, the baby is still free from the disease.

Shortly after birth from an HIV-positive mother, the baby was given an aggressive treatment regime, typically an uncommon practice.

It’s thought that this aggressive approach to treatment contributed to the annihilation of the virus by stopping it before it took take hold.

If the diagnosis is confirmed, it will be only the second well documented case in the world where a person has been completely cured of the virus – the first was Timothy Brown, a.k.a The Berlin patient, a middle-aged man with leukemia who received a bone-marrow transplant from a donor who was genetically resistant to H.I.V.

Mississippi Doctors Cure Baby Girl of H.I.V.

The mother arrived at the hospital in the fall of 2010 already in labor and gave birth prematurely. The woman had not sought medical advise during the pregnancy and did not know she had H.I.V. until a post pregnancy test showed she might be infected.

The baby, just 30 hours old, was then put on antiretroviral drugs to help fight the virus in its early stages. However, based on her experience treating H.I.V.-positive patients, Dr. Hannah B. Gay, an associate professor of pediatrics, decided to drop the two-drug approach applied as a prophylaxis, and administer a three-drug regime aimed directly at treatment.

The virus then began to decline rapidly until it was completely undetectable a month later. After 18 months free from the virus, the treatment was stopped.

When the mother returned 5 months later for a check up, Dr. Gay found the tests to be negative, even though she expected otherwise.

As with most scientific breakthroughs, some experts still remain skeptical about the results. Dr. Daniel R. Kuritzkes, chief of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, noted that it was uncertain if the child was indeed infected since the doctors began treatment before receiving test results.

However the Mississippi team says that five tests returned positive conclusions, and that its modified treatment shows a new effective method of treating the virus.

Furthers studies are now planned to see if similar aggressive treatment shows the same success. And should they do so, we may finally have a functional cure for H.I.V. infected babies, and this could indeed lead to further progress in the treatment of HIV and AIDS in adults.

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Drinking water is the elixir of life, without it us weak humans simply couldn’t survive. In order to supply the vast quantities of water we drink, many countries rely on reverse osmosis or desalinization plants.

Both methods utilize a semipermeable membrane through which water flows and molecules are separated. For desalinization, the process typically employs a sheet of thin-film composite (TFC) membrane, made from a layer of polyimide stacked on a porous layer of polysulfone, but these membranes are thick and require large amounts of energy and pressure to blast water through them.

Lockheed Martins new technique uses a material called Perforene – made from single atom-thick sheets of graphene. Because these sheets are so thin, water is able to flow through them with ease, and with holes measuring around 100 nm in diameter, dissolved salt molecules are caught while the water passes on by.

New Graphene Material Perforene Desalinizes Saltwater

Under a microscope Perforene looks like chicken wire, but is actually 1000 times stronger than steel. The inventor of the material, John Stetson said:

“It’s 500 times thinner than the best filter on the market today and a thousand times stronger. The energy that’s required and the pressure that’s required to filter salt is approximately 100 times less.” [Reuters]

Unfortunately there’s no word when this technology might be commercially available, however the promise of low cost and efficiency to bring healthy drinking water to many areas of the world where people are still cut off from a regular supply.

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The study, conducted by a UK website UndercoverLovers.com, asked 3,000 of it’s philandering members how much weight (if any) they had lost since being the affair.

Of the 1,500 female respondents 62 percent reported some weight loss, dropping an average of 10lbs. Of the male respondents, 53 reported weightless, dropping an average of 6lbs.

The website’s spokesperson, Emily Pope, explained in a press release:

“It’s well known that we eat more, and less healthily, when we’re unhappy. Many UndercoverLovers.com members have endured years, and in some cases decades, of marital unhappiness before embarking on their affair. The instant joy and boost to self-esteem that many experience by having a new lover and the desire to look their best for them, can provide the perfect incentive to lose weight.”

Why Cheating Aids Weight Loss

Pope added that increase sexual activity might also contribute to the extra calories burned.

But some experts are quick to dispute the study’s findings. Psychologist and HuffPost Divorce blogger, Dr. Jeff Gardere, noted that the added stress from keeping an affair secret could also be behind the weight loss. He said:

“No matter how much fun you may be having during these one night stands and adulterous affairs, the stress that is caused by sneaking around and not getting caught, and lying to your spouse is tremendous,”

“Feeling guilt after the sex act and the affair also brings on additional stress too. So yes, you are losing weight during your illicit physical/sexual activity and even losing additional weight from the aforementioned stress, but this stress is also placing you at risk for all sorts of physiological illnesses.”

Others experts such as nutritionist and Huff Post Divorce blogger Barbara Mendez explained the effects of having an affair slowly wear off, at which point the weight is likely to return.

The dopamine rush of an affair is like the rush you get when you fall in love which in turn suppresses appetite. So you eat less and that added to the calories burned would indeed help you lose weight. But it is short lived. As soon as the affair goes sour, the weight will likely come back.”

Nevertheless, while the study is far from conclusive, it would seem that the extra hide and play involved with cheating on your partner does indeed help some people drop off the weight.

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The research, conducted by French scientists at the department of dermatology at Archet Hospital in Nice, suggests that skin irritation due to shaving, clipping or waxing the genital area could explain the increase of a sexually transmitted disease called molluscum contagiosum.

Lead author of the study, Dr. Francois Desruelles, said:

“Genital hair removal has become a fashion phenomenon in the last decade. At the same time, the number of cases of molluscum contagiosum has risen.”

Removing Genital Hair Could Increase Risk of Pox Infection

Molluscum contagiosum manifests as rash, which is usually seen in children or people with impaired immune systems, but it can also be sexually transmitted. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the molluscum rash usually disappears within a year without treatment and typically does not leave scarring.

To find the link, the study authors analyzed 30 infected French patients who sought treatment from an unnamed private skin care clinic in Nice during 2011 and 2012. The average age of the patients was around 30 years, and 24 of them were men, all of whom displayed the signs of infection – pearl-like, raised skin bumps – some more severe than others.

Nevertheless, the researchers found that all of the patients had undergone pubic hair removal, with shaving being the top method of choice. 10 percent chose waxing and 13 percent chose clipping.

The findings also showed that one-third of the patients suffered from other skin issues, such as warts, bacterial skin infections, cysts, scars, and/or ingrown hairs.

The authors theorized that the pox virus might actually spread through self-infection – scratching irritated skin – provoked by the hair removal process. Personal hygiene was also considered as a likely factor of self-infection, however genital shaving in particular appeared to elevate infection risk.

Desruelles explained that laser hair removal and waxing were likely to be less risky hair removal techniques since they leave no microscopic cuts or bleeding.

The study was published in online in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections, March 19, 2013.

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