Monthly Archives: February 2010

Dogs and Order: SDU

February 23, 2010 | Editor | Leave a comment

There’s not much in life that’s more comforting than a warm, fuzzy dog.  In addition, they seem to know when we need their comfort. Fortunately, more and more dogs are being used for therapy to help people through tough situations.

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Chicken soup for colds, chicken eye research for blindness

February 23, 2010 | Editor | Leave a comment

The whole “dogs are color blind” myth was disproved quite a while ago, and now science shows that chickens and other birds may have better color vision than people do.  It may be due to evolution – as birds evolved, they spent more time in sunlight than most mammals did – but chickens (and other birds) have better organization of the receptors in their eyes that detect color.  Learning more about chicken eyes could help researchers find treatments and cures for many eye diseases that can cause blindness.

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PTSD prescription…get a pet

February 16, 2010 | Editor | Leave a comment

Pets for Vets is one of several non-profit organizations that matches veterans with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) or other war-related disorders with homeless pets.  They’ve found that pets help these veterans better cope with their problems as well as providing that unconditional love that pets do so well.

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Animal diseases don’t just affect animals

February 16, 2010 | Editor | Leave a comment

…they affect people, too.  We’re not just talking about zoonotic (pronounced “zoo-oh-NOT-ik”) diseases, which can be passed from animals to people – we’re talking about diseases that can wipe out an entire family’s (or community’s) source of self-reliance and income.  A disease like foot and mouth disease, which caused billions of dollars in animal and economic losses when an outbreak occurred in the U.K. in 2001, could be even more devastating if it killed off a large number (or all) of the animals in an underdeveloped country that relies on livestock for transportation, work and food.

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Muscle-bound monkeys could help cure muscular dystrophy

February 9, 2010 | Editor | Leave a comment

Gene therapy helped monkeys grow bigger muscles, and this finding may lead to new therapies to help people with muscular dystrophy.  A protein called myostatin puts the brakes on muscle growth, and stopping the action of myostatin lets the muscles grow – much in the same way that letting off the brake can help a car go a little faster.  By inserting a gene that increased the production of a protein that stops the action of myostatin, researchers were able to increase muscle growth.  Human trials may not be too far away, providing hope for many people with muscular diseases.

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