Αλέξανδρος Γ. Σφακιανάκης: 12/25/18

Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Leonardo DiCaprio’s charitable foundation donates $100 MILLION to help fight climate change

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Yes, this Dicaprio, ~ctm From The Mail Online By Rebecca Lawrence For Mailonline Published: 04:29 EST, 21 December 2018 | Updated: 04:31 EST, 21 December 2018 Leonardo DiCaprio's eponymous foundation has now raised $100 million towards helping the fight against climate change. The actor, 44, set up the charity in 1998 to promote environmental…

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Trump Overhauled The Way We Prevent Wildfires And The Media Totally Missed It

From The Daily Caller Trump Takes Steps To Prevent Catastrophic Forest Fires, Including More Logging 7:22 AM 12/24/2018 | Energy Michael Bastasch | Energy Editor President Trump issued an executive order allowing agencies to do more to prevent massive wildfires. The order came one day after Trump signed GOP-backed wildfire legislation. Wildfires have burned more…

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The Dryer Gets Wetter

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Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach I keep reading that one of the things that we are already seeing (or that is predicted) is that the wet areas of the planet are getting wetter and the dry areas are getting dryer, viz: Expect the Wet to Get Wetter, and the Dry, Drier – Center for Climate…

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“Climate Hero” China’s Ecuadorian Earthquake Zone Dam, Paid for by Amazonian Oil

Guest essay by Eric Worrall Ecuador is scrambling to find a way out of a financial mess, a large green energy dam project built on a raft of alleged Chinese bribe money and unaffordable repayment terms, in the shadow of the unstable Revantador Volcano. It Doesn't Matter if Ecuador Can Afford This Dam. China Still…

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Merry Christmas Everyone!

I've been able to take some much needed time-off, thanks to Charles Rotter aka "Charles the Moderator", but I wanted to say how much I appreciate this opportunity to reach around the world with our message, and to touch lives. I've been given a great gift. I also wish to thank Kip Hansen, who was…

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Hinode X-ray telescope 2019 Calendar: Sun, Sun and Sun

Merry Christmas, http://bit.ly/2rOR8BM HT and thanks/Willie Soon

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[ASAP] Colloidal Nanocrystals as Heterogeneous Catalysts for Electrochemical CO2 Conversion

TOC Graphic

Chemistry of Materials

DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b04155

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New threat to ozone recovery

From EurekAlert! Public Release: 20-Dec-2018 New threat to ozone recovery Study finds chloroform emissions, on the rise in East Asia, could delay ozone recovery by up to 8 years Massachusetts Institute of Technology Earlier this year, the United Nations announced some much-needed, positive news about the environment: The ozone layer, which shields the Earth from…

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The Christmas Miracle Of Hamburg… Once Haughty Der Spiegel Now Says Rural Conservative America Is “Fantastic!”

It all happened in only a matter of hours, without any management overhaul, comprehensive restructuring or total management-instituted culture change within its newsroom: Influential German leftist news giant Der Spiegel went from a rural-America-loathing metropolitan media outlet to a humbled institution who suddenly loved the American heartland people and today is begging for forgiveness and a chance to make good.

Background here.

Original image cropped here, RETRO POWER Full Classic Movies.

This is nothing short of a Christmas miracle

Just days ago the Hamburg-based hotbed of leftist journalists had regarded rural conservative Americans as unsophisticated, uneducated. white-angry yahoos who drove gas-guzzling pickups, brandished guns, were religious, Creationist, toothless, denied climate change, shopped at Walmart, wore sleeveless shirts and guzzled disgustingly cheap beer from cans – cultural and intellectual Neanderthals in Spiegel's eyes.

These malicious insults were heard on a daily basis from the snobby, elitist German mainstream media, among them Spiegel – so much so that today common Germans routinely repeat the slurs (even though many have never been to the country).

So what suddenly happened at Der Spiegel? How did rural America go from this to "fantastic"!

This is the Christmas Miracle of Hamburg, the cosmopolitan German city where Der Spiegel is based.

The Spirit of Jayson Blair

It seems the Spirit of Jayson Blair paid recently a late evening visit and warned Der Spiegel that – beginning at midnight – three ghosts would visit and show the snobby news outlet that it too was forging its own chain, link by link, and was well on its way to suffering Blair's fake news fate. And this could only be averted if rapid change of heart took place in its editorial rooms: "When I lived, my spirit like yours never walked beyond the narrow limits of our newshouse…objective journalism should be our business, Der Spiegel, but we seldom attend to it, as you shall see!"

Years of slander

Then at the stroke of midnight the Ghost of the Past appeared and showed what the awful, one-sided journalism Der Spiegel had practiced over the years, maliciously slandering rural Americans and their values. Der Spiegel looked on in horror.

Then at 1 a.m. came the Ghost of the Present, which showed Der Spiegel how the public was perceiving and ridiculing them as the Lügenpresse, and what a lowlife media outlet the leftist cosmopolitan magazine had become: "Der Spiegel! The sins of the media are huge. A never ending symphony of villainy, infamy, duplicity, deceit and subterfuge. And no one is worse than Der Spiegel," the Ghost of the Present thundered!

Next came the deathly Ghost of the Future, which showed that unless Spiegel changed, the Hamburg-based Conservative-America-bashing magazine would soon find its name engraved on a tombstone and would be forever damned.

Rural America is "fantastic"

Terrified by these shocking visions, Spiegel editors awoke trembling the very next morning, humbled and totally transformed, and pledging to make good.

They immediately traveled out to rural America Fergus Falls to deliver the most imaginably sincere and humble apology for their earlier trashing of these good people. They took an oath to be more respectful, and assured they in fact loved Trump-voting rural America and declared how much they really admired all the Tiny Tim Americans. Spiegel called Fergus Falls "fantastic".

All of it happened overnight. And for those who know Spiegel and the mainstream German media culture, it is nothing short of a Christmas miracle.

But just how long will this miraculous self-redemption last? Is it really a genuine transformation, or is it just more Relotius-quality fake reporting by Spiegel? We will see.

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Merry Federally Recognized Holyday of December 25th That Shall Remain Nameless!

God bless us, everyone! Prayerful thanks to loyal readers who have stuck with us these many years. Peace on earth, goodwill to men.

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Herbal Medicine in the Management of Tinnitus

AbstractTinnitus, which is commonly defined as "ringing in the ears" by the patients, is a perception of an auditory sensation without any accompanying external stimulation. It accounts for a notable part of visits in otolaryngology clinics and has been estimated to involve about 5–15% of adult population making serious problems in 3–5% of patients. Tinnitus causes a lot of problems for patients, their family, and guardians and significantly decreases quality of life of patients. Many treatment methods have been proposed and presented for Tinnitus since the first year of diagnosis. These methods range from conservative management and chemical medications to surgical methods. As the other diseases and conditions, herbal medicine has been trying to treat Tinnitus and a variety of medications have been proposed. In this chapter, we aimed to have a comprehensive review on the current herbal medications of Tinnitus from all over the world.
Keywordstinnitus herbal medicine treatment epidemiology Ginkgo bilobaChapter and author infoShow +1. Tinnitus: definition, etiology, and epidemiologyTinnitus, which is commonly defined as "ringing in the ears" by the patients, is a perception of an auditory sensation without any accompanying external stimulation [1, 2]. It accounts for a notable part of visit in otolaryngology clinics and has been estimated to involve about 5–15% of adult population making serious problems in 3–5% of patients [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
Tinnitus causes a lot of problems for patients, their family, and guardians and significantly decreases quality of life of patients. Most of the patients have complaints with sleep disorders, depression, decreased self-confidence, and altered social communications as well as difficulties in quotidian activities [2].
Tinnitus is generally categorized into two types: subjective and objective. A majority of patients suffer from a subjective tinnitus, which means perception of an auditory sensation without any evident stimulus. In some patients, a kind of organic measurable stimulus such as glomus tumor, by making turbulence of blood flow, is the cause for tinnitus, which is called objective tinnitus [1, 2]. This type of tinnitus can be found by examiner using an ear-canal microphone or stethoscope [6].
A variety of risk factors have been reported for subjective tinnitus so far; hearing loss, depression, head trauma, and medication-related ototoxicity [7, 8, 9]. Some other conditions may have a role in predisposing patients to tinnitus such as acoustic trauma and presbycusis, and it may be associated with temporomandibular joint (TMJ) or cervical spine dysfunctions (somatic tinnitus) as well as depression and anxiety [10, 11, 12, 13, 14].
2. Current treatmentsCurrently, United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the European Medicine Agency has not approved any drug for the treatment of tinnitus [15]. The complex mechanism and innate diversity in etiology of tinnitus have made its treatment a dilemma for physicians and specially otolaryngologists. Despite considerable number of researches, none of the so far presented medications and treatments has resulted in a sustained reduction in perception of tinnitus [16]. No appropriately controlled clinical trials have been successful to prove efficacy of a single drug. Thus, pharmacological treatment of tinnitus seems to be ineffective [17, 18]. Antidepressants are more frequently prescribed for tinnitus and seem to be effective but with a notable number of side effects. Anticonvulsants, benzodiazepines, lidocaine, and antispasmodics are also among commonly prescribed medications [19]. Voice therapy, using hearing aids, adjuvant therapies as well as environmental sound enrichment are the most common nonmedical approaches to Tinnitus [20].
Regarding the abovementioned issues, there are varieties of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments, which have been experimented in clinical stage for tinnitus. Herbal medicine or acupuncture, as the most popular types of CAMs therapy among people, have been shown to be effective in management of tinnitus when prescribed solely or in combination [21, 22]. Most of the CAM studies have a small sample size and few methodological pitfalls make it difficult to decide firmly about these treatments.
Some of medicinal herbs and their derivates have been evaluated in various phases of studies: in vitro, in vivo, and even in small to large scale clinical trials [23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]. In fact, people in different regions of the world have different approaches to medicinal plants and use a variety of herbal medications for treating different diseases and conditions, which have not yet been scientifically assessed [31, 32]. In this chapter, we will discuss and review current traditional and herbal medicine treatments with approved or possible effects on management of Tinnitus.
3. Ginkgo biloba (Jinko)Ginkgo biloba from the Ginkgoaceae family is a Chinese traditional medicine herb, which is being used for the treatment of asthma and bronchitis for a long time [22, 33]. It has gotten popular also in western countries as well as in Asian ones [34]. Ginkgo biloba is widely available as easily accessible, inexpensive, and relatively safe leaf extracts with various reported therapeutic benefits such as improved cognition and memory as well as sexual function [35, 36]. These improvements beside other biological effects of Jinko extracts such as improvement of microcirculation and neuroprotection are attributable to flavonoid glycosides and terpene lactones, active pharmacologic gradients of Ginkgo biloba. It should be pointed that seeds play a remarkable role in Chinese traditional medicine and they are the most commonly used parts of plants for herbal medications, while Ginkgo biloba is processed from the plants' leaves.
Jinko has been proposed for management of various central nervous system pathologies including tinnitus; however, some previous researches have reported no beneficial effects for Ginkgo biloba in treatment of tinnitus [36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41]. Nevertheless, no certain decide can be made regarding effects of Ginkgo biloba on management of tinnitus according to its complex pharmacological profile, which shows need for further accurate researches [42].
4. Bojungikgitang and banhabaekchulchonmatang (traditional Korean medicine)Bojungikgitang and banhabaekchulchonmatang have been approved by Korea Food and Drug Administration and are being widely used in Korea for treatment of Tinnitus because of their very low rate of adverse effects [16]. These two herbal medications have found their places among Korean people and physicians. Traditional Korean medicine (TKM) believes that Tinnitus is mainly caused from irregularities in bowel and visceral (zang-fu) functioning [16]. According to TKM, gallbladder deficiency associated with tinnitus is managed by banhabaekchulchonmatang, and bojungikgitang is used to manage the pattern of qi-deficiency [21]. Both of these drugs are now fully covered by Korean National Health Insurance (KNHI).
5. Gushen PianasGushen Pianas is a novel Chinese medicinal herb, which is being used in the treatment of sensorineural hearing loss and Tinnitus. Phlegm-accumulation stasis and splenonephric hypofunction are the two main proposed mechanisms of action for Gushen Pianas in treatment of Tinnitus [43]. This medication has been developed by Institute of Otorhinolaryngology of Chinese PLA General Hospital and Wuhan Kexing Biomedical Development Co.
Effectiveness of the drug was evaluated in a phase 2 double-blind randomized clinical trial on 120 patients with sensorineural deafness associated with tinnitus. Patients received five tablets of Gushen Pianas every 8 hours and the effect was assessed after 4 weeks. The findings suggested Gushen Pianas as a suitable treatment for hearing loss with no evident adverse effects [43].
6. Panax ginseng (Jinseng)Root of the Panax ginseng, with local name of Jinseng, a Chinese medicinal plant from the Araliaceae family has been being used for treatment of Tinnitus since dawn of traditional medicine [44]. Korean red ginseng (KRG) is a traditional Korean herbal medication, which has been used for more than 2000 years, believed to have several benefits for human body [45]. It is considered that oxidative stress is the cause for idiopathic tinnitus and patients may take benefits from oral antioxidant therapy [46, 47]. So, KRG has been proposed for treatment of tinnitus as it inhibits production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and also attenuates hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress in human neuroblastoma cells [48, 49]. The effect of KRG (3000 mg/day) was evaluated in a randomized clinical trial in which the patients showed a significant reduction in tinnitus handicap inventory (THI) score and increased quality of life. Also some adverse effects have been reported for Jinseng and specially KRG in literature. Deficiency of vital energy (DE), known as qi-deficiency, is a traditional Chinese medicine syndrome, which indicates the disease emerging identity. Some studies believe that Ginseng, especially Korean Red Ginseng, might cause some adverse effects if the patient's body constitution does not match the qi-deficiency. However, others have reported the Ginseng as the treatment of qi-deficiency caused by any reasons [50].
Further researches are needed to assess beneficial and adverse effects of KRG more accurately.
7. GarlicPrevious conducted researches have reported a lipid-lowering effect for garlic and some others have counted fibrinolytic activity and lowering blood pressure as therapeutic roles of garlic. Few studies have also reported garlic to be beneficial for treatment of tinnitus [6]. Garlic's effect on tinnitus is attributable to improve blood flow of cochlea as a result of its antiplaque formation ability, stabilizing blood pressure, and augmentation in antioxidant capability of the blood. No scientific studies have been conducted for approving these effects and all of them are theoretical [51].
8. Yoku-kan-sanThere are more than 120 plants approved by Japanese ministry of health, labor, and welfare, which are now being used in practice as traditional medications [52]. Yoku-kan-san, a traditional Japanese herbal medication, is one of these approved herbal medications composed from seven plants (Angelicae Radix, Atractylodis Lanceae Rhizoma, Bupleuri Radix, Poria, Glycyrrhizae Radix, Cnidii Rhizoma, and Uncariae Uncis Cum Ramlus). This combination is more frequently used as treatment of psychological conditions such as irritability, insomnia, night terrors, and hypnic myoclonia, especially in infant patients [53]. Although, there are not enough clinical investigation and convincing data for beneficial effect of Yoku-kan-san on tinnitus, but it has been shown to be effective for tinnitus resulted from undifferentiated somatoform disorder in a 44-year-old woman [54]. There is an obvious need for more clinical researches to support such kind of case reports.
Today's world is going toward the use of medicinal plants and herbal medicines, which are now finding their place among people. Conditions with no precise pharmacologic treatment, such as tinnitus, are more probable to be resolved by herbal medications. In this chapter, we tried to review current medicinal plants for treatment of tinnitus; however, currently, there is a lack of clinical research in this issue. The effect of herbal medications on tinnitus should be investigated in more future clinical researches.
https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/herbal-medicine-in-the-management-of-tinnitus/