WEIRD and decidedly offbeat Medical research findings of 2009

Herald Sun ^ | 12/18/09 | AAP

[Mikey_1962]

Among the weird findings:

Pulling a tick off the wrong way can lead to meat allergy. An Australian doctor found the link while studying rising cases of the allergy among people who live on Sydney's tick-prone northern beaches. "I now tell everybody I see who lives anywhere near ticks to use `Aerostart' (spray-on engine cleaner) or another high-alcohol substance," said Dr Sheryl van Nunen. "Stun the tick before you scrape it out and it can't inject what it injects."

The first US case of "cannabinoid hyperemesis" was recorded in the medical literature. The syndrome was first described in 2004 in 20 South Australian men. Sufferers experience nausea and vomiting as a result of chronic cannabis use, but these ill effects are relieved by taking a very hot shower. "Grown men, screaming in pain, sweating profusely, vomiting every 30 seconds and demanding to be allowed to use the shower. It's a very dramatic presentation," an Adelaide-based doctor said.

US surgeons successfully restored a woman's sight by pulling out one of her teeth, placing a lens inside the tooth and then implanting the tooth in her eyeball. The technique can only be used when a person has a scarred cornea on an otherwise healthy eye.

Having a hook worm in your stomach was found to be an effective treatment for coeliac disease. The parasite reduced the sensitivity of the immune system, which would otherwise malfunction and attack the stomach lining. Despite the "yuck factor", 20 study participants opted to keep their hookworm at the end of an Australian trial.

- A testosterone patch designed to pep up a woman's sex drive received the thumbs down in a study published in the UK's Drugs and Therapeutics Bulletin. The side effects included acne, excess hair, breast pain, weight gain, insomnia, voice deepening and migraine.

[Mikey_1962]

More Tax payer funded research at the link.

[TC Rider]

LOL, a few of these have shown up on episodes of 'House'.

[Cacique]

btt

[hennie pennie]

eeeeeeK - check out the hookworm ‘cure’ for celiac - eeeeeeeeeeeeK!!

[Red Badger]

"Grown men, screaming in pain, sweating profusely, vomiting every 30 seconds and demanding to be allowed to use the shower. It's a very dramatic presentation," an Adelaide-based doctor said.

Sounds like a normal day in Sham Francrisco.............

[JoeProBono]

[dangerdoc]

bump

[paulycy]

"Oops."

[muawiyah]

Hookworms also cause anemia.

I think the thought that wheat gluten intolerant folks would prefer having hookworms to having Celiac Disease is instructive.

I'm not going to run out and find some hookworms to snarf down but there may be something in their chemistry that causes the immune system (the angry T-Cells) to quit attacking the intestines just because there's wheat gluten in them.

Or, maybe the impact is more general, and that could be quite dangerous.

[hennie pennie]

Over the years I've noticed that the BBC has frequently reported about research into hookworms and allergy - evidentally they also assist in the treatment of asthma.

Interestingly, in this quick search I did at google, there is mention that in the southeastern USA hookworms used to flourish, something I'd never known before.

Surprising, as so many nutrition books devote a chapter to pellagra in the southeast, so it's odd they never mentioned the high incidence of hookworm infestation.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&num=50&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=site%3Awww.bbc.co.uk+hookworm