Slashdot Mirror
Dye Used In Blue M&Ms Can Lessen Spinal Injury
SydShamino writes "Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found that the dye used in blue M&Ms and other foods can, when given intravenously to a lab rat shortly after a spinal injury, minimize secondary damage caused by the body when it kills off nearby healthy cells. The dye is called BBG or Brilliant Blue G. Given that 85% of spinal injury patients are currently untreated (and some doctors don't trust the treatment given to the other 15%), a relatively safe treatment like this could help preserve some function for thousands of patients. The best part is that in lab rats the subjects given the treatment turn blue." The researchers are "pulling together an application to be lodged with the FDA to stage the first clinical trials of BBG on human patients."
"... so every year we have a bring-your-child-to-work day where we inject some M&M dye into the lab rats and let the kids play with them. And Gunderson's kid has this nasty tendency to just baseball them into the wall and, well, we noticed the blue colored mice were recovering much better from the wall impact injuries ..."
Seriously though is there like a lab out there giving rats spinal injuries and jacking them full of chemicals? Cause if there is, I've got my resume handy!
My work here is dung.
...I've been focusing on the green ones!
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
Don't take the red pill. Take the blue pill. It's better for your spine.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
The best part is that in lab rats the subjects given the treatment turn blue.
Do they also start taking part in voiceless percussion stage performances?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Notice that the eyes have completely changed color as well. I'm thinking I do not want my eyes filled with blue tint.
Yeah, given the choice between blue tinted eyes and spinal injury most people will chose spinal injury, I know I would.
That is the nature of research with animals. There is regulation (here in the U.S) that attempts to minimize pain when possible and guidelines that must be followed to acquire animals for research, but there has been substantial progress made through animal research. If you've got a viable alternative I'm sure it would be considered. Take a look at the wiki page for more info.
Maybe M&M/Mars, thanks to all the free and undeserved publicity, would be willing to help fund the necessary study, since no drug company seems interested in doing so (after all, there's no profit in selling a commodity food coloring.)
Those who fail to understand communication protocols, are doomed to repeat them over port 80.
No need, there are lots of naturally occuring yellow foods. Some tomatos, some potatos, squash, egg yolk, corn...
Yellow snow... no, wait, scratch that off the list.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
The spice must flow!?
Which means that restricting it to use in trauma centers is going to end up with a lot of nonurban victims left paralyzed for life. Trouble is, administering it outside of a trauma center is going to cause a lot of problems with licensure etc. Which causes me, as a nonurban first responder, to simultaneously stress out and reach for the popcorn.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
And since it's an injected drug, there are all sorts of legal restrictions on who can administer it. The list does not include EMT-Bs (basic emergency medical techs), only full paramedics [1] -- who are not always around when you need one.
[1] Training for paramedics beyond the standard "field medic" is extensive, including cadaver labs and stuff like that. Even so, they don't administer drugs without explicit direction from medical control (typically nearby ER doc.)
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
We can fix the mechanical damage to the bones and ligaments, but the current best-practice treatment for the nerve damage consists of waiting to see how bad it is, followed by physical therapy. After hundreds of years of research, we haven't found anything more effective, which is what makes this such big news.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
Are these humans lawyers, music industry executives, or Microsoft programmers? Context is key.
Help stamp out iliturcy.