CryoNet #22677 - #22679

CryoNet - Wed 15 Oct 2003

    #22677: CryoNet #22631 - #22635 [Thomas Donaldson]
    #22678: Lou Dobbs on American overpopulation [Mark Plus]
    #22679: the case for (RDA) zinc supplementation [Doug Skrecky]

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Message #22677
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 10:03:48 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <73647.1215@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: CryoNet #22631 - #22635

For Steve Harris:

I enjoyed your comments about CO2 emissions. And most especially, I
too think that nuclear power should get much more attention than 
it has --- intelligent attention, not just construction of reactors
of the 1950's type.

I will also point out that other sources of power than windmills
also exist --- not that windmills can be effectively used everywhere,
but neither can these other sources. For instance, right now a company
is drilling a well to exploit the inner heat of the Earth, in 
Australia. In a sense they are exploiting nuclear power from the
Earth itself, which maintains its heat by the decay of radioactive
elements. Areas in which this will be practical may exist more widely
than areas in which windmills are practical. Tidal power also deserves
mention, though at a minimum it's only likely to be available in areas
close to the sea.

Nuclear reactors have one major advantage: they can be made virtually
anywhere, and used virtually anywhere and at any time, not just when
winds are strong enough or hot areas under the earth are close enough
to the surface. The one issue which they don't (yet) help is that
of powering cars, trucks, buses, etc. However work goes on to solve
that problem, too, and eliminate any use of fuel containing carbon
(think fuel cells, not batteries).

              Best wishes and long long life to all,

                  Thomas Donaldson

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Message #22678
From: "Mark Plus" <markplus@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Lou Dobbs on American overpopulation
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 09:34:15 -0700

Lou Dobbs on CNN this week has been running stories about America's 
population problems.

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/

Apparently the U.S. is adding the equivalent of another Chicago (3 million) 
every year, due to the combination of immigration and natural increase. 
According to Dobbs's show, every additional American needs an acre of 
farmland to feed, so if the current growth continues, by 2030 the domestic 
population will be eating all the agricultural output with nothing left over 
for export.



Mark Plus

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Message #22679
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 11:52:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Skrecky <oberon@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: the case for (RDA) zinc supplementation

        Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2000 Jun;21(6):205-8
        Zinc and immunoresistance to infection in aging: new biological tools.

        Infections can cause mortality when the immune system is damaged.
The catalytic, structural (in zinc-finger proteins) and regulatory roles
of zinc mean that this ion is involved in the maintenance of an effective
immune response. Both zinc deficiency and impaired cell-mediated immunity
combine during aging to result in increased susceptibility to infection.
Dietary supplementation with the recommended daily allowance of zinc for
between one and two months decreases the incidence of infection and
increases the survival rate following infection in the elderly. This
article reviews the biochemical pathways through which zinc might act to
increase immunoresistance to infection in the elderly.

        Int J Immunopharmacol. 1995 Sep;17(9):703-18.
        Reversibility of the thymic involution and of age-related
peripheral immune dysfunctions by zinc supplementation in old mice.

        With advanced ageing the zinc pool undergoes progressive reduction
as shown by the low zinc plasma levels and the negative crude zinc
balance, both in humans and in rodents. It has been suggested that such
zinc deficiency might be involved in many age-related immunological
dysfunctions, including thymic failure. The relevance of zinc for good
functioning of the entire immune system is, at present, well documented.
In particular, zinc is required to confer biological activity to one of
the best-known thymic peptides, thymulin, which is responsible for
cell-mediated immunity. In deep zinc deficiencies, in humans and other
animals, the low thymulin levels are due not to a primary failure of the
thymus, but to a reduced peripheral saturation of thymic hormones by zinc
ions. In aged mice both a reduced peripheral saturation of the hormone
and a decreased production by the thymus were present. Oral zinc
supplementation in old mice (22 months old) for 1 month induced a
complete recovery of crude zinc balance from negative (-1.82) to positive
values (+1.47), similar to those of young animals (+1.67). A full
recovery of thymic functions with a regrowth of the organ and a
partial restoration of the peripheral immune efficiency, as measured by
mitogen responsiveness (PHA and ConA) and natural killer cell (NK)
activity, were observed after zinc supplementation. These findings
clearly pin-point for relevance of zinc for immune efficiency and suggest
that the age-related thymic involution and peripheral immunological
dysfunctions are not intrinsic and irreversible events but are largely
dependent on the altered zinc pool.

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