Category Archives: Transhuman News

Treatment for chronic pain has changed very little over the last fifty years. Now however it is feasible to identify molecules which can act as analgesics without entailing the notorious adverse side-effects.

While transhumanist thinkers hold out the promise of enhancing and optimising the human body by means of biotechnologies, at the other end of the scale the Analgesia Institute is working to promote a unified approach to the management of chronic pain using less invasive analgesics. Chronic pain affects on average one adult European in five, a percentage which increases with age. Medical practitioners in the 20th century became able to treat this type of pain with pharmaceutical products, from morphine (discovered in 1803) and aspirin (in 1899), to the more recent Ibuprofen and anti-depressants from the 1960s onwards. The cost of pain management worldwide, using solely the drugs available today, is estimated in the tens of billions of dollars. Nevertheless these solutions are still inadequate and innovation is sluggish despite huge investment by the pharmaceutical industry. Now the Analgesia Institute, founded in 2008 as a part of the University of Auvergne at Clermont-Ferrand in central France a cluster of a dozen public and private institutions is conducting research which goes in the opposite direction to that usually taken by the pharmaceutical industry. Drawing on data from patient consultations, they have been tracing back the paths taken by different molecules with analgesic effect..

Analgesics are categorised according to the intensity of the pain they are able to treat, ranging from paracetamol to strong opioids of which the best known is morphine. The strongest morphine derivatives are undoubtedly no less effective than when they were discovered, but they do have the disadvantage of entailing serious side effects such as nausea and addiction, which means they cannot be widely prescribed except to treat acute pain. However, researchers working at the University of Auvergne have been trying to find a way to get rid of the side effects of morphine treatment. They have succeeded in isolating a particular potassium ion channel known as TREK-1, which inhibits neuronal activity, thus acting as an analgesic but without the usual side effects. Alice Corteval, Operational Director at the Analgesia Institute, explains that once you understand the path that the analgesic effect takes, you no longer need to actually use morphine because there are other molecules which can do the job just as well. In fact the teams working at the Analgesia Institute have already progressed from the research phase to successfully synthesising several such molecules.

Other innovations designed to treat pain use a similar approach, which consists in isolating neuron receptors activated by the passage of an analgesic that can then be re-activated by using synthetic molecules. For example neuropathic pain, which results when highly sensitive nerves are damaged, can be treated with medicine that is therapeutic but not in itself an analgesic. Moreover, quite apart from pain treatment, by taking research into pathology in general upstream, the Analgesia Institute is helping to create a new holistic approach to the medical treatment of both people and animals, which has over-used antibiotics, leading to widespread antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that is now rendering some once-powerful antibiotics ineffective. As Alice Corteval explains, this One Health concept takes a wider view of the food chain, focusing on the need to find new ways to treat pathology in farm animals as this is ultimately linked to human health through the meat we consume.

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Ending Chronic Pain the Key Medical Innovation of the 21st Century?

Joan Rivers once said, You know youre getting old when you buy a sexy sheer nightgown and dont know anyone who can see through it. No matter what your fashion preference, these magazine can help you choose something that you (and your audience) might appreciate.

Let us count the ways we love Cosmopolitans truly fearless and hilarious approach to fashion. We wouldnt describe it as wearable, but its eye-catching fashion spreads are designed for maximum wow along with a good laugh. One such spread is shot from the top of a Times Square tour bus with little inside jokes. A Jackson Pollock-inspired graphic dress shot outside the Met Museum touts Charles James (known for his sophisticated styles.)

A geometric print dress (in leather) with a photo of Lady Liberty amuses. And how can you not pick up this magazine with headlines like: Get The Ass you Deserve, and Men Only Need Two Things Grilled Cheese and Sex, a line uttered by sexpot actress Emmy Rossum, its cover girl. Shes braless in a tuxedo jacket paired with spray-on red pants, and inside models silky bras including one with metal studs and another paired with zebra print gladiator sandals. Too much for ya? Its what youre going to shop for in October, it says.

Considering Marie Claire is celebrating its 20th Anniversary with this September issue, its hard to understand why the mag serves up Vogues warmed-up leftovers aka cover girl Blake Lively. The actress already told Vogue in August about her new Martha Stewart wannabe lifestyle Website and appeared on its cover last month. Are there too few starlets to go around? Since its fall, we expect creative fashion spreads but MCs are way too conceptual for us. How many sleepless nights must creative director Nina Garcia have spent to achieve the kind of hallucinations that appear on its pages?

No one can convince us that Christmas snowflake sweaters are cool. Tweed-encircled Chanel glasses? Blankets as coats?Nope. Not buying it. The magazine grabs an interview and a fashion spread with NBC News Chief Deborah Turness showing up in a white dress and unflattering black booties. We dont think shes quite ready for the victory tour yet though. MC must have gone to press before Meet the Press host David Gregory stepped aside. In its closing 20 Questions for Gwyneth Paltrow, we find her greatest indulgence is not diamond jewelry or expensive footwear but fried food.

Glamour attempts to one-up Marie Claire by offering 1001 fall upgrades in its own September fashion special. Marie Claire has a skimpy 951 in case you are counting. Glamours big scoop this month is a photo of its cover girl actress Olivia Wilde in full breast-feeding glory. She tells the crusading womens mag, It feels like Otis should always be on my breast. Revelation.

What to wear in the city this season? Outfits that look like you just stepped off the tractor upstate. Many womens magazines push feminism but then tend to feature too few female fashion designers. Glamour gets behind Jason Wu at Hugo Boss and Joseph Altuzarra. Walk the Talk please, Glamour.

This months More is less: the thinnest of the four fashion mags we grabbed from the newsstand. Given its older target, More editors spend less attention on clothing and more time on money and health problems.

But rather than give us wearable Oprah magazine fashion spreads, the mag again gives offerings that are a little too fashion forward for our liking. Hate to sound like mom, but would a coat done up with safety pins keep you warm in the snowy canyons of midtown Manhattan? Or the full-length coat with an entire panel cut out of the front be something to wear with your ballgown in the limo? More, where are you? We expect something More real from you.

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The top 4 magazines to read at Fashion Week