For example, in the cases of the heart-muscle cells and pancreatic cells mentioned above, dosing them with leptin keeps them healthy.
And, for reasons as yet undiscovered, the embryonic neck-skin of birds produces more retinoic acid than the embryonic skin from any other part of their bodies.Indeed, Dr Headon was able to make cultured skin samples from ordinary chickens featherless by dosing them with BMP12.
This year teams of workers headed to train stations, schools and villages, mostly in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, dosing children with vaccines and promoting habits like soapy hand-washing.
Small steps forward ReprintsCanadians, like most other westerners, are increasingly turning to alternative medicine, dosing themselves with off-the-shelf natural remedies, or attending a growing number of clinics offering homeopathic, chiropractic and naturopathic treatment, massage and traditional Chinese therapies, as well as various New Age alternatives.
Geron hopes one day to find drugs that might directly stimulate telomerase production in humans.Meanwhile, millions of people will go on dosing themselves with "anti-oxidants" such as vitamin A, in the hope of keeping age at bay.
In the case of depression, says Dr Kirsch, giving patients placebo pills can produce very nearly the same effect as dosing them with the latest antidepressant medicines.Pain is another nerve-related symptom susceptible to treatment by placebo.
Many individual Americans are dosing themselves with antibiotics and pestering their doctors for vaccines.
For men, dosing up on oestrogens is equally unappetising.
She wants to help them through the male menopause (a concept she seems to think she invented), by holding their hands and dosing them with little aphorisms they can cut out and stick on the fridge.
Telling someone that you are giving him morphine provides more pain relief than saying you are dosing him with aspirin even when both pills actually contain nothing more than sugar.
While the placebo effect is an important phenomenon, it accompanies all forms of treatment, whether Western, Eastern, or otherwise.Anthony Jahn Professor of clinical otolaryngology Columbia University New York* SIR – You mentioned ("Think yourself better", May 21st) that placebos can "produce very nearly the same effect as dosing [patients] with the latest antidepressant medicines".
