TUCSON, Ariz. - Recent tests have shown that a brain-eating amoeba is in Tucson's water supply, but experts say the microscopic bug doesn't pose any health risks.The moral of this story is don't make your siblings snort their drinks from laughing at the dinner table. Your mom will freak out....
Tucson Water chlorinates its well water before distribution, killing the amoeba known as Naegleria fowleri before the water hits taps. But the amoeba's presence in our underground water source — probably as a result of biodegradable oil used in pumps — is a surprise to some researchers. The amoeba is usually found in surface water such as rivers and lakes."The organism is everywhere," said Charles Gerba, a microbiology professor with the University of Arizona's Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science. "It feeds on bacteria."
Naegleria fowleri made headlines recently when it killed a 14-year-old boy who had gone swimming in Lake Havasu last month.
The amoebas enter the body through the nose and travel to the brain, where they feed until the person dies. The only way to get infected is to snort water. A person can drink water that has Naegleria fowleri and never be infected.
The amoeba lives in soil and is often present in warm bodies of water, particularly hot springs and lakes. Pools, if not chlorinated properly, can become homes to the microbes Tucson Water joined Maricopa County cities in a study of well water in 2005 to determine the amoeba's presence in drinking water and develop treatment to eliminate any potential health risks.
Friday, October 05, 2007
Um... you first.
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17 comments:
Are you ready for this? Seriously?
Growth of the pathogenic amoeboflagellate Naegleria fowleri is inhibited by delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta 9-THC). delta 9-THC is amoebostatic at 5 to 50 micrograms/ml. delta 9-THC prevents enflagellation and encystment, but does not impair amoeboid movement. Calf serum at 10 and 20% (vol/vol) reduces the antiamoeba activity of delta 9-THC. Only 1-methoxy delta 8-tetrahydrocannabinol, of 17 cannabinoids tested, failed to inhibit growth of N. fowleri. Antinaeglerial activity was not markedly altered by opening the pyran ring, by converting the cyclohexyl ring to an aromatic ring, or by reversing the hydroxyl and pentyl groups on the benzene ring. delta 9-THC prevented the cytopathic effect of N. fowleri on African green monkey (Vero) cells and human epithelioma (HEp-2) cells in culture. delta 9-THC afforded modest protection to mice infected with N. fowleri.
Holy Crap!! This shrub can do everything!
There must have been a hemp bush in the Garden of Eden....
Tree of life, it would be called.
They don't grow bushy unless you keep them from growing tall.
Ah. Right. The things I learn on these here internetal tubes!
Thanks, whig.
Well, it matters if you have a sativa or indica or ruderalis, but let's not get too complicated. There are high THC and low THC strains, sativa has the THC and is the one that grows tall.
Lots of wild hemp is ruderalis, ditch weed. That won't get you high or cure your amoeba infection.
Now what will make you more confused is that there isn't general agreement on this terminology, the division into species is controversial, and may be artificial. I only know that if there's a high THC strain being grown, it can grow tall, up to 25 feet. THC evidently helps the cannabis plant grow into a tree.
Cultivators usually don't allow this to happen, they trim it back to keep it short. But there ya go.
Now I'll go a little further out on a limb and say that early Christians used cannabis, the Roman empire suppressed them and only made Christianity legal by excising cannabis from the religion. They neutered it and then proclaimed themselves Christian. And so here we are in our modern Rome, and true Christianity is still illegal. And if you make yeast bread with cannabis, the yeast is the yeast of life, eucharist. I have made bread. That's why I can tell the pretend Christians the truth and they run away.
Those unleavened crackers the Romans use? Those are bread of affliction.
I had no clue, whig. Do they have archeological indications of the use of cannabis? They were making stuff from the hemp plant about that time, weren't they?
Breaking bread with Jesus takes on a whole new meaning...
There are archaeological indications all the way back to Zoroaster.
Lol! I've never HEARD of Zoroaster! Had to go google him.
Also sprach Zarathustra as music by Strauss, yes....
Did Zoroaster hang out with Gilgamesh?
Gilgamesh was a longer time ago. Zoroaster was Persian, circa 6th century BC.
Wikipedia says Zoroaster might have been as long ago as the 10th century BCE, but Gilgamesh was still much older, around 2200 BCE.
But why refer to R. Strauss when you can cite Mozart?
"Sarastro" in the opera does indeed appear to be a reference to Zoroaster...
Hmm. There seems to be enormous gaps in my education.
I blame the public education system! This information about Zoroaster should have been beaten into me!
(Zoroaster really does sound like a Mexican kitchen appliance though....)
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