Late clock

(By Alexandre and Renata)

Sleep deprivation can result in nuclear explosions. This is what happened in Chernobyl, Ucrania in April 1986. Along with the huge pressure to complete the tasks within deadlines, the staff was forced to lose hours of sleep in order to maintain their jobs, resulting in lack of attention with the security system and an overheated reactor. The capitalist culture of “24 hours/7 days of week” has been leading some people to shorten their period of sleep. Bad quality of sleep could offer risks for the human beings, such as cognitive impairment, emotional disturbances and memory disorders.

First, the lack of sleeping quality may result in problems to the human’s cognitive system. In this situation, attention and capacity of concentration are sharply decreased and time of reaction is greatly slowed due to the fact that during the sleep, important hormones, which are related to judgment, impulse control, attention and visual association, act on the prefrontal cortex. For example, on Mar 25th 1989, Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker, shocked towards a reef at the Alasca shore and two hundred million liters of oil were spilled in the ocean. (CONTINUATION OF # 1…)

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Third, while some people may believe that a good night sleep is not related to the learning process, studies showed that wakefulness impairs the consolidation of memory. The mechanism was studied by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania. The findings provided evidence that sleep helps regulate neuronal function in the hippocampus, which is responsible for spatial orientation and recognition of physical surroundings, known as contextual memory. According to the study, memory consolidation happens over a period of hours after training for a task, and certain cellular processes have to occur at precise times.

Human life on the rat’s paws

Is the life of 4 rats worth a human life? Yes. Animal research plays a crucial role in scientist’s understanding of diseases and in the development of effective medical treatments. Research animals provide scientists with complex living systems consisting of cells, tissues and organs. More than biologically similar to humans, animals are vulnerable to over 200 of the same health disorders. Therefore, they are an effective model for researchers to study, since research on animals is heavily regulated, involves lower number of animals than imagined and has brought treatments to many diseases.

Around the world, the welfare of animals in research is protected by national and international legislations, by local laws or by ethical committees. Countries, such as the USA and UK, which invest a large amount of money in their Research & Development departments, have already regulated the use of animals in medical research and they control it under the law. The UK is widely recognized as having the most comprehensive regulation concerning this issue. The Animals Act of 1986 emphasizes that no animal experiments should be conducted if a realistic alternative is available. Additionally, the benefits of it must be clearly described. Testing on animal requires 3 Licensees: for the institution, the scientist and the project. Random inspections, on-site vets and basic needs (such as comfort, shelter, enough food and water, company of other animals and treatments of injuries and diseases) are mandatory. The animals must be examined everyday and any animal judged to be in severe pain or distress that can’t be relieved must be painlessly killed. Animal research is strictly regulated: the official codes are focused in providing the animals with standards of care.

Although most people believe animal research involves a great number of killings, the statistics show the number is not that high. In terms of number, nearly 3 million animal procedures are conducted a year in UK. Compared to other statistics number, these researches involve approximately 2000 times less killings. For example, in UK, 2,5 billion of animals (cows and fish) are eaten per year, of the 6,7 million dogs and 9 million cats, there are 110000 cases of animal cruelty. Moreover, 6,3 million animals were hit by a car on UK roads and 2 million rats that invade houses are killed per year. Even though 3 million of animals used in science research seems a high number, it becomes lower when put in perspective with other animal scenarios, as food, car accidents, animal cruelty and killing.

The relevance of animal experiments is evidenced by several medical progresses occurred since the beginning of the 19th century. The use of animals in research has been a common practice since the early 1910s. Since then, scientists study animals for their differences and their similarities to humans, providing information about safety and effectiveness and, therefore, supporting the tests for new drugs. The discovery of insulin in the ’20s relieved the symptoms of diabetes, sulphonamides and antibiotics were developed to treat bacterial infections, vaccines were produced to control viral infections and surgery advanced with modern anaesthetics and heart-lung machine. In the ’50s, kidney transplants, hip replacement surgery and drugs to control high blood pressure and mental illness were developed based on animal experiments. Nowadays, new treatments of leukaemia, asthma, AIDS were discovered and studied thanks to the animals. Each of these and many other advances were critically dependent on animal research.

Since the beginning of the 19th century, at least 60 of the 90 Nobel Prizes awarded for medicine, were discoveries or advances in which laboratory animals played a crucial role. Although undeniably, the medical progress and laboratory animals are strongly related, efforts should be made to harmonize requirements of regulatory authorities around the world, in order to reduce, even more, the number of laboratory animals used. Moreover, due to the fact that medical research is a gamble, i.e., many possibilities are explored before an effective treatment is found, people should always think how to measure the chance of reducing human suffering against the certainty of inducing suffering in an animal. From an individual perspective, each person enjoys the medical benefits of animal research for the use of 3 mice and 1 rat over their entire life. Based on the medical technology available nowadays, 3 mice and 1 rat may save a human life.

Words that can change your life

It all started with a simple cough, which worsened to a bloody cough and ended with a devastating diagnosis: lung cancer and 6 months of life.

This was the death sentence my father heard from his physician in 2002.

I wonder what were my father’s thoughts after receiving those words. At that time, he used to live in Londrina – Paraná, where he ran a business, on his own. Receiving the cancer diagnosis is already difficult; however, facing it alone, was even worse.

The first feeling might have been a mix of shock, disbelief, fear, uncertainty, sadness, anger, confusion and depression. No one is ever ready to hear they have cancer. Although my father always knew the risk of smoking, he never thought it could ever happen to him. “Why me?”, “Why didn´t I realize the symptoms earlier?”, “Why didn´t I stopped smoking many years ago?”, “How will be the treatment? Will it worth the suffering and pain?”, “What about my future plans and my dreams?”, “What can I do in 6 months?” and “How should I tell my family?”.

The first person my father talked to was my mom. My mother is the strongest person I´ve ever seen. However, on that day, she cried. She told my brothers and me about the diagnosis and how we should stay together to help my father deal with that.

I couldn´t think rationally: I was in shock… One thousand things were passed through my mind: anger, fear, disbelief and grief. “Why my father?”, “Why didn’t we demand my father to stop smoking or having a medical appointment earlier?”, “Why 6 months?”, “What should I tell him?” and specially “Why shouldn’t I spent more time with my father when I had the opportunity?”.  

Accepting the diagnosis and figuring out how the cancer would fit into our lives was challenging, mainly for my father. When you know someone you love is going to die and you can not do anything, you feel hopeless, useless and weak.  

My father’s first reaction was to isolate himself from the world. He did not speak one word for a long period of time. We did not want to interfere in his privacy, which he was entitled to. After some months, my father realized that coping with his own mortality and the demands of cancer meant looking more closely to his personal and family values and what was important in his life. He realized that he could not struggle with the cancer alone: he decided to ask for support.

After facing the lung cancer, my father also faced a brain cancer metastasis in 2004. He underwent 2 surgeries, 10 chemotherapy sessions, 30 radiotherapy sessions and countless visits to his physicians. Recently, my father was considered cured from both cancer and the 6-month period of life was postponed for some years more…

            The cancer was overcome not only by my father, but also by all my family. We learned to look after the people we love and that staying together can make us stronger. One will only realize how much a person is important, when they discover they could lose the loved one. Additionally, we realize that your presence is also a way to show your support for the person you love.

That words stated by the physician changed my family’s life: firstly, in a shocking, but good way; otherwise, we would never discover how strong and united my family could be.