Health

Blue M&Ms linked to reducing spine injury

by enlargetom | July 28, 2009 at 08:17 am

435 views | 68 Recommendations | 11 comments

Blue food dye found in M&Ms and Gatorade can reduce damnages caused by spine injuries, study suggest.Gatorade invented the drink(Gatorade ) in the 1960’s as a solution to the football players thirst while playing in the hot Florida swamp-like conditions at The University of Florida.

Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center found that when they injected the compound Brilliant Blue G (BBG) into rats suffering spinal cord injuries, the rodents were able to walk again, albeit with a limp.

The only side effect was that the treated mice temporarily turned blue.

The results of the study, published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences," build on research conducted by the same center five years ago.

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Spydermonkey

at 10:28 on July 28th, 2009

Well, last week If I were to have a broken back, I could scream until I was blue in the face, & it would not do me any good. This week, with a broken back, being blue in the face is the cure (maybe).

What will next week bring? Thanks for the story Tom.

anarkissed

at 11:09 on July 28th, 2009

the medical news is intriguing and wonderful. The method of discovery distresses me terribly. They dropped a weight on this animal's back to deliberately damage the spinal cord. Not to the point of fracture, but very close. I can't get past that cruelty. ~sigh~ I wish we'd put as much effort into finding a better way than torturing little critters. I've had pet rats, they're neat little people.

Paschen

at 17:06 on July 28th, 2009

Most medication that may have saved your own life at one point was discovered and improved with such methods.

Reality is we can not replace lab rats if we want to conduct research and improve Human medicine and life quality.

Every thing has a price even simple Aspirin did cost lives.

If you wish to save the rat, then say no to all medication, cosmetics and surgeries.

I could be very bold here and demonstrate that more then half of our modern medicine is in large part thanks to the NAZI test on human.

If we would really be so ethical we would have destroyed all that research and knowledge rather then benefit from it today still.

Amy Judd

at 11:56 on July 28th, 2009

That's a pretty big side effect...

Beaulieu

at 13:44 on July 28th, 2009

and www.hawaii.edu state that Brilliant Blue dye is toxic and poisonous.

And they're in M & Ms!

Beaulieu

at 13:51 on July 28th, 2009

and in the Daily Mail :

"For those who are fond of blue Smarties, it is a minor disaster. But for health campaigners it is a major triumph.

Nestlé Rowntree is to stop producing the blue version of the chocolate beans because it is removing all artificial colours from the casings and there is no natural alternative to the blue chemical currently used.

It will be replaced with a white Smartie, at least until a natural blue dye is found".Yellow (E110); Ponceau 4R (E124); and Carmoisine (E122).

It has taken Nestle 'rather a long time' I think. Will M & Ms follow suit?

Beaulieu

at 13:56 on July 28th, 2009

Mars manufacture M & Ms. Let's watch and see what happens.

Paschen

at 15:41 on July 28th, 2009

This sounds great, I do not mind the side effect here either. Blue is a nice colour and where I come from the Blue people (Tuaregs of the Sahara) are well known, only their skin colour is due to the dye of their traditional closing.