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Mountain Motion is a climbing team formed by Kiwi's Vaughn Filmer and
Jamie Anderson, both passionate outdoor enthusiasts and aspiring filmmakers.
With extensive experience tramping and climbing in New Zealand¹s
Southern Alps, we are set to take on a greater personal challenge in
the mountains. Our most recent adventure was a traverse of Mt. Earnslaw,
an achievement made significant for us as Vaughn was coping with the
symptoms of Ulcerative Colitis (UC). A form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease
(IBD), which includes Crohn's, UC produces symptoms such as lethargy,
cramps and frequent bowel motions and requires significant modifications
to diet and lifestyle. Dealing with this condition but still actively
climbing gave us the inspiration to embark on a mission that will test
our limits in New Zealand¹s mountains and raise awareness of IBD.
Approaching 30 is our mission to climb the 30 highest mountains in
New Zealand in the summer of our 30th birthdays and promote the work
of the New Zealand Crohn's and Colitis Support Group (Inc.).
The NZ CCSG uses www.everybody.co.nz
as the forum for discussion amongst members living with Inflammatory
Bowel Disease. Mountain Motion will look to post updates and information
about the adventure on this fantastic website.
MOUNTAIN MOTION Approaching 30. The Mountain Motion team will use their
live website,www.mountainmotion.co.nz,
to update the public and sponsors of Approaching 30 progress using images,
videos and humorous anecdotes. During and after the adventure they will
write articles for publications.
World-first living intestine study points to
new generation of food and medicines
Scientists from Massey University have discovered a weak link in human
digestion that could revolutionise healthy eating and medical treatment
for the chronically ill.
The universities digesta group, a multi-disciplinary team of researchers,
have for the first time been able to analyse the work of the small intestine,
the principle organ of digestion and absorption. Associate Professor
Roger Lentle says that, until now, the only way to understand what was
going on was by mathematical simulation.
Doctor Lentle’s team of scientists is the first in the world to
measure the extent of mixing in a section of living intestine that is
kept alive in a tank that simulated normal conditions in the body. Intestine
from a possum, a mammal with an intestine that was large enough to measure
the mixing was used.
The team used a complex system of coloured pulses of material to measure
the level of mixing along with video imaging and computer software and
frame-by-frame analysis to measure movements of the intestinal wall.
Unlike the mathematically produced results, which indicated that mixing
was poor, the small intestine was found to produce quite good levels
of mixing. This was partly due to a jerky motion of the muscles in the
intestinal wall that helped to create a turbulent environment, and to
the colon of the small intestine inside the belly.
A key finding that is important for the design of foods is that any
increase in the thickness of food within the small intestine significantly
impaired mixing.
“This indicates that foods which are designed to thicken when they
enter the small intestine will not mix and digest well and thus will
be slower to release their load of glucose or fats,” Doctor Lentle
says. “An example of a potential future application is a new drink
which you may have in the morning, with your bacon and eggs, which thickens
when it reaches the intestine to stops or slows absorption of the fats.
Drinks could also be developed to impair the absorption of glucose and
cholesterol.
The findings also bode well for sufferers of intestine diseases including
Crohn’s disease, or Ulcerative Colitis. Some drugs used for treating
these conditions need to stay within the small intestine, Doctor Lentle,
so a drink could be formulated to take with the medicine to ensure the
drug is not prematurely absorbed.
“So the medicines end up in the place where they can do most good,”
Dr Lentle says. “A further use is in getting Probiotics [dietary
supplements containing potentially beneficial bacteria] to the lower
bowel, which is where they can do the most good, by preventing them
from being killed on their way through the small intestine by mixing
with bile salts.”
As well as commercial applications, the research has shown for the first
time that a physical form of food has the potential to slow digestion
and improve glycaemic index, by influencing mixing in the small intestine
rather than by simply delaying the emptying of the stomach, as had previously
been thought.
The work was made possible when the team, based at the University’s
institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health, developed a new electronic
spatiotemporal mapping technique that enabled them to simultaneously
measure lengthwise and widthwise changes in the living intestine. Fives
pictures of the gut per second were captured on video and electronically
processed to generate movement maps of the intestine. The findings are
currently being published in The Journal of Physiology.
This is a summary article only from Massey University, New Zealand
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