Galapagos Islands face irreversible damage

 
I have always been fascinated with these islands but more importantly, with their inhabitants. There are few other, similar places, on this earth that are homes to so many unique and sometimes bizarre creatures.

As time has passed, it's obvious to me and many others that the Galapagos are something we need to preserve and more importantly, to respect. Not just the islands themselves but the inhabitants as well. Then, there are the others who throw themselves on the island and let there own, personal greed plot their course.

Yes it makes sense to me that the attraction is sometimes far too great to turn your back on. But just how many people really think about the ongoing human impact that they themselves have on these islands. I don't think that they should stop "tourism" on the islands but they should scale back the amount of people each year and the amount of time allotted for visiting. Watching a documentary on the islands on TV or on DVD may not be the best "personal experience" but at the very least it will still leave you with unforgettable sites and images that only a god could create.

And speaking of the islands and in honor of Charles Darwin (he discovered them), here is an article that I recently read that may help "those" who have allowed themselves to be so completely selfish and disrespectful. How can we possibly show such disregard to those that came, long before us. - ron beck

Galapagos damage 'must be curbed'

By David Shukman Science and environment correspondent, BBC News

Famed for their unique biological treasures, the Galapagos Islands face irreversible damage unless tourism is curbed, according to conservationists.
On the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, the director of the Darwin Foundation says there is only a decade to avoid an ecological disaster.
In a BBC interview, Gabriel Lopez calls for limits on the level of visitors.
Last year, the number of tourists reached a record of 173,000, a four-fold increase over the past 20 years.

"The Galapagos is still the best preserved archipelago in the world. But what's at stake if current trends continue is that the Galapagos will be lost. Yes the Galapagos will still be there but the richness will be lost."
The rising numbers have led to a boom in the construction of hotels and a surge in imports from mainland Ecuador.

And the result is a sharp spike in the number of alien species arriving in this fragile ecosystem: 112 were recorded in 1900 but by 2007 the total had leaped to 1,321.
At the harbor in the main town of Puerto Ayora, I watched dock workers transfer crates and sacks of rice and maize from cargo ships on to barges for the journey ashore.
The airport on Baltra island, which serves the archipelago, sometimes handles half a dozen flights every day - the number has doubled in the last eight years. The aircraft cabins are sprayed before landing but evidently some insects are getting through.
One of the most aggressive is the fire ant - tiny but with a powerful sting - an example in its own right of the evolutionary principle of survival of the vicious.
Inexorable march
In a field outside the village of Bellavista, insect specialist Henri Herrera scraped away leaf litter to reveal a seething mass of the tiny red creatures.
"They're getting everywhere - it's a disaster. It could even mean that for some species the ants stop evolution."

Fire ants are known to attack baby birds and young tortoises and their march from one island to another seems inexorable.
Other threats include a parasitic fly which attacks young finches and mosquitoes - which could serve as a vector for diseases which are known to exist on the mainland but have not yet arrived here.
The government of Ecuador has drawn up an action plan to curb this menace. Criticised by the UN agency UNESCO - which in 2007 listed the Galapagos as a world heritage site in danger - the authorities are now introducing tougher measures.
The director of the Galapagos National Park, Edgar Munoz, accepts that invasive species pose the most serious risk to the islands but says the government's actions will tackle the threat.

"What we're hoping to accomplish is fifty more years in which any problems will be diminished."
Earlier conservation efforts - to cull several islands of feral goats which eat the plants giant tortoises depend on - have proved successful but some experts warn that eliminating particular insects will be far harder.
For Ecuador, a developing country, the Galapagos provides a major source of revenue. But a balance will need to found if the islands are to preserve what makes them so special.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7884581.stm

Published: 2009/02/11 22:18:18 GMT

© BBC MMIX

Multiple Sclerosis Pain

I recently read this article and wanted to share it..

Pain and Multiple Sclerosis

Many options are available to treat pain in patients with multiple sclerosis.

By Gina Shaw
WebMD Feature

Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario

When most people think of multiple sclerosis, they think of a disease that causes symptoms of weakness and motor problems -- not pain.

"About 10 or 20 years ago, there was a saying that MS causes all kinds of trouble but doesn't cause pain, which really isn't true," says Francois Bethoux, MD, director of rehabilitation services at the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research at The Cleveland Clinic.

"In a national survey of more than 7,000 MS patients, 70% of them had experienced some kind of pain, and at least 50% were experiencing some kind of pain at the time of the survey," Bethoux says.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society reports that almost half of all people with MS are troubled by chronic pain.

MS pain differs from the kind of pain you might get with a headache, a joint injury, or muscle strain. "It's often more diffuse, affecting several areas of the body at a time. It often changes over time, getting worse or better for no apparent reason. It tends to fluctuate a lot," says Bethoux. "People often find it hard to describe: It's sometimes described as like a toothache, other times like a burning pain, and sometimes as a very intense sensation of pressure. It's very distressing for patients because they have a hard time explaining what their pain experience is."

So what's causing this baffling, complex, often debilitating pain? Bethoux describes it as "an illusion created by the nervous system." Normally, he explains, the nervous system sends pain signals as a warning phenomenon when something harmful happens to the body. "It's a natural defense mechanism telling us to avoid what's causing the pain," he says. "But in MS, the nerves are too active and they send pain signals with no good reason -- they're firing a pain message when they shouldn't be."

Some of the most common types of pain experienced by multiple sclerosis patients include:

Acute MS pain. These come on suddenly and may go away suddenly. They are often intense but can be brief in duration. The description of these acute pain syndromes are sometimes referred to as burning, tingling, shooting, or stabbing.

Trigeminal neuralgia or "tic doloureux." A stabbing pain in the face that can be brought on by almost any facial movement, such as chewing, yawning, sneezing, or washing your face. People with MS typically confuse it with dental pain. Most people can get sudden attacks of pain that can be triggered by touch, chewing, or even brushing the teeth.

Lhermitte's sign. A brief, stabbing, electric-shock-like sensation that runs from the back of the head down the spine, brought on by bending the neck forward.

Burning, aching, or "girdling" around the body. This is called dysesthesia by physicians.

There are also some types of pain related to MS that are described as being chronic in nature -- lasting for more than a month -- including pain from spasticity that can lead to muscle cramps, tight and aching joints, and back or musculoskeletal pain. These chronic pain syndromes can often be relieved by anti-inflammatory drugs, massage, and physical therapy.

Anticonvulsant Drugs Offer Relief

For the most part, however, acute MS pain can't be effectively treated with aspirin, ibuprofen, or other common OTC pain reliever medications or treatments. "Since most MS pain originates in the central nervous system, it makes it a lot more difficult to control than joint or muscle pain," says Kathleen Hawker, MD, an assistant professor of neurology in the multiple sclerosis program at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas (UTSW).

So what's the alternative? In many cases, the treatment of choice is one of a range of anticonvulsant medications, such as Neurontin and Tegretol. "The main thing that links them all up is that we're not quite sure how they work -- either for seizures or for pain," says Hawker. Since the FDA hasn't officially approved these anticonvulsants for the treatment of pain, they're all being used "off-label," but Neurontin, for example, is prescribed five times more often for pain than for seizures, says Hawker.

"In the vast majority of patients, these medications do work," says George Kraft, who directs the Multiple Sclerosis Rehabilitation, Research, and Training Center and the Western Multiple Sclerosis Center at the University of Washington in Seattle. "There's a problem, though, in that most of them can make people sleepy, groggy, or fatigued, and MS patients have a lot of fatigue anyway."

The good news: Most pain in MS can be treated. There are more than half a dozen of these anticonvulsants, and they all have a slightly different mechanism of action and different side effects. The side effects of these drugs can also include low blood pressure, possible seizures, and dry mouth. They can also cause some weight gain.

"Some drugs are so similar to each other that if one drug in the class fails, another is unlikely to work," says Hawker. "That's not the case with these. Which one you use for which patient depends on the side effect profile."

Finding the right anticonvulsant is all about trial and error, says Bethoux. "We'll start them at the lowest possible dose of one medication and increase it until the person feels comfortable or until side effects aren't tolerable. If one medication doesn't work, we'll try another," he says. "It's a process that can take a long time, but it's the only way we have to do this."