Transgender athletes should not have to lower testosterone to compete, IOC says

The IOC has labelled athlete sex testing as "invasive" and "disrespectful" in a new report that looks to be promote inclusion for transgender competitors.

Transgender women should not be forced to reduce their testosterone levels to compete in sports, new International Olympic Committee (IOC) guidelines have said.

The new framework also states that no athlete should be excluded from competition on the grounds of a perceived "unfair and disproportionate advantage" due to their gender.

The guidelines will replace ones from 2015 and reverses the IOC's previous stance on transgender athletes.

Tokyo 2020 Olympic logo near the Eiffel tower

Previously, transgender women athletes were only allowed to compete providing that their testosterone levels were below the required limit 12 months before their first competition.

"You don't need to use testosterone (to decide who can compete) at all," said IOC medical director Richard Budgett.

The IOC called sex testing to verify an athlete's gender "disrespectful" and "potentially harmful"; labelling it an "invasive physical examinations".

"We really want to make sure that athletes are not pressured or coerced into making a harmful decision about their bodies," said Magali Martowicz, IOC head of human rights.

However, the new guidelines are not legally binding.

The governing body said that it was not in a position to issue regulations that define eligibility criteria for every sport, instead leaving it to individual federations to make the final call.

"What we are offering to all the international federations is our expertise and a dialogue, rather than jumping to a conclusion," said IOC director of the athletes' department Keveh Mehrabi.

The IOC plans to work with federations on a "case by case basis".

Whilst the guidelines also apply to athletes with difference of sex development (DSD), such as Caster Semenya, World Athletics confirmed to the Guardian that it would not implement the changes which would allow the 400m runner to compete without lowering her testosterone levels.

This new guidelines come a few months after the New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard made history as the first transgender athlete to compete at an Olympics in the games' 125 year history.

At the time, critics argued her participation in the competition to be unfair.

Hubbard acknowledged the controversy and thanked the IOC for their "commitment to the principles of Olympism"

The IOC addressed the criticisms directly within the report stating athletes should not be excluded due to "unverified, alleged or perceived unfair competitive advantage[s] due to their sex variations, physical appearance and/or transgender status".

The 10-point document was produced in consultation with more than 250 athletes and other stakeholders and will be implemented after the Beijing Winter Games next year.

Source: Sky

Migrants from 12 countries among 600 found in two trucks in Mexico

MEXICO CITY, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Migrants from 12 countries were among 600 people found hidden in the back of two trucks in eastern Mexico on Friday, most of them from neighbouring Guatemala, the government's National Migration Institute (INM) said on Saturday.

The INM said 401 of the people were from Guatemala, 53 from Honduras, 40 from the Dominican Republic, 37 from Bangladesh, 27 from Nicaragua, 18 from El Salvador and eight from Cuba.

Migrants walk up an overpass in a caravan heading to the northern border, in Tapanatepec, Mexico November 9, 2021. REUTERS/Jacob Garcia

There were also six men from Ghana, four people from Venezuela, four men from Ecuador, a man from India and a man from Cameroon in the two trailers discovered in Veracruz state.

The institute said 455 of the migrants were male, and 145 female. The people detained would either be sent home or given the chance to have their stay in Mexico regularized, it added.

Most migrants from Central America and the rest of the world who enter Mexico head for the United States and say they are seeking to escape poverty or violence in their homelands.

Source: Reuters

Alzheimer’s vaccine step closer after new treatment reverses memory loss

A vaccine against Alzheimer’s disease could be on the horizon after scientists carried out successful trials in animals.

Researchers from the US and Germany were able to reverse memory loss in mice and are keen to move quickly to human trials.

The vaccine trains the immune system to fight a type of sticky amyloid beta protein in the brain that accumulates in people with dementia, preventing communication between neurons.

Previous drugs to fight Alzheimer’s have also concentrated on reducing amyloid, but have shown little success in reducing symptoms, with some even triggering negative side effects.

Now scientists have discovered that, in people with dementia, the protein folds itself into a hairpin-like structure, and becomes a much more dangerous form of amyloid.

Professor Mark Carr, from the Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology at the University of Leicester, explained: “This structure had never been seen before in amyloid beta.”

The team theorised that engineering amyloid into the same hairpin shape before administering it as vaccine would spur the body into producing antibodies to fight off that specific structure.

It would also allow the immune system to ignore normal forms of the protein, which are needed by the body.

When injected into mice, the vaccine triggered antibodies and helped to restore neuron function, increase glucose metabolism in the brain, reverse memory loss and reduce amyloid beta plaque formation.

New treatment could be 'transformative'

Professor Carr added: “While the science is currently still at an early stage, if these results were to be replicated in human clinical trials, then it could be transformative.

“It opens up the possibility to not only treat Alzheimer’s once symptoms are detected, but also to potentially vaccinate against the disease before symptoms appear.”

More than 520,000 people in Britain have Alzheimer’s disease and the figure is set to rise.

The researchers are looking to find a commercial partner to take the therapeutic antibody and the vaccine through clinical trials.

Commenting on the research, which was published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, Dr Susan Kohlhaas, director of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “Currently there is no disease-modifying treatment available for people with Alzheimer’s in the UK, making drug development even more urgent.

“In this thorough and well-conducted research carried out in mice with features of Alzheimer’s disease, scientists found a vaccine administered through injection found the intended target and helped improve metabolism in brain regions associated with memory and thinking.

“Early results in a behavioural task suggest the mice had improved memory and thinking, hinting that this could be a promising new approach, and one that has so far not been tested in Alzheimer’s drugs in clinical trials.

“Like any new drug, this treatment will need to go through a series of clinical trials in people and while this discovery offers hope, this approach is a long way off being proved successful in humans.”

Long way to go, caution experts

Prof Tara Spires-Jones, of the UK Dementia Research Institute at the University of Edinburgh, added: “The vaccine causes the immune systems of the mice to react to one of the pathological proteins that clumps in Alzheimer’s disease.

“While this study is interesting for the research community, it is important to keep in mind that the findings are from relatively small numbers of mice and we have a long way to go to know whether this approach will be useful for people.”

On Sunday, the Government also announced a £375 million investment to improve understanding of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia as well as motor neuron disease (MND), Pick’s disease, fronto-temporal dementia, wernicke-korsakoff and Parkinson’s.

Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, said: “Neurodegenerative conditions like MND can have a devastating impact on people’s lives and I’m committed to ensuring the Government does everything we can to fight these diseases and support those affected.”

Source: Yahoo News