Blogging around the world

How do you do it?

admin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:55:02 +0000

I’ve been getting that question a lot lately, and why not? Fitness has always been kind of a drag for me, and I looked like it. Flabby and tired all of the time, moody, pale. But lately, I’ve been looking a lot better, and feeling a lot better, and making different choices about my health. People around Boca Raton are noticing, and not just the guys. My girlfriends are always after me, what’s my secret? Did I hire a personal trainer to come scream at me every morning and force-feed me chemical shakes instead of meals? Did I join one of those gyms where they take you in back and give you all kinds of injections? Was it (shudder) lipo? No. It’s Boca Raton Fitness, and a different way of looking at my health. When a friend tipped me off, and said the words “boot camp” I hesitated, I’ve seen the movies, I know what boot camp is all about. But this was different – at BR Fitness, they have a small group of people who are fun and into what they’re doing being guided by two personal trainers, so, it’s almost like being in a class, working on your projects together. The workouts are different every day, so I don’t get bored, and because the styles vary, I don’t hit that wall that makes me want to quit and go home. And the guest chefs teaching healthy cooking, the dieticians meal planning based on my likes, and the grocery store tours have changed my whole lifestyle. So I feel good, and I look good. That’s how I do it.

A Company to Look Out For

admin — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 01:04:24 +0000

Watching EyeCRO! When you look for the best in contract research, you want to see the highest of high tech capabilities. Testing the preclinical efficacy and pharmacokinetics of polymer based drug depots for the retina is not for the faint of heart, and it isn’t your grandma’s ophthalmic test beds. Only the most capable, only the most advanced team of multifield experts is going to cut it. In vitro and in vivo testing of retinopathy treatments is serious science, and I want to see capabilities down to the 100 nm range for nanoparticle synthesis and formulation, I want to see advanced polymer capabilities, and treatments that continue to deliver way past a window of a few days or weeks, I want to see long term delivery curves, out to six months. Picking a CRO is serious business, and choosing a team for development of treatments for vitreous and retinal issues requires vision at a level of granularity that is rare, if not unheard of. You want to see that your team has not only the ability to formulate workable treatments, but to formulate the proper preclinical trials to validate those treatments, and then the historical awareness of vehicle suitability, to ensure a lead candidate selection process and a formulation suitable for your needs. When you’re looking for serious expertise in incorporated hydrophobic drugs with the ability to tailor the drug loading from 10% to 40% w/w, you actually don’t have to look very far. When I want to see excellence in ophthalmics, I look at EyeCRO.

Fitness as a Lifestyle

admin — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:53:32 +0000

No one tells Kal Gunay he has to do it like everyone else. He doesn’t, and he wouldn’t. At Boca Raton Fitness, he is re-writing the book on healthy living, exercise, and nutrition. This is not like any of the gyms I’ve ever gone to for a few weeks before giving up out of some nameless kind of frustration that things just aren’t right. But that’s because warehouse gyms and “fitness centers” that are packed full of people socializing and crowding regular people out aren’t about healthy living and thinking, they’re about selling an image. And my image of myself isn’t of a person who wants to do dead lifts of Olympic-class weights, or of a person who goes to the gym to meet someone to date. I wasn’t sure what my image was, but Boca Raton Fitness helped me find it for myself: I’m a person who likes being part of a group “boot camp” with a personal trainer or two helping us through individual and varied workouts. I like being educated by guest chefs in a real kitchen on how to cook healthy meals for myself that taste good and are the kind of food that I like to eat. I like going through the grocery store with a nutritionist and learning how to see through the promises on the labels to real nutrition and good food. I like feeling good, and I like taking care of my health. I like Boca Raton Fitness, and I’m glad Kal doesn’t let anyone tell him how to run a good gym. He knows.

EyeCRO Shows 20/20 Vision

admin — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 01:06:35 +0000

Let’s face it, choosing the wrong contract researcher is short-sighted. Testing the preclinical efficacy and pharmacokinetics of polymer based drug depots for the retina takes serious scientific chops, and a level of expertise that is hard to find. How many researchers and formulation experts can you name that work down to the 100 nm range in nanoparticle production? There just plain aren’t that many out there. And when you narrow that search down to those that have an ophthalmic specialty, the field of view becomes vanishingly small. And in that very small, very hard-to-find group of top-notch specialists, you have to make a choice. You have to look closely at your options. Things to look for? How about treatments that continue to deliver way past a window of a few days or weeks, long term delivery curves, out to six months? How about singular expertise in the use of FDA approved polymers for vitreous depots? And I think that microparticles designed to stay in the vitreous and release the drug plus nanoparticles designed to enter cells directly and release the drug intracellularly are key indicators that you’re dealing with the cutting edge of the leading experts in their field. Basically, there is only one contract researcher out there that has the grasp of technologies from laser to fluorescent micro- and nanoparticles with sizes of 100 to 300 nm, 5um and 30um, has the relationships with university labs to keep costs down, and the history of coming in on time and under budget. EyeCRO is clearly in focus, and the search is over.

Keeping an Eye Out for the Best Contract Research

admin — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 01:04:12 +0000

EyeCRO provides consultation to design an appropriate study for your goals and objectives, has a long history of completing projects on time and under budget, and sets itself apart from the large CRO’s through customer service and attention to detail. EyeCRO has fielded the most balanced team of specialists in veterinary medicine, retinopathy, pharmacokinetics, and formulation of unique delivery systems for vitreous delivery and retina treatment, and they bring this expertise to preclinical efficacy trials for advanced ophthalmic formulation and delivery. The use of every level of technology and study from laser tech to utilizing a combination of our formulation proficiency and historical awareness of vehicle suitability, they ensure a lead candidate selection process and a formulation suitable for your preclinical needs. No one knows this process better than EyeCRO, and the subtleties of development needs are not lost on them – far from it. The deep knowledge of physiochemical drug characteristics, the rigorous application preformulation screens prior to formal formulation development experiments, and the vast expertise in efficacy testing make them, far and away, the foremost experts in their field. The development and production of nanoparticles in the 100-300 nm range applied to proprietary technology for incorporating hydrophobic drugs allows these scientists to tailor drug loading from 10% to 40%, and create in vitro release profiles that extend for as long as six months! And this is just scratching the surface of their capabilities. This is tech that has to be seen to be believed.

Eye-opening Ophthalmic Research

admin — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 01:03:05 +0000

EyeCRO is composed of an internationally recognized team of research scientists focused on ophthalmic disease. The company, founded in 2005 with a contract to study the effects of one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical company’s drugs in an animal model, has only grown. EyeCRO started as a way to support the drug pipeline of a small pharmaceutical company, but quickly turned into a thriving business of its own, with a specialization in retinopathy, pharmacokinetics research, preclinical efficacy trials, and advanced laser technology. In short, no one knows the retina and advanced treatments and formulation better then the experts at Eyecro. With their associated backgrounds in formulation, study design, ocular surgery, veterinary, cell biology and molecular biology they bring a uniquely evolved mixture of expertise to the table for advanced therapies and compound testing and formulation. Their association with the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center allows EyeCRO to keep its costs down, while still providing the knowledge and competency to provide an exceptional product in a timely manner, leaving them the best solution for quick, budgetary services in the field of formulation of eye drops, depot forming injectables, microparticles, fluorescent micro and nanoparticles, and PLGA nanoparticles. As well as depot forming injectables, just to name a few. The team at Eyecro is constantly redefining what it means to be at the forefront of in vitro and in vivo preclinical efficacy testing and research, with reliable results and innovative techniques such as FDA approved polymers in vitreous depot delivery, and many other advanced technologies.

The Experts in Ophthalmic Contract Research

admin — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 01:01:24 +0000

For both in vivo and in vitro retinal disease models and retinopathy preclinical efficacy trials, Eyecro are the new state of the art. Their use of laser technology and rigorous pharmacokinetics for consistent and reliable results is nothing short of amazing. I am very impressed by their ability to study, model, and test treatments for vascular permeability of the retina, as well as issues arising from degeneration of the retina and ocular angiogenesis. This rigorous and disciplined quality lies behind their skills in formulation of eye drops, depot forming injectables, microparticles, fluorescent micro and nanoparticles, and PLGA nanoparticles, depot forming injectables, their use of FDA approved polymers to enable vitreous injection is cutting edge clinical science made real, and truly useful, taking lab results past preclinical application, and into the lives of your patients. These formulations remain in the injection site, allowing the polymer to diffuse away leaving behind a depot of the drug which slowly diffuses from depot to the retina for sustained delivery for several days. This kind of forward thinking technology is the product of rigorous study of cell cycle and apoptosis enhanced by use of flow cytometric analysis tools such as ModFit LT (Verity Software). These and other technologies take Eyecro beyond the mere formulation of lab proven compounds, and into the truly useful real world of treatment of patients for retinal and ocular disease and degeneration. My take away from all of this is that Eyecro IS the leading edge.

Boca Raton Fitness: Different

admin — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 00:57:41 +0000

I hate reviewing gyms. Usually. You know what I’m talking about, these warehouse dungeons full of miserable slaves, grunting and straining, yelling and swearing at each other to do more, do more, do more! Most of them feel like the gym in the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West. Or was it East? Anyway, when my editor sends me out to review a gym, fitness isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. It’s more like, how do I get in and out of this place as fast as possible? But I ended up staying the whole day at Boca Raton Fitness, surprisingly. I went in early in the day, determined to get in and out and get on with my semi-healthy, flabby writer’s life. Usually, I’ll just go around and try a few of the machines, get a feel for the place, and make sure I have some notes to work from. But it’s hard not to get involved at BR Fitness. For one thing, they’re running boot camps all of the time. There’s a group of people working with not one personal trainer, but two, and they’re having fun, and everybody’s doing different, varied fitness routines and getting lots of personal attention. Pretty soon, they’ve drawn me in, and I feel like I’m on a retreat at a spa. The trainers are keeping everything moving, and making sure everyone has attention, and keeping us all motivated, and the time flew by. It’s a very different work out, that’s for sure. I’ll write more after my next visit!

Straight Talk About Health and Fitness

admin — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 00:52:30 +0000

After years of weird diets, strange chemicals and awful concoctions, after years of gyms that were selling an image and ripping off people with off-the-wall advice and gimmicks, there is finally a real fitness center and gym, with real solutions and a path to a healthy lifestyle that stays with you in your life, instead of fading away once your gym bag is back in the trunk. Boca Raton Fitness is a complete program, and all I had to do was spend one visit, and I knew I had found the right fit. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be everyone’s right fit, because it takes a certain attitude to really work on yourself, and try to be healthy and make smart decisions for yourself, and if you don’t have that attitude, maybe one of those screaming warehouse gyms is for you. But when I arrived one Tuesday morning and joined one of the floating “boot camp” teams, I knew I was into something different. One of the personal trainers (there were two coaching a group of about five people) got me involved right away, and made me feel like I fit in, and like I was part of a team of people all working on a goal together, which I really liked. Then we had the guest chef in the kitchen teaching us some tricks for healthy eating that doesn’t taste like cardboard, and then I met with my nutritionist and she asked me what I like to eat. Right then, I knew I was home.

First Time is a Charm!

admin — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 00:46:12 +0000

For years my friends have complained about their gyms. They hate the social scene, they hate the warehouse atmosphere, they hate the gimmicks and the chemicals and the wacky diets. So, even thought I’ve known for years that I needed to get into shape and start taking better care of myself, I’ve been hesitant because all of my friends hate their gyms, and to be honest, they don’t seem that healthy to me. But I needed to get some exercise, and this place here in BR – Boca Raton Fitness – was giving out a free test drive. So, I thought I would go work out, and maybe see how I felt. When I got there, I knew this was not your normal gym. I kind of froze up when I heard the words “boot camp” but this wasn’t some army guy screaming at people. This was a personal trainer – two, actually, both running kind of a moving classroom of a small group of us around the gym, keeping everyone moving, and keeping everyone breathing right and hydrating right and varying exercises so nobody hit a wall. When we finished, I didn’t quite feel like leaving yet, so I went to talk to the nutritionist about how my health demanded that I live on rice crackers and tap water. And she asked me what I like to eat. I could have kissed her! We went over my preferences (pasta!) and made out a meal plan that allows me to eat what I like and still not undo all of my workout. The next day, I went back, and I’ve never felt better.