Health & Wellness
Will Dunham
Reuters
Tue, 01 Jan 2008 02:50 CST
WASHINGTON - A simple mouth rinse may provide a new way to screen for head and neck cancers in people at high risk for these diseases, researchers said on Tuesday.
Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore are developing a saliva test -- inexpensive, easy to perform and painless -- that could spot diseases like mouth and throat cancer in heavy smokers, heavy drinkers and others at high risk.
Billy Baker
The Boston Globe
Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:34 CST
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| ©Dominic Chavez/Globe Staff
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| Joel Weinstock thinks lack of exposure to worms leads to a rise in immunological diseases.
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"What if I told you," Joel Weinstock said, "there were countries where the doctors had never seen hay fever?"
It is another piece of evidence, another "aha" moment in the global medical mystery that Weinstock - the chief of gastroenterology and hepatology at Tufts-New England Medical Center - has narrowed down to one chief suspect: the worms.
Reuters
Mon, 31 Dec 2007 00:46 CST
A 25-year-old Egyptian woman died of bird flu on Sunday, the second fatality among humans in Egypt in less than one week, the Health Ministry said.
Fatma Fathi Mohamed died in hospital in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, three days after she was admitted to a smaller local hospital with a high temperature and difficulty breathing, it said in a statement carried by the state news agency MENA.
Mind Hacks
Sun, 30 Dec 2007 17:13 CST
There's an interesting
article in January's
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience about a brain injured patient who has a curious form of
simultanagnosia - the inability to perceive more than one object at once.
In this case, he also seemed unable to report more than one attribute, like colour or name, at a time, while looking at the object.
Douglas LaBier
Washington Post
Tue, 25 Dec 2007 07:18 CST
A few exercises to help increase your feelings of empathy:
Building empathy for your intimate partner
Envision a characteristic or behavior of yours that you know your partner dislikes. Imagine shifting your consciousness into your partner's perspective, even though you may disagree with that perspective.
Alexis Madrigal
Wired
Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:00 CST
A nasal spray of a key brain hormone cures sleepiness in sleep-deprived monkeys. With no apparent side effects, the hormone might be a promising sleep-replacement drug.
In what sounds like a dream for millions of tired coffee drinkers, Darpa-funded scientists might have found a drug that will eliminate sleepiness.
Jason Straziuso
Associated Press
Sat, 29 Dec 2007 15:17 CST
KABUL, Afghanistan - Eight Afghans who ate an infected camel as part of a religious celebration died of what health experts suspect is a rare case of naturally occurring anthrax, officials said Saturday.
C. Vidyashankar, MD
Reuters
Sat, 29 Dec 2007 01:14 CST
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| ©REUTERS/Susana Vera
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| People take part in a free yoga class at the Parque del Oeste in Madrid September 27, 2007.
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Yoga induces a feeling of well-being in healthy people, and can reverse the clinical and biochemical changes associated with metabolic syndrome, according to results of studies from Sweden and India. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, obesity and high blood sugar.
Anne Harding
Reuters
Sat, 29 Dec 2007 01:05 CST
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| ©REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
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| A hamburger is displayed in Hollywood, California October 3, 2007.
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Eating a high-fat, high-carb fast food meal produces damaging cellular changes that are greater and longer-lasting in obese people than in normal-weight people, a new study shows.
upi.com
Fri, 28 Dec 2007 21:45 CST
Researchers at the Oklahoma Blood Institute are collecting blood from American Indians to see if a rare genetic marker linked to the Choctaw tribe shows up.
In 1997, researchers in Oklahoma City discovered by accident an antibody, ENAV MNS42 or "Avis," on the walls of red blood cells donated by a Choctaw. Only two other donors, both of Choctaw descent, have been found to carry the antibody, the Tulsa World reported.
OBI Medical Director Dr. James Smith said the finding is significant because it helps the blood bank find blood for patients with the rare antibody.
All three of the Choctaws with the antigen lived in southeastern Oklahoma. The Choctaw Nation has fewer than 200,000 registered members.
