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Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder share genetic roots

The Hindu
Sun, 05 Jul 2009 06:55 UTC

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder share genetic roots that seem to be specific to serious mental disorders, new studies have revealed.

A trio of genome-wide studies, collectively the largest to date, has pinpointed a vast array of genetic variations that cumulatively may account for at least a third of the genetic risk for schizophrenia. One of the studies traced schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, in part, to the same chromosomal neighbourhoods.

"These new results recommend a fresh look at our diagnostic categories," said Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Rob Smart
Huffington Post
Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:56 UTC

What if I told you that America's food system is broken? What would you say?

Would you defend it by pointing out the abundance of choices offered in today's average supermarket, estimated to be over 45,000 items? Would you cite that per capita spending on food has dropped significantly over the last 50 years, freeing up incomes to improve quality of life? Would you talk about how American innovation is not only feeding our citizens, but is also feeding the world? Or would you quietly ask what a food system is?

Kerry Trueman
Civil Eats
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:19 UTC

If you think diabetes and obesity are the two biggest health care crises Americans face these days, you're missing the forest for the trees - literally. Because the roots of all this diet-induced disease lie in two less publicized but even more pernicious epidemics: nature deficit disorder and kitchen illiteracy.

The symptoms include a woeful lack of familiarity with that elusive culinary commodity known as "real food," or "good food," or "slow food," and total estrangement from Mother Earth - who, by the way, keeps hanging around outside pining for a glimpse of you while you remain indoors, mesmerized by your monitor or TV screen and mindlessly munching on ersatz edibles.

Bond Brungard
Disaster News Network
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:23 UTC

Northwest Montana, best known for its mountains, bighorn sheep, moose, and bear has also become known as a deadly place to live.

Health officials say as many as 200 people have died and another 1,000 residents - nearly 50 percent of the population of this small city -- have been sickened by asbestos-related illnesses.

Last month the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared a public health emergency in Libby and the surrounding area as a result of contamination created by asbestos mining in the region during the last century, and announced it will spend about $130 million to clean up the contamination and provide medical care in the region.

Residents of this northwest Montana city of about 2,600 south of the Canadian border, who have been dealing with the threat of asbestos-related illnesses and deaths for years, welcomed the news.

Eric Christiansen has been the pastor of St. John Lutheran Church for 13 years.

Of the 75 funerals he's conducted during his years in the community, Christiansen said about a dozen were attributed to asbestos. Christiansen said asbestos was so common here that it was once mixed in the soil of ball fields and in school running tracks.

Richard Alleyne
telegraph.co.uk
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:25 UTC

Researchers have shown that we subconsciously detect whether others are scared by picking up chemicals they release from their bodies.

They believe the signals can be catching and spread around a group.

Dr Bettina Pause and colleagues at the University of Dusseldorf in Germany put cotton pads under the armpits of 49 student volunteers before they were due to start a university exam.

She also collected sweat from the same group of students as they worked out on exercise bikes.

Another group of 28 volunteer students were then asked to sniff the cotton pads while their brains were monitored with an MRI scanner.

S. L. Baker
Natural News
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:32 UTC

Bevacizumab is the generic name for the widely used Genetech cancer drug marketed as Avastin. It inhibits tumor growth by blocking angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels. But according to an article just published in the June edition of The Lancet Oncology, cancer patients treated with Avastin in combination with chemotherapy are at a heightened risk of experiencing a potentially catastrophic side effect. In fact, it's a side effect that could kill them before their malignancy does -- a gastrointestinal (GI) perforation (a hole in the wall of the stomach, small intestine or large bowel).

Kate Devlin
Telegraph
Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:22 UTC

© CLARA MOLDEN
Scientists have found that cutting a carrot after boiling could boost the amount of a natural sugar called falcarinol in the vegetables by a quarter

The anti-cancer properties of carrots could be increased by cooking them whole, a new study by Newcastle University suggests.

Scientists at the university found that cutting a carrot after boiling could boost the amount of a natural sugar called falcarinol in the vegetables by a quarter.

However, if the carrots were chopped up first they lost the extra benefit.

Mary Ellen Gabriel
The Capital Times
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:05 UTC

Playing freely in the woods, like these kids at Glenwood Children's Park on Madison's near west side, develops the senses, stimulates the imagination and releases pent-up energy, experts say.

Sticking out of a pile of dead branches at Glenwood Children's Park is a hand-lettered sign: "These materials may be used in the park for forts and other structures."

"Yeah!"

Eight grade-school boys cheer as they set to work toting "materials" across the sandstone ravine in this back-to-nature park on Madison's near west side, just off Glenway Avenue, near the southwest bike path. As the walls to their rough teepee-like structure grow thicker, they thatch the openings with leaves. Nobody tells the boys what to do. They organize themselves, shouting "power!" whenever they need more hands on deck.

By Ron Winslow
The Wall Street Journal
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:05 UTC

Julia Strecher was 9 years old when she had her second heart transplant. Her body had rejected the first heart she received with particular vehemence: She went into cardiac arrest six times in two hours. As doctors struggled to revive her, she recalls, she could hear them debating whether to give up.

"I was trapped in my body," says Ms. Strecher, now 18. "I was trying to tell people I was alive and not to pull the plug." A few months after she went home with her second new heart, she began having nightmares in which she watched herself suffering cardiac arrest.

But then, she began writing down her thoughts about being helpless. Eventually she turned the details into poems and stories. "It was extremely emotionally healing and freeing," she said. "It helped me relieve a lot of stress and provided a distraction from pain and depression." The nightmares went away.

ScienceDaily
Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:51 UTC

Diets high in protein and cholesterol are associated with a higher risk of hospitalization or death due to cirrhosis or liver cancer, while diets high in carbohydrates are associated with a lower risk. These findings are in the July issue of Hepatology.

There are many reasons to suspect that dietary factors influence the development of hepatic steatosis and its progression to more severe liver disease. First, poor diet may lead to obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes, which are the most important known risk factors for hepatic steatosis. Also, dietary lipids may directly affect fat in the liver. Furthermore, a high cholesterol diet has been shown to induce serious steatosis in animal studies.

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