http://www.sott.net Signs of the Times, featuring news and commentary on world events. Never wavering in our unending search for the light of truth in a pathocracy driven world! en-us Original content Copyright 2009 by Signs of the Times. For other content, see our Fair Use Policy at www.sott.net Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:12:05 -0500 http://www.sott.net/images/sottlogo_rss.jpg SOTT.net http://www.sott.net http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172665-Dust-Mites-Major-Allergens-For-Asthma-Patients The American Asthma Foundation announced a research breakthrough that explains why tiny, household pests called dust mites are a major source of airborne allergens for patients with allergic asthma. Dean Smith, Executive Director of the American Asthma Foundation, explains that "although dust mites are known to trigger asthma attacks, until now we did not know why the allergic response to the mites was so strong." The mystery was solved as a result of research funded by the American Asthma Foundation's Strategic Program for Asthma Research (SPAR). http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172665-Dust-Mites-Major-Allergens-For-Asthma-Patients Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:26:12 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172664-Australia-Perth-researchers-unravel-genetic-secrets-of-rare-disease A University of Western Australia scientist has begun to unravel the genetic secrets of Kawasaki disease, a mysterious and potentially deadly childhood condition. The rare disease was thrown into the spotlight this week by the sudden death of John Travolta's 16-year-old son Jett, who suffered a bout of the illness as a young child. Researchers led by UWA scientist David Burgner have discovered five genes that make children more susceptible to the disease, which damages blood vessels and could raise the risk of heart attacks in later life. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172664-Australia-Perth-researchers-unravel-genetic-secrets-of-rare-disease Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:25:52 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172642-Too-Much-Of-A-Good-Thing-Excessive-DNA-Repair-Can-Lead-To-Retinal-Degeneration A naturally occurring DNA repair system that normally protects cells from damage can cause retinal degeneration and blindness when overstimulated, according to a new study by MIT researchers. The research team found that relatively low-level exposure to an environmental toxic agent provoked very active DNA repair that led to surprisingly high rates of retinal degeneration in mice -- much higher than in mice lacking the same DNA repair pathway. The work raises the possibility of developing treatments for retinal degeneration by blocking a particular DNA repair pathway. "Under some circumstances, too much DNA repair is not a good thing and could actually be a bad thing," said Leona Samson, co-director of MIT's Center for Environmental Health Sciences, professor of biology and biological engineering, and senior author of a paper on the work appearing online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172642-Too-Much-Of-A-Good-Thing-Excessive-DNA-Repair-Can-Lead-To-Retinal-Degeneration Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:26:21 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172641-They-Left-the-Corporate-Cocoon-to-Blossom Big company. Big salary. Big sendoff. That's the formula millions of American workers used for years to map their career trajectory. Conventional wisdom advised workers to land a job with a big company and retire with generous benefits. But there's a new breed of worker who is making that formula seem as quaint as a VHS tape. They are the ultimate risk-takers -- they leave large, successful companies to pursue their own dreams even though the economy is reeling. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172641-They-Left-the-Corporate-Cocoon-to-Blossom Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:24:19 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172638-Brain-Circuit-Abnormalities-May-Underlie-Bulimia-Nervosa-In-Women Women with bulimia nervosa appear to respond more impulsively during psychological testing than those without eating disorders, and brain scans show differences in areas responsible for regulating behavior, according to a new report. Bulimia nervosa often begins in the adolescent or young adult years, according to background information in the article. "Primarily affecting girls and women, it is characterized by recurrent episodes of binge eating followed by self-induced vomiting or another compensatory behavior to avoid weight gain," the authors write. "These episodes of binge eating are associated with a severe sense of loss of control." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172638-Brain-Circuit-Abnormalities-May-Underlie-Bulimia-Nervosa-In-Women Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:11:42 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172637-Birth-of-first-British-baby-to-be-genetically-screened-for-breast-cancer The first baby in Britain to be screened for a deadly breast cancer gene while still an embryo has been born safely in London. Her parents, who wish to remain anonymous, opted for screening because three generations of women in the father's family had suffered the disease. Had the baby been born with the BRCA1 gene she would have had an 80 per cent chance of developing breast cancer as a direct result and a 60 per cent chance of ovarian cancer. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172637-Birth-of-first-British-baby-to-be-genetically-screened-for-breast-cancer Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:08:25 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172610-A-Good-Night-s-Sleep-Protects-Against-Parasites Animal species that sleep for longer do not suffer as much from parasite infestation and have a greater concentration of immune cells in their blood according to a study published in the open-access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. The question of why we sleep has long puzzled scientists. Brian Preston from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, led an international team of researchers who tested the theory that sleep improves immune function. He says, "Sleep is a biological enigma. Despite occupying much of an animal's life, and having been scrutinized by numerous experimental studies, there is still no consensus on its function. Similarly, nobody has yet explained why species have evolved such marked variation in their sleep requirements (from 3 to 20 hours a day in mammals). Our research provides new evidence that sleep plays an important role in protecting animals from parasitic infection." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172610-A-Good-Night-s-Sleep-Protects-Against-Parasites Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:08:10 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172596-FDA-scientists-complain-to-Obama-of-corruption- Washington - In an unusually blunt letter, a group of federal scientists is complaining to the Obama transition team of widespread managerial misconduct in a division of the Food and Drug Administration. "The purpose of this letter is to inform you that the scientific review process for medical devices at the FDA has been corrupted and distorted by current FDA managers, thereby placing the American people at risk," said the letter, dated Wednesday and written on the agency's Center for Devices and Radiological Health letterhead. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172596-FDA-scientists-complain-to-Obama-of-corruption- Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:02:26 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172576-Since-nanomaterials-are-now-in-everything-it-s-time-to-see-how-much-damage-they-cause Edmonton - The tiny critters had seemed so content, swimming around under the microscope. Scientist Shirley Tang was studying how living organisms might be affected by nanomaterials. These minute particles assembled from just a few molecules offer great promise but also pose a lot of questions - and can cause surprising and unpredictable harmful effects. In an effort to understand those effects, Tang had just exposed some protozoa to nanoparticles. The one-celled animals promptly absorbed them, ejected them, and then carried on. "They seemed happy," says Tang, a chemistry professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. "They would eat bacteria as normal. We didn't see any mortality to the protozoa." But a closer look showed they weren't happy at all. Sure, they'd eat bacteria, but instead of absorbing their prey, they'd simply excrete it. "Now they can only digest 40 per cent, 20 per cent, 10 per cent of their food." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172576-Since-nanomaterials-are-now-in-everything-it-s-time-to-see-how-much-damage-they-cause Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:00:51 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172575-Brazil-340-on-cruise-ship-sickened-cause-unknown Hundreds of passengers on a Swiss-owned cruise ship were stricken with severe vomiting and diarrhea caused by a mysterious ailment, Brazilian health officials said Thursday. At least 340 victims have been sickened on the MSC Sinfonia, now docked in Salvador, Bahia, according to a spokeswoman for the National Agency for Sanitary Vigilance. She spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with department policy. The illness didn't appear to be life-threatening and most passengers were recovering Thursday. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172575-Brazil-340-on-cruise-ship-sickened-cause-unknown Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:00:34 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172574-Australia-Mystery-whooping-cough-epidemic-hits-New-South-Wales Whooping cough has hit epidemic proportions in New South Wales, and experts are at a loss to explain why. More than 8300 cases were reported in New South Wales last year - a 20 year high. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172574-Australia-Mystery-whooping-cough-epidemic-hits-New-South-Wales Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:59:52 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172573-Goat-modified-for-drug-making-sparks-fears A U.S. government regulator's positive review of an anti-clotting drug made from the milk of a genetically modified goat has sparked consumer-group concerns. "The regulatory process seems to have put the cart before the horse, analyzing the safety of the product before it has opined on the safety of the manufacturing process," Greg Jaffe of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration "clearly needs to impose cradle-to-grave conditions to prevent the goats from leaving the farm or their products from entering the food supply," Jaffee told USA Today. An FDA evaluation, to be presented to its Blood Products Advisory Board Friday, finds the drug ATryn to be effective and safe. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172573-Goat-modified-for-drug-making-sparks-fears Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:37:47 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172548-Cyprus-3rd-baby-dies-of-Legionnaires-disease Nicosia, Cyprus - Officials say a third baby has died from an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease at a private clinic in the Cypriot capital. A total of 11 babies were infected, and one is on a respirator in critical condition at the state-run Makarios Hospital, according to Andreas Hadjidemetriou, a doctor there. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172548-Cyprus-3rd-baby-dies-of-Legionnaires-disease Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:55:02 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172515-UC-Davis-Study-Autism-is-Environmental-Can-We-Move-On-Now- I have always said there may be a small percentage of people with autism spectrum disorder (perhaps those with Asperger Syndrome) whose symptoms are a result only of their genetic makeup, with no environmental factors involved at all. But a new study out of UC Davis' MIND Institute says that it's time to abandon science's long, expensive, and not very fruitful quest to find the gene or genes that cause autism alone, without any environmental triggers. "We need to keep (environmental) studies going," Irva Hertz-Picciotto, the co-author of the study and professor of environmental and occupational health and epidemiology at UC Davis, said in a statement. "We're looking at the possible effects of metals, pesticides and infectious agents on neurodevelopment," Hertz-Picciotto said. "If we're going to stop the rise in autism in California, we need to keep these studies going and expand them to the extent possible." Autism is predominantly an environmentally acquired disease, the study seems to conclude. Its meteoric rise, at least in California, cannot possibly be attributed to that shopworn mantra we still hear everyday, incredibly, from far too many public health officials: It's due to better diagnosing and counting. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172515-UC-Davis-Study-Autism-is-Environmental-Can-We-Move-On-Now- Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:59:15 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172498-Chemopreventive-agents-in-black-raspberries-identified A study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, identifies components of black raspberries with chemopreventive potential. Researchers at the Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center found that anthocyanins, a class of flavonoids in black raspberries, inhibited growth and stimulated apoptosis in the esophagus of rats treated with an esophageal carcinogen. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172498-Chemopreventive-agents-in-black-raspberries-identified Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:24:56 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172494-Old-Gastrointestinal-Drug-Slows-Aging-May-Alleviate-Alzheimer-s Montreal -- Recent animal studies have shown that clioquinol - an 80-year old drug once used to treat diarrhea and other gastrointestinal disorders - can reverse the progression of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. Scientists, however, had a variety of theories to attempt to explain how a single compound could have such similar effects on three unrelated neurodegenerative disorders. Researchers at McGill University have discovered a dramatic possible new answer: According to Dr. Siegfried Hekimi and colleagues at McGill's Department of Biology, clioquinol acts directly on a protein called CLK-1, often informally called "clock-1," and might slow down the aging process. The advance online edition of their study was published in Oct. 2008 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172494-Old-Gastrointestinal-Drug-Slows-Aging-May-Alleviate-Alzheimer-s Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:59:44 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172460-Replacing-pain-killers-with-hypnosis It may not be your method of choice for major operations, but for a growing number of procedures - from childbirth to dental surgery - hypnosis is an effective alternative to conventional sedatives and analgesics. Alexis Makris, a 19-year-old hairdresser's apprentice from Stuttgart, Germany, is jogging along a sunny beach in Greece. He's not interested in the cold steel hook poking around in his upper left jaw, or the latex-covered fingers of the dentist wielding the instrument in his mouth. He's too occupied with the smell of the salt sea air and the feel of the warm sand on his feet. When the tug of the wisdom tooth being pulled from his mouth becomes a little too insistent, he picks up his pace. As the tooth is finally yanked out, accompanied by a small gush of bright red blood, Makris is still running, oblivious to any pain. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172460-Replacing-pain-killers-with-hypnosis Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:28:34 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172459-Salmonella-outbreak-sickens-388-across-U-S- Washington - An outbreak of salmonella food poisoning has made 388 people sick across 42 states, sending 18 percent of them to the hospital, U.S. health officials said on Wednesday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is trying to trace the source of the outbreak, which began in September. The Department of Agriculture, state health officials and the Food and Drug Administration are also involved. The CDC said poultry, cheese and eggs are the most common source of this particular strain, known as Salmonella typhimurium. "It is often difficult to identify sources of foodborne outbreaks. People may not remember the foods they recently ate and may not be aware of all of the ingredients in food. That's what makes these types of investigations very difficult," said CDC spokesman David Daigle. Daigle did not specify how many people were hospitalized, but the percentage he gave puts that figure at about 70. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172459-Salmonella-outbreak-sickens-388-across-U-S- Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:27:11 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172424-Baxter-Other-Drug-Firms-Accused-of-Knowingly-Selling-AIDS-Contaminated-Drugs-to-Kids Baxter International Inc. and other drug companies sold blood-clotting medicine for hemophiliacs that carried a high risk of transmitting AIDS to markets in Europe more than a year after switching to newer, safer products in the United States, according to a lawsuit filed here Friday. The suit names as plaintiffs several dozen people in Italy and the United Kingdom who claim they, or a now deceased relative, contracted HIV from blood factor concentrates manufactured in the late 1970s and mid 1980s by six pharmaceutical companies and their subsidiaries. The suit says some plaintiffs also contracted Hepatitis C from the contaminated concentrates, called Factor VIII and Factor IX. Baxter's co-defendants in the suit are Bayer AG, and Immuno-US Inc. Cutter Biological, a division of Bayer, introduced a safer medicine heat-treated to kill HIV in 1984, the same year a report from the Centers for Disease Control found 74 percent of hemophiliacs who received blood factors made from the plasma of U.S. donors were HIV positive. Yet Cutter and other companies continued shipping the old products overseas for more than a year and "refused to recall old stocks of products they knew to be contaminated," the suit said. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172424-Baxter-Other-Drug-Firms-Accused-of-Knowingly-Selling-AIDS-Contaminated-Drugs-to-Kids Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:28:08 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172390-It-Takes-2-To-Know-1-Shared-Experiences-Change-Self-recognition Looking at yourself in the mirror every morning, you never think to question whether the person you see is actually you. You feel familiar - at home with your own unique self image. After all, you have been sporting the same old face for years. An innovative study published December 24, 2008 in the online, open-access, peer-reviewed journal challenges this common-sense notion about our own self image. The study shows for the first time that the image we hold of our own face can actually change through shared experiences with other people's faces. The study reveals that recognition of our own face is not as consistent as we might think. The participants' ability to recognize their own face changed when they watched the face of another person being touched at the same time as their own face was touched, as though they were looking in a mirror. Specifically, when asked to recognize a picture of their own face, the picture that people chose included features of the other person they had previously seen. This did not happen when the two faces were touched out of synchrony. Sharing an experience with another person may change the perception we have of our own self, such as the recognition of our own face. "As a result of shared experiences, we tend to perceive other people as being more similar to us, and this applies also to the recognition of our own face. This process may be at the root of constructing a self-identity in a social context," says Dr Tsakiris who led the study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, UK. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172390-It-Takes-2-To-Know-1-Shared-Experiences-Change-Self-recognition Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:18:25 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172381-Transmarginal-Inhibition-Chronic-Fatigue-and-Childhood-Abuse-Linked-in-CDC-Study Chronic fatigue syndrome, an ailment of unknown cause, may be tied to childhood abuse, according to psychologists at Emory University in Atlanta. Their research found that adults who reported having suffered sexual, emotional or physical abuse or neglect as children were six times more likely to have the syndrome, characterized by extreme tiredness that isn't helped by rest. The study, sponsored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, appears in today's Archives of General Psychiatry. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172381-Transmarginal-Inhibition-Chronic-Fatigue-and-Childhood-Abuse-Linked-in-CDC-Study Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:01:26 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172379-3rd-hand-smoke-poses-risk-to-infants-doctors-say "Third-hand" smoke - which lingers in cars, on furniture and on smokers themselves after a cigarette is extinguished - leaves toxic chemicals that crawling children can ingest, say pediatricians. In the January issue of the journal Pediatrics, Dr. Jonathan Winickoff of Harvard Medical School and his colleagues said parents may try to shield their children from second-hand smoke by rolling down the car window or smoking in the kitchen with the fan on, but the risks of third-hand smoke still exist. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172379-3rd-hand-smoke-poses-risk-to-infants-doctors-say Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:46:10 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172361-Deadly-bug-kills-baby-and-puts-seven-more-in-isolation-in-hospital A baby has died and seven others have been put into isolation after an outbreak of the rare and deadly Serratia bug at a hospital's specialist neo-natal unit. Two premature babies were found to be infected with Serratia bacteria at Birmingham's Heartlands Hospital's special care baby unit nearly two weeks ago. One later died and since then six more babies in the unit have tested positive for serratia on their skin, forcing the neo-natal intensive care ward within the unit to be sealed off and closed to any new patients for a fortnight. The bacteria, a distant relative of E-coli and resistant to many antibiotics, lives in the gut and causes infections in the blood and respiratory tracts. It is mostly seen in neo-natal babies and can prove fatal if it attacks the infant's under-developed lungs. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172361-Deadly-bug-kills-baby-and-puts-seven-more-in-isolation-in-hospital Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:24:34 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172359-More-Americans-getting-multiple-chronic-illnesses Washington - More Americans are burdened by chronic illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure, often having more than three at a time, and this has helped fuel a big rise in out-of-pocket medical expenses, a study released on Tuesday showed. With prescription drugs playing a key role, average annual out-of-pocket medical costs -- those not covered by health insurance -- rose from $427 per American in 1996 to $741 in 2005, researchers wrote in the journal Health Affairs. Adjusting for inflation, that translated to 39 percent more in out-of-pocket spending per person over that time, according to Kathryn Paez of Maryland-based health research organization Social & Scientific Systems Inc. and colleagues. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172359-More-Americans-getting-multiple-chronic-illnesses Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:02:25 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172352-Playing-golf-can-damage-hearing- Keen golfers are being warned by doctors that they could be risking their hearing for their sport. Players who use a new generation of thin-faced titanium drivers to propel the ball further should consider wearing ear plugs, experts advise. Ear specialists suspect the "sonic boom" the metal club head makes when it strikes the ball damaged the hearing of a 55-year-old golfer they treated. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172352-Playing-golf-can-damage-hearing- Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:07:42 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172349-Helper-Parrots-Guide-Horses-Face-Legal-Challenges Chances are you've seen a blind person accompanied by a guide dog. But what about a guide horse, a service parrot or a monkey trained to help an agoraphobic? These are just a few of the nontraditional service animals that are used across the country to help people with disabilities and psychological disorders. As their uses are expanding, however, the government is considering a proposal that would limit the definition of "service animal" to "a dog or other common domestic animal." In an article in the upcoming New York Times Magazine, Rebecca Skloot outlines why many people are upset about the pending law. Sometimes less familiar animals make better helpers, she tells Alex Cohen. Miniature horses, for example, live much longer than dogs, which means that their owners don't have to readjust to a new guide as often. "Horses tend to live and work into their 30s, whereas a guide dog will work six to eight years total," she explains. And while guide horses may prompt more questions when entering a store or restaurant than guide dogs, their strengths can make it worth it, she explains. In addition to having amazing vision, they instinctually work in synchronicity with their owner. "They are herd animals, so they naturally work really well with other people," she says, adding that "they are aware of their surroundings in a way dogs aren't because they are prey animals as opposed to predators." http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172349-Helper-Parrots-Guide-Horses-Face-Legal-Challenges Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:59:26 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172345-Extreme-Mercury-Toxicity-Sidelines-Actor-Jeremy-Piven Chicago actor Jeremy Piven has unexpectedly left the cast of the Broadway revival of "Speed-the-Plow" because of a mercury count that his doctor said was the highest level he'd ever seen. Piven, 43, wanted to continue but he was advised to stop. Dr. Carlon Colker, who had been treating Piven, said Piven was suffering from "extreme mercury toxicity" and that "a test revealed that Jeremy had ... six times a healthy amount of mercury in his system." Piven has long been a sushi eater, often twice a day, which may be the ultimate cause of the problem. A major symptom of mercury poisoning is extreme fatigue. Piven was also experiencing neuro-muscular dysfunction, which resulted in his having trouble lifting his arms and legs. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172345-Extreme-Mercury-Toxicity-Sidelines-Actor-Jeremy-Piven Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:22:55 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172330-AIDS-Fraud-Exposed-HIV-Science-Papers-from-1984-were-Falsified Top Scientists Ask Medical Journal Science To Retract Original AIDS Papers San Francisco - The international nonprofit scientific organization Rethinking AIDS gave its full support today to 37 senior researchers, medical doctors and legal professionals who are requesting that the medical journal Science withdraw four seminal papers on HIV authored by Dr. Robert Gallo - papers widely touted as proof that HIV is the "probable cause of AIDS." An online posting of the letter can be found here. "With new findings that undermine the scientific integrity and veracity of Gallo's four papers, the entire basis of the theory that HIV causes AIDS may now be questioned," says Rethinking AIDS president David Crowe. The letter to the journal comes at a time when the microbiology world is abuzz about Gallo's omission from the 2008 Nobel Prize in medicine for the discovery of HIV, contrary to an international agreement that the two teams should share credit. French scientists Drs. Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barré-Sinoussi are instead to be given the award, a decision that also implicitly questions the scientific integrity of Gallo's claim of the discovery. Montagnier, however, admitted on camera more than a decade ago that his experiments did not purify any virus. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172330-AIDS-Fraud-Exposed-HIV-Science-Papers-from-1984-were-Falsified Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:53:06 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172315-Vaccinating-older-people-against-pneumonia-is-a-waste-of-time- Giving jabs to older people against an infection which causes pneumonia is a waste of time, say researchers. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172315-Vaccinating-older-people-against-pneumonia-is-a-waste-of-time- Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:54:41 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172289-Adult-onset-Diabetes-Slows-Mental-Functioning-In-Several-Ways-With-Deficits-Appearing-Early Adults with diabetes experience a slowdown in several types of mental processing, which appears early in the disease and persists into old age, according to new research. Given the sharp rise in new cases of diabetes, this finding means that more adults may soon be living with mild but lasting deficits in their thought processes. A full analysis appears in the January issue of Neuropsychology, which is published by the American Psychological Association. Researchers at Canada's University of Alberta analyzed a cross-section of adults with and without adult-onset Type 2 diabetes, all followed in the Victoria Longitudinal Study. At three-year intervals, this study tracks three independent samples of initially healthy older adults to assess biomedical, health, cognitive and neurocognitive aspects of aging. The Neuropsychology study involved 41 adults with diabetes and 424 adults in good health, between ages 53 and 90. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172289-Adult-onset-Diabetes-Slows-Mental-Functioning-In-Several-Ways-With-Deficits-Appearing-Early Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:48:08 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172274-Scientists-find-a-gene-that-makes-cancer-spread Chicago - A single gene appears to play a crucial role in deadly breast cancers, increasing the chances the cancer will spread and making it resistant to chemotherapy, U.S. researchers said on Monday. They found people with aggressive breast cancers have abnormal genetic alterations in a gene called MTDH, and drugs that block the gene could keep local tumors from metastasizing or spreading, increasing a woman's chances for survival. "Not only has a new metastasis gene been identified, but this also is one of a few such genes for which the exact mode of action has been elucidated," said Dr. Michael Reiss of The Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick, whose study appears in the journal Cancer Cell. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172274-Scientists-find-a-gene-that-makes-cancer-spread Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:46:13 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172224-Canada-Missed-vaccinations-lead-to-school-suspension-threat Threatened with suspension - when an opt out process exists (!) - which is covered in the fourth-last paragraph of this article. You wouldn't know it from the headline, though. Perhaps the question journalists should be asking is - how much funding does the school board get for dispensing each shot? In any case, the bottom line for your rights is - the state does not own your children, and it has no right to impose coercive medication on them. Vaccinate your kids if you're comfortable with the risk level. Keep your hands off of everyone else's. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172224-Canada-Missed-vaccinations-lead-to-school-suspension-threat Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:06:06 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172214-Alternative-visual-paths-guide-blind-man-through-obstacle-course-in-study A man who is clinically blind was able to navigate an obstacle course successfully using "ancient visual paths," European researchers say in a study to be released Tuesday. The Swiss patient, a doctor known as TN, was left blind after consecutive strokes. Tests showed he had no activity in the visual cortex, the main region of the brain that processes what people see. The man had selective damage to the visual cortex in both sides of the brain. "This is absolutely the first study of this ability in humans," said Beatrice de Gelder of Tilburg University, the Netherlands, and of the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Harvard in Massachusetts. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172214-Alternative-visual-paths-guide-blind-man-through-obstacle-course-in-study Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:37:11 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172198-Corporate-psychopaths-at-large If you work in an office, watch out -- your boss or the person sitting next to you could be a psychopath. But not every psychopath is a budding Hannibal Lecter or Patrick Bateman, the Harvard Business School-educated Wall Street banker with a sadistic murderous streak who is the anti-hero of Brett Easton Ellis' brutal novel American Psycho. They may not be violent, the New Scientist magazine warns, but their character traits are identifiable as psychopathic and they're helping them climb the corporate ladder. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172198-Corporate-psychopaths-at-large Sun, 04 Jan 2009 17:12:36 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172192-The-odd-tipple-boosts-female-brain Research shows the occasional drink can improve cognitive funtion and defend against dementia in women - but the same is not true for men The occasional tipple can delay the onset of dementia in women, a new study has found. The University of Glasgow research suggests low to moderate alcohol intake improves the performance of the female brain while protecting against cognitive decline. Almost 6,000 people aged 70 to 82 took part in the study, carried out in Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands. Little difference was found between male drinkers and non-drinkers, but women who consumed between one and seven units a week scored significantly better than teetotal females. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172192-The-odd-tipple-boosts-female-brain Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:56:34 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172145-Two-babies-die-of-Legionnaires-disease-in-Cyprus A two-week-old baby died of Legionnaires' disease in Cyprus on Saturday, while two more infants are still in critical conditions, local media reported. Seven other babies are now in hospital to receive treatment for pneumonia, and they are in a better condition now, Cyprus News Agency reported. A newborn died on Tuesday after being affected with the Legionnaires virus. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172145-Two-babies-die-of-Legionnaires-disease-in-Cyprus Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:12:06 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172124-Britain-sees-worst-flu-outbreak-since-2000 Britain's medical system is overwhelmed by the worst flu outbreak since 2000, say doctors being swamped with emergency calls. "The system simply does not have enough capacity to cope with the pressure it is under, and we expect this to keep getting worse over Christmas," said John Heyworth, president of the College of Emergency Medicine. Ambulance services are in short supply with patients facing long waits in emergency rooms because of a shortage of available beds, The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172124-Britain-sees-worst-flu-outbreak-since-2000 Sat, 03 Jan 2009 23:58:44 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172120-Vulnerability-To-Post-traumatic-Stress-Disorder-Runs-In-Families-Study-Shows Earthquakes have aftershocks - not just the geological kind but the mental kind as well. Just like veterans of war, earthquake survivors can experience post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety. In 1988, a massive earthquake in Armenia killed 17,000 people and destroyed nearly half the town of Gumri. Now, in the first multigenerational study of its kind, UCLA researchers studying survivors of that catastrophe have discovered that vulnerability to PTSD, anxiety and depression runs in families. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172120-Vulnerability-To-Post-traumatic-Stress-Disorder-Runs-In-Families-Study-Shows Sat, 03 Jan 2009 23:12:59 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172105-India-Five-infants-die-in-mysterious-outbreak Five infants died of a mysterious disease at Dalit-inhabited Varahi village in Biharaposs Darbhanga district within a span of two days triggering panic in the area. District Civil Surgeon L Prasad told reporters that while Banu Kumari (5), Pranayjeet Sada (3) and Satbir Sada (3) succumbed on December 31 at Musahar Tolla of the hamlet, another child Raghunandan Sada (3) died yesterday. Rumpam Kumari, the fifth child, died this afternoon. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172105-India-Five-infants-die-in-mysterious-outbreak Sat, 03 Jan 2009 20:55:37 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172088-How-the-city-hurts-your-brain The city has always been an engine of intellectual life, from the 18th-century coffeehouses of London, where citizens gathered to discuss chemistry and radical politics, to the Left Bank bars of modern Paris, where Pablo Picasso held forth on modern art. Without the metropolis, we might not have had the great art of Shakespeare or James Joyce; even Einstein was inspired by commuter trains. And yet, city life isn't easy. The same London cafes that stimulated Ben Franklin also helped spread cholera; Picasso eventually bought an estate in quiet Provence. While the modern city might be a haven for playwrights, poets, and physicists, it's also a deeply unnatural and overwhelming place. Now scientists have begun to examine how the city affects the brain, and the results are chastening. Just being in an urban environment, they have found, impairs our basic mental processes. After spending a few minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold things in memory, and suffers from reduced self-control. While it's long been recognized that city life is exhausting -- that's why Picasso left Paris -- this new research suggests that cities actually dull our thinking, sometimes dramatically so. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172088-How-the-city-hurts-your-brain Sat, 03 Jan 2009 17:50:38 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172086-Genetic-Variation-May-Lead-To-Early-Cardiovascular-Disease Researchers from Duke University Medical Center have identified a variation in a particular gene that increases susceptibility to early coronary artery disease. For years, scientists have known that the devastating, early-onset form of the disease was inherited, but they knew little about the gene(s) responsible until now. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172086-Genetic-Variation-May-Lead-To-Early-Cardiovascular-Disease Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:24:48 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172073-Men-Sexually-Abused-In-Childhood-Ten-Times-More-Likely-To-Contemplate-Suicide Sexual abuse in childhood increases the risk of suicide in men by up to ten times, say researchers from the University of Bath. A recent study of Australian men has found that those who were sexually abused as children are more likely than women to contemplate taking their own lives. Whilst gender and mental health problems are the most important risk factors for contemplating suicide, it is increasingly acknowledged that traumatic experiences such as childhood sexual abuse may be a significant risk factor. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172073-Men-Sexually-Abused-In-Childhood-Ten-Times-More-Likely-To-Contemplate-Suicide Sat, 03 Jan 2009 01:10:55 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172042-They-call-it-food-Processed-People-The-Movie Eat Food When they're not busy picking our pockets, or telling us we have to give up liberties in order to have freedom, they're selling us garbage and telling us it's food. Last time I checked, the manufactured food business is bigger than Big Oil and that kind of money buys inconceivably large amounts of propaganda, misinformation and corrupted science. "Eat food"... What a beautifully profound and revolutionary piece of advice. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172042-They-call-it-food-Processed-People-The-Movie Fri, 02 Jan 2009 14:07:58 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172037-Processed-Foods-Linked-to-Lung-Cancer Why do some people get lung cancer - even if they never smoke? New research suggests eating a lot of processed foods containing inorganic phosphates could be the explanation. What's more, the study also suggests that dietary changes to avoid these chemical additives may play an important role in lung cancer treatment. In research just published in the January issue of American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society, scientists from Seoul National University conclude that a diet high in inorganic phosphates, which are found in a host of processed foods including meats, cheeses, beverages, and bakery products, might spur the growth of lung cancer. The researchers also suggest the food additive may contribute to the development of malignancies in people predisposed to lung cancer. Myung-Haing Cho, D.V.M., Ph.D., and his colleagues studied mice with lung cancer tumors for four weeks. The rodents were randomly assigned to eat a diet of either 0.5 or 1.0 percent phosphate, a range roughly equivalent to what's found in most modern human diets that contain processed foods. At the end of the study period, the animals' lung tissues were analyzed to see what effects the inorganic phosphates had on tumors. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172037-Processed-Foods-Linked-to-Lung-Cancer Fri, 02 Jan 2009 13:53:14 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172021-Never-mind-the-sugar-Are-our-children-being-poisoned-by-their-sweets- My four-year-old daughter and I sit in front of a great heap of sweets. Her eyes are alight, like a pirate's with his treasure: Sweets are her greatest passion. Just back from a friend's party, she thinks she's hit the jackpot. But I'm going to have to tell her she cannot have any of them. Not a wine gum, not a chewy snake, not one Roses chocolate. I've been sitting painstakingly going through the ingredients list on the back of each jazzy-coloured packet - occasionally with a magnifying glass. Amazingly, almost all of them contain some additives that I've had to decide are actively dangerous to her. These are additives that are banned in many countries, ones that our government's Food Standards Agency (FSA) decided over a year ago should not be in our children's sweets. But they are still on sale in every supermarket and sweet shop across Britain. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172021-Never-mind-the-sugar-Are-our-children-being-poisoned-by-their-sweets- Fri, 02 Jan 2009 07:06:05 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172011-Be-careful-when-considering-vaccine Time magazine named Merck's HPV Vaccine, Gardasil, one of the top medical/science stories of 2008. But it's the vaccine's side-effects and not its cancer prevention claim that got it there. According to VAERS (the nonprofit Vaccine Awareness Event Reporting System) October 2008 statistics, there have been over 14,000 reports of serious side effects from Gardasil since it became available in 2006. My daughter is included in that statistic as she developed epilepsy since being vaccinated. Other young women suffer with daily seizures, excruciating joint pain, debilitating fatigue, difficulty breathing and some are so ill they can no longer attend school. Yet Merck, the CDC and FDA staunchly stand by the vaccine, attribute side effects to other factors and maintain its safety. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/172011-Be-careful-when-considering-vaccine Fri, 02 Jan 2009 03:57:05 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/171976-Grape-seed-Extract-Kills-Laboratory-Leukemia-Cells-Proving-Value-Of-Natural-Compounds An extract from grape seeds forces laboratory leukemia cells to commit cell suicide, according to researchers from the University of Kentucky. They found that within 24 hours, 76 percent of leukemia cells had died after being exposed to the extract. The investigators, who report their findings in the January 1, 2009, issue of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, also teased apart the cell signaling pathway associated with use of grape seed extract that led to cell death, or apoptosis. They found that the extract activates JNK, a protein that regulates the apoptotic pathway. While grape seed extract has shown activity in a number of laboratory cancer cell lines, including skin, breast, colon, lung, stomach and prostate cancers, no one had tested the extract in hematological cancers nor had the precise mechanism for activity been revealed. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/171976-Grape-seed-Extract-Kills-Laboratory-Leukemia-Cells-Proving-Value-Of-Natural-Compounds Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:39:10 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/171981-Link-To-Severe-Staph-Infections-Found Researchers at The University of Texas School of Public Health recently described studies that support the link between the severity of community-acquired antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA MRSA) infections and the Panton Valentine leukocidin (PVL). The Panton Valentine leukocidin is made up of two components - LukF-PV and LukS-PV - and is typically produced by community-acquired methicillin-resistant S. aureus (CA MRSA). In the United States this strain is the most common CA MRSA isolate and can cause severe skin infections, pneumonia, bloodstream infections and surgical wound infections. This work has identified using animal models that the PVL leukotoxin can be used as a vaccine against infections caused by CA MRSA. Results from the research will be published in the December issue of Clinical Microbiology and Infection. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/171981-Link-To-Severe-Staph-Infections-Found Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:25:45 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/171979-Antioxidants-Offer-Pain-Relief-In-Patients-With-Chronic-Pancreatitis Antioxidant supplementation was found to be effective in relieving pain and reducing levels of oxidative stress in patients with chronic pancreatitis (CP), reports a new study in Gastroenterology. CP is a progressive inflammatory disease of the pancreas in which patients experience abdominal pain (in early stage) and diabetes and maldigestion (in late stage). Pain is the major problem in 90 percent of patients with CP and currently, there is no effective medical therapy for pain relief. Gastroenterology is the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute. In this placebo-controlled, double blind trial, 127 patients, ages 30.5+/-10.5, were assigned to placebo or antioxidant groups. After six months, the reduction in the number of painful days/month was significantly higher in the antioxidant group, compared with the placebo group (7.4±6.8 versus 3.2±4, respectively). The reduction in the number of analgesic tablets/month was also higher in the antioxidant group (10.5±11.8 versus 4.4±5.8, respectively). Furthermore, 32 percent and 13 percent of patients became pain free in the antioxidant and placebo groups, respectively; the beneficial effect of antioxidants on pain relief was noted early at three months. http://www.sott.net/articles/show/171979-Antioxidants-Offer-Pain-Relief-In-Patients-With-Chronic-Pancreatitis Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:23:10 +0000 http://www.sott.net/articles/show/171972-Fosomax-type-drugs-linked-to-jaw-necrosis Study is among first to link short term drug use for osteoporosis to bone death. Researchers at the University Of Southern California, School Of Dentistry release results of clinical data that links oral bisphosphonates to increased jaw necrosis. The study is among the first to acknowledge that even short-term use of common oral osteoporosis drugs may leave the jaw vulnerable to devastating necrosis, according to the report appearing in the January 1 Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA). http://www.sott.net/articles/show/171972-Fosomax-type-drugs-linked-to-jaw-necrosis Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:51:40 +0000