Health & WellnessS


Ambulance

Chemicals in baby products raise concern

Baby shampoos, lotions and powders may expose infants to chemicals that have been linked with possible reproductive problems, a small study suggests.

The chemicals, called phthalates, are found in many ordinary products including cosmetics, toys, vinyl flooring and medical supplies. They are used to stabilize fragrances and make plastics flexible.

Attention

UK Minister orders fluoride to be added to water

ALAN JOHNSON, the health secretary, will this week tell health chiefs in areas of England with the highest rates of tooth decay to add fluoride to the water supply to improve the dental health of poor children.

Comment: Look at the SOTT's article for more details on Fluoride agenda

Fluorine Compounds Make you Stupid.
Why is the Government not merely allowing, but promoting them?



Hourglass

Breakdown Of Kidney's Ability To Clean Its Own Filters Likely Causes Disease

The kidney actively cleans its most selective filter to keep it from clogging with blood proteins, scientists from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reveal in a new study.

Researchers showed that breakdown of this self-cleaning feature can make kidneys more vulnerable to dysfunction and disease.

©Washington University School of Medicine
With a key protein disabled, a pair of kidney filtering units can't keep antibodies, which are red in this image, from building up in the filter. Scientists now think inability to keep these filters clear may be an important contributor to kidney damage.

Einstein

Cracking The Code Of Bird Flu Time Bomb

Researchers at Griffith University Institute for Glycomics, Queensland led by Professor Mark von Itzstein have developed a technique to 'crack-the-code' of the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus.

It will enable influenza virus specialists and drug researchers to interrogate one of the virus' key surface proteins without risk of infection.

©Image courtesy of Griffith University
Researchers at Griffith University Institute for Glycomics, Queensland led by Professor Mark von Itzstein have developed a technique to 'crack-the-code' of the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus.

Arrow Up

Severe Hypertension: 'Silent Killer' Still On The Loose

High blood pressure may be one of the top killers in the country, but you'd never know it by the way we're behaving, say scientists attending the annual congress of the Society for Critical Care Medicine (SCCM).

"Research shows that some 73 million people in the U.S. have high blood pressure, yet many of them don't even know it. And among those that do, a large number are not taking the medications they need to control it," says Dr. Christopher Granger, a cardiologist at Duke University Medical Center.

"We've discovered that these patients are getting highly variable treatment. Moreover, we also found out that we aren't doing a very good job following up with these folks once they leave the hospital," he adds.

People

Two self-fulfilling prophecies are stronger, and more harmful, than one

Time and again, research has demonstrated the power of an individual's self-fulfilling prophecies if you envision yourself tripping as you walk across a stage, you will be more likely to stumble and fall. New evidence suggests that previous studies have underestimated not only the effect of our own negative prophecies, but also the power of others' false beliefs in promoting negative outcomes.

When two or more people have similar false beliefs about another person, it's possible this could influence the person's behavior.
Researchers Stephanie Madon, Max Guyll, Richard Spoth, and Jennifer Willard, all at Iowa State University, examined this phenomenon to see how much influence those collective beliefs have in determining a positive or negative reality.

Bomb

Flashback The Moral Instinct

Which of the following people would you say is the most admirable: Mother Teresa, Bill Gates or Norman Borlaug? And which do you think is the least admirable? For most people, it's an easy question. Mother Teresa, famous for ministering to the poor in Calcutta, has been beatified by the Vatican, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and ranked in an American poll as the most admired person of the 20th century. Bill Gates, infamous for giving us the Microsoft dancing paper clip and the blue screen of death, has been decapitated in effigy in "I Hate Gates" Web sites and hit with a pie in the face. As for Norman Borlaug . . . who the heck is Norman Borlaug?

Yet a deeper look might lead you to rethink your answers. Borlaug, father of the "Green Revolution" that used agricultural science to reduce world hunger, has been credited with saving a billion lives, more than anyone else in history. Gates, in deciding what to do with his fortune, crunched the numbers and determined that he could alleviate the most misery by fighting everyday scourges in the developing world like malaria, diarrhea and parasites. Mother Teresa, for her part, extolled the virtue of suffering and ran her well-financed missions accordingly: their sick patrons were offered plenty of prayer but harsh conditions, few analgesics and dangerously primitive medical care.

Bulb

Is Our Fear of Germs Bad for Our Health?

The chemical industry has helped fortify our homes against microbial invasion. But is our fear of germs making us even sicker?

The "vomiting virus" now sweeping across Britain may be headed our way. At the same time, San Francisco is being hit with a new strain of the nasty bacterium known as MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) -- this one responsible for "flesh-eating pneumonia."

Meanwhile, four patients were recently isolated in the University of Maryland Medical Center, infected with a multidrug resistant bacterium called Acinetobacter baumannii, which has attacked a number of Afghanistan war veterans. As one doctor said of the that bug, "When these people get infected ... you sort of say this is the last straw."

Those new menaces, and more, are joining the usual biological villains that lurk everywhere in midwinter.

Even more than in past years, we're turning to the chemical industry for help in fortifying the American home against microbial invasion. Few go as far as Jacques Niemand, a reclusive Briton who was killed last May by fumes rising from vast quantities of disinfectant that he kept in open buckets around his house to ward off infection. But lower-intensity chemical warfare on our invisible housemates is in full swing.

Question

Sri Lanka: Mysterious fever plagues Erathana

A mysterious fever has been spreading in the Erathna area in Kuruwita for few days, medical sources said.

According to the sources at Erathna hospital, large number of patients has been admitted to the hospital with similar symptoms of high fever, headache and joint pains.

Bulb

Tearless onions developed in New Zealand

A new variety of onion developed by scientists in New Zealand will make every chef forget about tears, and chopping onions is set to become a delight, local media said on Friday.

"What we have here is onions, which when you cut them they won't make you cry," Colin Eady, a senior scientist, was cited by TVNZ as saying.