Now, though, they have identified an anxiety circuit in the brain that responds to serotonin.
The study's findings help underline the fact that serotonin does not just promote good feelings, despite what many think.
Health & Wellness
Now, though, they have identified an anxiety circuit in the brain that responds to serotonin.
The study's findings help underline the fact that serotonin does not just promote good feelings, despite what many think.
© UCLA
Brain cells fire more slowly and stop encoding memories efficiently, UCLA found Credit: UCLA
Brain cells fire more slowly and stop encoding memories efficiently, UCLA found Credit: UCLA
The new research, which has serious implications for driving while tired, shows that parts of the brain actually turn themselves off to rest even though a person is still awake.
Brain scans of sleep deprived people by scientists at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) have shown for the first time that fatigue disrupts the speed the brain cells communicate and prevents memories being encoded properly. It also causes temporary lapses in memory and vision.
Metabolic syndrome is a known risk factor for AD. Insulin resistance is a factor in both and causes higher blood levels of insulin (hyperinsulinemia). Glucose is the brain's primary source of fuel. A marker for Alzheimer's disease is a reduction in the rate of glucose metabolized by the brain. In some, the reduction has been found to be 45 percent and is always localized to areas of the brain involved with learning and memory. As the brain cells become less able to metabolize glucose for fuel, they starve. Berger notes that some researchers have found this to be the predominant abnormality in AD.
'Infant Start' is the name of the new behavioural therapy, mostly delivered by the children's parents, developed by autism experts at the University of California - Davis and Duke University in North Carolina.
The results of a pilot study of the therapy have just been published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (Rogers & Ozonoff, 2014).
Comment: In addition to behavioral interventions, it would be wise to investigate any physical issues that may contributing to the symptoms:
- Good Poop! Autism symptoms show improvement from donor viruses in fecal transplants
- How To Cure Autism and The Time Bomb Of Mercury Poisoning
- Study: Probiotics can 'potentially' cure autism-like disorders
- Damaged by vaccines? Use homeopathy to heal
- Autism, parasites and the Monsanto connection
- The Role of Oxalates in Autism and Chronic Disorders
The reference is the New York Times, 3/15/15, "Protection Without a Vaccine." It describes the frontier of research. Here are key quotes that illustrate the use of synthetic genes to "protect against disease," while changing the genetic makeup of humans. This is not science fiction:
"By delivering synthetic genes into the muscles of the [experimental] monkeys, the scientists are essentially re-engineering the animals to resist disease."
"'The sky's the limit,' said Michael Farzan, an immunologist at Scripps and lead author of the new study."
"The first human trial based on this strategy - called immunoprophylaxis by gene transfer, or I.G.T. - is underway, and several new ones are planned." [That was nearly two years ago.]
"I.G.T. is altogether different from traditional vaccination. It is instead a form of gene therapy. Scientists isolate the genes that produce powerful antibodies against certain diseases and then synthesize artificial versions. The genes are placed into viruses and injected into human tissue, usually muscle."
© Stuart Bradford
"Mumps outbreaks are on the rise," said Dr. Janell Routh, a pediatrician who is a medical officer on the mumps team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 6,000 cases of mumps were reported in the United States last year, the highest number in 10 years. Around 2010, total annual cases were down in the hundreds.
Most of the recent cases occurred in outbreaks, including a large one in Arkansas, rather than as a sporadic here-a-case, there-a-case disease. And most of the outbreaks were among people 18 to 22 years old, most of whom had had the requisite two doses of mumps vaccine in childhood. "We are seeing it in a young and highly vaccinated population," Dr. Routh said.
Comment: So much for herd immunity!
- Mumps vaccine proves ineffective
- Arkansas hit by mumps outbreak - only among the vaccinated
- Harvard has mumps - despite vaccinations
- Vaccine failure is well established: Malignant mumps in MMR vaccinated children
In my world, you can date people by their childhood diseases. I'm too young to have had measles, but old enough to have had mumps and chickenpox. Chickenpox I remember as particularly itchy and unpleasant; mumps I remember for the swollen chipmunk cheeks and, as with tonsillitis, a certain amount of ice cream to make painful swallowing easier.
Comment: Good grief.
© Remy Gabalda/AFP/Getty Images
Some European countries are blocking the attempt to give glyphosate a new 10-year licence.
Some European countries are blocking the attempt to give glyphosate a new 10-year licence.
Last month it was revealed that in recommending that glyphosate - the world's most widely-used pesticide - was safe, the EU's food safety watchdog copied and pasted pages of a report directly from Monsanto, the pesticide's manufacturer. Revelations like these are simply shocking.
Two weeks ago, some European countries blocked the attempt to give glyphosate a new 10-year licence. This decision is about much more than one pesticide. It's a welcome sign that EU member states might be more vigilant in performing their duty to protect against corporate abuses of our human rights from exposure to toxic chemicals, including pesticides.
© Reuters
X-ray scan of a human brain.
X-ray scan of a human brain.
The team recently presented details from a small test that suggested injecting people suffering from the brain disorder with blood plasma is safe, tolerable and provides some respite, at the 10th Clinical Trials on Alzheimer's Disease in Boston.
The Alzheimer's Association estimates that around 5 million Americans are living with the form of dementia. By 2050 the health organization estimates that number could rise to a whopping 16 million.
Searching for a cure to the degenerative disease, Stanford University School of Medicine made progress in administering blood plasma infusions to patients suffering from mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease.
Several hundred people are believed to have been exposed to the virus, which is among the most virulent pathogens known to infect humans.
The disease, known as Marburg virus disease (MVD), is similar to Ebola and can be lethal in up to 90 per cent of cases.
Emergency screening has begun at the Kenya-Uganda border in Turkana after three members of the same family died of the disease in Uganda.
Health workers have been asked to work with communities to stop the deadly Marburg outbreak from devastating communities in the rural region.
© Nicholas Eveleigh/Getty
In the US and Europe, 500,000 patients have stents for stable chest pain, and there were a lot of questions about whether the devices actually alleviate pain. A new study suggests they don’t.
In the US and Europe, 500,000 patients have stents for stable chest pain, and there were a lot of questions about whether the devices actually alleviate pain. A new study suggests they don’t.
Stents are commonly used for stable chest pain - but the devices may not be helping.
There's an epidemic of unnecessary medical treatments, as David Epstein of ProPublica recently documented in a terrific investigation: Doctors routinely perform procedures that aren't based on high-quality research, or even in spite of evidence that contradicts their use.
One of the prime examples of a dubious treatment that Epstein and others have pointed to is cardiologists putting little mesh tubes called stents in patients with stable angina - chest pain caused by clogged coronary arteries that arises only with physical exertion or emotional stress.
Doctors insert the devices into narrowed or blocked arteries to pop them open, helping blood flow to the heart again. The idea is that stents should help soothe the suffering of patients with angina (or chest pain) and drive down the risk of a heart attack and death in the future.
Comment: For more on the dubious safety of medical devices, see: Vagus Nerve Stimulator by Cyberonics: A Telling Anecdote about Regulatory Capture and Medical Device Safety
Comment: So the drugs make things worse, so the answer is to make a different drug? Maybe there are other options: