Amyloid protein deposits in the brain play a role in disrupting the memory formation process long before a person shows symptoms of the memory impairment of Alzheimer's disease, a new study contends.

Previous research had suggested that clumps of amyloid protein, which damage neurons and are characteristic of Alzheimer's disease, begin appearing many years before Alzheimer's symptoms appear. But the link between the deposits and memory impairment had not been clearly demonstrated in humans.

In the new study, which appears in the July 30 issue of Neuron, U.S. researchers used medical imaging to examine the brains of older people who did not have significant memory impairment.

This case, reported in the UK Daily Mail, reminds me of that of Ken McElroy, recounted by Harry N Maclean in his book, 'In Broad Daylight'. Although the boy concerned is only 12 years old, his future 'career', based on his life up to now, will probably be very similar to McElroy's. He lives on a council housing estate in Hull, UK. 'Asbo' is an acronym for 'Anti-social behaviour order'.

The full report can be found here: 'Satan's child? He's just a little devil,' says mother of a one-boy crime wave.

Here's a few excerpts from the article:

Eight o'clock in the evening, and all is surprisingly calm in the home of Sonny Grainger, the 12-year- old who this week was labelled a 'one-boy wave of terror'.

You might expect that as his newly imposed curfew kicks in - the tag on his ankle ensures he is confined to the house until 7am - a child who prefers to spend evenings riding stolen motorbikes, starting fires and throwing stones at passers-by would be climbing the walls.

Instead, he sits quietly on the sofa, eating toast and watching The Bill until, at 8.45pm, with a kiss for his devoted mum, the 'tyrant' of Hull's Boothferry Estate retires to bed.

In the eyes of his neighbours, who have endured the campaign of violence, vandalism, theft and arson that earned him an Asbo and a reputation for excessive thuggery, he is nothing but a little hooligan whose mother has failed in her basic duty.

But to Nadine West - who admits that, prior to the Asbo [Anti-social behaviour order], she often didn't know his whereabouts from the moment he left the house after school until he had been rounded up by the police - he is a seriously misunderstood little boy.

Though even she has referred to her son - with brutal candour - as 'Satan's child', she insists his problem isn't a lack of discipline, but a psychiatric condition called ODD, or oppositional defiant disorder.

'He was diagnosed last October by experts, not by me,' she says. 'So when I hear people saying all these things about him - that he's got no respect for authority, that he's got anger management issues, that he's out of control - they don't make me think he's a bad kid, they just underline the symptoms of his condition.

'I think: "Yeah, he's got ODD. Now give us the help that we need." '

Among psychiatrists, ODD is a recognised condition, thought to affect between one and 16 per cent of school-age children, and Sonny seems to fit the profile.

Those affected are consistently surly, uncooperative, defiant and hostile towards authority figures.

They throw tantrums, they argue, they do the opposite of whatever is asked of them, they have an explosive temper and an inclination to seek revenge whenever they feel slighted.

Children whose mothers had morning sickness during pregnancy may go on to have sharper minds than their peers, a small study suggests.

Researchers found that among 121 Canadian children between the ages of 3 and 7, those whose mothers had suffered morning sickness scored higher, on average, on certain tests of IQ, memory and language skills.

In addition, mothers' use of the drug diclectin -- prescribed in Canada for morning sickness -- did not diminish the effects. In fact, children whose mothers had used the medication showed the highest average scores on certain tests.

Divorce can be emotionally devastating. But a new study suggests it may be physically damaging, too.

The study, to be published in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, analyzed data from close to 9,000 people aged 51 to 61 and found that divorced or widowed people have 20 percent more chronic health conditions than married people (such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer), and 23 percent had more mobility limitations (such as climbing stairs).

"Among the currently married, those who have ever been divorced show worse health on all dimensions," University of Chicago sociologist Linda Waite, who co-authored the study, told LiveScience.

Can we complete a historical circle by reviving trustful parenting?

Parenting, like essentially all human behaviors, must be understood in the context of the culture in which it is embedded. Parenting styles derive from broader cultural values, and they help to perpetuate those values.

In my last post, I talked about hunter-gatherers' playful style of parenting. That essay was part of a series on hunter-gatherers' playful approach to all of social life. I used the term playful there to refer to an attitude of treating others as equals rather than as superiors or subordinates. In the series I contrasted hunter-gatherers' playful approaches to government, religion, productive work, and parenting to the more dominance-based approaches that have held sway in all subsequent cultures.

We need a more holistic approach to our food system. We need to be sure that high yields and maximum profits for producers don't come with hidden price tags to consumers in terms of nutritional decline or environmental damage.

American agribusiness is producing more food than ever before, but the evidence is building that the vitamins and minerals in that food are declining. For example, take the two eggs shown at right. The one with the bright orange yolk is from a free-range chicken raised by Mother Earth News managing editor Nancy Smith, while the pale one is a supermarket egg from a hen raised indoors on a "factory farm." Eggs from free-range hens contain up to 30 percent more vitamin E, 50 percent more folic acid and 30 percent more vitamin B-12 than factory eggs. And the bright orange color of the yolk shows higher levels of antioxidant carotenes. (Many factory-farm eggs are so pale that producers feed the hens expensive marigold flowers to make the yolks brighter in color.)

"You have to know where your food is coming from." These words of warning were spoken by biologist and plant expert, Arpad Puszati at a gathering of concerned citizens in St. Catherine's, Ontario earlier this year.(1)

As far back as 1998, Dr. Puszati's research at the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland showed that genetically modified potatoes caused health problems in rats, including a weakened immune system and abnormal growth. For blowing the whistle on Big Agra, he was dismissed from his job.

This is the first major, in depth review of the published scientific literature on the nutritional benefits of organic food completed since 2003.

Over 40 new studies have come out since the last review was carried out -- studies that dramatically improve our ability to answer a basic question -- are organic foods generally more nutritious than conventional foods?

Westchester, Illinois - A study in the Aug.1 issue of the journal Sleep found that alcohol consumption during pregnancy and small body size at birth predict poorer sleep and higher risk of sleep disturbances in 8-year-old children born at term.

Findings are clinically significant, as poor sleep and sleep disturbances in children are associated with obesity, depressive symptoms, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and poor neurobehavioral functioning.

Parents struggling with the problem of their children lacking concentration have an effective remedy at their disposal. The magic relief comes from the field of meditation, especially practised through sudarshan kriya, mudra pranayam and sahaj samadhi which helps in enhancing the process of attention and concentration in human mind.

The study regarding positive application of these yogic practices is being carried out by Prof Narayanan Srinivasan, head, Centre for Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences (CBCS) of Allahabad University and his student, Shruti Baijal.

Srinivasan while talking to TOI explained that Tibetan Buddhist meditators were found to show large increases in duration of perceptual dominance compared to non-meditators. For the purpose of studying the effects of concentrative meditation on MMN, (mismatch negativity, a paradigm), sudarshan kriya yoga was chosen which is associated with mudra pranayam and sahaj samadhi. These forms of yogic meditation focus on specific body rhythms as well as a mantra that brings the mind to a peaceful centred state, he explained.