The next time you hammer your thumb, do what comes naturally: Swear. It won't sound pretty, but colorful expletives may help ease the pain, according to a study in the current issue of NeuroReport, a journal of neuroscience research.
In even the most civilized cultures, people curse out of habit, to let off steam or to shock. Swearing is also a common response to physical pain. But can off-color language actually affect how much an injury hurts?
Health & Wellness
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Tests showed swine flu multiplies in greater numbers across the respiratory system, and causes more damage.
And instead of staying in the head like seasonal flu, it penetrates deeper into the respiratory tissues - making it more likely to cause pneumonia.
The University of Wisconsin study appears in the journal Nature.
It also suggests that swine flu may mimic the flu virus which caused the great pandemic of 1918, in which millions died.
The 1918 virus also had a greater ability than standard flu to cause damage to the respiratory system.
A 16-year-old girl from Wales who made history when, as a baby, she had a donor heart grafted onto her own has made a full recovery.
Doctors say Hannah Clark's own heart is now in perfect working order three-and-a-half years after her "piggy-back" donor heart was removed.
Sir Magdi Yacoub, the pioneering surgeon who performed Hannah's original transplant when she was two, said he was "surprised and delighted".
The Lancet journal tells her story.
The original operation in 1995 saved Hannah's life because she had cardiomyopathy - a condition which made her heart double in size and risk giving out within a year.
The donor heart was able to take over most of the role of pumping blood around Hannah's body, effectively allowing her own beating heart to rest.
Doctors say Hannah Clark's own heart is now in perfect working order three-and-a-half years after her "piggy-back" donor heart was removed.
Sir Magdi Yacoub, the pioneering surgeon who performed Hannah's original transplant when she was two, said he was "surprised and delighted".
The Lancet journal tells her story.
The original operation in 1995 saved Hannah's life because she had cardiomyopathy - a condition which made her heart double in size and risk giving out within a year.
The donor heart was able to take over most of the role of pumping blood around Hannah's body, effectively allowing her own beating heart to rest.
A recent study published by the University of Wisconsin-Madison showed that cats who were fed a diet of irradiated food developed severe neurological disorders including paralysis, movement disabilities, vision problems, cognitive degeneration, intense pain, loss of feeling, and death. The study revealed that the irradiated food also caused the destruction of myelin, a mixture of proteins and phospholipids that form a protective sheath around nerve fibers in the central nervous system, which includes the brain.
Margot Sunderland, director of education at the Center for Child Mental Health in London, says the practice, known as "co-sleeping", makes children more likely to grow up as calm, healthy adults.
Sunderland, author of 20 books, outlines her advice in The Science of Parenting, to be published later this month.
She is so sure of the findings in the new book, based on 800 scientific studies, that she is calling for health visitors to be issued with fact sheets to educate parents about co-sleeping.
Sunderland, author of 20 books, outlines her advice in The Science of Parenting, to be published later this month.
She is so sure of the findings in the new book, based on 800 scientific studies, that she is calling for health visitors to be issued with fact sheets to educate parents about co-sleeping.
Milton Mills MD puts it all together -- how the real enemy of American is not Osama, and how meat can cause behavioral problems in children.
An unexpected characteristic has emerged among many swine flu victims who become severely ill: They are fat.
Doctors tracking the pandemic say they see a pattern in hospital reports from Glasgow to Melbourne and from Santiago to New York. People infected with the bug who have a body mass index greater than 40, deemed morbidly obese, suffer respiratory complications that are harder to treat and can be fatal.
Doctors tracking the pandemic say they see a pattern in hospital reports from Glasgow to Melbourne and from Santiago to New York. People infected with the bug who have a body mass index greater than 40, deemed morbidly obese, suffer respiratory complications that are harder to treat and can be fatal.
These days, we are seeing more and more health claims that go beyond the usual. These include "trans fat-free," "gluten-free," "heart healthy," and foods spiked with vitamins, such as my new favorite: sodas with vitamins and minerals.
We see whole-grain breakfast pastries and chicken with misleading labels such as "raised without antibiotics." We see natural sweeteners advertised as fiber. We see whole-grain cereals that are still full of sugar.
You've seen the iconic picture of a soldier with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, but that could soon be a thing of the past.
A new study commissioned by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs recommends a complete ban on tobacco, which would end tobacco sales on military bases and prohibit smoking by anyone in uniform, not even combat troops in the thick of battle.
According to the study, tobacco use impairs military readiness in the short term. Over the long term, it can cause serious health problems, including lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. The study also says smokeless tobacco use can lead to oral and pancreatic cancer.
A new study commissioned by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs recommends a complete ban on tobacco, which would end tobacco sales on military bases and prohibit smoking by anyone in uniform, not even combat troops in the thick of battle.
According to the study, tobacco use impairs military readiness in the short term. Over the long term, it can cause serious health problems, including lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. The study also says smokeless tobacco use can lead to oral and pancreatic cancer.
Adding to the deep body of research associating mental acuity with a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease, a study published online on July 8 by the journal Neurology suggests that people who possess sophisticated linguistic skills early in life may be protected from developing dementia in old age - even when their brains show the physical signs, like lesions and plaques, of memory disorders.
That discrepancy is not unheard of: many elderly patients develop the brain lesions, plaques and tangled neurological-tissue fibers that are indicative of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, but not all of them exhibit the memory loss and confusion that typically characterize these disorders. In fact, the number of such patients may be greater than researchers first thought. In a November 2008 study, a team of scientists used a new positron emission tomography (PET) brain-imaging technique developed by Drs. William Klunk and Chester Mathis of the University of Pittsburgh to image the brains of live patients - a leap forward in a field that long had to rely on postmortem analyses of brain tissue to confirm diagnoses after the fact - and showed that some 21% of patients with physical signs of dementia suffered no outward symptoms of cognitive impairment.
That discrepancy is not unheard of: many elderly patients develop the brain lesions, plaques and tangled neurological-tissue fibers that are indicative of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, but not all of them exhibit the memory loss and confusion that typically characterize these disorders. In fact, the number of such patients may be greater than researchers first thought. In a November 2008 study, a team of scientists used a new positron emission tomography (PET) brain-imaging technique developed by Drs. William Klunk and Chester Mathis of the University of Pittsburgh to image the brains of live patients - a leap forward in a field that long had to rely on postmortem analyses of brain tissue to confirm diagnoses after the fact - and showed that some 21% of patients with physical signs of dementia suffered no outward symptoms of cognitive impairment.
Comment: No surprise that H1N1 "may mimic the flu virus which caused the great pandemic of 1918". The Big Pharma pschopaths have been playing with the real thing for years.