Health & WellnessS


Question

Rodents might be behind mysterious South African disease

Ishpreet Bindra
themedguru.com
Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:33 UTC
Johannesburg: The mysterious disease in South Africa that bleeds its victims to death, is suspected to be carried by rodents, as per the health department in the country.

Already claiming three lives and subjecting many to the isolation wards, the disease causes the patient to bleed internally as well as externally, finally leading to his or her death.
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Beer

Excess Drinking Shrinks the Brain

Amanda Gardner
Washington Post
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:11 UTC
The more alcohol you drink, the more your brain shrinks, a new study has found.

"The take-home message is that, if you drink a lot, you're going to hurt your brain," said Rajesh Miranda, an associate professor of neuroscience and experimental therapeutics at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. "This is something we knew, but this is a huge study that quantifies that."
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Magnify

Childhood Schizophrenia Linked to Slow Brain Growth, Study Says

Elizabeth Lopatto
Bloomberg
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:42 UTC
Schizophrenic children have slower brain growth, a government study found.

Kids with schizophrenia had growth of 1.3 percent a year in their brain's white matter compared with 2.6 percent growth in normal children, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. White matter is the tissue nerve cells use to send messages in the brain.

Previous studies had shown that gray matter, which is the part of nerve cells responsible for processing signals, also grows more slowly in schizophrenic patients.
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Sun

Parkinson's linked to lack of vitamin D


BBC News
Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:29 UTC
Image
© BBCParkinson's gets progressively worse
Scientists are testing whether vitamin D supplements can ease symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

A US team found 55% of Parkinson's patients had insufficient levels of vitamin D, compared to 36% of healthy elderly people.

However, the Emory University researchers do not yet know if the vitamin deficiency is a cause or the result of having Parkinson's.

The study appears in the journal Archives of Neurology.

Comment: There is also evidence that nicotine helps prevent the types of brain damage associated with Parkinson's disease.

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Attention

South Africa: Mystery disease not airborne - Medi-Clinic


Cape Argus
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:53 UTC
The flu-like illness which has killed four people in Johannesburg is not airborne but is contracted through bodily fluids, said a spokesperson at the Morningside Medi-Clinic on Monday.

"The disease is transferable through bodily fluids and is not airborne. We want to ensure that there's no panic in the broader public... There is no outbreak at the hospital. We currently don't have patients with the same symptoms," said regional marketing manger Malinda Pelser.

Tests were not conclusive of any particular disease including viral haemorrhagic fevers.
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Heart

Israeli hospital treats sick Iranian child


Associated Press
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 02:37 UTC
A 12-year-old cancer-stricken Iranian boy arrived at an Israeli hospital on Friday for emergency treatment on his brain tumor.

The boy - who was identified only as Roy, to protect his privacy - was wheeled on a stretcher into the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, after treatments in Iran and Turkey failed. His face was puffy, apparently due to the drugs administered to ease his pain.

Israel granted the child a special permit to enter the country and he arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on Friday. The rare arrangement was mediated by an Israeli businessman of Iranian origin. The boy was accompanied to the hospital by his father and veiled mother, who were also granted special entrance permits into Israel.

Comment: As usual, the mainstream news agencies - and Israel - have to get the digs in while the digging is good. But as many SOTT readers know, the Iranian president never said that Israel should be wiped off of the map. Nor is Iran a Holocaust denier. There is a lot of deliberate misinterpretation being done in the case of Iran as in all countries who don't bow down to the West.

But the important thing here is that all of these bigotries and prejudices have been put aside for the sake of a child. Now that is wonderful.

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Health

Babies And Beethoven: Infants Can Tell Happy Songs From Sad


Science Daily
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:11 UTC
A new study shows that 5-month-old babies can distinguish an upbeat tune, such as "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, from a lineup of gloomier compositions.

By age 9 months, babies can do the opposite and pick out the sorrowful sound of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony from a pack of happy pieces.

The musical experiments offer another example of how babies make sense of the world long before they can talk, says Brigham Young University psychology professor and study author Ross Flom.

"One of the first things babies understand communicatively is emotion, so for them the melody is the message," Flom said. "Our study showed that by nine months, babies are categorizing songs as happy or sad the same way that preschoolers and adults do."

The results of the musical study will be published in the upcoming issue of the academic journal Infant Behavior and Development.
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Question

South Africa: Hunting Virus X

Belinda Beresford
Mail & Guardian
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:46 UTC
JOHANNESBURG - A virus new to humanity, or an old acquaintance dressed up in slightly new clothes, the disease that so far appears to have achieved a 100% kill rate in Johannesburg, is now up against the full might of humanity's scientific detectives.
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Health

Pollution From Livestock Farming Affects Infant Health


Science Daily
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:00 UTC
A new study in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics explores the effects of pollution from livestock facilities on infant health and finds that production is associated with an increase in infant mortality.

Stacy Sneeringer of Wellesley College utilized data on spatial variation in livestock operations from the past two decades to identify the relationship between industry location and infant health. As livestock production has become more concentrated in larger farms, production has become more concentrated in certain areas.

Previous studies have found that animal production can result in high concentrations of potentially harmful byproducts. Effluent from livestock farms can contaminate the groundwater and air. Certain gases associated with livestock farming have been found to be toxic and to contribute to overall air pollution levels. Livestock farming has also been associated with air-borne particulate matter.
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Heart

Signs Of Heart Disease Are Attributed To Stress More Frequently In Women Than Men


Science Daily
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:26 UTC
Research presented at the 20th annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium, sponsored by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), found that coronary heart disease (CHD) symptoms presented in the context of a stressful life event were identified as psychogenic in origin when presented by women and organic in origin when presented by men. The study could help explain why there is often a delay in the assessment of women with heart disease.

"We know that there is a delay in diagnosing CHD in women and this is an important step forward in understanding why," said Alexandra J. Lansky, M.D., director of the Women's Health Initiative at CRF, director of Clinical Services at the Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy, a cardiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, and an associate professor of clinical medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The investigation - "Gender Bias in the Diagnosis, Treatment, and Interpretation of CHD Symptoms: Two Experimental Studies with Internists and Family Physicians," was led by Gabrielle R. Chiaramonte, Ph.D., postdoctoral associate at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Clinical Fellow at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. The study examined the effects of patients' gender and the context of how CHD symptoms are presented (with/without mention of life stressors and anxiety) on primary care physicians' patient evaluations.
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