A new study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggests that depressed patients are unable to sustain activity in brain areas related to positive emotion.
The study challenges previous notions that individuals with depression show less brain activity in areas associated with positive emotion. Instead, the new data suggest similar initial levels of activity, but an inability to sustain them over time. The new work was reported online the week of Dec. 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure in things normally rewarding, is a cardinal symptom of depression," explains UW-Madison graduate student Aaron Heller, who led the project. "Scientists have generally thought that anhedonia is associated with a general reduction of activity in brain areas thought to be important for positive emotion and reward. In fact, we found that depressed patients showed normal levels of activity early on in the experiment. However, towards the end of the experiment, those levels of activity dropped off precipitously.
Health & Wellness
A report published in the new journal Science Translational Medicine has made an interesting discovery concerning the relationship between sugar intake and the balance of intestinal flora. Researchers have discovered that a diet high in sugar and fat substantially alters the bacterial composition in the gut, making it difficult to maintain a healthy weight.
Dr. Jeffrey Gordon of Washington University in St. Louis has been accumulating research for years that highlights the role intestinal bacteria plays in regulating bodily weight. Intestinal flora, sometimes called "good" bacteria, is vital for the proper digestion of food and assimilation of nutrients into the blood. When digestive bacteria is out of balance or otherwise altered, the body is unable to convert otherwise indigestible foods into digestible form.
The research, conducted on mice, experimented with implanting various strains of bacteria into mice in order to observe their effects. The two primary divisions of bacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, compose approximately 90 percent of all bacteria. Studies by Dr. Gordon have revealed that Firmicutes bacteria are more efficient at digesting food that the body is unable to digest on its own.
Dr. Jeffrey Gordon of Washington University in St. Louis has been accumulating research for years that highlights the role intestinal bacteria plays in regulating bodily weight. Intestinal flora, sometimes called "good" bacteria, is vital for the proper digestion of food and assimilation of nutrients into the blood. When digestive bacteria is out of balance or otherwise altered, the body is unable to convert otherwise indigestible foods into digestible form.
The research, conducted on mice, experimented with implanting various strains of bacteria into mice in order to observe their effects. The two primary divisions of bacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, compose approximately 90 percent of all bacteria. Studies by Dr. Gordon have revealed that Firmicutes bacteria are more efficient at digesting food that the body is unable to digest on its own.
© Barnaby Hall/Photonica/Getty Images
Learning to hear again.
Learning to hear again.
Single-sided deafness (SSD) affects around 9 million people in the US, and makes it difficult for them to pinpoint the exact source of sounds. This can make crossing roads extremely hazardous, and also makes it hard to hear conversations in noisy rooms.
Sonitus Medical of San Mateo in California has created a small device that wraps around the teeth. It picks up the sounds detected from a tiny microphone in the deaf ear and transforms them into vibrations. These then travel through the teeth and down the jawbone to the cochlea in the working ear, where they are transmitted to the brain providing stereo sound. The same process of "bone conduction" explains how we hear our own voices, and why they sound different when they are recorded and played back to us.
How is it that a country can put a man on the moon, but can't seem to feed it's children school lunches that are safer than those eaten at McDonald's or Jack in the Box?
In the past 10 years more than 23,000 school children have become sick as a result of hundreds of food poisoning outbreaks in our nation's lunchrooms. A recent investigation by USA Today found that the meat served in U.S. school cafeterias faces less testing and lower safety standards than the mystery meat in Big Macs and Whopper Juniors.
USA Today reporters discovered that meat served at McDonald's, Burger King and Costco is tested as much as 10 times more often as the ground beef served in America's school cafeterias. While fast-food chains take samples on their production lines every 15 minutes, the USDA only tests 8 times a day.
In addition to testing more frequently, fast-food chains also set more stringent limits on so-called indicator bacteria. In the case of generic E. coli, the USDA allows 10 times more bacteria than Jack in the Box!
This fact should be a national embarrassment to all members of Congress, USDA officials and meat industry executives who have allowed our nation's school lunch programs to become the dumping grounds for cheap commodity products that feed the bottom line of corporate agribusiness.
In the past 10 years more than 23,000 school children have become sick as a result of hundreds of food poisoning outbreaks in our nation's lunchrooms. A recent investigation by USA Today found that the meat served in U.S. school cafeterias faces less testing and lower safety standards than the mystery meat in Big Macs and Whopper Juniors.
USA Today reporters discovered that meat served at McDonald's, Burger King and Costco is tested as much as 10 times more often as the ground beef served in America's school cafeterias. While fast-food chains take samples on their production lines every 15 minutes, the USDA only tests 8 times a day.
In addition to testing more frequently, fast-food chains also set more stringent limits on so-called indicator bacteria. In the case of generic E. coli, the USDA allows 10 times more bacteria than Jack in the Box!
This fact should be a national embarrassment to all members of Congress, USDA officials and meat industry executives who have allowed our nation's school lunch programs to become the dumping grounds for cheap commodity products that feed the bottom line of corporate agribusiness.
In the past few months, we've learned that its much-vaunted technologies don't really increase yields after all; and aren't really all that promising for adapting to climate change.
We're also getting a trickle of information that calls into serious question the PR talking point on which the entire GMO seed industry hangs: that GMO products are safe to eat. This is a widely held assumption; but as Don Lotter showed in a recent paper in the International Journal of the Sociology of Food and Agriculture, there has actually been shockingly little research done on the long-term effects of eating GMO foods - and most of what has been was conducted by the industry itself.
The problem is that government funding for independent research on GMOs is scant - and industry funding is non-existent. And it's extremely difficult for independent researchers to get their hands on GMO seeds without signing restrictive contracts with their patent holders, as the New York Times reported earlier this year.
Pattern of chemical tags on DNA linked to the autoimmune disease
Lupus can tell identical twins apart by the distinguishing marks the pairs carry on their DNA.
Fewer DNA methylation marks may leave one twin vulnerable to the inflammatory autoimmune disease, even while the other sibling remains healthy, a new study appearing online December 22 in Genome Research shows.
The finding suggests that environmental factors determine whether genetically susceptible twins will contract lupus, or systemic lupus erythematosus, which is characterized by the immune system attacking the body's own cells.
Researchers have previously identified at least 17 different genes involved in lupus. If genes alone were responsible for determining whether a person gets lupus, then every time one identical twin got the disease, the other should too.
Lupus can tell identical twins apart by the distinguishing marks the pairs carry on their DNA.
Fewer DNA methylation marks may leave one twin vulnerable to the inflammatory autoimmune disease, even while the other sibling remains healthy, a new study appearing online December 22 in Genome Research shows.
The finding suggests that environmental factors determine whether genetically susceptible twins will contract lupus, or systemic lupus erythematosus, which is characterized by the immune system attacking the body's own cells.
Researchers have previously identified at least 17 different genes involved in lupus. If genes alone were responsible for determining whether a person gets lupus, then every time one identical twin got the disease, the other should too.
It's not normal to die at age 32 of a heart attack. To make that happen, you normally have to be taking chemical substances of some kind, either recreational drugs or prescription drugs. Actress Brittany Murphy, who died this last weekend from a heart attack, was reportedly taking prescription drugs to treat the symptoms of the flu (not to actually treat the flu itself, mind you, just the symptoms of the flu). She was found collapsed in her shower after her heart gave out.
If prescription drugs are the cause, this would be just the latest celebrity death caused by pharmaceuticals. Other celebrity deaths recently caused by pharmaceuticals include:
- Heath Ledger
- Patrick Swayze
- Bernie Mac
- Michael Jackson
- Farrah Fawcett
If prescription drugs are the cause, this would be just the latest celebrity death caused by pharmaceuticals. Other celebrity deaths recently caused by pharmaceuticals include:
- Heath Ledger
- Patrick Swayze
- Bernie Mac
- Michael Jackson
- Farrah Fawcett
© Reuters/Nacho Doce
A boy looks at a woman holding out a box of Tamiflu as she talks with journalists outside a school in Lisbon July 7, 2009
A boy looks at a woman holding out a box of Tamiflu as she talks with journalists outside a school in Lisbon July 7, 2009
The report supports what U.S. health officials have said -- the H1N1 is ebbing across much of the United States, having reached a second peak in October.
"Children ages five to 14 continue to experience the highest percentage of H1N1 positive test results compared to negative results, with a positivity rate close to 40 percent. By comparison, nearly 80 percent of children in this age group tested positive for the virus in late October," Quest said in a statement.
The company analyzed 170,000 flu tests taken between May and December to map out two peaks in the U.S. epidemic -- one in April and one at the end of October.
"Between this peak week and December 9, testing rates fell by 75 percent. In the most recent week reported, December 9, testing rates were equivalent to volumes experienced in late August, when the second wave began," the company said.
A supplement of the amino acid N-acetylcysteine may ease the symptoms of compulsive hair pulling, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Minnesota School of Medicine and published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Augusta, Maine - A Maine legislator wants to make the state the first to require cell phones to carry warnings that they can cause brain cancer, although there is no consensus among scientists that they do and industry leaders dispute the claim.
The now-ubiquitous devices carry such warnings in some countries, though no U.S. states require them, according to the National Conference of State Legislators. A similar effort is afoot in San Francisco, where Mayor Gavin Newsom wants his city to be the nation's first to require the warnings.
Maine Rep. Andrea Boland, D-Sanford, said numerous studies point to the cancer risk, and she has persuaded legislative leaders to allow her proposal to come up for discussion during the 2010 session that begins in January, a session usually reserved for emergency and governors' bills.
The now-ubiquitous devices carry such warnings in some countries, though no U.S. states require them, according to the National Conference of State Legislators. A similar effort is afoot in San Francisco, where Mayor Gavin Newsom wants his city to be the nation's first to require the warnings.
Maine Rep. Andrea Boland, D-Sanford, said numerous studies point to the cancer risk, and she has persuaded legislative leaders to allow her proposal to come up for discussion during the 2010 session that begins in January, a session usually reserved for emergency and governors' bills.
