Health & WellnessS

Ambulance

Suspected bird flu death in Indonesia

An Indonesian woman suspected of being infected with bird flu has died in the West Java city of Bandung, hospital sources there said today.

Samples from the 30-year-old woman have been sent for testing in Jakarta, said a staff member at Bandung's Hasan Sadikin general hospital who only identified himself as Herdi.

Smiley

Solve all your problems with depression zapper

The most promising new treatment for severe depression isn't a pill. It's a permanent implant that shocks the brain. Is this what joy looks like?

Comment: That's one way to turn off the last vestiges of your conscience - zap it till it dies and all seems right in the world once again. Should we have expected something different when we put psychopaths in charge of "curing" us?


People

People who 'um' and 'ah' are more memorable than clear speakers

They are seen as a mark of poor communication, and can be. . . um. . . simply maddening for anyone waiting for a punchline.

But the utterances that slow down our sentences actually make us better understood, according to scientists.

They found that "ums", "ers" and "ahs" - known as "disfluencies" - force a listener to pay attention.

Health

Horse flu: 150,000 vaccine doses on the way

The NSW Government will today consider providing financial support to the racing industry as plans are completed to vaccinate later this week an initial 9000 racing horses and breeding stallions exposed to equine influenza.

Magnify

Minnesota Law Sheds More Light on Drug Companies

A Minnesota disclosure law has revealed that drug companies are devoting large sums of money to many members of state advisory panels who make decisions on which drugs will be used in Medicaid programs.

The Minnesota Medicaid Drug Formulary Committee is considering a conflict-of-interest policy that requires panel members to disclose such financial relationships and refrain from voting on drugs that may pose a conflict of interest.

Attention

The Shocking Dangers of MSG You Don't Know

A silent killer that's worse than alcohol, nicotine, and drugs is likely lurking in your kitchen cabinets and even your child's school cafeteria. It's monosodium glutamate (MSG), a flavor enhancer that's known widely as an addition to Chinese food, but that's actually added to thousands of the foods you eat.

Health

Why Doctors Often Dismiss Drug Side Effects

Patients' concerns about drug side effects are often shrugged off by their doctors, according to a survey of 650 patients who were taking cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins.

Statins, such as Lipitor and Zocor, are common drugs with widely known side effects that include liver damage, muscle problems, memory and mood changes, and more. In the case of muscle problems, if the side effect is not recognized it can progress to a potentially fatal condition called rhabdomyolysis.

Bulb

Insight into the struggles of children with language impairments

For the first time, a new study has looked into how language impairments affect a child's ability to understand and retell a script-based story.

When we experience an event frequently, for example going to a restaurant, we remember the kinds of activities that are part of that event. This is called a 'script' and many researchers believe that we store information in our brain as scripts. So if you are listening to a story that takes place at a restaurant and you have been to a restaurant before, you would expect characters in the story to order food, eat food, and pay for their meal.

But how do you understand the story when you don't even know the scripts?

Info

US: Baby Cribs Recalled After 3 Deaths

About 1 million Simplicity and Graco cribs have been recalled after three children became entrapped and suffocated. The recall was announced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission on Friday, more than two years after a California lawyer says he alerted the federal agency about a 9-month-old who died in a faulty crib.

"Two years and two deaths is not fast enough. It's inexcusable that it took that long," said Charles Kelly, who represents the parents of the 9-month-old. Liam Johns of Citrus Heights, Calif., died in April 2005.

Health

At least 27 poisoned by fake alcohol in Pakistan

The death toll from alcoholic poisoning in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi has risen to 27, local media said Friday citing police sources.

Some 14 people died Thursday after drinking alcoholic drinks at a private party. By early Friday the death toll had risen to 27, with at least eight people in a critical condition.

An investigation is underway and police have started raiding the city's underworld to find the source of the poisonous alcohol.