Health & WellnessS


Red Flag

Staph Germ Undermines Body's Defenses

WASHINGTON - The aggressive antibiotic-resistant staph infection responsible for thousands of recent illnesses undermines the body's defenses by causing germ-fighting cells to explode, researchers reported Sunday. Experts say the findings may help lead to better treatments.

People

Children's peer victimization -- a mix of loyalty and preference

New research into childhood prejudice suggests that loyalty and disloyalty play a more important role than previously thought in how children treat members of their own and other groups. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), a study into the 'black sheep effect', shows that children treat disloyalty in their own group more harshly than disloyalty within different groups.

Professor Dominic Abrams, of Kent University, who led the research team, says the findings will be valuable when applied to the classroom.

"This research has implications for peer victimisation and bullying as well as for the understanding and management of prejudice and discrimination in schools".

Syringe

Nicotine vaccine helps some people quit smoking

A vaccine aimed at helping people quit smoking by blunting the effects of nicotine doubled the number who could kick the habit but overall success remained small, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

Comment: Yep! Quit smoking and get vaccinated because that's healthier, right? You will also be helping the pharmaceutical companies become wealthier.


People

US Among Worst in World for Infant Death

The rate at which infants die in the United States has dropped substantially over the past half-century, but broad disparities remain among racial groups, and the country stacks up poorly next to other industrialized nations.

In 2004, the most recent year for which statistics are available, roughly seven babies died for every 1,000 live births before reaching their first birthday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. That was down from about 26 in 1960.

Bulb

Are There Rearrangement Hotspots In The Human Genome?

One of the surprises that's come out of recent genome studies has been the significance of variations that affect large chunks of the genome, instead of single bases. At the base level, humans are well over 99 percent identical. But, when the genome structure is looked at, changes in the copy number - extra or missing copies of a section of the chromosome - cause a significant amount of variation between individuals. In some cases, these copy number variations (CNVs) may be associated with diseases.

People

Gossip is All About Friends, Physicists Say

The extent and speed that gossip spreads largely depends on how many friends the subject of the gossip has, according to recent work by a group of physicists.

The group, which includes scientists from institutions in Germany, Brazil, and Switzerland, developed a model for the spread of gossip among students at an American school.

The model uses survey data from more than 90,000 students in 84 schools who were asked about other students they had personal contact with, such as eating lunch or studying. It introduces concrete quantities that define how widely and quickly gossip can spread among students, a segment of the population in which gossip is particularly prevalent.

Question

Genetics Has A Role In Determining Sexual Orientation In Men

Is sexual orientation something people are born with - like the colour of their skin and eyes - or a matter of choice?

Canadian scientists have uncovered new evidence which shows genetics has a role to play in determining whether an individual is homosexual or heterosexual.

The research was conducted by Dr. Sandra Witelson, a neuroscientist in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University, and colleagues at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto who studied the brains of healthy, right-handed, 18- to 35-year-old homosexual and heterosexual men using structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

About 10 years ago, Witelson and Dr. Cheryl McCormick, then a student of Witelson's, demonstrated there is a higher proportion of left-handers in the homosexual population than in the general population -- a result replicated in subsequent studies which is now accepted as fact.

Ambulance

Fluoride use is debated

According to city resident Robert Stewart, the people of Rolla are slowly being poisoned by fluoride through its drinking water.

Stewart, a retired assistant personnel officer of the U.S. Geological Survey, told City Council members that fluoride is "poisoning our children."

Stewart, of 1308 Hillview Drive, presented City Council members data he collected.

"According to The Lancet, a leading English medical journal, sodium fluoride inhibits or destroys the crucial neurotransmitter acelylcholine, which is imperative for the process of learning and memory," Stewart said, reading from a stack of documents.

Comment: It is interesting to see that in this "debate," Stewart is citing numerous scientific studies and hard evidence to prove that fluoride is poison while all Bourne has are the words of government agencies and his rhetorical manipulation.

See the following article for a summary of the harmful effects of fluoride and the history of fluoridation:

Fluorine Compounds Make you Stupid.


Health

Blood-sucking leeches removed from patient's ear in United Arab Emirates

Doctors have removed seven leeches from the ear of a farm worker in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, reported the Dubai newspaper Gulf News on Friday.

The newspaper quoted one of the doctors involved in the operation as saying that the patient, a 40-year-old Egyptian, had been complaining of a headache and an "unpleasant sensation in his head." A subsequent X-ray revealed that seven leeches were enthusiastically sucking blood from around his eardrum.

Syringe

About 80,000 Russians die of drugs annually

About 80,000 drug-related deaths are registered annually in Russia, Alexander Yanevsky of the Federal Drugs Control Service said on Friday.

"Some 70,000 Russians die of drug-related diseases and another 10,000 from overdoses," he said.