Health & WellnessS


Ambulance

Hospital confirms first UK case of extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis

Aidan Jones and Sarah Boseley
The Guardian
Fri, 21 Mar 2008 22:12 UTC


TB Nurses
©Gianluigi Guercia/AFP
Nurses wait to treat patients in the Sizwe hospital TB ward in Edenvale on the outskirt of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Doctors have diagnosed the first ever UK case of a virtually untreatable strain of tuberculosis, marking a further step in the disease's fightback against the antibiotics that once kept it in check. A man in his 30s is in isolation at a hospital in Glasgow and is being treated with a cocktail of antibiotics in an effort to control the extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), the Guardian has learnt.
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Pills

Overdose Death Rate Surges, Legal Drugs Are Mostly to Blame


Drug War Chronicle
Fri, 21 Mar 2008 22:00 UTC
According to a little noticed January report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), drug overdoses killed more than 33,000 people in 2005, the last year for which firm data are available. That makes drug overdose the second leading cause of accidental death, behind only motor vehicle accidents (43,667) and ahead of firearms deaths (30,694).

What's more disturbing is that the 2005 figures are only the latest in such a seemingly inexorable increase in overdose deaths that the eras of the 1970s heroin epidemic and the 1980s crack wave pale in comparison. According to the CDC, some 10,000 died of overdoses in 1990; by 1999, that number had hit 20,000; and in the six years between then and 2005, it increased by more than 60%.
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Health

Hispanics With Clogged Arteries At Greatest Risk Of Stroke, Heart Attack, Study Shows


sciencedaily.com
Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:05 UTC
Hispanics who have even a small amount of plaque build-up in the neck artery that supplies blood to the brain are up to four times more likely to suffer or die from a stroke or heart attack than Hispanics who do not have plaque, according to a study published in the March 19, 2008, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
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Bulb

Child behaving badly? It's the permissive parents' fault

Polly Curtis
The Guardian
Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:59 UTC
Bad behaviour in schools is being fuelled by "overindulgent" parents who don't know how to say no to their children, according to new research. Teachers are dealing with a "small but significant" number of pupils who throw tantrums in class if they don't get their own way, turn up exhausted because they stay up late and have increasingly "belligerent" parents who take their child's side.
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Ambulance

15 hepatitis infections tied to ex-nurse

Alicia A. Caldwell
Associated Press
Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00 UTC
At least 15 military service members or their relatives are believed to have been infected with hepatitis by a nurse suspected of stealing their painkillers during surgery.
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Cow

Wal-Mart milk to have no artificial growth hormones


Reuters
Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00 UTC


walmart
©Jessica Rinaldi/REUTERS
A sign marks Wal-Mart's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas June 1, 2007. Wal-Mart Stores said on Thursday that its private-label Great Value milk is now being sourced only from cows that have not been treated with artificial growth hormones, such as recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST).

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Thursday that its private-label Great Value milk is now being sourced only from cows that have not been treated with artificial growth hormones, such as recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST).

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Magnify

Philip Morris Experimenting with GMO Tobacco

Alexis Madrigal
Wired
Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:37 UTC
Scientists have genetically modified tobacco plants to knock out a gene that helps turns nicotine into one of the carcinogens in cured tobacco.

The Philip Morris-funded North Carolina State researchers say the work could lead to less cancer-causing chewing tobacco. In large-scale field trials, they compared the levels of N-nitrosonornicotine, a chemical known as NNN, between GM tobacco plants and a control group. They found a six-fold decrease in NNN and a 50 percent overall drop in a whole class of nasty substances known as tobacco-specific nitrosamines.

Comment: Perhaps Philip Morris should leave the natural product be, to focus attention on the many artificial chemicals added to cigarettes and other tobacco products?

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Question

US: Mysterious, Unexplained Illness Strikes Kentucky Classroom


WBKO
Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:34 UTC
A mysterious illness struck an elementary school classroom in Kentucky on Mar. 19, forcing officials to call out a fleet of ambulances.

More than a dozen students got sick.

What's worse though, is no one knows why.

Three Rivers Hospital officials worked to reassure frightened parents the children were going to be OK.

"My child has breathing problems, I hope he'll be all right," said parent Angel Chaffins.
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Attention

EU watchdog won't ban 'problem' colours

Valerie Elliott, Consumer Editor
The Times (UK)
Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:00 UTC
A Europe-wide ban on artificial additives commonly found in sweets and drinks and linked to hyperactive behaviour in children has been ruled out by regulators.
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People

Childhood Personality Can Predict Important Outcomes in Emerging Adulthood


Blackwell Publishing
Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:33 UTC
A new study in the Journal of Personality reveals the extent to which children's personality types can predict the timing of key transitional moments between childhood and adulthood.

The study set out to examine whether childhood personality would predict the timing of important transitional events moving into adulthood, including leaving the parents' home, establishing a romantic relationship, and entering the world of part-time work.

Participants consisted of 230 children who were studied every year from their first or second year in preschool until age 12. After age 12, the sample was reassessed twice, at ages 17 and 23. Researchers led by Jaap Denissen of Humboldt-University Berlin assessed degrees of shyness and aggressiveness through parental scales and teacher reports.
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