Health & WellnessS


Health

Snakebites: At Least 421,000 Poisonings And 20,000 Deaths Occur Each Year

Snakebites cause considerable death and injury worldwide and pose an important yet neglected threat to public health, says new research published in this week's PLoS Medicine.

The study used the most comprehensive methods yet to estimate that at least 421,000 envenomings (poisonous bites) and 20,000 deaths from snakebites occur each year, especially in South and South East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
rattlesnake
© iStockphotoRattlesnake.

To estimate death and injury from snakebite, Janaka de Silva (University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka) and colleagues conducted a systematic review of the scientific literature, reviewed county-specific mortality data from databases maintained by United Nations organizations, and identified unpublished information from Ministries of Health, National Poison Centres, and snakebite experts on snakebites in countries that do not have reliable data on snakebite incidence and mortality.

Hourglass

Brain slows at 40, starts body decline

WASHINGTON - Think achy joints are the main reason we slow down as we get older? Blame the brain, too: The part in charge of motion may start a gradual downhill slide at age 40.

How fast you can throw a ball or run or swerve a steering wheel depends on how speedily brain cells fire off commands to muscles. Fast firing depends on good insulation for your brain's wiring.

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Scans Reveal Brain Abnormalities in Fibromyalgia Patients

Researchers have detected abnormalities in the brains of people with fibromyalgia, a complex, chronic condition characterized by muscle pain and fatigue.

"We showed in our study that the functional abnormalities observed were mainly related to disability," and not to anxiety and depression status, said Dr. Eric Guedj, the study's lead author and a researcher at Centre Hospitalier-Universitaire de la Timone in France.

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Study links autism and wet weather

Children in California, Oregon and Washington are more likely to develop autism if they lived in counties with higher levels of annual rainfall, suggesting that something about wet weather might trigger the disorder, according to a study released Monday.

Heart - Black

Medical Student Burnout and the Challenge to Patient Care

Not too long ago, I read a paper titled "Burnout and Suicidal Ideation Among U.S. Medical Students" in The Annals of Internal Medicine. It brought back a flood of memories.

Display

Study Links Sex In Shows To Teen Pregnancy

Girls Who Avidly Watch Racy Programs Have Higher Pregnancy Rates, Research Claims

Groundbreaking research suggests that pregnancy rates are much higher among teens who watch a lot of TV with sexual dialogue and behavior than among those who have tamer viewing tastes.

Health

Behavior problems seen in kids of U.S. combat troops

Washington - The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been hard not only on U.S. troops sent to fight them but on the young children they have left behind, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Children aged 3 to 5 with a parent deployed to one of the two war zones exhibit more behavioral problems such as aggressiveness than similar children in military families without a parent deployed, according to the study.

More than 2 million U.S. children have had parents deployed to fight in Iraq since 2003 or in Afghanistan since 2001.

Light Saber

Vasco, India residents up in arms against coal dust pollution

Pollution caused by coal dust is again fuelling protests in the port town of Vasco, with residents alleging that the pollution control measures suggested by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) are not being honoured by Mormugao Port Trust.

Residents alleged that illegal overloading of coal-transporting trucks was compounding the problem. The allegations follow two recent accidents of coal-laden trucks overturning at Chicalim slope. Though the six-wheeler trucks are expected to carry only 9.5 tonnes, they were allegedly overloaded.

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Australia: Harmful dust particles found near Narangba Estate

Scientific air monitoring around the controversial Narangba Industrial Estate has found elevated levels of dust linked to serious health problems.

But despite warning about the dangers such tiny particles pose, the Environmental Protection Agency insists the heightened levels of so-called PM10 particles it measured in the air during testing at Narangba were unlikely to prove harmful to nearby residents or workers on the estate.

Environmental authorities around Australia regularly monitor emissions of PM10 particles because the material can enter the human respiratory system and penetrate deeply into the lungs, causing adverse effects.

The particles, measuring less than a hundredth of a millimetre in diameter and found in diesel exhausts and industrial emissions, are also thought to aggravate existing lung or heart problems.

Wine

Heavy metals can taint wine

The cardiac benefits of wine have been touted for years, but heavy metal contamination found in some European red and white wines could turn a health benefit into a hazard, British researchers report.