Health & WellnessS


Light Saber

Polio Vaccine Award Opens Doors for Researchers

The problem with treated live vaccines has always been that live viral particles can occasionally cause infection in the vaccinated person as well as people they're exposed to. A prime example is the chickenpox vaccine, which is a well known cause of shingles in older adults exposed to vaccinated children. On Friday, jurors found that active polio vaccine was the cause 30 years ago when Staten Island resident Dominic Tenuto contracted polio after changing the diaper of his recently vaccinated 5-month old daughter. Now 61, Tenuto said that his bout with polio caused partial paralysis and led to his losing his job on Wall Street.

Pills

Eczema cases rise dramatically in Great Britain

eczema
© SPLEczema causes red itchy patches on the skin
The incidence of eczema is increasing dramatically in England, data suggests.

There was a 42% rise in diagnosis of the condition between 2001 and 2005, by which time it was estimated to effect 5.7m adults and children.

One potential explanation for the rise is increased frequency of bathing and use of soap and detergents.

A paper in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine says eczema is thought to be a trigger for other allergic conditions.

GP records of over 9m patients were used by researchers to assess how many people have the inflammatory skin disorder.

It showed that by 2005, one in nine of the population had, at some point, been affected by eczema.

The highest rate was in boys aged between five and nine.

Prescriptions increased by 57% over the five-year study period and in 2005, GPs issued 13.7m scripts.

Study leader Professor Aziz Sheikh, chair of the allergy and respiratory research group at the University of Edinburgh, said he expected to see a rise but it was fairly marked given the short time period.

Health

Drug data fraud may spark marketing crackdown

A prominent case of scientific fraud is being seized on by critics of the pharmaceutical industry to highlight their calls for a crackdown on the use of scientific studies for marketing purposes.

Starting in 1996, Scott Reuben of the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, published a series of trials testing whether painkillers, including Pfizer's Celebrex and Merck's Vioxx, relieve post-operative pain. Now 21 of Reuben's papers have been shown to contain fabricated data, after he was investigated by Baystate officials. Many have already been retracted.

Reuben's studies were part of an array of small clinical trials funded by Pfizer and Merck after Celebrex and Vioxx were approved for market by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The trials investigated the drugs' use in a variety of different medical situations. The firms were not aware of Reuben's fraud.

Info

Our Brains Exist 'On The Edge Of Chaos'

A new study says that the human brain lives "on the edge of chaos", at a critical transition point between randomness and order. Theoretical speculation? Well, yeah, but that's the nature of neuroscience.

The researchers say self-organized criticality (where systems spontaneously organize themselves to operate at a critical point between order and randomness), can emerge from complex interactions in many different physical systems, including avalanches, forest fires, earthquakes, and heartbeat rhythms.

Info

Actress' Death Brings Head Trauma Into Spotlight

The recent death of actress Natasha Richardson is highlighting the delayed dangers of traumatic head injuries.

Richardson was injured during a ski trip in Canada. Shortly after the accident, the actress reported feeling fine. Later that night, she began to complain of a headache when at her hotel. She was taken to a hospital where she died on Wednesday.

On Thursday, an autopsy revealed that Richardson had experienced a blow to the head, which resulted in bleeding between the skull and the brain's covering, called an epidural hematoma.

People

Darfur refugee camp hit by aid groups explusion

Zamzam camp, Sudan - Every day, a peacekeeper truck pulls into this teeming camp carrying loads of water, and is greeted by long lines of refugees.

It's not the troops' job - but after the expulsion of many aid groups in Darfur, everyone is scrambling to fill the gaps in the safety net that keeps millions of refugees alive.

The expulsion ordered by the Sudanese government could not come at a worse time for Zamzam camp. Even before the order, aid groups were rushing to deal with a massive new influx of refugees from the fighting - 37,000 in the past month, nearly doubling the camp's size.

Bulb

Gene 'has key schizophrenia role'

Two studies have pinpointed a single gene as key to the development and treatment of schizophrenia.
BBC Schizophrenia
© BBC NewsSchizophrenia Brain Scan: Schizophrenia can have devastating symptoms

A US team from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute found that a mutated version of the DISC1 gene disrupts the growth and development of brain cells.

And a team from the University of Edinburgh showed that the gene affects how patients respond to treatment.

Both studies, published in the journals PLoS One and Cell, raise hopes of more effective treatment for schizophrenia.

The condition is a common form of mental illness, affecting up to 1% of adults worldwide.

DISC1 GENE

*Linked in the early 1990s to mental illnesses prevalent in a large Scottish family
*Over five generations many family members had developed schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other mood disorders
*Each family member diagnosed with mental illness also carried a mutated copy of
DISC1

Bug

Maggots: They'll make your skin crawl, but won't heal your wound better than gel

Scientific American Maggots
© Scientific American
If you have a stubborn leg ulcer, you may be tempted to seed your wound with maggots, a treatment reportedly used on and off between the 14th and 20th centuries. But you may want to reconsider: maggots don't help the wounds heal any faster than soothing gels, and the insects cause more pain.

Sun

Can Cherries Relieve The Pain Of Osteoarthritis?

Science Daily Cherries
© Science DailyRipe tart cherries (sour cherries).

For the estimated 27 million Americans who suffer from osteoarthritis, pain relief may come with a cherry on top. According to researchers with the Baylor Research Institute, tart cherries, in pill form, may be a promising pain-reliever for this common and debilitating form of arthritis.

More than half of the patients enrolled in a 2007 pilot study at the Baylor Research Institute experienced a significant improvement in pain and function after taking the cherry pills for eight weeks. Osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis, is considered degenerative and typically affects the hands, feet, spine, and large weight-bearing joints, such as the hips and knees. Patients with osteoarthritis of the knees were enrolled in this pilot study to assess potential efficacy of the tart cherry pills.

Mr. Potato

No Chairs: Students 'Get The Wiggles Out ' On Exercise Balls

Image
© Ed Andrienski, APJoe Rademacher, 9, left center, says he learns better sitting on a stability ball rather than a traditional chair in his fourth-grade class at Bauder Elementary School in Fort Collins, Colo.
Fort Collins, Colorado - Talk about a teacher's dream: No more slouching, no more wiggly little boys and no more snoozing at desks.

All teachers have to do is ditch the classroom chair. A growing number are replacing them with exercise stability balls more associated with Pilates classes than schoolroom lectures as an innovative way to improve student posture and attention.

"They're awesome," said 10-year-old James Howell, a fourth grader at Bauder Elementary School whose class switched to purple stability balls in January. "They help you focus, they help you keep your structure. And sometimes you get to bounce on them, get the wiggles out."