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Children who view adult TV may become sexually active earlier in life


EurekAlert
Wed, 06 May 2009 06:38 UTC
Longitudinal study tracked content viewed during childhood and adolescence

Early onset of sexual activity among teens may relate to the amount of adult content children were exposed to during their childhood, according to a new study released by Children's Hospital Boston. Based on a longitudinal study tracking children from age six to eighteen, researchers found that the younger children are exposed to content intended for adults in television and movies, the earlier they become sexually active during adolescence. The findings are being presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies meetings on Monday, May 4 in Baltimore.

"Television and movies are among the leading sources of information about sex and relationships for adolescents," says Hernan Delgado, MD, fellow in the Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston and lead author of the study. "Our research shows that their sexual attitudes and expectations are influenced much earlier in life."
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Magnify

Study finds common genetic variations among people with autism

Trine Tsouderos
Chicago Tribune
Wed, 06 May 2009 06:35 UTC
Researchers have found that many people with autism share common genetic variations, a discovery that may improve diagnosis and offers the promise of developing treatments for the frustratingly mysterious disorder.

Their findings, published in the journal Nature, compared the genomes of thousands of autistic people to those of thousands of people without the disorder - a massive task that new technology has only recently made possible. The genome is the complex system of DNA coding that builds and runs the human body.

The review showed that most autistic people have a genetic variation in a portion of their DNA that affects the way brain cells connect with one another. Scientists also reported a link between autism and small "mistakes" in another DNA segment involved with cell communication.

Both reports add weight to the idea that autism is related to problems with the way brain cells connect.
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Ambulance

New flu kills 2nd person in US, spreads globally

Chris Baltimore
Reuters
Wed, 06 May 2009 06:32 UTC
A Texas woman with the new H1N1 flu died earlier this week, state health officials said, the second death outside of Mexico, where the epidemic appeared to be waning.

Officials said on Tuesday the woman, who was in her 30s, had chronic health problems. U.S. health officials have predicted that the swine flu virus would spread and inevitably kill some people, just as seasonal flu does.

Last week a Mexican toddler visiting Texas also died. Mexican officials have reported 29 confirmed deaths.
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Butterfly

Flashback From Bipolar Darkness, the Empathy to Be a Doctor

Elissa Ely, M.D.
New York Times
Mon, 16 Mar 2009 06:02 UTC
By 35, Dr. Alice W. Flaherty had led a life of traditional overaccomplishment: undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard, a Ph.D. in neuroscience from M.I.T., research in movement disorders, articles in leading neurological journals.

Then, in 1998, she delivered stillborn twin boys. In the grief that followed, she grew manic: poetic, metaphorical and long-winded. She wrote everywhere, up and down her arm, over and under any serviceable piece of paper. She also wrote more traditionally, producing neurology handbooks, autobiographical meditations and, in 2004, a best-selling book, The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block and the Creative Brain (Houghton Mifflin).

Her grief eventually subsided. Her newly uncovered bipolar disorder did not - to the benefit of her patients.

Dr. Flaherty, now 45, is director of the movement disorders fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. But those technical descriptors do not begin to capture the way she uses the racing mind of her manic phases to drive her ideas into forceful, highly personal treatments.
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Syringe

SOTT Focus: SOTT Special Report: The Flu Threat


SOTT.net
Tue, 28 Apr 2009 06:55 UTC

Comment: Back in 2003 SOTT began collecting data on the alleged Flu Threat and produced the following report. We think that now is a good time to remind our readers of the history of the use of the Flu Threat as a means of control. We have added our updates since this initial report listing the reported outbreaks, the associated propaganda and fear-mongering, the main benefactors and the key scientific research that provide an objective antidote to the current hysteria.


1918 flu pandemic
© The Bettmann ArchiveVolunteers wear masks to protect themselves during the 1918 flu pandemic.
Influenza - "a human respiratory infection of undetermined cause" according to Webster's dictionary. Most people have at some stage in their lives felt its effects, and while the normal human virus is not lethal to humans there exists the possibility that lethal "mutated" strains can develop.

Each winter the flu virus makes its expected appearance, commonly known as the "Flu season". The standard government response is to commission the large pharmaceutical companies to manufacture vast amounts of a vaccine.

The vaccine is essentially a dose containing several, either dead, or alive but weakened, flu virus strains (among other things as we shall see). When introduced into the body these supposedly immunise us against those particular strains. However the vaccine does not cover all the possible Flu virus strains and if the predominant flu virus in any given season is not contained in the vaccine then naturally no protection will be afforded by the vaccine. Interestingly, this was the case this 2003/4 season, yet it did not stop the government from urging the public to "get immunised!"

While initially being recommended for the elderly and young, now it is advised that everyone who wants to avoid the flu should receive the shot. The question is, how much do you trust your government, and how much of that trust is warranted. As we shall see, there is cause to be highly suspicious of government advice. In regards to this years flu virus the Government Center for Disease Control has said:
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Health

The Wholesale Sedation of America's Youth

Andrew M. Weiss
Skeptical Inquirer
Tue, 05 May 2009 18:58 UTC
In the winter of 2000, the Journal of the American Medical Association published the results of a study indicating that 200,000 two- to four-year-olds had been prescribed Ritalin for an "attention disorder" from 1991 to 1995. Judging by the response, the image of hundreds of thousands of mothers grinding up stimulants to put into the sippy cups of their preschoolers was apparently not a pretty one.

Most national magazines and newspapers covered the story; some even expressed dismay or outrage at this exacerbation of what already seemed like a juggernaut of hyper-medicalizing childhood. The public reaction, however, was tame; the medical community, after a moment's pause, continued unfazed. Today, the total toddler count is well past one million, and influential psychiatrists have insisted that mental health prescriptions are appropriate for children as young as twelve months. For the pharmaceutical companies, this is progress.
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Monkey Wrench

Genetically Modified Canola to be Mixed with Main Crop

Laurie Nowell
Sunday Herald Sun
Sun, 03 May 2009 17:29 UTC
Australians will soon be eating genetically modified food whether they like it or not.

The nation's major grain handler, Graincorp, announced this week that genetically modified canola will be mixed in with the main crop in this year's harvest.

Anti-GM groups say the decision means canola oil and a large amount of commonly bought processed food made with canola will now be genetically modified.
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Pills

More Americans taking drugs for mental illness


Reuters
Tue, 05 May 2009 16:31 UTC
Many more Americans have been using prescription drugs to treat mental illness since 1996, in part because of expanded insurance coverage and greater familiarity with the drugs among primary care doctors, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

They said 73 percent more adults and 50 percent more children are using drugs to treat mental illness than in 1996.

Among adults over 65, use of so-called psychotropic drugs -- which include antidepressants, antipsychotics and Alzheimer's medicines -- doubled between 1996 and 2006.

"What we generally find is there has been an increase in access to care for all populations," said Sherry Glied of Columbia University in New York, whose study appears in the journal Health Affairs.
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People

Bullying Linked to Psychotic Symptoms


MedPage Today
Tue, 05 May 2009 16:05 UTC
Being bullied may increase a child's risk of developing psychotic symptoms, researchers have found.

Children who were teased had nearly twice the risk of developing psychotic symptoms compared with those who weren't picked on, Dieter Wolke, Ph.D., of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, and colleagues reported in the May Archives of General Psychiatry.

The association was even greater -- about four and a half times stronger -- when bullying was chronic or severe.

"We found that bullying victimization is a moderate to strong predictor of psychotic symptoms," the researchers said. "These results support emerging evidence about a relationship between peer victimization and psychotic experiences from cross-sectional or retrospective studies."
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Red Flag

Anger is in the genes

Chris Irvine
Telegraph
Tue, 05 May 2009 13:29 UTC
Being able to keep your cool or lose your temper is down to genes, according to a new study.

Isolation of a gene called DARPP-32 helps explain why some people fly into a rage at the slightest provocation, while others can remain calm.

More than 800 people were asked to fill in a questionnaire designed to study how they handle anger.

The German researchers also administered a DNA test to determine which of three versions of the DARPP-32 gene people were carrying.

The gene affects levels of dopamine, a brain chemical linked to anger and aggression.
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