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Mindfulness meditation training changes brain structure in 8 weeks


EurekAlert
Fri, 21 Jan 2011 21:33 UTC
lotus flower
© Daz Smith

Massachusetts General-led study shows changes over time in areas associated with awareness, empathy, stress

Participating in an 8-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. In a study that will appear in the January 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers report the results of their study, the first to document meditation-produced changes over time in the brain's grey matter.

"Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day," says Sara Lazar, PhD, of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program, the study's senior author. "This study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these reported improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they are spending time relaxing."

Comment: To learn more about stress control, rejuvenation and healing please visit the Éiriú Eolas website.

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Video Game Addiction: Nearly 1 In 10 Children Is At Risk


Huffington Post
Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:12 UTC
Image
© n/a
Roughly 1 in 10 children who play video games are at risk of becoming pathologically addicted to them, found a new study published in the journal Pediatrics.

That means for every classroom of 30 kids, three of them could develop a hardcore digital addiction that boosts the risk of depression, social phobia and poor school performance, the study found.

Comment: For more information about children and video game addiction read the following articles:

Study: Video-game-playing kids showing addiction symptoms
Video Games Linked To Poor Relationships With Friends, Family
Study: Violent video games affect teens' brain
Study Bashes Violent Video Games, Links Them to Aggressive Behavior in Kids
Study: Too many video games may sap attention span

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Magic Wand

Sleep Deeply, Live Longer

Lynn Keiley
Motherearthnews.com
Wed, 21 Mar 2007 13:46 UTC
Image
© n/a
Why sleep is essential and how to establish good sleeping habits.

If you woke up this morning feeling less than well rested, you're not alone. No one is sure exactly how many of us spend our nights tossing and turning, but scientists estimate that somewhere between 10 percent to 34 percent of Americans suffer from insomnia. Our national lack of sleep amounts to big business for pharmaceutical companies, which spent more than $329 million in 2005 advertising prescription sleep aids. And those efforts have a big payoff - Americans spend approximately $2 billion each year on sleeping drugs, and $20 billion on other sleep-related products.

More than 60 percent of people in a 2005 survey conducted by the National Sleep Foundation admitted to driving while sleepy. But fatigue is not only dangerous in the short term - it also can have lasting impacts on our health. Studies show that sleep deprivation can contribute to everything from hypertension to depression to obesity.

If you share your bed with someone, chances are your inability to snooze disrupts your partner's rest as well: In a recent Harris poll, 25 percent of people said that their partner's sleeping habits kept them awake, costing them three or more hours of sleep each week. (Rest easy - most still said that they slept better with their partner than without.)

Given the statistics, it may be tempting to seek relief in a bottle of sleeping pills, but most of us can go a long way toward getting the rest we need by making a few basic lifestyle changes. Even for those with more serious sleep disorders, there's a simple behavior modification plan to help you get reacquainted with your pillow.
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Cookie

Thirteen catheterizations later

Dr. William Davis
The Heart Scan Blog
Thu, 20 Jan 2011 05:09 UTC
Image
When I first met her, Janet couldn't stop sobbing. She'd just been through her 10th heart catheterization in two years.

It started with chest pains at age 56, prompting her first heart catheterization that uncovered severe atherosclerotic blockages in all three coronary arteries. Her cardiologist advised a bypass operation.

Six months after the bypass operation, Janet was back with more chest pains, just as bad as before. Another heart catherization showed that two of the three bypass grafts had failed. The third bypass graft contained a severe blockage that required a stent, along with multiple stents in the two now unbypassed arteries.

In the ensuing 18 months, Janet returned for 8 additional catheterizations, each time leaving the hospital with one or more stents.

Janet's doctor was puzzled as to why her disease was progressing so aggressively despite Lipitor and the low-fat diet provided by the hospital dietitian. So he had Janet undergo lipoprotein testing (NMR):
LDL particle number: 3363 nmol/L
Small LDL particle number: 2865 nmol/L
HDL cholesterol: 32 mg/dl
Triglycerides: 344 mg/dl
Fasting blood glucose 118 mg/dl
HbA1c 5.8%
Unfortunately, Janet's doctor didn't understand what these values meant. He pretty much threw his arms up in frustration. That's when I met Janet.
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Syringe

Gulf War veteran Lorrie Brown blames vaccinations for health problems

Mike Laycock
York Press
Thu, 20 Jan 2011 04:59 UTC
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Lorrie with husband David and children Daniel, aged ten, Davina, nine, and Deanna, four.
A mother-of-three told today how she has faced almost 20 years of ill health since she tended to wounded soldiers during the first Gulf War.

Lorrie Brown was an Army health care assistant based at a field hospital in Saudi Arabia during the conflict two decades ago.

She said before she went, she was given a range of vaccinations, including two for anthrax and one for plague, because of concerns that the Iraqis would use chemical or biological weapons.

She was also given nerve agent pre-treatment sets (NAPS) while out there and a huge arms dump not far from her field hospital was destroyed, causing a huge plume of smoke to billow out over the area.

The 41-year-old, of Thirsk, said that several months later she started getting severe headaches and, over subsequent months and years, gradually suffered a worsening range of symptoms including:

- Dizziness

- Painful joints

- Chronic fatigue.
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Attention

Health concerns raised over nanoparticles

Simon Bradley
swissinfo.ch
Thu, 20 Jan 2011 04:51 UTC
Image
© Keystone
Titanium dioxide nanoparticles are used as a white pigment in many everyday products like sun cream.
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles, widely used in sun creams and cosmetics, provoke similar inflammatory effects on the lungs as asbestos, new research has found.

A Swiss-French team of scientists warns of future health hazards caused by nanoparticles. But some doubts have been cast on the findings. The Swiss authorities are set to publish a strategy report on nanomaterials later this year.

Around two million tonnes of TiO2 nanoparticles are produced every year worldwide. They are used as a white pigment in many everyday products like paint, cosmetics, sun cream, vitamins, food colouring and toothpaste.

The researchers from Lausanne University, Orléans University and the French National Centre for Scientific Research in France investigated the inflammatory capacity of TiO2 nanoparticles by testing them on human cells and in lab experiments using mice.

They found that TiO2 nanoparticles cause similar effects to asbestos and silicone, activating the inflammasome NLRP3 - a complex mechanism responsible for activating inflammation processes - and releasing molecules capable of attacking DNA, proteins and cell membranes.
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Pistol

US Airman gets 8 years in prison in HIV exposure case

Roxana Hegeman
Associated Press
Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:07 UTC
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© Associated Press
Air Force Sgt. David Gutierrez
Wichita, Kan. - An Air Force sergeant convicted of exposing multiple sex partners to HIV at swinger parties was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in military prison and will be dishonorably discharged after serving his time.

A court martial judge earlier found Tech. Sgt. David Gutierrez guilty on seven of eight counts of aggravated assault and violating his commander's order to notify partners about his HIV status and use condoms. The judge also convicted Gutierrez of indecent acts for having sex in front of others and eight counts of adultery.

The judge, Lt. Col. William Muldoon, delivered the sentence after a brief hearing, during which Gutierrez had begged between sobs not to be discharged so he could keep the military medical benefits he will now lose. Gutierrez also will be reduced to the lowest enlistment rank while serving out his military confinement.
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Light Saber

'Gluten' dog keeps Missouri student healthy


UPI
Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:47 UTC
Beauceron
© USA Today

A Missouri college student with an extreme allergy to gluten gets help staying healthy from her hardworking gluten-detecting service dog Elias.

Hollie Scott, 22, suffers from such a severe case of celiac disease she can be ill for weeks if she eats food that has simply been sliced with a knife used previously to carve something containing minimal gluten content, USA Today reported.

Elias, Scott's 2-year-old Beauceron, goes everywhere with the first-year student in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Missouri.

After gluten-detection training in Slovenia last year, Elias can now detect and warn Scott away from anything containing gluten, hot or cold, in all its many manifestations, the newspaper reported Tuesday.
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Attention

Acetaminophen Can Cause Liver Failure in Infants


NewsInferno
Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:48 UTC
Image
© peoplespharmacy.com
Acetaminophen is the active ingredient in Children's Tylenol
Repeatedly giving a baby Tylenol or other acetaminophen products could be putting the child at risk for liver injury, including acute liver failure. According to a case report published in the journal Pediatrics, one child suffered such a liver injury after being treated with acetaminophen for 10 days.

Acetaminophen, long considered a safe drug for children, is widely used in both prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) products to reduce pain and fever. While is one of the most commonly-used drugs in the U.S., frequent use can pose risks.
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Info

Migraine headaches and diet

Leo Galland, M.D.
Huffington Post
Wed, 19 Jan 2011 17:01 UTC
Image
© n/a
Migraine headaches have been around for thousands of years and have been described in the ancient medical texts.

If you or someone you love suffers from migraine, you know the symptoms: blinding pain, so severe it causes nausea, sometimes associated with jagged vision, flashing lights, numbness or tingling, lasting for hours.

Although a group of drugs called triptans can be effective at relieving migraine, preventing these headaches is a major challenge.

So I am writing to share my knowledge and bring to light research, references, links and resources to help people learn more about this topic.

Many factors may act as migraine triggers, including stress, odors, temperature and hormonal changes, but the single migraine trigger over which you have the greatest control is food.
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