Tinnitus appears to be produced by an unfortunate confluence of structural and functional changes in the brain, say neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC).

The phantom ringing sounds heard by about 40 million people in the U.S. today are caused by brains that try, but fail to protect their human hosts against overwhelming auditory stimuli, the researchers say in the January 13th issue of Neuron. They add that the same process may be responsible for chronic pain and other perceptual disorders.

The researchers say that the absence of sound caused by hearing loss in certain frequencies, due to normal aging, loud-noise exposure, or to an accident, forces the brain to produce sounds to replace what is now missing. But when the brain's limbic system, which is involved in processing emotions and other functions, fails to stop these sounds from reaching conscious auditory processing, tinnitus results.

Johnson & Johnson faulted lax cleaning procedures and other problems at a manufacturing plant behind massive recalls of medicines like Tylenol, and said it was recalling nearly 50 million more bottles and packages of consumer medicines.

The healthcare company's reputation has been tarnished by repeated recalls totaling nearly 200 million bottles in the last year and it could face criminal charges from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Johnson & Johnson is now recalling bottles and packages of various kinds of Tylenol, Benadryl, Rolaids and other consumer products, it said on Friday.

J&J said the new recall followed a review of records dating back to 2007 of products made by its McNeil consumer healthcare unit, which produces most of the recalled medicines sold in the United States.

While the company said it had identified a number of areas for improvement, on Friday it disclosed only the cleaning problem and a minor labeling irregularity.

The company investigation found insufficient equipment cleaning procedures and instances where people failed to adequately document cleaning at McNeil's Fort Washington, Pa. plant, the company said. J&J suspended production there last April to address quality control lapses.

McNeil also found one product with a label that did not include all the information required by regulators, J&J said.

Your liver is the "brain of your body" and its healthy function is required for your ongoing well being. Your liver is potentially damaged by pollution, excess alcohol, medications, street drugs, internal "plumbing" problems, and excess food. For the first time, a process by which your liver can regenerate itself has been identified. As it turns out the endothelial cells¹ lining the circulatory system within your liver orchestrate the rejuvenation process.

This is the first time scientists have ever documented a specific mechanism involved with liver rejuvenation. They hope to use the information to help individuals with liver injury or diseased livers. I think their discovery has immediate practical application value for you in terms of maintaining optimal liver function and health.

Endothelial cells are the weak link in the circulatory system. They form a thin layer, only one cell thick, which lines the insides of your arteries. They are crucial regulators of nutrient uptake from your circulation and instrumental in blood pressure regulation. When they are injured, the plaquing process is set in motion and increases potential for cardiovascular disease. In this context, the importance of endothelial cells has been understood for quite some time.

This new study proves that endothelial cells within your liver secrete signals that initiate and sustain the rejuvenation of your liver. They enable stem cells to form new liver cells and then coordinate the linking together of the liver cells to form new organ structure.

The problem is that endothelial cells are in contact with the contents of the blood. The greater the number of stress chemicals, toxins, pollutants, antigens, junk food, and other irritants that come into contact with them, the greater the potential to damage these cells. This means that their ability to orchestrate rejuvenation would be compromised.

People with irritable bowel syndrome may be able to find some relief by getting regular exercise, a small clinical trial suggests.

The study, of 102 adults with the disorder, found that those who were told to get some more exercise had better odds of seeing improvements in problems like cramps, bloating, constipation and diarrhea.

After three months, 43 percent of the exercisers showed a "clinically significant" improvement in their symptoms - meaning it was making a difference in their daily lives. That compared with a quarter of the participants who maintained their normal lifestyle.

Having the lights on before bedtime could result in a worse night's sleep, according to a study to be published in the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism.

The research shows that the body produces less of the sleep hormone melatonin when exposed to light.

Sleep patterns have been linked to some types of cancer, blood pressure and diabetes.

The US researchers also found lower melatonin levels in shift workers.

Lifestyles may have moved on from a day/night rhythm, but it seems the human body has not.

The pineal gland produces melatonin through the night and starts when darkness falls.

Eating blueberries can guard against high blood pressure, according to new research by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Harvard University.

High blood pressure - or hypertension - is one of the major cardiovascular diseases worldwide. It leads to stroke and heart disease and costs more than $300 billion each year. Around a quarter of the adult population is affected globally - including 10 million people in the UK and one in three US adults.

Published next month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the new findings show that bioactive compounds in blueberries called anthocyanins offer protection against hypertension. Compared with those who do not eat blueberries, those eating at least one serving a week reduce their risk of developing the condition by 10 per cent.

You catch flu by inhaling germs - now it seems you can catch prion diseases that way too.

Prions are misshapen proteins that cause brain degeneration in conditions such as mad cow disease and scrapie in animals, and Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease in humans. They can get into you if you eat infected meat or receive infected blood, but it was thought they couldn't spread through air.

Now Adriano Aguzzi of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich reports that mice exposed for 10 minutes to aerosols containing as little as 2.5 per cent brain tissue from mice with scrapie all developed the disease within months. The prions didn't need processing by the immune system first, as some other research has suggested, but entered the brain directly through nasal nerves.

Washington, DC - The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has agreed to stop planting genetically engineered (GE) crops on all its refuges within a dozen Northeastern states, according to a settlement agreement in a lawsuit brought by conservation and food safety groups. Because the federal government would not agree to end illegal GE agriculture in refuges nationally, new litigation is being prepared in other regions where as many as 75 other national wildlife refuges now growing GE crops are vulnerable to similar suits.

The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Delaware, filed by the Widener Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic on behalf of Delaware Audubon Society, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Center for Food Safety, charged that the Fish & Wildlife Service had illegally entered into Cooperative Farming Agreements with private parties, allowing hundreds of acres on its Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware to be plowed over without the environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

In settling the suit, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service promised to revoke any authorization for further GE agriculture at Bombay Hook and the four other refuges with GE crops: the Rappahannock River Valley Refuge and the Eastern Shore of Virginia Refuge, Montezuma Refuge in New York and Blackwater Refuge of Maryland, unless and until an appropriate NEPA analysis is completed - a condition that has yet to be met for GE agriculture on a National Wildlife Refuge.

A grandmother-of-three thought she was safe from swine flu after she had the vaccine months ago.

But Eleanor Carruthers, 68, from Merseyside became the latest victim of the outbreak on Saturday.

Mrs Carruthers was seriously ill with emphysema and lung cancer, but had had the flu vaccination in October to protect her from the illness.

Despite the step, she was rushed to the Royal Liverpool Hospital last week and later died. H1N1 (swine flu) was recorded as one of the main causes of her death.

Berlin - Germany's dioxin-tainted food scandal widened Saturday, as authorities banned another 934 farms from selling eggs, poultry and pork after finding out that one company had hidden its deliveries of contaminated livestock feed.

Prosecutors in Lower Saxony state have opened an investigation after finding out about the tainted feed deliveries to those farms, Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner said.

"This is a scandal within the scandal," she said.