For expectant mothers, catching even a mild case of the flu could stunt brain development in their newborns, according to a new study conducted in rhesus macaques.

Writing in the most recent online edition (Jan. 22) of the journal Biological Psychiatry, a team led by Christopher Coe of the University of Wisconsin-Madison reports that flu infections in pregnant monkeys resulted in significant reductions in gray matter in baby monkeys, particularly in areas that in humans are associated with language, and the combining of information from different senses.

"The effects were greater for gray matter, which reflects cell number and size in the cortex, but we did see some reductions in white matter, too," explains Coe, a UW-Madison professor of psychology and the director of the Harlow Center for Biological Psychology.

In a head-to-head comparison, two popular weight loss methods proved equally effective at helping participants lose significant amounts of weight. But, in a surprising twist, a low-carbohydrate diet proved better at lowering blood pressure than the weight-loss drug orlistat, according to researchers at Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Duke University Medical Center.

The findings send an important message to hypertensive people trying to lose weight, says William S. Yancy, Jr., MD, lead author of the study in the Jan. 25 Archives of Internal Medicine, and an associate professor of medicine at Duke. "If people have high blood pressure and a weight problem, a low-carbohydrate diet might be a better option than a weight loss medication."

Yancy added, "It's important to know you can try a diet instead of medication and get the same weight loss results with fewer costs and potentially fewer side effects."

Even with the best of available treatments, over a third of patients with depression may not achieve a satisfactory antidepressant response. Deep brain stimulation (DBS), a form of targeted electrical stimulation in the brain via implanted electrodes, is now undergoing careful testing to determine whether it could play a role in the treatment of patients who have not sufficiently improved during more traditional forms of treatment.

A major challenge of this work is determining the best region of the brain to stimulate. Some researchers stimulate the subgenual prefrontal cortex, a brain region implicated in depressed mood states, while others stimulate a region called the "anterior limb of the internal capsule," a nerve pathway that passes through the basal ganglia, a lower brain region.

Physicians publishing a new report in Biological Psychiatry now describe findings related to the stimulation of the nucleus accumbens, a brain region the size of a hazelnut associated with reward and motivation that is implicated in processing pleasurable stimuli, sometimes referred to as the "pleasure center" of the brain. The inability to experience pleasure is a key symptom of depression and previous studies have shown that functioning of the nucleus accumbens is impaired in depressed individuals.

Though parents often have concerns about letting their teens use social media Web sites like Facebook and MySpace, a new study by University of Virginia psychologists suggests that well-adapted youth with positive friendships will use these sites to further enhance the positive relationships they already have.

However, they warn, teens who have behavioral problems and difficulty making friends, or who are depressed, may be more inclined to use social media in negative and sometimes aggressive ways, or not to use such sites at all.

The study appears in the January issue of the journal Developmental Psychology.

Take a glance at the Facebook groups or poke around prominent internet forums and you'll find plenty of rabid social networkers who want Facebook to lift their limitation of 5,000 friends.

But Robin Dunbar, professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University, has revealed that human brains are only capable of managing a scant 150 friendships; a number that hasn't changed throughout history, despite our modern fascination with Twitter, blogging and Facebook.

Experts suspect that H1N1 flu vaccine might have resulted in acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) in a thirteen-year-old boy in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province, Guangzhou Daily reported today.

A source from the city's health bureau said the local government will compensate the boy financially once he was diagnosed with the abnormal reaction from the H1N1 vaccine.

The boy was reportedly sent to the hospital on December 21st last year for running a fever and was discharged on January 21, 2010. He was inoculated the H1N1 vaccine on December 16, 2009.

Often one reads about historical failures in medical ethics, such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study or the forced sterilization of Carrie Buck, and one reflects with relief that health care has progressed in our society to the point where such abuses are no longer possible. Then one stumbles upon an occasional systemic failure so grievous, such as the amputation of a patient's wrong leg, that it nearly defies credibility, and reminds us that we are still vulnerable to medical exploitation and misconduct. If the facts as alleged in the media and court filings prove accurate, then the treatment of a pregnant Tallahassee mother, Samantha Burton, by her obstetrician, Jana Bures-Forsthoefel, may well rank among the most egregious abuses perpetrated against a patient by her caregiver since the triumph of the patients' rights movement in the 1970s.

The facts as reported are strikingly straightforward. Burton, a married mother of two toddlers, contacted her obstetrician in March 2009 -- during her twenty-fifth week of pregnancy -- when she became concerned that she might be going into premature labor. The obstetrician advised her to report to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. While at the hospital, it became apparent that Burton was not going into labor. However, Dr. Bures-Forsthoefel recommended up to fifteen weeks of bedrest for her patient. When Burton explained that she had two children at home and a job, and that full bed rest was not a viable option for her, Bures-Forsthoefel ordered her confined to a hospital room to protect the health of her fetus. The hospital and Bures-Forsthoefel then obtained an order from the Circuit Court of Leon County that mandated Burton remain in bed for the duration of her pregnancy (eg. up to fifteen weeks) and to undergo "all medical treatments" that her physicians believed were in the fetal interest. Burton was denied any opportunity to obtain a second opinion at another hospital. She was effectively held prisoner in her room for three days, at which point an emergency C-section revealed a dead fetus.

Isn't it bad enough that the statins are the number one selling drugs on the planet and that Lipitor is cranking in $10 BILLION, yes billion, not million folks, every year?

Now these greedy drug companies want even more money.

Please understand that I am a great fan of capitalism and I don't begrudge any company from making a profit, or even massively huge profits, but I have major objections to any person or company selling a solution that does not authentically benefit the end user. And when it comes to statin drugs that clearly is the case.

The "experts" are now saying that no matter how low your cholesterol count, if you are a diabetic you should take cholesterol-lowering drugs. They are completely ignorant of the well documented dangers of having too low of a cholesterol level.
What is concerning though is that this is not a lunatic doctor saying this, but this advice now is part of the official practice guidelines of the American College of Physicians, a major doctors' group, which represents more than 100,000 internists.

Damning new evidence has even the FDA worried about the impacts of BPA in consumer products, especially those for infants and children.

On Friday, in a substantial shift in policy, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it has "some concern" about the health effects of bishphenol A (BPA), particularly on infants and children. While not currently advocating regulation, the FDA is proposing steps that could lead to restrictions.

"We need to know more," said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg during a press conference. But "as a precaution," the FDA has issued recommendations for reducing exposure.

This contrasts markedly with the FDA's 2008 assessment that declared BPA use safe in consumer products, including for infants and children. It also aligns FDA's views with those of the National Toxicology Program and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

I'm seeing increasing numbers of patients with sleep problems, ranging from difficulty in falling asleep, to being unable to sleep soundly through the night. Rather than waking up in the morning restored and rejuvenated, they are dragging themselves out of bed, facing another day feeling drained and exhausted. (1)

As you know, disrupted sleep can exert a severe toll on your emotional and physical health, interfering with mental abilities, productivity and performance - leaving you feeling stressed, cranky, depressed and drowsy. (2) Poor sleep patterns are linked to a growing list of serious health conditions, including obesity, heart disease, Type two diabetes, and even, premature deaths in older adults.