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Brain Changes in Dementia Patients Signal Apathy

Elin Lindström Claessen
Medical News Today
Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:00 UTC
Dementia patients with a certain type of changes in their brain's white matter are more likely to be apathetic than those who do not have these changes, reveals a patient study carried out by the Sahlgrenska Academy and Sahlgrenska University Hospital.

Changes in the brain's white matter are common among the elderly and dementia patients, and often appear as blurred patches on CT and MRI images.

"A likely explanation for the changes is that the small blood vessels that supply the white matter are not working as they should," says Michael Jonsson, PhD-student at the Sahlgrenska Academy and consultant psychiatrist at Sahlgrenska University Hospital's memory clinic. "This results in that the long nerve fibres and their fatty sheaths degenerate."

Apathy is one of the most common psychological problems associated with dementia. Just over half of all dementia patents are emotionally blunted and lack motivation and initiative. This new study shows that this apathy is far more common in patients who have the characteristic changes in the brain.
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Attention

BPA Babies and Cash Registers

Anna Fahey
Grist
Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:21 UTC
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We've known for a long time that bisphenol-A (BPA) is bad for us. Study after study shows the ill-effects of this widely-used industrial chemical on our bodies - and in particular, on developing babies' bodies. The list is pretty sobering: BPA's been linked to breast cancer in women, brain damage in children, obesity, heart disease, diabetes...

Two new studies add to the litany:

One study suggests that BPA, may cause sexual dysfunction in men. Another study, reported in Science News, links BPA exposures in early pregnancy to more aggressive behavior in 2-year old girls and more anxious and withdrawn 2-year old boys.
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Amino Acid Recipe Could Be Right for Long Life

Tina Hesman Saey
Science News
Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:00 UTC
In fruit flies, a low-calorie diet with extra amounts of methionine extends lifespan without harming fertility

Long life may stem from a proper imbalance of dietary nutrients.

A new study in fruit flies suggests that the life-extending properties of caloric restriction may be due not only to fewer calories in the diet, but also to just the right mix of protein building blocks, called amino acids. The study, published online December 2 in Nature, may help explain some of the health benefits of restricted-calorie diets.

Coupled with other data, the new study should prompt researchers to reevaluate whether it is calorie count or the nutrient composition of a diet that is most important for regulating lifespan and health, comments Luigi Fontana of Washington University in St. Louis.
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Family

Bullying At School Linked To Bullying At Home


Medical News Today
Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:00 UTC
Children who bully at school are likely to also bully their siblings at home. This is the finding of a study published in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology.

Dr Ersilia Menesini and colleagues at the Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Italy, designed the study to investigate whether the age and gender of a child's siblings predicted whether children were likely to bully, or to become victims of bullying. They also looked for links between sibling bullying and school bullying

A total of 195 children aged between 10 and 12 took part in the study. All of the children had a sibling no more than four years older or younger than them. Children were given questionnaires that asked whether they were a victim of bullying, or bullied their peers at school, and whether they were a victim of bullying by a sibling or bullied a sibling at home.
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Health

Remember the Dangers of Refined Sugar

Fleur Hupston
Natural News
Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:17 UTC
In Western societies, the consumption of refined sugar is a daily addiction. From pouring syrup or sugar over pancakes and cereals at breakfast, to heaping it into coffee and tea, the habit continues during the day, resulting in obesity and health problems. Sugar content is often hidden from the unwary consumer and this raises questions such as: Is sugar really so bad? What exactly does it do to the human body? Can the definition of poison really be applied to sugar?
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Newspaper

RealAge Scheme Exposed by New York Times

E. Huff
NaturalNews
Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:00 UTC
A popular online age quiz, RealAge, has gained notoriety among many Americans for its claims to pinpoint a person's true biological age and make corresponding recommendations for staying healthy and young. Research into the company reveals, however, that while the site itself promotes non-medical solutions to staying young, the company generates revenue by marketing drugs to its members via email.

The quiz is designed to assign a biological age to a person through a series of questions that assess lifestyle preferences, eating habits, and family history. Once compiled, the survey will offer advice on which vitamins to take, what to eat for meals, and how to improve youthfulness. Over 27 million people have taken the quiz and roughly nine million have signed up to become members.

Once a member, a person receives custom-tailored emails that use that person's quiz answers to make drug recommendations based on current symptoms and potential disease propensities. Drug companies pay RealAge to send marketing emails directly to members without any formal diagnosis from the members' doctors.
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Arrow Up

Hospital Sees Increase in Eye Condition After Knock "Visions"

Pamela Duncan
Irish Times
Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:00 UTC
A Galway eye surgeon has described as "unprecedented" the rise in the number of cases of an eye condition which he says can be directly attributed to people staring at the sun during recent events at the Knock shrine.

Dr Eamonn O'Donoghue, a consultant ophthalmologist surgeon in University Hospital Galway, says the hospital would usually see one case of solar retinopathy "at most" per year.

However, this year there have been five such cases, all of which have been linked to events at Knock.

Dr O'Donoghue said people needed to be warned of the condition as it was "potentially very, very dangerous" and could cause long-term damage to the most vulnerable part of the eye.
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Attention

Study Found More than 200 Chemicals in Cord Blood of African American, Asian and Hispanic Newborns


Environmental Working Group
Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:19 UTC
Laboratory tests commissioned by Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Rachel's Network have detected bisphenol A (BPA) for the first time in the umbilical cord blood of U.S. newborns. The tests identified the plastics chemical in 9 of 10 cord blood samples from babies of African American, Asian and Hispanic descent.

The findings provide hard evidence that U.S. infants are contaminated with BPA beginning in the womb.

Additional tests conducted by five laboratories in the U.S., Canada and Europe found up to 232 toxic chemicals in the 10 cord blood samples. Besides BPA, substances detected for the first time in U.S. newborns included a toxic flame retardant chemical called tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) that permeates computer circuit boards, synthetic fragrances (Galaxolide and Tonalide) used in common cosmetics and detergents, and perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA, or C4), a member of the notorious Teflon chemical family used to make non-stick and grease-, stain- and water-resistant coatings for cookware, textiles, food packaging and other consumer products.

The EWG study is the first to find perchlorate contamination in cord blood samples from multiple states. (A study by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently found perchlorate in cord blood samples from infants born in New Jersey.) Nine of the 10 samples in the EWG study were contaminated with perchlorate, a solid rocket fuel component and potent thyroid toxin that can disrupt production of hormones essential for normal brain development.
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Attention

Drugs in Drinking Water a Growing Problem


NewsInferno
Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:07 UTC
The problem of pharmaceutical residue turning up in water supplies is one we've written about before. It's a serious and growing problem, and right now, no one really knows what health risks the public might face from exposure to drugs in drinking water.

In 2008, the Associated Press published the results of its own five-month long investigation into drug residues in public water supplies. The probe revealed that 46 million Americans were being exposed to pharmaceutical ingredients via drinking water. The Associated Press also found that many y communities do not test for drugs in drinking water and those that do often fail to tell customers they have found medications, including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers, and sex hormones.
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Attention

Childhood Lead Poisoning Linked to Permanent Brain Damage


NewsInferno
Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:04 UTC
A new study has revealed that childhood exposure to lead can lead to permanent brain damage, US News and World Report writes.

"What we have found is that no region of the brain is spared from lead exposure. Distinct areas of the brain are affected differently," study author Kim Cecil, quoted US News. Cecil is an imaging scientist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and a professor of radiology, pediatrics and neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, said US News, citing a news release.

We have long written that exposure to lead in children can cause brain and nervous system damage, behavioral and learning problems, slowed growth, hearing problems, headaches, mental and physical retardation, and behavioral and other health problems. Lead is also known to cause cancer and reproductive harm. We have also long stressed that, once poisoned by lead, no organ system is immune, particularly the developing brain because negative influences can have long-lasting effects and can continue well into puberty and beyond.
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