Health & WellnessS


Health

Bhopal's health effects probed

Gaia Vince
BBC News
Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:54 UTC
BBC Bopaul
© Getty ImagesOngoing: Survivors campaign outside PM Manmohan Singh's office this month

A quarter of a century has passed since Bhopal suffered the world's worst industrial disaster, but its legacy lingers.

There is an air of palpable sadness hanging over the city - and everybody has a story to tell about that night.

And the Indian government has at last decided to fund new research into the long-term health effects of the toxic leak.
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Bulb

What Separates Humans From Mice? Bigger, Faster Astrocytes In Brain


Science Daily
Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:43 UTC
A type of brain cell that was long overlooked by researchers embodies one of very few ways in which the human brain differs fundamentally from that of a mouse or rat, according to researchers who published their findings as the cover story in the March 11 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
Science Daily astrocytes
© Image courtesy of University of Rochester Medical CenterAstrocyte cells

Scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center found that human astrocytes, cells that were long thought simply to support flashier brain cells known as neurons that send electrical signals, are bigger, faster, and much more complex than those in mice and rats.

"There aren't many differences known between the rodent brain and the human brain, but we are finding striking differences in the astrocytes. Our astrocytes signal faster, and they're bigger and more complex. This has big implications for how our brains process information," said first author Nancy Ann Oberheim, Ph.D., a medical student who recently completed her doctoral thesis on astrocytes.
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Cow Skull

The Little-Known Secrets about Bleached Flour...


Dr. Mercola
Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:05 UTC
Nearly everyone knows that white flour is not healthy for you, but most people don't know that when white flour is bleached, it can actually be FAR worse for you.

It's generally understood that refining food destroys nutrients. With the most nutritious part of the grain removed, white flour essentially becomes a form of sugar. Consider what gets lost in the refining process:

Comment: Let's see. They remove almost all the nutritional value the wheat has, bath it in chlorine gas (Hey, it has to be white, doesn't it?) and use other chemicals like: "oxides of nitrogen, nitrosyl, and benzoyl peroxide mixed with various chemical salts."

Enjoy your donut. (Sprinkled with refined sugar, of course.)

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Health

Artificial cartilage performs better than the real thing

Colin Barras
New Scientist
Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:44 UTC
The smooth cartilage that covers the ends of long bones provides a level of lubrication that artificial alternatives haven't been able to rival - until now. Researchers say their lubricating layers of "molecular brushes" can outperform nature under the highest pressures encountered within joints, with potentially important implications for joint replacement surgery.

With every step we take, bones at the knee and hip rub against each other. That would quickly wear them away if it wasn't for the protection afforded by the thick layer of smooth and slippery cartilage that covers their ends.

No amount of polishing can remove all of the small imperfections from the stainless steel used in artificial joints. Any raised areas that are left grind against each other and release debris particles that soften the bone, explains Jacob Klein at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.

Like bone, artificial joints must be covered with a cartilage-like layer. However, while it's possible to match cartilage's slick properties at low pressure, at the high pressures found in joints synthetic alternatives "seize up".
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Cookie

'Miracle fruit' turns sour things sweet

Madison Park
CNN News
Thu, 26 Mar 2009 04:34 UTC
fruit plate
© CNNThe "miracle fruit" makes acidic foods, such as lemons and grapefruits, sweet and candy-like.
Miracle fruit launches "taste tripping" parties where foodies eat lemon, hot sauce

The small fruit has the color of a cranberry, the shape of an almond and tastes like a flavorless gummy.

But after chewing the fruit and rubbing the pulp against the tongue, the berry, known by a promising name -- "miracle fruit" or Synsepalum dulcificum -- releases a sweetening potency that alters the taste buds.

For about 15 to 30 minutes, everything sour is sweet.

Lemons lose their zing and taste like candy. Oranges become sickeningly sweet. Hot sauce that usually burns the tongue tastes like honey barbecue sauce that scorches as it trickles down the throat.

Through word of mouth, these miracle fruits have inspired "taste tripping" parties, where foodies and curious eaters pay $10 to $35 to try the berries, which are native to West Africa.

About five months ago, a Miami, Florida, hospital began studying whether the fruit's sweetening effects can restore the appetite of cancer patients whose chemotherapy treatments have left them with dulled taste buds.
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Blackbox

Study Links Depression to Thinning of Brain's Cortex

Roni Caryn Rabin
New York Times
Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:06 UTC
thinning cortex
© Dr. Bradley S. Peterson/Columbia UniversityImages of the right and left hemispheres of the brain, as viewed from the side. The colors represent the differences in cortical thickness between the high-risk group, which has a family history of depression, and the low-risk group, which has no known risk. Blue and purple represent the thinning of the cortex, with purple regions having the greatest thinning. Green areas show no significant differences between the two groups.
Scientists who have been following families with a history of depression have found structural differences in family members' brains - specifically, a significant thinning of the right cortex, the brain's outermost surface. The thinning may be a trait or a marker of vulnerability to depression, the researchers suggested.

The scientists' brain imaging study found the thinning in descendants of depressed parents and grandparents, whether or not the individuals themselves had ever suffered a depressive episode or an anxiety disorder, researchers said.

"That's what is so extraordinary. You're seeing it two generations later, and you're seeing it in both children and adults," said Dr. Bradley S. Peterson, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons and the paper's first author. "And it's present even if those offspring themselves have not yet become ill."
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Alarm Clock

US: Oklahoma Officials Confirm Teen Syphilis Outbreak


KOCO.com
Wed, 25 Mar 2009 09:38 UTC
Officials Cite Group Sexual Activity At Parties

Oklahoma City -- The Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) confirmed Wednesday that it has identified an outbreak of syphilis occurring among teenagers younger than age 18 in the central Oklahoma area.
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Health

Mozambique: Worst cholera outbreak in a long time


IRIN News
Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:29 UTC
Johannesburg - With resources stretched thin, aid agencies struggling to contain a cholera outbreak across all but one of Mozambique's 10 provinces hope the approaching end of the rainy season will bring some relief.

"This year is worse than previous years, even worse than years in which we had floods. There are more cases and the fatality rate is slightly higher," secretary-general of the Mozambican Red Cross, Fernanda Teixeira, told IRIN. Over 12,000 cases and 157 deaths have been recorded since 1 January 2009.
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Ambulance

Prostate Test Found to Save Few Lives

Gina Kolata
New York Times
Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:44 UTC
NYT Prostate cancer
© New York Times

The PSA blood test, used to screen for prostate cancer, saves few lives and leads to risky and unnecessary treatments for large numbers of men, two large studies have found.

The findings, the first based on rigorous, randomized studies, confirm some longstanding concerns about the wisdom of widespread prostate cancer screening. Although the studies are continuing, results so far are considered significant and the most definitive to date.
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Sun

U.S. psychiatrists to end drug company seminars

Julie Steenhuysen
Reuters
Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:55 UTC
The American Psychiatric Association said on Wednesday it will end medical education seminars and meals sponsored by drug companies at its annual meetings to reduce chances for financial conflicts of interest.

The group, which represents 38,000 doctors, is among the first to say no to the drug-company sponsored seminars at its meetings, which many critics say blur the line between education and advertising.

Psychiatrists have been at the front of a controversy over conflicts of interest following accusations last year by Republican U.S. Senator Charles Grassley that prominent Harvard University psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Biederman and others failed to fully disclose payments from drug companies.
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