Health & WellnessS


Heart - Black

Flashback Nation of Lost Souls

Linda Diebel
The Star
Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:52 UTC
Image
© TONY BOCK/TORONTO STARMarcia Martel calms herself as she tells her story to the Star in Timmins.
Timmins - The last time Marcia Martel saw her mother at home, it was late summer and she was a chubby little Indian kid of 4. She doesn't remember much because she was crying and clutching the tall grass as strange people pulled her away. She was scared of the police and didn't understand why she was being taken from Beaverhouse First Nation on Lake Misema in northeastern Ontario.

Forced into a waiting boat, she sat down. She'd been taught "little children rules" for the water. She fixed her gaze on her mother standing alone against the house until the image was only a speck and then, nothing.

She couldn't stop crying. She felt so worthless, she says, "I knew God Himself didn't want me."
Read More...
Bug

12 Kids Hospitalized After Drinking Tainted Water


KTLA News
Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:02 UTC
Santa Clarita -- Lab results on water bottles that made a dozen students ill at a junior high school in Santa Clarita could be ready later today, according to county health officials.

The students got sick Thursday afternoon after drinking from contaminated water bottles that came from a vending machine at La Mesa Junior High School.

The FBI is investigating how the tainted water bottles got into a vending machine but they say the bottles do not appear to have been tampered with.

It was not immediately clear what the bottles contained, but it appeared to be a "bleach-like substance," county inspector Steve Zermeno said.
Read More...
Health

China confirms first human cases of bird flu

JOE MCDONALD
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wed, 16 Nov 2005 12:00 UTC
BEIJING - China confirmed its first three human bird flu cases Wednesday, including two fatalities, as Asia-Pacific leaders called for better co-operation to head off a potential pandemic before the winter flu season arrives.
Read More...
Attention

US: Study finds 'danger zone' for child deaths near military bases

Joel Moreno
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sat, 25 Apr 2009 06:17 UTC
Researchers have found what they call a "danger zone" in which kids are more likely to die from abuse and neglect.

The study, which reviewed 300 child deaths dating back to 2000, found abuse-related child death cases are disproportionately clustered in neighborhoods that stretch from South Tacoma to the military bases along the Interstate 5 corridor.

"The one factor that is interesting is it's around the military bases, even though in our research we found that these cases are not related to the military," said lead researcher Tom Stokes.
Read More...
Attention

Low Vitamin D Linked to Severe Asthma

Caroline Wilbert
WebMD Health News
Sat, 25 Apr 2009 06:14 UTC
Study Does Not Show Causal Relationship Between Vitamin D Deficiency and Severe Asthma

Low levels of vitamin D may be linked to severity of asthma in children, according to a new study.

The study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, examined the blood levels of vitamin D in children with asthma. Lower levels of vitamin D were associated with more severe asthma.
Read More...
People

Math + Chewing Gum = Better Grades?

Bill Hendrick
WebMD Health News
Sat, 25 Apr 2009 05:54 UTC
Chewing Gum Might Make Teachers Frown but It Improves Academic Performance, Study Says

Chewing sugarless gum during class and while doing homework may improve academic performance of adolescents, a new study says.

The research was underwritten by the William Wrigley Jr. Co., the Chicago-based chewing gum giant, but scientists from the Baylor College of Medicine say that didn't influence the study's design or its outcome.

And scientists who had nothing to do with the study say it's likely that chewing gum can reduce stress, leading to enhanced concentration and thus better academic performance.
Read More...
Family

Fighting In Front of the Kids

Lisa Belkin
The New York Times
Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:05 UTC
Growing up, my mother has told me, her parents never raised their voices to one another - at least not that she ever heard. So the first time she and my Dad disagreed loudly she was terrified that the marriage was in trouble.

Well, they lasted nearly 50 years, until Dad's death five years ago, and let's just say my siblings and I heard our share of fighting. But we also heard our share of resolving and making up and never hitting below the belt - and that, psychologists say, is the difference between scarring children when parents quarrel, and teaching them.
Read More...
People

Psychology of Disaster

Kay Bensing
Advance for LPNs
Sat, 25 Apr 2009 03:42 UTC
An older woman moves erratically around the remains of her demolished home after it was leveled by a tornado. The disaster that killed 30 people also destroyed almost everything this woman owned. When she is allowed to return to the scene of devastation, she finds a memento of her mother among the ruins. As she searches without success for a tangible remembrance of her deceased son, anxiety and sadness take over, and she begins to sob.

Some viewing television coverage of this women's tragedy might think her behaviors are abnormal. After all, the woman is a survivor; her life was spared. She should be glad she's alive, some might reason. However, emergency professionals and disaster teams recognize the victim's responses as typical of the varied responses observed immediately after a disaster.

This article focuses on disaster psychology, a multidisciplinary body of knowledge that is an offshoot of traumatology. However, this now-psychiatric subspecialty has a stronger community-based model of assessment and intervention, in contrast to the previously prevalent clinical model, which focused on individual responses.1 This article examines aspects of both models.
Read More...
Family

Tay-Sachs Screening a Must for Jewish Couples Prior to Marriage

Gary Davis
Associated Content
Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:48 UTC
It is a fact that certain genetic diseases are more prone to show up in specific races. So it is with Tay-Sachs and some associated conditions.

The Victor Center at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia has released an article to the Jewish Times of South Jersey about the need for Jewish couples to have genetic testing when getting married.

One in five people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent are a carrier of one of several diseases that can be tragic. They can include Tay-Sachs, Familial Dysautonomia, Canavan disease, Gaucher disease and Bloom Syndrome among other disorders. These disorders can cause death in early childhood as well as life-long dependent care. Probably the least serious is Tay-Sachs.
Read More...
Star

India's 'holy powder' Finally Reveals It's Centuries-Old Secret


Physorg.com
Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:02 UTC
Image
Scientists in Michigan are reporting discovery of the secret behind the fabled healing power of the main ingredient in turmeric — a spice revered in India as "holy powder." Their study on the ingredient, curcumin, appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society
Scientists in Michigan are reporting discovery of the secret behind the fabled healing power of the main ingredient in turmeric - a spice revered in India as "holy powder." Their study on the ingredient, curcumin, appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

In the study, Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy and colleagues point out that turmeric has been used for centuries in folk medicine to treat wounds, infections, and other health problems. Although modern scientific research on the spice has burgeoned in recent years, scientists until now did not know exactly how curcumin works inside the body.
Read More...