Health & WellnessS


Health

Spotless Mind? Fear Memories In Humans Weakened With Beta-blocker Propranolol


Science Daily
Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:26 UTC
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© Credit: iStockphoto/Dane WirtzfeldScientists have successfully weakened fearful memories in human volunteers.

ScienceDaily - A team of Dutch researchers led by Merel Kindt has successfully reduced the fear response. They weakened fear memories in human volunteers by administering the beta-blocker propranolol. Interestingly, the fear response does not return over the course of time.

The findings were published in the March 2009 issue of Nature Neuroscience.

Until recently, it was assumed that the fear memory could not be deleted. However, Kindt's team has demonstrated that changes can indeed be effected in the emotional memory of human beings.
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Ambulance

West African meningitis outbreak kills 931


The Times of India
Thu, 12 Mar 2009 07:47 UTC
A meningitis outbreak has killed 931 people in four West African countries since January, with most deaths occurring in the continent's most populous nation Nigeria, the United Nations said.

"Four countries of West Africa are affected with a total of 13,516 cases and 931 deaths," the UN children's agency UNICEF said.

"Nigeria is the most affected with 9,086 cases and 562 deaths. Niger reports 2,620 cases and 113 deaths. Burkina Faso reports 1,756 cases and 250 deaths. Mali reports 54 cases and six deaths."
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Ambulance

HIV could be non-fatal: scientist


NineMSN
Thu, 12 Mar 2009 06:50 UTC
HIV could adapt so that it is no longer a life-threatening virus, a leading scientist says.

Roger Short, a professor from Melbourne University's medicine faculty, said it was not in the virus's interest to kill its host.

"If we look into long term future, if humans survive that long, it seems likely that over time the virus, which mutates incredibly rapidly, will eventually adapt so it doesn't kill us," Prof Short said.

"Chimpanzees suffer no disease when infected with HIV, whereas for us it is lethal; can we learn from chimpanzees how to protect ourselves?
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Magic Wand

Want to rewire your brain? Study music

Lee Dye
ABC News
Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:09 UTC
All Those Hours at the Piano Paid Off: A Musician's Brain Recognizes Sound That Carries Emotion

The study, from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., offers a new line of evidence that the brain we end up with is not necessarily the same brain we started out with.
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Sun

Vitamin D 'link to high blood pressure'


NineMSN
Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:37 UTC
New research in teenagers links low levels of vitamin D to high blood pressure and high blood sugar, which can lead to ominous early health problems.

The "sunshine" vitamin is needed to keep bones strong, but recent research has linked vitamin D to other possible health benefits. The teen study confirms results seen in adults, linking low levels with risk factors for heart disease, the researchers said.

Teens in the study with the lowest vitamin D levels were more than twice as likely to have high blood pressure and high blood sugar. They were also four times more likely to have metabolic syndrome, defined as have three of more conditions that contribute to heart disease and diabetes - including high blood pressure, high blood sugar, big waists and high cholesterol.

The study's leader, Jared Reis of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said more research will be needed to determine if vitamin D is really behind the health problems and whether getting more would make a difference.
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Family

Flashback Love Makes Kids Smarter

Meredith F. Small
LIve Science
Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:02 UTC
For some odd reason, it takes constant reminders that we primates need nurturing.

In a recent study of 46 baby chimpanzee orphans, Kim Bard of the University of Portsmouth in England and her colleagues demonstrated that primate babies that have tight relationships with mother figures do much better on cognitive tests than babies who receive only the basics of food, shelter, and friendship with peers.

But this is not breaking news. In fact, it's old news.

In the 1950s, Harry Harlow conducted a series of experiments with baby rhesus monkeys that showed, without a doubt, that lack of love and comfort makes for a crazy monkey.

Harlow constructed a cage that included a wire monkey "mother" topped with a plastic face. In this wire Mom he inserted a bottle. The cages also held an alternative to the wire mother, the same wire and plastic contraption but covered with terry cloth. The baby monkeys spent all their time clinging to the cloth mother and only went to the wire mother to feed, demonstrating that a soft touch beats something to eat any day.

But even more interesting, Harlow's experiments produced really nutty adult monkeys, females who were unable to mother themselves because they had no idea what mother love might be

Comment: What a sad commentary on current state of child-rearing in Britain.

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Health

Toxoplasmosis Parasite May Trigger Schizophrenia And Bipolar Disorders


Science Daily
Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:22 UTC
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© Credit: Image courtesy of E. Prandovszky and University of LeedsToxoplasma cyst outlined in red fluorescent cyst dye in mouse brain section. Hundreds of parasites are visible in cyst as blue dots (nuclei stained blue) and in surrounding brain tissue.
Science Daily - Scientists have discovered how the toxoplasmosis parasite may trigger the development of schizophrenia and other bipolar disorders.

The team from the University of Leeds' Faculty of Biological Sciences has shown that the parasite may play a role in the development of these disorders by affecting the production of dopamine -- the chemical that relays messages in the brain controlling aspects of movement, cognition and behaviour.

Toxoplasmosis, which is transmitted via cat faeces (found on unwashed vegetables) and raw or undercooked infected meat, is relatively common, with 10-20% of the UK population and 22% of the US population estimated to carry the parasite as cysts. Most people with the parasite are healthy, but for those who are immune-suppressed -- and particularly for pregnant women -- there are significant health risks that can occasionally be fatal.
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Attention

Migraines in pregnancy linked to stroke risk


Agence France-Presse
Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:17 UTC
pregnancy
© Agence France-Presse/Mychele DaniauA nurse is seen examining a pregnant woman at a hospital in northern France. Migraines in pregnancy could be a clue that a woman is at risk of a stroke, heart disease and blood clots, according to a study by the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
Migraines in pregnancy could be a clue that a woman is at risk of a stroke, heart disease and blood clots, according to a study by the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

Researchers led by Cheryl Bushnell, a neurologist at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, trawled through a database of 18 million records of US patients who had been discharged from hospital from 2000-2003.

They found nearly 44,000 cases of pregnant women who had been admitted with a migraine.
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Health

Blood type may matter in pancreatic cancer

Nathan Seppa
Science News
Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:44 UTC
People with type O blood are less likely to develop cancer of the pancreas than are people with type B blood, a study finds. People with type A or AB blood face a risk that falls somewhere in between, researchers report in the March 18 Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Research suggesting that blood type might influence cancer risk first emerged in the 1950s, and the idea has puzzled scientists ever since.
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Health

Antidepressant Use Tied to Cardiac Death in Women

Ed Edelson
US News and World Report
Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:39 UTC
Women who use antidepressants appear to be at heightened risk for sudden cardiac death, although the exact nature of the link remains unclear, researchers say. The finding doesn't necessarily mean that antidepressant drugs are dangerous, the researchers said.

"We suspect that their use is a marker for people with worse depression," explained study lead author Dr. William Whang, an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. "The elevated risk seems more specific for antidepressant use, but that use may well be a marker of more severe symptoms."
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