Health & WellnessS


Health

Echo vision: The man who sees with sound

Daniel Kish
New Scientist
Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:44 UTC
Image
© djeyewater, stock.xchngDaniel Kish lost his sight in infancy, but taught himself to echolocate with dolphin-like clicks.
I am 6 years old and it's my first day at school. The bell rings for recess and all my classmates run gleefully away. But unlike them I cannot see. At least, not with my eyes. Instead, I click my tongue, listening for echoes from the wall to my left. I walk with my hands slightly outstretched to keep me from running into chairs that may have been left askew. I hear kids laughing and shouting through the open door, and by clicking I also hear the presence of the sides of the doorway in front of me. I go through it to the playground for the first time.

After a few steps, I stop to listen. I stand on a crack in the pavement that runs parallel to the building behind me. I click my tongue loudly and turn my head from side to side. The way is open, shot through with scurrying voices, balls bouncing and shoes scampering to and fro. What is around me? How do I get there? How do I get back?

Clicking my tongue quickly and scanning with my head, I move cautiously forward, catching fleeting images of bodies darting hither and thither. I follow spaces that are clear, avoiding clusters of bodies, keeping my distance from bouncing balls. I am not afraid - to me, this is a puzzle. I turn my head and click over my shoulder. I can still hear the wall of the building. As long as I can hear that, I can find my way back.
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Info

Savant skills may be widespread in people with autism

Celeste Biever
New Scientist
Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:09 UTC
Savant-like skills, such as astounding memory, perfect pitch or the ability to multiply very high numbers together, may be much more common among people with autism than previously thought.

A new study of about 100 adults with autism shows that one third have skills that stand out, both in comparison with their other abilities and with the skills of the general population. Previous studies put the prevalence of savantism in autistic people as around 1 in 10.

"People often focus on the things people with autism can't do," says Patricia Howlin of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College in London, who led the study. "One of the things our study illustrates is that these are people who do have special skills but they are not being used."

The notion of the savant - someone who has a skill that is exceptional both compared to the general population and to that person's other skills - has long captured the imagination of cognitive scientists and the general public alike. But despite this fascination, the connection between autism and savantism remains mysterious.
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Pills

Aspirin Use Linked to Brain Microbleeds


Forbes
Mon, 13 Apr 2009 07:54 UTC
A Dutch study finds an increased incidence of tiny bleeding episodes in the brains of people who regularly take aspirin.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations of 1,062 people found a 70 percent higher incidence of "microbleeds" among those taking aspirin or carbasalate calcium, a close chemical relative of aspirin, than among those not taking such anti-clotting drugs, according to an April 13 online report in the Archives of Neurology from physicians at Erasmus MC University Medical Center in Rotterdam. The research was expected to be published in the June print issue of the journal.

No increased incidence of microbleeds was seen in people taking clot-preventing drugs that act in different ways, such as heparin, the researchers noted.
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Health

How PCBs May Hurt the Brain

Kathleen Doheny
WebMD
Mon, 13 Apr 2009 07:48 UTC
Exposure to environmental toxins known as PCBs have long been linked with behavioral and developmental problems in children, but scientists could never say exactly how PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) might adversely affect the brain and lead to the problems.

Now, scientists think they may know.

The chemicals adversely affect the development of brain cells and also make brain circuits "overexcited," which has been linked in previous research to developmental problems, according to researcher Isaac N. Pessah, PhD, a professor of molecular biosciences and director of the University of California Davis Center for Children's Environmental Health.
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Cheeseburger

Mom's Diet Can Change Unborn Baby's Genetics


LiveScience
Mon, 13 Apr 2009 07:32 UTC
There's an old phrase that an expectant mother is eating for two. A new study indicates it's more apt than was known. A bad diet can actually alter a baby's genes.

If a mother rat does not eat well, her offspring exhibit genetic changes that affect what they'll become. Because the genes and cellular mechanisms involved in the study are very similar to those in humans, researchers think the study is relevant to us.

Specifically, rat fetuses receiving poor nutrition in the womb become genetically primed to be born into an environment lacking proper nutrition, the researchers figure; they were likely to grow to smaller sizes than their normal counterparts. The poorly nourished rats were also at higher risk for a host of health problems throughout their lives, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and neurodevelopmental delays.
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Family

Does the Birth of a Child Mark the End of Marital Bliss?

Drucilla Dyess
Health News
Mon, 13 Apr 2009 01:56 UTC
First comes love, then comes marriage, and then post-birth stress arrives with the baby carriage. The joy of parenthood brings with it abrupt change and puts extreme strain on a marriage. In fact, for 90 percent of couples, marital bliss wanes and is replaced by a lack of satisfaction in the marital relationship within a year after the birth of their first child.

Researchers from the University of Denver and Texas A&M University conducted an eight-year study of 218 couples that found those with children experienced an accelerated decline of marital bliss, especially while adjusting to parenthood after the their first child is born. Although childless couples also experienced a decrease in marital bliss, the decline occurred much more gradually, over a long period of time. The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
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People

Lonely in an Electronic Wilderness: "The great emotional sickness of our era"

Handan T. Satiroglu
The WIP
Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:02 UTC
Image
© Paul De Los Reyes
"Technology allows us to separate ourselves from reality - moving people away from the real to the imagined, from the emotional to the controlled," observes Derek V. Smith in an email interview.

The author of A Survival Guide in the Information Age sees a darker side to the proliferation of personal gadgets and the use of technology in daily life. "Escaping into technology, someone can create false worlds, identities and experiences."

As I sit on a bus en route to my local university library, his words hit home. The few passengers on board are not participating in the here-and-now but are absorbed in a hypnotizing alternate universe of mutually exclusive cyber worlds.
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Family

Flashback Confession: Mother Doesn't Love Her Oldest Child

Rachel Porter
Mail Online
Thu, 22 Jan 2009 23:14 UTC
It's a confession few mothers would ever make. But here, one woman asks... So why can't I LOVE my own daughter?

Shelley Price can't stop the tears from falling as she makes her startling confession. The mother-of-two is in the living room of her home in Halling, Kent, surrounded by all the usual signs of a busy family life.

There are photos of her daughters on the sideboard and toys spilling out of cupboards. But the cosy domestic scene only makes what she has to say even more poignant.

Shelley is about to admit to one of the great taboos of motherhood. No matter how hard she has tried, she says she can't bring herself to love her elder daughter, Catherine.
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People

Amazon 'Glitch' Delists Gay-Themed Books, Interwebs Cry Foul

Chris Snyder
wired.com
Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:05 UTC
Hundreds of gay-and lesbian-themed books suddenly disappeared from Amazon.com's rankings over the weekend, causing an uproar among authors and activists who alleged it was a stealthy extension of the company's policy concerning adult content but which the internet bookseller has dismissed as the result of a technical "glitch."

Some of the titles reported to have been dropped were back on the rankings, including Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain. Not all gay/lesbian works were dropped. There is also no comprehensive list (yet) of the affected titles, and some reports of outed titles contradict others

But clearly the pages of some books with with gay but no particular "adult" component have been shorn of their metrics.
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Question

Nepal: Three children die of mysterious disease


Kantipur
Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:39 UTC
Mahottari - Three children have died from an unidentified disease while dozens of others have fallen ill at Khuttapiparadi-8 in Mahottari district.

The deceased are Rahamad Nadaf, 5, Kamaru Nadaf, 5, and Jamila, 6.

Rahamad perished at his home and other two died while undergoing treatment at the Janakpur Zonal Hospital Sunday night.

Among the ill, eight have been hospitalised. Symptoms of the mysterious disease include abrupt cessation of speech and stretching of the body.
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