The government of Vietnam has announced emergency measures to prevent the spread of a bird flu epidemic from poultry to humans.
Thousands of infected birds have been culled since Type A bird flu was discovered in seven provinces, the Vietnam news service VNS reported Wednesday. The latest province to suffer an outbreak is Bach Ninh where more than 100 ducks found dead on two farms tested positive for the H5N1 virus.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has ordered all government offices and relevant agencies to see that strict prevention measures are implemented to keep the disease from being transmitted to humans.
Miranda Hitti
WebMDThu, 12 Feb 2009 04:20 UTC
Study Links Secondhand Smoke Exposure to Cognitive Impairment
People who are exposed to secondhand smoke may be more likely than their peers to have cognitive impairment, a new study shows.
The study, published in the advance online edition of BMJ (formerly called the British Medical Journal), doesn't prove that secondhand smoke exposure causes cognitive impairment. But it does show that cognitive impairment was more common among nonsmokers and former smokers with high levels of cotinine, a nicotine-related chemical, in their saliva samples.
Comment: Sounds like junk science!
Maggie Fox
ReutersFri, 13 Feb 2009 00:42 UTC
Washington - A special U.S. court ruled against three families on Thursday who claimed vaccines caused their children's autism.
The Vaccine Court Omnibus Autism Proceeding ruled against the parents of Michelle Cedillo, Colten Snyder and William Yates Hazlehurst, who had claimed that a measles, mumps and rubella vaccine had combined with other vaccine ingredients to damage the three children.
"Unfortunately, the Cedillos have been misled by physicians who are guilty, in my view, of gross medical misjudgment," Special Master George Hastings, a former tax claims expert at the Department of Justice, wrote in the 183-page Cedillo ruling.
Obese people who drink fructose-sweetened beverages with their meals have an increased rise of triglycerides following the meal, according to new research from the Monell Center.
"Increased triglycerides after a meal are known predictors of cardiovascular disease," says Monell Member and study lead author Karen L. Teff, PhD, a metabolic physiologist. "Our findings show that fructose-sweetened beverages raise triglyceride levels in obese people, who already are at risk for metabolic disorders such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes."
Triglycerides are manufactured by the body from dietary fat and are the most common form of fat transported in blood. Although normal levels of triglycerides are essential for good health, high levels are associated with increased risk for atherosclerosis and other predictors of cardiovascular disease.
A hallucinogenic compound found in a plant indigenous to South America and used in shamanic rituals regulates a mysterious protein that is abundant throughout the body, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have discovered. The finding, reported in the Feb. 13 issue of Science, may ultimately have implications for treating drug abuse and/or depression. Many more experiments will be needed, the researchers say.
Scientists have been searching for years for naturally occurring compounds that trigger activity in the protein, the sigma-1 receptor. In addition, a unique receptor for the hallucinogen, called dimethyltryptamine (DMT), has never been identified.
Quebec scores sweet victory in battle against childhood obesity.
Fresh from taking down Igor the Gorilla for peddling cakes to preschoolers, Quebec consumer-protection advocates have set their sights on three snack-food kingpins: Ronald McDonald, the Burger King and Lucky the Leprechaun.
Saputo Inc., makers of Vachon snack cakes, yesterday pleaded guilty to 22 charges under a Quebec law -- unique in Canada-- that prohibits advertising at children younger than 13. The company was fined $44,000 for a 2007 campaign that involved distributing Igor cakes and merchandise in daycare centers.
Comment: For a more in depth look at how children are being bombarded by marketing messages read the work of psychologist Dr. Susan Linn,
Consuming Kids- The Hostile Takeover of Childhood. Dr. Linn takes a comprehensive and unsparing look at the demographic advertisers call "the kid market," taking readers on a compelling and disconcerting journey through modern childhood as envisioned by commercial interests. Children are now the focus of a marketing maelstrom, targets for everything from minivans to M&M counting books.
All aspects of children's lives - their health, education, creativity, and values - are at risk of being compromised by their status in the marketplace.
Dr. Linn also discusses 'Cradle to Grave' brand loyalty in the movie
The Corporation
A new study demonstrates that when gambling, almost winning promotes significant recruitment of win-related circuitry within the brain and enhances the motivation to gamble. The research, published by Cell Press in the February 12th issue of the journal Neuron, provides insight into why gambling is so attractive and may shed light on why some individuals develop a compulsion to gamble.
Despite the common saying amongst gamblers that "the house always wins," gambling remains a popular form of entertainment. Research has shown that near-misses (such as two cherries on the slot machine) and a sense of control over the game (such as the chance to throw the dice) promote gambling tendencies and may be associated with the addictiveness of gambling. However, little is known about the brain mechanisms involved.
The underlying sense of being in control of our own actions is challenged by new research from UCL (University College London) which demonstrates that the choices we make internally are weak and easily overridden compared to when we are told which choice to make.
The research, which is published in Cerebral Cortex, is one of the first neuroscientific studies to look at changing one's mind in situations where the initial decision was one's own 'free choice'. Free choices can be defined as actions occurring when external cues are largely absent - for example, deciding which dish to choose from a restaurant menu.
The researchers asked study participants to choose which of two buttons they would press in response to a subsequent signal, while their brain activity was recorded using EEG (electroencephalogram). Some choices were made freely by the volunteers and other choices were instructed by arrows on a screen in front of them. The volunteers' choices were occasionally interrupted by a symbol asking them to change their mind, after they had made their choice, but before they had actually pressed the button.
Conventional medical doctors around the world (and the drug companies that support them) want all children to be vaccinated against measles, mumps, HPV, chicken pox and literally over a hundred other diseases. Bill Gates even supports the effort to "eradicate" disease from our planet by vaccinating people in developing nations. It all sounds like a noble goal, but like any such effort, it is based on an assumption. Upon closer inspection, that assumption turns out to be nothing more than blatant quacksterism hidden behind the technical jargon of modern medicine.
What assumption am I referring to? The assumption that immune system intervention (vaccines) produces a better long-term result than immune system adaptation (allowing the person to conquer such infections on their own).
At first, it may seem like a no-brainer: Of course it's better to not get infected! Or, at least, that's the conclusion most doctors jump to without any real thought on the subject. In their minds, immune system intervention is obviously superior to immune system adaptation. And in fact they dismiss anyone who dares question this wisdom of modern vaccines. But is this assumption really true?
President Obama spurred a dramatic change in the way whites think about African-Americans before he had even set foot in the Oval Office, according to a new study.
Florida State University Psychology Professor E. Ashby Plant and University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Patricia Devine have documented a decrease in racial prejudice during the Fall 2008 period between the Democratic Party's nomination of Barack Obama and the Nov. 4 election. They call it the Obama Effect.
"The unprecedented drop in implicit bias observed in our studies indicates that the impact of Obama's historic campaign went beyond his winning the election," the researchers wrote in a paper outlining the study's results that has not yet been published. "It appears to have produced a fundamental change in at least the minds of the American public. Although the full impact of this historic election will play out over time, we are encouraged by the early returns."
Comment: Sounds like junk science!