Health & WellnessS


Health

Understanding The Cycle Of Violence


Science Daily
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:20 UTC
Researchers have long known that children who grow up in an aggressive or violent household are more likely to become violent or aggressive in future relationships. What has not been so clear is the developmental link between witnessing aggressive behavior as a child and carrying it out as an adult. What changes occur in a child that affect whether he or she will choose to deal with conflict in aggressive or violent ways?
Image
© Indiana UniversityWhat kids see: Understanding the cycle of violence.

According to researchers from Indiana University's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, children who grow up in aggressive households may learn to process social information differently than their peers who grow up in non-aggressive environments.

"Children with high-conflict parents are more likely to think that aggressive responses would be good ways to handle social conflicts," said John Bates, a professor of psychology in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and a co-author of the study.

"This partly explains why they are more likely as young adults to have conflict in their own romantic relationships." Unlocking the developmental link between growing up in an aggressive or violent household and becoming the perpetrator of such behavior could prove useful for stopping the cycle of violence. According to Amy Holtzworth-Munroe, professor of psychology in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and another co-author of the study, this research has implications for treatment and prevention.
Read More...
Attention

Woman Declared Dead, Still Breathing in Morgue


Fox News
Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:35 UTC
Judith Johnson went to the Beebe Medical Center in Lewes, Delaware for what she thought was a bad case of indigestion. An hour after being admitted, the hospital told Johnson's husband his wife was dead, Wilmington's News Journal reported Tuesday.

When someone at the morgue noticed Johnson's "corpse" was still breathing, Louis Johnson learned his wife was very much alive.
Read More...
Popcorn

Common fibre a 'true superfood'


BBC News
Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:47 UTC
A fibre found in most fruit and vegetables may help ward off cancer, experts believe. An ongoing study by the Institute of Food Research suggested pectin, a fibre found in everything from potato to plums, helped to fight the disease.
Read More...
People

Race and the Brain

Jeffrey Kluger
Time
Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:43 UTC
The human brain is surely the most sophisticated data-processing machine in the world, except when it's not. In fact, in some ways our brains can be flat-out crude--like when they're dealing with matters of race.

Like all other animals, our species emerged in a world where there was critical value in distinguishing between members of your own tribe--who nurture you and protect you--and members of other tribes, who see you as a competitor for food and mates. Your very survival can turn on making this distinction quickly and reliably; as a result, the primal wiring that makes such discrimination possible is not very easy to disconnect. And in a culture like ours, in which race is an issue we grapple with nearly every day, the impulse may have heightened over time.

Comment: This article fails to mention the 'snake charmers', those pathological individuals in positions of power who can brainwash large numbers of population in the name of this or that ideology, and instill or encourage racism. Take Sarah Palin as a recent example.

Read More...
Light Sabers

Risk and reward compete in brain


University of Southern California
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:02 UTC
That familiar pull between the promise of victory and the dread of defeat - whether in money, love or sport - is rooted in the brain's architecture, according to a new imaging study.

Neuroscientists at the USC Brain and Creativity Institute have identified distinct brain regions with competing responses to risk.

Both regions are located in the prefrontal cortex, an area behind the forehead involved in analysis and planning.
Read More...
Family

Pregnancy not turning minds to mush: Study


Research Australia
Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:57 UTC
Pregnancy and motherhood may make us all go a little gooey, but it's not turning mums' brains into mush, according to mental health researchers at The Australian National University.

The study - conducted by the Centre for Mental Health Research (CMHR) at ANU - suggests that despite fears mothers may have that pregnancy affects their cognitive functions, there is no evidence to suggest that is true. The findings have been released as part of Mental Health Week, which runs until tomorrow (Saturday).

The research team, lead by CMHR Director Professor Helen Christensen, analysed information from the PATH through Life Project database and found that neither pregnancy nor motherhood had a detrimental effect on cognitive capacity.
Read More...
Evil Rays

LSD cured my headache

Arran Frood
The Independent
Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:57 UTC
Headache
© AlamyIllustration of intense headache pain and possible sources vascular temporomandibular joint TMJ syndrome and the brain itself CT scans in the background convey clinical diagnosis often involved in treatment of patients suffering from migraine type symptoms
This is the story of a man known online as Flash - a man driven to the brink of suicide by the debilitating effects of cluster headaches. After years of ineffectual treatments, Flash stumbled on what he declared was a new treatment, as controversial as it was, he claimed, effective: hallucinogenic drugs.

Flash was ridiculed by the cluster headache community for his "miracle cure". But when a survey of fellow sufferers who self-medicated with hallucinogens was published in the mainstream journal Neurology, the results gave weight to his claims. The Harvard Medical School scientists who conducted the survey have now applied for a preliminary clinical trial on the subject.
Read More...
Igloo

How to beat the common cold

Ron Eccles
The Independent
Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:51 UTC
The sneezing season is already upon us - but a little inside knowledge can reduce our chances of being laid low. Professor Ron Eccles explains how to fend off the winter chills.
Read More...
Bulb

Intelligent men have healthier sperm, study claims


The Daily News
Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:43 UTC
It's often been said that men don't think with their brains and now scientists have proved what women thought all along - that a man's sperm quality turns out to be an indicator of his brain power.

Researchers have discovered that men who scored highly in a variety of intelligence tests also had high counts of healthy sperm.

But low scores in intelligence tests showed that men had fewer sperm and that they weren't so healthy.

Evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller, from the University of New Mexico, said: 'It's not necessarily that the same genes are influencing sperm quality and intelligence.
Read More...
Saturn

Space food tackles bowel disease

Matthew Hill
BBC News
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:07 UTC
Doctors are examining if food given to astronauts can provide long-term help to children with Crohn's disease. The food is easier to digest because it contains treated amino acids, which can normally be difficult for the body to process. It has been found to have short-term benefits for patients with the digestive system disorder, but experts want to look at whether they continue.
Read More...