Health & WellnessS

Cut

My aesthetician's boss is a raging psychopath

The Question

I recently went for a waxing, and on the morning of my appointment, my aesthetician called me and asked if she could change the time. No problem, I told her. She recently moved to a new salon downtown whose owner is, to put it kindly, a raging psychopathic witch who makes herself feel better by bullying and demeaning her staff. But once I got there, she told me the owner had yelled at her for 10 minutes after the call, shrieking the whole time that she was incompetent, stupid and inconsiderate to her client.

On my way out, the owner lit into my aesthetician again in front of me and several other clients, screaming at her and accusing her of undermining her and the business.

It only got uglier from there.

My aesthetician called me that evening to apologize and told me that she plans to leave at the end of the month.

I'd really love to have good triumph over evil, but what can I do?

Bulb

Miracle surgery lets the blind see

British doctors have carried out pioneering surgery to restore the eyesight of two blind patients.

Using the revolutionary procedure, they have given the men - both Britons - a "bionic eye" which enables them to see their families for the first time in years.

There are now real hopes that the breakthrough will pave the way for the treatment to become available for millions around the world within a few years.

Better Earth

US: North Carolina seeks to extend organic grains production

Two recent grants will support the organic grains program at North Carolina State University and provide education to promote the production of organic grain in the state, according to Chris Reberg-Horton, assistant professor of crop science and organic cropping specialist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

The organic grains program recently received $100,000 from Golden LEAF, a foundation dedicated to the long-term economic advancement of North Carolina, and $35,000 from Organic Valley, an organic dairy cooperative.

The funds will support education and North Carolina Cooperative Extension programs on organic grains.

Info

Most Lethal Melanomas Are On Scalp And Neck

People with scalp or neck melanomas die at nearly twice the rate of people with melanoma elsewhere on the body, including the face or ears, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found.

The analysis of 51,704 melanoma cases in the U.S. confirms that survival rates differ depending on where skin cancer first appears. Those with scalp or neck melanomas die at a rate 1.84 times higher than those with melanomas on the extremities, after controlling for the possible influences of age, gender, tumor thickness and ulceration.

Bulb

Brain reacts to fairness as it does to money and chocolate

The human brain responds to being treated fairly the same way it responds to winning money and eating chocolate, UCLA scientists report. Being treated fairly turns on the brain's reward circuitry.

"We may be hard-wired to treat fairness as a reward," said study co-author Matthew D. Lieberman, UCLA associate professor of psychology and a founder of social cognitive neuroscience.

"Receiving a fair offer activates the same brain circuitry as when we eat craved food, win money or see a beautiful face," said Golnaz Tabibnia, a postdoctoral scholar at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and lead author of the study, which appears in the April issue of the journal Psychological Science.

Syringe

Brain damage link to cancer drug

A drug widely used to treat cancer may cause brain damage, with the effects lasting for years after the end of treatment, research suggests.

The drug, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), is used, alongside others, to treat cancers of the breast, ovaries, colon, stomach, pancreas and bladder.

Tests on mice showed it destroys vital cells in the brain that help to keep nerves functioning properly.

Heart

Mass. General study shows how exercise changes structure and function of heart

For the first time researchers are beginning to understand exactly how various forms of exercise impact the heart. Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators, in collaboration with the Harvard University Health Services, have found that 90 days of vigorous athletic training produces significant changes in cardiac structure and function and that the type of change varies with the type of exercise performed. Their study appears in the April Journal of Applied Physiology.

"Most of what we know about cardiac changes in athletes and other physically active people comes from 'snapshots,' taken at one specific point in time. What we did in this first-of-a-kind study was to follow athletes over several months to determine how the training process actually causes change to occur," says Aaron Baggish, MD, a fellow in the MGH Cardiology Division and lead author of the study.

People

Low grades, bad behavior? Siblings may be to blame, FSU study says

We all know the story of a man named Brady and the group that somehow formed a family. But if the iconic '70s sitcom about a "blended" family reflected reality, the Brady Bunch likely would have been dealing with much more than silly sibling squabbles.

Here's the real story: On average, adolescents living with half- or stepsiblings have lower grades and more school-related behavior problems, and these problems may not improve over time, according to Florida State University Assistant Professor of Sociology Kathryn Harker Tillman.

"These findings imply that family formation patterns that bring together children who have different sets of biological parents may not be in the best interests of the children involved," Tillman said. "Yet one-half of all American stepfamilies include children from previous relationships of both partners, and the majority of parents in stepfamilies go on to have additional children together."

Many studies have focused on the structure of parent-child relations in connection to academic achievement, but Tillman's study is unique in that it focuses on the composition of the entire family unit. Tillman studied data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative study of more than 11,000 adolescents in grades 7 through 12 in the United States. Her study is published in the journal Social Science Research.

Bulb

Scientists identify novel way to prevent cardiac fibrosis

In a study that points to a new strategy for preventing or possibly reversing fibrosis - the scarring that can lead to organ and tissue damage - researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have determined that a molecule called Epac (Exchange protein activated by cAMP1), plays a key role in integrating the body's pro- and anti-fibrotic response. The research will be published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) the week of April 21.

Inflammation is the body's response to injury in tissues, prompting healing that leads to scars, whether on the skin, or in organs such as the heart, liver or lungs. Such scarring has beneficial properties, but there's also the risk of excessive scarring, or tissue fibrosis, that can lead to organ damage and loss of function.

The UC San Diego researchers looked at cardiac fibrosis, which can occur in patients who have suffered an infection of the heart muscle or a heart attack. Such fibrosis causes the heart to stiffen so that it cannot adequately fill with blood and then empty itself, a condition known as diastolic dysfunction.

Hourglass

Japan's hunger becomes a dire warning for other nations



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Food fears: Being a rich nation is no protection for Japan, which faces the fallout of relying too heavily on foreign food to supply domestic needs.

MARIKO Watanabe admits she could have chosen a better time to take up baking. This week, when the Tokyo housewife visited her local Ito-Yokado supermarket to buy butter to make a cake, she found the shelves bare.

"I went to another supermarket, and then another, and there was no butter at those either. Everywhere I went there were notices saying Japan has run out of butter. I couldn't believe it - this is the first time in my life I've wanted to try baking cakes and I can't get any butter," said the frustrated cook.