Health & WellnessS


Stop

A Boy the Bullies Love to Beat Up, Repeatedly

Dan Barry
The New York Times
Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:15 UTC


billy wolfe
©Angel Franco/The New York Times
Billy Wolfe, a target of bullies for years, at the school bus stop near his home in Fayetteville, Ark.

All lank and bone, the boy stands at the corner with his younger sister, waiting for the yellow bus that takes them to their respective schools. He is Billy Wolfe, high school sophomore, struggling.

Moments earlier he left the sanctuary that is his home, passing those framed photographs of himself as a carefree child, back when he was 5. And now he is at the bus stop, wearing a baseball cap, vulnerable at 15.
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Black Cat

When the Bully Sits in the Next Cubicle

Tara Parker Pope
The New York Times
Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:06 UTC


workplace bully
©Stuart Bradford

An eye roll, a glare, a dismissive snort - these are the tactics of the workplace bully. They don't sound like much, but that's why they are so insidious. How do you complain to human resources that your boss is picking on you? Who cares that a co-worker won't return your phone calls?
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Attention

Swimming in Chemicals


www.precaution.org
Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00 UTC
An Excerpt from 'Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products'

[Rachel's introduction: Mark Schapiro's new book reveals how the European Union is demanding that multinationals manufacture safer products, while products developed and sold in the United States are increasingly equated with serious health hazards, and are banned from Europe and other parts of the world.]

The following is an excerpt from investigative reporter Mark Schapiro's book, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power. Schapiro's book reveals how the European Union is demanding that multinationals manufacture safer products, while products developed and sold in the United States are increasingly equated with serious health hazards, and are banned from Europe and other parts of the world.
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Evil Rays

Up to 16 dust storms hit Cyprus every year with dire effects on the islanders' health


Cyprus Mail
Fri, 28 Mar 2008 07:52 UTC
Cardiovascular incidents in Cyprus rise by ten per cent during the increasingly frequent Saharan dust storms plaguing the island, a study by the Harvard Institute for Public Health revealed yesterday.

The study says however that the effects of the dust storms on health is much higher since the ten per cent increase in incidents only includes serious cases.
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Wine

What's the true cause of anger?

Dr Thomas Stuttaford
The Times Online
Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:19 UTC
Long before John Osborne wrote Look Back in Anger in 1956, young men were angered by being constrained by their class and education. Just as Philip Larkin's light-hearted conclusion that sexual intercourse "began in 1963, between the end of the Chatterley ban and the Beatles' first LP" drew attention to the Sixties sexual revolution, so did Osborne's angry young men merely emphasise the influence of social conditions and restrictions on hostility, anger and even hate.

angry man
©Unknown

Comment: The question is, who will decide on which type of anger is the righteous one, thus deserving to be "excused", and which will be labeled as "symptom of psychological or psychiatric troubles"?

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Red Flag

FDA Probes Merck Drug, Possible Suicides

Mathew Perrone
Associated Press
Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:33 UTC
WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it is investigating a possible link between Merck's best-selling Singulair and suicide. FDA said it is reviewing a handful of reports involving mood changes, suicidal behavior and suicide in patients who have taken the popular allergy and asthma drug.
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Health

California: Doctor Spots, Treats Mysterious Illness In Child Patient


NBC
Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:18 UTC
Experts said Wednesday that research continues toward an illness that resembles common childhood conditions -- but can be deadly if not spotted in time.

Symptoms of the ailment, called Kawasaki Disease, include high fever, rash, swelling of the hands and feet, reddening of the eyes, and swollen lymph nodes, experts said.

According to experts, if treatment isn't started within 10 days, permanent damage to the heart -- or even death -- can occur. Its cause is unknown.
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Health

Sri Lanka: Four die of mysterious disease

Rohana Chandradasa
Daily Mirror
Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:05 UTC
Four persons have died last week at the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital due to an unidentified disease, doctors said.

Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) of the Anuradhapura hospital Dr. Ajith Jayasena told the Daily Mirror that investigations are underway by the hospital authorities to ascertain whether this was an infectious viral disease.
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Coffee

Brain's 'sixth sense' for calories discovered


Cell Press
Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:46 UTC
The brain can sense the calories in food, independent of the taste mechanism, researchers have found in studies with mice. Their finding that the brain's reward system is switched on by this "sixth sense" machinery could have implications for understanding the causes of obesity. For example, the findings suggest why high-fructose corn syrup, widely used as a sweetener in foods, might contribute to obesity.

Ivan de Araujo and colleagues published their findings in the March 27, 2008, issue of the journal Neuron, published by Cell Press.

In their experiments, the researchers genetically altered mice to make them "sweet-blind," lacking a key component of taste receptor cells that enabled them to detect the sweet taste.
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Bulb

Study Shows the Upside of Anger


Association for Psychological Science
Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:41 UTC
Here's a maxim from the "duh" department: People typically prefer to feel emotions that are pleasant, like excitement, and avoid those that are unpleasant, like anger.

But a new study appearing in the April issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, says this may not always be the case. Psychologists Maya Tamir and Christopher Mitchell of Boston College, and James Gross of Stanford University tested whether people prefer to experience emotions that are potentially useful, even when they are unpleasant to experience.
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