Health & WellnessS


Health

How the Autistic Brain Distinguishes Oneself from Others


Science Daily
Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:11 UTC
Scientists at the University of Cambridge have discovered that the brains of individuals with autism are less active when engaged in self-reflective thought. The study published in the journal Brain provides new evidence for the neural correlates of self-awareness and a new window into understanding social difficulties in autism spectrum conditions.

In the new study, Michael Lombardo, Professor Simon Baron-Cohen and colleagues from the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge used functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) imaging to measure brain activity of 66 male volunteers, half of whom have a diagnosis of an autism spectrum condition.

Lombardo asked the volunteers to make judgments either about their own thoughts, opinions, preferences, or physical characteristics, or about someone else's, in this case the Queen. By scanning the volunteers' brains as they responded to these questions, the researchers were able to visualise differences in brain activity between those with and without autism.

They were particularly interested in part of the brain called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC), known to be active when people think about themselves. "This area is like a self-relevance detector, since it typically responds most to information that is self-relevant," Lombardo says.
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Green Light

Adequate Sleep Tied to Healthier Diets in Truckers

Joene Hendry
Reuters
Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:45 UTC
Getting plenty of sleep not only helps keep truck drivers safe and alert on the road, it also seems to fuel healthy eating habits, new research hints.

In surveys of truckers working at U.S. trucking terminals, those who felt they regularly got adequate sleep tended to consume more fruits and vegetables and fewer sugary drinks and snacks, Dr. Orfeu M. Buxton, at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues found.

These real-world findings are consistent with laboratory studies showing that insufficient sleep increases hunger and "induces greater eating, especially unnecessary snacking," Buxton noted in an email to Reuters Health.
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Arrow Up

Study: Antioxidants May Boost Colon Health

Stephen Daniells
NutraIngredients.com
Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:37 UTC
Selenium-based antioxidant supplements may prevent the development of new colon polyps in people with a history of polyp formation, says a new study.

Over 400 people participated in the study, which saw them receive either placebo or a antioxidant-rich supplement containing selenomethionnine, zinc, and vitamins A, C, and E. At the end of the study people in the antioxidant group experienced a 40 per cent reduction in the incidence of new polyps of the large bowel.

"Our study is the first intervention trial specifically designed to evaluate the efficacy of the selenium-based antioxidant compound on the risk of developing metachronous adenomas," said lead researcher Luigina Bonelli, MD, from Italy's National Institute for Cancer Research in Genoa.
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Sun

Can Delicious Crepes Create a Buckwheat Revival?

April McGreger
Grist
Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:17 UTC
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© April McGregerJust add Paris: buckwheat crepes in their glory.
My love for buckwheat first blossomed in the Soba-ya shops of Japan. Years later, that love was rekindled on the sidewalks of Paris eating Galletes de Sarrasin, or Breton-style savory buckwheat crepes, washed down with hard apple cider in stoneware cups. I found the deep, pleasantly bitter, and earthy flavor of buckwheat satisfying and nourishing. The soba noodles were delicate and wholesome; the crepes were lacy yet substantial.

Buckwheat is a curious and misunderstood food. It's not a grain, but is treated like one. It's actually a shrub, related to rhubarb, and its seeds or kernels are what get ground into flour. Buckwheat has been a traditional food around the world, particularly in regions with short growing seasons and poor soil. Eastern Europeans eat a porridge of toasted buckwheat kernels, or groats, known as kasha. In the mountainous region of Lombardy, Italy, a buckwheat pasta, known as pizzoccheri, is a traditional winter fare. They toss it with butter, cabbage, cheese, garlic, and sage.

Buckwheat has a lot going for it: It offers dynamic flavor, contains no gluten, has as much as four times the fiber of whole wheat flour, and is a complete protein. I figured it was time buckwheat got its culinary due stateside.

Comment: For more information about Buckwheat and a crepe recipe read the thread on the Forum Buckwheat - A Super Food!

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Pills

GAO: FDA Yet to Make Safety Changes Post-Vioxx

Matthew Perrone
The Associated Press
Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:24 UTC
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Washington - The Food and Drug Administration still hasn't restructured its staff to better monitor drug safety, more than three years after experts recommended key changes in the wake of the Vioxx scandal.

That's according to congressional investigators who found that the FDA has yet to follow through on changes suggested in 2006 to help the agency detect problems with drugs taken by millions of Americans. Those recommendations came after the embarrassing and dangerous episode with Vioxx, a blockbuster pain drug the FDA approved in 1999, only to pull from the market in 2004 after linking it to heart attack and stroke.

Agency officials have made some changes to drug oversight, according to a Government Accountability Office report, but the FDA continues to give the bulk of its decision-making power to scientists who approve new drugs, rather than those who monitor the side effects of drugs on the market.
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Magnify

Heavy Snoring Linked to Diabetes


Press TV
Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:43 UTC
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© Unknown
Frequent snorers are reported to be at an increased risk of developing diabetes compared to those who sleep silently at night, a new study finds.

A previous study had reported that expectant mothers who are heavy snorers are more likely to develop gestational diabetes - a condition associated with various health problems in both the mother and baby.

According to the study conducted at Yale University, heavy snorers are 50 percent more likely to develop diabetes and the increased severity of snoring is associated with a raised risk of the condition.

"Sleep apnea is significantly associated with the risk of type 2 diabetes, independently of other risk factors such as age, race, sex or weight," scientists reported.
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Magnify

Full Moon Brings Out Inner "Werewolf"

Renee Viellaris
Courier Mail
Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:25 UTC
Some people are more violent and exhibit ''werewolf'' tendencies during a full moon, a study published in the respected Australia Medical Journal reveals.

The findings of the 11-month research at the Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital could force police and other emergency services to shake-up how and when they deploy staff.

Many in the industry have already claimed for years there is a direct link between a full moon and more violent episodes, however, many police have disregarded anecdotal evidence as only a coincidence.

The hospital's clinical research nurse in toxicology Leonie Calver said the study centred on 91 patients who attended the emergency department, displaying ''violent and acute behavioral disturbance'' between August 2008 and July 2009.
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Wolf

Poor Children Likelier to Get Antipsychotics

Duff Wilson
New York Times
Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:07 UTC
New federally financed drug research reveals a stark disparity: children covered by Medicaid are given powerful antipsychotic medicines at a rate four times higher than children whose parents have private insurance. And the Medicaid children are more likely to receive the drugs for less severe conditions than their middle-class counterparts, the data shows.

Those findings, by a team from Rutgers and Columbia, are almost certain to add fuel to a long-running debate. Do too many children from poor families receive powerful psychiatric drugs not because they actually need them - but because it is deemed the most efficient and cost-effective way to control problems that may be handled much differently for middle-class children?

The questions go beyond the psychological impact on Medicaid children, serious as that may be. Antipsychotic drugs can also have severe physical side effects, causing drastic weight gain and metabolic changes resulting in lifelong physical problems.
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Attention

Study Finds Hundreds of Pollutants in Nation's Tap Water


Environmental Working Group
Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:19 UTC
Tap water in many large metropolitan areas is polluted with a cocktail of chemical contaminants. These pollutants usually don't violate any legal standards, but they often come in potentially toxic combinations that raise serious questions about the long-term safety of drinking the water. Pensacola, Fla.; Riverside, Calif.; and Las Vegas top the list of major cities with the most contaminated tap water.

In an unprecedented analysis of 20 million tap water quality tests performed by water utilities between 2004 and 2009, Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that water suppliers detected a total of 316 contaminants in water delivered to the public. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set enforceable standards for only 114 of these pollutants.

Another 202 chemicals with no mandatory safety standards were found in water supplied to approximately 132 million people in 9,454 communities across the country. These "unregulated" chemicals include the toxic rocket fuel component perchlorate, the industrial solvent acetone, the weed killer metolachlor, the refrigerant Freon and radon, a highly radioactive gas.
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Magnify

Western Diet Triggers Genes that Cause the Body to Store More Fat

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:00 UTC
New research published in The Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) has found that the "Western" diet, typically high in sugar and fat, may be responsible for activating genes that signal the body to become fatter. According to scientists, the body's response to high amounts of energy-dense food is to activate the kappa opioid receptor which triggers increased fat storage.

Researchers arrived at this conclusion by conducting an experiment on two groups of mice. One group had its kappa opioid receptors genetically deactivated while the other remained intact. Both groups were fed diets high in fat and sugar for 16 weeks. At the end of 16 weeks, the group with the deactivated receptor remained lean while the control group gained significant weight.

Besides limiting their bodies' ability to store energy-dense food in their fat stores, the mice whose receptors had been deactivated were noted to also have a limited ability to assimilate and store nutrients from the foods they ingested.
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