Liquid H2O is the sine qua non of life. Making up about 66 percent of the human body, water runs through the blood, inhabits the cells, and lurks in the spaces between. At every moment water escapes the body through sweat, urination, defecation or exhaled breath, among other routes. Replacing these lost stores is essential but rehydration can be overdone. There is such a thing as a fatal water overdose.
Earlier this year, a 28-year-old California woman died after competing in a radio station's on-air water-drinking contest. After downing some six liters of water in three hours in the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" (Nintendo game console) contest, Jennifer Strange vomited, went home with a splitting headache, and died from so-called water intoxication.
Researchers tracing the development of violent behavior have found a link between teenage violence and domestic violence.
Adolescents who engaged in violent behavior at a relatively steady rate through their teenage years and those whose violence began in their mid teens and increased over the years are significantly more likely to engage in domestic violence in their mid 20s than other young adults, according to a new University of Washington study.
"Most people think youth violence and domestic violence are separate problems, but this study shows that they are intertwined," said Todd Herrenkohl, lead author of the study and a UW associate professor of social work.
The study also found no independent link between an individual's use of alcohol or drugs and committing domestic violence. In addition it showed that nearly twice as many women as men said they perpetrated domestic violence in the past year including kicking, biting or punching their partner, threatening to hit or throw something at their partner, and pushing, grabbing or shoving their partner.
Data from the study came from the on-going Seattle Social Development Project which has been tracing youth development and the social and antisocial behavior of more than 800 participants. It began when they were in the fifth grade and continues to follow them into adulthood.
UPENNMon, 25 Jun 2007 17:59 UTC
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania say that practicing even small doses of daily meditation may improve focus and performance.
Meditation, according to Penn neuroscientist Amishi Jha and Michael Baime, director of Penn's Stress Management Program, is an active and effortful process that literally changes the way the brain works. Their study is the first to examine how meditation may modify the three subcomponents of attention, including the ability to prioritize and manage tasks and goals, the ability to voluntarily focus on specific information and the ability to stay alert to the environment.
In the Penn study, subjects were split into two categories. Those new to meditation, or "mindfulness training," took part in an eight-week course that included up to 30 minutes of daily meditation. The second group was more experienced with meditation and attended an intensive full-time, one-month retreat.
The number of foreign workers sickened by food poisoning at the construction of a new terminal at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport has risen to 433, a food safety watchdog spokesperson said Monday.
The mass food poisoning hit the Turkish construction company Enka's summer camp near Moscow last week. Local food safety officials said earlier that all patients, mainly nationals of Georgia, Uzbekistan and other former Soviet states, had been diagnosed with salmonella infection.
"Three hundred and seventeen people are in hospital in [nearby] Solnechnogorsk, and another 116 are being treated at the Morozovka holiday center, where they have been accommodated," Olga Gavrilenko said.
Gavrilenko said all the patients were receiving appropriate treatment and food, and that none of them had been released from hospital yet.
Official statistics say there are some 30,000 registered drug addicts in Moscow, while experts suggest there may be as many as 1.5 million, the director of a Moscow drug research center said Monday.
"In 2006 22,300 Muscovites were receiving regular medical check ups, and another 7,000 were undergoing preventive treatment," Yevgeny Bryun said.
The official said the number of registered drug addicts in the city, which has a population of 11 million, had increased tenfold since 1991.
"The situation is getting worse, and I don't know what the results for 2007 will be," Bryun said.
CAIRO, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Egypt Health Ministry on Saturday confirmed that a new bird flu case was detected in the upper Egypt, which became the 37th case of human bird flu in the country.
Last week in hundreds of written news articles, television segments and talk radio shows we heard that all the "scientific evidence" supports the claim that thimerosal does not cause autism. This week that evidence will finally be presented. Now, will anyone from the mainstream media be paying attention?
Thousands of people who take prescription medicines for everyday conditions are gaining large amounts of weight as an unexpected side effect, scientists have warned.
Researchers, who found that some patients were putting on up to 22lbs in a year, say that the drugs may even be contributing to the nation's rocketing obesity epidemic.
Struggling to give up the drink? Gene therapy might be the answer. Rats bred to crave alcohol will drink 50 per cent less for more than a month after being injected with viruses engineered to disrupt the gene for a key enzyme involved in alcohol metabolism.
Many people in east Asia react badly to alcohol because of mutations in the gene for aldehyde dehydrogenase. But these mutations also reduce the risk of succumbing to alcoholism by two-thirds or more.
The trichinellosis epidemic, caused by infected sausage, is spreading in the city of Szczechin, northwestern Poland, said in a provincial deputy veterinarian doctor in Szczecin.
The number of people, afflicted by the disease, has topped 180, with nearly 70 of them are being hospitalised. Medics assess the state of most of them as "moderate to serious".
