Health & WellnessS

Evil Rays

Flashback Mobile phone company to remove mobile mast where cancer rate has soared


Daily Mail
Tue, 07 Aug 2007 15:41 UTC
A mobile phone company is to remove a mast from a block of flats after seven residents were struck down by cancer.

Three have died and another four have battled the disease since two masts were erected on the roof of the five-storey block which has become known locally as the Tower of Doom.

©SWNS
The mast (circled) on the block known to locals as the Tower of Doom.

The cancer rate on the top floor - where residents of five of the eight flats have been affected and the three who died all lived - is 20 per cent, ten times the national average.
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Question

Mystery illness kills 68 in central DR Congo


AFP
Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:19 UTC
Some 68 people have died from a mystery illness over the course of nearly four months in central Democratic Republic of Congo, local authorities said Wednesday.

A total of 212 cases have been detected in Western Kasai province, said Fortunat Tumba Tshitoka, the provincial health minister.
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Magic Wand

Study suggests we remember the bad times better than the good


Association for Psychological Science
Wed, 29 Aug 2007 06:19 UTC
Do you remember exactly where you were when you learned of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks? Your answer is probably yes, and researchers are beginning to understand why we remember events that carry negative emotional weight.

In the August issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, Boston College psychologist, Elizabeth Kensinger and colleagues, explain when emotion is likely to reduce our memory inconsistencies.
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Info

Mothers' baby cradling habits are indicator of stress, suggests new research


Durham University
Wed, 29 Aug 2007 06:09 UTC
Mothers who cradle their baby to their right hand side are displaying signs of extreme stress, a new study suggests.

Although most mums feel stressed in the early stages of their baby's life, the study by Durham University researchers suggests their baby cradling habits are a key indicator of whether this stress could become overwhelming and lead to depression.

Previous research has already shown that the majority of mothers prefer to cradle their baby to their left regardless of whether they are left or right handed.

As at least one in ten women develop post-natal depression, studying non-verbal cues such as baby cradling could potentially help doctors and health visitors identify which mothers are in need of extra professional support before it gets too late.

Experts say that stress in mums can lead to depression which can have a detrimental effect on their baby's mental development and wellbeing.
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Bomb

Manto fails to make the grade

Belinda beresford
Mail and Guardian Online
Tue, 28 Aug 2007 22:20 UTC
The African National Congress (ANC) came out in defence of embattled Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang this week, reiterating its confidence in her ability to "implement the policies of the ANC-led government in working to achieve better health for all".
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Bomb

On the Right, Public Healthcare for Children is a Socialist Plot

Paul Krugman
Alternet
Mon, 27 Aug 2007 19:22 UTC
Conservative opposition to giving every child in this country access to health care is, in a fundamental sense, un-American.

Comment: Take care:

©National Geographic

More on this one here.

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Bulb

End Fluoridation, Say Over 500 Physicians, Dentists, Scientists And Environmentalists


Dentistry News
Fri, 10 Aug 2007 19:16 UTC
In a statement released recently, over 600 professionals are urging Congress to stop water fluoridation until Congressional hearings are conducted. They cite new scientific evidence that fluoridation, long promoted to fight tooth decay, is ineffective and has serious health risks.
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Bomb

Can Diet Help Stop Depression and Violence?

Jurriaan Kamp
Alternet
Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:18 UTC
New research suggests that certain supplements and foods can help curb prison violence and increase academic performance in troubled students. Yet the effect of nutrition on psychological health and behavior is still controversial.

©n/a
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Ambulance

The Certainty Bias

Jonah Lehrer
The Frontal Cortex
Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:06 UTC
With less information to go on, the players exhibited substantially more activity in the amygdala and in the orbitofrontal cortex, which is believed to modulate activity in the amygdala. In other words, we filled in the gaps of our knowledge with fear. This fear creates our bias for certainty, since we always try to minimize our feelings of fear. As a result, we pretend that we have better intelligence about Iraqi WMD than we actually do; we selectively interpret the facts until the uncertainty is removed.
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Heart

Moral judgment fails without feelings

Carl Marziali
University of Southern California
Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:03 UTC
Neuroscientists from Harvard, USC and Caltech trace abnormal moral choices to damaged emotional circuits

Consider the following scenario: someone you know has AIDS and plans to infect others, some of whom will die. Your only options are to let it happen or to kill the person.

Do you pull the trigger?

Most people waver or say they could not, even if they agree that in theory they should. But according to a new study in the journal Nature, subjects with damage to a part of the frontal lobe make a less personal calculation.

The logical choice, they say, is to sacrifice one life to save many.
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