SOTT
SIGNS
OF THE
TIMES
OF THE
TIMES
Welcome to Sott.net
The World for People who Think
Health & WellnessS
"Californication" star David Duchovny made headlines for voluntarily entering rehab last week. But it wasn't for drugs or alcohol. It was for another dependency, one that affects millions of Americans but is seldom discussed: sex addiction.
Research engineers and sleep medicine specialists from two Michigan universities have joined technical and clinical hands to put innovative quantitative analysis, signal-processing technology and computer algorithms to work in the sleep lab. One of their recent findings is that a new approach to analyzing sleep fragmentation appears to distinguish fibromyalgia patients from healthy controls.
Joseph W. Burns, a research scientist and engineer at the Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI); Ronald D. Chervin, director of the University of Michigan's Michael S. Aldrich Sleep Disorders Laboratory; and Leslie Crofford, director of the Center for the Advancement of Women's Health at the University of Kentucky, report the results of their study in the current issue of the journal Sleep Medicine.
MTRI, a freestanding research institute acquired by Michigan Tech in 2006 and based in Ann Arbor, specializes in remote sensors that collect data, and in signal processing, using algorithms or computer programs to analyze and correlate the information the sensors gather. MTRI has developed an ongoing collaboration with the University of Michigan's sleep laboratory, one of the nation's leading clinical and research centers specializing in sleep medicine.
Joseph W. Burns, a research scientist and engineer at the Michigan Tech Research Institute (MTRI); Ronald D. Chervin, director of the University of Michigan's Michael S. Aldrich Sleep Disorders Laboratory; and Leslie Crofford, director of the Center for the Advancement of Women's Health at the University of Kentucky, report the results of their study in the current issue of the journal Sleep Medicine.
MTRI, a freestanding research institute acquired by Michigan Tech in 2006 and based in Ann Arbor, specializes in remote sensors that collect data, and in signal processing, using algorithms or computer programs to analyze and correlate the information the sensors gather. MTRI has developed an ongoing collaboration with the University of Michigan's sleep laboratory, one of the nation's leading clinical and research centers specializing in sleep medicine.
Colonies of hospital superbugs can make poisons similar to those found in rattlesnake venom to attack our bodies' natural defences, scientists heard September 8, 2008 at the Society for General Microbiology's Autumn meeting being held at Trinity College, Dublin.
The toxins are manufactured by communities of the hospital superbug Pseudomonas aeruginosa called biofilms, which are up to a thousand times more resistant to antibiotics than free-floating single bacterial cells.
"This is the first time that anyone has successfully proved that the way the bacteria grow - either as a biofilm, or living as individuals - affects the type of proteins they can secrete, and therefore how dangerous they can potentially be to our health," says Dr Martin Welch from the University of Cambridge, UK.
"Acute diseases caused by bacteria can advance at an astonishing rate and tests have associated these types of disease with free-floating bacteria. Such free-floating bugs often secrete tissue-damaging poisons and enzymes to break down our cells, contributing to the way the disease develops, so it is natural to blame them. By contrast, chronic or long-term infections seem to be associated with biofilms, which were thought to be much less aggressive," says Dr Welch.
The toxins are manufactured by communities of the hospital superbug Pseudomonas aeruginosa called biofilms, which are up to a thousand times more resistant to antibiotics than free-floating single bacterial cells.
"This is the first time that anyone has successfully proved that the way the bacteria grow - either as a biofilm, or living as individuals - affects the type of proteins they can secrete, and therefore how dangerous they can potentially be to our health," says Dr Martin Welch from the University of Cambridge, UK.
"Acute diseases caused by bacteria can advance at an astonishing rate and tests have associated these types of disease with free-floating bacteria. Such free-floating bugs often secrete tissue-damaging poisons and enzymes to break down our cells, contributing to the way the disease develops, so it is natural to blame them. By contrast, chronic or long-term infections seem to be associated with biofilms, which were thought to be much less aggressive," says Dr Welch.
Tampa, FL - Social psychology is the study of how people and groups interact. A new study in the journal International Studies Review shows how social psychology can help us better understand the puzzle of nuclear restraint and uses the case of Japan to illustrate social psychology on nuclear decision-making.
Human arteries play distinct roles in the immune system depending on their anatomical location, researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have discovered.
Their findings explain why vascular diseases affect different parts of the arterial network and could help doctors fine-tune the treatment of such diseases as atherosclerosis and vasculitis. Atherosclerosis causes heart attacks and strokes because it occurs preferentially in arteries supplying the heart and the brain.
Arteries can play an active role in sensing foreign invasion and bodily injury, because cells embedded in the arterial walls called dendritic cells act like smoke-sensing fire alarms for the immune system, says senior author Cornelia Weyand, MD. PhD, co-director of the Kathleen B. and Mason I. Lowance Center for Human Immunology at Emory University.
"All of our major arteries have this alarm system," she says. "To our surprise, we found that the arteries of the neck, the arms, the abdomen and the legs are triggered by different infectious organisms. Thus, each artery functions in a specialized way."
Their findings explain why vascular diseases affect different parts of the arterial network and could help doctors fine-tune the treatment of such diseases as atherosclerosis and vasculitis. Atherosclerosis causes heart attacks and strokes because it occurs preferentially in arteries supplying the heart and the brain.
Arteries can play an active role in sensing foreign invasion and bodily injury, because cells embedded in the arterial walls called dendritic cells act like smoke-sensing fire alarms for the immune system, says senior author Cornelia Weyand, MD. PhD, co-director of the Kathleen B. and Mason I. Lowance Center for Human Immunology at Emory University.
"All of our major arteries have this alarm system," she says. "To our surprise, we found that the arteries of the neck, the arms, the abdomen and the legs are triggered by different infectious organisms. Thus, each artery functions in a specialized way."
On what evidence can the fluoridation of Bolton's water supplies be justified?
For half a century assurances from the US Public Health Service that water fluoridation was safe have rested on the results of the 1945 Newburgh-Kingston Fluoride-Caries Trial, in which the health of children from the fluoridated town of Newburgh, New York, were compared for 10 years with children from neighbouring non-fluoridated Kingston.
Dr Harold Hodge had assured local citizens that the experiment had proved fluoridation safe and he urged it upon the entire country. He told Congress in 1954: "Health hazards do not justify postponing water fluoridation". And, in 1963, Dr Hodge sang the praises of Newburgh's dental health before the Supreme Court in Dublin, prescribing compulsory fluoridation for both children and adults in Ireland. This country recently reduced the recommended dosage of 4ppm to 0.7ppm, with no official explanation for the reduction.
For half a century assurances from the US Public Health Service that water fluoridation was safe have rested on the results of the 1945 Newburgh-Kingston Fluoride-Caries Trial, in which the health of children from the fluoridated town of Newburgh, New York, were compared for 10 years with children from neighbouring non-fluoridated Kingston.
Dr Harold Hodge had assured local citizens that the experiment had proved fluoridation safe and he urged it upon the entire country. He told Congress in 1954: "Health hazards do not justify postponing water fluoridation". And, in 1963, Dr Hodge sang the praises of Newburgh's dental health before the Supreme Court in Dublin, prescribing compulsory fluoridation for both children and adults in Ireland. This country recently reduced the recommended dosage of 4ppm to 0.7ppm, with no official explanation for the reduction.
Kathy Sinnott, MEP for Ireland South and Member of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee, and Dr Vyvyan Howard recently met with the European Commission's Public Health and Consumer Protection directorate on the dangers to human health posed by water fluoridation in Ireland.
Dr. Howard, of the University of Ulster, is a fetal toxicologist studying the effects of toxins on the health and development of babies before birth. He pointed out that we are compromising human health from conception by adding fluoride to drinking water. Toxic fluoride compounds are known to affect many other parts of the body including bones, teeth, thyroid as well as the developing brain. The excuse that it helps teeth should be questioned when nearly four in ten Irish teenagers have dental fluorosis -- permanent damage to the tooth enamel -- and this is three times that of their counterparts in unfluoridated Northern Ireland.
Dr. Howard, of the University of Ulster, is a fetal toxicologist studying the effects of toxins on the health and development of babies before birth. He pointed out that we are compromising human health from conception by adding fluoride to drinking water. Toxic fluoride compounds are known to affect many other parts of the body including bones, teeth, thyroid as well as the developing brain. The excuse that it helps teeth should be questioned when nearly four in ten Irish teenagers have dental fluorosis -- permanent damage to the tooth enamel -- and this is three times that of their counterparts in unfluoridated Northern Ireland.
Lingering depression is a serious and common problem in bipolar disorder, and does not resolve well with existing treatments.
Because individuals with both depression and bipolar disorder experience a glutathione deficiency, an antioxidant that protects cells from toxins, researchers in a new study scheduled for publication in the September 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry sought to evaluate whether N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), an over-the-counter supplement that increases brain glutathione, might help alleviate depressive symptoms.
Dr. Michael Berk and colleagues, in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, evaluated the mood symptoms of individuals with bipolar disorder, half of whom received placebo and half of whom received NAC, as an add-on therapy to their usual treatment.
Because individuals with both depression and bipolar disorder experience a glutathione deficiency, an antioxidant that protects cells from toxins, researchers in a new study scheduled for publication in the September 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry sought to evaluate whether N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), an over-the-counter supplement that increases brain glutathione, might help alleviate depressive symptoms.
Dr. Michael Berk and colleagues, in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, evaluated the mood symptoms of individuals with bipolar disorder, half of whom received placebo and half of whom received NAC, as an add-on therapy to their usual treatment.
Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy in Gothenburg show for the first time that exercise helps restore stem cell growth and improves behavior in young mice that suffered damage to the brain induced by a clinically relevant dose of radiation.
The researchers believe that these results are also applicable to children that have suffered damage due to radiotherapy of brain tumors.
Children that receive radiation treatment for brain tumors often develop learning and memory problems later in life that may be associated with attention deficits. These symptoms have been linked to radiation-induced damage, which not only kills cancer cells, but also stem cells that reside in the hippocampus, a region essential for proper memory function.
The researchers believe that these results are also applicable to children that have suffered damage due to radiotherapy of brain tumors.
Children that receive radiation treatment for brain tumors often develop learning and memory problems later in life that may be associated with attention deficits. These symptoms have been linked to radiation-induced damage, which not only kills cancer cells, but also stem cells that reside in the hippocampus, a region essential for proper memory function.
A fire retardant chemical used in electronics, toys and furniture has been detected in children's blood at triple the levels found in their mothers, the Environmental Working Group reported on Thursday.
In a small pilot study of 20 families, the non-profit environmental group tested blood samples from mothers and their young children -- ages 18 months to four years -- for the presence of PBDEs, a hormone-disrupting chemical.
In 19 of the 20 families, concentrations of PBDEs were typically three times as high in children as in their mothers, said Sonya Lunder, the study's author. One child had six times the level of the chemical that was detected in her mother.
In a small pilot study of 20 families, the non-profit environmental group tested blood samples from mothers and their young children -- ages 18 months to four years -- for the presence of PBDEs, a hormone-disrupting chemical.
In 19 of the 20 families, concentrations of PBDEs were typically three times as high in children as in their mothers, said Sonya Lunder, the study's author. One child had six times the level of the chemical that was detected in her mother.
