There was a very disturbing story in USA Today this week about how the suicide rate in Japan is at an all time high. With some 34,000 people taking their own life last year alone, this is certainly a tragedy.
While I can understand how a person can sink to such a level of despair, having been there in my own life years ago, I also know, today, how totally unnecessary it is.
Health & Wellness
Memories of the person they missed prolonged their grief, giving them pleasure as well as pain.
Mourning the death of a loved one is about as universal a human emotion as exists, and it's not even confined to humans; there's evidence of it in other primates and even elephants. From its beginnings, psychotherapy has recognized the special challenge of grief and its relationship to depression (or, as Freud put it in the title of one of his best-known essays, "Mourning and Melancholia").
Mourning the death of a loved one is about as universal a human emotion as exists, and it's not even confined to humans; there's evidence of it in other primates and even elephants. From its beginnings, psychotherapy has recognized the special challenge of grief and its relationship to depression (or, as Freud put it in the title of one of his best-known essays, "Mourning and Melancholia").
At a recent conference for some of the area's leading neurologists, San Francisco physicist Norbert Schuff captured his colleagues' attention when he presented colorful brain images of U.S. soldiers who had returned from Iraq and Afghanistan and were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The yellow areas, Schuff explained during his presentation at the city's Veterans Affairs Medical Center, showed where the hippocampus, which plays major roles in short-term memory and emotions, had atrophied. The red swatches marked hyperfusion - increased blood flow - in the prefrontal cortex, the region responsible for conflict resolution and decision-making. Compared with a soldier without the affliction, the PTSD brain had lost 5 to 10 percent of its gray matter volume, indicating yet more neuron damage.
The yellow areas, Schuff explained during his presentation at the city's Veterans Affairs Medical Center, showed where the hippocampus, which plays major roles in short-term memory and emotions, had atrophied. The red swatches marked hyperfusion - increased blood flow - in the prefrontal cortex, the region responsible for conflict resolution and decision-making. Compared with a soldier without the affliction, the PTSD brain had lost 5 to 10 percent of its gray matter volume, indicating yet more neuron damage.
Crackberry. Only a metaphor for our addiction-like urge to check e-mail? Or does the term shed light on a deep biological truth about our hunger for information?
Human-motivation studies traditionally stress well-established needs: food, water, sex, avoidance of pain. In a culture like ours, most of these needs can be satisfied easily. Just open the refrigerator door, or blow on that spoonful of hot soup. (Satisfying the need for sex may require a bit more doing.)
What's been missing from this scientific research is humans' nonstop need for more information.
Human-motivation studies traditionally stress well-established needs: food, water, sex, avoidance of pain. In a culture like ours, most of these needs can be satisfied easily. Just open the refrigerator door, or blow on that spoonful of hot soup. (Satisfying the need for sex may require a bit more doing.)
What's been missing from this scientific research is humans' nonstop need for more information.
Physical fitness can help the mind, body and quality of life of people with early Alzheimer's disease and dementia, according to new research.
"These studies reinforce the need for increased awareness and education about the importance of living a brain-healthy lifestyle, including staying physically active," William Thies, vice president of medical and scientific relations for the Alzheimer's Association, said in a news release. "Growing evidence shows that physical exercise does not have to be strenuous or require a major time commitment. It is most effective when done regularly, and in combination with a brain-healthy diet, mental activity and social interaction."
"These studies reinforce the need for increased awareness and education about the importance of living a brain-healthy lifestyle, including staying physically active," William Thies, vice president of medical and scientific relations for the Alzheimer's Association, said in a news release. "Growing evidence shows that physical exercise does not have to be strenuous or require a major time commitment. It is most effective when done regularly, and in combination with a brain-healthy diet, mental activity and social interaction."
Every day in the United States more than 240 million people turn on their faucets in order to drink, bathe, and cook, using water from public water systems. But more people are arriving to the point where they will not let a drop of water touch their lips in their own homes unless that water comes from a bottle shipped from a fresh water source. And even then we still have trouble in the home. Researchers at the University of Texas found that showers and dishwashers liberate trace amounts of chemicals from municipal water supplies into the air [i].
I can't even believe that this is an issue again. Our gub-mint "protectors" are yet again trying to get our water supply fluoridated?
Unfortunately, it's not.
I hold in my hand a tube of Crest toothpaste and I quote from the warning on it: "KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN UNDER 6 YEARS OF AGE. If more than used for brushing is ACCIDENTALLY SWALLOWED, get medical help or contact a POISON CONTROL CENTER right away. DO NOT SWALLOW."Sheeple, that should be enough said right there.
Unfortunately, it's not.
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| ©Kurt Krieger / Famous |
| Family ties: Christian and mother Jenny, a former circus performer |
Lonely, brooding and emotionally tormented, the latest incarnation of Batman shocked the celebrity audience at last week's London premiere of the film.
The noble saviour of Gotham, familiar to generations of comic-book readers and TV viewers, had been replaced by an altogether darker superhero, prone to violence and consumed by hatred for his enemies.
After the show, as the audience came out of the cinema into the heat of a July evening, the first-night fans could hardly have known that the drama was to continue off screen in a similarly troubled fashion - so much so that it has overshadowed the film's blockbuster release.
Fresno, California's Beef Packers, Inc., is recalling approximately 1,560 pounds of beef cheek products over concerns that the meat may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (UDSA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today. The problem was discovered during company microbiological testing and the recall is identified as a Class I Recall, which means that this is a health hazard situation wherein there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death.
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| ©Unknown |
| A home along the Irrawaddy Delta |
Eastern Sumatra, the Irrawaddy delta in Myanmar and Cambodia's Tonle Sap lake are among areas in Southeast Asia facing a high risk of arsenic contamination in the water, according to a study published on Friday.
The researchers use innovative digitalised techniques, drawing on geology, geography and soil chemistry, to compile a "probability map" of naturally-occurring arsenic concentrations in five Southeast Asian countries and Bangladesh.
