Health & WellnessS


Cow

In change, industry groups back downer cow ban

Washington - In a significant reversal, major meat and dairy industry groups on Tuesday backed a total ban on so-called downer cattle from entering the food supply.

Syringe

Propaganda Alert! Vaccines 'Golden Era' Is Under Threat

The development of vaccines is on the verge of a 'golden era' - but it may be threatened if the drive to cut costs by governments, including the UK, is carried out regardless of long-term health consequences, a leading academic warned.

Vaccine research is expanding fast - some two-thirds of world R&D is being conducted by European companies - but continuing pressure on prices could have a negative impact on investment, according to Professor Louis Galambos of the John Hopkins University, a world-leader in research and education in medicine and public health.

Comment: Can you say "S-H-I-L-L" ?


Syringe

Science gives us 'food' for thought

Folks, things seem be getting "curiouser and curiouser."

First, the powers that be changed the definitions of things - stuff like milk and, more recently, chocolate. The definitions are expanded so that more things that you and I had never thought about can be called milk and chocolate.

Recently, the courts have ruled that there is no difference between tested meat and non-tested meat. Or that food with growth hormones and food without growth hormones are the same. And I guess food that is genetically modified is just as good for us as the old-fashioned stuff.

Comment: Interesting piece, until he hits the last two paragraphs with its "We can control the marketplace" junk. How many times do we see this? Is it because the Times-Gazette has advertisers who sell or create GM foods? Is it in that old canard of wanting to be "objective"?

If they don't label foods as to whether or not they are genetically modified, how will we be able to tell the difference?


Eye 1

Sociopath brags of spreading AIDS

A MAN has posted videos on YouTube in which he claims to have deliberately infected thousands of women with AIDS.

The masked man - who calls himself "Trashman" and speaks with an American accent in a series of clips posted on the video-sharing website - claims to have infected between 1200 and 1500 women with the disease.

In the videos, Trashman reads the names and ages of some of the women he claims to have had unprotected sex with.

Cut

My aesthetician's boss is a raging psychopath

The Question

I recently went for a waxing, and on the morning of my appointment, my aesthetician called me and asked if she could change the time. No problem, I told her. She recently moved to a new salon downtown whose owner is, to put it kindly, a raging psychopathic witch who makes herself feel better by bullying and demeaning her staff. But once I got there, she told me the owner had yelled at her for 10 minutes after the call, shrieking the whole time that she was incompetent, stupid and inconsiderate to her client.

On my way out, the owner lit into my aesthetician again in front of me and several other clients, screaming at her and accusing her of undermining her and the business.

It only got uglier from there.

My aesthetician called me that evening to apologize and told me that she plans to leave at the end of the month.

I'd really love to have good triumph over evil, but what can I do?

Bulb

Miracle surgery lets the blind see

British doctors have carried out pioneering surgery to restore the eyesight of two blind patients.

Using the revolutionary procedure, they have given the men - both Britons - a "bionic eye" which enables them to see their families for the first time in years.

There are now real hopes that the breakthrough will pave the way for the treatment to become available for millions around the world within a few years.

Better Earth

US: North Carolina seeks to extend organic grains production

Two recent grants will support the organic grains program at North Carolina State University and provide education to promote the production of organic grain in the state, according to Chris Reberg-Horton, assistant professor of crop science and organic cropping specialist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

The organic grains program recently received $100,000 from Golden LEAF, a foundation dedicated to the long-term economic advancement of North Carolina, and $35,000 from Organic Valley, an organic dairy cooperative.

The funds will support education and North Carolina Cooperative Extension programs on organic grains.

Info

Most Lethal Melanomas Are On Scalp And Neck

People with scalp or neck melanomas die at nearly twice the rate of people with melanoma elsewhere on the body, including the face or ears, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found.

The analysis of 51,704 melanoma cases in the U.S. confirms that survival rates differ depending on where skin cancer first appears. Those with scalp or neck melanomas die at a rate 1.84 times higher than those with melanomas on the extremities, after controlling for the possible influences of age, gender, tumor thickness and ulceration.

Bulb

Brain reacts to fairness as it does to money and chocolate

The human brain responds to being treated fairly the same way it responds to winning money and eating chocolate, UCLA scientists report. Being treated fairly turns on the brain's reward circuitry.

"We may be hard-wired to treat fairness as a reward," said study co-author Matthew D. Lieberman, UCLA associate professor of psychology and a founder of social cognitive neuroscience.

"Receiving a fair offer activates the same brain circuitry as when we eat craved food, win money or see a beautiful face," said Golnaz Tabibnia, a postdoctoral scholar at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and lead author of the study, which appears in the April issue of the journal Psychological Science.

Syringe

Brain damage link to cancer drug

A drug widely used to treat cancer may cause brain damage, with the effects lasting for years after the end of treatment, research suggests.

The drug, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), is used, alongside others, to treat cancers of the breast, ovaries, colon, stomach, pancreas and bladder.

Tests on mice showed it destroys vital cells in the brain that help to keep nerves functioning properly.