Health & Wellness
© iStockphoto/Christopher Steer
New research reveals why a relatively short-term hearing deprivation during childhood may lead to persistent hearing deficits, long after hearing is restored to normal.
Scientists have gained new insight into why a relatively short-term hearing deprivation during childhood may lead to persistent hearing deficits, long after hearing is restored to normal. The research, published by Cell Press in the March 11 issue of the journal
Neuron, reveals that, much like the visual cortex, development of the auditory cortex is quite vulnerable if it does not receive appropriate stimulation at just the right time.
It is well established that degraded sensory experience during critical periods of childhood development can have detrimental effects on the brain and behavior. In the classic example, a condition called amblyopia (also known as lazy eye) can arise when balanced visual signals are not transmitted from each eye to the brain during a critical period for visual cortex development.
"An analogous problem may exist in the realm of hearing, in that children commonly experience a buildup of viscous fluid in the middle ear cavity, called otitis media with effusion, which can degrade the quality of acoustic signals reaching the brain and has been associated with long-lasting loss of auditory perceptual acuity," explains senior study author, Dr. Daniel Polley from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.
A growing body of evidence is proving that one of our most popular and delicious fruits is also one of the healthiest - dark grapes. Among the many benefits of dark grapes are protection against asthma, migraine, constipation, indigestion, fatigue, kidney disorders, macular degeneration, cataracts, high cholesterol, edema, and antibacterial activity. Perhaps the most exciting news about dark grapes is their ability to protect against age related memory decline and even improve memory.
A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition suggested that dark grape juice may be able to improve memory decline in older adults. In this study, 12 elderly adults with declining memory were divided into two groups. One group was given dark grape juice supplements daily for 12 weeks. The other group was given placebo supplements.
At the end of the 12 weeks, tests focusing on memory and cognitive function were administered on the two groups. The group that had taken the dark grape juice supplement showed significant improvement not only in memory, but also in verbal and spatial recall. In addition, studies in laboratory animals have shown not only better performance in maze tests requiring memory skills, but also improved coordination and balance.
A recent study conducted by researchers from both Sydney University and the University of L'Aquila in Italy have found that saffron, one of the world's most valuable spices, helps to protect eyes from being damaged by harmful UV rays. The herb also helps to slow the progression of eye diseases like macular degeneration, which causes blindness.
Collected by hand from the deep red stamens of the saffron crocus, the saffron spice is worth up to $800 per pound depending on its quality. It is used in a variety of applications including as a food spice, a coloring agent, and a treatment for disease. Some 90 illnesses, and counting, can be treated with saffron.
According to Monique Simmonds, an investigator of the medicinal properties of plants at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, saffron is rich in certain compounds that make it viable in treating a variety of different diseases.
There is a buzz stirring about a mushroom from Siberia, which was relatively unknown until Russian novelist Alexandr Solzhenitsyn brought it up in his 1968 novel
Cancer Ward. In that novel, the protagonist was cured of his cancer mostly by using a Russian folk remedy, a tea brewed from the Chaga mushroom. Since then, there has been a good deal of curiosity and lab research done on this mushroom.
The research has shown cancer fighting promise, but the research in the West thus far has been mostly
in-vitro, or lab research without living organisms. So far in the West, chaga has not demonstrated the obvious empirical success of Nurse Caise's Native American Essiac tea from 50 years in her Canadian clinic. See
Natural News article.
Interestingly, Solzhenitsyn was cured of terminal cancer himself. So his novel may have been semi-autobiographical. Chaga was approved for treating cancer by the Moscow Medical Academy of Science in 1955. Chaga also promotes several other powerful health benefits.
In traditional Chinese medicine, liver wind refers, in part, to pain but also to uncontrolled movement in the form of seizures, spasms, shaking or jerks as in Parkinson's. Also many times it refers to pain that moves from one part of the body to another such as in Fibromyalgia. For centuries Corydalis Yan Hu Suo has been used to reduce pain and keep grand mal and other types of seizures away. It does this by helping move the blood and controlling liver wind. It has long been known as the TCM way to manage pain especially when other herbs are added to direct Corydalis to the body area where it is most needed.
The drug companies have observed this, and in their usual jealous response, have tried to isolate something from it for synthesis and, of course, for a money grabbing patent drug - whether it is safe or not. Here is what they found:
The influence of dl-tetrahydropalmatine (THP, an active component isolated from corydalis yanhusao root) was tested on the development of electrically kindled amygdala. The seizure activity was quantified by an ultrasonic system for vertical motion measurements. Intraperitoneal injection of THP (20 or 30 mg kg-1) 30 min before applying the daily kindling stimulus prevented the development of the kindling process.
For decades, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was pushed by the medical establishment as a kind of youth elixir that offered all sorts of remarkable benefits. Take the hormones Big Pharma concocts from pregnant horses' urine and chemicals and middle-aged and older women would supposedly have better sex lives, fewer wrinkles, protection from heart attacks and no more hot flashes. Only, it was all a huge myth.
In fact, as the years passed and rates of breast cancer soared in women who took HRT, the truth began to be revealed. HRT didn't protect health at all. In fact, it
caused breast and ovarian cancer, upped heart attack risk and was
even linked to brain shrinkage.
Now it turns out there's yet another danger from HRT. New research headed by Birgitta E. Lindblad, MD, of Sundsvall Hospital in Sweden and just published in Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, provides evidence that taking HRT causes cataracts. This is no minor potential side effect, either, because vision problems can be devastating. The eye's lens becomes cloudy and stiff when a cataract develops, sometimes making it difficult to read, drive or even see facial expressions clearly.
Five studies published in the October 2009 issue of
The European Journal of Agronomy reveal the negative impacts of using Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, a formula developed specifically for the company's line of genetically modified (GM) "Roundup Ready" crops. The papers, which were not released in the United States, offer a solid indictment against GM crops and the plight of using the Roundup herbicide.
Robert Kremer, a microbiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, co-authored one of the five papers and offered insight into their premise during an
interview with
The Organic & Non-GMO Report, a monthly newsletter that offers recourse in addressing the challenges of fighting GM foods.
Kremer and his colleagues began studying the effects of Roundup on soil back in 1997. They found that the herbicide was causing an increase in parasitic colonization at the roots of Roundup Ready soybeans and corn. They also observed an increase in fungal growth that leads to sudden death syndrome (SDS) in the plants.
© File Photo
A model for designer Issac Mizrahi wears a red satin pleated evening gown while holding her baby in a matching baby sling.
Washington -The government is preparing a safety warning about baby slings, which are popular and fashionable infant carriers that parents strap around their chests to give the little ones a cuddle on the move. The concern is that infants can suffocate, and at least a few have.
The head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Inez Tenenbaum, said yesterday that her agency is getting ready to issue a general warning to the public, probably this week.
"We know of too many deaths in these slings, and we now know the hazard scenarios for very small babies," said Tenenbaum. "So, the time has come to alert parents and caregivers."
"Positive psychology" research indicates that the kinder you are, the more likely you are to survive -- and evolve.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are challenging long-held beliefs that human beings are wired to be selfish. In a wide range of studies, social scientists are amassing a growing body of evidence to show we are evolving to become more compassionate and collaborative in our quest to survive and thrive.
In contrast to "every man for himself" interpretations of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, Dacher Keltner, a UC Berkeley psychologist and author of Born to be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life, and his fellow social scientists are building the case that humans are successful as a species precisely because of our nurturing, altruistic and compassionate traits.
This is the time of year when classroom responsibilities overwhelm my journalistic passions, and my writing tends to be more reflection than exposition. And let me tell you, nothing spurs reflexive contemplation like finding yourself in polar opposition to someone whose life work has profoundly influenced your own.
In my case, that someone is Dr. Philip J. Landrigan from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, whose research at the Children's Environmental Health Center there first caught my attention in the late 1990s when I was a senior environmental writer at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM). When I began exploring the links between toxic pollution and autism 17 months ago, a 2006 study Landrigan co-wrote titled "Developmental neurotoxicity of industrial chemicals" was the first link that Google produced when I searched for "autism and environment."
Nearly a year and a half later, I am persuaded that mercury and/or other chemicals in vaccines are among the industrial chemicals that caused the autism epidemic of the past two decades. I do not believe that vaccines caused the epidemic, but my work has convinced me that neurotoxins in them contributed to it. And in some children, they did cause autism. The question for them isn't whether, it's how, and it demands an answer.
Comment: See other articles regarding negative impacts of HRT:
Study Shows HRT Decreases Mortality in Younger Postmenopausal Woman
Hormone Replacement Therapy Leads to Female Brain Shrinkage
Hormone Therapy Skews Breast Cancer Diagnosis