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U.S. study helps unravel Alzheimer's mystery

Julie Steenhuysen
Reuters
Thu, 09 Dec 2010 19:18 UTC
dementia
© Unknown
Instead of producing too much of a protein, people with Alzheimer's disease appear to have trouble getting rid of it, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

The finding, published in the journal Science, may help explain why people with Alzheimer's accumulate sticky clumps of a protein called amyloid beta, and it may help drug companies hone in on potential treatments.

"In people who have Alzheimer's disease, we know there are very large amounts of amyloid beta in the brain," said Dr. Randall Bateman of Washington University in St. Louis, who worked on the study.

Bateman said in a telephone interview people with Alzheimer's disease have between 100 and 1,000 times the normal amount of amyloid in their brains.

"The question was, 'How did all of that get there?'"
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Arrow Down

TV Watching Is Bad for Babies' Brains

Nancy Shute
health.usnews.com
Thu, 09 Dec 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Getty Images
Brainwashed
Babies who watch TV are more likely to have delayed cognitive development and language at 14 months, especially if they're watching programs intended for adults and older children. We probably knew that 24 and Grey's Anatomy don't really qualify as educational content, but it's surprising that TV-watching made a difference at such a tender age.

Babies who watched 60 minutes of TV daily had developmental scores one-third lower at 14 months than babies who weren't watching that much TV. Though their developmental scores were still in the normal range, the discrepancy may be due to the fact that when kids and parents are watching TV, they're missing out on talking, playing, and interactions that are essential to learning and development.

This new study, which appeared in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, followed 259 lower-income families in New York, most of whom spoke Spanish as their primary language at home. Other studies examining higher-income families have also come to the same conclusion: TV watching not only isn't educational, but it seems to stunt babies' development.
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Arrow Up

Winning the Battle on GMOs in the United States

Center For Food Safety
Organic Consumers Association
Wed, 01 Dec 2010 16:57 UTC
Image
© foodfreedom.wordpress.com
San Francisco, CA - Today Federal District Judge Jeffrey S. White issued a preliminary injunction ordering the immediate destruction of hundreds of acres of genetically engineered (GE) sugar beet seedlings planted in September after finding the seedlings had been planted in violation of federal law. The ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by Earthjustice and Center for Food Safety on behalf of a coalition of farmers, consumers, and conservation groups. The lawsuit was filed on September 9, shortly after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) revealed it had allowed the seedlings to be planted.

The court outlined the many ways in which GE sugar beets could harm the environment and consumers, noting that containment efforts were insufficient and past contamination incidents were "too numerous" to allow the illegal crop to remain in the ground. In his court order, Judge White noted, "farmers and consumers would likely suffer harm from cross-contamination" between GE sugar beets and non-GE crops. He continued, "the legality of Defendants' conduct does not even appear to be a close question," noting that the government and Monsanto tried to circumvent his prior ruling, which made GE sugar beets illegal.
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Bell

10 Freakiest Things About Frankenfish

Alexis Baden-Mayer
Huffington Post
Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:03 UTC
Image
© Huffington Post
Obama's FDA is regulating genetically engineered salmon, a genetically modified organism (GMO) that is the first of its kind, not as an animal, but as an animal drug.

Normally, a veterinary drug would be used for health purposes, but there's no therapeutic benefit associated with jacking up an Atlantic salmon with the genes of a Chinook salmon and the eel-like ocean pout to make it grow twice as fast. On the contrary, genetic engineering increases the salmon's mortality, disease and deformity.

So, why would the FDA treat a the first genetically engineered animal for human consumption like a drug? The idea came from the biotech industry. They knew that the FDA's animal drug process would keep companies' "proprietary" information secret, while limiting public participation and downplaying food safety concerns. Genius.
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Eye 1

"Out of sight, out of mind" mentality and cognitive bias of the authoritarian personality: Liberals and conservatives perceive the world in different ways


University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:26 UTC
eyes
© Unknown
It goes without saying that conservatives and liberals don't see the world in the same way. Now, research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln suggests that is exactly, and quite literally, the case.

In a new study, UNL researchers measured both liberals' and conservatives' reaction to "gaze cues" - a person's tendency to shift attention in a direction consistent with another person's eye movements, even if it's irrelevant to their current task - and found big differences between the two groups.

Liberals responded strongly to the prompts, consistently moving their attention in the direction suggested to them by a face on a computer screen. Conservatives, on the other hand, did not.

Why? Researchers suggested that conservatives' value on personal autonomy might make them less likely to be influenced by others, and therefore less responsive to the visual prompts.

"We thought that political temperament may moderate the magnitude of gaze-cuing effects, but we did not expect conservatives to be completely immune to these cues," said Michael Dodd, a UNL assistant professor of psychology and the lead author of the study.

Liberals may have followed the "gaze cues," meanwhile, because they tend to be more responsive to others, the study suggests.
      Read More...
Info

Age-Related Hearing Loss and Folate in the Elderly


Science Daily
Mon, 06 Dec 2010 16:07 UTC
Age-related hearing loss (ARHL), one of the four most prevalent chronic conditions in the elderly, is associated with low serum levels of folic acid, according to new research published in the December 2010 issue of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery.

Hearing loss is a major public health problem globally, with more than 28 million Americans between the ages of 60 and 74 dealing with the loss. Despite the high prevalence of hearing impairment, the biological basis of age-related hearing loss is unknown. In the current study, findings show that low serum levels of folic acid among elderly people are significantly associated with hearing loss in high frequencies.
      Read More...
Beaker

Study: BPA Found on Dollar Bills, Receipts

Joanna Zelman
Huffington Post
Thu, 09 Dec 2010 11:50 UTC
Dollars on toilet roll
© unknown
Apparently consumers don't have as much control as they thought over avoiding products with bisphenol A (BPA), a hormone-disrupting chemical. What are two items that consumers cannot avoid? Dollar bills and receipts. And that's exactly where BPA is being found, according to a new study conducted by nonprofit groups Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families and the Washington Toxics Coalition.

The research found large amounts of unbound BPA on half of thermal paper receipts tested. The data suggests that the toxic chemical is easily transferred to our skin. And no, you can't just gingerly grab the receipt and toss it away really fast. In just ten seconds, 2.5 micrograms of BPA are transferred to your fingers.

As for dollar bills, BPA was found on 95 percent of the bills tested. BPA levels were much lower than those found on the receipts, but that doesn't help us rest any easier. Recent research has explored the connection between BPA exposure and various health problems like cancer, and Canada recently became the first country to officially list BPA as a toxic chemical.
      Read More...
Pills

New Vitamin D RDA and Vitamin D Deficiency

Dr. Leo Galland
Pill Advised
Wed, 08 Dec 2010 06:50 UTC
Image
Low Vitamin D and the Vitamin D deficiency symptoms that go with it can generally be avoided by eating Vitamin D enriched foods or taking supplements.

The latest controversy that has spun out of the new Vitamin D RDA announcement has caused some people to turn away from this important vitamin. But that could put them at risk of low Vitamin D and the Vitamin D Deficiency Symptoms that go along with that.

The Vitamin D Controversy

Newspaper headlines exclaim: "Extra Vitamin D and Calcium Aren't Necessary, Report Says." Or "Triple That Vitamin D Intake, Panel Prescribes."

These dueling headlines are both based on the "Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium and Vitamin D" report just released from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) setting new RDA's for Vitamin D and calcium. Opposite descriptions of the same story, neither of them is an accurate reflection of the report's conclusions.

It matters because people have told me they have already stopped taking Vitamin D supplements based upon what they have read in the news, which could mean higher chances of Vitamin D deficiency symptoms.

So I am telling you what I told them - Don't believe the hype on Vitamin D.
      Read More...
Attention

Surgeon: birth control pill a 'molotov cocktail' for breast cancer

Kathleen Gilbert
LifeSiteNews.com
Wed, 08 Dec 2010 22:00 UTC
How often do doctors in America prescribe a Group One carcinogen - one recognized as a "definite" cause of cancer - to otherwise healthy patients?

Answer: as often as they prescribe the hormonal birth control pill.

This little-known fact about the pill was presented by Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, a breast surgical oncologist and co-founder of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, who shared her expertise on the drug at the "50 Years of the Pill" conference in Washington, DC on Friday.

"When is it ever right to give a group one carcinogen to a healthy woman?" she asked the audience. "We don't have to take a group one carcinogen to be liberated."

Lanfranchi offered a wealth of statistical data from various sources to support a fact that is known by the medical community to be true yet is rarely acknowledged: use of the pill has been strongly linked to an increased risk of breast cancer. The pill is also believed to increase the risk of cervical cancer and liver cancer.
      Read More...
Ambulance

Ireland reports 64 cases of "adverse reactions" to HPV vaccine

Hilary White
LifeSiteNews.com
Wed, 08 Dec 2010 21:48 UTC
A report by the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) has shown that a vaccination program using Gardasil, the drug created to combat Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), a sexually transmitted disease, has resulted in 64 cases of "adverse reactions," including cardiac and allergic reactions and seizures.

The figures are leading some in Ireland to accuse the IMB is not showing due consideration for the health of young people vaccinated with the drug.

According to the IMB report, starting in May this year approximately 45,000 doses of Gardasil have been administered to Irish teens through their schools. As of the end of October, the IMB says that 55 reports of these adverse medical reactions have been received since the beginning of the Schools Immunisation Programme. The remaining complaints were received prior to the start of that program.
      Read More...
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