Health & WellnessS


Evil Rays

Scientists Agree That EMFs Pose a Threat to Your Health

Electricity has become an integral part of our lives, with electromagnetic fields (EMFs) all around us. Electricity certainly makes our lives easier in many ways. Is it possible that electricity is also making our lives shorter?

Most experts agree that some limited exposure to EMFs is not a threat. We can feel reasonably safe using a toaster, for example. The problem comes when we are chronically exposed to large does of EMFs such as encountered when living near power lines or sleeping in the room where the power enters the house. Unfortunately, this type of chronic exposure to EMFs applies to millions of Americans.

Bug

Phoenix, US: Superbug threatens Valley; antibiotics can trigger infection

Health officials in the Valley, and across the nation, are preparing for a new medical superbug that could become the country's next big public health threat.

The Centers for Disease Control website says several states have reported increased rates of clostridium difficile-associated disease, noting more severe disease and an increased number in deaths.

Question

How Child Abuse Gets Into the Brain

This has been the enduring mystery: How do events in the outside world get inside your head? That is, how do things that affect whether a child grows up to be contented and well-adjusted or a neurotic mess - things like abuse and neglect - change the gray matter to produce the brain activity and circuitry that corresponds to these psychological states? By turning some genes on and other genes off, according to a study posted this evening in the May 6 edition of the online PLoS ONE.

Roses

Child abuse may trigger gene changes in brains of suicide victims

A team of McGill University scientists has found that suicide victims who were abused as children have clear genetic changes in their brains.

During the study, researchers discovered what they say are key differences between the brains of ordinary people, and of those who took their own lives after suffering child abuse.

They found that the genetic sequence wasnt significantly different in the suicide and non-suicide brains, but there were differences in their epigenetic marking a chemical coating influenced by environmental factors.

Researchers found that all of the 13 suicide victims in the study had experienced abuse as children.

Syringe

Mutation Makes Bubonic Plague More Lethal

Bacteria that cause the bubonic plague may be more virulent than their close relatives because of a single genetic mutation, according to research published in the May issue of the journal Microbiology.

Image
©CDC / Courtesy of Larry Stauffer, Oregon State Public Health Laboratory
Yersinia pestis, direct fluorescent antibody stain (DFA), at 200x magnification.

Red Flag

Respiratory Infections Continue to Plague San Antonio

For the fourth week in a row, people in San Antonio are going to see the doctor because of upper respiratory infections.

Eye 1

Conservatives Happier Than Liberals Because They're Better at Creating Their Own Realities

Individuals with conservative ideologies are happier than liberal-leaners, and new research pinpoints the reason: Conservatives rationalize social and economic inequalities.

Hourglass

MfD: Girl suddenly stops thinking

Prague, May 2 (CTK) - A Czech woman, now aged 28, absolutely lost ability to think 14 years ago and has not recovered since, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) wrote Friday.

The 14-year-old girl started her eighth grade. Her mother was called by the school staff telling her that her daughter was standing in front of the school and does not know where to go. She forgot who she was and what she was doing there, MfD writes.

All of a sudden, the girl's brain stopped rightly working.

Cow

Deadly Animal Virus May Soon Come to U.S. Mainland

The nation's food supply may soon be under significant threat as the result of a Bush administration decision to move its research on one of the most contagious animal diseases from an isolated island laboratory to the U.S. mainland, placing it near herds of livestock.

caged-cows
©Unknown
Caged Cows

Comment: Grady Thrasher is justified to worry about a research lab outbreak. Viruses are known to have "accidentally" escaped "highly secured" labs before. Another thought worthy of consideration is whether the slaughter of cattle, chicken, etc due to "accidental" virus outbreaks, are part of an insidious agenda to starve the population. The reader might like to visit this article: First They Came For The Cows - Are The Sheeple Next?



Health

Australia: Ross River virus breakthrough - Transcript

Tony Eastley: A team of Australian researchers claim to have made a breakthrough in treating the debilitating arthritis triggered by the Ross River virus.

The disease is the most common mosquito borne virus in Australia and can cause painful inflammation and arthritis.

The research published in the latest Journal of Infectious Diseases offers new hope and some relief for sufferers as Lindy Kerin reports.

Lindy Kerin: Ross River Virus is now found across the country and affects between five and eight thousand Australians every year.

About a third of those infected will suffer severe aches and pains in their joints.

Professor Suresh Mahalingam and his colleagues at the University of Canberra have been studying Ross River virus for the past four years.

Now they've identified the cell responsible for causing the joint inflammation and tissue damage.