Health & WellnessS


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Swan dies of bird flu in southern Russia

Laboratory tests have confirmed that a dead swan found in the Krasnodar Territory was infected with H5 bird flu virus, but not with the N1 strain, a source in the local administration said Monday.

This is the only case of bird flu detected in the territory since 410 chickens died from the virus and 22,000 birds were culled at a local poultry farm in southern Russia.

Magic Wand

3D face scans spot gene syndromes

3D face scans are set to speed up the diagnosis of rare genetic conditions in children, UK scientists say.

More than 700 genetic syndromes affect facial traits, but some are difficult to spot because few cases exist.

Health

Swimming in chlorine byproducts

When athletes at this year's U.S. national swimming championships found themselves gasping for breath while competing at the indoor pool at Indianapolis University, event organizers said the culprit most likely was the disinfection byproducts (DBPs) from the chlorine meant to keep the pool clean. Swimmers' lung troubles - and other possible long-term health effects - generally have been attributed to breathing chloroform, trihalomethanes, and trichloramines, which form in such settings and volatilize at the water's surface. But new research published in ES&T (DOI: 10.1021/es070871+) indicates that other byproducts hidden in the watery mix also might be to blame.

©Courtesy of Water Technology, Inc.
At the water's surface, swimmers breathe in a mix of volatilized disinfection byproducts, including some recently discovered to form in chlorinated swimming pools.

Attention

Flashback Hidden Danger of Swimming Pools for Children

A new study published in the journal Pediatrics found that children who spend a lot of time at indoor swimming pools during their early years are more prone to developing asthma, recurrent bronchitis, and other breathing problems as they grow older, compared to others who do not frequent indoor pools.

©Mercola.com

Arrow Down

Some Companies Penalize for Health Risks

CINCINNATI - First they tried nudging. Now companies are penalizing workers who have high health risks such as obesity and high blood pressure or cholesterol as insurance costs climb.

Ambulance

Bird cull begins in Germany over bird flu fears

German authorities started culling tens of thousands of birds at two farms in the Bavarian towns of Trumling and Hofing as a protective measure over fears of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

An outbreak of bird flu was identified in the nearby Bavarian town of Wachenroth on Aug. 25 after dead ducks found in a poultry farm tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus.

Ambulance

Flesh-eating disease was just the beginning

Marie-Marthe Becigneul couldn't believe her bad luck when flesh-eating disease ravaged her legs in June 19, 2006. She endured six operations, with surgeons slicing away dead and infected tissue. After a stint at a rehabilitation hospital, she was relieved to finally walk again.

Months later, in the fall, she went to the Hôtel-Dieu Hospital in Sherbrooke, where she underwent skin grafts to repair the surgical scars left from flesh-eating disease.

That's when her health took a dramatic turn for the worse.

Bomb

Germany warns citizens to avoid using Wi-Fi

Environment Ministry's verdict on the health risks from wireless technology puts the British government to shame.

Comment: Electro-sensitivity, EMF and WIFI - one woman's saga

[...]Doctors say there is little scientific evidence to back up a link between EMF and poor health. They claim the symptoms, often attributed to flu or viruses, are psychosomatic.

But campaigners disagree. They reckon around 500 people are already being treated for ES [Electro Sensitivity] and as many as five per cent of the population could be affected.


Red Flag

Chip Implants Linked to Animal Tumors

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved implanting microchips in humans, the manufacturer said it would save lives, letting doctors scan the tiny transponders to access patients' medical records almost instantly. The FDA found "reasonable assurance" the device was safe, and a sub-agency even called it one of 2005's top "innovative technologies."

But neither the company nor the regulators publicly mentioned this: A series of veterinary and toxicology studies, dating to the mid-1990s, stated that chip implants had "induced" malignant tumors in some lab mice and rats.

Red Flag

Color contrast is 'seen' by the brain early doors

Colour contrast is detected much earlier in the brain than previously thought, a new study shows.

Scientists at Durham University have confirmed that colour contrast is first detected by part of the brain called primary visual cortex, which is located at the very back of the head where visual information first enters the cortex of the brain. This was recently discovered to be the case in animals but has not been tested on human beings until now.

The research also confirms that the brain does most of the work in seeing the difference between colours, rather than the eye.

The team of neuropsychologists identified a patient with damage to this specific part of the brain. They showed the patient visual illusions in which the contrast between the coloured spots in the foreground and their background colour affected the way the spots looked. People with this part of the brain intact would see the spots as different as they look different on varying backgrounds. The patient was not able to detect that difference.