Health & WellnessS


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Flashback The Moral Instinct

Steven Pinker
The Herald Tribune
Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:00 UTC
Which of the following people would you say is the most admirable: Mother Teresa, Bill Gates or Norman Borlaug? And which do you think is the least admirable? For most people, it's an easy question. Mother Teresa, famous for ministering to the poor in Calcutta, has been beatified by the Vatican, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and ranked in an American poll as the most admired person of the 20th century. Bill Gates, infamous for giving us the Microsoft dancing paper clip and the blue screen of death, has been decapitated in effigy in "I Hate Gates" Web sites and hit with a pie in the face. As for Norman Borlaug . . . who the heck is Norman Borlaug?

Yet a deeper look might lead you to rethink your answers. Borlaug, father of the "Green Revolution" that used agricultural science to reduce world hunger, has been credited with saving a billion lives, more than anyone else in history. Gates, in deciding what to do with his fortune, crunched the numbers and determined that he could alleviate the most misery by fighting everyday scourges in the developing world like malaria, diarrhea and parasites. Mother Teresa, for her part, extolled the virtue of suffering and ran her well-financed missions accordingly: their sick patrons were offered plenty of prayer but harsh conditions, few analgesics and dangerously primitive medical care.
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Bulb

Is Our Fear of Germs Bad for Our Health?

Stan Cox
AlterNet
Sat, 02 Feb 2008 18:10 UTC
The chemical industry has helped fortify our homes against microbial invasion. But is our fear of germs making us even sicker?

The "vomiting virus" now sweeping across Britain may be headed our way. At the same time, San Francisco is being hit with a new strain of the nasty bacterium known as MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) -- this one responsible for "flesh-eating pneumonia."

Meanwhile, four patients were recently isolated in the University of Maryland Medical Center, infected with a multidrug resistant bacterium called Acinetobacter baumannii, which has attacked a number of Afghanistan war veterans. As one doctor said of the that bug, "When these people get infected ... you sort of say this is the last straw."

Those new menaces, and more, are joining the usual biological villains that lurk everywhere in midwinter.

Even more than in past years, we're turning to the chemical industry for help in fortifying the American home against microbial invasion. Few go as far as Jacques Niemand, a reclusive Briton who was killed last May by fumes rising from vast quantities of disinfectant that he kept in open buckets around his house to ward off infection. But lower-intensity chemical warfare on our invisible housemates is in full swing.
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Question

Sri Lanka: Mysterious fever plagues Erathana


Colombo Page
Sat, 02 Feb 2008 17:34 UTC
A mysterious fever has been spreading in the Erathna area in Kuruwita for few days, medical sources said.

According to the sources at Erathna hospital, large number of patients has been admitted to the hospital with similar symptoms of high fever, headache and joint pains.
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Bulb

Tearless onions developed in New Zealand


RIA Novosti
Sat, 02 Feb 2008 15:43 UTC
A new variety of onion developed by scientists in New Zealand will make every chef forget about tears, and chopping onions is set to become a delight, local media said on Friday.

"What we have here is onions, which when you cut them they won't make you cry," Colin Eady, a senior scientist, was cited by TVNZ as saying.
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Pills

Anti-Smoking Drug Chantix May Pose Psychiatric Risks

Matthew Perrone
Associated Press
Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:26 UTC
Washington - Government regulators said Friday the connection between Pfizer's anti-smoking drug Chantix and serious psychiatric problems is "increasingly likely."
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Health

Flashback Bad blood: Is DDT the remedy for malaria in Africa?

Kim Larsen
OnEarth Magazine
Sat, 01 Dec 2007 20:41 UTC


©Remi Benali

In Africa, Malaria Kills A Million Children A Year. So What's The Remedy? New Drug Cocktails? Free Bed Nets? Community Education? A Breakthrough Vaccine? A Return To DDT? Or All Of The Above?
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Bomb

Brain rewards aggression much like it does sex, food, drugs

Melanie Moran
Vanderbilt University
Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:48 UTC
New research from Vanderbilt University shows for the first time that the brain processes aggression as a reward - much like sex, food and drugs - offering insights into our propensity to fight and our fascination with violent sports like boxing and football.
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Bulb

Intellectual disability: Scientists achieve major genetics breakthrough


The University of Adelaide
Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:42 UTC
University of Adelaide geneticist Dr Jozef Gecz and a team of Belgium and UK scientists have achieved a major breakthrough in discovering the causes of intellectual disability.

Dr Gecz, a senior researcher who is based at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, has collaborated with an international research team to reveal that various mutations of a small part of the X chromosome lead to mental retardation.
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Bulb

Research suggests why scratching is so relieving


Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:38 UTC
In the first study to use imaging technology to see what goes on in the brain when we scratch, researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have uncovered new clues about why scratching may be so relieving - and why it can be hard to stop. The work is reported online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology and will appear in a future print issue.

"Our study shows for the first time how scratching may relieve itch," said lead author Gil Yosipovitch, M.D., a dermatologist who specializes in itch. "It's important to understand the mechanism of relief so we can develop more effective treatments. For some people, itch is a chronic condition that affects overall health."

The study involved 13 healthy participants who underwent testing with functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology that highlights areas of the brain activated during an activity. Participants were scratched on the lower leg with a small brush. The scratching went on for 30 seconds and was then stopped for 30 seconds - for a total of about five minutes.
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Health

Diabetes makes it hard for blood vessels to relax


Medical College of Georgia
Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:30 UTC
One way diabetes is bad for your blood vessels is by creating too much competition for an amino acid that helps blood vessels relax, researchers say.

That amino acid, L-arginine, is broken down by the enzyme arginase to urea, which helps the body eliminate toxins resulting from the proteins we eat. Diabetics have a lot of arginase activity, which means they use a lot more L-arginine, says Dr. Maritza Romero, postdoctoral fellow at the Medical College of Georgia and lead author of the paper published in the current issue of Circulation Research.

It also means too little L-arginine is available to help nitric oxide synthase make nitric oxide, the powerful vasodilator that helps blood vessels relax, says Dr. Romero, who works in the lab of Dr. R. William Caldwell, chair of the MCG Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and the study's corresponding author.
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