health
gregladen | August 1, 2008 Photograph of anthrax
Do you remember the Anthrax Scare? Envelopes with strange notes and mysterious white powder were showing up in various mailboxes. In many cases the white powder was "weaponized anthrax" ... anthrax (bacterial) spores processed in such a way to enhance the spread of the spores by air and infection via lung tissues.
A total of five people died in that incident, which occurred shortly after the September 11th attacks.
US Government Scientist Bruce Ivins had been under suspicion for a number of reasons, and on learning that prosecutes were about to charge him with…
aardvarchaeology | July 29, 2008Big Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet heads today's edition with a two-page story about surgical hymen (re-)construction. The news is that a number of tax-funded Stockholm clinics offer the procedure for a fee of about $40 (SEK 260), and ample space is also devoted to an explanation of why the whole thing is controversial. (Patriarchy, honour-based society, control of female sexuality, I don't need to explain it to you, Dear Reader.)
This recalls the issue whether public health care should offer male circumcision. As I have argued before, all genital mutilation of minors should of course be…
gregladen | July 25, 2008The birth of the world's first "test tube baby" has been announced in Manchester.
Louise Brown was born shortly before midnight in Oldham and District General Hospital.
Weighing 5lb 12oz (2.61 kg) the baby was delivered by caesarean section because her mother, Lesley Brown, was suffering from toxaemia.
The consultant in charge of the case, Mr Patrick Steptoe, said: "All examinations showed that the baby is quite normal. The mother's condition after delivery was also excellent."
BBC
gregladen | July 24, 2008Ronald Herberman is the director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. Despite the fact that no published study indicates a clear link between cell phone use and cancer, Herberman has warned his staff at the cancer institute a memo warning them of possible risks from cell phones, based on unpublished data.
Isn't that interesting.
From the BBC:
He said children should use mobiles in emergencies only and adults should try to keep the phone away from the head.
...
Dr Herberman said his warning was based on early findings from unpublished data.
"We shouldn't wait for a definitive…
gregladen | July 19, 2008You say tomato, I say tomalley .
Tomalley. Mmmmmm... That is the green yeck inside the body of a lobster that seems to be neither muscle or organ. But you can eat it and it tastes good. But don't eat it for now if your lobster is from Maine...
The Maine Center for Disease Control said Friday
Maine has a center for disease control? Oh, OK...
The Maine Center for Disease Control said Friday that lobster meat is perfectly safe but that people should not eat the tomalley ...
High levels of toxic algae known as red tide have been recorded along Maine's coast this summer, forcing the state…
gregladen | July 10, 2008This article in PLoS Medicine investigates the difference between modern multi-drug treatment with individuals monitoring of patients in a developed country (Switzerland) with similar treatments using a different, non-individualized "public health" approach in South Africa, to see if there is any difference between the two approach. The results are surprising, and encouraging.
AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) has caused the death of over 25 million people worldwide since 1981, and an additional 30 million people are currently infected with the causal agent of AIDS, the virus HIV…
omnibrain | July 5, 2008It seems that vegetarians are screwed on multiple levels, they get called hippies by me AND they might be at an increased risk of dementia in old age. The study recently published in the journal Dementias and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders focused on a number of elderly Indonesians who live across a wide range of areas in Java. They discovered that people who ate tofu at least once a day (which is classified as high consumption) had a statistically higher chance of showing dementia. So what could be causing this higher rate? According to BBC News:
Soy products are rich in micronutrients…
gregladen | July 1, 2008Steven Levitt shares data that shows car seats are no more effective than seatbelts in protecting kids from dying in cars. However, during the Q&A, he makes one crucial caveat.
gregladen | June 30, 2008I am not entirely sure that the FDA has actually identified a tomato with Salmonella on it. The tomato hypothesis was based on recall data, which is notoriously iffy. Not totally useless, but iffy.
The FDA, gutted by years of uncaring neglect by evil Republicans, today finds itself incapable of addressing the food safety issue, it would seem. Over 800 cases of food poisoning since April 10th is apparently considered a bit high. And there seems to be no reasonable explanation or anything close to an explanation as tomatoes become increasingly innocent looking.
"The source of…
gregladen | June 30, 2008A study just out in PLoS Medicine suggests that an increasing trend of delaying childbirth is associated wiht a rising rate of the use of cesarean delivery. The explanation appears to be impared uterine function.
From the editor's summary:
Though it was not studied here, the researchers hypothesize that impaired uterine contractility may be a consequence of prolonged stimulation of the uterus by estrogen and progesterone, resulting from a prolonged interval between menarche and first birth. Further research is needed to understand the determinants and management of dysfunctional labor in…
gregladen | June 30, 2008Do you drink bottled water or tap water? Water from a cooler (which is a big giant bottle) or from a filter built into a refrigerator or sink? Or do you Britta?
(Yes, let me be the first to verb that noun .... )
Increasingly we see resistance to bottled water. The Britta ads (one hour in a meeting, forever in a landfill) ... even if they are inaccurate, as most bottles are probably recycled ... may have an effect. I have seen, heard of, and even experienced the admonishment of anti-bottle activists (though I quickly add: I almost never drink bottled water. But I do occasionally. But…
gregladen | June 28, 2008There is new information from an older idea (from about 2000) by Paul Sherman and colleagues. The idea underlying this research is simple: Symptoms of illnesses may be adaptive. Indeed, this may be true to the extent that we should not call certain things illnesses. Like "morning sickness."
Broadly speaking, there are two different kinds of reasons that a woman may experience nausea in association with pregnancy. 1) This pregnancy thing is a complicated mess with all kinds of hormonal (and other) things going on, so you puke; or 2) a woman who is pregnant feels nauseous for good…
gregladen | June 23, 2008 Triatoma infestans, Chagas vector This is the conclusion of a report to be published in the June 2008 PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases journal. The report, by Peter Hotez of George Washington University and the Sabin Vaccine Institute, is a clear indictment of economic disparity in the United States. The bottom line: Many poor Americans are, effectively, living in a poorly managed third world country.
Poor people in the United States are subject to a mostly ignored burden of diseases "caused by a group of chronic and debilitating parasitic, bacterial, and congenital infections known…
gregladen | June 15, 2008Medical woo is not restricted to Minnesota. They even have it in California.
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. - A 76-year-old man operating an unlicensed chiropractic clinic out of his Oak Park, Calif., garage is suspected of killing one of his patients with a neck manipulation, according to Sacramento police.
Antonio Arellano, whose only training was a massage class he took in the 1940s, was booked into the Sacramento County jail Friday on suspicion of murder, authorities said.
According to police, Jose Lopez, 64, and his wife went to Arellano's home on Washington Avenue on Tuesday. Lopez went to see…
omnibrain | June 7, 2008 According to the Mayo Clinic website,
Three out of four people with Alzheimer's will wander at some point during the course of the disease. Wanderers who get lost outdoors may become injured or even die of exposure. This risk increases dramatically if the weather is very cold or very hot.
There's a number of ways that you can protect your beloved family member from trying to walk to Disney World or their house in the old country.
Some of the ways the Mayo Clinic suggests for preventing wandering are:
Alarms and locks
A variety of devices can alert you that your loved one is on the move.…
gregladen | June 5, 2008According to the Centers for Disease Control, some 3,600 people drowned in 2005, the most recent year for which there are statistics. Some 10 to 15 percent of those deaths was classified as "dry drowning," which can occur up to 24 hours after a small amount of water gets into the lungs. In children, that can happen during a bath.
(See comments for discussion of "dry drowning" vs. "secondary drowning."
And this is what happened just now to 10 year old Johnny Jackson of South Carolina. He was swimming for the first time. In retrospect, he did exhibit some worrying symptoms or behavior, but…
gregladen | May 28, 2008 Lead What causes some individuals to be more violent than others? Obviously, being male is a risk factor for violence and more broadly for criminal behavior. The behavior of one's parents or other adult caretakers, as one is growing up, has been implicated in some studies as well. Poverty is an indirect factor as it can be associated with more direct risk factors.
A new study in PLoS looks specifically at one of several possible environmental factors linked to arrest patterns in general and arrest for violent crimes in particular: Exposure to lead.
Lead is a toxic metal that…
sciencetolife | May 20, 2008 Google Health, the latest service from Google, was recently launched as a beta version. Online personal health services have been around for a while (including Revolution Health and Microsoft's HealthVault) but here's what Google says is different about theirs:
1.Portability:Through Google Health, you will be able to have access and control over your health data from anywhere. People who travel will be able to move health data between their various health providers seamlessly and with total control.
2.Ease of use: Clean, easy-to-use user experience that makes managing your health…
omnibrain | May 20, 2008 Actually, I'll let you read the press release first and then we'll decide if 'religious leaders' and the damn hippies know something we don't ;)
Religious leaders have contended for millennia that burning incense is good for the soul. Now, biologists have learned that it is good for our brains too. In a new study appearing online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), an international team of scientists, including researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describe how burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly…
omnibrain | May 15, 2008 So what's the story with the big O? Scientific American has the full story. Here's the main points to get you warmed up though:
Principles of Pleasure
* Sexual desire and orgasm are subject to various influences on the brain and nervous system, which controls the sex glands and genitals.
* The ingredients of desire may differ for men and women, but researchers have revealed some surprising similarities. For example, visual stimuli spur sexual stirrings in women, as they do in men.
* Achieving orgasm, brain imaging studies show, involves more than heightened arousal. It requires…