‘School official’s shut down Saint Peter’s Prep High School in Jersey City days before the originally scheduled holiday break, because of a herpes outbreak.
CBS 2 has learned that five members of the high school’s wrestling team were diagnosed with herpes simplex virus type I — a form of herpes that is transmitted when skin comes into contact with open lesions. [..]
School officials decided to close down the entire all-boys private school over the weekend, shutting it down Monday afternoon. [..]
Workers spent yesterday disinfecting all the areas of the school used by the wrestling team, including lockers, showers, and the practice room, officials said.’
`In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body’s nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of Canadians.
Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children and one of the scientists. “Mice with diabetes suddenly didn’t have diabetes any more.”‘
`In retrospect, lighting the match was my big mistake. But I was only trying to retrieve the gerbil [..]’
Armageddon!
(570kb mp3)
see it here »
`A leading professor in the U.K. said that obese people should be warned about the health risks of their weight when buying clothes, according to The Daily Mail.
Naveed Sattar, professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, said that oversized clothing should have obesity help line numbers sewn on them to try to reduce Britain’s obesity crisis. [..]
The suggestion would be to put the label on all clothes with waist sizes over 37 inches for boys or 31 inches for girls. Women’s clothes over size 16 would also get a label.’
`It had been years since Jeremy (not his real name) had touched a basketball.
Living with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), Jeremy feared contamination from dirt and germs which prevented any part of his body from touching the ground, save for the soles of his shoes.
But whilst taking part in a small clinical study to investigate the effects of psilocybin, the hallucinogenic compound found in ‘magic’ mushrooms, on people with OCD, Jeremy’s bare feet lay on the floor and he expressed a willingness to engage in an activity, playing with a ball, that just hours before he would have been considered abhorrent.’
Hooray for psilocybin. 🙂
`The humble but lethal sea snail may hold the key to a better life for thousands of chronic pain sufferers.
Researchers from the University of Queensland believe conotoxins contained in potentially deadly sea snail venom could be used to create a treatment to replace conventional pain relief drugs such as morphine.
Dr Jenny Ekberg said her research had shown the conotoxin could produce pain relief without side effects in animals. [..]
“Unlike other anaesthetics, it’s very specific against the pain and doesn’t cause any side effects – it’s the first time anyone has discovered anything like this,” she said.’
`Healthy new-born babies may have been killed in Ukraine to feed a flourishing international trade in stem cells, evidence obtained by the BBC suggests.
Disturbing video footage of post-mortem examinations on dismembered tiny bodies raises serious questions about what happened to them. [..]
A senior British forensic pathologist says he is very concerned to see bodies in pieces – as that is not standard post-mortem practice.
It could possibly be a result of harvesting stem cells from bone marrow.’
`A range of extra-large condoms has been launched in South Africa, to cater for “well-endowed” men.
“A large number of South African men are bigger and complain about condoms being uncomfortable and too small,” said Durex manager Stuart Roberts.
Aids activists say the new condom could encourage men to practise safe sex in South Africa, where some 6m are HIV positive – more than any other country.’
`Growing numbers of Japanese women are afflicted with an illness that gives them orgasms virtually 24 hours a day. And with suggestions that it could be deadly, the women hardly know whether they’re coming or going, according to Shukan Post (11/24).
“If a guy simply taps me on the shoulder, I just swoon. Even when I go to the toilet, my body reacts. I’m a little bit scared of myself,” one woman sufferer tells Shukan Post.
Another adds: “When I got on the train one day, I could feel blood gushing toward a certain part of my body and it felt so good I almost let out a moan. It was sheer murder when everybody got pushed into the carriage.”‘
`A survey of more than 1,000 men in India has concluded that condoms made according to international sizes are too large for a majority of Indian men.
The study found that more than half of the men measured had penises that were shorter than international standards for condoms.
It has led to a call for condoms of mixed sizes to be made more widely available in India.’
`Bihari: most officially dead person
Lal Bihari (born 1961) is a farmer from Uttar Pradesh, India who was officially dead from 1976 to 1994. He founded Mritak Sangh or the Association of the Dead in Uttar Pradesh, India. He fought Indian government bureaucracy for 18 years to prove that he is alive. [..]
Bawden: the self-elected Pope Michael I, from Kansas
[..] Sedevacantists argue that if the College of Cardinals will not or cannot elect a valid pope, ordinary Catholics can do so, under the principle of “Epikeia” (Equity). Acting on the basis of this, David Bawden was elected Pope by six people on 1990 (including himself and his parents). He is still on the job to this day.’
`A number of Ontario’s public sector workers can’t account for millions in charges on taxpayer-funded credit cards, the province’s auditor general finds. [..]
The report highlights include:
* A litany of spending abuses at the Children’s Aid societies, including all-inclusive trips to Caribbean resorts and questionable overtime. (One employee was paid $21,000 to catch up on paperwork);
* $127 million charged to Hydro One credit cards without receipts. (One secretary charged $50,000 in goods that went to her boss, who signed the expenses);
* $6.5 million charged on Ontario Power Generation credit cards without any receipts;
* 300,000 more OHIP cards than Ontarians;
* Teachers and staff at four school boards charged thousands for questionable lunches, trips and gifts; and
* Workplace Safety Insurance Board patients receiving quicker access to high-tech diagnostic exams than non-WSIB workers.’
`Brain scans could help predict schizophrenia, research suggests.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans have revealed key changes in the brain’s grey matter in a small group before they developed symptoms.
The finding suggests tracking these changes over time, combined with traditional assessments, could help doctors to predict illness.’
`A 2-month-old baby was hospitalized with a blood-alcohol level more than four times the legal limit for an adult driver, but medical officials said she was expected to recover.
The infant was taken to Memorial Hospital early Sunday with a blood-alcohol level of 0.364 percent and was being treated in the intensive-care unit.
Hospital spokeswoman Sharon Miracle said Monday she had no new information on the infant’s condition.
Authorities were still investigating how the girl ingested the alcohol and no charges had been filed, police said.’
‘This is the engrossing story of Mary Toft, a young 18th-century Englishwoman who sought to make some money by inserting parts of rabbits into her vagina and pretending to expel them from her uterus. The case was celebrated at the time–popular poems appeared about it, bestsellers were written about it, the king of England ordered an investigation, her contemporaries considered her, as the title puts it, a medical mystery–and she became something of a freak-sensation. Pickover (Time: A Traveller’s Guide, etc.), carefully explores how 18th-century physicians were able to believe in such a medical marvel–even though they were scientifically in a position to have known better–and then finds in this history a cautionary tale appropriate for our own times.’
`Scientists have combined two molecules that occur naturally in blood to engineer a molecular complex that uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, says research published today in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
This molecular complex can use energy from the sun to create hydrogen gas, providing an alternative to electrolysis, the method typically used to split water into its constituent parts. The breakthrough may pave the way for the development of novel ways of creating hydrogen gas for use as fuel in the future.
Professors Tsuchida and Komatsu from Waseda University, Japan, in collaboration with Imperial College London, synthesised a large molecular complex from albumin, a protein molecule that is found at high levels in blood serum, and porphyrin, a molecule which is used to carry oxygen around the body and gives blood its deep red colour. Porphyrin molecules are normally found combined with metals, and in their natural state in the blood they have an iron atom at their centre. The scientists modified the porphyrin molecule to swap the iron for a zinc atom in the middle, which completely changed the chemistry and characteristics of the molecule.’
`Smokers who believe they can avoid fatal disease by slashing the number of cigarettes they smoke each day are sorely mistaken, according to a new study which suggests the only safe way to escape the risk is to quit.
Long-term research conducted among more than 50,000 Norwegians found that men who halved their daily consumption of cigarettes were as likely to die of cardiovascular disease, reduced blood flow to the heart or cancer as heavy smokers.
And, remarkably, it found that women who cut back were in fact more likely to die prematurely than their heavy-smoking counterparts.’
`A seizure took over Beloungea’s body while walking through his suburban Detroit neighborhood last April. When an onlooker in a neighbor’s house saw Beloungea having the seizure, which includes rapid repetitive arm motion, she misinterpreted it as criminal conduct. Specifically, she thought Beloungea was masturbating in public.
With that misconception in mind, she called the Oakland Police Department. When police arrived on the scene, Beloungea was still undergoing his seizure, acting disoriented and not responding to questions.
When officers couldn’t get through to Beloungea they drew their weapons, shocked him with a high-voltage taser, hit him with a baton and wrestled him to the ground. They then handcuffed him and put him in a police car.’
`In a controversial study, researchers have resurrected a retrovirus that infected our ancestors millions of years ago and now sits frozen in the human genome. Published online by Genome Research this week, the study may shed new light on the history of these genomic intruders, as well as their role in tumors. Although this particular virus, dubbed Phoenix, is a wimpy one, some argue that resuscitating any ancient virus is inherently risky and that the study should have undergone stricter reviews.
Retroviruses have the ability to make DNA copies of their RNA genomes and incorporate these into the host’s genome. If this happens in a germ cell, the copy can be passed on to future generations. Indeed, the human genome is littered with the remnants of such human endogenous retroviruses [..]’
`Forget where you left your glasses? Did those keys go missing again? A virus may be to blame.
Viruses that cause a range of ills from the common cold to polio may be able to infect the brain and cause steady damage, a team at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota reports. [..]
“Our findings suggest that picornavirus infections throughout the lifetime of an individual may chip away at the cognitive reserve, increasing the likelihood of detectable cognitive impairment as the individual ages,” the researchers write.
“We hypothesise that mild memory and cognitive impairments of unknown aetiology may, in fact, be due to accumulative loss of hippocampus function caused by repeated infection with common and widespread neurovirulent picornaviruses.”‘
`In a controversial treatment, doctors in the US have given a severely disabled child drugs to keep her small and ‘manageable’ for her parents.
In a report published in a medical journal this month, the doctors described a six-year-old girl with profound, irreversible developmental disability who was given high doses of estrogen to permanently halt her growth so that her parents could continue to care for her at home.
The controversial growth-attenuation treatment, which included hysterectomy, was requested by the child’s parents and initiated after careful consultation and review by an ethics committee. ‘
`A diet containing curry may help protect the aging brain, according a study of elderly Asians in which increased curry consumption was associated with better cognitive performance on standard tests.
Curcumin, found in the curry spice turmeric, possesses potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. [..]
After taking into account factors that could impact test results, they found that people who consumed curry “occasionally” and “often or very often” had significantly better MMSE scores than did those who “never or rarely” consumed curry.’
`A nurse in the US killed a plastic surgery patient she had a 30-year grudge against because she stole her boyfriend when they were at school, prosecutors have said. Sandra Joyner’s death after a mini-facelift had been attributed to medical error. But five years later, nurse anaesthetist Sally Hill has been charged with poisoning her with a powerful painkiller.’
`Men who use mobile phones could be risking their fertility, warn researchers.
A new study shows a worrying link between poor sperm and the number of hours a day that a man uses his mobile phone.
Those who made calls on a mobile phone for more than four hours a day had the worst sperm counts and the poorest quality sperm, according to results released yest at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine annual meeting in New Orleans.’
`Workers at computer factories are at increased risk of dying of cancer. The largest study of its kind published today in the open access journal Environmental Health looks at over 30,000 deaths of workers who had been employed at IBM factories in the USA. The study reveals that IBM factory workers were more likely to have died of cancer, including brain, kidney or breast cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, than the rest of the population.
The author of the study cannot link these deaths to any specific chemicals or other toxic exposures. The current study confirms previous, smaller studies and highlights clear health risks for workers in computer factories across the world.’
`The teenager said the stabbing pains in her face felt like electrical shocks that lasted 10 to 30 seconds and struck 20 to 30 times a day. Her doctors diagnosed trigeminal neuralgia, a nerve disorder sometimes called “suicide disease” because of the excruciating and dispiriting pain it causes.
Doctors tried painkillers, then stronger medication, but in the end, a cure proved more simple: The young woman removed the metal stud from her pierced tongue.’
`Two Canadians remained paralyzed Tuesday after drinking carrot juice contaminated with the botulism toxin, health officials said.
A week after Bolthouse Farms issued a continental recall of its carrot juice, at least 10 Toronto businesses still had the product on their shelves over the long holiday weekend, prompting health officials to call on the media to warn households and shopkeepers to throw away the juice.’
`Some participants still have not had a drink 40 years after the trials. For the past five years, Dr. Erika Dyck has been unearthing some intriguing facts related to a group of pioneering psychiatrists who worked in Saskatchewan, Canada in the ’50s and ’60s.
Among other things, the University of Alberta history of medicine professor has found records of the psychiatrists’ research that indicate a single dose of the hallucinogenic drug LSD, provided in a clinical, nurturing environment, can be an effective treatment for alcoholism.
Her findings are published this month in the journal Social History of Medicine.’
