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Deutsche Welle – As a new solar cycle of activity begins this year, the Earth will once again be bombarded with increased radiation from the sun. This effect may damage satellites and interfere with GPS, television and communications.
Telegraph – But doctors have accused the Government of rushing the project through, meaning that patients have had their details uploaded to the database before they have had a chance to object. The scheme, one of the largest of its kind in the world, will eventually hold the private records of more than 50 million patients. But it has been dogged by accusations that the private information held on it will not be safe from hackers. Read Article
New Scientist – OBESITY kills, everyone knows that. But is it possible that we’ve been looking at the problem in the wrong way? It seems getting fatter may be part of your body’s defence against the worst effects of unhealthy eating, rather than their direct cause. This curious insight comes at the same time as several studies distancing obesity itself from a host of diseases it has long been blamed for, including heart disease and diabetes. Read Article
AP — Too many pregnant women who want to avoid a repeat cesarean delivery are being denied the chance, concludes a government panel that urged doctors to rethink litigation-spurred policies that have swung the pendulum back toward the days of “once a C-section, always a C-section.” Fifteen years ago, nearly 3 in 10 women who had a first C-section were able to deliver their next baby vaginally, a trend called VBAC for “vaginal birth after cesarean.” Read Article
Science News – New research reveals just how bad an idea it was to colonize Greenland and Iceland more than a millennium ago: average temperatures in Iceland – Read Article
Reuters – The Dutch government wants to sell 21 million unused H1N1 flu vaccine doses back to their manufacturers after they proved unnecessary and no other country wanted to buy them, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. Read article
ScienceDaily — What began as research into how diabetics could possibly preserve their eyesight has led to findings that could prolong the vision of children afflicted with retinoblastoma. Dolores Takemoto, a Kansas State University professor of biochemistry who was researching protein kinase C gamma in the lens of the human eye, found her work taking a fascinating turn when she discovered a correlation between the protein Coonexin46 and hypoxia — a deficiency of oxygen which kills normal tissue cells. Read Article
Nature – Temperature records gleaned from clamshells reveal accuracy of Norse sagas. Oxygen isotopes in clamshells may provide the most detailed record yet of global climate change, according to a team of scientists who studied a haul of ancient Icelandic molluscs. Most measures of palaeoclimate provide data on only average annual temperatures,… Read Article
STRASBOURG (AFP) – Green members of the European parliament stood en masse and held up placards Tuesday in protest against the EU Commission approval of the cultivation of genetically modified potatoes. Read Article
BBC – Children with behavioural problems are twice as likely to suffer chronic pain as adults than others, say researchers. Scientists at Aberdeen University, who followed the lives of more than 19,000 children, think faulty hormone signals in the brain may play a key role. Read Article
Reuters – The Supreme Court said on Monday that it would decide whether a federal law protects vaccine manufacturers from lawsuits in state court seeking damages for alleged design defects. The high court agreed to hear a Pennsylvania case involving a lawsuit by the parents of a child who suffered seizures after her third dose of a diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine. They sued the vaccine manufacturer, Wyeth, which Pfizer Inc purchased last year. Read article
The Age – SCORES of starving and pain-ridden kangaroos have been culled after developing tooth and bone deformities from breathing and ingesting fluoride emissions. Many more are believed to be suffering from growths that will kill them. The affected kangaroos are living near the Alcoa aluminium smelter in Portland, in the state’s south-west, and the Austral Bricks factory at Craigieburn. Read Article
Ed. – The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) currently sees itself as a regulatory agency, so they hide behind already established levels for poisons in emissions (not the environment). It makes for a peaceful relationship with the manufacturing corporations poisoning the environment, which suits most governments. This makes the EPA pretty toothless instead of being the powerful and innovative agency that they purport themselves to be. The EPA, or the manufacturer, could have chosen to be pro-active; they might have prevented a lot of unnecessary animal-suffering, now and in the future. When environmental poisoning like this is allowed to happen government agencies have very much ‘lost the plot’ – certainly their ‘vision’. EPA ‘plans’vs. P.2 – stated objectives
Daily Telegraph – One third of people who were caught up in the 7/7 London bombings suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, researchers have said. However, only four per cent of them were referred by their GP for specialist treatment, it has been found. A study, published in the journal Psychological Medicine, conducted in the aftermath of the 2005 bombings traced survivors of the attacks, which killed 52 and injured 700. Read Article
BBC – An American medical charity has warned that thousands of Burmese refugees in Bangladesh are facing starvation. Physicians for Human Rights said government authorities are preventing the Rohingya, a Muslim minority, from receiving adequate care. Read Article
Medical News Today – University of Michigan scientists have identified a new reservoir for hidden HIV-infected cells that can serve as a factory for new infections. The findings, which appear online March 7 in Nature Medicine, indicate a new target for curing the disease so those infected with the virus may someday no longer rely on AIDS drugs for a lifetime. “Antiviral drugs have been effective at keeping the virus at bay. However once the drug therapy is stopped, the virus comes back,”… Read Article
Ed. – “Important new research by U-M has discovered that bone marrow, previously thought to be resistant to the virus, can contain latent forms of the infection.”
No, bone marrow stem cells have been known to become infected with HIV, as far back as 2007: “So far, the method involves removing HIV-infected stem cells from a patient’s bone marrow, growing new versions tweaked to fight HIV, and then returning the rejigged cells to the patient.” Read More 2007
ScienceDaily — Some anti-depressant drugs are associated with an increased chance of developing cataracts, according to a new statistical study by researchers at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and McGill University. The study, … showed statistical relationships between a diagnosis of cataracts or cataract surgery and the class of drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), as well as between cataracts and specific drugs within that class. Read article
CBS News – Doctors and parents in the Iraqi city of Fallujah are blaming a sharp increase in the number of birth defects on the highly sophisticated weapons U.S. troops have used in the city during the war. The BBC reported Thursday the staggering statistic from doctors in the city that the number of heart defects found in newborn babies is 13 times the number of similar birth defects in Europe. U.S. troops carried out a major offensive in the city in 2004. Military spokesman Michael Kilpatrick told the news organization it takes public health concerns “very seriously.” Read article
Daily Telegraph – Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, is planning to tackle the American fondness for sugary soft drinks with a so -called ’soda tax’. Mr Bloomberg, whose administration has already targeted unhealthy trans fats in food and banned smoking from many public areas, has urged New York state legislators to impose a tax of a cent per ounce on the sugary drinks. Read article
Deutsche Welle – What seems to be a spate of recent earthquakes is raising public alarm about an overall rise in dangerous tremors. But scientists say that, despite appearances, they have yet to prove a global increase in major quakes. Read article
ScienceDaily — Breast cancer patients with early stage disease that has spread to only one lymph node may not benefit from radiation after mastectomy, because of the low present-day risk of recurrence following modern surgery and systemic therapy, a finding that could one day change the course of treatment for thousands of women diagnosed each year, according to researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer. Read Article
Daily Telegraph – The so-called sunshine vitamin, which can be obtained from food or manufactured by human skin exposed to the sun, plays a key role in boosting the immune system, researchers believe. In particular it triggers and arms the body’s T cells, the cells in the body that seek out and destroy any invading bacteria and viruses. Read Article
Ed. – The study might be new, but that Vit. D plays a vital role in keeping a healthy immune system is NOT. e.g. From Vit. D information on the NIH website: “Vitamin D has other roles in human health, including modulation of neuromuscular and immune function and reduction of inflammation.” Vit. D is also known for it’s role in bone health.
Fox News – Drones are aircraft, but the technology that powers them has been advancing more like a rocket. Here’s a look at tomorrow’s drones, which are key to a modern military. Drones are aircraft, but the technology that powers them has been advancing more like a rocket. Here’s a look at tomorrow’s drones, which are key to a modern military. Read article
The Australian – PHARMACEUTICAL giant Merck is being urged to settle with hundreds of Australian heart attack victims after a Federal Court judge found the company’s blockbuster drug Vioxx doubled the risk of cardiac arrest. In a landmark decision with international ramifications, judge Christopher Jessup ruled the anti-inflammatory drug was not “reasonably fit” to be on the market and the selling of it by Merck’s Australian subsidiary breached the Trade Practices Act. Read Article
ABC – SHANE MCLEOD: Some believe the structure of the modern pharmaceutical industry means cases like Vioxx are inevitable. Dr Peter Mansfield is a GP (general practitioner) who founded the group Healthy Skepticism that campaigns for changes to the way drugs are marketed. He’s also a visiting research fellow at the University of Adelaide. He joins me on the line now. Read transcript/listen to audio.
msnbc – Too much boob tube also makes you weaker, research shows. You’ve accepted the idea that TV makes you dumber. You know there are lots of more edifying things you could be doing with your time than cheering on the contestants on “Survivor.” And unless you’re working out to an exercise video, you know those hours sprawled out in front of the screen are going to make you fatter — not to mention the impact of all that junk food you’ve been tempted to scarf down during the commercial breaks. But you’ll be surprised to learn the host of other bad things TV can do to you. Read Article
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