Daily Telegraph – The research shows that mentally stimulating activities such as brain training games, crossword puzzles, reading and listening to the radio protect the brain from memory loss and slowing of thought. But later on, they exacerbate the speed at which conditions such as Alzheimer’s Disease take hold. Dr Robert Wilson, of Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago, said the benefits of an active mind may come at a cost later in life – although he did not know why. Read article
PhysOrg.com — Large scale, cost-effective stem cell factories able to keep up with demand for new therapies to treat a range of human illnesses are a step closer to reality, thanks to a scientific breakthrough involving researchers at The University of Nottingham. Read article
New Scientist – …illegal drugs are not generally associated with the lab bench. Now, for the first time in decades, that is starting to change. For almost 40 years, mainstream research has shied away from investigating the therapeutic benefits of drugs whose recreational use is prohibited by law. But a better understanding of how these drugs work in animal studies, and the advancement of brain-imaging techniques, has sparked a swathe of new research. What’s more, clinical trials of MDMA (ecstasy), LSD and other psychoactive drugs are starting to yield some positive results. Read article
Reuters – Widely used anticonvulsant drugs, including Pfizer’s Neurontin and Novartis’ Trileptal, may increase the risk of suicide, attempted suicide and violent death in patients taking them for the first time, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. Compared with Johnson & Johnson’s generic epilepsy drug topiramate or Topamax, the team found an increased risk for suicide in new users of Neurontin, sold generically as gabapentin, GlaxoSmithKline’s Lamictal or lamotrigine, Novartis’ Trileptal or oxcarbazepine and Cephalon’s Gabitril or tiagabine. [The] team also found an increased risk of suicide with the drug valproate sold by Sanofi-Aventis as Epilim and as Depakine in the United States by Abbott Laboratories Inc. Read article
ScienceDaily — While preterm birth is a known risk factor for cerebral palsy, an examination of data for infants born at term or later finds that compared with delivery at 40 weeks, birth at 37 or 38 weeks or at 42 weeks or later was associated with an increased risk of cerebral palsy, according to a study in the September 1 issue of JAMA [Journal of the American Medical Association]. Read article
Daily Mail – Under the specter of an autism epidemic sweeping America, Senator Barbara Boxer (CA) convened hearings last week on the “State of Research on Potential Environmental Health Factors with Autism.” (3) The result? Experts agree that the primary explanation for the dramatic increase in autism is toxic environmental exposure and gene-environment interactions. New research shows that even low-dose, multiple toxic and infectious exposures may be a key factor to the onset of autism. Read article
Related article: Autism explosion half explained, half still a mystery
Guardian – The Home Office pathologist criticised for his autopsy on the body of the newspaper seller who died at the G20 protests in London was found guilty of misconduct and “deficient professional performance” today. Dr Freddy Patel’s fitness to practise is impaired, a disciplinary panel of the General Medical Council ruled. He is now likely to face an application that he should be struck off or suspended from the medical register. Patel’s examination of the newspaper vendor, Ian Tomlinson, when he said Tomlinson had died of a heart attack, was later contradicted after a second examination and his role has become pivotal to the controversy surrounding the case. Read Article
Daily Mail – Puffing cannabis from a pipe can significantly reduce chronic pain in patients with damaged nerves, a small study has shown. Pill preparations of cannabis extract have previously been successful in treating certain types of pain. But researchers avoided studying the effects of smoking cannabis, as if taking the drug to get high. Read article
PhysOrg.com – Scientists have identified a genetic basis for determining the severity of allergic asthma in experimental models of the disease. The study may help in the search for future therapeutic strategies to fight a growing medical problem that currently lacks effective treatments, researchers from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center report in the Aug. 29 Nature Immunology. The prevalence of asthma has been increasing in recent years, according to Marsha Wills-Karp, Ph.D., director of the division of Immunobiology at Cincinnati Children’s and the study’s senior investigator. Read article
Daily Mail – Three babies have died at one of Britain’s leading neonatal units after being found to be carrying superbugs resistant to common antibiotics. The outbreak, at University College Hospital in London, affected 15 babies over six weeks, officials have confirmed. Read article
Related article: WHO calls for monitoring of new superbug
Daily Mail – Binge drinking and obesity are fuelling a surge in deaths from liver disease, experts have warned. The number of lives claimed by damaged, diseased and worn-out livers has soared by 60 per cent in only a decade. Liver disease, including cancer, claimed 9,719 lives in England in 2008 – up from 6,058 ten years earlier, a report by MPs says today. Read article
ScienceDaily — Naringenin, an antioxidant derived from the bitter flavor of grapefruits and other citrus fruits, may cause the liver to break down fat while increasing insulin sensitivity, a process that naturally occurs during long periods of fasting. Read article
PhysOrg.com – Eastern parts of India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh are ravaged by encephalitis each year as malnourished children succumb to the virus which is transmitted by mosquitoes from pigs to humans but this is one of the worst outbreaks, officials said.
The deaths of four more children on Saturday pushed the toll to 215, with hundreds sick, some two to a bed, in hospitals in Gorakhpur, a deeply neglected area of 14 million people, regional health officer U.K. Srivastava told AFP by telephone from Gorakhpur. Read article
Daily Telegraph – Patients who undergo major hospital operations could be at greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, scientists believe. Tests carried out on mice have revealed changes in their brains, similar to those observed in humans with dementia, when the animals are operated on. The researchers suspect the same effect could occur in humans after surgical procedures and are now to start a new study to further explore the theory. Many doctors already suspect there may be a link between surgery and the onset of Alzheimer’s. Read article
Daily Mail – A mother whose son suffered severe brain damage after he was given the controversial MMR vaccine as a baby has been awarded £90,000 compensation. The judgment is the first of its kind to be revealed since concerns were raised about the safety of the triple jab. Robert Fletcher, 18, is unable to talk, stand unaided or feed himself. Read article
Sify – The government Friday denied that Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines were responsible for the reported deaths from Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. ‘In Andhra Pradesh among 14,091 vaccinated girls, five deaths have been reported whereas in Gujarat two deaths were reported among 10,686 girls,’ Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. Read article
NY Times — The scene was a kind of science court. On trial was the question “Can anything — running on a treadmill, eating more spinach, learning Arabic — prevent Alzheimer’s disease or delay its progression?” To try to answer that question, the National Institutes of Health sponsored the court, appointing a jury of 15 medical scientists with no vested interests in Alzheimer’s research. They would hear the evidence and reach a judgment on what the data showed. Read article
Daily Mail – We all know that a walk does our waistline good. Now research has found it can make you smarter as well. And it doesn’t have to be speed-walking either – a gentle stroll several times a week will not only boost fitness but can also make you brighter. Research from the U.S. revealed that walking ‘at one’s own pace’ for 40 minutes, three times a week can improve intelligence. Read article
On Saturday 28 August, the editor of www.OpenYourEyesNews.com, James Fairbairn, made a guest appearance on ABC720 Radio in Perth, Western Australia to discuss with host, James Lush, some of the key news events of recent days.
Check out our latest interview on our new Podcast channel and please subscribe to keep up to date with future episodes of OpenYourEyesNews
BBC – Cancers of the food pipe in Britain have doubled in men over 25 years, figures from Cancer Research UK show. However, over the same period – 1983 to 2007 – cases in women only rose by 8%. Researchers said the gender contrast in oesophageal cancer rates could be largely explained by the way men put weight on – as “beer bellies” – as well as genetic differences. Men are also likely to have poorer diets, eating more fatty foods and lower amounts of fruit and vegetables. Read article
Times of India – A day after four children died in Mohanlalganj during an immunization drive, a team from Union ministry of health and family welfare, headed by deputy commissioner, immunisation, Dr Ajay Kheda, inspected the community health centre, even as an FIR was lodged on Sunday against the health team which administered the vaccine to the four children who died. The officials have been booked for culpable homicide. Read article
PhysOrg.com – The use of bariatric or weight loss surgery has increased ten-fold in NHS hospitals in England since 2000, finds a study published in the British Medical Journal today. One reason for this rapid rise is increased demand from obese patients as they become more aware of surgery as a viable treatment option, suggest the researchers. Bariatric surgery is performed on people who are dangerously obese, for the purpose of losing weight. Read article
PhysOrg.com – Mothers who did not breastfeed their children have significantly higher rates of type 2 diabetes later in life than moms who breastfed, report University of Pittsburgh researchers in a study published in the September issue of the American Journal of Medicine. “Diet and exercise are widely known to impact the risk of type 2 diabetes, but few people realize that breastfeeding also reduces mothers’ risk of developing the disease later in life by decreasing maternal belly fat.” Read article
ScienceDaily — Second-hand smoke is associated with a number of diseases and conditions, including cancer, heart disease, and emphysema. It is an irritant to lung tissue and blood vessels, but the processes through which the body reacts to second-hand smoke comprise a mystery scientists are only beginning to unravel. Researchers at the University of Colorado-Denver are currently studying how second-hand smoke affects the lungs of rats, and so far it appears that second-hand smoke triggers a complex inflammatory response. Read article
Daily Telegraph – Doctors are trying to treat Alzheimer’s disease when its too late and the damage has already been done, an editorial in The Lancet has said. Efforts to identify patients earlier before memory starts to fade and damage to the brain become irreparable, might be a better approach to tackling the disease, the article author suggests. A series of drugs in development to treat the disease have failed along with others for multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. Read article
