Clipmarks | wiccantexan's 'medical' clips

Dark Chocolate reduces CFS study suggests

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 01:58:22 GMT

clipped by: kkcapricorn
clipper's remarks: It sounds good to me. Any good reason to eat chocolate suits me just fine.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

A daily dose of dark chocolate may help reduce the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome, say UK researchers.

researchers from Hull York Medical School said the results were surprising but dark chocolate may be having an effect on the brain chemical serotonin.

Study leader Professor Steve Atkin, an expert in endocrinology, said the idea for the study came after a patient reported feeling much better after swapping her normal milk chocolate for dark chocolate with a high cocoa solid content.

Those taking dark chocolate reported significantly less fatigue and reported feeling more fatigue when they stopped eating it

"Dark chocolate is high in polyphenols, which have been associated with health benefits such as a reduction in blood pressure.

Also high polyphenols appear to improve levels of serotonin in the brain, which has been linked with chronic fatigue syndrome and that may be a mechanism."

"If you derive benefit, then it's a no-harm, no-risk situation

Tags: dark chocolate, cfs, serotonin, study

Natural-born painkiller found in human saliva

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 18:39:49 GMT

clipped by: BitDrifter

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Saliva from humans has yielded a natural painkiller up to six times more powerful than morphine, researchers say.

The substance, dubbed opiorphin, may spawn a new generation of natural painkillers that relieve pain as well as morphine but without the addictive and psychological side effects of the traditional drug.

When the researchers injected a pain-inducing chemical into rats’ paws, 1 gram of opiorphin per kilogram of body weight achieved the same painkilling effect as 3 grams of morphine.

The substance was so successful at blocking pain that, in a test involving a platform of upended pins, the rats needed six times as much morphine as opiorphin to render them oblivious to the pain of standing on the needle points.

“Its pain-suppressive effect is like that of morphine,” says Catherine Rougeot at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, who led the research. “But we have to test its side effects as it is not a pure painkiller,” she says. “It may also be an anti-depressive molecule.”

Tags: pain, pain killer, medicine, medical, medication, health, science, technology, saliva, biology

Garlic attacks brain cancer

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 06:19:59 GMT

clipped by: hudgal1

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

Garlic can kill cells that cause glioblastoma, a brain cancer that is usually fatal, researchers in South Carolina have found.

Swapan Ray and Narendra Banik, neurosciences professors at the Medical University of South Carolina, said their discovery came during a search for a way to kill the cancer without harming healthy cells, The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier reported.

"In the disease, you want to kill the cells, but you want to protect others," Banik told the newspaper. "Our tests were to see how effective the compounds were."

Banik, Ray and post-doctoral fellow Arabinda Das tested several organic compounds on cancerous cells. They included garlic in the test program because of its reputation for having healing powers.

Three organo-sulfur compounds they tested effectively stopped the cancerous cells, Ray said.

"This research highlights the great promise of plant-originated compounds as natural medicine for controlling the malignant growth of human brain tumor cells," Ray said.

Tags: cancer, garlic

Have Sex, Live Longer

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 11:52:11 GMT

clipped by: haraya
clipper's remarks: Sequel to the Eat Less, Live Longer article. Now I wish I clipped the Drink Wine, Live Longer clip, hehe.

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

According to a spate of news reports on life extension that have spread across the internet like influenza just about everything out there ads a little time to your mortal coil. Wine, calorie reduction diets, low body temperatures have all made news for their ability to give you a few more good years on earth, and now, so too does sex. According to a 1997 study in the British Medical Journal men who have regular orgasms live longer. The also have a better sense of smell, reduced depression and improved heart function.

This article in Forbes list a few good reasons to keep knocking boots until your boots can knock no more.

So with pot helping Alzheimer's, red wine helping you age gracefully, and sex improving just about everything else, you have to like the direction modern medicine is going.

Tags: health, science, medicine, body, biology, sex, life

7 Medical Myths Even Doctors Believe

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 10:26:02 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Popular culture is loaded with myths and half-truths. Most are harmless. But when doctors start believing medical myths, perhaps it's time to worry.

In the British Medical Journal this week, researchers looked into several common misconceptions, from the belief that a person should drink eight glasses of water per day to the notion that reading in low light ruins your eyesight.

"We got fired up about this because we knew that physicians accepted these beliefs and were passing this information along to their patients," said Dr. Aaron Carroll, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. "And these beliefs are frequently cited in the popular media."

Myth: We use only 10 percent of our brains.

Myth: You should drink at least eight glasses of water a day.

Myth: Fingernails and hair grow after death.

Myth: Shaved hair grows back faster, coarser and darker.

Myth: Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight.

Myth: Eating turkey makes you drowsy.

Tags: myths, common

Patient shocks surgeons with green blood

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 16:05:01 GMT

clipped by: cpltaiji
clipper's remarks: Say "sulfhaemoglobinaemia" three times, fast! ---

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Surgeons operating on a 42-year-old Canadian man got a shock when they discovered dark-green blood coursing through his arteries, like Star Trek's Mr Spock.

Stunned, the medical team immediately sent his blood for analysis. The test revealed the blood discolouration was caused by sulfhaemoglobinaemia, which occurs when a sulphur atom gets incorporated into the oxygen-carrying haemoglobin protein in blood.

Doctors suspected that the patient's migraine medication caused the condition. "It is possible that our patient’s arguably excessive intake of sumatriptan, which contains a sulfonamide group, caused his sulfhaemoglobinaemia," they say.

Tags: science, general interest, bizarre, medicine, health

Angry Doc Cuts Off Patients Penis

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 13:57:03 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.stuff.co.nz

In a fit of rage, a Romanian doctor cut off a patient's penis during surgery and then proceeded to mutilate it.

The 36-year-old Romanian man had gone into Bucharest hospital to have corrective surgery on one of his testicles. During the operation, surgeon Naum Ciomu lost his temper, picked up a scalpel and hacked off the man's penis.

To the shock of the nursing staff, he then placed the penis on the operating table and proceeded to chop it into small pieces before storming out of the theatre, the Metro.co.uk website reported this week.

Afterwards, Ciomu claimed he had been under stress and lost his temper after he accidentally cut the man's urinary channel and 'overreacted'.

Ciomu has since had his medical license suspended and a Romanian court has ordered him to pay $NZ284,351 in damages to the man with the mutilated member.

The court also ordered the hospital to pay $NZ56,858 costs to the man to pay for the operation to rebuild his penis using tissue from his arm.

Tags: medical, doctor, angry, penis

The Teen Brain

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:55:21 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Human and animal studies, Jensen and Urion note, have shown that the brain grows and changes continually in young people—and that it is only about 80 percent developed in adolescents. The largest part, the cortex, is divided into lobes that mature from back to front. The last section to connect is the frontal lobe, responsible for cognitive processes such as reasoning, planning, and judgment. Normally this mental merger is not completed until somewhere between ages 25 and 30—much later than these two neurologists were taught in medical school.

There are also gender differences in brain development. As Urion and Jensen explain, the part of our brain that processes information expands during childhood and then begins to thin, peaking in girls at roughly 12 to 14 years old and in boys about two years later. This suggests that girls and boys may be ready to absorb challenging material at different stages, and that schools may be missing opportunities to reach them.

Clip Source: harvardmagazine.com

Your teenage daughter gets top marks in school, captains the debate team, and volunteers at a shelter for homeless people. But while driving the family car, she text-messages her best friend and rear-ends another vehicle.

How can teens be so clever, accomplished, and responsible—and reckless at the same time? Easily, according to two physicians at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School (HMS) who have been exploring the unique structure and chemistry of the adolescent brain.

“It’s a paradoxical time of development. These are people with very sharp brains, but they’re not quite sure what to do with them.”

Research during the past 10 years, powered by technology such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, has revealed that young brains have both fast-growing synapses and sections that remain unconnected.

This leaves teens easily influenced by their environment and more prone to impulsive behavior, even without the impact of souped-up hormones and any genetic or family

Tags: neuroscience, brain, development

Diabetic girl dies as parents pray

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:04:45 GMT

clipped by: AcesLucky
clipper's remarks: "She said her family believed in the Bible and that healing came from God. But she insisted that they were not "crazy religious people"

"Even after her death, her parents, Dale and Leilani Neumann, who did not belong to any organised faith, prayed over her body in the hope that she might be resurrected."

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Diabetic girl dies as parents pray instead of calling for medical aid

An 11-year-old girl died from diabetes after her parents prayed for her recovery rather than calling for medical assistance.

Madeline Neumann died on Sunday in Wisconsin, from an undiagnosed but treatable ailment.

Dan Vergin, the local police chief, said she had been ill for a month, suffering symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness.

"She just got sicker and sicker until she was dead," he said.

Police are now preparing a report for prosecutors. However, legal action against the parents may be prevented by a Wisconsin state statute against failing to act to protect children from bodily harm.

The statute contains an exemption for what it refers to as "treatment through prayer". Mrs Neumann, whose husband is a former policeman, said they had never expected her daughter to die. She suffered from diabetic ketoacidosis, which left her with too little insulin.

Tags: faith, faith healing, prayer, bible, christianity, christian, religion

Intelligent People Are Prone to Alcoholism

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 10:39:28 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: news.softpedia.com

The higher your IQ coefficient is, the more drinks you take daily. These are the results of a research made by the Medical Research Council and published in the "American Journal of Public Health," which points that women are particularly prone to drink heavily in their thirties, if they have an over-the-average intelligence.

It seems that being smart enough to know the bad effects

of alcohol is not enough and the stressful jobs of high-skilled professionals push them to the alcohol relief. This is especially true if women attempt to ascend in male-dominated professions.

It appeared that the men and women who scored higher for childhood mental ability tests displayed higher rates of problem drinking in adulthood, and the likelihood of drink issue was increased for intelligent women compared to men.

Overall 47% of men and 22% of women had drinking issues, consuming over the recommended upper limits of 21 units weekly for men and 14 units weekly for women,

Tags: behavior, drinking, alcohol, intelligence

Why Is Marijuana Illegal?

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:40:47 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: A brief history of the criminalization of cannabis.

Clip Source: blogs.salon.com

Many people assume that marijuana was made illegal through some kind of process involving scientific, medical, and government hearings; that it was to protect the citizens from what was determined to be a dangerous drug.

The actual story shows a much different picture. Those who voted on the legal fate of this plant never had the facts, but were dependent on information supplied by those who had a specific agenda to deceive lawmakers. You'll see below that the very first federal vote to prohibit marijuana was based entirely on a documented lie on the floor of the Senate.

You'll also see that the history of marijuana's criminalization is filled with:

Racism

Fear

Protection of Corporate Profits

Yellow Journalism

Ignorant, Incompetent, and/or Corrupt Legislators

Personal Career Advancement and Greed

These are the actual reasons marijuana is illegal.

Scientists discover way to reverse loss of memory

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:29:28 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: A remarkable piece of luck for many.

Clip Source: richarddawkins.net

Scientists performing experimental brain surgery on a man aged 50 have stumbled across a mechanism that could unlock how memory works.

The accidental breakthrough came during an experiment originally intended to suppress the obese man's appetite, using the increasingly successful technique of deep-brain stimulation. Electrodes were pushed into the man's brain and stimulated with an electric current. Instead of losing appetite, the patient instead had an intense experience of déjà vu. He recalled, in intricate detail, a scene from 30 years earlier. More tests showed his ability to learn was dramatically improved when the current was switched on and his brain stimulated.

Scientists are now applying the technique in the first trial of the treatment in patients with Alzheimer's disease. If successful, it could offer hope to sufferers from the degenerative condition, which affects 450,000 people in Britain alone, by providing a "pacemaker" for the brain.

Tags: science, medical

Police tase Fla. wheelchair-bound woman 10x; she dies

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 14:27:38 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: Disturbing story. A schizophrenic woman in a wheelchair calls 911 because she believes she's in danger. When cops arrive, she's swinging a hammer and a knife around. They tase her ten times in two minutes, and she dies within an hour.

Clip Source: www.local6.com

Wheelchair-Bound Woman Dies After Being Shocked With Taser 10 Times

A Clay County woman's family said it's seeking justice after their loved one died shortly after being shocked 10 times with Taser guns during a confrontation with police.

The family of 56-year-old Emily Delafield said it would take the Green Cove Springs Police Department to court.

Within an hour of her call to 911, Delafield, a wheelchair-bound woman documented to have mental illness, was dead.

"One, she's in a wheelchair. Two, she's schizophrenic. Three, they're using a Taser on a person that's in a wheelchair, and then four is that they tasered her 10 times for a period of like two minutes," Alexander said.

According to a police report, one of the officers used her Taser gun nine times for a total of 160 seconds and the other officer discharged his Taser gun once for a total of no more than five seconds.

On her death certificate, the medical examiner ruled Delafield's death a homicide.

Tags: police, crime, news, u.s.-news

Blindness to be curable in 5 years.

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 22:50:24 GMT

clipped by: BitDrifter
clipper's remarks: with stem cell treatment.

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

A revolutionary technique being developed by British scientists could cure blindness in millions of people around the world.

The first 45-minute operations could take place within five years and could be as commonplace as cataract surgery in a decade.

The improvement is likely to be great enough to transform lives, allowing the blind to regain the ability to carry out everyday tasks such as reading or driving.

The pioneering stem cell surgery tackles age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of blindness in the elderly. There are about 300,000 sufferers in this country and the number is expected to treble in the next 25 years to around one million as the population ages.

Tags: stem cells, science, biology, blind, eyes, medical, health, technology

Skeleton Shows Ancient Brain Surgery

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:12:55 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Archaeologists have unearthed the skull of a young woman in northern Greece who is believed to have undergone head surgery in the third century, Greek news media reported Wednesday.

A Greek team discovered the skeleton at an ancient cemetery in Veria, with the skull including an injury that led them to conclude the surgery had been performed.

"We think that there was a complex surgical intervention that only an experienced doctor could have performed," said Ioannis Graikos, the head of the archaeological dig.

"Medical treatment on the human body in the Roman Veria is part of a long tradition that began with Hippocrates up to Roman doctor Celsus and Galen," he said, cited in the Ta Nea newspaper.

Hippocrates is believed to have lived in the fifth century BC, Celsus between 25 BC to 50 AD, and Galen from 131 to 201.

Tags: archaeology, greece, brain surgery, ancient science, medicine, science