blogs: Health

Показаны сообщения с ярлыком Health. Показать все сообщения

суббота, 8 июля 2017 г.

Tripping on Peyote in Navajo Nation

A journalist exploring psychedelics’ therapeutic potential participates in a ceremony of the Native American Church

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

пятница, 7 июля 2017 г.

New film follows teens with autism finding joy and acceptance in the water

The "Swim Team" documentary focuses on teens from different cultures and backgrounds who share one commonality: They're on the autism spectrum.

Mother of organ donor meets recipient at his daughter's wedding

Six of Marissa Pummill's organs were donated after her death at 21.

Georgia health commissioner named CDC director in Atlanta

Georgia's health commissioner named new director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

FDA approves first new drug in 20 years for sickle cell

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first drug in nearly 20 years for sickle cell, an inherited disease in which abnormally shaped red blood cells can't properly carry oxygen throughout the body

How 9 friends saved a woman waiting for a heart transplant

Amy Silverstein shares her story in "My Glory Was I Had Such Friends."

Night Owl? Scientists Identify a Gene That May Be Keeping People Up at Night

A mutation found in some individuals who suffer from delayed sleep phase disorder could be interfering with their circadian clocks

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

четверг, 6 июля 2017 г.

This Is The Parenting Trend That Could Put Babies At Risk For An Awful Disease

Using Big Data to Hack Autism

Researchers scour datasets for clues to autism—needles in a genetic haystack of 20,000 people

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

среда, 5 июля 2017 г.

Oregon approves measure requiring insurers to cover abortion

Oregon lawmakers approved a measure requiring insurance companies to cover abortions and other reproductive services at no cost to the patient regardless of income, citizenship status or gender identity

вторник, 4 июля 2017 г.

WATCH: Is Zika virus still a danger?

Since 2015, 1,654 babies have been born in the U.S. to women who contracted Zika, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What is being done to tackle the growing concern of mental health?

Mental health issues are a growing concern that you or a loved one might be facing. Psychiatric professionals, public figures and politicians are all taking notice of the increase in mental health issues today. These problems are valid and worth taking the time to treat. Learn what you can do to help conquer mental health […]

The post What is being done to tackle the growing concern of mental health? appeared first on ShinyShiny.

Period brain is not real: Menstruation doesn’t affect cognitive functioning, study finds

Dr. Brigitte Leeners frequently sees women convinced fluctuating hormone levels across their menstrual cycles can make them feel mentally foggy and sluggish, like the Pixies song, Where is my mind?

So the expert in women’s reproductive health and her team put dozens of women through a batch of computer-assisted brain tasks at different stages in their cycles, looking for any consistent or meaningful changes in cognitive functioning.

They found none.

Overall, “women’s cognitive performance is in general not disturbed by hormonal changes occurring with the menstrual cycle,” reports Leeners of University Hospital Zurich and lead author of the study published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.

While some studies have suggested hormonal dips and surges really do affect a woman’s attention and working memory, Leeners suspects those positive findings could simply be down to chance and “utterly small” sample sizes (fewer than 10 women in some highly-cited papers).

A woman’s menstrual cycle is typically 28 days and includes three phases — follicular (before release of the egg), ovulatory (egg release) and luteal (post-egg release, the time between when a woman ovulates and gets her period).

For their study, Leeners and her team recruited 88 women aged 18 to 40. A total of 68 women were re-assessed during a second menstrual cycle. Most similar studies have followed women across only one.

Levels of estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and other hormones were measured at predefined days across the cycles.

The women also completed cognitive tests on a touch screen computer measuring divided attention, visual-spatial working memory (the ability to recall shapes and colours as well as their movements) and cognitive bias, or flaws in judgement or thinking people make when processing information.

While some hormones — progesterone and testosterone — were associated with changes across one cycle in some women, the effects didn’t repeat in the second round, suggesting a learning curve effect, Leeners said. “Once the women had done the test the first time, they were better the next time. You perform better when you know the test,” she said. If it had been down to hormones, the women would have had similar scores in both cycles.

“I think the important thing is that women perform independent from hormonal levels,” Leeners said.

In their paper, she and her colleagues add that “caution is warranted when conclusions are made for specific hormonal effects on cognitive functioning.”

Some courts, for example, have accepted menstrual stress as a mitigating factor in the sentencing of female offenders, the argument being that “women were in their pre-menstrual phase and so they could not think properly and did things they should not have done,” Leeners said. One American law professor once famously argued premenstrual stress should be considered a form of temporary insanity.

However, according to Leeners, “women’s hormonal-menstrual cycle related changes do not limit them in their cognitive functioning.”

Her team wasn’t studying “premenstrual dysphoric disorder,” a debilitating condition thought to affect two to five per cent of women that can cause severe depression, irritability and mood changes before menstruation.

Also, although their sample was larger than most, it still involved fewer than 100 women. In addition, the researchers assessed only three brain functions, which, they note “are certainly not exhaustive and hence do not cover the whole range of cognitive functioning.”

One study published by British researchers in 2014 found women performed worse on attention-based brain tasks — they were slower and less accurate — when they were experiencing period-related cramping and pain. Earlier this year Britain’s Independent newspaper reported Italy was considering a draft law that would require companies to allow female employees three days of paid leave per month for painful periods.

About one third of the women in the new study had endometriosis or polycystic ovarian syndrome, which can affect hormone levels. However, the finding held after the researchers controlled for endocrinological problems.

National Post

• Email: skirkey@postmedia.com | Twitter: sharon_kirkey ‏

понедельник, 3 июля 2017 г.

Lumie launches Bedbug to help children sleep

Children struggling to sleep? Light therapy specialist Lumie has launched a new children’s sleep aid called the Lumie Bedbug which has been designed to promote a calm bedtime and good night’s sleep for babies and young children The manufacturer claims it is unique because it combines a reading light with a sunset feature and nightlight. The fully adjustable […]

The post Lumie launches Bedbug to help children sleep appeared first on ShinyShiny.

Are You a Magnet for Mosquitoes?

Researchers are studying the way twins smell for clues about the genetic basis of insect appeal

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

четверг, 29 июня 2017 г.

This Is The Weird Way Your Birth Month Could Affect Your Health Down The Road

среда, 28 июня 2017 г.

Politicians will keep control over research spending, not expert council: science minster

The Trudeau government came to power boasting that it “believes in science,” but it seems that faith goes only so far.

Kirsty Duncan, the science minister, poured cool or cold water Wednesday on two key pieces of advice from an expert panel she appointed to examine Canada’s flagging science-research world.

The panel’s request to boost research spending by $1.3 billion a year must be “balanced” carefully against other priorities, while the idea of a body of distinguished scientists that could affect funding decisions won’t happen, she said in an interview.

“I believe that as elected officials … who are responsible to the people who put them in government, we have to be prudent with taxpayer’s money. We have to be accountable,” said Duncan. “I don’t think putting in place an unelected body, I don’t think it should have say over funding. That’s not on.”

The rookie minister has generally earned positive reviews from scientists like Dr. David Naylor, the former University of Toronto president who chaired her panel on “strengthening the foundations of Canadian research.”

Naylor said Wednesday he still believes Duncan is a champion for science at the cabinet table, regardless of how much she might dampen expectations publicly. But he said he was puzzled by her comments on the advisory body his panel recommended, saying it was only meant to give counsel on spending and policy, not make decisions.

“The assertion of political prerogatives is a bit baffling, because we didn’t propose to usurp them,” he said. “(But) let us not, please, get back into the situation where we starve peer-reviewed mechanisms that make evidence-based decisions about who gets funding, and re-impose a regime where priorities are set top-down.”

Boosting the role of science was a key plank of the Liberals’ 2015 election platform, a reaction to the perceived anti-science posture of Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.

To that end, the new government freed up civil-service scientists to discuss their work publicly, reinstated the long-form census considered key to much research and added $95 million to the main research granting agencies last year.

But the 2017 budget gave them no new money, and Duncan has yet to fulfill a key promise to appoint a chief science advisor. She said Wednesday she wanted to first consult the scientific community and promised the advisor would be named “soon.”

Meanwhile, the panel headed by Naylor painted a grim picture of the science scene.

Canada’s spending on research and development relative to GDP has been slowly shrinking over the last 15 years, the report said, its standing among industrialized countries slipping as a result. Canada, for instance, lags “well behind” even Australia in winning international science prizes, despite having a 50-per-cent bigger population, the panel noted.

A separate UBC survey of scientists across the country suggested that 70% are scaling back research projects, most citing lack of funding.

The Naylor panel urged the government to spend an extra $1.3 billion annually – phased in over four years – for the three agencies that bankroll study in health, natural-sciences and engineering and social science, as well as the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.

Duncan did not exactly embrace that advice Wednesday.

“It is our government’s job to balance the needs of the research community with the needs of Canadians,” she said about the recommendation. “I think we have to be realistic. It was ten years of cuts – ten years of cuts to science … There is not a quick fix here. It’s going to take time to make up that lost ground. It takes time to turn the Queen Mary around.”

Naylor said he believes the Liberals will inject more cash into the system in the 2018 budget, but said the scientific community will be deeply disappointed if that doesn’t happen.

Duncan did commit to establishing a science advisory council, though without any say over spending.

Another observer rated the minister as highly motivated and competent, and the government’s intentions positive, but said actual progress has been incredibly slow.

In fact, Amir Attaran, a health-policy expert and Canada Research Chair holder at the University of Ottawa, said he’s disbanding his own research program because of funding challenges.

This government’s overall approach is “massively better” than the Conservatives’, he said, but “things from a researcher’s perspective have not really improved.”

National Post

tblackwell@nationalpost.com