Marketing Consultants to the Overlooked Disabled Community
| Home Page |
| About Us |
| We Are Able |
| Clients |
| Did you Know? |
| What's New! |
| Self Test |
| Disorders |
| Hot Links / Sites |
| Contact Us |
|
Even when you sleep
November 2009
HAIFA - Livescience.com noted studies showing your brain's visual centers remain active when your eyes are closed and even when you sleep.
It's a different type of activity, one not understood fully.
The resting oscillations, as scientists call them, were found to be most pronounced during deep sleep, as might be expected.
The slow fluctuation pattern can be compared to a computer screensaver, say scientists at the Weizmann Institute.
Though the newfound activity's function is unclear, they have a couple ideas: Perhaps neurons, like philosophers, must "think" in order to be; neuron survival, the idea goes, would require a constant state of activity.
Or maybe the minimal level of activity enables a quick start when an outside stimulus is presented, something like a getaway car with the engine running, they suggest.
This different type of brain activity could explain why most people don't constantly experience hallucinations or hear voices while they rest, researchers suggest.
PALO ALTO, CA - ScienceDaily noted scientists’ battle to know circadian rhythm, but said a U.S. National Institutes of Health grant helps show daily fluctuations in hormones called glucocorticoids synchronize the biological clock as integral to our mechanism for regulating blood sugar. "The most surprising part of our findings is: our internal biologic rhythms are embedded directly into another pathway essential to regulate metabolism," said senior study author Dr. Brian Feldman, assistant professor of pediatric endocrinology at Stanford University School of Medicine. These findings give the first in vivo evidence of a direct link between glucocorticoid hormones and genes that regulate our biological clock, and may help doctors reduce disabling side effects of drugs such as prednisone, Dr. Feldman said. It could help diabetics control blood sugar levels and highlight why night-shift workers are at risk for obesity and diabetes. The study was in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
PHILADELPHIA - Wistar Institute scientists claim to have identified a key gene (KLF17) involved in the spread of breast cancer throughout the body. They demonstrated that expression of KLF17, together with gene (Id1) known to regulate breast cancer metastasis accurately, predicts whether the disease will spread to the lymph nodes. Previously, the function of KLF17 had been unknown. Deaths of most breast cancer patients result from metastasis, a complex, multi-step, and poorly understood process. "Identifying the gene that suppresses the spread of tumor cells and the mechanisms by which this suppression occurs can lead to discovery of new markers of metastasis and potential targets for cancer prevention and treatment," says Dr. Qihong Huang, Wistar assistant professor and senior author of the study online at Nature Cell Biology.
VANCOUVER - Color me detail-oriented? Wear red. Want to be more creative at work? Paint your office blue, brushes HealthDay News. University of British Columbia researchers analyzed the effect of color on 666 students, 17- 39, who did detail-oriented and creative tasks posted on computer screens set to either a red, blue, or white background. Students scored higher on detail-oriented tasks, such as memory or proofreading, when doing them on a red background. They did better with blue on tasks demanding imagination and creativity. "People think blue is always good, despite circumstance, and that's not always the case," said Rui (Juliet) Zhu, assistant professor of marketing. "If we were setting the room for a brainstorming session for new product development or coming up with innovative ideas for a gallery or shop, then the blue color will probably help." The findings, online at Science, stem from six studies to test how different hues influence cognitive performance. The team looked at whether certain colors made products, such as toothpaste and toys, approachable or evoked avoidance in participants. They tested whether color affected memory and data-processing, plus creative versus detail-oriented behavior.
IOWA CITY, IA - The Disability Law & Policy e-Newsletter of the Law, Health Policy & Disability Center at the University of Iowa College of Law and the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University noted a Human Rights Watch/American Civil Liberties Union report that disabled students are paddled more than non-disabled students. The study counted at least 41,972 disabled students paddled in the 2006-07 school year - likely under the actual count because many cases aren’t reported. Alice Farmer, a principal researcher, noted "corporal punishment is just not an effective method of punishment, especially for disabled children, who may not even understand why they're being hit." Human Rights Watch and ACLU are urging Congress to protect the civil rights of students with disabilities by enacting a nationwide prohibition on corporal punishment.
KUOPIO, FINLAND - For obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) sufferers, a study shows losing weight is perhaps the single most effective way to cut symptoms and similar disorders, states a study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Weight loss may not be a new miracle pill or fancy high-tech treatment, but it’s an exciting therapy for OSA sufferers due to its short- and long-term effectiveness and relatively modest price. Surgery doesn’t last, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines are only as effective as the patient’s adherence, and most other devices have had disappointing outcomes, plus being costly, unwieldy, and having poor patient compliance. Also, OSA is generally only treated when it has progressed to a moderate to severe state. "Very low calorie diet (VLCD) with active lifestyle counseling resulting in marked weight reduction is a feasible and effective treatment for the majority of patients with mild OSA, and the achieved beneficial outcomes are maintained at one-year follow-up," wrote Dr. Henri P.I. Tuomilehto, of the Dept. of Otorhinolaryngology at Kuopio University Hospital.
ANN ARBOR, MI - As the U.S. focuses on prospects for major healthcare reforms, one important aspect mustn’t be missed: access to affordable dental care for kids. If left untreated, tooth decay in childhood can lead to lifelong tooth/gum problems, hospitalizations, and emergency room visits, delayed physical development and lost school days. A report reveals nearly 12 million U.S. kids hit serious barriers in getting needed dental care from lack of insurance coverage, cost of care, and difficulty finding providers who accept their insurance. "In this poll, we wanted to understand the patterns of dental care for children," says Dr. Matthew Davis, director of the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health. "We asked parents how they access dental health services: whether they had problems accessing services, how often they took their children to the dentist, and whether they experienced barriers to receiving that care." The poll found 57% of parents say their children began going to the dentist by age three, and 82% receive regular dental care, defined by going to the dentist at least once per year.
IOWA CITY, IA - The Disability Law & Policy e-Newsletter of the Law, Health Policy & Disability Center at the University of Iowa College of Law and the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University disclosed AT&T has released technology that allows deaf people to lower significantly the time it takes to communicate by phone. In a normal conversation involving a relay operator, the operator types statements to the hearing-impaired user, which can only be viewed periodically. By logging onto a specialized AOL IM interface, the hearing-impaired user can see the text the operator is typing, one letter at a time. AT&T is the first company to offer this real-time interface and is doing for free.
BOSTON - Research published in Neurology studies whether a gene variant may affect the link between migraine and stroke or heart attacks. The study had 25,000 women who answered a questions about their history of migraines/migraines with aura. The women were tested for the angiotensin-converting enzyme D/I polymorphism, and 4,577 women noted a history of migraine. Of those, 1,275 had migraine with aura; 12 years after the study began, 625 strokes and heart attacks were noted. The study didn’t find a link between the gene variant and migraine, stroke, migraine with aura, or heart attacks; however, women who had migraine with aura and carried certain genotypes - DD and DI - had double the risk of stroke and heart attacks. Women who had migraine with aura and were carriers of a third genotype - II genotype - weren’t at higher risk. "Getting to the bottom of whether there’s a (tie) and why may help find ways to prevent stroke and heart disease, which are leading causes of death in the U.S.," said study author Dr. Markus Schürks, of the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
TEL AVIV - Patients with high cholesterol who take statins continually appear to have a lower risk of death over four to five years, regardless of whether they have heart disease, claims a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Statins have a beneficial effect on low-density lipoprotein (LDL, "bad") cholesterol, state data in the article. Still, some have questioned the effectiveness of statins for preventing deaths in patients taking them for delaying/preventing heart disease. Dr. Varda Shalev and colleagues, at Maccabi Healthcare Services and Sackler Faculty of Medicine, analyzed data from 229,918 adults (average age 57.6) in a health maintenance organization who began taking statins 1998-2006. This included 136,052 people without heart disease (primary prevention group), followed for an average of four years, and 93,866 with heart disease (secondary prevention group), with an average five years of follow-up. In both groups, continuity of taking statins yielded at least a 45% drop in the risk of death versus patients who took statins less than 10% of the time. The risk cut was stronger among patients with high LDL at the start of the study and among patients whose initial treatment was with high-efficacy statins.
NEW YORK - A Mediterranean diet appears to be tied to less risk of mild cognitive impairment - a stage between normal aging and dementia - or of transitioning from mild cognitive impairment into Alzheimer’s disease, states the Archives of Neurology. "Among behavioral traits, diet may play an important role in the cause/prevention of Alzheimer’s," authors wrote as background. Previous studies showed a lower risk for Alzheimer’s among those who eat a Mediterranean diet, marked by lots of fish, vegetables, legumes, fruits, cereals, unsaturated fatty acids, not much dairy products, meat, saturated fats, and moderate alcohol consumption. Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas and his team at Columbia University Medical Center figured a score for sticking to the diet among 1,393 people without cognitive woes and 482 patients with mild cognitive impairment. They were examined, interviewed, screened for cognitive impairments, and asked to complete a food frequency questionnaire 1992-1999. Over an average of 4.5 years of follow-up, 275 of the 1,393 who didn’t have mild cognitive impairment got it. The 33% with the highest scores for diet adherence had a 28% lower risk of mild cognitive impairment, and the 33% in the middle group for diet adherence had a 17% lower risk. Among the 482 with mild cognitive woe at the study start, 106 developed Alzheimer’s over an average 4.3 years of follow-up.
CHICAGO - Learning how leukemia takes over "niches" within bone marrow helps scientists develop treatments which could protect healthy blood-forming stem cells and improve cases of bone marrow transplant for leukemia and other cancers. In the journal Science, scientists at the University of Chicago Medical Center showed that by blocking one of the chemical signals leukemic cells release, they could help prevent the cells that mature to become red and white blood cells from being shut down by the cancerous invader. "We found an approach that could help protect the cells that give rise to healthy blood cells, and improve their accessibility for use in transplantation," said study author Dr. Dorothy Sipkins, assistant professor/medicine at the center. "The next step: confirm this in human studies." She and her team study characteristics of tissue microenvironments, or "niches," in bone marrow where healthy bone marrow stem cells divide and mature. From these niches, stem cells produce the different types of blood cells involved in transporting oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body, fighting off infections and controlling blood clotting. In leukemia patients, these stem cells lose their powers, partly because they’re crowded out by rapid multiplication and spread of diseased cells as they take over bone marrow.
DALLAS - HealthDay News noted compression stockings are used incorrectly in 29% of patients and sized incorrectly in 26%, researchers say. Their findings highlight the importance of nurse/patient education about correct stockings use, which help prevent deep vein clots that can cause pulmonary complications and death. The study included 119 women and 23 men recovering in a hospital after surgery; 37 had thigh-length stockings, and 105 had knee-length stockings. Problems with use and size of stockings were more common with thigh-length stockings and in overweight patients. Thigh-length stockings were more likely to be uncomfortable than knee-length stockings; 24% of patients didn't understand the stockings' purpose, and this lack of understanding may be a factor in patients wearing them incorrectly, researchers said. Findings were in the American Journal of Nursing. Compression stockings are meant to promote blood flow and reduce the risk of venous thrombosis, a blood clot that forms in the vein.
PALO ALTO, CA - ScienceDaily noted scientists’ battle to know circadian rhythm, but said a U.S. National Institutes of Health grant helps show daily fluctuations in hormones called glucocorticoids synchronize the biological clock as integral to our mechanism for regulating blood sugar. "The most surprising part of our findings is: our internal biologic rhythms are embedded directly into another pathway essential to regulate metabolism," said senior study author Dr. Brian Feldman, assistant professor of pediatric endocrinology at Stanford University School of Medicine. These findings give the first in vivo evidence of a direct link between glucocorticoid hormones and genes that regulate our biological clock, and may help doctors reduce disabling side effects of drugs such as prednisone, Dr. Feldman said. It could help diabetics control blood sugar levels and highlight why night-shift workers are at risk for obesity and diabetes. The study was in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
PHILADELPHIA - Wistar Institute scientists claim to have identified a key gene (KLF17) involved in the spread of breast cancer throughout the body. They demonstrated that expression of KLF17, together with gene (Id1) known to regulate breast cancer metastasis accurately, predicts whether the disease will spread to the lymph nodes. Previously, the function of KLF17 had been unknown. Deaths of most breast cancer patients result from metastasis, a complex, multi-step, and poorly understood process. "Identifying the gene that suppresses the spread of tumor cells and the mechanisms by which this suppression occurs can lead to discovery of new markers of metastasis and potential targets for cancer prevention and treatment," says Dr. Qihong Huang, Wistar assistant professor and senior author of the study online at Nature Cell Biology.
VANCOUVER - Color me detail-oriented? Wear red. Want to be more creative at work? Paint your office blue, brushes HealthDay News. University of British Columbia researchers analyzed the effect of color on 666 students, 17- 39, who did detail-oriented and creative tasks posted on computer screens set to either a red, blue, or white background. Students scored higher on detail-oriented tasks, such as memory or proofreading, when doing them on a red background. They did better with blue on tasks demanding imagination and creativity. "People think blue is always good, despite circumstance, and that's not always the case," said Rui (Juliet) Zhu, assistant professor of marketing. "If we were setting the room for a brainstorming session for new product development or coming up with innovative ideas for a gallery or shop, then the blue color will probably help." The findings, online at Science, stem from six studies to test how different hues influence cognitive performance. The team looked at whether certain colors made products, such as toothpaste and toys, approachable or evoked avoidance in participants. They tested whether color affected memory and data-processing, plus creative versus detail-oriented behavior.
IOWA CITY, IA - The Disability Law & Policy e-Newsletter of the Law, Health Policy & Disability Center at the University of Iowa College of Law and the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University noted a Human Rights Watch/American Civil Liberties Union report that disabled students are paddled more than non-disabled students. The study counted at least 41,972 disabled students paddled in the 2006-07 school year - likely under the actual count because many cases aren’t reported. Alice Farmer, a principal researcher, noted "corporal punishment is just not an effective method of punishment, especially for disabled children, who may not even understand why they're being hit." Human Rights Watch and ACLU are urging Congress to protect the civil rights of students with disabilities by enacting a nationwide prohibition on corporal punishment.
KUOPIO, FINLAND - For obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) sufferers, a study shows losing weight is perhaps the single most effective way to cut symptoms and similar disorders, states a study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Weight loss may not be a new miracle pill or fancy high-tech treatment, but it’s an exciting therapy for OSA sufferers due to its short- and long-term effectiveness and relatively modest price. Surgery doesn’t last, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines are only as effective as the patient’s adherence, and most other devices have had disappointing outcomes, plus being costly, unwieldy, and having poor patient compliance. Also, OSA is generally only treated when it has progressed to a moderate to severe state. "Very low calorie diet (VLCD) with active lifestyle counseling resulting in marked weight reduction is a feasible and effective treatment for the majority of patients with mild OSA, and the achieved beneficial outcomes are maintained at one-year follow-up," wrote Dr. Henri P.I. Tuomilehto, of the Dept. of Otorhinolaryngology at Kuopio University Hospital.
ANN ARBOR, MI - As the U.S. focuses on prospects for major healthcare reforms, one important aspect mustn’t be missed: access to affordable dental care for kids. If left untreated, tooth decay in childhood can lead to lifelong tooth/gum problems, hospitalizations, and emergency room visits, delayed physical development and lost school days. A report reveals nearly 12 million U.S. kids hit serious barriers in getting needed dental care from lack of insurance coverage, cost of care, and difficulty finding providers who accept their insurance. "In this poll, we wanted to understand the patterns of dental care for children," says Dr. Matthew Davis, director of the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health. "We asked parents how they access dental health services: whether they had problems accessing services, how often they took their children to the dentist, and whether they experienced barriers to receiving that care." The poll found 57% of parents say their children began going to the dentist by age three, and 82% receive regular dental care, defined by going to the dentist at least once per year.
IOWA CITY, IA - The Disability Law & Policy e-Newsletter of the Law, Health Policy & Disability Center at the University of Iowa College of Law and the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University disclosed AT&T has released technology that allows deaf people to lower significantly the time it takes to communicate by phone. In a normal conversation involving a relay operator, the operator types statements to the hearing-impaired user, which can only be viewed periodically. By logging onto a specialized AOL IM interface, the hearing-impaired user can see the text the operator is typing, one letter at a time. AT&T is the first company to offer this real-time interface and is doing for free.
BOSTON - Research published in Neurology studies whether a gene variant may affect the link between migraine and stroke or heart attacks. The study had 25,000 women who answered a questions about their history of migraines/migraines with aura. The women were tested for the angiotensin-converting enzyme D/I polymorphism, and 4,577 women noted a history of migraine. Of those, 1,275 had migraine with aura; 12 years after the study began, 625 strokes and heart attacks were noted. The study didn’t find a link between the gene variant and migraine, stroke, migraine with aura, or heart attacks; however, women who had migraine with aura and carried certain genotypes - DD and DI - had double the risk of stroke and heart attacks. Women who had migraine with aura and were carriers of a third genotype - II genotype - weren’t at higher risk. "Getting to the bottom of whether there’s a (tie) and why may help find ways to prevent stroke and heart disease, which are leading causes of death in the U.S.," said study author Dr. Markus Schürks, of the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
TEL AVIV - Patients with high cholesterol who take statins continually appear to have a lower risk of death over four to five years, regardless of whether they have heart disease, claims a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Statins have a beneficial effect on low-density lipoprotein (LDL, "bad") cholesterol, state data in the article. Still, some have questioned the effectiveness of statins for preventing deaths in patients taking them for delaying/preventing heart disease. Dr. Varda Shalev and colleagues, at Maccabi Healthcare Services and Sackler Faculty of Medicine, analyzed data from 229,918 adults (average age 57.6) in a health maintenance organization who began taking statins 1998-2006. This included 136,052 people without heart disease (primary prevention group), followed for an average of four years, and 93,866 with heart disease (secondary prevention group), with an average five years of follow-up. In both groups, continuity of taking statins yielded at least a 45% drop in the risk of death versus patients who took statins less than 10% of the time. The risk cut was stronger among patients with high LDL at the start of the study and among patients whose initial treatment was with high-efficacy statins.
NEW YORK - A Mediterranean diet appears to be tied to less risk of mild cognitive impairment - a stage between normal aging and dementia - or of transitioning from mild cognitive impairment into Alzheimer’s disease, states the Archives of Neurology. "Among behavioral traits, diet may play an important role in the cause/prevention of Alzheimer’s," authors wrote as background. Previous studies showed a lower risk for Alzheimer’s among those who eat a Mediterranean diet, marked by lots of fish, vegetables, legumes, fruits, cereals, unsaturated fatty acids, not much dairy products, meat, saturated fats, and moderate alcohol consumption. Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas and his team at Columbia University Medical Center figured a score for sticking to the diet among 1,393 people without cognitive woes and 482 patients with mild cognitive impairment. They were examined, interviewed, screened for cognitive impairments, and asked to complete a food frequency questionnaire 1992-1999. Over an average of 4.5 years of follow-up, 275 of the 1,393 who didn’t have mild cognitive impairment got it. The 33% with the highest scores for diet adherence had a 28% lower risk of mild cognitive impairment, and the 33% in the middle group for diet adherence had a 17% lower risk. Among the 482 with mild cognitive woe at the study start, 106 developed Alzheimer’s over an average 4.3 years of follow-up.
CHICAGO - Learning how leukemia takes over "niches" within bone marrow helps scientists develop treatments which could protect healthy blood-forming stem cells and improve cases of bone marrow transplant for leukemia and other cancers. In the journal Science, scientists at the University of Chicago Medical Center showed that by blocking one of the chemical signals leukemic cells release, they could help prevent the cells that mature to become red and white blood cells from being shut down by the cancerous invader. "We found an approach that could help protect the cells that give rise to healthy blood cells, and improve their accessibility for use in transplantation," said study author Dr. Dorothy Sipkins, assistant professor/medicine at the center. "The next step: confirm this in human studies." She and her team study characteristics of tissue microenvironments, or "niches," in bone marrow where healthy bone marrow stem cells divide and mature. From these niches, stem cells produce the different types of blood cells involved in transporting oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body, fighting off infections and controlling blood clotting. In leukemia patients, these stem cells lose their powers, partly because they’re crowded out by rapid multiplication and spread of diseased cells as they take over bone marrow.
DALLAS - HealthDay News noted compression stockings are used incorrectly in 29% of patients and sized incorrectly in 26%, researchers say. Their findings highlight the importance of nurse/patient education about correct stockings use, which help prevent deep vein clots that can cause pulmonary complications and death. The study included 119 women and 23 men recovering in a hospital after surgery; 37 had thigh-length stockings, and 105 had knee-length stockings. Problems with use and size of stockings were more common with thigh-length stockings and in overweight patients. Thigh-length stockings were more likely to be uncomfortable than knee-length stockings; 24% of patients didn't understand the stockings' purpose, and this lack of understanding may be a factor in patients wearing them incorrectly, researchers said. Findings were in the American Journal of Nursing. Compression stockings are meant to promote blood flow and reduce the risk of venous thrombosis, a blood clot that forms in the vein.