By JANE E. BRODY It seems to happen at least once a year. A young football player collapses on the field in preseason practice and dies of heatstroke. Often it's the first practice session of the season, on a hot, humid summer day, when most players are not in the best physical condition. This year, there were at least two heat-related victims - Chris Stewart, 17, a 6-foot-1, 290-pound offensive lineman at Douglass High in Oklahoma City, and Aaron O'Neal, 19, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound linebacker at the University of Missouri. Another young athlete, Carson Coulter, 17, senior defensive end at Permian High in Odessa, Tex., was luckier. After collapsing on the field in early August, he was given CPR, hospitalized and survived to play another day. Similar cases have occurred elsewhere in the country. The National Collegiate Athletic Association has rules to help prevent these heartbreaking situations, and high school coaches and trainers are supposed to be taught how to keep athletes well hydrated and recognize a player who is experiencing serious heat stress. Still, every year, young athletes die on the field, mostly under circumstances that should never have happened. Since 1995, more than 24 heatstroke deaths have occurred among high school football players; 4 have hit since 2003 alone. Nearly all occurred in preseason practice when the risk of severe dehydration and heat illness is high for anyone using a large amount of energy. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 7923 - Posted: 09.20.2005

By DENISE BRODEY As a teenager, Nickona Knuckles regularly binged on food and then vomited to keep her weight down. Ms. Knuckles, who is African-American, recalled that at the time she had no idea of the devastating health effects of bulimia, nor did she care. She was one of nine black students in a high school of 3,000 and was struggling simply to be accepted. "When it came to body image, my perception of beauty was based on my white peers and images of white celebrities in the media," Ms. Knuckles, now 34, said in an interview at her home in Phoenix. "I didn't want to be white but it was very difficult to be comfortable with who I was." Her parents, concerned about her eating problem, took her to an outpatient treatment program in Mesa, Ariz. But, Ms. Knuckles said, the program did not help her. "The place was filled with white people and, to be honest, there was nobody who looked like me or could relate to me," she said. Eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia conjure images of affluent white teenage girls. And most studies of these disorders have focused on white patients. In recent years, however, more blacks and other minorities have been seeking help from eating disorder clinics. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 7922 - Posted: 09.20.2005

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR Fatigue, irritability, lack of concentration and loss of interest in enjoyable activities are common symptoms of depression. But they are also symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea, and a new study suggests that physicians may confuse the two. The findings, published in the September issue of the journal Chest, reports that many patients with depression symptoms improved markedly when treated with continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP (pronounced SEE-pap) therapy, the standard treatment for sleep apnea. This finding does not necessarily apply to all patients with depression, said Dr. Daniel J. Schwartz, the lead author on the study and director of the Sleep Center at University Community Hospital in Tampa, Fla. And, Dr. Schwartz said, not everyone who has depression symptoms should automatically be evaluated for a sleep disorder. "But they perhaps should speak with their physicians about symptoms which might be suggestive of obstructive sleep apnea," he said. The disorder, often referred to as O.S.A., occurs when the tongue or throat muscles relax too much during sleep and block the airway. This can happen more than 50 times an hour during sleep, causing snoring and pauses in breathing that last as long as 60 seconds. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sleep; Depression
Link ID: 7921 - Posted: 09.20.2005

By NATALIE ANGIER Incensed by what it sees as a virtual pandemic of verbal vulgarity issuing from the diverse likes of Howard Stern, Bono of U2 and Robert Novak, the United States Senate is poised to consider a bill that would sharply increase the penalty for obscenity on the air. By raising the fines that would be levied against offending broadcasters some fifteenfold, to a fee of about $500,000 per crudity broadcast, and by threatening to revoke the licenses of repeat polluters, the Senate seeks to return to the public square the gentler tenor of yesteryear, when seldom were heard any scurrilous words, and famous guys were not foul mouthed all day. Yet researchers who study the evolution of language and the psychology of swearing say that they have no idea what mystic model of linguistic gentility the critics might have in mind. Cursing, they say, is a human universal. Every language, dialect or patois ever studied, living or dead, spoken by millions or by a small tribe, turns out to have its share of forbidden speech, some variant on comedian George Carlin's famous list of the seven dirty words that are not supposed to be uttered on radio or television. Young children will memorize the illicit inventory long before they can grasp its sense, said John McWhorter, a scholar of linguistics at the Manhattan Institute and the author of "The Power of Babel," and literary giants have always constructed their art on its spine. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 7920 - Posted: 09.20.2005

By BENEDICT CAREY A landmark government-financed study that compared drugs used to treat schizophrenia has confirmed what many psychiatrists long suspected: newer drugs that are highly promoted and widely prescribed offer few - if any - benefits over older medicines that sell for a fraction of the cost. The study, which looked at four new-generation drugs, called atypical antipsychotics, and one older drug, found that all five blunted the symptoms of schizophrenia, a disabling disorder that affects three million Americans. But almost three-quarters of the patients who participated stopped taking the drugs they were on because of discomfort or specific side effects. One of the newer drugs, Zyprexa, from Eli Lilly, helped more patients control symptoms for significantly longer than the other drugs. But Zyprexa also had a higher risk of serious side effects - like weight gain - that increase the risk of diabetes. The study, released yesterday and to be published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, was widely anticipated because it is by far the largest, most rigorous head-to-head trial of the newer antipsychotics conducted without significant drug industry financing. The new drugs account for $10 billion in annual sales and 90 percent of the national market for antipsychotics. The findings may not significantly alter the prescribing patterns of doctors in private practice, who often do not have to worry about cost, psychiatrists said. But they are likely to have an enormous effect on state Medicaid programs, many short on funds in part because of the high cost of schizophrenia drugs. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 7919 - Posted: 09.20.2005

By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - They are powerful predators that constrict their prey but female African pythons also have a maternal side unheard of among egg-laying snakes: they spend time with their young after they hatch. The discovery underscores how little we know about the world of snakes and suggests their ways may be far more elaborate than scientists previously thought. "I had reports from farmers that they had seen baby snakes and their mothers out together and I thought, this is crazy," said Graham Alexander, a biologist at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. But in 2003 he did intensive observations on two female southern African pythons -- commonly known as rock pythons -- and to his astonishment, they spent up to two weeks with their offspring after hatching. Such behavior has been observed in some snake species that give live birth but never in egg-layers. In the reptile kingdom, crocodiles and some lizards are the only other species known to offer parental care. The rock pythons are not exactly the most caring of mothers, though the time they spend with their offspring seems to confer some benefit to them. Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 7918 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A large study funded by NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) provides, for the first time, detailed information comparing the effectiveness and side effects of five medications – both new and older medications – that are currently used to treat people with schizophrenia. Overall, the medications were comparably effective but were associated with high rates of discontinuation due to intolerable side effects or failure to adequately control symptoms. One new medication, olanzapine, was slightly better than the other drugs but also was associated with significant weight-gain and metabolic changes. Surprisingly, the older, less expensive medication used in the study generally performed as well as the newer medications. The study, which included more than 1,400 people, supplies important new information that will help doctors and patients choose the most appropriate medication according to the patients' individual needs. The study results are published in the September 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. "The study has vital public health implications because it provides doctors and patients with much-needed information comparing medication treatment options," said NIMH Director Thomas R. Insel, M.D. "It is the largest, longest, and most comprehensive independent trial ever done to examine existing therapies for this disease." Schizophrenia, which affects 3.2 million Americans, is a chronic, recurrent mental illness, characterized by hallucinations, delusions, and disordered thinking. The medications used to treat the disorder are called antipsychotics. Previous studies have demonstrated that taking antipsychotic medication is far more effective than taking no medicine, and that taking it consistently is essential to the long-term treatment of this severe, disabling disorder. Although the medications alone are not sufficient to cure the disease, they are necessary to manage it.

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 7917 - Posted: 06.24.2010

One of Nature's great phenomena is how tiny songbirds can make their way over thousands of miles each fall to their winter feeding grounds. Scientists have known for years that they travel by night to avoid predators, navigating by the stars and the Earth's invisible magnetic field. Yet how these birds "see" the Earth's magnetic field — a protective field that shields Earth from radiation, and is the basis for the magnetic north and south poles, but which people can't sense at all — has remained a mystery. Now researchers based in the United States and Europe have found a brain region in night-migrating songbirds that they think can "process" information from the Earth's magnetic field and turn it into an internal compass they can see. The brain region is called "Cluster N" — "N" for night-vision because the researchers believe the birds' ability to sense the Earth's magnetic field and transform it into a navigation tool is dependent on their ability to see at night. Jarvis collaborated with animal navigation researcher Henrik Mouritsen from the University of Oldenburg, in Germany, to compare the brains of two distantly related types of migrating songbirds, the Garden Warbler and the European Robin, to two types of non-migrating song birds, Canaries and Zebra Finches. "This area is only active in the night-migratory birds at night… and it's never active in the non-migratory birds, not during the day, nor during the night," says Mouritsen who published the finding with Jarvis in the journal Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences. © ScienCentral, 2000-2005.

Keyword: Animal Migration; Vision
Link ID: 7916 - Posted: 06.24.2010

UK scientists are exploring a way to stop babies being born with a form of blindness that runs in families. Leber congenital amaurosis usually causes total blindness from birth as a result of mutations in certain genes passed down from the parents. Researchers at University College London believe the key to the disease lies in eye proteins these genes hold the code for, and how they interact. The Action Medical Research work will home in on one gene and its protein. Lead investigator Professor Mike Cheetam said: "Unlike some of the other genes that cause LCA, we don't know exactly what this AIPL1 protein does. "But we know that it causes a severe form of the disease when it's mutated, so it's important to understand what it does in the eye." He said they could tell from its similarity to other proteins that it is likely to act as a molecular chaperone, escorting proteins round the body and disposing of them if they start to misbehave. Dr Cheetam's team aims to track the proteins which AIPL1 protein escorts, and what happens when things go wrong in LCA. The disease happens because the light sensors in the eye - called rods and cones - do not work as they should. AIPL1 is present in rods and cones while the eye develops, but only in rods in adults. (C)BBC

Keyword: Vision; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 7915 - Posted: 09.19.2005

Men and women may be from the same planet after all. A US psychologist says there are not that many differences between the genders. Janet Shibley-Hyde, women's studies specialist from the University of Wisconsin, says men and women are more similar than the popular perception. She highlights studies showing similarities in personality, communication, and leadership. But a UK psychologist said there were differences which should be recognised. There is a popular perception that the psychological difference between men and women is substantial - as seen in books such as Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus by John Gray. And there are stereotypes, such as women being more emotional than men, or men having better spatial awareness. But Dr Hyde, writing in American Psychologist, says her review of 46 meta-analyses (which cover a number of studies) conducted over the last 20 years, shows men and women are alike in the majority of areas. The studies looked at cognitive abilities, verbal and nonverbal communication, social or psychological traits like aggression or leadership, psychological well-being like self-esteem and motor behaviours, such as throwing ability and moral reasoning. Dr Hyde said gender differences accounted for either no or a very small effect for most of the psychological variables examined. She said only throwing distance and physical aggression showed marked gender differences. And she said the extent of "male" or "female" behaviours seemed to depend on context. Dr Hyde highlighted one study where participants were told that they were not identified as male or female nor wore any identification, which led to neither sex conforming to a stereotyped image when given the opportunity to act aggressively. (C)BBC

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 7914 - Posted: 09.19.2005

Coinciding with National Stroke Week in Australia is the release of results from two recent stroke studies from the George Institute for International Health that investigate both the causative factors as well as a little studied outcome of stroke, that of depression. The studies are part of a larger project to determine the impact of prevention strategies and improvements in stroke healthcare. A study of trends in stroke incidence, led by The George Institute researchers Craig Anderson and Kristie Carter and to be published in Stroke*, reviewed data accumulated over 20 years in the Auckland, New Zealand population, to determine if significant changes in stroke incidence could be related to life-style changes or other factors. The study found that there was an 11% relative decline in stroke over the 20 years, which can be related to positive changes such as a decreased incidence of smoking in the population. However, opposing this positive trend were adverse changes in the health of the Auckland population over the same period, including increased incidence of obesity, diabetes and overall age, all of which increase the likelihood of stroke. "Clearly more research is needed to identify those at risk of stroke and to implement effective strategies to reduce the burden of this illness", noted Prof. Anderson Similar analyses are now being conducted on data provided by an investigation of stroke incidence in Perth, Western Australia. These analyses will determine the impact of prevention strategies and improvements in stroke healthcare services on the incidence and outcome of this major illness within the region over recent decades.

Keyword: Stroke; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 7913 - Posted: 09.19.2005

By Jane Elliott, BBC News health reporter When Shan Thomas's face started to droop and she could not work her mouth properly, she knew she had Bell's Palsy. She booked an immediate appointment with her doctor, but was surprised to find that she was offered no treatment for the condition, which had had left her in absolute agony. Shan was told that, because opinion was so varied on whether any treatment could affect the outcome of Bell's Palsy, some GPs offer no treatment of at all preferring to wait until the condition eases in its own time. Others advocate either steroids or anti-virals, which can have side effects. Bell's Palsy is a condition which paralyses half of the face. It was first identified in the 19th century, but its cause still remains a mystery. Sufferers are affected by a sudden paralysis, characterised by the swelling of a nerve in the face, which can leave them looking severely disfigured and in pain. The condition affects about one in 60 people and can strike at any age, but pregnant women, diabetics or people with flu, colds and other upper respiratory illnesses are most susceptible. Most people make a complete recovery in three to six weeks, but for one in 20 there is no significant recovery at all. (C)BBC

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 7912 - Posted: 09.17.2005

By Jennifer Viegas — Possibly the most complex vocalizing by any creature aside from humans has been heard by scientists standing in an Ecuadorian bamboo forest listening to plain-tailed wrens. The sheer number of singers and their impressive synchronicity put the birds at the top of the world pops, according to a recent press release from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. "It's already known that some birds duet and that others sing in choruses, but these wrens do both and, furthermore, the choruses are extraordinarily precise and well coordinated," said Peter Slater, a St. Andrews biology professor who led the study. The findings are published in the current Royal Society journal Biology Letters. Slater explained to Discovery News that up to seven birds sing "choruses," with males and females contributing different parts. The song consists of a series of four repeated phrases that follow the pattern ABCDABCD. Males sing A and C, while females sing B and D. All of the birds sing around 20 sets of phrases for up to two minutes at a time. He said "it is a major feat of coordination, especially when you consider (their) speed." Both males and females hit their notes right on cue so that the ABCD phrasing flows along as though only one bird were singing. © 2005 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 7911 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Katie Greene Researchers have now shown how a trio of proteins controls whether an embryonic stem cell takes an irreversible step toward developing into specific tissues or retains its raw potential to become a blood cell, bone cell, brain cell, or any other kind of cell. Stem cells' unique capacity to develop into any type of cell—a property known as pluripotency—underlies their medical promise. Researchers argue that this trait could someday lead, for example, to lab-grown tissue and organs that would be useful for transplants. The scientists set out to determine what genes define a stem cell. "We thought if we could uncover this network of genes, then we could see how pluripotency is established," says Laurie A. Boyer of the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Mass. And with knowledge of the mechanics behind pluripotency, she says, scientists might learn to reprogram a mature cell so that it, too, could have the pluripotency of a stem cell. Boyer and her collaborators investigated three proteins known to play defining roles in keeping stem cells from developing into a specific cell type. The proteins, dubbed Oct4, Sox2, and Nanog, are classified as transcription factors. As such, they bind to specific genes and regulate the genes' activities. Scientists didn't know how these three transcription factors maintain stem cell pluripotency. ©2005 Science Service.

Keyword: Stem Cells
Link ID: 7910 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Boston, MA-An international team of 53 researchers has offered the most convincing evidence so far linking bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, to two chromosomal regions in the human genome. The finding gives scientists refined targets for further gene studies. "Even though bipolar disorder affects millions of people around the world-sometimes throughout their lifetimes-what we understand to be biologically relevant at the genetic level is not terribly characterized," said Matthew McQueen, lead author and postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). "This research can help focus the field to identify viable candidate genes." The study will appear in the October issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics and is available now in the journal's electronic edition online at http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG/journal/contents/v77n4.html. More than two million American adults have bipolar disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Patients typically experience dramatic mood swings from episodes of euphoria and high energy to feelings of intense sadness, fatigue, and even suicide. Psychiatrists have identified two primary forms of the illness: bipolar I disorder, which is the classic form of recurring mania and depression, and bipolar II disorder, which has less severe episodes of mania. Treatment often includes medication.

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Schizophrenia
Link ID: 7909 - Posted: 09.17.2005

A novel chemical compound that blocks memory-related drug cravings has the potential to be the basis of new therapies to aid drug-addiction recovery efforts, UC Irvine neurobiologists have found. Because exposure to people, places and objects previously associated with a drug habit can trigger overwhelming memory-based cravings, many former drug users often relapse into drug-taking behavior. But a study led by John F. Marshall, a researcher in UCI’s Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, shows that memory for places associated with cocaine use can be strikingly altered by inactivating a specific protein called ERK (extracellular signal-regulated kinase) in the brains of animals. Especially significant is the finding that administering the inactivator compound immediately after recall of the cocaine-associated places also continued to blur memories of those places weeks later. This research provides novel insights into the brain mechanisms underlying relapse and suggests a new strategy for developing addiction treatments. Study results appear in the Sept. 15 issue of Neuron. “Our findings suggest that memories responsible for relapse in drug addicts may be similarly disrupted by a therapeutic agent targeting ERK or related proteins,” Marshall said. “This work, however, is a first step toward subsequent efforts that can produce effective drug-addiction therapies.” Copyright 2002-2005 UC Regents

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 7908 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A team of researchers led by the University of Toronto has charted how and where a painful event becomes permanently etched in the brain – a discovery that has implications for pain-related emotional disorders such as anxiety and post-traumatic stress. U of T physiology professor Min Zhuo and his colleagues Professor Bong-Kiun Kaang of Seoul National University in South Korea, and Professor Bao-Ming Li of Fudan University in China have identified where emotional fear memory and pain begin by studying the biochemical processes in a different part of the brain. In a paper published in the Sept.15 issue of Neuron the researchers use mice to show how receptors activated in the pre-frontal cortex, the portion of the brain believed to be involved with higher intellectual functions, play a critical role in the development of fear. Previous research had pointed to activation in the hippocampus, an area buried in the forebrain that regulates emotion and memory, as the origin of fear memory. "This is critical as it changes how and where scientists thought fear was developed," says Zhuo, the EJLB-CIHR Michael Smith Chair in Neurosciences and Mental Health. "By understanding the biomolecular mechanisms behind fear, we could potentially create therapeutic ways to ease emotional pain in people. Imagine reducing the ability of distressing events, such as amputations, to be permanently imprinted in the brain."

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 7907 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Keeping a stiff upper lip during an emotional event can impair your memory, research suggests. Those who battled to hide their emotions paid a cognitive price and were less able to recall the upsetting episode than others, a study found. The work described in New Scientist involved more than 200 volunteers. James Gross, Stanford University, and Jane Richards, the University of Texas at Austin, published their study in the Journal of Research and Personality. They asked 57 volunteers to watch an emotive film about a surgical procedure and then asked them about how they were feeling, how much effort they put into hiding their emotions and how much they remembered about the film. The people who said they had put the most effort into hiding their emotional response to the film had the worst recall for what they had seen. The researchers then decided to test another 175 volunteers. (C)BBC

Keyword: Emotions; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 7906 - Posted: 09.15.2005

By GARDINER HARRIS The use of drugs to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in younger adults more than doubled from 2000 to 2004, and spending on the drugs in the same age bracket, 20 to 44, more than quadrupled, a major prescription management company is reporting today. The pills are also becoming increasingly popular among women. Indeed, adult women are now just as likely as men to take them, said the company, Medco Health Solutions. Among children, use by boys is nearly three times as likely as by girls. One percent of adults ages 20 to 64 now take the drugs, according to Medco, which administers pharmaceutical benefits for managed care companies. "I think this shows a clear recognition and new thinking that treatment for A.D.H.D. does not go away for many children after adolescence," said Dr. Robert S. Epstein, the company's chief medical officer. Dr. James McGough, a professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, said more adults should probably be taking the pills. A recent study by Harvard researchers found that as many as 4 percent of adults had symptoms of the disorder, Dr. McGough noted. Of the Medco report, he said, "I think it's a good sign that this is increasingly recognized and people are getting help." Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: ADHD
Link ID: 7905 - Posted: 09.15.2005

Ed Owen It is "the ultimate evil" and "the most intense form of systematic cruelty in the history of humanity". Strong stuff. Yet these are not descriptions of the Holocaust or the genocides of Rwanda or Cambodia. It is how one animal rights group chooses to describe on its website the use of animals in scientific research. And far from being members of a balaclava-clad, extremist fringe, the authors of this rhetoric are from a mainstream organisation called Uncaged, which lobbies the government and works closely with many of our MPs. In the wake of the news last month that Darley Oaks Farm in Staffordshire, which bred guinea pigs for research purposes, was being forced to shut down its business, there has been a renewed focus on the militants within the animal rights lobby who use intimidation and violence to get their way. But in doing so, we must also step up effective scrutiny of the equally uncompromising arguments of those groups that do act within the law. Make no mistake, these so-called moderate organisations are as fundamental in their aims, if not in the tactics, as the hard core. I should at the outset declare an interest. My three-year-old daughter suffers from cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening inherited condition that attacks the lungs and digestive system. About one in every 2,500 babies born in the UK is affected. Our refrigerator and kitchen cupboards are full of medicines that have been developed with the help of animal research. Using these treatments, most sufferers can expect to live until their early thirties with a disease that few used to survive beyond childhood. © New Statesman 1913 - 2005

Keyword: Animal Rights
Link ID: 7904 - Posted: 06.24.2010