Fubiz™: Bikes Never Crash Alone.
Clever. Makes the point.
University of Minnesota: Capsaicin can act as cocarcinogen.
If you use a capsaicin muscle-soothing cream, stay the hell out of the sun.
MedPageToday: ‘Brain Exercise’ May Worsen Existing Alzheimer’s.
In other words, you need to be doing crossword puzzles and sudoku *before* impairment. ”In other words, ‘brain exercise’ may shorten the period of time in which patients must live with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, as they remain mentally healthy deeper into old age and then decline quickly.”
NY Times: Roger Ebert on Food.
Washington Post: You might want to rethink those high heels.
”You can’t run at the same level as a person who doesn’t wear high heels ... [snip] If the tendon becomes stiffer and the muscle fibers become shorter, the ability to store and release elastic energy is problematic.” So if you run or do sports, high heels will hold you back.
What Makes Them Click: Your Most Vivid Memories Are Wrong.
I think the takeaway is that distinct details are likely inaccurate, while the event itself is accurate.
ProPublica: FDA’s Findings on Salmonella-Linked Egg Farms: Mice, Maggots, Manure.
”One of the reports, for Wright County Egg [PDF], found “excessive amounts of manure” blocking the entrances to some henhouses—“approximately 4 feet high to 8 feet high” in several areas.” If you’ve traveled west Texas, and seen the feedlots with cows standing on piles of excrement 12 feet high or more, you won’t be surprised. Industrial livestock management needs a kick in the kiester.
ABC News: Grown Men Travel With a Stuffed Animals: Teddy Bears, Dogs in Businessmen’s Suitcases.
Eurekalert: SAMe for treatment of adults with major depressive disorders?
”A new study conducted by investigators at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) suggests that S-Adenosyl Methionine (SAMe), an over-the-counter dietary supplement, can be an effective, relatively well-tolerated, adjunctive treatment for adults with major depressive disorders who do not respond to their treatment with antidepressant medication.” Don’t play with SAM-e, however. Read the side effects, and consult a physician.
Eurekalert: Breakthrough news involving migraine.
They’ve found a genetic link, which is exciting enough ... however, I found this particularly interesting: ” It also supports previous research findings on the potential role of glutamate in migraine , as well novel glutamate modulating drugs that are currently being tested in migraine.” Hasn’t MSG been a trigger for migraine sufferers? Which means, drop these ingredients from your daily foodstuffs. Today.
Discover Magazine: Frog Skin Secretions Could Yield Antibiotic Bonanza.
“These potent compounds, collectively known as antimicrobial peptides (which are strings of amino acids), are not only found in frog skin secretions, but in a range of other animals as well (us included) where they do triple duty warding off wave after wave of bacterial, viral, and fungal broadsides. think of them as the body’s own antibiotics.” So, frog secretions may prevent us from ... croaking.
Eurekalert: Circadian rhythms: Their role and dysfunction in affective disorder.
Science Daily: Smoking can increase depressive symptoms in teens, study finds.
”The association between depression and smoking exists principally among teens that use cigarettes to feel better.” So, the ones who pick up the habit are *exactly* the ones who shouldn’t?
Discovery News: How Does Salmonella Get Into Eggs?
Newswise: Black Rice Rivals Pricey Blueberries as Source of Healthful Antioxidants.
Eurekalert: Supplement produces a ‘striking’ endurance boost.
”This is important for endurance athletes as we would expect the supplement to bring a 1-2% improvement in race times. While this may seem small, this is a very meaningful improvement — particularly at elite levels where small gains can be the difference between winning and losing.” Forget the steroids; drink beet, you won’t get ... beat.
Science Daily: Alcohol dependence damages both episodic memory and awareness of memory.
“While it is striking that the alcoholic group had deficits in memory for new information, FOK analysis indicated that they were fundamentally unaware of their deficit. The over-estimation by the alcoholics of their memory ability was related to low performance on tests of executive function, which could either inhibit awareness or impair ability to retrieve information. In either case, there was a disconnection between feeling of knowing and accuracy of this knowledge.” So it’s not just the alcohol that makes them cocksure; it’s an actual cognitive deficit caused by the alcohol that remains in effect when they’re not drunk.
MedPageToday: BPA Affects Hormones in Men.
Rock those stainless steel bottles. Check for plastic coatings, however. Some use them still.
Washington’s Blog: Mercenaries, BP, Corexit …
Watch the two videos, before reading the remainder. Here are links to the CDC, for their take on risk from light crude and dispersant. However, and offered as counterpoint, a different set of folks are a little more concerned ... net-net, don’t soak your kids in Gulf waters. Children are particularly susceptible to these chemicals, and exposure might set them up for all kinds of immunological and neurological issues.
Best sources I can find say oil is toxic at 11ppm, and Corexit at 2.61ppm, so Gulf waters classify as ‘toxic’, if these reports and assessments are true. I’ll keep looking for better references, as I have time. The benzene is particularly concerning to me ... that’s nasty stuff to expose a kid to.
Eurekalert: Herbicide [Atrazine] causes prostate inflammation in male rats and delays puberty.
“The doses of atrazine mixture given to the rats during the last five days of their pregnancy are close to the regulated levels in drinking water sources.” Uh-oh. Atrazine is the pesticide most frequently found in tap water, and the majority of water treatment plants do not filter it out (because it requires expensive activated carbon filter units). It’s also commonly used on golf courses ... so if you live near one, filter your tap water.
Michigan State U: Spouses do not grow more alike, study finds.
”The conclusion: Spousal similarity is better explained by selection than gradual convergence. The one exception to this pattern was aggression. ‘It makes sense if you think about it,’ Humbad said. ‘If one person is violent, the other person may respond in a similar fashion and thus become more aggressive over time.’”
MedPageToday: Daily Coffee Limbers Up the Heart.
Eurekalert: Bottled tea beverages may contain fewer polyphenols than brewed tea.
Convenience, but perhaps no health benefits.
New Scientist, Short Sharp Science: Ancient Chinese medicine could boost cancer therapy.
”The 1800 year-old recipe, called Huang Qin Tang, consists of a mix of flowers from the Chinese skullcap plant, extract of peonies, liquorice, and the fruit of the buckthorn tree. The remedy has been used for years to treat stomach upsets and nausea. Now, researchers at start-up pharmaceutical company PhytoCeutica and Yale University School of Medicine, both in Connecticut, have shown that the blend can also aid cancer treatment, reducing diarrhoea and gut damage caused by chemotherapy in colon and rectal cancer patients.” Usually it’s modern research vs. thousands of years of experiential knowledge. Nice to see them work together for once.
Washington Post Video: Raging bull injures 40 spectators.
I take it this was Ferdinand’s angry brother [If you don’t know Ferdinand, here].
