Sugar Can Make You Dumb, Scientists Warn
Sugar Can Make You Dumb, Scientists Warn, Eating a high-fructose diet can eat away at your brainpower, a new study finds.Eating too much sugar can eat away at your brainpower, according to US scientists who published a study Tuesday showing how a steady diet of high-fructose corn syrup sapped lab rats’ memories.
Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) fed two groups of rats a solution containing high-fructose corn syrup — a common ingredient in processed foods — as drinking water for six weeks.
One group of rats was supplemented with brain-boosting omega-3 fatty acids in the form of flaxseed oil and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), while the other group was not.
Before the sugar drinks began, the rats were enrolled in a five-day training session in a complicated maze. After six weeks on the sweet solution, the rats were then placed back in the maze to see how they fared.
“The DHA-deprived animals were slower, and their brains showed a decline in synaptic activity,” said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
“Their brain cells had trouble signaling each other, disrupting the rats’ ability to think clearly and recall the route they’d learned six weeks earlier.”
A closer look at the rat brains revealed that those who were not fed DHA supplements had also developed signs of resistance to insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar and regulates brain function.
Sunscreens That You Should Avoid
Sunscreens That You Should Avoid, Some brands are made with ingredients that studies say may heighten the risk of cancer.It’s sunscreen shopping season and the just-released 2012 Sunscreen Guide published by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) helps steer consumers toward healthy, affordable choices. This year’s guide rates over 1,800 sunscreens (for both adults and kids), lip balms, and moisturizers and cosmetics with SPF. The leading cause of skin cancer is exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun and, according to the National Cancer Institute, over one million people are diagnosed a year.
Often people grab whatever sunscreen is labeled with the highest SPF and assume it’s the best. The EWG guide warns shoppers that choosing a safe product isn’t just about the numbers. Their research spotlights potential health hazards:
Dangerous ingredients. Retinyl palmitate (Vitamin A) may cause tumors and lesions to develop more quickly when skin is exposed to the sun. Nneka Leiba, Senior Research Analyst and the guide’s lead author, tells Shine, “The FDA and National Toxicology both say it may heighten risk of skin damage and cancer.” Oxybenzone is linked to hormone disruption and can cause allergic reactions. EWG recommends choosing products with one of these ingredients instead: zinc, titanium dioxide, avobenzone, or Mexoryl S.
Sprays or powders. These formulations can fill the air with tiny particles that EWG says are dangerous to inhale. They can cause lung inflammation and may be carcinogenic.
SPF values above 50+. The FDA says these labels are misleading and may encourage people to stay out in the sun for too long. Since SPF is based only on UVB protection (which prevents sunburn but does not guard against premature aging and deeper tissue damage), users of super high SPF products often have a false sense of security.
The guide comes on the heels of a recent announcement by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that they will give sunscreen manufacturers an additional six months to comply with guidelines that were that were outlined in June, 2011 and were aimed to ending confusion about sunscreen labeling. The FDA guidelines, which were to go into effect June 18, encouraged companies to use ingredients that protect against both UVB and UVA rays, required warning labels on products with lower than an SPF 14 rating, and banned manufacturers from using unsubstantiated terms such as “waterproof,” “sunblock,” and claims of “all-day protection.”
Obese 9-year-old Returns
Obese 9-year-old Returns, A 9-year-old boy removed from his mother’s custody after his weight ballooned to more than 200 pounds has slimmed down enough to return home.
The boy, who was placed in foster care last fall and then with an uncle, lost about 50 pounds over four months through exercise and healthy eating. He was returned to his mother under protective supervision in March, and a juvenile court judge in Cleveland released him from that supervision Thursday.
Social service workers still plan on checking in with the boy and his mother in Cleveland Heights and have offered them nutritional and health counseling. The YMCA also gave the boy and his mother a free membership.
“That’s the tremendous thing,” said John Lawson, an attorney who was appointed by a judge to act as a guardian during the court proceedings. “Let’s hope we never have to go back to court with this child.”
The boy was removed from his family over health concerns and placed in foster care in October after Cuyahoga County case workers said his mother wasn’t doing enough to control his weight. The county’s Children and Family Services agency said it had worked with the family for more than a year before he was removed.
The boy was considered at risk for developing diabetes or high blood pressure. Government growth charts say most boys his age weigh about 60 pounds. He weighed as much as 218 pounds, but dropped to 166 pounds when he was with his uncle, Lawson said Friday.
He was placed in the custody of his uncle last December on the day he celebrated his ninth birthday. The goal all along was to get him back with his family.
The uncle took him to the gym three nights a week, Lawson said. He also began swimming and playing basketball and is doing well despite changing schools and homes several times in recent months, Lawson said. (MSNBC)
Flesh-eating Bacteria
Flesh-eating Bacteria, Aimee Copeland, the Georgia student who contracted a rare flesh-eating disease after a zip line injury will lose her fingers.
“Aimee will suffer the loss of her fingers, however physicians have hope of bringing life back to the palms of her hands, which could allow her the muscle control to use helpful prosthetics. They are awaiting a safe time before embarking on surgery for this,” said a post on the University of West Georgia Psychology website.
Copeland, a 24-year-old graduate student at the school, has already lost her left leg and may also lose her remaining foot, according to her family. Despite being hooked up to a ventilator and unable to speak, Copeland’s family said she’s showing signs of recovery.
“Aimee appears to have normal brain function at this time, which is something I’m celebrating because within Aimee we have a very compassionate heart and an incredible mind of intellect,” said Copeland’s father, Andy Copeland.
Aimee Copeland was riding a homemade zip line near the Little Tallapoosa River May 1 when the line snapped, causing a fall that cut open her left calf.
Doctors at a nearby hospital cleaned and closed the gash with 22 staples, but bacteria that burrowed deep into the wound caused necrotizing fasciitis, a rare but deadly infection that claimed her leg one week ago.
Copeland’s family said she’s coherent and able to nod and shake her head, a gesture she used to pick the Grateful Dead over the Rolling Stones Thursday, according to her sister Paige.
“I just told her if she keeps improving like this, she’ll be out of here in no time,” said Paige Copeland.
It’s unclear how much of the ordeal Copeland remembers.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she has mouthed, “What happened?” and “Where am I?” Her family has started to give her answers, but has not told her she lost her leg, the AJC reported.
Brain Surgery Live Tweet
Brain Surgery Live Tweet, Houston’s Memorial Hermann hospital for the first time ever live-tweeted a brain surgery, performed by a leading surgeon in the field.
Dr Dong Kim, one of the surgeons who led the team that treated former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords after she was shot in the head in 2011, removed a cavernous angioma tumor from a 21-year-old woman’s brain.
The patient, who is not being identified, discovered the tumor after suffering a seizure.
Kim and his surgical team are using neuronavigation, a set of computer-assisted technologies, to identify the entry point and the precise location of the tumor in the patient’s brain, according to the hospital.
A craniotomy is being performed to remove a portion of the skull bone. A microscope will then be used to take out the tumor deep in the right side of the patient’s brain.
Finally, the team replaced the skull bone and completed the surgery.
A social media team that includes another neurosurgeon is sitting in an adjacent room answering questions on Twitter and posting photos and videos throughout the procedure.
Today’s pioneering surgery follows closely behind the hospital’s first foray into the medium, in which a 57-year-old’s open heart surgery was tweeted in March. (The Guardian)
Best And Worst Countries For Raising Kids
Best And Worst Countries For Raising Kids, The United States may be a wealthy, privileged, industrialized nation, but when it comes to being an ideal place to raise a family, it ranks well below several European countries. Take into account nonexistent parental leave policies, low preschool enrollment rates, and high teen-pregnancy rates and its rank falls even further, according to Save the Children, an independent organization dedicated to helping children around the world.
In Save the Children’s 13th State of the World’s Mothers Report, released today, the United States ranks 25th out of 165 countries overall. That’s up six spots from its 31st place showing last year, largely thanks to improvements in education rates for girls, Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the Children told Yahoo! Shine in an interview.
“The longer a girl stays in school, the later she’ll have a child, and the healthier the child and the mother will be,” Miles said.
The report includes a “Mother’s Index,” which ranks 165 countries based on indicators of mother and child well-being, including education rates for girls, the number of women in politics, child and maternal mortality rates, the number of attended births, and earned income rates, and more. In spite of the United State’s status as a world leader, certain issues — high teen pregnancy rates, poverty levels, and lack of access to health care — continue to keep the country out of the index’s Top 10.
“In the United States, mothers face a one in 2,100 risk of maternal death — the highest of any industrialized nation,” the report points out. “Only three developed countries — Albania, Moldova, and the Russian Federation — perform worse than the United States on this indicator.”
“A woman in the U.S. is more than seven times as likely to die of a pregnancy-related cause in her lifetime than a woman in Italy or Ireland,” Miles adds. “When it comes to the number of children enrolled in preschools or the political status of women, the United States also places in the bottom 10 countries of the developed world.”
The fact that the U.S. is the only industrialized nation not to offer some form of paid maternity leave is one factor that pushes the U.S. lower on the list. And while the Obama Administration’s Affordable Care Act has helped many poor women obtain prenatal care, Miles says, the mortality rates for children under age 5 are still far too high, with eight deaths per 1,000 children. “There are 40 countries that perform better than the U.S. on that indicator,” she explains. (Yahoo! News)