health updates as of year 2012-2013

7/29/2019 HEALTH UPDATES AS OF YEAR 2012-2013

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Scientists Complete 1st Map of 'EmotionalIntelligence' in the BrainMonday, 28 January 2013 05:00

MONDAY, Jan. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have completed the first detailed mapof brain regions involved in emotional intelligence, which refers to the ability to identify,understand, manage and use emotions in positive ways.

The study included 152 Vietnam veterans with combat-related brain injuries who underwentCT brain scans.

"Historically, general intelligence has been thought to be distinct from social and emotional

intelligence," study lead author Aron Barbey of the University of Illinois noted in a universitynews release.

However, the scans showed significant overlap between general intelligence and emotional

intelligence, both in terms of behavior and in the brain, according to the study publishedonline recently in the journal Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience.

Higher scores on general intelligence tests were strongly tied to better performance in testsof emotional intelligence. The researchers also found that many of the same brain regionswere involved in both general and emotional intelligence.

"This was a remarkable group of patients to study, mainly because it allowed us to

determine the degree to which damage to specific brain areas was related to impairment in

specific aspects of general and emotional intelligence," said Barbey, a professor ofneuroscience, of psychology and of speech and hearing science at the university's BeckmanInstitute for Advanced Science and Technology.

Barbey and colleagues found that specific regions in the frontal cortex (behind the forehead)and parietal cortex (top of the brain near the back of the head) were important to bothgeneral and emotional intelligence.

The frontal cortex processes feelings of reward and plays a role in attention, planning andmemory. The parietal cortex helps process sensory information and also plays a role inphysical coordination and language processing.

Along with providing new information about the link between general and emotional

intelligence, Barbey said these new findings will help scientists and doctors betterunderstand and treat brain injuries.

More information

Helpguide.org has more about emotional intelligence.


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Face Lifts Erase an Average of 7 Years OffAge, Study FindsMonday, 20 February 2012 04:00

MONDAY, Feb. 20 (HealthDay News) -- A small, new study finds that people who had facialplastic surgery looked an average of seven years younger than they did before theprocedure.

There are some caveats to the research. Almost all of the study participants were women

who were middle-aged or older, and the findings don't prove that the surgeries -- instead ofother factors such as the mood of the patients -- directly caused them to look younger.

Also, only a single surgeon performed all of the procedures, each of which costs thousands.

Still, the study "does give us some quantifiable evidence that we do achieve significant

success in terms of our ability to rejuvenate patients and help them achieve a less tired

look," said study author Dr. Nitin Chauhan, a facial plastic surgeon in Toronto.

One of Chauhan's colleagues performed one or more facial plastic surgery procedures on the

60 patients in the study between 2005 and 2008. One group underwent face and neck lifts;another had those procedures plus upper and lower eyelid lifts; and a third group had all theprocedures plus a forehead lift.

The ages of the patients ranged from 45 to 72; only six were male.

The study authors then asked a group of first-year medical students to estimate the ages ofthe patients after looking at photos of them before and six months after their procedures.

The goal of the research was to "see if we can effectively quantify how much we can turnback the hands of time with certain rejuvenation procedures," Chauhan said.

The results of the study were published in the Feb. 20 online edition of the Archives of FacialPlastic Surgery.

After they adjusted their findings for statistical reasons, the researchers found that, onaverage, the raters estimated that the patients looked 1.7 years younger than their actualage before surgery, and 8.9 years younger afterward.

On average, the estimated age dipped by 5.7 years in the first group and by 8.4 years in

the third group, which had all of the procedures.

The researchers tried to standardize the photographs by, among other things, asking

participants to not wear makeup, Chauhan said. But some factors, such as a person's levelof happiness, are hard to gauge, he said.

As of 2010, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons estimated that on average, eyelid liftscost $2,800, forehead lifts cost $3,200 and facelifts cost $6,200.


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Dr. Michael Olding, chief of the division of plastic surgery at George Washington University,reviewed the research and said it "points to the obvious" when it comes to multiple

procedures: "The more the merrier, or in this case, the more the younger."

In his own practice, Olding said, he believes that "doing a number of small things makes a

tremendous difference when combined, rather than making a tremendous difference in one

area."

Olding said he'd like to see a larger study that follows people over time instead of lookingbackward. Also, he said, the study doesn't look at fat injections or address a major factor inplastic surgery -- the quality of the patient's skin.

Another expert, Dr. Malcolm Roth, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons

and chief of the division of plastic surgery at Albany Medical Center in New York, has adviceon how to find a dependable plastic surgeon.

"Do your homework and check that the doctor is board-certified in plastic surgery," Rothsaid. "There is too much white-coat deception. Virtually any kind of doctor can legally claim

to be a plastic surgeon without any formal training in plastic surgery. Members of theAmerican Society of Plastic Surgeons are seeing increasing numbers of patients -- who havenot done their homework -- with complications and unsatisfactory outcomes."

More information

Learn more about plastic surgery from the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Jaw Shrinks With Age, 40-Year Study

FindsWednesday, 09 November 2011 05:00

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 9 (HealthDay News) -- The human jaw shrinks with age and that canresult in crowded front teeth among the elderly, a new study has found.

Swedish researchers looked at plaster molds made of the jaws of dental students in 1949when the students were in their 20s, and follow-up jaw molds of the same people made in

1959 and 1989.

"We found that over these 40 years there was less and less room for teeth in the jaw," Lars

Bondemark, a professor of orthodontics at Malmo University, said in a university newsrelease.

This reduced amount of space for front teeth was the result of a few millimeters ofshrinkage in both the length and width of the jaws, primarily the lower jaw.

The amount of jaw shrinkage varies between individuals and is influenced by hereditary and

anatomical factors. In some cases, the changes are significant enough that people notice achange in their bite.

"In that case it's good to know that this is normal," Bondemark said.


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Dentists need to consider the continuous shrinkage of jaws when they plan major work on apatient's bite.

"We're working against nature, and it's hard to construct something that is completelystable," Bondemark said.

And, he added, "We can also eliminate wisdom teeth as the cause, because even peoplewho have no wisdom teeth have crowded front teeth."

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Aging offers advice about taking care of your teeth andmouth.

Let Babies 'Cry It Out,' Study SuggestsMonday, 07 January 2013 12:00

MONDAY, Jan. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Most babies who wake up during the night should beallowed to self-soothe and fall back to sleep on their own, researchers say.

"By 6 months of age, most babies sleep through the night, awakening their mothers only

about once per week. However, not all children follow this pattern of development," MarshaWeinraub, a Temple University psychology professor, said in a university news release.

"If you measure them while they are sleeping, all babies -- like all adults -- move through a

sleep cycle every one-and-a-half to two hours where they wake up and then return to sleep.

Some of them do cry and call out when they awaken, and that is called 'not sleepingthrough the night,' " she added.

In conducting the study, researchers led by Weinraub examined patterns of awakeningsduring the night among more than 1,200 infants ranging in age from 6 months to 36

months. The researchers asked the babies' parents about their child's awakenings during

the night at 6, 15, 24 and 36 months of life. Based on their findings, the researchers dividedthe babies into two groups: sleepers and transitional sleepers.

By 6 months of age, 66 percent of babies considered "sleepers" did not wake up at night orwoke up only once per week, the study revealed.

Meanwhile, at the same age, 33 percent of the children woke up seven nights per week. By

the time these babies were 15 months old, they were only waking up two nights per week.

At 24 months old, nighttime awakenings dropped to just one night per week, the

investigators found.

Most of the babies that woke during the night were boys. These babies -- consideredtransitional sleepers -- were also assessed as being more irritable or difficult. They were

also more likely to be breast-fed. The mothers of these transitional sleepers were morelikely to be depressed and have greater maternal sensitivity, the study authors found.


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The authors concluded that genetic factors could play a role in difficult temperaments."Families who are seeing sleep problems persist past 18 months should seek advice,"

Weinraub advised.

Babies should learn how to fall asleep without help, the researchers added. "When mothers

tune in to these nighttime awakenings and/or if a baby is in the habit of falling asleep

during breast-feeding, then he or she may not be learning how to self-soothe, somethingthat is critical for regular sleep," Weinraub said.

More research is needed to explore the link between mothers' depression and infantawakenings, the researchers suggested in the news release.

"Because the mothers in our study described infants with many awakenings per week as

creating problems for themselves and other family members, parents might be encouraged

to establish more nuanced and carefully targeted routines to help babies with self-soothingand to seek occasional respite," Weinraub noted. "The best advice is to put infants to bed at

a regular time every night, allow them to fall asleep on their own and resist the urge torespond right away to awakenings."

The study was recently published in Developmental Psychology.

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics provides tips on how to get your baby to

sleep. First Hand Transplant In The UK Completed

Editor's ChoiceMain Category:Transplants / Organ Donations

Article Date: 04 Jan 2013 - 11:00 PST

Following a complicated eight hour operation using a donor limb and matching tissue, thefirst successful hand transplant was completed in the UK on December 27, 2012.

The recipient was a 51-year-old man named Mark Cahill, a pub landlord from Halifax. His right handbecame unusable after it was infected withgout.

A surgical group at Leeds General Infirmary was led by Professor Simon Kay. The team removedCahill's hand at the same time as they replaced it with the donor hand. This is the first time thismethod has been used, permitting precise restoration of nerve structures.

Cahill developed gout in his toes and feet about 20 years ago and just five years ago it reached hisright hand, rendering his hand useless and also made him lose the/ ability to open his fingers. He

decided to volunteer for this novel surgery instead of choosing a bionic hand.

The operation technique involved making a fresh cut at the wrist where you wear a watch. Itpermitted surgeons to attach nerves in Cahill's arm with those in the donor hand with exactaccuracy, including tendons, blood vessels, and bone.

Professor Simon Kay, Consultant Plastic Surgeon said:
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This operation is the culmination of a great deal of planning and preparation over the last two years

by a team including plastic surgery, transplant medicine and surgery, immunology, psychology,

rehabilitation medicine, pharmacy and many other disciplines.

The team was on standby from the end of November awaiting a suitable donor limb, and the call

came just after Christmas. It was extremely challenging to be the first team in the UK to carry out

such a procedure. Any organ donation brings something positive from tragedy and I would like to

acknowledge the tremendous gift the family of the donor have made at such a distressing time."

Leeds Teaching Hospitals started the search process in 2011 for patients that could potentially be acandidate for the hand transplant. They put in place many protocols and examined possible patientsfrom all over the UK.

Investigators analyzed each individual's health and the possible advantages to their quality of life.They also looked at the psychological states of potential patients and the implications of thetransplant.

The surgical team partnered with NHS Blood and Transplant in the lead up to the procedure.

Hand transplantation first came about in the USA and France in 1998 and 1999, the surgical teamfrom Leeds worked with some of these experienced doctors.

At this point it is still early to know how much control of the hand that Cahill will gain, but asof now he is able to move his fingers, although without any sense of touch.

Mark Cahill commented:

"When I look at it and move it, it just feels like my hand. Right now it feels really good, it's not a lot ofpain, it looks good, it looks a great match and I'm looking forward to getting it working now."


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Baby Survives With Heart Outside Of Chest

Editor's Choice

Main Category:Pediatrics / Children's Health

Also Included In:Heart Disease

Article Date: 29 Jan 2013 - 0:00 PST

Audrina Cardenas has certainly defied odds as she was finally being discharged from Texas

Children's Hospital. The 3 month old baby was born with an extremely rare condition called

ectopia cordis, which means she was born with her heart outside of her chest. She receivedher life-saving surgery in October and is now at home.

Ectopia cordis is a very uncommon congenital malformation which results in the heart developing

either partially or completely outside the body, it only affects approximately eight in every million

babies. Sadly, most infants who are born with the condition die within the first few days of life.

A multidisciplinary team of surgeons carried out a very risky surgical procedure to repair Audrina's

heart immediately after she was born. She proved to be quite the survivor as she came out of the

operation alive and well.

Dr. Charles D. Fraser, surgeon-in-chief at Texas Children's Hospital and professor of surgery andpediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), said:

"This risky operation on such an uncommon condition required specialists from a variety of care

teams including cardiovascular surgery, plastic surgery and general pediatric surgery. I have only

seen this condition a few times in my career and these are always very tricky cases; in fact, many of

these babies do not survive."

He added:

"If Audrina would not have been referred to a facility like ours that could provide this full spectrum of

care from managing her in-utero to immediate heart surgery after birth, she would not be here today.

Audrina is a true fighter and we are so excited that this was a good outcome."

Audrina's mother Ashley Cardenas found out about her child's condition sixteen weeks into her

pregnancy. Her doctors told her that she could either choose comfort care, terminate the pregnancy,

or have her child receive an extremely risky surgery immediately after birth. Cardenas opted for the

surgery as it was in the best interest for her child's survival.

Cardenas said:
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"After my doctors explained just how sick my baby was and what options I had, it didn't matter how

scared I was, I knew I had to do anything possible to save my daughter's life. As soon as I made my

decision to continue with the pregnancy, the physicians in Midland referred me to Texas Children's

Hospital where a team of miracle workers provided the specialized treatment and care my baby and

I both needed."

The doctors made an external chest shield to protect her heart as it continues to grow, in a few years

she will have another surgery to place something even more protective and permanent.

Thecardiologyteam at Texas Children's Hospital will consistently check up on her progress.

Children's Memory May Be More ReliableJuly 27, 2010

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Scientists have found that humans exhibit two types of memory. One they call "verbatim trace," in which events are

recorded very precisely and factually. Children have more "verbatim trace," but as they mature, they develop more

and more of a second type of memory: "gist trace." "Gist trace" is where they recall the meaning of an event or its

emotional flavor, but not precise facts. Gist trace is the most common cause of false memories, occurring most often

in adults. Research shows that children are less likely to produce false memories, because gist trace develops slowly.

As a result, children's recollections could be more reliable than those of adults, leading to ramifications in the

courtroom. This illustration shows the Roman two-faced god, Janus, on trial. Symbolically, his bearded, mature head

speaks to judges of yore, while the young boy's head is turned towards the judge of the future.

This image accompanied NSF press release, "Memory on Trial."

Inside the Infant MindJune 1, 2011

(Ivanhoe Newswire) Over the past two decades, scientists have shown that babies only a few months old have a

solid grasp on basic rules of the physical world. They understand that objects cant wink in and out of existence, and

that objects cant "teleport" from one spot to another.

Now, an international team of researchers co-led by MITs Josh Tenenbaum has found that infants can use that

knowledge to form surprisingly sophisticated expectations of how novel situations will unfold. The scientists

developed a computational model of infant cognition that accurately predicts infants surprise at events that violate

their conception of the physical world.

The model, which simulates a type of intelligence known as pure reasoning, calculates the probability of a particular

event, given what it knows about how objects behave. The close correlation between the models predictions and the

infants actual responses to such events suggests that infants reason in a similar way, says Tenenbaum, associate

professor of cognitive science and computation at MIT.

"Real intelligence is about finding yourself in situations that youve never been in before but that have some abstract

principles in common with your experience, and using that abstract knowledge to reason productively in the new

situation," Tenenbaum said.

Tenenbaum and Edward Vul, a former MIT student who worked with Tenenbaum and is now at the University of

California at San Diego, developed a computational model, known as an "ideal-observer model," to predict how long

infants would look at animated scenarios that were more or less consistent with their knowledge of objects behavior.
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The model starts with abstract principles of how objects can behave in general (the same principles that Spelke

showed infants have), then runs multiple simulations of how objects could behave in a given situation.

In one example, 12-month-olds were shown four objects three blue, one red bouncing around a container. After

some time, the scene would be covered, and during that time, one of the objects would exit the container through an

opening.

If the scene was blocked very briefly (0.04 seconds), infants would be surprised if one of the objects farthest from the

exit had left the container. If the scene was obscured longer (2 seconds), the distance from exit became less

important and they were surprised only if the rare (red) object exited first. At intermediate times, both distance to the

exit and number of objects mattered.

"We dont yet have a unified theory of how cognition works, but were starting to make progress on describing core

aspects of cognition that previously were only described intuitively. Now were describing them mathematically,"

Tenenbaum said.

He is also developing similar models for infants "intuitive psychology," or understanding of how other people act.

Such models of normal infant cognition could help researchers figure out what goes wrong in disorders such asautism. "We have to understand more precisely what the normal case is like in order to understand how it breaks,"

Tenenbaum said.

SOURCE: MIT press release May 26, 2011

Traces Of Alcohol Found In SodaJune 29, 2012

Connie K. Hofor redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Soda lovers should beware of what may be found in the sugary drinks. Researchers in France recently revealed that

sodas, such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi, have small traces of alcohol.

Investigators believe that the findings will cause people to become more concerned about the drinks due to safety,

health, or religious reasons. The tests were conducted by the National Institute of Consumption, a Paris-based

organization, and showed that over half of the popular sodas contained miniscule amounts of alcohol. This includes

brand leaders like Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola. Only the supermarket knockoffs of the drinks did not contain alcohol.

It is possible that traces of alcohol come from the process of making Coca-Cola according to its secret recipe,

commented Michael Pepin, scientific director for Coca-Cola France, in aDaily Mail article. Furthermore, the Paris

Mosque has provided us with a certificate stating that our products can be consumed by the Muslim community in line

with the religious opinions of the Committee of the Mosque of Paris.

A French magazine, 60 Million Consumers, published the results in a recent issue. Authors of the article proposed

that the alcohol levels in the beverages are around 0.001 percent, which amounts of 10mg in every l iter. Of 19 sodas,

only nine did not have alcohol; these beverages included Auchan, Cora, Casino, Leader Price, and Man U-Cola. The

other ten beverages that have traces of alcohol included Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Class Light, Coke Zero, and Pepsi

Cola.

Some soft drinks can contain minute traces of alcohol because of the ingredients used, noted a spokesman for

Pepsi in the Daily Mail article. The Pepsi Cola recipe does not contain alcohol.
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Some people believe that the information will be critical for patients.

The concentration of alcohol, although very scanty, may interact with a few medications either increasing or

decreasing the effect of drugs taken like blood thinners, and a few antibiotics which may alter the drug regimen and

its effects. Moreover, the health hazards of these sugary beverages impact the heath of diabetic patients, and even in

healthy people who are predisposed to obesity and osteoporosis among other conditions, Dr. Hatem Soliman,

Specialist Critical Care Medicine at Al Zahra Private Hospital, toldGulf News.

Others believe that clear labeling is needed on the products for those who may have allergies to the ingredients.

Alcohol is toxic; the label should mention that the cola contains alcohol, specifying the percentage. So if a person

knows he has a medical condition, he can make an informed decision, noted Hussein Al Beshbeshy, Marketing

Manager at wellbeing/sports/physiotherapy centerBody Balancers, in the Gulf News article.

With the research findings, it is clear that big business has a control on the industry.

Think about the billions of children consuming colas without awareness and are hooked on it. People should be

conscious about their health and take charge of it, commented Jacques Caluw Sr., a physiotherapist who works

with top athletes, in the Gulf News article.
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