Re: Stress damages critical area of brain
- From: hhc314@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:42:52 -0700 (PDT)
On Mar 16, 7:28 pm, Sam Wormley <sworml...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Inside Science News Briefs
March 16, 2009
By Jim Dawson
Inside Science News Service
Stress damages critical area of brain
High levels of stress, such as those experienced by soldiers in combat, appears to cause
shrinkage of neurons and a reduction in synaptic connections in a key part of the brain
that is related to depression and sudden mood swings, according to a new paper by a
research group lead by Tibor Hajszan, a scientist at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.
Using an animal model for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the researchers found
that stress-related reductions in synapses in the hippocampus are directly related to the
emergency of depression-like behavior. The stress-related changes bring about an actual
shrinkage in the volume of the affected areas of the brain, and the resulting disconnect
among synapses in the brain "may have important behavior consequences," Hajszan said. The
good news out of the research is that is appears to be possible to restore the synapses in
an matter of minutes or hours, "which opens up exciting new avenues for developing
rapid-acting antidepressants that may provide immediate relief from depressive symptoms,"
Hajszan said. His team is conducting further studies to determine the link between
affects of stress on the brain and soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who have
been diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury or post-concussive syndrome. The study
is in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry.
Children strongly influence parents' in-store purchases
Parents who take their children with them when they go shopping at a supermarket typically
underestimate by half the number of items they buy due to the pleas of their kids.
Researchers from the marketing department at the University of Vienna, Austria,
"unobtrusively" observed 178 parents shopping with children between the ages of 3 and 14
in Austrian supermarkets and found that the parents significantly underestimated the
number of child-induced purchases. The researchers noted that more purchase requests were
made when the children were at a younger age, when products were placed at children's eye
level and when their movement and view were not restricted by being seated in a shopping
cart or stroller. Many retailers are aware of the phenomenon, the researchers said, and
strategically place candy and small toys on lower shelves. They also found that parents
were more likely to give in to the children's demands if the product was consumable in the
store and would likely keep a child busy. The best way for parents to reduce the number
of purchase requests from their child is to seat the child in the shopping cart facing the
parent, thereby restricting the child's field of view, the researchers said. "Children
seated in a stroller are also less likely to bug their parents with purchase requests,"
said marketing researcher Claus Ebster. The study was published in the Journal of
Retailing and Consumer Services.
Flies can spread drug-resistant bacteria
Houseflies that gather near industrial poultry operations, where antibiotics are heavily
used, may contribute to the dispersion of drug-resistant bacteria and increase the
potential for human exposure to such bacteria, said scientists at Baltimore's Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Previous studies have linked antibiotic use in
poultry production to antibiotic resistant bacteria in farm workers, consumer poultry
products and the environment around poultry operations. But this study looked at the
flies that thrive on the "poultry litter" and found two types of antibiotic-resistant
bacteria in both the flies and the litter. "Although we did not directly quantify the
contribution of flies to human exposure, our results suggest that flies in intensive
production areas could efficiently spread resistant organisms over large distances," said
Ellen Silbergeld, the lead researcher of the study. Robert Lawrence, director of the
Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, said the "increase in antibiotic-resistant
bacteria is a major threat to the health of the public, and policymakers should quickly
phase out and ban the use of antimicrobials for non-therapeutic use in food animal
production."
This news brief column is provided for media use by the Inside Science News Service, which
is supported by the American Institute of Physics, a not-for-profit publisher of
scientific journals. Contact: Jim Dawson, news editor, at jdaw...@xxxxxxxx
Sam, I tend to believe that this line of research is a total bunch of
crap.
I almost believe, but not quite, that the article you posted is a
joke. I read the article closely, and there is so much crap and false
info in it that I truly believe that it was posted in humor.
Come on Same, give me a break. That article you quoted begins with a
discusion of the shrinkage of neurons in combat veterans to how
children can influence parent's in-store purchases. Then turns to how
flies spead drug-resistant bacteria, and concludes with a discussion
of antibiotic-resistant bacteria being a major threat to the health of
the public All this is attributed to "Inside Science News Service",
which
purports to be supported by the American Institute of Physics.
Now Sam, you may want to check out the facts that you post more
closely. To begin with, the entire quote that you posted is totally
rambling crap with no scientific content at all. Second, I am a dues
paying member of the American Institue of Physics Teachers and the
American Physical Society. Note that the American Institue of Physics
is an unrecognized and unrelated independent publishing firm, kind of
what you would likely call a "vanity press" operation. It is
definitly not the APS, I believe that their name was chosen strictly
to confuse casual readers into the belief that it was in some way
related to the American Physical Society, which it is not.
Sam, 'Nuff said. I know that you are well intended, but I believe
that you would be well advised to research your source material a
little more carefully prior to reposting it to the net. Also, read
what it claims and determine if it if makes sense and logically flows
to you.
For what it's worth, I love to read you posts, and a vast majority of
them are very on-target. Perhaps it was because several years ago I
suffered a minor stroke, and after that I seriously boned up on brain
neurology and tried to understand what had taken place. During the
past 3 years I have learned a great deal outside of my field
(physics), but I by now feel qualified to pass along health advices to
readers over the age of 50.
First, purchase a good blood pressure monitor. CVS sells a good
automatic system for small bucks (at least compared to the price of a
funeral, $50 or $7,000, your call but someone will have to pay the
bill. If you BP registers more than 170/110, see your doctor and get
medications that could extend your life.
Second, if you have high blood pressure, or worse still, spiking blood
pressure, your doc can prescribe some wonderful meds. Cancer cannot
be healed with a pill, but high BP can. Trust me, high BP can kill
you faster than Cancer. Then too, I would rather die quickly from a
stroke, than from the prolonged pain of cancer. Your call.
Sam, it is the devil in me that makes me post this, just so you know
that all of us guys from New Jersey and Massachusetts are not all
liars and crooks. On March 31 of this years, I will be 71, My
children are now all are raised and have college educations. My wife
of 50 years has a home in trust. So Sam, and this my gross you out,
but since everyone of us has to die, and I did not die in battle (the
most honorable death to those of us of German decent), I would like to
depart the earth in the manner that Clark Gable is reported to have
gone, suffering a massive stroke or heat attack during the same
thing! :-)
Sure Sam. I wear Prada, and everyone by now knows that the devil
wears Prada. Actually, this is an inside joke between my daugher wo
gave me Prada for Christmas, and myself. Up to now she had given me
Clayborne for Men, but this year she switch to Prada. I'm not sure
that I like it, but women appear to. (Smells like Raid to me, so I
suppose that excludes me from the Prada commercials!)
Sam, the trick in living from the age of 71 to 90 was taught to me by
a couple of old Italian guys in Boston's North End. You have to keep
your sense of humor! Loose it and they put you in a box.
Harry C.
.
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