Television crime shows have helped popularize autopsies, but in reality these postmortem exams are becoming rarer every year. Today, hospitals perform autopsies on only about 5 percent of patients who die, down from roughly 50 percent in the 1960s.
artwork { Roy Lichtenstein, Meat, 1962 }
Some of the things we enjoy doing most, such as drinking coffee and having sex, may increase the risk of stroke, a new Dutch study has found.
According to the report published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, there are eight main triggers that increase the risk of intracranial aneurysm, which is a swelling of an artery in the brain. If the swollen artery ruptures it can cause a subarachnoid hemorrhage and lead to a stroke.
These triggers include drinking coffee and cola, vigorous physical exercise, nose blowing, sexual intercourse, straining to defecate, being startled and getting angry.
images { 1. Susan Sontag photographed by Peter Hujar, 1975 | 2. Lithograph by William Fairland documenting the work of anatomist Francis Sibson, 1869 }
Compared with other mothers, women who deliver twins live longer, have more children than expected, bear babies at shorter intervals over a longer time, and are older at their last birth, according to a University of Utah study.
The findings do not mean having twins is healthy for women, but instead that healthier women have an increased chance of delivering twins, says demographer Ken. R. Smith, senior author of the study and a professor of family and consumer studies.
photo { Manolo Campion }
Barbers in the modern period are known to do mainly one thing: cut hair. For much of the last hundred and fifty years, their red and white striped barber poles signified their ability to produce a good clean shave and a quick trim. This was not always the case, however.
Up until the 19th century barbers were generally referred to as barber-surgeons, and they were called upon to perform a wide variety of tasks. They treated and extracted teeth, branded slaves, created ritual tattoos or scars, cut out gallstones and hangnails, set fractures, gave enemas, and lanced abscesses. (…)
During the 12th and 13th centuries, secular universities began to develop throughout Europe, and along with an increased study of medicine and anatomy came an increased study in surgery. This led to a split between academically trained surgeons and barber-surgeons, which was formalized in the 13th century. After this, academic surgeons signified their status by wearing long robes, and barber-surgeons by wearing short robes. Barber-surgeons were thus largely referred to as “surgeons of the short robe.”
Danish researchers attempted to establish standard mortality ratios for the drugs cannabis, cocaine, amphetamine, MDMA (ecstasy) and opioids (e.g. heroin). (…)
In brief, the results showed the following: (…)
3. Pot smokers showed 5x increase in mortality rates (compared to the general population). (…)
4. Cocaine and amphetamine users showed 6x death rates of the general population. (…)
5. Opiod users show increased mortality rates. Findings for both stimulants and opioids are in accordance with studies from other countries. Users of Heroin and other opioids showed by far the highest mortality rates of all drugs of abuse.
6. Ecstasy (MDMA) users did not show increased mortality rates.
screenshot { Harvey Keitel in Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant, 1992 )
If there’s one topic likely to generate spit-flecked ire, it is the controversy over the potential health threat posed by cell phone signals.
That debate is likely to flare following the publication today of some new ideas on this topic from Bill Bruno, a theoretical biologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
The big question is whether signals from cell phones or cell phone towers can damage biological tissue.
On the one hand, there is a substantial body of evidence in which cell phone signals have supposedly influenced human health and behavior. The list of symptoms includes depression, sleep loss, changes in brain metabolism, headaches and so on.
On the other hand, there is a substantial body of epidemiological evidence that finds no connection between adverse health effects and cell phone exposure.
What’s more, physicists point out that the radiation emitted by cell phones cannot damage biological tissue because microwave photons do not have enough energy to break chemical bonds.
The absence of a mechanism that can do damage means that microwave photons must be safe, they say.
That’s been a powerful argument. Until now.
Today, Bruno points out that there is another way in which photons could damage biological tissue, which has not yet been accounted for.
He argues that the traditional argument only applies when the number of photons is less than one in a volume of space equivalent to a cubic wavelength.
When the density of photons is higher than this, other effects can come into play because photons can interfere constructively.
photo { George Tice }
Let’s consider the butterfly. One of the most taxing movements in sports, the butterfly requires greater energy than bicycling at 14 miles per hour, running a 10-minute mile, playing competitive basketball or carrying furniture upstairs. It burns more calories, demands larger doses of oxygen and elicits more fatigue than those other activities, meaning that over time it should increase a swimmer’s endurance and contribute to weight control.
So is the butterfly the best single exercise that there is? Well, no. The butterfly “would probably get my vote for the worst” exercise, said Greg Whyte, a professor of sport and exercise science. (…)
Ask a dozen physiologists which exercise is best, and you’ll get a dozen wildly divergent replies. (…)
Sticking with an exercise is key, even if you don’t spend a lot of time working out. The majority of the mortality-related benefits from exercising are due to the first 30 minutes of exercise. A recent meta-analysis of studies about exercise and mortality showed that, in general, a sedentary person’s risk of dying prematurely from any cause plummeted by nearly 20 percent if he or she began brisk walking (or the equivalent) for 30 minutes five times a week. If he or she tripled that amount, for instance, to 90 minutes of exercise four or five times a week, his or her risk of premature death dropped by only another 4 percent. So the one indisputable aspect of the single best exercise is that it be sustainable. From there, though, the debate grows heated.
photo { Indlekofer and Knoepfel }
Human minds evolved to constantly scan for novelty, lest we miss any sign of food, danger or, on a good day, mating opportunities.
But the modern world bombards us with stimuli, a nonstop stream of e-mails, chats, texts, tweets, status updates and video links to piano playing cats.
There’s growing concern among scientists that indulging in these ceaseless disruptions isn’t good for our brains, in much the way that excessive sugar or fat - other things we evolved to crave when they were in shorter supply - isn’t good for our bodies.
And some believe it’s time to consider a technology diet.
A team at UCSF published a study last week that found further evidence that multitasking impedes short-term memory, especially among older adults. Researchers there previously found that distractions of the sort that smart phones and social networks present can hinder long-term memory and mental performance.
artwork { Samuel Ekwurtzel, 11:34 }
A spectacular case of psychosis, rather oddly described as ‘Methamphetamine Induced Synesthesia’, in a case report just published in The American Journal on Addictions.
The report concerns a 30-year-old gentleman from the Iranian city of Shiraz with a long-standing history of drug use who recently started smoking crystal:
Six months PTA [prior to admission] (October 2009), he started smoking methamphetamine once a day, and gradually increased the frequency to three times a day.
Two months PTA (January 2010), he developed symptoms of auditory and visual hallucinations (seeing fairies around him that talked to him and forced him to conduct aggressive behavior), self-injury, and suicidal attempts.
He developed odd behaviors such as boiling animal statues. He was hearing the voices of colors, which were in the carpet. Colors moved around and talked to each other about the patient. He also saw the heads of different kinds of animals gathering on a board, and they talked to him.
Finally, his mother brought him to the emergency room of Ebnecina Psychiatric Hospital in Shiraz.
artwork { James Marshall }
Hegel wrote in his Elements of the Philosophy of Right that the owl of Minerva flies only at night. It hoots at insomniacs. I know. I’m one. (…)
Insomnia has intrigued thinkers since the ancients, an interest that continues today, especially in Europe. (…)
Philosophy is no friend of sleep. In his Laws (circa 350 BC), Plato platonized, “When a man is asleep, he is no better than if he were dead; and he who loves life and wisdom will take no more sleep than is necessary for health.” (…) In Beyond Good and Evil (1886), Nietzsche preached that the high goal of good Europeans “is wakefulness itself.”
Aristotle said all animals sleep. In the 20th century, the Romanian philosopher Emil Cioran added in On the Heights of Despair (first published in 1934): “Only humanity has insomnia.” Emmanuel Levinas, author of the erotic and metaphysical Totality and Infinity (1961), imagined philosophy, all of it, to be a call to “infinite responsibility, to an untiring wakefulness, to a total insomnia.” (…)
The first thing you learn about insomnia is that it sees in the dark. The second is that it sees nothing.
{ The Chronicle of Higher Education | Continue reading }
We all know that we don’t get enough sleep. But how much sleep do we really need? Until about 15 years ago, one common theory was that if you slept at least four or five hours a night, your cognitive performance remained intact; your body simply adapted to less sleep. But that idea was based on studies in which researchers sent sleepy subjects home during the day — where they may have sneaked in naps and downed coffee.
Enter David Dinges, the head of the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory at the Hospital at University of Pennsylvania, who has the distinction of depriving more people of sleep than perhaps anyone in the world.
In what was the longest sleep-restriction study of its kind, Dinges and his lead author, Hans Van Dongen, assigned dozens of subjects to three different groups for their 2003 study: some slept four hours, others six hours and others, for the lucky control group, eight hours — for two weeks in the lab. (…)
For most of us, eight hours of sleep is excellent and six hours is no good, but what about if we split the difference? (…)
Belenky’s nine-hour subjects performed much like Dinges’s eight-hour ones. But in the seven-hour group, their response time on the P.V.T. slowed and continued to do so for three days, before stabilizing at lower levels than when they started. (…)
Not every sleeper is the same, of course: Dinges has found that some people who need eight hours will immediately feel the wallop of one four-hour night, while other eight-hour sleepers can handle several four-hour nights before their performance deteriorates. There is a small portion of the population — he estimates it at around 5 percent or even less — who, for what researchers think may be genetic reasons, can maintain their performance with five or fewer hours of sleep. (There is also a small percentage who require 9 or 10 hours.)
Anecdotal reports suggest that some users of ecstasy (MDMA) experience increased feelings of empathy and are more social while under influence of the drug. Such effects may contribute to the timing and frequency of ecstasy use and may also contribute to risk of abuse or dependence. Understanding this phenomenon in more detail might provide clinicians with better strategies to reduce use and the associated complications of ecstasy use.
Studying acute effects of illicit drugs is difficult under natural conditions. Users of ecstasy commonly also use alcohol, nictoine and other illicit drugs in the context of ecstasy use. Isolating psychological effects of one agent in this type of environment is difficult if not impossible. One alternative is to admiinster ecstasy in a laboratory setting with subjects blind to whether ecstasy or placebo is being administered. However, this approach poses significant ethical challenges. One approach, is to limit human study in the lab to those who have previously use ecstasy and intend to continue using. (…)
A study in Biological Psychiatry took this approach when over four sessions, healthy ecstasy using volunteers received either a low or high dose of MDMA, a dose of methamphetamine (METH) or placebo. (…)
Findings suggest MDMA increases social approach (sociability). The study supports the possibility that increased social behavior with MDMA might be due to a reduced sensitivity to negative emotions of others rather than increasing recognition of positive emotions in others.
photo { Noritoshi Hirakawa }
Numerous studies in recent years have reported that drinking coffee may be good for the cardiovascular system and might even help prevent strokes. Just last month, Swedish researchers announced results of a large study showing that coffee seemed to reduce the risk of stroke in women by up to 25%. (…)
A 2008 study of more than 26,000 male smokers in Finland found that the men who drank eight or more cups of coffee a day had a 23% lower risk of stroke than the men who drank little or no coffee. And a few other reports suggest the effect applies to healthy nonsmokers too.
Key genital measurement linked to male fertility
The dimension in question is not penis or testicle size, but a measurement known as anogenital distance, or AGD.
That distance, measured from the anus to the underside of the scrotum, is linked to male fertility, including semen volume and sperm count, the study found. The shorter the AGD, the more likely a man was to have a low sperm count. (…)
Phthalates are a group of chemicals widely used in industrial and personal care products, including fragrances, shampoos, soaps, plastics, paints and some pesticides.
Scientists tested for the presence of phthalates in the pregnant women’s urine. They found that women who had high levels of phthalates in their urine during pregnancy gave birth to sons who were 10 times more likely to have shorter than expected AGDs.
Cranberry juice is apparently very good at prevent urinary tract infection, particularly in women. There have been a few studies approaching it from different angles but, disappointingly, the studies all use different types of cranberry product, different doses and dosing techniques but despite all this the message seems to be pretty clear. Cranberries prevent urinary tract infections kicking in.
Before we can consider how this occurs its important to define what we are talking about. Urinary tract infections or UTIs are generally caused by a strain of Escherichia coli called Uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) and it gets there by moving from the colon…ew. For this reason men rarely have to worry about them while they can be a chronic problem for women around the world, however the insertion of urinary catheters is a major risk factor for both genders. Clinical symptoms include burning sensation during urination and cloudy urine but these are only really evident once the bacteria have ascended the urethra into the bladder causing urethritis and cystitis respectively. If you want to feel real pain however let the little bastards work their way into your kidneys where kidney infection (or pyelonephritis) results in the above symptoms plus back pain and fever and the possibility of systemic spread.
Medieval Venice was a trading empire, one of the busiest ports of the late medieval world. As a hub of commerce waves of plague visited and revisited Venice in 1348, 1462, 1485, 1506, 1575-1577, and 1630-1632 with the last two producing mortality rates around 30% of the population.
As we all know, Venice has a land problem, or rather a lack of land problem. Thriving economies draw large populations and burial space becomes difficult to come by. Adding the plague on top and we have the perfect conditions for the discovery of mass plague burials.
{ Detecting pathogens in medieval Venice | Contagions | Continue reading }
photo { Grave of Peggy Guggenheim and her dogs in Venice | i took the photo | Starting in late December 1937, Peggy Guggenheim and Samuel Beckett had a brief affair. | And: Of everything she did in her life, she said discovering Pollock was “by far the most honourable achievement.” But Pollock was rarely invited to her outrageous bashes “as he drank so much and did unpleasant things on such occasions.” He once urinated into a fireplace. }
At the start of the new documentary Orgasm Inc., we meet Charletta, a sixtysomething woman who says she cannot reach orgasm. Well, she takes that back: She can. Just not at the same time as her husband. Not like they do in the movies. “Not like normal women,” she insists. She’s so convinced something’s wrong that she joins a clinical trial for the Orgasmatron – an electrical device implanted in the spine to induce climax.
Produced over 10 years by Vermont filmmaker Liz Canner, Orgasm Inc. is an indictment of the medicalization of female sexuality and the quest to develop and market medical solutions for a class of disorder called female sexual dysfunction, or FSD. The film targets, for instance, an alarming, though ultimately flawed, study cited by drug companies claiming that as many as 43 percent of American women suffer from FSD – a ready-made pharmaceutical market if ever there was one.
Canner uses Charletta and others as evidence of the ridiculous – even dangerous – lengths women have gone to feel “normal.” She argues that FSD doesn’t exist, at least not in the physiological sense, but rather was manufactured by “Big Pharma” to convince us we have a problem that only its pricey drugs and technologies can fix. (…)
Many doctors specializing in female sexuality argue that women are indeed candidates for FSD drugs. “The pharmaceutical industry did not create distressing sexual problems for women,” says Dr. Jan Shifren, director of the Vincent Menopause Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. She says the percentage of women who experience such difficulties hovers around 12. Not Big Pharma’s 43, but not insignificant, either. “That doesn’t mean we need to treat women exclusively with pills,” she adds. “The answer is somewhere in between.”
Alvin Roth spent years writing academic papers about the medical job market — specifically, picking apart the national system that matched young doctors to their first hospital jobs out of medical school. (…)
When it was introduced in the 1950s, the National Resident Matching Program was supposed to help doctors with the stressful and chaotic problem of finding their hospital internships. But after four decades, it was showing its age. Some medical students complained that the process was unfair, and that hospitals were being given too much power in determining where new doctors would live and work. Above all, the system was faltering because it was designed at a time when virtually no women became doctors, which meant it couldn’t handle married couples applying simultaneously. The result was that young doctors were passing up job opportunities for family reasons, and in some cases husbands and wives were assigned to distant cities and asked to choose their careers over each other.
As a professor who specialized in game theory, Roth had been studying medical matching programs closely since the early 1980s, figuring out what worked and what didn’t, and what rules were required to make a system in which everyone — the hospitals, the doctors — ended up happiest. He had coauthored a book full of theories and equations related to the problem of matching in general. He was so well known for this, one colleague remembers, that medical students would call him every year for advice on how to game the system. (…)
Roth has emerged as a rare figure in the academic world: a theorist willing to dive into real-world problems and fix them. After helping the med students, he designed a better way to assign children to public schools — the system now used by both Boston and New York. He also helped invent a system for matching kidney donors with patients, dramatically increasing the number of donations that take place each year.
Research by McGill Sociology Professor Eran Shor, working in collaboration with researchers from Stony Brook University, has revealed that unemployment increases the risk of premature mortality by 63 per cent. Shor reached these conclusions by surveying existing research covering 20 million people in 15 (mainly western) countries, over the last 40 years.
One surprising finding was that (…) the correlation between unemployment and a higher risk of death was the same in all the countries covered by the study. (…)
The research also showed that unemployment increases men’s mortality risk more than it does women’s mortality risk (78 per cent vs. 37 per cent respectively).
painting { George Tooker, Painter Capturing Modern Anxieties, Dies at 90 }
Why is aspirin toxic to cats?
One animal’s cure can be another animal’s poison. Take aspirin – it’s one of the most popular drugs on the market and we readily use it as a painkiller. But cats are extremely sensitive to aspirin, and even a single extra-strength pill can trigger a fatal overdose. Vets will sometimes prescribe aspirin to cats but only under very controlled doses.
The problem is that cats can’t break down the drug effectively. They take a long time to clear it from their bodies, so it’s easy for them to build up harmful concentrations. This defect is unusual – humans clearly don’t suffer from it, and neither do dogs. All cats, however, seem to share the same problem, from house tabbies to African lions.
{ Discover | Continue reading }
The term big cat – which is not a biological classification – is used informally to distinguish the larger felid species from smaller ones. One definition of “big cat” includes the four members of the genus Panthera: the tiger, lion, jaguar, and leopard. Members of this genus are the only cats able to roar. A more expansive definition of “big cat” also includes the cheetah, snow leopard, clouded leopard, and cougar.
