Thursday April 16, 2009

Don't get burned: Truth about tanning exposed
The Miami Herald  04-14-09
Apr. 14--You ditched the baby oil with iodine ions ago, but you still have some burning questions about less-obvious sun no-no's. Now that spring is here and everyone's exposure time is likely to increase, get updated on the latest sun sense:
Tanning beds: Safer than sun? No. Exposure to ultraviolet radiation damages your skin whether the exposure comes from tanning beds or natural sunlight. This damage increases the risk of skin cancer and premature skin aging. In fact, most tanning beds emit mainly UVA rays -- which may increase the risk of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, says the Mayo Clinic. If you want the golden glow of a tan, consider using a sunless tanning lotion or spray.
Does sunscreen expire? Sunscreens are designed to remain at original strength for up to three years. This means you can use leftover sunscreen from one summer to the next.
What sunglasses offer the best protection? UV radiation from the sun can damage not only the skin of your eyelids, but also the clear outer parts of the eye -- the cornea and conjunctiva. UV exposure also contributes to the development of certain types of cataracts. Choose sunglasses that block at least 99 percent of UVB rays and at least 95 percent of UVA rays, according to the American National Standards Institute. Skip sunglasses that are labeled "cosmetic" or don't offer details on UV protection.
In sunscreens, is SPF 70 better than SPF 30? The issue of how high the SPF, or sun-protection factor, goes remains a subject of ongoing debate. Here is what we know: SPF is based on how long your skin can stay in the sun without burning compared with unprotected skin. So someone whose skin starts to redden after five minutes on the beach would get 75 minutes of skin protection from an SPF 15 sunscreen and 150 minutes of protection from an SPF 30. A sunscreen with an SPF of 30 blocks 97 percent of the sun's burning rays, compared with 93 percent blocked by sunscreens with an SPF of 15.
Although a higher SPF sunscreen, if used properly, should allow you to stay in the sun that much longer without burning, it isn't clear if high SPF sunscreens block any more than 97 percent of burning rays. "Block" is a misleading term because no product you can see through will block 100 percent of the sun from your skin. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends using at least a 15 SPF, reapplied every two hours, after swimming or sweating.
http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=8137&Section=Disease

LIFE EXTENSIONS  April 13, 2009

Review finds nuts, vegetables and Mediterranean diet associated with lower heart disease risk

A review of 189 studies published in the April 13, 2009 issue of the journal Archives of Internal Medicine identified a Mediterranean diet pattern, as well as vegetables and nuts, as protective against coronary heart disease. The Mediterranean diet is characterized by a high intake of vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, whole grains, cheese or yogurt, fish, and monounsaturated fats relative to saturated fatty acids, and has been associated with heart disease protection in a number of studies.
Andrew Mente, PhD, of the Population Health Research Institute and his associates selected 43 randomized controlled trials and 146 prospective cohort studies concerning the effect of diet on coronary or ischemic heart disease and fatal or nonfatal heart attack for their review. Pooled analysis of the data revealed a protective effect for vegetables, nuts, monounsaturated fatty acids, and Mediterranean and high-quality dietary patterns, as well as harmful effects for trans–fatty acids, high glycemic index foods, and a western dietary pattern. A modest protective effect was observed for fish, omega-3 fatty acids, folate, whole grains, alcohol, fruits, fiber, vitamins E and C, and beta-carotene.
"The relationship between dietary factors and coronary heart disease has been a major focus of health research for almost half a century," the authors write in their introduction, yet they add that “the strength of the evidence supporting valid associations has not been evaluated systematically in a single investigation."
"Although investigations of dietary components may help to shed light on mechanisms behind the benefits of dietary patterns, it is unlikely that modifying the intake of a few nutrients or foods would substantially influence coronary outcomes," they conclude. "Our findings support the strategy of investigating dietary patterns in cohort studies and randomized controlled trials for common and complex chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease."
http://www.lef.org/whatshot/
2009_04.htm#review-finds-nuts-vegetables-Mediterranean-diet-lower-heart-disease

Homeopathy appears compatible with cancer therapy
Last Updated: 2009-04-14 11:01:57 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - There is limited evidence that homeopathic remedies ease the side effects of cancer treatments, but they at least seem to cause no serious adverse effects or drug interactions, according to a report published Tuesday.
In a review of eight clinical trials that included 664 cancer patients, researchers found preliminary evidence that certain homeopathic remedies may lessen some cancer therapy side effects. However, lead researcher Dr. Sosie Kassab, of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital in the UK, and co-investigators stress that these trials need to be replicated before any recommendations can be made.
One study found that topical calendula -- an extract from marigolds -- may be helpful for skin inflammation from radiation therapy for breast cancer. Another suggested that a mouthwash called Traumeel S -- a mix of various plant extracts and minerals -- can help ease treatment-related inflammation in the mouth.
None of the other trials showed any benefits from homeopathic products, the researchers report in the Cochrane Library, a publication of an international organization called the Cochrane Collaboration, which evaluates medical research.
It is too soon to recommend any homeopathic remedy to cancer patients, according to lead researcher Kassab said.
"There are very few studies looking at homeopathic medicines for adverse effects of cancer treatments," Kassab told Reuters Health, "and this review found no evidence of sufficient quality or quantity to support the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of these interventions."
As far as safety, though, Kassab said she and her colleagues found no evidence that any homeopathic remedies caused serious side effects or interfered with patients' conventional cancer care.
Homeopathy, which originated in Germany in the 1700s, is based on the principle of "like cures like." The theory is that substances that create certain symptoms can also treat those same symptoms if given in a highly diluted form.
Homeopathy is controversial because a number of its central concepts do not accord with modern science, and many studies have found that the remedies are no more effective than placebos (inactive substances).
The calendula study included 254 breast cancer patients undergoing radiation who were randomly assigned to take either topical calendula or a standard ointment containing an aspirin-like compound called trolamine to prevent acute dermatitis during radiotherapy.
As a group, the calendula patients suffered less skin inflammation during radiation treatment.
The Traumeel S study involved 32 children undergoing chemotherapy who were randomly assigned to use either the mouthwash or a placebo rinse.
In general, researchers found that children who used the herbal rinse had less severe mouth inflammation in response to chemotherapy.
Kassab said that the findings from the two studies should be considered to be preliminary.
Cancer patients should always consult their doctor before trying homeopathic remedies, which are readily available over-the-counter, Kassab cautioned.
"It is especially important," she said, "to discuss the use of topical agents with radiotherapy and chemotherapy with doctors, as they may have very clear guidelines as to what patients should and should not take alongside their conventional treatments."
SOURCE: Cochrane Library, online April 15, 2009.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/04/14/eline/links/20090414elin001.html

Low blood sugar a dementia risk for diabetics
Last Updated: 2009-04-14 13:19:28 -0400 (Reuters Health)
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Older diabetics whose blood sugar drops to dangerously low levels have a higher risk of developing dementia, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
The study by researchers at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, suggests that aggressive blood sugar control resulting in blood sugar so low it requires a trip to the hospital may increase dementia risks in older adults with type 2 diabetes.
"We know that having blood sugar that is too high is not good," Rachel Whitmer, a Kaiser research scientist whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association, said in a telephone interview.
"You want to keep that blood sugar at a good level, but you don't want to go too low," she said.
Several studies have found that diabetics have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease -- the most common form of dementia -- than do the general population. And others have shown that diabetics who take insulin and pills to help control their disease have a lower Alzheimer's risk.
"The very current issue here is balance of blood sugar control," Whitmer said.
She said a number of things such as a missed meal can cause severe low blood sugar in diabetics, but the chief cause is too much insulin, which can happen in people who take insulin injections or with oral diabetes drugs such as sulfonylureas or glimepiride that cause the body to make more insulin.
She and colleagues looked at more that two decades of data in more than 16,600 patients with type 2 diabetes.
The team checked to see if prior episodes of low blood sugar that were severe enough to require a trip to the hospital were associated with a higher risk of dementia.
They found that compared with people who had no severe bouts of low blood sugar, diabetics with single or multiple episodes had higher dementia risks, and risk levels rose depending on the number of severe hypoglycemic episodes.
"In older patients with a history of one episode, they had a 26 percent greater risk of dementia. Patients with two episodes had a 115 percent greater risk of dementia. And patients with three or more episodes had a 160 percent greater risk of dementia," Whitmer said.
She said the study offers more evidence that aggressive measures to control blood sugar can cause harm in elderly diabetics.
It follows three recent trials that found tight glycemic control could cause heart disease and death in some elderly diabetics.
She and colleagues plan to look at dementia risks for people in the study who took glitazones -- a class of drugs that help diabetics use insulin better. Drugs in this class include GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia or rosiglitazone and Takeda Pharmaceutical's Actos or pioglitazone.
Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia among older people, affecting 5.2 million people in the United States, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Some 23.6 million Americans have diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/04/14/eline/links/20090414elin013.html

Lack of 'team spirit' at work tied to depression
Last Updated: 2009-04-14 11:39:28 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Poor team spirit at the workplace may do more than drag down morale, it can make people depressed, according to the findings of a new study published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
"As depressive disorders are a major cause of work disability and account for a considerable proportion of the disease burden, more attention should be paid to psychosocial factors at work," lead author Dr. Marjo Sinokki of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Turku told Reuters Health via e-mail.
While investigators have studied how social support and autonomy on the job, as well as job security, affect people's mental and physical health, less is known about how team interaction influences health, Sinokki and her colleagues point out.
To investigate, they looked at "team climate," or the way that people feel about the quality of communication in their work environment, in a nationally representative sample of 3,347 Finnish workers 30 to 64 years old.
People were asked on a five-point scale ranging from "I fully agree" to "I fully disagree" about four possible descriptions for their workplace: "Encouraging and supportive of new ideas," "Prejudiced and conservative," "Nice and easy," and "Quarrelsome and disagreeing."
The World Health Organization (WHO) Composite International Diagnostic Interview was used to assess the subjects' mental health and criteria from the Diagnosis and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) were used to diagnosis mental disorders.
The study participants were then divided into three groups based on their test results.
People with a poor work climate, who felt it was highly prejudiced and quarrelsome, were 61 percent more likely to be depressed, the researchers found. These workers were also at greater risk of anxiety. However, once the investigators accounted for how much control people had over their work and the nature of their job demands, this relationship disappeared.
This part of the study couldn't determine whether a bad work environment caused depression or whether depressed people perceived their workplace in a more negative way.
A second part of the study correlated team climate ratings with antidepressant use over the next 3 years. The researchers found subjects with the worst work environment were 53 percent more likely to purchase these drugs.
This provides evidence that a disagreeable work environment can cause depression, Sinokki noted, but she also said more research to examine depression and work environment over time is needed to clarify the relationship.
An unpleasant social environment at work could influence depression risk by increasing job stress, which could in turn affect factors like smoking, alcohol use, or exercise, the researcher noted.
SOURCE: Occupational and Environmental Medicine, published online April 9, 2009.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/04/14/eline/links/20090414elin022.html

Depression in heart patients ups heart failure risk
Last Updated: 2009-04-14 15:52:59 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Patients who develop coronary artery disease and are subsequently diagnosed with depression have an increased risk of heart failure, even if they are taking antidepressant medication, according to findings from the Intermountain Heart Collaborative Study.
Although depression in heart failure is a recognized risk factor for adverse cardiovascular outcomes, Dr. Heidi T. May and co-authors state in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, their study is the first to assess whether depression following a diagnosis of coronary artery disease is associated with the onset of heart failure.
Included in the study were 13,708 patients (average age of 64 years) who did not have a diagnosis of depression, heart failure or history of antidepressant use when they were first diagnosed with coronary artery disease. Depression was later diagnosed in 1377 subjects and heart failure in 674.
The incidence of heart failure was 3.6 per 100 among coronary artery disease patients without a diagnosis of depression and 16.4 per 100 for those with the dual diagnosis, the authors report.
The results of further analyses revealed that depression without or with treatment with an antidepressant drug was still associated with heart failure.
"Antidepressant therapy may not be able to alter the physiological and/or behavioral risks associated with depression and heart failure, despite a potential improvement in depressive symptoms," note May of the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, and her associates.
On the other hand, antidepressant treatment in the absence of depression was not associated with heart failure. Therefore, they suggest that "when designing future epidemiological studies, the use of antidepressant therapy as a surrogate for depression should be used with caution."
The research team points out that depression and heart failure are two of the most burdensome diseases in terms of health care utilization and limitations in daily functioning.
Although their findings require further investigation, they believe that future interventions could have a significant public health impact by reducing illness, death rates, and health care expenditures.
SOURCE: Journal of the American College of Cardiology, April 21, 2009.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/04/14/eline/links/20090414elin024.html

BBC NEWS
Home births 'as safe as hospital'
The largest study of its kind has found that for low-risk women, giving birth at home is as safe as doing so in hospital with a midwife.
Research from the Netherlands - which has a high rate of home births - found no difference in death rates of either mothers or babies in 530,000 births.
Home births have long been debated amid concerns about their safety.
UK obstetricians welcomed the study - published in the journal BJOG - but said it may not apply universally.
The number of mothers giving birth at home in the UK has been rising since it dipped to a low in 1988. Of all births in England and Wales in 2006, 2.7% took place at home, the most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics showed.
The research was carried out in the Netherlands after figures showed the country had one of the highest rates in Europe of babies dying during or just after birth.
It was suggested that home births could be a factor, as Dutch women are able and encouraged to choose this option. One third do so.
But a comparison of "low-risk" women who planned to give birth at home with those who planned to give birth in hospital with a midwife found no difference in death or serious illness among either baby or mother.
"We found that for low-risk mothers at the start of their labour it is just as safe to deliver at home with a midwife as it is in hospital with a midwife," said Professor Simone Buitendijk of the TNO Institute for Applied Scientific Research.
"These results should strengthen policies that encourage low-risk women at the onset of labour to choose their own place of birth."
Hospital transfer
Low-risk women in the study were those who had no known complications - such as a baby in breech or one with a congenital abnormality, or a previous caesarean section.
Nearly a third of women who planned and started their labours at home ended up being transferred as complications arose - including for instance an abnormal fetal heart rate, or if the mother required more effective pain relief in the form of an epidural.
“ The NHS is simply not set up to meet the potential demand for home births ”
Louise Silverton Royal College of Midwives
But even when she needed to be transferred to the care of a doctor in a hospital, the risk to her or her baby was no higher than if she had started out her labour under the care of a midwife in hospital.
The researchers noted the importance of both highly-trained midwives who knew when to refer a home birth to hospital as well as rapid transportation.
While stressing the study was the most comprehensive yet into the safety of home births, they also acknowledged some caveats.
The group who chose to give birth in hospital rather than at home were more likely to be first-time mothers or of an ethnic minority background - the risk of complications is higher in both these groups.
The study did not compare the relative safety of home births against low-risk women who opted for doctor rather than midwife-led care. This is to be the subject of a future investigation.
Home option
But Professor Buitendijk said the study did have relevance for other countries like the UK with a highly developed health infrastructure and well-trained midwives.
“ Women need to be counselled on the unexpected emergencies which can arise during labour and can only be managed in a maternity hospital ”
RCOG
In the UK, the government has pledged to give all women the option of a home birth by the end of this year. At present just 2.7% of births in England and Wales take place at home, but there are considerable regional variations.
Louise Silverton, deputy general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, said, the study was "a major step forward in showing that home is as safe as hospital, for low risk women giving birth when support services are in place.
"However, to begin providing more home births there has to be a seismic shift in the way maternity services are organised. The NHS is simply not set up to meet the potential demand for home births, because we are still in a culture where the vast majority of births are in hospital.
"There also has to be a major increase in the number of midwives because they are the people who will be in the homes delivering the babies."
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) said it supported home births "in cases of low-risk pregnancies provided the appropriate infrastructures and resources are present to support such a system.
But it added: "Women need to be counselled on the unexpected emergencies - such as cord prolapse, fetal heart rate abnormalities, undiagnosed breech, prolonged labour and postpartum haemorrhage - which can arise during labour and can only be managed in a maternity hospital.
"Such emergencies would always require the transfer of women by ambulance to the hospital as extra medical support is only present in hospital settings and would not be available to them when they deliver at home."
The Department of Health said that giving more mothers-to-be the opportunity to choose to give birth at home was one of its priority targets for 2009/10.
A spokesman said: "All Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) have set out plans for implementing Maternity Matters to provide high-quality, safe maternity care for women and their babies."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7998417.stm

BBC NEWS
Pollution link with birth weight
Exposure to traffic pollution could affect the development of babies in the womb, US researchers have warned.
They found the higher a mother's level of exposure in early and late pregnancy, the more likely it was that the baby would not grow properly.
The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, looked at 336,000 babies born in New Jersey between 1999 and 2003
UK experts said much more detailed research into a link was needed.
Exposure
The researchers, from the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, used information from birth certificates and hospital discharge records.
They recorded details including each mother's ethnicity, marital status, education, whether or not she was a smoker - as well as where she lived when her baby was born.
Daily readings of air pollution from monitoring points around the state of New Jersey were taken from the US Environmental Protection Agency.
“ Residence near a roadway during pregnancy, may affect foetal growth ”
Professor David Rich, University of Medicine and Dentistry, New Jersey
The scientists then took data from the monitoring point which was within six miles (10 km) of the mothers' homes to work out what their exposure to air pollution had been during each of the three trimesters of pregnancy.
It was found that mothers of small, and very small, birth weight babies were more likely to be younger, less well educated, of African-American ethnicity, smokers, poorer, and single parents than mothers with normal birth weight babies.
But, even after these factors had been taken into account, higher levels of air pollutants were linked to restricted foetal growth.
Two kinds of pollution produced by cars - tiny sooty particles and nitrogen dioxide - were found to have an impact.
Particulate matter is produced from vehicle exhausts and can lodge in the lungs. Fine particles, such as PM 2.5s, which penetrate deep into the lungs, have been linked to deaths from heart and respiratory diseases.
Nutrients
The risk of a small birth weight baby rose significantly with each increase in particulate matter of four micrograms per metres squared, during the first and third trimesters of pregnancy.
Similarly, the risk of a very small birth weight baby rose significantly with each 10 parts per billion increase in nitrogen dioxide.
Writing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the team led by Professor David Rich, said: "Our findings suggest that air pollution, perhaps specifically traffic emissions during early and late pregnancy and/or factors associated with residence near a roadway during pregnancy, may affect foetal growth."
They say it is not clear exactly how air pollution might restrict foetal growth.
But they add previous research suggests that air pollution might alter cell activity, or cut the amount of oxygen and nutrients a baby receives while in the womb.
Professor Patrick O'Brien, of the UK's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: "This is an interesting study because it flags up a possibility of a link.
"But I think it needs to be looked at again in more detail because of the probability of confounding factors.
"The researchers ruled out smoking and social-economic background - other factors which are linked to small babies - but there are many other factors, such as diet, which could have an effect."
Professor O'Brien added that future research into the effects of pollution should be careful to check if babies are born small because their parents are small, and to ensure pregnancies are dated from scans, where this study did neither.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7988619.stm

Omega-3 linked to lower levels of inflammation

Nutraingredients.com, 14-Apr-2009

Increased blood levels of the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA are associated with lower levels of a marker of inflammation linked to heart disease, says a new study from Australia.
Writing in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers from the University of Newcastle in New South Wales report that levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation and reported to be an independent predictor of cardiovascular-related events, are inversely related to blood levels of DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid).
“The importance of this study is such that individuals with higher plasma high sensitivity-CRP (>3.0 mg/l) concentration according to risk cut points, have significantly lower plasma n-3 fatty acids,” wrote the researchers, led by Professor Manohar Garg.
“Given that n-3 fatty acids is cardioprotective, this inverse correlation with hs-CRP, a surrogate marker of CVD risk, could represent a possible mechanism by which n-3 fatty acids are involved in CVD risk reduction.”
Omega-3 fatty acids, most notably docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), have been linked to a wide-range of health benefits, including reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and certain cancers, good development of a baby during pregnancy, joint health, and improved behaviour and mood.

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Study details
Professor Garg and his co-workers examined omega-3 fatty acids and CRP levels in the plasma of 124 free-living adults (average age 47.7, average BMI 29.8 kg/m2). Participants were divided into three groups depending on their CRP levels (<1.0, 1.0–3.0, and >3.0 mg/l).
Negative relationships between hs-CRP levels and total omega-3, EPA, and DHA levels were observed, with hs-CRP levels over 3.0 mg/l associated with significantly reduced concentrations of total n-3 fatty acids, EPA and DPA.
“We report that plasma n-3 fatty acids concentration is inversely correlated with hs-CRP in healthy individuals, when stratified into tertiles representing CVD risk cut points,” wrote the researchers.
Findings from this study support previous observations that n-3 fatty acids may improve cardiovascular health in healthy individuals," they concluded.
Source: European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Published online ahead of print, doi:10.1038/ejcn.2009.20
"An inverse relationship between plasma n-3 fatty acids and C-reactive protein in healthy individuals"
Authors: M A Micallef, I A Munro and M L Garg
http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Research/Omega-3-linked-to-lower-levels-of-inflammation

Conventional Cancer Treatments Bankrupting Patients, Families

by David Gutierrez, NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) The costs of cancer treatments impose a major financial burden even on patients with private health insurance, leading in many cases to bankruptcy, according to a new report issued by the American Cancer Society and the Kaiser Family Foundation.

"A cancer diagnosis can threaten anyone with bankruptcy and financial ruin, no matter what your earning power is," said Peggy McGuire of the Women's Cancer Resource Center. "There are many paths you take, but they lead to the same destination: loss of all resources."

The researchers reviewed the types of financial problems regularly reported to the American Cancer Society's Health Insurance Assistance Center, then used their report to profile 20 patients whose cases they considered representative. Among the problems commonly reported are caps or lifetime maximums on the costs covered by insurers; high cost-sharing or out-of-pocket expenses; and delays in treatment.

Other patients reported difficulty keeping insurance coverage if they became too sick to work. While many employers will allow such former employees to keep paying the full premium on their health coverage for 18 months, such costs can be prohibitive for many people who have lost a major source of income. Patients who have lost coverage often have trouble finding new health insurance even if their cancer is eradicated and never recurs.

According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 70 percent of those under the age of 65 who are diagnosed with cancer are covered by private insurance. Of those profiled in the report, ten received coverage through their work, seven paid for individual insurance, two were covered by state insurance and one became uninsured.

"You would at least think the health care system would work for the people who are sick," said Drew Altman of the Kaiser Family Foundation. "What this study shows is there are lots of gaps and holes and problems for the people who are the sickest in our society. That's the opposite of how health care should work."
http://www.naturalnews.com/026049.html

Vision quests remove spirit-work distractions

San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday, April 11, 2009
An entrepreneur whose business had failed and marriage was failing wondered how his life had gotten to this point. A woman in the middle of a divorce questioned how she could live on her own. Graduating seniors wrestled with identity issues. All of which led them to seek guidance through a spiritual journey into the wilderness called a vision quest, which includes spending three or four days and nights in a remote spot alone, without food.
"Men have been doing this since men began," said Mark Yoslow, a psychotherapist who has co-led all-male vision-quest groups for seven years with Gary Plep, founder of the Northern California Men's Center in Los Gatos. "It cuts across all cultures - Hindu, American Indian, Aborigine."
"It's an ancient way of finding the spiritual connection with God and with self," said Plep, a therapist who has also led all-male, mixed and couples vision quests. "It's the most important work I do."
But a vision quest is not therapy, Yoslow stressed. "It's a very deep encounter with (the) self to gain a vision of what you want to do or be for your community in the future."
Inspired by American Indian rite-of-passage ceremonies, vision quests are held by a number of organizations and individuals in the Bay Area. The modern vision quest movement was born here in 1977, when the late Steven Foster and his wife, Meredith Little, founded the nonprofit Rites of Passage in Novato. It continues to operate in Santa Rosa under the direction of Mike Bodkin, a marriage and family therapist. In 1983, Foster and his wife moved to Big Pine (Inyo County) to found the School of Lost Borders, which trains guides and leads vision quests.
Although the number of days and specifics of deprivation varies, each quest includes three phases: severance, when you cut ties with ordinary life, enter a remote wilderness area and prepare to go into the wild alone; threshold, when you leave your guides at base camp and spend three to four days alone fasting; and incorporation, when you return to base camp, share the story of your solo time, and the guides reflect back or "mirror" your experience to affirm it and help you retain it in your daily life.

State's a hot spot

California has more vision quest groups than any other state (Colorado is second), according to Scout Tomyris, a Santa Rosa software technical writer, Rites of Passage vision quest guide and administrator for the Wilderness Guides Council of North America. Outfits in Marin, Sonoma and San Mateo counties offer four- to 10-day vision quests for adults for $650 to $1,200. And some have local day quests in Marin or Sonoma for $75 to $150. Some offer wilderness vision quests for teenagers from $350 to $975.
Marin Academy, an independent high school in San Rafael, has taken students on vision quests for 29 years. There is a six-day pre-graduation quest for seniors in the high desert of the eastern Sierra and a seven-day trip for juniors and seniors in Death Valley in early spring.
"Part of it is about connecting kids to nature," said Marin Academy science teacher Mark Stefanski, who went on his first vision quest 17 years ago and has led quests for at-risk youths in West Marin. "Nature becomes their teacher. They get away from the electric noise and it helps them reconnect with themselves."
Most outfits allow water during the solo time (a gallon a day), require a sleeping bag and encourage use of sunscreen and a journal. Marin Academy students can bring food and a tent if they choose.

The traditional path

Phillip Scott, founder-director of Ancestral Voice - Center for Indigenous Lifeways in Novato, who leads traditional vision quests twice a year in the foothills of Mount Lassen, adheres to strict Lakota protocols of no food, water or sleep for four days and nights. No sunscreen, journal or shelter, not even a sleeping bag. "In the old days you took a buffalo robe," said Scott, who is of Western Band Cherokee ancestry and a ceremonial leader in the Lakota tradition. "Now you can take one blanket."
He considers the programs that draw from various traditions solo wilderness experiences, but not vision quests. He finds problematic the group process of returning to the circle and sharing the story of one's time on the hill. According to Lakota protocol, "The individual is not to disclose those dreams and visions for 13 moons."
People often do a quest in times of transition - changing careers, getting a divorce, facing a landmark birthday - or crisis. David Templeton, a clinical operations and information technology manager in Sunnyvale, went on a quest with Plep after trying for a number of years to "fix" what he calls "the chaos in my life: a failed business, financial difficulties, challenges in my marriage, dealing with very young children. I declared 2006 as my year for moving from fix-it mode to growth."
His intention was "to be a better man, husband, father, son, brother and friend. After the years of chaos, I really questioned who I was and how I'd let things get so out of control."
The biggest thing he got out of his quest, he said, was realizing he was already all of the things he was hoping to be, but had lost his way for a number of years. "I also recognized the issues that got me to where I had been - that had long since resolved."
He said that the quest is one of the most difficult things he's ever done. "I had never fasted for longer than 12 hours before and hadn't been in such isolation like that for so long. Boredom I think is part of the process, but as you eliminate the distractions, including food, you move through the boredom and get to work. There is a clarity of mind brought on by the elimination of distractions and food that is difficult to describe."

A bond was built

Psychotherapists Susan Kistin and Sara Harris met on a vision quest in 2000 that each went on as she was turning 50. They were so enthused afterward that they formed their own organization, EarthWays, in Sebastopol, which leads seven or eight vision quests a year on Mount Lassen as well as monthly day quests in rural Sonoma County. Whether short or long form, each includes the three phases of severance, threshold and incorporation.
"The quest is always a journey of dying to what is old in our lives and being reborn into what we are becoming," Kistin said. "We learn about ourselves, our strength and character, and then we bring this back to our community. The ceremony has never failed, even in a day quest."
Dave Talamo, a marriage and family therapist whose Wilderness Reflections in Woodacre (Marin County) has offered vision quests for 13 years, described the moving experience of a woman who went on a day quest feeling unworthy.
Drawn to a mossy rock at the base of a tree, she had a profound feeling of being held and mothered and acceptable as a person in a way she hadn't felt before. She shared this back at the circle, which was important, he said, because "the risk is to have it remain just a memory. Each person needs to make meaning of their experience and figure out, 'What action can I take to live this forward?' "
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/11/DDH216PGBM.DTL&type=health

Tart Cherries May Help Reduce Belly Fat

by David Gutierrez, NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) A diet containing tart cherries may help reduce the symptoms of metabolic syndrome and the risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Michigan and presented at the annual meeting of the American Dietetic Association.

The study was funded by the Cherry Marketing Institute, which did not have any involvement in its design, implementation or analysis.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of symptoms that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, including high blood pressure, high triglycerides, high fasting blood sugar, low HDL ("good") cholesterol and central obesity (obesity characterized mainly by belly fat). In the current study, researchers evaluated several symptoms of metabolic syndrome in mice that were fed one of two diets, either with or without added whole tart cherry powder.

The mice were fed either a high-fat, moderate carbohydrate diet, with 45 percent of its calories from fat and 40 percent from carbohydrates, or a low-fat, high carbohydrate diet, with 10 percent of its calories from fat and 75 percent from carbohydrates.

Mice eating added cherry powder as part of either diet reduced their cholesterol levels by approximately 11 percent after 12 weeks. Their body fat was only 54 percent, compared with 63 percent in the non-cherry fed mice, with the majority of the fat reduction around the midsection.

The inflammation markers TNF-alpha and IL-6 were also lowered 40 percent and 31 percent in the cherry-fed mice, respectively. The researchers even found, upon genetic analysis, that the activity of the genes producing these two compounds was reduced in the mice, suggesting that tart cherries may reduce inflammation at a systemic level.

In contrast to the healthy inflammation that is part of the body's normal response to injury, chronic inflammation has been linked to increased risk for many diseases.

Tart cherries are particularly high in antioxidants, to which the researchers attributed the effects observed in the study. They are different than sweet cherries, which are normally eaten raw.
http://www.naturalnews.com/026047.html

Essential Oils Offer Many Health Benefits

by Sheryl Walters, NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) Essential oils are more than just a great addition to a relaxing massage. True essential oils are distilled from the bark, flowers, or leaves of a plant and can provide physical and psychological benefits. Internal ingestion of some oils, inhalation, and application to the skin are all methods of using essential oils. The use of essential oils can benefit mood, decrease stress, help prevent disease, and decrease pain.

Aromatherapy for stress and mood enhancement is one of the most well known uses of essential oils. Lavender is the most popular choice for stress reduction. A study done at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital in New York showed improvement in feelings of well-being in patients that were given lavender aromatherapy versus patients that were given a massage or rest. Another study published in Holistic Nurse Practice in March 2008 showed that nurses who used lavender aromatherapy perceived lower levels of stress. Other essential oils that can be helpful for stress or enhancing mood are geranium, chamomile, clary sage, and neroli.

The immune boosting properties of essential oils are numerous. Oils can be diffused into the air to clean and detoxify the air naturally. Diffusion of oils can reduce the number of pathogens in the air meaning that you are breathing in less germs. In addition, essential oils can actually improve the way the body does respond to pathogens when they are encountered. Numerous studies have shown the antiviral effects of essential oils by improving the ability of lymphocytes to take care of invaders and also by changing the membrane potential on our cells to help prevent viruses from entering. Essential oils that can be used to help prevent infection include eucalyptus, oregano, lemon, and cinnamon.

Essential oils are often used for pain management. They can be used to reduce inflammation, give a local anesthesia, give a counter stimulus, reduce spasm, and create a sensation of cooling or warming depending on which oil is chosen. A classic case of pain management through essential oils is in labor and childbirth. Midwives have used essential oils for years to help laboring women deal with contractions. Research has shown that a lavender bath in early labor improved labor progress and decreased the need for pain medication. Pain relief for the mother directly affects the baby too; a case study published in the International Journal of Aromatherapy showed that use of aroma therapeutic massage during episodes of fetal distress actually normalized fetal heart rates. Chronic and acute pain not associated with labor also can be reduced with lavender as well as clary sage, chamomile, helichrysum, sweet marjoram, sandalwood, and vetiver.

Essential oils are a natural and effective way to help manage stress, boost mood, fight off infection, and deal with pain. When choosing essential oils make sure to research contraindications as they are not always recommended for people with certain conditions.
http://www.naturalnews.com/z026044.html

Moderate Exercise Protects Against Breast Cancer and Death from All Causes

by Barbara Minton, NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) Scientists have long known there is a link between exercise and health. Even the connection between exercise and breast cancer has been well established. Early studies showed that women who exercised like mad were able to reduce their risk of breast cancer. This was because they exercised to the point where their estrogen production was slowed or stopped, reducing the possibility of estrogen imbalance in the body. This information was not too useful for most women who had neither time nor inclination to exercise like professional athletes. But now there is good news for everyone. Recent studies have shown that even moderate exercise has a profound effect on breast cancer prevention and prognosis, and a positive effect against death for all causes.

Moderate exercise has a dramatic impact on breast cancer development

A group from the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina confirmed results from their previous study that even moderate exercise can reduce the risk of breast cancer. They examined the association between cardio-respiratory fitness and risk of death from breast cancer in women who participated in the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study from 1970 to 2001. Over 14,000 women aged 20 to 83 with no prior history of breast cancer were classified according to their performance on treadmill tests and other exams as low, moderate or highly fit depending on their results. The findings showed that women in poor physical condition were three times more likely to die from breast cancer than those who exercised regularly.

One half hour of daily aerobic exercise can make a person highly fit

It does not require hours of grueling daily workout on a treadmill to get into the highly fit category. This study measured fitness through aerobic exercise, a type of workout that aims for a sustained increase in heart and lung activity that allows for the burning of fat. When exercise becomes so grueling that muscle is burned, it is no longer considered to be aerobic. Any activity that gets a person moving for a sustained period with increased heart and lung action, such as walking, jogging, cleaning, gardening, dancing, or doing calisthenics will qualify as aerobic. Jogging in front of the TV set will even get the job done.

Aerobic exercise can actually be very enjoyable and invigorating. It promotes the circulation of oxygen in the blood and floods cells with enough oxygen to chase cancer away. Aerobics helps lower cholesterol and blood pressure levels, and reduces the risk of heart disease and diabetes. Mood and outlook are uplifted with this form of exercise, and sense of well being and feelings of empowerment are heightened. The mind is cleared and the ability to concentrate is restored.

A half hour a day of aerobic exercise can result in a person being classified as highly fit. Fifteen minutes a day is all it takes to achieve moderate fitness. Just waving the arms about in imitation of an orchestra leader while listening to music for fifteen minutes a day can even make a person moderately fit. Aerobic exercise has the added benefits of easy weight loss and a price tag of zero.

Exercise is associated with positive outcome from hormone sensitive breast cancer

In another study from the University of South Carolina, scientists examined the association between physical activity and hormone receptor-defined breast cancers in a population of Asian women. Participants, ages 25 to 64 years, were recruited into the Shanghai Breast Cancer Study, a population-based study conducted in China. Women with confirmed breast cancer and available receptor status information, and matched controls completed in-person interviews. Regression measures were used to model the association between measures of physical activity with each breast cancer subtype, (ER/PR positive, ER/PR negative, ER positive and PR negative, and ER negative and PR positive) using the control population as the reference group.

Results showed that exercise during adolescence and also during the most recent 10 years was associated with a decreased risk of both receptor-positive and receptor-negative breast cancer in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women (odds ratios were 0.44, 0.51, 0.43, and 0.21 respectively). Sweating during exercise within the most recent 10 years was also associated with decreased risk for receptor-positive and receptor-negative breast cancers among postmenopausal women (odds ratios 0.58 and 0.28 respectively). These findings suggest that exercise can reduce breast cancer risk through both hormonal and non-hormonal pathways.

Exercise reduces risk of death from all causes

A study from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark studied inflammation as a key player in the development of degenerative diseases such as breast cancer, colon cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Given that regular exercise offers protection against all causes of mortality through its ability to protect against insulin resistance, the scientists suggested that exercise may exert some of its beneficial effects by inducing anti-inflammatory cytokines, which they have labeled myokines. Interleukin-6 is the first identified myokine. It is produced and released by skeletal muscle fibers when they contract with exercise, and exerts its beneficial effects on other organs of the body. These scientists suggest that skeletal muscle qualifies to be an endocrine organ, and myokines may be involved in promoting beneficial effects against all degenerative diseases associated with inflammation, including cancer.
http://www.naturalnews.com/026043.html

Is Twitter evil?

MSNBC: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 5:41 PM by Alan Boyle

Researchers probing the workings of the brain have found that it takes longer for feelings of social compassion and admiration to register on our neural circuits - and they worry that the rapid-fire effect of texting and tweeting could have "potentially negative consequences" for our moral fiber.
The findings serve as fresh fuel for the debate over social networking's effect on the human psyche: Just this month, we've seen how social-network surfers can improve their office productivity, help catch criminals or head off a potential suicide (with an assist from celebrity Demi Moore!). We've also heard about Twitter torments, Facebook failures and social-network stress.
The brain-scan study, conducted by scientists at the University of Southern California and due for publication online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, takes a different perspective.
Rather than looking at the effects of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., the researchers studied how the some of the noblest emotions we can summon - admiration for the virtues of others, and compassion for others' distress - are processed. The potential connection to the pace of online social networking and other digital media emerged as a follow-up observation.
Here's how the experiment was done: Thirteen interview subjects were told five kinds of stories about anonymous men and women:

• Stories about personal virtue in the face of adversity (for instance, dogged dedication to an important cause).
• Stories about performing a rare and difficult feat that didn't involve overcoming adversity (such as a virtuosic musical performance).
• Stories about social or psychological pain (someone dealing with grief or despair, for example).
• Stories about physical pain (such as a sports injury).
• Non-emotional stories about ordinary life (which served as the experiment's control factor).

After the subjects heard all the stories, they were put into MRI brain-scanning machines and asked to recall the stories as well as the emotions associated with those stories. The researchers then looked for differences in brain activity as the various stories were recalled.
The stories that focused on social interactions registered in parts of the brain that were close to but not identical to the areas activated by tales about great skill or physical pain (in the posteromedial cortices, if you must know). It took several seconds longer for the emotional response associated with virtue or psychological distress to peak (10 to 12 seconds for psychological pain vs. six seconds for physical pain). The response lasted longer as well.
That means it may take longer for the impact of a social or psychological situation to sink in, compared with a situation that involved sheer physicality, the researchers said.
"For some kinds of thought, especially moral decision-making about other people's social and psychological situations, we need to allow for adequate time and reflection," Mary Helen Immordino-Yang of USC's Brain and Creativity Institute said in a news release.
Her colleagues in the experiment, all from USC, included team leader Antonio Damasio, Hanna Damasio and Andrea McColl. In the paper, the researchers said their findings "could have important implications for the role of culture and education in the development and operation of social and moral systems."
Heavy reliance on a rapid stream of info snippets through television, online feeds and social networks may cut down on the time required for feelings of admiration or compassion to sink in fully, the researchers said.
"The rapidity and parallel processing of attention-requiring information, which hallmark the digital age, might reduce the frequency of full experience of such emotions, with potentially negative consequences," they said in the paper.
Immordino-Yang put it another way: "If things are happening too fast, you may not ever fully experience emotions about other people's psychological states, and that would have implications for your morality."
She stressed that the research doesn't indict Twitter, Facebook or any other specific social-networking tool. "It's not about what tools you have, it's about how you use those tools," she said.
Other researchers said they weren't so worried about online means of communication, which at least let you withdraw your fingers from the keyboard and reflect on what's being said. (Just ask Demi Moore about that.) USC media scholar Manuel Castells said he was more concerned about "fast-moving television or virtual games."
"In a media culture in which violence and suffering become an endless show, be it in fiction or in infotainment, indifference to the vision of human suffering gradually sets in," he said in the USC news release.
Antonio Damasio, who is the director of the Brain and Creativity Institute, agreed. "What I'm more worried about is what is happening in the juxtapositions that you find, for example, in the news," he said. "When it comes to emotion, because these systems are inherently slow, perhaps all we can say is, 'Not so fast.'"
Is it time to put down the smart phone and pick up a good book? Or do a good deed? Let me know what you're thinking by leaving a comment below - or sending me a tweet if you must. And if you're looking for more about morality, check out these mind-blowing ideas from the Origins Symposium in Arizona.
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/04/14/1891640.aspx

SOME HUMOR FROM THE ONION:

THE FIRST 100 DAYS

• DAY 84: Joe Biden meets with Treasury Secretary Geithner to discuss economic policy and whether you need to pay taxes on an old suitcase full of money you happened to find in a park 15 years ago.
• DAY 83: The White House Easter Egg Roll sounded really good in Obama's speeches, but the event was undermined by policy complications, partisan rancor, and the economic crisis.
• DAY 82: Although the leather-bound Mark Twain collection is very nice and all, Russian President Medvedev thought he made it clear that he wanted a Predator poster signed by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• DAY 81: Al Franken sets up another game of Boggle.
• DAY 80: Robert Gibbs lets a rookie reporter repeat his question a third time before savoring ripping him apart.
• DAY 79: Secretary Of Transportation Ray LaHood simply wants to know which Metrorail line Secretary Of Commerce Gary Locke is blaming for his late arrival to the Cabinet meeting.
• DAY 78: Hastily organizing the staff Passover seder, Rahm Emanuel informs Peter Orszag that he will sing the damned four questions whether he likes it or not.
• DAY 77: During an Agriculture Department staff meeting, the tension between Secretary Tom Vilsack and a nearby ear of corn becomes unbearable.
• DAY 76: Snipers on the White House roof watch the NCAA Championship through a window on M Street.
• DAY 75: The massive G20 protests that cost a man his life and British taxpayers $10 million in security are revealed to be a guerrilla marketing campaign for Cadbury Eggs.
• DAY 74: Budget director Peter Orszag continues to refer to all of his policies as "Orszagian."
• DAY 73: Press Secretary Gibbs stumps the entire press corps when he responds to the question “How do we know the president didn’t call for the AIG bonuses himself?” with a question of his own: “How do we know that the entire universe isn't just some sleeping dog's dream?”
• DAY 72: Joe Biden accidentally drops his briefcase, which pops open to reveal a comb, a tube of Binaca, and a dog-eared copy of Oui.
• DAY 71: The president exculpates Harrisburg, PA native Raymond La Forge during the traditional "pardoning of the fool" for April Fools’ Day.
• DAY 69: In a drawn-out mating ritual, Eric Shinseki frantically chases a female Shinseki around the White House until, sufficiently impressed, the female acquiesces.
• DAY 68: WhiteHouse.gov administrators clear out nine people still hanging around in the online town hall.
• DAY 67: Obama helps out coworker by taking a shift at the White House gift shop.
• DAY 66: White House Chef Cristeta Comerford gives a blank, puzzled stare when Biden asks for 'Eggs Biden.'
• DAY 65: Following a state dinner, Obama lets the U.S. Marine Band know their soul version of "Hail to the Chief" will not be necessary.
• DAY 64: Democratic fundraiser Wade Randlett thought he would be important enough to garner a meeting with the President during his trip to the White House, but is instead only given an uncomfortable ten minute face to face with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis's wayward brother Hector.
• DAY 63: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak wakes suddenly at 3 a.m. in a cold sweat screaming, "Corn!"
• DAY 62: A sweaty, out-of-breath Joe Biden bursts into a Cabinet meeting to inform everyone that if a big guy named Ivan comes around looking for him, he "ain't here."
• DAY 61: Chris Dillard of Bethesda, MD, receives the first new job under Obama's stimulus plan, being tasked with flipping the numbers on the White House scoreboard every time a new job is created.
• DAY 60: Obama spends most of the day on the roof of the White House cleaning the gutters in order to teach his daughters a lesson about something or another.
• DAY 59: A temporary lull in the White House's efforts to push legislation through Congress leaves the GOP dangerously close to being forced to decide what its beliefs and solutions for the country are.
• DAY 58: Rahm Emmanuel sends out a memo forbidding any more graphical depictions of what a billion dollars in stacked $1 bills looks like.
• DAY 57: Secret service agent Ted Scharpling stumps fellow agent Neal Vianna when he asks Vianna what he would do if Michelle Obama came at the president with a modified Glock 19 automatic.
• DAY 56: To mark St. Patrick's Day, most of the White House staff wears green, except for Joe Biden, who never makes it into work.
• DAY 55: Several weeks after reportedly being bit by a sheep dog, Eric Holder transforms into the shaggy attorney general at a critical moment during a press conference.
• DAY 54: Obama's personal aide Reggie Love informs The New York Times that he's changed a lot since his May 27, 2008, profile and suggests they do a follow-up.
• DAY 53: White House luncheon guests share a moment of awkwardness when someone says, "Madame, first lady," and both Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama turn around.
• DAY 52: After refusing to take some of his state's stimulus money due to disagreements with the bill, Mississippi governor Haley Barbour wakes up to another burning tire on his lawn.
• DAY 51: Reaching a milestone common for new presidents, Obama spends the afternoon seeing who is the most important person he can get on the phone in under five minutes.
• DAY 50: While wandering the East Wing, Obama finds a really cool cobwebby room everyone had forgotten about for 125 years.
• DAY 49: After hanging around for weeks and just watching from outside the White House fence, Sen. Harry Reid is finally invited to play in Barack Obama's pickup basketball game.
• DAY 48: A trench-coat-wearing Wolf Blitzer is briefly detained by Secret Service agents after he is caught shoplifting three Mad magazines and a bottle of Dr Pepper from the White House gift shop.
• DAY 47: Not wanting to sound too show-offy, White House Cabinet secretary Chris Lu tells a stranger at a Washington party that he "works in government."
• DAY 46: A woman named Candi interrupts a Cabinet meeting to borrow $20 from Joe Biden for cigarettes.
• DAY 45: A Treasury Department intern gets the lucky task of determining who lives and who dies today.
• DAY 44: For the third time this week, press secretary Robert Gibbs peeks his head through the Oval Office door to let President Obama know that he's going on a Baskin-Robbins run.
• DAY 43: Although everyone hopes the Minnesota senatorial race is decided quickly, Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) is getting pretty accustomed to putting her feet up on Norm Coleman’s old seat.
• DAY 42: White House landlord Albert Grabowski isn't going to fix the damn radiator, and as far as those pipes go, that's not his problem either.
• DAY 41: Sixteen hours and 25 cups of coffee into a Treasury Dept. strategy session, Tim Geithner proposes nationalizing CitiGroup, Bank of America, all nine seasons of Seinfeld, toast, Albania, and the third law of thermodynamics.
• DAY 40: President Obama forwards the link to the new Star Trek movie trailer to the entire staff. Again.
• DAY 39: The Obamas sit silently around their Camp David dining table because Malia forgot to pack Scattergories.
• DAY 38: Uruguayan Ambassador left in blue room all day.
• DAY 37: The West Wing staff enjoys two dozen boxes of Nilla Wafers courtesy of Nabisco after Obama mentions them in a speech.
• DAY 36: Realizing there are 489 people working in the West Wing, Rahm Emanuel tells his secretary to stop buying cupcakes for everybody's birthday.
• DAY 35: Negotiations between the House and Senate versions of the DC Voting Rights bill nearly break down when Senator Arlen Specter insists on keeping his doodle of a three-legged pony in the bill.
• DAY 34: During a difficult moment of a televised address, President Obama debuts the evil-looking sock puppet that will speak on all unpopular matters from now on.
• DAY 33: President Obama still hasn't updated his Twitter account, leaving millions of tweeple tweet-deprived for over a month.
• DAY 32: Vice-President Joe Biden curses HotGunner79 for outbidding him at last minute on 1970's Navy bomber jacket.
• DAY 31: White House Intern David Kimball decides delivering memos to Robert Gibbs counts as "managing critical White House messaging initiatives key to furthering the president's agenda."
• DAY 30: At 3 a.m., President Obama sends Judd Gregg a group photo of his Cabinet, just so he knows what he's missing.
• DAY 29: A nervous Canada accidentally offers to be annexed during Obama's first foreign visit.
• DAY 28: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's wife has taken to calling him the Trillion Dollar Man during sex.
• DAY 27: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is still feeling out the White House policy on nudity.
• DAY 26: After receiving the fifth gift of its kind in as many weeks, Obama half-heartedly nails another African mask to the Oval Office wall.
• DAY 25: Obama enjoys a quiet, candlelight dinner with Michelle and South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo.
• DAY 24: President Obama asks the visiting Estonian president if he wouldn't mind pretending to be Vladimir Putin for a second so he can practice for the Russian prime minister's big visit tomorrow.
• DAY 23: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano awkwardly enters the Oval Office while President Obama is doing his Napolitano impersonation.
• DAY 22: President Obama asks aides to alert him immediately if the Mutant Registration Act is introduced in Congress.
• DAY 21: For the third time, the Joint Chiefs of Staff ask President Obama not to leave fantasy miniatures on war map.
• DAY 20: Joe Biden clears his schedule to oversee the installation of four video poker machines in the Naval Observatory.
• DAY 19: After a tense afternoon holed up in the Situation Room, President Obama finally locates that old pack of Lyndon Johnson's Benson & Hedges.
• DAY 18: In one of many historic firsts, Barack Obama becomes the first black president to TiVo MythBusters.
• DAY 17: Hillary Clinton meets with Haitian president René Préval, who demands U.S. provide Haiti a sandwich by 2010.
• DAY 16: Obama's "First 100 Days Dilbert Desk Calendar" still on day five.
• DAY 15: Eighty-eight-year-old Justice John Paul Stevens informs the Obama administration of his decision to die in office, effective Mar. 1.
• DAY 14: Taco Tuesday
• DAY 13: President Obama meets with Vermont governor Jim Douglas and is saddened to find that he is not the creator of Garfield.
• DAY 12: A nice little lazy Sunday for the president. Maybe read a book, watch a movie, whatever.
• DAY 11: Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget reads former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget's memoirs.
• DAY 10: Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Donovan wonders if they mean "urban" like "city" or "urban" like "black."
• DAY 9: Impressionist Rich Little sits in a bathrobe on the floor of his one-bedroom apartment trying to figure out how to say "I am not a crook" like Barack Obama.
• DAY 8: Rahm Emanuel's "open door" policy is severely tested by political director Patrick Gaspard's repeated claims that someone is taking Splenda packets from the jar on his desk.
• DAY 7: After figuring out a comprehensive solution for the economic crisis in a dream, President Obama issues an executive order requisitioning a fleet of freight liners and 147,000 tons of eggplant.
• DAY 6: Joe Biden spends the day sitting on a couch in the Oval Office, saying he "just wants to watch."
• DAY 5: Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack spends another day worried that his unanimous confirmation means people have forgotten what a hell-raiser he was as mayor of Mount Pleasant, IA.
• DAY 4: Former treasury secretary Henry Paulson is discovered sleeping next to the boiler in the White House basement.
• DAY 3: Obama takes a few minutes to fill out the change of address card for his Popular Mechanics subscription.
• DAY 2: Suddenly everyone in the Roosevelt Room looks around and realizes: yes, this will be the seating arrangement for the next four years.
• DAY 1: In one of his first acts as president, Obama begins the process of closing down the CIA prisons that he knows about.

Melatonin Is An Effective Treatment For Sleep Problems In Children With Autism, Study Suggests
ScienceDaily (Apr. 15, 2009) — A new study determined that over-the-counter melatonin medication can shorted the length of time it takes for children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), or both to fall asleep at the beginning of the night.
Results of the study indicated that children who received over-the-counter melatonin treatments experienced significant improvements in total night sleep durations, sleep latency times, and sleep-onset times. Mean sleep duration was longer on melatonin than placebo by 21 minutes, sleep-onset latency was shorter by 28 minutes and sleep-onset time was earlier by 42 minutes.
According to the senior author, Beth L. Goodlin-Jones, PhD of the M.I.N.D Institute at the University of California Davis Health System in Sacramento, Calif., treatment with over-the-counter melatonin supplements benefits children of all ages, which helps alleviate some of the additional stress that parents of special-needs children experience.
"Sleep onset problems at the beginning of the night are very troublesome for children and their families," said Goodlin-Jones. "Sometimes children may take one to two hours to fall asleep and often they disrupt the household during this time."
Authors report that sleep problems are reported in up to 89 percent of children with autism and 77 percent of children with FXS, the most common form of inherited mental impairment ranging from learning problems to mental retardation, and also the most commonly known cause of autism. Dyssomnia (difficulty falling asleep and frequent nighttime awakenings) are among the most commonly reported problems. Researchers hypothesize that difficulty sleeping in these children is increased due to abnormal levels of melatonin, a natural hormone secreted from the pineal gland that is believed to promote sleep at night.
The study included information from 12 children between the ages of 2 to 15.25 years. Sleep quality and quantity were measured both objectively and subjectively. Five participants met diagnostic criteria for autism, 3 for FXS, 3 for FXS and ASD, and 1 for FXS alone.
Participants were given two weeks' supply of either melatonin or a placebo. After they completed the two week dosage they were then crossed over to the alternate treatment for an additional two weeks. All participants were assessed for autism and received DNA testing for the diagnosis of FXS.
Authors recommend that in addition to the use of over-the-counter melatonin supplements, behavior therapies and sleep hygiene practices should be used to manage sleep problems in children with autism and FXS.
. The Efficacy of Melatonin for Sleep Problems in Children with Autism, Fragile X Syndrome, or Autism and Fragile X Syndrome. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, April 15, 2009
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090415075048.htm

Where You Live May Affect Your State Of Mind

ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2009) — Frequent Mental Distress (FMD), defined as having 14 or more days in the previous month when one felt burdened by stress, depression or emotional problems, is not evenly distributed across the United States. In fact, certain geographic areas have consistently high or consistently low FMD incidence, as shown in a new study.
Combining data from annual large-scale surveys  in 1993-2001 and 2003-2006 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers found that the adult prevalence of FMD was 9.4% overall, ranging from 6.6% in Hawaii to 14.4% in Kentucky. FMD prevalence varied both over time and by geographic area within states. From the earlier period to the later period, the mean prevalence of FMD increased by at least 1 percentage point in 27 states and by more than 4 percentage points in Mississippi, Oklahoma and West Virginia. The Appalachian and the Mississippi Valley regions had high and increasing FMD prevalence, and the upper Midwest had low and decreasing FMD prevalence.
The state-based Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) has asked questions about mental health since 1993 and collects data from random telephone surveys of adult residents across the U.S. More than 1.2 million people were surveyed in each of the two periods. FMD prevalence was determined by county, and the results were smoothed to reduce variation from random sampling due to small sample sizes in less populous counties.
For the 1993–2001 period, the smoothed FMD prevalence was less than 8% in 31.8% of the 3112 counties analyzed and was ≥12.0% in 4.8% of the counties. For the 2003–2006 period, the smoothed FMD prevalence was <8% in 15.9% of the 3113 counties analyzed and was ≥12.0% in 16.1% of the counties. Consistent multicounty geographic patterns were evident for both periods—including areas where smoothed FMD prevalence was <8% in adjoining parts of several states in the upper Midwest region (ND, SD, NE, KS, MN, IA, MO, WI, IL) and an area where FMD prevalence was ≥12% that was centered on Kentucky (IN, OH, KY, WV, VA, TN).  Differences in physical conditions (like disability or diabetes mellitus), stressful life events (like job loss), and social circumstances (like income) may be associated with differences in FMD prevalence.
“Because FMD often indicates potentially unmet health and social service needs, programs for public health, community mental health and social services whose jurisdictions include areas with high FMD levels should collaborate to identify and eliminate the specific preventable sources of this distress,” said Dr. Matthew M. Zack, the study’s lead investigator.  “With the growing scientific literature linking FMD to treatable mental illnesses and preventable mental health problems, the increased use of these surveillance data in community mental health decision making is especially warranted. The continued surveillance of mental distress may help these programs to identify unmet needs and disparities, to focus their policies and interventions and to evaluate their performance over time.”
David G. Moriarty, Matthew M. Zack, James B. Holt, Daniel P. Chapman and Marc A. Safran. Geographic Patterns of Frequent Mental Distress: U.S. Adults, 1993%u20132001 and 2003%u20132006. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 36, Issue 6 (June 2009)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090414084220.htm

Aspirin And Similar Drugs May Be Associated With Brain Microbleeds In Older Adults

ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2009) — Individuals who take aspirin or other medications that prevent blood clotting by inhibiting the accumulation of platelets appear more likely to have tiny, asymptomatic areas of bleeding in the brain, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the June print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Cerebral microbleeds—small deposits of the iron-storing protein hemosiderin in the brain—may be a sign of cerebral small-vessel disease, according to background information in the article. This condition, common among older adults, occurs when the walls of blood vessels in the brain become weakened. When microbleeds occur in certain brain areas, they may indicate a type of small vessel disease known as cerebral amyloid angiopathy, in which the accumulation of amyloid (a protein often related to Alzheimer's disease) causes degeneration of smooth muscle cells and increases the susceptibility of blood vessels to ruptures and hemorrhages.
Meike W. Vernooij, M.D., and colleagues at Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, investigated the relationship between cerebral microbleeds and the use of anti-clotting medications in 1,062 individuals without dementia involved in the Rotterdam Scan Study. Participants (average age 69.6) underwent magnetic resonance imaging examinations in 2005 and 2006. Pharmacy records were used to assess whether any of the individuals took anti-clotting drugs. These included aspirin and carbasalate calcium—called platelet aggregation inhibitors because they prevent the accumulation of platelets that form blood clots.
In the years before MRI, 363 (34.2 percent) of the participants had used any anti-clotting drugs, including 245 (23.1 percent) who took platelet aggregation inhibitors (67 taking aspirin and 141 taking carbasalate calcium). Compared with patients who did not use anti-clotting drugs, those who took aspirin or carbasalate calcium were more likely to have cerebral microbleeds visible on MRI. This association was particularly strong among individuals taking these drugs at higher doses, typically used to treat or prevent heart disease. Microbleeds in the frontal lobe were more common among aspirin users than carbasalate calcium users. There was no association between other types of anti-clotting drugs and cerebral microbleeds.
"There is currently major interest in bleeding risks with the use of antithrombotic or thrombolytic treatment in persons who have microbleeds that are apparent on MRI because this may affect treatment in patients with cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease," the authors write. "The cross-sectional design of our analyses prohibited an investigation of whether persons with cerebral microbleeds are at increased risk for symptomatic hemorrhage [excessive bleeding] when using platelet aggregation inhibitors."
The beneficial effects of anti-clotting drugs for individuals at risk for heart attack and stroke typically outweigh any risks of bleeding, they note. "Nevertheless, it may be that in selected persons (e.g., those with signs of cerebral amyloid angiopathy), this risk-benefit ratio may differ for certain drugs (e.g., aspirin), thus influencing treatment decision," they conclude.
Meike W. Vernooij; Mendel D. M. Haag; Aad van der Lugt; Albert Hofman; Gabriel P. Krestin; Bruno H. Stricker; Monique M. B. Breteler. Use of Antithrombotic Drugs and the Presence of Cerebral Microbleeds. Archives of Neurology, 2009; 66 (6) DOI: 10.1001/archneurol.2009.42
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090413180655.htm

The New 'Epigenetics:' Poor Nutrition In The Womb Causes Permanent Genetic Changes In Offspring

ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2009) — The new science of epigenetics explains how genes can be modified by the environment, and a prime result of epigenetic inquiry has just been published online in The FASEB Journal: You are what your mother did not eat during pregnancy. In the research report, scientists from the University of Utah show that rat fetuses receiving poor nutrition in the womb become genetically primed to be born into an environment lacking proper nutrition.
As a result of this genetic adaptation, the rats were likely to grow to smaller sizes than their normal counterparts. At the same time, they were also at higher risk for a host of health problems throughout their lives, such as diabetes, growth retardation, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and neurodevelopmental delays, among others. Although the study involved rats, the genes and cellular mechanisms involved are the same as those in humans.
"Our study emphasizes that maternal–fetal health influences multiple healthcare issues across generations," said Robert Lane, professor of pediatric neonatology at the University of Utah, and one of the senior researchers involved in the study. "To reduce adult diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease, we need to understand how the maternal–fetal environment influences the health of offspring."
The scientists made this discovery through experiments involving two groups of rats. The first group was normal. The second group had the delivery of nutrients from their mothers' placentas restricted in a way that is equivalent to preeclampsia. The rats were examined right after birth and again at 21 days (21 days is essentially a preadolescent rat) to measure the amount of a protein, called IGF-1, that promotes normal development and growth in rats and humans. They found that the lack of nutrients caused the gene responsible for IGF-1 to significantly reduce the amount of IGF-1 produced in the body before and after birth.
"The new 'epigenetics' has taught us how nature is changed by nurture," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "The jury's in and, yes, expectant moms really are eating for two. This study shows not only that we need to address problems such as preeclampsia during pregnancy, but also that prenatal care is far more important than anyone could have imagined a decade ago."
Qi Fu, Xing Yu, Christopher W. Callaway, Robert H. Lane, and Robert A. McKnight. Epigenetics: intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) modifies the histone code along the rat hepatic IGF-1 gene. FASEB J., DOI: 10.1096/fj.08-124768
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090413150743.htm

Vitamin D Deficiency Related To Increased Inflammation In Healthy Women
ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2009) — According to a recent study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 75 percent of Americans do not get enough Vitamin D. Researchers have found that the deficiency may negatively impact immune function and cardiovascular health and increase cancer risk. Now, a University of Missouri nutritional sciences researcher has found that vitamin D deficiency is associated with inflammation, a negative response of the immune system, in healthy women.
 Increased concentrations of serum TNF-α, an inflammatory marker, were found in women who had insufficient vitamin D levels. This study is the first to find an inverse relationship between vitamin D levels and concentrations of TNF-α in a healthy, non-diseased population. This may explain the vitamin's role in the prevention and treatment of inflammatory diseases, including heart disease, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.
"The findings reveal that low vitamin D levels negatively impact inflammation and immune response, even in healthy women," said Catherine Peterson, assistant professor in the MU College of Human Environmental Sciences. "Increased inflammation normally is found in people with obesity or chronic diseases; a small decrease in vitamin D levels may aggravate symptoms in people who are sick."
The results support the need to re-examine the biological basis for determining the dietary reference intake (DRI) of vitamin D, Peterson said. The Institute of Medicine's DRI for vitamin D is 200 IU for people age 50 and younger and 400 IU for people 50 to 70 years old. The guidelines, created in 1997, are being revised to reflect new research, and Peterson is confident the DRI will be increased.
"Adequate vitamin D levels identified in this study are consistent with recent research that suggests the DRI should be increased," Peterson said. "To improve vitamin D status and achieve its related health benefits, most people should get at least 1000 IU of vitamin D per day. Sunlight is a readily-available, free source of vitamin D. Exposing 25 percent of the skin's surface area to 10 minutes of sunlight three days per week will maintain adequate levels in the majority of people; however, people with darkly-pigmented skin need more. Only a few foods contain vitamin D naturally, such as fatty fish; other sources are dietary supplements and vitamin-D-fortified foods, including milk and orange juice."
In future studies, Peterson will determine the effectiveness of Vitamin D in reducing disease symptoms and reducing blood glucose levels in diabetics. The study, "Serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha concentrations are negatively correlated with serum 25(OH) D concentrations in healthy women," was published in the July, 2008 issue of the Journal of Inflammation.