WTRF 7 News is told by several sources that the man insisted on living his life in his chair, insisted that his girlfriend bring him food and soft drinks.Someone should have sought help rather than allow another human being, despite their own choosing, to live in such a condition.
A Pet in Your Life Keeps the Doctor AwaySee also New York Times.
Sept. 28, 2009
Story Contact(s):
Kelsey Jackson, JacksonKN@missouri.edu, (573) 882-8353
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Lowers blood pressure, encourages exercise, improves psychological health— these may sound like the effects of a miracle drug, but they are actually among the benefits of owning a four-legged, furry pet.
“Research in this field is providing new evidence on the positive impact pets have in our lives,” said Rebecca Johnson, associate professor in the MU Sinclair School of Nursing, the College of Veterinary Medicine and director of ReCHAI.
“Pets are of great importance to people, especially during hard economic times,” Johnson said. “Pets provide unconditional love and acceptance and may be part of answers to societal problems, such as inactivity and obesity.”
ReCHAI sponsors several projects that attempt to further the understanding and value of the relationship between humans and animals. In 2008, ReCHAI sponsored the “Walk a Hound, Lose a Pound and Stay Fit for Seniors.” In the preliminary program, a group of older adults were matched with shelter dogs, while another group of older adults were partnered with a human walk buddy. For 12 weeks, participants were encouraged to walk on an outdoor trail for one hour, five times a week. At the end of the program, researchers measured how much the older adults’ activity levels improved.
“The older people who walked their dogs improved their walking capabilities by 28 percent,” Johnson said. “They had more confidence walking on the trail, and they increased their speed. The older people who walked with humans only had a 4 percent increase in their walking capabilities. The human walking buddies tended to discourage each other and used excuses such as the weather being too hot.”
“Today, pets are in more than 60 percent of American homes,” said Charlotte McKenney, assistant director of ReCHAI. “Research involving human-animal interaction can be extremely beneficial. More people are incorporating pets into their leisure time, such as making them part of their exercise routines, taking them to dog parks and bringing them to family events.”
Only in France - Champagne corks to the eye and cuts to the hand from opening oysters.Accidents de fêtes
«Dans les hôpitaux, c'est toujours la même chose. Les effectifs sont fixes quel que soit le jour, en tout cas aux urgences et en réanimation» selon un cadre de santé de l'hôpital de Bayonne. Noël est-il un jour particulier aux urgences ? «C'est imprévisible. On constate le même phénomène que les samedis et les dimanches, les gens viennent parce que leur médecin généraliste ne travaille pas. On a aussi davantage de personnes âgées oubliées pour les jours de fête ou de vacances... Et sinon, les accidents typiquement liés aux fêtes comme des chocs à l'oeil avec le bouchon de champagne, ou les blessures aux mains en ouvrant des huîtres».
Listening to Latino or bopping along to some Indie Rock in your spare time, may say more about you than the student gap year you spent in South America or the long summers spent singing along at rain soaked festivals.I don't know if the North study takes into account people with diverse tastes in music. I like indie (lack self-esteem) AND classical (good self-esteem).
A researcher from Heriot-Watt University has found that strong personality attributes are linked to our choices in music, with classical lovers more likely to have strong self-esteem and creative tendencies and dance fans being outgoing without being very gentle.
Prof Adrian North, who conducted the study, said the findings were very revealing and that our musical tastes can be seen as a direct reflection of our characters. “Researchers have been showing for decades that fans or rock and rap are rebellious, and that fans of opera are wealthy and well-educated, but this is the first time that research has shown that personality links to liking for a wide range of musical styles. We asked people to rate how much they liked 104 musical styles, before then completing a personality test. 36518 people from all around the world took part, and the research is by far the largest study of musical preference and personality ever undertaken.”
“Jazz and classical music fans are creative and have good self-esteem, but the former are much more outgoing whereas the latter are shy. Country and western fans are hardworking and shy, whereas rap fans are outgoing. Indie fans lack self-esteem, and aren’t terribly gentle people, but are at least creative. Contrary to the stereotype, heavy metal fans are gentle and at ease with themselves”
“People often define their sense of identity through their musical taste, wearing particular clothes, going to certain pubs, and using certain types of slang. It’s not so surprising that personality should also be related to musical preference.”
The researchers also found that your personality and lifestyle said a lot about the kind of emotional reactions to music that you have. If listeners preferred exciting, punchy music they were more likely to be on a higher earning bracket with those opting for relaxing sounds more inclined to be lower down the pay scale.
Prof North is continuing his research, and needs as many people as possible from anywhere in the world to visit www.peopleintomusic.com, where they will be asked to spend five minutes completing a short questionnaire.
Prof North’s new book, The Social and Applied Psychology of Music, was published earlier this year by Oxford University Press.
Notes to Editors:
Adrian North is Professor of Psychology and head of the Department of Applied Psychology at Heriot Watt University, situated in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0)131 451 8239 / +44 (0)7811 121950. Email: a.north@hw.ac.uk. Web: http://www.psychology.hw.ac.uk/staff.php
I wonder whether this study should be compared to studies done on runners who have died while running.Running slows the aging clock, Stanford researchers find
By ERIN DIGITALESTANFORD, Calif. — Regular running slows the effects of aging, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine that has tracked 500 older runners for more than 20 years. Elderly runners have fewer disabilities, a longer span of active life and are half as likely as aging nonrunners to die early deaths, the research found.
“The study has a very pro-exercise message,” said James Fries, MD, an emeritus professor of medicine at the medical school and the study’s senior author. “If you had to pick one thing to make people healthier as they age, it would be aerobic exercise.” The new findings appear in the Aug. 11 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
When Fries and his team began this research in 1984, many scientists thought vigorous exercise would do older folks more harm than good. Some feared the long-term effect of the then-new jogging craze would be floods of orthopedic injuries, with older runners permanently hobbled by their exercise habit. Fries had a different hypothesis: he thought regular exercise would extend high-quality, disability-free life. Keeping the body moving, he speculated, wouldn’t necessarily extend longevity, but it would compress the period at the end of life when people couldn’t carry out daily tasks on their own. That idea came to be known as “the compression of morbidity theory.”
Fries’ team began tracking 538 runners over age 50, comparing them to a similar group of nonrunners. The subjects, now in their 70s and 80s, have answered yearly questionnaires about their ability to perform everyday activities such as walking, dressing and grooming, getting out of a chair and gripping objects. The researchers have used national death records to learn which participants died, and why. Nineteen years into the study, 34 percent of the nonrunners had died, compared to only 15 percent of the runners.
At the beginning of the study, the runners ran an average of about four hours a week. After 21 years, their running time declined to an average of 76 minutes per week, but they were still seeing health benefits from running.
On average both groups in the study became more disabled after 21 years of aging, but for runners the onset of disability started later.
“Runners’ initial disability was 16 years later than nonrunners,’” Fries said. “By and large, the runners have stayed healthy.”
Not only did running delay disability, but the gap between runners’ and nonrunners’ abilities got bigger with time.
“We did not expect this,” Fries said, noting that the increasing gap between the groups has been apparent for several years now. “The health benefits of exercise are greater than we thought.”
Fries was surprised the gap between runners and nonrunners continues to widen even as his subjects entered their ninth decade of life. The effect was probably due to runners’ greater lean body mass and healthier habits in general, he said. “We don’t think this effect can go on forever,” Fries added. “We know that deaths come one to a customer. Eventually we will have a 100 percent mortality rate in both groups.”
But so far, the effect of running on delaying death has also been more dramatic than the scientists expected. Not surprisingly, running has slowed cardiovascular deaths. However, it has also been associated with fewer early deaths from cancer, neurological disease, infections and other causes.
And the dire injury predictions other scientists made for runners have fallen completely flat. Fries and his colleagues published a companion paper in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine showing running was not associated with greater rates of osteoarthritis in their elderly runners. Runners also do not require more total knee replacements than nonrunners, Fries said.
“Running straight ahead without pain is not harmful,” he said, adding that running seems safer for the joints than high-impact sports such as football, or unnatural motions like standing en pointe in ballet.
“When we first began, there was skepticism about our ideas,” Fries said. “Now, many other findings go in the same direction.”
Fries, 69, takes his own advice on aging: he’s an accomplished runner, mountaineer and outdoor adventurer.
Hanging on his office wall is a photo he jokingly describes as “me, running around the world in two minutes.” In the dazzling image of blue sky and white ice, Fries makes a tiny lap around the North Pole.
Fries collaborated with Stanford colleagues Eliza Chakravarty, MD, MS, an assistant professor of medicine; Helen Hubert, PhD, a researcher now retired from Stanford, and Vijaya Lingala, PhD, a research software developer.
The research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and by the National Institute on Aging.
These findings are rather presumptuous. I suppose I do have a tendency to make assumptions about people based on their reading material. I do tend to find people who read very widely much more interesting than people who do not read at all.Musical key to unlocking teenage wasteland
Kate Benson
August 5, 2008DOCTORS should ask their teenage patients what type of music they prefer to determine if they are at risk of developing a mental illness or committing suicide, researchers say.
A study, published in today's Australasian Psychiatry journal, found that teens who listened to pop music were more likely to be struggling with their sexuality, those tuning in to rap or heavy metal could be having unprotected sex and drink-driving, and those who favoured jazz were usually misfits and loners.
The findings prompted a call for doctors to include musical tastes as a diagnostic indicator in mental health assessments.
The study's author, Felicity Baker, said yesterday: "There is no evidence to suggest the type of music you listen to will cause you to commit suicide, but those who are vulnerable and at risk of committing suicide may be listening to certain types of music."
She said an Australian study of year 10 students had shown significant associations between heavy metal music and suicidal tendencies, depression, delinquency and drug-taking.
An American study had also shown that young adults who regularly listened to heavy metal had a higher preoccupation with suicide and higher levels of depression than their peers.
Deliberate self-harm and attempted suicide were also associated with teenagers who listened to trance, techno, heavy metal and medieval music as part of the Goth subculture, while those who attended dance parties were much more likely than their peers to be taking drugs.
Some genres of rap music, such as French rap, were linked to more deviant behaviours, including theft, violence and drug use. Teens who listened to hip-hop were usually less troublesome, Dr Baker said. "But it's important to point out that music doesn't cause these behaviours," she said.
"It's more a case of teenagers who may have a mental illness or are involved in these antisocial behaviours being drawn to certain types of music."
Michael Bowden, a child psychiatrist and the head of medical programs at the NSW Institute of Psychiatry, said most doctors already questioned teen patients about their influences, whether from their peers, the internet or music.
"Over the years there have been concerns about suicidal themes in some music and whenever a famous person, such as (Nirvana singer) Kurt Cobain, kills themselves we see a copycat effect among teenagers," he said.
"But sometimes an adolescent's musical tastes will reveal nothing. The key to understanding any teenager is to treat them with respect by listening to what they have to say, rather than typecasting them according to the type of music they listen to."
WHAT STUDIES SAY ABOUT YOUR SOUNDS:
POP: Conformists, overly responsible, role-conscious, struggling with sexuality or peer acceptance.
HEAVY METAL: Higher levels of suicidal ideation, depression, drug use, self-harm, shoplifting, vandalism, unprotected sex.
DANCE: Higher levels of drug use regardless of socio-economic background.
JAZZ/RHYTHM & BLUES: Introverted misfits, loners.
RAP: Higher levels of theft, violence, anger, street gang membership, drug use and misogyny.
Uribe spent the 1990s eating pizzas and burgers in the United States where he worked as a computer repairman. Addicted to junk food, he eventually tipped the scales at 1235 pounds (560 kg) back in Mexico, bingeing on greasy tacos.
His bulk made him the world's heaviest man and won him a place in the 2008 edition of the Guinness World Records.
Give pets a chanceI don't like to use the word pet, but prefer four-legged companions, indeed furry family members. Even though they are dependent upon people, especially for food, we also depend on them.
Ruth Ostrow | May 03, 2008
I WAS feeling worried the other evening. Someone close to me was having an operation and I couldn't eat. About 6 o'clock my two cats came in for dinner, as they always do.
But instead of going to their bowls they came over to where I was sitting by the TV and refused to move. I carried them over to their food. One sniffed and walked away; the other had a few mouthfuls and left the rest. They both returned to the couch and sat by me.
Later the call that I was waiting for came through. All was well. I went and made myself a sandwich. The cats followed and hungrily finished their food.
A vet confirmed this was not magic. It’s the intuition shared between master and pet. A wonderful, unconscious connection whereby the animal senses pain, sadness or anxiety and reacts accordingly. I once witnessed the loyalty of a dog who sensed his master was soon to die, and sat at the foot of the bed whimpering before an operation that did, indeed, lead to the man’s death.
Pets can vibe into us, but also seem to exert a wonderful, unseen power over us. American Heart Association research has found that a 12-minute visit with man’s best friend helps heart and lung function by lowering blood pressure, diminishing the release of harmful hormones and decreasing anxiety among hospitalised heart-failure patients. Animal-assisted therapy is now being used by a wide range of health professionals and correctional facilities.
However, despite the powerful cross-pollination between pet and owner, I was shocked to hear that my friend was not able to pet-sit in his own home due to the body corporate’s rules. And I was surprised to find myself discriminated against recently when trying to rent, due to an archaic no-pets policy. For many families there’s a brutal choice to be made in this rental crisis: a home or the family dog.
I get particularly angry at the constant letters I receive from people who question animal rights, such as a recent Modern Dilemma from someone who didn’t think the hospital MRI machine should be used after-hours on animals.
In stark contrast, Japanese companies have begun giving employees a monthly “family allowance” for their pets. With the trend to living alone on the increase, pets are the new children in some countries. Let’s adjust our thinking to acknowledge their value in this lonely modern world.
ostrowr@theaustralian.com.au
Oregon Man Thomas Beatie is Pregnantand The Advocate article
Atlanta, GA 3/25/2008 07:20 PM GMT (FINDITT)
Thomas Beatie claims he is pregnant with he and his wife’s first child. The Oregon man was born a woman but decided to have a sex change. Beatie says he decided only to have chest reconstruction and testosterone therapy and not to change his reproductive organs.
Beatie wrote an article about his pregnancy for ‘The Advocate,’ a magazine for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered readers. In the article, he says he stopped taking testosterone injections to get pregnant. He decided to carry a baby as his wife Nancy was unable to get pregnant.
Beatie says he was pregnant with triplets but he lost the babies. He is now pregnant with a baby girl, who is due in July. He describes how doctors refused to treat him. One doctor sent him to the “the clinic’s psychologist to see if we were fit to bring a child into this world and consulted with the ethics board of his hospital.”
“A few months and a couple thousand dollars later, he told us that he would no longer treat us, saying he and his staff felt uncomfortable working with ‘someone like me,’” he wrote. Beatie added that he and his wife’s situation “sparks legal, political and social unknowns.”
Labor of LoveIs this another ethical dilemma? Not really. If it is possible for men (biological males) to gestate a child in pregnancy, some may jump at the opportunity with the support of the child's mother.
Is society ready for this pregnant husband?
By Thomas Beatie
From The Advocate April 8, 2008
To our neighbors, my wife, Nancy, and I don’t appear in the least unusual. To those in the quiet Oregon community where we live, we are viewed just as we are -- a happy couple deeply in love. Our desire to work hard, buy our first home, and start a family was nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until we decided that I would carry our child.
I am transgender, legally male, and legally married to Nancy. Unlike those in same-sex marriages, domestic partnerships, or civil unions, Nancy and I are afforded the more than 1,100 federal rights of marriage. Sterilization is not a requirement for sex reassignment, so I decided to have chest reconstruction and testosterone therapy but kept my reproductive rights. Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire, but a human desire.
Ten years ago, when Nancy and I became a couple, the idea of us having a child was more dream than plan. I always wanted to have children. However, due to severe endometriosis 20 years ago, Nancy had to undergo a hysterectomy and is unable to carry a child. But after the success of our custom screen-printing business and a move from Hawaii to the Pacific Northwest two years ago, the timing finally seemed right. I stopped taking my bimonthly testosterone injections. It had been roughly eight years since I had my last menstrual cycle, so this wasn’t a decision that I took lightly. My body regulated itself after about four months, and I didn’t have to take any exogenous estrogen, progesterone, or fertility drugs to aid my pregnancy.
Why this mother believes her Down's syndrome child should have plastic surgery to help her 'fit in'I do agree with the point that Ophelia's appearance is part of her condition, which alerts others of it.
By AMANDA CABLE
Last updated at 08:48am on 10th March 2008
Ophelia Kirwan is a beguiling toddler with wide eyes and a mop of blonde hair. At the age of two, she's too young to know that she has Down's syndrome, or to understand why this makes her different from other little girls.
And as she plays in her pink nursery surrounded by toys and teddies, she is blissfully unaware that her distinctive features this week placed her at the centre of a fierce ethical debate.
At the weekend, her parents - a world-renowned plastic surgeon and his surgically-enhanced wife - admitted they are considering altering their daughter's appearance with surgery in the future to help her become more 'accepted' by society.
Considering surgery: Chelsea Kirwan with her daughter Ophelia
Laurence Kirwan insisted that he would make that decision if Ophelia - who is two this month - reached the age of 18 and was being unfairly judged on how she looked.
The procedure, he explained in the blunt words of a surgeon, would correct "eyes slightly wide apart, flat nasal bridge, thin lips, tongue that sticks out, thick neck".
But would the decision to erase these tell-tale features of Down's syndrome be made with their daughter's happiness in mind? Or would it simply be an attempt to mould a child into a society which cares more about looks than vulnerable children?
Her mother Chelsea said: "It just isn't right that Ophelia and others like her should be judged on how they look - particularly if they are turned down for a good job that they could handle.
"It's a matter of self-esteem: if you're not happy with yourself then why shouldn't you fix something? All I want is for Ophelia to be happy."
While their admission is extraordinary, Laurence and Chelsea - wealthy and doting parents who have two non-Down's older daughters - are not alone in their desire to alter the natural appearance of a child with Down's.
At least one other couple have already gone ahead with radical and painful cosmetic surgery to alter their daughter's Down's syndrome "appearance" to help her "fit in" with her peers.
By the time Georgia Bussey was five, her parents Kim and David, from Pimlico, South-West London, had put her through the ordeal of surgery three times.
In the first procedure at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, her tongue was reduced to stop it protruding. Then, folds of skin were removed from the inner corners of her eyes to take away the "slantiness" characteristic of Down's syndrome. Finally, she had surgery to stop her ears sticking out.
The couple - who deliberated for a year before arranging for their daughter's face to be surgically altered - claimed, like the Kirwans, that they were simply motivated by love for their child.
Kim insisted: "We live in a society that judges people by the way they look. Society is not going to change overnight - so Georgia has to fit into society, rather than society fitting into the way she is.
"The people who criticise us are usually people who don't have Down's children of their own. They don't see the teasing that goes on and the problems Down's children have. I just want to give Georgia a helping hand - an "edge" to get on in life."
Perhaps her attitude is understandable, yet the surgery that Georgia Bussey went through was criticised by the Down's Syndrome Association, which says no one should have to have an operation to make them more visually acceptable to society.
Moreover, there are many parents with Down's children who are horrified at the idea of somehow airbrushing their children's appearance, as though having the condition is something to be ashamed of.
Some claim that the procedures - on a child who could scarcely comprehend the pain they were suffering - were tantamount to child abuse.
Rosa Monckton, the wife of former newspaper editor Dominic Lawson and mother of 12-year-old Domenica, who has Down's syndrome, agrees.
"What these children bring to our lives is something so deep and extraordinary, it is humanity stripped to the bone," she says.
"It is not about how they look, but who they are. First and foremost, they are our children, children to be loved and cherished - not tampered with and altered because they look slightly different.
"It's a sad indictment of what our must-have society has become - the expectation is for something perfect. Anything which isn't aesthetically perfect - be it breasts, bodies or the faces of children just out of babyhood - must be fixed until it is. These are grotesquely skewed values.
"Our natural instinct as parents is to cherish and love our children. Not to gaze at the faces of toddlers and wonder what we might change surgically later on.
"The thought of allowing your own child's face to be cut open in an attempt to make them more 'acceptable' to society is appalling. Perhaps these parents are struggling to come to terms with the shock - and it is a shock - of finding out that your child won't be exactly as you expected."
When Rosa's daughter Domenica was about three weeks old, she and her husband were contacted by Professor Brian Stratford, an expert in Down's syndrome who had a Down's daughter himself. He had read an article that Dominic had written in The Spectator magazine describing Domenica's birth, and offered to come and examine her.
Rosa says: "I was still in shock from the birth and the diagnosis, and was sitting in the kitchen with Domenica and the professor when my eldest daughter, Savannah, came running in.
"She was an impossibly beautiful two-year-old, with enormous eyes. Brian looked at her, looked at Domenica in the cot, and looked at me. 'What did you expect?' he asked. 'Another designer child off the production line?'
"It was a shocking moment - those words came as a physical blow. It made me really think about how much of a parent's love for their child is transferred ego. How much the need for beauty, perfection and achievement is simply the desire for parents to bask in the reflected glory."
When Domenica was born on June 1, 1995, it was to one of Britain's most prominent families. Father Dominic - son of former Chancellor Nigel - was the editor of the Sunday Telegraph, Rosa was a successful businesswoman and close friend of Princess Diana, while Domenica's aunt was television cook Nigella Lawson.
Rosa, whose older daughter Savannah is now 15, says: "I had lost my previous child six months into my pregnancy, so this baby was going to be a new start for us. I was induced, so we knew exactly when she was going to be born. We had everything ready - it was all going to be perfect.
"But it was obvious from the moment she was born that things were not perfect. Domenica was blue and floppy, and I was told almost immediately that she had Down's syndrome.
"Nothing could have prepared me for that shock, and I found it so hard. I'm ashamed at how difficult I found it.
"But I was grieving for the child that I thought I was going to have - and the future I had always imagined for her. Even in my darkest despair, I wasn't worried about what my daughter was going to look like; it was a fear of what her life was going to be like.
"Domenica was three weeks old when Professor Stratford made the remark about designer babies.
"It was a turning point for me - I started to question my own feelings, and my own desire for the perfect child. I realised that I actually loved my baby how she was - and I wanted to fight for her.
"We christened Domenica on July 1, when she was just four weeks old. My brother sang a lullaby he had written for her, and a psalm was read about not being frightened. I walked out of the church feeling so much happier and stronger."
Among Domenica's godparents was Rosa's close friend Princess Diana.
Rosa says: "She held the baby and saw instantly how beautiful she was - and she asked to be Domenica's godmother. If she was still alive now and heard this row about whether children with Down's syndrome should have cosmetic surgery, she would have picked up the phone straight away.
"The irony is that Diana - one of the most beautiful women in the world - knew that every child was beautiful. She would have been so upset to think about children undergoing surgery to 'fit in' with society."
Yet both Ophelia and Georgia's parents disagree.
Kim Bussey argues: "No one says anything if a 'normal' child has had his or her ears pinned back, for example. Why should it be any different for a Down's child?
"At first, my husband David was against the idea of surgery. Georgia had been very sick as a child and David felt she'd been through enough with her faulty heart valve.
"But then she had a couple of falls and her teeth went through her tongue - which was very large and protruded, impending her speech and making her dribble constantly - and that made our minds up. It was clear that Georgia was going to be better off with a smaller tongue.
"Even though there was no medical reason why she should have it done, I saw nothing wrong with wanting to improve Georgia's appearance."
The couple then decided to have surgery to have her eyelids "corrected" at the same time.
"I am not trying to hide the fact Georgia is a Down's child," Kim insists. "But I know what kids are like and I didn't want her to be teased at school."
Yet Rosa Monckton, 54, is outraged by this suggestion.
She says: "The best thing I can do as a mother is to transfer parental love into self-esteem. It isn't about altering the face of a child, it's about giving that child the self-confidence to be who she's able to be. I wouldn't consider plastic surgery for my older daughter Savannah any more than I would for Domenica.
"You have to believe in your own children so that they believe in themselves.
"There isn't one bit of my children's lovely faces I would change."
But why is the quest for physical perfection now so great that parents are discussing surgery to alter the faces of children too young to understand?
Rosa says: "Our glossy celebrity-led culture is greatly to blame. We have perfect faces and tiny frames leaping out from glossy magazines, and teenage girls demanding plastic surgery to look more like their idols.
"Our society is based on celebrity and power, and somehow that has sparked the quest for perfection in our children.
"It is hard to come to terms at first with a child who has Down's syndrome. I remember walking through Hyde Park shortly after Domenica was born and looking into other people's prams, almost by way of comparison.
"But as your child grows, you come to realise that every small step they take, every time they prove a doctor or a medical expert wrong, brings the most tremendous thrill.
"One of the proudest moments in my life came when Domenica ran in a school race a few years ago.
"She was utterly determined to complete it, and through sheer determination she forced herself to keep running. She came last by about half a mile - but the whole school stood up and cheered. I stood there with tears running down my face.
"Nobody who applauded my daughter that day considered the way that she looked. They were just celebrating her achievements - as I do every day of my life.
"In many ways, I consider myself lucky that Domenica does look different, because it alerts people to her condition. I have friends with autistic children, and when these children misbehave in public, everybody just assumes they are naughty.
"When Domenica runs around a luggage carousel at the airport, or if we lose her because she simply wanders off, people understand that she has Down's syndrome.
"Domenica herself knows that she has Down's, and she is beginning to realise that she looks different. It doesn't bother her.
"Recently, someone came to see us, and I heard Domenica say: 'I've got Down's syndrome and I'm small - what do you think about it?'
"She is shorter than her friends, but we wouldn't consider stretching her on a rack any more than we would consider paying for her to have painful surgery, just to make us feel 'better' or to make her 'fit in'.
"I look at my confident and happy daughter now and I honestly can't imagine her any differently."
Meanwhile, in a pretty bedroom in Knightsbridge, little Ophelia Kirwan continues to play with her toys and giggle with her big sisters - unaware of the controversy which is swirling around her.
It is for her parents to decide whether they will choose to put their daughter under the knife when she is older.
Whatever their decision, Rosa Monckton is certain of one thing: they should love their daughter because of who she is - not despite it.
The risk is almost as tragic as what happened with Dorian Gray.FDA News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 8, 2008Media Inquiries:
Sandy Walsh, 301-827-3418
Consumer Inquiries:
888-INFO-FDA
FDA Notifies Public of Adverse Reactions Linked to Botox Use
Ongoing safety review of Botox, Botox Cosmetic and Myobloc taking placeThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration today notified the public that Botox and Botox Cosmetic (Botulinum toxin Type A) and Myobloc (Botulinum toxin Type B) have been linked in some cases to adverse reactions, including respiratory failure and death, following treatment of a variety of conditions using a wide range of doses.
In an early communication based on the FDA's ongoing safety review, the agency said the reactions may be related to overdosing. There is no evidence that these reactions are related to any defect in the products.
The adverse effects were found in FDA-approved and nonapproved usages. The most severe adverse effects were found in children treated for spasticity in their limbs associated with cerebral palsy. Treatment of spasticity is not an FDA-approved use of botulism toxins in children or adults.
The adverse reactions appear to be related to the spread of the toxin to areas distant from the site of injection, and mimic symptoms of botulism, which may include difficulty swallowing, weakness and breathing problems.
The FDA is not advising health care professionals to discontinue prescribing these products.
The agency is currently reviewing safety data from clinical studies submitted by the drugs' manufacturers, as well as post-marketing adverse event reports and medical literature. After completing a review of the data, the FDA will communicate to the public its conclusions, resulting recommendations, and any regulatory actions.
The notification is in keeping with the FDA's commitment to inform the public about its ongoing safety reviews of drugs. The early communication, which includes background information and advice for health care professionals, can be viewed at: http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/early_comm/botulinium_toxins.htm
Cardiovascular Events during World Cup SoccerDuh! Anyone who watches nail-biting sports like Australian Rules football, where the lead can change several times in a few minutes know that it is enough to give someone a heart attack.
Ute Wilbert-Lampen, M.D., David Leistner, M.D., Sonja Greven, M.S., Tilmann Pohl, M.D., Sebastian Sper, Christoph Völker, Denise Güthlin, Andrea Plasse, Andreas Knez, M.D., Helmut Küchenhoff, Ph.D., and Gerhard Steinbeck, M.D.
ABSTRACT
Background The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup, held in Germany from June 9 to July 9, 2006, provided an opportunity to examine the relation between emotional stress and the incidence of cardiovascular events.
Methods Cardiovascular events occurring in patients in the greater Munich area were prospectively assessed by emergency physicians during the World Cup. We compared those events with events that occurred during the control period: May 1 to June 8 and July 10 to July 31, 2006, and May 1 to July 31 in 2003 and 2005.
Results Acute cardiovascular events were assessed in 4279 patients. On days of matches involving the German team, the incidence of cardiac emergencies was 2.66 times that during the control period (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.33 to 3.04; P<0.001); style="font-style: italic;">Conclusions Viewing a stressful soccer match more than doubles the risk of an acute cardiovascular event. In view of this excess risk, particularly in men with known coronary heart disease, preventive measures are urgently needed.
Source Information
From Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik I, Campus Grosshadern (U.W.-L., D.L., T.P., S.S., C.V., A.P., A.K., G.S.), and Statistisches Beratungslabor, Institut für Statistik (S.G., D.G., H.K.), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany.
Drs. Wilbert-Lampen and Leistner contributed equally to this article.
Address reprint requests to Dr. Wilbert-Lampen at Med. Klinik und Poliklinik I, Campus Grosshadern, Marchioninistr. 15, D-81377 Munich, Germany, or at ute.wilbert-lampen@med.uni-muenchen.de.
(PHILADELPHIA) – Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that hair follicles in adult mice regenerate by re-awakening genes once active only in developing embryos. These findings provide unequivocal evidence for the first time that, like other animals such as newts and salamanders, mammals have the power to regenerate. These findings are published in the May 17 issue of Nature.
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Growth of regenerated hair follicles over 45 days. Arrow indicates hair shaft. Click on thumbnail |
A better understanding of this process could lead to novel treatments for hair loss, other skin and hair disorders, and wounds.
“We showed that wound healing triggered an embryonic state in the skin which made it receptive to receiving instructions from wnt proteins,” says senior author George Cotsarelis, MD, Associate Professor of Dermatology. “The wnts are a network of proteins implicated in hair-follicle development.”
Researchers previously believed that adult mammal skin could not regenerate hair follicles. In fact, investigators generally believe that mammals had essentially no true regenerative qualities. (The liver can regenerate large portions, but it is not de novo regeneration; some of the original liver has to remain so that it can regenerate.)
In this study, researchers found that wound healing in a mouse model created an “embryonic window” of opportunity. Dormant embryonic molecular pathways were awakened, sending stem cells to the area of injury. Unexpectedly, the regenerated hair follicles originated from non-hair-follicle stem cells.
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