Archives for October 2009

Health Highlights – October 30th, 2009

October 30, 2009 | by

Health Highlights is a biweekly summary of particularly interesting articles from credible sources of health and medical information that we follow & read. For a complete list of recommeded sources, see our links page.

Health Highlights

Details of Critically Ill Patients with H1N1 in Mexico and Canada

October 22, 2009 | by

Two studies, which are available online as early release articles and will be published in the November edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), detail the characteristics, treatment and outcomes of critically ill patients with H1N1 in Mexico and Canada [1-2].

respiratory-ventilation

Although the death rate in each of the studies is quite different, it nonetheless is as high or higher than that of seasonal flu. Furthermore, although seasonal flu typically affects people of older age — the average annual rate of influenza-associated hospitalizations over the last 20 years for people age 65 and older is 70% [3] — these studies show that H1N1 is striking many who are much younger. In both studies, the majority of critically ill patients with influenza A H1N1 had rapidly progressive respiratory failure and required mechanical ventilation.

Book Review: The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness

October 15, 2009 | by

Many people believe that the brain is hardwired in childhood and, as we grow older, cognitive decline is inevitable; we becoming more forgetful, less inclined to seek new experiences and more set in our ways. During the late 1990s, the work of early childhood advocates to focus on learning during the first three years of life had a dramatic impact public opinion and social policy that has lasted almost a decade. Indeed, the importance of learning during a child’s first three years of life was widely accepted as a fact of early neurological development. Unfortunately, advocacy efforts actually countered what neuroscientists were discovering about the brain and its development [1].

Scientific research in the late 1990s was finding that the adult brain had a much greater capacity for neuroplasticity — the ability to change structure and function in response to thought, learning and experience — than was previously believed [2-3]. Neuroscientists found that the adult brain was capable of growing new dendrites, branched projections from a neuron or nerve cell that conduct electrochemical stimulation received from other neural cells toward the cell body of the neuron, which are often damaged as a result of traumatic head injury or stroke. In adult macaques, researchers found that new neurons were produced in brain regions important for congitive function [4]. The view that aging was equivalent to ubiquitous and rapid cognitive decline thus gave way to a recognition that, for some people, mental acuity continues well into old age. Today, it’s common to hear about “brain fitness” and/or “brain training” products that can help to maintain and/or rebuild cognitive performance. However, in this rapidly evolving field, it’s difficult to discern fact from fiction.

Chromosome Telomeres and the Nobel Prize for Medicine

October 9, 2009 | by

nobel medal in medicineThe 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was announced earlier this week. The prize was awarded to three U.S. scientists for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.

Two women, Elizabeth H. Blackburn, age 61, at the University of California in San Francisco, and Carol W. Greider, age 48, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore along with one man, Jack W. Szostak, age 57, at Harvard Medical School, will share the $1.4 million prize.

What You Need to Know About the H1N1 Vaccine

October 1, 2009 | by
H1N1 vaccine

We’ve received a number of questions and concerns about the swine flu and the H1N1 vaccine. Indeed, a new survey by the Harvard School of Public Health finds that six in ten adults are not “absolutely certain” they will get the H1N1 vaccine, citing concerns over side effects, lack of perceived risk and belief that they could receive medication if they do get sick [1]. Just over half of parents surveyed report being “absolutely certain” they well get the vaccine for their children. To help disseminate credible information on the H1N1 vaccine and provide additional sources for review, we’ve put together a list of questions and answers addressing what you need to know about the H1N1 vaccine.