Friday, July 22, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Geologists discover lost world beneath the North Sea
About 55 million years ago, a massive chunk of land rose up from the
floor of the North Sea, giving birth to a wild and beautiful river
valley surrounded by steep mountains.
For a million years, this verdant landscape — about 200 kilometres
north of Scotland — was home to countless plant and wildlife species and
rushing, crystal clear rivers and streams.
Then, as quickly as it appeared, it sank back beneath the waves of the ocean, never to be seen again.
Until now.
...
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Anti-Vaccination Cranks - Lies & Deceit
Watch this video exposing quacks. This type of fraud against the public, resulting in many preventable deaths, should be a criminal offence.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Drinkable vaccines for babies coming to Ontario
Ontario newborns will soon be able to receive a new, drinkable vaccine to protect them from diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration.
Nearly 140,000 infants will benefit from the oral rotavirus
vaccine, the Liberal government says. They are set to announce a number
of changes to its publicly funded immunization program this morning.
Ontario is the first jurisdiction in Canada to cover the oral rotavirus vaccine, according to Health Minister Deb Matthews.
Beginning this August, the government will offer two new vaccines —
one for rotavirus and the other a combined chicken pox and
measles-mumps-rubella vaccine known as MMRV.
The government says the vaccine change will save families up to $350 per person.
Also this August, Ontario will cover a second childhood dose of the
varicella (chicken pox) vaccine to enhance protection and they’ll pay
for a lifetime dose of the pertussis, or whooping cough vaccine.
“Immunization is one of the most effective ways to protect yourself
and your family,” said Dr. Arlene King, Ontario’s chief medical officer
of health in a release.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Why Intelligent People Use More Drugs
Excerpt:
Consistent with the prediction of the Hypothesis,
the analysis of the National Child Development Study shows that more
intelligent children in the United Kingdom are more likely to grow up to
consume psychoactive drugs than less intelligent children. Net of sex,
religion, religiosity, marital status, number of children, education,
earnings, depression, satisfaction with life, social class at birth,
mother’s education, and father’s education, British children who are
more intelligent before the age of 16 are more likely to consume
psychoactive drugs at age 42 than less intelligent children.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
LSD makes a comeback as a possible clinical treatment
Excerpt:
The preliminary study picks up where investigators left off. It
explores the possible therapeutic effects of the drug on the intense
anxiety experienced by patients with life-threatening disease, such as cancer.
A number of the hundreds of studies conducted on lysergic acid
diethylamide-25 from the 1940s into the 1970s (many of poor quality by
contemporary standards) delved into the personal insights the drug
supplied that enabled patients to reconcile themselves with their own
mortality. In recent years some researchers have studied psilocybin (the
active ingredient in “magic mushrooms”) and MDMA (Ecstasy), among
others, as possible treatments for this “existential anxiety,” but not
LSD.
Gasser, head of the Swiss Medical Society for Psycholytic Therapy,
which he joined after his own therapist-administered LSD experience, has
only recently begun to discuss his research, revealing the challenges
of studying psychedelics. The $190,000 study approved by Swiss medical
authorities, was almost entirely funded by the Multidisciplinary
Association for Psychedelic Studies, a U.S. nonprofit that sponsors
research toward the goal of making psychedelics and marijuana into
prescription drugs. Begun in 2008, the study intends to treat 12
patients (eight who will receive LSD and four a placebo). Finding
eligible candidates has been difficult—after 18 months only five
patients had been recruited, and just four had gone through the trial’s
regimen of a pair of all-day sessions. “Because LSD is not a usual
treatment, an oncologist will not recommend it to a patient,” Gasser
laments.
The patients who received the drug found the experience aided them
emotionally, and none experienced panic reactions or other untoward
events. One patient, Udo Schulz, told the German weekly Der Spiegel
that the therapy with LSD helped him overcome anxious feelings after
being diagnosed with stomach cancer, and the experience with the drug
aided his reentry into the workplace.
The trials follow a strict protocol—“all LSD treatment sessions will
begin at 11 a.m.”—and the researchers are scrupulous about avoiding
mistakes that, at times, occurred during older psychedelic trials, when
investigators would leave subjects alone during a drug session. Both
Gasser and a female co-therapist are present throughout the eight-hour
sessions that take place in quiet, darkened rooms, with emergency
medical equipment close at hand. Before receiving LSD, subjects have to
undergo psychological testing and preliminary psychotherapy sessions.
Another group is also pursuing LSD research. The British-based
Beckley Foundation is funding and collaborating on a 12-person pilot
study at the University of California, Berkeley, that is assessing how
the drug may foster creativity and what changes in neural activity go
along with altered conscious experience induced by the chemical. Whether
LSD will one day become the drug of choice for psychedelic
psychotherapy remains in question because there may be better solutions.
“We chose psilocybin over LSD because it is gentler and generally less
intense,” says Charles S. Grob, a professor of psychiatry at the
University of California, Los Angeles, who conducted a trial to test
psilocybin’s effects on anxiety in terminal cancer patients. Moreover,
“it is associated with fewer panic reactions and less chance of paranoia
and, most important, over the past half a century psilocybin has
attracted far less negative publicity and carries far less cultural
baggage than LSD.”
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
LSD in Hollywood in the 1950s
This is a long and very interesting article detailing the history of LSD in Hollywood in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Flu shot may cut heart attack risk
Excerpts:
A British study suggests getting a seasonal flu shot can not only
prevent the flu — it may also prevent heart attacks in some people.
...
It’s believed that inflammation caused by influenza may cause plaque
inside coronary arteries to break off and cause a heart attack.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
What makes antidepressants work
Excerpt:
Most antidepressants don't show an immediate effect - instead, they
take about three weeks to kick in. For the longest time, scientists
couldn't actually explain this delay. They knew the antidepressants had
to somehow "adapt" themselves to the neural pathways, but what that
actually meant was anyone's guess. Now a team of French researchers have
figured it out: antidepressants need three weeks to shut down a
particular chemical regulator of microRNA.
This particular microRNA, designated miR-16, is in charge of making
the serotonin transporter, and is generally found in the serotonergic
neurons that produce serotonin. However, miR-16 is also found in neurons
responsible for making the neurotransmitter noradrenaline. Here, miR-16
has precisely the opposite purpose - it completely blocks the
production of serotonin in these neurons.
When drugs like Prozac go to work, they cause the serotonergic
neurons to release signals. These signals cause the miR-16 to die off,
which frees up the noradrenaline neurons to start making the serotonin
transporter as well. Thus, Prozac both directly boosts the production of
serotonin in the serotonergic neurons and indirectly causes the
noradrenaline neurons to start making it as well.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Doctor's determine a way to reduce risks from ovarian cancer
Excerpt:
Removing fallopian tubes as part of hysterectomies and tubal
litigations would “have an immediate impact on saving lives,” said
Dianne Miller, a gynecologic oncologist with the Ovarian Cancer Research
Program of the B.C. Cancer Agency.
That is because,
paradoxically, the most deadly form of ovarian cancer originates in the
fallopian tubes – where eggs travel from the ovaries to the womb – not
the ovaries per se, she said.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Psychedelic Drugs Show Promise as Anti-Depressants: Scientific American
...
The August 18 review, by psychiatrist Franz Vollenweider and
neuropsychologist Michael Kometer of the University Hospital of
Psychiatry in Zurich, proposes that various psychedelics' interaction
with the receptors for the neurotransmitter serotonin
may prove key to understanding their beneficial—and
mind-bending—effects. "Psychedelics activate neuronal networks and the
glutamate system that are implicated in the regulation of emotion,"
Vollenweider says, noting that their hallucinogenic effects can be
impeded by blocking specific serotonin receptors in the brain (known as
5-HT2A). Psychedelics typically boost serotonin and may also boost the
release of glutamate, according to the review authors, another
neurotransmitter that has been linked to short-term but long-lasting
brain functions such as learning and memory. More glutamate also has an
impact on synapses. "This might result in an increased number and
function of spine synapses in the prefrontal cortex," Vollenweider says.
...
New studies into hallucinogens and mental health
LSD and ketamine, two powerful hallucinogens, are also potential cures
for depression, OCD, and anxiety. Two studies published this week, in Science and Nature, confirm that hallucinogenic drugs stimulate healthy brain activity, even promoting the growth of neurons.
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