Hope builds for treating intellectual disabilities

Apr 29, 2011 Posted Under: Health Vocabulary

Slouched sideways at his desk in the front row of class, a sneakered foot jittering distractedly, Chase Brown could be any 14-year-old in academic captivity.

As the discussion turns to the American history of slavery, the teacher draws Chase back from his apparent reverie. A classmate has said that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. Does Chase agree or disagree?

Chase locks eyes with his teacher. “I agree,” he says emphatically.

It is a moment of triumph for Chase, one of an estimated 90,000 in the U.S. who live with an inherited form of intellectual disability known as fragile X syndrome. Only a year ago, he would have fled the classroom, thrown something at the teacher or stayed mute.

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Crash Dieting Facts

Apr 28, 2011 Posted Under: Health Care Solutions

If there’s one thing I know a person is desperate for, is being extremely thin or obsessing over how much more weight he/she would have to lose to get ‘skinny’. A lot of people are now looking for quick ways on how to shed the pounds and get slimming. Although there are many effective ways on losing weight the right way, over a gradual period of course, some people take another route to achieve this. Sadly this road often tread on leads to the infamous crash diet. People know that the weight loss is evident and guaranteed, but they have no idea what a toll the system takes as a result of going on an irrational starvation period. Read full post…

Tobacco-derived compound prevents memory loss in Alzheimer’s

Apr 27, 2011 Posted Under: Health Care Solutions

A study led by researchers at Bay Pines VA Healthcare System and the University of South Florida has found that Cotinine, a compound derived from tobacco, reduced plaques associated with dementia and prevented memory loss in a mouse model of Alzheimers disease.

We found a compound that protects neurons, prevents the progression of Alzheimers disease pathology, enhances memory and has been shown to be safe, said Valentina Echeverria, a scientist at Bay Pines VA Healthcare System and an assistant professor of Molecular Medicine at USF Health.

It looks like cotinine acts on several aspects of Alzheimers pathology in the mouse model.

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Free Wheelchairs Give Life To Rural Mexicans

Apr 26, 2011 Posted Under: Health Vocabulary

For decades, Richard St. Denis has advocated for the rights of Americans who, like him, are living with a disability.

But the attorney from Colorado saw his life shift in 1997, when he was invited to speak in Mexico.

“I was asked to bring one wheelchair to give to somebody,” he remembers. “As I was waiting for the program to begin, I was shocked to see people using branches for crutches, being pushed in wheelbarrows and crawling.”

The lone wheelchair went to Leti Elizale Marcial, a 17-year-old suffering from polio. Read full post…

12 Mother’s Day Quotes That Will Make You Cry

Apr 24, 2011 Posted Under: Health Posts

But thankfully some have done so beautifully and poignantly. As Mother’s Day approaches, they provide inspiration for us to express to our own mothers how we feel about them and reflection for our own roles as mothers. Here are 12 of my favorite quotes about motherhood that are sure make you at least a little weepy … in no particular order:

1. The real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men — from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms. — Oliver Wendell Holmes

2. She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn’t take them along.

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A cadaver gets under her skin

Apr 23, 2011 Posted Under: Health Vocabulary

We enter the gross anatomy lab at 8 a.m. and spend the next two-and-a-half hours palpating bodies, cutting through skin and subcutaneous fat, probing muscle layers and searching for nerves and blood vessels. Before our first day, our anatomy professor spoke briefly about the special and privileged experience that lay ahead. “You will remember where you were standing,” she said. “You will remember the first cut.” That cut was not our first interaction with the cadavers. Nor was it the most memorable. We were supposed to start with the back a relatively impersonal region with thick, well-defined muscles. But after we unzipped our body bag, we saw that our cadaver wasn’t lying on its stomach. Read full post…

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