NEW YORK (AP) This may come as no surprise to residents of New York City and other big urban centers: Living there can be bad for your mental health.Now researchers have found a possible reason why. Imaging scans show that in city dwellers or people who grew up in urban areas, certain areas of the brain react more vigorously to stress. That may help explain how city life can boost the risks of schizophrenia and other mental disorders, researchers said.Previous research has found that growing up in a big city raises the risk of schizophrenia. And there’s some evidence that city dwellers are at heightened risk for mood and anxiety disorders, although the evidence is mixed.In any case, the volunteers scanned in the new study were healthy, and experts said that while the city-rural differences in brain activity were intriguing, the results fall short of establishing a firm tie to mental illness.The study, done in Germany and published in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature, focused on how the brain reacts to stress caused by other people.To do that, investigators had volunteers lie in a brain scanner and solve math problems. Read more…
Category Archives: Health Solutions
Portland Commissioner Randy Leonard’s comments about AIDS in urine draw retraction demand
Portland city Commissioner Randy Leonard has been asked to take back his comments on AIDS in urine, which came after a 21-year-old urinated in one of the city’s open-air reservoirs.In the aftermath of Tinklegate or The Big Flush In today’s issue of the Portland Mercury, News Editor Denis C. Theriault wrote that “Leonard displays his usual flair for the dramatic by raising fears about AIDS and other diseases that might spread through one man’s urine Theriault added on the paper’s website that Leonard’s direct comment Leonard’s comments “Commissioner Leonard has thrown fuel on the fire of stigma and discrimination by suggesting a risk that does not exist,” board member Cecilia Chung said in a press release. Oregon-based Cascade AIDS Project also asked Leonard to clarify his comments. Read more…
Indian generics giants set sights on Japan
India’s generic drugs industry, which has boomed since the country abandoned patent protection in 1970, has long been a lifeline to poor countries, supplying HIV drugs that have saved millions of lives, for example. Now India is aiming to become a drugs factory for rich countries such as Japan.
But at the same time as India’s drug companies look East, health advocates are concerned that the European Union’s (EU’s) demand for stricter patent rules on generics will hamper the country’s ability to act as a pharmacy for the developing world.
Japan is keen to use more generic drugs as a way of curbing its skyrocketing health-care costs: the country spends some 36 trillion yen (US$450 billion) a year on health care, and this could rise to 93 trillion yen by 2035.
Study: Portable pools as risky as in-ground pools
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – The lead researcher of a new U.S. study on drownings says a child dies every five days in a portable pool during the warm-weather months.The study, being published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, calls for effective and affordable protection devices for the pools, which range from small wading pools to large inflatable and other soft-sided pools.It says 209 children under 12 died and 35 nearly drowned from 2001 to 2009. Ninety-four percent of the children were younger than 5. The numbers are comparable with findings for in-ground pools.The study was conducted by researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus and Independent Safety Consulting in Rockville, Md.The Association of Pool & Spa Professionals in Alexandria, Va., agrees with the report’s findings, underscoring the importance of constant adult supervision supplemented by safety devices. Read more…
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