Day: 08/11/2013

Waking the dead? Some things you should know about dying.

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Not content with saving lives, doctors are now credited with (accused of?) bringing the dead back to life. But how true are the stories we hear about people “coming back” from being dead and how does it work?

Here’s a definition of death that gets to the heart of why this is all very complicated: “Death: 1. The end of life. The cessation of life. (These common definitions of death ultimately depend upon the definition of life, upon which there is no consensus.)”

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), first popularised in the 1960s and widely taught to both first responders and the general public, prevents many deaths across the world.

But it doesn’t bring dead people back to life. And the distinction is an important one.

The problem can be easily stated – death is a process, but is forced to be an event. Organisms die in a piecemeal manner, with the most vulnerable bits going quickest.

Some residual function can be found up to several hours past the point where the heart has stopped beating (though, contrary to myth, the fingernails do not continue to grow).

Why “when” is important

But there are cogent medical, legal and philosophical reasons for death to be considered an event.

Medically, there has to be a moment at which attempts to prolong life should cease (organ donation being a rare but important reason). Organ donation puts great pressure on doctors to define a moment of death. This is to honour the “dead donor rule”, which states that only dead people can be donors.

Legally, time of death is important for determining who out-survived whom, and thus how the deceased person’s possessions will be distributed.

Philosophically, it appears, at least to some, that the categories “alive” and “dead” are to have no overlap. Consider this from a research paper about defining death: “If we regard death as a process, then either the process starts when the person is still living, which confuses the “process of death” with the process of dying, for we all regard someone who is dying as not yet dead, or the “process of death” starts when the person is no longer alive, which confuses death with the process of disintegration.”

Hmmmm.

Now we have a problem: we need to know what death is, and we need irrefutable tests to prove it. How are we doing?

Kinds of death

Obviously, it all got much harder when laws were introduced that defined two distinct kinds of death – circulatory (traditional) death and the new kid on the block, brain death.

These laws were introduced in Australia in the early 1980s to legitimise brain death as a form of dying. This had the benefits of allowing treatment withdrawal and permitting organ donation without breaking the “dead donor rule”.

Circulatory death is the “irreversible cessation of circulation of blood in the person’s body”, while brain death is the “irreversible cessation of all function of the person’s brain”.

Many researchers are scrambling to unify these two definitions, by asserting that loss of circulation would inevitably cause irreversible cessation of all brain function.

But, given that we don’t know how long the circulation has to stop before we can be confident that all brain function has stopped in all cases, it seems we are stuck with two definitions for now.

The operative word in each definition is irreversible. The reason why CPR, however prolonged and enhanced by new technologies, does not bring people back to life is that clearly the cessation of circulation and brain function are not irreversible.

So people who are “brought back to life” were, in retrospect, not dead in the first place.

Who is responsible?

But seemingly miraculous results from CPR do pose a serious challenge: how are we then to be certain that cessation of function is irreversible?

The law is steering clear of getting involved in Australia, and the decision is delegated to doctors. This was challenged in a legal case but the law, as it stands, was confirmed.

Irreversible loss of brain function does have a set of tests that appear extremely reliable, as long as they are properly conducted. And nobody declared brain dead in Australia has ever lived to tell the tale.

Irreversible loss of circulation is more difficult to certify, and has been brought into sharp focus by the re-introduction of organ donation after circulatory death, which demands both high certainty and an exact time of death.

Organ donation after circulatory death has become widespread in Australia over the past ten years as a response to the very low numbers of donors, and now accounts for about 25% of all donors.

What we know empirically is that a heart that has stopped will not spontaneously start again after quite a short time (so-called autoresuscitation).

So cessation of circulation is permanent, but is it irreversible? It is, but only in one context; a morally and medically defensible decision not to keep trying to reverse it.

Such decisions are commonplace in modern medical practice (the no-CPR or “Do Not Resuscitate” order), and have a history almost as long as CPR itself.

There are people who cannot be, should not be, or do not want to be resuscitated. For them, permanent loss of circulation is irreversible. For the rest – go for it!

 

Source: http://www.sciencealert.com.au

Perseid meteor shower coming to a sky near you.

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The Perseid meteors fall every July and August and make for one of the most dazzling astronomical events of the year.

The Perseid meteor shower is coming soon and if you are far away from city lights, you may be able to see this spectacular event in the skies.

 

Known as the most fantastic and accessible meteor shower of the year, the Perseids are expected to fill the “predawn skies with hundreds of shooting stars” on the evenings of Aug. 11-13, according to NASA. 

The meteor shower occurs in July and August as the Earth’s orbit takes us through the debris of the Swift-Tuttle comet. Earth’s gravity pulls in some of the chunks of debris— small rocks comprised of iron-nickel, stone, other minerals or a combination of these — which turn into bright balls of hot gas when entering Earth’s atmosphere. As darkness falls, the meteors appear to come from the constellation Perseus, hence the name; although later in the evening, the meteors originate higher in the sky than the constellation.

At the Perseids’ peak, the evening of Aug. 12, viewers can expect to see more than 100 “falling stars” per hour, and, with a waxing crescent moon, there will be little interference from moonshine. Lucky skywatchers may catch sight of a “bolide” — an exploding meteor that ends in a bright pop of light not unlike a strobe, according to Space.com. Fireballs, meteors that leave longer, shining trails of gas (the typical time is only a second), are also a treat.

Source: MSN/NASA

Weight gain, obesity risks for depression in young women transitioning to adulthood.

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Researchers reported that weight gain and obesity were significant risk factors for depression in young women transitioning from adolescence to young adulthood.

“Clinicians who notice substantial weight gain in female patients transitioning from adolescence to early adulthood may want to probe these patients about their mental well-being,” Michelle L. Frisco, PhD, associate professor of sociology and demography at Penn State University, said in an interview.

Frisco and colleagues examined the association between body weight and depression in 5,243 young women enrolled in the US-based National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which tracked BMI and depression scores in young women transitioning from wave 2 (aged 13-18 years) to wave 3 (aged 19-25 years) of the study.

Analyses indicated that normal weight (adjusted OR=2.1; 95% CI, 1.14-3.84) and overweight (aOR=1.86; 95% CI, 1.15-2.99) adolescent girls who were obese by young adulthood, in addition to young women who had remained obese into young adulthood (aOR=1.97; 95% CI, 1.19-3.26), were at a nearly twofold increased risk for depression compared with young women who were never overweight.

According to the researchers, the results are consistent with previous studies of weight and depression among young people.

“Analyses of nationally representative and community data have consistently found no association between obesity and depression during the adolescent years as a whole,” they wrote. “Instead, obesity and weight gain are related to depression as children transition into adolescence regardless of whether this transition is defined by pubertal development or entry into the teen years (ages 12-14 years). Together, these findings suggest that weight gain is especially salient for depression during major life-course transitions.”

Source: Endocrine Today.

Waking the dead? Some things you should know about dying.

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Not content with saving lives, doctors are now credited with (accused of?) bringing the dead back to life. But how true are the stories we hear about people “coming back” from being dead and how does it work?   Here’s a definition of death that gets to the heart of why this is all very complicated: “Death: 1. The end of life. The cessation of life. (These common definitions of death ultimately depend upon the definition of life, upon which there is no consensus.)” Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), first popularised in the 1960s and widely taught to both first responders and the general public, prevents many deaths across the world. But it doesn’t bring dead people back to life. And the distinction is an important one. The problem can be easily stated – death is a process, but is forced to be an event. Organisms die in a piecemeal manner, with the most vulnerable bits going quickest. Some residual function can be found up to several hours past the point where the heart has stopped beating (though, contrary to myth, the fingernails do not continue to grow).

AlexanderBrielPerez_flatline_Shutterstock

Why “when” is important

But there are cogent medical, legal and philosophical reasons for death to be considered an event. Medically, there has to be a moment at which attempts to prolong life should cease (organ donation being a rare but important reason). Organ donation puts great pressure on doctors to define a moment of death. This is to honour the “dead donor rule”, which states that only dead people can be donors. Legally, time of death is important for determining who out-survived whom, and thus how the deceased person’s possessions will be distributed. Philosophically, it appears, at least to some, that the categories “alive” and “dead” are to have no overlap. Consider this from a research paper about defining death: “If we regard death as a process, then either the process starts when the person is still living, which confuses the “process of death” with the process of dying, for we all regard someone who is dying as not yet dead, or the “process of death” starts when the person is no longer alive, which confuses death with the process of disintegration.” Hmmmm. Now we have a problem: we need to know what death is, and we need irrefutable tests to prove it. How are we doing?

Kinds of death

Obviously, it all got much harder when laws were introduced that defined two distinct kinds of death – circulatory (traditional) death and the new kid on the block, brain death. These laws were introduced in Australia in the early 1980s to legitimise brain death as a form of dying. This had the benefits of allowing treatment withdrawal and permitting organ donation without breaking the “dead donor rule”. Circulatory death is the “irreversible cessation of circulation of blood in the person’s body”, while brain death is the “irreversible cessation of all function of the person’s brain”. Many researchers are scrambling to unify these two definitions, by asserting that loss of circulation would inevitably cause irreversible cessation of all brain function. But, given that we don’t know how long the circulation has to stop before we can be confident that all brain function has stopped in all cases, it seems we are stuck with two definitions for now. The operative word in each definition is irreversible. The reason why CPR, however prolonged and enhanced by new technologies, does not bring people back to life is that clearly the cessation of circulation and brain function are not irreversible. So people who are “brought back to life” were, in retrospect, not dead in the first place.

Who is responsible?

But seemingly miraculous results from CPR do pose a serious challenge: how are we then to be certain that cessation of function is irreversible? The law is steering clear of getting involved in Australia, and the decision is delegated to doctors. This was challenged in a legal case but the law, as it stands, was confirmed. Irreversible loss of brain function does have a set of tests that appear extremely reliable, as long as they are properly conducted. And nobody declared brain dead in Australia has ever lived to tell the tale. Irreversible loss of circulation is more difficult to certify, and has been brought into sharp focus by the re-introduction of organ donation after circulatory death, which demands both high certainty and an exact time of death. Organ donation after circulatory death has become widespread in Australia over the past ten years as a response to the very low numbers of donors, and now accounts for about 25% of all donors. What we know empirically is that a heart that has stopped will not spontaneously start again after quite a short time (so-called autoresuscitation). So cessation of circulation is permanent, but is it irreversible? It is, but only in one context; a morally and medically defensible decision not to keep trying to reverse it. Such decisions are commonplace in modern medical practice (the no-CPR or “Do Not Resuscitate” order), and have a history almost as long as CPR itself. There are people who cannot be, should not be, or do not want to be resuscitated. For them, permanent loss of circulation is irreversible. For the rest – go for it! Source: http://www.sciencealert.com.au

The Amount Of Food The Average American Eats Yearly Will Shock You.

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What Are We Eating? How Much Are We Eating? While I find the following chart very sobering, I do not find it shocking. Healthy diet is foundational to good health and well-being.  In fact, we can say that in most instances one’s diet will be proportional to their current state of health and wellness.

The average American is 36.6 years old and eats 1,996.3 lbs. of food per year. The average man is 5’9” and weighs 190 lbs. The average woman is 5’4” and weighs 164 lbs.

Each year, Americans eat 85.5 lbs. of fats and oils. They eat 110 lbs. of red meat, including 62.4 lbs. of beef and 46.5 lbs. of pork. Americans eat 73.6 lbs. of poultry, including 60.4 lbs. of chicken. They eat 16.1 lbs. of fish and shellfish and 32.7 lbs. of eggs.

Americans eat 31.4 lbs. of cheese each year and 600.5 lbs. of non-cheese dairy products. They drink 181 lbs. of beverage milks. Americans eat 192.3 lbs. of flour and cereal products, including 134.1 lbs. of wheat flour. They eat 141.6 lbs. of caloric sweeteners, including 42 lbs. of corn syrup. Americans consume 56 lbs. of corn each year and eat 415.4 lbs. of vegetables. Every year, Americans eat 24 lbs. of coffee, cocoa and nuts. Americans eat 273.2 lbs. of fruit each year.

These foods include 29 lbs. of French fries, 23 lbs. of pizza and 24 lbs. of ice cream. Americans drink 53 gallons of soda each year, averaging about one gallon each week. Americans eat 24 lbs. of artificial sweeteners each year. They eat 2.736 lbs. of sodium, which is 47 percent more than recommended. Americans consume 0.2 lbs. of caffeine each year, about 90,700 mg. In total, Americans eat an average of 2,700 calories each day.

Source: Oasis Advanced Wellness