Doctors Need A Life Too


This past week I caught a really bad flu on a day that was, quite unfortunately, my day in the emergency. Apart from the peaking fever, the thought of having left my colleagues alone, in a setting already scant of doctors, kept vexing me all day long. Such odd hours, when the only thing you can do is idle all day lying on your bed, pull into your mind certain gems of thought that are otherwise repelled by the bustle of daily life. This time, as I was compelled to take some time off the commotion doctors witness everyday, I realized how flat my life has become. It’s about everyday that my plans of reading Hume, envisaging my first book, giving 30 religious minutes to fitness and even writing a sensible blog post are killed off by the constraints of time. Still, I reckon myself to be in the relatively fortunate bunch. Around me, it’s no rarity to find young doctors witnessing a crescendo of frustration that culminates into sickness absenteeism. Today, as I found the picture below somewhere in my gallery, I was prompted to write this article. Couldn’t find the person who took the picture of this newspaper cutting- anyways, thanks to him/her for providing this timely thing:

To summarize the above for those of you who are having trouble with the print, the cutting adumbrates the stress that doctors in general, and internal medicine specialists, pulmonologists and anesthetists in particular, come across due to an acute shortage of specialists in the country, and which leads quite a few to alcohol and anxiolytics. The recent attempt at suicide by a resident doctor in KEM hospital, Mumbai, said to be frustrated over the inhumanly working hours, bespeaks the veracity of this report. To cite one more of it’s kind, the June 14, 2015 print of mint on Sunday, besides highlighting how Indian doctors are amongst the most stressed in the world, brings out impressively the way corporatization of healthcare imposes repugnant pressures to generate profits. And there are many more.

It’s one thing to lead a busy and responsible life, and I feel a rational and industrious mind would have no problem with it- but slogging away days and nights with little leisure in between and covering it up with a pretense of ‘sacrificing profession’ ain’t going to take us a long way. Anyone taking a closer look at medical professionals today, especially those in their early years, would recognize how extortionate working hours rob them of the flavor of life. Hobbies die out; extracurriculars get decimated; personal life, and often food and sleep suffer cuts. Do we need high toned, high fidelity research to convince us how calamitously this could affect healthcare? Even a primary school student would appreciate the need of diversion, in proportion with work, to balance physical, mental and spiritual energies. What surprises me is that we need to resort to strikes and walkouts to ring the ears at high places asking for this very fundamental prerequisite. It reminds me of Robert Owen, who would slogan ‘Eight hours labour, eight hours recreation and eight hours rest’ during the industrial revolution. Unsurprisingly, the application of this principle saw the industries scale up their efficiency quite convincingly, in comparison to the earlier 12-16 hour shifts.

Now, I believe there are few who would misspend their energies expecting 8 hour work days. Still fewer would find it sensible to draw comparisons with Western European nations with 35 and 40 hour work weeks. The widespread disregard for labour laws in our country, which mandate a maximum of 48 hours of work per week and atleast one weekly off, is something we have become immune to; it’s something that has been swallowed and digested by people over time. But the fact that we’ve taken it to such an extreme that we have no problem throwing resident doctors into over 100 hour weeks- while we simply cannot allow other professionals like train drivers (who require good mental acuity) to work for even half of that, is something that staggers me to my core.

Over and above, you have to subjugate your dread and work in an environment that affords little security from rampaging patients (which reportedly, has prompted 4000 Mumbai doctors to hire security covers). Ruckuses while dealing with VIP patients (and their cronies) are sadly so predictable that it keeps hospitals frequented by them from using costly fixtures and furnishing. And then, those who decide to take the already blustery road to a US residency are welcomed with shackles, attributed to rather half-baked figures of brain-drain. How long can one envision this to continue? Eventually, I can foresee the splendid image of the medical profession implode, sending forth a bitter bang that would resound across schools and colleges, precluding every top notch student from even thinking of taking up a career in medicine.

Don’t take this write up as a rant coming from a frustrated doctor, neither assume that I am trying to make my fraternity look like a martyred hero. There are plenty of reports and articles all over the media trying to put forth convincing figures, evidences and formal appeals regarding the travails doctors take due to ills like doctor shortage. I don’t intend to present another list of evidences; neither do I feel I’m the right person to cite them. I wish this article to let out a rather informal, close to the heart voice that conveys the terminal effect of the problems plaguing us today. We can’t keep shoving men into a system that would give a hard time even to androids. Laws, policies and logistics aside, the final link in healthcare is a soul dressed in flesh and blood, and to preserve it’s sanity should take precedence over every other consideration. It’s high time we do something to add zest to the life of the doctor- and prevent this profession from turning into a ramshackle, haunted house for the generation of students and doctors to come.

8 Acupressure Points That You Can Stimulate To Cure Everything From Headaches To Nausea.


When you bump your elbow or stub your toe, your first instinct is to touch the spot that hurts, isn’t it? This instinct, to soothe pain with touch, forms the basis of acupressure.

A 5,000-year-old form of traditional Chinese healing, acupressure attempts to balance life energy (qi) by applying pressure to certain points along the body. These acupoints are located along channels of energy in the body, known as meridians. We usually experience pain when these meridians are blocked or out of balance.

Acupressure unblocks these meridians by applying pressure to these acupoints, which triggers the release of endorphins in the brain. Endorphins reduce pain and trigger feelings of pleasure. Once your body is no longer in pain, your muscles can relax and so your blood flow improves, allowing your body to come back into balance. Acupressure is a safe practice for beginners, and if you don’t get the exact point, you will still be okay. However, pregnant women and cancer patients shouldn’t attempt to do acupressure without supervision.

There are hundreds of acupoints on the human body, however, these are a few basic ones that you can start with.

1. Headaches: Joining the Valley (L 14)

Acupressure Points

via Top10homeremedies

This point is commonly used to cure headaches, but it can also treat toothaches, neck pain, shoulder pain, arthritis, hangovers and constipation.

Location: Between the thumb and forefinger, at the highest point of the muscle, where the two fingers are joined.

How to press it: Press and massage the point on one hand for a few minutes, then do the same to the other hand. Repeat as required.

2. Nausea and vomiting: Pericardium (P6)

Acupressure Points

via Top10homeremedies

This point helps prevent nausea and vomiting that is caused by a number of factors, including pregnancy, motion-sickness and chemotherapy. It also helps treat upset stomachs, headaches, chest pain and carpel tunnel syndrome.

Location: This point is located between the two large tendons on the inside of your wrist, about 3 finger widths below the base of your palm.

How to press it: Press the point with your index and middle fingers for half a minute, then do the same on your other hand. Repeat several times, till the nausea passes.

3. Fatigue and eye strain: Third Eye (GV24.5)

Acupressure Points

via Top10homeremedies

This point relieves fatigue, eye strain, headaches, insomnia, sinus problems and congestion. It also improves memory, calms you down and improves your spiritual and emotional health.

Location: This point is located where the bridge of your nose meets the middle of your eyebrows.

How to press it: Use your middle finger to press this point for a few seconds, for up to a minute. Try to do this several times a week.

4. Depression: Sea of Tranquillity (CV 17)

Acupressure Points

via Top10homeremedies

Also known as Conception Vessel 17 (CV 17), this point helps with emotional and mental health problems like depression, anxiety, nervousness and hysteria. It also helps improve immunity.

Location: This point is located in a dent in your breastbone, about 3 – 4 finger widths above the base of the breastbone. It is pretty much in the centre of your chest, between your nipples.

How to press it: Sit on a chair with your spine absolutely erect. Join your hands as though you are praying, with your fingers pointing upward. Press the knuckles of your thumb into this point, moving your hands up and down for a few minutes while taking deep breaths.

5. Digestive problems: Leg Three Miles (ST 36)

Acupressure Points

via Top10homeremedies

This point is used to relieve all sorts of digestive problems like gas, diarrhoea, constipation, nausea, vomiting, bloating and indigestion. It also boosts immunity, prevents fatigue and improves your overall wellness.

Location: Bend your leg and wrap your fingers around your leg, just below your kneecap. The point is located where your little finger rests, not in the middle of your leg, but on the outside of your shin bone. On your right leg, this point will be a little to the right of the centre of your leg and on your left leg this point will be a little to the left of the centre of your leg.

How to press it: Apply moderate pressure to this point for a few seconds every day. You can press the point on both legs at the same time.

6. Knee pain: Commanding Middle (B 54)

Acupressure Points

via Top10homeremedies

This point helps treat problems related to arthritis and sciatica, like knee pain, back pain, hip pain and stiffness.

Location: This point is located behind your knee, right in the centre of the kneecap area.

How to press it: Press it gently for about a minute, then switch to the other leg. Repeat every day.

7. Menstrual pain: Sacral Points

Acupressure Points

via Top10homeremedies

Pressing these points relaxes the uterus and relieves menstrual cramps. It also reduces lower back pain and sciatica pain.

Location: These points are located on the sacrum, which is at the base of the spine, right above the tailbone. When you press down on it, you should feel your sacrum bones, just below your upper buttocks.

How to press them: Lie down and place both hands on the area, one on top of the other, applying firm pressure on the area. Do this for a few minutes.

8. Insomnia and stress: Heavenly Pillar (B 10)

Acupressure Points

via Top10homeremedies

These points help with problems like stress, anxiety, exhaustion, burnout, headaches, heaviness in the head, neck pain and stiffness, insomnia and eye strain.

Location: These points are located 1 finger width below the base of the skull, on the neck muscles that jut out on either side of your spine.

How to press them: Press these points for a couple minutes every day, for several weeks.

Scientists Have Found Bacteria Resistant To ‘Last Resort’ Drug


Scientists have discovered a bacteria mutation that they say is resistant to an antibiotic typically considered “the last line of defense” against virulent strains of E. coli and pneumonia.

In a report published Thursday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, a U.K.-based medical journal, the scientists wrote that they’d found colistin-resistant bacteria on a Chinese pig farm. Later, they observed the resistant bacteria in raw meat and even humans.

Colistin, a 50-year-old drug used on animals more than humans, is given to people only when all other antibiotics have proven ineffective.

The resistant mutation, dubbed the MCR-1 gene, was found in one-fifth of the 804 animals observed. It also showed up in 15 percent of the 523 raw meat samples and in 1 percent of the 1,332 patients observed in the roughly three-year study.

“The links between agricultural use of colistin, colistin resistance in slaughtered animals, colistin resistance in food, and colistin resistance in human beings are now complete,” the researchers wrote.

Based on these findings, the researchers urged countries to reassess their use — and overuse — of antibiotics. Wired also published a cheeky-but-grim obituary for the drug.

“One of the few solutions to uncoupling these connections is limitation or cessation of colistin use in agriculture,” two of the authors wrote in published comments attached to the study. “Failure to do so will create a public health problem of major dimensions.”

Colistin can be toxic to the kidneys, which is why it fell out of favor for broad human use in the 1970s. But it’s still commonly given to livestock around the world to treat or prevent diseases. China, now the world’s largest poultry and pork producer, is a heavy user of colistin in livestock. Researchers note that in 2010 the antibiotic was the “fifth most sold group of antimicrobials” in Europe.

“If MRC-1 becomes global, which is a case of when not if, and the gene aligns itself with other antibiotic resistance genes, which is inevitable, then we will have very likely reached the start of the post-antibiotic era,” University of Cardiff professor Timothy Walsh, one of the study’s researchers, told the BBC on Thursday.

The research team comprised scientists from China, Australia and the U.K., and the study was funded by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

The scientists noted in their report that while MCR-1 is “currently confined to China,” it’s likely to spread further if the overuse of antibiotics is not stopped.

“We must all reiterate these appeals and take them to the highest levels of government or face increasing numbers of patients for whom we will need to say, ‘Sorry, there is nothing I can do to cure your infection.'”

‘Million Cancer Deaths From Fukushima Expected in Japan.


'Million Cancer Deaths From Fukushima Expected in Japan,' New Report Reveals

A shocking new report defies the chronically underestimated impacts of the Fukushima’s triple meltdown on the risk of cancer in exposed populations, which does not just include Japan, but arguably the entire world. 

A new report from Fairewinds Energy Education (FEE), “Cancer on the Rise in Post-Fukushima Japan,” reveals that the ongoing multi-core nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant that started in March 2011 has produced approximately 230 times higher than normal thyroid cancers in Fukushima Prefecture, and could result in as many as one million more cancers in Japan’s future as a result of the meltdown.

According to the new report, data provided by a group of esteemed Japanese medical professionals and TEPCO, confirm a direct link of numerous cancers in Japan to the triple meltdown. As transcribed by Enenews.com, Arnie Gundersen, chief engineer at Fairewinds stated, Nov. 4, 2015:

“It’s been almost 5 years from the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns, and the news from Japan is still not good. Two reports recently released in Japan, one by Japanese medical professionals and the second from Tokyo Power Corporation – TEPCO – acknowledged that there will be numerous cancers in Japan, much greater than normal, due to the radioactive discharges from the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi… I believe, as do many of my colleagues, that there will be at least 100,000 and as many as one million more cancers in Japan’s future as a result of this meltdown… [T]he second report received from Japan proves that the incidence of thyroid cancer is approximately 230 times higher than normal in Fukushima Prefecture… So what’s the bottom line? The cancers already occurring in Japan are just the tip of the iceberg. I’m sorry to say that the worst is yet to come.”

The content of the new report defies what are chronically underestimated radiation exposure levels and effects produced by the International Atomic Energy Agency, TEPCO, and the Japanese government. As we have reported previously, the present day radiation risk model is based on outdated science and a dataset extracted from Hiroshima atomic bomb survivors, and which was arrived at before the discovery of DNA, and knowledge of up to six orders of magnitude higher genotoxicity caused by what is known as photoelectron induction associated with low-dose radioisotope exposure, i.e. the incorporation into our tissue of extremely low doses of radionuclides such as plutonium-239, uranium-238, and over one hundred others produced as a byproduct of the nuclear reactions that produce nuclear power.

For those unafraid of confronting the truth, I highly recommend reading the 2001 paper published in the Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry titled, “Depleted uranium-catalyzed oxidative DNA damage: absence of significant alpha particle decay,” produced by the Army’s own Radiobiology Research Institute, in order to fully comprehend the implications of photoelectron induction. In a nutshell, it implies that the adverse health effects associated with nuclear fallout may be tens of thousands times worse than present radiation risk models used by the nuclear industry, medical establishment, and government presently project.

For more information here is an excerpt of my report, written only weeks after the Fukushima meltdown, titled “Why There Is No Safe Dose of Radiation from Fukushima“:

The nuclear radiation risk models used by the nuclear industry and the medical establishment and harped upon by the mainstream media and world governments, were created largely by nuclear physicists in the 1950’s, before the discovery of DNA, and are based upon the type of high energy external radiation exposures associated with the atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima.

This “old world” risk model, which underpins the policies and recommendations of would-be authorities on radiation safety such as the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), though relevant in the case of external radiation exposure, severely misrepresents both the type and degree of radiotoxicity associated with the internalization of radioisotopes like Radioiodine 131, Cesium 137 and Uranium 238, and subsequent “non-linear” adverse effects in the human body. The ICRP not only conditions the world’s perception on the relative safety of nuclear energy, but is also responsible for underwriting the risk associated with the use of munitions containing depleted uranium (DU) in places like Iraq, and now Libya. The genotoxic Uranium-238 residues left behind will likely cause pain, suffering, birth defects, miscarriages and premature deaths for countless generations to come.

Although radioisotopes like Uranium-238 give off relatively low doses of ionizing radiation when compared to “high dose” external radiation exposure (such that may occur in a nuclear blast), following inhalation or ingestion these alpha particle emitters remain in affected tissues and cells for days, months, years and in some cases, a (subsequently shortened) lifetime, e.g. Strontium-90.

On a cellular level, particles of Uranium-238, which are weak emitters of alpha particle radiation (and therefore considered relatively non-radiotoxic), strongly bind and incorporate into the DNA in affected cells. Once a DNA-Uranium complex is formed it is capable of amplifying the genotoxicity of natural background gamma radiation (or medical radiation) to the affected DNA though a phenomenon called “photoelectric enhancement” by up to 55,000 TIMES HIGHER .

As we reported less than a year after the Fukushima meltdown began, “Plutonium From Fukushima Made It Around the Planet“:

A recently published study in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity confirms that the radioactive fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster reached Europe (Lithuania), and included plutonium, the most deadly manmade element (nanogram for nanogram) in existence.

According to the study’s authors the radioisotope concentrations measured indicate there was “long-range air mass transport from Japan across the Pacific, the North America and the Atlantic Ocean to Central Europe as indicated by modeling.” What this means is that every region under the jet stream — which includes half of the planet north of its equator — could have been exposed to some degree of plutonium fall-out; a fact that is all the more disturbing when we consider there is no such thing as a safe level, and that the harm (on the human scale of time) does not dissipate: the half life of plutonium-239 is 24,200 years, and that of uranium-238 is 4,460,000,000 years, which is older than our planet.

Clearly, with anthropogenic radioisotopes like plutonium-239 having the potential of causing harm to biological systems for hundreds of thousands of years, the health implications of this and other meltdowns are profound. The United States, for instance, has many similarly constructed and arguably faultily designed nuclear reactors as the Daiichi model (General Electric’s Mark 1 reactors), and in fact, the Miami Florida region’s Turkey Point nuclear plant, is not only failing to maintain a safe and stable cooling system, but Florida Power and Light just approved the expansion of the facility, despite the protest of local activists and even area mayors, and the fact that is at extreme risk of becoming the world’s next most likely site of a nuclear meltdown. Learn more by reading, “Is Miami on the Brink of a Nuclear Disaster?

Even if we do not experience an overt nuclear disaster such as a full or partial meltdown, most citizens are unaware that the nuclear power grid regularly emits highly carcinogenic material into the environment, which has been directly linked to increased rates of childhood leukemia in the vicinity of these “properly operating” nuclear units, and that this has been covered up by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for decades.  Learn more about the government’s previous cover-up of a nuclear meltdown in the Los Angeles region in 1959, and by reading our previous report, “The Nuclear Industry’s Ongoing Cancer Cover-Up.”

What Can Be Done To Prevent Future Nuclear Disasters?

First, we must transition off the nuclear power energy grid. This can be done through reducing power consumption and/or using alternative and sustainable energy sources. Keep in mind thatfracking produces radioactive waste that is directly released into the environment. So don’t be “green washed” by terms like “natural gas.”  Coal-fired plants, also, produce highly radioactive waste called coal fly ash, and which it is believed is being used in covert geoengineering projects to “combat climate change.” Solar and wind power are better options, but have what are called “embedded energy” problems, i.e. it takes a huge amount of conventional energy and inherently toxic building materials to produce. This is why alternative and “free energy” are critical, but have historically been suppressed because of the threat they represent to the trillion plus dollar status quo of fossil fuel and nuclear forms of power generation.

Lastly, please consider joining and supporting organizations such as BeyondNuclear.org, andFairewinds Energy Education, ENEWS.com and The Low Level Radiation Campaign.  These are some of the few organizations out there who are fighting to get the truth out about the real risks associated with nuclear energy and the ongoing disaster that it represents.

Lastly, for those concerned about exposure to radiation or low-dose radioisotopes, read our article on the topic, “Tracking & Mitigating Radiation from the Inside Out,” or peruse an extensive body of research on natural substances that mitigate nuclear disaster related radiation toxicity.

Men May Not Bleed, but Here’s Why They Have ‘Periods’.


It’s not just women who have their ‘time of the month.’ Indeed, men’s hormonal shifts fluctuate dramatically day-to-day. One expert calls it Irritable Male Syndrome (IMS).
Is your man irritable? Does he growl at you if you dare to take a piece of the chocolate bar that he is eating, or seethe a little too angrily at the loss of the TV remote? Well, understand that maybe it’s his time of the month.

Is The 'Male Period' For Real?

A quarter of British men believe they have ‘man periods,’ according to a new survey, reported by The Telegraph.

The poll of 2,412 people, commissioned by vouchercloud.com, made up of half male and half female respondents, revealed that 26 percent of men experienced conditions associated with the female menstrual cycle, including tiredness, cramps, and increased sensitivity.
Almost half the women surveyed—43 percent—said they helped their men through their ‘man period’ symptoms.

On how they attempted to do this, women showed themselves to be as lacking as men sometimes feel around their female partners. “Try and cheer him up” summed up the modus operandi of 44 percent of women with man-period suffering partners, while “walk around on egg shells” accounted for how 39 percent dealt with it.

Of the men suffering from ‘man periods,’ 56 percent said they were irritable, 51 percent said they were more tired than normal, 47 percent had increased cravings, while 43 percent said they were both constantly hungry and easily upset.

The Telegraph reported that 12 percent said that they were “more sensitive about personal weight.” Five percent reported even suffering from “menstrual cramps.”

The man who describes himself as suffering from man periods will spend an extra £81.53 a month (about $124.72) on purchases to satisfy his food cravings than a man who does not.

Not all of Britain’s households are in a state of multi-sexual, crampy sensitivity—or maybe it’s that a sizeable number of women simply don’t have the patience for these male ‘times of the month’: 33 percent of women who didn’t believe in the existence of the ‘man period’ had told their partners to ‘man up.’

As funny it all may sound, the ‘male period’ may be a very real, medically recognized phenomenon—albeit without the definitive monthly period bleed that women go through.

Professor Peter Schlegel, chairman of Urology at New York-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine, told the Daily Beast that while women “have very regular hormone cycles and there are obvious symptoms attached to them, men also have extraordinarily similar hormonal changes on a daily basis. Testosterone levels in younger men can vary four-fold in a typical day. What is less clear is how those levels vary day by day and week by week.”

While testosterone levels decline with age, Professor Schlegel said men with their doctors should judge if those levels had decreased to an abnormal level, deleteriously affecting their sex drive, behavior and mood, before seeking treatment.

“The notion that men can be ‘hormonal’ is seen immediately as a joke. But the truth is that men have hormonal cycles just like women.”
Jed Diamond, therapist and author of The Irritable Male Syndrome, who is a believer in the “male period,” said that “men have hormonal cycles just as women do.”

Diamond, who also founded men’s wellness site MenAlive.com, says there are two crucial periods when men’s hormones shift: adolescence/young adulthood and midlife.

IMS is characterized by depression, anger, fatigue, moodiness, anxiety, lethargy, low libido, and confusion, he writes on his websites, which “can wreak havoc with a man’s closest relationships.”

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Speaking to The Daily Beast, Diamond said he had written about one of the big hormonal shifts that men go through in his first book, the 1997 bestseller, The Male Menopause.

“The real changes in men’s hormone levels happen by the hour,” he said. “Men may not carry babies and have menstrual cycles as women do, but we do have the hormonal changes—fluctuations in body temperature, hot flashes—akin to women.”

If we observe puberty affecting boys and girls, Diamond said, and its raft of hormonal, psychological, physical, and sexual changes, we should be able to accept the same things affecting men as life continues.

IMS is marked, said Diamond, by hormonal changes, brain chemical changes, an increase in stress levels, and the effects of men’s roles changing as they age into their 40s.

“The word ‘hormonal’ has always been associated with women,” said Diamond. “The notion that men can be ‘hormonal’ is seen immediately as a joke. But the truth is, science says, that men have hormonal cycles just like women. Testosterone levels are higher in the morning, and lower at night.”

That joke about men thinking about sex four or five times an hour is rooted in a reality, Diamond said, given men’s daily hormonal fluctuations—and they have monthly fluctuations too.

Men feeling they may be affected by these changes detrimentally should track their cycles, said Diamond. “We have our own time of the month,” he said, adding that if you take away the biological specifics from a PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome) survey for women—tenderness of breasts, for example—many men will say they suffer the same emotions expressed by female respondents, like irritability and troubled sleeping patterns.

“The problem is that it just hasn’t been looked for, studied, and taken seriously,” said Diamond of the medical—and, among men and women themselves, personal—neglect of the “male period.”

The slightly good news, said Diamond, is that men and women in a heterosexual relationship or gay men in a relationship should not worry about their “cycles” synching to create a double-whammy “time of the month” household.

“In our research only women’s cycles synch with each other, men’s don’t synch with other men’s or women’s—so women in a relationship with each other can often experience that,” he said.

Around 70,000 men have taken Diamond’s IMS quiz on his website; his suggested solution to their problems include improving their diet and exercising more because men often overeat in response to IMS.

Where necessary, men may want to seek treatment to increase the production of testosterone if it is too low, he said.

So the next time your man is grouchy on the couch, let him have the remote, his chocolate and drink of his choosing, and perhaps, gently suggest he see his doctor. He may not be bleeding, but he’s feeling.

Woman had scissors in her body for FIVE YEARS after cancer treatment


DOCTORS were astounded when they found a pair of scissors lodged inside a woman’s body.

Hanim Ozgul, a 67-year-old mother from Turkey, was left in agony for five years after she was treated for uterine cancer in 2010 – because bungling surgeons forgot about their scissors when they were stitching her up.

DOCTORS were astounded when they found a pair of scissors lodged inside a woman’s body.

Hanim Ozgul, a 67-year-old mother from Turkey, was left in agony for five years after she was treated for uterine cancer in 2010 – because bungling surgeons forgot about their scissors when they were stitching her up.

She had been complaining of searing pains ever since, which the doctors attributed to the aftermath of her operation and subsequent cancer treatment.

CEN_AbdomenScissors_01
The scissors were left inside her body after she underwent treatment for cancer in 2010 CEN

She had the scissors removed only last week.

Her lawyer, Duygu Var Efelerli, is now suing the hospital on her behalf with a demand for compensation for what she has suffered.

Hanim added: “I started feeling pain in my stomach and abdomen and they could never find a reason.

“Later I went to another hospital. The doctor said that my body had an inflammation. Later they told me to have an X-Ray. When the X-Ray machine started up it began beeping and a doctor said to me: ‘You have scissors in your pocket.’”

CEN_AbdomenScissors_03
Hanim Ozgul will be suing the hospital for compensation CEN

She added: “They then found out that I had scissors in my abdomen!”

Hanim’s son, Hasan Ozgul, said: “My mum didn’t carry us as much as she carried the scissors. We will continue with our legal fight until the end. We could have lost our mother.”

She had been complaining of searing pains ever since, which the doctors attributed to the aftermath of her operation and subsequent cancer treatment.

CEN_AbdomenScissors_01
The scissors were left inside her body after she underwent treatment for cancer in 2010 CEN

She had the scissors removed only last week.

Her lawyer, Duygu Var Efelerli, is now suing the hospital on her behalf with a demand for compensation for what she has suffered.

Hanim added: “I started feeling pain in my stomach and abdomen and they could never find a reason.

“Later I went to another hospital. The doctor said that my body had an inflammation. Later they told me to have an X-Ray. When the X-Ray machine started up it began beeping and a doctor said to me: ‘You have scissors in your pocket.’”

CEN_AbdomenScissors_03
Hanim Ozgul will be suing the hospital for compensation CEN

She added: “They then found out that I had scissors in my abdomen!”

Hanim’s son, Hasan Ozgul, said: “My mum didn’t carry us as much as she carried the scissors. We will continue with our legal fight until the end. We could have lost our mother.”

Inflammation linked to weakened reward circuits in depression


Inflammation linked to weakened reward circuits in depression
What does inflammation in the context of depression look like inside the brain? Emory researchers have found that high inflammation is linked to a “failure to communicate” between two parts of the brain: the ventral striatum (VS, vertical cross section) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC, horizontal). Credit: Felger et al, Molecular Psychiatry (2015)

About one third of people with depression have high levels of inflammation markers in their blood. New research indicates that persistent inflammation affects the brain in ways that are connected with stubborn symptoms of depression, such as anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure.

The results were published online on Nov. 10 in Molecular Psychiatry.

The findings bolster the case that the high-inflammation form of depression is distinct, and are guiding researchers’ plans to test treatments tailored for it.

Anhedonia is a core symptom of depression that is particularly difficult to treat, says lead author Jennifer Felger, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University School of Medicine and Winship Cancer Institute.

“Some patients taking antidepressants continue to suffer from anhedonia,” Felger says. “Our data suggest that by blocking inflammation or its effects on the brain, we may be able to reverse anhedonia and help depressed individuals who fail to respond to antidepressants.”

In a study of 48 patients with depression, high levels of the inflammatory marker CRP (C-reactive protein) were linked with a “failure to communicate”, seen through brain imaging, between regions of the brain important for motivation and reward.

Neuroscientists can infer that two regions of the brain talk to each other by watching whether they light up in magnetic resonance imaging at the same times or in the same patterns, even when someone is not doing anything in particular. They describe this as “functional connectivity.”

In patients with high CRP, Felger and her colleagues observed a lack of connectivity between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the ventral striatum. In contrast, patients with low CRP had robust connectivity, they write.

“We were interested in these regions of the brain because of their known importance for response to reward,” she says. “In addition, we had seen reduced activation of these areas in people receiving immuno-stimulatory treatments for hepatitis C virus or cancer, which suggested that they may be sensitive to inflammation.”

High CRP levels were also correlated with patients’ reports of anhedonia: an inability to derive enjoyment from everyday activities, such as food or time with family and friends. Low connectivity between another region of the striatum and the was linked to a different symptom: slow motor function, as measured by finger tapping speed.

During the brain imaging portion of the study, participants were not taking antidepressants, anti-inflammatory drugs or other medications for at least four weeks, and CRP was measured on repeat visits to make sure its levels were stable. High CRP was also correlated with BMI (body mass index), but the statistical relationship was strong even after correcting for BMI and other variables such as age.

A previous study of people with difficult-to-treat depression found that those with high inflammation (as measured with CRP), but not other participants in the study, improved in response to the anti-inflammatory antibody infliximab.

As a next step, Felger is planning to test whether L-DOPA, a medicine that targets the brain chemical dopamine, can increase connectivity in reward-related regions in patients with high-inflammation depression. This upcoming study is being supported by the Dana Foundation.

Felger’s previous research in non-human primates suggests that inflammation leads to reduced dopamine release. L-DOPA is a precursor for dopamine and often given to people with Parkinson’s disease.

“We hope our investigations may lead to new therapies to treat anhedonia in high-inflammation ,” she says.

Mysterious deadly Lake that turns Birds to Stone


http://www.speakingtree.in/slideshow/mysterious-deadly-lake-that-turns-birds-to-stone

Super Bacteria Coming to Kill Us Is Imminent


According to a study published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, scientists in China have discovered significantly increased levels of bacteria resistant to the antibiotic colistin in pigs. The drug is a last line of defense against a host of bacterial infections, many of which are common in people. Researchers said they expect the resistant bacteria to spread outside of China, if it has not already done so.

I really wanted to put this in the NWO forum. I believe this is yet another step in the systematic reduction of the population. I find it very suspicious that within months of the discovery of this super-resistant bacteria that so many food producers in the US feel it is “financially preferable” to send food from the US to China to be processed, then shipped back to the US for sale. All that shipping is somehow preferable and financially more attractive to keeping it here in the US? I find that very hard to believe.


According to the study, researchers stumbled upon the antibiotic-resistant bacteria during a “routine surveillance project,” testing antimicrobial resistance to E. coli in China’s food animals. In the E. coli-infected test subjects, 21% of animals contained the colistin-resistant bacteria, as well as 15% of raw meat samples and 1% human patients.

This is a disaster of truly epidemic proportions waiting to happen…

Long Before Trees Overtook the Land, Earth Was Covered by Giant Mushrooms


A long time before trees ever inhabited the earth it may have been covered in giant mushrooms. These where massive in size up to 24 feet and would have doted the landscape like giant spires and existed some 420 to 350 million years ago where plants were still becoming established.

Mushrooms played important roles in colonising the surface of the earth and helped nutrients become available from minerals to allow plants to grow. What a different world it would have been imagine a forest full of giant mushrooms. It would have been an alien looking world to us.

Fossilised spirals of what are thought to be these fungi have been available for over 130 years but no one could really figure out what they where. Then in 2007 a report suggested they where members of Prototaxites species although the evidence is still inconclusive

I do not think they looked much like the picture below but you get the idea.

 


From around 420 to 350 million years ago, when land plants were still the relatively new kids on the evolutionary block and “the tallest trees stood just a few feet high,” giant spires of life poked from the Earth. “The ancient organism boasted trunks up to 24 feet (8 meters) high and as wide as three feet (one meter),” said National Geographic in 2007. With the help of a fossil dug up in Saudi Arabia scientists finally figured out what the giant creature was: a fungus. (We think.)