Experts Debate Tylenol's Safety for Asthmatic Kids (HealthDay)

MONDAY, Nov. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Taken in the proper dose, acetaminophen has long been considered one of the safest over-the-counter medications. It's approved for use in children, and many obstetricians are even OK with its use during pregnancy.

But an Ohio pediatrician thinks it's time to rein in use of acetaminophen -- more popularly known as Tylenol -- particularly in people with asthma.

"The fundamental issue is that there's an epidemiological problem associated with acetaminophen and asthma," explained Dr. John McBride, vice chair of the department of pediatrics and director of the Robert T. Stone Respiratory Center at Akron Children's Hospital.

"Is that because acetaminophen contributes to asthma, or is it just because people with asthma tend to take acetaminophen?" he said.

Until a large-scale study definitively answers that question, McBride said, "I think we owe it to our patients and their parents to make it clear that maybe acetaminophen is bad. And, if there are alternatives, people might want to use those alternatives until they know acetaminophen is safe."

McBride reviewed the available evidence linking the pain reliever/fever reducer and asthma for an article published in the December issue of Pediatrics.

One source was the International Study of Allergy and Asthma in Childhood, which included more than half a million children at 122 centers in 54 countries. About 200,000 kids were 6 to 7 years old, and 320,000 were between 13 and 14 years old.

Almost one in three of the older children reported taking acetaminophen at least once a month.

In children who took acetaminophen more than once a year, but less than once a month, the researcher found the risk of current asthma was 61 percent higher in the 6 to 7 year olds. For these young children who took acetaminophen more than once a month, the risk of having asthma was more than tripled.

The older children fared slightly better with an increased risk of 43 percent in those who took the drug more than once a year, but less than once a month. For those who took acetaminophen more than once a month, the risk of having asthma increased by 2.5 times, according to the report.

McBride calculated that if acetaminophen exposure was eliminated in that teen group, the rate of severe asthma symptoms would decline by 43 percent.

He also reviewed a meta-analysis of six studies involving almost 90,000 adults in total. Weekly use of acetaminophen was linked to a 1.74 times higher risk of asthma in adults, McBride found.

In addition, the researcher looked at two prospective studies done on acetaminophen and asthma in the early 1990s. These studies, which followed a group of individuals for a period of time, also found a strong link between asthma and acetaminophen.

McBride said the evidence is stronger that acetaminophen exacerbates current asthma, but that there's also evidence that it may be a cause of asthma, too.

How this occurs remains subject to debate, but some researchers believe acetaminophen increases airway inflammation in people with asthma or a predisposition to the breathing disorder, he said.

Dr. Len Horovitz, an internist and pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said, "This information suggests that we have to be cautious about acetaminophen in children with asthma or a family history of asthma. The alternative is ibuprofen, which a lot of parents seem to prefer anyway."

"I do think further research is needed," Horovitz added.

He cautioned that a small group of people with asthma are sensitive to aspirin, and said there are some others who have nasal polyps who shouldn't take ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin).

Not everyone is convinced that the association seen in the new study leads to cause and effect.

"Asthma is such a complex disease, and people all over the world are trying to figure out what causes it," said Dr. Jennifer Appleyard, chief of allergy and immunology at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit. She said that the asthma likely has a number of causes, not just one.

"I don't feel strongly swayed enough to tell my patients they shouldn't take acetaminophen. In anyone with a fever, it's good to minimize the amount of medications and give them just when they're needed." But, she said, an untreated fever can also be dangerous, and parents want to make their children comfortable when they're sick.

But until there's good evidence that acetaminophen is safe, McBride is telling his patients to avoid it.

If his own wife were pregnant, he said he'd suggest that she avoid taking acetaminophen, too. "It's not because I think it's very likely that it's a problem in pregnancy, but in the absence of evidence, why take it?" said McBride.

More information

Learn more about asthma triggers and treatment from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/meds/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111107/hl_hsn/expertsdebatetylenolssafetyforasthmatickids

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Castles of 'lost cities' revealed in Libya

New evidence of a lost civilization in an area of the Sahara in Libya has emerged from images taken by satellites.

"It is like someone coming to England and suddenly discovering all the medieval castles. These settlements had been unremarked and unrecorded under the (Moammar) Gadhafi regime," said project leader David Mattingly, professor of Roman archaeology at the university. The fall of the regime has opened up Libya to more exploration by archaeologists of its pre-Islamic heritage.

These "lost cities" were built by a little-known ancient civilization called the Garamantes, whose lifestyle and culture was far more advanced and historically significant than ancient sources had suggested.

Castle-like complexes
The team from the University of Leicester has identified the mud brick remains of the castle-like complexes, with walls still standing up to 13 feet (4 meters) high, along with traces of dwellings, cairn cemeteries, associated field systems, wells and sophisticated irrigation systems. Follow-up ground surveys earlier this year confirmed the pre-Islamic date and remarkable preservation of the sites.

"Satellite imagery has given us the ability to cover a large region. The evidence suggests that the climate has not changed over the years and we can see that this inhospitable landscape with zero rainfall was once very densely built up and cultivated. These are quite exceptional ancient landscapes, both in terms of the range of features and the quality of preservation," said Martin Sterry, who has been responsible for much of the image analysis and site interpretation.

The findings challenge a view dating back to Roman accounts that the Garamantes consisted of barbaric nomads and troublemakers on the edge of the Roman Empire.

"In fact, they were highly civilized, living in large-scale fortified settlements, predominantly as oasis farmers. It was an organized state with towns and villages, a written language and state of the art technologies. The Garamantes were pioneers in establishing oases and opening up trans-Saharan trade," Mattingly said.

Libyan heritage
The professor and his team were forced to evacuate Libya in February when the anti-Gadhafi revolt started, but hope to be able to return to the field as soon as security is fully restored. The Libyan antiquities department, badly neglected under Gadhafi, is closely involved in the project.

"It is a new start for Libya's antiquities service and a chance for the Libyan people to engage with their own long-suppressed history," Mattingly said. "These represent the first towns in Libya that weren't the colonial imposition of Mediterranean people such as the Greeks and Romans. The Garamantes should be central to what Libyan schoolchildren learn about their history and heritage."

The research is funded by the European Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust, the Society for Libyan Studies and the GeoEye Foundation.

? 2011 OurAmazingPlanet. All rights reserved. More from OurAmazingPlanet.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45198719/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Fort Hood victims' kin holding private memorials

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Two grieving families walked through endless rows of headstones at Arlington National Cemetery on a cool autumn day to pay their respects to two soldiers they never met.

But they are forever linked to Maj. Libardo Eduardo Careveo and Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, bound by tragedy. Their relatives and both soldiers were among 13 people gunned down in a Fort Hood, Texas, shooting rampage two years ago that left more than two dozen others wounded.

Staying connected with the other victims' families has helped in the grieving process, although they may never truly heal, they said.

"We are meeting with some of the family members who live locally here. There's just an extension of family and (we're) just wanting to reconnect with them on this second anniversary," said Keely Cahill Vanacker, whose father Michael Grant Cahill was killed on Nov. 5, 2009. "Many of us just consider each other, from those who were first responders to (the) wounded, an extension of family now. And it may not be something where we're together at Thanksgiving or we are able to call each other every day. ... But two years later, we still have a close relationship."

No public memorials were planned at Fort Hood to mark the second anniversary of the worst mass shooting on a U.S. military installation.

On Saturday in a small private ceremony, some victims' relatives planned to place wreaths on the fence that now surrounds the boarded-up building where the shootings occurred. Michael Cahill's widow, Joleen, placed the first wreath there a few months after the rampage, and since then relatives of other victims, the wounded and even emergency personnel have gathered there on some holidays for private ceremonies to honor those who died.

A large public ceremony isn't necessary as the families continue to work through their grief and find their own ways of honoring their relatives, said Kerry Cahill, another daughter of the physician assistant who died that day after trying to stop the gunman with a chair. Her family has not moved any items out of his study, often orders his favorite chocolate dessert and constantly talks about him ? his love of books and helping people, she said.

"The thing I've heard a lot of families who've lost people in Iraq and in Afghanistan (say) is that they just don't want people to forget," Kerry Cahill said. "People don't bring it up because they don't want to remind you ? well, I remind myself every day. I don't want people to forget that it happened, and I don't want people to forget my father."

On that sunny autumn day two years ago, a gunman wearing an Army combat uniform stood near the front door of a Fort Hood medical building where deploying and returning soldiers received vaccines and other tests. He shouted "Allahu Akbar!" ? which means "God is great!" in Arabic ? and opened fire, witnesses said. Some soldiers thought it was a training exercise.

He rapidly fired, pausing only to reload, shooting at soldiers hiding under desks and those fleeing the building, according to witnesses. Capt. John Gaffaney was fatally shot after throwing a chair at the gunman. Spt. Jason Dean "J.D." Hunt, Staff Sgt. Justin DeCrow and Pfc. Michael Pearson died while trying to protect several nurses at the back of the building. The others who died, most in the front area, were Capt. Russell Seager, Sgt. Amy Krueger, Spc. Frederick Greene, Pfc. Aaron Nemelka, Pfc. Kham Xiong and Pvt. Francheska Velez, who was pregnant.

Some witnesses identified the gunman as Maj. Nidal Hasan, an American-born Muslim who was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan the following month. His trial is set for March. If convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder, he faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

For Leila Hunt Willingham, much of the shock and numbness didn't start to wear off until after the first anniversary of the death of her brother, J.D. Hunt, she said.

"I think it is a little harder for me this year just because I am starting to feel and starting to experience some more things associated with losing him," said Willingham, who also went to Washington, D.C., and was to return to Fort Hood to place a wreath on the fence Saturday. "The last time I saw my brother was in August of '09, and that date keeps getting so much farther away, and that's the part that really hurts."

While there is a "ripple effect" with this kind of loss, Willingham said she has been coping by talking about her brother and getting involved in military programs that help relatives of slain soldiers. And although the high-profile nature of the Fort Hood case put the victims' families in the national spotlight ? which they have not wanted or liked ? it has "given us a voice to be able to help other people ... and we can use it for many things, like talking about suicide prevention," Willingham said.

The families said trying to heal is a continuous journey.

Joleen Cahill said that while she misses talking to her husband every day, "I feel like I'm at a point where I'm not falling into quite so many deep potholes, and I'm going forward and honoring and remembering and doing what I can to honor all those lost."

___

Angela K. Brown reported from Fort Worth, Texas.

___

Follow Angela K. Brown at http://twitter.com/AngelaKBrownAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-05-Fort%20Hood%20Shooting-Anniversary/id-2f1b960694c547ad9e73aefe1c43cbe9

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Gambling to fund stadium gains support (Star Tribune)

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Brain parasite directly alters brain chemistry

Friday, November 4, 2011

A research group from the University of Leeds has shown that infection by the brain parasite Toxoplasma gondii, found in 10-20 per cent of the UK's population, directly affects the production of dopamine, a key chemical messenger in the brain.

Their findings are the first to demonstrate that a parasite found in the brain of mammals can affect dopamine levels.

Whilst the work has been carried out with rodents, lead investigator Dr Glenn McConkey of the University's Faculty of Biological Sciences, believes that the findings could ultimately shed new light on treating human neurological disorders that are dopamine-related such as schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and Parkinson's disease.

This research may explain how these parasites, remarkably, manipulate rodents' behaviour for their own advantage. Infected mice and rats lose their innate fear of cats, increasing the chances of being caught and eaten, which enables the parasite to return to its main host to complete its life cycle.

In this study, funded by the Stanley Medical Research Institute and Dunhill Medical Trust, the research team found that the parasite causes production and release of many times the normal amount of dopamine in infected brain cells.

Dopamine is a natural chemical which relays messages in the brain controlling aspects of movement, cognition and behaviour. It helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centres and regulates emotional responses such as fear. The presence of a certain kind of dopamine receptor is also associated with sensation-seeking, whereas dopamine deficiency in humans results in Parkinson's disease.

These findings build on earlier studies in which Dr McConkey's group found that the parasite actually encodes the enzyme for producing dopamine in its genome.

"Based on these analyses, it was clear that T. gondii can orchestrate a significant increase in dopamine production in neural cells," says Dr McConkey.

"Humans are accidental hosts to T. gondii and the parasite could end up anywhere in the brain, so human symptoms of toxoplasmosis infection may depend on where parasite ends up. This may explain the observed statistical link between incidences of schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis infection."

Dr McConkey says his next experiments will investigate how the parasite enzyme triggers dopamine production and how this may change behaviour.

###

University of Leeds: http://www.leeds.ac.uk

Thanks to University of Leeds for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/114964/Brain_parasite_directly_alters_brain_chemistry

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Christmas tree for US Capitol on way from Calif. (Providence Journal)

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Top U.S. companies urge new Internet trade rules (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Google, Microsoft, Citigroup, IBM, GE and other top-tier American companies on Thursday urged the United States to push for trade rules that protect the free flow of information over the Internet.

The unveiling of principles hashed out by the companies over the last nine months "is almost an historic moment," Rick Johnston, senior vice president for international government affairs at Citigroup, told reporters.

While past trade agreements have largely focused on eliminating tariffs on manufactured and agricultural goods, "we're now in an era where the economy is literally driven by the Internet. It's a digital economy," Johnston said.

The business coalition says it wants future U.S. trade pacts to "reflect the new realities of the global economy: specifically, the contribution of the Internet toward economic growth, toward job creation and exports," said Bob Boorstin, director of public policy for Google, which has battled Internet restrictions in China and other countries.

One "very dangerous trend" is a requirement by an increasing number of governments for companies to locate data centers within a country's borders in order to provide services, Boorstin said.

Such laws are discriminatory and contrary to the notion of cross-border trade, the coalition said in its paper, which also criticized actions "governments around the world" have taken to block access to information services such as Facebook, Twitter, WordPress and YouTube.

The companies said they hope their ideas will be reflected first in the proposed Transpacific Partnership, a free trade agreement that the United States is negotiating with eight countries in the region.

But they said the United States also should push for a new international consensus on ensuring cross-border data flows in other forums such as the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, which is holds its annual summit this month in Hawaii.

"We want the free flow of data just like we want the free flow of goods and services," said Nuala O'Connor Kelly, chief privacy leader at General Electric.

(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Xavier Briand)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111103/wr_nm/us_usa_trade_internet

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