| Go on, touch someone
London - When Jim Coan scanned the brains of married women in pain, he spotted changes that may help to shed light on an age-old mystery. As soon as the women touched the hands of their husbands, there was an instant drop in activity in the areas of the brains involved in fear, danger, and threat. The women, who had been exposed to experimental pain while they were scanned, were calmer and less stressed, and a similar, but smaller, effect was triggered by the touch of strangers. "It's the first study of the brain's reactions to human touch in a threatening situation, and the first to measure how the brain is involved in the health-enhancing properties of close social relationships," said Dr Coan, a neuroscientist at Virginia University. Touch, a key component of traditional healing, is being increasingly studied in mainstream medicine, with some trials showing symptom benefits in a number of areas, from asthma and high blood pressure to migraine and childhood diabetes.
Jo-Carroll Energy opens Savanna office
Electricity and natural gas consumers in the southern portion of Jo-Carroll Energy's service territory have a convenient new place to make payments and ask questions about their utility service thanks to Jo-Carroll Energy's new Savanna office. The office will provide Jo-Carroll Energy members in Savanna and surrounding communities with the same services as the cooperative's headquarters in Elizabeth. "Jo-Carroll Energy's new Savanna office is another example of the cooperative's commitment to personal service from local people," said Jo-Carroll Energy President and CEO Michael Hastings. "We are pleased to bring this service back to the people of Savanna and Carroll County." The office is located at 103 Chicago Avenue and will be open Monday through Friday from 8 am to 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Now, the Stick
Employers frustrated with mounting health-care costs for their workers have tried dangling a carrot to discourage bad habits such as smoking as well as behaviors that can lead to obesity, uncontrolled diabetes or high blood pressure. Now some employers are beginning to brandish a stick, docking pay, hiking insurance premiums or even banning employees from the workplace if they don't comply with off-site smoking bans. So far Midwestern companies have taken the lead; only a few Washington area employers have followed. Starting in January, Tribune Co. will require its employees, including 1,200 at the Baltimore Sun, to pay $100 a month more in insurance premiums if they or any of their covered family members smoke. .
Emergency breakthrough
THE majority of accident victims will be treated locally under a groundbreaking move to set up a new rural emergency medical training centre in Warrnambool and Portland. The centre, the first of its kind in regional Australia, would be run by an elite emergency medicine specialist, who would be in charge of emergency departments at both Warrnambool and Portland hospitals. The yet-to-be-appointed expert would also train students enrolled at Deakin University's new medical school and oversee nationally important research into rural emergency medicine. Details of the Centre for Rural Emergency Medicine were revealed yesterday in Portland, which in recent years has struggled to provide adequate emergency medical services. Alcoa Australia, Portland's biggest employer, announced it would provide $100,000 a year for three years to help fund it.
FORTEO(R) Increased Spine Bone Mineral Density in Patients with Glucocorticoid-Induced Osteoporosis
Glucocorticoid therapy is the most common cause of secondary osteoporosis,(2) leading to bone loss and an increased risk for fracture. Data indicate that glucocorticoids are used by up to three out of every 100 adults (3 percent) over age 50,(3) and up to 50 percent of individuals on chronic glucocorticoid therapy will eventually have an osteoporotic fracture.(4) Glucocorticoids are prescribed to treat many conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and inflammatory bowel disease.(4,5) "Currently, there is a lack of variety in treatment choices for patients receiving chronic glucocorticoid medication who are at high risk for fractures," said lead investigator Kenneth G. Saag, M.D., MSc, professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
|
