�Many health problems can buoy be efficaciously treated and managed if they are caught early enough. But until now, diagnosing the early stage of degenerative joint disease - the often cripplingly painful disease that causes damage to the joints and is thought to affect around 8.5m Brits - has been tricky. That's because diagnosing currently relies on x-ray photograph evidence and physical interrogatory, both of which may not spot signs of the disease until it's in its later stages.
However scientists have just now announced the development of new medical imaging engineering science that hindquarters spot signs of degenerative arthritis even in front it starts causing junction damage.
Dr Alexej Jerschow, from New York University, is behind the new diagnosis method acting, and presented his findings at the recent yearly meeting of the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia (i). Dr Jerschow uses an MRI scanner - already unremarkably used in hospitals - to step levels of a substance called glycosaminoglycan (GAG). GAG is a polymer that holds a large amount of water and helps make gristle tough and elastic. Indeed, a low-pitched concentration of GAG is linked to the attack of osteoarthritis and other cartilage disorders.
"Our methods have the potential of providing early warning signs for gristle disorders like osteoarthritis, thus potentially avoiding surgery and physical therapy later on," says Dr Jerschow.
Nutritional help
Another benefit of the new applied science is that it could help discover how effective new and existing osteoarthritis drugs are at combating the disease. A growth number of studies, however, suggest that a nutritionary substance called glucosamine - which is commonly used by degenerative arthritis sufferers - is effective at both building novel cartilage (ii) and helping to relieve joint pain (iii).
Glucosamine makes up 50 per centum of the lubricant found within the synovial fluid - the fluid that surrounds your joints - so it's involved in protecting against joint wear and snap. It helps your body make collagen and wield healthy conjunction tissues, all of which is requisite for rebuilding and repairing cartilage.
Glucosamine is an active fixings in supplement called OmegaFlex (www.vegepa.com). OmegaFlex uses a vegetarian course of glucosamine called glucosamine hydrochloride, which is the most bio-available form (ie. the nearly easily absorbed). Until late, most glucosamine supplements were derived from shellfish.
OmegaFlex also contains omega-3, 6 and 9 fatty acids, all of which ar considered to have anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties.
- Omega-3 butterball acids come in the form of EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) from marine fish oil, which some studies have shown reduces inflaming and the pain associated with rheumatoid arthritis.
- Virgin evening primrose oil colour provides GLA (gamma-linolenic acid, an omega-6 fatty blistering), which experts believe whitethorn improve joint pain and tenderness, addition morning stiffness.
- CLA - or conjugated linoleic acid - another omega-6 fatty acid fatty acidulent may help oneself relieve pressure on joints by reduction body fat.
- Meanwhile virgin olive oil (or oleic bitter), an omega-9 fatty blistering, is as well thought to have anti-arthritic and anti-inflammatory drug properties.
OmegaFlex is priced at �16.95 for 60 high-strength capsules, presently available aim from Igennus on 0845 1300 424 or hTTP://www.igennus.com.
References
(i) For a report of the findings on the American Chemical Society website, see here
(ii) S. Wang, S. Laverty, M. Dumitriu, A. Plaas, M. Grynpas."The effects of glucosamine hydrochloride on subchondral osseous tissue changes in an creature model of osteoarthritis". Arthritis & Rheumatism May 2007, Volume 56, Issue 5, Pages 1537-1548
(iii) Braham R, Dawson B, Goodman C. "The effect of glucosamine subjunction on people experiencing regular knee painful sensation." BR J Sports Med 2003; 37:45-49. See also Houpt J, McMillan R, Wein C. "Effect of glucosamine hydrochloride in the treatment of painfulness of osteoarthritis of the knee." Journal of Rheumatology 1999; 26:2423-2430. See also Richy F, et al. Structural and diagnostic efficacy of glucosamine and chondroitin in knee osteoarthritis: a comprehensive meta-analysis. Arch Intern Med 2003; 163:1514-1522.
http://www.igennus.com.
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Sunday, 7 September 2008
Thursday, 28 August 2008
World mourns Dubliners' Ronnie Drew, 'King of Ireland'
When the Pogues� Shane MacGowan sings your praises, you know you�re influential.
Ronnie Drew surely was.
The leader of the Irish folk group the Dubliners died at age 73 Saturday after a lengthy bout with cancer.
Famed for a voice described as sounding like coal being crushed under a door, Drew�s booming vocals and bushy beard - along with those of his associate Dubliners isthmus mates - became the image well-nigh associated with the revitalization of Irish folk in the �60s and �70s. The answer to the Clancy Brothers� bouncy melodies and neat Aran fisherman sweaters, the Dubliners grew out of Guinness-soaked backroom sessions at O�Donoghue�s Pub in their namesake city.
Throughout his prolonged career Drew accompanied himself on Spanish guitar, spell sharing vocal duties in the Dubliners� classic lineup with the late Luke Kelly. Kelly provided the balladeer�s touch, while Drew�s voice set the groundwork for the group�s livelier selections.
With his gruff, pebbly tone, he delivered definitive versions of such Irish folk tunes as �Finnegan�s Wake,� �McAlpine�s Fusiliers� and �Seven Drunken Nights.�
Drew was beginning to suffer from health issues when his wife of 40 geezerhood, Deirdre, died last June. After organism diagnosed with throat genus Cancer, his health steadily declined.
An all-star gathering of Irish musicians, including surviving members of the Dubliners, members of U2, Sinead O�Connor,Oscar winner Glen Hansard, Bob Geldof, Christy Moore, MacGowan and a handful of others wrote and recorded �The Ballad of Ronnie Drew� in January. The song, which paid tribute to Drew�s influence on Irish music and culture, topped the Irish singles charts and proceeds benefitted the Irish Cancer Society.
�Build you a statue on St. Stephen�s Green, no fairer monument ere to be seen,� went the lyrics, �the statue of Ronnie Drew retention the hand of a girl with her hair in a black velvet band.�
The song borrowed a chorus from Drew�s 1978 recording �Easy and Slow,� this time interpreted by Hansard and MacGowan.
Drew lately recorded with Boston punk-rockers the Dropkick Murphys, loaning his see and snarling baritone to �Flannigan�s Ball� from the band�s �The Meanest of Times� CD.
The Dubliners originally started out as the Ronnie Drew Group in 1962 with Luke Kelly, Barney McKenna and Ciaran Bourke. John Sheahan and Bobby Lynch joined a short time later and, at Drew�s urging, the group changed its discover to the Dubliners. He was a member of the Dubliners from 1962 to 1974 and from 1979 to 1995.
Drew - labeled �The King of Ireland� by Bono and posthumously referred to as �the last of the Irish rovers� - was laid to rest side by side to his late wife after a two-day wake in County Wicklow.
The Ballad of Ronnie Drew
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Monday, 18 August 2008
Post-Partum Suicide Attempt Risks Studied
� Although maternal felo-de-se after giving birth is a comparatively rare occurrence, suicide attempts often stimulate long-lasting personal effects on the family and the babe. In a study published in the August 2008 issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, researchers compared two populations of mothers and found that a chronicle of psychiatric disorders or substance ill-use was a strong predictor of postnatal suicide attempts.
Using the hospitalization and birth records from Washington State, USA, from 1992 to 2001, the researchers found that 335 women had been hospitalized for suicide attempts. Another 1420 women wHO had disposed birth only had not been hospitalized for a suicide try served as a control group.
After adjusting for fetal or infant death and former variables, women who had been antecedently hospitalized for psychiatric disorders were more than 27 times as likely to attempt suicide as women without this medical chronicle. Women with a history of kernel abuse were six multiplication as potential to attempt suicide, while psychiatric hospitalization and substance abuse together increased the risk by 11 times.
Writing in the article, Katherine A. Comtois, PhD, lead tec from the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center and the University of Washington School of Medicine, states, "In the current study, we focused on preexisting psychiatric risk factors for postpartum suicide attempts resulting in hospitalization. Most importantly, a prior psychiatrical or substance use diagnosis among postpartum women significantly increased the risk of a serious postpartum self-destruction attempt. One implication of this study is that screening for past story of psychiatric and substance use diagnoses as part of number prenatal maintenance may be a means of identifying women at high risk of postnatal suicide attack, although a recent recapitulation of antenatal screening for depression cited insufficient evidence to recommend screening as a means to meliorate outcomes."
A recent passport from The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists suggested covering for psychosocial risk factors, including depression during prenatal care. This article emphasizes the want for more careful followup of postpartum women with current or past psychiatric diagnoses or substance employment. The authors continue, "Future studies should evaluate the effectiveness of screening for psychiatric and substance purpose disorders on decreasing untoward outcomes such as self-annihilation attempts during the postnatal period. If found to be effective, such interventions may keep the withering impact associated with postnatal suicide effort."
"Psychiatric risk factors associated with postpartum suicide attack in Washington State, 1992-2001"
Katherine A. Comtois, PhD; Melissa A. Schiff, MD, MPH; and David C. Grossman, MD, MPH.
American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Volume 199, Issue 2 (August 2008).
Click here to hear Featured Article online
This work was supported by a grant from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Elsevier Health Sciences
More information
Using the hospitalization and birth records from Washington State, USA, from 1992 to 2001, the researchers found that 335 women had been hospitalized for suicide attempts. Another 1420 women wHO had disposed birth only had not been hospitalized for a suicide try served as a control group.
After adjusting for fetal or infant death and former variables, women who had been antecedently hospitalized for psychiatric disorders were more than 27 times as likely to attempt suicide as women without this medical chronicle. Women with a history of kernel abuse were six multiplication as potential to attempt suicide, while psychiatric hospitalization and substance abuse together increased the risk by 11 times.
Writing in the article, Katherine A. Comtois, PhD, lead tec from the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center and the University of Washington School of Medicine, states, "In the current study, we focused on preexisting psychiatric risk factors for postpartum suicide attempts resulting in hospitalization. Most importantly, a prior psychiatrical or substance use diagnosis among postpartum women significantly increased the risk of a serious postpartum self-destruction attempt. One implication of this study is that screening for past story of psychiatric and substance use diagnoses as part of number prenatal maintenance may be a means of identifying women at high risk of postnatal suicide attack, although a recent recapitulation of antenatal screening for depression cited insufficient evidence to recommend screening as a means to meliorate outcomes."
A recent passport from The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists suggested covering for psychosocial risk factors, including depression during prenatal care. This article emphasizes the want for more careful followup of postpartum women with current or past psychiatric diagnoses or substance employment. The authors continue, "Future studies should evaluate the effectiveness of screening for psychiatric and substance purpose disorders on decreasing untoward outcomes such as self-annihilation attempts during the postnatal period. If found to be effective, such interventions may keep the withering impact associated with postnatal suicide effort."
"Psychiatric risk factors associated with postpartum suicide attack in Washington State, 1992-2001"
Katherine A. Comtois, PhD; Melissa A. Schiff, MD, MPH; and David C. Grossman, MD, MPH.
American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Volume 199, Issue 2 (August 2008).
Click here to hear Featured Article online
This work was supported by a grant from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Elsevier Health Sciences
More information
Friday, 8 August 2008
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
Ben Affleck Heads to the Congo
Ben Affleck is expanding his horizons--literally. The actor has signed up to join Nightline as a special correspondent reporting on the humanitarian crisis in the Congo.
Affleck,35, who's first essay airs Thursday on ABC, took a Nightline crew into Africa with the goal of spreading the word on a story that gets relatively little notice in the U.S.
''It's fairly clear that in the modern age that there is a currency to celebrity, or celebrity is a currency, really,'' Affleck said on Wednesday. ''I've discovered that you can spend it in a lot of ways, or you can squander it. You can be taxed, as well. I really started thinking long and hard about how to use that currency as long as I had it.''
Affleck, who is married to Jennifer Garner and is father to the couple's 2-year old daugther Violet, has been to the Congo three times in the past year. He said his motive was to learn about the war and hunger that have killed thousands of people per month in the past decade in hopes that the outside world would be moved to help, and his celebrity opened some doors.
His representatives approached Nightline with the idea of reporting on his journey. Affleck said he was impressed by Nightline stories in 2005 where Hotel Rwanda actor Don Cheadle visited that country.
In his first essay, Affleck says, ''I want to try to bring people along to learn and if they might not tune into this unless there was some celebrity involved in it, either because they're interested in the celebrity or because they want to see the celebrity kind of make a fool of himself, then so be it."
He doesn't act as a reporter, Nightline executive producer James Goldston says, but rather presents the story as a personal journey, following Affleck as he met with survivors of the conflict, relief officials and even some warlords.
''I was quite persuaded by how candid he was about the cliche of it, or the potential cliche,'' Goldston said
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Sunday, 22 June 2008
Michel Delpech
Artist: Michel Delpech
Genre(s):
Pop
Folk
Other
Discography:
Michel Delpech &
Year: 2006
Tracks: 13
Ce Lundi-La Au Bataclan
Year: 2005
Tracks: 13
Les Annees Barclay
Year: 2002
Tracks: 20
Toutes les Chansons
Year:
Tracks: 29
The Best Of
Year:
Tracks: 16
Ses plus grands succes
Year:
Tracks: 29
Les Grandes Chansons
Year:
Tracks: 22
Michel Delpech's self-examining songs, sensible arrangements, and bored still archly advanced vocals virtually defined the French pop accent during the seventies. Born January 26, 1946, in the Paris suburban area of Courbevoie, Jean-Michel Delpech drew his earlier influence from traditional French chansons like Charles Aznavour and Gilbert Bécaud. As a teenager, he formed a little orchestra with a mathematical group of schoolmates, and at 17 signed with the Vogue label to cut his debut solo single, "Anatole." In 1964 Delpech began writing with composer Roland Vincent, inaugurating the virtually significant creative collaboration of his career. Later that same year, he asterisked in the musical clowning Copains-Clopants, which ran in Paris for half a dozen months ahead mounting a national spell. Delpech's signature identification number, "Chez Laurette," chop-chop emerged as an consultation favourite. In 1965 he issued the vocal as a single, and it proved his point of launching into the French pop charts, speedily followed by the strike "Inventaire 66." After exiting Copains-clopants, Delpech toured in support of Leny Escudero before opening for Jacques Brel during the French pop giant's series of farewell concerts at Paris' renowned L'Olympia. In 1967, he signed with showman Johnny Stark, wHO installed Delpech as the opener on a Mireille Mathieu circuit that spanned from the U.S. to the U.S.S.R. Months afterward Delpech vaulted to superstardom, claiming the Grand Prix du Disque and the Académie Charles-Cros Prize for the 1968 run into "Il y a diethylstilbesterol Jours où on Ferait Mieux de Rester au Lit."Subsequent smashes including 1969's "Wight Is Wight" (a jubilation of the Isle of Wight rock fete) and "Paul Chantait Yesterday" (a testimonial to the Beatles) followed, and in 1971 Delpech and Vincent teamed for the signature hit of the singer's vocation, the graeco-Roman "Pour un Flirt." Delpech opened 1972 with a three-week headlining stint at L'Olympia, and patch he continued his collaboration with Vincent, he likewise partnered with writers including Jean-Michel Rivat, Pierre Papadiamandis, and Michel Pelay, reeling off a train of blockbusters including "Les Divorcés," "Que Marianne Était Jolie," "Le Chasseur," and "Quand J'étais Chanteur." However, in 1975 Delpech divorced his married woman, Chantal, and patch the subsequent "Le Loir-et-Cher" proven some other enormous hit, he shortly entered a period of vivid clinical depression that in effect halt his creative momentum. After seeking recourse in Buddhism, he afterward off to Catholicism, and even explored his search for personal and spiritual substance in a deeply introverted memoir, L'Homme Qui Avait Bâti Sa Vie Sur le Sable. Delpech recorded and performed seldom during this period, and afterward issue the 1977 LP 5000 km he virtually disappeared from the French pop landscape. Finally, he resurfaced in 1983 with the single "Animaux, Animaux," that same year dropping in honey with cougar Geneviève Garnier-Fabre, wHO became his married woman two years later. Their romance seemed to reignite Delpech's passion for devising music, and in 1985 he issued Loin d'Ici, his number one new LP in shut to a x. While Delpech ne'er recaptured the commercial regard he enjoyed during the better portion of the 1970s, he maintained a devoted audience and never rested on past times honour. For 1989's J'étais un Ange, he teamed with composer Dider Barbelivien, and terzetto age later reunited with Vincent for Les Voix du Brésil, which updated their signature sound with influences careworn from across the breadth of reality euphony. Delpech renowned the record's handout with a string of dates at L'Olympia, his number one appearances at the legendary locus in 2 decades. He even so retreated from acting for five long time, eventually reversive in mid-1997 with a self-titled LP that summarized his mind-set on life and art as he entered his 1950s. Despite its autumnal themes, the record's modern-day pop sensibilities base favour with critics and audiences likewise, and in September he headlined a seven-day outride at the Casino de Paris. Delpech's render to the calcium light again proven brief, however, and he worn-out the remainder of the decade collaborating with married woman Geneviève on a novel, De Cendres et de Braises, published in 2000. Late that same year he issued the retrospective J'étais un Ange, celebrating its release with a brief French circuit highlighted by node appearances by the likes of Alain Chamfort, Marc Lavoine, and Claude Nougaro. Finally, in 2004 Delpech released the roots music-inspired Comme Vous, his number one new LP in heptad age. Two eld afterward, he launched &, a collection of perennial fan favorites re-recorded as duets alongside Alain Souchon, Bénabar, and others.
Sunday, 15 June 2008
Madame Tussauds defends planned Hitler display in Berlin
BERLIN — Madame Tussauds on Tuesday defended its decision to include a wax likeness of Adolf Hitler at its new Berlin museum, arguing that it would make little sense to ignore his role in German history.
Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit had urged the museum to carefully consider whether to include Hitler and, if it does, to ensure that he not be shown as a "cult figure."
In a statement, the museum said Hitler's rule "stands for an important, though also appalling, turning point in the development of modern Europe."
"To ignore Hitler's role in this era would allow a strange gap to develop in the German and Berlin history that we show from [19th-century chancellor Otto von] Bismarck to the present day," the museum added, stressing that Madame Tussauds is "nonpolitical."
Madame Tussauds Berlin, which opens June 9, will feature many prominent Germans, including former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, current Chancellor Angela Merkel and scientist Albert Einstein — who left Germany shortly before Hitler took power in 1933, never to return.
The museum's statement Tuesday said market research showed that Hitler was among the figures both Berliners and tourists believe significantly marked German history, and visitors expect to find him at the new branch.
The museum said it would portray Hitler "with regard to possible sensitivities and far from any glorification," as he would have looked shortly before his 1945 suicide.
The likeness will be displayed behind glass, preventing visitors from having their pictures taken with it, and the exhibit will be constantly monitored by video cameras.
Stephan Kramer, general secretary of Germany's Central Council of Jews, said the figure must be accompanied by information on Hitler and the Nazi era.
However, he told the Netzeitung online newspaper that the exhibit may help "demystify" Hitler.
"Trying to erase Hitler from history doesn't work and is counterproductive," he said.
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