Interactive Lamp Brings Raincloud Inside Your Room

Despite the loudness it brings, thunder is usually pretty much harmless. However, it is an entirely different thing when we talk about thunderstorms because it often comes with lightning – which can be quite dangerous.

Whenever thunderstorms occur, the advisable thing to do is to take cover by staying indoors and to stop using appliances. Electrical discharges from lightning can possibly damage your appliances so you might as well take proper precautions. To make matters worse, hail, tornadoes, and strong winds are other risks that can also come with thunderstorms.

If you are like most people, then chances are you have only seen thunderstorm clouds upclose on movies. Yes, there are those who may have taken a closer look as plane passengers but this is usually a rare case since aircrafts are usually advised against flying during extreme weather.

But did you know you can have a chance to have the experience of seeing (and even holding!) such a cloud right in your own room? Thanks to Richard Clarkson, anyone can now answer in the affirmative.

Aptly named “Cloud,” this wonderful lamp and speaker system definitely looks like the real deal – without the rain and the lightning, of course.

It’s pretty amazing considering that this interactive fixture comes with lights, motion sensors, and superb speakers. It even comes with a remote control that will allow you to set the lamp to various modes.

More info: richardclarkson.com (H/T: colossal)

Take a look at the GIFs and the video below to see how it works.

Cloud from Richard Clarkson on Vimeo.

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Research: Pineapple Enzyme Kills Cancer Without Killing You

Every once in a while a study pops up on the National Library of Medicine's bibliographic database known as MEDLINE that not only confirms the therapeutic relevance of natural substances in cancer treatment, but blows the conventional approach out of the water. Published in 2007 in the journal Planta Medica, researchers found that an enzyme extracted from pineapple stems known as bromelain was superior to the chemo-agent 5-fluorauracil in treating cancer in the animal model. The researchers stated:

"This antitumoral effect [bromelain] was superior to that of 5-FU [5-fluorouracil], whose survival index was approximately 263 %, relative to the untreated control."

What is so remarkable about this research is that 5-FU has been used as a cancer treatment for nearly 40 years, and has been relatively unsuccessful due to its less than perfect selectivity at killing cancer, often killing and/or irreversibly damaging healthy cells and tissue, as well.

As a highly toxic, fluoride-bound form of the nucleic acid uracil, a normal component of RNA, the drug is supposed to work by tricking more rapidly dividing cells -- which include both cancer and healthy intestinal, hair follicle, and immune cells -- into taking it up, thereby inhibiting (read: poisoning) RNA replication enzymes and RNA synthesis.

The material safety data sheet (MSDS) for 5-FU states:

The dose at which 50% of the animals given the drug die is 115mg/kg, or the equivalent of 7.8 grams for a 150 lb adult human.

Keep in mind that a 7.5 gram dose of 5-FU, which is the weight of 3 pennies, would kill 50% of the humans given it. Bromelain's MSDS, on the other hand, states the LD50 to be 10,000 mg/kg, or the equivalent 1.5 lbs of bromelain for a 150lb adult, which means it is 3 orders of magnitude safer!

How then, can something as innocuous as the enzyme from the stem/core of a pineapple be superior to a drug that millions of cancers patients over the past 40 years have placed their hopes of recovery on, as well as exchanging billions of dollars for?

There is a well-known effect associated with a wide range of natural compounds called "selective cytotoxicity," whereby they are able to induce programmed cell death (the graceful self-disassembly known as apoptosis) within the cancer cells, while leaving healthy cells and tissue unharmed. No FDA-approved chemotherapy drug on the market today has this indispensable property (because chemicals don't have behave like natural compounds), which is why cancer treatment is still in the dark ages, often destroying the quality of life, and accelerating the death of those who undergo it, often unwittingly. When a person dies following conventional cancer treatment it is all too easy to "blame the victim" and simply write that patient's cancer off as "chemo-resistant," or "exceptionally aggressive," when in fact the non-selective nature of the chemotoxic agent is what ultimately lead to their death.

Keep in mind that bromelain, like all natural substances, will never receive FDA drug approval. Capital, at the present time, does not flow into the development of non-patentable (i.e. non-profitable) cancer therapies, even if they work, are safe and extremely affordable. This is simply the nature of the beast. Until we compel our government to utilize our tax dollars to invest in this type of research, there will be no level playing field in cancer treatment, or any treatment offered through the conventional medical establishment, for that matter. Or, some of us may decide to take our health into our own hands, and use the research, already freely available on possible natural cancer treatment, to inform our treatment decisions without the guidance of the modern day equivalent of the "priest" of the body, the conventional oncologist, who increasingly fills the description of an "applied pharmacologist/toxicologist" - nothing more, nothing less

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

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Nanoparticles Loaded With Bee Venom Kill HIV

 

Nanoparticles carrying a toxin found in bee venom can destroy human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while leaving surrounding cells unharmed, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown. The finding is an important step toward developing a vaginal gel that may prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

“Our hope is that in places where HIV is running rampant, people could use this gel as a preventive measure to stop the initial infection,” says Joshua L. Hood, MD, PhD, a research instructor in medicine.

The study appears in the current issue of Antiviral Therapy.

Bee venom contains a potent toxin called melittin that can poke holes in the protective envelope that surrounds HIV, and other viruses. Large amounts of free melittin can cause a lot of damage. Indeed, in addition to anti-viral therapy, the paper’s senior author, Samuel A. Wickline, MD, the J. Russell Hornsby Professor of Biomedical Sciences, has shown melittin-loaded nanoparticles to be effective in killing tumor cells.

The new study shows that melittin loaded onto these nanoparticles does not harm normal cells. That’s because Hood added protective bumpers to the nanoparticle surface. When the nanoparticles come into contact with normal cells, which are much larger in size, the particles simply bounce off. HIV, on the other hand, is even smaller than the nanoparticle, so HIV fits between the bumpers and makes contact with the surface of the nanoparticle, where the bee toxin awaits.

“Melittin on the nanoparticles fuses with the viral envelope,” Hood says. “The melittin forms little pore-like attack complexes and ruptures the envelope, stripping it off the virus.”

According to Hood, an advantage of this approach is that the nanoparticle attacks an essential part of the virus’ structure. In contrast, most anti-HIV drugs inhibit the virus’s ability to replicate. But this anti-replication strategy does nothing to stop initial infection, and some strains of the virus have found ways around these drugs and reproduce anyway.

“We are attacking an inherent physical property of HIV,” Hood says. “Theoretically, there isn’t any way for the virus to adapt to that. The virus has to have a protective coat, a double-layered membrane that covers the virus.”

Beyond prevention in the form of a vaginal gel, Hood also sees potential for using nanoparticles with melittin as therapy for existing HIV infections, especially those that are drug-resistant. The nanoparticles could be injected intravenously and, in theory, would be able to clear HIV from the blood stream.

“The basic particle that we are using in these experiments was developed many years ago as an artificial blood product,” Hood says. “It didn’t work very well for delivering oxygen, but it circulates safely in the body and gives us a nice platform that we can adapt to fight different kinds of infections.”

Since melittin attacks double-layered membranes indiscriminately, this concept is not limited to HIV. Many viruses, including hepatitis B and C, rely on the same kind of protective envelope and would be vulnerable to melittin-loaded nanoparticles.

While this particular paper does not address contraception, Hood says the gel easily could be adapted to target sperm as well as HIV. But in some cases people may only want the HIV protection.

“We also are looking at this for couples where only one of the partners has HIV, and they want to have a baby,” Hood says. “These particles by themselves are actually very safe for sperm, for the same reason they are safe for vaginal cells.”

While this work was done in cells in a laboratory environment, Hood and his colleagues say the nanoparticles are easy to manufacture in large enough quantities to supply them for future clinical trials.

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Waking Up To Urinate Could Decrease A Person's Productivity Level

Seniors who have difficulty sleeping may find that their problems worsen if they have to get up in the middle of the night to urinate, according to new research presented Sunday at the 28th annual European Association of Urology (EAU) congress.

The problem is known as nocturia, and according to the researchers, it has been linked not only to sleep disruptions but to “significant reductions” in both work productivity and leisure activity as well. They polled 261 women and 385 men who suffer from the condition over a 14-day period, asking them about the impact it has on their ability to perform their work-related and other daily tasks.

As it turns out, nocturia decreased on-the-job productivity by 24 percent and the ability to perform recreational activity by 34 percent, the UK newspaper The Independent reported on Sunday. A paper detailing the results of the research was also published online in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine on March 15.

The researchers also reported that more than half (54 percent) of all nighttime sleep disruptions were associated with the need to urinate, and that people who woke up remained awake an average of 11.5 percent longer on nights when they had to make a trip to the restroom, according to HealthDay News.

The study participants also reported that the number of trips they had to make caused their overall quality of sleep to decrease, though no link was discovered between nighttime bathroom trips and total sleep duration.

“Nocturia is a common problem affecting around a third of adults, but its burden is underestimated and it is often dismissed as being less serious than other chronic conditions in terms of impact on quality of life and societal costs,” Philip Van Kerrebroeck, professor of urology at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, told The Telegraph. “These data show that nocturia negatively affects both sleep and daytime performance and its impact on work productivity is in line with many other chronic conditions. Patients with nocturia should seek specific treatment for this debilitating condition.”

“The results raise the clinical question of treating nocturia to help individuals with insomnia,” Jamie Zeitzer, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, added in comments printed by HealthDay News. “That is, could much of the insomnia or poor sleep that occurs in older individuals be alleviated by treatment of nocturia? Of course, the opposite is quite possible – that proper treatment of insomnia might reduce the occurrence of nocturia.”

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Doctors Save Patient From Deadly Superbug By Transplanting Faeces Through His NOSE

Jesse Williams was also treated for the superbug using a faecal transplant after suffering from it for nine months Doctors have used a radical way of curing the superbug Clostridium difficile in an 88-year-old man.

Dr Robert Porter, at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, treated the man by pumping his daughter's faeces through his nose and down into his small bowel.

He told MailOnline that this was the first time that the treatment - which is becoming increasingly popular - has been used at the hospital.

The treatment involves mixing stools from a donor - ideally a family member - with saline solution and transferring it by tube through the patient's nose.

It is most effective in patients who have recurrent C. difficile and who have been treated with antibiotics so many times that they are no longer effective.

It works because the solution contains 'good' bacteria which fight the infection. If successful, the patient starts to feel better almost immediately.

The treatment was first developed in 1958 but was rarely used.

However, in 2011, a Dutch study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that 94 per cent of people with recurrent C. difficile could be cured using faecal transplants.

This can be compared to a cure rate of just 31 per cent of people with recurrent infection who are treated with antibiotics.

Dr Porter, a microbiologist and infection specialist, said: ‘These recent findings are so impressive and allowed us to develop the faecal transplant as something to take forward.

‘Using someone else's poo has an “ick” factor about it - it's not the think you would think of as the first think you would like to have.

‘People don't like the idea so it takes a bit of understanding as an option.

‘Even in the medical world, the topic is a bit of an eyebrow raiser and people are surprised to hear it's so effective.

‘But in recent years we've seen a rise in more aggressive forms of C. difficile and higher mortality rates, with standard treatments becoming less effective.’

He added: ‘One of the reasons this has not been particularly popular up until now is that we haven't had good studies to back it up.

‘Then we had an open trial in The Netherlands, which was stopped early because it was so effective compared to normal therapies.

‘An ethics committee ruled that it was doing so well it would be unfair to continue other methods.

‘It has given us the basis to say we have safe, scientific evidence that this is a very good treatment and very safe as well.’

C. difficile is a bacterial infection that most commonly affects elderly hospital patients.

It causes severe diarrhoea, fever and painful cramps. It can also result in life-threatening complications such as severe swelling of the bowel.

Patients with recurrent C. difficile only have a 75 per cent chance of survival and are often ill for many months.

Dr Porter said: ‘There's a distinct lack of downsides with faecal transplants.

‘It takes 20 minutes to enter the patient and they feel no sensation as it is transferred.

‘We tend to use family members as it's more palatable for people to think about their daughter's, husband or sister's poo inside them than Joe Bloggs in the street.’

This treatment was also used in October 2012 to save a 20-month-old boy with C. difficile.

Jesse Williams was struck down the the infection and no conventional treatments managed to cure him.

After nine months, doctors in his home town of Baltimore, U.S., decided to try treating him with a faecal transplant.

His mother, Tatum Williams, said he started to improve almost immediately.

She said: 'Within two days, I saw changes. It was unbelievable. Now, he’s a typical two-year-old.'

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Marijuana Cuts Lung Cancer Tumor Growth In Half, Harvard Study Shows

The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies.

They say this is the first set of experiments to show that the compound, Delta-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), inhibits EGF-induced growth and migration in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expressing non-small cell lung cancer cell lines. Lung cancers that over-express EGFR are usually highly aggressive and resistant to chemotherapy.

THC that targets cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 is similar in function to endocannabinoids, which are cannabinoids that are naturally produced in the body and activate these receptors. The researchers suggest that THC or other designer agents that activate these receptors might be used in a targeted fashion to treat lung cancer.

"The beauty of this study is that we are showing that a substance of abuse, if used prudently, may offer a new road to therapy against lung cancer," said Anju Preet, Ph.D., a researcher in the Division of Experimental Medicine.

Acting through cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2, endocannabinoids (as well as THC) are thought to play a role in variety of biological functions, including pain and anxiety control, and inflammation. Although a medical derivative of THC, known as Marinol, has been approved for use as an appetite stimulant for cancer patients, and a small number of U.S. states allow use of medical marijuana to treat the same side effect, few studies have shown that THC might have anti-tumor activity, Preet says. The only clinical trial testing THC as a treatment against cancer growth was a recently completed British pilot study in human glioblastoma.

In the present study, the researchers first demonstrated that two different lung cancer cell lines as well as patient lung tumor samples express CB1 and CB2, and that non-toxic doses of THC inhibited growth and spread in the cell lines. "When the cells are pretreated with THC, they have less EGFR stimulated invasion as measured by various in-vitro assays," Preet said.

Then, for three weeks, researchers injected standard doses of THC into mice that had been implanted with human lung cancer cells, and found that tumors were reduced in size and weight by about 50 percent in treated animals compared to a control group. There was also about a 60 percent reduction in cancer lesions on the lungs in these mice as well as a significant reduction in protein markers associated with cancer progression, Preet says.

Although the researchers do not know why THC inhibits tumor growth, they say the substance could be activating molecules that arrest the cell cycle. They speculate that THC may also interfere with angiogenesis and vascularization, which promotes cancer growth.

Preet says much work is needed to clarify the pathway by which THC functions, and cautions that some animal studies have shown that THC can stimulate some cancers. "THC offers some promise, but we have a long way to go before we know what its potential is," she said.

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The Data is Very Strong: Marijuana Plant Extract Stops Cancers From Spreading

The data is very strong and there's no toxicity associated with A compound found in cannabis could halt the spread of many forms of aggressive cancer, scientists say.

The first research to show marijuana's anti-tumor properties was presented at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Los Angeles in 2007 demonstrating that THC may activate biological pathways that halt cancer cell division or block development of blood vessels that feed tumors. It then became a target of synthetic research into THC for drugs such as ImClone System Inc.'s Erbitux and Amgen Inc.'s Vectibix.

Researchers have now found that the compound, called cannabidiol, had the ability to 'switch off' the gene responsible for metastasis in an aggressive form of breast cancer. Importantly, this substance does not produce the psychoactive properties of the cannabis plant.

The team from the California Pacific Medical Center, in San Francisco, first spotted its potential five years ago, after it stopped the proliferation of human breast cancer cells in the lab.

Last year they published a study that found a similar effect in mice. Now they say they are on the verge of publishing further animal study results that expand these results further.

Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention. CBD (Cannabidiol), one of the main constituents of the cannabis plant has been proven medically to relieve many diseases including the inhibition of cancer cell growth. Recent studies have shown it to be an effective atypical anti-psychotic in treating schizophrenia. CBD also interferes with the amount of THC your brain processes, balancing the psychotropic effect of marijuana. That is precisely why the power of raw cannabis is turning heads.

 Speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle, study co-leader Dr Sean McAllister, said: 'The preclinical trial data is very strong, and there's no toxicity. There's really a lot or research to move ahead with and to get people excited.'

While he, along with colleague Dr Pierre Desprez acknowledge that they are some way off from turning their finding into a pill, they are already developing human trial models. They hope to eventually test the drug in combination with current chemotherapies.
Professor Desprez had previously found that a protein called ID-1 seemed to play a role in causing breast cancer to spread. Meanwhile Dr McAllister had discovered the cannabidiol had anti-cancer potential.


The pair teamed up to see if they could treat a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer called 'triple negative.' This form, which affects 15 per cent of patients, doesn't have three hormone receptors that the most successful therapies target. Cells from this cancer have high levels of ID-1.

When they exposed cells from this cancer to cannabidiol they were shocked to find the cells not only stopped acting 'crazy' but also returned to a healthy normal state.

They discovered that the compound had turned off the overexpression of ID-1, stopping them from travelling to distant tissues.

Other potentially treatable cancers are forms of leukaemia, lung, ovarian and brain cancers, which also have high levels of ID-1.

Dr Desprez has a particular reason for wanting to create a treatment as quickly as possible - his sister was recently diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer at the age of 41.

Her condition is currently receptive to hormone therapies but Professor Desprez fears it could recur in a form that lacks hormone receptors.

He said: 'I want to be ready for that. There is a deadline.'

Cannabis is a Class B drug that is illegal to have, give away or sell. “If cannabis were discovered in an Amazon rainforests today, people would be clambering to make as much use as they could out of the potential benefits of the plant,” said Donald L. Abrams, MD, Chief of Hematology and Oncology at San Francisco General Hospital and Professor of Medicine at the University California. Dr. Abrams is widely known for his research on medical cannabis applications. "Unfortunately, it carries with it a long and not so long history of being a persecuted plant," he added.

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Sex Superbug Could Be 'Worse Than AIDS'

An antibiotic-resistant strain of gonorrhea—now considered a superbug—has some analysts saying that the bacteria's effects could match those of AIDS.

"This might be a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect more people quickly," said Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine.

Even though nearly 30 million people have died from AIDS related causes worldwide, Christianson believes the effect of the gonorrhea bacteria is more direct.

"Getting gonorrhea from this strain might put someone into septic shock and death in a matter of days," Christianson said. "This is very dangerous."

"It's an emergency situation," said William Smith, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors. "As time moves on, it's getting more hazardous."

This gonorrhea strain, HO41, was discovered in Japan two years ago in a 31-year-old female sex worker who had been screened in 2009. The bacteria has since been found in Hawaii, California and Norway.

Because it resists current antibiotic treatment, the strain has been placed in the superbug category with other resistant bacteria, such as MRSA and CRE. These superbugs kill about half the people they attack, and nearly one in 20 hospital patients become infected with one, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though no deaths from HO41 have been reported, efforts to combat it must continue, Smith said.

"We have to keep beating the drum on this," he said. "The potential for disaster is great."

According to the CDC, about 20 million a year contract a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and result in about $16 billion in medical costs. More than 800,000 of STD cases reported are gonorrhea infections, with most occurring in people between the ages of 15 and 24.

Gonorrhea is transmitted through unprotected sexual contact. Untreated, the disease can cause a number of health complications in women, including infertility. In men, the disease can be very painful and lead to sterility. It can also trigger other life-threatening illnesses, including heart infections.

Gonorrhea can be hard to detect. It often shows no symptoms in about half of women and in about 5 percent of men. Gonorrhea infection rates were at historic lows until two years ago, according to the CDC.

"That's what's kind of scary about this," Smith said. "We are at lows in terms of infections, but this strain is a very tricky bug and we don't have anything medically to fight it right now."

Since 1998, the Food and Drug Administration has approved only four new antibiotics of any kind, according to the Infectious Disease Society of America. The last approval was in 2010. Only seven antibiotics are in an advanced stage of development—still years away from approval and use.

Recognizing the problem, Congress passed a law last year referred to as the Gain Act (Generating Antibiotics Incentives Now) to help speed antibiotic development.


But Smith said more needs to be done. In a briefing on Capitol Hill last week, he urged Congress to target nearly $54 million in immediate funding to help find an antibiotic for HO41 and to conduct an education and public awareness campaign.

"I'm hopeful we'll get the additional funds, but I can't say for sure," Smith said. "What I do know is we don't have the resources to fight this as it stands now."

Avoiding the disease completely is the best course, experts said.

"People need to practice safe sex, like always," Christianson said. "Anyone beginning a new relationship should get tested along with their partner. The way gonorrhea works, not everyone knows they have it. And with this new strain it's even more important than ever to find out. "

All superbugs must be dealt with before it's too late, he said.

"This is a disaster just waiting to happen," Christianson said. "It's time to do something about it before it explodes. "These superbugs, including the gonorrhea strain, are a health threat. We need to move now before it gets out of hand."

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Top Scientist: Fluoride Already Shown to Cause 10,000 Cancer Deaths

Water fluoridation is a highly controversial topic, with many individuals voicing massive concern over the practice. In contrast, some stick to the concept that there isn’t any association between fluoride and any real negative effects. Fluoride, however, is indeed a toxic substance, and has been tied with numerous health complications in well-established research. Fluoride can be found in many water supplies, toothpaste, and even food at alarming levels. While it may sound shocking to many, some research is even drawing a close connection between fluoride and an increased cancer risk.


One paper entitled Fluoride – A Modern Toxic Waste says the following:

Yiamouyiannis documents research showing that fluoride increases the tumor growth rate by 25% at only 1 ppm, produces melanotic tumors, transforms normal cells into cancer cells and increases the carcinogenesis of other chemicals.  For the original references to these studies, refer to Yiamouyiannis’ pamphlet, Lifesavers Guide to Fluoridation.

In 1977, it was shown that fluoridation caused about 10,000 cancer deaths in epidemiological studies by Dr. Dean Burk, former head of the Cytochemistry Section at the National Cancer Institute and Yiamouyiannis. Despite the findings occurring in 1977, they were not reluctantly released until 1989. After analyzing the study results in rats, it was found that animals who drank fluoridated water:

• Showed an increase in tumors and cancers in oral squamous cells.
• Developed a rare form of bone cancer called osteosarcoma.
• Showed an increased in thyroid follicular cell tumors.
• Developed a rare form of liver cancer known as hepatocholangiocarcinoma.
•  

  Other research resurfaced by Dr. Dean Burk, former chief of cytochemistry at the National Cancer Institute for 30 years, also shows that fluoride increases the cancer death rate. Dr Burk refers to a study conducted which compares the 10 largest U.S. cities with fluoridation and the 10 largest without. What researchers found was that following fluoridation, deaths from cancer went up immediately- in as little as a year.

To reduce fluoride levels to a the greatest degree, activists must demand that the government stop fluoridating the water supplies. Water fluoridation has not only been linked to an increased cancer risk, but a decreased IQ in children. In fact, the findings forced the government to call for lower fluoridation levels nationwide. Until water fluoridation comes to a halt, the easiest way to reduce fluoride exposure is to invest in a reverse osmosis water filtration system. Drinking distilled water for 3-6 months may also reduce the soft tissue fluoride levels, but not bone levels. Soft tissue fluoride levels cause the greatest health problems.
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How Computer Affect Our Health

by John Pope

Can you remember the last day when you haven’t used your computer? Or the last week when you didn’t touch the keyboard? I’m pretty sure you can’t, as computers entered our lives fast and we are now used to use them every day.

All this sounds ok, but I’m guessing you don’t know what health problems we are exposed to if we use computers too much. A few weeks ago I’ve came across a short list of health problems caused by a geek lifestyle, but I didn’t had time to tell you about them, till today.



So, let’s take them one by one:

1. Sleep disorders – insomnia or often awakening during the nights. Cause is frequent use on PC or laptop right after you wake up. Resolution is pretty simple, don’t lay in bad working, just do something that doesn’t stimulate your brain too much.

2. Headaches – often caused by improper environment surrounding computer use. Check your screen position, room lighting, chair, glasses.

3. Back pain – caused by improper chair sitting position and prolonged absence of back muscles exercises

4. Poor attention span – that’s very interesting. We are used to do multitasking, working with different programs at the same time and being concentrated on several points on the screen, when feedback is expected. When we are facing only one task, we get bored faster, we can’t concentrate enough on the singular task. Meetings, when you have to be focus on the discussion is a killer. There isn’t too much you can do to correct this, as your brain takes longer to learn another work pattern.

As you can see, I’ve said “we” several times, as I consider myself an intensive computer user, with more than 10 hours a day of online time. Maybe future will solve those kind of health problems, but I’m not counting on it. I’m now trying to figure out a lifestyle that gets me enough time with my beloved computers without putting my life in danger. What do you think? Do you manage to escape the terrible force of online existence?

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How Alcoholism Works: Alcohol and the Brain

Most of us have witnessed the outward signs of heavy drinking: the stumbling walk, slurred words and memory lapses. People who have been drinking have trouble with their balance, judgment and coordination. They react slowly to stimuli, which is why drinking before driving is so dangerous. All of these physical signs occur because of the way alcohol affects the brain and central nervous system.

Alcohol affects brain chemistry by altering levels of neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that transmit the signals throughout the body that control thought processes, behavior and emotion. Neurotransmitters are either excitatory, meaning that they stimulate brain electrical activity, orinhibitory, meaning that they decrease brain electrical activity. Alcohol increases the effects of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA in the brain. GABA causes the sluggish movements and slurred speech that often occur in alcoholics. At the same time, alcohol inhibits the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. Suppressing this stimulant results in a similar type of physiological slowdown. In addition to increasing the GABA and decreasing the glutamate in the brain, alcohol increases the amount of the chemical dopaminein the brain's reward center, which creates the feeling of pleasure that occurs when someone takes a drink.

Summary of alcohol's effects on the brain - Move your cursor over the colored bar in the lower left-hand corner to see which areas of the brain are affected by increasing BAC.

Alcohol affects the different regions of the brain in different ways:

• Cerebral cortex: In this region, where thought processing and consciousness are centered, alcohol depresses the behavioral inhibitory centers, making the person less inhibited; it slows down the processing of information from the eyes, ears, mouth and other senses; and it inhibits the thought processes, making it difficult to think clearly

• Cerebellum: Alcohol affects this center of movement and balance, resulting in the staggering, off-balance swagger we associate with the so-called "falling-down drunk."

• Hypothalamus and pituitary: The hypothalamus and pituitary coordinate automatic brain functions and hormone release. Alcohol depresses nerve centers in the hypothalamus that control sexual arousal and performance. Although sexual urge may increase, sexual performance decreases.

• Medulla: This area of the brain handles such automatic functions as breathing, consciousness and body temperature. By acting on the medulla, alcohol induces sleepiness. It can also slow breathing and lower body temperature, which can be life threatening.

In the short term, alcohol can cause blackouts -- short-term memory lapses in which people forget what occurred over entire stretches of time. The long-term effects on the brain can be even more damaging.

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Could Magnets Help Prevent Heart Attacks?

If a person's blood becomes too thick it can damage blood vessels and increase the risk of heart attacks. But a Temple University physicist has discovered that he can thin the human blood by subjecting it to a magnetic field.

In our modern age of advanced medicine, heart attacks, unfortunately, are still not rare. They can happen to anyone, at any age. In fact, these days heart attacks have become the leading cause of death, especially in women.
If a person’s heart muscles are not supplied with enough oxygen-rich blood, it can increase the risk of a heart attack. And once the blood becomes too thick, it can also damage blood vessels. Aspirin aside, there are relatively few blood-thinning drugs available on the market. Sadly, they also have their side effects.

In a recent study, Professor Rongjia Tao from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA has invented a safer and repeatable technique for thinning human blood by subjecting it to a magnetic field. "This method of magneto-rheology provides an effective way to control the blood viscosity within a selected range," said Tao.

Aggregated red-cell clusters have a streamlined shape, leading to further viscosity reduction.

Professor Tao discovered that the magnetic field polarizes the red blood cells, causing them to link together in short chains. But how? “The hemoglobin in red blood cells is an iron-containing protein capable of binding oxygen molecules. Therefore, red cells have a higher magnetic susceptibility than the blood’s base liquid, plasma,” explained Rongjia Tao in an email. “In a strong magnetic field, red cells are thus polarized and aggregate into short chains,” he added.

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