有趣的失眠症博客

巴里，安大略省。 - 如果联邦卫生部和世界卫生组织说，在学校的WiFi技术是安全的，那么孩子们都好了，安大略省的教育部长说。

利昂娜Dombrowsky，谁访问了该地区在周三表示，无线技术是不会去任何地方尽管一些锡姆科县的父母，它会导致健康的负面影响，症状，家长声称拥有在暑假失踪引起关注。

有全省的教育部承担其自己的独立的测试在这个问题上没有计划，Dombrowsky说，尽管技术是“共同”在大多数安大略省的学校。

“如果加拿大卫生部说，这是安全的，那么我相信，这就是”Dombrowsky说，在接受采访时达威机构。

一些科学家和研究人员说，长期暴露于电磁辐射和微波的负面效应包括头痛，睡眠紊乱和疲劳。

Dombrowsky收到有关家长，这是当时的联邦卫生部长利昂娜Aglukkaq，谁有望直接回答这个问题通过的信。

“这是她的专业领域，”Dombrowsky说。

“作为教育部长，我对这些政府机构有责任考虑这些事情依赖，”她补充说。 “这将是联邦卫生部，也是世界卫生组织（WHO）的。”

父主导锡姆科县学校安全委员会（SCSSC）希望董事会返回到硬连接旧的Internet连接。

然而，学校董事会也表示，如果加拿大卫生部说，无线暴露是儿童的安全，它认为没有理由改变。

该SCSSC说，有一种“病集群”的14名学生在山景城小学在Collingwood，安大略省。，包括4名儿童谁开发的核心条件。 其他症状包括慢性头痛，头晕，失眠症状和皮疹。

巴里在这四个健康问题已报告SCSSC小学包括特里福克斯，霍利梅多斯，芬代老虎伍兹和梅波尔维尤高地。

苏珊克拉克，谁研究射频辐射生物效应，以桑伯里上周对WiFi技术的影响。 以往的研究顾问，美国哈佛大学公共卫生学院表示，无线部署微波辐射作为微波炉相同的频率。

“孩子的大脑吸收这种辐射最大，”她说。 “孩子们还吸收微波辐射比成年人更容易，因为他们有较薄头骨。”

英国物理学家巴里特罗尔，谁劝对苏联的微波武器的使用在冷战期间，英国特工人员也表示WiFi将影响青年学生。

“如果你把一所学校的微波无线系统，你肯定会看到小孩生病，”特罗尔说。

科幻小说是现在大家都为科学
你已经看到了老电影。 一个吓坏了精心有线受害者一起在绑在一个疯狂科学家的实验室了头，电极。 他对偷用一个开关翻转大脑。 可见电脉冲，通过空气ZAP公司的大声嗡嗡确认，是的，这是工作！ 然后可怜的俘虏的大脑是空的。 这是许多人想象当“神经回馈”的过程描述。

然而，尽管放在病人的头部一些电极，实际是相当温和的神经回馈。 它往往是一个非常有效的方法要么减少或消除症状的大脑相关的广泛问题通通。

，而是在一个肮脏的一些实验室外套发狂扳道岔怒目而视的科学家，真正的控制权完全在病人自己的想法。

神经反馈是一种更为复杂的生物反馈表妹，专门改变病人的脑电波，以减轻脑产生症状。 这项技术进行了研究，并密切了30多年的研究。 新的研究显示对以前无法治疗的条件的承诺。

即使是主流的脑研究已经通过神经反馈疗法的批评。 马克瓦尔德曼是从卡马里奥作家谁在冥想和祈祷的大脑相关的福利专业。 瓦尔德曼是许多传统医疗实践和研究声乐持怀疑态度，但认为，在神经反馈的巨大潜力。

“神经科学在这样一个婴儿，我想说，我们主要是做神经投机状态，”沃尔德曼说。 “但是我非常深刻的印象对神经反馈研究。”

简单地说，神经反馈是由被挂接到一个人对自己身体机能监测作为生物反馈同样的方式，只有它着重于病人的脑电波。 生物反馈，病人手表心跳，血压，通常是从他或她的意识等功能，并试图对其进行管理。

神经反馈类似，但经常与定量脑电图（脑电图），这是用来创建一个脑波图开始。 使用此地图，治疗师诊断是怎么回事，在大脑，精确定位的准确是不规则的脑电波，并设计教学的病人安排他或她自己的脑电波的治疗方案。 一旦脑波发生改变，患者感觉症状减轻，并在脑功能的提升。 有时候，其结果可能是永久性的。

对神经反馈的好处是很多的。 是无创治疗，它不会影响任何药物治疗的方式，影响到整个身体，并没有报告有副作用身体其他部位。

但是，神经反馈有它的问题了。 对于许多情况下，治疗是一个长期和持续comittment，要求由病人的动力和参与。 这通常需要两个或三个访治疗师常常几个月每周。 该设备价格昂贵，通常是在医生的办公室只用，但也有一些治疗师开发的移动治疗。

而对许多人最大的障碍是神经反馈治疗费用。 如果丸是可用的条件是该设计的，保险机构希望的药物便宜和容易的道路。 谁可能是患者的时间限制或谁是紧急救济寻找普遍认为服用避孕药是要比去治疗两至三次，每周容易。

另外，在药物治疗通常是由保险，神经反馈仍标记为实验的最保险的公司。 但有些保险计划将支付治疗的一部分，同时在规划和病人的初级保健医师的合作而定。

临床心理学家巴巴拉布鲁姆一直使用的图拉在她的实践神经反馈约12年，并表示公司有时保险帮助支付治疗。 “如果病人的医生是一个主张，它可以帮助获得一些保险覆盖面，”她说。 “我的病人大约有一半得到一些实物偿还。”

避孕药妄想
据布鲁姆，制药公司可以同时拥有医生和病人的巨大影响力。 许多医生仍然接受来自制药公司“赠品”，从笔来迎合办公室午餐，全面的“教育”中介人。 偶尔，药品制造商可以报销，有时并没有意识到的医生是由病人支付的药品制造商提供一个病人在药物试验参与，医师。

“这不是一件容易的道路，”布卢姆说。 “我得到了我的实践中谁一直在服药前，有时几十年来，特别是抑郁症，在那里他们可以从一个到另一个民族药的人很多。 很多医生不认为开箱。“

然而，最近的研究指出了日益严重的问题，通过药物治疗抑郁症的治疗只。 首先，研究人员发现，三分之二的家庭医生和一季度的精神科医生决定不使用存在的主要抑郁症的既定协议。 这可能导致患者有轻度至中度抑郁症抗抑郁药的处方有昂贵，有时几十年。

第二个问题，现在暴露出来的是，这些相同的抗忧郁药物，而被颇重度忧郁症是有效的减轻，中度抑郁症有效。 这可以解释为什么有些患者尝试在一个搜索，实际上有助于许多不同的抗抑郁药。

另一个问题是安慰剂效应，研究结果产生偏差。 瓦尔德曼认为它已被故意科学研究结论多年来最小。 “对那些已经通过了FDA的批准，也不会通过，因为今天的安慰剂效应的药物很多，”他说。 “安慰剂效应在本质上是你内心的信念和对自己，医生和治疗的信心。 如果你相信它工作，它的工作。 即使是糖丸，即使你知道你被给予安慰剂。“

当改变你的心真的有效
何时是适当和有效的神经反馈治疗？ 什么样的条件没有帮助改善或治愈？ 又有哪些患者最适合这种类型的治疗？

一个病人谁决定探索神经反馈需要知道会发生什么事情的实际过程和成功的合理期望条款。

加布里埃尔（化名）是一名21岁的大学生谁计划成为一名教师。 但她的战斗与偏头痛，而下一个时，服务员将达到焦虑，通过一天越来越难获得。 加布里埃尔说，药物治疗是有益的，但它只是一个临时解决方案。 她想阻止头痛和移动完全与她的生活。

“神经反馈是一个很大的承诺，但结果却是如此成功，以至于它一直是我很容易的决定，”加布里埃尔说。 “我是一名学生，我的工作，我仍然可以接收两种治疗一个星期只历时约一个半小时。 在一个星期的治疗，我的头痛都不见了，我没有任何至今。“

加布里埃尔说，她感觉头痛已通过日常的生活不堪重负。 “我对未来的态度改变了，”她说。 “我很兴奋，我将永远不会再次遭受头痛。 为什么暂时缓解这个问题时，你可以解决它？“

治疗师都不愿意对任何保证不过几十年的研究表明，神经反馈可以减轻症状，改善了患者的生活质量状况的治疗。

除了头痛，如抑郁，焦虑和强迫症（强迫症），情绪障碍，神经反馈可用于解决地址（注意缺陷障碍）和ADHD（注意缺陷多动障碍），条件，往往在儿童时期存在。 谁是孩子无法集中或过动谁是通常用药物治疗。 这些药物已经非常有效，但对许多儿童与所有的临时解决方案，他们穿脱和条件依然存在。 很多父母对这些药物的副作用谨慎，而在过去，家庭医生有时已被太快规定的没有全部精神科工作和诊断药品被告。

布鲁姆说，有科学证据表明，神经反馈可以提高地址/多动症的症状。 “我们现在有这表明，与添加人员在其作为一种大脑皮质下神经回馈训练的结果变化，由前，后测功能性核磁共振成像的初步研究，”她说。

布卢默神经回馈的方式解释工作。 “看来，绕过一个人的基因成分接线和再培训的脑袋，”她说。 “重复的训练，大脑持有修正。”

其他难以治疗的，如纤维肌痛，慢性疲劳综合征，后小儿麻痹症候群的条件作出了回应神经反馈。 布鲁姆说，这些症状都带有一个无法安睡。 脑与这些病症的患者已表示映射的一个多余的α脑波的存在，甚至在睡觉。

“有一个不断空转脑波的α节律，”布卢姆说。 “当你无法进入深睡眠，免疫系统不愈合。 如果你不睡觉，你不愈合。 我不会说是明确的痛苦与纤维肌痛走了，但神经反馈提高了生活质量。“

另一个经常被忽略的条件是创伤性脑损伤。 Blume calls mild traumatic brain injury “a silent epidemic” because the damage is not visible with traditional tests such as CT (computed tomography) scans or MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging). Two groups of patients that disproportionately suffer from this type of brain injury are military veterans returning from the Middle East and professional football players. But it can happen to anyone.

Linda (not her real name) is the mother of a teenage daughter who suffered a head injury when she was a baby. Linda said her daughter had fallen off a table when she was three months old, striking her head. The pediatrician waved her off, saying that since there was no apparent injury, she would be just fine. But Linda's daughter struggled with schoolwork throughout her childhood.

Those who might have spotted the problem continued to point Linda in the wrong direction. The second-grade teacher told her that her daughter had ADD. Linda said that for six years, she took her daughter to doctors and experts, searching for answers. She said the family physician only offered medications that Linda shunned to avoid the side effects. A visit to a neurologist was also discouraging.

“The neurologist did not believe she suffered structural damage,” Linda said. “He said she just didn't like school because he did a computer test for attention and my daughter passed.”

Linda felt powerless to help her daughter. “Every year, she fell further behind in school and suffered low self-esteem, frustration and severe fatigue,” she said. “I felt there was no help, and it was extremely frustrating.” Linda suspected that her daughter was not getting proper sleep. A dentist ruled out sleep apnea and said her breathing appeared to be normal.

Only when Linda had her daughter brain-mapped did the traumatic brain injury show up. “Her brainwaves were closer to sleep most of the time,” she said. “She also had brainwaves that would cause anxiety and insomnia symptoms at night and stop her from receiving restful sleep.” At age 14, Linda's daughter finally had a diagnosis and treatment and within 10 sessions was noticeably better.

A possible breakthrough
Neurofeedback is also used to treat addictions, strokes, epilepsy, incontinence, weight control, balance problems and dementia. But the biggest news right now is the newly documented success with autism.

汤姆博士索伦森西湖村是一个临床心理学家谁已经使用10年传统的辅助治疗神经反馈治疗交谈。 他说，他并没有严格限制神经反馈治疗，以办公室访问。

“我使用了带回家的设备很多，所以患者可以接受治疗，必要时七天一周。”索伦森说，他还对大脑的详细测绘技术依赖。

关于自闭症最近的一篇文章已经获得了他的注意。 “最令人兴奋的研究思路，今年出现一个是关于能够扫描自闭症儿童的大脑的文章，”索伦森说。 “这是因为神经反馈被应用。 然后研究人员绘制了从顶叶和颞叶神经生长着的右额叶皮层。 这些数据表明，在认知和社交技能显着改善。 这是非常令人兴奋，因为一旦连接后，治疗停止，连接继续增长自己。“

心灵游戏
对于神经回馈技术的使用潜力的一样一个人的想像力是敞开的。 能够操纵你的心，其实是telekenesis未成年形式，对象听起来很有意思。 美泰工业和叔叔米尔顿他们每人都同意，在市场上一鸣惊人的游戏，去年冬天。 它们都使用相同的格式：玩家戴上耳机，可以监控脑电波。 通过集中或侧重，玩家控制一个风扇，移动过程中的障碍，通过小球。 由美泰Mindlflex运行80美元和叔叔米尔顿队的教练费130元。 世嘉玩具和东芝公司最近联手开发具有灵力主题的电脑游戏。

但电波的使用不会停止。 本田和丰田都研究可能的方式同时使用在汽车和轮椅的技术。 以及对国防部研究机构已发出3450万美元到巴尔的摩约翰霍普金斯大学的发展作出响应假肢的脑海四肢瘫痪患者的对照。

改变你的大脑没有神经反馈
瓦尔德曼写了书籍和讲授如何在大脑和神经回馈，以改善其功能的改变而广泛。 他已经研究了大脑，可通过断层（单光子发射计算机断层扫描）扫描和核磁共振看到了冥想和祈祷的影响扩大。 看起来都深入到大脑的领域比显示的脑电波。

“As for effects on the brain, meditation is similar to praying for up to 12 minutes a day by focusing intently on some positive concept or any object that gives you a sense of well-being,” Waldman said. “After doing this for eight weeks, you will begin to see structural and functional changes in the brain. For advanced meditators, you will find changes in the functional areas of the brain as high as 25 percent, and structural changes by as much as 10 percent. That's huge.”

Waldman said this type of meditation has nothing to do with religion. “It doesn't seem to matter what religion or spirituality it comes from,” he said. “You can strip it of its sectarian aspect and teach it on a secular level, plug in a totally different theology, and it is just as effective.”

Waldman mentions one more way to improve your brain. “There is a 30-year longitudinal study from the Mayo Clinic and a 40-year longitudinal study from Duke University showing that having an optimistic framework and belief literally adds two years to your life,” he said. “All the research on hope, faith and optimism shows that it is probably the best thing you can do for your brain.”

joanbien@sbclgobal.net

The hot, humid and long days of summer move many family
gatherings and social events to the more pleasant evening hours.
The heat index and late bed times, however, can cause problems for
older people.

The weather can trigger shortness of breath, and many seniors
are tired by 7 pm The good news? Both these symptoms are
treatable and should not be written off as signs of aging, doctors
say.

Wanting to go to bed early is called “advanced sleep phase
syndrome,” which occurs when a person's internal clock, or
circadian rhythm, is disturbed. It causes people to go to bed
anywhere from 6 to 9 pm, and wake up early, sometimes hours
before dawn.

“They wake up at 5 am feeling like they have insomnia symptoms,” said
Dr. Raman Malhotra, co-director of the St. Louis University SLUCare
Sleep Disorders Center. “Their internal clocks are not set to what
society's is.”

Malhotra said only about 1 percent of adults have the syndrome,
but the prevalence grows as people age, leading many to think it is
normal for older people to go to bed that early.

“People think they're retired and don't have a lot of activities
planned. But older adults complain they cannot stay awake for any
activities with grandkids or kids or friends,” he said.

Treatment is easy, because exposure to light can change sleep
patterns, Malhotra explained. When seniors start to feel sleepy,
they should open the blinds and spend time outside. When they wake
up at 5 am, they should keep the curtains drawn and not let light
in. Light treatment is especially opportune this time of year when
days are long, he said. Repeated treatment should re-adjust their
internal clock.

Treating the syndrome with sleeping pills won't do the trick,
Malhotra added, because they would have to be taken when waking up
and could cause drowsiness during the day.

Respiratory problems are also misunderstood among the elderly,
according to Dr. Raymond Slavin, professor of internal medicine at
SLU and SLUCare allergist. Asthma — which can be triggered by heat
and humidity — is often misdiagnosed as allergies or mistaken for
other conditions such as bronchitis.

“Oftentimes, it's undiagnosed because both the patient and
physician feel that getting short of breath is just part of the
aging process,” he said. “You can't do the things at 74 that you
did at 45.”

Plus, asthma is perceived as a young person's disease, Slavin
说。 Many people don't know that 40 percent of first-time asthma
cases occur in those age 40 or older.

Asthma's major symptoms are cough and shortness of breath, often
in the middle of the night. It's exacerbated by physical exertion;
or exposure to pollen, mold or pet dander, Slavin said.

“The importance of making the diagnosis is that asthma is
treatable with appropriate medications,” he said.

Asthma that goes undiagnosed is dangerous. Slavin said 60
percent of asthma deaths occur in patients older than 65, and older
adults are the only age group in which the disease is getting
worse.

Even in the dog days of summer, grandma and grandpa can breathe
easier. They can even sleep in on weekends. “Patients can lead a
very normal life,” Slavin said.

Editorial: NASA should pay more attention to astronauts' health

FROM blackout-inducing g forces to withered muscles and bones, there aren't many tougher physical challenges than going into space.

This has been highlighted by the release of medical records from astronauts who worked on board the Russian space station Mir , which detail the gruelling effects space travel has on human health before, during and after a mission. Along with research on muscle wastage in astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS), the records demonstrate the need for better countermeasures against the hazards of living in space before any interplanetary missions are attempted.

The records were collected by Gilles Clément of the International Space University in Toulouse, France, and colleagues, who oversaw the selection, flights and rehabilitation of six European astronauts who worked on board Mir between 1988 and 1999. They have only just been released because the astronauts requested a 10-year delay.

Prior to take-off, the researchers used stringent tests to rule out anyone susceptible to health problems (see “So you want to be an astronaut?”) . Even so, three of the astronauts experienced motion sickness. Overall, however, the screening was successful: during seven missions lasting between 14 and 189 days, there were only a handful of minor health problems, such as headache, insomnia symptoms and congestion, all treatable with drugs kept on board.

真正的问题时，宇航员开始返回家园。 他们的身体已经适应失重环境，使返回地球是一个震动系统。 For example, in space, the heart adapts to low gravity, no longer having to work as hard to pump blood to the upper body. Returning to Earth put extra strain on the astronauts' hearts: all had low haemoglobin levels and blood pressure, which made it difficult for them to stand up without fainting.

Even more worrying were the effects of microgravity on bone and muscle, which are known to break down when not bearing the body's weight. In an effort to combat this, the astronauts exercised on treadmills and bikes, but they still lost up to 2 per cent of their bone mass each month ( Advances in Space Research , DOI: 10.1016/j.asr.2010.05.023 ).

Such problems would pose a serious hazard to astronauts travelling to other planets. It would take around nine months to travel to Mars, for example, and once in the Martian gravity astronauts would be too weak to work, and susceptible to blackouts and broken bones.

Several studies of astronauts who worked on the ISS have confirmed the problem of muscle wastage. Bob Fitts of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and colleagues took calf-muscle biopsies from nine astronauts and cosmonauts before and after six-month-long missions on the ISS. On their return, the crew were visibly frail. “They all had trouble standing for any period of time,” says Fitts.

Although the ISS astronauts had done resistance training and aerobic exercise while in orbit, they still experienced muscle wastage. On average, their calf muscles generated 30 per cent less power. There was also a switch from slow-twitch muscle fibres, which normally bear the constant weight of the skeleton, to fast-twitch fibres, responsible for shorter bursts of movement. Fitts measured a 35 per cent decrease in the force of the slow fibres and a 40 per cent drop in power – equivalent to having the muscles of an 80-year-old ( Journal of Physiology , DOI: 10.1113/jphysiol.2010.188508 ).

So how can humans survive a trip to another planet? Suggestions range from using a giant centrifuge to simulate gravity to developing a pill that would block bone and muscle loss. However, keeping space travellers in shape may just be a matter of improving their exercise regimes.

Short bursts of high-intensity resistance training, at around 70 per cent of the muscles' maximum capacity for 15 minutes, twice a day, should help, says Fitts. A range of studies in animals and volunteers confined to bed rest suggest this will protect muscles better than long periods of low-intensity aerobic exercise. It may also guard against bone loss. Dan Bikle of the University of California, San Francisco, who has studied bone loss in rats whose hindquarters are suspended off the ground, recommends intense weight-bearing exercise for 1 second in 10, for a few minutes each day.

The problem is that in space, weights are, of course, weightless. The astronauts on the ISS pulled against bungee cords but complained it was “like lifting barbells with no weights attached”. NASA is now testing a device that uses vacuum cylinders to provide greater resistance .

For the biggest benefits, astronauts must start their exercise regime as soon as they get into space. In work that is yet to be published, Ken Baldwin of the University of California, Irvine, found that once rats' muscles stop bearing body weight, the genes that code for the proteins myosin and actin – key components of muscle – shut down within 12 hours. Once this degeneration starts, it is hard to reverse. This is bad news for astronauts, who tend to be busy with mission tasks when they first arrive, or feel too sick to train. “They take too long to get into their training mode,” says Baldwin.

Finally, space travellers must eat all the food assigned to them. Astronauts tend to lose their appetites, which contributes to their loss of fitness: if you don't eat enough calories you can't build muscle. High-protein meals immediately after training should keep their muscles ticking over until they feel the pull of an alien planet.

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Solo takes a double dose of Xanax (alprazolam) for his nerves during the 4 July festivities in the United States. That is in addition to the antidepressant, fluoxetine or amitriptyline, that the 11-year-old border collie takes year-round. Fireworks just set him off, as do thunderclaps, gunshots — practically any explosive sounds — sending him into nervous fits. Panting and drooling with eyes dilated, he desperately searches for a place to hide. If another dog is nearby, he might attack. “It's called anxiety redirection,” says Melanie Chang, Solo's owner and an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

As a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, Chang helped to collect hundreds of border-collie DNA samples, including Solo's, as part of a project studying the genes for noise phobia. She estimates that at least 50% of collies suffer from it, with 10% severely affected, sometimes injuring themselves or others in response to loud noises. Steven Hamilton , a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco, who runs the project, says that he sees parallels between the dogs' panic and human anxiety. And the same drugs work in about the same proportion of cases for man and beast. “It is easy to see similarities,” he says. A growing number of projects like Hamilton's are underway to both help suffering dogs and untangle the roots of human neuropsychiatric disease.

The hunt for genes causing psychiatric problems in humans has been “hard work with slim pickings”, says Jonathan Flint, a geneticist at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in Oxford, UK. This is partly because human genomes are complex and these disorders are hard to diagnose consistently. But owing to 200 years of selective inbreeding, dogs have a bevy of breed-specific behaviours, and their genomes make it relatively easy to track down the genes responsible. “They are the only naturally occurring models of psychiatric disorders, and perfect for genetic mapping and cloning. It's just beautiful,” says Guoping Feng, a mouse geneticist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, who is setting up collaborations with dog researchers.

Border collies were bred to herd grazing animals and to hear the calls of their masters from great distances. This, some have reasoned, might have produced hearing so sensitive that loud noises overwhelm some of the animals — inducing something akin to an anxiety disorder in humans. “In general, a lot of anxiety probably resulted from a long period of selection for dogs that can respond to human social cues,” says Chang. The provenance of other traits is less clear. Dobermann pinschers, for example, were bred to be faithful watchdogs but often have fixations and quirks akin to obsessive–compulsive behaviour. And Dalmatians, bred for speed and endurance — probably so they could run with horses — tend to be aggressive.

Whether certain canine conditions arose by chance or are an unintentional outcome of selection for a specific quality is a matter of speculation. But behaviour problems are definitely frequent. Nicholas Dodman, an animal-behaviour specialist at Tufts University in North Grafton, Massachusetts, estimates that, at minimum, 40% of the 77.5 million dogs owned in the United States have some kind of behavioural disorder. Pet pharmaceuticals, including psychotropic drugs, are a thriving market. And sadly, many dogs with such problems are euthanized as a result of their temperament.

Researchers have good reason to believe that dogs will give up their genetic secrets more easily than humans. A study this year, for example, showed that variants at six locations in the dog genome could explain 80% of the variation in dog body size ¹ . In contrast, 294,831 common human variants, considered simultaneously, explained only 45% of height differences between humans ² .

But if the genetics of height is so different in dogs and humans, one might wonder why the genetics of anxiety, compulsion or aggression would be similar. Patrick Sullivan, a geneticist at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, says that “behaviour that appears intriguingly similar in human and another species could have a completely different genetic architecture”, meaning that the same trait could map to different genes or to different parts of the brain. Proponents of canine studies suggest, however, that dog genes might hint at the pathways involved in human disease, and that might be enough.

Sleeping dogs don't lie

At least one success story shows that studies in dogs can lead to answers in humans. For decades, researchers vainly sifted through the DNA of human narcoleptics to find the genes behind the sleep disorder. But many genes were involved, environmental factors were inconsistent and no clear mechanism emerged. “People were arguing whether it was an autoimmune disease, but no one knew what to do next. It was too difficult,” says Emmanuel Mignot, a sleep researcher at the Stanford University School of Medicine in Redwood City, California, with a background in molecular pharmacology.

But Dobermann pinschers are often susceptible to narcolepsy, and they held the key. In 1989, Mignot started to use classical genetic techniques to breed narcoleptic Dobermanns and trace the inheritance pattern of the disorder. Without the benefit of modern genetic and genomic tools it took him ten years to zero in on the mutation that caused the disease, in a gene called hypocretin receptor 2 (ref. ³ ), which regulates the brain's uptake of the neurotransmitter hypocretin, also known as orexin.

Mignot did not find the same mutation in the corresponding human gene, but he did find changes in the hypocretin pathway ⁴ . “We started to measure hypocretin in cerebrospinal fluid. In narcoleptics, it was gone. It was striking,” says Mignot. Researchers are homing in on human gene mutations that lead to hypocretin depletion and to narcolepsy ⁵ , and drug companies are targeting hypocretin as a possible lead in the search for insomnia symptoms treatments.

Same dogs, new tricks

Since Mignot published his studies, the canine genome has been sequenced ⁶ . That has ultimately allowed researchers to quickly and easily compare the genomes of hundreds of dogs by looking at single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) — single-letter changes in the genome that act as markers for inherited blocks of DNA.

The genome-wide association studies (GWAS) that researchers can carry out using these markers are much simpler in dogs than in humans. Most dog breeds are extremely homogeneous; individual animals in the same breed share significantly larger DNA blocks than are shared by any two humans. That means that researchers can look at fewer SNPs and fewer individuals to find a block of DNA that associates reliably with a disease ⁷ . According to Kerstin Lindblad-Toh of the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, human GWAS might require 5,000 individuals with a trait of interest and 5,000 controls without it to show that the trait is convincingly associated with a particular genome region. Dog studies can sneak by on as few as a hundred cases and a hundred controls. And a study requiring hundreds of thousands of SNPs in humans might need only 15,000 in canines.

GWAS have proved successful in finding the genes for several dog traits that are relevant to human diseases, including the bone disorder osteogenesis imperfecta — pinned to the gene causing stubby legs in dachshunds ⁸ — and the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus, which was shown in a study published this year to be controlled by five separate genes in Nova Scotia duck-tolling retrievers ⁹ . And more are coming. Anne-Sophie Lequarré, a veterinarian at the University of Liège in Belgium, coordinates the European dog-genetics initiative LUPA . The project, started in 2008 with a €12-million (US$15.4-million) budget, brings together some 100 researchers to study single-gene and complex disorders — including cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurological disorders — by genotyping 10,000 dogs. Researchers involved will soon publish findings on two mutations in dog genes that cause disorders corresponding with human disease, says Lequarré: “The first results really show that once you find a mutation [related to a disease] in dogs, 90% of the cases involve the same gene in humans.”

Compulsive disorders may be among the first successes in unravelling human behavioural conditions through dogs. More than 60 studies on genes in mice thought to have a role in human obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) have so far failed to find significant, reproducible associations ¹⁰ . But there are lots of dogs with obsessive behaviour. A high proportion of bull terriers, for example, chase their tails relentlessly. Many large-breed dogs, such as Dobermanns, German shepherds, Great Danes and golden retrievers, chew their flanks or lick their legs until they lose hair, develop lesions and in some cases cripple themselves — a habit some compare with obsessive hand washing and other rituals of people with OCD.

In January, Lindblad-Toh and Dodman reported a link between canine compulsive disorder and a region on the dog's chromosome 7 (ref. ¹¹ ). Their study was based on an analysis of 14,700 SNPs in the genomes of more than 90 compulsively chewing Dobermanns and about 70 controls. It linked the behaviour to variations in a 400-kilobase-long stretch of DNA. The connection between the variant that confers risk and the compulsive behaviour is not airtight, but it is good: 60% of the dogs that chewed their flanks, blankets and anything else they could get their teeth on had the variant, compared with 43% of those with milder chewing compulsion and just 22% of those with no signs of compulsive behaviour.

One gene in the targeted region has already captured the imaginations of other researchers. CDH2 encodes the protein cadherin 2, which is involved in forming connections between neural cells. Deanna Benson, a neuroscientist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, says the possibility that cadherins are involved in OCD has inspired others.

Feng, who makes mouse models for OCD, is exploring the link. Last autumn, he and Lindblad-Toh struck up a collaboration to find brain circuitry related to compulsion that is shared by mice, dogs and humans. Feng is now knocking out Cdh2 function in specific brain regions of mice to test whether that produces OCD-like behaviours.

Dogged progress

Lindblad-Toh is now seeking a tighter genetic fit to human OCD. Researchers approach dog genetic studies in two steps: first narrowing in on a large DNA chunk within one breed and then looking for overlap with that region in the DNA of dogs of other breeds with the same disease. Mignot used narcoleptic dachshunds to home in on the mutation expressed by his sleepy Dobermanns. And by comparing DNA loci in flank-sucking German shepherds and tail-chasing bull terriers, Lindblad-Toh hopes to narrow the implicated region on chromosome 7 to a more manageable 10 kilobases. Similarly, Hamilton intends to broaden his noise-phobia studies from border collies to bearded collies and Australian shepherds that show similar anxieties.

But canine genetics is challenged by some of the same issues that have foiled researchers studying human illnesses. Diagnoses for neuropsychiatric disease are slippery. Schizophrenia, for example, could represent a collection of many different disorders, each with separate genetic and environmental triggers. And if the subjects grouped by symptoms have different underlying diseases, GWAS can become confused. “A few dogs can spoil a cohort,” says Lequarré. She cites an epilepsy study that was not delivering any significant correlations. The researchers later found that some of the dogs in the disease group actually had a form of late-onset epilepsy that was different from that being studied. “Phenotyping is crucial. You need to have dogs that have exactly the same disease,” she says.

LUPA is making an effort to clarify diagnosis. To identify neurological disorders consistently, the group selected veterinarians who follow standard procedures in parsing dog temperament. Standardization is the right approach, says Hamilton. For his work on collies, he leads owners through a 24-page questionnaire that elicits objective observations. “We don't ask, 'Is your dog aggressive?' We ask, 'When there is a thunderstorm, what does your dog do?'”

LUPA's neurological-disorder division is focusing on aggression in the English cocker spaniel and English springer spaniel, both given to sudden fits of rage. The researchers hope that the studies will identify mutations in genes related to human bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other mental disorders involving aggression.

Excitement over dog models has been spreading. At the University of Tokyo's Laboratory of Veterinary Ethology, Yukari Takeuchi has collected DNA samples from 200 Japanese shiba inu and 200 labrador retrievers to look for the genes underlying the former's aggression and latter's lapses in concentration. It could help solve a practical problem, she says. Distracted retrievers do not make good guide dogs, and knowing the gene variant responsible could help breeders to limit the trait in their stocks ¹² .

Whether or not the dog studies live up to their promise for understanding and relieving human suffering, they are sure to benefit pets. Breeders are already taking notice of some of the gene variants that ravage certain breeds. For better and, in terms of scientific research, for worse, through screening and more selective breeding, the next generations of border collies will probably have fewer anxiety-ridden dogs such as Solo who can be studied.

But Elaine Ostrander, dog geneticist at the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, is confident that dogs have much to offer human health beyond the pleasure of warm fur and a cold, wet nose. “For 10,000 years, dog has been man's best friend. When we transitioned to hunter-gatherer, when we switched to agrarian, they were there. Now, in the genomic era, dog is serving man again by helping us identify genes,” she says.  

David Cyranoski is Nature 's Asia–Pacific correspondent.

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Suicide prevention

Suicide is the act or an instance of taking ones own life voluntarily and intentionally. In the United States, tens of thousands of Americans take their own lives every year. These are only the successful attempts. This article is about discussing suicide. It may make us uncomfortable, but it can save lives.

Suicide is a tragic, permanent act to what is often a temporary problem. Those who actually attempt suicide have lost hope – they no longer believe they can solve their problems or ease their pain and see suicide as their only answer.

Signs and symptoms of depression

Its normal for people to experience any one or more of these symptoms. However, concern should be raised when the behavior lasts for more than two weeks. A person experiencing a chronic symptom(s) may not realize they need help. Family, friends, and co-workers should intervene and ensure assistance is obtained. Sign include:

insomnia symptoms; excessive sleeping, daily fatigue, loss of energy; headache, stomachache; changes in appetite and weight; weakness, dizziness; changes in personal appearance, attitude or personality; difficulty concentrating or making decisions; unwillingness to communicate; frequent use of alcohol or other drugs; depression, moodiness; loss of interest in activities; spending time alone; running away from home; aggression, violence, emotional outburst; constant complaints of minor aches and pains; giving away possessions; participating in risk-taking or self-destructive behavior; talk of suicide.

For the complete article see the 08-25-2010 issue.

Click here to purchase an electronic version of the 08-25-2010 paper.

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Top Alternative Treatments for Fibromyalgia

“It would be great if we could just give people a pill to fix their fibromyalgia,” says Mark J. Pellegrino, MD, of Ohio Pain and Rehabilitation Specialists and author of 13 books on fibromyalgia. “But there's no magic pill. A balanced approach is important.”

For some people with fibromyalgia, that balanced approach includes trying complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in addition to medication, exercise, and physical therapy.

There hasn't been a lot of formal research on the effectiveness of alternative treatments for fibromyalgia. But many people with fibromyalgia and some doctors believe some alternative treatments can help ease pain, fatigue, and other symptoms, especially when combined with conventional approaches.

Here are some of the most popular alternative treatments and their track records.

Dietary Supplements for Fibromyalgia

Supplements commonly used to treat fibromyalgia symptoms Include:

• 
  5-HTP (5-Hydroxytryptophan). This is a building block for the brain chemical serotonin. Low levels of serotonin are associated with depression, so it's believed that raising serotonin levels can lead to a better mood. One study found that 5-HTP supplements may also help ease anxiety, insomnia symptoms, fibromyalgia pain, and morning stiffness. In the 1980s, 5-HTP supplements were associated with a serious illness called eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome (EMS). However, it's believed that a contaminant in some products caused those EMS episodes.
• 
  SAMe (S-Adenosyl-L-Methionine). This amino acid derivative may boost levels of serotonin and dopamine, another brain chemical. Limited research suggests SAMe may improve mood and sleep.
• 
  Magnesium. Low levels of this element may be linked to fibromyalgia. However, research has not turned up solid evidence that taking magnesium supplements improves symptoms.
• 
  Melatonin. This hormone is often used in supplements to improve sleep. It may also ease fibromyalgia pain.
• 
  St. John's wort . Though this herb is sometimes used to treat certain fibromyalgia symptoms, there's no solid evidence that it works. A few studies suggest it may help with mild depression.  But it can also limit the effectiveness of some medications.

Pellegrino, who has fibromyalgia and is a physician speaker for pharmaceutical companies that make medications used to treat fibromyalgia, considers the “three pillars of treatment” to be medicine, physical therapy, and supplements. He says that some supplements, along with other treatments and lifestyle changes, have helped his patients experience less pain, more energy, and better sleep.

The idea behind using supplements is to boost levels of certain substances in your body that may reduce the symptoms of fibromyalgia. “If there's a deficiency you can measure,” says Pellegrino, “it makes sense to replace that deficiency.”

Supplements and Fibromyalgia: Proceed With Caution

If you are considering supplements, talk with your doctor. Some supplements can have harmful interactions with prescription medications. Some are unsafe if you have certain medical conditions. Pellegrino also advises being wary of products that promise fibromyalgia relief or contain supplements not commonly used.

“When it comes to supplements, we're learning more and more,” he tells WebMD. “But unlike drugs, we don't have rigorous research. It's important for a person with fibromyalgia to work with a doctor who is knowledgeable about supplements.”

New York – Who needs more sleep, women or men? And how could playing videogames help cure nightmares? A list of five more recent sleep-related findings

With the new school year about to begin, researchers are warning that getting enough sleep is among the “ most powerful predictor[s] of a child's academic performance.” But that's not the only conclusion that those who study bed behavior have drawn about sleep in 2010. Here are five more ( see our first list here ) noteworthy recent findings:

1。 妇女需要更多的男性比睡眠
It's been the subject of a thousand domestic arguments: Who needs more rest, men or women? The answer, according to British sleep expert Jim Horne ( Sleepfaring: A Journey Through The Science Of Sleep ), is that women's brains typically require an extra 20 minutes of sleep each night to “recover” from additional stresses — a reflection of the fact that women generally multitask more than men.

2。 Videogamers can control their dreams
If you can't tear your teen (or yourself) away from the Xbox, don't worry: the habit might offer protection against nightmares and mental trauma. Canadian psychologist Jayne Gackenbach says hardcore gamers are more likely to have lucid dreams (those which the dreamer feels he can “control”). Although lucid dreams often take the form of nightmares, gamers are better able to turn bad dreams into more positive experiences. Gackenbach hopes her theories can help sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder overcome their symptoms.

3。 Too little sleep may shrink your brain
insomnia symptoms may have alarming neurological affects, according to a study recently published in the journal Biological Psychiatry . Dutch researchers found that chronically sleepless subjects tended to have less gray matter in their left orbitofrontal cortex than those who sleep more soundly — a condition that's also associated with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

4。 Heavy sleepers have special brain wave patterns that block noise
Ever wonder why some people can sleep through anything, while others can be jolted awake by a falling leaf? Harvard researchers attribute sound sleeping to “brain spindles,” bursts of rapid brain activity produced by the thalamus that apparently block the neurological signals which noise triggers. The more spindles your brain produces, reports HealthDay 's Melissa Lee Phillips , the more likely you are to sleep heavily. Next step: Learning how to ramp up spindle production.

5。 Your sleep position reveals your personality
How you snuggle up (or sprawl) says more about you than you might think, reports Jessica Ashley at Yahoo Shine . British researchers say the six main sleep positions correspond to personality traits. The most common, the fetal position, indicates someone with a “tough exterior” who is, nevertheless, “still sensitive.” The rare few who sleep in the “starfish” position are “good listeners, helpful, and are uncomfortable being the center of attention.”

Sources: ABC News , Science Daily , LiveScience , Daily Mail , Yahoo Shine , BusinessWeek

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