Living Well

Florida family falls ill after eating meat laced with LSD

Authorities say a Florida woman who was 9 months pregnant and her family became ill after eating meat tainted with LSD.

Tampa police say doctors induced labor and the woman had a healthy baby boy. The entire family was eventually released from the hospital in good condition.

Tampa police say the family of four ate the tainted meat Monday. The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Office reported Friday that the meat had been contaminated with the hallucinogenic drug.

Police say the bottom round steak was purchased from a Wal-Mart in Tampa. The store has turned over all its meat to police for testing.

Local police, along with county health officials and state and federal agriculture officials, are investigating how the drug got into the meat.

Source: Komo news

Mobile phone injury – man survives high voltage shock and undergone 8 surgeries

Ravi (name changed), a 23-years-old MBA graduate, shifted to his new residence in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. It was late evening when he received a phone call on his mobile. While talking on mobile, he walked to the rooftop and stood near the parapet. It was dark outside and little did he know that there were high-tension wires passing near the roof carrying 11,000 volts of current.

Suddenly, the magnetic field surrounding the mobile got mixed with the electrical field of the high-tension wires. In a fraction of second, 11,000 volts of high voltage current entered Ravi’s body through the mobile into his ears and exited into the earth through the groin area, as his groin was touching the parapet. The mobile got blasted near his ears and resulted in severe third degree electrical burns involving right side of the face, groin and thigh area — the areas which were in contact with the mobile and the earth.

Ravi became unconscious for 45 minutes, after which he got up on his own. He was unable to remember the events. The patient was initially managed in Gwalior and was later referred to the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here on August 3, 2013.

Dr Swaroop Singh Gambhir, Associate Consultant, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, said, “This is the first time in my career that I saw such severe electrical burns due to mobile. When we first saw the patient, he had severe third degree burns on the right side of the face, groin and penile area. The burns were so extensive on the face that the facial bone was burnt. There was severe burn injury to the right eye. In addition to this, he had suffered extensive burns near the groin and thigh. The challenge to us was to salvage whatever tissues were remaining, prevent the infection and reconstruct the damaged structures to as normal as possible. This required multiple surgeries and regular follow up.”

“In last eight months Ravi has undergone ten surgeries. With these surgeries, we have managed to cover the facial bones and give him near normal skin. Along with this, his groin, thighs and penile area have also been reconstructed,” said Dr Gambhir.

The patient is presently admitted to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital for his eleventh surgery, which is for reconstruction of eyelid and implant of eyeball. Further, he will require surgeries for eyebrows, eyelashes and beard reconstruction. In about next six months, the patient should be near to normal, according to a statement issued by the hospital on Friday.

“Accidental contact with high voltage electricity may result in severe injury or death. This can occur as a person’s body provides a path for current flow, causing tissue damage and heart failure. Other injuries can include burns from the arc generated by the accidental contact. These burns can be especially dangerous if the victim’s airways are affected. Injuries may also be suffered as a result of the physical forces experienced by people who fall from a great height or are thrown a considerable distance,” added Dr Gambhir.

Source: India Medical Times

 

Xango – a Life-Saving Fruit Drink

Sometime in 2012, Mrs Ireen Sitenge Nyambe travelled to Namibia. Her trip was prompted by her niece’s illness.

According to doctors, Mrs Nyambe’s niece was in the last stages of kidney failure which had crippled her kidneys. In other words, Mrs Nyambe’s niece was dying.

“This patient was really in the last stage because both her kidneys had stopped working. She had been on dialysis from 2011 and now the dialysis could not continue because the veins had collapsed.

“Even the doctors had lost hope. She was about to be taken to South Africa but the doctors said we could not take her because even if we took such a patient it would be meaningless. So we were just waiting for anything,” Mrs Nyambe recounted.

At that time, the patient was swollen as a result of the body accumulating liquids and doctors had advised that she should not take any fluids, including water.

She was restless. She could not hear. She could not eat unaided neither could she be left unattended for fear that she could fall off the hospital bed due to the restlessness.

Mrs Nyambe said her niece barely had days to live, until a stranger came to the private ward where the patient was. The stranger was selling a fruit juice called Xango.

The fruit-drink vendor encouraged Mrs Nyambe to give the juice a try, saying the drink had helped many people recover from their death beds.

True to the words of the stranger, Mrs Nyambe’s niece, who had at the time been retired from her job on medical grounds, recovered and was able to leave the hospital she had been admitted to barely a week after starting to take the fruit juice.

“The doctor, a white man who has been in the profession for a long time said he had never seen a person coming out of such a stage. And even when we were discharged, the same bottle that the patient had started drinking from had not even been emptied yet,” Mrs Nyambe said.

The niece eventually recovered fully and was given back her job by her employers.

Puzzled by the turn of events, Mrs Nyambe who was diabetic and had arthritis, bought a box of the fruit drink and came back to Zambia with it. She was not yet convinced about taking the drink herself. But she had her neighbours in mind. She told herself that if the fruit juice worked on the neighbours, then it really was a baffling wonder.

Source: All Africa

Nine-month-old baby may have been cured of HIV

A 9-month-old baby who was born in California with the HIV virus that leads to AIDS may have been cured as a result of treatments that doctors began just four hours after her birth, medical researchers said on Wednesday.

That child is the second case, following an earlier instance in Mississippi, in which doctors may have brought HIV in a newborn into remission by administering antiretroviral drugs in the first hours of life, said Dr. Deborah Persaud, a pediatrics specialist with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, at a medical conference in Boston.

“The child … has become HIV-negative,” Persaud said, referring to the 9-month-old baby born outside Los Angeles, who is being treated at Miller Children’s Hospital. The child’s identify was not disclosed.

That child is still receiving a three-drug cocktail of anti-AIDS treatments, while the child born in Mississippi, now 3-1/2 years old, ceased receiving antiretroviral treatments two years ago.

Both children were born of mothers infected with HIV, which wipes out the body’s immune system and causes AIDS.

Speaking at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Persaud credited the early use of antiretroviral therapies with improving the children’s health but warned that more research must be done.

“Really the only way we can prove that we have accomplished remission in these kids is by taking them off treatment and that’s not without risk,” Persaud said. “This is a call to action for us to mobilize and be able to learn from these cases.”

The human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, surfaced more than 30 years ago and now infects more than 34 million people worldwide. Prevention measures, including condoms, have helped check its spread and antiretroviral drugs can now control the disease for decades, meaning it is no longer a death sentence.

Source: Reuters

 

Meet the man who has eaten pizza for every meal for 25 years

When Dan Janssen tells people about his pizza-only diet, he usually gets one of two reactions.

“They either want to kill me, or they think I’m a hero,” he told.  Janssen, 38, claims that he has eaten pizza for nearly every meal over the past 25 years. He said he rarely eats breakfast, subsisting on mainly coffee in the morning, and then downs a whole pizza for lunch and another one for dinner, day after day.

“I think I’m an anomaly,” he said. “I don’t advocate this. I’ve been surprised at how polarizing this is.”

Janssen, the founder of artisanal woodshop Imperium Woodcraft in Ellicott City, Md., was raised on a meat-and-potatoes diet but became a vegetarian for ethical reasons when he was 14 years old. There was just one problem with that.

“I hate vegetables,” he said. “I tried for maybe a couple weeks, and then I realized the thing I really like is pizza, so I’m going to eat that.”

And while many who have heard of his diet are nothing short of jealous, some are worried about his well-being.

“Eating the same food day in and day out can limit a person’s ability to get a vast array of foods and nutrients he or she needs to optimize health and meet daily nutritional needs,” said Elisa Zied, a New York-based dietitian/nutritionist and the author of “Younger Next Week.” “While pizza tastes great and certainly has its virtues, subsisting on it and having little else in the diet is a recipe for an unhealthy, nutritionally-inadequate diet. Also, limiting foods/food groups can set you up for one boring diet.”

Janssen eats plain pizza, but mixes it up with everything from frozen pizza to local pizza places to making his own.

“I love the nuance of pizza, so I try to vary it in different ways,” he said. “Once a week to be healthy, I’ll eat a bowl of Raisin Bran, but other than that it’s just pizza.”

His freezer is crammed with frozen pizzas, and then the other part of the refrigerator includes ingredients from artisanal pizza shops. He went to one pizza place so much that he became friendly with the owners to the point where he started helping them with their marketing.

“I would say all the pizza shops around here know me by name,” Janssen said. “All the Domino’s places know I used to work there in college.”

He also considers his diet to be economical.

“I save a lot on food,” he said. “In today’s foodie culture with all the focus on organic and no preservatives and locally grown, you can go to the grocery store, spend $100 and only get two meals out of it. I can get pizza for a week on that.”

While it may be cheaper, Janssen’s diet often prompts questions about how it affects his health. He says he was diagnosed with diabetes, which runs in his family, before embarking on his pizza-only diet, but has not had any complications. He does not drink or smoke, and exercises regularly by riding his bike long distances.

“I understand that this is a disgusting diet,” he said. “You expect me to be overweight and have no energy, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Whenever I see a new doctor, I tell him, ‘I have a terrible diet, and I only eat pizza.’ With three different doctors, they have done bloodwork and my cholesterol levels and blood pressure are great, and I am fit and energetic.

“I’m sure when I’m 60 I’ll drop dead of a heart attack, but right now I am fine.”

Janssen says he’s heard varying reactions since his story first appeared on Vice.

“People are really angry about it, which I don’t understand,” he said. “When somebody says, ‘I’ve been a smoker for 20 years,’ most people say, ‘That’s your choice.’ I eat pizza for 20 years, and people want to kill me, or they think I’m a hero.”

While pizza is his first choice, he has subsisted on other foods when necessary. During a two-week trip to Germany, he ate only soft pretzels because German pizza was so bad.

“I’m good at pretending,” he said. “It’s not that I’ll die if I eat something new. I can fake it, like if I go to a wedding or something. My reputation precedes me where I live. I’ll get an invite, and it will say, ‘We’re having a party, but there’s not gonna be any pizza there.’ I’ll eat whatever if it’s a situation like that.”

Janssen, who is engaged, has seen a therapist about his eating habits but says that right now he is perfectly happy with his pizza-centric diet.

“My fiancée is trying to slowly get me to change,” he said. “I do want to change, but this is how I’m living, and I feel great.”

Source: today

The better your mood the healthier you eat!

Previous research has found that emotions affect eating, and that negative moods and positive moods may actually lead to preferences for different kinds of foods. For example, if given the choice between grapes or chocolate candies, someone in a good mood may choose the former while someone in a bad mood may choose the latter. The research reported in this article looks at the “why:” Why, when someone is in a bad mood, will they choose to eat junk food and why, when someone is in a good mood, will they make healthier food choices?

To get at the “why,” we married the theories of affective regulation (how people react to their moods and emotions) and temporal construal (the perspective of time) to explain food choice. Conceptually, when people feel uncomfortable or are in a bad mood, they know something is wrong and focus on what is close in the here and now. We hypothesized and demonstrated that this kind of thinking gets us to focus on the sensory qualities of our foods – not things that are more abstract like how nutritious the food is. Analogously, we hypothesized and demonstrated that when people are in a good mood, things seem okay and they can take a big picture perspective. This kind of thinking allows people to focus on the more abstract aspects of food, including how healthy it is.

We studied these hypotheses in four laboratory experiments. In the first study, we investigated the effect of a positive mood on evaluations of indulgent and health foods by examining 211 individuals from local parent-teacher associations (PTAs). Next we studied whether individuals in a negative mood – who had read a sad story– evaluated indulgent foods more positively and whether those who were in a positive mood indicated a desire to remain healthy into their old age. 315 undergraduate students participated in this study. In the third study, involving 151 undergraduate students, we altered participants’ focus on the present versus the future along with their mood and measured how much healthy and indulgent food they consumed. To get more direct insight into the underlying process, the fourth study, involving 110 university students, focused specifically on the thoughts related to food choice and differentiated concrete taste versus nutrition benefits.

Ultimately, the findings of all the studies combined demonstrated that individuals select healthy or indulgent foods depending on whether they are in a good or a bad mood, respectively. The findings also indicate the integral aspect of the time horizon, showing that individuals in positive moods who make healthier food choices are often thinking more about future health benefits than those in negative moods, who focus more on the immediate taste and sensory experience. Finally we found that individuals in negative moods will still make food choices influenced by temporal construal which suggests that trying to focus on something other than the present can reduce the consumption of indulgent foods.

Source: eureka Alert

Virtual arm eases phantom limb pain

Doctors have devised a new way to treat amputees with phantom limb pain.

Using computer-generated augmented reality, the patient can see and move a virtual arm controlled by their stump.

Electric signals from the muscles in the amputated limb “talk” to the computer, allowing real-time movement.

Amputee Ture Johanson says his pain has reduced dramatically thanks to the new computer program, which he now uses regularly in his home.

He now has periods when he is free of pain and he is no longer woken at night by intense periods of pain.

Mr Johanson, who is 73 and lives in Sweden, lost half of his right arm in a car accident 48 years ago.

After a below-elbow amputation he faced daily pain and discomfort emanating from his now missing arm and hand.

Over the decades he has tried numerous therapies, including hypnosis, to no avail.

Within weeks of starting on the augmented reality treatment in Max Ortiz Catalan’s clinic at Chalmers University of Technology, his pain has now eased.

“The pain is much less now. I still have it often but it is shorter, for only a few seconds where before it was for minutes.

“And I now feel it only in my little finger and the top of my ring finger. Before it was from my wrist to my little finger.”

Mr Johanson says he has noticed other benefits too. He now perceives his phantom hand to be in a resting, relaxed position rather than a clenched fist.

“Can you imagine? For 48 years my hand was in a fist but after some weeks with this training I found that it was different. It was relaxed. It had opened.”

Mr Johanson has also learned to control the movements of his phantom hand even when he is not wired up to the computer or watching the virtual limb.

Max Ortiz Catalan, the brains behind the new treatment, says giving the muscles a work-out while being able to watch the actions carried out may be key to the therapy.

“The motor areas in the brain needed for movement of the amputated arm are reactivated, and the patient obtains visual feedback that tricks the brain into believing there is an arm executing such motor commands. He experiences himself as a whole, with the amputated arm back in place.”

He says it could also be used as a rehabilitation aid for people who have had a stroke or those with spinal cord injuries.

Source: BBC news

Health and Happiness: Men beat Women

A new survey has found that men are more healthier as well as happier about their appearance than women who are more concerned about their looks, making them less happy.

Health and Happiness, a nationwide study of 2,000 men and women revealed that men reported a higher rate of happiness when it came to their weight, shape, appearance, and the way they are perceived by others.

However, the survey found women to be more self-conscious and slightly less satisfied with their happiness levels at around 49 percent.

It also said that women are much more likely to try dieting than men.

On stress levels, 60 percent of women felt anxious once a week or more while almost 60 percent of male respondents said they only felt stressed once a month.

Men rarely feel depressed as over 70 percent of them claim they rarely felt down or had mood swings, whereas half of women admitted to feeling low or unhappy at least once a month, if not more.

When it comes to wellness, men are again leading as almost half of them said they rarely got headaches compared to 64 percent of women who said they experienced them at least once a month or more.

Also, 70 percent of men said bloating and poor digestion would only occur once a month or less, while it was a daily or weekly problem for half of women.

Patrick Holford, leading nutrition expert and who conducted the research said: “The general perception is that women are more health conscious, but what this survey shows is that women do actually have more health issues to deal with, especially relating to digestion, mood, anxiety and sleep.”

“The results also show that respondents, regardless of their gender, considered the absence of disease to be an indicator of good health. But being healthy means more than that – it’s abundance of well-being indicated by good energy levels, a stable mood and a sharp mind, all of which achieve optimum health,” added Holford.

Source: Zee news

Burned baby in a gas explosion arrives in Scotland

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A baby who was badly burned in a gas explosion in Pakistan has arrived in Scotland for life-saving treatment.

Mohammad Sudais was just under two months old when an explosion ripped through the apartment block where he stayed in Peshawar last December.

The child’s uncle, who lives in Glasgow, applied for a visa so his nephew can get treatment in Scotland.

The accident killed his father Mohammad Ameen, 30, mother Sumaira, 28, and 13-month-old brother Abdul Haseeb.

Doctors in Pakistan said they could do no more for the baby and recommended that he be treated in Glasgow.

The child and his uncle, Mohammad Asif, arrived on an Emirates flight at Glasgow Airport just before 19:00 on Thursday.

Mohammad was taken to Yorkhill Hospital where nurses and doctors will spend the next few days assessing him.

The NHS are meeting the cost of his specialist treatment.

Glasgow charity Positive Action in Housing (PAH) has been part of the campaign to allow Mohammad to receive treatment in Scotland.

The charity’s trustee Tom Harrigan is also to be a trustee of the Baby Mohammad Appeal.

Special needs
He said: “We are very glad Baby Mohammad is now in Scotland. I personally would like to thank everyone who donated so generously to this appeal.

“I’d also like to show my appreciation to the Scottish government for its spontaneous support.

The money raised will be utilised to help with Baby Mohammad’s present and future special needs, and we will keep everyone updated as to his progress.”

PAH director Robina Qureshi said: “When we began this appeal 12 days ago we never imagined the generosity that would come forward from people across the UK.

“I’m glad we were able help in some small way.”

She added: “Baby Mohammad’s arrival in Scotland is a measure of this country’s renowned humanitarian spirit. For now, he is Scotland’s baby.”

Source: BBC news

Surgeons reconstruct baby’s skull with 3D printing technology

When baby Gabriel was born in August, his dad, Manuel Dela Cruz, said everything initially seemed fine with his new son. It wasn’t until a week after his birth that Gabriel’s parents thought their son’s forehead looked abnormal.

“We noticed something was wrong with him,” Dela Cruz, of East Quogue, N.Y., told . “His eye wasn’t the same, and his right forehead was more protruded than the other one.”

Worried for their son’s health, the new parents took Gabriel to a pediatrician, who diagnosed the newborn with unilateral coronal synostosis – also known as anterior plagiocephaly. For babies with this condition, a growth plate fuses prematurely on one
side of the skull, causing the forehead to become more and more distorted and form asymmetrically.

Although the side effects of plagiocephaly are mostly cosmetic, the deformity can grow significantly worse if left untreated – leading many parents to opt for reconstructive surgery. Knowing what needed to be done, Dela Cruz said it was frightening to have
their son undergo an operation at such a young age.

“You obviously fear the worse, especially because it was in the head,” Dela Cruz said. “Knowing he was going to be opened up…it was very scary on the part of the parent.”

In order to treat Gabriel, physicians at Stony Brook University decided to try a completely new kind of operation – one that would cut down on the time the infant spent in the operating room.

Through a collaboration with Medical Modeling Inc. in Golden, Colo., Dr. Michael Egnor and Dr. Elliot Duboys were able to virtually plan the entire surgery beforehand.  Additionally, the company created 3D printed before-and-after models of Gabriel’s skull for the surgeons, so they could accurately predict how the operation’s results would look.

“The first thing we do, after we make a diagnosis, is a CT scan of the baby’s head… and we sent the CT image to [Medical Modeling],” Egnor, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, told FoxNews.com. “Using a computer program, they simulated the baby’s skull with the symmetry and dimensions it should have. Then the
company manufactured these templates and sent them to us, so we had the exact measurements.”

Knowing exactly how the skull should look after the procedure, 6-month-old Gabriel was brought in for surgery and placed him under anesthesia. In order to get to the deformed bone, the surgeons made an incision across the top of Gabriel’s forehead,
exposing the entire front of the skull and eye sockets. Through the use of a special saw, the surgeons removed four pieces of deformed bone and made special cuts in the skull to help reshape and restructure the baby’s head. In an

attempt to make the remodeling more precise, Egnor and Duboys utilized the 3D printed templates provided by Medical Modeling, which helped to highlight where the surgeons needed to make their incisions.

“They sent us cutting templates, which were pieces of 3D modeling that we were able to place on the child’s skull during surgery,” Duboys, associate professor of surgery at Stony Brook Medicine, told. “And then we just traced where the cuts should be on the
skull, almost like a stencil… And then we know where to cut.”

Both Egnor and Duboys said the 3D modeling technology helped to cut down on the length of the procedure, which meant Gabriel spent far less time under anesthesia than during traditional surgery. They hope more surgeons will utilize this 3D imaging and modeling to perform reconstructive surgeries in the future.

“I think it’s going to become, over time, acknowledged as the best way to do procedures of this nature,” Egnor said. “I was hopeful that this would work nicely, and it made a believer out of me.”

As for Gabriel, Dela Cruz said his son will still need to wear a helmet to reshape his forehead. But overall, he responded extremely well to the surgery and his forehead is not as protruded as it once was.

“There are no side effects, and he’s a normal baby,” Dela Cruz said. “…Gabriel responded very good to the procedure, and three or four days after, he was joking and playing. It was great seeing him that way.”

Source: Fox news