Mental & Emotional Health

I haven’t had much to say about the massacre at Virginia Tech University that occured on Monday becuase I am unable to eloquently get my words out. I am not quite able to get my feelings out past “oh my god”, and “not another one,” and so I’ve been sitting on them since then. Most of you know that five days ago Cho Seung-hui opened fire on multiple Virginia Tech classrooms killing students and professors alike. Rather than struggle to write about my feelings on the situation, I decided that I would post a small memorium of the victims. I found the list on AOL where they also have pictures and descriptions of their accomplishments.

*Ross Abdallah Alameddine, 20, a sophomore English major who loved jazz music.

*Jamie Bishop, 35, was killed while teaching an introductory German class. He was married to another Virginia Tech faculty member.

*Brian Bluhm, 25, was a graduate student in civil engineering. He was about to finish his degree and had already accepted a job in Baltimore.

*Ryan Clark, 22 of Martinez, Ga., was a resident adviser who was one of two students killed in the dorm. A biology and English major, he was in his senior year.

*Austin Cloyd, 19, was a freshman international studies major. Her father is a professor at Virginia Tech.

*Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, who was from Novia Scotia, taught French at the university. Her husband teaches horticulture at Virginia Tech.

*Daniel Perez Cueva, 21, who was from Peru, studied international relations. He was active in a society for Peruvian students at Virginia Tech.

*Kevin Granata, 46, was an engineering professor who studied neuromuscular control. He was “on a trajectory to become a notable star” in his fields.

*Caitlin Hammaren, 19, of Westtown, N.Y., was a sophomore majoring in international studies and French.

*Jeremy Herbstritt, 27, of Bellefonte, Pa., was a Virginia Tech graduate student who received a bachelor’s degree from Penn State University.

*Rachael Hill, 18, of Glen Allen, Va., was a freshman studying biology at the school. She was the star of her high school volleyball team and played the piano.

*Emily Hilscher, 19, of Woodville, Va., was killed in the dorm shooting. She was a freshman animal and poultry sciences major.

*Jarrett Lane, 22, was a senior civil engineering student from Narrows, Va. He was an athlete and valedictorian of his high school class.

*Matthew La Porte, 20, was a freshman from Dumont, N.J. He was studying political science and French and was part of the Air Force ROTC program.

*Henry Lee was a freshman majoring in computer engineering. He emigrated from China and was salutatorian of his Roanoke, Va., high school class.

*Liviu Librescu, 76, was an engineering science and mathematics lecturer. Several students credit the Holocaust survivor with saving their lives.

*G.V. Loganathan, 51, was a civil and environmental engineering professor. He moved to the U.S. from India in 1982.

*Partahi Lombantoruan, 34, of Indonesia, was a civil engineering doctoral student. His goal was to teach in the U.S.

*Lauren McCain, 20, of Hampton, Va., was an international studies major. On her MySpace page, McCain listed “the love of my life” as Jesus Christ.

*Daniel O’Neil, 22, of Rhode Island, was a graduate student in engineering. He played guitar and wrote his own songs.

*Juan Ramon Ortiz, 26, was a native of Puerto Rico. He was a graduate student in civil engineering and recently married another student at Virginia Tech.

*Minal Panchal, 26, was a first-year building-science graduate student from India. She wanted to be an architect like her father.

*Erin Peterson, 18, was a freshman from Centreville, Va., who was studying international relations. She attended the same high school as the gunman.

*Michael Pohle, 23, of Flemington, N.J., was a senior majoring in biological sciences and was a member of the lacrosse team.

*Julia Pryde, 23, of Middletown, N.J., was a graduate student in biological systems engineering. She was studying ways to improve water quality.

*Mary Read, 19, was a freshman from Annandale, Va., who had not yet declared a major. She was born in South Korea into an Air Force family.

*Reema Samaha, 18, was a freshman at the school. She was a dancer from Centreville, Va., and attended the same high school as the shooter.

*Waleed Shaalan, 32, came to the U.S. from Egypt in August to work toward a doctorate in civil engineering.

*Leslie Sherman, 20, of Springfield, Va., was a sophomore history and international studies student. She planned to study in Russia this summer.

*Maxine Turner, 22, of Vienna, Va., was a senior studying chemical engineering. She spent time volunteering at an animal shelter.

*Nicole White, 20, of Smithfield, Va., was a junior majoring in international studies. In high school she worked as a volunteer taking care of horses.

*Matthew Gwaltney, 24, of Chester, Va., was a graduate student in civil and environmental engineering. He was an avid Tech sports fan.

My heart goes out to each of the victims, their families, their loved ones, and the students at Virginia Tech who now live day-to-day in fear of another occurance.

mental and emotional health, Virginia Tech, school shooting, guns, violence, victim names

It’s been a while since I’ve done a news day and so I had to start digging for your news! : ) Enjoy what I found and let me know if you guys want to know more information on some specific things!

Omega-3 Fatty Acid May Thwart Alzheimer’s Disease - The researchers at the University of California, Irvine, said their finding suggests that a diet rich in DHA - found in fish, eggs, organ meats, micro-algae, fortified foods and food supplements - may help prevent the development of Alzheimer’s as people age.

Chocolate Gives Bigger Buzz than Kissing - The study found that at the point chocolate melts in the mouth. all areas of the brain are stimulated far more intensely and for longer than from kissing.

Childhood Obesity Linked to Middle Ear Effusion - The average body mass index in a group of children with otitis media with effusion was about 35% higher than among children with no history of ear infection, found researchers here.

Insomnia Hits ‘Night-Owls’ Harder - According to new research, “night owls” suffer more from insomnia than those who try and get their z’s earlier on.

Health Improves after Smoking Ban - Researchers have found the respiratory health of staff has improved significantly, with Irish pubs boasting an 83% decrease in air pollution.

Genetics Linked To Bowel Ailment - Scientists have identified a handful of genes that boost the risk of developing Crohn’s disease, confirming that the often debilitating inflammatory bowel ailment has a strong genetic component.

mental and emotional health, news, current events, omega-3 fatty acid, Alzheimer’s disease, University of California, UC Irvine, DHA, chocolate, kissing, ear infections, ear pain, obesity, childhood obesity, otitis media, ear effusion, insomnia, night-owls, sleeplessness, smoking, smoking cessation, Ireland, Irish pubs, smoking ban, genetics, bowel ailment, Crohn’s Disease

Ever heard of a “soft addiction”? I hadn’t until I read this PC Peeves article on Healthy BPM this morning!

soft addiction, pc peeves, Healthy BPM, mental and emotional health

Getting Dirty May Help Your Mood - Treatment of mice with a ‘friendly’ bacteria, normally found in the soil, altered their behavior in a way similar to that produced by antidepressant drugs, reports research published in the latest issue of Neuroscience.

Obesity Struggle May Begin in the Womb - Mothers-to-be who gained weight within medical guidelines were about four times more likely to have children who were overweight at age 3 than those who remained slimmer while expecting, according to the Harvard University research.

Insurer to pay boy’s breast surgery - A health insurer must pay for the breast-reduction surgery of a Long Island teen who was burdened with unusually large breasts for a boy, a state appeals court has ruled.

$500M Pledged to Fight Childhood Obesity - To halt a trend building over the past four decades, the foundation is offering to fund programs that focus on improving access to affordable healthy foods or on how to increase physical activity in schools and communities.

Overweight People More Likely to Develop Asthma - The chance of developing asthma is 50 per cent higher for overweight and obese people, compared with individuals whose weight is normal, analysis of seven studies on severe asthma shows.

Nurses ‘Injured’ Caring for Obese Patients - Around 5,000 nurses are currently being treated for back pain following a surge in patients’ weights and the number of patients a nurse has to care for, according to the British Chiropractic Association.

Stress & Depression are Major Causes of Premature Births - Research shows that stress hormones - which play a crucial role in the development of the unborn baby - shoot up in women who are depressed during pregnancy.

mental & emotional health, mice, research, friendly bacteria, depression, antidepressants, news, Neuroscience, obesity struggle, overweight, pregnancy risks, Harvard University, Long Island, overweight boy, breast reduction, childhood breast reduction, male breast reduction, insurance, childhood obesity, obesity prevention program funding, asthma risks, back pain, nursing, caring for obese, British Chiropractic Association, premature births, stress hormones, pregnancy

Breastfeeding Alone Cuts HIV Risk - Exclusively breastfeeding until a baby is six-months old can significantly reduce the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission, an African study says.

Alzheimer’s Sufferers Dying in Drug Scandal - A class of drugs widely prescribed for people suffering from dementia is leading to the premature deaths of thousands of patients every year, according to research published today.

Smokers Make Crappy Workers - Smokers take an average of almost eight days more of sick leave every year than their non-smoking colleagues, suggests research published in Tobacco Control.

Frequent Long-Haul Flights Hard On the Body - Airplane crew and passengers who frequently fly between several time zones face a number of health problems including disruptions in a woman’s menstrual cycle and even short-term psychiatric disturbances, researchers from the UK warn in a report published Thursday in The Lancet.

Research Shows Arthritis Pain Processed in the Brain - British researchers have discovered that arthritis pain, unlike that induced as part of an experiment, is processed in the parts of the brain concerned with emotions and fear.

news, breastfeeding, HIV, AIDS, Alzheimer’s, drug study, smoking, employment, sick days, flying, time zones, arthritis pain, emotions, fear, mental and emotional health

FDA Wants Stronger Warnings on Sleep Disorder Drugs
Drugs Can Cause “Sleep Driving” Incidents

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration wants tougher language on drugs for sleep disorders, beefing up the warnings to consumers about potential risks. The sedative-hypnotic drug products - a class of drugs used to induce and maintain sleep - carry risks of severe allergic reactions and complex sleep-related behaviors, which may include sleep-driving, the agency said.

Sleep driving is defined as driving while not fully awake after ingestion of a sedative-hypnotic product, with no memory of the event. A year ago Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) was involved in a highly publicized mishap, crashing his car into a barricade at the U.S. Capitol. He was taking the sleep disorder drug Ambien at the time. My question is, why would you DRIVE after you’ve taken a sleeping pill!?!?

“There are a number of prescription sleep aids available that are well-tolerated and effective for many people,” said Steven Galson, M.D., MPH, director of FDA�s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “However, after reviewing the available post-marketing adverse event information for these products, FDA concluded that labeling changes are necessary to inform health care providers and consumers about risks.”

In December 2006, FDA sent letters to manufacturers of products approved for the treatment of sleep disorders requesting that the whole class of drugs revise product labeling to include warnings about the following potential adverse events:
• Anaphylaxis (severe allergic reaction) and angioedema (severe facial swelling), which can occur as early as the first time the product is taken.
• Complex sleep-related behaviors which may include sleep-driving, making phone calls, and preparing and eating food (while asleep). On Ambien I had a conversation with the bathtub once … that stuff is not for me!

FDA said it has been working with the product manufacturers over the past three months to update labeling, notify health care providers and inform consumers of these risks. The guides will contain FDA-approved information such as proper use and the recommendation to avoid ingesting alcohol and/or other central nervous system depressants. Although all sedative-hypnotic products have these risks, the agency said there may be differences among products in how often they occur. For this reason, FDA has recommended that the drug manufacturers conduct clinical studies to investigate the frequency with which sleep-driving and other complex behaviors occur in association with individual drug products.

The medications that are the focus of the revised labeling include the following 13 products:
Ambien/Ambien CR (Sanofi Aventis)
Butisol Sodium (Medpointe Pharm HLC)
Carbrital (Parke-Davis)
Dalmane (Valeant Pharm)
Doral (Questcor Pharms)
Halcion (Pharmacia & Upjohn)
Lunesta (Sepracor)
Placidyl (Abbott)
Prosom (Abbott)
Restoril (Tyco Healthcare)
Rozerem (Takeda)
Seconal (Lilly)
Sonata (King Pharmaceuticals)

sleeping aids, sleep-driving, sleep-walking, FDA, Ambien, Ambien CR, Butisol Sodium, Carbrital, Dalmane, Doral, Halcion, Lunesta, Placidyl, Prosom, Restoril, Rozerem, Seconal, Sonata

Tracking PTSD in Vets is Difficult

Even Light Exercise Helps Smokers Quit

Social Stress May Kill New Brain Cells

Obesity Surgery Can Lead to Memory Problems

news, PTSD, veterans, exercise, smoking cessation, social stress, obesity surgery, memory

A study released by the National Sleep Foundation this week finally advertises the problem I’ve been having. “nearly 70 per cent of women say they frequently have a problem sleeping, and 60 per cent only get a good night’s sleep a few nights a week.” Well who would have guessed? The study shows that an excessive amount (72%) of working mothers suffer from insomnia while 74% of stay-at-home mothers suffered. This is a crazy statistic because that means that only 1/4 of the female American population is sleeping enough and/or getting a good night’s sleep!

Do you wonder why this is happening? I don’t. I know quite a few moms who are the first in their house to get up and the last person to go to bed. They get ready for their day, get their children ready for the day, send them off (or hold on to them) and then they work - whether it be at home or at an “office.” They pick up the children on the way home, make dinner once they are home and then the chores start; laundry, dishes, dusting, etc. They work until they’re exhausted and then fall into bed to a restless night’s sleep. What good is that!?

“Women need to make sleep a priority,” he advises. “They need to decide the following: ‘I’m feeling lousy in the daytime and the only way for me to feel better is I have to sleep more.’ And they have to make a real attempt to sleep more.”

This week is National Sleep Awareness Week and so I urge you to look at your own sleeping habits. Are you going to bed at 1am just to get up 5 hours later to start your day? If so, think about changing these habits to get at least an hour more sleep. Go to bed a 1/2-hour earlier tonight … see how that makes you feel. Half an hour won’t disrupt your day at all (you probably wouldn’t even notice it), but it will give your body a little extra time to get rested.

I also encourage you to check out how to make sleep work for you so that you are getting the best of the little sleep you are probably getting.

sleep, sleeping, stress, women, National Sleep Foundation, Sleep Awareness Week

This article on the fact that obesity is prompting early puberty in girls made me quite sad today. The University of Michigan (didn’t want me for grad school but I guess I can still offer their information to you) has found that girls are reaching puberty (as defined by “breast development”) at an average of 9 years old now.

“If you take a look at overweight children, obese children, females, there’s no doubt from what we see in our practice, no doubt that they are prone to enter puberty at an earlier age,” pediatrician Dr. Peter Nieman told CTV News.

…

“Our finding that increased body fatness is associated with the earlier onset of puberty provides additional evidence that growing rates of obesity among children in this country may be contributing to the trend of early maturation in girls,” study lead author Dr. Joyce Lee said in a prepared statement.

…

“It was unclear whether puberty led to the weight gain or weight gain led to the earlier onset of puberty. Our study offers evidence that it is the latter,” said Lee.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Interesting to see this, and it makes me even more worried about the hormones they’re putting in milks, meats and other foods. I am definately going to be doing a bit more research on this stuff as it’s going to bother me if I don’t!

The sun is out in Oregon today and it’s already 40 degrees. We’re still two weeks away from the start of Spring, but it’s looking gorgeous outside. I even broke out the jean skirt (but I do have tights on to keep me warmer) and a short sleeved shirt! My mood is up, I have a cup of good (decaf) coffee at my desk, and I have 10 minutes before I have to clock in. Today shall be a marvelous Tuesday!

obesity, puberty, girls, University of Michigan, hormones, genetically altered foods, Oregon, weather, clothes, spring, moods

I have been doing a lot of reading about compartmentalizing emotions and the positive (and negative) effects that can have on life. An article written by Rachel G. Baldino really clarified some things for me this morning. Understanding “Emotional Compartmentalizing” and How It Can Affect Our Lives and the Lives of Those You Love says that EC “involves consciously or subconsciously suppressing or “compartmentalizing” or “sectioning off” upsetting thoughts and emotions in order to justify engaging in certain (sometimes questionable) behaviors.”

Baldino uses soldiers to make her definition even clearer with this example; “Many [soldiers] speak of psychologically preparing for battle by temporarily storing away all of their feelings, fears, anxieties, anger, and sadness into little “mental boxes” or “psychological compartments.” However, “there is a very heavy price to be paid for extreme emotional compartmentalization, as you can see from the example of combat veterans, some of whom end up sacrificing their post-combat emotional health for the emotional compartmentalization that they must utilize during battle just to survive.”

I am working on learning to compartmentalize the “right” things and allow the other “right” things to free-float while I work on arranging them the way that I want. In the next week I am going to be working on arranging my own personal microcosm as I (and Scuba Steve) feel that once the microcosm is organized, the macrocosm will soon follow for me.

compartments, emotions, emotional compartmentalizing, personal, microcosm, macrocosm, veterans

“A new mice study by Stanford University indicates that an old useless drug may actually help patients with Down syndrome improve their learning ability and memory. The study published Feb. 25 in the advance online edition of Nature Neuroscience also found that once the therapeutic effect of pentylenetetrazole, or PT is established, it can last for up to two months after the treatment is discontinued.

Craig Garner and Fabian Fernandez from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital fed mice with Down syndrome symptomes milk with PTZ for 17 days, subjected the treated mice to two tests and found that mice treated with PTZ performed as well as wild mice without Down syndrome.

PTZ has not been approved by the government for any medical use. High doses of PTZ can cause seizures. The researchers say the drug did not improve mental capacity in those healthy mice. They say further human trials are needed to determine if PTZ has the same effect on patients with Down syndrome.

Down’s syndrome, the leading cause of mental retardation, affects more than 300,000 people nationwide in the U.S. About 5,000 children are born with Down syndrome in the United States each year. The condition is caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21. Children with this condition have high risk of heart disease, leukemia and early onset Alzheimer’s disease.”

Quite an interesting idea, eh?

Nutrition May Help Those With Down’s Syndrome

nutrition, down’s syndrome, illness, genetics, food, preventatives, Stanford University

Major Autism Finding article reads;
“The largest study of the genetics of autism ever conducted, involving DNA from almost 1 200 affected families worldwide, has already yielded two important clues to the poorly understood disorder, scientists say.

Discoveries in two areas of the genome - a region on chromosome 11 suspected of having links to autism, and aberrations in a brain-development gene called neurexin 1 - could spur more targeted research, the experts noted.

“That’s the real promise here,” said Autism Genome Project co-researcher Dr Stephen Scherer, director of the Centre for Applied Genomics at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. “When you identify certain genes, you can then develop genetic tests - in some cases prenatal and in some cases postnatal - because early diagnosis is crucial here.”

Closer to a cure?
Genetic discoveries can also further research toward a cure for autism, Scherer said. “When we have this type of knowledge, we can actually think about designing better therapies based on what we know is not happening properly in the [brain] cell. We can try to design things to make it work better,” he explained.

The Autism Genome Project was funded by the US National Institutes of Health and the nonprofit advocacy group Autism Speaks. Its findings were published in the February 18 online edition of Nature Genetics.

Autism remains a real health crisis, with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announcing recently that one in every 150 American 8-year-olds now have some form of autistic spectrum disorder. That number is higher than prior estimates, and the debate rages as to just why the disease might be becoming more prevalent.

Causes remain a mystery
Experts agree that autism’s causes remain cloaked in mystery, although prior research has pointed to a strong genetic component. For example, “there’s about 90 percent concordance [of autism] between identical twins - that’s a significant genetic contribution,” Scherer said.

So, the Autism Genome Project, which took five years to complete, sought to probe much deeper into the DNA driving the disorder. The project involved more than 120 scientists working at 50 institutions in 19 countries. They painstakingly sought out almost 1 200 families worldwide in which at least two members were affected by autism. The scientists then collected DNA samples from family members and analyzed these samples in the most advanced and standardized manner, looking for genomic “commonalities.” Those efforts have met with real success.

“First, we found several regions of the genome, particularly one region on chromosome 11, that seem to be very highly associated with the development of autism,” said Scherer, who is also professor of medicine at the University of Toronto. While prior research had suggested chromosome 11 as a potential hotspot for autism-linked DNA, this study greatly strengthens that view, he said.

The researchers also used cutting-edge technologies to seek out what are known as “copy number variations” - genes that appear not in pairs (as most genes passed down from mom and dad are), but as just a single copy, or as three or more copies.

“We found several regions of the genome - sometimes the same region popping up in unrelated individuals - with 3 or more copies,” Scherer said. “We didn’t see these in the individuals’ parents, so that implies that these regions are harbouring susceptibility genes for autism.”

A smoking gun
One gene in particular, called neurexin 1, appeared in some cases in just one copy. “In one family, both of the children who were autistic actually had that piece missing,” Scherer said. “That’s kind of a smoking gun that the gene is implicated.” It makes intuitive sense that dysfunctional neurexin 1 might play some role in autistic disorders, another expert said.

The neurexin 1 protein and its kin “are very important in determining how properly the brain is wired up from one nerve cell to another, and in the chemical transmission of information from one nerve cell to another,” said Dr Bradley Peterson, a professor of child psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Centre and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, in New York City.

Peterson, who was not involved in the project, said genes that effect early neural growth could be key to autistic disorders, since “the genetic and the non-genetic contributions to autism, by definition, have to exert their effect very early in brain development, either in utero or in the first months or couple of years of life.”

Leads for future research
Still, he and Scherer both stressed that the new study only points to potential leads for future research. Because of the study’s particular methodology, no one finding reached statistical significance, Peterson said. “This is all very strong evidence, and a very good set of leads, but we can’t yet say that we have proved the involvement of these regions in autism,” he said.

Scherer said that, except in very rare instances, there isn’t likely to be a single gene responsible for autism. Instead, a variety of genetic abnormalities may work on each other during development to create some level of autism. And experts don’t discount the potential role of environmental stresses on that mix, either.

“Remember, autism is actually a grab bag of different developmental disorders. And what we show here is that many genes can be involved, and also these copy number variants,” Scherer said. “And could it be that environment is contributing? Absolutely.” One thing is for sure, however: autism research holds more promise now than ever before, the experts said.

“Anybody working out here can use this information now, and it really provides a great path forward as to how we need to do our experiments over the next five years or so,” Scherer said. “We’ve now got all these new candidate genes - the neurexins, the various copy number variants - and we can tackle the problem in a much more focused and organized way.”"

Technorati Tags:autism, genetics, chromosome 11, autism genome project, national institute of health, autism speaks, nature genetics, centers for disease control & prevention, neurexin 1,
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Once again, HealthyDay News has given me some interesting information from the January 22nd edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine. This time it has to do with the fact that both male & female patients taking an antidepressant (SSRIs such as Prozac and Paxil in particular) have twice the risk of fracturing bones! “There is good scientific evidence that serotonin is involved in bone physiology, and if you alter the system, you can get low bone density,” Goltzman said.

For five years, Goltzman and his fellow researches followed information from 137 patients (average age of 65) who took antidepressants. He measured the bone density of them as their baseline and they were tracked for five years. Every year patients reported any fractures they incurred and how they happened. Goltzman learned that fractured forearms, ankles and feet were high as well as rib, back, femur & hip fracturing. Perhaps this is due to an increased risk in falling (my meds say “may cause dizziness!).

Dr. Robert P Heany, a professor of medicine a the Osteoporosis Research Center at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska does claims the study still does not prove that there is a correlation between SSRIs and fractures. “These findings are hard to interpret,” said Dr. Robert P. Heaney, a professor of medicine at the . “Increased fracture risk has been associated with depression for years,” he added. A study of depressed patients taking only SSRIs compared to depressed patients taking other medications needs to be done before this can be settled. “Then you could see if it was the depression causing the fractures or if it were the SSRIs. It may not be the SSRI at all,” he said.

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Health Day News writes that, according to a team of researchers, genes from a “specific region of chromosome 15″ may lead to depression!

“We should be able to hone more finely into the gene,” said Myrna Weissman, co-author of one of the papers and a professor of psychiatry and epidemiology at Columbia University and head of clinical and genetic epidemiology at New York State Psychiatric Institute, both in New York City. “Then, we can see mutations and develop treatments,” she said.

Look for the full article in the February issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry written by lead scientists at Stanford University. Researchers write that about 10 to 15 percent of people suffer from depression at some point in life and between three & five percent have depression chronically. Scarily enough (because I am a woman), women are twice as likely as men to live with depression.

Although no single gene (scientists guess that there are several genes instead) has been decided upon as the responsible one, studies of families, and especially twins, have revealed that depression is partly genetic. While things may be genetic, one must take the environmental factors (including psychological trauma) may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Once the actual genes are found is very important and it may teach researchers exactly how genes are involved in depression, and maybe one day, what genes actually do.

As someone highly interested in HIV & AIDS, I get all sorts of “emergency updates” sent to my email box in hopes of learning something new about the horrible virus. Unfortunately, this week has been mostly sad news, but I hope to continue spreading the word about HIV & AIDS.

Failed Drug Trial Hurts AIDS Fight - Clinical tests representing a third of all microbicide studies find anti-viral gel actually increases risk of getting HIV

And then there is a terribly sad article about Burma’s uphill struggle to contain HIV & AIDS. - The official HIV/AIDS program has a budget of US $200,000 - just 60 US cents per person in a population of 30 million.