HTNet

The BBC reported that women suffering from endometriosis are more likely to develop ovarian, kidney and thyroid cancers:

Dr Anna-Sofia Melin and colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, looked at data on 63,630 women with endometriosis.

They identified 3,822 cases of cancer among these women - which is no more than the general population.

However, certain tumour types, including ovary and brain, were far more common with endometriosis.

Dr Melin said various theories for the link between endometriosis and cancer had been put forward.

Endometriosis is not really uncommon. It is estimated that about 90 million women suffer from the condition. I had an acquaintance that suffers from endometriosis. Since there are currently no cure for endometriosis, doctors usually subscribe to her a cocktail of painkillers to ease the pain.

In case you’re wondering what the heck blepharospasm is, here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia:

A blepharospasm (from blepharo [eyelid] and spasm [uncontrolled muscle contraction]) is any abnormal tic or twitch of the eyelid.

To put it simply, it’s one of those moments that you’re feeling as if you’re blinking ten or twenty times in a couple of milliseconds.

The good news is that boffins from the Department of Neurological and Psychiatric Sciences University of Bari in Italy have discovered that drinking a cup or two of coffee daily could reduce the risk of the condition:

He suggested that caffeine may block receptors in the brain that are associated with the tremor and explained a similar mechanism had been proposed for the protective effects of caffeine in Parkinson’s disease.

Professor David Wong, spokesperson for the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, said the condition was fairly rare.

“Sometimes the condition is so bad that the patients spend most of the time with their eyes closed - they are effectively then visually impaired.

“Eye doctors treat patients mainly these days with Botulinum toxin.”

I love coffee! Right now, I’m currently going through my stockpile of Super Power 6-in-1 Coffee, which I bought after reading this post by Joneh

Scientists at Tel Aviv University in Israel have demonstrated that externally cultured neurons can be embedded with multiple simple memory imprints that literally lingers on for days without interfering with or erasing one another:

The results, Ben-Jacob says, set the stage for the creation of a neuromemory chip that could be paired with computer hardware to create cyborglike machines capable of such tasks as detecting dangerous toxins in the air, allowing the blind to see or helping someone who is paralyzed regain some if not all muscle use.

Ben-Jacob points out that previous attempts to develop memories on brain cell cultures (neurons along with their supporting and insulating glial cells) have often involved stimulating the synapses (nerve cell connections). So-called excitatory neurons, which amplify brain activity, account for nearly 80 percent of the neurons in the brain; inhibitory neurons, which dampen activity, make up the remaining 20 percent. Stimulating excitatory cells with chemicals or electric pulses causes them to fire, or send electrical signals of their own to neighboring neurons.

Did you know that doctors have performed operations to remove half of a person’s brain for hundreds of times? The process is called hemispherectomy. The procedure is used as a last resort, and when alternative treatments are deemed to be unfeasible for the patient. From the SciAm article:

Neurosurgeons have performed the operation on children as young as three months old. Astonishingly, memory and personality develop normally. A recent study found that 86 percent of the 111 children who underwent hemispherectomy at Hopkins between 1975 and 2001 are either seizure-free or have nondisabling seizures that do not require medication. The patients who still suffer seizures usually have congenital defects or developmental abnormalities, where brain damage is often not confined to just one hemisphere, Freeman explains.

Another study found that children that underwent hemispherectomies often improved academically once their seizures stopped. “One was champion bowler of her class, one was chess champion of his state, and others are in college doing very nicely,” Freeman says.

Of course, the operation has its downside: “You can walk, run—some dance or skip—but you lose use of the hand opposite of the hemisphere that was removed. You have little function in that arm and vision on that side is lost,” Freeman says.

I’d love to hear what HTNet’s readers have to say about this; especially Dr. Kucau

Magnets have always been hyped as the next alternative medical thingamajig. From magnetic bracelets to mattresses embedded with magnetic bits, lots of marketing have gone behind the wonderful powers of magnets. All the while, I’ve always been a skeptic on the purported health benefits of magnets.

Now, boffins from City University in New York suggest that magnets can actually boost mental performance:

Scientists in New York promoted the growth of new neurons in the brains of mice using a magnetic stimulus in the region associated with memory.

Presenting the results at the American Academy for Neuroscience conference, the researchers said the results may lead to treatments for Alzheimer’s.

However, if proven the technique is more likely to be a way of slowing progression of the disease than a cure.

Experts said the work was encouraging but would need to be replicated in humans.