Study Links Autism To ‘Insulation’ That Coats Brain Cells And Speeds Signals : Shots — Health News Brains affected by autism appear to share a problem with cells that make myelin, the insulating coating surrounding nerve fibers that controls the speed at which the fibers convey electrical signals.
80% of victims were over the age of 60 and 75% had some form of underlying condition, according to China’s National Health Commission.
The death rate from the Wuhan coronavirus across mainland China stands at 2.1%, China’s National Health Commission said in a press update on Tuesday.
In Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, the rate is 3.1%, said Jiao Yahui, deputy director of the National Health Commissions State Health Administration.
Continue reading “80% of coronavirus victims are over 60, Chinese health official says” »
The World Health Organization has recently declared the China coronavirus a global health emergency. 1 What’s worse is that cases of the coronavirus have jumped tenfold. The death toll is 304 and rising. 2
It would be an understatement to say that there is a growing sense of panic. The best advice I’ve heard is to stay calm and take pratical measures to protect yourself.
Experiences early in life have an impact on the brain’s biological and functional development, shows a new study by a team of neuroscientists. Its findings, which centered on changes in mice and rats, reveal how learning and memory abilities may vary, depending on the nature of individual experiences in early life.
“The implications of this are many, including environmental influences on mental health, the role of education, the significance of poverty, and the impact of social settings,” says Cristina Alberini, a professor in New York University’s Center for Neural Science and the senior author of the paper, which appears in the journal Nature Communications.
“These results also offer promise for potential therapeutic interventions,” add Alberini and Benjamin Bessières, an NYU postdoctoral researcher and the paper’s co-lead author. “By identifying critical time periods for brain development, they provide an indicator of when pharmaceutical, behavioral or other type of interventions may be most beneficial.”
Fragrance helps learning even during sleep!
Effortless learning during sleep is the dream of many people. The supportive effect of smells on learning success when presented both during learning and sleep was first proven in an extensive sleep laboratory study. Researchers at the University of Freiburg—Medical Center, the Freiburg Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health (IGPP) and the Faculty of Biology at the University of Freiburg have now shown that this effect can be also achieved very easily outside the lab. For the study, pupils in two school classes learned English vocabulary—with and without scent sticks during the learning period and also at night. The students remembered the vocabulary much better with a scent. The study was published in the Nature Group’s Open Access journal Scientific Reports on 27 January 2020.
“We showed that the supportive effect of fragrances works very reliably in everyday life and can be used in a targeted way,” said study leader PD Dr. Jürgen Kornmeier, head of the Perception and Cognition Research Group at the Freiburg-based IGPP and scientist at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Freiburg—Medical Center in Germany.
Continue reading “The scent of a rose improves learning during sleep” »
Walking and running may affect the functional connectivity of brain networks in different ways, according to a new study.
Chinese health officials have already been administering the HIV and flu drugs to fight the coronavirus. The use of the three together in a cocktail seemed to improve the treatment, the Thai doctors said.
Another doctor said that a similar approach in two other patients resulted in one displaying some allergic reaction but the other showed improvement.
“We have been following international practices, but the doctor increased the dosage of one of the drugs,” said Somsak Akkslim, director-general of the Medical Services Department, referring to the flu medicine Oseltamivir.
When doctors in a Washington hospital sought to treat the first confirmed case of the Wuhan coronavirus in the United States on Wednesday, they tapped a device called Vici that allowed them to interact with their patient not in person, but through a screen.
The telehealth device, which looks like a tablet on wheels that doctors can use to talk to patients and perform basic diagnostic functions, like taking their temperature, is one of a handful of high-tech machines that doctors, airport workers, and hotel staff are using to help contain the outbreak that has been sweeping the world since it was discovered in Wuhan, China in late December.
“Caregivers provide care within the isolation unit, but technology is allowing us to reduce the number of up-close interactions,” says Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, chief clinical officer at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington, where the patient is being treated. Vici, made by Santa Barbara, California-based InTouch Health, resembles a tablet on wheels, and can protect caregivers from infection.
A Chinese woman infected with the new coronavirus showed a dramatic improvement after she was treated with a cocktail of anti-virals used to treat flu and HIV, Thailand’s health ministry said Sunday.
The 71-year-old patient tested negative for the virus 48 hours after Thai doctors administered the combination, doctor Kriengsak Attipornwanich said during the ministry’s daily press briefing.
“The lab result of positive on the coronavirus turned negative in 48 hours,” Kriengsak said.
