“People with different levels of education have similar brain pathology, but those with more education are better able to compensate for the effects of dementia,” the Cambridge University study said.

A team of British and Finnish researchers studied the brains of 872 people, donated for medical research over the past 20 years and examined questionnaires each donor had completed on their education.

Dr Hannah Keage, the study’s co-author, said: “Our study shows education in early life appears to enable some people to cope with a lot of changes in their brain before showing dementia symptoms.”

Keage also claims that those who are more educated have more psychological strength, a condition necessary to combat dementia.

Study leader Professor Brayne added: “Education is known to be good for population health and equity. This study provides strong support for investment in early life factors which should have an impact on society and the whole lifespan.”

Professor Brayne believes this study is hugely relevant to policy decisions about the importance of resource allocation between health and education.”

The University of Gothenurg also conducted studies in ‘cognitive reserve’, or mental padding, arriving at a similar conclusion.

Dr Rolstad a Swedish psychologist said “Highly educated patients with mild cognitive impairment who went on to develop dementia had more signs of disease in their spinal fluid than those with intermediate and low levels of education.” Despite having more disease in the brain, the highly educated patients showed the same symptoms of the disease as their less well educated counterparts.

“Patients with higher levels of education tolerate more disease in the brain,” said Dr Rolstad, “But also sustain less nerve damage during the early stages of the disease.”

It would appear there are two ways in which people with a large cognitive reserve compensate for the effects of ageing or brain damage. Either they recruit alternative networks or they increase the efficiency of their existing ones.

In 2006 Marcus Richards, an epidemiologist at University College London, claimed social class, occupation and education at age 26 help shape cognitive ability at age 53. Beyond 65, the risk of dementia doubles every five years and nearly 25 per cent of people over the age of 85 suffer from dementia.

In 2006 epidemiologists claimed that people with high literacy and IQ cope better with the progress of Alzheimer’s disease. They also recover from stroke, head injury, intoxication and poisoning with neurotoxins more rapidly than the average person.

However, for more than 40 years, scientists have known that the large-scale use of antibiotics in healthy farm animals might be creating antibiotic-resistant bugs.

Dr. John Clifford, Deputy Administrator for Veterinary Services for the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has finally admitted that the use of antibiotics in farm animal feed is contributing to the growing problem of deadly antibiotic resistance in America.

Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Principle Deputy Commissioner of the FDA, said in his testimony at a House Energy and Commerce subcomitte, that the overall weight of evidence supports the conclusion that using antibiotics for production purposes in livestock farming (as growth promoters and to prevent, rather than treat illness) is not in the interest of protecting and promoting public health.

Many experts believe the over use of antibiotics in food animals, are the  reasons we are seeing more antibiotic resistant pathogens. Now U.S. lawmakers are looking to curb the use of antibiotics in raising livestock, a move that puts them at odds with agribusiness interests.

The new bill would prohibit seven types of antibiotics from being used indiscriminately in animal feed. The recently released FDA draft guidance also states that antibiotics should only be used when the animals are under the care of a veterinarian.

While the legislation is unlikely to become law this year, the bill already has 113 cosponsors and supporters have vowed to continue the fight.

During the FDA hearing, Assistant Surgeon General Ali Khan cited salmonella studies which show that a steady diet of antibiotics yields antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which can spread from livestock to humans.

The food industry’s counterargument is that tough restrictions could drive up farmers’ costs without improving public health.

“Before we go down a path that will have a devastating economic impact on our agriculture industry, we must assure science drives this debate,” said Rep. John Shimkus.”So far there’s nothing that links use in animals to a buildup of resistance in humans.”

NPPC president Sam Carney, an Iowa pork producer from Adair said “FDA didn’t present any science on which to base this call, yet it could have a tremendous negative impact on animal health and ultimately, the safety of food.”

Many people believe that Aspartame has been causing havoc with people’s health for the past 30 years. It is sold commercially under names like NutraSweet, Canderel and now AminoSweet.

Aspartame can be found in more than 6,000 foods, including soft drinks, table-top sweeteners, chewing gum, diet and diabetic foods, breakfast cereals, jams, sweets, vitamins, prescription and over-the-counter drugs.

The sales pitch on aspartame is to make people believe that it is a harmless, natural sweetener, made with two amino acids that are essential for health and present in the diet already. People are led to believe it offers all the benefits of sugar, with none of the drawbacks.

There have been more reports to the FDA for aspartame reactions than for all other food additives combined. The toxicity of aspartame is not widely known by doctors and the effects can mimic several common health conditions.

It is believed that two-thirds of side effects of the sweetener are neurological. According to the researchers, consuming a lot of aspartame can disturb:

• The metabolism of amino acids

• Protein structure and metabolism

• The integrity of nucleic acids

• Neuronal function

• Endocrine balances.

Vanessa Brown, a private individual, fed 108 rats with the amount of aspartame contained in an 8oz can of diet soda, over a period of 2 years and 8 months. 37% of the females developed massive sized tumours.

A healthy and natural alternative for a food sweetener is the plant Stevia. It is a hundred times sweeter than sugar and has virtually no calories at all. However, it can have a slightly bitter after taste, unless used in particular ways.

American Dr Jayant Patel was sentenced to seven years in jail in Australia, for causing the deaths of three patients and grievous bodily harm to another. Patel has also been linked to up to a total of 17 deaths between 2003 and 2005. He is believed to have performed the wrong surgery on the wrong people. Patel was disciplined for ‘gross negligence’ in the United States. He will be able to apply for parole in three-and-a-half years.

Doctors in Vienna amputated the wrong leg of a 91 year-old woman, then were forced to cut off her other leg also. The hospital refused to say if the doctor was still working for them. An investigation is under way.

Peruvian doctors amputated the healthy leg from an 86 year-old man in error, in January 2010. The man had a badly ulcerated leg, which required amputation. He too lost his other leg.

In 2008 a 48 year-old woman, Sithy Nazeera, woke to find her healthy leg had been removed by surgeons at the Negombo General Hospital. Nazeera had been booked in to clean a wound in the sole of her foot. The patient waiting for amputation was the next in line for surgery.

The authorities tried to hush the incident up, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission, as no report had been made to the police and no investigation done.

In 1995 51 year-old, diabetic Willie King, woke up to find that surgeons in a Florida hospital had accidentally amputated his healthy foot instead of the one with gangrene.

In 2006 a report revealed that medical blunders were on the increase, with wrong body parts being removed, that ranged from the wrong leg, the wrong hips being taken, a wrong set of lungs transplanted, a child mistakenly circumcised, to a wrong testicle being removed and a woman given a hysterectomy in error.

According to a Sentinel Event Report 90 patients died, or experienced serious harm, as a result of care they received in public or private hospitals during the 2008/09 period, in West Australian hospitals. This was double the errors reported two years before. Health Minister Daniel Andrews,  said work had started on an appropriate monitoring system to be in place by 2010.

Compensation payouts to victims rose 100% in 2005/2006 alone. Studies place the direct and indirect costs of malpractice as between 5-10% of total medical costs. Payouts range from $100,000 to several million.

Of more than a thousand parents surveyed with children aged between five and 12, half of them are however, divided on whether video games are a true social experience for children.

The survey, commissioned by video game makers THQ, shows 97% of Australian households own one or more video game consoles and 60% of parents spend an average of up to two hours a week playing video games with their kids.

Social demographer Mark McCrindle said four out of five video games are played as a family with the same number of parents saying they enjoy playing video games with their children.

The positive effects of video games can be seen where youngsters, who are undergoing painful treatment for ailments like cancer, can use video games to distract themselves from the pain for extended periods.

Certain video games that are used as part of a comprehensive program, can help autistic children and others with developmental disorders.

Studies have shown that video games can improve mental faculties, such as hand-eye coordination. More intelligent games such as strategy and puzzle games can also improve problem solving, and provide intellectual stimulation as well.

Some people however, believe violence in video games, promotes violent behavior among viewers. Studies show that video games can increase aggressive behavior and emotional outbursts and decrease inhibitions.

People, playing high-aggression games, were significantly more anxious than others who play only mildly aggressive games.

Akio Mori, professor at Tokyo’s Nihon University, divided 260 people into three groups: those who rarely played video games, those who played between 1 and 3 hours three to four times a week and those who played 2 to 7 hours each day. He monitored “the beta waves that indicate liveliness and degree of tension in the prefrontal region of the brain and alpha waves, which often appear when the brain is resting”

The results showed a higher decrease of beta waves the more one played video games. “Beta wave activity in people in the highest amount of video game playing, was constantly near zero, even when they weren’t playing, showing that they hardly used the prefrontal regions of their brains. Many of the people in this group told researchers that they got angry easily, couldn’t concentrate and had trouble associating with friends”.

The decrease of beta waves after the video game was turned off, implies a lasting effect.

The study shows that a lack of use of the frontal brain, or ‘video-game brain’, can change moods and could account for aggressive and reclusive behavior. If the brain is so impacted by video games as to create behavioral changes, does that mean that the brain perceives the games as real?

The final conclusion is that video games have both positive and negative effects on health, depending on the type of game played and its frequency and the balance of a healthy lifestyle.

“The crews were taken back to shore as a precaution, after a supply vessel accidentally broke open a gas line, while mooring at a gas platform in Cocodrie, southwest Louisiana,” BP’s Nicole Lachance said.

The move came after 36 people, out of 41, were taken to hospital, with two workers complaining of more serious symptoms, including shortness of breath, disorientation and chest pains.

Officials said a small amount of toxic fumes leaked at a natural gas platform, before it was promptly shut off.

The 120 vessels were a fraction of the 3600 vessels that are now involved in the response effort to clean up the Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to the latest BP figures.

“The safety of the people in the field is a top priority of this oil spill response,” said Unified Command Safety Section Chief Scot Rudolph.

New data suggesta the oil’s flow – before a containment system was put in place last week – was between 25,000 and 30,000 barrels a day and could be upwards of 40,000 barrels a day, or some 1.68 million gallons, in the worst environmental disaster in US history. The latest containment is only capturing around 28,000 barrels a day. This rate is not expected to be boosted to 40- 50,000 barrels a day until July.

BP chief executive, Tony Hayward said that the firm is considering cutting its dividend amid growing US public anger at its handling of the devastating oil spill. The company’s shares continue to slump, as BP faces a multi-million dollar bill for cleanup operations.

“The administration keeps pushing the boundaries on what we are responsible for,” a BP executive said, after Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, said he would demand that the company also pay for the lost wages of oil workers, who were rendered idle by the massive slick.

US Coast Guard, Rear Admiral James Watson, has expressed concern that BP’s current plants to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil spill do not go far enough and has ordered an immediate improvement.

A spokesman for Qantas said, “None of the passengers detected anything. It was an odour the cabin crew picked up in the galley area just 20 minutes before landing.”

The oven was instantly replaced and the aircraft returned to service.

A methane gas explosion, caused by a chemical reaction of setting cement, killed 11 workers on the BP oil rig and subsequently poured over 3 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean.

Yet there are many gas related incidents accidents that occur almost daily.

Methamphetamine Lab Fumes

On May 21^st the Morgan sherriff’s chief deputy had to receive treatment, after inhaling toxic fumes from a methamphetamine lab.

County Drug Task Force agents and deputies were serving a felony arrest warrant on Justin Parker, 29, when he dumped the contents of a one-pot meth lab out the back door of his mobile home, releasing a chemical smoke cloud, causing the chemicals to ignite.

On May 5, after a suspect dumped the contents of the lab down a kitchen sink, releasing toxic fumes, ambulances rushed two drug task force agents and the suspect to Decatur General Hospital after they inhaled chemical fumes at a Wilhite Road home in Falk­ville.

Sewer Fumes

Jabin Lakes, 31, died on May 7^th, while checking a manhole cover, in Middleton. Lakes fell into the sewer after succumbing to a mysterious gas. Three firefighters were injured and sent to the Atrium Medical Centre for treatment.

Catchment Pond Fumes

Two workers were discharged from Whangarei Hospital, New Zealand, on May 14^th after being overcome by fumes from a catchment pond, at a Carter Holt Harvey factory.

Unknown Substance

On April 17^th a Philadelphia man was arrested and a Pennsylvania bus driver needed medical treatment.

The bus’s only occupant allegedly lit an unknown substance in the bus restroom. The fumes caused the driver to become ill, before collapsing on the ground.

The police smelled an unidentified smell when they entered the bus and found burned material in the toilet area.

The driver told the police the passenger had lit the unknown substance several times.

Smelling Salts, Texas

On April 16, three Bammel Middle School Spring students were tossing smelling salts around in a classroom at, 16711 Ella Boulevard, on Friday morning.

The smelling salts hit the floor and four of the 12 students in the classroom were overcome by the odor and needed treatment.

Water Treatment Factory, Australia

After a 45-year-old worker had attempted to neutralise waste product with hydrochloric acid, on April 15, two workers collapsed and were hospitalized, when they were exposed to chlorine gas at the water treatment factory in Melbourne, Australia.

It took 35 firefighter three hours to bring the incident under control.

Airborne Chemical

A mysterious airborne chemical forced the evacuation of Walkerville Collegiate and left dozens of students gasping for air.

Twenty-six people were treated at the scene. Ambulances took two teachers and 14 students to hospital.

Garden Spray Kills

A man was killed and three other people, who tried to resuscitate him, were hospitalized after exposure to a chemical spray at a house in western Sydney, Australia.

The man was spraying weeds at a house, when he collapsed and went into cardiac arrest.

Pepper Spray

Eleven students were hospitalized, after a female student dropped a bottle of pepper spray on the ground and exploded, at St Francis Prep High School.

“To put it in terms of absolute risk, if people eating the least amount of chocolate increased their intake by six grams a day, 85 fewer heart attacks and strokes per 10,000 people could be expected to occur over a period of about 10 years,” said lead researcher Brian Buijsse of the German Institute of Human Nutrition.

“Small amounts of chocolate may help to prevent heart disease, but only if it replaces other energy-dense food, such as snacks, in order to keep body weight stable,” Mr Buijsse said.

The Institute admits that more research needs to be done however, in order to explain why chocolate appears to help the heart.

Previous research has suggested that the answer may lie in complex molecules called flavanols, which recruit the gas nitric oxide to the cells that line the inner walls of blood vessels. Nitric oxide causes smooth muscles to relax, which may lower blood pressure.

Flavanols are found in cocoa – and as there is more cocoa in dark chocolate, this could explain why milk chocolate or white chocolate were found to be less effective.

Professor Peter Howe from the University of South Australia says the risk of heart attack and stroke was reduced by almost 40 per cent.

Other researchers say the cause of this is due to the fact that high amounts of antioxidant compounds known as Catechins helps protect against heart diseases.

The researcher, Frank Schab, said a memory strategy based on odor could help students studying for multiple exams, or airline pilots training for emergencies.

Students who were exposed to the smell of chocolate during a word exercise and again in the recall test, recalled an average of 21 percent of the words they had written. That was significantly better than the best average from the other groups, 17 percent. There were no differences in the effect between men and women.

However, Schab also found that chocolate and mothball odors worked equally well, suggesting that a smell’s pleasantness does not affect its power to stimulate memory.

The idea of chocolate being healthy is not a new one.

Henry Stubbe (1632-1676) was a physician who considered drinking chocolate once or twice a day an excellent cure for fatigue caused by hard work. He also believed that chocolate helped benefit the heart and that it helped increased breast milk production in women.

According to Baylor College of Medicine researcher Dr. Ken Goodrick. “Chocolate is seen as “naughty but nice”. It is tasty, but something which should be resisted. This suggests that the desire is more likely a cultural phenomenon than a physical one.”

The Australian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergies says that food allergies occur in around 1 in 20 children and about 1 in 100 adults. Most child food allergies are expected to disappear with time.

Hospital admissions for severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis) have doubled over the last decade in Australia, USA and UK and the general feeling is that food allergies are on the rise.

Reactions to food allergies are influenced by a number of things:

• Amount eaten
• Severity of the allergy
• Whether it is eaten on its own or mixed in with other foods
• Form of the food (liquid may sometimes be absorbed faster)
• Exercise around the same time as the meal may worsen severity.
• Presence or absence of asthma
• Cooked food is sometimes better tolerated

Food allergy is an overreaction of the body’s immune system, usually to a protein.

The symptoms of food allergy can be life threatening and include:

• Itching, burning and swelling around the mouth
• Runny nose
• Skin rash (eczema)
• Hives (urticaria – skin becomes red and raised)
• Diarrhoea, abdominal cramps
• Breathing difficulties, including wheezing and asthma
• Vomiting, nausea.

Nuts, eggs, milk or soy cause about 90 per cent of food allergies. Peanut allergy is one of the most common allergies in older children. Seafood and some fruit and berries can also cause an allergic reaction, including MSG and sulphite derivatives.

According to a new report commissioned by the American federal government, the true number of food allergic sufferers hovers around eight percent for children and five percent for adults.

“Everyone has a different definition of a food allergy,” said Dr. Jennifer J. Schneider Chafen, who was the lead author of the new report. “Many people have food intolerance instead.”

Food intolerance, which is much more common than food allergy, is a chemical reaction to a particular ingredient, or food. This is not an immune response.

Symptoms of food intolerance can include:

• Nervousness, tremor
• Sweating
• Palpitations
• Rapid breathing
• Headache, migraine
• Diarrhoea
• Burning sensations on the skin
• Tightness across the face and chest
• Breathing problems – asthma-like symptoms
• Allergy-like reactions.

The foods that tend to cause intolerance reactions in sensitive people include dairy products, chocolate, egg, MSG, pepper, red wine, histamine and amines in food.

The man left his clothes on a sand dune at the beach, when he went for a swim in the nude. While, he was swimming, the rare katipo spider crawled into his shorts. Returning from his swim, the man put his shorts back on and took a nap. The trapped spider decided took his revenge by nipping the man on his penis.

On waking up, the man found his penis swollen, sore and red, with the spider venom causing him agonizing chest pains, a racing heart and high blood pressure.

“He also suffered muscle pain, fever, headache, light sensitivity and vomiting as a result of the spider bite,” said Dr. Nigel Harrison.

Treatment with Antivenin, an anti-toxin, saw the man’s condition improve rapidly.

He spent 16 days in hospital and is said to be the only known person to develop heart inflammation as a result of a Katipo spider bite.

The small, black and venomous Kapito spiders are native to New Zealand. The female, the most poisonous native animal in New Zealand, has a distinctive red stripe running down her back. Both male and female spider may also have white markings on their back.

They are ground dwellers, living in sand dunes, burrowing under logs and other debris on the beach. Their narrow habitat, along with their rareness, general non-aggression, plus the human awareness of where the Katipo lives, means incidences of katipo bites are very low.

The Katipo, a Maori word meaning ‘night-stinger’ is an endangered species in New Zealand. The pea-sized spiders belong to the worldwide genus Latrodecuts (widow spiders) and are related to the Australian Red Back and American Black Widow. They usually bite humans only in self defense, though two fatalities were recorded in the 1800s