Jill Bolte Taylor became a brain scientist because she wanted to study her brother's schizophrenia. In this talk at TED she explains how she analyzed her own stroke after a blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain. She explains how she felt her own brain fuctions slip away. She says she became an "infant in a woman's body."
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.
She brings an actual human brain to the TED conference. You can see the video below or here. (via Boing Boing)
The CDC has some good advice here for dealing with extreme heat. It includes tips for staying cool, recognizing heat stroke, recognizing heat exhaustion and monitoring people at high risk. The CDC also says to never leave children or pets in hot cars. Even with the window cracked this can be a deadly mistake to make.
Even in cool temperatures, cars can heat up to dangerous temperatures very quickly. Even with the windows cracked open, interior temperatures can rise almost 20 degrees Fahrenheit within the first 10 minutes. Anyone left inside is at risk for serious heat-related illnesses or even death. Children who are left unattended in parked cars are at greatest risk for heat stroke, and possibly death.
Warnings for heat advisories this week have noted that temperatures in cars can climb to 130 degree very quickly in this kind of heat and humidity.
NEVER LEAVE PETS OR CHILDREN IN PARKED CARS - EVEN WITH THE WINDOWS OPEN. TEMPERATURES INSIDE PARKED CARS CAN REACH 130 DEGREES IN ONLY A FEW MINUTES
The recent heat wave in California is responsible for over 160 deaths as well as the deaths of 25,000 cows and hundreds of thousands of poultry. This same heat wave is moving east so people in the Midwest and the East Coast need to be alert for some dangerously hot and humid weather. Excessive heat warnings have already been posted in many states.
The BBC reports that a study on mice suggests that eating veggies may reduce the risk of atherosclerosis, or artery hardening. The scientists studies two groups of mice: one group received vegetables while the other group did not. The group of mice eating the veggies had 38% smaller artery plaques.
Half the mice were fed a vegetable-free diet and half the mice were fed a diet which included broccoli, green beans, corn, peas and carrots.
After 16 weeks, researchers measured cholesterol content in the blood vessels and estimated that plaques in the arteries of the mice were 38% smaller.
Although there was also a reduction in total cholesterol and body weight in mice fed the vegetable-rich diet, analysis showed that this could not explain the reduction in atherosclerosis.
Lead researcher Dr Michael Adams said: "While everyone knows that eating more vegetables is supposed to be good for you, no-one had shown before that it can actually inhibit the development of atherosclerosis."
Atherosclerosis increases the likelihood of a stroke. Any reduction in the risk of having a stroke is a good thing. This appears to be just one more benefit of eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.
MSNBC.com reports that a study has found an increased risk of stroke for sleep apnea sufferers. The study also found that using a CPAP machine does not reduce the stroke risk.
About 4 percent of Americans suffer from extreme daytime fatigue because their sleep is disrupted by sleep apnea, forcing them to repeatedly wake up if only for a second. Another 16 percent of Americans have apnea without fatigue.
A seven-year study, led by Klar Yaggi of the Yale University School of Medicine, found that people with apnea were twice as likely to die or have a stroke. The risk more than tripled among volunteers with the worst apnea.
The study involving 1,022 people also showed that the risk persisted even with treatment to keep the throat open during sleep, mostly through a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine. Other study volunteers lost weight or had surgery to ease their symptoms.
The article does have a quote from Klar Yaggi, who led the study, that said the machine is still worth it for sleep apnea sufferers if it improves the way they feel.
"We're really treating you to improve how you feel. Walking around exhausted is a just a horrible quality of life," he said.
This particular article did not have any speculation or theories as to ways sleep apnea and stroke may or may not be related but if the study is correct is does indicate that sleep apnea is something that should be closely monitored.
The BBC reports that some expert claims that some people with strokes on the right-side of their brains may be going undiagnosed. This is because right-sided strokes are less obvious and don't usually impact speech like left-sided strokes.
Dr Christian Foerch and colleagues at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt looked at stroke data for over 20,000 patients between 1997 and 2002.
They found more of the recorded cases were left-sided strokes than right-sided ones - 11,300 cases compared to 8,700 cases, respectively.
Dr Foerch's team does not believe left-sided strokes are more common than right-sided ones but instead that strokes on the right of the brain are more often missed.
Compared to those with right-handed strokes, the patients affected on the left of the brain were more likely to get the right treatment and be admitted to hospital within three hours of their symptoms starting.
Sports teams are using a new radio pill, called the CorTemp Temperature Pill, that can monitor a players real-time core body temperature and report back the results to a PDA. Engadget said teams like the Philadelphia Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars started using the pills after Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Korey Stringer died of heat stroke four years ago.
The players ingest the pill, which transmits their body temperature to a handheld device for about 24 hours or so, after which it’s eliminated from the body. All the hardware involved here ain’t cheap — teams fork over $2,500 apiece for a few data recorders, plus an optional $4,000 handheld that serves as a central monitor for all the players. The bright side is it makes that iPaq hx4700 seem like a steal.
Sports teams are using a new radio pill, called the 