Can the power of thought stop you ageing?

BBC News, by Abigail Williams

A cure to ageing is a holy grail of medicine

In 1979 psychologist Ellen Langer carried out an experiment to find if changing thought patterns could slow ageing. But the full story of the extraordinary experiment has been hidden until now.

How much control do you have over how you will age?

Many people would laugh at the idea that people could influence the state of their health in old age by positive thinking. A way of mitigating ageing is a holy grail for the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry, but an experiment by Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer three decades ago could hold significant clues.

Prof Langer has spent her entire career investigating the power our mind has over our health. Conventional medicine is frequently accused of treating them as separate entities.

"Everybody knows in some way that our minds affect our physical being, but I don't think people are aware of just how profound the effect actually is," she says.

In 1979, Prof Langer conducted a ground-breaking experiment - the results of which are only now being fully revealed.

Prof Langer recruited a group of elderly men all in their late 70s or 80s for what she described as a "week of reminiscence". They were not told they were taking part in a study into ageing, an experiment that would transport them 20 years back in time.

The psychologist wanted to know if she could put the mind back 20 years would the body show any changes.

The men were split into two groups. They would both be spending a week at a retreat outside of Boston.

Ellen Langer in 1979 and today

But while the first group, the control, really would be reminiscing about life in the 50s, the other half would be in a timewarp. Surrounded by props from the 50s the experimental group would be asked to act as if it was actually 1959.

They watched films, listened to music from the time and had discussions about Castro marching on Havana and the latest Nasa satellite launch - all in the present tense.

Dr Langer believed she could reconnect their minds with their younger and more vigorous selves by placing them in an environment connected with their own past lives.

And she was determined to remove any prompt for them to behave as anything but healthy individuals. The retreat was not equipped with rails or any gadgets that would help older people. Right from the off she was determined to ensure they looked after themselves.

When they got off the bus at the retreat, Prof Langer did not help the men carry their suitcases in. "I told them they could move them an inch at a time, they could unpack them right at the bus and take up a shirt at a time."

The men were entirely immersed in an era when they were 20 years younger.

Understandably, Prof Langer herself had doubts. "You have to understand, when these people came to see if they could be in the study and they were walking down the hall to get to my office, they looked like they were on their last legs, so much so that I said to my students 'why are we doing this? It's too risky'."

But soon the men were making their own meals. They were making their own choices. They weren't being treated as incompetent or sick.

Pretty soon she could see a difference. Over the days, Prof Langer began to notice that they were walking faster and their confidence had improved. By the final morning one man had even decided he could do without his walking stick.

As they waited for the bus to return them to Boston, Prof Langer asked one of the men if he would like to play a game of catch, within a few minutes it had turned into an impromptu game of "touch" American football.

Obviously this kind of anecdotal evidence does not count for much in a study.

But Prof Langer took physiological measurements both before and after the week and found the men improved across the board. Their gait, dexterity, arthritis, speed of movement, cognitive abilities and their memory was all measurably improved.

Their blood pressure dropped and, even more surprisingly, their eyesight and hearing got better. Both groups showed improvements, but the experimental group improved the most.

Prof Langer believes that by encouraging the men's minds to think younger their bodies followed and actually became "younger".

She first published the scientific data in 1981 but she left out many of the more colourful stories. As a young academic, she feared this might taint the experiment and affect the acceptance of the results.

Now after over 30 years of research into the connection between the mind and the body and with the confidence and conviction of a Harvard professor, she feels she has a fuller story to tell.

"My own view of ageing is that one can, not the rare person but the average person, live a very full life, without infirmity, without loss of memory that is debilitating, without many of the things we fear."

Richard Wiseman, professor of public understanding of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, thinks the results of Prof Langer's experiments are fascinating but the big question is what's causing them. "I think there could be multiple things going on here and the question is which explanations really hold water.

"Part of it could be self perception, for example if you get people to smile they feel happier. The same could be going on here, by getting people to act younger they feel younger."

Prof Weisman believes another factor could be motivational, the men are simply trying harder by the end of the week, or it could be similar to hypnotism, where people do better on memory tests because they are told they have a better memory.

Whatever the cause he believes there is a place for the type of positive thinking shown in the study.

"If you take something like heart disease positive thinking can have a role, because while it won't heal your heart on its own, positive thinking will feed into positive actions like healthy eating or exercise which will help."

In any event there is likely to be more interest in the 1979 experiment. The retelling of the study has been snapped up by Jennifer Aniston's new production company, with Aniston tipped to play Prof Langer.

Related Article:

Horizon: Don't Grow Old is available via iPlayer and will be repeated at 0250GMT on BBC One on Tuesday 9 February

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My talking walls are creating my reality?

Miraculous Messages From Water

'Vegetative state' man responds to questions

By Peter Wilkinson, CNN, February 4, 2010 -- Updated 1608 GMT (0008 HKT)

MRI scan shows different responses in the brain after the patient is asked different questions.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Man presumed in vegetative state for 5 years communicates with outside world
• Finding has enormous implications for care of vegetative patients
• Man responded to questions about his life as scientists monitored activity in his brain

London, England (CNN) -- A man presumed to have been in a vegetative state for five years has communicated with the outside world for the first time since suffering severe head injuries in a car crash, researchers said Thursday.

The finding by British and Belgian researchers has huge implications for the care and treatment of patients in a coma-like state. It comes two months after a Belgian car crash victim whose condition was misdiagnosed as a vegetative state for 23 years was revealed to have been conscious the whole time.

Before the latest experiment the 29-year-old Belgian patient, who had his accident in 2003, had shown no sign of being aware of the outside world.

Five years ago doctors believed he slipped from a coma to a vegetative state, leaving his body functioning but without his personality or consciousness.

The researchers, based at Cambridge and Liege universities, realized that diagnosis was wrong when the man responded to questions about his life as scientists monitored activity in his brain.

Using a scanning technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the patient's brain activity was mapped while he was asked to answer "yes" or "no" to questions such as "Is your father's name Thomas?"

The patient communicated answers by wilfully changing his brain activity.

In the three-year study, 23 patients believed to be in a vegetative state were scanned using fMRI, and signs of awareness were detected in four of these cases (17 per cent), the researchers said.

The fMRI method used can decipher the brain's answers to questions in healthy, non-vegetative, participants with 100 per cent accuracy, but it was never tried in a patient who cannot move or speak.

Dr. Adrian Owen, co-author of the research from the Medical Research Council, said: "We were astonished when we saw the results of the patient's scan and that he was able to correctly answer the questions that were asked by simply changing his thoughts.

"Not only did these scans tell us that the patient was not in a vegetative state but, more importantly, for the first time in five years, it provided the patient with a way of communicating his thoughts to the outside world."

Colleague Dr. Steven Laureys, from the University of Liege, said the scans had given the patient his only means of communication since the accident.

Watch Dr. Laureys explain how comas are assessed

He added: "It's early days, but in the future we hope to develop this technique to allow some patients to express their feelings and thoughts, control their environment and increase their quality of life."

The cases of patients in vegetative states highlight the difficulty in determining levels of consciousness in people who cannot communicate. In the example of the Belgian patient in November who was misdiagnosed as being in a vegetative state, experts were skeptical about how a therapist expressed his thoughts by moving his fingers across a keyboard.

"That's Ouija board stuff," Art Caplan, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist, told the Associated Press, according to Newsweek.

Related Article:

Patient trapped in a 23-year 'coma' was conscious all along

Condoms 'too big' for Indian men

By Damian Grammaticus, BBC News, Delhi

There is a "lack of awareness" over condom sizes

A survey of more than 1,000 men in India has concluded that condoms made according to international sizes are too large for a majority of Indian men.

The study found that more than half of the men measured had penises that were shorter than international standards for condoms.

It has led to a call for condoms of mixed sizes to be made more widely available in India.

The two-year study was carried out by the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Over 1,200 volunteers from the length and breadth of the country had their penises measured precisely, down to the last millimetre.

The scientists even checked their sample was representative of India as a whole in terms of class, religion and urban and rural dwellers.

The conclusion of all this scientific endeavour is that about 60% of Indian men have penises which are between three and five centimetres shorter than international standards used in condom manufacture.

Doctor Chander Puri, a specialist in reproductive health at the Indian Council of Medical Research, told the BBC there was an obvious need in India for custom-made condoms, as most of those currently on sale are too large.

The issue is serious because about one in every five times a condom is used in India it either falls off or tears, an extremely high failure rate.

And the country already has the highest number of HIV infections of any nation.

'Not a problem'

Mr Puri said that since Indians would be embarrassed about going to a chemist to ask for smaller condoms there should be vending machines dispensing different sizes all around the country.

"Smaller condoms are on sale in India. But there is a lack of awareness that different sizes are available. There is anxiety talking about the issue. And normally one feels shy to go to a chemist's shop and ask for a smaller size condom."

But Indian men need not be concerned about measuring up internationally according to Sunil Mehra, the former editor of the Indian version of the men's magazine Maxim.

"It's not size, it's what you do with it that matters," he said.

"From our population, the evidence is Indians are doing pretty well.

"With apologies to the poet Alexander Pope, you could say, for inches and centimetres, let fools contend."

Related Article:

Large condoms for S African men

Happy staff the key to firm's success

Asiaonebusiness, By Sylvia Paik

WHEN his family firm was about to go belly-up, chief executive Erman Tan (pictured above) did not try the usual desperate tactics of new products or slashing costs.

Instead, he invested in his staff to save the firm.

Mr Tan had long felt that keeping employees happy and engaged was a key component to success, and he set about proving it with his chemical firm Asia Polyurethane Manufacturing (APU).

He had originally set his sights on working for a multinational upon graduating with a double honours degree in accountancy and information technology from Britain's Leeds University.

'My dream was to become a chief financial controller of a multinational. But when my dad passed away, I had to come back to rebuild my family's business out of family obligations,' said Mr Tan.

And while polyurethane, which combines the flexibility of rubber with the resilience and durability of plastic, is a vital chemical in making foam to insulate industrial and domestic products like car seats and toys, it is far from a glamorous industry.

'Working in the chemical industry wasn't exactly my cup of tea,' he said. And APU, which his father had started in 1985, was almost insolvent when Mr Tan, 45, took up the challenge in 2003.

'The transition was not smooth. When I took over, APU was almost gone. It was a big crisis. The company lacked cash flow. Our bankers did not believe in us. Some ex-colleagues walked out on us.

'I had to talk to bankers to give us time and build up their confidence in us.'

That was when he decided to focus on making APU 'the best place to work in the polyurethane industry', as he put it.

'A happier leader is a more effective leader. Whether you are happy or not, you still have to do it, so you might as well be happy,' he said philosophically.

Mr Tan believes the most effective way to enhance an organisation's performance is by 'building, attracting, retaining, growing, and enlarging' talent in the organisation, because 'your talent will be your biggest asset. Your staff can make things happen for you'.

He quipped: 'Just as the happiness of a woman is to find a good husband, the happiness of a boss is to find good workers.'

In focusing on his staff and intensifying efforts to keep his people engaged and productive, Mr Tan hit on one of the key problems among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) here - retaining talent.

He himself is all too aware of how challenging it is for SMEs like his to attract and keep skilled people. Many cannot afford to pay top-dollar salaries or provide the prestige and facilities offered by multinationals.

Yet, he also acknowledges that SMEs must seek and retain new talent in order to sustain growth, instead of relying on the same old strategies and practices just to survive.

Thus, in order to compete, SMEs must offer something less tangible to employees, such as work satisfaction, a sense of teamwork and so on.

Mr Tan says he tries to provide what he calls CEO - 'Care, Empowerment and Opportunities' - for his staff, to make them feel valued. 'Grooming of talent, like nurturing a family, requires a lot of tender, loving care. It is a long-term investment,' he said.

'We definitely would encounter many unexpected challenges along the way. Nevertheless, we must continue to have faith and belief in our people, as one day the ultimate result would certainly be rewarding and fruitful.'

One of his senior employees, international sales manager Ri Gopalan, backs Mr Tan's approach, describing him as a 'charismatic and visionary leader' who has 'invested a lot in me', such as sending him on numerous courses and seminars in IT, management, leadership and service quality.

'As a boss, Erman is very open. He can share ideas, and he likes to give us interesting books by Dale Carnegie,' he said.

'In my 20 years of work experience elsewhere, I never got the kind of exposure as my three years here.'

Mr Tan's efforts have paid off since those dark days in 2003.

Today, APU is the largest polyurethane manufacturer in South Asia by sales revenue, with an estimated turnover of $101.2 million this year. It employs 75 people in offices in Singapore, Indonesia, India and China, and supplies companies in 15 industries - such as automotive, oil pipelines and construction - in more than 30 countries.

APU has won numerous industry accolades while Mr Tan has won leadership prizes, including Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005, awarded by the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises and the Rotary Club of Singapore.

He is now focusing on 'greening' APU. It received the Building and Construction Authority's Green Mark Award in 2007 and the Green Label by the Singapore Environment Council this year for its environmentally friendly products.

Like the polyurethane his company makes, Mr Tan believes in being flexible, yet resilient in the long term: 'Learn from others' mistakes, so that you never repeat them yourself.'

But he knows that his greatest resource resides within the firm's four walls: 'I believe APU is on the right track because I know what marvellous things can happen when you combine a little focus, a pool of talented people, and a lot of drive.

'I believe that a company is only as good as its people. When you grow your staff, if they are good, your company will be good.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.

Do hearts have memories? Transplant patient gets craving for food eaten by organ donor

MailOnline, by RICHARD SHEARS, 9:24 PM on 23rd December 2009

Transplant: David Waters received the heart from Kaden Delaney (top right). David holds Kaden's baby sister who was born after he passed away. He now craves Burger Rings - one of Kaden's favourite snacks

A transplant patient has developed an insatiable craving for junk food - after receiving a new heart from a teenager with a taste for fatty snacks.

David Waters is the latest example of an extraordinary phenomenon which sees some transplant recipients take on the characteristics of the donor.

Before being given the heart of 18-year-old Kaden Delaney, who was left brain dead after a car crash, Mr Waters, 24, had 'no desire at all' for Burger Rings, ring-shaped hamburger-flavoured crisps.

It was two years before he found out why the cravings had started suddenly after his operation.

Kaden's family tracked him down to see who had benefited from their son's heart, and they began exchanging emails. A curious Mr Waters then asked: 'Did Kaden like Burger Rings? That's all I seemed to want to eat after my surgery.'

He was astonished to hear that he ate them daily.

The case in Australia adds weight to a theory that the brain is not the only organ to store memories or personality traits.

Scientists say there are at least 70 documented cases of transplant patients having personality changes which reflect the characteristics of their donor.

Other astonishing examples include the case of American Sonny Graham, who received the heart of Terry Cottle, who had shot himself in the head.

After the transplant in 1995 Mr Graham met Mr Cottle's widow Cheryl, falling in love and marrying her.

Twelve years later Mr Graham picked up a gun and shot himself in the throat, leaving Cheryl a widow for the second time grieving for husbands who had shared a heart.

In another example, an eight-year-old girl received the heart of a murdered ten-year-old and began having terrifying dreams about a man murdering her donor.

Until then, the murderer had not been caught, but recollections from the girl's dream were so precise that police were able to track down the killer and he was convicted.

Mr Waters, from Adelaide, had been suffering from a stiffening of the heart ventricles and been given only a few months to live when he was given the heart of Kaden, from New South Wales.

But despite his belief that he might have 'caught' Kaden's craving for the snack food, a transplant expert cautioned against reading too much into the link.

Jeremy Chapman, Sydney-based president of the International Transplantation Society, said: 'There is no scientific basis of such a claim.

'There's so much fiction around transplants.'

But other researchers say the phenomenon, which is known as 'cellular memory', is not limited to those who have received new hearts.

Is This The World Tallest Dog?

Kompas, WEDNESDAY, 23 DECEMBER 2009 | 1:37 PM

Giant George and owner Dave Nasser share a couch together. The four-year-old blue great dane, weighs a staggering 245 pounds and measures almost 43 ins at the shoulder

KOMPAS.com - Standing at nearly 43 inches tall from paw to shoulder and weighing a staggering 245lbs could this be the world's new tallest dog? Pictured here in the parks of Tuscon, Arizona, George, a four-year-old blue great dane, looks more like a miniature horse than a dog.

The gentle giant, who measures 7ft 3ins from nose to tail, could be a prime contender to take the title from the former record holder, Gibson, a harlequin Great Dane who passed away from cancer last August. Now George's owners, David and Christine Nasser, are awaiting confirmation from Guinness World Records to see if he has achieved the lofty heights.

'He's 42.625 inches at the shoulder,' said David. 'He's very very unique.' According to David, George consumes 110lbs of food every month, and sleeps alone in his own Queen Size Bed. David and Christine raised George from when he was 7 weeks old, but never expected him to grow so big.

The couple eventually had to move their aptly named dog out of their king sized bed, when he grew too large for the three of them to share the same sheets. Dr. William Wallace of the Buena Pet Clinic in Tucson, who witnessed the documentation necessary for the Guinness record, said: 'In my 45 years of experience working with giant breed dogs, without question, George is the tallest dog I have ever seen.'

David is currently rushing to get that necessary documentation into Guinness as other dog owners are coming forth claiming the record. As they wait for the results to come through, George is busy occupying himself with his new found stardom and even has a Facebook fan page and Twitter accounts for his adorning fans.

It appears as though the sky's the limit for this mammoth hound.

Editor: jimbon / Source : The Daily Mail

'Arthritis risk' for middle-aged exercise addicts

BBC News

Can exercise be too much of a good thing?

Middle-aged men and women may be risking arthritis if they overdo their exercise regime, research suggests.

A US study of more than 200 people aged 45 to 55 and of "normal" weight found those doing the most exercise were the most likely to suffer knee damage.

Running and jumping may also do more damage to cartilage and ligaments than swimming and cycling, researchers said.

One arthritis charity said it was important to keep fit and most people would not have any problems.

Osteoarthritis - the most common form of arthritis - is a degenerative joint disease that causes pain, swelling and stiffness and affects 8m people in the UK.

It is more common in women, and the risk increases with age and weight.

Presenting the findings at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, the researchers said their study included people who had not reported any previous knee pain.

Activity

Based on a questionnaire designed to work out how much exercise they do, participants were split into low-, middle- and high-activity groups.

A typical high-activity individual would do several hours of walking, sports or other types of exercise per week, as well as gardening and other household chores.

They then underwent MRI scans of the knee, looking for tears, lesions and other abnormalities in the cartilage and ligaments.

The damage seen was associated solely with activity levels and was not age or gender specific, the researchers said.

And it also seemed to be linked to the type of exercise a person did, although the researchers said this needed to be looked at in other studies.

Study leader Dr Christoph Stehling, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco said: "Our data suggest that people with higher physical activity levels may be at greater risk for developing knee abnormalities and, thus, at higher risk for developing osteoarthritis.

"This study and previous studies by our group suggest that high impact, weight-bearing physical activity, such as running and jumping, may be worse for cartilage health.

"Conversely, low-impact activities, such as swimming and cycling, may protect diseased cartilage and prevent healthy cartilage from developing disease."

A spokeswoman for the Arthritis Research Campaign said that the gains of exercise far outweighed any potential risks.

"We have known for years that certain high impact sports and jobs are associated with an increased risk of osteoarthritis, particularly of the knee, but for the vast majority of people exercise is good, not only for the cartilage but for total body health.

"Most people can exercise without any problems, but if you have had a joint injury or torn cartilage or ligaments you should be cautious about weight-bearing exercise, and swimming and cycling may provide a better option for you."

Chinese children adopted by overseas families begin root-tracing trip

www.chinaview.cn 2009-11-23 21:47:00

BEIJING, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese children adopted by 37 overseas families from six countries are in China for a root-tracing trip to learn more about their birth country.

A welcoming ceremony was held on Monday by the Ministry of Civil Affairs for the children aged four to 14 and their families.

At the ceremony, Minister of Civil Affairs Li Xueju presented gifts to the children. To welcome the children, a traditional Chinese drum dance and poetry recitation were also staged at the ceremony.

In the following days, the children will revisit their birth places and former orphanages where they will celebrate this year's Thanksgiving Day with orphans and child-care workers there.

In coincidence with the Thanksgiving Day, the trip seeks to foster a sense of gratitude to their former orphanages and China among the adopted children, while offering them an opportunity to learn more about the Chinese culture.

An estimated 50,000 Chinese children have been adopted by foreigners since 1980, with 80 percent by Americans.

Patient trapped in a 23-year 'coma' was conscious all along

Daily Mail, by ALLAN HALL, 9:18 AM on 23rd November 2009

Rom Houben was trapped in a coma for 23 years and had no way of letting anyone know he could hear what they were saying (picture posed by model)

A car crash victim diagnosed as being in a coma for the past 23 years has been conscious the whole time.

Rom Houben was paralysed but had no way of letting doctors know that he could hear every word they were saying.

'I dreamed myself away,' said Mr Houben, now 46, who doctors thought was in a persistent vegatative state.

He added: 'I screamed, but there was nothing to hear.'

Doctors used a range of coma tests before reluctantly concluding that his consciousness was 'extinct'.

But three years ago, new hi-tech scans showed his brain was still functioning almost completely normally.

Mr Houben described the moment as 'my second birth'. Therapy has since allowed him to tap out messages on a computer screen.

Mr Houben said: 'All that time I just literally dreamed of a better life. Frustration is too small a word to describe what I felt.'

His case has only just been revealed in a scientific paper released by the man who 'saved' him, top neurological expert Dr Steven Laureys.

'Medical advances caught up with him,' said Dr Laureys, who believes there may be many similar cases of false comas around the world.

The disclosure will also renew the right-to-die debate over whether people in comas are truly unconscious.

Mr Houben, a former martial arts enthusiast, was paralysed in 1983.

Doctors in Zolder, Belgium, used the internationally accepted Glasgow Coma Scale to assess his eye, verbal and motor responses. But each time he was graded incorrectly.

Only a re-evaluation of his case at the University of Liege discovered that he had lost control of his body but was still fully aware of what was happening.

He is never likely to leave hospital, but as well as his computer he now has a special device above his bed which lets him read books while lying down.

Mr Houben said: 'I shall never forget the day when they discovered what was truly wrong with me - it was my second birth.

'I want to read, talk with my friends via the computer and enjoy my life now that people know I am not dead.'

Dr Laureys's new study claims that patients classed as in a vegetative state are often misdiagnosed.

'Anyone who bears the stamp of "unconscious" just one time hardly ever gets rid of it again,' he said.

The doctor, who leads the Coma Science Group and Department of Neurology at Liege University Hospital, found Mr Houben's brain was still working by using state-of-the-art imaging.

He plans to use the case to highlight what he considers may be similar examples around the world.

Dr Laureys said: 'In Germany alone each year some 100,000 people suffer from severe traumatic brain injury.

'About 20,000 are followed by a coma of three weeks or longer. Some of them die, others regain health.

'But an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 people a year remain trapped in an intermediate stage - they go on living without ever coming back again.'

Supporters of euthanasia and assisted suicide argue that people who have lain in persistent vegetative states for years should be given the opportunity to have crucial medical support withdrawn because of the 'indignity' of their condition.

But there have been several cases in which people judged to be in vegetative states or deep comas have recovered.

Twenty years ago, Carrie Coons, an 86-year-old from New York, regained consciousness after a year, took small amounts of food by mouth and engaged in conversation.

Only days before her recovery, a judge had granted her family's request for the removal of the feeding tube which had been keeping her alive.

In the UK in 1993, doctors switched off the life support system keeping alive Tony Bland, a 22-year- old who had been in a coma for three years following the Hillsborough disaster.

Dr Laureys was not available for comment yesterday and it is not clear why he thought Mr Houben should have the hi-tech screening when so many years had passed.

Picture of Michael Jackson Shown in The Baby's Scan

Kompas, SATURDAY, 21 NOVEMBER 2009 | 8:05 AM

KOMPAS.com - It looks like an ordinary ultrasound scan, with a blurry contrast of light and shade. But to Dawn Kelley and William Hickman, it's the face of Michael Jackson.

The imaginative couple say they can clearly see the face of the late pop star when they look at the picture of their unborn baby. Mr Hickman, 29, a window cleaner, said: 'I showed my daughter Ami, who's six, and she saw it straight away, so I thought "well, if she can see it too, it's not just me seeing things".'

Mother-of-six- Dawn, 34, went for her 20-week scan at Sunderland Royal as normal last month, but doctors could not see the foetus's stomach or diaphragm. A few weeks later she was sent to a different medical centre for a closer look.

The more powerful scanner there is normally used to examine internal organs so the images it produces are much more detailed.

Mr Hickman said: 'We were looking at the pictures again, and I just saw Jacko there.

'None of us are really Michael Jackson fans. I mean I like him, but we're not crazy about him or anything.'

Their children Chris, 16, Amanda, 15, Jason, 13, Alisha, 10, Ami-Lee, six, and Kye, four, say they can all see the singer's face in the scan photo too. But the couple won't, however, be naming the new addition to their family after Jackson - they already know they are having a girl.

Dawn, who is due to give birth to her daughter in March, said: 'I've had plenty of scans before and none of the photos have ever looked like this one. It's a bit spooky really.

'But it is my seventh child, and they say seven is a mythical number.'

Related Article:

Michael Jackson receives four posthumous music awards

Alcohol 'protects men's hearts'

BBC News

Drinking alcohol every day cuts the risk of heart disease in men by more than a third, a major study suggests.

The Spanish research involving more than 15,500 men and 26,000 women found large quantities of alcohol could be even more beneficial for men.

Wine, beer, vodka - the type of drink did not appear to change the results

Female drinkers did not benefit to the same extent, the study in Heart found.

Experts are critical, warning heavy drinking can increase the risk of other diseases, with alcohol responsible for 1.8 million deaths globally per year.

The study was conducted in Spain, a country with relatively high rates of alcohol consumption and low rates of coronary heart disease.

The research involved men and women aged between 29 and 69, who were asked to document their lifetime drinking habits and followed for 10 years.

Crucially the research team claim to have eliminated the "sick abstainers" risk by differentiating between those who had never drunk and those whom ill-health had forced to quit. This has been used in the past to explain fewer heart-related deaths among drinkers on the basis that those who are unhealthy to start with are less likely to drink.

Good cholesterol

The researchers from centres across Spain placed the participants into six categories - from never having drunk to drinking more than 90g of alcohol each day. This would be the equivalent of consuming about eight bottles of wine a week, or 28 pints of lager.

For those drinking little - less than a shot of vodka a day for instance - the risk was reduced by 35%. And for those who drank anything from three shots to more than 11 shots each day, the risk worked out an average of 50% less.

The same benefits were not seen in women, who suffer fewer heart problems than men to start with. Researchers speculated this difference could be down to the fact that women process alcohol differently, and that female hormones protect against the disease in younger age groups.

The type of alcohol drunk did not seem to make a difference, but protection was greater for those drinking moderate to high amounts of varied drinks.

The exact mechanisms are as yet unclear, but it is known that alcohol helps to raise high-density lipoproteins, sometimes known as good cholesterol, which helps stop so-called bad cholesterol from building up in the arteries.

'Binge-drinking'

UK experts said the findings should be treated with caution because they do not take into account ill-health from a range of other diseases caused by excess drinking.

"Whilst moderate alcohol intake can lower the risk of having a heart attack, coronary heart disease is just one type of heart disease. Cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle, is associated with high alcohol intake and can lead to a poor quality of life and premature death," said the British Heart Foundation's senior cardiac nurse, Cathy Ross.

"The heart is just one of many organs in the body. While alcohol could offer limited protection to one organ, abuse of it can damage the heart and other organs such as the liver, pancreas and brain."

The Stroke Association meanwhile noted that overall, evidence indicated that people who regularly consumed a large amount of alcohol had a three-fold increased risk of stroke.

"Six units within six hours is considered 'binge-drinking' and anyone indulging in regular 'binge-drinking' increases their risk of stroke greatly," said research officer Joanne Murphy.

Public health specialists warned no-one should be encouraged to drink more as a result of this study.

"The relationship between alcohol and heart disease remains controversial," said Professor Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

"While there is good evidence that moderate consumption is protective in people who are at substantial risk of heart disease - which excludes most people under the age of 40 - we also know that most people underestimate how much they drink. This paper adds to the existing literature but should not be considered as definitive. "

In the UK, the recommendation is no more than two to three units of alcohol a day for women - the equivalent of one standard glass of wine - and three to four units for men.

Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, agreed that the message from this study was not clear: "At the end of the day, you're juggling different risks and benefits, maybe helping your heart or maybe damaging your brain and liver.

"The simple message is moderation.

"Stick to the guidelines, and you won't go far wrong."

Ukraine paralysed by "superflu"

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, by Willemien Groot, November 2009

In Ukraine, the alarm phase red has been declared. According to the health authorities, the country has been hit by a new influenza virus that’s more dangerous than the swine (H1N1) flu. It seems to be a new variant that has mutated from the California flu and two seasonal flu viruses. The World Health Organisation (WHO) is still treating it as ‘normal’ swine flu.

Ukrainian doctors who examined two victims spoke of “lungs as black as charcoal”. This description ties in with earlier reports from hospitals on the west of Ukraine. A record number of people have been admitted with very serious bronchial infections, especially pneumonia. Most of the patients reported to a doctor far too late, and died from the effects of the virus.

Life at a standstill

Public life has been a standstill in the former Soviet republic for several weeks as a result of the severe outbreak of flu that has so far cost the lives of 189 people. All public events are forbidden, schools and universities are shut, and a number of border posts with the Czech Republic and Russia have been closed.

The WHO is trying to temper the alarming messages coming out of Ukraine. The first results of a WHO investigation into the 'superflu' did not point to an abnormal situation. Genetic analysis showed that the H1N1 virus was the main cause of the problems. Furthermore, the WHO says it has not mutated, and currently available pandemic vaccine offers sufficient protection.

Government not prepared

The problem is only that Ukraine doesn't have any vaccine. In the run-up to the pandemic the government didn't pay sufficient heed to the warnings. The vaccine was not ordered, and the stocks of antiviral drugs are minimal. There has been absolutely no information provided to the public. For ordinary citizens, good healthcare is seldom available. Even domestic medicines are either unaffordable or sold out.

The opposition accuses President Yushchenko of misusing the flu epidemic. It says that by creating confusion and anxiety, he wants to divert attention from the poor state of the economy. In January, the people are due to go to the polls to elect a new president, but because of the flu political meetings are forbidden.

Not just swine flu - new cold virus may lurk, too

Reuters, Tue Nov 17, 2009 3:24pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Runny nose, fever, cough, even pneumonia -- the symptoms sound like swine flu but children hospitalized at one U.S. hospital in fact had a rhinovirus, better known as a common cold virus, doctors said on Tuesday.

Hundreds of children treated at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia had a rhinovirus, and federal health investigators are trying to find out if it was a new strain, and if this is going on elsewhere in the country.

"What began to happen in early September is we started seeing more children coming to our emergency room with significant respiratory illness," said Dr. Susan Coffin, medical director of infection control and prevention at the hospital.

Doctors and parents assumed it was the new pandemic H1N1 swine flu, which would be expected to re-emerge as schools began in September. But it was not, Coffin said in a telephone interview.

The hospital, unlike most hospitals in the United States, runs a test that can diagnose 10 different respiratory viruses, including influenza but also rhinoviruses, parainfluenza viruses and other germs that make kids sick.

"The data showed us it wasn't H1N1 but instead was this rhinovirus infection," Coffin said.

Usually rhinoviruses cause an annoying but benign illness that looks a lot like flu, but with more runny nose and usually less of a fever. This one was causing severe symptoms and even pneumonia.

"Some of these kids had really bad wheezing," Coffin said -- so bad they had to be hospitalized and treated with a nebulizer, which delivers drugs into the lungs to help keep oxygen in the blood.

"We don't terribly often have large numbers of children test positive for it," Coffin said.

CDC INVESTIGATING

But she estimated that 500 were hospitalized in September and October, with no deaths that she knows of. Starting in mid-October, H1N1 swine flu started to show up, too.

The U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention is investigating, said CDC spokesman Dave Daigle.

"While rhinovirus outbreaks are common in the fall, the outbreak that occurred this year was unusually large and resulted in a lot of hospital admissions, including many children that required intensive care," Daigle said.

"We're still testing the strains from the outbreak, but from what we've seen so far, it doesn't appear that there's a single predominant strain."

The CDC says while swine flu is above epidemic levels, only 30 percent of cases of so-called influenza-like illness that are tested actually turn out to be H1N1.

Coffin and CDC officials say it is important for people not to assume if they or their children have flu-like symptoms that it was swine flu and that they do not need to be vaccinated.

H1N1 has infected an estimated 22 million people and killed 3,900 in the United States alone. It continues to spread globally and governments are just at the beginning of efforts to vaccinate people against the virus.

There is no vaccine for rhinovirus and no good treatment. For severely ill patients hospitals can try to keep blood oxygen levels up and keep the patients hydrated, often with intravenous lines if they are coughing or wheezing too hard to eat or drink.

(Editing by Philip Barbara)

Meditation 'eases heart disease'

BBC News

Heart patients saw a big risk reduction from practising meditation

Heart disease patients who practise Transcendental Meditation have reduced death rates, US researchers have said.

At a meeting of the American Heart Association they said they had randomly assigned 201 African Americans to meditate or to make lifestyle changes.

After nine years, the meditation group had a 47% reduction in deaths, heart attacks and strokes.

The research was carried out by the Medical College in Wisconsin with the Maharishi University in Iowa.

It was funded by a £2.3m grant from the National Institute of Health and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

'Significant benefits'

The African American men and women had an average age of 59 years and a narrowing of the arteries in their hearts.

The lifestyle change group received education classes in traditional risk factors, including dietary modification and exercise.

As well as the reductions in death, heart attacks and strokes in the meditating group, there was a clinically significant drop (5mm Hg) in blood pressure, and a significant reduction in psychological stress in some participants.

Robert Schneider, lead author and director of the Centre for Natural Medicine and Prevention at the Maharishi University in Iowa, said other studies had shown the benefits of Transcendental Meditation on blood pressure and stress, irrespective of ethnicity.

"This is the first controlled clinical trial to show that long-term practise of this particular stress reduction programme reduces the incidence of clinical cardiovascular events, that is heart attacks, strokes and mortality," he said.

Dr Schneider said that the effect of Transcendental Meditation in the trial was like adding a class of newly discovered drugs for the prevention of heart disease.

He said: "In this case, the new medications are derived from the body's own internal pharmacy stimulated by the Transcendental Meditation practice."

Ingrid Collins, a consultant educational psychologist at the London Medical Centre, said: "I'm not at all surprised that a change of behaviour like this can have enormous benefits both emotionally and physically.

"Physical and emotional energy is on a continuum and whatever happens to us physically can affect our emotions and vice versa."

Plastic chemicals 'feminise boys'

BBC News

Male hormones drive boyish play

Chemicals in plastics alter the brains of baby boys making them "more feminine", say US researchers.

Males exposed to high doses in the womb went on to be less likely to play with boys' toys like cars or to join in rough and tumble games, they found.

The University of Rochester team's latest work adds to concerns about the safety of phthalates, found in vinyl flooring and PVC shower curtains.

The findings are reported in the International Journal of Andrology.

Plastic furniture

Phthalates have the ability to disrupt hormones, and have been banned in toys in the EU for some years.

However, they are still widely used in many different household items, including plastic furniture and packaging.

There are many different types and some mimic the female hormone oestrogen.

The same researchers have already shown that this can mean boys are born with genital abnormalities.

Now they say certain phthalates also impact on the developing brain, by knocking out the action of the male hormone testosterone.

Dr Shanna Swan and her team tested urine samples from mothers over midway through pregnancy for traces of phthalates.

The women, who gave birth to 74 boys and 71 girls, were followed up when their children were aged four to seven and asked about the toys the youngsters played with and the games they enjoyed.

Girls' play

They found that two phthalates DEHP and DBP can affect play behaviour.

Boys exposed to high levels of these in the womb were less likely than other boys to play with cars, trains and guns or engage in "rougher" games like playfighting.

"We now know that phthalates, to which we are all constantly exposed, are extremely worrying from a health perspective, leading to disruption of male reproduction health and, it appears, male behaviour too.

"This feminising capacity of phthalates makes them true 'gender benders'."

She acknowledged that the boys who have been studied were still young, but she said reduced masculine play at this age might lead to other feminised developments in later life.

But Tim Edgar, of the European Council for Plasticisers and Intermediates, said: "We need to get some scientific experts to look at this study in more detail before we can make a proper judgement."

He said there were many different phthalates in use and the study concerned two of the less commonly used types that were on the EU candidate list as potentially hazardous and needing authorisation for use.

DBP has been banned from use in cosmetics, such as nail varnish, since 2005 in the EU.

Dementia drug use 'killing many'

By Nick Triggle, Health reporter, BBC News

Anti-psychotic drugs do not benefit many dementia patients

Needless use of anti-psychotic drugs is widespread in dementia care and contributes to the death of many patients, an official review suggests.

About 180,000 patients a year are given the drugs in care homes, hospitals and their own homes to manage aggression.

But the expert review - commissioned by ministers - said the treatment was unnecessary in nearly 150,000 cases and was linked to 1,800 deaths.

The government in England has agreed to take steps to reduce use of the drugs.

These include:

• Improving access to other types of therapy, such as counselling
• Better monitoring of prescribing practices
• Guidance for families explaining what they can do if they are worried about drug use
• Specialist training in dementia for health and social care staff
• Appointment of a new national director for dementia to oversee the measures

The review - and the government pledge to take action - comes after long-running concerns about the use of anti-psychotic drugs.

Over the past 30 years, the NHS has increasingly turned to the treatment, which was originally aimed at people with schizophrenia, as it has struggled to cope with the rise in people with dementia.

'Different mindset'

There are currently 700,000 people in the UK with the condition, but this is expected to rise to one million in the next 10 years because of the ageing population.

The review, led by King's College London expert Professor Sube Banerjee, accepted that for some people anti-psychotic drugs would be necessary.

But it said they should be used only for a maximum of three months and when the person represented a risk to themselves or others.

Professor Banerjee estimated that of the 180,000 people given the drugs each year, only 36,000 benefited.

He said health and social care services needed to develop a "different mindset".

He believes if the steps the government has agreed to are followed, anti-psychotic drug use could be reduced by two-thirds within three years.

Care services minister Phil Hope agreed action was needed.

"We know there are situations where anti-psychotic drug use is necessary - we're not calling for a ban, but we do want to see a significant reduction in use."

Neil Hunt, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, said the long-awaited review was a welcome recognition of the scale of the problem.

He added: "This goes beyond quality of care. It is a fundamental rights issue.

"Our members tell us of enormous worry and distress over what is happening to their loved ones."

The Royal College of GPs - in most cases the drugs are prescribed by family doctors - admitted the situation was "unacceptable".

President Dr Steve Field said: "People deserve much better."

While the review was commissioned by the government in England, ministers elsewhere in the UK have agreed to study the recommendations.

'No fasting' for cholesterol test

BBC News

Patients may not need to fast before having their cholesterol tested, a major report has found.

After analysing data from 300,000 people, Cambridge researchers found results were just as accurate if the patient had eaten before the test.

It was thought the body needed time to remove fatty particles from the blood

For decades patients have been told to fast for 12 hours prior to a test.

It is hoped the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, may inform new guidelines for doctors in the UK.

Cholesterol tests have long been a key part of assessing a patient's risk of cardiovascular problems, and those who turned up having eaten breakfast were required to make a fresh appointment.

It had been thought that the body needed enough time to digest food in the system and to clear any fatty particles from the blood in order to produce an accurate reading of so-called "bad" cholesterol - or low-density lipoprotein (LDL).

Financial pressure

But data from 68 long-term surveys in 21 countries suggests this is not the case.

"For decades, people have been asked to fast overnight before their cholesterol tests," lead researcher Professor John Danesh said.

"These findings indicate that cholesterol measurements are at least as good - and probably somewhat better - when made without fasting."

The study also adds to the ongoing controversy over whether testing for blood proteins called apolipoproteins is a more reliable way of predicting heart risk than cholesterol testing.

The studies showed that analysing "good" cholesterol - or high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in conjunction with LDL was just as informative as testing for apolipoproteins AI and B.

Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "Given the financial pressure the NHS is under, it's good news that doctors don't need to spend money on setting up more sophisticated tests based on apolipoproteins.

"But the study underlines the importance of all GPs being able to measure HDL cholesterol as well as total cholesterol, in order to make the best predictions about heart disease risk."

Not all doctors currently use tests which differentiate between the two different forms of cholesterol.

Societies involved with heart care are currently drawing up new guidelines for health professionals in the UK, where cardiovascular disease - CVD - is the leading form of death.

Efforts to promote breastfeeding urged

www.chinaview.cn, Editor: Wang Guanqun, 2009-11-08 16:15:36

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- The American Dietetic Association (ADA) has called for greater efforts to promote breastfeeding, which offers health benefits for both infants and mothers.

Nursing exclusively for six months, then with food until at least 12 months is ideal, the ADA said in a study published in the November issue of the Journal of the ADA.

"It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that exclusive breastfeeding provides optimal nutrition and health protection for the first six months of life, and breastfeeding with complementary food from six months until at least 12 months of age is the ideal feeding pattern for infants," the ADA said.

"Breastfeeding is an important public health strategy for improving infant and child morbidity and mortality and improving maternal morbidity and helping to control health care costs."

"Research is especially needed on the effectiveness of breastfeeding promotion campaigns," said the association.

Having conducted an evidence-based review of breastfeeding's history, practices and health benefits in the United States and other countries, the ADA concluded that breast milk features optimal nutrient composition for infants and reduces the risk for many acute and chronic conditions.

According to the study, breastfeeding offers the following benefits for infants:

• A stronger immune system;
• Decreased risk of asthma, lower respiratory tract infections and gastroenteritis;
• Improved protection against allergies and intolerances;
• Proper development of jaw and teeth;
• Association with higher IQ and better grades in school; and
• Reduced risk for sudden infant death syndrome, as well as chronic diseases, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, highblood pressure, high cholesterol and childhood leukemia.

The benefits of breastfeeding for mothers include:

• Quality time spent bonding with baby;
• Quicker return to pre-pregnancy weight due to increased calorie expenditure;
• Less postpartum bleeding, faster shrinking of the uterus and return to menstrual cycle;
• Lowered risks for breast and ovarian cancer, as well as type II diabetes;
• Better bone density with less risk of hip fracture;
• Improved self-esteem and less risk of postpartum depression; and
• Cost savings from not buying formula.

Related Article:

Let them drink milk: Ministers rule on breast-feeding workers

MOTHER'S MILK: Young women take part in a breast-feeding competition at a public health center in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, on Monday. The event, sponsored by Mercy Corps Indonesia, was held to raise awareness of the importance of exclusive breast-feeding for infants up to six months old. (JP/J. Adiguna)

Tough love 'is good for children'

BBC News

Children brought up according to "tough love" principles are more successful in life, according to a study.

The think tank Demos says a balance of warmth and discipline improved social skills more than an laissez-faire, authoritarian or disengaged upbringing.

The report said parenting style was more influential than income

It says children aged five with "tough love" parents were twice as likely to show good character capabilities.

Report author Jen Lexmond said: "It is confidence, warmth and consistent discipline that matter most."

Life chances

According to the report, qualities such as application, self-regulation and empathy were more likely to be developed in children whose parents employed a "tough love" approach.

It found that these qualities made "a vital contribution to life chances, mobility and opportunity".

The report said these characteristics were profoundly shaped in pre-school years.

The Building Character report analysed data from more than 9,000 households in the UK.

It found that children from the richest backgrounds were more than twice as likely to develop the key characteristics compared to those with the poorest origins.

Additionally, children whose parents were married were twice as likely to show such traits than children from lone parent or step-parented families, the report said.

But it added that when parental style and confidence were factored in, the difference in child character development between richer and poorer families disappeared.

The report concluded that this indicated that parenting was the most important influence - and the same result occurred when the family structure factor was analysed.

The report said that other positive influences included the main carer's level of education, and breast-feeding.

Girls were more likely to develop character capabilities by age five, while no connection was found between paid employment of either parent and children's characteristics.

The authors urged more support and information for families, and for children with disengaged or low-income parents to be given particular focus.

They recommended that the Government's Sure Start programme should be refocused as a tool for early intervention, with less emphasis on childcare and more on development; improved pilots for the Family Nurse Partnership; and for health visitors to be given an early years role to help with parenting.

'Ambitious agenda'

"There is some evidence that lower-income households face more difficulty in incubating these character capabilities," the report said.

"But the most important influence is the quality of parenting.

"Confident, skilful parents adopting a 'tough love' approach to parenting, balancing warmth with discipline, seem to be most effective in terms of generating these key character capabilities.

"An ambitious agenda for equality of opportunity will need to take the development of these capabilities seriously."

Ms Lexmond added: "Far from a 'soft' skill, character is integral to our future success and wellbeing."

Parentline Plus chief executive Jeremy Todd said the charity also supported the call for increased help for families.

But he said different children reacted differently to parenting styles.

"If we are to reduce the strangle hold of cycles of deprivation, the issue of how we support families to raise children must be grasped," Mr Todd added.

"We welcome this report and hope that it stimulates debate among policy makers around how best to support families to transform our society into one where we top the league tables for outcomes for children and well-being."

Internet, Facebook and Mobile Phones Enhance Social Life: Survey

The Jakarta Globe

A woman uses a BlackBerry in Jakarta. (Photo: Afriadi Hikmal, JG)

Contrary to popular belief, the Internet and mobile phones are not isolating people but enhancing their social worlds, according to a US survey.

The survey was sparked by a 2006 study by US sociologists who argued technology is advancing a trend seen since 1985 — Americans becoming more socially isolated, their social networks shrinking, and the diversity of their contacts decreasing.

But the study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, titled “Social Isolation and New Technology,” found people’s use of mobile phones and the Internet is actually associated with larger and more diverse social networks.

“When we examine people’s full personal network... Internet use in general and use of social networking services such as Facebook in particular are associated with more diverse social networks,” the researchers said in a statement.

“Our key findings challenge previous research and commonplace fears about the harmful social impact of new technology.”

The telephone survey of 2,512 adults, conducted by Princeton Survey Research International in July and August this year, found that since 1985, the extent of social isolation has hardly changed at all.

It found 6 percent of the adult population has no one with whom to discuss important matters but this figure is largely unchanged since 1985.

The survey, however, did find that people’s “discussion networks” have shrunk about a third in the past 25 years and become less diverse as they contain fewer non-family members.

But people who have mobile phones and take part in a variety of Internet activities are associated with larger, more diverse core discussion networks.

On average, the size of people’s discussion networks is 12 percent larger among mobile phone users, nine percent larger for those who share photos online, and nine percent bigger for those who use instant messaging.

The diversity of people’s core networks tends to be 25 percent larger for mobile phone users, 15 percent larger for basic Internet users, and even larger for frequent Internet users, instant messagers, and those sharing photos online.

Internet users were as likely as anyone else to visit their neighbors and take part in local community activities.

“Cell phone users, those who use the Internet frequently at work, and bloggers are more likely to belong to a local voluntary association, such as a youth group or a charitable organization,” the study found.

“However, we find some evidence that use of social networking services (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn) substitutes for some neighborhood involvement.”

The researchers said most uses of the Internet and mobile phone have a positive relationship to neighborhood networks, voluntary associations, and use of public spaces.

“Our survey results suggest that people’s lives are likely to be enhanced by participation with new communication technologies, rather than by fearing that their use of new technology will send them into a spiral of isolation,” they concluded.

Reuters

Life-logging camera brings new hope for memory-loss patients

By Stephanie Busari CNN, November 5, 2009 -- Updated 1608 GMT (0008 HKT)

SenseCam, a small, wearable camera that works without user intervention, is set to change the way memory loss patients are being treated.

London, England (CNN) -- A small, wearable camera that captures images automatically could change the way memory loss patients, in particular those with Alzheimer's, are treated, experts say.

The SenseCam takes low-resolution photographs (about one third of a mega pixel), with a fisheye lens, at a rate of two per minute.

These low quality shots may not be going in the family photo album, but they are enough to prompt our brains to access previously locked information, researchers say.

"The SenseCam is all about recalling a piece of information someone already has, rather than creating a memory," said Dr. Emma Berry, a clinical neuropsychologist , who has been working with memory loss patients using the camera.

She has also been working with Microsoft Research, who produced the camera, to conduct clinical trials.

In the initial trial, a woman with severe amnesia was given the SenseCam, which is worn at chest height.

The woman repeatedly reviewed episodic images of her daily life taken on the camera with her husband.

This triggered memory recall, according to Dr. Berry, who is based at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, UK.

She said: "She viewed the images and 'the memory came flooding back' -- as she put it -- when we asked her about it later, she described events in detail. She could tell us things that were not in the images on the SenseCam."

Researchers then took the images away and the patient was able to recall events up to 10 months later, Dr. Berry said.

While not conclusive, the results of the tests have been encouraging, she said.

Now, SenseCam is being tested with a handful of people who have Alzheimer's disease, with similar results in findings that have yet to be published.

"When the patients viewed SenseCam images of events they had experienced, they were able to recall the events three months later without needing to review the images," Dr. Berry said.

Previously, patients suffering from memory loss would keep written diaries but this has had limited success in creating enduring memories.

"We think that Alzheimer's patients are able to store the memory but are unable to access it," said Dr. Berry.

"Even motion blurred pictures have an effect on recall" she added.

Neil Hunt, Chief Executive of the Alzheimer's Society said the device could be potentially exciting for Alzheimer's patients.

He told CNN: "Many people with memory problems find aids such as diaries can offer psychological benefits.

"This new camera could potentially act in the same way although practically it needs to be very simple to operate, and time would need to be set aside to select and store the images.

"Assistive technology is an exciting area of research. We look forward to the development of many more tools that empower people with dementia to have the quality of life they deserve."

The SenseCam also has several sensors other than the image sensor embedded, including infra-red, heat, heart rate and pressure to record health monitoring data.

While the battery requires a daily charge, the 1Gb of memory (little more than your iPod Nano), can store up to 30,000 photographs.

The SenseCam was invented in 1999 by Lyndsay Williams, a researcher at Microsoft's research laboratory, who wanted to build something to solve simple memory problems, such as losing keys.

Vicon, developer of motion capture products used in Hollywood, will be mass-producing the device as the Vicon Revue and is expected to cost around $800.

Questions linger over abuses of a potentially voyeuristic device but Steve Hodges, of Microsoft Research, is positive about SenseCam's commercial future: "I like to think of it as becoming the microwave oven of home movies."

Additional reporting by Phillippa Young

Indonesia Leads World in Internet Porn, Minister Says

The Jakarta Globe

Indonesia has the largest number of people accessing pornographic Web sites in the world, Communications and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring said in Jakarta on Wednesday.

“To date, Indonesia has the largest number of people who access porn sites,” said Tifatul, the former head of the Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

He did not provide any data to back up his comments.

Tifatul, an avid Internet user with his own Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as a blog, said he was concerned that the Internet was being used by people in the country for little else besides accessing pornographic materials.

He said this concern had prompted him to launch a campaign aimed at teaching people how to use the Internet as an online source of useful information.

“We’re going to encourage safe and healthy Internet use, or Insan,” he said. Insan is an acronym made from the words Internet, sehat (healthy) and aman (safe).

Tifatul did not say how much money had been set aside to establish the program, which builds on an initiative introduced by the previous minister, Sofyan Djalil.

A spokesman for the ministry, Gatot Dewa Broto, also could not provide information on the number of Indonesians accessing Web pornography. He denied the Insan project signaled a government crackdown on pornography.

Antara, JG