Health
5 Medical Tests That May Keep You Well
Like a scene out of Star Trek, someday our doctors may simply wave a handheld device over our bodies and instantly diagnose any malady. In the meantime, however, it’s important to keep abreast of the latest tests that can help us stay healthy - especially those that uncover risks before symptoms actually occur.
The following five tests are not yet considered as routine as cholesterol or blood-sugar tests, but chances are your doctor already is familiar with them. Not every test is necessary at every visit, and your insurance company may not pay unless it considers a particular test "medically necessary." Still, ask about them. Here’s why they may be important to you.
CRP, or C-reactive Protein
This is a simple blood test that measures the amount of inflammation in your body. In many ways, CRP is the best "crystal ball" of health ever devised in a single blood test. Elevated CRP levels have been shown to precede and predict heart attack, stroke, colon cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, Alzheimer's disease, aneurysms, sudden cardiac death, abnormal heart rhythms like atrial fibrillation and even macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness.
CRP is a protein made by our immune system that fuels the fire of inflammation in our bodies. The higher your CRP level, the more at risk you are to develop problems. Optimal levels - less than 0.7 milligrams per liter - predict good health.
It's important to understand that CRP doesn't diagnose any particular conditions - it's not specific. It just identifies whether you're at risk for illness. It's best to check your CRP during your routine annual physical, when you feel fine. If you're sick with something, your CRP probably will be elevated.
The good news is that CRP levels can be lowered by exercise, modest weight loss, taking a multivitamin, eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, and certain medications such as aspirin and statins (cholesterol-lowering drugs).
Vitamin D Level
Vitamin D is essential for healthy bones because it's needed for calcium absorption. But new research also is identifying an important role for vitamin D in the immune system and in the prevention of cancer, including breast and prostate.
Studies show that more than half of American women don't get enough vitamin D. It's known as the "sunshine vitamin," because your skin makes it when you’re out in the sun. That's why people who lack daily sun exposure or who use sunblock when outdoors may be deficient in the vitamin. It's almost impossible to get adequate amounts from foods, despite fortification of dairy and some soy foods. All multivitamins contain vitamin D, but for most people even that is not sufficient. You may need to take a vitamin D supplement. Most people should get between 1000 and 1500 IU of vitamin D3 daily. (D3 is the natural form of vitamin D. It’s more easily absorbed and stays in the body longer.) The best way to know if you’re getting enough vitamin D is to get a blood test.
H. pylori Test
About 20% of Americans may unknowingly be infected with the bacteria responsible for stomach cancer, heartburn, ulcers and even eye disorders. The discovery of H. pylori (Helicobacter pylori) infection as the primary cause of stomach ulcers worldwide earned Australian researchers Robin Warren and Barry Marshall the Nobel Prize in medicine for 2005. The bacteria also have been found to cause stomach cancer.
H. pylori is a chronic, potentially lifelong infection of the stomach. It can cause stomach pain, heartburn or indigestion, but it's often silent, causing no symptoms. Infection typically occurs when a person eats contaminated food and ingests the bacteria. The infection can be cured with a combination of antibiotics and antacids.
A blood-antibody test can show if you've ever been infected, and a stool test or breath test can identify if you currently have an active infection. Fortunately, successful treatment of H. pylori eliminates the increased risk of stomach cancer, ulcers and related disorders.
Aspirin Check
Aspirin has been shown to be a powerful preventive measure for people at risk for heart attack and stroke as well as for colon cancer, and it's estimated that as many as 50 million Americans take aspirin daily to prevent a heart attack. What's not clear is the optimal dose of aspirin for prevention. Most people are taking a baby aspirin (81 milligrams), but research has shown that 10% to 20% of people are resistant to aspirin and require higher dosages in order to benefit from its protective effects.
An aspirin check is a test that determines the effectiveness of the daily aspirin for an individual. This is important for people who are taking aspirin therapeutically for cardiovascular disease as well as those at increased risk for heart disease who are taking aspirin for prevention. The test can be ordered by your doctor but also is available directly from an online lab.
Insulin Level
Type 2 diabetes is characterized by an excess of insulin production in response to eating. The glucose tolerance test has long been the standard way to identify someone with diabetes. Until recently, glucose tolerance tests measured only blood sugar, or glucose levels, which are raised when a person has diabetes. But measuring your body's insulin-production levels improves the test by being able to identify your risk of diabetes long before symptoms emerge.
Typically, to do the test, your blood is drawn twice - first after fasting, then again two hours later after a glucose drink. Your insulin levels are recorded. If the results indicate that you're at a higher risk for diabetes, the good news is that you also have time to take action. Type 2 diabetes can be prevented by adopting a lifestyle that includes daily exercise, weight control and a low-glycemic diet that reduces the intake of sugar, refined grains and starches.
(pasted from: http://health.yahoo.com/young-healthyhabits/5-medical-tests-that-may-keep-you-well/parademagazine--101.html)
What's the Best Treatment for Prostate Cancer?
- By Simeon Margolis, M.D., Ph.D.
Men diagnosed with prostate cancer can now choose from at least four treatment options: Watchful waiting, radical prostatectomy, external beam radiation, and implantation of radioactive "seeds" into the prostate (brachytherapy). But which treatment is best?
For men aged 65 or older with early-stage, moderate prostate cancer, the best approach may be watchful waiting — doing nothing other than repeated examinations and blood PSA tests.
In one major study of over 9,000 older men with low-grade (Gleason score 6 or less), early-stage cancers, only 5 percent died from their disease. Over 80 percent survived for 10 years without any complications, or died from causes unrelated to their cancers.
Watchful waiting, however, is not a good choice for older men with higher grade, early-stage prostate cancer, even if they have a relatively short life expectancy.
The answer is not as clear for younger men newly diagnosed with prostate cancer. One review article published online in The Annals of Internal Medicine analyzed the results of 18 randomized controlled trials and 473 observational studies.
But in the end, this review provided little help in deciding on the best treatment option for these younger men. One reason, according to the authors, is that serious limitations in the evidence made it difficult to compare treatments.
For example, only three of the 18 controlled trials directly compared the effectiveness of three treatments. Of these, one trial found that radical prostatectomy significantly reduced deaths from prostate cancer, whereas another smaller trial found no significant difference between radical prostatectomy and watchful waiting. None of the randomized trials evaluated brachytherapy.
The effectiveness of each treatment, as well as their respective complications, varied widely among the many observational studies, too. And it takes many years after therapy to determine the differences in the rates of cancer spread and survival from prostate cancer.
All of these treatments may lead to complications. The most frequent are impotence and urinary leakage (incontinence). And the studies conflict here, too. While incontinence was about as likely after either radical prostatectomy or external radiation, one large study (the Prostate Cancer Outcomes Study) found incontinence was significantly more common after radical prostatectomy than after external radiation. Impotence occurs frequently after all treatments, but is probably more common after radical prostatectomy.
Given the uncertainties regarding outcome, I advise most men with prostate cancer to consult both a urologist (more likely to recommend radical prostatectomy) and a radiation therapist (more likely to suggest some form of radiation treatment) before deciding on any particular treatment.
In the end, each man's decision must be based not only on the prostate cancer itself but also on the importance he places on the effectiveness of treatment, its convenience, and the likelihood of complications.
Some of my patients have chosen brachytherapy as the most convenient form of treatment. Others elected radical prostatectomy because they couldn't tolerate the notion of allowing a cancerous growth to remain in their bodies.
(pasted from: http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthnews/13757/what-s-the-best-treatment-for-prostate-cancer/ )
Anxiety: Feeling Worried or Nervous -
Youngerman-Cole, RN, BSN, RNC
Feeling worried or nervous is a normal part of everyday life. Everyone frets or feels anxious from time to time. Mild to moderate anxiety can be an effective means of helping you focus your attention, energy, and motivation. However, if anxiety is severe, you may have feelings of helplessness, confusion, and extreme worry that are out of proportion with the actual seriousness or likelihood of the feared event. Anxiety that becomes overwhelming and interferes with daily life is not normal. This type of anxiety may be a symptom of another problem, such as depression.
Anxiety can cause physical and emotional symptoms. A specific situation or fear can cause some or all of these symptoms for a short time. When the situation passes, the symptoms usually go away.
Physical symptoms of anxiety include:
- Trembling, twitching, or shaking.
- Feeling of fullness in the throat or chest.
- Breathlessness or rapid heartbeat.
- Lightheadedness or dizziness.
- Sweating or cold, clammy hands.
- Excessive startle reflex.
- Muscle tension, aches, or soreness (myalgias).
- Fatigue.
- Sleep problems, such as the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep, early waking, or restless, unsatisfying sleep.
Anxiety affects the part of the brain that helps control creative expression and complex communication. This makes it more difficult to express yourself creatively or function effectively in relationships. Emotional symptoms of anxiety include:
- Restlessness, irritability, or feeling on edge or keyed up.
- Excessive worrying.
- Fearing that something bad is going to happen; sense of impending doom.
- Inability to concentrate; “blanking out.”
- Constant feelings of sadness.
Anxiety disorders
Anxiety disorders occur when people have both physical and emotional symptoms. Anxiety disorders interfere with personal relationships with others and affect daily activities. Women are twice as likely as men to have problems with anxiety disorders.
Many people, including children and teenagers, develop anxiety disorders in which many of these symptoms occur when there is no identifiable cause. Many people with an anxiety disorder say they have felt nervous and anxious all their lives. This problem can occur at any age. Children who have at least one parent with the diagnosis of depression are more than twice as likely to have an anxiety disorder than children with nondepressed parents.
Generalized anxiety disorders often occur with other problems, such as depression, substance abuse, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). An anxiety disorder also can be caused by a physical problem, such as heart or lung disease. A complete medical examination may be needed before an anxiety disorder can be diagnosed.
Panic attacks
Panic attacks occur when a person has distinct periods of intense fear and anxiety when there is no clear cause or danger. These symptoms come on suddenly and without warning. Panic attacks are a common anxiety-related disorder. Panic attacks can sometimes occur in otherwise normal, healthy people and will usually last for several minutes.
Physical symptoms that can occur during a panic attack include feelings of choking or suffocating, chest pain, nausea, shaking, sweating, pounding of the heart, and feeling dizzy or faint. Sometimes these symptoms are so intense that the person fears he or she is having a heart attack. Many of the symptoms of a panic attack can occur with other illnesses, such as hyperthyroidism, coronary artery disease, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A complete medical examination may be needed before an anxiety disorder can be diagnosed.
People who have repeated unexpected panic attacks and worry about the attacks are said to have a panic disorder.
Phobias
Phobias are irrational, involuntary fears of specific places, objects, activities, or situations. Most people deal with phobias by avoiding the situation or object that causes them to feel panic (avoidance behavior). Phobias are a common anxiety-related disorder.
A phobic disorder occurs when the avoidance behavior becomes so extreme that it interferes with your ability to participate in your daily activities. There are three main types of phobic disorders:
- Fear of being alone or in public places where help might not be available or escape is impossible (agoraphobia)
- Fear of situations where the individual might be exposed to criticism by others (social phobia)
- Fear of specific things (specific phobia)
Review the Emergencies and Check Your Symptoms sections to determine if and when you need to see a health professional.
Emergencies
Do you have any of the following symptoms that require emergency treatment? Call 911 or other emergency services immediately.
- Chest pain that is crushing, squeezing, or feels like a heavy weight on the chest or that occurs with any other symptoms of a heart attack
- Seriously considering harming yourself or someone else with a plan that includes:
- Having the means, such as weapons or medications, available to commit suicide or do harm to another person
- Having set a time and place to commit suicide
- Thinking there is no other way to solve your problem or end your pain
Check Your Symptoms
If you answer yes to any of the following questions, click on the "Yes" in front of the question for information about how soon to see a health professional.
Review health risks that may increase the seriousness of your symptoms.
| Note: |
If you answered Yes to any of the above questions:
- Call the health professional who prescribed the medication to determine whether you should stop taking the medication or take a different one. An appointment may not be necessary.
- If you are taking a nonprescription medication, stop taking the medicine. Call your health professional if you feel you need to continue taking the medication.
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If a visit to a health professional is not needed immediately, see the Home Treatment section for self-care information.
Home Treatment
Home treatment, combined with professional treatment, can help relieve anxiety.
- Recognize and accept your anxiety about specific fears or situations, and then make a plan for dealing with them. For example, if you are constantly worrying about finances, set up a budget or savings plan.
- Don't dwell on past problems. Change what you can to help you feel more comfortable with present concerns, but let go of past problems or things you cannot change.
- Be kind to your body:
- Relieve tension with vigorous exercise or massage.
- Practice relaxation techniques. For more information, see the topic Stress Management.
- Get enough rest. If you have trouble sleeping, see the topic Sleep Problems, Age 12 and Older.
- Avoid alcohol, caffeine, chocolate, and nicotine. They may increase your anxiety level.
- Engage your mind:
- Get out and do something you enjoy, such as going to a funny movie or taking a walk or hike.
- Plan your day. Having too much or too little to do can make you more anxious.
- Keep a record of your symptoms. Discuss your fears with a good friend. Confiding in others sometimes relieves stress.
- Get involved in social groups, or volunteer to help others. Being alone can make things seem worse than they are.
- Learn about resources available in your community:
- Talk with your human resources officer about counseling benefits that may be available through your employee assistance program.
- Check with your insurance company to see what mental health benefits are available.
- Contact your public health department for information on community mental health programs.
Symptoms to Watch For During Home Treatment
Use the Check Your Symptoms section to evaluate your symptoms if symptoms become more frequent or severe during home treatment.
Prevention
You can help prevent anxiety attacks.
- Avoid caffeine, such as coffee, tea, Mountain Dew, colas, and chocolate. Caffeine can keep you in a tense, aroused condition.
- Do not smoke or use smokeless (spit) tobacco products. Nicotine stimulates many physical and psychological processes, causes your blood vessels to constrict, and makes your heart work harder.
- Exercise during the day. Even a brisk walk around the block may help you stay calm. For more information, see the topic Fitness.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy can help prevent additional attacks of anxiety or panic.
(pasted from: http://health.yahoo.com/anxiety-overview/anxiety/healthwise--anxty.html )
Obesity more dangerous than terrorism—medical expert
(Tuesday, February 26, 2008)
SYDNEY: World governments focus too much on fighting terrorism while obesity and other “lifestyle diseases” are killing millions more people, an international conference heard Monday.
Overcoming deadly factors such as poor diet, smoking and a lack of exercise should take top priority in the fight against a growing epidemic of preventable chronic disease, legal and health experts said.
Global terrorism was a real threat but posed far less risk than obesity, diabetes and smoking-related illnesses, prominent US professor of health law Lawrence Gostin said at the Oxford Health Alliance Summit here.
“Ever since September 11, we’ve been lurching from one crisis to the next, which has really frightened the public,” Gostin told Agence France-Presse later.
“While we’ve been focusing so much attention on that, we’ve had this silent epidemic of obesity that’s killing millions of people around the world, and we’re devoting very little attention to it and a negligible amount of money.”
The fifth annual conference of the Oxford Health Alliance—co-founded by Oxford University—has brought together world experts from academia, government, business, law, economics and urban planning to promote change.
About 388 million people will die from chronic disease worldwide over the next 10 years, according to World Health Organization figures quoted by the alliance.
“There’s a political paralysis in dealing with the issue,” said Gostin, an adviser to the US government and a professor at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins universities.
He noted that prevention of obesity and its effects had hardly rated a mention in the current campaign for the US presidency.
“Yet the human costs are frightening when we consider that obesity could shorten the average lifespan of an entire generation, resulting in the first reversal in life expectancy since data collecting began in 1900,” he said.
Like terrorism, some passing health threats get major government attention and media coverage, while heart and lung disease, diabetes and cancer account for 60 percent of the world’s deaths, the meeting was told.
“It is true that new and re-emerging health threats such as SARS, avian flu, HIV/AIDS, terrorism, bioterrorism and climate change are dramatic and emotive,” said Stig Pramming, the Oxford group’s executive director.
“However, it is preventable chronic disease that will send health systems and economies to the wall.”
The conference is scheduled to end Wednesday with a “Sydney Resolution” calling on governments and big business among others to take action to avert millions of premature deaths due to chronic disease.
“The way we live now is making us sick, it’s making our planet sick and it’s not sustainable,” said Asia-Pacific co-director Ruth Colagiuri.
The Sydney resolution focuses on four key areas, including the need to make towns and cities healthier places in which to live by urban design, which promotes walking and cycling and reduces carbon emissions from motor vehicles.
Insufficient physical exercise is a risk factor in many chronic diseases and is estimated to cause 1.9 million deaths worldwide each year, said Tony Capon, professor of health studies at Australia’s Macquarie University.
“We need to build the physical activity back into our lives and it’s not simply about bike paths, it’s about developing an urban habitat that enables people to live healthy lives: ensuring that people can meet most of their daily needs within walking and cycling distance of where they live,” he said.
The resolution also calls for a reduction in sugar, fat and salt content in food, making fresh food affordable and available and increasing global efforts to stop people smoking. -- AFP
Bedtime Snacks that Help You Sleep
Posted Thu, Feb 14, 2008, 12:37 pm PST
77% of users found this article helpful.
One of the best natural sedatives is tryptophan, an amino acid component of many plant and animal proteins.
Tryptophan is one of the ingredients necessary for the body to make serotonin, the neurotransmitter best known for creating feelings of calm, and for making you sleepy.
However, the trick is to combine foods that have some tryptophan with ample carbohydrate. That’s because in order for insomnia-busting tryptophan to work, it has to make its way to the brain.
Unfortunately, all amino acids compete for transport to the brain. When you add carbs, they cause the release of insulin, which takes the competing amino acids and incorporates them into muscle…but leaves tryptophan alone, so it can make its way to the brain, be converted to serotonin, and cause sleepiness.
Serotonin-producing bedtime snacks should be no more than 200 calories and should be eaten at least 30 minutes prior to bed.
Here are a few great ideas:
Bedtime Snacks for Adults
--6-8 oz container of non-fat, flavored yogurt topped with 2 tablespoons low-fat granola cereal
--Sliced apple with 1-2 teaspoons natural peanut butter
--3 cups low-fat popcorn – sprinkled with optional 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
Bedtime Snacks for Teens
--One cup healthy cereal with skim milk
--Low-fat granola bar
--Scoop of vanilla or strawberry low-fat ice cream
Bedtime Snacks for Children
--1/2 cup low-fat vanilla pudding
--1/2 banana with 1-2 teaspoons peanut butter
--One cup skim milk with a bunch of grapes (or other fruit)
Food for Thought
by Lisa Mulcahy
What you eat can affect how well you remember, so …
Sip cocoa. Flavanols, naturally occurring compounds in cocoa, may boost memory by stimulating blood flow in the brain.
Go fish. Omega-3 fatty acids—plentiful in fish like salmon and tuna—may protect your memory by keeping brain cell membranes pliable.
Eat your greens. Veggies like spinach and kale help protect the brain from disease.
Whip up an omelet. Eggs contain choline, which helps the body make the brain chemical acetylcholine; people short on acetylcholine seem to have trouble remembering.
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Nap Boosts Memory
Dave Mosher
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com Mon Jan 7, 10:40 AM ET
If you want to remember the information in this article, take a nap.
New research conducted by brain researcher Avi Karni of the University of Haifa in Israel explores the possibility that naps help lock in sometimes fleeting long-term memories. A 90-minute daytime snooze might help the most, the study finds.
"We still don't know the exact mechanism of the memory process that occurs during sleep, but the results of this research suggest the possibility that it is possible to speed up memory consolidation," Karni said. "In the future, we may be able to do it artificially."
Long-term memory refers to memories that stay with us for years, such as "what" memories — a car accident that happened yesterday — or "how to" memories, such as one's learned ability to play the drums or tear it up in a game of soccer.
Karni, who co-authored the study in a recent issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, instructed participants to learn a complex thumb-tapping sequence, then split the study subjects into two groups: one that napped for an hour, and one that didn't. The people who took an afternoon snooze showed sizeable improvement in their performance by that evening.
"After a night's sleep the two groups were at the same level, but the group that slept in the afternoon improved much faster than the group that stayed awake," Karni said.
An additional leg of the study showed just how much faster a 90-minute nap could help lock in long-term memories.
"Daytime sleep can shorten the time 'how to' memory becomes immune to interference and forgetting," Karni said. "Instead of 6 to 8 hours, the brain consolidated the memory during the 90-minute nap."
Pasted from: <http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080107/sc_livescience/napsmayboostmemory>
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Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind
10. Sweet Dreams
If you were to ask 10 people what dreams are made of, you'd probably get 10 different answers. That's because scientists are still unraveling this mystery. One possibility: Dreaming exercises brain by stimulating the trafficking of synapses between brain cells. Another theory is that people dream about tasks and emotions that they didn't take care of during the day, and that the process can help solidify thoughts and memories. In general, scientists agree that dreaming happens during your deepest sleep, called Rapid Eye Movement (REM).
9. Slumber Sleuth
Fruit flies do it. Tigers do it. And humans can't seem to get enough of it. No, not that. We're talking about shut-eye, so crucial we spend more than a quarter of our lives at it. Yet the underlying reasons for sleep remain as puzzling as a rambling dream. One thing scientists do know: Sleep is crucial for survival in mammals. Extended sleeplessness can lead to mood swings, hallucination, and in extreme cases, death. There are two states of sleep - non-rapid eye movement (NREM), during which the brain exhibits low metabolic activity, and rapid eye movement (REM), during which the brain is very active. Some scientists think NREM sleep gives your body a break, and in turn conserves energy, similar to hibernation. REM sleep could help to organize memories. However, this idea isn't proven, and dreams during REM sleep don't always correlate with memories.
8. Phantom Feelings
It's estimated that about 80 percent of amputees experience sensations, including warmth, itching, pressure and pain, coming from the missing limb. People who experience this phenomenon, known as "phantom limb," feel sensations as if the missing limb were part of their bodies. One explanation says that the nerves area where the limb severed create new connections to the spinal cord and continue to send signals to the brain as if the missing limb was still there. Another possibility is that the brain is "hard-wired" to operate as if the body were fully intact - meaning the brain holds a blueprint of the body with all parts attached.
7. Mission Control
Residing in the hypothalamus of the brain, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, or biological clock, programs the body to follow a 24-hour rhythm. The most evident effect of circadian rhythm is the sleep-wake cycle, but the biological clock also impacts digestion, body temperature, blood pressure, and hormone production. Researchers have found that light intensity can adjust the clock forward or backward by regulating the hormone melatonin. The latest debate is whether or not melatonin supplements could help prevent jet lag - the drowsy, achy feeling you get when "jetting" across time zones.
6. Memory Lane
Some experiences are hard to forget, like perhaps your first kiss. But how does a person hold onto these personal movies? Using brain-imaging techniques, scientists are unraveling the mechanism responsible for creating and storing memories. They are finding that the hippocampus, within the brain's gray matter, could act as a memory box. But this storage area isn't so discriminatory. It turns out that both true and false memories activate similar brain regions. To pull out the real memory, some researchers ask a subject to recall the memory in context, something that's much more difficult when the event didn't actually occur.
5. Brain Teaser
Laughter is one of the least understood of human behaviors. Scientists have found that during a good laugh three parts of the brain light up: a thinking part that helps you get the joke, a movement area that tells your muscles to move, and an emotional region that elicits the "giddy" feeling. But it remains unknown why one person laughs at your brother's foolish jokes while another chuckles while watching a horror movie. John Morreall, who is a pioneer of humor research at the College of William and Mary, has found that laughter is a playful response to incongruities - stories that disobey conventional expectations. Others in the humor field point to laughter as a way of signaling to another person that this action is meant "in fun." One thing is clear: Laughter makes us feel better.
4. Nature vs. Nurture
In the long-running battle of whether our thoughts and personalities are controlled by genes or environment, scientists are building a convincing body of evidence that it could be either or both! The ability to study individual genes points to many human traits that we have little control over, yet in many realms, peer pressure or upbringing has been shown heavily influence who we are and what we do.
3. Mortal Mystery
Living forever is just for Hollywood. But why do humans age? You are born with a robust toolbox full of mechanisms to fight disease and injury, which you might think should arm you against stiff joints and other ailments. But as we age, the body's repair mechanisms get out of shape. In effect, your resilience to physical injury and stress declines. Theories for why people age can be divided into two categories: 1) Like other human characteristics, aging could just be a part of human genetics and is somehow beneficial. 2) In the less optimistic view, aging has no purpose and results from cellular damage that occurs over a person's lifetime. A handful of researchers, however, think science will ultimately delay aging at least long enough to double life spans.
2. Deep Freeze
Living forever may not be a reality. But a pioneering field called cryonics could give some people two lives. Cryonics centers like Alcor Life Extension Foundation, in Arizona, store posthumous bodies in vats filled with liquid nitrogen at bone-chilling temperatures of minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit (78 Kelvin). The idea is that a person who dies from a presently incurable disease could be thawed and revived in the future when a cure has been found. The body of the late baseball legend Ted Williams is stored in one of Alcor's freezers. Like the other human popsicles, Williams is positioned head down. That way, if there were ever a leak in the tank, the brain would stay submerged in the cold liquid. Not one of the cryopreserved bodies has been revived, because that technology doesn't exist. For one, if the body isn't thawed at exactly the right temperature, the person's cells could turn to ice and blast into pieces.
1. Consciousness
When you wake up in the morning, you might perceive that the Sun is just rising, hear a few birds chirping, and maybe even feel a flash of happiness as the fresh morning air hits your face. In other words, you are conscious. This complex topic has plagued the scientific community since antiquity. Only recently have neuroscientists considered consciousness a realistic research topic. The greatest brainteaser in this field has been to explain how processes in the brain give rise to subjective experiences. So far, scientists have managed to develop a great list of questions.
Posted from: http://www.livescience.com/health/top10_mysteriesofthemind-1.html
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10 Things You Didn't Know About You
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