health

A person suffering cardiac arrest is at risk of death as their blood is no longer circulating. Some studies have shown that patients' survival rates can increase by a factor of 3 when high-quality CPR is administered. But the quality of CPR is important.Getting the depth of chest compressions right is one measure of quality. And a new gadget from Philips helps first aiders get it right, by giving physical feedback to let them know when the right depth has been reached. For an adult, that is around 4 centimetres, and for a child around 2.5cm.The CPR coach is a pad placed over the patient's chest that contains accelerometers to monitor compression depth. When the correct depth has been reached, the device vibrates to warn the rescuer to stop.

By Hesseltje S. van Goor

A recent development on Facebook has shown that social networking may be more powerful than simply a vehicle for gossip between friends, co-workers and ex-significant others. When Coca-Cola executives responded to a Facebook-based call for humanitarian action, it showed a new opportunity for dialogue between consumers and corporations: smart organizers can harness this kind of rapid message-spreading medium to foster a conversation between the decision-makers at the top and the masses at the point-of-use.

Two new reports offer useful tools for thinking about the future, both focused on the United States and both needed.

The first report, Analyses of the Effects of Global Change on Human Health, Settlements and Welfare comes out the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and details the ways in which climate change may exacerbate a number of problems we don't usually think of as environmental. Among their findings were these key impacts:

* Heat: Almost every part of the country will experience higher average temperatures, but the impacts of increased heat will be particularly acute in urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest and across many areas of the West. The rapidly aging U.S. population as well as children and the poor will be particularly vulnerable to health impacts, such as cardio-vascular and pulmonary disease as well as higher death rates.

This week in PLoS Medicine, the team behind HealthMap, a web-based tool to monitor and track infectious disease, discuss updates to the tool.HealthMap trawls news and health websites for references to illness and then plots them on an interactive map of the world, powered by Google Maps. Its algorithms are context-specific to distinguish mention of a new disease vaccine from a disease outbreak.It can now handle data from English, Chinese, Spanish, Russian and French websites, with other language readers in development.

Photo: Hans Neleman/Getty Images

After a weekend of fireworks, barbecues, and cuisine that may contain more than one hot dog or Jell-O fruit mold, we turn our attention to the gut. And a new breakthrough in probiotics.

"The gut?" you ask. Um, yes. The gut.

Sometime shortly before the holiday weekend I spoke with Steve Demos, a man I’ve known for quite some time and someone my dad, Tim Redmond, has known for quite a few more, since they were both pioneers in this industry of natural and organic foods....

RichardMasoner Creative Commons

And people think blogging is a safe job. A microbiologist working for Which? Magazine has found keyboards with 150 times the recommended limit of bacteria. It was also five times as filthy as a toilet seat swabbed at the same time.

"[It] was increasing the risk of its user becoming ill," said the microbiologist, James Francis. "I haven't seen a reading like that in a very long time - it was off the scale."

The main cause appears to be eating lunch at yo...

Lambert, Getty Images

We had a faint hope that the rise in food prices might lead people to buy more carefully, perhaps cook more from scratch instead of buying prepared food, or even cut back on meat and eat more vegetables. No such luck; according to the IHT, Americans are just buying more crap, because the cheap calories come from the most processed, corn-based foods. My favourite quote:

"In Ohio, Holly Levitsky is replacing the Lucky Charms cereal in her kitchen with Millville Marshmallows and Stars, a less expensive store brand." Pizza sales at Domino's are down, while Wal-Mart says that sales of peanut butter ...

Congress Examines Role Of Industry in Regulation Despite more than 100 published studies by government scientists and university laboratories that have raised health concerns about a chemical compound that is central to the multibillion-dollar plastics industry, the Food and Drug Administration has deemed it safe largely because of two studies, both funded by an industry trade group. ::Washington Post

Plastic-Bottle Scare Is a Boon for Some It may prove to be a bonanza for companies like Eastman Chemical, which makes a comparable plastic without the offen...

And you thought all you had to worry about was the mercury in your fillings; according to Carly Weeks in the Globe and Mail, studies have found detectable levels of BPA in the saliva of patients after they received sealants or fillings, but experts are divided as to whether this low exposure constitutes a health risk. Mainstream dentists deny it`s a problem: "We're a small part of what is perhaps a much larger problem," Darryl Smith of the Canadian Dental Association told the Globe. "The amount of bisphenol A is extremely low in dental materials and in some [it] is non-existent."

But "a study published in the Journal of the Amer...

The debate about the risks posed by internet addiction has begun again with the publication of an editorial in the American Journal of Psychiatry on the topic.

Let's take a look at what Jerald Block said. He identifies three "subtypes" of internet addiction: excessive gaming, sexual preoccupations, and e-mail/text messaging (not strictly internet, I know).

Want to know if you're addicted? He provides these four criteria:

1. Excessive use, often associated with a loss of sense of time or a neglect of basic drives
2. Withdrawal, including feelings of anger, tension, and/or depression when the computer is inaccessible
3. Tolerance, including the need for better computer equipment, more software, or more hours of use
4. Negative repercussions, including arguments, lying, poor achievement, social isolation, and fatigue

Researchers in the US have developed a way to kill people with radio waves - but this is no secret Pentagon project.

They're computer scientists demonstrating that pacemakers and other implants can be hacked. Their latest demonstration showed that using radio signals they could shut down a pacemaker made by US firm Medtronic, or have it deliver jolts of electricity could be fatal.

This is a revised version of an article that appeared in the March 2006 issue of Seed. Click here to read the original.

Credit: Jimmy Turrell

The Associated Press recently announced, after a five-month inquiry, that researchers have found trace amounts of prescription drugs in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans. Scientists have known for years that the drugs we swallow end up in our drinking water, but whether these small concentrations--in the parts per billion or trillion range--can cause harm over long periods of time or in combination with other drugs is still a very open question.

A US company is developing a flashlight capable of causing temporary blindness, disorientation and nausea.

You can see it in action in a modified-to-be-safe video made by CBS news - or an unmodified clip that they caution viewers may find uncomfortable. It may be the only way to experience such a non-lethal weapon from the comfort of your desk. Sampling a Taser over the web certainly isn't so easy.