Game Brain

This article from Men Style/GQ is a little way off our usual Pharma trail, but certainly made us think - and wonder how many damaged brains we will see in the future in users of certain medications. The cruelty of corporate executives involved in these cases is noteworthy and clear; we do not doubt that similar coverups and indifference occur in fields other than sports.

"Let’s say you run a multibillion-dollar football league. And let’s say the scientific community—starting with one young pathologist in Pittsburgh and growing into a chorus of neuroscientists across the country—comes to you and says concussions are making your players crazy, crazy enough to kill themselves, and here, in these slices of brain tissue, is the proof. Do you join these scientists and try to solve the problem, or do you use your power to discredit them?"



"The coverage that week had been bracing and disturbing and exciting. Dead at 50. Mike Webster! Nine-time Pro Bowler. Hall of Famer. “Iron Mike,” legendary Steelers center for fifteen seasons. His life after football had been mysterious and tragic, and on the news they were going on and on about it. What had happened to him? How does a guy go from four Super Bowl rings to…pissing in his own oven and squirting Super Glue on his rotting teeth? Mike Webster bought himself a Taser gun, used that on himself to treat his back pain, would zap himself into unconsciousness just to get some sleep. Mike Webster lost all his money, or maybe gave it away. He forgot. A lot of lawsuits. Mike Webster forgot how to eat, too. Soon Mike Webster was homeless, living in a truck, one of its windows replaced with a garbage bag and tape.
...
Omalu stared at Mike Webster’s brain. He kept thinking, How did this big athletic man end up so crazy in the head? He was thinking about football and brain trauma. The leap in logic was hardly extreme. He was thinking, Dementia pugilistica? “Punch-drunk syndrome,” they called it in boxers. The clinical picture was somewhat like Mike Webster’s: severe dementia—delusion, paranoia, explosive behavior, loss of memory—caused by repeated blows to the head. Omalu figured if chronic bashing of the head could destroy a boxer’s brain, couldn’t it also destroy a football player’s brain? Could that be what made Mike Webster crazy?"

Article continues here.

The New York Times has more here.

Bipolar Disorder Secondary to Head Injury - a MEDLINE Search by Ivan K. Goldberg, M.D. can be found here.

To view healthy and sick brains at the Harvard Whole Brain Atlas, go here.

The Sports Legacy Institute is here.

Drug-Induced Dementia: The Perfect Crime

"Under the influence of declining birth rates, expanding longevity, and changing population structures around the world, the global prevalence of senile dementia is expected to increase more than four-fold within the next forty years. Within the United States alone, the number of affected individuals over the age of 65 is expected to rise exponentially from 8 million cases (2% of the entire population in the year 2000), to 18 million retirees (roughly 4.5% of the national census in the year 2040). Although they are striking, these statistics quite likely underestimate the scope of the coming epidemic, as they fail to consider the impact of under-diagnosis, early-onset disease, and the potential for a changing incidence of illness in the context of increasingly toxic environments.

In the face of this imminent crisis, concerned observers have called for policies and practices which aim to prevent, limit, or reverse dementia. Drug-Induced Dementia: A Perfect Crime is a timely resource which reveals why and how medical treatments themselves – specifically, psychopharmaceuticals – are a substantial cause of brain degeneration and premature death.

A first-of-its-kind resource for patients and clinicians, the book integrates research findings from epidemiology (observational studies of patients in the “real world”), basic biology (animal experiments), and clinical science (neuroimaging and autopsy studies) in order to demonstrate the dementing and deadly effects of psychiatric drugs.

Highlighted by more than 100 neuroimages, slides of tissue specimens, and illustrations, the book uniquely describes:

Ø the societal roots of the problem
(target organ toxicity, regulatory incompetence, and performativity)

Ø the subtypes and essential causes of dementia

Ø the patterns, prevalence, and causes of dementia associated with antidepressants, antipsychotics, anxiolytics, mood stabilizers, and stimulants

and

Ø the actions and reforms which patients, providers, and policy makers might immediately pursue, in an effort to mitigate the causes and consequences of this iatrogenic tragedy."

Link

Global Alzheimer's Disease Charter

"We are facing a public health and social care emergency and immediate action is needed!

Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia and accounts for 60-70% of all cases. Alzheimer's disease and other dementias are progressive, degenerative illnesses that attack the brain. They affect people's abilities, impacting on all aspects of their life and upon others in their lives, particularly those who care for them day by day.

Every year, 4.6 million new cases of dementia are reported worldwide: One new case every seven seconds. By 2050, it is projected that there will be 100 million people with dementia in the world. No country is adequately prepared to deal with a crisis of this magnitude.

Lack of awareness and understanding has resulted in insufficient resources to address this crisis. Worldwide, attention to this rapidly growing problem is so small that most of those affected continue to suffer without help, or hope. This must change! The quality of life of people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias can be transformed. Too often, they, their families and carers lack the support that they need and deserve.

We, the members of Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI), representing 77 associations around the world, urgently call upon all governments and stakeholders to act now."

Link to Petition

We couldn't agree more... but think that this unhappy state - of DEFICIENCY DISEASES - has arisen due to bad nutrition. Information about maintenance of brain health through proper eating and supplementation is important in prevention of Alzheimer's and the dementias, should begin in childhood and last all your life. A society that knows and cares more about what goes into pet food than human food - and lets its elders eat dog food - should be ashamed of itself.

WHAT REALLY CAUSES ALZHEIMER'S? We think Harold Foster has the answer and you can read his book free, here.

Gardasil in UK

A trial of the new cervical cancer vaccine programme for schoolgirls across the country has encountered opposition from parents, with 20% refusing to give permission for their daughters to have the jab.

A third of those who gave a reason for refusal said they were worried about the long-term safety, on which there is no data. But some may have concerns that allowing vaccination may promote promiscuity, because the cancer-causing virus which the vaccination targets is passed on in sexual intercourse. Two schools declined to take part for religious reasons.

The findings from the pilot study, involving 2,817 girls aged 12 and 13 in year 8 at 36 secondary schools in Greater Manchester, are published by the British Medical Journal today. In an accompanying editorial, Professor Jo Waller and Dr Jane Wardle from the department of epidemiology and public health at University College London say 12- and 13-year-old girls whose parents refuse consent may be competent to decide for themselves.

Article here

Aside from its ALUMINUM adjuvant, Gardasil has a few other teeny problems.

You can get these HPV warts from non-intimate activities, like sharing a towel at a pool.
Many Americans are already infected with HPV according to the Washinton Post. Is the sky falling? No. It isn't even a blip on the public health screen. Most people who get these warts get over them without ever knowing they had them. In Canada, a country of 30 million, there were a mere 400 mortalities from cervical cancer last year.

$o, what's this all about? Follow the money. Just like Bush's attempt to screen the entire US population for mental illness (TMAP), this story has links to Texas. Read about Texas' Governor Goodhair's good deeds for Merck here.

Help your Aging Parent

Image: Linus Pauling

Linus Pauling lived to be 94. Here is some Micronutient information for the older adult from the Linus Pauling Institute.
And if you take good care of yourself, you won't need these checklists and resources on assessment and care for elders soon.

Creativity, Aging and Brain Illnesses

Amazing art here
Found at Boing Boing.