Deadly infections increasingly able to win against antibiotics

These organisms are very small, but they are still smarter than we are.

Since commercial production of penicillin began in the 1940s, antibiotics have been the miracle drugs of modern medicine, suppressing infectious diseases that have afflicted human beings for thousands of years. But today, as a generation of Baby Boomers begins to enter a phase of life marked by the ailments of aging, we are running out of miracles against bacteria.

"Within just a few years, we could be seeing that most of our microorganisms are resistant to most of our antibiotics," said Dr. Jack Edwards, chief of infectious diseases at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Terry Hazen, senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and director of its ecology program, is not at all surprised by the tenacity of our bacterial foes. "We are talking about 3.5 billion years of evolution," he said. "They are the dominant life on Earth."

Bacteria have invaded virtually every ecological niche on the planet. Human explorers of extreme environments such as deep wells and mines are still finding new bacterial species. "As you go deeper into the subsurface, thousands and thousands of feet, you find bacteria that have been isolated for millions of years - and you find multiple antibiotic resistance," Hazen said.

In his view, when bacteria develop resistance to modern antibiotics, they are merely rolling out old tricks they mastered eons ago in their struggle to live in harsh environments in competition with similarly resilient species.

Via SFGate.com

Bad sleeping raises risk of heart diseases and sudden attacks.

Researchers say both too much and too little sleep is linked to a doubled risk of fatal cardiovascular disease. Teams from the University of Warwick and University College London examined sleep patterns and death rates among 10,308 civil servants.

They found a doubled risk among those who cut their sleeping from seven to five hours a night compared to those who stuck to seven hours a night.

But the risk was similar for those who increased to at least eight hours.

The research, to be presented to the British Sleep Society, was based on data taken in 1985-88 and on follow up information collected in 1992-93.

The researchers took into account other possible factors such age, sex, marital status, employment grade, smoking status and physical activity.

Once they had adjusted for those factors they were able to isolate the effect that changes in sleep patterns over five years had on mortality rates 11-17 years later.

Those who cut their sleeping from seven to five hours a night had twice the risk of a fatal cardiovascular problem of those who stuck to the recommended seven hours a night - and a 1.7 increased risk of death from all causes.

--Disturbed sleep common

Researcher Professor Francesco Cappuccio said: ""Fewer hours sleep and greater levels of sleep disturbance have become widespread in industrialized societies.

""This change, largely the result of sleep curtailment to create more time for leisure and shift-work, has meant that reports of fatigue, tiredness and excessive daytime sleepiness are more common than a few decades ago.

""Sleep represents the daily process of physiological restitution and recovery, and lack of sleep has far-reaching effects.""

Curiously, the researchers also found that those individuals who increased their sleep to eight hours or more a night were more than twice as likely to die as those who had not changed their habit.

Professor Cappuccio said lack of sleep had been linked to an increased risk of weight gain, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

However, he said the link between too much sleep and poor health was less clear, although he suggested that staying in bed for prolonged periods could be a sign of depression, or, in some cases, cancer-related fatigue.

""Our findings indicate that consistently sleeping around seven hours per night is optimal for health and a sustained reduction may predispose to ill-health.""

--Individual need

Dr. Neil Stanley, a sleep expert from Norwich and Norfolk University Hospital, said while public health messages focused on diet and exercise, people were given very little information about the need to get proper amounts of sleep.

""This study is yet more evidence of the importance of getting sleep, and the right amount of sleep for you,"" he said.

""Sleep need is like height or shoe size: we all have an individual one, and we sleep less or more then there are consequences to pay.""

(Source: BBC)

Chinese Mahjong Game Epilepsy

A study by doctors in Hong Kong has concluded that epilepsy can be induced by the Chinese tile game of mahjong.

The findings, published in the Hong Kong Medical Journal, were based on 23 cases of people who had suffered mahjong-induced seizures.

The report's four authors, from Hong Kong's Queen Mary Hospital, said the best prevention - and cure - was to avoid playing mahjong.

The study led the doctors to define mahjong epilepsy as a unique syndrome.

Epileptic seizures can be provoked by a wide variety of triggers, but one cause increasingly evident to researchers is the playing - or even watching - of mahjong.

This Chinese tile game, played by four people round a table, can involve gambling and quickly becomes compulsive.

Demanding

The game, which is intensely social and sometimes played in crowded mahjong parlours, involves the rapid movement of tiles in marathon sessions.

The doctors conclude that the syndrome affects far more men than women; that their average age is 54; and that it can hit sufferers anywhere between one to 11 hours into a mahjong game.

They say the attacks were not just caused by sleep deprivation or gambling stress.

Mahjong is cognitively demanding, drawing on memory, fast calculations, concentration, reasoning and sequencing.

The distinctive design of mahjong tiles, and the sound of the tiles crashing onto the table, may contribute to the syndrome.

The propensity of Chinese people to play mahjong also deserves further study, the doctors say.

What is certain though, is that the only sure way to avoid mahjong epilepsy, is to avoid mahjong, which for many people is easier said than done.

Source : BBC News, Hong Kong