A regulatory protein best known for its role in a rare genetic brain disorder also may play a critical role in cocaine addiction, according to a recent study in rats, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a component of
the National Institutes of Health. The study was published today in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Carolyn Cihelka is the editor of the Consumer Information Catalog and the writer/editor of the FedInfo enewsletter.
I’d always been too cheap to buy organic, and in too much of a hurry to give my fruits and veggies more than a quick rinse, so I was horrified recently when, as the mother of a child with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), I read about an article in a respected medical journal indicating a possible tie between pesticides on produce and ADHD.
Each payday I have some money deducted from my paycheck to buy a U.S. Savings Bond. I’m used to having savings bonds arrive in my mailbox, but in September there will be a change for federal employees, and in January the change happens for everyone else. No more paper savings bonds through the payroll deduction program.
The payroll deduction program will still exist, but it will be an online savings program. Don’t worry, not all paper bonds are being phased out now. You can still go to the bank and buy a paper savings bond for your grandkids.
On Sept. 2-3, 2010, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) will convene a two-day conference on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: From Mouse Models to Human Disease and Treatment. This meeting will bring together basic research scientists working on models of autoimmune disease relevant to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), with clinicians treating lupus patients. There are numerous mouse models of lupus, but their relevance to the actual disorder is still a subject for debate. Moreover, since SLE is a heterogeneous disease, some features of the disorder may be better reflected in one or another mouse model.
It’s almost back to school time, and when you’re a parent, that means it’s back to school shopping time. I don’t know why, but it always catches me by surprise. I should know better. The kids have grown and they need new clothes, and shoes. Their backpacks are worn to threads so they need new back packs and lunch boxes. It’s warm here now, but soon they’ll even need jackets and sweaters and snow boots!
All of this shopping can get expensive, and some states offer sales tax holidays to make your back to school shopping a little more affordable. Other states offer sales tax holidays to help you buy supplies to prepare for hurricane season, or to help you afford energy-efficient appliances.
As a kid, I was sick a lot and I missed school quite a bit. I seemed to spend a lot of time at the doctor’s office and I was often diagnosed with sinus infections, colds, post-nasal drip, chronic/acute
bronchitis, or pneumonia. For months at a time, I lived on antibiotics, cough medicine, and cough drops. During my sick times, it was a nightly routine to slather my chest with Vick’s VapoRub and put oven-warmed towels on my chest to help me breathe.
It was a struggle for my folks because my coughing was keeping them awake. I have memories from when I was just an itty-bitty thing struggling to suppress this constant coughing. On occasion I would go sit in the closet in my bedroom coughing into my pillow trying to silence my coughs so everyone could sleep. I would do this until the wee hours of the morning and sometimes I would fall asleep in the closet.
Just a few weeks ago, I wrote a post about not being caught off-guard in summer storms. Sometimes I need to learn to take my own advice.
This past Sunday a wicked thunderstorm tore through the Maryland, DC and Virginia area. There were tornado warnings in some areas and, though I don’t think any funnel clouds were actually spotted, the storm left quite a mess to clean up.
I watched the movie Food, Inc last weekend and one of its messages was that if you want the healthiest food, you should strive to buy your produce locally. There’s no better way to do that than shopping at your local farmers market. The Department of Agriculture is promoting farmers markets this week by deeming it National Farmers Market Week.
Farmers markets are a place where farmers can sell their products and develop a personal relationship with their buyers and the community. The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service supports the development of the farmers markets and counts them through the National Farmers Market Directory. This year’s count will be released this week and if it is anything like last year’s, it will demonstrate the rapid growth of farmers markets in the U.S.
Scanning the genomes of more than 100,000 people from all over the world, scientists report the largest set of genes discovered underlying high cholesterol and high triglycerides — the major risk factors for coronary heart disease, the nation’s number one killer. Taken together, the gene variants explain between a quarter and a third of the inherited portions of cholesterol and triglyceride measured in the blood. The research, representing scientists from 17 countries, appears in two papers in the Aug. 5 issue of Nature.