Canadian doctors say they have found an inventive way to treat lazy eye - playing the Tetris video game -

Canadian doctors say they have found an inventive way to treat lazy eye - playing the Tetris video game - 



Canadian doctors say they have found an inventive way to treat lazy eye - playing the Tetris video game.

The McGill University team discovered the popular tile-matching puzzle could train both eyes to work together.

In a small study, in Current Biology with 18 adults, it worked better than conventional patching of the good eye to make the weak one work harder.

The researchers now want to test if it would be a good way to treat children with the same condition.

UK studies are already under way.

An estimated one in 50 children has lazy eye, known medically as amblyopia.

It happens when the vision in one eye does not develop properly, and is often accompanied by a squint - where the eyes do not look in the same direction.

Without treatment it can lead to a permanent loss of vision in the weak eye, which is why doctors try to intervene early.

Normally, the treatment is to cover the strong eye with a patch so that the child is forced to use their lazy eye.

The child must wear the patch for much of the day over many months, which can be frustrating and unpleasant.

Learning through play
Dr Robert Hess and colleagues in Montreal set out to investigate whether a different approach might work.

Armed with a special pair of video goggles they set up an experiment that would make both eyes work as a team.

Nine volunteers with amblyopia were asked to wear the goggles for an hour a day over the next two weeks while playing Tetris, the falling building block video game.

The goggles allowed one eye to see only the falling objects, while the other eye could see only the blocks that accumulate on the ground in the game.

For comparison, another group of nine volunteers with amblyopia wore similar goggles but had their good eye covered, and watched the whole game through only their lazy eye.

At the end of the two weeks, the group who used both eyes had more improvement in their vision than the patched group.

The researchers then let the patched group have a go at using the goggles with both eyes uncovered. Their vision then improved significantly.

Read  more - 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22245620

US Mint Halts Sales, Depletes Inventory Of One-Tenth Ounce Gold Coins -

US Mint Halts Sales, Depletes Inventory Of One-Tenth Ounce Gold Coins - 


We have been reporting extensively on the terminal disconnect between the paper gold market, which tumbled ten days ago for a variety of reasons, and the physical gold market which one can safely say, has seen a record surge in demand by those who wish to take advantage of the tumbling prices, depleting inventories of gold and silver in virtually all jurisdictions, and leading to the a record purchase of gold in the US mint a week ago as also reported here.

Today, we learn that, as expected, none other than the US Mint has officially run out of small denomination gold coins, in this case One-Tenth ounce American Eagle gold bullion coins. We are confident this incontrovertible proof of soaring retail demand for physical will somehow result in JPM or another bullion bank dumping a few extra thousands ounces of paper/electronic gold or silver to further disconnect the paper price from what is actually going on with physical demand. As for the US Mint, first it's fractions of an ounce: look forward to the mint running out of all bullion denominations in the coming days and week, first in gold, then in silver as well.

From Reuters:

The U.S. Mint has temporarily suspended sales of its one-tenth ounce American Eagle gold bullion coins because of inventory depletion due to strong demand, but continues to offer the one-ounce, one-half ounce and one-quarter ounce coins.

In a memo to its authorized purchases late Monday, the Mint said that gold coins sales in total ounces has been up more than 100 percent year to date over the same period last year.
We, for one, can only hope that the idiotic smashdown of spot paper gold continue and the price is sent to $0 or negative, while the last remaining physical ounce in inventory disappears at any price.

At that point the exchanges will have quite a few anxious people to answer to, the second someone demands even one bar in delivery.

Also, learn the words: "forced cash settlement."

Read more - 

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-23/us-mint-halts-sales-runs-out-inventory-one-tenth-ounce-gold-coins-due-strong-demand

Rare sleep disorder has Woman eating 2,500 calories a night -

Rare sleep disorder has Woman eating 2,500 calories a night - 


A woman has to go on a diet during the day because she eats up to 2,500 calories a night in her sleep, The Sun reported.
Lesley Cusack, 55, loves foods like bacon and butter pudding in the middle of the night. The mother of three has to keep herself on a strict diet during the day because at night, she has no control over what she eats. 
Cusack, from Warrington, Chesire in the United Kingdom, has a rare sleep disorder called nocturnal sleep-related eating disorder, which finds her eating while sleeping -- and not remembering it the next day. 
“I can only tell by the remains in the morning," Cusack said. “Sometimes I’ve found soup in pans, but also in bowls -- it all can get rather messy."
Cusack said she's tried putting alarms on doors in the hopes it will wake her up -- but it didn't work.


Read more: - 
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4900173/woman-with-rare-disorder-eats-in-her-sleep.html

America: Number 1 In Fear, Stress, Anger, Divorce, Obesity, Anti-Depressants, Etc. -

America: Number 1 In Fear, Stress, Anger, Divorce, Obesity, Anti-Depressants, Etc. - 


The United States is a deeply unhappy place.  We are a nation that is absolutely consumed by fear, stress, anger and depression.  It isn't just our economy that is falling apart - the very fabric of society is starting to come apart at the seams and it is because of what is happening to us on the inside.  The facts and statistics that I am going to share with you in this article are quite startling.  They are clear evidence that America is a nation that is an advanced state of decline.  We are overwhelmed by fear, stress and anxiety, and much of the time the ways that we choose to deal with those emotions lead to some very self-destructive behaviors.  Americans have experienced a standard of living far beyond the wildest dreams of most societies throughout human history, and yet we are an absolutely miserable people.  Why is this?  Why is America #1 in so many negative categories?  Why are we constantly looking for ways to escape the pain of our own lives?  Why are our families falling apart?  There is vast material wealth all around us.  So why can't we be happy?

Just look around you.  Are most of the people around you teeming with happiness and joy?  Sadly, the truth is that most Americans are terribly stressed out.  Yeah, many of them may be able to manage to come up with a smile when they greet you, but most of the time they are consumed by internal struggles that are eating away at them like cancer.

So why is this happening?  Is modern life structured in a way that is fundamentally unhealthy?

Below I have posted a short excerpt from a message that one of Charles Hugh Smith's readers named Kenneth Daigle recently sent to him.  I think that it does a good job of describing the incredible stress that many people contend with on a daily basis...

Think about how our culture is now structured for the average adult: STRESS, everywhere you look--commuting in horrible traffic, as you want to scream in frustration--money stress, to pay rent/house note, tuition, utilities, gas, insurances, vacations, cable bill, rising food costs, and on and on and on--stress from family problems, divorce, delinquency, drugs, crime, infidelity, keeping up with the Jones, etc.

People have too high an expectation of what they should have out of life, and get overly stressed over it all. How does all of this manifest itself? A prescription drug culture (Zoloft, Xanax, etc.) that tricks people into thinking a pill will knock back the stress, when these drugs, in my opinion, only make things worse.

I am hearing more and more that people just want to drop out from it all, as they are reaching a breaking point, and have decided less income and dependency on entitlements will reduce their stress, and is not so humiliating, so giving up working becomes more acceptable, to KEEP ONE’S SANITY.

I know I am correct, from the feedback I hear every day, and the financial media does not see this like I hear it every day. People don't want to admit that they are too weak to deal with stress, so the financial pundits are not aware of this critical factor because they don't talk to Joe Sixpack.

Most Americans live lives of "quiet desperation" that are punctuated by moments of great crisis.  We spend our prime years working for others (making them rich) in order to pay off debts that we have foolishly accumulated (thus making the banks even wealthier).  When most Americans reach the end of their lives, they look back and wonder what they actually accomplished.

James Altucher published an incredible article the other day entitled "Why Do People Hate Their Jobs?"  It did a great job of describing what life is like for the modern worker in America.  The following are a few of the reasons that he says people tend to hate their jobs...

-Jobs are modern-day slavery. We are paid just enough to live and not more. You are punished if you ask for more.

-We are often verbally abused on the job and we take it because we think it’s normal that people would yell at us.

-The government gets up to 50% of your paycheck and then 10-20% of that goes to kill people on other parts of the planet, including our own children.

-From 7am to 7pm you are either A) going to work, B) at work, or C) coming back from work. Hence, the times when you can be most creative are garbage-compacted into your cubicle.

-When you are paranoid at a job, you are probably correct. THEY are, in fact, talking about you and backstabbing you right now.

-You realize that all the dollars you spent on degrees to get you a job that will make you happy were completely wasted. You were scammed but you can’t let the next generation know how stupid you were so now you become part of perpetuating the scam.

-Your spouse is tired of hearing about your job after six months. And you couldn’t care less about hers. Ten years later you wake up next to a total stranger. 40 years later you die next to one.

-When you were a kid you liked to draw, and read, and run, and laugh, and play, and imagine a magical world. You’re never going to do any of that again.

-Over time everyone is getting fired and being replaced by younger, cheaper, more temporary, more robotic, versions of you. You see this but are afraid to do anything about it.

And of course when we get home from work there is even more stress.  In America today, we are witnessing a breakdown of the family unlike anything we have ever seen before.  The United States leads the world in divorce and in single person households.  We are having an increasingly difficult time relating to one another, and many of us drown our sorrows in our addictions.  We are addicted to pills, to alcohol, to food, to entertainment, to sex, to gambling, to shopping and to anything else that will make us feel good and forget about our problems for a while.

The following is a collection of facts and statistics that prove that America is being absolutely consumed by fear, stress, anger and depression...

-Suicide has now actually surpassed car accidents as the number one cause of "injury death" in the United States.

-More U.S. soldiers killed themselves than were killed in combat last year.

-As I mentioned in another article, Americans will spend more than 280 billion dollars on prescription drugs during 2013.

-Nearly one out of every four women in the United States are taking antidepressants.

-The percentage of women taking antidepressants in the U.S. is higher than in any other country in the world.

-In 2010, the average teen in the U.S. was taking 1.2 central nervous system drugs.  Those are the kinds of drugs which treat conditions such as ADHD and depression.

-Children in the United States are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants as children in Europe are.

-According to a recent article by David Kupelian, "one-third of the nation’s employees suffer chronic debilitating stress, and more than half of all 'millennials' (18 to 33 year olds) experience a level of stress that keeps them awake at night, including large numbers diagnosed with depression or anxiety disorder."

-Tens of millions of Americans use alcohol and drugs to numb the pain that they are experiencing.  In the United States today, there are about 28 million Americans with a drinking problem and about 22 million Americans use illegal drugs.

-More people have been diagnosed with mental disorders in America than anywhere else on earth.

-There are also tens of millions of Americans that try to deal with anxiety and stress by eating.  Of all the major industrialized nations, America is the most obese.  Mexico is #2.

-Back in 1962, only 13 percent of all Americans were obese.  Today, approximately 36 percent of all Americans are obese.

-Many people try to escape from the pain of reality by getting lost in entertainment.  Incredibly, the United States is tied with the UK for the highest average number of hours spent watching television each week.

-The United States has the highest divorce rate in the world by a good margin.

-The United States has the highest percentage of one person households on the entire planet.

-According to the Pew Research Center, only 51 percent of all American adults are currently married.  Back in 1960, 72 percent of all adults in the United States were married.

-At this point, approximately one out of every three children in America lives in a home without a father.

-For women under the age of 30 living in the United States today, more than half of all babies are being born out of wedlock.

-The United States has the highest child abuse death rate in the developed world.

-In the United States today, it is estimated that one out of every four girls is sexually abused before they become adults.

-The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the world by a very wide margin.

-The United States produces more pornography than any other nation in the world.

-If you can believe it, there are 20 million new STD infections in the United States every single year.

-The U.S. has the highest STD infection rate in the entire industrialized world.

-It is estimated that about one out of every six Americans between the ages of 14 and 49 have genital herpes.

-Sadly, one out of every four teen girls in the U.S. has at least one sexually transmitted disease.

-The United States leads the world in eating disorder deaths.

-Nobody in the world gets more plastic surgery done than Americans do.

-Americans spend more time sitting in traffic than anyone else in the world.

-America has the highest incarceration rate and the largest total prison population in the entire world by a very wide margin.

Fear is one of the primary things that motivates the American people, and that is a very powerful weapon that can be used against us.

As I wrote about yesterday, those that commit acts of terror want to get attention and they want to create fear.

And that is exactly what the Boston Marathon bombing accomplished.  It captured the attention of the nation for days on end, and it absolutely paralyzed the entire Boston area with fear.

Read more - 

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/america-1-in-fear-stress-anger-divorce-obesity-anti-depressants-etc

Analysis Finds 55% Ground Beef, 39% Chicken Contaminated with Superbugs -

Analysis Finds 55% Ground Beef, 39% Chicken Contaminated with Superbugs - 


Would you still eat that turkey burger if you knew it contained antibiotic resistant bacteria? Maybe not. But if you eat turkey, there’s a good chance you are ingesting some of these potentially lethal “super bugs”. The same holds true for beef, chicken, and pork, according to a recent analysis from the Environmental Working Group.

The EWG analyzed tests recently released from the federal government, and what they found was that a great deal of American meat is contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. More specifically, the EWG found the following contamination levels:

81% of raw ground turkey
69% of pork chops
55% of raw ground beef
39% of raw chicken
With the vast majority of U.S.-made pharmaceuticals going into livestock production, how could this possibly be? It’s because the superbugs are created in part by an overabundance of antibiotics. Sounds a little backwards, right? Well, bacteria are living things; they evolve and change to survive just like humans or animals do. And to this end, when something threatens them, they adjust to build defenses. This is how powerful bacteria become impervious to potent antibiotics.

MedicalNewsToday reports that 30 million pounds of antibiotics were sold in 2011. This marks an increase of 22% since 2005. And somewhere around 80% of those drugs went to meat production. As we pump more and more antibiotics into the food system, we will likely see a greater concentration, variety, and fallout of these superbugs.

The EWG says the source of the problem isn’t being addressed. The cause of proliferation of illness and bacteria among livestock is largely the conditions in which we raise them. In other words, large scale feeding operations where cattle, chicken, and other livestock are forced to live on top of each other in their own filth certainly does nothing to encourage healthy animals.

“Congress should also fully fund the Conservation Stewardship Program, which encourages conservation activities on grassland, pastureland and rangeland. This program, run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, could be used to support ranchers who raise animals on pasture and employ practices that fortify health.

For example, unlike operations that confine a large number of animals to a small area, rotational grazing allows animals access to open space. This practice improves herd health and reduces the risk of infection or sickness that would otherwise spread easily,” the Environmental Working Group reports.

Antibiotic resistant superbugs found in livestock can and will make their way into humans. One already has. Known as Pig MRSA, Methcillin-resistant Staphoylococcus aureus CC398 is no longer just for pigs. That having been said, if you knew your turkey burger was infected with a “superbug”, would you still eat it?

Until the issue is addressed, it’s important to consider limiting meat consumption. Some farmers are doing their part by not only being independent from large-scale CAFO’s, but also by replacing antibiotics with natural substances like cinnamon and oregano oil.

Read more - 

http://www.blacklistednews.com/Analysis_Finds_55%25_Ground_Beef%2C_39%25_Chicken_Contaminated_with_Superbugs_/25505/0/0/0/Y/M.html

Hospital bedbug infestations double... - Why more patients share rooms with the blood-sucking pests -

Hospital bedbug infestations double... - Why more patients share rooms with the blood-sucking pests - 




As if adapting to health-care reform and curbing the “nightmare bacteria” weren’t challenge enough, hospitals are increasingly plagued by another problem: bedbugs.

More than a third of pest-management companies treated bedbug infestations in hospitals in 2012, 6% more than the year before and more than twice as many as in 2010, according to a survey released today by the National Pest Management Association. The percentage of exterminators dealing with bedbugs in nursing homes has also almost doubled since 2010, to 46%. Bedbug experts also report seeing them in ambulances.

Hospitals are already cracking down on anything that could increase the risk of patient infections, which not only can be deadly but may also lead to more readmissions and reduced federal funding under the Affordable Care Act. While bedbugs have not been found to transmit infections to humans, they leave itchy bites after feeding on people’s blood, which can lead to secondary infections when victims scratch, opening themselves up to bacteria. This is especially problematic in hospitals, where there is a greater likelihood of catching the highly potent and contagious staph infection known as MRSA, says Dr. Jorge Parada, medical director of the infection prevention and control program of Loyola University Health System in Chicago. “You don’t need one more ingredient to increase your risk of infections in the hospital,” he says.

Although hospitals are putting a growing emphasis on strict cleanliness and sterilization protocols, bedbugs still arrive via the many patients and visitors going in and out of their emergency rooms and waiting areas. “We never know when somebody might show up with bedbugs,” Parada says.

The high instance of bedbugs in nursing homes is also concerning, he adds, because hospitals receive many transfers from such facilities, and elderly people often don’t exhibit the same telltale signs of bedbugs—red, raised, itchy lesions—that other patients do: “It’s one less tipoff that it’s a problem.”

To be sure, say experts, you’re still more likely to catch other kinds of bugs in hospitals than you are to get bedbugs—and they aren’t a medical emergency the way other complications would be, says Missy Henriksen of the National Pest Management Association. That said, if bedbugs become a problem in a hospital, they can be a persistent nuisance. “The bedbugs, and particularly the eggs of bedbugs, are even harder to kill than the spores of the bacteria,” says Dr. Dick Zoutman, a professor and infectious disease specialist at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. “I wouldn’t have thought that to be the case.”

Zoutman helped develop a new hospital sterilization system that can kill highly drug-resistant bacteria as well as bedbugs. The sterilization technology, marketed as AsepticSure by San Francisco-based Medizone International—a firm that is traded over-the-counter as MZEI.OB and MZEI.QB—uses gas to effectively eradicate 100% of bacteria in less than an hour, according to the company. Medizone just began distributing its new disinfecting technology to Canadian hospitals earlier this month, and is seeking approval to market it in the U.S., too.

But Zoutman, who now serves as Medizone’s chief medical officer, says that in tests, the system took up to 24 hours to kill bedbugs, and up to 36 hours to kill their eggs. He says Medizone is now working to adapt the system to kill bedbugs in a faster and more effective manner, both for hospitals and other settings as well.

Advances like that would be eagerly welcomed in hospitals, but for now, exterminators are their only realistic option for addressing a pest invasion. “No patient,” Parada says, “is going to look favorably on a hospital that’s had a bedbug infestation.” 

Read more - 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bedbugs-rack-up-hospital-bills-2013-04-22?link=MW_home_latest_news