Public Health Agency of Canada deletes information from its website that indicated the “airborne spread” of Ebola -

Public Health Agency of Canada deletes information from its website that indicated the “airborne spread” of Ebola - 



The Public Health Agency of Canada has deleted information from its official website which indicated that the “airborne spread” of Ebola was strongly suspected by health authorities, amidst efforts by officials in Texas to calm concerns about the first outbreak of the virus in America.

The image below shows the original Public Health Agency of Canada website’s information page on the Ebola virus as it appeared on August 20th compared to how it appears now.



Under a section entitled “mode of transmission,” the original text stated that, “airborne spread among humans is strongly suspected, although it has not yet been conclusively demonstrated.”


However, the amended text states that, “airborne transmission has not been demonstrated between non-human primates.”

Both passages refer to a 2012 study by Canadian scientists which indicated that the Ebola virus could be transmitted by air between different species.

“Researchers from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the country’s Public Health Agency have shown that pigs infected with this form of Ebola can pass the disease on to macaques without any direct contact between the species,” reported BBC News.

Although there is no confirmation that Ebola has gone airborne, Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, acknowledged in a recent New York Times op-ed that virologists are “loath to discuss openly but are definitely considering in private” the possibility that Ebola has gone airborne.

Some have questioned why hundreds of health workers have become sick and died from Ebola given that they take extreme precautions to avoid bodily contact with victims.

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Britons spend more on drugs and prostitutes than on beer and wine -

Britons spend more on drugs and prostitutes than on beer and wine - 



Britons spend more on drugs and prostitutes than on beer and wine, the first official study of money spent on "illegal" activities has found.
The figures were disclosed in data today that showed a 2.2 per cent rise in the amount of money spent by families over the past year as the economy returned to health.
The Office for National Statistics, which tracks changes in spending habits across the country, found miscreants spent an enormous £12.3 billion last year on illegal substances and sexual gratification. This was more than the amount spent on wine and beer in 2013, which was just under £11 billion, according to the ONS data.
The statistics body been forced by the European Union to investigate the amount of money splurged on illegal drugs and prostitution. Today was its final deadline to publicise the findings, which are now included in the national accounts. The EU said such work was necessary to create a fair comparison of different national economies.
David Matthewson, a statistician at the ONS, said: "For a long time we have made adjustments to our calculations to account for smuggling, and some of that would have included alcohol and other substances. But smuggling, of course, is not as commonplace as it once was. This was the first time we have allowed spending on narcotic drugs and prostitution into our calculations for the economy.

"As might be expected, data on this sort of activity is not exactly forthcoming, so we used a number of previous studies which looked at different elements of the equation, from the number of prostitutes in the UK to price at which drugs are bought."
The ONS estimated that including spending on drugs such as cocaine and heroin in the national accounts would add £6.7 billion a year to spending across the UK. The figure was an estimated based on data covering the period between 1997 and 2013 from various sources, including the Home Office and a study undertaken by the United Nations.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11131144/Britons-spend-more-on-drugs-and-prostitutes-than-beer-and-wine.html

US National Institutes of Health spent $2 million to get elderly to join choirs -

US National Institutes of Health spent $2 million to get elderly to join choirs - 



The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has spent more than $2 million to promote how joining a community choir can be beneficial to older adults.

The government is currently financing a five-year project that is recruiting 450 “minority elders” to participate in choirs at senior centers in San Francisco.

The premise of the study, entitled, “Community Choirs to Promote Healthy Aging and Independence of Older Adults,” is that the country is facing a demographic crisis and needs to prepare for a larger elderly population.

“The United States is experiencing a rapid increase in the number of older adults. In 2009, there were 39.6 million individuals over age 65, and this number is expected to almost double by 2030,” the NIH grant states. “During the same time period, there will be an increase in the number of older adults with diverse racial/ethnic and socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds who are at increased risk for poor health outcomes relative to non-minority elders.”

“Thus, there is an immediate need to identify cost-effective, widely applicable, and sustainable programs that promote health and well-being of older adults,” it said.

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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/01/feds-spend-2-million-to-get-elderly-to-join-choirs/?intcmp=latestnews

STUDY: Beer improves memory... -

STUDY: Beer improves memory... - 



Beer is better for the brain than you might believe. A new study finds the frothy beverage can improve memory.
A researcher at Oregon State Universtity points to a compound found in hops, one of the main ingredients in beer, improved cognitive function in a group of mice.
The mice were given large doses of xanthohumol, a flavinoid found in hops. Flavonoids are compounds found in plants that often give them their color.
Then the mice were run through a special maze to determine whether they showed signs of improved spacial memory and cognitive flexibility.
“Xanthohumol can speed the metabolism, reduce fatty acids in the liver and, at least with young mice, appeared to improve their cognitive flexibility, or higher level thinking,” reported Daniel Zamzow, with the University of Wisconsin. “Unfortunately it did not reduce palmitoylation in older mice, or improve their learning or cognitive performance, at least in the amounts of the compound we gave them.”
Lead study author Kathy Magnassun, a professor in the OSU Department of Biomedical Sciences, concludes the results suggest the diets of children can have an impact throughout their lives.
“This flavonoid and others may have a function in the optimal ability to form memories,” Magnusson suggested. “Part of what this study seems to be suggesting is that it’s important to begin early in life to gain the full benefits of healthy nutrition.”
The researchers point out that they gave the mice huge quantities of xanthohumol as dietary supplements and caution people shouldn’t start drinking lots of beer to improve their memories.
“A human would have to drink 2000 liters of beer a day to reach the xanthohumol levels we used in this research,” warned Magnussun.

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http://seattle.cbslocal.com/2014/09/30/study-main-ingredient-found-in-beer-can-help-improve-memory/