Category Archives: Neurology

A new prescription lotion (Ulesfia) with benzyl alcohol treats head lice and is effective and safe for children as young as 6 months. The study shows it works by suffocating lice, a method that has long been tried with limited success using messy substances like petroleum jelly, olive oil, and even mayonnaise.

Overnight "home remedies" such as mayonnaise merely appear to kill lice, but don't because the bugs are able to close their spiracles long enough to survive. This is called the "resurrection effect" because, after rinsing, the lice thought to be dead are able to open their breathing spiracles and start biting again.

Existing over-the-counter head lice treatments contain neurotoxic pesticides as active ingredients, resulting in potential toxicity and other problems, including lengthy applications, odor and ineffectiveness.

References:

From the NYTimes:

Instead of scrubbing, the workers would put their hands into a small box that bathes them with plasma — the same sort of luminous gas found in neon signs, fluorescent tubes and TV displays.

This plasma, though, is at room temperature and pressure, and is engineered to kills bacteria, including the drug-resistant supergerm MRSA.

References:
Hospital-Clean Hands, Without All the Scrubbing

Test scores dropped more than one point for each extra minute it took middle and high school students to complete a 1-mile run/walk fitness test.

The health benefits of chocolate may include:

- Reduction of blood pressure by eating 6 grams of dark chocolate per day. Probably due to the flavonol epicatechin
- Reduction of platelet and endothelial cell activation
- Reduction of inflammatory mediators
- It can also inhibit oral caries
- It can cross the blood brain barrier and increase cerebral blood flow in humans

From Writer's Almanac:

Ode to Chocolate by Barbara Crooker (excerpt)

I hate milk chocolate, don't want clouds
of cream diluting the dark night sky,
don't want pralines or raisins, rubble
in this smooth plateau. I like my coffee
black, my beer from Germany, wine
from Burgundy, the darker, the better.

References:
The Essence of Chocolate. Dr Shock MD PhD, 2010.

This study shows that variants of proteins that guide hydrolases to the lysosome are associated with stuttering. This unexpected finding implies a metabolic pathway in susceptibility to stuttering.

Video: Biology Homework about Lysosomes.

References:

From Social Media Examiner:

Wendy Piersall provides some insights into the "dark side" of being popular online:

- Fame does not pay the bills
- Being on the front page of Digg does not bring you success
- It takes lots of work to get internet fame and even more work to maintain the internet fame

See the video interview at Social Media Examiner.

References:
The Dark Side of Blogging Fame (a Wendy Piersall Interview). Social Media Examiner.