“…researchers, publishing in Pediatrics, decided to test four different pro-vaccination messages on a group of parents with children under 18 and with a variety of attitudes about vaccination to see which one was most persuasive in persuading them to vaccinate. As Chris Mooney reports for Mother Jones, the results are utterly demoralizing: Nothing made anti-vaccination parents more amendable to vaccinating their kids. At best, the messages didn’t move the needle one way or another, but it seems the harder you try to persuade a vaccination denialist to see the light, the more stubborn they get about not vaccinating their kids.”
‘According to a New Study, Nothing Can Change an Anti-Vaxxer’s Mind’ — Slate Magazine.

‘The first biological test for clinical depression has been developed by scientists in a breakthrough that researchers say will enable it to be identified and treated at an earlier stage.
Academics at Cambridge University have established a link with excess levels of the hormone cortisol.
Researchers found that teenage boys who showed traditional depressive symptoms and had high levels of the hormone were 14 times more likely to be clinically depressed.
It means that for the first time, doctors could definitively identify the illness by a simple blood test. It also marks the first time that scientists have established that depression could be caused by a chemical imbalance.
Joe Herbert, professor at Cambridge University, an author of the study, said the link could help identify young people at risk of “prolonged or even lifelong mental illness”.’
‘Depression saliva test may reveal those at risk of lifelong mental illness, revolutionize treatment, researchers say’ — National Post

‘Blood sugar considered safely below diabetes or even pre-diabetes levels may still be linked to a raised risk of memory problems, a new study suggests.
German researchers found that people with elevated – but not unhealthy – blood sugar levels tended to perform worse on memory tests than those with lower levels. An area of the brain most responsible for memory also differed between the two groups.
Previous studies had found links between blood sugar disorders – such as diabetes and a pre-diabetic condition known as impaired glucose intolerance – and poor brain function and dementia, lead author Dr. Agnes Flöel told Reuters Health.’
‘High blood sugar tied to memory problems, study finds’ — Fox News

‘The importation [of a single measles case] resulted in 839 exposed persons, 11 additional cases (all in unvaccinated children), and the hospitalization of an infant too young to be vaccinated. Two-dose vaccination coverage of 95%, absence of vaccine failure, and a vigorous outbreak response halted spread beyond the third generation, at a net public-sector cost of $10,376 per case. Although 75% of the cases were of persons who were intentionally unvaccinated, 48 children too young to be vaccinated were quarantined, at an average family cost of $775 per child. Substantial rates of intentional undervaccination occurred in public charter and private schools, as well as public schools in upper-socioeconomic areas. Vaccine refusal clustered geographically and the overall rate seemed to be rising. In discussion groups and survey responses, the majority of parents who declined vaccination for their children were concerned with vaccine adverse events.’
‘Measles Outbreak in a Highly Vaccinated Population, San Diego, 2008: Role of the Intentionally Undervaccinated’ — American Academy of Pediatrics

‘By the end of March, there were 320 cases of the disease in B.C. The outbreak started at the church’s Mount Cheam Christian School and spread through the community from there.
It’s one of several outbreaks that have cropped up across the country this year, sounding the alarm on what was once considered a childhood disease now virtually wiped out by advances in vaccinations.
In 2002, measles was declared “eliminated” from the Americas. […]
Dr. John Spika, with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), says, despite a 95% coverage of the measles vaccine, clusters can still be expected in communities that have rejected them.
PHAC says there were 83 cases of measles in 2013, and only 10 in 2012. […]
Before a second dose of measles vaccine was introduced in 1996, ensuring 99% immunity, Canada still reported thousands of cases, Spika said, including more than 6,000 in 1991.’
‘Measles makes a comeback, but not if you’re vaccinated’ — Toronto Sun

“It’s strange how once you notice someone who lives on the street – once you have given them a name and a story – you start to notice them everywhere.
After that first meeting I saw JR in the Glebe, dragging his bag of bottles and cans down Bank Street. In Centretown around Place Bell.”
‘Our mental health scandal is Ontario’s closing of mental hospitals’ (Opinion) — Ottawa Sun

‘Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine used advanced imaging techniques to visualize how the brain turns molecules into memories. In research conducted on mice, scientists put fluorescent “tags” on beta-actin mRNA, the “molecules crucial to making memories.”‘
‘For The First Time, Scientists Capture Brain Making Memories In Real-Time (VIDEO)’ — inSCIder

‘Between 30 to 50% people suffer from a major depressive episode in their lifetime. It is generally considered to be a disease of the brain, an illness that needs treatment. In the millions of years of human evolution, natural selection was at work, ensuring that the ones among us who were best at surviving, adapting, and reproducing, carried the human species forward. Mental depression reduces ones ability to survive, adapt, and reproduce. It would then be reasonable to expect that those humans afflicted with this disease would have become extinct by now. The genes responsible for, or conducive to depression, should have eroded out of the thriving gene pool. But that, as we know, is far from the truth.’
‘Clinical Depression in the Context of Human Evolution’ — Mahendra Palsule, ‘An Unquiet Mind’

‘A Calgary mother is facing charges of negligence and failure to provide the necessities of life in connection with the death of her seven-year-old son, who died of a treatable bacterial infection in March.
According to police, the boy was bedridden for 10 days before his death, however, the mother declined to seek medical treatment, relying instead on homeopathic remedies and herbal medicines.
“It should absolutely serve as a warning to other parents,” said Calgary Police Service Staff Sergeant Michael Cavilla. “The message is quite simple: If your child is sick, take them to see a doctor.“‘
‘Calgary mother who relied on herbal medicines facing charges after son, 7, dies of treatable bacterial infection’ — National Post

‘One of Canada’s top psychiatrists says too many Canadians are treating life’s normal spells of misery the way they would handle something they dislike about their bodies: By asking a doctor to make their lives better.
That may explain why we take twice as many antidepressants as Italians do, and more than Germans or French, says Dr. Joel Paris, professor and past chair of the department of psychiatry at Montreal’s McGill University.’
‘Psychiatrist warns against trying to cure ordinary sadness as Canadians among top users of antidepressants’ — National Post

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