Broken heart can be fatal…but can be mended Medics…or friends.

While I was explaining my insomnia to Pete the Drum Scientist, I found some research that says losing my best friend may be dangerous to my health if I don’t take appropriate measures and spend time with other friends.  I may also need some aspirin?

Scientists have found it is possible to mend a broken heart.

US researchers studied 70 patients with “broken heart syndrome”, a recognised condition linked to stressful or emotional events.

All these patients recovered, most after being given aspirin or heart drugs, even though 20% were deemed critically ill.

The American Journal of Cardiology study says the condition is probably caused by a surge in stress hormones.

Broken heart syndrome, known medically as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, was first described by Japanese researchers in the early 1990s.

Even though symptoms mimic those of a heart attack such as chest pain and shortness of breath, broken heart syndrome does appear to be temporary and completely reversible – if treated quickly.

… The researchers also discovered that, unlike heart attacks which tend to occur in winter, broken heart syndrome cases tend to occur in the spring and summer months.

… “Some believe it is simply a form of a heart attack that ‘aborts’ itself early and therefore doesn’t leave any permanent heart muscle damage. … However people do seem to make a full recovery.”

via BBC NEWS | Health | Medics ‘can mend a broken heart’.

I’ve definitely felt what seemed like real heart problems under strong stress, especially after major breakups, but workups at the ER and have always showed that my heart is good and strong. Treadmill tests show the same thing: strong as an ox. I’ve assumed that the heart twinges were just stomach acid, but the above suggests they may be temporary reactions of the heart muscle to stress hormones.

I’ve been taught that there is good stress and bad stress. Stress is the way that I get things done. I spend most of my days under pressure and if it is not external, then I “whip the llama” myself, pushing myself to fight, to do my best, berating myself for not living up to my potential.

“Grief and loss” stress seems different from “competition and achievement” stress because the former includes a component of resignation. You can’t get a loved one back, and you never will. … but you might win the next race if you train hard.

If you are dealing with grief stress, if you’ve had a loss of any kind, a friend, a lover, a pet, a relative … be sure to face the seriousness of it.

It is possible to die from a broken heart, mounting evidence shows.

A review of recent work, published in The Lancet, found that the risk of death increases by up to a fifth following bereavement.

Investigator Margaret Stroebe of Utrecht University, The Netherlands, said the psychological distress caused by the loss played a big part….

“This phenomenon has been recognized for some time. Loss of a close significant person such as a partner is a severe experience for the bereaved person who is left.

“On the positive side, there is good evidence indicating that the availability of personal support networks are a significant element in helping people who have been bereaved. …

via BBC NEWS | HEALTH | Proof broken hearts can be fatal

How to Heal

A balance is needed, even with grief. Face your feelings, but do not wallow. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Most scientific studies, according to a 2004 report by Kleenex, show no positive effects of crying.  While many people feel better after doing it, crying may suppress your immune system.  It seems more likely that crying is something we do to get what we really need: comforting interaction. So, now that you know that, skip the crying and go tell someone how you feel. Distances and gas prices can keep us isolated. Thus we have Skype, Twitter, Blogs and Facebook. If you are sad or lonely, give me a call. Everything will get better quickly when we get out in the sun, shoot some hoops, buy stuff, walk on the beach, play tennis … and so on.  If asprin doesn’t damage your stomach lining too badly, you might try that for a day or two too.

Insomnia

4:15 in the AM and I still can’t get to sleep. Don’t know why. Anyone else have this problem? Hmm, according to Wikipedia, millions of you do.

Insomnia is a symptom of a sleeping disorder characterized by persistent difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep despite the opportunity. Insomnia is a symptom, not a stand-alone diagnosis or a disease. By definition, insomnia is “difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or both” and it may be due to inadequate quality or quantity of sleep. It is typically followed by functional impairment while awake. Insomniacs have been known to complain about being unable to close their eyes or “rest their mind” for more than a few minutes at a time. Both organic and non-organic insomnia constitute a sleep disorder. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in year 2007, approximately 64 million Americans suffer from insomnia on a regular basis each year. Insomnia is 1.4 times more common in women than in men.

Periowave, photodynamic disinfection. Periogen, dissolves calculus?

This post relates to some of my recent battles with tooth health. Three months ago I had healed all of the cavities in my teeth. To celebrate, I started eating sugar.  Chocolate energy bars are so good after a workout!

But, now, I must pay the price: pain and money. I have a new cavity in one tooth and another tooth broke while I was flossing. I had the large hole filled with a temporary filling and I’m investigating several ugly options for that.

Meanwhile, I’m told I have lots of calculus deposits below my gum line and that I’ll need go get numbed up in my entire mouth and have my teeth roots scraped smooth. This is called scaling and root planing (SRP). It requires 12 shots. No. Way. I do not want to do that. I HATE SHOTS!!! They make me want to hit people, to fight back against the pain, to defend myself. Even after I’m numb, I KNOW someone is damaging my gums with a drill. I don’t like it.

I’d almost rather just get the heart attack from the bacteria that cause endocarditis and die. Irrational, I know. Odds are that I am not even half way done with my life, so I need to think about what is best long term.

There must be a better way than SRP. At the edge of depression, I dared to Google the words “disolves calculus” and my hope paid off. Tonight I spent $120 on some Peroigen, a measurer and a special syringe to deliver the Periogen goodness to my tooth roots.  I already own a water pick, but I don’t use it. As soon as my order arrives, I will use it daily to slowly remove tarter below the gum line (see Periogen below).  I’ll share my before and after pocket depth measurements to let you know if it worked.

So, if you are like me, you will love these two things:

Periowave™ is a quick and painless technology that works to kill the bacteria associated with periodontal diseases, without the promotion of antibiotic resistance.

…

Periowave is the first treatment system for gum diseases that uses photodynamic disinfection (PDD). PDD is a two-stage process that uses a photosensitizing solution and low-intensity, cold laser light to kill the harmful bacteria and enzymes that cause gum disease.

Periowave is safe, effective and painless, with no known harmful side effects, and is non-antibiotic. – smartsmile

Clinical studies have shown that Periowave in conjunction with SRP can significantly increase CAL, reduce bleeding, and reduce probing depths relative to SRP alone!

Advice: This study shows that if you need a root scaling done that you should get one Periowave treatment after SRP and then another 6 weeks later.

Periowave™ clinical outcomes include a reduction in pocket depth, an increase in clinical attachment level, a decrease in bleeding on probing and an improvement in gingival tissue tone and texture. Periowave treated patients have also been noted to have an overall improved whole mouth effect even at untreated sites. For more information please see Clinical Study Result (link to Clinical Studies) and Case Studies (link to Case Studies)

The Periowave photosensitizer is a proprietary solution. The main ingredients include a phenothiazine dye (methylene blue), pH stabilizers, taste enhancers and mucoadhesive polymers. The Periowave laser and photosensitizing solution are carefully designed to work together, and other diode lasers or photosensitizers will not produce the same photosensitizing effect or clinical results.

The PERIOWAVE Advantage:

Current therapies for oral-cavity disinfection include antibiotics and antiseptics. Antibiotics are less effective in the oral cavity as they must stay uncomfortably in place for long periods of time, frequently resulting in patient non-compliance. Ondine´s periowave treatment can be applied, activated, and then removed from the affected site, maximizing patient comfort. The benefits of this technology include:

* Rapid action
* Broad-spectrum efficacy
* High specificity to disease-causing bacteria, and
* Low levels of toxicity to host cells in vitro
- ddsgadget

Scraping your teeth smooth ( a deep cleaning) is recommended to remove tarter. I can find no studies which show what happens if you use periowave WITHOUT scaling and root planing.

In dentistry, calculus is a form of hardened Dental plaque and is synonymous with tartar. It is caused by the continual accumulation of minerals from saliva on plaque on the teeth. Its rough surface provides an ideal medium for further plaque formation, threatening the health of the gingiva.

Brushing and flossing can remove plaque from which calculus forms; however, once formed, it is too hard and firmly attached to be removed with a toothbrush. Routine dental visits are necessary so that calculus buildup can be professionally removed with ultrasonic tools and specialized sharp instruments.

If you kill the bacteria causing the calculus, calculus it would still be there allowing more bacteria to return.  I know I have some of these hard white deposits below the root line because when part of my tooth recently broke while I was flossing at work, I saw them on the tooth fragment myself.

Dissolving Calculus

If Periogen dissolves calculus below the gumline, I wonder if it could be used in conjuction with periowave as a non painful effective treatment for gum disease.

I don’t know what is in Periogen, but one study from 1971 says that daily rinses of a 5.0% solution of amidopolyphosphate resulted in significant calculus reductions (over 50% reduction) but did not damage enamel in tests with cow teeth.

Sub-gingival calculus (tartar) is comprised almost entirely of two components: Fossilized anaerobic bacteria whose biologic composition has been replaced by calcium phosphate salts, and otherwise free floating calcium phosphate salts that have joined the fossilized bacteria in calculus formations. The initial attachment mechanism and the development of mature calculus formations are based on electrical charge. Unlike calcium phosphate, the primary component of teeth, calcium phosphate salts exist as electrically unstable ions.

Although the reason why fossilized bacteria are attracted to one part of the subgingival tooth surface, and not another, is not fully understood; once the first layer is attached, ionized calculus components are naturally attracted to the same places due to electrical charge. The fossilized bacteria pile on top of one another, in a rather haphazard manner. All the while, free-floating ionic components fill in the gaps left by the fossilized bacteria. The resultant hardened structure can be compared to concrete; with the fossilized bacteria playing the role of aggregate, and the smaller calcium phosphate salts being the cement. The once purely electrical association of fossilized bacteria then becomes mechanical, with the introduction of free-floating calcium phosphate salts. The “hardened” calculus formations are at the heart of periodontal disease and treatment.

… Because the fundamental bond of sub-gingival calculus is a weak electrical association, it is entirely possible to deconstruct calculus using a chelating procedure. Such a process would have to be repetitive in nature, perhaps daily, to introduce ions of the opposite charge to the calculus structures in order to chelate existing components; and to prevent new components from attaching to the existing calculus formations.

Sodium fluoride has the opposite charge needed to chelate calculus formations.

… An independent evaluation of the chelation of sub-g calculus formations is documented on YouTube; search criteria “Periogen”

Periogen™ is an effective and safe polyphosphate composition which, when applied daily at home with an oral irrigator, dissolves tartar on contact.

Waterlase Dental Procedure

Report: Japan OKs failed NKorea rocket intercept

Japan has approved a deployment of interceptors in case debris falls onto its territory if a North Korean rocket launch fails, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported Friday.

Japan’s national security council approved the order, which allows the defense minister to mobilize the missile defense system for the first time, NHK said.

WASHINGTON: White House warns North Korea on rocket launch

North Korea has said it will launch a communications satellite between April 4-8, and has designated waters off northern Japan as at risk for falling fragments. Japan and its allies have called the launch an attempt to test long-range ballistic missile technology and demanded the North cancel the plan.

Japan is also set to shift some of the PAC-3 land-to-air missiles, now around Tokyo, to the north coast and to send a pair of destroyers carrying missile interceptors to nearby waters.

Pyongyang has designated the waters off northern Akita and Iwate prefectures as a risk zone for falling fragments.

Japan has also warned of additional sanctions against North Korea if the country goes ahead with a launch. The Japanese parliament is set to issue a statement Friday urging the North to scrap the launch, which Japan says violates a U.N. Security Council resolution barring North Korea from any ballistic missile development activity.

Japan imposed tight trade sanctions against Pyongyang in 2006 after it tested ballistic missiles in waters between the two countries and conducted an atomic test. Japan’s current sanctions, which have been extended every six months, are set to expire April 13.

via Report: Japan OKs failed NKorea rocket intercept – USATODAY.com.

ET tracked down on Google Street View

A misty shape, bearing a distinct similarity to the movie alien, was captured behind a bush next to a mysterious beam of light.

The spooky snap was caught by Google image cameras in the town of Berkeley Heights in New Jersey.

Some claim the image could be evidence of life in outer space while others point to a simple trick of the light.

The ‘ET’ alien was photographed on Diamond Hill Road, a semi-rural location about eight miles from Morristown Municipal Airport, New Jersey and 30 miles from the bright lights of New York City.

Malcolm Robinson, head of the Strange Phenomena Investigations, described the image as “the first of its kind”.

He said: “On close inspection the similarities with ET are obvious but it’s hard to say with any certainty what exactly it is “Of added interest is the strange beam of light to the right, which I cannot explain either. “This picture is the first of it’s kind, as far as I’m aware, in that its been captured on Google’s new Street View technology. “However, because it was captured by Google it would appear that there aren’t any witnesses to back up what was photographed, which is frustrating. “Without further details to go on I’m really stumped. We’d all love it to be alien, but that’s a big assumption.”

Nick Sawyer, one of many web-users to have spotted the alien-like creature, added: “Whatever it is, you cannot deny that it looks exactly like ET. “The head is an oblong shape and it seems to have the same long neck and fat body. “There is also a beam of light right next to him, who knows, that might be an unseen spaceship trying to make contact.

via ET tracked down on Google Street View – Telegraph.

There is a zoomed out picture and write up on Tomsguide by Jane McEntegart.

One person commenting on weeklyworldnews.com’s article writes: “its lense flare if you travel up diamond hill road new jersey its in almost every picture”.

Try it yourself: here.    I was not able to locate the ET and light beam image on Street View.  Is it still there? Diamond Hill road isn’t very long. It’s street view ends before the road actually endsto Google may have removed that section… I didn’t see other light lines on the section of Diamond Hill Rd I traveled. Based on other things in the area, I wonder if a photo stitched telephone pole is responsible for the beam of light:

Strange Exits: Dynamite Fishermen Accidentally Kill Diver

Police arrested four fishermen who accidentally killed a diver with explosives.

Police officials in the Phu Cu District in the central province of Binh Dinh told CDNN the Coast Guard heard an explosion and caught the fishermen who tried to escape.

The fishermen told police they saw bubbles and movement under the surface and thought it was a large fish.

One of the fishermen tossed dynamite into the water and after it exploded the group jumped into the water but instead of finding a fish, they found the body of the dead diver.

Dynamite fishing, which severely damages coral reefs, is illegal in Vietnam but a common practice.

Nguyen Ngoc Liem, head of the Phu Cu District police department, said the fishermen would be charged with killing the diver and destroying aquatic resources with the illegal use of explosives.

via CDNN :: Dynamite Fishermen Accidentally Kill Diver.

Recovered Pieces of Asteroid Hold Clues to Early History

Scientists who for the first time tracked an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, and watched as it exploded in the atmosphere, have now picked up some of the remnants on the ground.

The discovery and analysis of the meteorites, reported in Thursday’s issue of Nature, give scientists solid data on the composition of meteorites that originate from at least one type of asteroid, known as F-class.

Millions of asteroids, mostly small, whirl around the solar system, and over the years people have picked up tens of thousands of meteorites, the surviving rock fragments of asteroids that collide with Earth.

“But we don’t know where a single one of them comes from,” said Michael E. Zolensky, a cosmic mineralogist at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, during a NASA-sponsored news conference on Wednesday.

That changed when Petrus M. Jenniskens, a scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., organized a search team to comb through a Sudan desert to look for pieces of an asteroid that had been spotted less than a day before it hit Earth last year.

“For the first time, we can dot the line between the meteorite in our hands and the asteroid astronomers saw in space,” said Dr. Jenniskens, the lead author of the Nature paper.

image: Electron microscope images of the meteorite showed an unusual hodge-podge structure indicative of a type known as ureilites. Unusual even for ureilites, the meteorite was highly porous with cavities as seen in image “C,” shown at bottom left. The meteorite even contained tiny diamond crystals.

The 280 pieces, about 10 pounds in total, are of a rare type of meteorite known as ureilites. The hodgepodge of minerals in ureilites indicates they were heated up but not fully melted, suggesting that they were once part of a much larger asteroid that possessed planetlike geological processes.

Because ureilites are now linked to F-class asteroids, also rare, the hope is that scientists can now determine the history of asteroids, which contain some of the most primitive materials left over from the early solar system.

“It’s like the first step towards a Rosetta stone of understanding asteroids,” Dr. Zolensky said.

via New York Times

Three new sea-serpents waiting to be discovered

Three new large marine mammals, so-called sea-serpents, are extremely likely to be discovered according to researchers.

In a paper published today, a team of scientists conclude that three new unusual species might await discovery, all of which may belong to the group of marine mammals known as pinnipeds. The best known pinnipeds are seals, sea lions and walruses.

The team used a combination of statistical analysis and eyewitness reports to evaluate the existence of unknown large sea animals.

Led by doctoral student Mr Michael Woodley of Royal Holloway, University of London, who worked with Dr Darren Naish of the University of Portsmouth, and Dr Hugh Shanahan, also of Royal Holloway, the team used two different statistical models to estimate the number of unknown pinnipeds. The paper was published in the academic journal Historical Biology.

“While the low number of three possible new pinniped species matched our statistical expectations, there is a need for scepticism as all known pinnipeds are noisy animals with close ties to land”, said Mr Woodley.

“These pinnipeds would have to possess some exceptional characteristics, if they exist.”

One of the team’s two models suggested that 15 such species might remain to be discovered, however that was regarded as a significant overestimation, Mr Woodley said.

According to the researchers the discovery of several large marine animals during the last 30 years demonstrates that there are sea mammals in existence which have so far remained undiscovered.

Examples of these animals include the Lesser or Peruvian beaked whale, a strikingly marked whale from the eastern Pacific, which was discovered in 1975; the Megamouth, a giant, filter-feeding shark known from tropical seas worldwide, discovered in 1976; and the Indonesian coelacanth, a deep-sea fish with a striking metallic sheen, was discovered in 1998. Omura’s whale, a close relative of the gigantic Blue whale, was only discovered in the late 1970s.

The study of animals that have yet to be verified by science – sea-serpents and similar enigmatic creatures – is known as cryptozoology. According to Mr Woodley, cryptozoological literature includes hundreds of accounts of mysterious large marine animals, many going back hundreds of years.

“Many sightings have been made by trained observers, including military personnel and experienced naturalists,” he said. …

via CRYPTOZOOLOGY ONLINE: Still on the Track: DARREN NAISH AND MICHAEL WOODLEY GO LARGE.

Self-sufficient Brits target animal sanctuaries for food

As Brits attempt to save money during the recession, animals raised as pets could be heading straight for the pot, warns pet behaviour specialist Debbie Connolly.

Ms Connolly, star of BBC’s Dog Borstal , claims that people should be careful who they sell their pets to – particularly rabbits, goats and pigs.

Ms Connolly, founder of SafePets and volunteer at the Trallwm Farm Animal Sanctuary in south Wales, is said to be “hopping mad” at the number of enquiries from people looking for pets to fatten up.

She said: “Last week a lady rang me up to ask if she could adopt the two goats I’m currently looking after. When I asked if she intended to keep them as pets she ‘ummed’ and ‘ahhed’ and said ‘probably not’. I couldn’t believe she thought I’d give them to her when it was quite clear she planned to eat them.”

However, this is not the first such incident. Ms Connolly claims she receive a number of similar calls every week.

She said: “People seem very surprised when I say we only provide pets, not breeding machines or dinner.

“I understand times are hard but people need to be careful who they give or sell their pets to. More and more people are trying to buy our animals with the intention of selling them on for their meat.

via Vetsonline | Latest Headlines | Self-sufficient Brits target animal sanctuaries for food.

Wikipedia has an entry on dog meat.  Gross.