Individual behaviors, patterns may predict disease outbreaks before international agencies

[caption id="attachment_14341" align="alignleft" width="447"] Internet[/caption]

Marsha Hunt---The ordinary person may be part of the prediction of a disease outbreak even before the Centers for Disease Control or the World Health Organization.  Is it because you and I have special powers or is it some other reason?

What happens when you have a series of symptoms?  Like most people you turn to the Internet for answers.  You do a search for those symptoms in clusters.  Many of you use Google, one of the more popular search engines.

Then other people with similar symptoms do the same thing as you are doing.  Sometimes the searches cluster in a single location, then begin to spread to other places.  Sometimes they occur simultaneously in a number of places.

This hints at the power of the individual.  For when a number of people added together have similar symptoms and begin searching for answers this may be a signal of a major disease similarity or an outbreak.

So the prediction comes from the human behavior.  This often happens before official organizations do their surveillance, their due diligence in looking for answers as well.  They get reports of people expressing symptoms, and then they too search for answers, examining patterns throughout the world, contacting agencies, reaffirming their own findings.

So the patterns that the major organizations find may bring conclusions that people determine individually as well, making a prediction of sorts that can actually be found by analyzing search results.

These are the conclusions Kurzweil finds.  It is an interesting concept.

And what is particularly valuable is the notion that Internet behavior has the ability to bring good in the world, to bring analysis, facts that can lead to determination of disease patterns, and similarly patterns, and scientists examining them, can lead to results and treatment approaches.

All from the beginnings that may begin with you, trying to find answers to symptoms you have, joined with others like you, and making a difference in worldwide health.

International study reveals animal products cause cancer as much as smoking

[caption id="attachment_22272" align="alignleft" width="300"] the baconator is surely a hard-hitting meat product when it comes to cancer, according to research[/caption]

If you are a meat eater, new international research about the relationship between meat and cancer might want you to rethink what you eat and the frequency of it, as the results are dramatic enough to worry even the most avid meat and potatoes person.

A study encompassing 87 countries reveals that smoking as well as eat meat and drinking alcohol all have the strongest correlations with the incidence of cancer.  The results have been assembled by the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization.  Their conclusions are sufficiently definitive to cause serious concern.  They were offered in a recent press release to journalists.

The animal index includes  meat, milk, fish, and eggs.  The research has found that eating meat products has as much correlation to cancer as smoking.  Alcohol has a somewhat smaller correlation.

But men and women differ in those correlation figures.   According to the reports, " For males, the smoking index was twice as important as the animal product index, while for females, the animal product index was twice as important. These two factors explained 70% of the variation in all cancer less lung cancer rates between countries. The range for these cancers for males extends from 75 to 300 cases/100,000/year, while that for females extends from 80 to 260 cases/100,000/year."

Types of cancer related to meat consumption, alcohol and smoking  Animal product consumption had the strongest correlation which female breast cancer and cancers that include corpus uteri, kidney, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate, testicular, thyroid cancer, and multiple myeloma.   Scientists tell us the reason for the correlation that is high with animal products is because those products promote growth of the body, including tumors, as tumors through production of insulin-like growth factor.

The rate of cancer is growing considerably in Japan where people are smaller and where meat is becoming increasingly part of the diet.

The results of the international study are remarkable.  So if you are one of those contemplating becoming a vegan, or have a friend announcing he or she has become one, then you have reduced your risk of having cancer by eating foods that don't have the correlations to cancer.

 

Leprosy, the Bible's most dread disease, remains among us

famous painting of Francis of Assisi and the Leper

Carol Forsloff----Many of us shudder at the very word: leprosy. Christ was said to have healed a leper, and early Christians were overcome with the miracle because people shunned the lepers, as it was so disfiguring and had no cure. How far have we come, however, in 2000 years, with modern medicine, when it comes to leprosy, the much-feared disease? 

Reports from the World Health Organization place Indonesia as the third leading nation for numbers of people with leprosy at more than 22,000 persons. These people are often shunned by their families and friends, are unable to find work and relegated to living in the poorer regions. The numbers have grown by more than 2000 since 2011. 

Brazil has 29,761 people with leprosy, and India, at 83,041 is the nation with the highest numbers of lepers.

As lepers lose sensation in their fingers and toes, amputations often follow. There are also facial deformities that are caused by damaged nerves. 

Lepers continue to be ostracized by society and live separately because of the disease and its disfigurement, According to H.M. Subuh, a senior Health Ministry official for infectious diseases told a media outlet connected with reporting humanitarian affairs that the lepers are stigmatized and even rejected by public services, so they often lack help from anyone.

According to experts there are about 180,000 individuals with leprosy worldwide. The United States has 200. 

It often takes years for sores to develop, however there is a cure for leprosy that consists of several antibiotics that are taken from six months to a year. There is no treatment, however, for the nerve damage.

An update on the status of leprosy, the patients and cure for the disease, that WHO hopes people will watch on video, reminds us of the fact that leprosy remains a curse for those who have it, who are neglected and end up living sad, hopeless and painful lives. The film is a reminder there is a cure, so folks can be supported in getting help and the public encouraged to support that help and not reject the leper patients who need it.

World violence damages future generations, reducing the moral compass

[caption id="attachment_20412" align="alignleft" width="300"] Child soldiers[/caption]

Gordon Matilla----In 1996 the World Health Assembly stated violence was a major public health issue, and a follow up report in 2002 examined the impact of violence on health. Given the number of violent episodes that have occurred in recent days, the long-range impact of violence is said to be of special importance, especially for the future welfare of the world.

The World Health Organization reinforces the fact that violence prevention is important because of the many serious consequences to an individual's health. Some of these consequences can be lifelong.

A WHO working group in 1996: “defined violence as “the intentional use of physical force or power against oneself, another person or against a grooup or community that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychologoical harm, maldevelopment or deprivation.” The definition therefore covers virtually all categories of violence and a wide range of acts with outcomes beyond injuries and deaths.

Cecilia Wainryb & Monisha Pasupathi of the Department of Psychology, University of Utah, have researched the effect of wars on the welfare of children in an article entitled “Psychological Impact of Political Violence on Children” where they have reviewed the consequences suffered by children that impact the rest of society.

What these researchers have done is to examine the effect of violence on personhood and one's development of a moral compass that allows one to function humanely. That moral self is important in the learning of forgiveness and how to participate in a civilized society. What they have found is that violence interrupts the development of that moral compass and sense of personhood in ways that negatively affect the social order. The children begin to see the world as one in which people violate ethical principles.

As a consequence of the disruption of the moral compass,  children have difficulty learning to trust, honor promises and control aggression when the examples they have learned have been violent and negative. While the immediate response of children after a violent episode is to continue to follow certain moral precepts, their ability to trust and to learn to appreciate and interact well with others is hurt.

Furthermore when children see that people don't talk about the violence, or they themselves can't express themselves, the problems become even larger. What researchers observe is that the political violence that is occurring in places like Syria and Egypt, and where folks are attacked in innocent activities as occurred at a shopping mall in Kenya, the consequence is the disruption in the development of moral capacities that can be severe and foster continuing violence as the children grow into adults.

The alert about violence is important, and the stories that occur with children that they share in their relating their experiences allows clinicians to find the path to help them. But as violence increases and greater numbers of people are affected that problem of developing the moral compass becomes larger.

Additional research indicates that children who suffer trauma from war also suffer from additional trauma within the family as the family itself is negatively impacted and can turn on one another.For that reason those helping children heal should also work with the family and examine the issues of poverty, drug abuse and other issues that can arise from conflict.

So as folks watch their television screens and wonder about the violence, then turn away as it happens, many people are left with the memories. And that is why experts continue to assert that violence breeds violence and prevention is the answer for helping to stop the cycle that takes place as people lacking a moral compass and trust lash out in frustration and become violent themselves.