Common cold may hold off swine flu

A VIRUS that causes the common cold may be saving people from swine flu. If this intriguing idea turns out to be true, it would explain why swine flu's autumn wave has been slow to take off in some countries and point to new ways to fight flu.

"It is really surprising that there has not been more pandemic flu activity in many European countries," says Arnold Monto, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

It is really surprising that there has not been more pandemic flu activity in many European countries.

In France, flu cases rose in early September, then stayed at about 160 per 100,000 people until late October, when numbers started rising again. The delayed rise was puzzling, says Jean-Sebastien Casalegno of the French national flu lab at the University of Lyon.

He reports that the percentage of throat swabs from French respiratory illnesses that tested positive for swine flu fell in September, while at the same time rhinovirus, which causes colds, rose (Eurosurveillance, vol 14, p 19390). He told New Scientist that in late October, rhinovirus fell - at the same time as flu rose. He suspects rhinovirus may have blocked the spread of swine flu via a process called viral interference.

This is thought to occur when one virus blocks another. "We think ...

No fruit heads aka CBT Professors allowed ...

Spotted near the National Institute of ignoring Clinical Evidence

What Professor Simon Wessely does not want you to know ...

"Simon Wessely is a British psychiatrist. He is professor of epidemiological and liaison psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London and head of its department of psychological medicine, as well as Director of the King's Centre for Military Health Research. He is also honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at King's College Hospital and Maudsley Hospital, as well as Civilian Consultant Advisor in Psychiatry to the British Army.[Witapedia] .

What is not repoerted in Witapedia is Simon Wesselys association with the insurance industry..........

You may be aware that there is considerable controversy surrounding the subject of ME/CFS and that patient groups have acquired a reputation for being at loggerheads with a group of UK psychiatrists, collectively known as the Wessely school, who state that ME/CFS is a somatoform/functional disorder (i.e. psychiatric)

Somatoform / functional disorders have no scientific basis whatsoever. By contrast..."

Interactive Formula 1 Car

The Formula 1 2009 season has seen fundamental changes to the way the cars look and run.

In this interactive guide, you can investigate key changes: the return of slick tyres; the first use of KERS, a new feature to help limit the ecological impact of the sport; a new body shape and changes to the way that the nose, wing and rear wing operate.

More Evidence of Inflammation in ME/CFS

Margaret Williams, 14th November 2009

In his presentation in Bergen on 20th November 2009, Professor Peter White’s power point slides state about (ME)CFS that maintaining factors include illness beliefs, the search for legitimacy, being on benefits, and the diagnostic label, and that immune or viral measures are NOT involved in the maintenance of the disorder ( http://www.unifobhelse.no/upload/Bergen%20What%20is%20CFS%202009.pdf ).

White’s assertion that immune or viral measures are not involved in the maintenance of the disorder would seem to be a direct denial of the evidence of two of the world’s leading immunologists who specialise in ME/CFS, Professors Mary Ann Fletcher and Nancy Klimas, who recently published yet more confirmatory evidence of immune dysfunction in the maintenance of the disorder (Journal of Translational Medicine 2009:7:96: doi:10.1186/1479-5876-7-96).

NICE ...

Sir Peter Spencer and the £500m Chinook “gold standard cock-up”

"Sir Peter Spencer and the £500m Chinook “gold standard cock-up”.

Sir Peter Spencer KCB was appointed Chief Executive of Action for M.E. on 30 April 2007. Prior to that he was Chief of Defence Procurement of the MOD, from May 2003.

Further details of Sir Peter’s career at the Ministry of Defence emerged yesterday. The coverage is not flattering, as newspaper headlines suggest:

“Chinook blunders cost MoD £500m”, David Hencke, Westminster correspondent, The
Guardian, Wednesday June 4 2008.

“£500m ‘wasted’ on Chinooks that have never flown”, Michael Evans, Defence Editor, The Times June 4, 2008.

“Chinook fleet sitting idle costs £422m”, By Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent, Daily Telegraph: 11:09 PM BST 03/06/2008.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“MOD accused of Chinook 'cock-up'”, BBC: 2008/06/03 23:42:54 GMT."

No excuses for lying CBT psychiatrists anymore ...

A new computer aimed at lying CBT psychiatrists who are unfamiliar with PCs and the internet has been unveiled.

"The simplified desktop - called SimplicITy - has just six buttons directing users to basic tasks such as e-mail and chat.

The computer comes pre-loaded with 17 video tutorials from television presenter Valerie Singleton ..."

GET and CBT HARMFUL FOR ME/CFS

A recent review of the relevant scientific literature shows that the "revalidation therapies" for patients with ME/CFS, which are monopolized by the governmental institutions for example in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, are not only not efficient, but also aggravate the condition of many patients.

Despite several major scientific breakthroughs, ME/CFS is still described in the popular media as a medically unexplained disorder. Psychotherapy (cognitive behavioral therapy) and graded exercise therapy (GET) are declared to be the only possible therapies.

A thorough analysis of the current medical scientific literature and international patient surveys, however, shows that CBT/GET is not only ineffective for the majority of the ME/CFS patients, but also potentially very harmful.

Scientific studies and large-scaled patient surveys have shown that treatments with CBT/GET seriously deteriorate the condition of many patients with ME/CFS.

The work capacity decreased as well!

The review also explains why GET and exercise do aggravate characteristic complaints, like “fatigue”, pain, neurocognitive problems (e.g. concentration and memory).

Pre-existing biological aberrations, e.g. inflammation, oxidative stress, and dysfunctional ion channels, will be amplified by a minor exertion, like walking or reading a book … and by “rehabilitation therapies” like CBT/GET.

Can Professor CBT Handle Obnoxiousness?

CBT : Careful Buses Turning ...

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome — Could a "Stealth Virus" Be Lurking?

By John F. Joseph, MD, FACP, FIDSA, FSHEA, Associate Chief of Staff for Education, Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Administration Medical Center; Professor of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, is Associate Editor for Infectious Disease Alert.

"It has been known for years that patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) have a defect in a major antiviral pathway, the 2-5A/RNase L pathway. The RNaseL produces non-specific viral cleavage and, thus, protects us from many viral infections (innate immunity).

Defects in this pathway not only lead to susceptibility to viral infections but may also increase our susceptibility to tumor development. The RNaseL gene, called Human Prostate Cancer 1 (HPC1), has a variant R462Q related to a potential etiologic agent of prostate cancer, a novel human retrovirus, xenotropic murine leukemia virus (MuLV), named XMRV.

So, it was by a bit of serendipity that a group of workers headed by several from the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Reno, Nevada, asked if XMRV could be associated with CFS. What led to any rationale connection between prostate cancer and CFS is not clear, but the question led to a series of experiments that culminated in a very recent publication showing an association between the presence of this retrovirus in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with CFS.

We are dealing here with intricate science that surely ...

Two Irish hunters ...

Two Irish hunters got a pilot to fly them to Canada to hunt moose. They managed to bag 6.

As they were loading the plane to return, the pilot said the plane could take only 4 moose.

The two lads objected strongly. "Last year we shot six. The pilot let us take them all and he had the same plane as yours."

Reluctantly, the pilot gave in and all six were loaded.

However, even on full power, the little plane couldn't handle the load and went down crashing in the woods.

Somehow, surrounded by the moose bodies, Paddy and Mick survived the crash.

After climbing out of the wreckage, Paddy asked Mick, "Any idea where we are?"

Mick replied, "I think we're pretty close to where we crashed last year."

Forgotten supercars: VW W12

Speed records were broken and the car was developed further with a 6.0-litre engine, giving 600bhp and a 217mph top speed. As recently as the 2002 Geneva motor show, VW was still showing a revised W12 on its stand, but within months the project was canned, thanks to a glut of supercars under development within the VW Group.

Record breaking daredevil wingsuit base jumper Heather Swan

Six years after her first skydive Heather Swan began base jumping in 2005. Here she can be seen jumping off Tombstone, Utah