Mind Your ‘Matter’ Concussion and Your Grey Matter
How do we protect children against head injury and concussion?
Grey Matter is, of course, referring to the tissue of your brain—the tissue in question when we talk about brain injury from concussion; which, in her humorous way, she called “Extremely resilient in children to AN injury.”[Note the “an” meaning one single. To multiple…not so much!]
In fact, the risk of permanent brain damage increases EXPONENTIALLY with the number of blows to the head a child receives. The only way to prevent a bad outcome in a head injury (concussion) is to prevent that 1st injury from happening.
She also told you that children are MUCH MORE SUSEPTIBLE to brain injury and even older adolescents. THREE TIMES more likely to have their concussion turn into a “catastrophic” injury than their college age counterparts—AND take almost three times as long to restore to baseline.
As a neuropsychologist working in the field of brain injuries, Kim Gorgens has seen firsthand the damage sports-related impacts can do. And as chair of the State of Colorado Traumatic Brain Injury Trust Fund Board and a member of the Brain Injury Legislative Collaborative, she’s working to shape Colorado law around youth sports injuries.
Gorgens, an assistant clinical professor in the University of Denver Graduate School of Professional Psychology, also is the president-elect of the Colorado Neuropsychological Society and has an appointment to the American Psychological Association’s Council on Disability in Psychology.
Let’s face it. A lot of what you (as a parent) worry about these days is stuff that didn’t even enter your parents minds to worry about for you!
AND a lot of what appears on the internet (your largest source of information these days) is superficial, one-size-fits-all, just-get-an-article-written, worthless fluff—if not downright fabrication or scam. Read more →
Obesity is now more common in the world than being underweight! How crazy is that?
Global obesity numbers shot up over 600 percent between 1975 and 2014 and don’t look like they’re slowing down any time soon—is that crazy or not? Read more →
The 3500 species of mosquitos in the world are responsible for multiple debilitating diseases to human kind. Whole continents like Africa suffer not only in their health but in their economies as well due to this tiny animal. Seventy of these species have the capacity to transmit malaria but only four of them carry out almost 90% of Africa’s problems.
Fredros Okumu, director of science at the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI), tells us, in this TED talk, of the work going on in order to make a world with “Zero problem” with Malaria; and how whole villages are banding together to eradicate the disease.
He calls himself a “mosquito catcher for a living” something he and his partners do by using themselves as bait and describes what he has learned about the habits of the things. Unconventional methods to “tame” the most dangerous animal on earth.
Fredros Okumu: “Mosquito Catcher”
Fredros Okumu is director of science at the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI). Since 2008, Okumu has been studying human-mosquito interactions and developing new techniques to complement existing malaria interventions and accelerate efforts towards elimination. His other interests include quantitative ecology of residual malaria vectors, mathematical simulations to predict effectiveness of interventions, improved housing for marginalized communities and prevention of child malnutrition.
Parkinson’s Disease is a terribly UNDER-funded disease as far as research goes. One in a hundred people around the world over 60 have Parkinson’s disease; that was 9 million people in 2015—the last time they did a world census.
In 2015 one in eight people were over 60, by 2030 one in six will be. By 2030 there will be more people over 60 in the world than there will be children 0-9. In addition, for some as yet unknown reason the rate of Parkinson’s disease is increasing every year. This problem will only get worse, we’ve got to make some progress on this thing now.
The James Parkinson Tulip by J.W.S. Van der Wereld
In 1980, J.W.S. Van der Wereld, a Dutch horticulturalist with Parkinson’s disease (PD), developed a red and white tulip to honor Dr. James Parkinson. At the 9th World Parkinson’s Disease Day Conference in Luxembourg on April 11, 2005, the new red and white tulip was launched as the official symbol of PD.
The tulip is described in detail as the exterior being a glowing cardinal red, small feathered white edge, the outer base whitish; the inside, a currant-red to turkey-red, broad feathered white edge, anthers pale yellow”.
Not only did the tulip receive the Award of Merit that year from the Royal Horticultural Society in England, but it also was the recipient of the Trial Garden Award from the Royal General Bulb Growers of Holland.
It’s just that people keep asking questions, others are continually writing about them and there’s just so many interesting photos available to accompany articles. Read more →
The last time I wrote about bug bites I told myself: “If I write one more thing about bugs, people will think I’ve got a fetish or something!”
Well I don’t, but here we go again! There’s just so many questions about them in people’s minds, doctor’s tend to forget about them compared to other daily crises, there’s a lot of articles still being written by others and… there’s just so many good photos lately. Read more →
I thought that we might just take a bit of a break from the intensity of pediatric medical writing and “stop to smell the roses” just a bit. Hope you don’t mind.
I just keep thinking, while I’m immersed in this computer neck deep, that “there’s just got to be something more I can do with it than struggle through medical articles all day.” And, as it turns out, there is: Art. Read more →
Better toilets, better life More Important Than Armies, Armaments or Spaceships
Joe Madiath, who calls himself a Social entrepreneur, is bringing Indian villagers together around water, hygiene and sanitation projects with suprising results. In rural India, he describes, “the lack of toilets creates a big, stinking problem.”
It leads to poor quality water, one of the leading causes of disease in India, and has a tremendously, disproportionately negative effect on women and children.
In this TED talk, Madiath introduces a program to help villagers help themselves, by building clean, protected water and sanitation systems and requiring everyone in the village to collaborate — with significant benefits that ripple across health, education and even government.
“For India,” he claims, “armies and armaments, software companies and spaceships may not be as important as taps and toilets.”
NASA seems to do it’s job so well-thought-out and planned down to the second that, for most of us, our mental image of science has taken on an “uncluttered, pristine, direct” feel full of stainless steel and glassware.
But, those of us who’ve peeked behind the curtain of “the Great and Powerful OZ” know that real science is most often anything and everything EXCEPT those adjectives. Read more →
Look, there’s a lot screwy about “THE FLU” and enough blame to share about all the confusion. AND, only part of it is about the complete lack of understanding surrounding what to call it.
More•than•once I’ve written posts trying to clarify the name, diagnosis, treatment an how to avoid confusion; but, the issues just seem to feed on themselves and prevent any attempt at understanding. Read more →
The mysterious workings of the adolescent brain Why Aren’t They More Grown-up?
The adolescent brain is different than either the child’s or adult’s brain
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore — Why do teenagers seem so much more impulsive, so much less self-aware than grown-ups? Cognitive neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore compares the prefrontal cortex in the adolescent brain to that of adults, to show us how typically “teenage” behavior is caused by the growing and developing brain.
Showing us why “adolescence is defined as the period of time that starts with the biological, hormonal physical changes of puberty and ends at the age when the individual attains a stable, independent role in society” is one of the most important revelations in her talk. It can take a long, long time.
Using both examples of structural and functional MRIs, as her talk progresses it becomes more clear why making the right choices is not the best skill of someone going through puberty with an adolescent brain.
