Healthsifter by mary desmond pinkowish, since 2003

Grin and bear it: Smiling facilitates stress recovery

ScienceDaily (July 30, 2012) — Just grin and bear it! At some point, we have all probably heard or thought something like this when facing a tough situation. But is there any truth to this piece of advice? Feeling good usually makes us smile, but does it work the other way around? Can smiling actually make us feel better?

via www.sciencedaily.com

Migraine Mutiny?

Interesting....thank, Mental Floss, for writing about how studies of the descendants of survivors of the "Bounty" mutiny are providing clues about the genetics of migrain.

Childhood Vaccines: More Fact, Less Fantasy

It's good to see Naomi Shaeffer Riley put a spotlight on the continuing problem of under-informed parents who decide to under-vaccinate their kids. It's bad enough that these well-intentioned folks are relying on bad science and ignoring their own docs when making vaccine decisions for their own kids. As Ms. Riley explains, their decision to not vaccinate their own kids endangers our kids, too. Click here to read about the concept of "herd immunity" and why it truly takes a village to protect infants and kids from diseases like whooping cough, measles, and other childhood infections.

Do you have a "bad feeling" about giving your kids vaccines? Imagine how bad you'd feel if this were your baby girl:

 

In Gene Sequencing Treatment for Leukemia, Glimpses of the Future - NYTimes.com

So one day last July, Dr. Timothy Ley, associate director of the university’s genome institute, summoned his team. Why not throw everything we have at seeing if we can find a rogue gene spurring Dr. Wartman’s cancer, adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia, he asked? “It’s now or never,” he recalled telling them. “We will only get one shot.”

via www.nytimes.com

Fascinating.