Strokes cause brain damage in 3 minutes

Strokes cause brain damage within three minutes, reported scientists, casting doubt on the common public
perception that all strokes can be medically treated within three hours.

The findings show that prevention is the best strategy for one of the top killers in the developed world, said Tim Murphy, a neuroscientist at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

Some people can be helped within that time, but “there are structural changes that happen very early on, and so the best thing is to manage risk factors and alter lifestyle,” Murphy said.

About 80 per cent of strokes are ischemic, and are caused by a clot blocking blood flow to the brain, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, which helped to fund the research.

Such strokes are most often treated by clot-busting drugs (trombolytic therapy), if given in hospital within three hours.

“But the reality is, not everyone is a candidate for clot busting drugs, they don’t always work,” said Murphy.
Murphy said researchers induced strokes in laboratory mice by blocking blood flow to the brains of the animals. At the same time, they used a high-tech imaging technique, two-photon excitation microscopy, to create a “movie” that revealed the impact.

Scots adventurous in sex!

A recent survey has revealed that most Scots crave adventurous sex. The survey highlighting the adventurous side found that more than a quarter of the people have had sex on a beach, and almost 40 per cent have indulged in sex outside.

Most of the people revealed that they have sex two to three times a week with the most at a weekend night. On an average, Scottish people agreed on spending around 45.3 minutes at a time, although an energetic 1.7 per cent agreed on having it for longer than three hours.

On the other hand, 1.3 per cent managed it for just five minutes or less, a statistic that leapt to 10 per cent in the Grampian region.

Evolution of language

Contrary to previous studies linking a gene to evolution of human speech, the development could be far more
complex than is thought, says an expert. Robert Berwick, professor of computational linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology has said that the mutations in a gene, Foxp2, playing a key role in the evolution of language are unlikely to be true.

The specific Foxp2 connection is based on a whole chain of events, each of which is speculative, so there's little chance of the claims being right.

Previous studies showed that some mutations to the gene produce specific impairments to language use.

Berwick also believes that though language was almost certainly the result of a far more complex and subtle interplay among a variety of factors it may never be possible to connect it to specific genetic changes.

Blame jobs for weight

A recent survey has revealed that most working women blame their jobs for putting on weight.

The survey involving 300 female workers have found that most of the overweight female workers blame their desk jobs and shift-work for gaining weight.

According to the data from the Office for National Statistics, there were 7.8 million women in full-time employment in the UK in October to December last year.

Around 80 per cent of respondents who worked shifts said they had put on weight as meals are often eaten at wrong times.

The survey also found that 82 per cent of women earning their livelihood by driving cabs and lorry said that driving many hours a day compelled them to consume fast food and less time to exercise.

“People who are working shifts should try to eat three meals a day, even if they are not at the times you would usually expect to eat,” said Bridget Aisbitt the British Nutrition Foundation. According to the survey by the makers of the herbal weight-loss remedy Adios, 18 per cent of overweight women blamed their jobs for their weight problems.

Detection of cancer, 99%

A team of researchers at Yale School of Medicine has developed a blood test, which has enough sensitivity and
specificity to detect early stage ovarian cancer with 99 per cent accuracy.

The findings are based on a previous study conducted by Yale School of Medicine in 2005 showing 95 per cent effectiveness of a blood test using four proteins.

“The ability to recognise almost 100 per cent of new tumours will have a major impact on the high death rates of this cancer. We hope this test will become the standard of care for women having routine examinations,” said lead author Gil Mor at Yale Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Reproductive Sciences.