Difficulty identifying common smells such as lemon, banana and cinnamon may be the first sign of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study that could lead to scratch-and-sniff tests to determine a person’s risk for the progressive brain disorder.

Such tests could be important if scientists find ways to slow or stop Alzheimer’s and the severe memory loss associated with it. For now, there’s no cure for the more than 5 million Americans with the disease.

A 43-year-old mother of three showed up in the emergency room of an inner-city hospital in Los Angeles complaining of severe stomach pain.  The staff was familiar with the woman by now, as this was the third consecutive day she had come in.  A nurse sent her away, telling the woman that she had already been seen, and there was nothing more they could do.

Minutes later, the woman collapsed on the floor screaming in pain and began vomiting blood. Employees ignored her, nurses walked past her, a janitor cleaned up around her. No one did anything until police were called to cart her away. They didn’t get far before she went into cardiac arrest and died.

I'd like to think that this incident is one of a kind and that it has never or will never happen to anyone else.  Unfortunately, I don't think that's the case.  While I hope that people wouldn't be callous enough to ignore a woman collapsed on the floor, vomiting blood, I'm sure that there are many people who get turned away at hospitals.  It's tragic.

A new study, which will be published in the April issue of the journal Sex Roles, reveal how sexual stereotypes, in which guys want to go for it and gals tend to resist, don’t hold when romantic feelings come into play.  Once in a committed relationship, men and women have similar attitudes toward the act, a new study finds.

I'm not sure I buy it.  Even in a committed relationship, I still think I want sex more-often than my girlfriend.

Thoughts on the matter?

Men taking multi-vitamin supplements often may increase their risk of death from prostate cancer, according to a new study published in the May 16 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

 

But experts caution that the study could not establish a causal relation between the risk and use of multivitamins, meaning multivitamin use does not necessarily raise the death risk associated with prostate cancer.

 

The study, a statistical analysis, but not a trial, found that men who used multi-vitamins more than seven times a week were twice as likely to die of prostate cancer as men who never took vitamins.  

 

Those men were also at an increased risk of developing advanced or fatal prostate cancer, compared with men who never used multivitamins, reported Karla A. Lawson, Ph.D., of the National Cancer Institute and colleagues.

 

But apparently multivitamin use was not associated with increased risk of developing prostate cancer overall, the study found.

 

The study could not lead to any firm conclusion that taking vitamins definitely increases risk of men dying of prostate cancer.   The National Cancer Institute does not change any policy to tell men to stop using multivitamin supplements, according to news media reports.

Awesome!  Smashing Pumpkins' "Today" just came on, and I love this song.  I can't even remember the last time I heard it, it's been that long.  I love that something as simple as a song can just make your day.

I'm watching the movie Cast Away right now.  They're showing it on tv.  My favorite character is definitely Wilson, the volleyball that Tom Hanks draws a face on and talks to.  Good thing they created Wilson, or it would just be Tom Hanks talking to himself.  As much as I like Tom Hanks, that would've gotten old quickly.

A new study, certain to be controversial, maintains that chimpanzees and humans split from a common ancestor just 4 million years ago — a much shorter time than current estimates of 5 million to 7 million years ago.

The researchers compared the DNA of chimpanzees, humans and our next-closest ancestor, the gorilla, as well as orangutans.

They used a well-known type of calculation that had not been previously applied to genetics to come up with their own “molecular clock” estimate of when humans became uniquely human.

“Assuming orangutan divergence 18 million years ago, speciation time of human and chimpanzee is consistently around 4 million years ago,” they wrote in their study, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Genetics.

“Primate evolution is a central topic in biology, and much information can be obtained from DNA sequence data,” Dr. Asger Hobolth of North Carolina State University said in a statement.

The theory of a molecular clock is based on the premise that all DNA mutates at a certain rate. It is not always a steady rate, but it evens out over the millennia and can be used to track evolution.

Experts agree that humans split off from a common ancestor with chimpanzees several million years ago and that gorillas and orangutans split off much earlier. But it is difficult to date precisely when, although most recent studies have put the date at about 5 million to 7 million years ago.

Minnesota high school wrestling programs were suspended Tuesday because of a widespread herpes outbreak.

The Minnesota State High School League banned competitions and direct contact between wrestlers in practice until Feb. 6 after 24 cases of herpes gladiatorum were reported by 10 teams. The virus is spread by skin-to-skin contact, and symptoms include lesions on the face, head and neck.

The suspension is meant to control the current outbreak, allow time to diagnose new cases and prevent disqualifications at the state tournament, scheduled for Feb. 28-March 3.

The Minnesota Department of Health has been tracking the virus, caused by herpes simplex Type 1, the same strain that causes cold sores. Officials first became aware of the outbreak at a tournament in Rochester in late-December.

I actually have the night off, on the night of the NHL all-star game.    I was checking the listings to see what channel it's on, and it's on Versus.  WTF?!?  I didn't even know that was a channel!

I know that hockey is not an incredibly popular sport, but they can't even show it on ESPN2 or FOX Sports or something?  Geez.

Detroit Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios returned to the ice Tuesday less than a week after taking himself out of action to help employees of his sports bars cope with the stabbing deaths of two co-workers.

 

Chelios had missed the last six games, two because of injury and four games following the slayings in Detroit. Killed were 49-year-old Megan Soroka and 52-year-old Mark Barnard.

 

A 17-year-old busboy who was recently fired from Cheli's Chili Bar confessed to the killings, according to a police report. Justin Blackshere faces two charges of first-degree murder.

 

He was being held without bond until a preliminary examination on Jan. 16.

 

The 44-year-old Chelios has seven assists and no goals in 35 games this year. He was to play in his 1,512th game.

 

SIDENOTES:  The Red Wings snapped their 3-game losing streak by beating the Avalanche.  The Wings have gone 163 games without being shut out, the longest active streak in the NHL. The all-time record is 264 games set by Calgary, from Nov. 12, 1981-Jan. 9, 1985.

 

 

The Detroit Red Wings will honour Steve Yzerman by retiring his familiar #19 jersey on Tuesday, January 2nd.

Gordie Howe, Alex Delvecchio and Ted Lindsay will be among the Red Wings on hand Tuesday night for Steve Yzerman's jersey retirement ceremony. The game will be televised across Canada on a special weeknight edition of Hockey Night In Canada.