hgh dhea metformin

Calendar

January 2011
M T W T F S S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31  

Pages

Archives

Recent Posts

Blogroll





Archive for January, 2011

 

9/2/2010 3:44:00 PM

By Philip Wright

Celebration Sunday at Blazin’ M Ranch

COTTONWOOD – Rusty’s Morningstar Ranch in Cornville — a home for adult men with autism — will celebrate its 25th anniversary Sept. 12 at Blazin’ M Ranch in Cottonwood.

Rusty’s, which now serves as home to eight men, was founded in 1985 on the love of a mother for her autistic son. Carlene Armstrong was an activist in organizations for autism. She was frustrated and disappointed with the available programs for people with autism.

Carlene was determined that her son, Rusty, and a few other men would have a place to live and thrive in a supportive environment. She and her husband, Jack, sold their home in Flagstaff to start Rusty’s Morningstar Ranch.

Carlene and Jack have both passed on, but their vision, and their son, Rusty, still live on at the 10-acre RMR at the edge of Cornville.

The celebration will begin at 4 p.m. at the Blazin’ M Ranch, at 1875 Mabery Road, adjacent to Dead Horse Ranch State Park.

Marla Guerrero, executive director of RMR, hopes that many people will come out to help celebrate and raise money for the ranch.

“Blazin’ M Ranch just went through a major remodel, and they changed the menu,” Guerrero said. “So if anyone has been to the Blazin’ M before, it will be different.”

Activities include dinner, a silent auction, a live auction, a dessert auction and the famous Blazin’ M Ranch Cowboy Show.

Laura Nagle, an architect from Williams, will speak about how autism has affected her life. Nagle has Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder.

Guerrero said several “big ticket” items are included in the auction. One is a vacation package for two to Seattle. That trip includes airfare, hotel accommodations and a lot of tickets to see attractions, such as the zoo and a museum, around Seattle.

Another auction item will be a scenic flight over the Verde Valley. Guerrero said there will also be some beautiful Western artworks and an ornate Chinese table. Included in the Western art offerings will be signed chaps and a lithograph from actor Don “Ike” McFadden, well known for his many roles in Western movies.

In addition, there will be about 30 to 40 items offered during the silent auction, which will be open through dinner and half way through the dessert auction. Guerrero said the dessert auction will include some great items.

“It’s from a variety of people, individuals and restaurants,” she said.

Guerrero said that Rusty’s is one of only about 30 programs in the U.S. that offers long-term residential care for adults with autism. With the dramatic increase in people being diagnosed with autism – 1,300 percent in the past 10 years – the lack of facilities has been called a national crisis.

Rusty’s Morningstar Ranch is debt-free, and an endowment has recently been established. Guerrero said that in order to help replicate Rusty’s unique program to other places, a strategic plan, a building plan and a fundraising plan have all been developed.

“As we aspire to attain financial self-sufficiency,” Guerrero said, “we provide for the individual life-long needs of each resident in a Christian environment, with dignity and respect, through loving relationships, quality housing, exceptional staff, and creative, stimulating programs.”

Tickets are $40 and are available by contacting Jade or Marla at (928) 634-4784 or via email to rustys@rmr.org.

Source:  http://cvbugle.com/Main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=27883

 

Rusty’s Morningstar Ranch

 



 

Derek Paravicini

By TOM EVERILL
Arlington Times Guest Editorial

Sep 02 2010, 8:55 AM

On a recent Monday afternoon, the rhythm of my day was broken by an excited call from my friend, Dean. He asked if I had seen 60 Minutes the night before and, upon learning that I hadn’t, broke into a vivid description of a segment about a phenomenal young man. Derek Paravicini is a musical savant — with a book, a CD, and sold-out performances around the globe. As Dean ended his passionate account of Derek’s story, he exclaimed how absolutely crazy it is to put labels like blind and disabled on a talent like this.

This was a powerful moment for both Dean and me. For months he has been listening patiently to my frequent rants about the amazing strengths and talents that emerge when people of all abilities — including people with developmental conditions like Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and autism — are fully engaged with each other in schools, in workplaces, and in the community. While not everyone is a savant, the power of Derek’s story is that it got Dean saying, “Holy smokes!” Now Dean himself was on fire to share what he’d seen — a pianist who can play any tune from any era, in any style and any key. And who, as it happens, can’t tell his right hand from his left.

This brings me back to the recurring theme of how much I dislike the word “disability.” Here is a young man with more talent, more ability, than Dean and me (and you) combined. Derek’s musical genius astonishes audiences and his personality charms them. And we’re calling him disabled?

It is dangerous and limiting and wrong to label people in such a dismissive way. I read about another woman with a cognitive condition who came alive and truly expressed herself when performing in the theater, but became an empty shell when reduced to mundane sorting and assembly tasks in a workshop setting. And I know a man with cerebral palsy who was considered “unteachable” as a child and eventually went on to work at SeaTac airport, where he is widely recognized for his encyclopedic knowledge of each plane’s arrival, departure and gate location.

Read in Full:  http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/north_sound/arl/opinion/102065218.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+northsoundopinion+(Opinion+-+North+Sound)



 

By Philip Allmen • STAFF WRITER • September 2, 2010

 

When the McCormick family goes for a drive, they don’t need to worry about bringing along a map book or GPS.

 

They’ve got Sean, their second child, to tell them the way.

 

Sean, an 8-year-old about to enter third grade at Lakewood Elementary, is a whiz with roads. And it’s all in his head.

 

On a recent Thursday morning, Sean had his paper and pencil pulled out. But he wasn’t drawing dinosaurs, rocket ships or cars. His latest creation is a road map of the five-county metropolitan Detroit area. His focus that morning was around the area where I-75 and I-696 intersect in Madison Heights, complete with all of lanes, curves and entrance ramps that go along with it. As his map grows, he tapes another piece of paper together to continue adding roads. Dozens of sheets of paper make up his work.

 

Sean’s mom, Jill McCormick, said her son’s passion for maps started when he was 4. It started with drawing houses with long, winding driveways and morphed into roads.

 

“He liked to be in the car, and he always wanted to take different ways,” she said. And any route he rides along is committed to memory, including curves in the road, which he can rattle off later. “If you compare it to a Google map, it’s all right,” she added.

 

Tell Sean where you live and where you work, and he can relay the most likely commuting route you take back and forth.

 

“If you need to go anywhere in southeast Michigan, he can tell you how to get there,” she said.

 

Sean was diagnosed with autism at age 2. A high-functioning student, he does well in classes, but still struggles with some of his social skills.

 

Autism is a neurological disorder that affects a child’s capacity to relate appropriately to people, an absence or delay in language, speech, or meaningful communication and unusual or inconsistent responses to sensory stimuli. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their synapses connect and organize.

 

Sean gets extra help through Huron Valley Schools, an area Jill McCormick said helps significantly. This will be Sean’s second year in the autistic impaired program at Lakewood. He spent his first two years at Kurtz before transferring to get extra support available there. Sean spends almost all of his time in general education classes, though he is pulled out from time to time to work on socialization skills.

 

Read in Full: 

http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20100902/NEWS11/9020408/Milford+boy+a+whiz+with+a+map



Pat LaDouceur, Ph.D. Updated: Sep 2nd 2010


“We don’t have time,” Maria said. She and Rob sat across from me in my counseling office. I had just suggested that they have a weekly “date,” and hour or two with each other. I know that if they do this tensions will start to ease, and they will start to enjoy being with each other again. But between work and family, friends and chores, most couples can’t seem to find time for just the two of them.


“We get home from work at five and make dinner,” Rob said. “Then we play with our daughter. She’s just five, and we want to make sure she gets quality time every day. We put her to bed at nine, and go back to work.” “When do you spend time with each other?” I asked.


“We don’t,” Maria said. “We’re hoping that our relationship is strong enough to hold us together until we do have time again.”


They wanted to put their relationship on hold for several years, banking on the goodwill they felt in the early days. But already there was strain. Although they smiled and joked, there were also misunderstandings. They had time for work, family, cooking, chores, friends – but not each other.


Below the Surface


Finding time is not always about schedules, or about packing too much into busy lives. Sometimes finding time is about emotion.


Couples often tell me that early on that it’s impossible to find relationship time. What I often hear underneath their words is that it’s uncomfortable to spend time together.


This makes sense. Most of us prefer to tackle problems we can solve rather than ones we don’t understand. It’s easy – or at least straightforward – to write a report, give a talk, have lunch with a friend, or get dinner on the table.


It’s much harder to talk about what’s simmering under the surface in a relationship. It’s hard to bring up disappointments and difficult moments without sounding critical. It’s hard to talk about deep longings and needs in a relationship when you’re not really clear how you feel, or when you’re afraid your partner won’t understand.


But when couples can’t talk about disappointments and longings, a kind of tension develops, and they start to avoid spending time together. It can happen almost automatically: that part of the brain that tries to keep us safe starts to focus on what feels manageable — work, friends, the to-do list. The intention is good, but the result is problematic – couples start to drift apart.


Read in Full:  http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=39439&cn=289


2 Heads Are Better Than 1 — With The Right Partner


Article Date: 30 Aug 2010 – 0:00 PDT


In the new age of coalition governments, the question of whether two heads are better than one is more relevant than ever. A study published in the journal Science, neuroscientists from UCL (University College London) and Aarhus University, Denmark, shows that two heads can be better than one – but only if you have the right partner.

The study, led by Professor Chris Frith of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL and Niels Bohr Professor in the University of Aarhus, found that two heads were better than one, but only when both partners were equally competent and could freely discuss their disagreements.


As individuals we are very good at combining information from different sensory sources to arrive at a judgement that is more accurate than from either source on its own. For example, we can better judge the speed of an approaching car by combining vision and sound. But, what happens when two people work together. Can two people combine their sensory information?

“When we are trying to solve problems, we usually put our heads together in teams, calling on each other’s opinions,” says Dr Bahador Bahrami, lead author of the study from UCL. “For our study, we wanted to see if two people could combine information from each other in a difficult judgement task and how much this would improve their performance.”


Read in Full:  http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/199194.php


Selection Responsible For Spouses Appearing To Grow More Alike


Article Date: 30 Aug 2010 – 0:00 PDT


Contrary to popular belief, married couples do not become more similar over time, according to a team of researchers led by Michigan State University.

Instead, people tend to pick their spouse based on shared personality traits, the researchers report in the latest issue of the journal Personality and Individual Differences.


“Existing research shows that spouses are more similar than random people,” said Mikhila Humbad, lead investigator. “This could reflect spouses’ influence on each other over time, or this could be what attracted them to each other in the first place. Our goal in conducting this study was to help resolve this debate.”


The researchers analyzed the data of 1,296 married couples, one of the largest such studies to date, said Humbad, MSU doctoral candidate in clinical psychology. The data came from the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research.


The researchers wanted to know if husbands and wives become more similar as the marriage progressed. They examined a host of personality characteristics and found that, in most cases, the couples did not become more alike with more years of marriage.


The conclusion: Spousal similarity is better explained by selection than gradual convergence.


The one exception to this pattern was aggression. “It makes sense if you think about it,” Humbad said. “If one person is violent, the other person may respond in a similar fashion and thus become more aggressive over time.”


Read in Full:  http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/199068.php


What Exactly *IS* a Hook-Up?


Defining the Hook-Up Culture: New Study
What is a hook up?


As a not-that-old, not-that-out-of-touch college professor who teaches classes on the sociology of marriage, family and gender this is one of my favorite questions to ask a class of undergraduates for three reasons: It wakes ’em up; everyone is interested in the answer; and it stirs up quite a debate.


But in the years I’ve been asking this question, there’s never been a class consensus. Some students tell me it’s sexual intercourse, with a zero-to-sex pick-up speed, within hours (and many beers) of a first meeting. Others tell me hooking up means making out or kissing, and might not happen until two people have hung out together in a group of friends for a while.


So a few months back, I put it to the readers of a young-adult spiritual seekers website called BustedHalo, where I’ve been a regular columnist for five years. More than 250 readers responded.


As college students head back to school, here are two of the headlines worth checking out:


• Only a third of college students define a hook-up as sex. Translation: For two-thirds of college students, “hooking up” means something less than sex-probably a lot of smooching and touching with clothes on. (Parents, yes, you can let out that sigh of relief. College kids, no, you don’t have to say you’re having sex to be cool.)


• Post-hookup, a follow-up date is rarely expected. While the majority of respondents would like these hook-ups to be emotionally meaningful, they’ve braced themselves for the worst: About half expect nothing – no phone call, no text message, no date – after the event. It was “just casual.”


See all the findings here.


Read in Full:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/life-101/201008/what-exactly-is-hook




 

TIRUCHI: Seven-year-old Mercy buries her nose deep into a bunch of yellow roses. Taking a whiff, she comes up with a smile to exclaim, ‘super’. For kids like Mercy, seeing and smelling an array of flowers at ‘My Garden in a Bottle’- a guided exploratory learning session for children with autism and hearing impairment, was a sensational sensory experience.

Organised by Pravaag Transitional Centre for Children with Autism and Maharishi Service Centre for the hearing impaired, the session aimed at integrating sight, smell and touch to improve behavioural control of autistic children.

According to K.Geetha, Director of Pravaag, lack of sensory integration makes children hyper sensitive and restless. The exploratory session helped autistic kids focus attention on objects, identify colours, inhale and distinguish flowers through smell. “Eventually they are taught the names of flowers in their mother tongue to avoid complicating their learning process. For hearing impaired children, the experience can help in integration of object, word and sound,” she said.

For the 30 deaf and 55 autistic children who participated in the session, the opportunity to hold, feel and smell more than 30 varieties of flowers proved to be an adventure of sorts. Roses, dahlias, lilies, marigolds and ferns arranged tastefully in boxes and bouquets had the students exclaiming over the different textures, colours and scents.

There are varying degrees of autism and while some children can name the flowers, others can only distinguish scents. Even as twelve year old Prem, with a bunch of roses in hand pointed them out as Nehru’s favourite flowers, Roshan Vijay went around feeling leaves and flowers, labelling them soft, coarse, and thorny. But for three-year old Sujantha Andal, the effusion of colours was a new experience.

R. Shyamala, District Differently Abled Rehabilitation Officer, who graced the occasion, told The Hindu, ‘This is a novel initiative and practical exercise with many benefits. Apart from identifying colours and flowers, it enhances the visual, tactile and olfactory senses.” She also stressed there was need for sharing of innovative ideas between NGOs and service centres working with special children.

R.Revathy, Deputy District Collector was also present. ‘Pravaag’ will also hold a Teaching Materials Exhibition in mid-September and an aquarium display on September 24 for special children.

Source:  http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/03/stories/2010090358870200.htm



 

 

The first specialist college for young people with Asperger syndrome in Wales has opened its doors.

Priory Coleg Wales in Pontypool, Torfaen, will cater for students aged between 16 and 25.

Its courses aim to boost pupils’ independence and improve their chances of getting a job and enjoying a better quality of life.

Some places at the college will be funded by the assembly government, social services and the NHS.

Ten students begin day courses this year, with plans for 50 or 60 in the future.

While the students will initially be from south Wales, it is hoped the co-educational college will have a residential capacity from September 2011, when it will be able to take youngsters from farther afield.

Priory Coleg Wales is in the grounds of Coleg Gwent, the largest further education college in Wales.

Its launch follows a report by the assembly government in May 2009 which concluded 58% of schools did not feel there was adequate further education provision for young people on the autism spectrum in Wales.

Priory Coleg Wales principal Simon Coles said: “It’s the first specialist provider for young people with Asperger syndrome in Wales.

“Many of these students will have found mainstream school very difficult, will have been out of education for some time or may have mental health problems as a result.

“These are young men and women who do not understand the world and the world does not understand them – they may spend a lot of time in their bedrooms on the computer, or under the duvet.

“We hope to be able to give them the social skills, understanding and independence needed to function in the world.”

All students will have access to the standard Coleg Gwent curriculum, including more than 150 academic and vocational courses, A-levels and GCSEs.

The philosophy of the college is to provide as many learning opportunities within mainstream educational settings as possible.

Students will also receive counselling, therapy and help with tackling everyday tasks.

It has been welcomed by the National Autistic Society Cymru, which in 2007 called for better support and services for young people during transition between school, higher education, training and employment.

National co-ordinator Shirley Parsley said: “We hope it will go some way towards providing much needed person-centred support for young people with Asperger syndrome locally.

Read in Full:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-11170213



 

LONDON | Sun Aug 29, 2010 1:04pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) – An international scientific team has identified for the first time a genetic risk factor associated with common migraines and say their research could open the way for new treatments to prevent migraine attacks.

Researchers who looked at genetic data from 50,000 people from Finland, Germany and The Netherlands found that patients with a certain DNA variant affecting regulation of a particular brain chemical have a greater risk of developing migraines.

The results suggest that a buildup of that chemical, called glutamate, may play a role in the mechanism of migraines.

“This is the first time we have been able to peer into the genomes of many thousands of people and find genetic clues to understand common migraine,” said Aarno Palotie, chair of the international headache genetics consortium at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Britain, which led the study.

Migraine affects around one in six women and one in 12 men, and has been estimated to be the most expensive brain disorder to society in the European Union and the United States.

Not only is migraine painful, it also can be disabling and is often a life-long condition. The World Health Organization ranks it 19th among all causes of “years lived with disability,” and family life, social life and work capacity are negatively affected in almost all migraine sufferers.

Global sales of drugs to treat migraine were around $2.6 billion in 2009, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank.

GlaxoSmithKline’s Imitrex, Merck’s’ Maxalt, AstraZeneca’s

Zomig and Pfizer’s Relpax are among leading medicines currently on the market for migraine, but the exact causes of the condition remain unknown.

In a study published in the journal Nature on Sunday, Palotie’s team said the particular migraine risk DNA variant they had identified was on chromosome 8 between two genes known as PGCP and MTDH/AEG-1.

Their research showed that it appears to regulate levels of glutamate, a chemical known as a neurotransmitter which transports messages between nerve cells in the brain.

It does this by altering the activity of MTDH/AEG-1 in cells, which regulates the activity of the EAAT2 gene — a protein responsible for clearing glutamate from brain synapses.

Previous research has found links between EAAT2 and other neurological diseases, including epilepsy, schizophrenia and various mood and anxiety disorders.

“Until now, no genetic link has been identified to suggest that glutamate accumulation in the brain could play a role in common migraine,” Christian Kubisch of University of Ulm in Germany, who also worked on the study, said in a statement.

“This research opens the door for new studies to look in depth at the biology of the disease and how this alteration in particular may exert its effect.”

The scientists said further research would be needed into the DNA variant, and into its effect on the genes around it, to find out more about how migraines occur. Further work was also needed to search for other possible genetic links, they said.

(Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source:  http://www.globenews24.com/EN/news,study-finds-first-genetic-link-to-common-migraine



 Marijuana

ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2010) — New research from the University of New Hampshire shows that the “gateway effect” of marijuana — that teenagers who use marijuana are more likely to move on to harder illicit drugs as young adults — is overblown.

Whether teenagers who smoked pot will use other illicit drugs as young adults has more to do with life factors such as employment status and stress, according to the new research. In fact, the strongest predictor of whether someone will use other illicit drugs is their race/ethnicity, not whether they ever used marijuana.

Conducted by UNH associate professors of sociology Karen Van Gundy and Cesar Rebellon, the research appears in the September 2010 issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

“In light of these findings, we urge U.S. drug control policymakers to consider stress and life-course approaches in their pursuit of solutions to the ‘drug problem,’ ” Van Gundy and Rebellon say.

The researchers used survey data from 1,286 young adults who attended Miami-Dade public schools in the 1990s. Within the final sample, 26 percent of the respondents are African American, 44 percent are Hispanic, and 30 percent are non-Hispanic white.

The researchers found that young adults who did not graduate from high school or attend college were more likely to have used marijuana as teenagers and other illicit substances in young adulthood. In addition, those who used marijuana as teenagers and were unemployed following high school were more likely to use other illicit drugs.

However, the association between teenage marijuana use and other illicit drug abuse by young adults fades once stresses, such as unemployment, diminish.

“Employment in young adulthood can protect people by ‘closing’ the marijuana gateway, so over-criminalizing youth marijuana use might create more serious problems if it interferes with later employment opportunities,” Van Gundy says.

In addition, once young adults reach age 21, the gateway effect subsides entirely.

Read in Full:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100902073507.htm



 

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on September 2, 2010

Traditionally, depression is suspected when symptoms that suggest impaired psychosocial functioning are present for more than two weeks. Symptoms of depression include an overwhelming feeling of sadness, difficulty to experience pleasure, sleep problems, and difficulties with engaging in everyday life.

This clinical presentation of depression guides physicians to make a diagnosis and to select antidepressant treatment such as drugs or psychotherapy.

Currently, at least 40 percent of depressed patients actually benefit from antidepressant treatment, whereas 20 to 30 percent of patients may suffer from chronic depression that negatively impacts their quality of life.

Emerging research addresses the neural bases of depression as well as how treatment can induce changes in the brain. Modern brain imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are often used to view brain modulations.

This line of research expands the commonly accepted premise that depression is associated with dysfunction of specific brain regions involved in cognitive control and emotional response.

In order to improve the efficiency of treatment and reduce the burden of depressive disorders, depression clearly needs to be defined at the neurobiological level.

Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/09/02/brain-imaging-shows-brain-changes-in-depression/17541.html

 



 

By Therese J. Borchard

Since it is going back-to-school season, I thought I’d educate you on some alarming statistics about depression among college students. Here are the facts, just the facts:

One out of every five young people and one out of ever four college students or adults suffers from some form of diagnosable mental illness.

About 19 precent of young people contemplate or attempt suicide each year.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among people ages 15-24, and the second leading cause of death in college students ages 20-24.

Over 66 percent of young people with a substance use disorder have a co-occurring mental health problem.

Teens diagnosed with depression are five times more likely to attempt suicide than adults.

Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/09/02/statistics-about-college-depression/