Freeing of their demons on the Web(web)

When people need someone to talk, when there’s nobody around to listen or just he/her is too shy to establish visual contact, the internet, becomes a better place to start.

Each more time, all over the globe, there’s somebody, posting on a web page, in attempt to release himself/herself from the reality, and sometimes, the reality isn’t good, at all.

The link below directs to a web page of New York Times, to a document entitled “Sharing their demons on the web”, whose subject boards the act of sharing stuff, inner stuff, with online knowns. Particularly, the subject touch in a delicate point , referring web sites of people entitled as victims of arrestment, psychological torture, physical persecution etc. all this by gangs and/or governments agents, there are even those who refer themselves as a part of some scientific test, which has the objective of exploring mind control techniques and devices.

Is it true? Is it false?

…

The dialogue between people that are suffering from the same disillusion, the share of moments, of points of view, the specialists say: is beneficial to the treatment. The real problem began when, for example, some web site allow the sharing of information about, for example, the subject mentioned above, without any restriction, without boundaries, because is too difficult to know if what someone write at a web page is really true and who is watching, it’s the web. Imagine this, you’re suffering from psychological torture by someone, it’s true but nobody believes in it, desperate, you find a web site that allows your contact with people that are suffering from the same thing too, they believe in you, they don’t say “you’re crazy” and for the first time you feel fit in; then you write and read, write and read, and so long until you’re completely “addicted” to, without knowing if the other users are really suffering from the same .

If you write to and read posts from a psychotic person, will it be healthy for you?

In the other hand, as already said, the dialogue it’s good to release us from the monsters we fear.

It’s a kind of paradox, “Sharing our demons” online split the health professionals.

What I think is, each more, we prefer a solitary life instead of a social, the globalization isn’t bring people together. We all see, the frequency of emotional problems is increasing as we turn our back to each other.

I leave this quotation: "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth." Oscar Wilde

Full text.

Diabetes - Ready to understand the disease?

“To Promote Diabetes Care, Prevention And A Cure Worldwide.”

The best prevention is education.

14^th November is the World Diabetes Day, whose purpose is to increase the knowledge about the disease, keeping people attention on this serious question, and this year, like the last one, is especially focussed on children and teenagers.

We split the disease into: Type 1 Diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes.

The first one it’s more commonly between the children and young-adult people and has, since early, to be “counter-attacked” white insulin. In this case, there’s no efficient prevention. It’s an autoimmune disease.

Type 2 Diabetes has been increased each time earlier due to our sedentary lifestyle, the fast-food as a systematic resource, etc. Consequently, practicing physical exercise and having a nourishing feed will decrease it’s prevalence.

If the metabolic control is well done, the diabetic can avoid all kind of complications. Nowadays, non restriction is input to a diabetic child, yes, should not eat sweeties every single day but all kids shouldn’t do it too. Everyone must maintain healthy habits.

“The life of a diabetic is an example to non-diabetics.” Dr. Luis Medina (President of SPEDM.)

Transplantation of insulin-producing cells: are used pancreas from donors to extract Islets of Langerhans from which it’s made a separation of insulin-producing cells to later introduce them, through Portal vein, in the liver of the patient. These cells will stay housed in it where acquire conditions to start producing insulin. Unfortunately, the isolation technique of the cells is too complex and expensive and therefore require high tech labs. Besides, this technique only work during 4-5 years, at the end of it, the Islets of Langerhans enter again in failure.

New techniques are being searched to allow a longer survive of these cells.

Actually, are more than 250 million diabetics in the world. In the next 20 years is expecting an increase to 380 million. Type 1 Diabetes is growing 3% between children and teenagers and ones warning 5% between pre-scholar children. Of 500 thousand diabetic children with 15 years or less, statistically, around 25% live in Southeast Asia and more than 20% in Europe.

In some places of the globe, insulin, whose children with type 1 diabetes need to survive, it’s not available for costs and geographical reasons, what causes the thousands of deaths by diabetes, mostly in the developing countries…

Novel Theory of Mental Disorders - Thinking beyond

Outsiders to the field of behavior genetics, spell out a revolutionary theory.

Two scientists have published a sweeping theory of brain development that would change the way mental disorders like autism and schizophrenia are understood.

The theory emerged in part from thinking about events other than mutations that can change gene behavior.

At a time when the search for the genetic glitches behind brain disorders has become mired in uncertain and complex findings, the new idea provides psychiatry with perhaps its grandest working theory since Freud, and one that is grounded in work at the forefront of science.

Their idea is, in broad outline, straightforward. Dr. Crespi and Dr. Badcock propose that an evolutionary tug of war between genes from the father’s sperm and the mother’s egg can, in effect, tip brain development in one of two ways. A strong bias toward the father pushes a developing brain along the autistic spectrum, toward a fascination with objects, patterns, mechanical systems, at the expense of social development. A bias toward the mother moves the growing brain along what the researchers call the psychotic spectrum, toward hypersensitivity to mood, their own and others’.

The theory leans heavily on the work of David Haig of Harvard.

Where children with autism appear blind to others’ thinking and intentions, people with schizophrenia see intention and meaning everywhere, in their delusions.

Dr. Scherer added, “For autism there will not be one unifying theory but perhaps for a proportion of families there are underlying common variants” of genes that together cause the disorder.

Press the below image to see time-lapse animations, compiled from brain scans taken over many years, while listen neurologist Paul Thompson of the University of California, Los Angeles, describes brain maturation in children with and without the disease.

New York times – Full Text.

Great Pyramid Mystery lies in a Room?

The little-known cavity may support the theory that the 4,500-year-old monument to Pharaoh Khufu was constructed inside out, via a spiraling, inclined interior tunnel—an idea that contradicts the prevailing wisdom that the monuments were built using an external ramp.

The inside-out theory's key proponent, French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin, says for centuries Egyptologists have ignored evidence staring them in the face.

"The paradigm was wrong," Houdin said. "The idea that the pyramids were built from the outside was just wrong. How can you resolve a problem when the first element you introduce in your thinking is wrong?"

"As with all archaeological theories, the proof is in the pudding, and many logical and compelling theories have fallen by the wayside under the weight of hard evidence," said the University of Pennsylvania's Wegner.

But "verification of the proposed internal spiral ramp would be a remarkable and groundbreaking discovery," Wegner added.

"A green light from Cairo and the Great Pyramid mystery is over."

Video Clip From Unlocking the Great Pyramid Documentary.

The full documentary will be displayed on Sunday, November, 23, at 7 p.m. ET on National Geographic Channel

National Geographic – Entire news.

The Psychology of Torture

Should be or Should not the Police interrogations made by Psychologists?

At the end of September, the American Psychological Association voted to ban Police members from participating in interrogations at US detention centers, including Guantanamo Bay.

“No psychiatrist should participate directly in the interrogation of person held by military or civilian investigative or law enforcement authorities.” Statement declared in May 2006 by the American Psychiatric Association.

American Medical Association: “Physicians must not conduct, directly participate in, or monitor an interrogation with an intent to intervene, because this undermines the physician’s role as healer.”

Psychology, on the other hand, is not exclusively a healing profession. Behavioral scientists: Their product is not mental health, but knowledge; their skills are not diagnostic, but analytic

Are psychologists experts for hire, or is it understood, as a matter of professional self-definition, that their expertise is to be deployed only for benign purposes?

Donald Rumsfeld when he was Secretary of Defense: “Interrogations must always be planned deliberate actions that take into account a detainee’s emotional and physical strengths and weaknesses” and “manipulate the detainee’s emotions and weaknesses to gain his willing cooperation”

Author view: In fact, the moment psychological knowledge of causes and effects is put into strategic action is the moment when psychology ceases to be a science and becomes an extension of someone’s agenda. Employing psychological skills in the course of any verbal interaction will always have the effect of subordinating the facts and the truth of the matter to the desire for an outcome.

The earliest rhetorical manuals were handbooks for lawyers, in short, how to play the jurors and the judge so that they will dance to your tune.

“The emphasis is not on what is true, but on what works, what gets results even if the results are obtained by torture.”

Applied psychology can never be clean.

Stanley Fish – Opinion text

Psychological research instead of massive destruction

At the Kingdom of Saudi Arabic, the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula, is taking place a rehabilitation program with the purpose of address the psychological needs and emotional weaknesses that have led many young men to jihad in the first place. It tries to give frustrated and disaffected young men the trappings of stability.

But if the Saudi program is succeeding, it may be because it treats jihadists not as religious fanatics or enemies of the state but as alienated young men in need of rehabilitation.

“To tell you the truth, I didn’t find what I was expecting,” he said. “In Iraq, even the Muslims fight each other. I was expecting them to be well organized, but they weren’t.”

“Yes, they were tricked and manipulated by deviant ideology.”

“Most people just want to carry weapons,” Abu Sulayman said. They do not, as he put it, have especially sophisticated religious arguments. “For me, it was always more about the feeling that I wanted to help the Muslims. But jihad is complicated. If you’re heading to Afghanistan or Iraq, do you really have the facts you need to get involved on the right side?”

Abu Sulayman recalled.” Even though Saudi public opinion has largely turned against Al Qaeda, many Saudis remain concerned that American-led efforts to fight terrorism are anti-Muslim and are infuriated by Guantánamo.”

“They thought that after all this time in Guantánamo I’d have some hate in me,” Abu Sulayman told me. “But I never look back. I said, ‘O.K., now I’ll start a new life.’ ”

New York Times – Full Report.

Dynamic Stretching - warm up

...If you’re like most of us, you were taught the importance of warm-up exercises back in grade school, and you’ve likely continued with pretty much the same routine ever since. Science, however, has moved on. Researchers now believe that some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes’ warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but actually bad for you...

Video: Mark Kovacs, manager of sports science for the United States Tennis Association in Boca Raton, Fla., explains the benefits of dynamic stretching.

New York Times – Entire text.

Chestnuts

Rich in cellulose, carbohydrates, potassium, fibres, C and B vitamins, proteins, magnesium and calcium, chestnuts are highly nourishing and can be used in many different ways, cooked or baked, on dishes like soups, roasts, stews, or even as deserts, like cakes, creams or puddings. The seed from Chestnut Tree has a lot of benefits to health, helping in cases of debility, convalescence, sterility, cardiovascular diseases and reducing cholesterol level. Actually, chestnuts are associated to Autumn days, although, in past, in Countries like Portugal, they had the role of prominence that potatoes have today. During the Middle Age, in disadvantaged areas, like Beira or Trás-os-Montes, the Chestnut Tree were appointed as the “Tree-of-Bread”. At that time, chestnuts were eaten during most of the year, specially when cereal harvests were weak, replacing the bread. Only when browsers brought potatoes from American Continent, the chestnuts left the central place in our food.