What color is the letter?

Grapheme-color synesthesia - the ability to "see" the letters in color known to scientists for a long time. But the mechanisms of its occurrence in different people, and developing the brain's response to it have long remained unknown.

Professor Bruno Leng of the University of Oslo, along with colleagues from the University of Bergen have shown that the strength of the observed brain activity correlated with the similarity of colors. This means that the same brain regions which provide color recognition, also provide vision synesthetic colors, which allows to "see" the two colors in one and the same time. This confirms the view that the phenomenon of color synesthesia   a phenomenon associated with the perception (perception).

The study authors also found that the similarity between the physical and synaesthetic color affects the level of activity in the area of ​​the brain that is responsible for processing color.

In studies, published in the journal Cortex, for the study of brain activity in two people with grapheme-color synesthesia   It was used functional magnetic resonance imaging - participants in the experiment were placed in an MRI scanner and showed the letters in different colors.

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Hereditary disease: what parents do not say "thank you"

Species are many hereditary diseases. The probability of their occurrence can not be predicted in advance: one for children defective genes are transferred, and others are not. Still, planning offspring are kindly requested to talk with his second half of family illnesses. Otherwise, you can expect a nasty surprise.

Colorblindness
Predominantly male disease. His "carry" around 10% of men and only 1% of women. Typically, patients can not distinguish red and green. Full "color blindness" is very rare in a ratio of 1 to 30,000.

Alopecia
This is also basically male disease. Its causes are still not fully understood, but it is known that heredity plays a role. Chance alopecia is very high, if the disease is found in both the maternal relatives and paternal.

Acne
It may be inherited and is not always treatable. The skin condition in these patients is not stabilized and after puberty. It does not help even the meticulous care. Therefore, if the acne was the parents, it may well occur in their offspring.

Lactose intolerance
The inability to digest dairy products, too - hereditary disease . It is due to the lack of the gene for lactose tolerance.

Hemophilia A and B, ichthyosis, Duchenne myopathy.
These diseases occur mostly in males. Defective gene is passed from a mother to them. That it is its bearer.

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6 risk factors for diabetes

Type 2 diabetes - is one of the most prevalent diseases in the world. During his pancreas begins to produce less insulin, responsible for the blood sugar level.

There are many factors the risk of type 2 diabetes:

1. Enormous role played by genetics. If your immediate family - parents, brothers, sisters - have diabetes, it is an occasion to reflect. You should have regular checkups at the doctor.

2. If a woman has experience gestational diabetes (ie, diabetes during pregnancy), and had a child with more weight, both of them have a higher   the risk of type 2 diabetes in future.

3. The presence of other complications, such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol levels in the body, may also contribute to increased risk of   Diabetes .

4. The situation is aggravated by passive lifestyle, immobility or low activity.

5. Another factor the risk of diabetes - Unique to women. If they suffer from polycystic ovary syndrome, it also can increase the risk of developing the disease.

6. With age, people more likely to develop diabetes. If you are over 45 years old, you should measure the level of glucose in the body every three years.

To reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes you must take appropriate measures. It is maintaining a reasonable weight, healthy eating, physical activity, regular check-ups by a doctor.

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Hidden dangers of high pressure

To understand, what is dangerous hypertension.

Important: arterial hypertension - a disease without symptoms. On it you can not realize for a long time, if not measure the pressure regularly. On the problem usually know when the arrow on the blood pressure monitor has increased too. The norm is blood pressure 120/80 mm Hg. Art., high - higher than 140/90 mm Hg. Art.

What is dangerous: OK, our vessels are elastic. They are easy to expand and contract and thereby provide blood circulation in the body. High blood pressure damages the walls of blood vessels - they penetrate cholesterol formed plaques that clog blood vessels and make them brittle.

The brain, heart and kidneys suffer from high blood pressure. If there is a blockage of the blood vessels of the heart - the heart hypertrophy (increase) of the brain - the brain atrophy (dies), kidney - the kidney smorschatsya (and will not be able to perform their function).

How to prevent excess weight - the main cause of high blood pressure.

Normally, a woman's waist circumference should not be more than 88 cm, and a man - no more than 94 cm. If these numbers are exceeded - you know, you definitely are overweight.

When overweight vessels unable to sufficiently supply the body with blood. Therefore, the endocrine system is activated, and this leads to an increase in blood pressure.

How to deal:

- Discard the salt. Salt water retention in the body, leading to an increase in the volume of water in the blood vessels and increased blood pressure. And I refuse to be the salt, not only as from the seasonings, but also on the salty foods (pickles and tomatoes, sausages, sausages and so on. D.), And blood pressure decreases by 5 - 7 mm Hg. Art. By the way, removing the salt from the diet for a month, you can lose weight by 6 - 12 kg.

- Get rid of excess weight. It proved that weight reduction reduces blood pressure by 20 mm Hg. Art.

Considered normal blood pressure of 120/80 mm Hg. Art., high - higher than 140/90 mm Hg. Art.

Know!

How to choose a tonometer

Tonometer to measure pressure - a necessary thing in the house. Mercury, mechanical, electronic - what to choose?

- Mercury tonometer - the most accurate. All medical research is carried out only this tonometer. However, a mercury sphygmomanometer is not very convenient in everyday use: they can not be used in a noisy environment; it contains mercury - a toxic substance, and its use requires special skills.

- Mechanical tonometer is also not very convenient in everyday use: the need for special skills and the assistant; We need complete silence to measure.

- Electronic tonometer - the most convenient. It does not require any effort. Just press a button, and the pressure will be measured.

Choose a tonometer with a special feature that allows you to measure the pressure of the heart rhythm disturbances, whereas in atrial fibrillation the pressure will be measured correctly.

When buying pay attention to the size of the cuff, first measure the girth shoulder. If the cuff is small in size, you will get inflated figures of pressure.

How to measure the pressure

- Measure the pressure only on the shoulder, placing a cuff on the upper arm. Pressure measurement on the finger is not accurate. Vessels fingers very small, and if they are impressed by atherosclerosis, blood pressure did not catch the pressure increase.

- Before measuring pressure, you need to sit quietly 3 - 4 minutes, leaning back in his chair.

Source

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I do not want to live with pain

Those suffering from this disease can sometimes under the influence of pain self-harm, even kill himself. The saddest thing - the disease often mistaken for ordinary toothache. And all because of trigeminal neuralgia (trigeminal neuralgia - HS) covers the lower part of the face and jaw.

In Russia, the official from the disease affects about 30 thousand people, unofficially - is much greater. Unfortunately, doctors do not always give the correct diagnosis. Monstrous in terms of suffering twinges of accidents suddenly attacked, they can last for seconds, minutes and sometimes hours.

"The pain is just unbearable - says neurologist Anish Bar of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London. - My patients say that they seemed to be cut to pieces saw. In a fit of agony they tremble in convulsions. And after the acute phase is a dull ache that can persist hours or even days. "

Nine out of ten cases trigeminal neuralgia   pressure caused by blood vessels on the trigeminal nerve. But the immediate cause of the next attack could be anything - a draft, the food, drinks, shaving and even brushing teeth. "There were cases when the pain turn gave rise to the head or a light touch to the face - says Dr. Bar. - This disease affects patients of all ages, but most of its victims are people over 50".

Special tests designed to diagnose   trigeminal neuralgia , does not exist. However, the disease can be detected using MRI and angiogram (radiograph obtained after angiography). In more than two-thirds of effective medicines against trigeminal neuralgia   are anticonvulsants (medications anticonvulsant action) that block the transmission of nerve signals. In the remaining third of the cases the patient can save rhizotomy surgery - transection of the cranial nerve roots. Effective treatment is also microvascular decompression, during which there is a division of the nerve roots and blood vessels.

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Transcribed gene migraine

The scientists were able to identify "gene migraine." This discovery gives hope to many patients suffering from painful headaches.

Migraine is one of the most prevalent diseases in the world. Painful migraine attacks It affects every eight people. Intense headaches may be accompanied by nausea, blurred vision, increased sensitivity to bright light. An attack can last up to three days and negatively affect the well-being of people.

Drugs to fight migraine,   developed to date are not always valid and can help not for everyone. Some of them have, in addition, side effects. But now for the sick migraine there is hope for a cure.

An international research team, led by experts from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, compared the DNA of thousands of people suffering from   migraine DNA people without such a problem. As a result, we were able to identify a gene "responsible" for the painful attacks. Scientists hope that this discovery will help to develop new approaches in the treatment of migraine, to create an effective drug that can save people from an intense headache.

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To create the best in the history of a vaccine against malaria

American scientists reported a major breakthrough in the prevention of malaria in recent history. To create a vaccine that provides maximum protection of the human from this dangerous disease.

a vaccine against malaria

In Russia and other developed countries, malaria is considered something exotic, but in the poorest countries of the Third World is the main cause of mortality. Malaria is dying more people than heart disease, cancer or other ailments. And this disease is not age, it is with the same force and kills the young and the elderly. That is why the science of this energy is working on a vaccine against malaria, the world's richest man Bill Gates has donated to the research more than a billion dollars.

a vaccine against malaria

Apparently, the money is still given result. US scientists have created vaccine against malaria   called PfSPZ. In clinical trials, 100% of people who received a higher dose of medication, do not get sick with malaria. Just experiments attended by 57 volunteers, 40 of whom received injections in different doses.

A vaccine against malaria   PfSPZ made on the basis of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, is in the infectious stage, that is contagious. To study these parasites have been weakened by radiation, and then frozen. However, they kept their whole form and can infect humans. The volunteers were bitten by parasites, and within a week they were to show signs of the disease.

Get full intravenous PfSPZ volunteers were completely protected - no one has developed malaria. Those who got the lower dose of 9 people were infected with 3 out of 12 do not immunized malaria occurred in 11. All patients received timely treatment of malaria and recovered. About any side effects of the vaccine is not known. (READ MORE)

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