It's something in the water

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Lithium in drinking water has 'anti-suicide' effect

http://www.solarnavigator.net/animal_kingdom/animal_images/suicide_by_edouard_manet_1877.jpg
In Japan's Oita Prefecture, cities with higher levels of lithium in their drinking water experienced lower rates of suicide. The study, in the British Journal of Psychiatry, made me wonder if governments should add lithium to the water supply. Hirochika Ohgami and colleagues at Oita University found a slight, but statistically significant correlation after analysing suicide rates in 18 municipalities between 2002 and 2005. 

The amount of lithium in drinking water would seem far too low to offer any clinical benefit, since people with bipolar disorder routinely take hundreds of times more lithium each day. But Ohgami's team points to another study showing that people with bipolar disorder who don't respond to lithium are still less likely to attempt suicide after taking the drug. "It seems probable that the anti-suicidal effect of lithium may be unrelated to the mood-stabilising effects and that very low lithium levels may possess an anti-suicidal effect," they write.

Coffin nails

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15 cigarettes: all it takes to harm genes

http://www.topnews.in/health/files/lungcancer_1.jpgReading that headline you might be forgiven for thinking that after your first fifteen ciggies you have created one genetic mutation and for every fifteen cigarettes you smoke thereafter another mutation occurs. This, of course, is bollocks. There is no way that a calculation like this could be made. The figure was arrived at by dividing the total number of cigarettes smoked by a cancer victim and dividing it by the number of mutations, 23,000 in this case. It's just an averaging out of a lifetime's smoking and the mutations it causes. There are no details of the age of the cancer sufferer nor how long he had been smoking but I'm guessing he smoked an average of 20 - 25 cigarettes a day for between 35 and 40 years.

We know that giving up smoking, even after many years of the habit, eventually reduces the risk of lung cancer to almost the same level as a lifelong non-smoker. It also seems, looking at the Nature article from which this story is extracted, that some repair seems to take place over time. We also need more studies on more smokers who show no sign of lung cancer to see if they have fewer mutations and to discover why.

It is obvious that smoking causes cancer, although it seems that some people seem to able to smoke as much as they like without suffering from any ill-effects, probably because of protective genetic factors, and it is obvious that the more you smoke and the longer you smoke the greater the risk. But that is a long way from saying that all it takes to harm genes is fifteen cigarettes. Very sloppy.

Windrush, Firerush, Bum's rush

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Mystery of Tony Blair's money solved
A little-known loophole in UK company law is being used by Tony Blair to keep his finances secret, the Guardian can disclose.

Blair would normally have to publish company accounts detailing the millions flowing into his various commercial ventures since he stepped down from office in 2007.

But he has set up a complicated artificial structure which avoids the normal rule. In effect, he is getting the benefits of running a British company without the drawbacks of unwelcome publicity.

Please tell me it's a joke. Please!

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Santa promotes obesity and drink-driving, claims health expert
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2244/1949863464_edd8555fab.jpg?v=0Traditional images of Santa Claus set a bad example and could promote obesity and drink-driving, a public health expert has warned.

Dr Nathan Grills from Monash University in Australia said the idea of a fat Father Christmas gorging on brandy and mince pies as he drove his sleigh around the world delivering presents was not the best way to promote a healthy and safe lifestyle among the young. Writing on bmj.com, Dr Grills said: "Santa only needs to affect health by 0.1 per cent to damage millions of lives."

What does that last sentence even mean? Affect health by 0.1%. Complete and utter gibberish. Why the fuck didn't someone at bmj.com throw this back at the the idiot doctor?

But wait a minute.

The piece goes on the suggest that Santa also might encourage drink-driving and sitting on his knee might spread swine-flu.
While Santa is now banned from smoking, images of him enjoying a pipe or cigar can still be found on Christmas cards. Father Christmas could also potentially promote drink-driving, argued Grills, referring to the tradition of leaving Santa Claus a brandy to wish him well on his travels. And in a further blow to one of the central symbols of Christmas, Dr Grills claimed Santa also had the potential to spread harmful diseases. "If Santa sneezes or coughs around 10 times a day, all the children who sit on his lap may end up with swine flu as well as their Christmas present," he said.
Even though the source of this article is Australian, I'm inclined to belive that it is a festive piss-take. I bloody hope so! If not then there are some sad fucks at Monash University with too much time on their hands. You can read the whole article at bmj.com but, unless you are a subscriber, you'll have to fork out £11.50 for that pleasure! Now that IS a piss-take. I can buy a fucking BOOK for that money!

Via An Englishman's Castle