My Evil Fren

Homosexuality and Scientology

2007-02-10T15:46:00.000+08:00

The Church of Scientology is based upon the writings of author L. Ron Hubbard. His writings about homosexuality have given rise to assertions that Scientology promotes homophobia. These allegations are disputed by some gay Scientologists.

In the 1950s many people in western countries trusted mainstream psychiatry and psychology, and agreed with psychiatrists' assertions that homosexuality was a mental illness. However, while research by such people as Dr. Evelyn Hooker paved the way for mental health organizations to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders in the 1970s, critics claim that Hubbard never revised his basic premise that being gay was a perversion.
Hubbard's writings which are critical of homosexuality do not appear in Scientology, but appear only in his early works which are part of Dianetics.[citation needed]
[edit]Homosexuality as an illness

In 1950 Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. In the book, Hubbard makes it clear that he views homosexuality as an illness or sexual perversion:

Book 2, Chapter 5, Page 120 says, in part:
"The sexual pervert (and by this term Dianetics, to be brief, includes any and all forms of deviation in dynamic two such as homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual sadism, etc., and all down the catalog of Ellis and Krafft-Ebing) is actually quite ill physically."

Within his theology the normal Dianetics refers to a human urge to procreate. Hubbard went on to describe homosexuals as very low on his tone scale.

[edit]Homosexuals 1.1 on Scientology's "tone scale"
In 1951 he published Science of Survival: Prediction of Human Behavior. In the book Hubbard created the Tone scale which classifies individuals and human behavior. The scale runs from -40 to +40. As he classified homosexuals as dangerous sexual perverts, he rated gay and lesbian behavior at a 1.1, a level which he termed "covert hostility". Book One, Chapter 18, Page 116 says:
"At 1.1 on the tone scale, we enter the area of the most vicious reversal of the second dynamic. Here we have promiscuity, perversion, sadism and irregular practices."

In Book One, Chapter 27, Page 163, Hubbard writes:
"From 1.3 down to 0.6 we have the general area of the subversive, who promises a people freedom and equality and gives them a slaughter of their best minds and cultural institutions, to the end of a totalitarian dominance."
[edit]Homosexual segregation, institutionalization and rehabilitation

In Science of Survival: Prediction of Human Behavior, Hubbard argues that homosexuals should be segregated from the rest of society and institutionalized to prevent their illness from spreading to the rest of the population.
In Page 89-90, he writes:
"Such people should be taken from the society as rapidly as possible and uniformly institutionalized; for here is the level of the contagion of immorality, and the destruction of ethics...No social order which desires to survive dares overlook its stratum 1.1's. No social order will survive which does not remove these people from its midst."
At the time of the writing of Science of Survival, Hubbard did offer his own auditing process that allegedly would cure homosexuals of their sickness as an alternative to concentration camps.

[edit]Hubbard's later writings

Gay Scientologists argue that Hubbard rejected his original viewpoint on homosexuality and they point to the various tape recordings of his lectures (primarily The State of Man Congress) and a 1967 policy that Hubbard initiated. The quotes that arise from the lectures range from Hubbard saying that homosexuality is no worse than sneezing, to discussions about how amazing it is that people are able to remain heterosexual in the current society. The 1967 document[1] reads, in part, "It has never been any part of my plans to regulate or to attempt to regulate the private lives of individuals. Whenever this has occurred, it has not resulted in any improved condition... Therefore all former rules, regulations and polices relating to the sexual activities of Scientologists are cancelled." [2]

Gay Scientologists also point out that Hubbard wrote a book in 1980 about ethical behavior that was silent on the subject of homosexuality, and offered a gender-neutral ethical guidelines about being faithful to one's partner and avoiding promiscuity. This has prompted a contemporary debate as to what the current Church of Scientology feels about homosexuality.

[edit]Scientology celebrities

In the 1990s certain Hollywood celebrities who belong to the Church of Scientology were rumored to be gay. These rumors arose at the same time as accusations that Scientology, especially the Sea Org, seeks to control nearly every aspect of members' lives. As a result, Scientology and its handling of issues involving homosexuality began to come under some scrutiny.

In 1998 Michael Pattinson (former member of the Church of Scientology) sued the organization, claiming that the organization's leadership lied about their ability to cure him of his homosexuality and engaged in various other nefarious activities such as kidnapping and invasion of his privacy. The lawsuit also argued that the Church of Scientology had often told Pattinson that actor John Travolta was proof that Scientology can transform a homosexual into a happy heterosexual. Travolta's lawyer asserted that his client was not gay, and is happily married to a woman.

Similar accusations have been circulated regarding the most prominent Scientology celebrity, Tom Cruise. Cruise has denied he is gay, in interviews going back to the 1990s. He has expressed a fairly liberal view on gay rights since the beginning of his career, and in a Vanity Fair interview for the film Interview with the Vampire, Cruise said that he disliked being asked the question because it implied that there was something wrong with being gay and that in his opinion there was nothing wrong with it. However, in the late 1990s Cruise began to bring lawsuits against men who claimed to have first-hand knowledge of his homosexuality. In 2001 Cruise sued Chad Slater, a gay porn star, for $100 million after Slater had given an interview in Actustar in which he stated that he had been having a relationship with Cruise and that Nicole Kidman divorced Cruise after she walked in on the two men in bed together. In 2004 a rumor began to circulate on the Internet that Tom Cruise and matchbox twenty lead singer Rob Thomas were having an affair. Both men denied the rumors, although Thomas humorously responded to the rumors by saying that he was more upset at the suggestion that he was a Scientologist than that he was gay. "If I were gay," Thomas said, "Tom wouldn't be on the top of my list...It would be Brad Pitt."[3]

In 2006 the animated television series South Park made reference to the rumors of Cruise's sexuality with an episode called "Trapped in the Closet". In the episode, when Cruise receives a lukewarm appraisal of his acting ability from Stan Marsh (whom he believes to be the reincarnation of Hubbard) he gets upset and locks himself in the closet of Stan's bedroom. Through the rest of the episode, Cruise resists the pleas of other characters to "come out of the closet", and to ex-wife Kidman, even denies that he is in the closet. John Travolta (also a Scientologist celebrity who has denied rumors that he is gay) arrives to try and get Cruise to leave the closet, but ends up joining Cruise in the closet instead. The episode was pulled from the re-airing schedule of the program for several months, reportedly at the demand of Cruise, but was later nominated for an Emmy Award and returned to the schedule.
[edit]Mark Foley and Scientology

According to an article in the October 4, 2006 issue of the New York Post, the Church of Scientology had a close relationship with Mark Foley, the Republican congressman who was ousted for his inappropriate behavior toward male pages in the Mark Foley scandal. The article states:
The controversial cult-like church has major operations in Clearwater, Fla., which just happens to be in Foley's district. The group also hosted a fund-raiser for Foley in May 2003 when he was considering a Senate run. It posted photographs of a smiling Foley posing with key Scientology officials who presented him with a copy of founder L. Ron Hubbard's tome "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health." That book defines "homosexuality" as a "sexual perversion." [1]
However, Foley represented Florida's 16th Congressional district, whereas Clearwater is in Florida's 9th Congressional district.

[edit]Current Church of Scientology viewpoints

This article forms part of a series on
Scientology

In the early part of the 21st century, the Church of Scientology and some of its gay members have claimed that the Church is not homophobic, and has a tradition of advocating for the human rights of all people, including gay men and women. [citation needed] However, the public face of endorsing human rights often seems to conflict with the early writings of Hubbard and the refusal of the Church of Scientology to take any sort of public position on gay rights causes.
In October 2003, a Yahoo! e-mail list was created for gay and bisexual Scientologists called Clear Rainbow (or ClearRainbow). Its group members strongly disagree with the assertion that the Church is homophobic and one of its members wrote a pamphlet titled Straight Dope: About Gays and Scientology [2]. The pamphlet claims that Hubbard abandoned whatever homophobia he once had, and that the Church's dedication to human rights and clinics designed to fight drug and alcohol addiction should be supported by the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. The pamphlet calls the accusations that the Church is a homophobic cult the work of "hate groups" spreading lies, and that the fact that the Church does not take a position on gay rights issues is not a contradiction to its support of human rights. The members of Clear Rainbow are not alone among Scientologists in making such arguments.

In 2002 the American Church of Scientology published a press release on its website quoting gay activist Keith Relkin as saying, "Over the years I have worked with the Church of Scientology for greater inclusion of gay people like me, and today represents a milestone in that progress."[4]

In 2005 an article in Source (an official magazine published by the Church of Scientology) featured a man and his partner in a success story about their WISE consulting business.

In 2005 an article in the New York Daily News suggested that the homophobic writings of Hubbard might have come from his own embarrassment over Quentin Hubbard, his gay son, who committed suicide in 1976. The article cites a spokeswoman for Scientology, "Mr. Hubbard abhorred discrimination in all its forms," and that the Church encouraged relationships that are "ethical".[2] The spokeswoman said also that the Church had not taken an official position on gay marriage, and that members prefer not to talk about it.

However, a 2004 article in the St. Petersburg Times claims that the Church defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman.[5]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Scientology

2007-02-10T15:34:00.000+08:00

Scientology is a body of teachings and related techniques developed by American science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. It began in 1952 as a self-help philosophy, an outgrowth of his earlier self-help system, Dianetics, and later described itself as a new religion. It claims to offer "an exact methodology" to help humans achieve awareness of their spiritual existence across many lifetimes and, simultaneously, to become more effective in the physical world. The name "Scientology" is also used to refer to the often controversial Church of Scientology, the largest organization promoting the practice of Scientology, which is itself part of a network of affiliated corporations that claim ownership and sole authority to disseminate Dianetics and Scientology.

A stated goal of Scientology is to rehabilitate the thetan (roughly equivalent to the soul) to regain its native state of "total freedom." Church spokesmen and practitioners claim that Hubbard's teachings (called "Technology" or "Tech" in Scientology terminology) have saved them from a plethora of problems and enabled them to better realize their highest potential in business and in their personal lives.[1][2] However, outside observers—including journalists, lawmakers, and national governing bodies of several countries—have alleged that the Church is an unscrupulous commercial enterprise that harasses its critics and brutally exploits its members.[3][4]

Although Scientologists are usually free to practice their beliefs, the organized church has often encountered opposition. While a number of governments now view the Church as a religious organization entitled to the protections and tax relief that such status brings, others view it as a pseudoreligion, a cult, or a transnational corporation.[5][6][7][8]

Main article: Scientology beliefs and practices

Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, circa 1970
The Church of Scientology says that Scientology is concerned with "the study and handling of the spirit in relationship to itself, others and all of life."[9] By contrast, Dianetics is more narrowly focused on getting rid of the reactive mind, the "bank" of traumatic memories known as engrams which are said to inhibit one's success and happiness.[10] Scientology also covers topics such as ethics and morality (The Way to Happiness), drug and chemical residues as they relate to spiritual wellbeing (the Purification Rundown), communication, marriage, raising children, work-related problems, education (Study Technology), and the very nature of life (The Dynamics).

Scientology practices are structured in sequential series or levels, reflecting Hubbard's belief that rehabilitation takes place on a step-by-step "gradient"; for example, that the negative effects of drugs must be addressed before other issues can be "handled". Scientologists follow a sequence of courses that culminate in the esoteric advanced strata of Scientology's teachings. This is described as a passage along "the Bridge to Total Freedom", or simply "the Bridge," in which each step of the Bridge promises a little more personal freedom in some particular area of life.

Some central tenets of Scientology:
A person is an immortal spiritual being (termed a thetan) who possesses a mind and a body.
The thetan has lived through many past lives and will continue to live beyond the death of the body.
Through the Scientology process of "auditing", one can free oneself of "engrams" and "implants" to reach the state of "Clear", and after that, the state of "Operating Thetan". Each state is said to represent recovering the native spiritual abilities of the individual, and to confer dramatic mental and physical benefits.

A person is basically good, but becomes "aberrated" by moments of pain and unconsciousness in his or her life.
What is true for you is what you have observed yourself. No beliefs should be forced as "true" on anyone. Thus, the tenets of Scientology are expected to be tested and seen to either be true or not by Scientology practitioners.
Psychiatry and psychology are evil and abusive practices.[11]

Scientology claims to offer "exact" methods of spiritual counseling to help people achieve awareness of their spiritual existence, while enhancing their effectiveness in the physical world. The exact nature of all of existence is said to be stated in Hubbard's Scientology and Dianetics Axioms.
According to the Church, the ultimate goal is to get the soul (thetan) back to its native state of total freedom, thus gaining control over matter, energy, space, time, thoughts, form, and life. This freed state is called Operating Thetan, or OT for short.

Auditing
A Scientology recruiter introduces an E-meter to a potential convert. Such introductory audits are typically presented as "free stress tests".

Main article: Auditing (Scientology)
The central practice of Scientology is "auditing" (from the Latin word audire, "to listen"), which is a one-on-one communication with a trained Scientology counselor or "auditor". The auditor follows an exact procedure toward rehabilitating the human spirit. Most auditing uses an E-meter, a device that measures very small changes in electrical resistance through the human body when a person is holding onto tin cans and a small current is passed through them.[12]

The auditing process is intended to help the practitioner (referred to as a preclear or PC) to unburden himself or herself of specific traumatic incidents, prior ethical transgressions and bad decisions, which are said to collectively restrict the preclear from achieving his or her goals and lead to the development of a "reactive mind". The auditor asks the preclear to respond to a list of questions which are designed for specific purposes and given to the preclear in a strictly regulated way. Auditing requires that the preclear be a willing and interested participant who understands the questions, and the process goes more smoothly when he or she understands what is going on[citation needed]. Per Church policy[citation needed], auditors are trained not to "evaluate for" their preclears; i.e., they are forbidden from suggesting, interpreting, degrading or invalidating the preclear's answers. The E-meter is used to help locate an area of concern.

Scientologists have claimed benefits from auditing including improved IQ, improved ability to communicate, enhanced memory, alleviated dyslexia and attention deficit problems, and improved relaxation.[citation needed]

During the auditing process, the auditor may collect personal information from the person being audited in a manner similar to a psychotherapy session or confessional. The Church maintains that its auditing records are kept confidential, although at least one organizational directive (GO 121669) specifically authorized the use of these auditing records for purposes of "internal security".[13] Auditing records are referred to within Scientology as "PC (preclear) folders" and are said to be stored securely when not being added to during auditing sessions.[14]

ARC triangle
Main article: ARC (Scientology)
Another basic tenet of Scientology is the three related (and intrinsically spiritual) components that make up successful "livingness": affinity (emotional responses), reality (an agreement on what is real) and communication (the exchange of ideas). Hubbard called this the "ARC Triangle". Scientologists utilize A.R.C. as a central organizing principle in their own lives, primarily based upon the belief that improving one aspect of the triangle increases the level of the other two.

Tone scale
Main article: Tone scale
The tone scale is a characterization of human mood and behavior by various positions on a scale. The scale ranges from -40 ("Total Failure") to +40 ("Serenity of Being"). Positions on the tone scale are usually designated by an emotion, but Hubbard also described many other things that can be indicated by the tone scale levels, such as aspects of a human's health, mating behavior, survival potential, or ability to deal with truth. The tone scale is frequently used by Scientologists to evaluate humans. According to Scientology, the lower the individual is on the tone scale, the more complex and convoluted one's problems tend to be, and the more care and judgment should be exercised regarding communication and interaction with that individual.
Past lives

In Dianetics, Hubbard proposed that the cause of "aberrations" in a human mind was an accumulation of pain and unconscious memories of traumatic incidents, some of which predated the life of the human. He extended this view further in Scientology, declaring that thetans have existed for tens of trillions of years (several orders of magnitude greater than what mainstream science generally estimates the age of the universe to be). During that time, Hubbard explains, they have been exposed to a vast number of traumatic incidents, and have made a great many decisions that influence their present state. According to an early lecture of Hubbard's, it is, as a practical matter, both impossible and undesirable to recall each and every such event from such vast stretches of time.[citation needed] As a result, Hubbard's three decade development of Scientology focused on streamlining the process to address only key factors. Hubbard stated that Scientology materials as described in books, tapes, and research notes include a record of everything that was found in the course of his research. Not all things found are stated to have been experienced by all animals on Earth.[citation needed]

According to Hubbard, some of the past traumas may have been deliberately inflicted in the form of "implants" used by extraterrestrial dictatorships such as Helatrobus to brainwash and control humans. Scientology doctrine includes a wide variety of beliefs in complex extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in Earthly events, collectively described by Hubbard as "space opera". There is a huge Church of Spiritual Technology symbol carved into the ground at Scientology's Trementina Base that is visible from passing aircraft or from satellite photography.[15] Washington Post reporter Richard Leiby wrote, "Former Scientologists familiar with Hubbard’s teachings on reincarnation say the symbol marks a 'return point' so loyal staff members know where they can find the founder’s works when they travel here in the future from other places in the universe."[16]

The upper levels of Scientology
Scientologists who are deemed to have achieved the State of Clear may continue onto what is termed the Upper or OT (Operating Thetan) Levels. These courses are available by Church invitation only and prospective candidates are vetted by the Church based on their contributions to the furtherance of Scientology and their behavior in accordance with Scientology principles. The contents of these advanced courses are held in strict confidence within the Church and individuals who have read these materials may neither discuss nor disclose what they contain without jeopardizing their standing in the Church. Presently, there are eight such levels, OT I through VIII, although Church management has promised to release a ninth OT level once certain expansion goals are met. [3] The highest level released to date, OT VIII, is only disclosed at sea, on the Scientology cruise ship Freewinds.

Despite their confidentiality within the Church, excerpts and descriptions of these materials have been widely published in the mainstream press; this was made possible when the confidential teachings were submitted as evidence in court cases involving Scientology, thus becoming a matter of public record. In the confidential OT levels, Hubbard describes a variety of traumas commonly experienced in past lives, experiences that extend many millions of years into the past. He also explains how to reverse the effects of such traumas.

Xenu and Body Thetans
Main article: Xenu
Main article: Galactic Confederacy
Main article: Body Thetan

Among these advanced teachings, one episode revealed to those who reach OT level III has been much remarked upon: the story of Xenu and his Galactic Confederacy. Xenu (sometimes Xemu) is introduced as an alien ruler of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of people to Earth in spacecraft resembling Douglas DC-8 airliners, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their souls then clustered together and stuck to the bodies of the living. The alien souls continue to do this today, causing a variety of physical ill-effects in modern-day humans. Hubbard called these clustered spirits "Body Thetans," and the advanced levels place considerable emphasis on isolating them and neutralizing their ill effects.[17]

Scientologists have argued that the published accounts of the Xenu story and other colourful teachings are distortions of their practice, presented out of context for the purpose of ridiculing their religion. Journalists and critics of Scientology counter that the Xenu episode is part of a much wider Scientology belief that past lives on other planets are a source of negative influences on the mind and spirit in the present. Some of this has been public knowledge for decades. For instance, Hubbard's 1958 book Have You Lived Before This Life contains descriptions of past lives given by individual Scientologists during auditing sessions, including some that are reported to antedate what modern astronomy estimates as the age of the universe. Internal Scientology publications are often illustrated with pictures of spaceships and oblique references to catastrophic events that happened "75 million years ago" (i.e., the Xenu incident).[citation needed]

While reliable information about Scientology membership is notoriously elusive, there is little reason to doubt that most practicing Scientologists have not attained a sufficiently high level on "The Bridge" to have learned the details about Xenu and Body Thetans. Therefore, while knowledge of Xenu and Body Thetans is said to be crucial to the highest level church teachings, it cannot be regarded as a core belief of rank-and-file Scientologists.

Silent birth and infant care
Main article: Silent birth
Hubbard stated that the delivery room should be as silent as possible during birth.[18] This stems from his belief that birth is a trauma that may induce engrams into the baby. Hubbard asserted that words in particular should be avoided because any words used during birth might be reassociated by an adult later on in life with their earlier traumatic birth experience. Hubbard also wrote that the mother should use "as little anesthetic as possible". According to Hubbard, babies should not be bathed after birth.[citation needed]

Hubbard also wrote that breastfeeding should be avoided. Hubbard compared replacement formulas circa the mid-1950s, which he described as "mixed milk powder, glucose and water, total carbohydrate", with what he considered the "skim breast milk from ... overworked mother[s]" that "smoke and sometimes drink"; as an alternative to commercial products, Hubbard offered what he called the "Barley Formula", made from barley water, homogenized milk, and corn syrup or honey. Hubbard claims that "I picked it up in Roman days."[19] He crafted the barley formula to, in his words, provide "a heavy percentage of protein".[20] The formula is still popular with many Scientologists, although most commercial corn syrups are now the high fructose variety and contain other ingredients as well, and modern medicine has since learned that honey should never be given to infants. [4]

Church ceremonies
Scientology, as practiced by members of the Church of Scientology, includes the social ceremonies for marriage, birth, and death, that are a part of most religions. The ceremonies are performed in front of the congregation by an ordained Scientology minister.[21] Most, if not all, of the actual ceremonies used were written by L. Ron Hubbard and are collected in the book, Ceremonies of the Church of Scientology.[22][23]

Funeral service
At a Scientology funeral service the minister speaks directly to the thetan (the individual as a spirit) and urges the deceased person to "end cycle" on their now-past life and begin a new one. The now-deceased individual is assumed to have been drawn to the assembly and is acknowledged for his contributions, released from any debts, and urged to move on.
“We thank you for coming to us. We do not contest your right to go away. Your debts are paid. This chapter of thy life is shut. Go now, dear [deceased], and live once more in happier time and place.[24]”

Scientology's doctrines were established by Hubbard over a period of about 34 years, beginning in 1952 and continuing until his death in January 1986. Most of the basic principles were set out during the 1950s and 1960s. Now described as an "applied religious philosophy," Scientology was at first secular; Hubbard began to characterize Scientology's beliefs and practices as a religion in 1953, and by 1960 he had redefined it as a "religion by its basic tenets".[25]

Hubbard appears to have drawn liberally from a wide variety of pre-existing ideas, though he provided little specific citation of, or commentary on, his sources. The Church of Scientology presents Hubbard's work as completely original, reflected in the fact that Scientologists refer to Hubbard himself as "Source."

Scientology recapitulates and builds on ideas Hubbard introduced in Dianetics, an earlier system of self-improvement techniques laid out in his 1950 book, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. Immediately prior to his first Dianetics publications, Hubbard was involved with occultist Jack Parsons in performing rites developed by Aleister Crowley.[26] Some researchers have noted similarities in Hubbard's writings to the doctrines of Crowley. In a 1952 lecture, Hubbard praised Crowley's works and referred to him as "my very good friend", [5], [6] though the Church of Scientology currently denies any such connection. An influence that Hubbard did acknowledge is the system of General Semantics developed by Alfred Korzybski in the 1930s, which was influential in the science-fiction subculture of the 1940s. [7] Scientology also reflects the influence of the Hindu concept of karma, as well as the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and William Sargant. Sociologist David G. Bromley of Virginia Commonwealth University characterizes Scientology as "a 'quasi-religious therapy' that resembles Freudian 'depth psychology' while also drawing upon Buddhism, Hinduism, and the ancient, heretical offshoot of Christianity known as gnosticism."

Meaning of the word 'Scientology'
Although today associated almost exclusively with Hubbard's work, "Scientology" was originally coined by philologist Alan Upward[27] in 1907 as a synonym for "pseudoscience".[28] In 1934, the Argentine-German writer Anastasius Nordenholz published a book using the word positively: Scientologie, Wissenschaft von der Beschaffenheit und der Tauglichkeit des Wissens ("Scientology, Science of the Constitution and Usefulness of Knowledge").[29] Nordenholz's book is a study of consciousness, and its usage of the word is not greatly different from Hubbard's definition, "knowing how to know".[30] However, it is not clear to what extent Hubbard was aware of these earlier uses. The word itself is a pairing of the Latin word scientia ("knowledge", "skill"), which comes from the verb scire ("to know"), and the Greek λογος lógos ("reason" or "inward thought" or "logic" or "an account of").

"Scientology would be a study of knowledge," Hubbard stated in 1952.[31] In the 1965 edition of Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought, he added, "Scientology is that branch of psychology which treats or (embraces) human ability. It is an extension of Dianetics which is in itself an extension of old-time faculty-psychology of 400 years ago." In 1960 L. Ron Hubbard redefined Scientology as: "a religion by its basic tenets, practice, historical background and by the definition of the word “religion” itself."[32] In 1969 he wrote that "It is fundamentally an applied religious philosophy.".[33]

In a lecture given on July 19, 1962 entitled "The E-meter", Hubbard said:
“So Suzie and I went down to the library, and we started hauling books out and looking for words. And we finally found 'scio' and we find 'ology'. And there was the founding of that word. Now, that word had been used to some degree before. There had been some thought of this. Actually the earliest studies on these didn't have any name to them until a little bit along the line and then I called it anything you could think of. But we found that this word Scientology, you see—and it could have been any other word that had also been used—was the best-fitted word for exactly what we wanted.”

The current Church of Scientology writes, "The word Scientology literally means 'the study of truth.' It comes from the Latin word 'scio' meaning 'knowing in the fullest sense of the word' and the Greek word 'logos' meaning 'study of.'"[34]

Membership
The Church of Scientology
Main article: Church of Scientology

The Church of Scientology has claimed to have as many as 10 million members as of 2006,[35] though actual membership figures it has released indicate a far smaller total. Third party estimates of Scientology's worldwide membership range from less than 100,000[36] to approximately 500,000.[37] According to a 2001 survey published by the City University of New York, 55,000 people in the United States would, if asked to identify their religion, have said Scientology.[38]

The first Church of Scientology was incorporated in Camden, New Jersey as a non-profit organization in 1953. The Church forms the centre of a complex worldwide network of corporations dedicated to the promotion of L. Ron Hubbard's philosophies in all areas of life. This includes:
Drug treatment centres (Narconon);
Criminal rehabilitation programs (Criminon);
Activities to reform the field of mental health (Citizens Commission on Human Rights);
Projects to implement Hubbard's educational methods in schools (Applied Scholastics);
A "moral values" campaign (The Way to Happiness);

A political action committee, (Citizens for Social Reform) to promote social programs with legislators at the US federal and state levels;
World Institute of Scientology Enterprises, or WISE, which licenses Hubbard's management techniques for use in businesses;
A consulting firm based on Hubbard's management techniques (Sterling Management Systems);
A campaign directed to world leaders, as well as the general public, to implement the 1948 United Nations document "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights" (with particular emphasis on the religious freedom elements).
Within the church, members are arranged in a hierarchically pyramid ranked structure,[39] with higher level members holding authority over lower ranked subordinates, especially as evidenced by the Sea Org.

Independent Scientology groups
Although "Scientology" is most often used as shorthand for the Church of Scientology, a number of groups practice Scientology and Dianetics outside of the official Church. Such groups are invariably breakaways from the original Church, and usually argue that it has corrupted L. Ron Hubbard's principles or otherwise become overly domineering. The Church takes an extremely hard line on breakaway groups, labeling them "apostates" (or "squirrels" in Scientology jargon) and often subjecting them to considerable legal and social pressure. Breakaway groups avoid the name "Scientology" so as to keep from being sued, instead referring to themselves collectively as the Free Zone.
Scientology and celebrities

A Scientology Centre on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.
The Church of Scientology has consistently sought to recruit artists and entertainers, particularly Hollywood celebrities. The Church runs special recruitment facilities for public figures designated Celebrity Centres (CCs). There are eight of these centres across the world, though Hollywood is the largest and most important. Scientologists give this description:[citation needed]

“L. Ron Hubbard recognized the importance of the artist to society. Thus he created Celebrity Centre International — a Church of Scientology that specializes in delivering Dianetics and Scientology services to celebrities, professionals, leaders and promising new-comers in the fields of the arts, sports, management and government.”

The sites are not celebrity-exclusive and offer courses to non-celebrities at all levels; most visitors are non-celebrities.
Publicity has been generated by Scientologists in the entertainment industry. The most well-known of these figures include John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Beck, Isaac Hayes, Tom Cruise, and Cruise's converted wife Katie Holmes.

Critics say the attention and care given to celebrity practitioners is vastly different from that of noncelebrity practitioners. Andre Tabayoyon, a former Scientologist and Sea Org staffer, testified in a 1994 affidavit that money from not-for-profit Scientology organizations and labor from those organizations (including the Rehabilitation Project Force) had gone to provide special facilities for Scientology celebrities, which were not available to other Scientologists:

“A Sea Org staffer ... was taken along to do personal cooking for Tom Cruise and Miscavige at the expense of Scientology not for profit religious organizations. This left only 3 cooks at [Gold Base] to cook for 800 people three times a day ... apartment cottages were built for the use of John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Edgar Winter, Priscilla Presley and other Scientology celebrities who are carefully prevented from finding out the real truth about the Scientology organization ... Miscavige decided to redo the meadow in beautiful flowers; Tens of thousands of dollars were spent on the project so that Cruise and [Nicole] Kidman could romp there. However, Miscavige inspected the project and didn't like it. So the whole meadow was plowed up, destroyed, replowed and sown with plain grass."[40] ”

Tabayoyon's account of the planting of the meadow was supported by another former Scientologist, Maureen Bolstad, who said that a couple of dozen Scientologists including herself were put to work on a rainy night through dawn on the project. "We were told that we needed to plant a field and that it was to help Tom impress Nicole ... but for some mysterious reason it wasn't considered acceptable by Mr. Miscavige. So the project was rejected and they redid it."[41]
Diana Canova, who experienced Scientology both before and during her period of TV stardom, expressed it in a September 1993 interview: "When I started, I wasn't in television yet. I was a nobody - I'd done some TV, but I was not one of the elite, not by a long shot - until I did Soap. Then it became…I mean, you really are treated like royalty."[42]

Controversy and criticism
Official German warning leaflets from the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior on "Protecting Our Democracy", covering Islamic extremism, Scientology[43] and organized crime

Of the many new religious movements to appear during the 20th century, Scientology has, from its inception, been one of the most controversial. The Church has come into conflict with the governments and police forces of several countries (including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany) numerous times over the years, though supporters note that many major world religions have found themselves in conflict with civil government in their early years.
Main article: Scientology and the legal system

The many legal battles fought by the Church of Scientology since its inception have given it a reputation as an extremely litigious organization, characterized by forcing litigants to enter into a lengthy and costly legal process.[44]
The ongoing controversies involving the Church and its critics include:
Repeated claims of brainwashing and mind control.

Scientology's disconnection policy, in which members are encouraged to cut off all contact with friends or family members critical of the Church.[45]

The unexplained death of Scientologists, including Lisa McPherson.[46]
The use of high-pressure sales tactics to obtain money from members.
Multiple criminal activities by Scientologists, both those committed for personal benefit (Reed Slatkin, Gabriel Williams, and others) and those committed on behalf of the Church and directed by Church officials (Operation Snow White, Operation Freakout, Fair Game, and others).

Numerous differing, and sometimes conflicting, accounts of L. Ron Hubbard's life, in particular accounts of Hubbard discussing his intent to start a religion for profit, and of his service in the military.
Scientology's harassment and litigious actions against its critics and enemies.
Some critics charge Scientology with being a cult of personality, with much emphasis placed on the alleged accomplishments of its founder.

Lobbying search engines such as Google and Yahoo to omit any webpages that are critical of Scientology from their search engines (and in Google's case, AdSense), or at least the first few search pages (now however, a search for Scientology on Google and Yahoo brings up the Wikipedia page, with both critical and official Scientology websites).

Scientology and other religions
Scientology teaches that it is fully compatible with all existing major world religions and that it does not conflict with other religions or other religious practices;[47] the Church has however been questioned by other religious groups.

The Church of England complained in March 2003 to the Advertising Standards Authority about the Church's advertising poster promoting Narconon--the drug rehabilitation program based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard. The poster claimed "250,000 people salvaged from drugs." The Church of England Diocese of Birmingham challenged the claim. Upholding the complaint, the ASA considered that, "without clarification, readers were likely to interpret the claim '250,000 people salvaged from drugs' to mean that 250,000 people had stopped being dependent on street or prescription drugs because of Scientology. The Authority "accepted that more than 250,000 people had undertaken the Church's Drug Purification and Drug Rundown programmes, which were designed to free people from the effects of taking drugs," but "the Authority understood that, within Scientology, the concept of 'drug use' referred to a variety of behaviours that ranged from heavy use of street drugs to occasional ingestion of alcohol or prescription medicines and exposure to chemical toxins."[48]

In May 2001, the Russian Orthodox Church criticized Scientologists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Unificationists and Mormons as being dangerous "totalitarian sects".[49]

The Lutheran Church in Germany has at times criticized Scientology's activities and doctrines, along with those of several other religions. According to the U.S. State Department's 2004 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, "The Lutheran Church also characterizes The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Christ, Christian Scientists, the New Apostolic Church, and the Johannish Church as 'sects,' but in less negative terms than it does Scientology."[50]

The Roman Catholic Church has not made official doctrinal pronouncements specifically related to Scientology. Certain beliefs that are widely associated with Scientology, such as reincarnation, are specifically rejected by the Catholic Church as being incompatible with Catholic belief and practice. Scientology is also, according to a number of religious scholars, a form of gnosticism, which would make it hard to reconcile with Roman Catholicism and other denominations that regard gnosticism as a heresy.[51]

Scientology's claim of religious compatibility to entry-level Scientologists is soon modified by the additional teaching that the various levels of spiritual prowess which can be reached through Scientology are more advanced than those attainable in other religions. Critics maintain that, within Scientology, "spiritual abilities" tends to be synonymous with "mystical powers" rather than with "inner peace". Hubbard himself cautioned against the unwise or improper use of powers in his book History of Man.

In its application for tax-exempt status in the United States, the Church of Scientology International states:
“Although there is no policy or Scriptural mandate expressly requiring Scientologists to renounce other religious beliefs or membership in other churches, as a practical matter Scientologists are expected to and do become fully devoted to Scientology to the exclusion of other faiths. As Scientologists, they are required to look only to Scientology Scriptures for the answers to the fundamental questions of their existence and to seek enlightenment only from Scientology.[52]”

Based on an interpretation of Buddhist writings which described, among other things, a man from the west with hair like flames around his head who was said to be due to return some 2,500 years after the first Buddha, the red-haired Hubbard sometimes identified himself with Maitreya, the Buddha of the future.[53]

The revealed beliefs in Scientology at higher levels become increasingly contradictory with other religions. The concept of past lives in Scientology is at odds with Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Beliefs concerning the origins and age of the Earth, the root of evil, and the nature of man make it impossible to uphold the beliefs of most other religions while also being a Scientologist.[citation needed] Hubbard claimed that Islam was the result of an extraterrestrial memory implant, called the Emanator, of which the Kaaba is supposedly an artifact. Mainstream religions, in his view, had failed to realize their objectives: "It is all very well to idealize poverty and associate wisdom with begging bowls, or virtue with low estate. However, those who have done this (Buddhists, Christians, Communists and other fanatics) have dead ended or are dead ending."[54]
Critics claim that a select group of advanced practitioners eventually discovered that Hubbard had left little doubt in his writings and lectures about the dim view he took toward existing major religions. In some of the teachings Hubbard had intended only for this select group, he claimed that Jesus had never existed, but was implanted in humanity's collective memory by Xenu 75 million years ago, and that Christianity was an "entheta [evil] operation" mounted by beings called Targs (Hubbard, "Electropsychometric Scouting: Battle of the Universes", April 1952). Some critics have claimed that one of the highest levels, OT VIII, tells initiates that Jesus was a pederast (it is decidedly unclear whether the version of OT VIII in the Fishman Affidavit, where this claim originates, is genuine). Thus, critics claim, Hubbard makes clear his belief that advanced Scientologists are to identify Jesus and Christianity more as a force of evil than as a force for good.

Scientology as a state-recognised religion
The Church pursues an extensive public relations campaign supporting Scientology as a bona fide religion.[55] The organization cites numerous scholarly sources supporting its position, many of which can be found on a website the Church has established for this purpose.[56] Different countries have taken markedly different approaches to Scientology. Scientology is considered a legitimate religion in Thailand[citation needed], Taiwan[citation needed], and Australia, and thus enjoys and regularly cites the constitutional protections afforded in these nations to religious practice.[57] Some countries, mostly in Europe, have regarded Scientology as a potentially dangerous cult, or at least have not considered local branches of the Church of Scientology to meet the legal criteria for being considered religion-supporting organizations.

Main article: R. v. Church of Scientology of Toronto
In Canada, the Church of Scientology is considered a religious non-profit organization; its application for charity status was rejected in 1999.[citation needed] In 1992, Scientology became the only religious organization convicted in criminal court on two counts of breach of the public trust (for an organized conspiracy to infiltrate government offices) following a trial by jury.[58]

In Spain, the Church of Scientology has been refused registration as a religious entity, however authorities declared that the government would not interfere in any way with the activities of the Church of Scientology.[59]

The United Kingdom government does not recognize Scientology as a bona fide religion, and the Church's application for charity status in the United Kingdom was rejected in 1999.[60]
In the United States, Scientologists claim that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax exemption granted to the Scientology related businesses under IRS Tax Code section 501(c)(3) after extended litigation gives their religion a U.S. government stamp of authenticity.[61] The US Government makes no claim to Scientology's legitimacy through tax-exempt status as this is also granted to non-religious entities, such as the Red Cross.[62]

Scientology's tax-exempt status was lost in a 1967 IRS audit. As part of the effort to regain tax exemption during the late 1970s, Scientologists infiltrated the IRS and stole confidential documents in what was termed Operation Snow White. Eleven high-ranking Scientologists, including Hubbard's wife Mary Sue Hubbard, served time in federal prison for acts surrounding this operation.
In the early 1990s, church leaders David Miscavige and Mark Rathbun visited with the IRS in Washington, DC to negotiate a settlement in an effort to gain tax-exempt status. On August 24, 1992, Scientology's Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) traded to the federal government a vault built at Trementina Base. Though CST had paid over $250,000 for the property in 1986 and had invested millions in development of the property according to the Federal Register record,[citation needed] CST traded it to the government, vault included, for a similar parcel of land in the same New Mexico county valued at only $28,000.

On October 1, 1993 the IRS formally announced that the Church of Scientology and its corporate entities had been granted tax exemption again. The settlement document was sealed by the IRS, but it was leaked to, and subsequently published by the New York Times. The New York Times also asserted in a March 9, 1997 article that, in its efforts to obtain tax-exempt status, Scientologists paid private investigators to obtain compromising material on the IRS commissioner.[63]
As Scientology courses are tax-deductible, some people have wondered why religious courses for other religions are not allowed the same deduction. In the case of MICHAEL SKLAR; MARLA SKLAR v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL No. 00-70753, the Sklars argued they should be allowed a tax-deduction for their payments for courses their son took at a Jewish school.

On January 29, 2002 the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the IRS's opposition. Judge Silverman concurred, saying:
“An IRS closing agreement cannot overrule Congress and the Supreme Court. If the IRS does, in fact, give preferential treatment to members of the Church of Scientology—allowing them a special right to claim deductions that are contrary to law and rightly disallowed to everybody else—then the proper course of action is a lawsuit to put a stop to that policy."[64]”

In 1982, there was a similar ruling by the High Court of Australia, in Church of the New Faith v. Commissioner Of Pay-roll Tax. The court ruled that the government of Victoria could not deny the Church the right to operate in Victoria under the legal status of "religion", even though the state found that the Church practiced charlatanism. All three judges in the case found that the Church of the New Faith (Church of Scientology) was a religion. One judge said:
“It follows that, whatever be the intentions of Mr. Hubbard and whatever be the motivation of the [Church of Scientology], the state of the evidence in this case requires a finding that the general group of adherents have a religion. The question whether their beliefs, practices and observances are a religion must, in the state of that evidence, be answered affirmatively. That answer, according to the conventional basis adopted by the parties in fighting the case, must lead to a judgment for the [Church of Scientology].”

A second judge said,
“Conclusion. The applicant has easily discharged the onus of showing that it is religious. The conclusion that it is a religious institution entitled to the tax exemption is irresistible." The third of the three judges concluded, "The conclusion to which we have ultimately come is that Scientology is, for relevant purposes, a religion. With due respect to Crockett J. and the members of the Full Supreme Court who reached a contrary conclusion, it seems to us that there are elements and characteristics of Scientology in Australia, as disclosed by the evidence, which cannot be denied.[65]”

In Germany Scientology is not considered a religion by the government, but a commercial business, and Scientology's attempts to be recognized as a religion by courts have failed.[66] Germany's "government and societal discrimination against minority religious groups" shows up as a Human Rights problem in the US State Department's 2006 Report on Human Rights Practice:

“The government does not recognize several belief systems, such as Scientology, as religions; however, it does not prevent them from engaging in public and private religious activities. Federal and state authorities classified Scientology as a potential threat to democratic order, a status that led to employment and commercial discrimination against Scientologists in both the public and private sectors.[67] Germany's handling of Scientology has also been called into question before open hearings of the United Nations' Human Rights Committee.[68] ”

While reporting that Germany's "government policy continued to contribute to the generally free practice of religion", the US State Department's Religious Freedom Report 2005 noted a number of important issues regarding the treatment of some religious minorities including Scientologists. One noted restriction on the religious freedom of Scientologists involves government labor offices:

“Since 1996, government employment offices throughout the country have implemented an Economics and Labor Ministry administrative order directing them to enter an "S" notation next to the names of firms suspected of employing Scientologists. Employment counselors are supposed to warn their clients that they might encounter Scientologists in these workplaces. Some private job centers have also adopted this practice. Scientologists have claimed that the "S" notations violate their right to privacy and interfere with their livelihood.[69]”

The Church has been subjected to considerable pressure from the state in Russia.[citation needed]
In Ireland, Scientology maintains a mission in Dublin.[70] The Church of Scientology Mission of Dublin Ltd. is not listed with Ireland's Office of the Revenue Commissioners as an authorised charity for donation tax relief.[71]
In Belgium, the minister of justice refused Scientology as a candidate for the status of recognized religion.[72]
Scientology as a cult

In some instances, former members have claimed the Church used information obtained in auditing sessions against them.[73][74][75] While such a claim would be actionable as extortion, blackmail or harassment within most legal jurisdictions, no such claim has to date been legally confirmed against Scientology based solely upon use or revelation of auditing records.

The Anderson Report, an official inquiry conducted for the state of Victoria, Australia, found that the auditing process involved a form of "authoritative" or "command" hypnosis, in which the hypnotist assumes "positive authoritative control" over the patient. "It is the firm conclusion of this Board that most scientology and dianetic techniques are those of authoritative hypnosis and as such are dangerous. ... the scientific evidence which the Board heard from several expert witnesses of the highest repute ... which was virtually unchallenged - leads to the inescapable conclusion that it is only in name that there is any difference between authoritative hypnosis and most of the techniques of scientology. Many scientology techniques are in fact hypnotic techniques, and Hubbard has not changed their nature by changing their names."[76] Hubbard was an accomplished hypnotist, and close acquaintances such as Forrest Ackerman (Hubbard's literary agent) and A. E. van Vogt (an important early supporter of Dianetics) witnessed repeated demonstrations of his hypnotic skills.[77] (See Scientology and hypnosis). Licensed psychotherapists have alleged that the Church's auditing sessions amount to mental health treatment without a license [citation needed], but the Church disputes these allegations, and claims to have established in courts of law that its practice leads to spiritual relief. So, according to the Church, the psychotherapist treats mental health and the Church treats the spiritual being.

In France, the Church of Scientology was categorized as a sect (or cult) in the 2468 report of the Assemblée Nationale (the legislative body), in 1995. A more recent government report (1999) categorized the church as an "absolute sect" and recommended that all its activities be prohibited.[citation needed]

The federal government of Germany as well as its states, have to a greater or lesser degree and for varying periods placed Scientology and Scientologists under surveillance by the Verfassungsschutz intelligence agencies since the early 1970s, based on alleged anti-democratic tendencies.[78] No criminal or civil charges have been brought as a result of this surveillance. Two German states and the ruling political party, the CDU (Christian Democratic Union), have passed rules or regulations limiting the participation of Scientologists in politics, business and public life.[citation needed] In several court cases, Scientology lost filed complaints against continued surveillance because the courts held the opinion that Scientology does pursue anticonstitutional activities.[79][80] In Berlin, the court prohibited the use of paid undercover agents.[81] In Saarland, surveillance was stopped by the court as inappropriate because there is no local branch of Scientology and few members.[82]

Allegations of Scientology's cult status may be attributed to its unconventional creation by a single authoritative and charismatic leader.[83] The Church indoctrinates its members, providing very little initial knowledge of the inner secrets of the organization. In order to reach this knowledge parishioners are required to advance forward in rank through study and payments to the Church, the incentive of which is the stepped acquisition of promised powerful secrets and gaining of supernatural abilities.[citation needed]

Scientology as a commercial venture
Main article: Scientology as a business
The Church of Scientology and its many related organizations have amassed considerable real estate holdings worldwide, likely in the hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as a large amount of other funds from the practice of auditing.[84]

Hubbard was accused in his lifetime of adopting a religious façade for Scientology to allow the organization to maintain tax-exempt status and to avoid prosecution for false medical claims.[85] There have been numerous accounts from Hubbard's fellow science-fiction authors and researchers, notably Harlan Ellison, Neison Himmel, Sam Merwin, Sam Moskowitz, Theodore Sturgeon, Lloyd Arthur Eshbach, and Lyle Stuart,[77] of Hubbard stating on various occasions that the way to get rich was to start a religion.[86] This is referenced, among other places, in a May 1980 Reader's Digest article, which quotes Hubbard, "If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion."[87] The Church claims that "One individual once claimed L. Ron Hubbard made such a comment during a lecture in 1948. The only two people who could be found who attended that very lecture in 1948 denied that Mr. Hubbard ever made this statement" and that therefore it is an "unfounded rumor." The Church's claim does not address any of the other individuals who have stated that they personally heard Hubbard make such a statement, some claiming that he said it on multiple occasions. The Church also suggests that the origin of the "rumor" was a quote by George Orwell which had been "misattributed" to Hubbard.

However, Robert Vaughn Young, who left the Church in 1989 after twenty years, said that he had discovered the Orwell quote, and suggested that reports of Hubbard making such a statement could be explained as a misattribution of Orwell, despite having encountered three of Hubbard's associates from his science fiction days who remembered Hubbard making statements of that sort in person.[3]

Scientology pays members commissions on new recruits they bring in, encouraging Scientology members to "sell" Scientology to others.[84] In addition, Scientology franchises, or missions, pay the church roughly 10% of their gross income.[88] Charges for auditing and other Church-related courses run to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.[89][90] Scientology maintains strict control over the use of its symbols, icons, and names. It claims copyright and trademark over its "Scientology cross," and its lawyers have threatened lawsuits against individuals and organizations who have published the image in books and on Web sites. Because of this, it is very difficult for individual groups to attempt to publicly practice Scientology on their own, without any affiliation or connection to the Church of Scientology. Scientology has sued a number of individuals who attempted to set up their own "auditing" practices, using copyright and trademark law to shut these groups down.

In conjunction with the Church of Scientology's request to be officially recognized as a religion in Germany, the German state Baden-Württemberg conducted a thorough investigation regarding the group's activities within Germany.[91] The results of this investigation indicated that, at the time of publication, Scientology's main sources of revenue ("Haupteinnahmequellen der SO") were from course offerings and sales of their various publications. Course offerings--e.g. "The Ups and Downs of Life," "Hubbard's Key to Life," "Intensive Auditing," etc.--ranged from (German Marks) DM 182.50 to about DM 30,000--the equivalent today of approximately $119 to $19,560 US dollars. Revenue from monthly, bi-monthly, and other membership offerings could not be estimated in the report, but was nevertheless placed in the millions.

In June of 2006, it was announced that Scientology would be sponsoring a NASCAR race car. The Number 27 Ford Taurus driven by Kenton Gray displays a large Dianetics logo.[92]

Scientology and psychiatry
Main article: Scientology and psychiatry
Scientologists regularly hold anti-psychiatry demonstrations they call "Psychbusts"
The Church of Scientology is one of a number of groups involved in the anti-psychiatry movement, and one of the few organizations that publicly oppose the study and application of psychology in addition to psychiatry.

This theme appears in some of Hubbard's literary works. In Hubbard's Mission Earth series, various characters praise and criticize these methods, and the antagonists in his novel Battlefield Earth are called Psychlos, a similar allusion.
From the Church of Scientology FAQ on Psychiatry:

“What the Church opposes are brutal, inhumane psychiatric treatments. It does so for three principal reasons: 1) procedures such as electro-shock, drugs and lobotomy injure, maim and destroy people in the guise of help; 2) psychiatry is not a science and has no proven methods to justify the billions of dollars of government funds that are poured into it; and 3) psychiatric theories that man is a mere animal have been used to rationalize, for example, the wholesale slaughter of human beings in World Wars I and II.[93]”

Hubbard was bitterly critical of psychiatry's citation of physical causes for mental disorders, such as chemical imbalances in the brain. Hubbard's statements deny that psychiatry, through the scientific method, has shown some psychiatric disorders are related to anatomical and chemical cerebral anomalies. He regarded psychiatrists as denying human spirituality and peddling fake cures. He was also convinced psychiatrists were themselves deeply unethical individuals, committing "extortion, mayhem and murder. Our files are full of evidence on them."[94] Many of the areas in which his criticism is directed have since been discredited in mainstream psychiatry - electro-shock therapy, for example, is now only used under anesthesia and muscle relaxants, and lobotomy is a defunct procedure.

The Church claims that psychiatry was responsible for World War I,[95] the rise of Hitler and Stalin,[96] the decline in education standards in the United States,[97] the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo,[98] and the September 11 attacks.[99] The Church has not publicly presented any evidence supporting this view of psychiatry.

Scientology's opposition to psychiatry has also undoubtedly been influenced by the opposition of numerous psychiatrists to the Church. After the publication of Dianetics, the American Psychological Association advised its members against using Hubbard's psychotherapy techniques with their patients until their effectiveness could be proven. Because of this critique, Hubbard came to believe psychiatrists were behind a worldwide conspiracy to attack Scientology and create a "world government" run by psychiatrists on behalf of Soviet Russia:

“Our enemies are less than twelve men. They are members of the Bank of England and other higher financial circles. They own and control newspaper chains and they, oddly enough, run all the mental health groups in the world that had sprung up ... Their apparent programme was to use mental health, which is to say psychiatric electric shock and pre-frontal lobotomy, to remove from their path any political dissenters ... These fellows have gotten nearly every government in the world to owe them considerable quantities of money through various chicaneries and they control, of course, income tax, government finance — [Harold] Wilson, for instance, the current Premier of England, is totally involved with these fellows and talks about nothing else actually.[100]”

In 1966, Hubbard declared war on psychiatry, telling Scientologists "We want at least one bad mark on every psychiatrist in England, a murder, an assault, or a rape or more than one."[101] He committed the Church to eradicating psychiatry in 1969, announcing "Our war has been forced to become 'To take over absolutely the field of mental healing on this planet in all forms.'"[102] The Church founded the Citizens Commission on Human Rights that same year as its primary vehicle for attacking psychiatry.

Around the same time, Hubbard claimed that psychiatrists were an ancient evil that had been a problem for billions of years. He cast them in the role of assisting Xenu's genocide of 75 million years ago. In a 1982 bulletin entitled "Pain and Sex", Hubbard declares that "pain and sex were the INVENTED TOOLS of degradation", having been devised eons ago by psychiatrists "who have been on the [time] track a long time and are the sole cause of decline in this universe."[103]
Celebrity Scientologists, notably Tom Cruise, have been extremely vocal in attacking the use of psychiatric medication.[104]

Their position has attracted considerable criticism from psychiatrists, physicians, and mental health patients and advocates who cite numerous scientific studies showing benefit from psychiatry.

Christopher Gillberg, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, alleged that the destruction of patient files in May 2005 by two of his colleagues and a university administrator had been prompted by the Church's criticism of his research.[105] Gillberg claimed that Eva Kärfve, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Lund who in 2003 had obtained a court order to access his patient records relating to ADHD, was a Scientologist or was acting for the Church. The University opposed this access on the grounds of patient confidentiality. However, in July 2005 the lower criminal court in Gothenburg fined Gillberg for "misuse of office" and upheld Kärfve's right to see the remaining data.[106]

Scientology versus the Internet
Main article: Scientology versus the Internet
Scientology leaders have undertaken extensive operations on the Internet to deal with growing allegations of fraud[citation needed] and exposure of unscrupulousness within Scientology. The organization states that it is taking actions to prevent distribution of copyrighted Scientology documents and publications online by people whom it has called "copyright terrorists".[107] Critics claim the organisation's true motive is an attempt to suppress free speech and criticism.

In January 1995, Church lawyer Helena Kobrin attempted to shut down the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology by sending a control message instructing Usenet servers to delete the group on the grounds that:
“(1) It was started with a forged message; (2) not discussed on alt.config; (3) it has the name "scientology" in its title which is a trademark and is misleading, as a.r.s. is mainly used for flamers to attack the Scientology religion; (4) it has been and continues to be heavily abused with copyright and trade secret violations and serves no purpose other than condoning these illegal practices.[108]”

In practice, this rmgroup message had little effect, since most Usenet servers are configured to disregard such messages when applied to groups that receive substantial traffic, and newgroup messages were quickly issued to recreate the group on those servers that did not do so. However, the issuance of the message led to a great deal of public criticism by free-speech advocates.

The Church also began filing lawsuits against those who posted copyrighted texts on the newsgroup and the World Wide Web, and pressed for tighter restrictions on copyrights in general. The Church supported the controversial Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. The even more controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act was also strongly promoted by the Church and some of its provisions (notably the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act) were heavily influenced by Church litigation against US Internet service providers over copyrighted Scientology materials that had been posted or uploaded through their servers.

Beginning in the middle of 1996 and for several years after, the newsgroup was attacked by anonymous parties using a tactic dubbed "sporgery" by some, in the form of hundreds of thousands of forged spam messages posted on the group. Although the Church neither confirmed nor denied its involvement with the spam, some investigators claimed that some spam had been traced to Church members. Former Scientologist Tory Christman, after she left the Church, confessed to having been part of the sporgery project, taking money supplied by the Office of Special Affairs to open up Internet accounts at various ISPs under false names, accounts from which she later saw forged and garbled communications going out.[109]
Scientific criticism of Scientology's beliefs

Many of Hubbard's practices have been criticised by the scientific community as being junk science. The background story of Xenu is widely ridiculed as it is scientifically implausible, and some technologies employed by Scientologists, including the e-meter, have no verified effect. Further, Hubbard's medical and dietary advice, still commonly accepted by Church members, is both built upon no firm scientific background and is decades-old, meaning that it may have been rendered obsolete by contemporary scientific studies regardless of its origins.

Xenu, as depicted by the BBC's Panorama
Journalists and critics of Scientology note that Xenu is part of a much wider Scientology belief in past lives on other planets, some of which has been public knowledge for decades. For instance, Hubbard's 1958 book Have You Lived Before This Life documents past lives described by individual Scientologists during auditing sessions. These included memories of being "deceived into a love affair with a robot decked out as a beautiful red-haired girl", being run over by a Martian bishop driving a steamroller, being transformed into an intergalactic walrus that perished after falling out of a flying saucer, and being "a very happy being who strayed to the planet Nostra 23,064,000,000 years ago". In comparison, modern astrophysical observations have established the age of the universe at 13.7 billion (13,700,000,000) years, to within about 1% error.

A 1971 ruling of the United States District Court, District of Columbia (333 F. Supp. 357), specifically stated, "the E-meter has no proven usefulness in the diagnosis, treatment or prevention of any disease, nor is it medically or scientifically capable of improving any bodily function."[110] As a result of this ruling, Scientology now publishes disclaimers in its books and publications declaring that "By itself, the E-meter does nothing"[111] and that it is used specifically for spiritual purposes.
Hubbard's advice that breastfeeding should be avoided is in contravention of common medical advice, which stresses its importance for the health of both the mother and the child.[112] Hubbard's "Barley Formula" is potentially unsafe for infants; honey can cause infant botulism when given to infants under twelve months of age.[113] Apart from safety issues, the formula would lack vital nutrients, IgA antibodies, and other components of human breast milk. Hubbard had no qualifications to give pediatric advice and his claims regarding the care of babies and infants are disputed by the majority of doctors and health care professionals. Patricia Devine, MD, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist who directs the Labor and Delivery Unit at Columbia University Medical Center, said "There's absolutely no scientific evidence that taking [noise] away at the time of delivery will have any effect on outcome for the baby or mother."[114]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Best Combo Ever!

2006-12-02T15:19:00.000+08:00

Nike+iPod, released May 23, 2006, is one of the many accessories designed specifically for the iPod nano. The advantages of the Nike+iPod is to sync information including the distance traveled, running pace, or burned calories to the Nike+ website.
On October 19, 2006, new features were added to the Nike+ website, including the ability to name runs. Forums were also added, allowing users to meet and challenge other runners, ask questions, and give feedback.
Nike+iPod is compatible with all iPod nanos, regardless of generation.

Nike+iPod
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nike+iPod Sports Kit
The Nike+iPod Sports Kit is a wireless device kit that allows communication between a pair of Nike+ shoes and an iPod nano. The kit was revealed on May 23, 2006 but was unavailable for purchase for a little time. The kit is able to store information such as the elapsed time of the workout, the distance traveled, pace, or calories burned by the individual wearing the shoes, and display it on the screen or broadcast it through the headphones of an iPod.

In addition to the audio feedback provided by a generic male or female voice (user's choice), there are pre-recorded congratulations provided by Lance Armstrong and Paula Radcliffe whenever a user achieves a personal best (such as fastest mile, fastest 10K, longest run yet) or reaches certain long-term milestones (such as 250 miles, 500 kilometers). This "celebrity feedback" is heard after the usual end-of-run statistics.

On October 19, 2006, new features were added to the Nike+ website, including the ability to name runs. Forums were also added, allowing users to meet and challenge other runners, ask questions, and give feedback.

Privacy concerns were raised when graduate students at the University of Washington discovered security flaws in the device that can be exploited to track the user.[1] [2]

http://www.nike.com/nikeplus/
http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/
http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/gear.html
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/may/23nike.html
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=201AADAE&nplm=TJ549LL%2FA

Heterochromia

2006-11-26T13:39:00.000+08:00

In anatomy, heterochromia refers to a difference in coloration, usually of the irises but also of hair or skin.
Heterochromia (also known as a heterochromia iridis or heterochromia iridium) is an ocular condition in which one iris is a different color from the other (complete heterochromia), or where part of one iris is a different color from the remainder (partial heterochromia or sectoral heterochromia). It is a result of the relative excess or lack of pigment within an iris or part of an iris, which may be inherited or acquired by disease or injury.[1]
Eye color, specifically the color of the irises, is determined primarily by the concentration and distribution of melanin pigment within the iris tissues[2][3][4]. Consequently, anything affecting those factors may result in a difference of color being observed.

The affected eye may be hyperpigmented (hyperchromic) or hypopigmented (hypochromic).[5] An excess of pigmentation is usually associated with hyperplasia of the iris tissues whereas a lack of pigmentation is associated with hypoplasia. Although seen in humans, heterochromia in which one iris differs in color from the other iris is more frequently observed in non-human species such as cats (for example, Japanese Bobtails; white, shorthaired cats can be "odd-eyed" with one copper or orange eye and one blue eye, and the Turkish Angora), dogs (for example, Siberian Huskies as well as Australian Shepherds, Border Collies, and other breeds with merle coats), horses (so-called "walled-eyed" horses have one brown and one white eye), and even water buffalo.[6] Partial or sectoral heterochromia is much less common than complete heterochromia and is typically found in autosomally inherited disorders such as Hirschsprung's disease and Waardenburg syndrome.

Classification based on etiology

Congenital heterochromia is inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion.
Heterochromia can occur in several species of animals, including cats.

Another example of sectoral heterochromia. The subject has a hazel iris with a brown section and flecks.
Although a distinction is frequently made between heterochromia that affects an eye completely or only partially, it is often classified as either congenital or acquired with mention as to whether the affected iris or portion of the iris is darker or lighter.[7]

Congenital heterochromia

Heterochromia that is congenital is usually inherited as an autosomal dominant trait.

Abnormal iris darker
Lisch nodules - iris hamartomas seen in neurofibromatosis.
Ocular melanosis - a condition characterized by increased pigmentation of the uveal tract, episclera, and anterior chamber angle.

Oculodermal melanocytosis (nevus of Ota)[5]
Pigment dispersion syndrome - a condition characterized by loss of pigmentation from the posterior iris surface which is disseminated intraocularly and deposited on various intraocular structures, including the anterior surface of the iris.
Sturge-Weber syndrome - a syndrome characterized by a port-wine stain nevus in the distribution of the trigeminal nerve, homolateral meningeal angioma with intracranial calcification and neurologic signs, and angioma of the choroid, often with secondary glaucoma[8][1].

Abnormal iris lighter
Simple heterochromia - a rare condition characterized by the absence of other ocular or systemic problems. The lighter eye is typically regarded as the affected eye as it usually shows iris hypoplasia. It may affect an iris completely or only partially.
Congenital Horner's syndrome[9] - sometimes inherited, although usually acquired

Waardenburg's syndrome[9] - a syndrome in which heterochromia presents as a bilateral iris hypochromia in some cases. A Japanese review of 11 albino children with the disorder found that all had sectoral/partial heterochromia.[10]
Piebaldism - similar to Waardenburg's syndrome, a rare disorder of melanocyte development characterized by a white forelock and multiple symmetrical hypopigmented or depigmented macules.

Hirschsprung's disease - a bowel disorder associated with heterochromia in the form of a sector hypochromia. The affected sectors have been shown to have reduced numbers of melanocytes and decreased stromal pigmentation.[11]
Incontinentia pigmenti[5]
Parry-Romberg syndrome[5]

Acquired heterochromia

Heterochromia that is acquired is usually due to injury, inflammation, the use of certain eyedrops, or tumors.

Abnormal iris darker
Deposition of material
Siderosis - iron deposition within ocular tissues due to a penetrating injury and a retained iron-containing, intraocular foreign body.
Hemosiderosis - long standing hyphema (blood in the anterior chamber) following blunt trauma to the eye may lead to iron deposition from blood products

Use of certain eyedrops - prostaglandin analogues (latanoprost, isopropyl unoprostone, travoprost, and bimatoprost) are used topically to lower intraocular pressure in glaucoma patients. A concentric heterochromia has developed in some patients applying these drugs. The stroma around the iris sphincter muscle becomes darker than the peripheral stroma. A stimulation of melanin synthesis within iris melanocytes has been postulated.
Neoplasm - Nevi and melanomatous tumors.
Iridocorneal endothelium syndrome[5]
Iris ectropion syndrome[5]

Abnormal iris lighter
Fuchs' heterochromic iridocyclitis - a condition characterized by a low grade, asymptomatic uveitis in which the iris in the affected eye becomes hypochromic and has a washed-out, somewhat moth eaten appearance. The heterochromia can be very subtle, especially in patients with lighter colored irides. It is often most easily seen in daylight. The prevalence of heterochromia associated with Fuch's has been estimated in various studies[12][13][14] with results suggesting that there is more difficulty recognizing iris color changes in dark-eyed individuals.[14][15]
Acquired Horner's syndrome - usually acquired, as in neuroblastoma,[16] although sometimes inherited.
Neoplasm - Melanomas can also be very lightly pigmented, and a lighter colored iris may be a rare manifestation of metastatic disease to the eye.

Heterochromia has also been observed in those with Duane syndrome.[17][18]
Chronic iritis[5]
Juvenile xanthogranuloma[5]
Leukemia and lymphoma[5]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Toxic shock syndrome

2006-11-26T13:30:00.000+08:00

Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is a rare but potentially fatal disease caused by a bacterial toxin. Different bacterial toxins may cause toxic shock syndrome, depending on the situation. The causative agent is Staphylococcus aureus. A similar condition, called Toxic Shock Like Syndrome (TSLS), is the result of Streptococcus pyogenes infection. TSLS is also referred to as Streptococcal TSS.

Routes of infection

Infection can occur via the skin (e.g. cuts, surgery, burns), vagina (via tampon), or pharynx.
The number of reported toxic shock syndrome cases has decreased significantly in recent years. Approximately half the cases of TSS reported today are associated with tampon use during menstruation, usually in young women, though TSS also occurs in children, men, and non-menstruating women. In the US in 1997, only five confirmed menstrual-related TSS cases were reported, compared with 814 cases in 1980, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). [1]
Although scientists have recognized an association between TSS and tampon use, no firm causal link has been established. Research conducted by the CDC suggested that use of some high absorbency tampons increased the risk of TSS in menstruating women. A few specific tampon designs and high absorbency tampon materials were also found to have some association with increased risk of TSS. It has been estimated that each year 1 to 17 of every 100,000 menstruating females will get TSS. [2] These products and materials are no longer used in tampons sold in the U.S. (The materials include polyester, carboxymethylcellulose and polyacrylate).[3] Tampons made with rayon do not appear to have a higher risk of TSS than cotton tampons of similar absorbency.

Vaginal dryness and ulcerations may occur when women use tampons more absorbent than needed for the amount of their menstrual flow. Ulcerations have also been reported in women using tampons between menstrual periods to try to control excessive vaginal discharge or abnormal bleeding. Women may avoid problems by choosing a tampon with the minimum absorbency needed to control menstrual flow and using tampons only during active menstruation. Alternately, women may use a silicone or latex rubber menstrual cup to avoid the negative side-effects of tampons.

Rely tampons

In the late 1970s, Procter and Gamble introduced superabsorbent Rely tampons[4] , in response to women's demands for tampons which could contain an entire menstrual flow without leaking or replacement.[3] Rely used carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and compressed beads of polyester for absorption. This tampon design could absorb nearly 20 times its own weight in fluid[5] . Further, the tampon would "blossom" into a cup shape in the vagina in order to hold menstrual fluids.
The superabsorbent properties of Rely caused vaginal dryness by absorbing the natural humidity of the vagina. Often this led to ulcerations in the vaginal wall when the tampon was removed, offering pathways for bacteria to infect the bloodstream[5] . Further, the tampons' superabsorbency meant that the viscosity of vaginal fluids was enhanced, providing a good environment for bacteria growth[6] . In addition, CMC has features which effectively filter the toxins of Staphylococcus which cause TSS[5] . The recipe for disaster came about as a combination of S. aureus naturally benignly occurring in about 5–15% of women[7] , the insertion of the tampon adding oxygen to the normally anaerobic vaginal environment allowing for increased bacterial growth, and the tampon's super absorbency meant that women did not need to replace them as frequently and so left them in place longer.

According to the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, 942 women were diagnosed with tampon-related TSS in the USA from the March 1980 to March 1981, 40 of whom died.[6] In September 1980, Procter and Gamble recalled Rely[citation needed] after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report in mid 1980 explaining the bacterial mechanism which lead to TSS, and that Rely tampons was associated with TSS more than any other tampon. As part of the voluntary recall, Procter and Gamble entered into a consent agreement with the FDA "providing for a program for notification to consumers and retrieval of the product from the market".[8]

Symptoms and diagnosis

Symptoms of toxic shock syndrome vary depending on the underlying cause. In either case, diagnosis is based strictly upon CDC criteria modified in 1981 after the initial surge in tampon-associated infections.[1] TSS resultant of infection with the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus typically manifests in otherwise healthy individuals with high fever, accompanied by low blood pressure, malaise and confusion, which can rapidly progress to stupor, coma, and multi-organ failure. The characteristic rash, often seen early in the course of illness, resembles a sunburn, and can involve any region of the body, including the lips, mouth, eyes, palms and soles. In patients who survive the initial onslaught of the infection, the rash desquamates, or peels off, after 10–14 days.

In contrast, TSLS is caused by the bacteria Streptococcus pyogenes, and it typically presents in people with pre-existing skin infections with the bacteria. These individuals often experience severe pain at the site of the skin infection, followed by rapid progression of symptoms as described above for TSS. In contrast to TSS caused by Staphylococcus, Streptococcal TSS less often involves a sunburn-rash.

Diagnosis of TSS and TSLS are strictly based on CDC criteria; in general, the presence of high fevers, low blood pressure, confusion, and laboratory evidence of organ failure in the appropriate historical setting (e.g. menstruating woman using tampon, or young individual with pre-existing skin infection), are necessary to make the diagnosis.

Therapy

Women wearing a tampon at the onset of symptoms should remove it immediately. The severity of this disease results in hospitalisation for treatment. Antibiotic treatment consists of penicillin and clindamycin.
One of the symptoms of toxic shock syndrome is extreme infection of the skin and deeper parts is called fasciitis necroticans (a.k.a. necrotizing fasciitis). It should be attacked surgically without delay.

With proper treatment, patients usually recover in two to three weeks. The condition, however, can be fatal within hours. Some patients are admitted to the intensive care unit for supportive care in case of multiple organ failure.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Necrotizing fasciitis

2006-11-26T13:29:00.000+08:00

Necrotizing fasciitis or fasciitis necroticans, commonly known as "flesh-eating bacteria", is a rare infection of the deeper layers of skin and subcutaneous tissues (fascia). Many types of bacteria can cause necrotizing fasciitis (eg. Group A streptococcus, Vibrio vulnificus, Clostridium perfringens, Bacteroides fragilis), of which Group A streptococcus is the most common cause.

Symptoms

The infection often starts with pharyngitis (sore throat), but occasionally begins locally, at a site of trauma, which may be severe (such as the result of surgery), minor, or even non-apparent. The affected skin is classically, at first, very painful without any visible change. With progression of the disease, tissues become red, hot and swollen, often within hours. Skin color may progress to violet and blisters may form, with subsequent necrosis (death) of subcutaneous tissues. Patients with necrotizing fasciitis typically have a fever and appear very ill. More severe cases progress within hours, and the death rate is high, about 25%.

Pathophysiology

"Flesh-eating bacteria" is a misnomer, as the bacteria do not actually eat the tissue. They cause the destruction of skin and muscle by releasing toxins (virulence factors). Streptococcal pyogenic exotoxins and other virulence factors. S. pyogenes produces an exotoxin known as a superantigen, this toxin is capable of activating T-cells non-specifically. This causes the over-production of cytokines that over-stimulate macrophages. The macrophages cause the actual tissue damage by releasing oxygen radicals.

Treatment

The diagnosis is confirmed by either blood cultures or aspiration of pus from tissue. Early medical treatment is crucial. Treatment often includes intravenous penicillin, vancomycin and clindamycin. If necrotizing fasciitis is suspected, surgical exploration is always necessary, often resulting in aggressive debridement (removal of infected tissue). Amputation of the affected organ(s) may be necessary. Initial treatment consists of antibiotics. Surgical procedures include extensive debridement as soon as possible, secondary closure. The mortality of this disease has not been altered by antimicrobials. Only early recognition and surgical treatment will improve the prognosis.
[edit]Prognosis

This disease is one of the fastest-spreading infections known as it spreads easily across the fascial plane within the subcutaneous tissue. For this reason, it is popularly called the "flesh-eating disease" and although rare, it became well-known to the public in the 1990s. Even with top-notch care today, the prognosis can be bleak, with a mortality rate of around 25 percent and severe disfigurement common in survivors. Mortality is nearly 100 percent if not properly treated.
[edit]Other bacterial strains

In February 2004, a rarer but even more serious form of the disease has been observed in increasing frequency, with several cases found specifically in California. In these cases, the bacterium causing it was a strain of Staphylococcus aureus (i.e. Staphylococcus, not Streptococcus as stated above) which is resistant against methicillin, the antibiotic usually used for treatment. (See Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus for details.)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lobotomy

2006-11-26T13:23:00.000+08:00

A human brain that had undergone lobotomy.

A lobotomy (Greek: lobos: Lobe of brain, tomy: cutting) is a form of psychosurgery, also known as a leukotomy (from Greek leukos: clear or white). It consists of cutting the connections to and from, or simply destroying, the prefrontal cortex. These procedures often result in major personality changes. Lobotomies have been used in the past to treat a wide range of mental illnesses including schizophrenia, clinical depression, and various anxiety disorders.

History

In 1890, Dr. Gottlieb Burckhardt performed partial lobotomies on six schizophrenic patients of a psychiatric hospital in Switzerland. He drilled holes into their heads and extracted sections of their frontal lobes. One patient died after the operation, and another was found dead in a river 10 days after release (whether by accident, suicide, or crime is unknown), but the others exhibited altered behavior.
The first controlled human lobotomy was performed by the Portuguese physician and neurologist António Egas Moniz in 1936. His method involved drilling holes in patients' heads and destroying the tissue connecting the frontal lobes by injecting alcohol into them. Moniz won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1949 for this work. The procedure was brought to the United States by Drs. Walter Freeman and James W. Watts, who refined Moniz's procedures, and changed the name from leukotomy to lobotomy.

Freeman, without the support of Watts, later developed a version that reached frontal lobe tissue through the tear ducts. In his transorbital lobotomy, a mallet is used to force a surgical instrument akin to an ice pick through the thin layer of skull at the top of the eye socket. The pick is then wiggled to damage the frontal lobe. This technique could be performed in a doctor's office rather than in an operating room, and required only a few minutes to perform. Freeman advocated this procedure for patients with even fairly mild symptoms, and as a result, performed the operation on thousands of people.
Lobotomy had long been criticized by the medical profession, as many were repulsed at the idea of destroying healthy tissue. With the advent of Thorazine in the 1950s, the procedure began to seem barbaric, and rapidly declined.

In 1977, the U.S. Congress created a National Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research to investigate allegations that psychosurgery, including lobotomy techniques, was used to control minorities and restrain individual rights, and that it had unethical aftereffects. It concluded that, in general, psychosurgery had positive effects. However, concerns about leukotomy steadily grew, as numerous countries such as Germany and Japan, along with several U.S. states, prohibited it. Lobotomy was legally practiced in controlled and regulated U.S. centers and in Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Spain, India, Belgium and the Netherlands. The practice had generally ceased by the early 1970s, but some countries continued small-scale operations through the late 1980s. In France, 32 lobotomies were performed between 1980 and 1986 according to an IGAS report; about 15 each year in the UK, 70 in Belgium, and about 15 for the Massachusetts General Hospital of Boston.[1]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Prader-Willi Syndrome

2006-11-25T10:49:00.000+08:00

Characteristics

Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) was first described in 1956 by Swiss doctors, Prof. A Prader, Dr A Labhart and Dr H Willi, who recognised the condition as having unique and clearly definable features. These features are:-

Hypotonia: weak muscle tone, and floppiness at birth.
Hypogonadism: immature development of sexual organs and other sexual characteristics.
Obesity: caused by excessive appetite and overeating (hyperphagia), and a decreased calorific requirement owing to low energy expenditure levels. (Obesity is not normally a feature of those whose food intake is strictly controlled.)
Central nervous system and endocrine gland dysfunction: causing varying degrees of learning disability, short stature, hyperphagia, somnolence, and poor emotional and social development.
Many people with PWS also exhibit characteristic facial and other physical
features. These include: almond-shaped eyes, a narrow forehead (measured across), a down-turned mouth with a triangular-shaped upper lip, and small hands and feet.

People with PWS have poor large muscle strength, often coupled with poor coordination and balance. Muscle tone can be improved with appropriate therapy and exercise. Small muscle strength is usually better.

Most people with PWS have borderline or moderate learning difficulties. Some
people have recorded IQs of 90 or above, whilst a minority have severe learning difficulties. The average IQ is around 70 or slightly lower, although individuals may sometimes find it difficult to perform at their IQ level, as emotional and social skills are often less developed. Reading and writing skills are usually considerably better than number skills and abstract thinking. Individuals often excel at sedentary activities such as jigsaw puzzles, "wordsearches", sewing, drawing and colouring.

Cause
PWS is caused by an abnormality on chromosome 15 which occurs around the time of conception. The majority of cases (about 70%) are caused by a deletion on the chromosome 15 inherited from the father, whilst about 25% are caused by inheriting two chromosome 15s from the mother, instead of one from the mother and one from the father (maternal disomy). A small minority of people have a translocation or imprinting irregularity involving chromosome 15. The recurrence risk of PWS in a family is very small. No blame attaches to either parent - currently PWS is thought to be a purely accidental occurrence.
Click here for more information about genetics.

Atypical PWS
A few people have a PWS diagnosis, but do not have the typical physical features – in particular they may be much taller than usual, even without growth hormone.

Acquired PWS
PWS-like symptoms can be "acquired" by damage to the hypothalamus during a person’s life or from a dysfunction of the hypothalamus. This may be as a result of a head injury, or from a tumour, or from surgery following the removal of a tumour, or from a dysfunction from birth. In these cases, the person does not have any of the genetic abnormalities and few of the physical characteristics of PWS, but acquires some or all of the behavioural and appetite problems which are associated with the syndrome. Management techniques used with people with true PWS can also be helpful in acquired PWS.

Incidence and Prevalence
An epidemiological study carried out in one health region in the UK in 2000 estimated birth incidence to be in the region of 1:22,000, with a lower bound for population prevalence of 1:52,000. Previous estimates have estimated a birth incidence between 1:10,000 and 1:25,000. Much of the uncertainty with regard to the statistics for incidence and prevalence is due to the fact that PWS may still go undiagnosed in some people.

Stages of Development
Infancy
Babies with PWS are very floppy at birth, and the ability to suck is weak or absent. Tube-feeding may be required for the first few days or weeks of life; breast-feeding is rarely initially successful. Babies show little interest in feeding during the first few months of their lives, have a very weak cry, and sleep for most of the time during the early weeks. Male babies may have noticeably underdeveloped genital organs. Female babies may also have underdeveloped genitalia, but this is much harder to detect. Developmental milestones such as sitting, standing, walking and talking are generally delayed, but most children with PWS are able to attain all these abilities by the time they are about 5 years old. Infants with PWS are very lovable and placid, and seem to draw admiration wherever they go.

Childhood
Some time between the ages of one and four years, children with PWS begin to show a heightened interest in food and in severe cases develop what appears to be an insatiable appetite, so that they will try to obtain food by any means possible. The degree to which this occurs varies considerably between individuals, but there is always a preoccupation with food in play and talk. This can be helped by good management, dietary control and educating the child about his or her diet. However, if energy intake has not been carefully monitored, weight gain is rapid; hence, a lower calorie diet (energy controlled regime) is essential throughout the person's life. An appropriate exercise programme helps to keep weight levels down and also improves muscle strength. If weight is not controlled, fat accumulates in a characteristic way on the buttocks, stomach, lower trunk and thighs. Children with PWS are generally placid and friendly, but may begin to exhibit stubborn or obsessive behaviour, and outbursts of temper if they cannot get their own way or are denied access to food.

Adolescence
People with PWS do not usually reach full sexual development, and there have been only three cases worldwide of a woman with PWS having a child. However there may be cases of which doctors are unaware. People with PWS are individual in their growth pattern, and there is no set way in which they all develop. A minority start to develop sexually at a young age, but in the majority, puberty is delayed until the late teens. Men have a small penis, and undescended testes are common. Pubic and facial hair may be scanty, and voice change may not occur. In women, breast development is often small, and menstruation, if it occurs, may be irregular and/or scanty. Teenagers with PWS do not experience the growth spurt which usually occurs in the early teens and hence tend to be a few inches shorter than average: men average about 5'2" (155cm) and women average about 4'10" (145cm). Growth hormone treatment may be given to help with growth and muscle tone, and sex hormomes (both male and female) to help with sexual development, but this will depend to some extent on the individual's existing hormone levels. Behavioural and eating problems may become more challenging during the teens and early twenties.

Life as an adult
As adults, people with PWS have varying abilities in attaining independence, although all will need some form of support or monitoring to help with controlling their food intake, and thus their weight. Despite the fact that many individuals have the intellectual and physical ability to work, they are usually ill-equipped on an emotional and social level to deal with the stresses and demands of the ordinary workplace. However, they can make a positive contribution to society in many ways and may be involved in voluntary work, craft work, or have a part-time job. Many people live with their families, but an increasing number are living in residential homes, or being supported to live in the community. In the past, life expectancy was short because of health problems associated with massive obesity, but nowadays life expectancy is increasing because of better dietary management and better understanding of the problems associated with PWS. The oldest known person with PWS in the UK is a woman aged 72. Whilst cancers and strokes are not so common in older people with PWS, mental health problems may increase with age.

The Treatment of PWS
Apart from various hormone treatments and some surgical intervention (eg, to bring down undescended testes), there is no "cure" for PWS. There have been many advances in the fields of genetics, but it will be several years before the genes which are involved in PWS are fully identified. No drug so far has proved to be of lasting help with regard to suppressing appetite. Severe challenging behaviour and some mental health problems have responded relatively successfully to drug treatment, but dosages need to be carefully monitored. Generally speaking however, many of the adverse effects of the syndrome can be lessened by good dietary management, exercise programmes, good general health care, and by good general management of behaviour and education. The help of a dietitian, paediatrician, physiotherapist, educational psychologist, and (if necessary) speech therapist should be sought as soon as a diagnosis is made.

Extracted from the website of the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association (UK)

Bigorexia

2006-11-22T12:21:00.000+08:00

Being preoccupied with muscle development may involve a disturbance in body image similar to anorexia. Bigorexia (muscular dysmorphia) is now affecting hundreds of thousands of men. For some men muscle development is such a complete preoccupation that they will miss important events, continue training through pain or broken bones, even lose their job rather than interrupt their physical development schedule. Curiously, these same men are not in love with their bodies. Despite a well developed physique they are unlikely to show it off and will shy away from situations that expose their bodies.

Muscle Dysmorphia
The term 'muscle dysmorphia' was coined in 1997 to describe this new form of disorder. Other people refer to the condition as 'reverse anorexia', and now more commonly 'bigorexia'.

The causes are not known but two key ideas revolve around bigorexia as a form of obsessive compulsive behavior and secondly, the effect of the media putting the same type of pressure on men to conform to an ideal shape as has been the case with women for years.

The Main Characteristic of Bigorexia
The main characteristic of bigorexia is the thought that no matter how hard you try your body is never muscular enough. The condition is recognized as more common with men although some women body builders have also been reported with similar symptoms. Most men with bigorexia are weight lifters, but this does not mean that most weight lifters are bigorexic. Compared to normal weightlifters who report spending up to 40 minutes a day thinking about body development, men with bigorexia report being preoccupied 5 or more hours a day thinking their bodies are under-developed.

With the increase in gymnasium provision and attendance there is some speculation that this alone accounts for increased awareness of physical imperfection in men and a quest to attain the perfect body. Conservative estimates put bigorexia as affecting hundreds of thousands of men.

Typical Features of Bigorexia

Bigorexia and Mirror Checking.
Bigorexic men check themselves up to 12 times a day. This compares to roughly 3 times a day with other weight lifters. social & work events: important social events like birthdays, meeting friends, keeping appointments etc are overlooked because they interrupt the training schedule. Working hours may be seen as too long and some men have lost their jobs because they spend too long training during break periods.

Diet and Bigorexia
Very strict diets are important. Bigorexics will rarely eat at another person's house or at a restaurant because they are unable to control the dietary balance or know exactly what has gone into food preparation. It has been known for men to develop eating disorders such as bulimia.

Bigorexia and Measuring Up
Bigorexic men constantly compare their own physique with that of other men.

Invariably their perceptions are incorrect. Even when observing men of equal physique they will judge themselves as smaller.

Bigorexia and Drugs
The use of anabolic steroids is common amongst bigorexics. Men continue using steroids despite experiencing side effects such as increased aggression, acne, breast enlargement, impotence, baldness, impotence and testicular shrinkage.

Bigorexia and Body Fat
Men with bigorexia typically worry about the percentage of body fat they carry rather than being overweight.

Psychological Factors and Bigorexia
Unlike many body builders who enjoy the opportunity to show their physique in public bigorexics do not. Many will hide away for days at a time because of embarrassment about their body shape. Research undertaken by Pope and others in 2000 found that one man avoided sex with his wife in case it used up energy he could apply to body building.

Typically, men with bigorexia have a low self esteem. Many report having been teased at school about their physique leading to a focus on 'making good'. However, the attempt to catch up is never achieved and results in a poor sense of self and feelings of emptiness. Studies by Olivardia and others in 2000 also found that 29 per cent of men with bigorexia had a history of anxiety disorder and 59 per cent exhibited some other form of mood disorder.

Treatment Options for Bigorexia
At the time of writing no systematic studies have been produced to compare the effectiveness of one treatment over another, either individually or in combination. A particular problem with the condition is that, rather like anorexics, men rarely see themselves as having a problem and are unlikely to come forward for treatment. The condition itself occurs partly as a response to feelings of depression and lack of self-esteem so coming forward for treatment is admitting defeat.

Where men have come forward a combination of educational and psychotherapeutic techniques have begun to show promising results. Cognitive-behavioral techniques place an emphasis on identifying and changing patterns of thinking towards more realistic and achievable goals. Future treatment packages may well be informed by such approaches but more systematic studies are now required.

http://menshealth.about.com/cs/menonly/a/bigorexia.htm

The Temporomandibular System

2006-11-16T23:32:00.000+08:00

Temporomandibular disorder or TMD is a broad term referring to problems with the jaws and their functioning. It is commonly referred to as "TMJ".This system is very complex and problems are caused by a variety of factors. This web page will attempt to give you a general overview of TMD so you can better understand the problems you may have been having.

The Temporomandibular System

The temporomandibular system consists of three basic components; the temporomandibular joint or TMJ, the teeth, and the neuromuscular system.

TMJ- This is the term often used to describe TMD, but it specifically refers to the joints that work your lower jaw, or mandible. These two joints are found just in front of the ears. Their close proximity to the ear is why some patients experience ear symptoms and can often hear the joint pop or crack. These two joints never act alone, that is, when your jaw functions, both joints will be working. There is a small cartilage disc between your lower jaw and skull in the joint. Some TMD problems are caused by dysfunction of this disk. When healthy it acts as a sort of "shock absorber" for the joint.

Teeth- The teeth are like the third leg of a tripod, the TMJs being the other two legs. The alignment of your bite and the functioning of the TMJs are intimately connected. Problems in any of the three areas may effect the other two.

Neuromuscular- This system is the nerves and muscles which work the temporomandibular system. It is important to realize that only the lower jaw, or mandible, moves during jaw function. The upper jaw, or maxilla, does not move; it is firmly attached to the skull. Therefore, the nerves and muscles are involved in moving the lower jaw only. The nerves transmit the messages for the muscles to move the jaw. They also transmit pain signals to the brain causing you to feel discomfort. The muscles are fairly large and are found from the side of your head down to your neck. Other related muscles that do not specifically work the jaw, but are sometimes symptomatic are found in the neck, face, and upper back.

What Defines TMD

Symptoms and signs of TMD can include some or all of the following....

Jaw pain and/or stiffness
Headaches, usually at the temples and side of head
Vague tooth soreness or toothaches which often move around the mouth
Sensitive teeth
Painful or tender jaw joint
Difficulty opening jaw
Pain and fatigue when eating hard or chewy foods
Clicks, pops, or grinding sound in jaw joint
Ear pain
Cervical neck tension and pain
Tooth wear
Awareness of grinding/clenching teeth while sleeping or awake (Bruxism)
A pattern of breaking or cracking teeth with no other cause, i.e. tooth decay or trauma

History of medically diagnosed migraine headaches (common incidence of concurrent TMD)

Temporomandibular disorders come in many forms and varying degrees of severity. Basically TMD is a problem when you either experience pain and/or a loss of jaw function. The pain can range from a mild ache in the morning to a chronic debilitating pain. Loss of function can be mild jaw stiffness to being unable to open the jaw barely at all.

The symptoms of TMD can be an obvious jaw pain in the muscles near the mouth, but can also often exhibit as headache at the temples ("temporal headache"). This is due to inflammation in the large jaw closing temporalis muscle which is on either side of your head. To find this muscle place your hands on your temples and clench your teeth hard and you will feel this powerful muscle contract. Patients often feel this symptom is a tension headache or sinus headache but it can be easily differentiated during a TMD exam. Patients understandably (and many doctors) fail to make this connection between TMD and headaches.

The pain of TMD can come from either the muscles or the TM joint itself; often it comes from a combination of the two. The muscles can ache due to causes discussed below. Pain in the joint is usually due to inflammation within the structure itself. Sometimes the symptoms are found in other facial structures; such as dull ear pain, toothache, neck pain, etc. This referred pain is fairly common but it is important to rule out a medical and dental causes of these pains prior to TMD treatment.

Loss of jaw function can be due to muscular and/or joint problems as well, just as pain can. The degree to which each is involved is determined through thorough history and exam.

Causes of TMD

Temporomandibular disorders rarely have a single cause. Any one of the following factors may contribute to TMD. Each patient presents with an individual combination of factors that are determined during history taking and clinical exam.

Trauma - Acute trauma to the jaws such as a car accident, a fall, a punch, etc. can cause damage to the muscles and/or joint. The acute pain and loss of function is usually responsive to conservative treatment. Sometimes trauma to the joint can cause chronic damage which may eventually contribute to a TMD problem at a later time.

Bruxism - Bruxism refers to a non functional grinding and clenching of the teeth. Some do this while awake but more often it is done while sleeping. Most people grind their teeth while sleeping to some degree. For whatever reason some people do this very hard to the point where they wear the enamel from their teeth. This bruxing is done by the jaw muscles and by the morning they can be painful due to fatigue. This constant pressure also can damage the TMJs over time. Bruxism is the most common factor found in TMD.

Malocclusion - This term means "bad bite". Sometimes when the teeth do not bite together in harmony with the shape and position of the joints it can place pressure on the joints. Missing teeth can sometimes contribute to this as well. The misalignment can also put strain on the jaw muscles. This factor can be mild to severe. Though the bite is an important part of the whole system it is only altered after conservative measures and only if it is felt improvement will result. Treatment of the bite for TMD is usually not needed but its contribution to the whole must be examined.

Emotion - Emotional stress often plays an integral role in the development of TMD. This occurs due to two basic reasons. Stress increases both the severity and duration of bruxism while asleep. Also, many will subconsciously clench and/or grind their teeth more while awake during times of stress. The other way stress contributes to TMD is that during times of stress your adaptability and pain threshold will go down. As a result you are more likely to experience symptoms of TMD if other factors already exist (bruxing, joint damage, etc.).

Emotional conditions beyond daily life stress can contribute to TMD as well. Depression, anxiety disorders, and the like can often have TMD problems arise. These conditions are quite stressful and it is not hard to imagine why TMD would develop.

Ergonomic - Your job and how you do it can contribute to TMD and related problems. If you work at a computer all day, for example, you may be holding your head in such a way that places strain on your TM system.

TMD Treatment

Treatment plans for TMD are as varied as the patients that present with it. Each patient must be treated differently depending on the uniqueness of their problems and the contributing factors.

It is very important to realize that the goal of TMD treatment is to minimize pain and establish a return to function. TMD conditions are not "cured" but are managed instead. The basic goal is to allow the muscles and joints to heal through rest and care. Often damage to the joint itself can not be reversed, but the body can often heal it enough to return to function without pain. We also want to teach you to recognize the symptoms early and manage them yourself once we give you the tools to do so. This condition can often recur later on but early care can minimize the severity.

The basic philosophy of treatment is to do the conservative and reversible treatments first. Irreversible treatments , such as surgery or orthodontics, are only considered if conservative steps have failed to bring lasting relief. These more radical treatments are rarely used. Most patients respond well to simpler care.

The following treatment modalities may be used in each case..

Occlusal Splint - Also called a night guard, or the new FDA approved NTI Device, are is designed to protect the teeth from further wear. These also will reduce the severity of grinding at night and allow the muscles to rest. In more severe cases it needs to be worn all day as well to allow the TMJs and muscles to rest.

The NTI Device is much easier to wear than traditional night guards and is fit to your teeth in only one appointment. It attaches to your front two teeth only and does not allow the posterior teeth to touch at all. This alignment suppresses clenching over ninety per cent, giving the jaw muscles a break. Also, since the teeth are out of contact no wear occurs. The NTI has also received FDA clearance as an adjunct for the treatment of medically diagnosed migraine pain (click here for press release)

FYInfo from the NTI website.

NTI-tss: Using the body's natural reflex protection
The NTI-tss system takes advantage of the naturally protective nociceptive trigeminal inhibition reflex which prevents the powerful temporalis muscles from contracting with full intensity. It is the protective reflex experienced when biting down, expecting something soft, but encountering something hard. In addition to preventing occluding of the canine and molar teeth (which is required to generated significant muscle contraction intensity and joint strain) this jaw-opening reflex - triggered by the NTI-tss device - protects incisors, posterior molars, surrounding tissues and the TM joints. Helps prevent associated headaches, stiff, sore joints and muscles, and tooth sensitivity.

Jaw Rest - You must rest your jaw for it to heal. The occlusal splint will help somewhat but other steps should be taken. You should not chew gum at all, bite your nails, clench your teeth together while awake, or any other non functional jaw habits (pencil chewing, etc.). Your diet should be fairly soft, avoid chewy and crunchy foods during treatment.

Medication - Pain medication can be prescribed. Often over the counter analgesics such as ibuprofen are enough. Sometimes we will prescribe medicine similar to Ibuprofen but a bit stronger. These medications not only relieve pain but reduce inflammation as well to aid in the healing process. Occasionally a mild muscle relaxant may be prescribed. Narcotic medications are not very helpful in treating TMD and are rarely prescribed.

Moist Heat - Moist heat is very helpful for the sore muscles of TMD. The penetrating moist heat promotes blood flow into the muscle which aids in healing and relaxation of the muscle as well. This increased blood flow also helps analgesic/ anti inflammatory medications into the muscles. A wet washcloth with a hot water bottle will do, or you can purchase moist heating pads if you wish.

Exercises - Some simple jaw and neck exercises which will help the muscles stretch. A good time to do some of these is in the warm, moist environment of the shower or bath, particularly in the morning and/or before bedtime.

Physical Therapy - Physical therapy can help relax the muscles, increase joint flexibility, and the like. We can do some simple stretching therapy in the office if needed. If you need more involved therapy you will be referred to a physical therapist.

Stress Management - Emotion and stress plays an important role in TMD. TMD may be a sign that the patient is under stress that they are not quite aware of. Anything that helps you relieve stress is helpful, such as reading, exercising, listening to music, and the like. If the stress is getting to be a bit much, counseling is often helpful to learn stress management. Counseling is also recommended if you feel you need help with any emotional problem. It is almost impossible to get relief from TMD if the underlying emotional issues are not addressed.

Referral - Specialists may be needed to optimally treat your case. Opinions and/or treatment may be sought from physicians, oral surgeons, orthodontists, psychotherapists, physical therapists, or prosthodontists. Very severe cases may be referred from the start to a pain center or a dentist whose main focus is the treatment of temporomandibular disorders.

Colic

2006-11-16T23:22:00.000+08:00

Infant colic (also known as baby colic and three month colic) is a condition in which an otherwise healthy baby cries or screams frequently and for extended periods, without any discernible reason.

The condition typically appears within the first few months of life and almost invariably disappears, often very suddenly, before the baby is eight months old. It is more common in bottle-fed babies, but also occurs in breast-fed infants. The crying frequently occurs during a specific period of the day, often in the early evening.
Since the cause is not conclusively established (see below) and the amount of crying differs between babies, there is no general consensus on the definition of "colic". Having ruled out other causes of crying, a common rule of thumb is to consider a baby "colicky" if it cries intensely more than three days a week, for more than three hours, for more than three weeks in a month.

There is no commonly accepted explanation for colic.
Traditionally, colic was ascribed to abdominal pain resulting from trapped gas in the digestive tract. This theory is not yet discredited, and some recent scientific evidence seems to support it, yet it is no longer universally accepted as the general cause.

Some doctors claim that it is a combination of a baby's sensitive temperament, the environment and his immature nervous system, which make him cry easily and then not being able to control it, while others believe that it originates in problems in the baby's digestive system, specifically because of the build up of gas which can not be released. New studies at the Colic Clinic at Brown University demonstrate that nearly half of babies with colic have mild gastroesophageal reflux. It is also possible that some cases may be the result of lactose intolerance.[1]
Recent research raises a number of hypotheses including a link to the onset of melatonin production by the pineal gland which does not begin until 12 weeks of age (about the time colic seems to disappear)[2], the effect of circadian rhythms [3] or smoking and increased stress levels of the prenatal mother in the third trimester[4].

Treatment

There is currently no generally-accepted medical treatment for colic, and the approach taken by medical professionals varies substantially from country to country and indeed from doctor to doctor. Many believe that the condition is currently untreatable, and is best left to run its course. Other doctors prescribe simethicone, which treats trapped gas; some parents report that this is effective, but for many others it is not.
One study showed a moderate success when infants with colic were treated with dicyclomine, an anti-spasmotic drug commonly found in some anti-diarrhœal medications.[5] However, further studies are warranted before its use can be approved.

Colic can be caused by allergies in the mother and/or baby. If feeding the baby from the breast, the mother's diet can be restricted: some mothers omit dairy, egg, soya and processed food (including spices and caffeine) from their diet, drink only water and increase their intake of other foods and supplements during the time they are breastfeeding for missing nutrients such as calcium. This will not necessarily “cure” colic, which seems to cure itself after a period of time, but it can certainly make the symptoms lessen: it can reduce the number of hours of crying and discomfort.

There is general agreement that soothing measures, such as pacifiers and rocking, are often effective in calming the baby during crying periods. Some parents resort to a timetable of taking turns to hold the baby upright (which seems to lessen the pain and crying) in shifts to enable the other parent to catch up on sleep. Babies with lactose intolerance or reflux cry more and longer when left to lie on their backs but parents are not suggested to put the baby to sleep on their front as it increases the likelihood of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Various tactics, such as changes in diet or routine, an increase in fresh air or certain herbal teas, are popularly believed to cure colic. While some of these may help in certain cases, none of them is known to be universally effective. The widespread belief in them is thought to result at least partly from the suddenness with which colic naturally resolves itself: many parents keep trying different approaches until the colic suddenly stops, at which point they presume the last thing they tried to be the cure.

Effect on the Family

Colic can place an enormous strain on parents and other family members. The feeling that they are not providing something their child desperately wants or needs can induce stress, depression, feelings of helplessness and low self-esteem. If crying is prevalent during nighttime hours then these problems can be aggravated by the resulting sleep deprivation or interruption to sleep patterns; exhaustion may also result. Where people live in dense housing such as apartment blocks, persistent crying can also strain relationships with neighbours and landlords.

The stress on parents is often compounded by well-meaning but misguided people who believe that the parents must be doing something wrong. This attitude is quite common among the childless, and also occurs in people who have raised colic-free children themselves. Even those who have had children who suffered from colic, and who found a "cure" (see above), can be reluctant to believe their own suggested approach does not work for somebody else.
In some areas, support groups have been set up for parents of children with colic.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Regina Spektor - Samson (Promo Video)

2006-10-21T22:17:00.000+08:00

Regina Spektor - Samson

You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first, I loved you first
Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth
I have to go, I have to go
Your hair was long when we first met

Samson went back to bed
Not much hair left on his head
He ate a slice of wonder bread and went right back to bed
And history books forgot about us and the bible didn't mention us
The bible didn't mention us, not even once

You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first , I loved you first
Beneath the stars came falling on our heads
But there just soft light, there just soft light
Your hair was long when we first met

Samson came to my bed
Told me that my hair was red
He told me i was beautiful and came into my bed
Oh I cut his hair myself one night
A pair of dull scissors and the yellow light
And he told me that I'd done alright
and kissed me till the morning light, the morning light
and he kissed me till the morning light

Samson came back to bed
not much hair left on his head
Ate a slice of wonderbread and went right back to bed
Oh, we couldn't bring the columns down
Yeah we couldn't destroy a single one
And history books forgot about us
And the bible didn't mention us, not even once

You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first

Emetophilia

2006-10-21T22:09:00.000+08:00

Emetophilia is a sexual fetish in which an individual is aroused by vomiting or observing others vomit. When emetophiles put emetophilia into practice by actually vomiting, especially on a partner, it is called a Roman shower, after the supposed frequent induction of vomiting at Roman feasts.

For emetophiles, the sequence of "spasm, ejaculation, relief" in vomiting is erotically charged.

An online site theorizes, "vomiting was probably something either arousing or frightening to emetophiles at some point ... it aroused powerful emotions, and the emetophier called upon these emotions for the purpose of sexual gratification." (Frequently Asked Questions about Vomiting)

Emetophilia may be related to emetophobia, the fear of vomiting. Many emetophiles, ironically, continue to fear vomiting themselves despite the amount of time they spend fantasizing about other people vomiting.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject.
Please help recruit one, or improve this page yourself if you can. See discussion page for details.

External Information : http://vomitonline.com/indepth.html

Diaper lover

2006-10-21T22:06:00.000+08:00

"Diaper lover" (or DL for short) is the popular term for a person who feels a strong desire to wear or use diapers without physiological necessity. This paraphilia is differentiated from infantilism in that those of the latter category are also focused with returning to babyhood in ways other than by wearing diapers. These desires are in no way related to pedophilia or infantophilia.

In many cases, the desire for these acts is of a sexual nature, in which case it is classed as a sexual fetish; but in other cases it is non-sexual, where the wearer derives a sense of comfort and safety from wearing diapers, and may not even use them.

It is also very possible that someone with this fetish may or may not want to go to a full intent of use of the diapers. Some might simply want to look at images of other people taking part in the fetish, or drawings made by artists depicting this fetish.
It can be common for a diaper lover to feel ashamed and isolated in their desires and most try to hide this desire from others.

Until the rise of online services and the Internet, few persons interested in the subject had contact with any others. The CompuServe Adult Human Sexuality Forum established an "Adult Babies" section in 1987, which may have been the first online community based on sharing interests similar to this. Today, there are many websites dedicated to various facets of the fetish.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Extra Information http://understanding.infantilism.org/

Dacryphilia

2006-10-21T22:02:00.000+08:00

Dacryphilia (also known as dacrylagnia) is a form of paraphilia where pleasure is derived from tears and/or emotional situations. It is most often associated with sexual arousal, though the term covers all forms of pleasure from the tears of others. The arousal is achieved when viewing a person in emotional distress. It carries the theme where a person (often a dominant in a BDSM relationship) induces another (the submissive) to cry, or otherwise show a strong emotion.

Brenda Love[1] writes that a particular person afflicted with this disorder got pleasure in seeing a young Asian prostitute cry as he thrust his penis in her small vagina.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Crush fetish

2006-10-21T22:00:00.000+08:00

A crush fetish is a paraphilia which primarily consists of the desire to see others crush inanimate objects or small creatures.
Typically, those crushing will use their buttocks or feet making this fetish popular amongst many foot fetishists, as crushing by feet is usually the main focus. The foot (barefoot or in shoes) is thus often idolised by someone with a crush fetish.

Crush erotica

Made up of audio tapes, films, magazines, photographs, and stories (both fiction and non-fiction), crush erotica or pornography is usually purchased for the stimulation of sexual pleasure by those with the fetish. A crush film usually consists of footage of inanimate objects, such as food or toys, or small creatures, such as insects and mammals (especially rodents), being crushed.[1][2]. Jeff Vilencia is a crush film director known for Smush!.[3]

The legality of crush erotica and the actual practice of crushing varies by region. There are currently no known laws forbidding the crushing of objects and insects, however the production or trade of crush erotica involving live animals is condemned by animal rights activists and is illegal in many countries including the United States and Great Britain.[4]

Although the existence of online stores containing content of animal death and torture by crushing are extremely rare, instances of underground free and for-profit trade do exist and can be difficult to control. In early March 2006 a wave of outrage was generated among the global internet community and some crush fetishists condemning a series of crush films produced in Hangzhou, China.[5] The graphic footage depicted a Chinese woman killing, among many victims, kittens, puppies and rabbits by crushing them while wearing high heels.[6]

As witnessed on online message boards and chat rooms in the crush community, crush fetishists usually take a firm stance for or against what they define as hard crush (crush erotica containing the death and torture of animals).[7] Either due to legal or self-imposed moral boundaries, most crush fetishists decry hard crush videos and many message boards outlaw the discussion or exchange of media containing such content.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coprophilia

2006-10-21T21:53:00.000+08:00

Coprophilia (from Greek κόπρος, kópros - excrement and φιλία, filía - liking, fondness) also known as fecophilia, fecalphilia or coprolagnia, is the paraphilia involving sexual pleasure through human feces, or rather to its excretion.

Coprophilia is the attraction to the smell, taste, texture or sight of the act of defecation as a primary means of sexual arousal and gratification. Erotic fulfilment with excrement may be practiced alone or with a sexual partner. A common slang term for this is scat sex. Except in the case of consuming feces, generally scat play is safe when played alone and safe with a partner if one uses protection so as not to come in direct contact with a partner's excrement. Women must be particularly cautious, as fecal bacteria is a prime cause of UTIs and vaginal infections.

Some coprophiliacs engage in coprophagia, the eating of feces. This is a potentially hazardous activity due to the risks of bacterial infection. Consuming one's own feces could have potentially harmful consequences, as the bowel bacteria are not necessarily safe to ingest, though it is not as risky as eating a partner's feces. These risks include viral hepatitis and parasitic intestinal infections such as giardiasis, cryptosporidiosis, shigellosis, amebiasis and campylobacter. Those with weakened immune systems should certainly abstain from mucous membrane contact with stool.

Alternative terms include scat fetishism, japscat and scat play, which share a root with the scientific and literary term scatology. The German colloquial term for scat fetishism is Kaviar.

A well-known literary work with larger coprophilia passages is 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade. Such acts also play a minor role in Thomas Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow (pages 235-236 in the 1987 Penguin edition of the novel).

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chronophilia

2006-10-21T21:50:00.000+08:00

Chronophilia is a rarely-used term which refers to a group of paraphilias of the type in which the paraphile's sexuoerotic age is discordant with his or her actual chronological age and is concordant with the age of the partner. It was coined by John Money.

This is not directly related to infantophilia, pedophilia, ephebophilia, gerontophilia, or teleiophilia, in that they are merely paraphilias that favour members of a different age, without their sexuoerotic age being different.

Teleiophilia is a rarely-used term coined by Kurt Freund, meaning a minor's or adult's sexual attraction to adults. As this is the norm in most societies, it is not usually considered a paraphilia. [1]

Gerontophilia refers to sexual attraction to the elderly among the non-elderly.[2]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Somebody - DM 101

2006-10-18T16:22:00.000+08:00

Depeche Mode › Somebody

I want somebody to share
Share the rest of my life
Share my innermost thoughts
Know my intimate details
Someone wholl stand by my side
And give me support
And in return
Shell get my support
She will listen to me
When I want to speak
About the world we live in
And life in general
Though my views may be wrong
They may even be perverted
Shell hear me out
And wont easily be converted
To my way of thinking
In fact shell often disagree
But at the end of it all
She will understand me
Aaaahhhhh....

I want somebody who cares
For me passionately
With every thought and
With every breath
Someone wholl help me see things
In a different light
All the things I detest
I will almost like
I dont want to be tied
To anyones strings
Im carefully trying to steer clear of
Those things
But when Im asleep
I want somebody
Who will put their arms around me
And kiss me tenderly
Though things like this
Make me sick
In a case like this
Ill get away with it
Aaaahhhhh....

Breast fetishism

2006-10-14T15:33:00.000+08:00

Breast fetishism is a pronounced fetishistic sexual interest in the female breasts, their shape, movement, and especially their size. Breast fetishism is the most common sexual fetish [1] among men in American, European and Japanese culture. Like any other sexual fetishes or paraphilias, this preference might become psychologically problematic when it develops into a strong fixation and becomes the only means of sexual arousal.

Breast size

Adult humans show more interest in the developed breast than any other animal species. In fact, human females are unique among mammals in developing breasts independently from pregnancy, suggesting that breast development was of some other evolutionary significance to human development. (see Desmond Morris).

In many cultures, breast fetishism often centers on the size of the woman's breasts. In large portions of the world[citation needed], breasts are often perceived as symbols of sexuality and attractiveness to men and the size of the breasts can be particularly important in relation to the impact on the man, depending on culture. In popular Western media, the breast size of featured women (whose role in that instance is in part as an object of sexual desire) is rarely below an apparent C-cup (UK sizing) [citation needed]. This has fuelled the market for breast enlargement surgery for women who feel their breasts are not big enough. Many porn stars have capitalized on the obsession many men seem to pay towards large breasts by having their breasts enlarged to implausible (i.e. biologically very unlikely) sizes. With large breast fetishism being common in the United States and Japan, this fixation has increased cultural acceptance of female breast implants. Anthropologists and sociologists have often tried to explain the obsession with breast size in terms of natural selection and biology but no widely accepted explanation for many men's attraction to big breasts has developed. Some gay men and straight women also idolize breasts to the extent that they consider themselves breast fetishists.[2] Some individuals have a fetishistic preference for large "natural" breasts without breast implants. Natural breasts are required to become a Page Three girl in the UK tabloid The Sun. Another magazine featuring the "natural" look is Perfect 10.

Breast characteristics other than size

Not all breast fetishism concerns size. Some fetishists prefer puffy areolae or unusually long or thick nipples. The "puffy" fetish, in particular, can be somewhat controversial because this characteristic is most commonly associated with pubescent girls, though a significant number of adult women also have puffy areolae. There are also fetishes concerned with erotic lactation. While most men seem to prefer firm breasts, there exist those who prefer saggy breasts.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Boobiesexuals!
http://www.villagevoice.com/people/0613,bussel,72655,24.html

Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID)

2006-10-14T15:28:00.000+08:00

Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID), also known as Amputee Identity Disorder or Apotemnophilia (from Greek αποτέμνειν "to cut off", and φιλία "love of") is the overwhelming desire to amputate one or more healthy limbs or other parts of the body. Sometimes its sufferers take it upon themselves to amputate their own limbs and/or penis. Although it most commonly refers to people who wish to amputate limbs, the term BIID, or 'wannabe' also applies to those who wish to alter their bodily integrity.

The more recent names have generally replaced the name "apotemnophilia" because the identification of this disorder simply as a paraphilia is now increasingly believed to be incorrect.

A person with BIID typically wants one or more of his or her limbs cut off. The condition should not be mistaken for a person with acrotomophilia, who is sexually attracted to other persons who are already missing limbs. In the BIID community, these people are referred to as 'devotees'. However, there does seem to be some relationship between the two disorders, with some individuals exhibiting both conditions.

Today, very few surgeons will treat BIID patients by giving them what they want. Some act out their desires, pretending they are amputees using prostheses and other tools to ease their desire to be one. There are hence several recorded cases of sufferers resorting to self-amputation of a "superfluous" limb, for example by allowing a train to run over it, or by damaging the limb so badly that surgeons will have to amputate it. Often the obsession is with one specific limb, with patients "not feeling complete while they still have a left leg", for example. However, BIID does not simply involve amputation. It involves any wish to significantly alter body integrity. Some people suffer from the desire to become paralyzed, blind, deaf, use orthopaedic appliances such as leg-braces, etc. Some people spend time pretending they are an amputee by using crutches and wheelchairs at home or in public, in the BIID community, this is called the 'pretender'. The condition is usually treated, unsuccessfully, as a psychiatric disorder.

Persons suffering from BIID can be as young as four or five years old when they first discover their condition, for example by feeling jealous of an amputee. Some BIID patients compare the evaluation of BIID as a psychiatric illness to the historical classification of homosexuality as a mental illness. Like transgender people, someone suffering from BIID feels that he or she is "meant" to live with an altered body. They consider this to be an unconscious genetic decision, much like sexual orientation. The same argument -- no one would choose to have something this difficult -- is applied. Some BIID-rights advocates suggest that as little as 30 years ago, being transgender, gay, bisexual or anything relating to that was considered just as "wrong" as BIID is today, and that this should change in the future.

More research needs to be done about BIID and apotemnophilia - only a few studies have been done on the subject; but as research gains ground, more and more hospitals recognize the condition.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://www.biid.org/
http://www.amputee-online.com/amputee/wannabee.html
http://www.geocities.com/legcaliper/

Blood fetish

2006-10-14T15:25:00.000+08:00

A blood fetish (also known as vampire fetish, hematolagnia and haematophilia) is a sexual fetish for blood. Blood fetishists are most often aroused by blood on nude or semi-nude individuals (or indeed their sexual partner). Other blood fetishists are aroused simply by the sight of blood. witnessing accidental or intentional cuts or blood donating are good examples.

Only extreme cases are turned on while viewing an extremely gruesome scene. blood fetishism is often accompanied by some licking or drinking blood through bloodletting. This is sometimes done by biting (referred to as "love-bites" though they are technically not) however this is not the norm due to the potential for damage from bruising or infection. Most often a razor blade is used. As well as being a sexual fetish, it is often considered an expression of intimacy or bonding.

There is a substantial community centered around the fetish, however it is mostly "underground" due to its controversial nature. It is partly linked with the vampire subculture, however most blood fetishists do not consider themselves "vampires", though some may have a vampire fetish - blood fetishism has a history of being referred to as "vampirism" in psychiatric literature and articles.

Bloodsports or bloodplay are general terms used for any sexual or BDSM play involving blood. It is considered edgeplay due to its nature of being able to easily spread blood borne diseases. It is also possible, although rare, for the uncareful to cut the person too deeply and cause them to bleed excessively.

There is also menstrual fetish, which focuses on menstruating women, either having their periods without blocking the flow of blood, or even focusing on used tampons. Some enjoy performing cunnilingus on their menstruating partners. The same can be said for the female; the genital area is often more arousable during menstration and orgasms can be more intense.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://www.bloodfetish.com/

Biastophilia

2006-10-14T15:23:00.000+08:00

Biastophilia (from Greek biastes, "rape" + -philia) is a paraphilia in which sexual arousal is dependent on, or is responsive to, the act of sexually assaulting an unconsenting person, especially a stranger. Biastophilia is a common trait in serial killers. It is sometimes confused with raptophilia, that is, the paraphilia in which sexual arousal is responsive to being raped.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Balloon fetishism

2006-10-10T20:55:00.000+08:00

Balloon fetishism is a fetish in which a person has an unusual fascination of, or pertaining to, balloons, which provides sexual arousal or stimulation. Many persons with this fetish casually refer to themselves as loony. The fetish itself varies greatly from person to person, some people enjoy only the act of inflation itself or viewing members of their desired sex inflating balloons, while others enjoy the act of popping by various means, while yet others simply find stimulation in the color, clarity, smell, tactile sense, sound, and movement of the balloon itself. There are several known female balloon fetishists, however the vast majority is made up of men.

Background

Many theories try to explain balloon fetish, but without consensus, because the fetish is set in the psyche at different points of experience and development for each individual. However, there are strands common to all. Many agree this fetish is born at childhood with full development at teenage and adult age. The theories below are based on community members' reports and experiences.

The Fear Factor
People with a balloon fetish often report strong fear of balloons in infancy mixed with the contact with them at moments of strong happy memories at children's parties. The pseudo-overcoming of the fear together with the happy party association then is changed into a sexual fetish. This is also the most-accepted theory and is in agreement with Sigmund Freud Psychoanalysis.

The Early Sexual Feeling
Members report that they had early sexual identification with balloons in contact with them, often associated with the feeling of skin. In fact, children can ??mature sexual symbols and try masturbation to excite their genitals using balloons, two providing a potently symbolic cleavage. This is reported by both parents and fetish members.

The Partner Substitute
Members report using big balloons to substitute a sexual partner. They like, and are excited by hugging and touching the balloons. Reports of emotions aroused by balloons indicate a case of Anthropomorphism.

The Practice

The life cycle of a balloon has four phases: inflation (blowing it up by some means), admiration (looking at it), interaction (touching, moving, watching), and destruction (deflation, popping, releasing). Any or all of these phases can constitute the primary interest of the balloon fetishist, while the remainder are simply complimentary. The practices of the fetishist falls into two distinct camps, poppers and non-poppers, and their foci are seen as drastically different.

The popper is primarily excited by the bursting of a balloon, both by the anticipation and the sensory experience of the explosion itself. The method by which the balloon is popped, however, can vary dramatically. Some persons enjoy blow-to-pop, in which the balloon is continually inflated until it ultimately bursts, and is commonly most fully enjoyed when executed by a partner or member of the sex to which the popper is attracted. Some persons enjoy viewing various forms of erotic popping by means of objects such as cigarettes and pins, in addition to more physically involved and sexually stimulating methods such as sitting, hugging, squeezing, stomping, clawing, etc. In all these cases the popper's primary interest is in building anticipation and the sexual tension of bursting at any time.

The non-popper, on the other hand, dislikes (often vehemently) destroying the balloon but instead chooses to admire and interact with it. This type of looner is far more varied and individualistic in their preferred interaction. Practices can range from simply blowing up and holding balloons for pleasure, to watching other persons interact with balloons, to placing the balloon underneath the genitals and bouncing on it, known as boinking or riding. A popular sub-group of non-poppers includes persons who enjoy stuffing, an act in which baggy clothing is worn and balloons are blown up inside the clothing as a way to maximize the tactile sensation of contact with the object in addition to the sense of being overcome by the object.
In the German scene a semipopper is known, too. It is an unsharb category of looners that change between non-popper and popper by mood, that like to see how balloons become popped, mostly by women, but they don't like to pop balloons by themselves. Or people that like to inflate balloons to the maximum without want to pop them.

The only clear area of similarity in the practices of these groups is the general preference to involve a sexual partner into their preferred activity, either as an observer or as an active participant. Often, with a partner, a sexual event that involves balloons becomes secondary to the act of sex itself and simply foreplay.

Derivations

Balloon fetishism is related to a great variety of other fetishes, including Breast fetishism (due to the shape and feel that balloons and breasts share), Shoe fetishism (generally by persons who enjoy seeing balloons stomped on), Breast expansion fetish and Inflation fetishism (due to inflation, growth etc.), Macrophilia (for people who prefer huge balloons), Smoking fetishism (generally by people who enjoy seeing balloons popped by cigarettes), and many more. Each looner is unique and therefore may have many other related fetishes or none at all. The only commonality among the vocal community of balloon fetishes in this regard is that balloon fetishism is the focal point and all other fetishes simply enhance their primary interest.
Fetishes involving inflated objects are closely related to balloon fetishism, particularly that of inflatable animals (animal shaped PVC inflatables) and pool toys, such as beach balls, swim rings and pool-rafts or lilos, which can often provide an associations with female anatomy. This is explored further in Inflatable fetishism. To a lesser degree, some balloon fetishists are excited by watching women blowing bubbles with bubble gum.

Scene

Balloon fetishism seemingly exploded in popularity with the proliferation of the internet, not because fetishists discovered the interest, but because they found that they weren't alone. In particular the group Balloon Buddies, a pen-pal club for balloon fetishists started in 1976, came online in 1994, bringing hundreds of people together in an open forum. Many balloon fetishists feel very uncomfortable and un-masculine because of their preoccupation with balloons, making online forums such as Balloon Buddies a place for people to come to terms with and eventually accept their interest. Legendary Balloon Buddies founder, Buster Bill, turned management of the list over to a commercial site owner in 1993 and its popularity and membership has declined.
In the late 90's several US based websites appeared catering specifically to balloon fetishists, most of which exist to this day. Because the sites cater to sexual fetishism these sites are considered pornographic in nature, however several sites offer no nude content at all, while others offer only minimal amounts of nudity, typically clearly deliniated on the given site. Sites typically are populated with images, videos and stories of women; however male sites, typically directed at gay looners exist.

In addition to websites and communities, several stores dedicated to serving the needs of balloon fetishists appeared in the late 90's. Balloon fetishists tend to be very specific about exactly which shapes, colors, and brands of balloons they enjoy. Many are so specific in their preferences that only specific qualities of a balloon are capable of exciting them. Brands such as Qualatex are the most commonly preferred because of their strength and quality. Not only are looners specific about what they buy, but larger sized balloons (16", 24", 36", and beyond) are popular but very hard to find in a conventional party shop.

Additionally, these onlines stores typically guarantee anonymity; for many looners, going into a party shop is like going into an adult store and can be nerve racking.

External links

#Balloons: A community resource site
http://www.balloonhost.com/chipple/

Nerve.com Balloon Fetish
http://www.nerve.com/regulars/ididitforscience/revjen/004/

Wave Magazine: Fetish Confessions
http://www.thewavemag.com/pagegen.php?pagename=article&articleid=22026

Balloon Fetishism FAQ - A Psychoanalysis Version
http://www.balloonland.com/Fet/Fetfaqs.htm

Technical Study with Comunity and Psychoanalysis
http://www.geocities.com/pmcoz/Analysis/index.htm

Communities

Balloon Buddies: The oldest and most widely known group of Balloon Fetishists
http://www.balloonbuddies.com/

uklooners.co.uk: UK Balloon Fetish Forum
http://www.uklooners.co.uk/

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aquaphilia

2006-10-10T20:53:00.000+08:00

Aquaphilia also called hydrophilia is a term used to describe a form of sexual fetishism which involves images of people swimming or posing underwater, and sexual activity in or under water. Literally "water lover" from the Latin aqua and Greek φιλειν (philein).

Some subsets of this category are underwater glamour, underwater fashion (models posing underwater, often while fully clothed), scuba fetishism, rubber (people in skin-tight rubber wetsuits), simulated or fantasy drowning (often incorporating asphyxiation), mermaids, and underwater sex.

The term "Aquaphile" was first used by Phil Bolton, when he created the "Aquaphiles Journal" - an online magazine for followers of the underwater erotica scene published in the 1990's.

The psychology of Aquaphilia was the subject of a paper by the late Dr Corinne Lamberth (a therapeautic counsellor based in Lewisham, South London) in 1998. A copy of this paper was published in the Aquaphiles Journal in early 1999.

Aquaphilia as a fetish has numerous followers, as exemplified by the number of different websites that can be found discussing the subject.

As with many fetishes, there are several producers of specialist underwater and aquaphile media, including photographers, video producers and authors.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Andromimetophilia

2006-10-10T20:50:00.000+08:00

Andromimetophilia (often misspelled as androminetophilia) is a condition in which erotic or sexual arousal is facilitated by or contingent upon a female sex partner impersonating a male.

In certain cases, a transman may also satisfy the other partner's needs. This condition can be classified as a fetish or paraphilia. Males with homosexual fantasies, suppressed by their feelings, may request their female sex partner to act as such.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Amputee fetishism

2006-10-09T14:22:00.000+08:00

Amputee fetishism is one of the paraphilias grouped together as attraction to disability. It is a fetish focused on amputations, generally of limbs. An Internet virtual community exists, with its own special terminology.

Two subtypes of this fetish are generally recognized. Acrotomophilia is an intense desire for one's partner to be an amputee. Acrotomophiles are also known as "devotees." Apotemnophilia is an intense desire to be an amputee. Aptemnophiles are also known as "wannabes." With each, the presence or absence of artificial limbs as an added stimulant is a personal matter for the fetishist.

Amputation fetishism is a paraphilia, a focus on a specific body part or inanimate object. it is technically a form of teratophilia, sexual attraction to a "deformed or monstrous person".

alt.sex.fetish.amputee was a Usenet newsgroup as far back as 1996, featuring stories and pictures. It has since become overrun with spam.

Electronic Surgery (abbreviated "ES") is a term for images (usually from porn sites) that have been modified to make the subject appear as an amputee.
A "pretender" is a "wannabe" who acts out aptemnophilic fantasies, sometimes in public, usually through limb-binding and the use of loose clothing.

Terminology

The specialized two- and three-letter abbreviations used within the devotee-wannabe community logically follow from the types of limb amputations possible.
AK: Above Knee AE: Above Elbow
BK: Below Knee BE: Below Elbow

The addition of L or R indicates right or left. LBK would thus describe the state of Heather Mills McCartney, Paul McCartney's wife since 2002, whose left leg required removal below the knee after a motorcycle accident in 1993.

Single Amputations begin with an “S”. For example, a single amputation of one arm would be called “SAE” for “Single Above Elbow”. If the single amputation were on the left or right arm (Above the elbow), it would be called “LAE” or “RAE” respectively. And if the amputation were below the elbow, it would be called “LBE” or “RBE” respectively. The same goes for amputations occurring on the legs, where single above the knee would be “SAK” or “LAK/RAK” following the previous logic. There would also be “LBK/LBE” for under the knee.

Identical amputations on both sides of the body are prefaced by a "D": DAK would describe a double above-knee amputee. These are also known as "bilateral" amputations, so BAK would be equally valid.

A disarticulation amputation involves the removal of a bones at the joint by the disarticulation of the joint. The addition of L, R, D, or B apply.
WD: Wrist Disarticulation
ED: Elbow Disarticulation
SD: Shoulder Disarticulation
AD: Ankle Disarticulation
KD: Knee Disarticulation
HD: Hip Disarticulation

The absence of three limbs and the total absence of limbs is described by the terms TRIPLE and QUAD amputee.
Within the Amputee Devotee Community, there are trace amounts of finger and toe amputation devotions that can be found. Even though these attractions are equally valid, there is no single, well known system for identifying specific such amputations.

Acrotomophilia

Acrotomophilia (also known as amelotatism) is a sexual attraction to amputees or other people missing limbs. The name is derived from the Greek akron (extremity), tomein (to cut) and philein (to love).

Acrotomophilia was first recognized in clinics as a rare phenomenon in the western world in the early 1990s.
Although there are many exceptions, the majority of Amputee Devotees tend to be highly educated Caucasian males. [1] Of the little research that is done on this phenomenon, not much is known of why this common trend is so.

There exists a vast online community of Acrotomophilies who prefer to identify themselves most commonly as “Amputee Devotees”. There are also other common names used such as “Amputee Lover”, “Amputee Admirer” and so on. These names can be used interchangeably. There is a common difference between Amputee Devotees and Amputee Wanabees. Although these are two different kinds of communities, they do interact closely with each other. It is important to realize that just because one individual might want their partner to be an amputee, it does not necessarily follow that they would want to be an amputee themself. Nevertheless there are some people for whom this is in fact the case.

Most Amputee Admirers do not consider themselves strange sexual fetishist predators hunting down easy prey. They more consider themselves normal people who find an appreciation for another unique characteristic of their ideal partner. An Amputee Admirer finds an amputated leg to be just as attractive as a pretty face or long hair. Some argue that an Amputee Admirer is a blessing in that they find something attractive that others would consider repulsive. Some amputees appreciate the attraction devotees have toward them. These amputees may even create their own Web site with pictures of themselves and/or offer ways to open communications with interested devotees. Other amputees may balk at the interest that admirers have for them. These amputees often find devotees to be creepy, unusual, or both.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Amaurophilia

2006-10-09T14:19:00.001+08:00

Amaurophilia is the preference for sexual intercourse with partners who are blind or blindfolded.[1] This type of sexual activity may also be conducted by engaging in sexual intercourse in complete darkness.[2]

Amaurophiliacs are extremely rare, but some will do simulation play with sleepshades; blindfolds or eye patches; or vision-restricting contact lenses, either worn or given to partners to wear. Some amaurophiliacs may even extend this play outside of sex through the use of blindfolds or contact lenses in conjunction with a white cane for mobility. Some amaurophiliacs may choose to learn Braille in order to enhance their experience during play sessions.

There are a few online articles and fanfiction, but they are frequently quite old or have broken URL links. Fewer still are actual blind persons who will cater to this fetish. They do exist but are very rare.[citation needed]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Abasiophilia

2006-10-09T14:19:00.000+08:00

Abasiophilia, considered by some to be a type of paraphilia, is a sexual attraction to disabled people who use orthopaedic appliances such as leg braces, orthopedic casts, spinal braces, or wheelchairs. The etymology is from the Greek language abasios, meaning "lameness". The attraction can be very strong. For some, it can be a source of guilt, as the combination of sex and disability are still considered taboo in most societies. It is not uncommon for those affected to want to use orthopaedic appliances themselves. The majority of people who do find this a source of relief from what can be an overpowering desire.
It is classed as a form of disability fetishism which starts in early childhood, usually long before puberty is reached. There is normally a trigger event in early childhood involving disabled children or adults. It is most common in those who were children in the 1940s, 50s and 60s when Polio was common and there were lots of people using leg braces to be seen.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pharming parties

2006-10-09T14:09:00.000+08:00

Pharming parties are get-togethers where prescription drugs are exchanged. These parties, while not necessarily devoted to illegal substances, are meeting places to use prescription drugs in order to become intoxicated. Such parties are generally an abuse of prescription medication, especially when involving teenagers, who often participate.

Analgesics (such as OxyContin or Vicodin), antianxiety medicines (Valium or Xanax), or attention-deficit disorder drugs (Ritalin or Adderall) are common fare. While improper use of pain medication is dangerous, such drugs are highly prized for the level of intoxication they provide. Pills are generally acquired via online pharmacies, which don't require prescriptions. As well, participants will use legitimately prescriped medication (and may feign or exaggerate symptoms in order to be given further prescriptions); trading does occur, however.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cuddle party

2006-10-09T14:04:00.000+08:00

Cuddle Party is described by its organizers a "workshop/social-event" that gives adults an opportunity to "give and receive welcomed affectionate touch in a no-expectation, friendly setting, according to your needs, desires, interests, and boundaries."

The events take place in cities across the United States, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Montgomery, and Boston, and also in Toronto, London, and Melbourne.

History

Reid Mihalko and Marcia Baczynski, a pair of self-described "relationship coaches" in New York City, founded Cuddle Party in New York in April of 2004. According to the team's web site, the events were initially created for friends who were too intimidated to attend Mihalko's massage parties. Upon publication of the Cuddle Party web site the events were opened to the general public, and due to a swarm of media attention, the events became a phenomenon in New York.
Wishing to capitalize on the demand for Cuddle Parties in other cities, Mihalko and Baczynski began a training and certification programin January of 2005, and have since trained a number of individuals to facilitate Cuddle Parties in various cities.

Format

Cuddle Party is described by organizers as having the following format:
1. A "Welcome Circle" led by the event's facilitators, intended to create a "safe space," and in which participants are given an opportunity to introduce themselves, be led through several communication/ice-breaker exercises, and learn the Cuddle Party rules.
2. A two-hour socializing/cuddling portion of the event, in which participants socialize and cuddle, in accordance with the event's rules.
3. A "Closing Circle," in which the facilitators sum up the evening's activities.

The Rules
According to the Cuddle Party web site, the rules of Cuddle Party are as follows:
1. Pajamas stay on the whole time.
2. You must ask permission and receive a verbal "yes" before you touch anyone. (Be as specific in your request as you can.)
3. You don't have to cuddle anyone at a Cuddle Party, ever.
4. If you're a yes, say yes. If you're a no, say no.
5. If you're a maybe, say no.
6. You are encouraged to change your mind from a yes to a no or a no to a yes anytime you want.
7. Respect your relationship agreements and communicate with your partner.
8. Get your Cuddle Lifeguard On Duty or Cuddle Caddy if you have a question or concern or need assistance with anything during the Cuddle Party.
9. Tears and laughter are both welcome.
10. Respect people's privacy when sharing about Cuddle Party and do not gossip.
11. Arrive on time.
12. Be hygienically savvy.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://www.cuddleparty.com/

Elagabalus

2006-09-26T21:56:00.000+08:00

Elagabalus or Heliogabalus (c. 203–March 11, 222), born Varius Avitus Bassus and also known as Varius Avitus Bassianus Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, was a Roman emperor of the Severan dynasty who reigned from 218 to 222. Elagabalus was and is one of the most controversial Roman emperors. During his reign he showed a disregard for Roman religious traditions and sexual taboos. Elagabalus' name is a Latinized form of the Semitic deity El-Gabal, a manifestation of the Semitic deity Ēl. He replaced Jupiter, head of the Roman pantheon, with a new god, Deus Sol Invictus, which in Latin means "the Sun, God Unconquered". Elagabalus forced leading members of Rome's government to participate in religious rites celebrating Sol invictus which he personally led.

He also took a Vestal Virgin as one of a succession of wives and openly boasted that his sexual interest in men was more than just a casual pastime, as it had been for previous emperors.

Elagabalus developed a reputation among his contemporaries for eccentricity, decadence, and zealotry which was likely exaggerated by his successors. This black propaganda was passed on and as such he was one of the most reviled Roman emperors to early Christian historians and later became a hero to the Decadent movement of the late 19th century.

Elagabalus - Family

Elagabalus was the son of Sextus Varius Marcellus and Julia Soaemias Bassiana. His father was initially a member of the equites class but was later elevated to the rank of senator. His grandmother Julia Maesa was the widow of the Consul Julius Avitus, the sister of Julia Domna, and the wife of Emperor Septimius Severus. Julia Soaemias was a cousin of Caracalla. Other relatives included his aunt Julia Avita Mamaea and uncle Gessius Marcianus and their son Severus Alexander. Elagabalus' family held hereditary rights to the priesthood of the sun god El-Gabal, of whom Elagabalus was the high priest at Emesa (modern Homs) in Syria.

The name Elagabalus is a Latin form of the name of the Semitic god El-Gabal. The name originally referred to the patron deity of the emperor's birthplace, Emesa. El refers to the chief Semitic deity, while Gabal meaning mountain (compare with the Hebrew gevul and Arabic jebel) is his Emesene manifestation. The god became a sun god in Roman times by a confusion of the original Semitic name with the Greek word helios (sun), resulting in the name variant Heliogabalus. High priests in antiquity were identified with the god they served, and thus the creation of the name Elagabalus.

Severan dynasty family tree

Elagabalus - Rise to power

When the Emperor Macrinus came to power he exiled Julia Maesa, her two daughters, and her eldest grandson, Elagabalus, to her estate at Emesa in Syria. She began a plot, with her eunuch advisor and Elagabalus' tutor Gannys, to overthrow Macrinus almost upon arrival in Syria. She decided to elevate the fourteen year old Elagabalus as emperor. Elagabalus and his mother readily complied and announced, falsely, that he was the illegitimate son of Caracalla. After Julia Maesa displayed her wealth to the III Gallica at Raphaneae they swore allegiance to Elagabalus. At sunrise on May 16, 218 P. Valerius Comazon Eutychianus declared him emperor. He assumed Caracalla's names, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, to strengthen his legitimacy through further propaganda.

Macrinus sent letters to the Senate denouncing Elagabalus as the False Antoninus and claiming he was insane. Both consuls and other high ranking members of Rome's leadership, including a Praetorian, condemned him, and the Senate subsequently declared war on both Elagabalus and Julia Maesa. Macrinus and his son, weakened by the desertion of the II Parthica due to bribes and promises circulated by Julia Maesa, were defeated on June 8, 218 near Antioch by troops commanded by Gannys. Macrinus fled toward Italy disguised as a courier. He was captured near Chalcedon and later executed in Cappadocia. His son Diadumenianus, sent for safety to the Parthian court, was captured at Zeugma and put to death.

Elagabalus declared the date of the victory at Antioch to be the beginning of his reign and assumed the imperial titles without prior Senatorial approval, which violated tradition but was a common practice among 2nd century emperors nonetheless. Letters of reconciliation were dispatched to Rome extending amnesty to the Senate and recognizing the laws. He also condemned his predecessor in the letters: "He undertook to disparage my age, when he himself had appointed his five-year-old son [emperor]."

The Senators responded by acknowledging him as emperor and accepting his claim to be the son of Caracalla. Caracalla and Julia Domna were both deified by the Senate, both Julia Maesa and Julia Soaemias were elevated to the rank of Augustae, and the memory of Macrinus and Diadumenianus was condemned and vilified by the Senate.

Elagabalus - Imperial power

Elagabalus and his entourage spent the winter of 218 in Bithynia at Nicomedia. It was at Nicomedia that Elagabalus' religious beliefs first manifested as a problem. The local Roman citizens were disturbed by his practices and Gannys was killed while trying to suppress the ensuing riots. To help Romans adjust to the idea of having an oriental priest as emperor, Julia Maesa had a painting of Elagabalus in priestly robes sent to Rome and hung over a statue of the goddess Victoria in the Senate House. This placed Senators in the awkward position of having to make offerings to Elagabalus whenever they made offerings to Victoria.

Elagabalus was delayed in Asia Minor while brief revolts by the Legio III Gallica, under the leadership of the senator Verus, and the IV Scythica, under command of Gellius Maximus, were crushed. When the entourage reached Rome in the Fall of 219, Comazon and other allies of Julia Maesa and Elagabalus were given powerful and lucrative positions, much to the outrage of many senators who did not consider them to be respectable. Comazon would serve as the city prefect of Rome three times and as consul twice. An official whose name solely survives as ...atus was moved though various positions including Suffect consul. Elagabalus tried to have his presumed lover Hierocles declared Caesar, while another alleged lover, Zoticus, was appointed to the non-administrative but influential position of Cubicularius. His offer of amnesty for the Roman leadership was largely honored, though the jurist Ulpian was exiled.

The relationships between Julia Maesa, Julia Soaemias, and Elagabalus were strong, at first. His mother and grandmother became the first women to be allowed into the Senate, and both received Senatorial titles: Soaemias the established title of Clarissima and Maesa the more unorthodox Mater Castrorum et Senatus. While Julia Maesa tried to position herself as the power behind the throne and subsequently the most powerful woman in the world, Elagabalus would prove to be highly independent, set in his ways, and impossible to control.

Elagabalus - Religious controversy
Since the reign of Septimius Severus sun worship had increased throughout the Empire. Elagabalus saw this as an opportunity to set up his god, El-Gabal, as the chief deity of the Roman Pantheon. El-Gabal, renamed Deus Sol Invictus or God the Invincible Sun, was placed over even Jupiter. As a sign of the union between the two religions, Elagabalus gave either Astarte, Minerva, Urania, or some combination of the three, to El-Gabal as a wife. Moreover, he himself married the Vestal Virgin Aquilia Severa, provoking great outrage; he said he would have "god-like children" from the marriage. A temple to house El-Gabal, a black conical meteorite, was built in Rome on the east face of the Palatine Hill and its foundations remain today. To become the high priest of El-Gabal, Elagabalus had himself circumcised. Herodian writes that Elagabalus forced senators to watch while he danced around the altar of El-Gabal to the sound of drums and cymbals and that each summer solstice became a great festival to El-Gabal popular with the masses because of its widely distributed food. During this festival, Elagabalus placed El-Gabal:

…in chariot adorned with gold and jewels and brought him out from the city to the suburbs. A six horse chariot carried the divinity, the horses huge and flawlessly white, with expensive gold fittings and rich ornaments. No one held the reins, and no one rode in the chariot; the vehicle was escorted as if the god himself were the charioteer. Elagabalus ran backward in front of the chariot, facing the god and holding the horses reins. He made the whole journey in this reverse fashion, looking up into the face of his god.
Elagabalus - Sex/gender controversy
Elagabalus' sexual orientation and gender identity are the source of much controversy and debate. Elagabalus married and divorced five women, three of whom are known. His first wife was Julia Cornelia Paula, the second was the Vestal Virgin Aquilia Severa, and another was Annia Faustina from the house of Marcus Aurelius. He later returned to Severa but according to a contemporary senator and historian, Cassius Dio, his most stable relationship seems to have been with his chariot driver, a blond slave from Caria named Hierocles, whom he referred to as his husband. Dio also wrote that Elagabalus used to:

…stand nude at the door of his room in the palace, as harlots do, and shake the curtain which hung from gold rings, while in a soft melting voice he solicited passers by.
Herodian comments that Elagabalus hampered his natural good looks Other relatives included his aunt Julia Avita Mamaea and uncle Gessius Marcianus and their son Severus Alexander. Elagabalus' family held hereditary rights to the priesthood of the sun god El-Gabal, of whom Elagabalus was the high priest at Emesa (modern Homs) in Syria.

The name Elagabalus is a Latin form of the name of the Semitic god El-Gabal. The name originally referred to the patron deity of the emperor's birthplace, Emesa. El refers to the chief Semitic deity, while Gabal meaning mountain (compare with the Hebrew gevul and Arabic jebel) is his Emesene manifestation. The god became a sun god in Roman times by a confusion of the original Semitic name with the Greek word helios (sun), resulting in the name variant Heliogabalus. High priests in antiquity were identified with the god they served, and thus the creation of the name Elagabalus.

Severan dynasty family tree
Elagabalus - Rise to power

When the Emperor Macrinus came to power he exiled Julia Maesa, her two daughters, and her eldest grandson, Elagabalus, to her estate at Emesa in Syria. She began a plot, with her eunuch advisor and Elagabalus' tutor Gannys, to overthrow Macrinus almost upon arrival in Syria. She decided to elevate the fourteen year old Elagabalus as emperor. Elagabalus and his mother readily complied and announced, falsely, that he was the illegitimate son of Caracalla. After Julia Maesa displayed her wealth to the III Gallica at Raphaneae they swore allegiance to Elagabalus. At sunrise on May 16, 218 P. Valerius Comazon Eutychianus declared him emperor. He assumed Caracalla's names, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, to strengthen his legitimacy through further propaganda.

Macrinus sent letters to the Senate denouncing Elagabalus as the False Antoninus and claiming he was insane. Both consuls and other high ranking members of Rome's leadership, including a Praetorian, condemned him, and the Senate subsequently declared war on both Elagabalus and Julia Maesa. Macrinus and his son, weakened by the desertion of the II Parthica due to bribes and promises circulated by Julia Maesa, were defeated on June 8, 218 near Antioch by troops commanded by Gannys. Macrinus fled toward Italy disguised as a courier. He was captured near Chalcedon and later executed in Cappadocia. His son Diadumenianus, sent for safety to the Parthian court, was captured at Zeugma and put to death.

Elagabalus declared the date of the victory at Antioch to be the beginning of his reign and assumed the imperial titles without prior Senatorial approval, which violated tradition but was a common practice among 2nd century emperors nonetheless. Letters of reconciliation were dispatched to Rome extending amnesty to the Senate and recognizing the laws. He also condemned his predecessor in the letters: "He undertook to disparage my age, when he himself had appointed his five-year-old son [emperor]."

The Senators responded by acknowledging him as emperor and accepting his claim to be the son of Caracalla. Caracalla and Julia Domna were both deified by the Senate, both Julia Maesa and Julia Soaemias were elevated to the rank of Augustae, and the memory of Macrinus and Diadumenianus was condemned and vilified by the Senate.

Elagabalus - Imperial power

Elagabalus and his entourage spent the winter of 218 in Bithynia at Nicomedia. It was at Nicomedia that Elagabalus' religious beliefs first manifested as a problem. The local Roman citizens were disturbed by his practices and Gannys was killed while trying to suppress the ensuing riots. To help Romans adjust to the idea of having an oriental priest as emperor, Julia Maesa had a painting of Elagabalus in priestly robes sent to Rome and hung over a statue of the goddess Victoria in the Senate House. This placed Senators in the awkward position of having to make offerings to Elagabalus whenever they made offerings to Victoria.

Elagabalus was delayed in Asia Minor while brief revolts by the Legio III Gallica

He is described as having been "delighted to be called the mistress, the wife, the Queen of Hierocles" and is said to have offered half the Roman Empire to the physician who could equip him with female genitalia.1

Elagabalus - Fall from power
Elagabalus' eccentricities, especially his habit of forcing others to participate in his religious practices, weighed heavily on Julia Maesa's mind and she decided he and his mother, Julia Soaemias, who had encouraged his religious practices, had to be replaced. She turned to her other daughter Julia Avita Mamaea and her son, the thirteen year old Severus Alexander, as alternatives. Maesa and Mamaea convinced Elagabalus to appoint Alexander as his heir. When he changed his mind later and ordered Alexander executed, Maesa and Mamaea bribed the Praetorian Guard before his orders could be carried out. Elagabalus and Julia Soaemias were murdered (according to the Historia Augusta, in the Emperor's latrine) on March 11, 222; their bodies were dragged through the streets of Rome and the Cloaca Maxima, and ultimately thrown into the Tiber.

Elagabalus - After death

Elagabalus - Biased historical sources
After his death, Elagabalus' religious edicts were reversed and El-Gabal was returned to Emesa. Women were barred from ever attending meetings of the Senate, and a policy of damnatio memoriae — condemning a person by erasing him or her from recorded existence — was instituted.

A black propaganda campaign against Elagabalus, traditionally attributed to Julia Avitus Mamaea, was also instituted. Many denigrating and false stories were circulated about him, and his eccentricities may have been exaggerated. The most famous among these, immortalized in the 19th century painting The Roses of Heliogabalus, is that he smothered guests at a dinner to death with a mass of sweet-smelling rose petals dropped from above. It is said also that Elagabalus would sometimes have a slave placed in a large bull-shaped stove while his dinner guests would be entertained by his dying screams.

The source of many of these stories of Elagabalus' debauchery is the Historia Augusta, which scholarly consensus now feels to be unreliable in its details. Although based on kernels of truth, the claim he was transgender or transsexual is also highly dubious. Many of his contemporaries felt that he only desired men; this factor has traditionally been cited as the cause of his downfall. Sources more credible than the Historia Augusta, such as Dio and Herodian, suggest that he was at least passively homosexual, but to what extent, if any, is unknowable today. His zealous religious fervor seems to have been widely accepted and is not the subject of much debate today.

As to his acts of cruelty, some scholars point to the account of the Christian historian Sextus Julius Africanus, whose request that Elagabalus rebuild his hometown of Emmaus (Nicopolis) was granted. It is also worth noting that the Senate granted him the rare honor Pater Patriae ("father of the fatherland") and that he ruled longer than many of his predecessors, though his enemy and direct predecessor Macrinus also received the Pater Patriae and his successor Severus Alexander ruled longer.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

2006-09-25T04:16:00.000+08:00

PET scans measure brain activity. The image on the left illustrates areas of activity in the brain of a person without ADHD while doing an assigned task. The image on the right illustrates the areas of activity of the brain of someone with ADHD when given that same task.[1]

Hyperkinetic disorders

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (sometimes referred to as ADD) is thought to be a neurological disorder, always present from childhood, which manifests itself with symptoms such as hyperactivity, forgetfulness, poor impulse control, and distractibility.[2] In neurological pathology, ADHD is currently considered to be a chronic syndrome for which no medical cure is available. Both children and adults may present with ADHD, which is believed to affect between 3-5% of the population.[3]

Much controversy surrounds the diagnosis of ADHD, such as over whether or not the diagnosis denotes a disability in its traditional sense, or simply describes a neurological property of an individual. There is also a sizable minority of clinicians who believe that the condition is not biological, but psychological in origin. Those who believe that ADHD is a traditional disability or disorder often debate over how it should be treated, if at all. According to a majority of medical research in the United States, as well as other countries, ADHD is today generally regarded to be a non-curable neurological disorder for which, however, a wide range of effective treatments are available. Methods of treatment usually involve some combination of medication, psychotherapy, and other techniques. Some patients are able to control their symptoms over time, even without the use of medication. Other individuals who meet the diagnostic criteria of ADHD do not consider themselves to be handicapped by the disorder and therefore may remain undiagnosed or, after a positive diagnosis, untreated.

ADHD is most commonly diagnosed in children. When diagnosed in adults, it is regarded as adult attention-deficit disorder (AADD). It is believed that around 60% of children diagnosed with ADHD retain the disorder as adults.[4] A recent Washington University in St.Louis study indicated that nearly 50% of ADHD cases in America are not recieving treatment. This stands in stark contrast to the claims that the condition is overdiagnosed.[5]

Terminology

The most appropriate designation of ADHD is currently disputed; the terms below are known to be used to describe the condition. A difficulty in the condition's nomenclature arises when some scientific research suggests that certain behaviors are directly attributable to ADHD, while other research concludes that the same behaviors constitute disorders that need to be classified independently of ADHD. For the purposes of this article, the "Terminology" section will be used only to name ADHD and its near equivalents, while the names for its manifestations and subtypes will be listed in "Symptoms" section, below.

Attention-deficit syndrome (ADS): Equivalent to ADHD, but used to avoid the connotations of "disorder".

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): In 1987, ADD was in effect renamed to ADHD in the DSM-III-R. In it, ADHD was broken down into three subtypes (see 'symptoms' for more details):
predominantly inattentive ADHD
predominantly hyperactive-impulsive ADHD
combined type ADHD

Attention deficit disorder (ADD): This term was first introduced in DSM-III, the 1980 edition. It is considered by some to be obsolete, and by others to be a synonym for the predominantly inattentive type of ADHD.
Undifferentiated attention-deficit disorder (UADD): This term was first introduced in the DSM-III-R, the 1987 edition. This was a miscellaneous category, and no formal diagnostic criteria were provided. UADD is approximately the predominantly inattentive type of ADHD in the DSM-IV-TR. The DSM-III-R diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder required hyperactive-impulsive symptoms in addition to the inattentive symptoms.

Hyperkinetic disorders (F90) is the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) equivalent to ADHD. The ICD-10 does not include a predominantly inattentive type of ADHD because the editors of Chapter V of the ICD-10 believe the inattentivity syndrome may constitute a distinct disorder.

Disturbance of activity and attention (F90.0)
Hyperkinetic conduct disorder (F90.1) is a mixed disorder involving hyperkinetic symptoms along with presence of conduct disorder

Other hyperkinetic disorders (F90.8)
Hyperkinetic disorder, unspecified (F90.9)
Hyperkinetic syndrome (HKS): Equivalent to ADHD, but largely obsolete in the United States, still used in some places world wide.

Minimal cerebral dysfunction (MCD): Equivalent to ADHD, but largely obsolete in the United States, though still commonly used internationally.

Minimal brain dysfunction or Minimal brain damage (MBD): Similar to ADHD, now obsolete.

Definitions

From a developmental/behavioral standpoint, the DSM-IV states that ADHD is a developmental disorder that presents during childhood, in most cases before the age of seven, and is characterized by developmentally inappropriate levels of inattention and/or hyperactive-impulsive behavior. The DSM-IV also stipulates that in order to be diagnosed, the condition must also result in significant impairment of one or more major life activities, including interpersonal relations, educational or occupational goals, as well as cognitive or adaptive functioning. ADHD may be also diagnosed in adulthood, but symptoms must have been present prior to age seven in order to yield a positive diagnosis.

The ICD-10 differs from the DSM-IV in that it requires both inattention and hyperactive-impulsive behavior to be present before a diagnosis is warranted.[6]

The Amen classification is an informal definition and categorisation system which reorganises and extends the DSM-IV. It is not widely accepted as a formal classification, although it is still used by many doctors wordwide.

Symptoms

The symptoms of ADHD fall into the following two broad categories:[7]

Inattention:
- Failing to pay close attention to details or making careless mistakes when doing schoolwork or other activities
- Trouble keeping attention focused during play or tasks
- Appearing not to listen when spoken to
- Failing to follow instructions or finish tasks
- Avoiding tasks that require a high amount of mental effort and organization, such as school projects
- Frequently losing items required to facilitate tasks or activities, such as school supplies
- Excessive distractibility
- Forgetfulness
- Hyperactivity-impulsive behavior
- Fidgeting with hands or feet or squirming in seat
- Leaving seat often, even when inappropriate
- Running or climbing at inappropriate times
- Difficulty in quiet play
- Frequently feeling restless
- Excessive speech
- Mood swings
- Answering a question before the speaker has finished
- Failing to await one's turn
- Interrupting the activities of others at inappropriate times

A positive diagnosis is usually only made if the patient has experienced six of the above symptoms for at least three months. Symptoms must appear consistently in varied environments (e.g., not only at home or only at school) and interfere with function. One of the difficulties in diagnosis is the incidence of co-morbid conditions, especially the presence of Bipolar

Disorder which is being reported at earlier ages than previously described.

Children who grow up with ADHD often continue to have symptoms as they grow into adulthood. Adults face some of their greatest challenges in the areas of self-control and self-motivation, as well as executive functioning (also known as working memory). If the patient is not treated appropriately, co-morbid conditions, such as depression, anxiety and self-medicating substance abuse may present as well. If a patient presents with such conditions as well, the co-morbid condition may be treated first, or simultaneously.

Diagnosis

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) emphasize that a diagnosis of ADHD should only be made by trained health care providers, as many of the symptoms may also be part of other conditions, such as bodily illness or other physical disorders, such as hyperthyroidism. Further, it is not uncommon that physically and mentally nonpathological individuals exhibit at least some of the symptoms from time to time. Severity and pervasiveness of the symptoms leading to prominent functional impairment across different settings (school, work, social relationships) are major factors in a positive diagnosis.

Analytical Testing
Due to the lack of objectivity that surrounds the critical factors, many question the reliability of ADHD diagnosis. The American Academy of Pediatrics Clinical Practice publishes guidelines to aid providers in making an objective diagnosis, but even if strictly adhered to, doubt still remains among some patients, as well as providers. Other diagnostic methods, such as those involving magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), may detect the presence of ADHD by analyzing images of the patient's brain, are usually not recommended (see brain scans). In a majority of cases, diagnosis is therefore dependent upon the observations and opinions of those who are close to the patient; in many patients, especially as they approach adulthood, self-diagnosis is not uncommon.

Publications that are designed to analyze a person's behavior, such as the Brown Scale or the Conners Scale, for example, attempt to assist parents and providers in making a diagnosis by evaluating an individual on typical behaviors such as "Hums or makes other odd noises", "Daydreams" and "Acts 'smart'"; the scales rating the pervasiveness of these behaviors range from "never" to "very often". Connors states that, based on the scale, a valid diagnosis can be achieved; critics, however, counter Connors' proposition by pointing out the breadth with which these behaviors may be interpreted. This becomes especially relevant when family and cultural norms are taken into consideration; this premise leads to the assumption that a diagnosis based on such a scale may actually be more subjective than objective (see cultural subjectivism).

Clinical Testing
The American Academy of Pediatrics Clinical Practice Guideline for children with ADHD emphasizes that a reliable diagnosis requires:[8]

The use of explicit criteria for the diagnosis using the DSM-IV-TR.
The importance of obtaining information about the child’s symptoms in more than one setting (especially from schools).

The search for coexisting conditions that may make the diagnosis more difficult or complicate treatment planning.
A proper diagnosis is dependent upon a physician fulfilling all three of these criteria. The first criteria can be satisfied by using an ADHD-specific instrument such as the Conners Scale. The second criteria is best fulfilled by examining the individual's history. This history can be obtained from parents and teachers, or a patient's memory.[9] The requirement that symptoms be present in more than one setting is very important because the problem may not be with the child, but instead with teachers or parents who are too demanding. The use of intelligence and psychological testing (to satisfy the third criteria) is essential in order to find or rule out other factors that might be causing or complicating the problems experienced by the patient.[10]

Computerized tests
Computerized tests of attention are not especially helpful in providing a further independent assessment because they have a high rate of false negatives (real cases of ADHD can pass the tests in 35% or more of cases) (Barkley, 2006) they do not correlate well with actual behavioral problems at home or school, and are not especially helpful in determining treatments. Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry have recommended against the use of such computerized tests for now in view of their lack of appropriate scientific validation as diagnostic tools. In the USA, the process of obtaining referrals for such assessments is being promoted vigorously by the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health.

Brain scans

Neurometrics, PET scans, FMRI, or SPECT scans have the potential to provide a more objective diagnosis. However, these are not typically suitable for very young children, and PET and SPECT scans may unnecessarily expose the patient to small amounts of radiation. Because the etiology of the disorder is unknown, and a complete neurological definition of this disorder is lacking, a majority of clinicians doubt the current predictive power of these objective tests to detect ADHD to be used to direct clinical treatment. An October 2005 meta-analysis by Alan Zametkin, M.D., with the NIMH, concluded that these diagnostic methods lack adequate scientific research on accuracy and specificity to be used as a primary diagnostic tool.[11] They remain, however, useful research tools when studying groups of patients with ADHD.

Incidence

ADHD has been found to exist in every country and culture studied to date. While it is most commonly diagnosed in the United States, rates of diagnosis are rising in most industrialized countries as they become more aware of the disorder, its diagnosis, and its management.

Nearly four million children younger than 18 in the United States had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The prevalence among children is estimated to be in the range of 5% to 8% in children, and 4% to 8% in adults. 10% of males, but only 4% of females have been diagnosed.[12]. This apparent sex difference may either reflect a difference in susceptibility or that females with ADHD are less likely to be diagnosed than males.[13][14]
The ADHD treatment rate among Caucasian children is significantly higher than among African and Hispanic Americans (4.4% Caucasian, 1.7% African, 1.5% Hispanic in 1997)[15]. The same study notes that outpatient treatment for ADHD has grown from 0.9 children per 100 (1987) to 3.4 per 100 (1997).

A recent Washington University in St. Louis study indicated that almost 50% of ADHD cases in America may not be detected and treated. This lies in stark contrast to the claim the the condition is overmedicated.[16]

Possible causes

The exact cause of ADHD remains unknown, but there is no shortage of speculation concerning its etiology [17][18], most of which centers around the brain. The cerebellum in particular has been shown to be smaller in the brains of those with this disorder.[19] Another possible culprit is a region in the middle or medial aspect of the frontal lobe, known as the anterior cingulate cortex division.[20] The source of these differences is not yet known, but some hypotheses have been presented.

Hereditary dopamine deficiency
Research suggests that ADHD arises from a combination of various genes, many of which have something to do with dopamine transporters.[21] Suspect genes include the 10-repeat allele of the DAT1 gene,[22] the 7-repeat allele of the DRD4 gene,[23] and the dopamine beta hydroxylase gene (DBH TaqI).[24] Additionally, SPECT scans found people with ADHD to have reduced blood circulation,[25] and a significantly higher concentration of dopamine transporters in the striatum which is in charge of planning ahead.[26]

Diet
It has long been suggested that ADHD could be the result of a nutritional problem. Recent studies have begun to find metabolic differences in these children, indicating that an inability to handle certain elements of one's diet might contribute to the development of ADHD, or at least ADHD-like symptoms. For example, in 1990 the English chemist, Neil Ward,[27] showed that children with ADHD lose zinc when exposed to a food dye. Some studies suggest that a lack of fatty acids, specifically omega-3 fatty acids can trigger the development of ADHD. Support for this theory comes from findings that children who are breastfed for six or more months seem to be less likely to have ADHD than their bottlefed counterparts and until very recently, infant formula did not contain any omega-3 fatty acids at all.[28] Time and futher investigation will perhaps tell whether this correlation is reliable or merely a coincidence.

Despite the uncertainty of nutrition as a cause of ADHD it does play a role in the diagnosis and treatment of the disorder. Certain dietary issues, most commonly a moderate to severe protein deficiency, can cause symptoms consistent with ADHD.[29]

External Factors
There is no compelling evidence that social factors, alone, can create ADHD. (However, see discussion of parental role in section below) The few environmental factors implicated fall in the realm of biohazards including alcohol, tobacco smoke, and lead poisoning. Allergies (including those to artificial additives)[30] as well as complications during pregnancy and birth--including premature birth--might also play a role.

Smoking during pregnancy
It has been observed that women who smoke while pregnant are more likely to have children with ADHD.[31]. Nicotine is known to cause hypoxia (lack of oxygen) in the uterus, which could lead to brain damage in the unborn child. Smoking could therefore play a major role in the child's development of the disorder prior to birth.

Head injuries
Head injuries may cause a person to present with ADHD-like symptoms, possibly because of damage done to the patient's frontal lobes. Because symptoms were attributable to brain damage, the earliest designation for ADHD was "Minimal Brain Damage". [32]

Treatment

There are many options available to treat people diagnosed with ADHD. The options with the greatest scientific support include a variety of medications, behavior modification, and educational interventions. The results of a large randomized controlled trial[33][34] suggested that medication alone is superior to behavioral therapy alone, but that the combination of behavioral therapy and medication has a small additional benefit over medication alone.

Mainstream treatments

The chemical structure of methylphenidate, better known as Ritalin. Ritalin is one of the most popular treatments for ADHD currently on the market.

The first-line medication used to treat ADHD are mostly stimulants, which work by stimulating the areas of the brain responsible for focus, attention, and impulse control. The use of stimulants to treat a syndrome often characterized by hyperactivity is sometimes referred to as a paradoxical effect. But there is no real paradox in that stimulants activate brain inhibitory and self-organizing mechanisms permitting the individual to have greater self-regulation. The stimulants used include:

Methylphenidate — Available in:
Regular formulation, sold as Ritalin, Metadate, Focalin (different in that it is derived from dexmethylphenidate, the d-isomer), or Methylin. Duration: 4–6 hours per dose. Usually taken morning, lunchtime, and in some cases, afternoon.
Long acting formulation, sold as Ritalin LA, Metadate ER. Duration: 6–8 hours per dose. Usually taken twice daily.
All-day formulation, sold as Ritalin SR, Metadate CD, Concerta (Methylphenidate Hydrochloride), Focalin XR and Daytrana (patch). Duration: 10–12 hours per dose. Usually taken once a day.
Amphetamines —

Dextroamphetamine — Available in:
Regular formulation, sold as Dexedrine. Duration: 4–6 hours per dose. Usually taken 2–3 times daily.
Long-acting formulation, sold as Dexedrine Spansules. Duration: 8–12 hours per dose. Taken once a day.
Adderall, a trade name for a mixture of dextroamphetamine and laevoamphetamine salts. — Available in:
Regular formulation, Adderall. Duration: 4–6 hours a dose.
Long-acting formulation, Adderall XR. Duration: 12 hours. Taken once a day.

Methamphetamine — Available in:
Regular formulation, sold as Desoxyn by Ovation Pharmaceutical Company.
Bupropion. A dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, marketed under the brand name Wellbutrin.
Atomoxetine. A norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (NRI) introduced in 2003, it is the newest class of drug used to treat ADHD, and the first non-stimulant medication to be used as a first-line treatment for ADHD. Available in:

Once daily formulation, sold by Eli Lilly and Company as Strattera. This medicine doesn't have an exact duration. It is to be taken once or twice a day, depending on the individual, every day, and takes up to 6 weeks to begin working fully. If the intake schedule is interrupted, it may take a few weeks to begin working correctly again.
Second-line medications include:

Benzphetamine — a less powerful stimulant. Research on the effectiveness of this drug is not yet complete.
Provigil/Alertec/modafinil — In the US, it is currently offlabel pending decision by the FDA on August 22, 2006. Was originally pending marketting on-label as Alertec but denied for a reported incidence of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome.

Cylert/Pemoline — a stimulant used with great success until the late 1980s when it was discovered that this medication could cause liver damage. Although some physicians do continue to prescribe Cylert, it can no longer be considered a first-line medicine. In March 2005, the makers of Cylert announced that it would discontinue the medication's production. In fact, this drug has been also withdrawn by the FDA from the market.
Amineptine/Survector/Maneon — a tricyclic antidepressant now illegal in many countries for being thought to have a small potential for abuse. It is still legal in some parts of the EU, such as Spain and Italy; it is no longer available in the US, Canada, France or the UK.

Clonidine — Initially developed as a treatment for high blood pressure, low doses in evenings and/or afternoons are sometimes used in conjunction with stimulants to help with sleep and because Clonidine sometimes helps moderate impulsive and oppositional behavior and may reduce tics.[35]
Emsam/Selegiline — an MAOI currently being investigated for ADHD; Emsam is not a pill, but a patch.

Tianeptine/Stablon/Coaxil/Tatinol — an SSRE tricyclic antidepressant used primarily in Europe which is being investigated. It is currently off-patent in the United States and is therefore not likely to be approved by the FDA.
Amantadine — an anti-viral and dopamine agonist. There have been reports that low-dose amantadine has been successfully used off-label to treat ADHD.[36]

Because most of the medications used to treat ADHD are Schedule II under the U.S. DEA schedule system, and are considered powerful stimulants with a potential for abuse, there is controversy surrounding prescribing these drugs for children and adolescents. However, research studying ADHD sufferers who either receive treatment with stimulants or go untreated has indicated that those treated with stimulants are in fact much less likely to abuse any substance than ADHD sufferers who are not treated with stimulants.[37]

Alternative treatments
Many alternative treatments have been proposed for ADHD. There are few or no credible scientific studies to support these suggested interventions.

Nutrition
As noted above there are indications that children with ADHD are metabolically different from others, [38][39][40] and it has therefore been suggested that diet modification may play a role in the management of ADHD. Perhaps the best known of the dietary alternatives is the Feingold diet which involves removing salicylates, artificial colors and flavors, and certain synthetic preservatives from children's diets.[41] In the 1980s vitamin B6 was promoted as a helpful remedy for children with learning difficulties including inattentiveness. Later, zinc and multivitamins have been promoted as cures, and currently the addition of certain fatty acids such as omega-3 has been proposed as beneficial.[42] [43]

It is claimed by some ADHD patients that commonly available mild stimulants such as caffeine and theobromine have similar effects to the more powerful drugs commonly used in treating the disorder. Herbal supplements such as ginkgo biloba are also sometimes cited. There is some empirical data suggesting caffeine can improve the function of children suffering from ADHD.[44] [45]

Coaching
Main article: ADD Coaching
ADD Coaching is a program where coaches work with ADHD individuals to help them prioritize, organize, and develop life skills. Coaching is aimed at helping clients to be more realistic in setting goals for themselves by learning about their individual challenges and gifts, and emphasizes spending more time in areas of strength, while minimizing time spent dealing with areas of difficulty.

Other alternatives
Neurofeedback is a proposed ADHD remedy which involves teaching children to control their brain waves by the use of video-game technology. A thorough review by Sandra Loo and Russell Barkley of the research done on this in Developmental Neuropsychology 2005 concluded that neurofeedback does not have adequate support from appropriately conducted scientific studies to support it as an intervention at this time.[46]

Audio-visual entrainment uses light and sound stimulation to guide and change brainwave patterns.[47] While safe for most, it cannot be used by those suffering from photosensitive epilepsy due to the risk of triggering a seizure.

Cerebellar stimulation assumes that by improving the patient’s cerebellar function, many ADHD symptoms can be reduced or even eliminated permanently. As noted above, several studies have shown that the cerebellums of children with ADHD are notably smaller than their non-ADHD counterparts. Several programs of balance, coordination, eye and sensory exercises that specifically involve the functions of the cerebellum are used to treat ADHD, Asperger's syndrome, and many learning difficulties such as dyslexia and dyspraxia. Most prominent are the DORE program,[48] the Learning Breakthrough Program, and the Brain Gym.

Controversy

Main article: Controversy about ADHD
The ADHD diagnosis is controversial and has been questioned by some professionals, adults diagnosed with ADHD, and parents of diagnosed children. They point out the positive traits that people with ADHD have, such as "hyperfocusing." Others believe ADHD is a divergent or normal-variant human behavior, and use the term neurodiversity to describe it, emphasizing that there are an immense number of variations in genetics which could favor a greater or lesser ability to concentrate and/or to remain calm under varying circumstances.[49]

Skepticism towards ADHD as a diagnosis
The number of people diagnosed with ADHD in the U.S. and UK has grown dramatically over a short period of time. Critics of the diagnosis, such as Dan P. Hallahan and James M. Kauffman in their book Exceptional Learners: Introduction to Special Education, have argued that this increase is due to the ADHD diagnostic criteria being sufficiently general or vague to allow virtually anybody with persistent unwanted behaviors to be classified as having ADHD of one type or another, and that the symptoms are not supported by sufficient empirical data.[50] Additionally, a recent study by Adam Rafalovich has found that many doctors are no more confident in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD than are many parents.[51] Another source of skepticism is that most people with ADHD have no difficulties concentrating when they are doing something that interests them, whether it is educational or entertainment.[52] However, these objections have been rejected by the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Surgeon General.[53]

Another argument which has been offered against the diagnosis is that the behavior of putative ADHD sufferers is the "natural" way for children to behave in a situation which does not engage them. It has never been a simple task to teach children how to behave in a "grown up" fashion, and therefore great amounts of time and energy have traditonally been spent by parents and educators trying to inspire, cajole, threaten, lecture, bribe (and every other imaginable strategy) in the service of teaching a child how to gain self control, act with consideration for others, and do tasks that are not fun. In other words, it is argued, a child who is not successfully taught how to behave, obey the rules and stay on task will display all of the symptoms of ADHD. Those who place emphasis on the parental role in ADHD claim that while neurological impairments, or innate tendencies, can be a factor in the ability to stay focused on tasks being demanded, the "nature" (or biological) aspects of the nature vs.nurture controversy have been greatly exaggerated. They claim millions of children being diagnosed with this condition have nothing physically wrong with their brains. [54]

A believer that ADHD is a biological condition, Xavier Castellanos M.D., then head of ADHD research at the National Institute of Mental Health, (NIMH), [55] has also expressed reservations about the extent of available biological information about that condition in an interview on Frontline in 2000:

Frontline: "How does ADHD work on the brain? What do we know about it?"
Castellanos: "We don't yet know what's going on in ADHD..."
Frontline: "Give me one true fact about ADHD."
Castellanos "The posterior inferior vermis of the cerebellum is smaller in ADHD. I think that that is a true fact. It's taken about five years to convince myself that that's the case. That's about as much as I know--that I'm confident about..."

Parental role
Many clinicians believe that attachments and relationships with caregivers and other features of a child's environment have profound effects on attentional and self-regulatory capacities. An editorial in a special editon of Clinical Psychology in 2004 stated that "our impression from spending time with young people, their families and indeed colleagues from other disciplines is that a medical diagnosis and medication is not enough":

"In our clinical experience, without exception, we are finding that the same conduct typically labelled ADHD is shown by children in the context of violence and abuse, impaired parental attachments and other experiences of emotional trauma."[56]

While no compelling evidence has been offered that parenting methods can cause ADHD in otherwise normal children a sizable minority of clinicians believe this is the case. A different perspective holds that while evidence shows that parents of ADHD children experience more stress and give more commands,[57] further research has suggested that such parenting behavior is in large part a reaction to the child's ADHD and related disruptive and oppositional behavior, and to a minor extent the result of the parent's own ADHD.[58]

Positive aspects

Although ADHD is considered a disorder, some view it in a neutral or positive light. Rather than assuming that ADHD is inherently negative, some argue that ADHD is simply a different method of learning as opposed to an inferior one. "While the A students are learning the details of photosynthesis, the ADHD kids are staring out the window and pondering if it still works on a cloudy day" (Underwood). The aspects of ADHD which are generally viewed negatively can be a potential source of strength, such as willingness to take risks. "Impulsivity isn't always bad. Instead of dithering over a decision, they're willing to take risks" (Underwood). Both a proponent and an example of this point is JetBlue Airways founder David Neeleman. He considers ADHD one of his greatest assets and refuses to take medication. [59][60] There has been little serious research into either the intellectual advantages it can provide, or into conditions which might be necessary for taking advantage of ADHD traits.

Many professional counselors emphasize to persons diagnosed with ADHD and their families the perspective that the condition does not necessarily block, and may even facilitate, great accomplishments. Most frequently cited as potentially useful is the mental state of hyperfocus. Lists of famous persons either diagnosed with ADHD or suspected (but not necessarily known to have had ADHD) are numerous, such as Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison, but currently lack scientific proof because ADHD was not a documented medical condition until its appearance in the DSM-III in 1980.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Placebo effect

2006-09-21T22:42:00.000+08:00

The placebo effect (Latin placebo, "I shall please"), first mentioned in 1955 by Henry K. Beecher, M.D. (Beecher 1955) and also known as non-specific effects and the subject-expectancy effect, is the phenomenon that a patient's symptoms can be alleviated by an otherwise ineffective treatment, since the individual expects or believes that it will work. Some people consider this to be a remarkable aspect of human physiology; others consider it to be an illusion arising from the way medical experiments were conducted. The phenomenon, if it exists at all, is not fully understood by science.(New Scientist Space 19 March 2005)

In the opposite effect, a patient who disbelieves in a treatment may experience a worsening of symptoms. This nocebo effect (Latin nocebo, "I shall harm") can be measured in the same way as the placebo effect, e.g., when members of a control group receiving an inert substance report a worsening of symptoms. The recipients of the inert substance may nullify the placebo effect intended by simply having a negative attitude towards the effectiveness of the substance prescribed, which often leads to a nocebo effect, which is not caused by the substance itself, but more the patient's mentality towards her or his ability to get well.

Placebo-controlled studies

Prescription placebos used in research and practice
Beecher (1955) reported that about a quarter of patients who were administered a placebo, e.g. against back pain, reported a relief or diminution of pain. Remarkably, not only did the patients report improvement, but the improvements themselves were often objectively measurable, and the same improvements were typically not observed in patients who did not receive the placebo.

Because of this effect, government regulatory agencies approve new drugs only after tests establish not only that patients respond to them, but also that their effect is greater than that of a placebo (by way of affecting more patients, by affecting responders more strongly or both). Such a test or clinical trial is called a placebo-controlled study. Because a doctor's belief in the value of a treatment can affect his or her behaviour, and thus what his or her patient believes, such trials are usually conducted in "double-blind" fashion: that is, not only are the patients made unaware when they are receiving a placebo, the doctors are made unaware too. Recently, it has even been shown that "mock" surgery can have similar effects, and so some surgical techniques must be studied with placebo controls (rarely double blind, due to the difficulty involved). To merit approval, the group receiving the experimental treatment must experience a greater benefit than the placebo group.

Nearly all studies conducted this way show some benefit in the placebo group. For example, Khan published a meta-analysis of studies of investigational antidepressants and found a 30% reduction in suicide and attempted suicide in the placebo groups and a 40% reduction in the treated groups. (Khan 2000) However, studies generally do not include an untreated group, so determining the actual size of the placebo effect, compared to totally untreated patients, is difficult.

Notable placebo effect absences
In psychological treatment, two disorders are known to have very low placebo effects: schizophrenia, and obsessive compulsive disorder.[citation needed]

Placebo and pain
Careful studies have shown that the placebo effect can alleviate pain, although the effect is more pronounced with pre-existing pain than with experimentally-induced pain. People can be conditioned to expect analgesia in certain situations. When those conditions are provided to the patient, the brain responds by generating a pattern of neural activity that produces objectively quantifiable analgesia. (Benedetti 2003, Wager 2004)
Evans argued that the placebo effect works through a suppression of the acute phase response, and as a result does not work in medical conditions that do not feature this. (Evans 2005) The acute phase response consists of inflammation and sickness behaviour:

Four classic signs of ‘inflammation’: tumor, rubor, calor and dolor – swelling, redness, heat and pain.
Sickness behaviour: lethargy, apathy, loss of appetite and increased sensitivity to pain.

Placebo and depression
A brain-imaging study found that depressed patients who responded to the placebo effect showed changes in cerebral blood flow, which were similar to the changes in brain function seen in patients who responded to anti-depressant medication. (Leuchter 2002) Other studies argue that up to 75% of the effectiveness of anti-depressant medication is due to the placebo-effect rather than the treatment itself. (Khan 2000)

Endogenous Opiates
Endogenous opiates are chemicals produced by the brain that suppress pain and produce analgesia and a sense of well-being. Opium and drugs derived from it (opiates) produce their "highs" by triggering the same brain receptors used by natural opiates. Increased release of endogenous opiates like endorphin is associated with pleasant experiences like exercise (the runner's high) and sex. When patients who claimed to experience pain relief after receiving a placebo were injected with naloxone (a drug that blocks the effects of opiates), their pain returned, suggesting that the placebo effect may be partly due to the release of natural opiates. (Sauro 2005)

Objective or subjective effects?

Hróbjartsson and Götzsche published a study in 2001 and a follow-up study in 2004 questioning the nature of the placebo effect. (Hrobjartsson 2001, Hrobjartsson 2004) They performed two meta-analyses involving 156 clinical trials in which an experimental drug or treatment protocol was compared to a placebo group and an untreated group, and specifically asked whether the placebo group improved compared to the untreated group. Hróbjartsson and Götzsche found that in studies with a binary outcome (patients were classified as improved or not improved) the placebo group had no statistically significant improvement over the no-treatment group. Similarly, there was no significant placebo effect in studies in which objective outcomes (such as blood pressure) were measured by an independent observer. The placebo effect could only be documented in studies in which the outcomes (improvement or failure to improve) were reported by the subjects themselves.

The authors concluded that the placebo effect does not have "powerful clinical effects," (objective effects) and that patient-reported improvements (subjective effects) in pain were small and could not be clearly distinguished from bias.

These results suggest that the placebo effect is largely subjective. This would help explain why the placebo effect is easiest to demonstrate in conditions where subjective factors are very prominent or significant parts of the problem. Some of these conditions are headache, stomach ache, asthma, allergy, tension, and the experience of pain, which is often a significant part of many mild and serious illnesses.

How the placebo effect works

There are three main hypotheses for how the placebo effect works, the subject-expectancy effect, conditioning and motivation.

Expectancy Effect
The subject-expectancy effect attributes the placebo effect to conscious or unconscious manipulation by patients in reporting improvement. Hróbjartsson and Götzsche argued in their article, "Most patients are polite and prone to please the investigators by reporting improvement, even when no improvement was felt." Subjective bias can also be unconscious, where the patient believes he is improving as a result of the attention and care he has received.

Conditioning
Classical conditioning is a type of associative learning where the subject learns to associate a particular stimulus with a particular response. In this case the stimulant is the substance perceived as medicine but is the placebo, and the response is the relief of symptoms. It is difficult to tell the difference between conditioning and the expectancy effect when the outcome is subjective and reported by the patient. However, conditioning can result in measurable biological changes similar to the changes seen with the real treatment or drug. For example, studies showing that placebo treatments result in changes in brain function similar to the real drug are probably examples of conditioning resulting in objectively measurable results. (Sauro 2005, Wager 2004, Leuchter 2002)

Motivation
Motivational explanations of the placebo effect have typically considered the placebo effect to be an outcome of one’s desire to feel better, reduce anxiety, or cooperate with an experimenter or health care professional (Price et al. 1999, Margo 1999). The motivational perspective is supported by recent research showing that nonconscious goals for cooperation can be satisfied by confirming expectations about a treatment (Geers et al. 2005).

The use of placebos in medical practice

The ethics of prescribing placebos in medical practice is highly debated. Some practitioners argue that the use of placebos is sometimes justified because it will do no harm and may do some good. With the publication of studies by Hróbjartsson and Götzsche and others, the proposition that placebos may do some good is under fire.

In research experimental studies, the method of establishing a proper control group to eliminate the placebo effect has also been difficult, particularly for surgical and therapy interventions that are not pharmaceutical in nature. Notably, there has been much debate of whether to use a placebo pill or conduct a sham procedure as a control.

A study of Danish general practitioners found that 48% had prescribed a placebo at least 10 times in the past year. The most frequently prescribed placebos were antibiotics for viral infections, and vitamins for fatigue. Specialists and hospital-based physicians reported much lower rates of placebo use. (Hrobjartsson 2003) A 2004 study in the British Medical Journal of physicians in Israel found that 60% used placebos in their medical practice, most commonly to "fend off" requests for unjustified medications or to calm a patient. Of the physicians who reported using placebos, only 15% told their patients they were receiving placebos or non-specific medications. (Nitzan 2004) An accompanying editorial stated,

"The placebo effect, thought of as the result of the inert pill, can be better understood as an effect of the relationship between doctor and patient. Adding the doctor's caring to medical care affects the patient's experience of treatment, reduces pain, and may affect outcome. This survey makes it clear that doctors continue to use placebos, and most think they help."
The editorial suggested there were problems with Hróbjartsson and Götzsche's methods and argued that their results show that placebos can't cure everything, but don't prove that the placebo effect cures nothing. The editorial concluded, "We cannot afford to dispense with any treatment that works, even if we are not certain how it does." (Spiegel 2004)

The editorial prompted responses on both sides of the issue.[1]
Critics of the practice responded that it is unethical to prescribe treatments that don't work, and that telling a patient that a placebo is a real medication is deceptive and harms the doctor-patient relationship in the long run. Critics also argued that using placebos can delay the proper diagnosis and treatment of serious medical conditions.

Defenders of the use of placebos suggested that placebos do not work in clinical trials because the subjects know they might be getting a placebo, but do work in medical practice where the patient believes she is getting an active drug. Other writers pointed to the empirical data showing that placebos can have measurable biological effects, especially in pain relief (see above), or argued that the use of a placebo to "please the patient" fosters real healing as part of a caring doctor-patient relationship. (Barfod 2005, Di Blasi 2005)

About 25% of physicians in both the Danish and Israeli studies used placebos as a diagnostic tool to determine if a patient's symptoms were real, or if the patient was malingering. Both the critics and defenders of the medical use of placebos agreed that this was unethical. The BMJ editorial said, "That a patient gets pain relief from a placebo does not imply that the pain is not real or organic in origin...the use of the placebo for 'diagnosis' of whether or not pain is real is misguided."
The placebo effect is an active area of research and discussion and it is possible that a clear consensus regarding the use of placebos in medical practice will emerge in the future.

There is general agreement that placebo control groups are an important tool for controlling for several types of possible bias, including the placebo effect, in double blind clinical trials.

Confounders mistaken for placebo effect

Due to the difficulty in ascribing causation, many phenomena overlap with — and can thus mistakenly be included in — statistics on the placebo effect.
Natural termination of the disease process.
Regression to the mean. Cyclical presentation of the disease.
Errant diagnosis or prognosis.
Temporary improvement confused with cure.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gymnopaedia

2006-09-10T17:43:00.000+08:00

This article is about the Ancient Greek Gymnopaedia festival and dance. For 19th century art referring to this (e.g. the "gymnopédies" by Erik Satie): see Gymnopédie

In ancient Sparta the Gymnopaedia was a yearly celebration during which naked youths displayed their athletic and martial skills through the medium of dancing. The custom was introduced early in the seventh century, concurrently with the introduction of naked athletics, oiling the body for exercise so as to highlight its beauty, and the formalization of pederastic pedagogy.

Corybantian dance, the type of dance most likely danced on Gymnopedia festivals (image from Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities)

Gymnopaedia (also written Gymnopaediae or Gymnopaidiai) derives from the ancient Greek Γυμνοπαιδίαι. The word Gymnopaedia is composed of γυμνός (gymnos - "naked") and παῖς (pais - "boy"). In Greek Γυμνοπαιδίαι is always plural.
Apart from "Gymnopaedia", modern transliterations include "Gymnopaidiai" (mostly older translations of Greek texts, maintaining a plural form for the word), "gymnopedia", "gymnopedie" and "gymnopédie" (in French, or when referring to the Erik Satie compositions, see Gymnopédie).

Gymnopaedia in ancient Greece

The Gymnopaedia festival
The term appears in texts of Herodotus, and several authors in the Attic and Koiné periods. While for the earliest of these authors the meaning of Gymnopaedia appears predominantly as a festival (including several dances, sports, etc,...), in the later periods of antiquity gymnopaedia is referred to as a particular dance.

The festival, celebrated in the summertime, was dedicated to Apollo (and/or, according to Plutarch, to Athena). Plato praises gymnopaedia-like exercises and performances in The Laws as an excellent medium of education: by dancing strenuously in the summer heat, Spartan youth were trained in both musical grace and warrior grit at the same time.
In ancient Greece, as a general rule, sports were reserved to men, and would be performed naked. Also, men would be the only spectators when such sports were performed publicly. In this sense "gymnos" (naked) is not an exceptional part of a word to indicate sports in those days: gymnastics is derived from the same. See also Gymnasium (ancient Greece).
Public performance of such sports would generally be in a ceremonial setting, i.e. for the occasion of a religious feast. If an element of competition between the performers was present (which was not so for all ceremonially performed sports), that could as well mean a competition regarding the beauty of the movements, as a competition, for some sports, in the sense of being the fastest or the strongest. This means that many of the sport categories of those days had rather the aspect of a dance, than of a modern understanding of field and track athletics.

All this applies, e.g., for the ancient Olympic games too.

Roman era

Some 8 centuries after the first gymnopaedia had been presented, it still survived in Lacedaemonia. According to Lucian of Samosata (in his dialogue Of Pantomime) there still seems some connection to martial arts, as the youths would engage in gymnopaidia immediately after their daily military training. On the other hand, he describes the gymnopaedia as "yet another dance", neither involving nudity, nor exclusivity for men.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Intersexuality

2006-09-10T15:55:00.000+08:00

An intersexual or intersex person (or organism of any unisexual species) is one who is born with genitalia and/or secondary sex characteristics determined as neither exclusively male nor female, or which combine features of the male and female sexes. The terms hermaphrodite and pseudohermaphrodite, introduced in the 19th century, are now considered antiquated, misleading and stigmatizing, and patient advocates call for these terms to be abandoned. The phrase "ambiguous genitalia" refers specifically to genital appearance, but not all intersex conditions result in atypical genital appearance.

There is currently a move by some activists to eliminate the term "intersex" in medical usage, replacing it with "Disorders of Sex Development" (DSD) in order to avoid conflating anatomy with identity. [1] However, this has been met with criticism from other activists who question a disease/disability model and advocate no legal definition of sexes, no gender assignments, no legal sex on birth certificates, and no official sexual orientation categories. [2]

Overview

According to the highest estimates (Fausto-Sterling et. al., 2000) perhaps 1 percent of live births exhibit some degree of sexual ambiguity [1], and that between 0.1% and 0.2% of live births are ambiguous enough to become the subject of specialist medical attention, including surgery to disguise their sexual ambiguity. Other sources (Leonard Sax, 2002) create a narrower definition of "true intersexual conditions" and estimate the incidence as far lower, at approximately 0.018%.
In typical fetal development, the presence of the SRY gene causes the fetal gonads to become testes; the absence of it allows the gonads to continue to develop into ovaries. Thereafter, the development of the internal reproductive organs and the external genitalia is determined by hormones produced by certain fetal gonads (ovaries or testes) and the cells' response to them. The initial appearance of the fetal genitalia (a few weeks after conception) is basically feminine: a pair of "urogenital folds" with a small protuberance in the middle, and the urethra behind the protuberance. If the fetus has testes, and if the testes produce testosterone, and if the cells of the genitals respond to the testosterone, the outer urogenital folds swell and fuse in the midline to produce the scrotum; the protuberance grows larger and straighter to form the penis; the inner urogenital swellings grow, wrap around the penis, and fuse in the midline to form the penile urethra.

Because there is variation in all of these processes, a child can be born with a sexual anatomy that is typically female, or feminine in appearance with a larger than average clitoris (clitoral hypertrophy); or typically male, masculine in appearance with a smaller than average penis that is open along the underside. The appearance may be quite ambiguous, describable as female genitals with a very large clitoris and partially fused labia, or as male genitals with a very small penis, completely open along the midline ("hypospadic"), and empty scrotum.

There are dozens of named medical conditions that may lead to intersex anatomy. Fertility is variable. The distinctions "male pseudohermaphrodite", "female pseudohermaphrodite" and especially "true hermaphrodite" are vestiges of 19th century thinking that placed "true sex" in the histology (microscopic appearance) of the gonads.

The common habit in the 21st century of elevating the role of the sex chromosomes above all other factors when determining gender may be analogous to the older habit of finding "true" sex in the gonads. Though high school biology teaches that men have XY and women XX chromosomes, in fact there are quite a few other possible combinations such as Turner syndrome XO, Triple X syndrome XXX, Klinefelter syndrome XXY, XYY syndrome XYY, Mosaicism XO/XY, de la Chapelle syndrome XX male, Swyer syndrome XY female, and there are many other individuals who do not follow the typical patterns (such as individuals with four or even more sex chromosomes).

Thus, people nowadays may be more likely to look towards the sex chromosomes than, for example, the histology of the gonads. However, according to researcher Eric Vilain at the University of California, Los Angeles, "the biology of gender is far more complicated than XX or XY chromosomes".[2] Many different criteria have been proposed, and there is little consensus.[3]

Biological causes of intersexuality

Typical males have sex chromosomes XY and typical females XX. One biological definition of a male child is the presence of a Y chromosome. This definition has sometimes been used for sex determination at sports events, but it caused much confusion because it does not always apply.

The most common cause of sexual ambiguity is congenital adrenal hyperplasia, an endocrine disorder in which the adrenal glands produce abnormally high levels of virilizing hormones. In genetic females, this leads to an appearance that may be slightly masculinized (large clitoris) to quite masculine.

In many cases individuals are neither XX nor XY:
The presence of one or two additional X chromosomes in a male (XXY or XXXY) may cause Klinefelter's syndrome.
A single X chromosome (XO) is called Turner's syndrome. It is characterized by a lack or incomplete development of certain primary and secondary female characteristics and is associated with a range of medical issues.
Sex chromosomal mosaicism or chimerism can cause what was once called "true hermaphroditism", the presence of both testicular and ovarian tissue in one individual.

In persistent mullerian duct syndrome, the child has XY chromosomes typical of a male. The child has a male body and an internal uterus and fallopian tubes because his body did not produce Mullerian inhibiting factor during fetal development.

The following further XY cases leads to intersexuality:
Androgen insensitivity syndrome. They develop either partially or fully as females, due to their bodies failing to respond to testosterone. In the case of complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (CAIS), their tissues are totally insensitive to androgens, and they will develop as females, with normal female external organs. However, they will not develop a uterus or fallopian tubes, due to the production of Mullerian inhibiting factor by their testes. At puberty breasts will develop due to the production of estrogen by the testes; but no menstruation will occur due to the lack of a uterus. The tissues of individuals with partial androgen insensitivity, by contrast, have partial sensitivity to testosterone, but it is reduced compared to the male normal. These individuals can develop with either male external anatomy, or female external anatomy, or some combination, depending on the degree of insensitivity.

5-alpha-reductase deficiency. In this condition, individuals have testes, as well as vagina and labia, but with a small penis capable of ejaculation instead of a clitoris (this penis, however, appears to be a clitoris at birth). These individuals are normally raised as girls. However, come puberty, their testes will descend, their voice will deepen and they often will develop a male sexual identity. But they develop only limited facial hair. The number of people with this condition varies geographically, depending on how much of a given population is interrelated.
Excessive in utero exposure to androgens may lead to intersexuality in XX cases:
Congenital adrenal hyperplasia: Female internal anatomy, but ambiguous or male external genitalia, and develop male secondary sexual characteristics.

Progestin-induced virilisation. In this case, the male hormones are caused by use of progestin, a drug that was used in the 1950s and 1960s in order to prevent miscarriage. These individuals have internal and external female anatomy. They develop however some male secondary characteristics, and they frequently have unusually large clitorises.

A similar phenomenon occurs in cases where a cow brings two fraternal twins, one male and one female, to term. Because (unlike humans) such twins share hormones via their placental blood interface with the mother cow, male hormones produced in the body of the fetal bull find their way into the body of the fetal cow and masculinize her brain. The result is a freemartin (unconventional heifer), a cow that will eventually try to mount other cows the way that a bull would.
In XX male syndrome (also called de la Chapelle syndrome) the resulting child is usually a phenotypically normal male, but without sperm production. This syndrome is sometimes the result of an abnormal interchange of the SRY region from a Y chromosome to an X.

Chimerism

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, vol 338, p 166, physicians in the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, Scotland have reported on a child with a penis, one testicle, and an ovary and fallopian tube instead of a second testicle. Some of this child's body cells are XY (male), and some are XX (female). The child was conceived as the result of in-vitro fertilization, and it appears most likely that two embryos, a male embryo and a female embryo, fused before or soon after embryos were transferred to the mother's uterus.

This kind of condition, where there is more than one set of cell lines with different sets of chromosomes making up the body is known as chimerism. This kind of tetraploid chimerism can also occur naturally, without in-vitro fertilization (see New England Journal of Medicine, vol 346, p 1545).

Not all cases of Chimerism involve intersexuality, however. There have been about 40 known cases worldwide of humans reproducing naturally and producing offspring with absolutely no genetic similarities between mother and child. Discovery Health Channel has produced a documentary on two families and their issues in dealing with chimerism. It was called "I Am My Own Twin."

Intersexuals in society

Intersexual individuals are treated in different ways by different cultures. In some cultures intersexuals were included in larger "third gender" or gender-blending social roles along with other individuals. In most societies, intersexed individuals have been expected to select one sex, and conform to its gender role.
Since the rise of modern medical science in Western societies, some intersexuals with ambiguous external genitalia have had their genitalia surgically modified to resemble either male or female genitals. But there are increasing calls for recognition of the various degrees of intersexuality as healthy variations which should not be subject to correction. Some have attacked the common Western practice of performing corrective surgery on the genitals of intersexuals as a Western cultural equivalent of female genital mutilation. Despite the attacks on the practice, most of the medical profession still supports it. Others have claimed that the talk about third sexes represents an ideological agenda to deride gender as a social construct whereas they believe gender is a biological reality.

Corrective surgery is generally not necessary for protection of life or health, but purely for aesthetic or social purposes. Unlike other aesthetic surgical procedures performed on infants, such as corrective surgery for a cleft palate, genital surgery may lead to negative consequences for sexual functioning in later life (such as loss of sensation in the genitals, for example, when a clitoris deemed too large/penile is reduced/removed, or feelings of freakishness and unacceptability) which would have been avoided without the surgery; in other cases negative consequences may be avoided by surgery. (Similar attitudes are present in some cases of botched infant circumcision, in which the solution might involve intensive medical and parental efforts to reassign the male baby to a female identity.) Defenders of the practice argue that it is necessary for individuals to be clearly identified as male or female in order for them to function socially. However, many intersex individuals have resented the medical intervention, and some have been so discontented with their surgically assigned gender as to opt for sexual reassignment surgery later in life.

During the Victorian Period, medical men (individuals interested in medicine, not yet credentialed as "Medical Doctors," and not yet including women among their number) introduced the terms "true hermaphrodite" (meaning an individual who has both ovarian and testicular gonadal histology, verified under a microscope), "male pseudo-hermaphrodite" (a person with testicular tissue, but either female or ambiguous sexual anatomy), and "female pseudo-hermaphrodite" (a person with ovarian tissue, but either male or ambiguous sexual anatomy). The writer Anne Fausto-Sterling coined the words herm (for "true hermaphrodite"), merm (for "male pseudo-hermaphrodite"), and ferm (for "female pseudo-hermaphrodite"), and proposed that these be recognized as sexes along with male and female. However, her use was "tongue-in-cheek"; she no longer advocates these terms even as a rhetorical device, and her proposed nomenclature was criticized by Cheryl Chase, in a letter to The Sciences which criticized the traditional standard of medical care as well as Fausto-Sterling's shorter names, and announced the creation of the Intersex Society of North America.

Beginning as early as 1989, intersex became a topic of interest for broadcast tv and radio in the United States and other countries.

Chimera (genetics)

2006-09-10T15:41:00.000+08:00

In zoology, a chimera is an animal which has two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells that originated in different zygotes; if the different cells emerged from the same zygote, it is called a mosaicism. It is either acquired through the infusion of allogeneic hematopoietic cells during transplantation or transfusion or it is inherited. In fraternal twins, chimerism occurs by means of blood-vessel anastomoses. Chimeras were named after the mythological creature Chimera.

Chimeras are formed from either four parent cells (two fertilized eggs or early embryos are fused together) or three parent cells (a fertilized egg is fused with an unfertilized egg or a fertilized egg is fused with an extra sperm). Each population of cells keeps its own character and the resulting animal is a mosaic of mis-matched parts. An analogy is two jigsaw puzzles cut using an identical cutter, but with different pictures. You can make a single puzzle out of the mis-matched parts, but the completed puzzle will show parts of both different pictures. Chimeras can often breed, but the fertility and type of offspring depends on which cell line gave rise to the ovaries or testes.

Tetragametic chimerism

Tetragametic chimerism is a less common cause of congenital chimerism. It occurs through the fertilization of two ova by two spermatozoa, followed by the fusion of the zygotes and the development of an organism with intermingled cell lines. This happens at a very early stage of development, such as that of the blastocyst. Such an organism is called a tetragametic chimera as it is formed from four gametes — two eggs and two sperm. Put another way, the chimera is formed from the merger of two fraternal twins in a very early (zygote or blastocyst) phase. As such, they can be male, female, or hermaphroditic.

As the organism develops, the resulting chimera can come to possess organs that have different sets of chromosomes. For example, the chimera may have a liver composed of cells with one set of chromosomes and have a kidney composed of cells with a second set of chromosomes. This has occurred in humans, though it is considered extremely rare.
Affected persons are identified by the finding of two populations of red cells or, if the zygotes are of opposite sex, ambiguous genitalia and hermaphroditism alone or in combination; such persons sometimes also have patchy skin, hair, or eye pigmentation (heterochromia). If the blastocysts are of the same sex, it can only be detected through DNA testing, although this is a rare procedure. Thus the phenomenon may be more common than currently believed. If the blastocysts are of opposite sex, genitals of both sexes are formed, either ovary and testis, or combined ovotestes, in one rare form of intersexuality, a condition previously known as true hermaphroditism. As of 2003, there were about 30-40 human cases in the literature, according to New Scientist.[1]

Natural chimeras are not detected unless the offspring has abnormalities, such as male/female or hermaphrodite characteristics, also skin discoloring. The most noticeable are some male tortoiseshell cats or animals with ambiguous sex organs or behavioural abnormalities such as confused gender behaviour (where female cells made the brain but male cells made the genitals or vice versa). Recent studies of tortoiseshell male cats and unusually coloured tortoiseshell-like cats suggest that natural chimerism is far more common than previously realised and that it frequently goes undetected.
Chimerism can sometimes be detected in DNA testing. The Lydia Fairchild case, for example, was brought to court after DNA testing showed that her children could not be hers, since DNA didn't match. The charge against her was dismissed when it became clear that Lydia was a chimera, with the matching DNA being found in her cervical tissue. Another case was that of Karen Keegan.[1]

The tetragametic state has important implications for organ or stem-cell transplantation. Chimeras typically have immunologic tolerance to both cell lines. Thus, for a tetragametic human, a wider array of relatives and other persons may be eligible to be organ donors.

Microchimerism

Microchimerism is the presence of a small number of cells, genetically distinct from those of the host individual, and an organ. The most common form is fetomaternal microchimerism (or fetal chimerism) whereby cells from a fetus pass through into the mother. Fetal cells have been documented to persist in maternal circulation for as long as 27 years. Microchimerism had also been shown to exist after blood transfusion to severely immune compromised population of patients who suffered trauma.

Parasitic chimerism in leftvents

Chimerism occurs naturally in adult leftvents, and is in fact a natural and essential part of their lifecycle. One or more males attach to a female as parasites (they must do so, as they will never fully mature alone), eventually fusing into a single, hermaphroditic individual with a shared circulatory system. Once fused to a female, the males will reach sexual maturity, developing large testicles as their other organs atrophize.

Chimeras in research

In biological research, chimeras are artificially produced by mixing cells from two different organisms. This can result in the eventual development of an adult animal composed of cells from both donors, which may be of different species — for example, in 1984 a chimeric geep was produced by combining embryos from a goat and a sheep[2]. A chicken with a quail's brain has been produced by grafting portions of a quail embryo into a chicken embryo.

Interspecies chimeras are made in the laboratory. In addition to the famous geep, there are rat/mouse chimeras and a rabbit/human chimera that was not allowed to develop beyond a few days. Like hybrids, the parent species must be closely enough related in order to produce live offspring that are relatively healthy. Chimeras between different varieties of mice are relatively common in embryology. By fusing cells of differently coloured or otherwise genetically distinct mice, researchers have been able to see how embryos form and which structures are related (arise from which line of cells).
In August 2003, researchers at the Shanghai Second Medical University in China reported that they had successfully fused human skin cells and rabbit eggs to create the first human chimeric embryos. The embryos were allowed to develop for several days in a laboratory setting, then destroyed to harvest the resulting stem cells. Increasingly realizable projects using part-human, part-animal chimeras as living factories for producing cells or organs for xenotransplantation raise a host of ethical and safety issues.

Chimeras should not be confused with hybrids, which are organisms formed from two gametes (each from a different species) which formed a single zygote. All cells in a hybrid originate from this single zygote. For example, a mule is a hybrid created from the sperm of a donkey and the egg of a horse.
Chimeras should also not be confused with mosaics, which are organisms with genetically different cell types, but which again originate from a single zygote.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mosaic (genetics)

2006-09-10T15:22:00.000+08:00

In medicine (genetics), a mosaic or mosaicism denotes the presence of two populations of cells with different genotypes in one patient, where usually one of the two is affected by a genetic disorder. Mosaicism may result from a mutation during development which is propagated to only a subset of the adult cells. Mammalian females are usually mosaic because one of their X chromosomes is randomly inactivated during development.

Although the two can have some common symptoms, mosaicism is distinctly different from chimerism; in the latter, two or more cell lines of different origin are present in an organism and are not simply the result of mutation within a single cell line.

Although most forms of trisomy are due to problems in meiosis and affect all cells of the organism, there are cases where the trisomy only occurs in a selection of the cells. This is usually due to a nondisjunction event in an early mitosis. Generally this leads to a milder phenotype than in non-mosaic patients with the same disorder.
Sometimes intersex conditions can be caused by mosaicism - where some cells in the body have XX and others XY chromosomes.

Another example of a mosaic genotype is one of the milder forms of Klinefelter's syndrome, called 46/47 XY/XXY mosaic wherein some of the patient's cells contain XY chromosomes, and some contain XXY chromosomes. The 46/47 annotation indicates that the XY cells have the normal number of 46 total chromosomes, and the XXY cells have 47 total chromosomes.
A special type of mosaicism is gonadal mosaicism. This is when a part of the gonadal cells of an organism have different genotype than the rest of the cells, usually because of a mutation that occurred in an early stem cell that gave rise to a part or all of the gonadal tissue. If these cells have sustained a new mutation that causes a dominant heritable disease, then it is possible for two healthy parents to have an offspring suffering from the disease. Usually when this happens it is because of a new mutation in the zygote, but if the parents have two or more offspring with the same disorder, then it is an indication of gonadal mosaicsm.

Use in experimental biology

Genetic mosaics can be extraordinarily useful in the study of biological systems, and can be created intentionally in many model organisms in a variety of ways. They often allow for the study of genes that are important for very early events in development, making it otherwise difficult to obtain adult organisms in which later effects would be apparent. Furthermore they can be used to determine the tissue or cell type in which a given gene is required and to determine whether a gene is cell autonomous. That is whether the gene acts solely within the cell that is expressing it or whether it affects neighboring cells which do not themselves show a phenotype when carrying a mutation in the gene.
The earliest examples of this involved transplantation experiments (technically creating chimeras) where cells from a blastula stage embryo from one genetic background are aspirated out and injected into a blastula stage embryo of a different genetic background.

Genetic mosaics are a particularly powerful tool when used in the commonly studied fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster where they are created through mitotic recombination. Mosaics were originally created by irradiating flies heterozygous for a particular allele with X-rays, inducing double-strand DNA breaks which, when repaired, could result in a cell homozygous for one of the two alleles. After further rounds of replication, this cell would result in a patch, or "clone" of cells mutant for the allele being studied.

More recently the use of a transgene incorporated into the Drosophila genome has made the system far more flexible. The Flip Recombinase (or FLP) is a gene from the commonly studied yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae which recognizes "Flip Recombinase Target" sites, which are short sequences of DNA, and induces recombination between them. FRT sites have been inserted transgenically near the centromere of each chromosome arm of Drosophila melanogaster. The FLP gene can then be induced selectively, commonly using either the heat shock promoter or the GAL4/UAS system. The resulting clones can be identified either negatively or positively.

In negatively marked clones the fly is transheterozygous for a gene encoding a visible marker (commonly the green fluorescent protein, GFP) and an allele of a gene to be studied (both on chromosomes bearing FRT sites). After induction of FLP expression, cells that undergo recombination will have progeny that are homozygous for either the marker or the allele being studied. Therefore the cells that do not carry the marker (which are dark) can be identified as carrying a mutation.

It is sometimes inconvenient to use negatively marked clones, especially when generating very small patches of cells, where it is more difficult to see a dark spot on a bright background than a bright spot on a dark background. It is possible to create positively marked clones using the so called MARCM (pronounced mark-em) system, which stands for "Mosaic Analysis with a Repressible Cell Marker" and was developed by Liqun Luo, a professor at Stanford University. In this system the GAL4/UAS system is used to globally express GFP. However the gene GAL80 is used to repress the action of GAL4, preventing the expression of GFP. Instead of using GFP to mark the wild type chromosome as above, GAL80 serves this purpose, so that when it is removed, GAL4 is allowed to function, and GFP turns on. This results in the cells of interest being marked brightly in a dark background.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pederasty in ancient Greece

2006-09-10T13:46:00.000+08:00

Greek pederasty, as idealized by the Greeks from Archaic times onward, was a relationship and bond between an adolescent boy and an adult man outside of his immediate family, and was constructed as an aristocratic moral and educational institution. As such, it was seen by the Greeks as an essential element in their culture from the time of Homer onwards.[1]
The term derives from the combination of pais (Greek for 'boy') with erastēs (Greek for 'lover'; cf. eros). In a wider sense it referred to erotic love between adolescents and adult men. The Greeks considered it normal for any man to be drawn to the beauty of a boy - just as much if not more than to that of a woman.[2] What they disagreed upon was whether and how to express that desire.

Pederasty is closely associated with the customs of athletic and artistic nudity in the gymnasia, delayed marriage for gentlemen, symposia and seclusion of women.[3] It is also integral to Greek military training, and an important factor in the deployment of troops.

Analogous relations between Greek women and adolescent girls have been reported by Plutarch, Xenophon and others.

Possible beginnings

The ancient Greeks of the pederastic city-states were the first to describe, study, systematize, and establish pederasty as an institution. The origin of that tradition has been variously explained. One school of thought, articulated by Bernard Sergent, holds that the Greek pederastic model evolved from far older Indo-European rites of passage, which were grounded in a shamanic tradition with roots in the neolithic.

Another explanation, articulated by Anglophone scholars such as William Percy, holds that pederasty was formalized in ancient Crete around 630 B.C. as a means of population control, together with delayed age of marriage for men of thirty years.

The earliest Greek texts, specifically the works attributed to the Ionian poet Homer, do not overtly document formal pederastic practices. A number of theories attempt to explain that lack. A largely held view is the Dorian hypothesis first established by K.O. Müller in the 1800s. According to this theory pederasty was brought in by the Dorian warrior tribes who conquered Greece around 1200 B.C.. They settled most of the Peloponnese along with the islands Crete, Thera, and Rhodes. This forced the Ionian Greeks towards Asia Minor but left important cities in Athens and Euboea. Another explanation is that the epic style excluded discussion of certain topics, among them pederastic relations. Nevertheless, Homer's works hint at homoerotic relationships obliquely, as in the mentions of the myth of Zeus and Ganymede in the Iliad and the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite.

Alternative forms

Pederasty was constructed in various ways. In some areas, such as Boeotia, the man and boy were formally joined together and lived as a couple. In other areas, such as Elis, boys were persuaded by means of gifts, and in a few such relations were forbidden altogether. The Spartans however were said to practice chaste pederasty.[4] Where allowed, a free man was usually entitled to fall in love with a boy, proclaim it publicly, and court him as long as the boy in question manifested the traits prerequisite to a pederastic relationship: he had to be kalos (καλός), "handsome" and agathos (ἀγαθός), good, brave, just, and modest. The boy was expected to be circumspect and not let himself be easily won. Generally, the role of the lover had many of the characteristics of that of legal guardian, similar to the role of male relatives of the boy.

Poets such as Theognis and Anacreon self-identify as pederasts, each thus presenting a persona embodying his own ideals for the tradition. In the case of Theognis, pederasty is political and pedagogical — the elite male's method of passing on his wisdom and loyalties to his beloved. Anacreon's values are erotic and Dionysiac, which is to say sensual and spiritual, and no less ideal than those of Theognis. Vase iconography of the period is consistent with this interpretation: the gifts offered, and the context of the palaestra speak of pedagogic values, while the repeated inscriptions of "KALOS" idealize the beauty and physical attraction of the erōmenos (the beloved boy). The Idealization of Pederasty in Archaic Greek Poetry and Vase-Painting

Problematics

Foucault declared that pederasty was "problematized" in Greek culture, that it was "the object of a special — and especially intense — moral preoccupation" focusing on concern with the chastity/moderation of the erōmenos (the term used for the "beloved" youth). Foucault's conclusions however are now thought to hold true only of Classical Athenian texts, while in Archaic Greece pederasty, rather than being problematized, was variously associated with the highest ideals.[5]
The study of Greek pederasty is complicated by the fact that the pederastic record has been subject to systematic destruction since antiquity. Of all the Greek works dealing principally with love between people of the same sex, none has survived, suggesting to at least one historian that "queer works were deliberately suppressed and destroyed rather than merely lost during the passage of time,"[1] though in general only a small percentage of ancient literature has been preserved. Nonetheless, there are some conspicuous exceptions to the general picture such as the Paidikē Mousa of Strato and the Erōtes of Pseudo-Lucian.

Evolution and extinction

Greek pederasty went through a series of changes over the millennium from its entry into the historical record and its final demise as an official institution. In some areas, such as Athens, the construction of the relationship seems to have gone from greater modesty in the early days to a freer physicality and lack of restraint in classical times, followed by a return to a more spiritual form in the early fifth century. Its formal end resembled its beginning, in that it came by official decree – that of emperor Justinian, who also put an end to other institutions that sustained ancient culture, such as Plato's Academy and the Olympic Games.

Philosophical discourses

Socrates, Plato, Aeschines Socraticus, and Xenophon described the inspirational powers of love between men though decrying its physical expression. Upon the death of Plato the presidency of the Academy passed from lover to lover. Of the Stoics, Chrysippus, Cleanthes, and Zeno fell in love with young men. The topic of pederasty was the subject of extensive analysis. Some of the principal dilemmas discussed were:
Which form should pederasty take, chaste or erotic?
Is pederasty right or wrong?
Is pederasty better or worse than the love of women?

Socrates, as represented in Plato's writings, appears to have favored chaste pederastic relationships, marked by a balance between desire and self-control. By setting aside the sexual consummation of the relationship, Socrates essentialized the friendship and love between the partners. He pointedly criticized purely physical infatuations, for example by mocking Critias' lust for Euthydemus by comparing his behavior towards the boy to that of a "a piglet scratching itself against a rock".[6] That, however, did not prevent him from frequenting the boy brothels, from which he bought and freed his future friend and student, Phaedo, nor from describing his erotic intoxication upon glimpsing the beautiful Charmides' naked body beneath his open tunic.[7]

Socrates' love of Alcibiades, which was more than reciprocated, is held as an example of chaste pederasty. Plutarch and Xenophon, in their descriptions of Spartan pederasty, state that even though it is the beautiful boys who are sought above all others (contrary to the Cretan traditions), nevertheless the pederastic couple remains chaste.
Male relationships were represented in complex ways, some honorable and others dishonorable. But for the vast majority of ancient historians for a man to have not had a youth for a lover presented a deficiency in character. Plato, in his early works (the Symposium or in Phaedrus), does not question the principles of pederasty and states, referring to same-sex relationships:

For I know not any greater blessing to a young man who is beginning in life than a virtuous lover, or to a lover than a beloved youth. For the principle, I say, neither kindred, nor honor, nor wealth, nor any motive is able to implant so well as love. Of what am I speaking? Of the sense of honor and dishonor, without which neither states nor individuals ever do any good or great work… And if there were only some way of contriving that a state or an army should be made up of lovers and their loves, they would be the very best governors of their own city, abstaining from all dishonor and emulating one another in honor; and it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that when fighting at each other’s side, although a mere handful, they would overcome the world. [8]

Later, however, in his Laws, Plato spoke up against the decadence into which traditional Athenian pederasty was sinking, blamed pederasty for promoting civil strife and driving many to their wits' end, and recommended the prohibition of sexual intercourse with boys, laying out a path whereby this may be accomplished. [9]

Other writers, often under the guise of "debates" between lovers of boys and lovers of women, have recorded other arguments used for and against pederasty. Some, like the charge that the practice was "unnatural" and not to be found among "the lions and the bears," applied to all relationships between men and youths. Others' charges do not involve traditional pederasty, but practices devised for the sexual satisfaction of the strong at the expense of the weak. Chief among these is denouncement of the castration of captive slave boys. As Lucian has it, "Effrontery and tyrannical violence have gone as far as to mutilate nature with a sacrilegious steel, finding, by ripping from males their very manhood, a way to prolong their use."[10]"Erotes" text at Diotima

Social aspects

The erastes-eromenos relationship was fundamental to the Classical Greek social and educational system, had its own complex social-sexual etiquette and was an important social institution among the upper class. [2] Pederastic relationships were dyadic mentorships. These mentorships were sanctioned by the state, as evidenced by laws mandating and controlling such relationships. Likewise, they were consecrated by the religious establishment, as can be seen from the many myths describing such relationships between gods and heroes (Apollo and Hyacinth, Zeus and Ganymede, Heracles and Hylas, Pan and Daphnis) and between one hero and another (Achilles and Patroclus, Orestes and Pylades). (It is interesting to note that the Greeks tried to project a semblance of pederasty (read: propriety) onto these last two pairs, despite a great deal of evidence that the two myths were originally intended to symbolize egalitarian relationships.) In general, the pederasty described in the Greek literary sources is clearly an aristocratic institution.

Historical as well as mythographical materials suggest that pederastic relationships also had to be approved by the boy's father. As Xenophon claims in his Symposium, "Nothing [of what concerns the boy] is kept hidden from the father, by a noble lover." This is consistent with the paramount role of the Greek patriarch, who had the right of life and death over his children. It is also consistent with the importance that a son would have had for him. Besides the bond of love between them, a son was the only hope for the survival of a Greek man's name, fortune and glory. In order to protect their sons from inappropriate attempts at seduction, fathers appointed slaves named pedagogues to watch over their sons.

Boys entered into such relationships in their teens, around the same age that Greek girls were given in marriage – also to adult husbands many years their senior. There was a difference between the two types of bonding: Boys usually had to be courted and were free to choose their mate. Girls, on the other hand, were used for economic and political advantage, their marriages contracted at the discretion of the father and the suitor.

The function of the relationship seems to have been the introduction of the young man into adult society and adult responsibilites. To that end the mentor was expected to teach the young man or to see to his education, and to give him certain appropriate ceremonial gifts (in Crete, an ox, a suit of armor, and a chalice (from kylix, Greek for wine cup), signifying his empowerment in agriculture, war and religion). The bond between the two participants seems to have been based in part on mutual love and desire – usually sexually expressed – and in part on the political interests of the two families. A great deal of importance was placed on the friendship between the two, as shown by a contemporary proverb, A lover is the best friend a boy will ever have.[11] The relationships were open and public, and became part of the biography of the person. Thus when Spartan historians wrote about a personage they would usually indicate whom it was that he had heard or whom it was that he inspired.

For the youth – and his family – one important advantage of being mentored by an influential older man was the social networking aspect. Thus some considered it desirable to have had many older lovers / mentors in one’s younger years, both attesting to one's physical beauty and paving the way for attaining important positions in society. Typically, after their sexual relationship had ended and the young man had married, the older man and his protégé would remain on close terms throughout their life. For those lovers who continued their lovemaking after their beloveds had matured, the Greeks made allowances, saying, You can lift up a bull, if you carried the calf.[12]

Pederasty was the idealized form of an age-structured homoeroticism that, like all social institutions, had other, less idyllic, manifestations, such as prostitution or the use of one’s slave boys. However, certain forms were prohibited, such as slaves penetrating freemen, or paying free boys or young men for sex. Free youths who did sell their favors were generally ridiculed and later in life were prohibited from performing certain official functions.

A prosecution by an Athenian politician, Aeschines, in 346 B.C.E., Against Timarchus, is an example of how these regulations were used to political advantage. In his speech, Aeschines argues against further allowing Timarchus, an experienced middle-aged politician, his political rights, on account of his having spent his adolescence as the kept boy of a series of wealthy men. Aeschines won his case, and Timarchus was sentenced to atimia. But Aeschines is careful to acknowledge what seemingly all Athens knows: his own dalliances with beautiful boys, the erotic poems he dedicated to these youths, and the scrapes he has gotten into as a result of his affairs, none of which — he hastens to point out — were mediated by money.

Even when lawful, it was not uncommon for the relationship to fail, as it was said of many boys that they "hated no one as much as the man who had been their lover". See Death of King Philip II of Macedon Likewise, the Cretans required the boy to declare whether the relationship had been to his liking, thus giving him an opportunity to break it off if any violence had been done to him.

Synergy with sports

The institution of pederasty was inseparable from that of organized sports. The main venue for men and boys to meet and spend time together, and for the men to educate the boys in the arts of warfare, sports, and philosophy was the gymnasium, which was preeminently the training ground for these disciplines, and one of the principal venues for pederastic relationships. In particular, the practice of exercising nude was held to be of the utmost importance in the cult of beauty and eros which permeated pederastic societies. "The cities which have most to do with gymnastics", is the phrase which Plato uses to describe the states where Greek love flourished. [13] "Gymnastics" in this instance conveys not only the sense of athletic discipline but also, from the Greek gymnos, "nude", the fact that all these exercises were taken by men and boys who were naked, and thus especially liable to be excited by physical beauty.

The beauty and erotic power of the naked body was highlighted by the custom of oiling one's body for exercise. The provision of oil for such decoration was the greatest expense of a gymnasium, and had to be heavily subsidized by the public coffers or private donors. The practice itself varied over time: in the early days it was said that modesty prevented the boys from drawing attention to their sexuality by oiling themselves below the waist. Such restraint was presumably cast by the wayside by Plato's time.

The relationship between a trainer and his athletes often had an erotic dimension, and the same place which served as training ground served equally for erotic dalliances, as can be seen from the many scenes of seduction and lovemaking depicting implements found at palaestras, such as sponges and strigils.

Educational and military aspects

Ancient writers, as well as modern historians such as Bruce Thornton, hold that the goal of paiderastia was pedagogical, the channeling of Eros into the creation of noble and good citizens. The various mythographical materials available suggest religious training (see story of Tantalus, Poseidon, and Pelops) as well as military training (Hercules and Hylas). The theme of learning to drive a war chariot occurs repeatedly (Poseidon and Pelops, Laius and Chrysippus). Apollo is said to have taught Orpheus, one of his beloveds, to play the harp. And Zeus had Ganymede serve nectar, a theme with religious connotations. It is thus plausible to assume that even as the loves of the gods paralleled and symbolized those of the mortals, their pedagogy pointed to aspects of the educational process that took place between a lover and his beloved.

In talking about the Cretan rite, the historian Ephorus informs us that the man (known as philetor, befriender) took the boy (known as kleinos, "glorious") into the wilderness, where they spent several months hunting and feasting with their friends. If the boy was satisfied with the conduct of his would-be comrade, he changed his title from kleinos to parastates (comrade and bystander in the ranks of battle and life), returned to the philetor and lived in close bonds of public intimacy with him. Ephorus' account does not discuss the educational aspects of the sojourn. However, this is clearly a coming-of-age rite culminating in a major ceremony upon the return of the pair from the mountains, and a process of acculturation into male society is implied.[14] (See [3] for Athenian practices and philosophy)

Military function

Military training is inseparable from the other educational aspects of pederasty since the times of the Ancient Greeks were marked by continuous warfare, both internal and external. Martial prowess was held in the highest esteem, and one of the principal functions of pederastic relationships was the cultivation of bravery and fighting skills.

Sexual aspects

Ancient sources suggest a range of sexual activity. Cicero, describing Spartan customs, suggests that relations were expected to stop short of consummation, "The Lacedaemonians, while they permit all things except outrage [hybris] in the love of youths, certainly distinguish the forbidden by a thin wall of partition from the sanctioned, for they allow embraces and a common couch to lovers."[15] On the other hand, one Athenian term for sodomy was "to do it the Lacedemonian way." Literary sources are a lot more risqué, especially ancient comedy. For example, Aristophanes, in 'Peace', his parody of Ganymede riding on the back of Zeus in eagle form, has his character ride to Olympus on the back of a dung beetle, a scatological pun on anal sex. Some modern historians, such as Thornton, conclude that whether the relationship was consummated or not probably depended on the partners.

The majority of ceramic paintings depict the older partner importuning the younger, in a variation of the Greek gesture for pleading. Normally the supplicant embraced the knees of the person whose favor he sought, while grasping the man's chin so as to look into his eyes. Pederastic art usually shows the man standing, grasping the boy's chin with one hand and reaching to fondle his genitals with the other. The boys are shown in varying degrees of rejecting or accepting the man's attentions. Less frequently, intercrural intercourse is depicted, where the erastes is shown inserting his penis between the thighs of the younger one. Only very rarely is anal sex suggested or shown, though there are literary and epigraphic indications suggesting it was more common.

All this was claimed to be endured by the youth without physical excitement. K. J. Dover states that the eromenos was not "supposed" to feel desire for the erastes, as that would be unmanly.[16] More recent evidence suggests that in actual practice (as opposed to theory) there was, in fact, reciprocation of desire. As Thomas Hubbard points out in a critique of David Halperin's contention that boys were not aroused, some vases do show boys as being sexually responsive, and "Fondling a boy's organ (cf. Aristophanes, Birds 142) was one of the most commonly represented courtship gestures on the vases. What can the point of this act have been unless lovers in fact derived some pleasure from feeling and watching the boy's developing organ wake up and respond to their manual stimulation?" [4]

The theme of mutuality of desire was a topic of discussion in ancient times as well. While the passive role was seen as problematic, to be attracted to men was often taken as a sign of masculinity, and it was thought that the boys who most sought the company and affections of men were the most likely to be successful in life.

Religious aspects

Myths provide more than fifty examples of young men who were the lovers of gods (Sergent). Poets and traditions ascribe Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Orpheus, Hercules, Dionysus, Hermes, and Pan to such love. All the main gods of the pantheon except Ares had these relationships.

Mythographic material suggests that the initiate experienced ecstatic states of spirit journey leading to mystic death and transfiguration, analogous to practices still reported today in shamanic work. If so, by the fifth century the Greeks had forgotten the connection. In 476 BC, the poet Pindar, in his Olympian Ode I, claims to be horrified by suggestions that the gods would eat human flesh – in this context, an obvious shamanic metaphor. An opposite theory (discussed by Murray in his Homosexualities) gives credence to the texts that credit (or blame) the Cretans with its origination (Aristotle et al.) and notes the anomaly of an apparent path of diffusion radiating from Crete, while the areas (in the north of Greece) closest to the Indo-European sources are not known to have institutionalized the practice.

Myths also were a vehicle for conveying a set of moral standards for such relationship. In the myth of Zeus and Ganymede, when Zeus sends gifts and assurances to Tros, king of Troy and father of Ganymede, the ancients were reminded that even the king of Heaven must show consideration to the father of the eromenos. Many of the other pederastic myths likewise incorporate the presence of the father, suggesting an essential role for the father in these relationships. The myths also spoke directly to the youths, as is shown by a recently discovered version of the Narcissus myth. This, a more archaic version than the one related by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, is a moral tale in which the proud and unfeeling Narcissus is punished by the gods for having spurned all his male suitors.[5]

Political aspects

The state benefitted from these relationships, according to the statements of ancient writers. The friendship functioned as a restraint on the youth, since if he committed a crime it was not he but his lover who was punished. In the military the lovers fought side by side, with each vying to shine before the other. Thus, it was said that an army of lovers would be invincible, as was the case until the battle of Chaeronea with the Theban Sacred Band, a battalion of one hundred and fifty warriors, each aided by his beloved charioteer.

Pederastic couples were also said to be feared by tyrants, because the bond between the friends was stronger than that of obedience to a tyrannical ruler. Athenaeus states that "Hieronymus the Aristotelian says that love with boys was fashionable because several tyrannies had been overturned by young men in their prime, joined together as comrades in mutual sympathy." He gives as examples of such pederastic couples the Athenians Harmodius and Aristogeiton, who were credited (perhaps symbolically) with the overthrow of the tyrant Hippias and the establishment of the democracy, and also Chariton and Melanippus. Others, such as Aristotle, claimed that some states encouraged pederasty as a means of population control, by directing love and sexual desire into non-procreative channels, a feature of pederasty also employed by other cultures.[17]

Political leaders Solon, Peisistratus, Hippias, Hipparchus, Themistocles, Aristides, Critias, Demosthenes, and Aeschines of Athens; Pausanias, Lysander, and Agesilaus of Sparta; Polycrates of Samos; Hieron and Agathocles of Syracuse; Epaminondas and Pelopidas of Thebes; and Archelaus, Philip II, and Alexander of Macedon were recorded to have had same-sex relationships.

Regional characteristics

Narcissus
A Boeotian hero whose archaic myth was a cautionary tale warning boys against being cruel to their lovers.
The structure of pederastic practices varied from one polis to another, differences that often became the basis of competition or denigration between the cities. For example, the character of Pausanias in Plato's Symposium unfavorably compares cities such as Elis and Boeotia, where men are "unskilled in speech" and boys are permitted to yield uncritically, to the superior pederasty of Athens and Sparta, where men are well versed in the art of rhetoric and boys relate critically to their suitors, choosing only the most persuasive.

Athens
The founder of the pederastic tradition in Athens is said to be the lawgiver Solon, who also composed poetry praising the love of boys. In Athens, the lover was known as the erastes, and his young partner as the eromenos or paidika.. Athenian high society generally encouraged the erastes to pursue a boy to love. At the same time, the boy and his family were expected to put up resistance and not give in too easily.

Pederastic affairs were the butt of jokes for the commoners. Athenian philosophers, around the end of the fifth century, prompted by a discomfort with the lack of self-restraint and crude sexuality of some pederastic relationships elaborated a philosophy of pederasty that valorized chaste pederastic relations.

Chalkis
Chalkis was also known in Greece as one of the centers of pederasty, leading the Athenians to jocularly use the verb "chalkidizein" for "sodomize". In talking about the origin of the Ganymede myth, Athenaeus claims that "the Chalcidians assert that Ganymede was carried off by Zeus in their own country, and they point out the place, calling it Harpagion." Initially the Chalcidians were said to have frowned on pederasty. However, being in military straits in a war against the Eretrians, they called for the aid of a warrior named Cleomachus. Cleomachus brought his eromenos along. In sight of the boy he displayed great bravery, leading the Chalcidian charge against the Eretians, bringing victory to the Chalcidians at the cost of his own life. The Chalcidians erected a tomb for him in their marketplace and from that time on began to honor pederasty. Aristotle attributed a popular local song to the event:
Ye lads of grace and sprung from worthy stock
Grudge not to bravemen converse with your beauty
In cities of Chalcis, Love, looser of limbs
Thrives side by side with courage.

Crete
The Cretans, a Dorian people described by Plutarch as renowned for their moderation and conservative ways, practiced an archaic form of pederasty in which the man enacted a ritual kidnapping of a boy of his choosing, with the consent of the boy's father.

Aristotle states that it was king Minos who established pederasty as a means of population control on the island community. This custom was highly regarded, and it was considered shameful for a youth to not acquire a male lover. These same Cretans were credited with introducing the myth of Zeus kidnapping Ganymede to be his lover in Olympus – though even the king of the gods had to make amends to the father.

Megara
One of the first cities after Sparta to be associated with the custom of athletic nudity, Megara was home to the runner Orsippus who was famed as the first to run the footrace naked at the Olympic games and "first of all Greeks to be crowned victor naked."[18][19]

Megara was also the home of the poet Theognis, among whose works are many pederastic compositions, often addressed to his beloved Cyrnus. In his work he associates naked athletics with pederasty:
Happy is the lover who works out naked
And then goes home to sleep all day with a beautiful boy.[20]

Many critics hold that his is not the work of a single poet but represents "several generations of wisdom poetry." The poems are "social, political, or ethical precepts transmitted to Cyrnus as part of his formation into an adult Megarian aristocrat in Theognis' own image."[21]

It has been noted that in the seventh century, when pederasty is postulated to have first been formalized in Dorian cities, Megara cultivated good relations with Sparta, and may have been culturally attracted to emulate Spartan practices.[22]
Another poet, Theocritus, describes a local kissing contest for boys:
And ye Megarians, at Nesaea dwelling,
Expert at rowing, mariners excelling,
Be happy ever! for with honors due
Th' Athenian Diocles, to friendship true
Ye celebrate. With the first blush of spring
The youth surround his tomb: there who shall bring
The sweetest kiss. whose lip is Purest found,

Back to his mother goes with garlands crowned.
Nice touch the arbiter must have indeed,
And must, methinks, the blue-eyed Ganymede
Invoke with many prayers—a mouth to own
True to the touch of lips, as Lydian stone
To proof of gold—which test will instant show
The pure or base, as money changers know. [23]

Sparta
Sparta, another Dorian polis, is thought to be the first city to practice athletic nudity, and one of the first to formalize pederasty.[24] The Spartans believed that the love of an older, accomplished aristocrat for an adolescent was essential to his formation as a free citizen. The agoge, the education of the ruling class, was thus founded on pederastic relationships required of each citizen.[25]

Many ancient writers held that Spartan pederasty was chaste, though still erotic.[26] Plutarch also describes the relationships as chaste, and states that it was as unthinkable for a lover to sexually consummate a relationship with his beloved as for a father to do so with his own son.[27] Aelian goes even farther, stating that if any couple succumbed to temptation and indulged in carnal relations, they would have to redeem the affront to the honor of Sparta by either going into exile or taking their own lives.[28]

The lover was responsible for the boy's training. Pederasty and military training were intimately connected in Sparta, as in many other cities. The Spartans, claims Athenaeus [29] sacrificed to Eros before every battle.

Thebes
In Thebes, the main polis in Boeotia, renowned for its practice of pederasty, the tradition was enshrined in the founding myth of the city. In this instance the story was meant to teach by counterexample: it depicts Laius, one of the mythical ancestors of the Thebans, in the role of a lover who betrays the father and rapes the son. Another Boeotian pederastic myth is the story of Narcissus.

Theban pederasty, was instituted as an educational device for boys, in order to "soften, while they were young, their natural fierceness", and to "temper the manners and characters of the youth". [30] The Sacred Band of Thebes, a battalion made up of 150 pairs of lovers, was unbeatable until its final battle against Phillip II at Chaeronea in 338 BCE.

Influence on literature and the arts

Poets write of pederasty from the earliest eras to the end of the Hellenistic era. Five philosophical dialogues debate its ethical implications. Notable scholars and writers such as Plato, Xenophon, Plutarch, and pseudo-Lucian would discuss the topic. Tragedies on the theme became very popular. Aristophanes made comical theater about sexual relationships between men and youths.

The famous poets Alcaeus, Ibycus, Anacreon, Theognis, Pindar and of course Sappho all wrote of pederastic love. Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides made plays on the subject.

Vases portray numerous homoerotic depictions with hundreds of inscriptions celebrating the love of youths. Famous politicians, warriors, artists, and writers would enjoy these relationships. Such idealized relationships held an honored place in their culture from at least 600 BC to 400 AD. (Dialogues)

The sculptor Phidias even memorialized his lover Pantarces in marble by inscribing his name on the finger of a colossal statue of Zeus. During the Hellenistic era (332 BC – 400 AD) Plutarch, Athenaeus, and Aelian traced the history of Greek homosexuality to its beginning.

Ceremonies and proverbs

Oath of loyalty at the tomb of Iolaus in Thebes; rite undertaken by lovers to consecrate the relationship. [31]
The Iolaeia, a yearly athletic festival in Thebes, consisting of musical, gymnastic and equestrian events (agones). It was held in the gymnasium of Iolaus in honor of Heracles, and lasted several days. The winners were awarded brass tripods.[32]
The Hyacinthia festival in Sparta, honoring Hyacinth, the mythical young prince of Sparta and beloved of Apollo. The festivities continued for three days, with the first mourning the death of Hyacinthus and the last two celebrating his rebirth. It has been suggested that the cycle symbolizes the development of a youth in such relationships, in which he dies as a child in order to be reborn as an adult.

Gymnopaedia; Spartan dances by naked boys, attendance restricted to married men.
The Diocleia festival at Megara in honour of Diocles, lover of Philolaus; A kissing contest was held in which the boys would kiss a male judge, with a wreath awarded to the one with the best kiss. [33]
A lover is the best friend a boy will ever have.[34]

You can carry a bull, if you carried the calf. Also in Ancient Rome, as Taurum tollet, qui vitulum sustulerit. Said to excuse men's relations with "boys" who were no longer adolescents.[35]

Modern scholarship

The ethical views held in those societies (such as Athens, Thebes, Crete, Sparta, Elis, and others) on the practice of pederasty have been explored by scholars only since the end of the nineteenth century. One of the first to do so was John Addington Symonds, who wrote his seminal work A Problem in Greek Ethics in 1873, but had to wait twenty eight years to be able to publish it (in revised form) in 1901 [6]. Edward Carpenter expanded the scope of the study, with his 1914 work, Intermediate Types among Primitive Folk. The text examines homoerotic practices of all types, not only pederastic ones, and ranges over cultures spanning the whole globe[7].

Mainstream Ancient Greek studies however had historically omitted references of the widespread practice of homosexuality. In 1910 a book called Maurice by E. M. Forster made reference to this "code of silence" by having a Cambridge professor employing “Omit: a reference to the unspeakable vice of the Greeks.” Four decades later in the 1940s: “This aspect of Greek morals is an extraordinary one, into which, for the sake of our equanimity, it is unprofitable to pry too closely”, by H. Michell. It would not be until 1978 when an English book on this topic, titled Greek Homosexuality, was published by K. J. Dover.
Dover's work triggered a number of debates which still continue. At the most basic level, there is strong resistance among modern Greeks to the portrait of ancient Greece painted by modern scholarship – that of a culture which integrated and valorized some aspects of same sex love for a period lasting close to one thousand years.

Nike

2006-09-08T01:03:00.000+08:00

Nike (mythology)

This article discusses the Greek Goddess. For the sports apparel and equipment company, see Nike, Inc.

In Greek mythology, Nike (Greek Νίκη, pronounced /'nike/ "NEE-keh", meaning "Victory") , was a goddess who personified triumph and victory. She was a daughter of Pallas (Warrior) and Styx (Hatred), and the sister of Cratos (Strength), Bia (Force), and Zelus (Rivalry). Nike and her siblings were all attendants of Zeus. According to myth, Styx brought them to Zeus when the god was assembling allies for the coming Titan War. Nike assumed the role of the god's personal charioteer, a role often portrayed in classical art. Her Roman counterpart is Victoria

The Winged Victory of Samothrace in the Louvre, Paris
Nike was regarded as the bestower of victory, both in war and in contest. As a war goddess she was often represented standing alongside Zeus, Athena and Ares. As a goddess of contests, she was usually portrayed decking the winner of a musical or athletic contest with a victor's wreath or sash.

The Nike persona was often assimilated with other gods, for instance being depicted by Greek sculptors as a tiny winged figure perching on another god's arm, peeping out from a fellow god's clothes or flying above like a winged fairy.
In her best-known depictions, such as the Winged Victory of Samothrace (now in the Louvre, Paris), she is shown as an impressive, striding winged figure. Other Nike sculptures included: Bronze Figure of Nike (550 bc), Nike of Delos (550 bc), Subnosed Nike (Vase) (410-400 bc), Nike of Myrina (30bc -330 ad), Sandal Binder from Nike Parapet frieze (420-400 bc).

She was often depicted on Greek vases with her standard attributes of wreath, jug, phial, and thymiaterion (censer), shown standing alone, flying or striding, or pouring a libation over an altar. In some regions (particularly the Greek colonies of southern Italy) she was depicted as a charioteer. Elsewhere she was sometimes shown holding weapons or trophies, or playing a lyre or a flute.

Worship

Nike was often worshipped in conjunction with Athena, with whom she was particularly closely associated after the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. The great statue of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon in Athens is thought to have depicted Nike standing in the hand of Athena, and the Parthenon complex included a Temple of Athena Nike, built around 410 BC. The Athenians also dedicated a statue to Nike at Delphi. The statue of Zeus at Olympia reportedly also depicted Nike. On occasions, Athena was depicted with Nike's attributes. According to Pausanias, the statue of Athena Nike depicted a wingless Nike ("Nike Apteros"), supposedly so that the statue could never leave the city of Athens. This temple has also provided a famous surviving depiction of the goddess, Nike unfastening her sandal ("Nike Slancio"), which was originally part of the temple parapret and is now on display in the Acropolis Museum in Athens.

Sculpture depicting Nike at Ephesus

Modern usage

Nike also presided over athletic as well as military contests. It was this meaning that prompted designer Jeff Johnson, the first man that US footwear entrepreneur Phil Knight hired, to borrow her name for the company, Nike, Inc., the clothing and sportswear manufacturer. Johnson had a dream about the goddess and Knight liked the idea.

An image of Nike appears in all Summer Olympics medals. In 2004 for the 2004 Summer Olympics an image of the goddess appears in the Panathinaiko Stadium [1]. The Jules Rimet trophy is in the form of an octagonal cup supported by a winged figure representing Nike.

The United States Army also borrowed her name for its Project Nike surface-to-air missile programme.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ankh

2006-09-08T00:54:00.000+08:00

he ankh (pronounced 'ahnk', symbol ☥) was the Egyptian hieroglyphic character that stood for the word ʿnḫ, which means life. Egyptian gods may carry it by the loop, or bear one in each hand crossed over their breast. Latinists interpreted the symbol as a crux ansata, "cross with a handle".

What it was intended to represent remains a mystery to Egyptologists, and no single hypothesis has yet been widely accepted.

Some have speculated that it was a stylized womb[citation needed]. Sir Alan Gardiner speculated that it represented a sandal strap, with the loop going around the ankle. The word for sandal strap was also spelled ʿnḫ, although it may have been pronounced differently. Howard Carter speculated it could be a primitive representation of human genitalia.

In their 2004 book "The Quick and the Dead", Andrew H. Gordon and Calvin W. Schwabe speculated that the Ankh, Djed and Was symbols have a biological basis derived from ancient cattle culture (and linked to the Egyptian belief that semen was created in the spine), thus:

the Ankh - symbol of life - thoracic vertebrae of a bull (seen in cross section)
the Djed - symbol of stability - base on sacrum of a bull's spine
the Was - symbol of power and dominion - a staff made from a dried bull's penis

The original meaning of this Egyptian symbol is also not known. One suggests that it combines the male and female symbols of Osiris (the cross) and Isis (the oval) and therefore signifies the union of heaven and earth[citation needed]. As a hieroglyph, it likely encompassed a range of meanings depending on its associated hieroglyphs but all of these expressions centered around the concept of life or life force.

Over time, the ankh certainly came to symbolize life and immortality, the universe, power and life giving air and water. "Its keylike shape also encouraged the belief it could unlock the gates of death." The Coptic Christians used it as a symbol of life after death[citation needed]. The ankh has been used in ritual magic.
It also appears to be a 'cross' between a crucifix and the 'christian' (flat) fish symbol which is also represented as determining a point of origin and a vanishing point by drawing two curves around the three main pyramids[citation needed].
Two ankhs could therefore represent two crossed fishes being a combination of the symbol for Pisces and a crucifix[citation needed].

In Egyptian art

The ankh appears frequently in Egyptian tomb paintings and other art; it often appears at the fingertips of a god or goddess in images that represent the deities of the afterlife conferring the gift of life on the dead person's mummy. The ankh symbol was often carried by Egyptians as an amulet, either alone, or in connection with two other hieroglyphs that mean "strength" and "health." Mirrors were often made in the shape of an ankh. Sometimes, in art, the Ankh was shown being touched by a god onto a person, which usually symbolized conception.

In alchemy

A similar symbol (♀) was used to represent the Roman goddess Venus. This symbol, known benignly as Venus' hand-mirror, is much more associated with a representation of the female womb. The same symbol is used in astrology to represent the planet Venus, in alchemy to represent the element copper, and in biology to identify the female sex.

The ankh and the cross

Transitional ankh into Coptic cross found in the Fayuom, 1960s.

The long-standing importance of the Ankh, and its deep symbolism to the dynastic Egyptians, led to it being gradually adopted by the fourth century Christian church in Egypt (which eventually became the Coptic Church). This is highly significant, as it is almost certainly the genesis of the cross as the central thematic symbol of the Christian religion. A kind of cross, the ankh had long been a central religious symbol. It was non-anthropormorphic; not even animal-like. (Many
Egyptian gods had been animal-faced human figures.) Anknaton's benevolent sun was the only other symbol that was so esoteric. This cross implied all of the "god ideas" that are infinite in nature. As monotheism is at the core of Christian belief, the ankh seemed a logical choice to symbolize the belief in one all-powerful God. Over time, the idea that His son had died on some type of cross made it seem all the more appropriate.[citation needed]

To Christians outside of the ankh's influence, the image of the Roman cross of execution was "shameful" in the same manner as a hanging noose or a headsman's ax would be. Especially to professed Christains in fourth century Egypt, the association of the ankh with the cross seemed comfortable and familiar. [citation needed]

Elsewhere, the main Christian symbol at the time had been a stylised alpha, resembling a fish, and therefore known as Ichthys, the Greek word for 'fish'. However, the new "more positive" symbol of a cross eventually spread throughout the Christianized Empire. The distinct circular or "gothic arch-like" upper part of the Ankh was kept well into mediaeval times.

The Ankh symbol often being used as a Christian talisman.[citation needed]

The photograph shown of a Christian 3rd Century bust with a transitional "ankh becoming a cross"[citation needed] was found in the 1960s in the Fayuom, Egypt archeological region. It is analogous to the "archaeopteryx fossil", the famous "Dinosaur into Bird" relic, which lends tangible support to the transitional concept. (If you have red-cyan glasses you'll see it in museum grade 3D)

In Unicode, the ankh sign is U+2625 (☥).

In popular culture

The ankh is widely employed in pop culture media as a symbolic device to instantly communicate deep history, arcane life-forces and/or spiritual magic.

The Ankh symbol plays a central role in the adventure game Ankh.

It is sometimes featured in communal alternative events like "Burning Man".

In the form of a pendant, symbolizing Sanctuary, it was worn by an underground network of Runners attempting to escape their fate in the 1976 science fiction film Logan's Run, based on William F. Nolan's novel of the same title (it did not appear in the novel, however).

It was worn by David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve as a gold pendant, the bottom part concealing a knife used for blood drinking, in the 1983 vampire film The Hunger, based on Whitley Strieber's novel of the same title.

It is a notable symbol in Ultima series of computer games, being the symbol most often associated with the Avatar, as well as the Virtue of Spirituality. More recently the Ankh has become one of the frequently appearing items in numerous computer/video games, including Xenogears, Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, Age of Wonders, Serious Sam The First Encounter, Commander Keen series, Gunbound: World Champion, and Garfield: Caught in the Act.

It is also widely used in roleplaying fantasy games as a symbol for "holy magic", priest characters, and their equivalents.

It is suggested that because of his many deaths and reincarnations, the shape of Kenny McCormick in the South Park series is based on the ankh. Kenny always wears an anorak (see Anorankh).

Vinnie Vincent from the rock group KISS wore an ankh in his make-up design.

In Neil Gaiman's comic book series Sandman the character of Death always wore an ankh, popular in the Goth subculture that inspired Death's appearance.

On the anime series Yu-Gi-Oh!, the character Shadi uses the Millennium Key, which is in the shape of an ankh, to unlock and enter people's minds.

A broken ankh is the standard symbol of the Sarafan Order in the Legacy of Kain series.

The Ankh has become a stylish tattoo design. Modern celebrities, such as professional wrestler Christopher Daniels, neo-soul/hip-hop artist Erykah Badu and NBA stars Shaquille O'Neil and Dennis Rodman have ankh tattoos.

It is worn as a pendant by Karl Sanders of the death metal band Nile.

In the Australian television show Ocean Girl, a major plotline involved a large golden ankh that was protected by the main characters.

In the game World of Warcraft, the Ankh is an item the shaman class can use to reincarnate itself after dying.
The ankh is a collectable item in custom made maps in TimeSplitters 2

In Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber, the Ansate Cross switches the gender of a soldier when promoted.
In Fallout 2, a secret cult that has a giant mutated mole rat called "The Brain" as its leader has the Ankh as their symbol.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Incubus

2006-09-08T00:40:00.000+08:00

This article is about a type of demon; see Incubus for other meanings.
In Western medieval legend, an incubus (plural incubi; from Latin incubare, "to lie upon") is a demon in male form supposed to lie upon sleepers, especially on women in order to have sexual intercourse with them. The Incubus drains energy from the woman it performs sexual intercourse upon in order to sustain itself, and in most cases either kills the victim or leaves the victim alive but in very weak or fragile condition. A female version was called a succubus. There are several possible explanations for the incubus legends:

Women who were pregnant but either unmarried or engaged in an extra-marital affair would accuse an incubus of fathering the child.

Waking dreams or nightmares.

They form part of the well-attested Medieval preoccupation with sin, especially sexual sins of women.
Actual rapes of sleeping women were attributed to demons by rapists in order to escape punishment.
The feeling of smothering while sleeping is known since antiquity as nightmare. The modern term for this state is sleep paralysis.

Because of the weight given to sexual sin in the Middle Ages, nocturnal arousal, orgasm or nocturnal emission were explained away by the legends of creatures causing an otherwise guilt-producing and self-conscious behavior. Thus people could say they were not to blame for it; it was obviously outside of their control: they were a victim.

Young women/men being sexually assaulted in their sleep by a known attacker such as a friend or family member, although not common, has been reported and may explain some nocturnal attacks. The victims may find it easier to explain the attack as supernatural rather than confront the idea that the attack came from someone that is trusted in the family. See incest or "situational molesters".

During the witchhunts, alleged intercourse with demons or with Satan was one of the purported sins for which women were killed.

Sometimes incubi were said to conceive children with the women whom they raped; the most famous legend of such a case includes that of Merlin, the famous wizard from Arthurian legend.
In some legends, incubi and succubi were said not to be different genders of the same demonic "species," but the same demon able to change their sex; the idea being that a succubus would be able to sleep with a man and collect his sperm, and then transform into an incubus and use that seed on women. Nevertheless their offspring were thought to be supernatural in many cases, even if the actual genetic material originally came from humans. This particular idea was explored in the Stephen King series The Dark Tower. In the modern era, succubi have featured in roleplaying games as tantalizing imagery for marketing. The theme of the incubi has continued into modern times as well, with stories of unseen paranormal beings which rape female victims such as Invisible Masters and the creature in the movie The Entity.

They were also one of the creatures of the White Witch present at the killing of Aslan in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
In the 2006 book Trail of an Incubus by Iliya Englin the incubus is portrayed as a different humanoid species, outwardly human but with far greater longevity and physical strength. Their intelligence is about the same or greater than human, albeit it with certain blind spots. They hate humanity for displacing them from the top of the food chain, and their character traits give rise to traditional demonic myths - an enemy moving amongst us, intelligent, resourceful and hostile – and in constant search for human virgins.

There is a 1965 movie called Incubus starring William Shatner, where he is tempted by a lusting succubus in order to corrupt his pure soul. An Incubus is later summoned to destroy him.
In the MMORPG, Ragnarok Online, an Incubus is a powerful monster which can be found on several floors of the Geffenia dungeon.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tay-Sachs disease

2006-09-05T22:24:00.000+08:00

Tay-Sachs disease (abbreviated TSD, also known as "GM2 gangliosidosis") is a genetic disorder, fatal in its most common variant known as Infantile Tay-Sachs disease. TSD is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern. The disease occurs when harmful quantities of a fatty acid derivative called a ganglioside accumulate in the nerve cells in the brain. Gangliosides are present in lipids, which are components of cellular membranes, and the ganglioside GM2, implicated in Tay-Sachs disease, is especially common in the nervous tissue of the brain.

The disease is named after the British ophthalmologist Warren Tay who first described the red spot on the retina of the eye in 1881, and the American neurologist Bernard Sachs who described the cellular changes of Tay-Sachs and noted an increased prevalence in the Eastern European Jewish (Ashkenazi) population in 1887. It has been suggested that carriers of Tay-Sachs (those with one defective version of HEXA and one normal gene) may have a selective advantage, but this has never been proven.

Research in the late 20th century demonstrated that Tay-Sachs disease is caused by mutations on the HEXA gene on chromosome 15. A large number of HEXA mutations have been discovered, and new ones are still being reported. These mutations reach significant frequencies in several populations. French Canadians of southeastern Quebec and Cajuns of southern Louisiana have a carrier frequency similar to Ashkenazi Jews, but they carry a different mutation. Most HEXA mutations are rare, and do not occur in genetically isolated populations. The disease can potentially occur from the inheritance of two unrelated mutations in the HEXA gene, one from each parent.

Symptoms

Tay-Sachs is classified in variant forms, based on the time of onset of neurological symptoms.[1] The variant forms reflect diversity in the mutation base. All patients with Tay-Sachs have a "cherry-red" spot in the back of their eyes (the retina). This red spot occurs where the optic nerve enters the orbit of the eye, and is symptomatic of the degeneration of neurons throughout the brain. Microscopic analysis of neurons shows that they are distended from excess storage of gangliosides.
Infantile TSD. Infants with Tay-Sachs disease appear to develop normally for the first six months of life. Then, as nerve cells become distended with gangliosides, a relentless deterioration of mental and physical abilities occurs. The child becomes blind, deaf, and unable to swallow. Muscles begin to atrophy and paralysis sets in. Death usually occurs before the age of 3.
Juvenile TSD. Extremely rare, Juvenile Tay-Sachs disease usually presents itself in children between 2 and 10 years of age. They develop cognitive, motor, speech, and swallowing difficulties; unsteadiness of gait (ataxia), and spasticity. Patients with Juvenile TSD usually die between 5-15 years.[2]

Adult/Late Onset TSD. A rare form of the disorder, known as Adult Onset Tay-Sachs disease or Late Onset Tay-Sachs disease (LOTS), occurs in patients in their 20s and early 30s. LOTS is frequently misdiagnosed, and is usually non-fatal. It is characterized by unsteadiness of gait and progressive neurological deterioration. Symptoms of LOTS, which present in adolescence or early adulthood, include speech difficulties (dysarthria), swallowing difficulties (dysphagia), unsteadiness of gait (ataxia), spasticity, cognitive decline, and psychiatric illness, particularly schizophrenic-like psychosis. Patients with LOTS frequently become wheelchair-bound in adulthood, but many live full adult lives if psychiatric and physical difficulties are accommodated. Psychiatric symptoms and seizures can be controlled with medications. [3][4]

Etiology and pathogenesis

Tay-Sachs disease is inherited in the autosomal recessive pattern, depicted above.
The condition is caused by insufficient activity of an enzyme called hexosaminidase A that catalyzes the biodegradation of fatty acid derivatives known as gangliosides. Gangliosides are made and biodegraded rapidly in early life as the brain develops. Patients and carriers of Tay-Sachs disease can be identified by a simple blood test that measures hexosaminidase A activity. TSD is a recessive genetic disorder, meaning that both parents must be carriers in order to give birth to an affected child. Even then, there is only a 25% chance with each pregnancy of having a child with TSD. Prenatal monitoring of pregnancies is available.

Hydrolysis of GM2-ganglioside requires three proteins. Two of them are subunits of hexosaminidase A, and the third is a small glycolipid transport protein, the GM2 activator protein (GM2A), which acts as a substrate specific cofactor for the enzyme. Deficiency in any one of these proteins leads to storage of the ganglioside, primarily in the lysosomes of neuronal cells. Tay-Sachs disease (along with GM2-gangliosidosis and Sandhoff disease) occurs because a genetic mutation inherited from both parents inactivates or inhibits this process. Most Tay-Sachs mutations appear not to affect functional elements of the protein. Instead, they cause incorrect folding or assembly of the enzyme, so that intracellular transport is disabled. [5]

The disease results from mutations on chromosome 15 in the HEXA gene encoding the alpha-subunit of the lysosomal enzyme beta-N-acetylhexosaminidase A. More than 90 mutations have been identified to date in the HEXA gene, and new mutations are still being reported. These mutations have included base pair insertions and deletions, splice site mutations, point mutations, and other more complex patterns. Each of these mutations alter the protein product, and thus inhibit the function of the enzyme in some manner. In recent years, population studies and pedigree analysis have shown how such mutations arise and spread within small founder populations.

For example, a four base pair insertion in exon 11 (1278insTATC) results in an altered reading frame for the HEXA gene. This mutation is the most prevalent mutation in the Ashkenazi Jewish population, and leads to the infantile form of Tay-Sachs disease.[6] The same mutation occurs in the Cajun population of southern Louisana, an American ethnic group that has been isolated for several hundred years because of linguistic differences. Researchers have speculated that it may have entered this population because a Jewish merchant family assimilated into Cajun society.

An unrelated mutation, a long sequence deletion, occurs with similar frequency in families with French Canadian ancestry, and has the same pathological effects. Like the Ashkenazi Jewish population, the French Canadian population grew rapidly from a small founder group, and remained isolated from surrounding populations because of geographic, cultural, and language barriers. In the early days of Tay-Sachs research, the mutations in these two populations were believed to be identical. Some researchers claimed that a prolific Jewish ancestor must have introduced the mutation into the French Canadian population. This theory became known as the "Jewish Fur Trader Hypothesis" among researchers in population genetics. However, subsequent research has demonstrated that the two mutations are unrelated, and pedigree analysis has traced the French Canadian mutation to a founding family that lived in southern Quebec in the late 17th century.[7]

Tay-Sachs Disease can potentially result from the inheritance of two unrelated mutations in the HEXA gene, one from each parent. Classic infantile TSD results when a child has inherited mutations from both parents that completely inactivate the biodegradation of gangliosides. Late onset forms of the disease occur because of the diverse mutation base. Patients may technically be heterozygotes, but with two different HEXA mutations that both inactivate, alter, or inhibit enzyme activity in some way. When a patient has at least one copy of the HEXA gene that still enables some hexosaminidase A activity, a later onset form of the disease occurs.

Testing and prevention

Screening for Tay-Sachs disease was one of the first great successes of the emerging field of genetic counseling and diagnosis. Jewish communities, both inside and outside of Israel, embraced the cause of genetic screening from the 1970s on. Success with Tay-Sachs disease lead Israel to become the first country to offer free genetic screening and counseling for all couples. Israel has become a leading center for research on genetic disease. Both the Jewish and Arab/Palestinian populations in Israel contain many ethnic and religious minority groups, and Israel's initial success with Tay-Sachs disease has lead to the development of screening programs for other diseases.

Genetic screening for carriers of Tay-Sachs disease is possible because an inexpensive enzyme assay test is available. It detects lower levels of the enzyme hexosaminidase A in serum. Developed during the 1970s, the enzyme assay test is not as accurate as genetic testing based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques, however it is cost effective for much broader use and allows screening for a disease that is rare in most populations. PCR testing is more effective when the ancestry of both parents is known, allowing for proper selection of genetic markers. Genetic counselors, working with couples that plan to conceive a child, assess risk factors based on ancestry to determine which testing methods are appropriate.

Proactive testing has been quite effective in eliminating Tays-Sachs occurrence amongst Ashkenazi Jews. Of the 10 babies born with Tay-Sachs in North America in 2003, none were born to Jewish families. In Israel, only one child was born with Tay-Sachs in 2003, and preliminary results from early 2005 indicated that none were born with the disease in 2004. Three approaches have been used to prevent or reduce the incidence of Tay-Sachs disease in the Ashkenazi Jewish population:
Prenatal diagnosis and selective abortion. If both parents are identified as carriers, prenatal genetic testing can determine whether the fetus has inherited a defective copy of the gene from both parents. For couples who are willing to terminate the pregnancy, this eliminates the risk of Tay-Sachs, but selective abortion raises ethical issues for many families.[8]

Mate selection. In Orthodox Jewish circles, the organization Dor Yeshorim carries out an anonymous screening program so that couples who are likely to conceive a child with Tay-Sachs or another genetic disorder can avoid marriage. Nomi Stone of Dartmouth College describes this approach. "Orthodox Jewish high school students are given blood tests to determine if they have the Tay-Sachs gene. Instead of receiving direct results as to their carrier status, each person is given a six-digit identification number. Couples can call a hotline, if both are carriers, they will be deemed 'incompatible.' Individuals are not told they are carriers directly to avoid any possibility of stigmatization or discrimination. If the information were released, carriers could potentially become unmarriageable within the community." Anonymous testing eliminates the stigma of carriership while decreasing the rate of homozygosity in this population. Stones notes that this approach, while effective within a confined population such as Chassidic or Orthodox Jews, may not be effective in the general population.[9]
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis. By retrieving the mother's eggs for in vitro fertilization and conceiving a child outside the womb, it is possible to test the embryo prior to implantation. Only healthy embryos are selected for transfer into the mother's womb. In addition to Tay-Sachs disease, PGD has been used to prevent cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, Huntington disease, and other genetic disorders.[1] However this method is expensive. It requires invasive medical technologies, and is beyond the financial means of many couples.

Therapy

There is currently no cure or treatment for TSD. Even with the best care, children with Infantile TSD die by the age of 5, and the progress of Late-Onset TSD can only be slowed, not reversed. However, research is ongoing. Several methods of treatment are being investigated, although significant hurdles remain before any of them pass the experimental stages.
Enzyme replacement therapy. The goal would be to replace the missing enzyme, a process similar to insulin injections for diabetes. However, the enzyme has proven to be too large to pass through the blood into the brain through the blood-brain barrier. Blood vessels in the brain develop junctions so small that many toxic (or large) molecules cannot enter into nerve cells and cause damage. Researchers have also tried instilling the enzyme into cerebrospinal fluid, which bathes the brain. However, neurons are unable to take up the large enzyme efficiently even when it is placed next to the cell, so the treatment is still ineffective.

Gene therapy. The most recent option explored by scientists has been gene therapy. If the defective genes were to be replaced throughout the brain, Tay Sachs could theoretically be cured. However, researchers working in this field believe that they are years away from the technology to transport the genes into neurons, which would be as difficult as transporting the enzyme. Currently, most research involving gene therapy involves developing a method of using a viral vector to transfer new DNA into neurons. Another approach to gene therapy, under study at Duke University, uses stem cells from umbilical cord blood in an effort to replace the defective gene. Although the Duke University approach has been effective with Krabbé disease, the researchers have not yet reported any results for Tay-Sachs.

Metabolic therapy. Other highly experimental methods being researched involve manipulating the brain's metabolism of GM2 gangliosides. One experiment has demonstrated that, by using the enzyme sialidase, the genetic defect can be effectively bypassed and GM2 gangliosides can be metabolized so that they become almost inconsequential. If a safe pharmacological treatment can be developed, one that causes the increased expression of lysosomal sialidase in neurons, a new form of therapy, essentially curing the disease, could be on the horizon. Metabolic therapies under investigation for Late-Onset TSD include treatment with the drug OGT 918 (Zavesca).[10]

Epidemiology

Historically, Eastern European people of Jewish descent (Ashkenazi Jews) have a high incidence of Tay-Sachs and other lipid storage diseases. Documentation of Tay-Sachs in this Jewish population reaches back to 15th century Europe. In the United States, about 1 in 27 to 1 in 30 Ashkenazi Jews is a recessive carrier. French Canadians and the Cajun community of Louisiana have an occurrence similar to the Ashkenazi Jews. Irish Americans have a 1 in 50 chance of a person being a carrier. In the general population, the incidence of carriers (heterozygotes) is about 1 in 300. [11]
A continuing controversy is whether heterozygotes, individuals who are carriers of one copy of the gene but do not actually develop the disease, have some selective advantage. The classic case of heterozygote advantage is sickle cell anemia, and some researchers have argued that there must be some evolutionary benefit to being a heterozygote for Tay-Sachs as well. Four different theories have been proposed to explain the high frequency of Tay-Sachs carriers in the Ashkenazi Jewish population:

Heterozygote advantage with tuberculosis resistance. Being a Tay-Sachs carrier may serve as a form of protection against tuberculosis. TB's prevalence in the European Jewish population was very high, in part because Jews were forced to live in crowded conditions. However, several statistical studies have demonstrated that grandparents of Tay-Sachs carriers (and thus themselves being carriers) died proportionally from the same causes as non-carriers.[12]
Heterozygote advantage because of higher intelligence. Another theory (attributed to Gregory Cochran) proposes that Tay-Sachs and the other lipid storage diseases that are prevalent in Ashkenazi Jews may enhance dendrite growth and promote higher intelligence when present in carrier form, thus providing a selective advantage at a time when Ashkenazi Jews were restricted to intellectual occupations.[13] (See Ashkenazi intelligence.)

Reproductive compensation. Parents who lose a child because of disease tend to "compensate" by having additional children to replace them, and this may increase the incidence of autosomal recessive disease.[14]

Founder effect. This hypothesis states that the high incidence of the 1278insTATC mutation is the result of genetic drift, which amplified a high frequency that existed by chance in an early founder population.
Because Tay-Sachs disease was one of the first autosomal recessive genetic disorders for which there was an enzyme assay test (prior to polymerase chain reaction testing methods), it was intensely studied as a model for all such diseases. The researchers of the 1970s often favored theories of heterozygote advantage, but failed to find much evidence for them in human populations. They were also unaware of the diversity of the Tay-Sachs mutation base. In the 1970s, complete genomes had not yet been sequenced, and researchers were unaware of the extent of polymorphism. The contribution to evolution of genetic drift (as opposed to natural selection) was not fully appreciated.

Since the 1970s, DNA sequencing techniques using PCR have been applied to many genetic disorders, and in other human populations. Several broad genetic studies of the Ashkenazi population (not related to genetic disease) have demonstrated that the Ashkenazi Jews are the descendants of a small founder population, which may have gone through additional population bottlenecks. These studies also correlate well with historical information about Ashkenazi Jews. Thus, a preponderence of the recent studies have supported the founder effects theory.[15][16][17]

Pandora in Myth

2006-09-04T21:53:00.000+08:00

Woman was not yet made. The story is that Zeus made her, and sent her to Prometheus and his brother, to punish them for their presumptions in stealing fire from heaven; and man, for accepting the gift. The first woman was named Pandora. She was made in heaven, every god contributing something to perfect her. Aphrodite gave her beauty, Hermes persuasion, Apollo music, etc. Thus equipped, she was conveyed to earth, and presented to Epimetheus, who gladly accepted her, though cautioned by his brother to beware of Zeus and his gifts. Epimetheus had in his house a jar, in which were kept certain noxious articles, for which, in fitting man for his new abode, he had no occasion. Pandora was seized with an eager curiosity to know what this jar contained; and one day she slipped off the cover and looked in. Forthwith there escaped a multitude of plagues for hapless man, - such as gout, rheumatism, and colic for his body, and envy, spite, and revenge for his mind, - and scattered themselves far and wide. Pandora hastened to replace the lid! but, alas! the whole contents of the jar had escaped, one thing only excepted, which lay at the bottom, and that was hope. So we see at this day, whenever evils are abroad, hope never entirely leaves us; and while we have that, no amount of other ills can make us completely wretched.

from Bulfinch's Mythology

Ammonia Smell When Working Out

2006-09-04T21:33:00.000+08:00

A reader asked me to address the issue of ammonia smell when working out. Many of us have experienced this - especially during prolonged cardiovascular exercise. Your sweat has an acrid, ammonia-like smell. Learn what it is and how to prevent it!

By: Jeremy Likness

A reader asked me to address the issue of "ammonia smell" when working out. Many of us have experienced this - especially during prolonged cardiovascular exercise. Your sweat has an acrid, ammonia-like smell. Obviously, no one wants to smell like a walking ammonia factory, so understanding how to avoid this smell would be useful. Some people are worried that the smell means that their body is "breaking down protein" - which is a major concern for anyone trying to build muscle!

What Is Ammonia?

The chemical make-up of ammonia is NH3. This means that there is one Nitrogen atom bound to three Hydrogen atoms. Ammonia can be a weak acid or a weak base, depending on what type of chemical it is suspended in. Ammonia has a strong, pungent odor that is easily recognizable in cleaning products, cat urine, and, for some people, sweat!

The key to ammonia in urine and sweat is the nitrogen. The only macronutrient in your body that contains nitrogen is amino acids, the building blocks of protein. In fact, many bodybuilders are always seeking a "positive nitrogen balance" meaning that less nitrogen leaves their body than enters their body. Since nitrogen is in every amino acid, and amino acids are the building blocks of muscle, someone in positive nitrogen balance is more than likely gaining muscle mass.

Your body uses amino acids for energy every day. There is no way to avoid this. Your body constantly goes into catabolic (tissue breakdown) and anabolic (tissue building) phases. When you accumulate mass (lean or fat), your anabolic phases exceed your catabolic phases, but you still experience both phases. When your body uses an amino acid for energy, it must convert the amino acid to a useable form of energy.

It does this by stripping the nitrogen atom off of the molecule. The skeleton molecule that is left behind is then further converted into glucose and used as fuel. In order to get rid of the excess nitrogen, your body typically processes the nitrogen in your kidneys and forms urea, CO(NH2)2 - basically, a carbon dioxide molecule bound to nitrogen and hydrogen. Urea is then excreted in the urine. If your kidneys cannot handle the load of nitrogen, then the nitrogen will be excreted as ammonia in your sweat.

One other factor to consider is water intake. The methods used for getting rid of excess ammonia, such as urine and sweat, all require water as a transport mechanism. If you are not getting adequate fluid, then the solution (ammonia + water) will not be diluted. Therefore, water plays a definite role. If you are not drinking enough fluids to have at least one or two clear urinations every day, you should drink more.

Based on this explanation, it is clear that your sweat will smell like ammonia only if an excessive amount of amino acids are being used for energy, or you are not receiving adequate water. This helps us find a solution to the problem.

Doesn't That Mean My Protein Intake Is Inadequate?

Many people mistakenly believe that ammonia sweat means that their protein intake is not high enough. The body will only utilize protein for energy when it does not have a sufficient supply of fats and carbohydrates. Muscles can use glucose and fat for energy, but your brain requires glucose. Since there is no direct metabolic pathway from fat to glucose, your body will use amino acids instead. If your protein intake is high, there is a chance that the amino acids that supply energy will come from ingested food and not your hard-earned muscle tissue - but why take that chance?

Let's look at an oil lamp. If you fill that lamp with Citronella oil, it will have a distinct odor when you light it. To eliminate that odor, do you add more Citronella? No! That's just fanning the flames. You'd use a different type of oil instead. The same goes for the ammonia smell - this is just the smell of amino acids being "burned" in your body. You don't solve that by adding more amino acids. Instead, you need to supply the fuel that your body prefers - the fuel that can be easily broken down to glucose in order to supply energy to your muscles and your brain - carbohydrates!

The key to avoiding that ammonia smell is to ingest sufficient carbohydrates. If you eat an ample amount of carbohydrate with every meal, then you should have plenty to fuel your exercise activity. Even people who work out on an empty stomach should have some glucose in their bloodstream upon rising - unless they subscribe to the myth that cutting out carbohydrates before bed helps you lose fat. If you find that the ammonia smell persists (even when you consume carbohydrate with every meal), try having a low glycemic carbohydrate before you workout.

A little oatmeal, a small apple, or even a piece of sprouted grain bread can provide the fuel that your body needs. Remember, your body requires fuel to burn fat! So don't think that providing some carbs before cardio is going to eliminate the fat burning process. In fact, most of my clients who consume a light meal before working out report that their energy levels go through the roof, and they have an incredible workout. If adding 80 calories in the form of a slice of sprouted grain bread kicks your energy levels into high gear and helps you burn 100 more calories during exercise (while sparing your muscles from being used as fuel), there is no reason to worry about dropping fat!

Learning Your Body

Your body can only process a certain amount of food at each meal. Therefore, it may not be possible to avoid that ammonia smell during prolonged activities. The smell is common, for example, amongst marathon runners, who are engaging in continuous cardiovascular exercise for hours at a time. In that situation, it is advisable to consume "sports drinks" or other sources of energy during the activity to fuel your body (and especially your brain) and prevent your amino acids from being burned for energy.

The next time you smell ammonia, don't worry. It doesn't mean that your muscle tissue being broken down, and it doesn't mean that you're doomed to stink for the rest of eternity. Consume a nutritious meal immediately after exercising - a balance of lean protein and whole, unprocessed carbohydrates - and then increase your carbohydrate intake throughout the day, or add a small "snack" prior to your next workout. An apple a day can help keep the ammonia smell away!

(Taken from www.bodybuilding.com)

Pseudocyesis

2006-09-04T21:20:00.000+08:00

Definition
Pseudocyesis is the medical term for a false pregnancy. Pseudocyesis can cause many of the signs and symptoms of pregnancy, and often resembles the condition in every way except for the presence of a fetus.

Description
Pseudocyesis has been observed and written about since antiquity. Hippocrates set down the first written account around 300 B.C., and recorded 12 different cases of women with the disorder. One of the most famous historical examples is Mary Tudor (1516-1558), Queen of England, who believed on more than one occasion that she was pregnant when she was not. Some even attribute the violence that gave her the nickname "Bloody Mary" as a reaction to the disappointment of finding out that she was not carrying a child. Other historians believe that the queen's physicians mistook fibroid tumors in her uterus for a pregnancy, as fibroids can enlarge a nonpregnant uterus.

Pseudocyesis has become increasingly rare in many parts of the world in which accurate pregnancy tests have become widely available. Cultures that place high value on pregnancy, or that make close associations between fertility and a person's worth, still have high rates of the disorder.

Signs and symptoms
The symptoms of pseudocyesis are similar to the symptoms of true pregnancy and are often hard to distinguish from such natural signs of pregnancy as morning sickness, tender breasts, and weight gain. Many health care professionals can be deceived by the symptoms associated with pseudocyesis. Eighteen percent of women with pseudocyesis were at one time diagnosed as pregnant by a medical professional. In some cases, the only difference between pregnancy and pseudocyesis is the presence of a fetus.

The sign of pseudocyesis that is common to all cases is that the affected patient is convinced that she is pregnant. Abdominal distension is the most common physical symptom of pseudocyesis (63– 97% of women are found to experience this). The abdomen expands in the same manner as it does during pregnancy, so that the affected woman looks pregnant. This phenomenon is thought to be caused by buildup of gas, fat, feces, or urine. These symptoms often resolve under general anesthesia and the woman's abdomen returns to its normal size.

The second most common physical sign of pseudocyesis is menstrual irregularity (56–98% of women experience this). Between 48% and 75% of women are also reported to experience the sensation of fetal movements known as quickening, even though there is no fetus present. Some of the other common signs and symptoms include: gastrointestinal symptoms, breast changes or secretions, labor pains, uterine enlargement, and softening of the cervix. One percent of women eventually experience false labor.

Causes
No single theory about the causes of pseudocyesis is universally accepted by mental health professionals. The first theory attributes the false pregnancy to emotional conflict. It is thought that an intense desire to become pregnant, or an intense fear of becoming pregnant, can create internal conflicts and changes in the endocrine system, which may explain some of the symptoms of pseudocyesis. The second theory concerns wish-fulfillment. It holds that if a women desires pregnancy badly enough she may interpret minor changes in her body as signs of pregnancy. The third leading theory is the depression theory, which maintains that chemical changes in the nervous system associated with some depressive disorders could trigger the symptoms of pseudocyesis.

Demographics
The rate of pseudocyesis in the United States has declined significantly in the past century. In the 1940s there was one occurrence for approximately every 250 pregnancies. This rate has since dropped to between one and six occurrences for every 22,000 births. The average age of the affected woman is 33, though cases have been reported for women as young as 6-1/2 and as old as 79. More than two-thirds of women who experience pseudocyesis are married, and about one-third have been pregnant at least once. Women who have been victims of incest may be at greater risk for developing pseudocyesis. Pseudocyesis is found in some mammals other than humans—most often cats, dogs, and rabbits.

Treatment
Because pseudocyesis is not known to have a direct underlying physical cause, there are no general recommendations regarding treatment with medications. In some cases, however, the patient may be given medications for such symptoms as the cessation of menstruation. Because most patients with pseudocyesis have underlying psychological problems, they should be referred to a psychotherapist for the treatment of these problems. It is important at the same time, however, for the treating professional not to minimize the reality of the patient's physical symptoms.

The treatment that has had the most success is demonstrating to the patient that she is not really pregnant by the use of ultrasound or other imaging techniques.

Alternative therapies
There have been reports of patients being cured of pseudocyesis by hypnosis, purgatives, massage, opioids, or after nine months of symptoms, by experiencing "hysterical childbirth," but there are few data available on the effectiveness of these or similar procedures.

Prognosis
Symptoms of pseudocyesis generally last from a few months to a few years. In most cases, symptoms last for a full nine months. There is a high success rate for treatments involving psychotherapy, as it treats the underlying psychological causes of the disorder.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 'Vitruvian Man'

2006-09-04T21:19:00.001+08:00

The 'Vitruvian Man' is a famous drawing with accompanying notes by Leonardo da Vinci made around the year 1492 in one of his journals. It depicts a naked male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man. It is on display in the Gallerie dell' Accademia in Venice, Italy.

Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, an example of the blend of art and science during the Renaissance.

This image provides the perfect example of Leonardo's keen interest in proportion. In addition, this picture represents a cornerstone of Leonardo's attempts to relate man to nature.

Encyclopaedia Britannica online states, "Leonardo envisaged the great picture chart of the human body he had produced through his anatomical drawings and Vitruvian Man as a cosmografia del minor mondo (cosmography of the microcosm). He believed the workings of the human body to be an analogy for the workings of the universe." It is also believed by some that Leonardo symbolised the material existence by the square and spiritual existence by the circle.

Thus he attempted to depict the correlation between these two aspects of human existence.[citation needed]
According to Leonardo's notes in the accompanying text, written in mirror writing, it was made as a study of the proportions of the (male) human body as described in a treatise by the Ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, who wrote that in the human body:
- a palm is the width of four fingers
- a foot is the width of four palms
- a cubit is the width of six palms
- a man's height is four cubits (and thus 24 palms)
- a pace is four cubits
- the length of a man's outspread arms is equal to his height
- the distance from the hairline to the bottom of the chin is one-tenth of a man's height
- the distance from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin is one-eighth of a man's height
- the maximum width of the shoulders is a quarter of a man's height
- the distance from the elbow to the tip of the hand is one-fifth of a man's height
- the distance from the elbow to the armpit is one-eighth of a man's height
- the length of the hand is one-tenth of a man's height
- the distance from the bottom of the chin to the nose is one third of the length of the head
- the distance from the hairline to the eyebrows is one-third of the length of the face
- the length of the ear is one-third of the length of the face

Leonardo is clearly illustrating Vitruvius De Architectura 3.1.3 which reads:

The navel is naturally placed in the centre of the human body, and, if in a man lying with his face upward, and his hands and feet extended, from his navel as the centre, a circle be described, it will touch his fingers and toes. It is not alone by a circle, that the human body is thus circumscribed, as may be seen by placing it within a square. For measuring from the feet to the crown of the head, and then across the arms fully extended, we find the latter measure equal to the former; so that lines at right angles to each other, enclosing the figure, will form a square.

There is of course no such thing as a universal set of proportions for the human body. The field of anthropometry was created in order to describe these individual variations. Vitruvius' statements may be interpreted as statements about average proportions, or perhaps as descriptions of an ideal human form. Vitruvius goes through some trouble to give a precise mathematical definition of what he means by saying that the navel is the center of the body, but other definitions lead to different results; for example, the center of mass of the human body depends on the position of the limbs, and in a standing posture is typically about 10 cm lower than the navel, near the top of the hip bones.

Note that Leonardo's drawing combines a careful reading of the ancient text, combined with his own observation of actual human bodies. In drawing the circle and square he correctly observes that the square cannot have the same center as the circle, the navel, but is somewhat lower in the anatomy. This adjustment is the innovative part of Leonardo's drawing and what distinguishes it from earlier illustrations. He also departs from Vitruvius by drawing the arms raised to a position in which the fingertips are level with the top of the head, rather than Vitruvius's much higher angle, in which the arms form lines passing through the navel.

The drawing itself is often used as an implied symbol of the essential symmetry of the human body, and by extension, to the universe as a whole.

It may be noticed by examining the drawing that the combination of arm and leg positions actually creates sixteen different poses. The pose with the arms straight out and the feet together is seen to be inscribed in the superimposed square. On the other hand, the "spread-eagle" pose is seen to be inscribed in the superimposed circle.

The Vitruvian Man remains one of the most referenced and reproduced artistic images in the world today. The proportions for the human body, as proposed by Vitruvius, have inspired many other artists in drawing their version of the Vitruvian Man :
Cesare Ceasariano (1521) who edited the important 1521 edition of “De Archtectura” of Vitruvius (Leonardo da Vinci is supposed to have provided the illustrations for this edition).
Albrecht Dürer (1528) in his book “Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion” (Four books on human proportions)
Pietro di Giacomo Cataneo (1554)
Heinrich Lautensack (1618)
William Blake (1795) “Glad Day” (now known as "Albion rose"). This representation is without the circle and square.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Abracadabra

2006-09-04T21:19:00.000+08:00

Abracadabra (sometimes spelled Abrakadabra) is a word used as an incantation, considered by some to be the phrase that is pronounced most universally in other languages without translation.

History

The word is now commonly used as an incantation by stage magicians. In ancient times, however, it was taken much more seriously as an incantation to be used as a cure against fevers and inflammations. The first known mention was in the 2nd century A.D. in a poem called De Medicina Praecepta by Serenus Sammonicus, physician to the Roman emperor Caracalla, who prescribed that the sufferer from the disease wear an amulet containing the word written in the form of an inverted cone:

A B R A C A D A B R A
A B R A C A D A B R
A B R A C A D A B
A B R A C A D A
A B R A C A D
A B R A C A
A B R A C
A B R A
A B R
A B
A

This, he explained, diminishes the hold of the spirit of the disease over the patient. Other Roman emperors, including Geta and Alexander Severus, were followers of the medical teachings of Serenus Sammonicus and are likely to have used the incantation as well.

Etymology

Theories about the source of the word are:
"I create as I speak"
A possible source is Aramaic: ???? ????? avra kedabra which means "I will create as I speak". Other spellings avra K'Davarah.

The curse and the pestilence
There is the view that Abracadabra derives from the Hebrew, ha-brachah, meaning "the blessing" (used in this sense as a euphemism for "the curse") and dabra, an Aramaic form of the Hebrew word dever, meaning "pestilence." They point to a similar kabbalistic cure for blindness, in which the name of Shabriri, the demon of blindness, is similarly diminished. Other scholars are skeptical of this origin and claim that the idea of diminishing the power of demons was common throughout the ancient world, and that Abracadabra was simply the name of one such demon.

Disappear like this word
Some have argued that the term may come from the Aramaic ???? ????? abhadda kedhabhra, meaning 'disappear like this word'. Rather than being used as a curse, the Aramaic phrase is believed to have been used as a means of treating illness.

Abraxas
It has also been claimed that the word comes from Abraxas, a Gnostic word for God (the source of 365 emanations, apparently the Greek letters for Abraxas add up to 365 when deciphered according to numerological methods). It has also been claimed to come from Abracalan (or Aracalan) who is said to have been a Syrian god.

Thelema

Main article: Abrahadabra
The religion of Thelema spells the word "Abrahadabra", and considers it the magical formula of the current Aeon. The religion's founder, Aleister Crowley, explains in his essay Gematria that he discovered the word (and his spelling) by kabbalistic methods. He appears to say that this happened before his January 1901 meeting with Oscar Eckenstein, one of his teachers. (At this meeting, Eckenstein ordered him to abandon magick for the moment and practice meditation or concentration.) The Word Abrahadabra appears repeatedly in the 1904 invocation of Horus that led to the founding of Thelema. (The Equinox I, no. 7. 1912) It also appears in a 1901 diary that Crowley published in The Equinox.

The essay Gematria gives Hindu, Christian, and "Unsectarian" versions of the problem that Crowley intended this magick word to answer. He also gives a kabbalistic equivalent for each phrasing, and a brief symbolic answer for each. The unsectarian version reads, "I am the finite square; I wish to be one with the infinite circle." Its equivalent refers to "the Cross of Extension" and "the infinite Rose." Crowley's numerological explanation of ABRAHADABRA focuses mainly on this last formulation and the answer to it.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hate Crimes

2006-09-04T21:18:00.000+08:00

Hate crimes are crimes that are motivated by feelings of hostility against any identifiable group of people within a society, such as violent crime, hate speech or vandalism. If systematic, rather than spontaneous, instigators of such crimes are sometimes organized into hate groups.

The U.S. Congress defined in 1992 a hate crime as a crime in which "the defendant's conduct was motivated by hatred, bias, or prejudice, based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity of another individual or group of individuals" (HR 4797 - this bill never became law).

On September 13, 1994, the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 was amended to make hate crimes illegal via the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (H.R.3355, Public Law No: 103-322) to include the following:

SEC. 280003. DIRECTION TO UNITED STATES SENTENCING COMMISSION REGARDING SENTENCING ENHANCEMENTS FOR HATE CRIMES.

(a) DEFINITION- In this section, `hate crime' means a crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim, or in the case of a property crime, the property that is the object of the crime, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person.

(b) SENTENCING ENHANCEMENT- Pursuant to section 994 of title 28, United States Code, the United States Sentencing Commission shall promulgate guidelines or amend existing guidelines to provide sentencing enhancements of not less than 3 offense levels for offenses that the finder of fact at trial determines beyond a reasonable doubt are hate crimes. In carrying out this section, the United States Sentencing Commission shall ensure that there is reasonable consistency with other guidelines, avoid duplicative punishments for substantially the same offense, and take into account any mitigating circumstances that might justify exceptions.

In the last decade of the 20th century, legislation in many U.S. states has established harsher penalties for a number of crimes when they are also considered hate crimes; interestingly, however, very few of these statutes make it more likely for a murder to trigger the death penalty when it is found to have also been a hate crime. While some claim that these hate crimes laws exist because women and certain minorities have been victims and require special protection, others say that they exist because crimes motivated by hate deserve a harsher punishment. California Penal Code section 422.6 offers a wider interpretation of hate crime, defining it as those acts "committed because of the victim's actual or perceived race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender, or sexual orientation. The actions considered criminal are using force or threat of force to willfully injure, intimidate, interfere with, oppress, or threaten any other person in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him or her by the Constitution or laws of the State or country."

Prevalence of Hate Crimes

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Hate Crime Statistics for 2004, there were 7,649 criminal hate crime incidents, out of 1,367,009 violent crimes and 10,328,255 property crimes; 0.065% of crimes committed in 2004 were hate crimes. In perspective, according to the National Safety Council, or NSC, in 2003 there were 4,500 accidental workplace fatalities and 13,900 fatalities due to accidental poisoning.

Distinguishing Features of Hate Crime Legislation
Hate crime laws do not vary significantly between different jurisdictions. Most states have approached hate crime legislation by creating penalty enhancements for pre-existing crimes when those crimes were motivated by hatred, bias, or prejudice, based the victim's inclusion in one of several legally-specified protected minorities. Thus, commission of a hate crime requires that two elements be proven. First, it must be shown that the defendant committed an enumerated predicate offense, such as assault, robbery, manslaughter, or kidnapping. Second, it must be shown that the defendant had illegal motivations based on the victim’s minority status (see thoughtcrime).

While the hate crime definition used by the FBI for purposes of crime statistics includes sexual orientation, disability, and gender as protected categories, this is not the case for all hate crime laws. Most jurisdictions include race, religion, ethnicity, and gender as protected classes for purpose of hate crime statutes, while some states also include disability and sexual orientation. As of October 2001, the federal hate crime law 18 USC 245 (b)(2), passed in 1969, protects religion, race and national origin, and applies only if the victim is engaged in one of six protected activities. Seven states have no hate crime laws, 20 states have hate crime laws that do not protect sexual orientation, and 24 states have hate crime laws that include sexual orientation. There have been two attempts in 2001 and in 2004 to amend the current federal hate crime law to include homosexuals. Currently, these attempts have been unsuccessful.

When it enacted the Hate Crimes Act of 2000, the New York State Legislature included legislative findings that offer a survey of the various arguments for hate crime legislation. The legislature specifically found that:

"Hate crimes do more than threaten the safety and welfare of all citizens. They inflict on victims incalculable physical and emotional damage and tear at the very fabric of free society. Crimes motivated by invidious hatred toward particular groups not only harm individual victims but send a powerful message of intolerance and discrimination to all members of the group to which the victim belongs. Hate crimes can and do intimidate and disrupt entire communities and vitiate the civility that is essential to healthy democratic processes. In a democratic society, citizens cannot be required to approve of the beliefs and practices of others, but must never commit criminal acts on account of them. Current law does not adequately recognize the harm to public order and individual safety that hate crimes cause. Therefore, our laws must be strengthened to provide clear recognition of the gravity of hate crimes and the compelling importance of preventing their recurrence. Accordingly, the legislature finds and declares that hate crimes should be prosecuted and punished with appropriate severity."

The legislature adopted a retributivist position when it argued that crimes motivated by animosity toward another’s protected status deserve more severe punishment. The basic tenet of a retributivist outlook is that punishment should be commensurate with moral and social culpability. Proponents point out that it is not unusual to make thoughts or states of mind (mens rea) elements of a crime. For example, the distinction between first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and manslaughter depends on the degree to which the killing was deliberate or premeditated. The definition of fraud requires scienter -- that the perpetrator knowingly defraud the victim. Supporters also claim that all laws are subjective, and that if society can determine that one crime deserves more punishment than another (e.g. murder vs. involuntary manslaughter) then it can also determine what motivations deserve harsher punishments.

The legislature applied a utilitarian approach when it argued that hate crimes impede the democratic process and should be prosecuted in order to protect the "public order." The utilitarian perspective tends to view punishment as a means to maintain or enhance a social system that promotes the greatest overall good to the whole public. This can be done through deterrence, rehabilitation, and/or incapacitation.

Here, the New York State Legislature employs more severe
sentences in an effort to deter future crime and achieve the public policy goals put forth in the legislative findings. Many support hate crime laws, stating that their harsher sentences give individuals greater discouragement from committing hate crimes. Some supporters reason that one who can be moved to violence by hatred of a class of people presents a greater danger to society than one who merely hates an individual. Their position states that if normal punishments are inadequate deterrents, then additional punishments may deter crimes motivated by hate.

Against
The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.

One basic argument against the concept of hate crimes is that it criminalizes thought by increasing the penalty for crimes based solely on motive. In rebutting the retributivist argument above, one could argue that the deliberation or premeditation that distinguishes degrees of murder and manslaughter are part of the act itself. Motives, whether they are hate, jealousy, greed, or passion, are not part of the crime in the same way. Consider the crime of conspiracy. Several people sitting in a room discussing their hatred of a group of people are not committing conspiracy; the same people plotting to rob a bank are.

There are some scholarly arguments that provide reason for opposing "hate crimes" as currently imposed in some legislative forms in the United States. However, these arguments are largely theoretical and are not necessarily reflective of the respective philosophies cited for support.

These arguments generally revolve around utilitarian and retributivist philosophies. In weighing an offense under a utilitarian philosophy, the argument questions whether individual deterrence can be achieved over such an entrenched social conscience. Further, there is concern that general deterrence may not be achieved, and in fact may have the opposite effect of enraging individuals pscyhologically susceptible to developing anger and hatred towards others amidst a domination complex. From a retributivist standpoint, there are also arguments that because the crime should be weighed from the standpoint of the harm to the victim, if a particular crime was equally harmful, then the mental state of the defendant should not require additional punishment. [citation needed]

The issue generally arises when a statute imposes additional sentencing criteria for a pre-existing offense for a guilty mind (mens rea). However, not every state form of statute is susceptible to this argument. For example, in the Pennsylvania Code, a separate offense exists entitled "ethnic intimidation." The ethnic intimidation offense is a particular offense which requires both a specific form of criminal conduct and a particular state of mind (mens rea) at the time. Moreover, there are offenses in criminal law, within both common law and civil law systems, which do not require a separate mens rea including most public welfare (regulatory) offenses and homicide statutes based upon common law doctrinal Felony-Murder and Misdemeanor-Manslaughter rules. [citation needed]

Hate crime prosecutions are generally pursued if the alleged perpetrators are white males. If the perpetrators are of other groups, prosecutions are very rare to nonexistent. [citation needed]

Ebola

2006-09-04T21:17:00.000+08:00

Ebola is the common term for a group of viruses belonging to genus Ebolavirus, family Filoviridae, which cause Ebola hemorrhagic fever[1]. The disease can be deadly and encompasses a range of symptoms, usually including vomiting, diarrhea, general body pain, internal and external bleeding, and fever [2]. Mortality rates are generally high, ranging from 50% - 90%, with the cause of death usually due to shock or multiple organ failure[3].

Ebola is believed to be a zoonotic virus, although despite considerable effort by the World Health Organization no animal reservoir capable of sustaining the virus between outbreaks has been identified. One candidate reservoir is the fruit bat[4]. The virus is named after the Ebola River in the African state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaïre), near the site of the first outbreaks[5].

Due to its high lethality and the fact that no approved vaccine or treatment is available, Ebola is classified as a biosafety level 4 organism; as well as a category A bioterrorism agent[6] and a select agent by the CDC.

Discovery

The first documented outbreaks of Ebola occurred simultaneously in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan in 1976, resulting in the virus being named for a tributary of the Congo River so that it might represent both outbreaks. Two species were identified later that year being responsible for these two outbreaks: Zaire ebolavirus (ZEBOV) and Sudan ebolavirus (SEBOV) with case-fatality rates (CFR) of 83% and 54%, respectively. The first electronmicrograph of Ebola was also obtained in 1976 by Dr. Fred A. Murphy, who was then working at the Center for Disease Control.

A third species, Reston ebolavirus (REBOV), was discovered in November 1989 in a group of monkeys (Crab-eating Macaque Macaca fascicularis) imported from the Philippines to the United States of America. A new species was identified from a single human case in Côte d’Ivoire in 1994, and named Ivory Coast ebolavirus (ICEBOV).

Further outbreaks have occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1995, 2001/2002, 2003, 2005), Gabon (1994 - 1996 and 2002), Sudan (2004) and Uganda (2000). In 2003, 128 people died in the Couvette-Ouest Region [7], Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been the site of four recent outbreaks, including one in May 2005.

Ebola hemorrhagic fever
Symptoms

Symptoms are varied and often appear suddenly. Initial symptoms include: high fever (at least 38.8°C/101°F), severe headache, muscle, joint or abdominal pain, severe weakness and exhaustion, sore throat, nausea, and dizziness. Before an epidemic is suspected, these early symptoms are easily mistaken for malaria, typhoid fever, dysentery, influenza, or various bacterial infections, which are all far more common.

Ebola goes on to cause diarrhea, dark or bloody stools, vomiting blood, red eyes from swollen blood vessels, red spots on the skin from subcutaneous bleeding, maculopapular rash, purpura, and bleeding internally and externally from any orifice, including from the nose, mouth, rectum, genitals or needle puncture sites.

Other secondary symptoms include hypotension (less than 90mm Hg), hypovolemia, tachycardia, severe organ damage (especially the kidneys, spleen, and liver) as a result of necrosis, and proteinuria. The span of time from onset of symptoms to death (usually due to hypovolemic shock and/or multiple organ failure) is usually between 7 and 14 days. By the second week of infection, patients will either defervesce (the fever will lessen) or undergo systemic multiorgan failure.

Transmission

Among humans, the virus is transmitted by direct contact with infected body fluids, or to a lesser extent, skin or mucus membrane contact. The incubation period can be anywhere from 2 to 21 days, but is generally between 5 and 10 days.
Although airborne transmission between monkeys has been demonstrated in a laboratory, there is very limited evidence for human-to-human airborne transmission in any reported epidemics.16,17,18 Nurse Mayinga might represent the only possible case. The means by which she contracted the virus remain uncertain.

So far all epidemics of Ebola have occurred in sub-optimal hospital conditions, where practices of basic hygiene and sanitation are often either luxuries or unknown to caretakers and where disposable needles and autoclaves are unavailable or too expensive. In modern hospitals with disposable needles and knowledge of basic hygiene and barrier nursing techniques, Ebola rarely spreads on such a large scale.
In the early stages, Ebola may not be highly contagious.

Contact with someone in early stages may not even transmit the disease. As the illness progresses, bodily fluids from diarrhea, vomiting, and bleeding represent an extreme biohazard. Due to lack of proper equipment and hygienic practices, large scale epidemics occur mostly in poor, isolated areas without modern hospitals and/or well-educated medical staff. Many areas where the infectious reservoir exists have just these characteristics. In such environments all that can be done is to immediately cease all needle sharing or use without adequate sterilization procedures, to isolate patients, and to observe strict barrier nursing procedures with the use of a medical rated disposable face mask, gloves, goggles, and a gown at all times. This should be strictly enforced for all medical personnel and visitors.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

5 ways smoking kills

2006-09-04T21:16:00.000+08:00

At age 23, Sarah* has been smoking for 11 years. Two years after she began to smoke heavily, she noticed a decrease in her athletic ability. “I went from being first string basketball to second string basketball,” says Sarah, whose symptoms continue to progress. “In terms of cardio capacity, the times I’ve tried to get in shape it’s a lot harder—I sound awful. I start hacking and wheezing.”

Unfortunately, if Sarah doesn’t quit, there are dozens of conditions that she may develop as early as 30 years old. Here are five cigarette side effects that would make anyone think twice about lighting up:

1. Smoking can make you blind.
According to studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association, smokers and ex-smokers are two to three times more likely to develop macular degeneration, which is an irreversible form of blindness. Countless other studies confirm that smoking affects eyesight. Researchers say that smoking restricts blood flow to the eyes and can cause not only macular degeneration, but also cataracts (clouding of the lenses).

2. Smoking can destroy your smile.
We don’t mean because your teeth will get stained (although that will happen, along with bad breath and wrinkled skin). We’re talking about tooth loss. Cigarette smoke damages your gums, potentially causing gum disease and eventual tooth loss. Smoking can also give you oral cancers, so you might lose other parts of your mouth, including your tongue and lips. But you may not have to live long with half a face; Health Canada statistics show that in 1994, 1,319 smokers over the age of 34 died from oral and esophageal cancers.

3. Smoking can make you infertile.
If having children is part of your future plans, be warned – male and female smokers are more likely to be infertile. A study published in the Journal of Biosocial Science also states that women who smoke take significantly longer to become pregnant than women who never smoke or who stop smoking a year before trying to conceive.

4. Smoking can lead to permanently broken bones.
Bones tend to thin with smoking, which eventually causes osteoporosis. The American Council on Science and Health states that the bone minerals that are lost with osteoporosis can never be fully recovered. Osteoporosis leads to easily broken bones that often don’t heal.

5. Smoking can take your breath away.
Smoking is the single largest cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which, according to the Canadian Lung Association, is the fifth most common cause of death in North America. This disease is a combination of chronic bronchitis and emphysema, which means that you not only can suffer from bronchitis for years at a time, but your airways are narrowed, making it hard to breathe. COPD affects smokers as young as 40 years of age and cannot be cured. Ironically, one of the main treatments for each of these diseases is quitting smoking, so you will most likely be forced to break her habit at some point. The bottom line is simple: If you don’t smoke, don’t start. And if you do smoke, talk to your doctor about quitting. Quitting isn’t easy and may take several tries, but dealing with a severe or fatal condition before reaching middle age will be much harder.

Gluconeogenesis

2006-09-04T21:15:00.000+08:00

Gluconeogenesis is the generation of glucose from other organic molecules like pyruvate, lactate, glycerol, and amino acids (primarily alanine and glutamine).

The vast majority of gluconeogenesis takes place in the liver and, to a smaller extent, in the kidney. This process occurs during periods of starvation or intense exercise and is highly endergonic.

Entering the pathway

Many 3- and 4-carbon substrates can enter the gluconeogenesis pathway. Lactate from anaerobic respiration in skeletal muscle is easily converted to pyruvate in the liver cells; this happens as part of the Cori cycle. However, the first designated substrate in the gluconeogenic pathway is pyruvate.

Oxaloacetate (an intermediate in the citric acid cycle) can also be used for gluconeogenesis. Amino acids, after their amino group has been removed, feeds into parts of the citric acid cycle, and can thus generate glucose in this pathway.

Most fatty acids cannot be turned into glucose unless the glyoxylate cycle is used, the exception being odd-chain fatty acids, which can yield propionyl CoA, a precursor for succinyl CoA. Fatty acids are regularly broken down into the two-carbon acetyl CoA, which becomes degraded in the citric acid cycle. In contrast, glycerol, which is a part of all triacylglycerols, can be used in gluconeogenesis.

Pathway

Gluconeogenesis begins with the formation of oxaloacetate through carboxylation of pyruvate at the expense of one molecule of ATP, but is inhibited in the presence of high levels of ADP. This reaction is catalyzed by pyruvate carboxylase.

Oxaloacetate is then decarboxylated and simultaneously phosphorylated by phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase to produce phosphoenolpyruvate. One molecule of GTP is hydrolyzed to GDP in the course of this reaction. Both reactions take place in mitochondria. Oxaloacetate has to be transformed into malate in order to be transported out of the mitochondria.

Typically, the last step of gluconeogenesis is the formation of glucose-6-phosphate from fructose-6-phosphate by phosphoglucose isomerase. Free glucose is not generated automatically because glucose, unlike glucose-6-phosphate, tends to freely diffuse out of the cell. The reaction of actual glucose formation is carried out in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum. Here, glucose-6-phosphate is hydrolyzed by glucose-6-phosphatase, a regulated membrane-bound enzyme, to produce glucose. Glucose is then shuttled into cytosol by glucose transporters located in the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum.

Regulation

Gluconeogenesis cannot be considered to be a reverse process of glycolysis, as the three irreversible steps in glycolysis are bypassed in gluconeogenesis. This is done to ensure that glycolysis and gluconeogenesis do not operate at the same time in the cell, making it a futile cycle.

The majority of the enzymes responsible for gluconeogenesis are found in the cytoplasm; the exception is pyruvate carboxylase, which is located in the mitochondria. The rate of gluconeogenesis is ultimately controlled by the action of a key enzyme fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase.

Most factors that regulate the activity of the gluconeogenesis pathway do so by inhibiting the activity of key enzymes. However, both acetyl CoA and citrate activate gluconeogenesis enzymes (pyruvate carboxylase and fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, respectively).

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Porphyrias

2006-09-04T21:14:00.000+08:00

The porphyrias are inherited or acquired disorders of certain enzymes in the heme biosynthetic pathway (also called porphyrin pathway). They are broadly classified as hepatic porphyrias or erythropoietic porphyrias, based on the site of the overproduction and mainly accumulation of the porphyrins (or their chemical precursors).

Overview

In humans, porphyrins are the main precursors of heme, an essential constituent of hemoglobin, myoglobin, catalase, peroxidase, respiratory and P450 liver cytochromes.

Deficiency in the enzymes of the porphyrin pathway leads to insufficient production of heme. Heme metabolism plays a central role in cellular metabolism. This is, however, not the main problem; most enzymes—even when less functional—have enough residual activity to assist in heme biosynthesis. Dysregulation of the neuroendocrine and cardiovascular systems can occur in attacks. An additional problem in these deficiencies is the accumulation of porphyrins, the heme precursors, which are toxic to tissue in high concentrations.

The chemical properties of these intermediates determine in which tissue they accumulate, whether they are photosensitive, and how the compound is excreted (in the urine or feces).

Culture and history

Vampires and werewolves
Porphyria has been suggested as an explanation for the origin of vampire and werewolf legends, based upon a number of similarities between the condition and the folklore that was first speculated upon by biochemist David Dolphin in 1985. His ruminations gave rise to a popular urban legend which accepts this association as factual, though it is historically and factually baseless. ([1]) Porphyria cutanea tarda presents clinically as a pathological sensitivity of skin exposed to light causing scarring, hair growth and disfiguration. Additionally, it was believed that the patients' missing heme could be absorbed through the stomach, correlating with the legends' hematophagy.

Porphyrias have been detected in all races, multiple ethnic groups on every continent including Caucasians, Asians, Blacks, Peruvian/Mexican Hispanics, Native Americans, Laplanders and Australian aborigines. There are high incidence reports of AIP in areas of India and Scandinavia and over 200 genetic variants of AIP, some of which are specific to families, although some strains have proven to be repeated mutations.

The Scandinavian source of porphyria has been traced to Laplanders. The languages of Finland and Laps, Estonia, Hungary and Transylvania, Romania have ties to languages in small groups of Russians on both sides of the Urals and are branches of Uralic languages and Altaic languages. They have been referred to as "The Outsiders" and have Asian origins.

There are multiple genetic variants of all porphyrias. More advanced technology has revealed patients inheriting two different types of porphyria known as dual porphyrias and evidence of genetic errors in closely linked biochemical pathways such as hemoglobinopathies (sickle cell trait or thalassemia minor) or glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency combining with porphyrias creating mixed genetic disorders.

The potential for gene combinations and for porphyrias modifying other genetic disorders coupled with environmental stressors is staggering.

Historical patients

The insanity exhibited by King George III evidenced in the regency crisis of 1788 has inspired several attempts at retrospective diagnosis. The first, written in 1855, thirty-five years after his death, concluded he suffered from acute mania. M. Guttbacker, in 1941, suggested manic-depressive psychosis as a more likely diagnosis, The first suggestion that a physical illness was the cause of King George's mental derangements came in 1966, in a paper "The Insanity of King George III: A Classic Case of Porphyria"[1], with a follow-up in 1968, "Porphyria in the Royal Houses of Stuart, Hanover and Prussia"[2]. The papers, by a mother/son psychiatrist team, were written as though the case for porphyria had been proven, but the response demonstrated that many, including those more intimately familiar with actual manifestations of porphyria, were unconvinced. The theory is treated in Purple Secret[3], which documents the ultimately unsuccessful search for genetic evidence of porphyria in the remains of royals suspected to suffer from it.[4] Despite the lack of evidence, the notion that George III (and other members of the royal family) suffered from porphyria has achieved such popularity that many forget that it is merely a hypothesis.

Other commentators have suggested that Vincent van Gogh may have suffered from acute intermittent porphyria (Loftus & Arnold 1991). Erik Vachon, the little-known builder whose character was combined with that of Svengali to create The Phantom of the Opera may have suffered from erythropoietic porphyria.

It has also been imagined that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon suffered from some form of porphyria (cf. Daniel 4, see Beveridge 2003). The symptoms of the various porphyrias are so wide-ranging that nearly any constellation of symptoms can be attributed to one or more of them.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Indigo Children

2006-09-04T21:12:00.000+08:00

Indigo children is a term used within the New Age movement to refer to children who claim or who are believed to possess certain special psychological and spiritual attributes.

The Indigo Child concept was first publicized by the book The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived, written by the husband-and-wife team of Lee Carroll and Jan Tober [1]. Carroll insists that the concept was obtained via conversations with a spiritual entity known as Kryon. The reason for the use of the adjective "indigo" is not universally agreed upon. Some sources link it with an early researcher into the phenomenon, who was synesthetic. It has also been claimed that these children appear with an indigo-hued aura.

The Indigo Child supposition

According to Carroll and Tober, "the Indigo Child is a boy or girl who displays a new and unusual set of psychological attributes, revealing a pattern of behavior generally undocumented before." These psychological attributes and behavior patterns include, but are not limited to, being technologically advanced, head- and mind-oriented, fearless, empathic, telepathic, wise beyond their years, and extremely intuitive and self-empowered.

Carroll and Tober assert that these children are often misdiagnosed with Attention-Deficit Disorder or Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and they advise parents to avoid medicating them for that condition despite warnings from legitimate doctors. This pattern, they claim, has unique factors that call on parents and teachers to change their treatment and upbringing of these children in order to assist them in achieving balance and harmony in their lives, and to help them avoid frustration. These classifications differ significantly from conventional child psychology and sociology.

Supporters state that the proportion of Indigos in recent times is very large and increasing, rising from 85% in 1992 to 95% at some point after 1994 [1]. In previous decades, the proportion was claimed to have been much lower. This and other claims are disputed by opponents who have challenged the concept on issues of methodology and statistical verifiability.

Carroll states that the Indigo Child concept is metaphysical in nature, although he also holds that most of the traits of Indigos are also physically observable. Carroll describes himself as a channeler for Kryon, an angelic being. One of the book's six chapters focuses on the spiritual aspects of claimed Indigos. Some followers take the stance that the arrival of these children is wholly a spiritual phenomenon, and that Indigo Children are the beginning of a new hybrid, possibly alien.

Characteristics

Carroll and Tober identify ten attributes that describe the Indigo Child:[citation needed]
They come into the world with a feeling of royalty (and often act like it).

They have a feeling of "deserving to be here," and are surprised when others do not share that.
Self-worth is not a big issue; they often tell the parents "who they are."

They have difficulty with absolute authority (authority without explanation or choice).
They simply will not do certain things; for example, waiting in line is difficult for them.

They get frustrated with systems that are ritually oriented and do not require creative thought.
They often see better ways of doing things, both at home and in school, which makes them seem like "system busters" (non-conforming to any system).

They seem antisocial unless they are with their own kind. If there are no others of like consciousness around them, they often turn inward, feeling like no other human understands them. School is often extremely difficult for them socially.
They will not respond to "guilt" discipline ("Wait till your father gets home and finds out what you did").
They are not shy in letting it be known what they need.

In her article Indigo Children: What's an Indigo Child?? Wendy H. Chapman (enlightenment teacher at and Director of Metagifted Education Resource Organization) says that Indigo Children will also display many of the following:

Have strong self esteem, connection to source
Have an obvious sense of self
Refuse to follow orders or directions
Get bored rather easily with assigned tasks
Are rather creative
Display strong intuition
Have strong empathy for others or NO empathy
Develop abstract thinking very young
Are gifted and/or talented, highly intelligent
Are often identified or suspected of having ADHD
Are frequent daydreamers
Have very old, deep, wise looking eyes
Have spiritual intelligence and/or psychic skills

Some critics believe that these traits are not unique and are observable in most children, but adherents believe that this new type of child has come forward for a reason; most often suggested is that they will improve the world in some way.

The changes generally discussed involve bringing peace, toppling corrupt institutions, and a shift from allopathic medicine to a greater understanding of more natural alternatives. Indigo Children are said to be more in touch with something called the Universal Truth, and do not tolerate or understand behaviors or systems that are not in harmony with it.

Indigo Children are sometimes said to possess an extreme longevity, but given the birth dates above the source of this belief is unknown.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Psychosis

2006-09-04T21:10:00.000+08:00

Psychosis is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state in which thought and perception are severely impaired. Persons experiencing a psychotic episode may experience hallucinations, hold delusional beliefs (e.g., grandiose or paranoid delusions), demonstrate personality changes and exhibit disorganized thinking (see thought disorder). This is often accompanied by lack of insight into the unusual or bizarre nature of such behavior, difficulties with social interaction and impairments in carrying out the activities of daily living. A psychotic episode is often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality".

Etymology

The word psychosis was first used by Ernst von Feuchtersleben in 1845[1] as an alternative to insanity and mania and stems from the Greek psyche (mind) and -osis (diseased or abnormal condition).[2] The word was used to distinguish disorders which were thought to be disorders of the mind, as opposed to neurosis, which was thought to stem from a disorder of the nervous system.

Overview

Psychosis is considered by mainstream psychiatry to be a symptom of severe mental illness, but is not a diagnosis in itself. Although it is not exclusively linked to any particular psychological or physical state, it is particularly associated with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder (manic depression) and severe clinical depression. There are also detectable physical pathologies that can induce a psychotic state, including brain injury or other neurological disorder, drug intoxication and withdrawal (especially alcohol, barbiturates, and sometimes benzodiazepines), lupus, electrolyte disorder in the elderly (such as urinary tract infections) and pain syndromes.

The term psychosis should be distinguished from the concept of insanity, which is a legal term denoting that a person should not be criminally responsible for his actions. Similarly, it should be distinguished from psychopathy, a personality disorder often associated with violence, lack of empathy and socially manipulative behavior. Despite the fact that both are colloquially abbreviated to "psycho", psychosis bears little similarity to psychopathy's core features, particularly with regard to violence, which rarely occurs in psychosis, and the distortion of perceived reality, which rarely occurs in psychopathy.

Psychosis should also be distinguished from the state of delirium, in that a psychotic individual may be able to perform actions that require a high level of intellectual effort in clear consciousness. Finally, it should be distinguished from mental illness. Psychosis may be regarded as a symptom of other mental illnesses, but as a descriptive concept it is not considered an illness in its own right. For example, persons with schizophrenia can have long periods without psychosis, and persons with bipolar disorder and depression can have mood symptoms without psychosis. Conversely, psychosis can occur in persons without chronic mental illness, as a result of an adverse drug reaction or extreme stress.

Psychotic states occurring after drug use may be particularly linked to drug overdose, chronic use and drug withdrawal. Certain compounds may be more likely to induce psychosis and some individuals may show greater sensitivity than others. Certain "street" drugs, such as cocaine, amphetamines, PCP and hallucinogens are particularly linked to the development of psychosis. Anticholinergic drugs (atropine, scopolamine, Jimson weed), and many antihistamines can also induce psychosis at high enough dosages.

Intoxication with drugs that have general depressant effects on the central nervous system (especially alcohol and barbiturates) tend not to cause psychosis during use, and can actually decrease or lessen the impact of symptoms in some people. Withdrawal from barbiturates and alcohol can be particularly dangerous, however, leading to psychosis or delirium and other, potentially lethal, withdrawal effects.

Psychological stress is also known to contribute to and trigger psychotic states. Both a history of traumatic incidents experienced throughout the life-span, and the recent experience of a stressful event, is thought to contribute to the development of psychosis. Short-lived psychosis triggered by stress is known as brief reactive psychosis.

Sleep deprivation has been linked to psychosis, although there is little evidence to suggest that it is a major risk factor in the majority of people. Some people experience hypnagogic or hypnopompic hallucinations, where unusual sensory experiences or thoughts appear during waking or drifting off to sleep. These are normal sleep phenomena, however, and are not considered signs of psychosis.

During the 1960s and 1970s, psychosis was of particular interest to counterculture critics of mainstream psychiatric practice, who argued that it may simply be another way of constructing reality and is not necessarily a sign of illness. For example, R. D. Laing argued that psychosis is a symbolic way of expressing concerns in situations where such views may be unwelcome or uncomfortable to the recipients. He went on to say that psychosis could be also seen as a transcendental experience with healing and spiritual aspects. Thomas Szasz focused on the social implications of labelling people as psychotic; a label he argues unjustly medicalises different views of reality so such unorthodox people can be controlled by society.

Generally, however, advances in both diagnosis and the scientific study of psychosis have led to theories drawing on biology, cognitive psychology and neuropsychology being accepted as mainstream explanations. In the United States and Europe, few reputable practitioners since the 1990s have approached psychosis outside this scientific frame of reference.

Antipsychotic medication is usually the first line treatment for psychosis and can potentially minimize or eliminate the symptoms within a relatively rapid amount of time. Cognitive behavioral therapy is now recommended by many clinical standards organizations as an effective psychological treatment for psychosis.

Psychotic experience

A psychotic episode can be significantly affected by mood. For example, people experiencing a psychotic episode in the context of depression may experience persecutory or self-blaming delusions or hallucinations, while people experiencing a psychotic episode in the context of mania may form grandiose delusions or have an experience of deep religious significance.

Although usually distressing and regarded as an illness process, some people who experience psychosis find beneficial aspects and value the experience or revelations that stem from it.

Hallucinations

Hallucinations are defined as sensory perception in the absence of external stimuli. They are different from illusions, which are the misperception of external stimuli. Hallucinations may occur in any of the five senses and take on almost any form, which may include simple sensations (such as lights, colors, tastes, smells) to more meaningful experiences such as seeing and interacting with fully formed animals and people, hearing voices and complex tactile sensations.

Auditory hallucinations, particularly the experience of hearing voices, are a common and often prominent feature of psychosis. Hallucinated voices may talk about, or to the person, and may involve several speakers with distinct personas. Auditory hallucinations tend to be particularly distressing when they are derogatory, commanding or preoccupying. However, the experience of hearing voices need not always be a negative one. Research has shown that the majority of people who hear voices are not in need of psychiatric help.[3] The Hearing Voices Movement has subsequently been created to support voice hearers, regardless of whether they are considered to have a mental illness or not.

Delusions and paranoia

Psychosis may involve delusional or paranoid beliefs. Karl Jaspers classified psychotic delusions into primary and secondary types. Primary delusions are defined as arising out-of-the-blue and not being comprehensible in terms of normal mental processes, whereas secondary delusions may be understood as being influenced by the person's background or current situation (i.e. ethnic or sexual descrimination, religious, superstitious belief).

Thought disorder

Formal thought disorder describes an underlying disturbance to conscious thought and is classified largely by its effects on speech and writing. Affected persons may show pressure of speech (speaking incessantly and quickly), derailment or flight of ideas (switching topic mid-sentence or inappropriately), thought blocking, and rhyming or punning.

Lack of insight

One important and puzzling feature of psychosis is usually an accompanying lack of insight into the unusual, strange, or bizarre nature of the person's experience or behaviour. Even in the case of an acute psychosis, sufferers may seem completely unaware that their vivid hallucinations and impossible delusions are in any way unrealistic. This is not an absolute, however; insight can vary between individuals and throughout the duration of the psychotic episode.
In some cases, particularly with auditory and visual hallucinations, the patient has good insight, which makes the psychotic experience even more terrifying because the patient realizes that he or she should not be hearing voices, but is.

Medical understanding of psychosis

There are a number of possible causes for psychosis. Psychosis may be the result of an underlying mental illness such as bipolar disorder (also known as manic depression) or schizophrenia. Psychosis may also be triggered or exacerbated by severe mental stress and high doses or chronic use of drugs such as amphetamines, LSD, PCP, cocaine or scopolamine. However, incidence of psychosis resulting from a single administration of any drug is rare, although cases have been reported in the medical literature suggesting a person's sensitivities to new compounds can be unpredictable. Sudden withdrawal from CNS depressant drugs, such as alcohol and benzodiazepines, may also trigger psychotic episodes. As can be seen from the wide variety of illnesses and conditions in which psychosis has been reported to arise (including, for example, AIDS, leprosy, malaria and even mumps) there is no singular cause of a psychotic episode.

The division of the major psychoses into manic depressive insanity (now called bipolar disorder) and dementia praecox (now called schizophrenia) was made by Emil Kraepelin, who attempted to create a synthesis of the various mental disorders identified by 19th century psychiatrists, by grouping diseases together based on classification of common symptoms. Kraepelin used the term 'manic depressive insanity' to describe the whole spectrum of mood disorders, in a far wider sense than it is usually used today. In Kraepelin's classification this would include 'unipolar' clinical depression, as well as bipolar disorder and other mood disorders such as cyclothymia.

These are characterised by problems with mood control and the psychotic episodes appear associated with disturbances in mood, and patients will often have periods of normal functioning between psychotic episodes even without medication. Schizophrenia is characterized by psychotic episodes which appear to be unrelated to disturbances in mood, and most non-medicated patients will show signs of disturbance between psychotic episodes.

Psychotic episodes may vary in duration between individuals. In brief reactive psychosis, the psychotic episode is related directly to a specific stressful life event, so patients may spontaneously recover normal functioning within two weeks.[4] In some rare cases, individuals may remain in a state of full-blown psychosis for many years, or perhaps have attenuated psychotic symptoms (such as low intensity hallucinations) present at most times.

Patients who are undergoing a brief psychotic episode may have many of the same symptoms as a person who is psychotic as a result of (for example) schizophrenia, and this fact has been used to support the notion that psychosis is primarily a breakdown in some specific biological system in the brain. The dopamine hypothesis of psychosis was an early, and still popular, example of a theory based on this assumption. However, it is controversial how much weight should be given to such exclusively biological theories as it has become clearer that a wide range of influences (including environmental, social and childhood development factors) may contribute to the final experience of psychosis.

It has also been argued that psychosis exists on a continuum as everybody may have some unusual and potentially reality-distorting experiences in their life. This has been backed up by research showing that experiences such as hallucinations have been experienced by large numbers of the population who may never be impaired or even distressed by their experiences.[5] In this view, people who are diagnosed with a psychotic illness may simply be one end of a spectrum where the experiences become particularly intense or distressing (see schizotypy).

Psychosis and brain function

The first brain image of a person with psychosis was completed as far back as 1935 using a technique called pneumoencephalography[6] (a painful and now obsolete procedure where cerebrospinal fluid is drained from around the brain and replaced with air to allow the structure of the brain to show up more clearly on an X-ray picture).

Modern brain imaging studies, investigating both changes in brain structure and changes in brain function of people undergoing psychotic episodes, have shown mixed results.
A 2003 study investigating structural changes in the brains of people with psychosis showed there was significant grey matter reduction in the cortex of people before and after they became psychotic.[7] Findings such as these have led to debate about whether psychosis is itself neurotoxic and whether potentially damaging changes to the brain are related to the length of psychotic episode. Recent research has suggested that this is not the case[8] although further investigation is still ongoing.

Functional brain scans have revealed that the areas of the brain that react to sensory perceptions are active during psychosis. For example, a PET or fMRI scan of a person who claims to be hearing voices may show activation in the auditory cortex, or parts of the brain involved in the perception and understanding of speech.
On the other hand, there is not a clear enough psychological definition of belief to make a comparison between different people particularly valid. Brain imaging studies on delusions have typically relied on correlations of brain activation patterns with the presence of delusional beliefs.

One clear finding is that persons with a tendency to have psychotic experiences seem to show increased activation in the right hemisphere of the brain.[9] This increased level of right hemisphere activation has also been found in healthy people who have high levels of paranormal beliefs[10] and in people who report mystical experiences.[11] It also seems to be the case that people who are more creative are also more likely to show a similar pattern of brain activation.[12] Some researchers have been quick to point out that this in no way suggests that paranormal, mystical or creative experiences are in any way by themselves a symptom of mental illness, as it is still not clear what makes some such experiences beneficial whilst others lead to the impairment or distress of diagnosable mental pathology. However, people who have profoundly different experiences of reality or hold unusual views or opinions have traditionally held a complex role in society, with some being viewed as kooks, whilst others are lauded as prophets or visionaries.

Psychosis has been traditionally linked to the neurotransmitter dopamine. In particular, the dopamine hypothesis of psychosis has been influential and states that psychosis results from an overactivity of dopamine function in the brain, particularly in the mesolimbic pathway. The two major sources of evidence given to support this theory are that dopamine-blocking drugs (i.e. antipsychotics) tend to reduce the intensity of psychotic symptoms, and that drugs which boost dopamine activity (such as amphetamine and cocaine) can trigger psychosis in some people (see amphetamine psychosis).

The connection between dopamine and psychosis is generally believed to be complex. First of all, while antipsychotic drugs immediately block dopamine receptors, they usually take a week or two to reduce the symptoms of psychosis. Moreover, newer and equally effective antipsychotic drugs actually block slightly less dopamine in the brain than older drugs whilst also affecting serotonin function, suggesting the 'dopamine hypothesis' is vastly oversimplified.

Psychiatrist David Healy has criticised pharmaceutical companies for promoting simplified biological theories of mental illness that seem to imply the primacy of pharmaceutical treatments while ignoring social and developmental factors which are known to be important influences in the aetiology of psychosis.[13]

Some theories regard many psychotic symptoms to be a problem with the perception of ownership of internally generated thoughts and experiences.[14] For example, the experience of hearing voices may arise from internally generated speech that is mislabeled by the psychotic person as coming from an external source.

Cannabis and psychosis

There is now growing evidence for a small but significant link between cannabis use and vulnerability to psychosis.[15] Some studies indicate that cannabis use correlates with a slight increase in psychotic experience, which may help to trigger full-blown psychosis in some people.[15] Early studies have been criticized for failing to consider other drugs (such as LSD) that the participants may also have used before or during the study, as well as other factors such as possible pre-existing mental health issues. However, more recent studies with better controls have still found a small increase in risk for psychosis in cannabis users. It is still not clear whether this is a causal link, and it may be that cannabis use only increases the chance of psychosis in people already predisposed to it.

Additionally, people who are in the process of developing psychosis possibly make greater use of the drug to provide temporary relief to their mental discomfort. The fact that cannabis use has increased over the past few decades, whereas the rate of psychosis has not,[16] suggests that a direct causal link is unlikely for all users.

Non-psychiatric conditions and psychosis

Psychosis can be a feature of several diseases, often when the brain or nervous system is directly affected. However, the fact that psychosis can occasionally arise in parallel with a number of ailments (including diseases such as flu or mumps for example) suggests that a variety of nervous system stressors can lead to a psychotic reaction. Psychosis arising from non-psychiatric conditions is sometimes known as 'secondary psychosis'. The mechanisms by which this happens are still not clear, but the non-specificity of psychosis has led Tsuang and colleagues to argue that "psychosis is the 'fever' of mental illness—a serious but nonspecific indicator".[17]

There are some non-psychiatric conditions which are particularly linked to psychosis, which may include:
Brain tumour
Dementia with Lewy bodies
Hypoglycemia
Intoxication
Multiple sclerosis
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (it is one of the 19 types of nervous system involvement in SLE).
Sarcoidosis

Treatment

As psychosis is not a diagnosis in itself, the treatment of psychosis often depends on what associated condition (such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder) it is thought to be linked to. However, the first line treatment for psychotic symptoms is usually antipsychotic medication, and in some cases hospitalisation. There is also growing evidence that cognitive behavior therapy[18] and family therapy[19] can be an effective way of managing psychotic symptoms.

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