All posts tagged: treating

Andy Burnham is treating us all with contempt over immigration chaos | Politics | News

Andy Burnham is treating us all with contempt over immigration chaos | Politics | News

Published by Sam Flores

Andy Burnham leaves 10 Downing Street in central London (Image: AFP via Getty Images) It may be the most polite revolution ever. The people of Piddington, a picturesque village in Oxfordshire, have voted to leave the United Kingdom, in protest at plans to house 1,250 asylum seekers next door. Andy Burnham plans simply to ignore them. But he does so at his peril. Because anger at the placement of asylum seekers is only going to grow until the Government grasps the nettle and ends the chaos in our immigration system. It appears 311 villagers voted in the referendum, with 285 supporting independence. That means pretty much everyone took part, as the 2021 census recorded the parish’s population as 358. You can perhaps understand why the idea of accommodating 1,250 asylum seekers nearby caused some alarm. It would be a big change, no matter who the new residents were. And the Home Office has made it clear that it believes some, at least, of the overseas arrivals have pretty unpleasant attitudes towards women and children, after …

Why we need to start treating Trump’s America like Russia

Why we need to start treating Trump’s America like Russia

Published by Sam Flores

There’s been a rash of speculation surrounding the visit by CIA director John Ratcliffe to Moscow last week. Half-hearted attempts at secrecy by both the United States and Russia have fuelled some alarming theories about what exactly was being negotiated, and whether it might be bad news for Ukraine or Europe. That’s because in the context of the new relationship between the United States and Russia under Donald Trump, both Ukraine and Europe have every reason to be concerned. The defining feature of the second Trump presidency’s foreign policy has been accommodation for Russia – not only scaling back support Ukraine and preparing to do so for Europe, but also dismantling the obstacles the United States once presented to Russia expanding its power and reach around the world and in the United States itself. Trump 2.0 has seen the US drift closer to Russia, attempting to accommodate them back into global affairs (Reuters) But while the US may be determined to give Russia an easy ride in global affairs, there are also disturbing echoes of …

What if we stopped treating social care like a service? A small village community in Yorkshire showed me another way

What if we stopped treating social care like a service? A small village community in Yorkshire showed me another way

Published by Sam Flores

Within an hour of arriving in Botton, a small, picturesque village in the UK’s North Yorkshire moors, I was standing in a farm field shovelling hay. Alongside me were my friend Max*, his father, a co-worker named Richard, two volunteers and several learning-disabled residents of the Esk Valley Camphill Community. We spent the next few hours on a conservation project, moving hay, stopping regularly to lean on our tools and talk, and at one point gathering on a picnic bench beside the cars for a tea and biscuit break. Officially Richard was “providing care” and the learning-disabled residents of the community (often referred to as villagers) were “receiving care”, with volunteers helping the co-workers along the way. On the ground, though, I could already see that the structure of the community served to sideline this distinction rather than reinforce it. I had driven into the North Yorkshire moors expecting something resembling a care institution. This was something else. The Entrance to Botton Village in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park. Thomas Moore While I was …

Pythons’ extreme biology may hold clues for treating human disease : NPR

Pythons’ extreme biology may hold clues for treating human disease : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Pythons have several unusual traits that scientists are studying for potential clues for treating human disease. Ari Daniel for NPR hide caption toggle caption Ari Daniel for NPR For new discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines, follow NPR’s Short Wave podcast. When Skip Maas first adopted Agrapina, a mottled ball python, she hadn’t eaten in 14 months. But as he soon observed, she was still a taut coil of spring-loaded muscle. Presented with a rat, she struck quickly, constricted it and then gorged on her meal. And then her body performed another feat pythons are known for: It accelerated its metabolism dramatically to deal with the sudden influx of protein and fats, says Maas, “to help break down that meal and extract all of its nutrients.” Most people prefer to keep their distance from pythons — and for good reason. A quick strike followed by relentless constriction can be lethal. But Maas, a molecular biologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, and his colleagues argue that these snakes may hold secrets that …

The secret inflammation switch that could be key to treating cancer and Alzheimer’s

The secret inflammation switch that could be key to treating cancer and Alzheimer’s

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the Well Enough newsletter with Harry Bullmore for tips on living a healthier, happier and longer life Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Understanding inflammation – and above all, how to regulate it – is one of the great medical challenges of modern medicine. Its role as the first line of defence is crucial. It occurs when the presence of infectious agents triggers an inflammatory response. As well as hindering the entry of viruses and bacteria, this acts as a distress signal, attracting other components of our immune system. But excessive inflammatory response can be harmful. Indeed, poor regulation of inflammation plays a central role in the way many illnesses develop. One example of this is COVID, where illness becomes more severe not so much because of the virus itself, but because of our inflammatory response to it. At the height of the pandemic, treatments that worked best in the most seriously ill patients included inhibitors that control the excessive inflammation associated with infection. …

Tiny gut fungi could be the key to treating Asthma worldwide

Tiny gut fungi could be the key to treating Asthma worldwide

Published by Jenni Sidey

Some of the smallest residents in an infant’s gut may be doing far more than anyone realized. Two linked studies published in Nature Communications suggest that fungi, long overshadowed by bacteria in microbiome research, may help shape how a child’s immune system develops in the first months of life. In particular, the work points to a fungal group called Malassezia as a possible player in immune dysregulation tied to eczema, food allergy, and allergic asthma. That matters because pediatric allergic diseases are already common, and still rising. “Hundreds of millions of children worldwide are affected by allergic diseases, and the number is growing,” said Dr. Stuart Turvey, senior author of one of the studies, investigator at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, and professor of pediatrics at the University of British Columbia. “A better understanding of what gives rise to these conditions and how we can prevent them would have an enormous benefit for children around the globe.” Antibiotic use induces mycobiome alteration in ANTIBIO infants. (CREDIT: Nature Communications) For years, microbiome science has focused mainly …

Treating Depression by Calming the Immune System

Treating Depression by Calming the Immune System

Published by Jenni Sidey

Everyone gets depressed from time to time. Think about those unpleasant days when you’re sick. You feel depleted and unsociable. You lose interest in everything. You just want to crawl under the covers and rest alone. Scientists call this “sickness behavior” and believe it evolved because it comes with benefits. Someone who isolates themselves from others is less likely to transmit their illness. A tired individual who loses interest in activities is diverting energy to fighting off a virus, or to healing. But for about 332 million people worldwide, the depressive behavior usually reserved for recovering from an illness or injury never lets up, like a dark cloud that won’t vacate the sky. It raises an intriguing question: Could depression, or at least some instances of it, arise when the immune system doesn’t know when to quit? Depression and the monoamine hypothesis The cause of depression has long been mysterious, but astute medical observations in the 1950s suggested that moods are influenced by chemicals coursing through our brains. Doctors noticed that some patients taking a …

Positive Affect Treatment (PAT) Shows Promise For Treating Depression

Positive Affect Treatment (PAT) Shows Promise For Treating Depression

Published by Sam Flores

When you think of conditions like depression, you might think of periods of intense sadness. That can certainly be a part of it. But depression can manifest in other ways, too, including anhedonia, where you feel numb and devoid of many feelings at all. Anhedonia “has been recognised as a critical feature of major depressive disorder,” affecting as many as 90% of those with depression, recent research published in JAMA Network Open found. Treatment for depression has typically focused on reducing negative emotions, but hasn’t really addressed anhedonia, the study authors suggested. Some people with mental illnesses like depression have said they were more interested in feeling positive emotions than they were in stopping the negative ones completely. So, to help test that theory, researchers looked into positive affect treatment (also known as PAT). What is PAT? PAT is designed to activate the brain’s reward system. It can involve activities which train the mind to focus on gratitude, joy, connection, and “loving kindness”, and encourage rewarding activities. “Reward learning is promoted by strengthening the association …

The Magic Wand for Treating Oppositional Clients

The Magic Wand for Treating Oppositional Clients

Published by Jenni Sidey

“Noah,” an older autistic teen, presented for his intake appointment. His referral for treatment included concerns of self-harm and the term “pathological demand avoidance.” I asked him to tell me briefly what he knew about his referral, and he responded, “Dad wanted me to come. Therapy doesn’t work for me, but I was curious about seeing an autistic therapist. I know I’m here for self-harm. I hit myself when I’m upset. I don’t hurt anyone else, so there isn’t a problem. ‘My body, my choice.’” During trainings and consultations, I often get questions about treatment strategies for clients with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and pathological demand avoidance (PDA). (Note: PDA is not an official diagnosis, but is often used as a label attached to autistic people. The autism community has relabeled this as “persistent drive for autonomy.”) When this question is asked, I can almost feel the distress behind it. As a therapist who specializes in neurodivergent clients, who are more likely to be labeled as oppositional, I can definitely empathize, as supporting oppositional clients …