Vitamin D Vital for the Heart

Lack of the sunlight-derived nutrient tied to increased cardiovascular events
Posted December 1, 2008

By Ed Edelson
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Dec. 1 (HealthDay News) — A lack of vitamin D, which is absorbed primarily through exposure to sunlight, helps boost the risk of heart attacks and strokes, new research finds.

“There are a whole array of studies linking increased cardiovascular risk with vitamin D deficiency,” noted Dr. James H. O’Keefe, director of preventive cardiology at the Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City. “It is associated with major risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes and stiffening of the left ventricle of the heart and blood vessels. Inflammation is really important for heart disease, and people with vitamin D deficiency have increased inflammation.”

Scans Show Sound-Processing Deficits in Autistic Kids

MONDAY, Dec. 1 (HealthDay News) — Children with autism spectrum disorder process sounds a fraction of a second slower than other children, an abnormality that offers insight into listening and language issues linked to the condition, a new study says.

Researchers used magnetoencephalography (MEG), which records minute magnetic fields associated with electrical brain activity, to detect the slight delay in autistic children who were exposed to beeps, tones in pairs, vowels and sentences at different speeds, tones and frequencies.

Tonight, for one show only … it’s Jupiter, Venus, and the moon!

By Peter N. Spotts | 12.01.08

Dateline: Pete’s front stoop in Franklin, Mass.

The moon-Jupiter-Venus show is underway (show times vary by location). And it’s spectacular! Relish it. We won’t see its kind for another 44 years.

One way to stretch the pleasure: Use a pair of binoculars. It’s your ticket to the matinée. From my front stoop, the moon — a waxing crescent — is clearly visible in a fading orange sky at 4:13 p.m. local time.

My Time at Three Springs Paint Rock Valley Boys

My Time at Paint Rock Valley Boys

I worked as a counselor at Three Springs of Paint Rock Valley Boys from 2002 to 2004. During that time I participated in abusive acts and witnessed even more. My actions have brought me a great deal of personal pain and remorse. It wasn’t until after I was terminated, for what essentially was the exercising of poor judgment that I came to realize the full extent of what I did and saw. Everything must have a start and my story started with the extremely poor training I received, moved on to the appalling lack of supervision, and is rounded out by the horrible conditions of the facility.

I started working at Three Springs a few weeks before Christmas at the end of 2002. At my time of hire I spent four or so weeks going through the Three Springs 100 hour new employee training. During this time I went to classes all day and spent time with a group at night. The training program was inadequate to say the least. Most of it went over the various levels of the stages system, the medicine wheel, and creed. We received minimal medical training, minimal training in how to deal with violence, minimal training in dealing with people who were upset. All in all we received very little useful training to prepare us for covering the group we were being trained to cover.

Once training was complete, and we passed our tests, which most of us cheated on, we were given our group assignments. My group was the group of Lisicha. This group was the youth group that consisted of boys from the ages 10 to 14 or so. My first introduction to Lisicha involved a restraint in the middle of the dining hall during lunch hour between two of my training classes. Restraints were something that I learned happened quite frequently in Lisicha.