MORE POWER TO FISH & FLAX: LEVELS OF OMEGA-3 NOW LINKED TO SUICIDE RISK

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential nutrients that the body cannot make, so they must come from food sources. DHA, the major omega-3 fatty acid concentrated in the brain, is important throughout life for optimal brain development and function. Seafood is a major dietary source of omega-3 fatty acids. Previous studies have associated low levels of omega-3 fats or low dietary intake of seafood, with suicide, thoughts of suicide, and depression. Many, but not all, treatment studies also have reported mental health benefits of supplemental DHA, including reduced anxiety, depression and risk of psychosis. 


A new study suggests that low levels of the highly unsaturated omega-3 essential fatty acids, in particular DHA, may be associated with increased risk of suicide. Researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) drew this finding following analysis of a large random sampling of suicide deaths among U.S. military personnel on active-duty between 2002 and 2008. The results of this retrospective study appear in the August 23 online version of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.



Army Col. (Dr.) Michael D. Lewis, lead author on the study and assistant professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics at the USU expressed his interest in the findings: “We were surprised to find just how low the levels of omega-3 fatty acids were in the entire sample,” and further commented “There still was a significant suicide risk when we stratified the population. When we compared the 1,400 samples with the lowest levels of DHA to the remaining 200, there was a 62 percent increased risk that the samples were from a documented suicide. We need to continue to evaluate these results with a well-designed interventional study, but this represents a potential simple nutritional intervention that warrants further investigation.”

U.S. Public Health Service Capt. (Dr.) Joseph Hibbeln, acting chief of the Section of Nutritional Neurosciences in NIAAA’s Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics and corresponding author also stated: 

“Our findings add to an extensive body of research that points to a fundamental role for DHA and other omega-3 fatty acids in protecting against mental health problems and suicide risks”.

Link to Study Findings

SO it's great news for lovers of seafood or vegetarians consuming flax that another benefit of Omega-3 is exposed in research papers, and suggests that 'Fish on Friday' should perhaps be extended throughout the week!

AUSTRALIA WELCOMES SCOTLAND!

Parakeet

Kangaroos, galas & parakeets have been some of the wonderful sights to have greeted us on the first leg of our World Cup journey. 


All flights & transportation were completed by 0230 local time on 29th August, leaving the Scotland Rugby to spend Monday settling into its accommodation in Sanctuary Bay on Australia's Gold Coast.

Sanctuary Cove, 6am

Leaving a Scottish Summer for a wintertime elsewhere is not always a hardship when a sunny cloudless sky greets you in this manner on Day One.











A cursory trip to the pitches to view the state of the grass was also appropriate prior to a management run after lunch to blow some cobwebs away before the players do likewise tomorrow morning. 

Welcome to Sanctuary Cove for Scottish Rugby!

Management check out pitches

This starts our final phase of training prior to flying into New Zealand next week, and the opening match of our campaign the following weekend.

SPORT IS SERIOUS - BUT ARE SOME THINGS TAKEN TOO SERIOUSLY?

Ard Matthews

Rugby World Cup is over a fortnight away. 
More squads have recently been announced 
( South Africa Squad ) & ( Samoa Squad ) 
but there has been outcry and outrage, plus jokes from corporate food sector  - see the link to the Times in South Africa here Ard, the National Anthem & the chicken (sitting alongside a headline about Archbishop Desmond Tutu and reparations tax!) and decide whether some perspective need be applied to the opprobrium being poured upon an unfortunate episode when singer Ard Matthews forgot the third line of the National Anthem live on tv at the unveiling of the World Champions squad for RWC 2011!


He forgot the anthem's third line, "Yizwa imithandazo yethu (hear our prayers) and had to start again amid his own nervous giggling. He has had to issue an apology: actually four apologies. One to the tv station, one to the team, one to the rugby union in South Africa, and finally to 'the haters' (no really!). All a bit too much really. Anthems are important, but this all seems a bit extreme, and some perspective seems necessary rather than invective.


Is it really that bad?
You decide: here's the unfortunate but not deliberately disrespectful performance. Watch out for the looks on the players faces as they sit under their ill-fitting green & gold caps.

And here is Ard Matthews' apology in the aftermath.
Ard Matthews apology in full 
Can't wait for the actual sport to start. Bet Ard feels the same way.

MORE CONCUSSION CONTROVERSY IN TOP AMERICAN SPORT?

National media reports in America indicate that one of Ice Hockey's most recognisable star players is still suffering from receiving two blows to the head at the start of 2011.


Following hard on the heels of the lawsuit against the National Football League by seven ex-players (see SPACE Blog (link to NFL Concussion SPACE Blog ) for details of court action and why) this is the second of America's major sporting leagues enduring high profile issues over cumulative head trauma & player welfare.

The reports suggest that Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby's concussion symptoms have returned, and he may not be ready for the start of the NHL season.

Sidney Crosby in the match against Tampa Bay back in January

He has not played a game since January 5, 2011, after he suffered his second hit to the head in less than a week.The Pittsburgh Penguins rejected suggestions they mishandled star Sidney Crosby's first-ever concussive event.Coach Dan Bylsma has defended the decision not to keep the captain out for the rest of the game after he was blindsided in the Winter Classic last Saturday night.

Crosby then played the following Wednesday in Pittsburgh against Tampa where he was hit again in the head by Lightning defenceman Victor Hedman.


After exhibiting concussion-like symptoms on Thursday in Montreal, he was pulled from that night's game and sent home for re-evaluation. After that, doctors said Crosby had minor concussion symptoms and would sit for at least a week although this period has extended to the end of the season.

It should be noted that Crosby was supportive of the Penguins' decisions in January:
"Looking back, I wouldn't have changed anything we did," he said. "It may be easy to say that now, but I didn't have any head problems and it didn't feel like a concussion. It seemed to be all neck related. I've had sore necks and that's kind of what it felt like at the time."


Click here to read report: USA today story

Sources say Crosby's concussion symptoms returned last week and he cancelled all of his scheduled on-ice workouts at a Halifax-area rink.

Penguins players are expected to appear at training camp in mid-September and Crosby is considered doubtful to be one of them, although his agent denies this.

MORE WORLD CUP HURT & CELEBRATION - RWC 2011 SQUADS NAMED

World Cup hosts & favourites New Zealand name their players for #RWC2011:
NZ Squad

Also squads named for other Pacific countries, France and Argentina:
Australia Squad

Argentina Squad

Samoa Squad

Fiji Squad

Tonga Squad

France Squad

RUGBY WORLD CUP SQUADS NAMED - "WORLD OF HURT" FOR SOME, "BEST DAY OF MY LIFE" FOR OTHERS

Well the phoney war is almost done.


The August Test matches are almost complete, each of the 4 Home Unions have lost at least one player through injury, and today all named the squads for the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.


Here are the reports on all of the squads from Scotland, Ireland, Wales & England.

Scotland Squad
Ireland Squad
Wales Squad
England Squad

EX-PLAYERS SUE NFL OVER CONCUSSION-RELATED INJURIES-TRAINED TO USE HELMETS AS "OFFENSIVE WEAPONS"

Atlanta Falcons Wayne Radloff

"FALCONS SAY RADLOFF HAD A GAME TO REMEMBER, IF ONLY HE COULD"

-a headline from 1988 for a game in which a blow to the head was so severe that Offensive Lineman Wayne Radloff was knocked unconcious.

In a stunning first potential class-action lawsuit of its kind, He is one of seven former professional American Footballers suing the National Football League (NFL) in Philadelphia over the league's handling of concussion-related injuries. 

The plaintiffs include two-time Super Bowl champion Jim McMahon, who has said he played through five concussions but now frequently walks around "in a daze" and forgets why he entered a room.

Jim McMahon of the Chicago Bears 
suffered frequent concussions 

but played despite these injuries

The players accuse the league of training players to hit with their heads, failing to properly treat them for concussions and trying to conceal for decades any links between football and brain injuries.

They say the league "turned a blind eye" for the last four decades as coaches encouraged them to use helmets as on-field weapons, a practice geared toward "keeping its fan base excited and interested in the violence of this sport."
     

In addition to negligently condoning the use of the helmet as an "offensive weapon" to "block, tackle, butt, spear, ram and/or injure opposing players by hitting with their helmeted heads," the National Football League conspired to conceal clear evidence that their passive approach to helmet use and concussions resulted in severe long-term damage to its gridiron gladiators, according to the federal class action filed Wednesday.

     

The NFL conspired with independent contractors and "team members" to "continuously discount and reject the causal connection between multiple concussions suffered while playing in the NFL, a non-scientific return-to-play policy for players suffering concussions and the chronic long term effects of these injuries," the retired players claim.  

Courthouse News Report-click here to read...

Since late 2009, the NFL has encouraged players and their families to cooperate with the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, which is conducting autopsies on the brains of former athletes -- and finding disturbing evidence of brain damage in football players, boxers and a former NHL player. McMahon has agreed to leave his brain to the centre.

Dr Robert Cantu

The centre has Dr Robert Cantu as Co-Director and SPACE Clinical Director Stephen Mutch was fortunate enough to hear him speak at the CATA & WFATT Congress 2011 in Banff in May before being introduced to him at dinner by Mike Ferrara, an esteemed clinican and lecturer in the field of sports-related concussion.

He gave an impassioned presentation on the topic of  Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and Chronic Traumatic Encephalomyelopathy (CTEM). 

He has also made numerous media appearances on the subject of 'Concussions and Head injuries in (American) Football' and provided testimony to Congress on "NFL and Concussions". 

NFL news on Ex-Players' lawsuits against National Football League

The NFL has issued new concussion guidelines, and ordered that independent physicians determine when a player should return.

This is still a dynamite court action against the biggest league of 'em all.

"WHY DO THEY ALL LOOK ALIKE?" HOW THE BRAIN FAILS TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN RACES

 Ever wondered why it seems harder to distinguish between folk from other races than from your own?

It''s a historical issue too-"To the uninitiated American," wrote Gustave Feingold in 1914, "all Asiatics look alike, while to the Asiatics, all White men look alike."


Researchers led by Heather Lucas and her colleagues of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University showed participants colour photographs of the faces of white, black, Hispanic and east and south Asian adult men, presented in random order on a computer screen. The participants were asked to pay close attention to the faces and try to remember them for a recognition test. Afterwards, they were shown some of the same faces again, as well as some new ones, and asked to indicate whether or not they had seen each one before.


The electrical activity of their brains was recorded throughout the experiment showing a correlatation between electrophysiological recordings with memory performance for other-race faces. The results could be interepreted that same-race faces are encoded elaborately, with an emphasis on the unique facial features that help us to distinguish one person from another. For other-race faces, however, this individuating information is encoded less robustly. 


Consequently, we have a poorer memory for other-race faces, and are therefore less likely to recognise them or to distinguish between them. Distinctive other-race faces appear to be an exception, however, and may be processed in a similar way to same-race faces.


Another study comes from Robert Caldara's lab at the University of Glasgow, and looks at how the brain's responses change with repeated exposure to same-race and other-race faces. The other-race effect has been consistently observed in caucasians, but these findings suggest that it may be a generalised response that occurs in people of all races. The researchers therefore suggest that the other-race effect may occur because the brain encodes other-race faces primarily according to the racial group they belong to, rather than by distinguishing features.


Another factor that is likely to contribute to the other-race effect is familiarity – or, rather, lack thereof. In a 2003 study, researchers showed black and white participants from South Africa and England photographs of black and white faces and then asked them if they had seen each of the faces before. Both groups identified same-race faces more accurately than other-race faces, but some of the black participants could accurately identify white faces.


References
Lucas, HD et al. (2011). Why some faces won't be remembered: brain potentials illuminate successful versus unsuccessful encoding for same-race and other-race faces. Frontiers of Human Neuroscience. DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2011.00020
Vizioli, L et al. (2010). Neural repetition suppression to identity is abolished by other-race faces. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1005751107
Wright, DB et al. (2003). Inter-racial Contact and the Own-race Bias for Face Recognition in South Africa and England. Applied Cognitive Psychology. DOI: 10.1002/acp.898

WHEN ANKLES SWELL

Persistent ankle pain following injury or fracture to the ankle is not unusual, despite physio and conservative management.

Diagram shows characteristics if anterior ankle impingement
including synovitis in the anterior recess (asterisked) 

When one of your athletes texts you scientific abstracts based on their recent injuries you either dismiss (at your peril I would suggest) or embrace the information. As a result we figured that we could blog on some form of easily-digestible information based on the irritation of the synovium (the smooth lubricated joint lining which helps the ankle joint move freely preventing bony surfaces rubbing against each other).

When this synovium is inflamed then it is termed 'synovitis', and is often a complication of an injury recently sustained, such as a fracture or ligament/soft tissue trauma. Some more detailed information is contained in the document highlighted:

What is Synovitis?

Damage to the ankle joint (intra-articular) itself includes injury to the joint surface of the ankle, anterior ankle impingement  and posterior ankle impingement. 


Injuries to structures around the ankle (extra-articular) include peroneal tendon tears, peroneal tendon dislocation and occult fractures. 


The patient will often localize the  pain to the front (anterior), back (posterior), inner side (medial) or outer side (lateral) of the ankle. The pain may be associated with ankle swelling, often anteriorly in spite of ankle sprains affecting commonly the lateral ligaments. There is associated fascial compromise, and a thickening of the soft tissue.

Arthroscope of Ankle Synovitis

If you have had an injury that is not responding to rest then do see a Physio-at SPACE we'll diagnose and treat what we find, and if the ankle synovitis remains then we can refer directly to our Orthopaedic Surgeon (Gordon Mackay) for a consultation and possible arthroscopic keyhole surgery.

SCOTLAND RUGBY TRIBUTE VIDEO

As Rugby World Cup draws nearer, it is great for the squad to see fan tributes online on various sites: this video compilation has some great moments from the recent & more distant past, but makes for very welcome viewing prior to our departure for NZ!

TANNING AFFECTS BRAIN SHOCK!!! ARE YOU ADDICTED?

Tanning on beds can mimic drug addiction effects on the brain! So the Journal of Addiction Biology states in a forthcoming issue which could be a reason why folk continue to tan with all of the acknowledged risks of cancer and skin wrinkling.

Tanning affects brain abstract

The sections of the brain that appears to respond in addiction situations are also activated by UV light in a similar way.”

“What this shows is that the brain is in fact responding to UV light, and it responds in areas that are associated with reward,” said Dr. Bryon Adinoff, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and an author of the study. “These are areas, particularly the striatum, that we see activated when someone is administered a drug or a high-value food like sugar.”

A study in 2005 did show that a large proportion of sunbathers met the psychiatric definition of a substance abuse disorder, based on their answers to a variation of a test often used to help diagnose alcohol addiction.

But Dr. Adinoff and his colleagues decided to take this a step further. A small group of people from tanning salons who said that they liked to tan at least three times a week and that maintaining a tan was important to them were recruited for the study. These frequent tanners agreed to be injected with a radioisotope-this allowed researchers to monitor how tanning affected their brain activity.

The study had participants experience either a normal tanning session or a session where researchers had inserted a filter that blocked only the UV light. To ensure study validity the tanners weren’t told of the change.

Results of the brain images showed that during standard tanning sessions where study participants had been exposed to UV rays, several key areas of the brain lighted up. Among those areas were the dorsal striatum, the left anterior insula and part of the orbitofrontal cortex – these are areas that have been implicated in addiction. But when the UV light was filtered out, those areas of the brain showed far less activity.

Addicted to UV? Something to consider when looking to prep for that late summer sun break or on the regular trips to the tanning salon perhaps?