A few interesting sites

Table
This link is table of the muscles with origins, insertions, and actions.

Bone Health
This is great information on how to have healthy bones and what you can do to promote them.

History of Heart Disease
An interesting article about how ancient hunters and gatherers also had heart problems.

Dr. Lazarus on Miracles

In Dr. Lazarus' book he breaks down the different aspects of being a pediatric oncologist. One of his sections is all about miracles that he has experienced while being in the field and one of them in particular was rather odd to me. He took care of a boy that came in with a tumor on the back of his brain, this tumor had spread to many different areas by the time they got to him and so his outlook was very grave. His parents decided to take him home so he could die peacefully, but then something happened. He actually started improving every day. The odd part about this story however is that when he regained enough strength to start communicating through arm and hand gestures he said yes by waving and no by flipping the bird. This gets even stranger, after that as he continued to improve and was able to talk he used curse words like we use please and thank-you. Though Dr. Lazarus did not offer an explanation for this kind of behavior it was extremely interesting to me that these things are what came to this child first.

Dear Shay

Dear Shay,
      My I recently took my two year old child to the park for a birthday party, I have not noticed until now that she is much smaller than the other children her age. She also seemed to tire out much faster than the other kids on the playground. I had to take her home before the cake and ice cream because she was so exhausted.
      I have noticed since she could stand that her knees never fully came together suggesting that she was bow legged, but I dismissed the notion that anything was wrong because my father too is bow legged. In the recent months however her wrist has been swollen because her baby bracelet won't fit anymore and she has been complaining about back pain. I figured this was just part of her growing until the incident at the park. I think something might be wrong, but I am not for sure. Is this just part of her  growing or should I be concerned?

Sincerely,
Overly Concerned Parent

Dear Overly Concerned Parent,

     Through my experience with bone disease it sounds to me like your child might have a disease called rickets.  Rickets is the softening and weakening of bones due to a vitamin D deficiency. Some common symptoms of this disease include delayed growth,  pain in the spine,  and muscle weakness. This would explain why your child appeared so much smaller than the other children. Also it explains the tiredness she was feeling along with why her back hurts. Since the disease softens the growth plates, rickets can also cause bowed legs and swollen ankles or wrists, this could be the reason for those also. The deficiency of vitamin D causing this could be from lack of sunlight or not getting enough in her diet. Foods with lots of vitamin D include fatty fish, egg yolks, milk, cereal and some fruit juices like orange juice. Certain diseases also make it difficult to absorb vitamin D like Celiacs Disease, Cystic Fibrosis, and Inflammatory bowel disease. There are also different risk factors for developing this disease and one of them is the child being between 6 and 24 months of age, because of rapid bone growth during this period. Pre-mature births and anti-seizure medication could also put a child at risk. Sounds to me like you should get your child to a doctor to discuss the disease more and come up with a plan of action for treating it!

Sincerely,
Shay

Harmful Meat

Combining the meat of multiple animals and then selling it to humans have consequences. Connecting thousands of animals with thousands of consumers means that an average meat eater will consume pieces of millions of animals during their lifetime. Cooking meat eliminates the risks, but the mass number of interactions increases the potential that an microbe can make the jump to humans. Try to eat 100% beef, and check the background of how the animal was fed out.

New Neural Brain-to-bone pathway Controls Skeletal Development

Within the past year researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that a part of the autonomic nervous system reaches bones and takes a part in controlling bone development. The new pathway has a part in controlling bone density during the adolescence years and determines the skeletal resistance to fractures throughout the whole life span. In the autonomic nervous system, the brain monitors and regulates the physiological functions of the internal organs and includes two subsystems, the "symphatic" and "parasymphatic.  Each have their own neural pathways. Sympahtic system helps in times of danger or with stress. The parasympahtic helps with digestion, and immune function. The researchers demonstrated that there are parasympahtic responses in the skeleton. A weakened rabies virus was injected into thigh bones of mice. After the injection, the virus was seen in the brain in regions know to be specific for the parasymphatic subsystem. In past research, the activity of the protein interleukin-1 was found to influence bone development. This influence is similar to the parasymphatic system. The recent discovered neural pathway which includes interleukin-1 in the brain and the parasymphatic subsystem, also control heart rate. Having conditions such as depression, osteoporosis, and epilepsy can damage interleukin-1 and the parasymphatic system  in the brain. Finding the disease mechanism in these cases can have a potential for new therapy development. This new pathway is only a small key to understanding the connection between the brain and the bones.

Children Understand More Than We Realize

Dr. Kenneth Lazarus is a pediatric oncologist from Indiana has a unique way of breaking the news of cancer to children. In his book "Conquering Kids' Cancer Triumphs and Tragedies of a Children's Cancer Doctor" he describes different ways of informing his patients and their families of this horrific news. He has found with the younger age groups it is easier to relate it to something they can wrap their minds around. He talked about one case with a young boy named Eric. He described cancer as bad aliens that had invaded his body, he then said that himself and the medicine were the good army going to take out the bad aliens.  This allowed Eric to see the point in his treatment and be involved fully. This also helped ease the reality of the situation and help the child to be brave during treatment. He also described that children understand about as much as their parents do about the disease it just has to be presented in a way that they can connect with.

New Neural Brain-To-Bone Pathway Controls Skeletal Development

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered a brain-to-bone pathway. They discovered this pathway while working with mice. They injected a weakened rabies virus into the thigh bone. After time it eventually found its way to the brain in an area that is part of the parasympathetic subsystem. With this new information they see great potential in the development in new therapies. They had already linked certain bone disorders to brain disorders so there is much possibility of further development.