http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news...ion-and-weird-
findings/story-e6frfkui-1225811061204


Ghosts, masturbation and weird findings

* From: AAP
* December 16, 2009 4:13PM



WEIRD, wild and decidedly offbeat research findings have emerged in 2009.

Among the most bizarre medical discoveries we.

- Pulling a tick off the wrong way can lead to meat allergy. An Australian
doctor found the link while studying rising cases of the allergy among
people who live on Sydney's tick-prone northern beaches. "I now tell
everybody I see who lives anywhere near ticks to use `Aerostart' (spray-on
engine cleaner) or another high-alcohol substance," said Dr Sheryl van
Nunen. "Stun the tick before you scrape it out and it can't inject what it
injects."

- Serial coffee drinkers are more likely to feel "the presence of dead
people", British researchers found. They asked students about their
caffeine intake and those with the highest were also most likely to report
seeing, or hearing, things that were not there.


- The hotter a common laser printer gets, the more likely it is to spew
out potentially hazardous "ultrafine particles", Australian scientists
warned. The particles can be as toxic as cigarette smoke, and 60 per cent
of printers in one study were found to emit them.

- British scientists have created a custom-made bacteria that glows green
when it comes into contact with chemicals leaked by buried explosives,
meaning it can be used to safely detect the presence of landmines.

- A UK study found men who reported more frequent masturbation and sex
during their 20s and 30s went on to have an increased risk of prostate
cancer. However this was at odds with Australian research prompting claims
"bashful" Brits may have skewed the result. "Men who haven't got the
disease ... are less likely to admit to high levels of self-
satisfaction," said Melbourne's Professor Graham Giles.

- They provide relief from the body's aches and pains but they can also
burn, doctors from an Adelaide hospital's emergency department warned
after treating a string of "wheat bag" injuries.

- The first US case of "cannabinoid hyperemesis" was recorded in the
medical literature. The syndrome was first described in 2004 in 20 South
Australian men. Sufferers experience nausea and vomiting as a result of
chronic cannabis use, but these ill effects are relieved by taking a very
hot shower. "Grown men, screaming in pain, sweating profusely, vomiting
every 30 seconds and demanding to be allowed to use the shower. It's a
very dramatic presentation," an Adelaide-based doctor said.

- US surgeons successfully restored a woman's sight by pulling out one of
her teeth, placing a lens inside the tooth and then implanting the tooth
in her eyeball. The technique can only be used when a person has a scarred
cornea on an otherwise healthy eye.

- Australian medicos found a new use for saline solution. The hospital
staple is very effective at removing a leech from an eyeball. A Sydney
hospital treated a woman who had a leech "tucked up underneath her upper
eyelid". "Our little fellow started off at about half a centimetre and by
the time we removed it, it was about 2cm long - it had quite a good
lunch," said doctor Toby Fogg.

- Caffeine does temporarily dull the body's ability to feel pain,
according to a US study that looked at how long cyclists could maintain
maximum exertion.

- A study of children taken to emergency departments in Australia and New
Zealand has found boys were over-represented, even when accounting for
their higher accident rate. "All of the nurses in my department think it
is because males are the weaker sex," said Dr Jason Acworth.

- A 62-year-old cancer survivor was temporarily denied entry into the US
because the drug he was taking had wiped out his fingerprints. The journal
Annals of Oncology issued a travel warning for the drug capecitabine,
which lists inflammation of the hands and peeling palms among its side
effects. "Patients ... may have problems with regards to fingerprint
identification when they enter US ports or other countries," it warned.

- Brain scans on 30 Brisbane-based mums showed that some experienced a
"natural high" when looking at photos of their crying child, while for
others the same scenario inspired feelings of "disgust".

- A paper in the Journal of Clinical Practice listed cases of people who
drank up to nine litres of cola a day. One man was confined to an electric
scooter as a result. Another saw his GP for muscle weakness, and admitted
to drinking more than four litres a day during a trip to the Australian
outback. Excess soft drink consumption can cause "mild weakness to
profound paralysis", researchers warned.

- Many smokers feel more compelled to quit when asked to ponder the impact
of their habit on their pet's health, a US study revealed.

- Having a hook worm in your stomach was found to be an effective
treatment for coeliac disease. The parasite reduced the sensitivity of the
immune system, which would otherwise malfunction and attack the stomach
lining. Despite the "yuck factor", 20 study participants opted to keep
their hookworm at the end of an Australian trial.

- Research into a 17 per cent jump in Australian men who sought tests for
prostate cancer found the cause was Sam Newman. The controversial AFL
identity went public with his diagnosis in early 2008, and it had a
similar impact on prostate cancer testing as Kylie Minogue had on breast
screening following her 2005 diagnosis.

- A testosterone patch designed to pep up a woman's sex drive received the
thumbs down in a study published in the UK's Drugs and Therapeutics
Bulletin. The side effects included acne, excess hair, breast pain, weight
gain, insomnia, voice deepening and migraine. "Significant numbers" of
women placed on a placebo patch reported an increase in sex drive.

--
Peter Lucas
Brisbane
Australia


If we are not meant to eat animals,
why are they made of meat?