An electronic device that emits a magnetic field could offer relief for millions of people who suffer from migraine headaches.

The device, tested by Yousef Mohammad, an assistant professor of neurology at Ohio State University Medical Center, administers a therapy known as transcranial magnetic stimulation.

The therapy, its proponents claim, painlessly “resets” hyperactive neurons associated with the disease.

“The patients feel a little pressure, but that’s all,” said Mohammad, who presented the results of a preliminary study today at the annual American Headache Society meeting in Los Angeles.

Only since that late 1990s have doctors begun to understand that hyper-excited neurons — not vascular constriction — are at the root of migraines.

The hyper-excited neurons set off otherwise normal neurons nearby in a chain reaction of dysfunction that spreads quickly over the brain.

About 25 percent of migraine sufferers experience the spread of hyperactivity as an aura — seeing shooting stars, zigzagging lines, flashing lights, and feeling a tingling sensation, among other things — an hour before the migraine sets it.

The device is meant to interrupt that chain reaction before it leads to the pulsating headache, sensitivity to light and sound, and vomiting associated with the headache.

Source: Discovery

CHILDREN with overly strict mothers are much more likely to get fat, according to new research. The study found disciplinarian mothers ended up with six-year-olds who were nearly five times more likely to be overweight than children treated with flexibility and respect, but who were still given clear rules.

Scientists said youngsters whose mothers were strict might be comfort eating due to stress.

Children of neglectful and overly-lenient mothers were also twice as likely to get fat as those of the “flexible rule-setters”. Researchers from the Boston University School of Medicine in the United States surveyed the relationships of four-year-olds in 872 families.

When they measured their body-mass indexes later, they found that 17 per cent of the children of strict disciplinarians were overweight.

That compared with 9.9 per cent of the children of neglectful parents, 9.8 per cent of those with too-lenient parents and just 3.9 per cent of the flexible rule-setters’ offspring.

“The difference between the parenting groups is pretty striking,” said Dr Kay Rhee, a co-author of the study into the four parenting “styles” and their effects.

Another explanation might be that parents who show respect and warmth within a framework of rules help their children learn to make good decisions about food and exercise.

The study, which was published in the journal Paediatrics, said: “These results provide evidence that a strict environment lacking in emotional responsiveness is associated with an increased risk of childhood [obesity].”

Source: Scotsman News UK

–Very interesting research and evidence. Something I never thought of before. I may have been of victim of this when I was younger :). Now I have an excuse for being fat when I was a child! Who needs a pyschiatrist when there are great findings like this?