What's new at Crossroads.... Good Samaritan Hospital now offers a complimentary medicine rotation at Crossroads Clinic to their residents. Those who elect this rotation will spend time at Crossroads Clinic in addition to other integrative medical offices. Notes from Dr. Martha Grout...... The New Flu Vaccine... Due to the flu vaccine shortage Arizona Medical Association is recommending vaccination only for the following groups: all children aged 6-23 months; adults aged 65 years and older; persons aged 2-64 years with underlying chronic medical conditions; all women who will be pregnant during the influenza season; residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities; children aged 6 months-18 years on chronic aspirin therapy; out-of-home caregivers and household contacts of children aged <6 months. All these populations involve those who are the most vulnerable to the thimerosal (mercury), which is STILL in the flu vaccine. "I would NOT recommend that any of the kids who are at risk receive the flu vaccine – their brains are far too vulnerable to the thimerosal". Martha Grout, MD. The 12th Annual conference for International Society for Neuronal Regulation (ISNR) was held in Fort Lauderdale in late August..... Two studies of note coming from that gathering were: Mario Beauregard presented preliminary gold-standard findings: fMRI changes as a result of 40 neurofeedback sessions in ADHD children. He found no comparable changes in controls. Roger deBeus and J.D. Ball presented the latest findings on their double-blind placebo-controlled study for ADHD. Neurofeedback training reduced hyperactivity and improved attention, reduced aggressive behaviors, and improved performance on a computerized attention task. Natural Sources of Xylitol in Preventing Acute Otitis Media. Uhari M, Tapiainen T, Kontiokari T. Department of Paediatrics, University of Oulu, FIN-90220 Oulu, Finland. matti.uhari@oulu.fi Xylitol is a polyol sugar alcohol and is referred to as birch sugar, because it can be produced from birch. Natural sources of xylitol include plums, strawberries, raspberries and rowan berries. Xylitol inhibits the growth of Streptococcus pneumoniae and it inhibits the attachment of both pneumococci and Haemophilus influenzae on the nasopharyngeal cells. In two clinical trials xylitol was found efficient to prevent the development of acute otitis media with a daily dose of 8.4-10 g of xylitol given in five divided doses. The efficacy in these 2-3 months follow-up trials was approximately 40% when chewing gum was used and approximately 30% with xylitol syrup. The need to use antimicrobials reduced markedly when using xylitol. In a high-risk group of children with tympanostomy tubes xylitol was ineffective in preventing otitis. Xylitol appears to be an attractive alternative to prevent acute otitis media. A more practical frequency of doses should be found before its use can be widely recommended. Digestive, Metabolic Problems Abound In Patients with ADHD, Autism Holistic Primary Care By Erik L. Goldman Editor in Chief PORTLAND, OR- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and autism are multifactorial biological disorders requiring a multimodal therapeutic approach that addresses the gastrointestinal, immunologic and metabolic problems usually associated with the behavioral abnormalities, said Jeff Bradstreet, MD, at the annual meeting of the American Holistic Medical Association. "Conventional allopathic concepts define ADHD and autism as 'psychiatric' disorders. I think that's bunk. I look at ADHD and autism biologically," said Dr. Bradstreet, founder of the International Child Development Resource Center (ICDRC), a clinic and foundation that has treated over 2,000 children with ADHD or autism. "As an MD, I had to move toward naturopathic principles to learn how to treat these disorders.".....(click here for complete article) Brain's " Storehouse" for Memory Molecules Identified DURHAM, N.C. -- Neurobiologists have pinpointed the molecular storehouse that supplies the neurotransmitter receptor proteins used for learning-related changes in the brain. They also found hints that the same storage compartments, called recycling endosomes, might be more general transporters for 'memory molecules' used to remodel the neuron to strengthen its connections with its neighbors. They said their finding constitutes an important step toward understanding the machinery by which neurons alter their connections to establish preferred signaling pathways in the process of laying down new memories. Understanding such machinery could also offer clues to how it might degenerate in aging and disease to degrade learning and memory, they said The researchers, led by Michael Ehlers of the Duke University Medical Center and Julie Kauer of Brown University, published their findings in the September 24, 2004, issue of the journal Science. Other co-authors on the paper were Mikyoung Park of Duke, and Esther Penick, Jeffrey Edwards of Brown. Their research was supported by the National Institutes of Health. ...(click here for complete article) Stress And Aggression Reinforce Each Other At The Biological Level Source: American Psychological Association 10/4/2004 Scientists may be learning why it's so hard to stop the cycle of violence. The answer may lie in the nervous system. There appears to be a fast, mutual, positive feedback loop between stress hormones and a brain-based aggression-control center in rats, whose neurophysiology is similar to ours. It may explain why, under stress, humans are so quick to lash out and find it hard to cool down. The findings, which could point to better ways to prevent pathological violence, appear in the October issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, which is published by the American Psychological Association .........(click here for complete article) Brain Circuit May Permit Scientists To Eavesdrop On Memory Formation Source: Howard Hughes Medical Institute 10/6/2004 HHMI researchers have identified a circuit in the brain that appears crucial in converting short-term memories into long- term memories. The circuit links the major learning-related area of the brain to another region that governs the brain's higher functions. The studies open the way for eavesdropping on one of the central processes in learning and memory....... (click here for complete article) Research Out This Week Helps Us Understand Basics Of How Neurons Communicate Source: Saint Louis University 10/5/2004 Nerve cells with a mutant calcium channel don't communicate as effectively as those with a normal calcium channel, according Saint Louis University research that is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Communication between nerve cells occurs when calcium enters a nerve cell and causes the cell to release a chemical called a neurotransmitter that then carries a signal to other nerve cells. Calcium cannot freely enter cells, and must wait for an opening of a molecular gate, which is called a calcium channel. ........(click here for complete article) Emotion Is All in the Timing By Sarah Webb Mind & Brain Since the 19th century, neuroscientists have speculated that human emotion might be a kind of secondary sensory response: The brain translates sense data (the sight of an oncoming bus) into a physical reaction (elevated heart rate), which then triggers an emotional one (fear that bus is going to hit). Testing the theory directly is not ethically possible, but new, indirect experiments support the link between sensation and emotion. Hugo Critchley of University College London looked for signs that emotional awareness is tied to heartbeat perception in the brain. If physical reactions trigger emotion, he reasoned, people who are highly attuned to bodily processes should also be unusually sensitive. He and his collaborators tested the ability of 17 subjects to perceive whether a series of tones was synchronized with their hearts. The researches also scanned the subjects’ brain activity and later asked them to fill out a questionnaire. Subjects who more accurately judged their heartbeats tended to have greater activity in the right anterior insula, a region deep in the brain. They also reported feeling negative emotions, such as fear or anger, more deeply than the other subjects did..... Stefan Wiens of Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, who helped run the study, notes that people who think they are viscerally aware often aren’t, and that those who are often do not realize it. So far, trying to teach people to recognize the timing of their heartbeats has not exactly lead to greater sensitivity. Attempts to learn, Wiens says, have tended to frustrate subjects or make them more anxious.