HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

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East County News Service

December 6, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting-edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

HEALTH

Parkinson’s disease ‘may start in gut’ (BBC)

Scientists in California say they have transformed understanding of Parkinson's disease.  Their animal experiments, published in the journal Cell, suggest the brain disorder may be caused by bacteria living in the gut. The findings could eventually lead to new ways of treating the disease, such as drugs to kill gut bugs or probiotics.

Accurate Valley Fever counts elude health officials (Bakersfield.com)

Estimates of the number of valley fever cases recorded by local, state and federal agencies vary so widely that they call into question the accuracy of the figures released to the public, a Center for Health Journalism Collaborative investigation has found….“Valley fever is almost certainly underreported, due to physicians and the public not being familiar with the disease,” said Dr. Susan Hoover, an infectious disease specialist…Hoover and others would like to see states required to publicly report the disease to the federal government regardless of how many cases they see.

Forecasting an epidemic:  how weather contributes to Valley Fever outbreaks (Voice of San Diego)

…So far this year, California has seen 2,210 cases, which is more than a quarter of those reported nationally, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Feeling Down? Scientists Say Cooking and Baking Could Help You Feel Better (Smithsonian)

Smithsonian - A little creativity each day goes a long way

Obstacle to 'three-person' baby therapy reported, along with solution (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Mitochondrial replacement therapy (creating so-called “three-parent babies”) could fail in some cases, because diseased versions of these vital cellular components might outcompete healthy replacements. That’s the finding of research led by scientists from Oregon Health and Science University and...

EPA's late changes to fracking study downplay risk of drinking water pollution (Marketplace)

Top officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last year made critical changes at the eleventh hour to a highly anticipated, five-year scientific study of hydraulic fracturing’s effect on the nation’s drinking water. The changes, later criticized by scientists for lacking evidence, played down the risk of pollution that can result from the well-drilling technique known as fracking.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Deforestation Of The Amazon Up 29 Percent From Last Year, Study Finds (NPR)

Brazil's National Institute for Space Research found that more than 3,000 square miles of forest cover were lost between August 2015 and July 2016 — a substantial increase over the year before.

Ford recalls 680,000 cars (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Ford is recalling more than 680,000 midsize sedans mainly in North America because the front seat belts may not hold people in a crash.

Streamlined FBI warrant approval raises concerns of 'mass hacking’ (CS Monitor)

Privacy critics say the procedural change will enable 'mass hacking' by federal law enforcement, by allowing judges to issue warrants for federal agents to access computers in any jurisdiction.

Will hackers make ATM machines spew money? (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Have you ever heard of jackspotting? Its a term used to describe the act of forcing an ATM machine to spew cash. / It sounds like a myth. But criminals jackspotted ATMs in Thailand and Taiwan earlier this year. More recently, hackers did the same thing to ATMs across Europe. And they did it remotely,...

Huge online crime network broken up (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Authorities in Europe and the United States said Thursday that they have dismantled Avalanche, a huge computer network that criminals used to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from online banking customers around the world.


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