Free Republic

MELBOURNE: Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain-with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage. Vegans and vegetarians are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of the vitamin are meat, particularly liver, milk and fish. Vitamin B12 deficiency can also cause anaemia and inflammation of the nervous system. Yeast extracts are one of the few vegetarian foods which provide good levels of the vitamin. The link was discovered by Oxford University scientists who used memory tests, physical checks and brain scans to examine 107 people...

On a drizzly Tuesday night in late January, 200 people came out to hear a psychiatrist talk rhapsodically about play — not just the intense, joyous play of children, but play for all people, at all ages, at all times. (All species too; the lecture featured touching photos of a polar bear and a husky engaging playfully at a snowy outpost in northern Canada.) Stuart Brown, president of the National Institute for Play, was speaking at the New York Public Library’s main branch on 42nd Street. He created the institute in 1996, after more than 20 years of psychiatric practice...

<p>February 13, 2008 -- A man went berserk at an Upper East Side psychologist's office last night, hacking her to death with a meat cleaver and critically injuring another doctor who ran to her aid when he heard her blood-curdling screams, police said.</p>

ASHLAND — The fractured Ashland City Council found something its members can agree on. They need help. The city has hired a counselor to help the councilors learn to work together and restore some civility to their interactions. Rick Kirschner, an Ashland naturopath who has written several books about the art of persuasion and human relationships, will meet with the council later this week in the first of a five-month series of therapy sessions. Taxpayers will foot the $37,000 bill. The council’s cry for help was highlighted last month when Councilman David Chapman told Councilman Eric Navickas to “shut your...

People who have anxiety problems or depression can get just as good help on the Internet as face-to-face with a psychiatrist, according to a Swedish investigation, Now a new Internet service is being expanded. This means Sweden will become the first country in the world to offer cognitive behavior therapy via the Internet as a routine method for treating patients who have problems such as social phobias or panic attacks. Psychiatrists say the online service will compliment traditional care and it means more people can be treated, more cheaply. But critics say sitting at a computer simply can’t be as...

NEW YORK, (AP) -- Therapists, we've long known, are among the biggest fans of "The Sopranos." So pleased were they with the credible therapy scenes between Tony Soprano, pop culture's most famous mobster/patient, and the appealing Dr. Jennifer Melfi, played by Lorraine Bracco, that the American Psychoanalytical Association once gave the show and Bracco an award. But professionally speaking, they could only scratch their heads at the latest developments on HBO's hit drama, which aired its penultimate episode last weekend. Just as Tony Soprano's life seemed to be imploding with dangerous speed — in short, just when he needed some...

IT WAS the night before Christmas and Ebenezer Scrooge was facing a succession of supernatural terrors; or, as the latest medical thinking would have it, he was succumbing to a brain disease so obscure that doctors would not give it a name for another 150 years.A pair of medico-literary sleuths claimed last week to have tracked down the illness that haunted Scrooge. They concluded that Charles Dickens brilliantly observed the symptoms in A Christmas Carol. Robert Chance Algar, a Californian neurologist, and his aunt Lisa Saunders, a medical writer and physician, believe that the affliction that made Scrooge a byword...

A way of controllably shrinking carbon nanotubes has been developed by US researchers. They say the technique could someday be used to make faster computers and other novel electronic devices. Carbon nanotubes have been used to make a variety of different nanoscale electronic devices, including sensors and transistors. These can outperform conventional components, working at higher frequencies and sensitivities, thanks to the novel physical and electronic properties of nanotubes. These properties, however, depend strongly on the dimensions of each tube. And, until now, there has been no reliable way to make nanotubes to order. This means "nanotube device fabrication is...

WASHINGTON - In the fight against obesity, restaurants should shrink portions, provide more nutritional information and bundle such calorie-laden food as burgers and pizza with healthier side dishes, according to a federally commissioned report to be made public Friday. The report, requested and funded by the Food and Drug Administration, lays out ways to help consumers manage their intake of calories from restaurants, cafeterias and ready-to-eat meals bought at grocery stores. It does not address school meals. "As of this decade, Americans are eating away-from-home foods more frequently and consuming more calories from away-from-home establishments than ever before," the report...

Enrollment drops, teachers leave, but administrators stay. That's the story at most of the 25 school districts with declining enrollment in the Sacramento region, according to a Bee analysis of state education data. Just eight of those districts reported to the state that they had cut administrators between the school years 1999-2000 and 2004-2005, even though the districts lost about 5,000 students during that period. Five of the 25 districts added administrators. And although most of those districts aren't cutting administrator positions, they are employing fewer teachers. Twenty-two of the 25 districts have fewer teachers today than they did five...

Dr. Coburn's Statement on Nomination of John Roberts to U.S. Supreme Court (WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) today released the following statement regarding President Bush’s nomination of John Roberts to the United States Supreme Court. “It is imperative that the next Supreme Court justice help restore the Constitutional balance of power between the branches of government and leave legislating to Congress and the states,” Dr. Coburn said. ”Judge Roberts is entitled to a thorough, fair and civil confirmation process. I look forward to the opportunity to interview Judge Roberts and I support the right of Senators...

On the day after, Chris Schlichting heard discouraging word of the presidential vote as soon as he woke up. "The clock radio went off, and I was broken-hearted," he said.

LONDON (AFP) - Soviet dictator Stalin was a madman who could have benefited from a psychiatrist's attention and millions of lives could have been saved, a British researcher claimed. Stalin, who ruled Russia from 1924 until his death in 1953, suffered from dementia caused by heart attacks, according to Dr George El-Nimr. "This (Stalin's dementia) might be an explanation for the florid paranoia, dimming of his superior intellect and the unleashing of his most sadistic personality traits," Nimr told the annual conference of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Harrogate in northern England. Nimr and two colleagues, Dr Baseem Habeeb...

Nebraska therapist loses license after allegedly firing a handgun at a memo that angered him The Associated Press OMAHA, Neb. — The Nebraska Health and Human Services system has revoked the license of a North Platte therapist accused of firing a handgun at a memo that angered him. Robert Powers, a mental health practitioner and professional counselor, got upset when he received a memo last summer saying only the manager of his office would have the key to certain supply drawers, according to state documents. Powers took the memo and shot it several times with a .22-caliber handgun before returning...

Which one REALLY needs the shrink?????

MIDI - PLAY ME I enjoyed my eight years of lying…but these days I'm all alone and crying I need more sleaze…so help me please…and save me I really had fun with those little interns It was always funny when they got their rug burns Oh, I want that still…what is this pill…you gave me What do you think…you are my shrink…now my life stinks…I miss my sink…save me It was great keeping leaders waiting…she played cigars…I was masturbating Without a hitch…of course, the *itch…forgave me What do you think…you are my shrink…now my life stinks…I miss my sink…save...

Sneed hears rumbles former President Bill Clinton is seeking help in adjusting to his new life as an ex-U.S. commander in chief. Rumor is Clinton, who was hesitant to seek overt professional counseling when he was in office--especially during the Monica Lewinsky episode--is reportedly having a difficult time making the transition into private life. Latest New Yawk squawk via the Hillary grapevine is that her hubby may be getting some sort of professional psychological counseling to assist in his transition. (Daughter Chelsea is getting more publicity than her dad these days.) P.S.: Bill Clinton will be in town today addressing...