http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129651881&ft

Though thousands of soldiers are diagnosed with PTSD, many more suffer without treatment. Among those who do seek treatment, doctors are finding another, distinctly different problem called traumatic brain injury, or TBI. The two conditions have similar symptoms, but the causes are quite different. While PTSD is a psychological disorder that can be treated with medication and therapy, TBI is physical injury to the brain that requires cognitive treatment to help rebuild function. "Fundamentally, PTSD is a disorder where you remember too much, whereas TBI is a disorder where you don’t remember enough," says Dr. Gregory O’Shanick, National Medical Director for the Brain Injury Association of America.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6836060n

"Pharmageddon": America's New Drug Crisis.Report: Prescription Drug Addiction, Particularly Among Baby Boomers, Resulting in Leap in Overdose Deaths. Over the last two decades, deaths from accidental drug overdoses have increased five-fold. And, for the first time, unintentional overdoses have replaced car accidents as the leading cause of accidental death in 15 states and the District of Columbia.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/driving-a-message-home-with-an-optical-illusion/article1693547/

3D image of little girl being used to enhance traffic safety.

3D image of a young girl who leaps into traffic in a school zone.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/hair-may-signal-pending-heart-attack/article1694502/

In the not too distant future, your family doctor may pluck a hair from your head to see if you’re in imminent danger of a heart attack.

That’s because your hair contains an accurate record of your body’s production of cortisol – a hormone that surges through your body when you’re under stress. And stress can be the trigger for a potentially deadly cardiac event.

http://www.torontosun.com/life/healthandfitness/2010/09/01/15212146.html

Moderate coffee intake -- only 25-50 ml per day -- could be the key to reduced blood pressure and preventing heart disease, a new study has found.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/01/eveningnews/main6827276.shtml

FDA Decides on Fate of Controversial Diet Pill This Month, Study Calls for It to Be Pulled from Market.The well respected  New England Journal of Medicine weighed in with an editorial calling for it to be pulled from the market after a new study revealed an increased risk for heart attacks in some patients.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/29/sunday/main6816240.shtml?tag=contentBody;featuredPost-PE

Urban Farms Sprout in the Unlikeliest Places, Feeding a Growing Appetite for Farmers to Sell Directly to Consumers.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6820615n

Reports: Since 1997, Concussions Double for Younger Children, Up 200 Percent in Kids 14-19. Two studies released today by The American Academy of Pediatrics report the number of concussions suffered by children in sports is on the rise. One found that from 1997 through 2007 emergency room visits for concussions in kids ages 8 to 13 years old had doubled, and that concussions skyrocketed 200 percent among kids ages 14 to 19 over the same span. But why?

http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/08/30/heavy-drinkers-live-longer-than-non-drinkers-study-finds/

Abstaining from drinking alcohol tends to increase one’s risk of dying and moderate drinking is associated with the lowest mortality rates in research on alcohol use, a new study suggests.

The study, published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, can’t explain why abstainers’ mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers, but Time has offered some suggestions below.

http://health.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/08/30/the-penis-a-barometer-for-the-heart/

When the arteries in one part of your body are clogged, you can expect arteries to be filling up with sticky plaque in other parts of the body as well. One of these parts is the penis.
   
Heart doctors have long understood this concept, routinely ultrasounding the arteries of the neck (carotids) to provide a barometer for  the tiny arteries (coronaries) that supply the heart.
   
Now, a new study provides evidence that the penis is another crucial barometer of arterial disease.The study, published in the August issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine, reveals that men with erectile dysfunction (ED and depression) are much more likely to go on to develop heart disease than those without ED.
  
A team of Italian researchers led by Dr. Elisa Bandini, screened 1687 patients with erectile dysfunction  and found that men with ED who were also depressed were much more likely to have a heart attack or angina. ED is clearly an alert to larger emotional and physical problems including heart disease.  
   
Here’s why: The arteries that supply the penis are only able to provide a strong sustained erection when they are working perfectly. So ED is often an indication that something is wrong with your arteries, and since the arteries of the penis are smaller than the arteries of the heart (coronary arteries), they tend to get clogged earlier. ED usually occurs before heart disease occurs. The penis is a likely barometer, a canary in the coal mine, for impending problems in the coronary arteries.  
   
Of course, ED can be caused by many different things, including low testosterone, medication side effects, and depression alone. Not all patients with ED have arterial problems or will go on to have problems with their hearts. But a significant number will. We recommend all men who begin having problems getting erections to see their doctor for a more thorough total body examination. And the concept of formally screening men for heart disease on the basis of ED should be investigated further. 
   
An ideal study would separate men into two groups; one with erectile dysfunction and one without. Each group would be followed to see which men went on to develop heart problems and which didn’t. In the meantime, there is every reason to consider ED as a warning sign for heart disease and a window into problems in a man’s total health.

David B. Samadi, MD is the Chief of Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. As a board-certified urologist and an oncologist specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of urologic diseases, kidney cancer, bladder cancer, and prostate cancer, he also specializes in many advanced minimally invasive treatments for prostate cancer, including laparoscopic radical prostatectomy and laparoscopic robotic radical prostatectomy. His Web site, Robotic Oncology, has been translated into six different languages and is one of the most popular urology sites on the Internet.