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Researchers at Tel Aviv University have proven that not only do men feel like they are about to have a stroke when they keep fighting with their wife, but they really ARE likely to have a stroke…

The good news, men, is that your 64% higher risk of stroke in an unhappy marriage (compared to those in a happy marriage) is about the same as if you were single…without the stress of having to go cruising in sleazy bars…

Stop Fighting with Your Wife...You're Going to Have a Stroke!

Unhappily married men at greater risk of fatal stroke: Study

Guys start working on your marriage as a new study has claimed that men in an unhappy union are at a 64 per cent higher risk of a fatal stroke.

Reprinted from Indianexpress.com

In a first study of its kind to assess the quality of a marriage and its association with stroke risk, researchers at the Tel Aviv University found a correlation between happiness in marriage and the likelihood that a man will die from stroke.

The team led by Prof Uri Goldbourt said that a happy marriage help to prevent fatal strokes in men, EurekAlert reported.

The research was based on the analysis of the data collected from 10,000 men, all of them civil servants, beginning in 1965.

In the retrospective study, men were surveyed about their happiness levels and marital status; 34 years later, a follow-up study determined how many of the men died from stroke.

According to the study, single men were found to have a 64 per cent higher risk of a fatal stroke than married men.

More fruits of Israeli/Jewish brainpower…Exciting research out of Hadassah University Medical Center, located in Israel’s capital city, Jerusalem. A new technology that allows the production of very large numbers of human embryonic stem cells for use in industry and research. Prior to this Israeli breakthrough, the cells could only be produced in tiny numbers. Now, massive amounts of cells can be made available for repairing human tissues and organs…and who knows what else?

Israeli Stem Cell Research

Israeli advance in stem cell tech

Hadassah breakthrough to produce large number of human embryonic stem cells

Reprinted from Jpost.com JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH AND JPOST.COM STAF

A new technology developed at Hadassah University Medical Center has made it possible to produce large amounts of human embryonic stem cells for industry and research by growing them in suspension.

Until now, hESCs – which have the potential of ripening into any other type of body cells for repair of tissues and organs – have been created in small numbers.

Called a “breakthrough” in hESC technology, the research was just published in the prestigious science journal Nature Biotechnology. The article, titled “Derivation, propagation and controlled differentiation of human embryonic stem cells in suspension,” was written by Dr. Debora Steiner as part of her post-doctoral work under the direction of Prof. Benjamin Reubinoff, both of Hadassah’s Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Center, with participation by other Hadassah colleagues.

HESC research has been stymied by the fact that it has, until now, been difficult to make large amounts of them. Conventionally, they have been cultured as colonies consisting of one cell layer attached to a flat “bed” of chemicals or nutrients. The involved a great deal of work, and the number of hESCs produced was limited.

It was thought that propagation of hESCs in a suspension (a mixture in which fine particles are suspended in a fluid where they are supported by buoyancy) was impossible because under these conditions, the cells would stop multiplying and instead undergo uncontrolled ripening into various types of cells.

But the Hadassah researchers developed unique conditions that made it possible for the cells to multiply significantly in suspension without differentiating into specific cell types. By changing the conditions of the culture, they showed that they could control the ripening of hESC clusters in suspension into neural spheres. Thus instead of being grown on beds in one layer, the stem cells could be cultivated in large vats with precise, computerized monitoring of growth conditions.

So here we have the obvious paradox…It would seem that you need to be a little on the slow side, I-Q-ishly speaking, to even start smoking today, given all we know about how harmful smoking is to your health. So the slightly duller blades amongst start smoking for whatever reason, and, as a result of their habit…they get even dumber…
It MUST be a conspiracy engaged in by all the tobacco companies…Surely, George Bush was also involved, somehow…
BTW…More great scientific research out of Tel Aviv University right here, in Israel (where, unfortunately, we DO have more than our share of tobacco hounds)…

Smoking Makes You Dumb(er)

Smokers have lower IQs

A cigarette dangling lazily from the mouth was once the telltale sign of an intellectual, but new evidence suggests it may have signalled quite the opposite

Reprinted from Telegraph.co.uk Nick Collins

Smokers have lower IQs than those who abstain, with intelligence decreasing the more one smokes, researchers have found.

A study of 18 to 21-year-old men revealed that the IQs of smokers averaged 94 – seven points lower than non-smokers on 101.

IQ scores in a healthy population of young men fall between 84 and 116, but those who smoked more than a pack of cigarettes a day averaged just 90 between them.

Researchers in Israel took data from more than 20,000 healthy men before, during and after they spent time in the Israeli military.

About 28 per cent of their sample smoked one or more cigarettes a day, three per cent considered themselves ex-smokers, and 68 per cent said they never smoked.

Professor Mark Weiser, of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Psychiatry, said: “In the health profession, we’ve generally thought that smokers are most likely the kind of people to have grown up in difficult neighbourhoods, or who’ve been given less education at good schools.

“But because our study included subjects with diverse socio-economic backgrounds, we’ve been able to rule out socio-economics as a major factor.”

The study also measured effects in twin brothers – and in the case where one twin smoked, the non-smoking twin registered a higher IQ on average.

Prof Weiser said: “People on the lower end of the average IQ tend to display poorer overall decision-making skills when it comes to their health.

“People with lower IQs are not only prone to addictions such as smoking. These same people are more likely to have obesity, nutrition and narcotics issues.

“Our study may help parents and health professionals help at-risk young people make better choices.”

The study was reported in a recent version of the journal Addiction.

Israeli science continues to contribute good to mankind. Our brilliant scientists, this time, at Tel Aviv University, add quality to the life of millions worldwide on a daily basis through their ground-breaking medical research.
Just think what the results would be if Israel did not have to expend such a huge portion of her resources defending the country against terror and constant hostile existential threats from the Arab “neighbors” in the region…
Dream on…

Prototype Bionic Eye

Bionic Eyes Are Around the Corner


They are being developed at TEl Aviv University

Reprinted from Softpedia.com

A group of experts from the Tel Aviv University (TAU), led by Professor Yael Hanein from the university’s School of Electrical Engineering, announced major progress in developing bionic eyes. The group has been investigating ways of merging man and machine for many years, and they say that the foundational research needed to make this a reality has been completed. The end goal of the work is to produce electrodes that can be merged with retinal nerves, and therefore restore at least partial sight to the blind, e! Science News reports. This could mean that the long-heralded future of bionics may finally be upon us.

The investigators say that the role of the electrodes will not be to act as relays between the eye and the visual nerves, but rather to stimulate the growth of natural retinal cells. The work has thus far proven extremely promising in tests conducted on animals, and the TAU team is hopeful that its approach will one day set the foundation for producing retinal implants that could be readily grafted in people. “We’re working to interface man-made technology with neurons. It can be helpful in in vitro and in in vivo applications, and provides an understanding of how neurons work so we can build better devices and drugs,” the team leader explains.

Even if the technology itself is still many years away from practical, wide-scale applications, the new device can still be used, for example, by drug manufacturers, in testing new products. Treating delicate nerve tissues is notoriously difficult, and this instrument could be of significant assistance in this area, the group believes. Details of their approach to creating a fully-functional bionic eye appear in the latest issue of the respected scientific journal Nanotechnology. The basis for the device was laid using carbon nanotubes as a scaffold, on which electrical currents force nerve cells to grow.

“We are attempting to answer very basic questions in science. Neurons migrate and assemble themselves, and using approaches we’ve developed, we are now able to ‘listen’ to the way the neurons fire and communicate with one another using electrical impulses. Listening to neurons ‘talking’ allows us to answer the most basic questions of how groups of nerves work together. If we can investigate functional neuronal networks in the lab, we can study what can’t be seen or heard in the complete brain, where there are too many signals in one place,” says professor Hanein.

“Neurons like to form good links with our special nanotechnology, and we’re now investigating applications for retinal implants. Our retinal implant attempts to replace activity in places of the damaged cells, and in the case of retinal diseases, the damaged photoreceptors,” the expert concludes.