Monday, January 28, 2008

Wheelchair basketball gets limelight

Lampert Smith: Wheelchair basketball gets limelight
Wisconsin State Journal, WI - Dec 29, 2007

... camera pans down to the other way Scott is different than most of us: He's been in a wheelchair his whole life, because he was born with spinal bifida. ...


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Baby gorilla has surgery for spina bifida

Successful surgery for baby gorilla
Seattle Post Intelligencer - Jan 11, 2008

Doctors confirmed during surgery that the baby also suffers from mild spinal bifida, which is not expected to be a concern as she grows older, they said. ...

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Movie Review: The Devil's Backbone

Movie Review: The Devil's Backbone
Written by Purple Tigress
Published January 06, 2008

If you've seen Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, you might be interested in his 2001 movie, El Espinazo del Diablo or as we know it, The Devil's Backbone. He called it the spiritual sequel to Pan's Labyrinth.

...The devil's backbone, according to Dr. Casares, is what superstitious villagers call fetuses with spina bifida...In order to provide some money for the orphanage, the doctor plays on the local superstitions. The preserved fetuses are embalmed in spices and rum, and the rum is believed to cure various ailments, most importantly impotence....These incompletely formed children are nobody's children, but according to the doctor, they are the result of poverty and ignorance....

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Nike to Feature UW Whitewater Student in Ad

Nike to Feature UW Whitewater Student in Ad
Story Created: Dec 29, 2007

Story Updated: Dec 29, 2007

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- University of Wisconsin-Whitewater junior Matt Scott is already one of the nation's top wheelchair basketball players.

Next week, he's set to become a TV star too.

Scott, 22, will be featured in a new Nike ad directed by UW-Madison graduate Errol Morris. Morris also directed Miller Brewing Co.'s High Life Man commercials.

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Serious Birth Defects are Declining in North Carolina

Babies have a healthier start in life thanks to efforts led by the NC Folic Acid Council and the March of Dimes



RALEIGH, N.C. – Over the past ten years there has been a significant decline in the rate of spina bifida in North Carolina. In observance of National Folic Acid Awareness Week, January 7-13, the North Carolina Folic Acid Council (NCFAC) and the March of Dimes would like to recognize the work North Carolina has done to reduce the number of babies born with this serious birth defect.

“We’re seeing progress in the fight to eliminate neural tube defects like spina bifida thanks to folic acid fortification and an intense public health campaign to increase folic acid consumption through multivitamins,” said Amy Mullenix, MSW, MSPH, Statewide Campaign Coordinator. “Yet, there are still too many babies born with spina bifida and we want to make sure every woman of childbearing age gets the message that she should be taking a multivitamin every day, just in case.”

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Birth defects down after low-carb craze

Saturday, January 5, 2008
Birth defects down after low-carb craze
Rates have dropped 30 percent in state since peak of the diet trend in 2003

By Richard Craver
JOURNAL REPORTER

The passing of the low-carb craze and an increase in fortified, high-grain foods appears to have helped reduce the rate of birth defects in North Carolina, two nonprofit agencies said yesterday.

The N.C. Folic Acid Council and the March of Dimes reported that the rate of defects affecting the central nervous system has dropped 30 percent in the state since the low-carb fad peaked in 2003.

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Folic acid's trade-offs of concern

Folic acid's trade-offs of concern
By Stephanie Desmon | Sun reporter
January 27, 2008

It was all about the babies. A decade ago, when the U.S. required flour, bread and pasta to be fortified with folic acid, health experts believed it would help prevent devastating birth defects such as spina bifida.

There's no question that it worked. As many as 1,000 newborns a year in the United States - and many more elsewhere - have been spared so-called neural tube defects because their mothers got a crucial infusion of folic acid before they even knew they were pregnant.

But now some scientists are asking whether there have been unforeseen trade-offs for the population as a whole - including thousands of additional colon cancer cases each year, a somewhat smaller bump-up in prostate cancer, and an increase in cognitive impairment among the elderly.

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Doctors debate euthanasia on babies with spina bifida

Active intervention to end the lives of babies born with spina bifida is not necessary. That is the position taken by paediatric neurosurgeons from 12 countries in an article in the medical journal 'Child's Nervous System'. These physicians express their concern at the practice in the Netherlands of carrying out euthanasia on some babies born with spina bifida (the result of Meningomyelocele, see box for information).


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