Man wearing heavy metallic necklace dies after being sucked into MRI machine
Patients are typically asked to remove metal items and change out of their clothes before undergoing MRI scans or going near the machine. "The male victim was wearing a large metallic chain around his neck causing him to be drawn into the machine, which resulted in a medical episode," said Nassau County Police Department, which is investigating the incident. Though police have not named the victim, a woman, Adrienne Jones-McAllister, told local television station News 12 Long Island that it was her husband, Keith, who died. "He waved goodbye to me and then his whole body went limp," she said tearfully. Ms Jones-McAllister told the outlet she was getting an MRI on her knee and asked her husband to come in to help her get up afterwards. She said he was wearing a 20lb (9kg) chain with a lock that he used for weight training."At that instant, the machine switched him around, pulled him in, and he hit the MRI," she said.Ms Jones-McAllister said the technician had tried to pull her husband away from the machine."I'm saying, 'Could you turn off the machine?" she told the outlet. "Call 911. Do something. Turn this damn thing off!'"The BBC has contacted Nassau Open MRI for comment. According to the US Food and Drug Administration, MRI machines have magnetic fields that will attract magnetic objects of all sizes - keys, mobile phones and even oxygen tanks - which "may cause damage to the scanner or injury to the patient or medical professionals if those objects become projectiles". In 2001, a six-year-old boy died of a fractured skull at a New York City medical centre while undergoing an MRI exam after its powerful magnetic force propelled an oxygen tank across the room.
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Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Telegraph
Why this scientist believes bread is making us sad
Could the bread in your sandwich, the pasta in your salad or the oats in your breakfast be making you depressed? That is the theory that scientists are avidly exploring with studies showing a link between gluten and an array of mental health conditions, from ADHD to schizophrenia. Deanna L Kelly is a professor of psychiatry for Mental Illness Research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who has spent the past 17 years leading clinical trials in schizophrenia and severe mental illness, as well as being active in psychopharmacology research. 'I would have been sceptical if you'd told me I'd end up studying this connection,' says Kelly. 'My line of thinking was therapy and medications; I didn't know food and diet could actually be good medicine.' Her scientific journey began by analysing data from soldiers during the Second World War. It showed that during wheat shortages hospitalisations went down. Kelly and her colleagues then looked at the work in the 1970s of Curtis Dohan, a psychiatrist, who was publishing cases of people with schizophrenia recovering on a wheat-free diet. Dohan also visited remote islands in Papua New Guinea, where wheat was not part of the diet and found schizophrenia to be virtually absent, compared to its occurrence in wheat eating populations elsewhere. Kelly then had the opportunity to run a large clinical trial looking at the antibodies produced by the body in a reaction to gluten. What she found was very high rates of antibodies to gluten in the bodies of people with schizophrenia. Her findings have now led her to believe there is a strong connection between brain function and people who have gluten sensitivity. And she is not alone. Evidence shows that consuming foods containing gluten may be linked to a host of psychiatric symptoms, via an immune response, in up to one in 17 people. Get Your Brain Off Grain, the book she has co-authored, draws together the most up to date research on the subject. 'There's really been this disconnect between gastroenterology and psychiatry. We don't know everything. But it's another step closer connecting the dots about these illnesses.' What is gluten sensitivity Gluten is a group of proteins found in wheat, barley and rye. These are key grains found in breads, pastas, pastries and many other of our favourite foods. Some people are sensitive to gluten. This means their immune system 'fights' against gluten as a foreign invader in the body. Coeliac disease is the most well-known type of gluten-related autoimmune disease. It causes damage to the digestive tract leading to a range of gastro-intestinal symptoms such as diarrhoea, bloating and stomach pain, as well as fatigue, weight loss and skin rashes. Coeliac disease runs in families and is diagnosed via a blood test or intestinal biopsy. It is related to another type of gluten sensitivity, often called non-coeliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), which is about 10 times more prevalent than coeliac disease. However tests for coeliac disease are often negative in those with NCGS. 'It's challenging for someone to be diagnosed with non coeliac gluten sensitivity,' says Kelly. Gluten and inflammation Gluten was only introduced into our diets about 6,000 years ago. 'The idea of breaking it down is really challenging for our bodies and it never breaks down completely,' says Kelly. When a person with gluten sensitivity eats something with gluten in it – even 'healthy' brown pasta or bread – their body produces antibodies to fight against the gluten. While two types of protein join to make gluten, gliadin and glutenin, it is the former that induces an immune response. This can cause inflammation and contribute to damage in the gut, which leads to the development of 'leaky gut'. The weakened gut wall allows the antibodies to gliadin to leak from the intestine into the general bloodstream. 'When it gets across the stomach lining, the body sees it as a foreign substance for some people,' says Kelly. Inflammation and the brain Consequently inflammation may occur in other parts of the body, including a person's brain. When the antibodies' fight gets to the brain, symptoms that develop may include not only foggy thinking, and lack of energy, but also poor emotional control, anxiety, mood changes, hallucinations and/ or seizures, that are often resistant to treatment with medications. 'There's a specific peptide sequence called 33-mer [found in wheat] that is highly associated with an immune response,' says Deanna. 'If you look at the structure of that, it's very similar to one of the structures of the GRINA receptor, a receptor in the brain. So our bodies potentially can't tell the difference.' It is one of Kelly's theories that in some people their immune system might be attacking some of the tissue in the brain because it looks like gluten. 'We have a paper showing that these antibodies to the receptors to the brain are higher in people who have the antigliadin antibodies.' What causes depression and anxiety The area of the brain called the amygdala functions to help calm fear and anxiety. People with anxiety disorders have been shown to have an exaggerated amygdala response when exposed to events that evoke anxiety. Serotonin, a chemical messenger in the nervous system and part of the brain's communication system, is believed to be a key neurotransmitter involved in anxiety disorders. Interestingly, the gut provides approximately 95 per cent of the body's total serotonin and production is influenced by the particular balance of gut microbes in the individual person. Of course, not everyone with psychiatric and neurological issues is gluten sensitive. However, what is interesting, says Kelly, is that: 'All these disorders that we write about, the literature now is leaning towards them all having inflammation as a cause. 'The immune system is likely not working right in some people. And that leads to inflammatory markers and inflammation. My suggestion is that to some people, gluten is one of the culprits in this immune inflammatory reaction.' The most common symptoms Kelly sees among her psychiatric patients are brain fog, anxiety or depressive symptoms. 'They sometimes have headaches and migraines. Joint pain is common too.' Coeliac disease and NCGS diagnoses are more common in individuals with ADHD symptoms than in the general population. The link between coeliac disease and depression is well-established. One large study of over 2,000 people with coeliac disease showed a 39 per cent lifetime prevalence of depressive symptoms. 'One theory is that depression stems from the difficulty of living with a chronic illness,' says Kelly. 'But there are studies showing a more direct physiological link between coeliac disease and depression.' There is even clearer clinical data that those with schizophrenia can be helped by following a gluten-free diet. One patient of Kelly's suffering from schizophrenia always saw her illness worsen after having gluten. 'She was doing well in the community but when she had gluten she would be hospitalised. 'When she got into the hospital they would give her gluten because they wouldn't believe the family that that mattered. Each time the family would have to fight about it at every hospital.' Other proteins are also linked to inflammation of the brain. 'Casein from milk is another protein that is highly immunogenic.' The role of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) Outside of the gluten realm there's a movement towards understanding the impact of ultra-processed foods on our health. 'There's evidence to show that depression and anxiety and most mental health conditions are higher in people who eat high levels of UPFs, especially in the western diet.' And wheat is part of that. Wheat is now the most widely cultivated crop in the world, and it supplies 20 per cent of all food calories and protein consumed by the global population. 'The data is showing us that there are more people sensitive to gluten than before, we think that's due to a higher gluten content in UPFs.' One of the reasons why gluten may now cause a more severe immune response is that there has been a six-fold increase in the gliadin content of wheat over time. This may be down to the use of high-nitrogen fertilisers and how wheat is processed. The antibodies show the way One young woman who came to Kelly suffering from anxiety and brain fog had previously been tested for gluten sensitivity by her gastroenterologist. 'She was told she didn't have coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity. So I brought her in to take part in my study, and sure enough her antibody response was the biggest I'd ever seen. 'I actually found antibodies to suggest coeliac disease, which are called TTG. I gave her the paperwork and said, 'please go back to your doctor'. When she went back, they did a biopsy and they found she had coeliac disease. It had been missed.' She is one of almost a thousand people in the general population that Kelly has tested for gluten antibodies. 'When people have these antibodies, once I say, 'You're positive for this, it might be worth trying a gluten free diet ', most people report their joint pain went away, or their brain fog, or their anxiety and depression improved.' She has published 24 peer reviewed studies around these antibodies and the relationship of gluten to neurological and psychiatric illnesses. 'Thirty per cent of my patients with schizophrenia have antibodies to gliadin. That means their body is having an immune response to wheat.' Should you change your diet? Her work has changed her diet. Kelly now eats a low carb, almost gluten free. 'I'm not a fad diet person,' she says. 'If you'd told me I would be studying this I would have laughed. But science took me there.' From looking at animal studies, the data would suggest that gluten could be bad for everyone. 'We haven't gone so far as to say that,' says Kelly, cautiously. 'But when you start to dig into it, and you've seen what a brain looks like of an animal of gluten, it really makes me think twice about how much should be in my diet.' Still, not everybody should be on a gluten-free diet. About 10 per cent of the population have NCGS. And Kelly sees lots of people who have no immune response at all. 'Their bodies handle it fine. But then there are lots of people who have the antibodies and coeliac in their families and that's where removal could really help people.' While it's not going to be a cure all for everybody, typically Kelly sees changes in her patients in as little as three weeks. Brain imaging data has also shown how the blood flow in their brain improves on a gluten-free diet. 'We do recommend talking to your dietitian or doctor beforehand. That's because many foods that contain gluten are fortified with minerals and vitamins that our body needs, but struggles to get from our diet. Things like folic acid. You need folate for your brain.' She also notes that for those who have a psychiatric disorder, such as depression or schizophrenia, eating a gluten-free diet can be a challenge. 'Once you are sick, it's easier to just continue to eat gluten because it's cheap and you don't have to spend time cooking. When you're not feeling well you don't want to spend time cooking fresh vegetables. It becomes a cycle.' Food as medicine Over 2,000 years ago Hippocrates said, 'let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food'. 'All this time later we are now starting to pay attention to the impact of the food we put in our body,' says Kelly. The parents of one young man with a seizure disorder noticed that every time he had a big spaghetti meal his seizures were worse. 'And no one thought that that was related,' says Kelly, who was consulted by a neurologist on the case. 'While he didn't test positive for coeliac disease, he did have antibodies to gliadin. And so we suggested a gluten free diet and he has been seizure free since.' However, it is challenging for people to understand that a gluten-free diet helps their brain. She is used to resistance to new ideas, that is the lot of the scientist. However she says: 'We now have the technology. We can look at brain imaging and antibodies and show that it actually connects. We know for a fact that the brain is impacted by what we put into our gut and now we have to unravel all the mysteries there.'
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Comic-Con 2025 set to kick off in a year that some major superheroes are sitting out
Tens of thousands of fans — many in costumes — will descend Thursday on Comic-Con International, the four day pop culture spectacle that will feature updates on the new 'Predator' movie, 'Alien' series and a special appearance by George Lucas. Just don't expect major news about the future of Marvel 's movie slate or what's next for the hit relaunch of DC's high-flying 'Superman' franchise. Both studios are sitting out Comic-Con 2025, as far as their film slates go. An estimated 135,000 people will attend the convention, which will greet Lucas on Sunday for his first Comic-Con appearance. The 'Star Wars' creator will discuss his new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art that will open next year in Los Angeles. Fans of the 'Alien' and 'Predator' franchises will have plenty to cheer. Elle Fanning, star of 'Predator: Badlands,' will discuss the film at Comic-Con's massive Hall H this week. FX will also bring the stars and creators of 'Alien: Earth,' a series that will unleash the Xenomorph species on Earth next month. 'Alien: Earth' will be one of the projects that brings a massive interactive experience to San Diego, with a replica of spacecraft from the series. The attraction will feature what's described as a terrifying mission at night. Marvel may not be presenting new movies, but it will have a 'Fantastic Four: First Steps' attraction near the convention, a tie-in to Friday's release of the latest attempt to successfully launch its 'first family' in theaters. Thousands of fans got a sneak peek at the convention's 460,000 square foot (42,700 square meter) exhibitor section, which features exclusive merchandise, comic book art and exhibits from brands like Star Wars, Lego, Nickelodeon, Paramount and more.
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘Boiling frog' effect makes people oblivious to threat of climate crisis, shows study
Surveys show that the increasing number of extreme climate events, including floods, wildfires and hurricanes, has not raised awareness of the threats posed by climate change. Instead, people change their idea of what they see as normal. This so-called 'boiling frog effect' makes gradual change difficult to spot. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania wondered if climate change could be made more obvious by presenting it in binary terms. Local newspaper archives describing ice skating on Lake Carnegie when it froze in winter inspired a simple experiment. Some test subjects were shown temperature graphs of a fictional town's winter conditions; others had a chart showing whether or not a fictional lake froze each year. The result, published in Nature, showed those who receiving the second graphic consistently saw climate change as more real and imminent. Binary data gives a clearer impression of the 'before' and 'after'. The disappearing ice is more vivid and dramatic than a temperature trace, even though the underlying data is the same. 'We are literally showing them the same trend, just in different formats,' says Rachit Dubey, a co-author of the study. These results should help drive more effective ways of communicating the impact of climate change in future by finding simple binary, black-and-white examples of its effects.
