Brain Diseases

The deadly brain parasite thought to be responsible for the death of Florida teen Courtney Nash is as rare as it is dangerous. Tragically, it's also easily avoidable. The 16-year-old began suffering from headache, stiffness, fever and nausea within a week after going for a swim on Aug. 3 in a local river. Doctors found the amoeba Naegleria fowleri in her system. Amoebic meningoencephalitis is an exceedingly rare disease -- there are only a handful of cases each year, and unlike other forms of meningitis , this infection of the brain is not contagious and cannot be passed from one person to another.

Public perception of mental illness and addiction has changed significantly -- and for the good -- in the last 15 years. That doesn't mean, however, that people feel comfortable working or living near or being friends with someone with mental illness, according to a major new survey. The study compared people's responses to vignettes involving mental illness and addiction to gauge public understanding of the illness and feelings toward those who are ill or addicted. The surveys took place in 1996 and 2006.

The holy grail in neurology research is to find the agent -- a drug, nutritional ingredient, a habit or lifestyle -- that will reliably protect the brain against a wide range of insults that lie in wait as we age: strokes, traumatic brain injury or neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or Lou Gehrig's disease. The quest for such " neuro-protection " has left a littered trail of failures. But scientists keep hunting, because they suspect that there must be some common mechanism at work in all these brain conditions.

The headbanging collisions that thrill sports fans have lifelong effects on the athletes, with impairments in movement and thinking skills showing up 30 years or more after the concussions, researchers reported Tuesday. The slight deficits resulting from one or two concussions were similar to problems found in patients with the early stages of dementia, although they did not interfere with the daily life of the otherwise healthy men, researchers reported in the journal Brain.

Republican Sen. Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico, one of the most influential voices in Congress on budget and energy issues, announced Thursday that he would retire at the end of his term because of a degenerative brain disease. "I come here today, to the site of the school that I attended as a boy, to tell you that I will not run for reelection to the United States Senate," Domenici said at a news conference in Albuquerque. He is serving his sixth term.

Re "Tragedy follows landmark court win," March 16 The judges who ruled that Kanuri Qawi could refuse treatment displayed the power of stigma. Courts have been reluctant to unplug life-support systems until they have medical evidence that a comatose patient has no chance of survival. Has any court made it impossible to obtain treatment for a person who is unconscious from a heart attack or in a diabetic coma? Clearly, there is a double standard when only those with brain diseases are being given a choice to refuse medication during a medical crisis.

Mad cow disease and other related brain disorders may be caused by a virus and not the weird, misshapen proteins, known as prions, that scientists think are responsible, according to a study released Monday. Researchers reported that they found virus-like particles in mouse nerve cells infected with two brain-wasting diseases similar to mad cow disease, but found no traces of the particles in uninfected cells. Lead author Dr.

This is about Ashley's dignity. Everybody examining her case seems to agree at least about that. Ashley is a 9-year-old girl who has static encephalopathy, a severe brain impairment. She cannot walk or talk. She cannot keep her head up, roll over or sit up by herself. She is fed with a tube. Her parents call her "Pillow Angel" because she stays right where they place her, usually on a pillow.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday that a cow from an Alabama dairy farm had tested positive for mad cow disease, the third U.S. case of the bovine brain-wasting syndrome. The stricken animal was tested for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, because it was a "downer," an animal that couldn't walk. The cow posed no risk to public health because it wasn't sent to a food processing plant, officials said.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge whose competency was questioned by a state commission because he allegedly suffered from a degenerative brain disease has retired, officials said Friday. A hearing on Judge Rodney E. Nelson's competence was scheduled for Monday by the Commission on Judicial Performance, an independent state agency charged with investigating complaints of judicial incapacity and misconduct.