CarolineLeavittville: Ariel Joseph Towne, the Feng Shui Guy, talks ...

I have friends who have Feng Shui'd their homes and claim amazing results. In fact, this book, Serene Makeover: Inner Edition, ?was put in my hands by the brilliant novelist Gina Sorell, who was sure I'd love it, and she was right. The book offers practical and easy ways to make your world better. But don't just listen to me. The Huffington post calls it "a delightful guide to the inner and outer workings of energy." Thanks so much, Ariel for being here.

How did you get involved with Feng Shui??

I?ve always been sensitive to energy. As a kid, I could sense the feelings of a room. The tension in a room. Or the happiness. And those feelings weren?t always connected to the people that were in there. Sometimes it was as if I was feeling the history of a room. Sometimes it felt good and sometimes it didn?t feel so good to me.

As a teenager I would move my furniture around every few months. Or change all the artwork. Things might be messy when I would get busy and then all of a sudden I would feel the strong need to do a sudden purge, or clean everything from top to bottom. It was like an itch that I needed to scratch. But at the time I had no idea why.

It wasn?t until after I moved to California that I had ever heard the term feng shui. It was recommended to me after I moved into an apartment that I couldn?t afford. It was my first time ever living on my own and I was nervous. How would I pay for it all? Would I get lonely? How do I set up a whole space and not just a single room?

My feng shui master is Hawaiian. He came to my empty home and sat on my floor with me. I had no furniture. We spoke for almost five hours that day and it ended with a blessing. When it was finished, I told him that the chant he had been doing was something that my mom had taught me growing up. It was a Sanskrit blessing: Om Mani Padme Hum. It made me feel comforted. This was almost two years after my mom passed away and I felt like this feng shui was connecting me to her somehow. And it made me happy.

How and why did you decide to bring it to the people in such a playful and fun way??

My feng shui master, Nate Batoon has an incredible sense of humor. He is always cracking jokes. I think that it makes it easier to learn when you are having fun. His most successful student to date (my friend and mentor) Karen Rauch Carter has an incredible sense of humor. Her book: Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life was the first book I ever read about feng shui. It is simple, profound and funny. I always recommend it to my clients. And when people started asking for my advice?I tried to read people. When did they tune out? When was the information overwhelming? I would get them to laugh and we would be back on track. As a result, these three qualities have always been part of my workshops and my consultations. Sometimes this work can bring up a lot of ?stuff? for people. Laughter helps people make space to take in something new.?

When I first picked up the book, I thought it was going to be about rearranging my home, but it's much deeper--about rearranging myself!
Can you talk about that, please?

There are lots of books in the marketplace on how to arrange your home or business. Some of them are incredibly complicated and some of them are easier to follow, but they all address our outer environments.? If they made any reference to inside, it was in passing. Most of these books are ?how to? set up our external environments.

After working with people for ten years I noticed certain patterns. Firstly, I noticed that people?s spaces are a reflection of what was going on inside of them. When they made changes in their homes it was because some part of their space wasn?t any longer being reflected on the outside. But then when we made these changes outside, it would affect the way they felt inside (more peaceful, more energized, happier, excited, passionate, etc)

Over time, people would get addicted to the positive results that followed our actions together. Sometimes they would think?if a few simple changes affected my life this profoundly, they surely more is better! So they would buy some bamboo flutes and money frogs and strings with coins on them and pretty soon their homes were filled with chachkis. And sometimes they would have further results, but sometimes they would just end up with a lot of clutter. There is always a change that follows feng shui actions, but clutter is never our friend. It is always the enemy of life force energy (or Chi.)

I also have a background as a life coach. This means that sometimes I work with people who want to set goals. These can be business goals, personal goals, group goals or individual goals. Sometimes I work with people who are undergoing a crisis of some kind (a relationship crisis, family crisis, healing crisis or even a crisis of faith.) I started to notice with my feng shui clients that at a certain point there were no more external changes that needed to be made. It was an internal journey. They had to dream bigger, let go of some inner noise or inner clutter. For back of a better term they had to learn to rewrite their stories. To focus on where they are going instead of where they have been.

All of this work tends to start with intention. This is the basis of feng shui, for me. It isn?t cookie cutter, not one size fits all. It is a deeply personal thing to each and every person I work with. And so I thought, if I were to write a book, what could it be about?

My first thought was that in the feng shui realm, there is much to be done before people even begin to ?feng shui? their space. Before painting, before moving things around, before buying new items and putting them up, they need to make space. They need to figure out what about their space is working and what isn?t working. Sometimes people need to address their space on multiple layers before they even get to hanging a ?feng shui cure.?

I went away on a trip to the Pacific Northwest on a writers journey with a buddy of mine for our birthdays. On that trip I wrote an e-book called: ?Everything you need to know about feng shui before you buy any other feng shui book.? And there in my notes I wrote down that I wanted to write a two part book series, an outside in and inside out approach to feng shui. And as I was still developing a new take on how to explore our external space in a way that is different than any process in the marketplace?I wanted to start with the book about feng shui for your inner house. It was really clear to me that?all great change starts within.

What's the biggest mistake most people make with their homes??Mindlessness. Placing things without any thought or reason as to why. We put something in the corner because we don?t know where else it goes. Or we put it there in boxes, hoping to get to it someday. Over time we start to become numb to parts of our space. We walk by things and ignore them. We promise to get to certain areas, but life takes over and before you know it: weeks, months or even years have passed.? And if we don?t use consciousness about our space, our space cannot support us. It cannot support our intentions, it cannot support our well-being. It won?t be as functional as it could be. Things will take longer to find. Eventually our space becomes a drain. It sucks our time, it ends up costing us money. Things get lost. We may not even be aware of how our space is making up feel anymore. Feng shui gives you permission to look at your space through new eyes and to shine the light of your consciousness onto your entire space. And then it gives you simple, step by step tools to create an empowered, balanced home that supports you on all levels.

What's one or two simple Feng Shui things anyone can do to improve their lives?

Make space. You can?t pick up something new in your life unless you put down what you are holding onto. It?s not always sexy to make time to declutter or organize?but it is sometimes more important to make space than anything else in feng shui. Because the space you are surrounded by relates to the potential energy you have at your disposal to manifest your wishes hopes and dreams. It?s not just your ?stuff?, it?s your space, too.

Next, place everything in your home on purpose and with purpose. Even if you don?t know what a bagua is, or where your money corner is located?you can create mindfulness about your placement, your intention and your relationship with your stuff. Use your intuition. Everyone is already doing feng shui and they don?t even know it. They know if a space feels good to them or not. And they may not know exactly why, but if you pay attention to how a space feels you can use that inner compass to guide your actions.

I love your statement that "doubt is the gateway." Can you talk about that?

Sure.???I?m an East coaster. I?m from long island. New Yorkers are inherently skeptical at best and cynical at worst. I am, by nature, an optimist, but I have developed a pretty strong BS meter. I am open and willing to try something and if it works for me, I will do more of it. It took me seeing results from feng shui to put stock into it. It took me seeing the cause and effect of it working in my life and in the lives of everyone else who did it to trust that feng shui works. It is like gravity. It works whether people believe in it or not. In that same sense, our spaces have an impact on us, whether we believe in them or not. But belief is powerful. It adds mojo to our intentions. Without doubt there could be no faith?so healthy doubt is the gateway to eventually finding faith.

It reminds me of a story I heard about how some doctors at Johns Hopkins set out to disprove the power of prayer. They set up two groups of women who wanted to get pregnant. One group had some people praying for them and the other group was the control group. The people who were being prayed for had a significantly higher rate of getting pregnant than the control group. The doctors ended up being surprised and published their results. Their doubt ended up proving that faith in the unknown (prayer) actually has positive effects in our lives.

So, do you do long distance Feng Shui for people??

Absolutely! I work with people all over the world. That?s the beauty of phones, laptops with cameras and all the technology we have at our disposal. I can use photos, a blueprint or a video to look at someone?s space. And they can walk me through their spaces with their iphones, Skype or Google Hangout. It?s amazing how small the world has become.

What's obsessing you now and why?

I am obsessed with noise pollution and what to do about it. For those of us living in cities, we are often subject to the dulcet tones of traffic, neighbors having sex or the sounds of apartment building living. Stomping, slamming doors and people doing Wii fit.

We can build soundproof spaces, and we can add white noise machines?but we have to find ways to co-exist so that it doesn?t affect our peace of mind, our well-being and ultimately our sleep.

I think this goes to the principle of making space. Where is the space in our lives for silence? We are always doing doing, going going and multitasking whenever possible. I think that if we want to stay productive, connect to our creativity, we need space, and silence. This also goes for inside as well as outside ;)

What question didn't I ask that I should have?

You didn?t ask what feng shui is??

Some people would say it is an ancient Chinese philosophy.

Some people would say that it means wind/water.

Feng shui is an evolving art and science. It means something different to us now in 2013 than it would have several thousand years ago. We are still focused on energy, but rather than worry about maurauders on horseback and Siberian winds, we might be concerned about EMF?s (electromagnetic frequencies) and our inability to let go of ?stuff.? We have a multi trillion dollar storage industry. People as a society are more obese. We can?t seem to let go of anything, inside and out. And there is a connection.

Feng shui is an art because it is deeply personal to each person. It?s not one size fits all.

And it?s a science because we are learning that neuroscience and biology are able to make sense of some of these ancient feng shui principles. The shape of spaces affect the way our brains work. Color can affect our mood. And if we sit with our backs to the door, it can have long term health consequences. And now we know why.

Feng shui is also universal. Some of it?s principles are found in every culture on the planet. It isn?t a religion and some of the cultural superstitions that are talked about in books and feng shui circles may not apply to you personally, or life in 2013. It is always evolving. As are we. Our homes are alive and evolve over time. And if we think of our spaces as containers of life force energy it reminds me of the Force in star wars.?

So I wish you good luck and May The Force Be With You,? Always.

Source: http://carolineleavittville.blogspot.com/2013/02/ariel-joseph-towne-feng-shui-guy-talks_2.html

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Ozone depletion trumps greenhouse gas increase in jet-stream shift

Friday, February 1, 2013

Depletion of Antarctic ozone is a more important factor than increasing greenhouse gases in shifting the Southern Hemisphere jet stream in a southward direction, according to researchers at Penn State.

"Previous research suggests that this southward shift in the jet stream has contributed to changes in ocean circulation patterns and precipitation patterns in the Southern Hemisphere, both of which can have important impacts on people's livelihoods," said Sukyoung Lee, professor of meteorology.

According to Lee, based on modeling studies, both ozone depletion and greenhouse gas increase are thought to have contributed to the southward shift of the Southern Hemisphere jet stream, with the former having a greater impact. B, but until now, no one has been able to determine the extent to which each of these two forcings has contributed to the shift using observational data.

"Understanding the differences between these two forcings is important in predicting what will happen as the ozone hole recovers," she said. "The jet stream is expected to shift back toward the north as ozone is replenished, yet the greenhouse-gas effect could negate this." Lee and her colleague, Steven Feldstein, professor of meteorology, developed a new method to distinguish between the effects of the two forcings. The method uses a cluster analysis to investigate the effects of ozone and greenhouse gas on several different observed wind patterns.

"When most people look at ozone and greenhouse gases, they focus on one wind pattern, but my previous research suggests that, by looking at several different but similar patterns, you can learn more about what is really happening," said Feldstein.

In their study, the researchers analyzed four wind patterns. The first wind pattern corresponded to an equatorwarda shift of the midlatitude westerlies toward the equator. T; the second pattern also described an equatorward shift, but included a strong tropical component. T; the third pattern corresponded to a poleward shift of the westerlies toward the South Pole with a weakening in the maximum strength of the jet; and the. The fourth pattern corresponded to a smaller poleward jet shift with a strong tropical component.

In addition to their novel inclusion of more than one wind pattern in their analysis, the scientists investigated the four wind patterns at very short time scales.

"Climate models are usually run for many years; they don't look at the day-to-day weather," said Feldstein. "But we learned that the four wind patterns fluctuate over about 10 days, so they change on a time scale that is similar to daily weather. This realization means that by taking into account fluctuations associated with the daily weather, it will be easier to test theories about the mechanism by which ozone and greenhouse gases influence the jet stream."

The researchers used an algorithm to examine the relationship between daily weather patterns and the four wind patterns. They found that the first wind pattern -- which corresponded to an equatorward shift of the midlatitude westerlies -- was associated with greenhouse gases. They also found that the third pattern -- which corresponded to a poleward shift of the westerlies -- was associated with ozone. The other two wind patterns were unrelated to either of the forcings. The researchers found that a long-term decline in the frequency of the first pattern and a long-term increase in the frequency of the third pattern can explain the changes in the Southern Hemisphere jet stream.

"Ozone had the bigger impact on the change in the position of the jet stream," said Lee. "The opposite is likely true for the Northern Hemisphere; we think that ozone has a limited influence on the Northern Hemisphere. Understanding which of these forcings is most important in certain locations may help policy makers as they begin to plan for the future."

In addition to finding that ozone is more important than greenhouse gases in influencing the jet-stream shift, the scientists also found evidence for a mechanism by which greenhouse gases influence the jet-stream shift. They learned that greenhouse gases may not directly influence the jet-stream shift, but rather may indirectly influence the shift by changing tropical convection, or the vertical transfer of heat in large-scale cloud systems, which, in turn, influences the jet shift. The researchers currently are further examining this and other possible mechanisms for how greenhouse gases and ozone influence the jet stream as well as Antarctic sea ice.

The results will appear in the Feb. 1 issue of the journal Science.

"Not only are the results of this paper important for better understanding climate change, but this paper is also important because it uses a new approach to try to better understand climate change; it uses observational data on a short time scale to try to look at cause and effect, which is something that is rarely done in climate research," said Feldstein. "Also, our results are consistent with climate models, so this paper provides support that climate models are performing well at simulating the atmospheric response to ozone and greenhouse gases."

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Penn State: http://live.psu.edu

Thanks to Penn State for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 51 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126584/Ozone_depletion_trumps_greenhouse_gas_increase_in_jet_stream_shift

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Lil Wayne has yet to watch Nicki Minaj on 'Idol'

METARIE, La. (AP) ? "American Idol" picked Nicki Minaj as a judge to draw in viewers, but she's actually discouraged at least one person from watching it ? her mentor, Lil Wayne.

The rap star admitted Friday that he has yet to see "Idol" this season ? or any other season.

Lil Wayne says part of the reason he hasn't tuned in to see Minaj is because she told him it wasn't his type of show. However, he says he heard the talent on the show is pretty good.

Lil Wayne spoke Friday after signing autographs for more than 100 fans who were at a suburban New Orleans Macy's to support his Trukfit clothing line. A couple hundred more were waiting outside for a glimpse of the star.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lil-wayne-yet-watch-nicki-minaj-idol-165439058.html

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A Poem Of Friendship | Healthy Relationship

I wonder how many folks know about this gem, as much as I want to keep this site to myself, everyone must sign up on this wonderful site! The ideal of the ideal, a site run with efficiency, this is an exceptional site. The developer of this site must receive an award for excellence! This has been the ideal customer experience I have ever had. Superb service by knowledgeable, experienced employees.

Source: http://www.jcinunitedway.org/359-a-poem-of-friendship

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PFT: RGIII wins Offensive ROY? |? Kuechly Defensive

AP

As the 49ers and Ravens had their final Super Bowl practices on Saturday at the Superdome, both Harbaugh brothers allowed players and coaches to bring their friends and families along, on the theory that the most important thing at this late point is to keep the players loose for the game.

?Get a stretch, get the blood moving a little bit,? 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh told pool reporter Matt Maiocco of the purpose of his team?s final practice. ?And get some new blood going. Then, afterward, enjoy it with your family. Get some pictures and make it possible for everybody to come down to the Super Bowl field.?

Ravens coach John Harbaugh said family is important to him and important to his team.

?It?s the kind of foundation of everything we do,? Harbaugh told pool reporter Brian Allee-Walsh. ?That has been the whole story line of the whole week. In a sense that?s how we did it growing up, when we were kids. We grew up around dad?s teams. Most of the time in the NFL it?s not that way. Most of the time there is the separation of families and it?s considered to be a distraction. I just think the opposite. For me, it?s a distraction when people are more worried about their families not being allowed to be a part of it. When the families are included, the kids get to the know the players, and I think guys have a better sense of well being. I think this is a good example of it right here.?

Both Harbaughs said their teams practiced well in New Orleans this week.

?The word I would use is effective,? John Harbaugh said. ?We have been very effective. We?ve gotten everything we?ve needed to get done, that?s the No. 1 thing.?

Jim Harbaugh said his team?s Super Bowl week practices reflected the same focus they?ve shown all year.

?I feel good,? Harbaugh said. ?The preparation has been outstanding, very focused. The players care about winning. They care about this team, and that?s complimentary to the players and the way their focus has been. And that?s not something that?s been just this week. That wasn?t just created this week. That?s been all season and the offseason. It speaks very highly of the players.?

Now the practices are over, and the game is just a day away.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/02/robert-griffin-iii-named-offensive-rookie-of-the-year/related/

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Pemex: 25 dead in blast at Mexico City skyscraper

Yuri Cortez / AFP - Getty Images

Rescue workers race to the headquarters of state-owned Mexican oil giant Pemex in Mexico City after a massive explosion Thursday, Jan. 31.

By Kari Huus, Staff Writer, NBC News

A powerful explosion in the Mexico City skyscraper complex housing the headquarters of Pemex, the?state oil monopoly, killed at least 25 people and injured more than 100 others, company and government officials said.

Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said the death toll had risen from 14 to 25, and warned that the number could continue to rise.

Mexican President Enrique Pe?a Nieto arrived at the Pemex administration complex by helicopter Thursday evening to supervise rescue operations, Pemex and the news agency La Prensa reported. Hundreds of Mexican military forces were sent to the complex to "preserve security," officials told newspaper El Universal.

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Doctors in the emergency room at Central Hospital said they were treating more than 70 people for injuries, most of them broken bones.

Emilio Lozoya Austin, director general of Pemex, which is short for Petr?leos Mexicanos, was flying home from a business trip to Asia. He said he extended his condolences "to all the families of Pemex workers who have lost their loved ones."

The explosion took place in the basement garage of the auxiliary building, next to the company's 52-floor tower in a busy commercial and residential area, said Eduardo S?nchez, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

Stringer/Mexico/Reuters

An injured woman is transferred to a stretcher outside the headquarters of state oil giant Pemex in Mexico City on Thursday, Jan. 31.

"Right now, they're conducting a tour of the building and the area adjacent to the blast site to verify if there are any still trapped so they can be rescued immediately," Sanchez said.

A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said preliminary findings suggested the blast was caused by aged boiler exploding in a Pemex building next to the tower, Reuters reported.

The plaster ceiling of the basement collapsed, a spokesman for the local emergency agency said. He described conditions in the tower as "delicate."

S?nchez said as many as 30 people remained trapped in the debris. Search-and-rescue dogs were sent into the skyscraper, parts of which remained on fire at 10 p.m. ET, cloaking the Mexico City skyline in a thick cloud of smoke, Telemundo reported.

The main floor and the mezzanine of the auxiliary building were heavily damaged, along with windows as far as three floors up.?

A man who was on the ground floor when the explosion occurred told Forum TV that the first casualties were taken to a clinic in the adjacent office tower, where several thousand people work.

"It shook the building, and then we were evacuated," he said.

Company touted safety record
News of the blast came toward the end of the business day ? just a few hours after the company had sent two messages on Twitter celebrating how much it had "reduced our accident rate in recent years," announcing that its "safety indicators" exceeded international standards:

"An explosion took place in the B2 building of the administrative center," Pemex tweeted just after 4 p.m. local time (5 p.m. ET). "There are injuries and damage on the ground floor and mezzanine," it said, promising further information as it became available.

Later, the company tweeted: "Regrettably, they have confirmed 14 people dead and 80 injured."

The number of injured later rose to at least 100.

Pemex initially said the building had been evacuated because of a problem with its electricity supply. It then said there had been an explosion, but it didn't give the cause.

Milenio TV via NBC News

The scene at Pemex headquarters in Mexico City on Thursday, Jan. 31, after an explosion. There was no official explanation for the blast.

Television images showed people being evacuated ? some on office chairs and gurneys. Emergency crews loaded people on stretchers into helicopters and airlifted them out of the area.

"The place shook, we lost power and suddenly there was debris everywhere," Cristian Obele told Milenio news network. "Colleagues were helping us out of the building."

Jose Cuellar, a mechanic who works near the cimplex, said he was repairing a car when an explosion rocked his entire workshop.

"We went to see and saw people coming out injured," Cuella, 45, ?told El Universal. "Other people were carrying them."

M. Alex Johnson of NBC News, Telemundo and Reuters contributed to this report.

Follow Kari Huus on Facebook

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/31/16795620-deadly-explosion-rocks-mexico-city-skyscraper-housing-pemex?lite

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Antibiotics cut death rate for malnourished children

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Severely malnourished children are far more likely to recover and survive when given antibiotics along with a therapeutic peanut-based food than children who are simply treated with the therapeutic food alone, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found.

"The findings are remarkable," says Indi Trehan, MD, lead author of the research, published Jan. 31 in The New England Journal of Medicine. "Based on previous research, we didn't think there would be much benefit from antibiotics. We did not at all expect to see a drop in the death rate ? but there was, and it is significant."

The study involved nearly 2,800 children in Malawi, in sub-Saharan Africa, with severe malnutrition. Each child was given an average of 30 days of therapeutic food and a placebo or an oral antibiotic ? either amoxicillin or cefdinir ? for seven days.

Overall, 88.3 percent of the children enrolled in the study recovered from severe malnutrition. Deaths accounted for the largest proportion of children who did not recover, with the mortality rate considerably higher among those who received placebo than among those given antibiotics.

The researchers found a 44 percent drop in mortality with the use of cefdinir and a 36 percent drop with amoxicillin, compared with the use of no antibiotics.

Early last year, Trehan and Mark Manary, MD, senior author of the study, presented their findings to the World Health Organization, which establishes international guidelines for the treatment of malnutrition and other diseases.

"The addition of antibiotics has a profound impact that we hope will change how these children are treated worldwide," says Manary, the university's Helene B. Roberson Professor of Pediatrics. "This trial provided very solid, very objective, top-of-the-line scientific evidence to answer the question of whether antibiotics should be added to severely malnourished children's treatment regimen. The answer is yes. This is a game-changer. This will save more lives."

Adds Trehan: "Because of the large number of children who get this disease, the addition of antibiotics could impact potentially hundreds of thousands of children a year."

More than a decade ago, Manary became a key player in introducing a simple but revolutionary peanut butter-based therapeutic food to battle severe malnutrition, an affliction that contributes to the death of 1 million children each year. This ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) proved to be a lifesaver, with recovery rates at 85 to 90 percent. Consequently, RUTF is now used to treat malnourished children throughout the world. In Malawi, the epicenter of Manary's and Trehan's research and intervention, Manary's "Project Peanut Butter" serves hundreds of thousands of malnourished children.

Still, despite markedly better outcomes for children treated with RUTF, 10 percent to 15 percent of children do not recover and many of them die, the new study notes. Those children were the impetus that led to the study involving adding antibiotics to the treatment regimen.

"You might think that something as simple as getting sick from not having enough to eat would be easily fixed by restoring a normal diet, but it's not," Manary says. "Starvation renders the body very vulnerable and susceptible to many infections. Just providing food so that children have enough nutrients to recover only goes so far."

The study took place at 18 clinics in rural Malawi from December 2009 through January 2011. It involved 2,767 children ages six months to five years with uncomplicated severe acute malnutrition, meaning they were diagnosed as severely malnourished but still had good appetites, were not hospitalized and did not show signs of severe infection.

The children were randomly prescribed amoxicillin, cefdinir or a placebo, in addition to the fortified peanut butter food. Neither the researchers nor the caregivers knew whether a child was receiving an antibiotic or a placebo. The death rate was highest ? 7.4 percent ? among children who received a placebo, compared with 4.8 percent for those treated with amoxicillin and 4.1 percent for cefdinir, the researchers found. They noted no serious side effects from the antibiotics.

Trehan and Manary, both Washington University physicians at St. Louis Children's Hospital, say the findings already have changed how they treat children at the field clinics they operate in Malawi. They stress that adding antibiotics to the treatment of severely malnourished children would involve using easily accessible, inexpensive, low-risk medications that can be administered by a child's own family.

"It doesn't involve complicated medical procedures to go after the biggest killer of children in the world ?something that kills more kids than malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis ? to reduce that death rate among those kids," Manary says. "That's what is so important about this. The practical implications are huge."

An internationally regarded expert in malnutrition, Manary is also director of the Global Harvest Alliance, a joint venture between Children's Hospital, Washington University and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center that is, among other goals, working to eradicate childhood malnutrition.

Trehan, a clinical fellow in the university's Department of Pediatrics, spent the last three years in Malawi conducting malnutrition research and served for more than a year on the faculty of the University of Malawi and as a consultant physician, teaching medical students and pediatric registrars at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital.

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Washington University School of Medicine: http://www.medicine.wustl.edu

Thanks to Washington University School of Medicine for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 48 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126559/Antibiotics_cut_death_rate_for_malnourished_children

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