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115 Year Old Brain Is Still Energetic

115 Year Old Brain Is Still Energetic

A Dutch woman who was the oldest person in the world when she died at age 115 in 2005 appeared sharp right up to the end, joking that pickled herring was the secret to her longevity. Scientists say that Henrikje van Andel-Schipper's mind was probably as good as it seemed: a post-mortem analysis of her brain revealed few signs of Alzheimer's or other diseases commonly associated with a decline in mental ability in old age.

That came as something of a surprise, said Gert Holstege, a professor at Groningen University, whose findings will be published in the August edition of Neurobiology of Aging. "Everybody was thinking that when you have a brain over 100 years, you have a lot of problems," he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Friday. He cited a common hardening of arteries and the build up of proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease as examples. "This is the first (extremely old) brain that did not have these problems."

Van Andel was the oldest living person in the world at the time of her death in 2005 in the Dutch city of Hoogeveen, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. In 1972, the then 82-year-old Van Andel called the University of Groningen in order to donate her body to science. She called again at age 111 because she worried she might no longer be of interest. At that time Holstege began to interview her, testing her cognitive abilities at ages 112 and 113.

Though she had problems with her eyesight, she was alert and performing better than the average 60- to 75-year-old. Dr. Murali Doraiswamy of the Center for Aging at Duke University, not associated with the study, said it is unusual and valuable. In the first place there are few "super-centenarians" - people 110 and older - alive at any one time, a slim proportion of the world's population and a scant number even compared to those who reach 100 years. As a result, he said, there are few chances to study brains as old as hers. "It's very rare to be able to do not only a post-mortem, but also be able to have tested her two, three years before she died," said Doraiswamy.

"For a scientist, getting the opportunity to study someone like that is like winning the lottery." Doraiswamy, an Alzheimer's expert, said that the proportion of brains with some buildup of proteins associated with the disease increases with age. As a result, experts theorize anybody who lives long enough will get them eventually. When Van Andel died, the director of the elderly home where she was living declined to give a cause of death, pointing to her extremely advanced years. Holstege said she died of cancer. "

She died from stomach cancer, and you and I can also die from stomach cancer," he said, adding that her case demonstrates that very old people die of diseases, not simply old age. "It is very important to treat the elderly as normal people, as if they are 50 or 60." He noted that Van Andel was operated on at age 100 for breast cancer and survived 15 more years. When she was born in 1890, she weighed only 3.5 pounds, and her mother expected her to die in infancy. Van Andel's husband died in 1959. She had no children.

Longevity was in her genes, as all her siblings lived past 70, and her mother died at the age of 100. Asked what advice she would give to people who want to live a long time, she once quipped: "Keep breathing."

Bra Saved 24 Year Old Woman

Bra Saved 24 Year Old Woman

A 24-year-old American hiker given up for dead by mountain rescuers was saved when she threw her bra into a cable car.

Jessica Brown had fallen off a ledge in the Austrian Alps and was stranded injured for 70 hours in freezing temperatures.

Mountain rescue teams had been looking for her in the wrong place and gave up the search because they believed she'd fallen to her death.

But Jessica spotted a cable car on its way up the mountain in Salzburg and quickly flung her bra into a container carrying food as it passed her.

Workers higher up the peak realised the undies must have been thrown in as a message and sent out a search party.

"It certainly beats sending up a flare," said one rescue worker. "She hadn't been wearing much when she started on her walk and she ended up with even less on," they added.

The woman is now recovering in hospital.

Sex Drunker Arrested on Dubai Beach

Sex Drunker Arrested on Dubai Beach

Dubai beach

A British lady was arrested in Dubai and faces up to six years in jail for having drunken sex on the beach and calling a police officer a "f***ing Muslim", press reports said Wednesday. Michelle Palmer, 30, was having sex with a British tourist, identified only as Vince, on Dubai's trendy Jumeirah beach when a police officer spotted the pair, British tabloid The Sun revealed. The police officer initially let the pair off with a warning, but returned minutes later to find they had ignored him. When he tried to stop them, Palmer allegedly hit him with her shoe, while shouting you "f***ing Muslim ****", the paper said.

Palmer, who works for ITP Publishing, was charged with having sex outside of marriage, indecent behavior in public, being drunk in public and assaulting an officer. She faces three months to six years in jail and will most likely be deported.Palmer and Vince, who faces the same fate, quickly got married while out on bail in a desperate attempt to get a reduced sentence, the UAE's Gulf News said.

Palmer was said to be mortified and full of remorse and was begging the authorities to show mercy as she feared they may try to make an example out of her, according to The Sun.

“We are in so much trouble and my family and everybody are affected. Until someone is in this situation they could never know what it’s like. It’s bad – it’s so, so bad," the paper quoted Palmer as saying. The UAE is a Muslim country. Although it is hailed as a harmonious mix of people from across the globe, some Emiratis -- who make up 19% of the population -- say their culture and traditions are not respected by foreigners.

In an effort to raise awareness about local customs and values, the government has published "Awareness Booklets" and placed them in all UAE airports, Gulf News said.

Rat Woman

Rat Woman

Outside a shrine in the dusty Pakistani city of Gujrat, a "rat woman" with a tiny head sits on a filthy mattress and takes money from worshippers.

Nadia, 25, is one of hundreds of young microcephalics -- people born with small skulls and protruding noses and ears because of a genetic mutation -- who can be found on the streets of Gujrat, in central Punjab province.Officials say many of them have been sold off by their families to begging mafias, who exploit a tradition that the "rat children" are sacred offerings to Shah Daula, the shrine's 17th century Sufi saint."

These are God's children. We are proud to look after her," said Ijaz Hussain, the shrine's government-employed custodian.According to local legend, infertile women who pray at Shah Daula's shrine will be granted children, but at a terrible price.

The first child will be born microcephalic and must be given to the shrine, or else any further children will have the same deformity.Hussain said Nadia was just a young child when she was dumped at the shrine 20 years ago."Since that day we have taken care of her, she is like family to us. People come here for prayers and seek fulfillment of their desires but they are respectful towards her," added Hussain, 56.

Pakistan's government says it has tried to crack down on exploitation of the "chuhas" (Urdu for rats) and says it plans to set up a shelter in Gujrat to rehabilitate them.The shrine stopped officially accepting microcephalics in the 1960s when the government took over the site.But not only does it still keep Nadia at its gate, the town's beggar masters also keep the superstition alive."Get lost! I don't want to talk to you," shouted a bearded beggar master in Gujrat's main bus station, grabbing a microcephalic woman by the hand and leading her through the crowds when asked to comment on his actions.

Bus passengers gave the woman money, as many believe it is bad luck not to.The high incidence of microcephalics in Gujrat, an industrial city of around one million people, has long been a bone of contention.

The popular belief among many Pakistanis -- that cruel beggar gangs clamp the children's heads in infancy -- is strongly denied by government and advocacy groups, who say there is no evidence to support this.Recent medical studies say the most likely cause is that the normally rare recessive genes behind many microcephaly cases crop up with greater frequency because of the common custom of marrying cousins in Pakistan.

But finding the cause is easier than stamping out the exploitation of "rat children" in the name of religion, says Pir Nasiruddaula, a descendant of the saint who has written several books on the shrine."The myth of the chuhas has been exploited by beggar mafias and religious groups," said Nasiruddaula, a former science professor in his 70s."They roam the villages and if the real chuha is born they give them some money and they take them," he said."But what kind of saint would really curse issueless women with the 'blessing' of deformed children?"

Rakhshan Sohail, of the Punjab provincial government's Child Protection and Welfare Bureau, said his department planned to establish a center in Gujrat to stamp out exploitation of microcephalics.Sohail said his department had busted more than 30 gangs across the province involved in exploiting street children.