We tell boys not to cry, then wonder about male suicide | Ally Fogg

I’m not sure how old I was when I was first instructed that boys don’t cry – at a guess, maybe six or seven. Once it began, it came at me from all angles: family, teachers, friends, the myriad voices of media and culture. Like pretty much all boys, I learned that tears and sobs were markers of failure. Whether facing up to playground beatings, bullies or teachers, the rules of the game were simple: if you cry, you lose. As little boys begin to construct the identities of grown men, the toughest lesson to learn is toughness itself. Never show weakness, never show fragility and above all, never let them see your tears.

With such beliefs (literally) beaten into us from an early age, it is easy to be shocked by the candour of the former footballer Dean Windass. I

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Modern Drug Marketing: An Unsustainable Model

Cymbalta. Abilify. Lunesta, Chantix and that drug for “when the time might be right.” As a consumer and especially as a psychologist, it unsettles me when I see television ads exhorting potential clients to ask a doctor about a specific drug. Even if I do not believe general practitioners or specialists know best, I do not believe consumers should ask for specific drugs. To me, without any science behind my opinion, that seems like patients are being turned into marketing agents for pharmaceutical companies.

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Common virus may trigger MS nerve damage

FOR the first time we have an answer to what Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) may be doing in the brains of people with multiple sclerosis. RNA from the virus could be triggering the inflammation of nerve tissue characteristic of the disease.

EBV is present in almost all people with MS, and having glandular fever, caused by the virus, is known to increase the risk of developing MS.

To investigate further, Ute-Christiane Meier at Queen Mary University of London and her colleagues performed a post-mortem analysis of the brains of people with and without MS. They detected EBV in damaged areas of the MS brains.

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Pastor gets 15 years in Medicare fraud scheme

updated 10:37 PM EST, Mon January 9, 2012 STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) — A 61-year-old man was sentenced Monday to 15 years in federal prison for helping engineer a $14.2 million Medicare fraud, including hiring parishioners at the church he co-lead to help with the scheme, the federal government said.

Christopher Iruke was convicted in August — along with his wife, Connie Ikpoh, and one of their employees, Aura Marroquin — of conspiracy and health care fraud.

Besides the prison time, U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter on Monday ordered Iruke to pay back $6.7 million with his conspirators and serve three years of “supervised release” once he gets out of prison, the U.S.

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