Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/628605
20 UCW JANUARY 20-26, 2016 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Hollywood is officially running out of exciting weird diseases being discovered by heroic doctors against the odds to make movies about. As someone with almost no interest in American sports (buzkashi always sounded fascinating) I found it very hard to care about Concussion (123 minutes) and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Frankly, about halfway through I was ready for a nap. For one, I was confused by the fact that the causal relationship between football and brain damage was ever questioned. I mean, I saw Jerry Maguire and accidentally caught a few minutes of the Superbowl while waiting for commercials, and those guys are rough on each other. For that matter, why would pathology findings indicating a specific kind of brain damage be received with such hostility and paranoia? Was it really such a surprise that repeatedly slamming human heads together might cause a problem? At one point in the film, Dr. Bennet Omalu (Will Smith), Dr. Julian Bailes (Alec Baldwin) and some other random guy (Arliss Howard) are chatting about the effects of this "revelation," and one says something like, "It will end the game of football!" When I think of the casual disregard for long-term health consequences in this country, added to the fame and fortune that await the lucky few who get to hit BINGO! by playing for the NFL, I see that as a gross exaggeration. In fact, statistically speaking, I doubt that many people took note, or even care all that much about this relatively obscure diagnosis. Speaking of three guys sitting around the table, it was so nice of Hollywood to wish us all a Merry Christmas with yet another film about men doing manly stuff while women act supportive. Yes, yes, it is based on a true story and gender switching characters to follow a feminist agenda is so wrong! Now let me tell you why that is a stupid defense of focusing on the men in the story. The guys being diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy had wives who were on the front lines, watching their behavior become erratic and their mental health deteriorate. Isn't that part of the story too? We get one brief scene of domestic violence between a player and his wife, and several scenes of Dr. Omalu's wife, Prema Mutiso (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), "feeling" that she is being stalked. Which, by the way, is the implied cause of her losing their first child during late pregnancy, something that irritates me to no end. Other than that, she is pretty much just there to encourage Omalu to pursue his dream of slicing up brains. Were there no wives advocating that their husbands seek treatment? No women trying to cope with the deterioration of a loved one? Why couldn't we replace a few scenes of masculine posturing with a more personal story to make me actually care what was happening to the people involved? And there was plenty of masculine posturing to go around. Confrontations between Omalu and his co-worker seemed overdramatized. During a press conference in which Omalu believes he will get to convince the NFL and media that chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a "thing" he is replaced at the last minutes by the "insider" doctor. Throughout the film, former NFL player Dave Duerson (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) comes off as dismissive, aggressive, and downright insulting to Omalu — a characterization that is widely disputed by those familiar with the events portrayed in the story. Overall, this is not my kind of movie, so I am not surprised that my review is less than glowing. Fans of watching guys do lab stuff and then talking to other guys about the lab stuff they just did will probably really enjoy it. Now playing at Patrio 14 + IMAX. Shocker: Football Injures the Brain Concussion (Rated PG-13) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. Dear EarthTalk: What is the latest thinking on the environmental causes (if any) of autism? I hear so much conflicting information I don't know what to believe. -- Bill Stribling, Austin, TX In the 1980s, about one in 2,000 American kids was diagnosed with autism. Today the number is around one in 68, according to estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network. This disconcerting increase has led to intensified examination into what environmental factors may play a role in the disorder's development. A wide range of exposures have been scientifically linked to autism, including air pollutants, phthalates and other endocrine disruptors, pesticides such as Chlorpyrifos, and many more. Vaccines were considered a leading culprit, but more recent research has proven this connection wrong — although the subject still engenders much debate. A 2014 study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found a strong link between autism and in utero exposure to air pollution: the risk of autism was doubled among children of women exposed to high levels of particulate air pollution during pregnancy. Another 2014 study out of the University of California, Davis determined that pregnant women living in close proximity to fields and farms where chemical pesticides are applied experience a 66 percent increased risk of having a child with autism or a developmental delay. The advocacy group Autism Speaks, which contributed to the funding of the Harvard study, believes that despite all the emerging data linking toxic exposures to autism, no environmental influence appears to cause or prevent autism by itself — rather they appear to influence risk in those genetically predisposed to the disorder. "It's important to remember that not all mothers exposed to air pollution during pregnancy will have a child with autism and not all children with autism were necessarily exposed to air pollution in utero," said epidemiologist Michael Rosanoff, associate director for public health at Autism Speaks. "We know autism is a complex disorder and underlying genetic and biological factors interact to influence susceptibility. The next step is to identify the biological mechanisms that connect air pollution to autism and identify ways to treat if not prevent the harm to brain development." While many studies linking environmental toxins and autism have been inconclusive, one developing research approach appears to hold great promise. Remarkably, fallen baby teeth can be used to track a child's prenatal and infant exposure to chemicals — thus allowing scientists to determine what environmental causes may have contributed to the disorder's development. "As a result, we can use teeth like an archeological record," says Dr. Raymond Palmer of the University of Texas Health Science Center. "The enamel of different types of teeth begins to form at different points during prenatal development. In infancy, the enamel continues to absorb chemicals circulating through the baby's body." Palmer says the greatest insights from dental analysis may come from looking at chemical exposures along with gene abnormalities, which may affect one's vulnerability to potentially toxic chemicals. "It's not necessarily genes or environment," he adds. "It's likely to be both." Alysson Muotri at the University of California San Diego Department of Pediatrics is using teeth analysis to identify gene abnormalities in children with autism, even in cases with no previous known genetic cause. Parents of an 8-year-old autistic boy mailed Muotri's team one of the boy's baby teeth, and the researchers were able to detect a mutation in a gene known as TRPC6. The researchers treated the autistic boy with hyperforin, the active ingredient in St. John's Wort. Dental analysis could potentially lead to personalized treatment for autism, whether the cause be identified as genetic, environmental or both. CONTACTS: CDC Autism Spectrum Disorder Page, www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/ autism/; Autism Speaks, www.autismspeaks.org; Muotri Lab at UCSD, www. pediatrics.ucsd.edu/research/muotri-lab; UT Health Science Center, www.uthscsa.edu. Is there a Link between Autism and the Environment? From the Editors of E - The Environmental Magazine Alysson Muotri at the University of California San Diego Department of Pediatrics is using teeth analysis to iden- tify gene abnormalities in children with autism, even in cases with no previous known genetic cause. Credit: Kris Krüg for PopTech (FlickrCC)