Internet use may help in dealing with depression: Study

ANI | Jul 13, 2013, 11.43 AM IST
READ MORE Mental health|New Zealand Mental Health Foundation|Internet|depression
Internet use may help in dealing with depression: Study
The New Zealand Mental Health Foundation has praised social media and has dubbed it as the modern equivalent to picking up the phone.(Thinkstock photos/Getty Images)
WELLINGTON: Mental health experts have analysed that the increased popularity of Internet use can be considered as helpful in easing depression.

According to Stuff.co.nz, mental health experts are now putting in more attention to what people suffering from depression say online in order to reach out for help.

The New Zealand Mental Health Foundation has praised social media and has dubbed it as the modern equivalent to picking up the phone.

Chief executive Judi Clements said that people started to recognise in the 1950s that someone would be more likely to phone a friend to tell them they were depressed than visit them, however, now people don't think of phone call, but think of Facebook.

Clements said that people would often find it easier to talk to strangers online, and it could be great therapy to allow them to talk without discomfort, embarrassment, or shame as they feel more liberated to talk to somebody that doesn't know them, doesn't know their history, doesn't know their baggage.

The report said that the foundation was looking to develop ways to set off an alert if someone on social media appeared to be at risk of hurting themselves.

On handling cases seeking help online, Clements said that one should give the person a number to call, send them the link, keep the dialogue open and give them any support or help one can.

Clements stressed that if it seemed like someone was in danger, one should not hesitate to call emergency services.

She believes that talking to somebody was always a great option, and it need not be a trained therapist or counselor and it was proven that exercise helps depression, the report added.
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no exoplanet has the potential to be a home away from home


Astronomers find blue planet where it rains glass

AFP | Jul 11, 2013, 09.48 PM IST
READ MORE rains glass|blue planet|NASA|Hubble Space Telescope|atmosphere
PARIS: Astronomers said on Thursday they had found another blue planet a long, long way from Earth -- no water world, but a scorching, hostile place where it rains glass, sideways.
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists from Nasa and its European counterpart, ESA, have for the first time determined the true colour of an exoplanet, celestial bodies which orbit stars other than our own Sun.
They concluded that HD 189733b, a gas giant 63 light-years from our own planet, was a deep cobalt blue, "reminiscent of Earth's colour as seen from space."
"But that's where the similarities end," said a statement.
This planet orbits very close to its host star and its atmosphere is heated to over 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit).
"It rains glass, sideways, in howling 7,000 kilometre-per-hour (4,350 miles-per-hour) winds," said the statement.
The planet is one of the nearest exoplanets to Earth that can be seen crossing the face of its star, and has been intensively studied by Hubble and other telescopes.
"Measuring its colour is a real first -- we can actually imagine what this planet would look like if we were able to look at it directly," said Frederic Pont of the University of Exeter, who co-wrote the paper in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Pont and a team measured how much light was reflected off the planet's surface, a property known as Albedo, in order to calculate its colour.
The blue comes not from the reflection of a tropical ocean, as in Earth's case, but a hazy, turbulent atmosphere believed to be laced with silicate particles -- the stuff of which glass is made.
These particles scatter blue light, said the team.
HD 189733b is an example of a "hot Jupiter" planet, similar in size to the gas giants in our own Solar System, but closer to their parent star.
"It's difficult to know exactly what causes the colour of a planet's atmosphere, even for planets in the Solar System," said Pont.
"But these new observations add another piece of the puzzle over the nature and atmosphere of HD 189733b. We are slowly painting a more complete picture of this exotic planet."
A total of 723 confirmed extrasolar planets have been found since the first was spotted in 1995, according to a tally kept by the website http://exoplanets.org.
More than 3,000 sightings by the specialist Kepler orbital telescope await confirmation.
So far, no exoplanet spotted has the potential to be a home away from home; a rocky planet that orbits in a balmy zone, enabling water to exist in liquid form and thus nurture life as we know it.
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Undergoing brain surgery, man plays guitar for 6 hours

PTI | Jul 12, 2013, 05.50 AM IST
NEW YORK: Brave or bizarre ? A US man found a a novel way to help doctors perform a complex brain surgery on him - by playing his guitar! Actor-musician Brad Carter strummed his one-of-a-kind handmade guitar for six hours as doctors operated on him.

Although Carter had to put down the guitar when he began experiencing debilitating hand tremors - his strumming skills came to good use when doctors implanted a wire inside his head, 'New York Daily News' reported.

He used his tunes to guide surgeons through his brain as they implanted a pacemaker to ease the hand tremors that had plagued him for the better part of a decade. Carter's fancy fretwork helped his surgeons locate the best spot for a deep brain stimulation procedure that they hope will ease tremors in his hands that have kept him from his life's passion.

"I've been a guitarist since 1988. Music is my first love. I'm an actor for a living, but I always have music to turn to. It's a part of your soul," Carter, an actor and musician in LA, told NBC's "Today" . Carter began experiencing the hand tremors seven years ago. Medications didn't help, and he had to stop performing as a musician . Doctors diagnosed his condition as a benign essential tremor and elected to try a surgical procedure.
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