A cat with special sense

A cat from a nursing and rehab home in the US is able to predict who is going to die, according to today's The Sun Newspaper. Cat's name is Oscar. He has been living in the house for many years. He sniffs and checks the residents and sits beside those who would die within hours.

A GRIM-REAPER cat has amazed medics — by predicting when nursing home patients are about to die.

Oscar the tabby curls up next to elderly residents in the last few hours of their lives.

His accuracy — seen in 25 cases in the past year — has led staff to call family once he chooses someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live.

University professor Dr David Dosa said yesterday: “He doesn’t make too many mistakes. Many families take solace from it. They appreciate the companionship the cat provides for their loved one.” Source:

Narcissistic personality disorder

I am not a psychiatrist. But I'd like to post a psychiatry related disorder this time.

That is Narcissistic personality disorder. The characteristic features are as follow:


1-has a grandiose sense of self-importance
2-is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3-believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by other special people
4-requires excessive admiration
5-strong sense of entitlement
6-takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
7-lacks empathy
8-is often envious or believes others are envious of him or her
9-arrogant affect.

At least five of the above are necessary for a diagnosis

You may check the poeple around you. Who has got this mental problem?

Born to get cancer

You may know that some cancers are genetically determined, some are not. Some are multi-factorial. Some are greatly influenced by environment. Some are by viruses.

In the following news article, the mother of 3 has been born to have Breast cancer. When she checked her family tree, 31 persons had Breast cancer. It is too much, isn't it? She has also got Breast cancer on one side. Now she had both of her breasts removed.

A mother of three underwent a double mastectomy after discovering that 31 of her relatives had suffered from breast cancer in the past 200 years.

Eleven years ago Alex Best, then 29, decided to look at her family tree, which medical experts have described as one of the most extreme in the country. A week later Miss Best had breast cancer diagnosed herself.

After learning of her family history, she had contacted a genetics expert, Professor Gareth Evans, to find out if she was also carrying the gene. By chance the research team had been studying her family tree but had not been allowed to contact surviving family members. A test confirmed that she was carrying the gene and had an 85 per cent chance of developing the disease. Full story

Basically, breast cancer cure rate has been getting better in this century. But early detection and proper treatment are important factors for the survival rate. You may know Aussie pop star Kylie had breast cancer, still living in normal life and she keeps singing and smiling. Promoting breast awareness and mammography (Breast X-ray) for older age groups are recognised approaches to prevent breast cancer deaths. Of course, health authorities have advised women to examine their breasts while having a shower.

Well, you may be interested in the fact that who the risk persons are. According to the research and literature, risk groups include those who never deliver baby, those with first pregnancy at their over 30, those who never give breast feeding to their children, those with early onset of period, fat ladies, those who have female hormone replacement therapy, those who carry Breast cancer gene (like the lady in the news).

So my suggestion would be: enjoy your life normally,get a boy friend if appropriate, avoid extreme actions, don't be proud of being single or virgin (some ancient Myanmar ladies are crazy for it, I think),examine yourself properly on a regular basis.

Any question or concern? just Google, OK?

Dway and his ?cause of death

Yesterday I heard that Myanmar Actor Dway died suddenly. It is too early to say why it happened. I have no chance to obtain his medical history. But as a medic, which came to my mind was Brugada syndrome. ( I am not saying his cause of death is Brugada syndrome)

This is an inherited condition (gene defect) causing fatal irregularity of heat beat and sudden death. Normally heart is beating on its electricity. In this condition, there is a defect in heart’s electrical system. The person with this condition may not notice any heart problem or he may experience synoptic attacks before fatal attack.

Some more facts of this condition are as follow.

Patients are mainly found in South East Asia.
Male is 8 times more common than female.
Unexplained death among close relatives
Heart is otherwise normal. First presentation would be fatal irregularity of heart beat.
So far, there is no medicine to take regularly to prevent sudden death.

Only option is implantable cardiac defibrillator.

An implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) is a small electronic device installed inside the chest wall to prevent sudden death from cardiac arrest due to life threatening abnormal heart rhythms. The ICD is intelligent enough to monitor the heart rhythm. When the heart is beating normally, the device remains inactive. Once the heart develops a life-threatening irregular rhythms, the ICD delivers an electrical "shock(s)" to the heart to terminate the abnormal rhythm and return the heart rhythm to normal.

More about Brugada Syndrome:
Brugada foundation
Brugada on Wikipedia