The Coombe Women's Hospital free lecture series, Positively Healthy, is held on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. in the hospital conference centre. Lectures this month are: What Causes a Woman to Miscarry (9th), The Menopause and HRT (16th), Endometriosis - the Current Situation (23rd), and First Aid for Infants (30th).
SOME 1,500 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the Republic every year, and half of these will die from the disease. Europa Donna Ireland (an advocacy group which aims to raise awareness of breast cancer) is hosting a lecture by a US breast cancer surgeon, Dr Susan Love. In the Edmund Burke Theatre, Trinity College, at noon on November 13th, cost £5. For further details, tel/fax 01-4960198. MANY children who are struggling to read could be helped by wearing coloured contact lenses. The finding supports a theory which links dyslexia and other reading problems with distorted visual perception. The theory is that dyslexia is caused by defective nerve cells that form a pathway from the retina to the brain, and that these cells respond to yellow-orange light, which coloured lenses can filter. (New Scientist)
RECENT advancements in technology mean more communication aids are now available to people with disabilities. The School of Clinical Speech and Language Studies at Trinity College plans to set up support groups for adults who use augmentative and alternative communication and is establishing a database to identify the need for this service around the country. Contact Dr Martine Smith (Tel: 01-6081496. Fax: 01-6712152. Email: mmsmith@tcd.ie)
RESEARCHERS have found a protein essential to the development of Alzheimer's disease. They believe the protein, BACE, stimulates other brain proteins to adopt a form which makes them damaging to the brain and causes Alzheimer's. (BBC)
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