#photosensitivity

#photosensitivity

Having the gene treatment has been life-changing, it's like someone waved a magic wand and restored her sight in the dark. She's thriving and you wouldn't know she had the condition just by looking at her.

The study shows "how a feeling, such as psychological stress, can translate into a biological event, namely inflamed skin", says co-author Shenbin Liu, a neurobiologist at Fudan University in Shanghai, China.

Blindness is a very scary disability, says Prof Lauren Ayton, deputy director of the Centre for Eye Research Australia at the University of Melbourne. But people don't realise actually about 90% of vision loss can be prevented or treated. And like many other problems, keeping the eyes healthy so often comes down to good diet, keeping active, and regular check-ups.

Psoriasis is an inflammatory skin problem that usually shows up as dry, itchy, scaly patches of skin (plaques and erythematous papules covered with silvery scales). The condition usually develops when the life cycle of the skin cells speeds up. Consequently, skin cells build up rapidly on the skin's surface and form scales and red patches that are usually painful and itchy.

Rare Disease Day, on 28 February, highlights the more than 6,100 conditions identified worldwide, including xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), a rare genetic disorder that affects just over 100 people in France. Those affected are often referred to as Children of the Moon, a name that reflects their extreme sensitivity to ultraviolet light.

If we told them to look at the face, they could usually manage it. But they were mostly looking at the hands. The Prakash children eventually learn to look at faces when spoken to - usually a few months after their surgeries. Their experiences reveal that seeing doesn't come naturally the moment a person is cured of blindness. Newly-sighted people must learn to see.

The weight loss jabs Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy - a type of medicine containing semaglutide - are increasingly being seen as a medical wonder of the age. They bring great benefits to people with diabetes and obesity.

"Granted, "[p]lants have extensive and well established mechanisms of communication, with that of volatiles being the most well studied and understood," he added. "There is also growing recognition that root exudates play a role in plant-plant interactions, though this is only now being deeply investigated. Nothing else, communication through mychorriza, has withstood independent investigation."

When should I use my bright light therapy lamp? You should use it every morning (as soon as possible after waking up) during the months when you experience SAD symptoms. It is not advised to use a bright light therapy lamp in the afternoon or evening, as it can mess with your circadian rhythm/sleep cycle. You should try to use it for 20-30 minutes each day.

Yes, there has been a shocking lack of progress in developing transformative psychiatric medicine (We need new drugs for mental ill-health, 5 February), but this may be because in mental health, drugs are not always the answer (see, for example, Richard P Bentall's Doctoring the Mind). Huge progress has been made in the effectiveness of talking therapies for example, free effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is available to all UK army veterans through the charity PTSD Resolution.

Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease. When the immune system malfunctions, it causes the skin cells to regenerate faster than normal. This results in rapid cell turnover and a red, scaly rash that covers the skin and can affect all parts of the body, even the fingernails.

The front of the eye, and the cornea in particular, has more nerve endings per millimetre square than anywhere else in the body, says Dr Dilani Siriwardena, a consultant NHS ophthalmologist at Moorfields eye hospital in London and vice-president of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists. So it can be very sensitive. The tiniest scratch or piece of grit in your eye can feel like a brick.