http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Londonderry


I came across this woman Annie Londonderry in an article about a couple of days back and then went to dear old Wikipedia to learn more about her. What a fascinating woman! No fancy degree in her bag or no scientific achievement to boast about, this mother of three did something which at that point in time was quite a challenging act to do. In her own words, she was a 'new woman', who believed that she could do anything that a man could. The times were tumultuous; the world was yet to witness the senseless wars and it was certainly not an easy place for women who dared to move away from the prevalent societal norms and 'do something different'. Yet, she did and, I would like to think, inspired many young women and girls to travel on new roads. But, as you see, she was soon forgotten and I wonder why no one remembered her...

An Open Letter to Feminist Trolls

This is such a lovely, funny and interesting video. However, the sad reality is, at least in the US, that women also call other women using such words. So, what will be the reply to those women who acts against other women and tries to bring them down by using such words?

Ruth Bishop Who Discovered the RotoVirus

Professor Ruth Bishop has become the first woman to be awarded with the prestigious Florey Medal. It is an Australian award given to ground-breaking work done in the fields of biomedical research. Professor Bishop was the first person to recognize the rotovirus  and that it was the culprit for the acute diarrhoea and thus death among children.

More details can be found HERE.

Chronic Pain

Both my parents suffered from chronic pain. However, it always seemed that my mother was more in pain compared to my father. At that time, we used to brush it off, saying that mother could not handle pain as well as father. But perhaps we were wrong. Recent research suggests that <i>chronic pain in women is much more complex and harder to treat than those in men</i>.

The more detailed reports can be found <a href="http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20132510-24940.html">here </a> or you can read it below.

New research from the University of Adelaide has found that chronic pain in women is more complex and harder to treat than chronic pain in men.

The work, to be presented tomorrow at the Faculty of Pain Medicine spring meeting in Byron Bay, organised by the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA), suggest that men and women should be prescribed medications and treated for pain differently according to their gender.

Study leader Dr Mark Hutchinson from the University's School of Medical Sciences says laboratory studies have shown for the first time that the brain’s immune cells, known as glial cells, contribute to differences in pain between the sexes.

"There are fundamental differences in the experience of pain between females and males," says Dr Hutchinson, whose research has been investigating why acute pain turns to chronic pain (experienced for at least three months consecutively) in some people and why chronic pain is more prevalent in women than in men.

"Our research is discovering brain mechanisms at work that are proving chronic pain in women is more complex and difficult to treat than in men, despite the similarity of the initial cause of pain.

"Female and male structures in the brain are different but that doesn’t explain women’s higher rate of pain.  There are multiple different pain systems in females and males," he says.

"Our studies certainly show that women’s experience of pain is more severe and the pain is harder to treat."

Dr Hutchinson says it's already known that some drugs for inflammatory bowel disease only work on women and not on men, indicating the need for more tailored treatments.

"Better understanding female chronic pain is extremely important to treatment.  We're hoping our research will lead to the development of sex-targeted drugs that will provide more effective pain relief," he says.

This research has been funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC).