You'd be forgiven for thinking your Tuesday good news story sounds like a made-for-TV movie. Three Cleveland women, missing for over a decade, were rescued from a house where they'd been held captive since their teens. Three brothers, in their fifties, have been arrested.
Families and friends of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight are reeling from the news that the girls are still alive and appear to be in good health, though there's no telling the extent of psychological trauma they've withstood.
An article in CBC tells how neighbour Charles Ramsey came to the rescue after he heard Berry screaming through a narrow door opening. He broke down the door and called 911 after helping Berry and a six-year-old child escape.
"I'm Amanda Berry. I've been on the news for the last 10 years," she said in the frantic call to emergency services. She explained that she'd been held captive, and begged for police to come before her abductors returned.
The home where the teens were kept was just kilometers from the spot where they'd gone missing in 2002.
"I'm going to hold her, and I'm going to squeeze her and I probably won't let her go," said Berry's cousin Tasheena Mitchell. Sadly her mother is said to have "died of a broken heart" in 2006, following years of searching.
Though a happy ending, the story is terribly harrowing. I can't imagine what these women have been through. My mind is swimming with imagery from the books like Room and Silence of the Lambs.
But no one was more surprised than one of the alleged abductor's own sons. According to an article in the Star, as a student Ariel (Anthony) Castro wrote a story about the impact Gina DeJesus' disappearance had on his community in the Plain Press.
He described the proliferation of pictures of Gina "on telephone poles, in windows, or in cars along the busy streets,” and how her abduction had “traumatized a lot of people.”
Our thoughts are with these young women as they begin to reclaim their lives.
Commonly known as the sunshine vitamin, D is crucial for all babies, yet even more so for preemies. But how much is enough? A new study claims to have the answer.
According to an article in Science Daily, preterm infants likely need 800 international units (IU) of vitamin D every day in order to avoid contracting rickets, a weakening of the bones.
All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi conducted the largest study on the subject, which involved 96 babies born between 28 and 34 weeks. The babies were blindly divided into two groups, one receiving 800 IU, the other 400 IU of oral vitamin D3.
While vitamin D insufficiency (VDI) was prevalent in both groups prior to supplementing, it was significantly lower in the 800 IU group at 40 weeks and three months old.
"The study results show conclusively that in preterm infants with high rates of vitamin D insufficiency at baseline, supplementation with 800 IU of vitamin D3 per day compared to 400 IU per day reduces vitamin D insufficiency at term equivalent age and at three months," said lead author Dr. Chandra Kumar Natarajan. "There also is a trend toward a decrease in the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency even in the 400 IU group at three months. Therefore, 400 IU per day may be sufficient after three months."
Another study, by Prof. Hope Weiler, from the School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition at McGill University and by Dr. Celia Rodd of McGill's Department of Pediatrics, performed a similar study on 132 babies delivered to term. There appears to be no consensus about vitamin D, with countries like France and Finland routinely dosing infants with 1,000 IU.
"There's sometimes a feeling that more is better," says Prof. Weiler. "But until now, no one had compared the popularly recommended daily doses of vitamin D to see what will result in optimal health for infants, so we were very glad to be able to do this."
Both studies found that 400 IU is a sufficient amount of vitamin D for babies delivered to term.
Dr. Natarajan cautioned against administering higher levels of the supplement after the three-month mark, since excess vitamin D taken for at least one month can cause “decreased muscle tone, decreased appetite, irritability and constipation, among other problems.”
What started as an ironic school project has turned a 15-year-old British schoolgirl into a fashion celebrity, according to an article in the Daily Mail. When Demi Barnes shared a picture of the wedding dress she made out of genuine divorce papers on Facebook, she had no idea the photo would rack up more than 40,000 'likes.'
Not only has Barnes received numerous requests to design wedding dresses in the week following her post, she has also been contacted by major designers requesting copies.
Modelled after the late Princess Diana’s Emanuelle wedding gown, Barnes’ version consists of 1,500 ruffled divorce proceedings stapled to a wire bodice. The rationale behind the design is pretty mature coming from a student at Lingfield Notre Dame School in Surrey, England.
In a nutshell: too many people rush into marriage only to wind up divorced. Initially Barnes planned to design the dress out of magazine pages, before deciding on the more provocative concept.
“I’m passionate about fashion and design and am hoping someone will approach me with a work experience placement so I can turn my passion into a career.”
I have a feeling that shouldn’t be a problem…
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