Arizona Polygraph Exam Blog

In the modern world, things move at such a fast pace, one can hardly catch their breath. Love and relationships are no different. Unfortunately however, in this day and age, there seems to be more break ups and conflicts than ever before.  Did you that the average length of time a marriage lasts is only 5-10 years?

Why can’t people stay together? There are a variety of reasons, but among the top three reasons would be infidelity. An unfaithful spouse having an affair will cause havoc on a relationship. Not to mention break the bonds of trust and love that the other partner has given.

Even if you are not married, the “cheater” phenomenon has probably not passed you by either. Furthermore, when it comes to a cheating partner or cheating spouse, gender makes no major difference at all either. About 55% of men and 45% of women have participated in extracurricular activities with someone other than their mate at some time or another.

If you find yourself with the sinking feeling that something just isn’t right, but you just don’t know what to do, here are two very important tips for you.

Stay calm and do not confront your partner with your suspicions.
Use common sense and remove your “love blinders” so you can observe the giveaways & signs of your cheating spouse like body language, changes in behavior, physical appearances, schedules,  spending patterns, etc.

These are just a few of many tactics and tips that married and unmarried people alike can utilize. You don’t have to spend a fortune on private investigators either. With the right information in your corner, you can:

Discover the fundamental mistake EVERY cheater makes.
Learn how to recognize rock solid clues.
Learn expert intelligence email, online & cell phone sabotage tactics.
Learn how to master covert surveillance.
Become a human polygraph.
Uncover the deceitful tricks your cheating spouse will use to hide their secret.
Understand gender specific cheating tactics.

Realize that you don’t have to live in doubt and you don’t have to keep lying to yourself either. Discover the truth and let it set you free.

Visit www.howtocatchyourcheatingspouse.info to learn how to catch your spouse.

Lawrence v. Commonwealth, 689 S.E.2d 748 689 S.E.2d 748

In 1990, Steven L. Lawrence (Lawrence) was convicted of, among other things, rape and sodomy and sentenced to a total of forty-five years imprisonment, with five years suspended.  Prior to his scheduled release from incarceration, the Commonwealth of Virginia filed a petition pursuant to the Sexually Violent Predator Act (SVPA), Code §§ 37.2-900 et seq., requesting Lawrence’s civil commitment as a sexually violent predator.  At the outset of Lawrence’s civil commitment trial, the Commonwealth sought to introduce into evidence a sexually violent predator forensic psychological evaluation prepared by Dr. Ilona Gravers, a licensed clinical psychologist.  Lawrence objected to the introduction of the document, arguing that the evaluation report was hearsay because it included information from police reports concerning various unadjudicated allegations of sexual misconduct and references to a previous polygraph test.

Pursuant to Code § 8.01-401.1, an expert witness may rely upon “facts, circumstances or data made known to …… such witness” in formulating an opinion; those “facts, circumstances or data . . . , if of a type normally relied upon by others in the particular field of expertise in forming opinions and drawing inferences, need not be admissible in evidence.”  Neither of these statutes, however, allows for the introduction of otherwise inadmissible hearsay evidence during the direct examination of an expert witness merely because the expert relied on the hearsay information in formulating an opinion.  The Court held that an expert may not “express an opinion that is speculative and unreliable as a matter of law.”  “Expert testimony founded upon assumptions that have no basis in fact is not merely subject to refutation by cross-examination or by counter-experts; it is inadmissible.”

The Court observed that in the instant case, evidence indicates that Dr. Gravers, in forming her expert opinions, considered as true unsubstantiated allegations contained in police reports she read.  Dr. Gravers stated that the unadjudicated allegations of sexual misconduct contained in the police reports led her to the conclusion that Lawrence had a pattern of sexual aggression and intimacy deficits.  Dr. Gravers also stated that while her diagnosis of paraphilia, not otherwise specified, was primarily based on Lawrence’s two convictions, her conclusion that Lawrence had an antisocial personality disorder, not otherwise specified, depended on the allegations in the police reports and Lawrence’s pattern of antisocial behavior, as shown through those allegations.  The Court held that Dr. Gravers’ expert testimony did not have an adequate factual foundation to the extent it was dependent upon assuming the truth of the hearsay allegations concerning Lawrence’s past sexual misconduct.  The Court ruled that Dr. Gravers’ opinions, which were dependent upon the truth of hearsay allegations unsupported by evidence properly presented at trial, were speculative and unreliable as a matter of law and should not have been admitted into evidence.

If you’re wondering how to become a DEA agent, you must first learn how to get into the law enforcement field or legal system because most Drug Enforcement Administration agents have some experience in these areas before they join the DEA force. In order to work in the field of enforcing controlled substance laws and bringing violators to justice, you must have some experience with law enforcement or the legal system, and you have to stand out from the crowd. The DEA doesn’t accept just anybody, but with the right degrees and qualifications you might just have what it takes.

There are certain degrees needed to be prepared to enter the drug enforcement profession. Most DEA agents received a criminal justice degree or completed the policy academy training in order to become a police officer. You will also have more career options if you get additional language training in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Spanish or other foreign tongues. The most important traits that anyone should have if they are wondering how to become a DEA agent are good physical shape, good mental health and excellent hearing, as there will be a physical and psychological examination. You must be between the ages of 21 to 37 to enter the agency.

Also, before you can get a job with the DEA, you must undergo a drug test, polygraph test and background examination. All the required tests could take up to one year to complete. If you pass them, you will be sent to the DEA training academy in Quantico, Virginia for 16 weeks of grueling training. Once you complete all these challenging requirements, though, there will be many benefits to the job. The salary is the biggest perk, as DEA agents entering the service as a GS7 or GS9 will earn between $49,746 and $55,483, and there is a possibility to earn as much as $92, 592 after four years of experience and progression to GS13.

It’s always a good idea to talk with experienced DEA agents who can provide additional valuable career information about how to become a DEA agent. It is a challenging career, but there are also many perks and personal rewards.

Natural body building is the procedure through which body building is done without the use of steroids. There are various natural body building organizations which do not promote the use of artificial body muscle enhancers. These enhances are mainly drugs like anabolic steroids which stimulate the growth of hormones and hence provide the body builder with a more comprehensive look. These organizations do not permit participants who use artificial muscle enhancers to participate in the competitions.

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There are various contestants of body building competitions who are subjected to medical examinations to rule out the possibility of the usage of banned supplements by them. These organizations have strict laws about use of drugs and if any of the illegal substances are found in the body of the competitor, during the drug testing, then he or she will be banned from participating in the future contests of the organization.

There are various ways through which the drug testing of contestants are done which include examining the urine samples of the contestants or a less expensive polygraph test or a lie detecting test instead. There are no uniform laws which decide what constitutes an illegal substance to prevent the contestant from participating in a competition. The boundary of what is legal and what is illegal is usually decided by the organization itself and there are various banned drugs under their norms.

It is true that there are also some regular people who take these steroids or drugs to enhance the growth of muscles. But these forms of muscle development and growth are not natural and can have an adverse effect on your health and body. There are many ways through which natural body building is done without the benefit of artificial substances being put into the body. Also there are some natural supplements which are available in the market that help the body to develop muscles but without any side effects.

However the synthetic and chemical products and their consumption should be avoided because these synthetic products will grow your body very quickly and create lots of ailments for the body. The shift to natural body building is the healthier and safer option because here the muscles of the body are developed by maximizing your nutritional intake. This is combined with various kinds of muscle training exercises, which are further enhanced by high protein diets and healthier food habits.

Those who select the natural body building muscle regime benefit in the long run in various ways. One of the greatest rewards for them is that the muscles of the body are built through the natural process. Hence there is no fear of side effects and other kinds of health problems. These muscles are also developed for a longer time and remain firmer as compared to the muscles which are grown through the use of supplements.

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Overview

Typically the infant is found dead after having been put to bed, and exhibits no signs of having suffered.

SIDS is a diagnosis of exclusion. It should only be applied to an infant whose death is sudden and unexpected and remains unexplained after the performance of an adequate postmortem investigation including

an autopsy;

investigation of the scene and circumstances of the death;

exploration of the medical history of the infant and family.

SIDS was responsible for 0.543 deaths per 1,000 live births in the U.S. in 2005. It is responsible for far fewer deaths than congenital disorders and disorders related to short gestation, though it is the leading cause of death in healthy infants after one month of age.

SIDS deaths in the U.S. decreased from 4,895 in 1992 to 2,247 in 2004. But, during a similar time period, 1989 to 2004, SIDS being listed as the cause of death for sudden infant death (SID) decreased from 80% to 55%. According to Dr. John Kattwinkel, chairman of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Special Task Force on SIDS “A lot of us are concerned that the rate (of SIDS) isn’t decreasing significantly, but that a lot of it is just code shifting.

Nomenclature

Australia and New Zealand are shifting to the term Sudden Unexplained Death in Infancy (SUDI) for professional, scientific and coronial clarity.

The term SUDI is now often used instead of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) because some coroners prefer to use the term ndetermined for a death previously considered to be SIDS. This change is causing diagnostic shift in the mortality data.

SIDS Back To Sleep campaign: history and theory

In 1985 Davies reported that in Hong Kong, where Chinese custom called for supine infant sleep position (face up), SIDS was a rare problem. In 1987 the Netherlands started a campaign advising parents to place their newborn infants to sleep on their backs (supine position) instead of their stomachs (prone position). This was followed by infant supine sleep position campaigns in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia in 1991, the U.S. and Sweden in 1992, and Canada in 1993.

This advice was based on the epidemiology of SIDS and physiological evidence which shows that infants who sleep on their back have lower arousal thresholds and less slow-wave sleep (SWS) compared to infants who sleep on their stomachs. In human infants sleep develops rapidly during early development. This development includes an increase in non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM sleep) which is also called quiet sleep (QS) during the first 12 months of life in association with a decrease in rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep) which is also known as active sleep (AS). In addition, slow wave sleep (SWS) which consists of stage 3 and stage 4 NREM sleep appears at 2 months of age and it is theorized that some infants have a brain-stem defect which increases their risk of being unable to arouse from SWS (also called deep sleep) and therefore have an increased risk of SIDS due to their decreased ability to arouse from SWS.

Studies have shown that preterm infants, full-term infants, and older infants have greater time periods of quiet sleep and also decreased time awake when they are positioned to sleep on their stomachs. In both human infants and rats, arousal thresholds have been shown to be at higher levels in the electroencephalography (EEG) during slow-wave sleep.

In 1992, a SIDS risk reduction strategy based upon lowering arousal thresholds during SWS was implemented by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) which began recommending that healthy infants be positioned to sleep on their back (supine position) or side (lateral position), instead of their stomach (prone position), when being placed down for sleep. In 1994, a number of organizations in the United States combined to further communicate these non-prone sleep position recommendations and this became formally known as the ack To Sleep campaign. In 1996, the AAP further refined its sleep position recommendation by stating that infants should only be placed to sleep in the supine position and not in the prone or lateral positions.

In 1992, the first National Infant Sleep Position (NISP) Household Survey was conducted to determine the usual position in which U.S. mothers placed their babies to sleep: lateral (side), prone (stomach), supine (back), other, or no usual position. According to the 1992 NISP survey, 13.0% of U.S. infants were positioned in the supine position for sleep. According to the 2006 NISP survey 75.7% of infants were positioned in the supine position to sleep.

Since 1998 there have been several studies published which report that infants placed to sleep in the supine position lag in motor skills, social skills, and cognitive ability development when compared to infants who sleep in the prone position. In a 1998 article entitled ffects of Sleep Position on Infant Motor Development. by Davis, Moon, Sachs, and Ottolini, the authors state e found that sleep position significantly impacts early motor development. The prone (stomach) sleeping infants in this study slept an average of 225.2 hours (8.3%) more in their first 6 months of life than the supine (back) sleeping infants.

In the 1998 article entitled oes the Supine Sleeping Position Have Any Adverse Effects on the Child? II. Development in the First 18 Months31] by Dewey, Fleming, Golding, and the ALSPAC Study Team the objective of the study was o assess whether the recommendations that infants sleep supine could have adverse consequences on their motor and mental development. They used the Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST) and studied infants at 6 and 18 months. According to the study, at 6 months of age, the infants who were placed to sleep in the prone position had statistically significant higher social skills scores, gross motor scores, and total development scores than those infants who were put to sleep in the supine position. In the 2005 article entitled nfluence of supine sleep positioning on early motor milestone acquisition29] by Majnemer and Barr they used the Alberta Infant Motor Scale Scores (AIMS Scores) to analyze the impact of infant sleep position. They reported that ypically developing infants who were sleep-positioned in supine had delayed motor development by age 6 months, and this was significantly associated with limited exposure to awake prone positioning. But, the authors also note that awake prone (stomach) positioning is associated with prone (stomach) sleeping. No studies have been conducted which compare supine sleeping infants who have regular awake prone positioning (tummy time) to prone sleeping infants who have regular awake prone positioning (tummy time).

Placing infants on their stomachs while they are awake (tummy time) has been recommended to offset the motor skills delays associated with the back sleep position but positioning the infant on their stomach while awake will not impact the amount of slow wave sleep since tummy time only occurs when an infant is awake.

Undiagnosed conditions

Some conditions that may be undiagnosed and thus could be alternative diagnoses to SIDS include:

medium-chain acyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase deficiency (MCAD deficiency), ;

infant botulism;

long QT syndrome (accounting for less than 2% of cases);

infections with the bacterium Helicobacter pylori;

shaken baby syndrome and other forms of child abuse.

For example an infant with MCAD deficiency could have died by ‘classical SIDS’ if found swaddled and prone with head covered in an overheated room where parents were smoking. Genes of susceptibility to MCAD and Long QT syndrome do not protect an infant from dying of classical SIDS. Therefore presence of a susceptibility gene, such as for MCAD, means the infant may have died either from SIDS or from MCAD deficiency. It is impossible for the pathologist to distinguish between them.

Risk factors

Very little is certain about the possible causes of SIDS, and there is no proven method for prevention. Although studies have identified risk factors for SIDS, such as putting infants to bed on their stomachs, there has been little understanding of the syndrome’s biological cause or causes. The frequency of SIDS appears to be a strong function of the infant’s sex, age and ethnicity, and the education and socio-economic-status of the infant’s parents.

According to a study published in October 2007 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, babies who die of SIDS have abnormalities in the brain stem (the medulla oblongata), which helps control functions like breathing, blood pressure and arousal, and abnormalities in serotonin signaling. According to the National Institutes of Health, which funded the study, this finding is the strongest evidence to date that structural differences in a specific part of the brain may contribute to the risk of SIDS.

In a British study released May 29, 2008 researchers discovered that the common bacterial infections Staphylococcus aureus (staph) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) appear to be the cause of some cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Both bacteria were present at greater than usual concentrations in infants who died from SIDS. SIDS cases peak between eight and ten weeks after birth, which is also the time frame in which the antibodies that were passed along from mother to child are starting to disappear and babies have not yet made their own antibodies.

Listed below are several factors associated with increased probability of the syndrome based on information available prior to this recent study.

Prenatal risks

maternal nicotine use (tobacco or nicotine patch)

inadequate prenatal care

inadequate prenatal nutrition

use of heroin, cocaine and other drugs

subsequent births less than one year apart

alcohol use

infant being overweight

mother being overweight

Teen pregnancy (if the baby has a teen mother, it has a greater risk)

infant’s sex (60% of SIDS cases occur in males)

Post-natal risks

mold (can cause bleeding lungs plus a variety of other uncommon conditions leading to a misdiagnoses and death). It is often misdiagnosed as a virus, flu, and/or asthma-like conditions.

low birth weight (in the U.S. from 1995-1998 the rate for 1000-1499 g was 2.89/1000 and for 3500-3999 g it was 0.51/1000)

exposure to tobacco smoke

prone sleep position (lying on the stomach, see sleep positioning below)

not breastfeeding

elevated or reduced room temperature

excess bedding, clothing, soft sleep surface and stuffed animals

Co-sleeping with parents or other siblings increases the risk for accidental smothering

infant’s age (incidence rises from zero at birth, is highest from two to four months, and declines towards zero at one year)

premature birth (increases risk of SIDS death by about 4 times. In 1995-1998 the U.S.SIDS rate for 3739 weeks of gestation was 0.73/1000; The SIDS rate for 2831 weeks of gestation was 2.39/1000)

anemia

Risk reduction for SIDS

Though SIDS cannot be prevented, parents of infants are encouraged to take several precautions in order to reduce the likelihood of SIDS.

Environment

Sleep positioning

Sleeping on the back has been recommended by (among others) the American Academy of Pediatrics (starting in 1992) to avoid SIDS, with the catchphrases “Back To Bed” and “Back to Sleep.” The incidence of SIDS has fallen sharply in a number of countries in which the back to bed recommendation has been widely adopted, such as the US and New Zealand. However, the absolute incidence of SIDS prior to the Back to Sleep Campaign was already dropping in the US, from 1.511 per 1000 in 1979 to 1.301 per 1000 in 1991.

Among the theories supporting the Back to Sleep recommendation is the idea that small infants with little or no control of their heads may, while face down, inhale their exhaled breath (high in carbon dioxide) or smother themselves on their beddinghe brain-stem anomaly research (above) suggests that babies with that particular genetic makeup do not react “normally” by moving away from the pooled CO2, and thus smother. Another theory[citation needed] is that babies sleep more soundly when placed on their stomachs, and are unable to rouse themselves when they have an incidence of sleep apnea, which is thought to be common in infants.

Arguments against infant back-sleeping include concerns that an infant could choke on fluids it brings up. Hospital neonatal-intensive-care-unit (NICU) staff commonly place preterm newborns on their stomach, although they advise parents to place their infants on their backs after going home from the hospital.

Other concerns raised about the Back to Sleep Campaign have included the possible increased risk of positional facial and head deformities (see positional plagiocephaly), possible interference with development of good sleep habits (which in turn may have other bad effects), and possible interference with motor skills development (as infants delay attempts to lift their heads, crawl, etc.).

Breastfeeding

A 2003 study published in Pediatrics, which investigated racial disparities in infant mortality in Chicago, found that previously or currently breastfeeding infants in the study had 1/5 the rate of SIDS compared with non-breastfed infants, but that “it became nonsignificant in the multivariate model that included the other environmental factors”. These results are consistent with most published reports and suggest that other factors associated with breastfeeding, rather than breastfeeding itself, are protective.” However, a more recent study shows that breast feeding reduces the risk of SIDS by approximately 50% at all infant ages.

Co-sleeping

In nearly all incidences, the higher the rate of co-sleeping, the lower the rate of SIDS and vice versa. http://thebabybond.com/Cosleeping&SIDSFactSheet.html The data has suggested that almost all SIDS deaths in adult beds would be occurring when other prevention methods, such as placing infants on their backs, are not used. Co-sleeping studied in the West has been present mostly in poorer families where other risk factors are present. While co-sleeping in other cultures such as in China is more prevalent and is done in combination with practices such as sleeping children on their back, correlating with a significantly lower rate of SIDS than the West.Further studies have suggested that factors associated with safe co-sleeping such as enhanced infant arousals are responsible for a positive contribution to SIDS prevention.

A 2005 policy statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics on sleep environment and the risk of SIDS deemed co-sleeping and bed sharing unsafe. One article reports that co-sleeping infants have a greater risk of airway covering than when the same infant sleeps alone in a cot.

Secondhand smoke reduction

According to the U.S. Surgeon General Report, secondhand smoke is connected to SIDS. Infants who die from SIDS tend to have higher concentrations of nicotine and cotinine (a biological marker for secondhand smoke exposure) in their lungs than those who die from other causes. Infants exposed to secondhand smoke after birth are also at a greater risk of SIDS. Parents who smoke can significantly reduce their children’s risk of SIDS by either quitting or smoking only outside and leaving their house completely smoke-free.

The maternal pregnancy smoking rate decreased by 38% between 1990 and 2002.

Sleeping area

Bedding

Product safety experts advise against using pillows, sleep positioners, bumper pads, stuffed animals, or fluffy bedding in the crib and recommend instead dressing the child warmly and keeping the crib “naked.”

Blankets should not be placed over an infant’s head. It has been recommended that infants should be covered only up to their chest with their arms exposed. This reduces the chance of the infant shifting the blanket over his or her head.[citation needed]

Sleep sacks

In colder environments where bedding is required to maintain a baby’s body temperature, the use of a “baby sleep bag” or “sleep sack” is becoming more popular. This is a soft bag with holes for the baby’s arms and head. A zipper allows the bag to be closed around the baby. A study published in the European Journal of Pediatrics in August 1998 has shown the protective effects of a sleep sack as reducing the incidence of turning from back to front during sleep, reinforcing putting a baby to sleep on its back for placement into the sleep sack and preventing bedding from coming up over the face which leads to increased temperature and carbon dioxide rebreathing. They conclude in their study “The use of a sleeping-sack should be particularly promoted for infants with a low birth weight.” The American Academy of Pediatrics also recommends them as a type of bedding that warms the baby without covering its head.The use of swaddling clothes, a traditional form of infant restraint which leaves only the head uncovered, is controversial.
Pacifiers

According to a 2005 meta-analysis, most studies favor pacifier use. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, pacifier use seems to reduce the risk of SIDS, although the mechanism by which this happens is unclear. SIDS experts and policy makers haven’t recommended the use of pacifiers to reduce the risk of SIDS because of several problems associated with pacifier use, like increased risk of otitis, gastrointestinal infections and oral colonization with Candida species. A 2005 study indicated that use of a pacifier is associated with up to a 90% reduction in the risk of SIDS depending on the ambient factors, and it reduced the effect of other risk factors. It has been speculated that the raised surface of the pacifier holds the infant’s face away from the mattress, reducing the risk of suffocation. If a postmortem investigation does not occur or is insufficient, a suffocated baby may be misdiagnosed with SIDS.

Air circulation with fan use

According to a study of nearly 500 babies published the October 2008 Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, using a fan to circulate air correlates with a lower risk of sudden infant death syndrome. Researchers took into account other risk factors and found that fan use was associated with a 72% lower risk of SIDS. Only 3% of the babies who died had a fan on in the room during their last sleep, the mothers reported. That compared to 12% of the babies who lived. Using a fan reduced risk most for babies in poor sleeping environments. Author De-Kun li said that “the baby’s sleeping environment really matters” and that “this seems to suggest that by improving room ventilation we can further reduce risk.”

New link. A special, small fan for gentle, direct ventilation of the infants sleeping area, crib or bassinet.

Bumper pads

Bumper pads may be a contributing factor in SIDS deaths and should be removed. Health Canada, the Canadian government’s health department, issued an advisory recommending against the use of bumper pads, stating:

The presence of bumper pads in a crib may also be a contributing factor for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). These products may reduce the flow of oxygen rich air to the infant in the crib. Furthermore, proposed theories indicate that the rebreathing of carbon dioxide plays a role in the occurrence of SIDS.

Speculated associations

A number of theoretical causes have been proposed as a trigger for SIDS, but many of them are unproven or have not been thoroughly studied and peer-reviewed. As of June 2009 there were 113 such articles found in Medical Hypotheses as cited in PubMed.

Anemia

Anemia is not a documented SIDS risk factor per se because at the moment of death the blood hemoglobin begins to degrade. This degradation can be slow or rapid and it shows up as livor mortis, the mottled and reddened coloring that can develop within 30 minutes of death. Because SIDS usually occurs during sleep and is unnoticed, the time interval between moment of death and autopsy is unknown so no correction can be made to the hemoglobin value measured postmortem to estimate the antemortem value immediately before death. However anemia is a risk factor for apparent-life-threatening-events (ALTE) as described by Poets et al. (1992) referred to above where anemia is listed as a postnatal risk factor.

Oxygen Deprivation

A 2003 Study showed that a common cause of death of infants is because parents/caretakers leave the child “face-down” on the bed. Making it so the child cannot breathe. A child at the age of 1 month to 6 months…does not have the muscle development to move their head…therefore it is benefical if they lay the child head up. In addition, an autopsy would not show necrotic tissue in any part of the body, due to oxygen deprivation. Due to the fact that the infant typically has more hemoglobin then the standard adult. Making their blood capable of “holding on” to more oxygen.

Mattress bugs

A 2004 study hypothesized that bugs feeding on baby vomit and dust could be fatal for small children, creating ‘supertoxins’ which spur the baby’s body into overreacting, leading to anaphylactic shock.

Brain disorder

A recently published research article showed evidence that cells in the brainstem fail to develop receptors for serotonin in the womb. This abnormality can continue postpartum until the end of the first year. This would account for there being few to no SIDS deaths after the first year of infancy and the reason the risk is more for premature infants. Males have fewer serotonin receptors than females, perhaps contributing to the increased incidence of SIDS in the demographic.

In addition, a study was done in 2006. Showed that a possible cause of SIDS is because parents leave there infants in a position known as “Trendelenburg position.” This position can cause the brain stem to fall…and in a result, the brain becomes “crushed.” The proper poistion for an infant is either High Fowlers or Sims.

Vitamin C

In the 1970s, high doses of vitamin C were touted as a preventive measure for SIDS, although the claim was controversial even then. Subsequent study failed to support a preventive role for vitamin C in SIDS. To the contrary, a 2009 study found that high levels of vitamin C were strongly associated with SIDS, possibly through a pro-oxidant interaction with iron.

Toxic gases

In 1989, a controversial piece of research by UK Scientist Barry Richardson claimed that all cot deaths were the result of toxic nerve gases being produced through the action of fungus in mattresses on compounds of phosphorus, arsenic and antimony. These chemicals are frequently used to make mattresses fire-retardant.

A major plank in this explanation is the widely-observed phenomenon that the risk of cot death rises from one sibling to the next. Richardson claims that the cause is that parents are more likely to buy new bedding for their first child, and to re-use that bedding for later children. The more frequently used the bedding is, the more chance there will be that fungus has become resident in the material; thus, a higher chance of cot death. A paper by Peter Fleming and Peter Blair references evidence from other studies that both supports and refutes the increasing occurrence of SIDS with mattress sharing and suggests that this is still inconclusive.

Dr. Jim Sprott recommends new parents either buy bedding free of the toxic compounds or to wrap the mattresses in a barrier film to prevent the escape of the gases. Sprott claims that no case of cot death has ever been traced back to a properly manufactured or wrapped mattress.

However, a final report of The Expert Group to Investigate Cot Death Theories: Toxic Gas Hypothesis, published in May 1998, concluded that “there was no evidence to substantiate the toxic gas hypothesis that antimony- and phosphorus-containing compounds used as fire retardants in PVC and other cot mattress materials are a cause of SIDS. Neither was there any evidence to believe that these chemicals could pose any other health risk to infants.” The report also states that “in normal cot-like conditions it is not possible to generate toxic gas from antimony in mattresses” and “babies have also been found to die on wrapped mattresses.”

Contrary to media publicity, the 1998 UK Limerick Report did not disprove the toxic gas theorys a highly qualified environmental scientist has stated in the New Zealand Medical Journal. In fact, the Limerick Committee’s experiments proved the fungal generation of toxic gases (forms of stibine and arsine) from cot mattress materials.

According to Dr. Sprott, as of 2006, the New Zealand government has not reported any SIDS deaths when babies have slept on mattresses wrapped according to his method. While the Limerick report claims that babies have been found to die on wrapped mattresses, Dr. Sprott argues that a chemical analysis of the bedding should be performed. He additionally claims that this part of the report was flawed:

In February 2000 Dr Peter Fleming (a co-author of the Limerick Report and principal author of the UK CESDI Report) conceded that the claim that three babies in the United Kingdom had died of cot death on polythene-covered mattresses could not be substantiated.

Central Respiratory Pattern Deficiency

There is ongoing research in the pediatric/neonatal community that has begun to associate apnea-like breathing cessations in animal models with unusual neural architecture or signal transduction in central pattern generator circuits including the pre-Btzinger complex. It is possible that irregularities in neurotransmitter release (such as GABA, adenosine, and NMDA) or deficiencies in their associated receptors (including both GABAA, GABAB subtypes and NMDA-glutamate receptors) are linked to incomplete prenatal development as is evident in pre-term infants.[citation needed]

Cervical spinal injury from birth trauma

During birth, if the infant’s head is traumatically turned side to side, upper cervical spinal injury can result. Difficulty breathing is a classic sign of upper spinal cord and brain-stem injury. When infants with undiagnosed upper cervical spinal cord injury are continually placed on their stomach for sleep, they are forced to turn their head to the side to breathe. This is hypothesised to aggravate and prolong the spinal cord injury sustained during birth, preventing proper healing and ultimately leading to fatal breathing difficulty.[citation needed]

Sex

There is a consistent 50% male excess in SIDS per 1000 live births of each sex. Given a 5% male excess birth rate (105 male to 100 female live births) there appear to be 3.15 male SIDS per 2 female SIDS for a male fraction of 0.61. This value of 61% in the U.S. is an average of 57% black male SIDS, 62.2% white male SIDS and 59.4% for all other races combined. Note that when multiracial parentage is involved, infant “race” is arbitrarily assigned to one category or the other; most often it is chosen by the mother. The X-linkage hypothesis for SIDS and the male excess in infant mortality have shown that the 50% male excess could be related to a dominant X-linked allele that occurs with a frequency of that is protective of transient cerebral anoxia. An unprotected XY male would occur with a frequency of and an unprotected XX female would occur with a frequency of 49. The ratio of to 49 is 1.5 to 1 which matches the observed male 50% excess rate of SIDS.

Although many authors have found autosomal and mitochondrial genetic risk factors for SIDS they cannot explain the male excess because such gene loci have the same frequencies for males and females. Supporting evidence for an X-linkage is found by examination of other causes of infant respiratory death, such as suffocation by inhalation of food and other foreign objects. Although food is prepared identically for male and female infants, there is a similar 50% male excess of death from such causes indicating that males are more susceptible to the cerebral anoxia created by such incidents in exactly the same proportion as found in SIDS.

The study which indicated that there was a relationship between fewer serotonin binding sites and SIDS noted that the boys “had significantly fewer serotonin binding sites than girls.” However, such neurological prematurity decreases with age, but the male fraction of approximately 0.61 persists each month throughout the first year of life. Furthermore, this cannot explain the identical male fraction of 0.61 in other respiratory mortality causes such as respiratory distress syndrome or suffocation from inhalation of food or foreign objects cited above, that also exists for all ages 1 to 14 years in the U.S. from 1979 to 2005.

Child abuse

Several instances of infanticide have been uncovered where the diagnosis was originally SIDS. This has led some researchers to estimate that 5% to 20% of SIDS deaths are infanticides. In 1997 The New York Times, covering a book called The Death of Innocents: A True Story of Murder, Medicine and High-Stakes Science, wrote:

The misdiagnosis of infanticide as SIDS “happens all over,” Ms. Talan, a medical reporter at Newsday, said. “A lot of doctors and police don’t know how to handle it. They don’t take it as seriously as they should.” As a result of the book’s revelations, people are starting to scrutinize possible cases of this “perfect crime,” which involves no physical evidence and no witnesses.

A former pediatrician Roy Meadow from United Kingdom believes that many cases diagnosed as SIDS are really the result of child abuse on the part of a parent displaying Munchausen syndrome by proxy (a condition which he was first to describe, in 1977). During the 1990s and early 2000s, a number of mothers of multiple apparent SIDS victims were convicted of murder, to varying degrees on the basis of Meadow’s opinion. In 2003 a number of high-profile acquittals brought Meadow’s theories into disrepute. Several hundred murder convictions were reviewed, leading to several high-profile cases being re-opened and convictions overturned.

The Royal Statistical Society issued a media release refuting the expert testimony in one UK case in which the conviction was subsequently overturned.

Nitrogen dioxide

A 2005 study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego found that “SIDS may be related to high levels of acute outdoor NO2 exposure during the last day of life.” While nitrogen dioxide (NO2) exposure may be one of many possible risk factors, it is not considered causal, and the report cautioned that further studies were needed to replicate the result.

Vaccination

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, several studies have failed to provide sufficient evidence of a causal link between vaccinations and SIDS. They state:

From 2 to 4 months old, babies begin their primary course of vaccinations. This is also the peak age for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The timing of these two events has led some people to believe they might be related. However, studies have concluded that vaccines are not a risk factor for SIDS.

Inner ear damage

Records of hearing tests (oto-acoustic emissions, OAEs) administered to certain infants show that those who later died of SIDS had differences in the pattern of these tests compared with normal babies. To be specific the OAE signal to noise ratio was reduced in the right ear in the SIDS babies. (Rubens DD et al Early Human Development 84, 225-9 (2008)) . It should be noted this was a small study (n=31 cases and 31 controls), had serious limitations (several significant factors were not controlled), and has been criticised from various perspectives. The authors’ suggestion for the cause of SIDS is that the deaths are caused by disturbances in respiratory control (from other than suffocation). The vestibular apparatus of the inner ear has been shown to play an important role in respiratory control during sleep. It is speculated that this inner ear damage could be linked to SIDS. It is speculated that the damage occurs during delivery, particularly when prolonged contractions create greater blood pressure in the placenta. The right ear is directly in the “line of fire” for blood entering the fetus from the placenta, and thus could be most susceptible to damage. If the findings are relevant, it may be possible to take corrective measures. Researchers are beginning animal studies to explore the connection.

Side effects of SIDS risk reduction recommendations

Dr. Rafael Pelayo from Stanford University and a number of other pediatric sleep researchers in the U.S. have stated that they believe that the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations regarding cosleeping and pacifier use may have unintended consequences. They have stated that the SIDS prevention strategy of the American Academy of Pediatrics which keeps infants at a low arousal threshold and reduces the time in quiet sleep may be unhealthy for children. They state that slow wave sleep is the most restorative form of sleep and limiting this sleep in the first 12 months of life may have unintended consequences to both the sleep and the infant.

According to a 1998 study by British researchers that compared back sleeping infants to stomach sleeping infants there were developmental differences at 6 months of age between the two groups. At 6 months of age the stomach sleeping infants had higher gross motor scores, social skills scores, and total development skills scores than the back sleeping infants. The differences were apparent at the 5% statistical significant level. But, at 18 months the differences were no longer apparent. The researchers deemed the lower development scores of back sleeping infants at 6 months of age to be transient and stated that they do not believe the back sleeping recommendations should be changed. Other scientists have stated that the conclusion that the negative effects of back sleep at 18 months of age is transient is based upon very little evidence and that no long-term randomized trials have been completed.

Other side effects of the back sleeping position include increased rates of shoulder retraction, positional plagiocephaly, and positional torticollis. Some scientists dispute that plagiocephaly is a negative side effect. Dr. Peter Fleming, who is co-author of the study that deemed delays at 6 months of age to be transient, has stated that he does not think plagiocephaly is a negative side effect of back sleep. In an interview with the Guardian Dr. Fleming stated “I do not think it is a medical problemt is more of a cosmetic one. Mothers may feel it is a syndrome and a problem when it really is nonsense.” A research study on children with plagiocephaly found that 26% had mild to severe psychomotor delay. This study also showed that 10% of infants with plagiocephaly had mild to severe mental development delay.

Because of the delays caused by back sleep some medical professionals have suggested that the “normal” ages at which children had previously attained developmental milestones should be pushed back. This would enable medical professionals to consider “normal” children who previously were considered developmentally delayed.

Additional studies have reported that the following negative conditions are associated with the back sleep position: increase in sleep apnea, decrease in sleep duration, strabismus, social skills delays, deformational plagiocephaly, and temporomandibular jaw difficulties. In addition, the following are symptoms that are associated with sleep apnea: growth abnormalities, failure to thrive syndrome in infants, neurocognitive abnormalities, daytime sleepiness, emotional problems, decrease in memory, decrease in learning, and a delay in nonverbal skills. The conditions associated with deformational plagiocephaly include visual impairments, cerebral dysfunction, delays in psychomotor development and decreases in mental functioning. The conditions associated with gross motor milestone delays include speech and language disorders. In addition, it has been hypothesized that delays in motor skills can have a negative impact on the development of social skills. In addition, other studies have reported that the prone position prevents subluxation of the hips, increases psychomotor development, prevents scoliosis, lessens the risk of gastroesophageal reflux, decreases infant screaming periods, causes less fatigue in infants, and increases the relief of infant colic. In addition, prior to the ack to Sleep campaign many babies self-treated their own torticollis by turning their heads from one side to the other while sleeping in the prone position. Supine sleeping infants cannot self-treat their own torticollis.

Further reading

Joan Hodgman; Toke Hoppenbrouwers (2004). SIDS. Calabasas, Calif: Monte Nido Press. ISBN 0-9742663-0-2. 

Notes

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^ Li DK, Willinger M, Petitti DB, Odouli R, Liu L, Hoffman HJ (2006). “Use of a dummy (pacifier) during sleep and risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS): population based case-control study”. BMJ 332 (7532): 1822. doi:10.1136/bmj.38671.640475.55. PMID 16339767. 

^ Coleman-Phox K, Odouli R, Li DK (October 2008). “Use of a fan during sleep and the risk of sudden infant death syndrome”. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 162 (10): 9638. doi:10.1001/archpedi.162.10.963. PMID 18838649. http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/162/10/963. 

^ Carla K. Johnson (Associated Press writer) (2008-09-08). “Fan use linked to lower risk of sudden baby death”. Toronto Star. http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/article/513143. Retrieved 2008-11-09. , also in Live Science
^ “Policy Statement for Bumper Pads in Cribs – Consumer Product Safety”. http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/cps-spc/legislation/pol/bumper-bordure_e.html. Retrieved 2007-06-27. 

^ Gizela BA (2001). “Postmortem hemoglobin concentration changing in Sprague-Dawley white mouse” (in Indonesian). Berkala Ilmu Kedokteran 33: 20710. 

^ Sherburn RE, Jenkins RO (September 2004). “Cot mattresses as reservoirs of potentially harmful bacteria and the sudden infant death syndrome”. FEMS Immunol. Med. Microbiol. 42 (1): 7684. doi:10.1016/j.femsim.2004.06.011. PMID 15325400. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/resolve/openurl?genre=article&sid=nlm:pubmed&issn=0928-8244&date=2004&volume=42&issue=1&spage=76. 

^ Kalokerinos A, Dettman G (July 1976). “Sudden death in infancy syndrome in Western Australia”. Med. J. Aust. 2 (1): 312. PMID 979792. 

^ Donovan J (September 1979). “Vitamin C and cot death: where is the evidence?”. Med. J. Aust. 2 (6): 311. PMID 522763. 

^ Holborow P (April 1980). “Sudden infant death syndrome”. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 33 (4): 7301. PMID 7361687. http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/33/4/730. “There has been some controversy about the role of Vitamin C in cot death.”. 

^ Cheraskin E (October 1995). “Vitamin C, smoking and SIDS”. J R Soc Health 115 (5): 332. PMID 7473510. 

^ Dick A, Ford R (November 2009). “Cholinergic and oxidative stress mechanisms in sudden infant death syndrome”. Acta Paediatr. 98 (11): 176875. doi:10.1111/j.1651-2227.2009.01476.x. PMID 19706020. 

^ Fleming PJ, Blair PS, Mitchell EA (November 2002). “Mattresses, microenvironments, and multivariate analyses”. BMJ 325 (7371): 9812. doi:10.1136/bmj.325.7371.981. PMID 12411332. PMC 1124537. http://bmj.com/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=12411332. 

^ “Cot Life 2000 aims to eliminate cot”. Cotlife2000.co.nz. http://www.cotlife2000.co.nz/. Retrieved 2009-10-15. 

^ See FSID Press release.

^ cotlife2000.co.nz Errors and fallacies in the UK Limerick Report: an overview, Cot Life 2000

^ Katz DM (2005). “Regulation of respiratory neuron development by neurotrophic and transcriptional signaling mechanisms”. Respiratory physiology & neurobiology 149 (1-3): 99109. doi:10.1016/j.resp.2005.02.007. PMID 16203214. 

^ ICPA – SIDS Research

^ See http://wonder.cdc.gov and http://www3.who.int/whosis/menu.cfm?path=whosis,inds,mort&language=english for data on SIDS by gender in the U.S. and throughout the world.

^ Mage DT, Donner EM (September 2004). “The fifty percent male excess of infant respiratory mortality”. Acta Paediatr. 93 (9): 12105. doi:10.1080/08035250410031305. PMID 15384886. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/resolve/openurl?genre=article&sid=nlm:pubmed&issn=0803-5253&date=2004&volume=93&issue=9&spage=1210. 

^ See the data found at http://wonder.cdc.gov for 9ICD 911-912 and 10ICD W79-W80 for death rates from inhalation of food and foreign objects by sex.

^ Osmond C, Murphy M (October 1988). “Seasonality in the sudden infant death syndrome”. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol 2 (4): 33745. PMID 3072532. 

^ Glatt, John (2000). Cradle of Death: A Shocking True Story of a Mother, Multiple Murder, and SIDS. Macmillan. ISBN 0312973020. 

^ Havill, Adrian (2002). While Innocents Slept: A Story of Revenge, Murder, and SIDS. Macmillan. ISBN 0312975171,. 

^ Spinelli, Margaret (2003). Infanticide: Psychosocial and Legal Perspectives on Mothers Who Kill. American Psychiatric Pub. p. 27. ISBN 1585620971,. 

^ Stanton J, Simpson A (December 2001). “Murder misdiagnosed as SIDS: a perpetrator’s perspective”. Arch Dis Child. 85 (6): 4549. doi:10.1136/adc.85.6.454. PMID 11719326. PMC 1719021. http://adc.bmj.com/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=11719326. 

^ Emery JL (October 1993). “Child abuse, sudden infant death syndrome, and unexpected infant death”. Am J Dis Child. 147 (10): 1097100. PMID 8213682. 

^ “Investigation of SIDS”. N Engl J Med. 315 (26): 16757. December 1986. PMID 3785340. 

^ Carol Strickland (1997-10-19). “Investigating a Rash of SIDS Deaths, Exposing Infanticide”. The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9A06EED9163FF93AA25753C1A961958260. Retrieved 2008-04-20. 

^ “About Statistics and the Law” (Website). Royal Statistical Society. (2001-10-23) Retrieved on 2007-09-22

^ Klonoff-Cohen H, Lam PK, Lewis A (July 2005). “Outdoor carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and sudden infant death syndrome”. Arch Dis Child. 90 (7): 7503. doi:10.1136/adc.2004.057091. PMID 15970620. 

^ Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and Vaccines http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/sids_faq.html

^ Thomas H. Maugh II (2007) ([dead link] Scholar search). Hearing loss may foretell SIDS risk. http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-sids28jul28,1,2214491.story?track=rss. 

^ Alastruey J, Sherwin SJ, Parker KH, Rubens DD (July 2009). “Placental transfusion insult in the predisposition for SIDS: a mathematical study”. Early Hum. Dev. 85 (7): 4559. doi:10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2009.04.001. PMID 19446412. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0378-3782(09)00060-7. 

^ Pelayo R, Owens J, Mindell J, Sheldon S (March 2006). “Bed sharing with unimpaired parents is not an important risk for sudden infant death syndrome: to the editor”. Pediatrics 117 (3): 9934; author reply 9946. doi:10.1542/peds.2005-2748. PMID 16510694. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/117/3/993.pdf. 

^ Pelligra R, Doman G, Leisman G (July 2005). “A reassessment of the SIDS Back to Sleep Campaign”. Scientific World Journal 5: 5507. doi:10.1100/tsw.2005.71. PMID 16075152. http://cgi.thescientificworld.co.uk/cgi-bin/processHtml.pl?Id=2005.03.71.html&format=Dreamweaver. 

^ a b Jones MW (2004). “Supine and Prone Infant Positioning: A Winning Combination”. J Perinat Educ 13 (1): 1020. doi:10.1624/105812404X109357. PMID 17273371. 

^ Carter H, “Flat Out” – The Guardian: Tuesday July 8, 2003.

^ Kordestani RK, Patel S, Bard DE, Gurwitch R, Panchal J (January 2006). “Neurodevelopmental delays in children with deformational plagiocephaly”. Plast Reconstr Surg. 117 (1): 20718; discussion 21920. doi:10.1097/01.prs.0000185604.15606.e5. PMID 16404269. http://meta.wkhealth.com/pt/pt-core/template-journal/lwwgateway/media/landingpage.htm?an=00006534-200601000-00032. 

^ Stevens P, “The Flip Side of Back to Sleep”, The O&P Edge.

^ von Hofsten C (June 2004). “An action perspective on motor development”. Trends Cogn. Sci. (Regul. Ed.) 8 (6): 26672. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2004.04.002. PMID 15165552. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1364661304001019. 

^ Sigmundsson H, Haga M (October 2000). “[Children and motor competence]” (in Norwegian). Tidsskr. Nor. Laegeforen. 120 (25): 304850. PMID 11109395. 

^ Graham JM, Gomez M, Halberg A, et al. (February 2005). “Management of deformational plagiocephaly: repositioning versus orthotic therapy”. J. Pediatr. 146 (2): 25862. doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2004.10.016. PMID 15689920. 

^ Lewak N. “Book Review: SIDS”. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 158 (4): 405. http://archpedi.highwire.org/cgi/content/full/158/4/405. 

1989 “Sleep and Arousal Synchrony of Co-Sleeping Human Mother-Infant Pairs: Implications for the Study of SIDS.” Fourth World Congress of Infant Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines (poster session). Lugano, Switzerland. Presented also at 58th Annual Meeting, American Association of P…

When I became a family law attorney/mediator after a dozen years as a therapist, one of the biggest surprises was the extent of lying in Family Court: lies about income, assets and even complete fabrications of child abuse and domestic violence. Why would people lie so much, I wondered? How did they get away with it? The following is my psychosocial analysis of what I believe has become an epidemic:

Men lie: It was a sad phone call from a relatively new client. He informed me his father had just died. He had quit his job and was moving back east to wrap up his father’s affairs. He asked me to tell his wife’s attorney that he would not be able to pay child support for their three young children for a long time. (There was no support order yet.)

The next day, his wife’s attorney called me back and described how upset his wife was to learn of her father-in-law’s death. So upset, that she had called his father — and had a nice chat!

Women lie: A mother involved in a custody battle told the court in dramatic detail about physical abuse at the hands of her husband. She even submitted reports of visits to doctors and emergency rooms for her bruises.

However, a court-ordered psychological evaluation determined the allegations were false. The court agreed and awarded custody to the father. A few weeks later the mother picked up the children from school and disappeared for a year. She was caught, sent to jail for parental kidnapping, and the children returned to the father.

Societal Increase in Lying. Surveys show that lying has increased over the past decade. In 1999 alone: the President was tried in Congress for perjury; a popular journalist in Boston was publicly fired for fabricating heart-rending stories; and a scientist was exposed for falsifying research on a high-profile safety issue.

We have become a society of individuals. Personal gain is more important than community values. In this mobile “information age,” we rely on strangers and are easily fooled. In business, politics, and the movies, winning is everything. Successful manipulation and deceit are admired. In court, lying is often rewarded and rarely punished.

No Penalty for Perjury . Divorce Courts rely heavily on “he said, she said” declarations, signed “under penalty of perjury.” However, a computer search of family law cases published by the appellate courts shows only one appellate case in California involving a penalty for perjury: People v. Berry (1991) 230 Cal. App. 3d 1449. The penalty? Probation.

Perjury is a criminal offense, punishable by fine or jail time, but it must be prosecuted by the District Attorney–who does not have the time. Family Court judges have the ability to sanction (fine) parties, but no time to truly determine that one party is lying. Instead, they may assume both parties are lying or just weigh their credibility. With no specific consequence, the risks of lying are low.

Personality Disorders and Patterns of Lying. Family Courts see everything: from small deceptions about income to the complete fabrication of abuse. The increase in lying seems to correspond with the rising number of people with personality disorders. They often have internal distress, less empathy for others, a highly adversarial world view, an intense and manipulative nature, and a sense of victimization which they use to justify harming others. Studies show they have identifiable and predictable patterns of lying:

A party with a Borderline Personality Disorder may lie out of anger or even self-deception in an effort to maintain a bond with their child or spouse–or to retaliate for abandonment. Battles over custody and visitation are common.

One with a Narcissistic Personality Disorder may lie to boost themselves or to put other people down. They enjoy manipulating the truth and other people’s lives. They may experience excitement and a sense of power by successfully fooling the court and dominating the other party. An Antisocial Personality Disorder is characterized by deception, manipulation, and disrespect for authority. Commonly known as “con artists,” they are skilled at breaking the rules. They fabricate detailed events and use the courts to get revenge or money. Their lack of empathy makes them constant liars — and often violent.

A Histrionic Personality Disorder is often highly dramatic and demanding, with superficial charm and seductiveness. They are skilled at lying and self-deception. Fabrication is also common.

Detecting Deception. Few people can visually detect deception. Research on judges, federal polygraphers, psychiatrists and college students showed that all were no better than chance using a standardized videotape test. Only Secret Service Agents were better than average at distinguishing truth and lies.

Some studies show that the more confident a person is, the less effective they are at lie detection. Studies of police investigators and customs inspectors found that those with more experience were less accurate than novices.

Ineffectiveness of Non-Verbal Cues. Many people believe they can determine whether someone is lying by observing non-verbal behavior, such as: touching their face, blinking their eyes, suddenly itchy nose, neck-scratching.

These behaviors indicate anxiety, which most people experience when then lie. However, most people display anxiety when they are under any pressure, such as being challenged about their honesty. Therefore, these symptoms are unreliable.

Studies show that the only way non-verbal cues may be truly helpful is to observe a person over time. Their changes in non-verbal behavior may be a more accurate indicator of lying. An additional problem is that those with antisocial personalities actually become less anxious when they lie, and therefore do not exhibit behavioral cues and do not register anxious symptoms on lie detector tests.

Effectiveness of Examining Records. Studies have shown that examining documents for contradictions has been more reliable than focusing on non-verbal cues. In fact, they have found that evaluators were best at lie detection when they were blind to nonverbal cues. Those who just read transcripts were the most accurate.

What Can Be Done? The adversarial process naturally encourages lying: winning is the goal, liars get equal time, and the most skillful adversary wins — regardless of the truth. To overcome this inherent problem, we need:

More use of mediation: Mediation and negotiation focus on problem-solving for the future. Lying about the past has little relevance. The parties know the lies and do not tolerate them.

More judicial time: Most divorce court decisions are made in 10-20 minute hearings. Judges must determine the custody and visitation schedule, the amounts of child support and spousal support, and often whether restraining orders are appropriate. There is little time to analyze each declaration to determine who is lying. Judicial lectures alone have little impact or the opposite effect on personality disorders. More judges with more time could reduce lying from the start.

More attorney research: Attorneys often advocate for their clients’ statements without investigation. They often assume they will never know who is telling the truth. Instead, they should learn about personality disorders and patterns of lying, more carefully question their clients, and more aggressively seek corroborating evidence.

More therapist awareness: Therapists are trained to form impressions based on interpersonal observations rather than external evidence. They form strong bonds and believe their clients. They can provide the court with observations of their own client’s behavior, but should not reach conclusions based on hearing one side. They need to be more wary of manipulation in court cases.

More consequences: It is an established dynamic of human behavior that rules made, but not enforced, are increasingly broken. Lying in court is already illegal. So long as there is no penalty for perjury, lying will increase. Family Court sanctions (fines) should be used for lying.

More training: Court-related professionals need to realize that you cannot tell who is lying by simple observation. Yet one can learn personality dynamics which help indicate who might be lying, patterns of lying and where to look for evidence.

Resources. To be honest, studies referenced in this article came from: Lies! Lies! Lies! The Psychology of Deceit by Ford (1996) and Communication in Legal Advocacy by Rieke & Stutman (1990).11/14/99

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Your subconscious mind cannot distinguish between a real event and a make believe event.

What this means is, if you begin acting as though you have the ideal body of your dreams, soon enough your bconscious mind will begin working to realize those actions and will begin creating the picture you hold to be your ideal body.

Act as if you’re already as muscular as you want to be, act as though you have all the energy in the world, and act as though your self-confidence is soaring through the roof.

Begin to act as if you’ve already accomplished the goals that you’ve set for yourself.

The reason this step is important is for you to start feeling the awesome feelings you’ll have permanently if you achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself.

If you act as though you’re already muscular, your subconscious mind cannot distinguish between whether or not you are or are not.

The more you start flooding your body and mind with feelings of energy, strength, confidence, joy, happiness, and other positive feelings, you’ll begin to link pleasure with this entire process.

When you begin to act as though something imagined is real, you start to gravitate to those feelings and the actual accomplishment of those goals.

I know that sounds a bit foolish, but it’s true. In fact, it’s a proven fact that if you believe something to be absolutely, undeniably true for a long period of time, you can actually convince yourself that it is true.

For example, studies have been done with the lie detector (polygraph) machine in which they’ve tested people telling the truth and also people telling what they knew to be lies but that they believed strongly that it was the truth.

The polygraph machine could not distinguish between the two readings, of the group telling the truth and the group telling lies.

The people that were told to absolutely believe what they knew was not true had the same readings on the lie detector as the people actually telling the truth.

So what does all of this mean.

You can talk yourself into believing anything. So why not talk yourself into feeling, acting, and being lean and muscular.

Sooner or later, by acting that way, your brain will seek out and begin to take the necessary steps to actually accomplish that goal.

As much as this seems like mental hogwash, its a simple fact that if you begin to act with absolute conviction that something has happened or is occurring, your brain cannot distinguish if it really did happen or not.

Hey, if you like the feelings you get from having a rock-hard physique, why not become more muscular?

Just because you’ve identified what you want doesn’t mean you’re done there. Are you totally convinced you can achieve it?

Have you made the leap from knowing what you want to believing it’s within your reach?

In fact, you can identify the fact that you want a new job, but until you choose to go after one, you will not put forth the conscious effort.

Even after I had identified the fact I wanted to enter a show, I had to make the choice to go all out for this specific show and commit to the rigorous training and dieting that it would entail.

It wasn’t enough just to identify that I wanted to do this show and win, I had to choose to go after it with everything I had.

I chose to stick with an insane diet, I chose to put my workouts ahead of any social time, I chose to do anything and everything I had to do to give me a chance to win this show. I had now made the conscious choice to go after what I wanted.

Identifying what you want is not enough. You must choose to go after it, to start the chase.

So once you begin acting like you have the muscle mass you want, you have to take action and do those things that will create it in reality.

Many people believe that they know how to detect deception. They rely on nonverbal cues or actions that oftentimes speak louder than words. Indeed, there are body language signals that can help detect if a person is telling the real story or not.

It is often believed that you can tell if the person is honest or not by looking at his eyes. If he looks straight in the eye, he is presumed honest. However, there have been instances where nonverbal cues alone have failed to detect deception.

According to research, lying is a skill. It is something that can be learned – very much like biking, swimming, and driving. Professional liars have trained themselves to tell lies with a straight face; and they can do it with ease after long hours of practice. It only takes patience to learn a skill. If you want to know how to detect deception, it’s best if you use other tools in addition to reading body language signals alone.

Relying solely on nonverbal cues can lead to misinterpretation. Telling the truth can be quite stressful to some people. This is especially true when sensitive and painful matters are concerned. For some people, discussions about sexuality cause discomfort that they cannot talk casually or look straight in the eye.

With misleading nonverbal cues, people tend to overestimate their capacity on how to detect deception that they end up being deceived themselves.

The process of lie detection is quite tricky that people rely on technological tools in order to uncover the truth. This objective approach could achieve a better success rate than simply relying on nonverbal cues.

Lie detection tools are, in fact, used by law in interrogating witnesses or suspects in crimes. These tools demonstrate how inept a person’s judgment is when it comes to translating signals.

Some of the most common tools used to uncover deception are the polygraph and the functional magnetic resonance imaging, otherwise called FMRI.

The polygraph measures and monitors a person’s heart rate, skin conductance, and blood pressure. Changes in the monitored data are associated with a person’s anxiety level. When a person is anxious during interrogation, then there is a huge possibility that he is lying.

Another technological tool that works for the same purpose is the FMRI. It uses brain scans to understand how a person’s mind works and contains indicators that determine whether a person is telling the truth or not.

Police investigators know how to detect deception. They start the process by asking non-threatening questions. These questions do not prompt a person to lie. Then they proceed with the formal interrogation process. They compare and observe the changes in the brain’s activity.

Again, these tools are sometimes not one hundred percent accurate. Being subject to a lie detector test causes an increase in the anxiety level and brain activity for any normal person.

This may lead to a misinterpretation of data leading to the conclusion that the person is lying even if he is actually telling the truth. He is just self-conscious or maybe apprehensive about the machine!

It can swing both ways. Professional liars can conceal their feelings of anxiety, while some people become stressed out with telling the truth!

However, people should not wring their hands and give up on these tools. They seem to forget that most individuals whom they are dealing with are not professional liars, and not all people are out there to deceive them.

Operating from such a negative mindset can only attract more of these unwanted persons in their experience. Let us be thankful that science has come up with those tools that can help in knowing and understanding how to detect deception.

 Is the therapy system based on “healing hands” a scam or is it genuine? Are there really people who possess strange magnetic powers?

There are so many medical scams at the moment, being touted as “miracle cures” for almost any ailment, one is inclined to view all unorthodox therapy systems with skepticism. 

Nevertheless, the possibility that some people may possess an extraordinary power, known as “healing hands” is an intriguing feature of therapy that should not be ignored.

Although it is a theory that is completely rejected by orthodox medical opinion, there are a growing number of highly respected scientists who attach a great deal of importance to this method of alternative medicine.

 There is a growing body of scientific evidence to support the theory that some people appear to possess a mysterious quality which, for want of a better term, can be described as “healing hands”.

There is evidence to suggest that some people have a remarkable ability to cure sicknesses by means of touching or massaging the ailing person. Documented evidence of this has appeared in reputable scientific journals.

Orthodox medicine dismisses the notion that some people are able to transmit “magnetic, healing waves” as ridiculous.  Medical practitioners are convinced that if these incidents have in fact occurred, the cures have probably resulted from the power of suggestion and emotional response on the part of the sick person.

This may well be so, but there is another argument that cannot be ignored.  It effectively counters this assertion that the power of suggestion is responsible for these cures.

Increasing evidence is coming to light in the veterinary profession of remarkable cures in dogs and other animals by holistic specialists in alternative therapy, who have used the power of “healing hands” to cure illnesses in dogs and horses where orthodox veterinary techniques have failed.

Quite clearly the influence of the power of suggestion and the emotional response on the part of the “patient” is completely different to that which might occur with humans.

Those who favor this notion of the existence of “magnetic waves” bolster their arguments by referring to the action of the polygraph, as used in lie-detector tests.   It is well known that the polygraph works on a similar principle as the galvanometer, which was named after the Italian physicist, Luigi Galvan.    Human emotions are measured by electrical impulses that are recorded by a needle moving a long a moving graph of paper.

 Quite clearly, the more intense the emotion, the greater will be the movement due to the amount of electricity generated. When people lie they become agitated.  The heartbeat increases, as does  blood pressure.

Another theory, which in some respect parallels this concept of some humans being able to generate or radiate a mysterious magnetic mental force ,  is  to be seen in the case of  the relationship between humans and plants.   

There is a great deal of authenticated evidence to suggest that this does in fact occur and  plants do respond in some strange  way to human emotions.

This would perhaps explain why some people appear to possess, what is commonly referred to as “green fingers”, and have an amazing capacity to encourage growth in plants and flowers, while others have no success at all.

 If this relationship, which depends on emotional bonding between humans and plants,  exists – as has been claimed by reliable, objective, biologists  – how much more likely is it to occur between humans?

As implausible as it may sound, the theory that it may be possible to transmit some form of magnetic mental energy waves is something which should not be complete ignored.

THE E.S.P ( EXTRA-SENSORY PERCEPTION)  EXPERIMENTS OF PROFESSOR RHINE OF DUKE UNIVERSITY.

People interested in extrasensory perception will undoubtedly have heard about the remarkable experiments of Professor Rhine of Duke University, which indicated that although extrasensory perception was something that could not be explained by physical laws, there was little doubt that it did exist.  There was a suggestion that some people possessed the power to transmit magnetic, mental waves,

Professor Rhine’s experiments aroused a great deal of controversy.  They have been disputed by a number of authorities in this field, who maintain that they have never been able to duplicate the extraordinary results claimed by Professor Rhine.

Researchers who tried to find the reason why Professor Rhine’s extrasensory perception experiments were highly successful in certain instances and not as successful in others, found that when those when those who took part in the experiments truly believed they possessed unusual gifts, the results were strikingly successful.

 On the other hand, those who participated in the experiments with some degree of skepticism were not nearly as successful in showing signs of telepathic powers.

This may suggest a possible answer to the question of how to develop unusual, paranormal powers.

As is well known, when a placebo is used as a means of therapy, the beneficial effects are most marked when the patient truly believes  in the power of the placebo.

Obviously the power of suggestion is a extremely potent force, but it would seem that there may be other factors at work besides suggestion.

The magic of believing and the extraordinary power that this produces has been demonstrated time and time again in every sphere of life.   And self-belief is an integral part of believing.

If you are absolutely convinced – in your heart and in your mind – you have the power to accomplish something – you can achieve your goal.

Last week, we discussed energy sources in general terms, describing vibrational frequencies and the interactions between the currents of all kinds that flow around and through us. Today I want to propose some thoughts that may seem outlandish, but I’m going to try to explain in terms that will make the concepts more clear. Here’s a revolutionary thought:

All healing takes place at the energy level.

Let’s look at some commonly accepted energy tools that are in use today in the practice of medicine. Interestingly, a number of these have been in use for decades, and their reliability is unquestioned for diagnostic and healing purposes. But putting two and two together, we’ll move on…

Years ago, a researcher discovered that the heart gives off electrical waves that can be measured. The healthy tissue in a patient gives off a very specific pattern. Stressed or dead tissue gives off a distinctly different pattern from the healthy tissue. The resultant recordings of those waves we know today as an electrocardiogram, or EKG. An EKC is a powerful diagnostic tool; it picks up the specific electrical changes in the heart’s waves when anyone being tested is having a myocardial infarction (heart attack), or has had one in the past.

An electroencephalogram (EEG) is capable of determining normal and abnormal brain waves, to the point that probable sources of seizures can be diagnosed because of abnormal electrical signals given off in the brain. We have also discovered and labeled different waves per second (delta waves) have a frequency of 1-3 waves per second, called Hertz or Hz, which is seen in people in deep sleep. Theta waves have a frequency of 4-7 Hz, which is seen in different stages of sleep, and with emotional stress. Alpha waves, at 8-14 Hz, are seen in the alert state. Finally, beta waves, 14-50 Hz, are present when there is intense mental activity.

A magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, is a machine capable of interpreting normal and abnormal responses of tissue to magnetic energy, from which an image can be extracted. Spectroscopy is a laboratory diagnostic tool which can identify a specific substance based on the frequency that it gives off. This frequency is measured and placed on a graph. Every substance gives off a different frequency, which can be used to identify the substance.

Ultrasound is basically a tool where sound waves are released, and as they bounce off tissue and return, this feedback can be interpreted by a machine and create an image. There are PET scans, and SPECT scans, which can differentiate healthy tissue from diseased tissue by the energy characteristics that are given off. We have many other tools in medicine, including auditory-evoked response, visual-evoked response, myograms and oculograms, all of which tell us whether that particular tissue is normal or abnormal, based on its measurable electrical output.

There are also many therapeutic tools or modalities in medicine. One of the first was pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy, which releases specific low frequency, electromagnetic pulses to stimulate bone healing in non-healing bone fractures. Lithotrypsy has laser focused frequencies that are capable of breaking down kidney stones. Many of us have heard of or used light therapy for depression, called seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Acupuncture is recognized within the medical field for its effectiveness in pain relief, which is based on centuries’ old energy flow lines called meridians that flow throughout the body. There are also cold and hot laser therapy, which have been used in the healing of wounds and skin disorders.

Outside of the medical field are many energy and electrical devices that are in common use. For instance, the computer chip in your computers, or the remote controls that send frequencies to television sets, radios, light switches. Even though we don’t understand electricity, we have become accustomed to using lights and other things that need electricity to function. We even accept energy emissions from billions of light years away that are obtained through our telescopes. Gravity, much misunderstood, is a force that attracts objects from a distance to the center. A polygraph machine is capable of sensing electrical changes at the skin level, which differentiate a relaxed state of the parasympathetic nervous system and the anxious state of the sympathetic nervous system to determine the stress in peoples’ bodies in answer to specific questions.

This background is merely useful for opening up our minds to the concept of how much energy and frequencies and magnetics and electrical devices are influencing our lives today, that we take for granted, whether we understand them or not. In order for us to recognize the potential impact of energy and frequencies on the body, we’ll start by understanding how individual cells function in our bodies. That will be in our next article. For now, let’s recap the different energy tools and sources we’ve reviewed today:

In the medical field:

Electrocardiogram (EKG)
Electroencephalogram (EEG)
1. Theta waves
2. Alpha waves
3. Beta waves
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Ultrasound
1. PET scans
2. SPECT scans
Auditory-evoked Response
Visual-evoked Response
Myogram
Oculogram
Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy (PEMF)
Lithotrypsy
Light Therapy
Acupuncture
Cold Laser Therapy
Hot Laser Therapy

Outside of the medical field:

Computer chips
Remote controls
Light travel visible through telescopes
Gravity
Polygraph machines
Cell phones
Ipods
Internet
Telephone wires

It might be interesting to take a walk around your house or office and observe the number of devices that utilize energy from known and unknown sources! For more information, visit www.stangardnermd.com