Wellness
A community forum on depression and suicide prevention Tuesday night revealed a startling statistic: The number of suicide attempts on Martha's Vineyard has tripled in the last year compared to the incidence in the previous 12 months.
Fueled by a federal grant aimed at countering a bioterrorist attack, scientists at a Providence, R.I., pharmaceutical company are banking on the collection of blood samples from nearly two dozen Vineyarders to help them develop a new vaccine against tularemia, the rare disease with an unexplained presence on Martha's Vineyard.
Vineyard residents enjoy good health, especially compared with the general population on the mainland. They smoke less, they are thinner and they visit their doctors regularly.
Ask someone to recite the symptoms of Lyme disease, and you'll probably hear all the classic signs: bull's eye rash, fever and aching joints.
But what about depression, memory loss and other cognitive disorders?
Surprisingly, Lyme disease - in its chronic form - can also be the culprit for a host of psychiatric problems in anywhere from 15 to 40 per cent of cases.
The noisy, motley group of runners suddenly waxed silent and awaited the bullhorn. When it blasted, the soles of more than a thousand running shoes began pummelling Middle Road against a canvas of shadows and golden light.
On Saturday morning the 25th annual Chilmark Road Race began just as its predecessors - but with an even richer sense of history, and featuring a wonderful new gadget.
If you're not feeling quite ready for the holidays, if the
festive mood hasn't grabbed you, don't worry. You're
not alone.