Every tenth owner of a CD or MP3 player is at high risk of losing hearing, as they often listen to high-volume music, scientists say.

This risk, according to specialists, is being developed from regular listening to high-volume music more than an an hour per day during 5 years. It means that approximately 10 million people all over Europe, including children and teenagers, can suffer from their passion of listening to music through earphones. Statistics say that from 50 to 100 million people use audio players everyday. This is a problem more and more spread among young people, that's why the European committee has promised to lead an investigation on it.

Safety warnings indicate that the maximum level of noise in earphones is in the limits of 100 decibels, but, unfortunately, people usually don't respect these norms. A lot of music lovers raise the level of noise to 89 decibels so they can "plug" the noise in means of public transport.

So, in conclusion, we have from 5 to 10 per cent of music listeners in a group of high risk (that makes circa 2.5 to 10 million people). And losing hearing can be irreversible in such cases, as studies show. Perhaps, the effects of listening to music in high-volume and through earphones often cannot be seen or noticed, but they cumulate in time and when one less expects it, the problems appear. Specialists affirm that they will try to find a solution to this problem, but, in the meantime, for the sake of health, a person should refrain oneself from very high-volume levels of music in the earphones and thus, protect the sense of hearing.

A lot of experiments nowadays are dedicated to the "enlightening" of our brains. Statistics show that there are approximately 600 medicines meant to treat the disturbances of the nervous system, a good part of which not only treat the disturbances, but also stimulate a normal nervous system.

Some of these medicines are Metilfenidate and Modafinil, already popular in USA. With the help of them people can memorize with a number or an element more than in a normal state (it's known that the majority of people can memorize 7 numbers and the 8th one is rarely memorized), a thing that helps in a lot of situations in our lives, take exams as a good example.

A really surprising fact is that some serious scientists also use them for a better concentration, a better memory and so on.

Another group of pills have quite the contrary effects on people because of such a component as D-cycloserine. They are used to delete information from one's memory, a property used for the treatment of phobias and dependencies.

But all of these wonderful effects of the respective medicines are actually only side-effects. For example, the already mentioned Metilfenidate is called "cocaine for children", as it is used to treat hyperactivity in children. In many countries it stays in the list of narcotic substances, along with cocaine and morphine. More than that, during an experiment at the beginning of our century, a number of persons were administered cocaine and later they were administered Metilfenidate. All of them affirmed not to have felt any difference between them!

As a matter of fact, the instructions to the majority of these "knowledge pills" say that their mechanisms of action on humans had not been totally studied yet, which means that the consequences of their administration can be completely unpredictable.

In many cases, a prolonged usage of these substances led to serious psychological dependences, disturbances of the kidneys and liver, genetical modifications and even convulsions and death. That is to say, there should be a good control in their usage and only when necessary. Nobody will become a genius immediately after the swallowing of "knowledge pills" anyway. Our brain is such a sensible and unknown part of our body that experiments on it should be made only under the supervision of a good specialist and exclusively when really needed.

And, who knows, perhaps in the nearest future we'll be able to buy magic knowledge pills that will supply our brain with all the needed information. It would be a great idea to swallow a pill of this kind in some seconds instead of trying to "swallow" a book in a couple of days...

It is well-known nowadays that circa 15 per cent of persons all over the world suffer from regular disturbing headaches, which makes approximately 585 million people. Usually, it is considered that women older than 40 are the ones who suffer the most from these headaches, but it is wrong. Children and men suffer from migraines too, though they pass away when men are 60... with no exceptions(!).

The word "migraine" has its origin from the French variant of the Greek "hemicranias", which means "pain of a half of the head". Doctors cannot explain clearly the causes that lead to this phenomenon yet.

German medical scientists, by having made some interesting observations over 300 patients suffering from migraines and headaches, have got to the conclusion that their main cause was a raised muscular tonus. That is, these people were in a constant tension and didn't know how to relax correctly. So, the main advice the doctors were giving them was to avoid being tense all the time.

Still, the most original solution for the problem of migraines was given by the Irish doctors of Belfast. After a series of long experiments, they have found out that the cause of the headaches was... the involuntary tightening of the teeth during one's sleep. As a result, the human organism starts to produce a specific substance, which causes the constriction of the brain blood vessels and migraine as a consequence.

The intelligent Irish scientists have elaborated a special small plate, meant to be introduced into the mouth before going to sleep and said to prevent the involuntary tightening of the teeth. However, the new device for the prevention of headaches has not been officially acknowledged yet and its structure is still a secret.

All the other serious investigations on this subject nowadays are more related to biochemistry. Take for example another theory, according to which serotonin could have an important role in this process. It is an enzyme that regulates the feeling of satisfaction, concerns, mood, sleep and even appetite in the human brain. Experiments have revealed that people suffering from migraines often suffer from depressions also.

And, after their being administered antidepressants that contain serotonin, their headaches are totally gone too. That's why it is possible that soon scientists will find a universal medicine for migraines, made on the basis of serotonin. Or, maybe, as a side-product, they will get a serotonin-made happiness elixir.

But that will happen some other century for sure.