WHAT CAUSES MOEBIUS SYNDROME?
The site livestrong.com recently had an interesting summary of the latest findings and research:

"According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Moebius syndrome is a rare birth defect that affects the sixth cranial nerve, which moves muscles of the face, and the seventh cranial nerve, which moves eyes side-to-side. In some cases, additional cranial nerves are also affected. People with Moebius syndrome are unable to make facial expressions, have trouble blinking and swallowing and may have crossed eyes. It is rare and is estimated to affect 1 in every 50,000 to 500,000 people. The cause of Moebius syndrome is unknown....In "Clinical Genetics," researcher W. Briegel states that the most accepted cause of Moebius syndrome is vascular disruption. Vascular disruption causes a temporary loss of blood flow to the brain. Researchers believe this occurs early in development, at some time during the first trimester. This loss of blood flow, and the oxygen it carries, causes errors in the development of the cranial nerves, leading to the facial paralysis of Moebius syndrome."

Read the whole thing--the piece goes on to discuss things that can cause vascular disruptions.

And is this little article correct?  Is it missing anything?  If so, we should contact the author and the site...

SOCIAL NETWORKS...

...meanwhile, can affect your health.  The NY Times today explains how:

"IS your social network making you fat? Are your friends and family influencing you to smoke and drink more, or to sleep less?  And if our relationships contribute to behaviors that erode our health, can social networks be harnessed to improve it?  These are seminal questions in “network science” — an emerging field that examines how behavioral changes spread through social networks. By social networks, I don’t mean virtual, will-you-“friend”-me? simulations, but old-fashioned, flesh-and-blood relationships. You know, people you actually see in person regularly — friends, relatives, co-workers, neighbors.
“It’s a very old thing that we do, like ants, arranging ourselves to live in social structures,” says Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a Harvard professor who studies health and social networks. “Really, humans have arranged themselves into networks for hundreds and thousands of years.”  Dr. Christakis and his research partner, James H. Fowler, an associate professor at the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, created an international uproar in 2007 when they published a study on obesity. In it, they reported that fat could be catching — spreading through social ties. One of the study’s findings was that a person’s chance of becoming obese increased 57 percent if the person had a friend who became obese. Another surprising finding of the study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, was that one’s chance of becoming obese was influenced not only by the weight gain of friends but also by friends of friends who gained weight."

One can certainly see how this could happen.  If you hang out with people who eat too much, and they constantly encourage you to eat and eat as well, it can be a bad influence.  That's why if your life, in whatever area, isn't going the way you wish it to go, it's so important for us to take responsibility and to figure out what's taking us down the wrong path.  It may be the people with whom we choose to hang out.  On the other hand, this is where supportive social networks through Facebook or e-mail or blogs can really be helpful...

"Nothing is a greater impediment to being on good terms with others
than being ill at ease with yourself." -Honore de Balzac