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Psychologist Shows Why We "Choke" Under Pressure - and How to Avoid It

William Harms
University of Chicago
Tue, 21 Sep 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© University of Chicago News
Using brain scans and other research, University of Chicago psychologist Sian Beilock studies reasons why especially talented people fail at critical moments, or "choke."
A star golfer misses a critical putt; a brilliant student fails to ace a test; a savvy salesperson blows a key presentation. Each of these people has suffered the same bump in mental processing: They have just choked under pressure.

It's tempting to dismiss such failures as "just nerves." But to University of Chicago psychologist Sian Beilock, they are preventable results of information logjams in the brain. By studying how the brain works when we are doing our best - and when we choke - Beilock has formulated practical ideas about how to overcome performance lapses at critical moments.

Beilock's research is the basis of her new book, Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting it Right When You Have To, published Sept. 21 by Simon and Schuster, Free Press.

"Choking is suboptimal performance, not just poor performance. It's a performance that is inferior to what you can do and have done in the past and occurs when you feel pressure to get everything right," said Beilock, an associate professor in psychology.

Comment: To learn more about how meditation can help relieve the stress of everyday life and to help prevent "choking," visit the Eiriu Eolas - Stress Control, Healing and Rejuvenation Program website here.

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Target

Genes Related to Body Mass Discovered


ScienceDaily
Thu, 16 Sep 2010 00:00 UTC
Johns Hopkins scientists who specialize in unconventional hunts for genetic information outside nuclear DNA sequences have bagged a weighty quarry -- 13 genes linked to human body mass. The experiments screened the so-called epigenome for key information that cells remember other than the DNA code itself and may have serious implications for preventing and treating obesity, the investigators say.

"Some of the genes we found are in regions of the genome previously suspected but not confirmed for a link to body mass index and obesity," says co-lead investigator Andrew Feinberg, M.D., M.P.H., King Fahd Professor of Molecular Medicine and director of the Center for Epigenetics at Johns Hopkins' Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences. "Meanwhile, others were a surprise, such as one known to be associated with foraging behavior in hungry worms."

Starting with DNA samples extracted from Icelanders' white blood cells banked in 1991 and 2002 by scientists there as part of the AGES-Reykjavik study of individuals in the general population, the Hopkins team used a customized, genome-wide profiling method dubbed CHARM (comprehensive high-throughput arrays for relative methylation) to look for regions that were the most variable, all chemically marked by DNA methylation.
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Health

The Cure-All Properties of Ginger

Meredith Melnick
Healthlandtime.com
Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:56 UTC
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© moodboard/Corbis
Ginger is a well-known home remedy for pregnant women, patients undergoing chemotherapy, and travelers with weak stomachs, who all use the root to curb nausea. But now a new study in The Journal of Pain finds that two types of chemical compounds found in ginger - gingerols and phenols - can be used as an analgesic as well.

To treat muscle pain, 74 healthy adults regularly took 2 g of either cooked or raw ginger, or a placebo each day for 11 days. They all participated in the same series of exercises, which were aimed at creating inflammation and muscle pain in and around the elbow, and were then evaluated by researchers from the department of kinesiology at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Ga.
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Arrow Up

GUMC Researchers: Vitamin D Protects Against Obesity-induced Endometrial Cancer


Eurekalert.org
Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:28 UTC
The study in mice suggest that vitamin D supplementation is a good idea for high risk women

Washington, D.C. - Findings from an animal study suggest that obese women can reduce their increased risk of endometrial disease if they take vitamin D supplements, say researchers at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The scientists report in Cancer Prevention Research published online today that 25 percent of obese mice fed a vitamin D supplemented diet developed endometrial cancer, while 67 percent of obese mice not treated with the vitamin developed cancer. They also report that vitamin D offered no protective effects for normal weight mice; whether or not they used the vitamin, about 60 percent of these mice developed cancer.
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Red Flag

Corn Gluten Damages Celiac Patients


Gluten Free Society
Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:10 UTC
Image
© unknown
Many gluten free products use corn as an assumed safe grain substitute. Are you buying into this myth?

A Study published in the journal Gut identified that corn gluten caused an inflammatory reaction in patients with celiac disease.

"The observation that corn gluten challenge induced an abnormal NO reaction in some of our patients with CD is intriguing as maize is considered safe and is recommended as the substitute cereal in a gluten free diet."

Source:

Gut. 2005; 54:769-774.
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Video

Lead in the Environment: No Safe Dose


Harvard SPH
Mon, 13 Sep 2010 06:55 UTC
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Attention

Number of cases of anthrax in Bangladesh rises to nearly 600 in a month

Robert Herriman,
Examiner.com
Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:47 UTC
anthracis
© CDC
Typical appearance of B. anthracis on agar
According to Bangladesh's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) the total number of cases of cutaneous anthrax has reached 589 since the first case appeared in Sirajganj on August 18.

In the past 24 hours alone, the IEDCR has reported 4 new cases in the Meherpur and Narayangonj districts.

Since the anthrax cases have occurred in 12 of the 64 districts in the country, the Bangladeshi government had announced a red alert in the country as is trying to coordinate anthrax prevention and treatment in all 64 districts.

Anthrax is caused by the bacterium, Bacillus anthracis. This spore forming bacteria can survive in the environment for years because of its ability to resist heat, cold, drying, etc. this is usually the infectious stage of anthrax.

Anthrax is a pathogen in livestock and wild animals. Some of the more common herbivores are cattle, sheep, goats, horses, camels and deers.

It infects humans primarily through occupational or incidental exposure with infected animals or their skins.
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Question

MRSA in Meat: Why No Recall?

David Kirby
Huffington Post
Tue, 21 Sep 2010 20:26 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Next week, Congress will hold hearings on the recent recall of more than half a billion eggs infected with salmonella - all of them from two factory farms in Iowa.

That recall, though voluntary, was essential: Salmonella can make you very sick, though if treated on time, it is rarely fatal.

But that's not the case for MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), or drug-resistant staff infection. In 2005, U.S. hospitals treated more than 278,000 MRSA cases. Nearly 100,000 people faced life threatening illness and 18,650 died: 50 percent more than the number of AIDS death that year.

This evolving superbug sprang from the overuse of antibiotics - not only in hospital settings, but also in animal agriculture, which consumes an estimated 70 percent of all antibiotics sold in this country. Most of those drugs are given at low dose to promote animal growth and prevent disease, a practice that encourages the emergence of multi-drug resistant bacteria.
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Red Flag

Study: Human Exposure to BPA 'Grossly Underestimated'

Gayathri Vaidyanathan
New York Times
Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:15 UTC
Americans are likely to be exposed at higher levels than previously thought to bisphenol A, a compound that mimics hormones important to human development and is found in more than 90 percent of people in the United States, according to new research.

U.S. EPA says it is OK for humans to take in up to 50 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight each day. The new study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, suggests that we are exposed to at least eight times that amount every day.

"Our data raise grave concern that regulatory agencies have grossly underestimated current human exposure levels," states the study.

The study also gives the first experimental support that some BPA is likely cleared at similar rates in mice, monkeys and humans, making it possible to extrapolate health studies in mice to humans.
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Question

Surprise: FDA Panel Unable to Reach Conclusion on Genetically Modified Salmon

Kim Carollo
ABC
Tue, 21 Sep 2010 14:59 UTC
gmo salmon
© Getty Images
A crate of salmon. U.S. health officials are set to rule on whether a faster-growing, genetically engineered fish is safe to eat. Their decision could put the first genetically altered animal food on American consumers' dinner plates.

After two days of hearings, several members of an 11-member advisory panel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found that there are not yet sufficient data to determine that a genetic modification that enables salmon to grow twice as quickly is safe for the affected fish or for consumers.

The panel, made up of outside experts, did not vote or make a recommendation on whether to approve these fish for human consumption, after holding today's public hearing to determine whether genetic engineering is safe for the fish; whether the fish are safe to eat; whether the fish actually do grow faster; and the potential environmental impacts the production of these fish could pose.

AquaBounty Technologies, the company that hoped to get the modification approved, faced considerable criticism from a number of consumer and scientific advocacy organizations at the hearings.

The genetically altered salmon eggs include a growth hormone gene that cause them to reach full size in about half the time it takes regular salmon to reach the same size.
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