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Study: depression can lead to inflated reports of physical symptoms


University of Iowa
Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:08 UTC
New research shows people who feel depressed tend to recall having more physical symptoms than they actually experienced. The study indicates that depression -- not neuroticism -- is the cause of such over-reporting.

Psychologist Jerry Suls, professor and collegiate fellow in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, attributes the findings to depressed individuals recalling experiences differently, tending to ruminate over and exaggerate the bad.

Published electronically this month in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, the study was conducted by investigators in the UI Department of Psychology, the Center for Research in the Implementation of Innovative Strategies in Practice (CRIISP) at the Iowa City VA Medical Center, and the UI College of Nursing.
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Cheeseburger

Junk Food as 'Addictive as Drugs'


Telegraph
Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:09 UTC
Image
Junk food is almost as addictive as heroin, scientists have found.

A diet of burgers, chips, sausages and cake will program your brain into craving even more foods that are high in sugar, salt and fat, according to new research.

Over the years these junk foods can become a substitute for happiness and will lead bingers to become addicted.
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Attention

Researchers Link Low-Level Mercury Exposure, Zinc Deficiency and Learning Disorders


Organic Consumers Association
Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:00 UTC
Child learning and behavioral disorders are on the rise. Increasingly, diet-related factors like synthetic food dyes, mercury contamination and mineral deficiencies are being linked to these problems.

A new study in this month's issue of the peer-reviewed Behavioral and Brain Functions Journal suggests an important new model for how these disparate factors in the food system may be interacting to create a much bigger overall problem than typically is appreciated by looking at these diet factors individually.

The article, "Mercury exposure, nutritional deficiencies and metabolic disruptions may affect learning in children," by former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) researcher Renee Default et al., builds on long-acknowledged science from many different fields. It has long been known, for example, that mercury may bioaccumulate in the brain if not eliminated from the body, and that mercury is toxic to young, developing brains even at minute levels of exposure. It also has been acknowledged that dietary zinc is an essential mineral for maintaining the metabolic processes required to remove mercury from the body.
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Bulb

Diet And Intestinal Bacteria Linked With Healthier Immune Systems

Alison Heather
Medical News Today
Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:21 UTC
Insoluble dietary fibre, or roughage, not only keeps you regular, say Australian scientists, it also plays a vital role in the immune system, keeping certain diseases at bay.

The indigestible part of all plant-based foods pushes its way through most of the digestive tract unchanged, acting as a kind of internal broom. When it arrives in the colon, bacteria convert it to energy and compounds known as 'short chain fatty acids'. These are already known to alleviate the symptoms of colitis, an inflammatory gut condition [1].

Similarly, probiotics and prebiotics, food supplements that affect the balance of gut bacteria, reduce the symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis, also inflammatory diseases. Until now no-one has understood why.

Published in Nature, breakthrough research by a Sydney-based team makes new sense of such known facts by describing a mechanism that links diet, gut bacteria and the immune system.
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Smiley

No pain, no gain: Mastering a skill makes us stressed in the moment, happy long term

Elaine Bible
San Francisco State University
Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:14 UTC
No pain, no gain applies to happiness, too, according to new research published online this week in the Journal of Happiness Studies. People who work hard at improving a skill or ability, such as mastering a math problem or learning to drive, may experience stress in the moment, but experience greater happiness on a daily basis and longer term, the study suggests.

"No pain, no gain is the rule when it comes to gaining happiness from increasing our competence at something," said Ryan Howell, assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University. "People often give up their goals because they are stressful, but we found that there is benefit at the end of the day from learning to do something well. And what's striking is that you don't have to reach your goal to see the benefits to your happiness and well-being."
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Fish

Why Fish Oils Help And How They Could Help Even More


redOrbit news
Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:43 UTC
New research from Queen Mary, University of London and Harvard Medical School has revealed precisely why taking fish oils can help with conditions like rheumatoid arthritis.

In a paper published in Nature today, researchers describe how the body converts an ingredient found in fish oils into another chemical called Resolvin D2 and how this chemical reduces the inflammation that leads to a variety of diseases.

The research also suggests that Resolvin D2 could be the basis for a new treatment for diseases including sepsis, stroke and arthritis. Unlike other anti-inflammatory drugs, this chemical does not seem to suppress the immune system.

The researchers, who were funded by the Arthritis Research Campaign, the Wellcome Trust and the National Institutes of Health, looked at a particular ingredient of fish oils called DHA. They were able to show how the body converts DHA into Resolvin D2 and discover its exact chemical structure.
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Magic Hat

Breakthrough documentary "House of Numbers" challenges conventional thinking on HIV, AIDS

Mike Adams
Natural News
Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:25 UTC
Canadian filmmaker Brent Leung isn't winning any friends in the pharmaceutical industry these days. His breakthrough documentary "House of Numbers" features jaw-dropping interviews with doctors, researchers and even the co-discoverer of HIV himself (Luc Montagnier), all of whom reveal startling information calling into question the "official" explanation of HIV and AIDS.

An exclusive trailer from House of Numbers:


More information about the film is available at HouseOfNumbers.com

The film isn't publicly available yet, as it's been screened in film festivals around the world. Check the available screening events at the film's website.
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Eating animals is making us sick

Jonathan Safran Foer
CNN.com
Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:10 UTC
Editor's note: Jonathan Safran Foer is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. His latest book, the nonfiction Eating Animals, (Little, Brown and Co.) will be published November 2.

Like most people, I'd given some thought to what meat actually is, but until I became a father and faced the prospect of having to make food choices on someone else's behalf, there was no urgency to get to the bottom of things.

I'm a novelist and never had it in mind to write nonfiction. Frankly, I doubt I'll ever do it again. But the subject of animal agriculture, at this moment, is something no one should ignore. As a writer, putting words on the page is how I pay attention.
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When Cancer Spreads to the Brain

Shari Roan
The Los Angeles Times
Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:50 UTC
Doctor
© Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles TimesA doctor stands by images of a CT scan showing a brain with cancer.
The first set of guidelines dealing with cancer that has spread to the brain calls for treatment with both surgery and radiation therapy instead of just radiation alone.

The document, released today at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons meeting in New Orleans, is designed to clarify the best treatments for brain metastases and identify areas where more research is needed, said Dr. Steven Kalkanis, co-director of the Hermelin Brain Tumor Center at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and a member of the panel of experts who developed the guidelines.

Braincancer Among 1.4 million individuals with cancer in the United States, 30% to 40% will develop brain metastases -- tumors that travel to the brain from other areas in the body, such as the breast or lung. It's common practice to treat patients with whole brain radiation. However, a review of medical literature shows that the best results are obtained when patients have surgery to remove the brain tumors followed by whole brain radiation, Kalkanis said.
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A Molecule of Motivation, Dopamine Excels at Its Task

Natalie Angier
The New York Times
Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:00 UTC
Dopamine
© Serge Bloch
If you've ever had a problem with rodents and woken up to find that mice had chewed their way through the Cheerios, the Famous Amos, three packages of Ramen noodles, and even that carton of baker's yeast you had bought in a fit of Ladies of the Canyon wistfulness, you will appreciate just how freakish is the strain of laboratory mouse that lacks all motivation to eat.

The mouse is physically capable of eating. It still likes the taste of food. Put a kibble in its mouth, and it will chew and swallow, all the while wriggling its nose in apparent rodent satisfaction.

Yet left on its own, the mouse will not rouse itself for dinner. The mere thought of walking across the cage and lifting food pellets from the bowl fills it with overwhelming apathy. What is the point, really, of all this ingesting and excreting? Why bother? Days pass, the mouse doesn't eat, it hardly moves, and within a couple of weeks, it has starved itself to death.

Behind the rodent's fatal case of ennui is a severe deficit of dopamine, one of the essential signaling molecules in the brain. Dopamine has lately become quite fashionable, today's "it" neurotransmitter, just as serotonin was "it" in the Prozac-laced '90s.
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