Health & WellnessS


Coffee

Coffee and Nighttime Jobs Do Not Mix, Study Finds


ScienceDaily
Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:00 UTC
Coffee
© Goggle Images
Night-shift workers should avoid drinking coffee if they wish to improve their sleep, according to research published in the journal Sleep Medicine.

A new study led by Julie Carrier, a Université de Montréal psychology professor and a researcher at the affiliated Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur Sleep Disorders Centre, has found the main byproduct of coffee, caffeine, interferes with sleep and this side-effect worsens as people age.

"Caffeine is the most widely used stimulant to counteract sleepiness, yet it has detrimental effects on the sleep of night-shift workers who must slumber during the day, just as their biological clock sends a strong wake-up signal," says Carrier. "The older you get, the more affected your sleep will be by coffee."

Twenty-four men and women participated in the study: one group was aged 20 to 30, while a second group was aged 45 to 60. Everyone spent two sleepless nights in lab rooms before being allowed to sleep. "We all know someone who claims to sleep like a baby after drinking an espresso. Although they may not notice it, their sleep will not be as deep and will likely be more perturbed," says Professor Carrier.
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Family

T.V. Exposure may be Associated with Aggressive Behavior in Young Children


ScienceDaily
Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:00 UTC
Three-year-old children who are exposed to more TV appear to be at an increased risk for exhibiting aggressive behavior, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

"Early childhood aggression can be problematic for parents, teachers and childhood peers and sometimes is predictive of more serious behavior problems to come, such as juvenile delinquency, adulthood violence and criminal behavior," according to background information in the article. Various predictive factors for childhood aggression have been studied. These include parents' discipline style, neighborhood safety and media exposure. "After music, television is the medium children aged 0 to 3 years are exposed to the most." Although the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen media for children younger than age 2, studies have found consistent use of television in that age group.

Jennifer A. Manganello, Ph.D., M.P.H., of University at Albany, State University of New York, Rensselaer, and Catherine A. Taylor, Ph.D., M.S.W., M.P.H., of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, analyzed data from 3,128 mothers of children born from 1998 to 2000 in 20 large U.S. cities to examine associations of child television exposure and household television use with aggressive behavior in children. Parents were interviewed at the time of the child's birth and at one and three years. At three years, they were asked to report time the child spent watching TV directly as well as household TV use on a typical day. Aggression also was assessed at 3 years of age using a 15-item aggressive subscale for 2- and 3-year-old children. Demographic information and other risk factors for aggression were also noted.
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Magnify

Bacteria 'Launch A Shield' To Resist Attack


ScienceDaily
Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:00 UTC
Researchers from the University of Copenhagen and the Technical University of Denmark along with other collaborators in Denmark and the US found that the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa can 'switch on' production of molecules that kill white blood cells -- preventing the bacteria being eliminated by the body's immune system.

P. aeruginosa is responsible for many hospital-acquired infections and also causes chronic infections in those with pre-existing medical conditions such as cystic fibrosis (CF). The bacteria cause persistent lung infections by clumping together to form a biofilm, which spreads over the lungs like a slime. Such biofilms are generally resistant to antibiotics as well as the host immune response.

The study showed that P. aeruginosa uses a well-studied communication system called quorum sensing (QS) to detect approaching white blood cells and warn other bacteria in the biofilm. In response to this signal, the bacteria increase their production of molecules called rhamnolipids. These molecules sit on the biofilm surface to form a shield that destroys any white blood cells that encounter it. Interrupting quorum sensing to halt the "launch a shield" response could be a way of treating these bacteria that can resist antibiotics as well as the host immune system.
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Childhood Physical Abuse Linked to Arthritis, Study Finds


ScienceDaily
Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:00 UTC
Adults who had experienced physical abuse as children have 56 per cent higher odds of osteoarthritis compared to those who have not been abused, according to a new study by University of Toronto researchers.

University of Toronto researchers investigated the relationship between self-reported childhood physical abuse and a diagnosis of osteoarthritis (OA). After analyzing representative data from the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey, the researchers determined a significant association between childhood physical abuse and osteoarthritis in adulthood.

The study is published in the November issue of the journal Arthritis Care & Research.
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Health

Research Suggests, Eating a Diet High in Processed Food Increases the Risk of Depression


BBC News
Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:12 UTC
Eating a diet high in processed food increases the risk of depression, research suggests.

What is more, people who ate plenty of vegetables, fruit and fish actually had a lower risk of depression, the University College London team found.

Data on diet among 3,500 middle-aged civil servants was compared with depression five years later, the British Journal of Psychiatry reported.

The team said the study was the first to look at the UK diet and depression.
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Ambulance

Girl Mistakenly Given Swine Flu Vaccine Went To ER


Gothamist
Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:57 UTC
Now it turns out that one of the public school students given the swine flu vaccine without parental consent had to go to the emergency room after getting sick. Six-year-old Nikiyah Torres, who suffers from epilepsy (her parents had been waiting to see what their family doctor said about the swine flu vaccine) told WCBS 2, "He just gave me the needle, without asking me what is my name."

The little girl told the Daily News, "My stomach was hurting, and I was itching," and was taken to the hospital from her school, PS 335 in Brooklyn. According to the News, "When the nurse called for a student Thursday morning, Nikiyah's teacher misunderstood and sent the wrong student, [NIkyah's mother Naomi] Troy said. The error was compounded when the nurse didn't check Nikiyah's name before sticking her in the shoulder."

When the nurse realized what happened, the school called Troy to appear - and the nurse asked her to sign the consent form even though the shot was already given to her daughter. Troy fumed to WCBS 2, "He knew he was in big trouble and he wanted to cover himself."

The News also reports that a third child was given the swine flu vaccine without consent, prompting the nurses' union to say "I told you so" because it had warned about problems with making school nurses responsible for this: "We don't like it when we're right, because usually when we're right someone does get hurt somewhere along the way."
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Padlock

Chased by their church: When you try to leave Scientology, they try to bring you back

Joe Childs and Thomas C. Tobin
St. Petersburg Times
Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:29 UTC
Image
© Luke MacGregor/ReutersDavid Miscavige, leader of the Church of Scientology.
For years, the Church of Scientology chased down and brought back staff members who tried to leave.

Ex-staffers describe being pursued by their church and detained, cut off from family and friends and subjected to months of interrogation, humiliation and manual labor.

One said he was locked in a room and guarded around the clock.

Some who did leave said the church spied on them for years.

Others said that, as a condition for leaving, the church cowed them into signing embellished affidavits that could be used to discredit them if they ever spoke out.

The St. Petersburg Times has interviewed former high-ranking Scientology officials who coordinated the intelligence gathering and supervised the retrieval of staff who left, or "blew."

They say the church, led by David Miscavige, wanted to contain the threat that those who left might reveal secrets of life inside Scientology.
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Genes Drive Behaviour, But Culture can Select Genes

Marlowe Hood
Agence France-Presse
Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:00 UTC
Image
© AFPCulture, not just genes, can drive evolutionary outcomes
Culture, not just genes, can drive evolutionary outcomes, according to a study released Wednesday that compares individualist and group-oriented societies across the globe.

Bridging a rarely-crossed border between natural and social sciences, the study looks at the interplay across 29 countries of two sets of data, one genetic and the other cultural.

The researchers found that most people in countries widely described as collectivist have a specific mutation within a gene regulating the transport of serotonin, a neurochemical known to profoundly affect mood.

In China and other east Asian nations, for example, up to 80 percent of the population carry this so-called "short" allele, or variant, of a stretch of DNA known as 5-HTTLPR.

Earlier research has shown the S allele to be strongly linked with a range of negative emotions, including anxiety and depression.
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Angry Faces: Facial Structure Linked to Aggressive Tendencies, Study Suggests


ScienceDaily
Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:11 UTC
facial structure
© iStockphoto/Thomas PerkinsNew research finds that a quick glance at someone's facial structure may be enough for us to predict their tendency towards aggression.
Angry words and gestures are not the only way to get a sense of how temperamental a person is. According to new findings in Psychological Science, a quick glance at someone's facial structure may be enough for us to predict their tendency towards aggression.

Facial width-to-height ratio (WHR) is determined by measuring the distance between the right and left cheeks and the distance from the upper lip to the mid-brow. During childhood, boys and girls have similar facial structures, but during puberty, males develop a greater WHR than females. Previous research has suggested that males with a larger WHR act more aggressively than those with a smaller WHR. For example, studies have shown that hockey players with greater WHR earn more penalty minutes per game than players with lower WHR.

Psychologists Justin M. Carré, Cheryl M. McCormick, and Catherine J. Mondloch of Brock University conducted an experiment to see if it is possible to predict another person's propensity for aggressive behavior simply by looking at their photograph. Volunteers viewed photographs of faces of men for whom aggressive behavior was previously assessed in the lab. The volunteers rated how aggressive they thought each person was on a scale of one to seven after viewing each face for either 2000 milliseconds or 39 milliseconds.
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Laptop

When Internet Use Becomes a Problem

Elizabeth Cooney
Boston Globe
Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00 UTC
Internet
© iStockphoto
The trouble signs are all there. They don't sleep enough, they don't eat right, they've lost touch with their friends, and their school performance has dropped off a cliff.

Their worried parents bring them to the doctor, fearing drug abuse or depression, but the evaluations come up empty. A doctor at Children's Hospital Boston says something else may be at work. "We see kids who are just gaming, and they appear to their parents to have all of the signs and symptoms of drug use,'' Dr. Michael Rich said about the seductive world of online games. "But in fact they are only hooked on the drug of electrons on their screen.''

Climbing levels in games like World of Warcraft, where unlimited numbers of role-playing competitors play around the clock and around the world, can be habit-forming and disruptive for both adolescents and adults. Other online activities, from visiting porn sites to incessantly checking e-mail, can also interfere with work, school, and relationships. In a world where always being connected seems as vital as breathing, how much is too much? And does excessive Internet use equal addiction?

A debate already divides behavioral addictions such as compulsive gambling or shopping from physiological addictions to alcohol or other drugs. People don't die when they unplug from the Internet, Dr. Ronald Pies points out.
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