Health & WellnessS


Health

US: Heavy-drinking Colleges Showing No Improvements


Science Daily
Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:00 UTC
U.S. colleges with the biggest student drinking problems have so far failed to turn the tide, according to a new study.

The research, published in the September issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, found that at 18 heavy-drinking U.S. campuses, students' alcohol habits showed little change over a dozen years. In 1993, 58 percent of students reported binge drinking in the past two weeks; in 2005, 56 percent said the same. And although 28 percent of students in 1993 said they frequently binged, that figure was 32 percent in 2005.

The study did not look at what, if any, measures the colleges had taken to combat student drinking. But whatever they might have done has apparently not been enough, according to lead researcher Toben F. Nelson, Sc.D., an assistant professor of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
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Health

Noisy Roads Increase Risk Of High Blood Pressure


Science Daily
Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:04 UTC
Traffic noise raises blood pressure. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Environmental Health have found that people exposed to high levels of noise from nearby roads are more likely to report suffering from hypertension.

Theo Bodin worked with a team or researchers from Lund University Hospital, Sweden, to investigate the association between living close to noisy roads and having raised blood pressure. He said: "Road traffic is the most important source of community noise. Non-auditory physical health effects that are biologically plausible in relation to noise exposure include changes in blood pressure, heart rate, and levels of stress hormones. We found that exposure above 60 decibels was associated with high blood pressure among the relatively young and middle-aged, an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke."
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Family

Blueberry is Food for Thought

Richard Alleyne
Telegraph UK
Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:28 UTC
Image
© Ross CatrowBlueberries and other foods rich in flavonoids can help stave off dementia, researchers say.
A blueberry smoothie at breakfast can stop your powers of concentration waning in the afternoon - and even help fight dementia in the long term, new research suggests.

Scientists have found that the food can increase your attention span in the short term and can maintain a healthy mind in the long term.

They found that just one 200g blueberry smoothie was enough to increase powers of concentration by as much as 20 per cent over the day.

Regular consumption of the fruit could lead to a rewiring of a part of the brain that is linked to memory.

The findings of the study, reported at the British Science Festival, add to the growing reputation of blueberries as the super-food of super-foods.
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Magnify

In the Middle of Brain Surgery, Patients Wake Up and Begin Talking


Medical News Today
Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:00 UTC
Kim Delvaux was undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor when doctors at Loyola University Hospital woke her up.

Dr. Vikram Prabhu talked to her about her favorite topics -- NASCAR and her kids.

"I can remember two distinct conversations," said Delvaux, who lives in Downers Grove. "My friends can't believe it, but it's true."

While she was awake, Prabhu gently probed brain tissue surrounding the tumor. If this affected Delvaux's ability to speak or move, Prabhu would avoid those areas when he later removed the tumor. "We call these areas "No Fly Zones,'" he said.
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Green Light

Cat and dog combination nothing to sneeze at

Julia Medew
The Age
Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:13 UTC
Trying to decide whether a dog or cat will protect you from allergies? New research says you should live with both.

A team of New Zealand researchers who tracked more than 1000 people over 30 years found those who lived with dogs and cats for significant periods of time were less likely to develop allergies, compared with those who lived with either a dog or a cat.

Using skin-prick tests to measure reactions to common allergens, they found that 35 per cent of children with both pets had developed allergies by age 13. This compared with 43 per cent of those with no pets and 52 per cent of those who had either a dog or a cat.

"The reduction in risk among those with cats and dogs was not specific to animal allergens but included multiple allergens, including house dust mite and grass," said the researchers, who included Professor Malcolm Sear of the University of Otago in Dunedin.
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Green Light

Yoga may ease chronic back pain

Amy Norton
Reuters
Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:40 UTC
"Oh, my aching back!" may be heard less frequently as people with chronic lower back pain find some relief from a therapeutic form of yoga, a new study suggests.

Yoga is often promoted as a way to ease lower back pain and other chronic body aches, but there have been few rigorously conducted studies on the subject.

For the current study, published in the journal Spine, researchers randomly assigned 90 adults (average age 48, range 18-70) with chronic lower back pain to either stay with conventional care or take six months of Iyengar-style yoga classes.
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Study exposes how bacteria resist antibiotics

Julie Steenhuysen
Reuters
Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:37 UTC
Scientists have discovered how bacteria fend off a wide range of antibiotics, and blocking that defense mechanism could give existing antibiotics more power to fight dangerous infections.

Researchers at New York University said on Thursday that bacteria produce certain nitric oxide-producing enzymes to resist antibiotics.

Drugs that inhibit these enzymes can make antibiotics much more potent, making even deadly superbugs like Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA succumb, they said.
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Does Infection Boost Prostate Cancer Risk?

Rob Stein
Washington Post
Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:34 UTC
Scientists have more evidence that a common sexually transmitted infection may increase the risk of advanced prostate cancer.

Previous research has suggested that an infection known as trichomoniasis might increase the risk for prostate cancer, which is the second most common cancer and cause of cancer death among men.

In the new study, Jennifer Stark of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and colleagues analyzed blood samples from 673 men with prostate cancer who participated in the Physicians' Health Study, a large, ongoing study examining a variety of health issues. Compared to 673 similar men who did not develop prostate cancer, those with the infection were more than twice as likely to develop prostate cancer that was advanced when it was diagnosed a decade later and nearly three times as likely to get a lethal case, the researchers reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
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Blackbox

Think Vietnam Vets Were Screwed? Wait Until You See How Many Veterans of Bush's Wars End up in Jail

Penny Coleman
AlterNet
Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:57 UTC
Far too many soldiers end up behind bars while the rest of us are free to ignore the human evidence of what our military ventures really cost.

As all the other justifications for the U.S. invasion of Iraq have fallen by the wayside, it is ironic that the one that remains is "freedom," because in the name of someone else's freedom, we train our own soldiers to behave in ways that may very well cost them their own.

Gordy Lane is a retired Syracuse police detective who served in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. As a cop, it was his job to put lawbreakers behind bars, but as a veteran, he understands that when you go to war, "you come back a little different than when you went over there."

"Listen," he says, "you pop up out of a foxhole, and you blow a guy's head open like a watermelon. The other two guys in the foxhole start patting you on the back and saying, 'Good job!' because you just did the worst thing that you can do to another person. How do you translate that into civilian life?"
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Health

The Claim: Cinnamon Oil Kills Bacteria

Annahad O'Connor
New York Times
Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:00 UTC
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© Leif Parsons
THE FACTS

In a country obsessed with germs and sickness, antibacterial soaps and sanitizers are becoming more and more common. But because such products contribute to the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, some researchers recommend sanitizers made with cinnamon oil, which has been shown in many studies to have powerful antimicrobial properties.

A recent study by a team of surgeons, for example, found that a solution made with cinnamon oil killed a number of common and hospital-acquired infections, like streptococcus and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
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