Health & WellnessS


People

Flashback Women who have Caesarean's 'less likely to bond'

Women who choose to have Caesarean sections may be jeopardising their chances of bonding properly with their babies, a leading childbirth expert has claimed.

Obstetrician Michel Odent said that undergoing the planned procedure prevents the release of hormones that cause a woman to 'fall in love' with her child.

Heart - Black

Female Psychopathy: Equal but Distinct

Studies of antisocial personality primarily focus on men, but women antisocials have distinct features. Can the same be true of psychopathy, increasingly distinguished from even those with antisocial personality as the emerging "baddest" of characters?

Researchers examined the construct and predictive validity of psychopathy as applied to 103 jailed female offenders diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder (APD) (J Abnormal Psychology 106:4 pp. 576-585). The construct of psychopathy, generated largely on male offender populations, appeared applicable to female offenders; however, their absolute rates of symptoms and severity of symptoms were lower.

Bandaid

The ABCs of Death: Bush vs. Africa's Women

The Bush Administration's PEPFAR AIDS initiative places fundamentalist Christian views over the reality of African women's lives, while shamelessly prioritizing pharmaceutical industry profits over ensuring people's access to medicine.

Heart - Black

Romeo's Bleeding - When Mr. Right Turns Out To Be Mr. Wrong

Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken? -Tina Turner
The trouble with falling in love is that the fall can terminate against the cold concrete of betrayal. Pain replaces promise, cynicism flowers in place of confidence and hope flees on wings of misled desire.

If both of you gave it your honest best, and it failed to work out, then it's the kind of pain that can heal in time. The experience can even increase the chances for future relationship success. But there are times when the object of your lost affection intensifies the pain-times when someone who looks like the perfect choice turns out to be the perfect heel. And the damage may not be easily undone.

Unlike men that can honestly struggle with their own uncertainties and confusions about a relationship, and recognize the part they play in creating problems and conflicts, there are other kinds of men that see love as a game and you as their pawn. In this cruelly covert contest, cunning is their watchword, deception is their fix, and control is their high.

Eye 2

The Dirty Dozen-Characteristics of a Psychopath

1. The 'Jekyll/Hyde' Psychopath comes on strong, sweeps us off our feet. Appearing to be our 'soulmate', he falsely mirrors our values, interests, goals, philosophies, tastes and habits. He mimics our ambition, integrity, honesty and sincerity. He wants to marry us quickly. This control freak wants us dependent on him. He portrays false integrity, appears helpful, comforting, generous in his 'idealization' of us phase. It never lasts as Jekyll turns into Hyde. He blames others. His victims are objectified and disposable. He convincingly mimics human emotions. His lack of conscience is shocking, incomprehensible and emotionally painful to us.

Gear

Television Shows Can Affect Racial Judgments

A new study published in the journal Human Communication Research reveals that viewers can be influenced by exposure to racial bias in the media, even without realizing it.

Led by Dana Mastro of the University of Arizona, the study exposed participants to television clips where Latinos were portrayed in both flattering and unflattering ways.

First, using a simulated television script, Latinos were presented in a variety of roles which differed in terms of the degree of intelligence and educational attainment associated with the main character. Next, additional participants were exposed to actual television programming, providing a more valid television viewing experience. Although the simulated scripts offered greater control, viewing actual programming more closely reproduced an authentic television encounter.

People

Working alone may be the key to better productivity, new research suggests

You may not be aware of it - they might not be aware of it, but the people in your work environment might be slowing you down.

New research by University of Calgary, Faculty of Kinesiology researcher Dr. Tim Welsh says that regardless of their intentions, having an individual working on a different task - within your field of vision - could be enough to slow down your performance.

"Imagine a situation like a complex assembly line," said Welsh If you are doing a particular task and the person across from you is doing a different task, you'll be slowed down regardless of their performance."

The reason for this is a built-in response-interpretation mechanism that is hard-wired into our central nervous systems. If we see someone performing a task we automatically imagine ourselves performing that task. This behaviour is part of our mirror neuron system.

Magic Wand

Flashback Consuming extra virgin olive oil helps to combat degenerative diseases, such as cancer or osteoporosis

In the 1960s, Ancer Keys, a US expert on nutrition, studied the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet for the first time. Since then many studies on the benefits of olive oil have been conducted. According to several studies performed in Italy, Spain and Greece (the main olive-oil-producing countries), the incidence of diseases is lower in these countries than in Northern Europe.

The Environmental, Biochemical and Nutritional Analytical-Control Research Group, directed by Professors Alberto Fernández Gutiérrez and Antonio Segura Carretero, used the most advanced analytical techniques for a precise study on the antioxidant properties of olive oil, characterized by its polyphenolic composition and its potential to combat degenerative diseases.

Stop

Psychopathy and Corporations

Pollution. Worldwide Dioxin Contamination. Acid Rain. Ozone Depletion. Global Warming. These are the headlines of the '90s. The scale of the problems seems immense.

A series of questions I often hear as an environmental activist is "how can these companies do these things? Wouldn't it help to send a letter to their presidents and tell them about the problems? How can we convince them to stop?"

Most people assume that others think and act like they do, including the leaders of multinational corporations. While they know that there is evil in the world, they do not think of corporations - or their CEO's - as evil. Even when a company is exposed as a major polluter, such as Grace Chemical (one of the offending companies in the upcoming movie "A Civil Action") they do not ascribe evil intent. They are surprised, even astonished, when they find that the pollution - or, if done by accident, its denial and cover-up - was company policy.

Wine

Flashback No need for reduced alcohol consumption in later life

Provided they stick to the same guidelines about alcohol consumption as younger adults, regular moderate drinking poses no additional risks to the over 65s, and may even bring health benefits, according to two studies from the Peninsula Medical School in the South West of England.

Researchers assessed the drinking levels of over 13,000 older people in England and the US and looked at the effects on physical disability, mortality, cognitive function, depression, and well-being. They concluded that moderate drinking is fine for the over 65s - and in some cases is better than not drinking at all.