Attention, college students cramming between midterms and finals: Binging on soda and sweets for as little as six weeks may make you stupid. A new UCLA rat study is the first to show how a diet steadily high in fructose slows the brain, hampering memory and learning -- and how omega-3 fatty acids can counteract the disruption. The peer-reviewed Journal of Physiol... (read more)
That overweight during pregnancy can lead to overweight children and adolescents has been known for some time, but new research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and in the US indicates that excess weight before and during pregnancy can have long-lasting health consequences for the offspring of such mothers even later in life. nvestigators at the Hebrew U... (read more)
Probiotics — or live microorganisms intended to boost health, such as the bacteria in some yogurts — have become popular items in vitamin stores and even many supermarkets. One of probiotics' most popular uses is in preventing and treating digestive problems. A new analysis of 82 earlier studies finds that probiotics have potential in alleviating the diarrhea that afflicts about one-third of people treated with an... (read more)
Are you sick of your commute to work? Bad news: It might actually be making you sick. According to a new study in three car-centric Texan cities, the longer your daily commute, the more likely you are to have high blood pressure, an oversized waistline, and other health problems that increase your risk for chronic diseases. “Long commutes really get under the skin in terms of affecting people’s h... (read more)
For couples seeking to overcome infertility by turning to assisted reproductive technology – which can be invasive and expensive – an increased risk of birth defects probably won’t stand in their way. Still, a study released Saturday by the New England Journal of Medicine may give some prospective parents a little something to think about as they mull their options for fertility treatment. ... (read more)
A new study provides a long-sought explanation for the beneficial fat-fighting effects of black pepper. The research, published in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, pinpoints piperine -- the pungent-tasting substance that gives black pepper its characteristic taste, concluding that piperine also can block the formation of new fat cells. Soo-Jong Um, Ji-Cheon Jeong and colleagues describe pr... (read more)
In findings that will be toasted by pub quiz aficionados, researchers found drinkers got more test questions right and were quicker in delivering the right answers. It is thought alcohol hinders analytical thinking and allows 'creative' thoughts that might otherwise by stifled to take root, allowing test subjects to come up with more imaginative solutions. Psychologists at the University of Illinois set 40 heal... (read more)
Lack of sleep or erratic slumber from working late-night shifts or travel may lead to diabetes and obesity, according to a Harvard study that is the first to tie abnormal sleep patterns to disease. In a trial of 21 men and women observed in a sleep laboratory, those allowed only 5.6 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period over three weeks had a slowdown in their metabolism and a reduction in insulin production. Tho... (read more)
That America has a weight problem can’t be denied, but the social perception that obese people simply can’t lose weight is not true, a new study finds. According to researchers from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, obese Americans are trying to lose weight — and many are successful. The researchers looked at data for 4,021 obese people ages 20 and older wh... (read more)
Pregnant women might now have one more good reason to watch their diet and exercise: A new study links autism and developmental delays in young children to metabolic conditions, like obesity and diabetes, in their mothers. The findings, published in Monday's edition of the journal Pediatrics, found that women who had diabetes or hypertension or were obese were 1.61 times as likely as healthy wo... (read more)
A new study published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine shows that only half of children in the country are receiving regular daily outdoor activity. This may not come as a surprise to many working parents, who are often too busy and stressed to provide an adequate amount of outdoor physical activity for themselves or their children, but the effects on children can be drastic and long lasting. ... (read more)
Schoolteachers who underwent a short but intensive program of meditation were less depressed, anxious or stressed -- and more compassionate and aware of others' feelings, according to a UCSF-led study that blended ancient meditation practices with the most current scientific methods for regulating emotions. A core feature of many religions, meditation is practiced by tens of millions around the world as... (read more)
People who ate chocolate a few times a week or more weighed less than those who rarely indulged, according to a U.S. study involving a thousand people. Researchers said the findings, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, don't prove that adding a candy bar to your daily diet will help you shed pounds. Nor did the total amount of chocolate consumed have an impact. But the researchers, led by Beatrice ... (read more)
When roasted at 475 degrees, coffee beans are sometimes described as rich and full-bodied. But for the full-bodied person who is not so rich, unroasted coffee beans — green as the day they were picked — may hold the key to cheap and effective weight loss, new research suggests. In a study presented Tuesday at the American Chemical Society's spring national meeting in San Diego, 16 overweight young adult... (read more)
Smoking alters the impact of a schizophrenia risk gene. Scientists from the universities of Zurich and Cologne demonstrate that healthy people who carry this risk gene and smoke process acoustic stimuli in a similarly deficient way as patients with schizophrenia. Furthermore, the impact is all the stronger the more the person smokes. Schizophrenia has long been known to be hereditary. However, as a melting pot... (read more)
Previous research on animal and physiological models suggests that antioxidant supplements have beneficial effects that may prolong life. Some observational studies also suggest that antioxidant supplements may prolong life, whereas other observational studies demonstrate neutral or harmful effects. Our Cochrane review from 2008 demonstrated that antioxidant supplements seem to increase mortali... (read more)
Twenty million Americans get sick from norovirus each year according to data released last week by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Often called vomiting illness, it can spread rapidly on cruise ships, and in dormitories and hospitals. Recent data from the CDC shows deaths from gastrointestinal infections have more than doubled and have become a particular threat to the elderly. The virus is she... (read more)
Distinct patterns of activity -- which may indicate a predisposition to care for infants-- appear in the brains of adults who view an image of an infant face -- even when the child is not theirs, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and in Germany, Italy, and Japan. Seeing images of infant faces appeared to activate in the adult's brains circuits that r... (read more)
When she says no, the bottle beckons more brightly — for men and for fruit flies, according to a new study that found that male flies that had been repeatedly spurned by females were more likely to turn to alcohol to self-medicate their frustration. As a topic of study, drunk fruit flies may seem trifling, but what the findings reveal about the neurochemistry that drives behaviors like sex and eating may poin... (read more)
Eating more white rice may up the risk of type 2 diabetes, especially for Asian populations, researchers said. Patients who ate the greatest amounts of the grain had a 27% greater risk of developing the disease than those who ate the least, and the relative risk was higher among Asian patients, Qi Sun, PhD, of Harvard, and colleagues, reported in BMJ. "Although rice has been a staple food in Asian popula... (read more)
In a finding that strengthens the link between environmental pollutants and rising rates of breast cancer, new research finds that women whose diets contain higher levels of cadmium are at greater risk of developing breast cancer than those who ingest less of the industrial chemical in their food. Cadmium, a heavy metal long identified as a carcinogen, leaches into crops from fertilizers and when rai... (read more)
Increasing consumption of both processed and unprocessed red meat was associated with a greater risk of dying during the study period, data from two large, prospective studies showed. Through up to 28 years of follow-up, each additional serving of red meat per day was associated with a relative 13% to 20% increased risk of all-cause mortality, with the higher risk attributed to processed meats, according to Fra... (read more)
Coke and PepsiCo Inc. are adjusting the formula of their caramel colour across the U.S so they don’t have to label their products with a cancer warning to comply with California regulations. However, Coca Cola are not changing the drink ingredients in the UK because the manufacturing process complies with European safety rules. Pepsi have yet to comment. The changes ha... (read more)
An Oregon State University researcher has reviewed the body of evidence around weight loss supplements and has bad news for those trying to find a magic pill to lose weight and keep it off -- it doesn't exist. Melinda Manore reviewed the evidence surrounding hundreds of weight loss supplements, a $2.4 billion industry in the United States, and said no research evidence exists that any single product results ... (read more)
Vitamin D may be helpful in protecting highly active pre-teen and teen girls, such as those who play sports, from stress fractures, researchers reported Monday. The study was surprising because calcium has long been considered the nutrient most vital to bone health in children. But, in developing children, vitamin D intake may matter more. Researchers analyzed data from 6,721 girls ages 9 to 15 at the start ... (read more)
Sports, Diet & Nutrition, Sex, Parenting, Pregnancy, Quality of Life, Smoking, Abuse, Sleep, Exercise, Metabolism, Meditation, Vaccination
© 2012 Healthnoise — All rights reserved.