Category Archives: blog

Rethinking HIV: After Five Years of Debate, a New Push for Prevention

Sexual Health

Rethinking HIV: After Five Years of Debate, a New Push for Prevention

2012-11-22

After decades of focusing almost exclusively on treating HIV, public health experts are now considering a new approach, moving to establish more effective prevention strategies to curb spread of the disease. Recent tests show that anti-HIV drugs that can hamper the growth of the virus responsible for AIDS may also prevent progression of the disease if given to infected individuals soon after their exposure to HIV. The same drugs can also prevent infections from taking hold among healthy people who are exposed to the virus; both approaches would be critical ways of controlling spread of the virus and keeping new cases of HIV to a minimum.

With this potential in mind, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a draft recommendation urging that all people between the ages of 15 and 65 be tested for the virus as part of routine health screening, even if they are not at high risk of exposure to HIV.

Continue reading Rethinking HIV: After Five Years of Debate, a New Push for Prevention →

Jobless ‘face increased heart attack risk’ By Michelle Roberts Health editor, BBC News online

Psycological Health

Jobless ‘face increased heart attack risk’ By Michelle Roberts Health editor, BBC News online

2012-11-20

Being unemployed in your 50s and early 60s may raise heart-attack risk by a similar magnitude as smoking, findings suggest.

The study of more than 13,000 people in the US indicated heart-attack risk went up by a quarter in the first year after job loss and increased incrementally with further sackings or redundancies.

The same was not seen in people who gave up work voluntarily, Archives of Internal Medicine reports.

Experts suspect stress may be to blame.

Continue reading Jobless ‘face increased heart attack risk’ By Michelle Roberts Health editor, BBC News online →

Spotify study: Music more sexually arousing than touch

Sexual Health

Spotify study: Music more sexually arousing than touch

2012-10-30

Who would have guessed the most arousing music to play during sex is —

(Fair Warning: Reading any further will cause “Time of my Life” to become stuck your head for the rest of the day.)

That’s right — the soundtrack to the hit ’80s movie “Dirty Dancing.”

And the fact that the 25-year-old soundtrack still gets motors running wasn’t the only surprise finding of a recent study, “Science Behind The Song.”

The study was commissioned by digital music service Spotify to examine the relationship between music, romance and seduction.

“Dirty Dancing” was the top pick for both men and women, although the study’s author, music psychologist Daniel Mullensiefen, also pointed out that men are more willing to adjust their tastes in music in order to ensure “greater success in the bedroom.”

Continue reading Spotify study: Music more sexually arousing than touch →

You’re Spoiling the Kids! When Parents Disagree on Spending

Psycological Health

You’re Spoiling the Kids! When Parents Disagree on Spending

By Suzanna de Baca
Since I write about the impact finances have on families, I often have friends and colleagues confide about financial issues they face at home. One friend recently shared that he and his wife frequently bicker about spending on their kids. More specifically–her spending. In his opinion, she spoils their two young children, splurging on toys, clothes and birthday gifts for their friends. “She buys them whatever they want,” he explained, “and I don’t think it’s necessary.”

Most arguments about finances have two sides and I suspected this might be the case for my friend. Often, our spending habits (on kids or other things) are a reflection of our values and priorities – which aren’t always perfectly aligned between family members. Arguments about money are a common source of discord among couples in the United States. According to a new survey by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), money fights prompt an average of three arguments each month – making it the most volatile topic for spouses.

Continue reading You’re Spoiling the Kids! When Parents Disagree on Spending →

Exercise Trumps Brain Games in Keeping Our Minds Intact

Psycological Health

Exercise Trumps Brain Games in Keeping Our Minds Intact

2012-10-24

By Alexandra SifferlinOct. 23, 2012

It’s inevitable that as we age, our brains get smaller. Nerves die off, losing their connections, and that leads to a thinned out network feeding our thinking functions. But brain shrinkage isn’t inevitable, according to the latest study of elderly adults.

In recent years, as more research reveals the benefits of staying both physically and mentally active into the golden years, health officials have been urging older people to exercise more and stay mentally engaged by maintaining a rich network of friends and family connections and by learning new skills to keep their brains sharp. Crossword puzzles, learning a new language, playing board games — anything that requires some thought can do the trick.

Continue reading Exercise Trumps Brain Games in Keeping Our Minds Intact →

Is PMS a Myth?

Psycological Health

Is PMS a Myth?

2012-10-23

For many women, premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, is a familiar preamble to their monthly cycle. But a new review of the data suggests that mood changes aren’t as closely tied to menses as many have assumed.

A team led by Dr. Sarah Romans of the University of Otago in New Zealand reviewed 47 studies that followed women’s moods across the menstrual cycle. Only 15% of the studies found that women tended to have “classic” PMS: moods that worsened as the menstrual period approached and lifted when menstruation occurred. An additional 38% found PMS that lasted into menstruation or another cycle phase.

Continue reading Is PMS a Myth? →

You Annoyed Me at Hello: Why Kids Still Need to Learn Manners

Uncategorized

You Annoyed Me at Hello: Why Kids Still Need to Learn Manners

2012-10-22

It’s fall, which means that the new academic year has started. It also means that my husband, a 37-year-old college professor, has started to shake a fist at his inbox. Why? Because, as surely as leaves fall from trees, my husband’s new crop of undergrads won’t know how to address him. They’ll toggle between no salutation, using his first name only, or greeting him with a cheery: “Hey!”

Sadly, being called “Hey!” by a teen doesn’t inspire my husband’s cheer, nor does it establish the rapport the sender may have wished. Instead, it makes the vexed professor and his wife wonder whether titles are as defunct as an iPhone 4 charger.

Our concerns aren’t just academic. We have a daughter, not yet three, and like many parents, we have grand ambitions for her. One is that we’d like her to be a polite member of society starting, we believe, by addressing adults as Mr., Mrs. and Ms.

Continue reading You Annoyed Me at Hello: Why Kids Still Need to Learn Manners →

Why Does Bad News Stress Women Out More than Men?

Psycological Health

Why Does Bad News Stress Women Out More than Men?

2012-10-16

By Alexandra Sifferlin
It’s hard to avoid the news, thanks to Twitter feeds, Facebook updates and the ubiquity of newsfeeds eager to flood your screen with both calamity and celebration. But how are all these current events affecting our psyche?

To figure out whether our increasing exposure to 24-hour news coverage — especially negative news — has an impact on our stress levels, researchers from University of Montreal recruited 60 men and women to read news stories and submit to certain stressful situations. Turns out, women are more sensitive to negative news stories than men are, and they remember the details of such events better.

(MORE: Background TV: Children Exposed to Four Hours a Day)

For the study, the researchers divided the participants, aged 18 to 35, into four groups to read news stories. One group of men and one group of women read “neutral” news stories, about park openings or movie premieres, for example, while the other groups read negative news stories — about murders and accidents. To determine the participants’ stress levels after reading these stories, the research team took saliva samples and analyzed each for the stress hormone cortisol. The higher the level of hormone, the more stressed the participants likely were.

The study participants then completed stress-inducing tasks involving memory and intellect, and then provided a second round of saliva samples. The following day, the participants discussed the news stories they read the day before with researchers over the phone. The scientists found that although women’s stress levels didn’t rise after reading the negative news stories, the stories did make them more reactive to the stressful situations they endured afterward: women’s cortisol levels were higher after the memory and intellect tasks if they had first read negative news stories than if they read the neutral ones. Researchers didn’t see the same effect in men. What’s more, women who read stories about accidents and murders remembered more about them than did women who read “neutral” news. Again, the same phenomenon wasn’t seen among the male participants.

“When our brain perceives a threatening situation, our bodies begin to produce stress hormones that enter the brain and may modulate memories of stressful or negative events,” Sonia Lupien, director of the Centre for Studies on Human Stress, explained in a statement. “This led us to believe that reading a negative news story should provoke the reader’s stress reaction.”

(MORE: Human Kindness Gene Withstands Threats and Fear)

What might explain the gender difference? The researchers speculate that evolutionary factors could play a role. Women’s invested interest in the survival of their offspring may make them more sensitive to potentially threatening situations or events. “Women tend to be more empathic than men,” says lead author Marie-France Marin. “It could be that they carry the [emotional] load longer than men, which could also influence their memory.”

The authors argue that understanding and appreciating individual reactions to bad news is increasingly important in our plugged-in society. “We are consuming news more and more. With smartphones, you can always see what’s going on. Our brain is constantly detecting stressors, and more and more stress hormones get back to the brain, which can affect attention, mood and cognition,” says Marin.

For women, perhaps recognizing that they may be particularly vulnerable to news-related stress could help them lessen the burden by simply being mindful of the potential effect of mass media, or by engaging in coping mechanisms like meditation and exercise.

The study was published in the journal PLoS One.

How Exercise-Friendly Is Your Body? A Genetic Test Claims to Tell You

Uncategorized

How Exercise-Friendly Is Your Body? A Genetic Test Claims to Tell You

2012-10-15

By Alexandra Sifferlin

Is that daily jog really doing your body any good? A new test purports to tell you whether you’re genetically wired to benefit from exercise — or not so much.

As the New York Times reports, the genetic test is developed by British company XRGenomics, and is based on the findings of a 2010 study that identified about 30 gene variations that predicted how fit an individual may become through aerobic endurance activity.

The study’s authors, including researchers from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana, discovered the gene variations by genotyping muscle tissue of study participants who completed 6 to 20 weeks of endurance training. People’s aerobic fitness levels were gauges by looking at increases in their VO12 max — the body’s ability to circulate oxygen to muscles during exercise.

(MORE: For Better Heart Health Exercise Harder, Not Longer)

Not surprisingly, the results led to an onslaught of requests for a genetic test, so the study’s lead researcher, James Timmons, a professor of systems biology at Loughborough University in England, and his colleagues filed a patent for the gene variants and developed the test. It’s not the first such test on the market: there are others (none of which are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration) that say they can predict whether young, aspiring athletes are better suited to sprinting or long-distance running, for example. But these test focus only on single genes, while XRGenomics’ product, with its analysis of 30 gene variants, is more reliable and scientifically validated, say its developers.

Curious gym-goers can send the company a cheek swab, and within six weeks they will receive results identifying them as low- or high-responders based on their DNA profile. It’ll cost you, though: the basic test and report run about $318; the price goes up to $478 for a more detailed analysis and personalized exercise recommendations from the company’s experts.

(MORE: For More Weight Loss, Exercise Less?)

But whatever your genetic profile, the test can’t predict all the ways in which you may benefit from exercise. The test won’t tell you, for example, whether or not you will lose weight through physical activity, or how it will influence other health factors like blood pressure and insulin levels, though there are plans to include such measures in the future.

The makers of the test still say it allows people to tailor their exercise and diet habits to meet realistic health goals. “The test can be used to guide and inform adult fitness and be used to explain why an aerobic training regime might not be as effective as your personal trainer or exercise specialist told you it would be,” they write on their website.

Hope for Infertility Treatments: Scientists Make New Eggs from Mouse Stem Cells

Reproductive Health

Hope for Infertility Treatments: Scientists Make New Eggs from Mouse Stem Cells

2012-10-10

Japanese researchers have produced mouse eggs from stem cells that bred healthy offspring, a breakthrough that may one day help treat human infertility.

Researcher Mitinori Saitou and his team from Kyoto University in Japan used two different types of stem cells during their research: embryonic stem cells — a controversial technique since scientists must destroy embryos to cultivate them — and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are adult cells, such as skin cells, that are reprogrammed to an embryonic-like state. Producing healthy eggs from iPS cells is potentially even more exciting than using embryonic stem cells, since iPS cells sidestep the ethical issues that plague those derived from embryos and because the resulting eggs would contain the same DNA as their donors.

Stem cell experts greeted the work with praise. “They’ve gotten to what was our Holy Grail, which is making eggs,” George Daley, a leading stem-cell scientist at Harvard, told NPR. “It’s like cellular alchemy. I mean, they can turn lead into gold here. They can turn skin cells or blood cells into eggs.”

(MORE: Ovary Stem Cells Can Produce New Human Eggs, Scientists Say)

In previous efforts, scientists — including the current group — have been able to create sperm and egg cells in the lab, but they weren’t able to produce healthy offspring from those cells. In the current study, published in the journal Science, the researchers first added growth factors and proteins to the stem cells to turn them into primordial germ cells. These cells were then combined with somatic cells from mouse ovaries to make “reconstituted ovaries,” which they transplanted into the mice. Four weeks later, the scientists removed them again, isolated immature egg cells from the ovaries and allowed them to mature in a dish. The mature eggs were fertilized with mouse sperm in a test tube and the resulting embryos were transferred into female mice, leading to the birth of healthy, fertile pups that went on to reproduce themselves.

It’s not at all clear whether the procedure would work similarly in humans, but the researchers if it does, it could revolutionize treatment for infertile couples and for older women who want children. “Now is the time for society to think about this,” Amander Clark, a stem cell scientist at UCLA, told the Los Angeles Times. “If we want to use stem cells to treat women who are older, we have to decide what the parameters are. Should this be available for women who are 40 to 50 years old? How about 50 and above? These shouldn’t be questions for scientists to decide alone.”

Indeed, such an advance would lead to a thicket of ethical questions: would you allow the use of tissues from a dead person to create new life, for example?

(MORE: Scientists Restore Fertility in Mice Using Lab-Generated Sperm)

The researchers said the lab-created egg cells led to healthy pups less frequently than did natural mouse eggs, which were also fertilized and transferred to female mice in a control group. Mice impregnated with embryos created via in-vitro fertilization with natural eggs produced healthy offspring 13% of the time, compared with 3.9% for eggs created from embryonic stem cells and 1.8% for eggs made using iPS cells.

Nevertheless, the advance sheds light on how precursor cells eventually develop into sperm or egg cells, a scientific understanding that could in itself aid infertility treatments. That’s encouraging for the many women who struggle with fertility: according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 10% of America women have problems getting pregnant or staying pregnant.