All About Life - Lifestyle and other news you can use

[TV Makes You Fat]

Study: Sedentary behaviour and obesity
June 18, 2008

A new study finds a positive association between the number of hours spent watching television and the likelihood of being obese.

The study, "Sedentary behaviour and obesity," is based on data released today from the 2007 Canadian Community Health Survey.

The study, which used data from 42,600 men and women aged 20 to 64, found strong evidence of a positive association between the time spent watching television and obesity among both sexes. It is one of the first studies based on a nationally representative data set to examine associations between sedentary behaviours and obesity among Canadian adults.

The study also found an association between computer use and obesity for both sexes. But a third sedentary activity, reading, was not associated with obesity for either sex.

When factors such as age, marital status, education, household income, immigrant status and urban-rural residence were taken into account, the odds of obesity among men and women who reported watching television 21 or more hours a week were almost twice the odds for men and women who averaged 5 hours or fewer in front of the tube.

The associations persisted when infrequent leisure-time physical activity and low consumption of fruit and vegetables were taken into account. This reinforces findings of other studies that found television viewing to be related to obesity, independent of physical activity and dietary intake.

As well, leisure-time computer use was significantly associated with obesity among men and women. When age and other socio-demographic characteristics were taken into account, those who used computers for at least six hours a week had increased odds of being obese, compared with those who averaged no more than five hours.

Available on CANSIM: tables 105-0501 and 105-0502.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3226.

The article, "Sedentary behaviour and obesity," which is part of today's Health Reports online release, is now available (82-003-XWE) from the Publications module of our website. This issue of Health Reports contains another study on physical inactivity, "Screen time among Canadian adults: A profile."

The complete version of the latest issue of Health Reports, Vol. 19, no. 2 (82-003-XWE, free) is now available from the Publications module of our website. A printed version (82-003-XPE, $24/$68) is also available.

For more information on this article, contact Margot Shields (613-951-4177; margot.shields@statcan.ca), Health Information and Research Division, Statistics Canada or Mark Tremblay (613-298-3428; mark.tremblay@statcan.ca), Physical Health Measures Division, Statistics Canada, and the Healthy Active Living Research Group, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute.

For more information about the 2007 Canadian Community Health Survey, or about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Client Services (613-951-1746; hd-ds@statcan.ca).

The latest electronic issue of Health Indicators, 2008, no. 1 (82-221-XIE, free) provides a set of over 20 health indicators for Canada, the provinces and territories, and the health regions, based on the 2007 Canadian Community Health Survey.
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Study: Screen time among Canadian adults

2007
The study, "Screen time among Canadian adults: A profile," uses data released today from the 2007 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) to profile Canadian adults who were frequent television viewers and those who were frequent leisure-time computer users, two sedentary activities that are related to obesity. The information was provided by the respondents themselves.

Frequent television viewing was defined as 15 or more hours a week, and frequent leisure-time computer use as 11 or more hours a week.

In 2007, nearly 3 out of every 10 Canadian adults (29%) reported that, on average, they watched television for 15 or more hours a week, that is, more than two hours a day. About 19% reported 21 or more hours per week, or an average of at least 3 hours per day.

Frequent leisure-time computer use was less common. About 15% of adults averaged 11 or more hours per week. Only 6% reported 21 or more hours per week, and close to one-third (31%) reported no leisure-time computer use.

Overall, 1 adult in 20, or about 5%, was both a frequent television viewer and a frequent leisure-time computer user. The correlation between time spent watching television and using the computer was not significant.

The likelihood of being a frequent television viewer rose steadily with age, from 20% of adults aged 20 to 24, to 52% at 75 or older.

About 47% of people with less than secondary graduation were frequent TV viewers, twice the proportion of 24% among postsecondary graduates.

As well, 39% of people in households with the lowest incomes were frequent TV viewers. This was higher than the rate of 22% among those in the highest-income households.

Only about one-fifth (21%) of full-time workers were frequent TV viewers, compared with 37% of those who were not employed.

CCHS data suggest that among younger age groups, computer use may be replacing television as the screen time activity of choice.

About 45% of all the screen hours reported by young adults aged 20 to 24 were spent on a computer rather than watching television. Even middle-aged adults, those aged 45 to 54, spent one-quarter of their screen time using a computer.

About 17% of postsecondary graduates were frequent leisure-time computer users, more than twice the proportion of 7% among adults who had less than high school education.

Recent immigrants were twice as likely as Canadian-born adults to be frequent leisure-time computer users.

Available on CANSIM: tables 105-0501 and 105-0502.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3226.

The article, "Screen time among Canadian adults: A profile," which is part of today's Health Reports online release, is now available (82-003-XWE) from the Publications module of our website. This issue of Health Reports contains another study on physical inactivity, "Sedentary behaviour and obesity."

The complete version of the latest issue of Health Reports, Vol. 19, no. 2 (82-003-XWE, free) is now available from the Publications module of our website. A printed version (82-003-XPE, $24/$68) is also available.

For more information on this article, contact Margot Shields (613-951-4177; margot.shields@statcan.ca ), Health Information and Research Division, Statistics Canada or Mark Tremblay (613-298-3428; mark.tremblay@statcan.ca), Physical Health Measures Division, Statistics Canada, and the Healthy Active Living Research Group, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute.

For more information about the 2007 Canadian Community Health Survey, or about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Client Services (613-951-1746; hd-ds@statcan.ca ).

The latest electronic issue of Health Indicators, 2008, no. 1 (82-221-XIE, free) provides a set of over 20 health indicators for Canada, the provinces and territories, and the health regions, based on the 2007 Canadian Community Health Survey.

[Eat Your TV]

CIHR-funded Research
http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/

July 2008

Mindless television watching produces mindless eating

Dr. Harvey Anderson may have found the perfect combination for encouraging teenage obesity - free, all-you-can-eat pizza and their own televisions to watch while eating.

In experiments with teenagers, the CIHR-funded University of Toronto researcher found that kids who watched TV consumed an average of 228 extra calories at lunch.

His conclusion:

watching television overrides our ability to know when to stop eating.

His advice to parents: turn the television off during mealtime.
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What television can tell us about childhood obesity

Research Profile - March 2008

Dr. Harvey Anderson may have found the perfect combination to engage teenage boys - free, all-you-can-eat pizza and their own televisions to watch the Simpsons while eating.

Anderson is not running a teen social club out of his office at the University of Toronto. Rather, he's been pursuing some small experimental studies to understand more about the problem of childhood obesity. One of Anderson's conclusions is that eating while watching television overrides our ability to know when to stop eating; in effect, mindless television watching produces mindless eating.

A specialist in nutrition, Anderson, like others in his field, has been alarmed by the rising rates of childhood obesity. He wants to help address the problem by studying that which makes us feel full, so-called satiety factors. In the past year, he's published several papers on the subject to attempt to explain how these factors work in children.

Certain well-known hormones such as Leptin have already been fingered as being among the culprits, a kind of blame it on your genes, reason for the inability to control appetite.

But, given the high rates of childhood obesity, Anderson is not convinced that genes provide the whole story. To understand the bigger picture, he's been looking at other factors such as one's environment (where one lives, daily routine, and so on) that, together with genes, are likely to provide a more balanced, realistic explanation of what's going on. "Our food intake control system is actually very good and is not in disarray despite what one hears about the obesity epidemic," he says.

So, Anderson decided to take a closer look at how television affects eating.

"It was the first study done of its kind. People have looked at the influence of television before, but only in terms of how much television was watched during the day, not whether kids were eating while watching television and how much they ate."

When kids showed up at Anderson's office, 2 hours after breakfast at home, half of the group was given calorie-free sweetened water, while the other received sweetened water with glucose, a so-called caloric pre-load. Lunch was served 30 minutes later. Of these two groups, some ate while watching the Simpsons, while the others ate without the television on. Over the course of the experiment, the kids came back four times, each time being exposed to a different condition.

The kids who received an extra calorie bump prior to the meal and did not watch TV during the meal ate the least. But, among TV watchers, the extra calories seemed to have not effect on how much they ate. Overall, the kids who watched TV consumed an average of 228 extra calories at lunch. While this may not seem like much, the effect of such extra calories on a regular basis adds up. Based on his results, Anderson has some immediate advice for parents - turn the television off during mealtime.

With support from CIHR, Anderson, along with then PhD candidate Dr. Nick Bellissimo, has pursued other related research on satiety factors among children.

Another recent study looked at how well glucose and whey protein drinks suppressed appetite among obese and normal weight boys. It is well known that, at least among adults, proteins suppress appetite more strongly than glucose, but Anderson notes that the study produced "profoundly puzzling" results. For example, there was little reduction in appetite among obese boys who received the protein drink compared to normal weight boys. "So, why was this? It could be that body fat is having some effect on the protein. It could be that body fat is holding back or impeding the protein from helping suppress the appetite," he speculates.

Anderson remains committed to studying the issue further, particularly to help ease the challenges overweight children face in losing weight. "I'm concerned about overweight kids and how they respond to a diet at a time when their body is driving them to eat to support growth."

[Looking but not seeing]

MEDIA RELEASE | JULY 21, 2008
Age-old magic tricks can provide clues for modern science

Revealing the science behind age-old magic tricks will help us better understand how humans see, think, and act, according to researchers at the University of British Columbia and Durham University in the U.K.

Their study in the current online issue of the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences concludes that elements of human cognition and perception not yet fully understood by scientists may be clarified by analysing tricks and techniques used by magicians over thousands of years.

The investigators explored several of the key techniques of the magic trade - categorised as "misdirection, illusion and forcing" - which have only recently been formally identified by scientists and taken seriously as a valid research area.

An example of "misdirection" would be the cigarette and lighter trick the researchers used in one of their vision experiments: http://www.dur.ac.uk/gustav.kuhn/Kuhn_e ... terial.htm

For related work on "looking but not seeing" go to: http://www.psych.ubc.ca/~rensink/flicker/

"Although a few attempts have been made in the past to draw links between magic and human cognition, the knowledge obtained by magicians has been largely ignored by modern psychology," says Ronald Rensink, an associate professor who specializes in vision and cognition and teaches in the departments of Psychology and Computer Science at UBC.

Study co-authors are Gustav Kuhn from Durham University's Psychology Department and Alym Amlani, a recent BSc graduate of UBC's Cognitive Systems Program, which integrates computer science, psychology, philosophy and linguistics. Both Kuhn and Amlani are practising magicians who argue that conjurers are "miles ahead" of scientists.

"Imagine someone who makes an object disappear or successfully predicts what you will do next," says Kuhn. "These tricks may seem like they defy the laws of physics and logic, but they are actually created through a combination of skill and a deep knowledge of human psychology."

For example, the vanishing ball illusion indicates that anticipation plays a factor in what we see - our minds tend to fill in the blanks. In this trick, the magician tosses a red ball in the air two times and on the third throw will palm the ball. However, study participants will report seeing the magician toss the ball in the air three times.

The researchers say their work has long-term implications for human-computer interfaces - from online training films and computer graphics to video games and animation. These activities require increasingly sophisticated software capable of grabbing and holding the viewer's attention.

They developed various magic tricks and experiments to test recent findings in vision science, which shows that only a small part of information that enters our eyes actually enters our conscious awareness. One particular finding shows a distinction between where you look and what you see.

This was evident in an experiment that recorded volunteers' eye movements with a tracking device while they watched a video of a "misdirection" trick. The magician goes to light a cigarette, but subtly drops both cigarette and lighter into his lap.

By directing the audience's attention first to his right hand, which is empty, and then to the left hand, also empty, he makes watchers believe both items have simply disappeared.

The researchers asked the volunteers to detect how the magic trick was performed. More than half of the 46 participants did not see the cigarette being dropped although this happened in full view. Further, the eye movement records for this group of volunteers showed that at least two of them were looking directly at the cigarette.

"The critical factor is not where someone directs their eyes, but where they are sending their attention," explains Rensink. "If they didn't attend to the manipulation behind the trick, they simply weren't able to see how the trick was done."

The research team was supported by a Wolfson Research Fellowship from Durham University and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada.

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[Violence by Mothers]

Study Shows Link Between Spanking and Physical Abuse

“This study demonstrated for the first time that parents who report spanking children with an object and parents who frequently spank children are much more likely to report other harsh punishment acts consistent with physical abuse.”

August 19, 2008

Spanking has been, and still is, a common method of child discipline used by American parents.

But mothers who report that they or their partner spanked their child in the past year are nearly three times more likely to state that they also used harsher forms of punishment than those who say their child was not spanked, according to a new study led by the Injury Prevention Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Such punishments included behaviors considered physically abusive by the researchers, such as beating, burning, kicking, hitting with an object somewhere other than the buttocks, or shaking a child less than 2 years old.

“In addition, increases in the frequency of spanking are associated with increased odds of abuse, and mothers who report spanking on the buttocks with an object – such as a belt or a switch – are nine times more likely to report abuse, compared to mothers who report no spanking with an object,” said Adam J. Zolotor, M.D., the study’s lead author and an assistant professor in the department of family medicine in the UNC School of Medicine.

The study will be published on the Web site of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine on Tuesday (Aug. 19) and is scheduled for publication in the print version of the journal on Sept. 17.

Although some surveys show evidence of a modest decline in spanking over the last 30 years, recent surveys show that up to 90 percent of children between the ages of 3 and 5 years are spanked by their parents at least occasionally.

Zolotor and his co-authors conducted an anonymous telephone survey on parenting of a probability sample of 1,435 mothers in North Carolina and South Carolina in 2002.

Forty-five percent of the mothers reported that they or their partner had spanked their child in the previous 12 months and 25 percent reported spanking with an object on the buttocks. Four percent reported using harsher forms of punishment that met the study’s definition of physical abuse.

Statistical analyses of the survey data found that while any spanking was associated with increased risk of abuse, spanking with an object was strongly associated with abuse. Only 2 percent of the mothers who reported no spanking reported use of physically abusive punishment. In comparison, 6 percent of mothers who reported spanking and 12 percent of mothers who reported spanking with an object also reported abusive punishment.

“This study demonstrated for the first time that parents who report spanking children with an object and parents who frequently spank children are much more likely to report other harsh punishment acts consistent with physical abuse,” Zolotor said.

The study concluded that efforts to reduce spanking, especially with an object, through media, educational and legislative means may reduce physical child abuse.

The American Academy of Pediatrics states that “striking a child with an object is unacceptable and may be dangerous.” Zolotor said the study supports this policy statement by underscoring that while spanking increases the likelihood of physical abuse, frequent spanking and spanking with an object are far more likely to lead to abuse. He said this may be due to the limited effectiveness of discipline when parents have few other tools for discipline (such as positive reinforcement and time out).

Co-authors of the study were Adrea D. Theodore, M.D., assistant professor in the department of social medicine in the UNC School of Medicine; Molly C. Berkoff, M.D., assistant professor in the department of pediatrics in the UNC School of Medicine; Desmond K. Runyan, M.D., Dr.P.H., professor of social medicine and pediatrics in the UNC School of Medicine and adjunct professor of epidemiology in the UNC School of Public Health; and Jen Jen Chang, Ph.D., who earned her doctorate at UNC and now is an assistant professor at the Saint Louis University School of Public Health.

This study was supported by the Duke Endowment and the Sunshine Lady Foundation.

[Obesity and Asthma]

Obese Patients Have Nearly Five Times Greater Risk of Hospitalization for Asthma, Kaiser Permanente Study Finds

PORTLAND, Ore., Sept 04, 2008

Obese people who have asthma are nearly five times more likely to be hospitalized for the condition than non-obese people with asthma, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published in the September issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

This is the first study to control for the risk factors -- smoking, use of oral or inhaled corticosteroid medications, gastroesophageal reflux disorder, and demographics -- that might explain the obesity-asthma association. Previous studies have shown that obese people are more likely to suffer asthma than non-obese people, and that obese patients often have more severe asthma than their non-obese counterparts.

More than 20 million Americans have been diagnosed with asthma. Nearly a third of adults with asthma are also obese, according to researchers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines obesity as having a Body Mass Index of 30 or higher
( http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/defining.htm)

Researchers at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., and the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Research in Denver surveyed 1,113 patients in Oregon, Washington, and Colorado, age 35 and older, who have persistent asthma. The researchers asked the patients about their weight, height, smoking habits, other illnesses, treatment and their asthma-specific quality of life, asthma control and asthma-related hospitalizations.

"The big finding here is that even after adjusting for risk factors, obese adults were nearly five times more likely to be hospitalized for their asthma," said study lead author David M. Mosen, Ph.D., MPH, of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research. "Given that nearly 30 percent of our country is obese, this study is yet another example of the long-term dangers of obesity, along with heart disease, diabetes, stroke and dementia."

The study uncovered these findings:

-- Obese people with asthma had significantly worse asthma control, lower
asthma-related quality of life, and had 4.6 times higher risk for
asthma-related hospitalizations than non-obese asthmatics
-- Obese people with asthma were younger and less educated than non-obese
people with asthma
-- Obese people with asthma used more oral corticosteroids
-- Obese people with asthma had a higher incidence of gastroesophageal
reflux disorder


"The take-home message of this study for clinicians is that obese people with asthma need to be followed more carefully because it's harder to control their asthma, so they are more likely to end up in the hospital," said study co-author Dr. Michael Schatz, Chief of Allergy at Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center. "My advice for obese asthmatics is: be vigilant to keep your asthma symptoms in check, make sure you know what to do when your symptoms worsen, and do whatever you can to lose weight."

Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the study was authored by David M. Mosen, Ph.D., MPH of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research; Michael Schatz, MD, MS, of Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center; David J. Magid, MD, of the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Research in Denver; and Carlos A. Camargo, Jr., MD, DrPH, of the Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

About the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research
( http://www.kpchr.org )

Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research, founded in 1964, is a nonprofit research institution dedicated to advancing knowledge to improve health. It has research sites in Portland, Ore., Honolulu, Hawaii and Atlanta.

About Kaiser Permanente Research
Kaiser Permanente's eight research centers comprise one of the largest research programs in the United States and engage in work designed to improve the health of individuals everywhere. KP HealthConnect(TM), Kaiser Permanente's electronic health record, and other resources provide population data for research, and in turn, research findings are fed into KP HealthConnect to arm physicians with research and clinical data. Kaiser Permanente's research program works with national and local health agencies and community organizations to share and widely disseminate its research data. Kaiser Permanente's research program is funded in part by Kaiser Permanente's Community Benefit division, which in 2007 directed an estimated $1 billion in health services, technology, and funding toward total community health.

About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is America's leading integrated health plan. Founded in 1945, the program is headquartered in Oakland, Calif. Kaiser Permanente serves 8.7 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Today it encompasses Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and their subsidiaries, and the Permanente Medical Groups. Nationwide, Kaiser Permanente includes approximately 159,000 technical, administrative and clerical employees and caregivers, and 14,000 physicians representing all specialties. The organization's Labor Management Partnership is the largest such health care partnership in the United States. It governs how more than 130,000 workers, managers, physicians and dentists work together to make Kaiser Permanente the best place to receive care, and the best place to work.

For more Kaiser Permanente news, visit the KP News Center at: http://xnet.kp.org/newscenter
SOURCE Kaiser Permanente
http://www.kaiserpermanente.org

[Poverty of the Spirit]

Contact:
Bruce Alexander, 604.253.2046, alexande@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca

The globalization of addiction

In his third book, The Globalization of Addiction: a study in poverty of the spirit, Bruce Alexander proposes a radical rethink of addiction. Alexander’s book, released in Canada this September, is particularly relevant in today’s economically volatile climate.

The Simon Fraser University psychologist explains how hypercapitalism is generating a rising tide of addiction to many destructive habits, such as compulsive shopping, gambling, sexuality, and video gaming, as well as drug and alcohol abuse.

“Drug and alcohol addictions account for only 20 percent of serious addiction problems,” notes Alexander.

Alexander argues that the primary cause of rising addiction is the loss of long standing cultural traditions and values. This in turn, he says, causes whole societies to lose their identity and suffer a psychosocial dislocation that makes people vulnerable to addiction.

Alexander, a professor emeritus and 2007 winner of the SFU Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in support of controversy, draws historical examples from diverse cultures in Canada, Europe, and China.

Alexander believes unregulated capitalism or hypercapitalism spurs the globalization of addiction in financially turbulent times. He says stressors, such as market crashes, unaffordable housing and unemployment, exacerbate the relentless competition and self-seeking that already stress people in less troubled times.

“We think of these as economic problems, and they are,” says Alexander, “but think of the psychological impact that economic volatility has on families, marriages, young people’s hopes for the future. This dislocating impact makes people who live in free-market societies even more vulnerable to addiction.”

In The Globalization of Addiction, Alexander criticizes electioneering politicians in Canada and the United States for promoting tougher drug laws and the abolition of safe needle injection sites. He maintains that such harsh measures never have, and never can, halt the globalization of addiction.

“Controlling addiction requires structural changes in society,” says Alexander. “There are many straightforward initiatives that can gradually bring addiction under control, as we get wiser about its causes.” A couple of examples of the initiatives that Alexander envisions: Better regulation of the housing market and less emphasis on teaching children to be competitive and self-centered. He notes there are hundreds more.

— 30 —

[Children of Smokers]

Children of Smokers Tend to be More Impulsive

November 2008

Adolescents may have more in common with their smoking parents than previously thought, a new study conducted by researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital finds. These adolescents may also share a tendency to act impulsively, a trait that could be linked to a decision to become a smoker. The study, slated for print publication in the January issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence and currently available online at ScienceDirect, may help identify behavioral risk factors for adolescent smoking – risk factors that could increase some teens’ chance of addiction even before they pick up their first cigarette.

Brady Reynolds, PhD, the study’s lead author and principal investigator with the Center for Biobehavioral Health of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, has focused much of his work on the connection between smoking and impulsivity, or more specifically, delay discounting. Delay discounting describes a person’s preference for a smaller, more immediate reward over a larger reward that is delayed for a period of time. It also has been shown to play an important role in the behavior of cigarette smoking.

Reynolds’ recent manuscript found that cigarette smoking mothers chose the immediate reward (discounted) significantly more than nonsmoking mothers. Similarly, children of mothers who smoked discounted significantly more than children of nonsmokers. These results parallel findings between adult addicted and non-addicted populations.

“Based on our findings, campaigns to prevent adolescents from smoking are likely to be more effective if they emphasize short-term consequences to smoking, as opposed to long-term consequences,” said Reynolds, also a member of the faculty at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. “This strategy would seem to be especially important for those adolescents most at risk of nicotine addiction.”

The research did not address whether or not discounting differences are due to genetic factors, home environmental factors related to cigarette smoking, or perhaps smoking during pregnancy. Regardless, it does identify a measurable tendency that could increase the chance of addiction for adolescents who are already at increased risk for smoking, before any substantial use of nicotine.

The study examined 60 participants in the central Ohio community and included half of the mothers who reported currently smoking, and the other half reported never smoking. All of the children (12-13-years-old) were nonsmokers.

“Our study is significant in that it indicates most adolescent smokers, or children at risk of smoking, respond to more immediate consequences when making choices,” said Reynolds. “Therefore, prevention programs that stress the long-term negative effects of smoking are going to be less effective for those adolescents most at risk of smoking. Also, cessation programs focused on long-term outcomes will likely be less effective for adolescent smokers attempting to quit.”

[Teen Girls Who Smoke]

December 11, 2008

Teens Girls Smoke Now, Pay Later With Larger Waistlines as Adults

By Joan Hennessy, Contributing Writer
Health Behavior News Service

Remember the cool girls, huddled together in high school restrooms, puffing their cigarettes? Well, here’s consolation for the nerds in the crowd: Those teen smokers are more likely to experience obesity as adults, according to a new study from Finland.

Girls who smoke 10 cigarettes per day or more are at greatest risk, particularly for abdominal obesity. Their waist sizes are 1.34 inches larger than nonsmokers’ waists are as young adults, according to the study in the February 2009 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

But smoking in adolescence did not necessarily predict weight problems for men, according to the study.

Scientists know a correlation exists between women’s weight and smoking, said lead study author Suoma Saarni, a researcher with the Department of Public Health in Helsinki.
However, she added, “We do not know why smoking did not affect men’s weight, as we do not know why smoking affected women’s weight.”

The study followed twins born between 1975 and 1979 with questionnaires mailed shortly after their 16th birthdays. Researchers collected more data on the 2,278 women and 2,018 men when the twins were in their 20s.

Scientists looked at twins to take into account familial or genetic factors affecting smoking and weight gain, Saarni said. Half of the participants had never smoked, and 12 percent were former smokers in adolescence. About 15.5 percent of men and 9.4 percent of women smoked at least 10 cigarettes daily.

By the time participants reached their 20s, weight problems became evident. By age 24, roughly 24 percent of men and 11 percent of women were overweight. However, male smokers were not necessarily more prone to become overweight than nonsmokers.

The young women who smoked more than 10 cigarettes per day were 2.32 times more likely to become overweight than nonsmokers, according to the study.

The difference could be either biological or cultural, Saarni said. Biologically, it might be that tobacco and gender specific hormones interact differently in girls and boys in ways that affect appetite and fat distribution.

“My hunch is that women are more likely to smoke for weight control, especially in adolescence,” said Sherry Pagoto, assistant professor in clinical psychology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. “When people do quit smoking, one of the reasons they gain weight is that they increase their consumption of foods. They’ll start snacking at the times they used to smoke.”


FOR MORE INFORMATION:

The American Public Health Association. Visit www.apha.org

Health Behavior News Service: www.hbns.org

[Laughter,Humor and Health]

Laughter, Humor and Health . . .

"In the future, watching humorous videos could become a standard component of some medical procedures." Dr. Margaret Stuber UCLA Semel Institute

Although there are many clinical programs designed to bring humor into pediatric hospitals, there has been very little research with children or adolescents concerning the specific utility of humor for children undergoing stressful or painful procedures.

Rx Laughter, ( http://www.rxlaughter.org/photos.htm ) a non-profit organization interested in the use of humor for healing, collaborated with UCLA to collect preliminary data on a sample of 18 children aged 7-16 years.

Participants watched humorous video-tapes before, during and after a standardized pain task that involved placing a hand in cold water. Pain appraisal (ratings of pain severity) and pain tolerance (submersion time) were recorded and examined in relation to humor indicators (number of laughs/smiles during each video and child ratings of how funny the video was).

Whereas humor indicators were not significantly associated with pain appraisal or tolerance, the group demonstrated significantly greater pain tolerance while viewing funny videos than when viewing the videos immediately before or after the cold-water task.

The results suggest that humorous distraction is useful to help children and adolescents tolerate painful procedures. Further study is indicated to explore the specific mechanism of this benefit.

SOURCE: (2007) Semel Institute at UCLA, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1759. mstuber@mednet.ucla.edu
- - -

BACKGROUND
(2002)

The old adage "Laughter is the best medicine" may be true when it comes to helping children cope with pain, according to Margaret Stuber, M.D., a researcher with the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"Laughter seems to induce a relaxation response in the autonomic nervous system [the part of the nervous system that controls involuntary functions of the body]. We think it could be used to help children who are undergoing painful procedures or who suffer from pain-expectation anxiety," says Dr. Stuber, professor of psychiatry and biobehavior sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"In the future, watching humorous videos could become a standard component of some medical procedures," says Dr. Stuber, who released the results today of a new study on laughter's pain diminishing effects, at an American Medical Association media briefing on pain management.

The program, Rx Laughter, is a unique collaboration between the entertainment industry, pediatrics and psychiatry. "As a clinician, I am interested in preventing stress and anticipatory anxiety from simple procedures such as shots to complex procedures such as bone marrow aspirates. Rx Laughter's goal is to ease ill children through some of these medical procedures and minimize the traumatic effects that the children experience. In some instances laughter may even reduce the amount of anesthesia necessary," describes Dr. Stuber. "Laughter could also be of benefit for children with chronic pain, reducing need for medications, and improving functional status."

The Rx Laughter team, comprised of Dr. Stuber, Dr. Lonnie Zeltzer (Professor of Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Anesthesiology, and Director of the UCLA Pediatric Pain Program at the Mattel UCLA Children's Hospital), and Sherry Dunay Hilber (Creator, Founder and President of Rx Laughter and veteran primetime network comedy executive), has been working on an application of this work by setting up a system for children in medical isolation to communicate with each other while watching humorous videos.

"The potential benefit is not only from having the children laughing, but in being able to laugh together" says Dr. Stuber. "Laughter is at least as contagious as the infections we are trying to protect the children from!"

She adds: "Throughout my career, I've been studying trauma responses in children with illnesses requiring many painful procedures. Interestingly, some children are less easily traumatized than others. We are looking into the factors involved in resiliency so we can reduce the traumatic impact of treatment."

Dr. Stuber expects Rx Laughter, which includes numerous classic and contemporary videos, will be helpful to children who suffer from serious conditions such as cancer, cerebral palsy, congenital orthopedic problems, orthopedic injuries or burns. She says that reducing pain not only helps in the short term, but also helps in the psychological adjustment for months and years afterward.

Rx Laughter is looking at laughter in several different ways:

how amused the children are

how much they laugh

the physiological and psychological responses to that laughter

"We are evaluating both the behaviors and the thoughts. Does it matter how funny they think it is or does it matter more how much they laugh? They are related but they are not the same," says Dr. Stuber. "Similarly, how much they judge something hurts may be different than how long they can tolerate the pain."

During the briefing, Dr. Stuber will discuss the specific relationships between humor, laughter, pain perception and pain tolerance observed in the initial study group. She will also discuss data now being analyzed on the effect of laughter on cortisol levels. Elevation of cortisol is an indication of stress response; consequently, most people in pain have an immediate cortisol rise.

"We are determining when in the procedure Rx Laughter needs to be applied. For instance, did the protective effects of watching comedy before a procedure carry through? It appears that watching the video during the procedure is the most effective," says Dr. Stuber.

Dr. Stuber recommends that parents learn something from their child's innate coping skills. "Try to laugh with your child. Use laughter to get out of a confrontation or a grim moment. It will make both of you feel better. Laughter may indeed be the best medicine," she concludes.

Editor's Note: Dr. Stuber has received an unrestricted gift from Comedy Central, which has supported the pilot phase.

For more information see: www.rxlaughter.org

- - -

Also of interest . . .

Journal of Happiness Studies . . .
http://www.springerlink.com/content/104 ... df29b&pi=0

To make children happier, we may need to encourage them to develop a strong sense of personal worth, according to Dr. Mark Holder from the University of British Columbia in Canada and his colleagues Dr. Ben Coleman and Judi Wallace. Their research1 shows that children who feel that their lives have meaning and value and who develop deep, quality relationships – both measures of spirituality – are happier. It would appear, however, that their religious practices have little effect on their happiness. These findings have been published in the online edition of Springer's Journal of Happiness Studies.

Both spirituality (an inner belief system that a person relies on for strength and comfort) and religiousness (institutional religious rituals, practices and beliefs) have been linked to increased happiness in adults and adolescents. In contrast, very little work has been done on younger children. In an effort to identify strategies to increase children's happiness, Holder and colleagues set out to better understand the nature of the relationship between spirituality, religiousness and happiness in children aged 8 to 12 years. A total of 320 children, from four public schools and two faith-based schools, completed six different questionnaires to rate their happiness, their spirituality, their religiousness and their temperament. Parents were also asked to rate their child's happiness and temperament.

The authors found that those children who said they were more spiritual were happier. In particular, the personal (i.e. meaning and value in one's own life) and communal (i.e. quality and depth of inter-personal relationships) aspects of spirituality were strong predictors of children's happiness. Spirituality explained up to 27 percent of the differences in happiness levels amongst children.

A child's temperament was also an important predictor of happiness. In particular, happier children were more sociable and less shy. The relationship between spirituality and happiness remained strong, even when the authors took temperament into account. However, counter intuitively, religious practices – including attending church, praying and meditating – had little effect on a child's happiness.

According to the authors, "enhancing personal meaning may be a key factor in the relation between spirituality and happiness." They suggest that strategies aimed at increasing personal meaning in children - such as expressing kindness towards others and recording these acts of kindness, as well as acts of altruism and volunteering – may help to make children happier.

Reference
1. Holder MD, Coleman B, & Wallace J (2008). Spirituality, religiousness, and happiness in children aged 8-12 years. Journal of Happiness Studies DOI 10.1007/s10902-008-9126-1

Source: Springer

www.springer-sbm.com/index.php?id=291&b ... 62fbeeb28a

[AboriginalWhite Relations]

MEDIA RELEASE
February 5, 2009

NEW BOOK DESTROYS THE MYTH OF THE LAZY INDIAN

University of Victoria historian John Lutz is providing a fresh perspective on Aboriginal poverty. His new book, Makúk: A New History of Aboriginal White Relations, explains how Canada’s Aboriginal people fell from prosperity to poverty and the origins of the myth of the “lazy Indian”.

“Aboriginal people in BC went from being among the wealthiest people in the late 19th century to being among Canada’s poorest at the end of the 20th century,” says Lutz. “Welfare was offered as compensation to Aboriginal people when they were driven out of paid and subsistence work by legislation and racism.”

Lutz argues that this economic change is rooted in a series of misunderstandings during the early days of contact. Trade, for Europeans, meant nothing more than a simple exchange of one good or service for another. However, in Chinook jargon—the imprecise language of interaction among Europeans, Chinook, Nootka, and other Aboriginal peoples—“trade” was translated as “makúk,” a word that meant, more loosely, “exchange,” and encompassed not only trading, but also buying, selling, and other non-economic forms of reciprocity. Thus, what Europeans took as a straightforward concept was anything but for their Aboriginal counterparts.

Nowhere was this difference in understanding starker than in the idea of trading labour for pay. For Europeans, labour involved the subordination of nature and the accumulation of wealth, while Aboriginal peoples lived in co-existence with nature and believed in sharing wealth through rites such as the potlatch. Using oral histories, manuscripts, newspaper accounts, and biography, Makúk demonstrates how this crucial difference, rooted in language itself, became the seed that led to the original pejorative myth of the “lazy Indian”—one of the most persistent and damaging stereotypes ever applied to Aboriginal peoples. With this mistaken characterization as justification, Aboriginal people were disenfranchised from their own traditional subsistence economy, as well as the Canadian capitalist and wage economies.

“Whenever they could Aboriginal People flocked to work places,” Lutz explains. “Laziness was the worst character flaw and any member of a family not willing to help accumulate wealth was shunned. In their rush to acquire wealth for themselves, Euro-Canadians overlooked the sharing and environmental values in the Aboriginal cultures they met.”

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Author: John Lutz 250-721-7392 or cell 250-217-4207 or jlutz@uvic.ca

[Trans Fats]

Canada’s Trans Fat Scorecard: Few brownie points in latest survey

Trans fats still far too prevalent in Canada’s Food Supply

For Immediate Release – February 12, 2009

Ottawa - The Heart and Stroke Foundation calls on the federal government to regulate trans fats in Canada’s food supply following the disappointing trans fat monitoring results released today by Health Canada.

“The food industry doesn’t get many brownie points for their efforts to self-regulate this time around,” says Sally Brown, CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and co-chair of the Trans Fat Task Force. “Although some companies and sectors have stepped up to the plate and done well, overall the food industry is not sufficiently reducing trans fats voluntarily. The time has come for the federal government to regulate.”

Reducing trans fat levels to those recommended by the Trans Fat Task Force will reduce the number of heart attacks in Canada and save lives. A high consumption of trans fats leads to a threefold increase in risk of heart disease and is responsible for at least 3,000 cardiac deaths every year in Canada.1 Trans fats are at least five times more harmful, on a gram-by-gram basis, than saturated fats.2

In June 2007 the federal government accepted the Trans Fat Task Force’s recommendations that the total trans fat content of cooking oils and soft margarines should be no more than 2% of total fat content and that trans fats in all other foods should be no more than 5%.

This third round of monitoring focused attention on bakery products, cookies, popcorn, and ethnic foods.

Particularly disheartening is the fact that many brands of cookies, processed popcorn, and brownies − foods often consumed by children − are the worst offenders. “What is disturbing is that while some producers of the products have long ago complied with the recommendations, others continue to ignore them entirely,” says Brown. “In short, we know that trans fats can be relatively easily removed from these products but some companies it appears just can’t be bothered, despite the known health risks to the consumers. And it seems, without regulation these companies will likely never bother.”

As with the earlier monitoring results, there are some bright spots. Some ethnic foods performed particularly well in this analysis.

Nonetheless bakery goods, much of it non-labelled, still represent huge problem areas.

The Foundation notes that without regulation, it does not appear that the bakery sector will significantly remove trans fats nor invest in the development of healthier alternatives they need in order to be able to make this transition.

“These results today show that voluntary measures, even with public monitoring, are not going to be sufficient,” says Brown. “Without regulation companies that heeded the call of consumers and cared about the heart health of their customers are being held to a higher standard than others who chose to ignore the recommendations. Our federal government must act now to prepare appropriate regulations.”

The government of British Columbia has committed publicly to bring regulations into effect to restrict industrially-produced trans fat in prepared food in food service establishments by 2010, in the absence of federal regulations. Many U.S. cities and the state of California have already enacted legislation. Polling data by Angus Reid Strategies has shown that 84% of Canadians support a trans fat ban.

The Foundation thanks Health Canada for compiling and releasing this latest trans fat data.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation encourages Canadians to prepare their meals at home and eat as much fresh food as possible, limit their consumption of processed foods , eat five to 10 servings of fruit and vegetables a day, eat lower-fat products, and include items from the four food groups. Healthy recipes can be found online at heartandstroke.ca.

NOTE: See appendix for monitoring highlights
http://www.heartandstroke.com/site/apps ... 7523#table

The Heart and Stroke Foundation ( www.heartandstroke.ca ), a volunteer-based health charity, leads in eliminating heart disease and stroke and reducing their impact through the advancement of research and its application, the promotion of healthy living, and advocacy.

Contact:

Heart and Stroke Foundation
Eileen Melnick McCarthy
613.569.4361 ext. 318

[Weight Loss]

University of Ottawa Heart Institute research team found mechanism activating weight-loss gene

OTTAWA, February 18, 2009 — A University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) research team has unlocked the mechanism that turns on a weight-loss gene in muscle.

Heart Institute scientists had previously identified the ACSL5 gene, which influences how quickly overweight people lose weight in response to diet. Unlocking the mechanism to activate this gene represents a major step forward in developing new treatments for chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, which are increased as a consequence of obesity. Diet and exercise are both important in weight loss, but individual response to diet and exercise vary dramatically - something that has long perplexed medical professionals.

"Weight loss, especially among people who are dieting, is affected by several factors and we've long suspected that personal genetic makeup is a real influence. We are learning that genes which make you fat are not the same as the genes that help you lose weight. And now we can put our finger on just how the weight-loss gene is activated," said Alexandre Stewart, PhD, principal investigator of the Ruddy Canadian Cardiovascular Genetics Research Centre, UOHI.

The research was undertaken by molecular biologists at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute led by Alexandre Stewart, PhD, and Frédérique Tesson, PhD. Details of the latest UOHI discovery were published online in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

- - -

Functional characterization of a promoter polymorphism that drives ACSL5 gene expression in skeletal muscle and associates with diet-induced weight loss

Allen C. T. Teng, Kristi Adamo, Frédérique Tesson, and Alexandre F. R. Stewart
E-mail contact: ftesson@ottawaheart.ca

Diet-induced weight loss is affected by a wide range of factors, including genetic variation. Identifying functional polymorphisms will help to elucidate mechanisms that account for variation in dietary metabolism. Previously, we reported a strong association between a common single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs2419621 (C>T) in the promoter of acyl-CoA synthetase long chain 5 (ACSL5), rapid weight loss in obese Caucasian females, and elevated ACSL5 mRNA levels in skeletal muscle biopsies. Here, we showed by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) that the T allele creates a functional cis-regulatory E-box element (CANNTG) that is recognized by the myogenic regulatory factor MyoD. The T allele promoted MyoD-dependent activation of a 1089-base pair ACSL5 promoter fragment in nonmuscle CV1 cells. Differentiation of skeletal myoblasts significantly elevated expression of the ACSL5 promoter. The T allele sustained promoter activity 48 h after differentiation, whereas the C allele showed a significant decline. These results reveal a mechanism for elevated transcription of ACSL5 in skeletal muscle of carriers of the rs2419621(T) allele, associated with more rapid diet-induced weight loss. Natural selection favoring promoter polymorphisms that reduced expression of catabolic genes in skeletal muscle likely accounts for the resistance of obese individuals to dietary intervention.—Teng, A. C., Adamo, K., Tesson, F., Stewart, A. F. R. Functional characterization of a promoter polymorphism that drives ACSL5 gene expression in skeletal muscle and associates with diet-induced weight loss.

[BC Restricts Trans Fat]

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

March 7, 2009

Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport

PROVINCE RESTRICTS TRANS FAT IN B.C.

VICTORIA - B.C. is the first province in Canada to restrict trans fat in
all prepared and served foods in B.C. restaurants, Minister of Healthy
Living Sport Mary Polak announced today.

"We're following through on our throne speech commitment to
restrict trans fat by the year 2010 because we know trans fat is harmful
and this is an effective way we can protect British Columbians' health,"
said Mary Polak, Minister of Healthy Living and Sport. "By the time we
hold the Olympics in 2010, we want every British Columbian and every
visitor to our province to know the food they order in restaurants or
eat at schools is trans fat-free."

Trans fat comes in two forms - naturally occurring in meat or
dairy products and industrially-produced, in oils, spreads and
margarines and hidden in prepared foods like donuts, croissants and
other baked goods. Trans fat increases a person's risk of coronary heart
disease by raising levels of bad cholesterol and lowering levels of good
cholesterol, leading to clogged arteries.

Introducing the regulation to restrict industrially-produced trans
fat is part of B.C.'s new Public Health Act. This regulation follows the
recommendations of Health Canada's Trans Fat Task Force. As it is
technically impossible to eliminate trans fat completely, the regulation
restricts the amount of trans fat content of oils and spreadable
margarines to two per cent of total fat and restricts trans fat content
of all other foods to five per cent of total fat content of the food.
The Province has worked with the Heart and Stroke Foundation for the
past year to consult with industry here in the province and prepare them
for this change.

"We know trans fat is considered the most dangerous type of
dietary fat because it raises the risk of heart disease," said Bobbe
Wood, President and CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC &
Yukon. "The partnership between government and the Heart and Stroke
Foundation to restrict trans fat will help people in eating healthier,
no matter which food service establishment they will eat at in B.C."

All food service establishments that require a permit to operate a
food service in B.C. must comply with the new regulation by Sept. 30,
2009. This includes restaurants, delis, cafeterias, educational
institutions, health care institutions, schools, special events, and
bakeries. Packaged foods sold directly to the consumer that have a
federally-approved Nutrition Facts Table on the package are exempt from
the regulation.

A new website and other supports will be set up within the month
to help the B.C. food industry make the changes.

Restricting trans fat is the latest in a number of changes B.C.
has made to support British Columbians to avoid chronic illnesses and
live healthier lives, including:

- introducing mandatory physical activity for students in 2007.
- eliminating the sale of junk food in all elementary and middle schools
in 2008.
- banning smoking in all public spaces and workplaces in 2008.

ActNow BC, the Province's healthy living initiative, supports
British Columbians in making healthy lifestyle choices, providing
information to support better nutrition, physical activity, smoke-free
living and healthy pregnancies. For more information go to:
www.actnowbc.ca

-30-

1 backgrounder(s) attached.

Media contact:

Anne McKinnon
Communications Director
Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport
250 812-4012 (cell)

For more information on government services or to subscribe to the
Province's news feeds using RSS, visit the Province's website at
www.gov.bc.ca.

BACKGROUNDER
2009HLS0013-000315
March 7, 2009

Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport

NEW PUBLIC HEALTH ACT WILL PROTECT BRITISH COLUMBIANS

VICTORIA - The Province's new Public Health Act comes into effect March
31, 2009, replacing outdated legislation and setting the groundwork for
a modernization of public health.

The new act will improve the Province's ability to deal with threats of
global infectious disease, provide stronger tools to address the growing
burden of chronic diseases and provide the ability for government to
ensure that communities fulfil their role as a partner in preventing
mental illness, problematic substance use as well as treating and
housing residents with mental health and addiction challenges.

The Public Health Act replaces the Health Act, Venereal Disease Act
and Public Toilet Act.

Changes include:

* The modernization of powers and duties of public health officials for
communicable disease prevention and control, environmental health hazard
response, chronic disease and hazard prevention, and public health
emergency response; e.g. updated inspection powers, powers to issue
orders, quarantine and isolation provisions.
* Improved health monitoring abilities such as being able to require the
reporting of indicators of hazardous environmental exposures e.g. blood
levels of lead and mercury.
* The ability of health officers to order groups of people to take
prevention measures to control a health hazard. Previous to this new
provision, each individual affected by a health hazard had to be issued
a separate and unique order.
* Ability to require public health planning.
* New powers to regulate operations, activities or conditions that could
pose a health hazard or adversely affect long-term population health.
This includes requiring restrictions on trans fat in prepared food.
* Provisions that ensure administrative fairness.
* Strengthened relationships with and clarification of responsibilities
of local governments regarding public health.
* Modernization of enforcement, sentencing and penalty provisions.

Other B.C. legislation that supports public health activities includes
the Drinking Water Protection Act, the Food Safety Act, the Community
Care and Assisted Living Act, the Tobacco Control Act and the School
Act.

The Public Health Act is available online through
www.hls.gov.bc.ca/phact/

-30-

Media contact:

Anne McKinnon
Communications Director
Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport
250 812-4012 (cell)

For more information on government services or to subscribe to the
Province's news feeds using RSS, visit the Province's website at
www.gov.bc.ca.

[Red Wine and Cocao]

April 2009

Chocolate drink could help you do the math

Foods rich in cocoa may improve performance on challenging mental tasks like arithmetic, according to researchers at Northumbria University.

The findings were presented as part of a symposium highlighting the potential of plant-based treatments presented today, 3 April 2009, at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference 2009 in Brighton.

Crystal Haskell from the Brain, Performance and Nutrition Research Centre at Northumbria said: “Foods containing high levels of cocoa flavanols, found in chocolate, have been shown to increase cerebral blood flow, and it has also been proven that consumption of plants that have these properties improves performance on mentally demanding tasks. We wanted to discover whether cocoa flavanols produced the same effect.’’

In the study, 30 healthy adults consumed cocoa drinks on different days containing 520 mg of cocoa flavanols, 993 mg of cocoa flavanols or a control drink. The participants were given a number of mentally demanding tasks to complete, such as counting backwards from 999 in threes.

On the days the participants drank the beverages containing 520mg or 993mg of cocoa flavanols they performed significantly better at the arithmetic task. They also reported being less mentally tired during the task.

Crystal said: “The drink rich in cocoa flavanols significantly improved aspects of cognitive performance and levels of fatigue during this mentally demanding task.”

Commenting on the findings Professor David Kennedy from the Centre says: “Many prescribed drugs were originally derived directly from plants, and we’re used to the notion that chemicals from plants, in the form of most social drugs, can affect the functioning of our brains. The results presented in the symposium show that medicinal herbal extracts and plant-derived chemical compounds from common foodstuffs can also improve cognitive performance and mood.”

The British Psychological Society Annual Conference is taking place at the Holiday Inn, Brighton Seafront from 1 – 3 April 2009.
- - -

Red wine goes to your head - but helps you think

Red wine extract polyphenol resveratrol could improve mental performance on demanding tasks.

This is the finding of Emma Wightman from the University of Northumbria who will present her findings today, 1 April 2009, at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference in Brighton.

This research investigated whether a component of red wine would increase cerebral blood flow and consequently improve brain functions in healthy adults. Twenty four adults undertook a series of mental tests for a period of 60 minutes before which they were given either a placebo, 500mg or 1000mg of pure polyphenol resveratrol. Cerebral blood flow was monitored throughout the testing phases.

The results showed a change in blood flow to the brain and significant improvements in cognitive performance in the participants who had been given polyphenol resveratrol.

Emma commented: "This is the first time this effect has been tested in healthy adults. There is so much conflicting information these days about the effects of diet that it is interesting to see that a component you’ll come across in many everyday foods, including fruit, vegetables and red wine, can have a positive effect on brain function."

The British Psychological Society Annual Conference takes place at the Holiday Inn on Brighton Seafront from 1- 3 April 2009.

[Alcohol Consumption]

MEDIA RELEASE
April 14, 2009

DRINKING MORE THAN YOUR SHARE

A new study conducted by the University of Victoria’s Centre for Addictions Research (CARBC) reveals that 53 per cent of all the alcohol consumed in Canada is consumed by just 10 per cent of Canadian residents aged 15 years and older. This is the first time this figure has been calculated for Canada.

Based on a national telephone survey of 13,909 people, CARBC
( www.carbc.ca ) also found that 54 per cent of all alcohol consumption reported by survey respondents did not fall within CARBC’s low risk alcohol guidelines. These guidelines suggest that to avoid health and safety problems from alcohol, women should drink no more than 10 drinks per week and men no more than 20. In addition, women should limit their intake to three drinks in a single day and men should have no more than four drinks per day.

When it comes to younger adults, that figure jumped by another 30 per cent in that nearly 80 per cent of alcohol consumption among 15 to 24 year olds was also in excess of these low-risk guidelines. Altogether, it was estimated that 21.5 per cent of the population aged 15 years and over place themselves at risk of acute or chronic harm as a result of the drinking.

However, the authors caution that these estimates are on the low side as alcohol surveys—including this reanalysis of the 2004 Canadian Addiction Survey—are affected by the respondents’ substantial under-reporting and that future surveys need to be better designed to take this into account.

“Knowing what we do now,” says CARBC Director Dr. Tim Stockwell, “it is clear that regulating both price and physical availability of alcohol by restricting the number of liquor outlets and hours of trading will effectively target hazardous drinking by heavier drinkers with minimal inconvenience to lighter drinkers.”

A recent report prepared by CARBC for BC’s Provincial Health Officer (www.carbc.ca) recommends: pricing alcoholic drinks to make sure higher alcohol content drinks are more expensive; increasing minimum prices in line with increases in the cost of living; using proceeds from higher taxes on high-strength beverages to fund treatment and prevention programs; limiting the distance between liquor outlets; a maximum 2 a.m. closing time for liquor outlets in the province; increased enforcement of drink-driving laws and a range of community-based prevention strategies to reduce violence and other alcohol-related problems.

The CARBC study is a reanalysis of the 2004 Canadian Addiction Survey conducted under the auspices of the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse. It has been recently published in the international journal of Addiction Research and Theory.

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