All About Life - Lifestyle and other news you can use

[Juice Up Your Electronics]

‘Juiced-up’ Sugar-Fueled Battery Could Power Portable Electronics'

March 25, 2007

Juicing up your cell phone or iPod may take on a whole new meaning in the future. Researchers at Saint Louis University in Missouri have developed a fuel cell battery that runs on virtually any sugar source — from soft drinks to tree sap — and has the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional lithium ion batteries, they say.

For consumers, that could mean significantly longer time to talk and play music between charges. The new battery, which is also biodegradable, could eventually replace lithium ion batteries in many portable electronic applications, including computers, the scientists say. Their findings were described today at the 233rd national meeting of the American Chemical Society.

“This study shows that renewable fuels can be directly employed in batteries at room temperature to lead to more energy-efficient battery technology than metal-based approaches,” says study leader Shelley Minteer, Ph.D., an electrochemist at Saint Louis University. “It demonstrates that by bridging biology and chemistry, we can build a better battery that’s also cleaner for the environment.”

Using sugar for fuel is not a new concept: Sugar in the form of glucose supplies the energy needs of all living things. While nature has figured out how to harness this energy efficiently, scientists only recently have learned how to unleash the energy-dense power of sugar to produce electricity, Minteer says.

A few other researchers also have developed fuel cell batteries that run on sugar, but Minteer claims that her version is the longest-lasting and most powerful of its type to date. As proof of concept, she has used a small prototype of the battery (about the size of a postage stamp) to successfully run a handheld calculator. If the battery continues to show promise during further testing and refinement, it could be ready for commercialization in three to five years, she estimates.

Consumers aren’t the only ones who stand to benefit from this new technology. The military is interested in using the sugar battery to charge portable electronic equipment on the battlefield and in emergency situations where access to electricity is limited. These devices include remote sensors for detecting biological and chemical weapons. Devices could be instantly recharged by adding virtually any convenient sugar source, including plant sap, Minteer says.

Like other fuel cells, the sugar battery contains enzymes that convert fuel — in this case, sugar — into electricity, leaving behind water as a main byproduct. But unlike other fuel cells, all of the materials used to build the sugar battery are biodegradable.

So far, Minteer has run the batteries on glucose, flat sodas, sweetened drink mixes and tree sap, with promising results. She also tested carbonated beverages, but carbonation appears to weaken the fuel cell. The best fuel source tested so far is ordinary table sugar (sucrose) dissolved in water, she says.

One of the first applications Minteer envisions for the sugar fuel cell is using it as a portable cell phone recharger, similar to the quick rechargers already on the market that allow users to instantly charge their cell phones while ‘on the go.’ Ideally, these rechargers would contain special cartridges that are pre-filled with a sugar solution. These cartridges then could be replaced when they’re used up. Ultimately, she hopes that the sugar battery can be used as a stand-alone battery replacement in a wide range of portable electronic devices.

Future work includes modifying the battery’s performance for varying environmental conditions, including high temperatures, and extending the life of the battery, Minteer says. Funding for this study was provided by the U.S. Department of Defense.

The American Chemical Society — the world’s largest scientific society — is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.



Shelley D. Minteer, Ph.D., is an associate professor of chemistry at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Mo.

Abstract
It is known that through the immobilization of enzymes within a micellar polymer, it is possible to achieve high power densities and long lifetimes for the bioanode in a biofuel cell. This research details the development of a hydrophobically modified chitosan membrane which would be used as the enzyme immobilization membrane. Chitosan was modified by reacting a saturated alkyl aldehyde with the free amino group on the chitosan backbone. Studies were done using poly(methylene) green as the mediator with NAD+ dependent glucose dehydrogenase on glassy carbon electrodes showing that as alkyl chain length of the aldehyde increased, there was no significant change in flux through the membrane. This research also studies the use of Azure C as a mediator. Bioanodes were prepared using poly(methylene) green and Azure C as the mediators for NAD+ dependent glucose dehydrogenase. The bioanodes have remained stable for over a month and have produced a maximum power density of 5.82 x 10-5 Watt/cm2 for a poly(methylene) green mediated bioanode and 4.38 x 10-5 Watt/cm2 for an Azure C mediated bioanode. Future work includes studying the effects of temperature on the performance of the biofuel cell, as well as continuing to monitor the lifetime of the enzyme.

Researcher Provided Non-Technical Summary

Briefly explain in lay language what you have done, why it is significant and what are its implications (particularly to the general public)

We have developed an enzymatic fuel cell that utilizes sugar as fuel. The cell operates at room temperature and employs glucose dehydrogenase to oxidize sugar. This cell can use sugar from beverages (ex: soda), from table sugar, or from tree sap or cacti sap. The fuel cell is being designed for portable power application, like cellular phones, laptops, and sensors, because employing sugar as a fuel can lead to 3-4 times the energy density, which leads to a battery that will operate 3-4 times longer than current battery technology.

How new is this work and how does it differ from that of others who may be doing similar research?

We have been working on the sugar biobattery for the last 18 months. Derek Lovely's work at Univ. Massachusetts is the common competitor. His microbial biofuel cell utilizes living cells as catalysts instead of enzymes. He can use sugars as fuel as well, but his power densities are greater than an order of magnitude smaller, which means that a similar size battery to a cell phone battery would have more than 5 times LESS talk time than the current battery on the market.

[Kids, Food and TV Ads]

Study says food ads are seen the most by kids, when they are watching television - more than twenty a day - candy and snacks are in 34 percent of those ads
http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/7618.pdf

- - - - - - -

Food for Thought: Television Food Advertising to Children in the United States

March 28, 2007

As the fight against childhood obesity escalates, the issue of food advertising to children has come under increasing scrutiny.

Policymakers in Congress, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and agencies such as the Institute of Medicine (IOM) have called for changes in the advertising landscape, and U.S. food and media industries are developing their own voluntary initiatives related to advertising food to children. To help inform this debate, the Kaiser Family Foundation released the largest study ever conducted of TV food advertising to children.

The study, Food for Thought: Television Food Advertising to Children in the United States, combines content analysis of TV ads with detailed data about children’s viewing habits to provide an estimate of the number and type of TV ads seen by children of various ages.

- - - - - - -

New Study Finds That Food is the Top Product Seen Advertised by Children

Among All Children, Tweens See the Most Food Ads at More than 20 a Day

34% of All Food Ads Targeting Children or Teens are for Candy and Snacks

Half of All Ads Shown During Children’s Shows are for Food

Washington, D.C. – As the fight against childhood obesity escalates, the issue of food advertising to children has come under increasing scrutiny. Policymakers in Congress, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and agencies such as the Institute of Medicine (IOM) have called for changes in the advertising landscape, and U.S. food and media industries are developing their own voluntary initiatives related to advertising food to children. To help inform this debate, the Kaiser Family Foundation today released the largest study ever conducted of TV food advertising to children.

The study, Food for Thought: Television Food Advertising to Children in the United States, combines content analysis of TV ads with detailed data about children’s viewing habits, to provide an estimate of the number and type of TV ads seen by children of various ages. The study found that tweens ages 8-12 see the most food ads on TV, an average of 21 ads a day, or more than 7,600 a year. Teenagers see slightly fewer ads, at 17 a day, for a total of more than 6,000 a year. For a variety of reasons -- because they watch less TV overall, and more of their viewing is on networks that have limited or no advertising, such as PBS and Disney -- children ages 2-7 see the least number of food ads, at 12 food ads a day, or 4,400 a year.

For each age group studied, food was the top product seen advertised. Thirty-two percent of all ads seen by 2-7 year olds were for food, while 25% of ads seen by 8-12 year olds and 22% of ads seen by 13-17 year olds were for food. Of all genres on TV, shows specifically designed for children under 12 have the highest proportion of food advertising (50% of all ad time).

“Children of all ages see thousands of food ads a year, but tweens see more than any other age group,” said Vicky Rideout, vice president and director of the Program for the Study of Entertainment Media and Health at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “Since tweens are at an age where they’re just becoming independent consumers, understanding what type of advertising they are exposed to is especially important.”

Types of Food Advertised. Of all food ads in the study that target children or teens, 34% are for candy and snacks, 28% are for cereal, and 10% are for fast foods. Four percent are for dairy products and 1% for fruit juices. Of the 8,854 ads reviewed in the study, there were none for fruits or vegetables targeting children or teens.

Appeals Employed to Advertise Food. One in five (20%) food ads targeting children or teens include a push to a website, and a similar proportion (19%) include the offer of a premium, such as a game or toy. About one in ten (11%) have a tie-in to a children’s TV or movie character.

Physical Activity Portrayed. Fifteen percent of all food ads targeting children or teens include depictions of a physically active lifestyle, such as showing children skateboarding, snowboarding, or playing basketball.

Public Service Advertising. The study also measured children’s exposure to public service messages on fitness or nutrition (whether donated or paid). Children 2-7 and 8-12 see an average of one such message every 2-3 days (164 a year for 2-7 year-olds and 158 a year for 8-12 year-olds). Teens 13-17 see just one such message per week, for an average of 47 per year.

“While public service ads on fitness and nutrition may well play an important role in helping to fight childhood obesity, we need to be realistic about our expectations, given how few such messages children see,” Rideout said.

The report was released today at a forum in Washington, D.C. that featured U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, food industry leaders, health officials, and consumer advocates.

The report and a webcast of the session (available after 12:30 p.m. ET) can be found at http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia032807pkg.cfm

Methods

The study is based on a sample of 1,638 hours of television content, including a detailed analysis of 8,854 food ads. Because children’s viewing habits vary substantially by age, the studies’ findings are presented separately for children ages 2-7, 8-12, and 13-17. Nielsen data were used to determine the top television networks for each of the three age groups. Any network in the top 10 for any one of the age groups was included in the study (Black Entertainment Television was also included because previous Kaiser research had showed it to be in the top ten networks among all 13-17 year-olds, and the number-one network for African Americans 8-18). A total of 13 networks were included: ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, The WB, UPN, PBS, ABC Family, BET, The Cartoon Network, Disney, MTV, and Nickelodeon. A week’s worth of content from 6 a.m. to midnight was recorded and coded for each network, using a composite week sampling method to increase representativeness. The sample was primarily collected from May – September 2005.

The sample of television content was then reviewed by trained coders. All ads and PSAs were coded by subject matter, and all food ads were coded for type of food, target audience, type of appeal, and various other characteristics such as use of a premium or depiction of a physically active lifestyle.

The data from the content analysis was paired with detailed viewing data to yield an estimate of the number and type of advertising actually seen by children. Viewing data is from a sample of 1,090 parents of children ages 2-7 and 3,032 8-18 year-olds, including the amount of time children spend watching, and the proportion of viewing time spent watching specific networks and genres of programming. This allows researchers to take into account the proportion of children’s viewing that is spent watching children’s shows (where the amount of advertising is limited by law, but a larger proportion of ads are for food) or networks such as PBS or Disney, which have distinct advertising policies and virtually no food ads.

The study was designed by Kaiser Family Foundation staff in collaboration with Professor Walter Gantz at Indiana University, and data were collected and analyzed by Professor Gantz and his colleagues Nancy Schwartz and James Angelini. At the Foundation, the project was directed by, and the report co-authored by, Vicky Rideout, vice president and director of the Foundation’s Program for the Study of Entertainment Media and Health.


Policy Background

Institute of Medicine (IOM): In December 2005, the IOM issued a report titled Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity. The report included an extensive review of research on the impact of advertising on children’s diets and health, and recommended shifting the emphasis of food advertising to children toward healthier options. The report recommended that if voluntary industry efforts are not successful, Congress should enact legislation mandating such a shift on broadcast and cable television.

Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (Initiative): In November 2006, many of the most prominent food companies advertising to children and youth joined the Initiative, pledging, among other things, to devote at least half of all advertising directed to children under 12 to promoting healthier dietary choices, and/or to messages that encourage good nutrition or healthy lifestyles. Member companies are scheduled to announce their specific commitments and timetables for implementation within approximately 6-9 months from the announcement of the Initiative.

Great Britain: In November 2006, British regulators banned advertising for high fat, salt and sugar foods (HFSS) in programming made for children or of particular appeal to children under age 16. In addition, the government’s regulatory agency Ofcom (Office of Communications) voted to prohibit the use of licensed characters, celebrities, promotional offers and health claims in food advertising to children.

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP): In December 2006 the AAP issued a policy statement recommending, among other things, that Congress “implement a ban on junk-food advertising during programming that is viewed predominantly by young children.”

Federal Trade Commission (FTC): In April 2006 the FTC issued a report titled Perspectives on Marketing, Self-Regulation and Childhood Obesity that recommended a shift toward marketing of healthier foods to children, and an increase in the use of media to promote health and wellness. Per the request of Congress, the FTC is also preparing a report on the marketing practices of the food and beverage industry.

- - - - - - -

Program for the Study of Entertainment Media and Health http://www.kff.org/about/entmediastudies.cfm

[BrokenMarriagesDepression]

Study: Marital breakdown and subsequent depression
1994/1995 to 2004/2005

Men and women whose marriage has broken up have a higher risk of being depressed than people who remained with their spouse, according to a new study. However, men appear to take the separation harder.

The study, based on longitudinal data from the National Population Health Survey (NPHS), examined the association between marital dissolution and subsequent depression.

Both men and women had higher odds of having an episode of depression in the two years following the end of a marriage or common-law relationship, compared with people who stayed with their spouse.

The study determined that men who experienced a break-up were more at risk of depression than were women.

It also found that marital break-up was independently associated with depression. That is, while other factors that often accompany a break-up were associated with an increased risk of depression, they did not completely account for it.

These other factors included a change in household income, in social support, or in the number of children in the household. The association between marital break and depression persisted even when these events were taken into account.

The study found that most people who experienced depression in the post-relationship period were no longer depressed four years after the break-up. But for a sizeable minority, depression remained a problem.


Marital dissolution and depression


The NPHS, which began in 1994/1995, collects information about the health of Canadians every two years.

Since 1994/1995, an average of just over 4% of people aged 20 to 64 who had been married or living with a common-law partner at the time of their first interview were no longer in a relationship when they were re-interviewed two years later.

The survey found that 12% of people whose relationship had ended reported a new episode of depression. This compared with 3% among people who remained in a relationship.

Men aged 20 to 64 who had divorced or separated were six times more likely to report an episode of depression than were men who remained married.

Women who had undergone a marital break-up were 3.5 times more likely to have had a bout of depression than were their counterparts who were still in a relationship.


Life changes disruptive


The end of a relationship brings other disruptive life changes, which, in themselves, might increase the risk of depression.

For example, financial difficulties often follow marital dissolution, particularly for women. In fact, 43% of women who went through a break-up had a substantial drop in their household income, compared with 15% of men.

Men and women who divorced or separated were more likely than those who remained in a relationship to report a decline in social support. Whereas 19% of men and 15% of women who were no longer with their spouse reported a drop in social support, the figures were 6% and 5% respectively for those who remained with a partner.

Research has suggested that for men the loss of custody or a change in parental responsibilities is one of the most stressful aspects of a break-up. According to the analysis of NPHS data, 34% of men, compared with 3% of women, whose relationship ended experienced the departure of children from their household.


Marital breakdown independently associated with depression


However, even when taking these other factors into account, the end of a relationship was independently associated with the risk of depression among both sexes.

The odds of subsequent depression for men whose relationship ended were still 3.3 times higher than those of men who remained with their spouse. Among women, the odds of depression after a break-up were about 2.4 times higher.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3225.

The study "Marital breakdown and subsequent depression," which is part of today's Health Reports online release, is now available (82-003-XWE, free) from the Publications module of our website.

For more information about "Marital breakdown and subsequent depression", contact Michelle Rotermann (613-951-3166; Michelle.Rotermann@statcan.ca), Health Analysis and Measurement Group.

Also released in Health Reports today is "Trends in weight change among Canadian adults," based on an earlier report published online November 6, 2006.

The complete version of the latest issue of Health Reports, Vol. 18, no. 2 (82-003-XWE, free) is now available from the Publications module or our website. A printed version is also available (82-003-XPE, $22/$63). See How to order products. It contains two other articles that appeared previously in the online edition: "Sodium consumption at all ages" and "Canadians' eating habits."

For more information about Health Reports, contact Christine Wright (613-951-1765; Christine.Wright@statcan.ca).

A link to the two articles released today can also be found in the National Population Health Survey Internet publication, Healthy Today, Healthy Tomorrow? Findings from the National Population Health Survey, Vol. 2, no. 2 (82-618-MWE2007006, free), available from the Publications module of our website.

NPHS micro data are available at Statistics Canada's Research Data Centres. For more information, visit The Research Data Centres Program page of our website.

To order custom tabulations, contact Data Access and Information Services (613-951-1746; hd-ds@statcan.ca ), Health Statistics Division.

For further information on the Household Component of the NPHS, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this survey, contact Mario Bédard (613-951-8933; mario.bedard@statcan.ca ) or France Bilocq (613-951-6956; france.bilocq@statcan.ca ), Health Statistics Division.

[100% Smoke-Free Indoors]

UN Health Agency Urges Completely Smoke-Free Indoor Environments

May 29, 2007

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today released recommendations citing extensive evidence of harm caused by second-hand tobacco smoke and urging that all indoor environments be completely free of it.

"There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke," said the WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan, urging all countries to pass laws requiring all indoor workplaces and public places to be 100% smoke-free.

There are about 4,000 known chemicals in tobacco smoke; more than 50 of them are known to cause cancer, according to WHO, which says exposure to second-hand smoke causes heart disease and many serious respiratory and cardiovascular diseases that can lead to premature death in adults. It also causes diseases and worsens existing conditions, such as asthma, in children.

Exposure to second-hand smoke occurs anywhere smoking is permitted: homes, workplaces and other public places. An estimated 200 000 workers die each year due to exposure to smoke at work. WHO estimates that around 700 million children, or almost half of the world's children, breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke, particularly at home.

The agency also pointed to the broader burden of second-hand smoke, including direct and indirect medical cost, productivity losses, higher renovation and cleaning costs, and increased risk of fire.

Later this year, countries participating in the second Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control are expected to discuss guidelines for protection against exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke. The second Conference of the Parties, starts on June 30 in Bangkok, Thailand.

"This topic should matter to everyone, because everyone benefits from smoke-free places," said Dr. Douglas Bettcher, Acting Director of the WHO Tobacco Free Initiative.

The new policy recommendations, calling for all indoor public places and workplaces to be 100 per cent smoke-free, were put out by the agency ahead of World No Tobacco Day, marked each year on 31 May.

They are based on the evidence of three recent major reports, which all reached the same conclusion, put out, respectively, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the United States Surgeon General and the California Environmental Protection Agency.

WHO says tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death globally, causing more than 5 million deaths a year. The problem is expanding most rapidly in the developing world, where currently half of tobacco-related deaths occur. By 2030, if current trends continue, 8 out of every 10 tobacco-related deaths will be in the developing world.

Source: United Nations

[Kids and SecondHand Smoke]

Mothers' second-hand smoke exposure linked to psychological problems for kids

June 27, 2007

Joel Schwarz
joels@u.washington.edu

Children whose mothers were exposed to second-hand smoke while they were pregnant have more symptoms of serious psychological problems compared to the offspring of women who had no prenatal exposure to smoke, according to a new University of Washington study.

Writing in the current issue of Child Psychiatry and Human Development, UW psychologists Lisa Gatzke-Kopp and Theodore Beauchaine provide the first evidence linking mothers' second-hand smoke exposure while pregnant to their children's attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder. Psychologists call these behaviors externalizing psychopathology and their symptoms include aggressive behavior, ADHD, defiance and conduct disorder, which encompasses truancy, fighting, school failure, breaking rules, substance use, stealing and destruction of property.

The research also supports a 2006 report by the U.S. Surgeon General that found passive smoke exposure poses a substantial risk to the general health of those who breathe the smoke, as well as to the fetuses of pregnant women.

Gatzke-Kopp and Beauchaine compared patterns psychopathology among three groups of 7- to 15-year-old children, all of whom had significant behavioral and/or emotional problems. One group experienced no prenatal smoke exposure. The second was made up of children whose mothers smoked during the final two trimesters of pregnancy. The third consisted of children whose mothers were exposed to second-hand smoke at work or in the home in the last two trimesters during pregnancy. A total of 171 children, primarily boys, and 133 women participated in the project.

The UW researchers found that those children whose mothers had been exposed to tobacco smoke either by smoking or by being around smokers when they were pregnant had more symptoms of ADHD and conduct disorder than children whose mothers spent their pregnancies in a smoke-free environment. However, they did not show more symptoms of emotional disorders such as depression or anxiety.

"This is a matter of severity," said Gatzke-Kopp, a post-doctoral researcher. "Children with these disorders have a range of behaviors that stretch from problematic to severe. It is a continuum based on the number of symptoms, and children who were exposed to smoke exhibited more symptoms."

She and Beauchaine controlled for a number of other factors including family income, parents' substance use, birth weight and parents' anti-social behavior, but second-hand exposure to smoking persisted as the primary predictor of conduct disorder and ADHD.

Nicotine, an alkaloid compound in tobacco, is believed to be the chemical that causes these behavior problems in children. Animal studies have shown that nicotine affects brain development during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, causing changes in brain regions critical to the development of externalizing psychopathology in humans.

"Evidence suggests that the dopamine system in the brain gets over stimulated during pregnancy," Beauchaine said. Dopamine is a brain chemical that plays an important role in behavior and cognition, among other functions. "

"As a consequence, children who were exposed to smoke in utero have colic and are hard to sooth as infants. As toddlers they are overactive and oppositional. Later on they are irritable, inattentive and low on pleasure."

Gatzke-Kopp and Beauchaine believe a message needs to be distributed widely that regardless of how women are exposed to tobacco smoke, either directly or second-hand smoke, their unborn children's behavior can be affected.

The National Institute of Mental Health funded the research.

[An Apple A Day . . .]

Public release date: 9-Jul-2007
American College of Chest Physicians

Can an apple a day keep asthma away?

Poor diets show increased respiratory symptoms in teens

(NORTHBROOK, IL, JULY 9, 2007) - Teenagers who forego a healthy and balanced diet may have a harder time catching their breath.

A new study, published in the July issue of CHEST, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), shows that a low dietary intake of certain nutrients increases the likelihood of respiratory symptoms such as asthma, especially in teens who smoke. Furthermore, a lack of these nutrients may also lead to lower lung function.

"Our study, as well as other research, suggests that higher intakes of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory micronutrients are associated with lower reports of cough, respiratory infections, and less severe asthma-related symptoms," said lead study author Jane Burns, ScD, Harvard School of Public Health. "Teenagers who have low dietary intakes of fruit, vitamin E, and omega-3 fatty acids are at greater risk of having asthma, emphasizing the importance of a balanced diet, composed of whole foods."

While observing 12th-grade students from 12 communities around the US and Canada, Dr. Burns and her colleagues from the Harvard School of Public Health, Health Canada, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), examined the associations of low dietary nutrient intake with low pulmonary function and respiratory symptoms. Over the period of one school year, 2,112 students completed a standardized respiratory questionnaire and a dietary questionnaire. They also answered questions about medication use, smoking habits, and recent exercise, before participating in lung function testing. Dr. Burns explained that the researchers focused on teens because it is the ideal age at which to test lung capacity and eating habits.

"During late adolescence, physical stature has, on average, been attained and lung growth closely parallels this growth. Therefore we were observing a time when lung function was close to its optimal capacity," she said. "Also, although our diet survey targeted eating habits only during the past year, it did give us some idea of the teens' general past diet. However, their current respiratory health may be a reflection of diet during childhood, as well as during the past year."

The majority of adolescents in the study were white, one third was overweight, and 72% did not consume multivitamins. Also, nearly 25% reported smoking on a daily basis. Researchers also found that at least one third of the students' diets were below the recommended levels of fruit, vegetable, vitamins A and E, beta-carotene, and omega-3 fatty acid intake.

"Vitamin supplements can help teens meet their daily recommended levels," said Dr. Burns, "and surprisingly, even relatively low levels of omega-3 fatty acids appeared to protect teens from higher reported respiratory symptoms."

Results showed that low dietary intakes of fruit, vitamins C and E, and omega-3 fatty acids were associated with decreased lung function and a greater risk of chronic bronchitic symptoms, wheeze, and asthma. These risks were further increased among students with the lowest intakes and who also smoked.

"I wish we could say that an apple a day can keep asthma away, but it's a complex disease with a genetic component. However, it may be that certain foods can lessen or prevent asthma symptoms," said Dr. Burns. "The most important thing to remember is that diet can have a significant impact on teens' respiratory health. I would encourage them to make healthy eating a part of their daily routine, and stress to them that smoking is bad." Researchers emphasized that fresh fruits make for convenient snacks. They also suggest preparing a simple, daily family meal, as a method to promote both communication and good nutrition.

"A balanced diet is not only good for lung health, but for general health," said Mark J. Rosen, MD, FCCP, President of the American College of Chest Physicians. "Parents and physicians should work together to monitor and maintain healthy diets and lifestyles for children of all ages."

###
CHEST is a peer-reviewed journal published by the ACCP. It is available online each month at www.chestjournal.org. The journal's Web site also provides public access to thousands of archived studies, dating back to 1946 - a newly added feature that is free of charge. The ACCP represents 16,600 members who provide clinical respiratory care, sleep medicine, critical care, and cardiothoracic patient care in the United States and throughout the world. The ACCP's mission is to promote the prevention and treatment of diseases of the chest through leadership, education, research, and communication.

For more information about the ACCP, please visit the ACCP Web site at www.chestnet.org

Contact: Deana Busche
dbusche@chestnet.org
847-498-8387

[Soft Drinks-Heart Disease]

07/23/2007

Diet and regular soft drinks linked to increase in risk factors for heart disease
http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content ... 7.689935v1

DALLAS, July 24 — Drinking more than one soft drink daily — whether it’s regular or diet — may be associated with an increase in the risk factors for heart disease, Framingham researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

“We were struck by the fact that it didn’t matter whether it was a diet or regular soda that participants consumed, the association with increased risk was present,” said Ramachandran Vasan, M.D., senior author of the Framingham Heart Study and professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. “In those who drink one or more soft drinks daily, there was an association of an increased risk of developing the metabolic syndrome.”

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk factors including excess waist circumference, high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL “good” cholesterol) and high fasting glucose levels. The presence of three or more of the factors increases a person’s risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Prior studies linked soft drink consumption to multiple risk factors for heart disease. However, this study showed that association not only included drinking regular calorie-laden soft drinks, but artificially sweetened diet sodas as well, researchers said.

“Moderation in anything is the key,” said Ravi Dhingra, M.D., lead author of the study and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. “If you are drinking one or more soft drinks a day, you may be increasing your risk of developing metabolic risk factors for heart disease.”

The Framingham study included nearly 9,000 person observations made in middle-aged men and women over four years at three different times.

In a “snapshot in time” at baseline, the researchers found that individuals consuming one or more soft drinks a day had a 48 percent increased prevalence of the metabolic syndrome compared to those consuming less than one soft drink daily.

In a longitudinal study of participants who were free of metabolic syndrome at baseline (6,039 person observations), consumption of one or more soft drinks a day was associated with a 44 percent higher risk of developing new-onset metabolic syndrome during a follow-up period of four years.

The researchers also observed that compared to participants who drank less than one soft drink daily, those who drank one or more soft drinks a day had a:

31 percent greater risk of developing new-onset obesity (defined as a body mass index [BMI] of 30 kilograms/meter2 or more);
30 percent increased risk of developing increased waist circumference;
25 percent increased risk of developing high blood triglycerides or high fasting blood glucose;
32 percent higher risk of having low HDL levels.
A trend towards an increased risk of developing high blood pressure that was not statistically significant.
Researchers then analyzed a smaller sample of participants on whom data on regular and diet soft drink consumption was available from food frequency questionnaires. Participants who consumed one or more drinks of diet or regular soda per day had a 50 to 60 percent increased risk for developing new-onset metabolic syndrome, said Dhingra, who is also an attending physician at Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital in New Hampshire. “It didn’t matter whether it was a diet or regular soft drink.”

“Results also don’t appear to be driven by the dietary pattern of soft drink users, i.e, by other food items that are typically consumed along with soft drinks,” Vasan said. “We adjusted in our analyses for saturated fat and trans fat intake, dietary fiber consumption, total caloric intake, smoking and physical activity, and still observed a significant association of soft drink consumption and risk of developing the metabolic syndrome and multiple metabolic risk factors.”

One explanation is that the fructose corn syrup in regular soft drinks causes weight gain, and can lead to insulin resistance and diabetes, Vasan said. “But then you would expect to see an association with regular soft drinks, but not diet soft drinks. Our findings suggest that this is not the case.”

Another possible explanation is that consuming more liquids is associated with a lesser degree of dietary compensation. Usually if you eat a large meal, then you’re inclined to eat a smaller amount at the next meal, Vasan said. But liquids don’t have the same degree of compensation as solids. If you drink a large amount of liquids at a meal, you are more likely to eat a larger amount at the next meal (compared to what you would eat had you consumed more solids at the prior meal).

Other theories are that the high sweetness of diet and regular soft drinks makes a person more prone to eat sweet items, or the caramel content in soft drinks may promote development of advanced glycation end products, complexes of sugars that can result in insulin resistance and can cause inflammation in experimental studies.

“These are all theories, and experts debate their importance,” Dhingra said. “Our study was observational, and so right now all we demonstrate is an association. We have not proven causality.”

Dhingra and Vasan called for further studies to replicate the results and to understand the mechanisms driving this association before recommendations can be made.

Other researchers included Thomas J. Wang, M.D.; Caroline S. Fox, M.D.; Lisa Sullivan, Ph.D.; Ralph B. D’Agostino, Ph.D.; James B. Meigs, M.D., M.P.H.; J. Michael Gaziano, M.D., M.P.H. and Paul F. Jacques, Ph.D.

Editor’s Note: For a free brochure about the American Heart Association’s diet and nutrition recommendations called “Making Healthy Food and Lifestyle Choices: Our Guide for American Adults,” call 1-800-AHA-USA1.

Statements and conclusions of study authors that are published in the American Heart Association scientific journals are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect association policy or position. The American Heart Association makes no representation or warranty as to their accuracy or reliability.

[Fat is the New Normal]

By Jill Elish
August 2007

FAT IS THE NEW NORMAL, FSU RESEARCHER SAYS
Changing Perceptions of Body Weight Feed Rise in Obesity

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — American women have gotten fatter as it has become more socially acceptable to carry a few extra pounds, according to a new study.

Florida State University Assistant Professor of Economics Frank Heiland and Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Economist Mary Burke are the co-authors of a paper published in the academic journal Economic Inquiry that argues that the ballooning weight of the population has fed even more collective weight gain as our perception of what is considered a normal body size has changed.

“This is a social force that we are trying to document because the rise in obesity has occurred so rapidly over the past 30 years,” said Heiland, who also is affiliated with FSU’s Center for Demography and Population Health. “Medically speaking, most agree that this trend is a dangerous one because of its connection to diabetes, cancer and other diseases. But psychologically, it may provide relief to know that you are not the only one packing on the pounds.”

The paper, “Social Dynamics of Obesity,” is the first to provide a mathematical model of the impact of economic, biological and social factors on aggregate body weight distribution. It also is one of the first studies to suggest that weight norms may change and are not set standards based on beauty or medical ideals.

Many economists believe that people eat more — and thus gain weight — when food prices drop, but that’s just part of the story behind the nation’s dramatic weight gain since the late 1970s, according to the researchers. The full price of a calorie has dropped by about 36 percent relative to the price of consumer goods since 1977, but prices leveled off in the mid-1990s. And yet American women continued to get bigger.

Heiland and Burke’s “social multiplier” theory offers a potential reason why: As Americans continue to super-size their value meals, the average weight of the population increases and people slowly adjust their perceptions of appropriate body weight. Given that these changes in perception may come about gradually, Heiland and Burke suggest the nation’s battle of the bulge may extend into the future.

Heiland and Burke studied body weights among American women in the 30- to 60-year-old age bracket from 1976 to 2000. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, they found that the weight of the average woman increased by 20 pounds, or 13.5 percent, during that period. There was disproportionate growth among the most obese women as the 99th percentile weight increased a hefty 18.2 percent, from 258 to 305 pounds.

The researchers also looked at self-reports of women’s real weights and desired weights. In 1994, the average woman said she weighed 147 pounds but wanted to weigh 132 pounds. By 2002, the average woman weighed 153 pounds but wanted the scales to register 135 pounds, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

The fact that even the desired weight of women has increased suggests there is less social pressure to lose weight, Heiland said, citing a previous study that 87 percent of Americans, including 48 percent of obese Americans, believe that their body weight falls in the “socially acceptable” range.

While it seems thinness is increasingly idealized in popular culture — images of waif-like models and stick-thin celebrities are everywhere — there is a gap between the cultural imagery and the weights that most people consider acceptable for themselves and others, according to Heiland.

Biological forces also play a role in the rise of obesity. An additional pound of body weight is more likely to be fat, which does not metabolize calories nearly as well as muscle tissue, Heiland explained. Therefore, any increase in calorie consumption — say, one more cookie each day — leads to greater weight gain among an initially heavier person.

The researchers focused this study on women partly because their weight gains have been so dramatic, Heiland said, citing a whopper of a statistic: 33.2 percent of American women over age 20 are classified as obese, according to 2001-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data. However, men also have become heavier, and the researchers believe the same economic, social and biological forces are to blame.

[Conflict - Human Nature]

"While conflict and hate don't need to be a part of group membership, a look at the news today shows that conflict does occur often, when groups battle over resources, or threats to identity or values. When people are secure about their own identity and the identity of their group, and there is no competition for resources, conflict is not normally a problem."


YOU DON'T HAVE TO HATE OTHER GROUPS TO LOVE YOUR OWN, RESEARCHER SAYS

SAN FRANCISCO - Shiite vs. Sunni. Red state vs. Blue state. Immigrant vs. native.

While it may appear that conflict is an inevitable part of interaction between groups, research actually suggests that fighting, hating and contempt between groups is not a necessary part of human nature, according to an Ohio State University professor of psychology.


"There's still this belief that a group's cohesion depends on conflict with other groups, but the evidence doesn't support that," said Marilynn Brewer of Ohio State .

"Despite evidence to the contrary, you still see this theory in the research literature and in many textbooks."

Brewer has spent much of her career studying 'ingroups' - the groups we belong to - and their relations with 'outgroups' - those groups to which others belong.

She discussed the nature of these intergroup relations in her invited address Saturday Aug. 18 in San Francisco at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association. The address was in honor of Brewer winning the 2007 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the APA.

In her address, Brewer said recent evidence suggests that people's attachment to their ingroups has nothing to do with conflict - or indeed any other kind of relation - to other groups.

Instead, people join groups to find a place of trust and security.

"Simply put, we prefer people of our kind, people we know we can rely on. That doesn't mean you have to hate anyone else. But you will be more likely to trust people from your own group," Brewer said.

In one recent study, for example, Brewer found that people tended to put more trust in total strangers when they learned this stranger attended the same university they did.

"All you need is to have that shared group identity," she said.

While conflict and hate don't need to be a part of group membership, a look at the news today shows that conflict does occur often, when groups battle over resources, or threats to identity or values. When people are secure about their own identity and the identity of their group, and there is no competition for resources, conflict is not normally a problem.

The evolutionary history of humans suggests there is no need to require intergroup conflict to account for the formation of ingroups. Early humans didn't live under dense population conditions in which groups had to compete for local resources.

Given the costs of fighting, and the lack of need to compete, groups would have been more likely to flee from each other rather than fight.

That doesn't mean ingroup bias is benign, Brewer said. Ingroup bias is the basis for discrimination, the favoring of people in your group over those in another.

"You don't have to hate people from other groups in order to disadvantage them and to deny them the opportunities you have in your group," she said. "That's a real downside to ingroup bias."

Another common misconception about the formation of groups is that people join to boost their self-esteem. In other words, the argument is that the purpose of joining groups is to say "my group is better than your group". Again, research disproves this theory, Brewer said.

"The basic underlying mechanism for ingroup favoritism is trust and security and not self-esteem," she said.

Research has shown that when people are asked why their ingroup is better than other groups, they focus on traits such as trustworthiness, friendliness and kindness.

People don't necessarily say their group is wealthier or smarter or more successful than others.

"Most people are reality bound. They know if their group is not as good as others when it comes to things like wealth, and they won't pretend otherwise," Brewer said.

"If people were just looking for self-enhancement, they would just say their group is the best at everything, and that isn't the case. What people are really looking for is trust and security."

While conflict and hate don't need to be a part of group membership, a look at the news today shows that conflict does occur often, when groups battle over resources, or threats to identity or values.

When people are secure about their own identity and the identity of their group, and there is no competition for resources, conflict is not normally a problem. But if people are insecure about what their group means, or their place in it, they may support conflict as a way to enhance cohesion within the group, Brewer said.

That suggests that marginal members of a group " those who feel least included" will be the ones most concerned about keeping distance between groups and pushing hostility toward outgroups.

One way to minimize conflict between groups may be to take advantage of the fact that people belong to many groups with cross-cutting memberships, Brewer said. People have their national and racial identities, occupational and religious groups, school or alumni groups, as well as neighborhood, hobby and club affiliations.

"People have these different group identities and we've been working on ways to find out how people understand these memberships and how it affects their attitudes toward other groups," she said.

"We do find that those people who have multiple identities and experience these identities in complex, cross-cutting ways, are indeed more accepting of diversity and have more positive feelings toward racial and religious outgroups. That suggests that there are psychological ways of breaking the boundaries of our small ingroup-outgroup distinctions."

Contact: Marilynn Brewer, (614) 292-9640; Brewer.64@osu.edu

Written by Jeff Grabmeier, (614) 292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu

[Sleep-too little/too much]

Researchers say lack of sleep doubles risk of death… but so can too much sleep

Researchers from the University of Warwick, and University College London, have found that lack of sleep can more than double the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. However they have also found that point comes when too much sleep can also more than double the risk of death.

In research to be presented today, Monday 24th September 2007, to the British Sleep Society, Professor Francesco Cappuccio from the University of Warwick’s Warwick Medical School will show the results of a study of how sleep patterns affected the mortality of 10,308 civil servants in the “Whitehall II study”. Amongst other things the data they used provided information on the mortality rates and sleep patterns on the same group of civil servants at two points in their life (1985-8 and those still alive in 1992-3).

The researchers took into account other possible factors such age, sex, marital status, employment grade, smoking status, physical activity, alcohol consumption, self-rated health, body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol, other physical illness etc. Once they had adjusted for those factors they were able to isolate the effect that changes in sleep patterns over 5 years had on mortality rates 11-17 years later.

Taking those who had not made any change in their sleeping habits between 1985-8 and 1992-3 as their baseline (7 hours per night being the figure normally recommended as an appropriate period of sleep for an adult) they were able to see what difference having reduced the amount of sleep over time made to mortality rates by 2004.

Those who had cut their sleeping from 7h to 5 hours or less faced a 1.7 fold increased risk in mortality from all causes, and twice the increased risk of death from a cardiovascular problem in particular.

Professor Francesco Cappuccio from the University of Warwick’s Warwick Medical School will say to the British Sleep Society:

“Fewer hours sleep and greater levels of sleep disturbance have become widespread in industrialised societies. This change, largely the result of sleep curtailment to create more time for leisure and shift-work, has meant that reports of fatigue, tiredness and excessive daytime sleepiness are more common than a few decades ago. Sleep represents the daily process of physiological restitution and recovery, and lack of sleep has far-reaching effects.”

Curiously the researchers also found that too much sleep also increased mortality. They found that those individuals who showed an increase in sleep duration to 8 hours or more a night were more than twice as likely to die as those who had not changed their habit, however, predominantly from non-cardiovascular diseases.

Professor Francesco Cappuccio says:

“Short sleep has been shown to be a risk factor for weight gain, hypertension and Type 2 diabetes sometimes leading to mortality but in contrast to the short sleep-mortality association it appears that no potential mechanisms by which long sleep could be associated with increased mortality have yet been investigated. Some candidate causes for this include depression, low socioeconomic status and cancer-related fatigue.”

“In terms of prevention, our findings indicate that consistently sleeping around 7 hours per night is optimal for health and a sustained reduction may predispose to ill-health.”

Note for Editors: The research paper entitled: “A prospective study of change in sleep duration; associations with mortality in the Whitehall II cohort” will be published in the Journal SLEEP and the full list of the authors is: Jane E. Ferrie, Martin J. Shipley, Francesco P. Cappuccio, Eric Brunner, Michelle A. Miller, Meena Kumari, and Michael G. Marmot

For further information please contact:

Professor Francesco Cappuccio, Warwick Medical School,
University of Warwick
F.P.Cappuccio@warwick.ac.uk

[Fatty Foods]

Scientists Find High-Fat Diet Disrupts Body Clock
November 2007

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Our body's 24-hour internal clock, or circadian clock, regulates the time we go to sleep, wake up and become hungry as well as the daily rhythms of many metabolic functions. The clock -- an ancient molecular machine found in organisms large and small, simple and complex -- properly aligns one's physiology with one's environment.

Now, for the first time, a Northwestern University and Evanston Northwestern Healthcare (ENH) study has shown that overeating alters the core mechanism of the body clock, throwing off the timing of internal signals, including appetite control, critical for good health. Animals on a high-fat diet gained weight and suddenly exhibited a disruption in their circadian clocks, eating extra calories during the time they should have been asleep or at rest.

The study, which will be published in the Nov. 7 issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, also shows that changes in metabolic state associated with obesity and diabetes not only affects the circadian rhythms of behavior but also of physiology. Probing beyond the behavioral level, the researchers observed actual changes in genes that encode the clock in the brain and in peripheral tissues (such as fat), resulting in diminished expression of those genes.

These findings close an important loop in studies led by Joe Bass, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and neurobiology and physiology at Northwestern and head of the division of endocrinology and metabolism at ENH, of the relationship between the body clock and metabolism. Two years ago Bass and his colleagues reported in the journal Science that a faulty or misaligned body clock can wreak havoc on the body and its metabolism, increasing the propensity for obesity and diabetes.

Since then, knowing that genetic mutations rarely are the reason for a malfunctioning body clock, Bass has been wondering what could upset the operation of this internal timing device. What are the environmental factors or common influences that might affect the clock and in turn disrupt the sleep/wake cycle?

“Our study was simple -- to determine if food itself can alter the clock,” said Bass, senior author of the paper. “The answer is yes, alterations in feeding affect timing. We found that as an animal on a high-fat diet gains weight it eats at the inappropriate time for its sleep/wake cycle -- all of the excess calories are consumed when the animal should be resting. For a human, that would be like raiding the refrigerator in the middle of the night and binging on junk food.”

The clock-metabolism cycles feed on each other, creating a vicious loop, says Bass. Once weight gain starts, the clock is disrupted, and a disrupted clock exacerbates the original problem, affecting metabolism negatively and increasing the propensity for obesity and diabetes.

“Timing and metabolism evolved together and are almost a conjoined system,” said Bass. “If we perturb the delicate balance between the two, we see deleterious effects.”

The biological clock is central to behavior and tissue physiology. Clocks function in the brain as well as lung, liver, heart and skeletal muscles. They operate on a 24-hour, circadian (Latin for “about a day”) cycle that governs functions like sleeping and waking, rest and activity, fluid balance, body temperature, cardiac output, oxygen consumption and endocrine gland secretion.

In their study, Bass and his team studied mice with the same genetic backgrounds. After feeding them a regular diet for two weeks, they were split into two groups for the remaining six weeks, one kept on a regular diet and the other fed a high-fat diet. After two weeks, those on the high-fat diet showed a spontaneous shift in their normal pattern of activity/eating and resting/sleeping. They began to eat during their typical rest or sleep period (daylight for a mouse). The animals on a regular diet did not exhibit this behavior.

“It's not just that the animals are eating more at regular meals,” said Bass. “What's happened is that they actually shift their eating habits so that all excess food intake occurs during their normal rest period.”

In the study's high-calorie, high-fat diet, 45 percent of calories was contributed by fat. For humans, a diet with no more than 30 percent of calories from fat is recommended.

The entire study was conducted in darkness so that the behavior of the animals simply reflected their internal clock; a normal animal has a very fixed daily period of just less than 24 hours. For animals on a high-fat diet, after two weeks on that diet the animals' behavior changed: their daily period of sleep/wake was lengthened by a significant amount. This suggests, says Bass, that the central mechanism in the brain that controls the timing of the cycle of activity and rest is affected by a high-fat diet.

“Our findings have implications for human disease,” said Bass. “These basic advances in science can be applied to the studies of common disorders like obesity and diabetes. It is important to understand what happens when diet changes.”

In addition to Bass, other authors of the paper, titled “High-Fat Diet Disrupts Behavioral and Molecular Circadian Rhythms in Mice,” are Akira Kohsaka, of Northwestern (lead author); Aaron Laposky, research assistant professor at Northwestern's Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology; Kathryn Moynihan Ramsey, Carmela Estrada and Corrine Joshu, of Northwestern; Yumiko Kobayashi, of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare; and Fred W. Turek, professor of neurobiology and physiology at Northwestern and director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology.

The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health and Amylin-Eli Lilly Ventures Pharmaceuticals.

- - -

Also of interest . . .

Study Tries New Way to Rehab Fried-Food-Loving Couch Dwellers

CHICAGO --- For lunch, Joy Hesemann loved to dive into a platter of deep-fried, crunchy chicken tenders with a side of ranch dressing. At night, she'd fry up ground beef for Hamburger Helper or another boxed meal for her family's dinner. Later, she'd plop in front of the TV or computer screen and rip into a bag of Oreos or potato chips.

"I knew I was constantly overeating and eating the wrong things, and I wasn't exercising," admitted Hesemann, 27, an administrative assistant from Streamwood, Ill. "I wanted to change, but I needed some motivation."

That came in the form of a new research study at Northwestern University investigating innovative ways to rehabilitate people with lousy health habits. The prerequisites: a chummy relationship with saturated fat but no acquaintance with fruits and vegetables; leisure time spent gazing at a TV or computer screen, along with an "allergy" to exercise.

In other words, a typical American lifestyle.

"That was me," Hesemann said. She signed up.

The study was designed by Bonnie Spring, a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine, to make change as easy as possible.

Spring knows it's overwhelming for someone with a raft of unhealthy habits to overhaul an entire lifestyle. So she wants them to just change two unhealthy behaviors to see if the others will tag along. Sort of a buy two, get two free sale. Her method is based on the Behavioral Economics Theory used by Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman.

She's also helping these fat-food-loving couch dwellers flip their lifestyles with an arsenal of high-tech tools including a specially programmed Palm Pilot to monitor eating and exercise; virtual visits with a personal coach and an accelerometer which straps around the waist to record the intensity of their movements. (You call that a brisk walk?)

Participants are assigned to eat more veggies and fruits or cut down on saturated fat; and cut back on "screen" time or increase exercise.

"We're trying to figure out which two behavior changes give you the maximum healthy bang for your buck on all unhealthy behaviors that we're trying to modify," Spring said.

"The new behaviors come along for the ride in one of two ways -- a complementary behavior or a substitute behavior," Spring explained. "If watching TV means you also snack when you watch, then eating and snacking are complementary behaviors for you. If I can get you to cut down on your TV, you'll probably automatically cut down on your snacking. I make your life simpler by just asking you to change one. The complementary behavior is a bonus that comes along for the ride."

"A substitute behavior replaces or crowds out another behavior," Spring said. An example would be eating more fruits and vegetables, so you would nibble strawberries instead of being elbow-deep in a bag of Cheetos.

Hesemann's assignment for the four-month study was to slash most saturated fat from her diet and break a sweat for an hour a day. She also got a crash course on healthier eating and strategies to inject more physical activity into her day such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

She recorded every bite of food and minute of exercise in the ever-present Palm Pilot, which had software to monitor her daily progress. With each entry, an image of a thermometer with a rising "temperature" showed her intake of saturated fat so far that day (she was allowed 20 grams) and her minutes of exercise.

"It was dreadful to have to write it down," Hesemann said about logging in her food. She learned her favorite fried chicken tenders lunch soared past her fat quota as did her beloved Italian sausages. "I said 'Oh, my god. I'm never eating those again!' I hated seeing that thermometer rise."

At the end of each day she'd download the data into her computer and send it to her personal coach. The coach would zip Hesemann encouraging e-mails ("You're doing a great job!") or friendly reminders to get off the couch ("You need 30 minutes more of activity each day.")

As with all participants, Hesemann's recordings in the Palm Pilot and contact with the personal coach gradually tapered off over the four-month period of the study. This latter period is when it gets interesting for Spring. She's waiting to see who falls off the wagon.

"It's really hard to maintain a new healthier lifestyle," Spring said. "At first it's novel and exciting and then the novelty wears off. You tend to revert back to the old habits. There's kind of an inertia that pulls you back."

Spring is anxious to see which two behavior changes best helped people maintain their healthier habits. But she won't know the results until the study ends in 2008.

In the meantime, Joy Hesemann now races up and down the stairs at work instead of punching elevator buttons and hits the gym three days a week. She bakes skinless chicken for dinner and nibbles strawberries for dessert. She's lost 40 pounds and dropped three dress sizes. She's even eliminated high fat foods from her 6-year-old daughter's meals. Six month after the study, Hesemann's new healthy ways show no sign of abating.

"This program made me more conscious of the foods I'm eating. And the exercise is a blast. I still have my fallbacks, but if I go to McDonald's I'll get the grilled chicken sandwich instead of the comforting, nasty foods. For me this is a new way of life. "

[Easy Does It]

Self Control is Limited - tackle one bad habit at a time
November 2007

" . . . if you set too many goals that require self-control, you overwhelm the brain and this can be a recipe for disaster.”


Running on Empty: Neural Signals for Self-Control Failure
Michael Inzlicht and Jennifer N. Gutsell

The study appears in the November issue of Psychological Science.
Past research shows that self-control is limited and becomes depleted after initial exertions. This study examined the neural processes underlying self-control failure by testing whether controlled, effortful behavior impairs subsequent attempts at control by depleting the neural system associated with conflict monitoring. Subjects either watched an emotional movie normally or tried to suppress their emotions while watching the movie; they then completed an ostensibly unrelated Stroop task while electroencephalographic activity was recorded. The error-related negativity (ERN)—a waveform associated with activity in the anterior cingulate—was measured to determine whether prior regulatory exertion constrained the conflict-monitoring system. Compared with subjects in the control condition, those who suppressed their emotions performed worse on the Stroop task, and this deficit was mediated by weaker ERN signals. These results offer a neural account for the self-regulatory-strength model and demonstrate the utility of the social neuroscience approach.

- - -

Too much self-control can overwhelm brain, says U of T researcher
Study shows that self-control is limited resource

Nov 1/07

by U. of T News Staff

It may be admirable to try to quit smoking, cut out junk food and hit the gym all at the same time, but new research from the University of Toronto suggests that success is more likely when people tackle one bad habit at a time. Too much self-control, the researchers say, may deplete the brain.

ALSO SEE:

In an innovative brain study that explored the limits of self-control, Michael Inzlicht, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Toronto Scarborough, asked students to watch a disturbing movie. Half were told to suppress their emotions as they watched the film; the other half were free to express their feelings. All participants then performed a well-known test of self-control called the Stroop task. This test requires the taker to look at the words red and green, written in either a red or green font. They then are asked to identify the word's color, and not the word itself. Doing so requires a form of self-control. All the while, electrodes measured participants’ brain wave activity.

On average, the students who had used self-control to suppress their emotions during the movie performed poorly on the second task that tested self-control. Self-control, in other words, is limited. Most interesting, the researchers also noted their participants showed weak activity in the anterior cingulate cortex – a portion of the brain that plays a watchtower role, alerting us when our goals are not being met.

“Self-control is a limited resource that depletes very quickly,” said Inzlicht. “Students who were required to suppress their emotions during the film had limited self-control to draw on for the next task. This shows us that if you set too many goals that require self-control, you overwhelm the brain and this can be a recipe for disaster.”

[Exposure to violence]

It is a Public Health Threat - media violence increases the risk of spawning more violent behaviour . . .


The Journal of Adolescent Health
December 2007

The Impact of Electronic Media Violence: Scientific Theory and Research

This review marshals evidence that compelling points to the conclusion that media violence increases the risk significantly that the viewer or game player will behave more violently both in the short and long run.

Randomized experiments demonstrate conclusively that exposure to media violence immediately increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior for both children and adults in the short run. The most important underlying process for this effect is probably priming, although mimicry and increased arousal also play important roles. The evidence from longitudinal field studies is also compelling that children’s exposure to violent electronic media including violent games leads to long-term increases in their risk for behaving aggressively and violently.

These long-term effects are a consequence of the powerful observational learning and desensitization processes that neuroscientists and psychologists now understand to occur automatically in the human child. Children automatically acquire scripts for the behaviors they observe around them in real life or in the media, along with emotional reactions and social cognitions that support those behaviors. Social comparison processes also lead children to seek out others who behave in similar aggressive manners in the media or in real life, leading to a downward spiral process [35] that increases risk for violent behavior.

One valid remaining question is whether the size of this effect is large enough that one should consider it to be a public health threat.

The answer seems to be yes.
http://www.jahonline.org/article/PIIS10 ... 6/fulltext

Abstract

Since the early 1960s, research evidence has been accumulating that suggests that exposure to violence in television, movies, video games, cell phones, and on the Internet increases the risk of violent behavior on the viewer’s part, just as growing up in an environment filled with real violence increases the risk of them behaving violently.

In the current review this research evidence is critically assessed and the psychological theory that explains why exposure to violence has detrimental effects for both the short and long-term is elaborated. Finally the size of the “media violence effect” is compared with some other well-known threats to society to estimate how important a threat it should be considered.

[Stress Reduction]

TM Effective in Reducing High Blood Pressure, Study Shows

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 4, 2007)

People with high blood pressure may find relief from Transcendental Meditation, according to a definitive new meta-analysis of 107 published studies on stress reduction programs and high blood pressure, which will be published in the December issue of Current Hypertension Reports.

The Transcendental Meditation technique produces a statistically significant reduction in high blood pressure that is not found with other forms of relaxation, meditation, biofeedback or stress management.

The new meta-analysis reviewed randomized, controlled trials of all stress reduction and relaxation methods in participants with high blood pressure that have been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Blood pressure changes for the Transcendental Meditation technique included average reductions of 5.0 points on systolic blood pressure and 2.8 on diastolic blood pressure, which were statistically significant, according to the review. The other stress reduction programs did not show significant changes in blood pressure.

Blood pressure changes associated with Transcendental Meditation practice were consistent with other controlled studies showing reductions in cardiovascular risk factors, improved markers of heart disease, and reduced mortality rates among participants in the Transcendental Meditation program.

The new meta-analysis was conducted by researchers at the NIH-funded Institute of Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management and the University of Kentucky College of Medicine.

According to Dr. James Anderson, professor of medicine at the University of Kentucky and co-author of the new meta-analysis, the findings of the new review rebut a July 2007 report sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the NIH-National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which concluded that most research on meditation is low quality and found little evidence that any specific stress reduction effectively lowers blood pressure. The new meta-analysis identified all high quality meditation studies published through 2006 and rigorously analyzed their effects, which the previous government report failed to do.

Anderson said the new meta-analysis includes only high quality studies on all available stress reduction interventions. The studies on Transcendental Meditation were conducted at five independent universities and medical institutions, and the majority of them were funded by competitive grants from the National Institutes of Health.

“The magnitude of the changes in blood pressure with the Transcendental Meditation technique are at least as great as the changes found with major changes in diet or exercise that doctors often recommend,” Anderson said. “Yet the Transcendental Meditation technique does not require changes in lifestyle. Thus many patients with mild hypertension or prehypertension may be able to avoid the need to take blood pressure medications--all of which have adverse side effects. Individuals with more severe forms of hypertension may be able to reduce the number or dosages of their BP medications under the guidance of their doctor.”

Anderson added that long-term changes in blood pressure of this magnitude are associated with at least a 15 percent reduction in rates of heart attack and stroke. “This is important to everyone because cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in the U.S. and worldwide,” Anderson said.

The study’s biostatistician, Maxwell Rainforth, assistant professor of Physiology and Health Statistics at Maharishi University of Management, said the meta-analysis used state-of-the-art statistical methods to review 107 published studies in the field of stress reduction, relaxation and blood pressure. “The twenty-three separate studies included in the final analysis met well-known criteria for high scientific quality. That is, these studies used repeated blood pressure measurements and participants were randomized to either a stress reduction technique or placebo-type control for at least eight weeks. The data we used are all published in peer-reviewed scientific journals,” Rainforth said.

According to Dr. Robert Schneider, director of the Institute of Natural Medicine and Prevention and co-author, this rigorously conducted meta-analysis indicates that the Transcendental Meditation program is distinctively effective compared to other scientifically studied techniques in lowering high blood pressure.

“For those 100 million Americans with elevated blood pressure, here is a scientifically documented, yet simple and easy way to lower blood pressure without drugs and harmful side effects. In addition, related studies show an integrated set of positive ‘side benefits,’ such as reduced stress, reduced heart disease levels and longer lifespan with this technique to restore balance in the cardiovascular system, mind and body,” Schneider said.

[GameBike]

University of British Columbia Research Shows Health Benefits of GameBike (TM)

DALLAS, Dec. 6, 2007

A Canadian research team led by Dr. Darren E.R. Warburton of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver has determined that there are significant changes in positive health outcomes when participants use the GameBike instead of a standard exercise bicycle. This research offers some of the most compelling empirical data to date on the positive health and fitness effects of the GameBike.

Citing the scientific consensus that "40-65% of individuals who initiate a traditional physical fitness program withdraw within 3-6 months" the researchers postulated that encouraging physical fitness at a young age might
substantially promote lifelong physical activity behavior and, in turn "markedly improve health status."

The primary objective of this investigation was to determine whether an
interactive video game played during stationary cycling results in significantly greater improvements in multiple risk factors for chronic disease -- aerobic fitness, body composition, blood pressure and musculature fitness. The team also sought to evaluate whether or not interactive video game exercise would lead to different exercise attendance rates than those of traditional cycle exercise.

Highlights of the results include the following findings:

-- There was a significant difference in the attendance of the interactive
video game and traditional training group. The group using GameBike was
30% more likely to train.

-- There was a significant positive change in aerobic fitness of GameBike
participants.

-- There was a significant improvement in the maximal power output in the
GameBike group

-- There was a significant change in the vertical jump and leg power in
the interactive video training group.

-- The magnitude of the change in systolic blood pressure was
significantly greater after the interactive video training in comparison with traditional training.

-- The individuals assigned to the traditional cycling training program
participated in less than 50% of the recommended exercise classes.
Individuals in the GameBike group participated in approximately 80% of
the recommended classes.

The complete report, entitled "The Health Benefits of Interactive Video
Game Exercise" is available for viewing or downloads at
http://www.gamebike.com/press_box.php

The GameBike is a full-function exercise cycle with a patented steering
mechanism and a controller that plugs into any gaming console or pc-based
video game. When they begin pedaling, riders become one of characters in the
video game.

About this Research

This research was supported by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the
BC Knowledge Development Fund, and The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, The Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Collaborating on the research: Darren E.R. Warburton, Shannon S.D.
Bredin, Leslie T.L. Horita, Dominik Zbogar, Jessica M. Scott, Ben T.A. Esch
and Ryan E. Rhodes.


For further information: Art Young of GameBike, +1-972-644-8404,
+1-214-549-3690, art@gamebike.com Web Site: http://www.gamebike.com