An insightful new study found that people who are extremely active are happier than those who sit and do nothing.

The finding may explain why people admit to being very busy in our current society.

“The general phenomenon I’m interested in is why people are so busy doing what they are doing in modern society, says Christopher Hsee, of the University of Chicago.  He is the study’s co-author, with Adelle Yang also of the University of Chicago and Llangyan Wang of Shianghia Jiatong University.

The participants completed a survey, and waited 15 minutes before the next survey was ready.  They had the option of dropping off the completed survey at a nearby location and wait out the time remaining or drop it off at a location farther away, while walking back and forth would keep them busy for the 15 minute intervals.

They were rewarded with candy when the surveys were turned in.  The participants who chose to stay busy by walking to the more distant location were happier than those who chose not to and remained idle.

The research is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Dr. Hsee thinks it’s possible to utilize this principle-people like being busy, and they like being able to justify being busy to benefit society.

“People are running around, working hard, way beyond the basic level.”

According to Dr. Hsee, “If we can devise a mechanism for idle people to engage in activity that is at least not harmful, I think it is better than destructive business.”

Source:   Association for Psychological Science

Those ubiquitous wires connecting listeners to you-name-the-sounds from invisible MP3 players — whether of Bach, Miles Davis or, more likely today, Lady Gaga — only hint at music’s effect on the soul throughout the ages.

Now a data-driven review by Northwestern University researchers that will be published July 20 in Nature Reviews Neuroscience pulls together converging research from the scientific literature linking musical training to learning that spills over to skills including language, speech, memory, attention and even vocal emotion. The science covered comes from labs all over the world, from scientists of varying scientific philosophies, using a wide range of research methods.

The explosion of research in recent years focusing on the effects of music training on the nervous system, including the studies in the review, have strong implications for education, said Nina Kraus, lead author of the Nature perspective, the Hugh Knowles Professor of Communication Sciences and Neurobiology and director of Northwestern’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory.

Scientists use the term neuroplasticity to describe the brain’s ability to adapt and change as a result of training and experience over the course of a person’s life. The studies covered in the Northwestern review offer a model of neuroplasticity, Kraus said. The research strongly suggests that the neural connections made during musical training also prime the brain for other aspects of human communication.

An active engagement with musical sounds not only enhances neuroplasticity, she said, but also enables the nervous system to provide the stable scaffolding of meaningful patterns so important to learning.  

“The brain is unable to process all of the available sensory information from second to second, and thus must selectively enhance what is relevant,” Kraus said. Playing an instrument primes the brain to choose what is relevant in a complex process that may involve reading or remembering a score, timing issues and coordination with other musicians.

“A musician’s brain selectively enhances information-bearing elements in sound,” Kraus said. “In a beautiful interrelationship between sensory and cognitive processes, the nervous system makes associations between complex sounds and what they mean.” The efficient sound-to-meaning connections are important not only for music but for other aspects of communication, she said.  

The Nature article reviews literature showing, for example, that musicians are more successful than non-musicians in learning to incorporate sound patterns for a new language into words. Children who are musically trained show stronger neural activation to pitch changes in speech and have a better vocabulary and reading ability than children who did not receive music training.

And musicians trained to hear sounds embedded in a rich network of melodies and harmonies are primed to understand speech in a noisy background. They exhibit both enhanced cognitive and sensory abilities that give them a distinct advantage for processing speech in challenging listening environments compared with non-musicians.

Children with learning disorders are particularly vulnerable to the deleterious effects of background noise, according to the article. “Music training seems to strengthen the same neural processes that often are deficient in individuals with developmental dyslexia or who have difficulty hearing speech in noise.”

Currently what is known about the benefits of music training on sensory processing beyond that involved in musical performance is largely derived from studying those who are fortunate enough to afford such training, Kraus said.

The research review, the Northwestern researchers conclude, argues for serious investing of resources in music training in schools accompanied with rigorous examinations of the effects of such instruction on listening, learning, memory, attention and literacy skills. 

“The effect of music training suggests that, akin to physical exercise and its impact on body fitness, music is a resource that tones the brain for auditory fitness and thus requires society to re-examine the role of music in shaping individual development,” the researchers conclude.

“Music training for the development of auditory skills,” by Nina Kraus and Bharath Chandrasekaran, will be published July 20 in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

Source:   http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2010/07/music-training-boosts-learning.html

How many hours of sleep do you need? Most adults on the average need 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night to feel completely rested and function optimally.  Unfortunately, many Americans are sleeping less than they did in the past.  A 2005 National Sleep Foundation survey found Americans sleep an average of 6.9 hours per night, which represented a two hour decline since the 19^th century.  A one hour decrease over the past 50 years and since 2000, a 15 to 25 minute loss.

Most people aren’t aware of sleep deprivation’s harmful effects. University of Chicago researchers have demonstrated hormonal changes occur with inadequate amounts of sleep.  The changes stimulate the appetite, change the body’s reaction to sugar intake and inhibits the satiation (sense of fullness) after a meal.  These alterations can cause weight gain and increase the likelihood of developing diabetes. 

Harvard Medical School and Case Western University conducted a review of the research literature found that all of the large studies that monitored people over several years determined that weight gain is associated with  inadequate hours of sleep.  And the link between the two is even stronger among children.  Thirty-one studies involving children found that there’s a strong association between short sleep and obesity.  The shorter the children and young adults sleep, the greater the likelihood of becoming obesity.  Dr. Susan Redline of Case Western University School of Medicine and colleagues found an inverse relationship between obesity and sleep duration in high school students.  Fewer hours of sleep correlated with a greater chance of being overweight.  The children getting six to seven hours of sleep were more than 2.5. times as likely to be overweight compared to those getting more than eight hours.

Technology and sports are factors contributing to sleep deprivation.  The vast majority of teenagers possess at least one electronic item such as cell phone, computer, music player or  a television.  According to the National Sleep Foundation, technology interferes with their sleep and they are more likely to get an insufficient amount and fall asleep in school and while doing homework.

“There are teens who text message or listen to music all night, compounded by early school hours. Parents should optimize sleep quality for their family with regular sleep and wake times and bedrooms should be kept quiet, dark and conducive to sleep,” Dr. Susan Redline noted. Some solutions to this issue can be planning short naps, establishing a set time for sleeping and waking up, or having a consistent sleep schedule.

Source:  www.sleepfoundation.org

A recent study conducted in Italy has determined that applying magnets to the brains of Alzheimer’s disease sufferers helps them to improve their understanding of what is said to them. The finding Italian scientists conducted a randomised controlled trial of the treatment, suggests that magnets may change the brain’s  “cortical activity,” and readjust  unhealthy patterns created by disease or trauma.  The small study involved 10 patients, and the results are preliminary.

But the scientists from Brescia and Milan say they “hold considerable promise, not only for advancing our understanding of brain plasticity mechanisms, but also for designing new rehabilitation strategies in patients with neurodegenerative disease.”

Findings from the latest study, published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, are likely to be seized on as further evidence of magnetism’s healing powers. This study is part of a body of research that has demonstrated the capacity of magnets to affect the working of the brain.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), the technique investigated by the Italian scientists, has already been shown in separate experiments by British researchers to temporarily stun the part of the brain which controls speech, rendering volunteers unable to utter familiar words. Using a paddle placed on the head and focusing the TMS on an area of the brain at the back of the left frontal lobe, researchers found they could halt speech in mid flow. The volunteers reported having the words “right there” in their heads but were unable to make them “come out”.

For the latest study, Maria Costelli and colleagues applied repetitive TMS – a rapid succession of magnetic pulses – to the prefrontal lobes of the Alzheimer’s patients for 25 minutes at a time.

Five  patients received daily doses five days a week for four weeks and the other 5 received a placebo treatment for two weeks followed by two weeks of TMS. The researchers found that the participants who’d received a  full course of TMS had significantly higher scores on comprehension of what was said to them – up from 66 per cent to 77 per cent. The improvement was still evident eight weeks after treatment.

The authors say the technique did not affect other language abilities or other cognitive functions, including memory, which suggests that it is “specific to the language domain of the brain when applied to the prefrontal lobes”.

Acupuncture has spread around the world since originating in China but conventional western medicine has remained steadfastly skeptical. Although there is now good evidence that acupuncture can relieve pain, many of the other health benefits acupuncturists claim are on shakier ground.

Despite acupuncture’s 4,000-year history, little is known about the biological pathways that enable carefully placed needles to relieve pain in many patients. While controversy remains surrounding acupuncture, in certain quarters, researchers have determined the compound adenosine is key to acupuncture’s effectiveness.  In a paper published in Nature neuroscience, researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center identified the molecule adenosine as a central player in parlaying some of the effects of acupuncture in the body.

This study focused on determining the effects of acupuncture on the peripheral nervous system, the nerves in our bodies that aren’t a part of the central nervous system-the spinal cord and brain.  

It’s cause quite a stir across the internet.  The argument against the study’s validity, according to the non-believers is the results are attributed to the “ placebo effect.” But they are misinformed—the placebo effect is present in humans, not animals.  It is the effect of the mind’s belief that a treatment will work.

The latest research gives doctors a sound explanation of how sticking needles into the skin can alleviate, rather than exacerbate, pain. The discovery will challenge the view, widely held among scientists, that any benefits a patient feels after acupuncture are due purely to the placebo effect.

The research contributes to a multitude of studies that have demonstrated acupuncture’s ability to trigger signals, that stimulates the brain to release natural pain-killing endorphins.

The research focuses on adenosine, a neurotransmitter known for its role in regulating sleep, for its effects on the heart, and for its anti-inflammatory properties.  It also acts as a natural painkiller, becoming active in the skin after an injury to inhibit nerve signals and ease pain.

The scientists gave each mouse a sore paw by injecting it with an inflammatory chemical. The researchers performed acupuncture treatments on mice with discomfort in one paw. The mice each received a 30-minute acupuncture treatment at a well known acupuncture point near the knee, with very fine needles rotated gently every five minutes, similar to the way humans are treated with acupuncture. The scientists recorded how quickly each mouse pulled its sore paw away from a small bristly brush. The more pain the mice were in, the faster they pulled away.

The levels of adenosine in the tissue adjacent to the needle, rose 24-fold in the tissue fluid surrounding the needle.

Researchers mimicked acupuncture in mice by placing and gradually rotating a needle at a point just below the knee, for 30 minutes. The mice injected with an inflammatory substance in their paws and given acupuncture displayed fewer pain symptoms than mice that didn’t get acupuncture.

Half of the mice lacked a gene that is needed to make adenosine receptors, which are found on major nerves. But those that were genetically engineered, lacking  certain adenosine receptors failed to experience any benefit from the acupuncture, additional proof of adenosine’s role. Also enzymes that block adenosine’s break down enhanced acupuncture’s effectiveness,  tripling the level of adenosine near the needle and extending pain relief from about one hour to about three hours.

Regarding adenosine, the researchers observed:

1. In mice with adenosine levels, acupuncture reduced discomfort by two-thirds.
2. In special “adenosine receptor knock-out mice” lacking adenosine receptors on their cells, acupuncture had no effect.
3. When adenosine increased in the tissues, pain and discomfort decreased without acupuncture.

They also observed that during and following an acupuncture treatment, adenosine levels in the tissue approximating the needles was 24 times greater than before the treatment.

After the researchers became aware of adenosine’s role, they investigated the effects of a cancer drug called deoxycoformycin.  It’s actions prevent interferes with adenosine’s removal from cells.  Interestingly, this drug dramatically enhanced the effect of acupuncture treatment dramatically, almost tripling the accumulation of adenosine in the muscles and more than tripling the length of time the treatment was effective.

Researchers from Rochester, Boston University, and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases contributed to the work, which was funded by the New York State Spinal Cord Injury Program and the National Institutes of Health.

According to the lead researcher, this study adds to the body of scientific literature validating acupuncture, says neuroscientist Maiken Nedergaard. Her team recently presented the study at a scientific meeting, Purines 2010, in Barcelona.

“The view that acupuncture has little benefit beyond the placebo effect has really hampered research into the technique,” said Maiken Nedergaard, a neuroscientist at the University of Rochester medical centre in New York state, who led the study.

“Acupuncture has been a mainstay of medical treatment in certain parts of the world for 4,000 years, but because it has not been understood completely, many people have remained skeptical,” says Nedergaard, codirector of the University’s Center for Translational Neuromedicine, where the research was conducted.

“In this work, we provide information about one physical mechanism through which acupuncture reduces pain in the body,” she adds.

“Some people think any work in this area is junk research, but I think that’s wrong. I was really surprised at the arrogance of some of my colleagues. We can benefit from what has been learned over many thousands of years,” Nedergaard said.

“I believe we’ve found the main mechanism by which acupuncture relieves pain. Adenosine is a very potent anti-inflammatory compound and most chronic pain is caused by inflammation.”

Quite honestly, in my opinion I believe its continued use over 4,000 years is sufficient validation.   The paradigm of Chinese medicine is quite different from the one that serves as the foundation of Western allopathic medicine.  And therein lies the discord.

The Chinese system recognizes the meridians, specific points on the body’s surface, where the needles are inserted.  They are circuits that act as channels allowing the entry of chi,  the universal life force into the body.

According to ancient Chinese theory, twelve pairs of meridian channels exist within the body.  Traditional acupuncture theory believes life energy flows regularly through the body along channels entering and leaving the body at specific points.  Each meridian pair governs the flow of chi for a particular organ system.  To a certain degree, these pairs correspond with the physiological organs.  For example, there are splenic, heart, liver and kidney meridians.  Imbalances and blockages of the system often happen before the development of physical disease.  Early detection and correction of the energetic imbalances can prevent such development.  Acupuncture can facilitate the healing of existing physical disease.  

In the West, the meridians were never believed to actually exist, until the research of a Korean scientist proved there were physical forms corresponding with the meridians.

Professor Kim Bong Han conducted a series of studies using rabbits to determine the presence of the meridians.  In the early 1960s,  after several years of research, he published five research papers between 1960 and 1965. He injected a radioactive substance into surrounding tissue and analyzed the results using a specialized technique (microautoradiography), he found the radioactive substance was actively take up by a microscopic duct-like tubule system.  These structures followed the pathways of classical acupuncture meridians.  Concentrations of the radioactive substance in the tissue of the surrounding area were negligible.

And when he injected the structure, the concentrations of the radioactive substance in the tissue of the surrounding area were negligible.  This finding suggested that the meridian system was independent of the circulatory system.

Dr. Han found that the tubular system is divided into a superficial and deep system.  And very interestingly he fund that these structures reached the nucleus of cells (the site where our genes/DNA resides). He also discovered higher concentrations of compounds that are extremely important to  cell function-DNA, RNA, amino acids, hyaluronic acid, 16 types of free nucleotides, adrenaline, corticosteroids, estrogen, and other hormonal substances, were present in levels much greater than those normally found in the blood stream.

In one study he cut the meridian supplying a frog’s liver and evaluated the changes in the liver tissue. Shortly after severing the meridian, the liver cells became swollen and very congested. Within three days, the entire liver began to slowly die.

He concluded that the meridian system not only inter-linked within itself, but appeared to interconnect with the nucleus of all cells.  He also learned that in the embryonic chick, meridian ducts were formed within 15 hours of conception-before the most rudimentary organs were formed. 

This led him to theorize that the meridians exert an influence upon the spatial organization of the cells within each organ during development and throughout life.  More recent research by French researcher, Pierre de Vernejoul, conducted similar experiments in 1985.  He also injected a radioactive substance into the acupuncture points of patients and documented that it moved along the classical Chinese acupuncture meridian pathways 30 centimeters in 4 to 6 minutes. Other scientists have confirmed Kim’s findings in humans.

Additional studies have demonstrated differences in the electrical, electromagnetic and electronographic qualities of the acupuncture points. 

Source:  http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nn.2562.html

Almost a third of patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) who participated in a  behavior treatment developed by a University at Buffalo behavioral scientist experienced significant relief within four weeks of beginning treatment.

The study is published in the current issue of the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

These patients, called “rapid responders” maintained their improvement at a three-month follow-up, despite reporting more severe IBS symptoms when they started the treatment.

The length of time e spent with a therapist during the two and a half month treatment amount of “face time” spent with a therapist during the 10-week treatment regimen did not appear to effect the rapid response.

“These results are important, because conventional wisdom states that benefit from behavioral treatments is tied to the amount of treatment patients receive,” says first author Jeffrey Lackner, PsyD, associate professor in the Department of Medicine, UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and director of its Behavioral Medicine Clinic.

“In some patients this assumption does not prove to be true,” he continues. “Regardless of whether patients received two or four sessions of behavioral treatment, a significant proportion rapidly achieved significant relief of severe IBS symptoms and maintained these gains for at least three months.”

Irritable bowel syndrome is a chronic, debilitating disorder affecting 25 million people in the U.S. — 14-24 percent of women and 5-19 percent of men. In the past, there had been no reliable, satisfactory medical treatment for the full range of IBS symptoms, which can cause severe physical and psychological distress and deprive sufferers of their quality of life.

Lackner is principal investigator on an $8.9 million, seven-year, multi-site clinical trial funded by the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) to test the treatment, which proved effective during his pilot study. The UB trial is the largest IBS clinical trial conducted to date, and one of the largest behavioral trials without a drug component funded by the NIH.

The current study involved 71 participants from its UB site who were randomized to receive either four one-hour sessions with a behavioral therapist over 10 weeks, 10 one-hour sessions over 10 weeks or to a “wait” group, which served as a control.

Researchers were interested in knowing if patients who showed significant improvement soon after beginning treatment maintained that improvement at three months after the 10-week intervention, and if so, how these rapid responders were different from the non-rapid responders.

According to Lackner there is a strong connection between the beliefs about their Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms and their rapid response and maintenance of improvement.

“Rapid responders were more likely to attribute their symptoms to their own specific behavior, express more confidence in their ability to make specific behavior changes necessary to control IBS symptoms and have stronger motivation to participate in a self-management program,” says Lackner.

“One might assume that the therapist-directed, time-intensive and highly structured weekly cognitive behavior therapy would be more likely to promote a more rapid response. That turned out not to be the case.”

Over ninety percent of the rapid responders exhibited a prolong benefit that remained  over three months with little evidence of deterioration.

“This suggests that rapid response is a relatively robust, clinically meaningful and enduring clinical phenomenon,” says Lackner. “The enduring nature of the response to treatment argues against the idea that the results are due to placebo.

“The study has implications for designing clinical trials that test the effectiveness of medical therapies. Generally speaking, the approach has been to test two treatments side by side. This horse race approach is useful, but may not provide information about the more pressing question of: which treatment works best for which patient?

“Our study suggests that what goes on during treatment may be more important to understanding the course of outcome than factors such as the severity of their illness, age, gender and education level. Generally speaking, these variables are not reliable predictors of outcome.”

Source:  http://www.buffalo.edu/news/11349

Two recent studies have determined the detrimental impact child abuse has on adult disease susceptibility and development, particularly those with pain.

The first study sought to determine if “alleged” childhood abuse causes any changes in the  release of daily cortisol, as major stress hormone in women experiencing chronic pain, either fibromyalgia or osteoarthritis.

Women with fibromyalgia or with osteoarthritis only (completed diaries and collected three saliva samples daily for 30 days, with compliance monitored electronically. Childhood abuse and neglect were assessed by self-report using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-short form. Analysis determined an association between abuse and cortisol levels, that were confirmed beyond other significant factors including depression,  posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and daily experience variables.

The results determined that the women who’d experienced the most severe child abuse had higher cortisol levels throughout the entire day. 

Although different forms of maltreatment were interrelated, emotional and sexual abuse were most closely linked to cortisol levels. Fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis groups showed similar patterns of hormone release, and maltreatment was associated with elevated cortisol in both. Although maltreatment was also linked to  depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,  these factors had no impact on the link between abuse and cortisol.

In women with chronic pain, self-reported childhood maltreatment was associated with higher diurnal cortisol levels. These results add to the evidence that abuse in childhood can induce long-term changes in brain, in particular, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical activity (an area linked with our response to stress). They also acknowledge the importance of evaluating childhood abuse history in fibromyalgia and other chronic pain conditions.

The second study sought to determine a link between migraine headaches and childhood abuse. To evaluate in a headache clinic population the relationship of childhood maltreatment on the prevalence of pain conditions comorbid with migraine. BACKGROUND: Childhood maltreatment is highly prevalent and has been frequently associated with recurrent headache. The relationship of maltreatment and pain has, however, been a subject of some debate.

Data was collected and reviewed from people  with migraine, seeking treatment in headache clinics at 11 centers located in Canada and the United States. These included irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), interstitial cystitis (IC), arthritis, endometriosis, and uterine fibroids. Other information included demographics, migraine characteristics (frequency, headache-related disability), remote and current depression, and remote and current anxiety. Patients also completed the a Childhood Trauma Questionnaire regarding sexual, emotional, and physical abuse, and emotional and physical neglect under the age of 18 years old.

Over 1300 people with migraine headaches, 88% women, 12% men were included in this study, with an average of 41 years. Based on physician diagnosis or validated criteria, 31% had IBS, 16% had CFS, and 10% had FM. Diagnosis of IC was reported by 6.5%, arthritis by 25%, and in women, endometriosis was reported by 15% and uterine fibroids by 14%.

At least one pain condition was reported by 61%, 2 conditions by 18%, and 3 or more by 13%. Childhood abuse was acknowledged by 58% of the patients.

Emotional abuse was associated with increased prevalence of IBS, CFS, arthritis, and physical neglect with arthritis. In women, physical abuse was associated with endometriosis and physical neglect with uterine fibroids.

Emotional abuse, and physical abuse and neglect were also associated with increased total number of other conditions. Adjustments for sociodemographics and current depression that was present in  28% of the participants,  and anxiety in  56%,  determined emotional abuse  and physical neglect were independently associated with an increased number of pain conditions. A comparison group of women, similarly, also had associations of emotional abuse and physical neglect with an increased incidence of pain.

The researchers determined that the relationship between childhood abuse and pain was significantly greater in those reporting multiple pain conditions and multiple maltreatment types. This finding suggests that in people experiencing migraine headaches, childhood abuse  may be a risk factor for development of  pain disorders.

Source:

Headache. 2010 Jan;50(1):42-51. Epub 2009 Oct 21.

http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/content/abstract/PSY.0b013e3181d9a104v1

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19845780

Children with exposure to significant amounts of organophosphate pesticides have an increased risk of developing Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), according to a study conducted at the University of Montreal and Report in the June, 2010 issue of Pediatrics.

According to Dr. Maryse Bouchard, the lead researcher, a ten-fold increase in the concentration of the most common metabolites of the pesticide was associated with a 1.55 increase in the likelihood of having ADHD.

This finding was independent of age, ethnicity, economic level, gender, fasting or kidney function.

They researchers wrote,” These findings support the hypothesis that organophosphate exposure, at levels common among U.S. children, may contribute to ADHD prevalence.”

This particular class of pesticide is known to interfere with brain function by altering the functioning of acetylcholine, a key chemical involved with thinking and cognition.

Also, previously animal studies have found a link between exposure to organophosphates and hyperactivity.

Humans are exposed to pesticides through our drinking water, food and home use.  The primary sources for infants and children is through the diet, as vegetables and fruits contain pesticide residue.

Because their developing brain is more vulnerable, and their smaller size, the doses per boy weight exposure are higher in children compared to adults.

The researchers reviewed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2000 to 2004.  They analyzed 1,139 children from the ages of 8 to 15 who were representative of the general population.

There were 119 children with the accepted criteria diagnosis of ADHD, based on a telephone parent interview.  Twenty nine additional children were taking ADHD medications, but did not meet the diagnostic criteria.

Their urine was evaluated for the organophosphate metabolites.  A 10 fold increase was associated with greater odds of meeting the ADHD diagnostic criteria. 

And the children with the highest levels of the metabolite had nearly a two fold increase of having ADHD compared with children without detectable levels of the metabolites.

Source:

Pediatrics-Bouchard M, et al “Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and urinary metabolites of organophosphate pesticides” Pediatrics 2010: DOI 10. 1542/peds.2009-3058

I’ve heard many people suggest with a few episodes of memory lapse or loss that they are developing Alzheimer’s Disease.  That usually isn’t the case, and I understand the concern, since the disease has virtually exploded in epidemic numbers over the last 25 years, with no identifiable environmental causes.

According to psychiatrist Dr. Sameer Parik, “Forgetfulness has become a common problem among young people nowadays. The most common reason being the inability to sustain attention and concentration thereby not having an adequate registration of cues in the memory banks.”

Nutrient deficiencies, stress, multitasking, depression, grief, terror, shock and anxiety can lead to temporary forgetfulness among youngsters.

Stress affects the memory primarily by depleting it, causing poor sleep-awake patterns, substance use, lack of time for one’s own self; all these have an impact on our cognitive functions (the process of thought).

What to do? Improve lifestyle, do not have long hours at any tasks, take multiple breaks, and work on focus and motivation.

Can the problem aggravate? In some cases, it could be secondary to other problems like psychiatry and neurological disorders. So if basic lifestyle corrections don’t help, an expert advice should be taken. Do medicines help? Supplements of folic acid can improve memory function of people at risk of cognitive decline associated with ageing or dementia. Medications should be taken only when prescribed by an expert.

Memory Improvement Tips:

Effectively manage day-to-day stress: Young, active people usually attribute forgetfulness to external causes such as work stress or family issues.

Minimize smoking and drinking: Heavy drinkers find it very difficult to remember even simple tasks.

Eat a balanced diet and take care of nutritional requirements: Nutritional deficiencies result in the brain being starved of nutrients. Good nutrition helps in maintaining brain health. Choline and Inositol, two B vitamins play a key role in the cellular functions that regulate memory in our brains.  Vitamin C or E supplements are also associated with better memory function, and also assist with reducing the physical signs of stress.

Many nutrients have been indicated in improving memory function, as well as preventing or slowing memory decline with age.

Balanced intake of monounsaturated fatty acids has been associated with protection against memory loss. Right diet with a proper balance of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids (which our body cannot produce and must come from food) helps brain cells to communicate between them easily.

Source:  www.hindustantimes.com

A report suggests the phrase “working overtime is killing me” may be as factual as it is figurative. According to a long-term study of more than 10,000 civil servants in London, working overtime is bad for the heart.

The research, published online in the European Heart Journal, found compared with people who did not work overtime, those who worked three or more hours longer than a normal, seven-hour day had a 60 percent higher risk of heart-related problems such as death due to heart disease, nonfatal heart attacks and angina.

Dr. Marianna Virtanen, an epidemiologist at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki (Finland) and University College London (UK), said: “The association between long hours and coronary heart disease was independent of a range of risk factors that we measured at the start of the study, such as smoking, being overweight, or having high cholesterol.

“Our findings suggest a link between working long hours and increased CHD (coronary heart disease) risk, but more research is needed before we can be confident that overtime work would cause CHD. In addition, we need more research on other health outcomes, such as depression and type 2 diabetes.”

The study launched in 1985 and recruited 10,308 office staff between the ages of 35 and 55 from 20 London-based civil service departments. Data was collected at regular intervals and in the third phase, between 1991-1994.

This current analysis looks at the results from 6,014 people (4,262 men and 1,752 women), ages 39 through 61, who were followed until 2002-2004, which is the most recent phase for which clinical examination data are available.

During the average 11.2 years of follow-up, Dr. Virtanen and her colleagues in Finland, London and France found that there had been 369 cases of fatal CHD, nonfatal heart attacks (myocardial infarctions) or angina.

After adjusting for significant factors such as age, sex, marital status and occupational grade, they found that working three to four hours overtime (but not one to two hours) was associated with a 60 percent higher rate of CHD compared with no overtime work. Additional adjustments for a total of 21 risk factors made little difference to these estimates.

The researchers say there could be a number of possible explanations for this association between overtime and heart disease.

Their results showed that working overtime was related to type A behavior pattern. People with type A behavior tend to be aggressive, competitive, tense, time-conscious and generally hostile. Psychological distress usually expressed as anxiety and depression, insufficient sleep, or relaxation time prior to sleep may have been factors.

Other potential causes include hypertension (high blood pressure) associated with  associated with work-related stress but is “hidden” because it isn’t usually present during medical exams and “sickness presenteeism” whereby employees who work overtime are more likely to work while ill, ignore symptoms of ill health and not seek medical help.

It’s possible that people in jobs where they have more freedom regarding their work-related decisions may have a lower risk of CHD despite working overtime.

However, Dr. Virtanen said that their findings were independent of all of the above factors, and so they could not necessarily provide the full explanation for why overtime was associated with the higher risk of heart disease.

In addition, she said: “We did not measure whether subsequent changes in these factors during the follow-up period altered the association. One plausible explanation for the increased risk could be that adverse lifestyle or risk factor changes are more common among those who work excessive hours compared with those working normal hours.

The authors also warn in their article: “Although our cohort of civil servants included several occupational grades, it did not include blue collar workers. Thus, it remains unclear whether our findings are true of blue-collar workers and employees in the private sector.”

Regarding future research, Mika Kivimäki, the study’s senior author and professor of social epidemiology at University College London remarked: “At the moment there is no research on whether reduction in overtime work reduces CHD risk. Further research on this topic is therefore needed,” he said.

“Our own future research will include analyzing data over periods of time to examine whether working long hours predicts changes in lifestyle, mental health and traditional risk factors, such as blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol. We hope that this research will increase understanding of the mechanisms underlying the association between long working hours and coronary heart disease. We will also examine whether overtime work increases the risk of depression, as recent research suggests that depression increases the risk of coronary heart disease.”

Source:  http://www.escardio.org/Pages/index.aspx