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News on Health & Science

A Fake Smile Can be Bad for Health

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New research suggests that putting on a fake smile to mask your unhappiness or displeasure may have unexpected consequences. It can actually worsen your mood and cause you to withdraw from tasks.

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In a study published this month in the Academy of Management Journal, scientists tracked a group of bus drivers for two weeks, focusing on them because their jobs require frequent, and generally courteous, interactions with many people.

The scientists examined what happened when the drivers engaged in fake smiling, known as “surface acting,” and its opposite, “deep acting,” where they generated authentic smiles through positive thoughts, said an author of the study, Brent Scott, an assistant professor of management at Michigan State University.

After following the drivers closely, the researchers found that on days when the smiles were forced, the subjects’ moods deteriorated and they tended to withdraw from work. Trying to suppress negative thoughts, it turns out, may have made those thoughts even more persistent.

But on days when the subjects tried to display smiles through deeper efforts — by actually cultivating pleasant thoughts and memories — their overall moods improved and their productivity increased.

Women were affected more than men. Dr. Scott suspected cultural norms might be at play: women are socialized to be more emotionally expressive, he said, so hiding emotions may create more strain.

THE BOTTOM LINE :Research suggests that an inauthentic smile to hide unhappiness can further worsen your mood.

Source:New York Times February 21, 2011

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Healthy Tips

Proper Vitamin D Intake May Lead To Healthy Weight Loss

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Following a diet enriched with vitamin D may be associated with achieving better weight loss results, according to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
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Over the course of two years, more than 300 individuals aged 40 to 60 who were considered overweight followed three different diets, which all featured foods that contain high levels of vitamin D. The regimens included a low-fat diet, a low-carbohydrate diet and a Mediterranean-inspired diet.

The results of the study showed that each diet led to healthy weight loss, but the participants who consumed the most nutrient-enriched foods lost more weight.

It was known that overweight people had lower levels of serum vitamin D, but this is the first study that actually shows that serum vitamin D increased among people who lost weight,” said Danit Shahar, lead author of the trial. She added that these findings “lasted throughout the two years that the study was conducted, regardless of whether they were on a low-carbohydrate, low-fat or Mediterranean diet.”

In addition to promoting healthy weight loss, vitamin D intake may also improve bone health, prevent low bone mass, reduce bone density loss and lessen the chance of osteoporosis.
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Put vitamin “d” in your diet!


Source : Better Health Research

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Pediatric

Nighttime Sleep Boosts Infant Skills

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At ages 1 and 1-1/2, children who get most of their sleep at night (as opposed to during the day) do better in a variety of skill areas than children who don’t sleep as much at night.

That’s the finding of a new longitudinal study conducted by researchers at the University of Montreal and the University of Minnesota. The research appears in the November/December 2010 issue of the journal Child Development.

The study, of 60 Canadian children at ages 1, 1-1/2, and 2, looked at the effects of infants‘ sleep on executive functioning. Among children, executive functioning includes the ability to control impulses, remember things, and show mental flexibility. Executive functioning develops rapidly between ages 1 and 6, but little is known about why certain children are better than others at acquiring these skills.

“We found that infants’ sleep is associated with cognitive functions that depend on brain structures that develop rapidly in the first two years of life,” explains Annie Bernier, professor of psychology at the University of Montreal, who led the study. “This may imply that good nighttime sleep in infancy sets in motion a cascade of neural effects that has implications for later executive skills.”

When the infants were 1 year old and 1-1/2 years old, their mothers filled out three-day sleep diaries that included hour-by-hour patterns, daytime naps, and nighttime wakings. When the children were 1-1/2 and 2, the researchers measured how the children did on the skills involved with executive functioning.

Children who got most of their sleep during the night did better on the tasks, especially those involving impulse control. The link between sleep and the skills remained, even after the researchers took into consideration such factors as parents’ education and income and the children’s general cognitive skills. The number of times infants woke at night and the total time spent sleeping were not found to relate to the infants’ executive functioning skills.

“These findings add to previous research with school-age children, which has shown that sleep plays a role in the development of higher-order cognitive functions that involve the brain’s prefrontal cortex,” according to Bernier.

Source : Elements4Health

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Featured

Bile Acid May Slow The Aging Process

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Bile acid, or lithocholic acid (LCA), may be linked to cell longevity, according to findings published in the journal Aging. This is because exposure of the acid to free-living yeast can lead to improved health.

Prior research has resulted in this compound improving liver and pancreatic health in mice. For this study, a team of researchers analyzed more than 19,000 molecules, including the bile acid, to determine the anti-aging effects of LCA.

The investigators discovered that regardless of one’s daily caloric intake, the yeast longevity was improved by the bile acid. Furthermore, the results showed that during caloric restriction and stressor protein activity, the life-extending process continued to function properly.

“This leads us to believe that bile acids have potential as pharmaceutical agents for the treatment of diabetes, obesity and various metabolic disorders, all of which are age-related,” said Alexander Titorenko, lead author of the study. He added that “they may indeed offer hope for a healthy aging life.”

In addition to the longevity benefits of bile acid, taking natural supplements containing resveratrol, a powerful antioxidant, can help slow the signs of aging.

Source : BETTER Health Research :

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Health Alert

How Scientific Is Modern Medicine Really?

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Doctors today commonly assert that they practice “scientific medicine,” and patients think that the medical treatments they receive are “scientifically proven.” However, this ideal is a dream, not reality, and a clever and profitable marketing ruse, not fact.

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John Ioannidis is one of the world’s most important experts on the credibility of medical research. He and his team of researchers have repeatedly shown that many of the conclusions biomedical researchers arrive at in their published studies are exaggerated or flat-out wrong.

However, these studies are what doctors use to prescribe drugs or recommend surgery. Ioannidis asserts that as much as 90 percent of the published medical information relied on by doctors is flawed or incorrect.

The Atlantic reports:
“His work has been widely accepted by the medical community … Yet for all his influence, he worries that the field of medical research is so pervasively flawed, and so riddled with conflicts of interest, that it might be chronically resistant to change — or even to publicly admitting that there’s a problem.”

Further, it is commonly believed that modern medical treatments, including drugs, are “scientifically proven.” In reality, this is a “profitable marketing ruse,” according to a Huffington Post article by Dana Ullman. He reports:

“The British Medical Journal‘s “Clinical Evidence” analyzed common medical treatments to evaluate which are supported by sufficient reliable evidence (BMJ, 2007). They reviewed approximately 2,500 treatments and found:

•13 percent were found to be beneficial
•23 percent were likely to be beneficial
•Eight percent were as likely to be harmful as beneficial
•Six percent were unlikely to be beneficial
•Four percent were likely to be harmful or ineffective.
•46 percent were unknown whether they were efficacious or harmful”

Resources:
The Atlantic November 2010

The Huffington Post April 20, 2010

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