New Plate Weighing Scale to Help Fight Obesity

A new device has been created by the scientists at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute to help fight childhood obesity. It is called a Mandometer and the device has an electronic scale that would sit under the plate and weigh the remaining food as the meal is eaten. Next to the device would be a small screen that would show a graph indicating the rate that the food is being eaten. The line on the graph would be matched against an ideal graph of consumption. If there is too much deviation from the ideal graph, the computer will make a spoken request for the eater to slow down. The concept of the device is to train overweight people to eat less and more slowly to help them feel full without overeating.

Researchers at the Bristol Royal Hospital for children and the University of Bristol in Western England did a test on 106 obese patients aged between nine and seventeen years old. The patients used the Mandometer, exercised 60 minutes a day, and followed a healthy diet for a year and had successful results. The Mandometer helped the patient’s portion sizes to be smaller by the end of the study and caused a reduction in the speed of eating by 11 percent. The Mandometer gives the best results when used in conjunction with exercise and a healthy diet.

Looking Young May Cause Longer Living

A 2001 Danish study found that people who look younger than their age live a longer life on average. The test conducted physical and cognitive tests on more than 1,800 pairs of twins over the age of 70 and tracked how long the twins survived over 7 years. The test found that the people who looked younger than their age were more likely to survive, even after factors like gender and environment were adjusted.

There may be a possible biological reason. People who looked younger had longer telomeres, a DNA component that is linked to aging. People with shorter telomeres are assumed to age faster. In the study, the people with longer telomeres looked younger than their age.

Naturally Improve Your Vision

Lutein is a natural plant pigment and antioxidant that is good at improving eyesight. It is found in green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, peas, broccoli, egg yolks, and corn. Lutein is good at protecting and strengthening the eyes. It accumulates in the macular region of the retina in the eye and acts like internal sunglasses since it filters out the sun's ultraviolet rays. The antioxidant property of it helps to maintain cells and tissues for good health. A study done by the North Chicago VA Medical Center found that patients with age-related macular degeneration improved their vision significantly after taking 12mg of lutein each day for a year.

Treat Urinary Incontinence with Weight Loss

Urinary incontinence is the unintentional release of urine and it affects more than 13 million women in the United States. Obesity is a common risk factor for urinary incontinence. A research study done by the University of Alabama-Birmingham found that overweight women who lost just 3 pounds cut the amount of leaks due to urinary incontinence by 28 percent. Women who lost 17 pounds cut the amount of leakage by 47 percent.

Fight Dementia with Coffee

A Swedish study has found that when middle-aged adults drank 3 to 5 cups of caffeinated coffee each day, they were 65 to 70% less likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer's disease later in life when compared to people who drank 2 or less cups each day. Coffee offers protection against the diseases by containing magnesium, antioxidants, and caffeine. It is also assumed that coffee decreases the risk of type 2 diabetes, which can contribute to dementia.

Reduce Salt to Cut Heart Disease

It is found that reducing salt in your diet can dramatically reduce the risk of heart disease. Just reducing salt intake by 1 gram everyday would cause 25,000 less cases of heart disease and 200,000 less deaths in the United States in a decade. A study showed that when people lowered their sodium intake by 25% to 30%, they had a 25% reduction in heart disease and stroke risk 10 years later when compared to people who ate their usual diet. It is recommended to eat less than 2,300mg of salt per day and it is recommended that middle-aged and older adults and people with high blood pressure have less than 1,500mg of salt each day in their diet.

Hospitals Offering Clinical Trials Could Be Better

American and Canadian researchers have found that hospitals that practice drug and device studies could be better at dealing with life-threatening situations and they have lower patient death rates than hospitals that don’t do clinical trials. There was another study done that found that ovarian cancer patients at these types of hospitals have a 28 percent lower mortality rate.

Get a List of Hospitals that Offer Clinical Trials at: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov

Scientist Find Possible Alzheimer’s Gene

There are scientists that have found a gene that might raise the chances of getting the most common kind of Alzheimer’s disease by 45 percent in people who inherit a certain form of the disease. The gene affects a brain cell’s ability to take in calcium. Hopefully, drugs can be made to fight this effect. Most people are over the age of 65 that are affected by the disease.

Only one gene, called CALHM1, has been found to affect the risks associated with people over the age of 65. There are many other genes that are being studied as having the possibility to affect the disease.

Alcohol Bad for Hormone Therapy

A recent Danish study has found that drinking alcohol can have a negative effect on people that are on hormone therapy. The recent study showed that hormone therapy users that had one or two alcoholic drinks each day greatly increased their risk of breast cancer. Alcohol could prevent the estrogen in the therapy from being fully metabolized and that would cause a higher blood level of estrogen, which could influence the risk of breast cancer.

Restaurant Smoking Bans Decrease Teen Smoking

A recent study shows that restaurant smoking bans help to persuade teenagers not to become smokers. Teens who lived in towns with strict bans were 40 percent less likely to become regular smokers than teens that lived in communities without bans or that had weak bans. Smoking bans discourage tobacco use and sends out the message that smoking is not healthy. The ban also reduces the amount of smoke that teens are exposed to in public places.

Having a parent or close friend that smokes can be an influence as to whether or not a teenager experiments with cigarettes but strong bans in public places play a bigger role in whether a not the teen will develop a smoking habit. The study also found that the bans had a greater effect on younger teens than older teens.

Incontinence Drugs Connected to Memory Problems

A recent study has found that commonly used incontinence drugs can cause memory problems in some older people. The people that took the drugs usually had a 50 percent faster rate in the decline in cognitive thinking when compared to people who didn’t take the drugs. It is advised to use caution when taking these drugs.

There are other ways to treat incontinence without using drugs, such as exercises, biofeedback, and keeping a schedule of when a person goes to the bathroom. Causes of incontinence include nerve damage, loss of muscle tone, and an enlarged prostate.

Tuna Sushi Found High in Mercury

The New York Times recently did a study of the mercury content of sushi that was sold at 20 random New York City restaurants and found that most of the bluefin tuna that was being sold had mercury levels so high that a regular diet of six pieces a week would be beyond the levels acceptable by the Environmental Protection Agency. Similar results are found other places as well.

Sushi is often eaten because it is low in fat and high in protein but the mercury in it accumulates in the human body. Even small amounts can cause brain development problems, especially in children and pregnant women.

Amount of Sleep Connected to Childhood Obesity

A Harvard study has found that babies and toddlers that sleep less than 12 hours each day are more at risk for being overweight in preschool. The link between sleep and obesity affects young children too, as well as teenagers and adults. Children that slept the least and watched the most amount of television had the greatest chance of obesity.

Previous studies have found that people that don’t get enough sleep produce more ghrelin, which is a hormone that promotes hunger. They also produce less leptin, which is a hormone that signals to the body that they are full and have had enough to eat. Watching television promotes obesity because it can take time away from doing activities that burn calories. The more active a child is the better they will sleep at night.

It is good advice to create a regular schedule for sleep for children and babies. Infants can be taught to sleep on their own by putting them to bed when they are drowsy but not completely asleep.

Grapefruit Increases Cancer Risk

A recent study found that women who ate half of a grapefruit every other day had a 30 percent increase of breast cancer risk when compared to women who didn’t eat the fruit. Grapefruit contains the chemical compound furanocoumarins that inhibits the way that estrogen is metabolized. This leads to a higher concentration of estrogen, which increases the risk of breast cancer.

It is recommended that post menopausal women that consume grapefruit regularly and women that have had estrogen-receptor-positive cancer should not eat this fruit. The American Cancer Society recommends eating five servings of a variety of fruits and vegetables each day to limit the exposure to possibly harmful substances from a single food.

Health Risks of Premature Babies

It is found that premature babies have higher death rates in their childhood years and are more likely not to have children in their adult years. This is based on a study that followed 1.2 million Norwegian births over many years.

Most premature babies grow up to have good health and be able to reproduce normally but the risk of health and reproduction problems are significantly higher than babies born at full term. Premature babies also have the risks of lung problems, disabilities, mental retardation, and being mentally behind other children their age in school. The study found that the preemies were more likely to die in their first year of life than full term babies and the higher risk continues throughout their life.

Things that could help prevent premature births include hormone treatments for women with a history of giving premature birth, not inducing labor unless it is needed and medically necessary, and reducing the number of embryos implanted at one time during fertility treatments. Women that are born premature have a higher risk of having premature babies when they give birth.

Why to Avoid Retail Therapy

A new study has found that people that are feeling down or gloomy are more likely to make big purchase decisions that they will later regret. These people are willing to pay up to 300 percent more for an item. Researchers say that sadness causes people to feel worthless and they often overspend as a way to feel better about themselves. The high that the person feels from overspending is short and they feel sorry about the purchase later, also known as buyer’s remorse. It is good advice not to go shopping while feeling down.

New Study Says Antidepressants Don’t Work

A new study says that antidepressants are as effective as placebos when it comes to relieving a person’s depression. This was found by British researchers that went through data from 47 published and unpublished clinical trials of drugs, such as Prozac and Paxil. They found that drug companies were being selective in reporting the results of their studies and the drugs only showed significant mood improvements in the most severely depressed people. For most people, antidepressants are no more effective than taking a sugar pill.

It is suggested that antidepressants work because people expect them to and not because they change the chemistry of the brain. Studies have found that talk therapy and regular exercise are just as effective as the drugs in relieving mild depression.

Study Says Unpopular Girls Tend to Gain More Weight

It is found that unpopular girls and girls that are low on the social ladder are more likely to gain weight during their adolescent years. Harvard University researchers did a study on 4,500 junior high and high school girls and found that the girls who felt like they weren’t well liked gained more weight than the more popular girls. The unpopular girls were 70 percent more likely to gain more than 11 excess pounds over a two year period.

The Healing Powers of Magnets

A recent study has found that magnets have the ability to increase blood flow and reduce inflammation. Researchers at the University of Virginia used powerful magnets on the paws of injured rats and measured the blood flow to the area. They found that the magnetic field caused by the magnets opened tiny blood vessels and increased the oxygen and nutrients to damaged tissues. Swelling was also reduced by 50 percent.

If the same results are found in humans, then doctors have the possibility of using magnets as another option for treating conditions, such as sprains and bruises.

Acupuncture Could Increase Pregnancy Chances

A recent study says that acupuncture could possible improve the chances of conceiving if the treatment is done right before or after embryos are in the womb. Acupuncture treatments involve placing thin needles at certain points on the body to try to control pain and reduce stress levels. Using this treatment as a fertility treatment, it is assumed that it would increase the blood flow to the uterus, relax the cervix, and inhibit the “fight or flight” stress hormones that can make it harder for an embryo to implant itself. The study found that the odds of conceiving went up 65 percent for the women who were given the treatment.