Wellnews from Creators Syndicate

Stop Horsing Around for 08/27/2008

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

It's prevailing parental wisdom that too much sugar makes kids hyperactive, inducing them to bounce off walls — perhaps literally — and run around like screaming, sleep-deprived banshees.

Most supporting evidence, of course, is anecdotal, but here's a bit of science that parents can employ next time a child cries for an extra candy bar. Weirdly enough, it's even more relevant ...

Updated: Wed Aug 27, 2008

Ear Today, Fat Tomorrow for 09/03/2008

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Parents of children with a history of moderate to severe middle ear infections probably won't want to hear this, but a new study suggests such children tend to become overweight later in life.

The study, by researchers at the University of Florida's Center for Smell and Taste, notes that chronic ear infections can damage the chorda tympani nerve, which passes through the middle ear and c ...

Updated: Wed Sep 03, 2008

Not Just Muscle-Bound Thumbs for 09/10/2008

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Maybe it's impossible to keep kids from playing video games. But that might not be as bad as you think. A new report in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine says active video games — the kind that involve lots of physical movement — burn a surprising amount of calories. And even sedentary video games burn more calories than a kid just plunked on a couch.

Accor ...

Updated: Wed Sep 10, 2008

Bad Vibrations for 09/17/2008

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Carotid artery stenosis is a condition in which the arteries' narrow blood flow is reduced or blocked, often resulting in a stroke. There are many known risk factors: smoking, high cholesterol, hypertension and obesity among them.

Add another: heavy snoring.

An Australian study, which involved 110 male and female volunteers sleeping overnight in a lab, looked at how the participan ...

Updated: Wed Sep 17, 2008

Aged Fatherhood may Genetically Boost Longevity for 09/24/2008

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Hey guys, how's this for an excuse: Older men chasing younger women contributes to human longevity and survival of the species.

Researchers at Stanford University and UC Santa Barbara say new studies suggest fatherhood by a small number of older men appears to postpone a date with death because natural selection fights life-shortening mutations until the species is finished reproducing.< ...

Updated: Wed Sep 24, 2008

Thin May Not be All It's Cracked Up to be for 10/01/2008

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

For men, weight gain and obesity are longtime, well-known villains, linked to all sorts of increased health risks from cardiovascular disease to joint failure.

But being thin may be problematic, too. A new Norwegian study suggests that men who have low weight in middle age and who reduce their weight as they age increase their chance of suffering osteoporosis and bone fractures.

& ...

Updated: Wed Oct 01, 2008

Know Pain, Know Gain for 10/08/2008

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Pain is more than a symptom of osteoarthritis; it's a damaging part of the disease itself, says a new study.

Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center say they've discovered that pain signals originating in arthritic joints, and the biochemical processing of those signals as they travel to the spinal cord and brain, appear to worsen and expand the disease.

"Un ...

Updated: Wed Oct 08, 2008

Memory Loss for 10/15/2008

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

If you find yourself increasingly forgetful or struggling to maintain concentration, there's good and bad news.

The good news: It may not be the first signs of dementia. The bad: Your brain may be shrinking.

In a Dutch study of 500 people ages 50 to 85 with no dementia, researchers found that 453 participants reported occasional memory or thinking problems, minor issues like strug ...

Updated: Wed Oct 15, 2008

Speaking in Tongues for 10/22/2008

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

There's a certain irony that one of the major factors in most speech impediments — the tongue — can't really speak for itself, until now.

French researchers have tested a dental device that, when placed in the mouth, records the minute details of tongue movement during speech, giving therapists a much better idea of what might be causing speech problems.

The denturelik ...

Updated: Wed Oct 22, 2008

Beer Taps Wine's Health Benefit for 10/29/2008

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Lately, there's been a lot of news about resveratrol, a chemical in red wines and grapes that appears to significantly reduce cancer and heart disease. Or at least it does in inebriated lab animals.

Beer, alas, can make no such claims. When it comes to resveratrol, suds are duds. But maybe not for much longer. A team of undergraduate students at Rice University has produced a beer that's ...

Updated: Wed Oct 29, 2008

Stressful Experience for 11/05/2008

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Everybody lives with stress. And everybody deals with it differently.

That appears to be broadly true for age groups, too. A University of Southern California study says stressed older adults alter their behavior more than younger adults under stress, particularly in situations involving risk.

Mara Mather of USC's Davis School of Gerontology and colleagues exposed two groups of vo ...

Updated: Wed Nov 05, 2008

People's Common Scents for 11/12/2008

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

You may be what you eat, but not how you smell.

Scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia say new research suggests a person's underlying odor — our distinct individual aroma — remains intact and detectable even with major changes in diet.

“The findings using this animal model support the proposition that body odors provide a consistent 'odorprint ...

Updated: Wed Nov 12, 2008

Break the Fast, not the Scale for 11/19/2008

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The old adage about breakfast being the most important meal of the day has long been backed up by apparent scientific fact. Breakfast eaters, for example, tend to be leaner than folks who skip the first meal of the day.

But you may want to digest some new data. A study out of Queens College in New York City shows breakfast eaters average fewer calories consumed per day than those who ski ...

Updated: Wed Nov 19, 2008

Supplemental Information for 11/26/2008

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Millions of Americans — up to half of all adults, according to some estimates — take vitamin supplements in the belief they help prevent chronic diseases, such as cancer.

But a new, unpublished study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, part of Harvard Medical School, suggests that taking vitamins E and C produces effects no more beneficial than those pro ...

Updated: Wed Nov 26, 2008

Scarred for Wife for 12/03/2008

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Oh sure, famous swordsmen like Errol Flynn and the Musketeers (three or four) got plenty of glory, but new research suggests it's the guys not quite so adept with a blade who get the girls.

A study out of Liverpool and Stirling University says men with facial scars are more attractive to women seeking short-term relationships than those lacking the marks of battle (or more realistically, ...

Updated: Wed Dec 03, 2008

Watch Out For Chickens on The Road for 12/10/2008

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Forget asking why the chicken crossed the road; start worrying about finding yourself behind one (or many) on the road.

A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found "increased levels of pathogenic bacteria on the surfaces and in the air inside cars traveling behind trucks that carry broiler chickens."

Commercial chickens bound f ...

Updated: Wed Dec 10, 2008

Attractive Men Have Bigger Bank Accounts for 12/17/2008

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Back when men were men and extremely hairy, attracting a mate meant showing you could bring home the bacon — and perhaps the occasional mammoth.

These days, says University of Michigan researcher Daniel Kruger, it's all about overspending: "Men in the ancestral environment were valued if they were good providers. Now, we have this new consumer culture, so basically we show our ...

Updated: Wed Dec 17, 2008

Finally, a Reason For Guys for 12/24/2008

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

An English study involving thousands of families has found that men inherit a tendency to have more sons or more daughters from their parents. That is, if a man has many brothers, he's likely to have sons, while a man with many sisters is more likely to have daughters.

The scientists reported no corresponding predictability with women.

The Newcastle University study suggests that ...

Updated: Wed Dec 24, 2008

Ginkgo Biloba Bust for 12/31/2008

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

In the largest clinical trial ever specifically designed to test a drug or supplement for Alzheimer's prevention, researchers at the University of Virginia say ginkgo biloba failed to ward off the effects of dementia.

Gingko is a unique species of tree, indigenous to China, with no close living relatives. Earlier research has suggested that ginkgo extract possessed an ability to protect ...

Updated: Wed Dec 31, 2008

There is Help for Those Lacking Eyelashes for 01/07/2009

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

There is not yet a drug for everything, but there is one now for "hypotrichosis of the eyelashes," a fancy way of describing the condition in which you have too few or inadequate eyelashes.

Allergan, the Irvine-based pharmaceutical company better known for making Botox, has received FDA approval to begin selling its prescription drug Latisse to the eyelash-impaired.

Lati ...

Updated: Wed Jan 07, 2009