Which Candidate? Study Examines the Voter’s Brain

MONDAY, June 15, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Researchers say they’ve identified an area of the brain that seems to influence how you vote.

The investigators studied volunteers who were asked to assess and vote for candidates in a mock election.

The team at McGill University in Montreal said it appears that a certain part of the brain, called the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (LOFC), must function properly in order for voters to make decisions that combine various sources of information about candidates.

If this part of the brain is damaged, people seemed to base their vote on simpler information, mainly the candidates’ looks, according to the study.

The findings were published recently in the Journal of Neuroscience.

This is the first evidence that a particular area of the brain plays a critical role in how people vote, the researchers said.

“Recent research suggests that several areas in the brain carry information about the value of decision options, but it is not yet clear how these areas work together when we make a choice,” study senior author Dr. Lesley Fellows, a neurologist and researcher at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill, said in a university news release.

“The LOFC appears to be important when decisions are hard, helping to select the best from among options of similar value,” Fellows explained.

More information

McGill University has more about the brain.

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‘Green Space’ at School May Help Kids Learn, Study Suggests

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, June 15, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Children’s thinking skills may develop faster if they encounter “green space” such as parks and woods in their day-to-day lives, a new study suggests.

Green space at school, in particular, was linked to improved brain development among schoolchildren in Spain.

“Children at schools with more green space around them, such as trees, shrubs and grass, have a better brain development than children at schools with less green space,” said study co-author Mark Nieuwenhuijsen of the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona.

“It is important to have green space within and around the school grounds for better brain development,” he added.

It’s possible that something other than green space is affecting the kids’ intellectual prowess, and the apparent link may be purely coincidental.

But one expert not involved with the study said other benefits of fresh air and playgrounds are already known.

“We know that living in neighborhoods with more green space has been associated with improved mental health in adults and kids,” said Kristen Malecki, assistant professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “It also is associated with many positive health behaviors, such as physical activity.”

But proving a direct connection has been difficult. “It’s still unclear why and how these associations exist, and if greenness itself is causing the improved health and mental health,” Malecki said.

In the new study, researchers tracked nearly 2,600 Barcelona schoolchildren, aged 7 to 10, for a year to see how their memory and attention — so-called cognitive skills — developed. The children were tested every three months.

The researchers looked for possible connections between development of thinking skills and green space — defined as any space with vegetation — around their home, their school and on their commute to school.

The investigators found that students with more exposure to green space made greater gains — about 5 to 6 percent in terms of working memory and 1 percent in attentiveness — compared to children surrounded by less green space. Working memory — the ability to sort and retain short-term information — is essential for learning skills such as math and reading.

The link was strongest for green space at schools, possibly because children spend so much of the day there, the researchers suggested.

However, the study had some weaknesses. While Nieuwenhuijsen said the researchers found “little or no evidence” of wealth playing a role in boosting neighborhood greenery and brain power, most of the children came from educated families. More than half of their mothers were college-educated, the researchers said, but they noted this didn’t seem to skew the results. They also said that poorer kids may not have taken part in the research.

It’s also possible that parents with a greater focus on education are drawn to greener neighborhoods. And “it could be that there are other unmeasured factors in schools with more greenness — like better nutrition, curriculum or teacher effectiveness — but they were not measured here,” said Malecki, who was not involved in the study.

If green space does fuel the brain, how might it do so? The researchers don’t know. But they found signs that kids with the fastest-expanding brain power had the least exposure to pollution.

Also, research has suggested that just seeing green space can reduce stress, Nieuwenhuijsen said. And physical activity and peace-and-quiet could play roles, too.

Despite its limitations, “this study adds to the mounting evidence to suggest that green space is beneficial,” Malecki said. “We also know that physical activity is good for child growth and development.”

The findings suggest that the whole family can benefit from spending time together in natural environments, she added. “It may also have the added benefit of increasing brain power,” she said.

In terms of public policy, Malecki said, “evidence suggests that adding trees and ‘greening’ neighborhoods may be a simple solution to improving population health.”

The study is published in the June 15 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More information

The National Wildlife Federation discusses benefits of outdoor play.

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Dieters May Lose Fewer Pounds When They Choose Their Weight-Loss Plan

By Carrie Myers
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, June 15, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Choosing which diet you like best may not mean you’ll lose more weight.

In fact, picking a weight-loss plan based on your food preferences might backfire and lead to less weight loss, new research suggests.

After comparing two groups, one in which dieters could choose one of two eating plans and one in which dieters were randomly assigned to one of the plans, the researchers found those who had a choice lost slightly less weight than those who had no choice.

“[The difference in weight loss] was not statistically significant,” admitted study author Dr. William Yancy Jr., a research associate in the Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care at Duke University, in Durham, N.C. “The weight loss was similar between the two groups. It’s just that the direction of effect was not even in the expected direction.”

For the study, published in the June 16 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, 207 people were randomly assigned to one of the two groups.

The study lasted 48 weeks, during which both groups received group and telephone counseling.

Researchers theorized that by allowing some people to choose a diet that included foods they liked, they would stick with it and lose more weight than those who were assigned to their diets. They even allowed the choice group the option to switch diets after 12 weeks if they were unsatisfied with their initial decision. Very few took the researchers up on their offer.

After 48 weeks, the choice group lost an average of 12.6 pounds while the other group lost an average of 14.8 pounds.

Since the study did not show long-term success for maintaining weight loss, and the difference in weight loss between the two groups was not statistically significant, could choosing a diet plan based on food preferences be better in the long run?

“That is certainly a reasonable argument,” Yancy said. “However, for those who are looking for ways to enhance the weight-loss effects of lifestyle modification, choosing a diet based on food preferences does not seem to do that.”

He added that the best diet for some may be one where they have to try new foods.

“It may require people to attempt to incorporate new foods into their diets to be most successful,” Yancy said. “The good news is that we know that our tastes can adapt to such new foods and begin to enjoy them more over time.”

Christine Santori is program manager for the Center for Weight Management at North Shore-LIJ’s Syosset Hospital in Syosset, N.Y.

“Incorporating one’s food preferences and involving the patient in the meal planning will increase long-term compliance and sustained weight loss,” said Santori, who was not involved in the research.

She did warn, though, that choosing a diet plan based on food preferences that may be high in calories could make it hard to control portion size and ultimately lead to less weight loss.

“In my opinion, it is best to select a meal plan based on one’s metabolic profile and work to incorporate the individual food preferences with patient involvement,” she said.

The researchers agreed, and added that future research should focus on matching dieters with the optimal diet by using their metabolic or genetic profiles.

“A metabolic profile could be any number of blood tests — or other tests — that reflect [what’s going on in] the body,” said Yancy. “These could include tests that are commonly done at [checkups with your health care provider], such as blood lipids, glucose or insulin [levels].”

He explained, for example, that preliminary research suggests that people with insulin resistance, low HDL (good) cholesterol or high triglycerides (blood fats) may benefit from a low-carbohydrate diet.

“As for genetic profiles,” Yancy added, “we have learned of a number of gene variants that increase risk for obesity or diabetes. It could be that people with certain variants respond better to one diet versus another diet.”

More information

Visit the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for more on weight loss.

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Seeing Their Clogged Arteries Can Spur Healthy Changes in Patients

MONDAY, June 15, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Seeing images of their narrowed heart arteries may convince some heart disease patients to adopt a healthier lifestyle and take prescribed medications, a new study suggests.

“Seeing their calcified coronary arteries on the CT image was clearly an eye-opener for patients. We received comments such as, ‘It is my coronary artery and my coronary artery calcification and I am facing a real risk and challenge,’ ” said study author Rikke Elmose Mols, a nurse and Ph.D. student at Aarhus University Hospital-Skejby in Denmark.

“This may be the wake-up call patients need to take their medication and modify their behaviors to reduce their risk of having a coronary artery event,” Mols said in a European Society of Cardiology news release.

The research included 189 people recently diagnosed with early stage heart disease. Half were shown a CT image of calcium buildup on the walls of their heart arteries, a condition called coronary artery calcification.

In addition, a nurse told the patients about the link between coronary artery calcification and the increased risk of heart problems, and gave them advice about a healthy diet, exercise, quitting smoking, controlling blood pressure and taking aspirin and cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

The other half of participants did not see images of their scans and were given standard follow-up, which included advice on reducing lifestyle and risk factors for heart disease.

The patients who saw the images of their narrowed heart arteries were more likely to switch to a healthier diet, lose weight and stop smoking. They were also more likely to continue taking statins, which led to lower cholesterol levels.

For example, just 9 percent of people who saw their arteries continued to smoke compared to 22 percent of the group given standard treatment. And just 44 percent of those who saw their blood vessels continued to eat unhealthy foods versus 64 percent of those in the usual care group.

“The results of our study suggest that visualizing their health threat motivates patients to make changes to reduce their risk. A large-scale study is needed to confirm the findings and to determine the cost-effectiveness of implementing this intervention in clinical practice,” Mols said.

The study was to be presented June 15 at a European Society of Cardiology meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Findings presented at meetings are generally viewed as preliminary until they’ve been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about coronary artery disease.

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How a Swimsuit Can Protect You From the Sun

It happens to all of us: You’re lounging at the beach, slowly doze off, and eventually wake up to a nasty sunburn. Without reapplying sunscreen, you’ve exposed yourself to all the risks including sun damage, wrinkles, and skin cancer. And your friend who was supposed to warn you when you were turning red? “Oops.”

In response to this pervasive problem, French designer Marie Spinali is launching a line of anti-sunburn swimwear equipped with sun sensors that analyze sun exposure based on the wearer’s skin type. The swimsuit sends a text message to her cell phone when she’s close to burning and need to put on more sunscreen.

Spinali told The Telegraph, “The project came from an off-the-cuff remark after seeing people looking like lobsters still in the sun.” Her main target markets include sun-intensive like Australia and Brazil, where people are constantly on the beach and in the sun.

The line features a mix of swimsuits that start at €150, or about $168. It also includes a beach towel, and a children’s version is in the works, complete with a GPS alert to warn parents if their kids wander too far away. Technology is amazing.

Of course, this all serves to remind us the importance of sun protection and the need to use sunscreen and reapply it often (even when your bathing suit doesn’t tell you to do so).

More from MIMI.com :

How to Camouflage Your Embarrassing Sunburn 

You Can Still Get Sun Damage Even After You Go Inside 

Consider This Your Yearly Reminder to Wear SPF

MIMI Chatter is an endless stream of beauty content. We bring together the must-knows and the how-tos from your favorite sites, beauty influencers, our editors, and YOU.

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Dermatologist’s Tips for Reducing Scars After Cuts, Scrapes

MONDAY, June 15, 2015 (HealthDay News) — During the summer, people tend to get more scrapes, cuts and scratches, which can lead to scars.

But there are a number of things you can do to reduce scarring, according to Dr. Ellen Marmur, an associate clinical professor of dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

“The appearance of a scar often depends on how well your wound heals. While scars from surgery or over joints like the knees and elbows are hard to avoid, scars caused by minor cuts and scrapes can become less noticeable by properly treating your wound at home,” she said in an American Academy of Dermatology news release.

Marmur offered some tips for reducing the appearance of scars caused by minor skin injuries.

Gently wash the injury site with mild soap and water to remove debris and keep out germs. Apply petroleum jelly to keep the wound from drying out and forming a scab. Wounds with scabs take longer to heal. Petroleum jelly will also prevent a scar from getting too large, deep or itchy. If you clean the wound daily, you don’t need to use antibacterial ointments.

After cleaning the wound and applying petroleum jelly or a similar ointment, cover the wound with an adhesive bandage. Change the bandage daily to keep the wound clean while it heals. For larger scrapes, sores, burns or wounds with persistent redness, hydrogel or silicone gel sheets may be helpful, Marmur said.

If your wound requires stitches, follow your doctor’s advice on caring for the wound and when to have the stitches removed. This may help minimize the scar.

After the wound heals, apply sunscreen (SPF 30 or higher) to the site when you go outside. This may reduce red or brown discoloration and help the scar fade faster, Marmur said.

“Although no scar can be completely eliminated, most scars do fade over time. If you’re worried about the appearance of a scar, see a board-certified dermatologist. A dermatologist can answer your questions and talk about ways to make your scar less visible,” she said.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about scars.

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Here’s Why You Hate the Word ‘Moist’

Photo: Getty Images

Moist. It’s the first word that comes to mind when you think about rainy days, puppy noses, and perfectly-baked cakes. But a huge chunk of the population absolutely despises the word. Say “moist” around them and you’ll be met with disgust, complete with arms flailing and gagging noises. This fear and loathing for the M-word has recently been the subject of articles in publications from the The New Yorker to Slate articles, and even episodes of New Girl and How I Met Your Mother.

RELATED: 11 Health Words You’re Saying All Wrong

And thanks to a post last week on the science blog Nautilus, a fascinating study from last year about why we hate “moist” is getting well-deserved new buzz. In it, researchers from Oberlin College and Trinity University ran three different experiments to test how around 800 participants reacted to hearing the word “moist” in various contexts. Their finding: About 20% of subjects equated it to hearing nails on a chalkboard.  Specifically, it was the “disgusting bodily functions” associated with the word that turned people off.

“It reminds people of sex and vaginas,” explained one participant.

Indeed, when the researchers paired “moist” with sexual words and, oddly, unrelated positive words (like “paradise”), people had the most adverse reactions to it. Thankfully for bakeries everywhere, when it was combined with culinary words like “cake” and “delicious,” moistness was considered much more pleasant. Which is something Coach on New Girl clearly agrees with.

RELATED: 4 Surprisingly Light Cake Recipes

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Most Americans Back Ban on Powdered Alcohol, Poll Finds

MONDAY, June 15, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Most Americans support banning powdered alcohol because of its potential misuse by teens, a new survey finds.

Powdered alcohol was approved in March by U.S. regulators but some states have already banned it, the poll’s authors said.

The products, which will be sold in pouches, will be available in flavors such as vodka, rum and mixed drinks.

“Given that several states are considering legislation about powdered alcohol, our poll looked at what the public thinks about this new product,” Dr. Matthew Davis, director of the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, said in a university news release.

“The majority of adults agree that powdered alcohol may spell trouble for young people,” he said.

Sixty percent of adults favor a complete ban on powdered alcohol in their states, and another 84 percent support banning online sales of the product, according to the poll.

The survey, which was released Monday, also found that 85 percent of adults believe marketing for powdered alcohol should not be allowed on social networking sites frequented by youngsters.

Ninety percent of adults are concerned that powdered alcohol will be misused by those younger than 21; 85 percent worry that powdered alcohol will increase alcohol use among people younger than 21; and 81 percent are concerned that it will be easy for people younger than 21 to buy powdered alcohol, according to the poll.

One packet of powdered alcohol mixed with six ounces of liquid creates an instant cocktail, the authors explained in the news release.

“The product’s makers tout powdered alcohol as improving convenience for people who enjoy the outdoors and others who want to travel light with alcoholic beverages,” said Davis, who is also a professor of pediatrics and internal medicine in the Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit at the University of Michigan Medical School, in Ann Arbor.

Sales of powdered alcohol are set to begin this summer, but some states — including Louisiana, South Carolina and Vermont — have already banned it. Michigan lawmakers are also considering a ban, the poll’s authors said.

“In the U.S., parents, communities and health care providers already face serious challenges with underage alcohol abuse and its harmful effects on children’s health. This poll indicates common concern among our communities over potential abuse and misuse of powdered alcohol, as well as the product’s potential to exacerbate the problem of underage drinking,” Davis said.

“Concerns of the public are important to understand as lawmakers across the country consider legislation to restrict or ban the use of powdered alcohol in their states,” he concluded.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about underage drinking.

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Smoking Blamed for Half of Deaths From Major Cancers in People Over 35

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, June 15, 2015 (HealthDay News) — About half of U.S. deaths caused by certain cancers — including lung, colon and pancreatic tumors — can be attributed to smoking, a new American Cancer Society study estimates.

In 2011, nearly half of the almost 346,000 deaths from 12 cancers in people 35 and older were linked to smoking, the study found.

“Despite large declines in smoking in the United States over the last 50 years, smoking still accounts for the majority of lung cancer deaths,” said study co-author Rebecca Siegel, the American Cancer Society’s director of surveillance information.

The researchers looked at 12 cancers known to be caused by smoking. In 2011, they found that 346,000 people died from these types of cancer. The researchers also had data on current and former smoking, and found that almost 168,000 of these deaths were due to tobacco.

For some cancers, the researchers said smoking was responsible for more than half of the deaths. Almost 126,000 of the deaths attributed to smoking were from cancers of the lungs, bronchus and trachea. That is about 80 percent of deaths from those cancers linked to smoking, according to the study. Just under 3,000 deaths from cancer of the larynx were tied to smoking, which is about 77 percent of the deaths that occurred in 2012 from that type of cancer, the researchers said.

In addition, approximately half of the deaths from cancers of the oral cavity, esophagus and urinary bladder were due to tobacco use, the researchers noted.

Smoking was also cited as the cause of many deaths from cancer of the colon, kidney, liver, pancreas, stomach, cervix, and from myeloid leukemia, Siegel said.

The number of Americans who smoke has dropped from 23 percent in 2000 to 18 percent in 2012, the study said. Still, smoking-related cancer deaths will continue to increase over the next several decades, Siegel said, because it will take 30 to 40 years to see the consequences of smoking among current smokers.

The rates of lung cancer have been declining among men and have begun to decline among women. The lag in the decrease among women is because larger numbers of women took up smoking years later than men and were slower to quit, she explained.

“If we could reduce smoking, we would have a lot fewer cancers,” Siegel said. Smoking cessation efforts are especially needed among the poor, she said. “The poor are twice as likely to be smokers as the non-poor,” Siegel said.

“While we have made a lot of progress in tobacco control, there is still a lot to do,” she said.

The report was published online June 15 as a letter in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Dr. Norman Edelman, a senior scientific advisor to the American Lung Association, said when people hear about smoking and cancer, they often think about lung cancer and nothing else.

“This study shows that there is a huge burden of other cancers caused by smoking in addition to lung cancer,” he said.

Edelman said that smoking is a huge public health problem and remains the major cause of preventable deaths in the United States. “Things are better, but we are not out from under it by any means,” he said.

Edelman urges smokers to quit. “Smoking is even more deadly than thought,” he said. “It is the most deadly element in our environment that we can control — at least in theory.”

More information

For more information on smoking and cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.

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Many U.S. Women Live Far From Gynecologic Cancer Care

MONDAY, June 15, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Millions of American women have poor access to gynecologic cancer care, a new study finds.

The analysis showed that 36 percent of counties in the United States are more than 50 miles from the nearest doctor specializing in ovarian, uterine and cervical cancer. About 10 percent of American women — nearly 15 million — live in those counties, researchers found.

“This is the first national study to identify specific regions of the United States where residents may be at an increased risk for poor clinical outcomes — including misdiagnoses and late detection — as a result of limited access to specialized gynecologic cancer care,” said study author Dr. David Shalowitz, a fellow in the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine’s division of gynecologic oncology, in Philadelphia.

“Based on our estimates, it’s likely that more than 7,000 women with gynecologic cancers per year experience distance-related barriers to accessing appropriate care from a specialist,” Shalowitz said in a university news release.

Increased travel time to a specialty center likely prevents many patients from being appropriately evaluated, he explained. Long distances may also decrease their likelihood of receiving the standard of care, or accessing clinical trials for ovarian, uterine and cervical cancers, he added.

Most of the counties with low access to gynecologic cancer care are in the Midwest and Mountain-West regions, but 47 states have at least one county with low access. The situation is especially bad in North Dakota, because the entire state is more than 50 miles from the nearest gynecologic oncologist, the researchers said.

Counties with the best access to gynecologic cancer care are near major cities, primarily along the Atlantic coast between Atlanta and Boston, according to the study. It was published online in the July issue of the journal Gynecologic Oncology.

The investigators also found that 15 percent of American women may have barriers to gynecologic cancer care based on their health insurance company’s referral network. The analysis revealed that 123 referral networks nationwide do not have access to a gynecologic oncologist, which means women may have to go outside their referral network to see this type of specialist.

“While we don’t yet know how access correlates to health outcomes, referral networks need to be structured in a way that alleviates the burden of travel for women in need of a specialist,” Shalowitz said.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about gynecologic cancers.

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