Coils in Lungs Might Boost Ability to Exercise With Emphysema

TUESDAY, Jan. 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Implanting coils in the lungs may help improve the ability to exercise in people with severe emphysema, a new study suggests.

Emphysema is a type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that damages the airways and makes it difficult to breathe.

Current treatments for severe emphysema have limited effectiveness. Lung volume reduction surgery can help, but carries a risk of complications and death, the study authors explained.

Dr. Gaetan Deslee, of Reims University Hospital in France, and colleagues recruited 100 patients for the study. Fifty patients received usual care — rehabilitation and bronchodilators with or without inhaled corticosteroids and oxygen.

The remaining 50 received usual care and also had coils placed in their lungs. The researchers said the coils were placed in the lungs using an endoscope — a slender, flexible device inserted into the mouth. The study was conducted at 10 university hospitals in France.

After six months, more than one-third of the patients in the coil group had improvement of at least 59 yards in a 6-minute walk test. Just 9 percent of those in the usual care group had a similar improvement.

The patients in the coil group also had a significant decrease in lung hyperinflation and sustained improvement in quality of life. The average one-year per-patient cost difference between the two groups of patients was nearly $48,000, the study showed.

Further research is needed to determine the long-term benefits and cost effectiveness of the coil treatment, the researchers concluded.

The study was published in the Jan. 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

More information

The American Lung Association has more about emphysema.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1mT2v6T

Immune Cells Repair Damage to Blood-Brain Barrier in Mice

TUESDAY, Jan. 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Researchers report in a mouse study that they have found that central nervous system immune cells play a key role in repairing the blood-brain barrier.

The blood-brain barrier prevents harmful substances in the blood from getting into the brain. If that barrier is breached, the brain becomes vulnerable to infection and injury, the researchers explained.

In experiments with mice, scientists found that immune cells in the brain called microglia are crucial in repairing damage to the blood-brain barrier.

The researchers made small holes in the brain-blood barrier of mice and found that nearby microglia immediately started to repair the damage. In most cases, the brain-blood barrier was restored within 10 to 30 minutes, the researchers noted.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that animal research doesn’t always turn out the same way in humans.

“This study shows that the resident immune cells of the central nervous system play a critical and previously unappreciated role in maintaining the integrity of the blood-brain barrier,” lead author Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, co-director, Center for Translational Neuromedicine, University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, said in a center news release.

The study was published Jan. 11 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers saw that a particular receptor activated the microglia and directed them to the blood-brain barrier breach. The same receptor is also present on platelets and is one of the targets of blood-thinning drugs such as Plavix, the researchers noted.

These drugs are given to at-risk patients to prevent platelets from clumping and forming blood clots that can cause a stroke, the researchers explained. However, these findings suggest that these drugs may impair the repair of the blood-brain barrier after a stroke, and the researchers are currently investigating this possibility.

“When this barrier is breached it must be rapidly repaired in order to maintain the health of the brain and aid in recovery after an injury — a process that could be impaired by drugs that are intended to prevent this damage in the first place,” Nedergaard explained.

“Our concern is that while certain types of blood-thinning drugs may do a great job preventing strokes, they could have the unintended consequence of making them worse or hindering recovery once they occur,” she said.

More information

Neuroscience for Kids has more about the blood-brain barrier.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1mT2u2M

Frozen as Good as Fresh for Fecal Transplant: Study

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Jan. 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Researchers say they have verified the effectiveness of a quicker way to rid people of recurring C. difficile bacterial infection.

A new clinical trial has shown that frozen stool samples work just as well as freshly donated samples when treating a tough C. difficile infection through a procedure called fecal transplantation.

Doctors have used frozen stool samples to treat C. difficile for a couple of years, because the prepackaged samples allow for much easier and swifter treatment than identifying and screening a fresh donor, said lead author Dr. Christine Lee, director of the microbiology residency program at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.

“Donor screening can take one to two weeks,” Lee said. “If a person requires fecal transplant right away, then that’s not possible.”

The clinical trial showed that patients do not pay a price for the convenience that comes with using frozen stool samples. “Frozen samples were not inferior to fresh samples. It was equivalent,” Lee said.

The trial’s findings are published Jan. 12 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Clostridium difficile, or C. difficile, is an opportunistic bacteria that can invade the intestines of people whose gut bacteria have been wiped out by heavy doses of antibiotics. Left untreated, it often causes life-threatening bouts of diarrhea, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Patients can struggle with C. difficile for a long time because it becomes part of their gut’s microbiology. More than three out of every five people with the infection experience repeated episodes of diarrhea as they battle the bacteria, according to background notes with the study.

Fecal transplantation is emerging as the standard of care for people with recurrent C. difficile, said Dr. Colleen Kelly, an assistant professor of gastroenterology with the Women’s Medicine Collaborative at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School in Providence, R.I.

As many as nine out of 10 patients with persistent C. difficile are cured through fecal transplantation, in which the stool of a healthy donor is introduced into a person’s gut through an enema or a colonoscopy, Kelly said.

But finding a donor isn’t simple. Potential donors must be screened for infectious diseases like HIV or hepatitis, as well as intestinal parasites and other bugs, Lee and Kelly said. These screenings require time that a patient with dire health problems might not have.

To solve this problem, a couple of U.S.-based companies have emerged that prepare and ship frozen stool samples from pre-screened donors, Lee and Kelly said.

“Being able to use frozen has really expanded fecal transplantation to a greater number of patients,” Kelly said.

Noting that she was scheduled to perform a fecal transplant in about an hour, Kelly described how she uses a frozen sample.

“I have a freezer with little bottles of frozen stool,” Kelly said. “They thaw out in the refrigerator overnight or at room temperature in a couple of hours. I swung by the lab last night and picked up a dose because I knew I was going to be doing one this morning, stuck it in the refrigerator and now it’s ready to go.”

In the clinical trial, Lee and her colleagues randomly assigned 232 C. difficile patients to receive either a frozen or fresh fecal transplantation via enema.

They found that frozen samples cured 83.5 percent of patients within 13 weeks, compared with about 85 percent of patients treated with fresh samples.

Further, they found no serious side effects with either fresh or frozen fecal transplantation.

“People have wondered, you’re putting all these germs in somebody, can you transmit an infection or something else,” Kelly said. “They’ve shown that in the short-term, anyway, fecal transplantation appears safe. We definitely need more long-term data, though, and apparently the authors plan on following these patients for 10 years.”

Kelly thought the researchers’ use of enemas to implant the stool samples was an interesting alternative to colonoscopy, the procedure her center uses for fecal transplants.

“Anybody can do an enema,” she said. “You don’t have to be a gastroenterologist with special training. A nurse can administer an enema. That really makes it easier, and brings the cost way down.”

However, Lee warned this is one medical procedure that patients shouldn’t attempt on their own.

“You don’t want to accidentally acquire hepatitis or HIV by a stool sample from a donor who hasn’t been properly screened,” Lee said.

More information

For more on C. difficile, visit the American Academy of Family Physicians.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1mT2v6H

Obesity Surgery Patients May Often Have Mental Health Disorders

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Jan. 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Many people having surgery for severe obesity also have mental health conditions, particularly depression and binge-eating disorder, a new review finds.

The analysis of 68 studies found that almost one-quarter of obesity surgery candidates had a mood-related disorder, usually depression. Another 17 percent had binge-eating disorder, researchers report Jan. 12 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Obesity surgery, known medically as bariatric surgery, can be an option for people who are severely overweight — typically 100 pounds or more.

And while doctors have known that patients often have mental health symptoms as well, it has not been clear just how common that is, said study author Dr. Aaron Dawes.

“What was striking to us is that depression and binge-eating disorder were both more than twice as common as they are in the general U.S. population,” said Dawes, a general surgery resident at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The good news was that the review found no clear evidence that mental health conditions hindered patients’ weight loss after surgery.

That’s reassuring, Dawes said, because there have been some concerns about that possibility.

There are different forms of obesity surgery, but all generally alter the digestive tract to limit the amount of food a person can eat. Surgery candidates, Dawes noted, have to commit to a new way of eating, both to lose weight and stay healthy — and there have been questions about whether people in poorer mental health can manage the post-surgery changes.

“This analysis does not support the notion that these patients do worse,” Dawes said.

On the other hand, he added, the findings show how important it is to consider obesity surgery candidates’ mental health.

“Doctors need to be aware that mental health conditions are common among these patients, and refer them for treatment if necessary,” Dawes said.

It is standard for patients to have some sort of mental health screening before undergoing weight-loss surgery.

That’s typically done by a mental health professional, who would then advise the surgery team on how to move ahead if the patient does have a psychiatric condition, said Dr. Bruce Wolfe, a bariatric surgeon at Oregon Health & Science University, in Portland.

“Mental health disorders are definitely prevalent among individuals with severe obesity, so that evaluation is important,” said Wolfe, who was not involved in the study.

But, he stressed, a mental health diagnosis does not automatically disqualify someone from having surgery, as patients sometimes fear.

A person with moderate depression would be managed differently from someone having suicidal thoughts, for example, Wolfe said. The suicidal patient would not be a candidate for surgery; the depressed patient might have the procedure and receive depression therapy — though there’s still the question of whether that should happen before or after surgery, he noted.

As for binge-eating disorder, he said, it might seem like the condition would preclude people from obesity surgery, since they have to limit their food intake strictly.

But, as the current review shows, studies have found that people with the disorder fare as well as other patients, Wolfe said.

That might be partly because some get therapy for their binge-eating, Wolfe said. But he said the surgery also has effects on the nervous and hormonal systems that may help ease bingeing.

Based on the review, people with depression can also improve after surgery. Across seven studies, prevalence of depression dropped by anywhere from 8 percent to 74 percent after surgery. The severity of patients’ depressive symptoms also fell — by 40 percent to 70 percent.

“We’re not suggesting that anyone have bariatric surgery to treat their depression,” Dawes said. But, he added, it’s encouraging that depression became less common post-surgery.

According to Dawes, the fact that mental health conditions were so common in this study might help lift some of the “stigma” patients can feel.

“You’re not alone,” he said.

Wolfe agreed. “Mental health conditions should be considered another potential comorbidity of severe obesity, just like diabetes or high blood pressure,” he said.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more on obesity surgery.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1mT2u2y

Statins Aid Bypass Surgery Recovery, Research Shows

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Jan. 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Patients who take statins before and after heart bypass surgery have fewer complications and a reduced risk of dying during and soon after the operation, a new analysis finds.

In a review of recent studies on the use of statins (such as Lipitor or Zocor) before and after bypass surgery, researchers found that the cholesterol-lowering drugs reduced the incidence of the abnormal heartbeat atrial fibrillation by 58 percent. In addition, statins also reduced the risk of dying in the hospital after the operation by 43 percent.

“We think statins have these effects because they reduce inflammation,” said researcher Dr. Islam Elgendy, of the division of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Florida, Gainesville.

“Right after bypass surgery, there is intense inflammation of the heart,” he added. “Perhaps starting statins two weeks before the surgery reduces the level of inflammation.”

The report was published online Jan. 12 and in the February print issue of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

Heart bypass surgery is an operation that uses blood vessels from another part of the body to go around — or “bypass” — blocked or narrowed heart arteries, allowing more blood and oxygen to flow to the heart muscle, according to the American Heart Association.

But while the researchers found statins were well-tolerated by patients before bypass surgery, they also found they are vastly underused.

In one study reviewed by Elgendy’s team, only about 37 percent of the patients were given statins before surgery. In many cases, heart patients are told to stop taking statins before bypass surgery, Elgendy said.

This review calls that practice into question, he added.

Some surgeons worry that statins can cause serious side effects, such as muscle pain or muscle damage, Elgendy explained. “However, we found that these side effects are very minimal and the benefits are greater than discontinuing the medication,” he said.

Elgendy recommends that patients start taking a statin before bypass surgery if they are not taking one, and continue taking a statin if they are already doing so.

In addition, he recommends that all patients continue taking statins after the operation.

Dr. Gregg Fonarow is a cardiology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Fonarow, who was not involved with the new review, said, “Current guidelines recommend that all patients with cardiovascular disease, including those patients undergoing coronary [heart] bypass surgery, receive statin therapy to lower the risk of fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular events.”

High-dose statin therapy is recommended in all such patients under the age of 75, and moderate or high dosing of statins for those over 75, Fonarow said.

Beyond the intermediate and long-term benefits of statin therapy, he added, a number of studies have suggested there may be additional benefits of starting or continuing statin therapy after bypass surgery.

“Despite all the evidence and current guidelines, there are still many patients undergoing bypass surgery who are not receiving statin therapy, and this represents an important opportunity to improve care and outcomes for this patient population at risk,” Fonarow said.

More information

For more on coronary bypass surgery, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1mT2uQl

The Healthiest (and Unhealthiest) Food on Domestic Airlines

Photo: Getty Image

Since 2012, Dr. Charles Platkin, editor of DietDetective.com and a professor of public health at Hunter College and CUNY, has been investigating in-flight snacks and meals found on major carriers across the U.S. and Canada.

This year’s survey revealed which airlines are improving, becoming less cooperative, and which ones continue to fly the healthiest food across the skies. The 2015 report also highlighted a concerning trend: after four years of investigating in-flight nutrition, average number of calories per item have risen from 360 to a whopping 400. Meanwhile, the number of choices continues to decrease.

In addition to calling out the best meals, snack boxes, and treats, Dr. Platkin gave airlines average calorie counts, and overview of food offering, exercise equivalents (one 350 calorie peanut butter-and-jelly half sandwich from Virgin America equals 76 minutes of walking). The final ranking, one star for the worst airline (lowest health rating and least cooperative in terms of providing information) and four and a half stars for the best.

Want to know the healthiest airline in the skies—and what you should order? Read on.

RELATED: The World’s Strangest Hangover Cures

No. 12: Frontier Air

Score: 1 Star

Frontier landed in the most shameful spot in the 2015 Airline Food Investigation, not only because of a complete lack of healthful foods (snacks ranged from gummy bears to Pringles and rice krispy treats) but also because of a complete lack of transparency: they airline refused to turn over nutritional info to Dr. Platkin of DietDetective.com.

No. 11: Spirit Airlines

Score: 1.25 Stars

It doesn’t realize this airline, which scored so poorly on our World’s Best survey for In-flight Service, received a “terrible” rating for its failure to cooperate and its unhealthy snacks. The chicken Cup Noodles received a surprising thumbs-up as your best bet—but not as a snack. Make this your meal and then go for an hour long walk around town after you disembark.

No. 10: Hawaiian Airlines

Score. 1.25 Stars

By handing over snack nutrition information, Hawaiian gained an extra quarter star over Frontier; unfortunately, their in-flight food (treats, snack boxes, and meals) didn’t perform well when analyzed by a nutritionist. Average meal calories were more than 950, while snack boxes had a whopping 417. The moral of the story? Pack your own meal, or pick the healthful options out of the Gluten-Free snack box (roasted chickpea snacks, 90 calories, and hummus, 67 calories).

No. 9: Allegiant Air

Score: 1.5 Stars

Unfortunately, Allegiant Air’s in-flight snack offerings have taken a turn for the high-calorie and high-sodium, whereas in 2014, they at least had a fruit and cheese plate diners could opt for. None of the options onboard this regional carrier impressed the dieticians, except for nuts (which, as we all know, need to be consumed in moderation). And DietDetective.com warned that travelers should not let their children near the Wingz Kids Snack Pack, which is loaded up with sugary jelly candies and peanut butter cracker sandwiches, among others.

RELATED: 7 Ways Travel Wreaks Havoc on Your Health

No. 8: Southwest Airlines

Score: 1.5 Stars

Southwest failed to provide nutritional information for the review—a major knock to the total score. Though the airline also provides little in terms of variety or nutritional value. If you need to snack in-flight (and you didn’t bring your own) opt for the dry-roasted peanuts: 70 calories. Fortunately, they’re free of charge.

No. 7: Alaska Airlines

Score: 2.5 Stars

Alaska Airlines, a favorite with domestic travelers, used to be eager to participate in the annual study. But this year, the airline opted out of providing info—and in-flight food calorie averages have soared from 444 to 537. The healthiest choice is the Mediterranean Tapas Picnic Pack, which is vegan and gluten-free: it contains olives, hummus almonds, and apricots, though it clocks in at 497 total calories. You’ll want to order that for breakfast, lunch, or dinner: not a snack to tide you over.

No. 6: American Airlines

Score: 2.75 Stars

America’s largest carrier has stepped-up its health food game this year, offering snacks with significantly lower calories than in years past.  Snacking is best limited to the hummus and chips (gluten-free, 147 calories) and for meals, the Chicken Cobb Salad is significantly healthier than its neighbors on the “Fresh and Light” menu. Even with the creamy ranch dressing and blue cheese crumbles, the salad has only 310 calories.

No. 5: United Airlines

Score: 3.25 Stars

DietDetective.com noticed that while the snacks and snack boxes are becoming increasingly less healthful, the meals are improving on this domestic carrier. Breakfast, in particular, is king. Order the Fresh Start Breakfast Selection, which offers fresh fruit, cheese, and zucchini bread for only 205 calories, or the organic steel-cut oatmeal, topped with cranberries, brown sugar, and butter. Skip the toppings if you can, but at only 340 calories, this will definitely help keep you full for the duration of the flight.

No. 4: Air Canada

Score: 3.25 Stars

Canada’s flag carrier (okay, not a domestic carrier but close, right?) was extremely cooperative with DietDetective.com. Calorie counts for meals are low, though nutrients are still lacking. Believe it or not, the nutritionists recommended the sushi, which is only available on flights 4 hours or longer departing from Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. The combo of California, Spicy California, and Vegetable Salad Sushi Rolls are packed with good-for-you ingredients and have a satisfying 450 total calories. Other smart options include the Chicken Club Wrap (roasted chicken, turkey bacon, tomatoes) and the fat-free Greek yogurt with strawberry and granola.

RELATED: 16 Easy Ways to Travel Healthier in 2016

No. 3: JetBlue Airways

Score: 4 Stars

JetBlue has always performed well on this survey, though it got a hat tip for posting nutritional information for its meals online this year. Travelers flying on planes with Eat Up Café on offer should stick to yogurt with granola, the veggie platter, or the Kale and Quinoa Salad: 320 calories of protein-rich cannellini beans, filling quinoa, grape tomatoes, and kale and spring greens. While the snacks are not terrible (omega-3 mixed nuts, beef jerky) the free ones are—go figure—the least nutritious of the options. And just because they’re free doesn’t mean you should eat as many as you can stuff in your carry-on.

No. 2: Delta Air Lines

Score: 4 Stars

Thanks, in part, to a partnership with healthful Luvo, Delta consistently offers calorie information for the brand’s snacks. Peanuts (free and full of protein) are your best choice for in-flight snacking. Breakfast looks good on almost all flights: especially if you skip the muffin. Continental breakfast plates have Greek yogurt, granola, and seedless grapes, while the Luvo Fresh Breakfast Medley (transcontinental flights) comes with a hardboiled egg, chia ricotta, Fuji apple slices, and strawberries. There is also the organic chocolate and the multi-seed mini muffins, which you’re still better off without.

No. 1: Virgin America

Score: 4.5 Stars

Calories are dropping across the board, by more than 15 percent, helping the San Francisco-based airline snag the top spot this year.  In terms of snacks, the airline still got knocked for offering nothing particularly healthful (turkey jerky isn’t terrible, and the seasoned nuts are fine as long as you don’t binge on the whole 450-calorie package). A vegetable wrap with curried white bean hummus, arugula, carrots, tomatoes, and a side of fruit salad, as well as soba noodles with ginger chicken, bell peppers, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, and soy beans were high scorers, thanks to a cool calorie to protein ratio.

This article originally appeared on travelandleisure.com.

The world’s most influential travel brand, Travel + Leisure, offers insider access to destinations around the globe. Get more info at Travel + Leisure.

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1JI3ph1

How Expressing Gratitude Might Change Your Brain

credit:Getty Images

A lot of so-called “positive psychology” can seem a bit flaky, especially if you’re the sort of person disinclined to respond well to an admonition to “look on the bright side.” But positive psychologists have published some interesting findings, and one of the more robust ones is that feeling grateful is very good for you. Time and again, studies have shown that performing simple gratitude exercises, like keeping a gratitude diary or writing letters of thanks, can bring a range of benefits, such as feelings of increased well-being and reduced depression, that often linger well after the exercises are finished.

Now a brain-scanning study in NeuroImage brings us a little closer to understanding why these exercises have these effects. The results suggest that even months after a simple, short gratitude writing task, people’s brains are still wired to feel extra thankful. The implication is that gratitude tasks work, at least in part, because they have a self-perpetuating nature: The more you practice gratitude, the more attuned you are to it and the more you can enjoy its psychological benefits.

The Indiana University researchers, led by Prathik Kini, recruited 43 people who were undertaking counseling sessions as a treatment for their anxiety or depression. Twenty-two of them were assigned to a gratitude intervention; for the first three sessions of their weekly counseling, this group spent 20 minutes writing a letter in which they expressed their gratitude to the recipient, an hour in total (whether they chose to send these letters was up to them). The other participants acted as a control group, so they simply attended their counseling as usual without performing the gratitude task.

Three months after their counseling was over, all of the participants completed a “Pay It Forward” gratitude task in a brain scanner. Each was “given” various amounts of money by imaginary benefactors whose names and photos appeared onscreen to add to the realism of the task. The researchers told the participants that each benefactor said that if the participant wanted to express their gratitude for the monetary gift, they’d appreciate it if the participant gave some or all of the donation to a named third party (again, identified by photo and name), or a named charity. The participants knew this was all an exercise, but were all told that one of the transactions, chosen later at random, would actually occur — that is, they’d actually receive the cash amount offered to them by one of the benefactors minus the amount they chose to pass on (and the money they opted to pass on really would go to charity).

The researchers found that, on average, the more money a participant gave away, and the stronger the feelings of gratitude they reported feeling, the more activity they exhibited in a range of brain areas in the frontal, parietal, and occipital regions. Interestingly, these neural-activity patterns appeared somewhat distinct from those that usually appear when brain-scan subjects complete tasks associated with emotions like empathy or thinking about other people’s points of view, which is consistent with the idea that gratitude is a unique emotion.

Most exciting, though, is the finding that the participants who’d completed the gratitude task months earlier not only reported feeling more gratefulness two weeks after the task than members of the control group, but also, months later, showed more gratitude-related brain activity in the scanner. The researchers described these “profound” and “long-lasting” neural effects as “particularly noteworthy,” and they highlighted that one of the main regions that showed this increased sensitivity — the “pregenual anterior cingulate,” which is known to be involved in predicting the effects of one’s own actions on other people — overlaps with a key brain region identified in the only previous study on the neurological footprint of gratitude.

This result suggests that the more practice you give your brain at feeling and expressing gratitude, the more it adapts to this mind-set — you could even think of your brain as having a sort of gratitude “muscle” that can be exercised and strengthened (not so different from various other qualities that can be cultivated through practice, of course). If this is right, the more of an effort you make to feel gratitude one day, the more the feeling will come to you spontaneously in the future. It also potentially helps explain another established finding, that gratitude can spiral: The more thankful we feel, the more likely we are to act pro-socially toward others, causingthem to feel grateful and setting up a beautiful virtuous cascade.

However, let’s not allow the warm glow of all this gratitude to melt our critical faculties. It’s important to realize this result is incredibly preliminary. For one thing, as the researchers openly acknowledge, they didn’t conduct a baseline brain scan of the participants before they started the Pay It Forward game, so it’s possible, though unlikely given that participants were randomly assigned to the gratitude and control groups, that the participants who performed the gratitude task simply had more neural sensitivity to gratitude already, not because they performed the gratitude task. Another thing: Members of the control group didn’t perform a comparison writing task, so we can’t know for sure that it was the act of writing a letter of thanks, as opposed to any kind of writing exercise, that led to increased neural sensitivity to gratitude.

Still, neurological investigations into gratitude are in their early days, and this research certainly gives us some intriguing clues as to how and why gratitude exercises are beneficial. For that we can be, well, grateful.

Dr. Christian Jarrett (@Psych_Writer), a Science of Us contributing writer, is editor of the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest blog. His latest book is Great Myths of the Brain.

More from Science of Us:

Why You Shouldn’t Run Through Thank-You Notes

4 Oliver Sacks Quotes on Gratitude

Men’s and Women’s Brains Appear to Age Differently

How Popular People’s Brains Are Different

Just Say ‘Thank You’ to the People You Work With

5 Reasons Why Giving Thanks Can Improve Your Life

Science of Us is a smart but playful window into the latest science on human behavior, with the goal of enlightening, entertaining, and providing useful information that can be applied to everyday life.

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1Zq6Wrr

Study Finds Poverty a Stronger Harbinger of Childhood Obesity Than Race

TUESDAY, Jan. 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Poverty is a better predictor of childhood obesity than race, new research suggests.

A statistical model, based on information from more than 110,000 Massachusetts students, found that as children’s family income dropped, rates of childhood obesity went up.

The researchers suspect that fewer parks, recreational programs and full service grocery stores among the poor may lead kids to eat more fast food and get little or no exercise.

“The findings reveal differences in the inequalities in the physical and social environment in which children are raised,” study senior author Dr. Kim Eagle, director at the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center, said in a hospital news release.

“It illustrates that race and ethnicity in communities may not have a significant connection to obesity status once the community’s income is considered,” Eagle said.

Although the study found a link between poverty and childhood obesity, it didn’t prove a cause-and-effect relationship. The study was published Jan. 7 in the journal Childhood Obesity.

Obesity rates in the United States have climbed steadily over the past few decades. Right now, more than 18 percent of kids between the ages of 12 and 19 are overweight or obese, the researchers said.

Children who are obese often remain overweight into adulthood. In fact, the researchers noted that there is a 70 percent chance that an overweight teen will remain obese as an adult, increasing their risk for heart disease and diabetes.

The study authors tracked the percentage of students in 68 public school districts who were overweight or obese. They compared that information with the percentage of students in each school district eligible for assistance, such as free or reduced price lunch, transitional aid or food stamps.

The study showed obesity rates were higher among black and Hispanic children. But, this association disappeared once the researchers considered the students’ family income, the study authors said.

For every 1 percent increase in low income status among the school districts examined, there was slightly more than a 1 percent increase in rates of overweight or obese students, the study found. This suggests low-income children and teens are more likely to be obese than their peers with higher family incomes, the researchers said.

“The battle to curb childhood obesity is critically tied to understanding its causes and focusing on the modifiable factors that can lead to positive health changes for each and every child,” Eagle said.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on childhood obesity.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1TSjVew

For Cancer Survivors, Expenses Keep Mounting

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Jan. 12, 2016 (HealthDay News) — A cancer diagnosis is costly, and new research suggests that it remains costly even after the disease has been treated.

“Cancer survivors are facing high costs even after years. The economic burden is substantial,” said study author Zhiyuan Zheng, senior health services researcher at the American Cancer Society’s Surveillance and Health Services Research program.

For example, the study found that non-elderly survivors of colon cancer had extra expenses of about $20,000 annually. Those extra expenses included direct medical costs, as well as lost productivity. For survivors of breast cancer under 65, the economic burden totaled about $14,000, and for prostate cancer it was approximately $9,000, the research revealed.

For elderly people, colon cancer survivors had extra costs of about $19,000 a year. Senior prostate cancer survivors faced about $17,000 in extra expenses, and older survivors of breast cancer had about $14,000 in extra medical costs and lost productivity, the study found.

The findings are scheduled for publication in the May issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

A previous study — published in the October issue of the journal Cancer — also revealed significant economic fallout from a cancer diagnosis. That study said that people in the United States diagnosed with cancer miss hundreds of hours of work, are less likely to remain employed and suffer major drops in income.

The new study is based on surveys done from 2008 to 2012. More than 3,000 people who had survived cancer took the surveys, as did more than 100,000 people without cancer. Among the cancer survivors, there were 540 colon cancer survivors, nearly 1,600 female breast cancer survivors and almost 1,200 prostate cancer survivors.

Compared to people without a cancer diagnosis, cancer survivors between the ages of 18 and 64 faced extra medical expenses — not including expenses such as lost productivity — each year of about $3,600 if they had prostate cancer. Medical costs were about $5,100 more for female survivors of breast cancer and about $8,600 for colon cancer survivors. Cancer survivors are also likely to miss more than a week of work each year, the researchers found.

In elderly cancer survivors, the additional annual medical costs ranged from $2,300 to $4,900. There was no additional loss of productivity when compared to other elderly people who hadn’t been diagnosed with cancer, the study showed.

Medical expenses included in the study were costs for services, such as office and hospital visits, medications and home health care. For example, colon cancer survivors under the age of 65 typically paid almost $600 more a year for medication than people without cancer. They also spent almost $5,000 more on costs connected to office visits. And, typically colon cancer survivors spent about $3,500 a year on inpatient care, the study reported.

Cancer survivors often have to cope with a variety of ongoing medical expenses such as medication, check-ups and treatment for issues like thinking problems, fatigue and side effects, explained Kathryn Weaver. She is an associate professor of social sciences and health policy at Wake Forest University’s School of Medicine, in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The study authors noted that the findings don’t include changes that might come from the Affordable Care Act, sometimes called Obamacare. But, Zheng said health care reform may dramatically improve these numbers by making it easier for people with pre-existing conditions to get insurance and eliminating patient costs for certain preventive procedures.

What can people do to get help with handling the costs of surviving cancer?

“Most cancer facilities should have a financial counselor who’s available to help talk about resources, and nonprofits may offer visits with financial planners at free or reduced cost,” Weaver said.

However, “this can be a difficult process for patients, since it is hard to find reliable information regarding the cost of treatments before they are obtained,” said Stacie Dusetzina, an assistant professor of pharmacy and public health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

As for future research, Weaver said “we need to understand the long-term effect of higher expenses, not just emotionally but also in terms of how it affects choices that patients make about treatment.”

More information

For more about the costs of cancer and resources, visit the American Cancer Society.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1TSjUYa

7 Genius Ways to Prevent Wrinkles While You Sleep

Photo: Getty Images

You’ve said it before—“I need my beauty sleep!”—as you crawl under the covers for a well-deserved full night of rest. But while you might be saying it facetiously, there are ways to slow down signs of aging overnight.

But first: doesn’t sleeping cause wrinkles?

Yes, it can. According to Debra Jaliman, MD, a New York City-based dermatologist and author of Skin Rules ($13; amazon.com), sleeping in such a way that your face comes into contact with cotton pillowcases—like on your side or stomach—can lead to the creation of deep sleep lines on your forehead and cheeks.

Wrinkles are caused by the loss of collagen and elasticity, which reduces skin volume. But applying repeated pressure (such as sleeping with the side of your face on a pillow) or muscle motions (such as laughing and squinting) against the collagen will promote its breakdown, eventually leading to visible lines.

Here are the eight ways that you can prevent wrinkles while you rest.

Sleep on your back

Sleeping on your stomach or on of your sides means there is constant pressure on your face. Over time, this action will produce unwanted sleep lines. You can remedy this by sleeping on your back, says Dr. Jaliman, this way you will not apply any pressure to your face. For many people though, this might be uncomfortable, and you can’t control your involuntary sleep movement leading you to a side or stomach position. But, you can practice and can get used to it over time.

Not a back-sleeper? Get a special pillow

Dr. Jaliman recommends the NIGHT Pillow ($150; discovernight.com) for sleep. “It has many benefits including minimizing wrinkles, supporting clean skin, and assisting with hydrating your skin cells, which helps prevent the formation of fine lines,” she says.

If you do want to promote sleeping on your back, try the JuveRest Sleep Wrinkle Pillow ($160; amazon.com), which is a contoured pillow designed to reduce facial contact with the pillow surface, reducing sleep lines.

There’s also a lower-tech option for those who want to become back sleepers. You know those pillows they sell in airports so you can sleep comfortably on long flights? You can use them in bed, too. They make it easier to sleep on your back without eventually rolling onto your side. Try the Nap uPillow ($25; brookstone.com), which uses silky-soft fabric for soothing support.

RELATED: 7 White Noise Machines That Could Help You (Finally) Get a Good Night’s Sleep

Upgrade your pillowcase

If you just can’t get comfortable sleeping on your back, you can still prevent those pillowcase-induced wrinkles by upgrading from cotton to silk or satin. “With a silk pillowcase, your skin slides on the pillow,” says Dr. Jaliman. In other words, there is less traction and your face won’t “crunch” against it like it does on a cotton pillow. Try the Spasilk Facial Beauty Pillowcase ($20; amazon.com). The 100% silk case is hypoallergenic and available in 18 colors.

Try a retinol

Retinol may be the most powerful tool in your anti-aging arsenal. The vitamin A derivative teaches your skin to act young again by stimulating the collagen that prevents fine lines. Dermatologists consistently recommend using the strongest cream your skin can tolerate (which may require a prescription), but there are plenty of over-the-counter options, such as Vichy’s LiftActiv Retinol HA Night Total Wrinkle Plumping Care ($47.50; amazon.com).

RELATED: 5 New Age-Erasing Retinol Products

Wear night cream

Night creams are heavy, ultra-moisturizing lotions that you probably couldn’t get away with wearing during the day (glowing is one thing, greasy is another). Choose one that contains hyaluronic acid, which helps plump and firm the skin. Health‘s editors love Garnier’s Ultra-Lift Miracle Sleeping Cream ($14; amazon.com), which was our top night-cream pick for the 2015 Health Beauty Awards.

Or slather on this kitchen ingredient

You may already have this all-natural wrinkle remedy in your kitchen: coconut oil. Kate Hudson revealed on Instagram that she’s a fan, and dermatologists say it’s a safe alternative to traditional lotion. Health‘s food director, Beth Lipton, even replaced her night cream with coconut oil for a week and was pleased with the results. Smooth a pea-sized amount into your skin each night after you wash your face; your best bet is a virgin coconut oil, such as Viva Labs the Finest Organic Virgin Coconut Oil ($10; amazon.com).

Get a full night’s rest

It might sound obvious, but getting the right amount of sleep is necessary. “It is important to sleep 7 to 8 hours a night to rejuvenate the skin,” says Dr. Jaliman. “That’s why it’s called beauty sleep!”

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/22XlGx5