Half a glass of wine a day may boost life expectancy by five years

The *British Medical Journal* issued the following news release about an
article appearing in one of its associated journals (*Journal of
Epidemiology and Community Health*):

Half a glass of wine a day may boost life expectancy by five years

Long-term wine consumption is related to cardiovascular mortality and
life expectancy independently of moderate alcohol intake

Drinking up to half a glass of wine a day may boost life expectancy by
five years–at least in men–suggests research published ahead of print in
the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The Dutch authors base their findings on a total of 1,373 randomly
selected men whose cardiovascular health and life expectancy at age 50
were repeatedly monitored between 1960 and 2000.

 

Link between depression and cardiovascular disease: belly fat

Rush University Medical Center issued the following news release:

Depression linked with accumulation of visceral fat

Study explains association between depression and cardiovascular disease

Numerous studies have shown that depression is associated with an
increased risk of heart disease, but exactly how has never been clear.

Now, researchers at Rush University Medical Center have shown that
depression is linked with the accumulation of visceral fat, the kind of
fat packed between internal organs at the waistline, which has long been
known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

 

Why are some young victims of domestic violence resilient?

The Society for Research in Child Development issued the following news
release:

Why are some young victims of domestic violence resilient?

More than 10 million U.S. children witness domestic violence yearly,
resulting in a range of emotional and behavioral problems.

A new study suggests that the reason some of these children are
resilient is because of their easy temperaments and because they have
mentally healthy moms.

The longitudinal study, conducted by researchers at Michigan State
University, is published in the March/April 2009 issue of the journal
Child Development.

The researchers looked at more than 100 American children who had
witnessed violent acts against their mothers when the children were 2,
3, and 4 years old. They also looked at more than 70 children who hadn’t
witnessed violence against their mothers.

Children exposed to violence were almost four times more likely than
others to develop emotional or behavioral problems.

 

Think Memory Worsens With Age? Then Yours Probably Will

North Carolina State University issued the following news release:

Think Memory Worsens With Age? Then Yours Probably Will

Thinking your memory will get worse as you get older may actually be a
self-fulfilling prophecy. Researchers at North Carolina State University
have found that senior citizens who think older people should perform
poorly on tests of memory actually score much worse than seniors who do
not buy in to negative stereotypes about aging and memory loss.

In a study published earlier this month, psychology professor Dr. Tom
Hess and a team of researchers from NC State show that older adults’
ability to remember suffers when negative stereotypes are “activated” in
a given situation. “For example, older adults will perform more poorly
on a memory test if they are told that older folks do poorly on that
particular type of memory test,” Hess says.

Memory also suffers if senior citizens believe they are being
“stigmatized,” meaning that others are looking down on them because of
their age.

“Such situations may be a part of older adults’ everyday experience,”
Hess says, “such as being concerned about what others think of them at
work having a negative effect on their performance – and thus
potentially reinforcing the negative stereotypes.” However, Hess adds,
“The positive flip side of this is that those who do not feel
stigmatized, or those in situations where more positive views of aging
are activated, exhibit significantly higher levels of memory
performance.” In other words, if you are confident that aging will not
ravage your memory, you are more likely to perform well on memory-
related tasks.

The study also found a couple of factors that influenced the extent to
which negative stereotypes influence older adults. For example, the
researchers found that adults between the ages of 60 and 70 suffered
more when these negative stereotypes were activated than seniors who
were between the ages of 71 and 82. However, the 71-82 age group
performed worse when they felt stigmatized.

Finally, the study found that negative effects were strongest for those
older adults with the highest levels of education. “We interpret this as
being consistent with the idea that those who value their ability to
remember things most are the most likely to be sensitive to the negative
implications of stereotypes, and thus are most likely to exhibit the
problems associated with the stereotype.”

“The take-home message,” Hess says, “is that social factors may have a
negative effect on older adults’ memory performance.”

[end news release]

Here’s a link to the abstract of the study:
<http://tinyurl.com/cwrw9j>

Courtesy of Ken Pope

 

Compassion: Witnessing pain registers in our own body – research

Witnessing another person’s physical pain registers more quickly in the brain than compassion for social or psychological pain, but the latter leaves a much longer-lasting impression.

New brain-imaging research showed an almost immediate “wince” reaction to seeing someone’s physical pain. By contrast the brain took 6 to 8 seconds to respond to stories about social or psychological pain — a very long time considering that neurons fire within milliseconds. However, the brain’s response to social or psychological situations lingered for much longer than the response to physical pain. That may suggest a more complex thought process, compared to the instinctive evolutionary reaction to physical pain.

Compassion for another person’s social or psychological pain also activated some of the same brain areas triggered by compassion for physical pain, and particularly the region responsible for gut feelings, known as the anterior insula.

“It’s almost as if we have a body in which to play out feelings about other people’s situations, but that body is subdivided between the musculoskeletal system and the gut,” Immordino-Yang noted.

The full research is detailed in the April 13 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Full article:   http://www.livescience.com/culture/090417-gentle-emotions.html

By Jeremy Hsu, Staff Writer

 

Laughter improves cholesterol, inflammation – study

The American Physiological Society issued the following news release:

Laughter remains good medicine

New study reports on the mind-emotion-disease model

The connection between the body, mind and spirit has been the subject of conventional scientific inquiry for some 20 years. The notion that psychosocial and societal considerations have a role in maintaining health and preventing disease became crystallized as a result of the experiences of a layman, Norman Cousins. In the 1970s, Cousins, then a writer and magazine editor of the popular Saturday Review, was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. He theorized that if stress could worsen his condition, as some evidence suggested at the time, then positive emotions could improve his health. As a result, he prescribed himself, with the approval of his doctor, a regimen of humorous videos and shows like Candid Camera(c). Ultimately, the disease went into remission and Cousins wrote a paper that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and a book about his experience, Anatomy of an Illness: A Patient’s Perspective, which was published in 1979. The book became a best seller and led to the investigation of a new field, known then as whole-person care or integrative medicine and now, lifestyle medicine.

Points from the news release:

• Beta-endorphins elevate mood state
• Human growth hormone (HGH) helps with optimizing immunity
• Cortisol and epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) are detrimental stress hormones that negatively affect immunity if chronically released.

• A group of 10 diabetics with hypertensoin and high cholesterol were assigned regularly to watch funny videos for 30 minutes. Over 12 months, their blood chemistry was compared to 10 matching people who were not made to laugh.

• Adding laughter standard diabetes care may lower stress and inflammatory response and increase “good” cholesterol levels. The authors conclude that mirthful laughter may thus lower the risk of cardiovascular disease associated with diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome.

In describing himself as a “hardcore medical clinician and scientist,” Dr. Berk says, “the best clinicians understand that there is an intrinsic physiological intervention brought about by positive emotions such as mirthful laughter, optimism and hope.

More details follow:

 

In UK, work promotion leads to worse mental health

BBC News released an article: “Promotion ‘bad for mental health.’”

Here are some excerpts:

[begin excerpts]

Getting promoted at work may be bad for a person’s mental health, a
study suggests.

Warwick University researchers quizzed 1,000 workers who had been
promoted into supervisory or management roles in the past five years.

They were asked about about their health, mental well-being and use of
health services.

The study found that after promotion the quality of an individual’s
mental health deteriorated by 10% on average.

Experts said being given extra responsibility could lead to more stress,
anxiety and depression.

They said the problems could be exacerbated by workers who were promoted
having less time to access health services.

GP visits fell by 20% to less than two a year after promotion, the study
found.

It has long been assumed that a person’s job status directly results in
better health.

<snip>

Lead researcher Chris Boyce said: “Getting promoted at work is not as
great as people think.

“Our research finds that the mental health of managers typically
deteriorates after a job promotion and in a way that goes beyond merely
a short-term change.

“People given senior positions need to be given the proper support and
training to handle the extra responsibility.”

The research will be presented at the Royal Economic Society’s
conference later this month.

[end excerpts]

The article is online at:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7998675.stm>

Courtesy of Ken Pope.

 

Cognitive behaviour therapy helps with chronic pain – research

Wiley-Blackwell issued the following news release:

CBT and BT: Some effect against chronic pain

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Behaviour Therapy (BT) show some
effect in helping the disability associated with chronic pain, according
to a Cochrane Systematic Review. The researchers assessed the use of CBT
and BT on chronic pain, mood, and disability.

“For people with chronic pain, psychological therapies can reduce
depression and anxiety, disability, and in some cases pain, but guidance
is still required on the best type and duration of treatment,” says lead
researcher Christopher Eccleston, at the Centre for Pain Research at the
University of Bath.

Both CBT and BT try to manage pain by addressing the associated
psychological and practical processes. CBT involves the avoidance of
negative thoughts. BT helps patients to understand how they can change
their behaviour in order to reduce pain. Both approaches have been in
development for around 40 years and are sometimes recommended for
patients with long lasting, distressing pain that cannot be relieved by
conventional medicines.

In a systematic review, researchers considered the results of 40 trials
of CBT and BT, which included 4,781 patients in total. Patients
suffering from pain due to any cause, except headache, migraine, or
cancer, were included. Most studies were of CBT, which showed small
positive effects on pain, disability, and mood. There was less evidence
for BT, which the researchers say had no effect on disability or mood.

“Although there is overall promise for CBT in chronic pain, the term
covers a diverse range of treatment and assessment procedures. Right
now, we are not able to say which specific features of therapy may be
critical for improvement of a patient’s condition,” says Eccleston.

According to the researchers, simpler studies of CBT and BT that focus
on a purer form of treatment, rather than a variety of mixed methods,
would benefit the field.

 

Diet and Coronary Heart Disease

Diet and Coronary Heart Disease

High quality evidence exists that the following help to protect people from coronary heart disease:
* “Mediterranean” and other high quality dietary patterns (see below)
* Nuts
* Vegetables
* Mono-saturated fats

Strong evidence exists that the following increase the risk:
* trans-fats
* foods with a high glycemic index (see below**)

Moderately good quality evidence exists that the following are also helpful in preventing CHD:
* Fish
* Folate
* Whole grains
* Vitamins C and E in the diet
* Beta carotene
* Alcohol
* Fruit
* Fibre

There is as yet insufficient evidence about:
* Vitamin C and E supplements
* Saturated and unsaturated fat and total fat
* Linolenic acid
* Meat
* Eggs
* Milk

 

Hostility, not “Type A personality”, linked to heart disease

Don’t be mad

More research links hostility to coronary risk.

By Nadja Geipert

In 1959, cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman observed in top medical journals that competitive, deadline-driven, hypervigilant men-so-called Type A personalities-faced a significantly increased risk for coronary heart disease.

Yet ensuing large epidemiological studies failed to confirm the connection, and most health psychologists abandoned the concept in the late 1980s in favor of a component often found in Type A people: hostility.

A meta-analysis presented by German researcher Michael Myrtek, PhD, in his chapter on heart disease, Type A and hostility in the recently published APA book “Contributions Toward Evidence-based Psychocardiology: A Systematic Review of the Literature” (see “One heart-many threats”) confirms that there is no significant association between Type A personalities and heart disease, but that there is a connection between hostility and coronary heart disease.

“The consensus is really that it is not all aspects of Type A behavior, but just the hostility component,” says Redford Williams, MD, director of the behavioral medicine research center at Duke University School of Medicine.