WikiBlog

Top 25 Richest People of All Time:

2014-06-29T20:41:00.000+08:00

#1 Mansa Musa I – Net Worth $400 Billion
#2 The Rothschild Family – $350 Billion
#3 John D. Rockefeller – Net Worth $340 Billion
#4 Andrew Carnegie – Net Worth $310 Billion
#5 Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov – Net Worth $300 Billion
#6 Mir Osman Ali Khan – Net Worth $230 billion
#7 William The Conqueror – Net Worth $229.5 Billion
#8 Muammar Gaddafi – Net Worth $200 Billion
#9 Henry Ford – Net Worth $199 Billion
#10 Cornelius Vanderbilt – Net Worth $185 Billion
#11 Alan Rufus – $178.65 billion
#12 Bill Gates – Net Worth $136 Billion
#13 William de Warenne – Net Worth $147.13 Billion
#14 John Jacob Astor – Net Worth $121 Billion
#15 Richard Fitzalan 10th Earl of Arundel – Net Worth $118.6 Billion
#16 John of Gaunt – Net Worth $110 Billion
#17 Stephen Girard – Net Worth $105 Billion
#18 A.T. Stewart – Net Wort $90 Billion
#19 Henry Duke of Lancaster – Net Worth $85.1 Billion
#20 Friedrich Weyerhauser – Net Worth $80 Billion
#21 Jay Gould – Net Worth $71 Billion
#22 Carlos Slim Helu – Net Worth $68 Billion
#22 Stephen Van Rensselaer – Net Worth $68 Billion
#23 Marshall Field – Net Worth $66 Billion
#24 Sam Walton – Net Worth $65 Billion
#25 Warren Buffett – Net Worth $64 Billion

Forbes 2014 Top 10 Richest People

2014-06-29T20:32:00.004+08:00

Forbes on March 3, 2014 released its 2014 list of the World's Billionaires with Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation claiming the top spot with an estimated net worth of over $70 B.

Below are the Names of Forbes Top 10 Richest People on the Planet.

Rank	Name	Net Worth	Change	Age	Source	Country of Citizenship
#1	Bill Gates	$79.1 B	$2 K	58	Microsoft	United States
#2	Carlos Slim Helu & family	$73.8 B	$100.5 M \| -0.1%	74	telecom	Mexico
#3	Amancio Ortega	$65.4 B	$0	78	retail	Spain
#4	Warren Buffett	$65.1 B	$7 K	83	Berkshire Hathaway	United States
#5	Larry Ellison	$50.1 B	$0	69	Oracle	United States
#6	Charles Koch	$41.3 B	$0	78	diversified	United States
#6	David Koch	$41.3 B	$0	74	diversified	United States
#8	Christy Walton & family	$37.6 B	$0	59	Wal-Mart	United States
#9	Sheldon Adelson	$37.1 B	$0	80	casinos	United States
#10	Bernard Arnault & family	$35.3 B	$1 K	65	LVMH	France

Menstrual Migraines

2014-06-15T17:47:00.002+08:00

Migraine headaches are not life threatening but can be so disabling you sometimes feel you are dwelling in a twilight state between life and death. The pain is so crippling you can not participate in your every day life. My first experience with migraine headaches was in high school. An intelligent and talented friend of mine, William, lost days of school at a time due to migraine headache pain. He described how light and noise bothered him - he had to hide the telephone under a pillow while confining himself to a dark room until the pain subsided. I winced at his description of suffering, never dreaming I too would fall prey to this malady - my weak spot. Prepubescent boys and girls experience migraines with the same prevalence. Women, however, are 3 times more likely than men to have migraine headaches.

Menstrually related migraine (MRM) are more severe, last longer and are less responsive to pain medication than other migraine headaches. MRM occur 2 days before to within 3 days of the start of menses in at least 2 out of 3 menstrual cycles as well as other times during a woman's cycle. Menstrual migraine (MM) occur 2 days before to within 3 days of the start of menses in at least 2 out of 3 menstrual cycles and at no other time of the month. 8% of all women have MRM, but 50% of women who report headaches have MRM (me too). The theory is that falling estrogen levels in the late luteal phase of a woman's cycle trigger migraines.

Treatment of MRM and MM is two pronged - treat the migraine itself once it starts and short-term prevention taken perimenstrually. The April 2008 issue of Neurology published the following recommendations as a result of evidence-based research:

Perimenstrual short term prevention:

transcutaneous estrogen 1.5 mg

frovatriptan 2.5 mg twice daily,

naratriptan 1 mg twice daily

Treatment of acute MRM/MM:

sumatriptan 50 and 100 mg
mefenamic acid 500 mg
rizatriptan 10 mg

All recommendations, of course, depend on your clinical situation, but if you suffer from menstrual migraines and are not getting adequate relief, be sure to discuss these findings with your doctor.

Warning to Smokers: Labels are Getting Tough

2014-06-15T17:44:00.004+08:00

In case you haven’t heard, cigarettes are bad for you. Really, really bad.

And soon, if you want to buy a pack, you’ll hear the warning loud and clear. You’re going to be staring at the long-term effects of smoking: from images of smoke pouring through a tracheotomy to dead bodies.

An example of the new cigarette warning labels.

These are examples of new, graphic warning labels that will be required on all cigarette packs sold in the U.S. as part of legislation starting in 2012.

Australian legislators took it one step further when they recently passed a law regulating branding on cigarettes in an attempt to drive down smoking rates in their country. Australia already has graphic warning labels on their packs, but the new law would dedicate more than 80 percent of the pack to the labels.

For years, the U.S. Surgeon General has warned American consumers of the dangers of many things, including tobacco and alcohol. These were normally small and hidden far away from the brand name.

Soon, the warning labels will be right in front of every smoker every time they want to light up. The scare tactic might work on some people, but some current smokers might need more than another warning of death.

Still, smoking is in decline in the U.S. Now less than 20 percent of the population smokes—the lowest it’s been since the 1960s.

Warnings to Eaters?

In the U.S., health hasn’t been a priority among many people for very long. Getting adequate healthcare for all of its citizens is actually something for political debate. Most insurance policies cover few preventative measures and often reject needed procedures outright. It got so out of hand, there had to be major—and heatedly debated—legislation to fix a few of the problems.

But when it comes to passing laws, cigarettes are the easy way out if you want to look like you’ve got your agenda set on a healthier nation. It’s easy to warn of the dangers of cigarettes, but few legislators are brave enough to take on the food manufacturers, alcohol distillers, wine makers, or most anything else that could have detrimental health effects.

Tobacco gets a lot of legislative attention, yet junk food rarely gets such graphic warnings. Recently, San Francisco banned the Happy Meal, and federal lawmakers approved funding for better nutrition to schools, but the food industry is given more freedom than the tobacco industry when it comes to promoting their products.

Maybe that’s why there are more fat people in America than there are smokers.

Obesity is a major problem in America, affecting more than a third of the population over the age of 20, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity causes numerous health conditions, including (among others) asthma, heart disease, and depression.

Scaring Away Obesity?

There are nutrition warning labels on all packaged foods, yet they probably affect consumers no more than do the current U.S. Surgeon General’s warnings on cigarettes.

It’s about time we take the graphic warning notion and direct it toward obesity.

There should be someone injecting insulin into themselves on a package of cookies.

There should be someone getting liposuction on a bag of potato chips.

There should be a picture of a man having a heart attack on every bucket of fried chicken.

Energy drinks should show a person convulsing on the floor.

Environmental Factors Key to Autism

2014-06-15T17:43:00.002+08:00

A new study published earlier this week will likely dump buckets of fuel on the fire that rages in the debate over autism. For the past decade, there has been ongoing vitriol spilled over the (potential) relationship between early childhood vaccination and the development of autism. The truth of the matter, however, is that there has been no definitive answer to why some children become autistic and others do not. A recent study may help guide researchers to resolve this open medical mystery.

According to this new study, conducted jointly by UCSF and Stanford, and published Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, environmental factors play a much larger role in causing autism than previously thought—apparently, an even larger role than genetics.

The study, the largest of its kind to date, looked at 192 pairs of twins in California—all of which had at least one autistic sibling; some of which had two. The results, after being wrung through complicated mathematical modeling and analysis, are that genetics account for 38 percent of the risk of autism, and environmental factors are to blame for the remaining 62 percent.

These findings are sure to provide firepower to those who believe that vaccination can cause autism, people like Jenny McCarthy, the former pinup model and self-proclaimed champion of children everywhere, who leads the global anti-vaccine campaign via both personal grandstanding and through her non-profit Generation Rescue. McCarthy and others like her hold the belief that the MMR (Mumps, Measles, and Rubella) vaccine leads to cancer. The MMR vaccine, introduced in 1971, is generally considered standard preventative care for kids. But it is no stranger to controversy.

McCarthy and others who believe autism is caused by the MMR vaccine base their beliefs in a controversial and immensely influential 1998 study performed by Dr. Andrew Wakefield. Dr. Wakefield’s study has been largely discredited, pronounced an “elaborate fraud” by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and retracted in 2010 by The Lancet, the same publication that had originally published the study a decade earlier.

On the other side of the debate are those who have believed autism is a highly inheritable disease—a group comprising the majority of the medical community. Previous studies have suggested that autism is 90 percent genetic, with only a slight environmental factor at play.

This study, however, blew these beliefs wide open.

Here’s why: Of the 192 twin sets, 54 were identical; 138 were fraternal. As a refresher, identical twins are nearly 100 percent genetically identical; fraternal twins share the same genetic makeup only to the extent any siblings do, so in the range of 50 percent.

If autism is, in fact, a primarily genetic disease, scientists would expect that if one identical twin had the disorder, the other twin would too, nearly 100 percent of the time. Among fraternal twins, if one twin was autistic, the other should have a slightly higher-than-normal risk of being autistic as well, but not huge.

However, the study found that autism occurred in both siblings in 77 percent of male identical twins and in 50 percent of female identical twins. Perhaps even more surprising were the rates among fraternal twins: 31 percent of males and 36 percent of females.

When plugged into a mathematical equation taking into account expected rates if autism were to be found entirely genetic- or environmentally-caused, these results suggested that only 38 percent of the autism cases could be attributed to genetic factors.

As for the 62 percent of cases attributable to environmental factors, the authors of the study stressed that it remains very unclear what those factors are. There is no proof that vaccines cause autism, but there are also not that many other ideas floating around the medical community.

Are Eating Disorders Contagious?

2014-06-15T17:42:00.003+08:00

The media barrages us with images on a daily basis. That, we know. Flip on the TV, go online, even stand in line at the grocery checkout and see if you can avoid the not-so-subtle suggestions to lose weight, cut cravings, and, overall, improve your general happiness and quality of life—fast and simple.

Each day, on average, we’re exposed to about 5,000 advertising messages a day. That’s a lot. Considering that the images winking on-screen or sedately stacked at the checkout counter significantly shape our views on beauty and body image, all this exposure has to be making an effect.

But can logging into Facebook be a new culprit in the media medley?

The Discreet Disorder

Bulimia. Anorexia. Binge eating disorder. You may know someone who has struggled with one. Or, possibly have struggled with one yourself. Though eating disorder incidence has risen, the disorders are tricky to diagnose.

Floating in our contemporary subconscious, eating disorders have long been synonymous with obsessions with perfection, “attention-seeking” behavior, and vanity. No longer considered only an upper-middle class Caucasian female concern, eating disorders spare no one, affecting the very young and the very old, from grade-schoolers to seniors, and everyone in between.

Women are more commonly affected by eating disorders, but men battle with them too. The facts, according to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA): nearly 10 million females and one million males struggle with eating disorders in the United States. This doesn’t include the millions more who battle with binge eating disorder.

But it is mainly a silent battle. Many patients remain undiagnosed because they hide the behavior out of shame. Or, simply don’t recognize that they’re not well.

Online Peer Pressure

So what’s the cause? Genes? Societal pressures? Celebrity fixations? Social media? Frustrating as it is, science has yet to unravel the mystery behind eating disorders, although doctors have been able to identify that eating disorders follow a pattern, similar to obsessive compulsive disorder.

Certainly, there has been a shift in what constitutes an ideal body image. Constant media hype helps to perpetuate this obsession: Celebrities get thinner. Fad diets splash onto the scene, replaced faster than our fickle minds can read about them. Ads convince us of our shortcomings, preying on—or perpetuating—the obsession for perfection. In fact, a recent Yoplait yogurt ad was pulled after a request from NEDA to General Mills.

According to Craig Johnson, PhD, chief clinical officer of the Eating Discovery Center (ERC) in Denver, CO, this quest for thinness is “contagious.” Behaviorally, at least.

A recent study from the University of Haifa supports this hypothesis, linking Facebook with eating disorders. Researchers reported that “results showed that the more time girls spend on Facebook, the more they suffered conditions of bulimia, anorexia, physical dissatisfaction, negative physical self-image, negative approach to eating and more of an urge to be on a weight-loss diet.”

The study followed 248 girls between the ages of 12 and 19. Findings showed that girls who spent more time on Facebook displayed more susceptibility for an eating disorder. Not too surprisingly, more exposure to fashion content in general while online led to higher odds of girls developing anorexia.

Parents, researchers determined, played a major role in guiding their teens toward self-empowerment—and, therefore, the wherewithal to withstand the effects of the image-distorting media barrage. More active parents, who involved themselves in what their child was reading on the Web, had more empowered children. Less involved parents tended to have less empowered teens.

Why You Can’t Remember What You Did Last Night

2014-06-15T17:41:00.002+08:00

Illustration of the brain, highlighting the hippocampus.There’s a scene in Cheers where lovable mailman Cliff explains his theory on how drinking makes him smarter. He gives a survival-of-the-fittest scenario that alcohol kills off the slowest brain cells, much like the most sluggish buffalo in the herd is the first to be killed. He argues that killing the slowest brain cells makes his brain faster, in the same way that a herd of buffalo is stronger once the weakest members are culled off.

While this might seem like pretty twisted logic for some, the basic tenet of Cliff’s theory—that alcohol kills brain cells—is pretty much taken for granted. However, new research has found that alcohol—even when used to the point of blackout intoxication—isn’t actually killing brain cells. It’s just preventing your brain from forming new memories.

A new study from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, published recently in The Journal of Neuroscience, explains the biology of how the brain deals with alcohol, namely how the brain reacts when a person is so intoxicated they cannot recall events during the period commonly referred to as “blackout.”

The research sheds some light into the surreal period of intoxicated time where your body can dance all night, have conversations, possibly rock the karaoke stage, and manage to make it to bed in one piece, and yet the next morning, you might not remember any of what happened.

Alcohol does many different things to the brain besides lower inhibitions and makes you yearn for pizza with ranch dressing. This study shows that large amounts of alcohol interfere with key receptors in the hippocampus, the main center for cognitive functioning in the brain. While it does this, alcohol also releases a steroid that that inhibits the way by which the brain strengthens synapses—or the connections between brain cells.

In essence, researchers believe, large amounts of alcohol don’t kill brain cells, but rather signals compounds that inhibit the brain’s ability to form memories. This “may explain why individuals who get highly intoxicated don’t remember what they did the night before,” senior investigator Charles F. Zorumski, MD, the Samuel B. Guze Professor and head of the Department of Psychiatry said in a press release from Washington University.

What researchers are sure about is that alcohol doesn’t kill brain cells in the way that is commonly believed.

More good news is that researchers believe that this study could help scientists better understand how memory actually works—and could even lead to developing new ways to improve or maintain memory and cognitive skills.

Now this research doesn’t suggest that you should go on a two-week bender. Even if you are not losing cognitive ability, the negative effects of alcohol on the body still go far beyond a headache in the morning.

Then again, relaxing with a nice cool cocktail, when done in moderation, can help your health. For some new recipes, check out Healthline’s Healthy Summer Cocktails.

IV Vitamin Therapy: Trend or Treatment?

2014-06-15T17:40:00.004+08:00

Feeling blah? Overworked? Achy? Well, there’s a cocktail for that—offered up in a dose of vitamins and minerals tailored to boost your energy levels and increase a flagging immune system.

And administered via intravenous (IV) therapy—directly into your veins.

This “new” trend is actually a re-designed version of the decades-old Myers Cocktail. Named for Dr. John Myers, the “cocktail” aims to zap fatigue and depression and boost the immune system. Though the ingredients can sometimes be changed to suit individual needs, the basic formula involves, among others:

magnesium
calcium
vitamin B-12
vitamin B-6
vitamin C

As opposed to oral supplement versions, the IV formula is intended to directly enter the bloodstream, bypassing the digestive system and supposedly offering a direct and quick nutrient fix.

There has been a lot of controversy for a long time over the use of vitamins to fight cancer. Proponents claim that injectable vitamins—and vitamin C in particular—offer numerous benefits to cancer patients. While studies are still ongoing and inconclusive, a recent study has shed some light on the possible benefits of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) administered in IV form to cancer patients. The study published in the Journal of Translational Medicine examined the ability of ascorbic acid to ease suffering (by reducing inflammation), comparing that aspect of the therapy to its ability in shrinking or killing tumors.

In fact, too much Vitamin C may increase cancer or interfere with tumor shrinking treatment, because it benefits healthy cells and cancer cells alike, according to a study in Cancer Research. In other words, Vitamin C is so good at making your body work better, that it helps your cancer cells work better as well.

Research is still needed to determine the extent of the benefits injectable vitamin C can provide for cancer patient. But what about other conditions whose treatment plans could use a boost from IV therapy?

According to one study, IV nutrient therapy reduced fibromyalgia symptoms. Participants in the clinical trial received a modified Myers cocktail; after eight weeks on the once-a-week IV dose, they reported increased energy and decreased pain associated with their condition, leading to an improved sense of wellbeing. Though the effects did not reduce the symptoms entirely, participants noted a “60 percent reduction in pain and an 80 percent decrease in fatigue.”

But what about your run-of-the-mill fatigue? Does a long day at the office merit an IV cocktail?

Once offered for patients diagnosed with a specific disease, IV therapy is appearing in more and more alternative and homeopathic doctor's offices. Last year, the trend caught on in Canada, where sufferers of chronic fatigue and related conditions hailed the IV drip, catered to each patient based on his or her blood work. The trend is growing in Los Angeles, too, where resources abound for finding a high-dose fix. (Even Michael Jackson is rumored to have tried IV therapy).

Given the recent FDA ban on injectable vitamin C, is it wishful thinking? Are we treading dangerous territory, looking for instant fixes? Instead of indulging in an orange, we pop a pill. Rather than remembering our vegetables, we opt for the—IV drip?

Or, is IV vitamin therapy more than a fad?

Your Brain on Google

2014-06-15T17:40:00.000+08:00

Look at the top of the page for a second. You’ll see the magical button that has changed the way your brain functions: Search.

This site, and millions like it, gives you the opportunity to enrich you life by simply offering you knowledge, delivered in milliseconds. Art, entertainment, literature, science, philosophy, and boundless other subjects are contained in the nearly 300 million websites that make up the Internet.

Search engines make scouring that information bearable and have made our world so much easier. All you have to do is punch in a few words and pretty soon you’ll find what you were looking for, even if it is as simple as ending the mystery of the lyrics to the song that’s been stuck in your head for two months.

But, that ease in pulling up information is making us all dumber. Well, sort of.

A recently published study in Science highlights the darkest fears of those who have expressed skepticism about what the Internet might be doing to the human intellect. The Internet has changed the way we think.

The advent of access to limitless knowledge now has our minds remembering the knowledge less, and thinking of its source more.

“The results of four studies suggest that when faced with difficult questions, people are primed to think about computers and that when people expect to have future access to information, they have lower rates of recall of the information itself and enhanced recall instead for where to access it,” the authors of the study—Betsy Sparrow, Jenny Liu, and Daniel M. Wegner—wrote.

In essence, the Internet has become our collective brain. It is, after all, the place of nearly unlimited knowledge on subjects that fill every last tiny niche, even if that might be dozens of photos of cats making funny faces.

Now that we’re so used to searching for information on computers, phones, or wherever there’s a wi-fi connection, we use the Internet as a place to share our collective knowledge.

Before the Internet, we had to visit the library, search through books, or at least call that one really smart friend that knows a lot about everything. Finding out information used to take work, so we’d store that information well in order that we wouldn’t have to go through all that effort again. Well, the Internet made that process effortless. It’s no longer about the search, but about figuring out the easiest way to find the answers.

As we’ve been quickly searching for answers for decades, our brains have evolved to our environment—humans have entered the Google era.

The study concludes with this interesting addendum: as soon as we begin thinking of something we need to find, we begin thinking of keywords that will give us the best search results.

For example, if you’re trying to convert kilometers into miles, you might think that the phrase “distance conversion” will give you the best results, leading you to a page with your answers. So you type in “distance conversion” rather than “convert 20 kilometers into miles.”

Then again, as Google learns more about what people are searching for, the more their algorithm starts to mimic human thought. Now, if you punch in, say, “20 kilometers into miles,” Google does the math for you and lets you know it equals 12.4274238 miles. And it does that calculation in 0.19 seconds.

You don’t have to remember that number. You only have to remember where to find it again.

How Your Personality Predicts Your Odds for Obesity

2014-06-15T17:39:00.000+08:00

We know there is an obesity crisis in this country. Statistics fly at us from various sources (here’s another one: about one third of adults in the United States are obese, according to the CDC). Despite the rising rates over the past few decades, the gravity of the situation doesn’t seem to sink in. Adjustments to restaurant menus, encouragement for the public to make health-conscious diet decisions—while good thoughts and definitely taken with the right attitude, these actions have not made a real dent in the problem. The past 20 years show a huge—and on going—increase in U.S. obesity rates.

But it may not be an attitude problem. As it turns out, obesity may owe more to behavioral patterns that lead to poor choices with diet than simply an unwillingness to change. It may in fact be the case that the yo-yo dieting and weight fluctuations all start with how you were hard-wired from birth.
According to a recent study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology by the American Psychological Association, your personality helps predict your risk for obesity, even more so than socioeconomic status. The study examined five major personality traits, termed the five factor model (FFM):

neuroticism (linked with high BMI, obesity)
extraversion
openness to experience
agreeableness
conscientiousness (linked with low BMI, leaner body)

Impulsive, aggressive individuals exhibited more weight gain over the 50-year study; neurotic personality types tended to go through several up and down weight fluctuations.
According to the study authors, “Highly antagonistic individuals, starting in adolescence, gain weight quicker than less antagonistic individuals.” The more impulsive individual, it seems, resists temptations and seeks constant sources of stimulation. Enter: alcohol and food. Unlike the more conscientious type, “hostile individuals tend to continue eating, even after they feel satiated.”
The study highlights that our personalities may play much more of a role in shaping our actions than previously thought. It also sheds light on how we tend to perceive the obesity problem in the U.S.
It is interesting to note how two opposite ends of the eating problem spectrum seem to share the same trajectory: as obesity incidence rises, eating disorders (still shrouded in somewhat taboo territory) remain prevalent. We praise people for losing weight; ostracize them for gaining. Stereotypes may be blatantly wrong, but they definitely still exist. The study points to the flipped viewpoint of obesity in Western society: from symbol of affluence to its current negative connotations—the study citied, among its research, that “overweight and obese individuals earn lower wages, face prejudice and unsatisfactory treatment from health care providers.”
This doesn’t mean encouraging obesity. But, the study does suggest that there is a catch-22 inherent in weight gain: impulsive/depressive personalities tend to gain weight, and may feel more depressed once the extra weight is gained—but the resultant impulsive behavior and depressed feelings leads to more binge-eating and more weight gain.
So, what are the implications of the study? “Identifying the trait profile associated with abnormal weight may help to inform future intervention research.”
Basically, identifying an individual’s personality trait and pairing it with the appropriate course of treatment. For instance, placing an extrovert in support groups, where the gathering of peers may be more helpful, whereas an introvert might not respond as well to a group setting. Or, guiding impulsive individuals with a treatment plan of conscientious menu planning and fixed meal schedules.
By examining the emotional and behavioral patterns of certain personality traits—and the ways in which they can contribute to unhealthy weight gain—the study may lead us one step closer to establishing a healthy relationship with food and weight management.

Can Red Wine Prevent Sunburn?

2014-06-15T17:38:00.001+08:00

Red wine. It’s been associated with preventing heart disease and cancer, reducing inflammation from age-related disease, and extolled for a number of other health benefits. Studies continue to examine the properties of this centuries’ old elixir. Recent explorations into resveratrol (an ingredient found in red wine that has been linked to reducing bad cholesterol) have helped promote red wine’s status as heart-healthy.

Following a recent publication in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry, suddenly headlines are cropping up touting the latest health benefit of red wine: it may prevent sunburn? What can’t it do? Don’t toss your sunscreen just yet. If this all sounds too good to be true…it probably is.

First off, some studies have supported red wine’s heart-healthy benefits. But this doesn’t encourage excessive consumption, and experts don’t condone starting up a new habit of drinking red wine for the sake of “looking out for your heart.” That’s like loading up on butter because you heard substitutes were unsafe. The key is moderation. And drinking high amounts of red wine could cause severe damage (to your liver, your blood pressure, your heart, and on and on).

Yes, it’s true that red wine contains resveratrol, a compound which comes from the skin of grapes. The benefits of resveratrol can also be found in grape juice and grapes themselves, as well as in other foods such as peanuts and blueberries. Here’s the thing: the in vitro study just published, from the University of Barcelona and the Spanish National Council, looked at how our skin can be protected against UV rays with the aid of “plant-derived antioxidants.” A sunburn, or tan, is a toxic reaction from overexposure to the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. This study built off past studies, examining in this case: the grape. The study examined various polyphenolic fractions of the grape (polyphenols are antioxidants that may help protect the heart).

Researchers found that flavanoids in grapes can stop the chemical reaction that causes cells to damage human skin. What researchers hope, based on their findings, is for the development of skin creams and products which will use flavonoids to help protect against UV damage.

As Marta Cascante, lead scientist in the study, explained, "This study supports the idea of using these products to protect the skin from cell damage and death caused by solar radiation, as well as increasing our understanding of the mechanism by which they act.”

Chemicals and Thyroid Disorders: Are they Connected?

2014-06-15T17:37:00.000+08:00

When I was 18, some things happened. I gained weight, experienced insomnia, and my body underwent waves of heat that made me want to peel off my skin. Blaming these on the “freshmen 15” and college stress, newer symptoms (racing heart, eye redness and swelling) prompted me to seek medical attention. Which is how I found myself at an ophthalmologist’s office one day following a referral by my eye doctor.

One look at me, and the specialist said, “You have Grave’s disease.” Another referral, and a new doctor’s office later, and I was told that I had hyperthyroidism, caused by the Grave’s disease. “Barbara Bush has Grave’s disease too,” he said, as if somehow that was supposed to make the situation better.

More than 12 million people in the United States have a thyroid disorder. And most of them don’t know it; symptoms are often associated with other causes.

I didn’t know where my thyroid was. Or what it did. I didn’t understand how I had developed a thyroid disorder. And it took some time to get accustomed to the daily pill that would deliver the hormone to my now-defunct thyroid gland. The thyroid may be small but the gland is mighty; it plays a major role in essential body functions including metabolism and energy regulation. When it goes out of whack, it’s no picnic.

Through the years, my endocrinologist has monitored the little butterfly-shaped gland—or rather the thyroid hormone I take daily. It’s become routine: a glass of water first thing in the morning to wash down the pink pill half the size of a Tic Tac.

A couple of factors are typically attributed to causing thyroid disorders. Either someone, somewhere in the family had one, or it’s stress-related. But mounting articles from studies are looking to other sources—chemicals in common household products—as a major factor. A 2002 study found a connection between exposure to herbicides and insecticides and women’s risk for thyroid disorders. The list of potentially threatening chemicals is extensive. Triclosan is one. The pesticide has been found to interfere with estrogen metabolism in women.

A recent study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives looks at similar possible links—including potential causes that could be traced to a plastic water bottle. Researchers at the University of Michigan conducted a study to examine the connection between household chemicals and thyroid function. The study found an association between BPA (Bisphenol A, a compound commonly used to make plastic water bottles) and disrupted thyroid levels, supporting “previous reports of associations between phthalates, and possibly BPA, and altered thyroid hormones.”

Though further research is needed, the study probes deeper into what numerous groups have been examining in recent years. It puts into question what we’re consuming, from cosmetics to cleaning products, and how those products are packaged—and the consequences for the public’s health. More specifically, does the exposure to everyday chemicals contribute to thyroid problems?

A new set of bills has been proposed in Congress to increase awareness and research of potential endocrine-disrupting chemicals. These bills call for a revamping of the outdated Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approval and regulating process; the EPA’s current standards rely on older, and in some cases outdated, research methods.

There’s one side of the coin: science is now better equipped to detect the numerous cases of thyroid disorders. Then, there’s the flip side: chemicals contribute to increased cases of endocrine disruption.

In my case and many others, there’s no turning back time to undo what’s done. But if research can help determine ways that environmental factors may be putting people’s health at risk, maybe more of an informed public will be spared the thyroid diagnosis.

Be Nice to Your Coworkers. You’ll Live Longer.

2014-06-15T17:36:00.003+08:00

Here’s a sad number: 100,000.

That’s the number of hours you will probably work in the course of your life.

And that’s if you’re like most people and get your first job at 16 and are lucky enough to retire at 65. That’s also assuming you only have one job and work only eight hours a day—all of which is becoming more and more rare. And yes, that number takes into account your weekends and two weeks of vacation time a year.

Since you end up working about a third of your life away—and even more preparing for and getting to work—your workplace clearly is important to your overall health.

New evidence from a study published in Health Psychology shows that people with a poor social support network at work were about 2.5 times more likely to die over a 20-year time.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University found that people who get along with coworkers and though of their officemates as “emotionally supportive” tended to live longer. Of the 820 working adults in the study, the 53 patients that died didn’t die as a result of poor work support; however, it was a common factor among them.

The researchers found that support at work was most important to people ages 38 to 43; those younger and older weren’t as affected. So, basically the cocky young kid and the guy whose been doing the same job for decades need less guidance and support. Well, maybe the young kid thinks he doesn’t need the help.

But the majority of the workforce does need some kind of social and emotional element at work. Work can be stressful, so if there’s someone at the office you can confide in, find reassurance, or even make you laugh, they’re helping you live longer. Make sure to repay the favor.

With all that time dedicated to work, it’s important to keep your sanity. Co-workers can help you do that and you can help them, too.

Here at Healthline, we’re all about being friendly to one another. We’ll take every opportunity to celebrate a co-worker’s marriage, new child, or acceptance to med school. We’ll get together to play paintball on the weekends, go on long bike rides together, or check out a Giant’s game.

So make sure your co-workers are all doing okay. Ask them about their weekend. Ask them out to lunch. Grab a drink after work. Get to know the person sitting next to you.

To be a good friend and co-worker, you don’t have to spend any extra time outside of the office. Helping one another can be as simple as listening to one another’s problems when you’re having a bad day or celebrating little things, like a job well done.

The more you can take care of your co-workers emotional and social wellbeing, the greater chance you have of saving each others’ lives.

That’s heroic.

Happiness: Some Now, More Later

2014-06-15T17:35:00.001+08:00

Everyone wants to be happy. There are some of us who are naturally happy, while there are others who have to regularly work at their happiness.
Contrary to popular opinion, research suggests that our teen years are not when we are happiest. In fact, studies now show that our best years are our golden years—and, unfortunately, we’ll go through a period of lows to get there.
If you think back on them, the teen years can be pretty tumultuous: popularity contests, growth spurts, growing responsibility, first jobs, etc. We’re told the world is at our fingertips, but that can be a lot of pressure to handle when you don’t have the life experience that someone older has.
Some people welcomed the changes that came through the teen years, but some didn’t and began acting out, soon developing into “the bad crowd.” In essence, those bad kids aren’t bad kids—they’re just not as happy as their well-behaving counterparts.

A new study from the University of California, Davis suggests that the happier teens are less likely to commit crimes or use drugs. Even minor depression, researchers found, is enough to increase a kid’s likelihood to act out, whether criminally or through drug use.
The theory behind this connection is that happier kids—who typically have stronger social bonds, positive self-image, and other skills—make their decisions “informed by positive emotions.”
So after that everything’s sugar-coated gold, right? Nope.
Any of us between our teens and senior years know that there are plenty of challenges, pitfalls, and tedious work involved in getting through nearly every day. Sometimes we’re lost in our search for happiness and stress can overpower our daily lives. Kids, careers, friends, and stress can each take their toll. These, and other life challenges, all have their ups and downs, triumphs and spoils, and everything else that’s supposed to pay off, but if we don’t take time to stop and inventory what we’ve done, what we are doing, and what we plan on doing, we’ll miss it.
Usually, it isn’t until later in our lives that we take the time to reflect and recognize what has mattered, what was unimportant, and what we should have let slide.
One study published in Social Science and Medicine in 2006, suggests that happiness over our lives, if charted on a graph, forms a “U” shape: we’re born happy little babies and reach that same happiness before we die. That point in the middle, on average, is a sinking middle point until we climb back up the happiness ladder. A 2010 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A. and a 2010 Stanford University study confirmed the 2006 findings.
Somewhere in the seventh generation of our lives, according to a study from Stanford, the majority of us will find that lasting happiness. For some, that may seem a long ways away, but by that time most people have found what makes them happy and learn to deal with what doesn’t.
Sure, the people in the Stanford aging study had their gripes and moans, but they balanced out the happiness in their lives, providing a level of emotional stability. It’s as if our time on the planet has given us the experience needed to not let the little things bother us.
The good news is that you can get an early start on your happiness without waiting for your 70^th birthday. The key (other than devoting your life to meditation and becoming a Buddhist monk) is managing stress, avoiding it when possible, and coping with it adequately.
Why get angry if the dog chewed on something? That’s what dogs do.
Stuck in traffic? No biggie. That’s plenty of time to think.
Work getting you down? Look for something else.
These all sound simple, but the wisdom that comes with old age probably holds a lot more importance to happiness than we once thought. Whether there is a purpose to life or not, we all want to be happy, healthy, and hopefully wise.

Is Marriage the Answer to a Longer Life? Probably Not.

2014-06-15T13:35:00.000+08:00

If you’re married, it’s time to love your spouse a little more because he or she may be keeping you alive.

Even when things seem difficult, trying, taxing, and mind-blowingly confusing, you really should be thankful for all that your spouse does for you.

If you’re a bit bitter or cynical about marriage, check this out:

A review of 90 studies over the last 60 years by researchers at the University of Louisville found out two startling facts:

Married men typically live 17 years longer than single men.
Married women tend to live 15 years longer than single women.

Sure, being single can, at times, make you feel happier and freer, but the data suggests that it doesn’t equate to a longer life.

Basically, people who never marry are more likely to die at a younger age, for one reason or another. Researchers speculate some causes of longer married lives are the better health benefits, larger income, and more public assistance that married couples tend to receive compared with singles.

The lifelong partnerships also seem to foster an overall healthier lifestyle. Being married means that there’s more social support at home, someone to share stressful responsibilities with, and someone to celebrate achievements with.

As far as mortality is concerned, a study from earlier this year shows that married men are more likely to go to the hospital, especially during a heart attack, than single men. Married people get to the hospital an average of 30 minutes sooner during a cardiac event because typically someone was around to call the ambulance.

Now, I’m nearly 30, but I’m not married, something my mother has come to terms with (for now). I am, however, in a serious relationship with a lovely woman who has brought health into my life in more ways than one.

My girlfriend has me seeing a doctor regularly, taking vitamins and supplements, eating better, and even doing yoga. These are all things I wouldn’t have done myself, but with her coaxing I’ve taken a more active care in my health because she wants me healthy…because she loves me.

I can live with that, and with that kind of treatment, I’ll live a lot longer. But if I were a staunch believer of the study, I’d be dropping to one knee instantly to save both of our lives.

While I’m neither a doctor nor a scientist, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work that way,

The data suggests that if you’re willing to endure the hard parts of a relationship, the benefit could be an extra decade on your life. Then again, a bad marriage could be worse for your health.

I say we should love and take care of those we’re with, whether they are friends, lovers, neighbors, or co-workers because they too can enrich our lives.

No matter who you’re with, remember that you’re going to have bad days. There will be fights. You’ll make mistakes. Someone is going to forget something important. You’ll say the wrong thing. Little things will get blow out of proportion.

But with honesty, love, compassion, understanding, and other important qualities for a solid relationship, you’ll keep those you love healthy, nuptials or not.

Tanning from the Inside Out

2014-06-15T13:34:00.000+08:00

The Scenesse tanning implant.I had a friend who frequented the tanning salon. I watched as her weekly habit gradually darkened her skin to deeper shades of bronze. Only when she started to look conspicuously orange did she stop the sessions. But she was not alone in her quest for the bronzed glow; she’s among the nearly 30 million who choose indoor tanning in the United States each year, supporting the roughly $5 billion industry.

While Vitamin D, which our bodies make from sunlight, is considered a mood booster, there’s no question that overexposure to the sun or to artificial ultraviolet light from tanning beds is harmful. The Skin Cancer Foundation reports that skin cancer is by far the most common cancer in the United States, affecting more people in the past 31 years (and yearly) than all other cancers combined.

The Tanning Implant

Enter a potential solution: tanning from the inside out. Makers of a tiny implant “approximately the size of a grain of rice” have developed a product that stimulates production of melanin in the skin. The manufacturer is Clinuvel. The product is Scenesse. The craze is a wave of attention about the chip’s sun-tanning benefits.

Before going wild about the benefits of sunless sun tanning, a word to the wise: the implant has been developed to help people with skin disorders, and for people at an increased risk for developing skin cancer. According to the Clinuvel site, “To date, Clinuvel has spent over $80 million developing the Scenesse implant drug product as a therapeutic photoprotective drug for patients who are most at risk from UV and sun exposure… It is proposed that Scenesse will provide prophylactic treatment to patients suffering from these disorders by stimulating melanin to act as a photoprotective filtering the impact of UV to the skin.”

Translation: clinical trials are underway to focus on treating patients diagnosed with erythropoietic protoporphyria (EEP) and skin cancers, among other skin disorders. EEP is a rare, inherited disorder; the symptoms (which include pain, and severe swelling and blistering of the skin) are caused by exposure to visible light. The implant works by increasing melanin, thus darkening the skin, and by protecting against UV radiation. The results lead to about a two-month tan, which, if the drug enters the cosmetics industry, could introduce a revolutionary way of achieving a tan.

The Future of Tanning?

In ancient times, the sun was revered and worshipped as a source of life; today, it is increasingly used to bake bodies to a golden brown. When did the quest for coppery sun-kissed limbs become the norm? A brief timeline of the last century documents how advances in science bred obsessions (with a little help from fashion and advertising):

1903: Niels Finsen awarded Nobel Prize for his work involving light therapy to fight infectious diseases.

1920s: Modeling the sunburn she developed after a trip to the French Riviera, designer Coco Chanel unleashes a trend.

1930s-40s: Sunbathing given the OK for children by medical profession.

1950s: Coppertone girl ads introduced.

1970-80s: Popularity of sunlamps and tanning salons rises (bringing the source inside).

1970s: Dramatic increase in melanoma cases from previous decades.

1990s: Scientists learn that that UVA exposure exacerbates cancer-causing effects of UVB.

Today: Despite numerous campaigns to raise awareness about the dangers of tanning (from sun and salons), the obsession for the “bronzed glow” persists; meanwhile, legislation is enacted to restrict indoor tanning in 22 states in the U.S.

Your Eating Speed Helps Determine Your Weight

2014-06-15T13:33:00.001+08:00

I’ve always been a fast eater, but I didn’t find out until college. There I was, sitting in the cafeteria staring at my empty tray of food and all my new friends were just starting in on their food.
I guess those 18-minute lunch periods in high school kind of ruined me because even now, I can only eat at one speed—fast. It’s so bad that my girlfriend suggested that I try to count the number of times I chew my food because she wants me to slow down. I haven’t given that a try yet.
It turns out that me and my fellow fast feeders are in for a let down: the faster you eat, the fatter you can get.

A study recently published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association was the first of its kind to compare the speed at which a person eats to their body-mass index.
Now the study, which focused on middle-aged women, acknowledged that a cause-and-effect relationship wasn’t determined between fast feeding and weight gain, but it did show a direct link between the two. Researchers plan to follow up with the women from the first study to further explore if their eating speed predicts future weight gain.
I, however, think it’s a good reminder for all of us to slow down.
It’s no secret that people want to eat and they often want their food quick and easy. That’s why we have fast food, instant everything, and enough pre-made meal options to stock aisle upon aisle at a supermarket. Too often, we cram our stomachs full of food as quickly as possible to get rid of hunger, not realizing that the same end could be accomplished by much more effective means.
We often eat at our desks. We eat in our cars. We eat in between things and don’t pay much attention to what we’re doing. And it’s detrimental to our health. The American culture is one built on speed. We want everything at 4G speeds, but we need to end that, at least when it comes to dinner.
Besides your waistline, there are many reasons to slow down while eating. For instance, eating is often one of the few times when people have the time to gather, so instead of going silent and inhaling your food, try a conversation and enjoying your mealtime company.
Also, take time to actually enjoy your food. We’ve only had an abundance of food for a short time in our evolution, so pay homage to your hunter-gatherer roots by eating slower and appreciating all the hard work (over millennia and the during last few months, weeks, and hours) that went into your food.
If you have any kind of digestion issues—especially the ritualistic after-meal breaking of the wind—slowing down can help that. The more time you can give your digestive system to properly digest, the fewer problems you’re going to have.
Now we have yet another reminder to slow down, take our time, and enjoy what we have while we have it.

You Are Where You Eat

2014-06-15T13:32:00.004+08:00

Every morning, without fail, I amble bleary-eyed to the kitchen and make a fresh cup of coffee. Even on the days when I don’t really feel like drinking the stuff. Whether I enjoy the cup or not, it has become a deeply-ingrained morning ritual. I seem to take solace in the whole routine: waiting for the water to boil, scooping a couple of hefty doses of coffee beans out of the bag, the churning of the grinder.

Researchers at USC came up with a clever way of determining just how rooted our habits can be. Participants were recruited to attend the movies, where the study involved two choices of popcorn: fresh or week-old. The researchers wanted to gauge if popcorn-lovers would still eat popcorn if it was less than fresh.

Beforehand, participants were questioned on exactly how much they liked popcorn (two options: love it, or take-it-or-leave-it). Results showed that the popcorn buffs ate their popcorn—even if their sample was stale. (As for those take-it-or-leave-it volunteers, they barely touched the stuff). Part two of the experiment moved participants to a meeting room. Removed from the movie theater setting, even the popcorn devotees didn’t seem as enchanted by the traditional theater snack. Fresh or stale, no one craved popcorn this time around.

And further building on these studies, a third study required participants to eat popcorn with their non-dominant hand (for me, that would be my left). Eating with the hand that typically does little of the work conquered the habit, since participants had to focus more on what they were doing.

The USC study, published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, showed that the popcorn eating wasn’t taking place because of the taste. Eating was much more about the environment.

The study offers insight into figuring out methods of breaking bad habits. Whether it’s plopping down on the sofa after work and initiating a ritual of mindless munching or sitting at the movies and eating stale popcorn, our eating behaviors may be deeply ingrained and hard to break. But there are ways to take small steps to change your environment, which may shake up the old patterns.

A common refrain among exercise-avoiders is that they don’t have the time. But there are ways to incorporate good habits into your daily routine no matter how busy you are. I used to sing that tune, too, until I changed my environment. I moved to a city where I wouldn’t have to depend on a car and had no choice but to walk on a daily basis. Not everyone should be expected to uproot their life to squeeze in exercise—but if there are windows of opportunity throughout the day to take a walk, why not seize them?

And if you can’t change your environment, try taking these tips into consideration:

Plan ahead: pack healthy foods.
Don’t skip meals. This will almost certainly invite overeating later.
Make a snack schedule, and be prepared with healthy snacks.
Enjoy your food: take pleasure in what’s on your plate.

As for me, I probably won’t be tossing the French Press any time soon. But, before I start grinding the coffee beans, I might want to ask if there are other ways to seek solace from my morning routine.

Health Too Costly? Try Meditation

2014-06-15T13:32:00.000+08:00

The daily stresses of our lives often cause us to self-medicate with substances that aren’t good for our body—alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, television, junk food, etc.
We use them to escape, when that’s the last thing we should be doing. Getting away from it all doesn’t mean taking a vacation in the local bar everyday after work.
Meditation, while not an escape, can, on the other hand, improve our lives, especially those with recurrent health problems.
A recent study published in the American Journal of Health Promotion shows that people who regularly pay high sums of money for their healthcare could reduce their spending through meditation.

Just as a tiny fraction of wealthy people in America hold more money than the rest of the population combined, there are an upper 10 percent of people who account for 60 to 70 percent of healthcare spending annually, according to psychcentral.com
The study looked at this 10 percent, and compared those who meditated with those who did not. The result? Those who meditated spent less on healthcare. That doesn’t mean that meditation drops the cost of healthcare—believing that would be like believing that praying can help you to win the lottery. What the study does show, in my layman view, is that meditation improved their health.
Meditation is one of many mind-body techniques used to combat an array of chronic conditions, such as depression, anxiety, and pain.
Dr. Mason Turner, Chief of Psychiatry, Kaiser Permanente San Francisco, told helpfordepression.com that meditation can calm a person’s mind so he or she can think through problems clearly.
In the excellent, easy-to-use (and FREE!) book Mindfulness in Plain English, the Ven. Henepola Gunaratana explains that the point of meditation is to learn to pay attention and to break free of the illusion that we are aware of what is going on around us.
“Through the process of mindfulness, we slowly become aware of what we really are down below the ego image. We wake up to what life really is,” the book states. “It is not just a parade of ups and downs, lollipops and smacks on the wrist. That is an illusion. Life has a much deeper texture than that if we bother to look, and if we look in the right way.”
Meditation is not some super-spiritual, psychic mind game meant for only holy men. You don’t have to go on a retreat, shave your head, or wear a robe. Meditation is the retreat, but instead of retreating away from your problems, you learn to jump directly into them and accept the realities of life to help better understand and accept them.
Meditation is a simple and free way to combat many health problems, whether they be psychological or physical, that can benefit many people and can reduce your spending on healthcare.
If you don’t want to do it for yourself, try doing it for your wallet.

In Pain? Laugh About It

2014-06-15T13:31:00.000+08:00

Have a good laugh.

If you’re having a bad day, have a really good long laugh. If you’re in pain, have an even longer one.

Laughter releases endorphins, these awesome chemicals in our brains that give us that warm and tingly feeling in our bodies.

That feeling can also reduce the amount of physical pain we experience, according to a recent study from the University of Oxford. Researchers tested people’s pain tolerance before and after watching some funny videos and found that those who laughed the most could withstand more pain than those who laughed least.

While the study is new, the practice is not. According to the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, surgeons used laughter as an anesthetic from pain as early as the 13^th century.

Other research has shown that laughter not only reduces pain, but it can reduce stress, boost the immune system, increase oxygen intake, relax muscles, ease digestion problems, and improve your brain health. All of those things are pretty important. In essence, laughter keeps you healthy.

But if you find yourself plagued by problems, laughter may seem hard to come by. Things may not seem as funny if you’re in pain, but that’s when you need it the most.

Laughing about your problems is the easiest way to disarm them. If you can make fun of something, it’s less of a problem. Money and love are two of the most common sources of problems for us all. Each one of us deals with some sort of turmoil about the two on a regular basis. That’s why it’s so important to laugh about them.

Some of the greatest comedians have used societies woes to get a laugh. Greats like George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and now Louis C.K. have taken the difficult parts of their own lives and made jokes about them. It’s therapeutic for them—and for us. You don’t have to get on stage to get a laugh, but you can take your troubles and use them as fodder for an inside joke.

The humor—no matter how juvenile—could be the key to feeling better quickly. If you can learn to laugh at yourself and your mistakes, you’ll be a never-ending supply of good health for yourself.

The beautiful part is that the more you laugh, the more infectious your laughter will be for others. Not only will you make yourself feel better, but you’ll be freely dispensing better health to all of those around you.

Before you know it, you’ll go from a patient to a doctor. How cool is that?

Your Healthcare

2014-06-15T13:27:00.000+08:00

Since the financial “downturn” (a very polite term to use for something that has affected so many people) the barter system has taken a stronger hold on how Americans do business.

Pockets of barterers across the country are pooling their collective talents together to exchange things instead of relying on the dwindling dollar. Even Donald Trump is getting in on the game—Mr. Trump recently accepted gold bullion as payment for rent in one of his NY skyscrapers.

While most of us don’t have gold bricks or property on Wall Street, there are basic—and costly—services we all need: healthcare. And even if we can’t afford to pay for our healthcare in cash, we may have something else that a healthcare provider wants.

Groups in Arizona and Maine have already begun to use a network where people can exchange goods and services for visits to doctors.

Monday, NPR featured a story about True North, a nonprofit healthcare clinic where 33 patients pay their doctor bills by doing yard work and other chores. The goal is to provide better care (with doctor’s visits that can last up to an hour) for people without insurance or not enough insurance.

While this program probably could not be sustained everywhere (doctors do need money after all, especially young ones who are buried in debts from school) patients with True North are able to get the services they personally need through a network called Hour Exchange Portland.

A similar program has also sprung up in Arizona.

The truth is, this is an actual old way of thinking. Bartering for healthcare is nothing new to this country. Natives that populated America long before Europeans took over their lands had their medicine men, doctors who were given food and shelter by the tribe in exchange for medical care.

The barter system could offer an important step for numerous people, especially those who see cost as a major inhibitor to see a doctor when symptoms of a chronic condition do not pass. This could also get people to see their doctors more regularly for check-ups.

Caffeine in Coffee Linked to Lower Depression in Women

2014-06-15T13:26:00.000+08:00

Making its reappearance in the constant flux of studies on caffeine: the cup of joe. According to a recent study, the caffeine found in coffee has been linked to lower depression in women.

As the study authors report, “Caffeine is the world's most widely used central nervous system stimulant, with approximately 80 percent consumed in the form of coffee.”

According to coffee legend, an Arabian shepherd, Kaldi, found his goats dancing around a green shrub with bright red berries. Noticing the energizing effect the berries had on his goats, Kaldi decided to test some for himself. Thoroughly alert and stimulated, Kaldi introduced the berries to local monks. Their take: instead of chewing the berries, as Kaldi did, they crushed the beans and boiled them in water. They promoted their powerful stimulant, which kept them awake during long hours of prayer, and distributed it to other monasteries. Coffee’s popularity soon grew around the world. Another legend tells of an Indian smuggler who brought coffee into India with the first seeds strapped to his chest. Today, we have a variety of dizzying choices, frothed, whipped, iced, and on and on.

The authors of the latest study, published in The Archives of Internal Medicine, were looking for insights into the relationship between caffeine and chronic depression incidence in women—which affects twice as many women as men. The study involved approximately 51,000 women, none of whom were depressed at the start of the study. The authors drew data from completed questionnaires beginning from May 1980 through April 2004.

The findings: During the decade-long follow-up from 1996-2006, doctors reported 2, 607 new cases of depression among participants. However, when compared with women who consumed one cup of caffeinated coffee or less per week, those who drank two to three cups per day had about a 15 percent decrease in relative risk for depression. Women who consumed four cups or more per day had a 20 percent decrease in relative risk. As the study pointed out, there was no association between intake of decaf coffee and depression risk.

Nevertheless, the more burning question remains: why does caffeinated coffee have this effect on staving off depression? Well, as yet, we lack the long-term knowledge needed to answer this question. While scientists seem to have begun to develop a better understanding of the short-term effects of caffeine on the brain, the authors of this study admitted to needing further research in the long-term understanding of caffeinated coffee and depression prevention.

Most likely, it’s probably wise to stick to the one or two cups a day you routinely drink. And if you don’t have a caffeine habit, then maintaining your caffeine-free life probably beats packing in six cups of coffee every day, or looking for it in alternative sources. (What didn’t count in this study: decaf, chocolate, tea, and soft drinks.)

While the findings of this latest study look promising, there are so many other factors to consider in terms of caffeinated coffee and health.

Dr. Seth A. Berkowitz, in his editor’s note to the study, commended the work as “an important contribution because it is, to my knowledge, the first large-scale study of coffee consumption to evaluate a mental health outcome in women.” Of course, the tricky gray area is that the study examined women who drank about four to six cups of coffee per day. What it didn’t examine was the effects of upping that daily intake to, say, eight cups a day. Could consuming that higher dose of caffeine be equally as helpful, or the tipping point?

Why the Socially Awkward Make for Good Dates

2014-06-15T13:25:00.002+08:00

If you’re blushing right now, you’re probably a really awesome person.
A recent study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology offered evidence that people who get red in the cheeks easily are more likely to be trustworthy and generous. The researchers from the University of California, Berkeley found that the more embarrassed a person is, the stronger his or her “prosociality,” or the level of caring about others’ welfare.
Embarrassment is an internalized emotion where we feel like we’ve somehow violated social norms, such as saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. It’s a normal emotional response, and doesn’t include serious conditions like generalized anxiety disorder and other panic disorders where the fear of embarrassment or failure can be debilitating.

Part of the experiments performed by the Berkeley researchers dealt with an actor who either pretended to be proud or embarrassed when learning of a perfect score on the test. The researchers found that participants were more prosocial about the actor if he acted embarrassed.
"Our data suggests embarrassment is a good thing, not something you should fight," researcher Matthew Feinberg said in a press release.
The humility a person has, which leads to his or her embarrassment, hints at his or her trustworthiness.
One of the most useful ways to use this information is to help you better understand and choose someone to spend a whole lot of time with.
That’s why the study was called “Flustered and Faithful.” Then again, just because someone isn’t blushing at every little thing doesn’t mean they aren’t faithful or trustworthy.
Depending how you read into it, a person who is rarely embarrassed could have plenty of experience in those situations and have already worked through their embarrassment. Or, they could subconsciously have a sense of entitlement that everything they do is awesome. Or, maybe it’s somewhere in the middle.
Either way, if you’re searching for someone to date, the really calm, cool, and collected people may not be the best long-term companions. No one is saying they’re bad people, but they might not be the easiest people to trust.
That shy person, the one who might blush when you look at them or stutter when they can’t find the right word, well, they might just be more understanding, caring, compassionate, giving, and trustworthy.
If those aren’t the qualities you’re looking for in a significant other, please don’t reproduce.
Well, now this is awkward.

Does Being Spiritual Make You Healthy?

2014-06-15T13:24:00.003+08:00

Can being spiritual protect you from depression?

According to a recent follow-up study, published in Journal Watch Psychiatry, researchers found that spiritual engagement may play a major role in lowering or limiting depression recurrence.

Turns out, it’s not what you do, but the simple fact—or act—of doing it. And you don’t necessarily have to seek spiritual solace inside a church or religious institution. Whether it be gardening, private meditation, or a long solo walk in the park, a personal act of spirituality can awaken a healthier you, and possibly help defeat depression.

The original study had examined white Protestant and Catholic women who were considered high-risk for depression. According to that study, “[women] who rated their religious or spiritual beliefs as having high personal importance had one tenth of the risk of other participants for recurrence or new incidence of major depression over 10 years.”

Next, in the 10-year follow-up, researchers looked at adults (again, Catholic or Protestant), who were offspring of the original study. Among the approximately 100 participants, the mean age at the start was 29 years old. Of the total group, 61 percent were female. Participants provided their MDEs (major depression episodes) of which 49 percent were high-risk and 24 percent were considered low-risk.

After making adjustments (for age and sex), the researchers found that participants who reported a high importance of religion/spirituality at the study’s start had a lower risk for an MDE during follow-up than those who did not.

Researchers noted that “denomination and frequency of religious attendance were not significant predictors of risk.” What really seemed to make a significant impact on reduced odds of depression recurrence was having a higher spiritual connection at the start of the study.

In an earlier 2008 study (published in Psychological Medicine) led by Joanna Maselko, Sc.D., researchers examined this very relationship. The 2008 study looked at approximately 900 participants, based on three factors:

religious service attendance
religious well-being
existential well-being

In this case, the surprise to researchers was that “the group with higher levels of religious well-being were 1.5 times more likely to have had depression than those with lower levels of religious well-being.” This led researchers to speculate: do people with depression, then, tend to use religion as a coping method?

But get this: of the people who attended religious services, 30 percent were likely to have had depression. And the people with a high amount of spiritual well-being—those who didn’t necessarily regularly attend services but found spiritual well-being in other ways—were 70 percent less likely to have had depression. So, while there may certainly be advantages to attending services (part of which includes the community support and connection with others), the Maselko study suggests the greatest mental health benefits may come from being spiritually grounded, or having a high “existential well-being.” Spiritual involvement is not about what you choose as your religion or where you find it, but that you find it.

Share the Love!

2014-06-15T13:24:00.000+08:00

Every week there’s a new study that says something we already know. This week’s edition is a study that says that most people believe that friends and family play an important role when it comes to personal health and nutrition.
In essence, it says friends and family influence our lives. I’m pretty sure most people will admit to something like that.
It’s like those moments where you get in trouble and your mom tells you to stop hanging out with “the wrong crowd.” Everyone’s mom knows what this study proves—you’re highly influenced by your friends.

What would normally be another “duh” study, researchers involved in the Edelman Health Barometer 2011 global survey (which included 15,000 people in 12 countries) found that often times those friends and family members have just as strong of a role in your health as do medical professionals.
Yes, your best friend might not have a medical degree, but you’re just as likely to imitate their health-related behavior as you are take your doctor’s advice.
That’s a good thing if your friends are all into organic groceries, yoga in the park, and meditative exercises. You all can have the same good laughs when you’re 100 as you do now. But, if they’re into late nights with tumblers of whiskey, cigarettes, and 12-ounce curls for exercise, it’s likely that you’ll follow their behavior and put your jeopardy in health.
The most interesting fact to come out of the study is how those who have a healthier lifestyle don’t pass that health knowledge onto others who could use that information. To boil it down, the healthy don’t connect with those that aren’t.
This isn’t to say that the healthy people are hoarding the information (look around our site—we’ve got tons to share), but rather they can’t easily pass on the healthier traits to those around them.
Whoa.
That’s not cool.
Let’s face hard facts: being healthy takes hard work at first. Weaning anyone off of fast food, lazy habits, and numerous vices isn’t something you can do overnight. Taking the healthy way through life takes discipline that’s not everyone’s forte. Plus, trying to get someone else to change their habits when they aren’t ready can be exhausting.
Then again, even small changes such as regular exercise, good diet, enough sleep, and a few glasses of water a day can make you feel better than you probably do now. You can have more energy, less stress and an overall sunnier disposition than a Big Mac, fries, and Coke could ever provide you.
What the facts of the study suggest is that healthy people aren’t trying to get their loved ones to be healthy with them—they’re only gravitating to like-minded people. Basically, if you’re a health nut, you gravitate to other health nuts.
Trust me, I know this. The second I tell someone I write for a health website, all of the health nuts come right out of the woodwork.
But that’s kind of how human beings work. People naturally gravitate to those like themselves. Rarely will you find people with different cultural, academic, religious, or other backgrounds mingling freely together. Healthy lifestyle is yet another thing that can separate us into homogenous groups.
Still, 44 percent of people in the study said they didn’t let health status or behavior affect who they called a friend. That’s nice, too.
Growing up in Wisconsin, my eating habits were not particularly splendid. The Dairy State lives up to its name; gooey mounds of cheese can turn the most boring leftovers into a casserole.
Then, after moving away, acquiring some serious sports injuries, and reading up on small changes I could make to my health, I began cooking healthier food with lower fat and putting actual green things on my plate. Basically, I learned to take the foods I loved and make them healthier, like a whole-wheat crust pizza with a spinach-pesto sauce.