• A Sense of Humor Helps Keep You Healthy Until Retirement Age
• Tidy House, Fitter Body?
• Spending Time in Nature Makes People Feel More Alive
• Meditation Reduces the Emotional Impact of Pain
• If You Don’t Brush Your Teeth Twice a Day, You’re More Likely to Develop Heart Disease
• Antibiotic Resistance Lasts Up to a Year
• Coffee Consumption Unrelated to Alertness: Stimulating Effects May Be Illusion
• Studies Provide More Support for Health Benefits of Coffee
• New Evidence That Chili Pepper Ingredient Fights Fat
• Peppers May Increase Energy Expenditure in People Trying to Lose Weight
• Milk: Two Glasses a Day Tones Muscles, Keeps the Fat Away in Women
• Cereal And Milk Is The New Sports Supplement

A Sense of Humor Helps Keep You Healthy Until Retirement Age: A good sense of humor helps you reach retirement age and be healthy. But after the age of 70, the health benefits of humor decrease, according to researchers in Norway. The records of 53,500 people were examined and then followed up after 7 years. “There is reason to believe that sense of humor continues to have a positive effect on mental health and social life, even after people have become retirees, although the positive effect on life expectancy could not be shown after the age of 75. At that point, genetics and biological aging are of greater importance.” The test only measured for “friendly humor”, not insulting, bullying or humor based on conflict.
The lead scientist of this study believes there are many myths and misunderstandings about humor. For example, one myth is that happy people have a better sense of humor than people who are more serious. …A sense of humor can be learned and improved through practice. There was another study 4 years ago that also came to the same conclusion, so this larger study confirms the findings from the first.

Tidy House, Fitter Body? This is an interesting study that shows a correlation between physical activity and the condition of participants’ houses. Unfortunately it’s really more of a preliminary study. They don’t know the relationship, just that there seems to be a correlation. The study was trying to figure out ways to get people to be more physically active. The lead researcher said efforts to increase physical activity rates in city-dwellers might need to be taken inside. Much attention has been given to improving sidewalks and other aspects of the built environment outside, which is worthwhile, but if people already are not active in their homes, researchers should look at ways to increase this. “If you spend your day dusting, cleaning, doing laundry, you’re active,” she said. “This will inform interventions. They won’t take 30 minutes to go for a walk, but they’ll take 30 minutes to clean.” The findings were unexpected and raise more questions. They suggest that something about the condition of someone’s residence drives physical activity, or that people are being physically active while they keep their homes tidy. “Are the types of people who take care of their bodies the same types of people who take care of their homes?” she asked.

At any rate it’s an interesting way to look at housework!

Spending Time in Nature Makes People Feel More Alive: Of course I had to share this study since it seems similar to the other studies I have mentioned recently (here and here). Being outside in nature makes people feel more alive, finds a series of studies published this month. And that sense of increased vitality exists above and beyond the energizing effects of physical activity and social interaction that are often associated with our forays into the natural world. “Often when we feel depleted we reach for a cup of coffee, but research suggests a better way to get energized is to connect with nature.” “Research has shown that people with a greater sense of vitality don’t just have more energy for things they want to do, they are also more resilient to physical illnesses. One of the pathways to health may be to spend more time in natural settings.” Research has shown that people on wilderness excursions report feeling more alive and that just recalling outdoor experiences increases feelings of happiness and health. Other studies suggest that the very presence of nature helps to ward off feelings of exhaustion and that 90 percent of people report increased energy when placed in outdoor activities.
The research found that being outside in nature for just 20 minutes in a day was enough to significantly boost vitality levels. Interestingly, in the last study, the presence of nature had an independent energizing effect above that of being outdoors. In other words, conclude the authors, being outdoors was vitalizing in large part because of the presence of nature.The paper builds on earlier research … showing that people are more caring and generous when exposed to nature.

Meditation Reduces the Emotional Impact of Pain: People who meditate regularly find pain less unpleasant because their brains anticipate the pain less, a new study has found. “The results of the study confirm how we suspected meditation might affect the brain. Meditation trains the brain to be more present-focused and therefore to spend less time anticipating future negative events. This may be why meditation is effective at reducing the recurrence of depression, which makes chronic pain considerably worse.” “Although we found that meditators anticipate pain less and find pain less unpleasant, it’s not clear precisely how meditation changes brain function over time to produce these effects.”
Individuals in the study had a diverse range of experience with meditation, spanning anything from months to decades. It was only the more advanced meditators whose anticipation and experience of pain differed from non-meditators. The type of meditation practised also varied across individuals, but all included ‘mindfulness meditation’ practices, such as those that form the basis of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), recommended for recurrent depression by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in 2004.
“One might argue that if a therapy works, then why should we care how it works? But it may be surprising to learn that the mechanisms of action of many current therapies are largely unknown, a fact that hinders the development of new treatments. Understanding how meditation works would help improve this method of treatment and help in the development of new therapies.
“There may also be some types of patient with chronic pain who benefit more from meditation-based therapies than others. If we can find out the mechanism of action of meditation for reducing pain, we may be able to screen patients in the future for deficiencies in that mechanism, allowing us to target the treatment to those people.

If You Don’t Brush Your Teeth Twice a Day, You’re More Likely to Develop Heart Disease: Individuals who have poor oral hygiene have an increased risk of heart disease compared to those who brush their teeth twice a day, according to a new study. In the last twenty years there has been increased interest in links between heart problems and gum disease. While it has been established that inflammation in the body (including mouth and gums) plays an important role in the build up of clogged arteries, this is the first study to investigate whether the number of times individuals brush their teeth has any bearing on the risk of developing heart disease. Data from over 11,000 adults was analyzed for this study.
The research team analyzed data about lifestyle behaviors such as smoking, physical activity and oral health routines. Individuals were asked how often they visited the dentist (at least once every six months, every one to two years, or rarely/never) and how often they brushed their teeth (twice a day, once a day or less than once a day). Once the data were adjusted for established cardio risk factors such as social class, obesity, smoking and family history of heart disease, the researchers found that participants who reported less frequent toothbrushing had a 70% extra risk of heart disease compared to individuals who brushed their teeth twice a day, although the overall risk remained quite low. Participants who had poor oral hygiene also tested positive for inflammatory markers such as the C-reactive protein and fibrinogen.
“Our results confirmed and further strengthened the suggested association between oral hygiene and the risk of cardiovascular disease — furthermore inflammatory markers were significantly associated with a very simple measure of poor oral health behavior.” He adds that “future experimental studies will be needed to confirm whether the observed association between oral health behavior and cardio vascular disease is in fact causal or merely a risk marker.”

I’m not sure what it means, “although the overall risk remained quite low”, but it never hurts to have another reason to practice good oral hygiene.

Antibiotic Resistance Lasts Up to a Year: Patients prescribed antibiotics in primary care may develop a resistance that lasts up to 12 months.It is widely recognized that resistance to antibiotics is a major threat to public health. However, according to the researchers, this is not seen by most clinicians or patients as a reason to refrain from using them, with many regarding the problem as minimal. They found strong evidence that individuals prescribed an antibiotic in primary care for a respiratory or urinary infection develop a resistance. The effect is greatest in the month immediately after treatment, but may last for up to a year, and this residual effect may be a driver for high levels of resistance in the community. … They say it highlights that the only way to avoid the “vicious cycle of resistance” is to avoid the initial use of antibiotics wherever possible. However, they also call for more clinical trials to strengthen the evidence base.

Coffee Consumption Unrelated to Alertness: Stimulating Effects May Be Illusion: Tests on 379 individuals who abstained from caffeine for 16 hours before being given either caffeine or a placebo and then tested for a range of responses showed little variance in levels of alertness. The study reports that frequent coffee drinkers develop a tolerance to both the anxiety-producing effects and the stimulatory effects of caffeine. While frequent consumers may feel alerted by coffee, evidence suggests that this is actually merely the reversal of the fatiguing effects of acute caffeine withdrawal. And given the increased propensity to anxiety and raised blood pressure induced by caffeine consumption, there is no net benefit to be gained. “Our study shows that we don’t gain an advantage from consuming caffeine — although we feel alerted by it, this is caffeine just bringing us back to normal. On the other hand, while caffeine can increase anxiety, tolerance means that for most caffeine consumers this effect is negligible.”

Studies Provide More Support for Health Benefits of Coffee: Coffee contains several nutrients (eg, calcium) as well as hundreds of potentially biologically active compounds (eg, polyphenols) that may promote health. For instance, observational studies have suggested a beneficial link between coffee consumption and type 2 diabetes. …Rigorous clinical intervention trials will be needed to understand more fully the biological mechanisms. Of particular interest is the well-controlled clinical trial that suggests coffee can lower chronic inflammation and even raise our ‘good’ cholesterol.

New Evidence That Chili Pepper Ingredient Fights Fat: Scientists are reporting new evidence that capsaicin, the stuff that gives chili peppers their kick, may cause weight loss and fight fat buildup by triggering certain beneficial protein changes in the body. Laboratory studies have hinted that capsaicin may help fight obesity by decreasing calorie intake, shrinking fat tissue, and lowering fat levels in the blood. Nobody, however, knows exactly how capsaicin might trigger such beneficial effects. In an effort to find out, the scientists fed high-fat diets with or without capsaicin to lab rats used to study obesity. The capsaicin-treated rats lost 8 percent of their body weight and showed changes in levels of at least 20 key proteins found in fat. The altered proteins work to break down fats. “These changes provide valuable new molecular insights into the mechanism of the antiobesity effects of capsaicin,” the scientists say.

Peppers May Increase Energy Expenditure in People Trying to Lose Weight: Food scientists can tell you that hot peppers contain a substance called capsaicin that not only adds spice to our foods but can actually cause your body to heat up. They hypothesize that plants evolved to contain capsaicin because it protected them from being eaten by insects and other pesky predators. There is growing evidence that the body-heat-generating power of peppers might even lend a hand in our quest to lose those extra inches accumulating around our collective national waistline. And fortunately for those of us who don’t appreciate the “burn” of hot peppers, there are plants that make a non-burning version of capsaicin called dihydrocapsiate (DCT) that could have the benefits of peppers without the pungency.
…Their data provided convincing evidence that, at least for several hours after the test meal was consumed, energy expenditure was significantly increased in the group consuming the highest amount of DCT. In fact, it was almost double that of the placebo group. This suggests that eating this pepper-derived substance that doesn’t burn can have the same potential benefit as hot peppers at least in part by increasing food-induced heat production. They were also able to show that DCT significantly increased fat oxidation, pushing the body to use more fat as fuel. This may help people lose weight when they consume a low-calorie diet by increasing metabolism.
Note, however, that a limitation to this study was that the researchers only tested the effect of DCT on the thermic response to a single meal. This was the first study ever conducted to examine the potential health benefits of DCT consumed together with a very low calorie diet.

Milk: Two Glasses a Day Tones Muscles, Keeps the Fat Away in Women: Women who drink two large glasses of milk a day after their weight-lifting routine gained more muscle and lost more fat compared to women who drank sugar-based energy drinks. “Resistance training is not a typical choice of exercise for women, but the health benefits of resistance training are enormous: It boosts strength, bone, muscular and metabolic health in a way that other types of exercise cannot.” A previous study conducted by Phillips’ lab showed that milk increased muscle mass and fat loss in men. “We expected the gains in muscle mass to be greater, but the size of the fat loss surprised us. We’re still not sure what causes this but we’re investigating that now. It could be the combination of calcium, high-quality protein, and vitamin D may be the key, and. conveniently, all of these nutrients are in milk.” …”The women who drank milk gained barely any weight because what they gained in lean muscle they balanced out with a loss in fat. Our data show that simple things like regular weightlifting exercise and milk consumption work to substantially improve women’s body composition and health.” Phillips’ lab is now following this study up with a large clinical weight loss trial in women.

Cereal And Milk Is The New Sports Supplement: A bowl of whole-grain cereal is as good as a sports drink for recovery after exercise. “Our goal was to compare whole grain cereal plus milk—which are ordinary foods—and sports drinks, after moderate exercise. We wanted to understand their relative effects on glycogen repletion and muscle protein synthesis for the average individual. We found that glycogen repletion, or the replenishment of immediate muscle fuel, was just as good after whole grain cereal consumption and that some aspects of protein synthesis were actually better. Cereal and non-fat milk are a less expensive option than sports drinks. The milk provides a source of easily digestible and high quality protein, which can promote protein synthesis and training adaptations, making this an attractive recovery option for those who refuel at home”. The researchers concluded that, for amateur athletes and moderately physically active individuals who are trying to keep in shape, popping into the kitchen for a quick bowl of whole-grain cereal with a splash of skimmed milk may be a smarter move than investing in a high-priced sports drink.

Caffeine poster

Cross-posted from ZeNeece’s World

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Traditional Aerobic Fitness Training Trumps Pedometer-Based Walking Programs for Health Benefits: What to do: walk around the block or work up a sweat in an aerobic workout at the gym? If you’re looking for the best health benefits from an exercise program, a traditional aerobic fitness program that gets your heart pumping beats a walking program hands down. But if you want to get moving, a walking program is easier to do, it’s good for you, and you’re more likely to stick with it.

Wild Birds Opt for Conventional Food Over Organic: The nutritional benefits of organic food have been called into question by new research which shows wild garden birds prefer conventional seed to that which has been organically- grown. “Protein is an essential nutrient in the diet of all birds and mammals and getting enough of it — especially in winter — can be hard. “We showed that when given free choice, wild birds opt for the conventional food over the organic, and the most likely explanation is its higher protein content. “This study is only looking at one aspect of the organic food debate — it does not take into account the long-term health implications of using chemical fertilisers and pesticides, or the often negative environmental impact of conventional farming; for example, other work has shown that pesticides can strongly reduce availability of seeds for birds. “But it does raise questions about the nutritional benefits of organic food and what consumers are being led to believe.”

Daily Ginger Consumption Eases Muscle Pain by 25 Percent: While ginger had been shown to exert anti-inflammatory effects in rodents, its effect on experimentally-induced human muscle pain was largely unexplored. Two studies examined the effects of 11 days of raw and heat-treated ginger supplementation on muscle pain. Participants in the studies, 34 and 40 volunteers, respectively, consumed capsules containing two grams of either raw or heat-treated ginger or a placebo for 11 consecutive days. On the eighth day they performed 18 extensions of the elbow flexors with a heavy weight to induce moderate muscle injury to the arm. Arm function, inflammation, pain and a biochemical involved in pain were assessed prior to and for three days after exercise. The studies showed that daily ginger supplementation reduced the exercise-induced pain by 25 percent, and the effect was not enhanced by heat-treating the ginger.

Here are 2 studies that go together. First a study from 2007, then one from the other day:

Getting Dirty May Lift Your Mood: Bacteria found in the soil activated a group of neurons that produce the brain chemical serotonin. Treatment of mice with a ‘friendly’ bacteria, normally found in the soil, altered their behavior in a way similar to that produced by antidepressant drugs. These findings aid the understanding of why an imbalance in the immune system leaves some individuals vulnerable to mood disorders like depression. “These studies help us understand how the body communicates with the brain and why a healthy immune system is important for maintaining mental health. They also leave us wondering if we shouldn’t all be spending more time playing in the dirt.”
Interest in the project arose after human cancer patients being treated with the bacteria Mycobacterium vaccae unexpectedly reported increases in their quality of life.

Can Bacteria Make You Smarter? Exposure to specific bacteria in the environment, already believed to have antidepressant qualities, could increase learning behavior. “Mycobacterium vaccae is a natural soil bacterium which people likely ingest or breath in when they spend time in nature.” Previous research studies on M. vaccae showed that heat-killed bacteria injected into mice stimulated growth of some neurons in the brain that resulted in increased levels of serotonin and decreased anxiety. “Since serotonin plays a role in learning we wondered if live M. vaccae could improve learning in mice.” “This research suggests that M. vaccae may play a role in anxiety and learning in mammals,” says Matthews. “It is interesting to speculate that creating learning environments in schools that include time in the outdoors where M. vaccae is present may decrease anxiety and improve the ability to learn new tasks.”

Mental Health Providers Should Prescribe Exercise More Often for Depression, Anxiety: “Exercise has been shown to have tremendous benefits for mental health.” Their findings are based on an analysis of dozens of population-based studies, clinical studies and meta-analytic reviews related to exercise and mental health, including the authors’ meta-analysis of exercise interventions for mental health and studies on reducing anxiety sensitivity with exercise. The researchers’ review demonstrated the efficacy of exercise programs in reducing depression and anxiety.
“Exercise can fill the gap for people who can’t receive traditional therapies because of cost or lack of access, or who don’t want to because of the perceived social stigma associated with these treatments. Exercise also can supplement traditional treatments, helping patients become more focused and engaged. Individuals who exercise report fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression, and lower levels of stress and anger. Exercise appears to affect, like an antidepressant, particular neurotransmitter systems in the brain, and it helps patients with depression re-establish positive behaviors. For patients with anxiety disorders, exercise reduces their fears of fear and related bodily sensations such as a racing heart and rapid breathing.”
After patients have passed a health assessment, Smits says, they should work up to the public health dose, which is 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity activity or 75 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity activity. At a time when 40 percent of Americans are sedentary, he says, mental health care providers can serve as their patients’ exercise guides and motivators.
“Rather than emphasize the long-term health benefits of an exercise program — which can be difficult to sustain — we urge providers to focus with their patients on the immediate benefits,” he says. “After just 25 minutes, your mood improves, you are less stressed, you have more energy — and you’ll be motivated to exercise again tomorrow. A bad mood is no longer a barrier to exercise; it is the very reason to exercise.”
Smits says health care providers who prescribe exercise also must give their patients the tools they need to succeed, such as the daily schedules, problem-solving strategies and goal-setting featured in his guide for therapists.
“Therapists can help their patients take specific, achievable steps,” he says. “This isn’t about working out five times a week for the next year. It’s about exercising for 20 or 30 minutes and feeling better today.”

Hey Jude: Get That Song out My Head! Some 98 to 99 percent of the population has, at some point, been “infected” with a song they just can’t seem to shake off. It’s aptly called an earworm. In most cases, earworms will disappear after a few minutes. In some cases, earworms can last hours or even days. In the laboratory, they asked 18 musicians and 18 non-musicians to hum and record their obsessive songs and note their emotional state before and after. The researchers found earworm infections last longer with musicians than with non-musicians. The phenomenon occurs when subjects are usually in a positive emotional state and keeping busy with non-intellectual activities such as walking, which requires little concentration. “Perhaps the phenomenon occurs to prevent brooding or to change moods.”

I’ve learned that there are 2 methods for getting rid of an earworm: 1. play the tune from start to finish so that you hear the whole thing. 2. (and this is what works for me) play a complicated piece of music from start to finish.

Cross-posted from ZeNeece’s World

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It was an interesting study but it was criticized in the scientific community. Well, he did another study in 2009 and this time was more rigorous. The follow up study is called The Chronic Dependence of Popular Religiosity upon Dysfunctional Psychosociological Conditions. Now I haven’t read the whole thing, but Tom Rees of Epiphenom has. He was attracted to the charts, as I was, which I’ve added below.

What societal ills bring a country down from being successful and healthy? Paul used indicators like murder, suicide rates, size of prison populations, mortality, alcohol consumption, poverty, unemployment, sexually transmitted diseases, abortions and deaths. I think he had some positive indicators like marriages too.

Results? Unhealthy societies are more religious. Religion needs a dysfunctional society to flourish, which explains why a first world country like the U.S. can still be so religious, as you can see in all the charts. (click for larger versions)

Tom Rees also did a paper called Is Personal Insecurity a Cause of Cross-National Differences in the Intensity of Religious Belief? In it Rees found that the more insecure a society and its people are, the more religious that society is. So these two studies support each other. You can see his review of his own study at his blog, Epiphenom. It’s got all his nice graphs there, easy to read.

Here is a video of Gregory Paul talking about his work. It’s hard to hear him clearly, but I watched some of it and he said the way to help the U.S. become more secular was to get universal healthcare. The talk was in 2008, by the way, so maybe we’ll see if our recent pathetic bill will make a difference in the religiosity of America.

So making society more stable and helping people to feel more secure would help to get them out from under the boot heel of religion? Sounds plausible. I’d like to see more work done. How would you test that hypothesis? If you could choose 2 changes made to your country to make it more stable and less religious, what would you pick?

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Dark Chocolate Helps Ease Emotional Stress: A new study found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in people who felt highly stressed. The chocolate also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances. “The study provides strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 grams [1.4 ounces] during a period of 2 weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of healthy human volunteers,” the scientists say.

That led me to a study from last December. It’s rather small and involves self-reporting, but it could be a promising line for further research, and could be something you experiment with yourself to see if it works for you:

Dark Chocolate Lessens Cravings: Dark chocolate is far more filling than milk chocolate, lessening our craving for sweet, salty and fatty foods. In other words, eating dark chocolate may be an efficient way to keep your weight down over the holidays (and throughout the year!) The dark chocolate gives a feeling of satiety.

To compare the effects of dark and milk chocolate on both appetite and subsequent calorie intake, 16 young and healthy men of normal weight who all liked both dark and milk chocolate took part in a so-called crossover experiment. This meant that they reported for two separate sessions, the first time testing the dark chocolate, and the second time the milk chocolate.

They had all fasted for 12 hours beforehand and were offered 100g of chocolate, which they consumed in the course of 15 minutes. The calorific content was virtually the same for the milk and dark chocolate.

During the following 5 hours, participants were asked to register their appetite every half hour, i.e. their hunger, satiety, craving for special foods and how they liked the chocolate.

Results

Two and a half hours after eating the chocolate, participants were offered pizza ad lib. They were instructed to eat until they felt comfortably satiated. After the meal, the individuals’ calorie intake was registered.

The results were significant. The calorie intake at the subsequent meal where they could eat as much pizza as they liked was 15 per cent lower when they had eaten dark chocolate beforehand.

The participants also stated that the plain chocolate made them feel less like eating sweet, salty or fatty foods.

So apart from providing us with the healthier fatty acids and many antioxidants, dark chocolate can now also help us steer clear of all the sweet, salty and fattening Christmas foods.

That led me to an even older study (2006) about smokers’ arteries and dark chocolate. I’m sure it benefits nonsmokers as well. This study is also small, but promising.

A Few Squares Of Dark Chocolate A Day May Stave Off Artery Hardening In Smokers: Dark chocolate may stave off artery hardening in smokers, and a few squares every day could potentially cut the risk of serious heart disease.

Researchers compared the effects of dark (74% cocoa solids) and white chocolate on the smoothness of arterial blood flow in 20 male smokers.

In smokers the activity of both endothelial cells, which line the artery walls, and platelets, which are involved in the formation of blood clots, are continuously disrupted, making the arteries susceptible to the narrowing and hardening characteristic of coronary artery disease.

Before eating 40 g of chocolate (about 2 oz), smokers were first asked to abstain from other foods rich in antioxidants, such as onions, apples, cabbage, and cocoa products for 24 hours.

After two hours, ultrasound scans revealed that dark chocolate significantly improved the smoothness of arterial flow, an effect which lasted for eight hours. Blood sample analysis also showed that dark chocolate almost halved platelet activity. Antioxidant levels rose sharply after two hours.

White chocolate had no effect on endothelial cells, platelets, or antioxidant levels.

Dark chocolate has more antioxidants per gram than other foods laden with the substances, such as red wine, green tea, and berry fruits, say the authors, who suggest that the beneficial effects of dark chocolate lie in its antioxidant content.

“…Only a small daily treat of dark chocolate may substantially increase the amount of antioxidant intake and beneficially affect vascular health,” conclude the authors.

Of course, these studies are not conclusive. They are all small. But hey, it’s dark chocolate. It tastes great and is full of chocolatey goodness. With all the other stuff you eat, if it could help you in these three ways, some of which you can experiment with yourself to see if it’s actually working for you, why not give it a try?

I had some bars in my fridge that I had been saving for a special occasion but decided, since I get stressed out easily, I’d try to do an experiment. I will eat 40 grams a day (if I can get my hands on that much) and keep a log of food cravings, food intake and stress levels. So far I’ve had it for two days but have been quite lax about the log bit. I guess we can’t all be diligent.

I thought while I have you here, I’d share some other links that might interest you.

We have all been inundated with swine flu madness over the past several months. But what is hype and what is science-based reality? Is the vaccine safe? Do I have to worry about this?

I’ve gotten a lot of information just from listening to The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, which is honestly the best skeptical podcast I’ve found. I’m usually a couple of episodes behind, but hey, look at what they have for the November 15 epsiode: Special Report: H1N1 Pandemic Update! I’d recommend listening to back issues as well. They are quite an education in skepticism. You’ll learn a great deal!

Dr. Steven Novella, the main Rogue of the SGU, also has a blog called Science-Based Medicine. (I know, what a concept, medicine based on science!) This site has different contributors who cover all kinds of issues with solid facts, no hype, no pseudoscience BS. Want to know the facts about H1N1? Go here. Want to know if chiropractic is mainly pseudoscience mumbo-jumbo? You know where to go.

On that note, you can also go to Quackwatch. I haven’t investigated it much, but the SGU recommends it and for this kind of thing, I’d consider that a good endorsement.

Now, just to remind you of some other podcasty goodness, and so that we don’t ignore our minds with all this science talk, there is Reasonable Doubts, the podcast for people who refuse to “just take things on faith.” These guys know their religion. They mainly focus on christianity and its flaws, but they’ve also tackled issues like Determinism, islam, Profiles of the Godless (a survey study done by one of their own), and much, much more.

I love these guys and get so much out of each podcast. I only found them through a friend several months ago, so I am still not caught up with the old episodes. I highly recommend listening to their full library.

Like the SGU, you can subscribe to Reasonable Doubts through iTunes.

Ok, that’s it. Have fun. If you have suggestions for great podcasts, websites or resources for science-based medicine, studies, facts over hype, skepticism, and of course atheism, please feel free to share in the comments.

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According to Heinz Valtin, a retired professor of physiology from Dartmouth Medical School who specialized in kidney research and spent 45 years studying the biological system that keeps the water in our bodies in balance, the answer is no. If you have kidney stones or if you get urinary tract infections easily, then drinking lots of water can be beneficial.

But there is no scientific evidence to support the notion that healthy people need to drink 64 ounces of water a day.

Valtin found that the 8 x 8 guideline may have originated from a misunderstanding. In 1945 the Food and Nutrition Board, now part of the National Academy of Sciences’s Institute of Medicine, suggested that a person consume one milliliter of water (about one fifth of a teaspoon) for each calorie of food. The math is pretty simple: A daily diet of around 1,900 calories would dictate the consumption of 1,900 milliliters of water, an amount remarkably close to 64 ounces. But many dieticians and other people failed to notice a critical point: namely, that much of the daily need for water could be met by the water content found in food.

The Board revisited the question of water consumption in 2004. Its panel on “dietary preference intakes for electrolytes and water” noted that women who appear adequately hydrated consume about 91 ounces (2.7 liters) of water a day and men about 125 ounces (3.7 liters). These seemingly large quantities come from a variety of sources—including coffee, tea, milk, soda, juice, fruits, vegetables and other foods. Instead of recommending how much extra water a person should drink to maintain health, the panel simply concluded that “the vast majority of healthy people adequately meet their daily hydration needs by letting thirst be their guide.”

I’m sure you’ve heard that most people are so chronically dehydrated that they can’t even tell when they’re thirsty, and often mistake thirst signals for hunger. Barbara Rolls, professor of nutrition sciences at the Pennsylvania State University, disagrees. Her studies, she says, “found no evidence that people are chronically dehydrated.” Although some drugs can cause problems with thirst regulation and the elderly may not experience thirst as intensely as younger people, Rolls maintains that most healthy people are adequately hydrated.

What about weight loss? Doesn’t drinking water suppress your appetite?

Rolls disagrees here too, arguing that “drinking water and waiting for pounds to melt away does not work. We all wish it were that simple.” She explains that “hunger and thirst are controlled by separate systems in the body. People are unlikely to mistake thirst for hunger.” Furthermore, she reports that her studies “never found that drinking water with or before a meal affected appetite.” Nevertheless, there are some elements of truth in the misperception. Rolls did find that water-rich foods—as opposed to stand-alone water—tended to help people consume fewer calories. And, she says, “there is a way that water can help with weight loss—if you use water as a substitute for a caloric beverage.”

The body needs water to function properly, and dehydration hurts the body. But, “Water requirements depend so much on outside temperature, activity levels and other factors that there isn’t one rule that fits everybody,” Rolls says. And Valtin reminds us that drinking huge amounts of water can even be dangerous or fatal.

So how much water should you drink? Here’s their advice: If you have specific medical concerns, talk to your doctor. But if you are healthy, Rolls recommends that you “have a beverage with meals and drink when you are thirsty.” In other words, heed your thirst signals, enjoy that watermelon, and stop feeling guilty for not guzzling those extra glasses.

Thanks Scientific American

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I think I understand what it’s like to be lost in a world of woo thinking. Maybe even an inkling of what it’s like to believe in Jesus as your personal hero.

Butch, my awesome husband, came home Friday night and told me he felt awful. He and I both got a cold about 3 weeks ago and he shook if off in about 4 days while I suffered with a nasty chest cold, congestion and laryngitis until just the other day. I didn’t want to hear that he was sick again. It was my birthday weekend, we were supposed to go out to dinner on Sunday (last night), and I was hoping we’d both be feeling well for a change.

Alas, it was not to be. He had a fever, the chills, and was completely miserable. And here’s where I realized I felt totally helpless. I can’t stand seeing someone I love sick. When Butch or my dogs or someone I care about has a problem or is in pain, I want to fix them. I want to make them at least feel better. But sometimes there’s nothing you can do.

Butch seemed to have the flu, which is a virus, and really all I could do was make him a hot toddy, be extra nice, and send him to bed to sleep it off.

Recently my older dog, Koku went through some weird emotional thing where whenever I gave the dogs treats, he would suddenly act like there was thunder and lightning and he would practically jump in my lap and shiver. Which is also new. He just developed a dislike of thunder last year. Poor little fella is anxious like me, I guess. But again, there really wasn’t anything I could do for him, except give him some affection and make sure that he was physically alright. (I can put him on doggy prozac, I guess, but that would make him sleep all day, so it’s a last resort.)

But it’s painful to watch the ones I love suffer. I hate it. In my previous life, I was into taking vitamins and airborne. And before that I (shamefully admit) I believed in energy healing. But back then, I had solutions. I could turn to a concoction or my hands with authority and say, “this will make you feel better.” Butch didn’t believe in the energy stuff, but sometimes he’d let me do my woo woo magic. Because when you’re sick, you just want to feel better, even if it’s a long shot.

Then I figured out that energy healing was totally bogus. Which meant I lost a huge security blanket. It was all a placebo,  nothing more. Recently the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, along with other podcasts and science news, helped me to become a full fledged Skeptic. (I have a badge and everything!) I learned that taking vitamins have been found to actually shorten your lifespan (a recent study), mega doses of vitamins can be very harmful, and taking airborne as suggested is dangerous, and that it was never properly tested. So, now I have no security blankets at all. It’s just me and bare naked facts and science.

Most times that is quite liberating, not to be weighed down with lies and nonsense. But when my loved ones are sick  and there’s nothing that can really be done except fluids and bed rest, (oh, and TLC, of course), I feel really naked and frustrated.

So I guess I understand why people turn to crackpot pseudo-science. I see why they buy ridiculous remedies, books for crazy diets, books for strange magical ways to improve their lives. I guess I even understand people who pray to Jesus for a cure. It might be a long shot, but at least they’re doing something.

Of course, prayer is actually doing nothing. You’re just wasting time and energy on a god that doesn’t exist.  But I guess it makes sense, in a way, if you really believe it’s going to work. Maybe it’s just the knowing, the confidence that Jesus wouldn’t let you down, that whoever wrote that stupid book you read really does have the answer and really wants to help you achieve perfect health and happiness. Whatever it is, it’s doing something, it’s keeping you from realizing that the world is often harsh and cold.

But turning to a god that isn’t there, or a pill that doesn’t do anything useful, or a book that is full of lies isn’t doing anything. It might seem like it’s helpful, but really it’s worse than nothing. Sure, you might feel like you have a bit of control over a bad situation, but you don’t. You’ve given what little control you might have had to the invisible god, the sugar pill, or the guru who wrote the book. See? You’re less in control than ever. With no hope of ever getting any of it back when you believe in lies and let them lead you and control your life.

It sucks. I know. But reality is a harsh mistress.

So, I kissed my husband on the forehead, reminded him that a mild fever is the body’s natural way of fighting infections, and told him I loved him. He was upset about my birthday dinner, but I told him it can wait. No big deal, just feel better. Sometimes all you can do for someone is love them. So that’s what I did. Love is good medicine, at least.

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Monday is going to be a great day. I just know it. At least I’m really excited about it. Of course I’m also sort of dreading it for a different reason.
Monday I will hopefully get both my wonderful, new microscope as well as the slides for it. That will be awesome and fun and keep me busy for a long time.
Monday is also my 40th birthday. March 2nd, mark it on your calendars. I’m going to thoroughly be middle aged. This one is really hitting me hard, for some reason. Should I have accomplished something by now? I think about other people my age and then I think about my life and I feel like I haven’t done anything yet. I’m not ready for my life to be half over. I’m just getting started, in some ways.
Anyway, I’m trying to be positive about it all. The microscope is a perfect distraction for my woes.

On another note, I learned about a new study recently that sounded interesting and possibly quite helpful to me. I thought I’d share it with you.
I heard about it on a Canadian science podcast. The professor is James Timmons in league with other researchers in Scotland. It goes like this:

• Exercise really hard at 100% intensity for 30 seconds.
• Rest.
• Repeat 3 more times. (for a total of 4 sprints)
• Repeat 2 or more times a week. (3 times a week seems best)

They were mainly looking at the ability for helping people ward off type 2 diabetes and developing cardiovascular disease. The results were quite promising. They found that the metabolism of the people who did this for 2 weeks was dramatically improved. You can read all about it at ScienceDaily: Regular Sprints Boost Metabolism.

Something else, though that Jamie Timmons said in the podcast but didn’t make it to the report at ScienceDaily was that the effects were long lasting. So they did the program for 10 weeks, if I recall correctly, and 3 weeks after it stopped the ability for the subjects to handle a glucose drink was still improved from before the study started. In the study the people used exercise bikes, but Timmons said any type of high intensity activity will work.

I hate exercising. I find it painful, tiring and boring. I’ve been trying to find something I could stick with for, well… for just about 40 years now, and I can’t stick to any of it. I just keep failing. So maybe this will work. I started last night. It was hard, but the time commitment is so reduced from the normal exercise program that I think I might be able to stick to it longer.

I was afraid I was too out of shape, but I have a mini trampoline so I jogged in place at 100% effort for four 30 second sprints. I held 1 pound weights for the last 2 sprints. It wasn’t easy. But it wasn’t unbearable either. Knowing it was only for 30 seconds really helped make it easier to handle. By the end of the 4th stint I felt like I had really accomplished something.

In looking for the study to share with you, I found some others that are also quite interesting.

In No Time To Exercise Is No Excuse, The Journal of Physiology stated the same thing that Timmons is saying. Short, intense bursts of exercise can produce the same results as traditional endurance training. It helps you improve muscle health and performance. Which also means heart health, because that’s your biggest muscle. This study says to do 4-6 bursts with 4 minutes rest in between. Timmons didn’t seem to imply that you had to rest a certain amount of time, just until you felt recovered. After my exercise last night, 4 minutes does sound about right.

In another study, Brief Exercise Can Benefit the Heart, they found that this same regimen can improve function and structure of blood vessels. This can help with high blood pressure. This keeps our heart and blood vessels more supple and less stiff. This study doesn’t say how many high intensity sprints to do, but did the exercise 3 times a week, which is in line with the other studies.

And here’s another really interesting one. High Intensity Exercise Is The Best Way To Reduce Anxiety. This reduction of anxiety and stress helps lower risks of cardiovascular disease too. But for me, since I’m such an anxious person, I find this to be very promising. This type of exercise especially benefits women, they found. Especially middle aged women. The reductions of anxiety weren’t necessarily immediate, though. So that is something to be aware of.

Anyway, I thought I’d share all of that with you. Your thoughts are welcome, as always!

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