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Low Vitamin D Levels May Contribute to Development of Type 2 Diabetes

December 5th, 2011

Source: Endocrine Society

Study finds low vitamin D levels
associated with higher degrees of insulin resistance

A recent study of obese and non-obese children found that low vitamin D levels are significantly more prevalent in obese children and are associated with risk factors for type 2 diabetes. This study was accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

High rates of vitamin D deficiency have been found in obese populations and past studies have linked low vitamin D levels to cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. The mechanisms by which obesity and its comorbidities are related to vitamin D deficiency are not fully known. This new study examined associations between vitamin D levels and dietary habits in obese children, and tested whether there were correlations between vitamin D levels and markers of abnormal glucose metabolism and blood pressure.

“Our study found that obese children with lower vitamin D levels had higher degrees of insulin resistance,” said Micah Olson, MD, of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and lead author of the study. “Although our study cannot prove causation, it does suggest that low vitamin D levels may play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes.”

In this study, researchers measured vitamin D levels, blood sugar levels, serum insulin, BMI and blood pressure in 411 obese subjects and 87 control non-overweight subjects. Study participants were also asked to provide dietary information including daily intake of soda, juice and milk, average daily fruit and vegetable intake, and whether or not they routinely skipped breakfast.

“Poor dietary habits such as skipping breakfast and increased soda and juice intake were associated with the lower vitamin D levels seen in obese children,” said Olson. “Future studies are needed to determine the clinical significance of lower vitamin D levels in obese children, the amount and duration of treatment necessary to replenish vitamin D levels in these children and whether treatment with vitamin D can improve primary clinical endpoints such as insulin resistance.”

Other researchers working on the study include Naim Maalouf, Jon Oden, Perrin White and Michele Hutchison of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

The article, “Vitamin D Deficiency in Obese Children and Its Relationship to Glucose Homeostasis,” appears in the January 2012 issue of JCEM.

Founded in 1916, The Endocrine Society is the world’s oldest, largest and most active organization devoted to research on hormones and the clinical practice of endocrinology. Today, The Endocrine Society’s membership consists of over 14,000 scientists, physicians, educators, nurses and students in more than 100 countries. Society members represent all basic, applied and clinical interests in endocrinology. The Endocrine Society is based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at www.endo-society.org. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/EndoMedia.

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Affordable Solar: It's Closer Than You Think

December 8th, 2011

Source: Michigan Technological University

It's time to stop thinking of solar energy as a boutique source of power, says Joshua Pearce.

Sure, solar only generates about 1 percent of the electricity in the US. But that will change in a few years, says Pearce, an associate professor of electrical engineering and materials science at Michigan Technological University. The ultimate in renewable energy is about to go mainstream.

It's a matter of economics. A new analysis by Pearce and his colleagues at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, shows that solar photovoltaic systems are very close to achieving the tipping point: they can make electricity that's as cheap—sometimes cheaper—as what consumers pay their utilities.

Here's why. First, the price of solar panels has plummeted. "Since 2009, the cost has dropped 70 percent," says Pearce. But more than that, the assumptions used in previous studies have not given solar an even break.

"Historically, when comparing the economics of solar and conventional energy, people have been very conservative," says Pearce.

To figure out the true cost of photovoltaic energy, analysts need to consider several variables, including the cost to install and maintain the system, finance charges, how long it lasts, and how much electricity it generates. Pearce and his colleagues performed an exhaustive review of the previous studies and concluded that the values given those variables were out of whack.

For example, most analyses assume that the productivity of solar panels will drop at an annual rate of 1 percent or more, a huge overestimation, according to Pearce. "If you buy a top-of-the-line solar panel, it's much less, between 0.1 and 0.2 percent."

In addition, "The price of solar equipment has been dropping, so you'd think that the older papers would have higher cost estimates," Pearce says. "That's not necessarily the case."

Equipment costs are determined based on dollars per watt of electricity produced. One 2010 study estimated the cost per watt at $7.61, while a 2003 study set the amount at $4.16. The true cost in 2011, says Pearce, is under $1 per watt for solar panels purchased in bulk on the global market, though system and installation costs vary widely. In some parts of the world, solar is already economically superior, and the study predicts that it will become increasingly attractive in more and more places.

In regions with a burgeoning solar industry, often due to favorable government policies, there are lots of solar panel installers, which heats up the market.

"Elsewhere, installation costs have been high because contractors will do just one job a month," says Pearce. Increasing demand and competition would drop installation costs. "If you had ten installers in Upper Michigan and enough work to keep them busy, the price would drop considerably."

Furthermore, economic studies don't generally taken into account solar energy's intangible benefits, reduced pollution and carbon emissions. And while silicon-based solar panels do rely on a nonrenewable resource--sand--they are no threat to the world's beaches. It only takes about a sandwich baggie of sand to make a roof's worth of thin-film photovoltaic cells, Pearce says.

Based on the study, and on the fact that the cost of conventional power continues to creep upward, Pearce believes that solar energy will soon be a major player in the energy game. "It's just a matter of time before market economics catches up with it," he says.

The study, "A Review of Solar Photovoltaic Levelized Cost of Electricity," was coauthored by Kadra Branker and Michael Pathak of Queen's University and was published in the December 2011 edition of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 15, Issue 9, pages 4470-4482.

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Time for a Change?
Johns Hopkins Scholars Say Calendar Needs Serious Overhaul
12/27/2011

Researchers at The Johns Hopkins University have discovered a way to make time stand still -- at least when it comes to the yearly calendar.

Using computer programs and mathematical formulas, Richard Conn Henry, an astrophysicist in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, and Steve H. Hanke, an applied economist in the Whiting School of Engineering, have created a new calendar in which each new 12-month period is identical to the one which came before, and remains that way from one year to the next in perpetuity.

Under the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar, for instance, if Christmas fell on a Sunday in 2012 (and it would), it would also fall on a Sunday in 2013, 2014 and beyond. In addition, under the new calendar, the rhyme “30 days hath September, April, June and November,” would no longer apply, because September would have 31 days, as would March, June and December. All the rest would have 30. (Try creating a rhyme using that.)

“Our plan offers a stable calendar that is absolutely identical from year to year and which allows the permanent, rational planning of annual activities, from school to work holidays,” says Henry, who is also director of the Maryland Space Grant Consortium. “Think about how much time and effort are expended each year in redesigning the calendar of every single organization in the world and it becomes obvious that our calendar would make life much simpler and would have noteworthy benefits.”

Among the practical advantages would be the convenience afforded by birthdays and holidays (as well as work holidays) falling on the same day of the week every year. But the economic benefits are even more profound, according to Hanke, an expert in international economics, including monetary policy.

“Our calendar would simplify financial calculations and eliminate what we call the ‘rip off’ factor,’” explains Hanke. “Determining how much interest accrues on mortgages, bonds, forward rate agreements, swaps and others, day counts are required. Our current calendar is full of anomalies that have led to the establishment of a wide range of conventions that attempt to simplify interest calculations. Our proposed permanent calendar has a predictable 91-day quarterly pattern of two months of 30 days and a third month of 31 days, which does away with the need for artificial day count conventions.”

According to Hanke and Henry, their calendar is an improvement on the dozens of rival reform calendars proffered by individuals and institutions over the last century.

“Attempts at reform have failed in the past because all of the major ones have involved breaking the seven-day cycle of the week, which is not acceptable to many people because it violates the Fourth Commandment about keeping the Sabbath Day,” Henry explains. “Our version never breaks that cycle.”

Henry posits that his team’s version is far more convenient, sensible and easier to use than the current Gregorian calendar, which has been in place for four centuries – ever since 1582, when Pope Gregory altered a calendar that was instituted in 46 BC by Julius Caesar.

In an effort to bring Caesar’s calendar in synch with the seasons, the pope’s team removed 11 days from the calendar in October, so that Oct. 4 was followed immediately by Oct. 15. This adjustment was necessary in order to deal with the same knotty problem that makes designing an effective and practical new calendar such a challenge: the fact that each Earth year is 365.2422 days long.

Hanke and Henry deal with those extra “pieces” of days by dropping leap years entirely in favor of an extra week added at the end of December every five or six years. This brings the calendar in sync with the seasonal changes as the Earth circles the sun.

In addition to advocating the adoption of this new calendar, Hanke and Henry encourage the abolition of world time zones and the adoption of “Universal Time” (formerly known as Greenwich Mean Time) in order to synchronize dates and times worldwide, streamlining international business.

“One time throughout the world, one date throughout the world,” they write in a January 2012 Global Asia article about their proposals. “Business meetings, sports schedules and school calendars would be identical every year. Today’s cacophony of time zones, daylight savings times and calendar fluctuations, year after year, would be over. The economy -- that’s all of us -- would receive a permanent ‘harmonization’ dividend.”

View a website about the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar here:
http://henry.pha.jhu.edu/calendar.html

Read Hanke and Henry’s January 2012 Global Asia article about calendar reform here:
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=13940

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Internet Addiction Could Be Warning Sign of Substance Use in Teens,
Reports Journal of Addiction Medicine

Philadelphia, Pa. (February 13, 2012)

Adolescents who are "internet addicts" may also be at increased risk of substance abuse, suggests a study in the March issue of Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

Teens with "pathologic Internet use" are more likely to have past or recent use of illicit substances, according to the study by Dr Georgios D. Floros of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and colleagues. The new research also points toward "some common personality characteristics" among adolescents who are abusing the Internet and have a history of substance use.

Heavy Internet Users More Likely to Report Substance Use
The researchers surveyed the entire adolescent population (aged 14 to 19) of the Greek island of Kos regarding Internet use, substance use, and personality factors. Internet addiction means not just heavy Internet use, but also consequences such as losing track of time spent online, neglecting other activities, and having difficulty cutting down on Internet use.

Of the 1,221 teens who responded to the survey, about fifteen percent were heavy Internet users while five percent had signs of Internet addiction. Thirteen percent reported past substance abuse, including a seven percent rate of substance abuse within the past month. The researchers looked for possible links between Internet use and substance use, along with potential related factors.

As the severity of excessive Internet use increased, so did the likelihood of substance abuse. Males had higher rates of substance abuse than females. Seeking online pornography was the only specific type of Internet activity that was more frequent among teens with recent substance use.

Evidence of Common Personality Factors
Both substance use and heavy Internet use were associated with "distinct personality profiles," including higher scores for characteristics classified under the label of "psychoticism." According to a well-known personality theory (the Eysenck model), psychoticism includes traits such as nonconformity, aggressiveness, and impulsiveness.

Previous studies have linked other addictive disorders to high psychoticism scores, consistent with an "addictive personality." The relationship between Internet addiction and substance use remained significant, even after controlling for sex, age, ethnicity, and personality factors.

Internet addiction has not been formally accepted as a psychiatric diagnosis. However, it has many features in common with other addictive diseases, such as "a compulsive need for Internet use with lack of related control and disregard over the obvious adverse consequences." Some common biological factors—perhaps involving the dysfunction of dopamine and "reward pathway" of the brain—are possible as well.

Especially since excessive Internet use that interferes with daily activities is readily observable at home, the results have implications for the early identification of teens at risk of substance abuse, Dr Floros and coauthors believe. They write, "Those adolescents eager to try any illicit substance are a prime target for early intervention programs." They even raise the possibility of promoting abuse prevention and early detection programs in the typical online venues where Internet overuse occurs—for example, online gaming sites, social networking sites, and hacking communities.

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About Journal of Addiction Medicine
The mission of Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, is to promote excellence in the practice of addiction medicine and in clinical research as well as to support Addiction Medicine as a mainstream medical specialty. Published quarterly, the Journal is designed for all physicians and other mental health professionals who need to keep up-to-date with the treatment of addiction disorders. Under the guidance of an esteemed Editorial Board, peer-reviewed articles published in the Journal focus on developments in addiction medicine as well as on treatment innovations and ethical, economic, forensic, and social topics.

About Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) is a leading international publisher for healthcare professionals and students with nearly 300 periodicals and 1,500 books in more than 100 disciplines publishing under the LWW brand, as well as content-based sites and online corporate and customer services.

LWW is part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading global provider of information, business intelligence and point-of-care solutions for the healthcare industry. Wolters Kluwer Health is part of Wolters Kluwer, a market-leading global information services company with 2010 annual revenues of €3.6 billion ($4.7 billion).

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April 11, 2012
Study Finds Sleep Disruption Increases Diabetes Risk

Jessica Berman
(Source: Voice of America)

A new study concludes that people whose irregular sleep habits disrupt the body’s natural, 24-hour internal clock are at increased risk for obesity and diabetes. Those at particular risk include shift workers with overnight jobs and travelers who experience recurrent jet lag.

The study by investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston was the first to simulate in the laboratory the health effects of long-term sleep deprivation.

At the beginning of the six-week experiment, 21 healthy volunteers enjoyed optimal sleep periods of 10 hours a night, reflecting the normal sleep-wake rhythm that is controlled by the human body's internal, or circadian, clock.

This was followed by a three-week period in which the participants slept only 5.6 hours in a 24-hour period during all times of the day and night, simulating shift work.

Throughout the study, the participants’ blood sugar or glucose was measured after each meal. Glucose is used by the body as fuel. It becomes elevated in people with diabetes, explains the study's lead author, Orfeu Buxton of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard University.

“Glucose at high levels is toxic," said Buxton. "It causes hypertension, neurotoxicity and a bunch of other things that are hallmarks of the diabetes condition. And what we saw is that three of 21 of our subjects, they actually met clinical criteria that would be called pre-diabetic.”

In the final, restorative phase of the study, in which the participants returned to a regular pattern of night-time sleep for nine days, their blood sugar levels returned to normal.
Buxton says a previous study he conducted showed that a disruption of the circadian rhythm led to insulin resistance, in which the hormone insulin, produced by the pancreas, is unable to transport glucose efficiently into cells, leading to dangerous levels of glucose circulating in the bloodstream.

The findings, Buxton believes, provided new evidence that repeated interruption of the body’s normal sleep-wake cycle can lead to a decrease in so-called resting metabolism, or the rate at which the body burns calories to maintain itself. Buxton says the result could be a yearly weight gain of more than 4.5 kilograms, a risk factor for diabetes.

“In this study, we showed that resting metabolic rate decreased by about eight percent," he said. "That may seem like a small number but if diet and activity are unchanged, that corresponds to about 10 to 12 pounds of weight gain in a year.”

The study on disrupted sleep and the onset of diabetes by Orfeu Buxton and colleagues is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

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New survey reveals encouraging trend

OTTAWA, May 31, 2012

According to the latest results of the Youth Smoking Survey, only three per cent of Canadian students in grades 6-12 said they smoked daily in 2010-2011, down from 4% in 2008-2009.

The school-based survey also found that fewer students have even tried cigarettes once; a decline among those who had ever tried little cigars; and a drop in the percent of students reporting using alcohol, cannabis and other drugs.

"After seeing smoking rates hit historic lows in Canada recently, these new statistics are encouraging," said the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health. "In particular, the drop in little cigar smoking suggests that the Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act is having an impact on consumption of these products by youth."

The Youth Smoking Survey, funded by Health Canada and conducted by the University of Waterloo's Propel Centre for Population Health Impact, is a survey of Canadian youth in grades 6-12 that captures information related to tobacco, alcohol and drug use. Among the findings for 2010-2011:

Nearly three-quarters (74%) of youth in grades 6-12 said they have never tried smoking a cigarette, not even a puff, a significant increase from 67% in 2008-2009.

Among younger students, just 2% of those in grades 6-9 smoked daily or occasionally, the lowest smoking rate recorded by the survey since it began, in 1994.

Just 6% of youth in grades 6-9 had ever tried smoking little cigars, a significant decrease from 10% in the previous survey. Similarly, in grades 10-12, 26% of youth reported having ever tried smoking little cigars, also a significant decrease from 35% in 2008-2009.

Among students in grades 7-12, alcohol use in the past 12 months fell to 45% from 53% in 2008-2009. Although one-third (33%) of students in the past year reported binge drinking (i.e., five or more drinks on one occasion), this is a significant decrease from 39% in 2008-2009.

Cannabis use was reported by 21% of students in grades 7-12, compared to 27% in 2008-2009. There were also significant decreases in the use of MDMA (ecstasy), hallucinogens and salvia, and in the abuse of psychoactive pharmaceuticals.

These and other results of the survey are available on Health Canada's website.

In recent years, the Government of Canada has taken steps to reduce smoking among Canadian youth. The Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act, in force since 2010, prohibits the sale of little cigars and blunt wraps in packages of fewer than 20 units, and prohibits the sale of little cigars and other tobacco products that contain specified additives, including most flavouring agents.

Également disponible en français

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Studies show sleep times influenced by race, ethnicity and country of origin
White, American-born adults sleep longer than blacks, Hispanics, Indians and Asians

American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Wednesday, June 13, 2012

DARIEN, IL – Two studies scheduled for presentation today at SLEEP 2012 are reporting sleep disparities among Americans based on racial and ethnic background.

The first study, out of the State University of New York (SUNY), looked at 400,000 respondents from the National Health Interview Surveys between 2004 and 2010.

Results show that Americans born in the United States were more likely to report sleeping longer than the recommended seven to nine hours each night. African-born Americans were more likely to report sleeping six hours or less, and Indian-born Americans reported six to eight hours a night.

“We think social desirability might be playing a role in the self-reported data,” said Abhishek Pandey, MD, the study’s lead author. “We think that insufficient sleep might be more prevalent in the population than the actual self report data, but under- or over-reported to project a better image of one's perceived sleep health.”

On a smaller scale, sleep researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago analyzed the sleep measurements of 439 randomly selected Chicago men and women, including surveys about sleep quality and daytime sleepiness. They found that white participants slept significantly longer than the other groups, and blacks reported the worst sleep quality. Asians had the highest reports of daytime sleepiness.

“These racial/ethnic differences in sleep persisted even following statistical adjustment for cardiovascular disease risk factors that we already know to be associated with poor sleep, such as body mass index, high blood pressure and diabetes,” said Mercedes Carnethon, PhD, principal investigator and lead author of the Northwestern study. “And we excluded participants who had evidence of mild to moderate sleep apnea. Consequently, these differences in sleep are not attributable to underlying sleep disorders but represent the sleep experience of a ‘healthy’ subset of the population.”

Pandey’s investigation also indicated that foreign-born Americans were less likely to report short or long sleep than U.S.-born Americans after adjusting for effects of age, sex, education, income, smoking, alcohol use, body mass index (BMI) and emotional distress.

Research shows that habitually sleeping shorter or longer than the recommended seven to nine hours for adults can be linked to certain higher health risks, such as cardiovascular disease, stroke and accidents, as well as instances of mental or emotional disorders like depression.

Pandey said the SUNY study’s goals were aligned with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Workshop on Reducing Health Disparities: The Role of Sleep Deficiency and Sleep Disorders. The purpose is to better understand insufficient sleep, especially across population subgroups, and to shed light on acculturation and miscegenation. Carnethon was a participant in that 2011 workshop.

The abstracts “Linking Country of Origin to Reported Sleep Durations: Analysis of the National Health Interview Survey” and “Racial/Ethnic Differences in Sleep Duration and Quality in a Population Sample” are being presented today at SLEEP 2012, the 26th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS) in Boston. To be placed on the mailing list for SLEEP 2012 press releases or to register for SLEEP 2012 press credentials, contact AASM PR Coordinator Doug Dusik at 630-737-9700 ext. 9364, or at ddusik@aasmnet.org.

A joint venture of the AASM and the Sleep Research Society, the annual SLEEP meeting brings together an international body of more than 5,500 leading clinicians and scientists in the fields of sleep medicine and sleep research. At SLEEP 2012 (http://www.sleepmeeting.org), more than 1,300 research abstract presentations will showcase new findings that contribute to the understanding of sleep and the effective diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders such as insomnia, narcolepsy and sleep apnea.
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Research shows how exposure to violence impacts children's sleep

American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Wednesday, June 13, 2012

DARIEN, IL – When violence shatters a child’s world, the torment can continue into their sleep, according to researchers in Cleveland. The impact is measurable and affected by the severity of the violence, and the effects can last over time.

The study, being presented today at SLEEP 2012, shows how the severity of a violent event affects a child’s quality and quantity of sleep. The more severe the violence, the more sleep is impacted. Trouble with nightmares and insomnia have long been associated with exposure to violence, but the Cleveland study found that characteristics of the violent act touch different aspects of the child’s sleep.

For example, children who are victimized during a violent event tend to sleep less and more poorly than children who witnessed a violent event but were not victimized. Children who witness homicide have more inconsistent sleep as time passes since the violent event occurred.

“Violence permeates our society, and this work is showing that experiencing even a single violent event as a victim or as a witness may influence sleep behavior in different ways, which in turn may negatively affect a child’s health and functioning,” said James Spilsbury, PhD, the study’s principal investigator.

Children who do not get enough sleep are prone to development and behavior problems. Poor sleep also has been linked to a number of serious health risks, including high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, depression, diabetes, obesity and accidents.

Spilsbury and colleagues at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic Multidisciplinary Research Training Program measured the sleep of 46 children, ages 8 to 16, who were participating in a social service program for children exposed to violence. Ethnicity was mixed, but the children were largely disadvantaged and living in urban settings.

Sleep data were collected for seven days by actigraphy, a monitoring method that uses a patient-worn sensor to measure activity during the day and at night. Follow-up was conducted three months later. In analyzing the results, Spilsbury and associates controlled for such factors as age, sex, family income and exposure to violence in the previous year.

“Even after controlling for the possible effects of exposure to violence in the previous year, we saw that the severity of the more recent event had a measurable, negative influence on a child’s quantity and quality of sleep,” Spilsbury said.

The abstract “Association between exposure to violence and objectively measured sleep characteristics: a pilot longitudinal study” is being presented today at SLEEP 2012, the 26th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Boston. To be placed on the mailing list for SLEEP 2012 press releases or to register for SLEEP 2012 press credentials, contact AASM PR Coordinator Doug Dusik at 630-737-9700 ext. 9364, or at ddusik@aasmnet.org.

A joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society, the annual SLEEP meeting brings together an international body of more than 5,500 leading clinicians and scientists in the fields of sleep medicine and sleep research. At SLEEP 2012 (http://www.sleepmeeting.org), more than 1,300 research abstract presentations will showcase new findings that contribute to the understanding of sleep and the effective diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders such as insomnia, narcolepsy and sleep apnea.
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Obesity, depression found to be root causes of daytime sleepiness

American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Wednesday, June 13, 2012

DARIEN, IL – Wake up, America, and lose some weight – it’s keeping you tired and prone to accidents. Three studies being presented today at sleep 2012 conclude that obesity and depression are the two main culprits making us excessively sleepy while awake.

Researchers at Penn State examined a random population sample of 1,741 adults and determined that obesity and emotional stress are the main causes of the current “epidemic” of sleepiness and fatigue plaguing the country. Insufficient sleep and obstructive sleep apnea also play a role; both have been linked to high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, depression, diabetes, obesity and accidents.

“The ‘epidemic’ of sleepiness parallels an ‘epidemic’ of obesity and psychosocial stress,” said Alexandros Vgontzas, MD, the principal investigator for the three studies. “Weight loss, depression and sleep disorders should be our priorities in terms of preventing the medical complications and public safety hazards associated with this excessive sleepiness.”

In the Penn State cohort study, 222 adults reporting excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) were followed up 7½ years later. For those whose EDS persisted, weight gain was the strongest predicting factor. “In fact, our results showed that in individuals who lost weight, excessive sleepiness improved,” Vgontzas said.

Adults from that same cohort who developed EDS within the 7½-year span also were studied. The results show for the first time that depression and obesity are the strongest risk factors for new-onset excessive sleepiness. The third study, of a group of 103 research volunteers, determined once again that depression and obesity were the best predictors for EDS.

“The primary finding connecting our three studies are that depression and obesity are the main risk factors for both new-onset and persistent excessive sleepiness,” Vgontzas said.

In the Penn State cohort study, the rate of new-onset excessive sleepiness was 8 percent, and the rate of persistent daytime sleepiness was 38 percent. Like insufficient sleep and obstructive sleep apnea, EDS also is associated with significant health risks and on-the-job accidents.

The three abstracts are being presented today at SLEEP 2012, the 26th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS) in Boston. To be placed on the mailing list for SLEEP 2012 press releases or to register for SLEEP 2012 press credentials, contact AASM PR Coordinator Doug Dusik at 630-737-9700 ext. 9364, or at ddusik@aasmnet.org.

A joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society, the annual SLEEP meeting brings together an international body of more than 5,500 leading clinicians and scientists in the fields of sleep medicine and sleep research. At SLEEP 2012 (www.sleepmeeting.org), more than 1,300 research abstract presentations will showcase new findings that contribute to the understanding of sleep and the effective diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders such as insomnia, narcolepsy and sleep apnea.
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Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) persisting into teens can impact life skills
Behaviors, emotions and social interactions affected in study of 10- to 16-year-olds

June 12th, 2012

DARIEN, IL – The number of children with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) declines as they enter adolescence, but the teen years can be a devastating trial of behavior and learning problems for kids with persistent OSA, new research shows.

University of Arizona researchers studied 263 children at two different time periods in their young lives approximately five years apart. Among children who continued to suffer from OSA into their teens, they found a higher rate of problems with attention, hyperactivity, aggressiveness, difficulties controlling their emotions and managing social situations, as well as a diminished capacity to independently care for themselves.

“If left untreated, OSA negatively impacts a youth's ability to regulate their behaviors, emotions and social interactions,” said Michelle Perfect, lead author of the study. “These behaviors can interfere with their ability to care for themselves and engage in socially appropriate behaviors – skills that are needed to be successful in school.”

These findings could not be attributed to sex, race or ethnicity, body mass index (BMI) or age. The results also suggest that the absence of OSA or even its remission is a protective factor as children move into adolescence, Perfect said.

She noted that rates of impairment defined as at-risk or clinically significant by standardized psychology measurements were double and triple among the young people with OSA compared with their peers without respiratory issues. These results show the need to identify and treat OSA in children before it persists into their adolescence, Perfect said.

The abstract “Concurrent and longitudinal associations of sleep-disordered breathing with behavioral and adaptive functioning in youth” is being presented today at SLEEP 2012, the 26th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS) in Boston.

To be placed on the mailing list for SLEEP 2012 press releases or to register for SLEEP 2012 press credentials, contact AASM PR Coordinator Doug Dusik at 630-737-9700 ext. 9364, or at ddusik@aasmnet.org.

A joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society, the annual SLEEP meeting brings together an international body of more than 5,500 leading clinicians and scientists in the fields of sleep medicine and sleep research. At SLEEP 2012 (www.sleepmeeting.org), more than 1,300 research abstract presentations will showcase new findings that contribute to the understanding of sleep and the effective diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders such as insomnia, narcolepsy and sleep apnea.

[admin]

Turtle Island Native Network
http://www.turtleisland.org

Positive changes to the brain's "white matter" - research suggests Chinese mindfulness meditation (Integrative Body-Mind Training . . .IBMT), "could provide a means for intervention to improve or prevent mental disorders".
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Chinese Meditation Prompts Double Positive Punch in Brain White Matter

6/13/2012

A Texas Tech University scientist studying the Chinese mindfulness meditation known as integrative body-mind training (IBMT) said he and other researchers have confirmed and expanded on changes in structural efficiency of white matter in the brain that can be related to positive behavioral changes in subjects practicing the technique for a month and a minimum of 11 hours total.

In a paper appearing in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), scientists Yi-Yuan Tang of Texas Tech and Michael Posner of the University of Oregon (UO) reported improved mood changes coincided with increased brain-signaling connections. They also found an expansion of myelin, the protective fatty tissue that surrounds the nerves, in the brain’s anterior cingulate region.

Deficits in activation for this area of the brain have been associated with attention deficit disorder, dementia, depression, schizophrenia and many other disorders, said Tang, who is now the director of Texas Tech’s Neuroimaging Institute and holder of the Presidential Endowed Chair in Neuroscience and professor in the Department of Psychology.

“When we got the results, we all got very excited because all of the other training exercises, like working-memory training or computer-based training, only have been shown to change myelination,” Tang said. “We believe these changes may be reflective of the time of training involved in IBMT. We found a different pattern of neural plasticity induced by the training.”

IBMT was adapted from traditional Chinese medicine in the 1990s in China, where it is practiced by thousands of people. It differs from other forms of meditation because it depends heavily on the inducement of a high degree of awareness and balance of the body, mind and environment. The meditation state is facilitated through training and trainer-group dynamics, harmony and resonance.

In 2010, research led by Tang, then a visiting research professor at the University of Oregon, and Michael I. Posner, professor of psychology at UO, first reported positive structural changes in brain connectivity, based on functional magnetic resonance imaging, that correlated to behavioral regulation. The study was done at the Robert and Beverly Lewis Center for Neuroimaging with 45 participating UO undergraduate students.

The new findings came from additional scrutiny of the 2010 study and another that involved 68 undergraduate students at China’s Dalian University of Technology. The researchers revisited data obtained from using an MRI technique known as diffusion tensor imaging. The research team found improved density of the nerves involved in brain connections but no change in myelin formation after two weeks.

After a month, or about 11 hours of IBMT, both increases in nerve density and myelin formation were found as measured by fractional anisotropy, axial diffusivity and radial diffusivity – the important indexes for measuring the integrity of white matter fibers.

This dynamic pattern of white matter change involving the anterior cingulate cortex, a part of the brain network related to self-regulation, could provide a means for intervention to improve or prevent mental disorders.

“This study gives us a much more detailed picture of what it is that is actually changing,” Posner said. “We did confirm the exact locations of the white-matter changes that we had found previously. And now we show that both myelination and axon density are improving. The order of changes we found may be similar to changes found during brain development in early childhood, allowing a new way to reveal how such changes might influence emotional and cognitive development.”

The improved mood changes noted in this and earlier studies are based on self-ratings of subjects based on a standard six-dimensional mood-state measure, Tang said.

Both researchers first reported findings related to IBMT in 2007, also in PNAS. They found that doing IBMT for five days prior to a mental math test led to low levels of the stress hormone cortisol among Chinese students. The experimental group also showed lower levels of anxiety, depression, anger and fatigue than students in a relaxation control group.

In 2009 in PNAS, Tang and his Chinese colleagues, with assistance from Posner and UO psychology professor Mary K. Rothbart, found that IBMT subjects in China had increased blood flow in the right anterior cingulate cortex after receiving training for 20 minutes a day over five days. Compared with the relaxation group, IBMT subjects also had lower heart rates and skin conductance responses, increased belly breathing amplitude and decreased chest respiration rates.

China’s National Basic Research Program, the U.S. Office of Naval Research and the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health (R21DA030066) supported the new research. Co-authors of the research included Qilin Lu of Dalian University of Technology, Ming Fang of the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences in Beijing, China, and Yihong Yang of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore, Md.

[admin]

Jun. 19, 2012

If it is indeed nobler to give than to receive, it may also make you happier – even if you’re a toddler, according to a new study co-authored by three psychologists at the University of British Columbia.

The study, published in PLoS One, an on-line journal from the Public Library of Science, finds that toddlers under the age of two are happier when giving treats to others than receiving treats themselves. Furthermore, children are happier when they give their own treats away than when they give an identical treat that doesn’t belong to them.

These findings support recent research showing that adults feel good when they help others and may help explain why people act pro-socially, even when doing so involves personal cost. This is the first study to show that giving to others makes young children happy.

NB Editors: Watch a video from the study, featuring one toddler participating with a puppet, at: http://cic.psych.ubc.ca/Example_Stimuli.html See the study at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0039211

“People tend to assume that toddlers are naturally selfish,” said Dr. Lara Aknin, who co-authored the study with UBC colleagues Profs. Kiley Hamlin and Elizabeth Dunn. “These findings show that children are actually happier giving than receiving.”

During the study, each toddler received some treats, such as Goldfish crackers. A few minutes later, the toddler was asked to give one of these treats away to a puppet. In addition, the experimenter provided an extra treat and asked the child to give this to the puppet. The children’s reactions were videotaped and later rated for happiness on a seven-point scale.

When toddlers shared their own treat with a puppet, they displayed greater happiness than when giving a treat provided by the researcher. This contrast underscores the role of personal sacrifice, and rather than finding it aversive, suggests that children find this behaviour emotionally rewarding.

“What’s most exciting about these findings is that children are happiest when giving their own treats away,” said Aknin, lead author of the study. “Forfeiting their own valuable resources for the benefit of others makes them happier than giving away just any treat.”

These findings shed light on a long-standing puzzle: Why do humans help others, including people they’ve just met? Part of the answer, it seems, is that giving feels good. The fact that toddlers show the warm glow of giving suggests that the capacity to derive joy from helping others is deeply woven into human nature.

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Permalink: http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/2012/06 ... -suggests/

[admin]

9/5/2012
Source: Cornell University

Jonathon Schuldt, assistant professor of communication at Cornell University, discusses how attitudes toward global warming or climate change relate to political party registration and educational attainment.
NOTE: Schuldt is the lead author of a study comparing Americans’ belief in “global warming” versus “climate change.” It is currently published in the peer-reviewed journal, Public Opinion Quarterly. The study can be viewed at: http://poq.oxfordjournals.org/content/75/1/115

He says:
“Climate concern – and the belief that global climate change is real – is highly partisan. According to Pew survey data, 77 percent of Democrats agree that there is ‘solid evidence’ the planet is getting warmer, whereas only 43 percent of Republicans share that view, a partisan divide of 34 percent.

“For Democrats, more education seems to predict increased belief in global climate change; for Republicans, some studies find just the opposite: more education predicts decreased belief. So it appears that a person's ideological worldview is a much more robust predictor of their climate beliefs and concerns than their level of education or knowledge about the issue.

“Another factor that has only recently received attention from researchers is how the issue is framed in communications: When we asked Americans to report their belief in ‘global warming,’ we found a sizable partisan divide: 86.9 percent of Democrats believed global warming is occurring, but only 44 percent of Republicans believed it was real. But when we simply asked them for their belief in ‘climate change’ the opinion gap was dramatically reduced: 86.4 percent of Democrats and 60.2 percent of Republicans believed climate change is real.

“Put another way, when the issue is framed as ‘global warming,’ most Republicans don't believe it's really happening – but most Republicans do believe it's real when it is framed as ‘climate change.’

“So it seems that a person's political orientation and what the issue is called affect whether they endorse that it is a real and concerning issue.

“There is an optimistic message to take away from our findings: Given the partisan gulf that exists on many contemporary political issues, it seems that Democrats and Republicans may be closer on this issue than previously thought.”
http://poq.oxfordjournals.org/content/75/1/115

[admin]

University of Arizona Professor Uses Horses to Teach Bedside Manner to Med Students

Dr. Allen Hamilton, a neurosurgeon and professor of surgery at the UA, also is a talented horse trainer and owner of the Rancho Bosque Equine Center. Realizing the important role non-verbal communication plays when training and interacting with horses, Hamilton developed the world's first program for medical students and professionals using equine-facilitated resources to enhance communication and improve bedside manner for their human patents. The program developed at Rancho Bosque has been reproduced in medical schools across the United States and the world.

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfJLZ_vm ... ploademail

[admin]

Beer's Taste Without Alcohol Effect Releases Dopamine
4/16/2013
Indiana University

INDIANAPOLIS -- The taste of beer, without any effect from alcohol itself, can trigger dopamine release in the brain, which is associated with drinking and other drugs of abuse, Indiana University School of Medicine researchers reported.

Using positron emission tomography, or PET, the researchers tested 49 men with two scans, one in which they tasted beer and the second in which they tasted Gatorade. They were looking for evidence of increased levels of dopamine, a brain neurotransmitter. The scans showed significantly more dopamine activity following the taste of beer than the sports drink. Moreover, the effect was significantly greater among participants with a family history of alcoholism.

Results of the study were published online Monday by the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

"We believe this is the first experiment in humans to show that the taste of an alcoholic drink alone, without any intoxicating effect from the alcohol, can elicit this dopamine activity in the brain’s reward centers," said David A. Kareken, Ph.D., professor of neurology at the IU School of Medicine and the deputy director of the Indiana Alcohol Research Center.

The stronger effect in participants with close alcoholic relatives suggests that the release of dopamine in response to such alcohol-related cues may be an inherited risk factor for alcoholism, Dr. Kareken said.

Research for several decades has linked dopamine to the consumption of various drugs of abuse, although researchers have differing interpretations of the neurotransmitter's role. Sensory cues that are closely associated with drug intoxication (such as tastes and smells, or the sight of a tavern) have long been known to spark cravings and induce treatment relapse in recovering alcoholics. Many neuroscientists believe that dopamine plays a critical role in such cravings.

The study participants received a very small amount of their preferred beer -- 15 milliliters -- over a 15-minute time period, enabling them to taste the beer without resulting in any detectable blood-alcohol level or intoxicating effect.

Using a PET scanning compound that targets dopamine receptors in the brain, the researchers were able to assess changes in dopamine levels after the participants tasted the liquids.

In addition to the PET scan results, participants reported an increased beer craving after tasting beer, without similar responses after tasting the sports drink -- even though many thought the Gatorade actually tasted better, said Brandon G. Oberlin, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow and first author of the paper.

Also contributing to the research were Mario Dzemidzic, Ph.D., Stella M. Tran, B.S., Christina M. Soeurt, B.S., Daniel S. Albrecht, B.S., and Karmen K Yoder, Ph.D., all of the IU School of Medicine, the Indiana University Center for Neuroimaging and the IU Health Neuroscience Center.

The research was supported by grants -- R01 AA017661, P60 AA 007611 and T32 AA007462 -- from the National Institutes of Health, and from the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute.

[admin]

Researcher examining effectiveness of Mental Health First Aid
04/24/2013

LAWRENCE — A new approach to recognizing and helping individuals experiencing mental health distress is steadily gaining in use and popularity worldwide. A University of Kansas researcher is leading efforts to determine the effectiveness of the program, known as Mental Health First Aid.

Mental Health First Aid is a public education program that teaches individuals how to recognize and assist a person in mental health distress and help them access more formal supports, much like medical first aid courses do for physical health problems. It is offered in a variety of settings where individuals have contact with a large representation of the community, including workplace settings, schools, colleges and churches. First developed in Australia in 2000, the program has been adapted for use in 20 countries. It came to the United States in 2008 and is now being taught in nearly every state.

Amy Mendenhall, assistant professor of social welfare, has spent the past year gauging the impact of Mental Health First Aid by surveying and interviewing mental health providers across Kansas, and hopes to expand her research to the national level in the near future. Research in Australia has found the program increases individuals’ mental health knowledge, decreases mental health stigma and empowers individuals to help others in need, but little research has been done on the program in the United States.

“We can’t just assume the outcomes will be the same in the United States as they’ve been in Australia or other parts of the world,” Mendenhall said. “The national authorities that oversee it here in the U.S. are very eager to have more research. We all want to find out what the impact is and show the results this educational program is having here in the U.S.”

Mendenhall started by interviewing Kansas mental health providers who teach the course to gain an understanding of how they teach and to whom they offer it. She is now surveying people who took the course from these mental health providers to find out if it improved their mental health knowledge or changed their attitudes toward individuals with mental illness. Mendenhall is also interested in learning if participants have used the knowledge and skills taught in the course to help anyone, either personally or professionally. Starting this summer, Mendenhall plans to expand the Kansas evaluation by studying the recently released youth version of Mental Health First Aid.

Preliminary findings indicate that Mental Health First Aid has a positive impact on public mental health in Kansas. Thus far, people taking part in the research have indicated that the course provides a solid base of knowledge for people with a limited mental health background who are taking it for the first time, and can even act as a useful refresher for individuals with previous mental health education or experience. Others taking the course claim the knowledge and confidence they gained have empowered them to speak up and make a difference by helping themselves or others.

Mendenhall hopes to collaborate with Alicia Lucksted of the University of Maryland-Baltimore Medical School to expand the research to a national level, using her findings from Kansas as a basis. Through the use of more rigorous methods, the national research will expand the Mental Health First Aid body of knowledge by determining its effectiveness and, ideally, helping to improve the program.

“I feel, as a researcher, I have that obligation to show the Mental Health First Aid best practices and results that I’ve found here in Kansas to put a spotlight on them so people nationally can see what’s happening in Kansas,” Mendenhall said. “Hopefully we can use what we have found in Kansas to improve the knowledge of Mental Health First Aid throughout the country as well.”

Mendenhall became interested in evaluating the approach because one of her areas of research is mental health literacy, which refers to how much people know and understand about mental health disorders.

“It’s a very important concept because the level of mental health literacy a person has may impact whether they access needed mental health treatment and the quality of treatment they seek,” Mendenhall said. “By increasing the number of people who know about mental health, we may be able to decrease mental health stigma and decrease the discrepancy between the number of people who struggle with mental health disorders and those who actually get help. Mental Health First Aid is one example of a way to improve mental health literacy in our communities.”
The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. The university's mission is to lift students and society by educating leaders, building healthy communities and making discoveries that change the world. The KU News Service is the central public relations office for the Lawrence campus.

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