Health posts
- February 13, 2012
- 06:00 AM
- 16 views
Drinking Alcohol makes you pee more – but how much?
by Stuart Farrimond in Dr Stu's Science Blog
Too much tipple and you’ll know about it the next day. The dreaded hangover – headaches, fatigue and nausea are normal Sunday morning sensations for many a Saturday night reveller. Dehydration is frequently said to be the reason for hangover symptoms – and some swear that a pint of tap water before bed thwarts any alcohol-induced … Continue reading »... Read more »
Strauss, M., Rosenbaum, J., & Nelson, W. (1950) THE EFFECT OF ALCOHOL ON THE RENAL EXCRETION OF WATER AND ELECTROLYTE 1. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 29(8), 1053-1058. DOI: 10.1172/JCI102336
- February 12, 2012
- 01:21 PM
- 22 views
Cell Phone Use and Risk of Brain Cancer
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In my last post I examined the epidemiology of brain tumors using a summary of the latest data from the United States. The summary noted the slight decline in the number of malignant brain cancers over the last twenty years.One area of concern that is receiving increased attention is the potential for cell phone risk to raise the risk of brain cancers.Obviously if cell phone use was a very large effect one might have expected an increase in the rates of brain tumors and cancer over th........ Read more »
Frei, P., Poulsen, A., Johansen, C., Olsen, J., Steding-Jessen, M., & Schuz, J. (2011) Use of mobile phones and risk of brain tumours: update of Danish cohort study. BMJ, 343(oct19 4). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.d6387
- February 10, 2012
- 09:22 AM
- 64 views
5 Million Cans of Beer
by Carian Thus in United Academics
The Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota sued some of the world’s biggest beer makers over severe alcohol-related issues in the community. ... Read more »
May PA, & Smith MB. (1988) Some Navajo Indian opinions about alcohol abuse and prohibition: a survey and recommendations for policy. Journal of studies on alcohol, 49(4), 324-34. PMID: 3172780
Beauvais, F. (1988) American Indians and Alcohol. Alcohol Health , 22(4), 253-259. info:/
- February 8, 2012
- 02:48 PM
- 62 views
Cyberchondria: Online health information and health anxiety
by Ben in Critical Science
Wondering what that rash on your arm is? If the cough you’ve had for a few days warrants making an appointment to see your doctor/physician? If you’ve ever used the internet to answer these sort of questions then you’re in the 60-80% of internet users who regularly do so. In theory this is a great idea – you get access to the collective knowledge of medicine, and you don’t get kicked out of the appointment room after 15 minutes. However, there are a few problems – research tell us th........ Read more »
Muse, K., McManus, F., Leung, C., Meghreblian, B., & Williams, J. (2012) Cyberchondriasis: Fact or fiction? A preliminary examination of the relationship between health anxiety and searching for health information on the Internet. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 26(1), 189-196. DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.11.005
- February 8, 2012
- 10:12 AM
- 44 views
Is Medical Reporting Making the Grade?
by Arielle D. Ross in Salamander Hours
The quality of scientific reporting, especially of medical reporting, is of great import to the public, but that is only one reason among many to care about media coverage quality. False or sub-quality reporting can lead to inaccurate beliefs, … Continue reading →... Read more »
Schwartz, L., Woloshin, S., Andrews, A., & Stukel, T. (2012) Influence of medical journal press releases on the quality of associated newspaper coverage: retrospective cohort study. BMJ, 344(jan27 1). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.d8164
- February 8, 2012
- 07:44 AM
- 56 views
Deceiving Degrees
by E Markham in Genetic Cuckoo
Discussion of the recent change to courses offered in British universities following increased awareness and protest against pseudoscience, with more universities choosing to no longer offer degrees in homeopathy and alternative medicine, it seems evidence based medicine is finally eradicating flimflam from our higher institutions. However, this is not the situation in much of the world, as many leading universities in Australia still offering these misleading and pointless courses. This article........ Read more »
E Markham. (2012) Deceiving Degrees. Blogspot. info:/
- February 7, 2012
- 04:20 PM
- 74 views
Oxytocin’s (Not So) Better Half
by APS Daily Observations in Daily Observations
Feeling all warm and fuzzy? Chalk it up to oxytocin, the touchy-feely hormone that allows us to trust, bond, and even fall in love. Despite nicknames such as “the moral ... Read more »
Kemp, A., & Guastella, A. (2011) The Role of Oxytocin in Human Affect: A Novel Hypothesis. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(4), 222-231. DOI: 10.1177/0963721411417547
- February 6, 2012
- 09:44 PM
- 56 views
Mapping Brain Areas that are Responsive to Anti-Relapse Medications
by Allison in Dormivigilia
A summary of my last chapter of my dissertation. Woo hoo!!... Read more »
Brager A, Prosser RA, & Glass JD. (2011) Acamprosate-responsive brain sites for suppression of ethanol intake and preference. American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology, 301(4). PMID: 21697518
- February 6, 2012
- 05:30 AM
- 56 views
Why that Diet Soda/Stroke Paper is Worthless and a Failure of Peer Review
by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters
Ugh.So without spending too much time on this, here's the thing, that paper that purported daily diet soft drink consumption was associated with several vascular risk factors including strokes? It's useless, and moreover, it's a glaring failure of peer review.Why?Because the authors didn't even attempt to control for dietary quality, and moreover, the dietary recall data itself was obviously inherently flawed.First the control issue. As I'm sure you're aware, what we eat has a tremendous impac........ Read more »
Gardener, H., Rundek, T., Markert, M., Wright, C., Elkind, M., & Sacco, R. (2012) Diet Soft Drink Consumption is Associated with an Increased Risk of Vascular Events in the Northern Manhattan Study. Journal of General Internal Medicine. DOI: 10.1007/s11606-011-1968-2
- February 6, 2012
- 03:39 AM
- 120 views
Is it good to listen to music at work?
by Stuart Farrimond in Dr Stu's Science Blog
There’s one thing you notice whenever you come back from camping. The noise. In the car, the shops, the gym: the beat of a drum, the strum of a guitar, the sound of synth – it can feel like we live world of tunes. Arrive at work and what do we do? Turn the radio … Continue reading »... Read more »
Kampfe, J., Sedlmeier, P., & Renkewitz, F. (2010) The impact of background music on adult listeners: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Music, 39(4), 424-448. DOI: 10.1177/0305735610376261
Haake, A. (2011) Individual music listening in workplace settings: An exploratory survey of offices in the UK. Musicae Scientiae, 15(1), 107-129. DOI: 10.1177/1029864911398065
- February 5, 2012
- 05:09 PM
- 30 views
Mapping Malaria in Anglo-Saxon England
by Michelle Ziegler in Contagions
England once looked very different. Much of southern Britain was marshland for most of the island’s occupied history. These bogs, fens, and marshes ensured that areas of virtual wilderness persisted from before Roman Britain through the Norman period and beyond. Despite the difficulties of using fenlands, these areas were not only occupied throughout the Anglo-Saxon [...]... Read more »
Gowland RL, & Western AG. (2011) Morbidity in the marshes: Using spatial epidemiology to investigate skeletal evidence for malaria in Anglo-Saxon England (AD 410-1050). American journal of physical anthropology. PMID: 22183814
- February 5, 2012
- 05:06 PM
- 54 views
The Problem of Self-Worth Risk Aversion
by erichorow in peer-reviewed by my neurons
The lack preventative healthcare consumption in America seems absurd. Even though going to the doctor when you’re relatively healthy could save your life, a suboptimal number of people do it. But when viewed another way, our avoidance of routine doctor visits makes perfect sense. The default position is for people to assume they are [...]... Read more »
Howell, J., & Shepperd, J. (2012) Reducing Information Avoidance Through Affirmation. Psychological Science, 23(2), 141-145. DOI: 10.1177/0956797611424164
SHERMAN, D., & COHEN, G. (2006) The Psychology of Self‐defense: Self‐Affirmation Theory. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 183-242. DOI: 10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38004-5
- February 5, 2012
- 07:50 AM
- 66 views
Pink elephants and trauma recovery
by Eva Alisic in Trauma Recovery
Don’t think of a pink elephant.
It’s a classic example of how thought suppression works: counterproductively. You will think of a pink elephant. Wegner and colleagues have shown that it is very difficult to suppress a thought. If you try, it’s very likely that you will think about it more than if you don’t...
... Read more »
Vincken, M., Meesters, C., Engelhard, I., & Schouten, E. (2012) Psychometric qualities of the White Bear Suppression Inventory in a Dutch sample of children and adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences, 52(3), 301-305. DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2011.10.023
Ehlers, A., & Clark, D. (2000) A cognitive model of posttraumatic stress disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38(4), 319-345. DOI: 10.1016/S0005-7967(99)00123-0
Wenzlaff, R., & Wegner, D. (2000) Thought Suppression. Annual Review of Psychology, 51(1), 59-91. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.psych.51.1.59
- February 4, 2012
- 05:36 PM
- 97 views
The Common Origins of Homosexuality and Mental Illness
by ultimo167 in Strong Silent Types
Zietsch et al. (2012) argue that the 'dominant' minority stress explanation for why gay men are so depressed cannot explain how even in enlightened countries such as Norway, gay men remain so painfully low. Alternatively, they suggest a common but, as yet, not properly defined combination of etiological factors that cause both homosexuality and mental illness.... Read more »
Zietsch BP, Verweij KJ, Heath AC, Madden PA, Martin NG, Nelson EC, & Lynskey MT. (2012) Do shared etiological factors contribute to the relationship between sexual orientation and depression?. Psychological medicine, 42(3), 521-32. PMID: 21867592
- February 2, 2012
- 07:00 PM
- 119 views
Herpes Gladiatorum: Full Contact Infectious Diseases
by rbca in BODY HORRORS
In honor of one of the most lucrative American holidays happening this very weekend, I thought I’d explore sports and infectious diseases. Specifically, contact sports and skin infections! What could be better than watching the Super Bowl and knowing just exactly what kind of diseases could possibly be smeared between the players of the Patriots and Giants?... Read more »
Adams, B. (2010) Skin infections in athletes. Expert Review of Dermatology, 5(5), 567-577. DOI: 10.1586/edm.10.50
- February 2, 2012
- 02:30 PM
- 135 views
A Case for Oral Diagnostics with Microfluidics
by Hector Munoz in Microfluidic Future
What’s So Great About Oral Diagnostics?
Well, a lot of things, but let’s start with the basics. In order to use a microfluidic device, you need some type of fluid right? Sure if you had some powder or fine material you could suspend it in a fluid, but for simplicity sake, let’s look at fluids as our test material. If you wanted to run a health-related diagnostic, you only have so many bodily fluids available before you have to get creative and very invasive:
Blood
........ Read more »
Giannobile, W., McDevitt, J., Niedbala, R., & Malamud, D. (2011) Translational and Clinical Applications of Salivary Diagnostics. Advances in Dental Research, 23(4), 375-380. DOI: 10.1177/0022034511420434
Hart, R., Mauk, M., Liu, C., Qiu, X., Thompson, J., Chen, D., Malamud, D., Abrams, W., & Bau, H. (2011) Point-of-care oral-based diagnostics. Oral Diseases, 17(8), 745-752. DOI: 10.1111/j.1601-0825.2011.01808.x
- February 2, 2012
- 12:32 PM
- 73 views
Improving healthy food & beverage choices through choice architecture
by pennydeck in Feedback Solutions for Obesity
In my previous blog post, I discussed a study by Thorndike et al that looked at how both labeling healthy and unhealthy food choices with colour codes affected the purchase of healthy foods and beverages (1). The previous post focused … Continue reading →... Read more »
Thorndike, A., Sonnenberg, L., Riis, J., Barraclough, S., & Levy, D. (2012) A 2-Phase Labeling and Choice Architecture Intervention to Improve Healthy Food and Beverage Choices. American Journal of Public Health. DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300391
- February 2, 2012
- 06:30 AM
- 124 views
This is the Way to Bad Medicine - II
by Rogue Medic in Rogue Medic
Their categorization of only 3 (out of 32) serious adverse events as "Probably related to treatment" and none as "Definitely related to treatment" suggests that they are not being objective. How do they explain this in the discussion? They don’t. Maybe they aren’t referring to the serious adverse events, but are referring to deaths. I don’t know and since they do not explain, I can only speculate.... Read more »
Barreto, A., Alexandrov, A., Lyden, P., Lee, J., Martin-Schild, S., Shen, L., Wu, T., Sisson, A., Pandurengan, R., Chen, Z.... (2012) The Argatroban and Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator Stroke Study: Final Results of a Pilot Safety Study. Stroke. DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.111.625574
- February 1, 2012
- 05:30 AM
- 24 views
Obesity in Women Linked to Living Near Parks?!
by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters
If you like your data clean, pretty and predictable, you probably don't want to read the rest of this post.Researchers from my hometown here in Ottawa recently published a study ahead of print in the journal Obesity. The paper, Relationships Between Neighborhoods, Physical Activity, and Obesity: A Multilevel Analysis of a Large Canadian City looked at a number of different built environment variables and their impacts upon the probability of both leisure time physical activity and overweight an........ Read more »
Prince, S., Kristjansson, E., Russell, K., Billette, J., Sawada, M., Ali, A., Tremblay, M., & Prud'homme, D. (2012) Relationships Between Neighborhoods, Physical Activity, and Obesity: A Multilevel Analysis of a Large Canadian City. Obesity. DOI: 10.1038/oby.2011.392
- February 1, 2012
- 12:08 AM
- 80 views
Water, Water Everywhere…but How Much Should You Drink?
by Kyle Harris in Sports Medicine Research (SMR): In the Lab & In the Field
Williams and colleagues utilized a questionnaire to assess runners’ hydration plans for before, during, and after the London Marathon, and evaluated how closely these plans followed the current recommendations.... Read more »
Williams J, Tzortzioubrown V, Malliaras P, Perry M, & Kipps C. (2012) Hydration Strategies of Runners in the London Marathon. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine. PMID: 22246343
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