ScienceDaily: Living Well News

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• The diet-proof holiday meal: Seven ways to stay on track this season
• Nearly 80 million Americans won't need vitamin D supplements under new guidelines
• Moderate drinking decreases number of new brain cells
• Video game with biofeedback teaches children to curb their anger
• Wall Street gets it wrong on presidential politics, experts say
• Pigs may look healthy but can test positive for flu at fairs
• How to stop winter from weathering your skin: Top ten tips for preventing 'winter itch'
• For presidential candidates, image may trump debate issues, experts say
• Self-affirmation enhances performance, makes us receptive to our mistakes
• Is obesity irreversible? Timing is key in weight loss
• A sense of control, even if illusory, eliminates emotion-driven distortions of time
• When negative political ads work
• Buffalo milk mozzarella or buffaloed consumers? New test can provide the answer
• Herbal and dietary supplements can adversely affect prescribed drugs, says extensive review
• Parents look on the bright side of kids' worries
• Partial sleep deprivation linked to obesity

The diet-proof holiday meal: Seven ways to stay on track this season Posted: 24 Oct 2012 02:52 PM PDT Holiday dinners are filled with heaping dishes of comfort foods, fattening favorites and savory treats. It is no wonder these meals often leave us feeling stuffed with guilt and holiday remorse.

Nearly 80 million Americans won't need vitamin D supplements under new guidelines Posted: 24 Oct 2012 02:52 PM PDT Nearly 80 million Americans would no longer need to take vitamin D supplements under new Institute of Medicine guidelines, according to a new study.

Moderate drinking decreases number of new brain cells Posted: 24 Oct 2012 01:47 PM PDT Moderate to binge drinking significantly reduces the structural integrity of the adult brain. The new research indicates that daily drinking decreases nerve cell development in the hippocampus part of the brain -- necessary for some type of learning and memory -- by 40 percent.

Video game with biofeedback teaches children to curb their anger Posted: 24 Oct 2012 01:47 PM PDT Children with serious anger problems can be helped by a video game that hones their ability to regulate their emotions, finds a new study. Noticing that children with anger control problems are often uninterested in psychotherapy, but eager to play video games, researchers developed "RAGE Control" to motivate children to practice emotional control skills.

Wall Street gets it wrong on presidential politics, experts say Posted: 24 Oct 2012 01:47 PM PDT A new study debunks the conventional wisdom of how political elections impact the stock market: Presidential affiliation has little impact; gridlock is bad for the market; Fed policy is more important than politics.

Pigs may look healthy but can test positive for flu at fairs Posted: 24 Oct 2012 01:46 PM PDT More than 80 percent of pigs that tested positive for influenza A virus at Ohio county fairs between 2009 and 2011 showed no signs of illness in a new study. A second study showed a 99+ percent genetic similarity among human and pig flu viruses from 2012, indicating interspecies transmission.

How to stop winter from weathering your skin: Top ten tips for preventing 'winter itch' Posted: 24 Oct 2012 01:46 PM PDT All winter flakes are not made of snow. Cold weather, with its low relative humidity, wreaks havoc on our skin, making it dry and flaky. Skin dries out if it's deprived of moisture and this dryness often aggravates itchiness, resulting in a condition commonly referred to as "winter itch."

For presidential candidates, image may trump debate issues, experts say Posted: 24 Oct 2012 01:46 PM PDT The wide swings in debate performances by this year's presidential candidates reflect the fact that in modern campaigns, a candidate's image is the message, according to linguistic anthropologists who have studied presidential campaigns. Candidates send important messages to voters through even their smallest gestures, the researchers say.

Self-affirmation enhances performance, makes us receptive to our mistakes Posted: 24 Oct 2012 12:08 PM PDT From the mistakes we make at work or school to our blunders in romantic relationships, we are constantly reminded of how we could be better. By focusing on the important qualities that make us who we are -- a process called self-affirmation -- we preserve our self-worth in the face of our shortcomings. New research explores the neurophysiological reactions that could explain how self-affirmation helps us deal with threats to our self-integrity.

Is obesity irreversible? Timing is key in weight loss Posted: 24 Oct 2012 11:16 AM PDT It's one of the most frustrating mysteries of weight loss -- why the weight inevitably comes back.

A sense of control, even if illusory, eliminates emotion-driven distortions of time Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:34 AM PDT We humans have a fairly erratic sense of time. We tend to misjudge the duration of events, particularly when they are emotional in nature. Disturbingly negative experiences, for example, seem to last much longer than they actually do. And highly positive experiences seem to pass more quickly than negative ones. Now researchers say they have found a way to lessen these emotion-driven time distortions.

When negative political ads work Posted: 24 Oct 2012 09:48 AM PDT Televised political advertising takes up a large portion of campaigns budgets. Much of it is spent on negative political ads. A new study shows that a negative political ad is most effective when it's shown in moderation. The findings reveal that massive exposure to a negative ad has a backlash effect on the evaluation of the sponsor candidate.

Buffalo milk mozzarella or buffaloed consumers? New test can provide the answer Posted: 24 Oct 2012 09:48 AM PDT Those tiny balls of boutique mozzarella cheese with the sticker-shock price tag beckoning from the dairy case -- are they the real deal, mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP, crafted from the milk of water buffaloes? Or are they really cheap fakes made from cow's milk? A new method promises to provide the answer for mozzarella and other dairy products.

Herbal and dietary supplements can adversely affect prescribed drugs, says extensive review Posted: 24 Oct 2012 07:17 AM PDT A number of herbs and dietary supplements (HDS) can cause potentially harmful drug interactions, particularly among people receiving medication for problems with their central nervous or cardiovascular systems. Researchers examined 54 review articles and 31 original studies. They found that the greatest problems were caused by interactions between prescribed drugs and HDS that included ingredients such as St John's Wort, magnesium, calcium, iron or ginkgo.

Parents look on the bright side of kids' worries Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:33 AM PDT Parents consistently overestimate their children's optimism and downplay their worries, according to new research.

Partial sleep deprivation linked to obesity Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:33 AM PDT Evidence linking partial sleep deprivation to energy imbalance is relevant to weight gain prevention and weight loss promotion. A new study bases this finding on an extensive review of literature published over a fifteen-year period.

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