ScienceDaily: Living Well News

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• If you think you have Alzheimer's, you just might be right, study suggests
• Team sport compensates for estrogen loss
• Jupiter will be at its highest point in the sky for many years to come
• Optimizing custody is child's play for physicists
• Greece's deepening health crisis a result of continued healthcare budget cuts, says study
• Peer pressured to 'sext:' Study shows that teens who sext are influenced by peer dynamics
• Long-term daily multivitamin supplement use decreases cataract risk in men, study finds
• Multilevel approach to coping with stigmas may help relieve many health issues
• Concussion researchers document pre-injury 'normal'
• Cortisol: Stress hormone linked to frailty
• Promoting water use efficiency in an innovative way
• More educated people from wealthier areas, women, those with no religious affiliation more likely to choose assisted suicide
• Earlier palliative care improves quality of life, patient satisfaction, cancer study shows

If you think you have Alzheimer's, you just might be right, study suggests Posted: 21 Feb 2014 08:41 AM PST A correlation between self-reported incidence of memory loss and development of cognitive memory impairment later in life has been identified through a new study. The results are meaningful because it might help identify people who are at risk of developing Alzheimer's Disease sooner. "If the memory and thinking lapses people notice themselves could be early markers of risk for Alzheimer's disease, we might eventually be able to intervene earlier in the aging process to postpone and/or reduce the effects of cognitive memory impairment," the authors note.

Team sport compensates for estrogen loss Posted: 21 Feb 2014 07:39 AM PST When women enter menopause, their estrogen levels taper. This increases their risk of cardiovascular disease. New research shows that interval-based team sport can make up for this estrogen loss as it improves their conditions, reduces blood pressure and thereby protects the cardiovascular system.

Jupiter will be at its highest point in the sky for many years to come Posted: 21 Feb 2014 07:38 AM PST In just over a week, Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, will be at its highest point in the sky for many years to come. Near their closest to Earth, Jupiter and its moons will appear obvious in the sky, offering fantastic opportunities to view the giant planet through a telescope.

Optimizing custody is child's play for physicists Posted: 21 Feb 2014 04:38 AM PST Ensuring that parents in recomposed families see their children regularly is a complex network problem, according to a new study. The lead researcher set out to resolve one of his real-life problems: finding a suitable weekend for both partners in his recomposed family to see all their children at the same time. He then joined forces with a mathematician and a complex systems expert. The answer they came up with is that such an agreement is not possible, in general.

Greece's deepening health crisis a result of continued healthcare budget cuts, says study Posted: 20 Feb 2014 04:34 PM PST Greece's health crisis is worsening as a result of continued healthcare budget cuts, says a new study. Researchers say the harmful effects of austerity are linked to the increasing inability of patients to access the health system, large rises in the incidence of infectious disease, and a deterioration in the overall mental health of Greek people.

Peer pressured to 'sext:' Study shows that teens who sext are influenced by peer dynamics Posted: 20 Feb 2014 01:56 PM PST Are adolescents today "sexting" for popularity? Mobile phones are fully integrated into the social lives of today's teenagers, and offer a sense of autonomy for those looking to hide from adult supervision. Concerns have risen over the use of the mobile phone as an instrument to download, produce, and distribute sexual imagery and a growing number of studies on adolescent mobile communication report that the consumption and distribution of pornographic imagery via mobile phones is common in adolescent peer groups. Though very few studies have asked "why" adolescents choose to participate in sexting or the use of mobile porn, those that have asked "why" continually point to the influence of peer group dynamics.

Long-term daily multivitamin supplement use decreases cataract risk in men, study finds Posted: 20 Feb 2014 01:12 PM PST Long-term daily multivitamin supplement use may lower cataract risk in men, according to a study of nearly 15,000 male physicians. Half took a common daily multivitamin, as well as vitamin C, vitamin E and beta carotene supplements. The other half took a placebo. The researchers followed the participants to identify how many participants in each group developed new cases of two common eye diseases: cataract and age-related macular degeneration. Results showed a 9 percent decrease in risk for those that took the supplements.

Multilevel approach to coping with stigmas may help relieve many health issues Posted: 20 Feb 2014 11:17 AM PST Socially stigmatized groups have poorer health than non-stigmatized groups, but a team of researchers believes that more emphasis on two-way and multidisciplinary interventions will have a greater and more successful impact on relieving many health issues. Stigma results when a negative stereotype becomes attached to a particular characteristic in societal consciousness. People with this specific characteristic come to be seen as lower in status than others and therefore separate. Once separate, these groups become a target for discrimination. Stigma can affect interactions, the availability of resources and the way people think and feel, leading to social exclusion -- which is associated with an increased risk of mortality.

Concussion researchers document pre-injury 'normal' Posted: 20 Feb 2014 11:16 AM PST Protecting student-athletes who sustain head injuries requires more than just a law. A sports concussion protocol that includes a neuro-cognitive assessment tool called ImPACT, balance testing and quality-of-life measures has now been developed at an American university. These valuable pre-injury baseline measurements are taken free of charge to those organizations that have a concussion policy and compliance officer in place. This helps coaches, parents and administrators tools that a trained medical professional can use to track the athlete's recovery.

Cortisol: Stress hormone linked to frailty Posted: 20 Feb 2014 10:13 AM PST Lower morning and higher evening cortisol levels contribute to frailty in older individuals, according to new research. Frailty confers a high risk for institutionalization and increased risk of mortality and is characterized by unintentional weight loss, feelings of exhaustion and fatigue, physical inactivity, slow gait speed and low grip strength. Neuroendocrine function, including cortisol secretion, is thought to be involved in the etiology of frailty, but until now the underlying biological mechanisms have not been well understood.

Promoting water use efficiency in an innovative way Posted: 20 Feb 2014 06:50 AM PST Increasing block-rate water budgets are an innovative type of escalating tiered price structure in which the consumption block sizes are based on household characteristics, environmental conditions, and a judgment by the water utility. But do they encourage customers to conserve water? Yes, according to a professor of environmental economics policy who performed the first study to estimate the conservation potential of water budget rate structures.

More educated people from wealthier areas, women, those with no religious affiliation more likely to choose assisted suicide Posted: 19 Feb 2014 04:54 AM PST Assisted suicide is more common in women, the divorced, those living alone, the more educated, those with no religious affiliation, and those from wealthier areas, researchers in Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal, have concluded from a recent study. Having children was associated with a lower risk of assisted suicide in younger people, although not in older people. The study, the authors suggest, is relevant to the debate on a possibly disproportionate number of assisted suicides among vulnerable groups.

Earlier palliative care improves quality of life, patient satisfaction, cancer study shows Posted: 19 Feb 2014 04:51 AM PST The impact of providing early outpatient palliative care versus standard oncology care in a wide range of advanced cancers indicate that earlier care improved quality of life and patient satisfaction, the first clinical study of its kind suggest. The findings demonstrate the benefits of cancer centers providing early specialized palliative care in outpatient clinics. To put the findings into practice, palliative care teams should be involved much earlier in the course of illness to provide collaborative care together with oncologists, says the lead researcher.

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