More reasons to be nice: It’s less work for everyone

More reasons to be nice: It’s less work for everyone

From the March 9 2011 Eureka news alert

A polite act shows respect. But a new study of a common etiquette—holding a door for someone—suggests that courtesy may have a more practical, though unconscious, shared motivation: to reduce the work for those involved. The research, by Joseph P. Santamaria and David A. Rosenbaum of Pennsylvania State University, is the first to combine two fields of study ordinarily considered unrelated: altruism and motor control. It is to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

“The way etiquette has been viewed by Emily Post—that you’re being proper by following social codes—is undoubtedly part of it,” said psychology professor Rosenbaum. “Our insight is there is another contributor: the mental representation of other people’s physical effort. Substantial research in the field of motor control shows that people are good at estimating how much effort they and others expend,” Rosenbaum continued. “We realized that this concept could be extended to a shared-effort model of politeness.”

 

 

 

Americans Have Higher Rates of Most Chronic Diseases Than Same-Age Counterparts in England

Americans Have Higher Rates of Most Chronic Diseases Than Same-Age Counterparts in England

From the March 9 2011 ScienceDaily news blog

ScienceDaily (Mar. 9, 2011) — Researchers have announced in the American Journal of Epidemiology ***that despite the high level of spending on healthcare in the United States compared to England, Americans experience higher rates of chronic disease and markers of disease than their English counterparts at all ages. Why health status differs so dramatically in these two countries, which share much in terms of history and culture, is a mystery….

…About the studies used in the article: Data were from the 1999-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys for the US (n=39,849) and the 2003-2006 Health Surveys for England (n=69,084).

 

 

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Sunlight can influence the breakdown of medicines in the body

Sunlight can influence the breakdown of medicines in the body

The body’s ability to break down medicines may be closely related to exposure to sunlight, new research suggests. (Credit: iStockphoto/Michiel De Boer)

From the March 9 Science Daily item

ScienceDaily (Mar. 9, 2011) — A study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet has shown that the body’s ability to break down medicines may be closely related to exposure to sunlight, and thus may vary with the seasons. The findings offer a completely new model to explain individual differences in the effects of drugs, and how the surroundings can influence the body’s ability to deal with toxins.

The study will be published in the scientific journal Drug Metabolism & Disposition and is based on nearly 70,000 analyses from patients who have undergone regular monitoring of the levels of drugs in their blood.

 

 

Medical microcamera the size of a grain of salt gives razor-sharp images, very inexpensively

Medical microcamera the size of a grain of salt gives razor-sharp images, very inexpensively

From the March 9 2011 Science Daily item

ScienceDaily (Mar. 9, 2011) — There have been gloves and shavers for one-off use for a long time. In future, there will also be disposable endoscopes for minimally invasive operations on the human body. A new microcamera is what makes it possible. It is as large as a grain of salt, supplies razor-sharp pictures and can be manufactured very inexpensively.

 

Blood pressure: 100 million Americans may be unnecessarily labeled abnormal

Blood pressure: 100 million Americans may be unnecessarily labeled abnormal

From a March 9 2011 Science Daily news item

ScienceDaily (Mar. 9, 2011) — As many as 100 million Americans may currently be misclassified as having abnormal blood pressure, according to Dr. Brent Taylor from the Veterans Affairs Health Care System in Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota and his colleagues. Their findings show that these people are not actually more likely to die prematurely than those with ‘normal’ blood pressure, i.e. below 120/80. Taylor and colleagues’ article in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, published by Springer, also shows that in those under 50, diastolic blood pressure* is the more important predictor of mortality, whereas in those over 50, systolic blood pressure* is the stronger predictor. The authors argue it is time to consider a new definition of ‘normal’ blood pressure.

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