MRI Shows Mind Over Matter May Really Diminish Pain

MRI Shows Mind Over Matter May Really Diminish Pain

From the April 8 Medical News Today item

Focus, zen, meditate and your pain may go away or diminish. A new MRI brain image study shows that just after a short period of meditation, pain intensity is weakened when subjected to unpleasent stimuli such as extreme heat.

The study participants were taught a meditation technique known as focused attention, which involves paying close attention to breathing patterns while acknowledging and letting go of thoughts that distract you.

Fadel Zeidan, PhD, who is a postdoctoral fellow at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, says:

“This is the first study to show that only a little over an hour of meditation training can dramatically reduce both the experience of pain and pain-related brain activation.”…

….Source: Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center News Release

 

Lifetime of Good Health: Your Guide to Staying Healthy

Lifetime of Good Health: Your Guide to Staying Healthy

This womenshealth.gov **online 67 page guide includes information on preventative screening tests and immunizations and risk factors. It is in pdf format. This guide offers you a plan for health at all stages of life.

Short informational “fact sheets” presented include the following topics:

• Heart Disease/Heart Attack
• Diabetes
• Chronic Health Conditions
• Reproductive Health
• Breast Cancer
• Healthy Bones, Skin, Eyes
• Mental Health
• Dealing with Violence
• Talking with your health care provider

Each topic includes easy to read tips. Many topics include phone numbers and Web sites for further information.

Spanish and Chinese language options may be found here.

**womenshealth.gov is the US federal government source for women health information.

Elderly Tend to Drive Slower to Make up for Reaction Time

Elderly Tend to Drive Slower to Make up for Reaction Time
Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:00:00 -0600

Narrowed field of vision limits ability to detect potential pedestrian hazards, experts say

Source: HealthDay
Related MedlinePlus Pages: Motor Vehicle Safety, Seniors’ Health

Popular Baby Media May Not Actually Advance Learning

Popular Baby Media May Not Actually Advance Learning
Thu, 10 Mar 2011 08:00:00 -0600

As science catches up to marketing, doubts arise about value, effectiveness

Source: HealthDay
Related MedlinePlus Pages: Infant and Newborn Development, Toddler Development

Gambling problems are more common than drinking problems, according to first-of-its-kind study

Gambling problems are more common than drinking problems, according to first-of-its-kind study

From a March 24 2011 Science Daily news item

ScienceDaily (Mar. 25, 2011) — After age 21, problem gambling is considerably more common among U.S. adults than alcohol dependence, even though alcohol dependence has received much more attention, according to researchers at the University at Buffalo‘s Research Institute on Addictions.

In results published this month in the Journal of Gambling Studies, John W. Welte, principal investigator on the study and a national expert on alcohol and gambling pathology, concluded that there is a distinct inconsistency between his research and much of the other research literature. Other research supports the proposition that problem gambling is more common among adolescents than among adults. Problem gambling has often been described as rare. Even the National Council on Problem Gambling describes it as “rare but treatable.”

Welte and colleagues conducted, then combined, results from two national surveys of gambling and alcohol — one of youth ages 14-21 and the second of adults 18 and older — to identify patterns of U.S. gambling and alcohol use across the lifespan. They found that gambling, frequent gambling and problem gambling increases in frequency during the teen years, reaches its highest level in the 20s and 30s and then fall off among those over 70.

“No comparable analysis has been done previously and therefore none is available for a direct comparison of these results,” Welte says. “But, given what we found about the persistence of frequent and problem gambling through adulthood, increased prevention and intervention efforts are warranted.”

Other results detailed in the article demonstrate that frequent gambling is twice as great among men (28 percent) as among women (13 percent). Men reach their highest rates of both any gambling and frequent gambling in the late teens, while females take longer to reach their highest rates.

The odds of any gambling in the past year are significantly higher for whites than for blacks or Asians, although the odds of frequent gambling are higher for blacks and Native Americans, the study found.

.

Welte’s first telephone survey of adult gambling was conducted in 1999-2000 with 2,631 adults from 4,036 households nationwide. The second survey of youth gambling in 2005-2007 included 2,274 youth — with parental permission — from 4,467 households. Both surveys were conducted with residents drawn from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Questions asked of those who agreed to participate ranged from frequency of drinking, quantity and type of alcoholic beverage to frequency of past-year gambling and type of gambling, such as raffles, cards, casinos, sports betting, horse or dog track, lottery involvement and games of skill.

The UB RIA research team included Grace M. Barnes, senior research scientist, Marie-Cecile O. Tidwell, project manager, and Joseph H. Hoffman, statistician. The study was supported by funding from the National Institute on Mental Health.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University at Buffalo.

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Journal Reference:

1. John W. Welte, Grace M. Barnes, Marie-Cecile O. Tidwell, Joseph H. Hoffman. Gambling and Problem Gambling Across the Lifespan. Journal of Gambling Studies, 2010; 27 (1): 49 DOI: 10.1007/s10899-010-9195-z

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