Increased physical activity may be positive side effect of state program

A state program designed to make children’s routes to school safer may actually be encouraging kids to walk or bike to school more often – something that’s good for their health.

The UC Irvine study examining the effectiveness of the California Safe Routes to Schools program is the first to evaluate whether changes to the built environment can increase pedestrian travel to school. The study looks at el

Eager buyers who get swept up in the excitement of an auction and end up regretting it can take some comfort in knowing why: bidding frenzy, a condition uncovered by University of Alberta researchers.

The more intense the bidding is at an auction, the more likely it is that a buyer will be gripped by bidding frenzy, said Dr. Peter Popkowski Leszczyc, a marketing professor at the University of Alberta School of Business. “It is a mental state characterized by a high level of aro

Dramatic changes in working patterns have taken place in the UK, particularly in the rise of women in employment. Three quarters of households now have dual incomes, but women still take responsibility for most of the housework, according to research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Despite institutional and legislative changes intended to reduce inequality and improve work-life balance, women are still finding themselves working long hours at home and at work an

A new UCLA study shows that people drink less alcohol as they age–but drinking among those who were born in earlier years showed a faster decline than among people born more recently.

For instance, people born in 1925 decreased their drinking an average of 11 percent for each decade of aging while those born in 1935 reduced their drinking about 9 percent each decade. The study, “Longitudinal Patterns and Predictors of Alcohol Consumption in the United States,” is published in the

Health insurance that pays the full cost of smoking-cessation treatments can increase quit rates, compared to benefit plans that pick up only part of the tab or that offer no cessation benefits at all, according to a new review of studies.

Smokers receiving full benefits were one-and-a-half times more likely to quit successfully and nearly one-and-a-half times more likely to try quitting than those receiving no benefit, according to review authors Janneke Kaper of Maastricht Univ

Young adults can be motivated to eat more servings of fruits and vegetables if they are exposed to tailored, practical messages about nutrition, a University of Wisconsin-Madison nutritional scientist announced today (Feb. 20) at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, D.C.

“Even though young adults are incredibly busy, they still want to know what they can do to improve their health,” says Susan Nitzke, a professor at

AN embarrassing medical problem that costs UK health services £50m each year is to be investigated in the biggest-ever study of the condition in the world.

Until now, constipation has largely been overlooked for major health studies but the new £650,000 project, which is funded by the British Government, led by a research team from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and aims to involve nearly 2,000 patients, changes that.

In Britain, nearly half a million GP consu

More potent and highly selective therapy effective in treating Gleevec-resistant disease

A laboratory study led by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has shown that a potent and highly selective therapy for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) may ultimately be more effective than Gleevec®, the current standard of care. The researchers report in the February issue of Cancer Cell that the new compound, AMN107, is about 20 times more potent than Gleevec and is effective in t

Neuroscience for high schoolers? Why not, says Cornell University neurobiologist Ron Hoy. To prove his point that the subject can be exciting for young people to study, Hoy and a Cornell development team of colleagues and undergraduates have developed a suite of novel, interdisciplinary multimedia teaching tools.

The teaching aids, with descriptive names like Koé (Japanese for “voice”) and Fruitfly, take neuroscience out of the realm of the just plain technical and difficult and in

Following the Asian tsunami, scientists struggled to explain reports that primitive aboriginal tribesmen had somehow sensed the impending danger in time to join wild animals in a life-saving flight to higher ground.

While some scientists discount the existence of a sixth sense for danger, new research from Washington University in St. Louis has identified a brain region that clearly acts as an early warning system — one that monitors environmental cues, weighs possible conseque

Study reveals clues to the mechanism of short-term memory

Understanding the biology of memory is a major goal of contemporary neuroscientists. Short-term or “working” memory is an important process that enables us to interact in meaningful ways with others and to comprehend the world around us on a moment-to-moment basis. A study published this week in Science (February 18) presents a strikingly simple yet robust mathematical model of how short-term memory circuits in the brain a

Three commonly used drugs — Prozac, Xenical and Meridia — may help type 2 diabetes patients lose small amounts of weight, although long-term benefits are not clear, a new review of 22 studies suggests.

Prozac and Sarafem, known generically as fluoxetine, are most commonly prescribed as antidepressants. Xenical, the brand name for orlistat, blocks fat digestion in the intestines. Meridia, known generically as subtramine, is an appetite suppressant that works in the brain.

A new study will test an FDA-approved antidepressant for its potential to alleviate bladder pain for which there is no known cause and no effective therapy. Thousands, if not millions, of patients may benefit. The study is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Ten medical centers in the United States and Canada are recruiting adults newly diagnosed with either painful bladder syndrome (PBS) or interstitial cystitis (IC) to learn if the oral drug amitriptyline (Elav

The tension created between the supposed egalitarianism and the hierarchical realities of the American workplace can often cause conversational “black holes” during which employees avoid calling their bosses by any name, according to a Penn State researcher.

“Uncertainty over whether it is appropriate to call your boss ’Bob’ or ’Mr. Smith’ can create tension for employees in today’s workplace,” says Dr. David A. Morand, professor of management at Penn

In a new study, researchers present a “cautionary tale” about what may go wrong when using the fledgling science of proteomics to devise a diagnostic test for cancer.

In the February 16 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, researchers from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center detail why an experimental test intended to identify early ovarian cancer from a small sample of blood is unlikely to lead to a reliable clinical test right away.

Fundamental prospective trial investigated drug in patients with recurrent colon polyps

The largest prospective trial ever examining the anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx as a chemoprevention agent found that the risk of developing a cardiovascular “event” – heart attacks and/or strokes – was almost double in patients who received the drug, compared to patients who took the placebo, according to a study out Feb. 15 on-line in The New England Journal of Medicine. The risk was first disco