Women may worry more about their weight, but it’s men who are more likely to become hooked on exercise, a University of Florida study shows.

College-age men were twice as likely as their female counterparts to exercise to excess, and were more prone to becoming irritable and tense if they missed a scheduled workout time, according to a study published in the June issue of the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.

“We think of exercise as a positive behavior, and for th

Soy protein enriched with isoflavones appears to have no effect on bone mineral content and bone mineral density in young women, according to a new study. Researchers say the finding will disappoint nutritionists hoping to document benefits from diets containing the nutrients, not to mention the soy industry.

A report on the study, conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, appears in the current (October) issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. Isofla

It’s hard to keep a straight face, and especially difficult if you meet someone who looks angry or happy. This the conclusion drawn from experiments carried out by Ulf Dimberg, professor of psychology at Uppsala University, Sweden, and his associates. The results, which are presented in the journal Cognition and Emotion, show that we are not in full control of our facial muscles: their reactions are controlled by unconscious mechanisms.

It is well known that emotions find direct expression

Broad community initiatives that use local coalitions to reduce alcohol and drug abuse are largely ineffective and may even have a negative effect for some goals, according to a new study of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Fighting Back campaign.

“Supporting the activities of local coalitions is both intuitively attractive (bringing the community together to address local problems) and politically popular (spreading the money around),” says Denise Hallfors, Ph.D., of the Pacific Instit

People who live, work or travel within 165 feet downwind of a major freeway or busy intersection are exposed to potentially hazardous particle concentrations up to 30 times greater than normal background concentrations found at a greater distance, according to two recently published UCLA studies.

The studies — published in the Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association and in Atmospheric Environment — show that proximity to a major freeway or highway dramatically increases exposu

Witnessing violence between parents has the same detrimental effect on teen-age girls as being a victim of abuse themselves, according to a new study by Brown University sociologists: The teen-agers are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior.

A study of 710 girls ages 14 to 17 who were living in two-parent families found that teen-agers who witnessed domestic violence or were the subject of violence from a parent were at least three times more likely to engage in risky sexual activi

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of California, San Diego, have created the first computer simulation of full-system protein folding thermodynamics at the atomic-level. Understanding the basic physics of protein folding could solve one of the grand mysteries of computational biology.

Proteins are the basic building blocks of life and protein folding, the process by which proteins reconfigure themselves – the actions that result in structural change – are the

A new study at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston helps explain why practice makes perfect. Baylor researchers found that neurons in the visual cortex, the part of the brain responsible for vision, were more active when study monkeys anticipated the occurrence of predictable events. The results of the study were published in the Oct. 10 issue of Nature. “We really don’t have a great understanding of what changes in the brain when we practice things,” said Dr. Geoffrey M. Ghose, first author o

New research reveals that men and women respond similarly on jealousy measures related to infidelity

When it comes to jealousy, men and women may be from the same planet after all.

New research from psychology professor David DeSteno from Northeastern University debunks the myth of a gender-determined reaction to sexual and emotional infidelity. Contrary to previous studies, he found that both men and women react most dramatically to a partner’s sexual rather than emotional

Excessive noise, such as jet aircraft flying overhead, impairs children’s reading ability and long-term memory, a Cornell University environmental psychologist and his European colleagues conclude in a study of schoolchildren living near airports.

“This is the first long-term study of the same children before and after airports near them opened and closed. It nails down that it is almost certain that noise is causing the differences in children’s ability to learn to read,” says Ga

There’s more to the saying “men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses” than meets the eye. Indeed, whether you’re a man or a woman, wearing contact lenses on a night out could increase your chances of ‘pulling’ by as much as four times. This is one of the conclusions of a study carried out by University of Warwick psychology researcher Dr June McNicholas.

“People who need eyesight correction often wonder if there’s any truth in the saying about wearing glasses, so we put it to the te

A new study confirms what some job seekers may suspect: The more effort people put into a job search, the more likely they are to find employment even in difficult economic times.

The Georgia Institute of Technology study also reveals how certain personality traits affect job-search behavior. For example, people tend to look harder for jobs and consequently have more success if they are: Optimistic and view the job loss as an opportunity to improve their position.
Higher

For most drinkers, knowing when to say when occurs a lot quicker than they think. A study by Texas A&M University’s Center for Alcohol and Drug Education Studies shows that even a small amount of alcohol – in many cases, as few as one or two beers – can seriously affect judgment and driving decisions.

The study’s bottom line: Even if you’ve consumed very little alcohol, your decision-making skills are hampered more than you realize and the results could be deadly considering

Study shows antioxidant takes no bite out of atherosclerosis in healthy people

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 17-Despite its early promise, taking vitamin E does not appear to slow the progression of atherosclerosis in healthy people, according to researchers from the USC Atherosclerosis Research Unit and colleagues.

Many believe that atherosclerosis, the thickening of artery walls that can lead to heart attack and stroke, results from oxidative damage to tissue in the artery wall cause

Contrary to popular belief, repetition does not always improve one’s memory for brand claims

Everybody remembers the pink bunny promoting batteries that keep going and going but is it Energizer or Duracell?

Contrary to popular belief in marketing, repetition in advertising does not always improve consumers’ memory for brand claims, says a U of T study. “Consumers often do not absorb the information from ads, so repeating the ads doesn’t necessarily lead to be

A pediatrician at Brenner Children’s Hospital has developed an efficient way to help educate health care professionals on herbal and dietary supplements via the Internet, according to a study published in the September issue of Academic Medicine.

Kathi Kemper, M.D., a pediatrician at Brenner Children’s Hospital, worked with physicians from the Longwood Herbal Task Force to develop a series of e-mails containing information and questions about various herbal and dietary supplements.