Women find men with deep voices more attractive

Women are more attracted to men with masculine, low-pitched voices, even though they are more likely to cheat, a new study has found.

Women perceive men with low-pitched voices as those who are least likely to marry and most likely to cheat, so women are more attracted to them for short-term relationships, researchers at McMaster University, Canada, have found.

The study offers insight into the evolution of the human voice and how we choose our mates.

“The sound of someone’s voice can affect how we think of them,” said Jillian O’Connor, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behavior and lead author of the study.

“Until now, it’s been unclear why women would like the voices of men who might cheat. But we found that the more women thought these men would cheat, the more they were attracted to them for a brief relationship when they are less worried about fidelity,” O’Connor said.

For the study, 87 women listened to men’s voices that were manipulated electronically to sound higher or lower, and then chose who they thought was more likely to cheat on their romantic partner.

Researchers also asked the participants to choose the voice they thought was more attractive for a long-term versus a short-term relationship.

“From an evolutionary perspective, these perceptions of future sexual infidelity may be adaptive,” said David Feinberg, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behavior.

“The consequences of infidelity are very high whether it is emotional or financial and this research suggests that humans have evolved as a protection mechanism to avoid long-term partners who may cheat,” he added.

The study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences

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Children born to teen mums have delayed development

A new study has revealed that children born to teen mothers have less developed speaking skills at age five than kids of older mothers.

Dr. Julia Morinis, the lead author and researcher in the Centre for Research on Inner City Health of St. Michael’s Hospital said that they don’t believe that having a baby in your teens is the cause of underdeveloped speaking skills.

It’s likely that being a teen mother is a risk factor that indicates poorer circumstance for development opportunities in some cases.

Morinis points to teen mothers’ limited opportunities for education and well-paid jobs or single parenthood as social factors that have a significant negative impact on childhood development.

“Most differences in non-verbal and spatial abilities between these two groups of children can be attributed to significant sociodemographic inequalities in circumstance. But for verbal ability, there seems to be more going on,” Morinis said.

The study identified parenting involvement – such as playing, reading, and singing with the child – was predictive of higher-level child development.

The study used data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a long-term nationally representative study of almost 19,000 children born between 2000 and 2001 across Britain. These children were assessed for reasoning skills and intelligence when they were five years old.

The study is published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.

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Your 18 months baby knows when you’re faking it

Infants detect unjustified emotional reactions from as early as 18 months

When your feelings and reactions don’t align, can kids tell there’s something wrong? New research from Concordia proves that they can — even when they’re as young as 18 months old.

In a study recently published in Infancy: The Official Journal of the International Society on Infant Studies, psychology researchers Sabrina Chiarella and Diane Poulin-Dubois demonstrate that infants can detect whether a person’s emotions are justifiable given a particular context. They prove that babies understand how the meaning of an experience is directly linked to the expressions that follow.

The implications are significant, especially for caregivers. “Our research shows that babies cannot be fooled into believing something that causes pain results in pleasure. Adults often try to shield infants from distress by putting on a happy face after a negative experience. But babies know the truth: from as early as 18 months, they can implicitly understand which emotions go with which events,” says Psychology Professor Poulin-Dubois.

She and PhD candidate Chiarella recruited 92 infants at the 15-month and 18-month mark. In a lab setting, the babies watched an actor perform several scenarios in which emotional reactions went with or against pantomimed experiences. In one of these, a researcher demonstrated mismatched emotion by acting sad when presented with a desired toy; in another, she expressed an emotion that went with the experience by pretending to be in pain from a hurt finger.

At 15 months, the infants did not show a significant difference in reactions to these events, physically empathizing with the researcher’s “sad face” whether it was justified or not. This indicates that the understanding of the link between an an emotional experience and a facial expression is an ability that has yet to develop at that stage.

At 18 months, however, the infants clearly detected when a facial expression did not match an experience. They spent more time looking at the researcher’s face, and checked back more frequently with the attendant caregiver to gauge the reaction of a trusted source. They also only showed empathy towards the researcher when her sad face was warranted — so when she acted unhappy or in pain in an appropriate situation.

Chiarella explains that the indiscriminate show of concern to sad faces in the 15-month-olds is an adaptive behavior. “The ability to detect sadness and then react immediately has an evolutionary implication. However, to function effectively in the social world, children need to develop the ability to understand others’ behaviors by inferring what is going on internally for those around them.”

The researchers are currently examining whether exposure to an emotionally unreliable individual will affect infants’ willingness to help or learn from that individual.

Partners in research: This research was supported by the Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Both researchers are members of Concordia’s Centre for Research in Human Development.

Source: http://www.concordia.ca

How broccoli’s cancer-fighting potential can be maximized

Researchers have revealed that spraying a plant hormone on broccoli boosts its cancer-fighting potential.

John Juvik and colleagues explained that diet is one of the most important factors influencing a person’s chances of developing cancer.

One of the most helpful food families includes cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, kale and cabbage.

In fact, eating broccoli regularly has been linked to lower rates of prostate, colon, breast, lung and skin cancers.

In that super food, glucosinolates (GSs) and the substances that are left when GSs are broken down can boost the levels of a broccoli enzyme that helps rid the body of carcinogens.

The team, which wanted to determine which GSs and their products actually boost the enzyme levels when broccoli is treated, found that one way to increase GSs is to spray a plant hormone called methyl jasmonate on broccoli. This natural hormone protects the plants against pests.

They tested five commercial types of broccoli by spraying them in the field with the hormone and found that, of the GS break-down products, sulforaphane is the major contributor toward enhanced cancer-fighting enzyme levels, although other substances also likely contribute, the researchers said.

The study is published in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

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Low back pain among women tied to flat feet

Women who walk with flat feet are 50 percent more likely than those with normal or high arches to have low back pain, a new study suggests.

“The key take away from the study is that if women have low back pain, it may not be just the back,” said senior author Marian Hannan of the Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew Senior Life in Boston.

“It turns out that feet are important for the back.”

Past research has hinted that low back pain, which affects roughly one in five people worldwide, could be related to the shape of the foot’s arch in the standing position.

This study, published in Rheumatology, focused on the arch while a person walked.

Among 1,930 men and women recruited from Framingham, Massachusetts, pronated feet – which tend to roll inward as a person walks – were linked to lower back pain in women only.

“There has been only weak correlation between pronated feet and low back pain so I was happy to see some evidence of this in the study,” said Christopher Kevin Wong.

He is an associate professor of rehabilitation and regenerative medicine at Columbia University in New York City and was not involved with the current study.

For their study, Hannan and her colleagues measured each person’s arch in the standing position. Then participants walked across a mat with embedded sensors to measure pressure from the heel to the tip of the foot while walking.

“It’s a method that shows promise, and will need to be validated against other measures of motion analysis,” Wong told Reuters Health.

For example, another method includes marking a person’s leg with ink at the joints in order to detect under- or over-pronation movements.

Women in the study were in their 60s, on average. About 38 percent overall reported having low back pain.

Dr. Stephen Pinney, an orthopedic surgeon at St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco, called the size of the study “impressive.”

He told Reuters Health future studies should follow participants with different arches forward in time to confirm these findings. Research should also determine what effect, if any, interventions such as orthotics might have on who develops back pain.

“We’ve known that putting a patient in a foot cast after surgery, for example, can lead to lower back pain because this creates asymmetric forces on the back,” said Pinney, who didn’t participate in the new research.

Hannan said the body may use other muscles to help make up for flat feet when a person walks, which could explain the link to back pain.

Standing and walking use the foot in different ways. Both a flat foot in standing position and a pronated foot walking could be something to consider during a doctor’s visit, Hannan said.

She and her team suggested reasons why women could be more affected by flat feet while walking than men.

For example, women’s pelvic bones are wider and not as flexible as men’s. In general, women rotate their hips more than men while walking. Women also move their upper bodies more than men when they walk.

“Women probably don’t know if their foot function contributes to low back pain, but they can find out about it,” Hannan told Reuters Health.

She suggested people with low back pain visit a doctor or physical therapist.

One simple trick to strengthen muscles in the feet is to lay a towel on a flat surface and then scrunch the toes together in order to pick up the towel and lower it back down. Foot orthotics are another option.

“Once you have back pain, you’ll want to do core muscle exercises and perhaps take anti-inflammatory medication, but anything that is contributing to asymmetry – you will also want to address that,” Pinney said.

“There are a bunch of different reasons for getting low back pain, and this adds another category for people to consider,” he said.

Source: http://zeenews.india.com/news/health/

Sleep helps brain stay fit by clearing waste

Like a janitor sweeping the halls after the lights go out, major changes occur in the brain during sleep to flush out waste and ward off disease, researchers said Thursday.

The research in the journal Science offers new answers to explain why people spend a third of their lives asleep and may help in treating dementia and other neurological disorders.

In lab experiments on mice, researchers observed how cellular waste was flushed out via the brain’s blood vessels into the body’s circulatory system and eventually the liver.

These waste products included amyloid beta, a protein that when accumulated is a driver of Alzheimer’s disease.

In order to help remove the waste, cerebral spinal fluid is pumped through brain tissue.

The process is sped along during sleep because the brain’s cells shrink by about 60 percent, allowing the fluid to move faster and more freely through the brain.

The whole operation takes place in what researchers call the glymphatic system, which appears to be nearly 10 times more active during sleep than while awake.

“The brain only has limited energy at its disposal,” said lead author Maiken Nedergaard of the University of Rochester Medical Center.

“You can think of it like having a house party. You can either entertain the guests or clean up the house, but you can’t really do both at the same time.”

Co-authors of the study, which was funded by the US National Institutes of Health, came from Oregon Health and Science University and New York University.

Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com

 

Try Meditation to Lower Your Blood Pressure

Meditation is no longer just for the groovy folk. A just published study in the American Journal of Hypertension suggests the practice may bring cardiovascular and mental-health benefits. The research, conducted at American University in Washington, followed 298 students, half of whom practiced transcendental meditation for 20 minutes once or twice daily over three months and half of whom did not.

A subgroup of subjects in the meditation group who were at increased risk for hypertension significantly lowered their blood pressure and psychological distress and also bolstered their coping ability. The average reduction in blood pressure in this group—a 6.3-mm Hg decrease in the top (systolic) number of a blood pressure reading and a 4-mm Hg decrease in the lower (diastolic) number, compared with the control group—was associated with a 52 percent reduction in the risk of developing hypertension in the future. Meditators who were not at increased risk for hypertension saw a reduction in psychological distress, depression, and anxiety as well as increased coping ability but no significant lowering of blood pressure.

The results are particularly meaningful at a time when “improvement in mental health is of great concern as greater numbers of college students are being treated for anxiety and depression than ever before,” says lead study author, Sanford Nidich, professor of physiology and health at the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management in Iowa

Lately, meditation has been garnering attention from a host of medical and scientific researchers. More than 120 meditation studies are listed on clinicaltrials.gov, a clearinghouse for research supported by the National Institutes of Health, investigating the intervention in patients with conditions from cancer and heart disease to post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia, and binge eating. It’s no cure-all, but early research is suggesting meditation could play a helpful role in mediating the stress response that contributes to a number of physical and mental conditions.

In a country famous for medical innovation and high-tech treatments—not to mention their high cost—Americans, too, have begun to embrace complementary and alternative interventions like meditation, acupuncture, and “natural” supplements. According to a recent study sponsored by the NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, more than 1 in 3 adults sought such healthcare in 2007—and collectively spent $40 billion out of pocket. But with the exception of the classes, books, or CDs one might buy to learn the ins and outs of “om,” focusing on one’s breath, or becoming more mindful, the practice of meditation is free.

One simple thing seems clear: Find a type of meditation that you like. “What’s really important,” says Richard Davidson, neuroscience and meditation researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,” is that a person find a particular style [of meditation] they’re comfortable with so they continue to practice.” Some styles train practitioners to focus on an object or a mantra; others cultivate positive emotions; others still aim to train practitioners not to judge thoughts that arise but to just accept them and not get attached. More meditation, it seems, offers stronger effects; Davidson’s research on monks who had practiced for tens of thousands of hours in their lifetimes managed to change their brains’ functioning and structure. Benefits appear to be attainable with less of a time commitment, he adds—perhaps somewhere between 20 and 40 minutes daily.

Not all doctors have bought into the merits of meditation as a treatment, nor should they just yet. The hard research medical practitioners swear by is still in the early stages. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine is starting to fund needed research with larger sample sizes of participants and solid study design, says Jeffrey Greeson, meditation researcher and assistant clinical professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. He predicts that results will begin to emerge in the next five years. Meantime, based on some encouraging preliminary findings, here are five reasons a clinician hip to the importance of the mind-body connection may cite for prescribing meditation

Source: sciencedaily.com

Pomegranates protect the heart from a high cholesterol diet

It is heartening news for those people who are unable to resist pigging out.

Pomegranates could reverse some of the hurt carried out by junk food items, analysis indicates.

A nutritional supplement designed from the fruit helped keep blood vessels nutritious, a important phase in trying to keep coronary heart attacks and strokes at bay.

In the initial examine of its form, Spanish researchers seemed at the influence of a tablet packed with pomegranate plant substances termed polyphenols on the circulation of pigs.

Pigs were being decided on due to the fact their cardiovascular process is comparable to ours.

Not surprisingly, feeding them fatty food harmed their blood vessels and, in specific, their delicate lining.

This lining, or endothelium, is significant as it releases substances that control the enlargement and contraction of blood vessels.

Damage to it can be a 1st phase in atherosclerosis – the hardening of the arteries that can lead to coronary heart assaults and strokes.

The blood vessels of the pigs fed fatty food items were much less elastic. The animals also created significantly less nitric oxide, a blood vessel widening-gas and experienced other indicators of coronary heart issues.

Even so, a day by day dose of Pomanex, a complement with 200mg of polyphenols identified as punicalagins, cancelled out numerous of the effects, the Congress of the European Society of Cardiology listened to.

Researcher Dr Lina Badimon, of the Catalan Institute for Cardiovascular Sciences in Spain, claimed: ‘Enriching a diet with pomegranate polyphenols can enable in stopping and retarding endothelial dysfunctions, which are among the 1st signs of atherosclerosis and strokes.’

 

Source: dailynewsen.com

 

Healthy Eating: Mushroom Salad

Ingredients

• 1 pound Mushrooms
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 tsp Lemon Juice
• ¾ cup Red Bell Pepper
• ½ cup Mint Leaves
• ¼ cup toasted Pine Nuts
• 4 Lettuce Leaves


Dressing

• 2 tbsp Extra-virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
• 1 large crushed Garlic Clove
• Salt (to taste)

How to make
Preheat oven to 400°F.

Mix together mushrooms, olive oil and lemon juice.

Spread them on a large baking sheet.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Remove and drain the liquid. Cool the mixture slightly.

Take a large mixing bowl and mix mushrooms, red bell pepper, basil or mint and pine nuts.

Mix extra-virgin olive oil, vinegar or lemon juice, garlic and salt together in another bowl.

Toss the dressing into the mushrooms.

Spread lettuce leaves on a serving plate and spoon the mushroom mixture on top.
Source: zee news

Aircraft noise may increase risk of heart problems and strokes

Exposure to high levels of aircraft noise near busy international airports has been linked to a higher risk of heart disease and strokes in two separate studies from Britain and the United States.

Researchers in London studied noise and hospital admissions around London Heathrow airport, while a separate team analyzed data on 6 million Americans living near 89 U.S. airports. Both studies, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ)on Wednesday, found that people living with the highest levels of aircraft noise had increased risks of stroke, coronary heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases.

In the Heathrow study, the risks were around 10 to 20 percent higher in areas with highest levels of aircraft noise compared with the areas with least noise.

Stephen Stansfeld, a professor at Queen Mary University of London who was not part of either research team but provided a commentary on their findings, said the results suggested that “aircraft noise exposure is not just a cause of annoyance, sleep disturbance, and reduced quality of life” but may also increase sickness and death from heart disease.

City and town planners “need to take this into account when extending airports in heavily populated areas or planning new airports,” he said. Other experts said the studies raised important issues about aircraft noise and health, but did not establish a causal link.

“Both of these studies are thorough and well-conducted. But, even taken together, they don’t prove that aircraft noise actually causes heart disease and strokes,” said Kevin McConway, a professor of applied statistics at Britain’s Open University.

The British research team set out to investigate the risks of stroke and heart disease in relation to aircraft noise among 3.6 million people living near Heathrow, one of the busiest airports in the world.

They compared hospital admissions and death rates due to stroke and heart disease from 2001 to 2005 in 12 areas of London and nine further districts to the west of London. Levels of aircraft noise for each area were obtained from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), and factors that could have affected the results, such as age, sex, ethnicity, social deprivation, smoking, air pollution and road traffic noise were also taken into account.

Their results showed increased risks of stroke, coronary heart disease, and cardiovascular disease – especially among the 2.0 percent of the study population exposed to the highest levels of daytime and night time aircraft noise.

“The exact role that noise exposure may play in ill health is not well established,” said Anna Hansell of Imperial College London, who led the British study. “However, it is plausible that it might be contributing, for example by raising blood pressure or by disturbing people’s sleep.”

The researchers noted that discussions on possible expansion plans for London’s airport capacity have been on and off the table for many decades, with demand for air travel expected to double in Britain to 300 million passengers per year by 2030.

“Policy decisions need to take account of potential health related concerns, including possible effects of environmental noise on cardiovascular health,” they wrote. In a second study also published in the BMJ, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and Boston University School of Public Health looked at data for more than 6 million Americans aged 65 or over living near 89 U.S. airports in 2009.

The research – the first to analyze a very large population across multiple airports – found that, on average, zip codes with 10 decibel (dB) higher aircraft noise had a 3.5 percent higher cardiovascular hospital admission rate. The results showed that people exposed to the highest noise levels – more than 55 dB – had the strongest link with hospitalizations for heart disease, and the link also remained after adjustment for socioeconomic status, demographic factors, air pollution, and proximity to roads.

Conway said that because of the kind of data used, the studies could only “suggest very strongly that we should find out much more about aircraft noise and circulatory disease”.

Source: http://www.euronews.com