Drivers With ADHD: Higher Risk for Crashes?

Drivers with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are nearly 50 percent more likely to be in a serious car crash, a new study suggests.

Further, men with ADHD can dramatically decrease their risk of traffic accidents if they take medication for their condition, the Swedish researchers said.

“This study confirms the importance of treatment and medication for adults with ADHD as well as teens,” said Ruth Hughes, CEO of Children and Adults With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, a patient advocacy group.

“The core symptoms of ADHD include problems with sustained attention and impulsivity, which can have an adverse effect on driving safely,” said Hughes, who was not involved in the new study. “All drivers with ADHD need to responsibly manage their treatment to reduce driving risks.”

The new findings come from a review of more than 17,000 people in Sweden with ADHD, aged 18 to 46. Researcher Henrik Larsson and colleagues at the Karolinska Institute used databases to track whether the patients had been in a car accident between 2006 and 2009, and if they had a prescription for ADHD medication at the time.

Overall, having ADHD increased a man’s risk of a traffic crash by 47 percent and a woman’s risk by 45 percent, the researchers found.

They then investigated the role of medication in preventing crashes by determining whether people involved in a wreck had filled a prescription for ADHD medicine within the previous six months.

Dr. Lenard Adler, a professor of psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, said despite a broad definition of taking medication, “men [who were] treated substantially lowered their risk for accidents.”

Access to ADHD medication reduced men’s risk of a car wreck by 58 percent compared to men who did not take medication, according to the study. Women with ADHD, however, did not receive any significant benefit from medication in terms of car crashes.

The study, published online Jan. 29 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, did not receive any funding from drug companies.

Breaking down the numbers further, the researchers estimated that between 41 percent and 49 percent of the car accidents involving men with ADHD could have been avoided if they had been taking their medication as prescribed.

About three out of five children with ADHD carry the disorder with them into adulthood, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. That amounts to about 8 million adults living with ADHD.

Previous research with ADHD patients in virtual-reality driving simulators found that they are more likely to speed, drive erratically, tap the breaks and accelerate into potential accidents, said Adler, who did not take part in the Swedish research.

Source: Web md

Why city life may be bad for you

When it comes to getting people to be more active, much of the attention is focused on the improving sports facilities, encouraging people to join the gym or lambasting schools for not doing enough PE.

But could another crucial factor be the way neighbourhoods are designed?

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) thinks so.

The organisation has carried out an analysis of the nine major cities in England – Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield – to explore this.

Its researchers looked at housing density and the availability of green spaces.

The least active areas – deprived parts of Birmingham, Newcastle and London – had twice the housing density and 20% less green space than the most active places.

This is important.

Nearly 60% of people living in these cities do not do the recommended levels of activity.

But, crucially, three quarters said they would be happy to walk more and get outside in the fresh air if their local environment was more suitable, according to a poll cited by RIBA.

People cited safer streets and more attractive green spaces as two key factors.

RIBA has published the findings as it wants councils to take note.

Under the shake-up of the NHS last year, local government was given responsibility for public health.

So RIBA president Stephen Hodder said he wanted councils to ensure public health becomes an important part of the planning process.

“It’s vital that planners and developers take the lead and ensure healthier cities,” he added.

To be fair, this is already happening in many places.

Health impact assessments have become a crucial part of the process.

But as always – for councils which have seen their funding cut dramatically in recent years – it comes down to money.

One of the examples of good practice cited by RIBA in its report was the re-development of the Brownfield Estate, an inner-London housing estate.

It under-went a major £7m building programme with money invested from a variety of public and private sources.

The project saw the walk-ways between flats become “green grids” lined with grass and trees, while play areas were created across the site.

Another scheme highlighted was the creation of a natural play area with climbing frames, a water foundation and wetland on a disused field in the former mining town of Huthwaite in north Nottinghamshire.

Once empty, the area is now packed with children (when the weather permits).

But this project was only possible because the area was given over £200,000 of lottery money.

Source: BBC News

As U.S. waistlines expand, seatbelt use falls

Obese drivers may be at a strikingly higher risk of dying in car crashes than normal-weight drivers because they frequently fail to buckle up, a new study finds.

Based on analysis of a U.S. database of nearly 200,000 fatal passenger vehicle crashes, researchers found that normal-weight Americans involved in those accidents were 66 percent more likely to have been wearing a seatbelt than those who were severely obese.

“Cars should be designed so it’s easier to put a seatbelt on if you’re obese,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Dietrich Jehle, told Reuters Health.

“It’s very important to increase seatbelt use in heavier individuals to best prevent deaths on the highways,” said Jehle, who is director of emergency services at Erie County Medical Center and vice chairman of Emergency Medicine at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Federal safety standards set in the 1960s, when Americans tended to be lighter, require seatbelts to accommodate men up to 215 pounds. Some automakers provide larger belts or extenders, Jehle said, but heavier people frequently struggle to fasten their belts, feel squeezed once strapped in and drive unbelted.

An earlier study found that individuals considered morbidly obese were 56 percent more likely to die in vehicle crashes than people of normal weight.

Other research has shown that combined lap and shoulder belts reduce crash deaths by 45 percent, Jehle and his colleagues point out.

To see whether weight is linked to seatbelt use, Jehle’s group examined nearly 194,120 drivers involved in auto crashes in which there was at least one fatality between 2003 and 2009.

It is the largest investigation to date of a connection between seatbelt use and obesity, the researchers note in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

Obesity is typically defined by body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight relative to height. People with a BMI between 18.5 and 25 are considered normal weight. A BMI between 25 and 30 is considered overweight, between 30 and 40 is obese, and above 40 is morbidly obese.

A 5-foot-10-inch tall man who weighed 300 pounds would have a BMI of 43, for example.

One-third of Americans are considered overweight and another third are considered obese, according to 2009 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new study relied on police reports and direct observations about whether drivers involved in fatal traffic accidents wore seatbelts.

Jehle’s team found that the closer to morbid obesity a person was, the less likely he or she was to have been wearing a seat belt.

Compared to the morbidly obese drivers, moderately obese people were 23 percent more likely to have been buckled up. The slightly obese were 39 percent more likely and the overweight were 60 percent more likely than the morbidly obese to have been wearing a seatbelt.

“Not buckling up is a deadly decision,” Jehle and his colleagues write. “Obese drivers are far less likely to wear seatbelts than are drivers of normal weight, which puts them at a greater risk of being subjected to higher impact forces and being ejected from the vehicle, both of which lead to more severe injury and/or death.”

Peggy Howell, a spokeswoman for the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, agreed that seatbelt use is important and told Reuters Health she obeys the seatbelt law despite difficulty.

“As a woman who’s busty, the seatbelt rides up and strangles me. But I wear my seatbelt, as does my sister, and we’re both clinically obese women,” said Howell, who described herself as close to 300 pounds.

Deb Burgard, California psychologist who specializes in eating disorders, praised the study for calling attention to the need for seatbelts that work for heavy drivers.

Burgard and Howell expressed concern, however, that the findings could shift blame for not wearing seatbelts to obese people.

“I’m just wondering if this is going to lead to insurance companies trying to charge fat people more,” Howell said. “Are police going to start profiling? What are the long-term ramifications of a study like this?”

Jehle said he would like the study to prompt car manufacturers to make longer belts and for safety regulators to use larger dummies in crash tests.

“A lot of the crash studies are done on dummies that do not fit in with our current population, which is one-third overweight and one-third obese,” he said. “When they sell you a vehicle, they should sell it with all the equipment you need to wear a seatbelt.”

Source; Reuters

8 Tips for Hydrating in Cold Weather

Although we tend to think of it as a summertime concern, dehydration doesn’t disfavor the cooler months.

In fact, the likelihood of dehydration is accelerated when you train in cold weather—and at higher altitudes. In these conditions, the air you breathe is drier, and your lungs have to work harder to humidify that air and warm it up. The harder your body works, the more you need to drink.

Use these tips to stay hydrated this winter.

Wear Layers
Sweat can reduce your body temperature and force your heart to work harder to maintain blood flow and body temperature. Wear layers of clothing that will absorb perspiration.

Replace What You Lose
Water exits the body through exhalation, perspiration, and urination. If your urine is pale and plentiful, you’re well-hydrated. If it’s dark and scant in volume, you need to drink more fluids.

Match Your Drink to the Duration of Your Activity
If you’re exercising for up to 1 hour, you can rehydrate with water alone. However, after an hour, add electrolytes and carbohydrates. If you’re doing a sport at higher altitudes, increase your fluid requirements.

Hydrate With Room-Temperature Beverages
Cold liquids are absorbed quicker. Warmer or room temperature drinks, on the other hand, are better at keeping your internal temperature optimal. Choose the latter when you’re exercising in cold temperatures.

Eat Fruit
Winter fruits are excellent sources of water. To name a few: apples are 84% water; pears are 84% water; and clementines are 87% water. Plus, these fruits contain vitamin C, which helps fight off the flu.

Eat Salty Foods and Soup
Foods that contain salt will help you retain water. And soup, with all its broth and vegetables, is hydrating. Some great winter options: tomato soup, butternut-squash bisque, or minestrone.

Drink Hot Chocolate
You’ve likely heard that chocolate milk is the ideal post-workout recovery drink because of its 4:1 carbohydrates-to-protein ratio. Hot chocolate provides the same benefits—with added warmth.

Limit Alcohol and Caffeine
Caffeine and alcohol have diuretic effects. Save them for after your cold-weather workout.

Source: health

Got Lemon? 6 Beauty Tips And Tricks Using The Fruit

Beauty treatments can dig deep holes into your pocket and not only that, but some of the treatments might not be that effective. So hundreds of dollars might be spent with no positive outcome. Before heading to the dermatologist or the department store, take a look in your own kitchen for your own beauty remedies. Lemons are a versatile fruit providing a number of aesthetic benefits. Originating in Asia, lemons have an extensive history but mostly of one used in cooking. However, many dermatologists and beauty gurus have recommended the use of lemons in daily skin maintenance.

“The alpha hydroxyl acid in lemons is similar to the ingredients you’d find in a dermatologist’s peel,” the Oz blog reported, speaking to Dr. Elizabeth Hale, professor of dermatology at the New York University School of Medicine. Lemons also provide a number of other skin, nail, and hair benefits. Take a look at six helpful beauty tips below:

1. Remove Blackheads: Take a lemon and slice it in half, rub the juice all over your face and wait five minutes before rinsing it off with cold water. Lemons have antibacterial properties, making it a perfect blackhead remedy. Blackheads are caused by clogged pores, and the acid called alpha hydroxyl from the lemons help to exfoliate the skin.

2. Lighten Old Acne Scars: Instead of heading to the dermatologist to help fade acne scars, just take a look in your refrigerator. Take a cotton ball and soak it with a little freshly squeezed lemon juice, and rub it all over your face. The lemon juice when applied daily will gradually help to lightens up the scars as it works as a chemical peel.

3. Removes Calluses, Corns, And Warts: Using the inside of a lemon (the white part) and placing it against any of these skin imperfections will help to dry out the callus, corn, or wart. Leave it on overnight and in about week they should fall off.

4. Lighten Your Hair: Skip the dye. This is a perfect and gradual remedy for those sunny summer days. Mix the juice from four lemons with ¼ cup of warm water, put it in a spray bottle, and spray it in your hair until it’s damp. Make sure you only expose your hair to the sun for about 30-60 minutes, depending on how light you want to make it. After you’re done, take a shower and use conditioner, as lemon juice can sometimes dry out your hair.

5. Strengthen Nails: Soaking nails into lemon juice for about 10 minutes and rinsing them with warm water once a week will not only help them to grow but will also remove any discoloration.

6. Lighten Discolored Armpits and Elbows: Discoloration and hyperpigmentation happens to people when there is more melanin in their skin. The more melanin a person has in their skin, the darker it will be. Since lemon acts as a bleaching agent, rubbing a cut lemon on armpits or elbows will help to lighten the skin in those areas.

We hope you try some of these home remedies. However, in no way are these tips intended to cure or teat any type of skin, hair, or nail issue. Before trying any of these, please seek out the approval from your health care provider.

Source: medical daily

Do your muscles hurt more when it’s cold outside?

Cold weather causes muscles to lose more heat and contract, causing tightness throughout the body. Joints get tighter, muscles can lose their range of motion and nerves can more easily be pinched, according to Los Angeles-based orthopedic physical therapist Vivian Eisenstadt.

Thanks to the effects of colder temps, muscles are forced to work much harder to complete the same tasks they complete easily in milder weather. This causes more damage to the muscle tissue and can result in increased soreness. To counteract the damage, be sure to warm up for a little longer than usual.

“It is normal to feel muscle soreness for a few days after exercise, especially if it is a different type of activity or at a more intense level than your body is used to,” says Amy McDowell, a physical therapist and Pilates instructor from ARC Physical Therapy in Chicago.

“If you feel more sore in the winter after the same level of exercise than you do the rest of the year, it could be that your body needs a longer warm-up period.”
Try beginning your workout with light cardio exercises, like brisk walking. This will raise your core temperature and ensure that oxygen and blood are flowing throughout your body.

A basic rule of thumb is that you should warm up for 10 minutes when the temperature is between 35 and 45 degrees Fahrenheit. For each 10-degree temperature drop below 35, extend your warm-up by five minutes.

Some bodyweight exercises — like push-ups, dips, squats, lunges and bicycle crunches — are ideal for getting your blood flowing after your warm-up walk, Mentore says. Then, after those exercises, stretch only the tightest muscle groups in your body; for most people, these groups include the hamstrings, quadriceps, chest and shoulders.

Follow your warm-up with a cool-down that takes about the same amount of time. However, in addition to stretching the body’s tightest muscle groups, also focus on other areas like the back, arms and calves. “This will prevent muscle soreness and enhance your overall performance during the winter,” Mentore says.

Source: upwave

Oral insulin capsule trial a success, company says

Israel’s Oramed, which is racing Novo Nordisk of Denmark to develop the world’s first insulin pill, moved a step closer to its goal on Thursday by announcing successful results from a small mid-stage test.

The oral drug delivery specialist said its insulin capsule had met all primary and secondary endpoints in a Phase IIa clinical trial and it now plans to launch a larger mid-stage study in the third quarter.

Shares in the Nasdaq-listed company opened 10 percent higher at $28.50 on the news. The stock has surged from around $4 since the end of 2012 on rising hopes for its insulin pill.

The concept of oral insulin as a way to relieve diabetics of several daily injections has been around since the 1930s, but making it a reality is extremely difficult because insulin is destroyed by enzymes in the digestive system.

Oramed believes that it has now found a solution to allow enough insulin to survive the onslaught of digestive juices to still do some good.

At least 90 percent of the more than 382 million diabetes sufferers worldwide are in the type 2 category, according to the International Diabetes Foundation, which expects the number of diabetes patients to near 600 million by 2035.

Consensus analyst forecasts suggest that the overall diabetes drug market, worth $37 billion a year at present, will reach more than $57 billion by 2018, according to Thomson Reuters Pharma.

Oral insulin could make it easier for sufferers to start early treatment, slow progression of the disease and delay the need for injections, Oramed said. Unlike injections, the ingested form passes first into the liver, which regulates the secretion of insulin into the bloodstream.

The new year-long Phase IIb study in the United States will study 150 type 2 diabetes patients and mainly test for the drug’s effectiveness, Chief Executive Nadav Kidron told Reuters after the company issued results of the Phase IIa trial.

During the Phase IIa trial, conducted under a new U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) drug protocol, 30 patients with type 2 diabetes entered an in-patient setting for one week.

“The FDA wanted us to show one thing – that it was safe so they will let us do a IIb trial,” Kidron said.

While Oramed was not checking for efficacy, Kidron said the IIa trial revealed that it was effective, though the sample size was too small for FDA purposes.

Oramed will also need to conduct a final large-scale Phase III trial before the drug is licensed for sale, so the capsule is still years away from hitting the market.

The company is, however, ahead of Novo Nordisk, which has yet to start Phase II testing.

Oramed is hoping to partner with large pharmaceutical firms for development and sales of the drug. But Kidron said that only preliminary discussions have taken place so far.

The company also plans to initiate a Phase IIa FDA study for type 1 diabetes in the near term.

The global expense for diabetes is about $500 billion and an oral version could bring a large drop in costs.

Oramed noted that the pill would not eliminate the eventual need for injections but could delay the shift to needles by many years.

Source: Yahoo news

Being shorter may lead to feelings of inferiority, study says

A new study published in Psychiatry Today found that people who had their height “virtually lowered” felt inferior and mistrustful.

British researchers studied a group of 60 adult women who used a virtual reality (VR) simulation to take two rides on the London Underground subway. On the first trip, the participant’s perceived height was unaltered, but on their second simulated trip, their perceived height was lowered by 9.84 inches.

The participants commented on their experience, and after the second ride, there was a significant increase in reports of negative feelings – such as incompetence, inferiority and feeling unlikeable. Respondents also showed an increase in feelings of paranoia toward other virtual “passengers” on the train. Most participants did not realize their height had been lowered for the second round of the simulation.

Researchers said that people mostly behave the same in a VR environment as they do in real life.

The researchers noted that the participants were women who “were prone to having mistrustful thoughts,” but they say the new study provides key insight into paranoia.

people’s excessive mistrust of others directly builds upon their own negative feelings about themselves, lead researcher Daniel Freeman, professor at the University of Oxford, told Medical News Today. “The important treatment implication for severe paranoia that we can take from this study is that if we help people to feel more self-confident, then they will be less mistrustful.”

Source: News BCC

Sharing your stress can reduce fears, study shows

A new study from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles suggests stress isn’t something you should keep to yourself.

Research published in Social Psychological and Personality Science suggests sharing your stress with someone who is having a similar emotional reaction may reduce stress levels more than sharing with someone who is not experiencing similar stress levels.

In the study, researchers measured participants’ emotional states, levels of the stress hormone cortisol and perception of threat when faced with the task of preparing and giving a videotaped speech. The 52 female undergraduate participants were divided into pairs and encouraged to discuss how they felt about the situation before giving their speeches.

Researchers found that when the pairs were in a similar emotional state, it helped buffer each individual against high levels of stress.

Their findings could be useful for people experiencing stress at work.

“For instance, when you’re putting together an important presentation or working on a high-stakes project, these are situations that can be threatening and you may experience heightened stress,” study leader Sarah Townsend, assistant professor of management and organization at the USC Marshall School of Business, told Medical News Today. “But talking with a colleague who shares your emotional state can help decrease this stress.”

Source; Fox news

Faster way to catch food poisoning microbes

A team of scientists, led by an Indian-origin researcher Sibani Lisa Biswal, has developed a faster method to catch unwanted microbes before they can make people sick with food poisoning.

The Rice University scientists used an array of tiny ‘nanomechanical cantilevers’, anchored at one end, kind of like little diving boards.

The cantilevers have peptides attached to them that bind to Salmonella – one of the pathogens most commonly associated with foodborne illness which can cause fever, diarrhoea and abdominal cramps.

When the bacteria bind to the peptides, the cantilever arm bends, creating a signal.

The screening system rapidly distinguished Salmonella from other types of bacteria in a sample.

One of the peptides could tell eight different types of Salmonella apart from each other.

The researchers stated that the technique could be applied to other common food pathogens.

“The new approach for pathogen screening is far faster than current commercial methods,” said Biswal, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Rice University.

Conventional methods to detect harmful bacteria in food are reliable and inexpensive, but they can be complicated, time consuming and thus allow contamination to go undetected.

The findings are reported in the ACS journal Analytical Chemistry.

Source: sify