Children, who consume low-calorie versions of high-calorie foods, may develop distorted connections between taste and calorie content, leading them to overeat as they grow up, according to a study conducted by the  University of Alberta.

     “This ‘taste conditioning process’ may induce overeating and gradual weight gain in children who use diet food and drinks,” says Dr. David Pierce, a sociologist working with the University of Alberta and the lead author of the study.

     This ‘taste conditioning process’ may explain the result of another study conducted at the University of Massachusetts, in which researchers found links between diet soda consumption among children and a higher risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

     “Based on what we have learned, it’s better for children to eat healthy, well-balanced diet with sufficient calories for their daily activities rather than low-calorie snacks or meals,” said Dr. David Pierce. 

     Parents and health professionals must be made aware of this important fact and they should know that the old-fashioned ways of eating well-balanced meals and exercising regularly are the best ways to keep children fit and healthy.

     Researchers Louise Hawkley and John Cacioppo, psychologists, at the University of Chicago studied a group of college students (average age 19) and a group of older people in their 50s (average age 57) and found that in the older group, lonely adults had higher blood pressure readings than those who were not lonely.

     Though the lonely people in the college student group did not have higher blood pressure readings, they had a high TPR (Total Peripheral Resistance is a measure of how much the small arteries constrict and hamper blood flow; too much constriction later leads to high blood pressure). This indicates that these lonely young adults will eventually develop the life-threatening high blood pressure.

     The researchers also found that lonely people feel helpless and threatened, perceive their past in a more negative way and less likely to seek help when stressed.

     The researchers tested the urine samples and found that the lonely ones had a higher concentration of epinephrine (a stress hormone) in their urine. This is an indication that lonely people live in a state of heightened stress which increases the wear and tear of the body, accelerating the ageing factor.  

     When the researchers monitored the sleep pattern, they found that the sleep of lonely young adults was filled with many ‘micro awakenings’ meaning that though they appear to sleep well, their sleep was of poor quality. This is another bad news for lonely people as our body needs extra sleep to cope up with excess stress. If the body doesn’t get adequate quality sleep, it wears and tears faster, speeding up the ageing process.

New breast cancer cases have declined sharply after reduction in the use of HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy), reports the New England Journal of Medicine which used data from the National Cancer Institute.

     Use of HRT has declined sharply from 61 million prescriptions to 21 million prescriptions following the highly –publicized reports from the Women’s Health Initiative study that showed an increased risk of breast cancer, heart disease, stroke, blood clots and urinary incontinence among postmenopausal women who were using hormone replacement therapy.

     The research team led by Donald Berry, PhD, of the University of Texas, Anderson Cancer Centre found that the decrease was more evident in women with cancers that were oestrogen receptor positive – tumour that need oestrogen in order to grow and multiply.

     Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer amount women. Still we don’t know all the causes of breast cancer. “Finding simple ways such as limiting HRT use to decrease breast cancer risk is a step forward,” says Dr. John E.Niederhuber, Director of National Cancer Institute.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Athens Medical School found that midday napping, reduced coronary mortality (death due to heart disease) by about one third.

     The research which studied 23681 people for an average of 6.3 years, found that people who had midday naps at least three times per week for an average of at least 30 minutes, had a 37 percent lower coronary mortality than those not taking midday naps. Occasional nappers showed just 12 percent reduction in coronary mortality. The protective effect of midday napping was strong among working men and weaker among those not working.  Among working women, there were too few deaths to draw any conclusion.

     The research was led by Androni Naska, University of Athens Medical School and Dimitrios Trichopoulos, Harvard School of Public Health, both epidemiologists.

     What’s the connection between midday naps and reduction in heart attack deaths? Prof. Trichopoulos believes that midday nap may act as a stress-releasing mechanism. Since stress has adverse effects on the heart, midday naps protects the heart from adverse effects of stress.

     The message is clear. If you can take a midday nap, do so.

Upcoming Workshops

Train Your Brain

The 7 soft skills you must learn to fast forward your career progress