Knowledge Update

London, May 14 (IANS) Kids, especially boys, who start walking, running and jumping early at 18 months of age are more likely to have stronger bones later in adulthood, a study has found.

These movements in toddlers place a stress on the bones, causing them to become wider and thicker, thereby making them stronger than those in children who may not be moving as much, the study said.

The findings from the study may help to identify who is at a greater risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures in later life.

"The findings are intriguing as they provide a link which wasn't previously understood, primarily that how we move as a young child can have ramifications for our bone strength even 16 years later,” said lead researcher Alex Ireland from Manchester Metropolitan University in Britain.

"Being more active gives you stronger muscles which can then apply bigger forces to the bones as we walk, run or jump, helping to strengthen bones as we grow older," he added in the paper published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

The team analysed 2,327 participants from children born in the early 1990s. 

Their movement was assessed at 18 months, and hip and shin bone size, shape and mineral density was measured at 17 years of age for both males and females, by scanning with X-ray absorptiometry and peripheral computed tomography. 

The findings showed the effect was more pronounced in males than in females, suggesting early movement plays less of a role in female bone strength. 

"Importantly, the results could have implications for later life by helping medical practitioners to anticipate and detect those who are at a greater risk of osteoporosis or fractures, thus helping them to devise prevention and coping strategies,” Ireland stated.​

​New York, May 11 (IANS) Including seafood or other foods containing omega-3 fatty acids at least once a week in your diet may protect against age-related memory loss and thinking problems, says a study.

The age-related memory loss and thinking problems of study-participants who reported eating seafood less than once a week declined more rapidly compared to those who ate at least one seafood meal per week.

"This study helps show that while cognitive abilities naturally decline as part of the normal ageing process, there is something that we can do to mitigate this process," said study senior author Martha Clare Morris from Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago, US.

The findings were published online in the journal Neurology.

The researchers followed 915 people with a mean age of 81.4 years for an average of five years. 

At study enrollment, none had signs of dementia.

During the course of the study, each person received annual, standardized testing for cognitive ability in five areas -- episodic memory, working memory, semantic memory, visuospatial ability and perceptual speed. 

The study group also completed annual food frequency questionnaires, allowing the researchers to compare participants' reported seafood intake with changes in their cognitive abilities as measured by the tests.

The questionnaires included four types of seafood: tuna sandwiches; fish sticks, fish cakes and fish sandwiches; fresh fish as a main dish; and shrimp, lobster and crab. 

The participants were divided into two groups: those who ate at least one of those seafood meals per week and those who ate less than one of those seafood meals per week.

People who ate more seafood had reduced rates of decline in the semantic memory, which is memory of verbal information. They also had slower rates of decline in a test of perceptual speed, or the ability to quickly compare letters, objects and patterns, the findings showed.

Seafood is the direct nutrient source of a type of omega-3 fatty acid (docosahexaenoic acid) that is the main structural component of the brain.

​New York, May 11 (IANS) Far from being rejuvenating, a peaceful walk in nature after a difficult day at work can make people prone to anxiety more stressed, new research suggests.

They should instead take a walk in a busy, urban environment, the study said.

What should you do after a difficult day at work? Many people would take a peaceful walk in nature, but this may not be a wise choice for everyone.

A study found evidence that people who are more prone to anxiety should instead take a walk in a busy, urban environment.

"Previous literature says that natural environments tend to restore cognitive abilities better than urban environments, but we questioned whether this one-sided perspective was accurate," said study lead author Kevin Newman, assistant professor at Providence College in Rhode Island, US.

The researchers started by asking participants to perform tasks that drained them mentally, such as writing sentences without using the letters "A" or "N." 

Then participants answered questions that revealed their level of neuroticism, such as whether they were a worrier, irritable, highly strung or experienced moods that often go up and down.

Then all the participants performed tasks that exposed them to words or pictures associated with either a natural or urban environment. 

Surprisingly, the results revealed that people with neurotic personalities had more success restoring their cognitive abilities after they viewed words related to a busy urban environment. 

In fact, nature could provide frenetic, stressful cues when the participants were exposed to words like "bear," "cliff" and "thunder." 

The nature-related words, however, were more beneficial for people who were not generally neurotic.

The findings appeared in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

"People tended to do better in environments that fit with their personality," Newman said.

"Imagine someone with a neurotic personality like Woody Allen. If you put him in a forest it could be very off-putting rather than rejuvenating," he said.

​Washington, May 10 (IANS) Researchers have discovered how a small brain structure plays a central role in the many decisions that we make each day such as what to order for lunch or whether to go with the hearty red wine or the lighter white.

Studying how monkeys choose between juice drinks, the researchers found that some of the neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) assign value to the options, while other neurons are related to making final choices. 

All of these neurons can re-map to make different decisions when circumstances change.

"When we choose between an apple and a banana, some neurons assign a value to the apple, some neurons assign a value to the banana, and other neurons represent the choice outcome," said the study's senior investigator Camillo Padoa-Schioppa from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

"Taken together, these different groups of cells seem to form a neural circuit that generates economic decisions," Padoa-Schioppa said.

In this study, reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the researchers examined how this neural circuit reorganises when decisions are made in different circumstances.

During the experiments, the researchers used a dozen different juice drinks. In each tasting session, the monkeys chose between two different drinks. Subsequently, they chose between two other juice drinks.

"If we look at individual cells, neurons are very flexible," Padoa-Schioppa said.

"However, if we consider the whole network, the decision circuit is remarkably stable. This combination of circuit stability and neuronal flexibility makes it possible for the same brain region to generate decisions between any two goods," Padoa-Schioppa noted.​

​London, May 10 (IANS) Scientists have found that upon deprivation of food a certain protein is produced that adjusts the metabolism in the liver, assisting in warding off fatty liver disease.

According to researchers, a reduced intake of calories, such as in the framework of an intermittent fasting diet, can help to whip the metabolism back into shape. 

The findings showed that during fasting, the stress molecule reduces the absorption of fatty acids in the liver and improves sugar metabolism.

In the study, published in the open access journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, the researchers found that during fasting GADD45 beta -- protein, whose name stands for 'Growth Arrest and DNA Damage-inducible' - controls the absorption of fatty acids in the liver.

Mice who lacked the corresponding gene were more likely to develop fatty liver disease.

However when the protein was restored, the fat content of the liver normalised and also sugar metabolism improved.

"The stress on the liver cells caused by fasting consequently appears to stimulate GADD45 beta production, which then adjusts the metabolism to the low food intake," said Stephan Herzig, professor and Director of the Institute for Diabetes and Cancer (IDC) at the Helmholtz Zentrum München in Germany.

Also, in humans, a low GADD45 beta level was accompanied by increased fat accumulation in the liver and an elevated blood sugar level.

"Once we understand how fasting influences our metabolism we can attempt to bring about this effect therapeutically," Herzig added.

The researchers now want to use the new findings for therapeutic intervention in the fat and sugar metabolism so that the positive effects of food deprivation might be translated for treatment.​

New York, May 10 (IANS) Are you getting bored easily when trying to focus, or having difficulty doing quiet tasks and activities? If yes, the pervasive use of a smartphone could be the reason behind these attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-like symptoms, new research suggests.

Recent polls have shown that as many as 95 percent of smartphone users have used their phones during social gatherings; that seven in 10 people used their phones while working; and one in 10 admitted to checking their phones during sex. Smartphone owners spend nearly two hours per day using their phones, said lead researcher Kostadin Kushlev from University of Virginia in the US.

"We found the first experimental evidence that smartphone interruptions can cause greater inattention and hyperactivity - symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - even in people drawn from a nonclinical population," Kushlev said.

During the study, 221 students at University of British Columbia in Canada drawn from the general student population were assigned for one week to maximise phone interruptions by keeping notification alerts on, and their phones within easy reach. 

During another week participants were assigned to minimise phone interruptions by keeping alerts off and their phones away. 

At the end of each week, participants completed questionnaires assessing inattention and hyperactivity. 

The results showed that the participants experienced significantly higher levels of inattention and hyperactivity when alerts were turned on.

The results suggest that even people who have not been diagnosed with ADHD may experience some of the disorder's symptoms, including distraction, difficulty focusing and getting bored easily when trying to focus, fidgeting, having trouble sitting still, difficulty doing quiet tasks and activities, and restlessness.

"Smartphones may contribute to these symptoms by serving as a quick and easy source of distraction," Kushlev said.

The silver lining is that the problem can be turned off.

The findings were presented at the Association for Computing Machinery's the human-computer interaction conference in San Jose, California.​

​London, May 6 (IANS) Drinking cherry juice can significantly reduce high blood pressure, particularly in males with early hypertension, to a level comparable to that achieved by medication, new research has found.

High blood pressure if left untreated, increases risk of heart attack, heart failure, kidney disease, stroke or dementia. 

The findings showed that men who drank tart Montmorency cherry juice -- a variety of sour cherry -- saw a peak reduction in their blood pressure of seven millimetre of mercury (mmHg) in the three hours after consuming the drink.

This reduction is comparable to the level achieved by anti-hypertensive drugs, the researchers said.

When phenolic acids, protocatechuic and vanillic -- compounds present within the cherry concentrate -- reached their peak levels in the plasma, systolic blood pressure showed greatest improvement. 

"The magnitude of the blood pressure lowering effects we observed was comparable to those achieved by a single anti-hypertensive drug and highlights the potential importance that Montmorency cherries could have in the effective management of high blood pressure," said lead author Karen Keane, lecturer at Northumbria University in Britain.

Raised blood pressure is the leading cause of deaths from heart diseases, yet relatively small reductions in blood pressure can have a large impact on mortality rates, Keane added in the paper published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The team worked with fifteen participants who were displaying early hypertension with blood pressure readings of at least 130/90 mmHg, meaning they were at higher risk of experiencing heart related problems.

They were given either 60ml of a Montmorency cherry concentrate or the same amount of a commercially available fruit-flavoured cordial.

Blood pressure and blood samples were taken before the cherry concentrate was consumed and blood pressure was measured on an hourly basis thereafter.

​New York, May 7 (IANS) Women in the age group 30-60 worldwide are sleeping more than men -- about 30 minutes more on average -- while middle-aged men are getting the least sleep, often getting less than the recommended seven-eight hours, a smartphone app-based study spanning 100 countries has revealed.

People who spend some time in the sunlight each day tend to go to bed earlier and get more sleep than those who spend most of their time in indoor light, the team from University of Michigan (UM) found.

The pioneering study of worldwide sleep patterns combined math modelling, mobile apps and big data to find the roles society and biology each play in setting sleep schedules.

The team used a free smartphone app that reduces jetlag to gather robust sleep data from thousands of people in 100 nations.

Among their findings is that cultural pressures can override natural circadian rhythms, with the effects showing up most markedly at bedtime.

While morning responsibilities like work, kids and school play a role in wake-time, the researchers say these are not the only factor.

"Across the board, it appears that society governs bedtime and one's internal clock governs wake time, and a later bedtime is linked to a loss of sleep," said Daniel Forger from U-M's college of literature, science and the arts.

"At the same time, we found a strong wake-time effect from users' biological clocks -- not just their alarm clocks. These findings help to quantify the tug-of-war between solar and social timekeeping," he added in a paper published in the journal Science Advances.

"Sleep is more important than a lot of people realise. Even if you get six hours a night, you're still building up a sleep debt," noted Olivia Walch, doctoral student in the mathematics department.

Internal or biological clocks are circadian rhythms -- fluctuations in bodily functions and behaviours that are tied to the planet's 24-hour day.

These rhythms are set by a grain-of-rice-sized cluster of 20,000 neurons behind the eyes and are regulated by the amount of light, particularly sunlight, our eyes take in.

Some years ago, the team released an app called "Entrain" that helps travellers adjust to new time zones.

With information from thousands of people from 100 nations in hand, the team analysed it for patterns.

The spread of national averages of sleep duration ranged from a minimum of around seven hours, 24 minutes of sleep for residents of Singapore and Japan to a maximum of eight hours, 12 minutes for those in the Netherlands.

That's not a huge window but the researchers say every half hour of sleep makes a big difference in terms of cognitive function and long-term health.

"It doesn't take that many days of not getting enough sleep before you're functionally drunk," Walch noted, adding that the researchers have figured out that being overly tired can have that effect.

What is terrifying at the same time is that people think they are performing tasks way better than they are despite less sleep. 

"Your performance drops off but your perception of your performance doesn't," the authors emphasised.​

​New York, May 9 (IANS) Does your child run at the sight of apples, bananas and green leafy vegetables? If yes, serious video games may help your kid increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables, says an interesting study.

Eating adequate amounts of these foods is not only ideal for a healthy lifestyle, but can also reduce the risk of some chronic diseases including heart disease and certain cancers. 

The findings showed that serious video games that are designed to both entertain and promote behaviour change, create specific plans with goals, which help children improve fruit and vegetable intake at specific meals.

"By using a serious video game, we saw increases in meal-specific vegetable intake at dinner for the children and fruit intake at breakfast, lunch, and snacks time," said lead author Karen Cullen, professor at Baylor College of Medicine in the US.

For the study, published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 400 fourth and fifth grade students played 10 episodes of Squires Quest! II -- a serious online video game -- that promotes fruit and vegetable intake. 

At six months after intervention, results showed improvements in both fruit and vegetable intake in participants.

Of the 400 participants, 79 percent reported meeting all goals during game play.