New Hampshire Health News Digest

Research May Provide New Link Between Soft Drinks And Weight Gain Total caloric intake was lower in the mice that consumed the fructose-sweetened water than in the other groups, except for the control animals provided with water only. “We were surprised to see that mice actually ate less when exposed to fructose-sweetened beverages, and therefore didn’t consume more overall calories,” said Dr. Tschöp. “Nevertheless, they gained significantly more body fat within a few weeks.” Results from an earlier study in humans led by Peter Havel, DVM, PhD, an endocrinology researcher at the University of California, Davis, and coauthored by Dr. Tschöp, found that several hormones involved in the regulation of body weight, including leptin, insulin and ghrelin, do not respond to fructose as they do to other types of carbohydrates, such as glucose. Based on that study and their new data, the researchers now also believe that another factor contributing to the increased fat storage is that the liver ...

Ananova - Man hired stripper for dad's funeral Man hired stripper for dad's funeral A Taiwanese man hired an erotic dancer to perform at his 103-year-old father's funeral. An erotic dancer at a funeral in Taiwan /Lu Feng The stripper danced in front of Cai Jinlai's coffin for more than ten minutes at the funeral in Taizhong town. Son, Cai Ruigong, paid her more than £80 to dance in memory of his late father, reports United Daily News. Cai Ruigong says he promised his father a stripper for his funeral if he lived beyond the age of 100. Cai Jinlai passed away at the age of 103 after a three mile walk into town to vote. He was the oldest person in his village and had more than 100 descendants. His son said his father was famous locally for his interest in strip clubs: "He would travel around the island with his friends to see these shows," he added.

Why doing nothing may sometimes be the best action of all - Lifehack.org Mr. Azar is interested in a topic much in vogue with contemporary economists: how investors make high-stakes decisions. In classical economics, people are assumed to make rational, independent choices based on self-interest. It’s an assumption that makes for neatness, but it appears to be wide of the mark. Rather than construct some artificial experiment, Azar decided to study professional soccer goalkeepers and how they deal with the toughest, highest-stakes decision they are forced to make on a regular basis: how to act to stop a penalty kick at goal. Faced with a player sending the ball towards them at 80 m.p.h. or more, the goalkeeper has only a fraction of a second to decide how to block the shot. It’s a fearful challenge: 4 out of 5 penalty kicks score a goal. By analyzing data on more than 300 kicks, the researchers calculated the action most likely to prevent a goal being scored. Surprisingly, it is standi...

Cuba Lifts Ban On Computer, DVD Sales -- Cuba -- InformationWeek HAVANA - Communist Cuba has authorized the sale of computers, DVD and video players, and other electrical appliances in the first sign President Raul Castro is moving to lift some restrictions on daily life. "Based on the improved availability of electricity the government at the highest level has approved the sale of some equipment which was prohibited," said an internal government memo seen by Reuters. It listed computers, video and DVD players, 19-inch and 24-inch television sets, electric pressure cookers and rice cookers, electric bicycles, car alarms and microwaves that can now be freely bought by Cubans.

Boys' And Girls' Brains Are Different: Gender Differences In Language Appear Biological For the first time -- and in unambiguous findings -- researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Haifa show both that areas of the brain associated with language work harder in girls than in boys during language tasks, and that boys and girls rely on different parts of the brain when performing these tasks. "Our findings -- which suggest that language processing is more sensory in boys and more abstract in girls -- could have major implications for teaching children and even provide support for advocates of single sex classrooms," said Douglas D. Burman, research associate in Northwestern's Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers measured brain activity in 31 boys and in 31 girls aged 9 to 15 as they performed spelling and writing language tasks. The tas...

Happiness can be inherited, research finds - Yahoo! News A study of nearly 1,000 pairs of identical and non-identical twins found genes control half the personality traits that make people happy while factors such as relationships, health and careers are responsible for the rest of our well-being. "We found that around half the differences in happiness were genetic," said Tim Bates, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh who led the study. "It is really quite surprising."

Sex therapists: Best sex is 7 to 13 min. - UPI.com Sex therapists: Best sex is 7 to 13 min. Published: March 5, 2008 at 1:04 PM ERIE, Pa., March 5 (UPI) -- A random sample of Canadian and U.S. sex therapists said that sexual intercourse of seven to 13 minutes is most "desirable." The survey of North American sex therapists found they thought an "adequate" length for sexual intercourse was from three to seven minutes; "desirable" from seven to 13 minutes; "too short" from one to two minutes; and "too long" from 10 to 30 minutes. Researchers Eric W. Corty and Jenay M. Guardiani of Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, said that lay public perceptions about how long sexual intercourse should last may be problematic and may be a factor related to perceived distress. Dissemination to the public of these results may change lay expectations and prevent distress and may benefit couples in treatment for sexual problems by normalizing expectation...

Young Iraqis are losing their faith in religion - International Herald Tribune Young Iraqis are losing their faith in religion By Sabrina Tavernise Published: March 3, 2008 BAGHDAD: After almost five years of war, many young Iraqis, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach. In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives. "I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us," said Sara Sami, a high school student in Basra. "Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don't deserve to be rulers." Atheer, a 19-year-old...

High Prevalence Of Eating Disorders Found In Narcoleptics The majority of patients with narcolepsy/cataplexy experience a number of symptoms of eating disorders, with an irresistible craving for food and binge eating as the most prominent features, according to a new study. The study, authored by Hal Droogleever Fortuyn, MD, and Sebastiaan Overeem, MD, of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center in The Netherlands, focused on 60 patients with narcolepsy/cataplexy who were recruited from specialized sleep centers and 120 healthy controls. According to the results, 23.3 percent of the narcolepsy/cataplexy patients fulfilled the criteria for a clinical eating disorder, as opposed to none of the control subjects. Half of the patients reported a persistent craving for food, as well as binge eating. Twenty-five percent of patients even reported binging at least twice a week. "These data make it clear that narcolepsy is not just a sleeping disorder, but a hypothalamic disease with...