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Cell phone talking worse than driving drunk - study
Cell phone talking worse than driving drunk - study
Researchers at the University of Utah have published a study that claims drivers on cell phones are prone to more crashes than drunk drivers. Two psychology professors, David Strayer and Frank Drews, along with toxicology professor Dennis Crouch, conducted the study. 40 test subjects drove a simulated highway while undistracted, drunk and talking on a cellphone. The cell phone using drivers crashed three times, while the drunk drivers surprisingly did OK.
Researchers found that the drunk drivers were more aggressive and followed closer than the cell phone using drivers. They also discovered that cell phone users had significantly slower brake times at 849 ms versus 777 ms of the baseline group. Researchers suggest that cell phones make drivers more sluggish in perception and reaction.
Amazingly the drunk group's times did not significantly different from the baseline group. In addition, there were no crashes with the drunk group even though they had a tendancy to follow up to 2.5 meters (about 8 ft) closer than the cell phone group. The drunk group also had to brake much harder to avoid accidents.
The researchers simulated a 24-mile two-way highway on a "PatrolSim" driving simulator, commonly used by police officers for high-speed pursuit training. In 15-minute driving sessions, the test subjects had to follow and avoid hitting a pace car that would randomly brake. Passing vehicles were thrown is as distractions.
The volunteers had to do the same course four separate times. The first was a baseline test with no cellphone usage or alcohol consumption. Then handheld and hands-free cell phone usage were tested with the subjects maintaining a casual conversation with a research assistant. The final test was done after drinking a mixture of vodka and orange to get the subjects to a .08% blood alcohol level - the legal definition of driving while intoxicated in many states. Unfortunately, researchers didn't test drunk driving with cell phone usage.
There are two issues that can be raised about the study. The first is that crashing in a simulator does not have the same visceral and tragic consequences as crashing in real life. To be sure, there are some huge safety and legal problems with doing a live highway test, but perhaps the volunteers would have done better in a real environment.
Also, while .08% blood alcohol level is considered drunk, that level is usually on the low end for drunk drivers that have crashed. It's not uncommon to find drivers with double that level after an accident.
Cancer-Causing Benzene Still in Drinks
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Many manufacturers have reformulated their products to minimize or eliminate benzene. In these reformulated products, benzene levels were 1.1 ppb or less. About 71 percent of beverage samples contained less than 1 ppb. Benzene can form in beverages that contain the preservative benzoate salt and ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Beverages were reformulated in the early 1990’s to avoid benzene formation, but it has recurred in recent years because new manufacturers were unaware of the problem and added vitamin C to drinks. |
Nearly one out of ten of 200 beverage samples analyzed in a recent study by the EPA and FDA still had benzene levels above the U.S. EPA drinking water limit of 5 parts per billion (ppb).Caffeine: Good For Your Skin
We all know what caffeine can do for our moods in the morning, but caffeine is also increasingly celebrated in the dermatological community for its impact on the skin.
For years, caffeine's ability to quickly and effectively constrict blood vessels has made it a valued topical ingredient, particularly in products designed to minimize facial flushing. For that reason, caffeine can be a tremendous boon to those who suffer from rosacea, which is essentially caused by frequently dilated blood vessels that lose their ability to contract.
La Roche Posay Rosaliac products, for example, are a great anti-inflammatory option for anyone who suffers from rosacea or facial redness. Topix Replenix CF Anti-Photoaging Complex SPF 45 is another excellent, well-rounded product that offers a blend of powerful antioxidants, caffeine, and sunscreen.
Caffeine's blood vessel-constricting benefits also make it a go-to ingredient in many eye creams (like MD Formulations Moisture Defense Antioxidant Eye Crème, for example), as it can quickly minimize redness and puffiness.
In addition to its anti-inflammatory benefits, though, caffeine is starting to get lots of attention for its antioxidant properties when used both topically and orally. (That morning cup o' joe might not be so bad after all!)
In fact, research suggests that both oral and topical caffeine may offer powerful anticarcinogenic benefits. A series of studies performed on mice found that caffeinated green and black teas prevented sun damage and even repaired damage once it occurred, whereas decaffeinated teas did not.
One particularly promising study suggested that topical caffeine may also repair UV damage - and that it may prove to be a stronger antioxidant than certain green tea polyphenols, currently among the strongest and best-researched antioxidants around. (On a related note, coffeeberry, which comes from the fruit of the coffee plant, is also getting a lot of attention lately as the next big antioxidant.)
Just a couple words of caution, though: Caffeine is dehydrating, so be sure to follow your coffee or tea with plenty of water. And if you're prone to facial flushing, hot beverages can cause redness; consider enjoying your caffeinated beverages over ice.
Wishing you great skin!
Dr. Baumann is author of the best-selling book," The Skin Type Solution." To learn more about her revolutionary skin typing system, visit her Web site, SkinTypeSolutions.com.
Drug-resistant staph spreading among gay men
Think that the "gay" lifestyle isn't any of your business? If you do, maybe you should not eat in restaurants or go out in public. Your government has lied to you. The Male (not proven female lesbian) homosexual is a transmitter of disease. That is the Plain Truth, like it or not.
Here is the MSNBC story:
SAN FRANCISCO - A drug-resistant strain of potentially deadly bacteria has moved beyond the borders of U.S. hospitals and is being transmitted among gay men during sex, researchers said on Monday.
They said methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is beginning to appear outside hospitals in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles.
Sexually active gay men in San Francisco are 13 times more likely to be infected than their heterosexual neighbors, the researchers reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
“Once this reaches the general population, it will be truly unstoppable,” said Binh Diep, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco who led the study. “That’s why we’re trying to spread the message of prevention.”
According to chemical analyses, bacteria are spreading among the gay communities of San Francisco and Boston, the researchers said.
“We think that it’s spread through sexual activity,” Diep said.
This superbug can cause life-threatening and disfiguring infections and can often only be treated with expensive, intravenous antibiotics.
It killed about 19,000 Americans in 2005, most of them in hospitals, according to a report published in October in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
About 30 percent of all people carry ordinary staph chronically. It can be passed by touching other people or by depositing the bacteria on surfaces or objects.
The bacteria can cause deep-tissue infections if they enter the body through a wound in the skin.
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Of those people who carry staph, most carry it in their noses but community-based MRSA also can live in and around the anus and is passed between sexual partners. |
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STD resurgence
Incidence of MRSA is rising along with the resurgence of syphilis, rectal gonorrhea, and new HIV infections partly because of changes in beliefs about the severity of HIV and an increase in risky behaviors, such as illicit drug use and having sex that abrades the skin, Diep’s team wrote.
“Your likelihood of contracting each of these diseases increases with the number of sexual partners that you have,” Diep said. “The same can probably be said for MRSA.”
Staph infections often look like raised red dots on the skin. Left untreated, the areas can swell and fill with pus.
The best way to avoid infection is by washing the hands or genitals with soap and water, Diep said.
Gastric Banding Reverses Impact of Type 2 Diabetes
This press release is an announcement submitted by Monash University Centre for Obesity Research and Education, and was not written by Diabetes Health.
A new world-first study by Monash University researchers has found gastric banding surgery has a profound impact on one of society's biggest health issues - diabetes.
The study, published today in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found obese patients with Type 2 diabetes who underwent gastric banding were five times more likely to have their diabetes go into long term remission, compared with patients who engaged in conventional weight loss therapies, such as a controlled calorie diet and exercise.
The four-year study, which was led by Drs John Dixon and Paul O'Brien from Monash University's Centre for Obesity Research and Education (CORE), monitored 60 volunteers for two years who underwent significant weight loss of more than 10 per cent of their body weight.
Dr Dixon said of those who underwent gastric banding surgery, 73 per cent achieved remission for Type 2 diabetes, compared to just 13 percent of the people who underwent conventional therapy.
"Our study presents strong evidence that obese patients with a Body Mass Index greater than 30 with Type 2 diabetes need to lose a significant amount of weight to improve their overall health and glycemic management," Dr Dixon said.
"Our study shows that gastric banding surgery can assist those patients to achieve this - and with sustained results."
Professor O'Brien said obesity and Type 2 diabetes were strongly linked and combine to present one of the greatest public health problems facing our community.
"We found that the amount of weight loss was a key determinant of effectiveness. Most of those losing ten per cent of their total weight had remission of the diabetes. Few who lost less did so."
Dr Dixon said the study also found patients who lost substantial weight could not only dramatically reduce their diabetes medications, but also those for controlling blood pressure and lowering blood fats.
"We found that after two years, the surgical group when compared to the conventional therapy group displayed a four times greater reduction in glycated haemoglobin, which can be an indicator of poorly controlled diabetes," Dr Dixon said.
Gastric banding is a medical procedure where a band is placed around a patient's stomach to reduce appetite and food intake. For more information on the study, visit the CORE website: http://www.core.monash.org/.
Scientists Figure Out How Alcohol Lowers Blood Sugar
Scientists Figure Out How Alcohol Lowers Blood Sugar
Patrick Totty
23 January 2008
23 January 2008
Swedish scientists have found that alcohol lowers blood sugar by redirecting blood within the pancreas and sending massive amounts of it to the islets.
The finding by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, is the first to show how alcohol is able to lower blood sugar levels. What happens is that by sending more of the pancreas's internal blood flow to the islets, alcohol spurs insulin production, which in turn lowers glucose levels.
The scientists injected rats with ethanol alcohol and noted that blood flow to the islets increased fourfold. The alcohol did not affect the amount of blood reaching the pancreas, only the distribution of blood within it.
The study also found that alcohol induced the changes in blood flow by affecting nitric oxide, a chemical compound that medical studies suggest is instrumental in glucose transport and the actions of insulin. Alcohol also affected the vagus nerve, which descends from the brain and into the abdomen and, among other things, signals organs there to secrete.
Source: Endocrinology, January 2008
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