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F is for fail

19 March 2010: Motivation in an exam situation can be manipulated in a subliminal way and can have a real affect on performance. A group of undergraduate students were given the same test but half were labelled “Test Bank ID: A” with the other half labelled “Test Bank ID: F”. “A” and “F” of course are associated with grades but no link was made explicitly to the subjects, they simply saw the letters on their paper. The “A” group averaged 92.3 while the “F” group averaged 78.5; a significant difference. The researchers believe the letter A made the students non-consciously approach the task with the aim to succeed while the F set up an unconscious avoidance of failure. Previous research suggests that when people approach tasks trying to succeed they do better than when they are trying to avoid failure. So forget about failing to qualify; go for gold.

Source: British Journal of Educational Psychology

Mind Fitness

18 March 2010: A new study has found a direct correlation between levels of physical fitness and the results that students achieved on a standardised test. Researchers compared physical fitness and body weight measures for almost 2000 students in California who sat standardised maths, reading and language tests. Aerobic fitness was estimated by the time that it took a student to walk a mile on a flat track. The researchers found that test scores dropped more than one point for each extra minute it took the children to complete the one mile walk. Nearly two thirds of the students fell below state standards for fitness. Almost 32 per cent of the students were overweight and 28 per cent were obese. Students who met the fitness standards had higher average test scores than those who did not even allowing for socio-economic status, ethnicity and body size. The fitter the body, the fitter the mind.

Source: Journal of Pediatrics

Travel tips for John and Jane

17 March 2010: A study has found that women and men differ in the types of illnesses they suffer while travelling. Data from 44 travel medicine clinics worldwide looking at records for almost 59 000 patients revealed that women were up to 39 per cent more likely to seek treatment for diarrhoea, constipation, and abdominal pain. Just over three per cent of men were treated for malaria or dengue fever compared to 1.5 and 1.7 per cent respectively of women. Seventeen per cent of men had a fever inducing illness compared to eleven per cent of women. Insects are attracted to sweat and men sweat more and so wash off insect repellent making them more susceptible to mosquito born disease. Women might be more vulnerable to gastrointestinal ills or simply more likely to seek treatment. So; ladies, take acidophilus before and during travel and men, reapply that insect repellent frequently.

Source: Clinical Infectious Diseases

Thick brain: less pain

16 March 2010: Researchers have found that practising Zen meditation can reduce sensitivity to pain by thickening parts of your brain. The researchers compared Zen meditators to people who had never meditated and who in addition never practised yoga, experienced chronic pain, neurological or psychological illness. When a heat plate was exposed to the skin on the calf of each of the subjects, the meditators were significantly less sensitive to the pain. MRI scans showed that the meditators had brain regions involved in emotion and pain regulation that were significantly thicker than the non-meditators. More years of meditation resulted in thicker grey matter and the thicker the grey matter, the less sensitivity to pain. The good news from this is that if you start meditating the next time someone says, “Geez, you’re thick!”, on the one hand it will be true and on the other it won’t hurt as much.

Source: Emotion

Vitamins hate humidity

15 March 2010: If you keep your vitamins in your kitchen or bathroom then they may not be doing the good for you that you think they are. It’s all due to a process called “deliquescence” wherein humidity causes a water-soluble solid to dissolve. Vitamin C and the B vitamins are, for instance, water soluble. This research determined the humidities at which a substance would deliquesce. At room temperature sodium ascorbate (a form of vitamin C) deliquesces at 86 per cent humidity. Ascorbic acid (another form of vitamin C) deliquesces at 98 per cent humidity while some ingredient blends deliquesce in as low as 30 per cent humidity. Once humidity drops the ingredient will resolidify but the damage cannot be reversed. The products aren’t dangerous but you aren’t getting what you paid for. As the saying goes, “If you can’t stand the humidity, get your vitamins out of the kitchen.”

Source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

Smart naps

12 March 2010: We know that napping is good for you but now we know why a nap makes you smarter. Subjects in a new study undertook a rigorous learning task at midday intended to tax the hippocampus, the region of the brain that stores fact based memories. At 2pm one group had a 90 minute nap while the other group stayed awake. Then at 6pm the subjects were given a new set of tests. Those who stayed awake did worse than they had done at noon while those who had napped improved their capacity to learn. This reinforces the idea that fact based memories are temporarily stored in the hippocampus before being sent to the brain’s prefrontal cortex which has more storage space. Sleep clears short-term memory storage making room for new information. The argument is clear; “If you want creativity this afternoon boss, I’m going to need a nap.”

Source: American Association of the Advancement of Science

Garlic cuts nitrosamines

11 March 2010: Some nitrosamines cause cancer and they are made when you consume nitrates, commonly from processed meats, high heat processed foods, or water contaminated by industry run-off. About twenty per cent of nitrates are converted to nitrites and these can be converted into nitrosamines. Vegetables also contain nitrates but the vitamin C in vegetables lowers the risk that they will turn into something toxic. Garlic’s anti-cancer reputation led researchers to suspect that it might contain substances with a similar effect. So they gave subjects a dose of sodium nitrate and then garlic capsules, or vitamin C, or nothing for seven days. The unique test here was to measure the subjects urine every second day to see if nitrosamines were forming. The garlic lowered nitrosamine formation as did vitamin C. As far as dose goes it was a case of the more garlic the better; but then we knew that already.

Source: Analytical Biochemistry

The magic useful tree

10 March 2010: Water-borne illness is a big problem in the developing world as a billion people rely on untreated surface water for daily needs. Now a study suggests a tree native to the lower Himalayas in India and grown in Africa, Central and South America, and South-East Asia may be an answer. Moringa oleifera is known by many names including “tree of life”. It is drought resistant, yields oil for cooking and lighting, and has pods leaves and seeds that are highly nutritious. Now research has shown that a powder made by crushing the tree’s seeds acts as a natural clearing agent for turbid surface water. The powder reduces cloudiness making the water look better and it kills between 90 and 99.99 per cent of bacteria in a water sample. The procedure can be done in homes, and while it would not eradicate all disease threat, it is a big step.

Source: Current Protocols in Microbiology