H παχυσαρκία συνδέεται με 10 μορφές καρκίνου

Οι επιστήμονες κρούουν τον κώδωνα του κινδύνου για τα επίπεδα της παχυσαρκίας

Το υπερβολικό βάρος και η παχυσαρκία κρύβουν κινδύνους και ενισχύουν τον κίνδυνο της εμφάνισης των 10 πιο συνηθισμένων μορφών καρκίνου - μεταξύ των οποίων της μήτρας, της χοληδόχου κύστης, του νεφρού, του ήπατος και του παχέος εντέρου. 

Οι επιστήμονες εκτιμούν ότι περισσότερα από 12.000 κρούσματα συνηθισμένων μορφών καρκίνου, που εμφανίζονται ετησίως στο βρετανικό πληθυσμό, πιθανώς να συνδέονται με την παχυσαρκία.

Παράλληλα, κρούουν τον κώδωνα του κινδύνου και προειδοποιούν ότι αν τα επίπεδα της παχυσαρκίας εξακολουθήσουν να έχουν ανοδική τάση, αναμένεται να υπάρξουν επιπλέον 3.700 κρούσματα της επάρατης νόσου.

Η έρευνα, η οποία δημοσιεύτηκε στο επιστημονικό περιοδικό Lancet Medical Journal, πραγματοποιήθηκε από τη Σχολή Υγιεινής και Τροπικής Ιατρικής του Λονδίνου σε δείγμα 5 εκατομμυρίων ατόμων που παρακολουθούνταν από ειδικούς επί επτάμισι χρόνια.

Ένας μέσος παχύσαρκος ενήλικας παρουσιάζει περισσότερες πιθανότητες να προσβληθεί από τον καρκίνο της μήτρας και ακολουθούν ο καρκίνος της χοληδόχου κύστης, των νεφρών, του τραχήλου της μήτρας, του θυρεοειδούς και η λευχαιμία. 

Τα άτομα που εμφανίζουν υψηλό δείκτη μάζας σώματος (υπολογίζεται μέσω της σχέσης βάρους και ύψους) τείνουν να διατρέχουν υψηλό κίνδυνο προσβολής από τον καρκίνο του ύπατος, του παχέος εντέρου, του μαστού και των ωοθηκών. 

« Ωστόσο ο υψηλός δείκτης μάζας σώματος δεν αποτελεί παράγοντα ανάπτυξης όλων των μορφών του καρκίνου. Για παράδειγμα ο καρκίνος της μήτρας ανιχνεύεται σε υψηλά ποσοστά στα υπέρβαρα άτομα, ενώ άλλα είδη καρκίνου δεν βρίσκουν πιο πρόσφορο έδαφος μετάλλαξης εξαιτίας του υψηλού βάρους», αναφέρει ο επικεφαλής της έρευνας, Κρίσναν Μπασκάραν.

ΠΗΓΗ:

http://www.tovima.gr/health-fitness/article/?aid=623366(accessed 27.12.14)

How To Help Children Control Their Emotions, Reduce Anxiety and Boost Attention

This activity has a vital role to play in children’s psychological health.

Children who study the piano or violin might also find it easier to control their emotions, focus their attention and reduce their anxiety.

Along with parents, teachers and friends, learning a musical instrument has a vital role to play in children’s psychological health, the largest study of its kind to date argues.

Researchers at the Vermont Center for Children made musical training available to 232 youths between the ages of 6- and 18-years-old.

Their brains were also scanned to see how the cortex changed in size, over up to six years.

The thickness of the cortex — the brain’s outer layer — in different regions has already been linked to various psychological problems, such as lack of attention, high levels of aggression or depression.

The results, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, showed changes in the motor areas as expected, but also more wide-ranging benefits of musical training:

“Playing a musical instrument was associated with more rapid cortical thickness maturation within areas implicated in motor planning and coordination, visuospatial ability, and emotion and impulse regulation.” (Hudziak et al., 2014)

Particularly important changes in the cortex suggested improved…

“…executive functioning, including working memory, attentional control, as well as organization and planning for the future.”

While the standard approach to psychological problems is often to medicate, the study’s first author, Professor James Hudziak, thinks there is a better way:

“We treat things that result from negative things, but we never try to use positive things as treatment.”

Given the findings of these and other similar studies, it’s all the more surprising that three-quarters of all high school students in the US rarely or never take music or art lessons.

The study’s authors write:

“Such statistics, when taken in the context of our present neuroimaging results underscore the vital importance of finding new and innovative ways to make music training more widely available to youths, beginning in childhood.”

SOURCE:

http://www.spring.org.uk/2014/12/how-to-help-children-control-their-emotions-reduce-anxiety-and-boost-attention.php(accessed 27.12.14)

The problem with smart people

Sydney Finkelstein

Sometimes a talented person can be an ineffective manager. (Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images)

When hiring, promoting, even just putting together your team, you should look for the smartest people in the room, right? Not so fast.

Intelligence is one of those characteristics where there is a minimum level needed to be in the game. Once past that, too much intelligence can be a drawback or worse.

The Enron management team, for example, were known as “the smartest guys in the room.” Consider how well that turned out. The former US energy trading company tapped its top talent to run some of its most-profitable divisions, almost without supervision. The managers, despite their smarts, were an arrogant, insecure bunch who took wild chances and lost billions of dollars. The company dissolved in 2001.

The problem with really smart people is that they often think they know more than everyone else. 

Certainly, the job for which you’re hiring makes a difference. I do want big-time intelligence for researchers, analysts, and coders, but you can lock those folks in a room and let them do their thing because they work on their own. If they lack emotional intelligence or interpersonal skills, any damage they do is limited because of their independent work.

But do I really need to find the smartest managers?

The problem with smart people

The problem with really smart people is that they often think they know more than everyone else. Maybe they do. But that doesn’t help them when they’re trying to get others to buy into whatever they’re selling. For example, I was coaching one senior executive who always seemed to be one step ahead of everyone else on her team. At least, that’s what she thought. One of the biggest challenges she faced was recognising that other managers didn’t necessarily view the world the same way. That meant she needed to invest the time to bring them along if she wanted to get traction on her preferred projects.

When you know the right answer, you often can’t believe that everyone else doesn’t just see the same thing, and fall into line.

Unfortunately, organisations don’t work that way. Especially when working with peers when you don’t have direct authority over them, the only way to get momentum toward your preferred outcome is to sell them on the idea. Imposing your “superior” solution just doesn’t work.

The irony is that sometimes the most talented person can make for one of the most ineffective managers. You can see this in sports, for example, where retired superstars often find it difficult to coach or manage successfully because they are now supervising lesser mortals that weren’t blessed with the same degree of innate talent.

Wayne Gretzky, the Canadian hockey legend who retired with more personal scoring records than anyone in the history of professional hockey, was remarkably ineffective as a head coach. The same may be said about Michael Jordan, perhaps the greatest basketball player ever, who has never been able to lead a successful basketball organisation whether as general manager, president or owner.

It could be just as bad when we let the A-level crowd go to market with what they see as the best product. I remember talking to managers at Singapore-based Creative Technology, Inc after the iPod had just been introduced by Apple. Creative had a technologically superior MP3 player, but customers preferred the iPod, to the utter dismay of the Creative managers. They just couldn’t understand how customers were so irrational!

But it turns out that the best technology doesn’t always win, just like the smartest people don’t always succeed.

It’s not just brainpower where more may also not be better. For example, is it good to keep reducing the time it takes for technicians to help customers requesting assistance via call-in centres? What about the quality of the advice, how the customer perceives the value of the advice or even whether it’s such a great idea in the first place to try to optimise on speed?

Zappos, the US-based online shoe store, actually rewards employees for spending more time with customers who call in with questions about products they are thinking of buying. For Zappos, customer experience on a call trumps any simple metric that, in its view, can actually detract from profitability.

When employees are motivated to cycle through customers as fast as possible, platitudes that the customer comes first are just that — empty, cynical slogans that mean nothing to sales staff.

And let’s not forget the side effect that accompanies this culture. People who really care about service look elsewhere for work. That leaves demotivated employees who actually do a good job of hitting their time targets. In the end, you get what you want, but you lose because of un-nuanced thinking that more is better than less.

Call it brilliantly fulfilling the wrong vision.

The quest for more may well be the defining ethos of our time, but the downside that comes with this single-minded fixation warrants greater attention. Relying on the smartest and the most talented to lead and manage people and teams may be one of those things that sounds a lot better in theory than in practice.

SOURCE:

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20140528-the-problem-with-smart-people(accessed 27.12.14)

Αντιμετωπίστε την κατάθλιψη των Χριστουγέννων

Συμβουλές για την αντιμετώπιση της μελαγχολίας των γιορτών



Η κατάθλιψη και το άγχος των Χριστουγέννων είναι πολύ συχνό φαινόμενο. Συνήθως τα προβλήματα ξεκινάνε από το γεγονός ότι υπάρχουν αυξημένες υποχρεώσεις τις ημέρες αυτές και προσδοκίες για το πώς πρέπει να περάσει κάποιος τις γιορτές. Υπάρχει η άποψη ότι πρέπει να κάνουμε κάτι εντυπωσιακό, κάτι πολύ ιδιαίτερο, και όταν κάνουμε κάτι πιο απλό και ίσως και συνηθισμένο, τότε απογοητευόμαστε και θεωρούμε ότι δεν περάσαμε όπως θα «έπρεπε» αυτές τις ημέρες. Το διάστημα αυτό των γιορτών πολύ συχνά υπάρχουν πολλές υποχρεώσεις - ψώνια, προσκλήσεις, τραπέζια στο σπίτι -, με αποτέλεσμα να κουράζονται όλοι πολύ, να περνάνε οι αργίες και να μην έχουμε ξεκουραστεί όσο θα θέλαμε.

Σύμφωνα με την ψυχολόγο - γνωσιακή ψυχοθεραπεύτρια κυρία Μίνα Χριστοπούλου, η μοναξιά είναι ένας πολύ σοβαρός παράγοντας εξαιτίας του οποίου αρκετοί άνθρωποι μελαγχολούν τα Χριστούγεννα - μια οικογενειακή γιορτή που όλοι θεωρούν ότι πρέπει να την περνούν με φίλους. Επίσης, η απώλεια κάποιου αγαπημένου προσώπου, πολύ περισσότερο αν είναι πρόσφατη, δημιουργεί τις ημέρες αυτές πολύ πιο έντονη την έλλειψη και το αίσθημα της νοσταλγίας.

Η κυρία Χριστοπούλου δίνει μερικές συμβουλές για την αντιμετώπιση της μελαγχολίας των γιορτών:

Προσπαθήστε να μην επιβαρύνετε το πρόγραμμά σας, βρείτε χρόνο τις ημέρες της άδειάς σας να ξεκουραστείτε και να χαλαρώσετε.
Επιλέξτε δραστηριότητες πραγματικά ευχάριστες και που δεν σχετίζονται με κοινωνικά «πρέπει».
Δεν χρειάζονται εντυπωσιακά τραπέζια και πάρτι για να περάσουμε όμορφα αυτές τις ημέρες. Ακόμη και μια απλή συγκέντρωση με αγαπημένους φίλους μπορεί να κάνει τα εφετινά Χριστούγεννα μοναδικά.
Για τους ανθρώπους που είναι μόνοι τους είναι καλό αυτές τις ημέρες να προσπαθούν να βγαίνουν και να μην κλείνονται στο σπίτι. Ακόμη και ένας περίπατος είναι προτιμότερος από την παρέα της τηλεόρασης.
Μην αρνηθείτε οποιαδήποτε πρόταση. Μπορεί να περάσετε καλύτερα απ' ό,τι περιμένατε. Το σίγουρο είναι πάντως ότι θα περάσετε καλύτερα από το να μείνετε μόνοι στο σπίτι.


ΠΗΓΗ:
http://www.tovima.gr/health-fitness/article/?aid=657096(accessed 19.12.14)

You Might Be Surprised How Much a Hug Helps Fight Illness, Stress and Depression

Psychologists go to surprising lengths in new study to show how much a hug can help.

Being hugged reduces the deleterious effects of stress on the body, according to new research which intentionally exposed people to a cold virus.

Hugging acts as a form of social support and protects people from getting sick and even reduces their illness symptoms if they do get sick.

The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, asked 404 healthy adults how much social support they perceived they had from other people (Cohen et al., 2014).

They were also asked about how often they were hugged and how often they came into conflict with others.

Participants were then exposed to a cold virus in the lab (they were well paid for this: $1,000 each).

Their condition was monitored in quarantine to see if they developed a cold and how severe their symptoms were.

Professor Sheldon Cohen, who led the study, explained its rationale:

“We know that people experiencing ongoing conflicts with others are less able to fight off cold viruses.

We also know that people who report having social support are partly protected from the effects of stress on psychological states, such as depression and anxiety.

We tested whether perceptions of social support are equally effective in protecting us from stress-induced susceptibility to infection and also whether receiving hugs might partially account for those feelings of support and themselves protect a person against infection.”

The results showed that people who were hugged more often or who perceived they had greater social support were less likely to catch the cold in the first place.

Those who did get a cold had less severe symptoms if they were hugged more and felt supported socially.

Professor Cohen said:

“This suggests that being hugged by a trusted person may act as an effective means of conveying support and that increasing the frequency of hugs might be an effective means of reducing the deleterious effects of stress.

The apparent protective effect of hugs may be attributable to the physical contact itself or to hugging being a behavioral indicator of support and intimacy.

Either way, those who receive more hugs are somewhat more protected from infection.”

SOURCE:

http://www.spring.org.uk/2014/12/you-might-be-surprised-how-much-a-hug-helps-fight-illness-stress-and-depression.php(accessed 19.12.14)

Is personality unique to humans?

 By Adam HartProfessor of Science Communication, University of Gloucestershire

A team from the University of Oxford has been studying boldness and shyness in great tits

We like to think humans are pretty special.

Given our many achievements (I don't see chimpanzees landing probes on comets in the near future) it's a tendency that's largely justified.

But most of our thoughts aren't consumed with the magnificence or otherwise of our species. If we're honest, most of our thoughts are taken up by us as individuals.

Central to this conceit is the notion of our "personality". However, while we might think that our sparkling personalities are something unique, psychological research tells us that we can assess and measure personality using just five main personality dimensions.

What's more, not only are our personalities not quite as special as we might think, recent animal research tells us that personality is not even something unique to humans.

What is "animal personality"?

Individual animals display different personalities across a range of species, including mammals,fish, birds, insects and molluscs

These personality traits control whether individual animals are leaders or followers, bold or shy, aggressive or passive, for example. As with people, some animal's personalities change as they age

Great tits look for partners that are as outgoing as themselves, while zebra finches with similar personalities make better parents

Some fallow deer are braver than others, spending less time looking out for predators and being more likely to try new foods

A fish's personality may determine how likely it is to be captured - with bold fish more likely to be hooked

Research into animal behaviour has usually focused on behaviour across a species, or more accurately, across a sample of that species. The approach has examined "average behaviour" and individuals only featured as data points, with variation between individuals being of far less interest than the description and explanation of the overall behaviours observed.

Recently though, there has been a shift in this view. Inter-individual variation between animals is no longer being dismissed as statistical noise but instead has been embraced and studied.

As you can hear in Frontiers on BBC Radio 4,insights from this individual-focused research have led us to a far more nuanced view of behaviour and the evolutionary processes that have shaped it.

This approach to animal behaviour has become known as animal personality research. For a field notoriously sensitive to claims of anthropomorphism it might seem strange that a word so intrinsically human, with "person" so central to its etymology, has been embraced.

But actually it's not so surprising. Human personality is all about repeatable behavioural tendencies within an individual; in other words, we tend to respond to similar situations in a broadly predictable way.

Scientists probe personality differences in albatrosses using a plastic toy

Some of us want to be the centre of attention while others shy away. Extroverted people tend to always be extrovert and indeed extroversion/introversion is one of the five dimensions of human personality.

For an example of why personality is also a suitable word to apply to animal behaviour, consider a creature that is probably not top anyone's list of personality candidates: the hermit crab.

Rather than growing their own expensive protective shell, hermit crabs use what Mark Briffa, reader in animal behaviour at the University of Plymouth, describes as a "dodge". They install their soft worm-like rear ends into an empty periwinkle or whelk shell, poking their heads, claws and legs out of the opening to move around.

Some hermit crabs venture out of their shells more readily than others

When disturbed, they disappear back into the security of their shell, only venturing back out when they feel it's safe. What Mark has discovered is that some hermit crabs are bolder than others, with brave crabs resuming their out-of-the-shell activities far more rapidly than shyer individuals. The crucial thing, as Mark says, is "if this behaviour is consistent within an individual then it is a bold individual".

Mark has indeed found that some hermit crabs are always bold; in other words they display a behavioural tendency that is consistent within an individual. As he explains, "that is a bit of mouthful to say, so personality seems like a good word for it".

This consistency of behaviour within an individual, or personality, has been documented in an ever-growing list of species, from obvious candidates like chimpanzees, through to cat sharks (who have social and solitary individuals) and even sea anemones. One group of animals where personality research is particularly far advanced is birds.

Wytham Woods, just outside Oxford is one of the most important field research sites in the world for studying the links between ecology, evolution and behaviour. Here, Proessor Ben Sheldon, Dr Ella Coles and others from the University of Oxford have been studying the personalities of a common bird, the great tit.

Research in the Bahamas suggests that individual lemon sharks also have their own personalities

By catching birds and exposing them to a novel environment (an aviary in which they are temporarily housed) researchers have been able to measure boldness and shyness in individuals and show that individuals are consistent in these personality traits throughout their lives.

The researchers can also follow birds over time and this long-term approach allows the team to unpick the links between personality and how successful those birds are at the fundamental business of producing offspring.

Dr Samantha Patrick of the University of Gloucestershire cut her research teeth in Wytham Woods but has subsequently moved on to rather bigger birds - albatrosses. Samantha uses an intriguing, and frankly amusing, method for determining how bold an albatross is.

Lying low in the cold grass of the Crozet Islands in the southern Indian Ocean, she pushes a toy plastic cow towards the birds with a stick. This novel stimulus allows her to measure the response of a bird, and to measure that response over time.

What she has found, just like many other researchers on a variety of different species, is that different individuals have different responses (or personality types) but that individuals are consistent in their own response.

Research on birds and on an increasing variety of species shows that generally there isn't a "best" personality to be. The reason why there is personality variation between different individuals is because there is variation in the environment.

Chimpanzees are thought to share the "big five" personality dimensions - such as extroversion and agreeableness - with humans

It's a complex world out there and that complexity changes over space and time. The environment doesn't stay constant and in some environments, perhaps those with plenty of hungry predators, it pays to be a little careful, a bit shy.

In other environments, or perhaps in the same place but later in the year when food is scarce, it pays to be bold, to get out there and find those scant resources rather than cowering in a safe hidey-hole. The shifting nature of the environment means that the ultimate pay-offs to these different strategies end up being more-or-less equal and natural selection has led to a variety of personality types in animals.

Interpreting the evolution of animal behaviour in terms of their ecology is the realm of behavioural ecology and It should come as no surprise to us that evolutionary and ecological perspectives have been so useful in explaining animal personalities.

Animal personality research is now starting to move towards a deeper understanding of how different personality types evolve and how they interact in groups of animals. Research at Wytham Woods for example is looking at how personality types function in the groups of birds that form foraging flocks over winter and how that mix of personalities affects success.

Although we often like to think otherwise, our personalities are just as much the products of natural selection and evolution as our upright stance and large brains.

Animal behaviour researchers may have borrowed the concept of personality from human psychologists but as social animals living in a complex world it will be interesting to see what human psychology takes from animal research over the coming years.

SOURCE:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30395493(accessed 16.12.14)

Why sadness lasts longer than other emotions

Staying positive can feel like an uphill battle. No wonder: when Philippe Verduyn and Saskia Lavrijsen asked over 200 high-school students (average age 17) to reminisce about the duration of their recent emotional experiences, they found that sadness had an unfortunate habit of lingering, more so than any of the other 26 emotions studied, including joy, pride and relief.

Indeed, the average duration of the episodes of sadness recalled by the students was 120 hours. At the other extreme, the most fleeting emotion was shame, which tended to last, on average, just half an hour. Surprise, fear, disgust, boredom, irritation and relief also tended to be short-lived. Joy managed a disappointing average duration of 35 hours. Contrast that with hatred, which averaged 60 hours. Focusing on pairs of the emotions that we usually see as related, guilt was found to last much longer than shame, and anxiety lasted longer than fear.

To find out why some emotions last longer than others, the researchers also asked the students about the events that precipitated their emotional experiences, and how they dealt with each emotional episode once it had started. A clear pattern emerged. More short-lived emotions were usually, though not always, preceded by an event of lesser importance to the participant, as compared with longer-lasting emotions.

Longer-lasting emotions, including sadness, also tended to go hand in hand with rumination as the main response - that is, dwelling on one's feelings and the consequences of the event that triggered those feelings. Together, event importance and amount of rumination accounted for half the variability in the length of different emotional episodes. This is substantial, but of course it leaves plenty of room for other factors unexplored by this research.

The study has some clear shortcomings, including the reliance on a student sample and on participants recalling their past emotional experiences. However, Verduyn and Lavrijsen said theirs is the first ever study to examine the reasons why some emotions last longer than others.

The researchers finish their report with an interesting point - when brain-imaging studies attempt to document the neural correlates of different emotional experiences, they rarely consider the different durations of different emotions. "...[T]he difference in neural signature between emotions may not be a matter of which neural regions are involved," write Verduyn and Lavrijsen, "but when, and for how long neural regions become and remain active."

_________________________________ 

SOUCE:

http://digest.bps.org.uk/2014/11/why-sadness-last-longer-than-other.html?utm_source=BPS_Lyris_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter(accessed 11.12.14)

Verduyn, P., & Lavrijsen, S. (2014). Which emotions last longest and why: The role of event importance and rumination Motivation and Emotion DOI: 10.1007/s11031-014-9445-y

8 Weight-Loss Tips That Might Surprise You (From New Research)

Some of these tips on weight loss and comfort food, exercise, the emotions and more might surprise you.

1. Look at loads of pictures of food

It’s the most unlikely weight-loss trick ever: looking at endless pictures of foods can make them less enjoyable to eat, a recent study has found.

While a few photos might enhance the appetite, contrary to what you’d expect, people are actually put off the taste by looking at loads of pictures of food.

Professor Ryan Elder, who led the study, which is published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, said:

“In a way, you’re becoming tired of that taste without even eating the food.

It’s sensory boredom — you’ve kind of moved on. You don’t want that taste experience any more.”

2. Play Tetris (or similar)

Just three minutes of playing Tetris can reduce cravings for food, cigarettes and alcohol, according to a new study published in the journal Appetite.

The psychologists conclude that Tetris, a retro tile-matching puzzle game, may provide a visual distraction which helps people control their cravings.

One of the study’s authors, Professors Jackie Andrade, explained:

“Episodes of craving normally only last a few minutes, during which time an individual is visualising what they want and the reward it will bring.

Often those feelings result in the person giving in and consuming the very thing they are trying to resist.

But by playing Tetris, just in short bursts, you are preventing your brain creating those enticing images and without them the craving fades.”

Candy Crush will probably do the same job.

3. Stop ‘exercising’, start having fun!

A strange thing happens when people start exercising to lose weight.

Despite burning more calories, they frequently fail to shed the pounds.

One reason people give is that they start eating more.

But, a new study finds, when exercising just for fun, people don’t eat so much afterwards.

The reason for this difference seems to be in how framing exercise affects people’s search for rewards:

“Engaging in a physical activity seems to trigger the search for reward when individuals perceive it as exercise but not when they perceive it as fun.”.

So the best advice is: stop ‘exercising’ and go out and have fun.

4. Comfort food doesn’t comfort you

Contrary to what most people believe, comfort food does not improve a low mood, a new study has found.

The research, published in the journal Health Psychology, found that people who ate nothing recovered from a bad mood just as quickly as those who ate their preferred comfort food.

The researchers concluded:

“We found no justification for people to choose comfort foods when they are distressed.

Removing an excuse for eating a high-calorie or high-fat food may help people develop and maintain healthier eating habits, and may lead them to focus on other, food-free methods of improving their mood.

You don’t need comfort food to feel better; the mind will do the trick all on its own if you give it time.”

5. A protein-rich breakfast reduces food cravings

New research shows that eating a good breakfast — particularly one rich in protein — boosts a critical neurotransmitter, which may lower food cravings later in the day.

Dr. Heather Leidy, an assistant professor of nutrition and exercise physiology who led the study, said:

“Our research showed that people experience a dramatic decline in cravings for sweet foods when they eat breakfast.

However, breakfasts that are high in protein also reduced cravings for savory — or high-fat — foods.

On the other hand, if breakfast is skipped, these cravings continue to rise throughout the day.”

6. Why sleep deprivation leads to junk food craving

Recent research from UC Berkeley scanned the brains of 24 participants after both a good, and a bad night’s sleep.

After disturbed sleep, there was increased activity in the depths of the brain, which is generally associated with rewards and automatic behaviour.

The frontal lobes, just behind and above the eyes, which help provide self-control, were less active.

The finding may help explain why the sleep-deprived are more likely to give in to calorific temptations.

One of the study’s authors, Matthew Walker, explained:

“”What we have discovered is that high-level brain regions required for complex judgments and decisions become blunted by a lack of sleep, while more primal brain structures that control motivation and desire are amplified.”

7. Diets make you less happy overall

A new study of almost 2,000 overweight and obese adults in the UK has found that those who lost weight were unhappier than those who remained within 5% of their original weight.

Although they were physically healthier four years later — with lower blood pressure and reduced risk of heart disease — those who lost weight were likely to be less happy.

Dr. Sarah Jackson, the study’s lead author, pointed out that the reason may be that diets tend to make you miserable:

“Resisting the ever-present temptations of unhealthy food in modern society takes a mental toll, as it requires considerable willpower and may involve missing out on some enjoyable activities.

Anyone who has ever been on a diet would understand how this could affect well-being.”

8. Pay attention to your emotions

Learning to pay attention to your emotions is a more powerful weight-loss strategy than greater nutritional knowledge, a new study finds.

A group of people were given a nutritional knowledge course and they were taught to recognise basic emotions in both themselves and other people.

At the end of the training session participants were asked to choose a snack.

Those who had had the emotion training were more likely to choose the healthier option.

The study’s authors concluded:

“With a better understanding of how they feel and how to use emotions to make better decisions, people will not only eat better, they will also likely be happier and healthier because they relate better to others and are more concerned with their overall well-being.”

SOURCE:

http://www.spring.org.uk/2014/12/8-weight-loss-tips-that-might-surprise-you-from-new-research.php(accessed 8.12.14)

Γιατί οι αγενείς πωλητές μας κάνουν να αγοράζουμε;

Όλοι έχουμε να διηγηθούμε μια ιστορία που περιλαμβάνει έναν αγενή πωλητή ή μια αγενή πωλήτρια, ιδιαίτερα αν μιλάμε για τις fancy μπουτίκ. Όσο αγανακτισμένοι και να νιώθουμε όμως, μία νέα έρευνα τους δικαιώνει. Σύμφωνα με το πόρισμά της, οι αγενείς πωλητές μας κάνουν να θέλουμε περισσότερο να αγοράσουμε, ιδιαίτερα αν μιλάμε για luxury προϊόντα. Η έρευνα έχει τίτλο «Θα έπρεπε ο διάβολος να πουλά Prada; Η αγένεια αυξάνει την επιθυμία των καταναλωτών για ένα brand» και δημοσιεύτηκε τον Οκτώβριο στο «Journal of Consumer Research».

H ιστορία έχει ως εξής: ερευνητές του Πανεπιστημίου British Columbia ζήτησαν από εθελοντές να ψωνίσουν από πολυτελείς μπουτίκ, όπου το προσωπικό (το οποίο υποδύονταν ηθοποιοί) ήταν κατά περίπτωση ευγενικοί ή αγενείς. Όπως προκύπτει από την έρευνα, αυτοί που εξυπηρετήθηκαν από αγενές προσωπικό δήλωσαν αργότερα ότι αυτό τους έκανε να θέλουν τα προϊόντα περισσότερο, ενώ σε όσους ονειρεύονταν διακαώς να κατέχουν πολυτελή προϊόντα η αγενής συμπεριφορά λειτουργούσε ακόμη περισσότερο στο να τους κάνει να θέλουν να αγοράσουν. Δεν υπήρξε η ίδια αντίδραση στην περίπτωση πιο προσιτών brands. «Η αγενής συμπεριφορά πυροδοτούσε επιθυμία για αγορές μόνο στις περιπτώσεις που μιλάμε για brands που οι καταναλωτές ονειρεύονταν και που ένιωθαν ότι είναι πιο απρόσιτα», εξηγεί ο καθηγητής Daren Dahl, ειδικός στο marketing και υπεύθυνος για την έρευνα.

Ο Dahl αποδίδει το γεγονός στην ανάγκη των πελατών να ενταχθούν και να γίνουν αποδεκτοί από αυτά τα ποθητά brands των ονείρων τους. «Είναι σαν αυτός ο σνομπισμός να μετατρέπεται σε ένα έξτρα προσόν για τον προφίλ των μεγάλων οίκων. Λειτουργεί περίπου όπως μια δημοφιλής παρέα στο γυμνάσιο, της οποίας όλοι θέλουν να γίνουν μέλη», συνεχίζει ο Dahl. Μοιάζει περίεργο, αλλά η αρχή που θέλει να δείχνεις αδιαφορία σε κάποιον για να σε ποθεί εφαρμόζεται και στο luxury shopping.

ΠΗΓΗ:

http://www.e-daily.gr/blog/post.asp?uid=31790&utm_source=home&utm_medium=click&utm_campaign=edaily_ref(accessed 5.12.14)

Περισσότερα: Γιατί οι αγενείς πωλητές μας κάνουν να αγοράζουμε; | E-Radio.gr Daily

Loneliness is a disease that changes the brain's structure and function

Loneliness increases the risk of poor sleep, higher blood pressure, cognitive and immune decline, depression, and ultimately an earlier death. Why? The traditional explanation is that lonely people lack life’s advisors: people who encourage healthy behaviours and curb unhealthy ones. If so, we should invest in pamphlets, adverts and GP advice: ignorance is the true disease, loneliness just a symptom.

But this can’t be the full story. Introverts with small networks aren’t at especial health risk, and people with an objectively full social life can feel lonely and suffer the consequences. A new review argues that for the 800,000 UK citizens who experience it all or most of the time, loneliness itself is the disease: it directly alters our perception, our thoughts, and the very structure and chemistry of our brains. The authors – loneliness expert John Cacioppo, his wife Stephanie Cacioppo, and their colleague John Capitanio – build their case on psychological and neuroscientific research, together with animal studies that help show loneliness really is the cause, not just the consequence, of various mental and physical effects.

The review suggests lonely people are sensitive to negative social outcomes and accordingly their responses in social settings are dampened. We know the former from reaction time tasks involving negative social words (lonely people respond faster), and tasks involving the detection of concealed pain in faces (lonely people are extra sensitive when the faces are dislikeable). Functional imaging evidence also shows lonely people have a suppressed neural response to rewarding social stimuli, which reduces their excitement about possible social contact; they also have dampened activity in brain areas involved in predicting what others are thinking – possibly a defence mechanism based on the idea that it’s better not to know. All this adds up to what the authors characterise as a social "self-preservation mode."

Meanwhile, animal models are helping us to understand the deeper, biological correlates associated with loneliness. For mice, being raised in isolation depletes key neurosteroids including one involved in aggression; it reduces brain myelination, which is vital to brain plasticity and may account for the social withdrawal and inflexibility seen in isolated animals; and it can influence gene expression linked to anxious behaviours.

What about changes to our neural tissue? Human research is suggestive: in one study, people who self-identified as lonelier were more likely to develop dementia. Here, initial cognitive decline could be causing loneliness, but animal work gives us some plausible mechanisms for loneliness’ impact: animals kept in isolation have suppressed growth of new neurons in areas relating to communication and memory, just as very social periods such as breeding season see a pronounced spike in growth.

Other basic brain processes are also upset by isolation. Isolated mice show reduced delta-wave activity during deep sleep; and their inflammatory responses also change, meaning that in one study, three in five isolated mice died following an induced stroke, whereas every one of their cage-sharing peers survived the same process.

The research is clear that loneliness directly impacts health, so we need to do what we can to help people free themselves from social marginalisation. I’ve seen one approach during my time serving with time banking charities, in which people give their own time in return for someone else’s in a different situation – a process that can build social networks. Also the issue is acquiring momentum through the Campaign to End Loneliness and technology solutions such as the RSA’s Social Mirror project – an app that tells people about local social groups and activities. Mainstream health is also picking this up under the term “social prescription” (physicians advise patients of social groups and activities and “facilitators” help the patients take up the opportunities). But amongst all the institutional activity, we mustn’t forget our individual duties: sometimes all that’s needed is to reach out.

_________________________________ 

SOURCE:

http://digest.bps.org.uk/2014/11/loneliness-is-disease-that-changes.html?utm_source=BPS_Lyris_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter(accessed 5.12.14)

Cacioppo, S., Capitanio, J., & Cacioppo, J. (2014). Toward a neurology of loneliness. Psychological Bulletin, 140 (6), 1464-1504 DOI: 10.1037/a0037618