News

"Mean Girls in Nursing Homes"

By Rob Winters - Published on Tuesday, 07 June 2011 19:33

"When Rhea Basroon’s mother moved into a New Jersey assisted living facility a few years ago, she found a good friend in an new neighbor named Irene. Her daughters, long concerned that their widowed mother had become isolated and depressed, were initially delighted.

“She and Irene were inseparable,” Ms. Basroon told me. “Whenever there was an activity, they’d both go. Whoever got there first saved a seat.” The two even discouraged others from joining them: “It was just her and Irene.”

Then, disaster. Irene was lured away by another resident, abandoning Ms. Basroon’s mother."

Piercing tongue to steer wheelchair

By Rob Winters - Published on Tuesday, 07 June 2011 19:28

"CHICAGO — Martin Mireles says his mother was not happy with his tongue piercing: It didn’t fit his image as a former church youth leader.

But as Mr. Mireles told her, it was for research. Paralyzed from a spinal cord injury since he was shot in the neck almost two decades ago, he was recently fitted with a magnetic stud that allows him to steer his wheelchair with his tongue."

"Research reveals true worth of a smile"

By Rob Winters - Published on Monday, 06 June 2011 21:03

"You can't put a price on a smile, so goes the popular saying. But a team of British academics claim to have done just that. After developing computer software to test people's responses when someone's face cracks into a smile, researchers at Bangor University have calculated the economic value of a grin. Sadly, their findings suggest that flashing gleaming gnashers isn't going to make you a millionaire: each smile is, they report, worth precisely one third of a penny.

With three smiles earning just a penny, not even the Cheshire cat would be able to give up his day job, but, according to the academics, working out the value of a grin could have a significant impact on our human interactions."

"Exercise leads to bigger brain in seniors"

By Rob Winters - Published on Monday, 06 June 2011 20:54

"A year of moderate exercise improved memory in older adults by boosting the size of the brain’s hippocampus.

“We think of the atrophy of the hippocampus in later life as almost inevitable,” says Kirk Erickson, professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh and the paper’s lead author. “But we’ve shown that even moderate exercise for one year can increase the size of that structure. The brain at that stage remains modifiable.”

Researchers recruited more than 120 sedentary older people without dementia and randomly placed them in one of two groups—those who began an exercise regimen of walking around a track for 40 minutes a day, three days a week, or those limited to stretching and toning exercises."

"Spotting gun dealers gone bad"

By Rob Winters - Published on Monday, 06 June 2011 20:47

"UC DAVIS (US)—Licensed handgun retailers who sell crime guns more frequently than expected have distinguishing characteristics that can be identified using existing records collected at the federal level.

That finding comes from a University of California, Davis, study—published in the October issue of the journal Injury Prevention—that suggests screening and focused law enforcement could help disrupt illegal gun commerce without unduly affecting the legitimate gun market.

“Nationwide, 1.2 percent of licensed gun retailers sell 57 percent of guns that are later used in crime,” says Garen Wintemute, professor of emergency medicine at UC Davis School of Medicine and lead investigator of the study."

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