Susan Bowen for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

How great would it be if pizza were healthy? The trouble is that frozen pizza, like most ready-to-eat foods, contains lots of sugar, salt and fat. The European Commission (EC), the executive body for the European Union (EU), is seeking to find alternatives that will be both healthier and tasty.

The EC created a white paper in 2007 stating its goals to “set out an integrated EU approach to contribute to reducing ill health due to poor nutrition, overweight and obesity.” The paper stressed that “the last three decades have seen the levels of overweight and obesity in the EU population rise dramatically, particularly among children, where the estimated prevalence of overweight was 30 percent in 2006.”

One solution commonly used to reduce unhealthy ingredients is to use additives in place of the harmful components. However, additives such as aspartame instead of sugar may create health problems of their own. “We wanted to leave this track,” says Matthias Kueck, owner of the company Biozoon Food Innovations in Bremerhaven, Germany.

An EU-funded project known as PLEASURE is aiming to develop novel food-processing technologies that reduce sugar, salt and fat in prepared foods. According to their website, “The idea is to identify and further develop (novel) processes and processing technologies which on the one hand allow the reduction of the unwanted fat (saturated and trans-fatty acids), salt and sugar (mono- and disaccharides) but on the other avoid or at least reduce the use of replacers like sweeteners by achieving an optimised sensorial perception of the sugars, salts and fats present in the products to be developed.”

One possible approach is to use a biotechnological procedure, using enzymatic and fermentation processes, which is now used for reducing the sugar in apple juice. The researchers say they would like to transfer that technique to other foods such as tomato sauce.

Other possible procedures might involve high hydrostatic pressure or a more efficient homogenizer to improve the dispersion of salt or fat within a product. Better distribution of these ingredients could reduce the amount of these products needed by 30 percent, without affecting taste.

As the public increasingly demands food with lower salt, fat and sugar content, and at the same time to avoid additives, these new processes could provide advantages that will transfer to the marketplace, according to Fred van de Velde of NIZO Food research the Netherlands.

Wolfgang Meyerhof of the German Institute of Human Nutrition is not so sure that these measures will satisfy the public. “Fat-reduced products have been around for some time, but nobody buys them,” he says, adding that “we do not even know exactly how we perceive salt or fat and therefore manipulation is difficult.” He thinks boosters or enhancers may be necessary to achieve a significant reduction in salt, sugar and fat.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online
Frequently cleaning chronic wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers and pressure ulcers could help them heal more quickly and more completely, according to new research appearing online in the journal JAMA Dermatology.
Debridement – the process of surgically, mechanically or chemically removing dead, damaged or infected tissue to improve the healing potential of remaining healthy tissue – is typically performed when a patient initially visits a medical center with a wound, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine dermatologist Dr. Robert Kirsner told Reuters Health.
“The real question is, how often do you have to do this?” added Kirsner, co-author of a commentary published with the new study. A handful of small studies had suggested there are certain types of wounds that tended to heal faster with frequent cleaning, the news organization said, but officials with Jacksonville-based wound cleaning services provider Healogics set out to perform a more comprehensive analysis.
Dr. Scott Covington of Healogics and colleagues reviewed the records of 155,000 patients treated at one of 525 wound centers between the years of 2008 and 2012, according to Reuters reporter Genevra Pittman. In total, those patients were treated for 313,000 wounds, including diabetic foot and pressure ulcers, surgical wounds, accidental cuts and other forms of trauma. On average, the injuries underwent the debridement process twice.
Covington’s team found cleaning the wound out on at least a weekly basis resulted in shortened healing times across all wound types when compared to less frequent debridement, said MedPage Today Contributing Writer Sarah Wickline. Furthermore, he and his colleagues wrote, “The more frequent the debridements, the better the healing outcome.”
“For example, diabetic foot ulcers healed in an average of 21 days when they were debrided at least weekly and in 76 days, on average, when they were debrided once every two weeks or more,” Pittman said. “Traumatic wounds healed in 14 days, on average, with frequent debridement and in 49 days when they were cleaned out least often.”
Of the patients who participated in the study, 47.1 percent were male and the median age of the group was 69, Wickline said. The majority of patients (59.2 percent) had just one wound, while 16.4 had two, 7.9 had three, 4.7 percent had four and 11.7 percent had at least five such injuries. None of the study participants had received any advanced therapeutic treatments, the researchers reported.
“A healed wound was defined as complete epithelialization. Overall, 70.8 percent of wounds were recorded as having healed,” Wickline explained. “The highest rate of healing occurred in traumatic wounds at 78.4 percent, and the lowest rate was found among pressure ulcers at 56.6 percent. The median number of debridements was two across the sample (range 1 to 138), but it varied considerably among different wound types.”

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online
The licorice-flavored seed of the fennel plant could be used to help women deal with premenstrual syndrome (PMS), according to new research presented last week at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.
The researchers gave drops made from fennel seeds to young women suffering from PMS symptoms. They found those individuals said they felt less depressed, had an easier time doing their jobs, and had less difficulty getting along with others, said Fiona Macrae of the Daily Mail.
The researchers believe fennel helps to rebalance some of the female sex hormones blamed for some symptoms of PMS, Macrae added. The condition affects approximately three out of every four women, and up to 40 percent of them report the condition damages their quality of life. In extreme cases, PMS can even cause women to become violent and/or suffer from severe depression, the Daily Mail reporter noted.
“Scientists in Iran, where fennel already has a variety of medical uses, looked [at] the affect it had on 36 women who were split into three groups,” said Hayley Dixon of The Telegraph. “One group took a fennel extract from three days before their period until three days afterwards, the second exercised regularly and the third did nothing differently.”
While those who were in the exercise group reported some easing of symptoms, the biggest impact was among those taking the fennel supplement, the researchers discovered. In fact, study author Dr. Hassan Pazoki of Urmia University said after two months, “the severity of symptoms had reduced so much that they could do their jobs and have… normal relationships with their friends and family.”
Dr. Pazoki asserts combining exercise with the fennel extracts could further enhance the benefits. However, some experts — including Professor John Studd of the London PMS and Menopause Clinic — dismissed the findings, according to Dixon. Studd said any impact was most likely psychological in nature, telling Macrae that using drugs to shut down a woman’s monthly cycle was the best way to treat PMS.
Earlier this year, a US research team discovered women who consumed broccoli and other types of foods that were rich in non-heme iron were less likely to report suffering from PMS. According to Telegraph Medical Correspondent Stephen Adams, the link between iron and PMS likely involves the mood-regulating brain chemical serotonin.
“Their study looked at the health of about 3,000 nurses, who were followed for a decade,” Adams said. At the start of the study, none of them reported having PMS, but after a 10-year period one-third of them had been diagnosed with the condition and the remaining two-thirds had not, he added.
“When researchers at Massachusetts University and Harvard analyzed their diets, they found a link between high intake of non-heme iron and a lower chance of developing [PMS],” Adams said. “Specifically, those whose intake exceeded 20mg a day, were 30 to 40 per cent less likely than those with low intakes to suffer from [PMS]. The recommended daily amount for women is 18mg.”
The study was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, and according to the authors it was the first to discover a link between iron and PMS. They also noted there was “some indication” high zinc intake was associated with a lower risk of PMS, but emphasized that their work did not prove a diet rich in either mineral would help prevent premenstrual syndrome.

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers to avoid one brand of vitamin B after the supplement was found to contain two potentially harmful types of anabolic steroids.

According to Reuters reporter Toni Clarke, the product in question is a B-50 supplement from Healthy Life Chemistry by Purity First. The agency said the supplements tested positive for methasterone and dimethazine – a pair of steroids sometimes illegally used by bodybuilders, and two ingredients that were not disclosed on the label.

“Regulators received 29 complaints associated with the product, including fatigue, muscle pain and cramps, and liver and thyroid problems,” said CNN.com’s David Simpson. “Women also reported unusual hair growth and missed menstruation, and men reported impotence and low testosterone. Some patients were hospitalized… but no deaths were reported.”

The product is manufactured by Mira Health Products Ltd of Farmingdale, New York, according to NBC News, and is sold through various websites and retail stores. The FDA said the company has declined a request to voluntarily recall the vitamins, and could be criminally prosecuted if they continue to sell the product.

“The FDA said it first became aware of the problem from a physician who treated 20 patients with similar symptoms of fatigue and muscle pain as well as abnormal lab tests,” Cooke said. “All the patients had been referred by another physician who had been prescribing a regime of dietary supplements. The one common product was the Healthy Life Chemistry product… The FDA collected samples of the product and discovered the steroids.”

“Products marketed as a vitamin but which contain undisclosed steroids pose a real danger to consumers and are illegal,” Howard Sklamberg, director of the Office of Compliance in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), said in a statement. “The FDA is committed to ensuring that products marketed as vitamins and dietary supplements do not pose harm to consumers.”

Representatives from Mira Health Products and Healthy Life Chemistry have yet to publicly comment on the issue, according to CNN.com and Reuters. The FDA is advising anyone who used the product and is experiencing potentially related symptoms to seek medical care and to notify the agency.

Rebekah Eliason for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
MIT researchers have developed an exciting new use for gold nanoparticles. Controlled by an infrared laser, the particles can be used to turn blood clotting on and off. This could be especially useful to doctors who are trying to control clotting during surgery and could promote faster, safer healing after surgery.
Using blood thinners is the only way doctors can currently control the body’s natural clotting mechanism. This is helpful to stop clotting, but once it is used the effects cannot be easily or quickly reversed.
Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli, technical staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, explained how blood thinners, such as heparin, can turn off but not restore the body’s clotting ability. “It’s like you have a light bulb, and you can turn it on with the switch just fine, but you can’t turn it off. You have to wait for it to burn out,” she said.
In order for blood clotting to occur, long strands of protein work together to form fibrin which is a protein that helps seal wounds. Blood thinners stop clotting by targeting various key reactions in proteins during clotting. Hamad-Schifferli explained a better solution would be to target only the last step of converting fibrinogen to fibrin, which is regulated by the enzyme thrombin.
In a previous study, researchers found a specific sequence of DNA prevents thrombin from causing clotting by binding to it in place of fibrinogen. A complementary DNA sequence can stop the inhibition by binding to the strand of original DNA preventing interactions with thrombin.
Previously, Hamad-Shifferli and her team showed how gold nanorods can release drugs or other compounds when activated by infrared light. The specific wavelength of light necessary to activate the rods is dependent on the size of the rod. Consequently, two different lengths of rods could carry two types of compounds and be independently controlled.
To control clotting in this study, a small 35 nanometer-long rod was loaded with the DNA thrombin inhibitor and a larger 60 nanometer rod was filled with the complementary DNA strand. To start with, researchers tried to bond the DNA directly with the rod, but not enough could be loaded to be effective.
Hamad-Schifferli said, “We realized we could use a bad side effect of nanoparticle biology to our advantage.” This is the tendency of particles to attract an encompassing amount of proteins that bind to gold and make it sticky. “If you do that, you can get way more drug on the nanorod than you normally would if you had to chemically link them together,” she explained.
As the gold nanorods are exposed to specific infrared light wavelengths, the electrons in the gold become excited and release enough heat to slightly melt the gold. The change in shape causes the rod to become slightly spherical and release the DNA.
Samples of blood were provided from hospital donations. Researchers discovered they were able to turn clotting on and off at will in all of the samples.
Luke Lee, professor of bioengineering, said, “It’s really a fascinating idea that you can control blood clotting not just one way but by having two different optical antennae to create two-way control. It’s an innovative and creative way to interface with biological systems.”
In order for the particles to be useful for patients, they would need to target the specific site of the injury. Additionally, the particles must be within a few millimeters of the skin in order for the infrared light to activate them. In addition, researchers are working to alter the system so a smaller, less powerful continuous wave laser can be used to activate the particles.
A report of this study appears in the July 24 issue of the journal PLOS ONE, and the research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Carmine, or cochineal extract, is a popular food additive created by crushing up bugs and is often used to lend a food product a bright red or pink color. Though carmine is safe and considered to be all natural, some become squeamish when they consider the food coloring’s origins. Now one watchdog group is calling out Dannon yogurt for using the bug juice to color Boysenberry, Cherry, Raspberry and Strawberry versions of their “Fruit on the Bottom” yogurt available in stores. The group has also started an online petition at TakePart.com to urge the CEO of Dannon’s parent company, Groupe Danone, to swap carmine for actual fruit.

In a press release entitled “Berries Over Bugs!,” Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) executive director Michael F. Jacobson explains how carmine is made and why they’re calling on Dannon to change their ways.

“I have nothing against people who eat insects, but when I buy strawberry yogurt I’m expecting yogurt and strawberries, and not red dye made from bugs,” explains Jacobson.

“Given the fact that it causes allergic reactions in some people, and that it’s easy to use safer, plant-based colors, why would Dannon use it at all? Why risk offending vegetarians and grossing out your other customers?”

There are nine other flavors that appear in other varieties of Dannon yogurt, such as the Strawberry version of their Greek yogurt brand, Oikos. Reddish versions of their Activia and Light and Fit varieties also use the extract.

Though carmine appears in the ingredients label in each of the yogurts listed, the CSPI claims Dannon isn’t being upfront with their customers and cheating them out of natural flavor from fruits.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows carmine as an additive, though there have been cases of people reporting an allergic reaction to the extract of dried up cochineal bugs. These cases are, however, few and far between. The FDA claims they see an average of 31 adverse reactions to carmine in the US per year. The FDA also allowed companies for many years to refer to carmine or cochineal extract simply as “artificial color” on their labels, a change which the CSPI proudly says came after one of their petitions to the government body. Though they settled on calling the additive by its name, the CSPI was pushing the FDA to describe carmine as “insect-derived” on the label to make vegetarians, Jews who keep Kosher and anyone else dubious about eating bugs aware of how their food had been colored.

It may be for this reason the CSPI is crying foul again over the bug extract. Their petition to Franck Riboud, CEO of Groupe Danone, begins with:

“It has come to my attention that in 13 of your fruit-flavored yogurts, you use carmine to give those products additional red color. Quelle horreur!”

Starbucks also came under fire for using carmine to give their Strawberries and Cream Frapuccinnos their red color last spring when the company admitted the bug juice was in the puree used to make the summer beverage.

Starbucks claimed they used the extract to stick with their commitment to using all-natural products and steer clear of artificial dyes.

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Colony collapse disorder (CCD), the mysterious and increasingly rampant die-off of a honey bee colony, isn’t just a problem for bees, it’s also a problem for farmers who rely on those bees to pollinate their crops.

According to researchers from the University of Maryland and the US Department of Agriculture, commercial bees are regularly exposed to a cocktail of agricultural chemicals that could be playing a role in CCD.

In a study recently published in the open access journal PLOS ONE, the team of researchers looked at which chemicals bees are exposed to and how these chemicals affect bees resistance to the parasite Nosema ceranae, which has been known to decimate honey bee colonies.

The researchers began by collecting pollen samples from honey bee hives that pollinated cranberry, watermelon and other crops throughout northeastern coastal US states. The samples were analyzed to see which plants were the bees’ main sources of pollen and what chemicals they were being exposed to.

After finding a host of chemicals in the pollen samples, the samples were then fed to healthy bees to see whether the chemicals impacted their ability to resist infection with Nosema.

Pollen samples were found to contain an average of nine different fungicides, herbicides, insecticides and miticides. One sample was found containing 21 different pesticides. The fungicide chlorothalonil and the insecticide fluvalinate were the two most common chemicals found in pollen.

Most alarmingly, bees that had ingested pollen samples containing chlorothonatil were almost three times more likely to be infected by Nosema than other bees in the study, researchers said.

The chemical used to control Varroa mites also reduced bees’ ability to resist parasites. Miticides are used judiciously by most farmers because they are known to compromise bees’ immune systems. However, unchecked mite infestations can cause severe damage to a farmer’s crops, according to study co-author Dennis vanEngelsdorp, a University of Maryland researcher. He added regulations need to be strengthened if common fungicides can be harmful at real world dosages, as his study found.

“We don’t think of fungicides as having a negative effect on bees, because they’re not designed to kill insects,” vanEngelsdorp said. “Federal regulations restrict the use of insecticides while pollinating insects are foraging, but there are no such restrictions on fungicides, so you’ll often see fungicide applications going on while bees are foraging on the crop. This finding suggests that we have to reconsider that policy.”

Many pesticides are labeled with instructions that say they are not to be used while bees are nearby, but this warning doesn’t always apply to fungicides.

The study also unexpectedly found crop pollination did not benefit bees very much with respect to providing nourishment. Instead of getting food from watermelon plants or other crops, the study bees got most of their pollen from weeds and wildflowers, researchers said. They speculated that because US bees are descended from European bees, they probably haven’t evolved to effectively feed on North American crops. And even the wild plants the bees seemed to prefer as nectar sources showed traces of pesticides despite not being explicitly targeted by farmers.

April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
The key to losing weight, or saving for the future, is avoiding temptation all together, according to a new study from the Universities of Cambridge and Dusseldorf. The study on self-control suggests avoidance is a better strategy than depending on will power alone.
The study, published in Neuron, compared the effectiveness of willpower versus voluntarily restricting access to temptations, called ‘precommitment’. For example, precommitments can include avoiding purchasing unhealthy food and putting money in savings accounts with hefty withdrawal fees. The team also examined the underlying mechanisms in the brain that play a role in precommitment in order to understand why this strategy is so effective.
“Our research suggests that the most effective way to beat temptations is to avoid facing them in the first place,” said Molly Crockett, who undertook the research while at the University of Cambridge and is currently a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow at UCL.
The study participants were healthy male volunteers. The researchers gave the men a series of choices where the men had to decide between a tempting “small reward” available immediately, or a “large reward” available after a delay. The small rewards were mildly enjoyable erotic images. The large rewards were extremely enjoyable erotic pictures. Such pictures are immediately rewarding at the time of viewing, allowing the researchers to probe the mechanisms of self-control as they unfolded in real-time. The pictures were chosen instead of rewards like money, which could only provide a reward after the subjects had left the laboratory.
The small reward was continuously available during some of the choices, making it necessary for the subjects to exert willpower to resist choosing it until the large reward became available. For other choices, however, the participants were given the opportunity to precommit. Before the tempting option became available, the subject had the ability to prevent themselves from ever encountering the temptation.
Participants’ choices and brain activity were measured as they made these decisions. The researchers found precommitment was a more effective self-control strategy than willpower. The participants were more likely to get the large reward when they had the opportunity to precommit. The team found those with the weakest willpower, the most impulsive of the subjects, benefited the most from precommitment.
The study allows the team to identify the regions of the brain that play a role in willpower and precommitment, finding that precommitment specifically activates the frontopolar cortex, a region involved in thinking about the future. When the frontopolar cortex is engaged during precommitment, the team found it increases communication with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain that plays an important role in willpower. Identifying the brain networks responsible in willpower and precommitment opens new avenues for understanding failures of self-control.
“The brain data is exciting because it hints at a mechanism for how precommitment works: thinking about the future may engage frontopolar regions, which by virtue of their connections with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are able to guide behavior toward precommitment,” said Tobias Kalenscher, from the University of Dusseldorf.

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a research review on menthol cigarettes today that many observers say is a precursor to further restrictions or bans on the mint-flavored tobacco product.
While adding peppermint oil extract probably doesn’t make cigarettes more more likely to cause diseases, the agency said menthol conveyed an “altered physiological responses to tobacco smoke,” which could add to tobacco’s already addictive qualities and increase smoking behavior.
The FDA has opened a 60-day public comment period on the report that could be used to influence new tobacco restrictions.
“FDA’s actions today on menthol reflect our commitment to explore all potential options, including the establishment of product standards,” Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, told the Los Angeles Times.
Menthol cigarette maker Lorillard pushed back against the report in a statement that said “the best available science demonstrates that menthol cigarettes have the same health effects as nonmenthol cigarettes and should be treated no differently.”
Since 2009, the FDA has banned several cigarette additives designed to make tobacco more appealing, including cloves, chocolate and various fruit flavors. Some attribute the agency’s lack of regulatory actions on menthol cigarettes to objections from the African American community. Previous research has shown that menthols are the cigarettes of choice for almost 75 percent of all African American smokers, and the FDA has acknowledged that regulatory changes would disproportionately affect minorities.
In 2010, the National Black Chamber of Commerce and two other interest groups pushed the FDA not to ban menthol cigarettes. They argued that a ban would cause additional stress for law enforcement agencies and open up an underground market for the illicit sale of tobacco products.
Some research has suggested that African Americans have a genetic predilection for mentholated cigarettes over regular tobacco. Other research has shown that menthol smokers light their first cigarette sooner after waking in the morning, are more likely to wake up at night for a smoke, are less successful quitters and are more likely to relapse than regular cigarette smokers.
Two studies published this week added to the growing body of evidence supporting the notion that menthols are more dangerous than normal cigarettes. In one study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, neuroscientists showed that menthol affects the same brain receptors as nicotine, resulting in a dampening of the brain’s typical response to nicotine and potentially causing smokers to compensate by smoking more often.
“Today I cannot tell you that menthol cigarettes are more addictive,” said study author Nadine I. Kabbani of George Mason University in Virginia. “But I can tell you that they’re increasingly found to have biological and biophysical properties that go beyond flavor.”
In a separate research review, Kabbani focused on menthol’s effects on nicotinic receptors found throughout the body. She found that menthol alters the effects of nicotine on these receptors – sometimes amplifying them, sometimes reducing them.
Kabbani suggested that these studies indicate that menthol cigarettes need to be taken more seriously than non-flavored cigarettes.
“It’s almost like spiking your vodka with beer,” she said.

Rebekah Eliason for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

New research indicates the love hormone oxytocin may have a dark side. Oxytocin is commonly thought of as the warm and fuzzy hormone that promotes feelings of love. It is currently even undergoing tests for use as an anti-anxiety drug. However, researchers at Northwestern Medicine have discovered oxytocin can intensify and cause emotional pain.

It appears oxytocin may be responsible for negative social situations, such as bullying at school or torment by a boss, triggering fear and anxiety. Researches discovered this is because the hormone strengthens social memory in a specific region of the brain. Oxytocin also increases the likelihood of feeling stressed or anxious in future stressful social events. It is presumed the same phenomenon occurs for positive situations, but the research is still underway to support that assumption.

This study is important because reoccurring social stress is one of the leading causes of anxiety disorders and conversely positive social experiences are an important factor in overall emotional health.

Jelena Radulovic, Dunbar Professsor of Bipolar Disease at Northwestern University School of Medicine said, “By understanding the oxytocin system’s dual role in triggering or reducing anxiety, depending on the social context, we can optimize oxytocin treatments that improve well-being instead of triggering negative reactions.”

The Northwestern researchers are the first to link oxytocin with social stress and its propensity to increase anxiety and fear when faced with future social situations. The region in the brain responsible for these effects is known as the lateral septum and is the location of pathways used by oxytocin.

For six hours after a negative social experience, a molecule known as extracellular signal regulated kinases (ERK) is activated by oxytocin. ERK is responsible for enhancing fear by activating fear pathways that travel through the lateral septum. This discovery surprised researchers because of oxytocin’s association with love and social bonding.

Yomayra Guzman, a doctoral student under Radulovic said, “Oxytocin is usually considered a stress-reducing agent based on decades of research. With this novel animal model, we showed how it enhances fear rather than reducing it and where the molecular changes are occurring in our central nervous system.”

This new study was preceded by three human studies, all indicating oxytocin’s more complicated nature. All of the new oxytocin experiments were performed in the lateral septum, which is the area with the most concentrated levels of oxytocin receptors in animals ranging from mice to humans.

Radulovic explained, “This is important because the variability of oxytocin receptors in different species is huge. We wanted the research to be relevant for humans, too.”

This study was composed of two experiments performed on mice. The first experiment indicated oxytocin is a key factor in strengthening memories of negative social experiences. The second experiment showed oxytocin increases fear and anxiety when facing similar future stressful situations.

In experiment one, three groups of mice were placed one at a time into a cage with aggressive mice where they experienced social defeat. The first group of mice was missing oxytocin receptors in the brain, which prevented oxytocin from entering the brain’s cells. The second group of mice possessed extra oxytocin receptors so they experienced a large abundance of the hormone. The third and last group functioned as a control group and had a normal number of oxytocin receptors.

Six hours after the first negative social experience, mice were placed back into cages with the aggressive mice. The group who was missing their oxytocin receptors showed no fear or indication they remembered the aggressive mice. In contrast, the mice with extra oxytocin receptors were intensely afraid of the aggressive mice and tried to avoid them.

The second experiment also exposed the same three groups of mice to aggressive mice and once again experienced social defeat. Six hours after experiencing social stress, the mice were placed in a box and received a non-painful but startling electric shock. After 24 hours, mice were placed into the same box again but did not receive an electric shock.

The first group of mice with missing oxytocin receptors showed no signs of fear when placed back into the shock box but those with extra oxytocin receptors displayed a heightened sense of fear. The control group behaved as expected by exhibiting an average fear response.

“This experiment shows that after a negative social experience the oxytocin triggers anxiety and fear in a new stressful situation,” Radulovic said.

This study was published July 21 in the journal Nature Neuroscience and was funded and supported by the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health.

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Banning smoking in cars with kids inside is a popular idea, according to a new survey from researchers at the University of Michigan (U-M).
The researchers surveyed 1,996 adults over the age of 18 and found that 82 percent supported the idea of banning smoking in cars when children under 13 are riding in the vehicle. Despite the popularity of the idea, only seven states actually have laws on the books that prohibit this action.
“Smoke is a real health hazard for kids whose lungs are still developing, and especially for kids who have illnesses like asthma where the lungs are particularly fragile and flare up when exposed to secondhand smoke,” says Matthew M. Davis, M.D., M.A.P.P., director of the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.
Not only were a big majority of those surveyed in support of the idea of a smoking ban in cars, but 87 percent also said they would support a ban on smoking in businesses where children are allowed. The researchers also discovered that 75 percent of adults are in support of banning smoking in homes where children have asthma or other lung diseases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in February, 2012 that a child’s greatest exposure to secondhand smoke comes from inside cars. This survey found that one in five high school and middle school children are passengers in cars while others smoke.
“Although the number of people smoking has dropped dramatically in the last 50 years, secondhand smoke remains a health risk,” says Davis, who is associate professor of pediatrics and internal medicine at the U-M Medical School.
Current smokers were even in support of the proposed bans, with 60 percent saying they approved the idea of banning smoking in cars carrying children.
According to a 2006 study by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, “alarming” levels of secondhand smoke can be generated in a car in just five minutes. The California Environmental Protection Agency reports that secondhand smoke in cars can be 10 times more concentrated than the level considered unhealthy by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
So far, Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Maine, Illinois, Oregon and Utah have already enacted laws pertaining to smoking in cars with children.
“Given the high level of public support for laws prohibiting smoking in vehicles with children in this poll, it may be that the bans enacted by a small number of states should be considered by many more states, and perhaps at the national level,” Davis says.
He added that there are no laws at this time that prohibit smoking in homes where children have asthma or other lung diseases, but the level of public support is so high that “now may be the time for public health officials and legislators to move forward on ideas to protect” these children.

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

UCLA researchers recently wrote a report of their research in the journal Socioaffective Neuroscience and Psychology stating that they have determined that sexual addiction is nothing more than having a highly active libido.

Many mental health experts have refused to acknowledge sexual addiction, or “hypersexuality,” as a clinical mental disorder. The latest study that measured brain behavior reaffirmed the opinion that most experts have held so far. “Potentially, this is an important finding,” said senior author Nicole Prause, a researcher in psychiatry and the biobehavioral sciences with the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. “It is the first time scientists have studied the brain responses specifically of people who identify as having hypersexual problems.”

The study found that the brain response of these individuals to sexual images was not related in any way to the severity of their hypersexuality but was instead tied only to their level of sexual desire. The team said the results show that hypersexuality did not appear to explain brain differences in sexual response any more than having a high libido.

Sexual addiction is generally associated with people who have strong sexual urges and engage frequently in sexual behavior. However, the researchers say that symptoms of hypersexuality are not necessarily representative of an addiction.

The team studied 52 volunteers, including 39 men and 13 women over the age of 18 who reported having problems controlling their viewing of sexual images. Participants filled out four questionnaires covering a variety of topics, including sexual behaviors, sexual desire, sexual compulsions, and the negative cognitive and behavioral outcomes of sexual behavior.

The researchers then showed the volunteers images while they were hooked up to an electroencephalography (EEG), which measures brain waves.

“The volunteers were shown a set of photographs that were carefully chosen to evoke pleasant or unpleasant feelings,” Prause said. “The pictures included images of dismembered bodies, people preparing food, people skiing – and, of course, sex. Some of the sexual images were romantic images, while others showed explicit intercourse between one man and one woman.”

The scientists were most interested in the response of the brain about 300 milliseconds after each picture appeared, which is a baseline measurement that has been used in hundreds of neuroscience studies internationally. The so-called ‘P300 response’ is higher when a person notices something new or especially interesting to them.

Prause and colleagues predicted that P300 responses to the sexual images would correspond to a person’s sexual desire and would relate to measures of hypersexuality. However, they found that P300 response was not related to hypersexual measurements at all, showing no spikes or decreases tied to the severity of the participants’ hypersexuality.

“The brain’s response to sexual pictures was not predicted by any of the three questionnaire measures of hypersexuality,” she said. “Brain response was only related to the measure of sexual desire. In other words, hypersexuality does not appear to explain brain responses to sexual images any more than just having a high libido.”

She said that if the team’s study could be replicated, then it “would represent a major challenge to existing theories of a sex ‘addiction.’ “