Therapist Unlimited Blog

A recent research has shown that playing the computer game tetris offers benefits to human brain.
According to the study made by Mind Research Network in Albuquerque brain imaging they conducted shows playing Tetris leads to a thicker cortex and may also increase brain efficiency.
To get the data, the researchers used brain imaging and Tetris to investigate whether practise makes the brain efficient because it increases gray matter.
The research team for 30 minutes a day over a three-month period, 26 adolescent girls played Tetris, a computer game requiring a combination of cognitive skills.
The girls completed both structural and functional MRI scans before and after the three-month practise period, as did girls in the control group who did not play Tetris.
A structural MRI was used to assess cortical thickness, and a functional MRI was used to assess efficient activity.

It’s time to play tetris since it is beneficial to the brain.

The girls who practised showed greater brain efficiency, consistent with earlier studies. Compared to controls, the girls that practised also had a thicker cortex, but not in the same brain areas where efficiency occurred.
Dr. Rex Jung, a co-investigator on the Tetris study and a clinical neuropsychologist revealed one of the most surprising findings of brain research in the last five years was that juggling practise increased gray
matter in the motor areas of the brain.
Jund added they did their tetris study to see if mental practise increased cortical thickness, a sign of more gray matter.
He said if it did, it could be an explanation for why previous studies have shown that mental practise increases brain efficiency.
He added more gray matter in an area could mean that the area would not need to work as hard during Tetris play.
Furthermore, the researchers hope to continue this work with larger, more diverse samples to investigate whether the brain changes we measured revert back when subjects stop playing Tetris.
Similarly, they are interested if the skills learned in Tetris, and the associated brain changes, transfer to other cognitive areas such as working memory, processing speed, or spatial  reasoning.

Contrary to what most people think hookah smoking is as deadly as cigarette puffing recent medical studies has shown.
Brian Primack, M.D., Ed.M., M.S., assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Pitt’s School of Medicine and lead author of the study. "What they don’t realize", revealed hookah smokers are are exposing themselves to many of the same toxic chemicals contained in cigarettes.
A hookah, or waterpipe, is used to inhale tobacco that usually is flavored or sweetened.
The opening of hundreds of hookah cafes in the U.S. over the past decade demonstrates the increasing popularity of hookah smoking.
Primacj said although the aesthetic appeal of the practise suggests that it is not harmful, studies show that hookah tobacco smoke is just as toxic as cigarette smoke and is associated with substantial harm and addictiveness.
For example, one average hookah smoking session exposes the user to 40 times the tar of a single cigarette.
Meanwhile according to a latest study made by the University of Pittsburgh, college students who participate in intramural or club sports are less likely to smoke cigarettes than non-athletes, but are more likely than non-athletes to smoke from a hookah.

Smoking hookah is as deadly as puffing cigarettes.
 

To get the data, researchers at Pitt examined survey data from 8,745 college-age individuals who participated in the National College Health Assessment administered by the American College Health Association in 2008, and found that 33 percent of the respondents reported participating in varsity, club and intramural sport in the preceding 12 months.
Overall, 29.5 percent of the total sample reported having smoked from a hookah.
Consistent with what has been reported in the past, all types of athletes were less likely than non-athletes to smoke cigarettes.
Similarly, varsity athletes were 22 percent less likely than non-athletes to have smoked tobacco from a hookah.
However, club and intramural participants were each 15 percent more likely than non-athletes to have smoked tobacco from a hookah.

Medical researchers has recently discovered that men diagnosed with infertility suffer intense negative sexual, personal and social strains that might be considered typical for other medical illnesses, including cancer.
Based on the study, the researchers found out that from being a "silent disease" in men the findings makes clear, for the first time, that male infertility is a ‘disease’ like any other, silent or not, and can have a serious effect on the overall well-being of the individual, the couple, and the family.
The researchers revealed the study also shows that the diagnosis of infertility increases social strain in male partners of infertile couples.
The team who conducted the study explained male partners in couples with perceived, isolated male factor infertility have a lower sexual and personal quality of life compared to male partners of couples without perceived male factor infertility.

The family of those men suffering from infertility should provide 100 percent love to their loves ones since these people are suffering big due to their medical condition.

According to the latest statistics, about one in eight couples around 7.3 million Americans have trouble conceiving.
It is said that half of those cases have male infertility issues often easily treatable ones.
Furthermore, the statistics also shows that male infertility affects 10% to 15% of reproductive aged couples worldwide and is treatable in many cases.
The medical experts hoped the data gathered in the research should serve as driving force for the family of men facing infertility to understand and care more this person in connection with the ordeal he is facing.

Contrary to what most people think, old age offers happiness to people around the world.
Researchers speaking at an international psychology conference said there was evidence that people get happier as they age, and that older people are better at controlling their emotions and avoiding things that make them unhappy.
However, the research team clarified this does not include people with dementia or who are trapped in situations of high stress that they cannot escape from, such as care giving.
Dr. Laura Carstensen, a psychology professor at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA, and founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, explained life expectancy changed because people changed the way they lived.
Carstensen added now that we’re here, we have to keep adapting, we are in the middle of a second revolution and it’s up to us to make adulthood itself longer and healthier.
She revealed Carstensen said by 2050 there will be twice as many people over the age of 65 in the world as there are today.

Generally older people are happy than sad.

And the segment of the population that is growing faster than any other, is the over 85s.
Susan Turk Charles, from the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior at the University of California, Irvine, in a separate presentation, talked about several studies on aging and mental health that she had reviewed.
Excluding people with dementia and related diseases, the evidence supports the idea that, on the whole, mental health improves with age.
Charles referred to a study that followed three groups of people at different life stages for 23 years and found emotional happiness increased as they got older.
She said research also shows that older adults are better at controlling their emotions than younger adults, and this helps them avoid negative situations, or at least limit the emotional damage they can cause. One study she reviewed asked younger and older adults to report what they were thinking and feeling just after hearing personal criticisms by other people.
The results showed that the younger adults tended to dwell far more on the comments and demanding information about their origins than the older adults whose reports were less negative overall.
Charles said that work by Carstensen and others suggests older people are increasingly aware that life is finite and the time they have left is shrinking.
She added they want to make the best of it so they avoid engaging in situations that will make them unhappy.
She said they have also had more time to learn and understand the intentions of others which help them to avoid these stressful situations.

Parents should be more vigilant with regards to the television viewing and computer games playing of their children.
A recent study has shown that watching too much TV and playing computer games could result in high blood pressure for children.
Based on the study, the discovery is a major public health concern and its effect on blood pressure is of particular concern.
In their study, the researchers said the clustering of cardiovascular disease risk factors in overweight youth suggests that risks may be immediate and not just indicative of potential future problems.
The researchers added although elevated blood pressure is associated with genetic factors, healthy physical, dietary and sleep habits seem to be relevant contributors to blood pressure levels in children.
However, the researchers revealed there have not been any clear links between sedentary behavior and elevated blood pressure in children younger than age 9.

Children should avoid watching too much television and playing computer games since it could lead to high blood pressure.

David Martinez-Gomez, B.Sc., of Iowa State University, Ames, and the Spanish National Research Council, Madrid, Spain, and colleagues examined associations between sedentary behavior and elevated blood pressure in 111 young children (57 boys and 54 girls ages 3 to 8).
According to their research they found out that sedentary behavior was determined by an accelerometer generally worn over the right hip and by parental reports stating the average time the children spent watching TV, playing video games, painting, sitting or taking part in other activities with low levels of physical activity each day for seven days.
Moreover, the researchers said the results of this study showed that TV viewing and screen time were associated with elevated blood pressure independent of body composition in children.
The researchers added given that total objective sedentary time was not associated with elevated blood pressure, it appears that other factors, which occur during excessive screen time, should also be considered in the context of sedentary behavior and elevated blood pressure development in children.

Here is a piece of advice to parents to keep their child away from depression from preschool.
This developed after a recent study has shown that depression in preschool could last until childhood.
According to the study, depression among preschoolers appears to be a continuous, chronic condition rather than a transient developmental stage.
The researchers revealed the validity of major depressive disorder in childhood has been well established, with the disorder now widely recognized and treated in mental health settings.
Joan L. Luby, M.D., and colleagues at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis studied 306 preschoolers age 3 to 6. Of these, 75 met criteria for major depressive disorder, 79 had anxiety or disruptive disorders but not depression and 146 did not meet criteria for any psychiatric disorder.
It is said that a comprehensive three- to four-hour laboratory assessment was completed at the beginning of the study.
While children completed measures of emotional, cognitive and social development, primary caregivers were interviewed separately about the preschoolers’ psychiatric symptoms and developmental skills.
Similar developmental and behavioral assessments were conducted 12 and 24 months later.

Parents should do their best to help their children cope up with depression in preschool, so that their medical condition could not last until childhood.

The researchers explained preschoolers with depression at baseline had the highest likelihood of subsequent depression 12 and/or 24 months later compared with preschoolers with no baseline disorder and with those who had other psychiatric disorders.
After controlling for other demographic variables and risk factors, preschoolers with depression at the beginning of the study had a four times greater likelihood of having depression one and two years later than preschoolers without depression.
The condition also showed a chronic and recurrent course among preschoolers-in a subset of 119 preschoolers with depression or depressive symptoms who were screened by phone at six and 18 months, 57 percent of those with depression had an episode during at least two follow-up points during study and 18 percent followed a chronic course, defined as having an episode in at least four waves of the study.
Furthermore, the researchers said these results underscore the clinical and public health importance of identification of depression as early as preschool.
The researchers explained early intervention during the preschool period has proved effective in other childhood disorders.
The researchers added the study findings that demonstrate longitudinal stability and homotypic continuity of preschool major depressive disorder suggest that earlier interventions for major depressive disorder during the preschool period may be an important area for investigation in the search for more effective treatments for childhood major depressive disorder.

Those persons who wish to avoid getting inflicted with any form of cardiovascular disease better practice healthy lifestyle now.
This developed after a recent study has confirmed earlier observations that a healthy lifestyle lowers risk of cardiovascular diseases.
According to the research those persons who follow a healthy lifestyle were protected against cardiovascular disease: one found it linked to lower risk of heart failure in men and the other found it linked to lower risk of high blood pressure in women.
The researchers said to those people who wish to avoid any form of cardiovascular disease should follow these six healthy lifestyle tips: maintaining a normal body weight, never smoking, taking regular exercise, drinking moderate amounts of alcohol, eating plenty of cereals, and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables.

Keep a healthy lifestyle if you wish to avoid any form of cardiovascular disease.

The researchers also found that the healthier lifestyle choices the men followed, the lower their lifetime risk of heart failure.
According to the researchers a heart-healthy diet was described as eating lots of fruits, nuts, legumes and other vegetables, whole grains, low fat dairy products, low sodium intake, and not consuming much red or processed meat or sugary drinks.
Moreover the researchers revealed to avoid any form or cardiovascular disease especially heart failure and high blood pressure, patients need to avoid and do these three things: Smoking, Exercise for at least 30 minutes every day and use calorie control and exercise to keep your BMI in the normal range.
BMI stands for Body Mass Index: it is the ratio of your weight in kilos to the square of your height in meters.
A normal BMI is between 20 and 25. Thus a person who weighs 80 kilos (176 pounds) and stands 183 cm tall (6 feet) has a BMI of 23.9 which is in the normal range.

Now it can be told.
A recent medical study has validated early observations that physical activities can make the children fall asleep early.
Based on the study it was also discovered that in every hour of the day children are inactive adds three minutes to the time it takes them to fall asleep.
According to the research those children who fall asleep faster also sleep for longer, although, it appears one is not the direct consequence of the other.
The study has also shown that an estimate 16 percent of parents of school aged children report that their child finds it difficult to get to sleep.

To keep your children fall asleep early allow them to undergo rigorous physical activities everyday.

Researchers also found out that there is a connection between poor sleeping patterns in children and inferior school performance.
It is also linked to an increased risk of overweight and obesity.
The researchers get the data they are seeking using an activity monitor (called an actigraph) worn for 24 hours.
The team then evaluated the daytime activity and sleep patterns of a representative sample of 591 seven year olds.
The researchers got hold of the full information on sleep patterns for 519 of the children.
They took an average of 26 minutes to fall asleep.
This is known as sleep latency, ranging from 13 to 42 minutes (interquartile range).
The parents reported that around one in ten of the children regularly found it difficult to fall asleep quickly.
These children took around 15.5 minutes longer to get to sleep.
Moreover, the researchers said those children, who were physically active during the day, fell asleep more rapidly than their more sedentary peers.
Researchers said the more vigorous activity they did, the faster they fell asleep.
In addition, the researchers said in every hour of the day spent in sedentary activity increased sleep latency by three minutes.
The team also discovered that shorter sleep latency was also associated to longer duration of sleep.
It fell by more than 11 minutes for each additional hour of sleep.
The researchers concluded that their study emphasizes the importance of physical activity for children, not only for fitness, cardiovascular health and weight control, but also for sleep.

Those men seeking protection against genital herpes should use condom.
A recent medical study has confirmed that using condoms reduce the risk of acquiring herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2), although the effect was not as large as that observed with other sexually transmitted diseases.
Genital herpes is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by the herpes simplex viruses type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2), although HSV-2 accounts for most cases. The virus can stay in the body indefinitely, but the number of outbreaks tends to lessen over the years.
Most people who have genital herpes have no or slight symptoms, but when they do occur they appear as one or more blisters near or on the genitals or rectum. The blisters rupture and cause ulcers that can take up to a month to heal the first time, and not so long the second time which usually happens weeks or months after the first outbreak.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Washington and the Seattle Children’s Hospital, lead by Emily Martin.

The latest medical study has shown that condom offers great protection against genital herpes.

Based on their study, the researchers found out that people who used condoms 100 per cent of the time had a 30 per cent lower risk of acquiring HSV-2 than those who never
used them.
The researchers also discovered that the risk of acquiring HSV-2 went up steadily and significantly with each unprotected sex act.
Moreover, the researcher also found out that these ratios were the same for men and women.
With the result of their study, the researchers concluded that although the magnitude of protection was not as large as has been observed with other STIs, we found that condoms offer moderate protection against HSV-2 acquisition in men and women.

Those people who have no job are most likely to get sick as well.
This was the observation of a group of researchers based in Australia.
According to the result of their study, there is a clear connection between unemployment and health.
The data gathered by researchers also shows a direct relationship between poor health and earning potential.
With their findings, the researchers hoped that the government will add more money in the health programs to help those who are unemployed.
 Dr. Andrew Pesce, the head of the researchers then renewed calls for the governments to invest in health as a national priority.
Pesce said their research highlighted the impact unemployment has on health underlining the debilitating stress and emotional impacts experienced by individuals and communities in tough economic times.

Pesce added the research also shows the other side of that coin that ill health prevents people from contributing to the economy
He said their research is a further proof that investing in health not only contributes to longer, happier and healthier lives, but that investment has a direct and lasting impact on the productivity of the workforce.
He added the report’s finding, that the financial consequences of ill health are ‘clearly great’, comes as no surprise to the medical profession, citing that they have long been urging the government to include health in stimulus investment, but to no avail.
Furthermore, Pesce hoped the piece of evidence they gather will convince governments that there is no better investment than health.