Health News - Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Video game addicts, rejoice: U.S. researchers have found that playing is actually good for your eyes, and despite all those dire warnings from your parents, it won't make you blind. A study by the University of Rochester showed that people who played action video games for a few hours a day over the course of a month improved their vision by about 20 percent.
"Action video game play changes the way our brains process visual information," Daphne Bavelier, professor of brain and cognitive sciences, said in the study published on the university's Web site, www.rochester.edu, on Tuesday. "These games push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it. That learning carries over into other activities and possibly everyday life." Continue reading
Two studies published last week reveal exercise not only improves men's overall health and increases their lifespan, but it also improves the quality of their sex life by combatting erectile dysfunction (ED). Researchers also confirmed ED is less about old age and more about poor health, with men as young as age 20 reporting erection problems attributed to obesity or inactivity.
One study, led by Elizabeth Selvin of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, published in the American Journal of Medicine, found nearly 20 percent of the 2,100 men participating in a health and nutrition survey had ED, often as a result of poor physical health or inactivity. That would translate to 18 million American men nationwide. Continue reading
Breast-fed children are significantly more likely to do well in measures of stereoscopic vision than are those who received formula during infancy, according to UK researchers.
"Our study," Dr. Atul Singhal of the Institute of Child Health, London, told Reuters Health, "adds to the growing evidence that breast-feeding has long-term benefits for visual development." A higher concentration of the fatty acid DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) in breast milk than in formula has been proposed as one explanation for this effect, Singhal and colleagues note in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and this has been a rationale for adding DHA to infant formula. Continue reading
Children who do not get enough sleep are more likely to be overweight than those who get more, according to a study published on Wednesday that tracked more than 2,000 U.S. kids for five years. Researchers at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, used detailed diaries kept by families to examine children's sleep behavior and its relationship with weight.
"Children who get less sleep tend to weigh more five years later," lead researcher Emily Snell said in an interview. Snell and colleagues Emma Adam and Greg Duncan determined that an extra hour of sleep cut the likelihood of being overweight from 36 percent to 30 percent in children ages 3 to 8, and from 34 to 30 percent in those ages 8 to 13. Continue reading
The first nonprescription drug to treat obesity in American adults was approved Wednesday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The drug, called alli (orlistat), is designed to be used only in tandem with a reduced-calorie, low-fat diet by overweight adults aged 18 and older. According to manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, the drug helps people lose 50 percent more weight than dieting alone, should cost consumers $12 to $25 a week, and is expected to be available by this summer.
"This is the only FDA-approved, over-the-counter weight-loss drug product," Dr. Charles J. Ganley, the FDA's director of the Division of Over-The-Counter Drug Products, said during a teleconference. "There are some products, primarily dietary supplements, that make weight-loss claims and those are not FDA-approved, although they are permitted to make these claims." Continue reading