Millions of people watch YouTube videos depicting teens injuring and cutting themselves, according to a new study. The authors conclude that the videos may serve to legitimize the behaviors as acceptable, even normal.

To assess the scope and accessibility of self-injury videos on the Internet, Stephen Lewis of the University of Guelph, and colleagues searched YouTube for keywords like “self-harm,” and “self-injury.”

They found that the top 100 most frequently viewed videos were watched more than 2.3 million times. Ninety-five percent of the viewers were female. Their average age was 25, although Lewis’ group suspects their actual average age was lower, since some YouTube viewers provide restricted content only to older viewers.

Typically, the videos contained graphic images of cutting, embedding and burning. Many of the videos contained statements of despair or images of sad or crying people. About 42% of the videos neither encouraged nor discouraged self-injury. An additional 26% denounced the behavior, while 23% gave a mixed message and 7% actually encouraged people to perform the depicted behavior.

Most of the videos contained no warnings or viewing restrictions. Viewers tended to rate these videos highly (an average score of 4.61 out of 5). Self-harm videos were identified as “favorites” over 12,000 times. (more…)

More than 70% of all medical devices that have been recalled by the FDA for safety concerns were not subjected to rigorous clinical testing before the agency approved them, according to a new study.

The study authors were Diana Zuckerman and Paul Brown from the National Research Center for Women and Families, a consumer group, and Steven Nissen, a cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic.

The authors reported that overall, the FDA recalled 113 medical devices between 2005 and 2009. Of these, 21 had been approved on the basis of rigorous clinical trial data. Eighty others had been approved under a less stringent, expedited approval process known as 510K, in which a device maker needs only to show that its new product is substantially similar to one already on the market. An additional 8 devices were exempt from FDA regulations, and 4 more were either counterfeit or classified as “other.”

Devices approved using the 510K approval process included mechanical ventilators, insulin infusion pumps, artificial hips and knees, and external cardiac defibrillators. The more rigorous process is typically reserved for life-supporting devices like implanted cardiac defibrillators. In the latter process, device makers must sponsor trials designed to prove their products are safe and effective.

Last summer, the FDA announced it was implementing some steps to “strengthen” the 510K process, but it deferred on a complete overhau pending the release of a report on the matter by the Institute of Medicine. The report is due later this year. (more…)

Scientists have proven that dietary fiber lowers the risk of coronary artery disease, diabetes and certain cancers. Surprisingly however, they had yet to show that fiber could impact overall mortality. Now apparently, they have done just that. 

A research team led by Yikyung Park of the National Cancer Institute has published a study showing that high fiber intake is indeed associated with longer survival.

To reach these conclusions, Park’s group looked at data from nearly 400,000 men and women between the ages of 50 and 71 using the AARP Diet and Health Study. They assessed dietary fiber intake with a questionnaire that had been administered at the beginning of the 9-year study. They excluded people with diabetes, heart disease and most cancers, as well as those who reported extremely high daily fiber intake.

After controlling for smoking, exercise and body weight, the researchers showed that dietary fiber intake was associated with a reduced risk of death in both sexes.

Specifically, people in the highest quintile for fiber consumption (29.4 grams per day for men and 25.8 grams for women) were 22% less likely to die from all causes than those in the lowest quintile (12.6 grams per day for men and 10.8 for women). Women were 34-59%, and men were 24-56%  less likely to die from heart, respiratory and infectious diseases, in particular. Fiber consumption was associated with a lower risk of dying from cancer in men (who are prone to get cancers thought to be reduced by dietary fiber intake) but not in women.

Interestingly, the type of fiber consumed made a huge difference in this study. Participants who consumed fiber from grains, like oatmeal, brown rice and cornmeal experienced all the benefits. In this study at least, fiber derived from vegetables, fruits and beans did not reduce mortality. (more…)

Bullying and other forms of social aggression affect nearly 30% of US students per school year. According to some estimates, up to 160,000 students skip school each day to avoid being bullied. Those who are victimized by bullies are at risk for mental health problems including anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation. Their academic performance often suffers as well.

What explains the offensive behavior of bullys?

Six years after “Mean Girls” hit the movieplex, sociologists have provided evidence that the flick got it exactly right on bullying. Their data simultaneously disproves traditional thinking on the matter, which had posited that home-related issues, social incompetence and psychological difficulties caused aggressive behavior in teens.

The study, by Robert Faris and colleagues at UC Davis, found that the more central a teen is in his or her school’s social network, the more aggressively the teen behaves toward peers…unless the teen happens to sit at the very top of the social totem pole, in which case they’re not aggressive at all.

To reach these conclusions, Faris’ group surveyed 3,722 boys and girls from 19 middle- and high schools in North Carolina during the fall of 2004 and again the following spring. The survey asked students to name their top 5 friends, up to 5 students they had picked on (verbal harassment, physical attacks, spreading rumors, simple ostracism and so forth) during the previous 3 months, and up to 5 students that had picked on them. There were also questions covering dating patterns, participation on sports teams, race and socioeconomic status.

Faris’ team used the data to create “social maps“  that outlined positive and negative relations between students as reported in the survey. These maps showed that students’ tendency to harass other students increased with their social status, as measured by their friend counts. Overall, each student was aggressive toward 0.63 peers, but so-called “socially-central athletes,” harassed as many as 9 other students, each. 

The tendency to display aggressive behavior reached a zenith for students at the 98th percentile for popularity, suggesting they were using aggressive behavior to improve their social status. Importantly however, the students who ranked in the top 2% of the hierarchy tended not to harass their peers. They had little to gain by aggressive behavior, and too much to lose, the authors hypothesized. (more…)

Aerobic exercise reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes…and it may improve memory in elderly adults as well, a new study has found.

The study was carried out by Arthur Kramer of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and colleagues.

The scientists knew that as people age, a part of the brain known as the hippocampus shrinks by 1-2% per year. They also knew that this phenomenon is associated with impaired memory and an increased risk for dementia. In addition, they were aware of previous studies which had shown that (1)the hippocampus is larger in physically fit adults, (2)aerobic exercise increases blood flow to the hippocampus, and that (3)in animals, aerobic exercise reduces the loss of hippocampal volume and preserves memory.

It remained for Kramer’s group to determine whether aerobic exercise could reverse age-related shrinkage of the hippocampus in humans.

To study the matter, the scientists randomized 120 men and women in their mid-60s to either a program involving walking 3 times-a-week for a year, or to a stretching (non-aerobic) program. The first group walked around a track for 40 minutes per session.  All participants gave blood samples and underwent spatial memory tests and MRI scans at study onset, halfway through the study, and at the end of the study.

The scientists found that the aerobic exercisers had a 2% increase in hippocampal volume, whereas the control (stretching) group lost 1.4% of their hippocampal volume. In addition, the aerobic exercisers performed better on spatial memory exercises at the end of the study. They also had increased blood levels of BDNF, a chemical that is synthesized in the brain and is involved with memory and learning. (more…)

Among fans who attend live sporting events, drinking alcohol is nearly as commonplace as root, root rooting for the home team. And while virtually no one has a problem with a fan who pushes back a beer or two during the game, flat-out drunk fans can ruin the experience for those sitting nearby. Worse yet, these people frequently get behind the wheel of a car after the game is over.

Recently, Darin Erickson and colleagues at the University of Minnesota decided to find out just how many fans go overboard at games, and their findings are worrisome, indeed. Using standard blood alcohol testing on 362 adult volunteers who were leaving 13 professional baseball and 3 professional football games, the scientists found that 40% had measurable levels of alcohol in their blood and a stunning 8% were legally drunk (as defined by a blood alcohol level of .08 or greater). The highest alcohol level recorded by the scientists was .22.

Erickson’s group also observed that Monday Night Football attendees were more likely than other fans to have been drinking. In addition, fans who were 35 years old or younger were 8 times more likely to leave the game drunk, and those who attended tailgating parties before the game were 14 times more likely to leave the game drunk.

The latter finding is consistent with a study from the University of Toledo, in which scientists gave breathalyzer tests to tailgaters at a college football game. The scientists found that an astounding 90% of the participants consumed alcohol during tailgate festivities, and among them, the average blood-alcohol concentration was 0.06, well on the way to being legally drunk.

Maybe these people should save the money they spent on tickets and go to a bar. Erickson’s study was published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Most people know that the US is struggling to contain a surging epidemic of obesity, and that the problem is most acute among African-Americans. Whereas about 27% of all adult Americans are obese (defined as having a body mass index of 30 or more), fully 37% of African-American adults are obese, and that number jumps to an appalling 42% among African-American women.

Over the years, public health officials have provided evidence that socioeconomic and cultural factors drive this racial disparity. Now, a new study suggests there is another reason as well: obese African-Americans receive less obesity-related counseling than their white counterparts, and it matters not whether the physicians they see are African-American or white.

To reach these conclusions, Sara Bleich and colleagues from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health used clinical encounter data from the 2005–2007 National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys (NAMCS). The sample included 2,231 visits involving African-American and white obese people who were at least 20 years old and who visited family practitioners and internists that were either African-American or white. Asian and Hispanic patients and physicians were excluded from the study because their numbers were too small to permit hypothesis testing.

For each encounter in the study, the scientists determined whether the patient received guidance on weight reduction, diet and nutrition, or exercise from his or her physician.

It turned out that African-American patients received weight-loss counseling about half as often as white patients did, regardless of whether the physician was African-American or white. Worse yet, African-Americans were only about one-third as likely as their white counterparts to receive advice about exercise from their physicians—once again, regardless of the physicians’ race. (more…)

In recent years, scientists discovered that blueberries were loaded with anthocyanins, resveratrol, flavonoids and other chemicals that slowed aging and cut cancer risk in mice.

Blueberries have never been shown to have these effects in humans, but the discoveries have nevertheless triggered quite a renaissance for the tasty fruit. In fact nowadays, you can find blueberries in nearly every aisle at the grocery store. You can buy blueberry bagels, blueberry ice cream and blueberry salad dressing for example, in addition their old-time hang-outs in muffins and cereal…and that’s not even counting the fresh, natural berries themselves.

But consumers need to exercise caution when purchasing these products. While many feature enticing pictures of blueberries on their labels, some don’t contain real blueberries at all, according to a recent report by the Consumer Wellness Center.

Take Blueberry Muffin-flavored Frosted Mini Wheats, for example. This Kellogg’s product contains not a whit of blueberries. Instead, it contains “blueberry flavored crunchlets” which are made from sugar, soybean oil, red #40 and blue #2.

Worse yet is the General Mills product, Total Blueberry Pomegranate Cereal. It contains neither blueberries nor pomegranates.

Many other products contain a trivial amount of blueberries, it’s true, but their recipes contain a host of of artificial colors, hydrogenated oils, liquid sugars and other ingredients that make their products look like they contain a lot more blueberries than they really do.

For example, Target brand blueberry bagels claims to contain “blueberry bits.”  Now, to be fair, the ingredients list does include actual blueberries, but those blueberry bits aren’t made from the real thing. Instead, they’re made from sugar, corn cereal, modified food starch, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, artificial flavor, cellulose gum, salt and artificial colors like Blue #2, Red #40, Green #3 and Blue #1. (more…)

It’s well-known that the offspring of obese parents tend to become obese themselves. Both environmental and genetic factors govern this association. Recently, a pair of studies has shed considerable light on those genetic factors, and in particular the role that a father’s diet has on his kids.

In the first study, Sheau-Fang Ng and colleagues at the University of New South Wales randomized a cohort of male rats to receive either a high-calorie diet or a healthy diet, and then had them mate with normal, healthy female rats.

The scientists found that as the daughters of the obese dads grew to become adults, they exhibited impaired glucose tolerance and elevated insulin levels that were not seen in the daughters of normal-weight dads. This turned out to be true even though both sets of offspring had similar amounts of fat and muscle mass, and similar blood triglyceride and leptin levels.

The scientists performed genetic studies on the 2 groups to better understand the cause of these differences. These studies revealed that 642 genes were expressed differently in the 2 groups, and all of them were involved with glucose metabolism and insulin production. The anatomic site where the changes had their impact was localized to pancreatic B-cells which are known to produce insulin.

In their write-up, Sheau-Fang’s group claimed that theirs was “the first direct demonstration in any species that a paternal environmental exposure can induce intergenerational transmission of impaired glucose-insulin homeostasis in their female offspring.” (more…)

Dead Heads have experienced it while listening to Jerry Garcia transition from Not Fade Away into Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad on the 1971 album, Skull and Roses. Jazz aficionados have as well, during any one of several McCoy Tyner solos on John Coltrane’s classic, A Love Supreme. And so have connoisseurs of classical music, who marvel at Jascha Heifetz’ stunning interpretations of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major (below).

In fact, just about everyone has enjoyed a sensation of pure euphoria as “that riff” plays out during a favorite piece of music. 

Recently, Robert Zatorre and Valorie Salimpoor of McGill University decided to study the neurobehavioral underpinnings of the phenomenon. Perhaps not surprisingly, they found that regardless of the type of music or the age or sophistication of the listener, that euphoric feeling can indeed be measured, and its neurochemical roots are quite similar from person to person.

In fact, the scientists showed that musical epiphanies feature increased heart and breathing rates, and the release of dopamine in certain areas of the brain. Dopamine is the same neurotransmitter that’s released when humans experience similarly intense sensations of pleasure associated with tangible rewards like a good meal, sexual gratification, or the ingestion of certain addictive drugs.

To reach these conclusions, the scientists recruited 8 volunteers and asked them to listen to, in order, a favorite musical passage of their choosing and then a decidedly uninspiring selection that was chosen for them. (more…)