Being Web-Savvy Tied to Better Health in Seniors: Study

TUESDAY, Oct. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Older men and women who use the Internet frequently are more likely to have a lifestyle that includes many cancer-preventive behaviors, according to a new study.

Compared to their peers who don't use the Internet, online aficionados were screened for colorectal cancer more often and were more likely to be physically active, eat a healthy diet and smoke less. Researchers also found that the more time older adults spent on the Internet, the more likely they were to engage in these healthy behaviors.

The study appeared Oct. 22 in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

The findings held even after researchers accounted for people's socioeconomic status, physical abilities and mental function, study author Christian von Wagner, a senior lecturer in behavioral research in early diagnosis of cancer at the University College London, said in a journal news release.

"The interesting aspect here is a dose-response relationship between Internet use and cancer-preventive behaviors," von Wagner said. "Intermittent users were more likely to have cancer-preventive behaviors than [nonusers], and consistent users were more likely to have cancer-preventive behaviors than intermittent users."

The study involved nearly 6,000 men and women aged 50 and older who completed surveys every two years between 2002 and 2011, on their demographics, mental abilities, physical activity and diet. They also were asked about their Internet and email usage and colorectal and breast cancer screenings.

The researchers found that 41 percent of those surveyed said they did not use the Internet, 38 percent reported using the Internet sporadically and 20 percent were online regularly.

Although Internet use didn't affect women's decisions to be screened for breast cancer, those who regularly used the Internet were twice as likely to be screened for colorectal cancer, the study revealed.

Both male and female regular Internet users were 50 percent more likely to exercise and 24 percent more likely to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables each day, according to the study. People who used the Internet consistently also were 44 percent less likely to smoke.

The study also revealed that demographics play a role in how much people use the Internet. Use was more prevalent among those who were younger, white and had more money and education. Men also were online more than women. Meanwhile, Internet use was much less prevalent among the disabled and those who were older, less wealthy and nonwhite.

"It is important that policymakers recognize the role Internet use plays in influencing inequalities in cancer outcomes, and help increase access to the Internet among this demographic," von Wagner said.

Although the study showed an association between Internet usage and cancer-preventive behaviors, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

-- Mary Elizabeth Dallas
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, news release, Oct. 22, 2013

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Health Tip: Avoid Weight Gain at College

(HealthDay News) -- It's common for college students to pack on a few pounds while they're away at school.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics offers these suggestions to help prevent weight gain while you're at college:

Never skip meals. Be especially sure to start the day with a healthy breakfast to kick start your metabolism.Make healthy food choices, and pay attention to portion sizes.Choose high-fiber foods (such as fruits and veggies, beans and whole grains) to help you feel more full for longer periods.Include a lean protein in each meal. Good choices include lean turkey, chicken, pork, fish or beef; beans, nut butters and reduced-fat cheese.Eat healthier fats from nuts, seeds, avocados and canola or olive oils. Avoid desserts and fried foods.Drink water, fat-free or low-fat milk, unsweetened coffee or tea. Avoid sugary drinks, and limit alcohol to one drink per day.

-- Diana Kohnle
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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Learning Challenging Skills Tied to Better Memory in Seniors

TUESDAY, Oct. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Learning mentally challenging new skills such as digital photography may help keep older adults' minds sharp, a new study suggests.

But less-challenging activities -- such as doing word puzzles or listening to classical music -- aren't likely to provide any mental benefits, according to the report scheduled for publication in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science.

"It seems it is not enough just to get out and do something -- it is important to get out and do something that is unfamiliar and mentally challenging, and that provides broad stimulation mentally and socially," lead researcher Denise Park, a psychological scientist at the University of Texas at Dallas, said in a news release from the Association for Psychological Science.

"When you are inside your comfort zone you may be outside of the enhancement zone," Park explained.

The study included 221 adults, aged 60 to 90, who were randomly assigned to take part in a particular type of activity for 15 hours a week for three months. Some of the participants were assigned to learn a new skill -- digital photography, quilting, or both -- that required a high degree of mental effort.

Other participants did more familiar activities at home, such as listening to classical music and completing word puzzles, or took part in a group that did social activities such as field trips and entertainment.

After three months, only the participants who learned a new skill showed improvements in memory.

"The findings suggest that engagement alone is not enough," Park said. "The three learning groups were pushed very hard to keep learning more and mastering more tasks and skills. Only the groups that were confronted with continuous and prolonged mental challenge improved."

The results provide new insights into how everyday activities can help keep people's minds sharp as they age, according to Park.

"We need, as a society, to learn how to maintain a healthy mind, just like we know how to maintain vascular health with diet and exercise. We know so little right now," she said.

The researchers plan to assess the participants at one year and five years down the road to see if the beneficial effects of learning a new skill continue over the long term.

"This is speculation, but what if challenging mental activity slows the rate at which the brain ages? Every year that you save could be an added year of high-quality life and independence," Park said.

-- Robert Preidt
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: Association for Psychological Science, news release, Oct. 21, 2013

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'Love Hormone' Might Heighten the Placebo Effect

By Brenda Goodman
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Oct. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Oxytocin, a hormone that fosters bonding and feelings of trust, may enhance the placebo effect, a new study suggests.

For almost as long as researchers have known about the placebo effect -- a phenomenon in which patients say they get benefits from sham therapies they believe to be real -- doctors have wondered what causes it and whether it could be exploited to help people.

The new study is one of the first experiments to show that the placebo effect can be chemically boosted, perhaps enough to turn feelings of trust and belief into reliable treatments.

"The susceptibility to develop placebo effects is very different from one person to another," said lead researcher Dr. Ulrike Bingel, a neurologist at University Duisburg-Essen, in Essen, Germany.

"Some people have very large placebo effects and others don't, and it would be very nice to have a pharmaceutical option to help people who are not so good at producing placebo analgesia on their own to compliment the standard medical treatment," Bingel said.

For the study, German researchers recruited 80 healthy men in their 20s. Half were given a whiff of oxytocin nasal spray, while the other half snorted a look-alike saline solution.

The researchers then sat the men down and applied a cream to each patient's forearms. Then they laid it on thick, so to speak.

The researchers said the first cream contained a powerful pain-reliever and the second cream was a control. They explained to the men that they also needed to test an inert version to account for any properties of the cream itself that might blunt pain.

In reality, neither cream contained any active ingredient.

After 45 minutes, researchers touched a hot probe to the spots where they had applied the cream and they measured the differences in how the men rated their pain between the two sites.

On a scale from zero to 100, the men who had sniffed the oxytocin rated their pain on the arm with the "active" cream around 47 points, on average. The arm with the control cream rated an average score of 59, a difference of 12 points.

Men who got the saline spray also experienced a placebo effect, but theirs was smaller. They felt only about seven points of difference between the two arms.

The findings are published as a research letter in the Oct. 23/30 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

How does it work? Larry Young, director of the Conte Center for Oxytocin and Social Cognition at Emory University in Atlanta, explains.

"What oxytocin seems to have done is to make people trust the clinician and to believe what they are saying is true," Young said.

Young has studied the role of oxytocin in social bonding and monogamy, but he was not involved in the research.

Oxytocin is a hormone produced by a gland at the base of the brain. In childbirth, it helps to stimulate uterine contractions that bring on labor and get milk flowing to the breasts. Studies have also shown that it plays a big role in social bonding, helping to forge closeness between friends, lovers, spouses, and new parents and their babies.

"Oxytocin helps create a connection between one individual and another," Young said. "When you're looking another person in the eyes and you're really caring about the other person there, you're releasing oxytocin." And that's what good, empathetic doctors have always done to gain their patients' trust, he said.

"I happen to believe that is one of the mechanisms creating the placebo effect in the first place," Young said.

"It makes sense that if you give a person a bigger boost of oxytocin than they would be getting in the first place, that you would enhance this effect," he said.

Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCES: Ulrike Bingel, M.D., neurologist, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany; Larry Young, Ph.D., chief, division of behavioral neuroscience and psychiatric disorders, Yerkes Research Center, and director, Conte Center for Oxytocin and Social Cognition, Emory University, Atlanta; Oct. 23/30, 2013, Journal of the American Medical Association

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Counseling With HIV Testing May Not Help Prevent Future STDs

TUESDAY, Oct. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Contrary to what experts have believed, briefly counseling people who take a rapid HIV test on how to reduce their risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) is not effective, a new study shows.

Counseling for these at-risk patients did not reduce the incidence of STDs up to six months after patients were tested for HIV, the study found. A more focused approach to providing information at the time of testing may be needed, the authors said, since counseling requires valuable resources of time, money and personnel.

"Overall, these study findings lend support for reconsidering the role of counseling as an essential adjunct to HIV testing," study author Lisa Metsch, at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, and colleagues wrote in the Oct. 23 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"This inference is further buttressed by the additional costs associated with counseling at the time of testing: Without evidence of effectiveness, counseling cannot be considered an efficient use of resources," they added.

In the United States alone, about 50,000 new HIV infections occur every year, according to a journal news release. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently recommended that all people aged between 15 and 65 be screened for HIV (which causes AIDS).

The researchers randomly assigned about 5,000 patients treated at nine STI clinics in the United States to receive either brief patient-centered HIV risk-reduction counseling along with a rapid HIV test, or the rapid HIV test with information only and no risk-reduction counseling.

Patients who were counseled received advice on their specific high-risk behaviors and concrete steps they could take to reduce their risk for STDs. The researchers assessed STDs among the patients when the study began and again six months after they had their HIV test.

Both men and women were tested for gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, genital herpes and HIV, along with Trichomonas testing for women.

During the study, the STD incidence was 12.3 percent in the counseling group and 11.1 percent in the information-only group. The researchers noted that their findings were consistent at all nine STI clinics and after taking into account the patients' age, sex, race and ethnicity.

However, counseling is vital for patients who are indeed found to have HIV, the researchers emphasized.

"Post-test counseling for persons testing HIV-positive remains essential, both for addressing psychological needs and for providing and ensuring follow-through with medical care and support," they wrote. "A more focused approach to providing information at the time of testing may allow clinics to use resources more efficiently to conduct universal testing, potentially detecting more HIV cases earlier and linking and engaging HIV-infected people in care."

-- Mary Elizabeth Dallas
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: Journal of the American Medical Association, news release, Oct. 22, 2013

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