Hormones, not lack of willpower, may explain why four out of five people who lose weight gain it all back within a few years. A new study has found that even a year after dieters lose weight; their bodies are still sending them strong and often irresistible hormone signals to eat more. Australian researchers put a group of 50 overweight adults on a strict, 10-week diet that cause them to lose an average of 12 percent of their body weight. When they tested the subjects a year later, they found  that levels of hormones like leptin, which keeps appetite in check, and ghrelin, a hunger stimulant, had changed dramatically, slowing their metabolism and intensifying feelings of hunger. Their bodies had been programmed to keep weight at a higher “set point”, and were fighting to gain back the lost pounds. As a result, the volunteers gained back an average an average of half the weight they had lost, despite sticking to careful meal plans designed to keep it off. “What is impressive is that these [hormonal] changes don’t go away,” Rudolph Leibel, an obesity researcher at Columbia University, tells The New York Times. By dieting, he says, “you are putting your body into a circumstance it will resist”

Courtesy of: The Week- November 18th

When two people have a good conversation they often feel that they’ve just “clicked”. A new study of that phenomenon has found that conversing can produce an almost eerie synchronization of brainwaves, so that speaker and listener experience a kind of “mind meld”. Using a special type of MRI device, researchers at Princeton University imaged the brain activity of a student as she told of two personal experiences- of a troublesome encounter with a police officer after an accident, and of two boys fighting over which one would take her to the prom. Researchers then scanned the brains of several subjects listening to the stories. Listeners who followed and enjoyed the stories quickly synchronized their brain waves to the speakers’. But if the listener didn’t like or understand what was being said, this effect disappeared, and brain patterns decoupled. “That feeling we all have with people, that feeling of ‘clicking’ might actually have real neural basis”, researcher Greg Stephens tells LiveScience.com. The effect goes beyond the parts of the brain used to process language; during a good conversation, people will unconsciously begin imitating each other, using similar sentence structures, speaking rates, and physical gestures and postures. In fact, listeners can get so tuned in that they can even begin to anticipate what the speakers is about to say.

Courtesy of: The Week, August 13th

People really are happier on weekends. Psychologists at the University of Rochester handed out pagers to 74 subjects who worked at least 30 hours a week and pages them randomly three times a day. When beeped, the subjects rated their various feelings- including joy, pleasure, anxiety, depression, competence, and autonomy- on a seven point scale. The data revealed that, on average, respondents felt emotionally happier, physically better, and more competent from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. The results held for both men and women, regardless of age, salary, education, or length of work week. The researchers attribute the effect mostly on the subjects’ sense that on weekends, they control their own time and activities and can be with friends and family. “Whenever you don’t have autonomy or don’t feel relatedness,” study leader Richard Ryan tells the Chicago Sun-Times, “your well-being will be lower”

Courtesy of: The Week

The city of Bathurst is cracking down, as reported by the CBC. The fine for parking in a designated disabled space is only $20 due to city bylaw, where as the fine for parking in a “no parking” spot is a much higher 172.50. Those who have disrespectfully chosen to take the threat of a ticket find themselves risking the 20$ ticket rather than the “no parking” ticket which is almost 9x the cost. City officials and those who reserve the right to use the spaces are collectively satisfied that the unjust legalities of parking fines are finally being driven to justice.

Courtesy of: www.cbc.ca

Flattery will get you everywhere: Tell someone you like his tie, or that you think she is bright, and they are more likely to look on you favourably, even if they know the flattery is insincere. The approach works, Scientific American reports, because it feeds into the “above-average effect,” the view held by most people that they are above average (even though that’s statistically impossible). In a recent study, researchers in Hong Kong asked subjects to rate the appeal of a hypothetical new department store after looking at a promotional leaflet that directly praised the reader’s fashion instincts. (“Your dress sense in not only class but also chic.”) Even after acknowledging the flattery’s transparency, subjects rated the store more positively and said they were more likely to shop there. If someone tells us we look good, researchers say, we believe it, even if the flatterer’s motivation is obvious.

Courtesy of: The Week

Your parents were right: Learning to be a well-behaved child pays off in adulthood. To prove their prevailing wisdom, researchers in New Zealand tracked more than 1,000 people from toddlerhood into their early 30s. They found that the more self-control the subjects exhibited as youngsters, the healthier, wealthier, and happier they were as grown-ups. To measure self-control, says WebMD.com, the study authors interviewed children and the adults closet to them every two years to assess how they handled frustration, whether they frequently acted without thinking, and whether they could stick to a given task until finished. A 3-year-old able to consistently complete puzzles, for instance, received higher marks than one who routinely became distracted, cried, or lashed out at other children. Follow-up studies at age 32 found that those who scored low as children were more likely to be overweight, drug dependent, and beset with credit problems. The study’s authors say their findings are significant because, unlike other factors such as IQ and poverty, self-control can be taught and enhanced over time. No matter what a child’s circumstances, they conclude, “good parenting can improve self-control and improve life success.”

The “placebo effect”- pills with no active ingredients causing patients’ conditions to improve- has always been thoughts to rely on subjects thinking they’re getting the real thing. But that belief may be misplace, a Harvard Medical School study suggests Researchers recruited 80 people with irritable bowel syndrome and told them that they’d receive either no pills or placebos as part of a study into “novel mind-body” therapy. Some of the subjects were instructed to take pills twice a day from bottles “placebo pills” and were repeatedly reminded that the pills were inactive. “They were told so many times, they had it coming out their ears” lead author Ted Kaptchuk tells ScienceMag.org. Yet after three weeks, 59 percent of people who took the placebos said their symptoms had improved- far more than the 35 percent who’d taken nothing. This suggests, Kaptchuk says, that the body’s own healing mechanisms can be triggered by simple attention from another person; placebos serve as an acknowledgement that a person is sick and wants to be well. Beyond “mere positive thinking, there may be significant benefit to the very performance of medical ritual,” he says. “My personal hypothesis is this would not happen without a positive doctor-patient relationship.”

Courtesy of: The Week- January 14th

Playing Tetris, the classic computer game, actually enlarges your brain, scientists say. The game, which turns 25 this year, calls on players to rapidly fit together coloured puzzle pieces as they fall from the top of the screen. In a recent study, neuroscientists asked two dozen adolescents to play Tetris for a half-hour everyday for three months.  Subsequent brain scans revealed that in these players, certain regions of the cerebral cortex- areas with a role in planning complex movements and coordinating sensory information – had added new cells and grown a half-millimetre thicker. “It used to be thought that the number of neurons in the brain was fixed after a certain age” neuroscientist Richard Haier tells BBC.com. “This appears not to be true.” Left to be resolved is whether the growth in brain cells leads to overall improvements in memory and problem solving”. The $64,000 question is whether these brain changes are beneficial to activities other than playing Tetris,” Haier says

Courtesy of: The Week- September 25th

Enjoying a second cup of coffee in the morning could lower you risk of stroke, a new study has found. Researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute tracked nearly 35,000 women, ages 49- 83, over 10 years and discovered that those who drank more than one cup of coffee per day were 22 to 25 percent less likely to suffer a stroke than those who drank less “. Coffee drinkers should rejoice,” Sharonne N. Hayes, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic, tells the Associated Press. “If you are drinking coffee now, you may be doing some good, and you are likely not doing harm.” The study isn’t the first to attribute a significant health benefit to coffee. Other reports have shown it may help in preventing mental decline, improve heart health, and reduce the risk of liver cancer. Study author Susanna Larsson suggests the antioxidants in coffee might reduce the kinds of inflammation and cell damage that can lead to stroke, but other experts caution that no cause-and-effect link has yet been established. Coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world, Larsson notes, so even if it turns out to have only “small health effects,” they could have “large public-health consequences”

Courtesy of: The Week- April 1st

According to ABCNews.com’s Ann Pleshette Murphy teenagers who volunteer a minimum of two hours per week gain increased self-esteem, higher resiliency and are ½ as likely to experiment with drugs, tobacco or under aged drinking. Studies show that instead of forcing children into extracurricular activities or family outings volunteerism can become an option. Not only does volunteerism assist in the skill building process for future employment, but also drastically curves deviant behaviour. Additionally, according to America’s Teenage Volunteers more than 70% of teenagers say that volunteering allows them view the world from a different perspective. This positive perspective of the world is created because from the teenager’s viewpoint they are assisting a cause they believe in. As a result of volunteerism, both sides benefit.  People in need are receiving much deserved help and those volunteering are not only building confidence, improving grade, distancing themselves from deviant behaviour, helping those in needs but also building their resume at the same time.