Looking Angry and Tired

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has released a study that your facial features impact how others perceive your facial expressions and mood. Plastic surgeons have found that many of there patients state that they “always look tired”, but do not necessarily feel tired. The article goes into some detail about perceived mood and specifics of facial details.

The old saying, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” has scientifically been proven true. A study in a recent issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), found that variations in eyebrow shape, eyelid position, and wrinkles significantly impact how your facial expressions, and subsequent mood, are perceived by others.

You Don’t Have to Look Far for Inspiration

Being a runner myself, there are days when all you want to do is not train. Your legs are tired and sore. The weather maybe to too cold, too hot or too wet. Here is the story of Rick Bounds. 15 months ago he was told he was dying of liver and kidney disease. Today, Rick is training for this Saturday’s Pocomoke City Triathlon.

“I’m doing this for the people who are on transplant lists to let them
know there is life after tranplantation, and that they can rebuild your
body,” he said.

Firms Lose Money With Hyperactive Employees

Research shows that employees who are diagnosed with ADHD do one month less work in a year then a non-ADHD counterpart. The article goes on to suggest that a cost effect approach is to screen for ADHD and provide treatment. Medical plans providing comprehensive mental health plans, that sounds like a novel idea. Secondly, can you see lawsuits coming after one of these employees is fired???? I sure can.

The results showed that people with ADHD spent 22.1 more days not doing work than other workers per year. This included 8.4 days when they were unable to work or carry out their normal activities, 21.7 days of reduced work quantity and 13.6 days of reduced work quality, according to the researchers, who are part of a WHO research grouping at Harvard Medical School.

Lead Exposure Leads to Crime

I was certainly aware of leads effect on child development. Now research suggests that lead is correlated to criminality.

Previous studies linking lead to such problems have used indirect measures of both lead and criminality, and critics have argued that socioeconomic and other factors may be responsible for the observed effects.

But by measuring blood levels of lead before birth and during the first seven years of life, then correlating the levels with arrest records and brain size, Cincinnati researchers have produced the strongest evidence yet that lead plays a major role in crime.

Obesity Peaks

After 25 years of increasing obesity in this country, the numbers appear to be leveling off. What is sad is that people are taking this as good news. I don’t think we can get much fatter in this country. Maybe rising gas costs and rising grocery bills will finally force Americans to stop stuffing their faces with ridiculous amounts of calories.

“That is a first encouraging finding in what has been unremittingly bad news,” said Dr. David Ludwig, director of an obesity clinic at Children’s Hospital Boston. “But it’s too soon to
know if this really means we’re beginning to make meaningful inroads into this epidemic. It may simply be a statistical fluke.”

In 2003-04 and 2005-06, roughly 32 percent of children were overweight or obese, according to a study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That level held steady after rising without interruption since 1980.

Chlamydia Testing Hits Bars in England

Out with friends, have a few drinks, get tested for chlamydia…

Terrence Higgins Trust is a fantastic charity and I think it’s great that they’re offering chlamydia testing to young people in venues across our region. I was shocked to hear that around 1 in 10 are infected and many don’t have symptoms. I’d urge people to go and get a test, they’re being offered in regular clinics and in places like bars and pubs so there’s no excuse not to!

Toad Venom a Dangerous Aphrodisiac

A new York man has died after using toad venom as an aphrodisiac. Apparently the venom is sold in local New York sex shops. The venom may cause an abnormal heart rhythm if ingestion.

Health officials say the culprit was a hardened resin, made at
least partly from venom collected from toads of the Bufo genus,
containing chemicals known as bufadienolides that can disrupt heart
rhythms. The aphrodisiac was supposed to have been applied to the
skin, not eaten, but authorities said even that use can be harmful.

Drug Testing After Exams

Drug testing after exams may soon become a reality. Just like athletic drug testing, researchers warn that students may soon use memory boosting medications to help cram for exams.

The experts pointed out brain enhancers, such as caffeine, had been used for a long-time. But they warned there was anecdotal evidence drugs such as aricept, a treatment for Alzheimer’s, ritalin, used for attention deficit disorder, and modafinil, which targets day-time sleepiness, were also being used by otherwise health people to boost alertness and memory.

Smoking and Social Health

Are you a smoker?? Then chances are you are slowly being pushed farther from your social group. So says Harvard and the University of California. Interestingly our social behavior is contagious and it seems that obesity (ie. eating) has overtaken our social connectedness.

The study follows up on research by Fowler and Christakis published last summer, also in the New England Journal of Medicine, finding that obesity is “socially contagious” – spreading from person to person in a social network so that if one becomes obese those closely connected to them have a greater chance of becoming obese themselves.

Using data from the same Framingham Heart Study (which, among other things, was the first to identify the link between smoking and cardiovascular disease), the researchers observed that smoking behaviors are subject to similar social-network effects, at two and three degrees of separation. Except that quitting smoking, they found, spread through the network not only like one domino knocking down the next, which in turn knocks down another, but also like a house of cards collapsing.

Technorati Tags: obesity, social, smoking, quitting smoking

How Well Does Your Doctor Rate?

Looking to find a good doctor? Want to see what other patients are saying about your doctor?

Websites that rate and review doctors, and sometimes other health professionals, have sprung up in recent years as patients have extended the consumer-empowerment movement into the healthcare field.