HEALTH HORIZONS : PULSE
The Home Court
TEAM PLAYERS KNOW all about the advantage of playing at home. A win is more likely when professional football, basketball, baseball or ice hockey teams play a home game.
The home advantage also seems to apply to individual sports, say University of Southern Maine Psychologists William F. Gayton and Guy Langevin. The two reviewed the outcome of 792 high school wrestling matches. They found a significiant home advantage: 61% of home matches were won, but only 54% of away matches. Their study appears in the journal Perceptual and Motor Skills.
Missed Pills
FORGETTING TO TAKE A birth control pill can be cause for alarm.
But researchers recently found that women who missed up to four consecutive pills still did not ovulate.
They studied 15 women who did not take pills at various times in the cycle and reported the results recently in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
But researchers still urge caution and suggest using a backup contraceptive method when pills are skipped.
Debunking the Sad Widow Myth
THE STEREOTYPE OF A FORLORN, MISERABLE widow is just that, according to a study by Ohio State University researchers. The researchers looked at a sample of 61 widows and 96 married women, ranging in age from 50 to 91, asking them to describe their current level of satisfaction with life and their expectations for the future.
The widows were just as satisfied with their lives and just as optimistic about the future as their married counterparts, the researchers found. This was true even though the widows tended to have less income and education, says Sara Staats, a study coauthor and Ohio State professor of psychology.
Long-time widows tended to be more optimistic than recent widows. This suggests many widows make a successful adjustment to life alone, Staats said.
TV Habits and Cholesterol
IF YOUR KID IS A SOFA SPUD, CHANCES ARE GREATER that he or she has high blood cholesterol levels, say researchers in the journal Pediatrics. Children who watched two to four hours of television a day were twice as likely to have a cholesterol level of 200 milligram per deciliter or higher compared to those who watched less than two hours a day. Kids who watched more than four hours a day were four times as likely to have high cholesterol levels.
Fourth-Grade Wishes
A NEW STUDY OF IOWA fourth-graders reflects what other research has found: even young children worry about becoming fat. In a survey of 457 children, half girls, half boys, 60% of the girls and 38% of the boys wanted to be thinner.
Parents, teachers and the media should alter unrealistic expectations for children’s body size, the researchers caution, and help kids feel loved and respected regardless of their physical appearance. The study appears in the Journal of the American Dietetic Assn.
Compete and Relax?
COMPETITION MAY actually help people with hard-driving “Type A” personalities relax, say London psychologists. Researchers Shahriar Shahidi and Peter Salmon compared the effects of biofeedback training in 32 men and women, half judged as Type A and half as more easy-going Type B. They found Type As reduced their heart rates with biofeedback more than Type B’s did. When given instructions to compete for a better reduction in heart rate, the Type A participants reduced their heart rate even more.
The Woes of the Hair-Disadvantaged
WHO SAYS WOMEN ARE THE VANITY-DRIVEN gender? Men who are balding--or hair-disadvantaged, in politically correct lingo--spend about $2 billion a year on hair loss products and treatments, according to the American Hair Loss Council. Most likely to seek help are younger balding men.
About 20% of balding men in the 18-29 bracket try hair regrowth remedies, but just 2% of those age 60-69.
Some men try toupes, others rub on minoxidil. Some endure the discomfort of transplants or surgery in which flaps of hair-bearing scalp are transferred to bald spots. Researchers are looking at other options, including low-level electrical current to stimulate hair growth and an enzyme treatment to remedy a chemical deficiency.
Laser Tools
LASER TWEEZERS AND laser scissors will expand technological possibilities, says a UC Irvine expert.
The laser scissors can help open cell membranes, cut apart chromosomes and other cell parts, says Michael Berns, who directs the Beckman Laser Institue and Medical Clinic at UC Irvine. With the tweezers, doctors might supplement an infertility procedure called zona drilling, in which a tiny hole is made in the outer covering of the woman’s egg to ease the penetration of the sperm.
