Month: June 2023

For the study, 582 people described strategies for improving their well-being.

People who take up hobbies or interests that involve other people are happier one year later, research finds.

In comparison to those using non-social strategies, the socially focused were more satisfied with life.

Ms Julia Rohrer, the study’s first author, said:

“Our research showed that people who came up with ‘well-being’ strategies that involved other people were more satisfied with their lives one year later — even after taking into account that they were marginally happier to begin with.

In contrast, people who came up with strategies that did not explicitly involve others remained, on average, as satisfied as they were.”

For the study, 582 people described strategies for improving their well-being.

Some suggested non-social things like giving up smoking.

Others chose social things like spending more time with their family and friends or helping others.

The life satisfaction of those choosing nonsocial things remained the same one year later, while those who chose social things saw improvements in life satisfaction.

Ms Rohrer said:

“Many people are interested in becoming happier, but there is a lack of evidence regarding the long term effects of pursuing happiness through various types of activities.

After all, there’s no guarantee that trying to become happier doesn’t make you more miserable in the end.

I think our study partly fills that gap in the literature, although more research with a longitudinal perspective is certainly needed.”

The study was published in the journal Psychological Science (Rohrer et al., 2018).

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The amount of this drink that keeps you slender and lowers the risk of  type 2 diabetes.

Higher blood levels of caffeine might help people to stay in shape, plus reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Previous studies have found that drinking coffee leads to weight loss and lowers the odds of diabetes and genetic evidence now supports the findings.

Caffeine has the ability to break down body fat, hence people with higher plasma caffeine concentrations tend to be slimmer and less likely to suffer from diabetes and obesity.

Observational studies suggest that drinking 3 to 5 cups of coffee a day is linked to lower type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease including coronary heart disease and stroke.

A cup of coffee normally has 70 to 150 mg caffeine, making it a very good source of the bitter substance.

However, observational studies can be influenced by other factors so it is hard to say if caffeine alone or together with other compounds in caffeinated foods and drinks have such effects.

The current study used a method involving genetic evidence to find out the effect of caffeine on body fat, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

The results indicate that genetically predicted higher blood levels of caffeine was associated with lower weight and body fat percentage (BMI).

The weight loss from caffeine led to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

Caffeine levels, though, had no strong effect on cardiovascular disease including heart failure, atrial fibrillation, ischaemic heart disease, and stroke.

Caffeine, due to its thermogenic effects, has been shown to improve metabolism, increase fat burning, and control appetite.

For instance, a 100 mg caffeine intake would increase energy expenditure by 100 calories per day which helps towards weight loss.

The authors wrote:

“Our Mendelian randomization finding suggests that caffeine might, at least in part, explain the inverse association between coffee consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes.

Randomized controlled trials are warranted to assess whether non-caloric caffeine containing beverages might play a role in reducing the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.”

The study was published in BMJ Medicine (Larsson et al., 2023).

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People in the experiment who did this breathing exercise — both young and old — had lower levels of amyloid beta circulating in their bloodstreams.

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Fluid intelligence is the ability to solve problems, apply logic and identify patterns.

Having larger pupils is linked to higher fluid intelligence, a study finds.

Fluid intelligence is the ability to solve problems, apply logic and identify patterns.

It is contrasted with crystallised intelligence, which involves using skills, knowledge and experience.

The differences are visible to the unaided eye, despite the relatively small size of the pupils.

The pupils are the black part in the centre of the eye.

They open and close in response to the amount of light falling on them.

The pupils also respond to how much work the brain is doing and other psychological factors.

The study’s authors explain:

“Starting in the 1960s it became apparent to psychologists that the size of the pupil is related to more than just the amount of light entering the eyes.

Pupil size also reflects internal mental processes.

For instance, in a simple memory span task, pupil size precisely tracks changes in memory load, dilating with each new item held in memory and constricting as each item is subsequently recalled.”

Dilated pupils have been shown to reflect when a person’s brain is overloaded with information, how interested a person is in what is being said to them, whether they are in pain and much more.

Measuring pupils

For the study, 40 people’s baseline pupil size was measured — half were in the top quartile for intelligence, the other half in the bottom quartile.

Baseline pupil size is measured when a person is sitting down, not doing too much.

The authors describe the results:

“…we have shown that large differences in baseline pupil size, even observable to the unaided eye, exist between high and low cognitive ability individuals engaged in a cognitively demanding task and cannot be explained by differences in mental effort.”

The study was published in the journal Cognitive Psychology (Tsukahara et al., 2016).

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The nutrients that may halt one of the deadliest cancers in men and speed up their recovery after radiotherapy.

Foods rich in certain micronutrients along with colourful fruits and vegetables may fend off prostate cancer and minimise the damaging effects of radiotherapy.

Scientists from the University of South Australia reveal that prostate cancer patients are more likely to have low blood levels of selenium, lutein, lycopene, alpha-carotene, and beta-carotene.

They found that men with low levels of these micronutrients are at twice the risk of prostate cancer.

In contrast, higher blood levels of iron, sulphur, and calcium doubled the risk, a result of the Western diet which is deficient in plant foods and rich in meat.

Nearly 50 percent of prostate cancer patients undergo radiation therapy, increased DNA damage was linked to selenium and lycopene deficiency.

A diet rich in green leafy vegetables and colourful fruits containing carotenoids (lutein, zeaxanthin, lycopene, alpha-carotene, and beta-carotene) provides many health benefits such as reduced cancer and heart disease risks.

Examples of carotenoid-rich foods are kale, spinach, broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, squash, tomatoes, papayas, grapes, melons, and peaches.

Foods rich in selenium include brazil nuts, cashew nuts, eggs, pumpkin seeds, tuna, sardines, prawns, baked beans, and brown rice.

Dr Permal Deo, study co-author hinted that the best way to obtain selenium and lycopene from foods is from natural sources as opposed to supplements:

“Our recommendation is to adopt a Mediterranean diet enlisting the help of a dietician because people absorb nutrients in different ways, depending on the food, the digestive system, the person’s genotype and possibly their microbiome.”

The research found that prostate cancer risk was increased among men with lycopene levels lower than 0.25 micrograms per millilitre and selenium levels lower than 120 microgram per litre, also they were more vulnerable to radiotherapy.

Prostate cancer is one of the deadliest cancers in men but until now the impact of nutritional deficiencies on this disease have not been thoroughly investigated.

Dr Deo added:

“There is strong evidence that being overweight and tall increases the risk of prostate cancer.

Diets high in dairy products and low in vitamin E may also increase the risk but the evidence is less clear.”

Wheat germ oil, sunflower seeds, almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, avocado, Swiss chard, mango, kiwifruit, salmon, and eggs are amongst those foods high in vitamin E.

The studies were published in the journal Cancers (Dhillon et al., 2023; Dhillon et al., 2023).

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