Category: Health

Brain connections that disadvantage night owls revealed

Tom Patriot

‘Night owls’ — those who go to bed and get up later — have fundamental differences in their brain function compared to ‘morning larks’ , which mean they could be disadvantaged by the constraints of a normal working day. Research led by the University of Birmingham found that individuals whose internal body clock dictates that they go to bed and wake up very late (with an average bedtime of 2:30am and wake-up time of 10:15am) have lower resting brain connectivity in many of the brain regions that are linked to…

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Interval training may shed more pounds than continuous moderate intensity workout

Tom Patriot

Interval training may shed more pounds than a continuous moderate intensity workout, suggests a pooled analysis of the available evidence, published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. And sprint interval training may be most effective for weight loss, the analysis indicates, although the breadth of training programmes studied makes it difficult to recommend one particular approach over another, caution the researchers. Most physical activity guidelines recommend a high volume of exercise for weight loss, equivalent to an hour or more every day (420 minutes+/week). But few people can carve…

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What happens when sand fleas burrow in your skin?

Tom Patriot

Tungiasis, a tropical disease associated with poverty, is caused by the penetration of female sand fleas into a person’s skin, usually in their toes or feet. This week in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, researchers report five cases of severe tungiasis to illustrate how the disease may develop into a life-threatening condition. When the female sand flea (Tunga penetrans or Tunga trimamillata) penetrates the skin, it begins quickly growing. Within days, this growth causes intense inflammation with pain and itching. Generally, once all eggs are expelled into the environment through a tiny hole in…

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The ways of wisdom in schizophrenia

Tom Patriot

While wisdom is closely linked to improved health and well-being, its role and impact among persons with schizophrenia, possibly the most devastating of mental illnesses, is not known. In a new paper, publishing February 14, 2019 in Schizophrenia Research, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine report that, on average, persons with schizophrenia (PwS) obtained lower scores on a wisdom assessment than non-psychiatric comparison participants (NPCPs), but that there was considerable variability in levels of wisdom. Nearly one-third of PwS had scores in the “normal” range, and these…

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Exercise might improve health by increasing gut bacterial diversity

Tom Patriot

Bacteria, often synonymous with infection and disease, may have an unfair reputation. Research indicates there are as many, if not more, bacterial cells in our bodies as human cells, meaning they play an important role in our physiology (1). In fact, a growing body of evidence shows that greater gut microbiota diversity (the number of different species and evenness of these species’ populations) is related to better health. Now, research published in Experimental Physiology has suggested that the efficiency with which we transport oxygen to our tissues (cardiorespiratory fitness) is a far…

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