Surfing the Internet Sharpens Older Brains
When we age --- not that I would know anything about this, you understand --- certain structural and functional changes occur in the brain that can make us seem ... not quite as sharp as we once were --- and sometimes cause those around us to fear that we are, shall we say ... losing it.
To open a childproof medicine bottle, we have to enlist the assistance of a child. They seem to have no problem with childproof bottles --- or operating the TV remote or the VCR or the DVR or any of today's video games that you or I might find challenging, to say the least.
However, new research now shows that mental stimulation similar to that which occurs in individuals who frequently use the Internet may affect older people's minds in a positive way. This according to Dr. Gary Small, a psychiatry professor at UCLA, "The Internet --- an everyday computer task --- may actually be exercising our brains and improving cognitive performance."
The UCLA team at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience worked with 24 normal volunteers between 55 and 78 years old.
Dr. Small says, "With just a week or so of practice, we saw significant increases in activity --- particularly in areas that involve cognitive tasks."
There were able to track mental activity in certain parts of the brain.
Dr. Small says, "We saw that in the front part of the brain and in the mid-brain that there were increases in activity --- in areas that control short-term memory, and control complex reasoning."
Don't be afraid to try it, says Dr. Small, "You want to train, but not strain, your brain --- and the Internet search tools allow us to find that sweet spot that makes it fun, but not too challenging."
Doctors, Pay More Attention to Skin Cancer
While giving you a routine physical, your primary care doctor could also check you out for skin cancer, especially for the deadly form called melanoma.
Unfortunately, according to a newly-released survey, too few primary care doctors have been trained how to do that.
"We're finding that about three-quarters of primary care residents from our four programs were not trained at all in the skin cancer examination during their residency program," says Dr. Alan Geller, now of Harvard's School of Public Health, who did most of the research for the study while at Boston University's School of Medicine. It's a shame that more primary care doctors aren't trained, he says --- but that sort of looking has been overlooked.
Dr. Geller says, "There's just so many other things that primary care residents are trained for --- there's so many other counseling techniques, procedures, examinations --- and skin cancer screening, or just observing the skin for cancer, obviously is just not thought of on the same level as many of those others."
Dr. Alan Geller says doctors could keep an eye out for melanoma while doing something else.
"When a basic examination of the skin takes place --- particularly, let's say, if one is listening to the lungs --- we think that there's no better other activity that could complement that by just looking at the back of the skin for moles," says Geller.
Even if they're not trained for it, they could at least refer the patient to refer somebody better equipped.
"So, the point is it probably doesn't take an awful lot to get the ball rolling on at least being able to do an adequate examination --- and if one sees something unusual, to make sure that the resident or the physician refers that person to a dermatologist or someone who has a real strong expertise in the skin to follow through appropriately," says Geller.
As Yogi Berra once said, "You can see a lot, just by looking..."
"The more you look," says Geller, "the more you'll see, and the more opportunities you'll have for really detecting early melanoma..."
Time to Revamp those School Lunch Menus
A panel of the Institute of Medicine is out today with proposed new standards for school cafeteria meals to replace the 14-year-old existing standards.
"The existing standards just define a minimum for calories --- and what we've done in this recommendation is we've incorporated both minimums and maximums," says Researcher Mary Kay Fox was a member of the panel at the Institute of Medicine.
"There would be more fruits and vegetables, both in quantity and variety. There'd be a wider variety of vegetables, emphasizing some of the more healthful vegetables. All of the milk that would be offered would be limited to skim or one percent milk..." says Fox.
The proposed revisions in national school lunch standards are badly needed, says panelist Mary Kay Fox. "If children don't learn to adopt the sort of healthy eating habits that this whole program is built around, I think we can see a continuation of what we've seen over the past several decades --- with increasing rates of obesity --- and increasing rates of chronic disease that are associated with excessive intakes of saturated fat, sodium..."
It's not going to come cheaply. They realize that.
Fox says, "There will be a need for investment at the federal level, as well as potentially other organizations contributing to help provide training and technical assistance that will be needed..."
Nor will it happen overnight. Some of it will take getting used to.
"We're hoping for a combined effort by the school food service community and the food industry that services them over a ten-year period to gradually reduce the sodium, so that children become accustomed to lower levels of sodium," says Fox.
In ten years, most today's kids will be out of school. The important thing, says Ms. Fox, is that they're headed in the right direction. "That's what it's really all about: trying to change the course, the trajectory, that the population's been working on for decades."
A Recession-Era Argument to Scrap the Death Penalty
93% of the known executions in the world last year took place in five countries: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the United States.
139 countries have abolished the death penalty, either by law or simply don't do it any more --- because it hasn't been a deterrent to crime, sometimes puts the wrong person to death, and is now considered "barbaric" and "uncivilized."
The Death Penalty Information Center, which has long been making the case for abolishment of capitol punishment, has now come out with yet another reason --- geared to the economy.
Richard Dieter with the Death Penalty Information Center says, "All eyes in America are on the economic crisis and what should be done. I think the problem is that the death penalty has escaped the type of scrutiny that typical government programs are being given."
"We're spending 10 million dollars to get someone executed --- that's just not a good use of resources," says Dieter.
It's true that state governments have to be more careful now about how they're spending money. Richard Dieter says capital punishment is very costly. "What you want to test: Is it costly, and are there benefits? So, if we just look at it from that perspective --- putting aside the other arguments --- I think the people decide: we'd rather have more police on the streets, better lighting in crime areas --- or drug programs, schools, hospitals, et cetera."
And in most states, he says, it's two or three times more expensive to keep a prisoner on death row. "You have to realize: there's 3,300 people on death row. So, the expense just for keeping people on death row --- where your meals are delivered, where you're shackled, where you're 23 hours of confinement and extra costs for everything that goes on --- are an enormous factor."
A national poll of police chiefs released along with the report ranks the death penalty last among crime-fighting priorities --- and least efficient use of taxpayers' money.
"What we're doing is going ahead and spending that money on the death penalty, without really thinking it through..." says Dieter.
E-Mail Story
Print Story
