Medical news of the obvious

We've noticed a slowdown in studies that qualify for our Weekly e-newsletter in the last few weeks, and it seems the sluggish study season now applies to obvious news as well.

Yes, for the first time in the history of Medical News of the Obvious, we didn't find anything last week that wasn't actually sort of reasonable. But, hey, we'd love it if we were wrong about this, so feel free to toss some studies our way if you feel we've missed something eye-rollingly obvious.

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 10:05 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

It's best not to get holes in one's surgical gloves in the middle of a procedure, as this leads to a higher risk of infection for the patient, the Archives of Surgery reports in a study about the effect of ripped gloves. "Pathogens can still be transmitted through contact with skin or blood," quoth the press release. Which is, perhaps, why the surgeons put on the gloves in the first place?

Teens often stop drinking milk after they leave home. A study (Eating Among Teens, or EAT) in the July/August issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior notes that the transition from high school to young adulthood often triggers a dramatic drop in calcium intake--a problem, since bones are still developing until roughly age 30. The authors don't address whether the drop is linked to leaving the family meal table (typically with limited, healthy choices) for the cafeteria smorgasboard or solo apartment (abundant or limited choices, but rarely healthy). They suggest fixing the problem by using peer pressure, so it becomes cooler to swig a carton of milk than a bottle of beer ("c'mon, have another one, it won't hurt you--really!")

People who live close to fast-food restaurants and convenience stores tend to eat fattening food. Researchers at the University of Alberta studied associations between the "retail food environmental index" and levels of obesity, boldly concluding that people are more likely to eat healthy food if they actually have easy access to it (i.e., by living close to supermarkets that sell more than burgers, fries and super-size sodas). Writing in BioMed Central's BMC Public Health, researchers make the astute observation: "Your local food environment can affect your weight."

Contributors: Jessica Berthold, Janet Colwell

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

It should be obvious but ... That's what researchers at King's College London predicted when they embarked on a study to find out if the average person's knowledge of anatomy has improved over the past 40 years. But upon being shown pictures of the male or female body with certain areas shaded, fewer than half of the 722 study participants correctly identified the heart and almost 70% were wrong about the location of the lungs -- even if they were currently receiving treatment involving the organ in question. The findings were published in BMC Family Practice. Researchers astutely point out that their findings bode ill for doctor-patient communication. No doubt everyone is more satisfied with the encounter when they're on the same page about which body parts are being discussed.

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posted by Janet Colwell at 9:00 AM   3 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

Look what the cat dragged in ... or, don't take a dead bat for show-and-tell. A lesson learned the hard way by parents of two students at a Ravalli County elementary school in Montana who, upon being presented with a bat carcass by the family cat, proceeded to store it in a jar overnight and take it to school the next day to be examined by budding young scientists. The parents not only encouraged students and teachers to remove and handle the bat but also took it along to after-school soccer practice, according to an account in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report . Enter the school nurse, who orders tests and--shockingly!--reports back that the bat tested positive for rabies. After further evaluation, one student was referred for postexposure prophylaxis but most opted for it anyway, just to be on the safe side. Fortunately, it all ended well. And in case you're wondering, the cat emerged unscathed.

A picture is worth a thousand words, in this case, not in a good way. The old maxim is proven once again in a recent study published in BMJ that tests the effectiveness of video support tools vs. verbal descriptions for helping patients with dementia with advanced care planning. After watching a video of an elderly woman in the advanced stages of dementia, the age 65-plus participants were more likely to choose "comfort care" over life-prolonging or limited care in a hospital. Draw your own conclusions by watching the video, a disturbing depiction of a woman lying helpless in a wheelchair unable to speak, feed herself or otherwise function independently. The study's conclusions may be obvious, but painfully so.

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posted by Janet Colwell at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

People choose high-calorie over healthier drinks, especially when they're on sale. Sad but true, it often costs more to buy healthy or organic products than their high-fructose, saturated-fat-bearing cousins. A New Zealand study, published in Nutrition and Dietetics, corroborates this notion, concluding that of 1,500 supermarket discounts on non-alcoholic drinks, only 15% were considered "healthy." Although, researchers noted, the difference may have something to do with there being signficantly more non-healthy drinks on shelves than the alternatives, no doubt a savvy move by companies that are interested in making a profit as opposed to feeling good about their customers' eating habits. It turns out that water, plain reduced-fat milk and plain reduced-fat soy beverages (the "healthy" drinks) aren't as appealing as sodas and flavored sports drinks--sadly, I suspect that price has very little to do with it.

Driving everywhere is making us less healthy. By how much? A Reuters feature reported that driving cuts the average person's 10,000 steps a day to as few as 1,000. Because it cuts into potential time for exercise, each 30 minutes of driving translates into a 3% greater chance of being obese.

Labels: exercise, medical news of the obvious, Nutrition, obesity

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posted by Janet Colwell at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

Dreading the end of the holiday weekend? You'd probably never have guessed but the problem may be that your work is not meaningful to you, a new study reports. The survey, published in the latest Archives of Internal Medicine, found that academic physicians who get to spend at least one day per week doing something meaningful (isn't that a depressing standard?) are less likely to burn out. In other shocking news, submitting preauthorizations to Medicare didn't top the docs' list of meaningful activity. They preferred patient care by an overwhelming margin, followed by research, education and admin. An accompanying editorial concluded that physician employers should try to ensure that there's good "career fit" between docs and their jobs. Sounds like a major employment opportunity for all those physicians who find insurance paperwork deeply meaningful.

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posted by Stacey Butterfield at 4:00 PM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

Kids and parents get on each others' nerves, a new study out of the University of Michigan finds.
Specifically, adult children and parents annoy one another, according to a news release about the study. One of the biggest sources of tension? Unsolicited advice.

Teens do the opposite of what adults want them to. An adage proven once again in a new study that looked at whether more visible standard labels on alcoholic beverages would influence teens' drinking choices (participants were college students in New South Wales, Australia, where the legal drinking age is 18). The Australian alcohol industry presumably was hoping for a positive influence but the teens reported that the new labels were a big help in their quest to purchase "the strongest drinks for the lowest cost."

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

• People actually do better at sports when they are being encouraged (as opposed to, say, berated or ignored), a new study in the Journal of Sport Psychology finds. Not sure what this does for the stereotype of the tough-as-nails, it's-for-your-own-good-kid coach that has enlivened many a TV show and film, but it's bound to make some athletes happy.
  
• Children who are exposed to "adult content" on TV have sex earlier than their peers who aren't exposed to such content, a new study found. Indeed, for every extra hour that 6- to 8-year-olds watched adult content, their likelihood of having sex increased by 33%. Yikes.
  
• Drinking alcohol can cause your mind to wander, while making you less aware that your mind is wandering, a press release from the Association of Psychological Science informed us earlier this week. The study--which tested drinkers' ability to focus on reading War and Peace (a popular pasttime while getting hammered)-- "provides the first evidence that alcohol disrupts an individual's ability to realize his or her mind has wandered," the release says. Um, isn't this why we don't give the car keys to drunk folks, even when they insist they are fine to drive?
  
• Speaking of driving, turns out that texting while driving is dangerous. Also dangerous? Reading War and Peace, eating a huge sloppy burrito, and sleeping while driving.
  
  

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

Overweight people are more likely to eat more and to opt for driving over walking, report researchers in the current issue of the International Journal of Epidemiology. The researchers tie their astute observations to environmental problems -- eating and driving more contributes to greenhouse gas emissions from food production and car exhaust. Furthermore, a lot of that food is wasted and thrown into landfills where it decomposes and emits methane or is burned and produces CO2. So, being overweight hurts the entire planet. How's that for a guilt trip?

Asthma sufferers should be cautious of swine flu, according to a "Quote us, too" press release from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Non-asthmatics have not been reported to be OK with getting the disease.

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posted by Stacey Butterfield at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

What was it that Tolstoy said about happy families? That all research about them will have the same, obvious results?

Anyway, this week we learned that mothers actually serve a purpose. A new study found that the children of women in the military misbehave while their mothers are deployed. Special obvious commendation goes to this somewhat off-topic quote that made it into the HealthDay coverage. "Women find meaning in this work, just as a man finds meaning in this work," she said. "Like dads, moms feel they are contributing to a greater good in the world."

And, in case you parents were thinking of risking the likely consquences and getting away from the kids, you might want to know that hanging out at the beach is less stressful than ekeing out an existence in Appalachia. That's right, according to CDC reports, Hawaiians report less mental distress than the rest of the country, while residents of Kentucky and West Virginia have the most. No word on how those stats compare to the unhappiness of residents of 19th century Russia, though.

Next time the family piles into the station wagon for a vacation (Appalachian get-away, perhaps?), remember that aggressive driving is responsible for 56% of fatal crashes nationwide, said the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. AAA defines commonly witnessed behaviors as aggressive: speeding (a factor in a third of crashes) is only 15 miles per hour over the speed limit. Also cited were running red lights and speeding through yellows, blocking others trying to pass, tailgating, forcing others to speed, driving on the shoulder and failure to yield.

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posted by Stacey Butterfield at 8:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

Elderly, hemodialysis patients are more likely to be hospitalized if they fall. Furthermore, reported researchers from the University of Virginia Health System presenting at the 29th Annual Dialysis Conference last month, hospitalization and/or mortality was even more likely if patients fell more than once during the three-year study period. Helpfully, researchers suggested that elderly patients get help with reducing their risks of falling.

The degree to which people smile in childhood photos predicts their later likelihood of divorce, said DePauw University researchers who asked adults for school pictures and rated their smiles. Those with the weakest smiles were more than three times as likely to divorce. It's not a genetic link between strong enamel and marital bliss, or that people with toothpast-minty breath kiss their spouses more often. The suspicion is that happier people (those who smile for pictures) might be more likely to work through marital problems, or might be marrying similarly happy people.

Tweets, those brief, annoying communications of 140 characters or less, might make users less moral and indifferent to human suffering. Not really, but researchers pressed on with the theory that the faster pace of news feeds doesn't allow people to fully empathize with the people to whom the news is happening. While we can rapidly process physical pain in others, emotions associated with morality take much longer to develop. We've heard it before here at Medical News of the Obvious (even if we paid attention for just a brief moment before moving on.)

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posted by Ryan DuBosar at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

--People use the tint of your skin to judge how healthy you are, a new study from St. Andrews University found. Those with a pink or reddish complexion were judged as healthier than those with greenish or pale, washed-out skin. All of you who've been using green eye shadow to liven up your cheeks might want to stick to standard rouge from now on.

--Turns out 90% of couples experience a decrease in marital satisfaction after their first child, especially right after birth, an eight-year study of 218 couples found. A baby accelerates the process, which is also seen in childless couples, according to research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Dirty diapers and constant sleep interruption aren't so romantic, it seems.

--Once a couple has a child, they should work hard to instill a sense of self-control. Young kids with low self-control are more likely to become overweight by their preteen years, because they lack the ability to delay gratification for a larger reward, a new study in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine finds.

--And once that child gets a driver's license, couples should be on high alert for any suspicious smells leaking out from his or her bedroom door. Turns out marijuana use and reckless driving are related, according to Canadian researchers: "Our study found that men with self-reported DUIC (driving under the influence of cannabis) tend to be associated with an increased risk of being involved in a car accident," said study author Isabelle Richer, according to an article in U.S. News and World Report.

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

People diagnosed with cancer are at increased risk for depression, concludes a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Researchers collected an impressive amount of data and performed some complicated regression analysis and risk-adjustments to come up with the important, though not particuarly surprising, recommendation that physicians treating cancer patients should look for signs of depression and initiate early treatment.

Children prefer bright colors. So concluded a study in the Journal of Clinical Nursing that assessed hospitalized children's perceptions of nurses wearing non-traditional, brightly colored uniforms vs. the traditional drab attire. I bet smiling works, too. But that's another study.

Sugary soft drinks were associated with more weight gain than other beverages, according to researchers. To come to this conclusion, researchers looked at 810 adults and weighed them over an 18-month period, doing unannounced 24-hour dietary recall interviews by phone during the study. Sugar-sweetened beverages were the only ones significantly associated with weight change. What rescues this study from being totally obvious is that it tracked how much weight could be cut by not swigging sodas. Cutting liquid calories was associated with losing 0.25 kg at 6 months and 0.24 kg at 18 months. Cutting just one sugary drink was associated with losing 0.5 kg at 6 months and 0.7 kg at 18 months. Lay off the soda already, especially those of you who start the day with a can or two.

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posted by Janet Colwell at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

If you want to survive a suicide attack, try getting as far from the bomb as you can in advance.

That's the upshot of a new study by Florida Institute of Technology researchers. The unfortunate first line of this press release about the study may just win the Obvious of the Year award:

"Florida Institute of Technology researchers have determined that where a person is standing in a room or other location during a suicide terrorist attack can have a great bearing on survival and injuries."

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   1 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

--Depressed folks have trouble remembering the good and happy things in life, and tend to focus more on the negative aspects of a situation, a new study finds. Study co-author Laura Conklin offers this helpful tip for psychologists, in case they slept through several years of their training: "Depressed people may have a tendency to remember the negative experiences in a situation, but not remember the good things that happened. Therapists need to be aware of that."

--Not having many close friends makes you feel yucky. And being lonely makes you feel even worse, according to a new study.

--Moms who eat poorly tend to have sicker children than moms who eat well. Because, you know, kids tend to get most of their food from their parents. And diet is important to health.

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

--Powerful people think they can control more than they really do. (Hear that, Mr. Madoff?) Stanford researchers had students write about situations in which they had control over others, write about situations where they felt out of control, or write nothing. The students were then given the choice to roll dice for themselves or have someone else do it. Those randomized to remember situations of being in control usually chose to roll themselves, while those in the other two groups were more likely to have someone else do it.

--Worried about the harmful effects of smog as you walk or bike through city streets? Here's a high-tech solution: Wear a face mask. Reporting in the journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology, researchers helpfully explain that covering your mouth and nose can reduce "exposure to airborne pollution particles." (Cyclists might also want to avoid tailgating buses.)

--Having arthritis makes people disinclined to exercise, according to the MMWR Weekly. The study looked at the intersection of arthritis, heart disease and exercise, and found--surprise!--that people with both conditions were least likely to exercise, followed by people with one condition, followed by people with neither condition. (In all seriousness, the researchers make an important point that the ill folks should be encouraged to exercise, as it will help decrease pain.)

...And on the psychology front, researchers came to the stunning conclusion that people like to bond with one another socially by quoting popular movies, according to CNN. (Hmm, CNN... owned by Ted Turner... owner of Turner Classic Movies....). Furthermore, they like to quote from comedies more than children's films. And here I thought my Jar Jar Binks impersonation was the keystone of my cocktail party repartee.

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   1 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

When it rains, it pours...and there were hurricane-like conditions in Obvious News Country this week. Pull up a chair and watch the storm with us:

• People in unhappy marriages are more likely to be depressed, say psychologists at the University of Utah. Wives, in particular, have a higher risk of metabolic syndrome (and heart disease) if their marriages are strained. "Improving aspects of intimate relationships might help your emotional and physical well-being," researchers helpfully advised in a release.
• Attention, parents! Swimming lessons for young kids do NOT increase their risk of drowning. In fact, the lessons "appear to have a protective effect," the NIH pronounced. (Your tax dollars at work, folks.)
• When asked to turn down their Ipods, teens are more likely to crank the volume. Also, teens listen at a higher volume than adults!
• Another thing about teens: If they wear t-shirts and baseball hats with beer and booze labels on them, they are more likely to be binge drinkers. You are warned.
• On that topic, television commercials about drinking make you want to drink, Healthday reports. Madison Avenue breathed a collective sigh of relief at the news...and poured itself a tall one.
  

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   2 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

Our focus this week is on smoking. A new study in BMJ finds that smoking is bad for you, even if you're rich! As reported by HealthDay, the authors conclude that "in essence, neither affluence nor being female offers a defense against the toxicity of tobacco." So much for the magical properties of our solid gold cigarette holder.

In other bad-but-perhaps-already-known news for women, a group of public health investigators have determined that tobacco companies are trying to make cigarettes appealing. To quote HealthDay again, cigarette ads "depict cigarette smoking as feminine and fashionable rather than the harmful and deadly addiction it really is."

And while we're on the subject, we've got to mention this study, even though its conclusions are far from obvious. A signficant proportion of surveyed smokers said that while the effects of smoking on their own health are not sufficient motivation to quit, they would stop smoking if they knew their pets were being harmed by the habit. Really, people? Really?

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posted by Stacey Butterfield at 8:00 AM   0 Comments

Stroke news of the obvious

And in our special conference issue of Stroke News of the Obvious...a study out of UNC that finds it takes longer to care for stroke patients in emergency departments that are overcrowded than those that are not. Specifically, it takes longer to triage the patients to ED rooms, physician assessment and hospital beds. "ED clinicians may need to attend to methods of increasing the efficiency of personnel and care processing during periods of overcrowding," the study authors smartly concluded.

Separately, stroke survivors are more likely to fall if they have impaired mobility, have a history of falling, and are still experiencing pain and injury from a previous fall...versus people who can get around just fine, haven't ever fallen, and are feeling healthy to boot. Also, older stroke survivors are more likely to fall than younger ones.

And finally, stroke patients who have heart failure are more likely to die in the hospital than stroke patients without heart failure. (I'm going to go out on a limb and say that adding a serious condition to anyone's health profile is, most likely, going to put her at a disadvantage vs. someone without that extra condition.) Stroke + heart failure patients also stayed in the hospital longer and required more intensive care than those with stroke alone.

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 3:45 PM   3 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

People are more likely to eat expired food if they already own it, a group of researchers offering rotten smoothies discovered. "Our results help explain why a person might consume expired food that they found in the fridge, but not consume expired food found in a friend's fridge," a study author told the Washington Post. Either that, or because it's generally frowned upon to go over to someone's house and start rooting through their moldy leftovers for a snack.

Further confirming that they are not familiar with actual human behavior, the researchers also attempted to analyze the "five-second rule" of eating food off the ground. Kindergartners everywhere are eagerly awaiting follow-up research to confirm precisely when dropped food becomes too dirty to eat.

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posted by Stacey Butterfield at 8:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

--Makeover shows like "The Swan" and "Extreme Makeover" don't help women feel better about themselves or the way they look; the shows make them anxious about their bodies, a study in Configurations finds. Interestingly, college students in Buffalo who watch the shows had more body anxiety than those in L.A., Science Daily reports. The L.A. students were more likely to feel that having an imperfect body was a "moral failing," while the Buffalo students worried that it would keep them from being successful.

--Undergrads who play a lot of video games are isolated and don't have great relationships with their peers or families, a study in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence finds. They are also more likely to smoke pot than those who don't play.

--Songs can evoke memories, researchers trumpeted in the Psychology of Music journal. It doesn't matter whether you hear a snatch of a song, see a picture of the song artist(s) or read the lyrics-- all function equally well at triggering memory.
So let's try this out. Here's the song: "1999" by Prince. Any memories springing up out there?

--High-schoolers who watch too much TV are likely to develop bad eating habits, researchers reported in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. The study of 2,000 high- and middle-school students also pointed out that TV ads might influence students to make bad food choices. (So that's why they ditched their morning oatmeal for a bowl of triple choco-marshmallow puffs!)

--The expectation of post-operative pain directly correlated with the actual incidence of pain following foot and ankle surgery. Researchers thought that, "Believing there will be pain after surgery leads to just that, pain." They continued that cancer patients who have a more optimistic outlook experienced less severe pain.

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   1 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

Food that's advertised in magazines tends to be unhealthy, a new study from the UK finds. It seems the glossies are filled with enticements to buy chocolates and pre-packaged meals loaded with preservatives, instead of tempting missives from the Carrot Farmers of England or the National Broccoli Foundation. But hey, the title of one of the 30 mags they studied is "Nuts," so maybe there is some subversive healthy messaging going on, after all.

Putting babies and small children in car seats, rather than letting them float around the car, greatly reduces the chances they'll die, a new study found. Study author Thomas Rice of UC-Berkeley, speaking in the Washington Post, clarifies for us that car seats are necessary because infants are fragile: "The higher effectiveness of safety seats among infants is likely due to their overall fragility," Rice is quoted as saying. Hear that, moms?

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

People are more suggestible under laughing gas. This won't hurt a bit... ha, ha, nudge, wink...Researchers at the University College London found that being sedated with nitrous oxide (aka laughing gas) makes people more likely to listen when their drill-wielding dentist tells them to relax.

Problem teens become problem adults. At risk behaviors include disobedience, lying, lack of punctuality, restlessness, truancy, daydreaming in class and poor response to discipline--in other words, adolescence itself. The data came from the UK's Medical Research Council.

Parents should limit the amount of TV children watch before the age of two, according to a review published in the January issue of Acta Paediatrica by a child expert from the Seattle Children's Research Institute and the University of Washington. DVDs aimed at infants are also concerning researchers report. Toss the Baby Einstein!

Glaucoma impairs reading. We're not sure how it connects to the well-known relationship between glaucoma and vision problems, but a new study found that glaucoma patients could not read aloud as quickly as their unaffected peers. By the way, researchers noted, reading speed may also relate to cognitive ability and education.

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posted by Janet Colwell at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

Eating "on the go" encourages consumption of unhealthy food, a new study finds. IE, fast food isn't good for you. Other groundbreakers in the study include that young people like eating together, but often feel too busy to sit down and eat.

In other food news, if you want to maintain or lose weight as you get older, you have to eat less, people! Because your metabolism slows down, you see. The lead author offered several helpful tips for eating less, including "put less food on your plate." Here's my helpful tip: Put less food in your mouth.

And here's a study result that is not obvious, but fishy: The babies of women who eat apples during pregnancy are less likely to have asthma. Sounds plausible, until you realize the lead researcher's names is Dr. Appleyard....

(We joke. But let's just say we're not surprised Dr. A chose the apple as the "fruit of her labors".)

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

This week in Medical News of the Obvious, sex, drugs and...puppies? To wit:

Teens talk about having sex, using drugs and drinking alcohol on their MySpace profiles! The researchers who "discovered" this also created a profile of a "Dr. Meg," and sent messages to the teens who talked about sex/substances to tell them their profiles contained "risky information." Guess what? Many of the teens removed the info from their profile. Because nothing is more creepy...I mean, helpful and effective...than the idea of a stranger mining your profile for news about your sex life.

Meanwhile, people who are at high risk of driving drunk are most deterred by the belief that they are likely to get arrested or pulled over, not by drunk driving laws themselves. So laws aren't useful unless you enforce them. Got it.

You know how animals can cheer up the elderly and the ill? Well, puppies make college students happy, too! "Even younger, healthier young adults can benefit from living with our four-legged friends," the lead author said in a press release. Young and old: we're not so different, after all!

And speaking of the elderly, an AP report finds that the best-rated nursing homes in Massachusetts are usually located in the wealthiest areas. Next on the AP Investigations Team schedule: Is school district quality related to median income? Stay tuned...

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 4:00 PM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

Just in time for New Year's Eve, we bring you our "Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" edition of Medical News of the Obvious. (Actually, it's more like "sex, food and rock 'n' roll", but food is akin to a drug for some people, no?). Without further ado...

--Kids' meals at fast-food restaurants aren't very nutritious, according to researchers in Houston and Michigan. Also? They are high in fat and calories!

--Teenagers who pledge to remain abstinent until they marry aren't any less likely to have premarital intercourse than teens who don't pledge, a new study finds. Bet they are more likely to feel guilty about it, though...

--"Head banging" increases your risk of head and neck injuries, the BMJ reports. But the researchers have some tips for Metallica lovers to reduce their chances of injury: "Head bang to slower tempo songs by replacing heavy metal with adult oriented rock; only head bang to every second beat; or use personal protective equipment." In other words, listen to John Mayer instead of Ozzy, and be the one guy at the Motorhead concert who's wearing a helmet. Rock on!

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 1:09 PM   2 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

Lots of promotional press releases cross our desks at ACP Internist. When they're too weird to pass up, we'll post them here. It's like Annals of Internal Medicine's Personae, but without the cash prize.

This one came from a system promising whiter teeth. Obviously, it didn't convince the staff to try it.

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posted by Ryan DuBosar at 8:55 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

There was a bumper crop of obvious research this week, so we'll keep it snappy. Some of the highlights:

Employees who are sexually harrassed have lower job satisfaction.

Couch potatoes are fat.

The internet has scams.

Talking on your cell phone in the car is bad.

Banning soda at school doesn't solve the child obesity crisis.

People in clinical trials like to know the results when the study's over.

Middle-aged men like to chase after younger women.

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 4:00 PM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

With icy winds sweeping the Northeast, it's obvious that many of us would rather be relaxing on a warm, sunny beach. That must be why Aussie researchers decided to release a study confirming conventional wisdom about life at the shore. "Adults and adolescents are particularly at risk for intense, episodic sun exposure while on vacation or in 'high-risk' environments such as beaches," the authors wrote.

Despite that unsurprising conclusion, the study does eventually prove its own value, by establishing that people do not learn from even the most painfully obvious evidence. The researchers surveyed beachgoers and found that 70% of them went to the beach with an intention to tan, despite 40% reporting they had obtained a sunburn in the previous 48 hours. Think, people, think!

But, to get to that warm, sunny beach, you'll have to wait in a line at the airport, which a study now shows that people hate. Researchers in queing psychology are finding ways to keep us amused while waiting in line, or at least reduce the sudden violence of "queue rage." In short, amusement parks and comedy shows add interactive features to their lines to build up expectations, airports offer updates on wait times, banks switch to first-come-first-serve fairness, and Black Friday shoppers think the line is part of the group experience.

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posted by Stacey Butterfield at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

Focus on driving. When officials in Florida implemented a law in January 2004 requiring all drivers 80 years and older to pass a vision test before renewing their driver's licenses, did they ever in a million years think that it would lead to fewer crashes? Well, yes, of course they did. But, now there's evidence, notes a press release announcing the results of an Archives of Ophthalmology study. It turns out that failing the DMV's vision screening test removed some shaky drivers from the road and encouraged others to get better glasses.

And at the other end of the age spectrum, a new study finds that modern teens are full of themselves. The research, which compared today's adolescents with those of the 1970's, also found that students claim to get more A's despite doing less homework. And if Grandpa could just find his car keys, he would come over and tell you about how hard it was back in the good old days.

For those facing a mid-life crisis, turn to Botox. A psychodermatologist addressing the American Academy of Dermatology's Skin meeting measured the positive effects of botox on self-esteem. The study surveyed 76 middle-aged patients treated with one botox injection about how they felt: 29% were less anxious; 36%, more relaxed; 49%, more optimistic. The study even addressed seasonal affective disorder. "Feeling stressed, depressed or anxious is exhausting," said the presenter, "and patients who report improvements in these negative feelings following a cosmetic procedure can use that redirected energy to pursue new interests that can enhance their lives," such as having to drive their overbearing parents and snotty teenagers everywhere.

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posted by Janet Colwell at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

Reader Tanna Lim, M.D. from Atlanta found an item for us. Last week we reported that teens who see less violence on TV are less violent. Now we find that if they are more interested in watching sexual content, they're more likely to be involved with a pregnancy.

Media coverage affects how people perceive the threat of infectious disease. As opposed to people just going out and conducting their own field research about all the infectious disease in the world.

Turns out, if you ask patients whether they're ok with their prescriptions being switched to other drugs without their or their doctor's knowledge, they say no. An obvious study, but not one without a purpose: sponsor Pfizer was trying to make a case against substitution of generic statins.

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

One of our bloggers found this in a fortune cookie: "You could prosper in the field of medical research." This led us to wonder, how much do they pay test subjects nowadays?

Now, on with some medical research that's less prosperous and more obvious ...

Children and young teens with only minimal exposure to violent entertainment in the media are far less likely to engage in aggressive behavior, a new survey suggests.

College students drink beer and it makes them fat, researchers at Tufts and Indiana universities discovered after extensive research. (Couldn't they just have looked around campus on a Saturday night?)

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

We're running a little low this week, but here's what we've got:

Adults who eat rapidly or until they're full are more likely to be overweight, a study in BMJ reports. Just tell your heavier patients to slow down and chew. Problem solved.

Doctors are more likely to prescribe drugs to their patients-- in this case clopidogrel (Plavix) to stent patients-- when they have fewer hoops (like prior authorization) to jump through, the NEJM reports.

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posted by Janet Colwell at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

This edition focuses on Europe, a continent from which more inanity than usual was emanating this week.

First, it took a team of nine European specialists on the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks to conclude "Listening to personal music players at a high volume over a sustained period can lead to permanent hearing damage." Could you repeat that?

This second study may be less obvious than mysterious (as in, why on Earth did someone fund this research?). Researchers in the U.K. "analyzed 413 adult deaths from unintentional injuries that occurred in the county of Sussex, England, between 1485 and 1688," the Washington Post reported. They found that people frequently died from drowning, being hit by objects and falling, and that some of them were drunk at the time.

Who would have guessed? And who would have cared? (Aside from the families of these poor victims, of course. Our condolences of the loss of your great-great-great-great...great-grandfather.)

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posted by Ryan DuBosar at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

The days are getting shorter and colder, the leaves are turning, and researchers want to get their studies published before the holidays. You know what that means: It's harvest time for some really obvious news.

Like this: A new study reports city kids like to go to corner stores to buy unhealthy snacks and drinks on their way to and from school! And here we thought those gaggles of backpacked youth down the block were just popping in for some fruit and a new set of pencils.

Also, the tanking of the U.S.-- nay, the global!-- economy is, like, stressing people out, the Washington Post reports.

Don't let that stress lead you to take up smoking, though....the latest research is that smoking is bad for you! Archives of Internal Medicine reports that men who never smoke live longer and better lives than heavy smokers. "Health-related quality of life appears to deteriorate as the number of cigarettes smoked per day increases," explains a helpful news release.

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 4:00 PM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

In a startling insight into the human psyche, researchers report that "patients with generalized social phobia respond differently than others to negative comments about themselves."

Meanwhile, the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology reports that listening to music while exercising increases endurance. And here we thought all those people with headsets at the gym were catching up on their financial news podcasts!

And...finally. Workers who take long bouts of sick leave (7+ days) are at a higher risk of death than their colleagues who don't take sick leave, BMJ reports.
(To be fair, they also found this: workers who were absent for circulatory diseases, surgical operations, and psychiatric diagnoses were more likely to die than those out for infections, respiratory illness, or injury absences.)

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posted by Janet Colwell at 9:43 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

Four items that need no explanation or comment:

• People who have steady, dependable jobs are more mentally healthy that those whose jobs may be in jeopardy, according to a new WHO report.
• Women who binge drink are at greater risk of unsafe sex, according to the journal Alcoholism.
• Women who are bulimic in pregnancy are more anxious and depressed than pregnant women without eating disorders. At least in Norway.
• People with a family history of cancerous brain tumors are at higher risk of developing those tumors than people with no family history, Neurology reports.

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 4:00 PM   2 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

Our theme this week is obesity. There are lots of interesting questions on this subject, but these studies aren't answering them.

Physical activity is associated with reduced risk for obesity in people who are genetically predisposed, the Sept. 8 Archives of Internal Medicine says. But, wait, there is a suprising part of the study--it was conducted among the Amish. Who would have guessed that there even are inactive, obese Amish? Apparently cars and fast food are not entirely to blame for the obesity epidemic, as 30% of female study participants were obese.

Another Archives study (a little old, but profiled in this week's Journal Watch) provides more evidence on the new weight-reducing properties of exercise. "Women who maintained a 10% weight loss during a 2-year study had better eating habits and more leisure-time physical activity than did those who regained weight." Got it? Diet + exercise = weight loss

And why should we care? Because obesity has some relationship to cardiovascular disease, according to a study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, reported in the Washington Post under the headline "Heavier People Have Heart Attacks Earlier." This study author wins the quote-of-the-week award for telling the Post, "If you had your choice, you would choose not to have a heart attack in the first place."

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posted by Stacey Butterfield at 8:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious Part II

Maybe because we spend a lot of time talking to students and residents, the press releases for this week's issue of JAMA, which has a medical education theme, particularly struck us with their obviousness.

First up, "white medical students who attend schools with greater racial and ethnic diversity among the student body are more likely to rate themselves as highly prepared to care for minority populations." That seemed a little obvious, but the really depressing part was how an accompanying editorial concluded that even putting evidence behind a concept so intuitive will have no impact. "However, even with an increasing evidence base, many medical schools are unlikely to prioritize increased URM [underrepresented minority] diversity. For such schools, improvements may come only through changes in leadership or external pressure by community and political forces."

Then we learn that "interns who experience an increase in their on-call workload are more likely to get less sleep while on call, have longer shift durations and participate less in educational activities." We, too, are looking for one of those jobs where more work means more sleep and shorter hours.

And, finally, for anyone still mystified by the primary care shortage, med students explain why they are not going into internal medicine. "Compared with other specialties they had chosen or considered, students perceived IM as requiring more paperwork (68.0% of respondents), requiring a greater breadth of knowledge (62.1%) and having a lower income potential (64.6%)."

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posted by Stacey Butterfield at 4:00 PM   0 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

What is it about research on kids that all the findings always seem so darn obvious?

This week, one study found that college students who don't believe that prescription drug abuse is very risky are 10 times more likely to abuse prescription drugs than those who believe it is highly harmful. (Special kudos to this obvious study for an author actually telling the Washington Post, "But what we're talking about here is not rocket science.")

Also, children of stressed, low-income mothers have weight issues (Post quote on this one: "The last thing you're going to worry about is whether your child is obese if you're busy trying to take care of physical needs first, like simply putting a roof over your head.").

And playing active video games burns more calories than doing nothing or playing a passive game, but fewer than actually being active away from the TV. (Also from the Post.)

Stay tuned tomorrow afternoon for a special Part II of Medical News of the Obvious, featuring JAMA's medical education issue.

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posted by Stacey Butterfield at 8:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

For whatever reason, studies about teens and young adults always seem to be chock full of obviousness. To wit:

Teenagers who live in households where smoking is allowed are more likely to think that smoking is socially acceptable, a new study finds.

What kind of students cheat? Dishonest ones, a study from Ohio State University reveals. Yep, the cheaters scored lower on measures of honesty (as well as empathy and courage) than the non-cheaters.

(Ok, so that last one's not medical, but it was too good to resist.)

And finally, here is one which-- like most of these studies we playfully mock-- is only "obvious" in a very superficial way:

The reason that DEET works against mosquitoes is because they can't stand the smell, Healthday reports.

Never thought I'd have something in common with a mosquito (besides an occasional tendency to whine)...

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 3:00 PM   0 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

Here is your weekly dose of Confirming What You Already Suspected...

People who take care of a spouse with dementia are more likely to be depressed than those who don't, according to a recent study in International Psychogeriatrics.

Your brain processes a person's face more efficiently if that person is looking straight at you than if his or her gaze is averted, a study out of Finland finds.

There are more house fire deaths in states where a higher percentage of people smoke at home, according to a CDC study in Injury Prevention.

And finally, that whole "beer goggles" thing, where people look better when you've had a bit to drink? It is officially for real, this study of English college students found.
I bet they had no trouble recruiting volunteers for that study...

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

Having excess fat surrounding your heart is more likely to cause heart attacks than excess fat around your waist, a study in Obesity finds. Also, accidentally hitting your thumb while hammering is more likely to bruise your thumb than your shoulder. (That comes from a "study" I conducted in my living room the other week.)

Also, in obesity news: People who live in more walkable neighborhoods are less likely to be overweight or obese than people who live in neighborhoods where they have to drive everywhere, according to a study in the September American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Also, people who live down the street from a great pizza joint are more likely to spontaneously bring home a pie for dinner than those who don't. (Again, based on personal research.)

And, a series of headlines from the Washington Post that require (or deserve?) no explanation:

Brain Slow to Judge Fast-Moving Objects Head-On
Many Women Struggle With Challenge of a Newborn
Study: Restaurant kids' meals loaded with calories
Children in Blended Families Still Close to Biological Mothers
Many Kids Under 15 Watch Violent Movies

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   1 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

In case you hadn't noticed, the Archives of General Pyschiatry tells us this week that today's psychiatrists are focusing on drugs instead of therapy. From the press release:

Various forms of psychotherapy, either alone or in combination with medications, are recommended for the treatment of major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and other psychiatric illnesses. "Yet, despite the traditional prominence of psychotherapy in psychiatric practice and training, there are indications of a recent decline in the provision of psychotherapy by U.S. psychiatrists—a trend attributed to reimbursement policies favoring brief medication management visits rather than psychotherapy and the introduction of newer psychotropic medications with fewer adverse effects," the authors write.

Also, girls who develop earlier than their peers and have uninvolved parents are likely to get into trouble, the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine reports. "By discussing difficult peer situations (e.g., provocation, peer pressure) and ways of dealing with them, parents may help their daughters develop a repertoire of adaptive responses that will minimize the need for inappropriate (i.e., aggressive) behavior," the authors write. "In addition, knowing how their daughters spend free time may help parents identify and prevent negative peer and other influences." Who knew?

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posted by Stacey Butterfield at 4:00 PM   0 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

Only one lone Obvious candidate this week, but it's a good one:

Someone did a study to come to the stunning realization that people who attend AA are more likely to drink coffee and smoke cigarettes than the general population.
In other words, people who are in treatment for an addictive behavior are actually more likely to have other addictive behaviors.

Ok, to be fair, the study's authors already knew that people in AA tend to like their joe 'n' smokes, but wanted to quantify the difference between AA and non-AA folks. Also, they wanted to delve into the reasons people like these substances. Here's one theory, put forth by the study's corresponding author:

"Is this behavior simply a way to bond or connect in AA meetings, analogous to the peace pipe among North American Indians?"

Ah, yes, the Peace Pipe Hypothesis. Perhaps we'll be treated to a follow-up study....

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

A diagnosis of heart disease darkens a person's outlook on life, a new government study finds. Adults with cardiovascular trouble scored up to 9% lower on four scales measuring their quality of life, according to a report in the July 15 issue of Circulation, from researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Source, Washington Post.)


Women are more likely than men to seek tattoo removal because they are more likely to be subject to societal fallout from the tattoos, the Archives of Dermatology reports. (So women's appearances are scrutinized/criticized more than men's? No way!) People get tattoos to feel unique and independent and remind themselves of life experiences, the study says. The reasons for removing were "just deciding to remove it" (58%), suffering embarrassment (57%), lowering of body image (38%), getting a new job or career (38%), having problems with clothes (37%), experiencing stigma (25%) or marking an occasion like a marriage (21%).

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posted by Stacey Butterfield at 4:00 PM   0 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

Parents of twins report more anxiety and sleeping difficulties in the year after birth than parents of single children, according to a study presented at the 24th annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (via Science Daily). I wonder why?

Another news flash for parents: teenage girls are susceptible to peer pressure! A study published online by the Journal of Youth and Adolescence found that peer groups have a major influence on teen girls' body image. While that part's a no-brainer, the authors did have some interesting findings about which peer groups exert particular influences. For example, 'Jocks' (defined by the authors as athletic peers) were the least concerned about controlling weight while 'Alternatives' (non-conformists) were more likely to be actively trying to lose weight and 'Burnouts' (those who skip school and often get into trouble) placed greater value on thinness and dieting. Girls who did not belong to any particular peer group were the most likely to embrace dieting.

This study, courtesy of the Washington Post, finds that auto deaths decline as gas prices rise because-- ta da!-- there are fewer people on the road to kill or be killed. And that is especially the case for those subgroups (like teenagers) who don't have as much money to burn on gassin' up.

And finally, just when you thought you'd made a positive lifestyle change--not to mention doing your part for the environment--along comes a study to take some of the air out of your tires. Turns out two-wheelin' men need to beware of genital numbness, soreness and skin irritations in the groin area, according to the study published online this month in the urology journal BJU International.
The author even helpfully offers a few tips for avoiding these problems (eg: don't skimp on padding).

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   2 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

Ok, this first study is more funny than obvious, but we couldn't let it slide by unmentioned. Confirming the claims that desperate teenage boys have made to their girlfriends throughout history, it turns out that if you don't use it, you will lose it. "Erectile Dysfunction Lower In Men Who Have Intercourse More Often," as Medical News Today described the research.

In other "See, it's not my fault" research, a couple of political science professors studied identical and fraternal twins and found that whether a person votes or not is largely determined by genetics. "Genes also play a significant role in political participation, including giving money to a campaign, contacting a government official, running for office and attending political rallies," the Washington Post reported.

Also in the Post, a rat study says that your obesity may be a result of your mother's unhealthy eating while pregnant. Best side benefit of being involved in this research: telling people at cocktail parties that your job is feeding "donuts, muffins, cookies, chips and sweets" to pregnant rats.

In an unrelated Rondetia report, scientists figured out giving gerbils gerbils the three compounds needed for healthy brain membranes--choline in eggs; uridine monophosphate in beets; and docosahexaenoic acid in fish oils--made them smarter after just four weeks. They hope to apply the research to humans. As a bonus chuckle to this Medical News of the Obvious, Gerald Weissmann, editor of the journal that published the results, took the time to snark about his favorite causes:

Now that we know how to make gerbils smarter," he said, "it's not too far a stretch to hope that people's intelligence can also be improved. Quite frankly, this can't happen soon enough, as every environmentalist, advocate of evolution and war opponent will attest."

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posted by Janet Colwell at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

Hospitals that are overcrowded and understaffed have less control of MRSA than hospitals that are well-staffed and not crowded, The Lancet Infectious Diseases reports.

And breaking news from Circulation's July 15 issue, courtesy of the Washington Post: Eating veggies, fruit, whole grains and fish is better for your heart and helps you live longer than eating processed meat, French fries and sweets.

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 10:00 AM   2 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

This week's edition focuses on attempts by medicine to delve into basic human psychology.

Our first exhibit comes from the Endo '08 meeting. A group of pituitary researchers recruited recreational athletes for a test of human growth hormone. Some were given the hormones, some were given placebos, then they were asked to guess whether or not they were taking the real thing. The results: study participants who (wrongly) believed that they were taking hormones improved their athletic performance over the course of the study. Experts concluded that this finding could explain why athletes continue to take HGH even though there's no scientific evidence that it works. Uh, yeah. Or maybe the common assumption that HGH works leads people to attribute their performance improvement to it?

Then, a study in Archives of IM explored why HIV-positive patients participated in a phase III drug trial and found that "individuals participating in a clinical trial hope to benefit personally from the research but also understand they are contributing to society." So, to sum up, people actually have logical reasons--expected benefit either for themselves or others--that motivate them to take banned hormones or experimental drugs. Who knew?

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posted by Stacey Butterfield at 4:00 PM   0 Comments

Medical news of the obvious

The National Poll on Children's Health reports that parents actually worry about their 11-13 year-old kids when they leave them home alone!

Here's the part that is not obvious: Parents worry more about their kids giving out personal information online or not knowing what to do during a severe weather event than they do about their kids playing with guns or using the oven in their absence. Hmm.

The Washington Post also reports that motorcyclist head injury deaths are up 32%, and head injury hospitalizations are up 42%, in Pennsylvania since that state repealed its law requiring all motorcyclists to wear helmets.

And last, a gold mine from SLEEP 2008, the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, in Baltimore. (Stories courtesy of the Washington Post):

• Teenagers whose high schools have later start times get more sleep.
• College students often drive while sleepy.
• College students with insomnia have worse grades than those who can sleep.
• Women with happy marriages sleep better than those with unhappy marriages.

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   0 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

A new study, published in Nature, finds that humans, instead of foraging over large areas for food as they did in millenia past, now spend most of their time in two primary locations. To determine this, scientists used cell phone towers to track the movements of 100,000 people.

Explained a study author to the Washington Post, "We can't say for certain exactly which location people are going to. But we assume, of course, that the two preferred locations are a person's place of work and their home." A news story from the journal adds the additional groundbreaking information that people "pepper these [commutes] with occasional longer forays such as vacations."

Um, do you really need a PhD in physics and an elaborate (and potentially privacy-invading, according to some commenters) study to figure out that people work, go home and take vacations?

Meanwhile, a study in Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice reveals that obesity and depression may be connected. It seems depressed people have a hard time eating well and exercising because, uh, they are depressed, so that leads to obesity.

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   2 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

Groundbreaking research from the University of New Hampshire:

Parental Involvement Strongly Impacts Student Achievement

But HOW does it impact achievement, you ask? Well:

"Researchers... found that parental involvement has a strong, positive effect on student achievement." (italics mine)

Seriously, though, this part is kind of interesting:

"Parents seemed particularly interested in the academic achievements of their daughters. The researchers found parents spent more time talking to their daughters about their schoolwork during dinnertime discussions"...possibly because girls are more communicative, the researchers said.

...And one from the Archives of General Psychiatry that isn't grossly obvious, but was strongly suspected:

Long-Term Cannabis Users May Have Structural Brain Abnormalities

The amygdala (fear and aggression) and hippocampus (emotion and memory) tended to be smaller with heavy cannabis users, the study found.

So smoking pot might, say, make a person paranoid? And/or forgetful?

I guess Hollywood gets some things right, after all.

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 4:00 PM   0 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 4:00 PM   2 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious moves to Mondays

We'll now be publishing Medical News of the Obvious at the end of the day on Mondays, so we can stay timely but also make sure we don't break any embargoes. Stay tuned!

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 10:28 AM   0 Comments

Medical News of the Obvious

Welcome to the first installment of our weekly Friday series Medical News of the Obvious, where the staff of Internist and Hospitalist bring their cubicle banter directly to your computer. If the subject or outcome of a study released in the last week inspired us to roll our eyes or emit a "Well, duh," chances are it will make it on the blog.

Suggestions and comments from readers are definitely welcome!

So, without further ado:

Many teen drivers don't think they're inexperienced, reports HealthDay, citing a study in the May issue of Pediatrics. Up next for the journal: "Many teens believe they know more than their parents."


Preference for alcohol in adolescence may lead to heavy drinking, according to scientists at Duke. But be warned: this was only a rat study, so we still can't be certain that liking something in your youth might actually lead to liking it more as an adult.


Sudden death of a parent may pose depression risks for children, surviving caregivers, according to the May Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. This one speaks for itself.

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posted by Jessica Berthold at 9:00 AM   2 Comments