A surprising new study found that sleep deprivation can offer a short-term alleviation of depression symptoms. Researchers at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that half of the study participants diagnosed with the disorder benefited from sleep deprivation.

Scientists couldn’t say why exactly sleep deprivation can have such a huge impact on a person’s mood. The team noticed that a significant change in one person’s sleep patterns seems to reboot the internal circadian clock.

However, the research revealed that depression makes a comeback as soon as the person goes to sleep.

Sleep deprivation acted as a natural antidepressant in half of surveyed cases despite the severity of the condition and medication. A researcher called the effects of sleep deprivation on depression patients ‘bizarre’.

Sleep Deprivation Benefits the Brain

However, the benefits of sleep deprivation were first documented in the 19^th Century. Over the last three decades, around 75 studies altered patients’ sleep schedules to treat depression. Yet, no one reviewed those studies and we did not know how conclusive they were.

Researchers warn that sleep deprivation does not work for everybody. In extreme cases, it can lead to cardiovascular conditions, suicidal thoughts, and even more depression.

Study authors found that being sleep deprived a single night does not benefit the patient in the long run, but it does seem to help some of those with depression reset and rewire.

The research team thinks that the unexpected benefits may have something to do with the circadian rhythms, which are severely disturbed in depressed people. So, forgoing a sleep cycle seems to reboot those rhythms, which apparently helps in fixing those disturbances.

The brain can rewire and reset itself due to neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to build new connections, which was proven to last well into the old age.
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If you are struggling with relationship problems, the surest way to find relief is among your family and friends, a recent study says. If you have an intense social activity while arguing with your partner, you are less likely to develop the typical health problems which arise with the stress of these issues. Therefore, make sure you keep your friends and family close.

Relationship problems might lead to increased health risks

Having relationship problems is not easy for anyone, and some people might take it harder than others. This means they are confronting with a lot of stress, which might lead to unwanted physiological effects. However, this new research suggests that these effects are less visible in people who spend more time with their family and friends, and who can always ask them for psychological support.

Unfortunately, many couples nowadays live far away from their family and friends. Even so, it is important for them to maintain a strong relationship in spite of the distance. Having emotional support from a close one if you have relationship problems can reduce the many health risks associated with them. These health problems which might arise include depression, insomnia, weight gain, or even heart disease.

Any kind of meaningful social connection can help people experience less emotional stress

For the study, researchers monitored 105 couples who had to answer daily questionnaires regarding their relationship problems, as well as their connections with friends and family. Besides, they also had to give saliva samples, and have their cortisol levels measured. This hormone shows the levels of stress suffered by a person during the day.

Researchers also noticed something interesting. A high number of friends and social connections didn’t have as much value if the relationships weren’t of good quality. Therefore, having meaningful relationships is more important than having plenty of superficial friendships. Also, anything outside the couple can help with relationship problems. Even those people with few friends had lower levels of stress-related health problems than those who had no connections outside the marriage.
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Nowadays, many people spend most of their day sitting down, as they have to work in an office and at a desk. There’s no secret that being sedentary can be dangerous for one’s health, but new research suggests sitting down many hours in a row is bad even for those who exercise afterwards. A solution to prolong your life would be to stand up once every 30 minutes.

People spent a lot of time sitting down

A sedentary lifestyle puts our life in danger, but this new study found a direct connection between sitting down and not performing any active movement, and a higher risk of death. Researchers looked at the connection between this acute sedentarism and an all-cause mortality (or mortality from any kind of causes), and found it exists.

Since there is an all-cause mortality, researchers couldn’t tell why it is directly related with sitting down. However, after analyzing around 8,000 participants aged 45 or older, they found evidence of some clear correlations. The study has been published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

Previously, researchers had participants answer questionnaires, and assess their levels of activity on their own. This time, they decided to measure these levels themselves, by having the participants wear accelerometers. The results were alarming, as researchers found people spent 12,3 hours sitting down on average.

One way to minimize the risk would be to stand up once every half an hour

The study lasted for about four years, and 340 of the participants died until the end. This is how researchers identified the connection between sitting down and the death risk. Therefore, the more time you spend being inactive, the more at risk you are to die an early death.

Also, they observed how this correlation is present regardless of any other factors which might be involved. This means that, even if participants spent time exercising after sitting down for many hours, the risk was still present. However, there is one solution to minimize this risk. Those people who stood up once every 30 minutes or even less had the smallest risk.
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Carrie DeKlyen, 37, who has been kept on life support since July, delivered a healthy baby girl the family called “Life” Wednesday. The Michigan woman, who was diagnosed with brain cancer earlier this year, decided to deliver the baby no matter what in May, even if that meant forgoing cancer treatment.

Chemotherapy would have prolonged her life, but that would have meant aborting her baby.

After the delivery, doctors removed the new mom from feeding and breathing tubes. Her family gathered at the hospital to bid farewell to Carrie and welcome Life into the world. The woman’s husband, Nick, is confident the couple did the right thing.

“She had the baby, and now it’s time to go home. She’s going to heaven. She’s going to be healed,”

Mr. DeKlyen said.

The name of the newborn was picked by the couple after the birth of their fifth kid, before the woman was diagnosed with brain cancer and before she learned she was expecting.

The Diagnosis

She started experiencing severe headaches in March. Mr. DeKlyen said they went to the doctor to solve a migraine, but the doctor told his wife that she had “a mass” on her brain. Initially, doctors didn’t believe it was cancer.

In the operating room, doctors found that the mysterious mass was cancerous. They tried to remove as much of it as they could. Even though they hoped it was lymphoma, tests revealed that it is a very aggressive type of brain cancer, glioblastoma.

Doctors sent Mrs. DeKlye to U-M for a clinical trial that could have kept her alive for 10 to 15 years. In May, tests showed that the tumor was growing back. The couple found that Mrs. DeKlyen was pregnant.

Doctors told her that she was not eligible for the trial if she was expecting as the treatment could have caused birth defects in the baby. Mr. DeKlyen noted that he and his wife are people of faith and love God with every fiber of their being. “We talked about it, prayed about it,” the husband said, but with “everything on the table” his wife chose to keep the baby.
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A new study found that the tactics of supersizing serving sizes makes us all fat or obese in the long run. So, opting for a larger coffee, a larger portion of French fries, or a larger burger can translate into extra 55% calories.

The study revealed that one in three Americans falls for “upselling” when dining out. Around 78% of study participants said that they were asked at least once in a restaurant if they wanted to supersize their meal, over a single week.

Those who opt for bigger portions consume 55% more calories by paying just 17% more than the regular price, the study found. Those extra calories add 5lb in weight gain every year. The study also found that younger people (18 to 24-year-olds) are more likely to choose larger portions, which means they consume an extra of 750 calories every week. In a year, those people can gain up to 11lb of extra weight.

Customers Enticed to Consume More and Spend More

The findings were published by Royal Society for Public Health who found that upselling is a common tactic for people to eat more and spend more. In the U.K., government officials have called for a ban on buy-one-get-one-free campaigns. However, supersizing was not mentioned in those efforts.

Upselling is usually defined as a marketing tactic to persuade a consumer to purchase merchandise in larger quantities or more expensive. The term first appeared in the 1980s which marks the mass-marketing’s debut.

The study also included reports from servers that admitted they are trained to make people buy more. For instance, if a customer orders a late, the café worker must ask him if it should be “large”. If a customer asks for cake, he is asked if it should be with cream or ice cream. Other fast food workers say they have hourly targets of large meals they should sell.
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New research found that, despite advanced tech and computer analysis, dating apps still cannot predict what makes two people be a match. Researchers found that machine-learning algorithms cannot spot attraction for a particular person.

The study appeared this week in Psychological Science.

Lead author Samantha Joel noted that computers cannot predict what makes two people click before they have met. Joel underlined that relationships are not just sums of their parts. A relationship means “shared experience” which computer algorithms cannot predict before people met in person.

For their study, scientists questioned dozens of dating app users on the traits and preferences regarding romantic relationships. Participants agreed to have four-minute dates.

Computers Cannot Tell What Makes People Desire Each Other

After the date, volunteers reported the levels of attraction and interest in the persons they’ve just met. Joel’s team then tried to build computer algorithms that could predict romantic attraction based on the answers provided by the volunteers before they met their dates.

Researchers found that it is impossible to predict attraction between two people, but it is possible to predict that two people may like one another or that a person may like or be liked by another person. However, a dating app couldn’t tell if two people were a match or not.

“We found we cannot anticipate how much individuals will uniquely desire each other in a speed-dating context with any meaningful level of accuracy,”

researchers wrote in their report.

Joel said that it would be great for people to let a computer program tell them if a person is a match since they would save resources and skip the heartache. The researcher admitted that a computer cannot spot the perfect soul mate for any person.
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A recent study developed by a team of Australian researchers suggests gluten intolerance is often misdiagnosed. It seems that only one person in six is actually intolerant to the wheat protein, and changing their diet after this condition might have severe consequences for those people who don’t have to refrain from consuming this ingredient.

Gluten-free diets are promoted as a healthy alternative

Nowadays, many people have started adopting gluten-free diets, as it is promoted as healthier and full of benefits. However, kicking out the wheat protein from your food is not the best choice if you aren’t truly intolerant. Many people claim to experience bloating and other symptoms of celiac disease if they consume the ingredient.

Most of these symptoms are visible in people when they know something they have eaten contains gluten. If they are not aware of the ingredients of the food in question, only one percent of these people experience adverse effects. In fact, most of them don’t even receive an official diagnosis.

Kicking out gluten from your diet without being intolerant can have serious consequences

Despite not knowing for sure if they have celiac disease or not, these people start monitoring the quantity of gluten they ingest every day, and significantly reduce it. What they are not aware of is the fact that this behavior can seriously affect them if they aren’t actually intolerant.

This happens mostly because gluten-free products do not always contain the same nutrients as their counterparts which contain the wheat protein. The lack of these substances might lead to the increase of cholesterol, blood pressure, the decrease of the tolerance to glucose, and massive weight gain.

If the health risks were not enough, researchers also revealed the price also differs. A previous study showed gluten-free food costs about 17 percent more than regular food. This can also contribute to the belief that avoiding the protein is beneficial for one’s health. However, people are not advised to do it if they don’t really have symptoms of celiac disease.

All the results of the study have been published in The Medical Journal of Australia.
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A report released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed a Salmonella outbreak which swept up 13 states. After detailed investigations, officials discovered pet turtles had been responsible with spreading the disease. The outbreak has already lasted for several months, and the authorities decided to take action against it.

Pet turtles are responsible for spreading Salmonella

CDC developed an advisory in which it monitored all the Salmonella cases registered since March, and up until August. The officials identified 37 cases of the disease, with 16 of the infected people ending up in the hospital. Most cases were present in New York, with 11 people suffering from Salmonella.

CDC interviewed 33 of the 37 people who were victims of the outbreak. Fifteen of these people reported having played with pet turtles before getting infected. This is how the health officials came to the conclusion that the animals put people at risk. However, people are not aware of it and, as they keep interacting with pet turtles, they might continue getting sick.

Salmonella is especially dangerous for kids and older people

All kinds of pet turtles are expected to carry the Salmonella bacteria. Therefore, parents should be careful, and not allow their children to play with the animals. Salmonella can be especially dangerous for infants, so people shouldn’t keep their pet turtles in the same house as children younger than five. Also, Salmonella can be riskier for people older than 65, those who have a weaker immune system, or pregnant women.

This is not the first time when pet turtles have been linked to a Salmonella outbreak. In 2015, CDC reported 133 cases in 26 states and, in 2013, they discovered 473 cases in 43 states. Each state has different policies regarding the possession of turtles, but retailers are not allowed to sell turtles with shells smaller than 4 inches.
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A new study analyzing reproductive trends in the U.S. found that the age of new dads in America has risen since four decades ago. More and more fathers are postponing fatherhood for various reasons, but scientists warn that their decision might affect the overall health of their newborns.

According to the study that average American dad is 3 and a half years older than his counterpart four decades ago. In 2015, the average age of a new dad in the United States was 30.9 years old. By contrast, the average age of a new dad in America in 1872 was 27.4 years old.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine warn that a man’s fertility declines with age so men should think twice before postponing fatherhood. They may have difficulties to conceive in older years.

For their study, researchers sifted through data on 168,867 live birth across 50 states between 1972 and 2015. The data included the age of parents, education levels, birth deaths, and races.

The Findings Reveal a Concerning Trend

The analysis revealed that the number of new dads who are 40 years old or older jumped from 4.1% in 1972 to 8.9% in 2015. The number of dads older than 50 also doubled from half a percent to one percent.

The youngest participant in the study was 11 years old while the oldest was 88. There was a trend of older dads among Asian-American men whose ages ranged to 36 years old. Fathers with college degrees were also more likely to delay fatherhood.

U.S. mothers tend to be younger than fathers but mothers also tend to delay motherhood and on a faster pace than fathers.

Study authors warn that delaying parenthood leads to fewer children and a high risk of certain conditions in newborns such as chromosomal abnormalities, autism, neurologic diseases, mental illness, pediatric cancer, and neurofibromatosis.

The study was published this week in Human Reproduction.
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Have you ever found yourself craving for a sweet treat immediately after having a cup of coffee? If the answer is yes, then you should blame the popular beverage for it. Researchers have discovered how coffee temporarily affects our taste buds and sense of taste, making sweet foods seem less sweet. This also makes us crave them more, making the caffeinated drink unsuitable to consume during diets.

Caffeine affects our perceiving of sweetness

What caffeine does is to suppress the adenosine receptors, which are associated with sleepiness. This leads to people becoming more alert, but at a cost. Researchers found out how caffeine also affects our taste receptors, changing the way in which we perceive sweet foods. Eating such foods immediately after coffee will make them seem less sweet, and will make us crave them more.

Researchers developed a study in which they analyzed the influence of coffee on how people perceived sweetness. The study, found in the Journal of Food Science, looked at two different groups of people who received drinks with different caffeine levels.

Coffee also works as a placebo

The first group had to drink a decaffeinated drink with 200 milligrams of additional caffeine, to make it consistent with the typical coffee standards. On the other hand, the other group received regular decaffeinated coffee. Both beverages contained the same amount of sugar, but those who drank the caffeinated sample found it less sweet.

Then, these people had to tell how alert they felt, and to approximate how much caffeine their drinks had. All of them showed the same level of activeness, even if they hadn’t had caffeinated coffee. Also, none of them could make any difference between the drinks.

Therefore, researchers came to the conclusion that the action of drinking coffee might work as a placebo. The levels of caffeine are not important, as long as the drink has a certain flavor and taste. If you think you are drinking coffee, you are already more alert and feel less sleepy.
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