Sleep Habits Can Predict Teen Drinking, Marijuana Use

A study has found that sleep quality and sleep duration in late childhood can predict alcohol and drug use later in adolescence. The study, published Monday in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, was led by researchers from the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine and the Pitt Department of Psychology.
“Treating problems with drugs and alcohol once they exist and preventing them can be challenging, and we are always looking for modifiable risk factors,” lead author of the study Brant P. Hasler said in a statement. “Doing what we can to ensure sufficient sleep duration and improve sleep quality during late childhood may have benefits in terms of reducing the use of these substances later in life.”
Researchers studied 186 boys from western Pennsylvania. They analyzed the responses to the Child Sleep Questionnaire that the boys’ mothers completed, which is also part of a larger research that looks into the vulnerability and resilience of low-income boys.
The quality of sleep of the boys at the age of 11 years was determined using the responses to the questionnaire, and they were interviewed at the ages 20 and 22 years regarding their use of marijuana and alcohol.
A study found that sleep quality and sleep duration in late childhood can predict alcohol and drug use later in adolescence. MARCO DI LAURO/GETTY IMAGES
Researchers accounted for race, socioeconomic differences, neighborhood problems, self-regulation and other factors when they discovered the link between sleep quality and substance use. They found that boys who slept the least were more likely to report early use of alcohol or marijuana, intoxication and repeated substance use. The findings indicated a 20 percent acceleration to the first use of marijuana or alcohol associated with every hour of sleep lost during late childhood.
“After considering other possible influences, we were able to determine that sleep problems are preceding the substance use problems,” Hasler said. “Addressing sleep may now be something we can add into the package of our substance abuse prevention and treatment efforts.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people aged between 12 and 20 years consume 11 percent of all alcohol consumed in the country. There were nearly 189,000 emergency room visits concerning issues related to underage drinking in 2010.

5 Recipes For Vegetable Leaves: Stop Missing Out On Health Benefits Of Broccoli And Carrot Tops

Broccoli is one of the healthiest foods you can eat, but what about the leaves of the vegetable we all tend to trim off and toss away? Don’t discard the nutritious greens that are growing on top of any of your veggies. Instead, put them aside and plan a healthy salad, sautéed pasta, or breakfast dish to get the most out of your produce.
Leafy greens supply ample amounts of fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients that can help lower the risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers. These low-calorie alternative side dishes can add a ton of flavor into your dishes by offering their variety of sweet, bitter, earthy, and complex savory essences. Get in another serving of vegetables by using the entire plant in your recipes.
Vegetable leaves are versatile and can be used to replace kale and collard greens in many recipes.Photo courtesy of Pixabay, public domain

5 Vegetable Leaves You Can Cook:

1. Broccoli  

The leaves of this already nutrient-dense vegetable, known as “BroccoLeaf,” are packed with health benefits. The leaves cook very similarly to kale or collard greens, making them ideal for sautéed dishes with garlic and olive oil. The leaves have also been referred to as “pleasantly bitter” in a way reminiscent of broccoli rabe.
Trim your broccoli, set the vegetable aside, and create a healthy breakfast dish utilizing the leaves with this recipe for Egg White Frittata.

 

2. Radish

Unlike other vegetables, radish tops are delicate and serve up a pungent flavor that tastes like concentrated arugula. You can eat them raw, but allowing them to wilt and tossing them together with pasta or other cooked dishes is a healthful way to utilize its unique flavor.
Don’t toss your radish leaves. Instead, use the leaves to stir up this Rustic Radish Soup recipe.

 

 

 

3. Turnip

This is one of the vegetable leaves you might not want to eat raw. They have a bitter taste, but can be balanced with strong ingredients like onions, vinegar, or stock to cook out the hard flavor. The recipes are worth learning because turnip greens are an excellent source of vitamins K, A, and C, along with folate, copper, manganese, fiber, and calcium.
Take your turnip leaves and toss together this Spicy Skillet Turnip Greens recipe.

 

 

4. Carrots

The tops of carrots have a more herbal texture and earthy sweet taste, making them best cooked into side dishes or mixed in with a pesto recipe. Carrots are packed with vitamins A, B6, and K, folate, niacin, potassium, thiamin, and manganese, making them one of the healthiest items in the produce aisle.
Try Roasted Carrot and Black Bean Tacos with Cilantro and Carrot Green Chimichurri, a delicious recipe that utilizes both the carrot and green tops.

 

 

5. Beets

Beets have a texture and flavor similar to kale or Swiss chard, which is what makes them versatile in recipes. You could use them in a stir-fry or sliced very thinly and tossed in with a salad raw. Beet greens provide protein, phosphorus, zinc, antioxidants, and serve as a great source of fiber.
Mix together this flavorful salad recipe: Roasted Beet Salad with Beet Greens and Feta.






Source: Medical Daily

Cassava Plant Is A Potential Cure For Cancer And Infertility

Until now, this exotic plant has been used in making bread and drinks, but now studies have shown that it is a potential cancer and infertility treatment! Cassava, or manioc, also known by its scientific name of Mahinot esculenta, is a plant that is indigenous to the South American areas that belongs to the spurge family of plants.
Recent studies have shown that the cassava can be invaluable to our health thanks to the many health benefits it offers. The leaves of the plant are rich in proteins, lysine and beta-carotene, while the root is full of calcium and vitamin C. Eating the plant regularly will surely improve the bone strength and resistance. Scientists have also discovered that the plant can be used as a cure for infertility, headaches and arthritis.
Lankacnews.com reports that several studies have shown that the plant can be powerful treatment against tumors. Furthermore, tapioca, an extract of the cassava has been found to be very versatile and useful in treatment of various health conditions. It can prevent diabetes, birth defects, improve the circulation and the red blood cell count, maintain the fluid balance in the body, lower cholesterol, protect the bone mineral density, improve the digestion, prevent Alzheimer’s disease, protect the cardiovascular health and aid weight gain. Some people believe that tapioca can help cure bladder, colon and prostate cancer.

Preparing cassava for consumption

The cassava plant needs to be cooked finely before consumption, as it contains a small amount of cyanide that needs to be eliminated. First, you need to peel the plant. Then, cut it into pieces, and alternate them between hot and cold water. When they’re soaked, put them in the fridge and leave them for a couple of hours. Pour the liquid in which the cassava pieces have soaked in into another liquid like a fruit juice or water, and drink the solution before breakfast every morning.
The vitamin B17 content of the cassava is the reason behind its powerful anti-cancer properties. Knowing this, Dr. Cynthia Jayasuriya, an ear, nose and throat surgeon, started investigating foods high in this vitamin when she was diagnosed with transitional cell cancer. She was struggling with the diseases for nearly a decade, when she decided to try a natural therapy when she read about the cassava on WorldWithoutCancer.org.
Dr. Jayasuriya learned that the cassava is rich in this vitamin, so she started consuming for a month. She ate a total of 100 gr. of the plant three times a day. In the morning, she ate boiled cassava, while in the afternoon and evening she ate it as a curry. After a month, she did a cystoscopy which revealed no sign of the cancer!
Once the cassava plant enters the body, the vitamin B17 mixes with Rhodanese, an enzyme which breaks down the vitamin into three sugars. The cancer cell is an immature cell which has a different enzyme, beta-glucosidase, which breaks vitamin B17 into glucose, benzaldehyde and hydrocyanic acid. The acid acts as a LTTE cyanide capsule, effectively killing the cancer cell.
If the vitamin combines with the cancer cell enzyme, it breaks down to 1 sugar, 1 benzaldehyde and 1 hydrocyanic acid, which kills the cancer cell locally.
Source: http://www.healthiestuniverse.com/

Skipping Your Workout For 10 Days Reduces Blood Flow To Brain Regions

We all know regular exercise comes with numerous brain health benefits, like improving memory and thinking skills, helping to ward away cognitive decline in old age. However, hitting pause on our workout routine could weigh heavy on our conscious — literally. A recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience found stopping exercise for just 10 days can significantly reduce blood flow to several brain regions, including the hippocampus.
"We know that the hippocampus plays an important role in learning and memory and is one of the first brain regions to shrink in people with Alzheimer's disease," said Dr. J. Carson Smith, lead author of the study and associate professor of kinesiology at University of Maryland School of Public Health (UMD), in a statement.
Typically, the hippocampus shrinks in late adulthood, which is what leads to impaired memory and increased risk for dementia. Previous research has found the hippocampus responds to exercise training by increasing in volume, and leading to improvements in spatial memory. Aerobic exercise training can be effective at reversing hippocampal volume loss in late adulthood, which is accompanied by improved memory function.
In the UMD study Smith and his colleagues observed ‘master athletes” who were between the ages of 50 and 80 (average age was 61), who had at least 15 years history of participating in endurance exercise, and who have recently competed in an endurance event. The participants' exercise routines included at least four hours of high intensity endurance training each week. On average, they were running ~36 miles each week or the equivalent of a 10K run a day. This group also had a VO2 max — the maximum amount of oxygen the body is capable to use of in one minute — above 90 percent for their age.
Stopping exercise for just 10 days can lead to significantly reduced blood flow in several brain regions.Photo courtesy of Pixabay/Public Domain
An MRI scan was used to measure the velocity of blood flow in the brain while the athletes were following their regular training routine, specifically at peak fitness, and again after 10 days of no exercise. The researchers noted resting cerebral blood flow significantly decreased in eight brain regions, including the areas of the left and right hippocampus, and other regions known to be part of the brain's "default mode network" — a neural network known to deteriorate quickly with Alzheimer's disease. It's important to note these significant changes were regionally specific.
“[T]he take home message is simple - if you do stop exercising for 10 days, just as you will quickly lose your cardiovascular fitness, you will also experience a decrease in blood brain flow” said Smith, about the findings.
A similar study published in the journal Neurology found less fit middle-aged adults saw loss of brain volume after 20 years. Participants performed treadmill tests to estimate their “exercise capacity,” which was measured by monitoring the amount of time they could exercise before their heart rate passed a threshold. The researchers found for every The researchers found those who saw their blood pressure and heart rate surge the most during the treadmill test were “more likely to have smaller brain volumes two decades later,” they wrote. In other words, there was a direct correlation between poor fitness levels and brain volume decades later, which indicates accelerated brain aging.
Stopping exercise for awhile, or the lack of exercise, has important implications on our brain health. More research is needed to confirm how fast these changes occur, and what the long term effects could be. Researchers will also need to look into if these brain changes could be reversed with the resumption of exercise.
Source: Alfini AJ, Weiss LR, Leitner BP et al. Hippocampal and Cerebral Blood Flow after Exercise Cessation in Master Athletes. Front. Aging Neurosci. 2016.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Characteristic Chemical Signature Identified For Debilitating Ailment

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a debilitating and complex disorder that causes severe fatigue that is worsened by physical or mental activity and not improved by bed rest. While there is no cure or known cause for the debilitating ailment, researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have identified a characteristic chemical signature.
The researchers used a variety of techniques to identify and assess targeted metabolites in blood plasma that have brought to light an unexpected underlying biology, that is similar to the state of dauer (German word for persistence or long-lived), and other hypometabolic syndromes like caloric restriction, diapause and hibernation. Dauer is a type of period that involves inactivity in the development in some invertebrates that is prompted by harsh environmental conditions. The latest findings were published in Monday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
"CFS is a very challenging disease," Robert K. Naviaux, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, pediatrics and pathology and director of the Mitochondrial and Metabolic Disease Center at UC San Diego School of Medicine said. "It affects multiple systems of the body. Symptoms vary and are common to many other diseases. There is no diagnostic laboratory test. Patients may spend tens of thousands of dollars and years trying to get a correct diagnosis."
According to estimates, as many as 2.5 million Americans are believed to have CFS, which mostly affects women in their 30s to 50s. CFA has eight official signs and symptoms, including the central symptom of severe fatigue.

• Loss of memory or concentration
• Sore throat
• Enlarged lymph nodes in your neck or armpits
• Unexplained muscle pain
• Pain that moves from one joint to another without swelling or redness
• Headache of a new type, pattern or severity
• Unrefreshing sleep
• Extreme exhaustion lasting more than 24 hours after physical or mental exercise

Naviaux and his colleagues studied 84 subjects, which include 45 men and women who met the diagnostic criteria for CFS and 39 matched controls. The researchers targeted 612 metabolites (substances produced by the processes of metabolism) from 63 biochemical pathways in blood plasma to conduct the study. Researchers found that individuals with CFS showed abnormalities in 20 metabolic pathways. According to the report, the diagnostic accuracy rate exceeded 90 percent.
"Despite the heterogeneity of CFS, the diversity of factors that lead to this condition, our findings show that the cellular metabolic response is the same in patients," Naviaux said. "And interestingly, it's chemically similar to the dauer state you see in some organisms, which kicks in when environmental stresses trigger a slow-down in metabolism to permit survival under conditions that might otherwise cause cell death. In CFS, this slow-down comes at the cost of long-term pain and disability."
Possible complications of chronic fatigue syndrome include:

• Depression
• Social isolation
• Lifestyle restrictions
• Increased work absences

According to the first author, the findings show that CFS possesses an objectively identifiable chemical signature in both men and women and that targeted metabolomics, which provide direct small molecule information, can provide actionable treatment information. The diagnosis of CFS required only 25 percent of the metabolite disturbances found in each person were needed for. Naviaux said that roughly 75 percent of abnormalities were unique to each individual, something that is useful in guiding personalized treatment.
"This work opens a fresh path to both understanding the biology of CFS and, more importantly to patients, a robust, rational way to develop new therapeutics for a disease sorely in need of them," Naviaux added

Zika vs. West Nile Symptoms 2016

In the summer of 1999, the United States was thrust into West Nile Virus furor as the virus which only had been reported in Africa, Europe, and Asia made its way to the Americas for the first time. Now, Zika has made a similar journey to cause a stir on this side of the Atlantic, just as West Nile did nearly twenty years before. Although the two may have similar origins and routes of transmission, there are important differences between West Nile and Zika that make the two viruses strikingly distinct.

Similarities

Both the Zika virus and West Nile are diseases that originated in Africa and are  transmitted by mosquitos. Mosquitoes cause more human suffering than any other organism, and lead to over one million deaths worldwide every year, The American Mosquito Control Association reported. Zika and West Nile are both classified as flaviviruses, as well as yellow fever, chikungunya, dengue virus, and most mosquito-borne illnesses, CNN reported.
The mosquito causes more world-wide deaths than any other organism. Photo Courtesy of Pixabay
The two viruses also have similar symptoms. For example, in both viruses the majority of those infected show no symptoms. For those who do show symptoms, both viruses can cause fever, headache, tiredness, and body aches. In addition, Zika virus is also characterized by a large rash, but this symptom is far less common in West Nile infections. Zika is also characterized by red bloodshot eyes, something that is absent in West Nile infections.
Like most mosquito-borne diseases, there are no vaccines or cures for either Zika or West Nile. The main way to protect yourself and your family from mosquito-borne diseases is to prevent mosquito bites. This can be done by both destroying mosquito breeding grounds and wearing insect repellent and covering exposed skin.

Differences

Although both diseases have the same method of transmission, the Zika virus is spread by only two mosquito species. According to National Geographic, the West Nile virus is known to be carried by at least 65 mosquito species. What’s more, although both viruses have non-human hosts, the West Nile is only known to infect birds while Zika infects non-human primates.
In addition to mosquito bites, both Zika and West Nile can spread from mother to child during pregnancy. West Nile is also spread from mother to child via breastfeeding, while this route of transmission has not been documented in Zika. In addition, Zika virus can spread through sexual intercourse, but the West Nile virus cannot.
The diseases share some similar mild symptoms, such as fever and muscle weakness, but are characterized by vastly different serious complications. In rare instances (about one percent of all cases) West Nile virus can infect the human nervous system and cause diseases such as meningitis or encephalitis. West Nile has also been linked to “profound muscle weakness” so bad that some patients need to be put on respirators. West Nile is also known to cause long-lasting paralysis that resembles polio, and can even kill.
Zika, on the other hand, is far less of a threat to the health of the general population, but instead has been linked to a serious birth defect called microcephaly in newborn babies whose mothers were infected with the virus during their pregnancy. Zika is also believed to be connected to cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare condition in which a person’s immune system attacks his or her nerves, although this is still not confirmed.
Read More:
West Nile Virus Is More Dangerous For The Elderly, And The Reason May Lie In The Speed of Their Immune System: Read Here
Zika Early Symptoms 2016: Warning Signs That You're Infected And What To Do: Read Here

Health Risks Of Tylenol, Generics

The popping of a Tylenol pill, which contains acetaminophen, come headache or hangover, is practically a reflex. (Just don’t expect it to help with your neck or back pain.) But are there any health risks we should be on the lookout for concerning the over-the-counter painkiller? Here's a brief look.
As Medical Daily has explained, acetaminophen is one of the earliest discovered painkilling medications we still use today, second only to aspirin. And in many circumstances, it’s the safest one to turn to. Children under the age of 18 shouldn’t take aspirin, because it may cause a rare, potentially fatal condition known as Reye syndrome when given to children already suffering from a viral infection. And though ibuprofen can be used with young children, only acetaminophen is recommended for infants younger than 6 months old.
Acetaminophen does come with its own set of rare but serious health risks, though. Research has linked it to liver toxicity as well as kidney and gastrointestinal issues, including bleeding. There’s also some limited evidence that taking painkillers like acetaminophen can dull our emotions. And it’s estimated that overdoses of the drug lead to nearly 500 deaths and 56,000 emergency room visits in the U.S. annually. The threat of overdose has become so prevalent that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) called it a “persistent, important public health problem” in 2013. And there have since been labeling changes prompted by the FDA to help better warn customers about overdosing or combining it with alcohol.
None of this means that you should throw your bottle of Tylenol or generic acetaminophen out the window or suffer for hours with a migraine on the small chance of harm. It just reaffirms one of the most important lessons of medicine: No drug or therapy, no matter how miraculous it might seem, comes risk-free.

Effects Of Secondhand Pot Smoke Exposure

A new study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Associationsuggests that secondhand smoke is dangerous to our cardiovascular system, regardless of whether it comes from marijuana or tobacco.

Laboratory rats who were exposed to secondhand smoke from a marijuana cigarette had a similar problem with their blood vessels’ ability to widen as rats who were exposed to tobacco secondhand smoke. Rats exposed to marijuana smoke for one minute took 90 minutes to recover fully, about three times as long as it took for those exposed to tobacco.

“While the effect is temporary for both cigarette and marijuana smoke, these temporary problems can turn into long-term problems if exposures occur often enough and may increase the chances of developing hardened and clogged arteries,” said senior author Dr. Matthew Springer, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco’s Division of Cardiology, in a statement.

Springer and his colleagues were motivated to conduct their study after feeling that there was little public attention being paid to the possibility that marijuana smoke can be harmful.

“There is widespread belief that, unlike tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke is benign,” Springer said. “We in public health have been telling the public to avoid secondhand tobacco smoke for years, but we don't tell them to avoid secondhand marijuana smoke, because until now we haven’t had evidence that it can be harmful.”

The truth is, we’re still not even really sure how harmful directly smoking marijuana is to our hearts. A 2014 study found that serious heart problems rarely occur immediately following cannabis use. Another found that a marijuana smoker’s risk of heart attack within a hour was five times greater compared to nonsmokers — a very small risk comparable to an especially strenuous bout of sex or exercise. Yet another study found an increased risk of death among patients who already suffered an earlier heart attack and who regularly smoked pot.

But longer-term studies are lacking, much less those looking only at secondhand smoke. And there’s some evidence to suggest that there might be a sort of "marijuana paradox,” where the inhaling of marijuana can temporarily increase the risk of some cardiovascular problems, but the active cannabinoids contained in it can also slow down the progression of atherosclerosis (the hardening and narrowing of arteries).

That theory lines up well with some of the findings of the current study. When the researchers removed tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) from the marijuana cigarettes they exposed their rats to, the blood vessel disruption could still be seen; the same thing happened when they removed the paper the cigarette was rolled in. The later experiments indicate that the burning smoke itself, rather than the active components of marijuana, may be to blame for the rats’ narrower blood vessels.

Still, while animal studies are an important tool for discovery, we can only glean so much from them. Springer and his colleagues acknowledged that their study is far from the final word on the subject, but they hope their results can motivate other scientists to look more closely at marijuana.

“Increasing legalization of marijuana makes it more important than ever to understand the consequences of exposure to secondhand marijuana smoke,” they concluded. “It is important that the public, medical personnel, and policymakers understand that exposure to secondhand marijuana smoke is not necessarily harmless.”

Source: Wang X, Derakhshandeh R, Liu J, et al. One Minute of Marijuana Secondhand Smoke Exposure Substantially Impairs Vascular Endothelial Function.Journal of the American Heart Association. 2016.

Living Near Fracking Sites May Worsen Asthma Symptoms, Increase Number Of Attacks

New research published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine adds more fuel to the fire concerning fracking’s unintended side-effects on human health with new claims that fracking may worsen asthma symptoms.
Fracking, known as unconventional natural gas development, requires four major phases, all with the purpose of retrieving natural gas (and oil) from previously unreachable veins found deep inside the earth. They involve preparation, drilling, stimulation, and the actual production of gas via wells. The stimulation phase, most commonly associated with fracking, is when highly pressurized water and other chemicals are used to crack open rocks so that natural gas and oil can be better extracted.
Critics have accused fracking companies of poorly safeguarding the building and maintaining of these wells, citing the leakage of fracking fluids into the water supply, and have also noted that the extraction of gas from wells may be unhealthy to surrounding residents, particularly by releasing pollution into the air.
To test these claims of negative health impacts caused by fracking, the researchers, primarily hailing from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, studied the electronic health records of 35,508 patients with asthma living in and around Pennsylvania from 2005 to 2012, a major hub of fracking development. They specifically tracked any documented flare-ups of the patients’ asthma, ranging from needing steroid medication for a mild attack to being hospitalized for a severe attack. Lastly, they cross-referenced the incidence of these events with how close the patients lived next to a fracking work site.
They found that those who lived closest to a site, regardless of which phase of development it was in, experienced more asthma-related incidents than did those who lived farthest away. Depending on the severity of attack and the site’s phase of development, the odds of an asthma attack were 1.5 to four times higher for those who lived nearby.
“Ours is the first to look at asthma but we now have several studies suggesting adverse health outcomes related to the drilling of unconventional natural gas wells," said lead author Sara G. Rasmussen, a PhD candidate in the Bloomberg School's department of environmental health sciences, in a statement released by Johns Hopkins. "Going forward, we need to focus on the exact reasons why these things are happening, because if we know why, we can help make the industry safer."
Ultimately, there were 20,749 mild, 1,870 moderate, and 4,782 severe attacks during the study period. Meanwhile, the state saw 6,253 new fracking wells created along the same time, with over 4,500 reaching the stimulation phase.
Like all research, there are limitations to the study’s conclusions. For one, it only took into account the patients’ most recent address at the time of their recorded attack, so it’s possible they may have moved from elsewhere during the study period. The data the researchers used also didn’t have their employment information. Both of these missing dots mean that we can’t be perfectly sure whether where the patients previously lived or worked could have better accounted for the findings. Given how significant and widespread the link between asthma and fracking was in the study, though, it’s unlikely these factors would dramatically change the math.
Since the study only looks at the potential relationship between fracking development and asthma, it can’t pinpoint any direct causes for the increased risk in attacks. But there’s likely more than one reason: Everything from the stress of noisy trucks, to construction that keeps people awake at night, to air pollution may be to blame, since all are potential risk factors for worsening asthma. Out of all four major phases of development, it was the gas production phase that was most associated with frequent mild asthma attacks, though it’s uncertain exactly why. Unlike the other shorter phases of fracking, wells may be in operation for years at a time, extending its potential health hazards.
"We are concerned with the growing number of studies that have observed health effects associated with this industry," said senior author Dr. Brian S. Schwartz, a professor in the department of environmental health sciences at the Bloomberg School. "We believe it is time to take a more cautious approach to well development with an eye on environmental and public health impacts."
As noted by the researchers, several states like New York and countries like the UK have put a kibosh on fracking, though oftentimes only temporarily (until 2017 in Maryland’s case), with government officials citing the need for further research before they can move forward with what’s become a highly profitable industry. Schwartz and his colleagues hope their study and others can highlight the serious worries that need to be addressed before they do.
"Going forward, everyone can learn from Pennsylvania's experience," he said. "State regulatory bodies should use the growing number of health studies to understand the possible environmental and public health impacts of this industry and how to minimize them."
Source: Rasmussen S, Ogburn E, McCormack M, et al. Association Between Unconventional Natural Gas Development in the Marcellus Shale and Asthma Exacerbations. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2016.

Partners’ Drinking Habits Influence Marriage Satisfaction

(Reuters Health) - Older married couples with the same drinking habits – whether they partake, or abstain – tend to be happier than couples where only one partner drinks, researchers say.
Based on data for a nationally representative sample of U.S. couples over age 50, the study found that women, in particular, were more dissatisfied over time when only they, and not their husband, drank.
The amount that people drank was less important than whether both partners had the same habit of drinking or not drinking, researchers report in Journals of Gerontology B: Psychological Sciences, online June 27.
“We’re not suggesting that people should drink more or change the way they drink, said study author Dr. Kira Birditt of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who studies relationships across adulthood.
“We’re not sure why this is happening,” she told Reuters Health, “but it could be that couples that do more leisure time activities together have better marital quality.”
In other words, drinking may not be the only reason they’re getting along, Birditt said.
Married couples with the same drinking habits tend to be happier than other couples where only one partner drinks.Pexels, Public Domain
For the study, Birditt and her colleagues analyzed responses from 4,864 married participants, in 2,767 couples, participating in the long-term Health and Retirement Survey. Between 2006 and 2016, all participants had a face to face interview with researchers and answered questionnaires about their drinking habits – whether they drank, how many days a week they drank and how many drinks they had on the days they drank.
Couples were married for an average of 33 years and about two-thirds were in their first marriage.
They also answered questions about the quality of their marriage, including whether they thought their spouses were too demanding or too critical, if their spouse was reliable when they needed help and if they found their spouse irritating.
Results showed that in more than half of couples, both spouses drank. Husbands were more likely to drink than wives. But particularly for wives, there was a problem when only one of the spouses drank.
When wives drank and the husbands didn’t, wives reported they were more dissatisfied with their marriage.
“The study shows that it’s not about how much they’re drinking, it’s about whether they drink at all,” Birditt said.
But, she emphasized, drinking among older adults is becoming an increasing problem, “especially among baby boomers, who seem more accepting of alcohol use.”
It also shows that partners influence each other in a relationship, she added.
Birditt speculates that spouses have a huge impact on each other, especially when they’re older and retired and spending a lot of time together. She suggests that when one spouse has to stop drinking, the other should stop as well.
Another intriguing finding was the number of people in the study who were heavy drinkers, noted Dr. Fred Blow, also at the University of Michigan, who was not involved with the study.
About 20 percent of men and 6 percent of women had significant drinking problems in this study, he said.
“Problem drinkers are a whole different kettle of fish,” he said. “Serious heavy drinkers have disruptive relationships with people, particularly their partners. That’s an important issue that should be looked at going forward.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/29IcwSj
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci 2016.