After one year, a low-calorie, low-fat diet appears more beneficial to dieters` mood than a low-carbohydrate plan with the same number of calories, according to a report in the November 9 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Obese individuals who lose weight tend to have an improved psychological state, including a better mood, according to background informat...

Golfers who undergo treatment for sleep apnea may improve their golf game as well as their overall health, shows new research. A new study presented at CHEST 2009, the 75th annual international scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), found that golfers with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) who received nasal positive airway pressure (NPAP) for their disorder improved t...

Less pain during injections for wrinkle-fighting facial fillers. Less swelling afterward. Less time in the office waiting for anesthesia to take effect. These and other benefits of a new injection technique that UT Southwestern Medical Center plastic surgeons are helping pioneer are outlined in the October issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. The procedure combines lidocaine with injection...

Although we assume we can see everything in our field of vision, the brain actually picks and chooses the stimuli that come into our consciousness. A new study in the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology`s Journal of Vision reveals that our brains can be trained to consciously see stimuli that would normally be invisible. Lead researcher Caspar Schwiedrzik from the Max Planck Insti...

Attention weekend warriors: the simple act of exercise and not fitness itself can convince you that you look better, a new University of Florida study finds. People who don`t achieve workout milestones such as losing fat, gaining strength or boosting cardiovascular fitness feel just as good about their bodies as their more athletic counterparts, said Heather Hausenblas, a UF exercise psychologist....

Good news for procrastinating students: a nasal spray developed by a team of German scientists promises to give late night cram sessions a major boost, if a good night`s sleep follows. In a research report featured as the cover story of the October 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal, these scientists show that a molecule from the body`s immune system (interleukin-6) when administered through th...

Reading a book by Franz Kafka –– or watching a film by director David Lynch –– could make you smarter. According to research by psychologists at UC Santa Barbara and the University of British Columbia, exposure to the surrealism in, say, Kafka`s "The Country Doctor" or Lynch`s "Blue Velvet" enhances the cognitive mechanisms that oversee implicit learning...

A study in the Aug. 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine shows that the use of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is an effective treatment for older patients with osteoarthritis and comorbid insomnia. Results showed that treatment improves both immediate and long-term self-reported sleep and pain in older patients with osteoarthritis and comorbid insomnia without dire...

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new calibration technique that will improve the reliability and stability of one of NIST`s most versatile technologies, the microhotplate. The novel NIST device is being developed as the foundation for miniature yet highly accurate gas sensors that can detect chemical and biological agents, industrial leaks a...

Pain therapy for cancer patients – whether inpatient or outpatient – is often inadequate. At Heidelberg University Hospital, the use of an innovative electronic system – combined with guidance by an experienced clinical pharmacist – has been successfully tested. The treatment of the patients showed little variance from international guidelines on pain therapy. In addition, ...