Music Doesn't Hurt Driving Performance: Study

Tunes on CD, radio might even boost focus in some situations, researcher says

By Alan Mozes

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, June 20 (HealthDay News) -- Listening to music while driving doesn't seem to curb response time and might even boost your focus in certain conditions, new Dutch research suggests.

For younger but experienced drivers, loud music from a CD or radio is not a safety concern on par with talking on a cellphone behind the wheel, a simulated-driving study of about 50 college-aged students found.

"Speaking on a cellphone or listening to passengers talking is quite different than listening to music, as the former types are examples of a more engaging listening situation," said study author Ayca Berfu Unal, an environmental and traffic psychologist who was a doctoral student at the University of Groningen when she embarked on the research.

"Listening to music, however, is not necessarily engaging all the time, and it seems like music or the radio might stay in the background, especially when the driving task needs full attention of the driver," Unal said.

She acknowledged, however, that her observations are in many ways preliminary and still await publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Distracted driving is a serious public health issue. Each day in the United States, more than nine people are killed and more than 1,000 are injured in crashes that involve a distracted driver, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To study music's influence on driving performance, Unal enlisted 47 university students between 19 and 25 years old to engage in a series of simulated road tests. Participants had more than two and a half years' driving experience on average.

First, they were asked to create their own playlist, to make sure the music they listened to was familiar and well-liked.

Computerized driving simulations then surrounded the motorists with four large screens to create a 240-degree view of traffic. Conditions included driving with loud music, driving with moderate-volume music and driving with no music. No sound adjustments were allowed while the tests were under way.

Participants took the virtual wheel for about a half-hour twice in two weeks along a monotonous, non-threatening and predictable drive in two-way traffic.

Unal monitored heart rate changes at five-minute intervals and assessed the drivers' car-following behavior as they adjusted to the changing speed of vehicles ahead of them. Drivers also were asked to report levels of arousal (feeling energized, bored, fatigued or sleepy) while on the road.

The result: Neither the presence of music nor its volume had any ill effect on the drivers' ability to properly follow the car ahead of them.

What's more, those who drove with music responded faster to changes in the speed of the car ahead than those driving without music. And the louder the music, the faster the response, Unal said.

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Mediterranean Diet Benefits Heart, Even Without Weight Loss: Study

Healthy eating helped men lower bad cholesterol

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, May 1 (HealthDay News) -- Men at high risk for heart disease might reduce their "bad" cholesterol by eating a heart-healthy Mediterranean diet, even if they don't lose weight, a small new study suggests.

The study included 19 men, aged 24 to 62, with metabolic syndrome, which means they had three or more major risk factors for heart disease and stroke. The risk factors among men in this study included large waist size, high blood pressure, low levels of "good" HDL cholesterol and high triglyceride and fasting glucose levels.

For the first five weeks of the study, the men ate a standard North American diet, which is high in fats, carbohydrates, refined sugar and red meat. For the second five weeks, they ate a Mediterranean diet, which is high in fruits, vegetables and whole grains; low in red meat; and includes olive oil and moderate amounts of wine.

This was followed by a five-month weight-loss program, then another five weeks of a Mediterranean diet.

Regardless of whether they lost weight, the men had a 9 percent decrease in levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol when they ate a Mediterranean diet, according to the study, scheduled for presentation Wednesday at a meeting of the American Heart Association in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

The Mediterranean diet "may be recommended for effective management of the metabolic syndrome and its related risk of cardiovascular disease," said lead study author Caroline Richard, a registered dietitian and doctoral candidate in nutrition at Laval University in Quebec, Canada. The study, however, showed only an association between a Mediterranean diet and lowered cholesterol, not a cause-and-effect relationship.

Data and conclusions presented at meetings typically are considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

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Food, Skin Allergies on the Rise Among Children: CDC

Reasons aren't known, but researchers found racial, age and income differences

By Steven Reinberg

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, May 2 (HealthDay News) -- The number of American children who suffer from food and skin allergies has increased dramatically in recent years, a new government report shows.

Interestingly, the prevalence of food and respiratory allergies rose with income: Children living in families that made more than 200 percent of the poverty level had the highest rates, the statistics showed.

"The prevalence of food and skin allergies both increased over the past 14 years," said report co-author LaJeana Howie, from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This has been a consistent trend."

With food allergies, the overall rate went from 3.4 percent in 1997 to 5.1 percent in 2011. With skin allergies, the overall rate increased from 7.4 percent in 1997 to 12.5 percent in 2011. The prevalence of respiratory allergies remained constant, at 17 percent, between 1997 and 2011, although it remained the most common type of allergy affecting children, according to the NCHS report published May 2.

Pediatric allergists noted that they have been seeing the trend in their own practices.

Dr. Vivian Hernandez-Trujillo, director of allergy and immunology at Miami Children's Hospital, said: "We are certainly seeing increases in food and skin allergy in pediatric patients."

However, why these allergies are on the rise remains a mystery, another expert pointed out.

"We do not know why there has been an increase, but the theories include the 'hygiene hypothesis'; that reduced infection and reduced exposure to germs has left our immune systems 'looking for a fight' and attacking innocent proteins," explained Dr. Scott Sicherer, chief of the division of pediatric allergy and immunology at the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

In addition, there are theories about insufficient vitamin D, unhealthy fats in the diet, the obesity epidemic and processed food, none of which have been confirmed with hard science, he noted.

These increases are real, Sicherer added. "They speak to a need for more research toward prevention and cures," he said.

"We and others are undertaking studies to try to better understand the risk factors and opportunities for prevention, while aggressively doing research on multiple means to treat those with food allergies," Sicherer said.

Racial differences did emerge in the data.

The researchers found Hispanic children had the lowest prevalence of food, skin and respiratory allergies, compared with other groups.

And black children were more likely to have skin allergies than white children (17.4 percent versus 12 percent, respectively), but less likely to have respiratory allergies (15.6 percent versus 19.1 percent, respectively).

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Are sunless tanning lotions and sprays safe?

Posted June 21, 2013, 2:00 am

I like to look tanned, but I’m fair-skinned and can’t spend too much time in the sun. Are sunless tanning lotions and sprays safe?

Looking tanned is attractive, probably because it is equated with health. If you’re tanned, you’re the “picture of health.” There are basically just three ways your skin can be tanned: (1) exposure to sunlight, (2) exposure to artificial tanning lamps, and (3) staining your skin with a sunless tanning lotion.

But no one should spend too much time soaking up the sun’s rays. Exposing your skin to the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) light increases your risk for skin cancer and accelerates skin aging.

Sunless tanning sprays and lotions can make your skin look tanned without exposing it to harmful UV rays. For short-term use at least, sunless tanning products are a good alternative to tanning outdoors or using an indoor tanning bed.

You can buy self-tanning products over the counter and apply them yourself, or you can go to a salon that offers spray-on or airbrush tans. The active ingredient in all of these products is dihydroxyacetone (DHA), a color additive often derived from plant sources. It’s FDA-approved for tanning purposes.

The coloring process affects only the surface layers of your skin. So your “tan” lasts only as long as those layers stay on your body — five to seven days. After they slough off, you’ll need a reapplication.

Self-tanning is generally considered safe, although there have been few safety studies. Allergic reactions are rare, but the long-term effects remain largely unknown. I would say that more research is needed before DHA can be declared safe for long-term use.

Even if you’re sporting a faux glow, it’s important to practice proper sun protection. You still need to use plenty of sunscreen or sunblock when you’re out in the sun. Choose sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 15.

I advise against using tanning beds at a salon, spa or gym. These tanners emit the same ultraviolet waves as the sun, the waves that cause skin cancers and skin aging. Worse, the self-tanning industry is largely unregulated. No one has measured and reported the amount of ultraviolet radiation generated by the machines — and no one will close down the machine if it is generating excessive amounts of radiation.

During a spray-on tanning session, make sure your eyes, lips, ears, nose and mucous membranes are covered. Hold your breath to avoid inhaling the product while it’s being applied.

Some self-tanning products are sold as pills containing a color additive. These pills are not safe when taken in the amount recommended for tanning. Stick with the stuff you spray or rub onto your skin.

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Health Highlights: May 1, 2013

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Parents' Efforts Key to Approval of Drug for Rare Kidney Disorder

A new drug to treat a rare and deadly inherited kidney disorder has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the efforts of one patient's parents may have played a key role.

The drug Procysbi is for nephropathic cystinosis. Left untreated, the disease typically destroys the kidneys by age 10. Even with a kidney transplant, the condition can lead to death by early adulthood, The New York Times reported.

Procysbi is not a totally new drug, but rather a more convenient and tolerable version of an existing drug for cystinosis called Cystagon, from Mylan Inc. Cystagon has a strong rotten-egg smell that causes bad breath and body odor, and also causes nausea, vomiting and other abdominal problems. It must be taken every six hours.

Procysbi, from Raptor Pharmaceutical Corporation, has the same active ingredient as Cystagon but can be taken every 12 hours and parents say it causes less severe body odor, bad breath and abdominal problems, The Times reported.

There is a huge price difference between the older and newer medicines: Cystagon costs about $8,000 a year while Procysbi will cost about $250,000 a year.

Still, reductions in the noxious side effects, and the twice-a-day dosing of Procysbi are huge advantages for children with nephropathic cystinosis, said Nancy Stack, a mother from Corona del Mar, Calif.

Her daughter Natalie, 22, has the illness, and parents Nancy and Geoffrey formed the Cystinosis Research Foundation in 2003 to help push for better treatments. Money raised by the foundation was instrumental in the development of Procysbi, The Times said.

Now the challenge is to get Procysbi, with its high price tag, covered by insurers. "It does seem extreme to have [the price] that high," Stack told The Times. "But as a community, our bottom line is getting better treatment for our children. And we know that this will change our kids' lives."

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Ground Turkey Contains Potentially Harmful Bacteria: Report

Potentially dangerous bacteria was found in most samples of randomly tested ground turkey products sold at U.S. stores, and some of the bacteria were antibiotic-resistant, Consumer Reports has found.

The group also discovered that turkey raised without antibiotics had much less antibiotic-resistant bacteria than turkey raised with antibiotics, CBS News reported.

"Our findings strongly suggest that there is a direct relationship between the routine use of antibiotics in animal production and increased antibiotic resistance in bacteria on ground turkey. It's very concerning that antibiotics fed to turkeys are creating resistance to antibiotics used in human medicine," Dr. Urvashi Rangan, director of the food safety and sustainability group at Consumer Reports, said in a news release. "Humans don't consume antibiotics every day to prevent disease and neither should healthy animals."

The group tested 257 kinds of raw ground turkey meat and patties for five contaminants that can cause illness and be fatal in some cases: enterococcus, E. coli, staphylococcus aureus, salmonella, and campylobacter, CBS News reported.

Ninety percent of the samples tested had at least one of the bacteria, Consumer Reports found.

Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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So hungry throughout the day after exercise - recommendations?

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to lose 6lb and am running to help me do that.  I usually run about 6km in about 35 mins, trying for 4 days per week.  The most convenient time for me to exercise is in the morning. 

My problem is that then I'm so hungry throughout the rest of the day that I can't concentrate.  I end up eating back about 200 calories just so that I can concentrate on my work, which unfortunately is at a desk so I'm also sedentary for most of the day.  I usually snack on fruit, plain yogurt, or nuts.

Any tips on how to beat the hunger and maintain my concentration without piling back on all the calories I just burnt off?

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Health Tip: Avoid Emotional Eating

(HealthDay News) -- When feeling frazzled, many people turn to food for comfort. Stress eating, also called emotional eating, can occur because stress triggers certain food cravings.

The Harvard Medical School mentions these alternatives to emotional eating:

Meditate, which may help you ease stress and improve impulse control.Engage in regular exercise, especially in forms such as yoga or Tai chi.Seek support from friends and loved ones when stress takes over.Get rid of high-fat, high-sugar foods so you're not tempted when under stress.

-- Diana Kohnle
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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