Yoga in menopause helps
Taking a 12-week yoga class and practising at home was linked to less insomnia -- but not to fewer or less bothersome hot flashes or night sweats. The link between yoga and better sleep was the only statistically significant finding in this MsFlASH (Menopause Strategies: Finding lasting Answers for Symptoms and Health) Network randomized controlled trial. "Many women suffer from insomnia during menopause, and it's good to know that yoga may help them," said lead author Katherine Newton, PhD, a senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute. She e-published these findings in Menopause, ahead of print.
Telecommuting can be beneficial
There are mornings when getting out of bed may seem impossible, and the idea of spending the day at work is unappealing. If working from home is an option, one University of Alabama at Birmingham expert says perks of telecommuting go beyond working in pyjamas. In early 2013, a leaked memo to employees of Yahoo showed the company had reversed their telecommuting policy citing that “speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home.” But Scott Boyar, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Management, Information Systems and Quantitative Methods at the UAB Collat School of Business, said it is hard to make a blanket judgment. “The success of an employee working from home depends on the person, on the job and on the training the organization provides to do that role remotely,” Boyar said.
Video interactions help
Young children readily learn words from their parents, grandparents, and child care providers in live conversations, but learning from video has proven more difficult in a new study. It questioned why and found that it's the responsiveness of the interactions that's key: When we respond to children in timely and meaningful ways, they learn — even when that response comes from a screen. The study is done by researchers at the University of Washington, Temple University and the University of Delaware. In the study, children learned new words only when conversing with a person and in the live video chat, both of which involved responsive, back-and-forth social interactions. They didn't learn the new words through the prerecorded video instruction, which was not responsive to the child.
Bone hormone influences brain
Researchers from Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have found that the skeleton, acting through the bone-derived hormone osteocalcin, exerts a powerful influence on prenatal brain development and cognitive functions such as learning, memory, anxiety, and depression in adult mice. Findings from the mouse study could lead to new approaches to the prevention and treatment of neurologic disorders. The study was published today in the online edition of Cell. “The brain is commonly viewed as an organ that influences other organs and parts of the body, but less often as the recipient of signals coming from elsewhere, least of all, the bones,” said study leader Gerard Karsenty.
Childhood abuse causes health risks
The effects of childhood abuse and lack of parental affection can last a lifetime, taking a toll both emotionally and physically. There are many reports assessing the psychological damage resulting from childhood abuse, and the effects on physical health have also been well documented. For instance, this “toxic” stress has been linked to elevated cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and other physical conditions posing a significant health risk. A new UClA-led study for the first time examines the effects of abuse and lack of parental affection across the body's entire regulatory system, and finds a strong biological link for how negative early life experiences affect physical health.