Hot MedFax

Did you know when you're in love it's like smoking marijuana? Well, maybe not exactly.  But the highs are similar, according to a new report . Newswise.com says that the hormone oxytocin, which has been associated with interpersonal bonding, may enhance the pleasure of social interactions by stimulating production of marijuana-like neurotransmitters in the brain, according to a University of California, Irvine study. The research provides the first link between oxytocin – dubbed the “love hormone” – and anandamide, which has been called the “bliss molecule” for its role in activating cannabinoid receptors in brain cells to heighten motivation and happiness.  Not to get too technical but the researchers discovered that social contact increased production of anandamide ( messenger molecule which plays a role in pain, depression, appetite, memory, and fertility) in  the nucleus of the brain, which triggered cannabinoid receptors there to reinforce the pleas...

Men, did you know being a good father can lower your testosterone levels? What a bummer.  Just as we get to enjoy our partners pitching in to help with the kids, now they have a reason to stop. All kidding aside, however, a new University of Michigan study found that when men saw their infants in distress, it lowered their testosterone. Yes, when men are nurturing and caring for their children, their "maleness" declines.  While that might not make fathers very happy, I suspect it has to do with the law of the jungle, with male beasts preferring to shelter and protect their young rather than get bloody and torn up in fights with the others in the clan.  (Of course, this doesn't account for the fathers who eat their young.  But that's a story for another day.) But now it looks like men may be decompensated for being a good father. A crying infant can trigger certain emotions that may be accompanied by a corresponding hormonal response: empathy with decreas...

Uh oh. Just when I thought I was getting out of the woods as a potential Alzheimer's patient, now a new study is saying that older women (ok, so I'm not over 70 or anywhere near it) with memory complaints may well be on their way to this dreaded disease. According to newswise.com, new research suggests that older women who complain of memory problems may be at higher risk for experiencing diagnosed memory and thinking impairment decades later. I drew a complete blank when trying to come up with my allergist's name for another doctor.  Usually the name will come to me sometime over the next hours or days.  But this one didn't.  Then I panicked when my son and I were listening to music and I wanted to tell him about a singer who sounded just like the person singing.  And I couldn't for the life of me remember her name. (I knew the first name, "Phoebe."  But the rest totally eluded me.  I came up with "Swann" but I knew that wasn't ri...

This is really disturbing. As if there weren't already enough reasons for sexual assault -- college frat parties "misreading" signals, and horrifyingly, in my town, a woman jogging at dawn at the beach -- a researcher has now found that ratings-buster shows like "NCIS" and "CSI" foster just these open kinds of attitudes toward sexual assault. Reassuringly, "Law and Order" has brought people to a better understanding of what consent means, according to Emily Garrigues Marett, Mississippi State University instructor of management and information systems, at newswise.com. But viewers of genre crime shows like "CSI" reported lower intentions to seek consent for sexual activity and a lower intention to respect a partner’s expression of consent, whereas "NCIS" was associated with lower likelihood of refusing unwanted sexual activity, Garrigues Marett says. She surveyed 313 college freshmen at a large Northwestern univ...

As if men don't have it good enough all on their own, now a new study says they do better when there's more gender equality. Men living in highly gender equal societies have better quality of life than men in less gender equal societies, according to new research from Øystein Gullvåg Holter, as reported by newswise.com. If you live in one of the more gender-equal countries in Europe, the chances of having high quality of life are about twice as big as for those living in one of the less gender equal counties. Moreover, the chances of depression, divorce, or becoming a victim of violent death are smaller. This applies to both men and women. Based on an examination of a major database of statistics gathered from various equality indexes, Øystein Gullvåg Holter is able to conclude that a high degree of gender equality has positive effects not only on women; it also benefits men. I suppose that's true.  When you look at cultures that don't value women, ...

OK, so is Oprah going to do it? Resurrect Weight Watchers, that is.  She bought a 10% stake in the company this week. Not that it's going out of business, with all the fatties running around.  But paid memberships have been slowing down and I guess they needed something special to turn it around (although at my meeting, you can't get a seat!). Yay, Oprah.  Yay, Weight Watchers. But a new study has found that celebrity endorsements may hurt candidates more than help them. Of course, no one's running for Weight Watchers but in this hotly contested primary and nomination time, we've seen some famous people stumping for, well, other famous people. Researchers asked 804 likely 2016 general election voters in Ohio if a particular celebrity, interest group, or newspaper endorsed a candidate for President, would it make the voter more likely or less likely to vote for that candidate. If the Cleveland Plain Dealer did, 14.7% said it might make it more likely, whi...

Eating tofu gives you cancer.  If you're a woman, that will scare you enough to stop eating it.  If you're a man, maybe not so much. A new study has found that fear-based appeals appear to be effective at influencing attitudes and behaviors, especially among women, according to a comprehensive review of over 50 years of research on the topic, published by the American Psychological Association, reported by newswise.com. "There are very few circumstances under which they are not effective and there are no identifiable circumstances under which they backfire and lead to undesirable outcomes,” newswise.com quotes Dolores Albarracin, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an author of the study. Fear appeals are persuasive messages that emphasize the potential danger and harm that will befall individuals if they do not adopt the messages’ recommendations. While these types of messages are commonly used in political, ...