You are here: Home / 2010 / Archives for June 2010

Introducing Sheri Hall, our new Guest Blogger!

June 29, 2010 By 2 Comments

We are thrilled to announce that Sheri Hall is joining us this summer as a guest blogger at Evidence-Based Living! She’s a real expert when it comes to taking complex research and making it understandable. She also helped us to set up this blog.

A little about Sheri: She’s a freelance-writer based in Ithaca, New York.  She studied journalism at Northwestern University and held a staff position at the Detroit News for seven years, where she wrote about everything from chainsaw-carving to the finanical health of Detroit’s hospital systems.  Sheri has also worked at  Pfizer Inc., where her job included helping scientists explain how drugs function in the human body, and most recently at Cornell’s College of Human Ecology, where she covered topics ranging from the student fashion show to academic studies about how chaos affects children’ s lives.

Her posts will be starting shortly, and as ever – give us your comments!

—

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living

The evidence on exercise

June 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The sun is shining, the grass is green and the birds are chirping. It’s finally summertime in the northern hemisphere – the time of year when most people find it easier to fit in some aerobic exercise.  You can venture out to a hiking trail, hit the local pool for some lap swimming or dust off that old bicycle. While you may think of these activities as summertime leisure, the evidence shows they are all extremely beneficial to your health – even more powerful than the latest medicines for treating certain conditions.

Heart disease

Medical study after medical study has found that getting your body moving is good for your heart. Moderate-intensity activities, like walking at a brisk pace or swimming, yield the most beneficial effects. It only takes 30-45 minutes five days a week.

While exercise is beneficial to everyone, sedentary people who become moderately active show the greatest improvements in reduced deaths from cardiovascular disease. Those who started exercising regularly after a heart attack show improved rates of survival.

Cognitive impairment

Alright, most of us already knew that exercise was good for our hearts.  But did you also know it’s good for your brain? 

A 2008 review of therapies to slow or reverse cognitive decline concluded that aerobic activity enhances cognitive function in older adults.  In fact, in one study, researchers at the University of Illinois found that a 5 to 7 percent improvement in cardiovascular fitness corresponded with up to 15 percent improvement on mental tests. 

Another study of elderly people diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment found those who enrolled in a six-month exercise program improved their ability to concentrate and carry out complex tasks, while participants who didn’t exercise declined in their performance on those same tasks.  Scientists think the improvements have something to do with exercise increasing the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain, improving growth factors that help create new nerve cells and increasing chemicals in the brain that help with cognition.

Depression

Multiple studies have also found that exercise can help prevent and also treat depression and anxiety disorders. The prevention piece is more difficult to prove, but studies show a strong correlation that people who exercise are much less likely to suffer from depression.  One study did follow participants for a 15-year-period and found that those with high fitness levels were less likely to become depressed.

The evidence clearly shows that exercise as effective as antidepressant medications for treating depression. Duke University researcher James A. Blumenthal and his colleagues studied 156 older adults diagnosed with major depression, assigning them to receive the antidepressant Zoloft, 30 minutes of exercise three times a week, or both. They found that exercise was equally as effective the prescription medicine, and follow-up studies showed patients who exercised were less likely to regress back into depression.

That’s some clear proof the exercise is good for your body on many levels. So don’t delay – get out there while the sun is shining!

– Sheri Hall

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, Health and Wellness, In The Media

Fostering sustainable behavior: What works?

June 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Everyone agrees that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a horrendous event, one so profoundly damaging that we have trouble getting our minds around it. The corporation responsible, BP, has been excoriated in Congress and by the press. Media images of oil covered sea birds and fishing boats in dry dock daily reinforce our sense of the scope of this disaster.

Given the level of upset and outrage, one might ask: Has it changed what Americans are doing on a daily basis? Everyone knows that there’s only one real solution to problems like this: reduce dependence on oil. So are we lining up to trade in our gas guzzlers for hybrids? Winterizing our homes? Rushing to install solar panels?

The answer, of course, is no. Despite pro-environmental attitudes, a general desire for a cleaner world, and many options for action, most of us don’t take meaningful action, despite the growing sense of urgency. So what can be done to foster sustainable behavior.

I recently came across an excellent evidence-based resource, devoted entirely to disseminating research information on methods of encouraging behaviors that help the environment: Fostering Sustainable Behavior: Community-Based Social Marketing. This web site covers five resource areas: conservation, energy efficiency, transportation, waste reduction, and water efficiency. The site offers for free the complete contents of the book, Fostering Sustainable Behavior. Under each of the five themes are searchable databases of articles, case studies, and strategies to promote environmental behavior. It also has discussion forums where people exchange ideas. Registration is free. The more we can implement evidence-based strategies to help save the environment, the better off we (and our children) will be.

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, Health and Wellness, policy, The Learning Center Tagged With: , , ,

Medical decision-making: Just batty

June 22, 2010 By 1 Comment

A few Sunday mornings ago, I woke up at 4 a.m. to find my husband standing in front of our bathroom door wearing rubber gloves and holding a plastic container with a magazine over the top. “There was a bat in the shower,” he told me. “I caught it.”

My initial thought was, “Yikes!” followed by “Ewwww.” But in my early-morning haze, I dozed off relegating the situation to a strange dream. Meanwhile, my animal-lover husband released the bat in the yard.

The next morning, I learned that the bat most likely entered our house through my one-year-old’s bedroom and was flying around in our bedroom before it settled in the shower. Gross, I thought, but not much more – until a friend mentioned she got the rabies vaccination after finding a bat in her house. The warning inspired me to conduct a quick Internet search. To my surprise, I found this: Springtime Means Rabies in New York State, which includes the following passage:

“Anyone who is bitten, scratched, or exposed to the saliva of an animal with rabies is at risk for contracting this fatal virus. While there is a very effective vaccine for rabies, it must be administered before any symptoms of the disease appear. Once human beings develop symptoms of rabies, they face certain death. Call the Health Department immediately for any contact with bats, even if a bat is found in the home without having definitely bitten someone. “

We called and, after a series of questions, a nurse determined our entire family would need the rabies vaccine series – four shots over a three-week period – immediately. I was skeptical. As far as we knew, the bat hadn’t touched any of us. And it was probably a healthy bat anyway…right?  I sat down to do some further research.

Within minutes, I found the New York State Health Department’s Wadsworth Center, a science-based community focused on improving health through laboratory analysis, investigations and research. Perfect!

I learned that 22 people in the U.S. have been infected with rabies since 1990. Of those, 20 contracted the disease from bats. Only one of these cases involved a clearly documented bat bite. In the others, there was a bat encounter but no bite was detected. I also learned in the state of New York, 4 percent of bats encountered by people are found to be rabid.

The chance that we were actually exposed to rabies was still rather slim, but that wasn’t a risk I was willing to take considering the consequence was “certain death.”  So, we headed to our local hospital for our first round of shots.

The good news is that the rabies vaccine is a very good insurance policy: no one has ever contracted rabies after getting the shots. Three cheers for medical research! 

As for my family, we used our weekly doctor appointments as bonding time with a visit to the local ice cream parlor after each round. All thanks to a bat.

– Sheri Hall

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, Health and Wellness Tagged With: , ,

Evidence-based cheese!

June 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

It’s summer-time in the Finger Lakes – a great time of year to sample regional wines along one of the three local wine trails.  On your tour this year, you can pair that wine with some delicious, local cheese.

Cornell Cooperative Extension has teamed up with regional cheese-makers to create the Finger Lakes Cheese Trail – a driving tour of local creameries where you can learn about the craft of cheese-making and sample local varieties including sheep’s milk cheese, goudas, goat cheese, cheddars, jacks, Colby and even cheese curds.

They’re absolutely delicious!  But are they good for our diets?

The evidence says yes. In fact, cheese provides a myriad of health benefits. A single serving of cheese provides about 300 mg of calcium – nearly one-third of the daily recommended amount.  And a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition demonstrated that getting calcium from cheese rather than supplements leads to improvements in bone density. Cheese packs in other key nutrients, too, including like protein, magnesium, folate, B1, B2, B6, B12, and vitamins A, D, and E.

Unfortunately, there’s a downside to cheese. Many cheeses are also high in cholesterol, sodium and saturated fat, which can contribute to obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer. But that doesn’t mean you should eliminate cheese from your diet.

Nutritionists at Yale-New Haven Hospital have published some guidelines on incorporating cheese in a healthy diet. Among their recommendations are:

  • If you like to eat hard cheeses , look for “fat free,” “reduced fat” or “low fat” versions.
  • When looking for soft cheeses, low fat , part-skim or light products are available.
  • If you do use full-fat cheese in a recipe, cut the amount in half to reduce your fat and sodium intake.

So, go ahead. Melt some cheddar on that burger, sprinkle a bit of gorgonzola in your salad or visit a Finger Lakes creamery. As long as you indulge in moderation, you’ll reap all of the health benefits from cheese.

– Sheri Hall

Filed Under: Cornell Cooperative Extension, Evidence-Based Living, Health and Wellness Tagged With: , , ,

Evidence-based soccer: Scientific predictions for the World Cup?

June 11, 2010 By 1 Comment

I have for many years played soccer – badly. I began in high school some 40 years ago, when our only available opponents were private schools that beat us by scores that sound like American football results (e.g., 14 – 0). I continued as the slowest (but most enthusiastic) player on a variety of adult teams, hanging up my soccer boots only a couple of years ago when the injuries seemed no longer worth it (although nostalgia hits me every fall).

But those who can’t do, can watch. And every soccer fan’s heart begins to beat mightily for the World Cup, the every-four-year phenomenon that captures the entire world’s attention (except for, unfortunately, much of the United States). As we did earlier with basketball, we at Evidence-Based Living couldn’t help asking the question: Is there evidence-based soccer? 

Leave it to a Cornell colleague to come up with just that. Christopher Anderson (former soccer player and self-proclaimed “soccer dad”) teaches in the Government Department. In his spare time, he has created soccerquantified.com, which approaches the “beautiful game” with sophisticated statistical analysis. If you want to see how techniques like logistic regression can be interestingly (and understandably) applied to a something in the real-world, reading Anderson’s blog is worth it for that reason alone.

Anderson has gathered data about past competitions, looking at such issues as each national team’s record, characteristics of the country, and home-continent advantage to predict a likely  winner. He doesn’t claim certainty by any means, but the data point toward powerhouse Brazil as having the best chance. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the U. S. advances out of the first round, based on the data.

 Like any good scientist, Anderson is clear about limitations. The overall probability of any one particular team winning is low, given that there are 32 countries competing and there are a lot of factors that are hard to control for (for example, the high altitude of some of the South African venues may affect play for some teams).

 Anderson isn’t the only academic obsessed with soccer. Take a look at the Journal of Economic Psychology, which had a special issue on “The Economics and Psychology of Football.” Articles include analyses of referee behavior (the home team advantage is in part due to pressure on referees from the home crowd) and how distance from your home field affects whether you win or not.

So, let the games begin! And let’s see if a scientific approach works to predict the real-world outcome.

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, In The Media

When studies collide: Making sense of contradictory research findings

June 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I know blogs are supposed to be current – otherwise, what’s the point of posting entries that get archived after a few weeks? However, every once in a while I come across a resource from a year or two back, which is so useful I feel the need to share it. Such is the case with this article from the New York Times Science Times. It shows how a journalist can do a superlative job of helping the public understand the complexities of science.

NYT Science Times published an invaluable special issue in 2008 entitled “Decoding Your Health.” The issue responded to the huge amount of medical information available now to consumers on the web, in the press, and in the doctor’s office. The articles are very helpful in “decoding” all this information, and deciding what is useful and what isn’t.

One particular article, however, really grabbed me: “Searching for Clarity: A Primer on Medical Studies.” I’ve rarely seen such a good job of laying out the kinds of studies we should trust, and how medical evidence accumulates to create guidelines for what people should do.

They take an example which could serve as the poster child for the dilemmas consumers face. In the 1990s, everyone was enthusiastic about the idea that the antioxidant beta carotene, which is found in certain fruits and vegetables (such as carrots, squash, apricots, and green peppers), could be good for your health. And this idea was backed up by some animal and observational studies suggesting that beta carotene protected against cancer. Supplement makers had a heyday selling beta carotene capsules.

Then it happened: results were published from three large, very well-done clinical trials, in which people were randomly assigned to take beta carotene or a placebo. These findings showed that beta carotene supplementation not only didn’t prevent disease, but it might even place people at greater risk of cancer.

If you were watching TV back then, you may remember seeing Frankie Avalon on a commercial (for you youngsters, Frankie was a 50’s teen idol with such hits as “Cupid,” “De-De-Dinah,” and “Tuxedo Junction”). As the article notes, he sat in front of a big pile of papers that said “beta carotene works,” and a tiny pile representing the three studies showing it doesn’t. The message: Who are you going to believe?

The answer is: the clinical trials. The article lays it out clearly, showing that there are three fundamental principles that make a more definitive study:

  • You have to compare like with like: “the groups you are comparing must be the same except for one factor — the one you are studying.”
  • The bigger the group studied, the more reliable its conclusions. They make a very helpful point: scientific studies don’t come up with a single number; instead, they come up with a margin of error (like you have a 10-20 percent reduction in risk). Larger numbers = greater certainty.
  • And the finding should be plausible. There should be some supporting evidence for the finding, such that it doesn’t come out of nowhere.

This is a good article to pass along when you are presenting scientific findings that contradict deeply-held beliefs. It shows that when it comes to research on health, more studies aren’t necessarily better – it’s having the right kinds of studies.

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, Health and Wellness, The Learning Center Tagged With: , , , ,

Behave! Using the science of behavior change

June 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

There are some problems we can’t do much about — hurricaines and earthquakes, for example. But a vast amount of things that make life tough — and sometimes miserable — relate to the choices human beings make and the way we behave. For this reason, a whole science of behavior change has grown up, focusing both on theoretical models and empirical studies of how to change damaging human behaviors, ranging from smoking, to crime, to overeating, to taking excessive risks.

A very helpful new article reviews models to promote positive behavior change that are highly relevant to people designing or implementing interventions. The authors note that getting individuals to make lasting changes in problem behaviors is no easy matter. They synthesize various models of behavior change “to provide a more comprehensive understanding of how educators can promote behavior change among their clientele.”

The authors apply their framework to the issue of financial management. Very interesting reading, available here.

(While you’re at it, take a look at other issues of this free on-line journal, called the The Forum for Family and Consumer Issues, published by North Carolina State University Extension — many interesting articles related to program development and evaluation.)

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, Health and Wellness, The Learning Center Tagged With: , , , , ,
Skip to toolbar