Eyespy: May 2005
A new alarm clock that always guarantees a gentle
awakening from your slumber has been invented by students at Brown
University, Rhode Island, United States. SleepSmart makes sure that you are
only roused in the lightest part of your sleep cycle, ensuring you feel
refreshed every morning. In sleep you pass through a sequence of
states - light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid eye movement (REM)
sleep - that repeat about every 90 minutes. The point in the cycle at
which you wake can affect how you feel later and may be more important than
how long or little you have slept. Being roused during a light phase means
you are more likely to wake up perky. Eyespy is impressed but thinks that
the perfect alarm clock is one that never rings (New Scientist 2005 Apr 14:24).
The 24 hours "always on" culture is worse
for your brain than cannabis. An average worker's IQ, when distracted
by telephone calls and emails, falls by twice as much as in cannabis
smokers. Glenn Wilson, at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of
London, found that doziness, lethargy, and inability to focus reached
startling levels in a trial of 1100 people for Hewlett Packard. People feel
compelled to process each message immediately, and the constant changes in
thought slow down the brain. And emails in particular seem to be addictive.
One in five respondents broke off from meals or social engagements to deal
with messages, and a third felt that this was an acceptable sign of
diligence. Two thirds of people check work emails out of office hours and
even while on holiday. Eyespy has heard this described as "CrackBerry
nation" (www.hp.co.uk).
Golfer's "yips" - jerky strokes
that ruin your handicap - may be muscle disorders similar to
writer's cramp. Charles Adler and colleagues from the Mayo Clinic,
Arizona, United States, asked 20 male golfers, 10 with yips and 10 without,
to hit 75 putts at varying distances from the hole. The researchers
recorded muscle activity in their arms. Half of the golfers with a history
of yips had spasms just before they struck the ball, and were also the
poorest players. None of the control group had abnormal muscle
contractions. Although no treatment options have yet been devised, Eyespy
recommends retiring to the clubhouse for a drink - she generally gets
her first yip at around noon.
While yachting on the Adriatic this Spring, Eyespy made
the acquaintance of a handsome informatics student - some things never
cease to amaze. This Italian stallion was showing off a device that
supports patients with mnemonic or motor disabilities who take multiple
drugs. The device tells the user to take drugs, follow a specific
treatment, or get a check-up. It also checks a user's compliance with
treatment and lets the doctor know about failure. It monitors the
availability of drugs in the patient's home and can buy drugs (at the
most convenient price) without the patient leaving home using a special
intelligent drug trading system connected to the pharmacies in the region
(email milella_natale@tim.com for more information).
Fat people might end up having the last
laugh - literally. New research has shown that being fat may not pose
such a problem to health after all. The study has shown that people who are
overweight live longer. Researchers analysed death rates and body mass
index. 112000 excess deaths occurred in obese people compared with normal
weight people, but most of these - 82000 - were in extremely obese
people. There were 34000 excess deaths in underweight people but 86000
fewer in overweight people (JAMA 2005;293:1861-7).
IMAGE SOURCE/REX
onna live forever...
Happier people really are healthier, new evidence
shows. Previous research has linked depression with other health problems,
but new findings show that happier people are healthier overall than their
less cheerful counterparts. Happy men, in particular, had lower heart
rates, indicating good cardiovascular health. Andrew Steptoe and colleagues
at University College London asked more than 200 middle aged civil servants
how many happy moments they had in a typical day. The saliva of the
happiest people contained less cortisol, a stress hormone related to
conditions including type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. Men and women
who were generally unhappy reacted to stress by producing more fibrinogen
in their blood - a strong predictor of cardiovascular disease (Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, published online 19 April, www.pnas.org, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0409174102).
Girls who enjoy fairytales, such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, are more likely to
stay in violent relationships in later life. This is the conclusion of
research from the University of Derby to be presented at an international
conference next month. Susan Darker-Smith, a graduate student, interviewed
67 abused women in Leicester, of whom 61 put up with serial abuse because
they believed they could change their partner with patience, compassion,
and love. And these women were more likely to relate to submissive female
fairytale characters who were later rescued by a strong male hero. A
control group of non-abused women didn't agree (www.guardian.co.uk).
Research papers make excellent bedtime reading. They
sometimes have obtuse titles and barely-punctuated paragraphs, and they
often brim with undecipherable jargon. So Eyespy wasn't surprised to
hear about a computer science conference that was fooled into accepting a
fake paper. Three cheeky students from Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, USA, got fed up with being solicited for submissions and sent
in "Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access
Points and Redundancy." Although the paper had been created by a
computer program it was still accepted for presentation. Eyespy sometimes
wonders if similar methods are used for gaining acceptance to biomedical
journals.
Eyespy developed palpitations just reading an article
about how to approach clinical exams. Useful gems include "the day of
the exam is not the time to take your first dose of beta blockers"
and "do not rely on parking at the hospital." Finally,
"when the bell goes, stop talking and wait to be told to leave. Say
‘thank you' and leave quietly and promptly. Do not grimace,
weep or look desperate" (Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 2005;98:174-7).
studentBMJ 2005;13:177-220 May ISSN 0966-6494
