Why being left-handed matters for mental health treatment

Treatment for the most common mental health problems could be ineffective or even detrimental to about 50 percent of the population, according to a radical new model of emotion in the brain.
Since the 1970s, hundreds of studies have suggested that each hemisphere of the brain is home to a specific type of emotion. Emotions linked to approaching and engaging with the world - like happiness, pride and anger - lives in the left side of the brain, while emotions associated with avoidance - like disgust and fear - are housed in the right.

But those studies were done almost exclusively on right-handed people. That simple fact has given us a skewed understanding of how emotion works in the brain, according to Daniel Casasanto, associate professor of human development and psychology at Cornell University.

That longstanding model is, in fact, reversed in left-handed people, whose emotions like alertness and determination are housed in the right side of their brains, Casasanto suggests in a new study. Even more radical: The location of a person's neural systems for emotion depends on whether they are left-handed, right-handed or somewhere in between, the research shows.

The study, "Approach motivation in human cerebral cortex," is published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

According to the new theory, called the "sword and shield hypothesis," the way we perform actions with our hands determines how emotions are organized in our brains. Sword fighters of old would wield their swords in their dominant hand to attack the enemy -- an approach action -- and raise their shields with their non-dominant hand to fend off attack -- an avoidance action. Consistent with these action habits, results show that approach emotions depend on the hemisphere of the brain that controls the dominant "sword" hand, and avoidance emotions on the hemisphere that controls the non-dominant "shield" hand.

The work has implications for a current treatment for recalcitrant anxiety and depression called neural therapy. Similar to the technique used in the study and approved by the Food and Drug Administration, it involves a mild electrical stimulation or a magnetic stimulation to the left side of the brain, to encourage approach-related emotions.

But Casasanto's work suggests the treatment could be damaging for left-handed patients. Stimulation on the left would decrease life-affirming approach emotions. "If you give left-handers the standard treatment, you're probably going to make them worse," Casasanto said.

"And because many people are neither strongly right- nor left-handed, the stimulation won't make any difference for them, because their approach emotions are distributed across both hemispheres," he said.

"This suggests strong righties should get the normal treatment, but they make up only 50 percent of the population. Strong lefties should get the opposite treatment, and people in the middle shouldn't get the treatment at all."

However, Casasanto cautions that this research studied only healthy participants and more work is needed to extend these findings to a clinical setting.

Lifetime light alcohol drinkers had the lowest combined risk of mortality or developing cancer

The risk of mortality, and of developing a number of cancers, is lowest in light drinkers consuming an average of less than one drink per day across their lifetime, and the risk of some cancers increases with each additional drink per week, according to a new study, published this week in PLOS Medicine by Andrew Kunzmann of Queen's University Belfast, and colleagues.

In comparison, current U.S. guidelines recommend no more than 2 drinks per day for men and no more than 1 drink per day for women.

Even light-to-moderate levels of alcohol intake have previously been linked to increased cancer risk.

At the same time, research has demonstrated a "J-shaped" risk curve relating alcohol intake to all-cause mortality, suggesting some protective effect of light-to-moderate drinking, particularly for death from cardiovascular disease. Those results have led to mixed public health messages.

The new study analyzed whether combined risk of cancer or death from any cause differed in individuals with different alcohol intakes across their entire lifetime, using data from 99,654 individuals around the US who were followed for an average of 8.9 years as participants in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial. Alcohol use was measured using a diet history questionnaire administered between 1998 and 2000.

During the study, 9,559 deaths and 12,763 primary cancers occurred among the participants. The expected J-shaped relationship between overall mortality and alcohol consumption was seen: in comparison to lifetime light alcohol drinkers (1-3 drinks per week), lifetime never or infrequent drinkers (<1 1.01-1.13="" 1.02-1.18="" 1.03-1.13="" 1.07="" 1.08="" 1.10="" 1.13-1.30="" 1.21="" 95="" alcohol="" and="" as="" cancer-related="" cancer.="" cancer="" ci="" combined="" comparison="" confidence="" consumption.="" contrast="" day="" developing="" drink="" drinkers="" drinks="" further="" had="" hazard="" heavy="" in="" increased="" infrequent="" interval="" lifetime="" light="" linearly="" lowest="" mortality.="" mortality="" nbsp="" never="" of="" or="" overall="" p="" ratio="" risk="" the="" very="" week="" well="" with="">
The analysis is limited to older adults and may be confounded by socioeconomic factors, and the findings should not be taken to support a protective effect of light drinking, the authors caution.
"This study provides further insight into the complex relationship between alcohol consumption, cancer incidence, and disease mortality and may help inform public health guidelines," the authors say.

Bad habits that lead to cancer, chronic disease corrected by simple lifestyle intervention

Does this sound like someone you know? He or she spends too much time in front of screens, gets little exercise and eats a diet high in fat and low in fruits and vegetables.

It likely sounds familiar because it describes a significant portion of the U.S. population.
A new Northwestern Medicine study found that a lifestyle intervention could fully normalize these four unhealthy behaviors, which put people at risk of developing heart disease and common cancers, including breast, colon and prostate.

The study will be published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research Tuesday, June 19.
"Our findings suggest that prevention of chronic disease through behavior change is feasible. They contradict the pessimistic assumption that it's not possible to motivate relatively healthy people to make large, long-lasting healthy lifestyle changes," said lead author Bonnie Spring, director of the Center for Behavior and Health in the Institute for Public Health and Medicine and professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

With the help of a smartphone app, a wearable activity tracker, some social support from a coach and a small financial incentive, study participants made large improvements in their eating and activity habits. From a starting point of less than two servings of fruits and vegetables per day, they increased their intake by 6.5 servings per day. They decreased saturated fat intake by 3.6 percent to consume less than 8 percent of their calories from saturated fat. From a baseline of 4.5 hours per day of leisure screen time, they decreased screen time by almost three hours and increased their moderate to vigorous exercise by 25 minutes per day over a nine-month trial.

Even better, participants were able to achieve the same gains whether they implemented all four diet and exercise changes simultaneously or sequentially (changing two or three first and then changing other behaviors later).
"When most people start a diet and exercise plan, they're excited to hit the ground running, but they can feel quickly defeated when they can't keep up with everything," Spring said. "The tech tools, support and incentives our intervention offered made the changes simple and motivating enough that our participants were able to start making them all at once without becoming overwhelmed."
Previous research has found that healthy behavior change usually reverts once financial incentives cease. But this study stopped offering the financial incentive after only 12 weeks, and participants still achieved positive results throughout the nine-month trial.
Additionally, the changes observed in this study and in a prior trial by the same group were larger and more sustained than what has been previously observed in studies of technology-supported interventions. Spring said she attributes this to two features of the intervention: modest early financial incentives that motivate participants to make changes larger than what they thought they could achieve; and giving digital feedback not only to participants but also to coaches.
How they conducted the study
Between 2012 and 2014, the study, Make Better Choices 2, enrolled 212 Chicago-area adults, primarily female (76 percent), minority (59 percent), college educated (69 percent) and with a mean age of 41 years old. All participants had low fruit and vegetable and high saturated fat intakes, low moderate to vigorous physical activity and high sedentary leisure screen time.
Participants used smartphones and accelerometers to track their activity and behavior, which they also sent to a coach who monitored whether they were tracking and how they were eating and being active. Perfect behavioral adherence was rewarded with an incentive of $5 per week for 12 weeks.
Based on the incoming data, the coach counseled people by telephone in 10- to 15-minute personalized sessions, weekly for three months, then biweekly for the next three months. Then, until nine months, they retained the intervention app but received no further coaching.
"We suggest that giving accelerometer feedback to both the participant and their coach is the way to improve diet and activity habits, because the coach can support, hold the person accountable and personalize coaching when they know what's going on," Spring said.

Possible link found between diabetes and common white pigment

In a pilot study by a team of researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, crystalline particles of titanium dioxide -- the most common white pigment in everyday products ranging from paint to candies -- were found in pancreas specimens with Type 2 diabetes, suggesting that exposure to the white pigment is associated with the disease.
Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) is not a known constituent of any normal human tissue. Our body normally has plenty of salts and compounds of metallic elements such as sodium, potassium, calcium, iron and magnesium, as well as lesser amounts of other metallic elements like cobalt or molybdenum but not of titanium.
The team examined 11 pancreas specimens, eight of which were from donors who had Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and three from donors who did not. Whereas the three non-diabetic pancreatic tissue specimens contained no detectable TiO2 crystals, the crystals were detected in all of the eight T2D pancreatic tissue specimens. The UT Austin researchers found more than 200 million TiO2 crystallites per gram of TiO₂ particles in the specimens from T2D donors but not in the three specimens from non-diabetic donors. They published their findings last month in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.
The UT study was led by Adam Heller, professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering in the Cockrell School of Engineering, a 2007 recipient of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation and a lifelong champion for diabetes research. Heller was a leading member of the teams that designed FreeStyle, the first painless blood-glucose-monitoring system used by millions of people with diabetes worldwide; and the glucose-sensing technology of the FreeStyle Libre system, developed by Abbott Diabetes Care.
"Our initial findings raise the possibility that Type 2 diabetes could be a chronic crystal-associated inflammatory disease of the pancreas, similar to chronic crystal-caused inflammatory diseases of the lung such as silicosis and asbestosis," Heller said.
In the mid-20th century, titanium dioxide pigment replaced highly toxic lead-based pigments. It became the most commonly used white pigment in paints and in foods, medications, toothpaste, cosmetics, plastics and paper. As a result, annual production of titanium dioxide has increased by 4 million tons since the 1960s.
According to the World Health Organization, the number of people with diabetes has quadrupled during the past four decades, affecting approximately 425 million people, with T2D comprising the majority of recorded cases. Although obesity and an aging population are still considered major factors leading to a rise in T2D cases worldwide, Heller's study suggests that increased use of titanium dioxide may also be linked to the rapid rise in the number of people suffering from the disease.
"The increased use of titanium dioxide over the last five decades could be a factor in the Type 2 diabetes epidemic," Heller said. "The dominant T2D-associated pancreatic particles consist of TiO₂ crystals, which are used as a colorant in foods, medications and indoor wall paint, and they are transported to the pancreas in the bloodstream. The study raises the possibility that humanity's increasing use of TiO2 pigment accounts for part of the global increase in the incidence of T2D."
Given the wide-reaching implications of his findings, Heller is keen to repeat the study, but this time using a larger sample. "We have already begun a broader study," he said. "Our work isn't over yet."

The iPad neck plagues women more

Is your iPad being a literal pain in the neck?

The answer is likely yes -- especially if you're a young adult or a woman. "iPad neck" -- persistent pain in the neck and upper shoulders caused by slouching or bending into extreme positions while using tablet computers -- is a growing problem among Americans, according to a new UNLV study.
Findings, released last week in the Journal of Physical Therapy Science, show:

"iPad neck," sometimes called "tablet neck," is usually associated with sitting without back support, such as on a bench or on the ground, or slumping over the tablet while it rests in the user's lap. Other postures significantly associated with pain included using tablets while lying on the side or back.

• The condition is more prevalent among young adults than older adults.
• Women were 2.059 times more likely to experience musculoskeletal symptoms during iPad use than men.
• Those with a history of neck and shoulder pain reported experiencing more neck and shoulder symptoms during tablet computer use.

UNLV physical therapy professor Szu-Ping Lee, lead author of the study, said the results concern him, especially given the growing popularity of tablet computers, e-book readers, and other connected devices for personal, school, and business purposes.

"Such high prevalence of neck and shoulder symptoms, especially among the younger populations, presents a substantial burden to society," he said.

"We were able to quantify exactly how frequent those problems are and what common factors contribute to them," Lee said. The top risk factor was surprising. "Theoretically, the more hours you spend bent over an iPad, the more neck and shoulder pain you experience -- but what we found is that time is not the most important risk factor. Rather, it's gender and specific postures."

UNLV -- in conjunction with researchers from hospitals and physical therapy centers across Southern Nevada -- conducted a survey of 412 public university students, staff, faculty, and alumni (135 men and 275 women) who are touchscreen tablet computer users about their device usage habits and neck/shoulder complaints. (No word on how many of those surveyed completed the questionnaire on an iPad.)

The most frequently reported symptoms were stiffness, soreness, or aching pain in the neck, upper back/shoulder, arms/hands, or head. Most (55 percent) reported moderate discomfort, but 10 percent said their symptoms were severe and 15 percent said it affected their sleep.

Postures that led to pain included those that cause the tablet user to "slump" over and gaze downward:

• Sitting without back support (This increased odds of pain by over two times)
• Sitting with the device in the lap
• Sitting in a chair with the tablet placed on a flat desk surface

Flexing the neck forward for long periods of time can put pressure on the spine, causing neck and shoulder muscle strain and pain.

Researchers found that the group of university students, staff, and alumni they studied reported a higher prevalence of neck and shoulder pain than the general population -- likely attributed to posture and sedentary behavior commonly observed among people in a university setting. Researchers noted that students especially are less likely to have a dedicated work space while on the go so might sit in uncomfortable postures such as slouched cross-legged on the floor when studying on their tablet computers.

Still, only 46 percent of respondents said they'd stop using the device when experiencing discomfort.
Regarding gender differences, 70 percent of female respondents reported experiencing symptoms compared to just under 30 percent of men. Interestingly, women were also more likely (77 percent) to use their tablets while sitting on the floor than men (23 percent).

The pain disparity among genders might be explained by size and movement differences. According to the researchers, women's tendency to have lower muscle strength and smaller stature (for example: shorter arms and narrow shoulders) might lead them to assume extreme neck and shoulder postures while typing.

Preventing iPad Neck

Lee offered these tips:

• Sit with in a chair with back support. "And perhaps that's something for building planners to think about: Installing benches or other chairs without back support invites people to crunch down with iPads in their laps, contributing to posture-related pain problems," Lee said.
• Use a posture reminder device. Also known as "posture trainers" or "posture coaches," these small, wearable devices adhere directly to the skin or clip on to clothing and beep to let you know when you're slouching.
• Take a stand. Place your iPad on a stand (rather than a flat surface) and attach a keyboard in order to achieve a more upright posture when using your tablet.
• Exercise to strengthen neck and shoulder muscles. This is particularly important for women who experience neck and shoulder pain. "Using these electronic devices is becoming a part of our modern lives," Lee said. "In order to reduce the risk of developing long-term neck and shoulder problems, we need to think about how technology like tablet computer affects human ergonomics and posture."

Kitchen towels could cause food poisoning

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Researchers from the University of Mauritius have shown that factors such as family size, type of diet, multi-usage of towels, among other factors, impact the growth of pathogens on kitchen towels, potentially causing food poisoning. The research is presented at ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, held from June 7th to June 11th in Atlanta, Georgia.

"Our study demonstrates that the family composition and hygienic practices in the kitchen affected the microbial load of kitchen towels," said Dr. Biranjia-Hurdoyal."We also found that diet, type of use and moist kitchen towels could be very important in promoting the growth of potential pathogens responsible for food poisoning," she said.

49% of the kitchen towels collected in the study had bacterial growth which increased in number with extended family, presence on children and increasing family size. The towels for multipurpose usage (wiping utensils, drying hands, holding hot utensils, wiping/cleaning surfaces) had a higher bacterial count than single-use towels and humid towels showed higher bacterial count than the dry ones. Out of the 49 samples which were positive for bacterial growth, 36.7% grew coliforms, 36.7% Enterococcus spp and 14.3% S. aureus.

"In this study, we investigated the potential role of kitchen towels in cross-contamination in the kitchen and various factors affecting the microbial profile and load of kitchen towels," said Dr. Susheela D. Biranjia-Hurdoyal, Senior Lecturer, Department of Health Sciences, University of Mauritius, lead author on the study.

A total of 100 kitchen towels were collected after one month of use. The researchers cultured the bacteria and identified them by standard biochemical tests. They also determined the bacterial load on the towels.

S. aureus was isolated at a higher rate from families of lower socio-economic status and those with children. The risk of having coliforms (Escherichia coli) was higher from humid towels than the dried ones, from multipurpose towels than single-use ones and from families on non-vegetarian diets.
Coliform and S. aureus were detected at significantly higher prevalence from families with non-vegetarian diets. Escherichia coli is a normal flora of human intestine and it is released in large numbers in human feces. The presence of Escherichia coli indicates possible fecal contamination and lack of hygiene practices.

"The data indicated that unhygienic practices while handling non-vegetarian food could be common in the kitchen," said Dr. Biranjia-Hurdoyal. The presence of potential pathogens from the kitchen towels indicates that they could be responsible for cross-contamination in the kitchen and could lead to food poisoning. "Humid towels and multipurpose usage of kitchen towels should be discouraged. Bigger families with children and elderly members should be especially vigilant to hygiene in the kitchen," she said.

This study was done by Moodelly V as part of an undergraduate project under the supervision of Susheela D Biranjia-Hurdoyal, Senior Lecturer from the Department of Health Sciences, University of Mauritius, Mauritius. The practical component of the work was funded by the University of Mauritius.

Loneliness is bad for the heart

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Loneliness is bad for the heart and a strong predictor of premature death, according to a study presented today at EuroHeartCare 2018, the European Society of Cardiology's annual nursing congress. The study found that feeling lonely was a stronger predictor of poor outcomes than living alone, in both men and women.

"Loneliness is more common today than ever before, and more people live alone," said Anne Vinggaard Christensen, study author and PhD student, The Heart Centre, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark. "Previous research has shown that loneliness and social isolation are linked with coronary heart disease and stroke, but this has not been investigated in patients with different types of cardiovascular disease."

The study investigated whether poor social network was associated with worse outcomes in 13,463 patients with ischaemic heart disease, arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm), heart failure, or heart valve disease. Data from national registers was linked with the DenHeart survey, which asked all patients discharged from April 2013 to April 2014 from five heart centres in Denmark to answer a questionnaire about their physical and mental health, lifestyle factors such as smoking, and social support.

Social support was measured using registry data on living alone or not, and survey questions about feeling lonely -- Do you have someone to talk to when you need it? Do you feel alone sometimes even though you want to be with someone? "It was important to collect information on both, since people may live alone but not feel lonely while others cohabit but do feel lonely," explained Ms Vinggaard Christensen.

Feeling lonely was associated with poor outcomes in all patients regardless of their type of heart disease, and even after adjusting for age, level of education, other diseases, body mass index, smoking, and alcohol intake. Loneliness was associated with a doubled mortality risk in women and nearly doubled risk in men. Both men and women who felt lonely were three times more likely to report symptoms of anxiety and depression, and had a significantly lower quality of life than those who did not feel lonely.

"Loneliness is a strong predictor of premature death, worse mental health, and lower quality of life in patients with cardiovascular disease, and a much stronger predictor than living alone, in both men and women," said Ms Vinggaard Christensen.

Ms Vinggaard Christensen noted that people with poor social support may have worse health outcomes because they have unhealthier lifestyles, are less compliant with treatment, and are more affected by stressful events. But she said: "We adjusted for lifestyle behaviours and many other factors in our analysis, and still found that loneliness is bad for health."

She concluded: "We live in a time when loneliness is more present and health providers should take this into account when assessing risk. Our study shows that asking two questions about social support provides a lot of information about the likelihood of having poor health outcomes."

European guidelines on cardiovascular prevention state that people who are isolated or disconnected from others are at increased risk of developing and dying prematurely from coronary artery disease. The guidelines recommend assessment of psychosocial risk factors in patients with established cardiovascular disease and those at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease.