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With the housing market spiraling downward, 401(k) investments taking a dive, gas prices over the top, people lining up to pull their money out of banks, and jobs disappearing, the Trust for America's Health has a much-needed bit of optimistic investment advice.
 Nationwide, if we spend $10 per person in proven community-based programs to boost physical activity, improve nutrition and prevent smoking, the country could save more than $16 billion annually within five years, according to a report released today. That comes out to a savings of $5.60 for every dollar invested.
The organization's report, "Prevention for a Healthier America: Investments in Disease Prevention Yield Significant Savings, Stronger Communities," includes a state-by-state analysis of savings. California, for example, would get a savings of $4.80 for every dollar spent. An investment of $10 per Californian would save more than $1.7 billion within five years.
The report focuses on programs that do not require medical care, such as efforts to add sidewalks and parks in communities; to provide affordable, nutritious food; and to increase tobacco taxes.
Implementing programs related to exercise, diet and smoking reduction have been shown to reduce rates of Type II diabetes and high blood pressure by 5% within two years. Such programs can also reduce heart disease, kidney disease and stroke by 5% within five years, and reduce some forms of cancer, arthritis and lung disease by 2.5% within 10 to 20 years.
"Healthcare costs are crippling the U.S. economy. Keeping Americans healthier is one of the most important, but overlooked ways we could reduce these costs," Jeff Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health, said in a news release. "This study shows that with a strategic investment in effective, evidence-based disease prevention programs, we could see tremendous returns in less than five years -- sparing millions of people from serious diseases and saving billions of dollars."
-- Susan Brink
--Illustration: Michael Osburn Tribune Media Services
A new study suggests that the tobacco industry is still adept at manipulating the contents of cigarettes, with an eye on satisfying the tastes of young people. Kids like a light taste of menthol, so that's what cigarette manufacturers are providing.
It's no secret that the tobacco industry was pretty good, throughout the first half of the 20th century, at confusing the scientific evidence about the health harm caused by cigarettes. The industry had an entire research arm, called the Council for Tobacco Research, that claimed to be dedicated to dealing with what it called the health scare being perpetrated against smoking. The council dissolved in 1999, but until then it helped the industry battle scientific findings linking smoking to cancer and heart disease with scientific-sounding attacks.
 One psychological attack by the council during the Cold War-era of the 1950s, for example, suggested that cigarette critics had hidden pyrophobia, a fear of fire, and a repressed fear of the atom bomb.
Today, there's solid evidence that smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, as well as many other health problems, and no one is suggesting the health fears are all in your head.
A 2007 report by the Harvard School of Public Health showed that nicotine levels, the addictive element that makes cigarettes tough to quit, are increasing. Now a new study in the American Journal of Public Health suggests that the tobacco industry has been manipulating the levels of menthol in cigarettes to appeal to young smokers. The study is in the September 2008, issue, but is being released online today.
About 90% of cigarette customers get hooked on nicotine before age 19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The irony is that most smokers become addicted before they're legally old enough to buy a pack.
And kids prefer a minty taste when they first light up. Menthol brands have been rising in popularity with young adults, according to Gregory Connolly, professor of public health and co-author of the paper. Researchers looked at tobacco industry internal documents and found that cigarette companies were doing their own research into how controlling menthol levels could increase brand sales among specific groups. They found that older smokers liked a stronger hit of menthol, while younger smokers sneaking their first puffs preferred a light hint of menthol -- just enough to ease the burning shock to the throat. One 1987 document from R.J. Reynolds, cited in the study, said, "First-time smoker reaction is generally negative .... Initial negatives can be alleviated with a low level of menthol."
The companies positioned and marketed milder menthol products to appeal primarily to new smokers, introducing milder brands, such as Marlboro Milds, according to the study. "This is another example of the cynical behavior of the tobacco industry to hook teens," says Connolly.
-- Susan Brink
Photo credit: AP Carollyn Kaster
 Getting a tattoo is so common it almost seems like a rite of passage for young people. But a new study sheds a little light on personality characteristics that prompt some people to get tattoos.
The study published this week in the journal Personality and Mental Health looked at a very small segment of the population: hospitalized psychiatric patients who had committed crimes. Researchers at the Michigan Center for Forensic Psychiatry examined 36 male inpatients at a maximum-security state psychiatric facility. They looked for the presence of tattoos and whether the men had a mental disorder called Antisocial Personality Disorder. ASPD is characterized by a lack of empathy and remorse, a low tolerance for anxiety and shallowness. The behavior must have developed before age 15 to qualify for the diagnosis. The researchers found that 73% of the men with tattoos had ASPD while only 29% of those without tattoos had the diagnosis. The men with ASPD and tattoos tended to have many tattoos in more visible locations.
What does this say about law-abiding citizens with tattoos? Perhaps nothing. The study's findings may or may not be relevant to the general population, says the study's author, Dr. William Cardasis. But he noted that the research raises questions such as "whether adolescents with tattoos are more likely to have conduct disorder than those without, and what the effect the meaning and subject content of the tattoo has."
Sounds like a new academic pursuit: The field of tattoo studies.
-- Shari Roan
Photo: AP Photo/Inked Inc. Press
 More American communities than ever have optimally fluoridated water, according to a report published late last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the report, the percentage of the U.S. population served by water systems with optimal fluoridation increased from 62% in 1992 to 69% in 2006. This isn't as high as federal health officials would like, but they say it's heading in the right direction.
Others aren't so sure "up" is the direction. The health effects of fluoridated water have been debated for years and show no signs of abating. Though the American Dental Assn. stands firmly behind water fluoridation, other health experts think too much fluoride could alter other body functions, such as thyroid and neurological function, according to the Fluoride Action Network.
Fluoridation in California, by the way, is much lower than in many other states. According to the new CDC report, only 27% of Californians reside in areas with optimal fluoridated water. See the full report on water fluoridation at the CDC website. You can see if the water supply in your community is fluoridated by going to the California Department of Health Services fluoridation page.
-- Shari Roan
Photo: Joe Pugliese/Los Angeles Times
Hundreds of chick flix, chick lit and sitcom plots center on a woman in her 30s realizing that she's running low on eggs, she won't be getting any new ones, and time is running out.
Long ago, science relieved women of the blame they once carried in many cultures for not conceiving a boy child. Researchers figured out that it's the man's sperm that determines a baby's gender. Now, researchers at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology have lifted some of the burden of blame when a woman in her 30s or 40s can't get pregnant. If her mate is 35 or older, there's a reduced chance she'll get pregnant, and increased odds that she'll suffer a miscarriage.
 In a study of 21,239 artificial inseminations, French scientists report that men over age 35 are less likely to impregnate a woman. It was, researchers said, the first clinical proof that being an older man has a direct effect on a couple's fertility. Miscarriage rates also increased when the man was over age 35.
Science has long known that a woman's odds of getting pregnant dip, and then plummet, throughout her 30s. "But we also found that the age of the father was important in pregnancy rates -- men over 35 had a negative effect," said Dr. Stephanie Belloc of the Eylau Centre for Assisted Reproduction in Paris in a news release. "And, perhaps more surprisingly, miscarriage rates increased where the father was over 35."
The scientists suggest that when either the man or the woman is over age 35, infertility treatment options, including in vitro fertilization (so-called test tube fertilization), might be more successful than intrauterine insemination (so-called turkey baster insemination.)
-- Susan Brink
Photo credit: Associated Press
 For those of you heading to Hawaii for vacation, you might want to consider a permanent move. The Aloha State has the lowest ratio of mentally distressed people, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC looks at a measure called "frequent mental distress" in surveys conducted each year. The term captures people who say they are mentally unhealthy for 14 or more days within the previous 30 days. Mental distress is defined as having stress, depression and problems with emotions.
Nationally, the average percentage of mentally distressed people was 9.4%. Hawaiians, however, reported only 6.6% of its population as mentally distressed, and South Dakota is also a psychological haven, reporting a 6.7% rate. In California, 10.9% of us are mentally distressed. That's probably not a surprise given wildfires, earthquakes and falling home prices. But cheer up, things are worse in Kentucky (14%).
-- Shari Roan
You can lower high blood pressure by losing weight, exercising, cutting down on salt, eating better or, if those lifestyle methods fail, taking drugs. But do we do it? Nooo.
 High blood pressure was the second heart disease risk factor, after smoking, identified by the Framingham Heart Study. A host of medications on the market can lower it. It is the most common, reversible cardiovascular disease risk factor in the world, projected to affect 1.5 billion people around the globe by 2025.
The key word is "reversible." High blood pressure, also called hypertension, can come down, and lowering blood pressure substantially reduces the risk of heart attack or stroke. Hypertension is defined as 140/90 or higher, and for each drop of 10 in the top number, or systolic pressure, the average risk of heart attack and stroke goes down 30% and 40%, respectively.
"Only about one-third of patients with hypertension in the United States have their BP lowered to target goals," writes Dr. Daniel W. Jones and Dr. Eric D. Peterson in an editorial in today's Journal of the American Medical Assn.
It has frustrated doctors for decades. They have the tools to help lower risk, but have been unable to figure out how to make patients use the tools. Patients fall off diets, stop exercising and often don't take their prescriptions every day. Or they don't return to the doctor often enough to see if the medications are doing the trick, or if the doctor needs to tinker with a dose, or try a new drug.
A study in the same issue of JAMA finds that a pharmacist can help bring down high-risk numbers. Researchers from Group Health Center for Health Studies recruited 778 patients, all members of the Seattle-based HMO, who had uncontrolled hypertension. The patients also had Internet access. A third of them received the usual care, which was instruction from their doctors and educational pamphlets. Another third of the volunteers received usual care plus a home-monitoring blood pressure cuff and training in how to get information from a website.
The final third received all of that, plus personal monitoring via emails at least every two weeks from a pharmacist trained in blood pressure control. The pharmacist, also in contact with the patient's physician, reminded them to send in blood pressure readings, encouraged them to make lifestyle changes, and altered medications and doses if blood pressure wasn't coming down.
About one-third of patients in the first two groups were able to lower their blood pressure. But with the help of a pharmacist, 56% of patients in the third group got their blood pressure under control.
It could be that nagging helps. Those relentless messages in patients' inboxes from the druggist prodded people to remember to take their medications, or do their exercises.
--Susan Brink
Photo: Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times
 Any podiatrist or orthopedic surgeon specializing in the foot will say this about women's 3- or 4-inch high heels: Don't wear them. Or if you wear them, don't walk.
But the recently released "Sex and the City" movie will no doubt trigger shoe lust in naive young women, and even in women who have been hurt before.
So for those who know that high heels can lead to blisters, callouses, corns, hammertoes, bunions and foot damage that can torment them for the rest of their lives, but who still can't resist the calf-enhancing, seductive effect of the high heel -- not to worry.
Eve Michaels, Beverly Hills image consultant, has advice on just how to wear Jimmy Choo stilettos when the call of the sexy shoe overwhelms all logic and reason. One such moment is immortalized by Carrie Bradshaw in the HBO series when she spots a pair of mile-high Manolos and dreamily croons, "Hello, Lover."
For those who should, and probably do, know better, here are Michaels' top five tips on wearing "Sex and the City" shoes -- with comments on each by the president-elect of the California Podiatric Medical Assn., Daniel Altchuler, Santa Monica podiatrist.
1. The ball of the woman's foot must line up with the ball of the shoe. In other words, the pattern of the shoe must match the shape of the woman's foot. That's good advice, says Altchuler. "That's where most people get in trouble with high heels," he says.
2. Buy pointy toe high heels a half size larger. Nonsense, says Altchuler. "They make the shoe like a regular shoe, then add more material for the pointy toe. You don't need a bigger size."
3. When standing in a pair of heels, the weight of the woman's feet must be on her heels, not thrust onto the balls of her feet. Otherwise agony, not pleasure from the delicious shoes, will be felt. "That'll never happen," says Altchuler. "Once a heel is more than an inch and a half, your foot jams forward."
4. The toes shouldn't be cramped into the shoe, and it should feel comfortable from the start. The right shoe should not need more than three wearings to feel great. Good advice on feeling comfortable immediately, but Altchuler wouldn't give it three wearings. It should feel good at the shoe store.
5. Realize that some high heels are made for walking and others are made for fine dining, partying or wearing in bed! A true diva knows the difference. Altchuler agrees that women can't do much more than try to keep their balance on very high heels. "They're for posing for pictures and sitting on bar stools," Altchuler says.
Altchuler has additional advice. When shopping for any shoes, buy them late in the day, because feet swell as the day goes on, and you'll get a more realistic fit. As for stilettos, they're pretty, not functional. "But I believe that everything in moderation is OK," he says. "If you're going to wear them to a wedding, take them off to dance."
--Susan Brink
Photo: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times
 The new book, "After the War Zone: A Practical Guide for Returning Troops and Their Families," (Lifelong Books), was written by two mental health experts who wanted "to make sure that the homecoming and reintegration process for our newest veterans would be greatly different than it was for the generation of Vietnam veterans."
That will be a difficult task. According to Pentagon statistics, 31% of Marines, 38% of soldiers and 49% of National Guard troops report psychological symptoms after returning home from war. In their book, Laurie B. Slone and Dr. Matthew J. Friedman, two experts with the VA National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, provide a guide to troops and family members about what they can expect from life after war and how to deal with common challenges. "Coming home, for some, can be harder than going to war," they write. After the joyous homecoming, service men and women often discover that they, and the people around them, have changed during their deployment. They find they cannot easily leave behind many of the feelings and memories generated by the war and that the mind-set that served them well in the war zone can cause problems after their homecoming.
The government has been heavily criticized for a lack of supportive services and healthcare for returning veterans. This book will assist people in finding the help they need and deserve. Library Journal says: "Far more than a practical guide, this is an informative, insightful and riveting text that should be required reading for everyone because no one is left untouched by war."
-- Shari Roan
For her whole life, Irene Taylor Brodsky watched her profoundly deaf parents try to imagine sound. She saw her mother bopping along with unheard music as she blasted the stereo, her feet on the speaker so she could feel the rhythm of the vibrations. She heard her father wonder whether sound was beautiful, or "just noise."
"They have been dreaming about sound all of their lives," Brodsky says in a film about them.
Paul and Sally Taylor were 65 at the time of their cochlear implants -- technology that can restore the ability to hear. Brodsky is the director of "Hear and Now," an HBO documentary about her parents' deafness and restored hearing, debuting Thursday at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time.
Her parents fell in love in childhood when they both attended a school for the deaf. They built a family and a successful and happy life. Sally Taylor was a teacher with expert lip reading skills that she occasionally used to help law enforcement officials with investigations. Paul Taylor was an engineer and professor who helped develop TTY, a telephone communication device for the hearing impaired.
On the cusp of their retirement, they announced to members of their four-generation family -- three children, grandchildren and parents -- that they planned to have the surgery to restore some element of hearing.
There are moments of tear-jerking sweetness after the implants: Sally flicking a light switch on and off, flushing a toilet again and again, amazed at the noise. Paul driving through a carwash twice in one day just to hear the sounds of water hitting the car.
The documentary is the story of medical technology, its hopes and its limitations. It also offers insights on the brain, how it processes language and when it might be simply too late to teach the gray matter a new form of communication. Mostly, it is a love story.
--Susan Brink
Photo by "Hear and Now" director Irene Taylor Brodsky, courtesy of HBO
 The joys of modern life -- we appear to be stuck with those stupid fat cells; we're hurting, especially if we don't make big bucks; and stress? Don't get us started on the stress. But at least we're not alone. Check out these stories from around the Web:
As ScienceNews reports:
"You may never truly beat the bulge, a new study suggests. ... A Cold War relic helped researchers in Sweden and their colleagues figure out the birth dates of fat cells in adults. Tracking the birthdays of belly-building cells uncovered some mixed news. First, the good news -- adults lose about 10 percent of fat cells each year. But the bad news is that all those cells are replaced."
From Time:
"Nursing a migraine today? New research shows you're not alone. More than a quarter of Americans suffer daily pain, a condition that costs the U.S. about $60 billion a year in lost productivity. And how often you're in pain depends largely on the size of your paycheck."
And from USA Today:
"If it seems tougher than in the past to deal with what life throws your way, you're not the only one who thinks so."
And it's only May 5. Can't wait to see the revelations June brings.
-- Tami Dennis
Photo: allspice1 (via Flickr, Creative Commons license)
At a conference on obesity in Aspen, Colo., last fall, I chatted with a local woman who was in her 50s, I'd say. (Though, on second thought, I know that extreme wealth goes a long way in helping people look younger, so maybe she was in her 60s. And now that I think about it, considering there are $20-million homes in those mountains, I guess she could have been in her 70s.)
Anyway, this great-looking octogenarian and I had just heard a presentation on the growing rates of obesity in the country, and she was truly shocked at the numbers of overweight Americans. "In Aspen," she said with a straight face, "we just don't have obesity."
I walked around town that evening, and, by golly, she was right. Everywhere I looked, nothing but svelte. Now a new comparison of multinational data shows that places like Aspen (let's not forget Beverly Hills) reflect the extreme end of a finding that as women in developed countries go up the education and income ladder, they shed pounds. The findings appear in the latest volume of the "Handbook of Development Economics," edited by USC professor of economics John Strauss. You can see more details in the press release.
In rich countries, wealthier women are better educated, and better-educated women weigh less, researchers found. (But in poor countries where malnutrition is rampant and underweight is a major problem, wealthy, better-educated people weigh more.) In the U.S., the body-mass index starts dropping with increased education early on. Women ages 22 to 75 who have no more than a fifth-grade education have a BMI of about 29. If they get a high school diploma, their BMI drops to about 28 and it starts plummeting with every year of college, to just over 25 if they get a bachelor's degree. For American men, BMI doesn't begin to drop until after the high school diploma is in hand, and even then drops less dramatically than for women.
Multiple studies have shown a link between decreased economic and social resources and higher rates of obesity. A study the Feb. 10 issue of ScienceDaily, for example, found in that addition to being related to individual characteristics, obesity is also related to the average income level of a neighborhood.
So, at long last, could this be the simple solution we've all been waiting for? Want to lose weight? Move to Aspen.
--Susan Brink
Alicia Silverstone in "Clueless," Photo by Elliott Marks
Check out these stories ...
* Mouthwash helps eliminate bad breath. No, it makes the stink worse. Does not. Does too. Newsweek looks beyond the posturing by various products to explore what oral rinses can and can't do.
* When she fell getting off a doctor's examination table and needed assistance to right herself again, Danielle Carter was mortified. The New Jersey woman resolved to lose weight -- and she did, dropping 248 pounds in a year. USA Today tells her story.
* Afraid of saying the wrong thing ... in yoga class? It's understandable. Even the basic "Om" is rarely used outside studio walls. But Yoga Journal doesn't want you to feel intimidated, alienated or any other -ated that might get in the way of a yoga practice. Here's what "Om" -- and other chants -- mean and, almost as important (for some), how to pronounce them.
These are just some of the stories available. Feel free to send in your own worthy links (unless you stand to make money off the publicity).
-- Tami Dennis
Photo: John Doman / St. Paul Pioneer Press
Ask kids what they want, and it may surprise you. It surprised Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute and author of "Ask the Children." More than half of the parents whom she interviewed for the book, 56% of them, guessed that when kids were asked what they would wish for if they could change anything about their parents' work lives, the kids would wish for more time with mom and dad. In fact, only 10% of the kids actually wished for more time with mom, and 15% wished for more time with dad.
Instead, 34% of kids wished their mothers, and 28% of kids wished their fathers, were less stressed out and tired. "Does this finding mean that children do not care about time?" she writes in the current issue of The American Psychoanalyst, with a special section on working parents and their children. "No. Children care about parents being less stressed because they do care about the time spent together." She talked to children in third through 12th grades, and those with working moms rated them as highly on parenting skills as those with stay-at-home moms.
Other articles in the issue include a discussion by Dr. Leon Hoffman, director of the Pacella Parent Child Center, of the near-universal feelings of ambivalence that working mothers feel. "Many mothers, while at work, wish they were home with their children, and while at home, wish they were back at work," he writes.
Ah, yes, those tugs and pulls. But knowing that the kids are happy with a little bit less of us, so long as we're relaxed and rested, can only help.
--Susan Brink
Photo: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times
Bullies take their toll long after the vulnerable high school years. A new study reported in the journal Psychology in the Schools found that the consequences of social bullying—gossip, rumors, verbal back-stabbing—linger into the victims’ adulthood in the form of depression and anxiety.
The lead researcher, Allison Dempsey, says she was set on her course to study bullying by her home town experience. She graduated from Columbine High School in Littleton, Col., in 1998, the year before the 1999 shootings there that killed 12 students, a teacher, and the two shooters, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. The two boys who committed the murders, it was later reported, were shunned by the school’s cliques.
University of Florida researchers studied 210 college students and found a relationship between being bullied in adolescence and later depression and anxiety in young adulthood. “Even though people are outside of high school, the memories of these experiences continue to be associated with depression and social anxiety,” said Dempsey,. “It was interesting to see these relationships still continue to exist even though they are in early adulthood now and in a completely different setting.”
The researchers found no gender differences in social bullying and later mental health consequences. And, in a surprising result, they found that for many young adults, a network of friends didn’t necessarily protect them from depression and anxiety. Some children, co-author Eric Storch, professor of psychiatry at the University of Florida, said in the press release, “…take the words and abuse more to heart and begin to believe what’s being said about them." Even if they have a supportive circle of friends.
The full journal article requires payment, but you can read the abstract, or find further details in the university's press release.
The problem is widespread. A story in the March 7, 2008, Los Angeles Times, "Meaner bullying is leading schools to find new tactics," reported on how some students, parents, teachers and school administrators are fighting back by reporting bullying incidents and trying to change school culture.
--Susan Brink
Drawing: Matt Groening
Are we headed toward government control of doctors, hospitals and healthcare? The term "socialized medicine" when applied to some proposed health plans implies that the U.S. is on that road. Now an analysis of candidates' plans finds that of all the plans out there, only one former presidential candidate's proposal comes even close to government-controlled and run healthcare — true socialized medicine — and he's no longer in the race.
According to the report by the Urban Institute: "Some single-payer proposals (like former candidate Dennis Kucinich's plan) would limit the ability of individuals to obtain, and providers to render, care outside the public system — potentially giving the federal government sufficient power to constitute the functional equivalent of socialized medicine."
The authors conclude that "no significant proposal seeks a government-run system and that inaccurate, fiery rhetoric is a distraction from much more important issues, such as how proposals affect cost, access, quality and choice."
But many Americans are ahead of the rhetoric. According to research reported in the Los Angeles Times on Feb. 25, few people are taken in by the boogeyman phrase. Robert Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health, found that of the 67% of people who said they understood the meaning of "socialized medicine," 79% thought it was a good thing. He also found a political divide: 70% of Republicans thought socialized medicine would make the U.S. healthcare system worse; 70% of Democrats thought it would improve the system.
--Susan Brink
Credit: Ed Stein / Rocky Mountain News
 So your little teenage darlings have figured out how to cheat on the drug tests you've been giving them. They abstain for a few days before the test. Or they dilute their urine samples. Maybe they've stumbled on a dog-eared 1987 copy of Abbie Hoffman's "Steal This Urine Test" and found tips on how to avoid getting caught by Mom and Dad via bodily fluid evidence.
Parents, San Diego-based Confirm BioSciences is helping you regain control with a home-based hair follicle drug test kit called HairConfirm Prescription. Now, all you have to do is tiptoe into your teen's bathroom and pluck a few hairs from a brush. Or find a few fresh hairs on the pillow after your adolescent has left for school.
Unlike urine or saliva tests, which can confirm drug use within the last two or three days, the hair testing kit can give a drug profile for the last 90 days, including 12 types of legal and illegal drugs. One satisfied customer was quoted in the company's news release. "I can tell you first hand how easy it is for families to dismiss the visible signs of drug abuse in a loved one," said Leigh Lehmann, a HairConfirm customer who purchased the kit for a family member. "But numbers don't lie, and the detailed information provided by this product will help bring people together to deal with it. I wish I had done this years ago."
The kit costs $89.99. When it comes to monitoring your teen, it is, as the news release says, a "more dignified method to use."
--Susan Brink
Photo: Los Angeles Times file
Having trouble with will power? Can't resist that chocolate chip cookie? Find yourself stepping outside for a smoke instead of a jog?
Maybe some extra incentive will help your resolve. At new website, stikK.com, you can "put a contract out on yourself," betting that you can meet self-improvement goals. The service is free but, if you choose, there can be a price for
failure; you can commit to donate to charity if you
backslide.
Ian Ayres, one of two Yale economics professors who founded the site, explained the reasoning in a recent Los Angeles Times opinion piece: "... as economists, we're here to tell you that plain, old-fashioned
financial incentives -- the risk of losing a substantial amount of
money -- are a pretty effective tool."
Check out one such attempt by KPCC-FM contributor Karen Fritsche, whose hilarious, first-person account of using stikK.com as a smoking-cessation tool was broadcast this week.
--Martin Beck
Photo: Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press
First, the caveats. Cancer patients, don’t try this on your own. Cancer research is riddled with the rise and fall of promising rodent findings, and the following study has been done only in mice.
Still, a study published March 31 in the online Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offers hope for cancer treatment, seductive in its simplicity. Valter Longo, an anti-aging researcher at USC, was part of a team of researchers who found that mice injected with aggressive human tumors and starved for two days before receiving a high dose of chemotherapy thrived and lived longer than untreated mice. Their well-fed rodent counterparts fared much worse. Half of the normally fed mice died following chemotherapy and those who survived suffered lasting weight and energy loss.
It's unknown whether fasting for two days before chemotherapy would improve results in people. But starved normal cells go into a kind of hibernation and are more able to resist outside stresses, like harmful chemotherapy agents. On the other hand, cancer cells never hibernate. Their on/off switch is stuck in the "on" position. So in theory, after a fast cancer cells remain vulnerable to toxic chemotherapy drugs, while starved normal cells are better able to resist their damage. The full study requires a paid subscription to the journal, but you can see the abstract for free.
The study offers a flip side to a top cancer research goal of targeting only cancer cells with toxic chemo drugs. The fasting strategy, rather than offering a silver bullet that aims only at cancer cells, instead offers a kind of silver shield to protect normal cells.
The next step is to design clinical trials with humans to test the effectiveness and safety of fasting before chemotherapy. In a press release, USC onlologist David Quinn, says, “Don’t try and do this at home. We need to do the studies.”
--Susan Brink
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