The Claim: A Fake Smile Can be Bad for Your Health

By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
Published: February 21, 2011

When was the last time you flashed a fake smile at the office?

For some, it may be just another mundane aspect of work life — putting on a game face to hide your inner unhappiness. But new research suggests that it may have unexpected consequences: worsening your mood and causing you to withdraw from the tasks at hand.

In a study published this month in the Academy of Management Journal, scientists tracked a group of bus drivers for two weeks, focusing on them because their jobs require frequent, and generally courteous, interactions with many people.

The scientists examined what happened when the drivers engaged in fake smiling, known as “surface acting,” and its opposite, “deep acting,” where they generated authentic smiles through positive thoughts, said an author of the study, Brent Scott, an assistant professor of management at Michigan State University.


Read the rest of the article here.

Speaking Several Languages Might Protect Memory

Study found those who spoke four or more were less likely to suffer cognitive impairment

By Charnicia Huggins

TUESDAY, Feb. 22 (HealthDay News) -- The ability to speak several languages not only looks good on a resume when you're young, it may have neurological benefits well after you pass retirement age.

A new study finds that seniors who speak three, four or more languages may have a lower risk of impaired memory than their peers.

Most people already know the cultural advantages of learning foreign languages, but now it appears there are also health benefits to being able to speak in more than one tongue, said lead researcher Magali Perquin, of the Center for Health Studies from the Public Research Center for Health in Luxembourg.

Read the rest of the article here.

Brain's 'reward' center responds to bad experiences too

2011-02-23

Scientists have found that the so-called reward center not only responds to good experiences but also to bad ones.

The finding may help explain the 'thrill' of thrill-seeking behavior or maybe just the thrill of surviving it, according to scientists at Georgia Health Sciences University and East China Normal University.

Eating chocolate or falling off a building-or just the thought of either-can evoke production of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that can make the heart race and motivate behavior, said Joe Z. Tsien, Co-Director of GHSU's Brain and Behavior Discovery Institute.

Scientists looked at dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area of the mouse brain, widely studied for its role in reward-related motivation or drug addiction.

Read the full article here.

Cell Phone Use Impacts Brain Activity

By Catherine Donaldson-Evans
Feb 22nd 2011 4:00PM

Talking on a cell phone for close to an hour has an impact on brain activity, according to the latest research on the subject -- but the long-term health effects remain unclear.

A preliminary study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that using the cell for 50 minutes was associated with a spike in brain glucose metabolism, which is a marker for brain activity.

The increased glucose metabolism happened in the area of the brain closest to the phone antenna, said scientists from the National Institutes of Health. What the results mean from a health standpoint isn't yet known.

Read the rest of the article here.

Sleep and Epilepsy

As part of a comprehensive approach to treating epilepsy and preventing seizures, sleep disorders should be addressed.

Watch this short video by Dr Rotenberg on the topic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fll_WIxqy9s&feature=related

In Women’s Tears, a Chemical That Says, ‘Not Tonight, Dear’

By PAM BELLUCK

Published: January 6, 2011

When we cry, we may be doing more than expressing emotion. Our tears, according to striking new research, may be sending chemical signals that influence the behavior of other people.

The research, published on Thursday in the journal Science, could begin to explain something that has baffled scientists for generations: Why do humans, unlike seemingly any other species, cry emotional tears?

In several experiments, researchers found that men who sniffed drops of women’s emotional tears became less sexually aroused than when they sniffed a neutral saline solution that had been dribbled down women’s cheeks. While the studies were not large, the findings showed up in a variety of ways, includingtestosterone levels, skin responses, brain imaging and the men’s descriptions of their arousal.

“Chemical signaling is a form of language,” said one of the researchers, Dr. Noam Sobel, a professor of neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute in Israel. “Basically what we’ve found is the chemo-signaling word for ‘no’ — or at least ‘not now.’ ”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/science/07tears.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/01/05/science.1198331

Retracted autism study an 'elaborate fraud,' British journal finds

(CNN) -- A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines was an "elaborate fraud" that has done long-lasting damage to public health, a leading medical publication reported Wednesday.

An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible.....

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05/autism.vaccines/index.html?hpt=T1

Alphabet soup of the medical world

Board Certified

Medical Doctor

Doctor of Osteopathy

Resident

Fellow

Nurse Practitioner - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_practitioner

November is Epilepsy Awareness Month - Get the Seizure Facts

Get the facts about seizures and epilepsy!!

Here is a great one page resource on the facts about seizures. JR

Seizure First Aid Do you know what to do?

From Dr. Rotenberg, Child & Adolescent Neurologist
Board Certified Epileptologist
Member American Epilepsy Society 
www.txmss.com - 714-464-4107

Do you know what to do?
Find out How Seizure Smart You Are and Take the Quiz!

This November, for National Epilepsy Awareness Month, the Epilepsy Foundation is asking everyone to Get Seizure Smart about seizure first aid, recognition and types. Epilepsy affects people of all ages and races, and represents one percent of the population in this country—nearly 3 million people.

Review Seizure First Aid (convulsive, generalized tonic-clonic)

http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/neam/