Personality Plays Role in Body Weight: Impulsivity Strongest Predictor of Obesity

 Practice low neuroticsim and high concienceousness to be in the mental framework for maintaining a healthy weight.

The researchers, from the National Institute on Aging, looked at data from a longitudinal study of 1,988 people to determine how personality traits are associated with weight and body mass index. Their conclusions were published online in the APA's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
"To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to examine whether personality is associated with fluctuations in weight over time," they wrote. "Interestingly, our pattern of associations fits nicely with the characteristics of these traits."
Participants were drawn from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, an ongoing multidisciplinary study of normal aging administered by the National Institute on Aging. Subjects were generally healthy and highly educated, with an average of 16.53 years of education. The sample was 71 percent white, 22 percent black, 7 percent other ethnicity; 50 percent were women. All were assessed on what's known as the "Big Five" personality traits -- openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism -- as well as on 30 subcategories of these personality traits. Subjects were weighed and measured over time. This resulted in a total of 14,531 assessments across the 50 years of the study.
Although weight tends to increase gradually as people age, the researchers, led by Angelina R. Sutin, PhD, found greater weight gain among impulsive people; those who enjoy taking risks; and those who are antagonistic -- especially those who are cynical, competitive and aggressive.
"Previous research has found that impulsive individuals are prone to binge eating and alcohol consumption," Sutin said. "These behavioral patterns may contribute to weight gain over time."
Among their other findings: Conscientious participants tended to be leaner and weight did not contribute to changes in personality across adulthood.

Regulating P53 Is a Matter of Life or Death

p53 has much broader importance in the life and death of cells. "It's critical for determining whether a cell survives stress and continues to function in a variety of situations," says Wahl.
One problem with p53 is that it apparently evolved to protect the integrity of the genome for future generations, rather than to prolong the lives of individual cells or animals. From the point of view of an animal, p53 sometimes goes too far in killing cells or suppressing growth. Experiments in mice have suggested that even modest reductions in p53's activity greatly increases survival after exposure to radiation, without raising the long-term cancer risk to unacceptable levels.

they found that p53 lacking its "dimmer switch" turned on too much of a gene called p21, which acts as a brake to halt cells from dividing. "To confirm the significance of that finding, we created mice that expressed the mutant p53, but had only one instead of the normal two copies of p21," Wahl says. "This reduced p21 levels after irradiation. Remarkably, this was enough to significantly reduce the mortality of the 'dimmerless' p53 mice. They were much less sensitive to radiation when they just had one less copy of p21." The study underscores the importance of an evolutionarily conserved regulatory segment of p53 and the importance of p53 activity in the response to conditions that produce DNA damage. "Our study indicates that the amount of damaged DNA caused by radiation or toxins, isn't the sole determinant of life or death," says Wahl. "The extent to which p53 is also very important."
One implication of this research is that drugs to lower p53 levels, or to reduce its transcription of other growth-stopping genes such as p21, might be used temporarily to reduce unwanted tissue damage from DNA-altering drugs or radiation. Another implication is that p53-boosting drugs, which are currently being tested in cancer patients, could have dangerous side effects if used in combination with other drugs that cause DNA damage. "Our mouse model suggests that if you use a p53-activating agent, the last thing you should do is combine it with a general DNA-damaging chemotherapy or radiotherapy," Wahl says.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110630171717.htm

Is Meditation the Push-Up for the Brain? Study Shows Practice May Have Potential to Change Brain's Physical Structure

"It is possible that actively meditating, especially over a long period of time, can induce changes on a micro-anatomical level," said Luders, herself a meditator.

As a consequence, she said, the robustness of fiber connections in meditators may increase and possibly lead to the macroscopic effects seen by DTI.

"Meditation, however, might not only cause changes in brain anatomy by inducing growth but also by preventing reduction," Luders said. "That is, if practiced regularly and over years, meditation may slow down aging-related brain atrophy, perhaps by positively affecting the immune system."

But there is a "but." While it is tempting to assume that the differences between the two groups constitute actual meditation-induced effects, there is still the unanswered question of nature versus nurture.

"It's possible that meditators might have brains that are fundamentally different to begin with," Luders said. "For example, a particular brain anatomy may have drawn an individual to meditation or helped maintain an ongoing practice -- meaning that the enhanced fiber connectivity in meditators constitutes a predisposition towards meditation, rather than being the consequence of the practice."

Still, she said, "Meditation appears to be a powerful mental exercise with the potential to change the physical structure of the brain at largehttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110714091940.htm

Researchers Demystify a Fountain of Youth in the Adult Brain

The scientists found that neighboring "epithelial-like" ependymal cells -- not stem cells themselves -- maintain a special structure that keeps neural stem cells "neurogenic," able to make new neuronshttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110713131413.htm

Prediction Markets on the Debt Ceiling, U.S. Credit Downgrade

Prediction Markets on the Debt Ceiling, U.S. Credit Downgrade

via Freakonomics » Blog by Freakonomics on 7/14/11

Over at Intrade, there are two “hot” markets involving the odds that Congress will raise the U.S. debt ceiling.

- Congress to approve increase in U.S. debt ceiling before midnight on July 31, 2011: 40% (It was 65% a month ago)

- Congress to approve increase in U.S. debt ceiling before midnight Aug. 31, 2011: 75% (It was 85% a month ago)

And at Irish bookmaker PaddyPower.com, here is the line on a Moody’s downgrade:

Will Moody’s downgrade the U.S.?

-Yes: 9/2

-No: 1/8

Changes in Specific Dietary Factors May Have Big Impact On Long-Term Weight Gain

In a series of three separate studies looking at how changes in multiple dietary and other lifestyle factors relate to long-term weight gain, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers found that modest changes in specific foods and beverages, physical activity, TV-watching, and sleep duration were strongly linked with long-term weight gain. Changes in diet, in particular, had the strongest associations with differences in weight gain.

When relations of lifestyle changes with weight gain were evaluated, the findings were strikingly similar in all 3 studies.

For example, the foods associated with the greatest weight gain over the 20-year study period included potato chips (for each one increased daily serving, +1.69 lb more weight gain every 4 years), other potatoes (1.28 lb), sugar-sweetened beverages (1.00 lb), unprocessed meats (0.95 lb), and processed meats (0.93 lb). Of note, several foods associated with less weight gain when their consumption was actually increased, including vegetables (−0.22 lb), whole grains (−0.37 lb), fruits (−0.49 lb), nuts (−0.57 lb) and yogurt (−0.82 lb). Evaluating all changes in diet together, participants in the lower 20% of dietary changes gained nearly 4 lbs more each 4 years than those in the top 20% -- an amount equivalent to the average weight gain in the population overall.

For diet, focusing only on total calories may not be the most useful way to consume fewer calories than one expends, say the researchers. Other yardsticks, such as content of total fat, energy density, or sugars, could also be misleading. Rather, they found that eating more healthful foods and beverages -- focusing on overall dietary quality -- was most important.

The most useful dietary metrics for preventing long-term weight gain appeared to be:

• Focus on improving carbohydrate quality by eating less liquid sugars (e.g. soda) and other sweets, as well as fewer starches (e.g. potatoes) and refined grains (e.g. white bread, white rice, breakfast cereals low in fiber, other refined carbohydrates).
• Focus on eating more minimally processed foods (e.g. fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, yogurt) and fewer highly processed foods (e.g. white breads, processed meats, sugary beverages).
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110622224457.htm

Shoplifting on the rise: A sign of recovery?

http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/23/pf/shoplifting/index.htm?section=money_pf&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fmoney_pf+%28Personal+Finance%29

"A lot of times shoplifting is an inside job," said Jim Angel, associate professor of finance at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

When the economy hit its lowest point, employees were primarily consumed with keeping their jobs, said Richard Hollinger, a criminology professor at the University of Florida and author of the security survey.

Shoplifting rates fell significantly in 2007. But as the recovery takes hold, shoplifting rates are on the rise again.

Workers were deterred from stealing simply because even minimum-wage jobs in retail were scarce. "They were so worried about their future, their families and paying the mortgage, they realized this is what is keeping their family afloat," Hollinger said.

As employees feel more secure in their positions, they may be more inclined to take some risks, Angel said.

At the same time, employers drastically reduced head counts during the recession, which left fewer employees on the floor with heavier workloads in the early stages of the recovery. As workers feel more disgruntled, theft becomes "very tempting," Hollinger said, "especially if they feel that the company can afford it and they're being paid minimum wage."