The lead author of a new University of Vermont study, Jennifer Otten, says that “the average American watches about five hours of TV a day.” The people in her study actually burned 120 calories more a day just by watching half as much TV a day. She said that this can render a whopping 12-pound weight loss within a year’s time; all without any additional change in their diet.

The researchers discovered that when the participants turned off the TV, they tended to do little chores around the house that eventually had a significant effect on their weight. She said that you can even burn calories by doing something as simple as organizing a photo album.  Otten said that “small changes in behavior can be more sustainable over time and may have a real effect on fighting obesity.” That’s a good incentive to turn off the tube and get started on that “honey do” list.

Robert DeRubeis, a University of Pennsylvania psychology professor, claims that only the people who have severe depression get the extra benefits from taking antidepressants. The research was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

There have been many studies that have shown the benefits of antidepressants over placebos, but most only deal with participants who suffer from extreme depression. DeRubeis said that “confusion arises because there is a tendency to generalize the findings to mean that all depressed people benefit from medications.”

This analysis tried to figure out just how much of the antidepressants’ positive effects is from the specific chemical effects from medicine and how much can be attributed to other things like going to a doctor, making an effort to feel better or simply from the passage of time.

Six placebo-controlled studies were analyzed by researchers for the study. There were 718 patients who either took a placebo (fake pill) or an actual antidepressant. These patients were adults who suffered from a variety of depression cases that ranged from mild to severe according to the Hamilton Depression Ratings Scale, which is a commonly used questionnaire in depression research.

The results from the treatment were similar for those with mild, moderate and severe symptoms, whether or not they had the placebo or the actual antidepressant. The only people who showed notable improvements on the antidepressants were the ones who were considered very severe at the beginning of the study.

So what are some symptoms of a severely depressed person? Well they could have symptoms like feelings of sadness and guilt, feeling that life is not worth living, crying often, sleeping difficulties, being lethargic and discontinuing regular activities. People with this type of extreme depression usually need to take antidepressants to help them improve. DeRubeis said that those who don’t have such deep depression should think about doing cognitive therapies, because treatment can be helpful for any level of depression.

In the March 8 online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Jed Rose of Duke University reported that nicotine accumulation in the brain was gradual over a time period of several minutes.

In the past, scientists speculated that there was a surge of nicotine in the brain about seven seconds following each puff, but until recently, there was hardly any evaluations made. Rose admitted that they were astonished to discover that the rate of uptake was in strong contrast to what one usually hears. He directs the Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research, which is a part of the university’s School of Medicine.

Brain scans were done by Rose to calculate the nicotine levels in 13 regular smokers and 10 people who only smoke once in a while. The researchers found that the highest brain levels of nicotine were achieved within 3 to 5 minutes and built up more gradually in addicted smokers than in casual ones.

Rose implied that “this slower rate resulted from nicotine staying longer in the lungs of dependent smokers, which may result of the chronic effects of smoke on the lungs.” He says that because of this discovery, researchers could be more capable to come up with better ways for smokers to get what they want from cigarettes, but in a non-addictive way.

For instance, a short time ago scientists found that women who suffer from migraines could be less prone to getting breast cancer. The study followed 9,000 women and discovered that those who had migraines were 26% less likely to have breast cancer. The authors of the study published Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers  & Prevention, think that this positive effect could be linked to changing hormone levels. Migraines have been found to happen after decreases in estrogen levels.

Even though this is a very positive finding, ask any migraine sufferer, and they will tell you that experiencing a migraine is a very painful ordeal. Also, new research even indicates that migraines could possibly change the brain.

In the June issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, a study reports that brain lesions develop in older women who have a common type of migraine – the sort that comes with “auras,” which are specific bodily feelings that come before the headache occurs. More than 4,600 men and women were observed by researchers for more than 40 years. The men and women kept track of their migraine experiences at midlife and the had brain scans done later in life. Some of the men and women were found to have brain lesions, but women who had migraines accompanied by auras tended to be at a higher risk. The cerebellum, the area of the brain that controls motor and sensory integration, had the most noticeable lesions.

This said, scientists are not completely sure if migraines are what is causing these changes in the brain. They are also not sure what causes migraines to even happen. Some research points to different types of nerves as being the culprit, and others have suggested that it is the regulation of brain chemicals that cause migraines, such as serotonin. Still there are some who say that genetics play a big role. Then there are those that say factors in the environment like stress, weather changes and specific foods such as aged cheeses, processed meats, alcohol, and MSG can trigger migraines as well.

So what to do if you are a sufferer? Well a variety of medications can offer help to treat migraines and sometimes even keep them from happening at all, specifically if the sufferer tends to occur after a predictable pattern.

Even though there is effective medicine for most types of migraines, a study done by the National Headache Foundation revealed that more than 43% of sufferers had never used preventive therapy – which consisted of exercising or staying away from trigger foods. If you tend to suffer from migraines, speak to your doctor about beginning a treatment and prevention plan.

About 3,500 British civil servant’s diets were observed by scientists at London’s University College. Five years later they evaluated the individuals symptoms of depression. These researchers pointed out the beneficial effect of a whole-food healthy diet that seemed to protect those who consumed it. On the flip side, they found that those who ate a poor diet consisting of sweets, processed meats, fried food, refined cereals and high-fat dairy foods appeared to make them more vulnerable to depression.

The study drew attention to a link between diet and depression. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a poor diet definitely causes depression, but these results are compelling. So what is most likely giving the protection for good mental health? The researchers suggested a variety of possibilities. Maybe it could be the antioxidants in fruits and vegetables believed to protect cells from harm, the folic acid found in leafy greens that affects brain tissue, or the omega-3 fatty acids in fish that are found in specific brain membranes. Or they theorized that the benefits could be from a combination of all of these factors.

This research displays just how prominently snacks have been a culprit in the weight problem among many of America’s children.

Public health officials have taken sodas and fatty and salty snacks out of our schools, but the food industry constantly keeps pushing snacks at us to continue to treat people in the U.S. as if we are always extremely ravenous.

The nation’s child obesity level has climbed to 16.4 percent in 2007 – a 10 percent increase since 2003. It seems that eating meals and drinking milk has decreased and eating fatty and salty foods is increasing. Since everyone is busy and snacks are often necessary to get through the day, parents need to try to find healthier alternatives for between meal snacks such as an apple or some yogurt.

The new study, which tallied the results from 31,337 children and adolescents to four federally funded food surveys, has revealed that in 1977, around 75 percent of kids age 2 to 18 ate at least one snack between meals. In 2006 the amount of kids who snacked rose to 98 percent.

The survey reports that kids’ daily caloric intake has risen by 100 calories since 1977. This escalation in snacking has thrust their average calorie intake to 2,099. In 2006, 27.3 percent of total calories, around 600 calories a day, came from snacks, according to the N.C. research team.

Also, calories eaten at mealtimes have started to decline a little since the last food survey was taken in 1994. Because of this, U.S. children are eating more fatty, sugary and salty foods and less of the dairy, protein and produce that is common at mealtimes.

The  survey, which is done yearly, discovered that the amount of teens in grades 9 through 12 who said they drank alcohol in the past month rose 11 percent in the past year; with 39 percent reporting alcohol use, which is about 6.5 million teens.

Pot use among teens is up 19 percent. About 25 percent of teens said they smoked marijuana in the last month.

Until recently, these numbers for pot and alcohol use had been on a steady decline since 1998. At this time, use lingered around 50 percent for teens using alcohol and 27 percent for teens using pot.

In addition, the new study unfortunately discovered that teens using the party drug Ecstasy is on the rise. Six percent of teens interviewed admitted that they used Ecstasy in the last month, compared with 4 percent in 2008.

Clarkin said that if parents do suspect their teen might be using, they need to act swiftly. Try to watch them closely, talk to them about the danger of drugs, set rules and if necessary, and get outside help such as a counselor, doctor, clergy or other resource.

During the study researchers asked the teens how they felt about doing drugs or about the friends who did them. It was found that a higher percentage of teens than the last year said that they like being high and more friends said they had friends who often got high at parties. Also, less teens admitted that they would not hang out with kids who smoked pot.

MetLife Foundation sponsored the partnership’s “attitude tracking” study. Researchers in the study surveyed 3,287 teens in grades 9 through 12. Data was drawn from surveys that the teens completed from March to June 2009. The study has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.

The New York-based partnership is a nonprofit group that works to decrease illicit drug use.

The most extreme rise in use was seen in the 55- to 59- year- olds, whose marijuana use more than tripled from 1.6 percent in 2002 to 5.1 percent. It is expected that there will be more increases in use as the 78 million boomers who were born between 1945 and 1964 get older. Many boomers tried it decades ago. Some have been smoking it ever since and others are trying it again now that they are in retirement, either for fun or as a way to help with the aches and pains of getting older. One lady interviewed said that marijuana has helped her get better sleep than using pills ever did. Another man who suffered from degenerative disc disease and arthritis said that he was amazed at how well it worked after previously turning to all kinds of drugs for his crippling pain. He now claims that he is virtually pain free.

All this said, Dr. William Dale, chief of geriatrics and palliative medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Center, warns that older people who use marijuana are at possible risk for falling if they get dizzy. He also said that smoking increases the risk of heart disease and it can lead to cognitive impairment.

In the studies, they found that language and instrumental music overlap each other in the brain’s processing area. Researchers at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science indicated that intensive musical therapy could help improve speech in stroke patients. Also, researchers said that music education could help children with developmental dyslexia or autism to speak better.

Harvard Medical School associate professor of neurology, Gottfried Schlaug, told the meeting that people who have previously suffered a severe stroke on the left side of their brain causing them to be unable to speak, can sometimes learn to communicate by singing. He said that “music making is a multi-sensory experience, activating links to several parts of the brain,” Schlaug said. He then proceeded to show a video of a patient who could only make sounds be able to say “I am thirsty” by singing the words. Another patient in the video was able to sing “happy birthday” after they were previously unable to speak at all.

Even though these findings are very positive and uplifting news for many, Schlaug warns that this work is specifically for people who’ve had a severe stroke on the left side of their brain and the therapy can be extensive and time consuming.

More good news came from Nina Kraus, the director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University, when she reported that new studies indicate that musical training improves the brain’s ability to do other activities. An example she gave was that musicians are better at finding the voice of a friend in a noisy restaurant, because the  musically trained brain becomes more skillful at detecting patterns in sounds. She also said that children who play an instrument may be able to “better process speech in noisy classrooms and more accurately interpret the nuances of language that are conveyed by subtle changes in the human voice.” She went on to say that when people are first learning to talk and when they speak to babies they frequently use musical patterns in their speech.

“People’s hearing systems are fine-tuned by the experiences they’ve had with sound throughout their lives. Music training is not only beneficial for processing music stimuli. We’ve found that years of music training may also improve how sounds are processed for language and emotion,” Kraus said.

The deductible is the amount that the insured pays before they can receive the policy benefits. Of course higher deductibles will mean lower premiums’ but it will usually take longer to reach your deductible if you choose this type of plan.

Coinsurance is a percentage that you may be required to pay once you have paid the deductible. It can range anywhere from 50% to 0%. You will need to pay this percentage until you get to your annual “out of pocket limit”. Higher coinsurance percentages normally mean you will pay lower premiums.

Co-payments are what many are asked to pay at a doctor’s visit or when a prescription is filled. It is a flat amount that you pay at the time of service or when the medication is received.

Once you have paid your annual deductible and out-of-pocket limit, the co-pay is waived for the rest of the year. Usually the co-pay benefits are an optional feature since they have a big influence on the premium.

Each individual or family should consider their current health situation, need for prescription medication and frequency of doctor visits so they can get the plan that best fits their needs. An agent from http://nchealthcarecoverage.com will be glad to take the time to help you find the policy that best fits you and your family’s needs. Or if you prefer, you can call (800) 797-0327 to talk to a friendly agent 24/7.

If you or your family hardly ever has to see the doctor other than for an annual check up, a plan that has a higher deductible and coinsurance percentage without a co-pay benefit may substantially reduce your overall health care costs.