News from the World of Medicine By Samantha Rideout.
Eat Less Salt to Sleep Better Many people get up multiple times during the night to pee, which can lead to stress, irritability, and fatigue. A study in Japan found that eating less salt during the day may help. Of the 321 people in the study, 223 reduced their average daily salt intake from 1.8 teaspoons to 1.4 teaspoons and found that they urinated 1.4 times per night, on average, down from 2.3 times. When you eat less salt, you drink less and your body tends to retain less water.
A Downside of Gluten-Free In a small University of Illinois study, people on gluten-free diets had almost twice the level of arsenic in their urine and 70 percent more mercury in their blood compared with those who weren't. That's probably because gluten-free products often use rice flour, and rice tends to absorb more metals from soil, water, and fertilizers than other cereal crops. It's unclear exactly how much of these substances our bodies can tolerate, but long-term exposure to arsenic has been tied to skin, bladder, and lung cancers; mercury can harm the brain and nervous system. To minimize potential issues, diversify your grain intake by eating quinoa, millet, and amaranth.
Fight Phobias in a Flash The standard advice for overcoming a fear is to face it. In a recent experiment, two groups of women-one with arachnophobia (fear of spiders) and one without-watched a computer program that flashed tarantula photos for a few microseconds. Brain scans of the arachnophobic women showed that the areas that process fear were active, indicating that they had indeed faced their fear, even though they didn't consciously remember seeing the image. In fact, their fear-processing regions were even more active than when the women knowingly approached a live tarantula, suggesting that this brief exposure might combat phobias better than traditional exposure therapy.
Avoiding Carpal Tunnel Surgery Carpal tunnel syndrome develops when the median nerve (running from the forearm through the wrist to the hand) is compressed, resulting in pain, numbness, tingling-and 400,000 to 500,000 operations a year in the United States. However, in the first study of its kind, women who were randomly assigned to three weeks of physical therapy (supplemented by stretching exercises at home) experienced better pain reduction and hand functioning than those who went under the knife. The researchers suggest trying therapy-which, surprisingly, is not currently an established carpal tunnel treatment-before committing to surgery.
When the Shoe Doesn't Fit Feet tend to get wider, longer, and flatter as we age, as a result of supporting our body weight for all those years. A study from the University of A Coruña in Spain found that 83 percent of participants (adults in their 70s and 80s) were wearing the wrong shoe size. A second study found that a poor fit can lead to bunions and toenail malformations, which can affect walking and balance. The researchers recommended that seniors get their feet remeasured and choose shoes with Velcro straps so they can easily adjust the width.
Keeping Hair After Chemo One major concern for the hundreds of thousands of Americans undergoing chemotherapy each year: hair loss. Now a new scalp-cooling device recently approved by the FDA has been shown to reduce the problem in at least half of chemo patients-safely and without interfering with the effectiveness of the treatment. Worn like a shower cap during chemo sessions and for a few hours before and after, the device circulates coolants between its two layers to lower scalp temperature. This constricts blood vessels, which reduces the amount of toxins that make it into the hair. Always ... ... Remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.
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