Teen girls prone to binge drinking

A new study, which examined gender-specific influences of binge drinking on spatial working memory (SWM), has found that female teens may be particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of the habit. 

Binge or "heavy episodic" drinking is prevalent during adolescence, raising concerns about alcohol's effects on crucial neuromaturational processes during this developmental period. Heavy alcohol use has been associated with decrements in cognitive functioning in both adult and adolescent populations, particularly on tasks of SWM.

"Even though adolescents might physically appear grown up, their brains are continuing to significantly develop and mature, particularly in frontal brain regions that are associated with higher-level thoughts, like planning and organization," said Susan F. Tapert, acting chief of psychology at the VA San Diego Healthcare System as well as professor of psychiatry at theUniversity of California, San Diego.


"Heavy alcohol use could interrupt normal brain cell growth during adolescence, particularly in these frontal brain regions, which could interfere with teens'' ability to perform in school and sports, and could have long-lasting effects, even months after the teen uses," added Tapert.

Tapert and her colleagues recruited 95 participants from San Diego-area public schools as part of ongoing longitudinal studies.

"Our study found that female teenage heavy drinkers had less brain activation in several brain regions than female non-drinking teens when doing the same spatial task," said Tapert.

"These differences in brain activity were linked to worse performance on other measures of attention and working memory ability. Male binge drinkers showed some but less abnormality as compared to male non-drinkers. This suggests that female teens may be particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of heavy alcohol use," added Tapert.

The study will be detailed in the October 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.

Sleep deprivation leads to weight gain

Scientists have indicated that just one night of sleep deprivation can lead to weight gain. 

It slows down the body's metabolism the next morning - meaning less energy, in the form of calories, is burnt off.

Previous studies have linked sleep deprivation with an increase in hunger-related hormones during waking hours.

"Our findings show that one night of sleep deprivation acutely reduces energy expenditure in healthy men, which suggests sleep contributes to the acute regulation of daytime energy expenditure in humans," the Daily Mail quoted Christian Benedict, who led the research at Uppsala University in Sweden, as saying. 


He and his colleagues put 14 male students through a series of sleep 'conditions' - curtailed sleep, no sleep, and normal sleep - over several days, then measured changes in how much they ate, their blood sugar, hormone levels and metabolic rate.

Even a single night of missed sleep slowed metabolism the next morning, reducing energy expenditure for tasks such as breathing and digestion by between 5 and 20 per cent.

Sanford Auerbach, head of the Sleep Disorders Center at Boston Medical Centre, pointed out that sleep deprivation is a complex issue, with medication and other issues influencing sleep as well, and urged that the new findings be kept in context.

"They showed that we adapt to sleep deprivation and that some of these adaptations could theoretically contribute to obesity," he added, adding that it's not clear how chronic sleep loss influences hormone levels.ANI

Breakfast key to good health

Good breakfast is the key to a healthy lifestyle determining the quality of your whole day's nutrition, according to research. 

And the best way to start the morning is with a simple bowl of a healthy cereal, as it makes people less likely to turn to fatty, sugary food through the rest of the day, reports express .

The study, by nutritionist Sigrid Gibson revealed the healthiest breakfast choice is cereal with milk because it is a good source of calcium and numerous other key nutrients, such as fibre, protein and carbohydrate.

The research team analysed 12,068 food records from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, which interviewed Britons aged from 19 to 64. 


The results showed that one in five adults ate no solid food for breakfast, one third chose cereal and 45 per cent enjoyed a non-cereal breakfast. The most popular item was tea or coffee, taken on 84 per cent of breakfast occasions.

Milk was consumed with 82 per cent of breakfasts, followed by cereal (39 per cent), bread (33 per cent) and fruit (14 per cent).

The healthiest breakfast choice is cereal with milk.

Women were less likely than men to choose bread, sausage, bacon or eggs and more likely to have fruit instead.

The study found that eating breakfast was associated with a lower fat and higher carbohydrate intake over 24 hours compared with skipping breakfast.

But this was mainly attributable to cereal-based breakfasts as non-cereal meals were associated with a higher intake of saturated fatty acid and lower protein intakes. IANS

Why you should do breathing exercises

Breathing exercises are among the most popular stress relievers. Not only do they work swiftly, they require very little practise and you can do them anywhere. 

Here's why you should opt for them...

- Stress is known to wreak havoc on you both physically and mentally. Breathing exercises are a great way to relieve stress as well as give you relief from hyperventillation, bad headaches, burnout, fatigue, help you sleep better, reduce anxiety and depression.

- You can go in for breathing exercises when you're overcome by stress and want to feel better, when you feel overwhelmed in a situation and don't know what to do, you want to clear your thoughts, your body wants a release, you feel irritated when things don't go your way or when you're in the middle of an argument and want to calm down.

- When practiced regularly, you will notice that you're able to handle stressful situations way better than what you used to.