Revealing the Psychology of Playing Card Magic

Scientific American – 2 hrs 34 mins ago Think of a playing card. Got one in mind?

Although it may have felt like a free choice, think again: Most people choose one of only four cards, out of a deck of 52. For now, remember your card

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Scientists skeptical as athletes get all taped up

Reuters – 2 hrs 17 mins ago LONDON (Reuters) - German beach volleyball player Ilka Semmler wears it on her buttocks - in pink. Swedish handball player Johanna Wiberg prefers it in blue from her knee to her groin. British sprinter Dwain Chambers has even worn it with a Union Jack design.

Athletic tape made in every color under the sun seems to be the latest must-have sports injury treatment at London 2012, where athletes may have been influenced by other big name tape fans such as Serena Williams and David Beckham.

Called Kinesio tape and developed by a Japanese doctor more than 30 years ago, the adhesive strapping is designed to provide muscle and joint support without restricting movement.

According to Kinesio's product website, it is also designed to be used with a particular taping technique - a skill practitioners need to learn on a special training course.

More than 4,000 people in Britain are now trained in the art of Kinesio taping, it says, and many of them look after some of the country's top sportsmen and women.

But does it really work?

Compared with the abundance of its use, rigorous scientific research on Kinesio tape is scant. But a handful of research papers suggest its ability to relieve pain or improve muscle strength is limited.

"Kinesio tape may be of some assistance to clinicians in improving pain-free active range of movement immediately after tape application for patients with shoulder pain," wrote scientists in one study published in the Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physiotherapy.

But the researchers added their findings did not support the use of Kinesio tape for decreasing pain intensity or disability in patients with shoulder problems.

SCIENTIFICALLY SUPPORTED?

In a review of all the scientific research so far, published in the Sports Medicine journal in February, researchers found "little quality evidence to support the use of Kinesio tape over other types of elastic taping in the management or prevention of sports injuries".

Kevin Anderson, managing director of Kinesio UK, which supplies the tape in Britain and trains people in how to apply it, says the scientific research has yet to catch up with what athletes and physiotherapists say about the tape's benefits.

"There's a lot more needed on the research side to confirm the positive results we're seeing so far," he told Reuters.

"There's nothing magical in the tape, it certainly can't improve your performance or make you into Superman, but the way people use the tape is to lift the skin, reduce the pressure and that helps relieve pain and swelling."

Whatever the science, German beach volleyball player Sara Goller sported two long pink strips of the tape on her left leg during matches on Tuesday, while her partner Laura Ludwig had two vertical blue strips on her stomach.

"I don't really mind the color, it's more about what it does. It can release or put tension on a muscle, it depends on what you want. Our physio is really good at doing it," Goller told Reuters.

FADS, FASHIONS AND PLACEBOS

John Brewer, a professor of sports science at Britain's University of Bedfordshire, remains doubtful.

"As a scientist, I'm still not convinced about the underlying mechanisms," he told Reuters, voicing skepticism about the supposed 'lifting' effect and the ability of tape applied to the skin to enhance the performance of muscles deep inside the body.

Steve Harridge, a professor of human and applied physiology at King's College London, said many athletes appeared to be wearing tape even when they had no injury, possible hoping for some preventative or enhancing effect.

"It may be a fashion accessory, and it may be just one of those fads that come along from time to time, but to my knowledge there's no firm scientific evidence to suggest it will enhance muscle performance," he told Reuters.

Both scientists agreed, however, that there may be a benefit, in the form of the placebo effect.

"The fact that athletes think it's going to do them some good can help in a psychological way," said Harridge.

An effective placebo, Brewer said, "could make all the difference between success and failure".

(Additional reporting by Ross Chainey, Thomas Pilcher and Nigel Hunt, editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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Watch: Cancer Survivor Loses Hands, Feet to Bacterial Infection

NYPD Officer Talks Man Out of Bridge...More Popular VideoUK's All-Male Synchronized Swim Team Left Out...U.S. Bridges, Roads Being Built by Chinese...Mitt Romney: Fallout Continues in PolandOlympic Games 2012: French Beat Michael...James Holmes Charged With 24 Counts of MurderIn The NewsU.S.PoliticsEntertainmentWeird and WackyCancer Survivor Loses Hands, Feet to Bacterial InfectionHannah Rinehart, 32, is fighting capnocytophaga after surviving cancer three times.01:18

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Health Tip: Managing Workplace Stress

HealthDay – 1 hr 50 mins ago (HealthDay News) -- No one's job is stress-free. But it's important to curtail workplace stress as much as possible to help quash possible side effects, including weight gain, high blood pressure and increased risk of heart attack.

The American Council on Exercise says you can help reduce workplace stress by:

Not worrying about previous assignments and how you could have done better. Instead, focus on the tasks in front of you.Being friendly and smiling at work, and making some time for friendly conversations with co-workers.Communicating clearly with others to avoid misunderstandings and frustration.Staying positive, and not dwelling solely on problems.Eating well and exercising.Communicating frequently with your manager.Exploring other opportunities -- if you are very unhappy at work and don't see a possible resolution.

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Health Tip: Hiking or Running on a Trail

HealthDay – 1 hr 50 mins ago (HealthDay News) -- If you're tired of the same running routine and the same old scenery, consider a new hiking or running trial.

The American Council on Exercise makes these recommendations before you hit the trail for the first time:

Hike a new trail before you run it, familiarizing yourself with the new layout.Don't walk or run a trail alone.Carry a communication device, such as a walkie-talkie or cell phone.Take a small, basic first aid kit that includes bandages, tape, a knife and antibacterial ointment.Make sure any weight you carry is evenly distributed; try to carry most of the weight around your hips.When going downhill, keep knees bent and don't lean back too far. Use short strides when hills are steep.Run with your head up and push your arms from the shoulders, rather than from the elbows.

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Love Knows No Gender Difference

HealthDay – 1 hr 50 mins ago TUESDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- Think married men and women show their love in vastly different ways? Not necessarily.

Although popular culture reinforces the stereotype that there's a gender gap when it comes to expressing affection, few studies have actually tested the notion.

A small new study suggests, however, that men are just as likely as women to be openly affectionate. The study, which also identified some differences between the sexes, was published recently in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

"Men and women are actually more similar in the ways they express love than they are different," said study author Elizabeth Schoenfeld, a researcher at the University of Texas in Austin. "But we also learned that, even in the wake of feminism, wives express love by being less assertive and more accommodating, while husbands show love by initiating sex or sharing activities together."

The study involved 168 couples in first marriages living in rural central Pennsylvania. Data was collected in initial interviews, followed by telephone interviews in which husbands and wives separately reported activities and interactions. The interviews occurred within two months of when each couple was married and then annually, with a final set of interviews conducted after 13 years of marriage.

At the conclusion of the study, 105 of the original couples were still married, three were widowed and 56 were divorced. Almost all of the participants were white, and more than half had a high school education.

Contrary to some common gender stereotypes, the research showed that the more men loved their wives, the more likely they were to be affectionate. They were also more likely to involve their spouses in their leisure activities and in household chores. Love did not, however, mean a husband did more chores around the house or was more eager to relieve his wife of the chores for which she was responsible.

The researchers found, in general, that a husband's love may create an environment in which the couple does a variety of things together. The more husbands loved their wives, the more likely they were to initiate sex. For wives, though, increased love for their husbands meant they were actually less likely to make the first move.

Why would that be? "If a wife is feeling unloved, it could be that she is attempting to kick-start the marriage," Schoenfeld said.

Wives' love was less associated with interest in joint activities, and relied more on expressions of love. More love also was associated with greater accommodation to husbands' moods and needs.

"Biting their tongues, letting men initiate sex more often, showing a willingness to allow men to assert themselves a little more -- this is what we saw when women were more in love," Schoenfeld explained.

Some experts believe differences between men and women in marriage are typically overemphasized.

"There aren't too many real gender and sex differences between men and women on the whole," said Stevie Yap, a researcher in the department of psychology at Michigan State University in East Lansing. "If you look at the overall research, gender differences don't usually hold up."

Yap, who recently published research on happiness and marriage in the Journal of Research and Personality, found that although matrimony doesn't tend to make people happier than they were when they were single, it appears to protect against declines in happiness that can occur in adulthood.

Yap said only a few gender differences actually have been shown by research to be real: men tend to be physically stronger and more sexually active, and have a greater tendency toward aggression. He said that even these three characteristics, however, can be affected by socialization and experience.

Schoenfeld, too, thinks differences between the sexes have been exaggerated.

"Don't be fooled by popular stereotypes," she said. "Men are not from Mars and women are not from Venus. We are all on planet Earth."

More information

For more on marriage, visit the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center.

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Shots Should Be on College Kids' Back-to-School List

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More Americans Have at Least 2 Chronic Health Issues: CDC

HealthDay – 1 hr 50 mins ago TUESDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- The number of Americans aged 45 and older with two or more chronic conditions has grown over the past decade, new research estimates, with seniors especially vulnerable to a rising risk of both diabetes and high blood pressure.

Between 1999-2000 and 2009-2010, the percentage of Americans in the 45- to 64-year age group with two or more of the conditions grew from 16 percent to 21 percent, according to survey results. For adults 65 and older, the percentage increased from 37 percent to 45 percent. The survey was compiled by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Released Tuesday, the report from Virginia Freid and colleagues looked at nine chronic conditions: hypertension (high blood pressure), heart disease, diabetes, cancer, stroke, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, current asthma and kidney disease.

The percentage of Americans aged 65 and older who had both diabetes and high blood pressure grew from 9 percent to 15 percent, the investigators found.

The report also revealed that 23 percent of adults aged 45 to 64 with at least two chronic conditions -- out of the list of nine -- either didn't receive necessary medical care or delayed it because of cost. That's up from 17 percent a decade earlier.

The percentage of people in that group who didn't get necessary prescription drugs due to cost grew from 14 percent to 22 percent over the decade.

Among individual conditions in people aged 45 or older, the prevalence of high blood pressure grew from 35 percent to 41 percent, diabetes from 10 percent to 15 percent, and cancer from 9 percent to 11 percent.

The rise in the number of people with more than one chronic condition "presents a complex challenge to the U.S. health care system, both in terms of quality of life and expenditures for an aging population," the report stated.

The findings are published in the July edition of the NCHS Data Brief.

More information

For more about coping with chronic illness, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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Imaging Tests Up Among Advanced Cancer Patients

HealthDay – 1 hr 50 mins ago TUESDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- A new U.S. study finds that the use of diagnostic imaging tests in Medicare patients with advanced cancer has risen faster than among patients with early-stage cancer.

The costs of diagnostic imaging have increased more than the overall costs of cancer care, making diagnostic imaging the fastest-growing part of Medicare-reimbursed services, the researchers noted. Medicare is the U.S. government-funded health insurance program for people over 65 and certain other patients.

They added that cancer care costs are highest during the last year of life, but little is known about the use of high-cost imaging tests in cancer patients during their final year.

In this study, the researchers examined data on the use of CT, MRI, PET and nuclear medicine scans for Medicare patients with late-stage (stage 4) breast, colon, lung or prostate cancer between 1995 and 2006. Stage 4 cancer means the cancer has spread throughout the body.

The analysis revealed that most of the patients underwent imaging procedures during the course of their care, and that the use of imaging in late-stage cancer patients increased between 1995 and 2006.

The study was published July 30 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The increasing use of imaging in late-stage cancer patients may be due to a lack of guidelines in this area or the use of imaging to help doctors manage symptoms, detect disease progression and assess the effects of treatment, said Dr. Yue-Yung Hu and colleagues at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the University of Wisconsin.

While imaging often leads to appropriate measures to ease dying patients' suffering, it can also distract them from focusing on achievable end-of-life goals, cause them to spend more of their remaining time in medical care settings, and provoke anxiety, the researchers said.

Determining the most appropriate care for patients with late-stage cancer is complex, Drs. Robin Yabroff and Joan Warren, of the Health Services and Economics Branch at the U.S. National Cancer Institute, noted in an accompanying editorial.

"Physicians tend to overestimate survival for terminally ill cancer patients, which may influence their treatment and related imaging recommendations," they wrote in a journal news release. "Development of practice guidelines for advanced imaging in patients with stage IV disease, with explicit statements about the state of evidence will be critical, particularly for care outside of the window surrounding patient diagnosis."

More information

The American Cancer Society offers advice for cancer patients nearing the end of life.

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Health Highlights: July 31, 2012

HealthDay – 1 hr 50 mins ago Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

U.S. Blood Supply Critically Low, Red Cross Warns

The level of U.S. blood donations is at its lowest point in 15 years and the shortfall is such that some patients may have to have elective surgeries canceled, the American Red Cross reports.

"People will put off having knee replacements, hip replacements and other elective surgery," Danny Cervantes, a donor recruitment director for United Blood Services in Las Vegas, told NBC News.

The shortfall appears due to a number of factors. Kim Talkington, regional director of donor recruitment for the Red Cross in Wichita, Kan., told NBC News that there's a high demand for blood in summer because it's high season for travel and road accidents.

On the donor side, the supply from college students -- who typically make up about one-fifth of donations -- falls by about half in the summer months, according to Quincy, Ill., donor recruitment representative Beth Forbes.

This summer has been especially tough for the blood supply because storms have upped demand in the East and Midwest, even as they helped dry up the supply, according to Rodney Wilson, another Red Cross representative based in Ohio.

"The power outages and storms we experienced earlier in the month caused dozens of blood drives to be canceled," Wilson told NBC News. "We normally try to keep a three-day supply on hand locally, and we are down to a one-day supply."

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Devices Not Enough to Save Children Left in Overheated Cars: Report

Devices aimed at preventing kids from dying in overheated cars may not work well enough to keep children from harm, a new review finds.

Parents shouldn't rely on special seats and other devices to stop them from accidently leaving children in cars, David Strickland, administrator for the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), said in a Monday press briefing, NBC News reported.

"While these devices are very well-intended, none of them are a full or complete solution for making sure a parent never leaves a baby behind in a hot car," Strickland said.

According to NHTSA, about 38 children die each year of heat stroke after being left in cars. The new report reviewed 18 commercial products, including pads that sense if a child is in a car seat; devices that can tell if a seatbelt is buckled and alarms that remind parents to check.

"The devices were inconsistent and unreliable in their performance," the researchers wrote in their report. "They often required adjusting of the position of the child within the child restraint, the distance to activation varied across trials and scenarios, and they experienced continual synching/unsynching during use."

The report also notes that "devices which integrate into a child restraint would not be applicable in scenarios where the child is playing and gets locked in the vehicle (30 percent of fatalities) or in a scenario where the parent/caregiver intentionally leaves the child in the vehicle (17 percent of fatalities)."

According to Strickland, parents can help ensure tragic heat stroke accidents in cars don't happen by using a few simple precautions. These include leaving a child's toy in the front seat as a reminder, putting a purse or briefcase in back seat so that the driver is forced to look in the back before exiting the car, or setting an alarm on the cellphone to remind yourself to check on a child's whereabouts.

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New Seal Flu Could Pose Threat to Humans

HealthDay – 1 hr 50 mins ago TUESDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- A new influenza strain found in New England harbor seals could potentially threaten people as well as wildlife, new research suggests.

Scientists cautioned that viruses like the newly discovered seal flu must be monitored in order to predict new strains and prevent a pandemic flu emerging from animals.

The report was published online July 31 in mBio.

"There is a concern that we have a new mammalian-transmissible virus to which humans haven't been exposed yet. It's a combination we haven't seen in disease before," report editor Dr. Anne Moscona, professor of pediatrics and of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, said in a journal news release.

Another expert agreed that the flu strain could someday pose a threat to people.

"Infections that threaten wildlife and human lives remind us how our health is intermingled on this dynamic planet," said Dr. Bruce Hirsch, attending physician in infectious diseases at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y. He said that while transmission via direct contact between humans and harbor seals is unlikely, the virus could find other ways to get to people.

"A dangerous virus infecting mammals increases the risk to us -- not by direct infection -- but by evolutionary development of even more riskier strains," Hirsch explained. For example, he said, the strain might pass from seals to birds, expand its presence in the environment and mutate in ways that make it easily passed to or between humans.

Scientists from several organizations, including Columbia University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, co-wrote the new report. They said that flu viruses found in mammals, such as the H1N1 "swine flu" that emerged in 2009, can put people's health at risk. The new seal flu, they warned, presents a similar threat to humans.

The researchers analyzed the DNA of a virus linked to the death of 162 harbor seals in 2011 off the coasts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. Five autopsies revealed that the seals died from infection with a type of flu known as H3N8.

The report pointed out that the seal flu is very similar to a flu strain found in North American birds since 2002. The virus, the researchers noted, adapted to living in mammals. It also has mutations that are known to make viruses easier to spread and more dangerous. They added the seal flu, which is able to target a protein found in the human respiratory tract, may have the potential to move between species.

The researchers warned that pandemic flu can originate in unexpected ways, so preparation is essential.

"Flu could emerge from anywhere and our readiness has to be much better than we previously realized. We need to be very nimble in our ability to identify and understand the potential risks posed by new viruses emerging from unexpected sources," said Moscona. "It's important to realize that viruses can emerge through routes that we haven't considered. We need to be alert to those risks and ready to act on them."

Still, viral strains typically must undergo several key mutations to become the source of a human pandemic, Hirsch said.

"Each time the flu virus infects a cell, it is a roll of the dice," he said. "There are eight separate segments of genes inside the virus -- simple viral versions of chromosomes -- which recombine at random, producing unique viruses. Cells can be infected with multiple viruses, so a dangerous gene from a bird can get mixed in with a gene that makes it easy to infect humans."

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on the spread of flu viruses from animals to people.

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Burnt-Out Nurses Linked to More Hospital Infections

HealthDay – 1 hr 50 mins ago TUESDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- Burnout among nurses is linked to an increase in hospital infection rates, researchers have found.

In addition, job-related exhaustion among nursing staff costs millions of health care dollars each year, according to the study from the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

In conducting the study, the researchers analyzed data from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council and the American Hospital Association Annual Survey. They also examined a 2006 survey of more than 7,000 registered nurses from 161 Pennsylvania hospitals that provided insight into their job-related attitudes, including feelings on depersonalization and personal accomplishment. The survey also revealed the nurses' levels of emotional exhaustion, which is a key factor in burnout syndrome.

The study showed that among nurses caring for an average of 5.7 patients, for every additional patient they were assigned there was roughly one additional catheter-associated urinary tract infection per 1,000 patients. This translates to 1,351 more infections every year, according to study co-author Jeannie Cimiotti of the New Jersey Collaborating Center for Nursing and Rutgers School of Nursing in Newark, N.J., and her colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

Each 10 percent increase in a hospital's high-burnout nurses was associated with almost one more catheter-related infection and two more surgical site infections for every 1,000 patients each year, the investigators noted in a news release from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control.

Catheter-related urinary tract infections cost an average of $749 to $832 each, and surgical site infections can cost up to $29,443. Based on those figures, the researchers projected that 4,160 infections could be prevented and hospitals could save $41 million by reducing rates of nursing staff burnout to 10 percent from an average of 30 percent.

"Health care facilities can improve nurse staffing and other elements of the care environment and alleviate job-related burnout in nurses at a much lower cost than those associated with health care-associated infections," Cimiotti and colleagues concluded. "By reducing nurse burnout, we can improve the well-being of nurses while improving the quality of patient care."

The study was published in the August issue of the American Journal of Infection Control.

While the study uncovered an association between nursing staff burnout and infections among patients, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about health care-related infections.

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