health « Berman Institute Bioethics Bulletin

Features

News roundups

Announcements

The Simple Mistake People Make When They Try To Eat Healthy

January 4, 2017

Forget the nutrition facts label, the ingredients list and the say-so of experts: A new study finds that shoppers think a food is healthy only when it costs them more

Quick Read

The Simple Mistake People Make When They Try To Eat Healthy

Wednesday, January 4th, 2017

The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Consumer Research, is the latest evidence that your brain may work against you when it comes to choosing healthy foods. Researchers say our subconscious association of cost with health — what they call the “healthy = expensive intuition” — can prompt shoppers to not only spend more money but also to make uninformed health decisions without realizing it.

“We often ask how consumers process information about what they should eat,” said Kelly Haws, a processor of marketing at Vanderbilt University and a co-author of the new paper. “The truth is, we give them a ton of information — and they don’t process it all.”

Haws and other researchers in the realm of behavioral economics have a name for this phenomenon: It’s called heuristics, and it basically describes any sort of mental shortcut that we use to simplify decisions. Instead of consciously evaluating all of the information we have about a product — its calorie count, its ingredients, its brand, its location in the store — our brains rely on simple assumptions, such as the belief that healthy foods always cost more.

Image: Some rights reserved by vj_pdx

Be the first to like.

Unlike

Washington Post

Dear Mr. Trump

November 28, 2016

Climate Policy Puts Lives in Your Hands. Travis Rieder on Mr. Trump’s moral responsibility to pursue environmental policies that limit human suffering and death

Do Your Family Members Have a Right to Your Genetic Code?

November 23, 2016

When a woman gets her genome sequenced, questions about privacy arise for her identical twin sister

Quick Read

Do Your Family Members Have a Right to Your Genetic Code?

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2016

In August 2015, Samantha Schilit went to her primary care doctor to get a blood draw. A PhD candidate at Harvard specializing in human genetics, she was itching to unlock the secrets of her genes with a test called whole-genome sequencing, which provides a full readout of a person’s DNA.

Patients must give their informed consent before undergoing whole-genome sequencing or any other genetic test. But there are no laws that restrict what patients can do with their own genetic information, or that require patients’ family members to be involved in the consent process. This raises questions about who owns an individual’s genetic code, since family members share many genetic traits and may harbor the same genetic abnormalities associated with certain diseases.

When Schilit got her test results back a few months later, she didn’t consider that her identical twin sister Arielle Schilit Nitenson, a PhD student in neuroscience at Brown University, would have concerns about the test. The two co-authored an article in the Journal of Genetic Counseling about their experience.

Image: By Linda and Terry Jamison – Linda and Terry Jamison, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11308740

Be the first to like.

Unlike

MIT Technology Review

Is Pessimism Really Bad For You?

November 21, 2016

A new study links a dark outlook with greater risk of death from heart disease. But being grumpy might help you in old age

Quick Read

Is Pessimism Really Bad For You?

Monday, November 21st, 2016

The glass can be half-full, or it can be half-empty, depending on your outlook on life – or on which side of the bed you get out of any particular morning. But can optimism or indeed pessimism really affect your health?

It’s been a bone of contention for many years, and the issue has spawned a plethora of self-help guides on how to be “positive”, especially in the face of serious illness. But the scientific evidence in support of a sunny disposition is contentious, contradictory and controversial.

The latest study comes from Finland, a land not noted for its joie de vivre. The conclusion of this research, published last week in BMC Public Health, found that pessimism was associated with an increased risk of death from coronary heart disease.

Image: By S nova – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glass_Half_Full_bw_1.JPG, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36493740

Be the first to like.

Unlike

The Guardian

Pessimism May Be Bad for Your Heart

November 17, 2016

A pessimistic attitude increases the risk for death from heart disease, a new study reports, while an optimistic view of the world may have no effect at all

Quick Read

Pessimism May Be Bad for Your Heart

Thursday, November 17th, 2016

Finnish researchers followed 2,267 men and women 52 to 76 years old. At the start of the study participants were presented six statements and asked to rate, on a 0 to 4 scale, how well the statements applied to them. The text was either positive (for example, “In uncertain times, I usually expect the best”) or negative (“If something can go wrong for me, it will”). The researchers also recorded subjects’ cholesterol levels, blood pressure, glucose readings and other health and behavioral characteristics. The study is in BMC Public Health.

During 11 years of follow-up, 122 people died from coronary heart disease. After controlling for smoking, diabetes and other factors, the scientists found that those in the highest one-quarter of scores on pessimism were more than twice as likely to die of heart disease as those in the lowest one-quarter. But being optimistic had no effect on death rates one way or the other.

Be the first to like.

Unlike

NY Times

Uninsured In Coal Country: Desperate Americans Still Turn To Volunteer Clinics

November 7, 2016

Many people in this southwestern corner of Virginia struggle to pay for everyday needs and that includes basic health care

Quick Read

Uninsured In Coal Country: Desperate Americans Still Turn To Volunteer Clinics

Monday, November 7th, 2016

GRUNDY, Virginia — Sandra Cook got in line midday on a recent Friday for dental care that she wouldn’t receive until the next morning. Hundreds more like her showed up at Riverview Elementary and Middle School here, many planning to spend the night, just as buses brought kids home and volunteers arrived by the hundreds to turn the school into a makeshift dental, eye and medical clinic run by Remote Area Medical, a nonprofit charity program.

Many people in this southwestern corner of Virginia struggle to pay for everyday needs and that includes basic health care.

“My teeth and my eyes are really bad,” said Trey Justice, who walked five hours to reach the school and set up a tent to spend the night. “I got ran over about four years ago. Nothing but pins all over [my body]. Don’t have no doctors, no insurance.”

Six years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, and despite 20 million more Americans gaining health insurance, considerable gaps in health care remain.

Image: By WaldoJ at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10522896

Be the first to like.

Unlike

KHN

Fitness Trackers Might Help Us Live Longer

November 2, 2016

if only we could be motivated to use them. Those are the conclusions of two new studies about the promise and perils of relying on fitness trackers to measure and guide how we move

Quick Read

Fitness Trackers Might Help Us Live Longer

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2016

Activity monitors could improve our health and extend our lives — if only we could be motivated to use them. Those are the conclusions of two new studies about the promise and perils of relying on fitness trackers to measure and guide how we move.

The monitors, which are expected to be a popular holiday gift again this year, can generally track our steps, speed, stance (sitting or not), distance, energy expenditure and heart rate. The absolute accuracy of these numbers, however, is somewhat suspect, with past studies finding errors in many of the monitors’ measurements. But the inaccuracies are usually consistent, the studies show, so the trackers can reliably indicate how our movements change from day to day.

The broader problem with activity monitors has been that we have not known whether the information they generate actually relates directly to our health. We have not had proof that what most trackers tell us is healthy actually is.

Image: By Intel Free Press – http://www.flickr.com/photos/intelfreepress/9690003914/sizes/o/in/photostream/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28115137

Be the first to like.

Unlike

NY Times

Digital Health Devices Are Great

October 18, 2016

But their prices are widening the health gap. Touted benefits can be realized only if those with chronic conditions have access to the technologies aimed at helping them. There is a gap between those who would receive the greatest benefit from using digital health technologies and those who actually have access to them

Quick Read

Digital Health Devices Are Great

Tuesday, October 18th, 2016

Chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases account for more than 85 percent of all deaths in the United States. Obesity and asthma in particular are among the leading causes of preventable deaths in the United States and constitute a large portion of health care expenditures. Type 2 diabetes costs alone exceeded US$245 billion in 2012.

Despite many medical advancements over the past decade, there is a growing recognition that disease prevention and better disease management are critical to reducing preventable deaths and containing rising health care costs.

The private sector has begun to develop tools to improve chronic disease management with digital health technologies, and that market is growing rapidly. These technologies, such as activity trackers and blood pressure and glucose monitors, empower patients with the necessary information to better manage their conditions.

The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that aims to promote a high-performing health care system, has reported that digital health technologies can improve health outcomes by increasing patient engagement in self-care, closing communication gaps, identifying and tailoring services to meet the needs of patients and improving decision-making by consumers and providers.

Image: By No machine-readable author provided. Sonk54 assumed (based on copyright claims). – No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1887647

Be the first to like.

Unlike

The Conversation

Page 10 of 21« First «...8 91011 12...20...»Last »

The Simple Mistake People Make When They Try To Eat Healthy

The Simple Mistake People Make When They Try To Eat Healthy

Dear Mr. Trump

Do Your Family Members Have a Right to Your Genetic Code?

Is Pessimism Really Bad For You?

Is Pessimism Really Bad For You?

Pessimism May Be Bad for Your Heart

Pessimism May Be Bad for Your Heart

Uninsured In Coal Country: Desperate Americans Still Turn To Volunteer Clinics

Fitness Trackers Might Help Us Live Longer

Fitness Trackers Might Help Us Live Longer

Digital Health Devices Are Great

Digital Health Devices Are Great

Follow Us

Twitter Feed

Twitter Feed