Posts tagged with "Study"

Above, some of the attractions at Walt Disney World. (Photo source: Walt Disney World)

Walt Disney World ‘enthusiasts’ say theme park has ‘lost its magic’

September 20, 2022

A majority of “self-described Disney World enthusiasts” say the Florida theme park has “lost its magic” due to skyrocketing costs, according to findings of a recent study, reports Fox Business.

A study from gambling website Time2play surveyed 1,927 “Disney World enthusiasts”—and, of those, 68.3% reported that the price hikes make them feel like the theme park has “lost its magic.” A whopping 92.6% reported that they believe the high costs for the park has made a vacation for the average family “out of reach.”

A ticket for Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in 1971 was a total of $3.50, according to the study. When adjusting for inflation, that would mean tickets would be about $25.60 today. Instead, tickets for one Disney World park range from $109 to $159 per day, according to the findings.

Nearly 50% of respondents reported postponing a trip due to the price hikes.

All in, Disney World veterans can expect to pay 35.7% more for their next trip compared to their last one, Time2play established.

A chart posted to social media last year by a researcher at SJ Data Visualizations, a U.K.-based firm, shows that prices for Disney World have risen by at least 3,871% since 1971—with prices rising at a more drastic rate in the early 1980s compared to its first decade.

Families spoke out about the prices earlier this year, as traveling picked back up following coronavirus lockdowns, and they expressed shock at the price hikes. One dad of two estimated he would be on the hook for a $4,000 to $5,000 bill, even with one of his kids qualifying for free admission.

“I understand inflation and all of those things. I understand cost increases,” Kentucky father Matt Day told The Washington Post earlier this year on the high prices. “I always had the impression that Disney was a family vacation destination, and that impression is why I was surprised to see how expensive it truly was—and how out of reach it is for most American families.”

“It’s really unprecedented,” said Len Testa, president of theme-park trip-planning site Touring Plans told the Post earlier this year. “We haven’t seen this sort of anger about price hikes in—we can’t remember the last time something like this caused this much anger from Disney fans.”

Walt Disney World’s communications team did not immediately respond to Fox’s request for comment on the study.

Research contact: @FoxBusiness

Visual source: @sunnyvalepc/#mentalhealth/Instagram

Psychiatric disorders and type 2 diabetes often go together

December 17, 2021

Danish researchers have found that people with psychiatric disorders often have to deal with another infirmity: They are more likely to suffer from type 2 diabetes than members of  the general population, reports U.S. News & World Report.

The rate of type 2 diabetes in the general population  has been established to be 6% to 9%.

“Increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes among individuals with a psychiatric disorder suggests that these conditions have a shared vulnerability,” the researchers said in an article published November 29 in the journal Diabetologia.

In the study—led by Nanna Lindekilde, from the Department of Psychology at the University of Southern Denmark—the investigators searched four electronic databases of scientific papers. They found 32 reviews based on 245 studies that included people with 11 categories of psychiatric disorders: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, substance use disorder, anxiety disorder, eating disorder, intellectual disability, psychosis, sleep disorder, dementia, and a mixed group with different types of disorders.

Type 2 diabetes was most common among study subjects with who were reported to have:

  • A sleep disorder (40%),
  • Binge eating disorder (21%),
  • Substance use disorder (16%),
  • Anxiety disorders (14%),
  • Bipolar disorder (11%), and
  • Psychosis (11%).

People with an intellectual disability were least likely to have diabetes (8%), the findings showed.

Many people with sleep disorders have other health problems, and it’s likely that these conditions contribute to the high rate of diabetes in people with sleep disorders, said lead author Lindekildek.

The researchers also said that the link between sleep disorders and diabetes is likely to be bidirectional— with the sleep disorder raising the risk of developing diabetes; while diabetes, especially in combination with poor metabolic control, increases the risk of developing sleep problems”

“Better understanding of the observed differences in disease risk and the reasons behind them are still needed,” the researchers concluded in a journal news release.

Research contact: @usnews

Photo source: MindBodyGreen

‘I’m enlightened and you’re not’: Study finds spirtual guidance is linked to narcissism, feelings of superiority

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July 22, 2021

A new study has found that some popular forms of spiritual guidance—such as instruction in energy healing; aura reading; and, to a lesser degree, mindfulness and meditation —correlate with both narcissism and “spiritual superiority,” Psych News Daily reports.

An implicit feature of spiritual training is that it encourages self-compassion and nonjudgmental self-acceptance—enabling followers to distance themselves from their egos and, thereby, from the need for social approval or success.

But as the new paper explains, spiritual training may have the opposite effect. In fact, such guidance may enhance followers’ need to feel “more successful, more respected or more loved,” as the authors Roos Vonk and Anouk Visser, respectively, of Radboud University in The Netherlands and the Behavior Change Group, also in the Netherlands, write. Their paper, “An Exploration of Spiritual Superiority: The Paradox of Self‐Enhancement,” has been published in the European Journal of Social Psychology.

The authors developed a new measure that they refer to as “spiritual superiority.” It measures whether people feel superior to those “who lack the spiritual wisdom they ascribe to themselves.”

The researchers’ questionnaires ask respondents to react to a number of statements—among them, “I am more in touch with my senses than most others,” “I am more aware of what is between heaven and earth than most people,” and “The world would be a better place if others too had the insights that I have now.”

The authors also created three scales that they hypothesized would correlate with spiritual superiority.

The first scale, “spiritual guidance,” relates to how much people try to help others acquire the same wisdom they have acquired. It includes statements such as “I help others whenever possible on their path to greater wisdom and insight,” “I gladly help others to acquire my insights too,” and “I am patient with others, because I understand it takes time to gain the insights that I gained in my life and my education.”

The second scale is “supernatural overconfidence,” and it encompasses self-ascribed abilities in the paranormal domain. Example statements include “I can send positive energy to others from a distance,” “I can get in touch with people who are deceased,” and “I can influence the world around me with my thoughts.”

The third scale, “spiritual contingency of self-worth,” measures how much a person derives their self-esteem from their spirituality. Sample statements include “My faith in myself increases when I acquire more spiritual wisdom” and “When I gain new spiritual insights, this increases my self-worth.”

In three separate studies described in their research article, Vonk and Visser established their scale of spiritual superiority as a valid instrument. Moreover, it correlates significantly with the other three scales. It also correlates significantly with narcissism, self‐esteem, and other psychological variables. Finally, it also correlates, to varying degrees, with diverse forms of spiritual training.

They note that spiritual narcissism has been defined, for example, as “the misuse of spiritual practices, energies, or experiences to bolster self-centered ways of being.”

Other studies define spiritual narcissism as a situation “in which the individual believes he or she has become somehow enlightened in a way that others have not, and operates from a disconnecting stance of spiritual superiority.”

Yet another researcher simply calls it “an ‘I’m enlightened and you’re not’ syndrome, Psych News Daily reports.

The authors argue that the lack of objectivity in the spiritual domain plays a role here. “Like religiosity, spirituality is a domain that seems like a safe and secure investment for self-worth,” they write. “One’s spiritual attainments allow lots of room for wishful thinking, thus easily lending themselves to the grip of the self-enhancement motive.”

And because spiritual matters are generally “elusive to external objective standards,” that makes them a “suitable domain for illusory beliefs about one’s superiority.”

On the other hand, spiritual training may attract people who already feel superior. And the “extensive exploration of one’s personal thoughts and feelings” that spiritual training encourages “may be particularly appealing” to narcissists, the authors write.

Research contact: @PsychNewsDaily

Photo source: Flo Health

‘Thirst’ aid: Does drinking lots of water lead to happiness and health?

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December 24, 2020

Does being properly hydrated have a transcendent effect on our lives? A new survey of 2,000 Americans has found that those of us who drink six or more glasses of water daily tend to be more optimistic, energetic, and successful, according to a report by Good News Network.

Indeed, the poll—conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Bosch Home Appliances—established that people who drink a half dozen or more glasses of water per day are the most likely to strongly agree that they are “very happy” (41%).

Compare that to those who self-report drinking less than one glass per day: Only 12% strongly agree with that same statement.

What’s more, 40% of those who drink six or optimistic by nature, compared to just 10% of those who drink less than one glass of water a day.

Refreshment also could be the key to waking up feeling refreshed. The study found that those who drink six or more glasses woke up feeling exhausted fewer times each week (2.59) than those who drink less than one glass of water a day (3.14).

Research contact: @goodnewsnetwork

Above, sorry Charlie Brown (and Charles Schultz), the type of peanuts that helps metabolic syndrome is edible. (Photo source @PNTS/courtlauld.ac.uk)

Study: Eating peanuts daily may reverse metabolic syndrome, a condition that affects 23% of adults

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December 3, 2020

The Peanut Institute is sharing the results of recent research, which found that eating two ounces of lightly salted peanuts daily for 12 weeks may help reverse a medical condition known as metabolic syndrome.

The study—conducted by scientists from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, and published in the current online issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition—established that those who ate peanuts had a two times higher likelihood of reversing their metabolic syndrome than those in a control group. 

The study is a first-of-its-kind to look at the effects of peanut consumption on a medical classification that, according to the American Heart Association, affects approximately 23% of adults.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions that increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke and diseases related to fatty buildups in artery walls. Those with metabolic syndrome are five times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes and two times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease within 10 years as someone without it. Some of the characteristics of metabolic syndrome include high blood pressure, high blood sugar, abdominal obesity and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels. 

The 12-week dietary intervention study was conducted October 2017 through January 2018 with 224 participants who either had metabolic syndrome or were at risk for it.

“This study is unique because it added just one new element to participants’ diets with the introduction of two servings of peanuts each day,” says Dr. Samara Sterling, director of research for The Peanut Institute. “The research showed the impact of nutrient-dense peanuts and how they positively affected participants’ health outcomes.”

The study also found that eating two servings of peanuts daily for 12 weeks did not cause participants to gain weight. 

“It’s exciting research because it supports the approach that food can be thought of as medicine in the fight against chronic diseases,” says Sterling. “Peanuts are packed with nutrients and are able to deliver health benefits in a small and affordable serving.”

Two servings, or approximately 70 peanuts, cost less than 30ȼ, are about 170 calories— and contain 14 grams of plant protein, plus 19 vitamins and minerals.

Peanuts also have antioxidants, polyphenols, and phytosterols—plant substances that have been shown to help reduce cardiovascular disease and cancer risk, lower inflammation and cholesterol, and improve blood flow. In addition, the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats in peanuts, like those in olive oil and avocados, help decrease “bad” LDL cholesterol and increase “good” HDL cholesterol.

Research contact: @PeanutInstitute 

Photo source: Official Health Blog

Gut feelings: Happiness may guard against deadly gastrointestinal infections

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June 16, 2020

Those who are blessed with good cheer also are apt to have good digestion. In fact, researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas have found evidence that serotonin—the brain chemical responsible for feelings of happiness and well–being—may stop harmful intestinal pathogens from causing deadly infections, Study Finds reports.

Serotonin is almost always thought of as a brain chemical, but about 90% of it is actually produced in the gastrointestinal tract. There also are trillions of bacteria living in the stomach and, while the vast majority of those bacteria are beneficial, some pathogenic bacteria also make their way to the gastrointestinal tract. When this happens, it can lead to serious and sometimes fatal gut infections.

Gut bacteria, like any other form of bacteria, are quite susceptible to their living environment. With this in mind, the study’s authors wondered if levels of serotonin being made in the gut affected these pathogens in any way, according to Study Finds.

To study this possible relationship, researchers focused on Escherichia coli O157, a type of bacteria known to cause semi-frequent outbreaks of sometimes deadly food-borne infections. Some samples of these bacteria were grown by the team in a lab setting and then exposed to serotonin. Notably, gene expression tests conducted after this exposure reveal that the serotonin had indeed significantly reduced the “expression” of genes within the bacteria that cause infections.

Furthermore, when human cells were exposed to the serotonin-weakened bacteria, that bacteria was no longer capable of inflicting “infection-associated lesions.” So, just add some serotonin and the bacteria loses its ability to produce an infection.

Moving forward, the researchers were eager to test their idea on living subjects. They gathered a group of mice and studied how serotonin influenced the viral capabilities of Citrobacter rodentium, which is pretty much the rodent equivalent of e.coli for humans. Some of the mice were genetically modified to produce more serotonin than usual. Others were modified to produce less than normal.

The mice that were producing more serotonin were much less likely to develop an active Citrobacter rodentium infection, and/or experience significant symptoms after being exposed to the bacterium. Conversely, mice with low levels of serotonin developed serious infections and many even died, Study Finds reports.

Mice given fluoxetine (Prozac) to raise their serotonin levels also didn’t become infected after exposure to the bacterium.

Additional experiments helped the research team pinpoint the serotonin receptor within both E. coli and C. rodentium; the protein known as CpxA. This protein is actually common among gut bacteria, so it seems likely that serotonin has a big effect on overall gut health.

The study’s authors want to continue their work on this subject, and are hopeful serotonin can be used as a legitimate treatment option for bacterial gut infections. As of now, there are very few available antibiotics that are effective against E. coli O157.

“Treating bacterial infections, especially in the gut, can be very difficult,” says study leader Vanessa Sperandio, Ph.D., a professor of microbiology and biochemistry at UT Southwestern Medical Center, in a statement. “If we could repurpose Prozac or other drugs in the same class, it could give us a new weapon to fight these challenging infections.”

The study is published in Cell Host and Microbe.

Research contact: @StudyFinds

Photo source: pjlibrary.org

Taking the ‘lawn’ view: Scientists look to grass as next vegan protein source

November 20, 2019

Why bring salad to a picnic?  Soon, grass—not marijuana; but the lawn and turf type—may be used as a source of vegan protein, according to a group of researchers from Technical University of Denmark’s National Food Institute and Aarhus University in Denmark.

While the fibrous nature of grass is difficult to digest and metabolize by humans, the researchers have developed a method to distill protein powder from grass matter, particularly ryegrass, according to a report by Veg News.

The resulting powder has a similar amino acid profile to soy, eggs, and whey—and can be used in a variety of applications once the researchers further reduce its naturally bitter flavor.

“The ambition is that research from the National Food Institute can make the utilization of grass profitable. It must be able to compete with cheap products such as soy. It should be cheap to buy, offer good functionality in foods, and it must be tasty,” Peter Ruhdal Jense, professor at DTU’s National Food Institute, told Foodnavigator during a November 13 interview.

 “The idea,” Jense said, “is that we will eat many products based on grass. In particular, the market seems to be big among young consumers who, fortunately, pay great attention to the environment and sustainability.”

Commercialization of grass protein depends on the approval of the European Union of the novel ingredient as safe for human consumption, a process that the scientists plan to support with further research. “In that way, the Institute contributes to us moving closer to a radical change in our eating habits—away from animal proteins that have an adverse impact on the environment and towards more sustainable alternatives,” Jensen said.

Research contact: @VegNews

Photo source: The Little Guest Hotels Collection

A change of heart? Tiny wearable sensors will help expectant moms track fetuses’ heartbeat, movements

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August 23, 2019

About 2.6 million women and their loved ones experience the pain and loss of a stillbirth each year, according to The World Health Organization. Now, researchers have developed a device that will give expectant mothers more “control” over and knowledge about their pregnancies—in real-time, with a tiny, non-invasive fetal heartrate monitor, which they claim is more accurate than anything else yet on the market.

The thump, thump of a baby’s heartbeat is a milestone in any pregnancy. Researchers at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey,  have conducted a pilot study in which a sensor—worn on the mother’s abdomen—records vibrations when her baby’s heart beats or when the fetus squirms and kicks. 

. “Almost a third of stillbirths occur in the absence of complicating factors,” said Negar Tavassolian, director of the Stevens Bio-Electromagnetics Laboratory.”Our device could let a pregnant woman know if her fetus is compromised and she needs to go to the doctor.”

Many stillbirths are preceded by variations in fetal movement and heartrate, so affordable, lightweight monitors that detect vibrations generated from a heartbeat could be worn continuously in the final weeks of pregnancy to ensure that distressed fetuses receive prompt medical attention. The work is reported in the early access issue of IEEE Sensors Journal.

Tavassolian and first author Chenxi Yang, a graduate student at Stevens, teamed up with Bruce Young and Clarel Antoine, two OB-GYNs at New York University-Langone Medical Center to test their sensors. In experiments on 10 pregnant women, they found the device could detect fetal heartrate with about the same accuracy as fetal cardiotocograms (f-CTG), which measure the baby’s heart electrical activity (ECG) together with mother’s uterine contractions—and is considered the current standard for fetal monitoring.

A vibration monitor offers important advantages over existing tools based on ECG or Doppler ultrasound technology, which require specialized knowledge to use, and can be bulky and expensive. One leading monitor system currently on the market weighs more than 11 pounds and has a battery life of four hours; by contrast, the Stevens team’s sensors are barely a fifth-of-an-inch long, weigh next to nothing, and can run off a 3-volt battery for more than 24 hours.

The new monitor poses no risk to the fetus—a concern with ultrasound monitors, which can heat tissue if used continuously for long periods. The Stevens team’s monitor simply detects existing vibrations, like a doctor listening with a stethoscope. “Our monitors are completely passive, so there’s no health concern,” Tavassolian said.

Vibration monitors can also offer an objective measure of fetal movement, which is currently assessed simply by asking moms to count the times their baby kicks. Combining heart-rate and movement data could provide vital insights into fetal health, surpassing anything that’s currently available, Yang explained. “That’s the big plan — to fuse these different modalities into a single device,” he said.

The current device uses commercially available sensors, but the long-term goal is to patent and market a custom-built device.

Research contact: @FollowStevens

Photo source: oslerchiropractic.co.za

When life leaves you off-balance: New research focuses on ‘dizziness of unknown cause’

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August 6, 2019

When life leaves you, literally, “in the lurch”—suffering from functional dizziness that cannot be linked to an organic cause, no matter how many doctors you may visit or tests you may take—is there any hope for recovery?

For the very first time, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Germany say the answer is yes: Results of a study released on August 5 indicate that people who frequently feel light-headed, woozy, or unbalanced may be suffered from perception disorders.

Specifically, they have found symptoms that resemble those associated with dizziness due to organic causes-but that, instead, are caused by a malfunctioning of the processing of sensory-motor signals in the brain.

The Munich researchers already had postulated several years ago that such functional disorders might be caused by faulty processing of sensory stimuli. The team, headed by Professor Nadine Lehnen, senior physician for Psychosomatic Medicine at the TUM University Hospital rechts der Isar [located to the right of the Isar river], was able to provide more support for this theory by conducting an experimental pilot study.

Eight patients with functional dizziness, along with 11 healthy subjects, participated in the study. The researchers also used data from patients whose dizziness had been linked with organic defects—and who had previously taken part in the same experiment. Those patients had either a cerebellar disorder or a complete loss of functioning vestibular (equilibrium) nerves.

During the experiment, the participants sat in a dark room looking straight ahead while lights were flashed to their right and their left. They then were asked to look in the direction of the light points. Their eye and head movements during the gaze shifts were recorded. The subjects then were fitted with a weighted helmet to alter the inertia of their head. This resulted in significant head wobbling. The experiment was performed with and without the helmet.

Whereas the healthy subjects quickly adapted their movements to the new circumstances and managed to stop their head from wobbling, all the subjects with functional dizziness found the task difficult to perform. What surprised the research team was the fact that the latter behaved in exactly the same way as subjects with dizziness due to massive organic defects.

“Our results clearly show that functional dizziness is manifested exactly like severe physical disorders, for example after complete functional loss of the vestibular nerves. This reflects how severely impaired these people are,” Professor Lehnen said in a press release..

Based on previous experience, which is stored in the brain in the form of learned models, people have a certain expectation about the sensory impressions evoked by a movement. This expectation is compared with information from the vestibular organs. If the head behaves differently than normal, the two sets of information no longer match. This creates an imbalance between expectation and reality, a state known as prediction error.

“Healthy people can easily perceive this error, process it and adapt their movements accordingly. Patients with functional dizziness, by contrast, do not appear to process sensory-motor impressions correctly. They rely primarily on their stored model, but it no longer matches the new reality,” Nadine Lehnen explains.

Can the condition be improved? She notes, “We were excited to observe that they are still able to learn—albeit only to a limited degree.” It would therefore be important to treat such patients using therapeutic approaches that take into account this processing deficit. A large-scale study is planned to corroborate the recent findings.

Research contact: Nadine.Lehnen@mri.tum.de