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Berlin (dpa) –  People who gnaw like beavers on fingernails, idle when given work to do or “ghost” friends and dates can come across as skittish, lazy to the point of being sackable, or obnoxiously narcissistic. But such self-vandalism could well be rooted in survival instincts. So says psychologist Charlie Heriot-Maitland, who in his newly-published "Controlled Explosions in Mental Health" seeks to explain why people seemingly cannot help but engage in reputation-damaging “small harms" and "self-sabotaging." “Someone may procrastinate starting a project, causing themselves harm, but trying to prevent a higher-stakes harm of failure or rejection,” publisher Taylor & Francis says in a press release promoting the book. According to Heriot-Maitland, a possible explanation lies in how human instinct leans more towards self-preservation than it does to rolling the dice on success or failure – particularly when the outcome depends on the whims and moods of others as much as it does on the merits of one’s own efforts. “Our brain would rather we were the arbiter of our own downfall than risk being floored by something external. It would rather we were well-rehearsed in receiving internally-created hostility than risk being unprepared for it from others,” Heriot-Maitland says. “Our brain is a survival machine. It is programmed not to optimize our happiness and well-being, but to keep us alive,” the psychologist says. Deep down, people do not like surprises and want to sidestep being caught on the hop. The following information is not intended for publication dpa spr arw

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From limited attention spans to moodiness, there are a number of cognitive effects from excessive screen time, research shows. London (PA Media/dpa) – New government research indicates that increased screen time may be linked to poorer vocabulary development in toddlers. Findings came from The Children of the 2020s (COT20s) study where primary caregivers were asked to complete an online survey when their child was around two years old (between 24 and 28 months), between October 2023 and February 2024. In total, 4,758 surveys were completed. Results from the surveys found that children in the highest screen time group – averaging around five hours a day – were able to say, on average, 53% of the 34 test words, compared with 65% among children in the lowest screen time group, who averaged just 44 minutes per day. Here are five ways that screen time could affect your child’s brain… Are children more vulnerable to the effects of screen time than adults? “Children’s brains are like sponges that are soaking up experiences at an incredible rate,” says Dr Samir Shah, consultant psychiatrist and medical director at Priory Hospital Altrincham. “Key developmental periods particularly before the age of five and during the pre-teen years are when the brain undergoes the most rapid growth. “Too much screen time during these stages could have longer-lasting effects compared to adults.” Torkel Klingberg, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Karolinska Institutet and founding scientist at memory training app Nuroe, agrees and adds: “The development of cognitive abilities during childhood and adolescence is absolutely crucial. It’s a time of neuroplasticity, and it’s crucial for education and adult performance.” 1. Impacts attention span and focus “We [at the Karolinska Institutet] recently published results from a large study following more than 8,000 children between the ages of 10 and 14 and mapped the amount of time they either spent on social media or gaming or TV, and we found that it was specifically social media time that was associated with increased symptoms of inattention,” says Klingberg. “For example, they reported problems focusing for a longer period of time, getting easily distracted and had problems completing homework.” 2. Negative impact on mood and mental health “Research has shown us that teenagers and children who spend more than four hours per day on screens are more likely to experience higher levels of anxiety and depression,” highlights Shah. “The constant and persistent stimulation of digital screens can leave young minds feeling overstimulated with higher dopamine levels but emotionally unfulfilled. “Children who spend a lot of time on screens can also sometimes find it harder to manage frustration and irritation.” It could also impact their ability to pick up on social cues. “Less face-to-face and direct interaction means fewer opportunities and chances to practise important social and executive skills like empathy and resolving conflicts,” explains Shah. 3. Sleep deprivation “Another big aspect of this is that screen time and social media is crowding out time for other things such as sport, in-person interactions and importantly sleep,” highlights Klingberg. “There’s so much research showing the importance of sleep for both psychological wellbeing and cognitive performance, and this is especially important in young growing brains. “Lack of sleep can affect long-term memory, attention memory and working memory.” 4. Impacts problem-solving skills and memory “Constant distractions online means that children are often deprived of the ability to focus for a longer time and are missing out on the cognitive challenges that drive and benefit cognitive development, which includes both attention and working memory,” says Klingberg. “We know that working memory is something that can be developed by training, so I think part of it is trying to reduce children’s use of social media and to instead spend time on more focus-demanding activities, such as reading or homework, for example.” 5. Disrupts reward systems “Regular screens trigger the release of dopamine which is the brain’s ‘feel-good’ chemical. This then creates a cycle of craving more screen time to get that same buzz or effect,” explains Shah. “It’s a bit like checking the door repeatedly and hoping for an exciting visitor. Over time, real world and realistic activities can start to feel less rewarding by comparison. This is why children and teenagers who use screens regularly struggle to maintain or build meaningful social connections.” The following information is not intended for publication pa dpa coh

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Beijing (dpa) – Schoolchildren subjected to the strain of competition are at risk of blunting their inventiveness and imagination compared to peers who are allowed to develop without the pressure of overbearing parents pushing for top-of-the-class results. Psychologists at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University and Baptist University have found that stress arising from factors such as "competition, noise, confined environments, and engaging in challenging tasks" could be behind reduced "creative performance." In a paper published in the journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, the researchers found that strains related to exams and pushy parents bent on beating the neighbours "trigger anxiety" and leave children less inclined to "express creativity." Everyone feels the effects of such stress, the team said, explaining that it can "increase cognitive load, which reduces the cognitive resources available for creative thinking." However, the effect is "moderated by the type of stressor and the individual’s age," the team said, noting that adolescents, whose brain regions controlling "higher order thinking" are more developed than those of children, tend to perform better under pressure. Teenagers are primed by least “moderate” competitive pressure and in turn show some improvements in their “innovative ability,” the team asserted. "From a psychological perspective, creativity is one of the core abilities that people rely on to solve problems in daily learning, life, and work," said Lingnan psychology professor Huang Yi, asserting that creativity not only "helps to connect new things with existing knowledge" but also helps when there is a need to come up with "alternative solutions" to life’s difficulties. The following information is not intended for publication dpa spr coh

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Beijing (PA Media/dpa) – People who are trying to stop smoking could benefit from using a mobile phone app to assist their quit attempt, a study has found. Researchers found that apps designed to help smoking cessation are particularly effective when used alongside stop smoking medication. But even when used as a single tool they can be effective as a quit aid, the study suggests. Academics from China examined data from all studies ascertaining the effectiveness of stop smoking apps. The new review pooled the information from 31 studies involving 12,800 people. They found that smartphone apps used alone may improve the odds of a person kicking the habit for six months compared with no or minimal support. When combined with “traditional interventions”, smartphone apps increased the odds of people steering clear from cigarettes for six months. And when combined with medicines to stop smoking, the apps appeared to enhance a person’s ability to quit for six months compared with medicines alone, though the research team said that this finding was based on “low-certainty evidence”. Apps based on psychological-behavioural theories increased abstinence compared with “traditional behavioural apps”, they added. “Smartphone apps may be effective for smoking cessation compared with no or minimal support,” the authors wrote in the journal BMJ Evidence Based Medicine. “When combined with traditional interventions – especially pharmacotherapy – they may result in large increases in abstinence rates over traditional methods alone.” They added: “Smartphone apps provide a scalable, low-cost option for clinical resource-limited settings. “This systematic review provides actionable evidence for clinicians seeking to tailor digital tools and policymakers aiming to scale cessation services. “Should future evidence confirm lasting benefits and pinpoint key features, rigorously validated apps could become a cornerstone of global tobacco control efforts.” The following information is not intended for publication pa dpa coh

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London (dpa) – The estimated 280 million people worldwide who suffer from depression could have a treatment option that is not only cheaper than therapy and antidepressents, but that also makes them fitter and stronger. That’s according to researchers from the UK's University of Lancashire, who have concluded that exercise has "a similar effect on depressive symptoms" to therapy, following an examination of 73 randomized control trials involving around 5,000 patients. Moderate-intensity exercise appears to be the best option for patients who want to use working out as a substitute for therapists or meds. But the rigor needed depends in turn on the patient's level of fitness. "Our findings suggest that exercise appears to be a safe and accessible option for helping to manage symptoms of depression," said Andrew Clegg of the University of Lancashire. "This suggests that exercise works well for some people, but not for everyone, and finding approaches that individuals are willing and able to maintain is important," Clegg explained. The mental health benefits of exercise have already been extensively demonstrated by research, leading to calls for walking, jogging, yoga and strength training to be considered alongside psychotherapy and antidepressants as treatments for depression. The trials were less conclusive when it came to comparing exercise with medication, the team found getting fitter to have a "similar effect" to antidepressants. Not all of those who are diagnosed as depressive opt for medication or therapy, but it appears such cases could do worse than hit the gym or go for a run. Exercise has at least a "moderate impact" on symptoms "compared with no treatment or a control intervention," the researchers found, in thepaper published by the Cochrane Review in January. Whether fitness works long-term remains difficult to assess, however, as there is little by way of data to assess. The following information is not intended for publication dpa spr coh

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Los Angeles (dpa) – Tests on mice have shown that paternal exposure to microplastics can lead to health problems for their offspring, including an increased risk of diabetes among females. The findings have "implications for humans," according to the University of California, Riverside, where scientists carried out the tests. The research is only the latest to illustrate the harms of ingesting tiny particles shed by plastic, which have already been found in various human organs and unborn children. "Men planning to have children should consider reducing their exposure to harmful substances like microplastics to protect both their health and that of their future children," the researchers warned. Published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society in late December, the results showed microplastics alter sperm "cargo," in turn "contributing to metabolic dysfunction" in newborn mice, with females more likely to feel the effects. "We found that paternal [microplastics] exposure had sex-specific effects on diet-induced obesity including altered body compositions," the researchers said, adding that female descendants of males exposed to the plastics showed "exacerbated insulin resistance." US doctors last year found that microplastics are more likely to show up in the placentae of premature babies than those born full-term. The following information is not intended for publication dpa spr coh

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London (PA Media/dpa) – In a sign that weight-loss jabs could be influencing both eating habits and food marketing, an online grocer in the UK has launched a “small steak” aimed at customers on weight-loss jabs seeking smaller portions while maintaining a healthy nutrient-rich diet. The new “weight management” aisle from internet grocer Ocado includes products from a new “nutrient dense” from supermarket chain Marks & Spencer’s range – also designed for those on GLP-1 weight loss medications – as well as meals containing less than 600 calories while remaining high in protein. Other than the Turf and Clover small extra lean steak 100g, products in the aisle include the M&S high protein cottage cheese, only 3 ingredients two beef burgers and nutrient dense Romesco chicken, as well as the Huel ready to drink black edition chocolate 500ml and press chicken teriyaki and turkey lentil bolognese meals. Ocado follows retailers including Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Greggs in recently advertising new ranges catering for those taking GLP-1 drugs. Estimates suggest as many as 2.5 million adults in the UK were using weight-loss injections by July last year while Ocado’s own study found more than one in five (22%) had considered using them – rising to more than a third (37%) of 25 to 34-year-olds. Despite the growing uptake, the survey for Ocado found just 40% of consumers understood how GLP-1 drugs, commonly known by brand names such as Mounjaro or Wegovy, help users to lose weight. Some 73% of respondents said it would be helpful to know which foods and meals could support lean muscle preservation during weight loss. Charlie Parker, senior nutritionist at Ocado Retail, said: “As weight loss medications become more widely used, it’s crucial that diet and nutrition remain part of the conversation. “Preserving lean muscle mass plays an important role in long-term health, metabolism and overall wellbeing. “We’re seeing customers actively seek out high-protein, high-fibre foods and balanced meal options to support healthier weight loss journeys and with reduced appetites.” The following information is not intended for publication pa dpa coh

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If you ran out of time for breakfast or can't make it to a cafe for lunch, are fluids good enough instead? You may find later on, you regret substituting liquids for solids so try to make space to eat. Berlin (dpa) – Sometimes your schedule may be so tight that you can't even squeeze in a sandwich. So what do you do when your stomach growls in protest? Why not simply down a meal replacement drink or shake? They're filling and supply your body with all the important nutrients – or so say their manufacturers. Is this true?  The German consumer watchdog Stiftung Warentest examined six liquid meal replacements based either on milk, peas or oats. Its conclusion in a nutshell: "If you're in a hurry, they're better than currywurst [a popular German fast food consisting of a sausage covered in sauce made from ketchup and curry powder] with chips and mayonnaise."  As regards vitamins and minerals, most of them roughly met recommendations made by professional associations, the product testers say. Total fat content was acceptable too. Nevertheless, the testers say the liquid meals are unsuited as regular substitutes for conventional, balanced meals. Why? For one thing, all of the meals tested were too high in protein, the testers say. While this isn't a problem for healthy people, it could overstrain the kidneys of those with renal insufficiency. What's more, although the liquid meals have no added sugar, their ingredients themselves have up to 30 grams of sugar per millilitre. This means they contain quickly digested, short-chain carbohydrates that cause a spike in blood sugar levels, which is problematic for people with diabetes or prediabetes. A rapid drop in blood sugar that follows can trigger food cravings. On top of that, some of the meal replacement drinks contain the artificial sweetener sucralose, which is suspected of stimulating appetite. Another, perhaps counterintuitive, drawback: You don't have to chew a meal replacement drink. Chewing is important though: Food you need to crush with your teeth into smaller pieces that you can swallow generally makes you feel full longer. And liquid meal replacements can induce you to ingest more than necessary – particularly considering their calorie content, which is considerably higher than in a typical snack. The products tested contained between 400 and 515 kcals, according to the testers, about as many as in a conventional main meal. The following information is not intended for publication dpa/tmn rid tsn xxde ob arw

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Millions of years ago, humans lost the ability to produce vitamin C, a mystery that has puzzled scientists for decades. Now, new research suggests this evolutionary change may have protected our ancestors. Dallas (tca/dpa) – Millions of years ago, our ancestors lost the ability to make vitamin C. It’s long been unclear why. But Dallas researchers may have uncovered an explanation — and it involves parasitic infections. At the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern, researchers infected mice that couldn’t make vitamin C with schistosomes, parasitic worms that cause a disease called schistosomiasis. In those vitamin C-deficient mice, the worms struggled to produce eggs, and the mice were spared from the disease, which is triggered by the eggs. These findings , published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , offer clues about how a host’s biology may have evolved to protect itself against the worms and potentially other parasites, saidDr. Norman Beatty , an associate professor of medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine . Beatty was not involved in the study. The study also sheds light on schistosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease infectingover 200 million people worldwide , with nearly 800 million people at risk for infection. “This is just the tip of the iceberg for this infection,” Beatty said. “Probably there’s still more to look at. There may be other essential biological processes or molecules that schistosomes need as well.” Lost to evolution Vitamin C is a micronutrientessential for many bodily functions . It helps produce collagen, the protein that supports healthy skin, tendons and blood vessels. It also supports the immune system, helps neutralize cell-damaging molecules called free radicals and plays a role in making neurotransmitters that allow nerves to communicate. Most animals can make their own vitamin C. But in mammals and primates that lost that ability, scientists have viewed it as an evolutionary change that didn’t significantly affect survival.Some theories suggest vitamin C–rich fruits and other plants being abundant meant that biological production of the nutrient became unnecessary. Others propose a virus may have disabled the gene for the vitamin C–producing enzyme. Michalis Agathocleous , an assistant professor at the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute , became interested in vitamin C nearly a decade ago while studying how it affects stem cells. In 2017,he and colleagues reported that vitamin C inside blood-forming stem cells helps keep them from turning cancerous, thereby protecting against leukemia, a cancer of the blood. If vitamin C stops cancer in its tracks, and being deficient in it cancause scurvy — the disease long associated with sailors — the idea that our ancestors simply lost the ability to make it seemed strange. Agathocleous kept coming back to the same question: Why would evolution abandon this important nutrient? Stop the eggs He got a clue in a neighboring lab at UT Southwestern. When that lab’s researchers added vitamin C to Petri dishes containing female schistosomes, the worms laid eggs normally. Without it, egg production faltered.That finding echoed a1944 experiment in guinea pigs , which can’t make vitamin C. When guinea pigs were infected with schistosomes and fed a diet lacking vitamin C, the females produced malformed eggs, Agathocleous said. Seeing his colleagues’ results, Agathocleous set out to test how vitamin C deficiency might shape schistosomiasis. People become infected when the parasites’ larvae penetrate the skin, typically after contact with contaminated freshwater. Inside the body, the larvae migrate to the liver, mature into adults and eventually begin laying eggs. “The key thing here is that the eggs are the cause of the pathology,” said Agathocleous. “The schistosomes live in the circulation. In humans, they live for decades, they keep laying eggs and, of course, the eggs are shed, causing transmission.” Because mice can make their own vitamin C, Agathocleous and his colleagues used engineered mice that couldn’t do so. Theyinfected both engineered and normal mice with schistosomes. The normal mice developed signs of schistosomiasis, including enlarged livers and spleens and granulomas — clusters of immune cells that form in organs such as the liver as the body tries to wall off the eggs. The vitamin C–deprived mice, however, showed far less of that disease damage, although they did develop scurvy. To see whether they could separate the benefit from the harm,the researchers tested whether administering small, intermittent doses of vitamin C offered protection. It did: When the engineered mice received vitamin C before infection and for the first few weeks afterward, their livers were not enlarged and their spleens grew far less than those of normal mice. Better still, they didn’t develop scurvy. So what was driving the effect? The researchers found that vitamin C appears to be crucial for the development of the female schistosome’s vitellarium, a reproductive organ that works alongside the ovaries to produce eggs. Without vitamin C, the vitellarium didn’t develop properly, eggs were malformed and the vitamin C–deficient mice shed few to no eggs in their feces — cutting off a key route for the parasite’s transmission. Further research Agathocleous said the findings suggest a benefit to vitamin C deficiency, explaining why the vitamin C-making gene was lost. But he cautioned that the research doesn’t prove that it evolved specifically as a defense against schistosomes. Since that genetic change happened millions of years ago, the evolutionary pressures behind it can’t be tested directly. But if vitamin C deficiency can blunt schistosomiasis, Agathocleousand his colleagues want to know whether it can do the same for other parasitic infections. “It could turn out to be that this is very specific to schistosomes, or it could turn out to be that multiple parasites need vitamin C from their host,” Agathocleous said. “We just don’t know at this stage, but it’s a great question, and what we’re really interested in addressing.” Limiting vitamin C in the diet of someone infected with schistosomes wouldn’t be the best or safest treatment, said Beatty of the University of Florida . But the findings point to new clinical avenues to explore, such as therapies that block the parasite’s ability to take up vitamin C from its host. Schistosomiasis is typically treated with the antiparasitic drugpraziquantel , but some people don’t tolerate it well, Beatty said. “We always need to have multiple approaches to treatments for infections, because not everyone responds like we would like them to.” The following information is not intended for publication tca dpa coh

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London (PA Media/dpa) – A diet rich in vegetables and probiotics could help slow the growth of low-risk prostate cancer, a new study suggests. Researchers found that specially designed supplements and probiotics appeared to slow progression of an indicator of prostate cancer in the blood. Academics said that the link between the gut and the prostate, known as the “gut-prostate axis”, is increasingly being recognised as they set out to investigate whether increasing the level of “phytochemical-rich foods and Lactobacillus probiotics” would have an effect on prostate cancer. They developed a supplement made from broccoli, turmeric, pomegranate, green tea, ginger and cranberry and a specially designed probiotic. Some 212 men with low-risk prostate cancer were recruited to the study. Half the men were given the supplement and a placebo, also known as a dummy drug. The other half were given the supplement and the probiotic. Researchers, led by a team from the University of Bedfordshire along with experts from Cambridge University Hospitals and Bedford Hospital, then measured prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in blood. The PSA test can indicate prostate conditions including prostate cancer or an enlarged prostate. Working with scientists from California in the US, and Perth in Australia, they found that the rate of PSA progression slowed significantly in both groups of men taking part in the trial. But the rate of change was “significantly greater” among the group who got the supplement and the probiotic. Meanwhile, researchers also used MRI scans to measure disease progression during the four-month study. They found among that those who had the supplement and placebo, 82% had “stable disease” while 18% saw their disease progressed. Among those who had the supplement and the probiotic, 85.5% of men had stable disease, 6.7% “exhibited disease regression” and 7.8% saw their disease progress. Writing in the European Urology Oncology journal, the authors said they found a “significant slowing of progression in PSA” following dietary changes among men with low-risk prostate cancer. They said that their study is also the first to show “additional intervention” of the probiotic “significantly reduced PSA progression as well as serum markers of inflammation further”. The authors said that the finding is “clinically relevant” because men will often use PSA changes as a factor in indicating whether or not they want to remain having “active surveillance” or whether they have treatment or surgery. “Currently about 60% of men, with lower-risk disease, initially opt for active surveillance, but alarmingly over 50% opt out within five years,” the authors said. “As fewer than 5% of men in this prognostic group are likely to die from their disease, a successful dietary intervention, which helps men remain on active surveillance, could help avoid treatment-related toxicities in a large majority who might otherwise be over-treated.” They point out that a quarter of men in the study also reported improvements of urinary symptoms. But they stressed that the study period was only four months so called for longer-term studies to confirm the findings. “This study adds to the growing evidence that men managed with surveillance can empower themselves through lifestyle changes that could influence prostate cancer progression and improve their symptoms,” the authors conclude. “In addition to modifiable factors such as exercise, smoking, and omega-3–rich diets, this study suggests that boosting dietary phytochemicals and probiotics could also help.” First author of the study, Professor Robert Thomas, from the University of Bedfordshire and consultant clinical oncologist, said: “This study shows, for the first time, that improving the balance of bacteria in the gut can slow prostate cancer activity while also improving important aspects of men’s health such as urinary symptoms, inflammation and physical strength. “What is particularly reassuring is that the changes we saw in PSA were supported by changes on MRI scans, which is very unusual and unique in nutritional research. “This was a carefully designed clinical trial carried out under medical supervision and, while the results are encouraging, longer follow-up is planned to assess whether these supplements will lead to less men needing major interventions such as surgery or radiotherapy.” Dr Jeffrey Aldous, senior lecturer in exercise physiology at the University of Bedfordshire, added: “This research helps us understand how targeted dietary strategies may influence the gut microbiome in ways that appear to benefit both cancer-related markers and overall wellbeing. “Improvements in strength, inflammation and daily symptoms are particularly important for quality of life, and I hope our findings can support and improve the lives of those living with prostate cancer.” The following information is not intended for publication pa dpa coh

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