positive

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People with generally positive outlooks show greater resistance to developing colds than do individuals who rarely revel in upbeat feelings, a new investigation finds.

Frequently basking in positive emotions defends against colds regardless of how often one experiences negative emotions, say psychologist Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and his colleagues। They suspect that positive emotions stimulate symptom-fighting substances. http://louis3j3sheehan.blogspot.com

"We need to take more seriously the possibility that a positive emotional style is a major player in disease risk," Cohen says.

In a study published in 2003, his group exposed 334 healthy adults to one of two rhinoviruses via nasal drops. Those who displayed generally positive outlooks, including feelings of liveliness, cheerfulness, and being at ease, were least likely to develop cold symptoms. Unlike the negatively inclined participants, they reported fewer cold symptoms than were detected in medical exams.

The new study, which appears in the November/December Psychosomatic Medicine, replicates those results and rules out the possibility that psychological traits related to a positive emotional style, rather than the emotions themselves, guard against cold symptoms. Those traits include high self-esteem, extroversion, optimism, and a feeling of mastery over one's life.

The latest data also show that among people with a consistently positive mood, well-being doesn't simply reflect physical vigor. All volunteers entered the study in comparably good health.

In that project, Cohen's team interviewed 193 healthy adults by phone each evening for 2 weeks। The participants reported their positive and negative emotions during that day. They then received nasal drops containing a rhinovirus or an influenza virus that causes a coldlike illness. http://louis3j3sheehan.blogspot.com

Each person was quarantined in a separate room and monitored for 5 or 6 days. Although a positive emotional style bore no relation to whether participants became infected, it protected against the emergence of cold symptoms. For instance, among people infected by the influenza virus, 14 of 50 (28 percent) who often reported positive emotions developed coughs, congestion, and other cold symptoms, as compared with 23 of 56 infected individuals (41 percent) who rarely reported positive emotions.

The extent of positive emotions, but not of negative ones, exerted a strong impact on the emergence of cold symptoms, Cohen says. His recent analysis of immune measures from volunteers in the 2003 study, published last March in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, points to enhanced regulation of an infection-fighting substance, interleukin-6, in people with positive emotional styles.

Cohen's current study offers "an interesting twist" on the relationship between feelings and health, remarks psychologist Janice K। Kiecolt-Glaser of Ohio State University in Columbus। Other research indicates that negative emotions influence immune function and illness development more powerfully than positive emotions do, Kiecolt-Glaser says. http://louis3j3sheehan.blogspot.com

However, psychologist Barbara L। Fredrickson of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill notes that the new data agree with her work showing that to a surprising degree, positive emotions can bolster the immune system to improve health। http://louis3j3sheehan.blogspot.com

Studies of the impact of mood on physical health need to account for both positive and negative emotions, Cohen holds. He points to preliminary data from other teams suggesting that among depressed people, a lack of positive emotions is a more accurate predictor of stroke than is the extent of their negative emotions.

irony

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Global warming may turn out to be more than just a pain in the neck: Rising average temperatures might trigger an increased prevalence of kidney stones। http://louisyjysheehan.blogspot.com

About 12 percent of men and 7 percent of women in the United States will be stricken during their lifetime with symptoms of a kidney stone, which forms when minerals dissolved in urine crystallize somewhere in the kidney or urinary tract.

One of the primary causes of these painful deposits is low urine volume, brought about either by low fluid intake or by increased fluid loss, says Margaret S. Pearle, a urologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Although people in all parts of the nation can suffer kidney stones, the ailment is much more common in some regions than in others.

Prevalence of stones in the Southeast is as much as 50 percent higher than it is the Northwest, Pearle says. Urologists have long known of a “kidney stone belt,” which stretches from the Carolinas through Texas to southern and central California, she notes.

Overall, differences in average annual temperature among various U.S. regions account for about 70 percent of the variation in kidney stone prevalence. Dramatic increases in the ailment among soldiers deployed to arid regions, as well as seasonal variations in frequency of the malady, bolster the link between temperature and prevalence, the researchers propose.

Now, in the July 15 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Pearle and her colleagues estimate how the prevalence of kidney stones — and the costs needed to treat them — might increase as climate change boosts average temperatures.

In one climate change scenario —in which the atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide rise to 850 parts per million by 2100, up from about 380 ppm today — average annual temperature in some parts of the United States would rise as much as 3।25 degrees Celsius, says Tom H। Brikowski, a hydrologist at the University of Texas at Dallas and coauthor of the paper.http://louisyjysheehan.blogspot.com

Under such a scenario, kidney stone prevalence will undoubtedly rise. However, Pearle notes, the specific relation between average annual temperature and prevalence isn’t clear. While some urologists suggest that an increase in temperature will lead to a proportional increase in kidney stone prevalence, others propose that above a certain temperature threshold — say, 15° C — the risk of developing stones doesn’t increase.

In the model where the risk of stones rises proportionally with an increase in average annual temperature, the largest bumps in kidney stone cases by the year 2050 are concentrated in California, Texas, Florida and the East Coast, the researchers report. Under the other model, the increase in kidney stone prevalence over that period would be largely confined to Northern California and a swath running from Kansas to Virginia, because the average annual temperature in much of the Southeast already sits above 15° C. In some regions, kidney stone prevalence could rise about 30 percent, the analysis suggests.

Between now and 2050, climate change could cause an additional 1.6 million to 2.2 million cases of kidney stones, the researchers speculate. At that time, annual medical costs for stone-related emergency room visits, out-patient appointments and surgery would run between 900 million and 1.3 billion year-2000 dollars, the researchers estimate.

“These costs are pretty staggering,” says Anthony Smith, a urologist at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque। He describes the new research as “a fascinating study … that indicates climate-related changes in the environment will have large economic and human costs।” http://louisyjysheehan.blogspot.com

The new research “is really a seminal piece of work,” says Mark S. Litwin, a urologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Kidney stones are one of the largely unrecognized — and largely preventable — consequences of climate change, he adds.

More aggressive efforts to maximize hydration could result in a decreased incidence of stone problems, says Ira Sharlip, a urologist in San Francisco.

Litwin agrees: “The irony is, the cure is fairly simple,” he notes. “Just drink more water.”

bragg

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MAY 26TH—Sunshine and showers.

Senator Henry’s letter was referred to Gen. Bragg, who returned it to-day with the indorsement that the suggested movement had not escaped attention, and a good result might soon be looked for. And sure enough, a dispatch was received from Atlanta to-day, announcing the capture of some 250 of the enemy’s wagons laden with stores! http://louis0j0sheehan.blogspot.com

It is to be hoped that Gen। Lee has some scheme of a similar character, to relieve Grant of his supply trains. Troops are daily coming hither, infantry and cavalry, whence in one hour and a half the former reach Lee’s army. The great battle still hangs fire, but to be of greater magnitude when it does occur. http://louis0j0sheehan.blogspot.com

Gen. Bragg did a good thing yesterday, even while Senator Orr was denouncing him. He relieved Gen. Winder from duty here, and assigned him to Goldsborough, N. C. Now if the rogues and cut-throats he persisted in having about him be likewise dismissed, the Republic is safe! Gen. Ransom has now full charge of this department.

Mr. Secretary Seddon is sick, and Mr. Assistant Secretary Campbell is crabbed—Congress not having passed his Supreme Court bill. And if it were passed, the President would hardly appoint him judge.

It is said one of our iron-clads is out—the rest to follow immediately. Let Butler beware!