Health Tips

STRESS MAKES FATS LINGER

A study has found evidence that stress, even during short periods, can cause the body to take longer to clear heart-damaging fats from the bloodstream. Researchers at Ohio State University tested how quickly triglycerides -- fats linked to heart disease -- were eliminated from the blood of stressed and relaxed volunteers. They found stress caused triglycerides to remain in the bloodstream longer. The findings suggest one reason why stress has been linked to heart disease, said Catherine Stoney, co-author of the study and professor of psychology. "If a person has a high-fat snack or meal during a time of stress, that fat is going to be circulating in the blood for a longer period of time," Stoney said. "That means it may be more likely to be deposited in the arteries where it can contribute to heart disease." The study appears in the journal Psychophysiology.

PANIC ATTACKS CAN SPELL TROUBLE

The greater the panic reaction of a police officer during a stressful event such as the injury of a partner, the greater his or her risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, a study indicates. Researchers from the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center also found higher risk of symptoms among officers who view the incident as unreal, as if they were in a dream, a movie or a play. Only 7 percent of officers report significant problems with PTSD symptoms, yet more than 45 percent report sleep disturbances typical of patients in insomnia clinics, said principal investigator Dr. Charles Marmar, associate chief of staff for mental health at SFVAMC and UCSF professor and vice chair of psychiatry. "At the moment of confronting a personal life threat or witnessing gruesome injuries to others, police officers vary in their immediate emotional reactions. We found that police officers who reported greater grief, horror and panic-like symptoms -- extreme terror, feeling they might die, experiencing a loss of control over their emotions and physical symptoms such as a pounding heart or shaking hands -- were at much higher risk for PTSD symptoms later on," Marmar said. The study is published in several journals.

ADVANCES IN BIOLOGICAL DETECTION

Detection technology miniaturized to the atomic scale might lead to new methods for diagnosing infectious diseases. The system, developed at Northwestern University, could open the door to a new generation screening techniques that would be more accurate and quick than any methods now available. Such devices could one day test for a wide range of diseases in the doctor's office or in the field, detecting biological weapons such as anthrax and smallpox, researchers said in the journal Science. The technology lets scientists peek into the genetic code of individuals, gaining new insights into potential drug therapies, they said. The researchers used a process called Dip-Pen Nanolithography to make arrays of proteins with features more than 1,000 times smaller than those used in conventional arrays. This leads to nanoarrays with more than 1 million times the density of current commercial microarrays, said Chad Mirkin, director of the Institute for Nanotechnology. "Our technology opens up many new possibilities for detection and understanding the interactions of biomolecules with each other and synthetic agents," Mirkin said. "This means that instead of testing for anthrax DNA, which requires a lot of processing, we might be able to test for the anthrax spore itself."

REACH OUT AND E-MAIL SOMEONE

Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on America, people reached out to each other in an untraditional way -- through e-mail. A survey by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, shows 57.1 percent of Internet users -- more than 100 million Americans -- sent or received "I Care Mail" for emotional support in the wake of the tragedy. "Sept. 11 was the first major national crisis since the beginning of the Internet and e-mail," said Jeffrey Cole, director of the UCLA Center for Communication Policy and founder of the UCLA Internet Project. "In the aftermath of the attacks, e-mail had a profound influence on how Americans communicate. Tens of millions of Americans shared an emotional connection through e-mail after the attacks -- communication that in almost all instances would not have occurred through telephone or letters." Internet users established new connections and reconnected with old relationships, Cole said. "Equally important, people around the world used e-mail and the Internet to reach out to Americans to demonstrate support, compassion and sympathy," he said. When it came to getting the news, however, television -- not the Internet -- was the main source, for 56.3 percent of Americans.

(EDITORS: For more information about STRESS, call 614-292-0588; about PANIC, call 847-491-3115; about ADVANCES, call 847-491-2907; about E-MAIL, call 310-206-0510.)