Tag

study:

Browsing

A study has now determined why you should never eat raw dough and how dangerous it can be.

Raw dough causes nausea and stomach ache? – The flour may be the culprit

The risk of salmonella infection is well known, but this is not the case with E. coli from raw dough. According to an American study, flour can trigger a life-threatening intestinal infection. E. coli can cause severe diarrhea, vomiting and stomach cramps. These bacteria get into grain, for example, via fertilizer or animal excrement.
The so-called E. coli bacteria (Escherichia coli)
According to the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), if floury dough and other dishes are baked at these high temperatures for at least two minutes, consumption is already safe.

With these tips, you can snack on dough without hesitation

Our tips:
If you bake with children, you cannot prevent one or two snacks. Therefore, it is best to bake a dough
If you use nut flour
Make sure your ingredients are organic
However, if you are pregnant or generally have a sensitive stomach, you should stick to the baked cookies.
If you want to snack on the dough without hesitation, then the “Cookie Dough” food trend is also suitable. This dough is without eggs and often also without flour. In addition, it does not contain any leavening agents. This cookie dough is deliberately intended for raw consumption and tastes just as good.

Sufficient sleep is vital for the health of humans and animals. If you sleep badly, you will notice negative psychological and physical effects after a short time.

How important is sleep?

Sleeping is part of everyone’s everyday routine. Researchers now know with absolute certainty that good sleep is essential for survival. According to the Robert Koch Institute, getting enough sleep is particularly important for the healthy development of children and young people. The need for sleep decreases with age and can also differ between peers.

Sleep researchers recommend adults get at least 7.5 hours of sleep a day. Children, on the other hand, need significantly more, depending on their age. In the early years, 13 hours or more is common. After that, the number of hours gradually decreases over the years. As a teenager, you should get eight to eleven hours of sleep.

Children and adolescents who sleep little have an increased risk of obesity, which is attributed to the short sleep duration, which can lead to an increased appetite and thus to an increased energy intake. Furthermore, lack of sleep can be associated with a reduced body temperature, which reduces energy requirements. Finally, lack of sleep leads to fatigue, which negatively affects physical activity.

Previously assumed: why do we sleep?

It is generally assumed that sleep is essential for the development and regeneration of nerve cells. Sleep is a necessary process for storing and processing information. It is therefore extremely important to get a good night’s sleep, since sufficient sleep acts like a reset button. The next morning you are fit and rested, so that you can at best go about your tasks fully focused and concentrated.

If you are constantly sleeping too little due to a stressful job, family or other daily burdens, you will find that you are much less concentrated and clumsy. You react slower or make wrong decisions because your brain can’t run at full speed all the time.

Researchers have put forward some hypotheses about why we need sleep:
The brain has a chance to train important neural connections that might otherwise deteriorate due to lack of activity.
Sleep gives the brain the ability to reorganize data to find problem solving, process newly learned information, and organize and archive memories.
Synapses that are no longer required are deleted and cleaned up. Therefore, we wake up feeling refreshed and more optimistic.
The cardiovascular system takes a break during sleep. With enough good sleep, blood pressure can be lowered in the long term.
Growth hormones are increasingly released during deep sleep. The body can repair or replace muscle, tissue, and aging or dead cells during sleep.

New sleep study: research team delivers surprising results

When we sleep at night, the body sleeps but not the mind. At night, the brain is mainly busy processing thoughts and experiences. It sorts out which thoughts are remembered and which are deleted or archived.

Tononi and Cirelli, biologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, presented the notion that humans and animals sleep to forget in a New York Times article. They found that synapses are partially cut while we sleep. This is how unimportant memories are lost. On the other hand, we remember more when the neurons in the brain have as many connections as possible. So when a thought or activity is used more often, the connection of the synapses in the brain becomes stronger and stronger. All connections that are only used once or rarely are pushed further and further into the background. We assume that we have this information even if the brain actually never forgets anything.

Now you might think that’s a bad thing, or that it would make us more forgetful. But on the contrary! When the brain automatically deletes all information that is unimportant or superfluous, it creates more capacity for new impressions and thoughts. So if you often have a full head, you should treat yourself to a large portion of sleep to be able to forget unimportant things.

Sleep to forget: Is this why we sleep?

The focus of sleeping is not forgetting, but maintaining our health. This includes the automatic deletion of information in the brain as well as the regeneration of the body. Getting enough sleep is good for your health.

Conversely, not getting enough sleep increases the risk of disease: The results of a recent sleep study by the University of Gothenburg indicate that people who sleep less than six hours a night have a 27 percent higher risk of atherosclerosis, which leads to clogged veins and such heart failure, stroke, or an aneurysm. The study also found that middle-aged men who sleep five hours or less a night are twice as likely to have a heart attack or stroke twenty years later.

Conclusion: Too little sleep is comparable to the effects of smoking or diabetes. There are enough reasons to get enough sleep and rest on a regular basis to keep your body and mind healthy and active in the long term and to sort, process or delete the 60,000 thoughts we think every day.

Many people dye their hair gray because it represents advanced age and a lot of stress. But when do you get gray hair and does stress really affect it?

At what age do you get gray hair?

On average, men in Europe start graying at the age of 30. Women only have to adjust to the gray hair color at an average age of 35.

Incidentally, people of African or Asian origin usually get gray hair much later, which studies show is due to their genes. But the genes also play an important role in every individual and can trigger gray hair sooner or later.

Where does gray hair come from?

Once the body runs out of melanin, the hair loses its color. This is a completely normal aging process, which unfortunately cannot be stopped. However, there are other factors that cause hair to turn gray. This includes:
stress
Smoking
hormonal imbalances
Vitamin and nutrient deficiencies
These factors also lead to a lack of melanin, causing the hair to lose its color. Exactly why this is the case is currently being researched and is not yet entirely clear. So gray hair can have different origins, but at some point it always happens.

What role does stress play?

Some clinical studies have found that stress can lead to gray hair. This is because the hair roots react to stress hormones. The production of melanin, the hair dye, suffers as a result. As a result, fewer or no more color pigments are produced

However, the direct connection between gray hair and stress is disputed in science, to go through life more relaxed, but it also makes sense

Can the color be brought back?

In another study, conducted by Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, it was found that stress-related gray hair can actually be restored to its original state. However, the study is not really representative, as only 14 subjects took part. They kept a diary in which their own stress level was recorded. By reducing stress, some subjects also regained their hair color. So there is at least the assumption that stress affects hair color and that hair color can even be regained through a more relaxed life.

You can achieve more relaxation in everyday life primarily through mindfulness exercises and a conscious perception of your surroundings. With short, conscious moments in everyday life you can reduce the stress a lot and thus do something good for your hair.

In the fight against excess pounds, the low-carb diet is very popular. A new study published surprising results: low carb is not as healthy as previously thought and can even shorten life expectancy under certain circumstances.

The low-carb diet is well known to everyone and is considered by many to be a successful weight loss diet. But is low carb not so healthy for us and can it even harm us?

dr Sara Seidelmann, a researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Boston, took a closer look at the low-carb diet and its effects and came up with startling results that were published in The Lancet Public Health. The study found that under certain circumstances, a low-carb diet can shorten life expectancy by up to four years.

Carrying out the study

Two studies were conducted to take a closer look at the effects of a low-carb diet.

1st study:

The study spanned 15,400 subjects over a 25-year period and took into account gender, age, educational level, ethnicity, physical activity, income, diabetes, smoking, and precise dietary habits. The participants had to fill out questionnaires about their eating habits, with information about the food and drink consumed and the portion sizes of the meals.

Results:

  • at the age of 50, the remaining life expectancy was estimated at another 33 years for the subjects who consumed moderate amounts of carbohydrates, i.e. 50 to 55 percent of the daily energy intake
  • at the age of 50, the remaining life expectancy was estimated at another 32 years for the subjects who consumed high amounts of carbohydrates, i.e. more than 65 percent of the daily energy intake
  • at the age of 50, the remaining lifespan was estimated at another 29 years for the subjects who consumed small amounts of carbohydrates, i.e. less than 30 percent of the daily energy intake
  • Conclusion: Consuming a moderate amount of carbohydrates in combination with vegetable sources of protein and fat is better than a low-carb diet containing meat.

2nd study:

In a second study, the scientists examined the exact implementation of the low-carb diet of 430,000 participants using two different types of nutrition:

  • the classic low-carb diet with few carbohydrates, lots of animal proteins and fats (meat, eggs, cheese, and milk)
  • the vegetarian low-carb diet with few carbohydrates, lots of vegetable proteins and fats (nuts, legumes, etc.)

Results:

This study found that a low-carb, high-meat diet shortened life expectancy compared to a moderate-carb diet. However, those who use vegetable protein sources even have a longer life expectancy than those who have a moderate carbohydrate intake.

Conclusion: A vegetarian low-carb diet can increase life expectancy.

dr Sara Seidelmann, who led the study, explained: “Low carb diets are becoming more popular because people believe it is a healthy way to lose weight quickly. However, our data suggest that a low-carb, animal-based diet is more likely to be associated with shorter lifespans. Therefore, people should not be encouraged to follow this diet. Instead, people who want to eat low carb should swap carbohydrates for plant-based fats and plant-based proteins, as such a low-carb diet actually enables healthy aging.”

Why low carb and high carb shorten the life

Scientists say Anyone who eats a low-carb diet and eats little fruit, vegetables, and whole grains, but more animal products automatically promotes inflammation in the body, increases oxidative stress, and accelerates the aging process, which increases risk of death.

A diet rich in carbohydrates is just as bad because those who mainly eat unhealthy foods made from white flour (toast, biscuits, etc.) promote metabolic diseases and digestive problems.

If low carb, then vegetarian?

A low-carb diet is only recommended if it consists mainly of vegetable protein and fat sources such as vegetables, legumes, and nuts. The researchers, therefore, recommend a plant-based wholesome diet. Meat is not taboo, but it should never replace carbohydrates.

The scientists in the study, therefore, classify both a low-carb diet and a high-carb diet as not beneficial for health.

Our conclusion to the study

Due to the duration of the study, it must also be assumed that study participants changed their diet over the course of this time, which could falsify the results. It is also questionable whether the so-called low-carb subjects in these observational studies actually followed a conscious low-carb diet the whole time. In addition, the surveys only show correlations and no causalities, so the connection between cause and effect is not taken into account.

So there is no reason to get excited. We recommend a balanced, conscious, and moderate low-carb diet if you want to eat a low-carbohydrate diet. Be mindful of the protein and fat sources you consume, just as you should ensure adequate vitamin and fiber intake. Diets cannot only be judged on the basis of carbohydrate and protein content. Many other factors, including nutrient sources, play an important role.

Smart people’s brains fare better in the modern world. But a study proved that the intelligent people in the focus are more likely to lead an unhealthy lifestyle with alcohol.

Smart people drink more alcohol and exercise less. what’s up

Sufficient exercise and a healthy diet play a major role when it comes to health. One might think that a person’s intelligence indicates a healthy lifestyle. After all, intelligent people are more conscious and should know better. Or?

In addition, there is ample evidence that proves that there is a connection between high intelligence and long life expectancy. It involves these factors:

Higher intelligence offers opportunities for higher education, which can bring a healthier environment and higher social status.
Intelligent people live healthier lives overall, exercise more, smoke and drink less, which increases life expectancy.
A high IQ score can indicate overall good physical condition. This means that it can cope better with environmental stresses, which also increases life expectancy.
However, according to the study by psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics and Political Science, intelligent people very often have rather unhealthy lifestyles. They tend to sleep late and have more drinks than less intelligent people. In addition, they often lack exercise.

result of the study?

In the study, the psychologist presents the savannah theory: According to the studies, the brains of intelligent people cope better with the developments and requirements of the modern world. People with a lower IQ would not do as well with urban life or the media. Alcohol, the internet and television played no role in the Stone Age. Therefore, according to this theory, less intelligent people tend to have less of a tendency to get high from drugs such as alcohol or cigarettes because their brains have not evolved as much as those of intelligent people.

The psychologist is less concerned with inferring intelligence from lifestyle. Rather, he would like to examine how people deal with the values ​​and options of the modern world.

Is this healthy?

Of course not. Because the more unhealthy the lifestyle, the higher the risk of disease, regardless of a person’s intelligence. If you don’t exercise and eat unhealthily, you risk cardiovascular problems, depression, dementia or even cancer.

No matter how high the intelligence quotient is: In order to stay fit and healthy, sport, healthy nutrition and avoiding unhealthy consumer goods should play a major role and be taken seriously.

In a study, the most boring person in the world was symbolically searched for. In the following we present the criteria for this and you may also find yourself in them.

What was examined in the study?

A team of British researchers went in search of boredom. Research was carried out into characteristics that lead to people being perceived as boring. To do this, researchers from the University of Essex conducted various tests and surveys involving over 500 people.

It was possible to find out which hobbies and jobs most people find boring. The results were recently published in the psychological journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

However, the study was mainly about the perception of different jobs and hobbies and not about specific character traits. Whether the person behind the facade is really boring is of course always to be judged individually.

Who is boring – according to the study?

A person who works in accounting, likes to sleep in and watch TV, lives in a small town and is religious is perceived as the most boring. According to the study, such a person is a symbol of a stereotypical bore.

In particular, jobs in data analysis, taxes/insurance or in cleaning and banking are perceived as particularly boring. If these jobs are combined with leisure activities such as sleeping, religion, watching TV, watching animals or mathematics, then one is quickly considered boring.

In addition, people who do not live in a village or in a small town are more interesting. As a result, boring people are less likely to be liked and more likely to be avoided, according to study leader Dr. Wijnand van Tilburg.

On the other hand, who is interesting and why?

Because of the way you shape your own life, it can happen that other people find you boring. Without them really knowing the people behind it. Other people spend less time with these people and the conversations are also more superficial. Then boredom actually becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

On the other hand, these jobs are perceived as particularly interesting:
artistic or performing professions
Jobs in the scientific field
Journalism professions
Medical Professions
the activity as a teacher.
The paradox is that jobs that are perceived as boring are often very important and these people have a lot of power within society.

Good food is well known for making us happier inside and out. A study shows how a simple trick can increase this effect.

Basics of the study

Every person has a different way to feel more comfortable. While for some it is relaxation methods such as yoga or meditation, others rely on sports, painting or talking to friends. But it is not uncommon for people to feel completely at ease after a delicious meal.

Based on the assumption that good food makes you happy, Edith Cowan University (ECU) initiated a study to prove that there is a connection between good food and our mental health.

A total of 657 people took part in the study, each of whom underwent a seven-week cooking course focused on preparing healthy food. After completing the cooking course, it was examined to what extent participation in the program affected general, but also mental health and subjective vitality. The term “subjective vitality” includes, among other things, perceived energy, willingness to perform and zest for life.

Cooking yourself: Good food should make you even happier

The results were impressive: The participants not only had a higher self-confidence when it came to cooking in general, but even adopted new and healthy eating habits in everyday life. In all three areas that were examined after the study, positive effects were found in the test persons: in general, but also in mental health and subjective vitality.

Basically, the study shows that there is a connection between health and healthy eating. Significant for an improvement in nutrition is not only healthy cooking, but also cooking at home – which increases the good feeling even more. According to the researchers, such nutritional improvement is also a way to combat mental health problems, obesity and other metabolic health disorders.

How much time is invested in cooking and the quality of the ingredients used is less relevant. It’s more about consciously turning to healthy cooking and doing something good for yourself; for example, just eating more fruit and vegetables can have a big effect.

Conclusion

In summary, it can be said that a healthier diet can be implemented at home and can have a positive effect on your physical and mental health. The question of how food can make you happier can be answered easily: Cooking at home is fresh, healthy and fun.

Smoking cannabis has different effects on the body. Researchers have now investigated whether there is also a risk of thrombosis.

Cannabis: what happens in the body?

As the University of Saarbrücken announced, the scientists compared the blood cells of three marijuana smokers with those of three non-smokers. All test subjects are in their mid-30s. Prof. Kaestner and his team observed that the red blood cells swelled immediately after contact with the cannabis active ingredient dronabinol – more so in people who regularly smoked marijuana than in non-users.

Dronabinol – also known as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – stimulates a specific ion channel on red blood cells during smoking. The channel called TRPV2 regulates the uptake and release of certain messenger substances into and out of the cell. Cannabis consumption increases the concentration of sodium ions in the blood cells, which means that more water is absorbed. This causes the cell to swell.

However, the situation does not last long. Within an hour, the cells returned to their original shape. According to Prof. Kaestner, however, the risk of thrombosis for cannabis smokers increases slightly during this time. Because the blood cells are larger and rounder, they tend to get stuck in small capillaries. In addition, when smoking cannabis, the vessels constrict, which also increases the risk of micro-thrombosis.

Scientists: health risk is unclear

According to the German Society for Angiology (DGA), in the event of a thrombosis, vessels such as veins are blocked by a blood clot. Leg and pelvic veins in particular can be affected. If a clot forms in these areas, there is a risk of the clot being carried through the bloodstream to the lungs. A pulmonary embolism is imminent. Various factors can lead to thrombosis. One danger is, for example, prolonged lying down, for example during a hospital stay. In this case, thrombosis stockings prevent vascular occlusion. However, the tendency to thrombosis can also be inherited.

The disease can be fatal. According to figures from the DGA, around 100,000 people die every year in Germany as a result of a pulmonary embolism. This is the third most common fatal cardiovascular disease after heart attack and stroke. If thrombosis is suspected, action must be taken quickly. As a first step, the patient is injected with an anticoagulant substance. This prevents the clot from growing and leading to a pulmonary embolism.

Prof. Kaestner cannot say that the observations of the Saarbrücken researchers actually pose an immediate health risk. This question was not part of the study.

Those who play sports have a longer life expectancy. Everyone is probably aware of this fact.

These seven sports extend your life the longest:

Tennis by 9.7 years
Badminton by 6.2 years
Playing football by 4.7 years
Cycling by 3.7 years
Swimming 3.4 years
jogging by 3.2 years
Gymnastics 3.1 years

The sports that top the list have one thing in common: they are played in teams or at least in pairs. It seems that team sports in particular have a positive influence on people’s life expectancy. Apparently, the component of social interaction plays a decisive role here.

The leader here is tennis, which can extend the length of life by an average of 9.7 years. Badminton players live about 6.2 years longer, according to the study. But football also has a positive effect on lifespan. On average, football players have a significantly longer lifespan of 4.7 years.

Individual sports extend lives longer than team sports

Individual sports also increase lifespan, but not to the same extent as team sports. Cycling accounts for an additional 3.7 years, swimming for 3.4 years, jogging for 3.2 years – this also supports another study, according to which fast runners live up to 15 years longer than dawdlers – and gymnastics for 3.1 years . But why is that?

Contact with other people seems to be an important reason here. “If you are interested in training for health, longevity and wellness, perhaps the most important feature of your training program is that it should include a play date,” said Dr. James O’Keefe, one of the co-authors of the Copenhagen City Heart study. The social interaction in team sports not only moves you, but also maintains social contacts, which is immeasurable for a long life.

Activities like running and weightlifting prolong life and provide numerous other health benefits. But the best thing would be for people who play these kinds of sports to supplement their training with activities that promote social bonding, says O’Keefe.

Researchers at Columbia University in New York have shown in a new study that ginger water helps you lose weight. The reason is the active ingredients in the ginger root.

Losing weight with ginger through capsaicin and gingerol

According to a study by Columbia University in New York, the reason for the positive effect are certain “sharpening agents” in the ginger root, which stimulate the metabolism. These contain the active ingredients capsaicin and gingerol, which trigger a heat stimulus when consumed. The human body reacts to this with increased blood flow and sweating to cool down the overheated body. The physical reaction in turn activates the metabolism and thus consumes additional calories.

Spicy food helps you lose weight

The fact that spicy food generally helps with weight loss has already been shown by test persons who felt less cravings for salty, fatty and sweet foods by seasoning their main meals with chili. The participants also felt less hungry with ginger tea or similar hot drinks.

How to make ginger water yourself

Ginger not only tastes good in warm but also in cold drinks. To make ginger water, you first peel the bulb and cut it into thin slices, which you put in a liter of water. The water should then simmer for around 20 minutes and then cool down. You can “spice up” the drink with a little lemon juice. Alternatively, so-called “ginger shots” can also be used.