Health

From a Reuters article on MSNBC:

In contrast to an earlier finding, it does not appear children who watch a lot of television wind up with behavior problems in school, researchers reported Monday. If there is an association, it may be that the exhausted parents of already overly active children are more likely to let them watch TV to give themselves a break, and not that TV itself leads to attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, the report from Texas Tech University in Lubbock said. "The results of the present study do not indicate the presence of an important relationship between television exposure and subsequent attention problems," said the study published in the March issue of "Pediatrics," the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. That finding conflicts with the conclusion of a 2004 study in the same journal, possibly because of differences in methodology, the authors said.

Good thing Lisa and I never argue. From a Reuters story on MSNBC:

The manner in which husbands and wives argue over such hot-button topics such as money, in-laws, and children, may be a factor in their risk of developing coronary atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries of the heart. In a study of 150 couples, mostly in their 60s, researchers found that women who behaved in a hostile manner during marital disputes were more likely to have atherosclerosis, especially if their husbands were also hostile. In men, hostility -- their own or their wives -- was not related to atherosclerosis. However, men who behaved in a dominating or controlling manner -- or whose wives behaved in that way -- were more likely to have clogged coronary arteries.

But if you fight, at least make sure you lift weights. From an AP story in USA Today:

By just lifting weights twice a week for an hour, women can battle the buildup of tummy fat that often takes hold with aging, a new study suggests. And they didn't even diet. The study focused on intra-abdominal fat, the deep fat that wraps itself around organs and is the most unhealthy because it's linked with heart disease. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and is being presented Friday at an American Heart Association conference in Phoenix. In it, 164 overweight and obese Minnesota women ages 24 to 44 were divided evenly into two groups. One group participated in a two-year weight-training program and the other was simply given a brochure recommending exercise of 30 minutes to an hour most days of the week. Both groups were told not to change their diets in a way that might lead to weight changes. Women who did the weight-training for two years had only a 7% increase in intra-abdominal fat, compared to a 21% increase in the group given exercise advice. The strength-training group also decreased body fat percentage by almost 4%, while the group just given advice remained the same. Using both free weights and machines, the women in the strength-training group worked out for about an hour and were encouraged to gradually increase the weights they lifted. "This is not a program you could do in your home, unless you can afford to have a full gym in your basement," Schmitz said. Schmitz said the focus was on chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, lower back, buttocks and thighs. She noted that adding muscle mass can help overweight women move faster so they burn more calories.

From an article on abcnews.com titled "Germs Are Lurking in Your Office":

...the Top 5 places where viruses live in the workplace: the desk, computer mouse, telephone, doorknob and light switch. "Viruses can live for 72 hours on common surfaces like phones and desktops," Gerba said. Common areas, such as conference rooms, are not safe havens for germs because they are more likely to be cleaned than personal space, Gerba said. "Also, people at meetings are usually sitting relatively still," he said. "They aren't getting up to use phones, computer mice and keyboards."

From a Newsweek/MSNBC article:

Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago, like a growing number of the 2,778 U.S. hospitals with delivery rooms, is turning down patients' requests to videotape births. The official reason: privacy and safety concerns. But some say the real reason is that hospitals are afraid the tapes will be used against them in malpractice suits. Doctors say the no-movie-camera policies benefit patients. Tripods can fall into the "sterile field," says Laura Riley, director of labor and delivery at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital, adding that many doctors find filmmaking distracting and feel uncomfortable being taped. Privacy laws favor doctors' rights to be camera shy. Health-care lawyer Miles Zaremski, who calls taping "an improper intrusion," says there's no legal right to tape births. Besides, many doctors believe that movie cameras defeat the purpose of having Dad in the delivery room in the first place. "The support person is there to support the mother through the birth," Riley says, "not to be behind the camera."

From an article titled "Girl's Science Project May Make You Rethink That Drink Order" by Michele Sager on MSNBC.com:

Benito Middle School student Jasmine Roberts examined the amount of bacteria in ice served at fast food restaurants. The 12-year-old compared the ice used in the drinks with the water from toilet bowls in the same restaurants. Jasmine said she found the results startling. "I thought there might be a little bacteria in the ice, but I never expected it to be this much," she said. "And I never thought the toilet water would be cleaner." Her discovery: Seventy percent of the time, the ice had more bacteria than the toilet water. Of the bacteria found in the ice, three out of the five restaurants tested positive for fecal coliform or E. coli, organisms that come from the feces of warm-blooded animals.