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David DiSalvo, Contributor
I write about science, technology, and the cultural ripples of both.
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PHARMA & HEALTHCARE
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11/08/2012 @ 3:20下午 |28,537 views
Need a Self-Control Boost? Gargle with Sugar Water!
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If you’re struggling to keep your self-control on track, keep a bottle of lemonade made with real sugar handy. You won’t have to drink it, just swish and gargle when you’re feeling like giving up.
That’s the finding of new research published in the journal Psychological Science. Researchers from the University of Georgiarecruited 51 students who performed two tasks to test self-control. The first task, which previous research has shown to deplete self-control, was tediously crossing out all the Es on a page from a statistics book. Then, participants performed what is known as the Stroop task where they were asked to identify the color of various words flashed on a screen, which spell out the names of other colors. The Stroop task’s goal is to turn off the student’s tendency to read the words (which is easy to do) and instead see the colors (which is harder to do).
Half of the students rinsed their mouths with lemonade sweetened with sugar while performing the Stroop test, the other half with Splenda-sweetened lemonade. Students who rinsed with sugar, rather than artificial sweetener, were significantly faster at responding to the color rather than the word.
Why? It seems that the glucose in the lemonade triggers the brain’s motivational centers simply by touching the tongue, giving the participants the extra push to complete the harder task.
“Researchers used to think you had to drink the glucose and get it into your body to give you the energy to (have) self control,” said UGA psychology professor Leonard Martin, co-author of the study. “After this trial, it seems that glucose stimulates the simple carbohydrate sensors on the tongue. This, in turn, signals the motivational centers of the brain where our self-related goals are represented. These signals tell your body to pay attention.”
Since glucose is the brain’s primary energy source, it makes sense that a quick shot of sugar would crank up attention. But according to the researchers, this study suggests that the sugar is providing more than a simple energy boost.
“It doesn’t just crank up your energy, but it cranks up your personal investment in what you are doing. Clicking into the things that are important to you makes those self-related goals salient,” said Martin.
The theory behind Martin’s statement is called “emotive enhancement,” in which something (in this case sugar) leads a person to pay attention to their goals and not automatically act on an urge to stop investing self-control when they’re feeling depleted. An example might be staying an extra half an hour at the gym when you’re feeling like calling it quits.
“The glucose seems to be good at getting you to stop an automatic response such as reading the words in the Stroop task and to substitute the second harder one in its place such as saying the color the word is printed in,” he said. “It can enhance emotive investment and self-relevant goals.”
Not convinced? Well there’s an easy way to test the findings and see if they hold up — just get a bottle of lemonade with real sugar and try gargling the next time you’re ready to tap out. If you give it a try, please let us know how it turned out in the comments section.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Contact: Kellie Bisset
kellie.bisset@saxinstitute.org.au
61-043-461-4578
Sax Institute
kellie.bisset@saxinstitute.org.au
61-043-461-4578
Sax Institute
Stand up: Your life could depend on it
Archives of Internal Medicine study provides new evidence on the harms of prolonged sitting
Standing up more often may reduce your chances of dying within three years, even if you are already physically active, a study of more than 200,000 people published in Archives of Internal Medicine today shows.
The study found that adults who sat 11 or more hours per day had a 40% increased risk of dying in the next three years compared with those who sat for fewer than four hours a day. This was after taking into account their physical activity, weight and health status.
"These results have important public health implications," said study lead author Dr Hidde van der Ploeg, a senior research fellow at the University of Sydney's School of Public Health.
"That morning walk or trip to the gym is still necessary, but it's also important to avoid prolonged sitting. Our results suggest the time people spend sitting at home, work and in traffic should be reduced by standing or walking more."
The results are the first landmark findings to be published from the Sax Institute's 45 and Up Study, the largest ongoing study of healthy ageing in the Southern Hemisphere.
They showed physical activity is still beneficial: inactive people who sat the most had double the risk of dying within three years than the active people who sat least. And among the physically inactive group, those who sat the most had nearly one-third higher chance of dying than those who sat least.
The study's size and focus on total sitting time make it an important contributor to the growing evidence on the downsides of prolonged sitting. The average adult spends 90% of their leisure time sitting down and less than half of adults meet World Health Organization physical activity recommendations.
An accompanying editorial in the journal said the evidence was strong enough to support doctors prescribing "reduced daily sitting time" to their patients.
The research was commissioned by the Cardiovascular Research Network and supported by the NSW Division of the National Heart Foundation Australia. It is one of more than 60 projects underway using data from the 45 and Up Study, Australia's richest information source about the health and lifestyles of people 45 and over.
Heart Foundation NSW CEO Tony Thirlwell said being inactive was a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which is responsible for more than 17 million deaths a year worldwide.
"Watching TV, using computers and electronic games can involve sitting for long periods and have become a big part of leisure time," he said. "But we know that people who spend less time on these things have better health than those who spend too much time on them."
A major five-year follow-up of 45 and Up study participants has just begun and will ask 265,000 men and women more about their health, lifestyle, and the medications and health services they use. Such large-scale research will help governments face the challenges of an ageing population.
Monday, March 19, 2012
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