Study explores distrust of atheists by believers

ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2011) — Distrust is the central motivating factor behind why religious people dislike atheists, according to a new study led by University of British Columbia psychologists.

"Where there are religious majorities -- that is, in most of the world -- atheists are among the least trusted people," says lead author Will Gervais, a doctoral student in UBC's Dept. of Psychology. "With more than half a billion atheists worldwide, this prejudice has the potential to affect a substantial number of people."

While reasons behind antagonism towards atheists have not been fully explored, the study -- published in the current online issue of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology -- is among the first explorations of the social psychological processes underlying anti-atheist sentiments.

"This antipathy is striking, as atheists are not a coherent, visible or powerful social group," says Gervais, who co-authored the study with UBC Associate Prof. Ara Norenzayan and Azim Shariff of the University of Oregon. The study is titled, Do You Believe in Atheists? Distrust is Central to Anti-Atheist Prejudice.

The researchers conducted a series of six studies with 350 American adults and nearly 420 university students in Canada, posing a number of hypothetical questions and scenarios to the groups. In one study, participants found a description of an untrustworthy person to be more representative of atheists than of Christians, Muslims, gay men, feminists or Jewish people. Only rapists were distrusted to a comparable degree.

The researchers concluded that religious believer's distrust -- rather than dislike or disgust -- was the central motivator of prejudice against atheists, adding that these studies offer important clues on how to combat this prejudice.

One motivation for the research was a Gallup poll that found that only 45 per cent of American respondents would vote for a qualified atheist president, says Norenzayan. The figure was the lowest among several hypothetical minority candidates. Poll respondents rated atheists as the group that least agrees with their vision of America, and that they would most disapprove of their children marrying.

The religious behaviors of others may provide believers with important social cues, the researchers say. "Outward displays of belief in God may be viewed as a proxy for trustworthiness, particularly by religious believers who think that people behave better if they feel that God is watching them," says Norenzayan. "While atheists may see their disbelief as a private matter on a metaphysical issue, believers may consider atheists' absence of belief as a public threat to cooperation and honesty."

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Age-old remedies using white tea, witch hazel and rose may be beneficial, study suggests

ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2011) — Age-old remedies could hold the key to treating a wide range of serious medical problems, as well as keeping skin firmer and less wrinkled, according to scientists from London's Kingston University. A collaboration between the university and British beauty brand Neal's Yard Remedies has seen experts discover that white tea, witch hazel and the simple rose hold potential health and beauty properties which could be simply too good to ignore.

The research suggests a number of naturally-occurring substances may offer the hope of new treatments to block the progression of inflammation. It is credited with a major role in both the initiation and development of diseases ranging from cancer, diabetes and arthritis through to neuro-degenerative conditions and cardiovascular and pulmonary problems.

"For thousands of years people used natural remedies to try -- and sometimes succeed -- in curing their ailments and preserving their youth," Professor Declan Naughton, from the University's School of Life Sciences, said. "Now the latest research we have carried out suggests a number of naturally-occurring substances may offer the hope of new treatments to block the progression of inflammation."

Inflammation is credited with a major role in both the initiation and development of diseases ranging from cancer, diabetes and arthritis through to neuro-degenerative conditions and cardiovascular and pulmonary problems. It is also implicated in premature aging and early death. "Inflammation is a secret killer -- helping arrest its development, or being able to stop it happening at all, would clearly be of benefit," Professor Naughton explained.

The new study builds on work undertaken by Professor Naughton and Kingston University PhD student Tamsyn Thring, along with the technical team from Neal's Yard. They tested 21 plant extracts for evidence of their efficiency in fighting cancer and also in the battle against aging. Of the 21 extracts, three -- white tea, witch hazel and rose -- showed considerable potential, with white tea displaying the most marked results. "Indeed it appeared that drinking a simple cup of white tea might well help reduce an individual's risk of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis or even just age-associated wrinkles," Professor Naughton said.

Spurred on by their laboratory findings, the team members decided to take the work further to see if they could replicate the results in human skin cells, looking more closely at the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant activity of the three extracts.

Using human skin cells as their model, the researchers added three different concentrations of white tea (freeze dried powder), witch hazel (dried herb) and rose extract (in a medicinal tincture form) to see what effect the mixtures might have on suppressing rogue enzymes and oxidants which play a key role in helping inflammation develop, as well as aging the skin. "As the largest organ in the body, the skin provides a barrier against UV radiation, chemicals, microbes and physical pollutants," Ms Thring said. "Challenges like this can contribute to both inflammation and skin aging.

"We also know that when inflammation starts -- be it a simple cut to a finger or in an arthritic joint -- the body starts producing a compound called interleukin 8, which helps the process along. We began wondering if there was a way we could switch that signal off, thereby blocking the inflammation's progress."

Even though the team's previous research had intimated there might be some promising results ahead, the experts were astonished to see just how good the various concentrations of the three extracts were at doing the job.

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Tamsyn SA Thring, Pauline Hili, Declan P Naughton. Antioxidant and potential anti-inflammatory activity of extracts and formulations of white tea, rose, and witch hazel on primary human dermal fibroblast cells. Journal of Inflammation, 2011; 8 (1): 27 DOI: 10.1186/1476-9255-8-27

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From gene to function: Genome wide study into new gene functions in the formation of platelets

ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2011) — In a study into the genetics of blood cell formation, researchers have identified 68 regions of the genome that affect the size and number of platelets. Platelets are small cells that circulate in the blood and are key to the processes of blood clotting and wound healing.

In this genome-wide study, the team used a multidisciplinary approach to successfully identify new genetic variants involved in the formation of platelets and more importantly, defined the function of genes near these variants using a series of biological analyses.

Abnormally high or low platelet counts can lead to disease. An increase in the number of platelets, or an increase in their size can lead to an increased risk for thrombotic events, like heart attacks and strokes. A very low number of platelets or platelets that do not function well, increases the risk of bleeding.

"This is a detective story starting with the initial genetic discovery and allowing us to identify new genes that could contribute to platelet associated diseases," says Professor Willem H Ouwehand, senior co-author at the University of Cambridge and NHS Blood and Transplant. "Our aim of this genome-wide meta-analysis study was to discover which genes control the size and number of platelets, to understand how these genes instruct blood stem cells to orchestrate every day the formation of billions of platelets and finally to investigate whether genes associated with heart attacks and strokes overlap with the genes that affect platelet formation."

In this collaborative study, the team first developed a prioritisation strategy that allowed them to identify and pinpoint the genes underlying the formation of platelets through biological annotations of these genes. This effort laid the foundation for the construction of a protein-protein interaction network that shows how the different genetic players interact. Finally, they analysed the role of the genes in model organisms and found their function to be conserved in evolution.

The researchers found the newly identified genes associated with platelet characteristics overlap with other genes implicated in inherited bleeding disorders. This genetic overlap suggests that this study may help discover new genes implicated in severe forms of bleeding disorders, providing evidence that the new findings will be significant in clinical research for improvements in the care of patients.

This study involved about 68,000 individuals from different ancestries (European, South & East Asian) making it the largest genome-wide meta-analysis study to be conducted globally on platelet number and volume.

"This is the largest dataset of this type ever produced, and yields a wealth of new exciting biological discoveries and insights into the genetic control of blood cell formation," says Dr Nicole Soranzo,senior co-author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. "Our findings will be relevant not only to better understand the mechanisms leading to the formation of blood cells, but also to pinpoint new genes involved in diseases with altered blood clotting."

The team examined the role of the genes they identified in the fruit fly and zebrafish. They found that reducing the activity of one of these genes, ARHGEF3, in fish abrogates not only the production of platelets but also of red blood cells because the blood forming cells cannot capture iron. The study has shown that the human equivalent, ARHGEF3 gene is an important new regulator of the uptake of iron from the diet.

Tropomyosin 1 is a member of a family of genes already known to be involved in the regulation of muscle contraction and plays a role in heart disease. This study found a novel role for this well-known protein in platelet formation.

"This study provides a paradigm for how to successfully translate genome-wide association studies into function" says Dr Christian Gieger, senior co-author from the Institute of Genetic Epidemiology at the Helmholtz Center Munich."We have shown that biologic and functional annotation can greatly enhance our ability to interpret genetic data."

"These genes could be used in the future as new targets to develop better and safer platelet inhibitors for treatments of patients with heart attacks or strokes."

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Christian Gieger et al. New gene functions in megakaryopoiesis and platelet formation. Nature, 2011; DOI: 10.1038/nature10659

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Serendipitous news reading online is gaining prominence, study shows

ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2011) — Traditional media, such as newspapers and television news, require readers and viewers to intentionally seek out news by picking up a newspaper or turning on the television. The Internet and new technologies now are changing the way readers consume online news. New research from the University of Missouri shows that Internet users often do not make the conscious decision to read news online, but they come across news when they are searching for other information or doing non-news related activities online, such as shopping or visiting social networking sites.

Borchuluun Yadamsuren, a post-doctoral fellow at the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) in the University of Missouri School of Journalism, found a shift in the way people have begun to perceive online news. She says that while some people still have the perception of news as tied to traditional media, others now hold a much broader perception of news that goes beyond what is reported by professional journalists. Yadamsuren attributes this to the wide array of information available online.

"Incidental exposure to online news is becoming a major way for many people to receive information about news events," Yadamsuren said. "However, many people don't realize how their news reading behavior is shifting to more serendipitous discovery."

Using mixed method approach, Yadamsuren surveyed nearly 150 respondents with further interviews of 20 of those respondents to understand their incidental exposure to online news. She found that respondents experience incidental exposure to online news in three different contexts. The first group of respondents reported that they come across interesting news stories while they visit online news sites. Others report incidental exposure to online news in the context of non-news related activities such as checking email and visiting Facebook and other social networking sites. The third group of respondents reported that they stumble upon "unusual," "weird," "interesting," "bizarre," unexpected," "outrageous," or "off the wall" news stories while they are conducting their normal Internet searches.

Currently, Yadamsuren is studying the relationship between incidental exposure to online news and different demographic and technology-access related factors. Yadamsuren believes it is important for media organizations to place links to their news stories on different sites throughout the Internet to take advantage of serendipitious news consuming behavior to expand their readership.

Yadamsuren's study was presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) 2011 and American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST) 2011 Annual Meetings. Her research was also published in Information Research. Her current research at RJI involves developing strategies for news organizations to engage younger generations with online news based on incidental exposure.

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Training in 'concrete thinking' can be self-help treatment for depression, study suggests

ScienceDaily (Nov. 17, 2011) — New research provides the first evidence that depression can be treated by only targeting an individual's style of thinking through repeated mental exercises in an approach called cognitive bias modification.

The study suggests an innovative psychological treatment called 'concreteness training' can reduce depression in just two months and could work as a self-help therapy for depression in primary care.

Led by the University of Exeter and funded by the Medical Research Council, the research shows how this new treatment could help some of the 3.5 million people in the UK living with depression.

People suffering from depression have a tendency towards unhelpful abstract thinking and over-general negative thoughts, such as viewing a single mistake as evidence that they are useless at everything. Concreteness training (CNT) is a novel and unique treatment approach that attempts to directly target this tendency. Repeated practice of CNT exercises can help people to shift their thinking style.

CNT teaches people how to be more specific when reflecting on problems. This can help them to keep difficulties in perspective, improve problem-solving and reduce worry, brooding, and depressed mood. This study provided the first formal test of this treatment for depression in the NHS.

121 individuals who were currently experiencing an episode of depression were recruited from GP practices. They took part in the clinical trial and were randomly allocated into three groups. A third received their usual treatment from their GP, plus CNT, while some were offered relaxation training in addition to their usual treatment and the remainder simply continued their usual treatment. All participants were assessed by the research team after two months and then three and six months later to see what progress they had made.

The CNT involved the participants undertaking a daily exercise in which they focused on a recent event that they had found mildly to moderately upsetting. They did this initially with a therapist and then alone using an audio CD that provided guided instructions. They worked through standardised steps and a series of exercises to focus on the specific details of that event and to identify how they might have influenced the outcome.

CNT significantly reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety, on average reducing symptoms from severe depression to mild depression during the first two months and maintaining this effect over the following three and six months. On average, those individuals who simply continued with their usual treatment remained severely depressed.

Although concreteness training and relaxation training both significantly reduced depression and anxiety, only concreteness training reduced the negative thinking typically found in depression. Moreover, for those participants who practised it enough to ensure it became a habit, CNT reduced symptoms of depression more than relaxation training.

Professor Edward Watkins of the University of Exeter said: "This is the first demonstration that just targeting thinking style can be an effective means of tackling depression. Concreteness training can be delivered with minimal face-to-face contact with a therapist and training could be accessed online, through CDs or through smartphone apps. This has the advantage of making it a relatively cheap form of treatment that could be accessed by large numbers of people. This is a major priority in depression treatment and research, because of the high prevalence and global burden of depression, for which we need widely available cost-effective interventions."

The researchers are now calling for larger effectiveness clinical trials so that the feasibility of CNT as part of the NHS's treatment for depression can be assessed.

Published in the journal Psychological Medicine, this study was carried out by a team from the Mood Disorders Centre, which is a partnership between the NHS and the University of Exeter and the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, a joint entity of the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth and the NHS in the South West.

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Watermelon reduces atherosclerosis, animal study finds

ScienceDaily (Oct. 27, 2011) — In a recent study by University of Kentucky researchers, watermelon was shown to reduce atherosclerosis in animals.

The animal model used for the study involved mice with diet-induced high cholesterol. A control group was given water to drink, while the experimental group was given watermelon juice. By week eight of the study, the animals given watermelon juice had lower body weight than the control group, due to decrease of fat mass. They experienced no decrease in lean mass. Plasma cholesterol concentrations were significantly lower in the experimental group, with modestly reduced intermediate and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations as compared to the control group.

A measurement of atherosclerotic lesion areas revealed that the watermelon juice group also experienced statistically significant reductions in atherosclerotic lesions, as compared to the control group.

"Melons have many health benefits," said lead investigator Dr. Sibu Saha. "This pilot study has found three interesting health benefits in mouse model of atherosclerosis. Our ultimate goal is to identify bioactive compounds that would improve human health."

The study was conducted by Sibu Saha, UK Department of Surgery; Aruna Poduri, UK Saha Cardiovascular Research Center (UK Saha CRVC); Debra L. Rateri, UK Saha CVRC; Shubin Saha of Purdue Univ.; and Alan Daugherty, director, UK Saha CVRC.

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Lower dose of corticosteroids just as effective as higher for shoulder pain, study finds

ScienceDaily (Oct. 27, 2011) — Although corticosteroid injections are one of the most common treatments for shoulder pain, there have been relatively few high-quality investigations of their efficacy and duration of action. In a study scheduled for publication in the December issue of the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, researchers report on the first comparative study of the two most commonly corticosteroid doses administered for shoulder pain. They found that lower doses were just as effective as higher doses in terms of reduction of pain, improved range of motion and duration of efficacy.

"There has been no guidance for adequate corticosteroid doses during subacromial injection. Physicians have depended mainly on their experience for the selection of dose," commented lead investigator Seung-Hyun Yoon, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, Republic of Korea. "This is the first study to assess the efficacy of corticosteroid according to two different doses, which are the most widely used in subacromial injection for participants with periarticular shoulder disorders. Initial use of a low dose is encouraged because there was no difference in efficacy according to dose, and the effect of corticosteroid lasted up to 8 weeks."

Investigators conducted a randomized, triple-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial in which 79 patients with at least one month's duration of pain were enrolled. Subjects were randomly assigned to three groups with 27 participants receiving a 40 mg dose of triamcinolone acetonide; 25 a 20 mg dose and 27 a placebo injection. All were followed up at 2, 4, and 8 weeks after treatment. All injections were performed using ultrasound guidance to insure proper placement of the therapeutic agent in the bursa.

Participants were asked to rate their degree of shoulder pain on a 0 to 10 scale and to answer a Shoulder Disability Questionnaire. They also were asked to move their shoulders slowly until they experienced pain, and evaluators measured the Active Range of Motion (AROM) in 4 different directions (forward flexion, abduction, internal rotation, and external rotation of the shoulder in a standing position).

Compared with pretreatment (within-group comparisons), the high- (40 mg) and low-dose corticosteroid (20 mg) groups both showed improvement in pain, disability, and AROM, while the placebo group showed no difference. Importantly, this study showed no significant inter-group differences between the high- and low-dose corticosteroid groups. Because a higher dose may increase the incidence of local and general complications, a lower dose is indicated at the initial treatment stage.

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Ji Yeon Hong, Seung-Hyun Yoon, Do Jun Moon, Kyu-Sung Kwack, Bohyun Joen, Hyun Young Lee. Comparison of High- and Low-Dose Corticosteroid in Subacromial Injection for Periarticular Shoulder Disorder: A Randomized, Triple-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, December 2011; DOI: 10.1016/j.apmr.2011.06.033

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Python study may have implications for human heart health

ScienceDaily (Oct. 27, 2011) — A surprising new University of Colorado Boulder study shows that huge amounts of fatty acids circulating in the bloodstreams of feeding pythons promote healthy heart growth, results that may have implications for treating human heart disease.

CU-Boulder Professor Leslie Leinwand and her research team found the amount of triglycerides -- the main constituent of natural fats and oils -- in the blood of Burmese pythons one day after eating increased by more than fiftyfold. Despite the massive amount of fatty acids in the python bloodstream there was no evidence of fat deposition in the heart, and the researchers also saw an increase in the activity of a key enzyme known to protect the heart from damage.

After identifying the chemical make-up of blood plasma in fed pythons, the CU-Boulder researchers injected fasting pythons with either "fed python" blood plasma or a reconstituted fatty acid mixture they developed to mimic such plasma. In both cases, the pythons showed increased heart growth and indicators of cardiac health. The team took the experiments a step further by injecting mice with either fed python plasma or the fatty acid mixture, with the same results.

"We found that a combination of fatty acids can induce beneficial heart growth in living organisms," said CU-Boulder postdoctoral researcher Cecilia Riquelme, first author on the Science paper. "Now we are trying to understand the molecular mechanisms behind the process in hopes that the results might lead to new therapies to improve heart disease conditions in humans."

The paper is being published in the Oct. 28 issue of the journal Science. In addition to Leinwand and Riquelme, the authors include CU postdoctoral researcher Brooke Harrison, CU graduate student Jason Magida, CU undergraduate Christopher Wall, Hiberna Corp. researcher Thomas Marr and University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Professor Stephen Secor.

Previous studies have shown that the hearts of Burmese pythons can grow in mass by 40 percent within 24 to 72 hours after a large meal, and that metabolism immediately after swallowing prey can shoot up by fortyfold. As big around as telephone poles, adult Burmese pythons can swallow prey as large as deer, have been known to reach a length of 27 feet and are able to fast for up to a year with few ill effects.

There are good and bad types of heart growth, said Leinwand, who is an expert in genetic heart diseases including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the leading cause of sudden death in young athletes. While cardiac diseases can cause human heart muscle to thicken and decrease the size of heart chambers and heart function because the organ is working harder to pump blood, heart enlargement from exercise is beneficial.

"Well-conditioned athletes like Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and cyclist Lance Armstrong have huge hearts," said Leinwand, a professor in the molecular, cellular and developmental biology department and chief scientific officer of CU's Biofrontiers Institute. "But there are many people who are unable to exercise because of existing heart disease, so it would be nice to develop some kind of a treatment to promote the beneficial growth of heart cells."

Riquelme said once the CU team confirmed that something in the blood plasma of pythons was inducing positive cardiac growth, they began looking for the right "signal" by analyzing proteins, lipids, nucleic acids and peptides present in the fed plasma. The team used a technique known as gas chromatography to analyze both fasted and fed python plasma blood, eventually identifying a highly complex composition of circulating fatty acids with distinct patterns of abundance over the course of the digestive process.

In the mouse experiments led by Harrison, the animals were hooked up to "mini-pumps" that delivered low doses of the fatty acid mixture over a period of a week. Not only did the mouse hearts show significant growth in the major part of the heart that pumps blood, the heart muscle cell size increased, there was no increase in heart fibrosis -- which makes the heart muscle more stiff and can be a sign of disease -- and there were no alterations in the liver or in the skeletal muscles, he said.

"It was remarkable that the fatty acids identified in the plasma-fed pythons could actually stimulate healthy heart growth in mice," said Harrison. The team also tested the fed python plasma and the fatty acid mixture on cultured rat heart cells, with the same positive results, Harrison said.

The CU-led team also identified the activation of signaling pathways in the cells of fed python plasma, which serve as traffic lights of sorts, said Leinwand. "We are trying to understand how to make those signals tell individual heart cells whether they are going down a road that has pathological consequences, like disease, or beneficial consequences, like exercise," she said.

The prey of Burmese pythons can be up to 100 percent of the constricting snake's body mass, said Leinwand, who holds a Marsico Endowed Chair of Excellence at CU-Boulder. "When a python eats, something extraordinary happens. Its metabolism increases by more than fortyfold and the size of its organs increase significantly in mass by building new tissue, which is broken back down during the digestion process."

The three key fatty acids in the fed python plasma turned out to be myristic acid, palmitic acid and palmitoleic acid. The enzyme that showed increased activity in the python hearts during feeding episodes, known as superoxide dismutase, is a well-known "cardio-protective" enzyme in many organisms, including humans, said Leinwand.

The new Science study grew out of a project Leinwand began in 2006 when she was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor and awarded a four-year, $1 million undergraduate education grant from the Chevy Chase, Md.-based institute. As part of the award Leinwand initiated the Python Project, an undergraduate laboratory research program designed to focus on the heart biology of constricting snakes like pythons thought to have relevance to human disease.

Undergraduates contributed substantially to the underpinnings of the new python study both by their genetic studies and by caring for the lab pythons, said Leinwand. While scientists know a great deal about the genomes of standard lab animal models like fruit flies, worms and mice, relatively little was known about pythons. "We have had to do a lot of difficult groundwork using molecular genetics tools in order to undertake this research," said Leinwand.

CU-Boulder already had a laboratory snake facility in place, which contributed to the success of the project, she said.

"The fact that the python study involved faculty, postdoctoral researchers, a graduate student and an undergraduate, Christopher Wall, shows the project was a team effort," said Leinwand. "Chris is a good example of how the University of Colorado provides an incredible educational research environment for undergraduates." Wall is now a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego.

Hiberna Corp., a Boulder-based company developing drugs based on natural models of extreme metabolic regulation, signed an exclusive agreement with CU's Technology Transfer Office in 2008, licensing technology developed by Leinwand based on the natural ability of pythons to dramatically increase their heart size and metabolism.

Directed by Nobel laureate and CU Distinguished Professor Tom Cech, the Biofrontiers Institute was formed to advance human health and welfare by exploring critical areas of biology and translating new knowledge into practical applications. The institute is educating a new generation of interdisciplinary scientists to work together on solutions to complex biomedical challenges and to expand Colorado's leadership in biotechnology. For more information on the Biofrontiers Institute visit cimb.colorado.edu .

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Cecilia A. Riquelme, Jason A. Magida, Brooke C. Harrison, Christopher E. Wall, Thomas G. Marr, Stephen M. Secor, Leslie A. Leinwand. Fatty Acids Identified in the Burmese Python Promote Beneficial Cardiac Growth. Science, 2011; 334 (6055): 528-531 DOI: 10.1126/science.1210558

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Regular aspirin intake halves cancer risk, study finds

ScienceDaily (Oct. 28, 2011) — Scientists including those from Queen's University have discovered that taking regular aspirin halves the risk of developing hereditary cancers.

Hereditary cancers are those which develop as a result of a gene fault inherited from a parent. Bowel and womb cancers are the most common forms of hereditary cancers. Fifty thousand people in the UK are diagnosed with bowel and womb cancers every year; 10 per cent of these cancers are thought to be hereditary.

The decade-long study, which involved scientists and clinicians from 43 centres in 16 countries and was funded by Cancer Research UK, followed nearly 1,000 patients, in some cases for over 10 years. The study found that those who had been taking a regular dose of aspirin had 50 per cent fewer incidents of hereditary cancer compared with those who were not taking aspirin.

The research focused on people with Lynch syndrome which is an inherited genetic disorder that causes cancer by affecting genes responsible for detecting and repairing damage in the DNA. Around 50 per cent of those with Lynch syndrome develop cancer, mainly in the bowel and womb. The study looked at all cancers related to the syndrome, and found that almost 30 per cent of the patients not taking aspirin had developed a cancer compared to around 15 per cent of those taking the aspirin.

Those who had taken aspirin still developed the same number of polyps, which are thought to be precursors of cancer, as those who did not take aspirin but they did not go on to develop cancer. It suggests that aspirin could possibly be causing these cells to destruct before they turn cancerous.

Over 1,000 people were diagnosed with bowel cancer in Northern Ireland last year; 400 of these died from the disease. Ten per cent of bowel cancer cases are hereditary and by taking aspirin regularly the number of those dying from the hereditary form of the disease could be halved.

Professor Patrick Morrison from Queen's University in Belfast, who led the Northern Ireland part of the study, said: "The results of this study, which has been ongoing for over a decade, proves that the regular intake of aspirin over a prolonged period halves the risk of developing hereditary cancers. The effects of aspirin in the first five years of the study were not clear but in those who took aspirin for between five and ten years the results were very clear."

"This is a huge breakthrough in terms of cancer prevention. For those who have a history of hereditary cancers in their family, like bowel and womb cancers, this will be welcome news. Not only does it show we can reduce cancer rates and ultimately deaths, it opens up other avenues for further cancer prevention research. We aim now to go forward with another trial to assess the most effective dosage of aspirin for hereditary cancer prevention and to look at the use of aspirin in the general population as a way of reducing the risk of bowel cancer.

"For anyone considering taking aspirin I would recommend discussing this with your GP first as aspirin is known to bring with it a risk of stomach complaints, including ulcers."

The research was published online Oct. 28 in The Lancet.

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Sir John Burn, Anne-Marie Gerdes, Finlay Macrae, Jukka-Pekka Mecklin, Gabriela Moeslein, Sylviane Olschwang, Diane Eccles, Gareth Evans, Eamonn R. Maher, Lucio Bertario, Marie-Luise Bisgaard, Malcolm G. Dunlop, Judy W.C. Ho, Shirley V. Hodgson, Annika Lindblom, Jan Lubinski, Patrick J. Morrison, Victoria Murday, Raj Ramesar, Lucy Side, Rodney J. Scott, Huw J.W. Thomas, Hans F. Vasen, Gail Barker, Gillian Crawford, Faye Elliott, Mohammad Movahedi, Kirsi Pylvanainen, Juul T. Wijnen, Riccardo Fodde, Henry T. Lynch, John C. Mathers, D. Timothy Bishop, on behalf of the CAPP2 Investigators. Long-term effect of aspirin on cancer risk in carriers of hereditary colorectal cancer: an analysis from the CAPP2 randomised controlled trial. The Lancet, Pubished online Oct. 28, 2011; DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61049-0

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Gender differences: Viewing TV coverage of terrorism has more negative effect on women, study finds

ScienceDaily (Oct. 27, 2011) — Exposure to television coverage of terrorism causes women to lose psychological resources much more than men, which leads to negative feelings and moodiness. This has been shown in a new study, conducted at the University of Haifa and soon to be published in Anxiety, Stress & Coping, that examined the differences between men and women in a controlled experiment environment.

An earlier study conducted by Prof. Moshe Zeidner of the Department of Counseling and Human Development at the University of Haifa and Prof. Hasida Ben-Zur of the University of Haifa's School of Social Work, has shown that viewing television coverage of terrorism causes viewers to lose psychological resources, such the sense of significance or success, and causes a feeling of being threatened. The current study set out to examine whether there are differences between men and women in the levels of psychological resource loss.

According to the authors of the new study, earlier research dealing with gender differences in the effects of traumatic events examined data based on questionnaires relating to past experiences. The present study is now taking a new step as it is examining these differences in a controlled experiment environment in which all of the participants are exposed to the same events and report on their feelings immediately following the events.

In order to create such a controlled environment, men and women were shown news video clips reporting on terrorist attacks that took place over the past few years and which resulted in serious casualties. In parallel, two other groups of men and women were shown news coverage of "regular," everyday news events.

The results of this study show that the women who viewed terrorism coverage testified to higher levels of feeling threatened and lower levels of psychological resources compared to the men who viewed the same news reports. These gender differences were not found amongst the control groups. The study has also found that the feeling of being threatened and loss of resources has an effect on the senses and lead to a higher level of negativity, such as hostility and moodiness.

"It is possible that the differences between men and women are founded in gender socialization, 'teaching' women to respond to terrorism with more anxiety than men," said Prof. Moshe Zeidner.

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Hasida Ben-Zur, Moshe Zeidner. Gender differences in loss of psychological resources following experimentally-induced vicarious stress. Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 2011; DOI: 10.1080/10615806.2011.619526

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Belief in god cuts two ways, study finds

ScienceDaily (Oct. 27, 2011) — Being reminded of the concept of God can decrease people's motivation to pursue personal goals but can help them resist temptation, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

"More than 90 percent of people in the world agree that God or a similar spiritual power exists or may exist," said the study's lead author, Kristin Laurin, PhD, of the University of Waterloo in Canada. "This is the first empirical evidence that simple reminders of God can diminish some types of self-regulation, such as pursuing one's goals, yet can improve others, such as resisting temptation."

A total of 353 college students, with an average age 19 and 186 of whom were women, participated in six experiments to determine how the idea of God can indirectly influence people's motivations, even among those who said they were not religious. The students did not have to have an opinion on the existence of a god or any other spiritual power. The findings were reported in the online version of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology®.

In one experiment, engineering students completed a "warm-up" word task. They were asked to form grammatically correct sentences using four words from sets of five. Some students were provided either God or God-related words (divine, sacred, spirit and prophet), while the control group used more neutral words (ball, desk, sky, track and box). Next, each student had to form as many words as they could in five minutes, using any combination of specific letters. The researchers determined the students' motivation level by the number of words they produced. The more motivated they were, the more words they produced. They were told that a good performance could help predict if they would succeed in an engineering career.

Several weeks before this experiment, the students had been asked if they believed outside factors (other people, beings, forces beyond their control) had an influence on their careers. Among participants who said outside factors such as God might influence their career success, those who did the God-related word task performed worse than those who used neutral words. There was no difference in performance among the participants who did not believe outside factors influenced their career success.

Researchers also measured the importance participants placed on a number of values, including achievement. Participants reminded of God placed the same value on achievement as did participants primed with the more neutral words. "This suggests that our findings did not emerge because the participants reminded of God devalued achievement," said Laurin.

A second set of experiments looked at participants' ability to resist temptation after being reminded about God. In one study, participants who said eating healthy food was important to them ate fewer cookies after reading a short passage about God than those who read a passage unrelated to God.

Participants who read a short God-related passage reported greater willingness to resist temptations to achieve a major goal, such as maintaining a healthy weight, finding a long-term relationship or having a successful career. This effect was found only among participants who had previously said they believe an omniscient entity watches over them and notices when they misbehave.

The level of participants' religious devotion had no impact on the outcomes in any of the experiments, according to the researchers.

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Kristin Laurin, Aaron C. Kay, Gráinne M. Fitzsimons. Divergent effects of activating thoughts of god on self-regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2011; DOI: 10.1037/a0025971

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