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Men who report watching a lot of pornography tend to have less volume and activity in regions of the brain linked to rewards and motivation, says a new German study. The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry , can't say watching porn caused the decrease in brain matter and activity, however. It's not clear, for example, whether watching porn leads to brain changes or whether people born with certain brain types watch more porn, said Simone Kühn, the study’s lead author from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, in an email. “Unfortunately we cannot answer this question based on the results of the present study,” Kühn said. But, she noted, the results provide the first evidence for a link between pornography consumption and reductions in brain size and brain activity in response to sexual stimuli. For the study, she and her colleague Jurgen Gallinat from Charite University, also in Berlin, recruited 64 healthy men between the ages of ...

Alvarez said grapes are low in calories and rich in vitamin C and fiber, so they are a nutritional snack. But they also contain a substance called tyramine, a naturally occurring amino acid that forms from the breakdown of protein in food as it ages. Tyramine can cause your blood pressure to rise, which can trigger headaches in some people. If you experience this reaction, you may want to avoid other trigger foods, such as: • Smoked or cured meats • Aged cheeses • Citrus fruits • Sauerkraut • Soy sauce • Red wine • And certain beers Research shows that tyramine in grapes can have a negative effect on certain antidepressants called MAOIs.  Patients taking these medications should talk to their doctor about their diet. Keeping a food diary to see if you may be sensitive to tyramine-rich foods could also help. The bottom line: Learn what your triggers are – so that you can avoid them. If you have a question, email DrManny@foxnews.com . Dr. Manny Alvarez s...

This is how things sometimes go at my house: Me at the kitchen table, making a to-do list: "I need to wash my car." My husband, sitting nearby, working on his Sudoku: "You need flash cards?" Me, shaking my head: "You need your hearing checked." My husband, after a beat: "Huh?" Sometimes it's him, sometimes it's the other way around, and we usually laugh off the mix-ups as the natural decline in listenership after 22 years of hearing each other say the same thing a million times.   But during the past couple of years, as the misunderstandings have become more frequent, we've gotten snippier. I'll say, "I'll wash this," and he hears only "Wash this," as if I've decided he's the downstairs to my upstairs at Downton Abbey. When I read recently that people with hearing issues are more likely to divorce, I got a little scared. And I called an audiologist.  Read these steps o...

Cynical people may have an increased risk of dementia, Medical Daily reported. In a new study published in the journal Neurology , researchers surveyed 1,449 people who were approximately 71 years old at the beginning of the research period. Each participant underwent a dementia test and answered questions to determine their level of cynicism.  Cynicism was defined as having distrust or believing that others are mainly motivated by selfish concerns. To assess cynicism, participants were asked to agree or disagree with statements such as: “I think most people would like to get ahead,” or, “It is safer to trust nobody.” Based on their scores, researchers categorized the participants as having a high, moderate or low degree of cynicism.  Eight years later, 622 people underwent a follow-up test for dementia. Overall, the researchers found that a high degree of cynicism tripled the risk of dementia among participants. Out of the 164 people with high levels ...

It says a lot about the desperation of migraine sufferers that researchers are studying how they describe their headaches on Twitter. (Perhaps not surprisingly, it turns out the words worst and massive are the most common adjectives used.) As the 36 million Americans who get these uberhead-aches know, it takes more than 140 characters to describe the true misery--and a host of strategies to keep the pain under control. Most people who get migraines--defined as having at least two of these symptoms: pain on one side, lasting from four hours to three days, having a pulsating quality, and coming with nausea or sensitivity to light or sound--don't take advantage of all their options, studies show. Here is a checklist of the fixes, some very new, to keep in (your aching) mind. 1. Track Your Triggers To pinpoint yours, keep a log of each headache, noting when it happened, what you were doing, and what you ate and drank for 24 hours before. Potential culprits:...

By blocking a specific pain receptor in mice, researchers from The University of California, Berkeley, were able to both extend the animals’ lifespans and give them a more youthful metabolism – including an improved insulin response. The findings could spell out a new way to extend longevity, as well as point to a new drug target for developing novel diabetes and obesity treatments. According to the researchers, they were interested in manipulating pain receptors since chronic pain is often associated with a shorter lifespan. “If you look at humans as they age, they report that they’re in more pain,” Andrew Dillin, a professor of molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley, told FoxNews.com.  “There are two ways to look at that: Either pain is just coming along with the aging process or pain may be driving the aging process.  So we asked if we took an old animal and removed its pain receptors, would it look more youthful.” Dillin and his team de...

A new breast lift procedure claims to give longer lasting support for women – acting like a bra inside the body. It’s the novel Orbix Breast Supporting System, informally named the “internal bra.”  Developed by British surgeon Dr. Jian Farhadi, the procedure involves inserting a silicon sheet between a patient’s skin and breast tissue, which serves as the bra’s “cup.”  The sheet is then held up by silk threads that are screwed into the rib cage with small titanium anchors. The final shape of the implants resembles the silhouette of the average pushup bra, holding up the breasts’ tissue underneath the skin. Farhadi said the procedure is meant to provide a more permanent breast lift solution for patients whose breasts have begun to sag as a result of age, weight loss/gain or prolonged periods of breastfeeding.  He noted that many current breast lift surgeries – which raise the breasts by removing excess skin and tightening the surrounding tissue – do...

Some cereals, candies and cakes contain much more artificial coloring than parents probably expect, according to a new study. In the U.S., food and beverage companies disclose artificial coloring on labels, but do not disclose specific amounts. Several studies have suggested some children may be sensitive to artificial coloring or the preservatives that often accompany it. The dyes have been linked to inattention and hyperactivity. For the new study, researchers bought and tested common processed foods to find out how much artificial coloring they included. “Very few of these products were nutritious,” said Laura J. Stevens, who worked on the study at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Children probably consume more of the heavily dyed foods, since bright colors appeal to kids, she said. “We don’t need to make these products appeal more to kids, kids are already obese,” she told Reuters Health. Among breakfast cereals, Fruity Cheerios, Trix and Cap...

A press-on butterfly tattoo may seem like an easy alternative to the pain and permanency of real ink, but the Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers that temporary tattoos aren't risk free. FDA officials cautioned that temporary tattoos can cause allergic reactions, in a May 13 seminar on the agency's website. The FDA would like temporary tattoo users to report reactions to the government, said Katherine Hollinger, an epidemiologist with the FDA Office of Cosmetics and Colors. The agency cannot currently provide any information on the number of adverse reactions reported each year. "If you had a reaction to a temporary tattoo or any cosmetic product, the FDA wants to know," she said. [ 8 Weird Signs of an Allergic Reaction ] FDA authority Cosmetics (including temporary tattoos) do not have to receive FDA approval before they go on the market, while medicines do. However, the color additives in cosmetics do have to go through ...

New research shows that two large meals a day may help people with Type 2 diabetes better control their metabolism, The New York Times reported. Using a group of 54 diabetics ages 30 to 70, Czech researchers randomly assigned them to eat either two large meals or six smaller meals daily. All participants ate the same number of calories. After 12 weeks, the groups switched diets for another 12 weeks. The study, published in Diabetologia, found that those who ate just breakfast and lunch reduced their weight and waist circumference. Two meals a day also lead to better fasting glucose levels, lower liver fat content and improved insulin sensitivity.   “Not only our study, but others too, show that it may be more beneficial to eat a larger breakfast and lunch with a small dinner,” lead author, Dr. Hana Kahleova, a researcher at the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Prague, told the New York Times. “We confirmed the ancient proverb: Eat br...

Though two types of medications have been shown to be effective for treating alcohol use disorders (AUD), few doctors are prescribing these drugs for patients, new research suggests. In an analysis of 122 studies, researchers from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, focused on the effects of two medications called naltrexone and acamprosate, which have been approved to treat alcoholism for over a decade. Both drugs help to suppress alcohol cravings by normalizing brain activity that has been disrupted through heavy alcohol use. To evaluate the benefit of these medications, the researchers presented their results in a measure known as the “number needed to treat” (NNT) – the average number of people who need to take the pills in order for one person to see medical benefits.  For acamprosate, 12 people needed to be treated so that one person didn’t return to drinking, as opposed to 20 patients for naltrexone. Comparatively, the NNT for the ch...

Researchers from Germany say they have invented an implantable device that reduces blood pressure by sending electrical impulses to the brain, Medical News Today reported. In a new report published in the Journal of Neural Engineering , a research team from the University of Freiburg detailed their “multichannel cuff electrode” (MCE) – a cuff made up of 24 electrodes that wraps around the vagal nerve.  Extending from the brain to thorax and the abdomen, the vagal nerve supplies and stimulates major organs, such as the heart, as well as the blood vessels. The MCE device is able to identify and stimulate certain fibers in the vagal nerve called baroreceptor fibers, which regulate blood pressure specifically, while avoiding the fibers that affect other major bodily functions. The researchers tested their device on five male rats, sending 40 electrical pulses per second to the baroreceptor fibers in the rats’ vagal nerves.  Through this technique, they were ...

Whether you’re working on a stressful project, need more sleep, or need to overcome an afternoon lull, here are some top food choices to boost your health, productivity, and energy at work. 1. Black tea Stressed out? Daily cups of tea may help you recover more quickly from the stresses of everyday life. A study conducted at the University College London found that black tea has an effect on stress hormone levels in the body. According to the researchers, although black tea does not appear to reduce the actual levels of stress people experience, tea does seem to have a greater effect in bringing high stress hormone levels back to normal. The researchers were not sure what ingredients of tea were responsible for the effects. “Tea is chemically very complex, with many different ingredients. Ingredients such as catechins, polyphenols, flavonoids and amino acids have been found to have effects on neu...

Groin pain and swelling could be a red flag for men and potentially indicate many different conditions. It is important to know what these conditions are, since they can range from kidney stones to cancers.  Not only can this be worrisome to any man experiencing abnormal swelling or pain, but depending on the extent of the pain and symptoms, it could be reason to see your doctor. The most common cause for pain or swelling in the groin – the area between the abdomen and thigh – is a hernia.  This type of hernia is more specifically called an inguinal hernia, and it occurs when part of the small intestine bulges through a weak area in the lower abdominal muscles.  These hernias present as bulging in the groin and can often be confused with swelling.   Even a small hernia will cause intermittent pain, which is pain that comes and goes.   However more severe hernias can cause unbearable pain for sufferers to the point of incapacitation. This ...

Picture the soy sauce bottle on most sushi restaurant tables, yep, the one with the red or green top. Those omnipresent bottles are the product of the Yamasa Corporation, which started manufacturing the soy sauce in 1645. But the most fascinating part of the Japan company's history is a thoroughly recent one: Virologists have confirmed that Yamasa's scientists did indeed make a discovery involving a molecule related to flavor enhancers contained in soy sauce—and HIV. Vocativ reports that Yamasa in 1988 established a division of food scientists who were tasked with carrying out research on how the immune system responds to a variety of chemicals in food; in 2001, they announced a big find: that the molecule, EFdA, could possibly be used in treatment of HIV. That's because EFdA, along with eight HIV drugs on the market, belongs to a family of compounds that help prevent HIV replication, explains the University of Missouri, whose virologists researc...

Coffee may after-all keep your eye healthy, a new study at Cornell suggest. Specifically, an antioxidant in coffee called chlorogenic acid, or CLA, staves off retinal degeneration in mice, reports Nature World News . In humans, that malady is brought on by glaucoma, aging, and diabetes. "Coffee is the most popular drink in the world, and we are understanding what benefit we can get from that," says lead author Chang Y. Lee of Cornell. Mice that had been treated with CLA showed no sign of retinal damage even after being exposed to nitric oxide, which speeds up the degenerative process. The next step is to determine whether coffee delivers CLA directly to the retina, reports AFP . If so, scientists might be able to tailor a specific brew for the eyes. .

Grilled Salmon With summer just six weeks away you may be thinking of going on a crash diet.   Don’t do it because there’s more to healthy weight loss than just eating less. The key is to cut back on foods that cause weight gain while eating more of the kinds of foods that are filling, nutritious, and that actually help burn fat. Wild salmon Wild salmon contains large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, which are believed to boost metabolism.   Omega-3 alters levels of leptin, a hormone that directly effects metabolism and determines whether you burn calories or store them as fat.   Consuming cold water fish such as salmon increases the levels of fat-burning enzymes in your body and decreases the levels of fat-storage enzymes. Eating salmon may boost metabolism by as much as 400 calories per day! Greek yogurt Greek yogurt is one of the best foods to eat if you're trying to lose weight and boost your metabolism. It is more nutrient-dense than regular yogu...

Drinking tart cherry juice twice a day can help you sleep nearly 90 more minutes a night. Researchers from Louisiana State University had seven older adults with insomnia drink eight ounces of Montmorency tart cherry juice twice a day for two weeks, followed by two weeks of no juice, and then two more weeks of drinking a placebo beverage. Compared to the placebo, drinking the cherry juice resulted in an average of 84 more minutes of sleep time each night. Cherry juice is a natural source of the sleep-wake cycle hormone melatonin and amino acid tryptophan, says study coauthor Frank L. Greenway, director of the outpatient research clinic at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at LSU. “Proanthocyanidins, or the ruby red pigments in tart cherry juice, contain an enzyme that reduces inflammation and decreases the breakdown of tryptophan, letting it go to work longer in your body,” he says. Montmorency cherries are particularly high in those compounds. (The study was fu...