ScienceDaily: Living Well News

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• Brain size may determine whether you are good at keeping friends
• Home alone: Depression highest for those living alone
• Getting the dirt on immunity: Scientists show evidence for hygiene hypothesis
• What we don't talk about when we don't talk about sex
• Prenatal exposure to combustion-related pollutants and anxiety, attention problems in young children
• Wealth affects women's heart disease risk, study suggests

Brain size may determine whether you are good at keeping friends Posted: 24 Mar 2012 11:55 AM PDT Researchers are suggesting that there is a link between the number of friends you have and the size of the region of the brain -- known as the orbital prefrontal cortex -- that is found just above the eyes. A new study shows that this brain region is bigger in people who have a larger number of friendships.

Home alone: Depression highest for those living alone Posted: 22 Mar 2012 09:12 PM PDT The number of people living on their own has doubled, over the last three decades, to one in three in the UK and US. New research shows that the risk of depression, measured by people taking antidepressants, is almost 80% higher for those living alone compared to people living in any kind of social or family group. For women a third of this risk was attributable to sociodemographic factors, such as lack of education and low income. For men the biggest contributing factors included poor job climate, lack of support at the work place or in their private lives, and heavy drinking.

Getting the dirt on immunity: Scientists show evidence for hygiene hypothesis Posted: 22 Mar 2012 11:21 AM PDT Medical professionals have suggested that the hygiene hypothesis explains the global increase of allergic and autoimmune diseases in urban settings. However, neither biologic support nor a mechanistic basis for the hypothesis has been directly demonstrated. Until now.

What we don't talk about when we don't talk about sex Posted: 22 Mar 2012 07:02 AM PDT Results of a national survey of US obstetrician-gynecologists regarding communication with patients about sex confirm that too often doctors aren't having "the talk" with their patients. The study found that only 40 percent of those surveyed routinely ask questions to assess for sexual problems or dysfunction. Far fewer, 29 percent, routinely ask patients about satisfaction with their sexual lives and 28 percent routinely confirm a patient's sexual orientation.

Prenatal exposure to combustion-related pollutants and anxiety, attention problems in young children Posted: 22 Mar 2012 07:02 AM PDT Mothers' exposure during pregnancy to a class of air pollutants called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) can lead to behavioral problems in their children. PAH are released to air during incomplete combustion of fossil fuel such as diesel, gasoline, coal, and other organic material. The study is the first report of associations between child attentional and behavioral problems among school-age children and two complementary measures of prenatal PAH exposure.

Wealth affects women's heart disease risk, study suggests Posted: 20 Mar 2012 11:19 AM PDT A woman's level of wealth or poverty is linked with levels of cardiovascular inflammation in women, according to new research. Cardiovascular inflammation is a key risk factor for heart disease.

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