A graveyard of glory

The time-honoured combination of chicken wings and sports is a tradition no one wants to be rid of. But if you had trouble curbing your appetite last weekend, maybe you should have stopped clearing your plate. A new study shows that seeing evidence of how much food you’ve already eaten can help stop unintended overeating. Researchers treated 53 Super Bowl partiers to an all-you-can-eat chicken wings buffet at a sports bar. During the game, waitresses cleared the plates with chicken bones from half the tables, and let the bones pile up on the other half. It was found that those with clean plates ate 43 per cent more wings than those whose bones stayed on their plates. According to the researchers, the bones served as reminders of how much had been eaten and prevented the partiers from mindlessly eating more.

Source: Perceptual and Motor Skills

-Mayce Al-Sukhni

Chemical signature of dust

It’s no joke. Scientists have collected, analyzed, and recreated household dust in the laboratory. Ten gram samples of “Standard Reference Material 2585,” known to most people as the stuff underneath furniture, will go toward research by environmental scientists on the possible harmful health effects of household dust. The work was done by chemists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, who collected samples of dust from 1993 to 1994 in hotels and homes and from cleaning services. After sterilizing, filtering, and analyzing the material, the chemists determined standard concentrations of common toxins, like polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, which they found in surprisingly high amounts. Though the use of PBDEs has been decreasing due to fears of its toxicity, the common flame-retardant can still be found in a number of consumer products. The scientists have also found remnants of PCBs in the dust, a highly toxic, now banned, compound used as a refrigerator insulator in the 1970s. Because these contaminants persist in the environment in very small quantities, analysis of the concentrations of toxic chemicals in house dust will be a valuable guide to health officials.

Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology

-Sandy Huen

Statins no good for gals?

The cholesterol-lowering agents known as statins are known to reduce the risk of heart attacks and other coronary problems in patients with coronary heart disease. However, because women have traditionally been underrepresented in clinical drug trials, the effectiveness of statins in women is still uncertain. A recent study found that although statin therapy after a heart attack reduced the rate of mortality in both men and women, the reduction was less among women. These results may mean that women require higher doses in order to achieve the same preventive effects achieved by men.

Source: Canadian Medical Association Journal

-M.A.