Currency

Research Archive

Welcome to our Chinese medicine and acupuncture research news pages. We add to the content of these pages continuously as more research news comes in. Browse through the complete archive below or use the category links on the right.

Please note that the most twenty recent research archive items are free to view but access to the thousands of items in the archive require a journal subscription.

Gene links physical pain and social rejection

Categories: Lifestyle research

Psychology researchers have determined that a gene linked with physical pain is also associated with sensitivity to social rejection. The US study indicates that variation in the mu-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1), associated with response to physical pain, is related to how much pain a person feels in response to social rejection. People with a rare form of the gene, who were shown in previous work ...

Breastfeeding prevents heart disease and diabetes

Categories: Lifestyle research

Breastfeeding a baby can significantly reduce a woman's chances of developing metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors that makes heart disease and diabetes more likely in later life. Previous research has shown that lactating women have improved blood glucose and triglyceride levels shortly after giving birth. The new study suggests that the beneficial effects of breastfeeding are long-lasti ...

Divorce is bad for your health & getting remarried doesn't help

Categories: Lifestyle research

People who get divorced or who are widowed are more likely to suffer chronic health problems, even if they go on to remarry. According to an American study of 8,652 people aged between 51 and 61, divorced people have 20% more chronic health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes or cancer than married people. They are also 23% more likely to suffer from mobility problems. Previous studies hav ...

Coffee doesn't sober you up

Categories: Lifestyle research

Drinking coffee when you're drunk won't sober you up. In fact a cup of coffee may make it harder for people to realise they're drunk and therefore more likely to feel competent enough to try potentially dangerous things such as driving while intoxicated. An American laboratory study investigated how alcohol, caffeine or a combination of both affected the ability of mice to negotiate a maze and lea ...

Chemical found in shampoo and toys could lead to low birth weight

Categories: Lifestyle research

Exposure to phthalate, a toxic chemical used as a plasticiser in a wide variety of personal care products and children's toys might contribute to low birth weight in babies. Low birth weight is the leading cause of death in children under five and is a risk factor for cardiovascular and metabolic disease in adulthood. Phthalate exposure can begin while the foetus is in the womb and has been associ ...

Meditation builds grey matter

Categories: Lifestyle research

A team of American scientists has reported that regions of the brain involved in emotional regulation are larger in long-term meditators than in non-meditators. The group used high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to scan the brains of 22 participants, all of whom had extensively practiced meditation. They compared the scans with those of age-matched controls. Those who meditated had be ...

Anxious people prone to asthma

Categories: Psychological / emotional, Lifestyle research

People who are prone to anxiety are more likely to develop asthma, according to German investigators. The team used a questionnaire to evaluate tendencies to hysteria, anxiety and depression in 4010 adults without asthma. When they reassessed participants nine years later, they found that those who had high levels of neurosis were three times as likely to have developed asthma as those with low sc ...

Exercise as addictive as heroin

Categories: Lifestyle research

Excessive exercise can be as addictive as heroin, according to US scientists, and stopping can lead to withdrawal symptoms. The scientists believe that extreme exercise causes increases in endogenous opioid peptides (endorphins), which act in the brain a manner similar to chronic administration of opiate drugs. The psychologists observed a group of rats, some of which exercised excessively on a wh ...

Affirmations can make some people feel worse

Categories: Lifestyle research

Canadian psychologists have found that people with low self-esteem can actually feel worse after repeating positive statements about themselves. The researchers asked people with high and low self-esteem to repeat a positive self-statement ("I am a lovable person"). They then measured the participants' moods and their feelings about themselves. The low self-esteem group felt worse afterw ...