healthbriefs
Acupuncture Increases Quality of Life for Allergy Sufferers R
esearch from Berlin’s Charité Uni- versity Medical Center suggests that acupuncture is an effective treatment for patients with seasonal allergic rhini- tis. Published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, in 2013, the study analyzed data on the costs and
quality of life of 364 allergy patients that had been randomly assigned to receive one of three treatments: rescue medication alone (taken when symptoms are greatest); acupuncture treatment plus rescue medication; or sham (non-therapeu- tic) acupuncture plus rescue medication. Patients receiving acupuncture incurred higher total treatment costs, but also gained significantly more quality of life com- pared with the rescue medication-only groups.
Strawberries Reduce Blood Pressure A
study published in the World Journal of Diabetes concluded that the regular con- sumption of a flavonoid-rich strawberry beverage reduces blood pressure in people with Type 2 diabetes. The study divided 36 subjects, all with moderately high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes, into two groups—the first drank the equivalent of one serving of fresh strawberries per day made from freeze-dried ber- ries, and the other group drank the same amount of an imitation strawberry-flavored drink over a six-week period. Blood pressure was tested at the beginning and end of the study for all participants.
At the end, the group drinking the real strawberry beverage registered sig-
nificantly lower diastolic blood pressure than at the outset; it was also lower than the imitation strawberry group. The average diastolic blood pressure of the group drinking real strawberries went down by 6.5 percent and the systolic dropped by 12 percent. The strawberry-flavored group’s systolic blood pressure was also reduced, but only by 3.7 percent.
Memory Works Better Reading Real Books R
esearchers from Norway’s Stavanger University and France’s Aix-Mar-
seille Université found that readers remember a story better if it’s on paper. The study tested 50 people that read the same 28-page short story. Half of the group read the paper version and the other half read the story on a Kindle e-reader. The researchers discovered that readers of the digital version could not remember details from the story or reconstruct the plot as well as the group that read the paper copy. The researchers found that the
feedback of a Kindle doesn’t pro- vide the same support for mental reconstruction of a story as a print pocket book does. “When you read on paper, you can sense with your fingers a pile of pages on the left growing, and shrinking on the right,” explains Stavanger University’s Anne Mangen, Ph.D. These findings confirm a study
performed a year earlier, also led by Mangen. Seventy-two 10th-grad- ers were given text to read either on paper or on a computer screen. The students that read the paper text versions scored significantly higher in reading comprehension testing than those reading digital versions.
8 Twin Cities Edition
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