Why don’t the highly educated smoke?

It’s well established that adults with college degrees are much less likely to smoke than adults with less 
education, but the reasons for this inequality are unclear. A new Yale study shows that the links between smoking and education in adulthood are in fact explained by characteristics and choices made in adolescence. The study appears in the journal Social Science Research.

The study uses data collected over 14 years to link the smoking and educational histories of adults ages 26 to 29 to their experiences in adolescence. It turns out that differences in smoking by the level of education the person will eventually complete appear as early as age 12, long before that education is obtained, writes author Vida Maralani, assistant professor of sociology at Yale.

Maralani’s study shows that educational disparities in adult smoking are anchored to experiences from early in life. School policies, peers, and expectations about the future measured at ages 13 to 15 predict smoking at ages 26 to 29. 
              “This means that in order to reduce educational inequalities in smoking, we have to figure out exactly which characteristics before age 12 predict that a child will both not take up smoking and stay committed to school,” Maralani said.

Maralani also shows that commonly assumed explanations such as college aspirations and analytical skills do not explain the links between smoking and education in adulthood. Instead, Maralani argues, the families in which kids grow up and children’s non-cognitive skills may matter far more than realized in explaining the robust association between education and smoking in adulthood.

Maralani writes, “Overall, educational inequalities in adult smoking are better understood as a bundling of advantageous statuses that develops in childhood, rather than the effect of education producing better health.”

Funding for this study was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars program.


Source:
Yale University

Retinal Damage may avoid by A Cup of Coffee: Study

Its time to rejoice! for coffee drinkers

 Its time to rejoice! for coffee drinkers, 
The food scientists say that a cup of coffee may helpful in prevention of deterioration of eyesight and possible blindness from retinal degeneration of due to glaucoma.

According to study published in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (December 2013). A raw coffee , just 1 percent caffeine, but exist 7 to 9 percent Chlorogenic Acid (CLA), an antioxidant that prevent retinal degeneration in mice.

The retina is a thin tissue layer, present at back wall of the eye with millions of light sensitive cells and other nerve (cranial) cells that helps to to organize visual information.. Other than this, it is an metabolically active tissues, demanding high levels of oxygen and making it prone to prone oxidative stress.
The depletion of oxygen lead to production of free radicals and later cause tissue damage and loss of sight.

In process,mice eyes treat with nitric acid(HNO3) may cause generation of free radicals and lead to retinal degeneration, but a mice pretreated with CLA developed no damage to retina.

The study is "important in understanding functional foods, that is, natural foods that provide beneficial health effects," said Chang Y. Lee, professor of food science and the study's senior author.
"Coffee is the most popular drink in the world, and we are understanding what benefit we can get from that," Lee said.

In fact previous studies have shown that coffee also cuts the risk of such chronic diseases as Parkinson's, prostate cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's and age-related cognitive declines

Since scientists know that CLA and its metabolites are absorbed in the human digestive system, the next step for this research is to determine whether drinking coffee facilitates CLA to cross a membrane known as the blood-retinal barrier. If drinking coffee proves to deliver CLA directly into the retina, doctors may one day recommend an appropriate brew to prevent retinal damage. Also, if future studies further prove CLA's efficacy, then synthetic compounds could also be developed and delivered with eye drops. 





Source:
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

Circuit Board modeled on Human brain created: Stanford bioengineers

It Could be said one of the biggest success for scientists after they developed a new circuit board modeled on the human brain. The research led by Stanford Scientists could lead the new frontiers in robotics and computing.

" From a pure energy perspective, the brain is hard to match," said Kwabena Boahen, associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford.

They developed

Sachin Tendulkar's Birthday.....

Sachin Tendulkar's birthday..

There was a time when it was said that every time Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar walked into the field with his bat, the bowlers felt a cold shiver run down their spine. They knew that if the little master got going, left nothing to celebrate.
 
He would send the most dexterously bowled balls to the boundary with a flick of his wrist.

Nearly five months ago, when Sachin Tendulkar retired, it was as if the bowlers had lost already. They had nothing and no one else to bowl to. After all, how many times does a man get to throw something at an entity who is revered as a god around the world.

He still commands the respect that he did when he would don the blues of the Indian team and walk out into the field, doesn't matter he is wearing pads and gloves to THUNDER.
He is the man who brought about a new age in cricket and rewrote the laws of how a ball could be hit with a bat.

Once again Sachin....

One Man, Tons of Reasons to cheer. Happy birthday master.

Yale Research Shows People with a Mental Illness are More Likely to Smoke

Those in the United States with a mental illness diagnosis are much more likely to smoke cigarettes and smoke more heavily, and are less likely to quit smoking than those without mental illness, regardless of their specific diagnosis, a new study by researchers from the Yale School of Medicine shows.

They also found variations in smoking rates and likelihood of quitting among different diagnoses of mental illness. The results are reported in the April issue of the journal Tobacco Control.

Thirty-nine percent of adults with a psychiatric diagnosis smoked compared to 16% without a diagnosis, according to data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions analyzed by researchers. Two out of every three people with drug use disorder smoke, compared to one out of three with social phobia.

“We know that smokers with mental illness are more susceptible to smoking-related disease, and those with mental illness die 25 years earlier than adults without mental illness,” said Sherry McKee, associate professor of psychiatry, and senior author on the study. “Effective smoking cessation treatments are available and we know that smokers with mental illness can quit smoking. We need to address why smokers with mental illness are not being treated for their smoking.”
Over the three-year study period, 22% of smokers with no psychiatric disorders were able to quit smoking, whereas rates of quitting among those with psychiatric disorders were 25% lower. Rates of quitting were lowest among those with dysthymia (10%), agoraphobia (13%), and social phobia (13%). “We also found that individuals with multiple diagnoses had the lowest quit rates,” added Philip Smith, lead author on the study.

This study adds to evidence that smokers with mental illness consume nearly half of all cigarettes in the United States, despite making up a substantially smaller proportion of the population.


Researchers and policymakers are increasingly calling attention to this important public health issue, and this study helps point to a need for interventions and policy that directly help individuals with mental illness quit smoking. 


Source:
Yale School of Medicine