People often sit on secrets that gnaw away at them because they’re worried others will judge them harshly. But those fears are overblown, a series of psychological experiments demonstrates. Folks tended to be much more charitable than expected when told a secret considered shameful by the person who held it, researchers found. Secret holders consistently overestimate the reactions others will have if dirty laundry is aired, said co-researcher Amit Kumar, an assistant professor of marketing with the University of Texas at Austin. “When we’re thinking about conveying negative information about ourselves, we’re focused on the content of the message,” Kumar said in a university news release. “But the recipients are thinking about the positive traits required to reveal this secret, such as trust, honesty and vulnerability.” Kumar and his colleagues conducted a series of 12 experiments designed to accurately assess the fallout from revealing secrets. For example, they asked several groups to imagine revealing a negative secret, and then predict how their confidante would judge them. Each participant then revealed their secret to that person, and the confidante was asked how they responded to learning the secret. The expected judgment was consistently worse than how the confidante actually responded, Kumar said. This overestimation held for secrets divulged to a wide range of people – strangers, acquaintances, friends, family members and romantic partners. “Their expectations were…  read on >  read on >

It’s easy to see the immediate health hazards of wildfire smoke, as people struggle to breathe through a sooty haze. But a new study finds that harmful chemicals found in wildfire smoke can linger in a person’s home for weeks after the immediate threat has passed, posing a continuing health threat. The chemicals — compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) — are highly toxic and can be found in household air filters, glass surfaces and cotton cloth more than a month later, researchers report. “They are associated with a wide variety of long-term adverse health consequences like cancer, potential complications in pregnancy and lung disease,” said researcher Elliott Gall, an associate professor of mechanical and materials engineering at Portland State University in Oregon. “If these compounds are depositing or sticking onto surfaces, there are different routes of exposure people should be aware of,” Gall added in a university news release. There’s lots of good advice out there on what to do during a wildfire, researchers noted — close windows and doors, run an air purifier, wear a mask. But there’s not much to guide people on how to best clean up afterward, researchers said. For this study, Gall and his team looked at how PAHs stuck to glass, cotton and air filters during a four-month span. They found it took 37 days for PAHs to…  read on >  read on >

Teenagers who’ve packed on extra pounds have a significantly increased risk of developing kidney disease as a young adult, a new study finds. Obesity increased risk of later kidney disease as much as ninefold in boys and fourfold in girls, according to results published recently in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. Even a few extra pounds increased a teen’s risk of kidney disease, researchers found. “The association was evident even in persons with high-normal BMI in adolescence, was more pronounced in men and appeared before the age of 30 years,” wrote the research team led by Dr. Avishai Tsur, of the Hebrew University Department of Military Medicine in Israel. Prior research has linked high BMI to kidney disease in older folks, but there hasn’t been much investigation into the potential risks of childhood obesity for kidney health, the researchers said. The study tracked more than 593,000 Israeli adolescents ages 16 to 20 who were born after 1974, all of whom underwent medical assessments for mandatory military service. After an average follow-up of 13 years, researchers found that nearly 2,000 of the participants had developed early chronic kidney disease. The teens’ risk of kidney disease increased with their excess weight, results show. Boys with severe obesity had a nine times higher risk of kidney disease, while those with mild obesity had a nearly seven times higher risk…  read on >  read on >

People who are early risers appear to be at greater risk of developing anorexia, a new study claims. This differs from other disorders like depression, binge eating and schizophrenia, all of which appear to be associated with folks being “night owls,” the researchers noted. “Our findings implicate anorexia nervosa as a morning disorder in contrast to most other evening-based psychiatric diseases and support the association between anorexia nervosa and insomnia as seen in earlier studies,” said senior study author Hassan Dashti, an assistant investigator in Massachusetts General Hospital’s Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine in Boston. Previous research has suggested a link between eating disorders and the internal clock of the human body, which controls sleep cycles and affects nearly every organ in the body, researchers said in background notes. For this study, the team examined genes specifically associated with anorexia, looking to see whether people with a higher genetic risk for the disorder also tended to have a specific sleep cycle. The team discovered a two-way association between genes linked to anorexia and genes associated with waking early and going to bed early. Having anorexia could lead a person to be an early bird, and an earlier wake time could mean a person is at higher risk of anorexia. An elevated genetic risk score for anorexia was also associated with a higher…  read on >  read on >

TUESDAY, Jan. 2, 2024 — Many folks’ New Year resolutions include having a Dry January, and that’s a wise move, experts say. Taking even a one-month break from booze can lead to significant improvements in physical and mental health, said Jennifer Steiner, an associate professor at Florida State University. Your cancer risk and blood pressure might decline, your liver could start to heal in just two weeks, and you might also lose some extra pounds, Steiner said. You also might feel less stressed and have better digestion, leading to better sleep. Giving up alcohol might seem like a tough challenge, given that many social events revolve around drinking, Steiner said in a university news release. But there can be lasting benefits for toughing it out. Folks who give up alcohol for a month often wind up drinking less even after the challenge ends, Steiner noted. Steiner pointed out some tried-and-true strategies that can help you achieve a Dry January. Understand what motivates your drinking. Those who drink to relieve stress might explore other ways to manage their tension, like exercising, chatting with a friend, journaling, meditating or trying a new hobby. On the other hand, those who drink out of habit might try finding a healthier alternative to booze in their daily or weekly routine, Steiner said. When tempted to drink, a person might have…  read on >  read on >

Reduced income, unemployment and mental health issues are more common among people who live with a loved one diagnosed with depression, new research shows. “These findings indicate that the impact of depressive symptoms may extend beyond the affected individuals, imposing a burden on other adults in their households,” study lead author Paul Greenberg, of the Analysis Group, an economics consulting firm in Boston, said in a news release from the American Psychiatric Association. Reporting Dec. 27 in the Journal of Affective Disorders, Greenberg and his colleagues tracked the financial health and quality of life of nearly 17,000 U.S. adults. All completed a standard questionnaire with items on income, employment, health and other issues. About 1,700 of the participants lived with someone battling depression. The study showed that folks living with a depressed person had, on average, $4,720 less in total annual income, than people who didn’t. That’s an 11.3% average drop in income, Greenberg’s team calculated. Folks living with a person who was depressed also missed more workdays and were more likely to be unemployed. Their quality of life appeared to suffer, as well: Living with a depressed person was linked to lower scores on tests aimed at assessing mental and physical health, the study found. All of this, “further supports the value of adequate treatment to address depressive symptoms for adults and reduce the…  read on >  read on >