Economist: Cuba's state-run baseball doesn't go to bat for players
On the brink of a U.S. Major League season featuring a fresh crop of Cuban stars who've forsaken their communist homeland, Cuba still touts its state-run baseball system as a superior way to structure the game....... Cuba not only reigns as the world's Olympic baseball champion, its citizens enjoy superlative professional play at bargain prices in ballparks largely free of commercial gimmicks an...Need better social research but it doesn't come cheap
Social science is regarded as a relatively inexpensive area of research, but human decision processes are as complex and elusive as anything in biology, physics or chemistry, and the resources needed to study them effectively are considerable....... That is the view of the man leading a ground-breaking ESRC-funded investigation of new ways to design survey questions which come as close as possibl...Breast reconstruction with implants after mastectomy doesn't hurt survival chances
Breast implants after mastectomy to treat breast cancer do not reduce the long-term survival of patients, reveals the first study on the long-term effects of breast implants, published today in Breast Cancer Research. ...... Previous studies have shown that breast implants do not have adverse health effects for cancer patients in the short term, but no representative study has addressed the quest...Soy likely doesn't affect fertility, according to research in monkeys
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. New research shows that the plant estrogens in soy don't impair fertility in monkeys. The study was designed to test a theory that high-soy diets can compromise fertility in women. ... ...The results, from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and Emory University School of Medicine, were reported today at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Me...Wealth does not create individual happiness and it doesn't build a strong country, either
A study in the recent issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest addresses how economic status is no longer a sufficient gauge of a nation's well-being. The authors argue that the psychological well-being of its citizens is the greatest measure of a nation-- not the well-being of its economy. "While wealth has trebled over the past 50 yearswell-being has been flat, mental illness has...Ultrasound treatment for hurt muscles may feel good, but doesn't promote healing, study suggests
COLUMBUS, Ohio Ultrasound therapy does nothing to help an injured skeletal muscle heal any faster, according to a new study conducted in rats.... ...Although ultrasound is one of the most frequently prescribed treatments for one of the most common sport and athletic injuries skeletal muscle contusions there's really no good scientific evidence showing that it treats injured muscles effectively...Appreciation of humor doesn't change with age
... ............A Canadian study of humor in older adults has found that appreciation and emotional reactiveness to humor doesn't change with age. Older adults still enjoy a good laugh. ... ...However, the ability to comprehend more complex forms of humor diminishes in later years. ......The findings are published in the September issue of the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Soci...Hypnosis doesn't improve pain relief strategies
Techniques like relaxation and visualizing a pleasant scene can take the sting out of mild pain, but adding hypnosis to the mix does not make such techniques more effective, according to a new report in Health Psychology....... Leonard S. Milling, Ph.D., of the University of Hartford and colleagues, compared five different behavioral treatments for finger pain delivered under hypnotic and non-hyp...More health care doesnt mean better health care for medicare patients
PHILADELPHIA -- (February 17, 2003) Medicare enrollees in some U.S. regions receive twice as much care as similar patients in other regions, but whether the additional care results in improved quality or health outcomes is not known. ......A comprehensive analysis finds that Medicare enrollees in regions receiving more care do not have better access to or a higher quality of care, nor do they ha...'Jolly fat' hypothesis doesnt carry weight
A team of researchers asks in a new health journal article, "Are the Fat More Jolly?" What they found was that obesity does not protect people from mental health problems.... ..."The answer," they write, "is a most emphatic 'No.'"... ...Looking at eight different indicators of mental health problems, the researchers examined whether the stereotype of the "jolly fat" is accurate. It's not, says re...Study: Drinking in fraternities, sororities doesn't necessarily continue after college
.Chapel Hill -- In the past, research has often linked belonging to a fraternity or sorority to heavy drinking during college. . Now, however, contrary to popular belief, students who drink a lot as part of fraternity and sorority life do not necessarily keep drinking at that level after they have finished college, a unique new study shows. Many "Greek" graduates appear to moderate their drin...Hormone therapy doesn't slow heart disease, despite improvements in cholesterol
. WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- In the full report of a major study of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and heart disease, researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center write in this week's New England Journal of Medicine that the treatment didn't slow the progression of heart disease in older women, despite improvements in cholesterol levels..The results of the study, the Estrogen Re.... Young women who have an advance provision of emergency contraception are more likely to use it when they need it, but its availability does not appear to increase risky sexual behavior, according to a new study by University of California, San Francisco researchers. . . Emergency contraception, also known as oral post-coital contraception and often called the morning-after pill, prevents pre...One in seven adolescents still doesn't have health insurance
.One in seven U.S. children aged 10 to 18 is not covered by health insurance..That figure has not changed in more than a decade, even though government-funded.health plans now cover more children and teens. . ."Little progress has been made over the past fifteen years in reducing the.numbers of uninsured adolescents," said Paul Newacheck, DrPH, professor of.health policy and pediatrics at the Un...Timing Of Breast Cancer Surgery Doesn't Appear To Influence Survival Anymore
. Is it possible that young women with breast cancer live longer if the.operation to remove the cancer is performed during the middle of the menstrual.cycle rather than at the beginning? The answer depends on how long ago the.surgery was done. Prior to 1984, surgery done during the onset of menstruation.almost doubled the risk of dying compared to surgery around the time of.ovulation, ac...