News

There may be some truth to the old saying, "It's better to give than receive."

A new study shows that elderly people who care for a disabled or dying spouse appear to live longer than those who are not saddled with such responsibilities.

"It looks like the more they do [to help their spouse] the better their health is in the long run," said lead researcher Stephanie Brown of the University of Michigan medical school.

The researchers focused on 1,688 couples and measured how much time was devoted to caregiving duties such as feeding, dressing, bathing, preparing meals, managing money and taking medications.

"People who were providing 14 hours or more of care per week to their spouse reduced their own risk of dying by half over the seven-year period of the study compared to individuals who provided little or no care," Dr. Brown said in an interview.

She admits that her findings seem to fly in the face of the conventional wisdom that caregiving can be extremely stressful.

But she thinks this type of work can give people a sense of purpose and meaning that may help offset some of the potentially harmful effects of stress. In fact, she believes there are strong evolutionary forces that favour altruistic behaviour. For instance, somewhat similar stresses and benefits are involved in raising children.

Dr. Brown noted that advocacy groups have been lobbying governments for more social support for people who are weighed down by the burdens of caregiving.

And she doesn't want her study to be used as an excuse to deny support to these individuals. But, she said, "we just need to do some research to figure out what that helps need to be."

Relieving people of certain caregiving responsibilities "might be more harmful than beneficial," she added.

Glamorizing torture

Could a widely watched television show be making state-sponsored torture more acceptable to the public?

In a thought-provoking article in The Lancet, Homer Drae Venters of New York University points out that opinion polls show the U.S. public's acceptance of torture has risen from 36 per cent in 2006 to 44 per cent in 2008.

And, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, Dr. Venters argues that Jack Bauer, the popular character on the Fox TV show 24, is helping to contribute to that trend.

"During prime-time television ... Jack Bauer [is] roughing up prisoners in a weekly struggle to protect the country," he writes. "We are tempted by the glamour and raw charisma that we project onto Jack Bauer, the illusion of protection and the lure of vigilante justice. ... Jack Bauer makes torture popular."

Dr. Venters, who has treated victims of torture, believes it's fundamentally wrong to glamorize the abhorrent practice.

"The raw truth of torture is that whatever the original motive, the torturer and the tortured are transformed into a perpetrator and victim of violence."

Aside from the inhumanity of it, torture doesn't even produce reliable intelligence for the state, he writes. "There is no available scientific or systematic research to suggest that coercion can, will, or has provided accurate useful information from otherwise unco-operative sources."

Gasping for life

If an adult collapses from cardiac arrest, a bystander should immediately begin chest compressions - even if that person seems to be gasping for breath - a new study indicates.

Under current guidelines, CPR or cardiopulmonary resuscitation should be started if the victim is both unconscious and not breathing.

But the new study, published in the journal Circulation, shows that 39 per cent of people who suffer cardiac arrest (essentially a stopped heart) initially produce gasping or other odd sounds that can be mistaken for regular breathing. As a result, bystanders fail to quickly initiate actions that could save the person's life.

"We need people to promptly recognize sudden cardiac arrest, to call 911 and to start compressions right away," said one of the authors of the study, Gordon Ewy of the University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center.

Gasping is a survival reflex triggered by the brain that is being deprived of oxygen, he explained. This gasping reflex may sometimes sound like snoring, gurgling, moaning or laboured breathing.

"It's a good sign when they are gasping," Dr. Ewy said in an interview. "It's an indication the brain is still alive ... and if you start chest compressions the person has a higher chance of surviving."

Dr. Ewy said it's not necessary for bystanders to also do mouth-to-mouth breathing if the collapse was witnessed (either seen or heard). That's because the cardiac arrest is so recent that the victim's blood is still filled with oxygen. (In drowning cases, however, mouth-to-mouth breathing is required.)

Hands-only CPR involves pressing hard and fast at a rate of 100 times a minute in the middle of the person's chest without stopping until emergency medical responders arrive, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.

Sleep and cancer

Medical studies have consistently shown that regular exercise can reduce your chances of getting cancer. But if you don't get enough sleep, the cancer-sparing benefits of an active life may evaporate like the sweat on your brow.

In a 10-year study of more than 6,000 women, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., looked at the role of sleep in the development of cancer.

Previous research has suggested that those who exercise the most have a 25 per cent lower risk of cancer than those who exercise the least. Scientists think changes in hormone levels, immune function and body weight resulting from physical activity may help guard against cancer.

The new study, however, found that physically active women who got less than seven hours of sleep a night faced the same cancer risk as those who seldom got off the couch.

"Less sleep makes them similar in risk to the non-exercisers," said one of the study collaborators, James McClain, a research fellow at the U.S. National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md.

Scientists aren't sure why a lack of sleep could wipe out the gains of exercise. Possibly the body needs sleep to recover from inflammation caused by exercise, Dr. McClain said. Inflammation, he noted, is believed to play a role in the cancer process.

"Everything is just a hypothesis at this point," Dr. McClain said. A much larger study would be needed to determine the ideal amount of sleep. After all, some early studies have suggested that too much sleep can be bad for your health, too.