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Skin-to-skin contact between mothers and newborns immediately after birth can be used to promote breastfeeding and may give babies a better start in life, according to a new review of existing evidence.

Women who had skin-to-skin contact with their naked babies right after delivery were more likely to breastfeed longer and be breastfeeding months later than women who did not have their babies placed on their skin right away, the researchers found. 

“The more you can do to place the mother and baby together and disturb them as little possible during that first hour, the better off they’ll be,” said lead author Elizabeth Moore, of the School of Nursing at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Moore and her colleagues write in the Cochrane Library November 25th that babies are often separated from their mothers at birth. The new review looked at whether placing naked babies on their mother’s bare chest improved breastfeeding and other health outcomes.

The review was coordinated by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organisation that evaluates and reviews medical research.

The researchers looked through medical literature and found 46 randomised controlled trials to include in their review. The trials included 3,850 women and their newborns from 21 countries. All babies were healthy and most were born at term.

“We compared those trials to usual care, and usual care was very different depending on the trial,” said Moore. Trials from the 1970s may have separated mothers from their babies for hours. In more modern trials, babies might be swaddled in a blanket before being handed to the mother.

Compared to babies and mothers who received usual care, those who received skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth were about 24 per cent more likely to still be breastfeeding one to four months later.

Infants who received skin-to-skin care were also 32 per cent more likely to successfully breastfeed on their first try.

There was also evidence that women who got skin-to-skin contact breastfed longer and were more likely to exclusively breastfeed after leaving the hospital.

Evidence also suggested babies did better after receiving skin-to-skin contact after birth. They had higher scores on a measure evaluating their heart and lung function, had higher blood sugar levels and had a similar body temperature to their swaddled counterparts.

“It’s just something that if at all possible should happen,” Moore told Reuters Health. 

Skin-to-skin contact should begin as soon as possible and last for at least 60 minutes, she said. The hour will give babies time to recover from the birthing experience, find the mother’s nipple and latch on.

“It’s not something you can do in just 15 minutes,” she said.

Moore said more research is needed on skin-to-skin contact after caesarean births and among babies born near full term.

“I think skin-to-skin care or contact is a no-cost intervention that improves outcomes for mothers and babies,” said Jeannette Crenshaw, of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Centre School of Nursing in Lubbock.

Crenshaw, who is presently involved in a study of skin-to-skin contact after caesarean sections, said the current findings confirm the results of earlier, less rigorous studies that showed similar benefits.

“We need to adjust our processes, normal routines and make system changes to make the best practice available to mothers and babies,” said Crenshaw.

They have already adversely affected sales of cameras, scanners and printers by fulfilling their functions, by practically replacing them. How far will smartphones go, replacing more and more devices, albeit sometimes only partially and not performing as well as the originals?

Few digital tools are as versatile and multifunctional as smartphones. Suffice it to see the number of apps available out there and that can do a zillion things.

Even when software applications alone are not enough to perform certain tasks, designers succeed in creating physical attachments, small extension hardware to the smartphone that works in conjunction with the app and does the trick.

SanDisk company has recently announced USB flash drives that you connect directly to a smartphone the same way you would do it to a laptop or desktop machine. This gives you instant, removable storage of up to 128GB, on the go — et voilà. Who needs a laptop then?

By adding an iRig (tradename) interface to your smartphone and downloading an appropriate app, you turn your handset into an incredibly powerful electric guitar effect box. The musical instrument plugs into the iRig that is the size of a pack of cigarettes, and the app allows you to play and choose amongst a mind-blowing variety of guitar sounds.

You can output the sound either to a headphone or to an external amplifier of your choice; even a 200-watt Marshall if you like. For about $50 (excluding the Marshall price, it’s understood…), this lets you achieve what used to cost 15 to 20 times more and was a rather bulky setup, before smartphones were invented.

But the best is probably yet to come. Medical diagnosis possible at home is what will really constitute a new revolution; and it’s on its way. Checking heart rate and other simple vital signs is already available, as is glucose monitoring for diabetes affected patients. Heart rate does not require any addition external advices, just press your finger gently against the camera’s lens and the smartphone’s app will measure it in a few seconds. Glucose monitoring requires the addition of a pocketsize attachment, just like the guitar effect box, and that lets you monitor your glucose level. 

But the smartphone industry is preparing for much more important medical applications and the future of home medicine will go much further.

It is expected that MRI scanning with a smartphone will be possible sooner than we may think. This will open the door to early cancer detection, at home. As incredible as it may sound it is true. And to think that the first hospital MRI scanners operating in Jordan some 20 or 25 years ago were as big and heavy as a car and as expensive as buying an apartment!

MRI scanning with a smartphone was tested experimentally as early as in 2011 at Massachusetts General Hospital, in the USA. It was done with a small 0.5 tesla magnet, by scanning small body parts. Big MRI hospital scanners usually have magnets of about 10 teslas. Research, mainly in the USA and in Japan, indicates that practical MRI scanners that attach to smartphones may become household items in five to seven years.

The smartphone market is still hot despite occasional disappointments and failures. The ill-fated Samsung Galaxy Note 7 with its exploding batteries was such an example. But despite the negative impact on its manufacturer, it does not really seem really affected by the temporarily setback and there are already rumours on the Web of the upcoming Galaxy S8 smartphone. In the meantime the misfortune of the Note 7 is benefitting the local Jordanian market that has recently seen the price of the Galaxy S7, the nearest thing to the Note 7 and still a top of line, excellent handset, being dropped to under JD500.

Smokers who go through much less than a pack of cigarettes a day still have a higher risk of an early death than non-smokers, a new study suggests. 

“There is no safe level of cigarette smoking,” said lead study author Maki Inoue-Choi, a researcher at the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Maryland. 

“Even smokers who consistently smoked less than one cigarette per day were more likely to die in our study than never smokers,” Inoue-Choi said by e-mail. 

Tobacco smoking poses a major public health challenge and claims about 5 million lives each year worldwide, researchers note in JAMA Internal Medicine. 

A growing number of smokers tend to be “light” smokers, going through less than half a pack of cigarettes a day, the authors write. This used to be how people cut back gradually on the path to quitting, but it’s increasingly a pattern that smokers follow for years at a time. 

To get a better picture of the health effects of light smoking, researchers tracked more than 290,000 adults aged 59 to 82, including more than 22,000 current smokers and more than 156,000 former smokers, who completed surveys in 2004 and 2005. 

By 2011, compared to people who never smoked, adults who consistently smoked at least part of one cigarette a day were 64 per cent more likely to have died of any cause, researchers report in JAMA Internal Medicine. 

Smoking one to 10 cigarettes a day was associated with 87 per cent higher odds of dying from all causes during the study than not smoking at all. 

Lung cancer deaths in particular were much more likely among light smokers than non-smokers. The odds of death from lung cancer were more than nine times higher with a habit of even one cigarette a day, while smoking up to 10 cigarettes a day was associated with almost 12 times the risk of death from lung cancer. 

Former smokers fared better when they quit at younger ages. For example, ex-smokers of one to 10 cigarettes a day who kicked the habit after age 50 had a 42 per cent higher risk of death from all causes during the study period, compared to those who kicked the habit at younger ages. One limitation of the study is that researchers relied on participants to accurately recall and report on how often they smoked even may years in the past, the authors note. 

Even so, the findings should reinforce that even light smokers can face serious health risks from the habit, the authors note. 

“The take home message is that all smokers should stop smoking, even if they smoke only occasionally, or if they smoke very few cigarettes a day,” Jean-Francois Etter, a researcher at the University of Geneva in Switzerland who was not involved in the study, said in an e-mail. 

The study also showed very little benefit from cutting back from two packs a day to half a pack a day, said Judith Prochaska, a researcher at Stanford University in California who was not involved in the study. 

“Low intensity smokers often downplay their use of tobacco — may even identify as nonsmokers – and may rationalise their behaviour as low risk,” Prochaska said by e-mail. 

“The findings ought to compel physicians to intervene with patients who report any level of current tobacco use,” Prochaska added. “As a motivating message, the sooner individuals quit smoking, the greater the health benefits in extending years of life.”

With a distinctly French character bringing both comfortable ride qualities and engaging driving dynamics, the 308 GT Line is well pitched as a midway point in Peugeot’s Volkwagen Golf and Ford Focus fighting 308 model line. Sitting between garden variety versions of the 308 family hatchback and its more potent entry-level GT hot hatch and high performance and GTI incarnations, the GT Line could perhaps be best described as a more affordable and practical warm hatch, which gives a good taste of the 308’s more exotic potential.

A styling pack that adds a sportier flavour — inside and out — to more accessible and economical turbo-diesel and turbocharged petrol 1.2-litre 3-cylinder PureTech Peugeot 308 models in European markets, the GT Line, however, receives perkier propulsion for Middle East markets. Powered by more efficient and detuned version of the same engine powering 177BHP and 202BHP GT and 246BHP and 266BHP GTI models, Peugeot’s turbocharged 1.6-litre 4-cylinder develops 163BHP, in THP165 specification, for the Middle East market 308 GT Line.

Sculpted and sporty styling

Stylishly designed with a distinctly classy air and up-market feel, the Peugeot 308 is a more tightly penned and elegantly flowing hatchback, with a refined demeanour yet athletic posture. A smaller and more restrained chrome-ringed grille that is currently fashionable among many car manufacturers, is, however, complemented by a larger and wider lower bumper intake segment, while its headlights feature a claw-like kink at the bottom and a LED strip at the top that trails off to a ridged shoulder line running along the 308’s length.

Sculpted with concave and convex surfacing at the bonnet and flanks, the 308’s rear wheel arches are emphasised and discretely bulging, while the GT Line model features sharper, lower and more prominent sills, larger two-tone alloy wheels with 225/45R17 rubber and a smattering of “GT Line” badges to lend a more assertive and grounded look. At the rear, GT Line models also feature a blacked out diffuser style lower bumper segment, dual chrome ringed bumper integrated exhaust tips and two-tone tailgate spoiler for a sportier more urgent appearance.

Flexible delivery

Subtly muscular and happy to push to its rev limit, the 308 GT Line is, however, most comfortable riding a plentiful mid-range sweet spot as it adroitly powers through a series of snaking switchbacks. Its turbocharged 1.6-litre THP165 engine spools up quickly, and is responsive, with little by way of turbo lag from idling. Developing 177lb from as little as 1,400rpm with a broad and muscularly responsive mid-range band, the GT Line is confidently responsive and flexible and versatile when overtaking on motorways or climbing steep winding inclines.

Riding a wave of rich mid-range torque as it gathers pace and smoothly builds up revs, the GT Line’s power peaks at a healthy 163BHP at 5,500rpm, which with an estimated weight of 1225kg, allows for brisk 0-100km/h acceleration estimated at below 8.5 seconds and top speed comfortably above 200km/h. Driving the front wheels through a six-speed automatic gearbox, shifts are well-judged for smoothness and speed, manual “tiptronic” mode upshifts actuated — like in BMW or Mini — by pulling the gear lever rather than pushing.

Reassuring yet agile

Alert yet forgiving and comfortable yet controlled the 308 GT Line takes road imperfections with fluency and aplomb. Soft-edged compared to a full hot hatch, the GT Line is nevertheless precise, responsive and intuitive, with its tyres delivering a good compromise of road feel, grip and comfort, and is particularly supple when taking bumps and cracks at a slight angle. Smooth and stable at speed without being distant or unconnected, the GT Line pitches up slightly when taking peaks and crests briskly, but is reassuringly settled and buttoned down on rebound.

Like its well-judged vertical control, the GT Line’s lateral control is similarly designed for both comfort and poise, with slight body lean yet overall composure. Brisk and agile cross country the GT Line negotiates imperfectly paved countryside switchbacks with easily exploitable power and fluency, control and finesse from its sweet and engaging chassis. With quick and precise steering with decent levels of road feel, the GT Line turns tidy and alert into corners, and responds well to tight initial turn-in. Meanwhile, a tight turning circle makes it manoeuvrable in the city.

Classy and sporty

Turning in early and hugging the apex through tight corners, the 308’s front wheels dig in hard while weight shifts to the outside at the rear to tighten its line before pouncing out. Well-compromised between reassuring and playful, the 308 is slightly biased for the former, but a quick dab of the mid-corner braking can persuade it to fling its weight outwards to further tighten a cornering line. Meanwhile, electronic stability control is effective and largely nonintrusive — especially in “off” position, where it remains active but initially less interventionist.

A classy and refined place, the GT Line’s cabin features clear layouts with an elegantly minimalist centre console, good quality fit, finish, fabrics and textures. Visibility is generally good, but in tight parking spaces, a reversing camera and sensors help one better judge its position, given the 308’s bulging body surfacing. Featuring red stitching, thick flat-bottom steering wheel and aluminium pedals, the GT Line is distinctly more up market and sporty, while a panoramic glass roof creates and airy ambiance.

Driving position is well adjustable, comfortable and supportive while one peers at the instrument panel above the steering. Meanwhile, boot space is decent and rear seat space decent. Equipment levels are good, and include six airbags, multi-function steering controls and USB-enabled infotainment system with good speaker sound quality and clarity.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS 

Engine: 1.6-litre, turbocharged, transverse 4 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 77 x 85.8mm

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 6-speed auto, front-wheel drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 163 (165) [121] @5,500rpm

Specific power: 102BHP/litre

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 177 (240) @1,400rpm

Specific torque: 150.2Nm/litre

0-100km/h: under 8.5 seconds (est.)

Fuel tank: 53 litres

Length: 4,253mm

Width: 1,804mm

Height: 1,457mm

Wheelbase: 2,620mm

Track, F/R: 1,559/1,553mm

Overhang, F/R: 863/770mm

Headroom, F/R: 895/874mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1,395/1,365mm

Boot capacity: 470 litres

Kerb weight: 1,225kg (est.)

Steering: Electric-assisted rack and pinion

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/torsion bar

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/discs

Tyres, F/R: 225/45R17

Price, on-the-road: JD24,500 (as tested)

WASHINGTON — Al Pacino, The Eagles, James Taylor, gospel and blues singer Mavis Staples and Argentine pianist Martha Argerich were celebrated Sunday for their lifetime achievements at the last major arts gala attended by President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.

It was a bittersweet moment, with Obama making one of his final goodbyes to celebrated artists as president.

The first couple received an extended standing ovation as they entered the Opera House of the Kennedy Centre, a monument to the late president John F. Kennedy.

“This is a joyous day. It’s the best Christmas present!” Staples told AFP on the red carpet about receiving a Kennedy Centre Honour, considered the nation’s highest recognition for performing artists, just before Obama leaves offices.

At 77, Staples lives up to the maxim that age is only a number. “People ask me, ‘Mavis, when are you going to retire?’ Retire for what? I love what I’m doing and I intend to sing until I can’t sing no more, forever,” she said.

Sean Penn, Garth Brooks, Aretha Franklin, Kevin Spacey and Ringo Starr were some of the A-listers who serenaded and hailed the legacy of the award recipients during the star-studded performance hosted for the third consecutive year by late night talk show host Stephen Colbert.

Obamas celebrated

As he kicked off the evening, Colbert said America was lucky to have a “passionate, intelligent and dignified” president. That brought loud cheers and applause from the crowd. Colbert then joked: “Sir, I don’t know why you stood up, I was talking about Michelle”.

At a White House reception prior to the reception, Obama called the awards “one of the parts of the job that I will miss”.

Obama jokingly asked Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, a notorious troublemaker, not to trash the White House because he is leaving soon and wants his “security deposit” back.

The Eagles were set to be honoured last year but postponed due to the illness of founding member Glenn Frey, who died in January. He received his award posthumously.

Grammy Award-winner Juanes performed “Hotel California” with guitarist Steve Vai, who said before the event that playing the piece’s famed guitar riff in front of the musicians was “surreal”.

Taylor, 68, performed “America the Beautiful” at Obama’s second inauguration in January 2013, while Staples, who like none other provided the music of the civil rights movement, sang at Kennedy’s inauguration.

“In 1968, when James Taylor signed with Apple Records, I was in Vietnam and America was at war abroad and in turmoil here at home. We were fighting and marching to the music of [Jimi] Hendrix, the drumming of Ringo [Starr], the Doors, the [Rolling) Stones, and the [Grateful] Dead,” Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday during a reception at which the artists received the awards.

“And amid the darkness of that era, James Taylor returned sunlight to our minds, conjuring up the warm images of snow on the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston, deep greens and blues as the colours of choosing, and moonlight ladies singing rockabye to ‘Sweet Baby James’”.

Surprised?

Argerich, 75, is widely considered one of the world’s best, if reclusive, pianists.

For nearly two decades, she largely shunned solo performances, playing almost exclusively with orchestras and chamber ensembles, until a sold-out recital at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2000.

“I was surprised. I didn’t think I was entitled,” Argerich said of learning she had won the award.

Academy Award nominee Don Cheadle hailed Pacino as being humble about his long and storied career that has seen him perform in some 100 films and plays, including “The Godfather”, “Scarface, “Sea of Love”, “Heat” and “Scent of a Woman”.

“His gift, for all the inspiration and intensity that he brings to his roles, is that he lets us into what his characters are feeling,” Obama said.

LONDON — The vast majority of the estimated 350 million people worldwide suffering from depression are not receiving even minimally adequate treatment, according to an international study backed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The research, which covered almost 50,000 people in 21 countries, found that even in wealthy nations with relatively good health services, barely 20 per cent of depression patients get adequate treatment.

In poor countries the situation is far worse, the study found, with only one in 27 people with depression receiving adequate treatment.

“Much treatment currently offered to people with depression falls far short,” said Graham Thornicroft, a professor at King’s College London who led the study.

He called on national and international organisations to increase resources and scale up provision of mental health services “so that no one with depression is left behind”.

The WHO estimates that 350 million people of all ages suffer from depression, and the condition is the leading cause of disability worldwide.

They found that while there is increasing awareness that depression can be diagnosed and often successfully treated using psychological therapies or medication, the treatments are not being widely delivered.

“Providing treatment at the scale required to treat all people with depression is crucial, not only for decreasing disability and death by suicide but also from a moral and human rights perspective, and to help people to be fully productive members of society,” Thornicroft said.

The study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry on Thursday, analysed data from WHO mental health surveys in 21 countries, including Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Iraq, Mexico, Nigeria, China, Argentina, France, Germany, Japan, Portugal, Spain and the United States.

The researchers defined minimally adequate treatment as either pharmacotherapy, consisting of at least a month of medication plus four or more visits to a doctor, or psychotherapy, consisting of at least eight visits with any professional including a religious or spiritual adviser, social worker or counsellor.

Committed to Disillusion: Activist Writers in Egypt from the 1950s to the 1980s
David F. Dimeo
Cairo-New York: The American University in Cairo Press, 2016
Pp. 236

In “Committed to Disillusion”, David Dimeo focuses on select works of Naguib Mahfouz, Yusuf Idris and Sonallah Ibrahim — all three writers who espoused committed literature (al adab al multazim), as opposed to pursuing art for art’s sake. As such, they operated within the paradigm of a three-sided relationship between the political authority, the mass public and the author. Since their fiction can only be analysed in the context of prevailing political and social conditions, the book also partially chronicles Egypt’s sociocultural history from the 1930s until today.

The big question for committed or activist writers is whether they can make a difference in the struggle for social and political justice. In the late 1940s, this became the major issue for Egyptian writers, and most joined the movement for committed literature, though they practised it in a variety of ways. Dimeo adds a comparative and international dimension to his study by not only comparing the three writers to each other, but by comparing them with committed writers elsewhere. He devotes a chapter to the influence of Soviet literature, Sartre’s call to engagement, and the Brecht-Lukacs debate, showing how Egyptian writers followed the literary scene abroad and debated many of the issues involved, but on their own terms. All concurred that they wanted to avoid the strict Soviet control of writers, but many were influenced by the ideas of Sartre, Lukacs and Brecht.

The 1952 revolution was initially welcomed by Egypt’s committed writers, but by the 1960s, they found themselves at odds with Nasser’s regime due to its repression and failure to deliver on promises of social justice. Dimeo chose the writers to include not only for their literary status, but also because they represent three successive generations: “Mahfouz had established himself as a master of multazim fiction in the period before the overthrow of the monarchial regime, and Idris launched his career as a committed writer along with the promising revolution, but Ibrahim was a child of the revolution, taking up fiction writing well into the period of disillusion that the other two experienced during the 1960s.” (pp. 155-6)

Dimeo, a professor at Western Kentucky University, is a masterful literary critic. Based on detailed examination of scores of the three writers’ works, he shows how their shifts in subject matter and style mirror their reaction to the changing world around them. Starting in the 1960s, disillusionment with the regime, a public seemingly more concerned about consumer goods than the values for which they had struggled, and their own failure to have an impact, caused writers to switch from realism to surrealism and impressionism. 

Mahfouz stopped writing altogether for seven years, only to reemerge with a new style totally divergent from his earlier realism that had unmasked injustice through deft storytelling as in “The Cairo Trilogy”, “Midaq Alley” and “The Beginning and the End”.

“Instead of an objective, systematic view of society, Mahfouz offers a polyphony of worldviews in conflict, paradigms for understanding society that inherently disagree, and which the narrator does not attempt to reconcile.” (p. 84)

Idris, who eschewed Mahfouz’s panoramic novelistic style in favour of the shock effect of short stories, began by unmasking social injustice via issues related to his profession of medicine (lack of birth control, poor hygiene and mental healthcare, and inadequate rural medical facilities). He clung to realism a bit longer but cloaked his critique of the state in allegory, only to later adopt a modernist experimental style removed from concrete Egyptian reality. “Yet underneath the alienation and absurdity that marked these works, a continued concern for the artist, the public, and the political power as well as the possibility of communication for social change shaped Idris’ later works”. (p. 126)

This then is Dimeo’s main point: Committed literature remained alive in spirit if not in word. “From the analysis of texts of the most profound authorial disillusion… we have seen not an escape to the author-as-observer paradigm but rather a continuous reinterpretation and renegotiating of the activist author’s role.” (p. 190)

This reading enables Dimeo to carry his analysis up to the 2011 revolution, wherein writers were influential voices. Interestingly, Alaa Al Aswany, who became a virtual spokesman for the uprising in the West, rose to fame with “The Yacoubian Building” which is much closer in content and style to Mahfouz’s committed realism than to the later disillusioned literature. Though in the aftermath activist writers proved unable to connect with the majority of Egyptians despite the possibilities offered by new digital media, Dimeo is still able to conclude that they “will continue to offer lessons for future generations”. (p. 206)

Exhausted shift workers may be safer driving home at night when they are exposed to bright light before they hit the road, a small study suggests. 

To test the effect of light therapy on driving, researchers did a series of three experiments with 19 adults. In two scenarios, participants spent a night being sleep deprived in a lab and then spent 45 minutes in dim or bright light before a driving test. For a third test, people got a good night’s sleep at home and then went to the lab for 45 minutes of bright light exposure before a driving test. 

After sleep deprivation in the lab, five people exposed to dim light therapy got in car accidents during the driving simulations. None of the people who slept at home crashed, and neither did any of the sleep-deprived people who got bright light therapy before getting behind the wheel, the study found. 

“We experience severe sleepiness toward the end of the night shift, and this may overlap with our commute time,” said senior study author Dr Ralph Mistlberger of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. 

“Sleep deprivation makes this worse of course, and together with the clock, this conspires to impair our ability to sustain attention to task [e.g., driving], and avoid distraction, and react quickly to external stimuli like traffic lights, brake lights in front of you, road signs, etc,” Mistlberger added by e-mail. 

“Bright light is alerting,” Mistlberger said. 

Sleepiness is a leading risk factor for automobile accidents because it can make drivers less vigilant, slow reaction times and dull cognitive abilities, researchers note in Sleep Medicine.

Shift workers with chronic sleep deprivation also face an increased risk of accidents. Strategies like drinking coffee or soda, napping before a drive or blasting music or rolling down the windows in the car may help increase alertness behind the wheel, but none of these strategies is fool-proof. 

For the current study, researchers wanted to see if bright light might help reduce driving impairments related to sleep deprivation. 

They found participants had lower body temperatures after spending a sleep-deprived night in the lab as well as longer reaction times and increased sleepiness. 

Exposure to bright light did not appear to improve reaction times or sleepiness. But light was associated with better driving. 

Beyond its small size, other limitations of the study include the reliance on lab conditions for sleep deprivation and light exposure, which may not match what shift workers would experience on the job, the authors note. 

“There is evidence that the use of bright light at the office [or even at home directly prior to beginning the work shift] may be beneficial in preventing sleep deprivation related motor vehicle collisions,” said Russell Griffin, a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who was not involved in the study. 

“That said, there is not enough evidence to date to fully suggest the use of bright light therapy to avoid collision,” Griffin added by email. 

The proven way to avoid the effects of sleepiness on the road is to consistently get enough sleep, said Dr Flaura Koplin Winston, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who was not involved in the study. 

“Drowsy driving is perhaps the most under-recognised cause of serious crashes and sadly, the evidence is not there on how to counter it,” Winston said by email. 

More research is needed on the potential of bright light therapy to make exhausted drivers safer, said Dr Donald Redelmeier, a researcher at the University of Toronto who was not involved in the study. 

But there are still things drivers can do now to stay safer on the road. 

“Safety strategies while driving can include minimising distractions, stopping at stop signs, respecting speed limits, yielding right of way, buckling a seatbelt, signalling all turns and not driving after drinking alcohol,” Redelmeier said.

For young adults who smoke, the risk of a major heart attack is eight times higher than for their peers who never smoked or who gave it up, a UK study found.

Older adults who smoke are also more likely than non-smokers their age to end up with heart attacks, researchers say.

Many people underestimate the health risks that come with smoking, said senior author Dr Ever Grech, of the South Yorkshire Cardiothoracic Centre at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield.

“Many patients seem aware there are some risks of a heart attack with smoking, but they were blissfully unaware that the risks were anything more than slightly higher than usual,” Grech told Reuters Health.

Smoking has been tied to an increased risk of cardiovascular problems since the 1950s, Grech and his colleagues write in the journal Heart. Smokers have heart attacks at younger ages, but no study has looked at the incidence of heart attacks among young smokers in a local population.

For the new study, the researchers used data collected between 2009 and 2012 on people over age 18 in South Yorkshire. The population included 1,727 individuals who were treated for STEMIs, which are major heart attacks caused by a blockage in one of the heart’s main arteries. About 49 per cent of the STEMI patients were current smokers, about 27 per cent were ex-smokers and about 24 per cent were never smokers.

Applying the results to the South Yorkshire population, the researchers calculated that in a group of 100,000 people, 60 smokers under age 50 would have a heart attack every year, compared to a combined total of 7 never-smokers and former smokers in that age group.

The difference is equal to about an eight-fold increase in risk for young smokers, compared to non-smokers.

Likewise, the researchers found about a fivefold increase in risk among smokers, ages 50 to 65 years, and about a threefold increase in risk among smokers over age 65 years, compared to their non-smoking peers.

Grech said the findings confirmed his observations from working in a cardiac catheterisation laboratory, where doctors open clogged arteries in patients with STEMIs.

“We can use this data to make people better aware of the risks and provide positive encouragement and assistance,” he said. 

The increased risk among smokers likely arises because smoking affects the plasticity of arteries and what happens inside them, said Dr Umesh Khot, who is vice chair of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

“The harms of smoking in terms of heart attacks of patients who smoke will happen a lot sooner than people think,” said Khot, who was not involved with the new study.

He said it is  never to late to quit smoking to reap some health benefits.

“For this type of heart attack known as STEMI, the risk drops off very fast,” he told Reuters.