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Social stress, gut bacteria. Exposure to psychological stress in the form of social conflict alters gut bacteria. It has long been said that humans have "gut feelings" about things, but how the gut might communicate those "feelings" to the brain was not known. It has been shown that gut microbiota, the complex community of microorganisms that live in the digestive tracts of humans and other animals, can send signals to the brain and vice versa. Georgia State University

Older obese adults can benefit from moderate exercise. Moderate-intensity exercise can help even extremely obese older adults improve their ability to perform common daily activities and remain independent. Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Obesity

Learning styles - the notion that people can be categorized into one or more 'styles' of learning (e.g., Visual, Auditory, Converger) and that teachers can and should tailor their curriculum to suit individual students. The idea is that students will learn more if they are exposed to material through approaches that specifically match their Learning Style. But in recent years, many academicians have criticized Learning Styles saying there is no evidence it improves student understanding. A new study reveals while most higher education faculty believe Learning Styles is an important approach for teaching, they don't actually use the pedagogical tool because it is fundamentally flawed. A far better focus for education research would be to promote those evidence-based techniques that survey participants indicated they actually use and that are demonstrably effective.
Swansea University Medical School. Frontiers in Psychology

Even when help is just a click away, stigma is still a roadblock: Stigma is a major barrier preventing people with mental health issues from getting the help they need. Even in a private and anonymous setting online, someone with greater self-stigma is less likely to take that first step to get information about mental health concerns and counseling. "It's not just the fear of seeing a counselor or therapist," Daniel Lannin said. "It's actually when people are sitting at home or on their phone. That stigma prevents them from even learning more information about depression or about counseling." "A lot of people with higher levels of stigma won't even entertain the possibility of a stigma intervention because they see the intervention as going to therapy to be more open to therapy," Lannin said. "It's like telling someone who doesn't like vegetables to eat some broccoli to get over it." Iowa State University. Journal of Counseling Psychology

Mortality and blood pressure directly linked to relationship quality - While other studies have shown that stress and negative marital quality can influence mortality and blood pressure, there has not been research that discussed how it might affect married couples over time. Using systolic blood pressure as a gauge, researchers assessed whether an individual's blood pressure is influenced by their own as well as their partner's reports of chronic stress and whether there are gender differences in these patterns. The findings support previous research that asserts stress and relationship quality have both direct and moderating effects on the cardiovascular system. This research also indicates that it is important to consider the couple as a whole rather than the individual when examining marriage and health. Most importantly, this study revealed that wives' stress has important implications for husbands' blood pressure, particularly in more negative relationships. Specifically looking at the effects of negative relationship quality, researchers found that effects weren't recognized when examining individuals but there were when examining interactions between both members of couple. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B®: Psychological Sciences

How depressive thoughts persevere, interfere with memory in people with depression - Intrusive, enduring, depressive thoughts are an ever-present part of daily life for people with depression. A study shows that depressive thoughts are maintained for longer periods of time for people with depressed mood, and this extended duration may reduce the amount of information that these individuals can hold in their memory. The findings have far-reaching implications for understanding how depression damages memory, as well as how depression develops and persists over the course of an individual's lifetime. "Interventions such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy are quite successful in empowering depressed people to recognize and better regulate the content of their thoughts," said Dr. Bart Rypma. "Our goal is to continue to study how such therapeutic approaches can alter the depressed brain and how these alterations might result in better memory and outcomes for persons with depression." Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas. Journal of Affective Disorders

Broccoli sprout extract protects against oral cancer in mice and proved tolerable in a small group of healthy human volunteers. "People who are cured of head and neck cancer are still at very high risk for a second cancer in their mouth or throat, and, unfortunately, these second cancers are commonly fatal," said lead author Julie Bauman, M.D., M.P.H., co-director of the UPMC Head and Neck Cancer Center of Excellence. "So we're developing a safe, natural molecule found in cruciferous vegetables to protect the oral lining where these cancers form." Previous studies, including large-scale trials in China, have shown that cruciferous vegetables that have a high concentration of sulforaphane - such as broccoli, cabbage and garden cress - help mitigate the effects of environmental carcinogens. "The clear benefit of sulforaphane in preventing oral cancer in mice raises hope that this well-tolerated compound also may act to prevent oral cancer in humans who face chronic exposure to environmental pollutants and carcinogens," said Dr. Johnson. Dr. Bauman collaborated with Daniel E. Johnson, Ph.D., professor of medicine at Pitt and a senior scientist in the UPCI Head and Neck Cancer Program. University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. UPMC CancerCenter.