Medical Bulletin 27/January/2022

Here are the top medical news for the day:

Running to escape everyday stresses may eventually cause exercise dependence instead of mental wellbeing: Study

A study published in Frontiers in Psychology investigated whether the concept of escapism can help us understand the relationship between running, wellbeing, and exercise dependence.

Escapism can restore perspective, or it can act as a distraction from problems that need to be tackled. Escapism which is adaptive, seeking out positive experiences, is referred to as self-expansion. Meanwhile maladaptive escapism, avoiding negative experiences, is called self-suppression. Effectively, running as exploration or as evasion.

Reference:

Dr Frode Stenseng, Running to Get "Lost"? Two Types of Escapism in Recreational Running and Their Relations to Exercise Dependence and Subjective Well-Being, Frontiers in Psychology, doi10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1035196

40-year follow up shows significant reduction in mortality after bariatric surgery: Study

A new retrospective study with up to 40 years of follow up shows significant reductions in death rates from all causes and cause-specific conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer in patients who have undergone bariatric surgery compared to non-surgical participants with severe obesity, according to a new study in Obesity journal.

Patients who had undergone bariatric surgery in Utah between 1982 and 2018 were identified from three, large bariatric surgical practices in Salt Lake City, Utah, and from medical records from the University of Utah and Intermountain Healthcare Enterprise Data Warehouses in Salt Lake City. Non-surgical participants were selected from Utah driver license records or ID cards.

Reference:

Ted D. Adams et al,JOURNAL Obesity

Artificial skin more sensitive than natural skin developed

Investigators have developed an artificial skin that is even more sensitive than human skin in its ability to detect pressure applied by an object as well as its approach.

In research published in the journal Small, scientists used the dual-responsive artificial skin for a variety of applications, including manipulation of virtual game characters, navigation of electronic maps, and scrolling through electronic documents. Distinct signals could be detected by the artificial skin upon different approaching targets, making it feasible for touchless object identification.

Reference:

Yifan Wang et al,A Dual-Responsive Artificial Skin for Tactile and Touchless Interfaces,Small,doi 10.1002/smll.202206830