Medical Bulletin 29/June/2023

Here are the top medical news for the day:

Morning coffee's effects may be placebo, study suggests

Coffee is often thought to make you feel more alert, so people drink it to wake themselves up and improve their efficiency. Portuguese scientists studied coffee drinkers to understand whether the wakefulness effect is dependent on the properties of caffeine, or whether it’s about the experience of drinking coffee.

The scientists recruited people who drank at least one cup of coffee daily and asked them to refrain from eating or drinking caffeinated beverages for at least three hours before the study. They interviewed the participants to collect sociodemographic data and then did two brief functional MRI scans: one before and one 30 minutes after either taking caffeine or drinking a standardized cup of coffee. During the functional MRI scans, the participants were asked to relax and let their minds wander.

Reference: Coffee consumption decreases the connectivity of the posterior DMN at rest, Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, DOI 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1176382 

Vaping is linked to smoking initiation in non-smokers. Finds research

While vaping provides a pathway to help smokers wanting to quit, for non-smokers it may be the first step on a pathway to taking up smoking, a new study has shown.

Led by the University of Otago postgraduate student Andre Mason and Associate Professor Damian Scarf, of the University of Otago’s Department of Psychology, the collaborative research analyzed data related to the smoking and vaping status of New Zealanders from the 2018-2020 New Zealand Attitudes and Values survey.

Associate Professor Scarf says broadly, the prevalence of smoking was found to be decreasing over time, while the prevalence of vaping was increasing. No differences were observed in the likelihood of transition from smoking to vaping or vice versa, indicating that either pathway was equally as likely.

Reference: Effects of vaping on uptake and cessation of smoking: Longitudinal analysis in Aotearoa New Zealand adults, Drug and Alcohol Review, DOI 10.1111/dar.13702 

Early childhood reading linked to improved cognitive performance and mental well-being in adolescence

Children who begin reading for pleasure early in life tend to perform better at cognitive tests and have better mental health when they enter adolescence, a study of more than 10,000 young adolescents in the US has found.

The researchers in the UK and China found that 12 hours a week was the optimal amount of reading and that this was linked to improved brain structure, which may help explain the findings. During childhood and adolescence, our brains develop, making this an important time in which to establish behaviors that support our cognitive development and promote good brain health.

The team analyzed a wide range of data including clinical interviews, cognitive tests, mental and behavioral assessments, and brain scans, comparing young people who began reading for pleasure at a relatively early age (between two and nine years old) against those who began doing so later or not at all. The analyses controlled for many important factors, including socioeconomic status.

Reference: Early-Initiated Childhood Reading for Pleasure: Associations with Better Cognitive Performance, Mental Well-being, and Brain Structure in Young Adolescence, Psychological Medicine, DOI 10.1017/S0033291723001381