Friday 22 August 2014

23, August 2014

Alcohol use in movies influence drinking

Exposure to alcohol use in movies can encourage drinking in young people, a significant research shows. Moreover, exposure to alcohol portrayals in advertisements and digital media such as Facebook can also attract young adults towards drinking.

According to researchers, since movie characters can be regarded as role models by young people, the manner in which these characters portray alcohol use might have an impact on the beliefs and attitudes toward alcohol use by youngsters themselves.

"Viewers are often not aware of alcohol portrayals in movies. Product placement is more subtle than general ads, occurring when a company pays movie makers to portray its brand in a movie," explained Renske Koordeman from Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

Alcohol use is widespread in contemporary movies, often portrayed positively or even glamourised. The study found that positive and negative portrayals of alcohol can contribute to viewers' emotional involvement (called 'transportation') and attitude towards evaluating the movie.

"In my understanding, alcohol portrayals are depicted in the majority of movies, 80 to 95 per cent, and that they are mostly framed or portrayed in a positive manner," remarked Marloes Kleinjan, an assistant professor of developmental psychopathology at Radboud University Nijmegen.

During the study, Koordeman exposed participants to eight different movie clips containing alcohol (positive or negative context), or no alcohol portrayals.

"This study provides initial evidence that alcohol and the way in which alcohol is portrayed in movies contributes to how people evaluate and become transported in movies," Koordeman noted. Participants were more transported into movie clips with negative alcohol portrayals compared to clips with positive alcohol portrayals.

"Stronger effects of negative events over positive events are found in various aspect of life," said Koordeman. For example in social network patterns, in learning processes and in interpersonal interactions.

"This process might also be extended to movies," Koordeman said in a paper, to be published in the
 Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research journal.


23.08.2014



High-intensity exercise safe for heart patients

High-intensity exercise can help stable heart transplant patients reach higher levels of exercise capacity and gain better control of their blood pressure than moderate intensity exercise, a study indicates.

Researchers compared the effects of 12 weeks of high-intensity interval training versus continued moderate training in 16 stable heart transplant recipients who had been living with their new heart for more than one year.

The findings revealed that high-intensity interval training is safe in heart transplant patients and the effect on exercise capacity and blood pressure control is superior to moderate intensity training.

"Our study documents that stable heart transplant recipients benefit from this type of training more than from the moderate training that has been recommended so far," claimed Christian Dall from Bispebjerg Hospital at University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Importantly, the training is also safe and well received by patients, he added.

The impaired heart rate response has been considered a hindrance for more demanding high-intensity training.

In the study, researchers found that VO2 max, or maximal oxygen uptake, increased by 17 percent in patients performing high-intensity interval training compared with 10 percent in patients performing continued moderate training.

Systolic blood pressure decreased significantly in patients in the high-intensity group, while it remained unchanged in patients in the moderate intensity group.

Peak heart rate also increased in the high-intensity group but not in the moderate intensity group. Heart rate recovery improved in both groups.

The study appeared in the
 American Journal of Transplantation.



23.08.2014








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