Better Life Through Science
Stay Active, Stay Trim
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Children who milk cows and tote firewood aren’t as likely to be obese as those who watch TV, play video games, and use computers.
That’s what UT’s Dr. David Bassett concluded after studying a rural, Old Order Amish community and comparing his findings to children in modern, industrialized society.
“This community provides a glimpse at what may be possible if physical activity were not engineered out of so many daily tasks,” said the UT professor of exercise, sport, and leisure studies. He says it would be “impractical” to mimic the Amish lifestyle, but increased physical activity could mitigate some of the health problems caused by sedentary habits.
Approximately 25 percent of American children are overweight versus 7 percent of Amish children. Physical activity levels are significantly higher among Amish youth.
The study was published in Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise, the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.
Study Targets Depression
Clinical depression affects up to 40 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer, but it's a topic that scientists have not yet examined in depth.
With a grant from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, a UT professor is doing a groundbreaking study into how best to treat well diagnosed depression in breast cancer patients.
Derek Hopko, associate professor of psychology, said this is “a critical area to examine that has thus far largely been neglected. He will look at a traditional method of treating depression and at a technique he helped design.
His method helps patients identify their values related to family, peer and intimate relationships, hobbies and recreation, employment, and spirituality. Psychologists then work with patients to facilitate participation in behaviors that will move them towards their individual values and goals.
Hopko said his choice to study breast cancer wasn’t for purely scientific reasons. "Having a mother who was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer was a strong motivating factor," he said.
Warming Affects Life in Northern Waters
Things are changing in the North Bering Sea. That’s the simplistic synopsis of Dr. Jackie Gremeier’s in-depth research of Earth’s warming north polar region.
Grebmeier recently talked to Public Radio International’s “Earth and Sky” and said her studies show over the past decade, ice in the waters between Alaska and Siberia has retreated earlier in spring and refrozen later in fall. The UT professor says populations of animals are shifting further north as a result and that animal communities will shrink as their food chains are altered.
Grebmeier, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, is lead author of a study of the North Bering Sea. She’s been studying the area for 20 years.