Teens’ good wheeze

HARVARD scientists have found another reason why we should use every ruse possible to cram fruit into teens: low intake sends their asthma rates spiralling.

Amid reports this week that a government scheme to give free fruit to English schoolchildren is having negligible effects, Jane Burns, a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, says her study of 2,112 teenagers shows that those whose diets are low in vitamin C are much more likely to suffer from weak lungs, asthma and wheezing.

Burns says her research indicates that, for teenagers to develop robustly healthy lungs, they may need to consume more than the American Government’s recommended daily dose of 85mg. The recommended daily amount of vitamin C in Britain is 60mg.

Her report, in the journal Chest, says that consuming oily fish is also crucial for keeping teenagers’ lungs strong. Even eating only moderately small amounts of fish rich in vitamin D and omega3 has a significant protective effect, she says, although her study shows that fish is particularly unpopular with teens.

The vitamins in fruit and fish most probably protect cells lining the airways from damage by free radicals, Burns says, while omega3 fatty acids seem to work by counteracting inflammation in the lungs.

New men? No, women love burly bastards

METROSEXUAL males, prepare to weep into your skinny lattes: what women want most is a bodybuilding, domineering serial seducer – especially for a quickie, says new research.

Behavioural researchers at the University of California report that their study of 99 male undergraduates found that those who were more muscular than average were twice as likely to have had more than three sex partners, and twice as likely to have had one-night stands or brief flings with women.

The Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin study claims it is the first to quantify an association between men’s masculinity and their success in getting women into bed.

Weightlifting strength also seems to equate to moral weakness: above-averagely muscular men were twice as likely as their lissome counterparts to have slept with someone else’s girlfriend.

The study also seems to support the Sylvia Plath hypothesis: “Every woman adores a fascist.” When the psychologists showed 141 young women six silhouettes of men ranging from brawny to slender, they consistently identified the muscular ones as less likely to commit and domineering. But they also fancied them most for a quickie: the women were most likely to report that their short-term partners were more muscular than long-term ones.

Drug double

A COMMONLY used malaria drug may help to cut diabetes significantly, says a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Hydroxychloroquine is used to treat malaria, but also given to people with rheumatism, as it alleviates raised levels of cholesterol caused by chronic inflammation. Now scientists at Pittsburgh University say they have found that people with both rheumatism and diabetes who have been taking the drug long-term can see their diabetes symptoms plummet by up to 77 per cent.

Further trials are needed to confirm the drug’s effect in nonrheumatics.

Hearty herpes

THE HERPES virus may help heart patients who have had balloons inserted into their arteries to open up blockages. One problem with the surgery is that it can cause scars in the arteries, which thicken and cause new blockages. But Chicago University scientists report that injecting genetically modified herpes viruses kills the scarring response.

Ageing is no joke

IT’S NOT the age of the joke that determines whether it’s funny – it’s the age of the person being told it, say scientists at Washington University, who tested a series of cartoons on 40 people.

They report that older people may find jokes less funny because their brains are no longer up to the task of comprehending humour, which requires cognitive flexibility, abstract reasoning and memory.

The psychologists report, in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, that in multiple-choice tests, undergraduates are 14 per cent more likely to correctly select the right punchline for a cartoon than someone aged over 65. Earlier research among stroke patients shows that people with damage to their brain’s right frontal lobe lose their sense of humour.

God’s bad books

HERE’S a head-scratcher for atheists: a man selling religious texts door-to-door in Florida was this week taken to hospital after being struck by lightning out of a clear blue sky. Hailu Kidane Marian was selling the texts to raise cash for his Christian community. The group’s leader, Francisco Perez, says: “It’s difficult what happened, but what can we do? Things happen in life, but we still believe in God.” Perhaps God prefers to read Richard Dawkins.

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