A. Laughter And The
Grieving Process
Narrator: This is Science Today. Laughter
may seem inconceivable during a time of bereavement,
but according to a new study, people who can laugh
in the months following the death of a spouse, do
better than those who show anger. Psychology professor
Dacher (DACK-er) Keltner of the University of California,
Berkeley says these findings fly in the face of
what psychological literature tells us.
Keltner: There's this common assumption
which we call the grief work hypothesis which is
that in order to respond adaptively to the death
of a spouse, you have to work through and process
your negative emotion, the pain and the distress
of the death and in particular, the anger.
Narrator: Instead, Keltner found people
who were positive - long considered a sign of denial
or poor grief functioning - actually did better
in the long run.
Keltner: People who showed smiles of pleasure
and also laughter as they talked about their deceased
spouse six months after the death, actually were
doing better one year later and then two years as
well, both in terms of their reduced grief severity
and also their physical health.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
B. Estrogen's Role
As An Anti-Depressant
Narrator: This is Science Today. Researchers
working with post-menopausal women who were depressed,
found those taking estrogen replacement therapy
responded more to anti-depressant medication than
those who were not taking the hormone. Dr. Gary
Small, director of UCLA's Center on Aging, says
these findings suggest estrogen somehow prepares
the brain to respond to medication.
Small: We don't know exactly what estrogen
is doing when it augments anti-depressant response
but we do know that it has a lot of different effects
on the brain and one of the likely effects to be
implicated with depression is it's effect on serotonin
function.
Narrator: And depression in large part,
Small says, is a state of serotonin deficiency.
Small: And if estrogen modulates that effect,
it's possible that adequate estrogen in the brain
is needed in order to have an adequate anti-depressant
effect.
Narrator: These findings are also consistent
with other studies suggesting estrogen by itself
has an anti-depressant response. For Science Today,
I'm Larissa Branin.
C. Seeing Things In
A Different Light
Narrator: This is Science Today. Researchers
at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are
working to improve endoscopic surgery. Physicist
Lee Haddad says often times, these procedures are
marred by lots of glare.
Haddad: If you look at any of the tapes
of these procedures, you see lots of saturated spots
in the image and glare and even streaking sometimes.
That really impedes the ability of the surgeon to
see what they're doing.
Narrator: Haddad and his colleague Robert
Van Vorhis are working with advanced optical and
digital imaging to improve visualization in endoscopic
surgery.
Haddad: The first optical solution that
we're trying to apply is you can think of it almost
like sunglasses for your endoscope. About 80 percent
of the problem is in lighting. How you illuminate
the subject and so, that's basically the area that
we're addressing.
Narrator: Haddad says they'll also address
cost effectiveness.
Haddad: That's one of the reasons we're
excited about this, because we have a chance to
make a big difference without huge cost increase.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
D. Removing Wisdom
Teeth: Fact & Fiction
Narrator: This is Science Today. The removal
of wisdom teeth is a common procedure, yet it's
one which fills many with dread. Dr. Alan Felsenfeld,
an oral and maxillofacial surgeon at UCLA's School
of Dentistry, says that's because there are lots
of misconceptions about the amount of pain involved.
Felsenfeld: I would be not telling the truth
if I didn't say it hurts once in a while. For the
most part these fears are overplayed based on what
your friends have told you. The pain involved with
the procedure, certainly during the procedure is
usually minimized by good local anesthetic sedation,
general anesthetics, all the different tools we
have in our hands to make the procedure comfortable
for you.
Narrator: Other predicting factors of pain
depend on the level of impaction.
Felsenfeld: Some people have very easy wisdom
teeth to remove, some people have more difficult
wisdom teeth to remove and of course, the more work
that has to be done to remove them, the more pain
you might expect afterwards.
Narrator: Still, Felsenfeld says even that
pain can be greatly reduced by post-operative medications.
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E. What Young Women
Should Know About Osteoporosis
Narrator: This is Science Today. Contrary
to popular belief, young women in their twenties
can suffer from osteoporosis, a debilitating loss
of bone mass often associated with older women.
Dr. Aurelia Nattiv a professor of orthopedic surgery
at UCLA, says several factors put young women at
risk.
Nattiv: If a female has a history of loss
of menstrual periods longer than three months and
if they have a history of disordered eating patterns,
or they exercise excessively or have a low percentage
of body fat.
Narrator: Nattiv says it's important young
women at risk have a bone density test - and since
osteoporosis is a silent disease, the sooner the
better.
Nattiv: A lot of people feel that if they
have osteoporosis, that they would have bone pain
or that they would have obvious symptoms and that's
definitely not true. If a person is not aware of
the risk factors, then the majority of those patients
are going to be missed, because there aren't any
symptoms until the end stage, until a fracture occurs.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
