Health and Fitness for Thursday January 13, 2011

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Dog knows more than 1,000 words SPARTANBURG, S.C. (UPI) -- A border collie, a breed sometimes referred to as the Phi Beta Kappa of dogs, knows the name of more than 1,000 objects, U.S. researchers say. John Pilley and Alliston Reid of Wofford College demonstrated their dog, Chaser, learned the names of 1,022 objects in the three years of the study. They stopped training after three years due to their time constraints, not because the dog could not learn more names. The dog appears to have no upper limit, the researchers say. Chaser's ability to learn and remember more than 1,000 proper nouns reveals clear evidence of several capacities necessary for learning receptive human language: the ability to discriminate between 1,022 different sounds representing names of objects, the ability to discriminate many objects visually, an extensive vocabulary and a substantial memory, the researchers say. "This research demonstrates that dogs, like children, can develop extensive vocabularies and understand that certain words represent individual objects and other words represent categories of objects, independent in meaning of what one is asked to do with those objects," the study authors say in a statement. The findings are published in the journal Behavioural Processes. Copyright 2011 by United Press International
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Infections decline in private ICU rooms MONTREAL (UPI) -- Hospital-acquired infections declined after intensive care unit rooms were converted to private rooms, researchers in Canada found. Dana Y. Teltsch, a doctoral candidate at McGill University in Montreal and colleagues compared the rates of patient-acquired infections before and after a change from multibed rooms to single, private rooms. For the control group, patients who were admitted to a similar multibed facility at a second university hospital were used as a comparison hospital. The researchers compared infection rates for a total of 19,343 intensive care unit admissions at both hospitals from 2000 to 2005. The study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that in the private rooms, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus decreased by 47 percent, the rate of Clostridium difficile acquisition decreased 43 percent and yeast acquisition decreased 51 percent. The average length of stay for patients in the multiroom intensive care unit increased steadily during the study, while the average length of stay in the private rooms fluctuated, but did not increase overall and the average length of stay in the private rooms dropped by 10 percent. "Conversion to single rooms can substantially reduce the rate at which patients acquire infectious organisms while in intensive care," the study authors say in a statement. Copyright 2011 by United Press International
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U.S. diabetes doubled from 1996 to 2007 WASHINGTON (UPI) -- About 19 million U.S. adults reported receiving diabetes treatment in 2007, more than double the 9 million who received care in 1996, health officials say. The report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, found that from 1996 to 2007, people age 65 and older treated for diabetes increased from 4.3 million to 8 million; for people ages 45-64, the increase was 3.6 million to 8.9 million; and for those ages 18-44, the increase went from 1.2 million to 2.4 million. The cost of diabetes treatment paid by all sources more than doubled, from $18.5 billion in 1996 (in 2007 dollars) to $41 billion in 2007. Outpatient care costs doubled from about $5 billion to roughly $10 billion, the report said. Total prescription drug costs nearly increased fourfold, from $4 billion to $19 billion over the 11-year period from 1996 to 2007. Per patient, the cost of prescription medicines more than doubled, rising from $495 a year in 1996 to $1,048 in 2007, the report said. Copyright 2011 by United Press International
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Weight-loss surgery has urinary benefits MELBOURNE (UPI) -- Australian researchers say weight-loss surgery improved female urinary problems but erection issues in men got worse following weight-loss surgery. Study leader Dr. Weranja Ranasinghe of Austin Hospital in Melbourne found women who underwent gastric band surgery to lose weight reported significant improvements in urinary function and quality of life after the operation. However, the study, published in the Journal of the British Association of Urological Surgeons, found men undergoing the same weight-loss surgery did not have similar urinary function improvements and erectile function was considered slightly worse after surgery. The researchers noted that other studies reported patients with non-surgical weight loss, experience improved sexual function. "We were keen to see what effect weight loss surgery had had on the patients' sexual and urinary functions, as these are common problems in people who are very obese," Ranasinghe says in a statement. "Just under two-thirds of the women -- 65 percent -- and 24 percent of the men had some urinary incontinence, while 83 percent had erection problems before surgery." Ranasinghe and colleagues surveyed 176 patients -- 142 women and 34 men -- who had undergone laparoscopic gastric banding surgery at a single center in Newcastle, Australia. Copyright 2011 by United Press International
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