Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/299079
By Seth Borenstein The Associated Press WASHINGTON » A quick candy bar may stave off more than hunger. It could prevent major fights be - tween husbands and wives, at least if a new study that used voodoo dolls is right. That's because low blood sugar can make spouses touchy, researchers pro - pose. In fact, it can make them "hangry," a combination of hungry and angry, said Ohio State University psy - chology researcher Brad Bushman. "We need glucose for self-control," said Bush - man, lead author of the study, which was released Monday in the Proceed- ings of the National Acad- emy of Sciences. "Anger is the emotion that most peo- ple have difficulty control- ling." The researchers stud- ied 107 married couples for three weeks. Each night, they measured their lev- els of the blood sugar glu- cose and asked each par- ticipant to stick pins in a voodoo doll representing his or her spouse. That in- dicated levels of aggressive feelings. The researchers found that the lower the blood sugar levels, the more pins were pushed into the doll. In fact, people with the lowest scores pushed in twice as many pins as those with the highest blood sugar levels, the research - ers said. The study also found that the spouses were gen- erally not angry at each other. About 70 percent of the time, people didn't put any pins in the doll, said study co-author Richard Pond Jr. at the University of North Carolina at Wilm - ington. The average for the whole study was a bit more than one pin a night per person. Three people put all 51 pins in at one time — and one person did that twice — Pond said. Bushman said there's a good physical reason to link eating to emotion: The brain, which is only 2 per - cent of the body weight, consumes 20 percent of our calories. The researchers said eating a candy bar might be a good idea if spouses are about to discuss some - thing touchy, but that fruits and vegetables are a bet- ter long-term strategy for keeping blood sugar lev- els up. Outside experts gave the study, funded by the Na- tional Science Foundation, mixed reviews. C h r i s B e e d i e , who teaches psycholog y at the Aberystwyth Univer - sity in the United King- dom, said he thought the study's method was flawed and that his own work dis- agrees with Bushman's conclusions. The better way to test Bushman's concept is to give people high glucose on some occasions and low glucose on others, and see if that makes a difference in actual acts of aggres - sion, he said. Beedie said it might be a big leap to interpret the re- sults with voodoo dolls as indicating risk for actual physical aggression against a spouse. The study procedure also raised another prob - lem. Bushman had to han- dle a call from his credit ca rd compa ny, wh ich wanted to make sure it was really he who had spent $5,000 to buy more than 200 voodoo dolls. STudIeS Snack might help avoid fight with spouse By Sinan Salaheddin The Associated Press BAGHdAd » Across parts of Iraq, medical teams in white coats and gloves again roam the streets giving children polio vaccines and mark - ing the walls of their homes, fighting a resurgent virus once more taking advantage of the country's turmoil. The World Health Orga - nization declared Iraq po- lio free in 1990, just before Saddam Hussein launched his invasion of Kuwait. The virus returned and health officials' efforts saw the last case reported in 2000 — until a 6-month-old boy contracted it in March in a north Baghdad neigh - borhood. With the disease back in neighboring Syria, en- gulfed in a civil war, Iraq's outbreak is a worrying re- minder of the close links be- tween the violence-plagued neighbors and the chal- lenges facing Iraq's weak- ened public-health sector 11 years after the U.S.-led in- vasion that toppled Hussein "As if we are living our life with no problems to have now this polio issue," said a fuming Mustafa Salim, a police officer and father of two recently vac - cinated children in Baghdad's eastern neighborhood of Sadr City. "Now, I have another thing to be obsessed with in addi - tion to my safety and my kid's future in this country. "With the continuing fighting in Syria and polit - ical wrangling and deterio- rated security situation in- side Iraq, I'm afraid more diseases will attack us along with the daily bombings." Polio remains endemic in three countries around the world — Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan — but it spreads in unsanitary conditions often exacerbated by warfare. It is highly infectious and usu - ally strikes children under 5. The disease attacks the cen- tral nervous system, and can cause paralysis, muscular at- rophy, deformation and, in some cases, death. In Iraq, international agencies helped the country administer vaccines pur - chased under the United Nations' oil-for-food pro- gram in the 1990s, fighting back a new outbreak of the disease then. After the 2003 invasion, health officials again began vaccinations, but often found themselves blocked from en - tering neighborhoods over raging sectarian fighting. Now that fighting has be- gun again in Iraq, which last year saw its highest death toll since the worst of such killings in 2007, according to the U.N. That's coupled with an influx of Syrians fleeing the civil war. Laboratory testing showed that the vi - rus detected in Iraq's new polio case closely resembles the virus found in Syria, ac- cording to the WHO. UNICEF, the U.N.'s chil- dren agency, says that polio has paralyzed at least 18 chil- dren in Syria's Deir el Zour province, located along the border with Iraq. Iraq's Health Ministry, backed by UNICEF and the WHO, launched a new round of polio immunizations this week, trying to reach all 5.6 million children 5 years old and younger across the country. Authorities also have sponsored a radio and tele - vision ad campaign, as well as sent text messages warn- ing about the danger of the disease. "Up to now, our reports indicate that there is a good turnout," Health Ministry spokesman Ziad Tariq said. "We are not expecting to cover all the children, but at least 80 percent, which is good." Teams also are working to reach children in Anbar province, where militants from the al-Qaida break - away group called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and other Sunni groups hold parts of the provincial cap - ital, Ramadi, and nearly all of the nearby city of Fallu- jah. Tariq declined to elab- orate. Gopinath Durairajan, an official with UNICEF's polio team in Iraq, said most of the children in Anbar province could not be vaccinated due to the unrest. "Anbar is going to be an issue for us," Durairajan said, adding that more vac - cination rounds may be orga- nized with the Health Min- istry. VAccINe Iraq scrambles to fight polio surge amid conflict OhiO State UniverSity — the aSSOciated PreSS a study released april 14 in the Proceedings of the national academy of Sciences found that people with the lowest glucose scores at bedtime pushed in twice as many pins in a voodoo doll representing their spouse as those with the highest blood sugar levels. Online: Journal: http://www.pnas.org. Khalid MOhaMMed — the aSSOciated PreSS dr. aruba hamed, right, gives 6-month old Jumana Baqir a polio vaccine at a health center in Baghdad, iraq. dania ahmed, 4, receives a polio vaccine at a health center in Baghdad, iraq on april 10. 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