Small Business Saturday Exceeds Expectations

Small businesses across the country got their holiday season off to a strong start as millions of U.S. consumers “shopped small” on Small Business Saturday and made a big impact on local communities.

According to the second installment of the Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey, released today by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and American Express, consumer awareness of Small Business Saturday jumped to 67 percent from 34 percent just two weeks ago. Of those aware, nearly half (47%) shopped on Small Business Saturday.

The increased awareness translated into higher spending. Those U.S. consumers who were aware of Small Business Saturday spent on a total of $5.5 billion with independent merchants. Pre-holiday surveys estimated that U.S. consumers would spend $5.3 billion.

“In an uncertain economy, America’s small businesses have remained a beacon—creating good jobs and supporting the families they employ and the communities around them,” said NFIB CEO Dan Danner. “We are very pleased that so many Americans sought to give back by shopping small this Small Business Saturday. We hope that support of small firms, retailers, restaurants and other independent businesses continues throughout the holiday season and all year round. Continued support of this vital sector is one important way to ensure our economy fully recovers and a healthy private sector is restored.”

WHO Stresses Importance of Salt, Trans Fat Reductions

In an effort to achieve a 25% reduction in mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes, the World Health Organization (WHO) presented a new global monitoring draft framework outlining the importance of reducing salt and trans fats in the diet.

Presenting at an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
meeting in Paris, WHO Nutrition Director Francesco Branca reducing saturated fat (SAFA) intake, increasing fruit and vegetable consumption and preventing a further rise in obesity and overweight were important measures. The nutrient targets set by the WHO remain as before—salt intake should be limited to no more than 5 g per day; industrially produced trans fats should be replaced by polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA); and the intake of saturated fats should be reduced to less than 10% of caloric intake. To halt the rise in obesity and overweight, WHO has mentioned reducing the marketing of foods high in saturated fats, trans fats, free sugars or salt to children. The WHO draft framework will be submitted for adoption by the World Health Assembly in 2013.

Coffee Helps Drinkers See the Bright Side

commonly guzzle a cup of joe to perk up, it turns out caffeine can do more than simply wake people. Researchers found that caffeine helps the brain process positive words faster.

Caffeine indirectly boosts dopamine transmission—a neurotransmitter that aids in reward-based learning—and Lars Kuchinke, a junior professor at Germany's Ruhr University, suspected this might lead to better acumen with word recognition by enhancing activity in the brain’s left hemisphere, which controls language. Researchers already know that people who consume normal levels of caffeine perform better at basic cognitive tasks.

To discern whether a link existed between dopamine and word recognition, Kuchinke asked 66 people to participate in a word test. Thirty minutes prior to the study, half of the participants took a pill, containing about 200 milligrams of caffeine, which equals two or three cups of coffee. The other half ingested a placebo. Then the participants watched a string of letters pop up on a computer screen and quickly had to decide whether each was an actual word or not. Researchers have long known that most people have a natural tendency to recognize positive words faster than neutral or negative words.

“Either positive words are better interconnected in the brain and it is, therefore, easier to recognize them or [the brain] receive[s] some kind of 'positive' or rewarding feedback during this process,” says Kuchinke. He also theorizes that negative words might cause the brain to pause, balking at the negative association, meaning a person would not identify it as quickly.

The caffeinated subjects correctly selected more positive words than the people in the control group. Kuchinke theorizes that when caffeine is added to the body it regulates the dopamine transmission in the regions that control decision-making and word comprehension.

“Caffeine may either strengthen connections to regions where positive information and positive feedback are processed so this information is more easily available during the process of word recognition,” he explains. “Or caffeine may simply facilitate the decision process.”

He believes that caffeine specifically impacts the striatum in the basal ganglia, which helps us process positive words and make decisions. But his findings also indicate that dopamine aids in language comprehension.

 

Vitamin D Protects Women Against MS

Pregnant women and women in general who have high levels of vitamin D in their blood have a 61% lower risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS), compared to those who have low levels of vitamin D in their blood, according to a new study published in the journal Neurology.

Researchers at Umeå University reviewed information about 291,500 blood samples from 164,000 people collected since 1975 in the northern half of Sweden. Of those, 192 people developed MS an average of nine years after their blood sample was drawn, and there were 37 blood samples drawn during pregnancy from mothers whose children went on to develop MS later in life.

They found women who had high levels of vitamin D in their blood had a 61% lower risk of developing MS, compared to those who had low levels of vitamin D in their blood. Overall, few people had high levels of vitamin D. Only seven of the 192 people who developed MS, or 4%, had high vitamin D levels, compared to 30 of 384 controls without the disease, or 8%. No association was found between the mother’s vitamin D level and whether her child would later develop MS.

“In our study, pregnant women and women in general had a lower risk for MS with higher levels of the vitamin, as expected. However, a mother’s levels of vitamin D during early pregnancy did not have an effect on MS risk for her baby," the researchers said. “Since we found no protective effect on the baby for women with higher levels of vitamin D in early pregnancy, our study suggests the protective effect may start in later pregnancy and beyond."

The researchers also said the vitamin D levels became gradually lower with time from 1975 and onward. It is possible that this decline in vitamin D status is linked to the increasing numbers of MS cases seen worldwide.

An earlier study conducted at the University of California, San Francisco found low vitamin D blood levels were associated with a significantly higher risk of relapse attacks in patients with MS who develop the disease during childhood.