Fun facts about a good night's sleep after cramming for an exam, taking grapefruit juice with cholesterol-lowering drugs and how alcoholics are susceptible to making poor decisions.
By
PT Staff, published on December 31, 1969 - last reviewed on January 28, 2005
Learn While You Sleep
Students really should get a good night's sleep after cramming for an exam. Sleep consolidates memories, say researchers who measured the brain activity of sleepers who had just learned a new skill. What you learn while you're awake, the researchers hypothesize, is altered, restructured, and strengthened during sleep.
Not All Juices are Created Equal
Taking grapefruit juice with popular cholesterol-lowering drugs such as Zocor and Lipitor can increase the risk of potentially life-threatening muscle toxicity, according to British regulators. Grapefruit juice contains a chemical that inhibits metabolism of certain drugs, leading to excessively high levels of medicine in the blood.
Staying the Course
Perhaps from the effects of long-term drinking, alcoholics are susceptible to making poor decisions; they choose short-term rewards without heeding long-term consequences. But encouragingly, new research shows they can compensate for this weakness and resist falling back into drinking.
3.5
The number of years by which life expectancy worldwide has been reduced because of obesity, according to demographer Jay Olshansky, of the University of Illinois in Chicago.
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