www.mademan.com

George Clooney has had many ladies during his career, and most of his girlfriends are hotter than any woman you will ever touch. It’s okay, don’t be sad. After all, the man played Danny Ocean! No woman could resist a man who’s that smooth. Whether he was working soap operas, rescuing people in the emergency room, or running from the law, George Clooney has managed to snare hot girlfriend after hot girlfriend with the greatest of ease. Which one’s are the hottest of the hot, though? Check out this list, in no particular order, of the five George Clooney girlfriends who are too hot to handle.

Stacy Keibler. Keibler is a somewhat recent entrant in the George Clooney Hot Girlfriend Hall of Fame. Once a Baltimore Ravens cheerleader as well as a former WWE diva, Stacy’s best attributes are perhaps her ridiculously toned, tanned and luxurious long legs. If George stopped looking for a new woman, no one would blame him for sticking with Stacy.

Kelly Preston. Before she married John Travolta, Kelly Preston dated around Hollywood quite a bit. In the late 1980s she hooked up with the then soap opera heartthrob George Clooney. Why is she hotter than any woman you will ever touch? Because she is a Hawaiian-born fashion model, who later became an actress. And you can bet that her acting career wasn’t based on her acting talent (watch “Battlefield Earth” if you want proof). She still looks good now, even at 52. But in 1988, she was smoking.

Krista Allen. Do you remember the hot chick in the elevator with Jim Carrey in “Liar Liar”? Yeah, that’s Krista Allen. She and George met when they were cast together in the film “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” and they dated for almost two years after that. Allen has been featured on countless “hottest women in Hollywood” lists, and now she’s also on Clooney’s list of accomplishments. Allen serves as yet another example of why it’s good to be George Clooney.

Lisa Snowdon. This British model is off the charts—she could probably melt steel. She met Clooney on the set of a commercial, and he swept her off her feet—probably by using the unbeatable pick-up line “Hi, I’m George Clooney.” Snowdon is so hot that even other famous, rich, good-looking men will probably never touch her. Only Clooney could pull this one off.

Sarah Larson. She was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar when she met Clooney. It seems George took a break from scoring models left and right, and decided to pick up a waitress, just because he can. Sarah went on to sign a modeling contract after breaking up with Clooney, affirming her status as a girl hotter than any woman you will ever touch. Imagine that, she only had to date George Clooney, and now she’s a celebrity. No man has a pick-up line that good. “Hey, you should date me, there are career advancement opportunities if you do.”

For you mortal men, this list represents women that are essentially unattainable, and that’s why you should live vicariously through this man. Unless you’re able to channel the Cloon-sters charm, coolness, wealth and ability to get better looking the older you get, it may be the only way you can hope to get close to women this gorgeous. Don’t take it personally, it’s just Clooney being Clooney.

cnn.com

Ian Kerner, a sexuality counselor and New York Times best-selling author, blogs about sex on Thursdays on The Chart. Read more from him on his website, GoodInBed.

“If I hadn’t gotten divorced, I never would have had the top five sexual experiences of my life,” gushed Tom, a friend of a friend at a recent holiday party.

What a turnaround! In 2010, at the same party, Tom* had been in the midst of splitting up with his wife of 12 years and I was offering him the names of marriage counselors. Now he was bankrupt and only saw his kids every other week, but he was exuberant about the change to his sex life.

“I’d given up on sex and fooled myself into thinking that I wasn’t even a particularly sexual person,” he explained. “I didn’t want to be the sort of guy who cheated, so I resigned myself to lackluster sex every other week… if I was lucky. We were so young and inexperienced when we got married. Now, for the first time in my life, I feel like I’m approaching sex as a confident adult.”

Does sex get better after divorce? Unfortunately, there haven’t been any formal studies that explore levels of post-divorce sexual satisfaction, but intrigued by Tom’s exuberance, I spoke with a handful of recently divorced friends, colleagues, and former patients. To my surprise, I found that many echo Tom’s enthusiasm.

While divorce and its adjustments aren’t easy, many newly single people say they are seeing its silver lining … in sex.

Dr. Andy Trees, author of “A Scientific Guide to Successful Dating,” says Internet dating has really changed the game.

“Divorced people find it much easier to get back in the saddle so to speak,” Trees said. “I also think this is a classic case of the power of chemistry in the early months. Sex with someone new is always exciting in a way that sex with a familiar partner isn’t (which isn’t to say that long-term sexual intimacy doesn’t have pluses as well).”

“At first I was cautious,” said Sandra*, 38. “Our culture treats divorced people like babies or wounded birds. Everyone says things like ‘Take it slow, be careful, you’re still getting over a painful situation.’ And all this advice made me feel unsure of myself. But after my first post-divorce hookup – and first orgasm in years – I realized that this bird has wings and it’s time to soar!”

Says Dr. Kristen Mark, a sex researcher at Indiana University, “When sexual desires aren’t being met for a long period of time, you can feel really trapped, like the real you isn’t able to shine.”

Adds psychicatrist Gail Saltz, “Embedded in divorce sex is the knowledge that your partner has in essence rejected you, or at least let you go, and part of hot sex is the unconscious desire to show them what a mistake they made by not keeping you.”

Sometimes life after divorce can reinforce a person’s libido type or help them discover what they like and don’t like, as is the case with David*, 39, twice married and divorced: “It took me two marriages to realize that I like a lot of sexual excitement and experimentation, but I’m also a romantic. I believe in marriage and monogamy, but if and when I get married again … it’s going to be with a woman who enjoys the kinkier side of life.”

The enjoyment of sex after divorce may also have something to do with a sense of deserving a bit of hard-earned sexual selfishness.

Take Karen*, 38, who says, “I’d always heard that women experience their sexual prime later in life, but I never understood that. The more I was in my marriage and the older I got, the less sexual I felt. Then I got divorced and started having casual sex again. For the first time in a long time I was with men who were making an effort to pleasure me and discover what I liked, and I wasn’t shy or bashful about letting them know. I am having a sexual peak, but it’s not physical, it’s mental.”

With all the fun to be had, is there a downside? And are there any best practices for sex after divorce?

“Watch out for too much too soon,” says, Lance*, 42. “After my divorce, I was like a kid in a candy store. There were women everywhere. And a lot of them were willing to have sex. Suddenly, I was a womanizer.”

He continues, a bit remorseful: “Be honest with the person you’re with. What are you looking for from the sex? I don’t want to get married again, or be in a serious relationship right now, and I need to be clearer about that up front before having sex with someone.”

Remember, too, that just because you’re divorced doesn’t mean you’re necessarily wiser. “Practice safe sex,” says Mara*, 58. “My best friend and I both got divorced at the same time and were there for each other. We’re both well past the age of having kids. But I always use protection, and she doesn’t. I try to tell her that STDs are still a real possibility.”

Sex educator Amy Levine confirms that advice. “When ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’ a lack of sexual knowledge can put someone at risk for a range of STDs. For those that were married for quite a while, sex ed after divorce is imperative!”

And be cautious if you have children. “Don’t bring your fun home if there are kids in the house,” says Trish*. “I want to get married again, and I want my daughter to have a loving stepfather someday. But I’m going to make sure he’s really the one before I bring anyone home.”

There’s one thing everyone agrees on, in theory, if not always in practice: Avoid sex with your ex. Says Tom, who got this whole ball rolling, “I couldn’t believe it. Jackie* and I would be with our lawyers, fighting viciously about money or kids – and then we’d leave and go have hot crazy sex. It was really confusing. Why couldn’t it have been like that when we were married?”

*Names have been changed

Dieters in Weight Watchers study drop up to 15 pounds in a year

cnn.com

(Health.com) — Overweight and obese adults who followed the Weight Watchers program lost more than twice as much weight as those who received weight-loss advice from a doctor or nurse, according to a new yearlong study funded by the company.

The study, which was published Wednesday in the Lancet, included 772 men and women in Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom who were recruited during ordinary doctor’s appointments. The researchers randomly selected about half of the participants to receive a free 12-month Weight Watchers membership (including access to weekly meetings), and encouraged the other half to attend monthly one-on-one weight-management sessions at their doctor’s office.

The 61% of Weight Watchers users who stuck with the program for a full year lost 15 pounds, on average, compared with 7 pounds among the 54% of people in the other group who continued to visit their doctors each month. When the researchers included the people who dropped out of either program before the year was up, the average weight loss was lower but followed the same pattern: 11 pounds in the Weight Watchers group and 5 pounds in the other group.

Health.com: 25 ways to cut 500 calories a day

Michael Jensen, M.D., an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota, says it’s only natural that the weekly weigh-ins and “group spirit” of programs such as Weight Watchers would prove more effective than occasional guidance from a doctor or nurse, since research has shown that dieters are more likely to stick with weight-loss programs that stress accountability.

“It’s not terribly surprising that a group whose whole career is basically helping people with weight management would do a better job than a primary-care group that has a lot more responsibilities on top of that,” says Jensen, who was not involved in the study.

Similar studies of other commercial weight-loss systems, such as Jenny Craig and prepackaged food programs, have produced comparable results in the past. In a 2010 study funded by Jenny Craig and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, for instance, women who completed one year of the program lost about 20 pounds, three or four times more than women who received occasional advice from a nutritionist.

Health.com: 25 diet-busting foods you should never eat

Still, the authors of the new study say they were surprised by how dedicated the Weight Watchers participants were—they attended three meetings a month, on average—and by how much weight they actually lost.

“I don’t think we could have predicted that people randomly allocated to Weight Watchers by their doctor—rather than choosing to attend of their own accord, which would give a selected group of probably more motivated people—would lose significantly more weight,” says lead author Susan Jebb, Ph.D., a diet and population health researcher at the UK Medical Research Council, in Cambridge.

People may be more likely to stick with a program like Weight Watchers when they’re participating free of charge, however. The cost of Weight Watchers can run as high as $500 per year, a price tag that could sap the motivation of real-world dieters who are paying out of pocket. At the same time, Jensen says, it’s possible that some people paying out pocket might be less likely to drop the program because they’d feel obligated to get their money’s worth.

Health.com: Best superfoods for weight loss

The study participants had a body mass index (BMI) between 27 and 35 and at least one additional risk factor for obesity-related disease, such as excess belly fat or a family history of diabetes. (People with a BMI over 25 and 30 are considered overweight and obese, respectively. A 5-foot, 6-inch woman with a BMI of 27 weighs 167 pounds.)

People in the Weight Watchers group were three times more likely than the other participants to lose 10% or more of their initial body weight. And nearly two-thirds of the Weight Watchers users lost 5% or more of their body weight, versus one-third in the other group.

“Those really are medically very significant numbers,” Jensen says. “For overweight or obese people, that kind of loss results in pretty substantial improvements in health and disease risk—to the point where, if you’re on medication for blood pressure or cholesterol or diabetes and you can [lose] 10% of your weight, you’ve got at least a reasonable chance of decreasing or discontinuing that medication.”

Health.com: The 10 best foods for your heart

Jebb and her colleagues say that partnerships between primary care physicians and commercial weight-loss programs like Weight Watchers could be an effective and inexpensive way to treat certain people who struggle to maintain a healthy weight.

A cost-benefit analysis will be needed to determine whether doctors should recommend such programs to their patients more often, and which patients might benefit the most, Jebb says. But, she adds, the programs appear to be promising and may be more cost-effective than one-on-one doctor’s appointments, not to mention untreated obesity complications.

Although Weight Watchers sponsored the study, Jebb stresses that the company had no control over the design or results. “Our research contract included a clause to allow us the right to publish the data regardless of the outcome,” she says.

cnn.com

Keeping pounds off long-term is difficult for even the most successful dieter, and scientists may now be on the path to determining why.

A study published recently in The Journal of Clinical Investigation shows that high-fat foods cause damage to the hypothalamus – an area in the brain responsible for hunger, thirst and the body’s natural rhythms and cycles – in rodents.

“These are really important papers that begin to push the idea out that we’re not in control as much as we think we are,” says Dr. Steven R. Smith, co-director for the Sanford-Burnham Diabetes and Obesity Research Center, who wasn’t involved with the study.

However, Smith says researchers must first determine if the scarring happening in the rodent models will translate to the human condition. Not everything that scientists observe in rodents also applies to humans, of course, but it is a starting point.

“This is the tip of the spear. We’ve been talking a lot about diet and willpower and exercise and this sort of thing.  This is radically different [thinking] – that diets can actually re-program the structure of the brain.”

The human body is designed to regulate how much fuel is stored as fat through a process called energy homeostasis, the study’s lead author Dr. Michael Schwartz says. For a normal-weight person, that’s good.  But once a person becomes obese, his or her body seems to want to stay at that new weight permanently.

“That’s the biggest problem with obesity treatment,” says Schwartz, director of the Diabetes and Obesity Center of Excellence at the University of Washington. “Obese people can lose weight, but they have trouble keeping it off.”

Schwartz and his team found evidence of inflammation, or neuron injury, in rats and mice only three days after the rodents consumed foods high in fat.  Although the effect subsided temporarily, a long-term diet of unhealthy fare left permanent damage. Schwartz believes the brain’s attempt to heal the injured neurons results in gliosis, a process that leads to scarring in the central nervous system.

The researchers also found a 25% reduction in the number of POMC cells in the rodents on a high-fat diet. POMC cells play a critical role in the body’s fat control system, helping regulate appetite and prevent excess weight gain.

“Losing those cells would help explain why a new elevated level of body weight would occur,” Schwartz says.

Smith says that the study is the result of more than a decade of hard work from neuro-scientists around the world who are trying to understand the body’s weight loss system.

“It may be a little bit more complicated than how hard we try and what we food we eat,” Smith says. “I don’t know if that makes people feel better or worse, but it gets us out of the blame game.”

He believes this study represents a step in the right direction for obesity treatment.

“Let’s say we could get the wiring straight again and we could reverse some of this gliosis [scarring],” Smith says. “What if we could get the wires to work right again, and make it easier to lose weight? I think that’s really an exciting idea.”

Schwartz’s team analyzed human MRIs during their study, discovering higher levels of gliosis in obese patients. The findings suggest the structural damage occurring in the rodents’ brains may be duplicated in humans.

“Most wonder, ‘Why can’t I keep the weight off?’” Schwartz says. “Trying to come up with an explanation for it has been a challenge. This may be putting us on the path to understanding better why it’s so hard.”

www.yahoo.com

When it comes to choosing what to eat, I like to get a lot of nutritional bang for my buck, so to speak. The best deals? “Superfoods” that are far more plentiful in nutrients than they are in calories and that research has shown deliver health benefits. You’re probably already eating a lot of everyday superfoods-like bananas, eggs and broccoli-and maybe even some exotic ones (acai, anyone?).
Don’t Miss: 10 Everyday Superfoods That Should Be in Your Kitchen

But what about the power-packed foods filled with good-for-you vitamins, minerals and disease-fighting phytochemicals you aren’t eating? Rather than rattling off a laundry list of every fiber-rich, antioxidant-packed, vitamin-saturated food I can imagine, I’m going to focus on 7 of the healthiest foods that I, and probably many of you, have mostly missed the boat on eating, especially on a regular basis.

1. Kale
On top of delivering a raft of cancer-fighting antioxidants, kale is one of the vegetable world’s top sources of vitamin A, which promotes eye and skin health and may help strengthen the immune system. It’s a good source of heart-healthy fiber and a 1-cup serving has almost as much vitamin C as an orange. What’s not to love? Add more of these hearty winter vegetables to your diet to help you lose weight.

2. Sardines
Sardines are one of the best sources of heart-healthy, mood-boosting omega-3 fats, and they’re packed with vitamin D. And because sardines are small and low on the food chain, they don’t harbor lots of toxins as bigger fish can. Find out 6 of the healthiest fish to eat and 6 to avoid.

3. Pomegranate
This vibrant fruit is chock-full of antioxidants, natural chemicals found in plants that mop up harmful free radicals, which damage tissues and may contribute to a variety of chronic conditions, such as heart disease, Alzheimer’s and cancer. Don’t have time to prepare the fruit? You can get many of the same benefits from drinking a glass of pomegranate juice! Don’t pass up an opportunity to enjoy the fruit itself, however-the tart, jelly-like taste is unique and wonderful. A 1-cup serving of juice has 150 calories and 1/2 cup of pomegranate seeds has only 72 calories and 4 grams of fiber!

4. Oatmeal
Oatmeal has 4 grams of fiber per cup and research suggests that increasing your intake of soluble fiber (a type found in oatmeal) by 5 to 10 grams each day could result in a 5 percent drop in “bad” LDL cholesterol. Also, according to a study in the Journal of Nutrition, eating a breakfast made with “slow-release” carbohydrates, such as oatmeal, three hours before you exercise may help you burn more fat. Here’s why: in the study, eating “slow-release” carbohydrates didn’t spike blood sugar as high as eating refined carbohydrates, such as white toast. In turn, insulin levels didn’t spike as high, and because insulin plays a role in signaling your body to store fat, having lower levels may help you burn fat.
Don’t Miss: 3 Essential Ingredients of a Healthy Breakfast

5. Quinoa
Quinoa is a delicately flavored whole grain packed with fiber and protein and, to top it off, it only takes 15 to 20 minutes to cook. That combination of fiber and protein has an extra value too: research shows that the two together can help you feel full for longer.

6. Kefir
Think yogurt in a glass. This drinkable fermented dairy beverage is packed with beneficial probiotics that may help give your immune system a little extra edge, plus 29 percent of your daily value of calcium per 8-ounce serving. Look for it in your supermarket’s dairy section; choose plain for less sugar and fewer calories or fresh fruit flavors, such as peach and raspberry, for extra taste.

7. Lentils
Lentils are a versatile, budget-friendly and healthy addition to many dinner recipes. A half-cup of cooked lentils contains over 9 grams of protein and a jaw-dropping 8 grams of dietary fiber. Lentils are also a good source of iron and an excellent source of folate.

Cancer survivors have higher risk of melanoma

cnn.com

Doctors have long known that people who survive one melanoma have a markedly higher risk of developing another of these aggressive skin cancers. Now, for the first time, a study has found that survivors of non-skin cancers also may have an increased risk of melanoma.

The risk was most pronounced among survivors of breast cancer, prostate cancer, lymphoma, and leukemia. Women who developed breast cancer before age 45 and recovered, for instance, were 38% more likely than women in the general population to develop melanoma later in life.

Excessive exposure to UV radiation from sunlight (or tanning lamps) is the biggest risk factor for melanoma. The apparent link between melanoma and other cancers, however, may be explained in part by an underlying genetic susceptibility to multiple types of cancer, the researchers say.

People who have had a non-melanoma cancer should be especially vigilant about avoiding sun damage and checking their skin for moles, says senior author Jeremy S. Bordeaux, M.D., director of the melanoma program at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland.

Health.com: Is it a mole…or skin cancer?

“If they notice a new dark spot or a changing dark spot, they need to have that looked at by a dermatologist,” Bordeaux says. And if they haven’t already, he says, cancer survivors may want to see a dermatologist to get a baseline checkup. (Melanoma survivors should already have a set schedule with their skin doctor.)

Using a nationwide registry maintained by the National Cancer Institute, Bordeaux and his colleagues analyzed data from 70,819 people whose first cancer was melanoma and 6,353 who received a melanoma diagnosis after a previous cancer. Their findings appear this week in the Archives of Dermatology.

Health.com: Six cancer-fighting superfoods

As expected, melanoma survivors were up to 12 times more likely than people in the U.S. population as a whole to receive a melanoma diagnosis (a second one, in their case).

The melanoma risk associated with several other cancers was much lower, yet still notable. Compared to the general population, prostate-cancer survivors had a 58% higher risk and lymphoma survivors had a 79% higher risk if they received their first cancer diagnosis before age 45.

Across the board, younger cancer survivors were more likely than people initially diagnosed after age 45 to develop melanoma down the road, perhaps because cancers that develop early in life are more likely to have a genetic basis, the study notes.

Health.com: Sun-proof your skin from A to Z

In the older age group, the risk of melanoma was elevated by 40% among survivors of thyroid cancer, 34% among lymphoma survivors, and 79% among leukemia survivors. Women who’d had breast cancer had a 12% higher risk.

Melanoma risk was just 8% higher in men who’d had prostate cancer after age 45, but that’s not negligible because so many men will develop the cancer during their lifetime, Bordeaux says. “Even though the risk was kind of small, the incidence [of prostate cancer] is so high it would affect a lot of people.”

The warning signs of melanoma include moles or dark spots larger than a pencil eraser and spots that are asymmetrical or unevenly colored. Regardless of their cancer history, people are at increased risk of melanoma if they have fair skin or a lot of moles, or if they’ve spent a lot of time in the sun.

“If melanoma is caught early, it’s 100% curable,” Bordeaux says. “But once it’s more advanced and spreads to other parts of body, it’s one of – if not the – most aggressive cancers and can be very, very fatal.”

Soaring BPA Levels Found in People Who Eat Canned Foods

By Karen Rowan | LiveScience.com

Eating canned food every day may raise the levels of the compound bisphenol A (BPA) in a person’s urine more than previously suspected, a new study suggests.

People who ate a serving of canned soup every day for five days had BPA levels of 20.8 micrograms per liter of urine, whereas people who instead ate fresh soup had levels of 1.1 micrograms per liter, according to the study. BPA is found in many canned foods — it is a byproduct of the chemicals used to prevent corrosion.

When the researchers looked at the rise in BPA levels seen in the average participant who ate canned soup compared with those who ate fresh soup, they found a 1,221 percent jump.

“To see an increase in this magnitude was quite surprising,” said study leader Karin Michels, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The levels of BPA seen in the study participants “are among the most extreme reported in a nonoccupational setting,” the researchers wrote in their study. In the general population, levels have been found to be around 1 to 2 micrograms per liter, Michels said.

The study noted that levels higher than 13 micrograms per liter were found in only the top 5 percent of participants in the National Health and Examination Survey, which is an ongoing study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We are concerned about the influence of [hormone-disrupting] chemicals on health in general, and BPA is one of them,” Michels told MyHealthNewsDaily.

The study is published online today (Nov. 22) in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Soup for lunch

The study included 75 people, whose average age was 27. One group of participants ate 12 ounces of fresh soup every day at lunchtime, while the other ate the same amount of canned soup each day. Urine samples were collected from the participants on the fourth and fifth days of the study.

BPA was detected in 77 percent of people who ate the fresh soup, and all of the people who ate the canned soup, according to the study.

Only a few studies had previously looked at BPA levels from eating canned foods, and those relied on asking people how much of the food they usually eat comes from cans, Michels said. The new study was the first in which researchers randomized participants to eat a small serving of canned food or fresh food, and measured the resulting difference in their urine BPA levels, she said.

“We’ve known for a while that drinking beverages that have been stored in certain hard plastics can increase the amount of BPA in your body. This study suggests that canned foods may be an even greater concern, especially given their wide use,” said study researcher Jenny Carwile, a doctoral student at Harvard.

BPA and health

A 2008 study of 1,455 people showed that higher urinary BPA levels were linked with higher risks of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and abnormal concentrations of certain liver enzymes, even after factors such as age, body mass index and smoking were taken into account.

And other studies have linked BPA levels in a woman’s urine during her pregnancy to health problems in her child.

It is not known how long the levels of BPA might remain high, according to the study. However, it is also not known whether such a spike, even if it isn’t sustained for very long, may affect health, the researchers wrote.

The study was limited in that all of the participants were students or staff at one school, and a single soup brand (Progresso) was tested, but the researchers wrote that they expected the results to apply to canned foods with a similar BPA content.

“Reducing canned food consumption may be a good idea, especially for people consuming foods from cans regularly,” Michels said. “Maybe manufacturers can take the step of taking BPA out of the lining of cans — some have already done this, but only a few.”

The study was funded by the Allen Foundation, which advocates nutrition research.

Pass it on: Cutting down on the amount of canned food you eat might be a good idea, researchers say.

This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. Find us on Facebook.

It’s 11/11/11, the lottery’s lucky day

By Jessica Dickler

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — As the economy continues to struggle, more people are betting on a dollar and a dream — and thanks to Friday’s lucky date, Nov. 11, 2011, or 11/11/11, ticket sales are booming.

All those ones in a row are very attractive for lottery players, since that set of numbers won’t roll around again for another 100 years. But good luck trying to buy a ticket full of ones at this late date.

To ensure every winner gets paid, the lotteries cap sales of certain number combinations. In New York, for example, the Win4, which caps sales on any one number combination at $5 million, already sold out of 1-1-1-1 tickets for the Nov. 11 drawing a week ago, according to Carolyn Hapeman, spokeswoman for the New York Lottery.

Dale Garrison of Kansas City, Mo. played on 9-9-09 and didn’t win. He doesn’t think he’ll have much more luck on 11-11-11 either, but he still bought a ticket anyway.

“There are a large number of people who sit on the sidelines and wait to jump in when they see a big jackpot or for dates like this,” said David Just, associate professor of economics at Cornell. “You might see a 5% to 10% bump [in sales],” he said — similar to the one on July 7, 2007.

You won the lottery! Now what?

But sales have been in record territory long before Friday, and lotteries can thank the economy for that.

Persistently high unemployment, declining home values and diminished retirement accounts have all helped the lottery prosper.

Lottery sales rose in 28 out of 44 states during the last fiscal year, according to financial records compiled by LaFleurs, a research firm that specializes in lotteries. Nineteen states notched record highs.

The New York Lottery, for example, recorded record revenue of $7.87 billion in fiscal 2011, which ended in March. Minnesota’s State lottery set its fourth consecutive record in a row in fiscal 2011, raking in $504 million in sales.

Bad times cause desperation and the desperate turn to lotteries in an effort to escape financial hardship, according to a 2004 study by Cornell University.

“Lottery sales are up and that has a lot to do with the high level of unemployment and high level of under-employment,” Just said, who is also a co-author of the study called “Hitting the Jackpot or Hitting the Skids.”

As more people fall below the poverty line, many adopt a negative long-term view of their finances and start playing the lottery, Just said.

“They think the only way to change their status is to buy a lottery ticket and cross their fingers.”

A separate study by Carnegie-Mellon University found that low-income people put a larger percentage of their incomes toward lottery tickets than more affluent Americans.

“Some poor people see playing the lottery as their best opportunity for improving their financial situations,” said Emily Haisley, lead author of the study.

And don’t expect that to change any time soon, Just said. It will take a lot more than a positive employment report or rebound in home prices to make Americans feel hopeful again.

“It has to be that people begin to believe that they will be ok,” Just said. “If that sort of change happens, we will see lottery sales returning to what they were before.”

10 Dishwasher Dos and Don’ts

By Sarah B. Weir, Yahoo

The dishwasher is the source of more family debates than any other appliance-maybe because it truly is an equal opportunity machine: Everybody in the house over the age of four can load one. WithThanksgiving’s teetering stacks of dishes just around the corner, we thought now was a good time to speak with experts Lucinda Ottusch, senior home economist at the Whirlpool Institute of Kitchen Science, and Beth Robinson, senior manager of brand experience atKitchenAid, to set things straight. Feel free to distribute to your in-laws.

Related link: The secret to cleaning pots and pans

1. Don’t pre-rinse your dishes before loading.
Pre-rinsing can waste up to 20 gallons of water and cause your machine to clean less effectively. Today’s detergents are designed to attack food particles, so if dishes are rinsed clean, the detergent may abrade glassware instead. Just scrape dishes of food scraps instead of rinsing.

2. Do load systematically according to manufacturer’s instructions.
In general, the most effective way to load the washer is with plates in the bottom rack facing in toward the sprayer unit, glasses along the sides of the top rack, and flatware in the utensil basket. Nesting dishes or flatware to pack in more will not allow spray to clean them fully.

3. Do use a rinse aid.
Rinse aid helps water to sheet off dishes, leaving fewer water spots and allowing them to dry more quickly.

4. Don’t use too much detergent.
Too much soap can scratch glassware. Ottusch recommends all-in-one tabs. They clean more effectively than regular detergent and counteract the effects of hard water.

5. Do wash with the lightest cycle possible.
If your last load contained dishes from a big spaghetti dinner complete with pots and pans, remember to reset the controls back to normal after the heavy-wash cycle. You’ll save water and electricity.

6. Do check for clogged components.
If you dishes aren’t coming out as clean as usual, the dishwasher filter might need to be cleaned or there may be food particles in the nozzles of the spray arms.

7. Don’t run unless full.
Running a half-empty dishwasher is a waste of electricity and water. However, some newer models have a “top rack wash only” option that improves the efficiency of smaller loads.

8. Don’t block the rotating spray arm.
The spray arm is located in the center of the base of the machine. Items such as pot handles and long utensils can impede its function. You can manually spin to check before running the dishwasher. Also, make sure larger items such as cutting boards or cookie sheets aren’t blocking the detergent dispenser.

9. Don’t wash wood, leaded crystal, antique china, or cast iron.
Wooden items can discolor and warp in a dishwasher. Some types of leaded crystal will etch with repeated washings. Hand-painted glaze may fade and gold leaf/gilt can discolor and fade. Cast iron may rust. When in doubt about a particular item, check with the manufacturer.

10. Do use the dishwasher instead of hand washing.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, using an Energy Star qualified dishwasher instead of hand washing saves you nearly 5,000 gallons of water a year.

Brain scan study finds evidence of “chemo brain”

By Julie Steenhuysen

(Reuters) – Women who survive breast cancer after undergoing chemotherapy may also have to contend with impairments in attention, memory and planning skills, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

They said women who had undergone chemotherapy for breast cancer had significantly less activity in parts of the brain responsible for executive functioning tasks compared with breast cancer patients who were not treated with chemotherapy.

Among those treated with chemotherapy, the study also found a strong correlation between women who complained they were having trouble with memory and thinking skills and actual deficits in these regions of the brain.

The study may help explain why many breast cancer patients complain of “chemo brain” — a term used to describe foggy thinking and memory lapses following treatment with chemotherapy.

“This is a huge validation for these women who are telling their doctors ‘something is wrong with me’,” said Shelli Kesler of Stanford University School of Medicine in California, whose study appears in the Archives of Neurology.

Kesler said the conventional thinking is that chemotherapy drugs cannot cross a protective membrane called the blood-brain barrier that protects the brain from toxins.

And doctors have dismissed women’s complaints of brain deficits after chemotherapy, chalking them up to exaggeration and stress related to the cancer.

“This shows that when a patient reports she’s struggling with these types of problems, there’s a good chance there has been a brain change,” Kesler said.

Her study involved 25 breast cancer patients who had been treated with chemotherapy, 19 breast cancer patients who had surgery and other treatments, and 18 healthy women.

All were asked to perform a card-sorting task that involves problem-solving skills while their brain activity was monitored through functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI.

The women also completed questionnaires to assess their own cognitive abilities.

As in prior studies of cancer patients, the team saw significant reductions in activity in two parts of the prefrontal cortex, including one used for working memory, cognitive control and monitoring.

But they also found significantly reduced activation of an additional region of the prefrontal cortex linked with executive function — the area of the brain needed for planning.

Women in the chemotherapy group were also found to make more errors on the card-sorting task and take longer to complete it than healthy women and cancer patients who were not treated with chemotherapy.

While a finding in 25 women seems small, Kesler said it is large for a brain scan study and points to a need to start identifying which women who undergo chemotherapy are most vulnerable to these types of deficits.

She said future studies should be done in which women are tested before they undergo chemotherapy to determine the impact of treatment on brain function.

Women are increasingly surviving their breast cancer, with breast cancer survivors comprising 22 percent of the nearly 12 million cancer survivors in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

SOURCE: bit.ly/u6nGpK Archives of Neurology, November 2011