Music May Help calm Premature Babies

Hospital units where premature babies are treated have taken to playing music in the belief that it may help them heal more quickly and feel more comfortable. Now a new study finds some evidence that it may work.
Writing online in Archives of Disease in Childhood,researchers said it appeared that music might reduce the level of pain the babies experience. It may also help them make the transition to feeding by mouth,the study said.
The researchers,from the University of Alberta in Canada,based their conclusions on a review of nine studies that looked at babies’ heart and breathing rates,oxygen levels and how much pain they appeared to be in. Some also looked at whether music seemed to calm babies during painful procedures like heel pricks to draw blood.

MENOPAUSE TEMPORARILY SLOWS THE BRAIN
Many women entering menopause say their brains do not seem to work as well as they used to. A new study suggests that they may be right,but it also appears the lapses are temporary. Researchers studied more than 2,300 women,ages 42 to 52,over four years.
Some women in the study,which appears in Neurology,were still menstruating regularly. Others had completed menopause,and the remainder were in perimenopause — that is,they were still having some periods but their bodies were experiencing changes as they neared menopause.
The women were given a series of tests to determine cognitive skills. When it came to processing speed,all the women,except those in the late perimenopausal stage,improved their scores when they took the test repeatedly. The researchers made similar findings with the tests for verbal memory.
The differences between the women were less a matter of some scoring worse than others,but more of some failing to improve as much as others over time. And women with lower scores as they entered menopause did better after it.
—The New York Times