Short course

In a study published this year,researchers examined professional musicians recruited from four classical orchestras. Their jobs often require multiple concerts each week,hours of practice and,in some cases,teaching others. Extensive tests analyzing factors that included blood cholesterol as well as noise exposure,the scientists found hearing loss among the musicians no worse than among the general population.

They did find a greater risk of hearing loss among musicians with the greatest exposure to higher-frequency noise (above three kilohertz) and a greater prevalence of tinnitus,or ringing in the ears,among musicians in general.

In another study published in Psychology and Aging,scientists gave hearing tests to 74 musicians and 89 nonmusicians.

The musicians showed far less age-related decline in certain aspects of hearing,among them the ability to discern frequencies,hear conversation against a noisy background and hear tones as they get quieter. While chronic exposure to any loud noise can cause hearing damage,musicians may have better hearing than people in the general population.

Active legs at night indicate heart problems

Men who jerked and flexed their legs involuntarily at night were more likely to develop cardiovascular disease in a new study of sleep and chronic disease in the 65-and-up crowd. During a one-night sleep assessment,more than two-thirds of men had the involuntary movements,which usually occur in the foot or at the ankle or hip joint,and most of them woke up during the night because of it.

Those men had a higher risk of a combination of heart and blood vessel conditions,including heart attack,stroke and blocked or ruptured arteries. Although those events happened over a few years after researchers measured nighttime leg movements,the study isnt proof that overactive limbs caused the heart problems,researchers said.

Still,people have to keep an open mind into some other possible risk factors for these things, said Dr Brian Koo,the studys lead author from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland. For the current study,Koo and his colleagues gave single-night tests to close to 3,000 men age 65 and older.

They found that 70 per cent of the sleepers had those leg movements at least five times per hour while they slept and at least 60 per cent woke up without knowing it at least once an hour.

Over the next four to five years,500 of the men had a new case of heart disease,or a stroke or artery condition,the researchers report in Circulation.

Exercise may help teens quit smoking

Encouraging teenage smokers not only to quit,but to get physically active,may boost their odds of truly managing to kick the habit,a study said. Some research in adults has suggested that exercise may help smokers quit,perhaps by easing withdrawal symptoms or taking the edge off cigarette cravings. The study,reported in the journal Pediatrics,looked at the effects of adding exercise advice to a teen-focused smoking cessation program. Not on Tobacco (NOT) is the American Lung Associations quit program geared specifically for high school students. Its available in public schools across the United States,and studies have found that the average quit rate is about 21 percent.

In the state of West Virginia,where the study was done,smoking rates are high,while exercise rates are low,said lead researcher Kimberly Horn,of the West Virginia University School of Medicine in Morgantown.