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NEW YORK ? Chennel King, a nurse from Norwalk, Conn., went Christmas shopping the other day with a new holiday companion: a budget.

Despite a tough economic situation ? her husband was laid off almost a year ago ? King didn’t want to disappoint her five children. So she still went to a mall in suburban New Jersey, but with a limit of $200 per child.

Plenty of Americans are having to hold back this year as the lure of flashy ads, tempting bargains and family expectations clashes with the realities of the economy. Experts in consumer behavior say that situation can strain the brain.

Scientists say we are to some extent wired for shopping. It seems to tap into circuits that originally spurred our ancestors to go out looking for food, says Brian Knutson, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Stanford University.

“We are built to forage, just like rats, just like dogs,” Knutson said. So we have brain circuitry that “compels us to go out there … to get good stuff, even if we don’t know what that good stuff is.”

Brain scanning in his lab shows deep brain circuitry called the nucleus accumbens goes to work when people are considering products and prices. When brain cells in that area release a chemical called dopamine, people are motivated to take action, he said.

So the very prospect of shopping ? maybe brought on by ads and other marketing tools ? may arouse that circuitry and put us in a mood to hit the stores, and then to keep on shopping, he said. “You feel good… It’s exciting,” Knutson said.

Other circuitry reacts to excessively high prices and dampens the enthusiasm to buy, he said. The competing signals ? buy and don’t-buy ? are passed to the front of the brain, in the prefrontal cortex, where a decision about whether to purchase something is apparently made, he said.

But how does that decision get made when money is tight? Knutson said he hasn’t studied that question. But he notes that yet another area of the brain, called the cingulate cortex, responds to conflicts like wanting to buy something that costs too much. So maybe it pitches in when a shopper feels restrained by a budget.

King, the recent mall shopper, isn’t sure how much she spent last year but it was a lot, with new bedroom sets, a camera for one daughter, a camcorder for one son, and four PlayStations. This year, she turned down the requests of her oldest two for an iPad. But she didn’t consider cutting out Christmas totally. And she’s mindful to buy the same number of presents for each kid.

“You only live once,” King said. “If it’s something my kids really want, I try to get it at the lowest possible price.”

From what experts recommend about holding down spending, King was smart to set a budget ahead of time, but she probably made her task tougher by going to a mall.

When you’re surrounded by attractive goods and crowds of people buying them, “natural human desires can trigger off intense cravings” to buy, says George Loewenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. “Not spending when you’re tempted to spend is exhausting and miserable,” like not eating when you’re hungry, he says.

Trying to apply will power “should be your last resort,” he said. Much better is to stay away from the mall in the first place, “and it will be much easier to exert self-control.”

It might be preferable to shop on the Internet so you’re not surrounded by buyers, although the convenience of online shopping holds its own temptations, he said.

If you do go to a mall, commit yourself beforehand to a hard limit on spending, Loewenstein recommends. “Generally, people tend to be a lot more tempted when there is some kind of uncertainty about whether you’re going to get whatever it is you’re tempted by,” he said.

A definite budget removes that uncertainty when a shopper spots something extra, and so it’s easier for the brain to say no, he said.

But how to make that budget limit stick? “The last thing you want to do is spend with a card, especially a credit card, or even a debit card,” he said. “It doesn’t feel like spending.”

Much better to count out some cash and put it in an envelope. When the cash is gone, you’re done shopping. Even before then, the act of forking out cash introduces “the pain of paying,” which can make a shopper more rational and less vulnerable to impulse purchases, he said.

To Kathleen Vohs, an associate marketing professor at the University of Minnesota, Christmas shopping on tight money is “a classic dilemma between Wants and Shoulds,” between enjoying something now or holding back for a payoff later. If you don’t give in now, “your wallet will be fatter” later, she says.

Her tips for exerting self-control: Shop alone. Carry a list of things you want to buy, so you don’t get drained psychologically by having to make a lot of choices in stores. And if you’re trying to hold down spending, ease up on other demands for self-control like dieting.

“If you’re trying to watch your waist and you’re trying to watch your wallet … it’s probably not a good recipe at being successful at both of those,” she said.

In fact, willpower to resist overspending can get depleted over hours of shopping as people face temptations, so that self-control and wise decision-making gradually break down, says psychologist Roy F. Baumeister of Florida State University.

When it gets depleted, people will pay more money for the same products and buy more things on impulse that they don’t really need, said Baumeister, co-author of the new book, “Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength.”

Like Vohs, he recommends trying to limit the number of decisions or demands on self-control you face. And if that’s not possible over the course of a shopping day, he said, “try not to make expensive decisions at the end.”

But what do you do when you’ve decided to buy a $1,000 TV, but then you see another model for $1,500 that has more features? If you buy the less expensive one, won’t you miss what you passed up for just $500 more?

That’s the time to ask yourself, “What else could I do with that $500?” says Michael I. Norton of Harvard Business School. “It really changes your mindset.”

If you think about using the money to vacation in Florida or invest in a college fund, “that can help you avoid buying more expensive things,” he said.

One more tip to hold down Christmas spending comes from King, the mall shopper.

Her gift list included her niece and goddaughter, but no grown-ups.

“The adults,” she said, “they have to wait till their birthdays.”

___

AP business writer Christina Rexrode reported from Elizabeth, N.J. Follow AP retail coverage at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Retail.

Follow Ritter at http://www.twitter.com/malcolmritter.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111218/ap_on_sc/sci_christmas_shopping_psychology

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(dailyRx)

One of the most exciting frontiers in oncology is discovering molecular behavior that responds to existing drug therapies. Just such a discovery has been made regarding a deadly form of brain cancer.

Researchers have found that glioblastoma, one of the most lethal forms of brain cancer, needs large amounts of cholesterol to survive and grow. This finding opens the door to testing if cholesterol-lowering agents could be used to treat this cancer.

Early results show that cholesterol meds may treat brain cancer.

Investigators have uncovered that a cancer-causing gene known as EGFR VIII increases production of cholesterol.?Lead investigator, Paul Mischel, M.D., professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, says this is not surprising given the fact that cholesterol is crucial in making new membranes – something fast growing tumors need in abundance.

This study, which involved glioblastoma cell lines, mouse models and clinical samples taken from patients, adds to the growing body of work focusing on cutting off the supplies tumors need to grow.

Among the candidates that hold promise is a class of drugs known as vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors, which block blood supply to the tumor. Avastin (bevacizumab) was named in the study.

Dr. Mischel concludes that if this laboratory study can be confirmed in larger studies, cholesterol-lowering medications may become a glioblastoma treatment option.

This study was published study published in Cancer Discovery, the newest journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Brain Tumors

Each year in the United States, over 25,000 people will be newly diagnosed with some form of primary malignant brain tumor, and over 90,000 people are currently living with the disease and undergoing treatment. Approximately 13,000 of these patients will die from the disease, representing 2% of all cancer deaths.

Brain tumors encompass a wide variety of types of cancer, some more aggressive than others. They include:

• Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) ? A deadly tumor forming in the white matter of the brain. Makes up 52% of all cerebral tumors and most common in white and Asian men over age 50. It is very difficult to treat and average survival after diagnosis is 14 months.
• Astrocytoma ? a tumor that forms from the glial cells in the brain (support cells for neurons). These can be benign or malignant (GBM is a form of astrocytoma) and appear in young children as well.
• Oligodendroglioma ? arise from the oligodendrocytes (insulating cells for axoms). They appear mostly in adults around age 35 and represent about 10% of all primary brain tumors and tend to recur after treatment.
• Ependymoma ? arises from tissues in the brain that surround the drainage system of the brain. They represent about 5% of adult brain tumors, and 10% of pediatric brain tumors, peaking at age 35 and earlier at age 5. Often they end up causing hydrocephalus, or ?water on the brain.”

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Brain tumors are caused by a change in genetics, much like any other cancer that causes cells to grow out of control. Some brain tumors are associated with specific chromosomal changes, but in most cases, the cause of a brain tumor is unknown, and due to some combination of genetic instability and environmental damage.

Symptoms of a brain tumor depend mainly on the size of the tumor and where it is located in the brain. Because the brain is housed in the skull, a growing tumor will cause something called mass effect, where the enlarging tumor is taking up too much space and cause increased pressure in the brain. This can cause terrible headaches, nausea, vomiting, and changes in consciousness among other specific signs. In other cases, the growing tumor may encroach upon a part of the brain that has a specific function, and cause that function to cease. Depending on what part of the brain the tumor is in, language, motor coordination, vision, balance, and paralysis can occur. In both cases, a brain tumor can present immediately or after several years of growing.

Diagnosis of a brain tumor will ultimately be made by CT scan and MRI. Treatment of brain tumors involves surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, or some combination of the three. Each modality presents its own risks and benefits. Surgery is sometimes not possible because of risk to damage of vital brain structures necessary for life.

Prognosis for a brain tumor is entirely dependent on the type of tumor and its location. Some tumors grow very fast and are inoperable due to the cell type and location, and these patients have a poor prognosis. Other brain tumors can be lived with for years, or quickly and easily treated with surgery.

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Source: http://www.dailyrx.com/news-article/glioblastoma-may-be-treated-endothelial-growth-factor-inhibitors-15291.html

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