'BINGO!' game helps researchers study perception deficits

'BINGO!' game helps researchers study perception deficits: Bingo, a popular activity in nursing homes, senior centers and assisted-living facilities, has benefits that extend well beyond socializing. Researchers found high-contrast, large bingo cards boost thinking and playing skills for people with cognitive difficulties and visual perception problems produced by Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

Blogging may help teens dealing with social distress

Blogging may help teens dealing with social distress: Blogging may have psychological benefits for teens suffering from social anxiety, improving their self-esteem and helping them relate better to their friends, according to new research.

Exercise is good for your waistline -- but it's a writing exercise

Exercise is good for your waistline -- but it's a writing exercise: Is losing weight as simple as doing a 15-minute writing exercise? In a new study, women who wrote about their most important values, like close relationships, music, or religion, lost more weight over the next few months than women who did not have that experience.

The cost of disabilities could reach 77.2% of household income

The cost of disabilities could reach 77.2% of household income: Researchers have for the first time estimated the cost and impact of disabilities on the finances of disabled people. According to data, 90% of the population with a serious disability in Spain is in a state of moderate poverty and 56% lives in a state of extreme poverty.

Older, cheaper vacuum cleaners release more bacteria and dust

Older, cheaper vacuum cleaners release more bacteria and dust: Some vacuum cleaners -- those basic tools for maintaining a clean indoor environment in homes and offices -- actually contribute to indoor air pollution by releasing into the air bacteria and dust that can spread infections and trigger allergies, researchers report in a new study.

Dried licorice root fights the bacteria that cause tooth decay and gum disease, study finds

Dried licorice root fights the bacteria that cause tooth decay and gum disease, study finds: Scientists are reporting identification of two substances in licorice -- used extensively in Chinese traditional medicine -- that kill the major bacteria responsible for tooth decay and gum disease, the leading causes of tooth loss in children and adults. In a new study, they say that these substances could have a role in treating and preventing tooth decay and gum disease.

Patrick Willis - SF 49ers