Health Issue: SHORT CUTS

SHORT CUTS


New digital devices often
underestimate BP levels

      Automated blood pressure measuring devices are replacing old-fashioned mercury manometers in doctor's offices and clinics around the world. But a new head-to-head comparison of the two techniques suggests the newer version isn't necessarily better - and could even be missing some people with high blood pressure who are in need of blood pressure-lowering treatment. Readings were about two points lower, on average, with the automated device compared to the mercury-based technique, Robert Kloner, Stanley Wishner, and Johanna Landgraf of Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles found. What's more, discrepancies were larger in people 65 and older.

Fish are fond of gardening too:
    Damselfish maintain algae gardens and they weed, harvest and defend them, a new study reveals. The research, to be published in BMC Evolutionary Biology, found this arrangement benefits both damselfish and the algae. According to lead author Hiroki Hata, of the Graduate School of Science and Engineering at Ehime University, damselfishes defended territories where certain algae grew by chasing off sea urchins. Fish also compete for land suitable for their algae plots with other fish.