How to Prove Your Worth to the New CEO
By JOANN S. LUBLIN
Laura Stein, general counsel of Clorox Co., CLX -0.09% went the extra mile after the company hired an outside chief executive. She volunteered to informally advise colleagues about revamping its strategy in China, where she previously had worked.
Donald Knauss, the new CEO and Ms. Stein's supervisor, likes her go-getter style. "She will help anyone who asks for help,'' he says. Months after joining the consumer-goods maker in late 2006, he broadened her duties to cover additional areas such as crisis management.
Getting on the good side of a freshly hired CEO is a good idea. But doing so often requires deft adaptability—and perhaps even crafty tactics—particularly since some external leaders shake up management fast.
CEO turnover was fairly low in 2012, but four big businesses already have tapped outsiders for their corner offices so far this year. And if the economy stabilizes, certain recruiters expect more corner-office changes in the months ahead.
Hospitality-industry executive Hubert Joly became head of retailer Best Buy Co. BBY +3.75% last September. The next month, he brought in two executives and eliminated several key positions from its upper ranks. During her first three months on the job, Yahoo Inc. YHOO -0.31% CEO Marissa Mayer recruited four top officers from outside.
"As an executive, you have a 30% to 40% chance that you won't be retained after an outside CEO arrives,'' estimates John Mattone, a leadership coach in Florida.
No wonder then that RHR International LLP, a leadership-development consultancy, recently has seen executives' requests for coaching rise when their employer picks an external leader. The best survival strategy? "Recognize that you have a new job: to help your new boss succeed," says Paul Winum, a management psychologist who runs its CEO succession practice.
Clorox's Ms. Stein, for instance, did extensive research about Mr. Knauss that enabled her to forge strong ties with the company's chief. The efforts "helped me understand how to be more effective with him,'' she says.
She learned they both grew up in the Midwest, and prior speeches and articles by Mr. Knauss shed light on his commitment to integrity and diversity. She discovered the former Marine prefers one-page memos and informal interactions rather than reams of data. At the same time, Ms. Stein says she sought to hasten the CEO's success by suggesting meetings with important customers, industry officials and community leaders.
Eric Houseman, president and chief operating officer of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc., took an equally shrewd approach after he lost the restaurant chain's CEO succession race to outsider Stephen Carley in the summer of 2010. "I am disappointed I didn't get the job," Mr. Houseman remembers telling Mr. Carley over dinner days before the latter's debut. "I want to prove I'm a valuable member of your executive team."
Mr. Houseman proved his point during that dinner. When the CEO requested the company's organizational chart, Mr. Houseman pulled out a copy that he had brought along just in case.
Mr. Carley says he appreciated the anticipatory gesture. He also was impressed when Mr. Houseman, Red Robin's longest serving senior executive, didn't try to undermine him through private chats with his extensive company network. "It was on my radar to be alert" to that scenario, the CEO adds.
Some internal contenders for the No. 1 job sulk when their board hires an outsider, however. "I have seen executives go home and not come back to the office for 10 days''—only to return demanding a bigger title or paycheck, says Stephen Miles, a New York leadership consultant. In his view, immature behavior is no way to ensure the new chief keeps you on board.
Executives keen to keep their jobs also must visibly embrace strategic shifts by a fresh external leader even though they may disagree with that boss behind closed doors. "Are they aligned with where you are trying to take the company?" asks Ravi Saligram, who was recruited to run OfficeMaxInc. OMX -3.09% in November 2010. "You want everybody rowing in the same direction, especially in a turnaround,'' he says.
Three of Mr. Saligram's six senior lieutenants quit the office-products supplier within 18 months of his arrival. One left "for mutual reasons," he says. He declined further comment.
"Initial impressions count," says John Wood, a vice chairman of recruiters Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. HSII +0.29% "Simply being good isn't good enough. You have to get on board with the new CEO's plan.''
A version of this article appeared March 6, 2013, on page B8 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: How to Prove Your Worth to the New CEO.
Office Stress: His vs. Hers
Chronic Tension Hurts Mental Clarity; For Women, a 'Tend and Befriend' Response
By LAUREN WEBER AND SUE SHELLENBARGER
Too much work, too little money and not enough opportunity for growth are stressing us out on the job, according to a new survey from the American Psychological Association.
One-third of employees experience chronic stress related to work, the survey found. Women report higher levels of work stress than men, as well as a gnawing sense that they are underappreciated and underpaid.
Fifty-four percent of the 1,501 employed adults surveyed say they feel they are paid too little for their contributions, and 61% said their jobs don't offer adequate opportunities to advance. Only half of the adults polled said they feel valued at work.
A new survey from the American Psychological Association reveals troubling findings about stress in the American workplace. WSJ's Lauren Weber and the American Psychological Association's David Ballard join Lunch Break to discuss. Photo: AP.
Women feel especially stuck and tense, the association survey indicates. Thirty-two percent of women said their employers don't provide sufficient opportunities for internal advancement, compared with 30% of men. Women are more likely to feel tense during a typical workday, reporting more often that their employer doesn't appreciate what they do.
The annual survey, conducted in January and released Tuesday, found the proportion of chronically stressed individuals has shrunk to 35% this year, compared with 41% in 2012, suggesting an improving economy and job market are making some people's work lives easier. But smaller percentages reported satisfaction with their jobs and work-life balance compared with 2012—two areas that had been on the upswing.
Women's stress is rising as families rely more on women's earnings. An employed wife's contribution to family earnings has hovered, on average, at 47% since 2009. But in that year, it jumped from 45%—the biggest single-year rise in more than two decades, said Kristin Smith, sociology professor at the University of New Hampshire. The comparable figure in 1988 was 38%.
Emotional responses to stress often divide along gender lines, with men more likely to have a "fight or flight" reaction while women are more likely to have a "tend and befriend" response, seeking comfort in relationships and care of loved ones, according to research by Shelley E. Taylor, health psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and others.
Physically, the body responds to stress by secreting hormones into the bloodstream that spur accelerated heart rate and breathing and tensing of muscles. People who experience stress as a positive often have increased blood flow to the brain, muscles and limbs, similar to the effects of aerobic exercise. Those who feel frightened or threatened, however, often have an erratic heart rate and constricting blood vessels. Their blood pressure rises and hands and feet may grow cold. They may become agitated, speak more loudly or experience lapses in judgment.
Either way, too much stress is harmful to individuals and companies, says David Posen, a physician and author of the book "Is Work Killing You? A Doctor's Prescription for Treating Workplace Stress."
"Chronic stress reduces all of the things that help productivity—mental clarity, short-term memory, decision-making and moods," Dr. Posen says.
Karen Herbison, 46, experienced symptoms of chronic stress after management changes in her department three years ago, and her management style was criticized as not tough enough, she says. She says she was told that while her bosses liked her, "there's just something missing."
She stretched her 45-hour workweek to 55 hours. Even so, Ms. Herbison recalls. "I felt like I was doing everything wrong."
She began to experience insomnia and irritability, and she had heart palpitations at work. "I was short-tempered and yelling at my kids," she recalls. "I felt like I was losing my mind." She saw a psychiatrist briefly and decided, "I have to remove myself from the situation. This is not who I am."
Kay Keaney: As a design and construction manager, Ms. Keaney, 40, kept long work hours. She had chronic stress until finding work in a new industry in Media, Pa.
Giles Photography
Karen Herbison: While working at a financial-services company, Ms. Herbison, 46, experienced insomnia and other signs of chronic stress. She says she sought help and realized, 'This is not who I am.' She moved from Pottstown, Pa., to her hometown, Eau Claire, Wis., where she and her husband opened a home-care company for seniors.
Michel Ngatuvai
Sarah Broadbent Manago: In her last job, the 41-year-old experienced stress because she felt her work was undermined. She now works as a manager for a company in Phoenix.
Ms. Herbison's stress vanished as soon as she left her former employer earlier this year to open a senior home-care company, Visiting Angels, with her husband in Eau Claire, Wis.
Such a reaction isn't uncommon in healthy individuals who leave a highly stressful situation. But if harmful levels of stress continue for too long, a person may lose the ability to relax, a condition linked in research to numerous health problems.
Women tend to "internalize," which contributes to their stress, says Lois Barth, a New York-based business and relationship coach. Many women hesitate to speak up for themselves or challenge behavior they see as unfair. "Women have to give themselves a voice," she says.
Sarah Broadbent Manago, 41, was used to meeting deadlines as an information technology consultant. But she says she began to doubt herself when she felt undermined by a manager. She now works as a senior information-technology project manager for another company and says the experience left her believing women in particular "feel stressed when they are challenged or devalued by their managers."
Women managers in male-dominated fields sometimes find the stress of juggling family responsibilities intolerable. Interior designer Kay Keaney, 40, rose fast at a California medical group, taking on responsibility for interior and facility planning and construction management for health-care facilities. With her 60-hour workweeks, plus early-morning and late-night meetings and a 1.5-hour commute each way, she seldom had time with her two small children. Yet she hesitated to complain.
"There was too much work to be done, and playing the Mommy card was bad form," Ms. Keaney says.
Whether stuck in traffic on her way to a 6 p.m. pickup at day care, or torn between her children and urgent work emails, "I just wanted to crawl out of my skin," she says. "I was overwhelmed."
Ms. Keaney had feelings of panic, headaches and a racing heart. It was a wake-up call, she says, when her 2-year-old son Stanley grabbed her BlackBerry BB.T +6.90% from her while she was cooking dinner and hurled it angrily across the kitchen.
The Keaneys moved from San Jose to Media, Pa., where Ms. Keaney now works as a consumer-experience specialist for a homeopathic products company. She is home with her children after school, she has shed 20 pounds, and her kids are much happier, Ms. Keaney says. Her stress is near zero, she says. High-paying jobs seem to require "selling your soul," she says. "We decided the rat race wasn't really worth it."
Work has invaded every hour of the day, including time once reserved for personal care. Experts say we can't even count on vacations to help us decompress.
A survey released last week by the consulting firm Accenture ACN +0.48% found 75% of respondents work frequently or occasionally during paid time off. The most common activity was checking email—71% reported doing this—but 30% said they participated in conference calls, and 44% said they use these nominal days off to catch up on work. "The running joke is that you can take time off, but when you come back, you pay the price for it," said Nellie Borrero, Accenture's managing director of global inclusion and diversity.
Study Points to Declining Life Span for Some U.S. Women
eAssociated Press
NEW YORK—A new study offers more compelling evidence that life expectancy for some U.S. women is actually falling, a disturbing trend that experts can't explain.
The latest research found that women age 75 and younger are dying at higher rates than previous years in nearly half of the nation's counties—many of them rural and in the South and West. Curiously, for men, life expectancy has held steady or improved in nearly all counties.
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A new survey from the American Psychological Association reveals troubling findings about stress in the American workplace. WSJ's Lauren Weber and the American Psychological Association's David Ballard join Lunch Break to discuss. Photo: AP.
Two studies that looked at the effects of smoking over a lifetime found that both men and women who smoke were about three times as likely to die before reaching age 80 in one study, and 75 in the other study. WSJ's Ron Winslow reports. Photo: Getty.
The study is the latest to spot this pattern, especially among disadvantaged white women. Some leading theories blame higher smoking rates, obesity and less education, but several experts said they simply don't know why.
Women have long outlived men, and the latest numbers show the average life span for a baby girl born today is 81, and for a baby boy, it's 76. But the gap has been narrowing and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shown women's longevity is not growing at the same pace as men's.
The phenomenon of some women losing ground appears to have begun in the late 1980s, though studies have begun to spotlight it only in the last few years.
Trying to figure out why is "the hot topic right now, trying to understand what's going on," said Jennifer Karas Montez, a Harvard School of Public Health sociologist who has been focused on the life-expectancy decline but had no role in the new study.
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Researchers also don't know exactly how many women are affected. Ms. Montez says a good estimate is roughly 12%.
The study, released Monday by the journal Health Affairs, found declining life expectancy for women in about 43% of the nation's counties.
The researchers, David Kindig and Erika Cheng of the University of Wisconsin, looked at federal death data and other information for nearly all 3,141 U.S. counties over 10 years. They calculated mortality rates for women age 75 and younger, sometimes called "premature death rates," because many of those deaths are considered preventable.
Many counties have such small populations that even slight changes in the number of deaths produce dramatic swings in the death rate from year to year. To try to stabilize the numbers, the researchers computed some five-year averages. They also used statistical tricks to account for factors like income and education.
They found that nationwide, the rate of women dying younger than would be expected fell from 324 to 318 per 100,000. But in 1,344 counties, the average premature death rate rose, from 317 to about 333 per 100,000. Deaths rates rose for men in only about 100 counties.
"We were surprised" by how much worse women did in those counties, and by the geographic variations, Mr. Kindig said.
The study wasn't the first to reach those conclusions. Two years ago, a study led by the University of Washington's Christopher Murray also looked at county-level death rates. It too found that women were dying sooner, especially in the South.
Some other studies that focused on national data have highlighted steep declines in life expectancy for white women who never earned a high-school diploma. Meanwhile, life expectancy seems to be growing for more educated and affluent women. Some experts also have suggested smokers or obese women are dragging down life expectancy.
The Murray and Kindig studies both spotlight regional differences. Some of the highest smoking rates are in Southern states, and the proportion of women who failed to finish high school is also highest in the South.
"I think the most likely explanation for why mortality is getting worse is those factors are just stronger in those counties," Dr. Murray said, adding that abuse of Oxycontin and other drugs also may add to the problem.
Some also think the statistics could reflect a migration of healthier women out of rural areas, leaving behind others who are too poor and unhealthy to relocate. That would change the rate, and make life expectancy in a county look worse, explained Bob Anderson of the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics
"We shouldn't jump to the conclusion that more people are getting sicker in these geographic areas than previously," he said.
But that is open to debate. Migration didn't seem to affect male death rates. Dr. Murray disagrees with the theory, saying he has tracked a great deal of movement from urban areas to less-populated counties.
New Drugs Slow a Fast-Spreading Cancer
By JONATHAN ROCKOFF
New generations of drugs have helped given victims of multiple myeloma hope for longer survival. WSJ's Jonathan Rockoff and International Myeloma Foundation co-founder and chairman Dr. Brian Durie discuss on Lunch Break. Photo: AP.
Two new drugs for multiple myeloma, approved in recent months, promise to extend life expectancy for patients with the blood cancer.
They follow new treatments that over the last decade have transformed the prognosis for multiple myeloma—once a short death sentence—into a manageable condition that can be survived for up to seven years or more. There is still no cure for the disease.
The new drugs were approved for patients whose blood cancer returned after developing resistance to older treatments.
Karen Countryman is one of those patients. When she was diagnosed in 2004, doctors gave her three years to live, she recalled. She underwent the standard treatment of the time, a harsh regimen of chemotherapy and a stem-cell transplant. The first of a wave of myeloma drugs had just been approved. And after her blood cancer returned in 2008, Ms. Countryman turned to one of the new therapies and then to others as her myeloma progressed.
Her myeloma remains in check, she says. "It's a miracle, and this is all due to new drugs and research," said Ms. Countryman, a 63-year-old nurse from Boise, Idaho. She is currently finishing a course of treatment with one of the newest drugs, Kyprolis.
Taken intravenously, Kyprolis was greenlighted last July. The newest myeloma treatment, a pill called Pomalyst, was approved last month.
They follow four other drugs that were cleared since 2003 to treat multiple myeloma, a cancer that starts in the soft, spongy marrow inside bones that makes blood cells. From there, myeloma spreads, damaging bones, kidneys and the immune system.
International Myeloma Foundation
After being told in 1999 that she had few treatment options for her multiple myeloma, Paula Van Riper of Branchburg, N.J., has since seen her life extended by new drugs.
What Is Multiple Myeloma
- What causes it: Multiple myeloma, a.k.a. blood cancer, occurs when plasma cells (which make antibodies that help the body fight infections) grow out of control in the bone marrow, forming tumors in bones. As these tumors grow, the ability of bone marrow to make healthy blood cells and platelets diminishes.
- How many people have it: In 2013, an estimated 22,350 cases will be diagnosed and an estimated 10,700 people will die.
- How long patients live with it: In 2001, life expectancy was 3.5 years. By 2010, it grew to 7.3 years. Today, it's believed by many researchers to be as long as 10 years, but there is no hard data yet to support that time frame.
- Cost of the newest drug regimens: Around $10,000 a month for Pomalyst; $9,950 a month for Kyprolis
Each year, nearly 22,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with the condition, many of whom are 65 years or older. More than 10,000 patients will die.
Yet thanks to all of the new drugs, the median survival for patients has doubled over the last decade, according to Brian Durie, co-founder and chairman of the International Myeloma Foundation.
"The focus has shifted from just keeping patients alive" to giving them a good quality of life while they manage the disease, said Dr. Durie, who is also a myeloma doctor at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He has worked with several drug makers who sell and are researching myeloma treatments.
The wave of new drug development in myeloma dates to the late 1990s and early 2000s, when researchers were scouring old treatments for one that might have an impact on the cancer.
At that time, a myeloma prognosis could mean a few years to live. Paula Van Riper, who was diagnosed in late 1999, underwent hip replacement surgery to remove a large tumor. Afterward, she recalled being told by doctors to hold off treatment, since there weren't any good options available until the disease worsened.
"It never occurred to me that I would be around 13 years later, feeling well, going to work every day and thinking maybe I can retire," said Ms. Van Riper, 65, an assistant dean at Rutgers University in New Jersey, who is now taking Pomalyst.
A turning point in the treatment of myeloma, doctors say, was the discovery in the late 1990s that a controversial drug called thalidomide had an impact.
Thalidomide was famously pulled as a sleeping pill in 1962, after it was associated with birth defects. But it turned out to have a positive impact on myeloma, interfering with the surrounding environment in the bone marrow that the cancer cells need to flourish. Thalidomide's success drew researchers and drug makers into the hunt for even more treatments.
Velcade, approved in 2003, and Revlimid, a thalidomide successor approved in 2006, are now backbones of myeloma treatment, doctors say. The two drugs attack myeloma in different ways, and doctors tend to use them in combination and with other drugs because the combination amplifies the effect of the therapies.
Despite the new approvals, doctors like David Siegel still plan on typically starting patients with a combination of Velcade, Revlimid and a steroid called dexamethasone.
Dr. Siegel, chief of the myeloma division at John Theurer Cancer Center in Hackensack, N.J., further attacks the cancer by following up that combination with a heavy dose of a chemotherapy drug called melphalan. Dr. Siegel says he will then transplant stem cells in the bone marrow to restore the marrow killed by chemotherapy.
In most patients, these treatments will drive myeloma into hiding.
But the disease tends to return. Over the course of this cycle of relapse and remission, Dr. Siegel will draw from the full arsenal of available treatments, eventually including the two newly approved therapies.
However, for now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Kyprolis and Pomalyst for later use by patients whose disease progressed after treatment with other therapies. Insurance companies are also steering use of the older drugs first, doctors say.
"In the end," said Dr. Siegel, "everyone feels these drugs will move closer" to early use. He has worked with several drug makers, including Celgene Corp., CELG +1.56% the maker of Revlimid and Pomalyst; Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc., ONXX +0.81% which sells Kyprolis; and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. 4502.TO +0.51% Ltd.'s Millenium unit, which sells Velcade.
Treatment costs for both Kyprolis and Pomalyst run close to $10,000 a month.
A common side effect of some of the older therapies is a painful condition called peripheral neuropathy, which can cause tingling or numbness in fingers and feet. That is not an issue with Revlimid, Celgene says, and many doctors believe that won't be as much of an issue with Kyprolis and Pomalyst.
Kyprolis and Pomalyst were associated with low blood-cell counts, a common problem with most anticancer therapies, which can hurt the body's ability to fight off infections. Heart failure and shortness of breath were serious side effects seen with Kyprolis. Pomalyst shouldn't be used by pregnant women or women contemplating pregnancy because it can cause serious birth defects and life-threatening blood clots.
For all the gains in treating myeloma, the disease still lacks a cure for most patients. Doctors believe what is needed are drugs that work differently from the currently approved treatments.
"The problem in myeloma right now is many of the new drugs are in the same two classes," said Vincent Rajkumar, a myeloma specialist at the Mayo Clinic. "If you want a sea change, you want a new class," he added, because the cancer cells get smart and develop resistance to the older drugs.
Several new classes of drugs are in development. Among the furthest along in the pipeline is a monoclonal antibody called elotuzumab from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., BMY +0.35% that several doctors singled out as promising.
The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, which encourages research collaborations between academia and industry and funds drug development, is also conducting a study whose results could be used to profile which patients will benefit from which treatment combinations.
A version of this article appeared March 5, 2013, on page D3 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: New Drugs Slow a Fast-Spreading Cancer.
Some Lukewarm Advice for Treating Burns
By ANN LUKITS
Running cold tap water over accidental burns and scalds is generally accepted as the best way to cool the skin and prevent blistering. But a study in the Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery suggests the reverse—that using warm instead of cold water, while counterintuitive, may be a more effective method of limiting tissue damage and restoring blood flow to burned areas.
Swiss researchers used a heated metal template to induce same-size burns on anesthetized rats in four places on each of their backs. (Pain medication was administered before and after the procedure.)
One group of rats was treated for 20 minutes with gauze soaked in water cooled to 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit. A second group received gauze containing water at 98.6 degrees.
![[image]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PJ-BM928_RESREP_DV_20130304165330.jpg)
David Pohl A third group of control rats wasn't treated. The burns and unburned spaces between the burns were tested after one hour, 24 hours, four days and seven days.
Within 24 hours, burn damage in the control rats had extended to underlying tissues, whereas the burned area didn't immediately change in the rats treated with cold or warm water, researchers said. After four days, all the animals developed tissue damage, or necrosis, in the spaces between the burns, but the damage was significantly less in the rats treated with warm water.
Necrosis affected 65% of interspaces in warm-water rats, 81% in cold-water rats and 94% in controls. Normal blood flow, assessed with a laser probe, was only restored in warm-water rats.
Although the experiments were performed on rats, the researchers said the basic principles and mechanisms of burn progression are similar to those in humans.
While applying cold tap water to burns helps to cool the skin, it can be painful after 20 minutes and leads to abnormally low temperature in the skin, according to lead researcher Reto Wettstein, a plastic and reconstructive hand surgeon in Basel, Switzerland. Dr. Wettstein personally practices rapid cooling with cold water for about a minute and then switches to warm water to help restore circulation.
Caveat: The findings only apply to second-degree burns that don't require surgery, researchers said. The study didn't consider other complications associated with burns, such as shock and the potential for hypothermia.
• Shoulder pain: Patients injected with platelet-rich plasma—blood containing high concentrations of platelets—experienced a significant reduction in shoulder pain from rotator cuff tendinitis and tears compared with a procedure called dry needling, according to a study in Clinical Rehabilitation.
More than half of the U.S. population age 65 and older has disabling rotator cuff conditions, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Treatment usually involves anti-inflammatory drugs and steroid injections, but side effects are common.
From 2010 to 2011, South Korean researchers recruited 39 patients in their early 50s with shoulder pain lasting an average 9.5 years. Blood samples from 20 subjects were centrifuged to make blood with higher platelet concentrations than whole blood. Platelets contain numerous growth factors that promote healing and help blood to clot.
The platelet-rich blood was injected into donors' shoulder joints twice, with a four-week interval between injections. Nineteen controls received two treatments, four weeks apart, of dry-needling, which involved inserting an acupuncture needle into rotator-cuff tissue to stimulate healing.
Compared with the control subjects, platelet-injected patients experienced a significant reduction in shoulder pain two weeks after the second injection and at three- and six-month follow-up exams, results showed.
Range of motion was more improved in the platelet group after six months, but the difference between the groups wasn't significant. Four platelet-injected patients and one in the control group improved to normal.
Platelet-rich blood clots to form a gel-like structure that remains in the injected area long enough to stimulate tissue regeneration, researchers said.
Caveat: Patients who didn't have favorable outcomes might benefit from a third injection or a series of injections, researchers said. It isn't clear if four weeks between injections is the optimum interval, they said.
• Brain rewiring: A part of the brain that processes visual information significantly increased in volume in older patients following routine cataract surgery, according to a small study reported in Acta Ophthalmologica.
The study adds to a growing body of research indicating aging brains continue to grow and change. Previous research shows that new cognitive experiences in later life can reshape neurological connections in the brain, a process known as cortical plasticity or neuroplasticity. It isn't known if increased sensory input from vision changes can trigger neuroplasticity, researchers said.
In this study, 16 Danish patients, ages 50 to 85, underwent cataract surgery on one eye by the same surgeon. Eye examinations took place a week before the procedure, and two days and six to seven weeks post-surgery. MRI brain scans were performed during the two follow-up visits, after the subjects' normal vision had been restored.
Two days after surgery, patients could read an average 40.7 letters on an eye chart compared with 19.6 letters before the procedure, but no further improvements were recorded at the second follow-up. Visual field and contrast perception also improved. MRI scans showed a significant increase in a vision-related area of the brain called the visual cortex, opposite the operated eye, and were likely due to increased visual input or cognitive data received through the eyes, researchers said.
The changes were more pronounced in patients who had more symmetrical, or better-balanced, vision in both eyes after surgery, they said. More research is needed to determine if cortical plasticity contributes to improvements in eyesight, they said.
Caveat: Because patients only received two MRIs, it isn't known how quickly the brain changes occurred following the cataract surgery, researchers said.
Title: Postoperative increase in grey matter volume in visual cortex after unilateral cataract surgery
• Labor and spicy food: Some women eat spicy foods at the end of pregnancy, hoping it will bring on labor, though there is no scientific proof that it works. But a pilot study published in the journal Anesthesiology suggests that applying an extract of red chili peppers called capsaicin directly to the cervix may help shorten the time to delivery and reduce the pain of laboring.
Experiments at Columbia University were conducted on four groups of pregnant mice three days before they were due to deliver.
Two groups received either a low or high dose of morphine by injection, plus lidocaine applied to the cervix.
One group received saline injections, plus cervical lidocaine and 0.1% capsaicin cream. Lidocaine was used to limit any acute discomfort related to capsaicin, researchers said. A control group received a saline solution and lidocaine.
The mice were videotaped during labor and four behaviors associated with labor pain in rodents were assessed. Both capsaicin and morphine significantly reduced the incidence of all four pain-related behaviors compared with controls, the results showed.
On average, laboring mice treated with high and low doses of morphine exhibited 34.6 and 46.4 pain behaviors per hour respectively while 38.9 behaviors were recorded per hour in capsaicin-treated mice. Pain behaviors in control mice averaged 55 per hour.
Capsaicin-treated mice delivered each pup in under 15 minutes, compared with over 16 minutes in controls. Capsaicin had no negative effects on the offspring.
Capsaicin may desensitize pain receptors on the cervix and trigger the release of protein-like molecules that orchestrate a series of biological events that lead to the start of labor, researchers said.
Caveat: The optimum dose of capsaicin isn't known, researchers said. The research hasn't been tested on pregnant women.
• Infection carriers: Women employed in health-care facilities have a 54% greater risk of becoming carriers of Staphylococcus aureus, a frequent cause of hospital-acquired skin infections, than women in the general population, and the risk increases to 86% if they have young children, says a study in Epidemiology and Infection. Previous research showed that health workers are at risk of becoming S. aureus carriers from contact with infected patients, but this study suggests both the workplace and home environment play a role, though only in women. A carrier can transmit infectious organisms to others but doesn't exhibit signs of the illness.
From 2007 to 2008, nasal swabs were taken from 2,279 Norwegians—1,302 women and 977 men, ages 30 to 69—and analyzed for S. aureus. About a quarter of women and 7.3% of men worked in health-care facilities. Just over half of health workers and 43% of non-health workers lived with children under age 18. Subjects were considered S. aureus carriers if swabs from both nostrils tested positive.
Positive results were recorded in 22.5% of women health workers and 18.4% of those not in health care. In men, 43.7% of health workers and 34.1% of non-health workers tested positive. The adjusted results showed that working in health care only increased the risk of becoming a carrier in women with children, but had no effect on risk in women without children.
Greater contact with S. aureus through patients and children may render women unable to defend themselves colonization, they said.
Caveat: Information about the health workers' actual job, patient contact, and day-care use wasn't available.
—Write to researchreport@wsj.com. A version of this article appeared March 4, 2013, on page D4 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Some Lukewarm Advice for Treating Burns.
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