Compiled by Beth Cooney/HealthyLife
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Bone Health 101
While osteoporosis and its precursor, osteopenia, are a growing ? and serious ? public health concern for women in middle-age and beyond, the time to really focus on promoting bone health comes much sooner. So says the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, which has issued a public statement urging its member doctors to educate women patients on the threat of these bone-deteriorating conditions beginning at the onset of puberty.
It?s teens, ACOG says, who have the best opportunity to take the right nutritional and lifestyle steps to maximize bone-building. The teen years are also a critical time to address known risks to their skeletal health, such as smoking, excessive exercise and eating disorders.
To decrease their future fracture risk, ACOG also recommends women between the ages of 19 and 50 get at least 1,000 IU of calcium per day.
Get a bigger dose here.
Could a Mantra a Day Keep the Doctor Away?
Science continues to shed light on the importance of the mind-body connection. A new study suggests regular meditation can ease loneliness and dangerous inflammation responses in older adults.
Researchers affiliated with Carnegie Mellon University and UCLA made the connection during a study that looked at ways to ease loneliness in aging adults. Study subjects who participated in an eight-week regimen of meditation reported fewer feelings of loneliness and isolation than they did at the study?s inception. Blood tests also demonstrated a decrease in the expression of inflammatory genes that can trigger disease.
The study appeared in the online journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity.
More info here.
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Music for Their Ears!
Here?s news that?s sure to sound good, especially if you?ve been plunking down the big bucks for your child?s piano (any other kind of music) lessons: You?re helping their brains for the long haul.
A new study out of Northwestern University has concluded that childhood musical training improves brain function in adults, making them better listeners. Even a little musical training seems to go a long way, the researchers suggest. ?Based on what we already know about how music shapes the brain, the study suggests that short-term music lessons may enhance lifelong listening and learning,? Nina Kraus, the Hugh Knowles Professor of Neurobiology, Physiology and Communication at Northwestern, says in a university press release.
The research, which focused on adults who did and did not take music lessons as children, concluded even adults with a little musical training scored higher in the areas of executive function, auditory perception and communication skills. Kind of makes the sounds of a novice violinist a little more tolerable, doesn?t it?
The research is also a potent weapon for parents advocating for music education programs in their schools.
See more here.
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To Cut or Not?
Should parents circumcise their infant sons? The answer cuts both ways.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has rendered its first policy statement on the controversial medical topic since 2005, and its answer amounts to a qualified yes. While some parents contend the age-old practice is a form of mutilation, the AAP has said the benefits to newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks, based on the findings of a 2007 task force it founded to review the controversy. ?Evidence suggests circumcision prevents urinary tract infections, penile cancer and transmission of some sexually transmitted diseases including HIV,? according to the AAP?s statement.
Still, the doctors? organization maintained the decision to circumcise is a personal one, ultimately best left for parents to decide.
Get more info here.
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Don?t Get High, Mom
If you?re planning on getting pregnant soon, you may want to cut recreational pot smoking. Researchers have determined that fetuses exposed to high-potency marijuana ? or related synthetic strains such as ?Spice? ? early in pregnancy are at risk of a host of birth defects and postpartum challenges, including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and neurological impairments.
Researchers at Texas A&M University reported in a recent edition of Drug Testing and Analysis that the harmful effects of marijuana smoking can affect a developing baby with a gestational age of as little as two weeks because it is a vital period of fetal brain development.
Read more here.
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Thriving of the Fittest
We all know that exercise does a body good, but interestingly, little research has been done on the long-term significance of being fit in middle age. Turns out that even modest amounts of cardiovascular exercise in the middle years can have an impressive impact in the senior ones.
Researchers affiliated with the renowned Cooper Institute and the University of Texas report people who exercise throughout middle age not only live longer, they live better! A study that followed more than 100,000 Medicare recipients concluded those who had a commitment to fitness had lower rates of chronic, debilitating and potentially terminal illnesses during a period that spanned more than two decades.
Read more here.
Dirty Ink
Here?s a new rub on tattoos that may have you rethink the process: A new study has associated contaminated ink with a rash of skin infections in upstate New York. The infections were ultimately traced to the same pre-mixed tattoo ink.
Even when the tattoo parlor maintains the highest of standards of hygienic practice, there?s still a risk of infection from contaminated ink, researchers affiliated with public health agencies in Monroe County, N.Y., reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. The infections diagnosed in the study were the type associated with diseases such as leprosy and tuberculosis.
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As an interesting side note, researchers point out that the FDA has never approved an ink or pigment for injection into the skin and inks do not have to be tested for safety or purity before they are sold to consumers.
More here.
Vitamin D for Respiratory Infections
OK, here?s yet another reason to consider vitamin D supplements: It seems they can reduce the incidence of acute respiratory infections in children. A study reported in a recent issue of the journal Pediatrics noted a dramatic reduction of respiratory infections in vitamin D-deficient school children in Mongolia, when they received milk fortified with the potent vitamin. (Children who received non-fortified milk had much higher rates of infection.)
For more, go here.
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Older Fathers Pass On More Genetic Mutations
Fathers of a certain age can pass along more than love and wisdom to their offspring: Researchers have concluded that they also run the risk of passing along more genetic mutations, elevating the risk of autism and schizophrenia in their children.
The researchers noted that while most genetic mutations are harmless, the age at which a father sires a child determines how many such mutations they pass along. ?The more mutations we pass on the more likely that one of them is going to be deleterious,? one of the Icelandic genetic researchers involved in the study told the journal, Nature, which reported the findings.
One potential implication of the study is its correlation with the reported rise of cases of autism, which has already been associated through research with advanced paternal age.
Read more here.
Keeping Your Material Girls (and Boys) Happy
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Want to keep your kids from being unhappy and materialistic? Reduce their exposure to advertising. Researchers out of the Netherlands, who studied the emotional life of a group of 8- to 11-year-old children over a period of two years, found the happiest kids on the proverbial block were those who didn?t crave material goods or base their life satisfaction on their personal possessions.
The researchers found a direct correlation between level of life satisfaction, materialism and exposure to advertising. Lots of exposure seemed to exacerbate unhappiness. The researchers? findings were reported in the September issue of the journal Pediatrics. Yet another reason to set limits on all that tube time.
Want more info? Go here.
Family Matters: The Case for Friends
Turns out there?s really something to the expression ?friends with benefits.? But the tongue-in-cheek double entendre we?re using here isn?t exactly what British researchers had in mind when they delved into the importance of friends and relatives in the lives of middle-aged men and women.
Researchers concluded that the broader a circle of friends men and women can claim in middle age, the more likely they are to describe themselves as content. Interestingly, men also needed a close-knit group of relatives to possess a rosy outlook on life. Why women didn?t have this need for the relative connection wasn?t examined, but researchers speculate it may be because we rely more on friends to support our choices.
The findings were reported in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. The adults involved were participants in Britain?s ongoing National Child Development Study.
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Read more here.
Obesity Tops Smoking for Health Danger
If you want to keep the doctor away, lose weight. In a provocative study out of Canada, an economics professor has determined that obese people visit doctors most ? even more than smokers. ?The fact that obesity is more serious than smoking helps people understand the gravity of the problem because they already have some kind of intuitive understanding that smoking is bad,? James McIntosh, a professor of economics at Canada?s Concordia University says in a university press release. In a comprehensive health survey of Canadians ? where one of four citizens is considered obese ? McIntosh found if obesity was not a factor, doctors visits were reduced by 10 percent. He also discovered that smokers of a healthy weight visit doctors less often than their obese counterparts. McIntosh says the research may ultimately have broad public policy implications, influencing weight-loss programs people to curb health care costs. Meanwhile, not smoking continues to be an excellent personal health choice.
See our article about the benefits of quitting smoking, or go here for more details about this study.
Source: http://blog.timesunion.com/healthylifemagazine/news-and-views-novemberdecember-2012/2678/
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Public release date: 30-Oct-2012
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