Health News
In school, these curious, experience-seeking kids would most likely do better in small classes that emphasize hands-on-learning, self-paced computer assignments and tasks that build specific skills. This will not eliminate the need for many kids with A.D.H.D. to take psychostimulants. But let's not rush to medicalize their curiosity, energy and novelty-seeking; in the right environment, these traits are not a disability, and can be a real asset. Richard A. Friedman is a professor of clinical psychiatry and the director of the psychopharmacology clinic at the Weill Cornell Medical College.
Reflections on having goals and thoughtfully adjusting those goals over time
"We need to have baby-friendly work places that help women continue to either breast-feed or pump when they return to work, "There's that African proverb, ‘it takes a village to raise a child. It takes a village to breast-feed a child as well, and all sectors have to contribute."
The studies are an important and inspirational reminder of “the robust effect exercise can have on the human body, even at the level of our DNA.”>
"Computer science is an incredibly promising major, especially for a young woman. That and engineering are among the college degrees that can offer the highest incomes and the most flexibility — attributes widely cited for drawing many women into formerly male-dominated fields like medicine." - NYT
In a pilot study conducted on 25 different brands of hot sauces from Mexico and South America, they noticed some brands carryied excessive lead content. The four brands are Salsa Picante de, El Pato Salsa Picante, Salsa Habanera, Chile Habanero and Bufalo Salsa Clasica.
If parents want to include juice in their children's diet, juice should be limited to 4 to 6 ounces a day for children ages 1 to 6 years, and 8 to 12 ounces a day for children age 7 and older. Children should be encouraged to eat whole fruits to meet their recommended daily fruit intake.
How much sleep do you need? Sleep requirements depend on age. Newborns sleep 16 to 18 hours a day, preschoolers need 11 to 12 hours, and elementary school children need 10 hours. Adolescents should get 9 to 10 hours, though most teenagers sleep only about seven hours.
Good posture is one of the most important components of being fit.
Nearly one in five high school age boys in the United States and 11 percent of school-age children over all have received a medical diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to new data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These rates reflect a marked rise over the last decade and could fuel growing concern among many doctors that the A.D.H.D. diagnosis and its medication are overused in American children.
Doctors warn about the ethical and medical implications of prescribing attention-boosting and mood-altering medications to healthy kids and teens, in a new statement from the American Academy of Neurology.
In some sleep stages, our brains are taking the information we've gathered during the day "and laying it down into the memories that are going to allow us to retrieve the information" at a later time.
This article is adapted from “Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us,” by Michael Moss.
Although many of us can't increase the working hours in the day, we can measurably increase our energy.
From the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2/11/13: Most young children being treated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD ) -- either with or without medication -- still have serious symptoms of their condition, according to a new long-term study.
Understanding their propensity to become stressed and how to deal with it can help children compete. Stress turns out to be far more complicated than we've assumed, and far more under our control than we imagine. Unlike long-term stress, short-term stress can actually help people perform, and viewing it that way changes its effect.
Children and teens who spend time watching television, playing video games or using the computer right before bedtime are likely to take longer to fall asleep than those who watch less or none, according to new research. The study was published online Jan. 14 and in the February print issue of the journal Pediatrics.
"Many healthy, convenient options can be found within each of the New Four Food Groups—fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes. Whether eaten on the go or at home after school, healthy snacks are easy and quick to put together and eat, and offer important nutrients and energy in each delicious bite."
"In May 1998, the seventh edition of Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care was published. In it, Dr. Spock recommends a vegan diet for children. This sparked a long overdue discussion about the scientific and practical issues of optimal diets for children. In response, this document was prepared by a panel of nutritionists to address three main areas: the advantages of vegetarian and vegan diets, the safety of vegan diets, and planning meals for children." - Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
"It is much easier to build a nutritious diet from plant foods than from animal products, which contain saturated fat, cholesterol, and other substances that growing children can do without. As for essential nutrients, plant foods are the preferred source because they provide sufficient energy and protein packaged with other health-promoting nutrients such as fiber, antioxidant vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals." - Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
"Given that previous research has found that children with ADHD are less likely to participate in vigorous physical activity and organized sports compared with children without ADHD, our findings suggest that motivating children with ADHD to be physically active may have positive [effects] on aspects of neurocognitive function and inhibitory control" - Matthew B. Pontifex, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaigne
"A study of nearly 190,000 young women injected with Merck & Co's human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil found no new safety concerns." - Reuters Health
"In 35 years of medical research, conducted at the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute, which I founded, we have seen that patients who ate mostly plant-based meals, with dishes like black bean vegetarian chili and whole wheat penne pasta with roasted vegetables, achieved reversal of even severe coronary artery disease. They also engaged in moderate exercise and stress-management techniques, and participated in a support group. The program also led to improved blood flow and significantly less inflammation which matters because chronic inflammation is an underlying cause of heart disease and many forms of cancer." - Dean Ornish
"The policy is published today in the journal Pediatrics.
Although the new statement says there is insufficient data regarding safety at the growing number of trampoline parks, it adds that the equipment does have an acceptable role when used as part of a structured athletic training program with "appropriate coaching, supervision and safety measures in place."
"In a new study, getting antibiotics, especially very early in childhood, was linked to a raised risk for IBD."
"HealthyChildren.org, the official American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Web site for parents, launched the inaugural issue of Healthy Children e-magazine this month."
"A fresh analysis of studies on pain perception by researchers at the University of Heidelberg in Germany finds that athletes can tolerate more pain than non-athletes. And, the researchers conclude, regular physical activity can change the way practically anyone perceives and tolerates pain."
"Decades of studies, many of them by Diana Baumrind, a clinical and developmental psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, have found that the optimal parent is one who is involved and responsive, who sets high expectations but respects her child's autonomy. These “authoritative parents” appear to hit the sweet spot of parental involvement and generally raise children who do better academically, psychologically and socially than children whose parents are either permissive and less involved, or controlling and more involved."
A program that encouraged parents of kids ages 3 to 5 to replace age-inappropriate media content with more suitable programming found "long-lasting, significant reductions in sleep problems," says Michelle Garrison of Seattle Children's Research Institute, lead author of the study in Monday's Pediatrics.
"Teens who engaged in more moderate-to-vigorous outdoor activity reported better health and social functioning than their peers who spent hours in front of television and computer screens, a new study in Australia has found."
"The number of prescriptions for A.D.H.D. medications dispensed for young people ages 10 to 19 has risen 26 percent since 2007, to almost 21 million yearly, according to IMS Health, a health care information company — a number that experts estimate corresponds to more than two million individuals. But there is no reliable research on how many high school students take stimulants as a study aid. Doctors and teenagers from more than 15 schools across the nation with high academic standards estimated that the portion of students who do so ranges from 15 percent to 40 percent."- NYT