Screen Time Study Finds Education Drop-Off

With children spending more time in front of screens than ever, parents sometimes try to convince themselves that playing Angry Birds teaches physics, or that assembling outfits on a shopping app like Polyvore fires creativity.

According to a study scheduled for release on Friday, however, less than half the time that children age 2 to 10 spend watching or interacting with electronic screens is with what parents consider “educational” material. Most of that time is from watching television, with mobile devices contributing relatively little educational value.

What is more, the study, by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, a nonprofit research institute affiliated with the Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit producer of “Sesame Street,” shows that as children spend more time with screens as they get older, they spend less time doing educational activities, with 8- to 10-year-olds spending about half the time with educational content that 2- to 4-year-olds do.

Athena Devlin, a professor of women’s and American studies at St. Francis College in Brooklyn and the mother of two children, said that her son, Elias, a kindergartner, still watched quite a bit of public television, including shows like “Wild Kratts” and “Dino Dan,” and that she has been impressed by the detailed facts he learns.

But her daughter, Laura, a fourth grader, prefers shows like “Jessie” on the Disney Channel or “Total Drama Island” on the Cartoon Network, which Professor Devlin sees as the preteen equivalent of her own addiction to “Scandal.”

“I feel like with the educational content of television, the bottom drops out of it after age 5 or 6,” she said. “It’s a bummer, and I’ve looked out for it.”

She said that when playing games, her daughter liked Wizard101, while both children gravitated toward Fruit Ninja or Clumsy Ninja, whose educational value Professor Devlin does not rate highly.

“It would be nice if they could get pleasure out of something that also taught them something,” she said.

According to the survey, 2- to 4-year-olds spent a little over two hours a day on screen, with one hour and 16 minutes of educational time, while 8- to 10-year-olds spent more than two and a half hours a day on screen, but only 42 minutes was considered educational. The survey was based on interviews with 1,577 parents and conducted online from June 28 to July 24 by GfK, a research company.

The survey allowed parents to assess whether a game or program taught social and emotional skills, as well as cognitive learning related to vocabulary, math or science.

The survey said lower-income families reported that their children spent more time with educational programming on screen than middle-income and higher-income families did. Families earning less than $25,000 said 57 percent of their children’s screen time was educational, while families earning $50,000 to $99,000 said it was 38 percent.

Michael H. Levine, the executive director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, said that particularly for the most vulnerable children who might falter in their academic careers, “we need to have a better balance in the way these media are used.”

Vicki Rideout, who wrote the report, said that with teachers seizing on digital media as a new way to ignite children’s interest at school, more needed to be done to ensure that out-of-school screen activities were not only educational but of high quality.

“It’s far too easy for the best stuff only to be available for the kids who already have many opportunities,” said Ms. Rideout, “and to flip into content that has the gloss of education on it, without the substance, for the kids who are in need.”

Michael Thornton, a second-grade teacher at Meriwether Lewis Elementary School in Charlottesville, Va., and the father of three children under 6, said parents were increasingly asking him for referrals to educational apps, like Geared and Glass Tower, for teaching math and spatial recognition skills, and Chicktionary, for vocabulary.

But, he acknowledged, “you have to really take your time to search through them.”

Baby heart-disease risk ‘shaped early in pregnancy’

A baby’s development in the womb in the first weeks of life is critical for future heart health, research suggests.

A link between poor growth in the first trimester and early risk factors for heart disease has been identified for the first time.

The study, in the British Medical Journal, adds to evidence that heart risk is set long before adulthood.

Pregnant women should think about their baby’s heart health as well as their own, the British Heart Foundation said.

The evidence comes from a study tracking the health, from early pregnancy onwards, of nearly 2,000 children born in the Dutch city of Rotterdam.

A team at the Erasmus University Medical School examined links between the child’s size at the first scan (10 to 13 weeks) and markers of future cardiovascular health at the age of six (central body fat, high blood pressure, high insulin levels and high cholesterol).

“Impaired first trimester foetal growth is associated with an adverse cardiovascular risk profile in school age children,” they reported in the British Medical Journal.

“Early foetal life may be a critical period for cardiovascular health in later life.”

Low birth weight is known to be linked to an increased risk of heart disease in later life. But the new research suggests not only birth weight but poor growth in the earliest phase of pregnancy may influence cardiovascular disease risk.

“These results suggest that the first trimester of pregnancy may be a critical period for development of offspring cardiovascular risk factors in later life,” study author Prof Vincent Jaddoe told BBC News.

“Therefore adverse maternal lifestyle habits influencing early foetal growth may have persistent consequences for their offspring, many decades later. ”

This was the first study showing this link and replication in other studies was needed, he added.

Critical stage
Amy Thompson, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said the first few months of pregnancy were a critical stage in a baby’s development.

“This study suggests that foetal growth within this time may influence their heart health later in life,” she said.

“However, as the researchers acknowledge themselves, further studies are needed to understand why this pattern exists and what it might mean for preventing heart disease.

“If you are pregnant, or planning a family, you should be thinking about your baby’s heart health as well as your own,” she added.

“If you smoke, speak to your GP or midwife about quitting, and keep a check on your blood pressure.

“Your midwife will also advise you on other ways you can make healthier choices during pregnancy.”

Source: BBC news

Interventional Pain Management attaining newer heights in India

There was a time many years back when any intervention by a medical doctor on any patient meant surgery. Epidural injections (caudal, interlaminar or transforaminal) were one of the first spine interventions ever undertaken. With the advancement in technology and especially the use of C Arm fluoroscopes for image guided blocks and ultrasound, interventional pain procedures could be done in much more reliable and predictable manner.

Pain physician of today is competent to treat the entire range of pain encountered in the delivery of quality healthcare, whether it is due to a discrete cause like cancer pain and postoperative pain to primary pain problems like musculoskeletal pain, neuropathic pain, urogenital pain, headaches etc. Pain medicine, which incorporates interventional pain management, has been acknowledged as a discrete discipline by the American Medical Association.

The advent of Radiofrequency (RF) ablation both thermal and pulse radiofrequency have quiet changed the outlook of interventional pain procedures in terms of providing longer lasting solutions for pain problems of the patients. Whether it is medial branch RF for facet syndrome, gasserian ganglion RF for trigeminal neuralgia, genicular branch RF for knee osteoarthritis or Pulse RF of dorsal root ganglion for lumbar radicular syndrome, the scope RF in interventional pain practice has undergone marked change and occupies vital position for providing long term pain relief to the patients.

The spectrum of interventional pain management has broadened with neuromodulation. Be it spinal cord stimulators, intrathecal pumps or peripheral nerve stimulators, these devices have moved in the analgesic ladder and are now indicated earlier rather than late for managing neuropathic or cancer pains.

Therefore the present day pain physician has various weapons in their armoury and apart from medical management, interventional pain management procedures can be resorted to not only to help in the diagnosis but also to provide long-term pain relief for the patient. This can help in providing functional recovery and thereby improve the quality of life of our patients.

Author’s Note: Pain Medicine is one of the newer disciplines in medicine in India (though recognised as a speciality and practised in USA since 1970s) and awareness is low not only among patients but also among the medical fraternity. The Medical Council of India (MCI) now recognizes one year PDCC (Pain & Palliative care) as a requisite training after post graduation in Anaesthesiology.

Source: India Medical Times

Marriage at 25 or older good for men’s bones

Researchers at UCLA have suggested that marriage is good for the health of men’s bones, but only if they marry when they’re 25 or older.

In a new study, researchers found evidence that men who married when they were younger than 25 had lower bone strength than men who married for the first time at a later age.

In addition, men in stable marriages or marriage-like relationships who had never previously divorced or separated had greater bone strength than men whose previous marriages had fractured, the researchers said. And those in stable relationships also had stronger bones than men who never married.

Although for women there were no similar links between bone health and being married or in a marriage-like relationship, the study authors did find evidence that women with supportive partners had greater bone strength than those whose partners didn’t appreciate them, understand how they felt or were emotionally unsupportive in other ways.

This is the first time that marital histories and marital quality have been linked to bone health, the study’s senior author, Dr. Carolyn Crandall, a professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said.

“There is very little known about the influence of social factors – other than socioeconomic factors – on bone health,” Crandall said.

“Good health depends not only on good health behaviors, such as maintaining a healthy diet and not smoking, but also on other social aspects of life, such as marital life stories and quality of relationships,” she said.

The associations between marriage and bone health were evident in the spine but not the hip, possibly due to differences in bone composition, the researchers said.

The data suggested several significant correlations between marriage and bone health – but only for men.

The study authors found that men in long-term stable marriages or marriage-like relationships had higher bone density in the spine than every other male group, including men currently married who had previously been divorced or separated, men not currently in a relationship and men who had never been married.

Among men who first married prior to turning 25, the researchers found a significant reduction in spine bone strength for each year they were married before that age.

For instance, the authors said, those who marry young are likely to be less educated, leading to lower pay and more difficulty in making ends meet.

The study is published online in the peer-reviewed journal Osteoporosis International.

Source: zee news

Blame your genes for your beer bellies

A team of researchers has identified five new genes associated with increased waist-to-hip ratio, potentially moving a step closer to developing a medication to treat obesity or obesity-related diseases.

A person’s measure of belly fat is reflected in the ratio of waist circumference to hip circumference, and it is estimated that genetics account for about 30-60 percent of waist-to-hip ratio (WHR).

The team led by Kira Taylor from University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences conducted an analysis of more than 57,000 people of European descent, and searched for genes that increase risk of high waist-to-hip ratio, independent of overall obesity.

They investigated over 50,000 genetic variants in 2,000 genes thought to be involved in cardiovascular or metabolic traits.

Their analysis identified three new genes associated with increased WHR in both men and women, and discovered two new genes that appear to affect WHR in women only.

Of the latter, one gene, SHC1, appears to interact with 17 other proteins known to have involvement in obesity, and is highly expressed in fat tissue. In addition, the genetic variant the team discovered in SHC1 is linked to another variant that causes an amino acid change in the protein, possibly changing the function or expression of the protein.

The study was published in journal Human Molecular Genetics.

Source: DNA India

Brisk walk can help beat prostate cancer

Exercise may improve the prognosis of prostate cancer patients by affecting blood vessels in their tumours, a study suggests.

Researchers found that men who walked at a fast pace before being diagnosed with the disease had tumours containing larger and more regularly shaped blood vessels.

Better formed tumour blood vessels may in turn inhibit cancer aggressiveness and promote better responses to treatments, the scientists believe.

Physically active men with prostate cancer have a lower risk of recurrence and death from the disease than those living sedentary lives, but until now the reason has remained a mystery.

The new study looked at 572 prostate cancer patients taking part in a US lifestyle and health investigation called the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.

Men with the fastest walking pace – between 3.3 and five miles per hour – prior to diagnosis had 8 per cent more regularly shaped tumour blood vessels than the slowest walkers who ambled at 1.5 to 2.5 mph.

“Prior research has shown that men with prostate tumours containing more regularly shaped blood vessels have a more favourable prognosis compared with men with prostate tumours containing mostly irregularly shaped blood vessels,” said lead scientist Dr Erin Van Blarigan, from the University of California at San Francisco.

“In this study, we found that men who reported walking at a brisk pace had more regularly shaped blood vessels in their prostate tumors compared with men who reported walking at a less brisk pace.

“Our findings suggest a possible mechanism by which exercise may improve outcomes in men with prostate cancer. Although data from randomised, controlled trials are needed before we can conclude that exercise causes a change in vessel regularity or clinical outcomes in men with prostate cancer, our study supports the growing evidence of the benefits of exercise, such as brisk walking, for men with prostate cancer.”

Dr Matthew Hobbs, deputy director of research at Prostate Cancer UK, said: “Although this research provides a plausible explanation of how exercise might improve outcomes for men with prostate cancer, much more research is needed to confirm the impact of lifestyle factors on men’s recovery.

“We hope that further research in this area may one day give us a way to improve the prognosis for the 40,000 men in the UK who are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year.”

Meanwhile a separate study suggest a good night’s sleep may also held the condition. Scientists have linked higher levels of the night-time hormone melatonin with a 75 per cent reduced risk of advanced disease.

Melatonin is produced in the dark at night. It plays a key role in regulating the body’s sleeping cycle and influences many other functions associated with the body’s 24-hour clock, or circadian rhythm.

Low levels of the hormone are typically associated with disrupted sleep.

Scientists studied 928 Icelandic men who were questioned about their sleep patterns.

Source: the Scotsman

Too much ‘love hormone’ can make healthy people oversensitive

Researchers at Concordia’s Centre for Research in Human Development have shown that too much oxytocin or ” love hormone” in healthy young adults can actually result in over sensitivity to the emotions of others.

With the help of psychology professor Mark Ellenbogen, PhD candidates Christopher Cardoso and Anne-Marie Linnen recruited 82 healthy young adults who showed no signs of schizophrenia, autism or related disorders.

Half of the participants were given measured doses of oxytocin, while the rest were offered a placebo.

The participants then completed an emotion identification accuracy test in which they compared different facial expressions showing various emotional states. As expected, the test subjects who had taken oxytocin saw greater emotional intensity in the faces they were rating.

“For some, typical situations like dinner parties or job interviews can be a source of major social anxiety,” Cardoso, the study’s lead author, said.

“Many psychologists initially thought that oxytocin could be an easy fix in overcoming these worries. Our study proves that the hormone ramps up innate social reasoning skills, resulting in an emotional oversensitivity that can be detrimental in those who don’t have any serious social deficiencies,” he said.

Ultimately, however, oxytocin does have the potential to help people with diagnosed disorders like autism to overcome social deficits.

The study is published in Emotion, a journal of the American Psychological Association.

Source: sisat

Eating lingonberries could help prevent weight gain

Eating lingonberries could prevent weight gain more effectively than so-called “superberries”, research suggests.

Scientists tested a variety of berries from raspberries to blackcurrants for the effects they have on mice and found the Scandinavian berry almost completely prevented an increase in weight.

The lingonberries also produced lower blood sugar levels and cholesterol, the researchers from Lund University in Sweden found.

However, the açai berry from Central and South America, which is hailed as a “superberry”, came last in the study.
The team of scientists used a type of mouse regarded as a model for overweight humans at risk of diabetes because it easily stores fat. Some of the mice were fed a low-fat diet, while the majority of the animals were fed a diet high in fat.

They were then divided into groups, where all except a control group were fed a type of berry – lingonberry, bilberry, raspberry, crowberry, blackberry, prune, blackcurrant or açai berry.

When the mice were compared after three months, the lingonberry group had “by far the best results”, the researchers said.

The mice that had eaten lingonberries had not put on more weight than the mice that had eaten a low-fat diet – and their blood sugar and insulin readings were similar to those of the ‘low-fat’ mice. Their cholesterol levels and levels of fat in the liver were also lower than those of the animals who received a high-fat diet without any berries.
Blackcurrants and bilberries also produced good effects, although not as pronounced as the lingonberries.

The good results from lingonberries may be due to their polyphenol content, according to the researchers, who are continuing work to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in their effect, while studying whether the effect can be observed in humans.
Karin Berger, a diabetes researcher at Lund University, said: “Up to 20 per cent of our mice’s diet was lingonberries. It isn’t realistic for humans to eat such a high proportion.

“However, the goal is not to produce such dramatic effects as in the ‘high-fat’ mice, but rather to prevent obesity and diabetes by supplementing a more normal diet with berries.”
She added: “In our study, the açai berries led to weight gain and higher levels of fat in the liver.”

The researchers warned against eating large quantities of lingonberry jam, because boiling the berries can affect their nutrient content and jam contains a lot of sugar. They recommended eating frozen lingonberries on cereal or in a smoothie.

Source: telegraph

Large amounts of folic acid could lead to development of breast cancer

A scientist shown for the first time that folic acid supplements in doses 2.5 to five times the daily requirement “significantly promotes” the growth of existing pre-cancerous or cancerous cells in the mammary glands of rats.

Dr. Young-In Kim said that this is a critically important issue because breast cancer patients and survivors in North America are exposed to high levels of folic acid through folic acid fortification in food and widespread use of vitamin supplements after a cancer diagnosis.

The amount of folic acid consumed in North America has increased dramatically in the past 15 years. Women are routinely advised to take folic acid supplements before becoming pregnant and while pregnant to prevent neural tube birth defects such as spina bifida.

His research was published in the online journal PLOS ONE.

Source: healcon

High-fluoride paste may prevent white spots from braces

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Adolescents may not be able to get out of wearing braces, but using a high-fluoride toothpaste for the duration could help them avoid white marks the devices often leave behind, according to a new study from Sweden.

The special paste with almost four times the usual fluoride content helped prevent about a third of the chalky-looking spots among kids between the ages of 11 and 16 years old, researchers say.

Past studies have shown that up to 85 percent of patients who wear braces may develop these so-called white spot lesions, which represent local tooth decay and tend to be permanent.

“To reduce this effect, several products are available on the market, but evidence of the effectiveness of the products is lacking,” said Mikael Sonesson, lead author of the study and an orthodontist at Malmö University.

To see whether a high-fluoride toothpaste that patients could use at home would protect against the spots, more than 400 kids at five dental practices who were scheduled to get braces were recruited starting in 2008.

They were randomly divided into two groups, with about half receiving a paste containing 5,100 parts per million fluoride to use at home and the other half receiving paste that was similar in every way, except it contained 1,450 ppm fluoride – the amount in most standard commercial brands, according to the researchers.

Before getting their braces, all the youngsters had detailed photos taken of their teeth and photos were taken again after the braces were removed. The participants wore braces for an average of 1.8 years and received toothpaste supplies for as long as they did.

Two clinicians who did not know which fluoride paste the youngsters had used evaluated all the before-and-after photos to assess the presence and severity of white spots using a four-point scale.

About 10 percent of participants dropped out of the study for various reasons, though no side effects of the toothpastes were reported, Sonesson and his colleagues note in the European Journal of Orthodontics.

When the researchers analyzed results for the remaining participants, they found that about 45 percent of patients who brushed with regular toothpaste developed white spots, whereas only 34.6 percent of those who used the high-fluoride paste developed spots. That translates to about 32 percent fewer white spots in the high-fluoride group.

The results were not surprising, given previous research on the use of fluoride for preventing cavities, according to Nisreen Takulla, a dentist in the Boston area.

“High-fluoride toothpastes are often prescribed for patients at a high risk of dental caries, to be used once a day instead of regular toothpaste, and topical fluorides have also been proven to be very effective for caries control,” said Takulla. Other ways to get higher doses of fluoride include mouth rinses and gels applied to the teeth.

To avoid white spots and cavities when wearing braces, the study’s authors recommend being extra careful with brushing and flossing and avoiding a high-carbohydrate diet, which can be one factor that promotes tooth decay.

Additional fluoride, such as high-fluoride toothpaste, could be another important measure to prevent cavities, Sonesson said.

Such toothpastes should be used once a day in place of regular toothpaste and should not be swallowed; users also should not eat or drink for 30 minutes after brushing with high-fluoride paste.

But it’s not just the toothpaste that’s important, it’s also the way one brushes, according to Takulla.

“Using the right technique to brush, and ensuring all surfaces of the teeth are cleaned, is as important (as the toothpaste used),” Takulla said.

Finally, in addition to home care, a dental exam and cleaning to identify white spots as early as possible, along with the application of a fluoride varnish, should be done every four to six months, Takulla said.

Source: reuters