Susan Perry writes Second Opinion for MinnPost, covering consumer health. She has written several health-related books, and her articles have appeared in a wide variety of publications.
“So many kids are at games just to get their treat afterwards, which really isn’t helping to develop healthy habits long term,” said researcher Lori Spruance. “The reward should be, ‘I got to have fun. I got to run around with my friend or score a goal.’”
Significantly fewer young people are using drugs — including alcohol and tobacco — before their 16th birthday than just a decade ago, the study found.
A second review found that omega-3 supplements may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and related events (such as a heart attack), but that the benefit is marginal.
What can you, as an individual, be doing? Well, not panicking about the possibility of a COVID-19 outbreak in your communities, for one. But there are things you can and should do to be prepared.
The study also found that drivers, regardless of the cost of their car, are more likely to yield for women and whites than for men and people of racial and ethnic minorities.
The proportion of adults in the 65-plus age group who said they had used cannabis in the previous year increased from 2.4 percent in 2015 to 4.2 percent 2018 — a jump of 75 percent.
Between 2012 and 2016, alcohol-induced deaths increased an average of 4.2 percent per year for men and a startling 7.2 percent per year for women.
“Teaching children to eat their greens is not something mothers should be doing alone,” says Kaisa Kahkonen, the study’s lead author.
The study found that 60 percent of the psychological tests and assessment tools used in courtrooms are not favorably rated by experts and thus scientifically suspect.
The most common herbs used in the trials that were tested included Camellia sinensis (green tea), Garcinia cambogia (Malabar tamarind), Ephedra sinica (ma-huang), Phaseolus vulgaris (common bean) and Irvingia gabonesis (wild mango).
Not getting enough sleep was found to be particularly associated with eating more added sugars and more food in general.
Melanoma, the most serious and aggressive form of skin cancer, used to be rare. But in recent decades, its incidence has increased faster than almost any other type of cancer.
The research also suggests that taking steps to keep people from sharing dangerously misleading information about a contagious disease could help save lives.
Women appear to benefit even more than men by combining aerobic physical activity with muscle-strengthening exercises.
The researchers estimate that if just 60 percent of travelers passing through the world’s airports kept their hands clean, the risk of a potential infectious disease pandemic would decrease by almost 70 percent.
The study also found that breaking up sedentary behavior with even light physical activity — such as walking at a slow pace, doing chores around the house or playing a musical instrument — helps reduce the risk.
Researchers found that the age at which girls begin to develop breasts has fallen by about three months per decade since the 1970s.
The effect can be seen even with single words, researchers found. The use of the word “love” in the top 100 songs, for example, has dropped in half since 1965.
Distracted pedestrians have become an urgent — and growing — public health concern. An estimated 6,283 pedestrians in the U.S. were hit and killed by a vehicle in 2018, the highest number since 1990.
Eating two servings a week of processed meat or red meat increased the risk of cardiovascular disease by 3 percent to 7 percent.
