From May 2020

Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DT6HO5kjrwe/

As our house arrest continues, we all yearn for anything to improve our outlooks on life. Researchers at Iowa State University studied 423 young adults 20 to 35 years of age surveying their moods and quantitating their physical activities over 10 days using wearable sensors.

Almost anything is better than sitting around. Replacing prolonged sedentary time with light physical activity, moderate physical activity, or even sleep leads to mood elevation. Stimulating your mind and body, even with subconscious activity and dreams, will reset and refresh your brain.

If you find yourself sitting around for more than 30 minutes, get up and get physical. Light physical activities include walking around your home cleaning, washing dishes, or cooking.

https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(20)30136-7/pdf

#pandemic #quarantine #sedentary #sleep #cleaning

From May 2020

Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DT6GsiJDhL-/

Women with a miscarriage history attempting to get pregnant may lose the fetus to aggressive exercising even before they know they are pregnant. Epidemiologists at UMass-Amherst studied 785 high risk pregnancies in young women with one or two previous miscarriages.

Seven percent of the women suffered yet another miscarriage just as their pregnancy was establishing. Those who lost their fetus at the time it would be implanting, the risk of loss was two-fold greater in those women pursuing moderate or intense exercise regimens.

If you have a history of miscarriage, avoid any excessive exercise during the first month even before you know you are pregnant.

https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(19)32497-5/fulltext

#pregnancy #miscarriage #miscarriage

From Sept 2022

Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DT6FxxngCbU/

Walking with your crying baby will induce calm and promote sleep better than merely sitting and holding the child. Japanese social scientists report this conclusion after studying the responses of 21 infants as their moms tried to calm them and induce their sleep by either walking them, sitting with them, or placing them in a crib with or without rocking.

Walking the babies calmed them and induced slower heart rates within 30 seconds, and the effects worked best when the holding and walking continued for 5 minutes. Almost half the babies fell asleep. Problem is, if the baby is laid down in the crib or bassinet after the 5 minutes, one-third awaken. By holding the babe for another 8 minutes after the 5 minute walk, they will fall asleep and stay that way.

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)01363-X?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS096098222201363X%3Fshowall%3Dtrue#%20

#infants #sleep #parenting #walking #5to8

From Jan 2023

Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DT6DzIGDiPW/

Those with a strong handgrip have a 26% lower risk of depression as years go by. This the conclusion after a study of 115,600 older Europeans living in 24 different countries over a 7 year period.

The investigators found a dose-response relationship between handgrip power and risk of depression for both men and women. The association seemed somewhat stronger for women than for men.

The association may be due to the fact that physical strength is an indicator of an overall level of health and well-being. Then too, those who firmly grip the hands of those they meet is an indication of a positivity that cascades through through their social and work lives.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/doseresponse-association-of-handgrip-strength-and-risk-of-depression-a-longitudinal-study-of-115-601-older-adults-from-24-countries/5D9FF0D78CF22036C3F4FF2A593F8F64

#handgrip #strength #depression #positivity

From Feb 2023

Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DT6DQatDCuV/

Listening to music you love lowers your pain threshold. Dutch anesthesia-pain researchers studied the perception of pressure- and electrically-induced pain in 415 subjects. Tolerance for both types of pain was better for those listening to their preferred brands of music rather than music they found annoying. One odd finding: listening to music you hate prior to that you love improved its pain-reducing effect.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0280036

#pain #music #preferred #disliked

From Jan 2024

Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DT6A_3Ejv-N/

Even minimal alcohol and tobacco use by pregnant women affects their child’s brain performance later. This the conclusion of a multisite, collaborative study helmed by Columbia University psychiatrists. The researchers reviewed the brain wave studies of 649 children at various ages from 5 to 11 years looking at abnormalities as a function of maternal exposures to alcohol and/or tobacco.

The good news is that 52% of the children’s mothers used NO alcohol and 87% did NOT smoke tobacco. The remainder of children demonstrated significant brain wave aberrations in association with their mothers’ exposures. Looking at alcohol exposures, children who mothers continued drinking through pregnancy evidenced double the EEG abnormalities compared with those who mothers discontinued drinking after the first trimester. Tobacco smoking during pregnancy led to significant EEG changes in the young offspring, but, interestingly enough, more so in young boys.

Other studies have shown that maternal alcohol and tobacco abuse are associated with childhood hyperactivity, cognitive malfunctions, memory issues, and impaired learning. This study, the first to look at mild to moderate drinking and smoking during pregnancy, confirms that ANY alcohol and/or tobacco consumption has long-term consequences for a growing child. There is no safe amount of smoking or drinking that won’t affect your child’s developing brain just as there is no such thing as a “touch of pregnancy!”

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2813608

#alcohol #tobacco #EEG #hyperactivity #cognitive #memory

From Jan 2024

Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DT6AdpPjloq/

When most people encounter someone half conscious on the street, fewer than 1 in 5 Americans know how to use the automated external defibrillators placed in strategic public locations. It’s a shame since half of those suffering a cardiac arrest outside a hospital will be brought back to life with a timely shock. That’s the tragedy documented by University of Texas Southwestern cardiologists who reviewed some 10,000 patients with cardiac standstill.

These AED devices are lifesaving if you know how to use them and have the guts to pull them off the wall and deploy them. To give you the confidence to save lives of friends, neighbors, strangers, and, maybe your family, I want you to watch this excellent video by the Washington Post featuring Dr. Landon Mueller of MedStar Health.

(Video)

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2813619

#AED #automatedexternaldefibrillator #cardiacarrest

Best of: Anorexia Endangers Teen Boys More Than Girls

From Feb 2024

Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/DT5_p-MDf-o/

Boys as well as girls do starve themselves to death. In fact, the mortality rate of anorexia nervosa is 1.5 to 6 times higher for males than females.

The guys most at risk for developing anorexia are those engaged in so-called strength focused sports including cycling, running, and wrestling. The male groups who most often suffer anorexia include those that are racially diverse, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer. Those in these groups tend to fast, purge, excessively exercise, and use body building drugs such as anabolic steroids.

Anorexia is associated with significant disruptions in metabolism including electrolytes, lipids, and bone nutrition. It upsets both cardiovascular and. gastrointestinal functionality.

Of most importance, this disease is life-threatening. Karen Carpenter succumbed to it and her beautiful singing voice was silenced by a heart attack at age 32. Anorexia’s standardized mortality rate has been reported to be as high as 16%. The reported rate for females with anorexia is 5-fold higher than than for the general population. For males, it could be as much as 30-fold higher.

If your son or grandson is engaged in activities or is a member of a vulnerable group, do all you can to help him seek an evaluation and care. Don’t look back later and regret that you didn’t do more.

https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/196/6/E191.full.pdf

https://journals.lww.com/co-psychiatry/Fulltext/2021/11000/Incidence,_prevalence_and_mortality_of_anorexia.2.aspx

#anorexia #males #females #teens #death

anorexia, males, females, teens, death