Food & Eating
Tough Childhood Leads to Physical and Emotional Problems
In other news: A new app measures the saddest and happiest days worldwide, and the Mediterranean diet could improve cognitive skills for older adults.
Erinn Connor
Children with a rough home life growing up may suffer from physical problems as well as emotional problems, a new study suggests.
Mistreated children, ones exposed to domestic violence, and ones who live with someone with a serious mental illness are more likely to die prematurely, abuse drugs and alcohol and contract heart disease and depression. It is possible to avoid long-term consequences if the child is taken out of the situation.
"The good news is that, if detected early enough, the impact of family adversity on child health outcomes can be reversed, or at least attenuated," the researchers wrote in the study. "Economic interventions that provide local employment and move parents out of poverty have been shown to be temporally related to a decreased risk for behavioral disorders in the children of the assisted families. Earlier foster placement can, to some extent, reverse the deleterious neurobiological and cognitive effects of extreme deprivation in infancy."
Though researchers still don't know why these difficult situations lead to so many serious medical problems, they indicated it could cause dysfunction in the immune system and insulin resistance, which can lead to a bevy of diseases.
Recognizing when a child is in a bad situation at home is key to making sure they can be treated and live a longer, healthier life.
"Adults need to be more vigilant when it comes to looking out for children," said Carole Lieberman MD, clinical faculty member of UCLA's Neuropsychiatric Institute. "The signs are there, but adults too often miss them. For example, on one extreme, troubled children may seem sad, shy, or listless, but they may also go to the other extreme and seem angry and aggressive."
Secondhand Smoke Lowers Good Cholesterol Levels in Young Girls
New Research Suggests That Smoking Increases Risk for Depression and Schizophrenia
Why 2019 Is the Year of Resilience
Secondhand smoke could have a more serious negative health effect on girls than boys, a new Australian study found. Girls exposed to secondhand smoke had lower good cholesterol (HDL) levels than boys who were exposed.
"Secondhand smoke did not have the same impact on teenage boys of the same age, which suggests passive smoking exposure may be more harmful to girls," lead author Chi Le-Ha, MD, a researcher with the University of Western Australia, said in a statement. "Considering cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women in the western world, this is a serious concern."
A low level of good cholesterol can negatively affect the heart in anyone, but it could have bigger implications for kids.
"HDL is a building block for hormones," said Ismael Nuño, MD, professor of clinical cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Southern California. "Lowering the levels could affect their estrogen levels, which could have other effects" such as osteoporosis, irregular periods, and menopause-like symptoms.
Online App Measures Worldwide Happiness, Sadness
Now you can commiserate with the rest of the world on a bad day, using a new online application called the Hedonometer.
The app measures the world's happiness through keywords, such as laughter, haha, death and war, being used on Twitter. It will eventually pull words from Google Trends, the New York Times, and other websites.
The saddest day of the last five years so far is April 15, 2013 — the day of the Boston Marathon bombings. The second saddest was December 14, 2012, the day of the Newtown school shooting. The happiest days are consistently Christmas Day, Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve.
Each keyword is given a value from one to nine, one being extremely sad and nine being extremely happy. Words like cry and murder get low scores, while words like love and successful get a higher score.
Junk Food Diet Linked to Teen's Blindness
Poor eating habits led to an eye condition called nutritional optic neuropathy, according to a UK case study.Learn More
Mediterranean Diet Could Improve Cognitive Skills in Older Adults
The Mediterranean diet, which consists largely of fish, chicken, olive oil and other foods filled with omega-3 fatty acids, could help older adults retain cognitive skills.
A new study examined diet information from more than 17,000 men and women with the average age of 64. The participants were also given memory tests during the four years of the study.
"Greater adherence to Mediterranean diet was associated with lower risk of incident cognitive impairment in this large population-based study," said lead researcher Dr. Georgios Tsivgoulis, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham as well as the University of Athens, in Greece.
Since there are no definitive treatments for Alzheimer's or related dementia illnesses, anything people do to delay the onset of symptoms could be key, researchers noted.
Erinn Connor is a staff writer for Health Matters With Dr. Sanjay Gupta
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