Is Plastic Making Your Child Fat?
Facing
Dementia IT’S SOMEWHAT NATURAL that memories get fuzzier with age, but when are such lapses something to worry about? One warning sign may be the inability to recognize the faces of such famous historical and pop culture figures as Oprah Winfrey, Albert Einstein, Elvis and more. Researchers at the UniDo you know who this is? versity of Chicago say the inability to recognize faces of the very famous may be a sign of primary progressive aphasia, a form of memory loss that tends to strike men and women between the ages of 40 and 65. In their study, researchers showed about 20 black and white photographs of widely recognizable historical and celebrity faces such as Lucille Ball, Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy to healthy adults and those diagnosed with aphasia. They then used MRI scans to assess the brain patterns in the two groups to map brain irregularities. They found that more than 93 percent of the icons were recognized by the healthy group, while the aphasia group only had about 46 percent success. Ultimately, researchers said, this kind of recognition test might be a helpful diagnostic tool. The research was reported recently in the journal Neurology.
AS SCIENTISTS CONTINUE TO DIG into the causes of childhood obesity, researchers are homing in on another culprit in the battle of the bulge among youngsters: Plastic food wraps and containers. Two studies that recently appeared in the journal Pediatrics make the case that substances in plastic, which have been associated with a host of other health issues, are playing a role in childhood obesity. One study associated the presence of a chemical known as phthalates, common in some plastics, with increased insulin resistance in children. Insulin resistance issues are known to play a role in childhood diabetes and obesity. The other study found an increase in the compound BPA in the urine of obese children. Researchers speculate it’s possible that the food sources of obese children, such as fast food containers, may play a role in the increased BPA levels and cautioned their findings don’t necessarily establish a cause and effect relationship between the substance and obesity. Still, researchers suggested avoiding using plastic containers containing the recycling numbers 3, 6 and 7, which are associated with phthalates and BPA, when buying food or snacks for your kids. Source: tinyurl.com/hl13plastics
Source: tinyurl.com/hl13dementia
Lotta Java, Less Life? DOES INDULGING A HEAVY MORNING (OR ALL-DAY) COFFEE HABIT lead to a shorter life? Maybe, according to researchers at the University of South Carolina, who have found that people who drink coffee heavily (think four or more cups a day) seem to have higher premature death rates than their more moderate coffee-sipping counterparts. The association between coffee con-
sumption and early mortality seemed to be especially prevalent in study subjects younger than 55 who drank more than 28 cups of coffee a week. The study, reported in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings, looked at the coffee-drinking habits and mortality rates of more than 40,000 subjects. Researchers speculate it’s not coffee, per se, causing the premature deaths, but a constellation of factors, ranging
from stress to poor lifestyle habits. Also noteworthy: A growing body of research has associated more moderate coffee consumption with positive health benefits including the prevention of dementia and Parkinson’s Disease, Type 2 diabetes and certain skin cancers. So a daily wake-up cup is probably a sip to your health. Source: tinyurl.com/hl13coffee
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