French investigators have found that erectile dysfunction is experienced twice as often among obese men compared to normal weight men. However, obese women were no more likely to experience sexual dysfunction than normal weight women. But younger obese women were three times as likely to have met a partner on the internet, and were more likely to have an obese partner than normal weight women.
PositiveTip: Obesity not only impacts overall health, it can also negatively impact healthy relationships and emotions.
The Centers for Disease Control and the Oregon Public Health Division has revealed that almost one in five two year olds has a television in their bedroom.
These children watch more than two hours of programming every day. Excessive exposure of infants to television is associated with impaired cognitive, language, and emotional development as well as impaired sleep schedules and increased risk of obesity. The study showed that infants without TVs in their rooms were much more likely to experience 4 or more outings away from home each week.
Is there a long-term impact from binge drinking during the teenage years?
Researchers from the Scripps Institute explored this question by letting adolescent macaque monkeys drink amounts of alcohol equivalent to teenage binge drinking for 11 months. Then they withdrew all alcohol for 8-10 weeks, and examined their brain tissue. Compared to non-drinking monkeys, they found that the binge-drinkers had significantly greater brain tissue degeneration.
PositiveTip: It is essential to educate teens about the long-term, permanent changes that can be the result of reckless behaviors.
The prevalence of super-obesity (when the BMI [body-mass index] is more than 50 kg/m2) is rising sharply in the United States.
An analysis of more than 854,000 live births in Missouri reveals that super-obese women experienced 4.7 times the rate of preeclampsia compared with normal-weight women. Women in the super-obese category who gained the most weight during pregnancy had 13.4 times the risk of preeclampsia than their normal-weight peers.
PositiveTip: Weight-control is an essential ingredient to having a healthy pregnancy with minimal complications.
A study in Sweden has examined Vitamin D levels in older men for 11 years.
Using gold-standard methods, these researchers found that when Vitamin D levels (25[OH]D) were below 16 ng/ml the risk of fracture rose. However, only 5% of men fell into this category, and only 3% of all fractures were attributable to low Vitamin D status. This and other studies suggest that a Vitamin D level (serum 25(OH)D) around 20 ng/ml is a safe threshold for bone health.
Analysis of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey from 1991 to 2009 reveals that cigarette use among U.S. high school students is declining, but slowly.
Nearly half of high school students have tried smoking (even one or two puffs), and 20% smoked at least one day in the previous 30 days, with 7% smoking 20 or more days during the past month. (Maybe they should all watch this video!)
PositiveTip: Talk to young people about the dangers of smoking, and support local and national efforts to control access and promotion of cigarettes.
Glucosamine is a very popular dietary supplement marketed widely as a treatment for osteoarthritis. Patients with imaging-based degenerative lumbar osteoarthritis and back pain for at least 6 months received either glucosamine or a placebo daily for 6 months, and were then followed for another 6 months. Both groups reported less pain after treatment, but there was no significant difference between the groups.
PositiveTip: Remember, the placebo effect is very powerful, and often results in benefits equal to a popular treatment.
Many parents believe that solid food before bedtime enhances the sleep duration of their infants. However, researchers have highlighted that the early introduction of solid food and television viewing are significant risk factors for shorter sleep through two years old. At age one year the impact of solid food introduced before 4 months of age was greater than maternal prenatal depression. Amazingly, each hour of television viewing per week shortened sleep by .11 hours per day!
PositiveTip: Babies need to be breast fed if at all possible until they are really ready for solid foods. Keep the TV off too!
Social networking sites (SNSs) like Facebook and MySpace are thought by some to be the only place where sexual victimization of youth occurs. However, researchers have identified that only one third of arrests for these crimes occurred on SNSs. Most offenders used chat rooms, instant messaging, and videoconferencing in addition to SNSs.
The third most common killer in the U.S. is stroke. The Interstroke study of stroke cases in 22 countries ranked the most common risk factors as follows:
A history of high blood pressure increased the risk by 2.5 times, and smoking by more than double. Regular exercise cut stroke by more than 30%.
PositiveTip: All these risk factors are related to positive lifestyle choices. What choices are you making?
The material in this website is provided for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. It should not be used to diagnose or treat any illness, metabolic disorder, disease or health problem. Always consult your physician or health care provider before beginning any nutrition or exercise program. Use of the programs, advice, and information contained in this website is at the sole choice and risk of the reader.