Child's sleep linked to adulthood obesity risk

Child's sleep linked to adulthood obesity risk - Yahoo! News:
2008.11.03
"Consistently getting a good night's sleep may help protect children from becoming obese as adults... those who got too little sleep as children were more likely than their well-rested counterparts to become obese adults... early sleep habits have a direct effect on weight in the long term...A number of studies have found that sleep-deprived adults and children are at greater risk of being overweight. However, this is the first study to show a long-term relationship between sleep and obesity risk...The study involved 1,037 men and women who had been followed since their birth, between 1972 and 1973, up to the age of 32. When the participants were 5, 7, 9 and 11 years old, their parents reported on their usual bed time and wake-up time...In general, Hancox and his colleagues found, as childhood sleep time declined, adulthood body mass index, or BMI, climbed...Experts generally recommend that children between the ages of 5 and 12 sleep for about 11 hours each night, while teenagers should get 8.5 to 9.5 hours...One theory, based on research in the sleep lab, is that sleep deprivation alters the normal balance of appetite-stimulating and appetite-suppressing hormones. Sleepy children may also be too tired for physical activity during the day..."

This is important, on the level of prenatal diets changing genes. Alas it comes at a time when it will get negligible attention.


DogVitals natural antioxidant supplement - helping dogs health from the inside out

Kids mimic parents' diets from an early age s

Kids mimic parents' diets from an early age - Yahoo! News:
2008.11.03
"Parents who want their preschoolers to eat their vegetables may need to take a hard look at their own eating habits...Children who stocked up on sweets, sugary drinks and salty snacks generally had parents whose typical grocery list featured such items. Similarly, children with the healthiest shopping habits seemed to be following their parents' lead as well..."The data suggest that children begin to assimilate and mimic their parents' food choices at a very young age, even before they are able to fully appreciate the implications of these choices,"..."

DogVitals natural antioxidant supplement - helping dogs health from the inside out

Early infections may increase arthritis risk

Early infections may increase arthritis risk - Yahoo! News:
2008.10.27
"Previous studies have suggested infections somehow trigger the autoimmune condition later in life but the Swedish findings raise the possibility infections may somehow change the way an immature immune system develops...whether the children had any infections during the first 12 months of life. Compared to people without the conditions, children who had serious infections early on were more than twice as likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis as a young adult..."

DogVitals powerful antioxidant supplement for dogs - helping dogs live a younger, healthier life

Fish in children's diet cuts eczema risk

Fish in children's diet cuts eczema risk: study - Yahoo! News:
2008.09.24
"Feeding babies as little as one portion of fish before they are nine months old may cut their risk of developing eczema, Swedish researchers said on Thursday...Introducing fish of any type into the diet curbed the risk of contracting the skin condition by 25 percent compared with children who never ate it..."There was no link with the amount of fish or type of fish. We think it is more the timing of the introduction."..."It must have something to do with its influence on the developing immune system,"..."

DogVitals powerful antioxidant supplement for dogs - helping dogs live a younger, healthier life

Helmet law halved child bike deaths

Helmet law halved child bike deaths - Yahoo! News:
2008.09.02
"The number of bike-related deaths among children younger than 16 fell by more than half after a Canadian bike-helmet law went into effect..."

DogVitals powerful antioxidant supplement for dogs - helping dogs live a younger, healthier life

Use Of Cleaning Products During Pregnancy Increases Risk Of Asthma In Young Children

Use Of Cleaning Products During Pregnancy Increases Risk Of Asthma In Young Children: "ScienceDaily (Aug. 7, 2008) — Women who use a lot of household cleaning products when they are pregnant, or shortly after giving birth, are increasing their child’s risk of developing asthma. That’s according to the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents of Children (ALSPAC, also known as Children of the Nineties), that recruited over 13,000 children from before birth and has followed them to post 16...early life exposure to the chemicals contained in household cleaning products was linked to a 41% increase in a child’s chances of developing asthma by the age of 7 years...“Previous research has shown that a child’s risk of developing asthma is lower if he or she is exposed to bacteria or bacterial products (endotoxins) in early life (‘hygiene hypothesis’), probably because it assists in the development of a child’s immune system...However, our research suggests that one possible mechanism for this hypothesis may involve the chemicals found in domestic cleaning products. These chemicals have been linked to increased risk of asthma with additional evidence from studies of workers who have exposure to cleaning chemicals”."

DogVitals powerful antioxidant supplement for dogs - helping dogs live a younger, healthier life

Stomach Bug Appears To Protect Kids From Asthma

Stomach Bug Appears To Protect Kids From Asthma, Says New Study: "ScienceDaily (July 20, 2008) — A long-time microbial inhabitant of the human stomach may protect children from developing asthma, according to a new study among more than 7,000 subjects led by NYU Langone Medical Center researchers. Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that has co-existed with humans for at least 50,000 years, may lead to peptic ulcers and stomach cancer. Yet, kids between the ages of 3 and 13 are nearly 59 percent less likely to have asthma if they carry the bug, the researchers report...Asthma has been rising steadily for the past half-century. Meanwhile H. pylori, once nearly universal in humans, has been slowly disappearing from developed countries over the past century due to increased antibiotic use, which kills off the bacteria, and cleaner water and homes...The rise in asthma over the past decades, Dr. Blaser says, could stem from the fact that a stomach harboring H. pylori has a different immunological status from one lacking the bug. When H. pylori is present, the stomach is lined with immune cells called regulatory T cells that control the body's response to invaders. Without these cells, a child can be more sensitive to allergens..."Our hypothesis is that if you have Helicobacter you have a greater population of regulatory T-cells that are setting a higher threshold for sensitization," Dr. Blaser explains. "For example, if a child doesn't have Helicobacter and has contact with two or three cockroaches, he may get sensitized to them. But if Helicobacter is directing the immune response, then even if a child comes into contact with many cockroaches he may not get sensitized because his immune system is more tolerant."...In other words, the presence of the bacteria in the stomach may influence how a child's immune system develops: if a child does not encounter Helicobacter early on, the immune system may not learn how to regulate a response to allergens. Therefore, the child may be more likely to mount the kinds of inflammatory responses that trigger asthma..."

DogVitals powerful antioxidant supplement for dogs - helping dogs live a younger, healthier life

Prenatal vitamin D linked to kids' dental health

Prenatal vitamin D linked to kids' dental health - Yahoo! News:
2008.07.07
"By maintaining adequate vitamin D levels during pregnancy, mothers may be protecting their babies against early tooth decay in childhood... "However, this is the first known study that has attempted to link blood levels of vitamin D and infant oral health, particularly caries (tooth decay) and suggesting a significant association,""

DogVitals powerful antioxidant supplement for dogs - helping dogs live a younger, healthier life

Children Eat More Fruits And Vegetables If They Are Homegrown

Children Eat More Fruits And Vegetables If They Are Homegrown: ScienceDaily
2007.04.19
"'It was a simple, clear finding,' said Debra Haire-Joshu, Ph.D., director of Saint Louis University's Obesity Prevention Center and a study author. 'Whether a food is homegrown makes a difference. Garden produce creates what we call a 'positive food environment."..."When children are involved with growing and cooking food, it improves their diet," Haire-Joshu said. "Students at schools with gardens learn about math and science and they also eat more fruits and vegetables. Kids eat healthier and they know more about eating healthy. It's a winning and low-cost strategy to improve the nutrition of our children at a time when the pediatric obesity is an epidemic problem."

DogVitals dog supplement - helping dogs live a younger, healthier life

Studies link lead to adult crime, brain damage

Studies link lead to adult crime, brain damage - Yahoo! News:
2008.05.27
"Exposure to lead in early childhood or in the womb can cause permanent brain damage that may even cause criminal behavior, researchers reported on Tuesday...Two studies showed that people with high levels of lead in childhood grew up with blocks of missing brain cells -- and they also were far more likely to be arrested for crimes, especially violent crimes...The effect is so strong that it may account for a large percentage of crimes in inner-city areas, where old houses are far more likely to have lead paint, said Kim Dietrich of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, who led one of the studies in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine...Those with high lead levels before birth and during early childhood had higher rates of arrest than those with lower lead levels. About 55 percent of the now-grown children had at least one arrest, 28 percent involving drugs and 27 percent serious motor vehicle violations."..Lower income, inner-city children remain particularly vulnerable to lead exposure," Dietrich said...more than 1 percent of total gray matter in the brain was missing. "The most affected regions included frontal gray matter, specifically the anterior cingulate cortex," Cecil's team wrote in a second study. This region is responsible for mood regulation and decision-making.

Men were far more affected than women.

"Our findings also suggest that this structural change is permanent," they wrote.

The implications are profound, Dietrich said. "Usually the effects of lead poisoning are irreversible," he said..."

This is an unbelievably important story. If the research is correct, lead is clearly much worse than previously imagined in derailing proper brain development and function in a significant portion of our population. The next administration needs to make this a priority. And the press needs to make this story number #1 tomorrow and for the next few days. Will they?

More on lead -

Childhood Lead Exposure Is Associated With Decreased Brain Volume In Adults: ScienceDaily 2008.05.27 "...There was a "dose-response" effect--in other words, the greatest brain volume loss was seen in participants with the greatest lead exposure in childhood. The specific regions of the brain involved were those responsible for organizing actions, decisions, and behaviors (known as "executive functions"), regulating behaviors, and coordinating fine movements (known as "fine motor control")..."

Prenatal Exposure To Lead Linked To Obesity In Males: "ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2008)

Early Lead Exposure Impedes Recovery From Brain Injury: "ScienceDaily (Dec. 4, 2007)

How Lead Exposure Produces Learning Deficits: ScienceDaily (Apr. 4, 2007) "The study shows that exposure to levels of lead that are similar to those measured in lead-intoxicated children reduces the birth and survival of new neurons (neurogenesis) in the brain. Lead also alters the normal development of newly born neurons in a part of the brain (hippocampus) known to be important for learning and memory. The study is published in the March 30, 2007, issue of Neuroscience."

Stimulating Environment Protects Brain Against Damage From Lead Exposure: "ScienceDaily (Apr. 3, 2001)

Children More Vulnerable To Harmful Effects Of Lead: "ScienceDaily (May 5, 2008)

Very Low Lead Levels Linked With IQ Deficits, According To NEJM Study: "ScienceDaily (Apr. 17, 2003)

Study Links Lead Exposure To Antisocial Behavior: "ScienceDaily (Mar. 1, 2002)"

Pitt Research Shows Early Lead Exposure Is A Significant Cause Of Juvenile Delinquency: "ScienceDaily (May 16, 2000)"

Lead In The Environment Causes Violent Crime, Reports University Of Pittsburgh Researcher: "ScienceDaily (Feb. 26, 2005)

Even Low Lead Exposure Linked To ADHD: "ScienceDaily (Dec. 6, 2007)"

Does vitamin C intake protect against lead toxicit...[Nutr Rev. 2000] - PubMed Result: "Department of Foods and Nutrition, Faculty of Gerontology, University of Georgia, Athens 30602, USA."

Chelation Therapy for Childhood Lead Poisoning:: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/organizations/DDIL/chelation.htm

Lead Poisoning-Topic Overview: WebMD

DogVitals dog supplement - helping dogs live a younger, healthier life naturally

Vitamin D Important In Brain Development And Function

Vitamin D Important In Brain Development And Function Science Daily
2008.04.23
"In a definitive critical review, scientists at Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland ask whether there is convincing biological or behavioral evidence linking vitamin D deficiency to brain dysfunction. Joyce C. McCann, Ph.D., assistant staff scientist and Bruce N. Ames, Ph.D., senior scientist at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) conclude that there is ample biological evidence to suggest an important role for vitamin D in brain development and function, and that supplementation for groups chronically low in vitamin D is warranted...we now know that, in addition to its role in maintaining bone health, vitamin D is involved in differentiation of tissues during development and in proper functioning of the immune system...In fact, over 900 different genes are now known to be able to bind the vitamin D receptor, through which vitamin D mediates its effects. In addition to protecting against rickets, evidence now strongly indicates that a plentiful supply of vitamin D helps to protect against bone fractures in the elderly. Evidence also continues to accumulate suggesting a beneficial role for vitamin D in protecting against autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis and type I diabetes, as well as some forms of cancer, particularly colorectal and breast...McCann & Ames point out that evidence for vitamin D's involvement in brain function includes the wide distribution of vitamin D receptors throughout the brain. They also discuss vitamin D's ability to affect proteins in the brain known to be directly involved in learning and memory, motor control, and possibly even maternal and social behavior. The review also discusses studies in both humans and animals that present suggestive though not definitive evidence of cognitive or behavioral consequences of vitamin D inadequacy..."

DogVitals powerful antioxidant supplement for dogs - helping dogs live a younger, healthier life

Too little childhood sleep tied to later health problems

Too little childhood sleep tied to later problems - Yahoo! News: (Reuters) -
2008.04.07
"Getting too little sleep doubles a young child's risk of being overweight and raises the chances
of later anxiety and depression...In a study involving 915 children in Massachusetts, they found that those who slept less than 12 hours a day in the first two years of life were twice as likely to be overweight at age 3 than children who slept longer...Another team of researchers led by Alice Gregory of the University of London examined the long-term emotional fallout from too little sleep in childhood. They gathered sleep data on 2,076 Dutch children ages 4 to 16, and then questioned them as adults years later about various emotional and behavioral symptoms...The children who slept less than others reported more anxiety, depression and aggressive behavior as adults..."

DogVitals powerful antioxidant supplement for dogs - helping dogs live a younger, healthier life

Honey beats medicine at curing coughs

Honey beats medicine at curing coughs - NutraIngredients.com
2007.12.05
"New research from the US suggests that naturally occurring honey may ease coughs and respiratory illnesses in children more effectively than over the counter medicines...scientists from the Penn State College of Medicine researchers asked parents to give either honey, honey flavoured dextromethorphan (DM), or no treatment to 105 children, between the ages of 2 and 18 children, all suffering from nocturnal coughs...Based on parental "symptom points", children treated with honey improved by an average of 10.71 points compared with 8.39 points for DM-treated children and 6.41 points for those who were not treated..."

"DogVitals powerful antioxidant supplement for dogs - helping dogs live a younger, healthier life

Even Very Low Levels Of Lead Cause Brain Damage In Children

Even Very Low Levels Of Lead Cause Brain Damage In Children - ScienceDaily
2007.11.21
"...amounts well below the current federal standard -- are associated with reduced IQ scores..."We found that the average IQ scores of children with BLLs of only 5 to 10 mcg/dl were about 5 points lower than the IQ scores of children with BLLs less than 5 mcg/dl. This indicates an adverse effect on children who have a BLL substantially below the CDC standard, suggesting the need for more stringent regulations,"...According to the CDC, about one out of every 50 children in the United States between ages 1 and 5 has a BLL above 10 mcg/dl and about 10 percent of children have BLLs of 5 mcg/dl or higher; about 25 percent of U.S. homes with children under age 6 have a lead-based paint hazard..."The bottom line," according to Canfield, "is that lead is a persistent neurotoxin that causes brain damage. The fact that lead has been found in millions of toys, even toys specifically designed for children to put into their mouths, presents an unacceptable risk. Our findings suggest the need to re-evaluate the current federal standards for lead in consumer products and the current definition of an elevated BLL in children."..."

"DogVitals powerful antioxidant supplement for dogs - helping dogs live a younger, healthier life

Tonsillectomy can improve kids' sleep, behavior

Tonsillectomy can improve kids' sleep, behavior - Yahoo! News
2007.10.23
"...Children with sleep disordered breathing who undergo adenotonsillectomy - surgical removal of the tonsils and adenoids -- may not only start sleeping better, but may also show improvements in behavior...Often, the problem stems from enlarged tonsils and adenoids, masses of tissue that help catch incoming germs; the tonsils are located in the back of the throat, while the adenoids dwell behind the nose...Studies have found that children with sleep disordered breathing also have an elevated rate of behavioral problems, including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and poor school performance. It's thought that poor sleep quality contributes to these problems..."

"DogVitals dog supplement - helping dogs live a younger, healthier life

Lack of Sleep Set Back Your Child's Cognitive Abilities

Can a Lack of Sleep Set Back Your Child's Cognitive Abilities? -- New York Magazine
2007.10
"...The performance gap caused by an hour’s difference in sleep was bigger than the normal gap between a fourth-grader and a sixth-grader. Which is another way of saying that a slightly sleepy sixth-grader will perform in class like a mere fourth-grader. “A loss of one hour of sleep is equivalent to [the loss of] two years of cognitive maturation and development,” ...Dr. Paul Suratt of the University of Virginia studied the impact of sleep problems on vocabulary-test scores of elementary-school students. He also found a seven-point reduction in scores. Seven points, Suratt notes, is significant: “Sleep disorders can impair children’s I.Q.’s as much as lead exposure.”...Teens who received A’s averaged about fifteen more minutes sleep than the B students, who in turn averaged eleven more minutes than the C’s, and the C’s had ten more minutes than the D’s. Wahlstrom’s data was an almost perfect replication of results from an earlier study of more than 3,000 Rhode Island high schoolers...With the benefit of functional MRI scans, researchers are now starting to understand exactly how sleep loss impairs a child’s brain. Tired children can’t remember what they just learned, for instance, because neurons lose their plasticity, becoming incapable of forming the synaptic connections necessary to encode a memory...

Sleep loss debilitates our body’s ability to extract glucose from the bloodstream. Without this stream of basic energy, one part of the brain suffers more than the rest: the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for what’s called “executive function.” Among these executive functions are the orchestration of thoughts to fulfill a goal, the prediction of outcomes, and perceiving consequences of actions. So tired people have difficulty with impulse control, and their abstract goals like studying take a back seat to more entertaining diversions. A tired brain perseverates—it gets stuck on a wrong answer and can’t come up with a more creative solution, repeatedly returning to the same answer it already knows is erroneous...a handful of school districts around the nation are starting school later in the morning. The best known of these is in Edina, Minnesota, an affluent suburb of Minneapolis, where the high school start time was changed from 7:25 a.m. to 8:30. The results were startling. In the year preceding the time change, math and verbal SAT scores for the top 10 percent of Edina’s students averaged 1288. A year later, the top 10 percent averaged 1500..."

More interesting sleep dep. information at the article.

"DogVitals dog supplement - helping dogs live a younger, healthier life

Lactobaccillus GG probiotic proven again to treat diarrhea

Despite Claims, Not All Probiotics Can Treat Diarrhea Say Experts ScienceDaily 8/11/07 "...Duration of diarrhoea was significantly lower in children receiving Lactobacillus GG and a mix of four bacterial strains than in patients receiving oral rehydration alone...not all commercially available probiotic preparations are effective in children with acute diarrhoea...The effectiveness of Lactobacillus GG was not unexpected as several previous studies have shown similar results...the lack of effect in children receiving Saccharomyces boulardii was unexpected, they say, because a previous trial showed it to be beneficial in young children admitted to hospital for diarrhoea..."

DogVitals dog supplement - helping dogs live a younger, healthier life

Zinc reduces mortality in children

Zinc Supplementation Found To Reduce Mortality In Older Children ScienceDaily 3/18/07 "A clinical trial conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public concluded that daily zinc supplements reduced the risk of death among children aged 12 to 48 months by 18 percent. However, the researchers did not find any significant reduction in mortality among children 1 to 11 months of age. ...Zinc is one of the most plentiful trace elements in the body, second only to iron. It mediates many physiological functions and is believed to be essential for maintaining a healthy immune system...This large trial demonstrates that the benefits of zinc supplementation include mortality reduction in addition to the reduction in cases of pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria that we found in previous trials,” said Robert Black, MD...double-blind trial involved 42,546 children...it is possible that infants acquire sufficient amounts of zinc in utero and through breast feeding to sustain them during the first year of life..."

DogVitals antioxidant supplement for your dogs health

Kids who get less sleep weigh more

Kids who get less sleep weigh more, study finds Reuters/Yahoo!News 2/7/07 ""Children who get less sleep tend to weigh more five years later," lead researcher Emily Snell ...an extra hour of sleep cut the likelihood of being overweight from 36 percent to 30 percent in children ages 3 to 8, and from 34 to 30 percent in those ages 8 to 13...sleep experts recommend that children ages 5 to 12 sleep for 10 to 11 hours a night and adolescents sleep for 8 to 9 hours. But the researchers said children in the study at age 7 on average got less than 10 hours of sleep on weekdays and at age 14 got 8.5 hours of sleep on weekdays...Not getting enough sleep may affect hormones that influence appetite...The researchers noted there is growing evidence linking sleep to children's cognitive and social functioning, with previous research connecting sleep problems and too little sleep to maladjustment in preschoolers and depression and school problems in adolescents. "

There's also tv that increases the chance that kids will be overweight.

DogVitals antioxidant supplement for dogs

Breast-feeding can improve stereoscopic vision

Breast-feeding enhances kids' eyesight Reuters/Yahoo!News 2/7/07 "Breast-fed children are significantly more likely to do well in measures of stereoscopic vision than are those who received formula during infancy,..."Our study," Dr. Atul Singhal of the Institute of Child Health, London, told Reuters Health, "adds to the growing evidence that breast-feeding has long-term benefits for visual development."..."We don't know the mechanisms involved, but this benefit does not seem to be explained by the presence of certain omega 3 fatty acids -- DHA -- in human milk.""

This is a surprise since it has been thought for the past few years that DHA was the component that helped with stereoscopic vision. This research controlled for DHA and found it did not aid in the development of vision when added to baby formula. So then what is the component (s)? Or does DHA have to be combined with other components of breast milk that formula does not have?

Don't drop the DHA supplement yet because DHA can boost a babies intelligence .

Good site on Breastfeeding vs. Formula Feeding

DogVitals antioxidant supplement for dogs