TheWellnessLiving Health Tips

Some countries are starting to experience  shift in the age when children learn to read. In some cases this is due to the spread of homeschooling and in others because schools are incorporating more reading into the kindergarten and daycare segments. Not much research has yet been done on the long-term effects of early reading, but many pieces of evidence point to a series of benefits that can result in better academic and social skills. Some experts coincide in recognize some important benefits that derive from early reading:

• Incipient research suggests that early readers stay ahead of children wholearn later in life. Moreover, the gap between early readers and late readers seems to increases over time.
• For younger kids (younger than four) the process of reading is actually easier and more natural than for older kids. This is becasue the normal process of brain development creates a period known as “window of opportunity” when language patternsare incorporated better into the neural circuits.
• Children who already know how to read when entering school are more likely to have higher self-esteem than children who don’t.
• Children who learned early are usually much more fond of reading than other kids.
• A Yale University study found that “activating children’s neural circuitry for reading early on is key” and improves many unrelated abilities as the brain develops more efficiently.
• Finally but not less important, better readers are more likely to remain and enjoy school and even enter College than poor readers.

Very importantly, we now know that kids do not need to be gifted brains in order to learn to read while babies. It’s all natural and several methods that allow parents and educators to teach their babies and toddlers are available. For more information on how your baby can read visit ABabyCanRead.com

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Thanks to her teacher’s efforts, my daughter is very interested in learning what foods or beverages are healthy for her and which ones are not. She usually asks whether this snack or that drink are good or bad. Even though I’m usually pretty sure I’m telling the right answer, it’s only common sense, but a little of actual knowledge would be fine to support my advice.

The National Institute of Public Health of Mexico has recently put together “Beverage Consumption  Recommendations” aimed to serve as a guideline for consumers, health professionals, and government officials. One of the main reasons that encouraged this work is the alarming increase in overweight, obesity and diabetes in Mexico. It is thought that beverages contribute a fifth of all calories consumed by Mexicans, and many studies found that caloric beverages increase the risk of obesity. After considering all these evidences, it is clear that educating people and professionals on the benefits and risks associated to the most common drinks is of prime importance to improve the public health conditions.

The committee classified beverages into six levels regarding their health benefits and risks. Some aspects taken into account were caloric content, nutritional value, and health risks associated with the consumption of each type of beverage. The beverages were ranked from the healthier (level 1) to least healthy (level 6):

Level 1: water

Level 2: skim or low fat (1%) milk and sugar free soy beverages

Level 3: coffee and tea without sugar

Level 4: non-caloric beverages with artificial sweeteners

Level 5: beverages with high caloric content and limited health benefits (fruit juices, whole milk, and fruit smoothies with sugar or honey; alcoholic and sports drinks)

Level 6: beverages high in sugar and with low nutritional value (soft drinks and other beverages with significant amounts of added sugar like juices, flavored waters, coffee and tea).

As a conclusion, the panel advices that water should constitute the first choice, followed by no or low-calorie drinks, and skim milk. People should prefer these beverages over others with high caloric value or sweetened beverages, including those containing artificial sweeteners.

Some parts of this ranking agree more or less with our perception, water is obviously a ‘healthy’ option, but it may surprise many people to find out that some beverages, heavily advertised as healthy stuff go quite low in the list, such as fruit juices and fruit smoothies. Time to reconsider what we take in our lunch-bags!

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The March issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry published a note by Dr. Jerald Block in which he argues that Internet addiction should be included in the next update of the DSM handbook, the Bible of mental health conditions.

Dr Block says that the diagnosis of Internet addiction is a type of compulsive-impulsive disorder that involves online and/or offline computer usage. He recognizes three subtypes, characterised by a) excessive gaming, b) sexual preoccupations, and c) e-mail/text messaging.

In turn, these variants have the following four components:

1) excessive use (through loss of sense of time)

2) withdrawal (characterised by feelings of anger and/or depression when the computer is not available)

3) tolerance (need for better computer equipment, more software, or more hours of use)

4) negative repercussions in social life (arguments, lying, poor achievement, social isolation, and fatigue)

Some countries are already deeply concerned about this problem, such as Korea and China, where studies have shown that large numbers of adolescents are in need of psychiatric counseling or even medication and hospitalization due to Internet and gaming addiction. Data from USA is lacking because the vast majority of Internet users access the network from home (in Asia, use of Internet cafés is more widespread) and so it is difficult to assess, but the situation seems not much different.

Inclusion into DSM-V is a critical goal for many professionals who investigate new or poorly described mental conditions. Being listed in DSM is a sort of ‘official recognition’ as a disease and thus it is more likely to get grants or other forms of financial help to carry out studies and trials, which will lead to improving the chances for treatment.

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A recent report informs that a great proportion of infants with bronchiolitis have an inherent predisposition.

Bronchiolitis is the most common acute wheezing disease in infants and is a frequent reason of admission to hospital during the first year of life in developed countries. Moreover, about 10% of these patients need respiratory support.

Bronchiolitis usually develops in babies undergoing respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection. Although in most cases infection with RSV produce mild symptoms like cough and wheeze, some can develop potentially life-threatening bronchiolitis. Although premature babies are more susceptible to this condition, the majority of hospitalized infants were otherwise healthy. The study made by University of Liverpool researchers found that these babies that got the severe manifestation but were previously healthy have a different immune response to the ones with mild symptoms. The study, with about 200 babies recorded during 5 years found that those having severe bronchiolitis had lower levels of interferon-gamma and P-substance in their airway secretions. Gamma interferon is made in the body in response to viral infections. P substance is less known but is believed to be involved in the inflammatory process.

Study members said that the work helps to understand the relationship between chest problems in childhood with the occurrence of bronchiolitis in infancy. This study shows that the predisposition to bronchiolitis is related to the capacity to fight viruses. Since the RSV is the most common respiratory virus around, it is the most lilely to be caught by babies with reduced ability to fight infections. The investigators conclude that the relation between bronchiolitis in babies and chest propensity in childhood is due to a common immune predisposition and is likely to have genetic basis.

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