CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — 8/19/2014 | By Diana Yates, Life Sciences Editor
"A new study of 9- and 10-year-olds finds that those who are more aerobically fit have more fibrous and compact white-matter tracts in the brain than their peers who are less fit. “White matter” describes the bundles of axons that carry nerve signals from one brain region to another. More compact white matter is associated with faster and more efficient nerve activity.
With his colleagues, Beckman Institute director Arthur Kramer found an association between physical fitness and the integrity of white-matter tracts in the brains of 9- and 10-year-old children.
The team reports its findings in the open-access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
“Previous studies suggest that children with higher levels of aerobic fitness show greater brain volumes in gray-matter brain regions important for memory and learning,” said University of Illinois postdoctoral researcher Laura Chaddock-Heyman, who conducted the study with kinesiology and community health professor Charles Hillman and psychology professor and Beckman Institute director Arthur Kramer. “Now for the first time we explored how aerobic fitness relates to white matter in children’s brains.”
The team used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI, also called diffusion MRI) to look at five white-matter tracts in the brains of the 24 participants. This method analyzes water diffusion into tissues. For white matter, less water diffusion means the tissue is more fibrous and compact, both desirable traits.
The researchers controlled for several variables – such as social and economic status, the timing of puberty, IQ, or a diagnosis of ADHD or other learning disabilities – that might have contributed to the reported fitness differences in the brain.
The analysis revealed significant fitness-related differences in the integrity of several white-matter tracts in the brain: the corpus callosum, which connects the brain’s left and right hemispheres; the superior longitudinal fasciculus, a pair of structures that connect the frontal and parietal lobes; and the superior corona radiata, which connect the cerebral cortex to the brain stem. “All of these tracts have been found to play a role in attention and memory,” Chaddock-Heyman said."...
This collection includes articles related to Fitness, Health, and Wellness. For a collection with resources for teaching Health Education, visit http://bit.ly/youth_health and for additional Educator Resource Collections, check out http://EduResearcher.com [Links to external site]
Educator, scholar and thought leader Dr. Michael Hynes works as a public school superintendent of schools on Long Island and advocates the importance of a holistic approach to educating children. He emphasizes the importance of play and recess in schools and yoga and mindfulness in the classroom, is a public school advocate and university lecturer, has published numerous articles and been featured on several podcasts on school leadership. Hynes has focused his work on transforming schools by tapping into Potential Based Education, which focuses on the significance of social, emotional, physical and cognitive development for students.
Hynes received his undergraduate degree in psychology from Bethany College and his doctorate in educational administration from Dowling College. He has undergone professional training to integrate organization learning and school leadership into programs at New York University, Stony Brook University and Harvard University. He has been awarded the “Friend of Education Award” and the “Distinguished Leadership Award” by Phi Delta Kappa.
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein announced that the state has filed a lawsuit against e-cigarette manufacturer Juul, claiming that it marketed its products to children and misled the public about the risks associated with those products. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports.
"The iconic black-and-white Nutrition Facts label you find on packaged foods in the United States is getting its first makeover in two decades. The federal government decided last month to update the food label beginning in 2018 by listing how much sugar has been added to a product.
The current label lumps added sugar with naturally occurring sugars in the foods themselves, which is a deceptive practice, said Dr. John Swartzberg, a UC Berkeley clinical professor emeritus and editorial board chair of the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter. So listing added sugar “will hopefully guide people away from consuming products with a lot of added sugar,” he said.
With the label change, consumers will be very surprised to see the percentage of daily value of added sugar, for example, in one soda drink, said Michael Roberts, executive director of the UCLA Resnick Program for Food Law and Policy and UC Global Food Initiative subcommittee member.
“Time will tell whether this information changes human behavior, i.e., consuming less soda,” Roberts said. “To be fair, sugar pops up everywhere, not just soda, so the impact that these changes will have on consumers and manufacturers will be interesting to watch.”
UC food experts praise the labeling changes and offer some key takeaways to consumers.
Listing added sugar is the most important label change
The new label will list the amount of added sugar in a product, both in grams and as a percentage of the daily recommended allowance.
Added sugar — any sugar added in the preparation of foods such as table sugar, high fructose corn syrup and others — can be found in hundreds of products such as cereal, yogurt, pasta sauce and salad dressing. But the biggest source is sugar-sweetened beverages, which account for nearly half of Americans’ intake of added sugar. One 20-ounce soda will take you over the recommended amount of sugar for an entire day, said Pat Crawford, senior director of research for the Nutrition Policy Institute of UC’s division of agriculture and natural resources.
“The new label will allow people to reasonably see what they’re doing when they’re consuming high-sugar products,” Crawford said.
Americans need to consume less sugar
More than one out of three adults in the United States is obese. Nearly half of U.S. adults have prediabetes or diabetes, raising their risk of heart attacks, kidney failure, blindness and amputations. Among U.S. children, more than one in six is obese, and diabetes and prediabetes rates are rising. Amid these alarming statistics, there’s a growing concern about too much added sugar in diets.
“It’s important to give the public the information they need in order to modify their diets,” Crawford said. “We are now finding significant effects on diabetes and heart disease rates for those who regularly consume sugary beverages. A large study of women over an eight-year period found that the risk of diabetes among women who consumed one or more servings of sugar-sweetened beverages per day was nearly double the risk among women who consumed less than one serving per month. Further, drinking one 12-ounce soda a day increases the risk of cardiovascular mortality by almost one-third.”...
"...what exactly goes wrong in our bodies when we park ourselves for nearly eight hours per day, the average for a U.S. adult? Many things, say four experts, who detailed a chain of problems from head to toe."
This is good decriptive graphic of the effect of sitting for extended periods of time. "Hip flexor" is the Sartorius muscle. Notice the position of the psoas. We are beings which walk upright. The psoas is capable of much more length. It's easy to see how short this primary mover becomes while stagnant. Be sure to walk, especially barefoot, and unwind these tissues. The recommended exercises are good as well. Try them and keep your back (and body) in good condition :)
By Heidi Stevens [image by Heleen Sitter/Getty-Lifesize] "Forty-five minutes of daily recreational screen time is the maximum a child can handle before his or her educational, emotional and social development are affected, according to a new "super study" that polled 50,000 parents from 4,600 American cities over a three-year period.
Spelled out in the new book, "The Learning Habit: A Groundbreaking Approach to Homework and Parenting That Helps Our Children Succeed in School and Life" (Perigree), the study aims to guide parents through an academic landscape that barely resembles the one we knew as kids — starting, of course, with the number and ubiquity of screens populating it.
"What we observe," they write, "are children who can relate to screens with ease, but have few social or communication skills; kids who can play video games for hours, but can't read a book for longer than 10 minutes; kids who can text and tweet, but can't focus on a challenging math problem or make sense of a few paragraphs in a history book."
Sure, but they're going to college in record numbers!
"We are graduating children who lack the skills to survive, much less thrive, in college," write the authors. "Once first in the world in college-graduated students, the United States is now 10th. Almost half of our students who enter college do not graduate."
We've got a mess on our hands, Jackson told me by phone. And we're not, in many cases, eager to tackle it.
"Parents aren't looking to make lifestyle or habit changes unless something isn't working," said Jackson, a neuropsychological educator. "Many families are struggling with something they're not connecting with screen time: moodiness at bedtime, fighting to get out of the house in the morning, anxiety — which (are hallmarks) of too much screen time."...
***
..."The Learning Habit study found that students who spend 45 total minutes per day consuming media — computer, phone, tablet or television — can maintain an A average.
"After 45 minutes of use, however, grades slowly but steadily declined," write the authors. "After three hours of use, grades rapidly declined. … After four hours, children had virtually zero likelihood of academic success."
Parents who took part in the study reported their children used media for an average of 90 to 120 minutes per day. "Yet when asked specific questions about the devices, the total was commonly between six and eight hours per day," write the authors."...
By Belle Beth Cooper I know exercise is good for me. I know it’s important for my health and happiness and that it’s necessary for general fitness. That part’s easy — we hear about how we should exercise more all the time.
What I didn’t realize was how being inactive is really detrimental to the brain and body. I didn’t understand all of the specific ways regular activity can be beneficial, either.
With a little digging around, I found some research that made me realize there’s much more to exercising than just getting fit.
First, the bad news. If you’re living a sedentary lifestyle, which more of us are prone to doing as technology takes away physical barriers for our work, you could be increasing your risk of heart disease. You may have even heard this before, since it’s fairly common knowledge that regular physical activity can reduce the risk of heart disease — what’s new in recent research are clues to exactly how this links might work."...
"To reap the full range of life-extending, heart-protecting, sleep-promoting, obesity-thwarting benefits of exercise, you're going to have to get some regular activity. In fact, about two and a half hours a week of it.
Those hours should be moderate-intensity aerobic activity (think: brisk walking), according to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. (More vigorous exercisers can cut back on time as they up the intensity, but everyone should also aim for a couple of strength-training sessions a week, according to the Guidelines.)"
"Some forms of exercise may be much more effective than others at bulking up the brain, according to a remarkable new study in rats. For the first time, scientists compared head-to-head the neurological impacts of different types of exercise: running, weight training and high-intensity interval training. The surprising results suggest that going hard may not be the best option for long-term brain health.
As I have often written, exercise changes the structure and function of the brain. Studies in animals and people have shown that physical activity generally increases brain volume and can reduce the number and size of age-related holes in the brain’s white and gray matter.
Exercise also, and perhaps most resonantly, augments adult neurogenesis, which is the creation of new brain cells in an already mature brain. In studies with animals, exercise, in the form of running wheels or treadmills, has been found to double or even triple the number of new neurons that appear afterward in the animals’ hippocampus, a key area of the brain for learning and memory, compared to the brains of animals that remain sedentary. Scientists believe that exercise has similar impacts on the human hippocampus."...
By Gretchen Reynolds (New York Times Wellness Blog; Getty Images)
"For years, I’ve been writing about the benefits of short bursts of exercise. Studies and anecdotes suggest that 10 minutes, seven minutes, six minutes, or even four minutes of very hard exercise interspersed with periods of rest can lead to a robust improvement in fitness. But I suspect that this column is the least amount of exercise I will ever write about.
According to a lovely new study, a single minute of intense exercise, embedded within an otherwise easy 10-minute workout, can improve fitness and health. Just one minute."...
By Gretchen Reynolds "Exercise has had a Goldilocks problem, with experts debating just how much exercise is too little, too much or just the right amount to improve health and longevity. Two new, impressively large-scale studies provide some clarity, suggesting that the ideal dose of exercise for a long life is a bit more than many of us currently believe we should get, but less than many of us might expect. The studies also found that prolonged or intense exercise is unlikely to be harmful and could add years to people’s lives.
No one doubts, of course, that any amount of exercise is better than none. Like medicine, exercise is known to reduce risks for many diseases and premature death.
But unlike medicine, exercise does not come with dosing instructions. The current broad guidelines from governmental and health organizations call for 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week to build and maintain health and fitness.
But whether that amount of exercise represents the least amount that someone should do — the minimum recommended dose — or the ideal amount has not been certain.
Scientists also have not known whether there is a safe upper limit on exercise, beyond which its effects become potentially dangerous; and whether some intensities of exercise are more effective than others at prolonging lives.
So the new studies, both of which were published last week in JAMA Internal Medicine, helpfully tackle those questions.
In the broader of the two studies, researchers with the National Cancer Institute, Harvard University and other institutions gathered and pooled data about people’s exercise habits from six large, ongoing health surveys, winding up with information about more than 661,000 adults, most of them middle-aged.
Using this data, the researchers stratified the adults by their weekly exercise time, from those who did not exercise at all to those who worked out for 10 times the current recommendations or more (meaning that they exercised moderately for 25 hours per week or more).
Then they compared 14 years’ worth of death records for the group.
They found that, unsurprisingly, the people who did not exercise at all were at the highest risk of early death.
But those who exercised a little, not meeting the recommendations but doing something, lowered their risk of premature death by 20 percent.
Those who met the guidelines precisely, completing 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise, enjoyed greater longevity benefits and 31 percent less risk of dying during the 14-year period compared with those who never exercised.
The sweet spot for exercise benefits, however, came among those who tripled the recommended level of exercise, working out moderately, mostly by walking, for 450 minutes per week, or a little more than an hour per day. Those people were 39 percent less likely to die prematurely than people who never exercised."...
As technology becomes a more common feature of classrooms and computer-based testing becomes the norm, even the youngest learners are being pushed to master keyboarding and computing skills. But what does it feel like for a kindergartener, whose family has faithfully followed the American Academy of Pediatric’s suggestions to limit screen time, to arrive at school and immediately be assessed on a computer?
In her PBS MediaShift essay, Jenny Shank describes the tensions emerging between parents with low-tech child rearing styles, teachers frantically trying to prepare students for computer-based tests that could determine the future of their careers, and districts following the latest trends. Shank’s essay gives voice to that “stuck in the middle” feeling when a parent supports the idea of technology integration in school generally, but isn’t sure she thinks it’s being done well.
Shank writes: “I’m all for teaching kids about technology, which will be a part of their personal and work lives forever. But shouldn’t they learn how to write software programs rather than how to scan a text and answer multiple-choice questions on a screen? Shouldn’t they learn about how to assemble computer hardware, build an object with a 3-D printer, or shoot and edit digital video footage rather than passively watch as a computer reads them a book? Many studies suggest that when people read on a screen rather than paper, they read less attentively and retain less. So why aren’t schools using computers for what these machines are actually good at instead?”...
A funny and disconcerting short film, I Forgot My Phone, gives us a sense of just how much our smartphones have changed life experiences — and probably not for the better.
"Students across Washington will continue learning at home until the fall, and possibly beyond. Despite the sprint by teachers and school administrators to find innovative ways to support learning in a new environment, distance learning is challenging.
Children are far less equipped to learn this way. Their brains aren’t built for it. Many of the key factors in brain development that support focus, attention to detail and learning are forged in the classroom and on the playground.
While online classrooms, take-home assignments, educational videos, apps and parental guidance support core learning needs, distance learning reminds us of the intangible benefits of a school environment. Children thrive on contact with their peers and caring adults in the school community. Schools are, quite literally, built for focus, connection and interaction. And structured play and physical activity are vital for learning.
We can’t change many of the things that make learning at home difficult, but we can put one proven idea to work — schedule time for children to move every day.
Here’s why: Physical activity builds brain function. Studies show that movement can make children more attentive. It relieves stress that interferes with the brain’s ability to learn. If your child is struggling to focus, start with movement.
Overall, physically active children have an advantage across academic outcomes. They retain more information, and they are better able to use that information to make decisions and manage their impulses. Even in small doses, movement helps drive learning and focus. Research shows that moderate to vigorous physical activity sessions lasting just 11 to 20 minutes can have almost immediate positive impacts.
Simply put, after exercise, a brain works more efficiently and with more power.
And, while access to successful distance learning tools and strategies is not equitable, the benefits of movement for children are. Children ages 5 to 13 experience the same benefits from physical activity regardless of their social or economic situation, race or ethnicity.
The Sports Institute champions the idea that physically active kids are better off in almost every measurable way. Because of that, we launched The Daily Mile USA to help teachers introduce more opportunities for their students to move during the academic day.
The program, created in the United Kingdom, encourages students to run or jog for just 15 minutes every day, and it’s one way we can better adapt our homes for learning. The Daily Mile is fun, free and easy to do at home or in your neighborhood. It’s also an excellent way for families to move together — because the benefits of physical activity aren’t just for kids.
But all movement counts! Find the physical activity that’s right for your child and your family. Whether it’s a dance party, a bike adventure, jumping jacks or a walk, use movement — within social-distancing guidelines — as the foundation for better learning at home. And let’s not forget that active children are more likely to be active adults. Not only will exercise improve school performance, it is a fundamental key to health and wellness for all ages.
We’re all searching for ways to support our children and encourage learning during this time. If we start with movement, the benefits may help our children learn more, help us all better manage long days at home and lay the foundation for them to become lifelong exercisers.
Their minds and their bodies will be better because of it".
______
Susan Enfield is superintendent of Highline Public Schools, which serves more than 18,000 students in Burien, Des Moines, Normandy Park, SeaTac and White Center.
Samuel Browd is the director of The Sports Institute at UW Medicine and a professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He is the medical director of the Seattle Children’s Sport Concussion Program and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness."
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — 8/19/2014 | By Diana Yates, Life Sciences Editor
"A new study of 9- and 10-year-olds finds that those who are more aerobically fit have more fibrous and compact white-matter tracts in the brain than their peers who are less fit. “White matter” describes the bundles of axons that carry nerve signals from one brain region to another. More compact white matter is associated with faster and more efficient nerve activity.
With his colleagues, Beckman Institute director Arthur Kramer found an association between physical fitness and the integrity of white-matter tracts in the brains of 9- and 10-year-old children.
The team reports its findings in the open-access journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
“Previous studies suggest that children with higher levels of aerobic fitness show greater brain volumes in gray-matter brain regions important for memory and learning,” said University of Illinois postdoctoral researcher Laura Chaddock-Heyman, who conducted the study with kinesiology and community health professor Charles Hillman and psychology professor and Beckman Institute director Arthur Kramer. “Now for the first time we explored how aerobic fitness relates to white matter in children’s brains.”
The team used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI, also called diffusion MRI) to look at five white-matter tracts in the brains of the 24 participants. This method analyzes water diffusion into tissues. For white matter, less water diffusion means the tissue is more fibrous and compact, both desirable traits.
The researchers controlled for several variables – such as social and economic status, the timing of puberty, IQ, or a diagnosis of ADHD or other learning disabilities – that might have contributed to the reported fitness differences in the brain.
The analysis revealed significant fitness-related differences in the integrity of several white-matter tracts in the brain: the corpus callosum, which connects the brain’s left and right hemispheres; the superior longitudinal fasciculus, a pair of structures that connect the frontal and parietal lobes; and the superior corona radiata, which connect the cerebral cortex to the brain stem. “All of these tracts have been found to play a role in attention and memory,” Chaddock-Heyman said."...
"There’s no such thing as ‘detoxing’. In medical terms, it’s a nonsense. Diet and exercise is the only way to get healthy. But which of the latest fad regimes can really make a difference? We look at the facts."
___
"Whether it’s cucumbers splashing into water or models sitting smugly next to a pile of vegetables, it’s tough not to be sucked in by the detox industry. The idea that you can wash away your calorific sins is the perfect antidote to our fast-food lifestyles and alcohol-lubricated social lives. But before you dust off that juicer or take the first tentative steps towards a colonic irrigation clinic, there’s something you should know: detoxing – the idea that you can flush your system of impurities and leave your organs squeaky clean and raring to go – is a scam. It’s a pseudo-medical concept designed to sell you things.
“Let’s be clear,” says Edzard Ernst, emeritus professor of complementary medicine at Exeter University, “there are two types of detox: one is respectable and the other isn’t.” The respectable one, he says, is the medical treatment of people with life-threatening drug addictions. “The other is the word being hijacked by entrepreneurs, quacks and charlatans to sell a bogus treatment that allegedly detoxifies your body of toxins you’re supposed to have accumulated.”
If toxins did build up in a way your body couldn’t excrete, he says, you’d likely be dead or in need of serious medical intervention. “The healthy body has kidneys, a liver, skin, even lungs that are detoxifying as we speak,” he says. “There is no known way – certainly not through detox treatments – to make something that works perfectly well in a healthy body work better.”
Much of the sales patter revolves around “toxins”: poisonous substances that you ingest or inhale. But it’s not clear exactly what these toxins are. If they were named they could be measured before and after treatment to test effectiveness. Yet, much like floaters in your eye, try to focus on these toxins and they scamper from view. In 2009, a network of scientists assembled by the UK charity Sense about Science contacted the manufacturers of 15 products sold in pharmacies and supermarkets that claimed to detoxify. The products ranged from dietary supplements to smoothies and shampoos. When the scientists asked for evidence behind the claims, not one of the manufacturers could define what they meant by detoxification, let alone name the toxins."...
"Researchers have linked sitting for long periods of time with a number of health concerns, including obesity and metabolic syndrome — a cluster of conditions that includes increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels."...
Infoaboutkids.org is an ongoing collaboration of the Consortium for Science-Based Information on Children, Youth and Families. Our goal is to promote healthy child and family development by highlighting science-based information for those who care for, or work with, children. Our site, updated quarterly, links to other well-established, trustworthy websites for parents and professionals. Our monthly blogs will summarize science-based information on timely topics.
This collection includes research, updates, and resources related to EMF/RF Radiation and screen time. For useful websites with extensive documents for safe technology advocacy, please visit the National Association for Children and Safe Technology (http://nacst.org), the Environmental Health Trust (http://ehtrust.org) and EMR Safety (http://SaferEmr.com). For additional resources and updates in Education, please visit http://eduresearcher.com.
"Radio frequency waves have been used for more than a hundred years to carry signals from transmitting towers to distant receivers. This technology has informed and entertained millions of people around the world. However, the technology offered today by the wireless industry puts powerful transmitters as well as receivers much closer to users of all ages than ever before. This two-way communication, and the increased radiation needed to support it, is reason for concern. Indeed, manufacturers of wireless devices warn consumers to keep their phones, tablets, baby monitors or other devices away from their bodies. Consumer demand for connectivity everywhere has resulted in the installation of many more powerful local wireless transmitters and receivers, and now hundreds of thousands of rooftop, pole-mounted and tower transmitters (antennas) are placed in close proximity to private homes, apartments, schools, office buildings, retail and recreation areas.
“Free WiFi” is commonly advertised to attract customers at bars, restaurants, hotels and coffee shops. Wireless routers in public spaces are very powerful because they are intended to power many laptops or tablets simultaneously. This ubiquitous and ever-growing wireless world that we live in means that wireless radiation is all around us. But you can still make some personal choices that can reduce your exposure. As mentioned previously, keeping a safe distance from transmitters or antennas and keeping your personal wireless devices away from your body is relatively easy to do. The amount of time you spend using wireless devices is also important. Remember that exposure adds up over time."...
"The world of parenting has changed. In 1980, parents had home phones without answering machines, televisions without remote controls, cars without screens, and maybe if they had older children they owned an Atari video game console. Today, toddlers tell parents to “google it” when they can’t answer one of their million “why” questions, there are 24-hour cable channels created just for infants and toddlers, video game systems that read your body movements, and people carry mini-computers (smartphones) in their pockets that allow them to call friends, email co-workers, search the Internet, and download age-appropriate games for their child to play on the go.
The technological boom has impacted us all, but how has it influenced parents? This was the main question behind the nationally representative survey of over 2300 parents of children under age 8. In a report titledParenting in the Age of Digital Technology, which was released on June 4, 2013 in Washington, DC, we examined the details and intricacies of parenting young children in an age in which technology and media are increasingly mobile, accessible, and constantly available.
This survey recognized that children spend substantial amounts of time with media including television, computers, and mobile devices and rather than focusing solely on child screen time, this survey sought to understand the role of the parents in creating the home media environment in which children are being raised today."...
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