Obese children as young as three years old show signs of future heart disease, say US researchers. In a study of 16,000 children and teenagers, researchers showed the most obese had signs of an inflammatory marker which can predict future heart disease. Here’s a report from the BBC:
In all, 40% of obese three-to-five-year olds had raised [...]

Obese kids’ injury patterns look different from those of their slimmer peers, a new study out in Pediatrics shows. According to a report in Reuters Health, Dr. Wendy J. Pomerantz of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Ohio, and her colleagues reported that obese children had more leg, ankle and foot injuries, but fewer injuries to the [...]

Children today snack an average of three times a day, and they are mostly consuming sugary beverages, cookies, cake, candy, salty snacks and other high-calorie junk food, a new study shows. In fact, children are now consuming 168 more calories from snacks than kids did in 1977, new research shows.
The findings confirm previous studies that indicate [...]

In my Amazon.com best-selling book, SuperSized Kids: How to protect your child from the obesity threat, I predicted that if we did not stem the epidemic of childhood obesity, that our children could become the first generation in American history to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.
Now, a number of studies in the [...]

The New York Times, in Vital Signs, reports that one in four parents “think some vaccines cause autism in healthy children, and nearly one in eight have refused at least one recommended vaccine,” according to a study published online March 1 in the journal Pediatrics.
The USA covered the story with this article:
Most parents continue to [...]

Most parents believe vaccination is a good way to protect their children from potentially deadly diseases, but a study shows more than half still worry about the possibility of vaccine side effects. The study concludes: Although parents overwhelmingly share the belief that vaccines are a good way to protect their children from disease, these same [...]

Action Points
Explain to interested parents that autism may progress more slowly and subtly than previously thought.
Note that parents often miss regressive symptoms of autism in their children.
The symptoms of autism tend to emerge in children after six months of age, with a loss of social and communications skills that is more common and more subtle [...]

The Los Angeles Times “Booster Shots” blog reported that keeping vitamin C supplements in the bathroom or kitchen may expose them to “humidity and high temperatures” that “may seriously degrade” them, according to a study published online in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
After observing “the stability of two types of vitamin C — [...]

The Natural Standard blog recently described new studies showing that peanut allergies improved significantly in children who were given very low doses of peanut allergens and gradually increased those doses over time.
Exposing a person to low doses of a known allergen, a technique called immunotherapy, is not a new concept. The goal of immunotherapy is [...]

In the USA Today Your Health column, Kim Painter points out that an American Heart Association survey reveals that “just over half of” the female respondents “said they would” call 911 in the event of heart attack symptoms.
“Instead, many women would call their doctors, take an aspirin, or get to a hospital on their own, [...]

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According to new research, vitamin D supplements may not only help your bones, they may help protect your heart. A new review of research on vitamin D and calcium supplements shows that people who take moderate to high doses of vitamin D have a lower risk of heart disease — while calcium supplements seemed to have [...]

Vitamin D is known as the sunshine vitamin because when sunlight hits skin, the body produces this vitamin, essential for strong, healthy bones. However, a mountain of new evidence suggests that the vitamin may have a more versatile role than previously thought, particularly when it comes to maintaining a healthy immune system and boosting mood. Low levels [...]

I’ve posted a number of blogs about the fact that vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency (low levels of serum vitamin D) is associated with a number of types of cancer, as well as diabetes and asthma, but now new research also shows that vitamin D can kill human cancer cells. The results of this new research fall [...]

Children in recent New Zealand studies who spent a lot of time watching television and using computer games had less attachment to family and peers. The more time teens spend watching television and using computers, the less likely they are to develop close relationships with parents and peers, a study of two New Zealand teen [...]

A new study shows that children who watched language-building DVDs over a six-week period did NOT have better linguistic skills than those who didn’t watch. Furthermore, the younger a child was the first time he or she viewed such language-aquisition DVDs, the lower his or her language scores. Finally, infants don’t learn a great deal from language-acquisition [...]

An article in USA Today discusses a new review of 130 studies which “strongly suggests” playing violent video games increases aggressive thoughts and behavior and decreases empathy. The results hold “regardless of research design, gender, age or culture,” says lead researcher Craig Anderson, who directs the Center for the Study of Violence at Iowa State [...]

TV watching in early adulthood is linked to increase in risk factors for heart disease, researchers have just announced. They studied more than 5,600 men and women who were asked about their viewing habits at age 23 and then again at age 44.
Their findings were that that people who watched more television were more likely [...]

In a large, population-based study out of Europe, researchers found that an increased positive affect (happiness) was protective against a 10-year incidence of coronary heart disease. The researchers are suggesting that preventive strategies may be enhanced not only by reducing sadness and depressive symptoms, but also by increasing positive affect and happiness.
Bloomberg News reports that “people [...]

So, be honest: Is you life glass half-full or half-empty? I tend to be the former, and based upon the research I’m glad I have a optimistic disposition. But, how about you? Which are you? And, if you’re more pessimistic, what can you do to become more highly healthy?
After reading this blog, if you feel [...]