Baby Einstein: Can baby DVDs promote infant development?

Baby DVDs, such as Baby Einstein, may catch your baby's attention, but screen time isn't likely to promote his or her development. In fact, an infant can learn just as much — if not more — by interacting with you or other caregivers.

Research examining the specific effects of baby DVDs and other infant programming is limited. In a 2007 study, children ages 8 months to 16 months learned six to eight fewer new words for every hour of screen time a day than did babies who had no screen time. In a 2009 study of children ages 2 months to 4 years, turning on the television reduced verbal interaction between parents and children — which may delay language development. In contrast, research has shown that reading to young children once a day has the opposite effect, boosting language ability for both babies and toddlers.

Many pediatricians discourage screen time for children younger than age 2. Instead of relying on Baby Einstein DVDs, concentrate on proven ways to promote infant development — such as talking, playing, singing and reading to your baby. Even if your baby doesn't understand what you're saying or grasp the plot of a story, he or she will soak in your words and revel in your attention. These simple activities form the foundation for speech and thought.

Still, baby DVDs such as Baby Einstein aren't necessarily off-limits. If your family enjoys this kind of programming, turn it on only occasionally — and encourage interaction by watching the programming together.

Source: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/baby-einstein/AN01990

Walk Your Dog to Unleash Better Health

Pet Owners Reap Big Health Benefits From Regular Walks With the Dog, Study Says
By Charlene Laino
WebMD Health News

Walking your dog not only can help keep you physically fit and at a healthy weight, but also may help ward off high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

"Dog owners who don't walk their dog are missing a great opportunity to get physical activity and stay healthy," says researcher Cindy Lentino, MS, an exercise scientist at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.

"If you walk your dog just 30 minutes a day, you can meet national recommendations for physical activity," she tells WebMD.

You don't have to look far to find a canine exercise buddy: About 72 million dogs have a place to call home in the U.S. and many more live in shelters, foster homes, and with rescue groups.

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) in Baltimore.

Fitness Buddies: Exercising With Your Dog
Dog Owners Less Stressed

Lentino says she got the idea for the study, which was part of her master's thesis, after hearing a presentation about the relationship between dog ownership and physical activity at a previous ACSM meeting.

"I wanted to go beyond that and look at health variables among people who walk their dogs, dog owners who don't walk their dogs, and people without dogs," Lentino says.

The study involved 916 healthy people, about three-fourths of whom were women, with an average age of 40.

A total of 380 didn't own dogs, 399 were dog owners who walked their dogs, and 137 were dog owners who did not walk their dogs.

All the study participants filled out detailed online surveys with more than 35 questions on physical activity and physical and mental health. Responses were matched against goals set by the government's Healthy People 2010 imitative.
Dog Walkers More Physically Fit

Compared with participants who regularly walked their four-legged pals, dog owners who didn't walk their pets:

* Were 58% more likely to be overweight or underweight.
* Were substantially less likely to meet the ACSM/American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines for physical activity, which call for moderately intense cardio exercise at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week. That means working hard enough to raise your heart rate and break a sweat, yet still being able to carry on a conversation.
* Spent about 30 more minutes sitting around every day, on average.
* Were more than twice as likely to have high blood pressure.

When matched against people who didn't own a dog, the dog walkers:

* Were 11% less likely to use tobacco products.
* Had about one-third the risk of diabetes.
* Were about 15% less likely to have high blood pressure and about 30% less likely to have high cholesterol.
* Were about 35% less likely to have symptoms of depression.

Just owning a dog was associated with better social support systems, Lentino says.

AHA spokesman Barry Franklin, PhD, director of preventive cardiology at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., tells WebMD that several studies have shown that heart disease patients who have dogs have a better prognosis.

Source: http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/news/20100608/walk-your-dog-to-unleash-better-health

Boost From Coffee Is Just an illusion

Study Suggests the 'Alert' Feeling From Drinking Coffee May Not Be Real

By Tim Locke
WebMD Health News

Can't start your day without a coffee? It's all in your mind, according to University of Bristol, U.K. researchers who've found the stimulating effects of caffeine may be just an illusion.

Their study involved 379 brave volunteers who went coffee "cold turkey" for 16 hours before being given a caffeine capsule or a placebo capsule containing corn flour.

They were then tested for a range of responses, but there was little variation between the real- caffeine group and the placebo group in levels of alertness.

Around half of the study participants were non-coffee drinkers or low consumers. The rest were medium to high consumers of coffee.

They were asked to rate their personal levels of anxiety, alertness, and headache before and after their drink -- which was either the caffeine or the placebo.

They were also given a series of computer tasks to test memory, attentiveness, and vigilance.

The medium/high caffeine consumers who had the placebo caffeine reported a decrease in alertness and an increase in headache, neither of which were reported by those who received caffeine.

However, their post-caffeine levels of alertness were no higher than the non/low consumers who received a placebo, suggesting caffeine only brings coffee drinkers back up to "normal."

The researchers also found people with a gene variant linked with anxiety tended to consume slightly larger amounts of coffee than those without the variant, suggesting that a mild increase in anxiety may be a part of the pleasant "buzz" caused by caffeine.

The study shows that frequent coffee drinkers develop a tolerance to both the anxiety-producing effects of caffeine that can put you on edge and the stimulating ones.

Heavy coffee drinkers may feel they are made alert by coffee, but the evidence suggests that this is just the reversal of the effects of acute caffeine withdrawal, which cause fatigue.

The researchers say that given the increased risk of anxiety and raised blood pressure brought on by caffeine, there is no net benefit to be gained.

Study researcher Peter Rogers, from the University of Bristol's department of experimental psychology, says in a news release: "Our study shows that we don't gain an advantage from consuming caffeine -- although we feel alerted by it, this is caffeine just bringing us back to normal. On the other hand, while caffeine can increase anxiety, tolerance means that for most caffeine consumers this effect is negligible."

What about decaf? Rogers tells WebMD by email: "Decaf wouldn't work -- without the caffeine one would get caffeine withdrawal (feelings of fatigue and headache) for a few days. In our study we gave pure caffeine in a capsule, with the placebo being corn flour in a capsule."

Source: http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20100603/boost-from-coffee-is-just-an-illusion

Nighttime Urination Linked to Higher Death Risk

Study Shows Frequent Urination at Night Associated With Increased Mortality Rate
By Charlene Laino
WebMD Health News

Men and women who have to get up two or more times a night to urinate appear to be at an increased risk of death, researchers say.

The increased risk of mortality was seen in all age groups -- 20- to 49 year-olds, 50- to 64-year-olds, and 65- to 90-year-olds -- says Varant Kupelian, PhD, a research scientist at the New England Research Institute in Watertown, Mass.

"Nocturia [defined in the study as having to urinate two or more times a night] is a predictor of mortality, and surprisingly more so in relatively younger men and women, rather than in the elderly," he tells WebMD.

The greater risk of deaths in younger adults "suggests that what we are catching [with frequent night urination] is a marker or warning sign for subclinical disease or for the impending development of chronic disease," he says.

In older adults, falls and fractures that occur when people get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night may account for some of the increase in mortality, Kupelian says.
Relationship of Nocturia to Mortality

In the study, Kupelian and colleagues mined data gathered during a large national health survey to determine the relationship of nocturia to mortality. Analyses were conducted on a sample of 15,988 men and women age 20 and older.

Nocturia was assessed using the question: "How many times a night do you usually get up to urinate (pass water)?"

The researchers found that over a nine-year period:

* Men aged 20-40 who woke up two or more times a night to urinate had a 2.56-fold increased risk of dying.
* Women ages 20-29 with nocturia had a 10% increased risk of mortality, but that could have been due to chance.
* Men aged 50-64 with nocturia had a 60% increased risk of dying.
* Women ages 50-64 with nocturia had a 94% increased risk of dying.
* Men aged 65-90 with nocturia had a 49% increased risk of dying.
* Women aged 65-90 with nocturia had a 32% increased risk of dying.

The analysis took into account other factors that can affect mortality, including age, other medical conditions, marital status, body mass index, and smoking.
Frequent Nighttime Urination

"Getting up two or three times a night to urinate doesn't mean you're going to die. But you should advise clinicians of the problem and undergo a thorough workup to determine if there is an underlying cause to your nocturia," says Tomas Griebling, MD, associate professor of urology at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City.

Griebling tells WebMD that nocturia can be treated with medication to control overactive bladders and with behavioral modification.

"Even simple steps like avoiding fluids at night may help," says Griebling, who moderated a press briefing at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association to discuss the findings.

"We do not know if treatment can alter the risk of mortality," says Kepulian, but it might decrease the number of trips to the bathroom during the night and reduce sleep disturbances.

The research was funded by Ferring Pharmaceuticals.

Source: http://www.webmd.com/urinary-incontinence-oab/news/20100601/nighttime-urination-linked-to-higher-death-risk