When factoring in why children get asthma, a child’s neighborhood may be important to consider. New research finds that living in a neighborhood during early childhood that has better access to resources was associated with lower asthma incidence. Better resources would include high-quality housing, healthy food, parks, playgrounds and clean air. Children who were born in these high-opportunity neighborhoods had about 23 asthma cases per 1,000 children compared to 35 cases per 1,000 in very low opportunity neighborhoods. Those in low opportunity neighborhoods had 27 cases per 1,000, the investigators found. “Understanding neighborhood conditions could help researchers identify vulnerable children who are at high risk for developing asthma,” study author Izzuddin Aris of Harvard Medical School said in a Duke Clinical Research Institute news release. “This information can also inform efforts by policymakers, researchers, and community groups to improve children’s health and foster equity across neighborhoods,” Aris added. The research was part of the U.S. National Institute of Health’s Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program. For the study, the researchers measured neighborhood conditions using the Child Opportunity Index and the Social Vulnerability Index. These link residential addresses at birth, infancy and early childhood, through age 4.8 years, to census-tract data. The Child Opportunity Index, which measures neighborhood resources and conditions deemed essential for healthy child development, showed significant associations with childhood asthma incidence.…  read on >  read on >

Many a person has blamed “beer goggles” following a regrettable one-night stand, but a new study suggests that there’s no such thing. Rather, alcohol acts more like “liquid courage,” according to findings published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs — you become more likely to approach people you already find attractive, rather than alcohol making others appear more attractive. “People who drink alcohol may benefit by recognizing that valued social motivations and intentions change when drinking in ways that may be appealing in the short term but possibly harmful in the long term,” lead researcher Molly Bowdring, of the Stanford Prevention Research Center, said in a journal news release. Conventional wisdom has long held that intoxication makes other people seem better looking, but the phenomenon hasn’t been systematically studied, researchers said. “The well-known beer goggles effect of alcohol does sometimes appear in the literature but not as consistently as one might expect,” said senior researcher Michael Sayette, director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Alcohol and Smoking Research Laboratory. Earlier research typically has had participants simply rate other people’s attractiveness based on photos, while sober and while intoxicated. Bowdring and Sayette’s new study added a more realistic element: the possibility of meeting the people being rated. The researchers recruited 18 pairs of male friends in their 20s and asked them to rate the…  read on >  read on >

Young Black children living in racially segregated U.S. neighborhoods are at heightened risk of potentially brain-damaging lead exposure, a new study warns. The study, of nearly 321,000 North Carolina children under the age of 7, found that those living in predominantly Black neighborhoods had higher blood levels of lead than those living in more integrated areas. Experts said the findings, published Aug. 30 in Pediatrics, highlight two issues that many Americans may think are relics of the past: childhood lead poisoning and neighborhood racial segregation. But in fact, the study found, residential segregation has endured and actually increased in many areas — in North Carolina and nationwide. That residential segregation is no accident, experts pointed out: It is rooted in a long history of policies such as “redlining” that isolated Black Americans into neighborhoods marked by little to no investment and high poverty rates. And the children who live in those neighborhoods can be exposed to lead due to rundown housing, said lead researcher Marie Lynn Miranda, chancellor of the University of Illinois Chicago. Lead is a naturally occurring metal that can cause serious health effects if it accumulates in the blood. Young children are particularly vulnerable, as lead can damage their developing brains and contribute to learning or behavioral problems. In general, children in the United States now have much less exposure to lead…  read on >  read on >

Hurricane Idalia is expected to make landfall in the United States Wednesday. Idalia was forecast to be a powerful Category 3 storm by the time it reaches Florida’s Big Bend, an area prone to storm surge that stretches from Tampa to just south of Tallahassee. It’s also expected to hit eastern parts of Georgia and the Carolinas before heading out to sea late Thursday or early Friday. As all of this happens, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC) is urging everyone in the storm’s path to prepare and keep carbon monoxide safety top of mind. Portable generators can be a source of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, the commission emphasized. CO is colorless, odorless and can kill in minutes, rendering someone unconscious before they even begin to experience telltale signs like nausea, dizziness and weakness. Nearly 100 people a year die in the United States from CO poisoning from portable generators, according to the CPSC. Never use a portable generator inside a home, garage, basement, crawlspace or shed, the CPSC urges. Even open doors and windows will not prevent lethal levels of CO from building up. Use portable generators outside only, at least 20 feet away from the house. Direct the generator’s exhaust away from the home and any other buildings that someone could enter. Close windows and other openings in the path of the…  read on >  read on >

If you are a new mom struggling with postpartum depression, taking antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may also bear benefits for your child’s development. That’s according to new research that found the medications were associated with improvements in a child’s behavior up to five years after birth. Researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London collaborated with their counterparts at the University of Oslo in Norway, analyzing data on more than 61,000 mothers and their children who were recruited during pregnancy from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study. Among the findings were reductions in child behavioral difficulties, such as conduct problems; attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms; and maternal depression. This also led to improved satisfaction in partner relationships. “Postnatal depression is a common psychiatric disorder that affects 10 to 15% of women in the first year after childbirth. In the U.K., however, only 3% of women with postnatal depression receive SSRI treatment. This is likely due to a lack of awareness of postnatal depression, alongside concerns about the long-term impact that taking antidepressant medications in the postnatal period may have on child outcomes,” said study first author Dr. Kate Liu, a research associate at the institute. “Our study found no evidence suggesting that postnatal SSRI treatment conferred an increased risk for child development,” she added in…  read on >  read on >

Men’s testosterone levels remain pretty steady until age 70. After that, production of the male sex hormone starts to decline, new research indicates. This begs the question: Is testosterone loss among seniors really a function of the normal aging process? Or might it reflect other health issues that often confront men as they get older? Both may be true, say investigators, with obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and even marital status among the factors that appear to drive testosterone levels down, in conjunction with age. When testosterone does fall, the result may be increased weakness and fatigue, diminished sexual performance, loss of muscle mass, and a higher risk for diabetes and dementia. While you can’t do anything about your age, the findings suggest some positive lifestyle changes might help preserve your masculinity. Study author Bu Yeap said that after 70 the pituitary gland at the base of the brain actually sends out signals to increase, not decrease, testosterone production. To find out what might be short-circuiting that signal, the study team analyzed 11 studies from Australia, Europe and North America, involving some 25,000 men in total, said Yeap, an endocrinologist and medical school professor at the University of Western Australia. All the studies were conducted prior to 2020. In each, men’s testosterone levels were repeatedly measured over time using a technique called mass spectrometry. Collectively,…  read on >  read on >