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When a social media “influencer” hawks junk food, young kids may be easily won over, a new study suggests. British researchers found that when children saw images of two famous YouTube “vloggers” simply holding junk food, they immediately showed a craving for cookies and candy. Unfortunately, they were not similarly swayed by images of those online stars with healthy foods. Experts said the findings point to the power of an insidious form of junk food marketing, in which companies pay social media influencers to feature their products. “Most parents are surprised this exists,” said Jennifer Harris, of the University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. “They often have no idea how targeted their kids are when they’re online.” Harris, who was not involved in the study, conducts research on food marketing to kids. She said that in comparison to traditional advertising, it’s difficult to study the influence of social media on kids’ food preferences. “There isn’t a lot known about it, because it’s hard to track what kids are seeing on social media,” Harris explained. So she said she was “excited” to see the new findings, published online March 4 in the journal Pediatrics. They show, through an experimental design, how social media images can immediately influence kids’ food choices, Harris said. For the study, researchers from the University of Liverpool created… read on >

(HealthDay News) — Screen devices such as smartphones and TVs are making children more sedentary, the American Heart Association says. This lack of movement is linked to obesity in young people. Experts recommend that parents limit children aged 2 to 5 to one hour of screen time per day. Older children are also cautioned against too much screen time, although no specific time limit has been noted.

If you’re in a frequent tug of war with your kids over turning off their gadgets, it could be the tactic you use when you try to persuade them to disengage. It turns out that giving 1- to 5-year-olds a time warning that screen viewing is about to end makes the transition away from a tablet, smartphone TV or other device more painful, according to University of Washington researchers. Gadgets play a role in a growing number of households with little children. There are positives, such as helping distract toddlers during unpleasant events like getting a shot. But kids also get attached to gadgets quite easily, and getting them to put down a tablet or smartphone can be a challenge. Tech-driven situations that worsen the problem include the “autoplay” feature, which automatically starts another video when one ends, and video teasers that pop up and tempt children to keep watching. Kids’ attachments to their gadgets are so strong that some manufacturers, like Apple, have added functions to make limiting screen time easier. The University of Washington research, which included interviews and diaries from 28 families, did uncover ideas that can work. One option is to establish a regular routine, like a set time of day for gadget usage and a set amount of viewing time, such as the length of one show. Its ending makes… read on >

By itself, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) doesn’t raise the risk of heart disease for U.S. veterans, a new study finds. “Instead, a combination of physical disorders, psychiatric disorders and smoking — that are more common in patients with PTSD versus without PTSD — appear to explain the association between PTSD and developing cardiovascular disease,” said study author Jeffrey Scherrer. He’s research director in the department of family and community medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine in Missouri. For the study, Scherrer and his colleagues analyzed health records of more than 2,500 veterans with PTSD and more than 1,600 without PTSD. The veterans were aged 30 to 70 and had not been diagnosed with heart disease in the previous 12 months. The study participants were followed for at least three years. During that time, veterans with PTSD were 41 percent more likely to develop circulatory and heart disease than those without PTSD. Those with PTSD had significantly higher rates of smoking, depression, anxiety disorders, sleep disorders, type 2 diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol than those without PTSD, the investigators found. However, no single condition explained the association between PTSD and heart disease, according to the study published online Feb. 13 in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The findings may not apply to patients older than 70 or to civilians,… read on >

Time spent on Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook probably isn’t driving teenagers to depression, a new study contends. In fact, Canadian researchers found the relationship worked in the opposite direction — teenage girls who were already depressed tended to spend more time on social media, to try to feel better. These findings run counter to a series of recent studies that said teens and young adults were more likely to grow depressed if they used social media more often. But those studies only looked at adolescents’ depression and social media use at one point in time, taking a single survey “snapshot” that couldn’t assess which factor influences the other, explained Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center in Santa Barbara, Calif. The new study looked at people over time and tried to make sense of their behaviors over time, said Rutledge, who was not involved in the research. “To me it makes a lot of sense, because we also know that social media can have a lot of benefits,” she said. “With anything, there is positive and negative. Social media is this great big thing, and there are all sorts of ways to use it.” Beginning in 2017, researchers led by Taylor Heffer from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, surveyed nearly 600 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders in Ontario once a year for two… read on >

In states where marijuana is legal, teens smoking pot and then getting behind the wheel of a car is common, a new study finds. “There’s a general public zeitgeist that marijuana is a pretty safe drug,” said study co-author Darin Erickson, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. “In actuality, there hasn’t been a lot of research regarding how marijuana is used, its safety or its harms,” he added in a university news release. For the study, Erickson and his team surveyed 50 local enforcement agencies in Colorado and Washington state in 2016 and 2017 to find out if underage marijuana use (under 21) and marijuana-impaired driving are problems in their cities. In addition, the researchers asked about the types of enforcement used to tackle those problems, and the resources available to do so. All of the agencies said that underage use is somewhat or very common, and most said that marijuana-impaired driving is somewhat or very common. Thirty percent said they conducted enforcement targeting underage use or possession or marijuana, and 20 percent said they conducted underage compliance checks at licensed stores, with a higher rate in Colorado (32 percent) than Washington (8 percent), the findings showed. One local enforcement agency in each state specifically targeted marijuana-impaired driving, according to the study published recently in the International Journal of… read on >

When it comes to allergies, allergic rhinitis with its congested, itchy nose gets a lot of attention. But for some, allergic conjunctivitis with itchy, watery eyes is the greater nuisance. You might even have both reactions. Allergic conjunctivitis is inflammation of the conjunctiva — the layer of tissue lining the eyelids and covering the whites of the eyes. It’s caused by contact with a substance you’re allergic to, such as outdoor pollen or indoor pet dander or dust spores. Blood vessels in the eye swell, and eyes become itchy and red, and start to tear. People with seasonal allergies typically have a stronger reaction when outdoors on hot, dry days when the pollen count is high. Symptoms tend to be less severe for people with indoor allergies, though these can occur any time of the year and flare anytime you stir up dust, from vacuuming to grooming your dog. The symptoms of allergic conjunctivitis include itchy, burning, red eyes; puffy, swollen eyelids; watery eyes and/or stringy discharge; and sensitivity to light. Though the best way to avoid symptoms is to avoid the substances that trigger your allergy, this isn’t always possible. Try treating symptoms with lubricating eye drops and by applying cool compresses. Antihistamine medications may help, but they can make watery eyes too dry, so use with caution. How to Reduce Indoor Allergy Exposure… read on >

The “choking game” — and other clearly ill-advised and dangerous internet challenges — leave many parents wondering what drives teens to take the bait and participate. Now, a new study suggests that an underlying psychological disorder may be one reason why some kids jump at online dares such as the “Bird Box” challenge, where people walk around blindfolded, and the Tide Pod challenge, daring people to eat laundry detergent. The French researchers, who decided to focus on the choking game, found that nearly 10 percent of the almost 1,800 middle schoolers surveyed had tried it. Those who had participated were about twice as likely to be depressed or to have a conduct disorder. “Parents of adolescents with behavioral problems, as well as parents of depressed teens, need to be aware of this serious problem in order to educate and monitor their vulnerable youth,” said Dr. Victor Fornari. He directs child and adolescent psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y., and Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y. Fornari said this study highlights that “prevention strategies need to be developed to intervene in this dangerous behavior.” The choking game is a thrill-seeking activity where people self-strangulate or have someone else strangle them to the point of passing out. Supposedly, the lack of blood and oxygen to the brain causes a temporary euphoric… read on >

An artificial intelligence (AI) system can analyze chest X-rays and spot patients who should receive immediate care, researchers report. The system could also reduce backlogs in hospitals someday. Chest X-rays account for 40 percent of all diagnostic imaging worldwide, and there can be large backlogs, according to the researchers. “Currently, there are no systematic and automated ways to triage chest X-rays and bring those with critical and urgent findings to the top of the reporting pile,” explained study co-author Giovanni Montana. He is formerly of King’s College London and is now at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England. Montana and his colleagues used more than 470,300 adult chest X-rays to develop an AI system that could identify unusual results. The system’s performance in prioritizing X-rays was assessed in a simulation using a separate set of 15,887 chest X-rays. All identifying information was removed from the X-rays to protect patient privacy. The system was highly accurate in distinguished abnormal from normal chest X-rays, researchers said. Simulations showed that with the AI system, critical findings received an expert radiologist opinion within an average of 2.7 days, compared with an average of 11.2 days in actual practice. The study results were published Jan. 22 in the journal Radiology. “The initial results reported here are exciting as they demonstrate that an AI system can be successfully trained using… read on >

When it comes to monitoring physical activity, we’ve come a long way from pedometers that only counted steps. Today’s health trackers use sensors to monitor movement and store and analyze the data. You can track calories burned, calories consumed, your heart rate during and after exercise, and even how long you sleep. Like a personal coach, a tracker can motivate you to reach goals and strive for new ones. It’s important to note that not all wearables perform equally well. A number of studies have compared the accuracy of many brands in lab tests to real-world activity. Their ability to estimate steps, distance, physical activity, energy expenditure and sleep can vary, but so do results from the various studies. For instance, one study found that step count and sleep time were recorded most accurately, but total daily energy expended less so. Such discrepancies aside, tracking your progress, even simply the number of steps you take toward the suggested goal of 10,000 a day, can be helpful. Before you invest in a device, you might want to first test an app to see if you’ll actually use it. Next decide on your budget — a good wearable can run well over $100, depending on its functions. Determine the type of wearable you want, such as a bracelet or watch for your wrist or a clip-on device… read on >