If you have migraines, one or two cups of coffee a day may be okay, but three or more could raise your risk of an attack, a new study concludes. “Interestingly, despite some patients with episodic migraine thinking they need to avoid caffeine, we found that drinking one to two servings/day was not associated with higher risk of headache,” said study principal investigator Dr. Suzanne Bertisch, of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “More work is needed to confirm these findings, but it is an important first step,” she added in a news release from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. In the study, Bertisch and her colleagues tracked data from 98 adult sufferers of episodic migraines. Each patient had an average of five migraines a month, 66% had one to two servings of caffeinated beverages a day, and 12% had three or more servings a day. For the purposes of the study, one serving of caffeine was defined as eight ounces (one cup) of caffeinated coffee, six ounces of tea, a 12-ounce can of soda or a 2-ounce can of an energy drink. Over the six-week study period, the participants had an average of 8.4 migraines. All reported having caffeinated beverages on at least one day during the study, with an average of 7.9 servings per week.…  read on >

Gaining too much weight during pregnancy can lead to unhealthy post-pregnancy weight for moms, and a higher risk of obesity and related conditions in their children. But not gaining enough weight has consequences, too. Historical studies on children born during times of famine show they have twice the risk as the general population of developing schizophrenia and other mental illnesses involving psychotic episodes. Recent research done in Sweden found that extremely inadequate weight gain carries the same elevated risk even in well-fed populations. Other risks include babies who are born premature or underweight. So just how much weight gain in pregnancy is “just right”? Current recommendations are based on a woman’s pre-pregnancy weight and tend to be higher for women at a lower body mass index (or BMI), an indicator of body fat. The Institute of Medicine recommends that underweight women gain between 27 and 40 pounds, and that overweight women only gain between 15 and 25 pounds during pregnancy. Keeping weight gain in these suggested ranges should also help limit the amount of “baby weight” a woman will need to lose after delivery to get back to a healthy weight. Work with your doctor on the right amount for you to gain and the best food sources to ensure a healthy diet that benefits you and your baby. Keep in mind that mom’s weight…  read on >

Falls from beds, uneven floors and playing football are leading causes of nonfatal brain injuries in American kids, new research shows. For the study, researchers analyzed data on traumatic brain injuries among kids and teens treated at emergency departments of 66 U.S. hospitals between 2010 and 2013. Of those cases, 72% were attributable to products regulated by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, according to the report published July 29 in the journal Brain Injury. “Structural designs, such as uneven flooring, often contribute to falls, which is the leading cause of traumatic brain injury in children,” said lead author Bina Ali. She is a research scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Calverton, Md. “In most cases, infants and children are safe in bed and when playing sports outside, but our study highlights some of the risks and the priorities in different age groups for preventing serious head injuries,” Ali explained in a journal news release. Young people account for about 1 million nonfatal traumatic brain injury cases treated in emergency departments each year, the researchers noted. In infants under a year old, one-quarter of such injuries were caused by falling from beds. Uneven floors were the second-leading cause at 14%. Among 1- to 4-year-olds, 10% of injuries involved beds; 10% involved stairs; and 10% were related to floors. Bunk beds are…  read on >

Repetitive strain injury (RSI) can affect anyone who uses his or her hands a lot and repeats the same movements over and over again. It can develop whether you’re working at a computer all day or spending hours of leisure time immersed in handicrafts. At first, symptoms — like pain and tingling — may go away once you stop the motions or the activity. But without treatment, including lifestyle changes, symptoms are likely to become so severe that you could become unable to continue with your work or hobby. Recognizing RSI Symptoms Pain or burning Tingling Numbness Weakness Swelling Soreness Don’t hesitate to see your doctor if you experience one or more of these symptoms — don’t assume that a few days off is enough to stop RSI. If the source of pain isn’t addressed, symptoms can become irreversible. Part of the solution is to take regular breaks from problematic but necessary activities throughout the day. Get up and move around for at least five minutes every half-hour, and stretch your arms, wrists and fingers. Practice good posture. When sitting, your head and back should form a straight line from ears to hips. When at the computer, don’t let your wrists bend to one side. Keep them in line with your forearms, fingers slightly curved over your keyboard. Don’t self-treat by wearing a splint or…  read on >

Even a mild concussion can temporarily affect your sense of smell and trigger longer-term anxiety problems, a new study finds. It’s been known that such problems could occur after a major concussion. But this study found it’s also true for minor concussions caused by accidents such as falling off a bike with a helmet on, having a traffic fender-bender, falling on the ski slopes, or slipping on ice and hitting your head. “A lot of people will suffer a mild concussion at some point in their life, so realizing they have trouble smelling is the first step to telling their doctor about it,” said lead author Fanny Lecuyer Giguere. She did the research as part of her doctoral thesis in neuropsychology at the University of Montreal. The study included 20 people who suffered minor concussions and a “control group” of 22 people who broke limbs but had no concussion. Within 24 hours of their injury, just over half of the patients with mild concussions had a reduced sense of smell, compared with 5% of the patients with broken bones, the Canadian researchers found. A year later, the concussion patients’ sense of smell had returned to normal (most within six months), but their rate of anxiety (65%) was considerably higher than in the control group, the findings showed. Symptoms of anxiety included worry, difficulty relaxing and…  read on >