Lifestyle « Weekly Gravy

After-school activities help develop social skills and talent, but a new report finds that many kids are priced out of participating. In fact, for 1 in 6 middle and high school students, costs are the prime reason for not taking part in these activities. And the poorest students are two times less likely to participate, compared with their better-off peers, researchers reported in a new poll. “Extracurricular activities correlate with grades, staying in school and graduating,” said Sarah Clark, co-director of the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health at the University of Michigan. “So when we see kids not participating, that’s very concerning,” she said. School activities can also influence a student’s chances of getting into college, Clark added. After-school activities include sports and various clubs, including service clubs and student council. But 18 percent of kids whose family incomes are under $100,000 don’t take part in any activity, which is double the rate of those from families with higher incomes, the researchers found. Clark said that about half of the students played sports, which include intramural and varsity teams, in 2018-2019. More than 40 percent took part in activities like music, theater or dance, she said. In addition, about half participated in a club or other activity like student council. These activities, however, often come with costs. Average fees are $161… read on >

For women who need relief from bladder control problems, behavioral therapies are a better bet than medication, a new research review finds. In an analysis of 84 clinical trials, researchers found that overall, women were better off with behavioral approaches to easing urinary incontinence than relying on medication. Study patients were over five times more likely to see their symptoms improve with behavioral therapy, compared with no treatment. Medication also helped, but not as much. Women treated with drugs alone were twice as likely to improve, compared to doing nothing. “I think women with urinary incontinence should be encouraged to seek treatment,” said senior researcher Dr. Peter Jeppson, a urogynecologist at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. “There are a variety of treatment options, almost all of which are better than doing nothing,” Jeppson said. The findings were published online March 18 in Annals of Internal Medicine. Almost half of women have problems with urine leakage at some point in their lives, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. And while men develop urinary incontinence, too, it’s more common among women, often arising during or after pregnancy, or after menopause. The good news is, lifestyle changes often help, said Dr. Brian Stork. He’s a urologist and assistant clinical professor at Michigan Medicine West Shore Urology in Muskegon, Mich. Stork, who is also a… read on >

Sperm DNA from the testicles of infertile men is often as good as that of ejaculated sperm from fertile men, according to European researchers — a finding that could lead to new treatments for male infertility. The study shows that on its path from the testicles to ejaculation, sperm DNA can suffer major damage. Researchers said it may be possible to use sperm taken directly from the testicles to fertilize eggs so that infertile men can have children. The study was presented Sunday at the European Association of Urology Congress, in Barcelona, Spain. Research presented at meetings is typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. The investigators took sperm samples from the testicles of 63 infertile men and compared them with ejaculated sperm from the same men. They also analyzed ejaculate from 76 fertile men. “When we looked at ejaculated sperm, we found that the extent of sperm DNA damage was much higher in infertile men than in fertile men, with roughly 15 percent in fertile men, but 40 percent in infertile men,” said study author Dr. Jonathan Ramsay, a consultant urologist at Imperial College London. He said it wasn’t surprising to see more DNA damage in ejaculates of infertile men. “What we didn’t expect was the consistency in these results when we looked at sperm taken directly from the testicles of infertile… read on >

Autism exacts a heavy toll on the families of teens who struggle with the disorder, but the fight to get treatment and services is even harder among minorities who live in poverty, new research suggests. “We must understand that many families parenting teens on the autism spectrum are also struggling to make ends meet while trying to navigate complex systems of care and get the help their children need,” said report author Paul Shattuck. He is program director of the Autism Institute’s Life Outcomes Program at Drexel University in Philadelphia. “We cannot assume that programs developed to help relatively affluent families will work for financially disadvantaged families,” Shattuck said in a university news release. The transition from school to young adulthood can be especially challenging. “Inadequate preparation during the last few years of high school can hinder success on many fronts: physical health and mental health, employment, continued education, friendships and integration into community life,” Shattuck said. The report found that black teens with autism are more likely than other teens with autism to have difficulties in several areas, including communication, self-care, adaptive behaviors and independently getting places outside of the home. “Students do not always receive transition planning, or sometimes it begins too late in high school to allow for adequate preparation,” Shattuck explained. “Community-based help is not always available after high school and… read on >

(American Heart Association News) — Overweight children may be more likely than normal-weight children to develop life-threatening blood clots as adults, a new Danish study suggests. The good news is, getting to a healthy weight by age 13 eliminated the extra risk. For the study, published Friday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, the research team used medical exam records to calculate the annual body mass index of more than 300,000 Danish children ages 7 to 13 born between 1930 and 1989. They then used Denmark’s Civil Registration System to study the same children’s health records as adults. Researchers focused specifically on adult risk for venous thromboembolism, a condition in which a blood clot forms in a deep vein, usually in the leg. If one of these clots travels through the body into the lungs, it can block blood flow and cause a pulmonary embolism, a life-threatening condition. The study is the first to investigate what role childhood obesity might play in the risk for venous thromboembolism as an adult, said the study’s lead author Dr. Jens Sundboll, an epidemiologist at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark. “Because more children are becoming heavier at progressively younger ages,” he said, “our results merit focus on helping children to attain and maintain appropriate weight to prevent cardiovascular disease in adulthood.” The study showed that children with… read on >

Many parents who smoke try to shield their kids from their unhealthy habit — but those who vape may not take the same precautions, a new study suggests. The study surveyed over 700 parents who smoked cigarettes, used e-cigarettes or both. The researchers found that most — regardless of their product of choice — had a “strict” smoke-free policy at home. Yet few e-cigarette users had banned vaping from their homes: Only around one-quarter had done so — versus 73 percent of parents who only smoked cigarettes. Altogether, the findings suggest that parents who vape are unaware of the risks to their kids, said senior researcher Dr. Jonathan Winickoff, of Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston. “We really think parents are being misled by ‘Big Tobacco,’” Winickoff said. E-cigarettes are electronic devices that work by heating a liquid that contains nicotine, flavorings and other chemicals. There’s no tobacco, but the devices produce an aerosol that sends fine particles and chemicals into the air. According to Linda Richter, director of policy research and analysis for the New York-based nonprofit Center on Addiction, “The aerosol produced by vaping is by no means ‘harmless’ water vapor.” Being around the aerosol can irritate the eyes, throat and lungs — and may worsen asthma or any other respiratory problems a child has, said Richter, who was not involved in the study.… read on >

Smoking during pregnancy is never a good idea, but new research shows it might double the risk of a baby dying from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). “Any maternal smoking during pregnancy — even just one cigarette a day — doubles the risk of sudden unexpected infant death [SUID, another term for unexplained infant deaths],” said lead researcher Tatiana Anderson. She is a fellow at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, Center for Integrative Brain Research. Doctors should strongly encourage women to give up smoking during pregnancy, or if they can’t quit, to smoke less, she said. Each cigarette smoked increases the risk of SIDS, Anderson added. If women didn’t smoke during pregnancy, the rate of SIDS in the United States could be cut by 22 percent, preventing some 800 infant deaths a year, according to the new report published online March 11 in the journal Pediatrics. Although 55 percent of the women in the study who smoked didn’t stop or cut back during pregnancy, those who did markedly reduced the risk of SIDS, Anderson said. Specifically, women who cut down on their smoking by the third trimester reduced the risk of SIDS by 12 percent. Women who quit by the third trimester reduced the risk by 23 percent, the researchers found. For the study, Anderson and her colleagues collected data on more than 19,000 SUID cases.… read on >

Kids with poorly controlled asthma struggle in school, especially those who are ethnic minorities, a new study reports. Researchers evaluated asthma and allergy status, lung function and school performance of 216 black, Hispanic (Latino) and white children in a U.S. city. Those with a greater number of daily asthma symptoms had more absences, less school work completed and poorer quality work, according to the study published March 11 in Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). “We found associations between poor asthma status, poorer asthma control, lower lung function, more asthma symptoms and decline in academic performance,” lead author Daphne Koinis-Mitchell said in an ACAAI news release. “These associations were stronger in ethnic minority children, particularly Latino children,” she added. Koinis-Mitchell is a research professor of pediatrics, psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University in Providence, R.I. Poor asthma control could help identify children who might be at risk for problems at school, according to the researchers. The same team previously found that urban Hispanic children with asthma have special sources of stress. “Factors such as higher levels of fear of asthma, language barriers, stress related to fitting in to the culture, poorer symptom perception, greater concerns regarding medications and lower medication adherence may put Latinos at greater risk for poor academic performance,” Koinis-Mitchell… read on >

(HealthDay News) — A good night’s sleep is important for physical and mental health. Long-lasting sleep problems can increase your risk of anxiety or depression, the U.S. National Institutes of Health says. The NIH suggests these ways to manage insomnia: Talk to your doctor. Seek cognitive behavioral therapy or relaxation therapy. Set good bedtime habits. Consider sleep medicine.