Source: Answers from First Lady Michelle Obama to Your Questions, letsmove.org

First Lady Michelle Obama recently sat down to record video responses to questions from you. Last week, we posted responses on how you can get involved with Let’s Move! and what inspired the First Lady to start the initiative to combat childhood obesity. Check out a couple more:

Source: The Medical Benefits of Circumcising Boys, abcnews.com

By Courtney Hutchinson

Between San Francisco’s attempted ban on infant circumcision and the move by 19 state governments to defund Medicaid coverage for the procedure, the millennia-old act of removing a newborn boy’s foreskin has undoubtedly become a point of controversy in America.

Twenty years ago as much as 67 percent of all infants born in U.S. hospitals were circumcised. Today, that number hovers around 32 percent, in part because of decreased funding for the poor and a rise in controversy over the merits of the practice. Opponents of circumcision, who call themselves “inactivists” because they wish to leave the foreskin alone, lampoon the practice as a violation of human rights, a form of genital mutilation and as medically unnecessary.

Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Sleep-deprived teens engage in more risky behavior, msnbc.com

By David Beasley

ATLANTA — The two-thirds of U.S. teenagers who get less than eight hours of sleep on school nights are more likely to smoke, drink and fight, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a survey of more than 12,000 teens, 68.9 percent reported that they sleep less than eight hours on an average school night.

In 10 of 11 categories, those students were more likely to engage in risky behavior than students who sleep more than eight hours on school nights, the study found.

Those behaviors include smoking cigarettes and marijuana and drinking alcohol. For example, 50.3 percent of students who slept less than eight hours reported drinking alcohol in the prior 30 days, compared to 36.7 percent of those who slept more than eight hours.

Students who slept fewer hours also were less likely to exercise, more sexually active and more likely to fight and contemplate suicide. They were more likely to use computers more than three hours a day as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Exercise Spurs Teenage Boys to Stop Smoking, nytimes.com

By Anahad

For teenagers struggling to quit smoking, a new study has some advice. To break the habit, try breaking a sweat.

It showed that teenage boys who took part in a smoking cessation program and combined it with exercise were several times less likely to continue smoking than those who received only traditional anti-smoking advice. Exercise did not have a comparable effect on teenage girls; researchers aren’t sure why. But the research is among the first to show that an exercise plan for teenage smokers can help them kick two bad habits at once, smoking and inactivity, which often go hand in hand.

For young smokers, breaking the habit before adulthood can be particularly crucial. Studies show that starting as a teenager makes it much more difficult to quit later on. About 80 percent of adult smokers began their habit before turning 18. Yet every day, 3,500 teenagers light their first cigarette. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: SpongeBob impairs little kids’ thinking, study finds, latimes.com

By Eryn Brown

Watching just a short bit of the wildly popular kids TV show “SpongeBob SquarePants” has been known to give many parents headaches. Psychologists have now found that a brief exposure to SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward and the rest of the crew also appears to dampen preschoolers’ brain power.

Angeline Lillard and Jennifer Peterson, both of the University of Virginia’s department of psychology, wanted to see whether watching fast-paced television had an immediate influence on kids’ executive function — skills including attention, working memory, problem solving and delay of gratification that are associated with success in school. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Teen Boys Drink a Whole Lot of Sugar, medpagetoday.com

By John Gever

Average daily sugar consumption among male teenagers in the form of sodas, energy drinks, and sweetened fruit juices was more than double the government’s recommended limit for all added sugar in the diet, a large national survey found.

Among boys and young men 12 to 19 years old participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2005 to 2008, so-called sugar drinks accounted for a mean of 273 calories in their daily diet, according to data compiled Cynthia L. Ogden, PhD, and colleagues at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: New Children’s Book Labeled “Dangerous” By Diet Guru, medicalnewstoday.com

By Petra Rattue

The founder of Britain’s top weight loss organization has called a book about the story of a short overweight girl who diets and becomes the school soccer star “an outrage”.

The book, Maggie Goes on a Diet, written and self-published by Paul Kramer, is aimed at pre-teens with ‘Maggie’, the character, portrayed as a chubby, round jumper-wearing cartoon figure with orange pigtails holding up a tiny pink dress and looking wistfully at a skinny version of herself in the mirror. The book has just been unveiled on Amazon and is soon to be made available from other booksellers. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Kids with nut allergies feel teased, excluded, cnn.com

By Amanda MacMilan

(Health.com) — Amanda Santos wanted to send her 5-year-old daughter, Skylar, to a small private school. But after they interviewed, met the teachers, and submitted Skylar’s medical records, they never heard back from the school, despite repeated inquiries.

Santos, who lives in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, can’t say for sure why communication was cut off so abruptly, but she’s convinced that Skylar’s severe nut allergy was an issue. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Music, Instrument Based Therapies Ease Children’s Cancer Pain, medicalnewstoday.com

By Sy Kraft

According to new analysis, music and instrument based therapies appear to have incredible effects on cancer patients’ pain levels, mood, and certain vital signs such as blood pressure. This may lead the way to an addition to standard treatment practices and a complement to medication doses alone.

Joke Bradt, Ph.D., an associate professor of creative arts therapies at Drexel University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania led the study. Bradt and her colleagues went back and reviewed 30 studies that included 1,891 adults and children with cancer. In 17 of the studies, the people listened to prerecorded music. The participants in the remaining studies took part in various guided music therapies, which in some cases included singing, playing the piano or creating rhythms alongside a therapist. Read the rest of this entry »

Source: Teen Smoking Skyrockets, thestatecolumn.com

A study reported that American teenagers are becoming casual smokers, instead of heavy/regularly smokers. Heavy smoking was defined by enjoying more than 11 cigarettes per day. Moderate smoking was defined as enjoying between six to 10 cigarettes per day. Light smoking was defined by having one to five cigarettes per day.

Between 1991 and 2009, heavy smoking among teenagers has decreased by 10 percent, down to 8 percent. During this time, casual smoking has increased from 67 percent to 79 percent. No significant changes in smoking trends for African American teenagers was observed, but for Hispanic teenagers, the heavy smoking rate increased from 3.1 percent to 6.4 percent.

Smoking has different risks for people who smoke at all. By smoking, people have an increased risk for heart disease, heart attack, lung cancer, and other types of cancer. An estimated 90% of all lung cancer in males are caused by smoking. An estimated 80% of lung cancer in females is caused by smoking. Read the rest of this entry »