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445 news posts in Health

Health

23 Aug 2022

Skipping breakfast at home may increase chance of kids and teens developing psychosocial health problems

By K.E.D Coan, science writer Image: Shutterstock.com Eating breakfast at home is linked with fewer behavioral problems in young people, reports a new nationwide study from Spain. Previous research has supported the importance of children and teens eating a healthy breakfast, but this is the first study to show that eating at home can have a positive effect as well. Young people who eat healthy breakfasts at home have better psychosocial health, shows a recent study in Frontiers in Nutrition. While previous research has reported the important role of a nutritious breakfast, this is the first study to look at the reported effects of whether kids eat breakfast, as well as where and what they eat. These results provide valuable insights and recommendations for parents and their children. “Our results suggest that it is not only important to eat breakfast, but it’s also important where young people eat breakfast and what they eat,” said first author Dr José Francisco López-Gil of the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Cuenca, Spain. “Skipping breakfast or eating breakfast away from home is associated with increased likelihood of psychosocial behavioral problems in children and adolescents. Similarly, consumption of certain foods/drinks are associated with higher (eg, […]

Health

16 Aug 2022

A virtual trip to the museum can improve the health of seniors stuck at home

By Peter Rejceck, science writer Image credit: SeventyFour / Shutterstock.com Social isolation can have devastating health effects, especially for elderly people. A number of studies have shown that art is not only good for the soul, but can also improve both physical and mental well-being. Researchers in Canada investigated whether these art-based benefits could be delivered digitally through virtual museum tours. They found that indeed older adults who attended weekly guided tours online felt less frail – offering a public health model to promote healthy aging. Scientists have long known that social isolation is associated with a number of health problems, including increased risks for stroke and heart disease, as well as mental decline and even premature death. The risks are especially acute for older adults, who are more likely to be socially isolated and lonely. The coronavirus pandemic only exacerbated the problem due to the need for social distancing, particularly to protect the health of the world’s elderly population. But the same digital technologies that helped workers connect remotely could help older adults become more physically, mentally and socially healthy when combined with interactive art-based activities. That’s the conclusion from a new study published in the journal Frontiers in […]

Health

18 Jul 2022

Alzheimer’s impact on the brain is broader than we thought and 4 other fascinating Frontiers articles you don’t want to miss

By Colm Gorey, Frontiers science communications manager Image: Shutterstock.com At Frontiers, we bring some of the world’s best research to a global audience. But with tens of thousands of articles published each year, many often fly under the radar. Here are just five amazing papers you may have missed. Impact of Alzheimer’s on the brain may be greater than previously thought A significant review of more than 200,000 scientific publications has shown that the effects of Alzheimer’s disease on the brain are far broader than initially thought. Writing in their review article in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, the international team of researchers said that they wanted to understand the breadth and diversity of biological pathways – key molecular chain reactions that drive changes in cells – that contribute to Alzheimer’s disease by research over the last 30 years. They found that while nearly all known pathways have been linked to the disease, the most frequently associated biological mechanisms have not significantly changed in the last three decades, despite major technological advances. These include those related to the immune system, metabolism, and long-term depression. They also found that the top-ranked 30 pathways most frequently referred to in literature remained relatively consistent […]

Health

05 Jul 2022

Zapping our tastebuds can help reduce our salt intake

By Peter Rejcek, science writer Image: YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV/Shutterstock.com Most people consume too much salt in their diet, leading to high blood pressure and other health issues. Researchers have discovered a novel way to enhance the saltiness, and even potentially the savoriness, of low-sodium food using electrical stimulation of the tongue through a chopstick-shaped utensil. The concept has applications in other fields, such as stimulating taste as part of a virtual reality experience. An estimated 2.5m deaths each year could be prevented globally if individuals cut back their salt consumption to the recommended daily intake of less than five grams, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Now, Japanese researchers may have found a healthier way for people to enjoy the full flavor of salty foods while still adhering to a low-sodium diet. Scientists at Meiji University and Kirin, a Japanese food and beverage company, have developed a chopstick-like device that uses a weak electrical charge to stimulate how the tongue experiences saltiness. The research is published in the journal Frontiers in Virtual Reality. Previous studies have described how introducing a weak electrical current to the tongue can affect the charged ions that make up sodium chloride to either inhibit or […]

Health

24 Jun 2022

Dr Deborah Nadal: Why a rigid rabies elimination strategy can struggle to take hold in a world of local complexities

Dr Deborah Nadal. Image: Rebecca Rodrigues Dr Deborah Nadal is an affiliate researcher at the University of Glasgow, where she works on rabies-related projects, and a consultant for the Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO). Her PhD research on the co-existence between people, free-roaming animals, and the rabies virus in urban India got turned into an award-winning book. Her two main research areas are health and animals (human and non-human), with a particular interest in how different species can contribute to each other’s physical, mental, and social wellbeing, especially in impoverished settings. Now, she tells us more about the need to understand local perceptions of rabies to tackle this deadly disease efficiently and sustainably. What inspired you to become a researcher? Becoming a researcher was not in my plans until rather recently. When, as a pre-school kid, I was asked what my job would be, I always replied “Licia Colò”. She is an Italian TV hostess famous for travel and animal shows. To the young me, she was the job. Then, as a school kid, the veterinary profession was my dream. In fact, my book is dedicated to this dream. But during my school years, my fascination with India started to grow as well and, despite the skepticism […]

Health

16 Jun 2022

Pride Month 2022: Article collections on health and wellbeing in the LGBTQIA+ community

Pride month 2022’s theme is celebrating 50 years of Pride with a focus on acknowledging the many positive achievements of the LGBT+ movement. We are proud to showcase the top closed and open article collections on improving the health and wellbeing of LGBT+ individuals. Researchers explored topics spanning from transgender pain and queer aging to HIV prevention and sexual health in non-binary adolescents.

Health

09 Jun 2022

Could cranberries help us prevent dementia? Check out 5 fascinating Frontiers articles you don’t want to miss

By Colm Gorey, Frontiers Science Communications Manager Image: Jean Beaufort At Frontiers, we bring some of the world’s best research to a global audience. But with tens of thousands of articles published each year, many often fly under the radar. Here are just five amazing papers you may have missed. Daily eating of cranberries may give us a memory boost and lower ‘bad’ cholesterol The famous proverb says that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but a recent study published to Frontiers in Nutrition has found that significant health benefits may come from eating a cup of cranberries a day. A team of researchers from the UK, the Netherlands, and Italy set out to see what benefits this daily dose of the popular berry would have on those aged between 50 and 80. Of those taking part in the study, half ate freeze-dried cranberry powder equivalent to 100g of fresh cranberries, while the other half were given a placebo. The results showed that those who were eating cranberries daily saw a significant improvement in their memory of everyday events, neural functioning, and delivery of blood to the brain. The researchers hope that their findings could have implications for […]

Health

03 Jun 2022

Most read article of May 2022: Surprising finding shows children grow faster during the school year than summer vacation

By Colm Gorey, Frontiers Science Communications Manager Image: Shutterstock.com Each month, Frontiers shines a spotlight on some of the leading research across a wide range of topics. Here are just some of the highlights that resonated strongly with readers on our news site in the month of May. Children grow faster during school year than during summer holidays It has been long recognized that in western countries, children are more likely to become overweight or obese over the summer. Causes of this include changes in kids’ physical activity and diet over the summer period, including the summer holidays. But in a study in Frontiers in Physiology, scientists from the US show that this ‘obesogenicity’ of summers has another unexpected cause: children grow faster over the school year than over the summer. And because body mass index (BMI) is the ratio of body weight in kilograms and height in meters squared, faster vertical growth during the school leads to increased BMI during summers. “Here we show seasonality in standardized body mass index (BMIz), with children gaining height at a greater rate during the school year compared to the summer,” said Dr Jennette P Moreno, an assistant professor at the USDA/ARS Children’s […]

Health

31 May 2022

When should I schedule my exercise? The question is more important than you think

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer A randomized controlled trial shows for the first time that for physical exercise, the time of day affects its effectiveness. Whether morning or evening exercise is more effective depends on type of exercise and training objectives, and differs between women and men. But even when time of day isn’t taken into account, the new multimodal weekly exercise program presented here improves health and performance for both sexes. When should I fit exercise within my daily schedule? For most, the answer depends on our family’s schedule and working hours, and perhaps on whether we’re ‘larks’ or ‘night owls’. But over the past decade, researchers have found that much more hangs on this question than these constraints. That’s because recent findings suggest that the effectiveness of exercise depends on the time of day (Exercise Time Of Day, ETOD). Now, a randomized controlled trial not only confirms convincingly that ETOD affects the effectiveness of exercise, but also shows that these effects differ between types of exercise, and between women and men. The results are published in Frontiers in Physiology. ► Read original article► Download original article (pdf) Principal investigator Dr Paul J Arciero, a professor at the Health and […]

Health

12 May 2022

Common steroids after ‘long Covid’ recovery may cut risk of death by up to 51%

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Researchers show that severe inflammation during hospitalization for Covid-19 increases risk of death within one year from seeming recovery by 61%. This risk is reduced again by 51% if anti-inflammatory steroids are prescribed upon discharge. We need to think of Covid-19 as a potentially chronic disease that requires long-term management, argue the authors. Evidence continues to gather that ‘long Covid’, that is, continued negative health impacts months after apparent recovery from severe Covid-19, is an important risk for some patients. For example, researchers from the University of Florida Gainesville showed last December that hospitalized patients who seemingly recovered from severe Covid-19 run more than double the risk of dying within the next year, compared to people who experienced only mild or moderate symptoms and who had not been hospitalized, or who never caught the illness. Now, a team including some of the same authors shows for the first time that among patients hospitalized for Covid-19 who seemingly recovered, severe systemic inflammation during their hospitalization is a risk factor for death within one year. This may seem paradoxical, as inflammation is a natural part of the body’s immune response, which has evolved to fight infection. […]

Health

10 May 2022

Children grow faster during school year than during summer holidays

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Image credit: MIA Studio / Shutterstock.com Children grow faster during the school year than during the summer period, show scientists. In contrast to the strong seasonality of vertical growth, there is little seasonality in increase in body weight over time. Slower vertical growth affects the BMI and contributes to the “obesogenicity” of the summer period. It has been long recognized that in Western countries, children are more likely to become overweight or obese over the summer. Causes of this include changes in kids’ physical activity and diet over the summer period, including the summer holidays. But in a new study in Frontiers in Physiology, scientists from the US show that this ‘obesogenicity” of summers has another unexpected cause: children grow faster over the school year than over the summer. And because Body Mass Index (BMI) is the ratio of body weight in kg and height in meters squared, faster vertical growth during the school leads to increased BMI during summers. “Here we show seasonality in standardized body mass index (BMIz), with children gaining height at a greater rate during the school year compared to the summer,” said Dr Jennette P Moreno, an assistant professor […]

Health

27 Apr 2022

Almost 90% of autistic women report experiencing sexual violence, often on multiple occasions

By K.E.D. Coan, science writer The prevalence of sexual abuse may be up to three times higher for women who are on the autism spectrum, compared to those who are not, reports a new study from France. This is the largest survey specifically investigating the vulnerability of autistic women and the results will improve treatment strategies for victims, as well as prevention programs worldwide. As many as nine out of 10 autistic women in France report have suffered sexual violence, shows a new study in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. This is one of the largest studies to date focused specifically on this population. In contrast, previous research has shown that the rate of sexual aggression against non-autistic women is one in three, suggesting that offenders are three times more likely to target autistic women. The results also revealed that most victims had been assaulted multiple times, that this began when they were young and that they were rarely able to report the abuse or receive care. These findings will guide better prevention and treatment programs.  “This research project was started by the study’s co-authors (Dr David Gourion, a psychiatrist, and Dr Séverine Leduc, a neuropsychologist) who have observed in their […]