health briefs Sodas Lower Fertility
Women that drink one or more sugary sodas a day are 25 percent less likely each month to become pregnant. Men drinking the same amount are 33 percent less likely each month to father a child. Boston University School of Medicine researchers studied 1,045 men and 3,828 women that were tested for a period up to 12 menstrual cycles. Energy drinks had an even greater fertility-lowering effect than sugar-laden drinks; fruit juices and diet sodas had little impact.
Screentime Overdose
Means Unhappy Teens Teens that spend the most time staring at screens while playing games, texting, surfing the Internet or engaging in social media tend to be unhappier than those with less screen time, reports a San Diego State University study of more than a million teens.
Expecting Moms Can Protect Against Autism
Mothers that take folic acid or
multivitamins before and during pregnancy can significantly lower a child’s risk of autism, according to the latest research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry. Researchers from Canada, Israel and the School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City, studied 45,300 children, at the age of 10 on average, correlating children’s autism spectrum diagnoses with records of mothers’ supplementation.
They found that women that took the supplements prior to pregnancy were 61 percent less likely to have a child diagnosed with autism. Taking supplements during pregnancy was linked to a 73 percent reduced risk. The overall likelihood of autism was 1.3 percent of the children.
Fiber Lowers Blood Sugar
In a study that offers hope for people with Type 2 diabetes, Rutgers University researchers have shown that a diet high in diverse fibers promotes the growth of certain gut bacteria, leading to improved blood glucose control, increased insulin production and improved average blood glucose (A1C) levels. In the six-year study published in Science, 27 diabetes patients in China were fed a diet of whole grains, Traditional Chinese Medicinal foods and prebiotics for up to 86 days, while a group of 16 similar patients ate a similar diet with less fiber. All took the diabetes drug acarbose, which helps turn starch into fiber.
By the study’s end, 89 percent of those on the high-fiber diet and 50 percent of the lower-fiber diet group reached blood sugar levels in the normal range. Researchers theorized that the fiber increased numbers of the specific bacteria that break down carbohydrates, producing short-chain fatty acids that nourished gut-lining cells, reduced inflammation and helped control appetite. A shortage of short-chain fatty acids has been associated with Type 2 diabetes and other diseases.
August 2018 13
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